Let’s Start 2022 by Focusing on Progress

In the second week of 2022, Orthodox Christian Laity’s Board met to review the past year and begin planning an agenda for the new year. During a discussion about Orthodox administrative unity in America and the general feeling of frustration with progress in that direction, one Board Member (Dr. Gayle Woloschak) drew our attention to the fact that the Assembly of Bishops USA has taken steps in the right direction through its establishment of fourteen committees, six agencies and commissions, and six affiliate ministries and associations (read about these initiatives here and here). She reminded us that the process of jurisdictional unity is many-faceted and that it needs a foundation upon which to build. There are many Pan-Orthodox success stories resulting from these efforts even in the midst of the global pandemic and the political conflicts between mother churches. Nevertheless, at the starting line of 2022, let’s look toward the finish line and visualize what a united Orthodox Church pleasing to God would look like [“Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.” (Colossians 3:11)]

This movement toward a united Orthodox Church “under one roof” in America is top-down AND bottom-up. The bishops in the Assembly and in the Patriarchates of the mother churches that established the Assembly need to hear a loud and clear message from the faithful: unity is not only desired but essential for the Church’s growth, impact and fulfillment of the Great Commission in this part of the world to “…make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19-20)