American Export-odoxy
7 February 2008 - 2 אדר א' 5768 by Huw
I’ve been following the attempt of a couple of American Orthodox to take over the SPCK bookstores in the UK. Over at Cartoon Church, Dave Walker has been a valiant reporter. (The above image links to his category on the topic.) Today’s post announces Further SSG / SPCK shop closures - staff sacked by e-mail.
But today’s post carries a bit of a kicker: a comment from Fr Gregory Hallam, an Antiochian Priest from the UK.
Mr. Brewer has embarrassed us Orthodox. If he were to present himself at my church he would not be allowed to receive Holy Communion.
I sincerely wish he would keep himself in Texas, disengage and never show himself here again.
The thing is … if he is so “Orthodox” why does he not care what the Orthodox here actually think?
So happy was I to see this that I sent Fr G a note thanking him. Certainly the Brewers are not “American Orthodox” in the sense that they represent all members of the American church. But they do model a particularly virulent strain of American ex-Protestant Uberfrumerry in the act of self-propagation. This would be the place where one might ask “why did the Americans not consult with the local church?” Just as we might ask about Baptists who go to evangelise in Russia. There really are only two of them - the Brewer Brothers, near as I can tell.
I was saddened to see on the OrthodoxWiki Article, that these guys have a blessing from a real live, canonical Orthodox bishop, although, like many bishops (of many denominations) I’m sure that Metropolitan Joseph is oblivious to the decidedly unchristian actions of his underlings. (I see also in the Wiki article that, “In November 2007 Fr Gregory Hallam, of St Aiden’s Orthodox Church, described the distance between SSG and UK Orthodoxy as comparable ‘to the span of the observable Universe’”. This also made me smile.) One wishes, in the name of good ecumenism, and labour justice, that some Romanian Orthodox in the US could get through to Metr Joseph to have him withdraw his blessing.
