So, why are you a member of a Serbian Church, which may be regarded by some as an "accoutrement to phyletyism"?
Scandalous!! I really object to that, as a monk and a priest of the Serbian Orthodox Church for 20 years.
I have read assessments of the Orthodox Church of America, on the basis of the reported shenanigans of OCA bishops over the last few decades! But politeness would not permit me to make mention of these things.
Dear Father, bless!
I am very sorry that I have upset you, and would have responded to Alveus differently had I realized you might react so. I only meant to point out to Alveus (a member of the Serbian Church) that he may have overstepped a line by saying: "This game of ever-shifting borders and the need for national churches as accoutrements to phyletism is totally disgusting. I want a Missouri Orthodox Church, so if we ever get a national Orthodox Church, I say we just throw up our middle fingers and demand that we have 50 autocephalous Orthodox Churches arranged by state, and then after that we'll finally have built a perfect kingdom, like a bunch of idiotic politicians."
For the record, I have two problems with phyletism. First, the accusers at the pan-Orthodox Synod of 1872 had no business accusing anybody of phyletism. Second, the folks who argue against national churches overlook the great commandment--to convert all nations.
There is no question that the Church was a great, if not the major, reason for the emancipation of the Greeks, Bulgarians and Serbians from the Ottoman yoke and therefore were a major element of these "resurrected" nations. Looking at Russia herself, it is obvious that the Church rebuilt that nation after two centuries of Tatar barbarism.
Now, it is also a historical fact that no national church is innocent of being part of movements, state-sponsored or not, that try to homogenize the existing ethnic composition or to expand the nascent nation's boundaries at the expand of other nationalities. The reason why the late 19th Century Ottoman plebiscite in Macedonia and Thrace happened was the continued refusal by the Greek Etnarch of all "Rum" Christians to recognize her Bulgarian members as such. Let us not forget the attempt by Serbia to recreate Dushan's Great Serbian Empire by imposing a similar yoke on the Bulgarian residents of Macedonia after WWI, just as the Greeks had done in their portion of Macedonia. And, both the Greek and Serbian clerics were complicit in those efforts at ethnic cleansing. I am sure that somebody else on this forum will dig up something similar that the Bulgarians did to Greeks and Serbians. Have at it. My point is that all of these national churches made such mistakes. It was part of nation building, it was in the past, and it is now time to move past those precedents. In this regard, at least Patriarch Pavle of blessed memory protested forcefully against the atrocities committed by hisfellow Serbians in the most recent unpleasantries. We need other leaders such as the saintly Patriarch Pavle. But, I do not think that we can go forward by blindly criticizing or defending ethnicities.
