The Orthodox Leader

Archive for July, 2011

Leadership Levels: The Problem of Illegitimate Leadership

with 2 comments

“And when Simon [Magus] saw that through laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Ghost was given, he offered them money, Saying, Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he may receive the Holy Spirit.” -Acts 8:18-19

In a couple of articles I wrote not too long ago, I took up the five levels of leadership posited by Maxwell in order to discuss them in our own situation. Having done that, I should point out that no definition of leadership was given. There are numerous such definitions, but perhaps the simplest is the equation, “Leadership is influence.” However, this raises the question of whether such leadership (influence) can be had illegitimately. Maxwell’s five levels don’t address it.

Read the rest of this entry »

Written by Fr Basil Biberdorf

July 22nd, 2011 at 12:16 am

A Response on the Asceticism Talk

with 6 comments

I am being taken to task at Monomakhos, both by the site’s editor and by Mr. John Couretas, communications director for Acton, for raising the issue that there was a significant difference between the text of Metropolitan Jonah’s talk “Asceticism and the Consumer Society” and the talk as actually given. It has been suggested that I have a “major axe to grind,” but that’s not true. In fact, what I have provided to the readers of this blog is a service (two services, actually). I hunted down the audio of the main portion of the talk, cleaned it up a bit, and made it available to all. I transcribed, as carefully as I could, the audio to text. Readers are encouraged to listen and read the actual talk and compare it with the posted text and then make up their own minds. If you don’t think my questions are fair, you’re free to disagree, either privately or in the comments. Read the rest of this entry »

Written by Fr Basil Biberdorf

July 14th, 2011 at 4:09 pm

Posted in Metropolitan Jonah

More on the Asceticism Talk

with 2 comments

In reference to the previous post, a couple of commenters and correspondents (here and elsewhere) have inquired whether I think something is deceptive going on, or to suggest this is in the realm of “departure from prepared remarks.” Before saying anything further, I’ll emphasize that I’m not trying to make the proverbial mountain from a molehill. I’m mainly curious as these particular circumstances.

I’ll summarize the points that drive my curiosity thusly:

Read the rest of this entry »

Written by Fr Basil Biberdorf

July 6th, 2011 at 9:59 am

Posted in Metropolitan Jonah

Asceticism and the Replacement Talk

with 3 comments

As several of you know from my previous post, I was at Acton University a couple of weeks ago. His Beatitude Metropolitan Jonah of the Orthodox Church in America gave the keynote address on Thursday evening, June 16. A couple of days after the end of the conference, Acton announced that “We’ve posted the text of Metropolitan Jonah’s AU talk” and linked to the full talk, titled “Asceticism and the Consumer Society,” elsewhere at acton.org.

There’s only one problem: that’s not the talk Metropolitan Jonah gave. When I read the posted text, I couldn’t help but think that it sounded rather different from what I remembered that Thursday. I certainly didn’t remember the extensive quotations from Schmemann, and the talk, as I recalled, was at least twice as long as the posted text. Read the rest of this entry »

Written by Fr Basil Biberdorf

July 6th, 2011 at 12:03 am

Posted in Metropolitan Jonah

Switch to our mobile site