Christian sorority

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

While the traditional women's fraternity or sorority was founded well before the start of the 20th century, the first ever Christian sorority was founded at UCLA in 1925 by ten women and named Alpha Delta Chi.

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Alpha Delta Chi, the Beginning

Traditionally, the Christian sorority has followed the Christian fraternity in founding except in the case of Alpha Delta Chi. The sorority was founded in 1925 and Alpha Gamma Omega was founded in 1927, two years later also at UCLA.

These Christian Greek Organizations enjoyed local success in their early years but they did not experience the national growth seen by more traditional Greek organizations.

[edit] 1980s Resurgence

A more novel situation occurred in 1987 when Chi Alpha Omega was founded as a co-educational Christian Greek Organization. It wasn't until 1998 that Sigma Alpha Omega broke off as a women's only ministry. Today, Sigma Alpha Omega is the second largest Christian sorority with 16 chapters across the country.

In 1988, the founding of Sigma Phi Lambda on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin sparked new growth for the Christian sorority. "Phi Lamb" was founded by women who saw brotherhood in Beta Upsilon Chi and wished to create a female component since BYX was a male-only organization. Sigma Phi Lambda today has a national director, national board of directors and is the largest Christian social sorority in the nation with twenty chapters. (Kappa Phi club is at twenty-four campuses; however, Kappa Phi club is not a social sorority)

[edit] Latest Developments

As Alpha Delta Chi, Sigma Phi Lambda and Sigma Alpha Omega continue to enjoy growth and success, two new Christian sororities, Theta Alpha and Delta Alpha Chi were established at Florida State University. Theta Alpha was created by women who considered all three organizations but instead chose to create a new sorority with the help of brothers from Kappa Upsilon Chi. The sorority has already expanded to the University of Florida and the University of North Florida and is planting colonies at the University of Central Florida and Louisiana State University for Spring 2007.

There has been a surge in the multicultural community of Christian sororities as well, with the beginning of sororities such as Alpha Lambda Omega Christian Sorority, Inc. (1990), Delta Psi Epsilon Christian Sorority, Inc.[1] (1999), Pi Iota Chi Christian Multicultural Sorority, Inc. (2001) and Alpha Theta Omega Christian Sorority, Inc. (2002).

[edit] General Structure

The national Christian sororities by and far started on one campus with the short range goal of becoming a local ministry and then expanded as their concept became more and more public.

Today, most national Christian sororities have a national organization, national board of directors, national executive director and alumnae bases.

[edit] Ministry Focus

These sororities focus on internal discipleship and growth and using their resources for the Evangelical concept of evangelism to the outside community.

For the most part, these organizations practice traditional Ritual which are a members-only exercise to celebrate sorority history and to welcome new members, similar to traditional Greek sororities and include the transfer of organizational secrets to the next generation.

The vast majority of these organizations concentrate on the concept of Christian accountability and have programs designed to address this issue including Cable Groups with Sigma Phi Lambda, and Accountability Groups with Theta Alpha.

[edit] External links

Sorority Year founded Active chapters & colonies
ΑΔΧ - Alpha Delta Chi 1925 14 active in CA, GA, KY, IL, CO, OH, AL
ΦΒΧ - Phi Beta Chi 1975 9 in IN, TX, IA, NC, AZ
ΣΦΛ - Sigma Phi Lambda 1988 20 in TX, OK, FL, AL, AR, SC
ANΩ - Alpha Nu Omega 1988 17 Undergraduate, 7 Alumni, in MD, DE, PA, CA,DC, NJ, NY, OH, NC, FL
AΛΩ - Alpha Lambda Omega 1990 14 chapters in TX, OK, PA, MI
ΑΕΩ - Alpha Epsilon Omega 1997 1 in NC
ΣΑΩ - Sigma Alpha Omega 1998 14 in NC, GA, CA, SC, NM
ΔΨΕ - Delta Psi Epsilon 1999 12 in AL, GA, IN, IL, LA, MD, NY, OH, PA, TX
ΣΦΧ - Sigma Phi Chi 2001 1 in TX
ΠΙΧ - Pi Iota Chi 2001 3 in MI, GA
AΘΩ - Alpha Theta Omega 2002 6 in TN, MO
ΛΟΧ - Lambda Omicron Chi 2002 3 in VA
ΓΑΛ - Gammma Alpha Lambda 2003 1 in MO
ΖΙΧ - Zeta Iota Chi 2003 1 in MO
HΓZ - Eta Gamma Zeta 2004 1 in IL
ΛΟΓ - Lambda Omicron Gamma 2005 1 in IL
ΘΑ - Theta Alpha 2006 3 chapters, 1 colony in FL
ΙΘH - Iota Theta Eta 2006 7 chapters in VA,Northern VA,DE/Philly,KS,SC,GA,CA