Our Parish By-Laws
The Holy Ghost Russian Orthodox Church, Bridgeport, Connecticut was founded in 1894 and incorporated in 1931 as Holy Ghost Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church. Under the guidance of Fr. Alexis Toth (canonized as a saint in 1994), the Parish was originally established as a parish of the North American Diocese of the Orthodox Church in Russia. In 1924 that Diocese became the self-governing Metropolitanate known as the Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church of North America. On April 10, 1970, that same Metropolitanate was proclaimed to be the autocephalous Orthodox Church in America by the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Orthodox Church of Russia meeting in Moscow, Russia.
As a parish of the New England Diocese of the Orthodox Church in America (“OCA”), the life, organization and administration of the Parish are subject to the Holy and Apostolic Tradition of the Orthodox Church, and the Statute of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA), adopted at the 18th All-American Council in July 2015.
The structure and administration of the Parish is regulated by the By-Laws which have been approved by the Diocesan authority. The parish By-Laws are intended to express the spirit of the Holy Orthodox tradition on a practical level, for the orderly procedure in the life of the Parish as a whole, and to help the Parish live its God-given life in a special, orderly and fruitful way.
