The Second All-American Sobor ended on this day in 1919.
The first council took place in 1907 in Mayfiled, PA (since 1970 the assembly has been officially called All-American Councils).The council began on February 25 in Cleveland, Ohio. The ruling hierarch of the diocese, Archbishop Evdokim (Meshcherskii), had come to Russia to participate in the All-Russian 1917–1918 Council and not returned.
The council suggested appointing Archbishop Alexander (Nemolovskii) of Canada as the ruling hierarch for North America and elevate him to the rank of Archbishop. When Metropolitan Platon (Rozhdestvenskii) arrived in America in 1922, Archbishop Alexander left for Europe.
At the same Council, an Albanian Orthodox diocese was established, which included parishes in the New England, Mid-Atlantic and Great Lakes states. Archimandrite Theophan Noli was elected its bishop. However, it was not possible to obtain the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon for this consecration due to the impossibility of establishing contact with him in the difficult post-revolutionary years.
By 1918, the American diocese had four vicariates: Alaska, Brooklyn, Pittsburgh, and Canada; three missions (Albanian, Syrian, Serbian); 271 churches, 51 chapels, 31 deaneries, 257 clergy; 60 brotherhoods; St. Tikhon’s Monastery in Pennsylvania, an orphanage at the monastery, a theological seminary, and church schools. It numbered up to 300,000 believers.
Before the Russian Revolution, the American diocese was the only diocese of the Russian Church outside of the Empire. It started with the mission sent to Alaska by Metropolitan Gavriil (Petrov) of Saint Petersburg in 1794 and continued with the reception of masses of former Greek-Catholics in the continental US at the end of the 19th century.
Source:
Monk Benjamin (Gomarteli), “Letopis’ tserkovnykh sobytii Pravoslavnoi Tserkvi nachinai s 1917-go goda,” [Timeline of the Events of the Church History Beginning with 1917]. Part 1: 1917-1927.
