Category: Orthodoxy in the Americas

The Forgotten Greek Archbishop

Last week, I wrote about the remarkable pan-Orthodox youth festival in Pittsburgh in 1963. In that article, I mentioned in passing that the youth ministry alliance that put on the festival -- CEOYLA -- was, itself, organized with the blessing of Archbishop Michael, primate of the Greek Archdiocese in from...

The Biggest Pan-Orthodox Event in American History

In 1963, between 11,000 and 13,000 Orthodox youth, from seven jurisdictions, came together for a pan-Orthodox festival in Pittsburgh. Ten bishops and more than 150 priests celebrated Vespers in an arena, and a thousand-person pan-Orthodox youth choir sang. This was the biggest pan-Orthodox event in American history, and most Orthodox...

Under-30 American Orthodox Priests Are Disappearing

Fr. Andrew Damick, cofounder of SOCHA, was ordained to the priesthood in 2006. A few weeks ago, I published some preliminary data from a study I'm conducting on the ordination ages of American Orthodox priests, as well as the waiting period between convert priests' conversions and their ordinations. Since publishing...

How long do converts wait before ordination?

Archbishop Dmitri Royster of Dallas was 31 years old and had been Orthodox for 13 years when he was ordained to the priesthood in 1954. Last week, I wrote about the ordination ages of American Orthodox priests. In that article, I made some preliminary observations about the length of time...

How old are American Orthodox priests at ordination?

Fr. Thomas Hopko was just 24 years old when he was ordained to the priesthood. A few weeks ago, I published some data about American Orthodox bishops, including the fact that 58% of bishops in American Orthodox history were ordained to the priesthood before they turned thirty -- this, despite...

Statistics on Celibate & Widower Bishops in American Orthodoxy

Metropolitan Orestes Chornock, widower bishop and founding primate of the American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese I have a list of 213 Orthodox bishops who have served in America. Of these, 179 were never married (we'll call them "celibates"), and the other 34 were widowers. So 84% celibates, 16% widowers. (Two of...

Widower Bishops in American Orthodox History

Metropolitan Leonty Turkevich, 1952 (Los Angeles Daily News) Everyone knows that Orthodoxy doesn't allow married men to become bishops. This is kind of a live issue here in America, because a lot of our jurisdictions have trouble finding qualified episocopal candidates, while excellent priests are ineligible if they are married....

The Legacy of Father Nicola Yanney

What follows is the text I used for a talk on Fr. Nicola Yanney on October 28, 2018, at a pilgrimage in Kearney, Nebraska, commemorating the 100th anniversary of his repose. Audio and video recordings were made of the talk, and those should be available at some point. I think...

Who was “Agapius Honcharenko”?

Note: Last week, we met Fr. Agapius Honcharenko, who served the first known Orthodox liturgies in New York (or, for that matter, the United States of America -- remember, this is when Alaska was still part of the Russian Empire). (Click here to read that article.) Today, we continue the...