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{{orthodoxyinamerica}}
The '''Diocese of Washington and New York''' is was the reemergence with a new name of the original [[Diocese of New York and New Jersey (OCA)|Diocese of New York and New Jersey]] after it had been split to form the [[Diocese of Washington (OCA)|Diocese of Washington]] as a separate diocese. The Diocese of Washington and New York was formed when the two [[diocese]]s were re-merged in 2005, and was dissolved in 2009.
== History ==
The history of the diocese as the [[see]] of the ruling [[hierarch]] of the Orthodox Church in America begins with the efforts of the first [[missionary ]] in New York City. First presence of Orthodoxy in New York City's can be traced to 1870, when Fr. [[Nicholas Bjerring]], a convert from Denmark, was directed by Metropolitan Isidore of St. Petersburg to open the first Orthodox Church in New York City. Services for the [[congregation ]] were held in a [[chapel]] within Fr. Nicholas' house. In 1885 the Russian government withdrew its support of the [[parish]] due to the small membership.
The oldest parish within the diocese that still functions is SS Peter and Paul Church is Buffalo, NY (founded April, 1894). Among the early [[missionary ]] priests to serve the parish were Fr. John Nedzelnitsky, the Dean of Eastern States, and Fr. [[John Kochurov]] ([[Glorification|glorified]] in 1994 by the [[Church of Russia|Russian Orthodox Church]]). In 1895, a second mission in New York City was established called The Russian Greek Orthodox Church of St. Nicholas, that began to flourish under the direction of its second pastor, Fr. [[Alexander Hotovitzky]] (also recently [[Glorification|glorified]] by the Russian Orthodox Church).
[[Image:Ocadowany.png|thumb|Visual representation of the Diocese of Washington and New York]]
===Diocese of the Ruling Hierarch===
Orthodoxy in America began with the arrival from Russia of Orthodox [[missionaries ]] at Kodiak Island in 1794. The administrative center of the mission in America, with the eventual sale of Alaska to the United States in 1867, moved from Sitka to San Francisco in 1872. By the time that Bp. Tikhon arrived to administer the mission in 1898 and had made several extended pastoral journeys in North America, it was obvious to him that the concentration of parishes and faithful was in the eastern United States. He recommended that the official name of the mission be changed to the "Diocese of the Aleutians and North America" and suggested that the diocesan [[see]] be transferred to New York. This occurred in 1905. From that time until 1980 the parishes in the New York-New Jersey geographic area, and later those in the Washington, DC area, were officially under the auspices of the ruling hierarch of what is now the Orthodox Church in America ([[OCA]]).
The formal establishment of the Diocese of New York and New Jersey occurred after the grant of autocephaly in 1970. As the diocese was the see of the ruling [[hierarch]] of the mission, and later of the autocephalous church, it supported the national Church's administration. The administrative offices were located, first, in New York City at the Holy Protection Cathedral and later, since about 1967, in [[Chancery office of the Orthodox Church in America|Oyster Bay Cove/Syosset, NY]]. The location of the national administration in the Diocese as well as the presence of [[St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary (Crestwood, New York)|St. Vladimir's Seminary]] allowed the Diocese to benefit from the leadership of the Church in America.
The formation of the Diocese of Washington included the areas of the Capital proper (District of Columbia), Maryland, southern Delaware, and northern Virginia. The [[St. Nicholas Cathedral (Washington, D.C.)|St. Nicholas Cathedral]] in Washington was the see for the Metropolitan. At its inception the new diocese included only a few parishes, those in the Baltimore and Washington metropolitan areas. During the following two decades after formation of the diocese a number of new parishes formed as the population of the diocese increased.
In 2005, after the 2002 election of [[Herman (Swaiko) of Washington and New York|Metr. Herman]] as the ruling hierarch of the OCA and with the retirement of Abp. Peter, the Holy Synod of the OCA remerged the dioceses of New York and New Jersey and Washington as the Diocese of Washington and New York. St. Nicholas Cathedral in Washington was designated the see of the ruling hierarch.
With the retirement of Metropolitan Herman, in September of 2008, the ''[[locum tenens]]'' of the diocese became Archbishop [[Dmitri (Royster) of Dallas|Dmitri (Royster)]], assisted by Archbishop [[Seraphim (Storheim) of Ottawa|Seraphim (Storheim)]] as administrator. In November of 2008, His Grace, Bishop [[Jonah (Paffhausen) of Washington and New York|Jonah of Fort Worth]] was elected ''Archbishop of Washington and New York and Metropolitan of All America and Canada'' at the [[All-American_Council#Fifteenth_All-American_Council|15th All-American Council of the Orthodox Church in America]].
In 2009, the Holy Synod of the OCA re-established the seperate dioceses of Washington and of New York and New Jersey, restoring the diocesan make-up as it was from 1981-2005.
===Diocese===
The diocese includes included four [[Deanery|deaneries]] with [[Parish|parishes]] in the states of New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, the District of Columbia, and Virginia as of in 2008:
*Washington DC Deanery
==External link==
*[http://dcnyoca.org/ Official Website for the OCA's Diocese of Washington and New York]
*[http://www.oca.org/DIRlists.parish.diocese.asp?diocese=OCA-WA&x=31&y=15&SID=9&CLASS=P&TYPE=DIOCESE Diocese of Washington and New York] (Parishes listed on [[OCA]] website)
