INFORMATION BULLETIN

(Continued from last issue)

In 1963, Metropolitan Andrei rec­ognized the canonical jurisdiction of the Bulgarian Patriarchate in Sofia. This act was not accepted by some of the parishes, in particular those of Macedo-Bulgarian origin. Under the leadership of Archimandrite Ianceff, the Macedonian parishes declared themselves separated from the Bul­garian Diocese.

The See of Metropolitan Andrei is in New York City.

There are about 5,000 Bulgarian Orthodox in the United States and Canada.

The Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Church

The name Carpatho-Russian is ap­plied to the population living in the Eastern part of Czechoslovakia.

Originally, the Carpatho-Russians were Orthodox, but, under political pressure, they became Uniates accept­ing the Roman Catholic Byzantine Rite and the supreme authority of the Pope of Rome.

The Carpatho-Russian immigrants to the United States did not feel at home under the American Roman Catholic jurisdiction and started a movement of returning to Orthodoxy.

In February, 1936, clergy and lay delegates from parishes met in Pitts­burgh, Pa., and decided to establish a Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese in America. A year later, the Diocesan Congress elected Father Orestes P. Chornock as Bishop and petitioned the Ecumenical Patriarch in Constantinople for canonical recognition.

The Ecumenical Patriarch accepted the petition and in 1938, Father Chornock was ordained as Bishop in Constantinople, and then came to America to head the Carpatho-Rus­sian Diocese under the Greek juris­diction.

The Diocese numbers about fifty parishes. It has a Cathedral and a Theological Seminary in Johnston, Pennsylvania.

In 1963, a Bishop-Vicar was or­dained to assist Bishop Orestes, who is now 80 years old.

The Greek Orthodox Church

Greek merchants in New Orleans, Louisiana, established the first Greek Orthodox Church in America, in 1864. From that time on, many more Greeks immigrated, founding parishes and building churches throughout the United States and Canada.

Jurisdictionally, the first Greek Orthodox churches in the United States were under the Ecumenical Patriarch in Constantinople, who assigned Priests to serve them.

In 1908, when the Ecumenical Pa­triarchate was under heavy Turkish pressure, the jurisdiction of Greek Churches in America passed to the Greek Synod in Athens up to 1918, when again they returned under the jurisdiction of Constantinople.

At that time, there was no central Greek authority in the United States. In 1921, the Greek Orthodox Arch­diocese of North and South America was established and a year later, in 1922, its charter was recognized by the State of New York.

The first Bishop to head the Arch­diocese was Alexander in 1922.

It took many years of efforts to bring the majority of Greek-American par­ishes under the canonical jurisdiction of the Archdiocese.

It is commonly recognized that the organized life of the Greek Orthodox Church in America made headway with the appointment of Metropolitan Athenagoras Spiru as Archbishop. He came; to North America in 1931, and up to 1948, he laid the groundwork for a united Greek Orthodoxy. In 1949, Metropolitan Athenagoras became the Ecumenical Patriarch in Constantinople. Archbishop Michael Constantinides succeeded and furthered the consolidation program with out­standing diplomatic skill. He died in 1958 and a year later, in 1959, the actual Archbishop, His Eminence Iakovos was enthroned. Under his lead­ership, a program of complete reorga­nization of the Archdiocese was imple­mented.

Today, the Greek Orthodox Arch­diocese is divided administratively into the following Districts:

1. Archdiocesan District with head­quarters New York, N.Y. Archbishop: Iakovos.

2. New England States with head­quarters in Jamaica Plains, Massachu­setts. Bishop: Gerasimos.

3. Western States with headquar­ters in Los Angeles, California. Bishop: Demtrios.

4. Southern States with headquar­ters in Charlotte, No. Carolina. Bishop: Aimilianos.

5. Central States with headquarters in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Bishop: Theodosius.

6. Middle Northern States with head­quarters in Detroit, Mich. Bishop: Germanos.

7. Southwestern States with head­quarters in New Orleans, Louisiana. Bishop: Silas.

Under the jurisdiction of the Arch­diocese are also:

1. Canadian District with headquar­ters in Toronto, Ontario. Archbishop: Athenagoras.

2. South American District with headquarters in Buenos Aires, Argen­tina. Bishop: Timotheos.

There are also in America two Titu­lar Bishops:

1. His Eminence, Germanos (Pollzoides), Metropolitan of Hieropolos.

2. Rt. Rev. Germanos (Liamadis), Bishop of Constantia.

With 400 parishes, 450 Priests and over a million communicants, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese com­mands the largest Orthodox group in the United States. It possesses a Theo­logical Seminary in Brookline, Mas­sachusetts, a good number of paro­chial schools and some publications, mostly in the Greek language, because the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese did not as yet accept the English language for religious services.

The Romanian Orthodox Church

About 1900, the first Romanian immigrants settled in Canada and the Viited States. In 1902, a parish was irranized in Regina, Saskatchewan, Tinada, and the present church was rcilt at that time.

In the United States, the St. Mary’s Romanian Orthodox Church in Cleve­land, Ohio, was organized in 1904.

For more than 25 years, individual parishes belonged jurisdictionally to the Metropolitanates in Transylvania and Moldavia and some of them to Russian Orthodox Bishops in America. Priests were “imported” from the Old Country, or ordained by local Russian Bishops.

In 1929, a Church Congress with lay and clergy delegates from the par­ishes met in Detroit, Michigan, and decided the establishment of the Ro­manian Orthodox Episcopate (Diocese) of America.

At the request of this Congress, the Patriarchate of Romania gave canoni­cal approval in 1930 and invested the elected Interim Commission with the administration of the new Diocese.

In 1932, another Church Congress, assembled in Cleveland, Ohio, voted Statutes and By-Laws to govern the Diocese. Administratively, the Dio­cese was to have autonomous status, but canonically to be under the juris­diction of the Holy Synod of the Ro­manian Patriarchate.

In 1935, the Diocese requested and received its first Bishop, His Grace Policarp Morusca, who came to the United States and established his resi­dence in Detriot, Michigan, and later (1938) in Grass Lake, Michigan.

In 1939, Bishop Policarp departed for Romania, and due to political and military events, he could not return to the United States.

After the War, he was detained by the Romanian government, and in 1948, he was placed into retirement by government decree. The Romanian Diocese in America consequently was without a Bishop for more than ten years.

In 1950, the Holy Synod of the Romanian Patriarchate appointed and ordained, without the knowledge or consent of the American Diocese, a new Bishop, the Reverend Andrei Moldo van.

Since the Statutes and By-Laws provided that the Bishops for the Romanian Diocese in America will be ordained only after election by the Diocesan Congress, Andrei Moldo van was not accepted as Bishop. He then established a new factional Diocese entitled “Canonical Missionary Epis­copate in the United States, Canada and South America,” convincing 12 parishes to join his jurisdiction (Bishop Moldovan died in March, 1963).

The original Diocese, with 48 par­ishes, abiding to the By-Laws of 1932, elected i:s own Bishop, the Rt. Rev. Valerian D. Trifa, and declared full separation from the Patriarchate in Bucharest.

Bishop Valerian was ordained in America and in 1960, the Diocese joined the Russian Orthodox Metropolia headed by His Eminence Metropolitan Leonty. Except for ca­nonical ties, the Romanian Diocese is recognized as a self-governing body headed by its own Bishop and gov­erned by its By-Laws. The legislative and supreme administrative body is the National Church Congress which meets in session annually.

The Diocese has its headquarters in Grass Lake, Jackson County, Michi­gan, and is divided into five Deaner­ies: Cleveland, Chicago, Detroit, Phila­delphia and Canada. The Diocesan Cathedral is located in Southfield-Detroit, Michigan.

There are about 50,000 Romanian Orthodox communicants in the United States and Canada.

Some Romanian Orthodox parishes in South .America, Western Europe and Australia are under the jurisdiction of the Episcopate.

Affiliates of the Episcopate are the following central organizations: The Association of Romanian Orthodox Ladies Auxiliaries (A.R.F.O.R.A.) and The American Romanian Orthodox Youth (A.R.O.Y.).

The bi-weekly newspaper, “SOLIA.” published in Detroit, Michi­gan, is the official organ of the Dio­cese. An annual almanac is published by the Episcopate under the name “Solia.”

The Russian Orthodox Church

As mentioned previously, the first Orthodox Christians to settle in America were Russian Orthodox.

A Mission in Alaska became the Russian Archdiocese of the Aleutian Islands with headquarters in Alaska, then California and later in New York.

During that first period, the Ameri­can Russian Diocese was under the jurisdiction of the Holy Synod in Rus­sia. It is true that lay participation in the life of the Diocese was more ac­tive than in Russia proper, but Bish­ops were appointed by the Holy Synod.

In 1907, the first American Sobor of clergy and laity took place.

Relations with the Mother Church were at that time normal.

Following the Communistic Revo­lution in Russia, the North American Diocese was compelled to make inde­pendent decisions. The Patriarch in Moscow, Tikhon, recognized this situ­ation and through a Patriarchal Ukase, dated November 20, 1920, laid the canonical basis for the ecclesiastical self-government of the Russian Church in America. Due to religious persecu­tions in the Soviet Union, the churches in America were cut off from the Mother Church.

Consequently, the All American Sobor held in 1924, in Detroit, Michi­gan, declared formally the Russian Orthodox Diocese in America as a “self-governing Church” and elected Metropolitan Platon as its Ruling Bishop.

The name of the Diocese was changed to “Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church of America,” and in short is known as the “Metropolia.”

After the death of Metropolitan Platon in 1934, the Metropolia was headed by Bishop Theophilos and from 1950 by His Eminence Metropolitan Leonty.

Under the jurisdiction of the Metropolia are 352 churches with an inclusive membership of 775,000 com­municants and 349 Priests. The head­quarters of the Metropolia are in New York. The Metropolia is divided into Diooceses headed by the following Bishops:

His Eminence Metropolitan Leonty, Archbishop of New York and Metro­politan;

The Most Rev. John, Archbishop of Chicago and Minneapolis;

The Most Rev. Ireney, Archbishop of Boston and New England;

The Most Rev. John, Archbishop of San Francisco and Western United States;

The Rt. Rev. Sylvester, Bishop of Montreal and Canada;

The Rt. Rev. Amvrossy, Bishop of Sitka and Alaska;

The Rt. Rev. Michael, Bishop of Buenos Aires;

The Rt. Rev. Kiprian, Bishop of Washington, D.C.;

The Rt. Rev. Vladimir, Bishop of Kyoto, Japan.

(As of this writing, the Diocese of Pittsburgh is vacant following the re­cent death of Archbishop Benjamin.)

Under the jurisdiction of the Metropolia are some monasteries and Church institutions, among them:

1. St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theo­logical Seminary of New York;

2. St. Tikhon’s Seminary in South Canaan, Pennsylvania.

For spiritual matters, the supreme authority of the Metropolia is the Great Sobor of Bishops which meets peri­odically. The administrative matters are decided upon by the All American Sobor with clergy and lay delegates from the parishes meeting every four years.

* * *

In addition to the Metropolia. there are in the United States two ©crier Russian Orthodox groups:

1. “The Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia”;

2. “The Patriarchal Exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Catholic Church in America.”

(To be continued)

Bishop VALERIAN D. TRIFA