“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


Thursday, January 26, 2012

DOUBLING DOWN? AND THEN THERE WERE SEVENTEEN! ?

Moderator's Note: the original of this document may be viewed here.

GREEK ORTHODOX METROPOLIS of DENVER




January 25, 2012
Saint Gregory the Theologian

Reverend Michael Kouremetis
Reverend Matthew Gilbert
Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral
Prophet Elias Greek Orthodox Church
The Greek Orthodox Church of Greater Salt Lake
c/o 5335 S. Highland Drive
Holladay, UT 84117

Beloved in the Lord,

After consultation with the representatives of His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios, His Grace Bishop Andonios, and His Grace Bishop Sebastian, who visited me last week, and in conformity to the Uniform Parish Regulations of the Archdiocese, I hereby appoint the new Parish Council for the year 2012 who will continue the work of the current parish council.

After the Affirmation of Office is given by the new Parish Council, the current parish council will turn over all of its responsibilities, as laid out in the UPRs.

The members of the new Parish Council have been augmented to seventeen total for this year, on the basis that each of them wishes to work as one body for the good of the community, and also to continue all of the ministries of the parish as fulltime ministries.

The newly-appointed members are:

1. Mr. Randy Bathemas
2. Dr. Charles Beck
3. Mr. Philip Floor
4, Mr, Harry Hillas
5. Mr. John Johnson
6. Mrs. Margaret Kireiev
7. Mrs. Nicole Mouskondis
8. Mr. Jim Mylonakis
9. Mr. George Pappas
10. Mr. Jim Priskos
11. Mr. Ted Sargetakis
12. Mr. Joe Sasich
13. Mr. Pete Sefakis
14. Mr. Bruce Shand
15. Dr. Demetrios Skedros
16. Mr. Harry Souvall
17. Ms. Elaine Zambos

I am instructing the clergy to give the Affirmation of Office to all the above parishioners at the end of the Divine Liturgy at the Holy Trinity Cathedral on January 29, 2012, since the last affirmation of office was given at the Prophet Elias parish.

For the sake of the unity and the wellbeing of the Greek Orthodox community of Greater Salt Lake and its suburbs, I urge all of the seventeen council members to work together as one body under the Lord Jesus Christ, Who established His Church almost two thousand years ago, in order to continue, together with the assigned clergy, as the stewards of the Lord in our generation, the work of salvation for His people in your region.

According to the regulations of the Archdiocese, and immediately after the Divine Liturgy, the first meeting of the new parish council will be presided over by Father Michael Kouremetis or Father Matthew Gilbert for the election of the officers of the council, after which the new parish council will be under the new president.

I pray that all of the members of the new parish council will demonstrate true unity and Christian fellowship, in order to erase the embarrassment of our people before the non-Orthodox Christians of your region, which was brought about by individuals who unintentionally brought scandal upon Christ's Church.

5 comments:

Jim Sefandonakis said...

To this brave group of 17, the only advise I can give you is to fight nice.

Bill Rekouniotis said...

Thank God for this blog otherwise we wouldn't know what's going on in our parish. Our current "group" can't inform us, but TOCB can. Remember General Assembly Sun. Jan. 29th at 2:00 p.m. at Holy Trinity. CHANGE THE LOCKS! Dasvidaniya!

Yannis Armaou said...

The only people that fr.Kouremetis
was able to recruit are:Beck-Shand(the behind the back signatories for the corporation at PE)Hillas,Kireiev(any conflict of interest here?Husband is a deacon!),
his usual 5 puppets(illegal parish council from last year)and the rest that i strongly believe they were given false assurances!Only 4-5 people from the whole community.
Kudos to the clergy.Nice job.

Jim Sefandonakis said...

Yanni,

If they were given false assurances they can step out just as fast as they stepped in. One thing for sure is they will not keep secrets from the community as others did in the past. If Father Kouremetis starts every board meeting saying,

"What is spoken here is secret!"

then nothing has changed. People that do things in secret have something to hide.

Bill Rekouniotis said...

2 weeks ago no talk from the Metropolitan about any General Assembly or elections. Then the Unity Group calls a General Assembly and elections and "voila" the Met has his own appointed board just like that. I think I feel another "miracle" coming on, ah, no just flatulence. Holy gas Batman.