Orthodox Church in America (OCA)

Deprecated: str_replace(): Passing null to parameter #3 ($subject) of type array|string is deprecated in /home/aoiusa/public_html/wp-content/themes/genesis/lib/functions/image.php on line 116
class="post-8084 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-blog-archive tag-episcopal-assemby tag-fr-thomas-hopko tag-orthodox-church tag-orthodox-church-in-america-oca entry">

The Episcopal Assembly, the OCA, and the future Orthodox Church of the USA

26 Comments

Deprecated: trim(): Passing null to parameter #1 ($string) of type string is deprecated in /home/aoiusa/public_html/wp-content/plugins/sexybookmarks/public.php on line 388

Deprecated: trim(): Passing null to parameter #1 ($string) of type string is deprecated in /home/aoiusa/public_html/wp-content/plugins/sexybookmarks/public.php on line 394

Deprecated: trim(): Passing null to parameter #1 ($string) of type string is deprecated in /home/aoiusa/public_html/wp-content/plugins/sexybookmarks/public.php on line 400

By Fr. Thomas Hopko

Fr. Thomas Hopko

It’s not clear what is now happening for the establishment of an autocephalous Orthodox Church of the United States made up of the member churches of the former SCOBA. These are my questions:

What concrete steps are now being taken to establish an autocephalous Orthodox Church of the United States that would be recognized as a “sister church” by all the autocephalous Orthodox churches in the world?
What can Orthodox Christians in North America and around the world expect the Patriarchates of Constantinople, Antioch, Moscow, Romania, Serbia and Bulgaria to do with their North American “jurisdictions” to establish this self-governing Orthodox Church of the USA?
How will the future Orthodox Church of the USA relate to the dioceses and parishes in Canada and south of the US border that are now in North American “jurisdictions”?
And why should there be any problems regarding the OCA and its place in the US Episcopal Assembly and in the future Orthodox Church of the United States if the relationship between the Russian Orthodox Church and its North American missionary diocese was settled in 1970 and the OCA was always included in SCOBA?

It seems clear, at least to me, that the only real challenge in establishing an autocephalous Orthodox Church of the USA is the resolution of the current relationship between the old world patriarchates and their new world “jurisdictions”. There are no other problems. The Patriarchates of Constantinople, Antioch, Moscow, Romania, Serbia and Bulgaria have to bless their North American “jurisdictions” to interact with each other in establishing the autocephalous Orthodox Church of the United States. And the North American “jurisdictions” have to be willing to accomplish this task. That is all that is necessary.
Continue reading →

Deprecated: str_replace(): Passing null to parameter #3 ($subject) of type array|string is deprecated in /home/aoiusa/public_html/wp-content/themes/genesis/lib/functions/image.php on line 116
class="post-7231 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-blog-archive tag-orthodox-church tag-orthodox-church-in-america-oca entry">

OCA releases strategic plan for public comment

30 Comments

Orthodox Church in America

Source: OCA Website

SYOSSET, NY [OCA] — The “Working Draft of a Strategic Plan for the Orthodox Church in America,” prepared by the Strategic Planning Committee of the OCA’s Metropolitan Council, is now available on-line in PDF format on the OCA web site at www.oca.org/PDF/NEWS/2010/2010-0624-strategicplan-v4.6.pdf.

The committee, which includes clergy and lay members representing a broad geographic spectrum, was commissioned by the Metropolitan Council and the Holy Synod of Bishops to develop a draft Strategic Plan for the OCA. According to the introduction to the Working Draft, “the goal is to provide an initial version of the plan in time for discussion and perhaps adoption at the 16th All-American Council in the fall of 2011.” As such, the draft is designed to elicit feedback from all segments of the Church. Based on the feedback received, the plan will be revised.

“This Strategic Plan is meant to be roadmap for us, as the Church, as we continue to witness to God’s Kingdom in the early parts of the 21st century,” according to Priest John Vitko, a committee member. “In developing this roadmap, it is critically important that we reach out to all the members of the Church for their prayerful input.”

The committee initiated this process by seeking and integrating input from His Beatitude, Metropolitan Jonah and members of the Holy Synod and the Metropolitan Council.
Continue reading →

The Bishops Are Coming To New York, As Complex Diaspora Question Looms

82 Comments

Read closely. What are the greatest fears? The autocephaly of the OCA (wild card) and the Ligonier Council (precedent). The times are changing folks. The lumbering bureaucratic structures that have sublimated the nascent creativity and energy of American Orthodoxy under the weight Old World self-interest might be loosing their grip. There is more anxiety here than is being revealed.

+++++++++++++++++++++

The National Herald, Friday, May 21, 2010

By Theodore Kalmoukos

Fr. Mark Arey

Nearly 60 hierarchs will descend on New York from May 26-28 for the first Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops from the United States, Canada and Central America, under the chairmanship of Archbishop Demetrios of America, and the stage has been set for some clashes about the direction the church should take, and the role of self-rule of some. The Assembly will convene at the Helmsley Park Lane Hotel, and its expense will be assumed by the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese, through the Leadership 100 grant to the Office of Inter-Orthodox, Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations and other sources. The meeting is the result of the decision of the Fourth Pre-Conciliar Pan-Orthodox Conference, which met in Chambesy, Switzerland in June of 2009, and it is one of 12 that will be convened around the world in regions where there is no single Orthodox presence.

The Bishops of the Diaspora, living in the Diaspora and possessing parishes in multiple regions, will be members of the Episcopal Assemblies of 12 regions. At the center of the Assembly will be the issue of the Diaspora, meaning the existence of more than one Orthodox Bishop in the same place (city.) Also participating is the former Russian Metropolia, known today as OCA, which was given autocephaly in 1970 by the Patriarchate of Moscow. The National Herald has learned that that Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew had initially instructed Archbishop Demetrios not to invite the OCA, but Demetrios sent them invitations to attend. The Archbishop discussed the issue during his recent visit to the Phanar three weeks ago.
Continue reading →

Abp. Nathaniel of Detroit: Orthodoxy in North America

5 Comments

Romanian Orthodox for Enquiry in America

“The demands upon our Church’s life by an un-believing society do not allow for any further delay in this process.”
Ligonier: Statement on the Church in North America, 1994

I. Three Autocephalous North American Churches.

The Pan-Orthodox Pre-Council Commission determined that the Church on the North American Continent region would cover three sovereign nations: Canada, The Republic of Mexico and The United States. Although it seems that we are to accept this as a given, hierarchs, clergy and faithful of Canada, Mexico and The United States must reject this arbitrary determination.

First, if church administration is based on region, then each of these nations must be respected as a sovereign nation. Regionally speaking, two of them are each larger than all of Europe, let alone of “orthodox” nations, and Mexico is larger than many of the nations individually given as a region.

Second, each nation already has its own honorable church experience and history of evangelization and has a working relationship with its particular and unique government. There are three separate and unique forms of government in which each Church bears witness to the Orthodox Christian faith. It is understood that the Church in each sovereign region must respond to the acts of the government in which she lives and bear her unique witness to that particular society.

Continue reading →

Deprecated: str_replace(): Passing null to parameter #3 ($subject) of type array|string is deprecated in /home/aoiusa/public_html/wp-content/themes/genesis/lib/functions/image.php on line 116
class="post-6043 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-blog-archive tag-metropolitan-jonah tag-orthodox-church tag-orthodox-church-in-america-oca entry">

Looks like Met. Jonah is serious about correcting past errors

17 Comments

I don’t know the details of the conflict mentioned in the release below and don’t need to know. What is notable is the apology of a chief hierarch of the Church. Please, don’t post the details of the conflict. They will be deleted. Instead, be encouraged by Metropolitan Jonah’s frank apology. This is good leadership.

++++++++++++++++++++

Orthodox Church in America

SYOSSET, NY [OCA] – After discussions that took place at the joint session of the Lesser Synod of Bishops and Metropolitan Council of the Orthodox Church in America at the Chancery here during the first week of March 2010, His Beatitude, Metropolitan Jonah issued the following statement.
Continue reading →

Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Call to undefined function nuthemes_content_nav() in /home/aoiusa/public_html/wp-content/themes/prose/archive.php:58 Stack trace: #0 /home/aoiusa/public_html/wp-includes/template-loader.php(106): include() #1 /home/aoiusa/public_html/wp-blog-header.php(19): require_once('/home/aoiusa/pu...') #2 /home/aoiusa/public_html/index.php(17): require('/home/aoiusa/pu...') #3 {main} thrown in /home/aoiusa/public_html/wp-content/themes/prose/archive.php on line 58