Autocephaly

[irine pandelejmoni]

Hi!

Recently, I have had a disscussion on autocephaly with some of my country men, in an albanian forum (with nonbelivers), regarding the the Church of Albania, where his Beatitude Anastasios has been leading for 12 years. Now as you might know allready, there has been much controversies from so called "nacionalists", that bishop Anastasios, being a nonalbanian, is violating the status of the autocephality in the albanan orthodox church.

So i have been trying to find different explonations, as how the canons and the laws of the church are to be understood in different circumstancies, but still, I think I need some more professional advise on the matter of the canonical side of this problem.

All I want, is to put them to silence and to convince them, as far as the orthodox tradition and costumary law is concerned.

thnx!

[John Wehling]

Irine,

Christ is born!

There are no canons of the Church which forbid a hierarch from another country or ethnic background serving as primate/head of an autocephalous Church. In fact, since the birth of the Church many national Churches have been presided over by bishops of other nationalities. Many Popes of Rome prior to the schism were Greek, for example. The canons for bishops address their holiness of life, doctrine, etc. In other words, the requirements for a bishop, whether he be the head of an autocephalous Church or not, are aimed at providing the Church with a good spiritual shepherd, NOT at preserving the ethnic integrity or purity of that Church. In fact, the whole history of the Church from the time recorded in the book of Acts is a history of the "third race," as they were sometimes called. That is, neither a Jewish Church nor a Gentile Church per se, but the One Church made up of all Christians, whatever their race or ethnic identity. These are made one in Christ and their fatherland is heaven. All sorts of nationalisms ultimately stand condemned at the cross of the New Adam, who destroyed the "dividing wall of hostility."

Sorry for the homily. :>) Hope this helps.

John

[irineu]

Ok! But the only thing that I want to be professionaly sure, is that, from the other side, autocephality of orthodox churches came at scene mainly after the creation of the new nations (after the french revolution), and such autocephality is stamped with the decrees of the statutes in the mentioned churches, wich say clearly that none can be a bishop (in that church), except those of the very same nationality and blood. Such official decrees, sanctified in the local sinodes of the orthodox churches, are not easy to be broken, especially in nations with a confusion of the nacionalist feelings, unless there is a just canonical way to brake them, wich I am asking to find...

So, in question is not the morality, but the canonicity of this action!

thnx anyway..!

[Owen Jones]

Dear Irene,

The situation in Albania is that there was hardly any indigenous church left after the commies imploded, and so by sending Anastasios to Albania, the Ecumenical Patriarch was doing the Church a favor. Now, at some point, it needs to be an Albanian Archbishop no doubt, and, no doubt, the Ecumenical Patriarch does not wish to hasten that day, since he now figures he has a lot of authority which he would then lose.

The same problem was occasioned in the U.S., where a tiny Orthodox Church was governed by the Moscow Patriarch up until the communist coup in Russia. That's because it was Russians that initially evangelized North America, via Alaska, and so by tradition (I don't know about the canons), that church had a right and duty to govern that new territory. While the Moscow Patriarch was still technically governing America, as a practical matter, it left each ethnic Church to fend for itself, since the Russian Church in the U.S. was suspect. Now that the Greeks have become by far the largest, wealthiest, and most influential group in the U.S., I think the Ecumenical Patriarch would like to think that he governs and owns the AMerican Church, but there will eventually be an autocephelus Greek Church in the U.S., and some day, ideally, there should be one Church. But if there is one Church, then you will have the prospect of a Greek bishop presiding over Serbian parishes, and an Arab bishop presiding over Greek Parishes, etc. so you can see how difficult that scenario would be to actually carry out in practice. I'm sure that the current situation in the U.S. violates any number of canons regarding church governance. While I am a part of a multi-ethnic Church, and each member of each ethnic group is fully Orthodox and can walk into any other Orthodox Church and worship at any time without censure, the idea of Orthodoxy overcoming its historic ethnicity is a long way off.

And bishops are largely chosen for the political loyalty, as a result. When you find a bishop noted for his piety and humility, we typically spit in his face, bring law suits against him, isolate him and humiliate him, and make sure he has as little authority and power as possible. Then as soon as he's dead we start the process of canonizing him.

[sinjin smithe]

And bishops are largely chosen for the political loyalty, as a result. When you find a bishop noted for his piety and humility, we typically spit in his face, bring law suits against him, isolate him and humiliate him, and make sure he has as little authority and power as possible. Then as soon as he's dead we start the process of canonizing him.

Do you have any examples of this where a bishop who was holy and pious was humiliated?

[Owen Jones]

I was thinking specifically of St. John Maximovich. But, of course, this is human nature, right? If we are confronted with a holy person, we want him to die or go away because it makes us look bad. Maximovich had a way of making people very aware of their sins when they were in his presence. He had a kind of holy fool's approach to rubbing it in.

[Margaret Jackson-Roberts]

Not to mention Dostoevsky's Grand Inquisitor when faced with Christ...


the seeker

[irineu]

Hi!

Owen, I'm quite sure, but dont know how to finde them, there are certain canons that say about the right of the patriarchate to intervene in the situation of a distroyed church, as it was the autocephality of the Albanian church after the fall of com.

These are the canons I'm looking for! I do understand the difficulties of the different churches. At the end of the day, that's why where the canons created, to solve problems, and not to keep the church away from problems.

I hope you all are well. See you later!

[Owen Jones]

Dear Irineu,

I'm sure Anastasios has someone on his staff how is responsible for the canons. You might write him a letter with your request.