NEW YORK - His Eminence Archbishop Spyridon recently was unanimously acclaimed as chairman of the Standing Conference of Canonical Orthodox Bishops in America.

The announcement was made at a news conference on Oct. 24 following a meeting at Holy Trinity Archdiocesan Cathedral in New York of Orthodox hierarchs with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew.

The post had been left vacant following the retirement of Archbishop Iakovos, former head of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese, in July 1996.
Since becoming Archbishop in September 1996, His Eminence has worked closely with the various hierarchs of other Orthodox jurisdictions in the United States.

SCOBA was founded in 1960 and is comprised of the heads of all canonical Orthodox jurisdictions in the United States. It brings together the hierarchs in regular meetings for discussions and decisions on ecumenical and inter-Orthodox matters.

The conference serves to strengthen the ties among the canonical Orthodox Churches and to strengthen their administration and visibility.

SCOBA's Study and Planning Commission supervises the activities of all the SCOBA commissions and committees.

Member Churches of the Conference are: the Albanian Orthodox Diocese of America, American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Diocese in the USA, the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America, the Bulgarian Eastern Orthodox Church, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, the Orthodox Church in America, the Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese, the Serbian Orthodox Church in the United States and Canada, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the U.S.A.