No one should doubt that every jurisdiction in the United States is true to
its mission to serve all Orthodox, in addition to sustaining a particular
ministry to definable ethnic groups. This ministry to ethnic immigrants and
to their offspring will continue, probably without end. It is a part of the
fabric of the work of the Church in the United States. There will be a
strong and necessary mission ministry in the United States as long as there
is immigration. We do not mean by this to limit immigration nor mission to
those solely coming from "Orthodox" countries. There is nothing un-Christian
nor wayward in the Church ministering to particular groups, as long as she
does not neglect the wider field to be harvested around her. In this arena,
however, more cooperation is needed.

Those who insist that only English be used bear a burden of prejudice . The
Church cannot fulfill her mission unless she uses the forms of communication
necessary to her faithful; and, she is not obliged to "eradicate" the
various liturgical languages now in use to the exclusivity of English, just
because English is the language of the land. On the other hand, she must not
neglect any of her faithful by refusing to hold services in English when the
need is obvious. Children cannot learn a foreign language in the context of
participating in the Divine Liturgy. Church leaders and others who want
their offspring to learn an ethnic tongue need do so outside the context of
communal praise of the Lord. "Lord have mercy" and "Grant this, O Lord," are
not enough of a vocabulary by which children can learn the language of their
ethnic ancestors.
The Church in the United States is actively ministering to others, offering
them the gift of faith and salvation in Christ's holy Church just as the
nascent Church took the Gospel into all the lands of the Mediterranean and
Europe and offered it to those peoples. To bear Christian witness to
non-Orthodox is the fulfillment of the Great Command by our Lord to his
Church; it is her proper fabric; it is the "stuff" of which the Church is
made.

In this manner, the warp of the Church can be likened to her infantile ties
to the Mother Churches. This 200 year-old tie remains and ever will remain
the basis of the founding sacramental life in North America. Ethnic Orthodox
traditions came with the faith and are cherished in the ghetto parishes
until this day. The weft can be seen as the local Church's response to being
planted in a novel society. The accommodation to the use of English,
reaching out to "non-Orthodox," bearing witness to a different society, the
Church's adaptation to the "agora of the New World," all of these things
represent the ability and maturity of the local Church to respond.

The warp continues as the authentic tie of "catholicity" with the rest of
the Church. This is the "Holy Orthodoxy" which has been deeply rooted over
the past two centuries. The weft is placed by the hierarchy, clergy and
faithful, day by day, year after year, across the warp, thus creating a
unique local witness as shaped by the Spirit of Truth who is present
everywhere and fulfilling all things.

For this witness to develop and grow, however, there must be a unification
of the hierarchs into one synod with a patriarch at its head. For the Church
here to continue her ministry to the ethnic immigration, to the
American-born, to those enlightened to Holy Orthodoxy, she must also reach
out to others such as to the Afro-American, Asian, African, Hispanic
peoples. To do this, to be true in the most profound sense of her mission,
the Church must be unified. Ministries to these groups must be established
by common consent and witness of a single unified Holy Synod.
The Church in the United States, her hierarchs, clergy and faithful, must
continue to reassure the Mother Churches that she is capable of serving all
peoples with her ministry as a unified Church with its own local Holy Synod
and Patriarch, by her strong witness of common effort and actions at this
time in her history.

On the other hand, it seems to us that the implementation of the canon
directing having one bishop in any given city must be worked out here,
locally by the Church, and in her own good time. Although the canons are
clear, they do refer to different times and other circumstances. To"undo"
episcopal sees at this time so that there would be only one hierarch in a
city as a "condition sine qua non" for autocephaly is not necessary. Nor can
a "fiat" from outside the United States enforce this canon before its time.

The Mother Churches are realistic and practical enough in facing the truth
that the situation in the United States was not foreseen in the canons, and
that the existence of more than one bishop in a given city can be phased out
in time. Those who live in the United States and are living the life of the
Church here know her history and her traditions. The Holy Synod of the
Church in the United States, together with the clergy and laity, will be
open to the prompting of the Holy Spirit to regularize the traditional
ecclesiology of the Church when the time comes.
In the meanwhile, the Church in the United States continues her ministry and
like the apostles preaching to the "hodge-podge" of pilgrims on the great
day of Pentecost, ministering to everyone according to his own tongue and
custom, working hard to bring in a harvest to her Lord and God and Savior.
When should the blessing for this unified Holy Synod come? Without delay!
From whom ought it be given and to whom? From each Mother Church to her own
children! Who shall announce the formalization? Inasmuch as the
regularization came from a Patriarch of Constantinople, let it be announced
from his throne. When? Without delay!

+NATHANIEL, Archbishop of Detroit