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== History ==
Before the establishment of a Greek Archdiocese in the Western Hemisphere there were numerous communities of Greek Orthodox Christians. The first Greek Orthodox community in the Americas was founded in New Orleans, Louisiana by a small colony of Greek merchants. History also records that on [[June 26]], 1768, the first Greek colonists landed at St. Augustine, Florida, the oldest city in America. The first permanent community was founded in New York City in 1892, today’s Archdiocesan Cathedral of the Holy Trinity and the See of the Archbishop of America, at this time all Orthodox churches in America were under the jursidiction of the [[Church of Russia|Russian Orthodox Church]]. The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of North and South America was founded incorporated in 1921 and officially recognized by the State of New York in 1922. Due to the October Revolution in Russia and the weakened state of the Russian Orthodox Church, the Orthodox churches in America were sucked up by other ethnic churches. This encroachment into the Russian church's canonical jurisdiction was never restored.
In 1908, the [[Church of Greece]] received authority over the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese but in 1922, Patriarch Meletios IV transferred the archdiocese back to the jurisdiction of the [[Church of Constantinople]]. In 1996, the one Archdiocese was split by the Ecumenical Patriarchate, dividing the administration of the two continents into four parts (America, Canada, Central America, and South America) and leaving only the territory of the United States for the Archdiocese of America.