Russian Orthodox Church in Exile
The Russian Orthodox Church in Exile (ROCE/ROCIE) is a jurisdiction formed in 2001 in protest against and breaking from the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, primarily over the latter's ongoing rapprochement process with the Moscow Patriarchate. The ROCE still sometimes uses the ROCOR/ROCA name and regards itself as the true successor of ROCOR.
The two jurisdictions are sometimes distinguished as ROCOR (V) and ROCOR (L), the initial in parentheses referring to the primate of each group.
The ROCE was led by Metropolitan Vitaly (Ustinov) of New York, who passed away on September 25, 2006. In 2001 Metropolitan Vitaly issued a declaration recinding his retirement a year earlier, and moved to Canada from where he governed the ROCE until his repose. Currently the ROCE awaits the election of a new first hierarch.
According to its website, the ROCE currently has 8 parishes, missions and home chapels, along with one convent, in the United States; 8 parishes, missions and chapels, along with 2 monastic sketes, in Canada; 2 parishes and one convent in South America; 8 parishes in Europe; and a "deanery" of clergy and monastics in Russia. The ROCE also has a handful of clergy and laymen throughout the world which hold allegiance to it but may not have any parish associated with them.
