Fascinating essay into this subject. I’m confused, though. Which canon, exactly, condemn the Church of Greece for refusing to yoke itself to a bishop selected and to some extent controlled by a political leader who was hostile not only to Greek sovereignty but to the Orthodox Christian faith itself? I’m thinking they might have invoked the canon of common sense on that one– that, or they should have said: “Your All-Holiness, we’ll submit to you just as soon as we hang the Sultan from the walls of the city in the manner that he did so many of your predecessors.”
I’m not sure I agree much with the idea that autocephaly can’t simply be declared. Situations like the Church of Greece demanded it, and so did the Muscovite situation after Constantinople’s betrayal of the Faith (for the second time) in the 15th Century. Is it similar to nationalism? Of course, but it’s not the same. And certainly the conscience of the whole Body is brought to bear on the decisions of a local Church. Why do we have to label adaptations of Church administration to new circumstances “protestant” or “nationalist”?
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