Responsibility

The establishment of the "Autocephalous Church in America" is a significant event for world Orthodoxy today: it recognizes officially the fact that the Orthodox faith is not simply the faith of some ethnic groups in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, that its canonical structure is not bound forever to nostalgic reminiscences of Byzantium or Holy Russia, and that its mission is directed to the man of today and of tomorrow.

We are not forgetting the past, for it is indeed the activity of the great missionaries of the past - Father Herman, Bishop Innocent Veniaminov, Archbishop Tikhon and many others - clergy and laity - which gives us today the canonical and moral right to autocephaly. But in the Church the past is always present and relevant: this is the secret and mystery of what true living Tradition is. The Church is alive, and its life is equally endangered if one cuts the roots of the past or if one refuses to recognize the responsibilities of the present. The forthcoming months and years will test our ability to live up to these responsibilities.

The Statutes of our Church give us ample opportunity to secure a fruitful cooperation between episcopate, clergy and laity on all levels of Church life. It is time for all of us to make full use of our rights and duties and stop arguing about petty and false issues.

To be "The Orthodox Church in America" means that our witness to Orthodoxy must transcend nationalism and be open to our tremendous missionary responsibility and to our responsibility for unity among ALL Orthodox Christians in this country, with the understanding that this unity will not be achieved by submitting one ethnic group to another, or by refusing to any group its share in building up a fully united Orthodoxy in America.

The status of autocephaly finally involves a direct role in shaping up the witness of Orthodoxy as a whole in the world today. This implies not only participation in formal pan-Orthodox conferences and, hopefully, Ecumenical councils, but also responsible and competent debating of contemporary theological, social and moral issues.
The situation of the Orthodox Church being what it is in Communist-dominated countries, in military-ruled Greece, in a fiercely embattled Middle East, the role of our Church could be decisive in making the message of Orthodoxy truly heard and understood.

These responsibilities are heavy: if the Church were a human organization only and not the true Body of Christ, they certainly could not be fulfilled. May the power of God "made perfect in weakness" (I Cor 9:9) help us.

From: Vision of Unity by John Meyendorff, St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, Crestwood, NY 1987