Metropolitan Philip has declared open war on anyone who would bring to light his shameful behavior. Chief among these has been Mark Stokoe, publisher of Orthodox Christians for Accountability. Mark has been principled and fearless in exposing corruption and fraud within the Orthodox Church in America and with the latest scandals has been doing the same good service for the Antiochian Archdiocese. In an attempt to silence Mr. Stokoe, Metropolitan Philip has used one of the few levers he has on Metropolitan Jonah, and redirected all incoming seminarians from St. Vladimir’s Seminary and St. Tikhon’s Seminary to Holy Cross Seminary. He has done this regardless of the financial and personal consequences of the seminarians themselves, which includes a seminarian whose wife is about to give birth.
It is time to begin to develop thef principles within which the people of God must engage our hierarchs to correct these injustices. I believe that it is up to the laity now to stand and be counted so that we can both bring light to the world, and so that we can protect those who care for our souls who may suffer from the unjust consequences of Metropolitan Philip’s anger.
I am putting these out as the principles with which I am going to operate. They may not work for everyone. I may be wrong on some of them. I do solicit feedback and suggestions on how to improve this, and where I may be going astray. But I’ve been an Orthodox Christian for 25 years, and the recent passing of the great man who led me into the Orthodox Faith has reminded me that it’s not enough to just sit in the pews. We are called to be wise and cunning and fearless and sacrificial in our obedience and service to the Gospel. And make no mistake, our first and primary obedience is to the Gospel, and then to the Church.
- At all times and in every way, we must be respectful to the hierarchy. This does not imply obedience to error, nor does it encompass obeisance. But if they are wrong, we should correct them as we would correct our own errant parents. Respectfully, forcefully, repeatedly and lovingly.
- We are the laity, the people of God. We are not under nor are we called to monastic rules of obedience. If our leaders are in error, we do no service to our souls to follow them in that error. Our obedience will not save us.
- We should do all things without wrath or rancor. We must be very careful to discern the difference between righteous anger and wrath. In all things, it is better to err on the side of love.
- What we do may well become a witness to the Faith. So what we do must be done with prayer, and it may entail some risk, spiritual and possibly physical.
- We are children of the Light. As such, as much as possible we should forego anonymity, unless we are protecting others. What we do, should be done in the light, because we are taught that light overcomes darkness.
- This is a struggle for the heart and soul of the Antiochian Archdiocese. It is not a struggle over race, ethnicity, or language. Any claims to such are divisive, and belong to the Divider.
- As much as possible, we should not inform our pastors what we are doing. This simply puts them at risk. Much better when they get the call from Metropolitan Philip that they can honestly say “I don’t know anything about that.” They take so much on their souls for us, let us take the temporal risks on ourselves.
- Finally, in all things, we should be using this to forward the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ.
I do not pretend to know how this is going to come out. I don’t know if we will win this fight. I don’t know if the Archdiocese will rise or fall. But I do know this: We are part of Christ’s Church. However broken it seems, the gates of Hell itself will never prevail and we have already won the war.
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