“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


Wednesday, June 27, 2007

An Open Letter from One of Our Young Parishioners

Greetings Bloggers,

My name is Matthew Hedberg, I have been an active member of the Greek Orthodox Community of Greater Salt Lake for my entire life. I was in attendance at the most recent Parish Council meeting and read into record a petition that I have drafted on behalf of the cosigned youth. I wish to avoid any misconstrued notions that my addressing this audience via this medium is intended to be incendiary or critical of the Parish Council. On the contrary, they were very kind and open towards me, and I observed a great deal of impassioned concern and consideration being taken on behalf of the members of the council as they actively pursued resolutions to the issues that they addressed. That being said, the condition of this community is what it is, the recent actions taken by the parishioners group that wishes to separate the two churches and the Metropolitan’s office are forcing the issue of a schism upon us. My petition addresses five important issues facing our community the most important one being unity within our community and the avoidance of the aforementioned schism. I write to you today to request that those of you who read this blog and have children who may be interested in signing the petition might approach them about reading the petition to see if it accurately reflects their opinions. The legacy being shaped by you today is the legacy that we, the youth, shall inherit. I am not including the text of my petition in this post although I will be glad to do so once all the signatures have been obtained. If you would like to receive an electronic copy of the petition for your children to view please contact the blog administrators at tocbslc@gmail.com or refer to the official minutes for the Parish Council meeting of June 25, 2007. I hereby grant the TOCB administrators of this blog permission to release my email address to individuals requesting further information on this issue.

Thank you for your time,


Matthew Hedberg


Moderator's Note: Matt, thank you very much for your post. Please provide us the petition when it's completed, and we will be happy to post it. Those wishing to review it, may obtain Matt's e-mail address by e-mailing tocbslc@gmail.com.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Matthew, God bless you and the youth of this community. You are the ones who will be the future of the church in Salt Lake. Thank you for taking charge and letting the people who are attempting to weaken our Orthodox family that you will not stand for it; that you will step up to ensure the viable future of our glorious church.
With brave youth like you I dont fear for the future.