The Abuse of Metropolitan Jonah of the OCA
This move of the Orthodox Church in America, to oust Metropolitan Jonah from his seat as Head of the Council of Bishops of the OCA, signals to me that the OCA is making a statement the breaks my heart. It is another signal of the apostasy of Christianity which continues in America. Metropolitan Jonah as a comfort to every Christian in this country who genuinely knows Christ and seek to express in according to the Apostolic Tradition of Christianity. The group that has taken him down represent a secularize Christianity unable to speak with a clear voice on social and moral issues - that is the secularists. The OCA represents by far not the largest Orthodox jurisdiction in America, but the only "Autocephalous" (that is self headed - not governed by a foreign Patriarchate) - Metropolitan Jonah is a hero in my book. My grief is more than seeing a friend abused - and the Bishops of the OCA have literally abused +Jonah from the first day of his tenure as Metropolitan, but the sad "truth" it signals about where a segment of American Orthodoxy is headed. This article explains that divergent path pretty well. May God have mercy on those whose eyes have lost the link between Truth and Liberty.
This is ridiculous. Your rejection of the divine authority of the OCA, exercising the power of the keys (Matthew 16:19; 18:18) to oust this unworthy bishop, reflects disobedience on your part, pride and prelest. Your claim that the OCA's action demonstrates apostasy, doesn't follow logically. Moreover, your defense of Met. Jonah is repugnant. This man abused his authority by introducing a non-Christian concept of salvation into the Orthodox Church when he unilaterally told a raped woman that her salvation depended on her obedience to his most ungodly advice that she not report the felon to the authorities. This woman was secure in Christ because she had the Son of God. He that has the Son has life. (1John 5:12) and Metropolitan Jonah had nothing to do with it. The OCA is more discerning than you, and there is a reason they ousted this man. It is deplorable that you defend such a man like Metropolitan Jonah, and deplorable that Jonah defended a criminal felon. This is monumentally corrupt. Says the inspired text of the Book of Proverbs:
ReplyDelete"He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the LORD." (Proverbs 17:15).