{"id":225,"date":"2009-03-27T16:25:00","date_gmt":"2009-03-27T20:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/roeanews.info\/?p=225"},"modified":"2024-02-26T15:54:41","modified_gmt":"2024-02-26T20:54:41","slug":"romanian-leaders-speak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/roeanews.info\/ro\/2009\/03\/27\/romanian-leaders-speak\/","title":{"rendered":"Romanian Leaders Speak"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Author: Mark Stokoe<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">March 27, 2009<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>OCA ROMANIAN LAY LEADERS ASK FOR OPEN DISCUSSION<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">(Excerpts of the article found on ocanews.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the wake of Antioch\u2019s suppression of its American dioceses, thirty-one lay leaders of the OCA\u2019s Romanian Episcopate, including many former presidents and board members of the women\u2019s auxiliary ARFORA, the youth movement AROY, the Orthodox Brotherhood and the Episcopate Council, have expressed their frustration in an open letter to the Episcopate\u2019s Bishops, clergy and laity regarding the current lack of information regarding the proposed \u201cunification\u201d of the OCA\u2019s Romanian Episcopate and the Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese in the Americas under the Romanian Patriarchate in Bucharest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Disinformation from Romania<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Romanian Orthodox Patriarchate, on the other hand, is insisting through its publications that unification has already taken place, In two articles from the Romanian Patriarchate Daily (Jan 7 and 8, 2009), sketching the history of Romanian Orthodoxy in North America, the OCA\u2019s Romanian Episcopate is never mentioned &#8211; despite being the original, largest and for decades the only Romanian church body in North America. The Episcopate is finally mentioned in the January 9th article, but then, only in relation \u201cto the unity which was achieved in 2008\u2033! The article states:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>\u201cThe two Romanian Orthodox Eparchies in America and Canada decided in 2008 to unite under the canonical and spiritual administration of the Romanian Orthodox Church (BOR), after over six decades of separation. The act of unity is the result of the dialogue between hierarchs, priests and laity of both eparchies, a dialogue encouraged by the Romanian Patriarchate. The new structure is called the \u2018Romanian Orthodox Metropolitanate of Both Americas\u2019.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Such misstatements, or rather overstatements, are not new to Bucharest. The Patriarchate released a similiar statement after the two Diocesan congresses last July.&nbsp; Was such a bold public re-statement now just another error, based on wishful thinking? Whatever it was, it was sure to elicit a response \u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And that response was outrage, at least from <a href=\"http:\/\/roeanews.info\/\">ROEANews.info<\/a>, a Romanian Orthodox website which tracks the status of the unity proposal. <em>\u201cHow many LIES can you fit into 3 sentences?\u201d<\/em> the editor asked. <em>\u201cThis must win that contest. More importantly, let us not forget that these LIES are perpetrated in the Official daily newspaper of the Romanian Patriarchate. The Patriarchate condones these LIES.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>No Information from the Vatra<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If misinformation from Romania is irritating many, the lack of information from the Vatra, the headquarters of the Romanian Episcopate in Michigan, or from Archbishop Nathaniel, is frustrating others.\u00a0 Archbishop Nathaniel has indicated that no real, open discussion should occur until there is a \u2018final\u2019 proposal on the table. Although a \u2018modified\u2019 proposal was offered this past Saturday in Cleveland at the Episcopate Council meeting, the Archbishop left the door open for further comments and possible changes, emphasizing that \u2018due diligence\u2019 must be observed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As a result, it now seems clear that the Romanian Episcopate will not be able to meet deadlines laid out in Episcopate by-laws for reports (from committees set up at the last Congress) to be distributed to delegates for the upcoming Congress, July 3-5, 2009. But the Archbishop\u2019s delays are not the only reason: the legal counsel for the Episcopate has posed 40 questions for the Patriarchal Romanian Archdiocese in America on matters affecting a possible union of the two dioceses, with no response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>The Letter<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Thus, the lay leader\u2019s complaint, that the \u201cunification\u201d proposal between the OCA\u2019s Romanian Archdiocese and the Romanian Orthodox Patriarchate <em>\u201chas yet to be openly and fully discussed ten months\u201d<\/em> after it was first presented. Stating <em>\u201cthere is no point in rushing or attempting to prematurely vote on this matter\u201d,<\/em> the lay leaders argue that it would be best to <em>\u201ccompletely understand all the facts before we decide on this current Unity proposal.\u201d <\/em><strong><em>[roeanews.info administrator says that the letter in question is available on this website ]<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Author: Mark Stokoe March 27, 2009 OCA ROMANIAN LAY LEADERS ASK FOR OPEN DISCUSSION (Excerpts of the article found on ocanews.org) In the wake of Antioch\u2019s suppression of its American dioceses, thirty-one lay leaders of the OCA\u2019s Romanian Episcopate, including many former presidents and board members of the women\u2019s auxiliary ARFORA, the youth movement AROY, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":241120734,"featured_media":229,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":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-225","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-english"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/roeanews.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/mar-27-2009.jpg?fit=128%2C100&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pfcdbO-3D","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/roeanews.info\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225","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=225"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/roeanews.info\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1611,"href":"https:\/\/roeanews.info\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225\/revisions\/1611"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roeanews.info\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/roeanews.info\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roeanews.info\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roeanews.info\/ro\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}