In ecclesial terms, this was a very momentous announcement. Among the more salient points:

1. the Filioque is a non-starter. This should seperate the wheat from the chaff right off the bat.

2. Pope Benedict XIV was the only named Christian pastor (and in a positive way),

3. The Russian Orthodox Church was the only named Orthodox church (again in a positive way),

4. Jonah clearly discerned the growing divide, a fact which I don’t think will endear him to the dying Big Fat Greek Orthodox churches.

Salient points? I take that back. That’s much too tepid of an assessment. What His Beatitude did here was lay down some bold markers. Clearly the non-Phanariote patriarchates (esp Russia) have his back.

Prediction? Look for more cooperation between Rome and Moscow and the American Catholic Church and the OCA.

Metropolitan Jonah: Our Battle is Against Secularism
http://orthodoxnet.com/blog/2012/06/metropolitan-jonah-our-battle-is-against-secularism/

The outlines of the separation within the Orthodox Church can be seen on this and other blogs that and the common brotherhood across communion lines as well. We are called to be of one mind in the Church. If we are not, the separtion is inevitable because it is impossible to serve two masters.

These key comments are a great summary of what all of us are called to do in the increasingly hostile and secularist culture we find ourselves living in:

This is the realignment: to stand together for the faith once delivered by Christ to the Apostles, and thence to the Bishops, without alteration, without change, without revisions; against those who would submit their faith to the current of the age, the wisdom of this world. We must stand together, and we cannot stand alone. …

We will have to accept the scorn and derision of those who are of this world, even those who call themselves brethren, being cast out of their synagogues and ridiculed, sued in civil courts, and count all things as worthless that we have lost for the sake of Christ. This, my friends, is our cross. We have to support one another in bearing it. The closer we come, the greater our mutual support will be, and we will not lose heart, or forget that Christ has already won the victory: He has overcome the world. By accepting to go by way of His Cross, we too will share in His Victory.

Amen, Amen, Amen!