11/18/2025, we at Share the Faith Ministries want to express our concern of statements given by various American Journalists, nonprofit organizations, funded by the Open Institute, and politicians, including Representative Joe Wilson from South Carolina regarding the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad in the United States.
The Honorable Representative Wilson provided members on the X platform an inaccurate description of Russian Orthodoxy implicating the faithful of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad in the United States as “intelligence operatives” who plan to meet with our Senate and House of Representatives today in order to speak to them regarding the on-going persecution of the legitimate Ukrainian Orthodox Church under the omophorion of Metropolitan Onufry by the Zelensky government in Ukraine. Much of this persecution has been documented and even acknowledged by the Vice President of the United States, J.D. Vance.
Established right after the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad was enacted as a means for Russian Orthodox Faithful to create, by the Grace of God, a true communion of followers outside the borders of the newly established Soviet juggernaut in Russia who took over Russia through violent means, unjustly and mercilessly executing the Royal Family, castigating faithful and clergy of the legitimate church into camps, and execution. Read more of ROCOR history here
We must let it be known that the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad within the borders of the United States is not under the Moscow Patriarchate. The Head of the ROCOR Church in the United States is Metropolitan Nicholas, born in Trenton, New Jersey.
Let it be clear, these individuals who are now hitting the platforms attempting to smear ROCOR in the US are attacking an American Faith Group by pushing unsubstantiated claims they are under influence of Moscow. In reality, they are attacking American Christians and their First Amendment Rights to meet with and speak with the very US Representatives they voted to elect. Furthermore, this is an attack on the First Amendment Rights of American Citizens who wish to exercise their freedom to worship without persecution or pressure from government officials or nonprofits funded by black monies that aim to remove all semblance of Christ from American Culture.
We at Share the Faith strongly condemn these attempts and urge all to write their political officials to stop continued persecution of Orthodox Christians, not only abroad, but in our very nation. We provide here a reminder of some of the Orthodox Christian martyrs who served in the United States.
How far we have come in the United States; once a bastion for persecuted Christians who wished to escape the gulags of past Soviet oppression, to the very vehicle of oppression of their descendants within our own nation today. Lord have mercy on us all!
I don’t agree with Mr Wilson’s comments mostly, but you’re wrong about ROCOR. It’s part of the Moscow Patriarchate.
This is what the Act of Communion says on the ROCOR website: Moscow Patriarchate recognizes the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad as an “integral self-governing part of the local Russian Orthodox Church” that is “independent in pastoral, educational, administrative, economic, real estate and civil affairs”