Jurisdictional Wranglings

[E.C.]

There was an attempt to begin a movement towards a possible unified American Orthodox Church in the 1990s. It seems many American Orthodox wanted to get past the jurisdictions issues but there was internal & external disagreement.

Yeah, that was killed by none other than Patriarch Bartholomew by forcing Archbishop Iakovos into retirement and replacing him with Archbishop Spiridon, whom I understand, promptly torpedoed any further progress. For all the the faults of the GOA, Archbishop Iakovos was actually fairly holy and respectable.

 

[E.C.]

There are several reasons, but one that should be kept in mind is that GOARCH is the plurality if not the majority of Orthodox Christians in America. It's just so much bigger than everybody else.

Not necessarily. The GOA has a habit of copy/pasting any data on Americans of Greek descent into their "official" numbers. Nevermind the fact that their jurisdiction is very low when it comes to regular observance (regular meaning going to Liturgy more than just for Christmas, Pascha, baptisms, weddings, and funerals). I think the last survey that Alexander Krindatch did on that showed that the Carpatho-Russian Diocese is the highest with roughly 50% regular attendees.

 

[gzt]

Not necessarily. The GOA has a habit of copy/pasting any data on Americans of Greek descent into their "official" numbers. Nevermind the fact that their jurisdiction is very low when it comes to regular observance (regular meaning going to Liturgy more than just for Christmas, Pascha, baptisms, weddings, and funerals).

However their prominence is confirmed by Krindatch's survey of actual attendance. Membership is, for sure, overstated, but even with just attendance, they're a plurality of Orthodox and swamp any individual jurisdiction.

EDIT: see page 143, note that Oriental Orthodox are included in totals https://orthodoxreality.org/wp-cont...-Orthodox-Christian-ChurchesBookmarkFinal.pdf

page 12 for more recent info: https://orthodoxreality.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/2020CensusGeneralReport1.pdf