Abstract
This essay illustrates situations in actual parish life in the diaspora, between juridical presumptions and everyday practice. Juridical grounds are based on canonical law of the Orthodox Church as well as on the Constitution and Acts of the Serbian Orthodox Church, which were formed between the World Wars and in the post-war period, thus being prepared for the multicultural surroundings of Yugoslavia. Multiculturalism is particularly accented in the diaspora. The text describes the juridical procedure and its consequences in parish life and gives a statistical overview of a parish in the diaspora.