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Оn March 21, 2001 at the Spring Session of the OCA’s Holy Synod he was elected Bishop of Baltimore, Auxiliary to His Beatitude, Metropolitan Theodosius, Primate of the Orthodox Church in America.
His consecration consecrated to the episcopacy was celebrated the weekend of on April 21-22, 2001 in Dallas, TX, in conjunction with the consecration of the recently constructed Saint Seraphim Cathedralby Metropolitan [[Theodosius (Lazor) of Washington|Theodosius (Lazor)]], Archbishop [[Dmitri (Royster) of Dallas|Dmitri]] of Dallas and the South; His Eminence, Archbishop [[Herman (Swaiko) of Washington|Herman]] of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania; His Eminence, Archbishop [[Nathaniel (Popp) of Detroit|Nathaniel]] of Detroit and the Romanian Episcopate; and His Grace, Bishop [[Tikhon (Fitzgerald) of San Francisco and Los Angeles|Tikhon]] of San Francisco and the West<ref>http://oca.org/news/archived/archimandrite-nikolai-soraich-consecrated-to-episcopacy-at-dallas-cathedral</ref>.
His Grace, Bishop Nikolai of Baltimore, Auxiliary to Metropolitan Theodosius, began overseeing the life of the Diocese in June 2001 after the transfer of His Grace, Bishop Innocent to the auxiliary see of Hagerstown, MD.
On October 31, 2001 Eighty-two clergy and lay delegates from parishes of the Orthodox Church in America's Diocese of Alaska unanimously voted to nominate His Grace, Bishop Nikolai of Baltimore, as the candidate for the vacant episcopal see of Sitka and Alaska. At a special session of the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Orthodox Church in America, His Grace, Bishop Nikolai of Baltimore and Auxiliary to His Beatitude, Metropolitan Theodosius, was canonically elected to fill the vacant diocesan see of Sitka and Alaska<ref>http://oca.org/news/archived/archimandrite-nikolai-soraich-consecrated-to-episcopacy-at-dallas-cathedral</ref>.
[[Image:Bishops Peter and Nikolai.jpg|right|thumb|250px|Bishops [[Peter (Loukianoff) of Cleveland|Peter]] ([[ROCOR]]) and [[Nikolai (Soraich) of Sitka|Nikolai]] ([[OCA]]) greet one another at an OCA episcopal consecration service in May 2005.]]
He was installed as the 18th ruling bishop of the Orthodox Church in America's Diocese of Sitka and Alaska on March 4 and 5, 2002 at the historic Archangel Michael Cathedral in Sitka, AK and resided in Anchorage, AK as diocesian bishop.
