Fr John on the hotseat

Fr John Peck seems to be in hot water for suggesting that the Orthodox Church in the US is rising up and that the notion of a church that functions as a sort of "old world embassy" will be not be tolerated for much longer. ~ Bonovox post | Terry Mattingly story | Prescott Orthodox Church

Fr Peck is a bit of a Martin Luther-type, except that he's not trying to pull-off anything like a theological reformation -- just a missional re-orientation. He's in trouble for calling a spade a spade -- AND it doesn't help that he's about as gracious as the prophet Jeremiah or the apostle Paul in how he presents his picture of the future. So I can understand why the EO hierarches might be a tad bit upset with him.

The problem is that he is about 95% spot-on in his assessment.

I'm guessing that there is a enough grass-roots pressure in his support that the Greek Orthodox bishops in the US won't be able to touch the weight-lifting priest. However, on the top of the Greek Orthodox heap (Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America) is the Ecumenical Patriarch who lives in Turkey and shows very little understanding of the 21st century American context -- and benefit$ greatly from maintaining Orthodoxy as a collection of ethnic clubs in the US. He could exert some pressure and create a headache or two for Fr Peck.

The whole American Orthodoxy phenomena over the past 25 years has been a bit unusual in that American converts to Eastern Orthodoxy have almost had to force their way into the church. They, especially those converting from Evangelicalism, come believing that the EOC is the true church. The EO folk agree but their understanding of church vitality is markedly different from that of the converts. Thus the rub.