Synod of Bishops, Self-Ruled Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America
You are probably familiar with terms like Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, Romanian Orthodox, etc. Now you have another one to add to the collection: Antiochian Orthodox.
What is the difference? In an important sense, there is no difference!
All of these belong to the one Orthodox Church. We share the same faith, the same sacraments, the same over-arching tradition of worship; and, most importantly, we recognize each other as together being the Orthodox Church. Thus, if a member of a Greek Orthodox parish was to visit an Antiochian Orthodox parish, he would normally be allowed to receive the sacraments, such as Holy Communion, while visiting.
In those countries around the Mediterranean and Eastern Europe where Orthodoxy is the religion of nearly all Christians, you would not speak of yourself as being “Greek Orthodox” or “Russian Orthodox” and so forth. You would simply be an Orthodox Christian, a member of the Church. However in America, the Orthodox Church has arrived through missionaries and immigrants from a variety of traditionally Orthodox countries, who formed communities of the faithful that, at least for a time, needed to worship in their native language. For this reason, such qualifiers as ‘Greek’ or ‘Russian’ or ‘Antiochian’ are used in reference to the ethnicity and language of the parish’s founders. Naturally, when immigrants arrived on American shores, they looked to the Church leadership of their home country to send them priests who could minister to them in their native language.
These clergy were, naturally, under the jurisdiction of the local Orthodox Church of their home country. For this reason, multiple Orthodox jurisdictions currently co-exist in America, each under the care of a “mother Church” in a traditionally Orthodox land. Historically speaking, this is an unusual situation, and everyone generally agrees that eventually the Orthodox faithful in America should be united clearly in a single jurisdiction. Thankfully, the Standing Conference of Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas (S.C.O.B.A.) exists to give concrete expression to the fact that the various Orthodox in America — be they Greek, Russian, Serbian, etc. — are all part of one, undivided Orthodox Church.
Holy Trinity Orthodox Church belongs to the Self-Ruled Antiochian Christian Archdiocese of North America. The Antiochian Archdiocese is a part of the ancient Patriarchate of Antioch in the Middle East, and is called “Self-Ruled” because of certain administrative rights enjoyed locally by the Archdiocese in relationship to the Patriarchate. Today, the Antiochian Archdiocese is one of the most evangelistic of the Orthodox jurisdictions, with numerous parishes and missions throughout North America, and more being formed every year. The Antiochian Archdiocese has a strong commitment to bringing the richness of Orthodox Christianity to the people of America.
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