The Standing Conference of the Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas (SCOBA)

Introduction

Founded in 1960, the Standing Conference of the Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas (SCOBA), brings together the canonical hierarchs of Orthodox jurisdictions in the Americas.
The purpose of the Standing Conference is to create and foster ties of unity among the canonical Orthodox Churches and administrations for a stronger and more visible witness to the Orthodox Faith. The hierarchs meet semi-annually for discussion and decisions on inter-Orthodox and ecumenical matters, to review the work of its commissions and dialogues, and to plan future events.
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Russian America

Introduction

Russian America (Russian: Русская Америка) was the name used for Russian possessions in the New World the period between 1733 and 1867 in which Russia claimed the territory that today is the U.S. State of Alaska. Formal incorporation of the possessions did not take place until the Ukase of 1799, which established a monopoly for the Russian-American Company and also granted the Russian Orthodox Church certain rights in the new possessions.

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Orthodoxy in the U.S.A. and Canada

Introduction

Ortodoxy in USA
Orthodoxy in America has a complex history and a complicated present. Orthodoxy in America has a complex history and a complicated present. In the 18th Century, the great Orthodox Christian missionary work which began with Pentecost in Jerusalem, so many centuries before, finally crossed from the continent of Euro-Asia into North America.
Ortodoxy in USA The first missionaries traveled with the explorers Vitus Bering and Alexei Chirikov, who formally claimed Alaska and the Aleutian Islands in 1741. For the next fifty years, together with the exploration and economic development of this new outpost of the Russian Empire, the first attempts were made to bring the Orthodox Faith to the natives of that region (the Aleuts, the Athabascan Indians, the Tlingits, and the Eskimos). The first formal Orthodox Christian Mission to America arrived on September 24, 1794, in Kodiak.

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Orthodoxy

Introduction

Andrej Rublev Troitsa The Orthodox Church as a whole is the unity of what are called local autocephalous or autonomous churches. These words mean simply that these churches govern themselves, electing their own bishops and organizing their own lives. Each of these churches has exactly the same doctrine, discipline and spiritual practices.
Mariya
They use the same Bible, follow the same canon laws, confess the authority of the same Church Councils and worship by what is essentially the same liturgy.
It is nothing other than this communion in faith and practice which unites all Orthodox Churches together into one world-wide body. In this sense, there is no one dominating authority in the Orthodox Church, no particular bishop or see or document which hasy over the churches.
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National Council of Churches (NCC)

Introduction

Logos of the National Council of Churches The National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA (usually identified as National Council of Churches, or NCC) is an ecumenical fellowship of 35 Christian faith groups in the United States. Its member communions (also variously called denominations, churches, conventions, or archdioceses) include a wide variety of Mainline Protestant, Orthodox, African-American, and historic Peace churches.

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