Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church

Relationships

Relationships

“Greek girls just did not date American boys!” says Stamatia Sigman when talking about marrying her husband who is American. Relationships in the Greek Orthodox church have changed greatly over the past 50 years.

When early Greek immigrants came to America, it was tradition that a Greek man would chose to marry a Greek woman. This is the way that it had occurred for centuries in Greece and the new immigrants had no plans to change this tradition. Normally the children would have grown up together in the church and their families would know each other also. However as the next generation of Greeks were born in America, the ideas of intermarriage with non-Greek orthodox individuals became much more tempting and over time more and more people began to take part in them. Converting to the Greek Orthodox faith required numerous hours of work and a great amount of effort to learn the traditions, language, and such. Various interviewees who converted to the faith upon marriage spoke about the disapproval they faced from the older generations and how acceptance into the church was not easy to acquire. The older generation had their views and ideas of what they expect an American boy or girl to be like. The older generation were doubtful of the converts actual commitment to the faith. Normally after the first child was born and they saw that the convert was going to raise the child in the church, acceptance soon followed.

These ideas were also common in American families, because the Greek people and religion were so foreign to them. They often feared that once the boy or girl married a Greek person, they would be moved to Greece to never be seen again. However once they became familiarized with the religion and people, acceptance was easier. Today attitudes toward intermarriage in the Greek Orthodox church has a much more positive stigma that it did before as many interviewees stated. Acceptance is still difficult yet not as difficult as in prior generations. The number of intermarriages has increased in the church and the number of converts has increased also. Instead of worrying simply about the origin of the person, it seems the focus is now more on the amount of dedication the person has and if they will actually continue the traditions in their family. 

Pictures provided by Maria Treskas and the Zourzouki Family