It is very sad to see the OCA doing what it does every so many years as the Holy Synod and functionaries in Syosset see to the public humiliation and destruction of their Metropolitan.
I would have thought after using the same script so many times that the Laity, the Diaconate in Christ, and the Presbyterate would have had enough of this.
My perspective from afar is that the OCA would do well to turn over the tables in Syosset and terminate the positions of everyone there and to prevent them from serving anywhere else in the Church.
I would hope that Moscow would show concern for this situation and offer to receive all of the active bishops in the Synod into retirement into monasteries in Russia far from a major city or the internet.
Metropolitan JONAH, however, is due a proper review and not a lynch mob. The best that could happen would be for a three bishop panel to be appointed by Moscow. One could dream that young Metropolitan HILARION Alfayev would be selected to chair the council of review and serve together with a Serbian bishop, and a Romanian bishop to help right the course of the OCA which has once again come against the rocks.
I have heard too many positive reports from the lay faithful concerning Metropolitan JONAH to believe they are all propaganda, and with the hate levelled against him tasting almost palpably of the diabolical, he deserves a fair review at the hands of bishops not connected to anyone working at the Chancery in Syosset or anyone on the Holy Synod. Far too many view Syosset as an "Apparat" worthy of toppling, and given the way it has functioned it makes sense that priests and laity would see it that way. I have a few friends in ROCOR who have become convinced that Metropolitan JONAH is actually a saint. (And if someone in ROCOR can think that an OCA hierarch could be a saint... well, wow!)
Worth noting: those more intimately connected to these matters than I am state that those who oppose Metropolitan JONAH are in favour of the social agenda of the Democratic Party which Metropolitan JONAH has opposed vigorously.
I have known members of the OCA for years, and they are always trying to guess which bishop or bishops are closet homosexual hypocrites or which have hidden mistresses. No church can survive such doubts about the men who are called to labour with the Good Shepherd in leading Holy Church safely home.
Until there is one Orthodox Church in the USA it is doubtful that the Orthodox Church as a corporate body will ever become an effective force for the Gospel of Jesus Christ in evangelising the non-Christian USA. But individually and locally, parish by parish, monastery by monastery, laik by laicos, Orthodox Christians do bear witness to the Lord Jesus Christ, and upon them may the grace and blessing of the Holy Ghost rest and abide.
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