HIERARCHICAL SUCCESSION

of the
HOLY ORTHODOX CHURCH IN NORTH AMERICA

1924 - Church of Greece adopts the New Calendar.

1935 - Three Metropolitans led by Chrysostom of Florina, renounce the calendar

innovation and become the hierarchs of the Church of the True Orthodox Christians
of Greece.

1955 - Metropolitan Chrysostom of Florina reposes, leaving no successor.

1960 - Archbishop Seraphim of Chicago and Bishop Theophilus of Detroit, both of

the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad (ROCOR), secretly consecrate Archimandrite
Akakios Pappas as Bishop of Talantion for the flock of the late Metropolitan
Chrysostom.

1962 - Archbishop Leonty of Chile and Peru (ROCOR) and Bishop Akakios of
Talantion consecrate three more bishops for the Church in Greece, including Bishop
Auxentios of Gardikion.

1963 - Bishop Akakios of Talantion reposes. Bishop Auxentios of Gardikion becomes

the Archbishop of Athens of the Church of the True Orthodox Christians of Greece.

1969 - Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad under Saint Philaret
Metropolitan of New York, recognizes the episcopal consecrations of the Synod of
Archbishop Auxentios of Athens which had been enacted in 1960 without the
knowledge of the Synod of ROCOR.1

1
​Letter of the Synod of ROCOR to Archbishop Auxentios of Athens
1
1979-1984 - Series of schisms occur in the True Orthodox Church of Greece with
groups of bishops uncanonically separating from Archbishop Auxentios, as a result of
which emerge the synods of Cyprian Koutsoumbas and of Chrysostomos Kiousis. In
2014, these two groups merge into a single synod under Kallinikos Sarantopoulos.

1985 - Repose of Saint Philaret, Metropolitan of New York, the First Hierarch of the
Russian Orthodox Church Abroad.

1987 - Due to the change of ROCOR’s ecclesiastical course by Metropolitan Vitaly,

the successor of Saint Philaret, monastic communities, parishes and clergy in the
United States, Canada and France leave the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad and
are accepted into the Synod of Archbishop Auxentios of Athens.2

1988 - Holy Synod of Archbishop Auxentios of Athens consecrates Bishop Ephraim

of Boston for the flock in North America. The Holy Orthodox Church in North
America (HOCNA) is formally established.

1991 - Holy Synod of Archbishop Auxentios of Athens consecrates Bishop Makarios

of Toronto, a second hierarch for the Holy Orthodox Church in North America.

1993 - Archbishop Auxentios of Athens elevates Bishop Ephraim and Bishop

Makarios to the rank of Metropolitans and blesses them to organize the church life in
North America in full independence.

1994 - Repose of Archbishop Auxentios of Athens.

1997 - No acting bishops of the Synod of Archbishop Auxentios left in Greece. The
succession of the Synod is continued by the bishops in North America and France.
Metropolitan Makarios of Toronto is appointed the ​Locum Tenens of the See of
Athens.

2001 - In view of the dissolution of the Synod of Archbishop Auxentios in Greece, the
bishops in North America formally establish a local Synod of the Holy Orthodox
Church in North America.

2016 - Holy Orthodox Church in North America reiterates its status as a

self-administering, fully independent, locally-established Church by issuing a
Synodal Affirmation of Autocephaly.3

2
Letter of Departure from ROCOR
3
Synodal Affirmation of Autocephaly
2