The UGCC Archeparchy of Philadelphia recently came out with a catechetical video featuring Fr. John Mikitish, co-author of the book Orthodox Christian Prayers by St. Tikhon's.
According to some posts regarding this, it seems Fr. John has been received into the UGCC from the OCA; can anyone confirm if this is true? If so, this makes an interesting contrast to some of the discussion had surrounding Fr. Sebastian Carnazzo's conversion.
Regardless, I would ask that we all keep him in our prayers. Making such a change must certainly be far from simple. turaŭski
I can't find anything official. Only a couple of comments on a Reddit forum that confirm both his conversion to Catholicism and also the conversion of Heiromonk Herman, who helped Fr. John put together St. Tikhon's Orthodox Christian Prayers.
Did a quick name search for him in OCA pastoral change documents - no note of him leaving yet, though info from March & April have yet to be published. It is worth Noting that he seems to have been reassigned within the OCA 2 or 3 times in the last year, so we should all pray for him in what would seem to be a very difficult time.
Glory to God, if true. Things like this as well as that of Fr Carnazzo reinforce my belief that God is calling Orthodox Christians to Catholicism and Catholic Christians to Orthodoxy. Good people are moving both directions and I feel this is to fill both sides with honest loving Christians who still love the tradition they came from and don't carry over a lot of the polemics and animosity many/most converts tend to have. This will, in my belief, lead to a softening of hearts on both sides and eventually leave the space the Holy Spirit needs to move in both communions to heal this schism once and for all. Will we live to see it? I sincerely doubt it. But it is impossible to deny the evidence in how the Holy Spirit moves throughout the Catholic and Orthodox Churches, regardless of which one ultimately has the fullness of truth.
Just to add some relevant info to this thread: I discovered today that the relevant OCA Pastoral Change Documents [oca.org] have been released, so it is confirmed that Fr John is no longer a priest of the OCA. A cursory google search did not yield anything confirming his reception into the UGCC. We should all continue to pray for him during this presumably challenging time.
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