Patriarchal Exarchate for Orthodox Parishes of Russian Tradition in Western Europe

This article is marked as in progress by {{{1}}}, who is actively developing it. It has yet to achieve a stable or complete form and is currently being worked on. Please carefully consider before making major edits to this article.

The Russian Orthodox Exarchate in Western Europe is an exarchate of the Ecumenical Patriatchate based in Paris and having parishes throughout Europe. Its current leader is Archbishop Gabriel (de Vylder) of Paris.

History

After the onset of the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, Russian Orthodox Christians based outside Russia and those who fled there from the communist regime found themselves in a difficult situation. A temporary solution which most cooperated in was the formation of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR), in which during the early 1920s the vast majority of Russian Orthodox abroad participated. The Russian bishop of Paris at the time was Metropolitan Evlogy (Georgievsky), who had been appointed by St. Tikhon of Moscow in 1921 as the representative of the Patriarchate of Moscow in Western Europe and sat in the synod with the remainder of the ROCOR bishops.

In 1927 Evlogy broke with the ROCOR (along with Metr. Platon (Rozhdestvensky) of New York, leader of the Russian Metropolia in America) and was subsequently condemned by them, splitting the Russian émigré community in Western Europe. In 1928, Metr. Sergius (Stragorodsky), then locum tenens of the Patriarchate of Moscow, demanded declarations of loyalty to the Soviet regime, a proposition which Evlogy initially supported by subsequently repudiated. In 1930, after taking part in a prayer service in London in supplication for Christians suffering under the Soviets, Evlogy was removed from office by Sergius and replaced.