[red irish]

A few years ago I tuned into the 700 club and they were talking about how pastors were leaving their churches and why. Those pastors were leaving about 1500 a month across the board of different faiths. The wives were tired of never being good enough for the parishioners. and always being second to what was needed for the church. The pastors were always being asked for loyalty for one or the other. And then there was the divorce thing. Cheating on each other because both were always lonely. It was so sad to hear all these stories. In todays cultural marriage is not treated as something sacred. Sex is the new idol to worship in many diverse situations. Right now the church has enough to deal with without throwing anymore problems into the mix. If we the people led more holy lives maybe there would be more priests who wanted to serve God and lead holy lives. You see sin has a place in all of this.

[Kolokotronis]

I agree with everything you wrote. Of course sin is implicated in all of this. In Orthodoxy we don't have a divorce rate among our priests at anything approaching the Western averages, but everytime one occurs it is major news and a major disgrace. The society of priests' wives of the GOA is very conscious of the stresses faced by the families of priests. But I must tell you, I don't see those stresses as being anything more, and usually far less, than those experienced by the wives/husbands and families of any busy 21st century professional.

Current Western attitudes towards marriage are the real problem. For years I have made it a practice to with some regularity read +John Chrysostomos' XX Homily on Ephesians. It is one of the finest, if not the finest, piece ever written on Christian marriage and keeps me on a straight track in my own 28 year marriage.