Month: June 2010

How the self governance of the OCA has benefitted Orthodox Christians on this continent

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Fr. Michael Oleska, dean of St. Innocent Orthodox Cathedral in Anchorage, Alaska, writes that self-governance of the church also has an important practical dimension: corrupt bishops can be removed through the combined action of priests and laity. Self-governance in other words provides an essential check and balance that is lacking in the monarchical model of the episcopacy that emerged under submission to the Ottomans on the Byzantine side, and under submission and dependency on the state on the Russian side.

The past leadership of the OCA invoked this putative authority to intimidate priests and laity who refused to accept the rampant corruption that afflicted the OCA. In the GOA, the monarchical model has been imposed in greater measure ever since the Bishops were elevated to Metropolitans and the dioceses began to function as fiefdoms of Constantinople. This late development has its committed defenders as well (see: GOA Deacon responds to Dn. Eric Wheeler) although the reasoning never seems to get past the finger-wagging at those who dare challenge the implicit notion that the Metropolitans are infallible.

Fr. Michael Oleska

Somewhere in these discussions about autocephaly we should consider honestly how the self-governance of the Orthodox Church in America has benefited Orthodox Christians on this continent: and we don’t have to look back too far.

Our tragic situation in Alaska was resolved when a few clergy on the Kuskokwim River appealed to the Holy Synod of the OCA to alleviate their plight, the unkindness and insensitivity of a ruling bishop who was treating them and their culture with pronounced disrespect, imposing on them, precisely, an alien so-called “Russian” identity and trying to mold and direct them toward becoming replica parishes of his own concept of a “Russian Orthodox” ideal. The Holy Synod hesitated. Then more clergy and eventually hundreds of laity united in “one heart and one mind” emphatically expressed their desire for an appropriate investigation of the situation. There were actually two such visits, two reports, the first prepared and presented by the Chancellor of the Church, which was never received or published as the Primate refused to accept it, and the second prepared by two members of the Holy Synod, which was accepted, resulting in the “retirement” of the Alaskan hierarch.
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Greek faithful return to pray in ancient Turkish homeland

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Reuters

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew leads prayers at St Theodore in central Turkey on June 27/Photo by Simon Johns

About 1,000 Greek Orthodox gathered in central Turkey this weekend for a pair of emotional liturgies led by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew as the Greek faithful seek to reclaim a cultural and religious link to their ancient homeland.

Elderly women wept as black-clad nuns and monks recited mournful chants on Sunday in the 19th-century St Theodore’s Church in Derinkuyu, a sleepy hamlet Greeks once called Malakopi in the popular tourist region of Cappadocia. Most of the worshippers were the descendants of Greeks who were expelled from Turkey almost 90 years ago with the collapse of the multi-ethnic Ottoman Empire.

Bartholomew of Constantinople faced the altar flanked by three crowns: Patriarch Theodore of Alexandria, Archbishop Ieronymos of Greece and Archbishop Hilarion, the head of Russian Orthodox external relations. Hilarion has been a key player in a rapprochement between the Churches of Moscow and Istanbul. Bartholomew said Hilarion came on a pilgrimage to Cappadocia.

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Transcript of Bp. Basil interview about the Episcopal Assembly

Russian Rights Group Creates Virtual Gulag

GOA Deacon responds to Dn. Eric Wheeler

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Hierarchal Assembly – Dn. Panagiotis Hanley – Greek Orthodox Metropolis of New Jersey | June 27, 2010 | HT: Orthodox Christian Laity (OCL)

Dn. Panagiotis Hanley

Protodeacon Eric Wheeler’s editorial was mind-boggling and quite surprising. His conclusions and arguments were all over the map and quite inaccurate. That old world mentality, which he spoke of, is what has kept the Orthodox Church throughout the world from becoming a protestant church. Fast food spiritually is what I call it. Get in, get out, and get Jesus! That old world mentality has kept Orthodox Christians throughout the world away from that pit fall; with some exceptions of course, that I am sure my critics shall point out. That old world mentality is what we call Tradition in the Orthodox Church with a capital ‘T’. This is a mindset that has served Orthodoxy well since the Church was founded. It is found in the Gospels and in the Book of Acts, as well as throughout the Holy Scriptures, and is so ancient in fact; it has its roots in Judaism, where Christianity originated from, and then grew in to the True Faith. It is not something to simply be discarded because we are in the United States. That idea, if it can be called that, has always baffled me.

I am not sure if this first meeting of Hierarchs of the Church was historic or not. To be honest I think we should let the Hierarchs do their job, meet, and put their plans into action, before we jump on the pessimistic band-wagon, and declare that after one meeting the “solution” is all wrong, or seems wrong. How ridiculous is that!?! The solution is all Byzantine they say! Well, if that actually were the case, then someone will have to point out what is wrong with that to me. The Byzantine Empire in all actuality was the most successful period in the Church’s entire history! This is a historical fact! There is no debating that point! We could learn a great deal from the Byzantines if we actually studied their history, instead of bashing the Greeks, to include: their society, their culture, their language, and most importantly the Orthodox Faith. Prot. Dn. Eric should also take note of the life of the Church in Russia under the Tsars who followed the Byzantine example, and saw enormous growth in the Church of Russia under their rule. Eventually, their efforts would nurture the growth of the Russian Fathers of the Church who spread Orthodoxy to America in the first place, and began what eventually became, the OCA. But we could not possibly benefit from a Byzantine solution could we?
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