History of Orthodoxy in North America
Written by Mark Stokoe and the Very Rev. Leonid Kishkovsky.
In a nation whose religious culture has accommodated Catholics, Protestants, and Jews, Orthodox Christian in North America have been largely overlooked and ignored. With few exceptions, their historical experiences remain unrecorded, their documents untranslated, their personalities, institutions, and activities unknown.
Contemporary American Orthodoxy is the result of the Russian missionaries to Alaska, but also of the migration of peoples from Central and Eastern Europe and the Middle East. As a result, it often presents an "ethnic" face to American society. Building on an earlier pioneering historical work, Orthodox America (compiled for the 1976 American Bicentennial), the present work seeks to provide the reader, both Orthodox and non-Orthodox alike, with a popular narrative account of two hundred years of Orthodox Christianity on this continent.
From its humble beginnings in 1794, when a small group of missionaries landed on Kodiak Island, Alaska, Orthodoxy in America has expanded to comprise a church of over two million faithful. Yet numerous Americans from all cultural and religious backgrounds have, particularly in recent decades, joined Orthodoxy as well. Orthodoxy does have something to say to American society. Thus, the story is told on these webpages.
About the Authors
Mark Stokoe is formerly the Secretary-General of SYNDESMOS and the former Youth Director of the Orthodox Church in America. He is currently a freelance writer and member of St. Paul's Church (OCA) in Dayton, OH. The Very Rev. Leonid Kishkovsky is an Orthodox priest and is the Assistant to the Chancellor for External Affairs and Interchurch Relations of the Orthodox Church in America.
