Archdiocese of Russian Orthodox Churches in Western Europe

Not to be confused with Patriarchal Exarchate in Western Europe (Moscow Patriarchate).
Archdiocese of Russian Orthodox Churches in Western Europe
Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, Paris, seat of the archdiocese
Location
CountryFrance, Great Britain, Ireland, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Netherlands, Norway
HeadquartersParis
Statistics
Parishes69 (2021)[1]
Information
DenominationEastern Orthodox Church
RiteByzantine
Established1921
CathedralAlexander Nevsky Cathedral, Paris
Website
archeveche.eu

The Archdiocese of Russian Orthodox Churches in Western Europe[a] is an archdiocese of the Russian Orthodox Church with special status, headquartered in Paris. It comprises various Russian Orthodox parishes located throughout Western Europe.

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]

  1. ^ see full list; this list contains 71 parishes, but parishes in San Remo and Florence actually are in ROCOR
  2. ^ "Archevêché des églises russes en Europe occidentale - Communique of the Ecumenical Patriarchate". exarchat.eu. 27 November 2018.
  3. ^ "Archevêché des églises russes en Europe occidentale - Act of Canonical Subordination concerning the Parishes of our Archdiocese in Western Europe". exarchat.eu. 19 February 2019. Archived from the original on 27 January 2019. Retrieved 3 April 2019.
  4. ^ "Communiqué (29/11/2018). - Announcements - The Ecumenical Patriarchate". www.patriarchate.org.
  5. ^ "Archevêché des églises russes en Europe occidentale - Statuts de l'Archevêché - Chapitre 1". www.exarchat.eu. Archived from the original on 17 October 2019. Retrieved 17 October 2019.
  6. ^ "Le Métropolite Emmanuel nommé locum tenens". Métropole Grecque Orthodoxe de France (in French) (published 4 September 2019). 2 September 2019. Retrieved 7 September 2019.
  7. ^ "Archevêché des églises russes en Europe occidentale - Communiqué of the Office of the Archbishop of 29 September 2019". exarchat.eu. Archived from the original on 30 September 2019. Retrieved 30 September 2019.
  8. ^ "ЖУРНАЛЫ заседания Священного Синода от 7 октября 2019 года / Официальные документы / Патриархия.ru".
  9. ^ "Visite pastorale à Rennes à l'occasion de la fête paroissiale". Metropole Grecque Orthodoxe de France – Ιερά Μητρόπολις Γαλλίας (in French). 10 November 2019. Retrieved 14 November 2019.
  10. ^ Ivshina, Olga (13 November 2019). ""Видимость великого воссоединения": что происходит с русскими церквями в Европе". BBC Russian Service (in Russian). Retrieved 16 November 2019.
  11. ^ a b Bomben fra Konstantinopel, 14 October 2019 - Orthodox Church of Denmark
  12. ^ Message from the Bulgarian patriarch of America, Canada and Australia Archived 12 January 2020 at the Wayback Machine, Swedish translation, at the parish website of Kristi förklaring Orthodox parish in Stockholm, dated the Sunday of Orthodoxy, 2019


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