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THE ORTHODOX CHURCH This page intentionally left blank THE ORTHODOX CHURCH Student Edition THOMAS E. FITZGERALD PRAEGER Westport, Connecticut London The Library of Congress has cataloged the hardcover edition as follows: FitzGerald, Thomas E. The Orthodox Church / Thomas E. FitzGerald. p. cm.—(Denominations in America, ISSN 0193-6883 ; no. 7) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-313-26281-0 (alk. paper) 1. Orthodox Eastern Church—United States. 2. Orthodox (Orthodox Eastern Church)—United States. I. Title. II. Series. BX735.F57 1995 281.973—dc20 94-21685 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available. Copyright © 1998 by Thomas E. FitzGerald All right reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, by any process or technique, without the express written consent of the publisher. An expanded, hardcover edition of The Orthodox Church is available from Greenwood Press, an imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. (Denominations in America, Number 7, ISBN 0-313-26281-0) Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 94-21685 ISBN: 0-275-96438-8 (pbk.) First published in 1998 Praeger Publishers, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881 An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. Printed in the United States of America The paper used in this book complies with the Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National Information Standards Organization (Z39.48-1984). 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 21 To Kyriaki with love Orthodoxy cannot be maintained simply by inertia. No tradition can survive unless it is continued through creative effort. The message of Christ is eternal and always the same, but it must be reinterpreted again and again so as to become a challenge to every new generation, to be a message which may appeal to man in his concrete situation. We have not simply to keep the legacy of the past, but must first real ize what we have inherited and do everything we can to present it to others as a living thing. Father Georges Florovsky The Responsibility of Orthodox Believers in America CONTENTS Foreword ix Preface xi Part One The Orthodox Church: A History 1 The Orthodox Church: An Introduction 3 2 The Alaskan Mission 13 3 Early Parish Developments 23 4 Early Diocesan Developments 37 5 Proposals for Jurisdictional Cooperation 53 6 The Challenge of the Old World 63 7 The Challenge of the New World 75 8 Toward Greater Unity and Witness 87 9 An Era of Transitions 101 CONTENTS 10 Heritage and Vision 117 Notes 131 Appendix I Chronology 147 Appendix II The Autocephalous and Autonomous Orthodox Churches 151 Appendix III The Standing Conference of Canonical Orthodox Bishops in America 153 Bibliographic Essay 155 Index 163 FOREWORD The Praeger series of denominational studies follows a distinguished precedent. These current volumes improve on earlier works by including more churches than before and by looking at all of them in a wider cultural context. The prototype for this series appeared almost a century ago. Between 1893 and 1897, twenty-four scholars collaborated in publishing thirteen volumes known popularly as the American Church History Series. These scholars found twenty religious groups to be worthy of separate treatment, either as major sections of a volume or as whole books in themselves. Scholars in this current series have found that outline to be unrealistic, with regional subgroups no longer warrant ing separate status and others having declined to marginality. Twenty organi zations in the earlier series survive as nine in this collection, and two churches and an interdenominational bureau have been omitted. The old series also excluded some important churches of that time; others have gained great strength since then. So today, a new list of denominations, rectifying imbalance and recognizing modern significance, features many groups not included a century ago. The solid core of the old series remains in this new one, and in the present case a wider range of topics makes the study of denominational life in America more inclusive. Some recent denominational histories have improved with greater attention to primary sources and more rigorous scholarly standards. But they have too frequently pursued themes for internal consumption alone. Volumes in the Praeger series strive to surmount such parochialism while remaining grounded in the specific materials of concrete ecclesiastical traditions. They avoid placing a single denomination above others in its distinctive truth claims, ethical norms, and liturgical patterns. Instead, they set the history of each church in the larger religious and social context that shaped the emergence of notable denomina tional features. In this way the authors in this series help us understand the