A cherished tradition of the Clergy-Laity Congress is the Clergy Breakfast that was held on Thursday, July 4, 2024.
The clergy were invited to enjoy a breakfast with the Archbishop, Metropolitans, and their clergy brothers from around the country in an atmosphere of fellowship, love, and unity. The breakfast began with an invocation delivered by Archbishop Elpidophoros of America, followed by patriarchal representative Archbishop Nikitas of Great Britain and Thyateira, who shared the patriarchal greeting to the clergy, thanking them for their “dedication to the vineyard of the Lord.” The clergy breakfast was abuzz with lively conversations as presbyters from across the Archdiocese caught up with their brother priests and made new connections.
The outgoing Archdiocesan Presbyters Council (APC) president Fr. Paul Kaplanis gave a reflection on his time as president and shared a few highlights from his two-year term, also noting his gratitude for his relationship with Archbishop Elpidophoros.
Protopresbyter Fr. Peter Orfanakos, the in-coming president, wished a happy birthday to Archdeacon Dionysios, and the full room sang “happy birthday.”
Fr. Peter Orfanakos and the APC vice-president, Fr. Tom Chininis, presented Fr. Paul Kaplanis with a gift in recognition of his years of service to the APC and the broader Church and thanked the out-going board members for their service.
Archbishop Elpidophoros offered a Trisagion in memory of the brother clergy who have fallen asleep in the lord, followed by a brief address. In his remarks to our dedicated clergy, Archbishop Elpidophoros shared that he was “so moved by the trisagion for the clergy whom we have lost, who are waiting for us in heaven.” Archbishop Elpidophoros thanked the delegates of the Ecumenical Patriarch for their presence during the conference and thanked the Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarch for their sponsorship of the Clergy breakfast. He also presented Fr. Paul Kaplanis with a token of gratitude for his service.
In his remarks, Archbishop Elpidophoros addressed the problematic aspects of social media evangelization, noting that it is often outside of any theological context or canonical blessings, where persons with no proper theological training share their opinions as authoritative. As Archbishop Elpidophoros said, “Many of these so-called teachers put themselves even before our Lord, even seeking financial gain…We must use technological tools in ways that are compatible with the teachings and ethos of our Church. As the Orthodox Church, we have a responsibility to share the Gospel with the world in ways that do not emphasize the messenger over the message.”
Find below the remarks of Archbishop Elpidophoros of America
Most Honorable Delegation of the Mother Church of Constantinople:
Your Eminences, Archbishop Nikitas and Metropolitan Cleopas,
Your Eminences and Graces,
My Dear Brothers in Christ,
First and foremost, I want to pause for a moment, to be still and to think of those clergy for whom we have just chanted the Trisagion. We owe a debt of gratitude and remembrance to them, for they fought the good fight, they finished the course of their ministries, and they have gone before us into the Mansions of the Father’s House. May their memory be eternal.
I also want to thank His Eminence Archbishop Nikitas and His Eminence Metropolitan Cleopas for their attentive and thoughtful presence among us these past days. They are a most worthy delegation of the Mother Church, and we have just heard the message of our Spiritual Father, His All Holiness, whose love for this Eparchy and its clergy servants is well known.
I am also grateful to the Order of Saint Andrew for their sponsorship of this Breakfast. Their generosity is a gift to the Church and to all of us.
Finally, allow me a congratulatory word for the new President of the Archdiocese Presbyters Council, Protopresbyter Peter Orfanakos. He is a highly esteemed clergyman and an excellent choice to follow the outstanding leadership you have already enjoyed. Father Peter, I have a small token of our appreciation for you that comes from us all, and at the conclusion of my remarks I will ask you to receive it.
While our Holy Orthodox Faith is a minority religion in the United States, we nevertheless have a very high profile, and we are attracting more and more converts. Either through marriage, or through catechism, or through exposure in the realm of social media. It is this last condition that I would like to address.
Even as we take up the cause of missionary work in our own country, and bring the Everlasting Gospel of Christian Orthodoxy to more and more people in the United States, the virtual world of the Internet and Social Media channels is also engaging in evangelization. Some of this is useful and good, as we discovered during the pandemic.
But some of it is outside any prudent or reasonable supervision, or even a theological context – much less a canonical blessing!
YouTube and Facebook are filled with self-appointed teachers, who are subject to no Church authority. They must have never read of the Centurion who said to the Lord:
“For I too am a person under authority; I have soldiers beneath me. I say to this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes. To another,
‘Come,’ and he comes. And to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”*
And many of these so-called ‘teachers’ put themselves even before our Lord Jesus Christ, seeking to enrich themselves financially by gaining followers for their own egos, rather than for the saving grace of the Master. Perhaps they never read the response of the Lord to that Centurion:When Jesus heard this, He marveled and said to the people following Him, “Amen, I say to you, not even in Israel have I found faith as great as this! And I tell you, many will come from East and West to recline at table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven. But the children of the Kingdom will be banished to the outer darkness, where there will be wailing and the grinding of teeth.” †
Now of course, I am not saying that we cannot use the technological toolkits that are available to us. In fact, we have to use them, but use them in ways that are consistent with our theology, with the Holy Fathers, with the canonical order of the Church, and with Holy Tradition.When we speak of παράδοσις, we speak of the handing over and handing down in a personal way the divine Logos of the Gospel. It is not a political or even a cultural message. It is the transformational Good News of our Lord Jesus Christ, that illuminates culture, as it did in Byzantium.
As the Orthodox Church, we have a responsibility to convey that Message – that Logos – consistent with the order of the Church, and not in ways that emphasize any messenger over the Message.
I am very interested in your opinions about how we face the challenge of the so-called “Internet Orthodoxy,” which seems tom me like a lazy approach to living as devout Orthodox Christians. And I am also interested in your approaches to how we better evangelize our country, and open the doors to the majority of our Nation, who may profess Christ in one form or another, but have never experienced the fullness of the Faith that was once delivered to the Saints.
Now, I would ask Father Peter to come forward.
[presentation]
Thank all of you for your dedication and ministry, which is the heart and soul of our Church.
* Matthew 8:9
† Matthew 8:9
Photos: GOARCH/Dimitrios Panagos
