MIAMI \u2014 The elderly husband and wife were screaming at each other as they\u00a0waited for an audience with the Orthodox archbishop of Tripoli.<\/p>\n
Metropolitan Theodosius VI could hear them and so could his young Lebanese\u00a0assistant. Finally, the couple stormed into the office. They agreed on only\u00a0one thing \u2014 divorce.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will deal with you separately,\u201d said the archbishop.\u00a0Then he gestured for his aide to linger. This was going to be a learning\u00a0opportunity for Philip Saliba, a master class in the realities of church\u00a0leadership. Half a century later, he remembers what he learned.<\/p>\n
It helps to know that, Theodosius soon became patriarch of the Antiochian\u00a0Orthodox Church, the ancient church of Sts. Peter and Paul. Then in 1966,\u00a0he consecrated Philip Saliba as metropolitan of the Antiochian Orthodox\u00a0Christian Archdiocese of North America.<\/p>\n
So the old world was teaching a lesson to the new world, a lesson that the\u00a072-year-old Metropolitan Philip turned into an emotional parable during\u00a0last weekend\u2019s 46th Archdiocese Convention, held at the Fontainebleau\u00a0Hilton in Miami Beach.<\/p>\n
This was a parable about the growing pains of Eastern Orthodoxy in America,\u00a0a story about trying to honor the past while facing the future. Grasp this\u00a0parable, Philip told his priests and lay leaders, and you will begin to\u00a0understand the hurdles facing churches in America as they strive to gain\u00a0autonomy from the old country.<\/p>\n
So here is the rest of the parable.<\/p>\n
Theodosius asked the elderly husband what was wrong with his wife. He\u00a0offered a familiar litany: She didn\u2019t cook, she didn\u2019t clean and she\u00a0refused to shine his shoes. The husband left and the wife came in. She said\u00a0her husband was lazy and unaffectionate. He gambled, drank too much and\u00a0leered at other women.<\/p>\n
The archbishop listened and then faced the two of them. Recalling that\u00a0moment, Philip thickened his Lebanese accent to imitate his old teacher\u2019s\u00a0voice. All Theodosius said was: \u201cYou are having very serious problems. Go\u00a0home! Come see me next year!\u201d<\/p>\n
Philip was confused. He said he did not understand the wisdom of this\u00a0response to the couple\u2019s fury. What was he supposed to have learned?<\/p>\n
That is easy, said the archbishop. The husband and wife were very old.\u00a0During the next year, they might kill each other. In a year, the odds were\u00a0good that either the wife or the husband would die. That would solve the\u00a0problem.<\/p>\n
The audience laughed. Then Metropolitan Philip\u2019s voice grew serious.\u00a0Never forget, he said, that people in the ancient lands of the East truly\u00a0believe that \u201ctime and death\u201d will solve most difficult problems.<\/p>\n
The audience stopped laughing. This was the meaning of the parable.<\/p>\n
After all, it had been two years since the American archdiocese \u2014 which\u00a0has grown from 66 to 228 parishes during his tenure \u2014 overwhelmingly\u00a0approved an appeal to the Holy Synod in Damascus for autonomy and the\u00a0ability to manage more of its own affairs. And it had been two years since\u00a0Metropolitan Philip survived a life-and-death showdown with heart disease.<\/p>\n
Hotel hallways were buzzing with reports of calls from the Istanbul offices\u00a0of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, symbolic leader of the world\u2019s\u00a0Orthodox churches, seeking delays in autonomy efforts affecting the growing\u00a0churches in North America, and their bank accounts. After all, changes in\u00a0the convert-friendly sanctuaries of the Antiochian archdiocese and the\u00a0Orthodox Church in America, which has Russia roots, might spread to others\u00a0\u2014 even the Greeks.<\/p>\n
Some leaders \u201cin the East,\u201d said Metropolitan Philip, are convinced that if\u00a0he dies, the autonomy issue will die. Delay the decision and time and death\u00a0will solve the problem.<\/p>\n
Shouting in Arabic and English, Philip vowed that he would not let this happen.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo! No way,\u201d he said. \u201cI will rise from the grave!\u201d<\/p>\n
Hours later, the conference approved \u2014 by a 99.6 percent margin \u2014 sending\u00a0the latest draft of an autonomy resolution to the Holy Synod, a document\u00a0prepared by leaders from America and the old country. The synod should meet\u00a0in October, but recent meetings have been postponed.<\/p>\n
In other words, the phrase \u201cByzantine politics\u201d exists for a reason.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf this step is delayed,\u201d Metropolitan Philip said, Orthodox unity in\u00a0North America \u201cwill be set back for 100 years.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
MIAMI \u2014 The elderly husband and wife were screaming at each other as they\u00a0waited for an audience with the Orthodox archbishop of Tripoli. Metropolitan Theodosius VI could hear them and so could his young Lebanese\u00a0assistant. Finally, the couple stormed into the office. They agreed on only\u00a0one thing \u2014 divorce. \u201cI will deal with you separately,\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[65,73,555,627],"class_list":["post-1240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-antioch","tag-arab-christians","tag-middle-east","tag-orthodoxy"],"yoast_head":"\n