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Originally posted by JoeS:
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As an example, Bubba, Billy Bob and Clem "own" the local church. They decide that Sunday mornings are a bad time for services, because it cuts down on the amount of beer they can drink Saturday night. So they decide that "their" church will have liturgy at 5:00 in the afternoon, to give them time to sleep it off. You can see where I'm going with this. It is my understanding that this was a big problem in the 40's and 50's amongst the coal patch Orthodox Churches in Pennsylvania. I have heard of a congregation owned church that hired the local Methodost Minister to act as a deacon because he sang better than the priest who had throat cancer!

Alexandr, who actually trusts his bishop! wink
Just where did you dig this up from? Sounds like some Orthobashing here. [/QB]
It's called "Trusteeship" and it was as much of a problem for Roman Catholics as it was for all other traditional Churches in America. It seems to be a form of Lay Investiture, or as the Protestants call it, Congregationalism.

The recent bankruptcy action initiated by the Romans illustrates just one of the problems of Lay Invetitute. The problem actually began when the Senior Roman built the temple wthout adequate long range planning. I can't imagine wthat the Greek Catholics would do with it. The Roman Catholics may be able to take it over. It may well become a museum or continue as a commercial enterprise of some sort.

CDL