After the Russian Orthodox Church granted the Tomos of Autocephaly to the North American Metropolia in 1970 and recognized the new Local Orthodox Church’s right of “exclusive jurisdiction, both spiritual and canonical, over all bishops, clergy and laity of the Eastern Orthodox confession in continental North America,” St. Nicholas Cathedral in New York received the status of the Representation of the Moscow Patriarchate in the USA.

At the same time, Saint Nicholas Cathedral became the main cathedral for the clergy and laity of those parishes that expressed a desire to remain in the Russian Orthodox Church, as well as a residence for the bishop - Administrator of these parishes, which began to be called the Patriarchal Parishes.

The activities of the Representation of the Moscow Patriarchate in the USA are directed by His Holiness the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus’ through his vicar bishop — the Administrator of the Patriarchal Parishes in the USA — and by the leadership of the Department for External Church Relations, the synodal institution responsible for the external activities of the Moscow Patriarchate, such as maintaining the relations of the Russian Orthodox Church with the Local Orthodox Churches, non-Orthodox Churches and Christian associations; contacts with non-Christian religious communities and interreligious organizations, and with intergovernmental and public international organizations; and work with compatriots abroad, helping to establish and develop regular contacts between compatriots in the diaspora and the Church in the homeland.

15 East 97th Street,

New York, NY 10029, USA

212-814-1117

representation@ruschurchusa.org

THE PATRIARCHAL PARISHES in the USA are a canonical division of the Russian Orthodox Church uniting the parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church in the United States of America and Mexico whose clergy and laity expressed the wish to remain in the Russian Orthodox Church after it granted autocephaly to its North American Metropolia in 1970. Forty-three parishes in the USA, together with the Diocese of Edmonton and Canada, were organized into the Patriarchal Parishes in the USA and the Patriarchal Parishes in Canada. 

Today the Patriarchal Parishes in the USA comprise 33 parish communities and 1 men’s monastery dedicated to the Great Martyr Demetrius of Thessalonica. 

The head of the Patriarchal Parishes in the USA is His Holiness the Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus’, who governs them through his vicar bishop.