The Sunday of Orthodoxy (the first Sunday of Lent, 4 March 2023 ), is not a day of pride in ourselves and in what we were freely given, but a day to evaluate our work by it, that is, to carry out a process of evaluation and critique of our conduct as the Orthodox community according to the uprightness of faith, tradition and law. Are we faithful to the deposit of the saints and the tradition of the Church?
We have previously conducted our theological studies by criticizing the Holy Scripture, that is, stripping it of its sacredness, and dealing with it as a purely human text to examine it and understand it, and we dealt with the Lord Jesus Christ in a critical manner and studied His personality as a historical human being (the historical Jesus), in order to understand more and go deeper into His meaning.
Therefore we must not clothe any human being or authority, whoever and whatever it may be, with a halo of sacredness and infallibility as being all-wise and all-knowing, as long as there is no one of higher rank and value than the Scripture, and no one greater in stature than the Master, who alone is free of error.
Therefore we must treat every act of any authority or person as we treated the Holy Scripture.
Let us take the recent election as an example: if we evaluate the recent election of the Archdiocese of America with an Orthodox vision, we see:
1. That the election is contrary to tradition (the metropolitan is the bridegroom of the diocese).
2. Contrary to the doctrine of the synod (electing a person to membership of the synod while he is a member of it, that is, electing the elected).
3. And contrary to the canons of the ecumenical councils (see the article: The Election of a Metropolitan, Divorce).
And what also happened is an exclusion of the other gifts and of the persons present and qualified for service in the Church. Why should one person, who took his role in service, take the role of others? Should we not make use of all energies? Or is the goal to make the members of the synod of one color.
In the end:
We, the people of Orthodoxy, are called (Orthodox) because we are the people of tradition and uprightness, and we criticize the Catholics and the Protestants because they violated tradition.
So if the people of Orthodoxy do not conduct themselves with uprightness and according to law and principles, then who will uphold tradition? And how do we ask people to preserve the tradition that we ourselves break and violate?
And if the people of Orthodoxy lose the tradition, then who will uphold it, and what remains to us? And if we do not uphold uprightness in administration and election, then where do we uphold it? Is it upheld only by sermons and texts?
Metropolitan Georges Khodr says “no one has a right to an office at the expense of truth and justice, because offices exist only to realize them”.
The most important question for us and for history:
Were Jesus present and existing, would He adopt this election? And is this the line that the holy Fathers drew?
Note:
The transfer of the Metropolitan of Mount Lebanon is entirely different, because it is a process of transfer, and this is what the synod’s statement mentioned: a transfer by exception, whereas the election of the Metropolitan of America is a process of nomination, election and competition, and he is at the same time standing at the head of his diocese.