American World Patriarchates

American World Patriarchates is a Christian religious organization established in 1967.

Beginnings
The group was founded by Uladyslau Ryzhy-Ryzhski, a priest from Belarus who had been consecrated as bishop of Laconia, New Hampshire and the states of New England by the American Orthodox Catholic Church.

He was raised to the position of archbishop by the Old Orthodox Catholic Patriarchate of America in 1965. It was largely through Ryzhy-Ryzhski's elevations of other independent bishops to the level of patriarch that the new organization was formed.

In 1967 he began a new mission, to be called the American World Patriarchates; the new work planned to create an international hierarchy of bishops.

1967-2015
Ryzhy-Ryzhski became Patriarch Uladyslau of the new mission. He did not require that any of the individuals he elevated to the patriarchate recognize his authority or jurisdiction over any of them. He began to create new archbishop-patriarchs for each national and ethnic group, at the same time creating a church hierarchy of international scope. After his excommunication from the American Orthodox Catholic Church, Ryzhy-Ryzhski worked harder to develop his new group, and established patriarchates for Canada, Hungary, West Germany, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Haiti, Santo Domingo, Brazil, Peru, Argentina, El Salvador, Nigeria, the West Indies, Norway, Sweden, Formosa, and Ukraine.

He went on to create the Peoples University of the Americas in conjunction with the AWP. In addition to the religious training it offers, the University offers a variety of courses in the humanities in New York for ethnic and immigrant groups, with particular emphasis on English as a second language.

On his death in 1978, Patriarch Uladyslau was succeeded by his brother, Archbishop Emigidius J. Ryzhy, as the Apostolic Administrator of All American World Patriarchs; he became known as Patriarch Yuri. He was assisted by Archbishop Adam Bilecky, Patriarch II of the American World Patriarchate, Archbishop Peter A. Zurawetsky, Archbishop Frank Barquera, and Bishop Piotr Huszcza.

Current leadership
Patriarch Yuri died in 2015 and there has been no defined leader since that time. The organization created an official link with the Apostolic Episcopal Church in 2021; at that the AEC stated that there is no recognised Apostolic Administrator in place.

Membership and structure
Patriarch Yuri was also the Patriarch of the Byelorussian Orthodox National Church in Exile. He was able to return to the country in 1993 where there was a congregation headed by Bishop Huszcza with six assisting priests in Minsk, Lida, and Siomki Goradok, which was reported as having a membership of thirty-five thousand and continuing to grow; however the church was still facing legal suppression in the late 1990s.

In 1997, the church in the United States reported 19,457 members, seventeen congregations, and fifty-four priests. One additional congregation with three priests was reported in Canada, with work affiliated with the church reported as taking place in seventeen additional countries.