Posted on 11/19/2005 12:37:40 AM PST by Queen Beruthiel
July, 2005 was a turning point for the Orthodox Christian Church in North America. It was the time when two independent self governing Orthodox Christian Church bodies in North America, the Autocephalous Orthodox Church in America (OCA) and the Self-Ruled Antiochian Orthodox Christain Archdiocese of North America, met with the clergy and lay leaders of the parishes throughout the Americas. In a conciliar manner, hierarchy, clergy and laity reasoned together to make decisions for the good order of their respective bodies, so they could move forward to face the challenges of the 21st century. The OCA meeting took place in Toronto, Canada July 17-22, 2005 and the Antiochian meeting took place in Dearborn, Michigan July 24-31, 2005.
Both groups realize that they are at a crossroads and that bold thinking and actions are needed to meet the needs of the People of God. The theme of the OCA meeting was “Our Church and the Future” and the theme of the Antiochian meeting was “Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.” (Romans 12:2) These two themes interrelate as Father Thomas Hopko, Dean Emeritus of St. Vladimir’s Theological Seminary, pointed out. We are transformed by trusting in God and through God all things are possible. If we are conformed to the world and seek prosperity, possessions, position, popularity and prestige for the Church we will have no future. All Orthodox jurisdictions must die in Christ so that they can be resurrected in Unity and the Church can witness to Christ and make disciples of the people who live in the Americas. This is the mission of the Church and it can be best accomplished in Unity.
Although both meetings were held separately there were common elements and themes that both assemblies must address in order to move ahead to meet the spiritual needs of the faithful. One priority was Orthodox Christian Unity in North America and another was Evangelization. His Beatitude Herman, Archbishop of New York and Washington and Metropolitan of All America and Canada, addressed the topic of Unity in an eloquent and direct address to all delegates, observers and visitors in his banquet remarks. Metropolitan Philip, Primate of the Antiochian Archdiocese, devoted his keynote address to the topic of unity. Both leaders see Unity as necessary and part of the good order of the Church in the Americas. OCL will post the text of both speeches on its web site www.ocl.org when they are made available.
The faithful clergy and laity of both assemblies are ready to work together in Unity to do the work of the Church which is to keep the faith as it has been handed to us at this time and place by the apostles and church fathers and to share the faith with all those who seek to become Orthodox Christians. The clergy and laity of both bodies share this commitment to Orthodox administrative Unity. They are willing to give up what needs to be given up to accomplish this task. The delegates to the Antiochian Archdiocese meeting voted a strong resolution directed at SCOBA to move ahead to make Unity a reality. The full text is printed for your consideration.
A highlight of the OCA meeting was the panel discussion on Orthodox Relations which featured a video presentation by His Grace Bishop Basil of Wichita of the Antiochian Archdiocese. He called for the re-establishment of a bilateral commission between the OCA and the Antiochian Archdiocese on topics of mutual concern. He received an extended standing ovation. People applauded this concrete proposal.
Other concrete options that the clergy and laity suggested in informal gatherings related to Unity included:
Asking the two primates Metropolitans Herman and Philip to appoint two bishops from their archdioceses to meet together to discuss how the two archdioceses can work together to address mutual concerns.
Setting up a meeting between Metropolitan Philip and Metropolitan Herman so that they can sit down together and talk directly about their mutual interest in jurisdictional Unity as part of the good order of the church. Father Leonid Kishkovsky stressed the importance of direct contact Metropolitan to Metropolitan in External Affairs and many saw the wisdom of these interactions and wondered why there is such little eye to eye contact between the hierarchies in the Americas. A meeting with Metropolitan Herman and Metropolitan Philip would be a very meaningful concrete first step to jump start the movement toward administrative Unity.
Establishing a new organization of all the canonical heads of jurisdictions to replace SCOBA. Those left out of the SCOBA meetings would be able to participate.
There is a consensus among the faithful People of God in both jurisdictions that the OCA and Antiochians share enough mutual interests that they should move ahead. They cannot wait for all jurisdictions to join together at the same time. Some jurisdictions are not ready. Move ahead with those who are ready and in time the others will follow because they will have no choice. Most of the faithful believe that the OCA must take the leadership role in moving ahead on Unity because they are the local Church in the Americas by the fact of their Autocephaly.
The second common element of both meetings is the commitment of both assemblies to Evangelization. For hundreds of years Orthodox Christians couldn’t even talk about their faith for fear of having their tongues cut out or face other reprisals. The Church and its people were in captivity in Moslem or Communist lands. But today in America they are free to speak and write about the ancient apostolic Orthodox Christian faith. In America people are looking for the ancient faith and they are finding and choosing to become Orthodox Christians. They are flocking to both of these bodies through their well developed programs in Evangelization. So much more could be accomplished if they did this work of the Great Commission together! Here is the perfect bilateral program to further develop.
Two other highlights that I observed worth noting are that the Council Study Papers sent to the delegates and observers of the OCA meeting were excellent and applicable to all Orthodox jurisdictions not only the OCA. The lectures and panel discussions and the process involving all the participants to solicit their input on each priority were well organized and involved everyone. All the steps were designed to get input and create the vision for the OCA for the next ten years.
The outstanding Antiochian Camp and Youth and Young Adult Programs were presented by gifted and spirited young people. As faithful stewards we must guide our youth so that they can pass down Orthodoxy to the next generation. As a United Orthodox Christian Church in North America all our youth could have opportunities to participate in the excellent programs. There would be no jurisdictional barriers. The youth are ahead of us and inter-Orthodox programs such as OCMC, IOCC and OCF have broken down jurisdictional barriers. Both conventions were well attended by youth and they participated in all aspects of the meetings.
The holy services of daily Divine Liturgies and Vespers were holy occasions for the participants to reflect upon the work that they were doing each day. The Holy Spirit was truly guiding these two proceedings involving collectively over 3500 Church leaders. The people of God are ready to work toward building a United Orthodox Christian Church in North America. We call on the hierarchy to lead!
*** Observations submitted by George Matsoukas, Executive Director of Orthodox Christian Laity, an independent movement of Church Faithful dedicated to the formation of a United and Self Governed Orthodox Church in North America.
I like the sound of the Slavonic liturgy. The English translation has sacrificed much of it's beauty. I also like being able to converse with folks of a similar background. Part of the parish community is fellowship and that is something which ethnic parishes provide, I strongly disagree with stripping ethnicity and having an english version. It drives people away.
I was in fact quite unhappy that when our OCA priest left who could speak Russian the OCA is replacing him with someone who cannot. Russian immigrants are much more comfortable speaking with the priest in Russian, and it alienates them, who founded and have been the back bone of the parish.
Thanks, NYer, we have read up on the eastern rite Catholic churches as well as the OC. We have firmly committed ourselves to converting to the OC, but I appreciate the kind and generous spirit of your post. We have great respect for the Catholics as well.
No, the OCA was given a grant of autocephaly by Moscow--though its autocephaly is recognized only by Moscow and Bulgaria, thanks to the stiff-necked attitude of Constantinople which began interfering in North America in the wake of Bolshevik Revolution and the Greek loss of the Second Greco-Turkish War (which moved most of its faithful into the jurisdiction of the autocephalous Church of Greece or into 'diaspora', mostly in the Americas).
(The Church of Japan was also granted autocephaly at the same time, but declined and remained autonomous.)
I believe the Church of Greece gives another counterexample to the claim that the chief hierarch of an autocephalous church is always titled Patriarch: there is no Patriarch of Athens. (Of course then there if Georgia, with its Catholicos.)
Ah, the old Greek "there's nothing to it" routine... How well I know it.
I still remember the first time I naively asked about how something was made at our old Greek parish, with the person responding:
Nothing to it! Don't even need a recipe. Just start with a little olive oil, add some onions and garlic, then after a while put in the...
I nodded and tried to concentrate as it went on. Coming too fast to take notes even if I had paper and pen. Of course, by the time it was over, and the table was on to the merits of various versions of Shrimp Creole (these were southern Greeks), I couldn't remember a thing except for starting with olive oil and sauteeing the onions. Which, of course, was probably the idea... I'm sure they got a good laugh out of it later!
Served this white bread Anglo right, of course, for asking about what was probably a guarded family recipe!
Hey, you're one up on me... at least they call you up before they ignore you!
Your characterizations of the jurisdictions are approximately correct, though with the Antiochians and the OCA things vary a bit by diocese. Here in the Diocese of Wichita and Mid-America, we Antiochians are probably more traditional than are the OCA outside of the Diocese of Alaska and the Diocese of the West.
It's actually quite easy to avoid schismatic or heretical 'Orthodox' groups: just stick to the jurisidictions whose hierarchs are members of SCOBA (GOA, OCA, Antiochian, Serbian, . . .), or pick a ROCOR parish. (Though the last choice--while thoroughly sound in doctrine and praxis--can be a bit off-putting with their very vigorous adherence to all of the rigors of Slavic folk-piety, as well as the canons.)
In Georgia they call him Patriarch Ilia. Maybe you can explain to me what the significance is of his title.
I like the sound of the Georgian liturgy, but I don't know what that has to do with the Orthodox faith.
Thanks, it is helpful to know that. We once looked into a Russian Orthodox church and the parishioners did seem to consider Russian-ness an integral part of church membership. so much so that they seemed distinctly unwelcoming to non-Russian converts. Having said that, I do believe that a strong ethnic component has enabled the Orthodox churches in the U.S. to withstand the assaults of "MTV culture" better than the Catholic and Protestant churches have done.
If we are holding the MTV culture at bay with greater success it is because of our anti-western and particularistic tendencies, rather than ethnic identity issues. My children probably don't know what MTV even is, at ages 11, 13, 15, and 17. My husband and I think we have held off "westernism" from them (so far) with success because of many parenting choices, but none have to do with ethnicity.
All I can say to that is shame, shame, shame to all. Whether it be Serbs who, coming from communist backwoods have no clue about Orthodoxy or manners for that matter, whether it be power-grabbing games that go on between the "big" and the "petit" (Hermann the Cherusker's favorite expression -- but apparently quite true!) Patriarchiates, whether it be "independent" minded OCA and its pretend "authocephaly" supported by the "coalition of the willing" (where have I heard that before), made up of such "giants" known to toe the line as the Bulgarian (on-again, off-again) Orthodox Church, the mighty Czech Orthodox Church, etc., whether it be "who's the first" in the Orthodox world, whether it be "inclusive" freaks, etc. -- it all boils down to one and the same thing: we are no better than any other church but we like to act holier than thou!
Yet, Orthodoxy teaches us that this is not what we should do; rather we should point the finger of blame first and foremost on ourselves, because although we say we are first among the sinners, we really don't believe it for one moment. We certainly don't act as such!
False humility is the one most prominent feature of many a Christian. But, Faith must be shown through deeds ("works"), as +James says, and not only in words. I have stayed away form any particular parish, "denomination," or church politics for a long time. The more I approach the Church the uglier it gets. Hypocrisy is alive and well. Everything seems to define Orthodoxy nowadays except Orthodoxy! Whether it be ethnic pride (what are we proud of -- pride is a sin!), whether it be self-importance; whether it blaming others; whether it be power-grabbing, etc. none of this is Orthodoxy.
We have not only much work ahead of us; we are still at the start line. Shame on us all!
RBA Democrat already made that "sales" pitch, NYer.
Who said it did?
Would you be happy if the church put preassure on parishes to phase out the Georgian version?
Wanting to go to church in one's native tongue is not 'ethnic pride'.
"If we are holding the MTV culture at bay with greater success it is because of our anti-western and particularistic tendencies, rather than ethnic identity issues. My children probably don't know what MTV even is, at ages 11, 13, 15, and 17. My husband and I think we have held off "westernism" from them (so far) with success because of many parenting choices, but none have to do with ethnicity."
You've made good choices for your children, Marmema. When She Who Must be Obeyed and I bought the house I grew up in from my parents in 1986, there was a cable hook-up here. Our oldest, then six, was "glued to the tube" for two weeks. I had the cable removed and it isn't back (or satellite) to this day. It was a parenting choice, not an ethnic one.
That said, don't fool yourself into thinking that ethnicity has nothing to do with Orthodoxy. The old country cultures carried Orthodoxy to America and both Orthodoxy and those cultures have existed here in a sort of symbiotic relationship. Most Americans have no conception of how different other non Anglo/Saxon cultures, especially non Western European cultures are from ours. The cultures of Orthodox countries from Ethiopia through the Middle East up to Russia and over to and through Eastern Europe and the Balkans all have their distinctive elements, but there is an overarching similarity that is directly resultant from the Orthodoxy of the people. It is not something one finds even in the most Christian of Western countries. Indeed, virtually all of Western European culture, whereever it might have planted itself, is in many ways antithetical to Orthodox culture. The strong ethnic character of the earlier generations of Orthodox immigrant parishes and jurisdictions preserved the Orthodox phronema against the "Siren call" of Western materialism and individualism which, sadly, got its claws into many of our priests and hierarchs. I can't speak for other jurisdictions, but among the Greeks, had it not been for a degree of Greek chauvinism among the laity, the GOA today might well look very "white" and very Episcopalian in the worst sense of the word.
There of course needs to be a balance between ethnic identity and our primary American one and both need to be subsumed into a firm Orthodox phronema. I say this because our children mostly grew up with grandparents who spoke without a funny foreign accent unlike our generation of cradle Orthodox. While I vociferously argue at every turn that the inculcation of Hellenism in my boys is my job, not that of the Church, nevertheless it is vitally important that they grew up in a religious community whose Greek culture, in its finest manifestations, displayed and displays an Orthodox worldview rather than that of a chauvinistic American exceptionalism. They get quite enough of that out in the world. That Hellenic/Orthodox phronema made them quite consciously different from their peers (well, at least the oldest, the younger one, as you all know, has Down Syndrome...he just loves everyone!) and as the oldest says, he has never doubted that someone cares about him and that he has a "place" he can call home no matter where he is. He is not, by the way, particularly pious or intensely, obviously, religious, but he is very, very Orthodox.
The foregoing applies with equal force to converts. I have always marvelled at the strong faith and Orthodox phronema of converts who have been around, say, 5 or 10 years. Orthodoxy has to be one of the most countercultural groupings one can get into here in the West. We truly are in the world but not of the world. The power of God's grace which allows Westerners to embrace Orthodoxy astonishes me every Sunday. But in order for converts to grow strong in the faith, to blossom abundantly so to speak, the bedding soil for their growth must be sufficiently fertilized. A degree of ethnic culture provides that sweetening and fortifying of soil while at the same time acting as a sort of cold frame protecting their new faith from the frost of the paganistic society around them.
"I do appreciate your generosity. One thing I have always liked about the religion threads on FR is that the Orthodox and Catholic posters (and many Protestants, to be fair) by and large treat each other with graciousness and fair-mindedness."
You're more than welcome. As I indicated, you're in very good company with regard to Orthodox posters. Their advice is almost always solid, and their observations can often lapse into the realm of the awe-inspiring.
There are certainly differences of opinion which you will see us discuss, but the religious threads by and large tend to be genteel. God Bless.
Frankly, I lived a sheltered life, usually concentrating on myself and my own inadequcies and not on politics. I see that I have failed to keep up with the sophisticated world and believed that every autocephalous Church had its "father" -- perhaps that's why their jurisdictions are called "Patriarchates?"
But, then, I really don't care. They can call themselves whatever they want, arrogate whatever title they wish to. It's all man-made stuff and it's all corrupt. I will never forget the guy who crowned himself the Emperor in Africa some 30 years ago, Bokassa I. Impressive, but meaningless -- except for those who dependent on that egomaniac.
But I guess in the "royal" priesthood the petit patriarch and big metropolitans are just meaningless titles; the real "title" is how many Orthodox they claim and how much power they wield in their humility and love they preach for and to others (I just wish I could feel it as much as I heart it!).
No different than all the "monarchies" in the world: we have "petit" princes such as those in Monaco, Luxemburg and Linchenstein, and big kings and queens of Old Europe, such as Britain, Spain, and the Scandiavian countries; and then you have a "real" emperor in Japan. But they all share one and the same characteristic -- they have no real power and are just stupid and expensive titles. But a few lucky ones live quite well off ot them.
"Reading the back-and-forth exchange between Kolo and x5452 must do anything but encourage Queen Beruthiel -- and she and her husband have already made up their minds! How is what appears to be anything but Orthodoxy to encourage others with all the infighting and re-engineering going to match words with deeds Orthodoxy makes claim to?"
Gee, Kosta, I didn't think X5452 and I were arguing anything. Did you, X? In all honesty, Kosta, the status of the OCA hasn't caused me to loose one wink of sleep in the last 35 years. Nor, apparently, does it cause problems for the SCOBA hierarchs.
As for ethnic exclusivity among Orthodox jurisdictions, none of it bothers me. As I have told you before, I'm quite comfortable among Arabs, Slavs, Greeks, even Ethiopians. I, like you, know what's going on in the Liturgy. If my local Orthodox parish was Serbian etc, that's where I would go. Would I personally miss hanging out with my fellow Greeks, sure (well, hanging out with Serbs or Lebanese is pretty much the same thing), but it wouldn't affect my faith. Same goes with hanging out with people in the OCA. As a matter of fact, I have a distant Irish cousin who is an OCA priest!
You misunderstood what at least I was speaking of with X, Kosta. You shouldn't be so suspicious of your Balkan brother, my friend! :)
I think you should substantiate why what I and Kolo is 'put offish'.
I have already said in this thread I think there is a place for non-ethnic parishes, and there exist flourishing ones in fact in all three (OCA, ROCOR, AOCA, probably GOA also, I don't know much about them).
However there are plenty of reasons not to encourage already ethnic parishes to give up the Slavonic liturgy, and ethnic customs. As I said the OCA Parish I attend dropped the Slavonic liturgy some time ago (and for MarMema, if I recall there actually are a few things in the English version that are a bit out of place as compared to the slavonic one... I'd have to spend some time looking for the list of them). It seems to me that the Parish has dwindled in size since that time, I am a convert and quite like the traditional slavonic liturgy. My wife is Russian and the Slavonic liturgy is easier to understand, and is the one she's familiar with. Up until recently we had a priest who could speak Russian, which given as there are a fair number of Russian immigrants who've started attending our church is very helpful to communicating with them. The new one replacing him apparently doesn't speak Russian.
If the church were more evangelical about finding coverts I could see at least some reason to make the church more palatable to non-Slavic folks, but on a parish by parish basis when the parish is already in a slavic community, I think it drives people to more slavic churches to do away with the traditions and liturgy they know.
I also don't see whereas it is neccessarily put-offish to converts.
As for the who is more canonical arguments and who has the authority to grant whom autocephally etc I think it's silly to argue about.
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