Orthodoxy dates from the establishment of the Church on the Glorious Day of the Pentecost, 33 A.D., fifty days after the Lord's Resurrection. Annointed by the Holy Spirit, the Holy Apostles went forth to establish churches throughout the Middle East. St. Paul, the most dynamic of the Apostles, traveled west, founding churches in Asia Minor, Greece, and ultimately Rome.

Centuries later, Emperor Constantine I (the Great) moved the capital of the Roman Empire to Byzantium, which he renamed Constantinople, and in 323 declared Christianity the official religion of the empire. The early Church was made up of five autocephalous (self-governing) dioceses: Antioch, Jerusalem, Alexandria, Constantinople, and Rome, whose bishop was considered Primus inter Pares, or "first among equals." These dioceses (later known as patriarchates) cooperated as one faith until the Great Schism of 1054, when Rome separated from the other four patriarchates. The eastern patriarchates remained united as the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Orthodoxy arrived in the New World in 1794 when Russian Orthodox missionaries founded a church in Novoarkhangelsk (now Sitka), Alaska. Beginning at the start of this century, a twenty year flood of immigration into the United States from Eastern Europe and the Balkans created a patchwork of Orthodox churches in American cities serving their own ethnic communities. Today, more than four million Americans are Orthodox Christians.

The Orthodox Church in America (OCA) has published a book about the history of Orthodoxy in America and makes it available for online reading. To read this book, Orthodox Christians in North America, 1794-1994, click this link. The book is also available in print. Purchasing instructions are on the opening page.

The Library of Congress has made documents from the Alaskan Russian Church Archives available for online viewing. The exhibit, In the Beginning Was the Word: The Russian Church and Native Alaskan Cultures, is a rich treasure-trove of primary source documents, drawings, and photographs from an often neglected area of American history.

PBS has produced Aleut Story, a documentary film concerning the internment of Alaskan natives: "In 1942, as World War II invaded Alaska, Aleut Americans were taken from their homes and removed to abysmal government camps 1,500 miles away. Death was ever-present in the camps. An estimated 10 percent of the men, women and children sent to the camps would die there... As the Aleuts prayed for deliverance, 'friendly forces' looted their homes and churches in the Aleutian and Pribilof islands. Those who survived would fight for their rights...In a historic action -- one that continues to influence our lives and our nation's ideals -- Aleuts joined Japanese Americans in seeking wartime reparations from the federal government. Aleut Americans ultimately prevailed." -- from the Aleut Story website.

In 1864, Greek merchants in New Orleans established Holy Trinity Church (at right), the first Greek Orthodox Church in America. Nearly thirty years passed until the next churches were formed, in New York City and Chicago. The arrival of more than 350,000 Greek immigrants in the first two decades of this century stimulated the rapid establishment of Greek parishes--by 1923, there were 140 churches in the U.S.

Today, there are 444 churches in this country, with approximately two million members, as part of the Archdiocese of America, headquartered in New York City. The Archdiocese is administered by a Synod of Bishops, presided over by Demetrios, the Archbishop of America. In turn, the Archdiocese is under the spiritual leadership of Bartholomew I, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.

(Coming soon: The Antiochians)

Today, 300 million people throughout the world are Eastern Orthodox Christians. The 14 autocephalous Orthodox churches are independently administered and conduct services in dozens of native languages, yet, whether in Athens, Moscow, or Des Moines, all Orthodox Christians share the same teachings, sacraments, and liturgies and honor the Patriarch of Constantinople as their spiritual guide.