The following response to OCA Synod of Bishops Slams Door Shut on Gay, Lesbian, and Transgender Orthodox Christians was sent to the individual members of the OCA Synod of Bishops on July 27, 2022. Other LGBTQ Orthodox Christians and their allies are invited to share the spiritually devastating impact of the Synod’s “Statement on Same-Sex Relationships and Sexual Identity” in an article, open letter, or letter to the editors. Contrary to what the bishops may imagine, theirs has never been the final word in the history of the Orthodox Church.

7/27/22

To His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon, Archbishop of Washington, Metropolitan of All American and Canada

And to the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church in America,

Grace to you and peace from our Lord Jesus Christ.

As someone who is both orthodox and queer, I have a request for you in light of the recent statement of the OCA Synod. Living as a layman who is also queer has been a central question my entire life. Nearly every moment is filled with thoughts of how to be thoroughly authentic, pious, and orthodox while acknowledging I am homosexual. My request comes from decades of study and prayer and is presented to you with pain in my heart as I pray for the salvation of our souls. Read More

European Bishops’ Conference of ROCOR

In which the European Bishops of ROCOR serve up a dish of pious pabulum that says precisely nothing.

Read More

Orthodoxy in Dialogue’s readers around the planet have been introduced to Archbishop Gabriel (Chemodakov) twice: first, in Only Monarchy Can Save Russia — Restore It!, an interview he gave with an anti-Semitic monk previously condemned by ROCOR; and second, in ROCOR Archbishop of Canada Justifies Wholesale Slaughter of Ukraine, an interview removed from the Archdiocesan website as soon as we published it.

Irrepressible interviewee and Patriarchate-Kremlin propagandist that he is, +Gabriel spoke with Dmitri Zlodorev in a conversation published by Православие.Ru on July 20, 2022. In it, he makes Russia out to be the victim and blames the West’s reaction to the Ukrainian massacre and Patriarch Kirill’s full-throated support of it on “Western Russophobia.”

What follows is a Google translation of the report published on Русская Народная Линия on July 25. Read More

Holy Synod of Bishops of the Orthodox Church in America

Let Orthodoxy in Dialogue be the first to go on record “disobeying” the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Orthodox Church in America. Perhaps His Beatitude, Their Eminences, and Their Graces need reminding that demanding “obedience” is not how the Church works. Conciliar and Synodal decrees await reception by the whole body of the Church. We know from history that this does not take place overnight.

Orthodoxy in Dialogue rejects this Synodal directive and its false premises. The Synod takes none of the evolving science on sexuality and gender into account. Orthodoxy in Dialogue will continue to serve as the Orthodox Church’s main public forum for the open theological, anthropological, spiritual, and pastoral exploration of sexual and gender diversity in human nature and in our life in Christ. 

Contact us at editors@orthodoxyindialogue.com if you wish to respond to the Synod in this matter, either in an article of your own or a letter to the editors. We are willing to consider publishing anonymously if that’s what it takes to get your voices heard.

Holy Synod Issues Statement on Same-Sex Relationships and Sexual Identity

There was a resolution proposed to affirm the Church’s stance on issues of same-sex relationships and sexual identity. This matter, however, falls outside the competence of the All-American Council, since, in the words of the Statute of the Orthodox Church in America, “All matters involving doctrine, canonical order, morals, and liturgical practice” are within the competence and jurisdiction of the Holy Synod. Nonetheless, meeting under the presidency of His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon, the Holy Synod has issued the following statement: Read More