Parish councils. Gotta love... have them.


Comments

  1. UnknownSeptember 2, 2016 at 12:03 PM

    Found this in the Desert Fathers after my last parish council meeting. Too fitting.

    It was said of Abba John that, while returning from the harvest or from meeting with the elders, he devoted himself to prayer, meditation and psalmody until he restored his mind to its original order.

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  2. JakeSeptember 3, 2016 at 9:48 PM

    Well, I suppose as a sitting council member of an Orthodox church I should push back against this incipient "clericalism"... :)

    However I have to admit I am sometimes shocked (and I don't shock too easily when it comes to this stuff as I am all too aware of how unconverted and secular we all are) at the shear level of, how do I put it, non-Orthodox "mind" when it comes to the thinking of our council sometimes. We generally work our way to the right (sometimes just a very basic "Christian") stance but it takes work sometimes.

    Fact is, the council is made up of parish members, and parish members are as unconverted in heart and mind and as assaulted by the fantasies of the culture as everyone else. Heck, we have one member who when he starts talking is likely to spout shear apostasy, only occasionally does he work up to mere heresy - but there he is, in church every Sunday working out his salvation. Perhaps by his prayers I will managed to be saved...

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  3. The Anti-GnosticSeptember 5, 2016 at 11:46 PM

    Is the requirement of 12-person councils universal in Orthodoxy? It is in my archdiocese, and it's not a salutary practice.

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