American Orthodox Catholic Church
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Th AOCC-Propheta Jurisdiction in its present form, was founded in 1964 as a separate and independent jurisdiction. This Communion was chartered in the State of New York in 1965 by Patriarch Walter Myron Propheta of Blessed Memory.
The AOCC has taken upon itself the calling of implanting a truly American and all-embracing Orthodoxy, as distinct from the canonical jurisdictions of the Orthodox Church in America and the Ecumenical Patriarchate, branching out into the liturgical expressions of both Eastern and Western Orthodox Christianity.
The stated goal of Propheta and the AOCC is to make right faith and worship an empowering characteristic of personal and communal spirituality: this within the broader scope of returning to communion with the Body of Christ, with the Father, and with one another those who, for whatever reason, have been disenfranchised from their faith communities of origin, the restoration of the place of and the role this Church once held in the broader picture of American Church history, maintaining absolute Liturgical purity, and propagating uncompromised Apostolic teaching.
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[edit] The Church of Russia
The first missionaries from the Orthodox Patriarchate of Moscow and all Russia, stepped upon the shores of the North American Continent in 1794; establishing a foundation on Kodiak Island, and building mission outposts in what is now the State of Alaska. Hierarch after Hierarch was consecrated in succession from the Patriarchal Seat and sent to serve and administer these parishes, clergy and faithful.
One such Bishop was Tikhon Bellavin, a holy Martyr for both the Church and for Orthodoxy, and a Canonized Saint: Metropolitan Archbishop of The Russian Orthodox Church in America during the years 1895-1907; until he was recalled to Moscow to lead the re-established Russian Patriarchate.
In 1917 Patriarch Tikhon and the Holy Synod elected a Presbyter from the Patriarchate of Antioch, Abdullah (Aftimios) Ofiesh, for consecration to the Episcopacy. Ofiesh had come to the United States to minister under the Omophora of the Exarch for all people of Arab descent in America, Archbishop St. Raphael Hawaweeny: Hawaweeny having been himself consecrated as Hierarch by St. Tikhon. Ofiesh was assigned to serve as Dean of the Cathedral of St. Nicholas in New York City.
The Consecration of Fr. Aftimios as Bishop was celebrated at that very same Cathedral on May 31, 1917 by the laying on of hands from Archbishops Evdokim Mischersky of the Russian Church in America, Alexander Nemolovsky, Russian Orthodox Exarch for Canada and the Aleutian Islands, and Bishop Stephen Dzubai, of the Russian Orthodox Diocese of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In this sacramental act was passed to Hierarch Aftimios the validity and canonicity of Russian Orthodoxy.
The mandate subsequently given by Patriarch Tikhon to the new Bishop was to found, under Synodal Constitution from the Mother Church, an autonomous American Orthodox Church. A decade later, this call was to be confirmed.
In that year, 1927, Metropolitan Platon, spiritual leader of the Russian Orthodox Church in America and a successor to Patriarch St. Tikhon in this country, gave now Archbishop Ofiesh care and responsibility; reiterating the missionary challenge of St. Tikhon, of building an American Church for the Orthodox population of this country who were not being satisfactorily served by ethnic Orthodoxy; as well as those from other denominations of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church who might come to wish to associate themselves with an autonomous and independent American Orthodox Church.
As successive years unfolded, other Bishops from ethnic Churches would cooperate with one another in consecrating Hierarchs and ordaining clergy for their respective Jurisdictions, thus significantly contributing to the building of American Orthodoxy. Most notable among these are the Churches of Greece and Ukraine, the Church of Albania, and the Greek Patriarchate of Alexandria.
It is not only from its Russian heritage, but also from the other Churches and Patriarchates given to every other Bishop in the history and lineage of American Orthodoxy, including Walter Myron Propheta, that the AOCC claims the absolute legitimacy and validity of its descendency.
[edit] The Ethiopian Orthodox Coptic Church
Of more recent dating, and of equal importance to the history of the presently ministering AOCC - Propheta Jurisdiction is the Apostolic Lineage given from the Coptic Church of Ethiopia.
The first Hierarch to be spoken of here is Abuna Basilios, consecrated to the Episcopacy in 1951 by Patriarch Kyrillos VI and Bishop Youasab of the Coptic Church of Egypt. Upon the Orthodox Clergy and faithful of Ethiopia being granted their autocephaly, Basilios was consecrated as their Patriarch.
In the decade of the 1950s, under Abuna Basilios, came a Fr. Gabre Mikael Cristos (Michael Haithman); originally ordained to the Presbyterate by Archbishop Hubert Augustus Rogers of The North American Old Roman Catholic Church.
It is also within this timeframe that Gabre Mikael traveled to Ethiopia to bring a group of seminarians to the United States so the EOCC would have a solidly-founded presence outside Ethiopia.
Prior to his return to this country in 1959, Gabre Mikael was consecrated as Chorbishop by Abuna Basilios; and in 1962 was ordained to the full Episcopacy, also by Basilios, and named Metropolitan Primate of the EOCC for North and South America.
The establishment of the Ethiopian Orthodox Coptic Church in this country would prove of great importance, for upon the assassination of Ethiopia's beloved Emperor Haile Selassie and the overthrow of the Ethiopian government, Abuna Basilios was sent into exile. He came to America and settled in New York City.
The EOCC in Basilios' homeland fell into both heretical and blasphemous practices, while the EOCC Church in the United States, under Hierarch Gabre Mikael, retained its faithfulness to Canonical Orthodoxy. For a time also, The Ethiopian Orthodox Coptic Church came under the Omophora of Archbishop Propheta and was known as 'The American Orthodox Catholic Church - Archdiocese of the Coptic Rite.'
Bishop Gabre Mikael Cristos and the Ethiopian Orthodox Coptic Church are integral to the history and the succession of the current AOCC - Propheta in that Gabre Mikael, who had also received Consecration from Archbishop Propheta and thus received the lineage of American Orthodoxy, was the principle consecrator of Archbishop Gabre Medhin Jeremiah (David W. Worley), retired Metropolitan Primate of The American Orthodox Church/American Orthodox Catholic Church.
[edit] Hierarch Walter Myron Propheta
In a discussion of the AOCC, it is also necessary to speak of Archbishop Walter Myron Propheta.
Propheta was born in 1912 in the City of Lviv in Ukraine to Archpriest and Mrs. Dimitray Propheta. Archpriest Dimitray, being the eleventh generation of Ukrainian Orthodox clergy in his ancestry, was known in religion as Wolodymir I and was, according to the AOCC, a spiritual leader of some influence, respected among the Hierarchs of the Autocephalous Orthodox Communions as they existed in his time.
Speaking in ecclesiastical terms, Walter Propheta was ordained to the Presbyterate, becoming the twelfth generation to carry on the legacy of Ukrainian Orthodox Priesthood in his family, on May 5, 1933 by The Most Reverend Bodhan Schpylka, Bishop and future Metropolitan Primate of The Ukrainian Orthodox Church in America - Ecumenical Patriachate of Constantinople: the UOCA having been founded by Archbishop Joseph Zuk.
After a quarter century of service to this Orthodox Jurisdiction as Priest, Fr. Walter was elevated to the Office of Mitred Archpriest and appointed Chancellor of the UOCA; these honors were bestowed upon him in 1959 by Hierarch Schpylka. As Presbyter, Propheta was first Pastor of St. Mary's Ukrainian Orthodox Church in South Plainfield, New Jersey and others.
In the late 1950s, the congregation at the Church of the Holy Resurrection in the Bronx, New York wished to have the vernacular brought into the celebration of the Divine Liturgy to replace the traditional Old Church Slavonic. It was Propheta's desire that the broader scope of not only the Church but also Orthodoxy be made available and accessible to all regardless of national origin. Due to a rubrical disagreement with Metropolitan Bodhan, who served as Dean of Priests as well as Pastor because Schpylka would not sanction the change, Archpriest Walter split from the Ukranian Orthodox Church and ventured into the realm of canonical, independent autocephaly.
He took up the mission of restoring the vision of American Orthodoxy, like those who had come before him and whose succession he would soon share. In 1965, Propheta chartered the American Orthodox Catholic Church in New York.
His resolve in this labor is shown by his cooperation with such well-known and long-established Hierarchs as Archbishops Peter Zhurawetsky and Hubert Augustus Rogers, and many others. He himself, however, remained faithful to his Ukrainian Orthodox heritage.
October 4, 1964 saw Archpriest Walter consecrated to episcopacy by Joachim Souris of The Greek Archdiocese of Brooklyn and New Jersey, (former American Exarchate of the Patriarchate of Alexandria)and Metropolitan theodotus DeWitow of The Holy Orthodox Church in America. This Episcopal Consecration was also sanctioned[citation needed] by the Roman Catholic Cardinal Archbishop of New York at the time, Francis Spellman.
Archbishop Theoklitos Kantaris of the Orthodox Church of Cyprus and Metropolitan DeWitow, on March 30, 1965 and by the laying on of hands, elevated Bishop Walter for service as Archbishop and Metropolitan Primate of The American Orthodox Church/American Orthodox Catholic Church.
[edit] Propheta's legacy
The influence of The American orthodox Church/American Orthodox Catholic Church under Propheta's Omophora in the 1960s and early 1970s extended to many parts of the world and was comprised of clergy and religious in Europe, Africa, the Caribbean, South America, Great Britain and the United States.
Propheta died on October 8, 1972. He was laid to rest in the State of New Jersey.
Propheta was canonized as a saint by the AOCC-Propheta Jurisdiction on June 9, 2004.
