“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


Saturday, October 23, 2010

On the Shoulders of GIANTS!

During the past few weeks we have had glimpses of the processes that took place when our parents and grandparents were planning for the expansion of this community. Some wanted two separate churches and two communities. Others wanted a united community. After much wrangling, and a survey, nearly all agreed to pursue whatever course the majority decided. The majority were committed to unity; the rest is history. Was it always perfect and without disputes? No. Nothing is perfect in this imperfect world. But there was respect and there was cooperation.

There is also one very striking aspect to the wonderful letter and exhibit that Dr. Nick Vidalakis shared with this community. If one reads the minutes in the exhibit, one discovers that the HCF and HHC are not new concepts. The Building Committee in the years that Prophet Elias was being built was comprised of parishioners who were not serving on the Parish Council at the time. The Committee had its processes, its work, its own checking account and accounted properly to the membership at each General Assembly.

No one started harangues about "secular" entities, nor did Parish Council members feel "undermined" and accuse anyone of "robbery", nor did any cleric threaten excommunication, self- or otherwise. Projects were delivered and completed (as with the HHC) on-time and under-budget, often with monies left over! And, most of all, NO ONE - even those who wanted two communities at that time - would have DREAMED or DARED to establish a separate corporate entity in secret, in collusion with the clergy and the Metropolis, against the wishes of the majority of the membership. Unthinkable!

We have stood on the shoulders of giants. Our current leaders have forgotten this! Let's remind them! Let's unite and show everyone - most especially our kids - that we are worthy of the legacy our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents left us.

- Barbara Billinis Colessides

1 comment:

Yannis Armaou said...

That was then and this is now unfortunately.
We have our own "Bermuda Triangle".
Parish council,clergy,Denver.

With the exceptions of the known few
in the parish council,my question is
the rest of them,not even one of them didn't have the guts to stand up
for our(their)community??

Instead they sold us SHORT!

March was their "Φαλκονερα".