One wonders if a schism in Ukraine means a complete destruction of the careful harmony of the Church in America. If the EP and Russia break communion, does that mean OCA priests and GOA priests will no longer concelebrate? Will the many non-EP clergy serving for diminished pay in GOA parishes be forced to stop and leave smaller Greek parishes priest-less? Will The Antiochian Archdiocese cut the GOA out as well? The Serbs? What happens to pan-Orthodox events? Do we walk separately at the March for Life?
A thousand questions present themselves. What will Orthodoxy look like this time next year? God grant us humility, peace, and healing in this trying period.
Sunday, September 9, 2018
What will an autocephalous Ukrainian Church mean to us?
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"Walk together at the local March for Life"? Since when 16th as a GOA parish as much as crossed the street at a MpG?
ReplyDeleteSadly true. Been to the March since seminary days and it's almost entirely an OCA/ACROD affair.
DeletePlease strike "16th". It should have been "have"
DeleteCanonical prayers for Ukraine are available here in Church Slavonic and English. Please add them to your morning and evening prayer rule: https://mospatusa.com/news_140619_1.html
ReplyDeleteThe OCA, being an independent local Church would have to make the decision on communion on its own. Obviously, it would tend to favor alignment with Russia. Serbia would likely follow Russia if they break communion. This would mean that the two priests serving my area (twice the size of Serbia) would not be able to commune. This would be a good time for the Assembly of Bishops to step up and organize themselves as a local Church once and for all.
ReplyDeleteInteresting comment. Moscow took her autocephaly when Constantinople was operating under the Florentine Union and when Byzantium was rapidly disintegrating. I can foresee similar developments with US jurisdictions observing how ecclesiastically (and financially) thin they are on the ground here, while still being responsible for remittances to depopulating, fracturing Patriarchates over there.
DeleteI don't think we're anywhere close to such a situation yet, but it's foreseeable.
It's unlikely that this will result in a global split where all churches have to pick sides. Most churches will probably remain in communion with both churches, as with the Antioch/Jerusalem split. It might be tricky with the OCA only because the EP considers them part of the MP.
DeleteIs this a canonical violation into 2 local churches by the EP? One would assume that they stand by their tomos of autocephaly to the Church of Poland which places the western 1/3 to 1/2 of Ukraine under the Metropolitan of Warsaw. Do they no longer recognize the tomos they issued less than a century ago?
ReplyDeleteInteresting, of course. But these words also abide: "Matthew 6:34
ReplyDelete34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
I do not believe that Jerusalem has any parishes left in the USA. My understanding is that they were transferred to GOARCH and are part of its Palestinian Vicariate.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if a schism moght change the Phanar’s stance toward the OCA. Might they step forward to offer to incorporate the archdiocese into some new configuration of the GOA? Would such an arrangement have any attraction for the OCA?
ReplyDeleteI’m getting the feeling that the Phanar has set into motion vast shifts they may think they can profit by, in the style of ‘disaster capitalism’ where the very wealthy welcome chaos because of the opportunity it presents to the guy holding so many cards. But I don’t think the Phanar really has many cards and is bluffing.