Author: Gary N. Brott
September 21, 2009
MEANING OF AB VALERIAN\u2019S 1984 LETTER I was moved upon reading the 1984 letter by Archbishop Valerian to His Beatitude Justin which was posted on this website.\u00a0\u00a0 It inspired me to speak up, even if my opinion is deemed unpopular.\u00a0 In pertinent part, the Archbishop expressed the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe mission of the Romanian Orthodox Episcopate of America is not only the preservation of its liturgical and Romanian heritage, but also to continuously educate its members in religion, combined with the propogation [sic<\/u>] of Orthodoxy on the American continent. To assure its existence, the Episcopate in America must look only forward and not backward<\/u>. For this reason, it voluntarily became affiliated with the Autocephalous Orthodox Church in America (OCA), which is made up of various ethnic Orthodox groups who all have the same goals. Since the purpose of this affiliation was fundamental for the very existence of the Episcopate, it is, therefore, irreversible<\/u>.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n . . . .<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn 1950, in decisions motivated by political expediencies and totally lacking in wisdom, the canonical breach [between the Romanian Orthodox Episcopate of America and the Romanian Patriarchate] became inevitable. Today, using the same tactics, Your Beatitude will further push the members of the Episcopate toward an even greater and firmer stance beyond anyone\u2019s expectations. Your Beatitude, then, will have to realize that, to be finally left in peace in our own home, one might even be tempted to forget about his or her Romanian origin<\/u>.\u201d (Archbishop Valerian D. Trifa, Letter to His Beatitude Justin, October 7, 1984) (emphasis added).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n In an effort to contrast \u201cforward\u201d versus \u201cbackward\u201d as expressed in the Archbishop\u2019s message I believe all ROEA members should ask themselves the following questions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n 1. Is it in the best interests of our children to trade peace in our homeland for a connection with an arm of an unstable corrupt foreign government?<\/p>\n\n\n\n 2. Is it in the best interests of our children to trade the O.C.A., the future of Orthodoxy in the Americas, for the ethnicity of our grandparents that, from personal experience, we know will later be of little interest to our grandchildren and great-grandchildren?<\/p>\n\n\n\n 3. Do we have an obligation to propagate Orthodoxy on this continent or an obligation to advance the interests of the Romanian government on this continent?<\/p>\n\n\n\n 4. Will a connection with a corrupt foreign government encourage or discourage converts to our parishes?<\/p>\n\n\n\n 5. Do we as Americans favor separation of church and state except where the Romanian government is involved?<\/p>\n\n\n\n 6. Might our answers to these questions underlie the \u201cirreversibility\u201d of which Archbishop Valerian was referring?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Moreover, should we not have first tested the sincerity of the BOR by making as a condition precedent to any and all dialogue that the Patriarchate first actively participates in successfully clearing the name of Archbishop Valerian? At least there would have been an upside to all the time, effort, and expense consumed by this \u201cdialogue\u201d process, regardless of whether or not unification occurred.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As it stands, the ROEA has no upside in the current unification proposal. Think about it. By this most recent tactic in the BOR\u2019s 60-year shell game it offers to the ROEA the liabilities of a failed Episcopate (ROAA) and its bankrupt parishes. In consideration for assuming responsibility for such liabilities, the ROEA would sever its participation in the O.C.A., and submit to the authority of the BOR. Deals don\u2019t get any more lopsided than that. It\u2019s all upside for the BOR-which gets everything it has ever wanted-and nothing but downside for the ROEA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The current status of \u201cdialogue\u201d between the ROEA, BOR and ROAA, in a way, is reminiscent of the old \u201cUncle Remus\u201d story about Br\u2019er Fox, Br\u2019er Rabbit and the Tar Baby where Br\u2019er Fox had constructed a doll out of a lump of tar and dressed it with some clothes to entrap Br\u2019er Rabbit. When Br\u2019er Rabbit came along he addressed the Tar Baby amiably, but received no response. Br\u2019er Rabbit became offended by what he perceived as the Tar Baby\u2019s lack of manners, punched it, and in doing so became stuck in the tar. Once Br\u2019er Rabbit was stuck, Br\u2019er Fox jumped forward and pondered how to dispose of him. The helpless, but cunning, Br\u2019er Rabbit begged, \u201cPlease don\u2019t throw me in the briar patch,\u201d prompting Br\u2019er Fox to do exactly that. As rabbits are quite at home in thickets, the resourceful Br\u2019er Rabbit escaped sure doom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In our unification saga the BOR is Br\u2019er Fox, the ROEA is Br\u2019er Rabbit, the ROEA\u2019s unification dialogue with BOR\/ROAA is the Tar Baby, and the O.C.A. is the briar patch. The ROEA now finds itself in a \u201cno-win\u201d scenario-it\u2019s \u201cstuck\u201d to the Tar Baby-and must devise a way to break loose to regain peace in the briar patch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Consistent with Archbishop Valerian\u2019s overview, I say run like a rabbit away from the fox; focus forward and not backward; and, secure peace in our own homeland-even if that means forgetting about our Romanian origin. The BOR wordsmiths can back-pedal all they want. Once the ROEA is under its jurisdiction, \u201cmaximal autonomy\u201d will mean on any given day whatever the Patriarchate wants it to mean. Such slick terminology will prove to be a \u201cTrajan Horse\u201d (pun intended) by which the Patriarchate will entirely achieve its ultimate goal of the past 60 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Closing<\/p>\n\n\n\n Commencement of the unification dialogue was ill-conceived from the outset. Affiliation with the O.C.A. was fundamental to the existence of the ROEA for nearly 40 years and should FOREVER remain irreversible. Without looking back and without further explanation the ROEA should now simply lovingly say to the BOR and ROAA, \u201cGod bless you; go in peace.\u201d Then, walk away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gary N. Brott Author: Gary N. BrottSeptember 21, 2009 MEANING OF AB VALERIAN\u2019S 1984 LETTER I was moved upon reading the 1984 letter by Archbishop Valerian to His Beatitude Justin which was posted on this website.\u00a0\u00a0 It inspired me to speak up, even if my opinion is deemed unpopular.\u00a0 In pertinent part, the Archbishop expressed the following: \u201cThe […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":246212808,"featured_media":1160,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3205],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pfcdbO-i0","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/roeanews.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/capture-4.png?fit=157%2C121&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/roeanews.info\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/roeanews.info\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/roeanews.info\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roeanews.info\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/246212808"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roeanews.info\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1116"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/roeanews.info\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1116\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1426,"href":"https:\/\/roeanews.info\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1116\/revisions\/1426"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roeanews.info\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/roeanews.info\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roeanews.info\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roeanews.info\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Venice, FL<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"