Well, it gives me no joy, but it seems, some new contributions are in order from Spartion Geometrias.
But first a little housecleaning. The usage of names on this blog became an issue. It was used for clarity (and a bit for convenience) . I didn't and don't think that using a family name is somehow less respectful than “+HB”, “+HG”, “BN” or “+Tikhon”. It was never my intent to offend any with that by the use of the family names. But issue of style must take a back seat to issues of substance, so from here on out I will adopt a more formal style. Any how, back to the “issues”.
No, dear reader, Spartion and friends don't really enjoy this, and with what seemed like a workable resolution after Pascha, the fire to keep at it waned.
It did seem for a bit there that things were functioning with a sort of normality. Mark Stokoe's role was eventually reviewed by the appropriate authority, Bishop Matthias (Moriak) of Chicago and the Midwest. Bp. Matthias rendered his decision, and removed Stokoe from the Metropolitan Council, removing something of a conflict of interest, showing that the proper authorities do act when they have the time and space to do so, and and revealing to all what should have been obvious all along – that Stokoe's blog is Stokoe's, not some quasi-official mouthpiece. (The reason for the similarity of Stokoe's position and many others is because Stokoe was observing the same facts, not because he was controlling all the organs of the OCA).
Similarly, the unfortunate situation regarding Archimandrite Zaccheus (Wood), until this summer representative of the OCA in Moscow, revealed some rather “normal” Church order. Bp. Tikhon (Fitzgerald), retired Bishop of San Francisco and the West, could not restrain himself from “noting” the fall of one of Bob Kondratick's nemeses.
At the same time Jesse Cone at OCA Truth was having a right little fit. He seems to have elevated opposition to leaves of absence to a Dogma of the Faith, since he accused OCA.org of heresy for announcing, as briefly as possible, that Fr. Zaccheus was on leave. The representative to Moscow could not just disappear. Maybe in Moscow 1937, for an Archimandrite to just disappear was par for the course, but now it seems the Moscow Patriarchate and many others beside just might like to know who the representative of the OCA to Moscow is at the moment. The announcement was as brief as possible and included absolutely no accusation or pre-judgment. Beyond what it said, the further details at that time were none of our business.
But to most of us it seemed that we could see a beginning of at least being able to muddle through. Things were working, maybe not optimally, but they were working. Since these events however, we seem to be returning to paralysis, on the eve of the All American Council of the OCA.
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