Episcopal Assembly of North and Central America

The Episcopal Assembly of North and Central America is an Eastern Orthodox organization of church Hierarchs in North and Central America.

The history of the Episcopal Assembly began when delegates from the fourteen Autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Churches met at the Center of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Chambésy, Switzerland on June 6-12, 2009. At that time, the Conference decided to sanction the establishment of Episcopal Assemblies in twelve regions of the so-called Eastern Orthodox Diaspora which are beyond the boundaries of the Autocephalous Churches. Such assemblies will have the authority to propose future administrative structures for the Church in their respective regions.

The first conference of the Episcopal Assembly was held at the Helmsley Park Lane Hotel in New York on May 27-28, 2010 under the chairmanship of Archbishop Demetrios of America.

One of the major decisions reached at the Episcopal Assembly's first meeting was the dissolution of the Synod of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of America (SCOBA), and to assume all of SCOBA's functions, agencies and ministries.

Other issues discussed included requests to partition the present region of the Episcopal Assembly of North and Central America into two distinct regions of the United States and Canada, as well as to merge Mexico and Central America with the Assembly of South America.

Although autonomy is an issue for North and Central American churches, there was no direct statement from the assembly regarding autonomy for the Church in North and/or Central America.

Attendees of the Inaugural Assembly (2010)

Of the sixty-six Hierarchs in the region, the following fifty-five were present at the founding Assembly in 2010:

1. Archbishop Demetrios (Trakatellis) of America, Chairman
2. Metropolitan Philip (Saliba) of New York, Vice Chairman
3. Archbishop Justinian (Ovchinnikov) of Naro-Fominsk, Vice Chairman
4. Bishop Basil (Essey) of Wichita, Secretary
5. Archbishop Antony (Scherba) of Hierapolis, Treasurer
6. Metropolitan Iakovos (Garmatis) of Chicago
7. Metropolitan Constantine (Bahan) of Irinoupolis
8. Metropolitan Athenagoras (Aneste) of Mexico
9. Metropolitan Methodios (Tournas) of Boston
10. Metropolitan Isaiah (Chronopoulos) of Denver
11. Metropolitan Nicholas (Smisko) of Amissos
12. Metropolitan Alexios (Panagiotopoulos) of Atlanta
13. Metropolitan Nikitas (Lulias) of Dardanellia
14. Metropolitan Nicholas (Pissare) of Detroit
15. Metropolitan Gerasimos (Michaleas) of San Francisco
16. Metropolitan Evangelos (Kourounis) of New Jersey
17. Metropolitan Paisios (Loulourgas) of Tyana
18. Archbishop Yurij (Kalistchuk) of Toronto
19. Bishop Christophoros (Rakintzakis) of Andida
20. Bishop Vikentios (Malamatenios) of Apameia
21. Bishop Savas (Zembillas) of Troas
22. Bishop Andonios (Paropoulos) of Phasiane
23. Bishop Ilia (Katre) of Philomelion
24. Bishop Ilarion (Rudnyk) of Edmonton.
25. Bishop Andriy (Peshko) of Krateia
26. Bishop Demetrios (Kantzavelos) of Mokissos
27. Bishop Daniel (Zelinskyy) of Pamphilon
28. Bishop Antoun (Khouri) of Miami
29. Bishop Joseph (Al-Zehlaoui) of Los Angeles
30. Bishop Thomas (Joseph) of Charleston and Oakland
31. Bishop Mark (Maymon) of Toledo
32. Bishop Alexander (Mufarrij) of Ottawa
33. Metropolitan Hilarion (Kapral) of New York
34. Bishop Job (Smakouz) of Kashira
35. Bishop Gabriel (Chemodakov) of Montreal
36. Bishop Peter (Loukianoff) of Cleveland
37. Bishop Theodosius (Ivashchenko) of Seattle
38. Bishop George (Schaefer) of Mayfield
39. Bishop Jerome (Shaw) of Manhattan
40. Metropolitan Christopher (Kovacevich) of Midwestern America
41. Bishop Maxim (Vasilijevic) of Western America
42. Archbishop Nicolae (Condrea) of Chicago
43. Bishop Ioan Casian (Tunaru) of Vicina
44. Metropolitan Joseph (Bosakov) of America and Australia
45. Metropolitan Jonah (Paffhausen) of Washington
46. Archbishop Nathaniel (Popp) of Detroit
47. Archbishop Seraphim (Storheim) of Ottawa
48. Bishop Nikon (Liolin) of Boston
49. Bishop Tikhon (Mollard) of Philadelphia
50. Bishop Benjamin (Peterson) of San Francisco
51. Bishop Melchisedek (Pleska) of Pittsburgh
52. Bishop Alejo (Pacheco y Vera) of Mexico City
53. Bishop Irineu (Duvlea) of Dearborn Heights
54. Bishop Irénée (Rochon) of Quebec City
55. Bishop Michael (Dahulich) of New York

See also

• List of Orthodox jurisdictions in North America
• Eastern Orthodox Church

External links

• Episcopal Assembly of North and Central America
• Official website of SCOBA