The Orthodox Church in America traces its origins to the arrival in Kodiak, Alaska of eight Orthodox missionaries from the Valaamo Monastery in the northern Karelia region of Russia in 1794. The missionaries made a great impact on the native Alaskan population and were responsible for bringing many to the Orthodox Christian faith. 

Today, the Orthodox Church in America numbers some 700 parishes, missions, communities, monasteries, and institutions throughout the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

In the 1820s, Father John Veniaminov arrived in Alaska and also conducted missionary work. Among his many accomplishments was the translation of Scripture and the liturgical services into the native dialects, for which he also devised a grammar and alphabet.Around 1840 Father John was elected to the episcopacy, taking the name Innocent. The Church continued to grow among the native Alaskans, but Bishop Innocent also visited California and the Orthodox community at Fort Ross, north of San Francisco. He eventually returned to Russia, where he was named Metropolitan of Moscow. [In 1977, he was glorified (canonized) by the Russian Orthodox Church as a Saint of the Orthodox Church.]   

Read More...

Written by Mark Stokoe and the Very Rev. Leonid Kishkovsky. 

Building on an earlier pioneering historical work, Orthodox America (compiled for the 1976 American Bicentennial), the present work seeks to provide the reader, both Orthodox and non-Orthodox alike, with a popular narrative account of two hundred years of Orthodox Christianity on this continent.

From its humble beginnings in 1794, when a small group of missionaries landed on Kodiak Island, Alaska, Orthodoxy in America has expanded to comprise a church of over two million faithful. Yet numerous Americans from all cultural and religious backgrounds have, particularly in recent decades, joined Orthodoxy as well. Orthodoxy does have something to say to American society. Thus, the story is told on the OCA website follow this link:  

In a nation whose religious culture has accomodated Catholics, Protestants, and Jews, Orthodox Christian in North America have been largely overlooked and ignored. With few exceptions, their historical experiences remain unrecorded, their documents untranslated, their personalities, institutions, and activities unknown. Contemporary American Orthodoxy is the result of the Russian missionaries to Alaska, but also of the migration of peoples from Central and Eastern Europe and the Middle East. As a result, it often presents an "ethnic" face to American society.  Full story, Go to OCA...

In May 1970, an official delegation of the Orthodox Church in America [OCA] traveled to Russia to receive the Tomos of Autocephaly. A solemn ceremony, during which the formal presentation of the Tomos to the OCA delegation took place, was held on May 18. On behalf of the Russian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Pimen of Krutitsy and Kolomna, patriarchal locum tenens, presented the Tomos to the head of the OCA delegation, Bishop Theodosius [Lazor] of Sitka and Alaska. Other members of the OCA delegation were Fathers Daniel Hubiak, John Nehrebecki, John Skvir, and John Turkevich; Prof. Constantine Kallaur; and Mr. Stephen Kopestonsky. The US Ambassador to Moscow, Jacob Beam, also attended the ceremony.

Agreement:

AGREEMENT made this 31st day of March, 1970; between RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH – MOSCOW PATRIARCHATE (referred to hereinafter as the “Patriarchate”), acting through its Plenipotentiary; His, Eminence Nikodim, Metropolitan of Leningrad and Novgorod, and Chairman of the Department of External Affairs of the Patriarchate, and RUSSIAN ORTHODOX GREEK CATHOLIC CHURCH OF AMERICA (referred to hereinafter as the “Metropolia”), acting through its Plenipotentiary, His Eminence, Ireney, Archbishop of New York and Metropolitan of All America and Canada.

Preamble:

WHEREAS, the Eastern Orthodox faith has existed on the continent of North America for over 175 years and is now the faith of millions of native Americans; and

WHEREAS, that faith has grown from a seed implanted by missionaries of the Russian Orthodox Church, and the first Diocese of the faith in America was established by the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church; and  Read More...

For a number of years, the Russian Orthodox Church has observed with maternal love and concern the development of the Orthodox Church which she planted on the American continent. In the last few decades she has sorrowfully witnessed the unfortunate appearance there of a pluralism of ecclesiastical jurisdictions, a temporary phenomenon, and by no means a permanent norm of the canonical organization of the Orthodox Church in America, since it is contrary to the nature of Orthodox canonical ecclesiastical unity.

The Holy Russian Orthodox Church, striving for the good of the Church, has directed her efforts toward the normalization of relations among the various ecclesiastical jurisdictions in America, particularly by negotiating with the Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church in America, concerning the possibility of grant¬ing autocephaly to this Church in the hope that this might serve the good of the Orthodox Church in America and the glory of God.  Read More...