Posted by Leo
on 8/7/2009, 11:27 am
See at http://www.goarch.org/archdiocese/documents/chambesy/rules
Linked from http://www.goarch.org/archdiocese/documents/chambesy
I note (not exhaustively):
This setup is envisioned to last only through the upcoming "Great Holy Council," which is expected to mandate full unity.
As we've heard, each Episcopal Assembly would be chaired by Constantinople's main Hierarch in the region, eg, for "North and Central America," the GOA Archbishop; or in his absence, the next one down the Diptychs, ie, Antioch, Moscow, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Georgia (add Poland for South America).
Each should have one, possibly two, Vice-Chairmen, in order of the Diptychs, eg for N.A., Antioch.
QUESTION: What about Moscow, whose NA reps aren't ruling hierarchs, just vicar-bishops, like super-Auxiliaries? or would that be the First Hierarch of ROCOR??? even The OCA? According to Art. 12(1), the Assy may decide this, even "supplement and adjust" these provisions.
Each Assy's "Executive Committee" would be made up of the "chief bishops" of each Autocephalous Church represented in the Region, also chaired by C'ople's. I guess this would leave out C'ople's non-Greeks where applicable (NA, SA, parts of Europe), and all but one of the various "Russians."
Article 5(1)(a) includes a "missionary obligation" in the Diaspora. YAY!
Art. 5(1)(e): "The competencies of the Episcopal Assembly are: ...The preparation of a plan to organize the Orthodox of the Region on a canonical basis." IOW, "administrative unity," "one bishop in each place," non-overlapping dioceses, pan-ethnic integration, presumably for proposing to the upcoming "Great Holy Council," if not sooner.
QUESTION: Also in Art. 5: "For specific linguistic, educational and pastoral issues of a particular Church, the Episcopal Assembly may also collaborate with the ecclesiastical authority of the Church in question, so that the diversity of national traditions may secure the unity of Orthodoxy in the communion of faith and in the bond of love." Any guesses what this means?
Art. 6(1): "The Episcopal Assembly receives and records the election of Bishops of the Region, and their reference to the most holy autocephalous Orthodox Churches."
QUESTION: Art. 6(2): "It examines and determines the canonical status of local communities in the Region that have no reference to the most holy autocephalous Orthodox Churches." Since The OCA wasn't included in last Fall's Synaxis of Primates, nor this Chambesy meeting, does this mean all the rest now get to sit in judgment over it?!! Or does it adopt the "reference" of the OCA as a 'very autonomous' branch of the MP?!!! In any case, "determines" means REAL POWER, not just "advisory," ISTM: all the breakaway Russian and Ukrainian groups, l'ECOF, Old Calendarist breakaways, Macedonians, everybody really. Does this apply only to ostensibly Orthodox grups, or Orientals, Uniates, Protestants, and Latins too?
Art. 6(3): "It must record every decision relating to clerics promulgated by their bishops, in order that this decision is applied among all the Orthodox Churches in the Region." IOW, no more jurisdiction-hopping by disciplined clergy or monastics!
QUESTION: Each Assy meets yearly, or more often at the call of its Exec. Cmte. or 1/3 of the Assy's members. So, a Ligonier ever year? It's seemed like pulling teeth just to get half of them together every 6 years or so! I guess this is one ours might "adjust"....
The Exec. Cmte. meets quarterly, or more often at the call of the Chairman or 1/3 of the Cmte's members. NB: SCOBA currently meets only twice a year.
Art. 13: "The formation of a new Episcopal Assembly, the partition or abolition of an existing Episcopal Assembly, or the merger of two or more of these Assemblies, occurs following the decision of the Synaxis of the Primates of the Orthodox Churches, at the request of a particular Church, or the request of the Chairman of a particular Episcopal Assembly to the Ecumenical Patriarch." This last clause seems to leave alot to the Patriarch of C'ople, "at...the request of" his own chief bishop in the Region; hmmm. Unless the "Synaxis" clause is the decider, and the following 2 clauses merely represent options for initiative TO the Synaxis; the English is syntactically unclear.
---Leo
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