Metropolitan Philip plays hardball

I don't know much about these things, but I take it that Philip is not an American? He seems from this account to be pretty clueless about how this country, and journalism here, operate.

It has been suggested by more than one person that the Boston Globe was a tool of Satan when it exposed the scandals in the American Catholic Church, but to my knowledge no one ever demanded that Bernard Law silence the Globe (much as I'm sure he would have like to do that).

He seems from this account to be pretty clueless about how this country, and journalism here, operate.

But isn't that part of the point? The patriarch is emphasizing the Antiochians aren't an American church, but Arabs. The Orthodox, in general, are from the East, not the West. If you want to be part of our church, you better get with the program.

There is an irony--for anyone who has followed the Anglican and Catholic wars--that the Antiochian church in the U.S. has been bolstered by ex-Episcopalians and ex-Catholics who complained bitterly that Canterbury and the Vatican weren't taking a firm enough hand with dissenters. Now, they are seeing what muscular, authoritarian leadership looks like when dealing with dissent.

Rod,

Love your podcasts and thanks for having the courage to publish this.

Rod,

God bless you for publishing this. Metropolitan PHILIP has proven by his actions and words this year that he is no longer qualified to serve as a bishop in Christ's Church. May he find repentance and healing; but first he simply must go! The harm his erratic actions are doing are inexcusable. I pray for your friends. This is America, the land of free speech, and it is horrific to punish seminarians and OCA seminaries for a website that is simply acting as an independent watchdog for Orthodox Church affairs.

ANAXIOS!

(He is unworthy!)

Saddened on the eve of the Feast of the Dormition.

Rod,

Thanks for keeping this in our eyes we need to stay informed of what is happening. I know a few of these guys and it is horrible the way they are being treated. This has to come to an end soon!

Keep up the good work my friend!

Yes, I know that Met. Philip is technically not the "patriarch," but for non-Orthodox readers, I wanted to convey that he is the head of the Antiochian Orthodox Church in this country. The word "metropolitan" doesn't mean anything to people unfamiliar with the Orthodox hierarchical structure.

The more I think about this, the sadder it makes me. All that good work Met. Philip has done over the years to build his church in this country, being squandered in vanity. It's heartbreaking.

Davis' comments are accurate and the irony more than heartbreaking. What if it is true that the millions diverted weren't for greed but Syrian politics. That would explain the layer upon layer of posturing. It's not about unity, vanity, Byzantine, how bishops here are being treated, church splits, or in the end the metropolitan. This scandal, if the real truth COULD ever surface would be an explosion.

Davis is wrong in this sense, the leadership knows exactly how this western culture operates. The title "The Metropolitan Philip plays hardball" is only accurate to western. He can play baseball and football I believe he can play you and has.

Rod, taking his beliefs as whole, would you say that Metropolitan Philip is "largely correct?"

Met. Philip is as human as anyone. And the Church of Antioch can be as authoritarian as any other church, inside or outside of Orthodoxy.

This is where the Holy Spirit does his best work..............hearts need to be changed.

I have been saddened and angered ever since hearing of this news. What appears to be petty tyranny and retaliation against those not even responsible in order to accomplish the silencing of the truth is so...I hardly have the words: Venal? Thuggish? Narcissistic? Totalitarian? Corrupt? (Maybe the problem is that there are too many words) that the situation defies my attempts at developing empathy for His Eminence's position. I am an Antiochian Orthodox Christian who expects far better from my hierarchs.

I want to caution others, though. While I pray that our Lord brings genuine Orthodox unity out of all this, I fear too many tend to play right into the hands of the wrong side when the blame is placed on the "ethnicity" or "old world" nature of it all. No culture is free of petty tyranny and thuggishness--neither the Greeks, the Serbs, the Arabs, nor the Americans. However, we EXPECT the Church to at least struggle to be free of it, and certainly not to indulge or protect it. I happen to know many of Arab descent who are pious and faithful Orthodox Christians who are also disgusted by what they see and attribute it to sin rather than to culture. I have noted, however, on that odd site "theantiochian.com" that the other side often tries to portray our objections to obvious anomalies as "disobedience" to the Holy Synod of Antioch, or an antipathy to our Church's Antiochian roots. This is, plain and simple, a strawman meant to demonize those who simply are asking for accountability. We are validating this essentially deceptive tactic when we attribute the deficits of our leadership to an issue of enthnicity. As we also know, the Holy Synod of Antioch itself clarified the recent confusion regarding His Eminence's arbitrary demotion of the diocesan Bishops in a way which showed that this confusion had far more to do with His Eminence's ambitions than with our mother Church of Antioch. It also highlighted His Eminence's own difficulties with obedience.

To "Lasorda"--triumphalism ill becomes a Christian during a time of trial for the Orthodox. I do not wish to debate whether your position on papal authority is correct (I remain Orthodox), but regardless, it did little to protect the Roman church from its own set of scandals not too long ago. This is not to gloat, but rather to emphasize that the history of the trials of the Church is rife with schisms, heresies, corruption, and even worse. There is a desert story of a condemned Christian able to receive some relief from the flames of hell because he was standing on the shoulders of a bishop below him. Clearly, the desert monks knew of corruption and venality among ancient hierarchs as well. But, as "Grumpy Old Man" said, "Somehow the Church endures." If one is to use the present, relatively minor, struggles of the Orthodox to support papalism, then what happens to your 'argument' when one can point to at least equally problematic (and perhaps worse) examples in Rome? I'm sure you would agree that this does not, in itself, invalidate the Roman concept of papal supremacy; however, by that same token, it cannot then be used to invalidate Orthodox conciliarity.

Brian David: Well spoken!

I've been involved with the Antiochian Archdiocese at the national level for almost 10 years now, and am, well, stunned by the sudden change of course in + Philip's actions this year. When was the last time he was vocal for American Orthodox unity, for example? Say, in an article in The Word. Perhaps I've been naive.

One thing we all need to remember is that no Orthodox jurisdictional unity will occur without a full opening of the financials, so the accounts can all be joined too. Today I'm having trouble seeing that happening any time soon.

ps - I include protestant and quasi-Christian sects, even those whose traditions are less than a hundred years old.

pps - and every tradition obviously has an host of Christly souls

This episode, unfortunate though it may be, is all part of God's plan to bring unity to the various Orthodox jurisdictions here in the U.S.

My two cents.

I am a United Methodist Elder who took a two year leave of absence to sweat spiritually. I came to love the Orthodox Church and her priests and people of the Greek, OCA, and Antiochian jurisdictions. However, the episcopal shenanigans either from +Philip or +Bartholomew convinced me I was better off with continuing my ministry as a United Methodist under the authority of our Bishops. Our Bishops and church may profess a woolly, truncated, sacramental theology but at least I can trust them.

Please get your facts straight before reporting. First off Metropolitan PHILIP is not the patriarch of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Church. It is Patriach Ignatius. After I read this I knew not to continue reading because if the first line was wrong the rest is too.