The Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America is the regional church structure that St. Michael’s belongs to. It’s part of the ancient Patriarchate of Antioch and All the East, one of the oldest Christian communities in the world.
When you walk into St. Michael’s, you’re entering a parish that’s connected to a network of about 275 churches across the United States and Canada. We’re all part of this Archdiocese, which means we share the same Metropolitan (our chief bishop), follow the same liturgical practices, and support common ministries like missions, youth programs, and seminaries.
Why Antioch Matters
Antioch isn’t just a name. It’s the city where followers of Jesus were first called Christians. You can read about it in Acts 11:26. The church in Antioch was founded by the Apostles themselves, Peter served there before going to Rome, and Paul and Barnabas launched their missionary journeys from that city. When we say we’re Antiochian Orthodox, we’re saying our spiritual roots go back to that first-century community.
The Patriarchate of Antioch became one of the five ancient patriarchates of Christianity, alongside Jerusalem, Alexandria, Constantinople, and Rome. While the physical city of Antioch (in modern-day Turkey) isn’t the center it once was, the Patriarchate continues. Its current headquarters is in Damascus, Syria, and it oversees Orthodox Christians throughout the Middle East and in diaspora communities worldwide.
How We Got Here
Orthodox Christianity came to North America with immigrants. In the late 1800s, Arabic-speaking Christians from Syria and Lebanon started arriving in places like New York and Boston. They brought their faith with them. St. Raphael Hawaweeny, the first Orthodox bishop consecrated in North America, shepherded many of these early communities. He’s now recognized as a saint, and his feast day is celebrated every February.
For much of the twentieth century, Antiochian churches in North America were divided between two competing archdioceses. It wasn’t pretty. But in 1975, under the leadership of Metropolitan Philip Saliba, the two groups reunited. That reunification shaped the character of the Archdiocese we have today.
In 2003, the Holy Synod in Damascus granted the North American Archdiocese self-rule. That doesn’t mean we’re independent. We’re still canonically part of the Patriarchate of Antioch. But it means we handle our own administration, elect our own bishops (with the Patriarch’s blessing), and make decisions suited to life in North America without waiting for approval from Damascus on every detail.
What Makes the Antiochian Archdiocese Distinctive
If you visit different Orthodox churches around Southeast Texas or anywhere else, you’ll notice they often have ethnic identities. Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox, Serbian Orthodox. The Antiochian Archdiocese has its own history rooted in the Arabic-speaking Middle East, but it’s become known for something else: welcoming converts.
We’ve been using English in our services longer than most Orthodox jurisdictions in America. We’ve focused on evangelism and catechesis in ways that make the faith accessible to people who didn’t grow up Orthodox. A lot of Antiochian parishes, including St. Michael’s, have significant numbers of people who came from Protestant or Catholic backgrounds, or who had no church background at all.
The Archdiocese also includes something unusual: the Western Rite Vicariate. These are parishes that use ancient Western liturgical forms (similar to what you’d see in very old Catholic or Anglican worship) but are fully Orthodox in theology and under our bishops. It’s a pastoral accommodation that shows the Archdiocese’s flexibility in how the faith can be expressed liturgically.
Structure and Leadership
The Archdiocese is led by a Metropolitan, who’s our chief bishop. Under him serve auxiliary bishops who oversee different geographic regions, dioceses covering areas like New England, the Midwest, the South, and the West Coast. Texas falls under one of these dioceses.
We also have a General Assembly that meets periodically, bringing together clergy and lay delegates from parishes across North America to handle legislative matters. There are departments for missions, religious education, youth work, and other ministries that serve the whole Archdiocese.
This structure matters because it means St. Michael’s isn’t just a standalone congregation. We’re part of something bigger. When we support Archdiocese programs or send people to diocesan events, we’re participating in the life of the wider Church.
Living in Communion
The Antiochian Archdiocese is in full communion with all the other canonical Orthodox Churches. If you visit a Greek Orthodox church in Houston or an OCA parish in Dallas, you can receive communion there (assuming you’re an Orthodox Christian in good standing). We’re one Church, even if we have different administrative structures in North America.
There’s ongoing conversation about how to overcome these jurisdictional divisions and create a unified Orthodox Church in America. It’s complicated. But the important thing to know is that these divisions are administrative, not theological. We believe the same faith, celebrate the same mysteries, and recognize each other as Orthodox.
When you become part of St. Michael’s, you’re joining a parish, yes. But you’re also joining the Antiochian Archdiocese and, through it, the ancient Patriarchate of Antioch and the whole Orthodox Church. You’re connecting to a story that started in a Middle Eastern city two thousand years ago and continues here in Beaumont, Texas, today.
