rakovsky
Toumarches
- Joined
- Aug 17, 2006
- Messages
- 12,661
- Reaction score
- 225
- Points
- 63
- Location
- USA
- Website
- rakovskii.livejournal.com
- Faith
- Christian
- Jurisdiction
- Orthodox Church in America
Hurrah,Trying to sit on two chairs? Well-well...
The OCA naturally sympathizes with the MP over the EP. But further, the OCA cannot recognize the OCU because the MP has been excommunicating those who concelebrate with the OCU. If the EP were to excommunicate the MP, or the MP were to excommunicate the OCA, the OCA would be stuck because the EP considers the OCA to be only a part of the MP and doesn't recognize the OCA as autocephalous. That is, the EP only recognizes the OCA as legitimate to the extent both that the EP recognizes the MP and that the MP recognizes the OCA.
Nor can the OCA recognize the EP as the canonical jurisdiction in the Americas, and nor can it recognize the EP as the vertical supreme authority of the orthodox world. This is because the OCA by definition considers itself the canonical jurisdiction for the US whereas the EP considers itself and its subordinates ( GOARCH and ACROD and the UOC USA-EP) to be the only jurisdiction with canonical rule over the US.
The upshot is that although the OCA sympathizes naturally with the MP's positions, the resulting Venn diagram of interchurch relations means that the OCA is to some extent dependent on the MP in its relations with the EP, but not the other way around. This, the OCA is not truly sitting on two churchs. It is sitting only on the chair that the MP gave it.