As the number of Orthodox Christians in the Republic has increased, so too has the number of their churches, writes Patsy McGarry
THE GROWTH in the numbers of Muslims in Ireland might be described as spectacular, but it has been exceeded by the growth in the numbers of Orthodox Christians.
These, admittedly, have come from a smaller base.
According to the 1991 census, there were just 400 Orthodox Christians in the Republic.
The greater number of these were cared for, liturgically and pastorally, by Greek Orthodox priest Fr Ireneu Ioan Cracuin, and for the greater part of the time since 1983 at the Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation in Dublin's Arbour Hill.
By 2002, the number of Orthodox Christians in the Republic had increased to 10,400.
In the four years to the 2006 census the Republic's population of Orthodox Christians doubled - to 20,800. An estimated 84.2 per cent of this latter number come from outside Ireland. Most are from Eastern Europe, Russia and former Soviet republics.
It is estimated that there may be as many as 3,000 Orthodox Christians in Northern Ireland also.
In Belfast, Fr Irenaeus, of the Antiochian Orthodox Church, ministers to a congregation of 100, which is growing. He says that the first ever Mass by an Orthodox bishop in Northern Ireland took place at his church on Sunday April 13th last.
Fr Irenaeus, who is a former corporate lawyer from South Africa, says that figures for Orthodox Christians in either part of Ireland are not accurate. He estimates that figures for the Republic alone are most likely double the 20,800 recorded in the 2006 census.
As he puts it, "Eastern Europeans are not a census-orientated people". They distrust official documents, he says. It is also the case that, currently, people from both Romania and Bulgaria can only be in either part of Ireland legally for a period of three months.
Just as the number of Orthodox Christians in Ireland has increased, so too has the number of their churches, which, though liturgically and doctrinally the same, tend to be organised along national lines.
So we have on this island a Russian Orthodox Church with a substantial membership, which also has a primary school at its St Peter and St Paul Church in Dublin's Harold's Cross. There is the Romanian Orthodox Church, with similar if not greater numbers; the Antiochian Church; the Georgian Orthodox Church; the Coptic Orthodox Church and the Chalcedonian Church.
Orthodox services now take place regularly in Dublin, Armagh, Belfast, Limavady, Co Derry, Stradbally, Co Laois, Galway, Limerick, Cork, Waterford, Cavan and Drogheda.
Since their arrival in Ireland, all the Orthodox churches have been greatly assisted, both practically and morally, by the Church of Ireland (they are historically closer to Anglicanism), by the Catholic Church, particularly in Dublin, and by Catholic religious congregations such as the Jesuits and the Dominicans, as well as by the Lutheran Church in Dublin.
Their primary concern is "building community", as Romanian Orthodox priest Fr Godfrey O'Donnell puts it. He and Fr Calin Florea, who is Romanian, are based at the Orthodox Church on Dublin's Leeson Park, formerly a Church of Ireland building. Their congregation there is between 1,000 and 1,500 people.
Many in their congregations would be Romanian, Bulgarian and Moldovan. They were "not here to stay but to get a better quality of life for their people at home". From Ireland they were "supporting the extended family and funding education [at home]".
He points out that the average monthly wage in Romania is between $100 and $150 and says that, generally, conditions there are much the same as they were in Ireland in the 1950s. Currently, he says, there is a sense that their numbers in Ireland may be shrinking, as many had worked in construction. Their lack of English meant that they did not find it easy to get other work.
Fr O'Donnell is in a unique position to speak authoritatively on the Orthodox experience in Ireland which, he says, "by and large has been very positive". He was a Jesuit priest for 28 years, mostly in Dublin, before he got married. He and his wife, Ruth, have been actively involved with Orthodoxy for 21 years.
Fr O'Donnell worked alongside Fr Ireneu Cracuin at the Greek Orthodox Church in Dublin's Arbour Hill for some time before he was asked by the Romanian Orthodox Metropolitan Joseph, based in Paris, to help secure a Romanian Orthodox priest for their community in Ireland. Fr O'Donnell joined the Romanian Orthodox Church in 1999.
He is now the Orthodox representative to the Irish Council of Churches and the Irish Inter Church Meeting. He is also chairman of the Dublin Council of Churches (DCC). In that role, he has, this past year, overseen the admission of the Catholic Church to the DCC, an event which was solemnised at a ceremony in Dublin's Pro-Cathedral during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity last January.