The Global Church Era · 1970-present · North America
American Orthodoxy — Autocephaly & the Convert Wave
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About This Movement
Orthodoxy came to North America with immigrants and stayed, for most of a century, an affair of ethnic parishes, each answering to a church somewhere else. In 1970 the Orthodox Church in America received autocephaly, and an immigrant church became, at least in part, an American one. Then something less expected: in 1987 the Evangelical Orthodox Church — seventeen parishes and around two thousand people, formed by former evangelical leaders — was received into the Antiochian Archdiocese. Peter Gillquist told that story in Becoming Orthodox in 1989. A convert literature grew with it, and Ancient Faith Radio began broadcasting in 2004. Hank Hanegraaff, a public figure in American evangelicalism, was chrismated on Palm Sunday, 9 April 2017. A newer wave of converts has arrived through the deconstruction era's own channels; how large it is rests on parish reports and journalism, since no independent national count exists.
Sources
- Peter Gillquist, Becoming Orthodox (Conciliar Press, 1989), with the 1987 reception of the Evangelical Orthodox Church (17 parishes, c. 2,000 members) into the Antiochian Archdiocese (primary) — This marks the founding generation of this pathway into Orthodoxy.
- The Orthodox Church in America's autocephaly record (1970) (primary) — The institutional handoff from the Paris émigré generation; carried from standard reference.
- The convert-memoir literature, named titles only: Frederica Mathewes-Green, Facing East; Thomas Howard, Evangelical Is Not Enough (primary) — These are well-established titles in the convert-memoir genre; publication years aren't given here since they aren't confirmed.
- Hank Hanegraaff's chrismation, Palm Sunday, 9 April 2017 (St Nektarios, Charlotte) (primary) — A public figure's own public act, citable without touching anyone's privacy.
- Ancient Faith media archives (from 2004) (primary) — This is the pathway's media layer.
- Amy Slagle, The Eastern Church in the Spiritual Marketplace: American Conversions to Orthodox Christianity (Northern Illinois University Press, 2011) (secondary) — The pathway's one dedicated scholarly standard. Claims about the scale of the convert wave otherwise rest on parish self-reports and journalism; no independent national count exists.