The Russian Church has blown up canonical order in Africa. Had the EP not done what it did in Ukraine, I can't imagine this move would have happened as it did, but I lament this action. Even today I look at Alaska and think "There is no reason for non-OCA parishes to be there. They had one bishop, one land and then needlessly other jurisdictions moved in." We have moved one step closer to a real split in Orthodoxy. I am reminded of a scene from the West Wing entitled "A Proportional Response" wherein the US is attacked and the president is speaking with the joint chiefs on how they should respond.
PRESIDENT BARTLET: What is the virtue of a proportional response?
ADMIRAL FITZWALLACE: I’m sorry.
BARTLET: What’s the virtue of a proportional response? Why’s it good? They hit an airplane, so we hit a transmitter, right? That’s a proportional response.
FITZWALLACE: Sir, in the case of Pericles...
BARTLET: They hit a barracks, so we hit two transmitters?
FITZWALLACE: That’s roughly it, sir.
BARTLET: It’s what we do. I mean this is what we do.
LEO, CHIEF OF STAFF: Yes sir, it’s what we do, it’s what we’ve always done.
BARTLET: Well, if it’s what we do, if it’s what we’ve always done, don’t they know we’re going to do it?
LEO: Sir, if you would turn your attention to Pericles One.
BARTLET: I have turned my attention to Pericles One, it’s two ammo dumps, an abandoned railroad bridge and a Syrian intelligence agency.
FITZWALLACE: Those are four high rated military targets, sir.
BARTLET: But they know we’re going to do that, they know we’re going to do that. Those areas have been abandoned for four days. We know that from the satellites. We have the intelligence.
LEO: Sir.
BARTLET: They did that, so we did this, it’s the cost of doing business, it’s been factored in, right?
LEO: Mr. President...
BARTLET: Am I right or am I missing something here?
FITZWALLACE: No sir, you’re right sir.
BARTLET: Then I ask again, what is the virtue of a proportional response?
FITZWALLACE: It isn’t virtuous Mr. President. It’s all there is sir.
BARTLET: It is not all there is.
LEO: Sir, Admiral Fitzwallace...
FITZWALLACE: Excuse me Leo, but pardon me Mr. President, just what else is there?
BARTLET: A disproportional response. Let the word ring forth from this time and this place, you kill an American, any American, we don’t come back with a proportional response, we come back [bangs fist on table] with total disaster!
GENERAL: Are you suggesting we carpet-bomb Damascus?
BARTLET: General, I am suggesting that you and Admiral Fitzwallace and Secretary Hutchinson and the rest of the national security team take the next sixty minutes and put together a U.S. response scenario that doesn’t make me think we are just docking somebody’s damn allowance! [gets up and leaves the room. Everyone stands.]
(Church of Russia) - The head of the Synodal Department for the Church’s Relations with Society and Mass Media, Vladimir Legoida, reported on the resolutions adopted by the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church at its meeting held on December 29, 2021, in the Patriarchal and Synodal Residence at the St. Daniel Monastery in Moscow. The meeting was chaired by His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia.
Mr. Legoida reported that the Holy Synod heard a report of the vice-chairman of the Department for External Church Relations, Archbishop Leonid of Yerevan and Armenia, on the numerous appeals coming to His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia from clerics of the Orthodox Church of Alexandria to take them under the omophorion of the Moscow Patriarchate (Minutes No. 100).
“Summing up the discussion, the Synod stated that it is impossible to give another refusal to the clerics of the Orthodox Church of Alexandria, who petitioned to take them under the omophorion of the Moscow Patriarchate”, Mr. Legoida said.
“In this connection, the Synod resolved that 102 clergy of the Patriarchate of Alexandria from eight countries in Africa, in compliance with their petitions, be accepted in the jurisdiction of the Russian Orthodox Church”, he added.
The Holy Synod resolved that the Patriarchal Exarchate of Africa be formed consisting of the Diocese of North Africa and South Africa and the head of the Patriarchal Exarchate of Africa be given the title “of Klin”.
Vladimir Legoida also reported that the Holy Synod resolved that the Diocese of North Africa should include the Patriarchal parishes of the Moscow Patriarchate in Egypt, Tunisia and Morocco and the ruling bishop of the Diocese of North Africa have the title “of Cairo and North Africa”.
“Moreover, the Holy Synod resolved that the Diocese of South Africa should include the parish of the Moscow Patriarchate in the Republic of South Africa”, Mr. Legoida reported.
“The Synod resolved that the ruling bishop of the Diocese of South Africa be given the title “of Johannesburg and South Africa”, he said.
According to Mr. Legoida, the Synod appointed Archbishop Leonid of Yerevan and Armenia as Patriarchal Exarch for Africa, Metropolitan of Klin, with instruction to rule the Diocese of North Africa and to be the temporary administrator of the Diocese of South Africa.
“The Holy Synod also resolved to relieve the Right Rev. Leonid of his duty as vice-chairman of the DECR, retaining his duty as temporary administrator of the Diocese of Yerevan and Armenia”, said the head of the Synodal Department.
The Synodal Department for the Church’s Relations with Society and Mass Media/Patriarchia.ru.
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I am sorry to see this too--the race for the world is on. Most unseemly, and at the end of it Orthodox ecclesiology will be shredded.
ReplyDeleteIf the American archdioceses were really sharp, they'd have a top-secret Synod (easy to arrange with remote video-conferencing), hammer out a few key agreements, and tell +Kyrill, +Bartholomew and +John they've united under the omophorion of the Metropolitan of America elected from their own number. Maybe pledge some geld so the new ecclesiological reality will go down easier. Obviously, that's never going to happen.
What was the issue between the Alexandrian clergy and their Patriarch?
The "one bishop to one territory" principle seems to me to be irrevocably a thing of the past already. In the case of Constantinople's pretensions I can't say I'm sorry, since they've shown hardly any interest in spreading the Gospel of Christ in areas where they claim to have jurisdiction (i.e. the entire world except for some ancient patriarchates). But the Alexandrian Patriarchate seems genuinely concerned to spread Orthodoxy in its realm, so I wish things had gone better for them.
ReplyDeleteWhere are we headed? Unlike some, I don't think jurisdictional "confusion" has really hampered the progress of Orthodoxy in the US, so maybe the breakdown of territoriality will be fruitful? We can hope and pray.
As we move into a neo-pagan world I sometimes think we can learn from the Jews, organized more as a network than a hierarchical system. Is that where we're headed?
As always, we need to recall, and genuinely believe, that the gates of hell will not prevail against the church.
"Where are we headed? Unlike some, I don't think jurisdictional "confusion" has really hampered the progress of Orthodoxy in the US, so maybe the breakdown of territoriality will be fruitful? We can hope and pray. As we move into a neo-pagan world I sometimes think we can learn from the Jews, organized more as a network than a hierarchical system. Is that where we're headed?"
DeleteI agree with much you say here. Still, I think the differing emphasises along pietistic and 'Christ and Culture' theology will continue to grow into an obvious split in NA and western civ. In other words we are close, if not already at, two or more "Orthodoxies".
"We have moved one step closer to a real split in Orthodoxy..."
ReplyDeleteI disagree. The split already existed, it's just being "fleshed out" as it were. Orthodoxy has been telling itself that it is "conciliar", without actually being conciliar, for a long time - 120 years, 1300 years, choose your preferred nexus. An abstraction that does not congrue with reality can only be held up for so long.
Who has the *authority* to call a REAL conciliar council now? Imperial Orthodoxy has been the walking dead since the death of the Empire...
I tend to agree with the 1300 number. The Egyptians, Ethiopians, Armenians and Assyrians decided they weren't "Greek Orthodox" a long time ago.
Delete"An abstraction that does not congrue with reality can only be held up for so long." A fitting epitaph for many, many things.
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ReplyDeleteEven as someine who believes the MP to be in the right with regard to Ukraine, I was hoping this could be avoided. It seems consistent with how the MP has approached things, but...
ReplyDeleteI sometimes think of the current situation in terms of springs: you pull on them and, when you release, they recover. But if you pull toi hard, they get permanently deformed. I hope this is not that type of pull, but, as I get older, I find myself increasingly less optimistic about many things, with church politics close to the top of the list.
The Russians are wrong - dead wrong. Now I hear they want to establish an exarchate in Turkey! Their insanity is is a blight on Orthodoxy.
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