The Archdiocese of Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania is a diocese of the autocephalous Orthodox Church in America. The archdiocese includes 40 parishes in Western and Central Pennsylvania, Northern West Virginia, and Eastern Ohio, and is headed by His Eminence Archbishop Melchisedek (Pleska). It was established in 1916 as a missionary effort of the North American Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church and received its autocephaly in 1970.