episcopal assembly

By St. Andrew House, Center for Orthodox Christian Studies
www.standrewhouse.com
Board of Directors: Steve Lionas, Dean Calvert, Myke Jacobs, Warren David

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Sixteen years ago the bishops of the various jurisdictions of the Orthodox Churches in America met in Ligonier, Pennsylvania, to map out the road to a unified American Orthodox Church. Call it the “Ligonier Council” — the First Council of Orthodox Bishops in America.

The air was electric. Called by the two towering leaders of Orthodoxy in America — Archbishop Iakovos of the Greek Orthodox Church (GOA) and Metropolitan Philip of the Antiochian Church (AOCA) and courageously supported by representatives of Romanian, Serbian and Bulgarian jurisdictions, the bishops resolved to tackle head-on the vexing problems of Orthodox jurisdictional disunity in America. The Church in America had turned a corner.

It was not to last. The news upset many of the Old World patriarchates. Perhaps they saw the attempt at unity as moving too fast. Or maybe they didn’t understand the American “can-do” spirit and our native impatience with progress that moves too slowly.

Reaction against Ligonier was swift and the Ecumenical Patriarch took the lead in reversing it. The message was unequivocal: There will be no independent and autocephalous American Orthodox Church.
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H/T: Orthodox Beacon

In a response to the information about the omission of the hierarchy of the Brazilian diocese of the Polish Autocephalous Orthodox Church to the Episcopal Assembly of the Orthodox Bishops of South America, chancery of metropolitan Athenagoras of Mexico stated that it was not intentional. Father Peter DiLeo-Vulic explained that this was caused by a lack of accurate information about the Polish Orthodox diocese in Brazil.

Father DiLeo-Vulic stressed that metropolitan Athenagoras, who was responsible for organizing the meeting, made every effort to ensure that all the bishops from South America learned about the meeting. He added that this situation highlights the need for these meetings, because the coexistence in the same territory of a dozen noncanonical and canonical Orthodox jurisdiction causes such a confusion.

Source: cerkiew.pl

Hellenes Abroad News, one of the primary voices of the Greek lobby, reports that Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew will meet with SCOBA during his visit to the United States, which kicked off yesterday. The article makes a startling assertion:

Under the leadership of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the worldwide Orthodox Church has moved significantly in the past year toward a canonical normalization of the Churches that exist in the so-called “Diaspora.” This opportunity for the Members of SCOBA to meet with the Ecumenical Patriarch comes at a fortuitous time in the process.

Considering that the newly constituted U.S. episcopal assembly is not scheduled to gather for its first meeting until May 2010, this is what we “barbarians” in America’s so-called “diaspora” refer to as jumping the gun.

Recall, to cite just one example, Antiochian Metropolitan Philip’s critique of Constantinople’s interpretation of Canon 28.

Met. Philip argues that Constantinople’s interpretation of the canon is historically untenable, interferes with good order, hobbles efforts at jurisdictional unity and, most important, retards Orthodox missionary work in the United States.

Ever notice how the communication organs of the Greek lobby seem to have been modeled on the techniques of Newspeak that were used so effectively at the Ministry of Truth?