Our wider church - the deanery and the archdiocese
The Archdiocese is the legal successor and direct continuation of the “Provisional Administration of Russian Parishes in Western Europe” founded by Saint Patriarch Tikhon of Moscow and entrusted to Archbishop Evlogy (by decrees of 8 April 1921, nos 423 & 424) with the agreement of Saint Metropolitan Benjamin of Petrograd who till then had jurisdiction over the religious institutions of the Russian Orthodox Church in western Europe (letter dated 21 June 1921).
The head of the Archdiocese is Metropolitan Jean of Doubna.
The Exarchate traces its origins to the episcopal service of Metropolitan Evlogii, who in the late 1930s felt himself unable to guide his flock of the Russian Orthodox Church within the embrace of the Moscow Patriarchate, given the atheistic influence of Communism in Russia after the revolution of 1917. Metropolitan Evlogii sought to carry forward his service under the protection of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. The Exarchate therefore sees itself as the successor of the earlier ‘Provisional administration of the Russian parishes in Western Europe’ founded by Patriarch Tikhon (later St Tikhon) of Moscow and entrusted to Evlogii in 1921.
The Exarchate was closed in 1965 by Patriarch Athenagoras I (through a letter dated 22 November), with an assembly meeting the following year (16–18 February 1966) noting that such provisional ethnic structures were no longer necessary, given that the passage of several generations had allowed immigrants to become accustomed to their new lands, which were now made up of more and more converts to the faith.
The Exarchate remained closed until 22 January 1971, when it was reinstated by the same Patriarch Athenagoras I - again under the Omophorion of the Ecumenical Patriarch, but with internal autonomy of organisation. This status was blessed by Patriarch Bartholomew I in 1999, 19 June, who, according to the Exarchate's own account 'recognised the full autonomy of the Archidiocese in administrative, pastoral and material terms.'
After a crisis in 2018, when the Ecumenical Patriarchate summarily removed the exarchal status of the Archdiocese, after several pastoral meetings and a majority vote of the Archdiocesan Assembly, the Archdiocese became a part of the Patriarchate of Moscow. Metropolitan Jean was given the title 'of Doubna' (a town inside the district of Moscow) and elevated to dignity of Metropolitan. After a further General Assembly vote in November 2019 to amend its constitution, the Archdiocese remains institutionally seperate from the Russian Orthodox Church, but under the omofor of the Moscow Patriarchate.
The head of the Archdiocese is Metropolitan Jean of Doubna.
The Exarchate traces its origins to the episcopal service of Metropolitan Evlogii, who in the late 1930s felt himself unable to guide his flock of the Russian Orthodox Church within the embrace of the Moscow Patriarchate, given the atheistic influence of Communism in Russia after the revolution of 1917. Metropolitan Evlogii sought to carry forward his service under the protection of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. The Exarchate therefore sees itself as the successor of the earlier ‘Provisional administration of the Russian parishes in Western Europe’ founded by Patriarch Tikhon (later St Tikhon) of Moscow and entrusted to Evlogii in 1921.
The Exarchate was closed in 1965 by Patriarch Athenagoras I (through a letter dated 22 November), with an assembly meeting the following year (16–18 February 1966) noting that such provisional ethnic structures were no longer necessary, given that the passage of several generations had allowed immigrants to become accustomed to their new lands, which were now made up of more and more converts to the faith.
The Exarchate remained closed until 22 January 1971, when it was reinstated by the same Patriarch Athenagoras I - again under the Omophorion of the Ecumenical Patriarch, but with internal autonomy of organisation. This status was blessed by Patriarch Bartholomew I in 1999, 19 June, who, according to the Exarchate's own account 'recognised the full autonomy of the Archidiocese in administrative, pastoral and material terms.'
After a crisis in 2018, when the Ecumenical Patriarchate summarily removed the exarchal status of the Archdiocese, after several pastoral meetings and a majority vote of the Archdiocesan Assembly, the Archdiocese became a part of the Patriarchate of Moscow. Metropolitan Jean was given the title 'of Doubna' (a town inside the district of Moscow) and elevated to dignity of Metropolitan. After a further General Assembly vote in November 2019 to amend its constitution, the Archdiocese remains institutionally seperate from the Russian Orthodox Church, but under the omofor of the Moscow Patriarchate.
