As the Antiochian Archdiocese rebounds from an international scandal, it should be a point of pride and cause for no little delight to watch the below.
Have you been praying for true monasticism in America? It's coming.
- Measured in months, look to Memphis for this effort to begin. But, also look to your own children because Met. Saba is clear that families need to support their own going to the monasteries.
Have you been praying for growth in the church? Missions are being planted.
- A sure sign of health is the planting of missions in one register and the continued life of existing parishes in the other.
Have you been praying for more bishops to guide the archdiocese? Keep praying.
- Met. Saba is clear that the archdiocese needs new bishops, but they need to not be cause for more instability. They need to be trained properly.
Further effort will be put into Christian education.
- This will be my sole point of contention with this video. If you were to make a pie chart about how much Christian education was unique to a jurisdiction, it would be a very small slice. Almost all of it is the shared patrimony of the entire Orthodox Church. And yet we continue to have departments of Christian education divided by jurisdiction or even diocese for no good reason. We repeat things, we don't share graphics or curricula or timely offerings, and we put out an inferior product as a result. If you want to search and replace for specific terms in texts, it makes perfect sense to call something an epitaphios or a plashchanitsa or a naash for particular consumption but that should not stop us from working together.
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It's good to see the Antiochians finally starting to get serious about monasteries here in the U.S. Glad that this is going to be a focus from Met. Saba. Also glad they are expanding and starting missions, if I had one in my area I would go, I have been thinking about leaving the Greek Archdiocese all together and would absolutely go to the Antiochians.
ReplyDeleteGlory to God!
ReplyDeleteI have long had a special place in my heart for Antioch (and Levantine Orthodox in general), being edified by their leadership in English language ministry in America and how their Patriarchate has handled the inter-Orthodox strife. I also think that Metropolitan Saba is the right man for the job to heal the Archdiocese after the scandals.
For those of us in an EP or MP jurisdiction, it is tempting to "jump ship." With Phanariot politics and modernism on one side, and the Z Virus on the other, it can make staying or going an anguished decision. I don't blame those who decide to leave, but my view is that if your priest and bishop does their best to be shepherds (not perfect men), and keep a distance from the mess, I would say stay. I remain in my own EP Church, as I have seen more than a few leave over this craziness, and later regret it.