A Brief History of The Greek Orthodox Church

The Greek Orthodox Church traces its history back to the time of Saint Paul who was the first to preach Christianity in Greece. Saint Paul preached at Athens, Philipi, Salonika, Verria, Corinth and Crete. From these cities, Christianity eventually spread to all of Greece.

At the early days of the Christian era, the Church of Greece comprised a diocese with Corinth as its center. At that time Corinth, known as Achaia, was the most important city in Greece. After the Roman Empire was divided by Constantine, Greece and Macedonia constituted the diocese of Eastern Illyricum, which was self-governing.

At first, jurisdiction was subordinated to the Bishops of Rome, but beginning with Emperor Leo the Third, in 733 A.D., Greece was acknowledged as a part of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and thus the history of the Orthodox Church in Greece follows closely the history of the Church in Constantinople.

The Turkish Empire, which for centuries controlled Greece and the Balkans, began to fall apart in the nineteenth century as one by one the provinces fought for political independence. The new states wanted religious as well as national autonomy, and the first of the national Orthodox churches to come into existence was the Church of Greece. The spirit of Hellenism had been kept alive by the Greek Orthodox Church for many centuries and after the fall of Constantinople to the Turks, the Orthodox clergy in Greece had worked to prepare the people for rebellion against the Turkish yoke. When the Greek people were ready to wage a war for independence, it was the Archbishop of Patras Germanos, who proclaimed the Greek rebellion against the Turkish Empire on Annunciation Day, 25 March, 1821.

After receiving independence, it became apparent that the Orthodox Church in Greece could no longer remain under the Patriarch of Constantinople who was still a captive of the Turkish Empire. And thus, from the time of the Greek War of Independence, the Orthodox Church of Greece practically severed all relations with the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Affairs of the church remained unsettled until June 15, 1833, when a Synod of Bishops representing the liberated areas of Greece met at Nauplia and declared the church independent.

After many discussions over 17 years, the Greek government applied to the Patriarchate for recognition as independent. In 1850, the Ecumenical Patriarchate issued a decree declaring the Church of Greece autocephalous. In 1864 the diocese of the Ionian Islands was added to the Church of Greece, and in 1881 the dioceses of Thessaly and a part of Epirus were added.

In 1927, during the dictatorship of General Pangalos, the statutes regarding the Church were again modified with the result that the Greek Orthodox Church was again government controlled. Government representatives were authorized to attend all meetings of the Holy Synod.

Today the Orthodox Church in Greece is governed by a Holy Synod presided over by the Metropolitan Archbishop of Athens. But the Patriarch of Constantinople is now regarded as the spiritual head of the church and the Holy Chrism used by the Greek Orthodox Church is consecrated by him. This is a practical arrangement, since the Patriarch is still required by the government of Turkey to be a citizen of that country.

THE GREEK ORTHODOX CHURCH IN AMERICA

In the United States, the first Greek Orthodox Church was founded in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1864 by a small colony of Greek merchants. The church was blessed by a Ukrainian priest, Father Agapius Honcharenko, who had immigrated to the USA via Athens, Greece in 1865. Though Ukrainian, he maintained the chapel at the residence of the Greek Consul-General in New York. After the American Civil War, immigration from Greece increased dramatically and in 1891 a church was opened in New York. In 1898, a second Greek Orthodox Church opened in Chicago.

The number of Greek Orthodox Churches in the United States continued to increase, and by 1910 there were 35 congregations around the country. Under an agreement made in 1908 between the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Holy Synod of Athens, jurisdiction of these churches was given to the Church of Greece, but no steps were taken to organize an American diocese until 1918 when the Metropolitan of Athens himself visited the United States. Greek Orthodoxy in the USA continued at an intensified rate throughout the early part of the 20th Century, and by 1920 60% of current Greek communities and their churches were founded.

Unfortunately, turbulent political events in Greece in the 1920s and 1930s divided the Greeks in America. Finally, in 1931 Archbishop Athenagoras of Corfu, Greece was appointed to head the Greek Church in America, headquartered in New York. Under his leadership, harmony was restored to the disunited communities, and the Greek Church in the New World increased to 286 parishes in the United States, as well as Canada, Mexico and South America.

Today, there are over 600 Greek Orthodox parishes and missions in North and South America, divided in some 9 Metropolitanates, headed by Bishops elevated to the positions of Metropolitanate Seats.