This rather irreverent expression of surprise is said to have originated as a reference not to our Toledo, Ohio, but to Toledo, Spain. It was the see of the regional archbishop, and enjoyed a cultural renaissance after it’s liberation from Muslim rule.
But today it does indeed refer to Toledo, Ohio. There, news about the controversies within the Antiochian archdiocese has spilled over from the Internet into the city’s newspaper. The article hints at a potentially contentious scene at the church’s upcoming national convention in Palm Desert, California. Might this be just the sort of thing to catch the interest of the AP and UPI? Byzantine intrigue, forged documents, power asserted and power questioned.
And as if that weren’t enough, we have of course that reliable standby, sex. The article refers to the former bishop of Toledo who was convicted- I say again, convicted- of felony sexual assault, is now a registered sex offender, and yet still the powers-that-be (or should I say “the power-that-is”) quietly brought him in the back door to be reinstated at the highest levels of the archdiocese .
(I suppose that a very, very thin silver lining to that disgraceful misconduct was that it involved an adult female rather than an underage boy).
What an embarrassing, and shameful, witness to the world. Let the sun shine in and the disinfecting begin.
Filed under: Antiochian Orthodox Church
