Clergy-Laity Conference: Three Pictures Tell A Story

The latest clergy-laity conference is history. The Orthodox Observer triumphantly announced that the 2027-2028 budget was approved. As if there was any doubt. For those who have not attended a clergy-laity conference, let me give you some insight.

This year’s conference cost $750 per delegate, not including airfare or hotel accommodations. The fee covered two luncheons, a banquet, a visit to the Rock and Roll Museum, and as many conference sessions as delegates could tolerate. If you wonder what a Christian Orthodox conference has to do with a rock-and-roll museum, you are not alone. Just be careful not to ask anyone in the archdiocese—they might sue you.

And please, don’t point out to anyone that $750.00, even in our inflationary times, is exorbitant; they’ll hang up on you. As a delegate, you have taken time off from work and traveled to the nation’s midsection, and you have the privilege of voting on the upcoming archdiocesan budget. There are a few issues with that. Voting is scheduled for the end of the conference, and it will be by voice. If you feel brave enough to question any expense that might look frivolous to you, be ready. You’ll get dirty looks, even bullying, for delaying the end of the conference with the thought that our hierarchs need to be frugal with your hard-earned money. The clergy-laity conference could provide lessons to North Korea, for its lack of democracy and transparency.

The archbishop keeps telling you that they pride themselves on transparency. However, none of the many news sites of the Greek American community were allowed to attend or interview anyone affiliated with the archdiocese. The only “news” site was the Orthodox Observer, another example for North Korea to emulate.

There were three photographs last week that underlined who follows Christ’s commands. One of the photographs had the archbishop, in his black rassa, wearing a Mets jersey. The other picture showed Metropolitan Apostolos wearing a Baltimore Orioles jersey over his black rassa. Both were tossing a baseball and sporting a wide smile. The third picture showed Giannis Antetokounmpo, the “Greek Freak,” serving lunch at an Athenian food kitchen for homeless people. Which of the three was doing God’s work?

You might say, what’s wrong with tossing a ball? Plenty, if you’re doing it to improve your image, as a politician would do. But a hierarch should not have to burnish his image. He’s not there to dazzle us with his down-to-earth, common-baseball-fan credentials.

When both, Apostolos and Elpidopforos have not visited a homeless shelter, a prison, a soup kitchen, but find enough time to attend galas and dinners and baptisms of gay and or wealthy offspring, officiate in marriages in Panama and Greece, as long as the couple is wealthy and influential, but have found no time to answer the desperate call of a poor mom with three children, being ousted from St Basil’s, that is a problem, that no image improvement can alter.

Giannis Antetokounmpo is a billionaire NBA player who genuinely honors and loves Greece, despite being mistreated as a poor African child growing up in Athens. He does not need to improve his image; he only needs to score baskets. Yet he has donated millions to help the poor and, together with his family, has served food to the homeless multiple times.

While Elpidoforos and Apostolos look ridiculous with their team jerseys over their black cassocks, they both sport wide smiles. Elpidoforos especially always has a smile. You might say, nothing wrong with that. Americans love people with smiles. An Orthodox priest is not some teenage influencer, posting on Instagram.  He is wearing black for a reason. He is in mourning until Christ re-appears again in His glory. Smiling constantly, even on Great Friday, is not appropriate. Christ did not consult image makers on how people would approve of Him. Christ told the truth, called out the hypocrites, the temple priests and the scribes, until they crucified Him. That’s how a hierarch must carry himself.

Maybe Giannis Antetokounmpo can tutor both hierarchs on what Christianity is all about.