ABSTRACT
Ethnic Christian communities of faith are groups of people whose religion and ethnic, racial, or national identities are inextricably linked together. Eastern Orthodox Christians and black Christians in traditional black churches and black independent congregations are the two major representatives of ethnic Christianity in the United States. Although both of these groups include converts whose ethnic heritage differs from that most closely identified with the group-Eastern Orthodox of non-Eastern European descent and whites who are members of black churches-the ethnic identity of the group as a whole remains clear and important in its self-understanding.
