How about absorbed into rather then the other terms suggested?

Isa, the more I read on this blog, the more I realize that a lot of these things (such as “legal transfers” if indeed SCOBA is “defunct”) haven’t been thought out. It’s really rather amateurish. That means that if the GOA is serious (I mean the other 8 bishops other than +Demetrius) about becoming members of a true American synod, then +Jonah is going to have to be given his rightful seat on the Executive Committee.

Because we allowed Ligonier to be sabotaged by overseas interference, we are going to pay in time and money (legal fees) for things that would have been resolved at least 10 years ago.

No doubt there are countless other obstacles that will become apparent in due time.

The EA is the vehicle now, so does it really matter whether SCOBA is superseeded or disolved?

Abp. Nicolae’s speech engendered the most hope in me because he recognized that we here in America are truly Orthodox and that the Old World assumptions and ways of doing things are just won’t fit here.

The Holy Spirit is calling all of us to step up to the plate and take responsibility for the life of the Church here and now. We are called to do what we can do whether anyone else does it or not.

Met. Joseph has repeatedly said that unity would not come until all of the Ligoner bishops had died. In part this was a reference to the children of Israel’s 40 years in the desert and not making it into the promised land, but also a poltical/human reality. There are quite a few still with us and it looks as if they will be with us awhile yet by God’s grace.

Hope in God allows us to concentrate on what we need to do and can do, cynicism always focuses on others and what they are not doing or should be doing.

To effect legal transfer, they are going to have to formally dissolve SCOBA. If the EA is really the successor to SCOBA, then Met. Jonah should be sitting on the executive committee.

Don’t jump the gun Andrew. It is not at all clear that SCOBA got “liquidated.” I’m not pessimistic here. Yes, it is going to be a bumpy ride but I see the EA’s as part of a process (hence “superseded”) that will (may? — but actually I believe “will”) get stronger.

Don’t forget, SCOBA, despite its shortcomings, still framed the necessity of a unified American church in concrete. This is significant (its the “vision thing”) despite some it its inherent institutional weaknesses.

The ignoring of the rotating presidency of SCOBA was with the consent of the other jurisictions. Met. Anthony Bashir started it by defering to Archb. Iakovos. The topic of going by the book only came as the Phanar was getting more high handed.

Again, the problem of Met. Jonah’s empty seat on the executive committee is the only thing necessary of immediate rectification.

What will happen when the EA goes out with a whimper and can’t even get quorum? Will 79th Street just pay the travel tab again and hustle through what it wants rules or no rules? We pay you obey.

And what of all these pan-orthodox ministries like OCF etc? Are they now to be run by the wonderboys of 79th street? The same people who spent stewardship dollars and brought us the Patriarchal video game?????????

SCOBA got liquidated. It remains to be seen what will happen to pan-orthodox ministries like OCF. Will they be liquidated and those people who are inconvenient to the omogenia (race) tossed over board?

By superseded I had something different in mind, along the lines of, say, the US Constitution superseded the Articles of Confederation, or English Constitutional Law superseded the Magna Carta.

To be honest, the term “incarnational reality” always strikes me as fuzzy logic; no one seems able to provide a clear definition of the term. I think what people really mean by the term is that the Holy Spirit works in the lives of men, which is to say in space and time. IOW, there are not two “realities;” only one (there is no “incarnational reality vs “regular” reality). How one perceives that reality (how one “sees” that singular “reality”), is the key.

I’m not saying you this is your definition of the term, so please don’t misunderstand me. I’m only saying that the term doesn’t clarify much, as least to my eyes.

I think dissolved is probably correct in legal, corporate terms, but superseded is certainly better in terms of the incarnational reality.

Not challenging the premise here, just trying to define “dissolved.” Would “superseded” be more accurate?

Tamara, you are absolutely correct. However, let us not forget that God is on His throne and despite the machinations of venal men, it is He who prevails, not duplicitous bishops.

It is almost absurd to believe that the church with the most seminaries and in all likelihood, educates most of the priests that serve our Orthodox communities, has been relegated to a third class status in this new Episcopal Assembly gathering.
I can only speculate how disappointed and angry some members of the OCA must feel at seeing their beloved, hierarch, Metropolitan Jonah, reduced to the role of just a bishop on the Episcopal Assembly. I realize Archbishop Demetrius has risked his future by even allowing the Metropolitan to attend the Episcopal Assembly but how preposterous is that statement when we realize that most of the American Orthodox saints came from the Orthodox Church in America.

The most glaring problem I see is that the role of Metropolitan Jonah has been diminished considerably with Episcopal Assembly gathering from what his role was in SCOBA. If we want the second largest jurisdiction (lay and clergy) to be a part of supporting the Episcopal Assemblies of the future, then I would hope that the Bishops on the Executive Committee would elect Metropolitan Jonah to this group in order to
increase the lay and clergy support for this endeavor which will hopefully bring unity to our continent.

SCOBA has been dissolved. Of course the members are all still there in the EA, though sometimes in different roles.

Isa, yeah, you’re right, I didn’t catch that. However, it’s possible that that might be rectified in the near future.