Comments Posted By Amos
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Scandal in Chicago: the Initial Story is No Longer “Operative”
TODAYS NUGGET FROM FR. JILLIONS http://oca.org/reflections/fr.-john-jillions/september-7-2012
I heard Fr Thomas Hopko once say that Christians today in North America “will suffer not from the spear but from the sneer.” I’m sure he’s right. But where God is concerned little miracles happen all the time to confirm our faith. And maybe the ridicule keeps us from using God’s works to boost our own egos.
That is all well and good but one wonders how the “sneers” of Fr. Hopko calling +Jonah mentally ill squares with the point that Jillions is trying to make? Was it not Hopko who uttered the infamous words that “the Holy Spirit was not present in Pittsburgh when +Jonah was elected.”? Was it not Hopko who swore his allegience to Mark Stokoe in Hopko’s “sneering” rebuke of Fr. Fester? Was it not Hopko who “apologized” for his attack against Fr. Fester by saying “I am not sorry for what I said but the way I said it.”?
Yes, our Lord talks about the sin of ridicule but to invoke the name of Fr Hopko to make your point is not the best example.
Nice try Fr. Jillions but as Rev. Al would say……….”we gotcha.”
» Posted By Amos On September 7, 2012 @ 10:11 am
Sadly, Phil is also fooling himself. He really believes what he writes, which is not only sad but scary. Anyone who still thinks the OCA is the blueprint for Orthodox unity here in the USA is out of touch with the barometric pressure at ground level.
Phil might be the ghost writer for +Nathaniel who wrote the most bizarre introductory letter to the OCA Delegate Handbook (available at your favorite spin cycle site, which also brings you the daily all is good Jillions report). Read it carefully and you will see that the Phil’s out there are also on the OCA Synod.
Hey, maybe Phil is +Nathaniel or his “swell” secretary?
» Posted By Amos On September 7, 2012 @ 8:59 am
+Mark Maymon now resides in the Metropolitan’s apartment in the Syosset chancery. How about that!
» Posted By Amos On September 6, 2012 @ 10:33 pm
Removing Metropolitan Jonah Hurt the American Orthodox Church
George,
Your comment about the “ethno-phyletism” of the Ukrainians and ACROD is interesting; but that is exactly one of the major reasons why the old EOC didn’t come into the OCA. The OCA Synod insisted that the EOC parishes come into Orthodoxy and be assimilated into the respective OCA dioceses where their parishes across the USA were located.
The EOC did not want that rather they wanted to be a “segregated” group. Met. Philip had no problem with that arrangement and so they went to Antioch. It is interesting to note that it was only a few years later that the AOCA did exactly what the OCA expected and assimilated former EOC parishes into AOCA dioceses. +Philip also made them call their parishes Antiochian Orthodox not EOC parishes.
I offer this not as a judgment but an observation that “ethno-phyletism” can also be with “white folk.”
» Posted By Amos On September 5, 2012 @ 10:41 am
More Evidence that Jonah Was Railroaded
GeorgeP.
I was referring to Bp. Tikhon (Mollard) of yhe OCA diocese of eastern pa not retired bishop Tikhon of the west.
» Posted By Amos On September 5, 2012 @ 6:46 pm
No John, there will be no break for the OCA. This pandora’s box was opened by those demanding the OCA be accountable and transparent. We now know that such accountability and transparency is a one -way street. They do all the accounting and transparency of others, but none for them, starting with Stokoe and ending with the current Synod demand equal accountability.
Here are their qualifications to judge others:
An Archbishop with a history of addictive behavior is quick to call his Metropolitan an addict? But’s that’s ok?
Another Archbishop (or three) protects an Archdeacon who married another man, then divorced him will not be called on his actions which by their very nature have deposed him? But that’s ok?
Another Archbishop who had charges brought against him by his brother bishop but threatened him with deportation if he ever mentioned his compromised lifestyle? But that’s ok?
Another Archbishop who allowed over $800K in restricted funds to be used for other purposes? But that’s ok?
Yet every one of these bishops actively pursued +Jonah until they removed him from office? But that’s ok?
Accountability and transparency for Jonah but not for any of them?
This is the new OCA and their rules mean they can do anything they want as long as they blame someone else for what is wrong in the OCA?
You want to give the OCA a break? Really? No way. It’s leadership is corrupt, deeply compromised and dying of its own self-inflicted wounds. God will not be mocked and the bill for the decades of mockery is now coming due.
Nice try John but the rules will be equally applied, that door is wide open and it won’t be closed until the entire corruption is swept away and sadly maybe the entire OCA. All of this and more is our collective fault if we turn a blind eye and want to give the OCA a break.
» Posted By Amos On August 4, 2012 @ 10:09 am
Golly MS you apparently believe every word that comes out from the Synod. With such amazing discrimination it is no wonder you believe what you believe. You not being a member of the OCA can sit on the sidelines and pontificate all you want. The truth of the misdeeds of the OCA Synod and their Syosset worker bees is now so transparent from here to Moscow that your rather feeble defense borders on amusing if not a pathetic attempt to carry the water for Jillions, Tosi, Wheeler and Stokoe.
Please feel free to live in your own fantastic world. The rest of us will share “the rest of the story” whenever and wherever we can. You know, accountability and transparency and all that!
» Posted By Amos On August 3, 2012 @ 1:28 pm
Michael S.
The attempt to publicly humiliate His Beatitude at the Seattle AAC was effected when the Synod gave him an ultimatium, either insert and read the prepared text by the Synod in which Jonah takes all the blame, or the Synod will remove him and suspend him
Please note that the same threat was used in his “voluntary” retirement/resignation when +Jonah was told either to quit or he will be suspended without pay, and tried in a spiritual court and found guilty.
As for St. Luke’s, they apparently were in the minority of evaluation reports with two others apparently giving +Jonah a clean bill of health.
I know it is difficult for you to accept that your long time friends who have been and are at the center of this ugly page of the history of the OCA and worked to hound +Jonah out of office, but please don’t think that the rest of us are buying any of it. It isn’t being bought here nor overseas.
Jonah did not leave office freely. He left office under duress. If you don’t believe it, why not ask Jonah himself.
» Posted By Amos On August 2, 2012 @ 6:19 pm
Al and Lefty’s Excellent Adventure
Oh, phil r. upp
Sure have bishops run for the office of Metropolitan every four years. Maybe we can have campaigns with buttons and spontaneous demonstrations at the AAC! Where did you this stuff? If you think that is how the OCA should do things, it makes one pause if you really know about anything or that you have a firm grasp on reality.
BTW you and Diogenes could be twins!
» Posted By Amos On August 2, 2012 @ 4:54 pm
M.Vasiliou,
If the basic working premise of the OCA Synod and Syosset apparatchiks was to remove +Jonah as Metropolitan, then they are going to keep fishing until they found someone who would give them a mental report on +Jonah to their liking.
If it is true that +Jonah had three mental reports and two of them gave him a “thumbs-up” to continue his duties and one (the St. Luke’s report) said that he could benefit from continued assistance, well I will leave it up to you all to conclude which report the Synod used to make their mental removal case.
Remember though that D. Bradley was instrumental in making sure +Jonah was seen by the team at St. Luke’s. Also remember that Bradley has the most to gain with a traditional Orthodox bishop out of the way in DC so he can continue to preach his gospel of uncritical inclusion at the DC Cathedral.
There is a spiritual rot that has taken deep roots in DC and it would have taken many years to root it out. I believe that +Jonah was taking the slow but steady approach there. This was too slow for some but also much too fast and potentially dangerous for the well-entrenched inclusion mindset in DC. This spiritual rot has led to an exodus of people from DC to other parishes outside the OCA. Attendance at the english liturgy is way down and the money has dried up from that Liturgy. The second liturgy at DC (Slavonic) has not suffered as much but the funding from that second service has never been enough to float the financial boat of St. Nicholas Cathedral.
So the fallout is underway. People are leaving the OCA and the latest episode in Kiev has only confirmed that the OCA is in deep kimchi. All very sad and all of it was avoidable if the brotherhood of OCA bishops thought more of others than they thought of themselves and their working relation with +Jonah. Same old OCA story, blame and scapegoat someone however if they keep doing what they have always done and expect a different result (like a different Metropolitan) the outcome will not change. I think this is where Moscow delivered its strongest message to +Alexander and Fr. Kishkovsky. Your Church is broken and we are not going to help you fix it.
» Posted By Amos On August 2, 2012 @ 9:13 am
anonymous,
If it is true that Met. Hilarion (Alfeyev) has changed his schedule and will not serve at Holy Trinity (OCA) in August, this is another indication of the Russian Orthodox Church beginning to distance itself from the OCA. There is little doubt that Moscow is upset with the OCA and there will be no effort to help them get out of the hole they have dug for themselves.
The Russians showed us how to take care of a bishop who is weak. Bravo and Axios to them!
» Posted By Amos On July 30, 2012 @ 7:12 am
The Keystone Kops Swing into Action
Sorry, Catherine, the track record of the reorganization of the OCA is clear. The Syosset has never been at such a low ebb. The new Secretary to the Metropolitan will do Mrs. Detke’s job which was primarily receipting of funds. Her job certainly took a turn when FOS money dried up and the need for those $10 gift letters also disappeared. Now the already hand picked new Administrative Assistant, the old job of the Secretary to the Metropolitan and the work of financial receipting is being combined into one position.
The organizational restructuring done by the late Dn. Zarras, the late Robert Kornafeld and the late Alexander Whitemore has proven to be a colossal failure which has only proven to pit the Metropolitan vs. the chancery staff and the MC now the HR department for the OCA. You may chose to disagree but the track record does not lie. The OCA financially supporting membership continues to decline and the recent events surrounding His Beatitude, Metropolitan Jonah does nothing to change that decline in credibility. Even the former Chancellor Garklavs objected to the reorganization as it pertained to his old position.
However, you are correct, the OCA did set a new course back in 2006/2007 and the results are out there for people to judge. It is certainly true that the AAC in Seattle told Syosset that they should shrink so that the dioceses can expand, but all we have seen since then is their attempt to add more staff (Sex Czar and Sex Cop) so that they can plead that there is no way the assessment can be reduced. They are trying to control the narrative and there are many people out here who are answering that they are ignoring the will of the Church that met in Council in Seattle.
Nice try, Catherine, but accountability and transparency are what you all wanted. Now you have be held accountable. The only thing that has changed in Syosset is that there are a new cast of characters trying to hold on to the money and power, just like the old administration prior to 2006/2007.
» Posted By Amos On July 26, 2012 @ 1:29 pm
Yet Another Hole in the Official Story
And what is the OCA Chancellor doing this week?…….
Chancellor’s Diary
by Fr. John JillionsJuly 24, 2012
I am on vacation this week and will resume “The Chancellor’s Diary” on Tuesday, July 31st.Best that he stay on vacation.
» Posted By Amos On July 24, 2012 @ 8:53 am
Yes, Mark Maymon is going to work in Syosset and +Nikon was telling others at the DOS Assembly that +Mark will be “totally exonerated.” It seems that the way the synod thinks and acts is not the way the rest of us think or act.
Can’t these men see how stupid a move this is? But then again, someone in the OCA administration is leaking +Jonah’s emails to the Orthodox Forum.
Is this Godly leadership?
» Posted By Amos On July 24, 2012 @ 7:11 am
It seems to me that the good dentist has set an example. Everyone should be calling Syosset and asking for an answer.
» Posted By Amos On July 23, 2012 @ 5:00 pm
Clara,
Situations change. When Jonah entered the monastic life his parents were younger and able to care for themselves. His sister suffers from a disability which makes it at the moment nearly impossible for her to care for her aging parents. Things changed with Jonah too, he was no longer just a monk in a monastery holding all things in common with the brotherhood. He was elected the Primate of the OCA. The circumstances of his life took a radical turn in a different direction. Now, plans made based on his ability to step in and do more for his parents have been taken away from him. The idea that a monk is totally cut off and dead to his family is a distortion of monasticism. Honor thy father and mother is not abrogated when you become a monastic.
» Posted By Amos On July 21, 2012 @ 7:22 am
Besides, Harry,
That information was totally debunked by a ROCOR priest posting on the O.F. No letter of acceptance and assignment = not accepted into the OCA. That’s how it works.
» Posted By Amos On July 20, 2012 @ 7:50 pm
Harry,
Not blown up at all. Yes there was a request. Yes he was released, but Jonah never accepted him into the OCA. Please produce the letter with Jonah’s signature accepting him into the OCA and assigning him somewhere.
Can you do that Harry? If not, you are as bad as the folks in Syosset who may have taken that bit of paperwork and extrapolated it to the illogical conclusion you reached. It would not surprise me at all. When bloodlust is afoot people make mistakes.
» Posted By Amos On July 20, 2012 @ 6:24 pm
Rod,
The “overcircumcised troll” really must have been passing the jug a wee too much when he responded to you today. Now you are to blame for almost everything, from healthcare to Moriak’s son while admitting that his sources are mostly from the Motherland. That makes me feel so much better.
You really got under his skin, or lack thereof, you silly “konvertsy.” I wonder how Stan who wishes to rid the Church of all converts deals with his main squeeze, Gennady Zyuganov, head of the Russian Communist Party, and a CONVERT to Orthodoxy? Or was he one of those secretly baptized commies who now hobnobs with the ROC bigwigs.
You better check with your BFF Gleb Podmoshensky before you answer because, remember, you were seen by one of his sources all the way from the Motherland, leaving Platina.
» Posted By Amos On July 20, 2012 @ 6:13 pm
Harry,
This man was not a priest in the OCA ever. He reappeared in DC when the nuns where under ROCOR. The crucial timeline is when did Jonah know about the allegations? That was not until 2012. Thus Jonah did not know. Thus the question still is how did Jonah act once he was fully aware of this man’s alleged criminal act? Jonah cuts his ties with the man. The fact that this man was at the DC cathedral to hear confessions, which was not a smart move if Jonah blessed it, but does not change the fact that the man was a priest of ROCOR.
Bottom line, did Jonah knowingly coverup the fact?
Dn. Patrick can answer this better than I. Was he hearing confessions from random people at the Cathedral?
» Posted By Amos On July 20, 2012 @ 11:34 am
Then I stand corrected on the point of him hearing confessions. I apologize.
» Posted By Amos On July 20, 2012 @ 10:13 am
Harry,
You are so sorely mistaken that I can’t believe you are so dense. Really.
This monk was never a priest in the OCA. EVERY. NOT ONE DAY.
He never heard confessions in the DC Cathedral, where did you get that pile or crap? He was a monk in 2010. He was ordained a priest AFTER Jonah disassociated himself from the man. He was not ordained in the OCA. He was ordained by someone else in 2011 and did not show up again until the DC Monastery was accepted into ROCOR.
Do you finally get it. Where are you getting such lies? Who is feeding you this crap? The Orthodox Forum? Get your facts straight before you post here again.
Do you get it?
» Posted By Amos On July 20, 2012 @ 9:52 am
Another Hole in the Official Story: ‘Alleged Rape’ Timeline Reporting is Wrong
Matushka,
Ab. Nikon saying “he feels our pain” is rather cheap grace. It is easy to say but the actions of the synod tell another story. If you believe that the synod “genuinely care(d) about HB Jonah” then I can conclude that nothing the OCA will do in the future will ever disturb you and that is exactly what Ab Nikon wanted to project to the good people of the South in Miami. He succeded, at least with you. Lord, have mercy.
» Posted By Amos On July 26, 2012 @ 10:03 am
Post there folks. That is not run by the OCA. Maybe a shadow OCA website needs to be created to demand the truth.
» Posted By Amos On July 20, 2012 @ 7:33 am
Now the OCA took down their Facebook Page. What a joke. I guess they can’t stand the truth that people are sick of their underhanded ways. Confirmation to me that they are in full message control mode and just trying to ride out the storm they created. Incompetent fools. Do they really think they will get away with this? If they do, then we are the fools.
And you can bet there will be no independent investigation. Let Jonah’s blood be on all of their hands, the synod, Jillions, Tosi, Kishhovsky, Reeves, Skordinski, Solodow, Stokoe, Nescott, all of them.
» Posted By Amos On July 20, 2012 @ 7:26 am
First Rule of Holes: When You’re in One, Stop Digging
I can confirm Theodore’s reply. They are not leaving the DOS Assembly any more comforted by the attempts of +Nikon or Fr. Jillions to lay all the blame on +Jonah. Jillions spend two hours basically trying to make the case for the Synod that Jonah is mentally ill to justify their actions.
Fr. Jillions also shared that the Synod expects Jonah to check himself into a mental institution for at least six months before they will even consider him for another assignment. Most down here feel that Jonah has been labeled a nut and there is little hope that he will ever be allowed another diocese in the OCA or elsewhere.
The clergy in the DOS are respectful and they take things in thoughtfully. However it appears that they are not falling in line and with today’s revelations which are being read in Miami, they feel even less confident that the removal of the Metropolitan was the best thing to do.
The feeling of profound sadness is permeating the Assembly.
» Posted By Amos On July 19, 2012 @ 6:12 pm
Rod,
Thank you for your answer and for the other colorful replies. Stan, aka Barbara, is a sad person. Angry, bitter and consumed with attempting to prove that he/she is important. God loves him/her and so do I but I can’t accept or like the terrible things written on his/her blog nor the persistent lies presented there about people.
And now let us read how Stan deflects and takes no responsibility for his actions…..
“At present, Rod Dreher denies that he even knew Podmoshensky or was in Platina… that’s OK. I wonder what he’s going to claim next. As JP is now a liability, is he going to deny that he knows Fathausen, Eliel, Brum, and Christiansen, too? Probably… Roddie has a habit of attacking his old confrères viciously. Look at how he attacked the RC bishops… that wasn’t necessary, nor was it seemly (I apologise to all of my Catholic readers for his uncalled-for outbursts). Well, he attacked the RC bishops, now, he’s attacking Podmoshensky, next, he’ll attack JP, as JP’s no longer an asset to Sir Roddie. Rather nasty sort, isn’t he? It does take all kinds in our sinful-ginful world, and some are utterly crank opportunists like Roddie. Live and learn, I say… and don’t turn your back on Dreher… now, that’s something that you’d live to regret…”
Was that an apology?
» Posted By Amos On July 18, 2012 @ 11:59 pm
I’ll be blunt, one of my contacts in Northern California saw Dreher and Freddie driving from Platina, after visiting their guru, Gleb Podmoshensky.
(From Voices from Russia)
Rod, would you please, once and for all, address this constant strum of Stan Drezlo that you are a long-time follower of Gleb Podmoshensky? When did you first meet him? When was the last time you visited him at Platina or anywhere? Is there any other information that you can offer to help poor Stan? It appears his crack, or should one say crank contacts is feeding him crank information.
» Posted By Amos On July 18, 2012 @ 7:48 am
It’s Tosi not Possi. LOL. What a sloppy bit of reporting. And how about that 85,000 OCA membership? Maybe we should call the possi out on Tosi for that whopper!
Now, can anyone tell me if the alleged rape case is the same one that Faith Skordinski, Mark Stokoe, and +Mel tried to push? Or is there another complaint?
» Posted By Amos On July 18, 2012 @ 7:36 am
«« Back To Stats PagePoka,
At least for me, it is not an individual OCA bishop, working in his own diocese that is the problem. Rather when they get together as a Synod that things seems to go terribly wrong. There appears to be some sort of toxic atmosphere when they meet. The record of how they have treated each other long before Jonah arrived is well documented. I would characterize it as dysfunctional. But it now appears that they have projected their dysfunction on to Jonah?
» Posted By Amos On July 17, 2012 @ 4:41 pm
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