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With Metr. Platon's return to the United States in 1921 and Abp. [[Alexander (Nemolovsky) of the Aleutians|Alexander]]'s return to Europe, the Third All-American Sobor (Council) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in September 1923 elected Metr. Platon as the ruling bishop of the North American diocese. Although this election was confirmed by the Russian Church, Metr. Platon would spend over the next decade great effort maintaining the unity of the diocese, particularly against attacks by the [[Living Church]], fending off financial crisis, and sporadic cooperation and disjunction with the [[Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia]] (ROCOR). With the breakdown in communications with the Church in Russia, he felt compelled to declare the North American diocese temporarily autonomous. This was done by the Fourth All-American Sobor held in Detroit, Michigan in February 1924. At this council Metr. Platon also received the title ''Metropolitan of All America and Canada'', while simultaneously earning himself the indictment of the ROCOR, which came fully to a head two years later. In a ROCOR synod meeting in 1926 in Karlovtsy, Serbia, Platon was asked by his fellow hierarchs on the synod to renounce the "temporary self-government" which his jurisdiction had declared. When he refused, the ROCOR bishops condemned the Detroit sobor as "extremely dangerous and harmful for the interestes of the Russian Church in America."
In January of the following year, Platon convened another sobor in America, which labelled the ROCOR as "uncanonical." One Metropolia bishop dissented, [[Apollinary (Koshevoy) of San Francisco|Apollinary (KoshevoiKoshevoy)]], and he was subsequently expelled from the Metropolia. The ROCOR synod then deposed Platon as primate of the Metropolia and appointed Apollinary in his place, who had some success, persuading 62 parishes to accept his authority in the six years of his reign.
[[Image:Platon Rozhdestvensky3.jpg|left|thumb|200px]]
Platon announced in 1929 that he would be willing to accept ROCOR authority again if the synod would in return recognize him as Metropolia primate instead of Apollinary. When the synod denied his terms, Platon went on a legal campaign to seize parishes and properties throughout North America from Apollinary's authority. Most of the court cases he brought forward failed.
In 1933, Platon rejected the request by Metr. [[Sergius I (Stragorodsky) of Moscow|Sergius (Stragorodsky)]] (''[[locum tenens]]'' of the Moscow Patriarchate) to pledge "loyalty" to the Soviet regime (though that "loyalty" was mainly described by MP representatives in terms of not engaging in anti-Soviet political activism). In response, Moscow declared Platon to be in [[schism]], deposing him before an [[ecclesiastical court ]] and forming the [[Russian Exarchate of North America]], whose bishop was regarded by Russia at that time as being the rightful canonical successor of Russian jurisdiction in America.
After his death in 1934, he was buried at the cemetery at [[St. Tikhon's Orthodox Monastery (South Canaan, Pennsylvania)]], and the ROCOR lifted its ban against the Metropolia as a goodwill gesture, leading to renewal of relations in 1935 with Platon's successor, Metr. [[Theophilus (Pashkovsky) of San Francisco|Theophilus (Pashkovsky)]].
