Sermon
The lawsuit
I read an article in “Parenting Magazine” the other day
entitled “The Five Habits of Happy Families.” The first habit of the happy
family is thankfulness. Even when times
are tough, families that are thankful for their health and appreciative of each
other’s good points, these are the families that stay together the best. As I begin this morning’s sermon, allow me to
express my thankfulness to our church family—every Sunday, we come together and
fill the church, that is something for which to be thankful. We have a good chanter, an outstanding choir,
attentive altar boys, polite ushers and faithful Christians who come together
each Sunday to make our worship experience so meaningful.
There is a lot of work that goes on behind the scenes that
most people will never know about. As an
example, this afternoon will be a busy one in our community. Following liturgy, there is a baptism. Each baptism, wedding and funeral requires
some logistical planning. There are
dates and times to be coordinated, supplies that are needed, in the case of
weddings, there is pre-marital counseling to be completed and a rehearsal to be
done. Most people don’t know the work
that Nick and I do to prepare for one of the sacraments here at the
church. After the baptism this afternoon,
there is a fall harvest party for our children.
Several parents have put in a great deal of effort to make this activity
come to fruition today. Not even I know
all of the preparations that they have made.
And after that is over, there is a GOYA meeting—again, a good deal of
preparation from me to prepare a program, games and a discussion for them,
combined with parents bringing food, combined with Nick and I sending our
reminders about the meeting. It’s worth
it, though, as an average of 23 teenagers come to each GOYA meeting. And after today ends, late at night, we’ll be
back at it first thing tomorrow morning, there is liturgy for St. Demetrios at
10, after I do the chapel service for the Day School at 8.
I want to talk about a phrase, “in good faith.” What does that mean? In good faith. We know that faith is believing without
seeing. In good faith, in my opinion,
means doing good things even though others cannot see them or fully comprehend
their meaning. Marital relationships, as
an example, operate on “good faith.” My
wife doesn’t see what I’m doing all day, but she trusts that I’m at work, doing
my job. I don’t see what she does all
day either, but I trust she is raising our son.
We don’t call each other constantly to check up, nor do we worry that
one of us isn’t keeping our part of the relationship up. Being married is a daily act of good
faith. This parish pays me a decent
salary, in good faith that I will do much more than the liturgy you see on
Sunday, which for some of you, is the only thing you see me do. Obviously, if that is all that I did, it
would not justify earning a full-time salary.
So, when the Parish Assembly approves my salary, it is an act of good
faith on your part, and hopefully I reward that faith with my work. It’s an act of good faith on my part to
accept the assignment to serve as a priest in
Let’s talk now about the Parish Council. The Parish Council is a volunteer
endeavor. Though in some cases it is not
true, I believe in most cases, people who run for the parish council in our
churches do so in good faith—they have a desire to serve the church. They have a desire to offer of their skills
and talents to help the church move forward.
The Uniform Parish Regulations that govern our churches state that the
priest and the parish council work cooperatively to administer the parish. And because there is cooperation between
priest and parish council, it means that when priest and parish council get
together to work, it is a mixture of the business of operating a church
combined with the theology and mission of a church which is advancing the
Gospel. This is how it works, in theory
anyway.
It is a fact that the Greek-Americans are the most educated
cultural group in this country. When it
comes to personal wealth, it is a fact that the Greek-Americans are the
second-most wealthy. And it is a fact
that almost to a one, the Greek Orthodox Churches in America struggle
financially. In the years I have served
as a priest, in three different parishes, a good amount of time in Parish
Council meetings is spent on dealing with the financial challenges that seem to
plague all parishes. Even when times are
good financially in America, it seems to be desperate times in all churches.
Many of you read the article in the St. Pete Times on Friday
regarding a lawsuit filed by our parish.
I am going to address this in church this morning so everyone gets the
same message at the same time, with the hope that this will cut down on people
gossiping about it. Our Protestant
brethren have churches where there are million dollar endowments, where people
tithe, meaning they give 10 percent of their income to the church, where
churches our size have 3-4 full time ministers, where they have full time
outreach programs. This is not the case
in our church. When I arrived at this
church in 2004, there was a total of $50,000 in liquid assets between us and
selling our property. For a church of
hundreds of families in existence for 50 years, this is a sad statistic. Many of you have $50K in your personal
stash. At the same, there was well over
$1M in liabilities because of a debt the church took out for our day school,
which the school was supposed to pay off in five years but obviously did not. In fact they were paying little more than
interest only when I arrived. Despite
the good financial climate in America, the financial climate of our church and
school was and still is very poor.
Because our stewardship does not fully support the budget of our parish,
the Parish Council is under constant pressure to find other sources of income.
In 2006, the Parish Council was presented with what they
thought was a good opportunity to make money with little effort. The intention to make an endowment program
through the sale of life insurance policies seemed like a good opportunity. After
some consideration and disagreement, the Parish Council ultimately agreed to go
forward with this program. It turns out
that this “too good to be true” program was indeed too good to be true. It was a mistake. This action on the part of the 2006 Parish
Council was not done in malice. This was
an honest mistake by the board in 2006. The first check with a payout on one
policy with little investment made eyes open wide, perhaps with over-enthusiasm,
and led to additional investing with hopes of even greater gain. The Parish
Council of 2009 is trying to rectify this mistake by taking legal action
against someone who has defrauded our church out of a lot of money. There is no point in placing blame on anyone,
not on those who served on the Parish Council in 2006 who initiated this
program, and not on those who serve in 2009, who have the difficult task of
trying to recover the church’s money.
The lawsuit filed last week places blame right where it belongs, at the
person who took our good faith and violated it, someone who has promised to pay
and has strung us along for two years, and who is clearly not going to do so
without legal sanction. As you read in the paper, there are other churches who
have been victimized by the defendant. As to the question of why we haven’t
addressed this publicly sooner, we know that police don’t talk about ongoing
investigations, and so we have not commented publicly because of the ongoing
investigation. With that said, our attorney has advised us that further
discussion of this is not helpful to our legal case. Many of us are familiar with the kid’s game,
the telephone game. I say something to
George who tells Suzie who tells Bobby and by the time it gets to Johnny the
story has totally changed. While I know
there will be a temptation to gossip about this, I would ask that you don’t
fall prey to this temptation and let the legal process play out. We’re trying to recollect funds, to place
blame where it belongs and further discussion is not helpful to our case.
People who have never served on the parish council have no
idea what is involved running this parish.
As a priest, the one who is supposed to spend his time visiting the sick
and counseling the troubled, I can’t believe how much of my time is spent on
parish administration. The Parish
Council and I have had to become experts in roofs, skylights, iconography,
school administration, budgets, fundraising, event planning, drama between
personalities, and many other non-spiritual subjects. Our parish council meetings last an average
of 4 hours—on a parish council meeting night, we’re often here until well after
10:00 p.m. Sometimes, in these late
night deliberations, and the many extra meetings that keep us away from our
families and are done around long days of everyone’s real job, sometimes
mistakes happen. In deliberating the
administration of this parish, you can’t foresee everything, every challenge,
every contingency. And for every
mistake, there are many people who weigh in, oftentimes with harsh
criticism. And this takes a toll
emotionally and spiritually upon those who serve, the members of the Parish
Council, myself included.
People have no idea what this parish council has done in the
past couple of years to keep this church open.
Yes, it may not seem like it because the church is full of people each
Sunday, but the financial picture of our parish is not a healthy one. And what we need is not another fundraiser,
another bake sale or another get rich quick scam. We need people to offer sacrificially and
joyfully, the way the Lord intended for His Church to be supported.
Maybe a solution for our parish is to hire a Parish
Administrator, someone with a business degree, who can work for the Parish Council
full time and make sure the business that the Parish Council decides to engage
in gets done, and gets done well and in a timely manner each month. Many of our parish council members are here
at church multiple times a week meeting with roofers, caterers, and other
contractors. Anyone who thinks being on
the Parish Council or being the president of a community is some kind of an ego
trip, I assure you it isn’t.
Last Thursday evening we held a very beautiful and moving
liturgy of St. James. What a special
night and special service it was for our community. The church was nearly
half-filled on a Thursday, many in the congregation were visiting from other
parishes, and two priests were visiting with us. Before the service, we were chatting in my
office and the proverbial “what is the biggest problem in our churches?” came
up. Why do all the Orthodox churches
seem to struggle along? Our faith is the
original Christian faith. Our church is
nearly 2,000 years old. And yet it is
the newer faiths, the ones that are only 100 years old or less that are
building the megachurches, the senior citizens homes, the hospitals, the ones
doing the missionary work around the world.
How do we account for this?
The problem with our church is that we haven’t made Jesus
Christ the priority. When I use “our
church”, I mean not only our church in Tampa but our Greek Orthodox Church
across the United States. We are one of
few Greek Orthodox Churches that is still full on Sundays, one of few which is
not in decline. Across our country, our
children know how to Greek dance but they don’t know their faith. We’ve covered up spreading Christ and put a
priority on preserving culture and language.
In many churches, we’ve allowed people to get on Parish Councils who
don’t come to church, who don’t live a Christian life. We’ve allowed people to sponsor baptisms who
can’t even read the Creed, let alone recite it from memory. We’ve taught people to give in order to get
recognition, not out of any sense of obligation, let alone joy. We’ve been taught to give, expecting to
receive.
One of the priests the other day, in commenting about the
society that we live in, said we are living in pagan times, much the way
society was at the time of St. Paul. And
he said we need to speak boldly, as St. Paul did. St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians “Now I say
this, that each of you says “I am of Paul,” or “I am of Apollos,” or “I am of
Cephas” or “I am of Christ.” Is Christ
divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of
Paul?” (I Corinthians 1:13-14)The
meaning of this passage is that the church must be unified in order to be
successful. We can’t come to church and
say “I’m for Fr. Stavros,” or “I’m for the choir,” or “I’m for the
Philoptochos,” or “I’m for Greek” or “I’m for English.” We’ve got to stand in unity and say “We are
for Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
We want to further the message of the Gospel. We want to baptize the nations. We want to inherit God’s heavenly kingdom. We are willing to give what it takes for that
to happen in this community, in this town.”
We are at a crossroads I think in this community. And this lawsuit shouldn’t be a cause of
finger-pointing or gossiping, but rather it should be a rallying cry. This is a time to change our culture when it
comes to giving and to examine both how we give and how we raise the income
necessary to not only operate our parish but to advance our faith. Our future should not be in the hands of
those who come to our festival, it shouldn’t be in the hands of the economy
that will affect investments and endowments.
It should be with each of us.
There is enough time, talent and treasure in this church at this moment,
never mind the many who are not here, that we should be able to sail the ship
of our church forward with dynamism, with confidence, not merely keep it
afloat. There is great hope and promise
for this community, as I look around and see the faces, and behind them, the
hearts of some beautiful people, some of whom haven’t been tapped yet to be all
they can be for our church. This is not
only a responsibility to our parish, but to Christ.
I will end this sermon in the same place where I began it—by
giving thanks, to those who labor with me on the Parish Council in 2009, who
are working diligently and often with criticism rather than thanks, to keep the
ship on course and in some cases, to fix the holes and bail out the water that
has come into the ship in the past several years. I thank you for sharing a beautiful liturgy
this morning and pray that you will continue to support our church with your
stewardship, your talents and most of all with your prayers.