All Orthodox have felt the sting in the US press, perhaps have even felt "embarrassed." The media has created an image of the "OrthodoxSerbs" as being some type of "war-mongering people," and by association, all Orthodox Christians (who are still considered as 'foreign' to these shores no matter how long they have lived here or been born in this continent) are a cut of the same cloth.

We are not aware of any Orthodox lay response to this crisis. Thus, those inter-city, fellowship groups and those who are proclaiming more "lay involvement" are also "paper tigers" when it comes to responding to an issue which reflects on all Orthodox.

Let it be known that the "SCOBA" initiated an effort to mediate a cease-fire for "Western" Easter and Orthodox Pascha, but the Clinton government ignored the hierarchs and even insulted them by choosing not to honor an established teleconference nor to meet them as a body, as a spokes-group for Orthodox Americans. History will relate that there was at least one serious attempt by the Hierarchs to mediate but the "White" House steam-rolled over these representatives of 7 Million US citizens without the blink of an eye. Is it not probable that American politicians would rather work with one person of authority than a hodgepodge collection of ethnarchs who are tied to foreign bodies? It goes without repeating that "votes & bank notes" count, and that the business of America is business!

Could the "SCOBA", which includes the Serbian hierarchy, have been recognized by the powers that be and have been accepted as a powerful voice in the public realm in this issue? Probably not. Should it have been? Probably not. There was no mention of the efforts of the "SCOBA" to mediate. The President and his supporters may welcome some or all of the hierarchs individually to our "White" House, but he correctly perceives them as individuals representing a particular ethnic enclave having limited voting and campaign value. It is one thing to welcome an Archbishop or Metropolitan but another to stand face-to-face with a Patriarch!

This august body, "SCOBA," was perceived by our politicians to be exactly what it is, a pseudo-composite of various "semi-autonomous," no, not even "semi-autonomous," ethnic communities whose representatives have standing in their own community and respect among the wider Orthodox Communion but who have no stature in real, not simply polite, but real American politics and power.

Holy Hierarchs, the importance of our individual visits to the "White" House is a mirage! It is a mirage because, while the governing powers may have some interest in particular ethnic groups because of some political and collective or individual financial clout, our individual presence is made vile because it is fractured an unimportant inasmuch as it does not represent the entire Body of Christ, His Holy Church of which we are archpastors. We must have a Patriarch as all civilized Orthodox nations have someone to stand face-to-face with the civil authority of this land!

Those who are honest will admit that the "SCOBA" has no ecclesiastical precedent nor present status. Participating membership by each ethnarch is tolerated or even unknown by the Mother Churches. It is not THE Holy Synod of an Autocephalous American Church but an arbitrary gathering which issues "communal" letters at Pascha and the Nativity, toothless and spineless to do the normal and necessary work to balance the civil government of its faithful. Americans are happy to proclaim a "government of the people, by the people and for the people" which should also mean that Orthodox must participate in government not merely on a personal basis but as a body, the Body of Christ, strong, recognized and confident to issue statements to Congress or the "White" House.

"SCOBA" has a self-inflating importance when (or rather if) it meets and then deflates, as in our present crisis, when its powers are limited precisely because it is not the Holy Synod of an Autocephalous Church. The feebleness of its power is shown useless when confronting such an issue as that which is before us in Kosovo. Had there been a Holy Synod with a Patriarch at its head, the present state of war would not exist. Perhaps the "White" House would still be white and the Orthodox would have been of great service to our nation. We have used SCOBA for too as a crutch -- it is time to stop hiding behind this ineffective body, and walk on "our own two feet."

Each time such a crisis goes by, unresolved or unaffected by the Church, we are put into judgement. We cannot err as we did in Pennsylvania. There cannot be another "Ligonier-non-Ligonier." Then was the time for a new "Tea Party," a "Ligonier Tea Party," but we allowed the tide to pass and we stand in judgement. Did any Mother Church demand a retraction of the signatures of the signators? On what basis? If not, why not?

There is no reason for not having an Autocephalous Church in America of all Orthodox Christians, with a Patriarch heading a Holy Synod, with schools, institutions, monasteries and parishes as is the norm elsewhere in "Orthodox" countries. Is their faith more "orthodox" than ours? Are we not "orthodox?" Where are we "heterodox"? If we are not "orthodox," how is it that we are in communion with one another and with the Mother Churches?

The present state of Orthodox disunity is a form of colonialism which is not based on the Scripture, no matter how one interprets the lines of Matthew to read, "Go and baptize all nations" to mean that one finds salvation only in an ethnic people. We sing the tropar that we are called a new race, the race of Christ. Perhaps we need to call ourselves by the name of our States: "Illini," "Ohioans," "Pennsylvanians," etc. and then, being born into a particular tribe, we too can be saved in them. However, if we move from State to State, we might need to import clergy and traditions from our home State so as to be assured salvation!?

The Orthodox Faith does not admit the existence of a "limbo." Orthodox Americans, however, are existing, unwillingly, in an "orthodox limbo." How to climb out? Let each Orthodox Christian Community (so we do not speak of jurisdictions) with its hierarchs ask the blessing of their Mother Church to be recognized as "Autocephalous," as the Russian Metropolia did in 1970. If not, according to the canons, it takes three bishops to create a Synod.

In bearing witness to Christ, St. John the Baptizer told his disciples: "He must increase but I must decrease" (Jn. 3:30). It is now time for SCOBA to decrease so that an Autocephalous Orthodox Church of All Orthodox Christians in America may increase. Living in the U.S. is not to live in Limbo. It is time before the Millennium to rise to the heaven of an Autocephalous Church.