by S. P. Stamatis, M.A.
When we experience a neo-Byzantine style Renaissance in America…where the floodgates open once again from Greece with tens of thousands of new immigrants; where Greek is spoken freely like Spanish; where Studies in Hellenism and Eastern Orthodoxy are available in most universities; where signage and owners’ manuals are also printed in Greek; where Greek-town sections in major cities are restored and flourish…then, there’s no reason to worry! The Greek Orthodox Faith and Greek culture would fit in perfectly and prevail for years to come.
Of Course, this is Fantasy!
For most people, this kind of thinking can usually be found in a dream state. However, for those in charge of the GOA, lay and clergy, the above scenario resides in the realm of reality. They have been imagining this setting for a hundred years. They don’t care that migration from Greece has been reduced to a trickle since the 1970s. And they’re not bothered by steep immigrant attrition of the last twenty-five years either. They’re confident Hellenism and Greek letters will blossom through efforts of young Americans of Greek descent and from generations to come.
Historically, the most active migration from Greece occurred between 1890 and 1914 where it gave up almost 20% of its population, mainly to the United States. The period 1955 to 1973 was the last major wave which welcomed more than 125,000 immigrants. Through the first 75 years of the 20th Century, Greeks arrived in America, bringing with them their language, a strong faith, an abiding fidelity to family and an uncommon work ethic.
Once settled in major cities across the country, to maintain their faith, they constructed temporary Orthodox Churches, sometimes in makeshift school gyms, offices and auditoriums; and priests were summoned from Greece since there weren’t any here. In 1922, the Church was finally incorporated under the aegis of the Ecumenical Patriarchate to administer a dual purpose:
To Serve the Faithful and Preserve the Greek Language and Culture
From the very beginning, the Church became a spiritual support structure and a custodian of Greek education to keep alive the native tongue in a foreign and sometimes inhospitable land. This arrangement was necessary then, and it worked well for several generations. Churches were built and soon after, ethnic societies (Somatia) were created to further maintain connection with the ancestral homeland.
In the 1930s and 40s, His Holiness Patriarch Athenagoras served as interim archbishop. During those years, he fulfilled a vital role in serving the religious and cultural needs of the early waves of Greeks in America. But he established what was to become a problematic ethnic mandate for future Orthodox of the GOA:
To Serve as Guardians of Hellenism in America into Perpetuity
Almost 85 years and four generations later, church leaders persist in championing Patriarch Athenagoras’ misguided mandate without regard to generational assimilation into the American ethos. With a mandate like that, it was easy to ignore the unfolding cultural dynamic in the early years. Apparently, no one noticed the transition taking place. The cultural blind spot is still with us today as the Church continues to minister to a diminishing “Omogeneia,” even though the U.S. is no longer a diaspora by local standards.
Also, Greek schools, under the Church’s purview, have failed to deliver a lasting heritage language in America, mainly because it was taught as a “Domestic” or “spoken at home” language instead of a “Foreign” language. Also, in many areas where qualified teachers were scarce, men and women with good fluency in Greek were invited to conduct classes without proper credentials or bi-lingual competence. By the 1970s, family elders continued to speak Greek, while parents straddled both languages. But their children? They were conquered by the American ethos and their Greek language surrendered to English.
In the meantime, the students’ progenitors of the mid-20th Century have all but passed away, followed by the next piece of bad news: immigration diminished to zero by the 1980s. This 1-2 punch combination dealt a blow to assimilation resistance, leaving in its wake several generations of English-speaking descendants, estranged from the church and culture of their forefathers.
The Church in 2050—Will it Survive the Attrition?
Considering these conditions today, what can we expect by 2050? Will there be anybody to understand or speak Greek? The mid-century mark will add an additional generation which widens the gulf between descendants and the Church. Did the original organizers of the Church really believe they could shelter their people plus succeeding generations with religious and cultural guardrails into perpetuity? I think they really did, unwittingly.
Perhaps they did not envision nor plan for the Orthodox Church to grow into an enduring Faith in America for the ages to come. Maybe it was more short-sighted: an ethno-religious Faith within a protective cultural bubble to accommodate the needs of Greek people in a foreign land. In spite of this narrow vision, Churches did grow across the country anyway, and little thought was given to social adjustments to the indigenous land for subsequent generations.
New Bakalis Book Outlines Needed Change
Consequently, an existential church crisis has been simmering for several decades. This dynamic is treated at great length in Michael Bakalis’ recent book release A Church at the Crossroads, where he documents with reliable data and research, administrative issues that need to be addressed for renewal of the ancient Faith in America. As an educator and former Deputy Undersecretary of Education in the U.S. Department of Education in Washington, he examines his own heritage Faith and calls to our attention needed changes and adjustments to restore the vibrant ministry of the Church.
Today, with the exception of a small minority of young adults who still embrace the “Old World” Byzantine feel of church ritual and ceremony, data reveals many have opted out of a church whose primary focus is still to deliver the Divine Liturgy; the same ceremonial drama still played out in an archaic language and wrapped with illusive mysticism only clergy, hierarchs and monastics understand. Ardent supporters include most elders and Greco-phiales who feel the Faith and the Greek language are inseparable.
Continuous Denial of Cultural Assimilation
In the midst of an unstoppable juggernaut of social assimilation, the ethnic establishment still envisions Greek parishes flourishing into the future with clergy and lay support. I find it difficult to believe that community leaders still expect young Americans of Greek descent to embark on a quest to reinvigorate parishes and restore Greek cultural community centers. I suspect some may be so inclined, but this, again, is another fantasy as it denies reality and obligates priests to shoulder ethnic baggage for dwindling numbers of flag-waving Greeks.
Sorry, Your Holiness, Athenagoras, and Your Eminence Iakovos, but this is not their calling anymore. Having studied at the seminary, I recall the echoes of Hellenism that filled the study halls and classrooms in 1959 when Archbishop Iakovos arrived to continue Athenagoras’ mandate. At the time, Theology students with a strong command of Greek acquired more attention and value as future priests; and upon graduation, they received first offers for eclectic communities. I believe that practice continues even though English-speaking congregations are more the norm today.
I was born in Greece and grew up in an immigrant household in Chicago. But I was young enough to assimilate into the American society of the 1950s, managing two cultures comfortably. This gave me a broader view of the multi-cultural landscape of America. But as I was growing up in an American environment, I realized that Greek culture and language would eventually fall victim to the ever-powerful social evolution, especially when immigration numbers do not increase exponentially—like in the Hispanic culture.
Looking Ahead at a Sample Genealogy Cycle of Faithful (1890 – 2050)
Panayiotis begat Sarantis; and Sarantis begat Matthew and his 1890
brethren; and Matthew begat Philimon; and Philimon begat
Spyridon; and Spyridon begat Dimitris and Apostolos; and
Dimitris begat Christopher; and Christopher begat Alex; and |
Alex begat Nicholas; and Nicholas begat Gregory; and Gregory
begat Michael; and Michael begat Frank; and Frank begat Jason;
and Jason begat Tyler; and Tyler begat Shawn; and Shawn begat
Kevin, husband of Dawn, non-Greek heirs of the Orthodox Faith. 2050
The above chronology of names illustrates the power of time-driven evolution to project 135 years of assimilation in the American landscape. Inasmuch as ethnic groups circle the cultural wagons around their people to protect them, being shaped by the indigenous culture has proven to be unavoidable. You simply cannot live in isolation indefinitely, especially with dwindling migrant numbers. We pray that Kevin and Dawn are still Orthodox in 2050.
No Good Deed by Laity Goes Unpunished
By the late 1990s, many from current generations quietly expected the Church to gradually distance itself from promoting Hellenism, accept the “American” reality, and hand over Hellenic studies and Greek language to Academia—even AHEPA. Though I didn’t feel personally impacted by an ethnic church, I expected hierarchy to look to the future and re-direct the focus toward spiritual growth in the language of the “New Faithful:” English! But that never happened. Instead, they ignored the children, the teens, and young adults and shifted their attention to the diminishing community of elders who were more comfortable with a traditional, ethnic Church.
In response to lay initiatives for reform, especially from Orthodox Christian Laity (OCL), the Patriarchate got concerned about lay overreach into the inner workings of the Church. But in the early years, hierarchy welcomed lay involvement during the development stage. That synergy created a bond between clergy and laity; and it was that bond that built the Church in America. But, during the 1990s, American hierarchy were warned about the growing risks of lay influence in church governance; and administrative boundaries between clergy and laity began to appear to protect their coveted sovereignty.
As a result, the new Charter of 2003 drove the Church into fundamentalist and provincial territory, away from conciliar governance that helped build hundreds of churches in America. Whether intentional or unintentional, a power-grabbing scenario surfaced from church hierarchy once lay stewards put enough “skin in the game” and risked time and resources to help build church communities across the country.
Laity Helps Grow the Church in America
In the early years of migrations, it was lay people who worked to create temporary church facilities, furnish them with icons and other ecclesial supplies; it was the laity who called for priests from Greece to come and liturgize; it was lay people who held fund-raising events for building programs; with clergy supervision, it was the laity who engaged architects and contractors for construction; it was lay people who went to banks for loans, even signing their names on mortgages as guarantors. In short, laity shouldered much of the burden in the earlier years since most clergy from Greece did not speak English.
The 1950s, 60s and 70s witnessed an unprecedented growth in the Church. It had enjoyed a shared ministry between clergy and laity from the very beginning. And this synergy helped to shape the vision and expansion of the Church through the 20th Century. But by the turn of the century, when everything was in place, with over 500 brick-and-mortar churches in key cities, a seminary to educate men for the priesthood, and a Greek school network in place, the time had come for the hierarchy to make its move and take full control of governance. And it did! Synergy with laity was now an obsolete playbook and no longer required. The Greek cavalry arrived to take a victory lap for saving the Church from lay “overreach” and eventual assimilation.
So, the original short-sighted vision for the Church in America suddenly acquired added life. Its surprising growth through the years earned it a high level of esteem from the rest of the Orthodox world. Also, it garnered the unpublished title of “Cash-Cow,” for the Patriarchate, a moniker for an American success story, due mainly to lay involvement and leadership.
Athenagoras’ 1940 Mandate Lives On!
Clearly, at present, there’s no agenda for reform on the horizon. Many who could not identify with the ethnic nature of the Church, migrated to the Orthodox Church of America (OCA) while others found a home at the Antiochian Church. Still others—and there are many—remain on the sidelines, unchurched. So, the laity has been patiently waiting for meaningful discussions for reform for over 40 years; but they never materialized.
Those in the front lines, like OCL, have kept up the pace calling for numerous reforms; but they’ve grown weary from years of placating, stonewalling and patronizing efforts by hierarchy; and finally became tired of expecting any serious dialogue! Instead, they took their case to the people, to the faithful at large; to energize them about needed changes for the sake of their children and grandchildren; for the sake of the future of the Church in America. And that effort continues today, even though laity’s expectations for reform have diminished.
As we look to the future, will any of our faithful speak Greek in 2050? Will any of our clergy? Will the traditional Church still prevail…even as an obscure cult to serve a small minority? Unfortunately, most Greek Orthodox have not shown any deep desire to rescue the Church from a misguided agenda. If they really cared enough to be proactive for reform, for the sake of their children and beyond, their voice would have already echoed in the halls of the archdiocese.
Perhaps, they’ve come to realize nothing laity does can move the needle for change anymore. Since 2003, hierarchy has reclaimed administrative sovereignty and secured control of church governance. So, no more conciliarity with the laity; no more synergy to discuss Ecclesial initiatives or administrative issues. In short, hierarchy will henceforth rule by fiat.
It’s Time for Self-Rule – Everyone knows it’s Overdue!
Clearly, any meaningful action for reform must be initiated by the hierarchy—the American hierarchy. It’s the last hope. It means, though their heart is not in America, they know it should be done; it means trudging through the contentious paths of Autonomy/Autocephaly protocols of our mother church. A move toward Autonomy would be a first step and give the Church self-rule to deliver the Orthodox Faith to Americans.
Can our archbishop get behind such an initiative even though he risks earning the ire of colleagues and powers abroad? Does the Eparchial Synod of nine Metropolitans and seven auxiliary bishops not see a need for leadership in this direction? Do they not care about the evolving needs of American faithful? Could it be that they see themselves as only guardians and overseers of an ancient faith in a foreign country? If self-rule was okay for Greece in 1833, why not for the Church of America, almost 200 years later?
Right now, the archbishop is the only person who can summon the courage and convene an Eparchial Synod to begin the process. The silent majority of the faithful pray that deep in his heart, he understands this is the right thing to do; that he owes it to several generations of today and the generations to come. And he stands to receive overwhelming support from American faithful. It would halt the steady decline of the Church, offer long overdue reforms and carve out exciting programs for spiritual growth for the future.
Declaring Autonomy would also strengthen the Church in America by calling all those who have walked away to return home. Strategic reforms would also invite new Orthodox members; and this growth at home would allow continued support for the Patriarchate. Our Mother Church will do better, when WE do better! It’s a Win, Win!
We pray during this sacred time of Pascha and upcoming Pentecost, that our leaders become enlightened and inspired to see the future more clearly and act decisively to revitalize the Church and faithful in America. We have hoped and prayed for decades. Hope may be a vital component of Orthodox worship, but in the real world, we need genuine reform that impacts real people—and hope is not a strategy for that outcome!
Until that day arrives, we must accept our Church as an
Eparchial Outpost, in a faraway Diaspora called America with
135 years of continuous ministry celebrated in over 540 Churches.
And we must accept being governed by “Old World” decree from Central Command Posts in Istanbul, Mt. Athos and Athens. Furthermore, we are still expected to support an archaic agenda that outlived its usefulness many years ago:
+ Celebration of Hellenism (Nationalism)
+ Church Services Mainly in New Testament Greek
+ Denial of the American Ethos
+ Celebration of the Greek language…into perpetuity