“Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them,

and they that are great exercise authority upon them.

But it shall not be so among you:

but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister;

And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant:

Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto,

but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:25-28, KJV)

The word the Athenians used for their Assembly was Ekklesia, the same word used in the New Testament for Church
(and it is the greatest philological irony in all of Western history that this word,
which connoted equal participation in all deliberation by all members,
came to designate a kind of self-perpetuating, self-protective Spartan gerousia -
which would have seemed patent nonsense to Greek-speaking Christians of New Testament times,
who believed themselves to be equal members of their Assembly.)

- Thomas Cahill, Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter



ΦΙΛΟΤΙΜΟ: THE GREEK SECRET

Friday, November 23, 2007

A Thought Cornucopia

In keeping with the holiday season vernacular, we offer the following cornucopia of thoughts to ponder:

  • In his letter to us printed in the September Messenger, our treasurer lists figures for a third priest. In his financial information distributed at the General Assembly he lists a different set of figures. In a previous posting we questioned his figures... hmmm. And we are the "small number of terminal malcontents" who "revel" in furthering "misinformation"? Pot and kettle?
  • Does our proistameno of Prophet Elias only choose not to celebrate the feasts of St. Nektarios and the Presentation of the Theotokos in the Temple? He was not in attendance at either Divine Liturgy.
  • Has anyone seen the plans for the new "Baptismal Chapel" being planned for Prophet Elias, or does the proistameno of Prophet Elias only believe he can unilaterally make changes to OUR church, without at least going through the motions of letting us think we have a say?
  • The original hand-picked "split committee" requested a letter from the Metropolitan stating he would honor the results of the survey. Where is that letter?

  • Why was all pertinent General Assembly information only made available on the day of the meeting and not mailed previously for review?
Ponder away to your heart's content. Answers may never come but the questions need to be asked.

Posted by TOCB Moderator at 1:06 PM

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Regarding the proistamenos of P.E. and his absences from feast days; Does this constitute a "lack of participation" in the life of the church and warrant him not qualified to serve?

I ponder.

November 24, 2007 at 11:35 AM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)