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(Antiochian) - Official Call to Special Convention
This article contains important information for the Special Convention of the Antiochian Archdiocese in Dallas, Texas on January 13, 2023. Voting delegates will nominate candidates for the next Metropolitan-Archbishop.
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This is a watershed moment for the Antiochians, what they do now will have either a positive or a dampening effect on the future of the Eastern Orthodox Chrisitan Churcch in the USA.
ReplyDeleteThe points to be considered are:
How many on the proposed list are already compromised? It seems that not only the trustees but all of the bishops knew about "Joseph the womanizer", as one senior Antiochian priest charaterized him to me some 10 years ago. Not a one of them had the mettle that OCA Bishop Job showed during the OCA scandal. So, because of this they, tustees and bishoos, have been complicit, haven't they?.
Metropolitan Antony was a true leader, manager, and visoinary. In my opinion, inorder to follow in his footsteps today, they need an American born, American educated, executive MBA holder, widower who can take the church into the future. One who is willing to cut ties with the old country, move beyond being an ethnic.Byzantine ghetto social club, no longer subvert the work of the OCA, and work toward a unified and stong American Eastern Orthodox Chrisitan Church.
They need a leader who is a bridge builder and is sensitive to the needs of his flock, not one who imposes ethnic and monastic rules that do more to create barriers than inroads.
Back in the day a great opportunity was lost when the OCA and the Antiochians were talking about merging. Perhaps this a window of opportunity.
In looking at the list of possible candidates I do not anyone who has the mettle to move beyond the present ethnic ghetto situation. I do not see a bridge builder --- in fact to take a leap of faith I do not see anyone who possesses the pastoral qualities and vision of Bishop Daniel of the Armenians.
If this was the business world, and many Antiochians are businessmen, isn't it this an opportunity to bring in an outsider, a peron who would clean house - episcopate, clergy, trustees etc. and create a vision of what the church should be 100 years from now, and to create a plan to achieve this goal?
The OCA has survived 52 years of being on its own. It has learned and matured. But it has done it on its own. The Antiochians haven't even had the wherewithall of building an Antiochian wing at St. Judes. Has the old country diverted its attention from becoming part of the fabric of America?
To me this is a very sobering time, a very critical time. For the future of the Eastern Orthodox Chrisitan Chucrh in America hangs in the balance.
Remaining an old country focused ethnic ghetto I fear, will only hasten the demise of and the future of, and the value of, the Eastern Orthodox Chrisitan Church on American soil.
May God lead us all and to have the fortitude to do what is right for the Christian Church.
Mr. Klanko,
DeleteYour in leadership (or were) of the OCL if memory serves correct?
You certainly write like you are/were. This:
"...episcopate, clergy, trustees etc. and create a vision of what the church should be 100 years from now, and to create a plan to achieve this goal?..."
hinges on being (i.e. ontology) something other than "immigrant" Orthodoxy, but too few are ready/able/willing to move past immigrant Orthodoxy - not just leadership (clergy and lay) but the "average man" within. Indeed, most converts get acclimated to immigrant Orthodoxy to a lessor or greater extant, sooner or later, and end up defending immigrant Orthodoxy.
No one has this vision, for the present or the future. The OCL does not have it because it a) leans too heavily upon "administration" unity, claiming it will solve all sorts of problems that it won't and b) leans too heavily upon "fitting into the fabric of American (culture)", which is to say it wants the Church to be too worldly - adopting women's ordination to name an example - and claiming that this compromising worldliness *is* the necessary ontology the Church needs.
Immigrant Orthodoxy *is* a failure path no doubt - just look at how it can not manage to pass the faith on to the next generation. As you point out, another vision and ontology (i.e. how to *be* Orthodox in modern western post-Christian society) is needed, but most within the church do not even see this need, let alone have a way to address it. Besides a few voices such as Rod Dreher, the status quo is what the majority really truly believe in.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, the actual numbers of regular Sunday going Orthodox get smaller and smaller. Is a Big Personality (preferably a bishop) really going to change this? I don't think so.
For the record, one of the candidates, Met Saba (Esber) has written quite a lot over the years about his vision for the Church of Antioch, you can start with:
ReplyDeletehttp://araborthodoxy.blogspot.com/2016/05/met-saba-esber-on-orthodox-diaspora_25.html
https://araborthodoxy.blogspot.com/2012/12/met-saba-esbers-vision-of-church-and.html