Nicholas,
If you could ask what groups in particular will be included, this would be appreciated. I see no reason that someone like Bobby (given his theology) would exclude the "Oriental Orthodox" while at the same time including a group like ROAC. This isn't a knock on ROAC, but it would just be very strange if Bobby would include a group he most likely sees as "seperated from the Church and not even willing to attempt reconciliation," while excluding a group he most likely sees as "seperated from the Church but who very well may soon be in communion with world Orthodoy. Really though, to me this is beside the point.
If he is going to include ROAC, is he also going to include HOCNA and ROCiE? If not, why not (ie. why ROAC and not these other groups)? On what criterion does he include group X and not group Y? Until someone explains what groups will be listed, and what criterion (or criteria) were used to determine this, I think people are playing with fire.
This is not a way to bring traditionalists together, or to help them find Churches. They can do this very easily on many internet pages, or by asking their priest or someone else at their church. Is it too much trouble to say "Hey, I'm going to Dallas in two weeks and I don't have the internet, could you check for me and find out where the closest ROCOR parish is?" What might happen is that ROCOR lay people, who have never heard of group X, and have never even began to study ecclesiology, will go to the church of group X and hear about how bad ROCOR is, how they're "ecumenical apostates," and so forth.
What is being said here would be like someone making a video company. Some of the videos will be pro-ecumenism (just like some of the churches on the list will be pro-ecumenism), some will be normal videos, and and will be pro-sectarian videos (just like some of the churches on the list will be pro-sectarian). Someone says "well, we'll just use 'traditionalist ones'". Well tell me, who is going to distinquish between the sectarians and the normal traditionalists?
Forget about finding out about a parish and then asking spiritual fathers and elders what they think of said priest and parish: today we are too busy for that! Now we can just find out on our cell phones where the closest parish is: whether it's good or bad, who cares, Orthodox is Orthodox, it's all the same, right? We just don't have time any more to figure out where we could go, so we'll roll the dice, make a phone call, and maybe it'll work out and maybe it won't. Maybe we'll be praying next to communion-receiving monophysites, or maybe we'll be praying next to people who hate and slander our bishop--no matter! We just don't have time and can't make the effort to find something better.
Also, I'm a bit let down by the argument that traditionalists can go to traditionalist Churches. Even leaving aside the fact that not all "traditionalist" churches are the same, one must ask, where does this leave the non-traditionalists? What about the inquirer, who ends up at Church X, which is full of ecumenism and false unity. Or what happens when the inquirer ends up at Church Y, which fills his head with super-correct views and teaches him to attack his brothers in Christ? Bobby wants to be the watcher, but I want to know: who watches the watcher?
I have nothing against a member of ROCOR attending an OCA or ROAC church (or vice versa). I do, however, have a problem with people sending innocent children into such a situation. If someone doesn't know what to look for (in terms of information being given), then they shouldn't go into such a situation. This could be guarded against to some extent if only certain groups were included, but such a list is of course impossible.
Some have brought up with me privately my going to OCA (and Romanian) parishes/monasteries. This is really beside the point, though. I am not saying--nor have I ever said--that all of world Orthodoxy is corrupt. I've certainly never said that they are without grace or heretical. It is not hypocritical for me to attend an orthodox parish: one that isn't eagerly promoting ecumenism or eagerly promoting sectarianism, but is simply trying to work out it's salvation in an faithful Orthodox way.
What I object to is not that certain jurisdictions from "world Orthodoxy" are included: what I object to is that there is no control over what churches a person will get sent to within those jurisdictions. I'm perfectly willing to concede that many parishes in world Orthodoxy are, for the most part, innocent and faithful to Orthodoxy. It's the rare ones that deviate radically that worry me. I am certainly not saying that ROCOR is free from "bad apples" (I, myself, am a bad apple). What I am saying is that it's extremely difficult to see which apples are bad and which aren't when you are deciding where to go based on what a cell phone or other such thing tells you.
I mean, all of this seems very controversial from a moderate ROCOR stand point, I can only imagine what a more rigorist Orthodox in ROCOR, ROAC, TOC, etc. would think. Why would Julianna or OOD want to be involved in a project that might send potential inquierers into jurisdictions that they believe have no grace or are on the verge of collapse?
I've spent enough time no this subject, I think. I had thought I left off this whole thing nearly a year ago when I figured out because of conscience that I couldn't do it. Yet here I am writing about it again. But it's not my role to do so, I suppose. I do not judge those who participate in such an endeavor, I only ask questions of them and worry for them. Maybe I'm overreacting, maybe I'm making too much of it. If you believe I am, pray for me (even as I pray for myself, and for you all who read this thread).
