Orthodox Church in America
The Orthodox Church in America (OCA/TOCA) is an
autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Church, currently led by Metropolitan Herman (Swaiko). Its autocephaly is not universally recognized.
It began with the
missionary work of the
Russian Orthodox Church in
Alaska and the
Aleutian Islands with the arrival of eight
monks, led by
Archimandrite Ioasef, at
Kodiak Island on
September 24,
1794. This mission was created as a separate
Diocese of Alaska and the Aleutian Islands on
June 10,
1870 after the sale of Alaska to the
United States. By the late nineteenth century, the center of church activity moved to the northeastern United States as
Slavic immigrants, largely of Carpathian and Galician stock, returned to the Orthodox Church from the
Unia under the leadership of Father
Alexis Toth (canonized in
1994 by the OCA as St. Alexis of
Wilkes-Barre).
As the diocesan bishop from
1897 to
1907, Bishop
Tikhon (Belavin) led the expanding growth of the church in the United States; in recognition of the expansion of the diocese beyond Alaska, he petitioned the
Holy Synod in
Moscow to change the diocese's title to the
Diocese of the Aleutians and North America. This was approved in February
1900.
In
1917, the
Bolshevik Revolution brought communication between the churches in North America and Russia to an almost complete halt. In the early 1920s, Tikhon (then
Patriarch of Moscow) directed all Russian Orthodox churches outside of Russia to govern themselves autonomously until regular communication and travel could be resumed. (He died in
1925, and was glorified as a
saint by the
Russian Orthodox Church in
1989). At that time, parishes that had been part of a single North American Diocese organized separate dioceses and placed themselves under various other mother churches, giving rise to the current situation of multiple overlapping jurisdictions in North America.
In the early 1960s, the Orthodox Church in America (then using the name
Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church of America) resumed communication with the Patriarch of Moscow, and in
1970 full communion was restored. At that time, the Patriarch of Moscow officially granted the OCA
autocephaly, or self-governing administrative status. The OCA's autocephaly is not currently recognized by all other autocephalous Orthodox Churches (
e.g., the
Church of Constantinople). This is essentially an administrative matter, however, and most of these churches recognize the OCA as
canonical and its sacraments as valid.
Within the past twenty years, the OCA has established more than 220 new parishes. It is a member of the
Standing Conference of Orthodox Bishops in America (SCOBA), together with the
Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, the
Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America (AOCA) and the other member jurisdictions. Serious consideration has been given recently to a possible merger between the OCA and the AOCA. Both groups share a significant common history, in that a Syrian priest, Father
Raphael Hawaweeny, was sent by the
Moscow Patriarchate in the late
19th century as a missionary to
Arabic-speaking Orthodox Christians living in North America. Raphael was ordained a bishop in
1904, and his flock eventually became the AOCA. Bishop Raphael was canonized in March of
2000 by both the OCA and AOCA as St. Raphael of Brooklyn.
According to Bishop Tikhon (Fitzgerald), Bishop of
San Francisco and
Los Angeles, the official name of this jurisdiction is
The Orthodox Church in America, and its acronym should be
TOCA. There has not yet been any official announcement from the central administration of the church, and the former uses (
Orthodox Church in America and
OCA) remain the most common both within and outside the jurisdiction.
According to the 1970
Tomos of Autocephaly granted by the
Russian Orthodox Church, the official name of this church body is
The Autocephalous Orthodox Church in America[
1].
*Constance J. Tarasar (Gen. Ed.)
Orthodox America: The Orthodox Church in America Syosett, New York 1975
*
The Orthodox Church in America Official webpage of the Orthodox Church in America.
*
Orthodox Church in America (
OrthodoxWiki article)
*
Tomos of Autocephaly from the
Russian Orthodox Church*
OCANews.org: Orthodox Christians for Accountability, a website critical of the OCA's administration
*
Accountability article in Washington Post *
Life of Alexis Toth (St. Alexis of Wilkes-Barre)*
Fr. Thomas Hopko on unity of OCA and AOCA
