Source: The Pappas Post written by Darden Livesay The following editorial was submitted by Mr. Nicholas Karakas, a long-time Greek Orthodox Church activist and philanthropist from St. Louis, Missouri who resides in Naples, Florida. The opinions expressed may not necessarily belong to The Pappas Post. Thank you for the many comments received in response to the articles placed in the National Herald. I pray that the issues affecting our church will be resolved soon, as our church is vulnerable to losing the gains made over the last 30 years. I humbly yet assertively offer these proposals: A mandatory age of retirement…
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Child of Governance
Source: The Pappas Post by Darden Livesay The following editorial was submitted by Mr. Nicholas Karakas, a long-time Greek Orthodox Church activist and philanthropist from St. Louis, Missouri who resides in Naples, Florida. The opinions expressed may not necessarily belong to The Pappas Post. The Archdiocesan Council met October 18-19, 2018 in New York. The Archdiocese of America in its news report stated the following: “The Council ascertained that the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America has achieved financial stability, has fully restored all restricted accounts, has implemented appropriate financial controls and the Finance Committee has proposed a balanced budget for 2019…
Source: The New York Times A Gospel reading for the scandal in the church. By Ross Douthat At Mass this Christmas Eve, many Catholics who have spent a year reading headlines about abusive priests, indifferent bishops, predatory cardinals and Vatican corruption will sit and hear the long roll of Jesus’s ancestors with which the Gospel of Matthew begins. “Unless you like stats / just skip the begats,” wrote Jeanne and William Steig in their “Old Testament Made Easy.” But before he gets to the angels and the wise men Matthew gives us 39 of them, from the famous names (“Abraham begat…
A Case Study: Tarpon Springs, Metropolis of Atlanta by Nicholas Bouzos On a recent vacation to Tarpon Springs, Florida, I came across some curious rumors about church politics; and the talk of the town is “The Tarpon Archons!” According to the archons.org website, “An Archon is an honoree by His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew for his outstanding service to the Church, and a well-known distinguished, and well-respected leader of the Orthodox Christian community.” These individuals are vetted through the local Metropolis? So, what does it take to become an Archon? According to online myths, archonship involve nepotism, cronyism, or…
Source: Orthodoxia ORTHODOXIA.INFO | Maria Sereti This Saturday, December 15, the final stage in the process of the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s granting to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church the canonical status of Autocephaly takes place in the famous St. Sophia Cathedral in Kiev. When this event was announced in Constantinople after a decision of the Holy Synod, our correspondent Maria Sereti M.Th. took an interview from the President of the Center of Ecumenical, Missiological and Environmental Studies “Metropolitan Panteleimon Papageorgiou (CEMES), Emeritus Professor Petros Vassiliadis, who was with members of CEMES conducting a scientific research on the Ukrainian crisis. The questions focused on…
Source: Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate The current church situation in Ukraine has a long history. Millions of Ukrainian Orthodox Christians were excommunicated from the church. In response, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew has today restored them to communion and granted their church autocephaly. Rev. Dr. John Chryssavgis’s life and work
Source: Orthodoxy in Dialogue By day’s end the above photo from the funeral of President George H.W. Bush was making the rounds of Facebook and—predictably enough—drawing equal amounts of praise and condemnation from Orthodox Christians. The former comes from those who find it only natural that the Orthodox Church should assume a visible presence in American public life; the latter, from those who lose no opportunity to condemn the “heresy” of ecumenism as a sell-out to the purity of the Orthodox faith, expressed especially in the canonical prohibition against “praying with heretics.” How dare Orthodox hierarchs attend a heterodox church service—even…
This editorial was first published in www.mignatiou.com (In English and in Greek) on October 17, 2015, the day before the ground breaking ceremony for Saint Nicholas Church at Ground Zero. This year’s feast of Saint Nicholas coincides with a renewed effort to finish the semi-constructed Church: a new committee was just appointed by Archbishop Demetrios. I believe it falls upon all of us to assist in this historical task, leaving aside for the moment the search for those responsible for financial scandals. The time will come for them to be punished as the law provides; they are already sentenced in our…
Source: Ekathimerini.com by ALEXIS PAPACHELAS The next couple of days will be crucial for the future of Hellenism in the United States. A decision will be taken in Istanbul on whether Archbishop Demetrios of America will step down from his post and, if so, who will replace him. Officials in Athens would in the past treat this as a routine decision. But this is no longer the case. The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America is facing an unprecedented crisis that calls for immediate and radical solutions. Financial mismanagement in the construction of the Saint Nicholas National Shrine at the World Trade Center…
Source: Oinos Educational Consulting by Frank Marangos, D.Min., Ed.D., FCEP “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” Luke 9:62 The nation’s theological schools and seminaries find themselves facing an uncertain future. As enrollments decrease, financial debts mount, and skepticisms rise concerning the value of their degrees, institutions of higher theological education should consider seeking to successfully improve their situations by prudently inviting another school to merge their hands to the plow of partnership. Theological schools and seminaries are fundamentally academies for/of God’s chosen vicars. Initially mentioned in the Old…
Source: The National Herald By Dennis Menos Today, approximately five million Americans identify themselves as Orthodox. They do so with pride for their faith’s spectacular growth in America, its parishes and places of worship, and for the thousands of converts who regularly join them at religious services. The progress of Orthodoxy in America since its arrival 200 years ago has been impressive, but all is not well today. As is the case with many other Christian denominations, Orthodoxy is confronted with declining Church attendance and a variety of other religious and secular problems. Its largest obstacle, however, is organizational: a single…
Source: National Catholic Register NEWS ANALYSIS: Pope Francis cautions Catholics not to ‘meddle’ in ecclesiological conflict between the Orthodox Church of Constantinople and the Russian Orthodox Church. Victor Gaetan The accelerating dispute in Ukraine between two Orthodox Churches — the Church of Constantinople, a historic Church with spiritual prestige, and the 140-million-member Russian Orthodox Church, a powerhouse in terms of membership muscle, political clout and wealth — is ominous because it forecasts conflict in a country already suffering a “fratricidal” war, to use Pope Francis’ term. The Russian Orthodox Church broke Eucharistic communion with the Church of Constantinople Oct. 15 in response…