(Athos Agion Oros) - A conflict between a groups of monks has flared up on the holy mountain of Athos in Greece, following years of dispute. A group of extremely orthodox monks is threatening to blow itself up according to the Greek media.
The group has isolated itself from the 19 other monasteries on Athos because it fiercely opposes dialogue with the Roman Catholic church. The other groups of monks think they should leave the mountain because of this. But the extremist monks say they will blow their monastery up with dynamite, petrol and gas bottles if they have to. There were skirmishes on Sunday, when another group of monks tried to enter the rebel monastery.
There were similar incidents 18 months ago on the eastern peninsula of Chalkidiki, in which seven monks were seriously injured.
This is what happened:
Police yesterday freed the abbot of the Esphigmenou Monastery on Mount Athos and three other monks who had been trapped in a car by a group of 20 rebel monks who refuse to accept the authority of Archimandrite Chryosostomos Katsoulieris. The monks had been prevented from leaving the monastery for several hours, police said.
Monday, September 1, 2008
More on the Esfigmenou Monastery
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"...they will blow their monastery up with dynamite, petrol and gas bottles if they have to."
ReplyDelete????
Is this Christ-like behavior? I may be wrong, but it seems like these guys have serious psychological problems. I mean we are all sinners and constantly miss the mark, but threatening to blow up yourself and a priceless, historic monastery? What's up with that?!?
I will be so bold as to simply say it: the simultaneous strength and weakness of the situation of autocephalous polyarchy in the Eastern Orthodox communion of national churches is the heavy reliance upon hesychastic monastics to serve as backbones of the presentation of a level of tradition.
ReplyDeleteCertainly a GREAT thing in light of the fact that men with little or no vested interest in worldly politics or gain or games serve as guardians. Would that Protestantism had such a backbone.
Certainly a VERY problematic thing from the standpoint of discerning how one can know when it is these monks have or have not strayed from that which is in their province?
As research on linguistic and historical issues shed more light on the schism between the Oriental (non-Chalcedonian) and Chalcedonian (Eastern Orthodox) national churches, a growing concensus of folks on either side of the divide are asking "Why are we NOT in communion?"
Pragmatically, the monks of Athos and Debre Damo (among many, many other places) would scuttle such arrangements for communion as likely as not. And the question that can then be asked, who exactly appointed them such habitual arbiters of tradition that they can and will veto moves to reconciliation?