Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to all JTO readers. In 1620 a few shiploads of  Protestant Christian Pilgrims sailed in to Plymouth Harbor off the coast of Massachusetts. Having endured an arduous sea venture, and having found the home they so longed for, they took time to offer thanksgiving to God. Having established a settlement, and with the gracious welcome of the indigenous peoples in the area, the root of European civilization and protestantism was deeply planted. It would take another 174 years for an Orthodox Christian colony to be established on the North American Continent, but then, only on the opposite side of the continent, by Russian immigrants to Alaska. Protestantism of all shapes and forms grew as the nation grew, while Orthodoxy, in its origins, was geographically isolated. Today, some 389 years later, there are still less than 500,000 Orthodox believers on the North American Continent, although worldwide, Orthodoxy is the second largest recognized Christian group on the planet. May the year 2010 be the year that ethnicities, cultures, and geography take second place to establishing the original Faith Of Our Fathers, on this continent- The Orthodox Church.