I've steered clear from a lot of the rhetoric, but this letter caught my eye (and I expect it will catch others' as well).
Dear fathers, brothers and sisters in Christ,
Asking your forgiveness on this first day of Great Lent, I beg you to trust, honor and support the Synod of Bishops of our Orthodox Church in America, together with the Metropolitan Council and Chancery staff, in their unanimous efforts to fulfill their duties responsibly, which now most sadly include insisting upon and providing for proper counsel and care for our gravely troubled Metropolitan Jonah.
I also ask you to trust,honor and support Mark Stokoe’s continued efforts through OCANews to report, question, criticize and comment on the words and deeds of our Orthodox Church leaders for the sake of securing their best possible conduct of their God-given duties.
And, while respecting his right to speak and act as he sees fit, I also ask you not to trust, honor or support Fr. Joseph Fester’s opinions and views since his record hardly demonstrates worthiness of serious consideration.
May the Lord forgive our sins and failures. And may He guide and protect us in every way.
Protopresbyter Thomas Hopko
Dean Emeritus
St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary
Posts
Wow! Finally, a big name takes a stand. Lord have mercy on us all.
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ReplyDeleteYes, the Metropolitan's problems are obvious when you watch this brazen attempt at giving a homily yesterday morning: http://vimeo.com/20724054
ReplyDeleteIs it just me, or does he start speaking in tongues at one point?
ceej,
ReplyDeletehe is speaking Russian so that the Russian-speakers present understand fully what he is trying to say. No problems are obvious to me. Hopefully he will get some rest in the coming weeks.
Lord have mercy.
Thank you, Dana.
ReplyDeleteFor the record, I was not seriously decrying the Metropolitan on the basis of that (wonderful) homily, I wanted to make a point about how easy it is to shade the perception of a situation by describing it in a particular way.
Stokoe's account of a borderline psychotic metropolitan may be a fair and reasonable perception anyone might have had, or it may be an exaggeration intended to discredit and humiliate the metropolitan.
To date, the only person involved in any recent Synod meetings, who has come forward about his experiences in those meetings, is Metropolitan Jonah himself. I find it hard to believe he'd deliberately or maliciously lie under these circumstances, when it would be so easy to prove him wrong.
But ceej, the synod asked that the minutes of the synodal meeting be published. They didn't have to say anything - it was all there in black and white.
ReplyDeleteMatushka, aside from one calling it a "retreat" and the minutes calling it a "leave", I don't see any discrepancy between the minutes and what he said.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that the Synod didn't have him sign anything binding and explicit with respect to the leave, shows either that the Synod really dropped the ball while they had the Metropolitan cornered, or that the leave was never meant to be as ironclad as some might have hoped.
Thanks ceej.
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"The fact that the Synod didn't have him sign anything binding and explicit with respect to the leave, shows either that the Synod really dropped the ball while they had the Metropolitan cornered."
ReplyDeleteThey shouldn't have to require him to sign on the dotted line. Even apart from the fact that he is a Christian and his Yes should be Yes, as a gentleman his word should be his bond.
This whole story makes me sick, the OCA can not seem to survive more than a couple months without some sort of scandal to fuel sensationalist muckrakers. I am starting to believe that the foreign churches are right, and that America is not ready to play with the big boys as a autochephalous Church.
ReplyDeleteI see this kind of stuff, and then look at certain OCA folk in my life who decry the Greeks because they're so 'old world' and not pushing for an autocephalous church. "We need an autocephalous American church!" they say. If the OCA and AOCNA are the examples that they hold forth, I'll take submission under the old world any day of the week.
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ReplyDeleteDitto leitourgia - he said it perfectly. I'm not "outraged" or anything, but a bit disappointed. Lord Have Mercy on us all.
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ReplyDeleteBecky,
ReplyDeleteAsk yourself though, how does it actually affect you on a parish level? Do you have a good relationship with your priest? Do you know your current diocesan bishop and are treated well? If yes (to the last two), then I would venture that the answer to my first question is "not very" at worst and "not at all" at best. Then, why leave?
Just dismantle the OCA and merge our parishes with other jurisdictions, we do not deserve to be autochephalous.
ReplyDeleteEverybody needs to calm down and take a deep breath. Scandals and politicking among the church hierarchy is as old as St. Paul resisting St. Peter to the face (Galatians 2:11). In the Corinthian Church there was a man sleeping with his stepmother, and no one seemed to care (1 Corinthians 5:1). Diotrephes, another "hierarch," apparently had the gall to excommunicate the Apostle John (3 John 9-10). This is what the Church has always been like; honestly, if I was in a church that had no problems for more than a year or two, I'd start to get worried.
ReplyDeleteSt John, acknowledged theologian of authentic Christianity, says " Homosexuals are worse than murders", the first thing he say about this darkness. I prefer to accept my Christian guidance from righteous people who are not double-minded between a homosexual agenda and authentic Christianity, Light and darkness, as the St John the Theologian guides us. Have nothing to do with the double minded man. BJD1709
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