Metropolitan Jonah

The Orthodox Church in America’s communications department has published a summary of Metropolitan Jonah’s remarks at Orthodox Christian Laity’s recently concluded Road to Unity conference. Highlights:

Central to the fabric of a united Church, Metropolitan Jonah added, is the need to “be missionary in every aspect of its existence, reaching out to bring the Gospel of Jesus Christ in all its patristic and Orthodox integrity to the peoples of North America, incarnating the Orthodox Church in North America, and enculturating North Americans into Orthodoxy.

“Each [North American] church, jurisdiction, and community has done this to its own degree, individually,” Metropolitan Jonah observed. “Now we must put it all together, keeping in mind the essential goal of the sanctification of our people, our communities, our nations. Each community has something of utmost value to offer to the whole. Each community has come into existence in America through tremendous struggle, hardship and sacrifice. All this has to be taken into account, valued, sanctified.” Continue reading →

Ann Rodgers of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette picks up Day Two of OCL’s Road to Unity Conference:

Orthodox bishops in America are now free to use the A-word.

That’s autocephaly — meaning a self-governing church that doesn’t answer to an authority overseas. America is now divided into overlapping ethnic jurisdictions, most of which answer to a church in Eastern Europe or the Middle East. Many of those overseas churches had squelched talk of autocephaly for their mission dioceses in places such as the Americas and Australia. But in June they unanimously called for all bishops in each of those regions to assemble and make decisions about their own territories.

“It is a transition that will lead us, as quickly as possible, to our goal of a united, autocephalous American Church,” said Metropolitan Jonah, national leader of the Russian-rooted Orthodox Church in America.

At the conference, the speakers and attendees examined how unity might actually take shape:

Many speakers addressed what American Orthodoxy might look like, urging that it focus on outreach to all Americans. Christopher Shadid, 22, a senior at the University of Pittsburgh, said that campus Orthodox fellowships are already models of unity where students worship without ethnic distinction.

“The youth want unity,” he said.

Read Orthodox Christians celebrate independence in America on the Web site of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia congratulates the Primate of the Orthodox Church in America on his 50th birthday. Source: Moscow Patriarchate.

Metropolitan Jonah (left) and Patriarch Kirill in Moscow

Your Beatitude,

Beloved Brother and Concelebrant in the Lord:

I wholeheartedly greet and congratulate you on the your 50th birthday.

On this day, I lift up an ardent prayer to God for you and remember with warmth the moments of our fraternal fellowship during your official visit to the Russian Orthodox Church, which enabled us to experience once again the spiritual and historical kindred of our two Churches.

Your jubilee is a feast not only for the Orthodox Church in America but also for the Moscow Patriarchate tied with the life of the American Orthodox by historical bonds.

May the Lord Who has place on you the heavy burden of primatial service of the Orthodox Church in America bless your primatial efforts and multiply and strengthen your God-loving flock. I prayerfully wish you good health and inexhaustible spiritual joy for many good years.

With brotherly love in the Lord,

+ KIRILL,

Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia

Update: (10/11) Ancient Faith Radio has the audio from, “In the Footsteps of Tikhon and Grafton – Anglican and Orthodox Identity, Ministry and Mission in the 21th Century,” the Anglican-Orthodox Conference featuring discussions and addresses by representatives of St. Vladimir’s Seminary and Nashotah House. Listen here.

The History of Anglican/Orthodox Relations
Fr. Stephen Platt moderated and the speakers were Fr. Chad Hatfield and Fr. Arnold Klukas.

Anglican/Orthodox Enculturation
Mrs. Glynn Mackoul moderated and the speakers were Fr. William Olnhausen and Fr. Jack Gabig.

Bishops and Mission
Fr. Chad Hatfield moderated and the speakers were Bishop Melchizedek and Bishop Frank Lyons.

Anglican/Orthodox Theological Training
Fr. Arnold Klukas moderated and the speakers were Fr. Chad Hatfield and Dean Munday

The Future of Anglican and Orthodox Relations
Both Deans moderated and the speakers were Archbishop William Duncan and Metropolitan Jonah.

Anglican/Orthodox Relations In Practice
In the final session the speakers are Fr. Stephen Platt and Bishop Keith Ackerman. The session begins with Fr. Stephen giving an overview of the Fellowship of Sts. Alban and Sergius.

Continue reading →

Archpastoral Message of His Beatitude, Metropolitan Jonah at the Beginning of the Ecclesiastical Year.

September 1, 2009

To the Venerable Hierarchs, Reverend Clergy, Monastics and Faithful of the Orthodox Church in America

The Lord said:

The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, Because He has anointed Me To preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives And recovery of sight to the blind, To set at liberty those who are oppressed; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD.” Luke 4:18f.

Dearly Beloved in Christ:

The Blessing of the Lord be upon you!

As we celebrate the Church’s New Year, we meditate on the Gospel for this day, where the Lord went to Nazareth and was handed the Scriptures, and read the above. He then said, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

The question we have to ask ourselves is, How is this fulfilled in my life? How have I entered into the Lord’s ministry, preaching the good news to the poor, healing the brokenhearted, giving liberty to captives, and so forth? Am I even paying attention to this?

Our Church has many challenges before it, financial, legal, organizational. But we must remember that, as important as these things are, as critical as they may be the life of our Church at this time, they can quickly become distractions from the one thing needful: to keep focused on Jesus Christ and the ministries which He has given us as a means of participation in His own ministry. While we might have budget challenges, there is nothing that can prevent us from preaching the Gospel, consoling those alone and abandoned, and setting at liberty those held captive by their sins.

We have been “recreated in Christ for good works.” Let us do that work, not because we expect a paycheck or recognition for doing it, but because it is the very nature of who we are as Christians: to manifest the Kingdom by showing love for our neighbor. Let us recover our spiritual sight, in Christ by the Spirit, so that we may know that the Spirit of the Lord is upon us, and has anointed us to do the Lord’s will.

Each one of us has been anointed by the Lord do the works of God — in chrismation. We don’t have to wait for a program or a department to do them. In whatever walk of life, no matter who we are, we are called to enter into the Lord’s labors. So let us put aside all distraction, keeping all things in their proper perspective, with our attention and focus firmly on Jesus Christ. We then might just find that our distractions and crises are not so big as we thought they were and that we have been given everything that we need to resolve them, if we indeed can maintain our awareness of Christ, striving for the fulfillment of His will.

With love in Christ,

+JONAH
Archbishop of Washington
Metropolitan of All America and Canada