In 1970 the Russian Orthodox Church in North America officially became an autocephalous church, independent of the Moscow patriarchate. Its name is now the Orthodox Church in America. The history of the Church and its activities provides substantial insights into the history of the Russian emigre community in this country. 8 file drawers, ca. 20 ft., of the Holy Virgin Mary Cathedral, a part of the Orthodox Church in America: parish records, accounts, correspondence, reports, office files, and other materials (printed and unprinted) from its founding in 1923 to the present. These sources concern the Cathedral and its parish as well as the general Orthodox community. The materials cover the Cathedral's relations with other Russian Orthodox Church authorities in the United States, Europe, and Japan, primarily since 1957; negotiations with the Orthodox Church in the USSR for autocephaly, 1969–70; and records of the annual meetings of the All-American Sobor, 1970-. Concerning the operations and scope of the parish there are birth, marriage, and death records from 1923. Among Church officials named in the correspondence are the Archbishop Ioann Shakhovskoi and Metropolitan Leonty. Researchers must obtain permission from parish authorities to utilize the holdings; at present they should contact the archpriest Dimitri Gisetti for more information. Other records of the Holy Virgin Mary Russian Orthodox Cathedral are held by the chancery of the Orthodox Church in America, Box 675, Syosset, New York 11791.
