Seraphim,
Given that ROAC claims no official position on this or that GOC/TOC, this obviously is being left as a discretionary question - in which case how can one complain (in this vacuum) if Archbishop Gregory is acting based on his interpretation of things? If he understands certain groups to be schisms, then how is he erring if he receives their members according to exactitude?
No, it is not "obviously being left as a discretionary question". This is a fable of Archbishop Gregory. All of these Churches have existed before ROAC did as an HCA. If ROAC did not specifically state that a Church is schismatic, Abp Gregory had no right to say that they were, based on his private, and erroneous opinion. It is precisely such an attitude that led to confusion on the reception of heretics in the 18th century between two national Churches.
That the proper way to view it would be that we can have such confusion is ridiculous. Had Abp Gregory TOLD the Synod his actual position (he told them ambiguously "he would do what the Church taught"), he never would have been elevated to the Episcopate. AND HE KNOWS THAT.
What local ruling Bishops? New Calendarists? MP? Whose actual territory is he trampling on? As far as the other Bishops of ROAC are concerned, he's not trampling on their turf - the entire world does not belong to the Holy Synod of ROAC. If Archbishop Gregory is acting as a missionary Bishop, those areas he converts by default fall to him, until a new diocese is created in those regions or parts of them are ceeded to his existing diocese.
What you are in effect saying, whether you see it or not, is that the whole world does not belong to the Holy Synod, but to Archbishop Gregory. The Synod would never give such an unprecedented level of power to a single man.
Archbishop Gregory was NEVER given the rights of a missionary Bishop. He was never given the rights to the Church outside Colorado. There isn't a single official document stating such a thing from the Synod of the ROAC. There is, however, documentation to the contrary, that the country was under Fr. Vladimir Shishkoff. He was allowed to receive parishes in, and they would fall to the jurisdiction of the Synod of Bishops. This was told to him through translators in Russia. And like his behavior when he was called to task in the Lamian Synod, he suddenly found he couldn't "understand" certain things.
Every single Bishop of the ROAC is closer to Bulgaria than Abp Gregory. And it is precisely for that reason he had no right to claim jurisdiction over them.
I'm curious about this - were the penances beyond those found in canonical sources?
Ask Fr Dionysi.
I'm unfamiliar with the Holy Canons which justify this type of action - same with which Canons allow for a Heirarch to be "retired" prior to being tried (in which case he wouldn't be being "retired" either, but deposed.)
Actually, this sort of action occurs whenever a Bishop dies or goes to heresy (or is insane, which is rare, but sadly could be the case here).
As for the recommendation that he retire, there is nothing canonical wrong with Ukaz 130, as I will demonstrate later today.
This seems very weird. I know some people justify this "patchwork" arrangement of who oversee's who on the basis of what ROCOR had done for some time (what essentially amounts to overlapping diocesan arrangements), that ROCOR "did this" doesn't make it proper.
This is because you are believing DS's version of the story rather than what's on paper. Fr. Vladimir Shishkoff was the administrator for the country since the beginning. He was the first priest that was received into ROAC. Fr. Gregory had no jurisdiction, was raised to a vicar, and became the Bishop of Colorado. It would be assumed that as need arose for more BIshops, they would be created. This is not "weird" at all. It's standard procedure.
By contrast, establishing pseudo-jurisdiction based upon being someone's spiritual father is very "weird". And that is precisely how it was done by Dormition Skete, and I had the unfortunate displeasure of watching the process begin....
Joe Suaiden
Notes from the Underground is back up!
http://www.roac.tk
Sometimes I tie myself in knots thinking that I'm going to get into some big, harsh debate with people and we'll offend each other. But you always keep things light, and can't seem to offend even if you wanted to.
