Tuesday, August 27, 2013

A sad response to the repose of ones pastor

(My Central NJ) - It has been a few months since the untimely death of our beloved Father Michael S. Rosco. Various priests, among them Father Myron Zuder, Father Stephen Krivonak and Deacon Gregory have ably conducted Sunday services, unfortunately to more empty seats in the pews than ever. Church officers starting with Steve Gallant have performed very well.

Now we have been informed that a priest has been chosen for our parish, St. John the Baptist Orthodox Church. But no name has been mentioned. It is not in our best interest nor that of the diocese that the new priest will not be available until next Oct. 1. Apparently this is due to a shortage of priests in our diocese. No diocese I know of keeps priests on retainer - able to jump in and replace priests at the drop of a hat. To blame your diocese for not being able to immediately supply you with a priest while at the same time already having a priest and deacon step in to assist...

This is a good time for our diocese to come up with actions to improve our religion and its practices. First and foremost is the ordination of women as priests. For centuries they have been relegated to subordinate roles in the Orthodox and Catholic religions. Yet they possess qualities, especially compassion and devotion, often lacking in us males. This is your answer? To "improve" your religion by ordaining women. How about spearheading efforts to evangelize or working to improve fellowship? I'd also debate the "relegated"title. The treatment many priests receive at the hands of their parishioners doesn't much resemble a peerage.

The Jewish religion has ordained women as rabbis. The one in our city is a most worthy example. So are the various Protestant religions who have women clergy. Yes, indeed, dear friends, the time has come for women to be ordained on an equal footing with men. This may serve to rejuvenate our faiths. No, the equivalent of Protestant Jews have female rabbis. Orthodox Jews don't. Maybe he should look at the vitality of these non-traditional groups and see how "rejuvenating" innovation really is.

Another reform is to designate an auxiliary bishop to succeed the bishop in case the bishop dies or is incapacitated, similar to our government’s vice president. This would have eliminated the present chaos in St. John’s in Perth Amboy. How would an auxiliary bishop have resolved the "chaos" of being between priests? Would you have him celebrate the Liturgy for you until a priest can be installed in your parish?

9 comments:

  1. This sounds like the LAST place I'd want to go if I were a priest. Lord have mercy.

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    1. Sorry, can't agree. The people I know at Perth Amboy are wonderful.
      It is really unfair to impugn a whole parish based on a kooky letter from one guy.

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    2. Perth Amboy is a well-loved parish with a long, proud history. I hope no one takes the article to be representative of the parish experience.

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    3. It's hard to know how many people he is representing from the letter. He gives the impression that he is representing a group, not just himself. And goodness knows I've been at parishes which were more than a little infected by congregationalism.

      For the sake of the incoming priest I sincerely hope this is ONE person, and the rest are saints.

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  2. Theological problems aside, how precisely will ordaining women solve the problem of not being able just to move priests around at the whim of the local parish?

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  3. I thought he was Orthodox but stopped reading when he started talking about female ordination, at which point I realized my error.

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    1. Thank God, he's not Catholic, either, since he belongs an 'Orthodox' Church!

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    2. I am sure I hardly need point out to a Traditionalist Catholic, given the madness that has swept the Latin Church, that what church one attends does not make one a member in good standing. Heresy is heresy. Happily in the Orthodox Church these sorts of misguided knaves are not all that common, though of course there have always been exceptions.

      By the way, I like your profile. I am a collateral descendant on my father's side of the principal aide de camp to HM James VII/II at the Battle of the Boyne and come from a family that drank deeply from the bitter well of Jacobite legitimism. Even so I have come to accept, with deep regret, that after three centuries, it's a done deal. The Hanoverian's (Saxe-Coburg Gotha) now hold the throne without real contest.

      May France and Russia soon recover from their madness.

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