The Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the United States of America just held its 12th meeting since it was established in 2010. Every time they meet, the bishops take a group photo. Below, you can view a slideshow of all of these photos over the years. My thanks to Fr Andrew Damick for his help with this.
-
- ASSEMBLY OF CANONICAL ORTHODOX BISHOPS, OF USA ANNUAL CONFERENCE OCT. 3-5, 2017 HOSTED BY THE METROPOLIS OF N.J. . © GOA/GANP/???????? ??????? PHOTOS: © GANP/DIMITRIOS PANAGOS
It looks like are fewer and fewer paticipants. the bloom is off the rose, they have not moved one iota toward unity and remain ethnic ghettos. Recently there were two watershed moments, both ROCOR and the Antiochians had an opprotunity to cease being ethni ghettos and to follow the teachings of our Savior. They both required a new metropolitan. A great opportunity for an Ameican born and educated, widowed person who hopefully had an executive MBA. An American leader, manager, who has eperienced the real world of raising a family, managing budgets, supervising people, and most of all being an effective communicator. But. alas, that did not happen – same old, same old business as usual.
We should be looking only to the East to embrace that there is where we originated and our Savior lived. Faternal ties there yes, administrative ties there no. This has been going on since the Federtion in the Forties, SCOBA in the 60’s and now this council. Even CEYOLA coun not make any iroads toward unity. Time to put Chrisitianity before ethnicity, isn’t it?
Uh, Metropolitan Nicholas of ROCOR is an American-born widower.
One the one hand, I think it’s safe to say that the Assembly of Bishops hasn’t exactly lived up to what we all hoped when Matthew got this report about it from Bishop Basil in 2010. https://www.ancientfaith.com/podcasts/history/bishop_basil_and_the_episcopal_assembly
On the other hand, the Church moves as she does. To pick a very simple example, though Russia became Christian in 988, it wasn’t until 1448 that it elected its own primate. As Matthew is often at pains to remind us, history is often messy, and no one is perfect.
God have mercy on us all.