Orthodox Church in America

Orthodox Church in America, ecclesiastically independent, or autocephalous, church of the Eastern Orthodox communion, recognized as such by its mother church in Russia; it adopted its present name on April 10, 1970.

History

Established in 1794 in Alaska, then Russian territory, the Russian Orthodox mission spread to other parts of the North American continent after the sale of Alaska to the United States in 1867. In 1872 the episcopal see was transferred from Sitka, Alaska, to San Francisco and in 1905 to New York. It incorporated many Greek Catholics (Roman Catholics of Eastern rite), and immigrants from Austria-Hungary (Galicia and Carpatho-Russia) who returned to Orthodoxy upon arrival in America. It also organized parishes for Russian, Ukrainian, Greek, Serbian, Albanian, Romanian, Bulgarian, and Syrian immigrants.

In 1905 Archbishop Saint Tikhon, head of the American diocese and future patriarch of Moscow (elected 1917), submitted a plan for the autonomy and eventual autocephaly of the American Church to the Holy Synod of St. Petersburg. He also encouraged services in English and published appropriate liturgical books.

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In the chaos that followed the Russian Revolution, the administration of the church was paralyzed and relations with Russia were cut. Non-Russian ethnic groups organized separate jurisdictions connected with their own mother churches. Thus, in 1922, a Greek archdiocese was established in America by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. The Orthodox Church in America was consequently divided into a number of national dioceses, each designated by its ethnic origin.

The original diocese itself severed relations with Moscow and in 1924 proclaimed its self-government. It broke completely with the Russian Church rather than give a statement of loyalty to the Soviet government. Thus, the American metropolitanate became de facto independent, but without regular canonical status.

The creation of an autocephalous Orthodox Church in America in 1970 provided it with permanent status, without any dependence upon foreign interests, and allowed Orthodox Americans to define their religious affiliation without reference to ethnic origin.

Composition

The Orthodox Church in America was joined by Romanian, Bulgarian, Mexican, and Albanian ethnic groups. It maintains a graduate school of theology, St. Vladimir’s Seminary, in Yonkers, New York; an undergraduate seminary at St. Tikhon Monastery, in South Canaan, Pennsylvania; and a seminary for the training of Native Alaskan clergy in Kodiak, Alaska. A member of the World Council of Churches and the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. (NCC), the Orthodox Church is governed by a council of bishops, clergy, and laity. Estimates indicate the Orthodox Church in America includes approximately 550–700 parishes across North America, using mostly English in worship.

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The Orthodox Church in America does not include all Orthodox groups in the United States and Canada. Among others are the Greek archdiocese, subject to the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, and the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Total membership in the Orthodox Church in America is unclear, but a sociological study conducted in 2020, and affiliated with the U.S. Census, estimated that it has nearly 75,000 adherents.