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On 15-18 September 2014, the 5th Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the United States of America took place in Dallas, Texas, the website of the Patriarchal Parishes in the USA reports. Taking part in the Assembly were thirty-eight archpastors from various jurisdictions that have their parishes in the USA.

On September 15, preceding the Assembly, the Executive Committee held its session to outline the Assembly’s agenda. That same day, in the evening, a panel discussion took place. Attending the meeting were some two hundred clergymen and laypeople who could ask questions about the work of the Assembly and the problems facing Orthodoxy in today’s world. A panel of bishop answered the questions on behalf of the Assembly. It included Archbishop Demetrios, head of the Archdiocese of America of the Orthodox Church of Constantinople; Bishop Basil, secretary of the Assembly (Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America); Bishop John of Naro-Fominsk, administrator of the Patriarchal parishes in the USA (Russian Orthodox Church); Archbishop Nicolae (Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese in America and Canada); and Bishop Gregory (American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese).

During the Assembly, the hierarchs spoke about the challenges facing Christians in the modern world and about the armed conflicts in the Middle East and Ukraine.

The 5th Assembly was held in a new format, since hierarchs from Canada and South America, who had taken part in previous Assemblies, formed independent regional assemblies in compliance with a decision taken at the meeting of the Primates of the Orthodox Churches in Istanbul in March 2014.

At the conclusion of the Assembly, Bishop John showed all those present a documentary “Orthodoxy in America” by Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations. The documentary was first broadcast on the Russian TV in late August this year.