www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons Fastest-Growing 'Churches' in U.S.

Dear Andrew,

Just did a quick check of the numbers represented. The OCA numbers seem to overly inflated in just about all categories represented in their report.

In IC XC,
Father Anthony+

Indeed. http://www.thearda.com/Denoms/D_1413.asp

This page - http://www.thearda.com/mapsReports/reports/US_2000.asp

Might be more accurate.

It seems to me that, far from growing, Orthodoxy in North America has actually shrunk severely compared to the numbers earlier in the 20th century.

If retention rates had been as good as, say, that of the Roman Catholic Church, the Orthodox should be the third or fourth largest church in the US by now. One cannot help but wonder where all those children of Orthodox immigrants went.

Sadly, in the Greek Orthodox Church, many of their Sunday School programs in the past have scheduled students to miss Divine Liturgy, because the students attend Sunday School in the Church hall or classrooms while the Divine Liturgy takes place in the church. Thankfully, this has been changing in many parishes, so that the children leave immediately following Holy Communion where they retreat to their classes.

There are a lot of Orthodox-Catholic marriages, where the couple eventually ends up attending either church but not both. With the Catholic policy of granting parochial school discounts to those parents who attend and support their parish, a sizable number of Orthodox have switched to the Catholic Church. The fasting regulations are affecting their decisions too.

For what it is worth you all might want to check out the link below
to the New York Times. It is an article regarding the state of religion here in the States.

In Christ:
Converted Viking

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/25/us/25cnd-religion.html?hp

When looked at as a whole, it probably has. Assimilation has certainly ravaged Eastern Churches in the diaspora. My guess is the numbers have probably stabilized somewhat in the last 20 years and there may even be modest growth in some jurisdictions.


I would tend to disagree with you on both counts.

One is that immigration from traditionally Orthodox countries has never been significant when compared to the numbers of immigrants from other parts of Western, Eastern and Southeastern Europe. You could look at the overall numbers of Greeks, Bulgarians, Serbs, etc. and it's probably just a drop in the bucket when compared to the amount of immigration that came from other areas. On top of that, many of the people who are Orthodox now (or were at one time), were Byzantine Catholics when they got here.

Secondly, I don't think the retention rates for Roman Catholics are all that good, as outlined in the New York times article listed above. If not augmented tremendously by Hispanic immigration, I would not be surprised if there were declines similar to what some of the mainline Protestant denominations have suffered.

In my opinion, which people may not share, the apostolic churches are not doing a good job of retaining, teaching and holding on to their young people.

Well I am not sure I agree with the NY Times or not though I thought it was a read that the experts here might like to sink their teeth into. (-; All I am is a humble dog trainer.

BTW My current Latin parish here in Raleigh is large and well though I am in the process of discerning a move to St Nicholas UGCC
Mission. It will probably happen.

Converted Viking

Mormons and Jehovah Witnesses, as off the mark as I believe that they are, actually go out and aggressively evangelize.

See my previous 1,000 posts on how the BCA should have evangelized instead of revising.

The Mormons and Jehovah Witness people get it on this one point, a religious group has to go to the people, not the other way around.


Monomakh

Monomakh

[quote=Monomakh]Mormons and Jehovah Witnesses, as off the mark as I believe that they are, actually go out and aggressively evangelize.

See my previous 1,000 posts on how the BCA should have evangelized instead of revising.

The Mormons and Jehovah Witness people get it on this one point, a religious group has to go to the people, not the other way around.

At least the Mormans are polite, I can't say the same for Jehovahs Witnesses. When I see them coming I meet them at the door with the Rot/Boxer mix and the German Sheperd/Foxhound mix. They don't hang around for long. I absolutely despise people coming to my front door and proselytizing and I hope that BBC or Latin Catholic Church never do it. Or my Orthodox brothers and sisters for that matter.

The Antiochians organize speeches in the cities where they are trying to establish missions. They have published a handbook on evangelization. It has some good suggestions in it. They recommend that announcements be placed in newspapers and that the telephone book be consulted to find those with ethnic surnames who might be of Orthodox Christian heritage.