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(Antiochian.org) - The Executive Committee of the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the United States of America met Tuesday at the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. The meeting was chaired by His Eminence Archbishop DEMETRIOS. Those present were First Vice-Chairman, His Eminence Metropolitan JOSEPH (AOCA), His Eminence, Secretary, Metropolitan GREGORY (American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese of North America) and Treasurer, His Eminence Archbishop MICHAEL (OCA). Also attending were His Beatitude, Metropolitan TIKHON (OCA) and His Grace Bishop SABA (Georgian Orthodox Church). Other guests included Archpriest Thomas Zain, (AOCA) and Nicholas Anton (GOA).
The hierarchs met in preparation for the Assembly in Cleveland next month, in order to plan the agenda and review the previous year's work. At the end of the meeting, Archbishop DEMETRIOS hosted a lunch for all present.
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And noticeably absent was the Second Vice-Chairman, Bishop John (Russian Patriarchal Parishes in US), undoubtedly because of the Ecumenical Patriarch's uncanonical misconduct in the Ukraine and the resultant decision of the Moscow Patriarchate to cease its commemoration of and cooperation with Istanbul.
ReplyDeleteWhat I have found to be an oddity is that Moscow gave the OCA a tomos and yet MOSPAT-USA and ROCOR continue to operate in her territory. Would it not make more sense to move the dozen parishes of the patriarchal jurisdiction into the canonical Church?
DeleteThe tomos has exceptions for those particular parishes; they requested the exception when the tomos was granted.
Deletehttps://oca.org/history-archives/tomos-of-autocephaly
ROCOR is another story, but there's history there too. I'm assuming it's a pastoral decision, both by MP/ROCOR *and* by the OCA to simply not make a big deal of it.
But I find it curious as well.
" I'm assuming it's a pastoral decision, both by MP/ROCOR *and* by the OCA to simply not make a big deal of it. But I find it curious as well."
DeleteOr in today's fervid atmosphere it is "uncanonical misconduct" for which these semi-papists will stand before God and Man and History... LOL!
Seriously, trying to make letter-of-the-(canonical)-law sense of any and all of this is a fools errand ever since the Empire crumbled...
Well, don't mistake me; it's not optimal and is detrimental in the long term (one could argue it already is).
DeleteThere should be a single bishop per geographical area; the canons aren't wrong here.
"undoubtedly because of the Ecumenical Patriarch's uncanonical misconduct in the Ukraine"
ReplyDeleteYea, but what do you think of this Ukrainian situation?
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ReplyDeleteAccording to this http://orthochristian.com/115984.html ROCOR is, not surprisingly, backing Moscow's stand. They have also suspended participation in the various episcopal assemblies.
Deletethere is an interesting dynamic here,,, most of the oca parishes and those of the moscow exarchate have galician russian roots - those from galicia who were rusophilic following in the footsteps of fr john naumovich. also these parishes were formed for the most part before 1920. the rocor parishes are great russians, most of whom that fled after 1940 but also a group of monarchist intellegensia who emigrated after the revolution. the carpatho-russians who came out of the byzantine ruthenian church (czech and slovak lands) refuse to be subjugated by rome or moscow - the famous statement by bishop stefan dzubay. so until two more generations pass, and old wounds and differences heal, unity of all four, which is logical, will have no opportunity to occur. may God bless us all inour unity of the faith, putting our christian faith before all else
ReplyDelete"What I have found to be an oddity is that Moscow gave the OCA a tomos and yet MOSPAT-USA and ROCOR continue to operate in her territory. Would it not make more sense to move the dozen parishes of the patriarchal jurisdiction into the canonical Church?"
ReplyDeleteAs part of the 1970 Tomos agreement between the MP and the OCA, all "Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church in America" (the pre-1970 name of the OCA) parishes were allowed to decide whether they wanted to become part of the new OCA or go under the omophor of the MP. About 30 or so decided they wanted to go under the MP and not be part of the OCA. Some of these who stayed with the MP were fairly significant parishes, such as Three Saints Church in Garfield, New Jersey (www.3saints.com).
A more thorny issue is can the MP parishes in America ever start missions? Technically not, since via the Tomos the MP is saying that America is OCA mission territory. A few years ago I heard of the MP trying to start a mission somewhere in America -- that would be in direct contradiction of the OCA's Tomos of autocephaly; a MP mission in America would be the MP essentially saying that it does not abide by the Tomos which it gave the OCA.
For ROCOR, part of the 2007 restoration of canonical communion agreement with the MP was that ROCOR would be allowed to continue to operate with substantial autonomy as she has for decades. Thus, ROCOR's parishes and missions in America and everywhere else is acceptable per the 2007 agreement.
Obviously it is schizophrenic for the MP to both abide by the 1970 tomos deeming America as OCA territory and then also the 2007 agreement allowing ROCOR autonomy to have whatever parishes and missions in America that it wants. The conventional wisdom is that the MP does not take the 1970 OCA Tomos very seriously.
With the impending schism apparently coming soon, courtesy of the EP's dalliances in Ukraine at the behest of the American government (and backed/funded by American tax dollars), I suspect that the American Episcopal Assembly will soon be fairly useless or nonexistent, or comprised only of those churches that agree with EP-neo-Papism.
Abp Demetrios is elderly. Once he passes away, an EP hardliner (essentially someone who pushes EP-neo-Papism) will be put in as head of the GOA to replace Abp Demetrios. Cordial relations with non-EP Orthodox Churches in North America will likely collapse. American faithful, priests, and bishops will be forced to take sides -- do you believe in EP-neo-Papism funded/backed by the US government's perennial and ridiculous anti-Russianism, or do you support traditional Orthodoxy?
I assume that the OCA will try to straddle a middle ground (sort of the way the Serbian Church tried to maintain communion with both ROCOR and the rest of world Orthodoxy during ROCOR's difficult period in the 1970s-1980s, when much of world Orthodoxy ostracized ROCOR). We still have seen absolutely no statement from the OCA on the imminent Ukrainian schism being forced by the EP. However, I don't think a middle-ground strategy will work long-term.
EP-neo-Papism is strongly associated with modernism, and the choice will become more clear with each day: does one support Christ and His Church, or does one support EP-neo-Papism and the modernism/secularism that goes along with that.
It will be especially tough for traditional minded Orthodox who are under the jurisdiction of the EP (such as some in ACROD, the GOA monasteries across the USA, and GOA faithful who are against the EP's/US government's meddling in Ukraine).
Because the OCA is so young and not yet mature, and because the Church in America really has such shallow roots here in America that make it nearly impossible to survive here alone, I suspect that at some point the OCA will formally go back under the MP, which will be more spiritually healthy for it long-term. That is, unless the OCA modernists vanquish in which case the OCA may (sadly) go with the EP-neo-Papists.
May Christ's Holy Mother protect His Church!
I'm thinking about throwing in with the "EP-neo-Papists", just to be contrary...I like saying "EP-neo-Papists" 😋
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