Albanian Orthodox Diocese of America

Albanian Orthodox Diocese of America Dioqeza ortodokse shqiptare në Amerikë
Bishop Ilia (Katre), in 2008.
Location
Territory	United States, Canada
Headquarters	Las Vegas, Nevada
Information
Denomination	Eastern Orthodox
Sui iuris church	Ecumenical Patriarchate
Rite	Byzantine
Established	1949 Boston, USA by Athenagoras (Spyrou)
Language	Albanian, English
Music	Byzantine chant
Current leadership
Bishop	Ilia (Katre) ()
Website
Albanian Orthodox Diocese in America, at the website of the GOA

The Albanian Orthodox Diocese of America (Albanian: Dioqeza ortodokse shqiptare në Amerikë) is a jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in the United States. As of 2013^[update], its leader was Bishop Ilia (Katre) of Philomelion () (Vicar General since 1982 and bishop since 2002), who lives in Boston, Chicago, and Las Vegas.

In the first half of the 20th century, the Orthodox Albanian communities in America were loosely affiliated with one another, with six of fifteen communities claiming "independent" status and the others not incorporated as dioceses until after the Second World War. The earliest organized Albanian dioceses were set up under the auspices of the Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church in America (now Orthodox Church in America), because the Church of Constantinople would not allow the rise of any Albanian Orthodox Church and officially opposed the use of the Albanian language in churches until 1937 when the Autocephalic Orthodox Church of Albania was recognized by Constantinople. These early Albanian dioceses in America were led by Fan S. Noli, and in 1908 a translation of the liturgy into Albanian was made. After political dislocations following the October Revolution of 1917 in Russia, all ties with the Russian Orthodox church were severed, and the Albanian churches under Noli became independent. In the 1920s Noli was exiled to Germany, returning in 1932. His return reopened the discussion of the need for a canonical Albanian diocese in North America; Noli had been consecrated in 1922 as Bishop of Durrës by the Church of Albania, which did not claim any jurisdiction in North America, so he could not gain recognition as head of a diocese in the Americas.

With the controversy around Bp. Theofan's status, the end of World War II, and the increasing suppression and manipulation of the Church of Albania by the new Communist government, a significant portion of Orthodox Albanian-Americans petitioned the Patriarch of Constantinople, Athenagoras, to send a canonical bishop. organized the Diocese in 1950 and accepted into it the large community in Chicago and an older parish, the first of three Albanian Orthodox parishes to locate in South Boston.