Where are the Grown-Ups?

This was posted in Arabic on Facebook and I think it's the most cogent reaction to the whole Moscow-Istanbul mess that I've seen. Translated and posted here with permission of the author.

Where are the Grown-Ups?

by Jad Ganem

Anyone who observes what has been said and written in the Orthodox world in recent days related to the controversy surrounding the Ukrainian crisis is shocked at the low level of theological discourse among leaders and those considered scholars. One can’t but lament their slipping into a language of mobilization and sterile debate to justify one position or another, adopting the manner of court poets.

The average believer can only wonder why those who have been assigned responsibility for preserving unity do not seek to repair the cracks rather than resorting to history-books to justify schism? Why do they ignore the purpose of the official positions and studies that their local churches have prepared about the issue of autocephaly and how it is proclaimed ? Why aren't they publishing these studies for the public instead of competing to publish centuries-old documents? How can a church say something and its opposite? How can a church deny its official interpretation and consistent analysis of the issue of autocephaly for the sake of a momentary project? How can leaders in all the local churches not lift a finger when certain individuals throw down the memory-hole the results of efforts made over generations to find a common approach to the issue of autocephaly?

By your Lord, stop fanning the flames of discord! Stop dancing at the edge of the abyss! Stop being a stumbling-block for the faithful and a laughingstock before the whole world! Stop using God, the Fathers and the canons for your demonic projects! In the eyes of God and of history those who are pressing for schism and those who fall into it will only be servants of the prince of this world. Who will stop our descent into hell? Where are the followers of the One who prayed that they all might be one?