American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese

American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese
Jurisdiction	Constantinople
Diocese type	Diocese
Founded	1938
Current bishop	Metr. Nicholas
See(s)	Amissos
Headquarters	Johnstown, Pennsylvania
Territory	United States, Canada
Liturgical language(s)	English, Church Slavonic
Musical tradition	Prostopinije
Calendar	Julian, Revised Julian
Population estimate	50,000[1]
Official website	ACROD

The American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese (ACROD) is a diocese of the Ecumenical Patriarchate with about 75 parishes in the United States and Canada, led by Metropolitan Nicholas (Smisko) of Amissos. Though the diocese is directly responsible to the Patriarchate, it is under the spiritual supervision of the primate of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. Its full name is the American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Diocese.

History

The diocese was founded in 1938 when a group of 37 Carpatho-Russian Uniate parishes were received into the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, having the year before officially renounced the Unia with Rome, primarily in protest over Latinizations occurring in their church life, particularly a 1929 papal decree mandating that Eastern Rite clergy in the US were to be celibate.

This move marked the second group of Carpatho-Russian parishes to return to Orthodoxy, the first having been led by St. Alexis of Wilkes-Barre into the jurisdiction of the Russian Metropolia in the 1890s. This second return to Orthodoxy by Carpatho-Russians in America, under the spiritual leadership of Fr. (later Metropolitan) Orestes Chornock, was directed toward Constantinople rather than to the Russian presence in America primarily because of concerns about Russification which had occurred with the previous move. As such, rather than being absorbed into the body of the Russian churches in America, the ACROD was permitted by Constantinople to keep its distinctive practices while removing Latinizations such as the Filioque from the recitation of the Nicene Creed.

The ACROD today

Besides its 75 parishes, the ACROD has one seminary located in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Christ the Saviour Seminary. The bulk of the diocese's parishes are in the United States, with one in Canada, and nearly half are located in Pennsylvania. There was formerly a diocesan monastery, the Monastery of the Annunciation in Tuxedo Park, New York, but it was closed in the early 1990s.

The diocese has 14 deaneries:

• Canadian - Rev. Fr. Maxym Lysack
• Chicago - Rev. Fr. Samuel Sherry
• Florida - Rev. Fr. Michael Shuster
• Johnstown - Very Rev. Fr. David Cochran
• Mid-Atlantic - Very Rev. Protopresbyter Robert Rebeck
• New England - Very Rev. Fr. Luke Mihaly
• New Jersey - Very Rev. Protopresbyter Michael Rosco
• New York - Very Rev. Fr. John J. Beskid
• Pittsburgh - Very Rev. Protopresbyter John P. Gido
• Pocono - Very Rev. Protopresbyter Lawrence Barriger
• Southern Tier - Very Rev. Protopresbyter James Dutko
• Tri-State - Very Rev. Fr. James A. Gleason, Jr.
• Washington, D.C. - Rev. Fr. Miles Zdinak
• Youngstown - Very Rev. Fr. Kenneth Bachofsky

The diocese is also a member of SCOBA.

External links

• Official Website of the American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese
• Eastern Christian Churches: American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Church by Ronald Roberson, a Roman Catholic priest and scholar