“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


Monday, August 19, 2013

FORMER APPOINTED OFFICIALS DEMAND FINANCIALS

Moderator's Note and UPDATE: Despite his ongoing, years-long protestations that he "never" read the blog, Mr. Karpakis noted that there were typos in this blog posting and that we had re-typed it with such. (see his comments to this article) Fact is, we used an Adobe Acrobat converter; we did not retype the letter. The converter isn't always perfect; if we missed something, apologies. Also, Mr. Karpakis wants a link to the original; it may be viewed here


August 16, 2013

Dimitrios Tsagaris
President
Greek Orthodox Church of Greater Salt Lake
279 S. 300 West
Salt Lake City, Utah 84101

Dear Dimitri,

Pursuant to Utah Code Ann. 16-6a-1602(2), the undersigned members of the Greek Orthodox Church of Greater Salt Lake (the “Church Corporation”) hereby demand the right to inspect and copy the following records of the Church Corporation as soon as possible and no later than Friday, August 23, 2.013:

All bank statements, bank reconciliation records, general ledgers, check registers, statements of accrued liabilities and accounts payables, financial statements, and disbursement records for fiscal years 2012 and 2013.

The inspection of these records is requested so that we can be fully informed about the status of the Church Corporation's financial affairs in order to make a fully informed decision regarding the budgetary and other financial matters that will be discussed and voted upon at the Special General Assembly currently scheduled to be held at Prophet Elias Greek Orthodox Church at noon on Sunday, August 25, 2013.

Please contact us at your earliest possible convenience to confirm the Church Corporation's intent to honor this request, and to arrange the exact time and location for the demanded inspection.

Sincerely,

Phillip Floor

Charles C. Karpakis, CPA

cc: George Kourianos

Further note: We stand by our appellation of both Mr. Floor and Mr. Karpakis as appointees, since for nearly 3 years we had NO elections and suspended general assemblies. Their "tenure" during those dismal years was clearly appointive!

7 comments:

Unknown said...

For your information and correction, I have never been appointed to, but only elected to the Parish Council. Further, if you are going to retype the letter, you could at least do so without spelling errors and post a link to the original as you most often do.

Unknown said...

Barbara,

You will find that I never accepted appointment to any Parish Council, I only was elected to serve on the Parish Council. For over 13 years I have voluntarily served as a non-chair member of Stewardship, Finance and Real Estate Committees. I do not consider myself as an "official" in any of these assignments, just a servant to the Church.

Regarding blog readership, I have never said to anyone that I do not read the blog. You should take care to make sure your assertions are accurate.

Thanks for adding the link to the original so your readers don't think we lack spelling ability.

TOCB Moderator said...

A further note: Mr. Karpakis refers to Mr. Tsagaris as president of the "corporation". He is, IN FACT, President of the PARISH COUNCIL of this Greek Orthodox Community of Greater Salt Lake! His lame attempt to marginalize this parish's wishes is OBVIOUS. - THE MODERATORS

TOCB Moderator said...

"Former appointed officials and associates need to keep their mouth shut! They have forgotten what they put us through for 3-4 years. We have not forgotten their arrogance, nor their ignorance. I do not need to mention names. They know who they are."

Andy Giannis

TOCB Moderator said...

You're parsing, Chuck, and far too modest.

You were the appointeds' "power behind the throne". You may never have been appointed to a Parish Council, but you, as a member of a finance committee, and others, pulled strings behind the scenes during the past few disastrous years where this community and BOTH its churches have foundered.

You are a bright man. You are a realtor as well as a CPA. You know the value of the LAND in Holladay. (Sometimes when someone is smart, they make the assumption that others are not. NO?)

It's why you guys still claim a corporate identity for PE (and PE alone), despite the nonsense spouted by the bishop about other Orthodox entities co-opting the name. Your plan is now obvious. You and your ilk would SELL P.E. if you get your hands on it, and then use the money to build elsewhere and to maintain your proistamenos in the style to which he is accustomed.

Problem is, the rest of us remember WHY our grandparents and parents built PE. It does NOT belong to any one of us, nor any group of us. It really is an ALL-or-nothing proposition.

If your faith is that strong, do what 50 families in Houston, Texas did. They (ironically) wanted more Greek. They did not demand a sizeable or OUTSIZED chunk of Annunciation Cathedral's assets in downtown Houston. They got off their rears, first rented office space, got a charter, and today have built St. Basil's, a beautiful church/chapel campus in West Houston. Have some guts to do what they did, and do what our grandparents did. - Barbara Billinis Colessides

Unknown said...

Barbara,

You give me far too much Credit and have no understanding of my involvement or motives.

TOCB Moderator said...

Enlighten us.