OOD MAY YET Come from all this crap in the OCA. The proposal for the merger of the OCA with the AOA is once again on the table, at least in the Diocese of Eastern Pennsylvania.
And the steps seem to be following through already: there is no new Metropolitan being elected. Instead there is an administrator of the Metropolitan see in place. We shall see where this goes.
- With much prayer…
- After Metr. HERMAN either retires or dies, let his successor be elected by the OCA not as “Metropolitan,” but as “Temporary Administrator” of the OCA, with the mandate to do all he can to lead the OCA parishes into organic unity with the Antiochian Archdiocese; and let him keep his current diocese.
- Close down the OCA headquarters in Syosset, hopefully selling the property to pay off all the debts of the OCA.
- Move key OCA staff personnel from Syosset to the Antiochian headquarters in Englewood, New Jersey, to augment the staff there, in whatever ways may be deemed appropriate.
- Build a state-of-the-art facility at St. Tikhon’s Monastery for the OCA archives, or expand the archival facilities at Antiochian Village to house them there.
- Rearrange the dioceses of the Antiochian and OCA bishops roughly as follows:
- Metr. PHILIP – New York City area and Washington, D.C. area, as at the present time.
- Bp. Nikon – his current diocese of New England (currently the Antiochian Archdiocese does not have a bishop for their 9 parishes and 1 mission in New England), and any other Albanian parishes desiring to stay under him.
- Bp. Alexander – his current diocese of Ottawa, Eastern Canada, and upstate New York.
- Archbishop Seraphim – Western Canada, Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon (currently the Antiochian Archdiocese does not have a bishop for western Canada and Alaska); and appoint him as temporary administrator for Alaska.
- Bishop Tikhon – Eastern Pennsylvania, and the rest of New Jersey not under Metr. PHILIP.
- Bishop Thomas – Western Pennsylvania (the OCA currently does not have a bishop for western Pennsylvania), West Virginia, Delaware, and the rest of Maryland and Virginia not under Metr. PHILIP.
- Bishop Mark – Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky.
Archbishop Nathaniel – Michigan, and any other Romanian parishes desiring to stay under him. - Archbishop Job – Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Missouri.
- Bishop Antoun – Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi.
- Archbishop Dmitri – Texas, New Mexico, Arkansas, and Louisiana.
- Bishop Basil – Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, and the Dakotas.
- Bishop Joseph – Southern California and Arizona.
- Bishop Benjamin – Northern California, Nevada, and Utah.
- Bishop Alejo – Mexico.
- NOTE: According to this arrangement, only one hierarch would be asked to relocate his headquarters: Archbishop Seraphim. But this might not be so difficult for him since he originally hails from western Canada, and there is the precedence of a strong episcopal presence there in the ministry of Archbishop Arseny of Winnipeg in the 1920s and 1930s. (Bishop Benjamin has already moved the diocesan headquarters of the OCA Diocese of the West from Los Angeles to San Francisco.)
- When Metropolitan PHILIP either retires or dies, allow any of the above named bishops to be considered as a possible successor.
There’s more read it all. I especially like this one:
Encourage every OCA and Antiochian parish to study the lives of Saints Tikhon and Raphael, to celebrate their Akathist hymns perhaps once a month, to celebrate their Feastdays, and to have their icons displayed together in the church, accessible for veneration.
For the purpose of Orthodox Unity in the USA? I bet some Anglicans, RCs and Lutherans would join in that prayer. Might even get the GOA!
So if some good can come of this Crisis - indeed some amazing Good, some amazing healing: then I think the millions were well spent.
My prayers.
We down in the Antipodes are nowhere even considering such an agreement [as far as I can see]; I pray a way may be shown forward for us all.
Interesting, but I’m not holding my breath. I know a lot of both Antiochians and OCA-ites who would be really pissed about this.