Changes

Meanwhile, the Metropolia, the Russian [[diocese]] in America, which was becoming increasingly less Russian and more Carpatho-Russian (with the reception of many thousands of former [[Uniate]]s under the leadership of St. [[Alexis of Wilkes-Barre]]), began a winding path toward independence from the jurisdiction of Moscow.

Patriarch St. [[Tikhon of Moscow]], who had previously been a bishop in America, issued an ''[[ukase]]'' 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.