If Elpidophoros and AHEPA want to re-baptize Chapter 42 and spread the AHEPA “gospel” inside an Orthodox Church, they should name it “AHEPA Victims Chapter 42.” Remorse and repentance are at the core of the gospels according to our evangelists and apostles.
By the Uncomfortable Witness
With Elpi’s invitation, AHEPA resurrected the defunct Upper Manhattan Chapter 42, renamed it Freedom Chapter 42, and installed it at the St. Nicholas Interdenominational Shrine at Ground Zero.
In one move, AHEPA and Elpi claim continuity and affinity with a dead chapter and, by re-baptizing it, deny and “know nothing” about its horrific legacy.
Upper Manhattan Chapter 42 was chartered in 1924, only two years after K.K.K. leaders Carl F. Hutcheson, Walter A. Sims, and George A. Polos hosted the initial meeting that founded AHEPA. Headquartered in Harlem, Chapter 42 quickly grew and became the organization’s most significant chapter. From the start, its officers were involved in every AHEPA project. It became known as the home chapter of many prominent members, but the one who stands out the most is Stephen S. Scopas.
Scopas held every position at Chapter 42 and was promoted to positions in AHEPA’s District Six lodge and ultimately AHEPA’s supreme lodge. In 1955, he became AHEPA’s supreme president. Chapter 42, like the rest of AHEPA, supported Scopas in all his endeavors, even when he and Leo Lamberson were accused of profiting from a shady adoption program AHEPA had designed in 1959. Scopas was arrested and charged with trafficking infants from Greece. He and Ahepa brought shame to the entire Greek community, but shame does not begin to describe what they inflicted on their infant victims.
When Scopas was indicted, AHEPA Chapter 42, District 6, the supreme lodge, the Church, and The National Herald’s then-publisher, Babis Marketos, lobbied to get the criminal charges dropped. Marketos argued that it was an ugly blot on the Greek community’s reputation. He and AHEPA were worried that the negative publicity would prompt the Greek government to cancel AHEPA’s supreme convention, scheduled to take place in Athens the following summer. Neither the AHEPA Chapter 42 nor the Supreme Lodge ever voiced concern for the Greek adoption victims. Seven decades later, their lips are sealed in a vow of silence!
The criminal charges against Scopas were ultimately dismissed, partly because the prosecutor made errors. Upper Manhattan Chapter 42 continued its blind loyalty to Scopas. AHEPA continued to bestow honors upon him for the rest of his life. For a while, there was even an Ahepa chapter named after him!
Here is an opportunity for our spiritual father to do the right thing. If he and AHEPA want to re-baptize Chapter 42 and spread the AHEPA “gospel” inside an Orthodox Church, they should name it “AHEPA Victims Chapter 42.” Remorse and repentance are at the core of the gospels according to our evangelists and apostles.
Alternatively, Elpi and AHEPA should be true to their values and rename their resurrected Ahepa chapter the “Stephen S. Scopas Chapter 42.” No one in the history of AHEPA’s Chapter 42 has done more to spread “Ahepa’s gospel” than Stephen S. Scopas. Indeed, he is entitled to be called an Ahepa “apostle.” This is not sarcasm. It’s AHEPA’s own parlance. They call themselves “apostles” and “missionaries” who spread the “AHEPA gospel” when they “Ahepanize” Orthodox parishes. (See, e.g., Chebithes, V.I., “AHEPA: The Twenty-Year March,” The National Herald, Oct. 9, 1950, p. 3, and Ibid, Oct. 10, 1950, p.3.)
Scopas deserves the dubious honor. If Basil Mossaidis, Ahepa’s perennial director, can have a chapter named after himself, shouldn’t an Ahepa apostle like Stephen S. Scopas be so honored?
December 29, 2025, n.stamatakis@aol.com www.helleniscope.com
DISCLAIMER: The views and statements expressed in this article constitute constitutionally protected opinions of this author.
Obviously, a Masonic organization like AHEPA has no place in a Greek Orthodox Church. Freemasonry has been denounced by the Patriarchate of Constantinople since the 1700s!
So, why AHEPA is trespassing in our churches? Because our “shepherds” obviously have become members of AHEPA! Instead of protecting their flocks, they let the wolves in!
AHEPA is using the Greek Orthodox churches in many ways:
1. They use them as a meeting place, so they don’t have to pay rent! And we are talking about Masonic lodges that accept members from all religions! And they meet in our churches! Without our knowledge and approval!
2. They use them as a recruitment place for recruiting new members, mainly in the coffee hour.
3. They use them as a money machine, since all their fundraisers target the pockets of the faithful. They ask the unsuspected people to help their scholarships fundraisers, without mentioning that the scholarships will go only to AHEPA children!
4. Once they dominate a parish council, they start injecting money of the parish to their treasury! That’s why they want to control completely a parish council and they kick out of the parish council any non-AHEPA members!
Since AHEPA doesn’t have the dignity to leave the Greek Orthodox churches, find their own roof and pay for it, there is only one way to get rid of these leeches that suck our money:
We keep going to our churches like we used to -we don’t abandon them to their filthy hands- but we don’t pay even ONE CENT! There is no way to force you pay. When after a while there will be no “cheese” in the church, the AHEPA mice will figure it out and search for another church…
nr – good post.
How embarrassing these betrayers of Christian Orthodox faith & to think they hang out with us in church, the weasels.
In new year, stop the money & only give to special priests.
Scopas built the FLushing Church
The church was built by the blood and sweat of immigrants. Scopas was active there as a board member. He may have made contributions. However, that did not give him a license to engage in other wrongdoing for which neither he nor Ahepa ever answered. You can’t tell the injured victims that Ahepa’s debt to them was paid off by his publicized contributions elsewhere.
I agree. It’s all about money. The Orthodox Faith has been trampled on for just a few bucks. Ahepa makes sure we all see photographs of their annual $10,000 payment to Bart. That’s how much Bart takes to sell his flock to the devil!
Ahepa’s professed “gospel”, its Masonic oaths and rituals, and its “Ahepanization” of Orthodox parishes cannot be ignored. They claim they contributed a million dollars for the construction of St. Nicholas Shrine — a project that reportedly cost $58 million, and for which over $95 million has been raised. That means Ahepa contributed little more than 1% of the money raised for the temple. Furthermore, it did not contribute it out of its own funds. It raised it with contributions from the Greek community it preys on.
Nonetheless, did Ahepa raise the money it did in order to purchase a seat at the altar? Are our “holy things onto the holy” for sale to heretics? Is the Ahepa gospel just another path to salvation? Are our evangelists John, Matthew, Mark and Luke replaced by Ahepa’s apostles? And why is Ahepa so secretive about its rituals and history? Would its members fall for it if they knew the truth?
Where are Elpi and Bart, the “spiritual fathers” who charged with guiding their flock toward salvation?
Ahepa uses its own Masonic altar in its rituals when it proselytizes naive Christians. It must not corrupt our most sacred possessions.
Orthodox Christians reject Ahepa!
The people of God, who constitute the body of the Church, reject these wolves in sheeps’ skins.
I don’t think that Bartholomew is selling us to AHEPA for $10.000. He is selling us because he is a Freemason himself! He continues the path of his Freemason predecessors. It’s obvious nowdays that all the higher clergy are Freemasons. Even the lower clergy today are mostly members of AHEPA!
Unfortunately, this difficult to reverse situation is a result of the Masonic infiltration in the Greek Orthodox Church that started with patriarch of Constantinople Joakim in 1878! If you let the snakes in your yard and don’t do anything to stop them, they simply multiply…
Based on personal research, it appears that Ahepa uses institutions such as churches and Freemasonry to advance its interests. Many of its members may be Christian Orthodox or Freemasons, which suggests some connections. However, does this necessarily mean that AHEPA is officially linked with these organizations? On a different note, why would Freemasonry need to be affiliated with any other group besides itself to maintain its independence? Is it true that Patriarch Athenagoras was a Freemason?
Sevi,
According to their constitution, AHEPA accepts members of all religions! So, you can imagine what mosaic of people meet in our churches when we are not there and without our knowledge and approval!
I explained earlier why AHEPA needs to be affiliated with the Greek Orthodox churches: so they won’t have to pay rent, so they can recruit new members and so they can steal the money of the faithful. It is that simple.
Regarding patriarch Athenagoras, he was definitely a freemason, there is even a receipt of his dues paid to the Masonic lodge:
https://katanixi.gr/p-serafeim-zisis-o-masonos-patriarchis/
I have some objections about AHEPA, which, if I have read correctly, began protecting the rights of Greek immigrants from the Ku Klux Klan. As for the Archdiocese of America, it is saved by the influx of money from very wealthy Greeks who have been proclaimed “archons” by the Patriarchate with a $100,000 subscription. Does the Archdiocese need the small candle from the faithful to resolve its financial issues? However, the question being discussed in small groups among Greeks in the U.S. remains whether all the money given by the very wealthy Greek-Americans is used for sacred purposes and is not funneled back under the table to the generous archons. I’m passing on what I have heard.
Sevi, AHEPA never protected any Greeks from the klan. Not once. Never did they take any klan to court for abuse of Greeks’ rights. Never did they align with African-Americans in their struggle to keep the klan from destroying their communities. Rather, AHEPA’s purpose was to make Greeks “Americans”, as soon as possible. They adopted the glory of ancient Greece, as if modern Greeks were only descended from Pericles, because that’s what Americans respected. Neglecting Greece’s Byzantine and modern accomplishments.
In their effort to Americanize the Greek peasants and make them act “white”, they encouraged adoption of non-Greek names and used English as the language of communication.
AHEPA did not do a thing to promote anything other than a mythical Greek reality. The only thing that saved Hellenism from AHEPA’s claws was the Greek victory against Italy in 1940. Greeks felt proud of their modern selves, , spoke Greek in public without fear, presented their food, national dances and customs in the Greek festivals and made Americans look at us as not only a descendant of Plato, but a real, live nation that had still lots to be proud of.
Bob, I apologize for the late reply.
You are absolutely right. She’s never defended a single Greek from the Klan! My research of Ahepa’s internal archives and contemporaneous newspapers have not uncovered a single incident! A few years ago, I communicated via email with Mossaidis and Nick Karacostas, with the entire supreme leadership cc’d, and they could not cite a single example! Yet they knowingly put that false claim on Congressional proclamations and executive orders!
I got evidence that Ahepa sided with the KKK in persecuting a Greek family, a war veteran whose seventh-grade daughter refused to pledge allegiance to the flag because they believed it would be blasphemy against God. See The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Oct. 2, 1988, p. B2.
Also, for decades Article V, Sec. 1 of Ahepa’s constitution provided that eligibility for membership was open only to “ANY WHITE, MALE PERSON” who believed in “the Divinity of Jesus Christ” and who was not Catholic. It was a racist, sexist, anti-Greek organization, created by the Klan itself.
This is Ahepa’s history. This is the truth! Documents don’t lie, but Ahepa’s grand wizards do!
Elpi and Bart will not budge. They’re heretics of the worst conceivable kind.
We must think of a solution that will not include them. My family and I have been extremely reluctant to think of autocephaly. For generations, we have respected the patriarchate and held it in the highest regard. The word “matricide” always comes up when someone suggests cutting ourselves off of it. It genuinely hurts us.
But we then think of how these repulsive monsters devour their children. How they they rob us and violate our Faith’s most sacred teachings. Our seminary, our St. Basil’s Academy, our Greek schools, our churches — they’re all up for sale, with the sale proceeds flowing to these monsters’ offshore accounts. And Ahepa is there to mock us.
Yes, we have a problem. But let’s face it with realism. We can no longer be naive; they’re banking on it. After the numbness subsides, with God’s blessing, we all will reach the same conclusion: it’s time to go!
Last Sunday we had a very nice AHEPA gathering in the hall of my Greek Orthodox parish. Good food, fellowship. I am glad that I went there.
All AHEPA members should be ashamed trespassing in our churches, without even asking the faithful people of God if they agree such meetings to be hosted in a holy church!
You came here to rub on our faces the supposed “power” of your organization. Your organization is as powerful is a gang. And your leadership has been prosecuted in the past for infants trafficking from Greece! Don’t doubt that all gangs at the end meet their Master…
Regarding the expression of content, I think all parasites feel content when they find free roof and free food…
AHEPA and many, if not most, Greek Orthodox parishes in the US are closely connected. My own parish has received innumerable contributions from local AHEPA members from its founding a century ago; these have been important in its support.
Of course, I believe that you also want the hundreds of parishes in the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America to also close down.
There can be no connection between the Greek Orthodox Church and a Masonic organization like AHEPA. Freemasonry has been condemned by the Patriarchate of Constantinople since the 1700s!
As usual, you are trying to reverse reality. It’s a huge lie that the contributions of AHEPA keep the Greek orthodox churches going. Exactly the opposite is happening in reality: AHEPA not only has the nerve to ask us to pay for their children scholarships, but with various ways they steal from the church money and they transfer them to their treasury!
If the AHEPA leadership had dignity, would part from the Greek Orthodox churches and would rent buildings for their lodges. But what to expect from a leadership that doesn’t have the guts to admit the AHEPA wrongdoing with the infants trafficking from Greece…
If there was a separation between GOArch and AHEPA, what would close down, would be the parasitic Masonic lodges of AHEPA, that suck the money of the unsuspected faithful people of God, that trust their money to compromised parish councils…
The solution to the parasites problem is very simple: not even ONE DOLLAR, not even ONE PENNY to parish councils that are dominated by AHEPA!
Festivals are a greater threat to parish life than AHEPA. Rather than churches running festivals, in many situations the festival runs the church; secularism controlling parish life. The bottom line-a Church should not be in the restaurant business. I continue to pray that at some point a faithful and prophetic bishop will stop festivals. If parishioners can’t support the parish it should close.
Jk,
I agree that secularism shouldn’t control a parish’s life. That’s why a secular organization like AHEPA, has no place in our churches! Also freemasonry has already been condemned many times by the Patriarchate of Constantinople and by the Greek Orthodox Church, so actually AHEPA is trespassing in our churches!
And there is another ethical problem: According to their constitution, AHEPA is open to all religions. How you the AHEPA members who serve in a parish council let people of other religions enter our churches, when we are not there and without asking us?
Thank you. It’s massively unfair to expect the larger community to pay for the bills incurred by the parish. Worse, the community associates the Church solely with ethnic festivals and not with being the true vehicle of the Christian faith.
Mrs M,
I don’t know any larger community that paid the bills of a Greek Orthodox church! The faithful people pay for the bills and unfortunately have to pay also for the AHEPA leeches that are usually added to the payroll of a church!
You must be an AHEPA member yourself, because no normal person would be bothered by the GREEK ethnicity of a GREEK Orthodox Church!
Mrs Mutton, agreed.
I would distinguish the two issues, (a) the propriety of food festivals and (b) the propriety of masonic lodges in Orthodox churches.
Food festivals, if done right, are an inescapable source of revenue to pay for the parishes’ ministries. They may account for two-thirds or more of a parish’s annual revenue! I see their potential as multi-tiered. Festivals bring in much-needed money. They also provide a wonderful opportunity to display to the broader American community who we are. They also bring us together, to strengthen the friendships that bind us as a community. Again, if done properly, they are truly beneficial.
The problem, of course, is when festivals are not done properly. We all have seen gambling games and other activities that clearly go against our church teachings. One parish in California was selling Byzantine-style icons of Mahatma Gandhi (with a halo!). A few steps away, two identical icons were sold for different prices; I was told the more expensive one cost more because it was blessed — a clear violation of the Canon that prohibits the sale of our church mysteries.
So, yes, festivals can go wrong. But that’s why we have priests and bishops, to guide us away from such errors.
Ahepa, however, is a different beast. No money in the world can undo the harm their heresy does. First, they injured their naive members who think their oaths, their meeting rituals, their funeral rituals, their pseudo-prayers, their pseudo-blessings and pseudo-signs of the cross found in Ahepa’s manuals. None of these mention the Triune God, nor invoke the Holy Spirit, nor pray for the intercession of the Theogokos and our saints. Why are such blasphemies in our church?
The only response they give us is that they make donations! If a Buddhist makes a donation, should I become a Buddhist? Clearly, Elpi and Bart don’t care. As Bart would say, “σκασίλα μου!” But we know better. Our parents have taught us better!
Leonidas,
All the years that I am attending my parish, I have never seen any AHEPA donation! On the contrary, every year AHEPA asks us to pay for their children scholarships! Also, I can tell you exactly how much money they put every year in the AHEPA treasury, by hiring only AHEPA members to the church payroll! The only thing I don’t know exactly, is how much money they steal from the cash money! The candle numbers look inexplicably low… We are talking about a continuous robbery! That’s why I suggest: not even ONE DOLLAR, not even ONE CENT to parish councils that are controlled by AHEPA!
The church should not be in the restaurant business. Even done right, festivals have no place in the church. If parishioners can’t support the parish close the parish don’t prostitute it. Just because a festival produces a significant source of revenue doesn’t make it right.
I agree with most comments here. It’s a feedback loop driven by secularization, ethnicity-as-brand, and economic survival. Food was an expression of shared life—not a product. once upon a time the faith was we’re living in an inverted situation. The festival created the market; the market did not create the faith. Ethnicity became performative…as in festival time.
Being “Greek” shifted from lived inheritance to occasional display.
Food became the safest, least demanding marker of identity. fasting not required confession not required discipline not required.
The main drivers of church participation are social issues. Inclusion…we know what that means. Green energy. Spend funds on that not the needs of the community. Ad nauseum.
AS a former Chapter President of Ahepa and member… I can certify that everthing ” Π ”
claims or accuses Ahepa of being is 100 percent correct ! They are a Secret Society …Period ! And the Church should never have provided any legitimacy to them , as you would noillt any common Mafia secret Society organization or Government organization who as matter of deception .. contribute financially heavily to Churches or humanitarian operations to market themselves as philanthropist , like George Soros Organization to extort cooperation to their evil agenda’s…..
.Former President of the United States ,, John Kennedy said in a speech exactly what all Secret Societies represent ….
“The very word ‘secrecy’ is repugnant in a free and open society…”
“We are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings.” and Secret agenda’s..
JFK’s words weren’t aimed at just Free Masons, but Ahepa , KKK , and any Secret society …
But the democratic principle he articulated — that secrecy is dangerous when it inteirsects with public power — absolutely applies to any private group whose members hold public office. Church Boards , School boards, or any position of influence and power ..
When the Church Clergy Blesses members of the Ahepa in cerremony demanded by the Ahepa members on the Altar of our Churches which legitimizes to parishioners the character and integrity of people not serving our lord and savior .. but an ideological organization not affilliated with the Greek Orthodox Church , like the only certified members of the PTO and PHILOPTOHOS …who serve the parishioners and poor of our church and God , then you are glorifying Idol worshipers !
As for JK and Mummy.. the Greek Orthdodox Church is not a Secret Society… it is very transparent .. it serves the Greek Orthodox Christian community ,, Period! You obviously are not Greek Orthodox Christians.. because whether it is a Greek Festival, Greek Church Dance, A Greek Sunday School or Greek language School , who put on Greek Plays and cultural and historical Greek events.. they all involve the getting together of families and friends .. and of course .. all neighbord if they wish! And is not loving thy neighbor the number one tenet of Christ !
Your hilllarious JK and Mummy …. ” If parishioners can’t support the parish close the parish don’t prostitute it. Just because a festival produces a significant source of revenue doesn’t make it right.”
Tell that to the poor Greek Orthodox Christians , who like all the immigrants in the early 1900’s like my Great Grandparents ..they were poor and penniless with little education and with little english proficiency built the Greek Orthodox Church to do exactly what it is doing today!
Based on your standard .. we all would be members of the rich and dominant Heretic Evangelical Protestant Church, who if you haven’t noticed .. don’t beleive in loving your neighbor , more like exterminating them !
Michael One,
Thank you for being so brave to put the truth over any secret society and their power. You are the only one who had the guts to do that and we all understand what it takes to break the oath of silence and talk against a secret society. Look what happened to Kapodistrias: he was assassinated one month after he signed the executive order 4286/8-26-1831 asking all the public servants to sign under oath that they are not members of a secret society!
Michael, your logic or lack of logic confounds me. Loving ones neighbor is an essential part of the Christian message but not a license to prostitute the church. The church should not be in restaurant business. By the way, I am a member of a GOA parish the funds it’s parish ministries through Christian stewardship.
Agreed, AHEPA should not be leaching to our Orthodox churches just because their members may be parishioners. The church is not inherently the “home” of other organizations, it is for the church and its ministries. AHEPA is not a ministry. And if AHEPA members are running the parish councils and funneling church funds to AHEPA coffers as some have said, why aren’t we demanding transparency to review, question and challenge the use of funds and ultimately hold the council responsible? If they won’t agree to opening up the books or to an outside audit, why can’t we depose them and call for new elections? (I realize this is easier said than done)
On the topic of festivals as a way to raise money for a parish, in my opinion this is not inherently wrong. For small parishes in particular, stewardship dollars do not always meet all needs. This does not mean we should cheapen our Orthodox Church by equating our revered faith with spanakopita or lamb sandwiches or t- shirts, or by selling icons of Gandhi (appalling!). But if at the heart of our festivals we hold phillotimo, showing love for the community and a respect for our faith, coming together to make and serve food in service to our ministries, this is not prostitution. Even the nuns at our nearby monastery sell their olive oils, crafts, soaps and foodstuffs to make ends meet. That said, I think the objection to festivals may come from the lack of respect that sometimes comes through. I remember feeling this when visiting the holy places in Jerusalem and they were selling knickknacks or falafel yelling and arguing like we were in the souk.
Small communities have small budgets. If a parish can’t support itself it should close. Festivals state -we can’t support ourselves so let the broader community support our parish. How many of us would ask our neighbors to support our homes if we give them a few Greek pastries? The church should not be in the restaurant business. Why not become bingo churches like the Catholics. Bingo and festivals are not appropriate wats to fund a parish. What nuns and monks do is different; they do not have jobs.
Small or big, the Greek Orthodox churches survived for decades, before the AHEPA vampires start biting them and suck the money out of them… You AHEPA leeches, don’t you have any dignity? You don’t even have the decency to pay a symbolic rent when you are using the church building! You are clearly trespassing, because you are a secular Masonic organization! No other secular organisations are allowed in the churches. So the Patriarch and the Archbishop by giving you asylum in our churches are clearly circumventing the Patriarchate laws creating an ethical scandal. Enough with your parasitic activities in our churches! Take your pitiful “brotherhood” and rent a roof for your lodges, τζαμπατζήδες!
JK.. What do you not understand about my post .. and what Greek Festivals really represent ..to not only Greek Orthodox parisheness but our Christian, Muslim, and Jewish neighbors who voluntrilly attend and partake of another Greek family gathering put together by Greek Orthodox Christian mothers, Grandmothers and grandfathers, fathers , mothers and children and Church stewards ..who volunteer without compensation, other than their love of their community and faith , not their church to donate money, Greek foods and pastries , labor , traditional Greek village dances of Greece in traditional Greek attire, etc etc ..which provide their Christian, Muslim and Jewish neighbors with something that they may not ever be able to afford and experiance in going to Greece ! What kind of Restarant busines run by Greeks Americans Christians voluntarillt hands over all its profits from it Greek Festival fund raiser to the Church , not themselves to continue to run their Restraurant business ? What do you believe ..that the Jews , Muslims, ann Christian Neigbors come to the Greek Festival because of the Greek Orthodoc Church ? They come because they have been invited by the Greek community to share another trademark of Greeks , when they throw a party… “Come on over , everybody is Comming “, and they come , because they love their neigbors , their foods, their culture, and values! But most of all ..they envy the Greek Passion for life .. and that is what they all want !
JM , AND MOST GREEK ORTHODOX CHRISTIANS KNOW.. WHAT JK AND HIS CHURCH STEWARDS OBVIOUSLY DON’T WANT TO FUND , “But if at the heart of our festivals we hold phillotimo, showing love for the community and a respect for our faith, coming together to make and serve food in service to our ministries, this is not prostitution.
While you condemn the faithful of the Greek Orthodox Churches for prostituting the church by running a Resturant business, which bring Christians, Jews, muslims and all religious denomination together in love of life , Catholic and Orthodox leaders have long warned that political Zionism — especially when fused with American evangelical activism — contributes to instability and undermines the safety of indigenous Christian populations. Catholic teaching historically refused to endorse political Zionism, with Pope Pius X explicitly rejecting theological support for it as early as 1904. Now you know .. what loving you neighbor is the number one rule of our lord ..start practicing it …
I hope between JM , ΠΓ and myself, that JK is no longer confounded by the logic of the Greek Orthodox Faithful !
Michael, the purpose of a church is to bring people into salvation and new life in Jesus Christ, not to throw good parties. Please let me know where Jesus, His disciples or any saint encouraged throwing a good party to make money. If anything, the church should serve the homeless, offering them Greek philotimo. The church should not be in the restaurant business or the throw a good party business.
Obviously, Jk..at this point you are obviously completely confused, not only did he encourage gatherings of his faithful and community to celebrate their many blessings, but actually probably attended our Greek Festival gatherings ! I mean it is his house of worship ! By the way , the of restuarant will be open for business and gathering this Sunday to celebrate the cutting of the Vasilopita Bread for the entire community , and by the way .. you can probably buy some loaves to take home! And if we are blessed .. as promised .. our lord and savior will be there…
“For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”
(Matthew 18:20)
This is Jesus affirming community, shared worship , shared celebration , His presence among gathered believers
By the way, also.. I have a scoop for you .. the Philoptohos , just only one of two Orthodox Christians organizations affiliated with my Greek Orthodox Church… do in fact serve the homeless , sick and in needy of all Christians , Jews, and Muslms in our community funded by donations by those Scandalous Greek Festival workers and stewards of our church! One last think.. do you still want the Greek language taken out of our masses of the :GREEK ORTHODOX CHURCHES OF AMERICA?
Michael, I continue to be confused. Are you suggesting that a parish gathering is the same as a church festival. The purpose of a festival is to make money to support the parish or as you suggest to throw a good party. The purpose of a parish gathering is to break bread together as the body of Christ which generates unity within the parish. Surely, you see the difference. All I want in terms of language is that the liturgy be understood. If the majority of the people in the parish understand Greek, Greek should be used.
Jk, closing down a parish because there is an aversion to raising funds is wrong. Some communities have no other church options nearby if theirs close down.
JM, there are always choices. I doubt there are places within the country where there is not an Orthodox church within a half hour. I choose faithful Christian stewardship you choose fundraising.
A few people have commented on here against AHEPA in recent days. That is really too bad.
And you all can miss some nice gatherings in the future.
John,
Nobody will miss AHEPA, I can assure you about that. Most of your members won’t miss the church also, since they don’t attend regularly and those who attend are most of the time outside!
AHEPA only will miss our money! That’s why I think it’s not going to happen, your leadership is too cowardish to do that. But eventually it will happen. “You cannot serve 2 masters” says the gospel. And if you are old, I suggest you choose Jesus over AHEPA, before it is too late…
PG, even if you are young choose Jesus over anything or anyone.