An article
published on the official website of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of
America paints an alarming picture for the future of the Church in
America. According to statistics cited by the story penned by Peter S
Kehayes, 60% of Greek Orthodox families of the last generation and 90%
of Americans with Greek roots are no longer in communion with the
Church.
The article affirms that the issue lies with the large number of
mixed marriages that take place in the Greek American community.
According to statistics, the intermarriage rate is between 75% and 85%.
Kehayes goes as far as saying that the Greek Orthodox Church in
America will be nearly extinct, unless the church acts quickly. “As each
population passes into successive generations, growing numbers of
families move further from their origins, with the probability that our
beloved Greek Orthodox Church in America will become moribund in the
very near future.”
The complete text of the article, entitled “An Important Challenge for Greek Orthodox Christianity” is below.
***
In open pluralistic societies, intermarriages tend to become the
rule, not the exception as growing majorities intermarry with the result
that the Greek Orthodox Church is at a critical juncture in deciding
how best to address the challenge that touches the heart of so many
families and at the same time is so critical to the religious
community’s well being and growth. Among Greek Americans, the
intermarriage rate is between 75 and 85%; with a projected attrition of
adherents of greater than 60% over the next generation.
America’s unique place in history has been as a haven for many people
of the world, a place where they could begin again to rebuild their
lives and where they might practice their faith in peace in an ambience
of tolerance, in a place of hope and rebirth, free from injustices and
prejudices of the past. The Constitution guarantees their freedom.
Changes have occurred in the cultural make up of Greek Americans
since young men first arrived in America in the late 19th century to
escape the chaos of their homelands and seek their fortunes. Over the
next 100 years they came, limited only by quotas and war. Among them
were the dispossessed, joining millions of immigrants from Europe
looking for a new start. Those who came liked what they found and the
vast majority remained to build a new life. They continued to come
through most of the 20th century. By the second generation, an estimated
75% of Greek Americans were culturally and religiously intermarrying
and melding with others in the American melting pot.
The first Greek Orthodox Church was founded in New Orleans, almost
150 years ago, but in the main, communities began to appear in the late
19th and early 20th centuries, in an era encompassing the largest
immigrations. By 1922, over 200 Greek Orthodox Churches had been built.
Descendants of these immigrants are in their fourth or fifth generations
and are several million in number with the vast majority beyond the
second generation. However our Church in striving to preserve its
cultural heritage continues to project itself as an ethnic religion and
most people today view it as such with the result that Greek Orthodoxy
has been decimated by attrition and faces a grave survival and identity
crisis.
In a startling find, statistics disclose over 60% of Greek Orthodox
families of the last generation and 90% of Americans with Greek roots
are no longer in communion with the Church. It is a concern shared by
learned religious leaders who understand the need for a compassionate
outreach towards intermarried families with sensitivity to differences
among intermarried couples and the problems they face as a family. In
the transition, as each population passes into successive generations,
growing numbers of families move further from their origins, with the
probability that our beloved Greek Orthodox Church in America will
become moribund in the very near future.
In our society today, religious affiliation of young families may be
less about theology than of love, sensitivity and acceptance leading to a
conversion of the heart. In America, where the Orthodox marriage
constitutes a minority of marriages among people of Greek descent there
is a critical and immediate need for a broad religious outreach; to make
room for interfaith families who are typically our children’s families.
The family must be encouraged to facilitate their worshiping as one
family. Christianity left the confines of Judaism with a nudge from St
Paul taking a giant step in extending Christianity’s outreach to all
nations. In an act that can strengthen our Church and assure its future,
the link must be created that transcends the stumbling blocks that have
distanced growing numbers of families.
Since 1922, with continuing immigration and with families spreading
across America, over 300 churches were added; yet as the Greek American
population has grown into the millions, the number of religiously
observant communicants has dropped significantly. Although the Greek
American population has grown extensively through immigrations and post
war baby boomer periods, there are fewer active Greek Orthodox today,
than in 1922: while the overall American population has tripled.
Statistical analyses of reported data by the Archdiocese suggests the
majority of marriages in a generation involving Greek Americans occur
in jurisdictions other than our Church, and of those within its
jurisdiction, interfaith marriages exceed Orthodox marriages by almost
two to one. In an observation by the Archdiocesan office of religious
outreach, Greek American intermarriage estimates were as high as 85 –
90%.
Indeed, religious attrition has drawn the attention of religious
leaders of all faiths. Certainly the high intermarriage trend has
affected many institutional religions in a nation that increasingly
embraces all religions and in the process has become more secular.
On the national level, a survey of 54,461 adults in a Trinity College
study, the Program of Public Values found 30% of all married couples
did not have a religious wedding and 27% did not want a religious
funeral. The study found mainline Protestant populations; Methodists,
Episcopalians and Lutherans, declined over the past seven years, by 25%,
reflecting the wide range of concerns among Christians of all
denominations.
In looking at other culturally based religions in America, the Roman
Catholic Church with a population comprised of several nationalities,
has also had interfaith marriages and lost communicants for a variety of
reasons, however, with many Hispanics immigrating to America over the
past fifty years attrition was masked, much as large immigrations in the
20th century obscured religious attrition in the Greek Orthodox Church.
The Catholic Church’s early missionary expansion in the Western
Hemisphere has evolved into large Catholic populations and Catholicism
remains a predominant religion in the Americas. Smithsonian experts
project that by 2050; the Hispanic population can be expected to double,
from 14% to 29%, and from 42 million to 119 million as the over- all
population continues to grow. Thus, even as the pre-existing core
Catholic population is decreasing, Hispanic population growth can be
expected to add millions of Catholic families in the coming decades with
continuing growth in America.
The Asian population is also projected to grow from 5% to 9%, from 15
to 37 million people, together with continuing growth of the national
population in a change that can be expected to impact religious
diversity in America. Conversely, the Greek Orthodox population
continuing in the current trend and without supporting immigration to
bolster its numbers is expected to lose over half of its religious
constituency over this period.
In another study, Jewish rabbis reported over 50% intermarriages
among Conservative Jews, with only one of three families remaining
Jewish an effect they feel could reduce Conservative Judaism from its
present estimated 5 millions to insignificance within two generations.
The Trinity report disclosed the number of Jews who described themselves
as religiously observant has dropped from 4 million in 1990 to 2.7
million in 2008; in a common concern, both the Jewish religious and
Greek Orthodox presence are expected to decrease substantially if
current trends are not addressed.
In comparing the two religions, intermarriages within the Greek
Orthodox Church on a large scale began at an earlier time. They are
further along the attrition rate curve; their situation in the immediate
future is more critical.
What should be clearly manifest is that the Greek Orthodox Church in
America must look hard at how accessible our religion is to evolving
young families. If it is to continue its sacred ministry in America, it
must find a way to encompass the old and the new. If our faith hopes to
have a presence in the future in America, it must be sensitive to the
contemporary world. The span between past and future is too great. It is
a challenge facing caring clergy and laity alike.
*America has no national church and no council of elders that can
adjudicate the perplexing moral questions that face us. The founding
fathers in refusing to establish a central authority of moral judgment
ensured that the problems of the people must be addressed by the culture
itself, a precept drawn from the notion that the power of the state
draws not only from the consent of the people, but from a government of
the people grounded in Christian moral tradition.
Sources: Trinity College report 2010/Hartford Study 2000, CUNY Report
2005; Archdiocese Yearbook, 2005, Understanding the Greek Orthodox
Church, Rev Dr. Constantelos. Star Ledger: Diamant report on rabbinic
studies. Smithsonian magazine: Experts project changing populations,
2010. Orthodoxy in a Brave New World.
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