The Society for Orthodox Christian History in the Americas
Posts tagged John Erickson
Atlas of American Orthodox Christian Churches now available
1 year ago
by Matthew Namee
in SOCHA
The newly-published Atlas of American Orthodox Christian Churches, edited by Alexei Krindatch, is now available for purchase via Holy Cross Bookstore. The price is $19.95. SOCHA advisory board member and renowned historian Fr. John Erickson authored a history of American Orthodoxy, and I contributed the historical census data, an article on ten interesting facts about American Orthodoxy history, a timeline of Orthodoxy in America, and the entry for the Antiochian Archdiocese. I’m kind of biased, but I think it’s fair to say that this book is a must-have for anyone interested in American Orthodoxy — past or present.
I hope to publish more on the Atlas here at OH.org, including, hopefully, a critical review by an independent reviewer. In the meantime, click here to see exercpted pages from the Atlas, and click here to order your copy.
Matthew Namee
The Atlas of American Orthodox Christian Churches
2 years ago
by Matthew Namee
in Statistics
Editor’s note: We’ve received the following announcement from Alexei Krindatch, the Orthodox researcher and sociologist. Very soon, the first-ever Atlas of American Orthodox Christian Churches, edited by Krindatch, will be published by Holy Cross Orthodox Press. I have made several contributions to the Atlas, including the historical census data, a timeline of American Orthodox history, an chapter on ten little-known firsts in American Orthodox history, and an article on the Antiochian Archdiocese. SOCHA advisory board member Fr. John Erickson also contributed a brief history of Orthodoxy in America. For more, see Krindatch’s announcement below:
The Atlas of American Orthodox Christian Churches is to be published by the end of May by the Holy Cross Orthodox Press.
Order your copy at www.holycrossbookstore.com, toll-free 800-245-0599.
What is this Book about?
The Atlas provides an accurate “snapshot” of the various Orthodox Christian Churches in the United States. It is addressed for the wide – Orthodox and non-Orthodox, academic and non-academic – audience of readers. Simultaneously, this book is intended to be an atlas, a reference book and a thematic monograph. It is an atlas because it contains numerous maps to show the historical development and present territorial patterns of Orthodox Church life in America. It is a reference book because it furnishes comprehensive information on the American Orthodox Churches including up-to-date statistical data on their membership and geographic distribution. It is a thematic monograph because the essays in this book tell the story of the Orthodox Christian past and present in the United States.
Thematically, the Atlas of American Orthodox Christian Churches unfolds in four parts (for details, see also table of contents below). Chapter one looks at a timeline of Orthodox Christianity in America. It provides a general overview of the historical development of the American Orthodox Churches and presents many interesting facts about particular churches, local communities, and personalities associated with Orthodoxy in America. Chapter two offers an overview of twenty-one national Orthodox Church bodies (including Oriental Orthodox Churches). There are short articles with basic historic and other information about each Church. For each Church, we also provide two maps: a state-by-state map of parishes and a county-by-county map of membership. The third chapter is devoted to Orthodox monasteries in the United States. Today, there are more than eighty Orthodox monastic communities in America that are very different in terms of their size, geographic settings, patterns of everyday life, openness for outside visitors, etc. The chapter gives a general introduction into Orthodox monasticism in America and offers a systematic database for the eighty-one Orthodox monasteries in this country. The accompanying map shows their distribution across the country. Chapter four furnishes data from the 2010 US National Orthodox Census. Tables and maps in this chapter contain statistics of parishes, membership, and church attendance for twenty-one different national Orthodox Church bodies. This information is available church-by-church and state-by-state and county-by-county
An internally diverse and complex family of Churches is covered in this book. Their individual histories on American soil, their current “niche” in the context of the wider American society and their mutual relations are subjects which are at times very sensitive. Compiling this Atlas, I have done my best to be objective and accurate in presenting data and information about each Church. Our hope is that this work will help readers to better recognize the distinct Orthodox “colors” and “flavors” within the diverse and colorful American religious landscape. Any constructive comments that readers may wish to make, as well as updates, on any subject included in this book are welcomed.
Alexei D. Krindatch
Principal Researcher, Data Compiler and Editor (akrindatch@aol.com)
What Are People Saying about this Book?
“Assembling a mass of recently generated data, The Atlas of American Orthodox Christian Churches provides an authoritative overview of a most important but often neglected segment of the American Christian community. Protestant and Catholic Christians especially will value editor Alexei Krindatch’s survey of both Eastern Orthodoxy as a whole and its multiple denominational expressions.”
J. Gordon Melton
Distinguished Professor of American Religious History
Baylor University, Waco, Texas
“Why are pictures worth a thousand words? Because they engage multiple senses and ways of knowing that stretch and deepen our understanding. Good pictures also tell compelling stories. Good maps are good pictures, and this makes the Atlas of American Orthodox Christian Churches, with its alternation and synthesis of picture and story, a persuasive way of presenting a rich historical journey of Orthodox Christianity on American soil. The telling is persuasive for both scholars and adherents. It is also provocative and suggestive for the American public as we continue to struggle with two issues, in particular, that have been at the center of the Orthodox experience in the United States: how to create and maintain unity cross vast terrains of cultural and ethnic difference; and how to negotiate American culture as a religious other without losing one’s soul.
David Roozen, Director
Hartford Institute for Religion Research, Hartford Seminary
Atlas of American Orthodox Christian Churches: Table of Contents
Preface: Goal and Scope of this Atlas
Acknowledgements and Contributing Authors
Data Presentation: Inclusiveness of the Atlas, Methodology, Terminology and Problems
Chapter 1. Orthodox Christianity in the United States: Past and Present
Timeline of Orthodox Christianity in America
Orthodox Christianity in America: One Faith but Many Stories
Ten Interesting Facts about the History of Orthodox Christianity in the USA
Maps:
- Membership of Orthodox Christian Churches by State: 1906, 1936, 2010
- Parishes of Orthodox Christian Churches by State: 1911, 1936, 2010
- Membership of Orthodox Christian Churches by County: 2010
- Members of Orthodox Churches as a Percentage of Total Population by County: 2010
Chapter 2. Orthodox Christian Churches in the United States: General Information, Essays and Maps.
The Eastern (Byzantine) Orthodox Churches:
- Albanian Orthodox Diocese of America
- American Carpatho Russian Orthodox Diocese
- Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese
- Bulgarian Eastern Orthodox Diocese of the USA, Canada and Australia
- Georgian Orthodox Parishes in the USA
- Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America
- Holy Orthodox Church in North America
- Macedonian Orthodox Church: American-Canadian Diocese
- Orthodox Church in America
- Patriarchal Parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church
- Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese in Americas
- Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia
- Serbian Orthodox Church in North America
- Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA
- Vicariate for the Palestinian / Jordanian Orthodox Christian Communities
The Oriental Orthodox Christian Churches:
- Armenian Apostolic Church of America: Catholicosate of Cilicia
- Armenian Church of America: Catholicosate of Etchmiadzin
- Coptic Orthodox Church in the United States
- Malankara (Indian) Orthodox Syrian Church
- Malankara Archdiocese of the Syrian Orthodox Church in North America
- Syrian (Syriac) Orthodox Church of Antioch
Chapter 3. Orthodox Monastic Communities in the United States
Orthodox Monastic Communities in the United States: Introduction
Map: Orthodox Monastic Communities in the United States
Orthodox Monastic Communities by State
Directory of Orthodox Monastic Communities by State
Chapter 4. The 2010 US National Orthodox Census
Abbreviations
Orthodox Christian Churches in the United States: 2010
Orthodox Christian Churches by State: 2010
Orthodox Christian Churches by County: 2010
Appendix. Further Sources of Information on Orthodox Christianity in the United States
American Orthodox History in 2009
3 years ago
It’s the end of another year, and I thought I’d do what so many others are doing, and take a look back at the year that has passed. But I won’t be revisiting all the significant events that took place in 2009; rather, I want to consider the progress of American Orthodox historical studies in the past year.
Early this year, the “myth of unity” was still widely believed. It was pretty common to hear church leaders make the claim that all Orthodox Christians in America were united under the Russian Archdiocese until 1917 or 1921. Now, though, you’d be hard-pressed to find someone saying that. Most everyone seems to generally acknowledge the reality that the Russian Archdiocese did not, in fact, include every American Orthodox Christian. That claim has been replaced by another: that everyone should have been in the Russian Archdiocese — that the Russian Archdiocese was the rightful, canonical authority in America, regardless of whether everyone recognized it at the time.
This shift, from “what was” to “what should have been,” has accompanied a greater reliance on evidence. There seems to have been a general realization that we can no longer simply make bald statements, not based on facts. People still make claims for their favorite jurisdictions, but those claims seem to be more grounded in evidence than they were a year ago. The more we can get away from cherry-picking our facts, or ignoring evidence altogether, the better off we’ll be.
Fr. John Erickson retired from St. Vladimir's Seminary in 2009
It has been a year of transition in other respects, as well. This year witnessed the retirement of Fr. John Erickson, the longtime church history professor at St. Vladimir’s Seminary, and arguably the leading authority on American Orthodox history. (Although Fr. John has by no means disappeared, and we hope to see even more of his work now that he is no longer in the classroom.) Also in 2009, our own executive director, Fr. Oliver Herbel, was awarded a PhD in Historical Theology from Saint Louis University. I point this out not only because of Fr. Oliver’s position with SOCHA, but also because he is one of only a handful of academics with an expertise in American Orthodox history.
This year, of course, saw the arrival of SOCHA, our website, and my own podcast on Ancient Faith Radio. The summer’s conference at St. Vladimir’s Seminary paid considerable attention to the question of our history in America. The pan-Orthodox mandate of regional Episcopal Assemblies has also led to a heightened interest in our history — it seems that forward-thinking developments often inspire a reevaluation of the past. That reevaluation is made all the more exciting by new discoveries, such as story of Orthodoxy in colonial Virginia.
In many respects, 2009 has been a year of great tumult and change in American Orthodoxy in general. In terms of our historical thinking, I daresay there has never been a year quite like 2009. I cannot possibly convey my amazement at the sheer numbers of people who want to learn about American Orthodox history. When we started this website, we expected a few dozen, or perhaps a hundred people to follow our work. Instead, it has been thousands.
On behalf of everyone here at SOCHA, I’d like to thank all of you for reading and listening and commenting. We’ve got some big plans for 2010, so stay tuned.
Podcast series on past attempts at unity
3 years ago
I thought I’d let all the readers of this website know that I’ve launched a bit of a miniseries on my Ancient Faith Radio podcast. For the next five or six episodes, I’ll be interviewing experts (and SOCHA members) Fr. John Erickson, Fr. Andrew Damick, and Fr. Oliver Herbel. In each interview, we’ll be talking about a different historical attempt at American Orthodox administrative unity. The first episode, which went live late this afternoon, is Part 1 of an interview with Fr. John on the subject of the Russian Mission in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Here’s the plan for the miniseries:
- Fr. John Erickson on the Russian Mission (1890s-1910s) (2 parts)
- Fr. Andrew Damick on Abp Aftimios Ofiesh’s American Orthodox Catholic Church (1920s/1930s)
- Fr. Oliver Herbel on the Federated Greek Orthodox Catholic Primary Jurisdictions in America (1940s)
- Fr. John Erickson on SCOBA (1960s-present)
- Fr. John Erickson on the OCA (1970-present)
Every single one of those efforts tried, in different ways and with different specific goals, to bring together Orthodox Americans of various ethnic backgrounds. And while each of those groups accomplished some significant things, none of them has resulted in a single, unified, canonically-regular American Orthodox Church. In unpacking their stories, we will, in part, be unpacking the story of American Orthodoxy. By the end, I hope we’ll all (myself included) have a much fuller understanding of just how we got where we are today.
All of this, of course, is done with a present elephant in the room — IV Chambesy, and the upcoming first meeting of the North American Episcopal Assembly in late May 2010. Can Chambesy succeed where others have failed? And how exactly is Chambesy any different than these past efforts? By the end of this miniseries, I hope we’ll all have a better understanding of all that.
