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since 1962 (Stokoe and Kishkovsky, 1995). In 1964, the Clergy-Laity Congress allowed certain readings and prayers in the liturgy to be repeated in English. In the important 20th Clergy-Laity Congress of 1970, following the personal appeal of Archbishop Iakovos, an English liturgy was permitted. Today, most Orthodox churches do some and in many cases most of their services in English. This policy provides an opportunity for the second and third or beyond generations to comprehend more proficiently the Orthodox Faith. Another important issue we should point out is that orthodoxy itself is not static; it is constantly under pressure to be assimilated or integrated - especially in an Anglo Saxon Protestant society. According to our findings, the Greek Orthodox Church has undergone substantial integration. As a religion and a cultural heritage, the Orthodox Church can also bring the best of both worlds and to blend and orchestrate into a whole, yet not lose essence or identity (Nicozisin, 1993).

Although our results show that the majority of our respondents have a good or very good understanding of the Greek Orthodox Faith – there might be a dichotomy of opinion as to the accuracy of these findings - being that the personal feelings of the respondents could be quite subjective. My personal experience indicates that the majority of the churchgoers – especially the third generation and beyond – are lacking significantly in their understanding of the Greek Orthodox worship and its meaning in depth. One reason to my claim is the fact that the Second and Third or beyond generation churchgoers do not comprehend the original language of the Holy Bible. The other reason is that religion and/or the history of the Greek Orthodox Church and its Holy Tradition is not taught consistently and systematically in our places of worship. As I have visited many churches as a worshiper and/or a guest speaker – it has been evident to me that although the attitudes of the younger parishioners were mostly positive regarding their attendance – their substantive understanding of the Orthodox Faith was rather limited. Since the GOC plays such an important role in the viability of Greek America and its assumed role as a robust pillar of ethnic identity – we highly recommend an on-going and consistent teaching of the Orthodox Christian Faith and its Holy Sacraments to every generation of Greek Americans – especially the new converts to the Orthodox Faith through intermarriage.

A similar pattern was also shown in Greek cultural activities. Positive behaviors or attitudes were observed for all questions and no significance was observed among the three generations for almost all questions including ‘the active attendance and support to Greek heritage events’, ‘feeling a sense of pride when attending Greek heritage events’, and ‘studying of Greek history’. The only significant difference observed was “dancing Greek dances” between the Second and Third or beyond generations. All three generations actively attend Greek heritage events and they felt a sense of pride and strong bond with other Greeks and Greek Americans when attending such heritage events.

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