The Full Story
The Archdiocese of Orthodox Churches of Russian Tradition in Western Europe
The name of our jurisdiction can be quite a mouthful, but to get to know it - and how we came to be - is to learn about a living Church that embodies all the best that Orthodoxy has to offer in the West!
Our Ethos
The Archdiocese of Orthodox Churches of Russian Tradition in Western Europe is called to be an Orthodox Church of place - whether that is somewhere in the British Isles, France, Germany, Scandinavia, or anywhere else that we have parishes. Even in such diversity of landscape the mission is always the same: to live out the Gospel in context.
The Archdiocese itself is divided into smaller units called deaneries: these correspond to broad regional and linguistic divisions. In the Deanery of Great Britain & Ireland the primary language used is English, but any language represented in the community may be utilised: Welsh, Gaelic, French, Russian, Ukrainian, Romanian, Greek. This helps to give a sense of place: understanding and appreciating where we are. English, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh saints are celebrated - without neglecting our spiritual and liturgical origins in Russia.
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Our Church draws especially on what was transmitted to us via France after the Bolshevik revolution. We are sometimes called ‘Rue Daru’ after the very road in Paris where our Cathedral can be found, and it is indeed a road we are on: undertaking our Orthodox mission with gratitude for our history and united to our Metropolitan Archbishop in Paris, John of Dubna.
Our History
The Archdiocese is a unique and historically significant jurisdiction within Eastern Orthodoxy. It is famous for its headquarters and cathedral located at 12 rue Daru in Paris, and while canonically part of the Moscow Patriarchate, it retains a high degree of administrative and liturgical autonomy.
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The Archdiocese was born out of the chaos of the Russian Revolution and the subsequent Civil War. Founded in 1921, it was established by Patriarch Tikhon of Moscow to care for Russian refugees in Western Europe, with Metropolitan Eulogius (Georgievsky) as its first leader. Its spiritual centre is Saint Alexander Nevsky Cathedral on Rue Daru, which was consecrated in 1861 and became the hub for the "White Russian" émigré community (those who fled the Bolsheviks). It is deeply committed to the reforms of the Moscow Council of 1917–1918, which emphasised sobornost (collegiality): the active participation of laity and clergy in church governance.
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Rue Daru is not just a "Russian" church; it is often credited with helping to bring Orthodoxy to the West in an intellectual and accessible way. So, for example, the Archdiocese founded the St Sergius Orthodox Theological Institute in Paris (1925), which became the premier centre for Orthodox theology in the 20th century. Renowned theologians like Sergei Bulgakov and Alexander Schmemann taught there. Moreover, across the decades, the Archdiocese became multi-ethnic, and today services are held in French, English, German, Dutch, and other languages alongside Church Slavonic, making it a "local" European Orthodox church rather than just an immigrant mission.
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Today, the Archdiocese includes roughly 60 parishes, several monasteries, and the St Sergius Institute, spread across France, Great Britain, Germany, Italy, Belgium, and Scandinavia. Under its current agreement with Moscow, it maintains its own statutes, its own method of electing bishops, and its distinct liturgical practices, preserving the 'Parisian' style of Russian Orthodoxy that developed during the 20th century.
