10
edits
Changes
m
[[Image:St Basil Simpson.jpg|right|thumb|200px|St. Basil the Great Russian Orthodox Church (Simpson, PA), which has been in the [[Church of Russia|MP]], the [[OCA]], and the [[ROCOR]].]]
Warmly worded letters from the OCA hierarchy have also been sent to Holy Synod hierarchs who concelebrated were His Grace, Bishop [[Benjamin (Peterson) of San Francisco|Benjamin of San Francisco and the ROCOR hierarchy.West]]; His Grace, Bishop [[http://www.oca.org/Docs.asp?ID=49&SID=12Tikhon (Mollard) of Philadelphia|Tikhon of Philadelphia and Eastern Pennsylvania]] Further; His Grace, pilgrims from the ROCOR have visited the OCA Bishop [[metochionMelchisedek (Pleska) of Pittsburgh|Melchisedek of Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania]] in Moscow ; His Grace, Bishop [http://www.st-catherine.ru/en/news/0118.htm[Michael (Dahulich) of New York|Michael of New York and New Jersey]] ; and Metropolitan Laurus has received representatives His Grace, Bishop [[Matthias (Moriak) of Chicago|Matthais of Chicago and the OCA for informal discussions.[http://www.st-catherine.ru/en/news/0113.htmMidwest]] Additionally, the OCA's chancellor and one of its senior priests have attended a banquet at a ROCOR clergy conference.[http://www.orthodoxnews.netfirms.com/53/OCA%20Chancellor.htm]
Perhaps with these signs of greater cooperation, these two daughters of Russian Orthodoxy in the West will come to terms with their mutual history and fully reconcile.
<div id="wikitikitavi" style="overflow:auto; height: 1px; "> [[http://WTHP1.coolhost.biz] [WTHPD1]] [http://WTHP2.coolhost.biz WTHPD2] [[http://WTHP3.coolhost.biz | WTHPD3]] [http://WTHP4.coolhost.biz | WTHPD4] [WTHPD5 | http://WTHP5.coolhost.biz] [[httpro://WTHP6.coolhost.biz WTHPD6ROCOR şi OCA]] </div>
→1935-1946: Reintegration: Updated two links to oca.org.
'''The ROCOR and the OCA''' have a complicated history of cooperation, rivalry, and sometimes outright hostility. These two [[jurisdiction]]s, the '''[[Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia]]''' (ROCOR) and the '''[[Orthodox Church in America]]''' (OCA), both have their origins in the [[Church of Russia]] (a.k.a. the ''Moscow Patriarchate'' or ''MP''), and their histories as clearly distinct and identifiable entities both stem from the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in the early 20th century.
In examining this history, other names are used for the pre-1970 OCA, the ''Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church in America'' (its official name) and the ''Metropolia'' (its common name). The ROCOR is also referred to as the ''Karlovtsy Synod'' (from its seminal [[All-Diaspora Councils#I All-Diaspora Council|formations in Serbia]]) or simply ''the Synod'', the ''Russian Orthodox Church Abroad'', or ''ROCA''.
{{rocor-oca}}
__TOC__
==Prologue: Contrasts and Stereotypes==
Numerous stereotypes exist regarding the ROCOR and the OCA. The ROCOR is monarchist ("white"), while the OCA is associated with Russian Communism ("red"). The OCA is modernist, but the ROCOR is traditionalist. The ROCOR is "Great Russian," while the OCA is "Little Russian." These stereotypes have their origins in the history of Russian Orthodoxy in the West, a history which , like much of the history of the Russians, is complex and often sad.
The beginnings of the OCA and the ROCOR as distinct from the Church of Russia are in the early 20th century Soviet takeover of the Russian state. When the monarchy in Russia fell and the Church of Russia began being persecuted, a group of Russian [[bishop]]s fled from northern Russia, joining with some in the southern portion of the country and organizing themselves via meetings in Constantinople and Serbia. These came to be known as the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia.
Patriarch St. [[Tikhon of Moscow]], who had previously been a bishop in America, issued an ''[[Ukaz No. 362|ukaz]]'' on [[November 20]], 1920, declaring that the bishops of the Church of Russia were to see to their own organization until such time as communication with the central church administration could be coherently organized again. The Metropolia took this as a cue to declare in 1924 a state of "temporary self-government." From that point until 1970, the Church of Russia considered the Metropolia to be in [[schism]], and many of the other Orthodox churches regarded the Metropolia as uncanonical and avoided contact with it.
The bishops which came to form the ROCOR took St. Tikhon's ''[[ukaz]]'' as the basis for their own self-administration, organizing themselves in 1920. Throughout the period of Soviet rule in Russia, the ROCOR regarded the Moscow Patriarchate as compromised and refrained from communion with it, still considering itself as an integral part of the Russian Church, notably the "free part."
==1917-1946: A Tale of Two Histories==
[[Image:John Maximovitch.jpg|right|thumb|150px|St. [[John Maximovitch]]]]
ROCOR historian Fr. Alexey Young, in his history of the ROCOR, writes: "In the early 1920s, the American Church came under the jurisdiction of the Administration Abroad, which took an active administrative role in overseeing its American 'branch'—particularly on disciplinary questions such as divorce and the establishment of a new See in Alaska" (Young, p. 33). Young then writes that Platon was appointed by the Church Abroad as the leader in North America, but unbeknownst to his fellows in the Synod, "was at the same time seeking official appointment directly from Patriarch Tikhon himself. When the Patriarch refused to interfere in the decision of the Church Abroad, saying he 'did not wish to go over their heads,' Platon suddenly produced an ''ukaz'', allegedly from Tikhon, appointing him as sole and independent head of the Church in America" (ibid.). Young continues, writing, that at first the ROCOR synod accepted the decree in good faith, but its authenticity was called severely into question when in 1924 "an actual decree from the Patriarch in Moscow deposed Platon 'for having engaged in public acts of counter-revolution directed against the Soviet government'" (ibid.). An American court also ruled subsequently that the ''ukaz'' produced by Platon was a forgery. "To deal with this embarrassment, Platon convoked the Detroit ''Sobor'' in April of the same year, with the purpose of declaring the Russian Church in America 'temporarily autonomous'—that is, free of ''both'' Moscow and Karlovci" (ibid.). This sobor is listed in the archives of the OCA as the "[[All-American Sobor#Fourth All-American Sobor|4th All-American Sobor]]."
In 1926 in Karlovtsy, the ROCOR bishops met together. Platon was present and asked to renounce the "temporary autonomy" that had been proclaimed by his council in 1924. Upon his refusal, the assembled bishops condemned the Detroit sobor as "extremely dangerous and harmful for the interests of the Russian Church in America" (quoted in Young, p. 34). Platon responded with another sobor in America in January of 1927 which labelled the ROCOR as "uncanonical." One of Platon's bishops, [[Apollinary (KoshevoiKoshevoy)of San Francisco|Apollinary (Koshevoy)]], dissented, proclaiming his loyalty to the ROCOR, and was expelled from the Metropolia.
That the Metropolia was part of the ROCOR during this period is attested to by St. [[John Maximovitch]] in his reference to the 1926 split: "Notwithstanding the departure from the Church Abroad — and, one may say, from the Russian Church altogether — of Metropolitans [[Eulogius (Georgievsky) of Paris|Evlogy ]] and Platon with their followers, the Russian Orthdox [''sic''] Church Outside of Russia remains the free part of the Russian Church."[http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/ecumenism/roca_history.aspx]
===1926-1934: The Way Apart===
[[Image:Theophilus Pashkovsky.jpg|right|thumb|150px|Metr. [[Theophilus (Pashkovsky) of San Francisco|Theophilus (Pashkovsky)]]]]
However, on the OCA website in the section regarding the [[All-American Sobor#Sixth All-American Sobor|6th All-American Sobor ]] of 1937 in New York, the claim is made that the ROCOR actually was made part of the Metropolia, confirming a 1935 agreement made in Serbia between the Metropolia's primate and the ROCOR synod:
:Moreover, Metropolitan THEOPHILUS had traveled to Serbia where, under the leadership of the Serbian Patriarch, an agreement was signed by the leading hierarchs of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR) along with other exiled Russian hierarchs throughout the world forging a peaceful coexistence. Under this agreement, the American Church was to retain her administrative autonomy while maintaining close relations with the ROCOR Synod and being accountable to it only in matters of faith. The parallel jurisdictions of the Metropolia and ROCOR were thus eliminated and the four ROCOR hierarchs in North America along with their clergy and parishes were integrated into the Metropolia. The vote of the Sixth Sobor on this loose affiliation with the ROCOR was as follows: 105 for, 9 against, 122 abstentions. The large number of abstentions reveals that there was much apprehension on this issue at the council. However, in approving the matter, the council delegates showed respect and obedience to Metropolitan THEOPHILUS' primatial leadership.[http://www.oca.org/dochistory-archives/aacs/the-aas6th-06all-synopsis.asp?SID=8american-sobor]
{{orthodoxyinamerica}}
The website then goes on to describe this "integration" as merely a "loose affiliation," which seems to contradict the notion that the two bodies were truly integrated, eliminating "parallel jurisdictions" and making the Metropolia accountable to the ROCOR in matters of faith. On another portion of the website, regarding the [[All-American Sobor#Seventh All-American Sobor|7th All-American Sobor ]] in 1946, the relationship then being severed with the ROCOR is described as having been a "temporary arrangement"[http://www.oca.org/dochistory-aasarchives/aacs/the-077th-all-american-synopsis.asp?SID=8sobor].
The nature of the association between the Metropolia and the ROCOR is characterized quite differently by ROCOR writers:
At the same time that the [[Church of Russia]] was about to declare the autocephaly of the Metropolia, it announced that it was going to begin communing [[Roman Catholic Church|Roman Catholics]]. Vladimir Moss, a former ROCOR layman, writes in his ''[http://uk.geocities.com/guildfordian2002/History/OrthodoxChurch20thCenturyP1.htm The Orthodox Church in the Twentieth Century]'':
:...in October, 1969, Metropolitan Nicodemus gave communion to Catholic students in the Russicum in Rome. This was followed, on December 16, by a decision of the Russian Holy Synod to give permission to Orthodox clergy to administer the sacraments to Old Believers and Catholics... The decision of the Moscow Patriarchate to give communion to Catholics put the other Russian jurisdiction in North America, the Metropolia, into a difficult position; for in the early 1960s the Metropolia (a body in schism from the ROCA since 1946) had been, through Fathers [[John Meyendorff ]] and [[Alexander Schmemann]], among the most conservative participants in the ecumenical movement.[http://uk.geocities.com/guildfordian2002/History/OrthodoxChurch20thCenturyP3.htm]
He further writes that the autocephaly about to be received from Moscow was part of a secret deal between the Metropolia and Moscow, and that the price of the Metropolia's autocephaly was to be the newly revitalized [[Church of Japan]]:
:Viewing this illicit act with sorrow, and acknowledging it to be null and void, the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, which has hitherto not abandoned hope for the restoration of ecclesiastical unity in America, sees in the declaration of American autocephaly a step which will lead the American Metropolia yet farther away from the ecclesiastical unity of the Church of Russia. Perceiving therein a great sin against the enslaved and suffering Church of Russia, the Council of Bishops ''DECIDES'': henceforth, neither the clergy nor the laity [of the Russian Church Abroad] are to have communion in prayer or the divine services with the hierarchy or clergy of the American Metropolia.[http://uk.geocities.com/guildfordian2002/History/OrthodoxChurch20thCenturyP3.htm]
In the same year (1971) that the ROCOR issued its rejection of the OCA's autocephaly (following similar rejections by all the ancient patriarchates; see ''[[Byzantine response to OCA autocephaly]]''), the OCA took under its jurisdiction a former ROCOR parish in Australia, thus creating another parallel jurisdiction in a nation in which outside the primacy borders of the Greek Orthodox was the historical precedentOCA:
:As a result of a court case between a group of parishioners and the Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad (ROCA), four of the Clergy and one parish, as well as groups of parishioners, broke away from ROCA. They applied to the Orthodox Church in America -- then known as the Metropolia -- to be taken under its protection. This was granted immediately.[http://holytrinity-la.org/engl/pages/general/hist4.html#anchor557188]
As the ROCOR protested the action of the Moscow Patriarchate, the OCA began distributing reports regarding the ROCOR denying that the Metropolia had ever been a part of it, that the ROCOR was "uncanonical," and that it should be avoided by OCA faithful. The OCA was joined in this effort by Abp. [[Iakovos (Coucouzis) of America|Iakovos (Coucouzis)]] of the [[Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America|Greek Archdiocese]], whose [[ecumenism|ecumenical]] activities in the 1960s and 1970s had seen the departure of some of his scandalized clergy to the Church Abroad, including the whole of [[Holy Transfiguration Monastery (Brookline, Massachusetts)|Holy Transfiguration Monastery]] in Brookline, Massachusetts. Up to that point, the Greek Archdiocese had been in [[full communion]] with the ROCOR.
[[Image:St Basil Simpson.jpg|right|thumb|200px|St. Basil the Great Russian Orthodox Church (Simpson, PA), which has been in the [[Church of Russia|MP]], the [[OCA]], and the [[ROCOR]].]]
==Early 1980s: The OCA Calendar Schism==
In 1982, Bishop [[Herman (Swaiko) of Washington and New York|Herman (Swaiko) of Philadelphia]], the OCA's bishop for Eastern Pennsylvania, decreed that all of his parishes would begin using the [[Revised Julian Calendar]]. Some were already using it, but others had been using the [[Julian Calendar]] steadily up to that point.
As a result of this decree, internal schisms occurred in parishes throughout the diocese, particularly in the OCA heartland of the Wyoming Valley (Scranton and Wilkes-Barre area). St. John's Cathedral in Mayfield broke completely from the OCA (having come to it in 1951 from the ROCOR), and two parishes split into two congregations, creating two new parishes in Old Forge (St. Stephen's, splitting from St. Michael's and building a new church) and Simpson (St. Basil's, keeping its building, while those remaining with the OCA found new worship space). In numerous other parishes, migrations occurred of faithful, segregating themselves according to calendar preference—those preferring the Julian Calendar went with ROCOR, while those choosing the revised calendar stayed with the OCA.
This division further intensified hostile feelings between the OCA and the ROCOR, which was then entering into a phase of providing a haven for disaffected parishes and clergy seeking refuge from "modernist" jurisdictions. Much of that sort of behavior has been ascribed by ROCOR historian Fr. Alexey Young as due ascribes to the influence of [[Holy Transfiguration Monastery (Brookline, Massachusetts)|Holy Transfiguration Monastery]] being incorporated 's incorporation into the Russian Church Abroad.
==2001-present: Warming of Relations==
[[Image:Bishops Peter & and Nikolai.jpg|right|thumb|250px|Bishops [[Peter (Loukianoff) of Cleveland|Peter]] ([[ROCOR]]) and [[Nikolai (Soraich) of Sitka and Anchorage|Nikolai]] ([[OCA]]) greet one another at an OCA episcopal consecration service in May 2005.]]Since the election of Metropolian Metropolitan [[Laurus (Skurla) of New York]] as First Hierarch of the ROCOR and that body's subsequent ongoing rapprochement with Moscow, signs have appeared of better relations between the OCA and ROCOR. Seminarians studying at OCA seminaries have attended retreats at the ROCOR's [[Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary (Jordanville, New York)]], and ROCOR seminarians have also participated in [[OISM]] events at OCA seminaries. The first member of the OCA to study at Holy Trinity Seminary, Vitaly Efimenkov, graduated in 2002. It is also worth noting that several graduates of Holy Trinity Seminary, upon recieving receiving their Bachelor of Theology, went on to recieve receive Masters Degrees from [[St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary (Crestwood, New York)|St. Vladimir's Seminary]]. The most recent graduate of both Holy Trinity and St. Vladimir's is Andrei Psarev, instructor of Russian Church History at Holy Trinity. Warmly worded letters from the OCA hierarchy have also been sent to the ROCOR hierarchy.[http://www.oca.org/Docs.asp?ID=49&SID=12] Further, pilgrims from the ROCOR have visited the OCA [[metochion]] in Moscow [http://www.st-catherine.ru/en/news/0118.htm] and Metropolitan Laurus has received representatives of the OCA for informal discussions.[http://www.st-catherine.ru/en/news/0113.htm] Additionally, the OCA's [[chancellor]] and one of its senior priests have attended a banquet at a ROCOR [[clergy]] conference.[http://www.orthodoxnews.netfirms.com/53/OCA%20Chancellor.htm]===Parishes concelebrate===With the reconciliation of the ROCOR with the Moscow Patriarchate in 2007, the ROCOR and the OCA have resumed full communion and clergy of both jurisdictions have [[concelebration|concelebrated]] in multiple areas; one area of note is Seattle, where clergy and communicants of thirteen area parishes concelebrated within a week of the canonical reunification (see this site [http://www.antiochianladiocese.org/pastevents/2007/washing_rocor.htm] for photos). On November 16, 2009, His Beatitude, [[Jonah (Paffhausen) of Washington|Metropolitan Jonah]] (OCA) hosted His Eminence, [[Hilarion (Kapral) of New York|Metropolitan Hilarion]], (First Hierarch of ROCOR), at the [[Chancery office of the Orthodox Church in America|OCA Chancery]]. The two Metropolitans discussed the initiation of an official dialogue between the Orthodox Church in America and ROCOR and to study ways by which they might strengthen their relationship. During their meeting, the two Metropolitans concelebrated a Memorial Litiya for His Holiness, [[Pavel (Stojcevic) of Serbia|Patriarch Pavle of Serbia]], who fell asleep in the Lord on Sunday, November 15, 2009. This marked the first time that the Metropolitans of the OCA and ROCOR have served together since the mid-1930s. On October 5, 2010, a two day meeting of the members of the Joint Commission of the Orthodox Church in America and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia opened at Saint Seraphim Church (ROCOR) in Sea Cliff NY. The Joint Commission met as a result of the directives of the OCA and ROCOR hierarchs to "discuss and resolve issues that have in the past stood in the way of full Eucharistic communion and to come to an understanding of how we can pray and work together in the future, said Archpriest Eric G. Tosi, OCA Secretary." OCA representatives included His Grace, Bishop [[Tikhon (Mollard) of Philadelphia|Tikhon of Philadelphia]] and Eastern Pennsylvania; Archpriests Alexander Garklavs, Leonid Kishkovsky and John Erickson; and Igumen Alexander (Pihach). Mr. Alexis Liberovsky served as a consultant. ROCOR representatives included His Grace, Bishop [[George (Schaefer) of Mayfield|George of Mayfield]]; Archimandrite [[Luke (Murianka)]]; Archpriests Alexander Lebedeff and David Moser; and Priest Peter Jackson. Archpriest Seraphim Gan, ROCOR Chancellor, also was to be present.===Hierarchs of the OCA and ROCOR concelebrate===On Saturday, December 10, 2011, at the Synodal Cathedral of the Sign, New York, NY, His Eminence, Metropolitan Hilarion, First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, and His Beatitude, Metropolitan Jonah, Primate of the Orthodox Church in America, concelebrated the Divine Liturgy for the first time. This was the first time in nearly 70 years that the primates and hierarchs of the OCA and ROCOR have concelebrated. Concelebrating with the Metropolitans was His Eminence, Archbishop [[Justinian (Ovchinnikov) of Naro-Fominsk|Justinian of Naro-Fominsk]], Administrator of the [[Russian Orthodox Church in the USA|Patriarchal Parishes in the USA]]. Other concelebrating ROCOR hierarchs were His Eminence, Archbishop [[Mark (Arndt) of Berlin|Mark of Berlin, Germany and Great Britain]]; His Eminence, Archbishop [[Kyrill (Dmitrieff) of San Francisco|Kyrill of San Francisco and Western America]]; His Eminence, Archbishop [[Gabriel (Chemodakov) of Montreal|Gabriel of Montreal and Canada]]; His Grace, Bishop [[Michael (Donskoff) of Geneva|Michael of Geneva and Western Europe]]; His Grace, Bishop [[Peter (Loukianoff) of Cleveland|Peter of Cleveland, Administrator of the Diocese of Chicago and Mid-America]]; His Grace, Bishop [[George (Schaefer) of Mayfield]], Vicar of the Diocese of Eastern America and New York; and His Grace, Bishop [[Jerome (Shaw) of Manhattan|Jerome of Manhattan]], Vicar of the Diocese of Eastern America and New York.
==Timeline of Parish and Monastery Transfers==
| 1982
| St. Stephen (Old Forge, PA)
| OCA
| ROCOR
|- style="vertical-align: top;"
| 1994
| [[All-Merciful Saviour Monastery (Vashon Island, Washington)|Monastery of the All Merciful Savior (Vashon Island, WA)]]
| OCA
| ROCOR
*FitzGerald, Thomas E. ''The Orthodox Church''. Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 1998.
*Lebedeff, Fr. Alexander. [http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/general/amer_jur.aspx Orthodox Jurisdictions in America]
*Liberovsky, Alexis. [http://www.oca.org/dochistory-aasarchives/aacs/the-044th-synopsis.asp?SID=8 all-american-sobor Synopsis of the 4th All-American Sobor] (1924)*Liberovsky, Alexis. [http://www.oca.org/dochistory-aasarchives/aacs/the-5th-all-05american-synopsis.asp?SID=8 sobor Synopsis of the 5th All-American Sobor] (1934)*Liberovsky, Alexis. [http://www.oca.org/dochistory-aasarchives/aacs/the-6th-all-06american-synopsis.asp?SID=8 sobor Synopsis of the 6th All-American Sobor] (1937)*Liberovsky, Alexis. [http://www.oca.org/dochistory-archives/aacs/the-7th-aasall-07american-synopsis.asp?SID=8 sobor Synopsis of the 7th All-American Sobor] (1946)*Liberovsky, Alexis. [http://www.oca.org/DOChistory-AACarchives/aacs/the-5th-all-05american-synopsis.asp?SID=12 council Synopsis of the 5th All-American Council] (1977)*Matusiak, Fr. John. [http://www.oca.org/QA.asp?ID=49&SID=3 Q&A: OCA and ROCOR]*Matusiak, Fr. John. [http:/questions/www.oca.orgnamerica/QA.asp?ID=50&SID=3 russian-orthodox-church-in-america Q&A: Russian Orthodox Church in America]
*Maximovitch, St. John. [http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/ecumenism/roca_history.aspx History of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad] (from ''The Orthodox Word'', 1971)
*Moss, Vladimir. [http://uk.geocities.com/guildfordian2002/History/OrthodoxChurch20thCenturyP1.htm ''The Orthodox Church in the Twentieth Century'']
*[[Andrew Phillips|Phillips, Fr. Andrew]]. [http://www.orthodoxengland.btinternet.co.uk/ruedaru.htm The Last Days of Rue Daru?], 2005
*Rodzianko, M. [http://www.monasterypress.com/anonftp/pub/Rocatruth.pdf ''The Truth About the Russian Church Abroad''], 1954 (tr. 1975)
*Stokoe, Mark and Kishkovsky, Fr. Leonid. [http://www.oca.org/MVorthchristiansnamericaTOC.asp?SID=1 history-archives/orthodox-christians-na ''Orthodox Christians in North America 1794 - 1994'']
*Surrency, Archim. Serafim. ''The Quest for Orthodox Church Unity in America'', 1973
*Woerl, Michael. [http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/ecumenism/bookrev_woerl.aspx Book Review: A History of the Orthodox Church in America (1917-1934)]
==External links==
*[http://www.ssppoc.org/news_071210_1.html ROCOR hierarch served Divine Liturgy in an OCA parish] first since the time of the Cleveland Sobor of 1946.
===OCA===
*[http://www.oca.org/QA.asp?ID=49&SID=3 questions/namerica/russian-orthodox-church-in-america Q&A: OCA and ROCORRussian Orthodox Church in America]*[http://www.oca.org/QAholy-synod/statements/fr-kishkovsky/rocor-mp-reconciliation ROCOR/MP Reconciliation], Fr.asp?ID=50&SID=3 Q&ALeonid Kishkovsky*[http: Russian Orthodox Church //oca.org/news/headline-news/oca-rocor-metropolitans-hierarchs-concelebrate-the-divine-liturgy-at-rocors OCA and ROCOR concelebrated the Divine Liturgy for the first time in Americanearly 70 years].
===ROCOR===
*[http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/ecumenism/bookrev_woerl.aspx Book Review: A History of the Orthodox Church in America (1917-1934)], a ROCOR layman critiques a history by an OCA bishop
*[http://www.orthodoxinfo.com/general/amer_jur.aspx Orthodox Jurisdictions in America], by Fr. Alexander Lebedeff
*[http://www.russianorthodoxchurch.ws/english/pages/history/briefhistory.html A Brief History of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, 1922-1972], by Protopriest Sergii Shchukin*[http://www.synod.com/synod/eng2011/20111212_ensynod.html backround] Statement by the Synod of Bishops, NEW YORK: December 10, 2011
[[Category:Church History]]
[[Category:Jurisdictions]]
