Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church

Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church
Acronym(s)	ROAC
Origin	ROCOR
Founded	1994
Current primate	Met. Theodore of Suzdal
Headquarters	Suzdal
Territory	Russia, Americas, Europe
Liturgical language(s)	Russian/local
Musical tradition	Slavic
Bishops
Parishes
Monasteries
Official website	www.roacusa.org/

(ROAC) Russian Orthodox Autonomous Church, previously known as the FROC (Free Russian Orthodox Church), is a True Orthodox Church with a base in Suzdal, Russia. ROAC has parishes across Russia, Europe, Africa, and North America. ROAC's founding occurred as a result of ROCOR (Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia) ordaining bishops for Russia shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s for mostly catacomb Orthodox Christians who did not want to be part of the Moscow Patriarchate. Currently, the president of the synod of bishops is Metropolitan Theodore of Suzdal and Vladimir.

History of ROAC

After the tumultuous early years following the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 in Russia, the Russian Orthodox Church was in disarray as her adherents either went underground, capitulated to the Moscow Patriarchate (MP) or the Living Church, or were scattered abroad throughout the world. However, by 1927 the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR) had established a workable synod of bishops and a synodal headquarters in New York. This new temporary Church higher authority formally broke communion with the MP; viewing the Catacomb Church in Russia as the only legitimate Church.

With the collapse of the Soviet Communist government in Russia in the early 1990s and the establishment of the Russian Federation, new religious freedoms were guaranteed by the new constitution. Many Orthodox Christians who had hidden their faith (Catacomb Christians) as well as members who had been with the MP who felt that the MP was not the true Church began to organize themselves into new independent religions organizations. Among these pockets of Christians emerged a few leaders that began to attract a following. Among these were two monastics who made an appeal to the ROCOR for assistance in establishing a Russian Orthodox Church inside of Russian and free of the MP: Archimandrite Lazarus (Zhurkenko) and Archimandrite Valentine (Rusantsev).

In 1990, the ROCOR synod approved the episcopal consecration of Archimandrite Valentine. On February 10, 1991, Bishop Valentine was consecrated in St. Job the Much-Suffering church in Brussels, Belgium. His consecrators being Archbishop Anthony (Bartoshevich) of Geneva and Western Europe, Archbishop Mark (Arndt) of Berlin and Germany, Bishop Barnabas (Prokofiev) of Cannes and Bishop Gregory (Grabbe) of Washington. Bishop Valentine's episcopal see was Suzdal and Vladimir. After this thousands of faithful, forming hundreds of parishes, began to come to the newly organized Free Russian Orthodox Church (FROC).

Trouble with ROCOR Leadership

Almost as soon as the synod of ROCOR began to assist the fledgling FROC, a struggle began for the future direction of ROCOR. Two diametrically opposed camps were forming: those who wanted nothing to do with the MP, and those who felt that ROCOR should work toward unity with the MP.

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External Links

roacusa.org