When two worlds collide…

Orthodox Christians for Accountability
April 2, 2009

REFLECTIONS

Metropolitan Philip Saliba
and the problem of leadership in a multiethnic jurisdiction

By "Marlin Perkins"

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As for a post-Saliba future, the prospects are grim. Saliba seems to have taken the attitude of King Louis XV of France, ‘après moi, le déluge.’ [...]

More than likely, the Patriarchate of Antioch and the East, which has grown accustomed to the infinite generosity of Saliba, will seek to find another rain-maker in his image once he passes, retires or is removed. However, so many people have given for the purpose of access and influence, so much so that the new Metropolitan will more than likely find himself in a very uncomfortable position of being reminded of who-owes-who for years of ‘access payments.’

The next Metropolitan will have to once again balance the Arab need (both domestically and with the Patriarchate) for a strong centralizing leader while an ever-increasing number of Americans will demand more say in what goes on within the Archdiocese or its inheritors, which will in turn make the next Metropolitan look weak and ineffectual. However, | a forceful show by Saliba’s replacement will more than likely split the Archdiocese much as the Archbishop Spyridon fiasco demolished the GOA some years back.

The main difference between the two is that the Greeks were and remain fairly homogeneous, whereas the Antiochian Archdiocese, in part due to these latest moves by Saliba, partly in an attempt to assuage the worries of his Old Guard Arab clergy, is beginning to rupture along ethnic lines that simply do not exist within the Greek Archdiocese. The bright side is that many Arab and American clergy see the positive in one another’s cultures and are willing to set aside differences for the sake of real unity based on mutual respect and love rather than wheeling-and-dealing.

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[ Orthodox Christians for Accountability
http://www.ocanews.org/PerkinsCulturesCollide4.2.09.html
April 2, 2009 ]