[FormerLib]

I was similarly surprised to see how many of the OCA priests in the Washington DC area were clean-shaven...

...until someone pointed out to me how many of them are actually military chaplains, where you comply with the regs or you do not serve, or ex-military.

Now I don't really understand why the ex-chaplains still shave but...?

[kosta50]

The military does not allow beards of any sort, that much is clear. It also does not allow any religious articles or symbols to be work. The sole exception is for the Jews who are allowed to wear a yamulka. The Muslims are not allowed to wear skulcaps, neither are Christians allowed to show crosses.

I seriosuly doubt that there are many Orthodox military chaplains, given that Orthodoxy is such a small church in America, and they are not all in the DC area, for sure.

[Agrarian]

It isn't just the military chaplain thing. Most of the OCA (and certainly nearly all in the northeastern section of the country) is Carpatho-Russian in background. Their forebears, about 100,000 strong converted en masse from being Uniates back to the Orthodox Church in the late 19th century. They had been heavily Latinized in certain ways during their centuries of union with Rome, and one of these things was in clerical dress and facial hair. Goatees seem to be the Carp thing. The OCA Diocese of the West, on the other hand, is dominated by the heritage of the Harbin emigration of Great Russians -- photos of our diocesan assemblies show that it is a very hirsute affair there. Convert clergy are also not afraid of growing beards. With time, this, too, is all becoming more traditional.