I was at a local Greek Fest, and the parish had many members who were not Greek. One family we know had concerns about the changes going on, and that they will not be as Greek in the future.
I do remember attempts to make an Orthodox church of America. There was a few small parishes when I lived in Nebraska. What came of that?
“I was at a local Greek Fest, and the parish had many members who were not Greek. One family we know had concerns about the changes going on, and that they will not be as Greek in the future.”
Our parish, which was for all intents and purposes 100% Greek when I was a kid, now is “Pan Orthodox”. We have all sorts of Slavs, Arabs, Armenians, Egyptians, Ethiopians and Greeks and many American converts. The important thing is to preserve and inculcate an Orthodox phronema. That comes from Orthodox cultures, not Western ones. For that reason, at least for the foreseeable future we need our connections to the old countries. After a few more generations, that phronema will be well seated in families named “Smith” or “Jones”, but not yet.
Your friends shouldn’t be concerned about not being “as Greek in the future” as they were. Frankly, our parish is a much nicer place than it was in the old days. The “Americans” seem to have taken up the best parts of our Greek heritage and left off the bad stuff. They want to preserve and pass on the good stuff. And in all honesty, all of us love hearing/reciting the Our Father in 7 languages at the liturgy; only in America! As my Papou always said, “God Bless America!”