Meeting

Friday, October 29, 2004
Annual Meeting: 2- 5 pm
Dinner Honoring Outgoing Board President Peter Haikalis
(By reservation: Contact OCL 877-585-0245)

Saturday, October 30, 2004
Program: 9 am – 3 pm
Registration Fee of $45 includes morning coffee and lunch

Renaissance Oak Brook Hotel, 2001 Spring Road, Oak Brook Illinois 60523
For Room Reservations please contact the hotel directly at 630-573-2800
OCL Conference Rate is $79. Rate good for reservations made by October 4

Services held at the Historic and Beautiful Holy Trinity Cathedral
1121 N. Leavitt St., Chicago, Illinois
Saturday evening vigil will be celebrated in honor of St. John Kochurov.
Hierarchical Liturgy on Sunday, October 31.
Presiding Hierarch: His Beatitude, Metropolitan Theodosius

Orthodox Christian Laity is dedicating its 17^th Annual Meeting to commemorate the 10^th Anniversary of the Intention of Ligonier. Please join us in celebrating this historic gathering in Pennsylvania in November of 2004 when the canonical bishops of all Orthodox jurisdictions in America led by Archbishop Iakovos had the wisdom and the courage to participate and affix their names to two historic documents calling for the unity of Orthodox jurisdictions in America.

This meeting will also honor the Orthodox Christian faithful who have not lost the vision and continue to pray that the New Era for Orthodox Unity which is the promise of Ligonier will be accomplished. Finally our speakers will review what has happened in the ten years since that historic meeting and consider how the promise of Ligonier, inspired by the Great Commission of Jesus Christ to bring the Gospel to all Nations, can be rekindled.

(Please see below the text of the documents on the Nature of the Church and Missions and Evangelism paving the way for Orthodox Unity in the United States)

STANDING CONFERENCE OF CANONICAL ORTHODOX BISHOPS IN THE AMERICAS
CONFERENCE OF BISHOPS
Antiochian Village
Ligonier, Pennsylvania
November 30 – December 2, 1994

STATEMENT ON THE CHURCH IN NORTH AMERICA

Adopted Text

We, the Orthodox Hierarchs in the United States and Canada, assembled at the Antiochian Village, Ligonier, Pennsylvania from November 30 through December 2, 1994, do first and foremost offer most sincere gratitude to the venerable Fathers and Hierarchs of our Mother Churches beyond the seas for their love and concern exhibited by the prominence given to the `diaspora´ on the agenda for the forthcoming Great and Holy Council evidenced in the Adopted Texts of the Preparatory Commission.

We await the next meeting of the Commission referred to in the Adopted Text of November 1993. We maintain that it is critical that the Church in North America be directly and concretely represented at that and future meetings. How is it possible for there to be discussion about the nature of the Church in North America in our absence? We must be present to share the two hundred years of experience that we have had of preaching the Gospel and living the Orthodox faith outside of those territories that have historically been Orthodox. We would humbly ask His All-Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch to seek a way, through the venerable Hierarchs of the Standing Conference to accomplish this representation. We also humbly request the Primates of the other mother Churches to support this initiative. The demands upon our Church's life by an unbelieving society do not allow for any further delay in this process. Episcopal assembly supports the repeated requests of SCOBA for its officers to be granted an audience with His All Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch and the other patriarchs and Primates of the Mother Churches to discuss the North American reality.

Furthermore, we have agreed that we cannot accept the term `diaspora´ as used to describe the Church in North America. In fact the term is ecclesiastically problematic. It diminishes the fullness of the faith that we have lived and experienced here for the past two hundred years.

Moreover, as we reflect on the ways in which the Church in North America has matured, it is important to recognize that much has been done as the natural and organic response of Orthodox Christians who share the same faith while living together in one place. We celebrate and build on already existing structures. Some are formal. The first of these is SCOBA itself. There are in addition various agencies of SCOBA such as the International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC), the Orthodox Christian Education Commission (OCEC), the Orthodox Theological Society in America (OTSA), the Orthodox Christian Missions Center, and other North American-wide pan-Orthodox efforts. There are also less formal structures such as the joint meetings of our theological schools and seminarians, the joint monastic assemblies, the local councils of churches and clergy brotherhoods, and sacred art and liturgical music associations. They give witness to the strong foundation upon which we continue to build.

To this end, all of our efforts should be coordinated within an overall ecclesial framework. This would provide the freedom and flexibility to allow us to organically become an administratively united Church. As in any Orthodox ecclesiological framework for a local Church there are three levels. The first is the national, or in our case continental. The second is the regional or diocesan. And the third is the local or deanery. All of these depend upon and grow out of the parish which is the primary place where Christians express and encounter their faith.

On the national or continental level the body which coordinates the life of a Church is the Synod of Bishops. We have had in SCOBA an Executive Committee that has guided Church Life in North America for over thirty years. In convening this present Conference of Bishops, we find ourselves to be an Episcopal Assembly, a precursor to a General Synod of Bishops. We express our joy that in addition to the regular meetings of SCOBA, this Episcopal Assembly will convene on a annual basis to enhance the movement toward administrative ecclesial unity in North America.

The regional level presents a special challenge because this is one area in which few models of cooperation presently exist. Bishops who live within a given region of North America should meet and concelebrate regularly. They should coordinate activities, encourage clergy, and laity to get to know one another and to work together and initiate concrete joint programs. In essence, they should duplicate regionally what SCOBA has pioneered on the continental level for the past thirty-three years.

The local level is where the greatest diversity of models presently exists. These range from very informal clergy or lay associations to highly structured clergy brotherhoods or clergy and lay councils of churches. The bishops of a given region should continue to encourage the clergy and laity of their parishes to work together with other parishes in their area. Without imposing any one model, bishops should seek to formalize and regularize those models that already exist. In areas where there are as yet no such structures, bishops should work with the clergy and laity to develop a model that is appropriate in that locality. The principle is to encourage diverse models within a canonical ecclesiological framework.

The Church in North America also benefits from our various monastic communities. Their meeting together should be encouraged by their hierarchs so monastics might share their spiritual experience and wisdom with one another and with the whole Church of a given region.

We would like to emphasize again: this is presented as a broad outline or framework within which the whole Church in North America can grow to manifest the deep unity of faith that we share in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father who sent Him, and the Holy Spirit who continually makes Him known to us. The visible unity of the Church is a profound witness of our love for Him and for one another.

Finally, we would like to thank and bless our Christ-loving flocks: the pious priests, deacons, monastics, and laity -- who, praying and laboring together, incarnate the oneness which our Church on this continent already enjoys. We ask for their prayers and support, as we pledge to work with them for the glory of God and His Holy Church.

STATEMENT ON CHURCH MISSION AND EVANGELISM

Adopted Text

The end of the second millennium after Christ coincides with a unique Missionary challenge to the Orthodox Church around the world. To mention only two dimensions of this challenge will show its scope. The fall of communist totalitarianism in Central and Eastern European countries opens the way for the re-evangelization of the peoples of these countries. In the United States and Canada millions of people are in spiritual crisis, millions of people are unchurched, the societies are afflicted with a spiritual and moral vacuum, and the Orthodox Church is therefore presented with a challenge to bear witness to the Orthodox faith and to evangelize.

We, the Orthodox bishops of North America, assembled at the Antiochian Village, Ligonier, Pennsylvania, November 30-December 2, 1994, have heard an address on Mission and Evangelism by His Eminence, Metropolitan Philip of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese, and a response by His Eminence, Archbishop Dmitri of Dallas, Orthodox Church in America, and have reflected together on the missionary task of the Orthodox Church in North America.

We wish to express the following convictions and commitments regarding mission and evangelism in North America:

	· It is our conviction that mission is the very nature of the Church, and is an essential expression of her apostolicity, and that the Orthodox Church is therefore commanded by the Lord Jesus Christ to teach, to preach, and to make disciples of all nations;
	· It is our conviction that the Orthodox Church's history and experience give numerous examples of commitment to mission and to the preaching of the Good News of Christ (missions to the Slavs, missions in Siberia, China Korea, and Japan, the evangelization of the Alaskan native people, and contemporary mission in Africa, Indonesia and Albania);
	· We believe that our task in North America is not limited to serving the immigrant and ethnic communities, but has at its very heart the missionary task, the task of making disciples in the nations of Canada and the United States;
	· We believe that the Orthodox of North America-bishops, clergy and laity-are called to think together, plan together, and work together in order to do mission work together;
	· We commit ourselves to show special pastoral attention to couples coming to marry in the church, especially in mixed marriages, and to their Orthodox Christian education and integration into Church life.
	· We commit ourselves to the evangelization, or re-evangelization, of those many people who call themselves Orthodox, and have indeed been baptized and chrismated in our churches, but whose lives are in fact distant from the fullness of the Orthodox Faith and the fullness of the Orthodox Church's sacramental life;
	· We commit ourselves to avoiding the creation of parallel and competitive Orthodox parishes, missions, and mission programs;
	· We commit ourselves to common efforts and programs to do mission leaving behind piecemeal, independent, and spontaneous efforts to do mission, moving forward towards a concerted, formal, and united mission program in order to make a real impact on North America through Orthodox mission and evangelism;
	· We strongly endorse the unified Orthodox Christian Mission Center, the Mission Conferences (at present co-sponsored by the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese, and the Orthodox Church in America), and encourage further consolidation of mission efforts and programs here and throughout the world.
	· We commit ourselves to express a common vision of mission and to work towards this end in the teaching of mission as an important part of the theological education of our future priests.
	· We respectfully petition His All-Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch to convene a world conference of mission representatives to help coordinate Orthodox mission strategies and efforts around the world;
	· We Orthodox in North America commit ourselves to bringing our household into order for the sake of the preaching of the Good News of Jesus Christ, His Incarnation and His teaching, His crucifixion, death, burial, and resurrection, and His presence in the Church through the descent of the Holy Spirit.

+Bishop Alexios	+Bishop Anthimos
+Bishop Antoun	+Bishop Basil
+Metropolitan Christopher	+Archbishop Dmitri
+Archbishop Herman	+Archbishop Iakovos
+Bishop Iakovos	+Metropolitan Irinej
+Metropolitan Joseph	+Archbishop Kyrill
+Bishop Mark	+Bishop Maximos
+Bishop Methodios	+Bishop Mitrophan
+Bishop Nathaniel	+Bishop Nicholas
+Archbishop Peter	+Metropolitan Philip
+Bishop Philip	+Bishop Philotheos
+Bishop Seraphim	+Metropolitan Silas
+Metropolitan Thedosius	+Bishop Tikhon
+Archbishop Victorin	+Bishop Vsevolod



Volume 6 Number 36 - Tuesday, September 7th, 2004	A Publication of the ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LAITY