Update (10/13/08): The complete, unedited column is now available on Terry Mattingly’s site under the title, “Beyond Orthodox folk dancing.”
(10/11/08): Religion writer Terry Mattingly has a column in today’s Boulder (Colo.) Daily Camera newspaper that is a must read. He looks at the controversy surrounding the publication of Fr. John Peck’s “The Orthodox Church of Tomorrow” here on the Web site of the American Orthodox Institute. Mattingly is a blogger at the GetReligion site, a syndicated columnist, and directs the Washington Journalism Center at the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities. He recently joined AOI as an adviser.
About Fr. Peck, Mattingly said that “the 46-year-old priest wrote an article about the positive Orthodox trends in America, as well as offering candid talk about the problems faced by some of his friends. He finished ‘The Orthodox Church of Tomorrow’ soon after arriving at the Greek Orthodox mission in Prescott, Ariz., and sent it to the American Orthodox Institute — which published the article in late September on its Web site.
Bishops, priests and laypeople — some pleased, some furious — immediately began forwarding Peck’s article from one end of Orthodox cyberspace to the other. I received some of these urgent e-mails, since I am an Orthodox convert whose name is on several public Web sites.
After a few days, Peck asked that his article be pulled offline. Now the question is whether, after a scheduled Oct. 16 conference with his bishop, he will still have a job.”
Read the entire column here. Sign up for Mattingly’s weekly column here.
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