Two Tennessee Orthodox Churches of Different Jurisdictions Unite

[5Loaves]

[Apologies if this has already been posted. In looking at the history here I didn’t see it.]

Unite

From the statement made by Fr. Stephen Mathewes to the [Holy Resurrection Orthodox Church] parish on Sunday, June 9th

… His Grace, Bishop ANTOUN has met with and discussed this major undertaking with His Eminence, Metropolitan ALEXIOS (bishop of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Atlanta), and together have seen the great benefit that unity can be to our respective parishes, and to the mission of Orthodoxy here in northeast Tennessee…

While this is of course very surprising, even shocking news (let me assure you that it has been for me as well), we should keep in mind something very important. What we have been tasked with—combining two parishes from different Orthodox jurisdictions—is a new frontier here in America. This has never been done before. For us, this means two things: first, that there is no “guidebook” for us to follow, and that as such it will be especially difficult work; second, that we have the incredible opportunity to be pioneers. All the Orthodox here in America wish to see true unity. Here, we the faithful living in northeast Tennessee, are being asked to lead the way.

They are in my unworthy prayers in this time of transition. May they be a source of hope for all of us.

 

[Elizium23]

Hmm, what does this mean? What is the context for this merger? Were the two parishes dwindling in membership and in danger of extinction? Or is this a move to support the growth of both communities? I really wonder about tiny Orthodox parishes in middle America and wonder what they do when they lose their immigrant base of faithful. I guess it is basically “evangelize or die” for many of them.

Don’t get me wrong. I regard this as wonderful news. Any sign of increased unity among the Orthodox is an encouraging sign of what is to come. Brick by brick.

 

[ConstantineTG]

I believe they are merging their parish into one.

They did something similar here in our area, with one OCA mission merged with one ROC mission. The joint parish is OCA, although they are still a mission parish right now.

 

[andrewstx]

It won’t be too difficult or unusual since both the Greeks and Antiochians have the same liturgical practices and use Byzantine chant.

What would be more difficult would be for a Slavic and Hellenic parishes to merge.

What In yearn to see would be an American Orthodox church free of foreign languages rule from other nations, and customs.

The closest we have now is the Orthodox Church in America. But not all accept their autocephalis (sp) status.

 

[ConstantineTG]

It won’t be too difficult or unusual since both the Greeks and Antiochians have the same liturgical practices and use Byzantine chant.

What would be more difficult would be for a Slavic and Hellenic parishes to merge.

What In yearn to see would be an American Orthodox church free of foreign languages rule from other nations, and customs.

The closest we have now is the Orthodox Church in America. But not all accept their autocephalis (sp) status.

Many OCA parishes are ethnic and use only a foreign language.

Many Roman Catholic parishes are also ethnic. Sometimes within a parish there are ethnic sub-groups and throughout the number of Masses in a single day, there will be Masses in a language for a specific ethnic group.

This problem is not unique to Orthodoxy. The kind of migration seen in North America is unheard of in Europe back in the day. Neither of our Churches really has figured out a way to solve this issue. So far the only solution is long term, where the members of the Churches will be those who are born and raised here, and the waves of immigrants have slowed down to the point that people coming in are more likely to want to integrate into society and not have a cultural ghetto where they can go to and remain in their foreign culture while living in North America. But that is unlikely to happen in the near future.