Orthodox Unity

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Archbishop Demetrios on the Way Out?

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HT: St. Andrew House Orthodox Discussion Forum

Theodore Kalmoukos

His Emminence Abp. Demetrios blessing a congregation

BOSTON- At 83 years old and beleaguered by a raft of questions about his ability to keep leading, Archbishop Demetrios may leave his position at the Archbishopric Throne of America, it emerged after intense discussions at the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Constantinople, where he traveled unannounced, as well as among prominent Greek-American leaders who want him retained. The National Herald was unable to reach him at press time.

Those familiar with the issue attribute the possible development to his age the constant accumulation of various unresolved problems under his tenure recently.

Sources said it was believed at the Patriarchate that these questions have stagnated the ecclesial life of the Archdiocese of America. TNH also has learned that a group of prominent Greek Americans do not agree with the possibility of Archbishop Demetrios leaving his post and threatened to stop all financial and other support to the Ecumenical Patriarchate if he does not stay.

The speculation about a possible exodus were re-enforced after his meeting with Prime Minister George Papandreou and the Deputy Minister of State Demetris Droutsas in Athens on April 27. The Archbishop’s statement to The National Herald after the meeting that he discussed “issues that concern him” intensified even more the reports his departure is being arranged, especially after his visit to Constantinople.

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Appeal from the Patriarch of Romania and a response

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The Patriarchate of Romania

The Romanian Patriarch issued an appeal on February 11, 2010 “…to all Romanian Orthodox clerics and faithful abroad, who are, without blessing, in other sister Orthodox Churches or in non-canonical church structures, to restore their direct communion with their Mother Church, under the canonical jurisdiction of the Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church.”

Taking what appears to be a page from the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s book, the Romanian Patriarchate asserts the universality of the Church (the “Catholic — or katholikos in the Nicene Creed’s “…only Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church) is derived not from the trans-cultural, trans-tribal, and trans-national character of the Gospel, but from ethnic identity and affiliation albeit without the accouterments such as the universality of Hellenism to buttress the argument.

Not everyone agrees. I’ve posted the response to the appeal first, and the original appeal second. Postings on this page are truncated (signers names have been removed for space) but you can read the response to the appeal and original appeal on separate pages.

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Appeal for Unity and Dignity of the Orthodox Church

Translated from the original French

We, the descendants of various migrations of the 20th century or people of Western origin, have inherited from our forefathers an Orthodoxy that is “the Church of Christ on Earth”, a reality that is greater than any form of social, cultural or national rootedness. The Orthodox Church, in all situations in which she exists, is called to be incarnated in local cultures, because, as “the new life in Christ”, the Church is universal. But this universality is never abstract: it is tangible in each place, in each Eucharistic community where the faithful, gathered in a diversified unity, share the same Orthodox faith received from the Apostles and transmitted by the Fathers.

In Western Europe, Orthodox Christians of different origins have lived together for four generations, and we have understood that it is our responsibility to witness together to Orthodoxy, in a fraternal dialogue with other Christians, in a world that hungers for God. For fifty years, the Orthodox Fellowship in Western Europe, among other aims, has sought to enable a gathering of all the Orthodox in a Eucharistic unity and a canonical structure that is in conformity with our ecclesiology. This ecclesiology is territorial, in which there is no form of “nationalism” or competition among dioceses, but which does not renounce the place of cultures, languages or peoples. In his sense, the establishment of the Assembly of Orthodox Bishops of France in 1997 was a significant step forward.
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Abp. Nathaniel of Detroit: Orthodoxy in North America

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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.

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OCL Prayer for Episcopal Assembly

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February 26, 2010

To the Servants of God who attend the Orthodox Christian Church in the Americas.

Prayer for the Episcopal Assembly

At its February meeting, the Board members of Orthodox Christian Laity unanimously concurred that the most effective support Orthodox Christians in North and Central America – Hierarchs, Clergy and Laity, can provide to the more than 60 bishops who shepherd this land mass, as they move forward to develop a plan for manifesting the unity of the Orthodox Christian Church of the Americas, is to fervently pray every day for the successful convening and conclusion of the first Episcopal Assembly. This Assembly will take place in the week following the feast of Pentecost. Therefore, during this period of the Great and Holy Fast and the season of the Resurrection and Pentecost which follows, let us pray:
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Pat. Kirill on Chambesy

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Patriarch Kirill: Every manifestation of Orthodox unity is our common glory, common joy, while a want of unity and every tension, every conflict in the global Orthodox family is a common pain and common defeat

The Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church pointed to the support of fraternal relations within the family of Local Orthodox Churches as one of the most important tasks of his Patriarchal ministry. ‘We should remember: the Holy Orthodox Church is one as the Lord is one. All the Orthodox nations comprise it’, he said in his address to the Bishops’ Conference on 2 February 2010 at the Church of Christ the Saviour, ‘The administrative borders of Local Churches are necessary of course for ensuring a proper canonical order but they cannot divide into parts the one body of the Church of Christ’.
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