OCA, GOARCH, ANTIOCHIAN, ROCOR ...etc.

December 13, 2007

FrAthanasios wrote:

Viewed in this way, it is not difficult to understand why Moscow felt it was entitled by Orthodox Tradition to grant autocephaly to its own daughter church.

Herein lies my problem. Autocephaly is not granted by a single Church but by ALL the Autocephalous Churches. The OCA should never be considered Autocephalous until that time when EACH Church has recongized it. Until then, autonomous yes, but not autocephalous. That is what the Antiochian Archdiocese is, autonomous. To ignore this is "one" reason why I don't feel we are ready to be "on our own" quite yet. This same issue was part of a discussion several months ago about the future World Council of Orthodxy. The disagreement over America between Moscow and the EP, if the Council were to happen today, would cause a great schism in the Church. Better to have a canonical anomaly than schism.

I\'m not posting a debate question here, just a question....

Fr, I know that during the revolution, Patriarch Tikon made statements about the Church Abroad as to how, if it were no longer possible for the mother church to properly continue relations with The CHurch Abroad, that it, ROCOR, should sever relations with the MP.

What I am not clear on, if you know, is: Did P. Tihkon basicly say that, if that day came, the ROCOR had his blessing to be \"autocephalus\" or was he speaking more on \"autonomous.\"

Be the first person to like this.