Denominational Profile

History

	Patriarchal Parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church in the U.S.A.	continuedPatriarchal Parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church in the U.S.A.
		split into Eastern Orthodox Catholic Church in America (1951)

In 1970, following the creation of the autonomous Orthodox Church in America, which included most of the factions of the Russian Orthodox Church then operating in the United States, a few parishes declined to enter the new church. They wished to remain directly under the Patriarch in Moscow and reorganized as the Patriarchal Parishes of the Russian Orthodox Church in the U.S.A.

Membership Data

Year	Clergy	Churches	Members
1972	53	41	50,000
1973	59	41	51,000
1974	60	41	51,500
1975	60	41	51,500
1985	45	38	9,780
2000	48	32	-
2006	63	31	17,000
2008	63	31	7,000

Data were taken from the National Council of Churches' Historic Archive CD and recent editions of the Yearbook of American and Canadian Churches. Denomination descriptions provided by Dr. J. Gordon Melton, Director, Institute for the Study of American Religion (ISAR). [More information on data sources]