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The Holy Orthodox Church in North America (HOCNA) is a True Orthodox denomination located primarily in the United States and Canada, with additional communities in Latin America, Europe, Africa, and Georgia. [1] In 2010, the HOCNA had 2,212 congregants in 34 churches in the United States. [2]
The starting point in the history of this jurisdiction was the Holy Transfiguration Monastery in Boston, founded in 1961 by monk Panteleimon (Metropoulos) and accepted into the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR) in 1965. Archimandrite Panteleimon developed missionary activity, gathered followers around him and had considerable influence on the secretary of the Synod of Bishops of the ROCOR, Bishop Gregory (Grabbe) and the First Hierarch of the ROCOR, Philaret (Voznesensky). The irreconcilable and extremely isolationist views of Archimandrite Panteleimon influenced the position of the entire ROCOR.
Bishop Jerome Shaw remembered [3]
In 1965, a Greek-American monastery in Brookline, MA was received into the Church Abroad, with its founder, the priestmonk Panteleimon (Metropoulos<...>). That priestmonk, through followers whom he had led into his "stricter" teachings, began to undermine both the traditional practices of the Russian Church, and then the hierarchy itself. But it was a curious "strictness" that Fr. Panteleimon (Metropoulos) and his coterie applied only to others, not to themselves.
Here is an example of false "strictness:” "spiritual teachers" who claim that the Russian Church has been wrong in approving mixed marriages, and that it is better for spouses to live in sin, if one of them is not Orthodox, in or outside a secular marriage, than to enter into a "mixed marriage" as permitted by the Russian Church: since in their view a mixed marriage would be unacceptable. Thus there was a discrepancy between what the Church actually teaches or allows, and what the Church "should teach", or "should not permit".
At the same time, there arose conflicts between the Russian and non-Russian members and the communities of the Church Abroad. Masterfully playing his role, the Boston charlatan either made the non-Russians into his followers, or drove their communities out of ROCOR. Thanks to the direct or indirect influence of the "Boston Elder", the Church Abroad lost four non-Russian dioceses between 1967 and 1976.
In 1986, Metropolitan Vitaly (Ustinov) was elected First Hierarch of the ROCOR. He dismissed Bishop Gregory (Grabbe) from all positions. Investigations also began into the activities of his son Archimandrite Anthony (Grabbe), and Archimandrite Panteleimon (Metropoulos), the abbot of the Holy Transfiguration Monastery in Boston, as well as the majority of the monastery's brethren, were accused of sodomy. It turned out that back in the first half of the 1980s, Metropolitan Philaret, the First Hierarch of the ROCOR, and the Synod of Bishops of the ROCOR received repeated written complaints from former residents of the monastery, Hieromonk Gregory and Monk Athanasius, who reported the unseemly behavior of Archimandrite Panteleimon towards them. However, the investigation of the circumstances of the scandalous acts of the superior of the Boston monastery was always entrusted to Bishop Gregory (Grabbe), who explained what happened by the vindictiveness and slander of the monks who left the monastery. [4] When the investigation began, new witnesses and even victims from among the former inhabitants appeared, claiming about the heavy atmosphere of unnatural vice that reigned in the monastery. On 29 May 1986, the accusers and the accused were summoned to a meeting of the Synod of Bishops. Archimandrite Panteleimon categorically denied all the charges against him and asked the Synod to dismiss him. A decision was made to dismiss Archimandrite Panteleimon, and Hieromonk Isaac and Hieromonk Ephraim, who were suspected of sodomy, were forbidden to act as candidates for the position of abbot of the monastery. Contrary to the synodal definition, the brethren of the Transfiguration of the Saviour Monastery elected Hieromonk Isaac as the new abbot. [5]
On 25 November 1986, the issue of the illegal election of Hieromonk Isaac became the subject of consideration at the Synod of Bishops of the ROCOR, which banned Archimandrite Panteleimon and Hieromonk Isaac from the priesthood until the final resolution of the issue by the Bishops' Council of the ROCOR. Without waiting for the end of the trial procedure, the monastery hastily left the jurisdiction of the ROCOR, as reported in a letter from the secretary of the monastery of schema Monk Ephraim to Metropolitan Vitaly dated 8 December of the same year. [6] The brethren of the monastery declared themselves as innocent victims of malicious slander, and Archimandrite Panteleimon and his supporters justified their conflict with the new leadership of the ROCOR, and then their departure from it, by dogmatic differences with the Synod of the ROCOR, including accusing the latter of having "irreversibly deviated into ecumenism"; [7] they considered contacts with the Serbian and Jerusalem Patriarchates as "ecumenism". [6]
They moved to the Auxentius Synod of the Church of Genuine Orthodox Christians of Greece. Archimandrite Panteleimon was followed by a total of 25 priests and eight deacons. In addition, the "French Mission" ("The Orthodox Church of France") headed by Archimandrite Ambrose (Fontrier) withdrew from the jurisdiction of the ROCOR. [8] In 1989, Bishop Macarius of Toronto and Bishop Ephraim of Boston were ordained by the hierarchs of the Auxentius Synod of the Church of the GOC of Greece for the Boston Monastery and American parishes, forming the Holy Orthodox Church of North America ("Boston Synod"), an autonomous structure within the Auxentius Synod of the Church of the GOC of Greece. [9] After six years, HOCNA left the Greek synod [ citation needed ] and they are currently in communion with ROCOR(V) of Verny and Semirechye [10]
Metropolitan Vitaly was the fourth First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, from 1985 until his retirement in 2001; he was also the First Hierarch of the ROCOR(V) from 2001 until his death.
Holy Trinity Monastery is a male stavropegial monastery of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR), located near Jordanville, New York. Founded in 1930 by two Russian immigrants, it eventually became a main spiritual center of Russian Orthodoxy in the West. The monastery is well known for its publishing work and for the attached Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary, which has educated many clergymen in ROCOR and other Orthodox jurisdictions. Due to their closeness to the hamlet, both the monastery and seminary are often simply referred to as Jordanville. The monastery is dedicated to the Holy Trinity, and its patronal feast day is Pentecost. The campus includes a museum that is open to the public.
Metropolitan Laurus was First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR), the fifth cleric to hold that position. Born in Czechoslovakia, he emigrated to the United States in 1946 after World War II with brothers from his monastery. They joined the Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, New York, established in 1928 by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia.
Metropolitan Hilarion was a bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR), Metropolitan of Eastern America and New York, First-Hierarch of the ROCOR since 18 May 2008; as the first person elected to that position following the Act of Canonical Communion between the ROCOR and the Russian Orthodox Church, he was the first whose election required approval by the Holy Synod of the Moscow Patriarchate.
November 26 - Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar - November 28
The Russian Orthodox Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem was founded in the 19th century to serve as a representation of the Russian Orthodox Church to the Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem and to oversee the facilities caring for the thousands of pilgrims then flocking to the Holy Land from the Russian Empire.
Valentine was metropolitan bishop of Suzdal and Vladimir, and Primate of the Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church.
Metropolitan Philaret was the First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia from 1964 until his death on November 21, 1985.
Jerome Shaw, born John Robert Shaw and commonly known as Bishop Jerome, is a retired bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia. He was formerly the auxiliary bishop of Manhattan. He is a Slavist, theologian and polyglot, adherent of the Western Rite Orthodoxy.
Archbishop George is bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, bishop of Sydney, Australia and New Zealand, and former abbot of the Holy Cross Monastery in Wayne, West Virginia.
Metropolitan Anastasius was a hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church and the second First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia.
Vladimir,, is a bishop of the Moldovan Orthodox Church under the Moscow Patriarchate. He serves as Metropolitan of Chișinău and All Moldova and thus as first hierarch of the Church of Moldova and as a permanent member of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church.
The Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church is a Russian Orthodox church body headquartered in Suzdal, Russia. ROAC identifies as part of True Orthodoxy. In the Moscow Patriarchate, the ROCOR, and the mass media, it has the designation "Suzdal Schism".
Archimandrite Dorotheos is the archimandrite of Holy Metropolis of Goumenissa, Aksiupol and Policastro under the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and a chairman of the Holy Metropolis of Abkhazia (HMA).
Archimandrite Roman is Archimandrite of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia and current chief of the ROCOR Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem.
Bishop Luke is an American church leader. He serves as bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, current abbot of Holy Trinity Monastery, rector, associate professor of patrology of Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary in Jordanville, New York, and auxiliary bishop of Syracuse, New York.
Metropolitan Nicholas is the First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia and Metropolitan of Eastern America and New York since 14 September 2022.
Bishop James is bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, Bishop of Sonora, vicar of the Western American Diocese since November 6, 2019.
Archbishop Simon (Vinogradov) of Shanghai and Beijing was a clergyman of the Russian Orthodox Church and a hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia. He served as the head of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission from 1928 to 1933.
The Holy Orthodox Metropolis of Boston (HOMB), together with the Metropolises of Toronto and of Seattle, belongs to the Holy Synod of the Holy Orthodox Church in North America (HOCNA).
