The Serbian Orthodox Church is celebrating the 800th anniversary of autocephaly this year, and has been holding local celebrations here in North America throughout 2019. On Saturday, November 2, at the invitation of His Grace, Bishop Irinej, Archpriest Alexander Rentel, Chancellor of the Orthodox Church in America, represented His Beatitude, Metropolitan Tikhon at the Diocese of Eastern America’s celebration of the anniversary at the Cathedral of Saint Sava, Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Serbian Orthodox Church was granted autocephaly in the year 1219 by Ecumenical Patriarch Manuel I.