has released it’s official English version of its June 17 decision which you can see here. The English language document is in agreement with its official Arabic translation and the first two pages of information presented in the antiochian.org pdf still posted as of this morning are not official.

The most notable difference is that there is apparently no Arabic word, and hence no English word translated as “auxiliary” , the Bishops are referred to as “bishops who assist the Metropolitan”. We’ll see, of course, what that means in practical terms and my guess is that this discussion is not closed but at least we have official Arabic and English translations to work with.

has the official Arabic version of its decision here. The document is identical to page three of the Antiochian Archdiocese’s pdf. The first two pages of that document, which at the time of this post are still being presented at Antiochian.org, are therefore apparently not official but somehow found their way into the pdf.

We’ll find out in time how the first two pages got there but at least now we have an official version of the Arabic to deal with for the sake of translation. The key, as I understand it, is a single word variously translated “assistant” or “auxiliary”. In the fax presented by the Archdiocese, a fax whose first two pages have been in dispute, it was clearly translated “auxiliary” so now we have to wait and see.

This is not to overlook the fact that somehow the fax sent to the Archdiocese has been compromised with two extra pages, one an English translation now apparently disavowed by the Patriarchate and the second an Arabic version also disavowed. It is an understatement to say that this is a serious matter that does need to be addressed.

Please pray for the Antiochian Archdiocese as it may be a long, hot, summer.

with the statements attributed to the Holy Synod of Antioch on Antiochian.org. The link is here but remember the evidence is still speculative and may not be conclusive.

Lord have mercy x 40

posted on the antiochian.org www site has been translated to call the bishops of the Antiochian Archdiocese “auxiliaries”. The rub is in a word in the Arabic that is translated as “assistant” or “helper”. The post appears to have the Patriarchal seal although I am unfamiliar with what it actually looks like. More to come.

last night at the SOS Club, an alcohol free place where people can relax and listen to music, and it happened again.

The jam was small and tight. Often there are a dozen or more players and the sounds can be overwhelming but this time there were just a few and we were locked on to each other and the music was better than average. And then it happened.

A couple of the guitarists decided they wanted to take a whack at the bass. I usually let folks like that give it a try because they basically find out its tougher than in looks. Sure enough they ran through a few lead guitar lines on the bass and decided they could handle it. That usually happens and then I remind them. Noodling lead guitar lines on a bass is not the same as being a bass player.

Bassists lay foundations and merely mimicking the lead is not a foundation. The foundation of a song is a combination of root notes, passing notes, rhythm, and the ability to create a mixture of time, notes, and silence that allows the rest of the group to explore and move in the superstructure. The essence of being a bassist is to think like a bassist and make that alchemy work and its more then just playing a guitar with the last two strings removed. I guess its can be summed up in a t-shirt (isn’t that an American thing) I saw in a shop for bassists. The shirt said “You’d notice if I quit playing.”

Enough said.

“The Holy Synod of the See of Antioch, after long discussion and deep deliberation of the Synodal decision of February 24, 2009, and with the recommendations of His Beatitude, the Patriarch, it affirms that the nature of the Episcopate is one and the same to all those who are consecrated as bishops. The Holy Synod of Antioch affirms and reminds that all bishops of the Antiochian Archdiocese of North America are bishops who assist the Metropolitan, and that, furthermore, any diocese of the one united Archdiocese, under any circumstances, cannot be considered an independent Archdiocese. The Holy Synod of Antioch alone has the prerogative to establish Archdioceses in the See of Antioch.”

It appears that, on quick review, the statement affirms there is only one kind of episcopacy. This is in line with Orthodox polity that bishops vary in jurisdiction but not in standing. In other words there are not some who, for lack of a better term, are “more bishop” than others even though they may have a broader jurisdiction of responsibility.

While the term “auxiliary” is not used the wording “…bishops who assist the Metropolitan…” is not defined as to what that “assistance” is or what its scope is. Does “assist” mean “subordinate” or “auxiliary” or does it mean they are a synod of diocesan Bishops with a Metropolitan as president?

I’m missing the point on the phrase related to the dioceses except to think they are admonishing dioceses to be collegial and unified within the larger context of the Archdiocese. This seems odd, on first reading, because I was not aware that any of our dioceses were in the process of attempting to become an archdiocese.

Such are the difficulties of creating documents in the byzantine tradition and then also making the translation from Arabic to English. It would have been easier, frankly, for them to have simply said “All formerly diocesan Bishops are to remain as auxiliaries to their Metropolitan” or “All formerly diocesan Bishops are restored to their thrones and diocese to serve.”

Oh well. Let the parsing begin…

theantiochian.com is reporting that the Holy Synod of Antioch has reaffirmed the February 24th decision altering the status of all diocesan bishops to auxiliaries. The official site antiochian.org is silent and so is the more reliable site ocanews.org. We”ll have to wait and see.

that Saints were some kind of aberration, a once in a generation event where holiness met physicality and produced theosis. Things have changed.

Saints are, in fact, the only normal people around. All the rest of us spend our time trying as best we can to get to normal, to get to what we are supposed to be and for most of us this normality will elude us. We’ll have moments of it, of course, but never experience the permanency of it and those moments will leave us simultaneously desolate and hopeful.

On a good day we will feel the presence of God within us, the sense that we are connected to something, someone, so much larger than ourselves. It occurs to us in different ways, in different times, and in different stages in our life but it does happen. When it does there is a sense of rest and calm within, a kind of understanding that heaven and earth are aligned even if for a moment. Precisely when this happens is the moment we are also most human, most like what we were supposed to be, most alive in the best sense of the word, most normal.

The great agony of being human is that we are always aware we spend most of our existence at odds with the truth of who we are. We were meant to be so full of the presence of God that those who encounter us would recognize our form, know that we are human, but see only God. The Saints, alive with the presence of God, are a reminder of what we were created to be.

Now most of us may not get there in this life, at least like the luminaries we call Saints. But we will have our moments, those places in our lives where time seems to stop and we understand we are in the presence of the Holy One. Hold on to those moments because they tell us that despite our struggles we are still on the journey and that one day we will, like the Saints, find our way home.

in the porn industry. No judgments, just sadness at the reality of people getting a fatal illness while having make believe sex. The stuff has always killed souls but very few people know it takes bodies too.