One of the podcasts I used to listen to religiously (pardon the pun) was Presvetera Dr. Jeannie Constantinou’s “Search the Scriptures” on Ancient Faith Radio. Presvetera Jeannie is an accomplished academic biblical scholar with a great love for God, the Church, Scriptures, and Patristic commentaries. For more than fifty episodes, she had been leading us through the Bible chapter by chapter from “the Beginning”.
Alas, a couple of years ago, the series stalled in Ezekiel. Many of us (with sadness) assumed that it had joined so many other wonderful podcasts in permanent archival status.
I’m so happy we were wrong! Presvetera Jeannie is back, combining Bible study, patristic commentary, and the courage to apply both – and her own pastoral heart – to serious topics.
In this episode, she takes on the topic of corrupt clergy.
Here is a link to “Ezekiel: Part Seven – On Corrupt Clergy” from Search the Scriptures.
The problem of corrupt clergy is real. I suspect, as with so many issues, the cases that make the headlines are only the tip of the iceberg. It can be scary to have sensitive subjects like this talked about in public forums, but I still welcome it. Perhaps if we were doing a better job (and here I speak of my brother clergy and seminary professors/administrators), there would be no need for our wives and the laity to get involved. Perhaps, but probably not.
The Church I serve (UOC-USA) supports the theology and action of conciliarity (sobornopravnist); I love that theology and approach (when it is done well!) and wonder whether many cases of clergy corruption would have been identified and corrected sooner (if not avoided altogether) if we had a healthier system of parish and Church administration that was more open, accountable, and more conciliar.
Regardless – welcome back Dr.Constantinou!
– Fr. Anthony Perkins
The question is always “who is watching the watchmen?”
Under ordinary circumstances, bad clergy can be dismissed as buffoons who have drunk their own Kool Aid. But when put in charge of a group that has had inculcated upon it such maxims as “The spiritual father is to be obeyed even when he’s wrong,” or “Let the bishop preside in the place of God, and his clergy in place of the Apostolic conclave” (Ignatius to the Magnesians, 6), then even a buffoon can become a David Koresh or a Jim Jones. This is what makes Eastern Orthodoxy–particularly in its mission parishes–so dangerous.
A bad priest often conforms to the profile that one associates with cult leaders. The priest’s desire to have one and all look to him as confessor and mentor, kiss his hand, and generally grovel before him are symptoms of a dangerous paternalism. These things ought to concern one not only because they are mainstays of the cults, but also because they lend themselves so readily to abuse of power. A few years back, I dealt with one such priest at an OCA mission parish who was not only the worst priest I have ever known, but also one of the worst human beings I have ever known. Three of my friends left the Eastern Orthodox Church because of him, two of them rejecting Christianity altogether. Innumerable registered letters to our worthless bishop in San Francisco were to no avail because that arrogant slob could not be bothered to answer them. Making matters worse, the readers and sub-deacons–the ones who should have acted as ombudsmen keeping this bad priest in line–would never confront him for fear of jeopardizing their own chances of getting into seminary on his recommend.
The problem is that the Eastern Orthodox Church is a priestly cult. While it pays lip service to the Petrine conceit that the laity are themselves a royal priesthood offering up spiritual sacrifices (1 Pt 2:5, 9), in reality, the laity are nothing more than props for the aggrandizement of bad priests and absentee-landlord bishops. This is why men who convert to Eastern Orthodoxy are in such a mad scramble to become priests themselves–they know they have no status as laymen. And this explains the cowardly behavior of those readers and sub-deacons who should have locked that Jim Jones wannabe priest out of the building (“Shucks, we’d better stay on his good side; otherwise he won’t write us a recommendation to seminary!”).
As mentioned above, a concerned layman’s writing a letter to the bishop equates to spitting in the wind. Not only is the layman low-status detritus in the bishop’s eyes, but this layman in most cases lives thousands of miles away. Out of sight, out of mind. I live in Phoenix, sixth in the rankings of America’s largest cities. Yet Phoenix parishes of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese and the Orthodox Church in America must both appeal to bishops residing in San Francisco. Phoenix parishes of the Antiochian Archdiocese must appeal to Los Angeles. Phoenix parishes of the Serbian Archdiocese must appeal to Alhambra, California. And Phoenix parishes of the Romanian Archdiocese must appeal to distant Grass Lake, Michigan. Hence, problems that any Protestant church could very easily resolve at the congregational level go unresolved for years in Eastern Orthodoxy as helpless parishes await go-ahead from totally unresponsive and imperial bishops reigning from afar.
I have been around this religion since 1997. My esteem for the clergy has gone from seeing them as infallible demi-gods in 1997 to holding them in absolute contempt in 2016. In nineteen years, I’ve yet to hear ONE good sermon from an Eastern Orthodox priest. The spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood of Arizona attends one of the major parishes here and is deemed a pillar of that parish. Why is she comfortable in one of our churches? Could it be that she’s never heard a convicting sermon? Kids who were toddlers when I first entered an Eastern Orthodox parish are now 19 and 20 years old. These kids, who have attended literally hundreds of liturgies, have grown up to be tattooed, foul-mouthed thugs and bastard-bearers.
Christ said, “By their fruits ye shall know them.” Given the uniform rottenness of the fruit that Eastern Orthodoxy produces nowadays, all Orthodox clergyman–including the “nice” priests–need to repent in sack cloth and ashes.
Check out Preachers Institute for good sermons by Orthodox clergy. Sorry you’ve had a bad run, but there are many of us who work hard, and produce good work in homiletics.
Dear Paul,
Alas, clericalism is a huge temptation, one that not every priest is strong enough to resist. It is also true that many of us should work more on our preaching and communication. These are both problems that we are trying to address in our seminaries (and through continuing education). It is also true that our parishes are full of sinners and that some who grew up in the Church chose to leave. It is useful to be reminded of our (i.e. the clergy’s) role in fostering the kind of culture that detracts from the Gospel. For that, I thank and bless you.
I am truly sorry that you and your friends had such a bad experience. I pray that God heals you and all who have been so harmed.
As far as your judgments/conclusions go, I think you are painting with too broad a brush (and rudely); this detracts from your very valid points (and the civility of our culture).
Yours in Christ,
Fr Anthony