Posted by Herman Blaydoe
on 6/12/2012, 11:52 am, in reply to "Re: Greek-American Bishop for ACROD?"
This could work to decrease the emphasis on ethnicity at least in ACROD, and that is a good thing..
We are not born Greek. We have no interest in becoming Greek. Honestly, does anyone think that the GOA has any interest at all in creating "pseudo-Greeks"? I think not. The "Russians" (OCA) would have wanted to turn us into "Russians" (like they did with the first wave under St. Alexis Toth). That was the wisdom and foresite of Metropolitan Orestes (of blessed memory). We went to the Greeks who left us alone because we weren't Greeks and weren't interested in messing with them. The arrangement worked well for both of us.
The really good news here is that Fr. Grigorios comes to us with a "clean slate" and hopefully an open mind. We can train him right as to how not to be Greek and we don't have to worry about him suddenly pushing Slavonic and the Old Calendar. He will need to concentrate on what unites us rather than what might divide us. What we have in common is our American heritage and language and our Orthodox faith. He will have to learn Prostepenje but in essence it is just one step beyond Greek chanting with harmony added.
He is no dummy and was a "working stiff" for what, 25 years? He hasn't been a priest long enough to learn too many "bad habits". Politically we are relatively benign; too small to matter in the greater scheme of things, especially compared to the other jurisdictions, and we don't have the scary little cliques like say some of the Serbians or those "in Exile" Russians.
We're a "working stiff" diocese and we'll have a "working stiff" bishop. I think it could work.
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