What is the ethnic patrimony of the Orthodox Church in America?

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So as I understand it (and I may very well be wrong), autocephaly for Orthodox churches is usually determined at a national level. While not all Orthodox churches recognize the autocephaly of the OCA, it nevertheless exists and does have recognition by certain “heavy hitters” in Orthodoxy.

My question is: What exactly is the ethnic patrimony of the OCA? For a more culturally homogenous and robustly Orthodox nation, like Greece, the liturgy and (small ‘t’) traditions will reflect a Greek patrimony. So what about America? The history of Orthodoxy here is heavily intertwined with Russian immigration, and if I remember correctly, the OCA was actually formed from ROCOR churches. Does this mean that (for now) the OCA is still pretty “Russian” in its cultural patrimony?

If so, is there any push in the OCA to make the church more “American”, including but not limited to possibly embracing Western European expressions of Christianity, or maybe even becoming an Orthodox “melting pot” much like the US is ethnically?
 
there is none depends on the culture of the church. these also antiochian orthodox churches in america. Just depends what country your from. Sometimes two churches from the same country may have different customs. I know in the greek church bridemaides can’t be married and each child in the same family has to have different god parents. With the antiochian orthodox church families can have the same god parents for all children if they want and bridesmaides can be married. I know Macedonians don’t have chairs in the orthodox churches as my sister once went to a funeral. ps my church the Lebanese antiochian Church traces its roots in unbroken apostolic succession to first century Antioch, the city in which the disciples of Jesus Christ were first called “Christians” (Acts 11:26). Hope i answered your question.
 
The OCA, originally Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church in America was founded by Russyns. They were Eastern Rite Catholics to begin with, but the German and Irish bishops here would not recognize them and expected them to fit in with Latin Rite Catholicism and refused to grant faculties to their married priests.

Alexis Toth broke them away from Catholicism and brought them back to Orthodoxy. Alexis Toth is a saint in the OCA.

The autocephaly came much later, after the Russian Revolution when things went out-of-kilter. The Russians in America split into two. The Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic church which continued some relations with the church in the homeland, and the Russian Orthodox church Outside Russia which broke off relationships completely with Russia.

At one time services were in Slavonic, and still are in a few places with “old Russians” and a heavy ethnic orientation. But in most of the country English is used. They are big on Orthodox Unity attempting to bring all Orthodox into one American Jurisdiction. Parishes are pan-ethnic with different people from different backgrounds. They also have a lot of converts from Protestantism and Catholicism.

A parish I belonged to (now defunct) had a handful of Greeks, one elderly Matuska and the rest like me were converts, and no Russians at all.
 
I debated a son of an OCA priest of Western European ancestry extensively in college and he was intent on minimizing the Church’s Eastern European roots and in conceptualizing the OCA as the Orthodox home for Americans in general.
 
Just a thought. You might try posting the same question in the Eastern Catholicism section of CAF, they also have a few Orthodox there and you may get more responses.

The OCA was originally Eastern Catholics until they broke away due to feuds with the Irish and German bishops.
 
Aelred_Minor said:
I debated a son of an OCA priest of Western European ancestry extensively in college and he was intent on minimizing the Church’s Eastern European roots and in conceptualizing the OCA as the Orthodox home for Americans in general.
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That is eventually the goal, that we should have a unified hierarchy in North America. The Standing Conference of Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas and the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of North and Central America have been working towards this goal.
 
There is a heresy, I think called phyletism (could be wrong with the name) which forbids having two bishops in the same city.

That is rife in America. In large cities you may have a Greek Bishop, Russian bishop, AntIochian bishop, Serb bishop all in the same city.

I think the problem is mostly ethnic in source, but as more Orthodox people have been here for years, and grow more American and with the influx of non ethnic converts that will change. But Change comes slowly for Orthodox.

I commend the OCA for their attempts for Orthodox Unity. I was formerly a member of an OCA mission until it folded.
 
andrewstx said:
There is a heresy, I think called phyletism (could be wrong with the name) which forbids having two bishops in the same city.

That is rife in America. In large cities you may have a Greek Bishop, Russian bishop, AntIochian bishop, Serb bishop all in the same city.

I think the problem is mostly ethnic in source, but as more Orthodox people have been here for years, and grow more American and with the influx of non ethnic converts that will change. But Change comes slowly for Orthodox.

I commend the OCA for their attempts for Orthodox Unity. I was formerly a member of an OCA mission until it folded.
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The heresy of phyletism is the idea that hierarchies should be arranged around ethnic groups, and should only serve one ethnicity. At some point, the Bulgarians wished to establish a bishopric in Constantinople for the purpose of ministering only to the Bulgarians there, which then prompted the condemnation of phyletism. The situation in America differs from phyletism insofar as the overlapping jurisdictions are not based (in theory at least) on ethnicity but on different home hierarchies which established those jurisdictions (that is to say Greek, Serbian, Russian, etc., only refers to what old world synod the bishops belong to, not to what ethnic group those bishops service: GOARCH is not meant only to minister to Greeks, and ROCOR is not meant only to minister to Russians, etc.) Our situation here in America is canonically irregular (and need of being fixed), but not heretical.
 
The OCA isn’t formed entirely out of the Eastern Catholics who left following St. Alexis Toth. There was a pre-existing OCA church which was very small, and the EC’s joined it.
 
St_Nephi said:
So as I understand it (and I may very well be wrong), autocephaly for Orthodox churches is usually determined at a national level. While not all Orthodox churches recognize the autocephaly of the OCA, it nevertheless exists and does have recognition by certain “heavy hitters” in Orthodoxy.

My question is: What exactly is the ethnic patrimony of the OCA? For a more culturally homogenous and robustly Orthodox nation, like Greece, the liturgy and (small ‘t’) traditions will reflect a Greek patrimony. So what about America? The history of Orthodoxy here is heavily intertwined with Russian immigration, and if I remember correctly, the OCA was actually formed from ROCOR churches. Does this mean that (for now) the OCA is still pretty “Russian” in its cultural patrimony?

If so, is there any push in the OCA to make the church more “American”, including but not limited to possibly embracing Western European expressions of Christianity, or maybe even becoming an Orthodox “melting pot” much like the US is ethnically?
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I’ve attended an Orthodox parish in my city, an OCA. It was almost entirely American. It was initially founded as a part of the Russian Orthodox Church, but the majority of parishioners today are Americans, even the priest isn’t the son of Russian immigrants but the regular run-of-the-mill American. He was no convert, but grew up in the Orthodox faith. I suppose as Orthodoxy becomes more established in the United States, it becomes more “Americanized” in that sense, gradually appealing to mainstream Americans outisde Orthodoxy’s traditional immigrant groups.
 
OCA Orthodox are mostly American-born, and a study in 08 showed that 51% are converts from something that’s not Orthodox. This compares with 29% of Greek Orthodox in America that are converts. The number that really surprises me, though, is the even higher number of converts among OCA clergy. 56% are converts, compared to 14% among Greek Orthodox Americans. Alexei Krindatch (research director) says this reflects the use of English in OCA services.

savethepatriarchate.org/studyfindsmoreor.html
 
Monergistic said:
OCA Orthodox are mostly American-born, and a study in 08 showed that 51% are converts from something that’s not Orthodox. This compares with 29% of Greek Orthodox in America that are converts. The number that really surprises me, though, is the even higher number of converts among OCA clergy. 56% are converts, compared to 14% among Greek Orthodox Americans. Alexei Krindatch (research director) says this reflects the use of English in OCA services.

savethepatriarchate.org/studyfindsmoreor.html
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Much of it I think has to do with the Greek-American community and how closely they associate themselves with Orthodoxy. In many ways, the Greek national identity is as inseparable from Orthodoxy as ethnic Jews from their Jewish faith. Additionally, the Greek Orthodox Church has often offered Greek culture and language education for its parishioners and their children, so I think that contributes to the overall continued Greekness of the Greek Orthodox Church in the United States.
 
FabiusMaximus said:
Much of it I think has to do with the Greek-American community and how closely they associate themselves with Orthodoxy. In many ways, the Greek national identity is as inseparable from Orthodoxy as ethnic Jews from their Jewish faith. Additionally, the Greek Orthodox Church has often offered Greek culture and language education for its parishioners and their children, so I think that contributes to the overall continued Greekness of the Greek Orthodox Church in the United States.
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Apart from the OCA, though, I had the sense that the Greek Orthodox (again, strictly in America) were comparatively good at gaining converts. I don’t think it’s a top-bottom comparison, more like a number one and number two that just happens to have a sizable gap. Orthodox (in America) of any other ethnic patrimony would have smaller percentages attached to their converts, I would suspect.
 
There is an intention behind the name, why it is called “Orthodox Church in America” rather than “American Orthodox Church”. The idea is to convey the message that this is the Orthodox Church in America, rather than an Orthodox Church made up of Americans or an Orthodox Church for Americans. Clearly the people behind the OCA sees the issue of nationalism given the situation in North America of mass immigration over the last century or so. This is an effort to remove any labels of ethnicity on what is intended to be the local Church.
 
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