Its territory includes parishes, monasteries, and missions located in fourteen states in the Southern and Southwestern United States – Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia.

Archbishop Dmitri Royster was the first and only ruling bishop of the Diocese of the South from 1978 until his retirement on March 31, 2009.

Archbishop Nikon of Boston, New England, and the Albanian Archdiocese initially served as locum tenens.

[3] The diocese is grouped geographically into six deaneries, each consisting of a number of parishes.

The deans coordinate activities in their area's parishes, and report to the diocesan bishop.