Now that Metropolitan Jonah has resigned, Dreher is again trying to engineer some controversy and clamor. He specifically states, "I wish he had gone out like Samson instead of yielding to this pack of wild dogs." First, there are many holy and prayerful men on the Synod, and I hardly think it kind to malign the entire lot as dogs. Second, Mr Dreher is a relatively recent convert with a personal connection to Metropolitan Jonah and relatively little experience in the OCA. As such, he might not realize that the OCA is bigger than Metropolitan Jonah and that the rest of us have to live here, too. Smashing everything behind Metropolitan Jonah would not be a very nice thing to do to the rest of us. When he says things like that, he comes across as a nihilist, a Jacobin, a bomb-throwing anarchist, not a "conservative". Since Metropolitan Jonah will not be throwing bombs (it seems), I sincerely hope Mr Dreher and his ilk do not take it upon themselves to start their own cultural web-log war again in the hopes of gaining... what, exactly? The kudos earned by following Apollos instead of Paul (or vice versa - I know I'd rather be on Paul's side, but that's missing the point)? Dreher says, "What they don’t understand is that they probably signed the OCA’s death warrant in so doing." Maybe, maybe not, but one way of pushing the OCA toward death is by pulling the pillars down through inflammatory web-logging, like OCA Truth, AOIUSA, and Monomakhos are notorious for (Will Monomakhos try to take out Bishop Melchizedek again?). OCANews is dead (and it served a good purpose at times, amazingly), so that leaves only one coterie of destructive internet muck-rakers.
Their personal devotion to Metropolitan Jonah and their misguided embrace of the Right's narrative of "culture war" are blinding them to reality in this case - whatever reality it is. There are very few facts and very many feelings at this point. Sources of information are biased, to put it gently, and you would do well to consider the "other side" charitably rather than call for destruction (or destructive mistrust). Or, I don't know, maybe we could just decide every single bishop on the Synod secretly wants to be an Eastern-Rite Episcopalian or something. I suppose one of those paths is easier. It's more fun to get worked up and shout about things. It's more fun to demand an explanation.
I suppose something needs to be said, but a lot of stuff has been said already and people didn't believe it. If a statement came out consistent with the narrative presented by the Synod over the last year, would it be believed? The narrative is complex; most of us have trouble following the ending of Fight Club. Perhaps it would. Would it be trusted? No. Do we demand more? Well, do we really want the full answer? I don't think it's ever wise to ask questions you don't want the answer to, and I think the answer to this likely falls in that category (largely because it is going to be boring). I concede that I am, perhaps, being a bit combative on this point. Not everybody spends as much time reading crummy web-logs as I do. A wise Russian once said, "Normal, well-balanced people do not post on web-logs." So some people out there might not have heard the conversations in the past by the Synod. Maybe they do need to say something.
This is turning into a rambling post, I do apologize, but I found a couple normal, well-balanced people commenting on this post: http://ad-orientem.blogspot.com/2012/07/oca-holy-synod-appoints-archbishop.html
41 comments:
I think this is the last thing I'll say on the matter.
But thank you for saying it.
Rabble Rabble Rabble!
Thank you for your blog post. It was fresh air, if you will excuse me the cliche. When Mr. Dreher entered our parish as a convert, he was lionized as if he were a major "catch" because of a pop culture book he had published. He continued to attract an oversized adulation, despite his superficial (or so it looked then, and still does) allegiance to Orthodoxy. I consider him a great embarrassment at best, and an unethical journalist with a slanderous tongue. Please forgive my "anonymous" post; however, even the writing style may reveal my identify to close readers.
Every convert is a major catch. Did you know that in 900 years of time and space I've never met anyone who wasn't important? If you go beyond that, "live by the sword, die by the sword." Well, I guess if we really want to get down to it, I'm more interested in murderers converting than celebrities (though there is certainly some overlap - no need to make a dichotomy).
I'm puzzled if you misunderstood me so much. The elation was not because a person embraced the true faith, but because he was of worldly importance. I found that very strange. Without question, every soul that turns to God is of inestimable importance.
I understood, but my response was cryptic. I was agreeing with you, in essence, and musing about elation over the worldly importance of individuals. Perhaps I should have started my response, "Indeed, ..." Namely, I was saying that everybody is important and that going by the worldly magnitude of one's converts is a double-edged sword. If one is going to judge the magnitude, murderers are certainly more interesting than celebrities.
Koolaid drinkers behind the gay mafia which bankrupted the OCA and tossed it into a culture of corruption and deceit and treachery. People like Bishop Nikon, Kishkovsky, Stokoe, Leonova WILL GO! You relics of your own demographic demise are the problem.
If Fr. Alexander Schmemann can be involved in the Civil Rights movement and with the Moral Majority, voices in the OCA following the lead of Metropolitan Jonah can, must and WILL take the lead in standing for a morally rearmed America.
If Fr. John Meyendorff in assinging the role of Sobornost as the RESPONSIBILITY OF THE ENTIRE PEOPLE OF GOD is irrelevent in our day, then this obscurantist RABBLE or immoral perfidy THAT YOU REPRESENT is correct in screaming "OBEDIENCE! DRINK THE KOOLAID!!!" But it seems you only say that WHEN YOU ARE POURING IT.
And we have had enough of YOUR TYPE and the nonsense and shenanigans you have subjected the OCA to. Those days are over!
This Holy Synod of homosexual pampering and corruption, greed and liberal manipulation WILL BE HELD TO ACCOUNT, with or without Metropolitan Jonah. The DISGRACE of homosexual clergy and Eastern Rite Episcopalian Renovationists and their era is coming to a close! WE DEMAND ORTHODOXY and nothing less! You all are impediment which we will remove.
The FAITHFUL and not HOMOSEXUAL, Renovationist Bishops ELECTED METROPOLITAN JONAH, and without their say in this "removal" without a spiritual court or canonical charge this act is illicit and heterodox. It is non binding on Orthodox Christians and since it contradicts the Holy Canons, Orthodox Christians not only have no obligation to obedience, they HAVE AN OBLIGATION TO RESISTANCE AND REINSTITUTION OF THEIR CANONICALLY ELECTED HIERARCH!
What Canons did Metropolitan Jonah transgress? What Spiritual Court was held? What witnesses were called?! This is indeed Eastern Rite, Renovationist Protestantism and this removal of a canonical hierarch CONSTITUTES A USURPATION and an assault against the ecclesiology of the Orthodox Church.
I think it proper to take to pause and reflect on where many of us agree with Metropolitan Jonah and his vision for the OCA.
1). We agree on vigorous mission to North America which reflects a Centrist – Traditional presentation of Orthodoxy.
2). We agree on cultivating traditional Orthodox monasticism and piety to see the day of an American Orthodox spirituality and local tradition.
3). We agree on outreach to the communities where our faltering legacy parishes find themselves, rooted in witness to the Orthodox immigrations, traditional Christians and Americans interested in a Faith with a sound, consistent moral core.
4). We agree that North American Orthodoxy is to be formed not at the direction or by the “intentional neglect” of “mother churches” but that the time has come to recognize that we are in a different chapter in America where various ethnic “jurisdictions” are called to unity for survival and joint effort. In the OCA, we presume to structure this unity beginning with absorption of bodies which reflect our original Russian and Romanian heritages, but then to branch out to Bulgarians, Serbs and Antiochians.
5). We recognize that assimilate Orthodoxy is not local Orthodoxy, but a denaturing of ethnic Orthodoxy. It is our intent using the paradigms set by the local churches to oversee an American Orthodoxy which cares for the souls of cradle, convert, revert and assimilate in a Centrist – Traditional coalition.
6). The financial soundness and stability of the OCA is a matter of transparency which calls for not only righting the ship of the OCA, but preventing further abuses and projecting a model for growth.
7). We endeavor to produce a 20 to 25% presence in North America and Latin America within a century. We foresee an incremental process commensurate with growth or multiple metropolias structured around a Katholikosate, then a handful of Katholikosates structured around a Patriarchate which will become the exclusively canonically presence in North America and be recognized by other local Orthodox churches with whom we will share Communion.
8). We endeavor to save our legacy parishes, rebuild them and populate them while creating an infrastructure of new missions, parishes, monasteries, seminaries, charities and religious institutions for America.
9). We endeavor to engage America and her culture for the propagation of Traditional morality and moral order. This will include political activity.
10). We endeavor to foster an Orthodox formation which is founded upon prayer, Sacramental witness, immersion in Scripture and the LIFE of CHRIST as well as regular church life to consecrate America to Orthodoxy and to work out our personal and corporate salvation. Unus Christianus, nullus Christianus. We are not saved alone, but in community with CHRIST in the HOLY EUCHARIST constituting the Church.
11). We endeavor through dialogue to better understand religious and irreligious institutions and movements here to witness to all and convert some. It is our goal to first unite liturgical and likeminded Christians to Holy Orthodoxy in North America while making common cause with other Christians and those of good will toward the betterment of society. This is not ecumenism inasmuch as it is witness and mission.
12). We will foster an evangelical community which welcomes our country in to share in the transfiguration of our Orthodoxy, upholding the Truth and piety handed to us and sharing it and its blessings on all who are sincerely interested in upholding it with adulteration.
This was and is what Metropolitan Jonah stood for. This is what we are “clamoring about.” This is what we are working for. This is what we envision for our OCA as our American local church. This is what we call ourselves, our clergy and our hierarchy to uphold.
I think it proper to take to pause and reflect on where many of us agree with Metropolitan Jonah and his vision for the OCA.
1). We agree on vigorous mission to North America which reflects a Centrist – Traditional presentation of Orthodoxy.
2). We agree on cultivating traditional Orthodox monasticism and piety to see the day of an American Orthodox spirituality and local tradition.
3). We agree on outreach to the communities where our faltering legacy parishes find themselves, rooted in witness to the Orthodox immigrations, traditional Christians and Americans interested in a Faith with a sound, consistent moral core.
4). We agree that North American Orthodoxy is to be formed not at the direction or by the “intentional neglect” of “mother churches” but that the time has come to recognize that we are in a different chapter in America where various ethnic “jurisdictions” are called to unity for survival and joint effort. In the OCA, we presume to structure this unity beginning with absorption of bodies which reflect our original Russian and Romanian heritages, but then to branch out to Bulgarians, Serbs and Antiochians.
5). We recognize that assimilate Orthodoxy is not local Orthodoxy, but a denaturing of ethnic Orthodoxy. It is our intent using the paradigms set by the local churches to oversee an American Orthodoxy which cares for the souls of cradle, convert, revert and assimilate in a Centrist – Traditional coalition.
6). The financial soundness and stability of the OCA is a matter of transparency which calls for not only righting the ship of the OCA, but preventing further abuses and projecting a model for growth.
7). We endeavor to produce a 20 to 25% presence in North America and Latin America within a century. We foresee an incremental process commensurate with growth or multiple metropolias structured around a Katholikosate, then a handful of Katholikosates structured around a Patriarchate which will become the exclusively canonically presence in North America and be recognized by other local Orthodox churches with whom we will share Communion.
8). We endeavor to save our legacy parishes, rebuild them and populate them while creating an infrastructure of new missions, parishes, monasteries, seminaries, charities and religious institutions for America.
9). We endeavor to engage America and her culture for the propagation of Traditional morality and moral order. This will include political activity.
10). We endeavor to foster an Orthodox formation which is founded upon prayer, Sacramental witness, immersion in Scripture and the LIFE of CHRIST as well as regular church life to consecrate America to Orthodoxy and to work out our personal and corporate salvation. Unus Christianus, nullus Christianus. We are not saved alone, but in community with CHRIST in the HOLY EUCHARIST constituting the Church.
11). We endeavor through dialogue to better understand religious and irreligious institutions and movements here to witness to all and convert some. It is our goal to first unite liturgical and likeminded Christians to Holy Orthodoxy in North America while making common cause with other Christians and those of good will toward the betterment of society. This is not ecumenism inasmuch as it is witness and mission.
12). We will foster an evangelical community which welcomes our country in to share in the transfiguration of our Orthodoxy, upholding the Truth and piety handed to us and sharing it and its blessings on all who are sincerely interested in upholding it without adulteration.
This was and is what Metropolitan Jonah stood for. This is what we are “clamoring about.” This is what we are working for. This is what we envision for our OCA as our American local church. This is what we call ourselves, our clergy and our hierarchy to uphold.
I'm tempted to delete this, per policy and inclination, but it is so fascinating.
Dear Mr. GZT,
I stopped back by, saw the subsequent posts, and would hope that you will accept that I am the "Anonymous" of the first two such monikers, and have nothing whatsoever to do with the subsequent ones. Perhaps you could relabel mine as "Anonymous-1" to avoid so potentially embarrassing a confusion as to pin that extremist verbiage on me. Thank you!
Anonymous-1
I wish I could relabel it, but I can't. Fortunately, I recognized the extreme difference in writing styles. The question I have is whether all three of the other anonymous posts were the same person, or whether they were two different people. See, this is part of why I don't like unsigned posts. Even signing it with some random string like "abvge" would eliminate this kind of ambiguity.
Orthodoxy is only "extremism" to those who wish to accept it on ITS TERMS and live it.
The only extreme comments I have read here are the vitriolic denunciations of Mr. Dreher and the extreme sycophancy offered to a corrupt administration in Syosset which indeed uncanonically "deposed" a sitting Metropolitan without a spiritual court, without accusation of any infraction, without any witnesses.
That is indeed "extreme," extremely corrupt, extremely heterodox, extremely uncanonical and those who stand by such abuse of power and assault against proper Orthodox administration evoke gasps at their extreme detachment from Orthodoxy rooted in extreme ignorance and lack of commitment to the True Faith.
That is what is extreme and characteristic of a certain faction.
So "extremism" or the "folly of the Cross"?! Orthodoxy is indeed extreme and absolute, but not for those who are within our midst but not of us.
Orthodoxy and Orthodox Faith and piety are not for the lukewarm and faint of heart whom CHRIST will spew out. It seems they too have blogs as is seen here.
Drinking koolaid laced with Renovationist poison and accepting a corrupt and morally compromised hierarchy is not fidelity to Orthodoxy. It is an attempt at its overthrow!
I agree with "Anonymous'" Vision for the OCA and rebel at that which you all put forward. You are unworthy of the name "Orthodox".
You can't delete the future. You can either live it or hide from it and try to escape. But the past is over.
Thank you for choosing a name for yourself. I think I catch your drift and will subscribe to your newsletter if I want to hear any more of the same.
I am not the anonymous poster and am not interested in you signing up for my blog or your appraisal of it.
I suggest that everyone who is displeased with the actions of the Synod recently should call and voice their displeasure. These guys love to make decisions and not face the consequences or be held accountable for them. Call not only the OCA Chancery, but also the “Locum Tenens” Archbishop Nathaniel directly. BE HEARD!
OCA CHANCERY: (516) 922-0550
ARCHBISHOP NATHANIEL: (517) 522-4800, (517) 522-3598, (517) 522-3656
Ask what Canons were followed in installing Archbishop Nathaniel as locums tenens and inquiring into just exactly what spiritual court deposed Metropolitan Jonah, what Canons were transgressed and who were the witnesses.
What canons allowed Archbishop Nathaniel to be appointed locum tenens.
If they say, “he resigned.” Tell them “resignations under duress and coercion are not valid.”
Tserkovnye - If you're not interested in my assessment, you shouldn't offer your own.
Anonymous (2 or more) - While I find your posts edifying, your lack of signature only causes confusion, apparently. Pick a random string to use as your calling card or something so I can tell you apart from others.
An answer to a harangue does not invite a dialogue, only a response to a heterodox diatribe.
Heterodox, I do not think that word means what you think it does. Point out my doctrinal error.
I think your smugness and lack of Orthodox formation is showing. It means not only "doctrinal" error but also "canonical" and "disciplinary" error, even error in ones outlook.
In your case, that is easily addressed by the facts that:
1). You advance and defend an uncanonical action and rebellion against a rightly appointed hierarch, thereby supporting REBELLION. That is indeed HETERODOX and canonically condemned with EXCOMMUNICATION.
2). By this same model you advance a CONGREGATIONALIST Protestant ecclesiology in place of the Canonical Order of the Orthodox Church. Doctrinally, that is HETERODOX.
3). In piety, outlook and discipline, rather than advancing fidelity to and observance of the Holy Fathers, the Holy Canons expressing the Mind of CHRIST, you smugly are content with an outlook in opposition to them, having the audacity to all such fidelity, outlook and discipline even "poisonous." That is most certainly heterodox, Protestant.
Get an Orthodox formation before you write in smugness again.
I'll let my priest and bishop know that I am to be EXCOMMUNICATED as a CONGREGATIONALIST.
Hardly, but you COULD BE BROUGHT BEFORE A SPIRITUAL COURT FOR YOUR AIDING AND ABETTING OF REBELLION AND YOUR TEACHING OF HETERODOX ECCLESIOLOGY IN THE PLACE OF THE CANONICAL ORDER OF THE CHURCH.
THE CANONS ARE NOT YOUR PLAY THINGS TO DERIDE AND DISCARD!!! That is the problem of you and those lawless Bishops you support.
Such an attitude is worthy of a Protestant and reflects a lack of an Orthodox formation.
Really, BECOME ORTHODOX BEFORE you presume to write or speak about ORTHODOXY. Your smugness only alludes to your hubris and your lack of Orthodox formation. Your attitude is precisely YOUR PROBLEM and WHY YOU ARE HETERODOX. HUMBLE YOURSELF AND BECOME ORTHODOX ON ORTHODOXY's TERMS.
Orthodoxy is not a cafeteria "denomination" you construct as an idol of your own pride. Really. BE NOT OBEDIENT TO THE LAWLESS BUT TO THE HOLY FATHERS, THE HOLY CANONS EXPRESSING THE MIND OF CHRIST IN THE ORTHODOX CHURCH!
If your Priest and Bishop have provided you with this utterly lacking, heterodox formation, it is no wonder why you hold to the rebellious PROTESTANT, HETERODOX views you do.
That is precisely the problem.
You indict yourself and them with your responses.
You can’t avoid the FACTS that there WAS NO SPIRITUAL COURT, NO CHARGES OF CANONICAL INFRACTIONS, NO WITNESSES BROUGHT and that THEY used duress to force out a duly consecrated Metropolitan and Primate. That canonically, dear friend, IS REBELLION AND USURPATION OF EPISCOPAL AUTHORITY which was done during the era of the Seven Ecumenical Councils by schismatics and heretics and ANSWERED with depositons and excommunications of the REBELS, the people you are obliquely supporting.
I really hate the internet sometimes.
People need faces and flesh sometimes to remind us of the image of God there present. Sometimes I think these boxes foster the great iconoclasm of our day by obscuring our view of these Icons so we can let our frustrations, pains, and passions pour freely out on those to whom we owe the Love of Christ.
Lord Have Mercy.
Iconoclasm is taking the Icon of the Church and dashing it at your feet on a whim because it doesn't conform to what you believe things "should be" in your cafeteria religion, "denomination".
That indeed is the problem with Renovationism and why it was condemned as heresy in Russia during the Soviet persecutions.
Thus, when such a person screams, "Obedience!" It isn't obedience to CHRIST or HIS Church, but that person's idol or cafeteria. That isn't Orthodoxy.
Indeed, LORD HAVE MERCY! May HE forgive what is being done to Orthodoxy in America by such rebels and Renovationists!
Tserkovnya Vekhi, Anonymous (x2),
1. A unanimous synod can request that their primate step down. This is the general thrust of the canons (see Apostolic Canon 74 as but one example). Metropolitan Jonah also agreed to be obedient to the Synod at the time of his ordination to the episcopate.
2. No one has been deposed. Jonah is an active bishop without a see. No spiritual court is required if no one is being deposed.
3. There's the myth of Jonah and the reality of Jonah. He became Metropolitan as a result of a poignant (supposedly impromptu) address at the 2008 AAC. Therein, he promised to clean house, to restore accountability and transparency, and to pursue real work (charity, hospitals, dormitories, etc.) that demonstrates our values.
Which of those did he do? He routinely disregarded budgets, wouldn't carry out his administrative duties, did nothing to rid us of clergy guilty of sexual misconduct (even restoring the infamous Dn Gregory Burke while trying to blame it on Bp Nikon; other cases were left unanswered or covered up), played footsie with Kondratick, shot his mouth off on a regular basis, acted contrary to OCA legal counsel on numerous occasions, and genreally flipped off the synod and metropolitan council. I can't think of a single charitable initiative begun under Jonah, but, of course, he had to go kick some sand on the Ecumenical Patriarch just to show his authority. If things were uncomfortable at home, the Episcopalians could be counted on to give him the affirmation he craved. And, worse, he gave a blessing (if tacitly) to a homegrown spin machine run anonymously by Fester, Dreher, and Cone. Classy all around. No wonder the synod finally decided the OCA had had enough.
Well put, Ted Logan.
I'm reminded of something Dr. Lewis Patsavos (professor of canon law at Holy Cross Seminary) said: "The Orthodox only quote the canons when they're fighting!"
HHC
It is unfortunate that GZT calling out Rod Dreher's destructive rhetoric has been hijacked by the certifiable, and easily recognizable Rostislav. I do not mean certifiable as a put down, but as an objective statement coupled with the hope that he is soon committed to a caring institution where he can get the help he so clearly needs. His diatribes have popped up from time to time for well over a decade. They stopped being fun a long time ago.
A big part of Dreher's missing the mark is who is grooming him. If I had to guess, it is still Joseph Fester, despite the fact that he has left the jurisdiction under less than auspicious circumstances. I would lament the gift that his new diocese has received in the form of his service, but it appears that he is still deeply invested in the politics of his former jurisdiction.
If you want to waste a significant amount of time, you see much of the details of the Holy Synod's letter disclosed in the comments in detail and yet dismissed as "not the real reason" for Jonah's ousting.
Dreher, it seems, believed his own BS and the flattery of the folks at the Cathedral (and everywhere that Rod went it seems). But he has no judgement and selfishly pursues his own self interest. This isn't new, this is his m.o. This is how his membership with the RCC came to an end. It's how he wrote anonymously and then quoted himself on OCATruth. It's why he's publishing a retraction today when he accused UT to caving to pressure from the GAYS!!! Too often his astigmatic culture warrior angle and his anonymous sources make for less than credible journalism.
The letter released by the Synod has the ring of truth to it. It fits with narrative, which includes the voluntary and unnecessary reinstatement by Jonah of a nearly laicized and openly gay deacon down in FL and the meltdown of his handpicked successor Archimandrite Meletios Webber (who MJ trotted out all over the country speaking out against the same things that Fr. Mel is now accused of preaching and tolerating) and the fact that Fr Fester was courting and gathering all the for deposed Bp from the OCA to voice their support for the blighted Metropolitan.
What a mess. How sad for those parishes and priest whose went all in on the cult of personality that was Archbishop Jonah's leadership. Hopefully, now they can "let go and let God." It's time for healing.
One mentions the "lack of disciplining of sexual offenders" in the OCA while forgetting to note that for the last 40 years just this type of behavior has been OVERLOOKED by the administration, be it in the person of Fr. Leonid Kishkovsky and/or that of Metropolitan Theodosius. Indeed, to this day, THAT RECORD IS SEALED! So the double standard is its own less than scrupulous calumny.
I find fanciful and one sided denunciations of Metropolitan Jonah and spun accounts of the events which precipated this uncanonical fiasco to be all that much the problem. NO, there was no Apostolic standard here to discuss, neither in mention of the removal of Metropolitan Jonah, neither in the temperament of the Renovationist malefactors, neither in the release of slander by the unlawful administration, nor in the attitude exhibited by their partizans.
For the record, there was no UNANIMOUS decision in the resignation of Metropolitan Jonah, but, rather, his being misinformed by specifically BISHOP BENJAMIN of the lesser synod that the HOLY SYNOD had called for resignation BEFORE THEY WERE EVEN MADE AWARE of what Bishop Benjamin held as blackmail. Metropolitan Jonah had been lied to. Thus, in such wise, the resignation would not even be valid in secular courts, much the less held to an APOSTOLIC standard. It was after the resignation had been handed to people who had become emibittered with the Metropolitan that the Holy Synod entrenched itself with their handlers NOT ALLOWING HIM TO RETRACT it, the soap opera of that weekend, from which flowed all sorts of slanders such as "annulment of autocephaly" to "incompetence" to the final icing on the cake the behavior of Bishop Benjamin's charge who had engaged in sexual misconduct. The question begged is why didn't Bishop Benjamin, who is dogged by his own "rumors", NOT discipline this cleric IN HIS DIOCESE instead of constructing a provocation to deceitfully bring about the fall of a sitting Metropolitan?!
I am no partizan of Metropolitan Jonah, but I do admit his administration offered the beginnings of righting a ship all too long adrift at sea and taking on water. Those who find answers in the Renovationism of the Antiochians or in the pew and organ "orthodoxy" of the EP are deceiving themselves or genuinely not interested in what embodies authentic Faith and worship in CHRIST's Church. At least, Metropolitan Jonah was moving the ship in the right direction.
Today, we are condemned to more of the same with less viability and a certain shipwreck indeed.
As for Father Rassam and also for Father Morris who seem to be rather unrestrained in their personal assaults and self assured in their points of view, I do indeed invite a dialogue if they do have something to discuss. I should think that the institutions that tend to the ilk of Fr. Rassam and his character assassination are rather those which require attorneys and judges. But I doubt seriously they have any serious intention of discussion, and this either a decade or a century ago was never worthy of the priesthood. But if they do find themselves interested in discussing Orthodoxy, here is an email I can be reached at:
rodnoiwarren@gmail.com
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