Ansonia Votes to Withhold

You put anyone less than Jesus himself into the administration in Syosset and no one is going to lend any credibility to what they say. The problem is the Metropolitan, the problem is the Synod, period. Your note is very nice, but there’s a few points with it that deserve noting.

First I want to say that it’s a fairly despicable act on the part of Mr. Nikon to call Syosset to tell them about a parish of HIS. After all, Syosset doesn’t care how the money gets there from a diocese. The diocese collects the money and sends it to Syosset. How that money is raised is the job of the bishop. Or was it his desire that by formally alerting Syosset that he gains another point of pressure against that parish? There is no other explanation. A low act, indeed.

This is a moral issue, its not an accounting issue. We know you’re going to do the right thing now because all eyes are upon you. But what we want to know is what happened BEFORE you came here and nothing is going to improve monetarily until that happens. If people aren’t paid so be it! You came to work under an Episcopal cabal that no one trusts, believes, and would like to see run out of town. We don’t want to give them another red cent because we want to know what happened BEFORE. Your note is very nice and it does exactly what Herman and the Synod want you to do. Give us soothing words and credibility that all is well now and that we can move along. Well, that’s all fine and good, but unless we get answers on what happened and accountability for all the monies that are missing, whatever you say is not going to change people’s use of their money. But they think they can pull the wool over our eyes bringing in qualified people such as yourself thinking we’ll overlook what they have done. Your note is a classic of what they want us to believe. Give us a semblance of normalcy and rules and that all is above board and people are going to forget the massive misappropriation of millions of dollars. To THAT I say they are sorely mistaken. When we get answers on what happened then we can move ahead. If we don’t know what went wrong, how can you assure us that it can never happen again? How can you tell us that its fixed when we don’t even know what’s wrong.

You see, Fr. Michael, we have a bunch of people who don’t believe in God, as far as we can tell from their actions, and you can tell more about people from how they act rather than what they say. The previous writers on this thread have outlined some of the morally perverse actions they have condoned or followed. A penny given to them means that we condone their behavior. We don’t and we won’t. A penny given to them means that we want this behavior to continue. We don’t and we won’t. A penny given to them means a penny not going to a good cause. We have wasted enough money on this bunch and its about time that it ended until the organization again proves itself worthy. You can come back and tell me that I’m promoting not being a good steward and that its our responsibility to maintain God’s Church. I counter that money is not the only resource in which a Church runs. If the moral fiber underlying it is rotted to the core, money will just keep the problem going. The people who have shown us they have nothing but contempt for us and use the Church as a means for feeding their perversions are still there. Ok, Kondratick and his finely tanned skin is gone. Kucynda is gone. Strikis doesn’t write the checks. But we know those people weren’t the only ones and we know that if we had men of God over them this wouldn’t have gotten to where it is. It’s the bishops. How much kicking and screaming did the bishops do for them just to acknowledge there was a problem?

If you are worried about where your salary is going to come from, I suggest that you express your concern to the Metropolitan. Express your concern to the other bishops. Don’t come here peddling the story you are. The ball is in the court of the bishops and they’ve done nothing and have given every appearance that they have no concern to correct what’s wrong and that they were part and parcel of everything that went on during these times. You speak of the new systems, but what about the much ballyhooed best practices? Sounds like those are going to go by the wayside. People put all their eggs into that basket and it looks like the bishops are going to, well, prevent themselves from being accountable. But why? People who have nothing to hide don’t mind opening themselves to the light. We have bishops who wallow in the darkness with no interest in coming into the blinding light. THOSE are the people that can get the money for your salaries coming in.

You say we all have a responsibility in this. What the hell is this site all about? This site has been the biggest example of shared responsibility and desire to correct problems and move on that the OCA has ever seen and may ever see. But you people there just see responsibility as sending in money. When we talk here about changes that should be done, voice our concerns, get angry over what’s going on, there’s not a peep out of you people, just like Nikon turned his back on his parishes. But when we talk money all of a sudden people’s ears, like yours, perk up. Did you know that your response on here mimicks the response of Nikon to the Ansonia parish? Its as shallow as that.

It sickens me to no end in this mess that whenever there’s a face off, whenever there’s a point of decision, that’s its always the faithful who are called to change their ways and back down. Its always the faithful that the administration and the bishops say are in the wrong. It’s about time, in your call for shared responsibility, for the administration and the bishops to take some of that responsibility and do what’s right like you say we must do in God’s eyes. Remember, the faithful didn’t one day get together and say, “Hey, let’s have some fun with the leadership in our Church and cut their funding!”. No, what happened was we were and are presented with a situation that is making a mockery of the Orthodox faith in America let alone the organization of the OCA. And the bishops, and the administration, in their never ending way of confronting these issues always blame the faithful for their acts. Father, what do you tell people, in your sermons, to do when they face evil? Slap it on the back and say, “You go to it, boy! We’re all behind you!” No, you say to confront and fight it. Father, we are doing what you and your fellow priests tell us to do when confronted with evil and now you’re saying that what we are doing is wrong. What it comes down to is it sounds like a spiritual three card Monty.

Bottom line, don’t come telling us we need to step up and fund the Church, we’re ready, willing, and have our checkbooks open. What we want is an equal desire on the part of the bishops and there lies the roadblock. When you want people to take responsibility, when you want people to support the Church and God’s word, you go to talk to your bishops. Those are the people that need a serious talking to. Not the people here who are disgusted about hearing about this for two years already over everything they should be hearing at Church.

Daniel, Daniel, Daniel!

Bring in an expert?! Then why have the sacrament of communion!? Seriously, if we cannot do what's right when we all share in the Body and Blood of Christ is there any hope? When THAT is not enough of a conflict resolution method, what else could POSSIBLY work?! Think about it. This drives to the CORE of the problems here! This isn't a secular organization. This is a Church that was sent on its mission by Christ himself. A Church where we partake of his Body and Blood - there is no greater thing to partake of, not greater thing to share... if you truly believe it. Therein lies the problem. Lack of belief, faithlessness. Its easy to say we believe, its hard to live our life in that belief. Bringing a conflict resolution “expert” to tell us how to handle internal divisions based on morals that have been turned on their head, while in front of the icon of Christ Himself is absurd! It’s an affront to all we believe in. If we cannot resolve these problems in Christ and under HIS rules and methods then there is truly NO hope and we should all pack it in and call ourselves faithless failures!

The powers that be have done their best to try and put in half baked measures to take our attention away from the Commandments given to us by God. Hide what the problem REALLY is. We have best practices with pages codifying processes that we should be doing ANYWAY if we just believed – no one should have to tell us what the right thing is to do! We should KNOW what’s right and DO IT. And the Synod wants to abandon them. We want to bring in an expert, when the expert we should all be listening to and following is the same that the clergy hold in their hands at every liturgy! We bring in the qualified accountants and other professionals thinking that making the systems and numbers look good will solve our problem! That the professional accreditation of our officers is the solution! Baloney! Enough of this secularizing of the problem. Enough of thinking that we can get to the bottom of this and fix it by employing methods that mask what our core beliefs are because we’re so damn weak to follow what we SHOULD, follow what WILL correct this problem. Enough is enough! Look to Christ for our answers, not a conflict resolution “expert”, not best practices, not CPAs. Follow Jesus Christ, SOG (Son of God), No Mr. Secular, CPA! We have our best practices… Moses had them on two tablets, not 20 pages of legalese. Good Lord! Let’s get back to first principles and then apply THEM to the problems. Its amazing how everything else will fall into place when we do!

George, Thomas, Abraham, Alexander, Andrew, Benjamin. These are the men who hold great influence over our esteemed Synod of bishops. These are the men who’s images our bishops bow down to and honor. Unfortunately, I’m not talking about some of the greatest saints whom we venerate, but rather I’m talking about men who are better known by their last names: Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Hamilton, Jackson, and Franklin and who’s portraits adorn our paper currency. Like a well ingrained Pavlovian reaction, when money speaks, the ears of the bishops perk up. Speak to them in verse, repeat to them what they say in their sermons, give heartfelt reflections of the pain this scandal is causing and you see nothing but their backsides whether of their hands as they wave you away like a fly while they cursory read your words or their backsides as they walk away after denying you the voice to your concerns. However, speak in terms of one of the men mentioned above and the bishop finds the time and the concern to address your concerns when you want and on your ground. We started this scandal with financial revelations and now we, yet again, are given an incident when it’s the money, stupid!

Sadly this is not the first time we have seen this material, shallow behavior of our bishops turning away from all that God is to all they can amass in monetary wealth. Close your eyes and visualize the image they give you when they make an appearance at your church or some great event: a man in flowing black robes, a long veiled hat, highly ornate vestments costing thousands that some may not wear twice in public, they carry a stick, and walk slower than a snail to give you the appearance of a man pained by his sacrifice and constant prayer, people lining up to bow and kiss his hand because he’s a great and holy man. It’s a nice, pious image, but its just that, its an image, because when the rubber meets the road, it’s the money, stupid.

Your spiritual well being, well, that’s a function of your giving. Your standing in the eyes of the bishops, well, that’s a function of your giving. You have a problem and you’re a good donor, you might get to sit with them at coffee hour as they patiently listen to what you say while in their minds they’re already spending the money that is the tribute your parish will give and how he is going to use that. Hopefully you won’t ask a question during the time you speak because you would put him into a difficult situation because he’s really not listening to what you’re saying, he’s thinking about the money. It’s the money, stupid! He tucks it away under his robe and then scurries away having done what he needs to do to put another buck in his pocket. Think about it, the reality closely matches this description. Oh, you have a problem, you say? You have a concern over the scandal? Well, we have no time to talk about it, or this isn’t the place to talk about it, you know, I’m just too tired from all my constant prayer to give time to discuss that now, so we’ll adjourn – I need to walk away with a stick because of all I do in my life so you may gain salvation. But, you know salvation doesn’t come free, and neither does their concern. But, you tell him you’re going to stop your assessments to the Church and his ears perk up like a dog at an inaudible sound that no one but it can hear. This is what our bishops have reduced themselves to.

Its sad, but as they say, money is the root of all evil, and make no mistake, its very much the root of the evil in this Church.