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The Scorecard on Orthodox Christian Unity: June 2015 – One Week before the Meeting in Istanbul

By Webmaster on June 6, 2015 Governance & Unity Essays, Governance & Unity News, OCL News, Orthodox Christian Laity

Source: Orthodox Christian Laity The Assembly of Bishops has been meeting for six years. June 2015 is a critical month and time period in their efforts to develop a plan to make the administrative life of the Orthodox Church in the United States canonical. Orthodox ecclesiology dictates that the Church be organized in geographic areas with one bishop in one city. Overlapping jurisdictions weaken the Commandment of Christ to make disciples of All Nations. Bishops are not foreign agents. Governments of other countries have no place in directing the actions of Bishops in the USA. We need a single Synod…

Liberal Folly and Conservative Heresy

By Webmaster on June 4, 2015 Governance & Unity Essays, Governance & Unity News

Source: Orthodox Reformer Orthodox Christians have one of the lowest rates of retention across Christian and non-Christian denominations. Only 53% of adults who were raised in the Orthodox Church still identify themselves as Orthodox Christians. Compare that to Hindus (80%), Jewish (75%), Mormon (64%) and Catholic (59%). – Courtesy Go Truth Reform , data from pg. 39 of the PEW Report The past month has been a whirlwind for the GOA. The recently published Pew Report and informal reports coming from GOA insiders portray a general decline in our churches nationwide. Unrest has been spreading around the internet and a…

PEW study reveals critical decline in Orthodox religious membership

By Webmaster on May 28, 2015 Governance & Unity Essays, Governance & Unity News

Editor’s note: The Orthodox Christian Church in the United States is in Crisis. What actions will the Assembly of Bishops take? Stonewalling and ignoring the facts only contributes to the decline of Orthodoxy in the USA. By a Layperson in the New Jersey Metropolis of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese An extensive, highly-cited study of religious trends and affiliation of Americans [America’s Changing Religious Landscape] published on May 12 by the well-regarded Pew Research Center found that the Christian share of the U.S. religious population is declining, while the number of U.S. adults who do not identify with any organized religion…

Dokos/Kantzavelos Scandal Damages Parish in Illinois

By Webmaster on May 4, 2015 Governance & Unity Essays, Governance & Unity News

Source: The National Herald April 25 – May 1, 2015 edition To the Editor: The removal of Fr. Angelo Artemas and his replacement with Fr. James Dokos by Bishop Kantzavelos has caused irreparable and immeasurable harm to my parish, Sts. Peter and Paul in Glenview, IL. The spiritual damage of being ministered by a priest for two years who has been charged with felony theft by the Milwaukee, WI District Attorney is incalculable. My parish lost 54 donor families between 2012 and 2014. The scandal has divided the faithful between those who are calling for the removal of the Bishop/Chancellor…

Who Was at the Cross and Tomb? – Laity!

By Webmaster on April 2, 2015 Governance & Unity Essays

Source: Seeds of Hope – Orthodox Christian Healing & Counseling Pascha – a Reminder for All! from our Board of Directors and Advisors: It was Laity – Mary the mother of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, Salome, and John among others. As we approach Holy week and Pascha, Scriptures remind us, it was Laity at the cross and at the empty tomb – the first disciples to follow Jesus, proclaiming the Good News now for over 2,000 years. Seeds of Hope, Orthodox Counseling & Healing continues to follow Jesus and His Holy commandment. Orthodox Laity are needed…

A LETTER FROM A GREEK ORTHODOX PRIEST

By Webmaster on March 4, 2015 Governance & Unity Essays, Governance & Unity News

Source: Greek Orthodox Christians for Truth and Reform A LETTER TO ONE OF OUR EDITORS FROM A GREEK ORTHODOX PRIEST Dear Editor, I miss Archbishop Iakovos dearly. As a Priest of 30 years, I feel compelled to write this, albeit with some degree of anonymity to protect myself (even though I have fully disclosed who I am to you). This is my confession that I feel most sorrowful for. The poor leadership that our GOA is plagued with is a multi-faceted problem that has its roots from the Seminary. The Church is suffering. If you don’t realize we are, you…

Report of the OCL Executive Director for the Quarterly Meeting held in St. Augustine, FL on February 19, 2015

By Webmaster on March 3, 2015 Governance & Unity Essays, Governance & Unity News, OCL News, Orthodox Christian Laity, Orthodox News, Orthodox News Top Stories

Source: Orthodox Christian Laity “How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in Unity.” Psalm 133:1 What a joy it is to hold our OCL meeting at the Orthodox Christian Mission Center (OCMC), a truly pan-Orthodox outreach mission to the world. The agency has had its struggles and triumphs, but working together in unity, they make a difference for Christian outreach. Together with IOCC, they are examples of what we accomplish in unity. Can you imagine if the Orthodox Christian Church in the USA was united – what we can accomplish? A unified Orthodox Christian Church would be…

AT LAST, A COUNCIL FOR THE AGES?

By Webmaster on March 2, 2015 Governance & Unity Essays, Governance & Unity News

Source: First Things THE GREAT COUNCIL OF THE ORTHODOX CHURCH IN 2016 by Rev. Dr. John Chryssavgis A Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church has been scheduled for 2016. In March of 2014, the leaders of all the autocephalous (independent) Orthodox Churches met in Istanbul, the sacred see of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, which historically (since at least the fifth century) coordinates such assemblies, facilitating unity while serving as a center of appeal among these churches. Arguably the foremost decision unanimously agreed upon at that assembly of church heads was the convocation of a Great Council in 2016, tentatively planned…

IS THERE A FUTURE FOR ECUMENISM?

By Webmaster on February 8, 2015 Governance & Unity Essays, Governance & Unity News

Source: Russian Orthodox Church Department for External Church Relations Lecture by the Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, at the Universities of Winchester (5 February 2015) and Cambridge (6 February 2015). Dear members of the faculty, students and guests of the university! I have been asked to give a lecture on the topic of interaction between Christians today. Does ecumenism have a future? This question has become ever more relevant and demands an all-round analysis. When Jesus Christ founded his Church on earth, it was a single community of disciples…

Kowtowing to Moscow=Bad Ecumenism

By Webmaster on December 10, 2014 Governance & Unity Essays, Governance & Unity News

Source: Aleteia The Vatican’s ecumenical default positions badly need re-setting. by GEORGE WEIGEL In his tireless work for Christian unity, St. John Paul II often expressed the hope that Christianity in its third millennium might “breathe again” with its “two lungs:” West and East, Latin and Byzantine. It was a noble aspiration. And when he first visited Orthodoxy’s ecumenical patriarchate of Constantinople in 1979, perhaps the successor of Peter imagined that his heartfelt desire to concelebrate the Eucharist with the successor of Andrew would be realized in his lifetime. It wasn’t to be, but not for lack of trying on John…

I want to see Catholic women ordained bishops – but not into the hierarchy as it is

By Webmaster on November 21, 2014 Governance & Unity Essays, Governance & Unity News

Source: The Tablet by Una Kroll The Mother Church of the Anglican Communion agreed to allow women to be consecrated as bishops in England on Monday, 17 November 2014, although some daughter Anglican Churches have had women bishops since 1989. How do I, once an Anglican woman priest, now a Catholic laywoman, feel? I am happy for the Anglican women clergy in England; their witness to their vocations has been fully recognised. My hope for this outcome began in 1947 when I was 21 and a student, although I was mute about my own call until 1970, when I began…

Fundamentally Flawed

By Webmaster on October 14, 2014 Governance & Unity Essays, Governance & Unity News

by John Kaloudis I was dismayed to read the following in the recent issue of the Orthodox Observer: “Biden touched on three subjects that are at the core of the issues of greatest concern to Greek Orthodox Christians; the relationship between the United States and Greece, religious freedom, especially for the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Christians in Turkey and the Cyprus question.” If these are the core issues of the GOA, the GOA has abandoned the core principles as prescribed by Jesus in the New Testament. I do not expect VP Biden to understand and/or promote the core issues prescribed for the…

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Browsing: Governance & Unity Essays