The Winter of Our Discontent

December 1, 2008

The recent deluge of “disqualification letters” speaks volumes.

It gives us yet another glimpse into the assigned Clergy’s weaknesses.

It speaks volumes as to:

1. Both Clergymen’s inherent weakness in God’s ministry and service;


2. The Clergy’s inability to become leaders in the parish;


3. The Clergy’s willingness to manufacture reasons for the disqualification of our community’s members to become candidates for the parish’s elections;


4. The Clergy’s obsession to silence all differing points of view; leadership means one must listen, not silence.


5. The Clergy’s desire to make the community “servants” to their shortcomings;


6. Both Clergymen’s inability to comprehend the depth and breadth of the problems in our community; and their refusal to work with ALL the people toward solutions.


7. Their abuse of the power of the pulpit;


8. Their inability to be and to become bridge-builders, rather than the foremost divisive force in our community;


9. Their mendacious mentality.


10. Their inability to gauge the pulse of this community; it would make them better priests.

Our 100-plus-year community does not need clergy/dictators with Napoleonic complexes.

What do they do in seeking to obtain the parishioners’ forgiveness before they partake of Holy Communion on Sundays? When was the last time they went to confession? Does the assigned Clergy follow the canons of the Church? Are they doing the things which can only aggrandize them in their own grand schemes of superiority? What are they afraid of?

The assigned Clergy knows that they are the “single most relevant” cause of the parish’s discontent. They can do us all a favor; they can voluntarily depart from our community.*

Our community does not need clergy who make up rules and regulations in order to control the parishioners. The assigned clergy conveniently discover canons which do not appear anywhere. Their manipulation of canons, people, and events defy logic.

We need clergymen who act out of love for the parishioners, and not as vindictive despots.

Our administrative head in Denver does not do anything about it. Maybe it is his health; maybe it is his own despotic predisposition toward intolerance for different points of view.

We do not need a clergy that is unable to bring the community together; we do not need a clergy that promotes animosity.

The assigned Clergy must go.

If you go and vote, please cast a “blank” ballot. There is a message. Do they have the strength of conviction to recognize it?

Best regards to all,

Nick J. Colessides

*P.S. We of course congratulate Fr. Michael; he recently tried to obtain a position as a proistameno and go to the Boston Cathedral; the parish council of the Boston Cathedral rejected him. They refused to hire him. Their gain, our loss.

That was the past …

If he said it once, he said it half a dozen times during the past General Assembly when faced with straightforward questions about why 45-plus percent of budget figures were off-limits to any discussion. Our treasurer does not understand that those of us who oppose this mindset will not accept what are clearly dictatorial practices - past, present or future.

Along with other board members, he fails to grasp there are still those among us, not that much older than he is, who remember our parents' and grandparents' examples of leadership in this community. We and they loved and supported our church and its priests. In contrast, however, we learned from our elders and expect and insist that we will have a significant say in the economic issues - all of them - that face our community. We expect our votes, so long as they do not impact ecclesiastical practices, to matter, even if at times they are at odds with the opinions of priests and other leaders. We did not learn from our forefathers (and mothers!) to be a rubber-stamp voting body with a voice that is censored or stifled.

Our forefathers’ major goal for this community was UNITY. It is why they did not want two separate churches in this valley. We, their heirs, voted these past months first for the founding of a Heritage Corporation to properly manage our assets in order to supplement stewardship, while protecting our community’s income properties through good times or bad. It passed by 74%, yet was scuttled by a few dissenters, along with the Metropolitan as being “against the spirit” of the Uniform Parish Regulations. These are the strictures that give our clerics unprecedented control, without review, with the tacit consent of our so-called lay “leaders”. We would point out that with the latest settlement of the Katinas case – and with other victims now suing – this insistence is dangerous! The second vote was whether or not to remain united. The results, despite various attempts to scuttle that vote through fiat, (once again at a Clergy-Laity Congress) were uncovered and have hopefully been laid to rest.

Most of us who write for this blog are not ultra-conservatives who are blindly stuck in the past. Rather, we espouse positive and progressive change, such as the Heritage Corporation as originally designed. We maintain a deep and abiding reverence for our church and the traditions our grandparents and parents built for us. We did not grow up with clergy and bishops who threatened excommunication when they did not get their way. We will not accept such a medieval mindset. We are disappointed and outraged that this board continues to be cowed or overawed by it.

One parish council member had the honesty to stand up and say that a former parish council member’s excommunication and dismissal from the parish council could be a contributing factor to current stewardship difficulties. Fr. Michael’s quip that the excommunication was “temporary”, along with our president’s attempt to gloss over the event as not being “really excommunication” was further instructive. They can deceive themselves, if they so choose. The reality is that the action, temporary or not, was meant to be hurtful and humiliating to the person in question – a person who served this community for nearly half a century. More than that, it was done as an object lesson to intimidate others who might be so inclined. Its ramifications are staggering. Look up Hosea 8:7: “for they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind.” The fact that many faithful stewards for these past few years have been dismissed from boards, or are now prevented from running for and serving on the parish council, is but further evidence of an exclusionary, punitive and backward-looking mindset among today’s clerics.

In contrast, we respect, revere and honor our parents’ and grandparents’ wisdom. We were taught by them to honor the democratic traditions of both our Greek and American heritage. Following their example, we expect church governance to be informed by fairness, common sense, consensus and majority rule.

In Times of Hardship

Some years back, when still working in the oil and gas industry, I recall a year when my company did not meet earnings forecasts, in fact had suffered losses. It was rumored there would be no salary increases or bonuses that year. I was miffed. It had been a year when my group - Investor Relations and Corporate Communications - had worked extraordinarily hard, putting in many long, extra hours per week throughout the year. I had, in fact, been seconded to many other departments, along with my ordinary tasks, and was feeling the strain. The “rumor” was in fact, true. No one in the company, including top management, got a raise that year; no one got a bonus.

A couple of years later, my colleagues and I faced yet another blow to our personal incomes. Management had decided, after an intensive review by outside consultants, that employee benefits were too generous. Along with my other colleagues, I saw my portion of the health care cost contribution raised from $2.50 per month, to $250.00 per month – a one hundred-fold increase.

I bring up these incidents as an example of what average, ordinary workers in the country are facing. I then consider what I heard in Sunday’s General Assembly and I am astounded at the disconnect. I might add that the non-clergy employees of our community have faced somewhat similar conditions. Many of their benefits have been drastically cut.

On the surface, we might well laud Fr. Michael and Fr. Elias for their magnanimity in declining (or is it deferring?) their annual cost-of-living increase. Further, we might, in better times, understand Fr. Matthew’s decision in insisting on the raise, for whatever reasons he may feel are valid.

However, for most working people these decisions are moot. No economic entity gives most salaried workers the option of whether to “graciously decline” or “reluctantly accept” what were heretofore routine cost-of-living raises. No one, for that matter, gives workers the option not to be laid off. In general, employees are not consulted when these decisions are made. This is the stark reality for the vast majority of working people in this city, this state, this country. Conversely, our priests are, at present, shielded from this reality that is part of everyone else's life. Let us also keep in mind that median income for a family in the Wasatch Front area in 2007 was $45,140 – significantly lower than any of the three priests’ salaries, without even taking benefits into account.

In pondering this disconnect, an example from the past comes vividly to mind:

During the Second World War, when Greece was suffering under Nazi Occuption, the Germans started rounding up Jews. During that time, about 600 Greek Orthodox priests were arrested and deported (to concentration camps) because of their actions in helping Jews. Many Jews were saved by the Greek police, the clergy and the resistance. Archbishop Damaskinos and Chief of Police, Angelos Evert, faced the threat of death for their efforts. Archbishop Damaskinos ordered that false baptismal certificates and new identity papers be created by the Greek Orthodox Church in order to help desperate fleeing Jews. The Archbishop also ordered monasteries and convents in Athens to shelter Jews, and urged his priests to ask their congregations to hide the Jews in their homes. As a result, more than 250 Jewish children were hidden by Orthodox clergy alone.

Further, Archbishop Damaskinos spearheaded a direct appeal to the Germans, in the form of a letter composed by the famous Greek poet, Angelos Sikelianos, and signed by prominent Greek citizens, in defense of the Jews who were being persecuted. The letter incited the rage of the Nazi authorities, who threatened the Archbishop with death by a firing squad. Damaskinos' response was, "Greek religious leaders are not shot, they are hanged. I request that you respect this custom." The simple courage of the religious leader's reply caught the Nazis off guard, and his life was spared.

It should be noted (and a source of deep pride to all people of Greek descent!) that the appeal of the Archbishop and his fellow Greeks was unique; there is no record of any similar protest to the Nazis during World War II that has come to light in any other European country!

"In our national consciousness, all the children of Mother Greece are an inseparable unity: they are equal members of the national body irrespective of religion... Our holy religion does not recognize superior or inferior qualities based on race or religion, as it is stated: 'There is neither Jew nor Greek' and thus condemns any attempt to discriminate or create racial or religious differences. Our common fate both in days of glory and in periods of national misfortune forged inseparable bonds between all Greek citizens, without exemption, irrespective of race..."

Our clergy and hierarchy would do well to consider, and we would all do well to remember, Archbishop Damaskinos' words. In past times of trouble our clergy protected not only their own flock, suffering with them, but also felt the pain of, and protected others as well.

- Barbara Billinis Colessides

Banana Republic General Assembly Redux: Keep Drinking the Kool-Aid

Overheard in the parking lot: a parishioner commented to a parish council member something to the effect that we live in a democracy. "No," replied the parish council member, "this is a theocracy."

It's deja vu all over again! Same stuff, different year. This time last year we described (Banana Republic General Assemblies – the New Trend in Greek Orthodoxy in America) the utterly rubber-stamp nature of our recent general assemblies. This year's still fits the description.

We continue to witness:

• Financials and budgets presented with explanations that would never be taken seriously in any other setting. (Deficit budgets that are described as "really surplus"? Go figure.)
  
  
• An inability and unwillingness to discuss the deep discontent, and frustration over the complete voicelessness that is the true driver of current stewardship difficulties, and not just difficult economic times. It is further galling that some of our stewardship monies will most certainly go toward defraying the church's settlements with the victims of pedophile priests. Yet none of these subjects may be discussed.
  
  
• A new stewardship program that might just work, if this community had true bridge-builders as priests, along with reasonable consensus-builders as board members. Instead we have priests who divide, rather than unite, and a parish council rife with "yes men" who hide behind UPRs and canonical law, while assisting the clergy and hierarchy in preventing any discussion of the true problems at hand.

We cannot have any serious dialogue about finances when nearly half our budget is off limits to any discussion whatsoever. Several parishioners tried to bring up the point. Another asked why the board could not provide some "push-back" to the Metropolis and Archdiocese about the problems at hand. All were promptly shut down by our president, and by another parish council member who read from the UPRs pointing out that the laity is not entitled to have any say on this subject. Another parish council member pointed out, in a further insult to our intelligence, that if these regulations were to change it would have to be through the Clergy-Laity Congress.

That too, is unlikely to occur. In fact, from all reports by many concerned lay leaders, past and present, in our city and in others, our Banana Republic General Assemblies are modeled after recent Banana Republic Clergy-Laity Congresses. Delegates are hand-picked; dissenters are shut down; excommunications are threatened (temporary or not) and the "pay, pray and obey" nature of Greek Orthodoxy in this century in this country continues.

“Confidentiality Is Part of the Settlement”

These are the words spoken by Ms. Tahira Merritt, attorney for the defendants in the most recent sexual abuse case against the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. In doing so Ms. Merritt declined to disclose the amount that the Archdiocese will be paying in what is the latest out-of-court settlement to five victims of sexual abuse at the hands of Fr. Nicholas Katinas.

According to an article by Theodore Kalmoukos in The National Herald, “[t]erms of the settlement were not immediately disclosed, but sources from within the Archdiocese told The National Herald that the amount will be in the millions of dollars.” Ms. Merritt, verified the Herald’s information, but declined to disclose the amount, stating that “confidentiality is part of the settlement.”

The defense team was determined, had the case continued, to summon Archbishop Demetrios to be present at the trial, and it is believed that this insistence was instrumental in producing a settlement. Further the defense sought, by extension, to implicate the Ecumenical Patriarchate and Patriarch Bartholomew, since the Archdiocese of America is legally “an extension of the Patriarchate.” The Archdiocese had filed a petition with the court, attempting to dismiss the case based on the statute of limitations, since the abuses had taken place many years ago, however, the Court declined the petition, and a trial date had been set.

Not including the Katinas case, the Archdiocese has to date paid more than $12 million dollars in just the last five years to victims of pederasty by priests. In this case, incidentally, the former Fr. Katinas, rather than face the consequences of his actions, has fled to his native island of Rhodes in Greece.

According to Kalmoukos, The National Herald has learned of yet another group of victims that is considering filing a yet another lawsuit against the Archdiocese. And, there is already a new case filed just last month in Chicago by another alleged victim who had been an altar boy in the 1970s when Katinas had served at the Assumption Greek Orthodox parish in Olympia Fields, Illinois.

The article further states that the “Archdiocese has requested that all court documents be shielded, including the depositions of the both parties.” Further, according to Mr. Kalmoukos, the “Archdiocese has also requested the amount of the settlement not be disclosed, while its officials are looking for ways to compensate the victims without disclosing details to the membership of the Archdiocese or in its budgetary reports, out of fear that the parishes might somehow react negatively. The parishes have been under constant pressure to increase their monthly allocations to the Archdiocese.”