rakovsky
Toumarches
- Joined
- Aug 17, 2006
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- 12,766
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- USA
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- rakovskii.livejournal.com
- Faith
- Christian
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- Orthodox Church in America
What is the highest decisionmaking body in the Ecumenical Patriarchate?
In the OCA and the MP, the highest decisionmaking body is the All-American Assembly and Local "Sobor" assembly, respectively. The voting delegates are clergy and a few laity from the parishes. For example, an Assembly in 2008 voted to install Met. Jonah as the OCA's Metropolitan. Between assemblies, the Metropolitan Council or Holy Synod implements decisions and it's made of the primate (eg. Met. Jonah in 2008-2012) and leading bishops.
I'm not familiar with the voting process in the EP for choosing Patriarchs. In the early years of the Cold War, the US arranged for a plane to bring Met. Athenagoras (an American bishop) to replace the contemporary Ecumenical Patriarch. I can see that GOARCH might not elect its own hierarchs because GOARCH is under the EP instead of being autocephalous like the OCA is. The EP's leading hierarch Pat. Bartholomew appointed Abp. Elpidophoros to replace Abp. Demetrios as the GOARCH's hierarch in 2019.
This October, GOARCH is having Metropolitan-Clergy-Laity conferences on Zoom. The Metropolis of Chicago is having their Clergy-Laity Assembly in early October (https://www.chicago.goarch.org/-/2021-clergy-laity). The Diocese of the Southeast is having their Fall General Assembly in October in South Carolina.
What kinds of decisions and voting processes occur in these assemblies?
I am guessing that alot of the decisions are budgetary. Maybe they would discuss how much money to put into the shrine at the WTC.
I heard a Q&A of a Laity conference where Abp. Elpidophoros stated that nonOrthodox spouses could commune. Since it was in a Q&A format, people asked about this, but there was no input as to whether members were agreeing with the new policy. In effect, the Archbishop was announcing the policy and people were asking for clarification instead of approving or rejecting the policy.
In a recent decision, Abp. Elpidophoros announced that GOARCH was annulling any religious exemptions that its priests gave for vaccines. Before his decision, there had been some religious exemptions that GOARCH priests had given people who wanted to avoid the vaccines.
In the case of the EP's assertion of being the vertical supreme primate over the Orthodox world and the EP's use of this asserted power to recognize the Kiev Patriarch clergy and O.C. of Ukraine as canonical, I doubt that the GOARCH assemblies voted on these policies. It looks like the decisions would have been made in a top down fashion. Apparently the EP and the top EP synod of bishops would have made the decision and then GOARCH obeyed it. Some laity might agree, disagree, or not care, but they were not the decisionmakers.
I talked with a ROCOR priest of Greek heritage who studied in a GOARCH seminary in the US decades ago. He said that he and a major fraction of seminarians left the seminary the year that the seminary forced out Fr. John Romanides for teaching more traditional Orthodoxy. The priest told me that GOARCH was trying to make accommodations with the Protestant world at that time and he listed examples like Abp. Iakovos requiring priests to stop wearing beards and cassocks. I asked him if he could have gone to a GOARCH assembly and told people there about his concerns in order to address them, and he replied that GOARCH assemblies did not work like I was suggesting. He said that Greek Orthodox in the US could instead be informed about issues over time.
So are GOARCH assemblies and clergy-lay conferences a top-down matter of the leadership informing the delegates about the policies that the leadership has already decided on and then the delegates get to vote on some issues where the outcome of votes are already practically decided?
I am guessing that the assembly decisions are not pre-decided or top-down on all issues. It seems that there could be budgetary issues where the leadership could leave it up to the delegates as to how much money they want to put in certain projects.
Suppose theoretically that the GOARCH leadership or EP holy synod was taking a strong, mistaken position on some issue or policy. Would the GOARCH membership have an opportunity to change course at Assemblies or Clergy-Laity Conferences?
In the OCA and the MP, the highest decisionmaking body is the All-American Assembly and Local "Sobor" assembly, respectively. The voting delegates are clergy and a few laity from the parishes. For example, an Assembly in 2008 voted to install Met. Jonah as the OCA's Metropolitan. Between assemblies, the Metropolitan Council or Holy Synod implements decisions and it's made of the primate (eg. Met. Jonah in 2008-2012) and leading bishops.
I'm not familiar with the voting process in the EP for choosing Patriarchs. In the early years of the Cold War, the US arranged for a plane to bring Met. Athenagoras (an American bishop) to replace the contemporary Ecumenical Patriarch. I can see that GOARCH might not elect its own hierarchs because GOARCH is under the EP instead of being autocephalous like the OCA is. The EP's leading hierarch Pat. Bartholomew appointed Abp. Elpidophoros to replace Abp. Demetrios as the GOARCH's hierarch in 2019.
This October, GOARCH is having Metropolitan-Clergy-Laity conferences on Zoom. The Metropolis of Chicago is having their Clergy-Laity Assembly in early October (https://www.chicago.goarch.org/-/2021-clergy-laity). The Diocese of the Southeast is having their Fall General Assembly in October in South Carolina.
What kinds of decisions and voting processes occur in these assemblies?
I am guessing that alot of the decisions are budgetary. Maybe they would discuss how much money to put into the shrine at the WTC.
I heard a Q&A of a Laity conference where Abp. Elpidophoros stated that nonOrthodox spouses could commune. Since it was in a Q&A format, people asked about this, but there was no input as to whether members were agreeing with the new policy. In effect, the Archbishop was announcing the policy and people were asking for clarification instead of approving or rejecting the policy.
In a recent decision, Abp. Elpidophoros announced that GOARCH was annulling any religious exemptions that its priests gave for vaccines. Before his decision, there had been some religious exemptions that GOARCH priests had given people who wanted to avoid the vaccines.
In the case of the EP's assertion of being the vertical supreme primate over the Orthodox world and the EP's use of this asserted power to recognize the Kiev Patriarch clergy and O.C. of Ukraine as canonical, I doubt that the GOARCH assemblies voted on these policies. It looks like the decisions would have been made in a top down fashion. Apparently the EP and the top EP synod of bishops would have made the decision and then GOARCH obeyed it. Some laity might agree, disagree, or not care, but they were not the decisionmakers.
I talked with a ROCOR priest of Greek heritage who studied in a GOARCH seminary in the US decades ago. He said that he and a major fraction of seminarians left the seminary the year that the seminary forced out Fr. John Romanides for teaching more traditional Orthodoxy. The priest told me that GOARCH was trying to make accommodations with the Protestant world at that time and he listed examples like Abp. Iakovos requiring priests to stop wearing beards and cassocks. I asked him if he could have gone to a GOARCH assembly and told people there about his concerns in order to address them, and he replied that GOARCH assemblies did not work like I was suggesting. He said that Greek Orthodox in the US could instead be informed about issues over time.
So are GOARCH assemblies and clergy-lay conferences a top-down matter of the leadership informing the delegates about the policies that the leadership has already decided on and then the delegates get to vote on some issues where the outcome of votes are already practically decided?
I am guessing that the assembly decisions are not pre-decided or top-down on all issues. It seems that there could be budgetary issues where the leadership could leave it up to the delegates as to how much money they want to put in certain projects.
Suppose theoretically that the GOARCH leadership or EP holy synod was taking a strong, mistaken position on some issue or policy. Would the GOARCH membership have an opportunity to change course at Assemblies or Clergy-Laity Conferences?