Russian Orthodox Church Abroad - Provisional Supreme Church Authority
The self-styled "Russian Orthodox Church Abroad - Provisional Supreme Church Authority" (PSCA, Русская православная церковь заграницей - Временное высшее центральное управление) is a body composed of parishes from the ROCOR who refused to enter into communion with the Moscow Patriarchate in May of 2007. Like the ROCOR before the union, they have maintained communion with the Holy Synod in Resistance under Metropolitan Cyprian of Fili and their sister churches. The current head of the jurisdiction is Metropolitan Agafangel (Pashkovsky) of Odessa. Unlike ROCOR, they are not in communion with any canonical Orthodox Church, while even prior to reconciliation with the Moscow Patriarchate, ROCOR had maintained communion and concelebrations with the Church of Serbia, and the Jerusalem Patriarchate.
Contents
History
By mid-2006, a number of ROCOR parishes had made clear that they wanted no part of reconciliation between the Moscow Patriarchate and ROCOR, wishing to retain the status quo as it had been for most of ROCOR's existence. When it became clear that the reconciliation would occur after it had been approved by the 4th All-Diaspora Sobor, various clergy began to make plans for the establishment of a rival Synod.
Following the signing of the Act of Canonical Communion in Moscow, Russia, on May 17, 2007, bishop Agathangel (Pashkovsky) declared that he did not accept the document and would "continue to abide by the previous Bylaws of the ROCOR, considering any actions of the Moscow Patriarchate to be unlawful". He accused the Moscow Patriarchate of "sins of Sergianism and ecumenism". On May 22, 2007, Bishop Agafangel issued a statement that he and Bishop Daniel of Erie were organizing a Provisional Supreme Church Authority for those who "have remained in the ROCOR", citing authority of Ukase No. 362 of Patriarch Tikhon of Moscow, dated November 20, 1920. While Bishop Daniel had previously expressed reservations about the Act of Canonical Communion, there is no evidence that he ever intended to break with the ROCOR Synod; rather, the elderly vicar for the care of Old-Ritualists continued to remain in communion with Metropolitan Laurus. There were claims that Bishop Daniel had been placed under a form of house arrest on some internet journals[1], but these statements were untrue.
Agathangel found himself alone, supported by a handful of clergy and the majority of his parishes in Ukraine, which had refused to join the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate), and thus would have no part of the reconciliation.
On May 20, 2007, the members of the ROCOR synod, meeting in Moscow, suspended Bishop Agathangel for inciting schism, disobeying lawful authority, and refusing canonical transfer to the Buenos Aires cathedral.
At an emergency meeting of the ROCOR synod on June 28 and 29, 2007, a "final letter of warning" was issued to Bishop Agathangel, calling on him to cease all schismatic activity. The synod also approved the suspension of hegumen Andronik (Kotliaroff), former head of the Russian Ecclesiastic Mission in Jerusalem, and other clerics that supported Agathangel. However on December 7, 2007, with the aid of bishops from the Holy Synod in Resistance, with whom ROCOR had been in communion until about a year prior to reconciliation with Moscow (though relations had been strained since, and episcopal concelabrations had essentially ceased after 1998), Agafangel carried out the consecration of hegumen Andronik (Kotrliaroff) as Bishop of Richmond Hill and New York and Hieromonk Sophronius (Musienko) as Bishop of Saint Petersburg and Northern Russia. These ordinations marked the final breach of the new organization with the ROCOR synod, calling itself the Provisional Supreme Church Authority.
On September 4, 2008, the PSCA received into its communion two bishops from non-canonical "Seraphimo-Gennadian branch" of the Russian Catacomb Church. There was considerable debate over the status of the two bishops received.
On November 19, 2008, the Provisional Supreme Church Authority called what it termed the Fifth All-Diaspora Council (in reference to the Fourth All-Diaspora Council of the ROCOR which overwhelmingly supported reconciliation with the Moscow Patriarchate). Among other decisions, the council elevated Bp. Agathangel to the rank of metropolitan.
Dioceses
The current structure of the PSCA (as of the Sobor of November, 2008) is as follows:
- Metropolitan Agafangel of Odessa and Tavrida, First-Hierarch of the ROCA-PSCA
(America and Europe)
- Archbishop Andronik (Kotliaroff) of Ottawa and Eastern America
- Bishop Joseph (Grebinka) of Washington and Florida
- Bishop Gregory (Petrenko) of Sao Paulo and Brazil
(Russia)
- Archbishop Sophronius (Musiyenko) of St. Petersburg and West Russia
- Bishop John (Zaitsev) of Buinsk and Volzhsk
- Bishop Athanasius (Savitsky) of Vologda and Veliky Ustyug
- Bishop George (Kravchenko) of Bolgrad and Belgorod-Dnestrovsky
- Bishop Cyril (Kravets) of Voronezh and South Russia
- Bishop Dionysius (Alfyorov) of Novgorod and Tver
- Bishop Irenaeus (Klipenstein) of Lyon and Western Europe
- Bishop Nicholas (Modebadze) of Poti
