The story of Orthodox Christianity in the USA dates back to the late-18th century in Russian Alaska, runs through the immigration of Orthodox Greeks in the 19th and 20th centuries and reaches our time with the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America (GOA) and the Orthodox Church of America (OCA), the following article by greekreporter.com notes:
While its birth is well documented through the centuries, there is a lot of debate regarding the size of the US Orthodox Christian community.
According to the 2010 “Orthodox Church Today” research, Orthodox Christianity in the USA accounts for about 1,2 to 1,3 million faithful, worshiping in 2,200 – 2,300 local parishes (congregations) spread all across the United States, although other accounts estimate Orthodox Christians at around 2 to 3 million.
The Pew Research Center search showed that Eastern Orthodox parishes had increased by 16% over the previous decade, in part because of a settled immigrant community. The study, which was part of the national Religious Congregations and Membership Study, also showed that just 27% of members attended Orthodox churches regularly.
Then there was the Pew Research Center’s second Religious Landscape Study, published in 2014, which tried a more detailed study of the US Orthodox Christians’ social characteristics.
According to it, 60% of Orthodox Christians were born in America, 66% are Generation X or younger, only 48% are married, and only 30% are parents with kids under 18 in the household.
Among survey participants, only 25% were baby boomers, only 8% from the silent generation, and a full 31% had never married (66% are Gen-Xers or Millennials), while 9% are divorced, 6% are widowed, and 5% are cohabiting with partners.
In general, the survey draws a very different picture than the stereotypical profile of aging grandparents and young families.
Read full story here.
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Source: greekreporter.com
