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(SCOOCH) - On September 19, 2019 – His Eminence Mor Silvanos Ayub, Archbishop of the of the Knanaya Archdiocese of the Syriac Orthodox Church, hosted the Fall Meeting of the Standing Conference of Oriental Orthodox Churches. The meeting was held at the Mor Aphrem Center of the Syriac Orthodox Archdiocese. All members of the SCOOCH were present and a variety of issues were addressed at the meeting, including ecumenical dialogue with the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches, missionary outreach to the African-American community, the upcoming SCOOYA Youth Conference scheduled for December 28, and regional con celebrations of the Divine Liturgy in the New York area on October 12 and in the Philadelphia area on November 2. The present crises in India, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Egypt, and elsewhere in the Middle East were also discussed, and prayers were offered for the Orthodox faithful throughout the world.
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I wonder how the Oriental-Roman Catholic dialogue is going. The Orientals are even more hard-line than we are against Rome, especially the Ethiopians
ReplyDelete"missionary outreach to the African-American community"
ReplyDeleteEcclesia is downstream from culture.
This discussion-that-can't-be-discussed is getting hilarious. What about "Roman Catholic missionary outreach to the African-American community?" "Antiochian Orthodox missionary outreach to the African-American community?" Or should ROCOR take the lead instead? And on and on.
I have no answers but supposedly that's the task of the hierarchy. They need to figure out how to explain or reconcile the new reality.
The OCA AAC in 2015 passed a motion to make specific outreach to black Americans. Some addenda to the motion were floated which would have blunted the motion’s direction toward addressing the specific lack of black people in our parishes but delegates rejected watering down the resolution because the specific problem must be addressed.
DeleteIt will depend on whether African-Americans see the OCA as a good cultural fit. Ecclesia is downstream of culture.
Delete"...but delegates rejected watering down the resolution because the specific problem must be addressed."
DeleteWhy? Why the moral imperative (i.e. "must be addressed") and why is "the problem" being framed such as it is, namely that you look at your parishes through the lens of skin color and make a calculation that there are not enough or too much of this or that skin color?
Perhaps the delegates of the OCA's convention have a real sense of American culture(s), subcultures, and a rational/sensible view of how these fit into the Cult of cultures, that is the Church?!? Nah, that can't be it...
Furthering the Gospel through an "affirmative action" morality...what could go wrong?
back circa 1955 metropolitan leonty broached the subject at a froc convention,,,asking theosepresent howthey weregoing to react to the challenge,,,,nowthat is vision asto the practiclities here in the usa,,,,do not forget about the african orthodox movement here in the usa and bisho marcus garvey or that i believe missionary ruben spartas of africa came out ofthe african orthodox church to the church of alexandria,,,,,,,,,i have gone to syriac and coptic churches and hav found them to be more sensitive to the needs and expecatations oftheir people,,,they have tv sets in the sanctuary so all can see what is going on in the altar and the the precise tet the priest is using,,,they use english,,,,they seek converts,,they hve buses and bus elderly and youth,,,,they are more christ oriented to me and less ethnic oriented than we orthodox are,,,,for example at the main church in hamden ct thery use all english and for those who do not want english they go to a small chepel in the rear where the coptic liturgy is served,,,great way to keep the people
ReplyDeleteInteresting point, but having TV's in the sanctuary is a bad idea in my opinion, as well as separate chapels for a different language liturgy. The former serves to make the liturgy worldly and conformed to our modern desires and reliance on technology, the latter serves to divide the congregation along ethnic lines just as much as an exclusively foreign language parish would. My church is an Antiochian one and we have an arab language liturgy every month, but not a separate room where the elderly emigre part of the congregation is isolated from the rest.
DeleteI would not damn them until you visit them,,,,,I am also antiochian and from my experience they put us to shame because of their missionary oriented perspective,,,,remind me of the years of blessed metropolitan Antony,,,,it has been regression into an ethnic ghetto since his repose
ReplyDeleteRJ - I may be misunderstanding your comment. But I think the old "ethnic ghetto" depends on the particular parish and is on the wane. I believe even the Dearborn and Toledo area parishes are much more pluralistic than they were just 10 years ago. There is just too much out-marriage to keep the ethnic social club model, and the hierarchs are not putting up with it.
DeleteSadly, I have seen more insular Middle Easterners drift off to the Melkite and Maronite parishes. So be it. If you want to attend a Middle Eastern Church qua Middle Eastern Church, you should move to the Middle East. Or, as has become the practice, you can just go to one of Rome's ethnic exarchates.
+Philip, a Lebanese of the Lebanese, understood this. Like I've said, the man looks better and more prescient every year.
we always forget the greats who established a strong foundation, which over the past 50 years has eroded,,metropolitan antony, metropolitan platon, metropolitan theophilus, metropolitan leonty, archbishop athenagoras, archbishop valerian, archbishop iakovos,,,,these men put us on the map,,,, their successors have taken us back to the 19th century -- ethnic identity above all else will be our demise --- just look at kindratch's data,,,in fact in ct alone, out of 50 canonical parishes there are 10 ready to close ---- in the past 19 years 4 have aleady
ReplyDelete