Orthodoxy in the Americas Archives - Page 4 of 56

Secret 1950 State Dept Memo on Ecumenical Patriarch

Lately I've begun to publish a series of articles on the relationship between the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the United States government during the early Cold War period. The most recent of those articles focused on various statements of loyalty made by Patriarch Athenagoras to U.S. State Department officials. As I...

Patriarch Athenagoras’ Declarations of Loyalty to America

Thanks to my colleague Aram Sarkisian, I recently came into possession of the first batch of a trove of U.S. State Department documents related to the Orthodox Church -- and particularly the Ecumenical Patriarchate -- in the early 1950s. It will take me months -- maybe years -- to sift...

From Scotland to Minorca: New Perspectives on the Beginnings of the Orthodox Church in the Modern Americas

Introduction At the turn of this century two important collections of documents came to light in the north of Scotland[i], the content of which should adjust our understanding of the first steps of the Orthodox Church in what is now the United States. Recently I was able to travel to...

There’s a Piece of the True Cross at the Truman Library in Missouri

Yesterday, I published an article about the ouster of Ecumenical Patriarch Maximos V. In that article, I mentioned that on February 10, 1947, the Greek Archbishop Athenagoras awarded President Harry Truman with a piece of the True Cross. I tracked down the cross, and it turns out that Truman held...

Ousting the Ecumenical Patriarch: the removal of Maximos V according to CIA records

World War II ended in 1945, and immediately, the United States and the Soviet Union began jockeying for leadership in the postwar world. The Soviets swept as many countries as possible into their orbit; meanwhile, the United States adopted the Truman Doctrine, a foreign policy based on the containment of...

Greek Archbishop to proto-CIA: “Your directions will be executed faithfully.”

It's long been an open secret that Patriarch Athenagoras' election as Ecumenical Patriarch was arranged, or at least facilitated, by the United States government. It's difficult to write about this as an historian, though, because smoking guns for that kind of thing tend to be kept under wraps. Occasionally, though,...

The Legacy of Father Nicola Yanney

Ancient Faith Publishing recently released a wonderful biography of Fr. Nicola Yanney, the remarkable Syrian priest from Nebraska who died in 1918. I can highly recommend it -- the title is Apostle to the Plains -- but I'm hesitant to review it because I'm a bit conflicted, as I wrote...

Why Fr. Raphael Morgan Should Not Be Venerated or Canonized

On September 3, I published the documents from the divorce of Fr. Raphael Morgan and his wife Charlotte. The documents are tragic and disturbing. Charlotte accused Fr. Raphael of physical abuse, verbal abuse, and infidelity. The Morgans' former landlady corroborated the abuse allegations in her testimony. Fr. Raphael himself was...

When Do “Firsts” Really Matter? Thoughts on Orthodox History in the Americas

Working on the history of Orthodox Christianity in North America means toiling in a vineyard mostly unplanted. Unlike other significant denominations on this continent, scholars of American religions have paid very little attention to Orthodoxy. As a result, there’s a lot of work to be done, and thankfully, a growing...

The Fr. Raphael Morgan Divorce Documents

Fr. Raphael Morgan was the first black Orthodox priest in American history. He was ordained in Constantinople in 1907 and lived in Philadelphia until his death in 1922. He's an incredibly fascinating historical figure who has captured the imaginations of many people who have learned about him. He's also not...

Category: Orthodoxy in the Americas