“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, November 26, 2011

A Worthwhile Read, Along with a Commentary

A commentary on Peter Marudas’ article entitled
published on November 5, 2011, in The National Herald

Congratulations on a well thought out and provocative article.  It reflects the present reality in most all of the parishes throughout the United States.  Indeed a treat.  It should be used as a primer by all the Clergy, both before they enter, and after they graduate from Holy Cross College.  The advice of the anonymous priest quoted in the article should be heeded.  The entire article should be read by as many people as possible.  The lessons are innumerable.

The Clergy in America MUST change.  As the quoted priest said “... unless we [Clergy] change, not in dogma nor belief, but in how we approach our people, then this may be the last generation of born Orthodox who will remain Orthodox.”  (Emphasis supplied.)  Pettiness should not blindly guide them.  They have been invested with clerical not imperial robes. 

It is not too late to save Orthodoxy in America.  As a categorical imperative, the Clergy must earn the respect of their Orthodox flocks.

Let us pray that our present Hierarchs, if they wish to remain “spiritually relevant” to us and to the next generations, will not be “... arrogant, intellectually and theologically mediocre, administratively incompetent, and most importantly spiritually deficient.”

The future of the Greek Orthodox Church is in the hands of the Bishops and the Priests who governs us spiritually.  They should rise to the occasion, do God’s work, and guide us.

Best regards,
/s/ 
Nick J. Colessides

1 comment:

Bill Rekouniotis said...

"The priest doesn't make a parish,
the parish makes a priest".