Springfield, Virginia, July 16, 2026
Photo: putna.ro
His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon of Washington and All America and Canada, the primate of the Orthodox Church in America, turned 60 yesterday.
“The Holy Synod of Bishops, clergy, monastics, and faithful of the Orthodox Church in America wish His Beatitude many more blessed years! Eis polla eti, despota!” the OCA press service wrote.
Met. Tikhon has served the Church as a hierarch since 2004, and as primate since 2012.
May God grant His Beatitude many years!
***
Born in 1966, Met. Tikhon grew up in Connecticut, France, and Missouri before settling in Reading, PA, where he graduated from Wyomissing High School in 1984. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in French and Sociology from Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, PA.
He was received into the Orthodox Church from the Episcopal Church in 1989. He then entered St. Tikhon’s Seminary in South Canaan, PA, and subsequently joined the monastic community at St. Tikhon’s as a novice. He was awarded a Master of Divinity in 1993 and went on to serve as an instructor in Old Testament studies at the seminary. In 1995, he was tonsured to the Lesser Schema with the name Tikhon, ordained to the diaconate and priesthood, and later elevated to igumen in 1998 and archimandrite in 2000.
Elected to the episcopacy in October 2003, he was consecrated as the first Bishop of South Canaan in February 2004 and subsequently installed as Bishop of Philadelphia and Eastern Pennsylvania in October 2005, also serving as Rector of St. Tikhon’s Seminary from 2005 to 2012. He was elevated to Archbishop in May 2012.
On November 13, 2012, he was elected primate of the Orthodox Church in America at the 17th All-American Council, and enthroned on January 27, 2013, at St. Nicholas Cathedral in Washington, DC.
As primate, Met. Tikhon has overseen the OCA’s archpastoral and administrative life, presided at three All-American Councils, consecrated six bishops, and relocated the primatial and chancery offices to the Archdiocese of Washington. He has made fourteen official visits to Orthodox Churches abroad and received an honorary Doctor of Divinity from St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary in 2015.
Follow OrthoChristian on Facebook, Twitter, Vkontakte, Telegram, WhatsApp, and MeWe!
