Metropolitan Hilarion Kapral (1968- ), Archbishop of New York and Eastern America, the First Hierarch of the ROCOR. A champion and confessor of unity!
Editor’s Foreword:
The following was found on the Stokoe website. Unlike most of the commenters there, who appear to be hard-shell Renovationists, “Fr Pius” seems to a well-grounded sort who uses a pseudonym because of the nasty proclivities of the Syosset/SVS gang.
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Your thoughts and the entire article were excellent Mark.
From withIN the OCA: Archbishop Job [of Chicago and the Midwest] is the only sensible candidate.
From OUTside the OCA: Metropolitan Hilarion of the Synod Abroad (sic) (“Fr Pius” means the ROCOR: editor’s note), (which I still think could further Orthodox unity in America more than we’ll ever know).
But, above all… may HIS will be done… and may we be attuned to His will in all things! Come, O Holy Spirit and fill the hearts and minds of all Thy faithful people and enkindle in us the FIRE of truth and the BRIGHTNESS of the Father’s Only Begotten Son, Our Lord Jesus Christ, that we may all be accountable to Him now and for all Eternity for our thoughts, words, and deeds and have mercy upon us when we fail!
In His great mercy,
Fr Pius, Priestmonk
10 November 2008
Orthodox Christians for Accountability
http://www.ocanews.org/serendipity/index.php?/archives/307-Commentary-by-Mark-Stokoe.html#comments (in English)
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Editor’s Afterword:
Unfortunately, Mark Stokoe has shown himself in the past few months as nothing but a former “insider” who wished to regain his position. It is clear that he was on the “outs” with Robert Kondratick, which explains his vehement opposition to him. Mind you, Mr Kondratick WAS a thief and destroyer of records, that is true. I merely mean that Mr Stokoe showed more than a tincture of “methinks the maiden doth protesteth too much”.
“Fr Pius” raises an important point. There is no doubt that the best candidate for the First Hierarch of a united Russian Orthodox Church in the Americas is Metropolitan Hilarion Kapral of the ROCOR. He was born and raised in Canada, he has a “missionary heart”, he is young enough to be vigorous, and old enough to have acquired some wisdom. He is a peacemaker and conciliator. There is no one in the present OCA Holy Synod who has his abilities and gifts.
Yes, it would mean the “end” of the “autocephaly” of the OCA. So be it. The organisation is moribund, in any case. I shall not cry if Joseph Fester, David Brum, Paul Meyendorff, John Breck, and all of their assorted clerical and pseudo-intellectual hangers-on get the heave-ho. I shall confide that I shall not be alone. Indeed, Rev Behr, a wheel at SVS, admitted to a priest abroad that there was “no future in the OCA”.
It is time to bury the decomposed corpse of Schmemann’s folly. It is time to unify the three Russian churches in the diaspora. Oh, what about those who are Russophobic? They shall leave, just as the right-wing fringe of the ROCOR dropped off after the reconciliation, the left-wing fringe of the OCA shall go off to the AOCANA, pushing it ever further into quasi-Protestantism and Americanist phyletism. We shall all be better off without them.
We have a church to rebuild. God willing, Metropolitan Hilarion Kapral shall be able to do it.
We can do it. The time for unity is NOW.
Deus Vult! (God wills it!)
(Yes, I know it is the motto of the Latin Crusaders, but, it fits, I am using it, and I am not ashamed.)
Amen, amen, amen — on Fr Pius, Metropolitan Hilarion, and your general assessment of the situation.
I still insist, though, that the militant Americanist elements in the Metropolia will not all go to the Antiochians (I do believe this will be the case by and large with the Midwesterners), but rather the SVS/New Englander orbit will end up in a Russian Exarchate like unto the Parisian one, and like the latter will live in a fantasy world in which they are the local American Church.
Comment by Esteban Vázquez — Tuesday, 11 November 2008 @ 15:14
Instead of a Russian Exarchate under the EP, I think a sizeable number the Northeastern OCA (who are not as renovationist as the Antiochians) might be happy to go back to their roots as Carpatho-Russians, Galicians, etc., and be happily placed under the American Carpatho-Russian Diocese by the Ecumenical Patriarch.
Comment by Ioann — Tuesday, 11 November 2008 @ 16:20
There is one reason why that shan’t happen. Black Bart is so obvious in his greedy power-grabs that Moscow would not allow it. North America is the canonical territory of the MP, that is all that need be said.
Cheers,
Vara
Comment by 01varvara — Tuesday, 11 November 2008 @ 17:03
Going back to “my roots” as someone of Galician ancestry meant entering Orthodoxy through the MP. It did not mean a match between jurisdictions and my grandfather’s village. I prayed, I wanted to be Orthodox. My heart is in Holy Rus.
The Galician, Carpatho-Russian identity in my experience in America is also a “fantasy land.” It becomes a way to remain ex-Uniat at best while idealizing the “Americanness” of having found a better way. It is a fairly depressing fantasy land.
In my opinion, the unsatisfactoriness of this “identity” underlies the almost requisite Russophobia or ambivalence towards Holy Rus which has little in common with the real, current day Carpatho-Rus in particular. Such individuals found even within the MP seem to regard themselves as having a concession stand.
In the attempt to reaffirm and defend an identity that is now at best a fading image, diluted and distorted generationally, they simultaneously proclaim the benefits of having experienced the OCA as liberators and more recently, the Antiochians? The EP?
This is all very sad, and the EP will not make it happy for yes, theersatz Carpatho-Russians/Galicians in the OCA nor for those even in the MP who think they know better than the Russians considering Schememman their Martin Luther.
As the Editor stated, sometimes “Goodbye” is OK..
Comment by Stephen — Wednesday, 12 November 2008 @ 10:05