Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia

Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia Ру́сская Правосла́вная Це́рковь Заграни́цей
ROCOR headquarters, 75 E 93rd St, New York.
Abbreviation	ROCOR
Classification	Eastern Orthodox
Primate	Patriarch of Moscow & All Rus' Kirill
First Hierarch	Metropolitan Nicholas (Olhovsky)
Language	Church Slavonic (worship), Russian (preaching), English (USA, Canada, UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand), Spanish (Spain and Latin America), German (Germany), French (France, Switzerland, Canada), Indonesian (Indonesia), Haitian Creole (Haiti), Portuguese (Portugal and Brazil) and others
Headquarters	Patriarchal: Moscow, Russia Jurisdictional: New York City, NY
Territory	Americas Europe Australia New Zealand
Founder	Anthony (Khrapovitsky) Anastasius (Gribanovsky) Eulogius (Georgiyevsky)
Independence	1920
Reunion	2007
Recognition	Self-government church within Russian Orthodox Church
Separations	Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church (1994–1995, then called the Russian Orthodox Free Church)
Members	27,700 in the U.S. (9,000 regular church attendees[α])[1][β]
Official website	www.synod.com
^ These numbers reflect only the supposed US adherents. They do not take into account ROCOR's numbers in Australia, Germany, and Indonesia. ^ The number of adherents given in the Atlas of American Orthodox Christian Churches is defined as "individual full members" with the addition of their children. It also includes an estimate of how many are not members but regularly participate in parish life. Regular attendees includes only those who regularly attend church and regularly participate in church life.

The Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (Russian: Ру́сская Правосла́вная Це́рковь Заграни́цей, romanized: Rússkaya Pravoslávnaya Tsérkov Zagranítsey, lit. 'Russian Orthodox Church Abroad'), also called Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia or ROCOR, or Russian Orthodox Church Abroad (ROCA), is a semi-autonomous part of the Russian Orthodox Church (Moscow Patriarchate). Currently, the position of First-Hierarch of the ROCOR is occupied by Metropolitan Nicholas (Olhovsky).^[2]

The ROCOR was established in the early 1920s as a de facto independent ecclesiastical jurisdiction of Eastern Orthodoxy, initially due to lack of regular liaison between the central church authority in Moscow and some bishops due to their voluntary exile after the Russian Civil War. These bishops migrated with other Russians to Western European cities and nations, including Paris and other parts of France, and to the United States and other western countries. Later these bishops rejected the Moscow Patriarchate′s unconditional political loyalty to the Bolshevik regime in the USSR. This loyalty was formally promulgated by the Declaration of 20 July 1927 of Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky), deputy Patriarchal locum tenens. Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitsky), of Kiev and Galicia, was the founding First-Hierarch of the ROCOR.^[3]

After 80 years of separation followed by the fall of the Soviet Union, on 17 May 2007, the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia officially signed the Act of Canonical Communion with the Moscow Patriarchate, restoring the canonical link between the churches.

The ROCOR jurisdiction has around 400 parishes worldwide and an estimated membership of more than 400,000 people.^[4] Of these, 232 parishes and 10 monasteries are in the United States; they have 92,000 declared adherents and over 9,000 regular church attendees.^[1][5] The ROCOR has 13 hierarchs, with male and female monasteries in the United States, Canada, and the Americas; Australia, New Zealand, and Western Europe.^{[citation needed]}