As publicly confirmed by a senior OCA priest and privately confirmed by other OCA priests, at the Nineteenth All-American Council in July 2018, a Resolution aimed at asking the bishops to correct errant clergy and lay persons who promote false teaching on same-sex relationships was rejected by the OCA Synod of Bishops and not permitted to be voted on by the assembly. Concerned that publications such as The Wheel were perceived to be given a tacit blessing by the hierarchy, senior priests urged the bishops, through the resolution, to send an unambiguous message that false teaching will not be tolerated.
The OCA Synod rejected the resolution citing that it was not appropriate for the All-American Council to “give direction” to the Synod. The OCA bishops also did not provide any feedback to revise or edit the priests’ statement to make it more acceptable to them. The answer of the resolution’s sponsors was that the resolution was a plea, not a demand. As a result, publications such as The Wheel continue to disseminate false teaching without episcopal correction.
Here is the Resolution.
Resolution to Petition the Holy Synod to Correct Errant Clergy and Lay Persons on Issues of Same-Sex Erotic Relationships
WHEREAS, there are Orthodox magazines, websites, and articles which seek to theologically normalize same-sex erotic relationships, contradicting the long-held Tradition of the Orthodox Christian faith, and
WHEREAS, the Holy Synod has repeatedly and consistently upheld past statements of the Orthodox Church in America which affirm that sexual relationships are blessed only within the context of a marriage between one man and one woman, and which calls those who have same-sex attractions, motivated by love and out of sincere care for their souls, to a life of steadfast chastity, and
WHEREAS, there are clergy, theologians, teachers, and lay persons within the Orthodox Church in America who have boldly contradicted those teachings which affirm traditional marriage by publishing magazines, websites, and articles challenging those views, attempting to create a theological framework which normalizes same-sex erotic relationships, and
WHEREAS, St Paul writes that such teachings will “increase to more ungodliness”, and that such a “message will spread like cancer” (2 Tim 2:16), misleading the faithful and inquirers seeking the truth, now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, that the Nineteenth All-American Council respectfully petitions the members of the Holy Synod to, without hesitation, reprove and correct such clergy, theologians, teachers, and lay persons who dare to challenge the teaching of the Orthodox Church and the authority of her hierarchs by not upholding the traditional teachings on marriage and human sexuality.
Did anyone notice that Fr. John A. Jilllions, Chancellor of the OCA back in 2018, had published two different articles in The Wheel in 2018? One of them published on July 24, 2018 one day after Metropolitan Tikhon delivered his address at the 19th All-American Council. Yet another reason why Met. Tikhon and the other OCA bishops rejected the resolution?
Obergefellv.Hodges: Questions for Orthodox Christians
https://the-wheel-journal.squarespace.com/s/Jillions.pdf
“Thicket of Idols”: Alexander Schmemann’s Critique of Orthodoxy
https://www.wheeljournal.com/blog/2018/7/24/john-jillions-alexander-schmemann
God bless those priests! They’re doing the work the cowardly bishops should be doing.
There was nothing controversial about that resolution, nothing! Why would they reject it? Don’t they realize how bad this LGBT stuff has become in the culture around us? Do they live in a bubble or do they see nothing wrong with the heretical stuff The Wheel and “Public Orthodoxy” regularly put out?
“You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trodden under foot by men.” (Matthew 5:13)
Amen, John and the Orthodox Editors.
For almost two years, here sits a Protestant (Anglican) searching for a faith with greater “spiritual discipline”.
Do your “councils” OUTSIDE the American Council support these false teachings?
Hello Lyle
Look into joining ROCOR if you want an Orthodox Church with spiritual discipline. The bishops consistently uphold Orthodox teaching. Not long ago, a nun named Sister Vassa published some material that was questionable as far as the LGBT question goes. The ROCOR synod immediately released a statement. The kind of thing that goes on in the OCA does NOT I repeat DOES NOT go on in ROCOR.
The original resolution was sponsored and submitted by six (6) priests and blessed by one of the OCA bishops.
Lord have mercy and may God protect His Church from false teachers.
What do these men do for a living? Why do six priests have to do the job of an assembly of bishops?? Get with it.