Browsing: Governance & Unity Essays

Source:  OINOS Educational Consulting by Frank Marangos, D.Min., Ed.D., FCEP Disturb us, Lord, when We are too pleased with ourselves, When our dreams have come true Because we dreamed too little, When we arrived safely Because we sailed too close to the shore.Disturb us, Lord, when with the abundance of things we possess We have lost our thirst For the waters of life; Having fallen in love with life, We have ceased to dream of eternity And in our efforts to build a new earth, We have allowed our vision Of the new Heaven to dim. Disturb us, Lord, to dare…

I am a third-generation member of the Orthodox Christian Church in the United States, dating back to 1906, when my paternal grandparents settled in Springfield, MA, and then Poughkeepsie, NY (1908), when my maternal grandfather settled in Pittsburgh, PA. At 28 years old, my grandmother died of the Swine Flu in that city in 1918, leaving a 3-month newborn and a 4-year-old child.   Eventually, this branch of the family settled in Garden City, L.I., N.Y. I grew up with my parents in Jersey City in 1942. My views on this Greek Orthodox Archdiocese Charter development process relate to this impressionistic…

Source: Public Orthodoxy ελληνικά | Русский Your Eminences! My letter is addressed to the Orthodox bishops in Russia. I have intentionally not collected signatures or involved any Church structures or public organizations, because I am addressing not the episcopal body, not the leaders of the Moscow Patriarchy, but each of you personally. My letter’s addressee is an Orthodox Christian who took holy baptismal and monastic vows, was elevated to the dignity of bishop, and who in his heart recognizes that it is impossible to govern the Church without striving to love Christ, seeking His truth, and serving Him and not Caesar. Under the circumstances,…

Source: Orthodox Christian Laity During OCL’s Orthodoxy in Action Call on January 29, 2023, George Matsoukas (OCL Executive Director Emeritus & Board Member) relates his experience during the International Orthodox Theological Association (IOTA) Mega Conference held in Volos, Greece from January 12-14, 2023. Dr Teva Regule and George Nassos, who also participated in the Conference, offered their perspectives also. NOTES FROM GEORGE MATSOUKAS Basic Overview IOTA International Orthodox Theological Association Conference January 11-15, 2023 Volos, Greece Major Supporters and Co-Laborers sponsored the conference. The mission of IOTA is a community of scholars and professionals dedicated to the worldwide exchange of…

Source: The National Herald By Christopher Tripoulas It’s a new year, but the Archbishop’s recent meeting at the Phanar regarding amendments to the Archdiocese of America’s Charter is more like a blast from the past. This on-again, off-again process, which began in the fall of 2019 with the sudden suspension of the Charter by the Ecumenical Patriarchate, was thought to have ended last June when the Patriarchate restored the Charter at the “request” [sic] of the Archdiocese. However, no sooner did this thoroughly botched matter seem to have been resolved, when it was awkwardly revisited, following a cryptic announcement by…

Source: The National Herald By Theodore Kalmoukos BOSTON – Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew has appointed Metropolitan Evangelos of Sardis as a member of the Holy Synod of the Phanar for a one-year tenure starting March 1, 2023. Archbishop Elpidophoros is also a member of the Synod during the current Synodic period. Metropolitan Evangelos served as the duly and canonically elected Metropolitan of the Metropolis of New Jersey for seventeen years, from his election and enthronement on May 11, 2003, until October 8, 2020. Under his leadership the Metropolis of New Jersey, for the first time, acquired its Metropolis Center in the…

Source: The Moscow Times By Ksenia Luchenko The celebration of Orthodox Christmas in both Russia and Ukraine on Jan. 7 provided ample evidence of what the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War has called Russia’s weaponization of religion in its propaganda war against Ukraine. Just as Ukraine’s 2013 Maidan Uprising was seen by Vladimir Putin as a personal affront, the 2018 creation of an independent Ukrainian Orthodox Church to replace the Moscow-aligned Ukrainian Orthodox Church Moscow Patriarchate, has not been forgiven by the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, who was left fearing a domino effect should other regional churches seek to break…

Source: Religion News Service Contentious issues of church polity have been exposed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February. By Meagan Saliashvili (RNS) — Nearly 400 Orthodox Christian theologians from 44 countries convened in the largest international conference of its kind in Greece on Thursday (Jan. 12) to discuss “Nicaea-sized” questions facing the Eastern Orthodox Church amid war and bitter division. Some of the most contentious issues at the Mega-Conference of the International Orthodox Theological Association, meeting in Volos, have been exposed by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, which exacerbated a split between a newly independent Orthodox Church of Ukraine…

Source: Orthodox Christian Laity 2022 YEAR-END LETTER Pan-Orthodox Unity in Action: Orthodox Christian Laity Concludes Annual Conference in Atlanta Your contributions, whether spiritual or financial, continue to make OCL’s activities possible. We appreciate your year-end, tax-deductible donation. Orthodox Christian Laity successfully completed its first in-person annual board meeting and conference since the beginning of the pandemic, in the Atlanta metropolitan area on October 14-15, 2022. This 35th Annual Conference brought together board members, presenters and participants from New Jersey, Texas, Utah, Illinois, Florida, Virginia, Michigan, Ohio, California and Georgia. Thursday, October 13 Board members arrived in Atlanta on Thursday evening,…

Source: Eurasia Review by Paul Goble  Patriarch Kirill’s “theology of war” which seeks to justify acts of genocide in Ukraine is leading to the collapse of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate as it has existed since Stalin restored that structure during World War II, Sergey Chapnin says. Indeed, the former deputy editor of the Moscow Patriarchate’s publishing house who has broken with the ROC MP and now is a senior fellow at Fordham University’s Orthodox Christian Studies Center says, what is going on “most clearly resembles” an act of suicide by the Moscow church (theins.ru/opinions/sergei-chapnin/258086). Many Russian…

Source: Orthodox Christian Laity As Orthodox Christian Laity prepares to participate in the 2023 International Orthodox Theological Association Mega-Conference in Volos, Greece, from January 11-14, 2023, we are republishing OCL’s presentation and video from the 2019 Conference in Iasi, Romania.  We remind the theologians and presenters at the upcoming conference to more actively bring their works and be teachers to lay persons outside of the academy. It takes all of us to bring about canonical order and unity. We also encourage you to do yourself a favor and watch the most watched video on IOTA’s website: The Keynote Address by…

Source:  OINOS Educational Consulting by Frank Marangos, D.Min., Ed.D., FCEP “He who is not contented with what he has, would not be contented with what he would like to have.” ~ Socrates On the night of November 16, 1930, Mrs. Henrietta Garret, a lonely 81-year-old widow died in her home in Philadelphia. Her death unwillingly started the most fantastic case of inheritance litigation in history. She had failed to leave a will, or, at least, no will was found. The problem? She left an estate of $17,000,000.Although Mrs. Garret, at the time of her death, had only one known relative, a…