Orthodox Christian Laity

By George Matsoukas, Executive Director of Orthodox Christian Laity

Behold how good and pleasant it is when brethren dwell together in unity — Psalm 133:1

During the week following Pentecost, May 26-27, 2010 sixty five Orthodox Christian bishops, who have their sees in North and Central America, have been invited to gather at the Helmsley Park Hotel. The bishops will convene as the Episcopal Assembly which is an interim-transitional governing body of the Orthodox Christian Church in this New World territory. The purpose of the Assembly is to begin the process of developing the foundation for a canonically ordered unified Orthodox Church in the Americas. The blueprint that they develop for a canonically United Church will require more than this initial meeting. This process must eventually involve the whole body of the Church including clergy and laity. The final product, fashioned through a conciliar process and representing the work of the people of God will be presented for approval by the Great and Holy Council of all Orthodox bishops. This Council is part of the process of Orthodox Christian renewal and will be convened in the near future. This first meeting of bishops is a step in the process of developing working relationships with each other, asking the appropriate questions, defining the geographic territories of the Church, identifying resources available to them and setting up the appropriate committees.

This first Episcopal Assembly is different from other meetings of Orthodox Bishops such as the Standing Conference of Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas SCOBA or other Episcopal Meetings because this meeting has the blessing of all 14 Old World Primates of Orthodox Churches. It is the result of the Synaxis of Orthodox Primates that met in Istanbul/Constantinople October 2008 in response to the call of His All Holiness, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. At that time the Primates declared that canonical order needs to be established in the so called Diaspora. In Orthodox Christianity all of us are in a Diaspora waiting to go home to the Lord. This unfortunate term has been used to describe people not living in traditional Orthodox lands – i.e. lands beyond the Old Roman Empire. Orthodox canonical order relates to the fact that there should be one bishop in one city. All 14 old world Primates signed the document authorizing the establishment of Episcopal Assemblies that will take place in the New World, Western Europe, South America, Asia, and Australia. The Episcopal Assemblies are meeting with the blessing of all the Primates.

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Source: Orthodox News

By: George Matsoukas

June 11, 2006

As we celebrate Pentecost 2006, it is useful to remember Pentecost Sunday, June 2, 1985.  That is the date and feast day that the Ecumenical Patriarchate and its Holy and Sacred Synod of Bishops chose to refuse an audience with the party of 18 Evangelical Orthodox Christians whose 12 year journey to the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church led them to the Church of St. George at the Phanar, Istanbul, Turkey.  Some of the details of this journey have been chronicled by Father Peter Gillquist in his book “Becoming Orthodox.”

The 18 Evangelical Orthodox Christians at the Pentecost services, the first kneeling service they witnessed, included their top leadership: Father Peter Gillquist the presiding leader, Father Gordon Walker, leader of the members of the movement from the East and Father Richard Ballew, the leader of the members from the western part of the USA.  Representing the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese was Father Gregory C. Wingenbach, presently serving in Missoula, MT, assigned to accompany the group – only hours before those from the east coast were to depart from Kennedy Airport, NYC.  He replaced then Bishop (now Metropolitan) Maximos of Pittsburgh, who arranged for the delegation to meet with the Ecumenical Patriarch and the Synod, and who supported and guided their journey to Orthodoxy.   Dr. Apostolos Athanasakes, Chairman of the Department of Classics, University of California at Santa Barbara, was also part of the delegation and served as the guide to the group.  The Secretary to Ecumenical Patriarch Demetrios, Metropolitan Bartholomew, the present Patriarch, when pressed by the group, told them after the service that the Patriarch and Holy Synod were glad they were on a pilgrimage to the Holy Mother Church but they could not meet with the Patriarch.  This interaction took less than two minutes. 

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April 21, 2010 – A delegation from Orthodox Christian Laity met last week with His Eminence, Archbishop Demetrios at the headquarters of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese in New York City, William Souvall, OCL President, announced today.

“The main reason for our visit was to inform His Eminence of OCL’s enthusiastic support for the upcoming Episcopal Assembly of all Orthodox bishops in North and Central America which will take place in New York in late May. We particularly wanted to express to the Archbishop the appreciation of OCL’s membership for his leadership in convening this unprecedented meeting and for the important responsibility he will assume as the chairman of the Assembly,” Mr. Souvall stated.
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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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Source: Yahoo! Groups

[From the December 2009 Orthodox Christian Laity newsletter, vol. 5, Number 2]

The following letter translated from the Russian dated November 13, 2009 was received at the OCL Office via fax November 16. It is addressed to former OCL President Peter Petkas. It is from the Moscow Patriarchate, Russian Orthodox Church Holy Synod, Department for External Church Relations, Danilov Monastery. The letter relates to the recently published “Orthodox Christianity at the Crossroad A Great Council of the Church – When and Why”

Dear Mr. Petkas,

On behalf of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, I would like to thank you for the series of essay[s] devoted to the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church.

The Russian Orthodox Church, since the 1961 Rhodes Meeting has been a permanent participant in the Pan-Orthodox Pre-Council Conferences. The latest, 4th Pan-Orthodox Pre-Council Conference was devoted to the diaspora, and the Inter-Orthodox Preparatory Commission to meet in December 2009 will consider the problems of autonomy and autocephaly.

The vision of the future of Orthodoxy in America you have presented is consonant in many ways with the position of the Moscow Patriarchate on this matter. We in the Russian Orthodox Church are well aware of the specifics of Orthodox presence in America conditioned by the cultural, political and ethnic peculiarities of the region. As far back as the early 20th century, St. Tikhon, a future Patriarch of Moscow who for ten years headed the first Orthodox diocese in North America which took pastoral care of various ethnic groups, saw sufficient reasons for granting it an autonomous status. In 1970, the Russian Orthodox Church deemed it timely to grant the (autocephalous) status to its metropolia in North America. In this way, it continued the cause of St. Tikhon for building an independent church structure in the North American continent to be based on local rather than ethnic principle[s].

I would like to wish you good health and spiritual and physical strength in your service of the unity of Orthodoxy in America.

Archpriest Nikolay Balashov
Vice-Chairman
Department for External Church Relations
Moscow Patriarchate