Land, where he spent the next 10 years. In 1935, Archbishop Anastasy participated in a council called by Serbian Patriarch Varnava with the aim of restoring unity in the Russian Orthodox Church abroad. The Council was attended by Metropolitan Eulogius (Georgievsky), who headed the Western European Metropolia (the predecessor to the Patriarchal Exarchate for Orthodox Parishes of Russian Tradition in Western Europe), Metropolitan Theophilus (Pashkovsky) of San Francisco, who headed the North American Metropolia (the predecessor to the Orthodox Church in America), and Bishop Dimitry (Voznesensky), who represented the Far East Metropolia. At this meeting, the unity of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia was restored, albeit temporarily, and the bishops signed the Temporary Statues of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, which became the charter governing the ROCOR. At that time Archbishop Anastasy was elevated to the rank of metropolitan and appointed assistant to Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitsky). After the death of Metropolitan Anthony in 1936, Metropolitan Anastasius was unanimously elected as the new First Hierarch of the ROCOR. In 1938, Metropolitan Anastasy presided over the second All-Diaspora Council. With the beginning of World War II, Metropolitan Anastasius found himself once again in the zone of hostilities as German forces bombed and then occupied Belgrade in 1941. The invasion of the Soviet Union in June, 1941, prompted Joseph Stalin to reconsider state policies vis-a-vis the Russian Church. Stalin released bishops from prison and allowed churches to be reopened. With his permission, hierarchs in the Soviet Union elected Metropolitan Sergius (Stragorodsky) as Patriarch of Moscow on September 8, 1943. On October 21, 1943, in Vienna, Metropolitan Anastasius together with eight exile hierarchs denounced the election as uncanonical. With the approach of the Soviet army on Belgrade in September, 1944, the Synod of Bishops relocated to Vienna and then, in the summer of 1945, to Munich, Germany. Starting in 1948, many Russian displaced persons began to relocate to the United States. This prompted many to call for the Synod to relocate across the Atlantic, especially given the events of the 1946 at the All-American Council of Cleveland, where the North American Metropolia voted to break ties with the ROCOR. Given these circumstances, on November 23, 1950, Metropolitan Anastasy left Munich for New York. Immediately after his arrival in the United States, on November 25, 1950, he traveled to Jordanville, New York, where he consecrated Holy Trinity Cathedral, the main church of the hamlet's