“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, February 3, 2014

OUR COMMUNITY'S ONGOING LACK OF REPRESENTATION AT THE METROPOLIS COUNCIL

Moderators' Note: please refer to the attached minutes of the Metropolis Council Meeting held January 25, 2014. The original can be viewed here



The recent Metropolis Council Meeting (held January 25, 2014) indicated why we are, and have recently been, despite our Metropolitan's grudging and presumed "acceptance", in dire straits.

In the midst of this chaos, it is interesting to note that we have NO REPRESENTATION from any of this community's properly acknowledged, elected leaders with the Metropolitan.

The Meeting Agenda SPECIFICALLY describes "Parish Pastors and PRESIDENTS".

Our current, and properly ELECTED, President's name is conspicuously absent! (We don't think this is an innocent oversight!)

Further, the supposed community representative, the ONLY representative currently listed as being from this community, is one who was a past elected president, but who resigned, under rather odd circumstances, in the spring of 2010! Nearly FOUR YEARS AGO!!!

It is further interesting to note that at the Metropolis Clergy-Laity Conference held in Dallas in 2009, this former elected President (along with the Proistamenos-of-Prophet-Elias-only) was listed as the representative from Prophet Elias Greek Orthodox Church, Holladay, Utah.

This same person, who now holds no properly authorized elective or appointive office (since the spring of 2010), is currently listed as a representative from Holy Trinity Cathedral!

SINCE WHEN???

In the meantime, our Metropolitan will not even take calls from our PROPERLY ELECTED Parish Council President of the Greek Orthodox Church of Greater Salt Lake - the ELECTED LEADER of the actual LEGAL entity (like it or not!) encompassing BOTH churches - Holy Trinity AND Prophet Elias - in this community!

OUR FOREFATHERS KNEW WHAT THEY INTENDED!

They also KNEW from what - and FROM WHOM - they were protecting us!

WHY THIS COMMUNITY IS PREVENTED FROM HEALING AND PROGRESSING ...

Moderators' Note: please refer to the attached minutes of the Metropolis Council Meeting held January 25, 2014. The original can be viewed here. The excerpt cited below (with emphases) is on page 10.



… and who is the source of these problems? The excerpt from the recent Metropolis Council Meeting says it all!


Having FAILED, again and again, to effect that the parishioners of the Greek Orthodox Community of Greater Salt Lake MUST split their community (although EVERY VOTE AND SURVEY REGARDING SUCH HAS RESULTED IN A RESOUNDING NO!), our Metropolitan continues to work the back-door channels with a minority of parishioners to effect a FORCIBLE split.

Now, apparently, and with no discouragement from their spiritual leaders, this minority has been encouraged to resort to the behaviors of BULLIES to see this done.

WHO sent the request to separate the parishes, when, and UNDER WHAT AUTHORITY???

Meanwhile, our Metropolitan continues to sabotage our properly elected leadership, and we wonder why we cannot progress as a community?