Creative Math 101 - Instructor: Our Parish Council Treasurer

In the September issue of the Messenger our parish council treasurer embarks on still another analysis of the financial condition of our community. Aside from the usual "ahead of last year in stewardship but we're broke" verbiage, this analysis includes the "total cost" to the community of having a third priest assigned. Why after 25 plus years of having three priests serve our community has this suddenly become an issue only our treasurer and this proistameno can answer. Come to think of it, until the announced retirement of Fr. George in October of last year, it was never considered to not have less than three clergy.

Our treasurer lists two figures as "total cost" to the community: $98,525 for zero years experience and $142,555 for 15 years experience. Most disingenuous (excluding the fact that his figures are incorrect) is the including of the 15% Archdiocese commitment in these figures. The Archdiocese commitment is based on the community's TOTAL expenses not just those that suit the treasurer and this proistameno. This method of scare tactic accounting, encouraged by this proistameno, is beneath the intelligence of the members of this community.

Let's do this: Let's have our treasurer list the "total cost" to this community of having this proistameno still here. He can use the same math he used to cypher the above numbers. Talk about scare tactic accounting - that would scare all of us beyond words. Just a thought. Actually, a better thought would be to have the current regime just be honest with us and not blindly spit out the information told to them by this proistameno.

Pappas Family Letter

TOCB received the below letter from the Pappas family with their permission to publish it on this venue. We at TOCB would like to thank them for their candor and concern for the life of our community. Aside from converting the letter to HTML, no changes have been made from the original.

The Extended Pappas Family
3475 South 700 West
Salt Lake City, UT 84119

July 26, 2007

His Grace Bishop Isaiah, Metropolitan
Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Denver
4550 East Alameda Avenue
Denver, CO 80246

His Eminence Metropolitan Isaiah:

Our family wishes to address with you our concerns regarding a division of the Salt Lake Greek Orthodox Parish. As a spiritually and emotionally invested family in the Greek Orthodox community, we have contributed a significant amount of time and resources to both Holy Trinity Cathedral and Prophet Elias Church. We oppose splitting the Salt Lake parish, and we humbly ask that our thoughts are given consideration.

Like many early Greek immigrants, our grandparents selflessly gave their time and money to help found Holy Trinity Cathedral. Years later, our parents and uncles were just as willing to help establish the location of Prophet Elias by donating real estate to the church. Since then, our family, now 29 members strong, worships at both churches.

We are Sunday School teachers and students, choir members, and acolytes. We serve on the Parish Council, the Hellenic Heritage Campaign, and the Hellenic Cultural Association. We are St. Sophia School teachers, students, and members of the St. Sophia School Board.

We are members of junior and senior GOYA. We are OPA dancers, Dionysios Dancers, and dance officers. We are GOYA basketball players and coaches for various teams. We are St. John Chrysostom Oratorical Festival parish winners and Diocese-level participants. We have chaired the tyropitakia booth for the Greek Festival for more than twenty years.

Over the past few years alone, we have contributed *** dollars to our church for many needs. For our family, as with many others, the “almighty dollar” is not first in our hearts and minds. In addition to stewardship, we have donated to the renovation of Holy Trinity Cathedral, the building of the gymnasium at Prophet Elias, Project Mexico Orphanage, and St. Sophia School. Last year we purchased the new altar at Holy Trinity Cathedral in memory of our parents.

Perhaps most importantly, we and our children have developed long-lasting friendships with church members who attend both Holy Trinity and Prophet Elias. We have friends, koumbari, and godchildren who attend both churches, as well.

Through several generations, our families have been blessed and have flourished as participants in the single Salt Lake parish. We are simply concerned about its well-being. We have not been presented with compelling evidence or reasoning to split the strength of the parish. Indeed, the message we have been told all our lives is that the people constitute the “ecclesia,” not the buildings, thus the argument that our one parish – our one united spiritual ecclesia – must separate “to be in harmony with the teachings of the Church” seems designed to confuse. Additionally, there was no mention of our parish
acting against canonical teachings when Prophet Elias Church was constructed over forty years ago, nor when Archbishop Iakovos consecrated Prophet Elias just sixteen years ago. We only pray to continue our stewardship as our families continue to grow, without having to discriminate between separated parishes.

Beyond our family’s prayers, this parish’s unique identity in Salt Lake City makes it even more imperative to keep our parish united. Our society is bombarded by the LDS presence that has molded much of our city’s profile from our news media, to our city landmarks, to the LDS ward houses in every neighborhood, even to our public school curriculum. The communal nature of our two churches has helped provide a protective front for our families rearing children here among the Mormons and their daily attempts at Mormon conversion. Additionally, our unity has fostered spiritual connections among members through collective investment in a single parish’s future and has enabled a great sense of spirit to thrive among our members.

Since the Salt Lake parish’s infancy, our community has been united in worship.
Together we have fostered a sense of identity and belonging as we worship collectively.
Our family stands united in our belief that our collective strength adds up to much more
than the sum of the individual strengths of our members, and in our prayers that our
undivided Greek Orthodox Church of Salt Lake City will remain intact.

Humbly and respectfully,

Jeannine & Warren Timothy
Dino & Kristy Pappas
John & Maxine Pappas
George & Carrie Pappas
Denise & Dean Gianopoulos
Stephanie Pappas

cc: Fr. Michael Kouremetis
Mr. Nick Varanakis

Note:
** Amount of monetary contributions has been omitted to protect privacy of the family

Parish Council Meeting Nugget

Let's see if together we can reconcile this latest nugget from the September 17 parish council meeting. The treasurer proudly reports that stewardship is ahead of last year by some $60,000. Fr. Matthew reports that the annual GOYA retreat at Camp Tuttle will be held on a Friday and Saturday this year instead of the regular Saturday and Sunday. The reason for the change of date? The community can't afford to pay for a priest to fill in so one of the assigned clergy can celebrate liturgy with the kids at the retreat.

As it appears, the community can afford to pay for a replacement to cover assigned clergy vacations (this proistameno is currently away for 3 weeks and has far exceeded his 5 week yearly allotment) but $350 is too much to spend for our children. Now let's chew on that for a while and see if it makes sense.

Stall and Stall Some More

After almost four months, this proistameno finally fulfilled the mandate of the spring General Assembly by sending the letter to Denver requesting the assignment of a third priest to our community. If we remember the General Assembly meeting, this proistameno quickly jumped to volunteer to "personally" write the letter. As the months have passed it is no wonder he was so quick to volunteer.

By volunteering to "personally" write the letter, this proistameno portrays himself as the champion of all good causes while behind the scenes he manipulates the situation for his benefit. His constant statement of the need for finance committee approval is a red herring. His use of the classic manipulative technique of stalling is masterful. He can work his back room politics hoping the people he is responsible to forget the issue at hand.

In 1999 when the community was in need of an assistant priest, finances were an issue. Several letters were exchanged between then president Nick Bapis and our Metropolitan regarding the community's inability to afford an "experienced" assistant priest. Our Metropolitan ultimately responded by writing, "the assignment of an assistant priest to a parish is not based on the financial condition of the parish but on the needs of the parish." Therefore, this proistameno's mention that "the current financial position of our Parish is tight" is irrelevant based on past directives and remains nothing more than a stall tactic. Lest we forget the exhaustive almost four month finance committee review of which no mention is made.

We continue to be duped by this proistameno and his inner circle regime. The needs and best interest of this community must be placed before the manipulative actions of this proistameno. One can only imagine what kind of deal this proistameno and the Metropolitan have brokered. Maybe another vacation is in the offing for this proistameno which would give us all some relief from his manipulation.

Most Successful Festival Ever - Record Breaking Year

Over the next several weeks we will hear these words many times. The chairpersons will be patting each other on the back for a job well done. In all fairness, many many people worked extremely hard to make this event a success. Ultimately though, success is not measured only by gross income.

Before we all get excited and are convinced we need to drink the kool aid, let's sit back and wait for the expenses to roll in. Let's see if making exclusive agreements for our products was in the best interest of the community. Let's also wait and see if the problems that arose over the weekend are addressed in an open manner or if we are again left in the dark. Time will tell. In the meantime, we would be best served to wait and see what unfolds.