Fall 2022 Sessions of OCA Metropolitan Council & Holy Synod Conclude
Fall 2022 Sessions of OCA Metropolitan Council & Holy Synod Conclude
Lots of interesting reports from the Metropolitan Council this year and the Holy Synod charts the future for the Albanian Archdiocese.
Editor’s note: All emboldening is my own - to direct more emphasis to the especially notable efforts.
The fall season is usually ripe with news and reports from the OCA. The OCA, as part of their transparency efforts, disclose minutes and reports from every session of the Metropolitan Council. These are usually full of interesting developments in the OCA, lots of sneak-peeks of what’s in the works. The Holy Synod also held a session this week, with a very welcome announcement.
The Holy Synod has announced the elevation of Igumen Nikodhim to Archimandrite and has recognized the Albanian Archdiocesan Assembly’s nomination to elect him as successor to the late Archbishop Nikon (Liolin; reposed Sept. 1, 2019), who oversaw the Albanian Archdiocese from 2003 to his repose, alongside the Diocese of New England. In other terms, it appears that Archimandrite Nikodhim will be elected by the Holy Synod to succeed him. Nikon’s enthronement to the archdiocese followed his nomination by the Assembly in less than two weeks. If that isn’t clear enough, Nikodhim was also assigned administrator of the Albanian Archdiocese.
Since Nikon’s repose, His Beatitude, Metropolitan Tikhon became the locum tenens (“holding one’s place”) of the Albanian Archdiocese. It too was announced that His Eminence, Archbishop Mark of Philadelphia and the Diocese of Eastern Pennsylvania will be the locum tenens of the Albanian Archdiocese - presumably until the election and installment of Nikodhim.
UPDATE (21 November 2022): It has been announced by St. Vladimir’s Seminary that “the Holy Synod will take steps to canonically elect and ordain Fr. Nikodhim to the episcopacy in September 2023.”
Now onto the Metropolitan Council. There’s a lot going on here but I’ll trim it as much as I can. Essentially, this is one of the many meetings where all the departments of the Orthodox Church in America report in on what’s going on and potential directions to take. A lot of it is rather irrelevant to the average laity, such as financial reports, social media statistics, so on, but in the summaries you find a lot of interesting information.
In the collaborative report to the Council, the departments are considering these ideas, submitted by attendees of the 20th All-American Council:
Study Guide for Teenagers on Current Events
Post marriage workbook
Centralize am spanish language resources
More marriages of faithful orthodox in america
A comprehensive discussion regarding abortion with the medical and theological details
Tool/guidance for parish outreach and service to the local community
Audio prayer book using St. Tikhon’s newest prayer book
Octoechos translation, Matins
A guide through contemporary religious surrounding.
A standardized OCA summer camp application for all camps across the US (at least)
Usable Sunday school material.
Long-term mission success (when property purchase is not possible)
Video resources to educate deacons on liturgical practice, especially hierarchical
A manual/week of spiritual intensive training for those preparing to serve in the military.
A church wide music program for our Orthodox youth
A music curriculum (with textbook, audio, video, workbook, etc.) for Orthodox homeschoolers
An opportunity to bring Orthodox youth together for fellowship and for outreach to troubled your where they can learn about Christ in a loving environment.
A basic, well-edited Divine Liturgy in Spanish
A class to help integrate newly-illumined Orthodox converts into the life of their new parish.
The report makes a point that the existing website is inefficient in making existing resources easily accessible, something that’s come up in previous Metropolitan Council reports. However, previous reports have seemingly indicated that a new OCA.org is coming, at some point.
Next we get into individual department ongoings and potential developments. The Department of Liturgical Music and Translations has maintained quite a heavy workload in the past while, this session’s report is no different:
ONGOING: Compilation of all available resources and texts that have been used in the past and present under the “Texts for Liturgical Services” section provided in the helpful, but labor-intensive, individual service sheets published on the OCA website. He will be compiling all current texts into a usable online Horologion, Triodion, Penteocostarion, Menaion, Psalter, and other possible resources that we currently possess.
ONGOING: Expansion of Thee/Thou music for the Ochtoechos and Menaion
ONGOING: Creation of complete rubrical notes for upcoming Divine Services. The current focus is on the Saturday night/Sunday cycle, but plans include expanding to include other commonly served services for the Great and Vigil-ranked feasts.
ONGOING: Posting of basic music for Matins and Vespers.
ONGOING: Basic Sight-Singing and Ear-Training Course for choir directors and singers who may be unfamiliar with basic musical concepts. (This is the third round for this popular program.)
ONGOING: Basic Conducting Course held online. This course was recently updated with new videos.
A very helpful meeting was held of all the leading musicians that attended the AAC to speak about how the Department operates, future plans, possibilities of working with other OCA insitutations
, etc.
For choir members like myself and Anna, the OCA’s efforts to compile all liturgical resources and texts, making them easily accessible, is something that is very welcome. It will undoubtedly help choir directors across the jurisdiction and might even make joining the choir easier for some.
Following this is the Department of Evangelization, with a very interesting revelation:
ONGOING: Plans are currently underway for 2023. A separate proposal is being presented.
PENDING: A new apologetics website (currently being named logikos.org) that will feature articles mainly by OCA priests and informed OCA laypersons. The purpose of this site is to provide reliable, well-researched materials on a variety of subjects that are currently being addressed online, sometimes by unreliable or questionable persons or sources. This site would be in answer to the growing number of independent voices on the internet which are causing confusion and even rebellion among some.
In the past year, we’ve been seeing many movements made to counteract the online overzealot personalities and communities, like OrthodoxIntro - created by Ancient Faith Ministries, an extension of the Antiochian Archdiocese’s evangelization and missions department. However, it seems that the OCA is also aiming to scratch the theological/academic itch that many discover Orthodoxy through. We won’t know whether this plan solidifies, but I’d certainly enjoy to see it come to fruition.
The Department of Youth, Young Adult, and Campus Ministry, as well as the Department of Christian Education, have only reported on completions of things set out in previous reports. There’s nothing major to note here. The same goes for the Department of Continuing Education and Department of Christian Service and Humanitarian Aid, which are only reporting organizational/structural needs.
This next bit isn’t so much of a department, but rather a jurisdiction-wide effort that was initially announced in the 2020 fall session of the Metropolitan Council: a 16-section adult catechism.
TEXT NOW UNDER REVIEW BY HOLY SYNOD: A 16-chapter/session Adult Catechism written collaboratively by outstanding authors and made freely available for parish use, including a catechist and catechumen manual, and a resource site to accompany the course. To be released by end of December 2022.
This is one of the more exciting pieces of news. Orthodoxy is very much lacking in the catechisms department (in terms of having an actual catechism, not in catechesis). Having a structured, guided catechism along with resources for catechists will be a tremendous help for many parishes - it will certainly help prospective inquirers learn about Orthodoxy in a simpler manner.
So, here we are, biggest OCA report of the year and no lack of excitement as usual. If you’re interested in taking a look for yourself, you can find the reports here and the minutes (albeit fairly uneventful) here.
(sic)
I take it this list wasn’t scrutinized well before submission, seems like a moot point.
The social media report reiterates the need for this and indicates that progress is being made.
Who “he” refers to is not specified, perhaps one of the department project leads.
(sic)
This domain is already registered for the OCA, it links to a WordPress website with a “coming soon” placeholder.