A Publication of the ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LAITY
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| Volume 6 Number 32 - Tuesday, August 10th, 2004 |
A Publication of the ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LAITY |
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The Orthodox Christian News Service |
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So where is Orthodoxy in America Today? The answer is simple – nowhere. The stagnation of the Orthodox Church within North America is clear. However, there are things happening. Unity of the Orthodox Churches in America died in Ligonier years ago and at the recent Clergy/Laity Congress of the GOA in NYC, the coffin was nailed shut. The EP had pushed a new charter upon the Greek Churches in America and without fanfare, it was accepted at this Congress. Virtually, this Charter gives complete and ultimate control of churches, property, monies, bishops and clerics to the EP. Why? So if there were any attempt of the GOA to consider separation from the EP, he could squash these attempts at every level. At the Congress, Met. Philip of the Antiochian Archdiocese who had been able to achieve “autonomy” for his American church, delivered his old address of a unified American Church, but not under the OCA which SCOBA had worked hard towards for many years, but under Pat. Bartholomew where the next Congress could be held in unity at Madison Square Garden. This overture was severely criticized the next day by + Demetrios in a speech to his clerics (probably to show that he is toeing-the-line under the EP). The OCA isn’t sure where it’s going or even what it really is. Between the recent traveling to Russia to return an icon and address the ROCOR situation, the OCA has forgotten that it is an “American Church.” With + Herman at it’s helm, the OCA has been turning to the Pocanos as the roots of it’s American Orthodoxy. The “Little Russians” have emerged with the nostalgia of returning the OCA to the 1930’s and 40’s with more stagnation. So where are we? NOWHERE. More of the same nonsense. The Greeks will remain strictly under the EP; the OCA needs to really find leadership and become the autocephalous American Church proclaimed by the Tomas in 1970 and the Antiochians seem to be the only ones with a real vision. No unity in the foreseeable future and no one really cares. Everyone going in their own direction playing as the “big fish in a small pond” doing their “own thing.” How unfortunate. And the band played on! (The Titanic)
Nicholas Cobb |
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