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Valid Bishops |
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Question: Having grown up in the metro Chicago area, I was familiar with the late Metropolitan Hryhorij Ohijchuk and his Ukrainian and American Orthodox outreach centered in Pokrov Cathedral on West Iowa Street. Of course Vladyka Hryhorij, together with his sometime assistant, Archbishop Hennady, were both canonical bishops, emenating as they did from the UAOC of the second formation in wartime Ukraine, under the auspices of the Orthodox Church in Poland. But in more recent times, one comes across websites and hierarchs who claim to descend from the above pair and therefore possess apostolic succession. Some of these certainly appear to have dubious links in their own person 'chain' of apostolic succession and therefore would probably best be avoided. There are, however, a couple of Ukrainian Orthodox bishops in the US today who clearly were consecrated directly by Vladykas Hryhorij and Hennady. Would this not make them at least canonical bishops and enable any Orthodox who belong to 'canonical Orthodox churches eligible to receive the Holy Eucharist at their hands? |
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Answer:
Dr. Alexander Roman
alex@unicorne.org
The Orthodox Church has a different view of the
validity of the "lines of succession" of bishops
than the Roman Catholic Church. The West tends to see canonical orders apart from
the actual communion of the Church itself. The
East emphasizes that communion over any question of
"canonical validity." There are indeed (and unfortunately) small groups
all over the internet calling themselves
"Orthodox Catholic" and descendants of this or that
bishop. They sometimes list many names, even all the way back to
the Apostles, to show they have "valid orders"
meaning that the Mysteries/Sacraments they
celebrate are "real." In fact, they should save their breath in this
regard. As they are not in communion with the
Orthodox Catholic Church of Christ, the REAL Church
simply isn't interested and arguments about "validity" ring hollow
to it. Priesthood and episcopacy require more than some
sort of "objective validity" if there is such a
thing to be meaningful from the standpoint of
the Church. They need to be integrally related to and organically united
with the Church itself outside of which we are in murky waters
indeed. It is the judgement of Holy Church that determines
if their orders are in fact "valid." Such a
judgement would only be made in a situation where
communion with the Church could potentially be restored and only
then.
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Ukrainian Orthodoxy |
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