{"id":293912,"date":"2020-10-10T13:24:12","date_gmt":"2020-10-10T10:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/basilica.ro\/?p=293912"},"modified":"2020-10-10T13:25:53","modified_gmt":"2020-10-10T10:25:53","slug":"by-grace-and-by-the-power-of-the-cross-message-of-hope-from-the-us-assembly-of-canonical-orthodox-bishops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/by-grace-and-by-the-power-of-the-cross-message-of-hope-from-the-us-assembly-of-canonical-orthodox-bishops\/","title":{"rendered":"By grace and by the power of the Cross | Message of hope from the US Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the United States of America sent<\/a> on Wednesday a \u201cmessage of hope and spiritual encouragement\u201d to the clergy, the faithful and all the people of goodwill, during the sanitary crisis which has continued this fall.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Coronavirus pandemic has affected every human being in the world with some form of trauma: loss of life, debilitating illness, separation from loved ones, financial hardship, or emotional fatigue,\u201d the Orthodox canonical bishops from the US say.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd yet, it remains true that through the Cross joy has come into all the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

This health crisis has \u201cgiven rise to an unhealthy increase of polemical opinion related to questions of science, medicine, and civil and ecclesiastical directives\u201d, mentions the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the United States of America (ACOB-US).<\/p>\n

\u201cAs often happens when human passions erupt, such polemics have infected other areas of society as reflected in the rise in this country of racial tensions, ideological clashes, and political polarization.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet, \u201cas Orthodox Christians sojourning in this land, we are not called to base our lives upon the ephemeral convictions that are common in the realm of politics, economics, or ideology. Rather, we are called to\u2026 placing our trust in the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and doing His Holy Will through our efforts to fulfil His life-giving commandments,\u201d write the bishops.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn our present circumstances, trying to hold a sensible middle ground between opposing forces of faithless reason on the one hand and spiritualized folly on the other is the greatest challenge of our time.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But, the message adds, \u201ckeeping our eyes on Christ and His sacrificial love for the entire world and being humble about our own particular opinions is the time-tested way to walk along the path worthy of the Christian calling\u201d.<\/p>\n

The bishops also recall Holy Apostle Paul\u2019s words, who said we are called to bear one another\u2019s burdens, which means \u201cwe are called to an authentic life of patient obedience, sincere humility, genuine compassion, and sacrificial love even towards those with whom we differ\u201d.<\/p>\n

By grace and by the power of the Cross, the faithful are encouraged by their hierarchs to \u201csteadfastly remain faithful to the Tradition of the ancient Church in a land of modernity, uncertainty, and confusion\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet us boldly give expression to Christ-like love and Christ-like humility in a world where many are unable to see anything beyond their own opinion\u201d, said the members of the assembly.<\/p>\n

The Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the United States of America held its first online meeting on October 6 and 7. During the meeting, the bishops declared 2021 as the Year of Youth and created a Youth Agency.<\/p>\n

Since the COVID-19 pandemic started, the ACOB-US Executive Committee has met on a weekly basis. Romanian Orthodox Metropolitan Nicolae of the Two Americas is a member of the Executive Committee and the Chairman of the Committee for Canonical Regional Planning.<\/p>\n

Photo: Basilica.ro<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the United States of America sent on Wednesday a \u201cmessage of hope and spiritual encouragement\u201d to the clergy, the faithful and all the people of goodwill, during the sanitary crisis which has continued this fall. \u201cThe Coronavirus pandemic has affected every human being in the world with some…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":293915,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,22922],"tags":[24291,19332,17084,22782,2016,7548,10386,15493],"class_list":["post-293912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-autocephalous-orthodox-churches","category-society","tag-acob-us","tag-america-en","tag-assembly-of-canonical-orthodox-bishops","tag-coronavirus-romania","tag-diaspora","tag-his-eminence-metropolitan-nicolae","tag-orthodox-news","tag-us"],"better_featured_image":{"id":293915,"alt_text":"","caption":"","description":"","media_type":"image","media_details":{"width":1024,"height":708,"file":"2020\/10\/Sfanta-Cruce.jpg","sizes":{"medium":{"file":"Sfanta-Cruce-890x615.jpg","width":890,"height":615,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","source_url":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Sfanta-Cruce-890x615.jpg"},"thumbnail":{"file":"Sfanta-Cruce-360x360.jpg","width":360,"height":360,"mime-type":"image\/jpeg","source_url":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Sfanta-Cruce-360x360.jpg"}},"image_meta":{"aperture":"5.6","credit":"","camera":"NIKON D4S","caption":"","created_timestamp":"1394973160","copyright":"","focal_length":"300","iso":"2000","shutter_speed":"0.01","title":"","orientation":"1","keywords":[]}},"post":293912,"source_url":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/10\/Sfanta-Cruce.jpg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293912\/"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post\/"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19\/"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments\/?post=293912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/293912\/revisions\/"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/293915\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/?parent=293912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories\/?post=293912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arhiva.basilica.ro\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags\/?post=293912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}