“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, September 21, 2012

MATH IS THE LANGUAGE OF GOD'S UNIVERSE

I am sorry to say that even the makeup of the current parish council which I ratified demonstrates a clear division between those who identify with the Holy Trinity Cathedral and those who identify with Prophet Elias Church. Some responsibility regarding this sad reality also rests with our Archdiocese in New York.
- Metropolitan Isaiah, Letter to the Greek Orthodox Community of Greater Salt Lake, dated September 4, 2012 
His Eminence is "sorry" about a misconception he has concerning the current elected parish council. However, his sorrow does not make his observation accurate.


It is a really funny thing about free elections: their outcomes tend to reflect accurately the wishes and aspirations of those voting. As opposed to appointed parish councils, where appointees and clergy sought constantly to stack the deck against the vast majority, this parish council quite accurately reflects the will of the parishioners in this community.

To illustrate, let us return - once again - to the original 2007 survey which showed just 13% of respondents in favor of splitting this community.  At present there is only one vocal parish council member who favors splitting the community. There may be one or two more who might favor splitting, depending on the circumstances surrounding such an action.

Stephen Hawking, the renowned astrophysicist once famously said, "Mathematics is the language of God's universe."

So, let's do the math.

If only one parish council member favors a split, that amounts to 7% of the council. If we're being generous and consider that three parish council members might favor a split, that would be 20%. And, if we take the average, and consider two members favor this split and we come up with, lo and behold, THIRTEEN percent!

Math is, indeed, the language of God's universe!

4 comments:

Yannis Armaou said...

The met forgets that this PC is an ELECTED one from the people in this community.He was never "sorry" when they were appointed Parish Councils for the last 3 years.
Also the SOLE responsibility rests on
the Met and his clergy.
Leave NY out of it.
You tried and FAILED.
Move on.
Bon Voyage....

Bill Rekouniotis said...

Yannis, It's giddy up, giddy up!

Bill Rekouniotis said...

He's a former United States Marine?
He throws his employer the Archdiocese under the bus, maybe he thinks the United States Government is also to blame for his self created problems. Let's ignore and move on. Ratify Mr. Armaou, remove Kouremetis.

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