Posted by Leo on 4/8/2008, 7:22 am, in reply to "Re: Mass conversion in Philippines; What happened in Indonesia; A Unity idea"
Hey Tam!
They're talking about a number of self-started "independent Orthodox" groups in the Philippines. I read on an Eastern Catholic forum while trying to find info on the P'ine story, that apparently there's quite a few of them there, surprisingly given it's largely Third-World, mostly Catholic, etc. Then again, a Filipino person/body is one of the main sources of "independent Catholic" "orders", ie, lines of consecration of bishops, so maybe that people is just really ecclesiastically creative or something!
IIUC, the EP received a group of about 500 from a self-started "jurisdiction" in the '90s, including Archimandrite Philemon (Castro) (now listed with their parish in Los Banos). He visited St. Tikhon's Monastery (and Seminary possibly) 2-3 years ago I think, I heard of him when visiting there for Liturgy a couple times, so that makes him 'a good egg' in my book! (Sorry: the Fast!) But these guys are already talking like Greeks, God love them!: "church edifice," "true Byzantine style," "imported from Greece," etc.! But it looks like they're gonna have to update their prose ... unless C'ople is gonna break communion with Antioch over this "intrusion upon C'ople's canonical territory 'in the lands of the Barbarians' etc etc." What goes around comes around: C'ople says Moscow/OCA didn't establish Canonical Territory in the U.S., among other things, through evangelizing most of the Natives of Alaska (at a time when that's all there were in Alaska), and receiving over 100,000 Ruthenian Uniates back into the Church, so why should Antioch be stopped from receiving 6,000 Filipinos, by C'ople's 500 there?
Thing is, it's gonna be a real challenge for the Antiochians in Australia (even though I'd be surprised if they're not getting advice from our AOA, given their experience with the Evangelical Orthodox), and they could use help and resources from Greece, which apparently has it to spare (for God's Glory!). We really do need to work together in true mission lands: OCMC with Alexandria in Africa; C'ople, Antioch, and Russia in South and East Asia; EVERYBODY here and elsewhere! As First Among Equals, C'ople should lead not by grabbing and pouting, but by gathering together around positive evangelizing (not Hellenizing non-Hellenes) endeavors thruout the non-Orthodox world. People look at our bickering and turf-envy sometimes and see logic in the papacy! Sometimes we give conciliarity/sobornost a bad name! If the Holy Spirit is with us - and He is! - let's show it, and prove it! Like you posted once here, people look at us and don't even realize we're in Communion with each other; is it any wonder?!!! And as someone told Dean before they eventually did convert, "We thought no way were you guys the one true Church," or words to that effect. You know what that's called in classic theological language?: SCANDAL, a stumbling-block.
This is why I say start collaborating in places where we aren't too established yet, where there isn't too much to fight over, like Asia/Pacific, and let's get together there, maybe before 'bringing it home' here to the First World. Otherwise it's just going to be more of the same.
WE ARE ONE FRICKING CHURCH! LET'S GET TOGETHER VOLUNTARILY AND START SHOWING IT!
(Ooh: Strong language!)
Sincerely,
Leo
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