| THE HOLY BYZANTINE CATHOLIC ORTHODOX CHURCH A TRADITIONAL COMMUNITY |
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ORTHODOXY has been the primary Christian Church, for the first thousand
years of Christendom and all churches were in communion with the five
Patriarchates (Jerusalem, Alexandria, Antioch, Constantinople and Rome).
The reader needs to keep in mind that the Holy Church was not destined to
remain with only five Patriarchates; rather, it was understood that as the church
would grow, other Patriarchates would enter the embrace of Orthodoxy.
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, (Matthew 28:19)
To the primary Church the world was composed only of the Mid-east, Europe
and some parts of Asia and Africa the rest of the world was unexplored and
none existent.
These Patriarchates were independent (autocephalous) but united in faith. The
rites would come to reflect the diversity of its people in language, music and art,
and the church came to embrace them as the treasury of the Church.
Orthodoxy was not influenced by the errors of the Latin Church.
The Western Rite is not a modern innovation, it was part of the Church from the
beginning, and the Latin speaking Christians used it. When it comes to England,
Scotland and Ireland their rites were as Orthodox as the one used in
Constantinople. Later, because of the Great Schism in 1054 the errors of the
Roman Patriarchate were reflected in their rites.
These teachings of the Latin Patriarchate were so entrenched on their believers
that when the crusaders met the Orthodox Christians instead of seeing them as
fellow Christians they were subjected to an invasion and the pillaging of
Constantinople, leaving the Orthodox Christians weak and defenseless thus
allowing the Muslim hordes to invade, conquer and subjugate the Orthodox
Christians.
In the New World, especially the United States, Orthodoxy arrived via Alaska
by Russian Orthodox Church (1794) and it is hard to believe it has been over
200 years ago that Orthodoxy set foot in the New World and still at this very
moment most Americans have no idea of what the Orthodox Church is all about.
In other words the bringing of the message of the truth of Orthodoxy has failed
while Protestantism and Catholicism are triumphant and are growing.
The reason for this failure is that as the Ethnic immigrations have arrived they
have set up what is called Ethnic Churches where to a certain extent Orthodoxy
has been maintained but as the children of the first wave of immigrants are born
and many do not learn the language of their parents and enter into the American
culture many leave the church and become Protestants or Catholics. This is a
tragedy because they are walking away from the truth and into the arms of
heresy.
This new generation sees Orthodoxy as something alien and indeed it is, because
it stopped reflecting the culture of the people it serves and has remained
connected to a language and nationality that is not theirs. The reason Orthodoxy
flourished in the Old World was because it embraced the culture, language, art
and music of the people it served.
Why then is the Orthodox Church not assisting in developing an American
Orthodox Church that reflects our culture, language, art and music? Sadly it is
due to greed. Foreign jurisdictions have found that the USA has great wealth to
gather and send back to the respective nations of these ethnic churches who have
come to economically depend on the Ethnic-American Churches. They will
never let go of this constant flow of economic support. Money has become more
important than bringing the liberating truth of Orthodoxy to the people of this
continent who are no longer ethnic but American.
To those who sold doves he said, "Get these out of here! How dare you turn
my Father's house into a market!" (John 2:16)
I would like to continue by bringing to mind a good example that is found in our
own history, the American colonies were extremely valuable to the English, so
they wanted to have English governors and the wealth of the colonies to continue
flowing back to England. When the colonies requested to have representation in
the governing of themselves then the English consider it to be an act of treason,
the colonist did not want to be apart from the crown but simple wanted to have
their own representatives and a Governor but the English because of their greed
and feeling of superiority would only permit certain self rule of the colonies and
when it came to self governance and the right to have their own destiny as a
people this was not was not permitted or tolerated.
Unfortunately at this present time we have Americans that are being given
certain rights in self governance but when it comes to bishops and most of all a
Patriarch they are not allowed to follow their own destiny as a native church,
they are only allowed to be a carbon copy of the jurisdiction giving them these
so-called Canon Status.
Sadly we are to blame to a certain extent because just as the Tory's during the
American Revolutionary War could not see themselves apart from the British
Empire, with a king and English governors so do we in the United States
continue to think that without being under the jurisdiction of foreign Patriarchs
and Bishops we are not truly a church.
We in the Autocephalous movement are constantly asked the following
questions:
‘To what Jurisdiction do you belong?’
St. Aftimios (Ofiesh) was elected to serve as the replacement of St. Raphael of
Brooklyn in 1915 in caring for the Arab Orthodox faithful in America under the
Church of Russia's canonical authority.
He was consecrated by Archbishop Evdokim (Meschersky) as an auxiliary
bishop in 1917 with the title of Bishop of Brooklyn. In 1923, in recognition for
his work in America, he was elevated by Metropolitan Platon (Rozhdestvensky)
of New York to the rank of archbishop.
In 1927, Aftimios was commissioned by the Russian diocese in America to form
an English-speaking American Orthodox Catholic Church, and during this time,
St. Aftimios consecrated three bishops for his new jurisdiction, Sophronios
(Beshara) of Los Angeles, Joseph (Zuk) and Ignatius (William Albert) Nichols in
September of 1932 as his auxiliary bishop of Washington.
Our Primate in the Holy Byzantine Catholic Orthodox Church has these three
lines in his succession and we believe that we are a Canonical Church of
America.
‘To what Jurisdiction are you in communion with?’
In spirit we teach that we are and will always be in communion with all Orthodox
Jurisdictions but until our sister churches (Jerusalem, Antioch, Constantinople,
Alexandria, Rome) accept that we have the canonical right to have a native
church with native Bishops and that our Liturgical Rite may express our culture,
language, art and music, then physical and intellectual communion may not be
possible.
Also we find it extremely hypocritical that our Orthodox brethren accuse the
Roman Church of being legalistic and judgmental when they are legalistic in
demanding that as an American Orthodox Church we must be attached to a
foreigner jurisdiction to be truly Orthodox.
‘Did Archbishop Aftimios (Ofiesh) forfeit his appointment
when he got married?’
Orthodox theologians agree that the restriction on married bishops was an
attempt by the church to stop nepotism thus making it a matter of church
discipline rather than doctrine.
Therefore it could be changed and would require a consensus among a self-
governing Orthodox churches. St. Aftimios had every right to be married
because in the American Culture it was an acceptable condition.
The American Church had every right as an autocephalous church to change this
discipline but regrettably this was use by the unscrupulous ethnic churches as an
excuse to force and remove St. Aftimios as Hierarch of the church.
These same ethnic jurisdictions to this day continue spreading calumnies against
St. Aftimios without any legal documentation to prove that St. Aftimios walked
away from his Bishopric. On the contrary, it was because of the isolation and
chastisement that St. Aftimios was not permitted to continue his responsibilities
as a bishop.
St. Aftimios suffered deeply because of the isolation, chastisement and
calumnies perpetrated against him and for this reason the American Church has
canonized him as a Saint of the American Orthodox Church. St. Aftimios will
always remind us in the autocephalous church that we are still suffering from the
same abuse from our brethren.
We in the Holy Byzantine Catholic Orthodox Church being autocephalous in
consensus agreed to have non-married bishops as a matter of church discipline
but not because it is church doctrine. We agreed as a church that at this time in
the American Culture the propensity for nepotism is great so we have in
consensus agreed for non-married Bishops.
St John Chrysostom on married Hierarchs.
'A Bishop then,' he says, 'must be blameless the husband of one wife.' This he
does not lay down as a rule, as if he must not be without one, but as
prohibiting his having more than one. [pg.438, First Series, Vol. 13, St John
Chrysostom, Homily X, Homilies on Timothy]
Saint Tikhon was not only a true visionary but a true Orthodox, he knew that as
Americans we had the right to have a Native Church and that is why he
examined the existing Anglican Book of Common Prayer and sent it to the Holy
Synod of Moscow for the restoration and correction of a truly Western Rite.
This Liturgy, derived from the ancient use of the Orthodox West, and first
expressed in English in the edition of 1549 by authority of King Edward the
Sixth of England, was corrected and approved by the Holy Synod to be used by
the Orthodox Church in the United States.
He understood the need and desire of people to have their own native church,
because the Russian Church also experienced this struggle. In 1448 the Russian
bishops elected their own Patriarch without recourse to Constantinople, and the
Russian church was thenceforth autocephalous. It was by the unity of the
Russian Hierarchy that they were able to create an autocephalous church, a
problem we in the USA have because of the multitude of ethnic churches and
any one that moves towards an autocephalous church in the USA will be treated
like they treated St. Aftimios, with isolation and false allegations by the foreign
jurisdictions.
After Saint Tikhon's death the Russian Church as well as other ethnic churches
have use the Western Liturgical Rite (Liturgy of Saint Tikhon) as a carrot in
order to appease the growing desire for complete self governance from their
American subjects. And I use the word subjects because that is exactly how the
American Orthodox Christians are viewed and treated by these foreign
jurisdictions. These poor well meaning Americans searching for the good news
of Orthodoxy have fallen victims to the greed and power hungry foreign
jurisdictions.
Saint Aftimios was also a true visionary, he had the heart of a missionary he
(like Patriarch Saint Tikhon before him) felt it was absolutely essential to
establish a Native American Church. In 1927, Saint Aftimios (an Archbishop)
became the first Ruling Hierarch of the Church when Metropolitan Platon and the
Synod of Bishops of the American Russian Orthodox Dioceses, meeting in South
Canaan, Pennsylvania, carried out the will of Saint Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow
and All Russia and helped set up the (autocephalous) American Orthodox
Church.
Under Saint Aftimios, the Church in America was established and incorporated
on the basis of an excellent Constitution, designed to bring true unity to
American Orthodoxy, but unfortunately his efforts failed and hopefully the
following quotes from Fr. Serafim Surrency's book, The Quest for Orthodox
Church Unity in America (1973) will explain why.
Fr. Serafim's analysis of the failure of this church is as follows:
There can be no question that while the movers of the new Church were
sincere and highly motivated that nonetheless they were fostering an idea
whose time had not yet come, or to use more appropriate phraseology:
Almighty God in his infinite wisdom did not see fit to bless this first attempt to
have an American Orthodox Church. On the human level it is clear why the
movement did not succeed. The Orthodox in America where still in their own
particular ghettos... [the church] was unable to attract or find clergy
theologically trained in the Orthodox tradition and able to communicate with
the young people with immigrant parents (p. 33).
Note: The Holy Byzantine Catholic Orthodox Church unlike this first attempt to
establish an American Orthodox Church is not interested in communicating to
the already orthodox but to the Americans that are of other traditions that are
searching for the truth of the Orthodox Faith. The Greeks, Romanians, Syrians
and so forth can stay in the ethnic ghettos and continue to fail in bringing the
truth of Orthodoxy to the western people.
External pressures on the movement also contributed to its demise: While the
Russian Council of Bishops gave initial support, it was only moral support,
and the first person elected to be a Hierarch of the new Church in fact turned
down the nomination because it was not possible to guarantee him any kind of
salary which is indicative of another primary deficiency of the movement, no
adequate financing.... [The] new Church lost its most important supporter,
Metr. Platon, because of antagonism of the clergy initiators towards the
Protestant Episcopal Church.... [some of whose authorities] resented the
American Orthodox Church as being a challenge to... the “senior Orthodox
Church in America” [i.e., the Episcopal Church], and that pressure was put on
Metr. Platon to withdraw his support or the financial assistance he was
receiving from the Episcopal Church... would be cut off and perhaps he would
be deprived of the use, on a temporary basis, of Episcopal churches (pp. 33-
34).
Note: The Holy Byzantine Catholic Orthodox Church will not encounter this
problem because of the following Canon Law.
Canon VII. (7)
…[In order to stop the abuse the of clergy with the tidings given by the faithful
to the Holy Church, the Holy Synod inspired by the Holy Ghost has decreed
that no one will be ordained until they first have a profession and are self-
supported. The funds of the Holy Church will never be used to give the clergy
an exuberant lifestyle. The only exception will be if a parish in general is
willing to pay the clergy in order for them to be full-time staff.]
“Paul went to see them, and because he was a tent-maker as they were, he
stayed and worked with them” Acts 18:3
By having a self-supported clergy the Church will never find itself in the
predicament of catering to any group in order to receive economic support from
them.
Our Clergy are also able to negotiate and rent the use of churches and in this
manner will always be able to maintain our independence without the meddling
of other jurisdictions that do not always have the best interest for the Church in
mind.
Nevertheless,
...it would be most unjust to blame the failure of the “Holy Eastern Orthodox
Catholic and Apostolic Church in North America” solely or even primarily on
Protestant Episcopal opposition. One can state it more strongly: the various
Orthodox groups in America at that time simply were not ready in terms of
church consciousness for the establishment of an American Orthodox Church
(p. 34).
Note: The Holy Byzantine Catholic Orthodox Church agrees that the failure in
bringing Orthodoxy to America is not to fall on the shoulders of the Protestant
Episcopal opposition or the Holy Eastern Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic
Church in North America, but on the approach of the this first attempt. We feel
that Orthodoxy would have been established years ago in the west if only the
American Church would stop trying to mimic the Eastern Churches and speak to
the west in their own language, art, music and culture.
We the Holy Byzantine Catholic Orthodox Church believe we are the living
spirit of Saint Tikhon and Saint Aftimios when it comes to bringing the message
of Orthodoxy to our brethren in the Unites States or any other country that
believes they have the right to have a native church with native bishops. A
church that reflects the culture of the people it serves.
The Western Rite Parishes represent a restoration of the legitimate Western
Liturgy of the Undivided Church of the first 1,000 years, by the Patriarchal
authority of Saint Tikhon, for the benefit of all Orthodox people.
Our Church is presently facing the stigma of the independent groups that claim
to be Orthodox and traditional and yet permit female priests and openly gay
clergy. This is presently one of the biggest obstacles we are facing as a church.
We are independent (autocephalous) but united in faith with all Orthodox
Churches and please understand that we are not seeking or need the approval
from any individual ethnic jurisdiction to be truly orthodox. It is not by claiming
to be orthodox that we are orthodox but that we live as orthodox and profess it in
our daily lives that make us true orthodox. It is because of the false belief that
we need the blessing and approval of a foreign jurisdiction that has caused the
western people to reject orthodoxy.
When will we as a people learn that it is not the messenger that holds the truth
but the message itself, for the message of orthodoxy is true, pure and liberating
but unfortunately the messengers (foreign jurisdictions) are false in their intent,
unclean in their approach and non-liberating in their governance?
THBCC
years of Christendom and all churches were in communion with the five
Patriarchates (Jerusalem, Alexandria, Antioch, Constantinople and Rome).
The reader needs to keep in mind that the Holy Church was not destined to
remain with only five Patriarchates; rather, it was understood that as the church
would grow, other Patriarchates would enter the embrace of Orthodoxy.
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, (Matthew 28:19)
To the primary Church the world was composed only of the Mid-east, Europe
and some parts of Asia and Africa the rest of the world was unexplored and
none existent.
These Patriarchates were independent (autocephalous) but united in faith. The
rites would come to reflect the diversity of its people in language, music and art,
and the church came to embrace them as the treasury of the Church.
Orthodoxy was not influenced by the errors of the Latin Church.
The Western Rite is not a modern innovation, it was part of the Church from the
beginning, and the Latin speaking Christians used it. When it comes to England,
Scotland and Ireland their rites were as Orthodox as the one used in
Constantinople. Later, because of the Great Schism in 1054 the errors of the
Roman Patriarchate were reflected in their rites.
These teachings of the Latin Patriarchate were so entrenched on their believers
that when the crusaders met the Orthodox Christians instead of seeing them as
fellow Christians they were subjected to an invasion and the pillaging of
Constantinople, leaving the Orthodox Christians weak and defenseless thus
allowing the Muslim hordes to invade, conquer and subjugate the Orthodox
Christians.
In the New World, especially the United States, Orthodoxy arrived via Alaska
by Russian Orthodox Church (1794) and it is hard to believe it has been over
200 years ago that Orthodoxy set foot in the New World and still at this very
moment most Americans have no idea of what the Orthodox Church is all about.
In other words the bringing of the message of the truth of Orthodoxy has failed
while Protestantism and Catholicism are triumphant and are growing.
The reason for this failure is that as the Ethnic immigrations have arrived they
have set up what is called Ethnic Churches where to a certain extent Orthodoxy
has been maintained but as the children of the first wave of immigrants are born
and many do not learn the language of their parents and enter into the American
culture many leave the church and become Protestants or Catholics. This is a
tragedy because they are walking away from the truth and into the arms of
heresy.
This new generation sees Orthodoxy as something alien and indeed it is, because
it stopped reflecting the culture of the people it serves and has remained
connected to a language and nationality that is not theirs. The reason Orthodoxy
flourished in the Old World was because it embraced the culture, language, art
and music of the people it served.
Why then is the Orthodox Church not assisting in developing an American
Orthodox Church that reflects our culture, language, art and music? Sadly it is
due to greed. Foreign jurisdictions have found that the USA has great wealth to
gather and send back to the respective nations of these ethnic churches who have
come to economically depend on the Ethnic-American Churches. They will
never let go of this constant flow of economic support. Money has become more
important than bringing the liberating truth of Orthodoxy to the people of this
continent who are no longer ethnic but American.
To those who sold doves he said, "Get these out of here! How dare you turn
my Father's house into a market!" (John 2:16)
I would like to continue by bringing to mind a good example that is found in our
own history, the American colonies were extremely valuable to the English, so
they wanted to have English governors and the wealth of the colonies to continue
flowing back to England. When the colonies requested to have representation in
the governing of themselves then the English consider it to be an act of treason,
the colonist did not want to be apart from the crown but simple wanted to have
their own representatives and a Governor but the English because of their greed
and feeling of superiority would only permit certain self rule of the colonies and
when it came to self governance and the right to have their own destiny as a
people this was not was not permitted or tolerated.
Unfortunately at this present time we have Americans that are being given
certain rights in self governance but when it comes to bishops and most of all a
Patriarch they are not allowed to follow their own destiny as a native church,
they are only allowed to be a carbon copy of the jurisdiction giving them these
so-called Canon Status.
Sadly we are to blame to a certain extent because just as the Tory's during the
American Revolutionary War could not see themselves apart from the British
Empire, with a king and English governors so do we in the United States
continue to think that without being under the jurisdiction of foreign Patriarchs
and Bishops we are not truly a church.
We in the Autocephalous movement are constantly asked the following
questions:
‘To what Jurisdiction do you belong?’
St. Aftimios (Ofiesh) was elected to serve as the replacement of St. Raphael of
Brooklyn in 1915 in caring for the Arab Orthodox faithful in America under the
Church of Russia's canonical authority.
He was consecrated by Archbishop Evdokim (Meschersky) as an auxiliary
bishop in 1917 with the title of Bishop of Brooklyn. In 1923, in recognition for
his work in America, he was elevated by Metropolitan Platon (Rozhdestvensky)
of New York to the rank of archbishop.
In 1927, Aftimios was commissioned by the Russian diocese in America to form
an English-speaking American Orthodox Catholic Church, and during this time,
St. Aftimios consecrated three bishops for his new jurisdiction, Sophronios
(Beshara) of Los Angeles, Joseph (Zuk) and Ignatius (William Albert) Nichols in
September of 1932 as his auxiliary bishop of Washington.
Our Primate in the Holy Byzantine Catholic Orthodox Church has these three
lines in his succession and we believe that we are a Canonical Church of
America.
‘To what Jurisdiction are you in communion with?’
In spirit we teach that we are and will always be in communion with all Orthodox
Jurisdictions but until our sister churches (Jerusalem, Antioch, Constantinople,
Alexandria, Rome) accept that we have the canonical right to have a native
church with native Bishops and that our Liturgical Rite may express our culture,
language, art and music, then physical and intellectual communion may not be
possible.
Also we find it extremely hypocritical that our Orthodox brethren accuse the
Roman Church of being legalistic and judgmental when they are legalistic in
demanding that as an American Orthodox Church we must be attached to a
foreigner jurisdiction to be truly Orthodox.
‘Did Archbishop Aftimios (Ofiesh) forfeit his appointment
when he got married?’
Orthodox theologians agree that the restriction on married bishops was an
attempt by the church to stop nepotism thus making it a matter of church
discipline rather than doctrine.
Therefore it could be changed and would require a consensus among a self-
governing Orthodox churches. St. Aftimios had every right to be married
because in the American Culture it was an acceptable condition.
The American Church had every right as an autocephalous church to change this
discipline but regrettably this was use by the unscrupulous ethnic churches as an
excuse to force and remove St. Aftimios as Hierarch of the church.
These same ethnic jurisdictions to this day continue spreading calumnies against
St. Aftimios without any legal documentation to prove that St. Aftimios walked
away from his Bishopric. On the contrary, it was because of the isolation and
chastisement that St. Aftimios was not permitted to continue his responsibilities
as a bishop.
St. Aftimios suffered deeply because of the isolation, chastisement and
calumnies perpetrated against him and for this reason the American Church has
canonized him as a Saint of the American Orthodox Church. St. Aftimios will
always remind us in the autocephalous church that we are still suffering from the
same abuse from our brethren.
We in the Holy Byzantine Catholic Orthodox Church being autocephalous in
consensus agreed to have non-married bishops as a matter of church discipline
but not because it is church doctrine. We agreed as a church that at this time in
the American Culture the propensity for nepotism is great so we have in
consensus agreed for non-married Bishops.
St John Chrysostom on married Hierarchs.
'A Bishop then,' he says, 'must be blameless the husband of one wife.' This he
does not lay down as a rule, as if he must not be without one, but as
prohibiting his having more than one. [pg.438, First Series, Vol. 13, St John
Chrysostom, Homily X, Homilies on Timothy]
Saint Tikhon was not only a true visionary but a true Orthodox, he knew that as
Americans we had the right to have a Native Church and that is why he
examined the existing Anglican Book of Common Prayer and sent it to the Holy
Synod of Moscow for the restoration and correction of a truly Western Rite.
This Liturgy, derived from the ancient use of the Orthodox West, and first
expressed in English in the edition of 1549 by authority of King Edward the
Sixth of England, was corrected and approved by the Holy Synod to be used by
the Orthodox Church in the United States.
He understood the need and desire of people to have their own native church,
because the Russian Church also experienced this struggle. In 1448 the Russian
bishops elected their own Patriarch without recourse to Constantinople, and the
Russian church was thenceforth autocephalous. It was by the unity of the
Russian Hierarchy that they were able to create an autocephalous church, a
problem we in the USA have because of the multitude of ethnic churches and
any one that moves towards an autocephalous church in the USA will be treated
like they treated St. Aftimios, with isolation and false allegations by the foreign
jurisdictions.
After Saint Tikhon's death the Russian Church as well as other ethnic churches
have use the Western Liturgical Rite (Liturgy of Saint Tikhon) as a carrot in
order to appease the growing desire for complete self governance from their
American subjects. And I use the word subjects because that is exactly how the
American Orthodox Christians are viewed and treated by these foreign
jurisdictions. These poor well meaning Americans searching for the good news
of Orthodoxy have fallen victims to the greed and power hungry foreign
jurisdictions.
Saint Aftimios was also a true visionary, he had the heart of a missionary he
(like Patriarch Saint Tikhon before him) felt it was absolutely essential to
establish a Native American Church. In 1927, Saint Aftimios (an Archbishop)
became the first Ruling Hierarch of the Church when Metropolitan Platon and the
Synod of Bishops of the American Russian Orthodox Dioceses, meeting in South
Canaan, Pennsylvania, carried out the will of Saint Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow
and All Russia and helped set up the (autocephalous) American Orthodox
Church.
Under Saint Aftimios, the Church in America was established and incorporated
on the basis of an excellent Constitution, designed to bring true unity to
American Orthodoxy, but unfortunately his efforts failed and hopefully the
following quotes from Fr. Serafim Surrency's book, The Quest for Orthodox
Church Unity in America (1973) will explain why.
Fr. Serafim's analysis of the failure of this church is as follows:
There can be no question that while the movers of the new Church were
sincere and highly motivated that nonetheless they were fostering an idea
whose time had not yet come, or to use more appropriate phraseology:
Almighty God in his infinite wisdom did not see fit to bless this first attempt to
have an American Orthodox Church. On the human level it is clear why the
movement did not succeed. The Orthodox in America where still in their own
particular ghettos... [the church] was unable to attract or find clergy
theologically trained in the Orthodox tradition and able to communicate with
the young people with immigrant parents (p. 33).
Note: The Holy Byzantine Catholic Orthodox Church unlike this first attempt to
establish an American Orthodox Church is not interested in communicating to
the already orthodox but to the Americans that are of other traditions that are
searching for the truth of the Orthodox Faith. The Greeks, Romanians, Syrians
and so forth can stay in the ethnic ghettos and continue to fail in bringing the
truth of Orthodoxy to the western people.
External pressures on the movement also contributed to its demise: While the
Russian Council of Bishops gave initial support, it was only moral support,
and the first person elected to be a Hierarch of the new Church in fact turned
down the nomination because it was not possible to guarantee him any kind of
salary which is indicative of another primary deficiency of the movement, no
adequate financing.... [The] new Church lost its most important supporter,
Metr. Platon, because of antagonism of the clergy initiators towards the
Protestant Episcopal Church.... [some of whose authorities] resented the
American Orthodox Church as being a challenge to... the “senior Orthodox
Church in America” [i.e., the Episcopal Church], and that pressure was put on
Metr. Platon to withdraw his support or the financial assistance he was
receiving from the Episcopal Church... would be cut off and perhaps he would
be deprived of the use, on a temporary basis, of Episcopal churches (pp. 33-
34).
Note: The Holy Byzantine Catholic Orthodox Church will not encounter this
problem because of the following Canon Law.
Canon VII. (7)
…[In order to stop the abuse the of clergy with the tidings given by the faithful
to the Holy Church, the Holy Synod inspired by the Holy Ghost has decreed
that no one will be ordained until they first have a profession and are self-
supported. The funds of the Holy Church will never be used to give the clergy
an exuberant lifestyle. The only exception will be if a parish in general is
willing to pay the clergy in order for them to be full-time staff.]
“Paul went to see them, and because he was a tent-maker as they were, he
stayed and worked with them” Acts 18:3
By having a self-supported clergy the Church will never find itself in the
predicament of catering to any group in order to receive economic support from
them.
Our Clergy are also able to negotiate and rent the use of churches and in this
manner will always be able to maintain our independence without the meddling
of other jurisdictions that do not always have the best interest for the Church in
mind.
Nevertheless,
...it would be most unjust to blame the failure of the “Holy Eastern Orthodox
Catholic and Apostolic Church in North America” solely or even primarily on
Protestant Episcopal opposition. One can state it more strongly: the various
Orthodox groups in America at that time simply were not ready in terms of
church consciousness for the establishment of an American Orthodox Church
(p. 34).
Note: The Holy Byzantine Catholic Orthodox Church agrees that the failure in
bringing Orthodoxy to America is not to fall on the shoulders of the Protestant
Episcopal opposition or the Holy Eastern Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic
Church in North America, but on the approach of the this first attempt. We feel
that Orthodoxy would have been established years ago in the west if only the
American Church would stop trying to mimic the Eastern Churches and speak to
the west in their own language, art, music and culture.
We the Holy Byzantine Catholic Orthodox Church believe we are the living
spirit of Saint Tikhon and Saint Aftimios when it comes to bringing the message
of Orthodoxy to our brethren in the Unites States or any other country that
believes they have the right to have a native church with native bishops. A
church that reflects the culture of the people it serves.
The Western Rite Parishes represent a restoration of the legitimate Western
Liturgy of the Undivided Church of the first 1,000 years, by the Patriarchal
authority of Saint Tikhon, for the benefit of all Orthodox people.
Our Church is presently facing the stigma of the independent groups that claim
to be Orthodox and traditional and yet permit female priests and openly gay
clergy. This is presently one of the biggest obstacles we are facing as a church.
We are independent (autocephalous) but united in faith with all Orthodox
Churches and please understand that we are not seeking or need the approval
from any individual ethnic jurisdiction to be truly orthodox. It is not by claiming
to be orthodox that we are orthodox but that we live as orthodox and profess it in
our daily lives that make us true orthodox. It is because of the false belief that
we need the blessing and approval of a foreign jurisdiction that has caused the
western people to reject orthodoxy.
When will we as a people learn that it is not the messenger that holds the truth
but the message itself, for the message of orthodoxy is true, pure and liberating
but unfortunately the messengers (foreign jurisdictions) are false in their intent,
unclean in their approach and non-liberating in their governance?
THBCC
