"I am the door. By me if any man enter in he shall be saved, and shall go in and out and find pasture." - John 10:9 At every parish where I have had the pleasure of attending services, there is always a small group of people who find their way all the way up to the church building but don't actually attend services. At one parish it was a group of male gypsies who talked on cellphones or smoked cigarettes. At another it was a few Protestant husbands who, though they never attended services, opened the parish doors for people as they filed in. At yet another parish the men stood in the narthex and chatted until it was time to receive and then got in line. Latin or Greek Catholic, Eastern or Oriental Orthodox I see the same small throng of men standing next to the front door, but not standing, sitting, or kneeling amongst the people. If it were me (and I can only speak for myself here) this option would be an unsavory one. The boredom would be immediate. The anxiety of som...
I notice that while Sr. Vassa is criticized for giving an opinion (which she noted up front was hers and not that of the Church) here we have an example of utter nonsense that the Church ignores, from hierarchs themselves. A fellow is elected bishop while being at the moment the consecrated bishop of precisely NOTHING, NOWHERE and NO ONE. Let that sink in. What a joke. Fix the bishops. Maybe fix the patriarchs. They're broken.
ReplyDeleteBob, I don't know if I'd compare these two issues, but to your point about "titular bishops" I say: Well said! This particular issue has driven me nuts for years. Unfortunately, almost no one seems to see it as a problem or even care...
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