|
|
Orthodox |
Parishes |
Membership | |
|
Full |
Adherents | ||
|
1. Orthodox Church in America (OCA) |
456 |
39,400 |
115,100 |
|
1a. Regular Territorial diocese of OCA |
368 |
29,600 |
76,000 |
|
1b. Albanian diocese of OCA |
12 |
1,500 |
6,500 |
|
1c. Bulgarian diocese of OCA |
19 |
1,500 |
8,800 |
|
1d. Romanian episcopate of OCA |
57 |
6,800 |
23,800 |
|
2. Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America |
525 |
N/d |
440,000 |
|
3. Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese |
206 |
41,840 |
83,700 |
|
4. Serbian Orthodox Church in the USA |
78 |
N/d |
57,500 |
|
5. Serbian Orthodox Church |
40 |
N/d |
N/d |
|
6. Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA |
106 |
9,200 |
30,000 |
|
7. American Carpatho Russian Greek Catholic Diocese of USA |
76 |
11,753 |
20,000 |
|
8. Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese in America and Canada |
14 |
N/d |
6,200 |
|
9. Bulgarian Eastern Orthodox Diocese of the USA |
9 |
N/d |
4,340 |
|
10. Albanian Orthodox Diocese in America |
2 |
350 |
500 |
|
11. Patriarchal parishes of Russian Orthodox Church |
33 |
N/d |
N/d |
|
12. Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia |
128 |
N/d |
N/d |
|
13. Parishes of Macedonian Orthodox Church in USA |
16 |
N/a |
14,500 |
|
14. Holy Orthodox Church in North America |
25 |
N/a |
1,900 |
|
15. Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Vasiloupolis |
39 |
5,000 |
28,500 |
|
16. Holy Apostolic Catholic Assyrian Church of the East |
18 |
N/a |
36,016 |
|
17. Armenian Church of America |
89 |
11,400 |
45,800 |
|
18. Armenian Apostolic Church of America |
38 |
11,100 |
23,200 |
|
19. Archdiocese of North America of Coptic Orthodox Church |
116 |
N/a |
N/d |
|
20. Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch |
23 |
N/d |
15,100 |
|
21. Malankara Archdiocese of the Syrian Orthodox Church |
22 |
N/a |
4,340 |
|
22. American diocese of Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church |
59 |
N/a |
13,300 |
"N/a"- not applicable; "N/d" � no data available
The data were obtained directly from the headquarters (diocesan offices) of Orthodox Churches in North America by personal visits there and by interviewing of the church's leaders or the chancellors.
According to a recent study of Orthodoxy in the United States, the real
membership in all Eastern
Christian Churches in the USA can be estimated at about 1,200,000
persons. This figure is considerably less than the
commonly accepted estimations, which range as high as over four
million.
The greatest
disproportions between "claimed" and actual memberships were found in the
two largest Orthodox jurisdictions: The Greek Orthodox
Archdiocese (typically claimed 1,954,500* members versus 440,000 actual
adherents) and The Orthodox Church in
America (1,000,000* versus 115,000 actual adherents). The most
likely reason for this discrepancy is the common practice of equating
Church membership with the total number of representatives of a
corresponding ethnic group including second and third American generations
of the original immigrants, independent of these persons actual
relationship to the Orthodox Church.
The research also found that Orthodox Churches are struggling with the issue of their changing nature and mission in American. Beginning in the 1970�s, fundamental changes took place in the demographics of the Orthodox jurisdictions. These changes included: the increasing proportion of the American-born members and of converts who came to the Orthodoxy mainly through the inter-Christian marriages, the new developments in religious education and liturgical life; and the grassroots movements encouraging greater Orthodox unity for the sake of mission.
These changes have essentially altered the standing of the Orthodox Churches on the contemporary American religious scene. Religious faith and ethnic identity, once seen as inseparable, are increasingly less important for the socially-mobile, geographically-dispersed, English speaking second, third and fourth generations of Orthodox in America. Nor is this an important consideration for the ever-increasing number of Orthodox converts raised in other religious traditions. Nevertheless, at the beginning of a new millennium, the jurisdictional distinctiveness still does remain a basic characteristic of Orthodox Christianity in the USA.
This project is a study by Alexei D. Krindatch (Institute of Geography, Moscow, Russia) of 22 major Orthodox (Eastern Christian) Churches in the USA with a total membership of 1,200,000 adherents gathered in 2,400 local parishes. The research was sponsored by "Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies" as a part of the nationwide "Religious Congregations Membership Study: 2000."
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