ORTHODOX ROMANIANS IN AMERICA
ORTHODOX ROMANIANS IN AMERICA

Summary/Abstract: In search of better living and freedom, many Romanians from Transylvania and Bukovina, territories of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, emigrated to Canada and the United States of America. Spiritually attached to their native places, to traditions, and especially to their religious life, the Romanian emigrants wanted to have Orthodox priests near to relieve the sorrow caused by the separation from their dear ones. Thus, little by little, Romanian Orthodox communities were organised which succeeded in building churches and even schools. During the inter-war period, these communities merged into a diocese with dynamic missionary activity. After war, when the communist regime was installed in Romania, the religious unity of the Orthodox Romanians of America broke up two dioceses having been organised which began real competition. Although there were initiatives for restoring unity, the personal vanities and ambitions hindered the good understanding between the two dioceses. I will try in the pages of this study to show the evolution of the religious organisation of the Orthodox Romanians in America.

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