A Centralized Church Administration
Dear Orthodox Church Members,
Now I feel it as a disgrace and a pity that our bishops and priests have to receive a gift or money for giving sacramental services that are alien to the concept of Jesus’ formula, “Freely you have received; freely you give”. All sacramental services are to be offered without receiving a penny. The bishops or the clergy should get a fortnightly or monthly salary, just like the wage earners in the industries or secular system that bar any offer from the clients because they are paid from the employer. A similar system is to be introduced for our religious ministers who discharge their spiritual service freely and sincerely. If they take any gift or money from individuals, we are making a loophole for perverting for the fair justice system. I feel it as a shame lately that our honourable and pious clergy to get money from each individual who receive its service. The giver and the recipient feel embarrassed in such money transactions. Hence we should totally stop giving any offer in cash or kind to our clergy that surely expect a salary from the common fund, not from individuals. If anybody feels that the clergy needs any further financial help, one can support the clergy by giving money to the Trustee for handing it over to the person anonymously.
As every priest has the authority of conducting every sacrament other than ordination/consecration, no bishop should be invited for the sacramental services in any parish; it is the duty and the jurisdiction of the priest to give the sacramental services to the believers. No clergy should be denied with shelter, food and a reasonably decent lifestyle that certainly should deny a pompous way of living. If the clergy arena is encroached with a high-flying lifestyle, certainly it will kill their own spirituality that will have a negative spiritual impact upon the laity. A monastic lifestyle is the one that is expected from the clergy and a modified form for the practicing laity because anything excess will tell upon the inner-cleansing mode of our life. If the bishops can restrict themselves within their enclaves and Diocese, the quality of the Diocesan management and service to the devotees will improve, so as to have a close-knit relationship among the Diocesan flock and the bishop. If the diocesan head is always on the move within and without the Diocese, the experience has proved that the flock become a shepherdless flock and goes astray in its own way. Hence restrict bishops within the Diocese by leaving all the sacramental services to the Vicars. The Vicar also should be within the vicinity of the parish and look after the flock sincerely. The priest’s quality of modus-operandi also depends on the support from Kochamma. If she is a wage earner, Achen becomes a baby-sitter that affects the parish service detrimentally. In a nutshell, what I want to stress is that neither the Vicar nor his wife be a wage-earner from outside the Christian mission work. They are to be given a salary that can scrape through their material life. If Jesus is the role model, there can’t have much material possessions and excesses. What is needed for everyone is his daily manna that can decay our soul and body if kept more than a day. A family priest should be given a salary that can afford in looking after the children fairly well.
Overseas Appointments
A term of three-year service in a parish should be fixed in every parish of our church in the world. Give every foreign- serving clergy his salary in the salary scale in his own parent country. A living allowance is to be paid in the overseas in that nation’s currency that should meet his/ their expenses in par with the culture and the standard of living of the nation or the region. A priest serving outside Kerala also deserves a remote area allowance while he is in India. A drastic overhaul of our Administrative system is inevitable during this fossil-made money culture. A centralized system may iron out some of the existing evils.
This is to be taken as a recommendation to the clergy’s Pay Commission that is already in its offing.
By:
Prof E.S.John, Australia
Contributing Editor -OBL
