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Published by
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette,
July 18, 2004
Orthodox self-rule just start of
vision
Syrian leader hopes for American unity
By Ann Rodgers, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
For years, when Metropolitan Philip, the
Antiochian Orthodox archbishop of North America,
arrived at an Orthodox choir festival, everyone
knew what song he would request.
"It was "The Impossible Dream,'" said Kweilin
Nassar, a Pittsburgher who does public relations
for the church.
The Broadway song spoke to his dream of one,
united American Orthodox Church. This week in
Pittsburgh, a piece of that dream came true, as
the Antiochians achieved self-rule, while
retaining strong ties to the patriarchate in
Syria. Other pieces of the dream were broken 10
years ago when the ecumenical patriarch in
Constantinople rejected the vision of a single,
American church, but Philip believes they will be
rebuilt.
In 1994, when all Orthodox bishops in the Western
Hemisphere gathered at the Antiochian Village
retreat center in Ligonier, "We had a clear vision
at that time for the future of Orthodoxy. However,
the ecumenical patriarch, and other patriarchs,
felt insecure to see all these bishops from North
America coming together to discuss the future of
Orthodoxy in this hemisphere," Philip said.
"They thought we had some kind of conspiracy to
separate from the mother churches. We had no such
thing. We wanted to know each other."
The ecumenical patriarch clamped down on the union
movement, forcing the Greek Orthodox archbishop to
resign and fomenting turmoil in the Greek
archdiocese. But Philip, 73, a native of Lebanon,
has forged ahead. He hopes the other ethnic
Orthodox jurisdictions will also insist on
self-rule as a "gigantic step" toward one American
church, he said..
"If you have a dream, you will follow your dream,"
he said.
"And I have a dream that Orthodoxy some day is
going to be united. This is inevitable. It is an
historical process which no one can stop."
Among the many programs held each year at the
Ligonier retreat center is a gathering of young
Orthodox laity from every ethnic jurisdiction.
"They don't ask each other, are you Greek? Are you
Serbian? Are you Albanian? Are you Russian? They
get together as American Orthodox," he said.
"The people are going to effect the change because
Orthodox people are sick and tired of this
situation. Many hierarchs were born in the Old
Country, like myself. I was fortunate to come to
the United States and go to school here, so I
discovered America early in my life. But some of
our hierarchs are still across the ocean,
psychologically. They are not here," he said.
Both the ecumenical patriarch and others pressured
Patriarch Ignatius IV of Antioch not to grant
self-government to the American archdiocese. But
Ignatius did what was right for the faithful,
Philip said.
Any attempt to seize control back from Orthodox
Americans "is doomed to failure," he said.
"You cannot write a constitution in Russia, or in
any Orthodox country overseas, and impose it on
Orthodoxy in America. This will not stand."
When Philip became metropolitan in 1966, North
America had 65 parishes and a budget of $60,000.
Philip was the only bishop for a territory
spanning Florida through Canada to Alaska.
Constant travel "was killing me. That's why I had
a heart attack in 1968 and open heart surgery in
1972," he said.
The archdiocese has grown to 240 parishes with a
budget of nearly $5 million. A turning point came
in the 1970s, when Philip received a group of
former evangelical Protestants. They began
teaching the Antiochians to tithe and evangelize.
Eventually Philip got auxiliary bishops to help
him. But the archdiocese is about to be divided
into nine dioceses. A bishop for Pennsylvania and
West Virginia will be based at the retreat center
in Ligonier, although Philip said his cathedral
would be in Pittsburgh.
They haven't made a final decision about which
city to put in that bishop's title. Philip rather
likes the idea of calling him "the bishop of
Ligonier" as a perpetual reminder of the now
infamous meeting where the bishops called for
unity.
The final choice of bishops will not be made until
late this year, when representatives of the
Patriarchate of Antioch join the American bishops
to review the candidates nominated at this week's
convention.
Of seven candidates, the top three vote-getters
were American-born. Two were converts: a former
Episcopalian and a former Old Testament professor
from Oral Roberts University. While married men
may be ordained as Orthodox priests, they may not
become bishops. So the church was able to identify
only seven qualified candidates, and some of the
new dioceses will have to share a bishop.
"We are going to face a very serious problem in
the future," Philip said. "Ninety-nine and-a-half
percent of our seminarians, when they graduate
from the seminary, they get married. I don't know
where I'm going to get bishops in the future."
He may recruit from the Middle East, where more
young seminarians are open to celibate commitment,
he said.
"I have never pressured any of my seminarians to
remain celibate," he said.
The
Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of
North America ia already the fastest-growing
Orthodox archdiocese in the world, Philip said.
And he expects the attention that these new
bishops will give to their parishes to help that
growth.
"I am looking forward to an era of spiritual
rejuvenation, a spiritual renaissance," he said.
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