Given that, those in the Church are accountable, not only to God, but to one another. This is true from laymen all the way up to Patriarchs. The higher up that ladder you climb, the more accountable you are, because your words and actions impact more people.
Those of us who have been damaged by the Church perhaps see this more clearly than those whose glasses are a bit more rose-tinted. Once the Church has hurt you, it is hard to trust in her again. This is especially true when it is not that one person at the parish who grates on your nerves, but your priest, your bishop, perhaps even your Metropolitan. There is a cost associated with malfeasance. There is a cost associated with dishonesty. There is a cost associated with manipulation and deceit. And that cost is too often measured in the souls who leave the Church entirely, or leave the Orthodox Church seeking refuge elsewhere. And even when it is not, it is too often measured in the damage to souls who no longer trust, waiting instead for that next shoe to drop.
And yet, as those who have been damaged by the Church, hurt by her clergy and disappointed by her laity, we too have a cost associated with our guardedness, our timidity, and our distrust. We dare not let the damage done to us become damage to others. We cannot let our defensiveness damage the souls of those who have reason to trust, and do so innocently. If we do, we become like the serpent, tempting Adam and Eve to know good and evil, when they already knew good and could only learn evil.
My simple point is this -- whatever your journey, whatever damage is in your rear-view mirror (or not), and whatever your station -- before you speak, and before you act, count the cost. The Orthodox Church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints. Our words and actions are more like hand grenades than arrows, and innocent souls are watching. God forgive this sinner where I have failed in this.
