The Untold Story of Early Christian Women - Anysia Metrakos

09/16/24 • -1 min

What exactly is the traditional role of women in the Orthodox Church? This question can be controversial, and attempts to answer it by referencing early Christianity are often short on solid scholarship in service to the Church. The subject of deaconesses is a significant lightning rod for this issue at the moment. Presbytera Dr. Anysia Metrakos joins Fr. Andrew to discuss this question, which is her academic field of expertise.

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The Orthodox Convert Surge: Hard Facts - Matthew Namee

In one of his YouTube videos, Fr. Andrew discussed a pile of anecdotal evidence that there is an Orthodox convert surge. But is it real? Does it show up in real data? And is it true that there is a big spike in young men converting? Does the form of reception (baptism vs. chrismation only) make a difference in long-term engagement? Matthew Namee, Executive Director of the Orthodox Studies Institute, discusses with Fr. Andrew a new study from OSI which tracked Orthodox converts in the US from 2013-2023.

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6 Million American Orthodox? The Real Story - Matthew Namee

There are memes and headlines going around tracking a change from 700,000 American Orthodox Christians in 2020 to 6 million in 2024. With the convert surge going on, this sounds... plausible? Matthew Namee joins Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick to talk about not only whether those numbers really make sense but also the history of how Orthodox Christians in America have been counted. He also unpacks for us his discoveries about the demographics of Orthodox in America, culled from studies of the general American population.