The type of priest you shouldn't be, and why.

(GGWB) - In this article, originally entitled “Brother, Can You Spare A Paradigm?”, Fr. Aris makes clear that misconceptions about what the priest is, and isn’t, are failing, and that there is one legitimate alternative, and it is catching fire across America, and beyond! This essay was first published June 30, 2006 on Orthodoxytoday.org, and not only uncovers the dangers of old paradigms of priestly identity, but also reveals the only one of value in the Church. We reproduce it here with permission.

Is it time to retire “paradigm shift?”

This overwrought cliché is used to describe everything from new laundry soap to the wireless mouse. Even worse, religious types have taken a liking to it. Clergy and lay leaders are convinced if they could just figure out how to shift their paradigm, the pews and offering trays would overflow. (Do we really need to sit through one more mission statement formulation?)

The late physicist Thomas Kuhn coined the term to describe how scientific thought advances. A paradigm shift occurs when a radically new way of framing a problem makes all previous methodologies obsolete. Newtonian physics replaced the Aristotelian model of the universe, for example. Relativity, quantum physics, and string theory trumped Sir Isaac and company.

Kuhn would wince at how people use the term today. Putting crumbled instead of block feta cheese on the salad at the Greek Festival is not a paradigm shift. Shifting correspondence from snail mail to email is.

If we are going to use the term, let’s use it correctly. I propose a true paradigm shift in the way Orthodox priests in America conduct their ministry. It will sound the death knell for the ways some priests have served in America in the past century. If we can’t adjust to the paradigm shift, we’ll end up like meteorologists tracking a hurricane using only algebra.
First let’s dispense with some of the traditional paradigms priests use...

Complete article here.