July 22, 2014 Rev. Fr. James Greanias, President Metropolis of Chicago Clergy Syndesmos c/o St. Iakovos Greek Orthodox Church 602 E. Monroe Street Valparaiso, Indiana 46383 Fr. Jim, You are listed as the current leader of the Clergy Brotherhood of our Metropolis. I have been a steward of the Parish of Saints Peter & Paul for almost 40 years. Twenty years on the Council, three of them as President. I served as a delegate to several Diocesan Assemblies and ten Clergy-Laity Congresses. I stepped off the Council three years ago to make room for others to serve. I know that…
Browsing: Governance & Unity Essays
Child of Governance
Source: Orthodox Christian Laity Are you interested in the issues related to the Great and Holy Council which is scheduled to convene sometime in 2016? You should be. It is your Church too! Why do we not get relevant updates about the work of the Assemblies of Bishops worldwide and updates pertaining to the preparations for the Council on the Assembly of Bishops website? The Church, like the Liturgy, is the work of all the People of God according to their gifts. Creating canonical order is a bottom up and top down enterprise. We should all be receiving clear information…
Source: Orthodox Christian Laity The position of Executive Director of Orthodox Christian Fellowship (OCF), an Assembly of Bishops Agency that focuses on the needs of Orthodox Christian College students, has been eliminated which terminates the work of the present director. Why? A copy of the director’s letter to the Board dated June 13 indicates a disagreement with the accounting principles employed by the Board of Directors. OCF has issued a statement regarding the departure of the Executive Director. The Agency does not have the funds to do its job. It could not meet payroll. The Board wanted to use funds…
Source: Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy by Metropolitan Nicholas (Hatzinikolaou) of Mesogaia and Lavriotiki CLICK HERE for the text of the Encyclical. [subscribe2]
Source: Orthodox Christian Laity by Roy L. Snyder There are almost 200 million Christian Diaspora in America. However, none of them are Orthodox Christians. The Christian Diaspora in America are the denominational (Roman Catholic, Liturgical, and Evangelical) and non-denominational Christians who need to return to their Mother – the One Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. They need to come home. Most do not know where their home is – but they are looking. Most do not even know that their home still exists – they’ve been told that it was lost in the mists of time. Because they want to…
Source: Orthodox Heritage By a Greek Orthodox priest “But if,” they say, “we had devised some middle ground between the dogmas (of the Papists and the Orthodox), then thanks to this we would have united with them and accomplished our business superbly, without at all having been forced to say anything except what corresponds to custom and has been handed down (by the Fathers).” This is precisely the means by which many, from of old, have been deceived and persuaded to follow those who have led them off the steep precipice of impiety; believing that there is some middle ground…
Source: Orthodox Christian Laity by George E. Matsoukas In 2008, a Meeting of Patriarchs of the Autocephalous Orthodox Churches convened in Switzerland under the auspices of Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, and charged the Bishops, in the lands outside of the traditional Roman Empire, to meet together in Assemblies of Bishops. The purpose of these meetings of Assemblies of Bishops is to develop blueprints to establish canonical order within their geographic areas. The Churches in these areas have Bishops of different Orthodox Christian groupings overlapping in the same geographic areas. There is no comprehensive directory of priests. There is great duplication…
Source: Terry Mattingly On Religion When major religious leaders die, it’s traditional that public figures — secular and sacred — release letters expressing sorrow and sending their condolences to the spiritual sheep who have suddenly found themselves without a shepherd. This is precisely what Greek Orthodox Archbishop Demetrios Trakatellis did, acting as chairman of the assembly of America’s Eastern Orthodox bishops, after he heard about the death of Metropolitan Philip Saliba — the leader of the Antiochian Orthodox Christians in North America for a half century. His letter was kind and gracious, but contained a hint of candor that spoke volumes. “For more than 15 years…
Source: The Catholic World Report How the Eastern Orthodox can benefit from the lessons of Vatican II and other Councils By Dr. Adam A. J. DeVille The recent news out of Constantinople that the Orthodox Church has finally set a date (2016) for the holding of its much-promised but much-delayed “great and holy synod” is good news indeed. If it comes to pass, if it deals successfully with matters of substance, and if it doesn’t get bogged down in the usual jurisdictional squabbles—especially between the patriarchs of Constantinople and Moscow, and more recently Jerusalem and Antioch—then it promises to be…
Source: The National Herald By George D. Karcazes Special to The National Herald The letter that Archbishop Kyril, Secretary of the Synod of Bishops of the “Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia” recently sent to Archbishop Demetrios of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, as Chairman of the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops in North and Central America is disappointing. But, it probably should have been expected. In his letter, Kyril echoes the sentiments of Bishop Danili of the “Bulgarian Diocese in the USA and Canada” which were also in a letter apparently presented to Archbishop Demetrios and his “Committee for…