SCOBA

In his post “The Teaching Office of the Bishop,” Fr. Peter-Michael Preble wonders why Orthodox bishops have said so little about the current health care debate.

Recently Dr. Bradley Nassif wrote an article entitled “The Calling of a Bishop is to Preach the Gospel” and this is a good start and a jump off point for this discussion. Dr. Nassif states that “All bishops are to proclaim and interpret the gospel of Christ to the church and to the world.” and what is the Gospel? “The gospel is the “good news” that God became human in Jesus Christ, took upon himself our fallen humanity in order to restore it into communion with God, conquer sin and vanquish death. This he did pre-eminently through Christ’s life, death, resurrection and ascension into heaven. This “good news” must be at the very core of every life-giving action in the church – the sacraments and throughout every liturgical season of fasting and prayer.”

My personal belief is that the Gospel also includes the interpretation of events of the day and how that fits in the Christian life. What do I mean by this? An example of what I mean would be the present health care debate. The Church needs to be heard on these issues and the church, meaning the bishops, need to speak on these issues. Catholic bishop after Catholic Bishop have written statements instructing the faithful on what the church teaches on this very important social issue.

A brief check of the SCOBA website will reveal that since that start of the summer the SCOBA bishops have released the following statements:

— Disability and Communion
— ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN PRISON MINISTRY
— College Student Sunday – September 20, 2009

All important topics don’t get me wrong but where is the teaching office of the bishop? Why is silence all we hear on such an important debate?

Read more. (HT: Byzantine, Texas)

Watch and listen as American Orthodox metropolitans and bishops make a case for administrative unity — 15 years ago. The Ligonier Meeting was a gathering of twenty-eight or twenty-nine Orthodox Christian hierarchs in North America, specifically those affiliated with SCOBA, held Nov. 30 to Dec. 2, 1994, at Antiochian Village in Ligonier, Pa.

In Part 3, Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Methodios says: “There’s no question that we all want to be one administratively, and share not only a theological union that we have … but we want to be united administratively. I like to think it can be done soon. I’m not saying in a month or two or three or a year. But I hope that it doesn’t take 50 years to accomplish. It will certainly take some time.”

Antiochian Metropolitan Philip issues an appeal to the Mother Churches to include the American churches in “overseas” Pan-Orthodox synods. “We pray that the mother churches will realize soon that we are no longer little children and that the preparatory commission of the Great Synod will stop discussing the diaspora, quote unquote, in absentia,” he said.

In Part 4, Archbishop Dimitri, of the Orthodox Church in America, says that, “Our perception is that it’s an immediate need. Whether the response to that perception is going to be the same or not, is hard to say. I think at least some of the churches like Constantinople and Antioch are very conscious of our concerns here and perhaps they’ll respond. If those two churches, for example, take the lead, I believe the other churches would follow.”

Among Your saints give rest, O Christ, to the souls of Your servants, in a place where there is no pain, or sorrow, or grieving, but only life everlasting. Now and ever, and to the ages of ages. Amen.

The American Battle Monuments Commission oversees 24 permanent American burial grounds on foreign soil in places like Ardennes, Belgium; Brittany, France; Cambridge, England; Flanders Field, Belgium; Florence, Italy; Manila, Philippines; Meuse-Argonne, France; Normandy, France; North Africa, Tunisia; Sicily-Rome, Italy; and Somme, France. Presently there are 124,909 U.S. war dead interred at these cemeteries, 30,921 of World War I, 93,238 of World War II and 750 of the Mexican War. Additionally 6,177 American veterans and others are interred in the Mexico City and Corozal American Cemeteries.

Brief video tours of a number of these cemeteries are posted online. Here is the video tour of the American Cemetery in Henri-Chapelle, Belgium.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2TG63peMqo[/youtube]

Visit the military resources page on the SCOBA site where you can order the New Testament and Psalms for Orthodox Christians: Military Edition.

In conjunction with the American Bible Society, SCOBA plans to offer service men and women a free audio Bible. Military personnel will be able to play the audio of the New Testament from a web browser as well as download it onto an iPod or MP3 player while deployed. SCOBA hopes to have the audio New Testament online by June 1.