I had to do some ironing yesterday, and I decided to listen to something while ironing. I put on my AirPods and opened the YouTube app on my phone. Staring at me was an 18-minute video of a monk, Father Seraphim Aldea, at the Isle of Mull on the west coast of Scotland. That’s right, there’s an Orthodox monastery on this small island of Mull off the western coast of Scotland - one of many such outposts of Orthodoxy in unexpected places. But perhaps it’s not widely enough known that there is an Orthodox history to many places in Europe; an Orthodox history not dependent on Greek or Russian immigrants! The British Isles especially have a huge tradition of native Orthodoxy. Just think St. Patrick of Ireland! Or St Columba of Iona. And hundreds more! They are honored as saints in today’s Orthodox Church. We usually think that Greek and Russian immigrants are the ones who brought Orthodoxy to America when they established churches for their own use. But what is not generally known, especially among Greeks, is that it was Russian missionaries who first brought Orthodoxy to America, in the 1790s in Alaska, which of course back then was part of Russia! So there was a native Orthodoxy in America long before Russian or Greek immigrants started arriving in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Thank you so much for listening to God, and posting this wonderful article. Bless you Sister