Journal of Modern Greek Studies

Alexander Kitroeff’s The Greek Orthodox Church in America: A Modern History could not have been written at a better time. With the appointment of a new archbishop in 2019 by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, a suspension of the archdiocesan charter in 2020, an increase in domestic social unrest, a global pandemic, and an escalation of Turkish aggression in the eastern Mediterranean, the church in America finds itself entering a new era in its history. One cannot fully grasp the present circumstances of the church in America without fully understanding its past. Kitroeff takes up this task and does it well; he weaves a compelling narrative of the church’s history from its early formation in the 1920s down to the present. This book is organized into twelve chapters, which are further subdivided into useful subheadings. The first five chapters document the creation of the archdiocese in 1922, its centralization of church governance, and the tenures of Archbishops Alexandros (1922–1930), Athenagoras (1931–1948), and Michael (1948–1958). Chapters 6 through 11 focus on the longest-serving hierarch, Archbishop Iakovos (1959–1996), and the seminal events that coincided with his term. Chapter 12 brings readers to the present, beginning with Archbishop Spyridon (1996–1999) and continuing through Demetrios’s tenure (1999–2019), resignation, and replacement by his successor Elpidophoros (2019–present).

Kitroeff’s research is drawn primarily, although not exclusively, from the archdiocese’s archives, which are not readily accessible to scholars. The latter fact bears mention because, in contrast to the usual practice of academic or public [End Page 259] institutions, access to community and religious repositories often depends upon establishing a relationship with the institution. In my own research on Greek schools using the archdiocese’s archives, an understanding of the internal logic and purposes according to which such archives are selected, arranged, and made available presented unique challenges as well as opportunities. Kitroeff tells the story of the Greek Orthodox Church in America through the lens of curated official church documents, but he also carefully balances his interpretation of those documents with his analysis of other, equally significant, archival collections and secondary sources.

This work is a nuanced yet sympathetic account of a church reconciling itself to American culture and society. Kitroeff argues that “the church helped shape Greek American identity throughout the twentieth century and did so by adapting to the steady Americanization of the Greek Americans” (9). Kitroeff explains the reasons why the church, rather than secular community organizations, became central to the lives of Greek Americans. He shows how patterns of community organization changed between the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries. In the historic Black Sea and Mediterranean diaspora communities of the early period, wealthy Greek merchants established, funded, and directed communal institutions such as churches, philanthropic initiatives, and schools. In America, this pattern was co-opted by the church in an effort to curtail what Archbishop Athenagoras viewed as Protestant congregational practices (i.e., church government by lay members) taking hold in local churches. In Chapter 3, “Greek Orthodoxy versus Protestant Congregationalism,” the author reveals that, by the end of the 1930s, community secular and religious activities were subsumed under the parishes, which, in turn, were accountable to the centralized administrative structure of the archdiocese. Over the course of the twentieth century, this hierarchical structure gained such financial strength and influence that Greek Orthodoxy in America increasingly came to be represented by the person of the archbishop.

It is helpful that the author contextualizes the church’s growth and the attendant debates within the broader American religious landscape. Kitroeff demonstrates that the Greek Orthodox Church “functioned as a mobilizing force that enabled the strengthening of Greek ethnicity and the reinforcement of its cohesion” in America (77). In Chapter 5, “Assimilation and Respectability in the 1950s,” the author discusses how that decade witnessed the increasing significance of religion in the lives of Americans. This development...