www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall On Seminary Graduation as a Pre-requisite for Ordination

Jim,

Your observations always prove to be extremely acurrate.

Everything depends upon (by the grace of God) the bishop selecting competent and devout clergy. At this, they fail regularly, but then again, they often have only one candidate and its a yes or no. They don't have a choice amongst candidates. This also tells us something about the state of our laity and their qualifications and willingness to serve!

But I try not to despair since: Christ is Indeed Risen!
Andrew

Parishes need to produce worthy candidates for the holy ministry, taking their own part in discerning the vocations of those called to serve the Lord in the ordained ministry. There is an alien hiatus between those trained and ordained and the people of God whom they serve. Byzantine Christianity presupposes a close relationship between the laos and their bishop and the laos and their potential clergy.

Spasi Christos -
Mark, monk and sinner.

Bishop Nikolai of Alaska (OCA) once told a story about temporarily serving as a priest in a California parish. The parish invited him to become their priest. He asked them if they had ever produced a priestly vocation from the parish. They said no. He turned them down. So, Fr. Mark's point is well taken.

This is all too true. Sometimes priests are assigned from another region or another country, often not able to connect to the parish. Many eparchies are too concerned with structure, process, programs, etc. and the laos in the parish gets left out of the picture. We need to regain and foster those "home grown" vocations from the parish.

Diak causes me to remember that back in the 1970s my mother-in-law's parish in Uniontown, St. Mary's RC Church, a mostly Slavic parish, got a new priest- from India. At a dinner one of our friends asked if he was Goan. Mom replied, "No, he just came."

In the ancient Church, the bishop would set a president/proistamenos over a community from amongst the community. He would pick one of the most respected, most devout, and most knowledgeable of the elders/presbyters and designate him as president/proistamenos by the laying on of hands.

In the modern Church, this is almost unheard. In the OCA, I beleive that it is even official policy not to assign major clergy to their home parishes. For clergy, it becomes a kind of career where they transfer around getting more and more "experience" until they can find a cushy spot as a chancellor or development director with the jurisdictional or diocesan office.

For their part, the laity want to "hire" and "fire" the clergy at will without consulting the bishop and similarly can't bear that one from amongst them would be "elevated" over themselves.

All of this shows how far all have drifted in misunderstanding the role of the president/proistamenos. They fail to realize that he is simply the one who makes the offering and leads the community's prayers and other non-liturgical deliberations. They are so often looking for an innovator, cheerleader, or other "all-responsible" figure whom they may praise or curse as the case may be.

They (clergy and laity) often forget that Christ is the head of the body. He gave a "parathiki' or foundation (of faith) to the apostles who then gave the bishops a "paradosis" or deposit (of faith) to be carried forward by each successive generation of believers.

We are all responsible for the paradosis.

Christ is Risen!
Andrew

I believe that many Orthodox parishes function more like ethnic clubs than churches. Club priorities usually concern maintaining national customs, be it Greek, Serb, Russian, Romanian, Ukrainian, etc.

There is also a core of faithful believers that the clergy relies on to conduct services. It's this group that so desperately needs a priest who knows his stuff. The club members often just ignore their priest rather than caring about what he says.

Sometimes laity are both faithful AND club members, often they are not. It is the club mentality that once prompted an Orthodox priest to tell his congregation that, "I am not the cruise director." But the club cares little for what the priest says, and will go its own way, periodically trying to get the priest to go along, but willing to go on without him. The faithful few are the ones who take their Faith more seriously. If the clergy are not well trained and managed, then that group will not encourage vocations.

So, say what you will about the need to foster more vocations. I still believe that the clergy lead by example. That is why it has become increasingly difficult to get vocations, not because the laity are not working hard enough. The faithful few are likely to steer clear of official channels once they get burned.