Yes, I've seen the same thing as well.
IMHO, I believe that much of this that occurred in the United States was a direct result of the immigrants wanting to better fit into their new country and not wanting to be seen as being socially "backward."
Now people are beginning to realize that some very important things are sacrificed by making these changes and that we really don't want to follow where some of the western churches are leading.
"IMHO, I believe that much of this that occurred in the United States was a direct result of the immigrants wanting to better fit into their new country and not wanting to be seen as being socially "backward."
That is exactly what was going on. There was even a desire on the part of some hierarchs many years ago that the Orthodox Church here model itself on ECUSA, right down to the clerical dog collars. It was all about "passing for white". Most of that is gone these days except in a some large city areas and I must say a good deal of the change is due to two things, converts who really know what American society is like and how dangerous, spiritually, it can be, and a crop of younger, very traditional priests. Since the seminaries are now graduating large numbers of traditional type American born priests, the future looks pretty good.