Hi, I sent this along time ago to my bishop and he has not responded.What do you do if your canadian Ukranian bishop is ignoring your letter, which means he is ignoring church law.The church says you need an icon screen.He must think not.
Hello, I recently attended Sunday Litergy at Holy Cross church in ********.I could not believe it but they had no icon screen.When I asked someone why they simply said they didnt want one. As you and I both know its not that simple, it comes down to that particular rites law.
UGCC particular law (2006 translation):
Can. 116 (CCEO c. 886) An iconostas is to be erected in every church, according to liturgical norms.
archeparchy.ca/documents/…Law_Canons.pdf
The bishop must do something about this they should not be allowed to disregard and disrespect church law any longer.This is the same law the bishop took an oath to uphold. All I ask is that the bishop make this wrong a right. If I hear that this serious matter is not addressed as it should be, then that leaves me no choice but to keep at it. I can not talk to my pastor about this, as he is in America and doesnt have anything to do with this eparchy. That is why I must address this in an email to the bishop. Please respond
My feedback-- I didn’t post on your other thread complaining that the EC
bishop is not accessible to you, but for that and this post I would give my experience that at least in the Latin Church Diocese and Archdiocese I am connected to there are many people, mostly priests, in positions assisting their bishop/archbishop. Depending on the size of your Eparchy your bishop likely has similar people assisting him with the various concerns of the Eparchy. At least in the Latin Church there is a priest who deals mainly with problems with priests, complaints and other issues, in the diocese. There is another person whose focus is on liturgical issues that arise in the diocese. And of course there is the tribunal which deals with issues of canon law. Bishops East and West could not possibly deal directly with every issue that is raised by the people in their care.
As concerns the letter you sent there are two issues I see in what you have written. First, you have basic errors in the English itself. Second, if you seek to address a bishop it is best to find out the correct way to format a letter to him. You’ve written something that passes as an email-- totally informal and with mistakes, but isn’t really appropriate for correspondence to your bishop.
More importantly perhaps (although proper formality it important) is
the way you’ve approached your topic. I’m not sure how long you’ve been involved with an Eastern Church but saying something should be done because it’s required by a Canon is the Latin approach, not the Eastern approach. If you want to talk about the need for an Iconostasis in a Byzantine temple in my opinion you should be saying why, from an Eastern perspective, it needs to be there. Do you know, from an Eastern perspective, why it needs to be there? If not you can read the references I’ve posted earlier for that and look for additional teaching on this.
I think a priest or a bishop or anyone can look past the lack of good form in your written letter if the meat of the letter speaks meaningfully to the issue. If the only reason you care about the missing Iconostasis is because a canon requires it that speaks of not having a basic grasp of our worship, of
what is behind that canon. What do you lack and what does the worship lack when there is no Iconostasis?
You say you sent this letter to the chancery “along” (a long) time ago. What is “a long time”? Four days ago in your post on the topic of having no Iconostasis you said:
My church does not contain an icon screen.The people at my parish dont want one and as far** as im concered we are not missing anything. Icon screens big deal who really needs one**.
It makes no sense to me that you made a formal compliant to the bishop about something you said is no big deal. It seems like you’ve done a 180 at least twice from the description you’ve given us. Perhaps you need to slow down, pray about this and find a good spiritual father or mother to help you focus your concerns.
I hope you will slow down, and will calmly read my post and consider my feedback.
