On 16 March 2006, Metropolitan Herman, ruling hierarch of the Orthodox Church in America dismissed the Chancellor of OCAmerica, Protopresbyter Father Robert Kondratick, effective immediately. He announced the dismissal at a meeting of the Administrative Committee of the Metropolitan Council, at Church headquarters in Syosset, New York State. The dismissal was a unilateral action by the Metropolitan alone.

Bishop Tikhon of the West is reported as saying 'first information of the summary firing of Protopresbyter R.S. Kondratick was revealed at the ad hoc Administrative Committee at Syosset under the chairmanship of His Beatitude, the Metropolitan. No proposals were considered, no motions were made, and the previously prepared material was read out to those in attendance. The Chancellor was barred from attending the meeting, although the Statute makes him a member of the Committee.'

Father Kondratick has also been required to vacate his church-owned house by 1st June.

Prior to the Administrative Committee meeting, Metropolitan Herman had come under intense pressure from some of his brother bishops, some of his better educated laity, and some of the nation's media.

On Saturday 18 March 2006, the Washington Post reported Father Paul Kucynda, OCAmerica's acting treasurer, explaining why the chancellor was summarily dismissed. "Finally the Metropolitan came to a point where he realized, 'I have exhausted all of my possibilities, people are beginning to say that I am incompetent, that I should be deposed,' and so he decided to act."

The lawyer of former chancellor Father Robert Kondratick, is reported as saying his client is being used as a scapegoat by the chief executive officer of OCAmerica, Metropolitan Herman.

Metropolitan Herman was appointed Acting Treasurer of OCAmerica in 1999. It would be very hard for him to say he did not know what was happening with the Church's finances at that time. It appears that Metropolitan Herman is compromised by the financial malfeasance or gross ineptitude within the Chancellery at that time, and therefore afterwards too. The question is being asked, is he fatally compromised.

A full formal audit, conducted by a firm of Certified Practising Accountants into the financial affairs of OCAmerica, is being supervised by one of the world's largest law firms, Proskauer Rose LLP, on behalf of the Metropolitan Council of OCAmerica.

This latest audit covers the time after Metropolitan Herman finished as acting treasurer. The previous auditors refused to issue a clear audit report for the period prior to Metropolitan Herman acting as treasurer, and also for the period while he was acting treasurer. Metropolitan Herman has not required these unaudited periods to be audited.

A commentator in Australia said it was unfair to liken the stoush between the bishops and laity within OCAmerica to a particularly savage game of gridiron. He said it was more like a game of squirrels versus beavers. In this case, the top church clergy, who seem to have been squirelling away funds, have met their match with a dedicated group of laity who have been quietly beavering away amassing evidence of major financial impropriety in OCAmerica headquarters. At this stage, it seems the beavers are winning the battle, he said.

But it is not a two-way contest. Bishop Tikhon in the West seems to be tackling the Metropolitan head on. If it comes to a fight between the bishops themselves, that is much more likely to be like a gridiron grudge match, complete with eye-gouging and low hits, he said.

The same commentator is reported as thinking this sort of occurrence is most unlikely to arise in Australia. In Australia, donations to general church funds are not tax deductible. Therefore they do not come under government scrutiny like the North American funds. This is also why, he is reported as saying, that Australia does not have hundreds of thousands of varieties of religion, like North America does.

For decades, there has been concern among laity of most Orthodox Churches within Australia, that dedicated funds have often been diverted from their proper purpose. Although the allegation has been made frequently over the last eight years in the Supreme Court of NSW in the Macedonian case, as yet no solid evidence has been provided in the public arena.

One Orthodox archbishop in Australia is trying to circumvent any similar possibility arising in his church, by requiring all his parishes and church institutions to incorporate under state law. That way, each independently is required to provide their state government with annual returns showing all income and expenditure.

The problem seems to be endemic in almost all Eastern Christian Churches throughout the world. It could be a function of their Byzantine and Ottoman roots, and resultant Oriental Despot syndrome. Hopefully good western style management, infused by the Gospel precepts, will cure this.

USA source: http://www.ocanews.org/news.html 28 March 2006