A ‘prominent’ Facebook regular and educator and self-proclaimed insider made several seemingly innocuous comments which in actuality where inflammatory comments thinly veiled beneath cordial conversation. He used is basic literacy skills to embellish and embed slandering statements. Taken at his word provided below you will understand. It is much like pornography you know it when you see it. He pandered to dissenters, and those who are still riding the fence about their own alliance, who would choose to advance their own agenda by creating suspicion and sabotage faith that anyone can trust the our church proper with its leaders and advisors. Those like this insider who are educated are held to a higher standard then someone who does not have the skill set of self-expression or admits to now knowing.
Before you read this exchange please do not take my word. So then let us look to a higher authority for Unseen Warfare
edited by Niodemus of the Holy Mountain and the revised Theophan the Recluse
to preface this Facebook interaction and set the context for my own reaction as a watchdog for his All Holiness the Ecumenical Patriachate is not a puppet driven by his staffers.
The feelings would seek expression in words are mostly
egotistical, since they seek to express what flatters our self-love and can show
us, as we imagine, in the best light. Loquacity mostly comes from a certain
vainglory, which makes us think that we know a great deal and imagine our
opinion on the subject of conversation to be the most satisfactory of all.
So we experience an irresistible urge to speak out in a
stream of words, with many repetitions, to impress the same opinion in the
heart of others, thus foisting ourselves upon them as unbidden teachers and
sometimes even dreaming of making pupils of men who understand the subject matter
better than the teacher.
In most cases loquacity is a synonym of empty talk, and there are no words to express the many evils,
which arise from this ugly habit. In general, loquacity opens the doors of the
soul, and the developed warmth of the heart at once escapes. Empty talk does the same.
Empty -talk is the door to criticism and slander, the
spreader of false rumors and opinions, the of discord and strife. It stifles a taste for mental work and
practically always serves as the cover for the absence of sound knowledge. When
wordy talk is over and the fog of self complacency lifts it always leaves
behind a sense of frustration and indolence. Is it not proof of the fact that
even involuntarily, the soul feels itself robbed.
• Source I also want to believe the intentions are pure but I am not God to know human hearts, nor am I privy to the complex politics played out between church leaders. There are many. In the end, I think it comes down to the issue of how much courage we have to stand up to those of ill will and how much authentic faith we have in God to make things right in accordance with His will.
• Source Every man's heart possesses much love in it and a desire for something better. This we know. But oftentimes men and women are led astray by outside influences. So we simply need to love each other genuinely in order to bring others back to where they need to be, before God, and with the rest of the human race.
• Agapia Damianakis Skeptics regarding the complex process should not be misconstrued as an act of deception, a charade and farce. Gossip is often bookended between crafty communication righteous indignation, envy and the pretense of knowledge. I expected more.
• Source Expected more ... from whom? [here comes his credential and CV] I very much respect and love these two leaders (I know the Patriarch personally, when he was still Metropolitan of Chalcedon and sought to bring me back to my birthplace on a couple of occasions ... as a prospective bishop, back before I was married!) but also know that both tread carefully and responsibly to achieve the proper end; many times their hands are tied because of powerful opinions and forces around them that may not want to see their outcome.
• Agapia Damianakis "I also want to believe the intentions are pure but I am not God to know human hearts, nor am I privy to the complex politics played out between church leaders. " I am so glad for your relationship with each of those church leaders, with whom Elias and I are also well acquainted. In fact I was present in 2000 for the Congressional Clergy Laity Congress, for the Return of the Relics, and when Pope Benedict visitation to the Phanar, and Elias is there now. What you suggested is that the hearts of those whom you know may not be graced or been endowed with the purity of heart necessary.
• Agapia Damianakis We should all grow up to recognize that the division spanning about one thousand years is decreasing not only publicly, but also exponentially in reality, and that the Spirit of God is moving.
• Source It's not these leaders that I am concerned about, Agapia. It's the eggshells they must walk around, and the oftentimes bad counselors each side possesses. I've been around and seen many things in my life. Church administration is not as glamorous and straightforward as one thinks.
• Source The Spirit is always working but may be stifled by bad advisers and so the courageous leaders need to tread carefully in the spirit of Christ, because their actions are always under scrutiny by their closest confidantes and not everyone's intentions on either side are pure. But we must walk with patience and love to fulfill the divine will.
• Agapia DamianakisI removed myself from the dialogue as this individual was not interested in good sense.
