“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 18, 2011

Doug Anderson Comments on the Situation Surrounding the Special General Assembly

These actions by the Priests and Metropolitan are hurtful, unnecessary and divisive. Their actions and inaction are undeniably the single largest factor in causing major unrest, mistrust and disunity in the Salt Lake City community. They don't seem to understand the importance of listening to people and acknowledging them. Even if it is just listening to the people and acknowledging their concerns (even if they end up doing nothing). Just empathizing and being the leader and consoling father and priest figure that the people want and look up to.

They are not listening to any concerns and addressing their concerns however legitimate. It would be nice to be flawless in our actions and thoughts and would be nice to be right or righteous 100% of the time. But they are not, we are not, the people with concerns are not.

Instead of education, empathy, forgiveness, guidance, and leadership from our clergy and parish council, what we are actually seeing, hearing and experiencing are threats and issuance of punishment (in writing), belittlement (in sermons), threats (in letters), character assassination (Parish Council letters and Metropolitan's letters against Mr Bapis, and Foundation Board of Directors sic, 2009, 2010) and more obstructionist, mean and unbecoming behavior from our leaders.

Instead if guidance, education, leadership and cooperation, the community experiences demands with threats, unyielding ultimatums, demands for obedience, inflexible stubbornness through action and inaction by the Denver Metropolitan, Salt Lake priests and the Salt Lake parish council.

I am sorry I feel this way, but this is the fact.

I do not question God’s word, but I really question these parts of organized religion that demand 100% obedience to men not God; but men that are not perfect and may not or cannot see their human flaws.

Police attending a church meeting and organizational meeting is significantly disturbing. This should really cause those clergy, and men and women Salt Lake leadership that organized this meeting and preordain it's outcome, to reflect on their actions that brought these circumstances to this juncture.

Best Regards,
Douglas Anderson

2 comments:

Yannis Armaou said...

I am honored to be associated with you Doug! Thank you.

Steve Velis said...

Doug, I was just wondering, is this how you felt or at least conducted yourself 10 years or so ago when you were on the board? Or is your loyalty reserved only for a select few?