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

For context see Assembly of Bishops Rebukes Patriarch Bartholomew, Archbishop Elpidophoros in Display of Unity and Ecumenical Patriarchate Hurtles Toward Implosion of Assembly of Bishops.

A high-ranking official in one of the signatory jurisdictions confirms that these letters were never intended for public viewing. We thank the individual who leaked them to Orthodoxy in Dialogue, for the Church belongs to the whole people of God, not just to the bishops. The hierarchy are accountable to the clergy, monastics, and laity for the performance of their episcopal oversight.

As the world’s largest independent blog covering contemporary Orthodox thought and events, we would like to think that the attention that Orthodoxy in Dialogue has focused on this situation has influenced in part the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s reversal in this matter.

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This report appeared yesterday under a different title on Orthodox Times, a reliably impartial source for Orthodox news around the planet. It has long been accepted in the entire Orthodox Church—including the Moscow Patriarchate—that the Patriarchate of Alexandria has sole jurisdiction over Africa, where there is a significant, growing missionary presence in the sub-Saharan part of the continent. Internet chatter wonders how many rubles Moscow offered the Copts for their complicity.

Orthodox Pope and Patriarch Theodoros II of Alexandria (L), Coptic Pope Abba Tawadros II of Alexandria (R) 

Patriarch Theodore of Alexandria and All Africa has issued a harsh response to Coptic Patriarch Tawandros II, following the latter’s decision to cede a church of his Patriarchate in Cairo to the Church of Russia to serve the liturgical needs of Russian Orthodox.

In a letter to the Coptic Patriarch, the Patriarch of Alexandria addressed him in a particularly high tone and expressed his disappointment at this move, which constitutes “direct interference in serious internal matters of the Orthodox Church.” Read More

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