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Bulgarian Diocese (OCA)

161 bytes added, 13:08, May 7, 2012
Bishop Alexander
[[Image:OCA Bulgarian Diocese.png|thumb|Visual representation of the Bulgarian Diocese]]
The '''Orthodox Church in America Bulgarian Diocese''' is one of three [[Ethnic diocese|ethnic dioceses]] of the [[Orthodox Church in America]] (OCA). Its territory includes [[parish]]es, [[Monasticism|monasteries]], and missions located in six states in the United States, as well as one province in Canada – California, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Michigan, Ohio, Ontario, and Washington, D.C. Until his repose on [[June 17]], 2007, the [[bishop|archbishop]] of the Bulgarian Diocese was the Most Reverend [[Kyrill (Yonchev) of Pittsburgh|Kyrill (Yonchev)]], who also served as the Bishop of [[Diocese of Western Pennsylvania (OCA)|Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania]].  On [[October 4]], 2011, the members of the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Orthodox Church in America elected Archimandrite [[Alexander (Golitzin)]] to the vacant See of Toledo and the Bulgarian Diocese. On Saturday, [[May 5]], 2012 he was consecrated Bishop of the diocese during a Hierarchical Divine Liturgy at Saint George Orthodox Cathedral in Rossford, OH.
Begun in 1965 as the [[Bulgarian Diocese in Exile]], the [[diocese]] was originally under the [[jurisdiction]] of the [[Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia]]. It had its origins in the decision of Metropolitan Andrei (Petkov), then head of the [[Bulgarian Eastern Orthodox Diocese of the USA, Canada and Australia]] (named at that time the ''Bulgarian Diocese of North and South America and Australia''), to regularize his relations with his [[Church of Bulgaria|mother church]], with whom he had broken after World War II and subsequently was elected to the rank of metropolitan.