AIN’T 2008 RELIGION GRAND
?
DO YOU KNOW WHAT A SYRIAN CHURCH METROPOLITAN IS, OR WHAT HE DOES
?
THINGS HAVE CHANGED A TAD SINCE JAMES’ EPISTLE
January 1, 2008
http://www.tribulationperiod.com/
James 1:27 – Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
Ephesians 5:25-27 – Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; [26] That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, [27] That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
I must confess my ignorance, on the ecclesiastical meaning of the word “metropolitan” in the Syrian Church, until I read the article following our heading. As I read it, I could not help but remember what the head of the first New Testament Church taught it on his final days before he was crucified.
Luke 22:21-26 – But, behold, the hand of him that betrayeth me is with me on the table.
[22] And truly the Son of man goeth, as it was determined: but woe unto that man by whom he is betrayed! [23] And they began to enquire among themselves, which of them it was that should do this thing. [24] And there was also a strife among them, which of them should be accounted the greatest.
[25] And he said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors. [26] But ye shall not be so: but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve.
I wonder what the First New Testament Church would say about the changes in the “universal church” concept, imbedded in the rules and regulations employed in the ecclesiastical definition of “metropolitan,” which follows the excerpt from the Khaleej Times. More importantly, what would Jesus, the head and foundation of each local New Testament Church, each one representing his local body at that site, think of all the departures from “the faith once delivered to the saints,” which have been placed in it by man since the completion of the New Testament
?
Jude 1:3 – Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.
Luke 22:25,26 – And he said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors. [26] But ye shall not be so: but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve.
Begin Khaleej Times on Line Excerpt
Issues of supremacy rock church
By T.K. Devasia (Kerala Newsletter)
31 December 2007
DISPUTES over spiritual and material issues are a permanent feature in the Kerala-based Malankara Syrian Church.
The latest to haunt the Church is the ordination of a German monk as a metropolitan.
The issue has led to an internal feud in the Orthodox faction, which is engaged in a battle with the rival Jacobite faction over issues of supremacy of their heads and ownership of assets for over a decade now.
The faction is in a quandary with a section of the people coming out openly against the alleged secret sanctification of the foreign monk, Saverios Moosa Gurugan, by two bishops, Yuhanon Mar Milithios and Thomas Mar Athanasios at Trichur in November.
Terming the action a violation of the provisions of the 1934 Church constitution and Canon law, the agitated section has demanded action against the two bishops. They have threatened to pursue a legal course if the authorities tried to protect the two bishops.
They have the support of a section of the managing committee of the church. The latter says that the sanctification was done without the approval of the supreme head of the Church, Catholicos, Mar Baselios Didimos.
The two bishops have refuted the charge. Yuhanon Mar Milithios, who is the bishop of Trichur diocese, claimed that the synod had agreed to the consecration in August and had even set up a five member committee to organise the consecration.
However, those opposed to the consecration say that the committee was set up to consider the request of the German monk and the catholicos-designate and the synod secretary had opposed it.
The critics are agitated over the issue since the newly consecrated metropolitan has been leading a dissident group in Germany. Curiously, the two bishops who ordained Gurugan also came from
the Jacobite faction through dissidence.
The issue has also assumed political dimension as the two bishops are close to the state’s ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist)-led Left Democratic Front as against the faction leadership, which is pro-United Democratic Front.
The political affiliations of the bishops has been a source of friction in the Church, which has about a million followers spread across not only Kerala but also the Middle East, Europe, the US and other regions. Both the sides have been openly questioning the political stands they have been adopting on various issues.
Realising its potential for further trouble in the church, the leadership is trying to suppress the issue. Senior leaders have already started dialogue for a code of conduct for bishops to prevent such incidents in future.
The managing committee of the Church meeting at Kottayam on January 10 is expected to finalize the code of conduct. However, the observers do not rule out the possibility a show
down since both sections are bitter over the issue.
DEFINITION OF “METROPOLITAN”
THE CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA
New Advent
Metropolitan
Metropolitan, in ecclesiastical language, refers to whatever relates to the metropolis, the principal city, or see, of an ecclesiastical province; thus we spe ak of
a metropolitan church, a metropolitan chapter, a metropolitan official, etc. The word metropolitan, used without any qualificative, means the bishop of the metropolitan see, now usually styled archbishop. The term metropolite (Metropolites, Metropolita) is also employed, especially in the Eastern Churches (see ARCHBISHOP). The entire body of rights and duties which canon law attributes to the metropolitan, or archbishop as such, i.e., not for his own diocese, but for those suffragan to him and forming his ecclesiastical province, is called the metropoliticum.
The effective authority of metropolitans over their provinces has gradually diminished in the course of centuries, and they do not now exercise even so much as was accorded them by the Council of Trent; every bishop being more strongly and more directly bound to Rome is so much the less bound to his province and its metropolitan. The jurisdiction of the latter over his suffragan dioceses is in a sense ordinary, being established by law; but it is mediate and restricted to the objects provided for by the canons. Since the Council of Trent the rights of the metropolitan have been reduced to the following:
He convokes and presides at the provincial council, at which all his suffragans must appear, saving legitimate excuse, and which must be held every three years (Conc. Trid., Sess. XXIV, c. ii, De ref.). The same holds for other provincial meetings of bishops.
He retains, in theory, the right of canonical visitation of his suffragan dioceses, but on two conditions which make the right practically inoperative: he must first finish the visitation of his own diocese, and the visitation must be authorized by the provincial council. In the course of this visitation, the metropolitan, like the bishop, has the right of “procuration”, i.e., he and his retinue must be received and entertained at the expense of the churches visited. Moreover, he can absolve “in foro conscientiae” (ibid., iii).
He is charged with special vigilance over his suffragans in the matter of residence; he must denounce to the pope those who have been twice absent for six months each time, without due cause or permission (Conc. Trid. Sess., vi, c. i). And similarly for the prescriptions relating to seminaries (Sess. XXIII, c. xviii).
The metropolitan has no judicial authority over his suffragans, major criminal causes of bishops being reserved to the Holy See, and minor ones to the provincial council (Sess. XXIV, c. v.); but he is still the judge of second instance for causes, civil or criminal, adjudicated in the first instance by the officials of his suffragans and appealed to his tribunal. Hence results a certain inequality for matters adjudicated in the first instance in the archdiocese, and to remedy this various concessions have now been provided. But the nomination of two officials by the archbishop, one diocesan, the other metropolitan, with appeal from the one to the other, is not admissible.
This practice was used in France under the old regime, but was not general, and even the Gallicans held it to be at variance with canon law (Héricourt, “Les Lois ecclésiastiques de France”, E.V, 13). On this principle the nullity of Napoleon’s marriage was decided by the diocesan and the metropolitan officials of Paris, 1810 (Schnitzer, “Kathol. Eherecht”, Freiburg, 1898, 660). The metropolitan tribunal may also try as at first instance causes not terminated within two years by a bishop’s tribunal (Sess. XXIV, c. xx).
In regard to devolution, the metropolitan may nominate the vicar capitular of a vacant diocese, if the chapter has failed to nominate within eight days (Sess. xxiv, c. xvi). In like manner he has the right to fill open benefices (i.e., those of free collation) which his suffragans have left unfilled after six months; also to canonically institute candidates presented by patrons if the bishop allows two months to pass without instituting.
Lastly, in the matter of honorific rights and privileges the metropolitan has the pallium as the ensign of his jurisdiction; he takes precedence of all bishops; he may have the archiepiscopal cross (crux gestatoria) borne before him anywhere within his province, except in the presence of a papal legate; he may celebrate pontifically (saving such acts as constitute an exercise of jurisdiction, e.g., ordination), may wear his rochet and mozetta uncovered (not hidden under the mantelletta, like a bishop of another diocese); may bless publicly, and may grant an indulgence of 100 days (S.C. Indulg., 8. Aug., 1903). He ensigns his arms with the double archiepiscopal cross and the hat with ten tassels on either side.
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