www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Parish Life & Evangelization Most Eastern Christian City In America

Let's not forget Wilkes-Barre!!!

I don't think it is the MOST Eastern Christian city, but it should rank high. I mean, it has 2 OCA, 2 Ruthenian, 2 Maronite, 1 Patriarchal Russian, 1 Ukrainian Catholic, 1 Antiochian Orthodox, 1 Greek Orthodox... I don't think I'm missing any...

Plus, it has it's own Orthodox Saint. That's gotta add some bonus points.

Dave

Dear ProCatholico,

Cooper City is Broward County, not Dade, Miami is in Dade. If you are gonna count Cooper city as Miami then there are some more GOA parishes (one on 125th Street and St. Demetrios in Ft Lauderdale at least) and at least one OCA parish (St Nicholas in Wilton Manors) to include, and there was a Coptic parish in Pompano (also Broward).

There used to be and still is AFAIK St. Vladimir's ROCOR almost across the street from the UGCC in Miami. There was also the rather prominent St. Jude Melkite Catholic Church on Brickell Avenue. Then there was also St. Athanasius (GOA) in Miami in my time there. I find it interesting that there is a St Jude chapel in the GOA...

St Peter and OL of Regla are Antiochian Orthodox in the Western Rite.

Tony

I think it would be a toss up between Pittsburgh and Chicago. But are we talking city limits, county, or greater metropolitan area? Number of parishes or number of parishioners?

Neil,

It is arguable that my including Woodvale, Conemuagh, and Westmont churches is cheating. But for fair comparison it should be noted that the encompassed area had a population of probably ~40,000 - in contrast to Boston etc.

I only added the note on Cambria City for interest, and because of the Slavic food festival thread. To get a perspective on the area, note that encompasses about the same area as the Back Bay.

Hi Ungcsertezs!
Many, many of the so-called Russian Orthodox churches here in Northeastern Pennsylvania were actually establihed by Ukrainian immigrants, but because of little or no formal education they called themselves Russyny, Russian, Austrian, Hungarian, etc. A good example: one of the "Russian" Orthodox parishes here recently celebrated its centennial and the official spokesman of that parish stated that the parish was organized by Russians from Galicia. Some people don't know what they don't know!
Pavloosh
P.S. Ooops, add two more Eastern Christian churches to the Lackawanna County list - All Saints Russian Orthodox and Transfiguration Ruthenian Catholic. That adds up to 12 parishes in Scranton alone plus 14 in other towns of the County - total 26.
Shall we pray that All May Be One?

Dear Tony,

One mistake, please don't be too angered.

Cooper City is near the limit of the Broward/Miami-Dade county line and thats the only reason I included it.

I mentioned in my post that there are many Eastern churches in the surroundng cities as well so I dont understand exactly why you posted that comment.

As for St. Vladamirs, I never heard of it but I assure you it is not across the street from the Ukrainian Catholic Church (b/c I've been there)

And if you scroll up you'll see I did in fact list St. Jude's-Melkite.

And there is no St. Athanasius any longer, as I used the current directory for the GOA, that parish must have closed.

And you are correct, St. Peter and OL of Regla are Western Rite, but Antiochians nonetheless. Shouldnt exclude them over not being Eastern enough. :p

ProCatholico

While Pittsburgh, Chicago, or Philly might take the proverbial cake, I think Wilkes-Barre beats Scranton 10 to 9.

Ruthenian:
St. Mary's
St. John's (some might argue that it's "Wilkes-Barre Township" but I'm going by address)

OCA:
Holy Resurrection
Holy Trinity

Maronite:
St. Anthony's
St. George's

Ukrainian GC:
Ss. Peter and Paul's

Antiochian:
St. Mary's

GOA:
Annunciation

Russian Patriarchal:
St. Nicholas

Read 'em and weep!

Dave

Hey Chtec [aka Dave]!
The "read em and weep" comment is so typical of the Wikes-Barre parochial mentality: "mine is better/bigger than yours". Are Wilkes-Barre's "Byzantine pyrohy" better than Scranton's too? LOL
Na zdarovlya!
Pavloosh

Going by eparchial sees Chicago is 1st with 7, New York 2nd with 6, and Pittsburgh 3rd with 5. I only counted SCOBA + ROCOR, and Greek Catholic jurisdictions.

Chicago-OCA, GOA, Serbian, Ukrainian, Romanian, ROCOR, UGCC

New York-OCA, GOA, AOA, Ukranian, Bulgarian, ROCOR

Pittsburgh-OCA, GOA, AOA, Serbian, Byzantine Catholic

My apologies for the lousy arithmetic:
There are 9 Eastern Christian churches in Scranton and 14 in other parts of Lackawanna County - total 23.

We may be known for our good Byzantine pyrohy but not for our arithmetic. LOL
Pavloosh

I think the winner might be Ambridge Pennsylvania. It's population is a mere 7460, but it has 1 Byzantine Rite, 1 Ukrainian Rite, 1 Greek Orthodox, 1 Ukrainian Orthodox, 1 Carpatho-Russian Orthodox and 1 OCA Church for a total of 6.

For a city more than 10 times larger, Youngstown Ohio (80.026) is also pretty impressive. 4 Byzantine Rite, 2 Greek Orthodox, 2 OCA, 2 Serbian Orthodox, 1 Ukrainian Rite, 1 Byzantine-Romanian Rite, 1 Maronite, 1 Ukrainian Orthodox, 1 Carpatho-Russian and 1 Antiochian Orthodox, for a total of 16 which percentage wise beats any of the large cities by a wide margin.

Dear ProCatholico,

Yes you mentioned St Jude Melkite, my eyes didn't catch it... :rolleyes:

Now, I also used to infrecuently attend daily morning Divine Liturgy and occasionally Sunday Liturgy at the Ukrainians...but that was about or over 10 years ago. I used to work at 57th Ave in the Blue Lagoon office park...the UGCC was between my home and work. Very convenient.

Perhaps my memory played a trick on me with the street, the ROCOR website gives the address of St. Vladimir's as 101 NW 46th Avenue not 57th where the Ukies are. In any event it was there in that area when I last looked, I was last there in that small ROCOR parish over 10 years ago.

You still missed Annunciation at 12250 NW 2nd Avenue. That is still on the GO website, I have been there, and they made news with a fire back in the '90s.

And there are the Serbs at St. Simeon Mirotocivi
175 NW 154th Street, a small community with their own building and in my time with regular services.

When I was at St. Athanasius back in the '90s it seemed vibrant, I wonder what happened.

Tony

I dunno, but I've heard people in Wilkes-Barre call holubki "piggies"... why? I have no idea.

Anyone? Anyone?

Dave

Dave,

I learned "piggies" from Genny and Stanley (Eternal memory!) when I was in WB that summer...

Tony

In any event that church was down near 57th Avenue, somewhere between Coral Way and 8th Street (SW), it was in a residential neighborhood. Perhaps it was St. Anastasios but I think it was Athanasis. Maybe it was a bit more west...but it was there.