[ThekvandoVideo]

Dear Reader Michael

I think there is much confusion generated in the varying usages of this term in the Orthodox Church. An "Archdiocese" is not single Big Diocese although in Antioch and elsewhere this is often how the term is used. An Archdiocese is a regional or provincial assembly of dioceses (plural) whose bishops (ideally) elect from amomgst themselves OR receive from an historic see a senior bishop as Archbishop who will preside in love over the whole. Such a presiding ministry does not include the right to intervene in the jurisdiction of a DIOCESAN bishop unless that bishop has been found guilty of heresy or uncanonical deposable behaviour by a Church court. An auxilary bishop of course does not have such unfettered oversight. It is thought by many scholars that auxilary bishops are pastoral exceptions to the more general rule that the size of diocese should be determined by the capacity of ONE bishop to exercise oversight and pastoral care in a particular area or number of communities. The profusion of auxilaries is usually a sign that the number and geographical definition of dioceses stands in need of review. This is one of the major roles of an Archbishop of course with his synod of bishops.

Now in this particular case if DIOCESAN bishops have been created within an Archdiocese then if they are subsequently "disinvented" as diocesans this would only USUALLY be because ALL of them had been culpable of uncanonical or heretical behaviour. However, even in that circumstance the diocesan sees would simply fall vacant but remain in tact. There is no evidence that all the diocesans here had been naughty or even some of them and indeed the abolition of the dioceses seems to be indicated by the Holy Synod's decision that hence there shall be "Metropolitans" with auxilaries. It seems that America is reverting to what I believe to have been the old Ottoman period ecclesiastical polity of the Antiochian and other Middle Eastern churches when most if not all of the bishops were Metropolitans even though the dioceses at that time were all quite small, (in European And American terms).

Whether this is canonical / desirable or not I am not qualified to judge nor do I wish to make any comment on that at all. I am merely trying to understand the canonical and historical context ... which I may have got completely wrong; in which case doubtless someone will put me right and I will learn more.