Orthodox Church in America

The Orthodox Church in America (OCA) is an autocephalous church with parishes mainly in the United States and Canada (though it has some parishes in Australia and elsewhere).

History

The OCA began with the missionary work of the Russian Orthodox Church in Alaska and the Aleutian Islands. In 1917, the Bolshevik Revolution brought communication between the churches in North America and Russia to an almost complete halt. In the early 1920s, Patriarch Tikhon of Moscow directed all Russian Orthodox churches outside of Russia to govern themselves autonomously until regular communication and travel could be resumed. (He died in 1925, and was glorified as a saint by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1989.) At that time, parishes which had been part of a single North American diocese organized separate dioceses and placed themselves under various other mother churches, giving rise to the current situation of multiple overlapping jurisdictions in North America.

In the early 1960s, the Orthodox Church in America resumed communication with the Patriarch of Moscow, and in 1970 full communion was restored. At that time, the Patriarch of Moscow officially granted the OCA autocephaly, or self-governing administrative status. The OCA's autocephaly is not currently recognized by all other autocephalous Orthodox Churches, including the Church of Constantinople. Churches that do recognize its autocephaly include the Church of Russia, the Church of Bulgaria, the Church of Poland, and the Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia.

The OCA Today

In the United States, there are 12 dioceses and 623 parishes, missions, and institutions (456 of which are parishes). The ethnic dioceses extend into Canada, which also has one non-ethnic archdiocese. Altogether there are 91 Canadian parishes. The OCA has a Mexican Exarchate with nine parishes and missions, and there are five parishes in South America. In addition, there are three parishes in Australia under the OCA’s canonical protection, two in Sydney and another near Brisbane.

There are three ethnic dioceses in the OCA: the Albanian (13 parishes), Bulgarian (16 parishes) and Romanian (59 parishes). These dioceses' geographic territory overlaps with the other dioceses of the OCA and they have under their care parishes with those ethnic associations. These dioceses are the result of smaller ethnic jurisdictions joining the OCA at some point in its history.

The OCA also has 19 monastic communities, six of which fall under the direct jurisdiction of the Metropolitan (i.e., are stavropigial). The largest of these monasteries are New Skete (Cambridge, New York) and St. Tikhon's Orthodox Monastery (South Canaan, Pennsylvania).

There are three seminaries operated by the OCA: St. Tikhon's Orthodox Theological Seminary (founded 1937), St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary (founded 1938), and St. Herman's Orthodox Theological Seminary (founded 1973). All three educate seminarians from multiple Orthodox jurisdictions, including those outside North America.

Altogether, estimates of OCA faithful number from 29,000 to 115,000 to 1 million, depending on the report cited and method used for counting.[1] (One of the ongoing difficulties that the OCA faces is a financial and structural one—the institutions, episcopacy and structures of the OCA largely reflect probably very inflated population estimates based on obsolete figures.) The number of new parishes founded from 1990 to 2000 rose the overall parish number by about 12%, and new membership has been fairly equally divided between new immigrants, children of existing members, and converts to the faith. Overall, however, the trend during that decade held the population of OCA faithful in neither increase nor decline, but remaining steady.[2]

The OCA is a member of the Standing Conference of the Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas (SCOBA). The current primate of the OCA is His Beatitude Herman (Swaiko), Archbishop of Washington and Metropolitan of All America and Canada.

External links

• Official Website of the OCA
• Eastern Christian Churches: OCA by Ronald Roberson, a Roman Catholic priest and scholar