Although the dominant religion in Guatemala is historically Roman Catholicism, in recent decades other Christian denominations have gained adherents there. Orthodox Christianity in particular has been growing rapidly, as a number of schismatic Catholic groups have expressed their desire to become Orthodox and have been received under the jurisdiction of Orthodox bishops.
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As of 2016, there are three distinct Orthodox groups within Guatemala. The Antiochian and Greek groups are part of the Eastern Orthodox Church, while the third group is part of Oriental Orthodoxy.
Antiochian
According to a Guatemalan Orthodox monastery, Orthodox Christianity arrived in Guatemala at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century with immigrants from Lebanon, Russia, and Greece. In the 1980s two Catholic women, Mother Ines and Mother Maria, converted to Orthodox Christianity and established a monastery. In 1992 they were received into the Antiochian Patriarchate and in 1995 the Catholic Apostolic Orthodox Antiochian Church in Guatemala was formally established. The state orphanage of Hogar Rafael Ayau, established in 1857, was privatized and transferred to their care in 1996.
The Orthodox Antiochian Church in Guatemala is part of the Antiochian Patriarchate's Archdiocese of Mexico, Venezuela, Central America and the Caribbean. Its first temple was dedicated in 1997.
Greek
A different, mostly indigenous Mayan, group was accepted into the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in 2010. This had been a group which was part of the Catholic Charismatic Renewal movement and had rocky relations with the Roman Catholic Church. Eventually, the group's leader, Father Andrés Girón, who had previously served as a congressional representative, as a senator in 1991 and as an ambassador to the United Nations, left the Roman Catholic Church over tensions related to his support for land reform and their support for "liturgical reform". Girón and his followers, who numbered between 100,000 and 200,000, first joined the Society of clerks secular of Saint Basil, and later moved towards Orthodoxy, being received into the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in 2010. According to Father Peter Jackson, this may well be the largest mass-conversion to Orthodoxy since the Christianization of Kievan Rus' in 988. The Orthodox Church promptly sent missionaries to Guatemala to educate and catechize the newfound converts.
The membership estimates for Girón's group vary widely. Various self-reported figures were published: 120,000 members in 2004, then 550,000 members (of which 5,000 were Greek) in 2015. Jesse Brandow, one of the Orthodox missionaries in Guatemala, estimates that there are "roughly 40,000 people and 100 parishes" and that "it is one of the largest mass conversions in the history of Orthodox Christianity." He also reports that there is a great need for additional priests, and that "the people self-identify as Orthodox and are generally eager to learn, but they are still at the very beginning of a long process of transition."
Syriac
In 2013, the members of the "Renewed Ecumenical Catholic Church of Guatemala" (Iglesia Católica Ecuménica Renovada en Guatemala, ICERGUA) were received into the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch. Most of these converts are poor indigenous Maya.
This movement is led by Eduardo Aguirre-Oestmann, a former priest of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Guatemala. In 2003, Aguirre formed ICERGUA as a charismatic independent catholic church. In 2006, Cardinal Rodolfo Quezada Toruño, archbishop of the Archdiocese of Guatemala, excommunicated Aguirre and adherents of his group. They were excommunicated for schism, and Aguirre also for distancing himself "from the communion and the norms of his priesthood" by founding the Comunión Ecuménica Santa María del Nuevo Éxodo in 2003. In 2007, Aguirre was consecrated as bishop of ICERGUA by a bishop of the Brazilian Catholic Apostolic Church at the parish church in San Juan Comalapa. ICERGUA was a member of the Worldwide Communion of Catholic Apostolic Churches.
When ICERGUA was received into Syriac Orthodoxy in 2013, it became the "Central American Archdiocese of the Syrian Orthodox Catholic Apostolic Church of Antioch" (Arquidiócesis de Centro América de la Iglesia Católica Apostólica Siro-Ortodoxa de Antioquía, ICASOAC). As of 2015, ICASOAC has not published membership figures but includes a 2009 estimate of ICERGUA membership on its website, which gives figures between 50,000 and 350,000. The Syriac Orthodox Church has announced that membership may be as high as 800,000.