It has usually been the less ethnic Eastern Orthodox churches (such as the Orthodox Church in America) rather than Greek churches that have attracted converts, but that situation seems to be changing.
A report in the Los Angeles Times (Oct. 19) notes that Greek churches are gradually opening their doors to non-Greeks. Since the early 1990s, “Introduction to Orthodoxy” courses “increasingly have filled parish halls with everyone from spiritual seekers to newly married, interfaith couples to recent converts from evangelical Protestantism.”
The change is seen at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology. Today more than 20 percent of the seminarians are non-Greeks. Admissions director James Katinas says that Orthodox Christian Fellowship groups on campuses have become important sources of support and recruitment across ethnic lines for Holy Cross and other seminaries.
