“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

Sunday, March 24, 2013

With Paternal Love?

Although your current parish council should have a total membership of fifteen persons, it has only fourteen. Originally a fifteenth member was elected whom I did not ratify because he was one of the persons who brought-about last year's lawsuit against the previous recognized parish council. I must say that I was ready to ratify his election for the sake of peace and unity. However, he prevented me from doing so by sending a letter to the Ecumenical Patriarch making a request which went contrary to the Uniform Parish Regulations of the Archdiocese, which our Ecumenical Patriarchate ratified several years ago. After these many months your parish council has ignored its responsibility to fill the position, and thus is ignoring the Uniform Parish Regulations of the Archdiocese. In choosing to "honor" the un- ratified individual, they have placed him above the importance of a properly functioning parish administration. Obviously if the needs of the community as a whole are given a back seat, unity cannot be achieved.
 - excerpt from Metropolitan Isaiah's latest letter dated March 7.  The original may be viewed here.

As a follow-up to our recent commentary on the Metropolitan's latest letter:
  • Why the sudden concern about having the full complement of elected parish council members?
  • Metropolitan Isaiah was perfectly content to live with half a council when he appointed them?
  • So now, having ONE empty seat is a concern?
Some of the Metropolitan's dwindling number of apologists in this community view these inconsistencies as a means by which he seeks to teach his "flock" HUMILITY.

Humility, like all other virtues, is best taught by example.

The example should be that of our Lord Himself:
  • Our Lord taught Charity by being charitable.
  • Our Lord taught Faith by being faithful.
  • Our Lord taught Love by being loving.
  • Our Lord taught Kindness by being kind.
  • Our Lord taught Forgiveness by being forgiving.
  • Our Lord taught Humility by being HUMBLE!
Our Lord provided examples of VIRTUE by being VIRTUOUS.

The Metropolitan ends his latest letter to us with the closing salutation: "With paternal love". May our Lord protect us from such "fathers"! Our Lord's Apostolic Successors need to learn His lessons, then EXEMPLIFY them, before demanding such of their flock.

Posted by TOCB Moderator at 11:10 AM

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