People love the Charlotte Greek Festival for the baklava and gyros. But the way Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral teaches folk dancing could show some new progress in congregations across the country facing historic declines in attendance.
The festival helped make Holy Trinity the fourth largest Greek Orthodox parish in the United States. The church now begins centenary celebrations. And experts on the evolution and health of faith groups say events like this – which create connections and build community – are a key tactic for maintaining engagement.
Stacie Peroulas directs the dance program at Holy Trinity, the largest church-affiliated Greek folk dance program in the United States.
“Greek culture is for the world,” Peroulas said recently. “It’s not just for Greeks. There are so many things rooted in Greek history and culture that translate to: It’s about hospitality, community and bringing people together. And that’s kind of what a lot of us are missing right now.
Polls show participation in most religious groups has fallen by about 20% over the past 20 years, while engagement at Holy Trinity has remained constant. Cultural activities like folk dancing, sports and language programs are all factors in that success, said the director of an organization focused on congregational health. But not for obvious reasons.
“It’s not so much about activities as it is about an expression of identity and community,” said the Rev. Chris Gambill, director of the Center for Congregational Health in Winston-Salem, a ministry of Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist Medical. system. “The fact that they still have Greek festivals, dance classes and language classes, it’s a reflection of what already exists.”
The loss of social capital in the United States also applies to churches, Gambill said. Activities that bring people together around a common goal help them feel authentically connected within a community, he said. Help with Greek national and ethnic identity.
Holy Trinity also benefits from Charlotte’s population growth, Peroulas said. Newcomers are looking for ways to give themselves and their children a sense of belonging and connection, she said, and youth programs in dance, sports and language can attract families.
The community fabric
When members of religious groups bake cookies together or teach folk dancing, they strengthen bonds and build social capital, Gambill said. “They’re not just doing this robotically. They talk to each other, give family updates, build family connections. They do everything that creates the community fabric.
The lack of community also helps explain the intense political polarization in the United States, Gambill said. “The less we know about each other, the easier it is to demonize them or label them as ‘the other.’ »
Beyond cultural activities, the author of a history of the American Greek Orthodox Church, Alexander Kitroeff said parishes are a key part of Greek-American identity.
“There are no parallel secular organizations such as community organizations that compete with the sociocultural centrality of the parish,” Kitroeff wrote in an email from Athens. A history professor at Haverford College, Kitroeff teaches American students in Greece.
According to Census of Orthodox Christian Churches, Holy Trinity has approximately 4,500 adherents, defined as people who frequently or rarely participate in church activities, as well as their family members. The census indicates that Holy Trinity has approximately 750 regular attendees. Gambill said the average number of regular attendees of a U.S. congregation — before COVID-19 — was about 80. The pandemic has made the numbers worse.
Community, not conversion
But cultural activities are probably more effective at preventing attrition than attracting new members, said the Rev. Martha Kearse, former pastor of St. John’s Baptist Church in Charlotte. She is now a minister in Lynchburg, Virginia.
“I remember coordinating a big Easter egg hunt one year and thinking maybe we could recruit some new members,” Kearse said. “But I don’t think we’ve ever attracted a single new member. People who come to the egg hunt are not necessarily looking for a church. They are looking to keep their children busy on a Saturday.
Festivals are not child’s play
Queens University News Service
Holy Trinity communications director John Shelton estimates 500 volunteers, staff, vendors and police officers are involved in the campaign. management of the annual festival, including entertainment, retail, food, tents and security. The dance costume committee alone includes three or four women. Planning for the festival begins a year in advance.
More than 450 youth and young adult dancers perform, Peroulas said, with 14 groups corresponding to grades K-12 and one adult group. The program covers dances from a dozen geographical areas of Greece, including the islands, Peloponnese, Crete, Macedonia and Thrace.
Gambill said that’s the challenge with cultural activities run by religious groups. Not all congregations can muster the necessary resources.
Imagine the future
For a report on the impact of COVID-19 on congregations released in September 2022, Rev. Eileen Campbell, visiting professor at Union Theological Seminary in New York, interviewed more than 100 pastors and lay leaders. She wrote that almost all leaders believe that expectations of church and ministry need to be rethought.
Commitment and intentionality are key to attracting and retaining new members, Gambill said.
“Community building is one of the main goals of this experience,” he said. “When you have these people in a room, interacting differently with intention, rather than sitting on a bench and looking at the back of someone’s head and waiting for the program to start.
“There is a whole new cultural model around the Church that is being created before our eyes,” Gambill said. “We’re still trying to figure it out, but in the future it probably won’t look like it did in the past.”
Shannon Kingston, Kayla McDuffie, Nicole Rojas, Sebastian Shered and Hannah Tracy contributed to this story.
Palmer Magri, Caroline Willingham and Ellie Fitzgerald are students at the James L. Knight School of Communication at Queens University of Charlotte, which provides the news service in support of local community news.
