“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, March 31, 2008

Missing Financial Information

The March 2008 issue of the "Messenger" was void of any information regarding the financial situation of our community. Nearing the completion of the third month of this calendar year, one would expect at least a mention of the financial condition of our community. In the same breath, nearing the completion of the third month of this calendar year one would expect to have read the Metropolitan's letter regarding the salary specifics of our new third priest.

Thus far, only a report entitled "Year 2008 Stewardship Commitments Report as of February 29, 2008" has been made available and even that has not been made public. Among other things, the report shows that the number of pledging stewards has decreased by 70, the number of non-pledging stewards has increased by 1, the amount collected is $23,236 less than the same time last year and the amount committed is $88,727 less than the same time last year.

In a previous post, the question was asked about the salary of our new third priest. Since our parish council and the treasurer have chosen to continue their secrecy, the total expense to our community is $105,768.00. Since this salary was not included in the 2008 budget and in light of the above figures, we ask where the monies are coming from to fulfill this obligation along with the previously budgeted obligations.

In the past, the parish council and the treasurer have been more than kind to include the community’s finances on a monthly basis. This year we have not been offered the same courtesy and wonder why.

In a recent e-mail to some parishioners, our treasurer stated: "You can't believe everything that shows up on the internet. The TOCB site is a perfect example of that."

Our response is, if the above figures are incorrect, we welcome correction.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Is there not a financial LIMIT that the Parish Council can commit to without General Assembly approval? Not only where is the money coming from, but who authorized the expenditure of a SIX-FIGURE amount without General Assembly approval? As I stated earlier in one of my letters, "CONTINUE TO PAY".