{"id":7159,"date":"2012-02-01T15:48:27","date_gmt":"2012-02-01T23:48:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/?p=7159"},"modified":"2012-02-01T16:29:10","modified_gmt":"2012-02-02T00:29:10","slug":"orthodox-bishops-assembly-silent-on-moral-issues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/2012\/02\/orthodox-bishops-assembly-silent-on-moral-issues\/","title":{"rendered":"Orthodox Bishops Assembly Silent on Moral Issues"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Orthodox by John Couretas –
\nAt an October 1970 meeting of the Standing Conference of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the Americas (SCOBA), which was called to discuss the burning question of an independent American Church, the presiding conference chair Archbishop Iakovos got fed up and quit. Official letters raising the subject of independence had been sent to the \u201cmother Churches\u201d in Constantinople, Bucharest, Belgrade, Athens and other Orthodox \u201ccenters\u201d pointing for the need to do something about the chaotic \u201csituation of Orthodoxy in America.\u201d Only three replies came back. To the Greek Orthodox Iakovos, this was proof that no one took SCOBA seriously and, for that matter, the American Orthodox.<\/p>\n

The archbishop resigned from SCOBA in disgust, saying that he had no desire to be the head of a \u201cdead body.\u201d According to a contemporary account<\/a>, the official minutes of the meeting were forged to cover up what would turn out to be a temporary resignation.<\/p>\n

It would take another 40 years for SCOBA to be officially dismantled and replaced with the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of North and Central America, also known as the Assembly of Bishops<\/a>. Its founding articles constitute the body for \u201cthe promotion and accomplishment of Church unity in North and Central America.\u201d It is also charged with providing a \u201ccommon witness by the Church to all those outside her.\u201d But given its sterling record of non-accomplishment on that \u201ccommon witness\u201d so far, is there good reason to expect that the Assembly won\u2019t become the sort of \u201cdead body\u201d that Abp. Iakovos feared SCOBA had become?<\/p>\n

Nothing could reveal this more clearly than the Assembly\u2019s non-reaction to the Jan. 20 mandate<\/a> by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius that orders most employers and insurers to provide contraceptives, sterilization, and abortifacient<\/a> drugs (the \u201cmorning after pill\u201d) free of charge. In sharp contrast to the somnolent Assembly, the response<\/a> from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) was swift and unequivocal.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrom a human point of view, we may be tempted to surrender, when our government places conception, pregnancy and birth under the \u2018center for disease control,\u2019 when chemically blocking conception or aborting the baby in the womb is considered a \u2018right\u2019 to be subsidized by others who abhor it,\u201d said Cardinal-designate Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York and president of USCCB. \u201cNot us!\u201d<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t just a Catholic thing. Protestant and Orthodox Jewish leaders had written<\/a> to the White House in late December about concerns that \u201cthe contraceptives mandate in the health insurance regulations, and about the \u2018religious employer\u2019 exemption that is so narrow that it does not protect most faith-based organizations.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Obama administration mandate came down just before Sanctity Sunday, on Jan. 22, and the March for Life the following day. As for these events, widely attended by Catholics, Protestants and those of other faith traditions, the \u201ccommon witness\u201d of the Assembly amounted only to silence.<\/p>\n

That is not to say that individual hierarchs, clergy, seminarians and lay Orthodox did not turn out in numbers<\/a> and show their support at the 2012 March for Life in Washington and other cities. Metropolitan Jonah of the Orthodox Church in America delivered an eloquent and Spirit-filled opening prayer<\/a> in front of the U.S. Supreme Court \u2013 with Abp. Dolan at his side. On Sanctity Sunday, Bishop Demetrios of Mokissos of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Chicago, offered a thoughtful talk<\/a> on the Orthodox Tradition, abortion and the death penalty at a Pan-Orthodox Sanctity of Life Vespers held in Chicago.<\/p>\n

The Assembly Nods<\/strong>
\nThe Assembly is chaired by Archbishop Demetrios of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America (GOA). The Committee for Church and Society<\/a>, which aims to \u201cdevelop a process to determine both the propriety and the priority of advocacy by the Assembly of issues concerning Church, government and society,\u201d is chaired by the Greek Orthodox Metropolitan Savas of Pittsburgh. Both are hierarchs under Patriarch Bartholomew and the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, based in Istanbul, Turkey.<\/p>\n

Putting the left-leaning<\/a> Met. Savas at the head of the Committee on Church and Society was a masterstroke of political cynicism. His idea of social critique is to post offensive videos on his Facebook page like, \u201cTea Party Jesus: Sermon on the Mall<\/a>.\u201d Whoever was responsible for nominating Met. Savas to the Church and Society position probably felt especially clever for the rest of the day, like the schoolboy prankster who puts fresh paint on doorknobs. But the intent of Met. Savas\u2019 appointment has been so grossly obvious, it\u2019s not even worthy of the Byzantine reputation for subterfuge and manipulation in high places.<\/p>\n

Could it be that Met. Savas hasn\u2019t roused the Church and Society committee to speak out on the Obama administration\u2019s ruling on contraception, sterilization and abortifacients, or the March for Life, because he doesn\u2019t want to be reminded of how he exulted at President Obama\u2019s election<\/a>, using the most florid biblical language? If he\u2019d like some pointers on how to speak out on public square issues, he could do worse than follow the lead of his plain talking<\/a> Roman Catholic counterpart in Pittsburgh, Bishop David A. Zubik. Or read the statements that, at last count, 126 Catholic bishops have issued<\/a> on the HHS mandate, many of which were read at diocesan Masses or included in parish bulletins.<\/p>\n

But what could the Assembly have done under its current framework and administration? Read the Church and Society\u2019s to-do list<\/a>, for some reason labeled \u201cterms of reference,\u201d and you find a perfect prescription for bureaucratic gridlock. It was designed for paralysis.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s more, the Assembly is already issuing appeals for funding<\/a>. Does it not have the resources necessary to carry forward its ambitious \u2013 if wholly unfulfilled \u2013 mission? Why not? The Orthodox comprise one of the wealthiest<\/a> faith communities in America, behind only Hindus and Jews. To be considered for this year\u2019s National Herald<\/em> ranking of the \u201c50 Wealthiest Greeks in America,\u201d for example, you\u2019ll need a net worth of at least $60 million. (In 2011, the list<\/a> published by this ethnic newspaper had a cutoff point of $72.5 million.)<\/p>\n

Obviously, the American Orthodox world is awash in money. What\u2019s more, there\u2019s plenty of willingness to involve the Church in politics.<\/p>\n

Obscure Balkan Controversies?<\/strong>
\nThe Assembly managed to shake off its \u201ccommon witness\u201d torpor on Dec. 27 when it issued a press release<\/a> expressing its \u201coutrage\u201d at the arrest of a Serbian bishop in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM). Under Assembly protocol, which bears a striking resemblance to GOA protocol, one must never refer to this country simply as Macedonia. That\u2019s because the question of whether or not the Macedonians can call their country Macedonia is a pressing \u201cnational issue\u201d at the GOA and with its leadership in Istanbul. As is well known, you can go into coffee hour at just about any Orthodox parish in America on any given Sunday and the faithful will be hotly debating this \u201cnational\u201d issue. No, actually, they don\u2019t even know what a FYROM is.<\/p>\n

Raise a stink on behalf of all American Orthodox bishops about obscure Balkan church-state politics that are completely incomprehensible \u2013 and meaningless \u2014 to 99.9 percent of the American laity? Sure. But evidently the GOA doesn\u2019t want the Assembly to confront the Obama administration publicly and in a unified way. Especially not on one of the bedrock principles<\/a> of this administration. In marking the anniversary of Roe V. Wade on Jan. 23, the president said in a statement that, \u201cwe must also continue our efforts to ensure that our daughters have the same rights, freedoms, and opportunities as our sons to fulfill their dreams.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then again, how could Patriarch Bartholomew, who says the Church has no business in parishioners\u2019 bedrooms<\/a>, object? We shouldn\u2019t expect to see him delivering the opening prayer at the March for Life anytime soon. <\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

HT: AOI<\/a> (read full article)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by John Couretas – At an October 1970 meeting of the Standing Conference of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the Americas (SCOBA), which was called to discuss the burning question of an independent American Church, the presiding conference chair Archbishop Iakovos got fed up and quit. Official letters raising the subject of independence had been sent … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":497,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"generate_page_header":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[85,15,130,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7159","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anti-abortion","category-moral-issues","category-orthodox-church","category-religion-in-america"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7159","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/497"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7159"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7159\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7159"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7159"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.orthodoxytoday.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7159"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}