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The '''Orthodox Church in America''' (OCA) is an [[autocephaly|autocephalous]] church with parishes mainly in the United States and Canada (though it had a few parishes in Australia and elsewhere). The OCA was formerly known as the '''Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church in America''', or more informally, the '''Metropolia'''. Previous to that, it was the North American Diocese of the [[Russian Orthodox Church of Russia]]. The OCA's autocephaly is not currently recognized by most of the other autocephalous Orthodox churches.
founder=Ss. [[Herman of Alaska]], [[Innocent of Alaska]], [[Alexis of Wilkes-Barre]]|
independence=1970 ("temporary self-government" in 1924)|
recognition=1970 by [[Russian Orthodox Church of Russia]] |
primate=[[Tikhon (Mollard) of Washington|Tikhon (Mollard)]] |
hq=[[Chancery office of the Orthodox Church in America|Syosset, New York]]|
While the Church in Alaska was growing, immigrants were arriving in the rest of North America. In the 1860s a parish was established in San Francisco by Serbians, Russians and Greeks. Parishes were also established across the territory of the United States. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, the headquarters of the North American Diocese was moved to San Francisco and then to New York. At this time there were great waves of Orthodox immigrants from Central, Eastern, and Southern Europe, and the Middle East. A belief commonly held within OCA circles (and among some in other jurisdictions) is that they were all united in a single [[diocese]] or [[jurisdiction]], which was under the Russian Orthodox Church. (This view is disputed by a number of non-OCA church historians.) Although the Russians certainly were united, as were some parishes from other ethnic groups (especially those of Middle Eastern heritage), there were many others (most notably the overwhelming majority of the Greeks) who did not look to the Russian Orthodox Archdiocese of the Aleutian Islands and North America. Instead, they looked to their mother churches. In an attempt to address this problem, Archbishop Tikhon, later [[Tikhon of Moscow]], had advocated (in a 1905 report to the Holy Synod) for an American Orthodox Church with "greater autonomy," governed by a synod of bishops representing the various nationalities. Tikhon's proposal did not have the opportunity to succeed.
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 could be resumed. (He died in 1925, and was glorified as a [[saint]] by the [[Church of Russia|Russian Orthodox Church]] in 1989.) Shortly thereafter, at a Council of all hierarchs and clergy and parish delegates, it was decided that the Church in North America could no longer maintain strict administrative ties with the Church in Russia, especially since Patriarch Tikhon had been arrested. Additionally, the loss of financial support from the fallen empire added to the diocese's problems.
At that time, some parishes which had been part of a single, multi-ethnic, North American [[diocese]] organized separate dioceses and placed themselves under various other [[mother church]]es, solidifying the current situation of multiple, ethnically-based, overlapping, jurisdictions in North America. Though the revolution in Russia helped to speed this fragmentation process along, it had already been occurring prior to 1917, as hundreds of Orthodox parishes in the US had been founded without any reference to the Russian presence, whose authority was not universally acknowledged.
From that point until the restoration of relations with Moscow in the 1960s, the Metropolia entered twice into union with the [[Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia]] (see [[ROCOR and OCA]]), finally breaking with the latter body in 1946. Additionally, in 1927, the bishops of the Metropolia attempted to create an autocephalous body known as the [[American Orthodox Catholic Church]], which failed after only six years.
In the early 1960s, the Metropolia (as it was then known) 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 autocephalous Orthodox Churches, including the [[Church of Constantinople]]. Churches that do recognize its autocephaly are mainly those in former Communist lands (most of which had thus come under the influence of the Church of Russia), including the [[Russian Orthodox Church of Russia]], the [[Church of Bulgaria]], the [[Church of Poland]], the [[Church of Georgia]], and the [[Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia]]. According to apologists for OCA autocephaly, it is common for recognition of autocephaly to be granted belatedly; however opponents regard the grant as not being within the purview of Moscow's [[presbeia|prerogatives]] (see [[Byzantine response to OCA autocephaly]]).
== The OCA today ==
==Name==
According to the 1970 ''[[Tomos]] of Autocephaly'' granted by the [[Russian Orthodox Church|Church of Russia]], the name of this church body was originally ''The Autocephalous Orthodox Church in America''.[http://www.oca.org/DOCtomos.asp?SID=12] According to the Statute of the Orthodox Church in America, adopted by the Second All-American Council in October 1971, the usage is ''The Orthodox Church in America'' at the beginning of sentences[http://oca.org/DOCstatute.asp?SID=12&ID=1] and ''the Orthodox Church in America'' in the middle of sentences[http://www.oca.org/DOCstatute.asp?SID=12&ID=4], thus seeming to imply that the capitalization of ''the'' in the name is not vital.
==Episcopacy==
