First openly American bishop consecrated

[Fr. James]

Some of you need to get a life and a perspective. I am a parish priest of a canonical Orthodox Archdiocese. And when you set aside your well documented self-righteousness and arrogance, you will find our parishioners and our hierarchy perfectly captured in characature by the creator of the Onion Dome. A characature is just that...certain characteristics elevated to an extreme for comic purposes. Sadly, we often have certain characterists in such an extreme manner to begin with, little creativity is required. The long list of "disgrunts" on the Onion Dome Home page is testimony to the accuracy of the many depictions.

Your own bafoonery and bluster simply add to the enjoyment of the rest of us. Keep it up. I for one find the Onion Dome creative, hysterical and DEAD ON TARGET accurate.

Father James

[OrthodoxyOrDeath]

Fr. James,

Thank you for your comments, I for one find them insightful.

Might I ask which Church you belong to?

[Natasha]

I am interested too. I never heard a Priest tell anyone to "get a life" before, it kind of made me laugh.

[away]

Its one thing to be to serious about our ego driven fantasies concerning "our" selves, its another thing to be seriously concerned about the salvation of our souls. One can be taken too seriously, the other cannot. The first attitude could well be called "taking yourself too seriously", the other is called sobriety. Those who know the difference have long since ceased finding other persons faults or group of peoples faults humorous.

[Justin Kissel]

Father, Bless

Father James,

Welcome to the forum.

Justin

PS. Who is documenting my self-righteousness, and to what end?

[Justin Kissel]

PSS. Also, forgive me if this is presumptuous Father James, but I don't want my hierarchy caricatured. Maybe I've just read too many John Chrysostom Homilies in which he speaks against such entertainment ("humor")?

[Fr. James]

Friends: None of us like to see our hierarchy in characature. But it is a sad fact. They do foolish things. We have parishioners who come to Church as if it were an ethnic social club. And face facts folks, we are more known for our piroshki's and baklava than we are known for preserving the faith that was handed once and for all to the saints. We can pretend that we aren't these things or we can learn to laugh at them and perserve some sense of sanity. To be repetitive, I find the entire Onion Dome web site hilarious and creative. His recent parody of the life of a Greek Orthodox Church secretary was dead on accurate and a riot to read. I have passed that on to every priest I know!

You can stick your head in the sand and pretend that every Orthodox parish is the living embodiment of St. Basil's long rules...or you can see things as they are and learn to laugh at our own foolishness. "Greater is he who sees his own sins than he, who by his prayers can raise the dead" (St. Isaac the Syrian).