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→1946-1970: Open Hostility: Bogolepov book
If, however, the Metropolia was indeed part of the ROCOR, then its claims to being the direct heir of Russia's primacy in America are thrown into question, and the legitimacy of Moscow's grant of [[autocephaly]] to the OCA in 1970 has significant problems, in that it would be favoring a rogue jurisdiction which had switched allegiances multiple times and could be said to have been in schism from its legitimate canonical authority. Far from being a "notable exception" to the canonical authority-switching of various jurisdictions, the Metropolia had gone into schism from Moscow, joined the ROCOR, gone into schism from the ROCOR, rejoined it, then gone into schism from it again, eventually to receive canonical approval in 1970 from the church in Communist Russia.
In 1963, Prof. Alexander Bogolepov, a teacher of canon law at [[St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary (Crestwood, New York)|St. Vladimir's Seminary]], published his ''Toward an American Orthodox Church: The Establishment of an Autocephalous Orthodox Church'', which not only dedicated a whole chapter arguing against the legitimacy of the ROCOR but also stated that the 1924 declaration of "temporary self-government" actually "meets all the necessary requirements for the establishment of an independent Autocephalous Church" (Bogolepov, p. 93). The propagation of Bogolepov's book had a major impact on the consciousness of the Metropolia, both in uniting it against the rival ROCOR and in galvanizing it for [[rapprochement]] and the grant of autocephaly from Moscow just a few years later.
==1970: Autocephaly for the OCA==
