Comments on: Guest article by Bishop Maxim on the Episcopal Assembly http://orthodoxhistory.org/2010/07/29/guest-article-by-bishop-maxim-on-the-episcopal-assembly/ The Society for Orthodox Christian History in the Americas Wed, 08 May 2013 13:30:30 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: Isa Almisry http://orthodoxhistory.org/2010/07/29/guest-article-by-bishop-maxim-on-the-episcopal-assembly/comment-page-1/#comment-1123 Isa Almisry Thu, 29 Jul 2010 14:50:38 +0000 http://orthodoxhistory.org/?p=3014#comment-1123 “the question of the OCA (the Orthodox Church in America, formerly the Russian Metropolia) was not discussed, but it has become clear that its “autocephaly” (given by a unilateral decree of the Moscow Patriarchate in 1970) is understood only as autonomy.”

I wonder upon what basis His Grace makes this assertion.

If the OCA possessed only “autonomy,” then her Holy Synod would have sat with the delegation from Moscow. Indeed, if the OCA still was under Pat. Kyril’s omophorion, then Met. Jonah, not Archbishop Justinian, would have been co-chair of the EA, according to the agreement of Chambesy. But, as HG correctly points out, the OCA delegation came at the end of the diptychs, where they belong as the youngest autocephalous Church.

As Met. Jonah noted in Canada, their Holy Synod was the only one in the room who could decide their own fate.

]]>