We are robbed of that kind of vision in leadership for only one reason: those who were ordained young and never married observed he could not be promoted as his wife neglected to die before he was too close to retirement.

Here in this thread we discuss a culture of fear among the clergy. Also we see here amazing clergy who by all honest measures would be an amazing bishop and would have been had his wife not neglected to die long enough before he retired.

Are we getting the drift yet that our problem is that we are poorly served by our ‘only never married bishops’ rule?

Usually a breaking point happens when the dam bursts. In the AOCA the credibility of Philip is pretty much shot. I expect that it won’t be too long for the same thing to happen to the GOA.

You make an interesting point. The quality of character and thinking among GOA clergy has clearly declined since the time of Fr. Contos. Of course there are great GOA clergy but they are the exception and not the norm.

One wonders if clergy in positions of responsibility are free to express their opinions at all?

This post is a gem! The more Orthodox Christians continue to point out the internal hypocrisy that infects the EP and the GOA by referencing the wise voices of the past the better.

American Orthodoxy is a constant but noble struggle. We must row upstream against the fundamentalism of the omogenia before Orthodoxy crowd.