Chicago Parish Rejuvenated – Parish was in Danger of Closing…Saved by the New Priest

A recent post on “WindyCity Greek’s” Facebook page included an article called “Chicago Parish Rejuvenated.” It relates how an Ephraimite Priest nearly caused closing of a certain Chicago Parish. The article appropriately lauds its new Priest for growing the Parish to its prior commitment level relying on an enthusiastic and engaged group of old and new members. But like any “toxic” environment which invades a Parish in the wake of an Ephraimite incursion, the contents of the article opened old wounds stemming from the civil war that occurred at that Parish when under an Ephraimite Priest. While the article was accurate, well researched and written, spirited commentary on Facebook immediately erupted. Our Editors’ position can be found in the Editor’s Notes section attached to the end of this article. After the “Chicago Parish Rejuvenated” article was posted online, one present Parish Council Member complained that many worked very hard to keep the Church going, and accused several families who purportedly abandoned the Church because they “did not like the Priest.” In response to this inaccurate comment about why so many families left, we received a telling email from one of the many families who left. This family is no longer active at the Parish in question or indeed not active at any GOA Parish. This email’s author objected to the article’s description of the family’s reasons for leaving the Parish,. They are infuriated at the misrepresentation of why they left. None of this was personal; all of it was about one faction’s appreciation of fundamentalism as a problem and the apparent lack of understanding by those who stayed. The main reason for leaving was their adamant refusal to support an Ephraimite agenda at the Parish. The email’s author below takes great exception to the reason given by the Parish Council Member……. that they “did not like the Priest”. This is the email we received, printed below in its entirety: “If by saying that those who left did not like: 1. The Priest’s obsessive focus on Satan/the evil one in his sermons; 2. The Priest’s insistence that Satan determines the worthiness of a soul through the farce of aerial tollhouses (effectively giving Christ the leftovers); 3. The fact that the Priest served the monastery Monday through Friday (not the Parish that paid him over $150k per annum); 4. The fact that the Priest deliberately removed all adult presence in youth ministry (violating all reasonable youth protection) until he destroyed all youth programming; 5. The fact that the Priest destroyed the altar boy program until his arrival the pride of the Parish; 6. The fact that the Priest diminished the Greek School program 7. The fact that the Priest killed a viable and vibrant Parish of 326 families, reducing it to 86 families; 8. The fact that the Priest turned the Parish into an off-site kiosk selling items for the monastery in Wisconsin; 9. The fact that the Priest, a member of the clergy, did not care that he turned people away from the Parish and, in fact, drove them away from their faith; 10. The fact that the Priest manipulated the few families that remained in the Parish into believing that they saved it by remaining and supporting him; You are correct. We didn’t like any of the above and much more. The fact that this Parish Council member can believe that it was a matter of it being a personality clash avoids the reality that this flawed man, a man that should never have been ordained into the Priesthood in the first place, still holds such control over his global view of the Parish. It speaks volumes. Perhaps the Parish Council can find someone to help him to self-reflect. Or perhaps he can move to and clean up the mess that the Priest is or will be creating in his new Parish while telling himself that once again, by standing behind this man, he will have saved yet another Parish. The families that were forced out of the Parish that they built because he supported an adherent to the cult that worships Elder Ephraim up until the point of near bankruptcy do now and always will hold him and his cohorts responsible for their loss of their ecclesiastical home. That is a burden that those loyalists can take to their graves. It should weigh heavily on them. How does it feel to know that they helped turn away so many people from their own Church? You sir and your cohorts are no guardians of the Parish or of the faith. You were unwitting soldiers in a war that is being fought by the false teaching and false worship of an Ephraim-centered faith. The mess that has been created by the local ‘leadership’ continues to divide the faithful within the Parishes, within families and amongst friends. The defense of these soldier Priests by unknowing and ignorant stewards keeps driving more and more people away from the Parish life and from the Church in general. The number of stewards in this Metropolis is not being shared. Is that because the Church in Chicago is dying? While these events are specific to one Parish, they have played out in many Parishes in this Metropolis. Similar events have occurred in the City of Destiny (ironic, isn’t it?), in the north and in the south of Chicago. What will it take to change the direction of our Church? Editor’s Notes: Those responsible for supporting events leading to a massive walk-out of long time members, like the Parish Council Member who authored the above e-mail, must read and study the damage caused by Ephraimite Priests at their Parishes. We again demand our Hierarchs to take action. How many more Parishes will be brought to the edge of a cliff before our Hierarchy, through their appointments, stop assisting its Parishes from entering a “death spiral”? The GOA continues to be mere spectators as people leave the Church. When will they stand up and protect its Church from this and other cancers affecting the body of Christ? At the Chicago Parish, the leadership that once propped up a failed Ephraimite ministry now seeks recognition for “saving the Parish”. Since when do we reward with praise those who foist rampant failures on our Parishes and GOA institutions and then take credit for the work of others? Only through God’s grace, a Priest of normal theology arrived to save this failing Parish from its very Parish Council members. Now we are receiving emails from Arizona where another Ephraimite Clergyman has begun the well documented process of ridding the Parish of those who will not adhere to Elder Ephraim’s toxic theology. Lord have mercy on all of us as we witness Parish after Parish going through a civil war. It is certain that we all pay the price. There are no heroes here; only victims.