The unity issue and due diligence
At the Episcopate Council meeting held on the eve of the 2008 Episcopate Congress, the Episcopate Council voted for a resolution that was also approved by the 2008 Episcopate Congress. This resolution allowed for the continuation of talks with ROAA/BOR representatives but required that “due diligence” special committees (namely a Constitution & By-laws Committee, a Jurisprudence Committee, and a Finance Committee) be named. No progress has been seen from these “due diligence” Committees normally formed of experts, e.g. lawyers, accountants, etc. In this context it is important to note what “due diligence” entails.
Due diligence means evaluating the merits of a possible merger/acquisition from legal, financial, and other pertinent and applicable decision-making perspectives. This audit approach should be based on complete data and information, and presupposes that the hard questions are asked by the interested party, and that complete answers are given by the other party. Based on these results, merger/acquisition discussions either proceed or cease.
Thus, the process of question-gathering that started at the 2008 Episcopate Congress should be expanded so that a full battery of questions that Episcopate members have is compiled. Please send your questions (both clergy and faithful) to this website. (Anonymity will be preserved.) We will post the pertinent, non-duplicated questions on this website and forward these to the appropriate due diligence committee chairman. These questions will complement the more specific expert questions that will most surely be asked by the due diligence committee members (lawyers, accountants, etc.) In this way a comprehensive list of questions to be asked of the ROAA and the Romanian Patriarchate can be prepared. If official responses to these questions are received at this website, they will also be posted here.
Typical questions are: “who can vote on this?”, “has anyone ever heard of maximal autonomy?”, “what’s the hurry?”, “who gains from this?”, “who will cover the close to $2,000,000 (or more) ROAA debt?” etc.
We are still collecting your “Due Dilligence” questions, but have decided not to post them yet, awaiting the ROAA to begin answering the original ones asked by the ROEA’s official “Due Dilligence” committees.