What Have I Been Doing in 2025?
The website Historical Studies of the Russian Church Abroad remains close to the heart of my academic mission. There were 19 updates (newsletters) informing 700 subscribers about new materials on the website. Such unique materials as the ROCOR foundational decree 9084 issued in Constantinople in December 1920, the reconstruction of the visits of ROCOR bishops to England in 1925, and newly uncovered facts about the Brotherhood of St. Job of Pochaev in the Third Reich, reflect the mission of this website: to “advance — in the words of Metropolitan Hilarion — the study of the history of the Russian Church Abroad.”
In 2025 I completed my thirteenth and final year of teaching at the Pastoral School of the Diocese of Chicago and Mid-America.
I also continued my thirtieth year of work at Holy Trinity Orthodox Seminary. I taught two undergraduate/graduate-level classes on the history of the Orthodox Church and on Canon Law, as well as a graduate seminar on ROCOR History. I also teach a correspondence course on Canon Law and serve as Director of Undergraduate Studies.
I continue to serve as a graduate thesis reader at the Antiochian House of Studies and remain actively involved in organizing the annual conferences of the Orthodox Canon Law Society of North America.
I have also continued turning my 2018 Ph.D. thesis into a book and am currently working on the next chapter.
With the publication in Russia of the seventy-fifth and final volume of the Pravoslavnaia entsiklopediia, my role as its representative concluded this year. For ten years I served as a liaison on behalf of the Russian Church Abroad and as an author for this unique project.
I have continued posting daily reflections on the history and theology of the Orthodox Church on my Substack project, This Day in the Life of the Church. These daily reports often include a strong ROCOR dimension. I am grateful to my approximately 200 paid and 800 free subscribers.
Continuing my work of explaining and contextualizing ROCOR history, I gave presentations in 18 ROCOR communities across the United States, marking the centennial of the repose of Patriarch Tikhon, as well as the centennial of the Russian Church Abroad.
2025 Expense Report
The maintenance expenses of ROCOR Studies in 2025 came to $9,990.38. These included the following categories: travel and miscellaneous ($3,545.17); editorial assistance ($2,643.24); internet and smartphone ($2,234.26); and computer programs ($1,567.71). The Fund for Assistance to the Russian Church Abroad covered $7,200 of these expenses, while $2,728 was contributed by 20 donors through a special GoFundMe campaign, “Please help us do what we have been doing for years!”
Plans for 2026
Since the beginning of this year I have been working on the next chapter of my book on Byzantine canon law. During the winter break I am also grading student work from Holy Trinity Seminary and preparing my courses for the spring semester, which begins on January 26.
The organization — through ROCOR Studies — of an academic conference marking the centennial of the German Diocese of the Russian Church Abroad, to be held in Munich on May 6–8, 2026, has also been a constant focus since early 2025. This involves regular Zoom meetings with the organizing committee in Germany and ongoing correspondence with participating scholars: https://rocor.de/ru/konferenz
In August 2026, the 25th International Byzantine Congress will take place in Vienna, where I plan to present the paper Commemoration and Dissent: Canon 15 in Byzantine History.
My great hope for 2026 is the formal launch of the ROCOR Studies non-profit institute.
Thank you for reading this report, for your prayers, and for supporting these efforts with your donations:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/donate-to-andrei-psarevs-rocor-studies-mission
