In 1888, a pan-Orthodox parish was almost established in Chicago. On my Ancient Faith Radio podcast, American Orthodox History, I devoted an episode to that story. I read from a couple of newspaper articles, the most interesting of which is below (Chicago Daily Tribune, May 14, 1888):
This, I have to say, is hilarious. Of course, the disunity it depicts is not so hilarious, but the writing style itself is quite amusing. Greek pirates, indeed!
I don’t think this story depicts disunity. The meeting was called to form a multiethnic parish, and the people at the meeting were enthusiastic about it. They used English so that eveyrone could understand what was happening, and they proposed alternating Greek and Slavonic in the liturgy. The leaders of the group were really pushing for a united Orthodox community.
Of course, the fact that it didn’t happen is disappointing, but really, these people had their hearts in the right place.
And, yes, the writing is fantastic. If I had lived in 1888, I’d have read newspapers all day, every day.