Questions

[Mark Templet]

Dear Macrina,
I am glad to hear you understand my reply.

On the other hand, if one is to be persecuted in whatever manner, shouldn't they have the right to know why?

We have no rights before God. There are times when the saints suffered and were persecuted for no other that the fact that they stood up to the worldly powers; St. John Chrysostom and St. Maximos the Confessor spring quickly to mind as examples. When it is in the best interests for our salvation, then God allows for us to know the whys of life. However, most of the time this is not the case and we suffer because that is the path of picking up our cross.

However, if the small groups which disagree with the patriarchates and other synods do not even agree among themselves, one wonders why they protest among themselves so much. They could get caught up in a cycle of forming more new synods by having some bishops in agreement (I don't know what the minimum bishop count is to do such as forming a new synod).

I couldn't agree more! I pray with tears that the splintering of the True Orthodox will stop and that we will begin to heal these schisms. I myself have had tremendously wonderful experiences with other True Orthodox clergy and laity, and I make every effort to find common ground with all people I come into contact. We must just be patient and obedient in the meanwhile.

[Macrina]

Fr Mark Templet,
Perhaps I shouldn't have used the word 'right". What do you mean we have no rights before God? Are we not heirs of salvation? Is there no freedom in Christ? We are not allowed to freely make choices?
Didn't the saints you mentioned have the right to suffer?

[Mark Templet]

Macrina,

Yes, the term "right" is tricky. I define right as an immovable attribute to a human being. For instance, we have the right of free will; God does not interfere with this attribute. We have the right to live eternally whether that be in heaven or in hell. We have the right to be responsible only for our own actions or in-actions before God. Other than that I see very little else that we are entitled to; rather we can other choices as does God. The Saints, as well as we can choose to suffer for Christ but that is a function of free will. God can choose to reveal the reasons for our suffering or He can choose to not; that is a function of His omnipotence.
Perhaps you are using the term "right" in a different manner, if so please clarify.

[Macrina]

I meant "right" as an adjective. That to which one has a just claim. Specifically: That which one has a natural claim to exact. ie. Born free, he sought his right. --Dryden. Hast thou not right to all created things? --Milton.

Seems we have agreement between us.

But, you are speaking of "suffering" and I was speaking of "persecution". That is two different things in my opinion. One can suffer or not suffer in such a thing as 'persecution'. So while suffering may not be clearly understood, persecution is usually proclaimed and so it is also known.
Persecution has a militant aspect which suffering does not. ie. church militant (militant as an adjective is being used in the sense of fighting in a spiritual battle. The noun 'militant' is merely in the sense of being an activist). I would think that both senses apply to the church in the world. So either way, the church being the example, is aware of what they are persecuted for.

So if the church leads others into persecutions, then the church would have already declared such persecutions to those actively participating in them. Or do you believe that this is not correct.

See what I'm getting at? Informed participants/activists are necessary to any cause.

[Mark Templet]

I think we are pretty much on the same wavelength. Of course, as Christians we must know that persecutions happen because of our faith in Christ. He warned us of as much when He was with us on earth. On the other hand, we will most often never know why a particular person hates the Church and persecutes Christians. We may know that they persecute us for being Christians, but not why they are motivated to do that in the first place.
But I may be just splitting hairs here. I get what your point was.

[Macrina]

New question.

Why don't we Orthodox in America, have our own synod? If the OCA could do such, then why can't we?

[Mark Templet]

Why don't we Orthodox in America, have our own synod? If the OCA could do such, then why can't we?

Now, that is a good question! I am sure that some folks on here might give a terse, knee-jerk answer, but I would like to delve into this more carefully.

First of all, let's understand that forming a new synod is not a matter of national identity as much as it has to do with meeting the needs of the faithful. For instance, after a the Slavs had had several generations of Orthodoxy permeating their culture, only then did the needs of effective administration over so many Christians became burdensome to the Greeks and it was time to transition their leadership (synodal rule) over to them. But this happened as a result of the need of such cropping up organically as time passed.

But Orthodoxy is so new in America, that it is difficult to justify such a thing right now. This would be like the Aleutian Islanders upon meeting the Russian monastic missionaries demanding that they have their own synod. Here are a couple of the issues I see with an American Orthodox Church (All-American Synod):

1. We have nowhere near the number of monastic communities that are necessary to supply future bishops for such a synod.(Which speaks to the poor spiritual health of us in America, IMHO.)
2. How many native-born American bishop do we have? Two, maybe three?
3. America is no where near "Orthodoxized" in any area of its culture. How many True Orthodox are here? Where are the large communities and churches? How could we justify that our administrative needs are so great that they require more bishops and our own synod?

I hate to say it, but I think we, as Americans, think we are supposed to have our own everything. We think we need to be in charge all the time. Why? Have we truly internalized into our local culture and way of life all that can be given to us from our Orthodox parents in Greece, Russia, or wherever? To me this is a bit like a 13-year-old who comes to his parents and says,"Hey, I can feed myself, clothe myself, and otherwise take pretty good care of myself. I need to be on my own in my own place."

I think that we will need our own synod someday, but we are like little children now. Maybe my grandchildren will see a time when such a maturity in our "American Orthodoxy" will be reached and will see these things come to pass. I just can't see it currently being practical or necessary at this point.