Fr. Peck's Orthodox essay is gone

To my Brother Priests of Jesus Christ:

There is certainly much in Fr. John’s article, The Orthodox Church of Tomorrow, to agree to, to ponder, to discuss, to disturb and to inspire. I read the article when it was first posted, and bandied comments back and forth with a small group of trusted priest brothers in my diocese; the fact that we do so in private, carefully and discretely speaks for itself.

Some of what Fr. John said was old news, which we needed to hear nevertheless. The superstructure of our American church administrations is most assuredly in decline. The ethnic clubs of the past, whether they are Greek or some other ethnic variety, speak not at all to the faith of those who struggle to purify the passions and draw near to the Holy Things. The intense struggles that the regular priest in any parish must face as he battles unchecked human wills in the typical parish council meeting, not to mention Bible study or that hotbed of unchecked passion, the Kliros, are degrading, antithetical to the Great Commission that all of us have been given. All of this just said from a priest who has served a little mission for a little less than two years (I’m a fast learner, though) after two decades of formation in the Orthodox Church as a layman, a deacon, an assistant priest, and even more years before as a decade-long pastor of an ethnic protestant tradition (yes, they exist, and are remarkable similar in their dysfunctions to those of our own beloved Orthodox Church.)

I shared Fr. John’s article with one of my most trusted spiritual sons. He made the sign of the cross and smiled. “Excellent,” he said. “Excellent?” I asked with some exasperation. “Excellent,” he repeated. “There are still one or two of you who are unafraid to speak the truth regardless of the consequences.”

I won’t say how THAT conversation went. But, alas, he is right. He sees the truth and discerns the Holy Things. More about this I cannot say either. But he sees a time of trouble ahead for all of us, symbolized at the moment in this instance by what appears to be the heavy-handed discipline laid upon a priest who spoke the truth. I only have a few things to say about this (five, to be exact). You are, of course, free to stop reading. I understand. Who am I to say these things? But the Spirit blows where He wills, and I will say what I discern it to be necessary and right to say, openly. May I give right glory to Him!

First, about that persecution. No one seems to know what happened to Fr. John. I’ve asked my spiritual father, my brother priests and looked for answers on the Internet. Was he disciplined because of what he said? If so, why? Was he disobedient to a hierarch who told him not to publish his article? Or, did his words embarrass a hierarch who was accused in his heart over the truth of what he wrote? Disobedience would be a terrible thing. But if Fr. John was not disobedient, and spoke in the Spirit, as Christ calls Him and indeed all of us to do, then “Blessed are they who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake!” Our love and our prayers and our support must go out to him. We need to stop hiding in the shadows like roaches and come out to stand together for Christ, if we are to be His priests.

Second, about the Orthodox Church of tomorrow. I know nothing about demographics or statistics. I accept the conclusions of those who do know. Still, I have some experience with the ethnic parishes of the tradition in which I had served so many years ago before I was chrismated in the Holy Orthodox Church two decades ago. They are virtually all gone. Yes, gone. The people I loved and served, to whom I preached “po slovenksy” so long ago: gone. Their parishes have either closed or been diminished to small remnants of whatever their protestant tradition now allows; I do not know, and I refuse to look back. This will happen to us as well, unless the migrations continue to feed our ethnic parishes with new blood from the mother churches across the sea. But what I do know is that there is life in the alternative: life in new communities that form not around this or that ethnic identity, but around the Great Physician of our souls and bodies, Jesus Christ. But this will require a willingness to embrace new models of the priesthood and new models of parish life.


Third, the model of smaller and more intense communities. The Church will survive as a community of those who come to be healed – not as ethnic club, not as spinner of endless programs (Good Lord, is there no end to them!), not as social center, not as a place of nostalgia or remembrance of things past. The Church will survive as a hospital for the sick, the sick who come to receive the Holy Things of the Spirit. This is what is happening before my eyes in my little mission. Because of only a few people (one or two is all it takes), who truly discern the Holy Things and who have supported my priesthood – only a little leaven leavens the whole loaf – I have a collection of sick people who come to be healed; these form the core of my Community: a few “graduates” of this or that 12-step program, a few who have messed up their lives in other ways, and who have realized that they have nowhere else to go. (Yes, that’s it, isn’t it? To Whom CAN we go? Only you, Lord, have the words of eternal life.) To be sure, I also do have a few ethnic pockets of this or that old country tradition, a few worldly pockets who want the 7-11 model of the church, as my spiritual father calls it, a few who try to impose their nostalgia for remembrance of this or that past on all of us; but I will not have it. My task has been to stand face to face with them and try, sometimes with sheer guts, to point out their need for what God alone gives. Once, reacting to my directness, the parish council urged more money and a vacation on me; how strange was that meeting, and how sickening!

Fourth, the model of the worker priest. I would never suggest that worker priesthood should be the only model for the priesthood, but I humbly suggest that it should be one that takes its place next to the full-time priesthood with equal dignity and honor. Well, OK, maybe that’s too much to ask; at least with equal acceptance. Smaller communities of people who are very sick cannot support a full-time priesthood. They will come, and they may even tithe; but the widow’s mite, given in purity, still cannot support a priest and his family. This means that the priest may need to have an alternate means of income as well. I know the dangers, and it’s important that I admit them too: this alternate income, I think, should be one of necessity only. The priest must be the priest at all times, and his service to the Lord in his priesthood must be everything; that is, the priesthood may not be a secondary or extra-curricular activity; it must be everything. The priest must rely no less on the love of God, on the mercy of God, than he expects his people to do. He must give all to Christ, and do what Christ leads him to do in the priesthood. There can be no idea here of having it both ways: the world and the kingdom. Nor can there be any notion of the priest finding solace in his worldly employment; shame on him if he does; we must never labor for the bread that does not satisfy. Forgive my preaching, but here I preach to myself; the dangers are real, and I am all too aware of them as a worker priest myself.

Fifth, if you’re still reading that is, where do we go and what do we do? We stop competing with one another. We stop measuring our success on the basis of our parish income, our attendance, our recognition. We support one another and speak with brutal honesty and truth about the Holy Things, actually about ALL things, to our people and to one other as priests. We let the Spirit blow where He wills. We love one another, support one another, and embrace one another in our common priesthood. Let us not be ashamed of our Lord; let us be forthright, honest, fearless. If I am to be corrected, so be it; correct me in love. The time is coming when we will all need to be clear about Whom we serve and what we are about. We will need to allow the sword of the Spirit to slice through the nonsense. This is something all of us know, but all too soon we will need to stand together and act on it – together, as priests of the Living God.

Priest Elias
Westminster, MD

Fr. Gregory Peck should do well to find a new jurisdiction which promotes Christian thinking. As an established Orthodox priest, it is time for him to move on if the Church cannot get out of it's ethnic ghettos.