Archbishop Nathaniel

On October 20, 1999, the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church in America decided to elevate the Rt. Reverend Bishop Nathaniel to the rank of Archbishop. That was a very wise and right decision that recognized the merits of one of the leading personalities of American Orthodoxy. But its significance is much larger and is of historical proportions.

In his essay, "The Five Deaths of Faith," G.K. Chesterton said that during the centuries Christianity has encountered numerous crises, and several times (he mentioned five to which a sixth, the end of Communism should be added) it appears that the Faith was near death or anyhow seemed almost irrelevant. However, those crises ended, and the Faith was again not only relevant but able to renew a world in confusion. All the crises, all the persecution, all moral relativism were able to prove one thing: "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away." The same dangers were encountered by the Romanian Orthodox Episcopate of America in its seventy year old history.

Among those mortal crises I will mention just a few: when Bishop Policarp was stopped from returning to his flock; when Archbishop Valerian was viciously attacked and finally forced into exile; when the Episcopate's financial resources were shamelessly embezzled. But during and after each of those crises, the Episcopate recovered miraculously and rose again more powerful, more beautiful and more relevant.

I mentioned all the above facts just to point out that Archbishop Nathaniel could not have started his pastorate under more critical circumstances; but against all odds he has prevailed, and this is a miracle and a proof that this Episcopate is defended by a Power that is mightier than that of man. It is not in the scope of this article to enumerate the achievements of Archbishop Nathaniel's pastorate even if they are many: the new missions, the new churches, the new administrative center of the Diocese and many others. What I would like to emphasize is another fact.
Most of the time we have a tendency to characterize a person or to describe a person as the sum of his deeds, the sum of his acts. In fact, a person is defined not by the sum of his acts but by the consistency of his actions, but the values under which those acts were fulfilled.

Archbishop Nathaniel is a spiritual person with a special charisma. It just happened that he started his pastorate when I moved to the Heritage Center, and in this context I can confess that when he is at the office, everything is fine and an atmosphere of security and serenity is present. Archbishop Nathaniel is a person of fantastic humbleness. Only his persistence and power of work probably match his humility, which are definitely signs of his Romanian heritage. Archbishop Nathaniel cannot be outworked, and still he is always available to give advice, to receive confessions, to hear and heal human pain, for hours if necessary.

Archbishop Nathaniel is a wise man and also a leader in this world. In such a context, he is fully aware that on this earth there are pestilences, pain, suffering and victims. In such a context he decided to take, in every predicament, the victim's side in order to reduce the damage done by the victors and by the "movers and shakers" full of conceit and empty of compassion. What Archbishop Nathaniel has tried to do or rather tries to teach us is that each of us has to accumulate good deeds while we still can. The memory of good deeds is our only treasure and the only thing we can lean on when in captivity, exile, sickness and need. That is the lesson which Archbishop Nathaniel teaches us all, his beloved flock. We all should be graceful to God for the shepherd He provided for us. In the meantime, we should also be aware that in this world, joy and happiness are not "rights" to be taken for granted, but rather are gifts and privileges; however, "this is the Day the Lord has made; be joyful and glad in it."

Alexandru Nemoianu, Historian