700k to 6 MILLION U.S. Orthodox?! The Real Story - with Matthew Namee

[@Ben-lh7jg]

Lots of people found about the Orthodox through the internet. That's how I found out about it. I grew up Protestant and my whole life thought if I wanted to be a Christian I had to choose between Protestant and Roman Catholic, until I discovered Orthodoxy. I became a serious inquirer and haven't looked back. Attending a Divine Liturgy at an Orthodox Church was a game changer for me.

[@rhondalandry5215]

Same here

[@BtotheeB]

For real. I grew up down the street from a Greek Orthodox parish. For 45 years I believed it was a Catholic church for Greeks only. 😅 Been attending their Orthodoxy 101 class and Divine Liturgy for a few months now. Feel like Ive found home.

[@andys3035]

Same here. Attending the Divine Liturgy changed everything for me.

[@jakewilliam15]

same

[@lynb.3040]

But then that shows you didn't really know even Roman Catholicism then, since Catholicism is way more close to Orthodoxy than Protestantism is. And I think if you knew about the Real Presence you'd have done whatever it takes to receive Communion.

[@HeathDeGaramo]

The 6 million figure of course is silly, but I will mention my ROCOR parish in Northeast Tennessee actually is approaching 10x from around 5 years ago lol. Glory to God!

[@Shadrach_ICXC]

I know this parish. It’s incredible and one of my favorites

[@campomambo]

My parish has not doubled in the last 4 years, but we’ve consistently maintained a class of catechumens of around 80-100 over that time.

[@nathaniellowe1215]

Some numbers we regard as crazy (ie the 6 million figure you mention) might not be as crazy as you think. You recognize a 10x from 5 years ago. I live in Salt Lake City, Utah, largely thought as a Mormon stronghold, and we've seen the Orthodox Church grow like crazy here. In the Antiochian Church only, we've gone from one parish (Saints Peter and Paul in Salt Lake City) to 3 three in the past 5 years (we built a new church, St Xenia's, in Payson, Utah, and we will be building a new church, St George's, in Saint George Utah! Not to mention, St George's ROCOR in South Jordan that was built in 2014, Archangel Michael's Serbian Orthodox Church in SLC that finally pulled itself out of a funk in 2010, St Anna's Greek Orthodox Church in Sandy that was completed this year. I can go on and on. We currently have 50+ catechumens at Saints Peter and Paul alone currently. I now growth has been tremendous, but it might be much bigger than we expect (hence why part of me might not think the 6 million number is so crazy)

[@campomambo]

@@nathaniellowe1215 the antiochian church in St. George has been growing considerably. But it has been around for a few years. The current priest and the last priest were both originally from my parish.

[@nathaniellowe1215]

@@campomambo correct. To clear up any confusion, I am aware that the mission in St George, UT has been ongoing for quite some time, but I wanted to specifically mention the fact that they will begin construction of a beautiful church this coming Spring (according to Fr Justin Havens out of St. Xenia in Payson). I attended one of St George's services last November at their current strip mall location and am aware they had services out of parishoners' homes and a small, formerly protestant, chapel during the beginning of the mission.

[@bonniejohnstone]

I know a Priest that was called in to help a dying church on its last leg. They were desperate! None of the services were in English in an English speaking town, and the children and grandchildren of the parishioners only spoke English. When the Priest said that the church should begin using English, the parishioners started yelling and kicked him out of the building “We would rather die than use English!” The Priest had to call for an uber to take him to the airport because nobody from that parish would give him a ride. He wasn’t a convert Priest.

[@wyatt1836]

What jurisdiction?

[@JAnastasios]

It seems then that like all stubborn people, they will watch their way of worship life die out as it should. All over something thats not even salvific. Like the old calendarists. Imagine wanting to die over speaking the language of the land they live in. Wonder how they would feel if english speaking groups did that in their home country.

[@vsevolodtokarev]

Lord have mercy one me, who is quick to judge. Not a single person respected priestly rank?! What kind of Orthodox Christians are those?

[@acekoala457]

​@@vsevolodtokarev My Priest was yelled at because I "wasn't Russian"

[@JAnastasios]

@cbasallie its not gossip. Just about every Orthodox priest on here has at one point talked about the cultural orthodox putting their culture before their orthodoxy. Its far from gossip. Its also not wishing I'll will, but simply pointing out reality that if something as small as language stops a whole church from remaining in the body of christ, then naturally they'll deserve to have their way of life die out, as they chose that over Christmas who was calling them to repentance. And im not talking about just speaking english. But trying to force the culture they live in to accept what is not part of it.

[@tubalcain6874]

I'm 66, and I was born into evangelical Protestantism. Late in life I had enough, walked away, was received into Orthodoxy ☦️, and never looked back. My little Antiochian parish in Kansas has been growing exponentially in the last 4 years, with young families, and especially men, particularly young men.

[@Christisking1911]

Is it St Basil in Kansas City, Kansas? I’m in the Greek Parish, but I have attended vespers there during lent.

[@josephcbeck]

59:33 i work as the office administrator at a small to medium sized Greek parish, and we have experienced this sort of thing when we changed priests. We used to technically have over 300 people “involved in the parish” according to our database, but less than a hundred actually came to church. When we got a new priest around 2020, he cleaned up the database pretty significantly, so that our database shows less than 300 people actively involved. However we now have around 125 people in church every Sunday. It seems counterintuitive, but so much of it has to do with cleaning up records and being more intentional and realistic about church participation.

[@bonniejohnstone]

After 30 years as a convert, estimates have primarily been based on East/West Coast populations. The ‘revival’ in Orthodox Christianity isn’t happening in the traditional large ethnic communities and I don’t think studies know what to do with new data. I have been in 2 jurisdictions… lived in the West Coast and now in a Colorado town of 80,000. In 2017 my Colorado Parish population was 175. 2024 our Parish population is over 600 and our church is debt free without ever having a festival. A Sunday morning will usually have 500 attendance or more primarily because we have no more room. Even the Narthex has chairs. Participation is over 60% in the life of the Church.(we tithe time and talent to serve the poor) Other Parishes in our Metro area are booming also. Do we get visits from East Coast Hierarchs? No. Instead of ethnic schools and dance groups, we have Bible Studies, special speakers for seminars, Sunday School for adults and children and book studies etc. Spiritual health (Christ first). We have 3 Deacons right in the middle of the Priest shortage. No 1 Priest can serve the Eucharist alone to a congregation that actively receives (400 or more people). People are not going to wait another hour Sunday morning in line! (It takes us 20-30 minutes with 3 Deacons and 1 Priest serving on Sundays to serve the Eucharist. Our Priest primarily gives blessings.) We have been running our Jurisdictions like we live in a village afraid to change anything or at least suspicious. We don’t have to and should never change our faith… but there’s a ridiculous amount of nonsense that isn’t Orthodox or even Christian dragging our Church down. (A friend on the East Coast goes to a Parish where the Priest will not hear confession if your tithes aren’t up to date. You can’t receive the Eucharist. Shocking!) Ethnic Priests and congregations don’t know what evangelicals believe or why they would want to become Orthodox. “You have your own religion, why do you want ours?” (I have been asked this) When I share a summary of the difference in beliefs the response has always been positive especially when I explain that the Theotokos isn’t venerated at all! One last thing. My Parish is ethnically diverse in a town that isn’t very diverse at all. This has just happened as a result of the love and acceptance of our congregation and the testimony of Orthodoxy in the World.

[@matheusmotta1750]

There should be a renewal in the hierarchy of the Church. If God wills it, it'll happen from this current movement of conversion, which is already a renewal. God knows everything! And provides everything.

[@issaavedra]

Amazing. Glory to God!

[@andys3035]

I’m in Colorado as well and seeing growth at our parish.

[@sheishinibaba91]

Y'all don't venerate the Theotokos??

[@miastupid7911]

What do you mean the Theotokos is not venerated at all? She is called the THEOTOKOS! If you are indeed Eastern Orthodox Christian, that is a very unorthodox thing to emphasise. She is part of the liturgy - and even her parents are mentioned by name as part of Christ’s human lineage, right before the priests consecrates the Eucharist. She is above the holy of holies where she has always. been and we just celebrated her entrance into the holy of holies in her infancy on 21 November. Can you please respond. I am curious what it is you mean… how is this Eastern Orthodox Christian at all?

[@Nashmax]

My Antiochian Parish in Tennessee is bursting at the seams. Since early 2023, we have so many visitors and catechumens that we now commonly put late arrivers into our old temple as overflow during DL. Pascha this year (2024) was insane, and I just don't see how it's going to work in 2025.

[@mariahlynn886]

Same at ours in Northern Indiana! Our tiny little church is already overflowing and we have new visitors and catechumens weekly! My parents entered last week along with five other newly chrismated! When I started attending almost five years ago we’d have around 35-40 regular attendees. It’s rocketed to around 100-120 with no extra space.

[@itssslashhere5245]

The internet defiantly grew Orthodoxy and is doing amazingly. The biggest complaint of Orthodoxy is on the lack of Churches around the area for people to go into. Which sucks but I guess it needs more time, in about 10-20 years those number might quadruple which is exciting.

[@thewaterguy17]

I thank God that, even though I live in rural Canada, I actually have a semi-active parish that's just an hour and a half drive away. Sure service is only a couple times a month but its still infinitely better than attending a liturgy less than 10 times a year.

[@zzzaaayyynnn]

Great discussion, as usual. I've seen those memes. How we define "Orthodox" and "Christian" makes a big difference in how we count the numbers.

[@AthanasiusofIreland]

Our parish in the Pacific Northwest has about 30-40 people with 10-15 catechumins and recent converts.

[@kaybrown4010]

Our parish is blessed with lots of catechumens, many babies, and young children. It’s a beautiful thing, glory to God!

[@and1lnull]

I would really love a video about how orthodoxy has been transitioning to English in services, translation of popular texts, orthodox texts written exclusively in English...

[@matheusmotta1750]

Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me, a sinner. May your Church grow, oh Lord!

[@NepticChronicles]

I’m a Canadian immigrant from a non orthodox ancestral background, have US citizenship and converted to Orthodoxy in 2021.

[@onebadpig9258]

I know a guy online who lives in Malaysia who started claiming to be Orthodox. When queried, he wanted to become Orthodox but didn't know of any parishes where he was. I connected him to the Russian bishop in Hong Kong, and he was able to find a local parish and convert. There are still plenty of areas here in the US where a person may want to convert, but there's simply no parish close enough.

[@cellospot]

My church in the boonies of Idaho has doubled in size since 2020. This year, we had around 22 catechumens at one time, which is huge. When I was a catechumen, I was the only one, and then after me, we only had 1 catechumen in the course of two years.

[@BradyJay_USA]

Where Idaho? Treasure Valley?

[@Deathbytroll]

I joined an Antiochian parish and it’s got a lot of people and it’s looking to expand missionary efforts to places around it

[@thereccereport1172]

I appreciate that you mentioned increasing engagement in Church life. Many parishes would be full wall to wall every Sunday if they won back all of the potential reverts.

[@wyntersynergyundignified]

Is it possible the 6 million Orthodox also included Orthodox Jews, which to this day is still a confusing term to many when I tell someone simply “I’m Orthodox”?

[@matheusmotta1750]

No way. Maybe Uncanonical Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox.

[@wilder11]

LOL nobody's confusing Christians and Jews.

[@david_n_nettey]

​@@wilder11Several members of my family have confused me with being an Orthodox Jew when I tell them I'm Orthodox

[@vsevolodtokarev]

@@wilder11 Be careful with "nobody". Metropolitan Anthony of Surozh of blessed memory was sent to a rabbi at school because he said he is Orthodox (very nominal Orthodox back then,) which resulted in a scandal.

[@Christisking1911]

Actually I get asked if I am Orthodox Jew about a quarter of the time, and half actually have no clue what Orthodox Christianity is.

[@sheishinibaba91]

In the north suburbs of Dallas, across all jurisdictions attendance is WAY up post-COVID. At least one OCA parish in the area has quadrupled since 2019. Lots of babies, young men, and the inquirers just keep coming. Glory to God!

[@garlottos]

There's a beautiful Antiochian church, when I first visited a few years ago, there were maybe 30 people or so for Sunday service. Now there's well over 100, northwest DFW

[@whatshisface04]

As an Idahoan, who is also Orthodox, Idaho has about 1.5 million people in the whole state today. There’s no way there was anywhere near 7 million Orthodox people in Idaho over 60 years ago.

[@MatthewNamee]

The 7m claim was made to the Idaho legislature about the US Orthodox population, not the number of Orthodox in Idaho.

[@whatshisface04]

@ That makes much more sense. Thank you for the clarification!

[@giocrypt5148]

Good for the Orthobros, I hope your numbers keep going and squeeze out Protestantism

[@alexandermackey7629]

My relatively modest parish in NE Ohio has about 40 catachumin that all showed up at once, which i am one of. I believe that's something like a 0.5 increase.

[@HVACSoldier]

Between 1916 and 1926 was the “Spanish Influenza.”

[@shanedundas]

Can you turn CC on or add captioning for deaf people? Thanks.

[@frandrewstephendamick]

KZbin won't let me turn on automatic captions for this video. I can't tell why. I normally have it on for all my videos. Update: My video editor tells me that for videos over an hour sometimes YT takes days to make this possible. Hopefully it will appear soon. I'm sorry for the challenge.

[@frandrewstephendamick]

It seems to be on now.

[@david6ravy]

I can't help but imagine that the Church will have grown substantially by the end of the war. Hopefully by sheer numbers and not just per capita.

[@locksmith9498]

Minus the Ukranian Orthodox men killed by Russian Orthodox men, pathetic that you couple Orthodox growth to a war between Orthodox nations. A comment in very bad taste.

[@fr.michael9213]

Are you factoring in all the Greek Catholics who came to Orthodoxy through St. Alexis Toth and Metropolitan Orestes Chornock?

[@cbgardner123]

Glad to see a video on this. Good info. Would love to see less interjection on the expert and letting him just finish a thought.

[@pg618]

In Ohio many parishes are a geriatrics ward full of septuaginarians and will not be here in 10 years and will not be able to afford a priest. And since there is an extreme need for priests many of the churches will just close their doors.

[@mattroorda2871]

Or parishes will start doing Reader’s services on weeks when they don’t have a priest with them

[@pg618]

@mattroorda2871 Yes they could but that depends on if all six of them can afford to pay the existing bills on their pension.

[@richcook2007]

What data source is this from?

[@HVACSoldier]

At my Church, we have anywhere from 80 to 100 members attending on any given Sunday. During Holy Week, beginning on Palm Sunday? It’s around 150 for Palm Sunday and Pascha. There is only one Orthodox Church, in Omaha, that does Vespers, on Saturday evenings, and only about 10 or 15 people show up. Does “higher income” lead to “higher tithes?” Omaha has five parishes, including one Wester Orthodox, and two Greek Orthodox Churches. That does not include Coptic or Ethiopian Orthodox churches.

[@Omadog0205]

St. Mary’s?

[@HVACSoldier]

@ Yes, St. Mary’s Orthodox Church.

[@Omadog0205]

@@HVACSoldier my Son, a Roman Catholic, has started attending Liturgy at St. Nick’s…my mechanic attends St. Mary’s….small world.

[@matheusmotta1750]

So, in the US: 1/4 are immigrants (who might be either cradles or converts) 1/4 are sons of immigrants 1/4 are non-immigrant cradles 1/4 are converts Sort of.

[@martymcfly4464]

we went from 5 to 31

[@BtotheeB]

+1 from 45 years of Protestantism - of which the last 10 were spent in the unchurched desert completely ignorant of EO.

[@flypantsfly2849]

There is actually 40 billion members in the USA

[@JamesR-f9l]

I would count Orthodox catechuman as Orthodox for classification purposes. I mean they can't be classified as anything else. People also sometimes people convert to Orthodoxy generationally.

[@rx88088]

Our parish has 2 lists: Members and Stewards.

[@nickstone3113]

Six million probably is the nos of Orthodox faith origin immigrants too USA. Because there were about ,2-3 million Greek immigration alone. Add Slavs and Arabs etc.

[@AlexStock187]

"The Bishop would consider all Greek Americans to be Orthodox." This is exactly the problem many people have with Orthodoxy. This is atrocious, really. Condemning phyletism as a heresy doesn't mean much when statements like this can be uttered without batting an eye.

[@George88851]

I see what your saying but it’s not that deep it’s just a factual statement that most Greeks are orthodox so assuming so is not a sin. People assume I’m catholic all the time because of where my family is from but I’m orthodox I don’t really think it’s a big deal.

[@AlexStock187]

@@George88851 There's a difference between a general assumption of "X country is mostly Y, your family is from Y, so you are probably X" and using the numbers of X population to substitute for the numbers for Y, though.

[@campomambo]

@@AlexStock187 yeah, but when you are trying to show the government that there is a large portion of the population that would self identify as it in order for your faith to not be discounted in a country hostile to your faith, those numbers do matter. And since it wasn’t really possible at the time to determine with any specificity the real numbers, counting all Greeks is an easy shorthand.

[@pg618]

Glad I moved to the country of Georgia.

[@MihajloB]

You have nice number of Orthodox Russian imigranat, after communist revolution in Russia. Same thing after communist revolution in Serbian lends (Yugoslavia) after 1945 communist occupation

[@fr.michael9213]

Maybe they're counting the folks at the cemetery. 😁

[@acekoala457]

The Greeks are friends with the DNC.

[@zlatkolukic2251]

The statement that there was only 700.000 Orthodox in the US there is 4 X that number being that there is nearly 1M Serbs in the US

[@SS-qo3nt]

I converted from Eastern Orthodoxy to Oriental Orthodoxy in 2019. I wonder what they would think and categorize THAT on their poll :) Best decision I ever made in my life, with beautiful rewards and an even bigger Cross to bear.....but at least the Cross is fragrant with aroma of the Second Coming without me even having to even be near Jerusalem......Our God is One, and Holy is He, World without End. +++

[@zaklinakovace6792]

Dont understand why Americans always drink coffee when they are talking on yt?

[@dimitrivuyadinov3351]

It’s just our way 😂

[@vsevolodtokarev]

"Between 700 thousand and 6 million" looks a precise figure to me. In Russia, estimates for percentage of Orthodox to entire population vary between 2% and 80%. Such studies usually want to use our religion in someone's lowly interest. Why would an Orthodox Christian cooperate?

[@nickstone3113]

So much and so many lost and wasted years.

[@nickstone3113]

Can't be ,1957 auguration as Kennedy was president in 1961 .

[@frandrewstephendamick]

Eisenhower was inaugurated in 1953 and 1957 (after his reelection). Archbishop Michael of the GOA prayed at the 1957 inauguration. Kennedy was elected in 1960 and inaugurated in 1961.

[@notstrong5789]

Father tell the truth, stop being disingenuous.