Posted by rjklancko Some of these observations and comments may see random, they are not and there is a common thread in all of them. I mean no disrespect not do I mean to cause distress, however certain things do need to be said. 1) it is evident that those advocating unity the most are sending subtle signals just to the opposite -- for example if the Romanian Episcopate were the Orthodox Episcopate and the Self Ruled Antiochian were the Self Ruled Orthodox Archdiocese then there would be more credibility to the statements that are being made. Either the hierarchs are not totally committed or their flock is not -- either way there will be no unity unless they all recognize that it is an American church we are advocating and as such there is no room for ethnic appellations. 2) there is too close an ethnic and spiritual tie to the old country. There should be no cash flow outside North America. Why do I make such a drastic statement? Let me ask one question - where are American Orthodox Christian institutions -- there are Presbyterian, Jewish, Methodist Colleges, Universities, Hospitals etc. Where are ours? If one person such as Oral Roberts can found a university or one person such as Danny Thomas found a hospital -- where are we? What do we have? Why haven't we seen the light and did the Christian thing? 3) for example instead of raising money for the forest fire victims in Greece, why isn't there a greater or equal effort to aid the American forest fire victims ( oh yes, there are not Greek orthodox --- is Greek Orthodox specifically mentioned by Jesus?) for example instead of raising money for the middle east charities, why not negotiate with St. Judes and erect a St. Ignatius wing focusing on pediatric heart problems and treat children world wide - including the middle east ( I choose this because of the Metropolitan's heart condition ) -- oh yes I know that more than only Antiochian Orthodox will be treated ( but where does Jesus mention Antiochian Orthodox?) we need to perform our Christian ministry. 4) it is my contention and premise that the way we become an American church -- if we truly want to be American -- is to create American Institutions - institutions that enable us to address world wide needs -- at this point we are not players at all -- look we cannot keep our seminaries afloat -- ah yes but we are Syrians, byelo-russians, great Russians, Pontians, Cretians, Vlachs, etc. but are we Christian????? 5) finally a Patriarchate of America is not a bad idea -- Washington can become the 4th Rome. Just think the power the American Patriarchate could yield -- if it wanted to. It would give us a unified voice before the other churches and our government -- it could help to lobby for the ancient patriarchates that need assistance. It could be a watch dog to protect Christian Orthodoxy through out the world. 6) of course all of this flies in the face of the world wide Byzantine politics of our church -- however before we loose more of our youth we need to see the reality of the situation and some one in our midst needs to have the intestinal fortitude to take the needed leap of faith and make something happen --- otherwise it will continue to be business as usual -- which according to the hard facts is a downward spiral. 7) as I go from church to church I see great pride in ethnicity and Orthodoxy but I have yet to hear we are a Christian community and we do the work of the Gospel. Orthodoxy from church to church is inconsistent and is a mixture of ethnic custom and prejudice -- that which I believe would cause the fathers of the church to have great distress. How does this message become believed and embraced? 8) the reality is that it may take 100 years for all of this to change and I fear that by that time all of our churches will be museums -- much like the shakers 9) the bottom line is that the actions do not support the words and until they do there will be no hope for unity
on 9/10/2007, 11:40 am
After considerable soul searching I decided that this observation needed to be made. Yes there may be some who will become in-sensed, Others may take it to heart, the objective however is to catalyze a change of paradigm for what has happened in the past is just not working.
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