Browsing: Governance & Unity Commentary

Source: Hurriyet Daily News By ARIANA FERENTINOU “We have known you for years and we appreciate your devotion to the Mother Church. It needs the devotion and faithfulness of the ones who serve it, because it faces, especially these days, many problems and challenges and its privileges as the First Seated Church are being disputed and attacked passionately,” said His Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew in a recent speech welcoming the appointment of a new bishop. It was his first public statement after he returned to Istanbul, from his bittersweet, week-long tour in Greece during which the ongoing crisis between the Autocephalous Church of…

Source: The National Herald By Theodore Kalmoukos In covering the visit of Elder Ephraim, Abbot of the Vatopaidi Monastery on Mt. Athos, to the United States, I had the opportunity last week to visit the St. Nicholas National Shrine at Ground Zero in New York, and really it was a very painful and heartbreaking sight, and experience. I had not visited there in quite a while, and seeing what I saw was quite a traumatic shock. The building was locked, as construction halted nine months earlier due to the Archdiocese’s lack of funds, which ultimately caused it to mortgage its…

Source: The National Herald By Theodore Kalmoukos BOSTON– His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew appears to be undecided once again about the issue of His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios of America and the possibility of replacing him with a new Archbishop. The National Herald has learned that the Patriarch made a brief mention of the issue at the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate which convenes this week at the Phanar. He reportedly said that he is being pressured concerning the ecclesiastical problem of America and the removal of Archbishop Demetrios, but the issue will be resolved at its proper time. The…

Source: Ekathimerini The next couple of days will be crucial for the future of Hellenism in the United States. A decision will be taken in Istanbul on whether Archbishop Demetrios of America will step down from his post and, if so, who will replace him. Officials in Athens would in the past treat this as a routine decision. But this is no longer the case. The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America is facing an unprecedented crisis that calls for immediate and radical solutions. Financial mismanagement in the construction of the Saint Nicholas National Shrine at the World Trade Center has…

Source: The National Herald By Antonis H. Diamataris If the leaked information is true, the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate will convene October 9-11 in Constantinople to decide the replacement of Demetrios as Archbishop of America. But similar information regarding the archbishop’s replacement also circulated at the previous two Synods, and despite that the information was confirmed insofar as Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew asked Archbishop Demetrios to resign, the latter not only refused to do so, but imposed his decision to stay. If such were to happen a third time, for any reason at all, then one thing is certain:…

Source: Orthodox Christian Laity I would like to share this pastoral letter sent to Orthodox Christian Laity by His Eminence Metropolitan Isaiah of Denver as OCL  gathers in Cleveland October 17-20 for its 31 Annual Meeting. His letter provides the opportunity to thank all the dedicated supporters past and present who served and continue to serve on the board and advisory board of OCL. Board members serve at their own expense and contribute $1,000 yearly to support the organization. Without their prayers, time, talent and resources, we could not continue our ministry. We are especially grateful to the hierarchs and…

Source: Orthodox Christian Laity Editor’s Note:  Pan-Orthodox Cleveland is the setting for the 9th meeting of the Canonical Orthodox Bishops charged with bringing the separate Orthodox ethnic divisions together. They meet the first week in October. They are really meeting under the radar.  Many faithful people actively involved in the life of the church in Cleveland do not even know that the meeting is taking place. What a shame!  Over fifty bishops meet and the church faithful at large do not have access to their discussions. Why are not the minutes, results of surveys and discussions made public? If the bishops got out into the…

Source: First Things by Luma Simms Originally published on September 18, 2018 In 1977 my parents came to the difficult conclusion that there was no future for them and their children in Iraq. Under the guise of vacation we left for Greece, where we lived as refugees for a year and a half. During our time there we met American Evangelical missionaries, who were kind to us. But they told us we would not be real Christians until we became “born again.” They informed us that my parents’ ancient faiths—Chaldean Catholic and Syriac Orthodox—were just dead traditions. My parents trusted…

Source: Public Orthodoxy by George Demacopoulos The three-way dispute between Ukrainians, Russians, and the Ecumenical Patriarchate over the possibility of Ukrainian ecclesiastical independence is shaping up to be the greatest challenge to Orthodox Christian unity of our generation. From a purely political perspective, Ukrainian autocephaly would represent an unmitigated disaster for the Russian Orthodox Church. Not only would it deprive the Russian Church of one third of its parishes and undermine its Russkiy Mir project, but it would dramatically belie the claim of the Moscow Patriarchate that it is the leader of the Orthodox Christian world. In a desperate effort to thwart the…

Source: Orthodox Christianity An Exclusive Interview on the Ecclesiastical Events in Ukraine In this interview with the program “Morning With Inter,” His Beatitude Metropolitan Onuphry speaks about his position on the latest Church events connected with the actions of the Patriarchate of Constantinople in regard to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The Ukrainian primate calls on the people of Ukraine to fear nothing, to preserve the purity of the Orthodox faith, and to live with God. Today we are being dragged into the format of a political party, so that Christ would not lead us, but politicians. If I had wanted…

Source: The National Herald By Theodore Kalmoukos The Ecumenical Patriarchate made a historic, correct, and bold decision to proceed with resolution of the ecclesiastical problem of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine by granting Autocephaly. As I have written in the past, there are actually two Churches in Ukraine: One under the “schismatic” Patriarch Philaret of Kiev and the other under Metropolitan Onufry of Kiev and All Ukraine, which belongs to the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Moscow. A request was filed to the Ecumenical Patriarchate 25 years ago requesting Autocephaly, but the issue was delayed simply because the Phanar did not…

Source: Atlantic Council By Taras Kuzio On September 7, Ukraine inched closer to a globally recognized international church. That day, Constantinople Patriarch Bartholomew I placed Ukraine under the canonical jurisdiction of US Archbishop Daniel of Pamphilon and Canadian Bishop Ilarion of Edmonton who head Ukrainian Orthodox Churches in both countries under Constantinople’s canonical jurisdiction. Since 1685, the Russian Orthodox Church has claimed Ukraine lies within its canonical territory, but no longer. The two appointments are preparation for granting the Orthodox Church in Ukraine autocephaly (independence) from the Russian Orthodox Church. It’s no exaggeration to write that the granting of autocephaly from the Russian…