My husband said it was like a Hollywood fairy tale ending.
For several years now our church, the Orthodox Church in America, has been agonizing over a financial scandal of vast proportions. We have been leaderless, our membership wounded and divided as we approached our most recent “All-American” Council in Pittsburgh. This gathering of clergy and laity from all over North America had as its most important goal the choosing of a new Metropolitan.
Many people have been praying for many months or longer, both individually and corporately, for God’s mercy and guidance. True, a great deal of progress had already been made before the council in removing problem people from office, sorting out as much of the financial mess as possible, and setting up new Best Practices procedures to prevent such things in future. But the wounds were still raw, and the way ahead unclear. Many approached the council gathering with trepidation, the light of hope burning only dimly.
Tuesday night we began to see prayers answered. The newly-consecrated auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of the South, Bishop Jonah, spoke to the delegates in response to many of the pained and difficult questions about the scandal, and something happened. The next day, the majority of the delegates gave him their votes. The Holy Synod of Bishops then stepped out in humility and confirmed the people’s choice of this most junior bishop, consecrated to his office only 11 days earlier. It brought to mind St. Paul’s exhortation to the young bishop Timothy, “let no-one despise your youth, but be an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.”
Our membership could not see or agree upon a clear way out of our morass of denial and recriminations, but the Holy Spirit working in synergy with God’s people has now provided one. “It was like Pentecost” one of my husband’s priestly friends said.
Whistle-blowers and gadflies have risked, and some have suffered, great things to inform and motivate the people of God to seek an answer to our troubles. And the people rose to this challenge, both in prayer and in action. Now we have a completed investigation, a new Metropolitan with a new emphasis on genuine conciliarity, and public thanks and vindication given to many of those who dared to speak out.
This is a fairy-tale ending-- the happy turn at the end of a tale, which J.R.R. Tolkien calls a "eucatastrophe". But in God’s Kingdom, such an ending is only a beginning. Only in the next world is there a true and final happy-ever-after. Having begun the race, we must not look back, but press on to the prize. Our bishops have truly said that trust cannot be re-established—they must earn it. There are wounded little ones who still need healing.
For several years now our church, the Orthodox Church in America, has been agonizing over a financial scandal of vast proportions. We have been leaderless, our membership wounded and divided as we approached our most recent “All-American” Council in Pittsburgh. This gathering of clergy and laity from all over North America had as its most important goal the choosing of a new Metropolitan.
Many people have been praying for many months or longer, both individually and corporately, for God’s mercy and guidance. True, a great deal of progress had already been made before the council in removing problem people from office, sorting out as much of the financial mess as possible, and setting up new Best Practices procedures to prevent such things in future. But the wounds were still raw, and the way ahead unclear. Many approached the council gathering with trepidation, the light of hope burning only dimly.
Tuesday night we began to see prayers answered. The newly-consecrated auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of the South, Bishop Jonah, spoke to the delegates in response to many of the pained and difficult questions about the scandal, and something happened. The next day, the majority of the delegates gave him their votes. The Holy Synod of Bishops then stepped out in humility and confirmed the people’s choice of this most junior bishop, consecrated to his office only 11 days earlier. It brought to mind St. Paul’s exhortation to the young bishop Timothy, “let no-one despise your youth, but be an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.”
Our membership could not see or agree upon a clear way out of our morass of denial and recriminations, but the Holy Spirit working in synergy with God’s people has now provided one. “It was like Pentecost” one of my husband’s priestly friends said.
Whistle-blowers and gadflies have risked, and some have suffered, great things to inform and motivate the people of God to seek an answer to our troubles. And the people rose to this challenge, both in prayer and in action. Now we have a completed investigation, a new Metropolitan with a new emphasis on genuine conciliarity, and public thanks and vindication given to many of those who dared to speak out.
This is a fairy-tale ending-- the happy turn at the end of a tale, which J.R.R. Tolkien calls a "eucatastrophe". But in God’s Kingdom, such an ending is only a beginning. Only in the next world is there a true and final happy-ever-after. Having begun the race, we must not look back, but press on to the prize. Our bishops have truly said that trust cannot be re-established—they must earn it. There are wounded little ones who still need healing.
But perhaps most encouraging of all is the way some of the strongest critics of the previous administration are speaking positively of this AAC and our new metropolitan. We have a new Metropolitan Council, and there is no reason to think they will not be vigilant and wise as the wheels of the OCA begin to move. They are beginning to move, and now that they are moving, it will be possible to steer.
Some remain a little skeptical. That is all right, and to be expected after our experience of the last few years. There is however a difference between skepticism and cynicism. The skeptic asks sincere questions and says ‘show me.’ The cynic however says ‘I don’t believe, no matter what you are showing me.’ Only the individuals can know in their hearts (if God grants them true self-knowledge) whether they are skeptics or cynics.
The rest of us can do little for the cynics but pray. They are the dwarfs in C.S. Lewis’s concluding volume of the Narnia books, The Last Battle. Narnia is liberated, and here is what happens:
Aslan raised his head and shook his mane. Instantly a glorious feast appeared on the Dwarfs’ knees...They began eating and drinking greedily enough, but it was clear that they couldn’t taste it properly…One said he was trying to eat hay and another said he had got a bit of an old turnip…they raised golden goblets of rich red wine to their lips and said “Ugh! Fancy drinking dirty water out of a trough that a donkey’s been at!......”…they all said: “Well, at any rate there’s no Humbug here. We haven’t let anyone take us in..”
“You see,” said Aslan. “…Their prison is only in their own minds, yet they are in that prison; and so afraid of being taken in that they cannot be taken out.”
We need to heal. Our hierarchs need to earn our trust again. But we are not called to be dwarfs in a dark prison; we are called to be free men and women in the light of the Gospel. Let us continue to pray fervently for our new Metropolitan, our diocesan hierarchs and all our other church leaders, clergy and lay. We have seen God work a miracle in answer to our recent prayers. Now let us continue to ask Him for more such good gifts in the opening of missions, the healing of hearts, the ministry to the needy yet to come. For the best thanks we can give God for answered prayer is to ask Him for more, for He is a good Father who delights to give such good things to His children.
Some remain a little skeptical. That is all right, and to be expected after our experience of the last few years. There is however a difference between skepticism and cynicism. The skeptic asks sincere questions and says ‘show me.’ The cynic however says ‘I don’t believe, no matter what you are showing me.’ Only the individuals can know in their hearts (if God grants them true self-knowledge) whether they are skeptics or cynics.
The rest of us can do little for the cynics but pray. They are the dwarfs in C.S. Lewis’s concluding volume of the Narnia books, The Last Battle. Narnia is liberated, and here is what happens:
Aslan raised his head and shook his mane. Instantly a glorious feast appeared on the Dwarfs’ knees...They began eating and drinking greedily enough, but it was clear that they couldn’t taste it properly…One said he was trying to eat hay and another said he had got a bit of an old turnip…they raised golden goblets of rich red wine to their lips and said “Ugh! Fancy drinking dirty water out of a trough that a donkey’s been at!......”…they all said: “Well, at any rate there’s no Humbug here. We haven’t let anyone take us in..”
“You see,” said Aslan. “…Their prison is only in their own minds, yet they are in that prison; and so afraid of being taken in that they cannot be taken out.”
We need to heal. Our hierarchs need to earn our trust again. But we are not called to be dwarfs in a dark prison; we are called to be free men and women in the light of the Gospel. Let us continue to pray fervently for our new Metropolitan, our diocesan hierarchs and all our other church leaders, clergy and lay. We have seen God work a miracle in answer to our recent prayers. Now let us continue to ask Him for more such good gifts in the opening of missions, the healing of hearts, the ministry to the needy yet to come. For the best thanks we can give God for answered prayer is to ask Him for more, for He is a good Father who delights to give such good things to His children.
