Wednesday, April 19, 2023
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Is the male-only priesthood a discipline or essential to the nature of being a priest? Sr. Vassa (again unflinchingly taking up a contentiou... -
Sister Vassa recently posted an advice piece to her Facebook page (the letter itself has been removed from Facebook and she is actively b... -
NEW YORK: July 12, 2013 ( ROCOR ) - An Extraordinary Session of the Synod of Bishops is Held On Wednesday, July 10, 2013, an extraordinar... -
When the official letter makes it to the metropolitan website, I'll make the necessary updates below. GREEK ORTHODOX METROPOLIS OF DE...
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This was sent to me and deserves a read. You can read the Calivas article here . We can all agree that we are living in unusual times. Howev...
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It should not be a surprise, with the advent of the new Divine Liturgy texts approved by the Ecumenical Patriarchate, that the peoples' ...
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Bishop Innokenty of Ussuri, a vicar of the Vladivostok diocese, visited the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea from October 9 through... -
This is sadly part of a very common occurrence in Kosovo. Vandals enter churches, set them on fire, then they urinate and defecate in them. ...
The OCA synod last year "decreed" that priests should be paid at least the median family income in their part of the country. I'm more than a bit skeptical about enforcement.
ReplyDeleteROCOR's approach to pay might charitably be attributed to zeal for missionary outreach, but I think it's harmful in the long run. We see growth in number of parishes, but I know of ROCOR 'parishes' that are basically the priest, his family, and the occasional visitor. Not good.
The OCA All-American Council routinely sets rules for clergy care and compensation but as each parish property is owned by its respective parish corporation and run by its parish council, bishops have no ability to enforce rules. Thus many or even most parishes may be excepted from the rules to the extent that the rule has no force. This is life in the OCA.
DeleteThese differences make sense from a historical/cultural standpoint. The Greeks (on average) assimilated into America's upwardly mobile "business first" secular culture well, followed (on average) by the Antiochians and then the Russians/Eastern Europeans. No amount of top-down administrative action (say, "jurisdictional unity" or reform within any particular jurisdiction) is going to change these fundamental cultural realities.
ReplyDeleteAs the (was it Alasdair MacIntyre who said it first?) saying goes, politics (compensation is an aspect) rests on culture, not the other way around.
Men thinking about an ordained life need to be honest about the culture of the "jurisdiction" (and post Imperial Orthodoxy) they will be entering. Ordained men are followers, not leaders - they are there to preserve the culture *as is*, not lead change. Deacons/priests/bishops are *symptoms* of Orthodox Culture, not causes. This is not some necessary condition that follows from the Gospel or even Tradition-with-a-big-T (i.e. it is not "theological"), but it is the normal course of human cultures in general and post Imperial Orthodoxy in particular.
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DeleteYour right that it is a church culture and socio demographics but your a little uncharitable. Almost half of OCA churches are in small urban/rural due to the blue collar Carpathians it serves. Antiochians have a mix of refugees and aristocracy. Also there is difference of church culture, in that most Greek Dioceses won't start a mission without 100 people and average 300, very much in contrast to other churches. ROCOR kind of accepting/ordaining anybody for a while doesn't help them, but most urban ethnic parishes have salaries.
DeleteFirst of all: this is pretty funny and it does seem to reflect general truth.
ReplyDeleteI want to add though that after being in the GOA for most of my life, I believe the priest pension issue should be taken seriously and while I understand jokes can be made, also please consider that there are many good men who were ordained in the GOA and trusted that their pension, which would support both them and their wives in old age, would function as they were told, so of course I would think most of them wouldnt have squirreled away any "extra" money "just in case," vs again simply trusting what they were told would be set up for the care of the priest and his wife. I personally know priests who have given generously to their parish (generous is of course relative to the salary they actually get) and would or will be in a potentially very sad situation if they do not have a pension to rely on when the time comes. I have heard a priest say he doesnt expect to ever be able to retire. How can we call ourselves Christians if we can not follow through with a promise made to someone who has made sacrifices to serve the Church in this way? It is shameful. My hope is that the parishes will individually step up and help out these priests as the situation becomes more clear.
Sarah's assessment is more realistic. From the various GOA priests I know, the pensions have been essentially stripped from them. One priest in particular said that all he's entitled to is $800 per month. If anybody knows any different, please let me know.
DeleteThe jokes aside it makes sense to lessen the impact on those closest to retirement
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