 In 1918, after the installation of the Romanian administration in Bessarabia, Archbishop Anastasius refused to subordinate his eparchy to the Romanian Orthodox Church, and was forced into exile.The new authorities entrusted the archbishopric to the Bishop Nicodem de Huși from Romania, who appointed a local Archbishop Dionisie Erhan.Then the Clerical Congress on February 21, 1920 elected Gurie Botoșăneanu as the highest church official in Bessarabia, which afterwards was raised from Archbishop to Metropolitan.