Abstract

Maintaining traditions in new cultural situations is difficult for most reli~ous organizations. The Melkites, B2r rite Cath0//cs of Middle Eastem orlan, are no exception. While ir is esti-mated that there ate 120,000 Me/k/tes in the United States (IMCU, 1986), the.re ate feu, er than 40 established Melkite parishes in this country. Information on the Me/k/tes loas gathered through a survey admirtistered to Diocesan Pastoral Council members and telephone interviews with parish staff. The resuks:lielded a description of Melkite par/shes and concerrts about the … of the MeUdte communit'y. These con~rns indude: the shortage ofpriests; the movement ofchurch facili. ties from urban centers closer to the present, more suburban, location of parishioners; keeping young people in the Church; and maintaining a Melkite identity &spite competition from LatŸ Catholics, evangelicals, and secular culture. The tension between Me/k/te historical tradition a d their current American situation is discussed, h is argued that the long term viabili ~ of the Melkite communiry is seriously challenged by the forces in contemporary American society. The purpose of this research note is to provide a sociological pr › of the Melkite Catholic Church in the United States. Whereas the Melkite situation may be paralleled to that of mainline Protestantism in terms of ideological plau-sibility (Roof and McKinney, 1987) and Judaism in terms of ethnic assimilation (Heilman, 1990), Melkites ' twin status as both an Eastem Uniate Church and as Arab Christians, makes them unique and worthy of separate study. Such study has not been undertaken except in ah ethnic of historical context (cf. Hitti, 1961; Sengstock, 1974; Naff, 1985), other than a smaU number of Melkite publi-cat ions. 1 *I wou/d ~ to thank Frank J. Lechner and Robert Azar for their c.omviburiom to this research, and also Kevin]. Christiano, Madene R. Hancock, and Ph/lip M. Ka~a/ … their commen ~ on ear//er dra … of t.his note. A lxmion f this resarr &,~xts s[t~mored by ~ 1991 Narional Melkite Con~.nrion. Ah earlier version of this essay ~ presenm ~ ac