HE CAME ... HE SAW ... HE BECAME NEUTRAL!

What a travesty!

The Denver Metropolitan came into town; there was an open forum meeting; he came to respond to our questions. He took a Roman Emperor Nero approach. Just like Nero who fiddled as Rome burned, he blamed a local attorney (myself), and Archbishop Demetrios, for his own numerous failings. The Metropolitan’s [and his appointed clergy’s] demonstrated behavior, speaks volumes, for the lack of leadership qualities.

Who has been telling us the truth?? Was it Fr. Michael when he was conveying the directives he was receiving from the Metropolitan?? Or, is the Metropolitan’s most recently professed denial the truth?

The Metropolitan quoted liberally from the Archdiocesan Uniform Parish Regulations ... he just failed to understand, that it was OK for us to exercise, as a community, our “appeal rights” contained in the same set of documents.

We heard nothing but lame excuses for the reason for the continuation of the filing of the corporate structure of Prophet Elias. Why did he not worry about someone [of the Orthodox Christian Faith] “stealing” Holy Trinity’s name? And he foisted the presence in our community of the Rambo lawyer from Houston upon the N.Y. Archdiocese.

With the exception of his verbal assurance only that we are the final arbiters of how our community is governed, his other responses were factually untrue. It was προφάσεις έν άμαρτίαις.

He blatantly lied; he disavowed orally [έπεα πτερόεντα] his voluminous confrontational, dictatorial pieces of correspondence that he authored during the last few years. But maybe he is worthy of forgiveness; maybe it is his age that is playing tricks on his mind.

He never once acknowledged that for the last 5 to 7 years our community has been suffering from a “clergy” leadership crisis. He did not acknowledge that our problems started when he sent to us Fr. Michael. The Metropolitan has been instrumental in creating the many moral crises that our community has suffered during the last few years.

The cornerstone of the Metropolitan’s several responses was the Nuremberg defense. Η Εύα με απάτησε ! Contrary to his false modesty, and his protestations, he is a master of the “blame game.” His performance during the open forum demonstrated that the emperor has no clothes.

And then he became neutral. His demeanor during most of the “open forum” meeting was “almost conciliatory;” but we know the Metropolitan did not mean it.

Maybe he finally got the message. He correctly stated that it is our community that is the final “decider;” he is not the “ultimate authority” as he professed in his earlier correspondence to HighTower Securities. We [the Community] are the only ones that decide our future. He just forgot the “you are thieves, and impostors” rhetoric of years past.

But as Dante said it this way: "The darkest places in hell are reserved for those who maintain their neutrality in times of moral crisis."

 - Nick J. Colessides