He interrupted his studies to spend a year in Russia, working for Russkiy Palomnik in the publishing arm of the Moscow Patriarchate.

Pancratius' own spiritual father, Elder Cyril (Pavlov) of Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra to ask for advice in discerning his vocation.

This mission met in the historical Roman Catholic church of Saint Anna in the gold rush town of Columbia.

Jonah was elevated to the rank of archimandrite and sent from the monastery to take on the duties of being an auxiliary bishop for the Orthodox Church in America's Diocese of the South.

In September of that year, he was officially elected to that position, and then on November 1 consecrated in Dallas as Bishop of Fort Worth, Texas led by Archbishop Dmitri (Royster), then locum tenens of the OCA's Metropolitan See.

[7] Eleven days later, on November 12, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Bishop Jonah was elected as Metropolitan of the Orthodox Church in America.

[9] Metropolitan Herman (Swaiko) had retired three months prior to the OCA's Fifteenth All-American Council, in connection with the 2005-08 financial scandal in the Orthodox Church in America.

[9] He said that there had been a catastrophic leadership failure in the OCA, but told the assembly that clinging to bitterness over the situation would only do further harm, and that church members had to learn to forgive in order to heal.

In November 2009, Jonah signed an ecumenical statement known as the Manhattan Declaration, which called on evangelicals, Catholics and the Orthodox not to comply with rules and laws permitting abortion, same-sex marriage and other matters that go against their religious consciences.

and made it known he wanted to permanently move church headquarters from Oyster Bay Cove, New York to Washington, DC.

These included a February 2011 concelebration with Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) of Volokolamsk and Archbishop Justinian (Ovchinnikov) of Naro-Fominsk in St. Nicholas Cathedral in New York City.

In that same month, Jonah also met Metropolitan Christopher of the Czech Lands and Slovakia, as well as Patriarch Irinej of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

In August 2011, Jonah was to have travelled to Prague to visit the Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia, but cancelled his portion of the trip in order to tend to the dying Archbishop Dmitri (Royster) of Dallas.

Titled Reflections on a Spiritual Journey, the book is a collection of several of Jonah's writings, speeches, and interviews, both from his time as abbot and mission priest as well as after his election as Metropolitan.

[19] On January 1, 2012, he presided at the Divine Liturgy at a ROCOR parish, St. John the Baptist in Washington, DC, with the blessing of Metropolitan Hilarion (Kapral).

[21] A later statement released by the OCA's Synod of Bishops said that their request that he either resign or take a leave of absence for treatment "came at the end of a rather long list of questionable, unilateral decisions and actions, demonstrating the Metropolitan's inability to be truthful and accountable to his peers".

[2][3] After his acceptance into ROCOR, Metropolitan Jonah continued serving and teaching regularly at the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Washington, DC, which he had started doing as a retired OCA bishop.

[34] In September 2017, Metropolitan Jonah was assigned as rector of St. Herman of Alaska Orthodox Church in Stafford, Virginia, and transferred his teaching ministry there.