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<\/a>After two years so it’s probably time for a meeting. Josephus Flavius, curator of Byzantine, Texas put it well:<\/p>\nWe’ll see which model the assembly chooses to use on providing an update after this meeting. Will it be a perfunctory listing of people who showed up with a reference to the joy they have at being together or will it be a “meaty” report with details and future plans.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Met. Philip was even more pessimistic when the Assembly was cobbled together:<\/p>\n
We are faced now with a very serious procedural nightmare. We are, supposedly, here to discuss a new organization to replace SCOBA. The question is: Was SCOBA dissolved and if so, by whom? And when?? SCOBA has a constitution which is fifty years old. If this constitution has to be amended, let us then amend it according to correct procedures. No one can dissolve SCOBA except SCOBA itself. SCOBA has organized Bishops\u2019 Assemblies before Chambesy told us to do so. The first Assembly was held at the Antiochian Village in Ligonier, Pennsylvania in 1994, under the chairmanship of our brother, Archbishop Iakovos, of blessed memory. The second Bishops\u2019 Assembly was convened in Washington, D.C. and the third Bishops\u2019 Assembly was convened in Chicago, Illinois, both under the auspices of SCOBA and the Chairmanship of His Eminence, Archbishop Demetrios.<\/p>\n
TWO – The second point which I would like to note is concerning the term \u201cDiaspora\u201d which was used several times in the literature which we received from Geneva. I remember, there are many of you who were at the Antiochian Village in 1994 and should remember that the term \u201cDiaspora\u201d was unanimously rejected by our assembly. We are not in Babylon; we are in North America, the new world. We are dealing here with second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth generations of American Orthodox and they refuse to be called \u201cDiaspora.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I had hopes for the organization when it was first announced but after going through a critical two years in our country the only word of direction or analysis was a poorly worded, one time, defense of the Roman Catholic Church against the egregious overreach of the Obama administration’s HHS mandates. Other than that, silence.<\/p>\n
I wouldn’t expect too much.<\/p>\n