(antiochian.org) - His All-Holiness, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I has invited the five officers of the Episcopal Assembly of North America to meet with him at the Phanar in Istanbul, Turkey on Tuesday, September 21st. Since His Grace Bishop Basil serves as the Secretary of the Episcopal Assembly, he will depart for Istanbul late in the night of Sunday, September 19th and return to the Wichita later that week.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Ecumenical Patriarch calls bishops to Constantinople
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The five officers of the EA are:
ReplyDelete* Archbishop Demetrios (Trakatellis), Chairman
* Metropolitan Philip (Saliba), First Vice Chairman
* Archbishop Justinian (Ovchinnikov), Second Vice Chairman
* Bishop Basil (Essey), Secretary
* Archbishop Antony (Scherba) of Hierapolis, Treasurer
Does this press release mean that Met. Philip will not be going to Istanbul?
I expect he will. You don't send an auxiliary to do a metropolitan's job... I kid.
ReplyDeleteI can't help but wonder if there's any connection between this and the recent "working visit" by Met. Hilarion.
ReplyDeleteAny guess at all what this might be about?
ReplyDeleteThe Episcopal Assembly made some decisions and made some requests (splitting Canada off into its own assembly, asking for different treatment of Mexico, etc.). My guess is that they are going there to discuss the "fruits" of the first meeting and to talk about next steps. On the matter of the OCA's autocephaly - I don't think the topic can be avoided for very long as this process is progressing towards a unification and reorganization that must deal with the issue.
ReplyDeleteRe the OCA, I'm not so sure. It really depends on what kind of 'defense' the OCA has from any churches standing against any kind of real unification in North America. No one seems to be quite sure what the motivation is behind the rather sudden 'will and “desire for the swift healing of every canonical anomaly that has arisen from historical circumstances and pastoral requirements.”' (Message of the Primates 13.1-2) It seems some have also back-peddled on their support for the EA process (e.g., Antioch). The OCA might be a useful pawn/fly in the ointment to maintains something more like the status quo rather than a truly unified Orthodox presence in North America under the EP (even in an apartheid, separate but equal form) or autocephalous. I think a sort of Super Synod where everyone maintains ties to the Mother Churches while also pooling resources, sharing services and even making some decisions on the ground is more likely than a real, final and 'canonical' resolution healing "every canonical anomaly" - that is, if anything happens at all except for a bunch of meetings and hand-wringing before it all fades away in some way that allows everyone to save face (you know, that SCOBA was somehow 'improved').
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