Over the course of 11 days in November, the soft-spoken monk known as Jonah saw his life change in ways he hadn’t dreamed of.
Consecrated first as bishop of Forth Worth and then days later elected as metropolitan of the 100,000-member Orthodox Church in America, he went from being an abbot to being metropolitan of one of the most prominent U.S. branches of the global Orthodox Christian communion.
Born James Paffhausen, the 49-year-old Chicago native was baptized in the Episcopal Church. He converted to Orthodoxy as a college student, was ordained a priest and then became a monk, and founded a monastery now located in Manton, Calif., as well other missions in California and Hawaii.
Maybe the various ethnic eastern Orthodox churches in the US could adopt an umbrella approach like ACNA. Do they have the same urge to fulfill the prayer of Jesus for unity that we hear elsewhere? It sounds like Bishop Jonah will work toward this.
And is this the Orthodox leader who met with Bishop Iker and congratulated ACNA? I may be blurring several memories.
Gator – they have: the umbrella organization is called SCOBA (Standing Conference of the Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas), http://www.scoba.us/. This is not a hierarchical ecclesial structure, only a coordinating one, but the point is, all of the Orthodox churches are in communion with one another, despite overlapping. In that sense, given the issue of womens’ ordination alone, U.S. Orthodoxy is ahead of not only where ACNA is in terms of intercommunion, but where it ever can be, absent a unified solution to WO.
Gator,
And is this the Orthodox leader who met with Bishop Iker and congratulated ACNA?
Yes, it was Metr Jonah who met with Bp Iker.
The Eastern Orthodox witness in North America mirrors the divisions in Orthodoxy worldwide. The two larger bodies are the Greek Orthodox and the OCA. Divisions are along ethnic lines and as a result of political and canonical decisions, but not as a result of doctrinal disputes. The North American divisions among Anglicans are partly disciplinary and partly doctrinal. The Standing Conference is a good model, but its authority is limited. ACNA has agreed to give its council of bishops greater authority than the Standing Conference but less than that exercised by the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church.
Setting aside for the moment the highly uncanonical jurisdictional chaos in N. America (an accident of history resulting from the Communist take over of Russia), the Orthodox in N. America are all in full communion with one another and in agreement on matters of doctrine and church discipline (including w/o*). There is a remarkably positive level of cooperation between the various jurisdictions which at one time was not always true. Much progress towards jurisdictional unity has been made though the road ahead is still long. Some jurisdictions are being held back by their mother church in the old country for reasons which are (IMO) less than compelling.
Although some of the smaller jurisdictions continue to retain a strong ethnic orientation the “Big Three” (the Greek Archdiocese the OCA and the Antiochian Archdiocese) have all made strong inroads with converts among persons from backgrounds not traditionally Orthodox. This is especially true of the OCA and the Antiochians where whole parishes exist that are more heavily populated today by converts or the children of converts than by traditional cradle Orthodox Russians Greeks etc.
Under the mercy,
[url=http://ad-orientem.blogspot.com/]John[/url]
An [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gj4pUphDitA]Orthodox [/url] Christian
*A priest was once asked by a woman… “Why can’t I become an Orthodox priest?”
He replied “Can you grow a beard?” End of discussion.
There is also the one about the Orthodox woman who was asked if she favored WO and replied, “what good would a woman priest be? She couldn’t go behind the iconostasis anyway.”
[blockquote]He replied “Can you grow a beard?†End of discussion.[/blockquote]
😀 terriffic! (I shudder though to think that, yes, some women can indeed do so..)
#6 & #7,
While those jokes are funny, they are very bad responses to the issue of women’s ordination. Especially as people look up to priests for guidance, a smart comment isn’t very helpful. Instead of smart comments, priests should give a sound theological reason for not affirming women’s ordination. I think if more priests would be willing to sit down with parishioners and do a bible/church history study that would be much better than a snide comment. If I were a priest and someone asked me this question, I would say, “Good question. What do the Scriptures and church tradition say concerning the issue? I would be happy to learn your opinion on the matter? Can we meet for bible/church history study and learn more about this issue together?â€
Vincent
Actually the question doesn’t particularly arise until recent times. A very simple answer to “Why not?” is found when one looks at any (please note, ANY) organization that has ordained women. Without exception they are flakes. It is one of the great barometers of weirdness in the western world. Flakiness, heresy without any understanding and rejection of truth is the first thing, then they ordain women. That’s a theological reason. Take it or leave it, it’s true. You don’t need to crack open the Bible to see if a building is falling down or not.