Orthodox History

The History of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, 1830-1923

The following paper, originally entitled, "Greek-Orthodox Patriarchate of Constantinople, 1839-1923," was written by Professor Dimitris Stamatopoulos and published in the Great Online Encyclopaedia of the Hellenic World. The original Greek text may be found at this link. The original English translation may be found at this link. I found this paper to...

The Nine Years that Almost Destroyed the Orthodox Church

Back in March, I published a 9-part series on the global Orthodox crisis of 1917-1925. I've made a few revisions to that account and added an Epilogue and a partial bibliography. Today, I'm publishing all of that -- 9,000+ words, altogether. Orthodoxy is currently facing a global crisis of unity....

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...

The Massive Growth of the Orthodox Episcopate Since 2006

In 2006, there were 668 active, canonical Orthodox bishops in the world. Today, there are 947. That's a net increase of 279 bishops, or 42% -- and most of that growth is coming from the Moscow Patriarchate. Last week, I published an article estimating the number of Orthodox bishops in...

How many Orthodox bishops are in the world?

As best I can tell, there are 941 active, canonical Orthodox bishops in the world right now. Give or take. Compared to the 19th century, that's a big increase -- in 1859, we had just 278 bishops worldwide. But at the time of the First Ecumenical Council, there were a...

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...