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Pennsylvania or New York would be my guess, if you\'re talking about strictly numbers of Orthos..........percentage-wise, I\'d be tempted to say Alaska....
Eastern/Western PA and NY have quite the number of churches. The base parishoners seem to depend mostly on centers of immigration (NY w/ Ellis Island in the early 1900\'s and Western PA with availability of work around the same time). Unfortunately, numbers of those that immigrated in the early 1900\'s are beginning to diminish due to death primarily, and a lot of formerly ethnic churches are either being replaced by a great deal of converts (both of the parishes I attend) or are unfortunately dying out with the people (my mother\'s parish near Pittsburgh).
I would, however, be more inclined to believe NY or AK as being the largest presently.
Well, its definitely not California. I seem to recall reading something in the census (and this is off an old memory) that like 90% of Orthodox in the US live in the East.
I know living in California should I happen upon someone who is also Orthodox (outside of church) its always like, woah, you\'re Orthodox too, that\'s awesome! (excuse the Bill n Ted tone)
I would also imagine there are lots of Orthodox in Illinois due to a larger Greek population in the Chicago area.
Ah yes, sorry. When I wrote my response, I was mostly referring to OCA, ROCOR, and MP. Unfortunately we have such a diverse group of Orthodox Churches in the US that it is hard to group them all into one big Orthodox bundle for the purpose of identifying their prevalence in a state. I\'m interested now, so I\'ll research this a bit more.
I have no hard data to back me up, but given the number of parishes that I have looked up, the fact that OCA has 2 bishops overseeing their parishes there, that at least 2 Orthodox saints lived there and the fact that there is greater media coverage of Orthodoxy there than anywhere else in the US, I would have to say Pennsylvania.
FOUND IT!
http://www.adherents.com/largecom/com_orthodox.html
Top 10 U.S. States with the Highest Proportion of Orthodox (Eastern) Christians
State Percent
New Hampshire 0.90%
New Jersey 0.90
New York 0.70
Connecticut 0.60
Massachusetts 0.60
Vermont 0.60
Illinois 0.50
California 0.40
Maryland 0.40
Nebraska 0.40
Pennsylvania 0.40
I find it rather amazing that a small state like New Hampshire has the highest percentage and Vermont is also in the top 10...what about sheer numbers? I know that we have to rank near the top here in Ohio, especially the NE corner of the state...several churches in all juridictions, plus a monastery.
Okay, Which U.S. State has the fewest Orthodox churches and Christians? Maybe Montana, Idaho, or some place like that? There are probably fewer people in places like that, too.
Anyway, maybe I shouldn\'t be so curious about such things. I just wish there were more Orthodox people around, that would bring encouragement to me about changing along the road into Orthodoxy. I need all the help I can get.
There are lots in most of the metro areas around the US. The bigger the city, the more, I\'d say.
Scotland1960 wrote:
Okay, Which U.S. State has the fewest Orthodox churches and Christians? Maybe Montana, Idaho, or some place like that? There are probably fewer people in places like that, too.
Anyway, maybe I shouldn't be so curious about such things. I just wish there were more Orthodox people around, that would bring encouragement to me about changing along the road into Orthodoxy. I need all the help I can get.