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Featured article 27 July 2007
Transferred back to the United States on [[June 14]], 1960, Abp. Ireney was appointed Archbishop of Boston and of the Diocese of New England. He was also made a special assistant to Metr. Leonty who was aging and ailing. With Metr. Leonty's death on [[May 14]], 1965, Abp. Ireney was elected [[Locum Tenens]] by the Great Council of Bishops pending the election of a new Metropolitan. At the 12th [[All-American Sobor]] on [[September 23]], 1965, Abp. Ireney was elected and installed as Archbishop of New York and Metropolitan of all America and Canada.
[[Image:OCA autocephaly.jpg|frame]]Metr. Ireney's time in office would provide one of the momentous events in the history of the North American church as at first feelers turned to negotiations and finally into agreements that resolved the decades of tensions and disagreements between the Mother Church, the [[Church of Russia]], and the offspring American Metropolia. The Russian Orthodox Church issued a [[Tomos]] confirming and proclaiming the ''The Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church in North America'' an [[autocephalous]] Church named ''The [[Orthodox Church in America]].'' With the change in status of the Church came a change in title of address for the first hierarch. At a session of the Holy Synod of the Bishops of the Orthodox Church in America on [[June 9]], 1970, the Synod granted the title of ''His [[Beatitude]]'' to Metropolitan Ireney, as the [[primate]] of an autocephalous Church.
Beginning [[October 20]], 1970, Metr. Ireney presided over a meeting of the Church that would be the 14th and last All-American Sobor and the first [[All-American Council]] of the Orthodox Church in America. Over next several years Metr. Ireney led the administration in the adjustments needed to that of the new status of the Church.
[[Category:Bishops]]
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[[Category:Metropolitans of the OCA]]