Russian, Romanian Orthodox Hierarchs Concelebrate in NYC

Archbishop Justinian (Ovchinnikov) of Narofominsk, head of the patriarchal Russian Orthodox representation to the American Orthodox Church (OCA), concelebrated the Divine Liturgy today with Bishop Irineu (Duvlea) of Dearborn Heights, auxiliary of the OCA's Romanian Orthodox Episcopate in America, in New York's Cathedral of St. Nicholas. The services were celebrated in a mixture of English, Romanian, and Slavonic. More (in Russian) here.

OCA Holy Synod, Metropolitan Council Spring Sessions Adjourn

The spring sessions of the Holy Synod and Metropolitan Council of the American Orthodox Church (OCA) in Chicago have ended. In the first part of its session prior to its joint session with the Metropolitan Council the Holy Synod decided that from hereon out the First Hierarch of the OCA, while remaining responsible for appointing diocesan locum tenenses, would be expected to appoint other members of the hierarchy as locum tenenses, that the hiring and firing of members of the Chancery of the OCA was the responsibility of the Holy Synod as a whole, and that a lesser Holy Synod would be responsible to meet every other month to work together with the Metropolitan of Washington to oversee the life of the Church as a whole.

The minutes of the Holy Synod's session can be found here, whilst a summary of its joint session with the Metropolitan Council can be found here. All of the members of the hierarchy of the OCA, including the auxiliary bishops, were present for both sessions with the exception of the Romanian Orthodox Episcopate of America's auxiliary Bishop Irineu (Duvlea) of Dearborn Heights, who judging from published accounts of his activities and travels prefers to meet with the hierarchs of the Bucharest Patriarchate in the United States over his brother hierarchs in the OCA.

Meeting of Romanian Orthodox Hierarchs in Diaspora

Over the weekend Archbishop Nathaniel (Popp) of Detroit and Bishop Ireneu (Duvlea) of Dearborn Heights, both of the American Orthodox Church's Romanian Orthodox Episcopate in America, met with the various hierarchs serving in the Romanian Diaspora in North America and Western and Central Europe. These gatherings of the Romanian Orthodox hierarchs in the West have been taking place for several years to allow them to discuss how to deal with the pastoral needs of the Romanian Diaspora.

The most recent meeting of the Romanian Orthodox hierarchs abroad took place in Paris, but the ROEA has also hosted them in the past in the United States. Since the reconciliation of the Romanian Orthodox communities in Western Europe formerly associated with the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad with the Bucharest Patriarchate the ROEA is the only Romanian Orthodox jurisdiction involved not part of the patriarchal Romanian Orthodox Church. More on the recent meeting can be found here.