A Virginian Apostle: The First Orthodox Catechism in the Americas?

Editor's note: We're extremely pleased to present another article by Nicholas Chapman, who continues to excavate the very earliest origins of Orthodoxy in America. To read more about Nicholas and his exciting research, check out the upcoming edition of the journal Road to Emmaus, which features a lengthy interview with...

SOCHA interview on Ancient Faith Radio

A quick note to our readers: Last week, Bobby Maddex of Ancient Faith Radio interviewed me about SOCHA's latest developments, especially the journal and the upcoming symposium. Click here to listen to the interview. Matthew Namee

Newly-discovered documents on Fr. Raphael Morgan

We've devoted a fair amount of attention here at OrthodoxHistory.org to Fr. Raphael Morgan, the first black Orthodox priest in America. Very briefly: Morgan was born in Jamaica, traveled widely, and eventually became an Episcopalian deacon in the United States. In 1907, after many years of study, he traveled to...

New York OCA Cathedral’s fight for religious freedom

If you've read the last two issues of our SOCHA newsletter, you know that Holy Protection OCA Cathedral in New York City is in the middle of a fight with the city's Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC). Here's how I described the situation in the most recent newsletter: In last month's...

SOCHA Newsletter, Issue #2 (August 15, 2011)

This is the second issue of our SOCHA newsletter, first introduced last month. If you know of anything we should include in the next issue, or to offer any other feedback about the newsletter, please email me at mfnamee [at] gmail [dot] com. WHAT'S NEW AT SOCHA? Today, August 15,...

Atlas Excerpt #4: The Aborted Multiethnic Parish of Chicago

Recently, Holy Cross Orthodox Press published the Atlas of American Orthodox Christian Churches, edited by Alexei D. Krindatch. I contributed several pieces to the Atlas, including the article “Ten Interesting Facts About the History of Orthodox Christianity in the USA.” With Alexei’s permission, we're publishing excerpts of that article here...

Programming Note

My apologies for the lack of new material lately. All of us at SOCHA have been busy with various projects and obligations (to say nothing of our families and parishes). Personally, I am devoting a lot of my energy to my paper on Orthodoxy in the U.S. civil courts, which...

Atlas Excerpt #3: The First Two Convert Priests

Recently, Holy Cross Orthodox Press published the Atlas of American Orthodox Christian Churches, edited by Alexei D. Krindatch. I contributed several pieces to the Atlas, including the article “Ten Interesting Facts About the History of Orthodox Christianity in the USA.” With Alexei’s permission, we’ll publish excerpts from that article over...

Notes on an Ethiopian Orthodox court case

Right now, I'm fully immersed in work on my big paper on Orthodoxy and the civil courts. I just thought I'd offer some notes on a case I just read, Kidist Mariam Ethiopian Orthodox Tawahedo Church, Inc. v. Kidist Mariam Ethiopian Orthodox Tawahedo Church, Inc., a 1995 Georgia Court of...