Wednesday, November 09, 2011

Orthodox church at the gates of purgatory

With each passing day, the crisis that has swept across Europe has thrown into question not only the capacity of states to maintain a minimum of solvency, but also the philosophy that has provided the basis for the social and economic system since the Second World War.

Established ideologies are no longer in tune with current realities and their adjustment to accommodate these realities appears increasingly difficult. It is in this context that the economic crisis has not only heralded the end of public debt and the bankruptcy of the principles that made it possible, but it has also marked the end of certain taboos.

Consider, for example the Greek and Romanian Orthodox Churches, and the provocative attitudes displayed by both of these entities. For several months, the impudence of high-ranking members of the clergy in Athens and Thessaloniki has known no bounds, now that the lost sheep demonstrating in the streets have begun to focus their attention not only on the rejection of austerity packages, but also on the redistribution of wealth and in particular the wealth of the Orthodox Church, which has never been evaluated [the Orthodox Churches in both Greece and Romania do not pay taxes and benefit from a certain number of privileges].

It is regrettable that the pressure on the higher echelons of the Greek clergy has not been instigated by public debate, but is rather the result of an outburst of rage prompted by extreme social and economic circumstances – and this observation also applies to the Romanian Church – because this has been used to justify the cynical and curt response of the ecclesiastical hierarchy which has no qualms about dismissing those voices from civil society which have yielded to the sin of questioning its prerogatives.
Read the rest here.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Church of Greece carries out a great many social activities in helping out the homeless and the less fortunate in Greek society.
In addition, the Church of Greece provides support for immigrants
(legal and illegal)in Greece.

The Church is a stabilizing force in Greek society overall and the possibility that the Church is being scapegoated by those with an anti-Christian agenda is a possibility. The Church did not create the crisis in Greece, it was the political leadership. And
considering the failure of the politicians the Church is quite right to hesitate giving anything to the government.

For over a decade, the Church of Greece has been at odds with Greek political leaders over secularization and the efforts to legalize same sex weddings, remove Icons and prayer from schools etc.

I for one am very skeptical of news reports criticizng the Church.

Theodore

Anastasia Theodoridis said...

I concur with Theodore. The Church here in Greece is about the only voice of sanity left. I am grateful for her leadership.

Anastasia