Religion of Chestnut

[Crandar]

http://www.ekathimerini.com/220144/o...ious-fetishism



In Agrinio, the modern capital of Aetolia for whoever is fond of roleplaying as the Aetolian League in Rome's mods, the populace remains as pious as ever.
They recently paid their respects to the holy Chestnut of Paisios, a monk of Athos that gained sainthood, famous for his prophecies about the disintegration of Turkey and the renaissance of the Byzantine Empire, under Russian protection of course!

http://greece.greekreporter.com/2015...rkey-conflict/

The priest answered to snarky comments questioning the moral aspect of exploiting holy relics, by claiming that the chestnut, personally given to him by the monk when he was only a student, 27 years ago, was exposed only after the congregation demanded to touch the blessed fruit.
FYI, the fruit remains in stellar condition, while it has been reported that the seed is capable of producing sound, presumably whispering the eventual liberation of Constantinople.


Be gentle please, the last man ridiculing the holy man of Athos by comparing him to an Italian spécialité got prosecuted for blasphemy, after his satirical facebook page was mentioned by a Golden Dawn MP.
https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Euro...-Facebook-user

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Your poll is somewhat at odds with the OP.

The Greek Orthodox church, while on friendly terms with the Vatican, does not consider itself subordinate thereto.

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

Poll has nothing to do with the text of the OP, said text appears to have been prepared around November 2015, after Turkey shot down that Russian jet.

I think Crander has been at the unwatered wine.

That, or he's been playing way too much CKII or EUIV, and the games have warped his perception of reality.

[Seamus Fermanagh]

Still, this whole thing is something of a hoary little chestnut....

[rasoforos]

There is not so much difference between praying to a chestnut and praying to an invisible man in the sky. At least the chestnut a) exists for sure b) has not killed any first-born children and such...

...the Orthodox church makes a lot of money from such 'sacred' objects and fragments of corpses. It does not even matter if they are clearly fake (like the 4 heads of St. John Chrysostome for example), since the flock does not do fact-checking.

(in any case these people are going to be history in a few decades. Seing priests dressed in gold and jewels amidst severe financial crisis makes the people dissasociate themselves from the Church and their silly practices. Their fan base is the elderly and....,frankly, will soon be dead)

[Crandar]

The Greek Orthodox church, while on friendly terms with the Vatican, does not consider itself subordinate thereto.

There is no such thing as the Greek Orthodox Church. The Patriarch of Istanbul may have become more friendly with the Pope, but neither of them has any authority on the Metropolis of Aetolia and the Archbishopric of Athens.

Generally the Papacy is hated openly by the lower clergy and their flock and more secretly by the bishops. Pope is generally considered the representative of Beelzebub. Even archbishops are not as politically correct as their Western European colleagues.
http://www.webcitation.org/5v92oxA6c...pe/1222101.stm

(in any case these people are going to be history in a few decades. Seing priests dressed in gold and jewels amidst severe financial crisis makes the people dissasociate themselves from the Church and their silly practices. Their fan base is the elderly and....,frankly, will soon be dead)

I am not that optimist. In my experience, the youth is more obsessed with religion than their parents. Too much praying, when they pass outside churches and being religious has become more trendy since the wave of New-Orthodoxy.

Meanwhile the lack of education and the Internet has encouraged the veneration of populist monks, their wardrobe's contents and their crazy conspiracy-theories.

[Gilrandir]

There is no such thing as the Greek Orthodox Church.

A strange thing to see. There is no Greek Orthodox Church, but a wikipedia article about it exists.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_Orthodox_Church

[Crandar]

A strange thing to see. There is no Greek Orthodox Church, but a wikipedia article about it exists.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_Orthodox_Church

Indeed, it's a nice article and you should definitely read it beyond its title.

is a term referring to the body of several Churches[5][6][7] within the larger communion of Eastern Orthodox Christianity,

So, there's no Church, the term is slightly misleading, an inaccurate translation of the Greek word "εκκλησία", which means both Church and Assembly (e.g. popular assembly-εκκλησία του δήμου). There is no united Greek Orthodox Church, which was what Seamus implied, according to my interpretation.

[Gilrandir]

Indeed, it's a nice article and you should definitely read it beyond its title.

So, there's no Church, the term is slightly misleading, an inaccurate translation of the Greek word "εκκλησία", which means both Church and Assembly (e.g. popular assembly-εκκλησία του δήμου). There is no united Greek Orthodox Church, which was what Seamus implied, according to my interpretation.

I read it. Indeed there is no UNITED Greek church, yet THERE IS Greek Orthodox church.

[rasoforos]

Crandar, i do not know where you get your information from but it is not true.

a) The percentage of people declaring themselves as religious fell from 85,6% in 2001 to 51,9% in 2015. Taking into account that the elderly are much more inclined to be religious in Greece, you can easily see that the majority of young people is not religious. Once again taking into account that a significant percentage or religious people do not associate or look favourably to the Orthodox Church of Greece (70+ % of the nation supports the separation of church and state and a similar percentage wants the church and not the public to pay priests wages) it is inescapable to conclude that there is no trend towards being more religious, quite the contrary.

When asked how much they trust the church (from a scale of 0 to 10), 61,6% of 18-35 year olds replied 0-3, while when their parents were asked only 31,4% gave the same rating. I do not know where you live, obviously not Greece, but no resurgence is taking place here.

b) Of course there is a Church of Greece. To say that there is no Church of Greece because it is not united is like saying that there is no Catholic Church because various break-off groups have elected their own popes. The Church of Greece is an autocephalus church (kind of means autonomous but not independent) in communion with the rest of Orthodox Churches and aknowledging the Constantinople Patriarch as the ecumenical Patriarch.



Sources:

http://www.tovima.gr/files/1/2015/04...%A7%CE%911.jpg

http://www.dimokratiki.gr/19-07-2017...ei-18-35-eton/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_Greece

[Philippus Flavius Homovallumus]

There is no such thing as the Greek Orthodox Church. The Patriarch of Istanbul may have become more friendly with the Pope, but neither of them has any authority on the Metropolis of Aetolia and the Archbishopric of Athens.

Generally the Papacy is hated openly by the lower clergy and their flock and more secretly by the bishops. Pope is generally considered the representative of Beelzebub. Even archbishops are not as politically correct as their Western European colleagues.
http://www.webcitation.org/5v92oxA6c...pe/1222101.stm

I am not that optimist. In my experience, the youth is more obsessed with religion than their parents. Too much praying, when they pass outside churches and being religious has become more trendy since the wave of New-Orthodoxy.

Meanwhile the lack of education and the Internet has encouraged the veneration of populist monks, their wardrobe's contents and their crazy conspiracy-theories.

See this is why Autochephaly is bad - if his All Holiness was still actually in charge the Schism would be over.

I blame the Turks mostly, but I also blame the Eastern Romans for abandoning their Roman heritage.

That's why Constantinople is still occupied and Hagia Sofia has those stupid Minarets and buttresses bolted on...

Damnit, someone bring me some sea water and volcanic ash, I'll fix it!

(It's 5:31am and I've been working all night).