We certainly do not hear a lot about Orthodox Churches, and their different and important views on Christianity and Christian theology.  

I am afraid that the problem you mentioned above, is really not much different in western Churches. It just seems that they might only be different in that Churches in the Eastern part of Europe, are not as used to having democratic and public opinion inform their ways of operating. We are use to this in the west, but still public opinion does not influence the western churches as much. Western churches still has loads of property, and they are tax exempt.

 A United Church in Ottawa operates a very lucrative downtown parking lot, a popular concert hall and other commercial activities, in  spaces I suspect they  mostly only use on Sundays. I do not know what they use the money for, I suspect it goes into the general budget, to support the church. Other than their revenue producing activities, they are not involved in the surrounding neighbourhood., as like other downtown church their members are largely made up of well to do people from outside the community, who help create more green house gases, by driving long distances to go to church downtown, rather than in their neighbourhood. 

Should it be exempt from property tax. Perhaps they do some charitable activities, just as the Greeks do not know about their churches, finances I do not know about this one.  I suspect the tax benefit just subsidies the well to do, so they do not have to pay the full value of having a nice building to go to church in.

I believe Churches in Canada, should pay property taxes and other taxes that not for profits do.  I think it would be good for the churches and good for society. In Ottawa for example, property taxes would either force the congregation to shut down, or allow the locals to be included, who could use the church to support the community. 

I didn't UCC was running a parking lot!   LOL!

Yes, you are probably right that in Eastern Europe people are not as used to democratic questioning and what-not.   However, in those places that were formerly communist, the Church has had to start over.  

I am sure they had extensive holdings prior to the communists, but now I think they just have their buildings and a few monasteries.   Actually, now I think of it, the ones in the Ottoman Empire probably did not have much. But in pre-1917 Russia the Orthodox Church had a lot of property and wealth.

Greece was never communist however, so it different.  It still sounds suspicious to me.   There is no transparency, there is no central land registry!

I will keep watching this story.

Just as a matter of interest, back in 2004, Bartholomew, the Eastern Orthodox patriarch of Constantinople, accepted the pope's apology for the sacking of his city by crusaders in the 13th century.

QWERTY:  thank you for that bit of information.  

I am quite sure the majority of modern Catholics or Protestants are in no way anti-Orthodox, if they even think of them at all.

I (as an Orthodox Christian) found this statement from the above article particularly alarming:

In a text distributed to all parishes in December 2010, the Holy Synod of thirteen bishops denounced the "troika" – the representatives of the International Monetary Fund, the European Commission and European Central Bank – as a "foreign occupation” force.

Victoria Clark talked about this undercurrent in her book too.   It was mostly restricted to a hard-core minority, but many of those, unfortunately, were clergy, including bishops (not all of them, of course).

In most Orthodox countries there are huge numbers of agnostics and atheists, just as there are in the West.   See my latest post under "Financial Crisis" for how some Greeks are dealing with the crisis in their country (they don't very religious).

The Greek Orthodox Church stands apart from the Greek population insofar as culture is concerned.  This may not necessarily be a bad thing as Greek society in general has become cynical, atomistic and corrupt.  The separateness of the Church  may not be so much a function of secrecy as of society having strayed and lost sight of the values the Church may have represented in the past.  Admittedly the Vatopaedi Monastery scandal shows that if Greek society is no longer incorporating the values of the monastery into its national character, the Greek national character is creeping into the monastery.  

There is a very good article in Vanity Fair on the Greek financial debacle and on the Vatopaedi monastery crisis which brought down the Karamanlis government and how it illustrates the problems rampant in Greece.

The title of the article is "Beware of Greeks Bearing Bonds" It was written almost a year ago exactly (and now it seems prophetic).  

The link is http://www.vanityfair.com/business/features/2010/10/greeks-bearing-bonds-201010#gotopage1

I saw that article and in fact, wrote a whole post on it several months ago.   Scandalous indeed.   And very discouraging.

Thank you for putting the link here, I was thinking of doing so myself, you have saved me the trouble.    If you see anything else, please post it.

Orthodoxy is kind of low-interest topic so these scandals do not get into the Main stream media much.   The focus on Greece due to the Eurozone crisis may change that a bit.

Actually I have never paid much attention to orthodox until I became friends with an American of Dutch and Indian ancestry, whose parents were from Indonesia. He  was studying to become a Priest in the Ukrainian Orthodox church. Since he was "unique" we got along well. he even helped me organise a group at School to participate in the Aids Walk.  

The vanity Fair article was fascinating. Corruption exists in all cultures and churches. One of the problems I have is to distinguish between what is corrupt, or human, and what is real or authentic. We often mistake the actions of a member of a religious group, for the religion's theology. As you said Orthodox churches in North America have similar theology as those in Europe, but the culture, and their problems are different due to their culture and place in history.

Did you know or does anyone else know the connection between the early Church in Scotland and or Ireland and  Eastern Christians,. They somehow influenced the first Scottish Christians.  Someone once told me that there was a connection between Scottish Christianity and Orthodoxy because the first Missionaries were somehow influence by Eastern Christians, more than they were by Roman Christians.

Alex, I will dig through my books on Orthodoxy and see if I can find any info.

Meanwhile, I draw your attention to this article, on denying the Sbrenica Massacre.  What does this have to do with Greek Orthodoxy?

Well, the Sbrenica massacre was carried out by Serbs, and some clergy and even bishops in the Serbian Orthodox Church were quietly encouraging the Serbs in their genocidal attacks on Bosnians (they did not dare be too obvious, lest other Christians disown them).   Unfortunately, some clergy and bishops in the Greek Orthodox Church were supporting their Serbian brethren too.    This is just disgusting.  

Victoria Clark mentioned this too.   It was not everyone, of course.  

The article is about political leftists denying Sbrenica, but there is all too much of that is Serbia and Greece too.

http://martinshaw.org/2011/06/15/left-wing-genocide-denial/

SEX SCANDAL AT NEW YORK MONASTERY 

Includes pregnant nun, group sex. Nothing done by half measures in the Orthodox Church.  My take: trying to enforce celibacy doesn't work.

(Note: Orthodoxy permits priests to marry.  Only the bishops and other upper management must be celibate).   Fortunately, they have less access to children.

http://www.pokrov.org/display.asp?ds=Article&id=1534

Bishop ​Vikentios Levels Shocking Charges Against Metropolitan Paisios

Author: Theodore Kalmoukos

Date Published: 12/17/2010

Publication: The National Herald (USA)

NEW YORK - Bishop Vikentios of Apameia has made stunning allegations about Metropolitan Paisios of Tyana tenure at the Saint Irene Chrysovalantou Monastery and its Dependencies in Astoria, N.Y., including charges that the Metropolitan sexually abused the Bishop’s brother, Spyros Malamatenios, who was 17 at the time.

In a long interview with The National Herald, Bishop Vikentios (Malamatenios), a close associate of Metropolitan Paisios (Loulourgas) for 40 years and co-founder of the Monastery, outlined a sordid tale of sex and other alleged wrongdoings. In the lengthy interview - which was taken on tape - live and unconditionally at the Headquarters of TNH in New York, Bishop Vikentios made revelations of alleged serious excesses by the Metropolitan, including that he was involved with people of both sexes, including the young nun, Christonymphi, who now has given up the Monastic vows and talked to the police. Bishop Vikentios also revealed that, according to his information, the former nun had been pregnant but did not know by whom. Simultaneously, Bishop Vikentios asked “forgiveness from the victims’ of Paisios,” at least one of whom, Andreas Georgiou, is already launching a lawsuit against the Monastery and the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Other alleged victims are expected to follow.

The Metropolitan left the Monastery after submitting two letters of resignation in October, citing health reasons, and returned to Athens, Greece. TNH called him at his residence there on Dec. 11 to give him the opportunity to comment on the allegations and the Bishop’s entire interview, but when the Metropolitan heard who the call was from he hung up the phone.

Bishop Vikentios confirmed reports that a gun was found by the Patriarchal Exarchy in the room of Metropolitan Paisios and that he also sold the golden offerings known as tamata of the faithful at the Monastery’s Greek festival, also taking much of the gold to Greece, which was melted and made hierarchical crosses and pictorials. Bishop Vikentios alleged that even his own life is at risk. He stated that based on the Charter granted by the Ecumenical Patriarchate to the Chrysovalantou Monastery, and also according to New York State’s regulations governing the Legal Corporation of the Chrysovalantou Monastery, both interim Abbots appointed by the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Metropolitan Evangelos of New Jersey and Bishop Elias of Philomilion, are considered illegal. Vikentios said he believes that the Monastery will be driven into bankruptcy due to economic decline, and called Metropolitan Evangelos’ behavior toward him as “completely unbecoming” upon Evangelos’ coming to his residence at the church of St. Nectarios in Brooklyn, on Dec. 6, which he said could result in the arrest of Metropolitan Evangelos by the police.

Bishop Vikentios also said that the money delivered by the former nun Christonymphi to the Astoria Police Station he believes belongs to the Monastery and not Paisios.

He also talked about the role of a man identified as Konstantinos B., said to have uncovered the scandal, and who allegedly also participated in group sex events with Metropolitan Paisios. The man was said to have given that testimony to the police and the FBI. Here are some excerpts of the extensive revelatory interview of Bishop Vikentios, which will be published in its entirely in Greek in the weekly Magazine of The National Herald’s edition f Dec. 17-18.