In 1909, he was elected to be the first vicar bishop of the North American Archdiocese by the Holy Synod of the Russian Church. In Russia, Father Alexander was tonsured on November 9, 1909 and then consecrated Bishop of Alaska at the St Alexander Nevsky Monastery in St Petersburg. Returning the the United States he traveled extensively through his new diocese, reporting on the developments there in the ‘‘Russian American Orthodox Messenger’’. When Apb. Platon left the diocese before the arrival of Abp. Evdokim, he was named the temporary administrator of the North American archdiocese from July 1914 to March 1915. After the arrival of Evdokim, he was transferred in 1916 to Winnipeg, Canada as Bishop of Canada where his efforts were impaired by the activity of Protestant activists. Then, again in 1917 he was called to be administrator of the Archdiocese when Archbishop Evdokim left for Russia.

Bishop Alexander became overwhelmed by the loss of funding from Russia that added to the financial chaos he had inherited, including a debt of $100,000 from Abp. Evdokim. After attempts to raise money locally failed, Bishop Alexander began to resort to mortgaging Church property. This only aggravated the problems. His financial problems also provided cause for his enemies, particularly Father John Kedrovsky and the dissident priests supporting him who were attempting to usurp control of the diocese in line with the Bolshevik manifesto. Abp. Alexander’s lack of understanding of economic and financial matters only aggravated the situation. Additionally, the element of factionalism began to grow in Canada where the immigrants began to split into Russian and Ukrainian factions. Alexander took a strong nationalistic position and did not support his administrator Archmandrite Adam in pursuing the idea of an Ukrainian administration as had been done for Albanians and Serbians. As a result the problem remained, eventually to result in a separate Ukrainian Orthodox diocese.