On the Romanian / OCA jurisdictional change discussion

A little context: There is an effort afoot to consolidate the ethnically Romanian parishes (some of which are in the OCA) under the Romanian Church. Depending on your opinion you probably think this is more ethnic divisiveness when more unity is called for or a welcome and salubrious opportunity for Romanian believers. An additional note: BOR is a reference to "Biserica Ortodoxă Română" which translates to "Romanian Orthodox Church."

(Roeanews) - Of course, we have received other arguments for this unity, but not even one is Orthodox. The arguments can be regrouped:

• Phyletism, that is regrouping the church along ethnic lines and not geographic bases, is not an orthodox solution.
• No one questions that it would be nice if brothers here would be together. The problem occurs when we must choose between Orthodox Church jurisdictions; should we be under the Romanian one (BOR) from there, or under the American one (OCA) from here?
• “The regrouping of all Orthodox from across North America into a single American Patriarchate can only be achieved by having each church here submit itself to its Mother church from there. Only then will the mother churches decide, how and when, they will create this new American Church.” This is an argument which is in complete contradiction with the history of every new Autocephalous Church. Once in their hands, it is almost impossible to escape other than by the force of the laity and this after a long confrontation. The local North American Church already exists. There are local Bishops, priests and parishes. With what right do strangers interfere in matters that do not concern them? So, if this is the way it will be, staying in the independent and autocephalous OCA is the best solution.
  

Here are the only arguments for unity under Bucharest; three non-orthodox arguments. These do not even consider:

• the fact that BOR is a sick Church, and this in the opinion of the most important spiritual fathers in Romania
• the fact that BOR is a state-run Church where Hierarchs and all clerics are salaried employees of the Romanian Government, and that this is in contradiction with our culture here, where State and Church have nothing to do with each other
• the fact that BOR personnel must listen to the Romanian Government, while we from here cannot be subject to a church that takes orders from a government that is not our own
• the fact that we cannot trust their word
• the fact that we have evolved here, in a different culture and a different religious context, and that we in ROEA are at home in the OCA, our Mother Church for 50 years
• that many of us with up to 100 year roots here, on this continent, have remained Orthodox, but we are citizens born and raised in the United States and Canada and want to remain loyal to them. Others among us who have come more recently from Romania also have children and then grandchildren who will become the same, but in a much shorter period of time
• that the only hope for our children remaining Orthodox in the future is for us to give them an American church, where their native tongue of tomorrow will be in the forefront, and where the church hierarchy is from here, overseen by people from here, in the context of here.
  

This discussion must be dominated by reality and facts, and not by dreams or wishes. A little Romania cannot be recreated here. Others have tried and failed. Living in an ethnic ghetto is now very short-lived, not even a generation long, and this particularly when surrounded by North American culture at school, at work, everywhere, with the possible exception of an hour at night when everyone gets home tired. English dominates all, and habits adopted here become normal reactions; and this with the first generation, let alone the second or the third! If we do not have a church for our children who are from here, run the way they expect it to be run, by people from here, and following the local cultural norms, then our children will also lose our ancestral religion.

The real discussion should focus on this precise point. Those who come here from Romania only to return in a few years have different needs than do we who have chosen to make our permanent home here, in North America. We need a church not only for ourselves, but more importantly, we need one for our children. What could that Church be except the ROEA Vatra permanently integrated in the OCA? This should be the real debate. What is best for our children and grandchildren here; the American ROEA in the OCA, or the Romanian ROAA under the Romanian Patriarchate led from Bucharest?

But, because those who demand that we all become subjected to Bucharest rule have no valid arguments except non-Orthodox ones, those opposed to that unity under Bucharest are accused by them of being against unity for no valid reason… Ridiculous logic!

Valid, Orthodox arguments for abandoning the OCA and having unity under the Romanian Patriarchate are accepted here. After 6 months, not even one has been presented, here or elsewhere. Maybe there aren’t any?