At the same time large numbers of Greek and other Orthodox Christians were also immigrating to America. All Orthodox Christians in North America were united under the "omophorion" (church authority and protection) of the Patriarch of Moscow, through the Russian Church's North American diocese. There was then no other Orthodox diocese on the continent. A Syro-Arab mission was established under the episcopal leadership of Fr. Raphael of Brooklyn (later canonized in the church), who was the first Orthodox bishop to be consecrated in the United States.