www.byzcath.org Forums News & Events Church News New Bishop UOC-MP

According to www.risu.org.ua:
New Ukrainian Orthodox (UOC-MP) Bishop Ordained
Kyiv � On 19 December 2007, at the Kyivan Monastery of the Caves, Metropolitan Volodymyr (Sabodan), head of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP), ordained Archimandrite Oleksandr (Drabynko) as bishop of Pereiaslav-Khmelnytskyi and vicar of the Kyiv Eparchy.

As I was reading this article also on http://www.pravoslavye.org.ua/index.php?r_type=news&action=fullinfo&id=18712; the new Vladyka Oleksandr was born on March 18, 1977. Wow!!!, such a young-young bishop.
According to the CCEO can. 180; one of the qualifications (for Eastern Catholics)is age. The candidate must be at least thirty-five years old. What is the present day practice in the Orthodox Church? Is age of the candidate for the episcopate taken into consideration? Or years of priesthood/monastic life? Thank you for your responses.
In XC,

Fr. Valerian

For those who can read Ukrainian or Russian:
ОЛЕКСАНДР, Єпископ Переяслав-Хмельницький
Вікарій Київської Митрополії
Секретар Предстоятеля Української Православної Церкви
У миру - Драбинко Олександр Миколайович
Народився - 18 березня 1977 року (Born: March 18, 1977)
Хіротонія - 19.12.2007. (Consecration: December 12, 2007)
Єпископ Переяслав-Хмельницький Олександр (У миру Драбинко Олександр Миколайович), українець, народився 18 березня 1977 року в м. Корець, Рівненської області в сім'ї службовців...

Fr.Valerian; 35 DOES sound like the right age(I don't have my trusty Rudder with me).I know that as far as the Canons go,20 is the minimum age for Subdeacon,25 for Deacon,30 for the Priesthood,but the latter two usually are disregarded.I was ordained to the Priesthood in 1977,just two months before turning 25.From my own experiance,I sincerely wish ALL Orthodox Churches would go back to the tradition of not ordaining priests younger than 30.If I could have had some sort of training as a Deacon for 5 years or so,instead of 3 months,it might have been better for me and my late wife as well. As far as Hierarchs go,the pre-Revolution Russian Church did ordain some bishops who were younger than 35, the example which comes to mind is Metropolitan Anastassy,ROCOR'S second First Hierarch,who became a Bishop in 1906,at the age of 33.Metropolitan Anastassy reposed in 1965,at the age of 92,he was a Bishop for 59 years,a record for all time,no other Bishop in ANY Christian Church has surpassed this record, as far as anyone knows.More recently,Archbishop Makary of the MP,later UOC-MP,was born in 1938, and already a Bishop at age 33,when I saw him serve in Manchester,NH, in 1971.And there have been others.

The newly-consecrated Bishop of Michalovce, Slovakia was just a few weeks shy of turning 28 at the time of his episcopal consecration: he was born on October 19, 1979, and consecrated on September 30, 2007.

Link [orthodox.sk]

Dave

Young bishops are often ordained in the Orthodox church, but sometimes, perhaps, for bad reasons. Up until a few days ago, this Archimandrite was in every single picture with Metropolitan Volodymyr (Sabodan), carrying his suitcase or holding his hat or something. I don't want this to sound like some kind of attack, especially since I really know very little about him, but I doubt that a guy with gold cuff links [http://orthodoxy.org.ua/ru/node/9108] who was ordained a priest a bit more than a year ago and only tonsured a monk on 20 August 2006 [http://orthodox.org.ua/uk/episkopat/2006/08/15/2468.html] is really ready to be a bishop. Usually candidates to the episcopacy that are ordained young have been monks since an early age.