The Assembly of Orthodox Bishops posted this statement this afternoon on its website. http://assemblyofbishops.org/news/releases/protest-against-hhs


"The Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of North and Central America, which is comprised of the 65 canonical Orthodox bishops in the United States, Canada and Mexico, join their voices with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and all those who adamantly protest the recent decision by the United States Department of Health and Human Services, and call upon all the Orthodox Christian faithful to contact their elected representatives today to voice their concern in the face of this threat to the sanctity of the Church’s conscience.

In this ruling by HHS, religious hospitals, educational institutions, and other organizations will be required to pay for the full cost of contraceptives (including some abortion-inducing drugs) and sterilizations for their employees, regardless of the religious convictions of the employers.

The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution guarantees the free exercise of religion. This freedom is transgressed when a religious institution is required to pay for “contraceptive services” including abortion-inducing drugs and sterilization services that directly violate their religious convictions. Providing such services should not be regarded as mandated medical care. We, the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops, call upon HHS Secretary Sebelius and the Obama Administration to rescind this unjust ruling and to respect the religious freedom guaranteed all Americans by the First Amendment."

As I was reminded by another, "This statement has been in the works for over a week now. When dealing with multiple jurisdictions and bishops these things take time. Without the EA this statement would have taken even longer."

No conspiracy, no 'soft on abortion' as alleged by certain in the Orthodox community who are always stirring the pot.

Slava Isusu Christu!

Thanks David for posting this. I linked on on the "Eastern Pro Life" Facebook page.

Traditional American Christianity is uniting with this issue. Perhaps time will prove President position as foolishness rather than strength.

Let us pray that we may stand united and discern God's will.

Truly, we must all hang together, or we shall all hang separately.

David,

Thanks for posting that. It's an excellent statement of the Assembly's stand. May God grant many years to the hierarchy of our Sister Churches!

Many years,

Neil

I couldn't come back until today. I am happy to report some improvements since I started the thread and since I linked the Catholic Answers reply.

As DMD noted, none of his public responses address the issues I raised. His actions have changed, though.

Catholic Vote said he only intended to include Roman Catholic bishops, but after talking to them he began including Eastern Catholics.

After I brought up the wording of the notice he placed on his page, he changed the wording to be less offensive.

After I brought up the double standard, he started allowing Eastern Catholics to be linked with someone's word.

He also added a notice about the Orthodox bishops' statement.

He has not written me privately. A simple, "I'm so sorry! Let me fix that!" or "I learned something new! Thanks for pointing it out to me. I'll take the word of Eastern Catholic priests and make sure they're included." Anything responsive like that would have been appreciated. In its absence, the actions being changed are at least improvement.

Realizing that this is as good as the situation is going to be this time around, I didn't mind the Catholic Answers thread drifting to what Easterners can do to band together. I was the one who posted the two articles likeathief mentioned. I did not know they were controversial. One I knew about from an Orthodox priest. I shared without any more than the stated intent and I'm sorry that they weren't the best choice. I went to post the statement of the bishops for the same reason but it was already there, which I was happy to see. I'd much rather focus on our shared mission.

You did a real service because the other material on that site referencing a supposed lack of response by the Orthodox and an alleged quiet on oc.net, as well as links posted on CAF to some scurrilous intra-Orthodox attacks on several Bishops, led me and others to 'beat the drums' and the release of the joint Orthodox statement the other day probably was hurried along due to that attention.

If you hadn't gotten my attention about the feelings of disrespect for Eastern Catholics that you were getting there, I wouldn't have ventured in to CAF as Orthodox voices are not really welcome there.

I don't know why the bishops waited until now to protest the intrusiveness of government in our lives.

Because they like some kinds of intrusiveness and opportunistically attach themselves to certain policy prescriptions which they believe are consistent with Catholic doctrine, and only get bent when government intrusiveness crosses paths with their doctrinal orthodoxy. Put another way, too often the USCCB can be considered the Democratic National Committee at prayer. They liked Obamacare's takeover of the health sector of the economy because they thought it would provide universal insurance coverage for all. They never looked at the down side, and took all of Obama's promises at face value.

Mess with the bull and you get the horns.

It was Gerald Ford, of all people, who said, "Government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you have". He was speaking of money, of course, but it also applies to freedom. Put a different way, "He who pays the piper gets to call the tune".

I think not.

Lots of very loud pipers are paid by taxpayers, but taxpayers certainly are not calling the tunes.

Like so many other voters last time around ...

That's a lovely fanciful idea, but you've got it all wrong. America's long since moved past any sort of system whereby free people make free decisions. Taxpayers are only paying the bills like a dead cow feeds a vulture anymore. You're a serf. Adjust your thinking accordingly.

Wanted:

Serfs for binding to the land.

No chance of advancement, but job security offered.

Will wonders never cease, just posted on the Washington Post this afternoon. Having worked in politics and government for far too many years, I never cease to be amazed at how inept even the highest levels of government may become - regardless of party affiliation. This whole episode seems to have come out of the Twilight Zone (Rod Serling did go to my high school...hmmm....)Doesn't the left hand know what the right is doing, or the other way around depending upon which party is currently in power in DC????


Obama advisers seek compromise on contraception rule
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/o...ry.html?hpid=z2