LEADERSHIP BY HONOUR – Metropolitan Naum:
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This Gospel reading has been interpreted by the Holy Fathers of the Church (see Matthew 16: 13–19). The solid foundation on which the Lord Jesus builds His Church cannot be any man, but the man with the proper (Orthodox) faith in Him and the Apostolic succession (lineage) – as an unstopped gift of the Holy Spirit, the Lord, (Who) through this gift, in the Holy Liturgy, attains the congregation of the faithful as the Risen and Ascended Body of Christ. Apostolic successors – The Episcopes of the Orthodox Church are both witnesses of the sin and of the repentance of the people, and therefore have the power to tie and untie situations, on earth and in heaven. But they also have the obligation to lead the Church by personal example. And here the whole problem arises.
The Episcope by his position and function is the supreme leader in the Church. However, due to the deviation from the Holy Fathers’ Tradition for the election and appointment of Episcopes, i.e. due to the lack of inner spiritual cover (deification) among the holders of this high order (rank), today in the Orthodox Church there is a crisis of effective spiritual and institutional leadership. The crisis in the leadership, in addition to the crises in the other spheres of the church life, on one hand manifests itself mainly as a mistakes (in any way) in the actions of the high clergy of the Church, and on the other hand, as distrust of the people in the clergy in general, and in the Church perceived as an institution. All of these irregularities have their social and many other unforeseeable, bad consequences. You will read some of them below…
Therefore, despite of the theologically and canonically firmly established position of the Episcope in the Church, we still cannot talk about some essential leadership. When we talk about his position in the Church, we usually perceive formal leadership. It is one thing the authority of the Episcope arising only from the significance of the institution he represents, and another thing is the authority of the Episcope occurring from the inner spiritual cover (deification) of his rank by which he represents the institution.
A true leader is one who attracts and whom one wants to follow, not one who you must follow. Thus, it can be concluded that: gaining the highest position in the Church does not in itself provide the authority of leadership, nor does the lack of a formal rank and position of authority in the Church in itself imply the impossibility of spiritual leadership with authority. On the contrary, in the history of the Church when those two positions did not coincide, charismatic leadership always had a greater authority than the institutional leadership.
The position of the First honourable (reverent, by honour) among the equals (Episcopes) is also interesting. It is clear to every normal person that such a position cannot be reached without God’s Providence, and it is clear to every normal person that such a position must not be undermined or ruined, but as much as one can should support and protect it. Thus, it would be enough for the First honourable to insist on electing at least normal people for Episcopes, and by doing so, his leadership position would be safe from the decisive influence of the human factor. In our ecclesiastical history we have at least one bad enough example to choose, from which we can draw conclusion and learn. Therefore the Church of God, in normal conditions, determined that the election of Episcopes should be done by proven monks, and not under the influence of other, subjective interests.
Towards the First Honourable among equals, Episcopes should cultivate a sense of fraternal obedience, although the Holy Canons do not regulate this subject. It would be ideal if the First Honourable would be on a stage of his spiritual development which is as close as possible to the inner spiritual cover of his high order (rank) – deification, so that the Episcopes distinctive obedience would correspond to his spiritual authority, and not so much to his office. What I have written is understood only by those Episcopes who, in their spiritual development, have seen the crucial importance of obedience in the overall God’s Dispensation of Salvation, in the God’s Providence. It is now becoming clear to you why the choice of Episcopes was established by the Church to be made exclusively from the monastic order.
As for the First Honourable among equals, I ask God to open your eyes for one more truth. Each of our Archbishops is holy because of the burden of the spiritual genocide he bears and because of the torment he suffers and takes place over his flock. This truth will be valid until the formal recognition of the Macedonian Orthodox Church – Ohrid Archbishopric, by other Local Orthodox Churches. After the recognition, his personal holiness will depend on the usual criteria set by the Holy Fathers of the Church. Until then, there will be no such an earthly addressing towards someone, so full of truth, as to the Archbishop Stefan with: “Your Holiness “…
There is no such a great sin before God as it is the spiritual genocide which takes place against our Holy Church. Despite the fact that they have the authority to bind and untie both in heaven and on earth, and instead of saving souls (who want to be saved), they use that authority with the intention for people’s eternal perdition, only because of their personal vanity and because of their national-chauvinistic motives – I have no words. It is such a great sin before God that all Orthodoxy suffers because of it.
The orthodox nations who are directly responsible for this sin suffer the most. Many years ago, I wrote: “We will continue to serve the Holy Liturgy, both at the altar in the material temple and at the altar which is in our hearts, and we will continue to call on the name of the Lord. As a Church we will not respond with evil to evil (if someone has stole or he is involved in money laundering, or commits some other crime, for which the legal system prosecutes by law (“ex officio”), we are not responsible for that). If we do not receive such a (good) answer from the other side either, then God will surely find a solution, but it will probably be not satisfactory for anyone. History has shown us that only under the ego of slavery, imposed by the non Christians, did we recognise ourselves as brothers. But that solution is for stupid people”.
I am very astounded by the stupid people, the slaves of the collective oblivious schemes: how do they manage not to think at all that the policy of demonstration of force, over the weaker, at the regional level, will one day affect them, at the global level? And how do they manage not to think at all that what they do to us on the spiritual level, would happen to them, and it would happen where it hurts them the most – on the material level? Only the sociopaths do not think about the consequences. Now, the word stupid seems to me even like a compliment in comparison to the word sociopaths. It is one thing to make mistakes out of stupidity, and it is another thing to do evil with intent. The religious sociopath does not feel that when one part of the body suffers – the whole body suffers, that he himself suffers.
I do not even wonder why: just at the moment when His Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew (a holy man – who knows very well what it means when someone is under persecution) began to resolve these spiritual injustices, for the benefit of the whole Orthodox Church, and thus he enabled an honest and dignified way out, from the problems in which they themselves got stuck, they turned against him: apparently it is not canonical to save, but it is canonical to destroy souls. Therefore, many sad things are happening to us …
We can summarise now: The Church needs pastors who will restore the spiritual Orthodox life; who in practice and theoretically, with personal authority and example, will actualise the true Tradition of the Church; The pastors who will take care of the unity, as well as the ” leadership by honour” (First Honourable among equals) between the Leaders of the Churches; which will preserve the dignity (and ecclesiastical fullness) of the local Episcopal Church, as well as the pastoral authority and credibility of the local Church. Pastors who will not only deal with daily politics, cheap populism, false patriotism and dangerous national-chauvinism, but pastors in whom we will all recognise Christ. In a word, we need holy people. We do have that today in our newly elected Episcopes and brothers, Parthenius and Gregory. May they be with us for many years! May our host Metropolitan Timothy be alive and well for many years! For many years, Your Holy Eminence!
Most-Holy Mother of God, through the prayers of the Holy Apostles, save us all!
Metropolitan of Strumica Naum
