Since the apostles came together to decide whether Gentile converts should keep the Law of Moses (Acts 15), major Church decisions have been made synodally, that is, through an assembly. Today, a Holy Synod is an assembly of bishops that oversees the administration of a (usually) local (national) Church and its parishes in the diaspora.
Our parish is under the jurisdiction of the Holy Synod of the Genuine Orthodox Christians (GOC) of Greece, under the presidency of His Beatitude, Archbishop Kallinikos of Athens and All Greece. The GOC mission in America was founded by Metropolitan Petros Astyfides (of blessed memory) in 1954. The Eparchy of America now consists of two metropoles, America and Toronto, and two dioceses, Boston and Etna and Portland. The American Eparchy is overseen by six bishops. Our parish is in the Metropolis of America, and our ruling hierarch is His Eminence, Metropolitan Demetrius of America.
The GOC of Greece (which includes its eparchy in America) is a canonical, True Orthodox Church with apostolic succession, which rejects the innovations introduced by the movements of modernism and humanism and the 21st Century-heresies of Ecumenism and Sergianism. In doing so, we endeavor to follow St. Paul's command: "Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold to the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word or our epistle..." (2 Thessalonians 2:15).
"Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold to the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word or our epistle..."—2 Thessalonians 2:15