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Archdiocese of Russian Orthodox Churches in Western Europe
Diocese with a special status within the Russian Orthodox Church / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Archdiocese of Russian Orthodox Churches in Western Europe[lower-alpha 1] is an archdiocese of the Russian Orthodox Church with special status, headquartered in Paris. It comprises various Russian Orthodox parishes located throughout Western Europe.
Archdiocese of Russian Orthodox Churches in Western Europe | |
---|---|
![]() Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Paris, seat of the archdiocese | |
Location | |
Country | France, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Norway |
Headquarters | Paris |
Statistics | |
Parishes | 69 (2021)[1] |
Information | |
Denomination | Eastern Orthodox Church |
Rite | Byzantine |
Established | 1921 |
Cathedral | Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Paris |
Website | |
archeveche.eu |
The diocese was initially composed of parishes that were under the administration of the Russian White émigré bishop Eulogius Georgiyevsky. Georgiyevsky had decided to place the exarchate under the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate instead of allowing its continued subordination to the church in Moscow, which was by then under the full control of the Soviet state. He was also unwilling to recognize the authority of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, then based in Yugoslavia and headed by Metropolitan Anthony Khrapovitsky.
In 1931, Metropolitan Eulogius and his supporters in the clergy and laity were admitted to the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. These parishes received a temporary exarchate status within Western Europe, which was later abolished in 1965. Afterwards, this Association existed as the "Orthodox Archdiocese of France and Western Europe and Russian Western European churches of diaspora". In 1971, the archdiocese was again accepted into the Ecumenical Patriarchate. A new reorganization was implemented on 19 June 1999, when Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople recreated the exarchate by granting it a tomos. This tomos was later abolished by the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Constantinople on 27 November 2018, and the former parishes of the exarchate were instructed to join the relevant dioceses under the Patriarchate of Constantinople.[2][3][4] While Article 11 of the archdiocese's statute expressly states that its primate must be a bishop under the Ecumenical Patriarchate,[5] it continues to exist as a legal entity nevertheless.[6]
The archdiocese voted to continue as a legal entity in February 2019, but failed to pass a resolution to join the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Moscow in September of that year as was proposed by its primate Archbishop John (Renneteau) [ru], who had personally joined the Moscow Patriarchate.[7] On 7 October 2019, the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Moscow confirmed the acceptance of clerics and parishes "who expressed such a desire".[8] Many parishes and clerics of the former Exarchate followed Archbishop John, while others joined various jurisdictions, such as the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of France under the Ecumenical Patriarchate,[9] the Romanian Orthodox Church,[10] the Bulgarian Orthodox Church,[11][12] or the Serbian Orthodox Church.[11]