A Publication of the ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LAITY
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| Volume 6 Number 29 - Tuesday, July 20th, 2004 |
A Publication of the ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LAITY |
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The Orthodox Christian News Service |
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Patriarch ruffles feathers in American Orthodox flocks Dear Editor - The Athens News: I have been reading with great interest your articles and correspondence on the dispute between the Patriarch of Constantinople and the Archbishop of Athens. Thanks be to God that the Church of Greece has stood up to the Patriarch of Constantinople who is trying to grab power throughout the Orthodox world. He has problems with the Church of Russia, problems with the many in the Greek Archdiocese of America... the list goes on. Most recently, he is interfering with the Antiochian Church in North America by allowing the Patriarch of Jerusalem to establish parishes in the United States and Canada. The Arabic-speaking immigrants of the Church of Jerusalem have always been served by the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese of North America (Patriarchate of Antioch and all the East) just as the Greek speaking people have, in recent times, been served by the Greek Archdiocese of America (Ecumenical Patriarchate). What is most interesting about the Ecumenical Patriarch's interference in North America is that when the Patriarch of Jerusalem tried to establish parishes for his Greek-speaking flock in Australia, the Ecumenical Patriarch stopped just short of breaking communion. Likewise, the Patriarch of Jerusalem cannot establish a church for Greek-speaking people in America, only Arabic-speaking Orthodox. In this situation, he is allowing it with his blessing, going as far as when the representative of the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Bishop Damaskinos, is serving in this country, he does not commemorate his Patriarch, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, but rather either the Ecumenical Patriarch or the Archbishop of the Greek Archdiocese. This uncanonical act, we feel, is nothing more than the Ecumenical Patriarch trying to bully the Antiochian Archdiocese in North America because we have been asking for our Patriarchate to grant us autonomy or self-rule (which was granted at the fall synod meeting of the Holy Synod of Antioch, see www.antiochian.org for more information). Such a move is considered undesirable by the Ecumenical Patriarchate because they are afraid of the consequences of such a move vis-à-vis their own Greek Church in America regarding the charter of the Archdiocese and the aspirations of many of the Greek Orthodox faithful in the United States for autonomy in the future. Fr Thomas ZainDean, St Nicholas Antiochian Orthodox Cathedral of Brooklyn New York
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