The Kursk Root Icon
The Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (also called the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, ROCA, ROCOR, or the Synod) is a semi-autonomous jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate originally formed in response against the policy of Bolsheviks with respect to religion in the Soviet Union soon after the Russian Revolution.
ROCOR currently has over 400 parishes as well as monasteries for men and women in 40 countries throughout the world, served by nearly 600 priests. In North America, it has approximately 133 parishes in the US and 22 in Canada. There are three ROCOR communities in the United Kingdom and 21 in Australia and New Zealand. There are also roughly 100 communities, which owe allegiance to ROCOR in Russia and the other nations of the former Soviet Union.
There are five ROCOR monasteries for men and women in North America, the most important and largest of which is Holy Trinity Monastery (Jordanville, New York), to which is attached ROCOR's seminary, Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary.
In concert with the Church of Jerusalem, ROCOR also oversees the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem, which acts as caretaker to three holy sites in Palestine, all of which are monasteries.
The Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia currently has 13 bishops serving 11 dioceses throughout the world.
Signing the Act of Canonical Communion
Ruling bishops:
- Metropolitan Hilarion (Kapral) of Eastern America and New York, First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia
- Archbishop Alypy (Gamanovich) of Chicago and Mid-America
- Archbishop Mark (Arndt) of Berlin, Germany and of Great Britain
- Archbishop Kyrill (Dmitrieff) of San Francisco and Western America, Locum Tenens of the Western part of the Diocese of Montreal and Canada
- Bishop Michael (Donskoff) of Geneva and Western Europe
- Archbishop Gabriel (Chemodakov) of Montreal and Canada
- Bishop John of Carracas, Venezuela and South America
Vicar bishops:
- Bishop Agapit (Gorachek) of Stuttgart, Vicar of the German Diocese
- Bishop Peter (Loukianoff) of Cleveland, Vicar of the Chicago Diocese
- Bishop Theodosius (Ivashchenko) of Seattle, Vicar of the Western American Diocese
- Bishop George (Schaeffer) of Mayfield, Vicar of the Eastern American Diocese
- Bishop Jerome (John Shaw) retired, Vicar of the Eastern American Diocese
Bishop transferred to the Moscow Patriarchate:
- Bishop Evtikhii (Kurochkin) of Domodedovo, Patriarchal Vicar for the service of the parishes in Russia which had been under ROCOR
ROCOR Links: