Monday, November 24, 2008

What it Means to Lead
Rod Dreher, Dallas Morning News

(This commentary on the recent election of our new Metropolitan comes from a DMN editorial columnist who is a member of the congregation at Saint Seraphim Orthodox Cathedral in Dallas)

Three months ago, Father Jonah Paffhausen was living quietly as the abbot of an Eastern Orthodox monastery in Northern California. Three weeks ago, he was the newly consecrated Bishop Jonah of Fort Worth. On Nov. 12, he was elected as Metropolitan of the Orthodox Church in America.

This is like a priest going from being a relatively obscure country abbot to Archbishop of Canterbury in the time it takes the leaves to change color. It just doesn't happen. But it did, and if you ask laymen and clergy who were voting at the church council, they'll tell you it was the Holy Spirit at work.

Read it all here.