January 25, 2007
On Evangelization
Alice Carter
The misuse of money is symptomatic of this problem.
The ways in which money was distributed indicate that those dispensing funds
felt entitled to spend as if the money belonged to them and not to Christ.
Keeping account of money is the way we recognize that the money belongs to God;
not keeping a careful account is a way of saying that the administrative
officers of the Church were not interested in reporting to God, indeed, that
they owed nothing to God. All the suggestions about Best Practices, reforms,
committees are missing the point since none of them refer to this appalling
condition. Without coming to grips with this separation from the Gospel,
palliative measures will eventually vanish. How did it happen that our Bishops
and administrative bodies such as the Metropolitan Council were able to ignore
the financial disaster for such a long time if they were not also unmoored from
Christ? This is the problem that has not been addressed. As well intended as
the reform measures may be, by ignoring this fatal separation from Christ and
His Gospel, they will not empower the Church to become the Church He has called
us to be.
How do we begin to examine this and the many other
problems we experience as a Church unless we begin to evangelize within our
ranks the many who see the Church as an ethnic club, a family tradition, a
convertÕs club of true believers, a society for perpetuating the Czarist
traditions within the Church and the many other distortions we embrace? Who is
going to tell us who we really are, what we are supposed to be doing in America
and how we are to begin? If it is the Bishops who are ordained to rightly
divide the Word, perhaps the evangelization of our Bishops would be a good
place to begin. This is not to say that we, with our own separation from the
Gospel bear no responsibility for this crisis; we also truly need radical evangelization.
But perhaps beginning with the Bishops is where we need to start.
However tempting it is to prescribe reform of the
Episcopate – and all the suggestions have some merit – monastic
life, the retreat of the national office to St. TikhonÕs, asceticism, fasting,
prayer – these all belong to a secondary level of reform. The first, most
obvious issue for the Bishops is the intensity of their mutual animosity, which
was revealed in this past year. What does the Gospel tell them and us about
such personal conflicts and attacks? What good is a bishop who fasts and hates
his brother? The level of disrespect, power plays, calumny and just plain
viciousness that we have seen, has revealed the power of the gospel of this
world, not of Christ.
These are flaws we fully replicate in our parishes
and within our families, so they are not alien to us. Who do we seek when
confronted with irreconcilable conflict? Many Orthodox Christians seek the
spiritual help of monastics, lay people and priests, those characterized by
humility, kindness and prayer. To receive their instruction and aid, the
bishops might consider seeking them out. A sign that they are truly interested
in committing their lives to the service of God would be their beginning such a
search. Such an action would have to follow, not precede, the recognition that
they are truly in deep trouble. What would make them recognize that fact, if
they have not heard all the voices speaking to them this past year? Not many
have focused on the level of episcopal animosity. Most of us have focused on
the misuse of funds. What does that say about us?
If the disunity and separation of brothers in the hierarchy
truly disturbs us – and it should – we need to let the Bishops know
that what we demand of them as teachers of the Gospel is that they reveal the
power of the Gospel in their existential, concrete situation. We need to
communicate the distress caused by their way of relating to each other. If they
begin to seek help for their conflicts and rage, they will be able to lead us
forward by teaching us the Gospel of repentance and salvation through the
Cross.