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List of monasteries in the United States | ||||||
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Overview |
The Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the United States of America (formerly the Episcopal Assembly of North and Central America and later the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of North and Central America) is an organization of church hierarchs of Eastern Orthodox churches in United States.
The assembly began when delegates from the 14 autocephalous Eastern Orthodox churches met at the Center of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Chambésy, Switzerland, on June 6–12, 2009. At that time, the conference decided to sanction the establishment of episcopal assemblies in 12 regions of the so-called Eastern Orthodox diaspora which are beyond the boundaries of the autocephalous churches. Such assemblies have the authority to propose future administrative structures for the Church in their respective regions.
The first conference of the Episcopal Assembly of North and Central America was held at the Helmsley Park Lane Hotel in New York on May 27–28, 2010 under the chairmanship of Archbishop Demetrios of America.
One of the major decisions reached at the Episcopal Assembly's first meeting was the dissolution of the Standing Conference of the Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas, and to assume all of SCOBA's functions, agencies and ministries.
Other issues discussed included requests to partition the present region of the Episcopal Assembly of North and Central America into two distinct regions of the United States and Canada, as well as to merge Mexico and Central America with the Episcopal Assembly of South America. As a result, some of the bishops of Mexico and Central America do not attend the North American Assembly, anticipating their joining with the South American Assembly.
Although autonomy is an issue for North and Central American churches, there was no direct statement from the assembly regarding autonomy for the Church in North or Central America.
Shortly after the May 2010 meeting the name of the assembly was changed to Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of North and Central America to avoid possible confusion with the Episcopal Church of the United States.
In April 2014, the Canadian and US bishops decided to form separate assemblies in order to best respond to the cultural diversity and pastoral needs in the region. The assembly was renamed to Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the United States of America. The Canadian bishops formed the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of Canada and the Central American bishops joined the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of Latin America. [1]
These jurisdictions' bishops are members of the Assembly, [2] according to diptych order:
Assemblies are held annually. Members may abstain due to extraneous circumstances including illness, or distance. Many members live outside the United States and some outside of North America. Some jurisdictions in Central America do not participate in these Assemblies, as the Assembly of Bishops in North America and the Assembly in South America have petitioned to join Central America to the South American Assembly. Members from Canada also may not attend as this Assembly and their Bishops have applied to create a separate Assembly for Canada.
Fifty-five of the sixty-six hierarchs in the region were present at the founding assembly in 2010: [3]
The Orthodox Church in America (OCA) is an Eastern Orthodox Christian church based in North America. The OCA consists of more than 700 parishes, missions, communities, monasteries and institutions in the United States, Canada and Mexico. In 2011, it had an estimated 84,900 members in the United States.
An ecclesiastical province is one of the basic forms of jurisdiction in Christian churches, including those of both Western Christianity and Eastern Christianity, that have traditional hierarchical structures. An ecclesiastical province consists of several dioceses, one of them being the archdiocese, headed by a metropolitan bishop or archbishop who has ecclesiastical jurisdiction over all other bishops of the province.
The Standing Conference of the Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas (SCOBA) was an organization of bishops from Eastern Orthodox Christian jurisdictions in the Americas. It acted as a clearinghouse for educational, charitable, and missionary work in the Americas. In 2010, it was replaced by the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of North and Central America.
The Archdiocese of America, better known as the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, is a jurisdiction of the Eastern Orthodox Church under the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. It was formally constituted in 1922 and has had seven Archbishops. The Archdiocese currently covers the United States and one parish in the Bahamas, and is mostly Greek-American in composition and culture.
The Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America (AOCANA), often referred to in North America as simply the Antiochian Archdiocese, is the jurisdiction of the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch in the United States and Canada. Originally under the care of the Russian Orthodox Church, the Syro-Levantine Eastern Orthodox Christian immigrants to the United States and Canada were granted their own jurisdiction under the Church of Antioch in the wake of the Bolshevik Revolution. Internal conflicts divided the Antiochian Orthodox faithful into two parallel archdioceses — those of New York and Toledo — until 1975, when Metropolitan Philip (Saliba) became the sole archbishop of the reunited Antiochian Archdiocese. By 2014, the archdiocese had grown to over 275 parish churches.
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada is an Eastern Orthodox church in Canada, primarily consisting of Orthodox Ukrainian Canadians. Its former name was the Ukrainian Greek Orthodox Church of Canada (UGOCC). The Church, currently a metropolis of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, is part of the wider Eastern Orthodox communion, however was created independently in 1918.
The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, headquartered in New York City, is an eparchy of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. Its current primate is Archbishop Elpidophoros of America.
The Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines is an archdiocese of the Antiochian Orthodox Church, with headquarters in Sydney, Australia. Its current primate is Basilios (Kodseie), Metropolitan of Australia, New Zealand and the Philippines. The archdiocese has approximately 37,500 members.
The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA is an Eastern Orthodox Christian religious organization of the Ukrainian diaspora under the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in the United States. It consists of two eparchies (dioceses), ruled by two bishops, including about 85 active parishes and missions. The Church's current leader is Metropolitan Antony. The Church's head offices and Consistory are based in South Bound Brook, New Jersey.
Eastern Orthodoxy in North America represents adherents, religious communities, institutions and organizations of Eastern Orthodox Christianity in North America, including the United States, Canada, Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean. Estimates of the number of Eastern Orthodox adherents in North America vary considerably depending on methodology.
The timeline of Eastern Orthodoxy in North America represents a timeline of the historical development of religious communities, institutions and organizations of Eastern Orthodox Christianity in North America.
The Ligonier Meeting was a meeting of twenty-eight or twenty-nine Orthodox Christian hierarchs in North America, specifically those affiliated with SCOBA, held November 30 to December 2, 1994, at the Antiochian Village in Ligonier, Pennsylvania. The bishops met together, held multiple sessions and presentations, and issued two statements, specifically on evangelism and on the notion of American Orthodox Christians being a "diaspora".
The Ecumenical Patriarchate in America comprises nine separate jurisdictions, along with a number of stavropegial institutions, and includes roughly two-thirds of all Eastern Orthodox Christians in America. The archbishop of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, by far the largest of Constantinopolitan jurisdictions in the US, is considered the local primate and may convene a Holy Synod of all the hierarchs of the Ecumenical throne in America.
Metropolitan Philip (Saliba) (Arabic: فيليب صليبا) (born Abdullah Saliba; 10 June 1931 Abou Mizan, Lebanon – 19 March 2014 Fort Lauderdale, Florida) was a Lebanese Orthodox prelate who served as Archbishop of New York, Metropolitan of All North America, and primate of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America. He held the position from 1966 until his death in March 2014. His tenure as an Orthodox bishop was the longest in American history.
The American Orthodox Catholic Church (AOCC), or The Holy Eastern Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic Church in North America (THEOCACNA), and sometimes simply the American Orthodox Patriarchate (AOP), was an independent Eastern Orthodox Christian church with origins from 1924 to 1927. The church was formally created on February 2, 1927, and chartered in the U.S. state of Massachusetts in 1928 with the assistance of Metropolitan Platon Rozhdestvensky of New York; the American Orthodox Catholic Church was initially led by Archbishop Aftimios Ofiesh before his disputed suspension and deposition in 1933.
The Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of Latin America, formerly known as the Episcopal Assembly of South America, consists of all the active Orthodox bishops in Latin America, representing multiple jurisdictions. It is not, properly speaking, a synod. It is one of several such bodies around the world which operate in the so-called "diaspora."
The Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of Canada is an organization of church hierarchs of Eastern Orthodox Churches in Canada.
The Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of Australia, New Zealand, and Oceania consists of all the active Orthodox bishops in Oceanía representing multiple jurisdictions. It may be considered a successor to SCCOCA. However, it is not, properly speaking, a synod. It is one of several such bodies around the world which operate in the so-called "diaspora."
The Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of Great Britain and Ireland consists of all the active Orthodox bishops of the British Isles, representing multiple jurisdictions. It is not, properly speaking, a synod. The Episcopal Assembly of the British Isles is one of several such bodies around the world which operate in the so-called "diaspora."
The Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of Spain and Portugal consists of all the active Orthodox bishops serving Spain, Portugal, Andorra and Gibraltar, and representing multiple jurisdictions. It is not, properly speaking, a synod. It is one of several such bodies around the world which operate in the so-called "diaspora."