Can you say “ECUSA”?

ATHER Peter shares with us the latest Orthodox Jurisdictional Cluster Bang.

As such, our directive of May 2, 2003 remains in force. To emphasize the main point or that directive, the clergy of The Antiochian Archdiocese are still forbidden from communing and/or concelebrating with any clergy who are a part of this newly-formed “Vicariate far Palestinian/Jordanian Communities in the USA” of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, whether in our parishes, their parishes, or as a part of pan-Orthodox gatherings.

So, to sum up: several parishes of the AOC left over what they perceived as liberalism and were received, without the AOC’s blessing, into a different jurisdiction perceived as more-Orthodox. Then a Third Foreign Bishop stepped in and said, “Let me fix this by aggrandising my own power.” And then the AOC has, essentially, forbidden the playing of reindeer games with any of the parties above.

Can anyone say “Martin Minns”, “Southern Cone” or “Akinola”? I knew you could.

Granted – the departing parishes constituted about 5% of all the Antiochian parishes. The Episcopal church has lost nearly one full Orthodox Jurisdiction in membership. Not that size is that important, mind you – but scale is.

Now, to be clear: the issues that drive traditionalist Orthodox away are no-where near as bad – to western eyes – as the issues that drive traditionalist Anglicans away. But to traditionalist eyes: if you use the new calendar, you might as well let divorced clergy serve; if you let women read the Epistle you might as well let closeted gay men the the Chancellor of your Metropolia; if you change the liturgy from the way it was done in the 1800s, you might as well ordain gays. As one traditionalist ROCOR Priest in SC said, “Mtr P and Bp A are two of the most conservative, traditional and supportive… Anglicans I’ve ever met.”

So, to sum up: we – Christians – are all a mess.

One day we may stop picking the motes out of each other’s eyes and sit down and feed each other. Sadly, I don’t think we’ll do it until we realise how stupid we *ALL* look.

And yes, I think the internet needs to keep holding the mirror up: and if we can’t start acting like adults… then we deserve to be grilled about it on judgement day.

No pun intended.

5 Responses to “Can you say “ECUSA”?”

Gregory
August 16th, 2008 at 8:12 pm

Months ago, when I started reading of breakaway Episcopalians going under overseas bishops, I thought: “Good heavens! They’re going into the same sorry fragmented direction we Orthodox Christians here are already in.” The Nigerian Episcopal Church in the USA, the Southern Cone Episcopal Church of America, etc. — another cranky, feuding patchwork. But, granted, the issues causing those splits are more substantive than what’s dividing us: ethnicity and calendar. How pathetic.

Huw
August 16th, 2008 at 9:49 pm

Gregory – As someone who has been around the block several times: church to church, jurisdiction and tradition; I’ve just decided that this is the clearest proof the church is not infallible and was never intended to be. To wit: there is no group called “church” that is not royally screwed up. I recognise the argument – the Church is the Body of Christ, fully human and fully divine… but, finally, I think I have to rely on the Grace of God.

As I continue to work for vocation in God’s church, part of me struggles constantly: Ecusa is falling apart, Orthodoxy is falling apart (and she suffers from small pond issues) and all the protestant bodies are the same. Rome, too, suffers but from different yet equally dysfunctional problems.

But the Church lives because Jesus does. So I can be priest (God willing) if I sit still long enough for someone to catch me.

Some part of me imagines that the late Bishop Raphael Hawaweeny, the late Pastor Billy Sunday, the late Presbyter Arius, the late Monk Martin Luther, the late Presbyters the Wesley Brothers, the late Bishops the Nicean Fathers (etc) and the late Pope Joan (and the late everyone else) are all sitting in heaven right now rolling their eyes at all of us. I think we might all need to read Stranger in a Strange Land again.

Gregory
August 17th, 2008 at 12:09 pm

But *are* they falling apart, or have they always been falling apart? From the start, Jesus said the kingdom was a field sown with both wheat and weeds, a net catching fish good and bad, not to be sorted out until the very end. Reading the letters of Paul the Apostle or the sermons of John Chrysostom make it clear a pacific “golden age” has never existed. People fret about many OCA bishops today, but then I remember the Church of Russia on the brink of the revolution, rife with Rasputin appointees among its episcopate. It’s never been perfect, it’s never been easy. Yet, in spite of it, saints were made, grace abounded, faith lived. Perhaps that’s the way it’s supposed to be: the Church is meant to live in a messy tension with a fallen, broken world. The Church as a work in progress, rather than a finished product, with God telling it all along: “My grace is enough for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 2:19).

Amanda
August 20th, 2008 at 10:50 pm

I assume this refers to the Ben Lomond clergy who left and joined Jerusalem?

Met. Philip has every right to be upset at Jerusalem for what they did.

Amanda
August 20th, 2008 at 10:53 pm

Ah, now that I investigate some more, its a mix of various traditionalists who left more mainstream jurisdictions for purer waters.
Ironic they are now under GOARCH.