{"id":164,"date":"2008-12-01T15:29:00","date_gmt":"2008-12-01T20:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/roeanews.info\/?p=164"},"modified":"2024-02-26T15:57:39","modified_gmt":"2024-02-26T20:57:39","slug":"2008-orthodox-brotherhood-conf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/roeanews.info\/ro\/2008\/12\/01\/2008-orthodox-brotherhood-conf\/","title":{"rendered":"2008 Orthodox Brotherhood Conf."},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Author: Observer<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">December 1, 2008<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>\u2013 St. Mary\u2019s Cathedral Cleveland, Ohio<\/strong>On October 17-19, the 2008 Orthodox Brotherhood Conference was held in Cleveland, Ohio. Attendance was up a bit from last year, with new members participating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The delegates were hosted by St. Mary\u2019s parish priest Fr. Remus Grama.\u00a0 Spiritual Advisor Fr. Dimitrie Vincent and Episcopate Chancellor Archdeacon David Oancea were also present. As well, Fr. Ian Pac-Urar from Holy Presentation, Akron (Joint Dialogue Commission member) and Fr. Anton Frunza from Holy Annunciation, Grand Rapids, Mich. (SOLIA Romanian editor) participated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">President Dan Miclau opened the Conference session on Friday evening. Fr. Grama and Conference chairman Dave Salanty welcomed everyone. The executive board covered the delegates\u2019 work, reports, finances and membership.\u00a0 Along with its sister auxiliary in Canada, the \u201cFratia\u201d or \u201cBrotherhood\u201d is the layperson SERVICE auxiliary of our Episcopate, and has \u201cbeen there\u201d when extra eyes, hands and pockets have been needed to make important projects \u201chappen\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On Friday and again Saturday morning\u2019s sessions, the delegates reviewed and approved program and financial reports, which include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Supporting our church\u2019s programs, e.g., the pocket calendar that is passed out free throughout the Episcopate.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>To come up with Brotherhood programs which are attractive for our members old and new.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Finding ways and means of bringing new membership into the Brotherhood from our newer parishes and missions, particularly those organized over the past 15-20 years.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At President Miclau\u2019s request, on Saturday afternoon Fr. Vincent set out a really involving presentation, packed with facts and wide-open discussion, to help in the analysis of the Unity project now being contemplated by our Romanian Orthodox Episcopate (ROEA) which is under the canonical coverage of the Orthodox Church in America, and the Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese of the Americas (ROAA) which is under the Orthodox Church of Romania.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">St. Mary\u2019s parish priest Fr. Grama had both a baptism and wedding scheduled, so Fr. Pac-Urar, participated in the discussions, as he, along with Fr. Grama is on our Episcopate\u2019s 5-member Dialogue Commission. The afternoon was divided between Frs. Vincent, Frunza and Oancea leading the discussions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">First came Fr. Dimitrie\u2019s interactive workshop, where everyone got familiar with the Unity Dialogue\u2019s 16-year history, by answering a questionnaire with the aid of our official Annual Church Congress Reports over the years. Many eyes were opened by its start-and-stop history especially when Fr. Pac-Urar confirmed that the Romanian ROAA has always been firm that \u201cthe day will never come that they would ever leave the Romanian Patriarchate\u201d. This is why the talks were stalled for a number of years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Next came Fr. Frunza\u2019s PowerPoint presentation, with his detailed outline of how our JDC needs to be more careful in negotiating about possible Unification. He showed that the 20 point \u201cProposal to Establish a Romanian Orthodox Metropolitanate of North America\u201d contravenes the newly passed Romanian Orthodox Church Constitution and by-laws that were ratified in late 2007.\u00a0 He also showed how much more work needs to be finished if the 2 dioceses can even begin to contemplate any kind of union given the outstanding legal and financial issues.\u00a0 Most importantly he underlined the very different cultures that have grown over 60 years of separation. He showed how the Romanian ROAA has maintained a post 1945 Romanian autocratic culture in its structures and organization compared to a much more American style adopted in the American ROEA. He pointed out that in 2008, the Church of Romania abolished the laypeople\u2019s traditional right to be 2\/3\u2019s of the vote in all elections of Romania\u2019s bishops. Obviously, clear-headed negotiation has got to protect the church life we\u2019ve set up in Canada and America.\u00a0 The Romanian Patriarchate\u2019s new Constitution and by-laws contravenes our own traditions, culture and understanding of what Orthodoxy truly is; Hierarchal AND Conciliar, together, Bishops, Priests, Deacons and laity forming the body of Christ, i.e. the Church. When Hierarchal is taken to mean non-conciliar we no longer have Orthodoxy but Roman Catholicism.\u00a0 Imperial autocracy is not Orthodoxy.\u00a0 This is not even the culture of pre 1945 Romanian Orthodoxy, let alone post 1945 American ROEA religious culture.\u00a0 The incompatibility of the American ROEA and the Romanian ROAA was thus highlighted as a major obstacle to any Unity, even under the OCA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Fr. Archdeacon Oancea followed with a short talk. He likewise stressed that our American ROEA Vatra Episcopate is far different in style than the Romanian ROAA. He pointed out that if any Unity talks were to be successful, a consensus blueprint would first have to be drawn up and then respected. Essential would be keeping a solid front among the reverend clergy and the laypeople. If our Episcopate\u2019s history has proven one thing, it is that our laypeople\u2019s central role in our Church life has been pivotal to our proven track record of growth that has made our Episcopate admired for its staying-power and energy. It has faithfully combined the best of Romanian and American Orthodoxy. It has stood the test of time in the face of adversity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A wide-open Q&amp;A discussion followed, with many airing their opinions, and getting out in the open a lot of questions and points that had been murky.\u00a0 Fr. Pac-Urar tried to field the many questions which put in doubt the need for unity under Bucharest.\u00a0 It was clear from the questions that most people wanted unity but that this unity should be under the Orthodox Church in America (OCA) and not be under Bucharest Patriarchal rule.\u00a0 The fact that the ROEA Dialogue Commission overstepped its mandate and negotiated unity without the authority to do so and in complete violation of our ROEA Vatra Constitution and by-laws was also tabled, but remained unanswered.\u00a0 The session then drew to an end&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The new 2008-09 executive board was elected and installed, with the new President being Nick Avramaut of St. Mary\u2019s in Cleveland.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Observator<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dec. 1, 2008<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Author: Observer December 1, 2008 \u2013 St. Mary\u2019s Cathedral Cleveland, OhioOn October 17-19, the 2008 Orthodox Brotherhood Conference was held in Cleveland, Ohio. Attendance was up a bit from last year, with new members participating. The delegates were hosted by St. Mary\u2019s parish priest Fr. Remus Grama.\u00a0 Spiritual Advisor Fr. Dimitrie Vincent and Episcopate Chancellor [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":241120734,"featured_media":168,"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-164","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-2E","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/roeanews.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/dec-1-2008.jpg?fit=128%2C100&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/roeanews.info\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164","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\/241120734"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roeanews.info\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=164"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/roeanews.info\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1619,"href":"https:\/\/roeanews.info\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/164\/revisions\/1619"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roeanews.info\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/roeanews.info\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=164"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roeanews.info\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=164"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roeanews.info\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=164"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}