It might as well have been a "Make your own Straw Man" workshop. She also doesn't seem happy with the "patriarchy" of male clergy in leadership positions, not being inclusive of LGBTQ people or their "civil rights," the "ascribed status of the Orthodox bishop," the sheer audacity of a priest requiring his parishioners go to confession and have fasted to be communed, and (amazingly) women being forced to wear long skirts at monasteries.
Talk given on October 28, 2017 at Holy Resurrection Serbian Orthodox Cathedral, Chicago, Illinois, by Dr. Frances Kostarelos, Ph.D., Professor of Anthropology and Sociology, College of Arts and Sciences Governors State University, Chicago, IL. She has written on issues related to religion and has served as a program evaluator for a Lilly Endowment grant awarded to Hellenic College for several years.
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I hope folks like this keep talking, as it reveals the underlying secularization and non-Christian philosophy of the whole "fundamentalism" complaint on the part of progressive Orthodox.
ReplyDeleteSpiritual Fathers is a new concept, unheard of prior to the Elder Ephraim.
ReplyDeleteMy initial thoughts are two-fold. Firstly that Dr Kostarelos seems to imply the Church is about the individual, whatever each person wants is acceptable. So she comments that the Church is, or has been, a means of preserving cultural heritage without challenging this assumption.
ReplyDeleteSecondly she has an underlying premise that what Elder Ephraim's disciples do is wrong, objectively wrong, and that the pre-existing belief structure is right. This opinion Dr Kostarelos offers without justification or reason.
These, and others, we should forgive: she is looking at the GOA as a sociological phenomenon of Greek immigrants rather than as the Church. Perhaps from the view of Sociology she is right?
There is so much going on in this talk that one does not know where to begin.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I did find it interesting that Dr. Kostarelos describes those who oppose Elder Ephraim and the "fundamentalists" within parishes as highly educated professionals (doctors, lawyers, professors, etc.). There is an implication that the more enlightened know better than others than to fall into this "cultist", fundamentalist trap. I sense a scholastic elitist approach to the faith in her commentary.
I am not sure what makes her an "expert" in these matters. Her comments about Elder Ephraim and his monasteries are slanderous and wholly inaccurate. Little wonder the GOA is taking on water. Why would any parish invite her to give such a talk?
ReplyDeleteThis speaker says according to "some" Elder Ephraim's "teaching conflict with the modern world and contemporary American life."
ReplyDeleteDoesn't the Gospel have the same conflict? It might be good if the speaker knew "funerals" are not "sacraments" or mysteries of the Church.
"teaching conflict with the modern world and contemporary American life."
ReplyDeleteThis is a feature not a bug.
When she began her talk with key words like "diversity" "inclusion" and "the LGBTQ Orthodox community" I knew where this talk was headed. She is not Orthodox but belongs in the Episcopal Church. There you will find the outcome of her beliefs: a church that is rapidly disintegrating and dying. I can't believe any responsible Orthodox priest would give this woman a platform! She can find nothing good and holy and these dozens of new monasteries?
ReplyDeleteBut you are a priest, aren't you? Here a cleric of the more "liberal" ACROD church is taking a stand. While the more conservative(supposedly) Serbian church invites this lady. Aren't you in PA? I should like to meet you.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with Dr. Frances about some of the fundamentalism regarding St. Anthony's monastery and their publication of "The Departure of the Soul". They are clearly into control issues, fear and intimidation as motivators of Christian behavior-- a tool that has alienated many Orthodox believers and causes others to leave the church. The toll house theory is one that ought to be buried and never brought up again as much harm as it has done to the average believer. Apparently they don't read St. John's Paschal homily every Pascha which overrides every speculation that satan isn't utterly defeated on the cross.
ReplyDeleteHaving said that, Dr. Frances is completely off the deep end in what she propagates as normative Orthodox opinion: mainly the complete acceptance as LGBTQ persons as full communicants of the church. And her view that woman have the right to be priests going against all canon law, liturgical tradition, scriptural evidence, Orthodox tradition. She makes what is clearly an iconic, incarnational and settled position of the church into a woman's rights issue which it clearly, in my mind, is not. She seems oblivious of her obvious influence by the zeitgeist of this age. If these were peripheral issues, I could agree to disagree, but her issues which she throughs out without justification, reasoned dialog or any attempt to say why they should be normative, completely discredits the rest of her opinions. This saddens me because what she has to say about St. Anthony's is important-- at least the part about their control issues and continued advocation of the toll house theory.
Is this the direction that the OCL is headed? Does this represent the views of the board members of the OCL? Am I to assume that they had no idea the viewpoints of Dr. Frances? To say that I am greatly disappointed is an understatement. OCL should immediately come out with a statement where they clarify their views and hopefully condemn the errant views of Dr. Frances. To not do so is to let the viewer of that video draw their own conclusions about the OCL and for them to lose credibility in the eyes of many. Taking on one heresy only to espouse another is Machiavellian at best. In other words, the means do not justify the ends. If you disagree with Dr. Frances, OCL, please address this issue or your good works will soon all be ignored, discredited and considered chaff that is to be thrown into the fire of bad ideas.
I can't get to the juicer parts, it's JUST TOO BORING. If what is said is true, she should certainly heed the signs visible across America, "The Episcopal Church Welcomes You".
ReplyDeleteAll this has inspired me to do some googling on Elder Ephraim and his network. I found numerous credible accounts of cult-like behavior, financial scams, and even child-molesting. Judge the tree by its fruits?
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know if Bishop Longin has denounced this lady, seeing that the speech was given at his cathedral? I couldn't in good conscience attend a liturgy commemorating him if he doesn't speak out against this sort of modernism being preached in his cathedral. It grieves me to know that she had an applause at the end of her lecture, given that it was at an Orthodox Cathedral.
ReplyDeleteWhy in the world did this woman even get permission to speak at an Orthodox Cathedral? She is an absolute modernist that has no clue about the Bible, Church tradition, or canon law and spends her lecture defaming Elder Ephraim for holding to Orthodox praxis. like GASP!! There is such as thing as a Father Confessor!?!?!?!?! How scandalous! Elder Ephraim must be a CULTIST for BEING A SPIRITUAL DIRECTOR!!!! So far she rails Elder Ephraim (in her own words) for being anti-ecumenist, homophobic, xenophobic, and for not liking the current Ecumenical Patriarch. She is scandalized that Elder Ephrem believes Orthodoxy is the only true religion. At a little over twenty minutes in she is calling for GOA bishops to embrace ecumenism and other religion’s religious experiences, and she calls for reassessment for feminist and LGBTQ ideologies since societal norms have changed. She also decries the GOA's stance against homosexual marriages. She also complains about the dress code for Ephraim's monasteries, which are not unusual for Orthodox monasteries. Dr. Kostarelos represents a modernist mindset and is wanting a renovationism similar to what happened in Russian during and after the 1917 revolution.
ReplyDelete