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Orthodox Communities in
Austin
Austin, the capital city of Texas, has two old-calendar
Orthodox parishes nearby, Holy
Protection Russian
Orthodox Church (on the north edge of Austin) and St. Luke's
Serbian Orthodox Church in Leander, Texas.
Holy Protection is an
English-language parish
(Slavonic is used also) of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia.
It is dedicated to the Protection of the Most Holy Mother of God, the
Ever-Virgin Mary. St. Luke's is a mission headed by Protopriest
Dragoljub Popovich. An independent old-calendar church in south Austin
closed
in 2007.
The
Austin area is home to five New Calendar Orthodox
communities, most of
which use English (in whole or in part) in divine services:
Transfiguration (Greek
Orthodox, in Westlake Hills west of Austin), St. Elias (Antiochian
Orthodox,
in
downtown Austin), St. John
the Forerunner (Antiochian, in Cedar Park, Texas), St. Sophia (Antiochian,
in
Dripping
Springs, Texas), and St.
Mary Romanian Orthodox Mission (in
Cedar Park). On March 13, 2011, clergy of most of the old and new
calendar parishes united together to festively celebrate the Sunday of
Orthodoxy service at Holy Protection parish. On December 13, 2010, the
clergy assembled at St. Elias for concelebrated Liturgy and fraternal
fellowship. 
The main calendar difference is that old calendar
churches keep Christmas on January
7. But all Orthodox Churches keep Easter (Pascha) on the same
date. The next Pascha or Orthodox Easter will be Sunday, April 15,
2012.
The canonical Orthodox Churches form one worldwide
communion, including four of the five ancient apostolic sees
(Jerusalem, Alexandria, Constantinople, and St. Peter's see at
Antioch), plus new Patriarchates (such as the Russian Patriarchate, the
largest part of the Orthodox Church by far) and some 300 million
communicants
worldwide. Eastern Orthodoxy is the second
largest Christian church in the world, and the oldest Christian
church in the world.
 There is
not a single administration for the Orthodox Church. Instead, just as
it was in the Undivided Church of the first thousand years after
Christ,
Orthodoxy has separate administrations for the various regional areas
where
Orthodox Christians live.
In the United States, the presence of large numbers of
immigrants of varied national Orthodox allegiances has led to a system
of pastoral care where different churches, such as the Russian, Greek,
and Arab/Antiochian, are all present, caring for their ethnic groups as
well as for increasingly large numbers of American converts from the
Catholic, Anglican, or Protestant churches, or from pagan, new-age,
atheistic, or other non-Christian backgrounds. In America, Orthodox
Christians may attend the local parish of their choice.
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