Moderators' Note: below is the letter sent by the Parish Council, along with a letter from the Archdiocese. The original may be viewed here.
It would appear that the latest contention by those who seek to split this community is that there was a letter, written in 1965, wherein there was a stated desire to build a second independent parish in this valley. Said letter does, in fact, exist.
It is, however, pretty clear if one reads this letter, and then examines the follow-up decisions taken and VOTED upon by our parents and grandparents (all of which, including the initial letter, have been well-documented by this community's renowned historian and scholar, the late Con Skedros,) that this community, by 1969, when Prophet Elias was dedicated, overwhelmingly decided to remain UNITED as one community.
So committed were our forefathers to this notion that a General Assembly passed the manner by which, IF the majority wanted to split they could do so - by VOTE, and only with a compelling majority. That, too, was meticulously documented by Mr. Skedros.
"History" absent time, context, or sequence of events is nothing more than a snapshot in time. What is clear is that the majority of these men, along with the rest of the community, decided that a unified community made more sense.
It made sense then, and makes sense now.
We have said it before, and we say it again.
Those who wish to split, contrary to the wishes of the great majority of parishioners in this community, should show the same fortitude as our parents and grandparents and build their OWN church!
Καλη Σαρακοστη!
Moderators' Note: please refer to the attached minutes of the Metropolis Council Meeting held January 25, 2014. The original can be viewed here.
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.
Fr. Kouremetis,
Will you please tell us if you condone or condemn
last Sunday's unfortunate events ?
The Parish will be waiting.
Yannis Armaou
The Parish Council has responded to the events that took place last Sunday. Their original correspondence may be viewed here.
We are not looking for the PC to fund our Priest, we are doing that OURSELVES thank you very much! As I've said before, stay in your playground and we'll stay in ours. What took place after church today will continue to happen until you and yours get the message that we REFUSE the PC's authority. The PC are NOTHING but simple-minded parishioners hungry for properties, power and control. Don't come to PE looking to cause problems or you will surely find them.
- from the former first "lady" of our community
What can one say about a group of people, who, while clearly in the minority (a fact proved over and over again) have simply decided to behave like vicious squatters who claim what belongs to ALL of US solely for themselves?
The facts are still coming in regarding yesterday's debacle at Prophet Elias. We have refrained from commentary thus far in order to give those involved time to give statements to the authorities and to the Archdiocese.
What is clear is that Father Michael, in refusing for far too many months now to deal with, a) the properly elected lay authorities of this community, and b) in using the Nave as his forum, is continually creating what is evolving into an incendiary and now dangerous situation.
We have asked several people if any can ever recall a priest using the Divine Liturgy and the Antidoron to express his contempt for a community's lay leadership. Despite several historical instances of tensions, no one ever remembers such.
For several weeks now, the minority and former anointed appointed have made it their business to harass any Parish Council member, or anyone who has been vocally against the split, who dares show his or her face AT THEIR OWN CHURCH!
Father Michael's comments to the assembled congregation during the Antidoron have, in effect, incited some of his more ardent supporters, first to ugly and unseemly outbursts during services, and afterward, to violence.
Of course, in the manner of all bullies, the most "ardent" of what is becoming the cult of Fr. Michael, chose to threaten, then assault - physically - a gentleman in his late 80s.
This gentleman has served this community long before most of us were born. He was part of that great generation of immigrants who clung to the church and community as a harbor. He is part of what should be our collective memory as he has, for several decades, chanted during liturgies, holidays, memorial services. Agree with him, or not, NO ONE has the right to tell him not to come to his own church, let alone to threaten or to assault him, or other members of the Parish Council, or anyone else for that matter.
Moderator's Note: (from a previous comment - refer to 2nd comment, previous blog)
We've been offline a while. It was the holidays; everyone is tied up, busy, planning for family visits, holiday festivities, winter colds, and the like.
Well, well,well ... since our last posts:
- the anointed appointed put out numerous disingenuous messages regarding "lack of transparency" and such from the current Parish Council. (Note: these are the same people who "can't find" the recordings of the Parish Council meetings when they were in (appointive) "power", and whose financials were a nightmare.)
We would remind them that, a) unlike them, this Parish Council WAS fairly elected, despite their ongoing disingenuous and idiotic excuses regarding "absentee ballots" which the Metropolitan is so fond of parroting as well; b) they themselves found the accounting, after a separate investigation of such, to be to their satisfaction, though they were too disingenuous to follow up with the local media after initially claiming (and then reclaiming) "problems"! (Note: they tried mightily to curb the power of the vote, yet again, by demanding NO absentee ballots even though their vaunted and flawed UPRs allow them!)- we were treated to a ridiculous tirade that the November General Assembly, with its nominations, was "invalid" because the priests walked out; a further ridiculous tirade was launched because the parishioners present chose NOT to elect a former "anointed appointed" to the Audit Committee (where he would have had an OBVIOUS conflict of interest);
Really? Good luck with that! (And in setting such an extraordinary precedent, nowhere mentioned in your beloved, flawed UPRs, you might find yourselves paying for far more than you bargained for! Just saying …)- they also "objected" to the involvement in our community's problems of a nationally and internationally prominent archon, advisor to the Archbishop, in our community's issues;
Because, of course, it was and is OK for them to involve an advisor to the Metropolitan, related to some of the former anointed appointed; but, of course, it's wrong if this community's MAJORITY turns to persons who might also have an interest in the future of our community and, for that matter, for our faith in the entire country?- it was also evident that the majority in this community would not "buy in" to the fact that anytime a clergyman didn't like the course of the discourse, he/they could "negate" any discussion they wished not to hear simply by leaving - yeah, the majority here doesn't buy into that anymore either!
How convenient is it to have priests simply choosing to walk out when they do not care for the turn of conversation? How convenient is it for the former anointed appointed to have the priests walk out when they realize they do not have the votes? (they even whined about such in a follow-up letter to their supposed supporters!) How interesting is it that they still do not understand, no matter what, THEY ARE A MINORITY!!!???
The only reason they think they are a majority is that we, THE REAL MAJORITY, have made a serious mistake! Because many are sick and tired of the ongoing lunacy, they have decided to avoid such by driving the extra miles downtown. As such, we have abandoned OUR COMMUNITY'S CHURCH in Holladay to them. Thus, they delude themselves that they've "won"!- being so certain of their "majority", they actually have had the nerve to confront various properly elected Parish Council members, including one of our outstanding youth, demanding to know "what are YOU doing here? WE can handle this (meaning the pangari/candle donations)!"
Again, our mistake is quite evident.The reply is:
It has been "suggested" that the current Parish Council, and the latest PC nominees and electees, are "hand-picked" to annoy the Metropolitan of Denver. The assertion is nonsense!
The elected Parish Council has tried mightily to work with the Metropolitan and the local clergy since its election, despite the Metropolitan's going back on his word countless times, his nearly constant provocative correspondence, and his obvious encouragement to the local clergy and their former anointed appointed to remain imperious and uncooperative.
No group of people has been more patient, or has tried harder. Sadly, to little avail. Despite proper elections and general assemblies, despite a now open and transparent governance, the Metropolitan's heart - like the Pharaoh's - remains hardened.
Let's talk about the Met and his local toadies' actions in this community for oh, say, the past half-dozen-plus years.
These are the scheming minority who, in collusion with an unloving Metropolitan:
- condoned an action by the Proistamenos who "tattled" to the Metropolitan and managed to remove a respected elder from the Parish Council. Not being enough, that led to that elder's sacramental sanctioning - albeit temporarily. After the fact, the Met claimed that he had been "misled", and though he lifted the sanctions, having been "misled", he did NOT reinstate said gentleman to the Parish Council. In the meantime, of course, as with all provocateurs and snitches, the Proistamenos raised his hands and claimed to "know nothing" and threw his own superior under the bus! (He of course, has a good example in that the Metropolitan has thrown his brother bishop, Archbishop Demetrios, under said bus numerous times as well.)
- condoned and remained SILENT, following clergy and hierarchy directives, during Parish Council nomination "culls", betraying their own brothers and sisters in the community.
- condoned the suspension of elections and General Assemblies, in direct violation of the UPR.
- condoned and congratulated themselves upon serving as "anointed appointed", lording it over the "less holier-than-thou" VAST MAJORITY of this community, who were left VOICELESS and UNREPRESENTED while the anointed appointed "led", and led badly.
- engaged in utterly dishonorable and despicable actions designed to impugn the integrity and destroy the reputation of a community elder who has given vast amounts of time, talent and treasure both to this community and to Greek Orthodoxy throughout the nation and the world. In fact, the anointed appointed still - shamefully - refer to this highly respected professional as a "robber"! Our Metropolitan has not discouraged such shameful behavior!
- condemned the majority when they resorted to the only "voice" they had left, the withholding of funds to their beloved community, and then being FORCED to resort to civil courts when the anointed appointed would not, in violation of both the UPR and civil law, provide a mailing list upon a proper request. (This community paid for both its own lawyers and their counsel as well in that fiasco!)
- condoned a winter meeting that essentially held a gun to the community's head, with a carpetbagging "hired gun" from Houston who castigated elders forced to remain outside their own church - in sub-freezing temperatures - and STILL won't admit that this community has the fortitude that our forefathers would be PROUD of, to tell them and all their ilk - whether they be hierarch, clergy, archon, "anointed appointed", "NO! OXI!"
- condemns the majority and still demands a split of this community - still holding it HOSTAGE! - despite numerous surveys and votes indicating that the community is not in favor of such action. Unbelievably, the splitters claim that those who object to their ongoing hard-headedness are not "unifiers" and are "spewing hate".
- condemn still, those who correctly identify the clergy, particularly the Proistamenos-of-Prophet-Elias-only, as an ongoing instigator of dissension and disunity. His and his toadies' continuing EFFORTS in encouraging a split are directly responsible for sluggish stewardship. No one will give generously while this poisonous situation continues!When pointing to past and ongoing outrages, the majority is blamed for the dissension in the community, blamed for the community-at-large laughing at us, blamed for trashing a tradition lasting 2,000 years. That these situations exist, is not because of the majority of good Orthodox Christians in this valley, but because of flawed apostolic successors and a benighted minority who think themselves holier-than-anyone-who-disagrees with them!
