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→Fifteenth All-American Council: add first ballot votes
The Council trailed a financial scandal that had been slowly emerging since 1993 that resulted in the early retirement of the Metr. [[Herman (Swaiko) of Washington and New York|Herman (Swaiko)]] in September. The chief tasks of the council were to pick a new primate for the OCA and to restore confidence in the financial accountability of the church.
After receiving pluralities in the nominating ballots (though not a two-thirds majority), auxiliary Bishop [[Jonah (Paffhausen) of Washington and New York|Jonah (Paffhausen)]] of Fort Worth was elected by the Synod of Bishops. There Present at the Wednesday morning session, were 635 645 voting delegates, including 310 clergy and 325 lay delegates, and 10 Hierarchs, making 424 432 votes needed for a first round, two thirds, majority.
On the first ballot, the two leading candidates were Bp. Jonah, with 233 votes, and Abp. [[Job (Osacky) of Chicago|Job of Chicago]], with 212 votes. Also receiving first ballot votes were, Bishop [[Benjamin (Peterson) of San Francisco|Benjamin]] with 75 votes, Archbishop [[Seraphim (Storheim) of Ottawa|Seraphim]] 33, Bishop [[Tikhon (Mollard) of Philadelphia|Tikhon]] 27, Archpriest [[Michael Dahulich]] 16, Archbishop [[Dmitri (Royster) of Dallas|Dmitri]] 10, Archbishop [[Nathaniel (Popp) of Detroit|Nathaniel]] 9, Bishop [[Basil (Essey) of Wichita|Basil (Essey)]] 6, Bishop [[Nikon (Liolin) of Boston|Nikon]] 5, Archpriest [[Alexander Golitzin]] 5, Archbishop [[Lazar (Puhalo) of Ottawa|Lazar (Puhalo)]] 002, Bishop [[Hilarion (Alfeyev) of Vienna|Hilarion (of Vienna)]] 2, Archimandrite [[Meletios (Webber)]] 2, Archpriest Basil Summer 1, Archimandrite [[Zacharias (Zacharou)|Zacharias (of St. John’s Monastery, England)]] 1, Archpriest Dennis Bradley 1, Archpriest Callinic Berger 1, and Archimandrite Zacchaeus (Wood) with 1 vote. On the second ballot, Bp. Jonah received 473 votes and Abp. Job 364. Their names were given to the other bishops for selection.
On the previous night, the Synod of Bishops took questions about the financial scandal. The newly consecrated Bishop Jonah gave answers that drew attention for their forthright admission of wrongdoing at church headquarters and explained of how bishops are supposed to lead.
Much of the Council's activity could be observed online through a [http://www.oca.org/15aac page on the OCA website], and via podcasts from [http://ancientfaith.com/specials/oca15aac Ancient Faith Radio].
==External links==
