Clergy
Dimitry, Bishop of Shlisselburg and Ingermanland
Manager of the COAC,
Rector of the community of the Holy Martyr Maria Skobtsova
Simeon, Bishop (retired 2019)
Oleg, Bishop of Vindava and the Baltics
Boniface, Bishop of Donskoy,
Holy Cross Society , Taganrog
Abraham, Archimandrite, Exarch of the Catholic Church
Apostolic Church in Israel
Rector of the Parish of Hieromartyr Alexander Men in the Holy Land
Mark, Bishop of Austin and North America, Exarch of the Synod of the Catholic Orthodox Apostolic Church in the USA and Canada
Chairman of the Synod of Bishops of the COAC - 2023-25
head of the Apostolic Orthodox Church in America
Michael, Archbishop, Vicar of North America,
Metropolitan of the Orthodox Church of America and the Trusteeship Territories
OCA/UAOC - AOC: https://oca-uaoc.org/
Member of the Synod of the COAC
Apostolic Succession of the COAC (Synod of Bishops AOC)
Oleg, Bishop of Vindava and the Baltics, was installed as a bishop on June 31, 2018, by a council headed by Bishop Simeon (Yuzhakov)
Dmitry, Bishop of Shlisselburg and Ingria, was installed as a bishop on June 23, 2018, by a council headed by Bishop Simeon (Yuzhakov)
Roman, Archbishop of Western Europe (retired), was installed as a bishop on October 21, 2015, by a council headed by Bishop Simeon (Yuzhakov).
Simeon (Yuzhakov), (retired), was installed as a bishop on May 10, 2015, by a council headed by Metropolitan Kiriak (Temercidi).
Kiriak (Temercidi) was ordained bishop on January 7, 2000, by a council headed by Archbishop Stefan (Linitsky).
Stefan (Linitsky) was ordained bishop on December 17, 1996, by a council headed by Bishop Methodius (Kudryakov).
Methodius (Kudryakov) was ordained bishop in July 1995, by a council headed by Patriarch Vladimir (Romaniuk).
Volodymyr (Romaniuk) was ordained bishop on April 29, 1990, by Bishop John (Bodnarchuk), and the re-ordination was performed by Archbishop Anthony (Shcherba) with the blessing of Patriarch Mstislav (Skrypnik).
Anthony (Shcherba) was installed as a bishop on October 6, 1985, by a council headed by Metropolitan Mstislav (Skrypnik).
Mstislav (Skrypnik) was installed as a bishop on May 14, 1942, by Bishops Nikanor (Abramovich) and Igor (Guba).
Nikanor (Abramovich, also known as Abramchuk) was installed as a bishop on February 9, 1942, by Bishop Polikarp (Sikorsky) and Bishop Alexander (Inozemtsev).
Polykarp (Sikorsky) was installed as a bishop on April 1, 1932, by a council headed by Archbishop Dionysius (Valedinsky).
Dionysius (Veledynsky) was ordained a bishop on April 21, 1913, by a council headed by the Antiochian Patriarch George IV Haddad, with the participation of Archbishop Anthony (Khrapovitsky).
George (Haddad) was ordained a bishop on May 10, 1890, by the Patriarch of Antioch Gerasimus, later the Patriarch of Jerusalem
Brief information
In 1924, in the context of Poland gaining statehood and the impossibility of communication with the central church authority in Russia, the bishops of the Orthodox Church in Poland, chaired by Metropolitan Dionysius (Waledyński), appealed to the Ecumenical Patriarch with a request to formally grant autocephaly to their Church. Patriarch Gregory VII, on the basis of the canons that establish that "the arrangement of church affairs must correspond to political and social forms" (canon 17, IV Ecumenical Council, as well as 38 of the V Ecumenical Council), and with reference to Patriarch Photius, recognized the right to autocephaly of the Orthodox Church in Poland by the "Patriarchal and Synodal-Canonical Tomos" No. 4588 of November 13, 1924, which was signed, in addition to the patriarch, by twelve metropolitans of the Church of Constantinople.
In September 1925, representatives of the Churches of Constantinople and Romania arrived in Warsaw, where on September 17, in the presence of the entire Polish episcopate, the solemn reading of the Patriarchal Tomos took place in the Metropolitan Church of St. Mary Magdalene.
The Tomos conveyed to Metropolitan Dionysius "all the distinctions timely conferred by our Brother Tikhon on your Predecessor, as Metropolitan of Warsaw and Volyn and the entire Orthodox Church in Poland" and the Holy Archimandrite of the Holy Dormition Pochayiv Lavra.
In addition, the Tomos declared that the Ecumenical Patriarchate granted autocephaly not only on the basis of its well-known canonical rights over the Orthodox diaspora, but also on the basis that “the initial separation from our Throne of the Kyiv Metropolitanate and the Orthodox Churches of Lithuania and Poland dependent on it and their annexation to the Holy Moscow Church was not carried out in accordance with the legalized canonical decrees, and the agreements on the full ecclesiastical independence of the Kyiv Metropolitan, bearing the title of Exarch of the Ecumenical Throne, were not observed.” The Tomos was recognized by both the Local Churches and the ROCOR, which established prayerful and fraternal communion with the Polish Church. The First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitsky), wrote to Metropolitan Dionysius in 1927:
"The Polish Hierarchy transferred itself to canonical subordination to the Patriarch of Constantinople several years ago, when it saw its physical impossibility of communicating with the Patriarch of Moscow (...) in 1921, autonomy (temporary autocephaly) was circularly granted to all church associations deprived of the physical ability to communicate with the All-Russian Patriarch (...) the last shadow of doubt in the canonicity of the Polish Orthodox Church headed by you, the autocephaly of which was recognized and reaffirmed by all the Eastern Patriarchs, must disappear"
During the German occupation, after the return of Western Ukraine to canonical subordination to the Polish Church, interrupted by the partition of Poland in 1939, Ukrainian believers turned to Metropolitan Dionysius with a request bless the autocephaly of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church under the chairmanship of Archbishop Polycarp (Sikorsky). In response, Metropolitan Dionysius, in accordance with the rights granted to him by the Tomos of the Ecumenical Patriarch of 1924, gave his consent to this by the Decree (Tomos) of December 24, 1941. In February 1942, Archbishop Polycarp and the council ordained two new bishops in Pinsk, founding the hierarchy of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC).
After the end of the war, the Ukrainian hierarchs, as well as the hierarchs of the ROCOR***, were forced to exist autocephalously in exile in the West; one of the most significant jurisdictions of the UAOC eventually became the UOC in the USA.
In November 1963, the Free Serbian Orthodox Church separated from the official Serbian Patriarchate, controlled by the communist authorities of Yugoslavia. On December 7, 1963, at the request of the Council of the Free SOC, the Ukrainian autocephalous bishops consecrated the Serb Irinej (Kovacevic) in the Monastery of St. Sava in Libertyville (Illinois, USA). Sixteen years later, he headed the Free SOC as its Metropolitan. In 1975, Patriarch Nicholas VI of Alexandria recognized the legitimacy of the UAPC ordinations, sending a letter to the “schismatic” bishop Irinej (Kovačević), which stated:
“With great caution, having examined the documents, we are pleased to proclaim your ordination to the rank of bishop as correct and canonical (…) The Apostolic Patriarchate of Saint Mark… recognizes you as a canonical bishop of the Holy Apostolic Orthodox Church.”
In 1991, the entire Plenitude of the Serbian Church, headed by Patriarch Pavle, also fully recognized “the apostolic succession of the hierarchy… the validity of the Holy Sacraments and all sacred rites performed in the Free Serbian Orthodox Church, or in the Novogračanica Metropolitanate, from the beginning of the schism in 1963 until now.” On February 15, 1992, the Serbian Patriarchate entered into full canonical and Eucharistic communion with the Free SPC headed by Metropolitan Irinej (Kovacevic).
In 1990, through the UOC in the USA, including Archbishop Anthony (Shcherba), the hierarchy of the UAPC in Ukraine was restored.
In 1996, at the request of Russian believers, the hierarchs of the UAPC in Ukraine ordained bishops for Russia, and in 2000, one of them, Metropolitan Stefan (Linitsky), became a co-founder and the first Primate of the Apostolic Orthodox Church (AOC). In 2018, in accordance with the rights granted by the canons of the AOC, the bishops of the AOC established an autonomous church within the AOC - the Synod of Bishops of the Apostolic Orthodox Church, of which Bishop Simeon (Yuzhakov) was elected metropolitan.
On March 11-12, 1995, the Ecumenical Patriarchate confirmed the canonicity of the ordinations of the UAPC, accepting all the bishops of the UOC in the USA under its omophorion "in their existing rank" with the recognition of each of them as an episcopal rank and episcopal dignity. In 2010, Archbishop Anthony (Shcherba) was elected treasurer of the Assembly of Canonical Bishops of North America (ROC, Constantinople, Antioch, Romanian, Serbian, Bulgarian, Georgian Patriarchates and the OCA), and on November 14, 2012, his election as Primate of the UOC in the USA was confirmed by Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
*** Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitsky), who later became the first primate of the ROCOR, blessed this future autocephaly at the Local Council of 1917-1918: “They want autocephaly, so let them arrange autocephaly, just let them preserve the purity of the faith.”