Phyletism Or Ministry?

According to the late Ecumenical Patriarch, Dimitrios, " It is truly a
scandal for the unity of the Church to maintain more than one bishop in any
given city; it contravenes the sacred canons and Orthodox ecclesiology. It
is a scandal that is exacerbated whenever PHYLETISTIC (ethnocentric) motives
play a part, a practice soundly condemned by the Orthodox Church in the last
(19th) century."

We saw this quotation on the front cover of "An Orthodox Christian Church in
the United States: Unified and Self Governed" (OCL, 2000, 30 N LaSalle St.,
Suite 4020, Chicago, Il, 60602-2507). It does not state the source of the
quote nor to which geographic area the patriarch is referring. He is,
however, quoting from a statement made in the late 19th Century by the Holy
Synod of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. It may be that the Synod was
then referring to the shaping of national political entities in the 19th
century and of the process of recognition of local (ethnic) autocephalous
churches entered into by the Patriarch of Constantinople.

The repetition by Patriarch Dimitrios of this quote in a more recent time,
brings to the foreground the reality of more than one bishop in a given
city, a phenomenon which does exist in many cities in the United States.
Because we do not know the context of Patriarch Dimitrios's statement, we
can only wonder if His Holiness was referring to an "Orthodox" country,
where there was more than one bishop in a city or to a number of countries.
It would be a strange situation, indeed, inasmuch as the Church is governed
in each country by a Holy Synod with a Patriarch as its head and by whose
affirmation all hierarchs are enthroned. How could such a situation come to
be? Where does it exist? In what "Orthodox" countries might one find "more
than one bishop in any given city"?

If we apply his statement to the situation in the United States, we know
that there is an over-lapping of jurisdictions and instances where there is
more than one Orthodox hierarch having the title of the same city. Europeans
are fond of stating that there is no such animal as "an American people,"
because it is a hodge-podge of peoples. We find it strange to identify the
reality in the United States of "poli episcopii " in one city as being based
on "phyletism." To accuse our Church of being "phyletistic" would be a
contradiction to the assumed statement that "there is no such 'people' as
'an American people'. " Perhaps Patriarch Dimitrios was aiming his statement
at those Mother Churches which maintain ethnic jurisdictions in the United
States? Is this the "Phyletism" to which Patriarch Dimitrios is referring?
Inasmuch as a Holy Synod of a "Church in the United States" does not yet
exist and therefore cannot be held responsible for this uncanonical
condition, it seems probable that he is referring to the Mother Churches.
But to what purpose? Was it not a clarion call from Constantinople to revise
this unusual ecclesiastical anomaly?

The hierarchy, clergy and laity of the Church in the United States would,
for the most part, state that the Church here is adequately serving the
Orthodox faithful of all ethnic origins, the "American people." In the last
decade, the Church in the United States has reviewed her ministry to serve a
new influx of immigrants and has grandly responded to Orthodox from Albania,
Bulgaria, Romania, Russia, Serbia and Ukraine. She cannot be accused of
phyletism but rather should be lauded for being true to her ministry to the
faithful born in North America and to those who have immigrated to the
United States. The Church in the United States is fulfilling the command
given her by her Savior to bring all nations to him.