OCA Follow up

Posted on by Fr. Peter
Philippa asks a question what words of comfort I could share in the wake of all that has transpired in the OCA. My church does not belong to the OCA so I will not enter the fray of commenting on any particular event or person.

I will say this however. The church is bigger than one bishop or one priest! If you place all of your hope in one man you will be disappointed. If you place your hope in the institutional church it will let you down and you will be disappointed. I will also say this, if you leave the church because of one man or what the institutional church has done, I am not talking about abuse here that is a different story all together, then I will hold the door open for you.

Again the church is bigger than any one person or any one headquarters. Our hope should be on Christ and His saving message and nothing else. The church came off the rails as soon as Jesus left it to us to run. Power, sex, money will win out with men, and women by the way, every time. Our hope is in the Lord and no where else. Keep this in mind and all will be well. The Church of Jesus Christ will continue, all we need do is pray.

+Herman Retires

Posted on by Fr. Peter
SYOSSET, NY [OCA Communications] — The Holy Synod of Bishops of the Orthodox Church in America, meeting at the OCA Chancery in Oyster Bay Cove, NY, on Thursday, September 4, 2008, issued the following statement.

“On September 4, 2008, The Holy Synod of Bishops received a letter from His Beatitude, Metropolitan HERMAN. In this letter, His Beatitude asks for Retirement, effective immediately, ‘in the best interests of The Orthodox Church in America, and taking into consideration the current condition of my health.’

“Effective this date, The Holy Synod of Bishops grants His Beatitude’s request to retire from the Office of Metropolitan of All America and Canada of the Orthodox Church in America.
“The Holy Synod of Bishops resolves that, in retirement, the title will be `Former Archbishop of Washington, Metropolitan of All America and Canada.’

“The Holy Synod of Bishops expresses to His Beatitude, Metropolitan HERMAN, their fraternal love and gratitude for his primatial service and archpastoral labors.

“The Holy Synod of Bishops resolves that His Eminence, DMITRI, Archbishop of Dallas and the South, be Locum tenens of The Orthodox Church in America. In liturgical commemorations, he is to be commemorated as `His Eminence, DMITRI, Locum tenens of The Orthodox Church in America.'”

Council Asks OCA Synod to Deny +Herman’s Leave

Posted on by Fr. Peter
The Metropolitan Council passed a unanimous resolution yesterday asking the Synod “in the strongest possible terms” to deny Metropolitan Herman’s request for a six month leave of absence “in view of the findings of the Special Investigative Committee’s Report”. The resolution asks instead that the Synod adopt the first recommendation of the SIC Report, that Metropolitan Herman be removed from office immediately.

The Synod is scheduled to meet today separately from the Metropolitan Council where it will discuss the matter as well as the other referrals for discipline. Other items on its agenda include the possible election of Archimandrite Jonah (Paffhausen) as Vicar Bishop for the Diocese of the South.

+Herman Requests Medical Leave of Absence

Posted on by Fr. Peter
In an announcement posted on OCA.org this morning, Metropolitan Herman has requested a “medical leave of absence”. The brief announcement reads:

“His Beatitude, Metropolitan Herman has submitted a letter to the Holy Synod of Bishops, in which he requests a medical leave of absence. Metropolitan Herman is scheduled for lumbar spine surgery on Tuesday, September 9, 2008.

The Holy Synod will review His Beatitude’s request at their session on Thursday, September 4, 2008. Further information ecomes available.”The OCA statement is titled: “Impending surgery forces Metropolitan Herman to submit request for medical leave of absence”. No mention is made of the forthcoming SIC Report, or as sources have confirmed, the Metropolitan’s meeting yesterday afternoon with three of the four officers of the OCA. OCA Chancellor Fr. Alex Garklavs, OCA Treasurer Fr. Michael Tassos and OCA Secretary Fr. Eric Tosi met with the
Metropolitan in Syosset and encouraged him to resign. The Metropolitan refused.

The SIC Report is scheduled for presentation to the joint meeting of the Synod and Metropolitan Council this morning.

-Mark Stokoe www.ocanews.org

Facing East Follow up

Posted on by Fr. Peter
I forgot to post this yesterday.

In the recent cast we talk about the five most influential people in history. We ask the listeners of the cast to list their five here on my blog or over on Fr. Greg’s blog. We think of influence in a good way but not really. We talk about Adolph Hitler and Genghis Khan as examples of influential people in a not so good way.

So who are your? List away.

Republican Convention

Posted on by Fr. Peter
To start with I fell asleep before Gov Palin’s speech last night so I cannot comment on it but by accounts she did a good job and introduced herself well to the world.

One comment I will make. I was flipping around the channels whilst watching Dog the Bounty Hunter and I turned on Cspan. I like to watch the conventions on Cspan because they do not have any talking heads telling you what the speaks just said like we are stupid and cannot figure it out for ourselves. Anyway there was a break in action and they were scanning the crowd. Music was playing in the background and people were dancing. Every person they showed was trying to sing but they did not know the words, and I am not sure if the same song was playing in the convention hall that we were listening too but man those people cannot dance! I don’t know I just thought it was funny.

So tonight Sen. McCain makes his speech. I will try and stay awake to hear it. I am also going to try and find a clip of Gov. Palin’s speech, I have seen the text but I would like to hear it in her own words.

Autumn Book Club

Posted on by Fr. Peter

I am going to be participating in an Autumn Book club and a multi blog discussion about the book. I would encourage you to participate but time is running short.

The Book is: Olivier Clement’s Roots of Christian Mysticism and can be purchased from Amazon.com.

Huw has posted a schedule of readings on his blog. If you are going to participate please let me know in the comment section.

Motherhood & Politics

Posted on by Fr. Peter
I have to start from the very beginning by saying I am not a woman and I have no children but the nomination of Gov. Sarah Palin as VP has brought this question to the fore. Why do we treat women in politics different than men?

Barack Obama has two daughters, George Bush had two daughters and by all accounts they were wild ones, Bill Clinton had a daughter and on and on and on. So why are we asking questions about Sarah Palin’s ability to do the job of VP while raising her family? Why is it that we were all over former Gov. Jane Swift of Massachusetts who gave birth whilst in office and some called her a bad mother for working.

As far as I know all of the people mentioned had a partner of some sort to help them out and as far as I know marriage is a partnership. Now not being married I could be wrong so please tell me. The VP’s only job is to have a pulse and break ties in the Senate unless the President gives her more to do. John Adams wrote that the one mistake they framers made was the position of Vice President.

I think time has come in this country that we begin to treat everyone the same no matter what you do at home. Why is it that we feel that the private lives of people running for office is any of our business. I am concerned about what they say as professionals and not what they do when they get home. We are in a mess in this country and if we start to hold our leaders to a higher standard we are going to be disappointed. We are all broken people and we all have done things in our pasts that we would rather not have dragged out into the open. And as I said yesterday, families are off limits. Ask Gov Palin how she plans to help Sen McCain if elected. Ask Barack Obama how he plans to solve the problems we have. Who gives a rats butt about what weather he does the dishes after supper or how he raises his children. Do you ask your plumber about his marriage or weather his children have children without being married?

If your decision to vote for someone is based on how they raise their children or what their children do I would rather you stay home on election day and leave the election to people who care about important issues.

error: Content is protected !!