Like many in our community, I have been following the demise of the institution of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America with great pain, not to mention the dismal state of affairs with St. Nicholas National Shrine at Ground Zero and the decaying condition of the Seminary in Brookline.
These logistic and administrative failures clearly are the fault of Archbishop Demetrios. In Greek we say that “the fish smells from the head” and if the types of things that happened in our Church had happened in corporate America, Demetrios would have been fired a long time ago.
But there are others to blame, as well, including his cadre of administrators at East 79th Street who either went along with his ill-conceived vision, or took advantage of an elderly, pious, faithful hierarch who spent more time liturgizing and praying, than making sure budgets were met.
Others guilty were his “yes men” and enablers on the Archdiocese Council who merely rubber-stamped whatever Demetrios asked.
Finally, the entire synod of Metropolitans of the United States– each and every one of them, who attended meeting after meeting when things began imploding at Ground Zero, or in Brookline, or on East 79th Street– and not a single one of them raised their hand to question, to ask– yes, to defy their Archbishop.
The Metropolitans were afraid to get outside their comfort zone and didn’t care what was happening in New York City. With the current structure of the Church in the United States, the Metropolitan of Boston is in charge of the Boston Metropolis — and only That Metropolis, the Metropolitan of Atlanta is in charge of his parishes in the south, and nothing else.
Their indifference and ineffectiveness — given that they were the next line of of “protection” of this Archdiocese against Demetrios and his cadre in New York City, places a lot of the blame on them, as well.
The little voice inside my head is now telling me– enough with the blame game. Let Archbishop Demetrios retire in peace and let’s just move on. That’s the voice of my heart speaking.
But the voice of logic inside me keeps resisting.
What about the federal and New York state attorney general investigations of the misuse of funds? What about the multi-million dollar mortgage that Demetrios signed against the property at East 79th Street that my immigrant parents and yours helped build and maintain with their annual dues to their hometown churches and their endless hours of volunteer work at their local festivals?
What about the Seminary and countless reports of the school potentially losing its accreditation? As chairman of the board, the Archbishop was clearly responsible here, as well, for allowing this sacred and important institution which has trained generations of priests in the United States from closing its doors.
We must continue studying these matters and peeling away the complicated layers that allowed this sorry state of affairs in the American Church to compound — to this day, when the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople has elected a new Archbishop.
It’s fitting and appropriate that his name means “bearer of hope” and that Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew himself was directly involved in his election. Bartholomew knew what America needed at this particular moment and decided to send hope.
In my own personal opinion that Elpidophoros is exactly WHO we need, and WHAT we need in a hierarch– both in the literal meaning, as well as figuratively.
In my various dealings with the national Church, during my service on the Archdiocese Council as well as various projects I have undertaken on behalf of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, I have met and spoken to Metropolitan Elpidophoros on numerous occasions and have been impressed with his extensive knowledge of American, as well as global affairs, his administrative skills and ability to organize and plan, as well as his deep faith and love for the Orthodox Church and its position in society, not to mention his fluidity in the English language.
He’s modern and contemporary, while at the same time, a defender of ancient traditions.
Most importantly and perhaps the single most important trait that I have observed in Elpidophoros– he listens intently to others and loves learning from them and hearing different perspectives.
While learning from the past— especially the mistakes, let us look forward with hope, elpida— ever moving onward.
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11 comments
Your post about hope brought some peace to my spirit and we must really pray for direction, thank you and be blessed.
Good article. Leadership is difficult when surrounded by sycophants, yes men and pharoah’s advisers. Everyone suffers. Nice article………. God Bless the new changes.
This is nonsense. Hope springs eternal, but the church has lost it’s grounding and it’s religiosity. In the end it will go down in a whimper.
“Modern and contemporary” – I hope for the best but fear for the worst.
Indeed, Elpidoforus will bear Hope just like Obama’s Audacity of Hope! All of the Republican ideas are based on incentive because they believe in original sin, but Orthodox, like China’s Confucian Social Credit Counters, believe man is perfectable and incentives are corrupt. Take a look at the web site for Hillary’s christchurchnyc.org and you will find it looks a lot more Orthodox than Trump’s marblechurch.org. The pope made Charlemagne emperor because St Irene was a woman, but George Demacopoulos tells us St Irene is the mother of the modern welfare state. So all you misogynists who could not countenance Hillary or Dora are the uniate carolingians! This is why Orthodox need to proclaim Hillary Clinton a living saint because of her wondrous miracles and examplary life
Nothing in His Eminence’s biography indicates any leadership experience. He’s an academic, and has planned/organized synods. He’s led other monks, which isn’t difficult because obedience is non-negotiable in a monastery. I have not met him, nor do I have any experience at the Archdiocesan level – only at the local level. But it’s intellectually dishonest to claim he’s our Church’s “hope”. I know this is your opinion, your blog – you’re entitled to it. But there is nothing in his background, or the EP’s background, that indicates to me, a lay-person, that they have the best interests of the Greek Orthodox in America at the forefront of their mind. Their focus has, and always will be, the continued relevancy and survival of the EP. I hope that I am proven wrong, but history is on my side. For St. Andrew’s sake, most parish priests in this country have been priests longer than he has!
All of the issues you listed stem from decisions made by Bartholomew. He was the one who ousted Iakovos and then successfully forced out two others in Spyridon and Dimitrios. Both I’d note were hand-picked! Additional the non-sensical Metropolitan structure was also a creation of Bartholomew to weaken the American church and so he could exert control. It’s a shame where we have come to and it is also due to the “Green Patriarch.”
“It’s fitting and appropriate that his name means “bearer of hope” and that Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew himself was directly involved in his election” It is this sentence that is the most troubling. The fact that EP Bartholomew is using our GOA to elevate this man to later be his successor, manipulated the election, failed to listen to the Archdiocesan Council, failed to pick an American born Greek man to lead, and is using this man to further control the “colonies’ is despicable. During Jesus time the Romans ruled, controlled, and heavily taxed Israel for it’s own purposes is similar to this. The people will vote with the feet and their wallets. No political Archbishop can just be rammed down our throats.
The “Head” is the EP. Scapegoat-ism is always seen for what it is.
The Orthodox souls of America deserve leadership that is focused on the advancement of Christ’s Church in the new world without also bearing the stifling weight of Hellenism. Rather than serving new immigrants as in the past, the “Greek” in GOA in recent decades has, sadly, and inadvertently excluded these same immigrants’ American children, grandchildren, spouses, families, and their greater communities from the faith. The time has come for the Church in America to own its’ independence and focus on wholeheartedly embracing all of the faithful and seekers in her midst.
The GOA needs a hierarch not an ethnarch. Elpi has clearly stated his goals of promoting and preserving Hellenism. Nothing has been mentioned about evangelization and the social outreach aspects of the Gospel. His vision for the GOA is not a Godly vision. The GOA will continue to be a Greek club that does church services rather than the Body of Christ.