Tzimis said:
Your not listening. No mismanagement. Greeks like other ethnic groups tend to move to the suburbs when they are financially stable. What happens is they build new churches where they live. So the churches left behind do fall into dismay because the funding isn't there any longer.
Actually it is a documented fact that GoArch membership is declining (fast) and the Archdiocese has become extremely financially unstable, bordering on bankruptcy. Of course if they are like other churches the parishes should in many cases be financially independent, but the since according to Pew Research Group, GoArch is the fastest-shrinking Orthodox church, and I believe it also has the worst Sunday attendance (however, ACROD, which is also EP, has the best), and this is hitting the parishes hard. The only really financially strong part of GoArch is the monastery system run by Elder Ephraim of Athos and Arizona.
It should be noted these problems appear confined to GoArch and are not afflicting ACROD or UOCNA, nor to my knowledge is the Greek Orthodox Church in general in trouble; although I would note the healthiest Greek church is probably the Church of Alexandria. But as far as I am aware, the Greek Orthodox churches under the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Britain and Australia are making out alright. So this post should not be interpreted as criticizing the Church of Constantinople at all; the problem here is GoArch, and the excellent performance of ACROD and even within GoArch the excellent liturgical performance, financial stability and breathtaking growth of the monasteries affiliated with Elder Ephraim the disciple of St. Joseph the Hesychast in Florence, AZ, show that the problem is confined to poor diocesan management on the part of some GoArch bishops, who at times seem to care more anout Hellenic culture than Orthodoxy, and who have allowed the Greek church in too many places to be hostile to converts and even other Orthodox.
This was kind of satirized by the film My Big Fat Greek Wedding, which depicts the Greek Church as something only Greeks and a man who wants to marry a Grecian woman would be a part of; the film makes a mockery of baptism, by showing the fiance being baptized in a children’s inflatable swimming pool in front of the altar, and then depicts a Greek wedding as bizarre and incomprehensible, as the fiance’s mother tries to follow the service but gives up when her husband says “It’s Greek to me.”
And there is tragically some truth in that biting satire, although I cannot condone it (Tom Hanks, who produced the film, joined the Greek Orthodox Church to marry a Greek woman and is a member of the splendid Cathedral on Pico St. in the Latin-Byzantine Quarter of Los Angeles (St. Demetrios, I think), which alas does a terrible job when it comes to the Divine Office and weekday liturgies.
Las Vegas has a good Greek parish which does fill up on Sunday despite being very large, with a gracious priest and a robust schedule of services, even an annual Liturgy of St. James on his feast (October 23rd). So there are some good GoArch parishes which are bucking the trend.
