Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of North and Central America

The Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of North and Central America (formerly the Episcopal Assembly of North and Central America) is an Eastern Orthodox organization of church hierarchs in North and Central America.

The history of the Assembly began when delegates from the fourteen Autocephalous Eastern Orthodox Churches met at the Center of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Chambésy, Switzerland on June 6–12, 2009. At that time, the Conference decided to sanction the establishment of Episcopal Assemblies in twelve regions of the so-called Eastern Orthodox diaspora which are beyond the boundaries of the autocephalous churches. Such assemblies will have the authority to propose future administrative structures for the Church in their respective regions.

The first conference of the Episcopal Assembly of North and Central America was held at the Helmsley Park Lane Hotel in New York on May 27–28, 2010 under the chairmanship of Archbishop Demetrios of America.

One of the major decisions reached at the Episcopal Assembly's first meeting was the dissolution of the Standing Conference of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of America (SCOBA), and to assume all of SCOBA's functions, agencies and ministries.

Other issues discussed included requests to partition the present region of the Episcopal Assembly of North and Central America into two distinct regions of the United States and Canada, as well as to merge Mexico and Central America with the Assembly of South America. As a result, some of the Bishops of Mexico and Central America do not attend the North American Assembly, anticipating their joining with the South American Assembly.

Although autonomy is an issue for North and Central American churches, there was no direct statement from the assembly regarding autonomy for the Church in North and/or Central America.

Shortly after the May 2010 meeting the name of the assembly was changed to Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of North and Central America to avoid possible confusion with the Episcopal Church of the United States.

These jurisdictions' bishops are members of the Assembly, according to canonical order:

The following is in communion with these jurisdictions, but is not a member itself:

The Assembly of Bishops, and its members represents the largest single Orthodox group in North America.

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