July again

Here is a link to my post from last July about some of the important saints commemorated in July - July There is also one about St. Vladimir, also celebrated in July - Vladimir

I've been thinking lately about the interesting set up for calendar dates for the newer Russian saints. In the OCA, St. John of Shanghai is commemorated on July 2nd; The Royal Passionbearers on July 17th; and St. Elizabeth the New Martyr on July 18th. Those are the actual Gregorian calendar days of the deaths of those saints. But, since they were canonized after the New Calendar was put in place, the OCA commemorates them on these dates. The Russian Church though, who canonized them, celebrates them on the Old Calendar dates from when they died, so June 19th, July 4th, and July 5th, respectively. I have always personally used the Old Calendar dates as well, since that is what is in the Menaion, at least with the Royal saints. St. John is a different story. Since he is a North American saint, he is celebrated on the New Calendar date. With the others, since they were killed before the New Calendar came into place, I think it is ok to commemorated them according to their date on the "church (old)" calendar. Confused?

SOCHA

The Society for Orthodox Christian History in the Americas is a new group that, according to their website, "desires to begin to shift the approach to studying and writing the history of Orthodoxy in the Americas (and elsewhere, of course, should members desire it) to reflect an earnest engagement with primary sources."

One of the things that the two main proponents of this group, Matthew Namee and Fr. Oliver Herbel, have done is too debunk the myth of jurisdictional unity in early 20th Century America. There have been studies that claim that everyone was basically subservient to Moscow before 1917, but according to SOCHA, a look at primary sources quickly shows that this was not the case. Either way, lively debates have been taking place online, which have lead to the formation of SOCHA; a new website - orthodoxhistory.org; and a new podcast on Ancient Faith Radio - American Orthodox History.

It is a very interesting topic and relevant to the current discussions of Orthodox Unity in America. Mr. Namee also gave a talk at the recent conference mentioned in my previous post. Follow the links there to listen to his talk on the "Myth of Past Unity."

Live Webcast Starts Tonight

St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary announced that the conference starting today titled "The Council and The Tomos: 20th Century Landmarks Towards a 21st Century Church" about Orthodoxy in America will be available to watch by live webcast. The sessions will also be available as podcasts from Ancient Faith Radio. The first session is tonight at 7:30pm ET.

For the live webcast, go here - webcasts

For the podcasts, go here - podcasts

For information on the actual conference, go here - conference

Differences

This is taken from a response I made to a post on an Orthodox forum. The original poster was looking for some points to make when discussing our differences with the Roman Catholic Church. These are some ideas I had that you could use if you aren't interested in debating the theology behind the major points of contention.

The Orthodox Church teaches that:
1) Doctrinal decisions are made in council (7 Ecumenical Councils to be exact).

Take the Filioque, for example. The canons of the 2nd council state that not one word should be added to or subtracted from the creed, and even if that were not the case, it would at least take another ecumenical council to do so. But, the Fiolioque did not follow that path. It was first added by one priest, then adopted on a local level at the council of Toledo (589), and then over 400 years or so, it was in wide use, never being adopted by an ecumenical council of both East and West. Even though the intent may have been for good (combatting Arianism in the West), it doesn't change the fact that the idea started with one priest and expanded without the consent of a council.

2) Decisions made after the 7th Ecumenical Council (787) do not apply.

Another point to make, that many Roman Catholics do not know, is that many of the main contention points (Papal Infallibility, Immaculate Conception, Assumption) have only been "on the books" officially since the mid-19th century. There really isn't much written proof of some of these teachings in their now-proclaimed forms before they were made official dogma. They may have been taught in various places, but there was never church-wide acceptance, especially before the Great Schism (1054).

3) Semantics and translations are important.

And of course, there is always the translation issue. We Orthodox thrive on semantics. One wrong letter or syllable in Greek can make a huge difference. So, things like Original sin are often credited to a mis-translation in the Latin from the Greek of Romans 5:12. The Vulgate renders it as "in whom all have sinned," while the original Greek says "in that all have sinned." The first referring to Adam as the "whom." I'll let you figure out the theological impact of that. This mis-translation helped lead to the eventual adoption of the Immaculate Conception as well. The same thing happened with Coptic Church and the Chalcedon issues. Many claim it is just mis-translation. If so, maybe someone should clear that up.

So, those are some simplified non-theological points that you might be able to bring to the table. Bottom line, the Orthodox Church likes decisions made in councils; decisions made in 787 AD or before; and properly translated terms.

English Translation

Here is a link to an English translation of the Chambesy document. It was posted on a British blog and reposted by the American Orthodox Institute.

English

Chambesy Document

Here are links to the text of the document released by the All-Orthodox Pre-Conciliar Commission in Chambesy, Switzerland. The links are in French, Greek, and Russian. From what someone else said on a forum, the gist of the resolution is to form Episcopal Assemblies in the "diaspora" areas that are chaired in order of the Diptychs, so the EP representative will be the chair. Sounds like more SCOBA stuff to me. Hopefully they will be more active than SCOBA. This also sounds like Met. Jonah's idea.

French
Greek
Russian

It might be interesting to notice that, even though most of the "diaspora" is English speaking, there is no document released in English.

Pictures from Chambesy

These pictures from the All-Orthodox Pre-Conciliar Meeting going on right not in Chambesy, Switzerland, were posted on an Orthodox forum earlier today. The main topic of the meeting is the Orthodox "diaspora" and what to do with it.

http://picasaweb.google.com/diacre.alexandre/IVConferencePanorthodoxePreconciliaire?authkey=Gv1sRgCPf4k7eppfHY4AE#

Blog Updates

I'm working on updating this blog a little bit for increased use. I plan on trying to write more often. If you don't like something (colors, placement, etc.), please let me know.

June 2009: American Orthodoxy at the Crossroads

The next few weeks could prove to be one of the most important times for American Orthodoxy. Three major events are taking place that could have a great impact on Orthodox Unity in America and the future of a unified, autocephalous, local American Orthodox Church.

Beginning tomorrow, the bishops of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese are meeting with Patriarch Ignatius IV in Damascus to discuss the February 24th decision of the Holy Synod of Antioch. This decision basically demoted the 6 diocesan bishops of the AOCA and made them auxiliary bishops to Metropolitan Philip. Many argue that the decision is against canon law, and that the self-rule status of the AOCA is now in jeopardy. Once the American bishops have had their chance to give their side of the situation to the Patriarch, the Synod of Antioch will meet again beginning June 16th to hopefully give a final decision on the matter. Either decision will have a great impact on American Orthodoxy.

In between these two meetings in Damascus, the Pan-Orthodox Pre-Conciliar Consultation will meet at the Patriarchal Center in Chambesy, Geneva, Switzerland. The major topic is the “so-called diaspora” and what to do with it. Basically, this means any Orthodox churches that are not located within the borders of a local Orthodox Church. Many of the autocephalous Orthodox Churches do not recognize the autocephaly of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA). If it were recognized, then all other jurisdictions would be breaking canon law by having parishes on the American territory. Of course the current situation is a complete break from canon law already. There has been much discussion on this issue recently, and I will provide some links to information at the end. One of the solutions is that every church in America should become part of the Ecumenical Patriarchate until the time for an American Church has come. This is based on an odd interpretation of Canon 28 of the Council of Chalcedon. How this meeting in Chambesy deals with this issue will be very important for us Americans, especially because we are not invited. The last report that I have seen says that there will be no American representatives at the meeting at all, the meeting where they will possibly decide the fate of America. How about that? This meeting is set to run from June6-13.

So, please keep all of the hierarchs and representatives in your prayers and hope for some kind of resolutions to come to America in the near future.

Some helpful links about the different things going on:
www.aoiusa.org
www.ocanews.org
www.ocl.org or www.orthodoxnews.org
www.antiochian.org