Met. Phillip

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The warrior is back! Met. Philip cuts to the heart of some of the nonsense around the Episcopal Assembly. Some highlights:

• There is no Diaspora here. We decided in 1994 with the late Archbishop Iakovos. We rejected the term Diaspora for North America.
• I am going to propose the rejection of this term Diaspora
• The non-recognition of the OCA by Constantinople and Antioch is hypocrisy.
• (Pat. Bartholomew) cannot stand the words “Orthodox unity.”

And, the untouchable issue:

• Question: How do feel about pederasty and homosexuality in the Church? Answer: It is the most disgusting, it is a horrible thing, and there is no reason in the Orthodox Church for it and I absolutely have zero tolerance for it.

This is good.

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The National Herald, Friday, May 21, 2010

By Theodore Kalmoukos

BOSTON – Metropolitan Philip, Primate of the Autonomous Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese of America with 265 parishes, six Bishops and 350 priests, is the Vice-Chairman of the Standing Conference of Canonical Bishops of America, known as SCOBA, and also Vice-Chairman of the upcoming Panorthodox Bishops Assembly. In an exclusive interview with The National Herald, the prominent Prelate said that, “I really do not know what the purpose of this Assembly is all about.” He proposed an idea as a solution to the issue of what would happen to the Diaspora in the United States. He said, “At one time I proposed that the Ecumenical Patriarch leave Constantinople and come to Washington D.C. or to New York and keep his title as ecumenical Patriarch.”

In the interview, he touched on other critical areas for the church, including division and dissent.

TNH: What are you thoughts about the upcoming Assembly of Orthodox Bishops in New York?

Philip: I do not see much difference between the coming Assembly and SCOBA. SCOBA is not dissolved, it is 50 years old, it has a constitution, it has not been dissolved. We had Bishop’s Assemblies with SCOBA in 1994 at the Antiochian Village in Ligonier, under Archbishop Iakovos, then we had another one in Washington D.C., and we hade another one in Chicago, so this Bishops Assemblies are not new to us at all, we had them before.
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