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

hierarch An ordinary (from Latin ''ordinarius'') is an officer of a church or civic authority who by reason of office has ordinary power to execute laws. Such officers are found in hierarchically organised churches of Western Christianity which have an ...

s of

Eastern Orthodox Church The Eastern Orthodox Church, also called the Orthodox Church, is the second-largest Christian church, with approximately 220 million baptized members. It operates as a communion of autocephalous churches, each governed by its bishops via ...

es in

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

Overview

The assembly began when delegates from the 14

autocephalous Autocephaly (; from el, αὐτοκεφαλία, meaning "property of being self-headed") is the status of a hierarchical Christian church whose head bishop does not report to any higher-ranking bishop. The term is primarily used in Eastern O ...

Eastern Orthodox churches met at the Center of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Chambésy,

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

, 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 A diaspora ( ) is a population that is scattered across regions which are separate from its geographic place of origin. Historically, the word was used first in reference to the dispersion of Greeks in the Hellenic world, and later Jews after ...

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 Archbishop Demetrios (born Demetrios Trakatellis; el, Δημήτριος Τρακατέλλης) is a former elder archbishop of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America and Exarch of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. He resigned from this pos ...

. 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 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 ...

, 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.

Members of the Assembly

These jurisdictions' bishops are members of the Assembly, according to

diptych A diptych (; from the Greek δίπτυχον, ''di'' "two" + '' ptychē'' "fold") is any object with two flat plates which form a pair, often attached by hinge. For example, the standard notebook and school exercise book of the ancient world w ...

order: *

Ecumenical Patriarchate The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople ( el, Οἰκουμενικὸν Πατριαρχεῖον Κωνσταντινουπόλεως, translit=Oikoumenikón Patriarkhíon Konstantinoupóleos, ; la, Patriarchatus Oecumenicus Constanti ...

Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America 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. Archbishop On May 11, 2019, the church's H ...

** Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA **

Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada The Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada (UOCC; french: Église orthodoxe ukrainienne du Canada) is an Eastern Orthodox church in Canada, primarily consisting of Orthodox Ukrainian Canadians. Its former name (before 1990) was the Ukrainian Greek ...

** Albanian Orthodox Diocese of America **

American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese The American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese of North America (ACROD) is a diocese of the Ecumenical Patriarchate with 78 parishes in the United States and Canada. Though the diocese is directly responsible to the Patriarchate, it is under th ...

Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America 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. Ori ...

* Serbian Orthodox Church in the USA and Canada * Romanian Orthodox Metropolis of the Americas * Bulgarian Eastern Orthodox Diocese of the USA, Canada and Australia *

Orthodox Church in America The Orthodox Church in America (OCA) is an Eastern Orthodox Christian church based in North America. The OCA is partly recognized as autocephalous and consists of more than 700 parishes, missions, communities, monasteries and institutions ...

As of 14 September 2018, the Moscow Patriarchate and the churches belonging to them are not participating in the Assembly as part of the

2018 Moscow–Constantinople schism A schism between the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC, also known as the Moscow Patriarchate) and the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople began on 15 October 2018 when the former unilaterally severed full communion with the latter. Th ...

Meetings of the Assembly of Bishops

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.

Attendees of the Inaugural Assembly (2010)

Fifty-five of the sixty-six hierarchs in the region were present at the founding assembly in 2010:

.
Message of the Episcopal Assembly Of the Canonical Orthodox Hierarchs of North and Central America May 26-28, 2010
'' May 28, 2010. # Archbishop Demetrios (Trakatellis) of America, Chairman # Metropolitan Philip (Saliba) of New York, Vice Chairman # Archbishop Justinian (Ovchinnikov) of Naro-Fominsk, Vice Chairman # Bishop Basil (Essey) of Wichita, Secretary # Archbishop Anthony (Scherba) of Hierapolis, Treasurer # Metropolitan

Iakovos (Garmatis) Metropolitan bishop, Metropolitan Iakovos of Chicago (Michael Garmatis; April 4, 1928 – June 2, 2017) was Metropolitan of Chicago under the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople until his death on June 2, 2017. Biography Garmatis beg ...

of Chicago # Metropolitan Athenagoras (Aneste) of Mexico # Metropolitan Methodios (Tournas) of Boston # Metropolitan Isaiah (Chronopoulos) of Denver # Metropolitan Alexios (Panagiotopoulos) of Atlanta # Metropolitan

Nikitas (Lulias) Archbishop Nikitas (Lulias) of Thyateira and Great Britain is the Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Great Britain under the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, elected by the Sacred and Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate on 12 June 2019. ...

of Dardanellia # Metropolitan Nicholas (Pissare) of Detroit # Metropolitan

Gerasimos (Michaleas) Metropolitan Gerasimos of San Francisco (born Gerasimos Michaleas; August 2, 1945) is a Greek Eastern Orthodox prelate who has served as the Metropolitan of San Francisco in the Greek Orthodox Church since 2005. His spiritual flock comprises ...

of San Francisco # Metropolitan Evangelos (Kourounis) of New Jersey # Metropolitan Paisios (Loulourgas) of Tyana # Archbishop Yurij (Kalistchuk) of Toronto # Bishop Christophoros (Rakintzakis) of Andida # Bishop Vikentios (Malamatenios) of Apameia # Bishop

Savas (Zembillas) Metropolitan Savas (Zembillas) of Pittsburgh is the spiritual leader of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Pittsburgh which includes all of Ohio and most of Pennsylvania and West Virginia. The Metropolis consists of 53 parishes and six monastic ...

of Troas # Bishop Andonios (Paropoulos) of Phasiane # Bishop Ilia (Katre) of Philomelion # Bishop Hiarion (Rudnyk) of Edmonton # Bishop Andriy (Peshko) of York # Bishop Demetrios (Kantzavelos) of Mokissos # Bishop Daniel (Zelinskyy) of Pamphilon # Bishop Antoun (Khouri) of Miami # Bishop Joseph (Al-Zehlaoui) of Los Angeles # Bishop Thomas (Joseph) of Charleston and Oakland # Bishop

Mark (Maymon) Mark Alan Maymon (born June 22, 1958) is an archbishop of the Orthodox Church in America and the current Archbishop of Philadelphia and Eastern Pennsylvania. Formerly a diocesan bishop of the see of Toledo and the Midwest in the Antiochian Orthod ...

of Toledo # Bishop Alexander (Mufarrij) of Ottawa # Metropolitan

Hilarion (Kapral) Metropolitan Hilarion (born Igor Alexeyevich Kapral, russian: Игорь Алексеевич Капра́л; 6 January 1948 – 16 May 2022) was a bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR), Metropolitan of Eastern America a ...

of New York # Bishop Job (Smakouz) of Kashira # Bishop

Gabriel (Chemodakov) Archbishop Gabriel (russian: Архиепископ Гавриил, secular name George Lvovich Chemodakov, russian: Георгий Львович Чемодаков; June 2, 1961, Sydney, Australia) is bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church Outsi ...

of Montreal # Bishop Peter (Loukianoff) of Cleveland # Bishop Theodosius (Ivashchenko) of Seattle # Bishop

George (Schaefer) Bishop George (secular name Paul Macarius Schaefer; May 25, 1950, Belleville, Illinois) is bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, bishop of Canberra, vicar of the Australian and New Zealand Diocese, and former abbot of the Holy ...

of Mayfield # Bishop Jerome (Shaw) of Manhattan # Metropolitan Christopher (Kovacevich) of Midwestern America # Bishop Maxim (Vasilijevic) of Western America # Archbishop Nicolae (Condrea) of Chicago # Bishop Ioan Casian (Tunaru) of Vicina # Metropolitan Joseph (Bosakov) of America and Australia # Metropolitan

Jonah (Paffhausen) Metropolitan Jonah (born James Paffhausen, Jr.; October 20, 1959) is a retired American Eastern Orthodox bishop who served as the primate of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA) with the title ''The Most Blessed Archbishop of Washington, Metropo ...

of Washington # Archbishop Nathaniel (Popp) of Detroit # Archbishop Seraphim (Storheim) of Ottawa # Bishop

Nikon (Liolin) Archbishop Nikon (secular name Nicholas Liolin; October 9, 1945 – September 1, 2019) was an Albanian bishop who served as the head of the Orthodox Church in America's Albanian Archdiocese and New England diocese. Life of Archbishop Nikon ...

of Boston # Bishop

Tikhon (Mollard) Metropolitan Tikhon (secular name Marc Raymond Mollard; born July 15, 1966, in Boston, Massachusetts) is an Eastern Orthodox bishop and the Primate of the Orthodox Church in America, holding the rank of ''Metropolitan of All America and Canada. ...

of Philadelphia # Bishop

Benjamin (Peterson) Benjamin ( he, ''Bīnyāmīn''; "Son of (the) right") blue letter bible: https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/h3225/kjv/wlc/0-1/ H3225 - yāmîn - Strong's Hebrew Lexicon (kjv) was the last of the two sons of Jacob and Rachel (Jacob's thi ...

of San Francisco # Bishop Melchisedek (Pleska) of Pittsburgh # Bishop Alejo (Pacheco y Vera) of Mexico City # Bishop Irineu (Duvlea) of Dearborn Heights # Bishop Irénée (Rochon) of Quebec City # Bishop Michael (Dahulich) of New York

References

External links