Comments Posted By Geo Michalopulos

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Battle in Seattle? — Part 3

Fr, I actually meant 125 adults, not necessarily families. I think 125 families (mom, pop, 2 kids) is way too much for one priest to handle. That would mean hearing about 60 confessions per week.

» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On November 5, 2011 @ 10:15 am

Your Grace, one of the things that sealed my own entrance into the DOS in the OCA was when John and I (the other co-founder of our mission) witnessed the both of us went to St Seraphim’s together to meet with the Venerable +Dmitri was the length of people lined up for Confession during the Sat Vigil.

Being in the GOA, we didn’t know what to expect. And of course we never saw that. (My first Confession in 20 years was at 35 years old. My extended family thought I was ready to join a cult –but that’s another story.) I’d say that there were about 50-60 people there, lined up about 10 deep. Two priests were hearing confessions so there were two lines and the 3rd priest was saying the Matins.

It was a powerful testament to true Orthodox evangelism.

» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On November 4, 2011 @ 12:24 pm

Indeed Amos, indeed. When one of our correspondents first broke that Fr Chad and Maureen had been elected, I almost let out a Rebel Yell but was restrained because I was at work. Yes, it’s going to be very hard for the Stokovites on the MC to fall back into the “let’s treat +Jonah abominably” mode that has been par for the course. I also doubt they will be hearing illogical meanderings from a learned archpriest about “keeping the dream of the OCA alive.” The same dream that took us down to 22,000 members and made us the laughingstock of American Orthodoxy.

» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On November 4, 2011 @ 12:15 pm

Fr Patrick knows whereof he speaks. I’ve been to two Antiochian parishes near me and they are massive and their attendance on a typical Sunday is easily in the high hundreds.

Having said that, numbers are certainly a barometer of success. I personally don’t think any parish should have more than 300 parishioners (adults and children combined). +Dmitri of blessed memory told us when we started our mission that once we had 100+ adults, we’d need to start thinking about a new mission.

Why do I say 300? Because I think it’s important that everybody knows everybody. Why start a mission at ~125 adults? Because I believe ~24 adults is a critical mass. In a growing faith, creativity is important and must not be stifled.

» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On November 4, 2011 @ 9:44 am

Battle in Seattle? — Part 1 One

Yeah, I guess we could go back to the NT and the canons which are based on it. You know, circumspect men, not given to drink, husbands of one wife, children who don’t run riot, not given to anger, etc. I guess the canons would say something about not breaking the Ten Commandments (scratch two renowned archpriests from the list because of the false witness they bore against a sitting bishop.) Ad infinitum, ad nauseam.

» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On November 1, 2011 @ 8:04 pm

Your Grace, it’s big of you to admit this mistake. You know, the main reason +Jonah and the entire OCA for that matter has suffered this past year was because he decided to launch a discreet investigation into Benjamin’s past. This bishop fought well, knowing the maxim that “the best defense is a good offense.” I am trying to pray for him because he could turn out to be a really good bishop. I think we should all do so. I know His Beatitude does.

This does bring up a point that has been sticking in my craw for several months now. For years, the pokrov ladies have enjoyed a marvelous reputation for going after miscreant priests and bishops, deservedly so. However they’ve been notoriously silent about certain, obvious cases.

» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On November 1, 2011 @ 7:54 pm

INDEED! Na sas zeisei! (idiomatic, loses something in the translation but “congratulations for a new baby” will do just fine.

» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On November 1, 2011 @ 7:45 pm

You know, if we’re going to dust off the Canonicon, then there’s a whole passel of people in Syosset and elsewhere who could have their ranks in the clergy revoked. Best leave that one alone.

» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On November 1, 2011 @ 7:44 pm

Carl, someday you’re going to have to fess up and realize that there’s more than enough blame to go around. Let’s face it, Syosset is hopelessly corrupt. All an honest man at the helm can do now is try to stop the inexorable rot and that in 5 years (if we have 5 years) economic forces will take care of Syosset and Garklavs and his ilk.

» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On November 1, 2011 @ 4:04 pm

Jacob, a lot of what you say is true. There are differences between the old era in which a corrupt cabal of proto-Stokovites ran the show. For one thing, there’s this blog. If I may take some credit, people and priests have told me personally that we’ve (and that means all of you correspondents as well) have made a significant difference.

Consider how we used to lazily accept the Stokovite narrative. I myself did so up until about March of this year. Oh sure, we always had our suspicions, sometimes the narrative was too overwrought, or biased, or even passive in its insouciount way it stated “everybody knows ‘X’,” etc. But it was still the best thing around for getting information out, a lot of which was true.

What we didn’t know was that it was good for keeping information from getting out. That OCAN was/is a stooge for the Old Regime.

+Jonah keeps the white hat, that’s the good news. The New York Plan grows in popularity. yeah, I know that the Old Guard will pull out all the stops to keep the $105 head tax. They’ll even hire the extra flunkies in Syosset. But you know what? It ain’t gonna matter. The New York Plan will pass de facto when the 22,000 number goes to 18K, then 15K. What will the critical mass be? I’m thinking in the 15K range. Regardless, the Strategic Plan is going to be dead in the water because the $$$ ain’t there now.

So why is it good that +Jonah remains to captain this sinking ship? Because when the time comes for the OCA to close its doors (and barring massive repentance by the Syosset Set and their Stokovite handmaidens), it can only do so if there’s a legitimate primate. Otherwise, with a “rotating metropolitan,” it’ll be every man for himself and chaos will ensue. Some parishes will close, most will attrit members, others will sue to join ROCOR. Personally, if just 10-20 parishes sued to join ROCOR/MP/whoever that would accelerate the death-pangs as Syosset doesn’t have the funds to fight a class-action in the courts. And even if they win, it will deplete their resources even further.

» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On November 1, 2011 @ 11:25 am

Ian, I agree with you. What we’re suffering from today is the effects of the original Dumping Ground. It’s still with us. Personally, the institutional rot may be so entrenched that there is no choice but for the OCA to continue its implosion.

» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On November 1, 2011 @ 8:34 am

Will Adopting the Homosexual Agenda Force Orthodoxy into ‘Mainstream Irrelevance’?

very perceptive Peter. Once they won the battle for marital “rights”, then the mask comes off.

» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On January 28, 2012 @ 2:19 pm

Joseph, your tedentiousness knows no bounds. Why do you assume that a priest will “cut off” somebody from Communion for “political reasons”? If anything, being homosexual is so accepted today that I assume that if I ever came to your church it is I who would be cut off from partaking (of course, not for “political reasons.”)

On another note, you are aware that during the antebellum period, slavers and slave owners were regularly prevented from taking Communion in Protestant churches on the Northern side of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. This was for political reasons no doubt, but interestingly, itsn’t it hard to divorce political crimes from moral ones?

» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On October 27, 2011 @ 11:55 am

excellent riposte, Deacon. I fear that more sinners will be saved outside the Church where they at least are not perverting the Gospel than will be saved within the Church. And by this I don’t mean sinners who preach “another Christ” but those of us who let them do so.

» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On October 27, 2011 @ 10:09 am

Fr, I like that. If the metrosexuals in the ABV axis don’t like the rules, they can go join ECUSA. They love fabulous brocades over there.

» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On October 22, 2011 @ 5:55 pm

Helga, even if take for the sake of argument, the Cabal’s argument that +Jonah hurt the OCA with his speech in Dallas, we are still left with the ruinous relationship between Moscow and the OCA because of the idiotic liberalism of Kishkovsky.

The first assertion (+Jonah’s speech) is arguable and even if we accept the worst, +Jonah’s apology made things (officially) better. The second assertion, that Kishkovsky and his ilk have ruined relations between Moscow and Syosset is unarguable.

That these clowns may be trying to do eject +Jonah shows how completely out of touch they are. They wouldn’t be shooting themselves in the foot as much as shooting themselves in the mouth. In my darker moments, I actually wish that they do something egregious, that way we could go ahead and have the battle royal that is necessary to cleanse the Church. It would be worth it even if the forces of Traditionalism lost in Seattle, because then the Syosset Soviet’s days would be really numbered then and all those priests and bishops who conspired against +Jonah would be left to go fight over the remaining real estate.

There is simply no way any one church can exist for long in which there are opposing wings, one which is Orthopractic, the other which is secularist. We saw this with ECUSA, where the Tolerance Mafia has become an Inquisition, excommunicating those who hold to the moral tradition.

» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On October 22, 2011 @ 5:50 pm

Fr, on a tangential note, this fear of normal male bonding which Gay, Inc has effectively destroyed has led as well to the feminization of the Protestant Church, where we see men fleeing in droves. This is paralleled as well in Reform Judaism and secular Jewry as well. The backlash has been a resurgence of Hasidism which is uber-patriarchal. I guarantee you, there are probably more red-blooded American males in a ROCOR or Old-Calendarist Greek church on any given Sunday than in parishes that are pastored by the likes of Vinogradsky.

» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On October 22, 2011 @ 5:33 pm

Fr, thank you for your forceful and thoughtful reply. Please understand that as a priest in the See of Antioch, you have been protected from all this nonsense for several decades of resolute leadership by +Philip. I still applaud him for taking the AOCMA out of the Synod of Satan that is the NCC. Please know that I am not one to countenance the further devolution of the OCA (and Orthodoxy in general) in the trajectory which Arida, Bobosh, and Vinogradsky wish to take us on with all the talk of “inclusiveness” and “tolerance.”

Having said that, the fact that Monomakhos has become a venue for open and honest debate on this topic is to my mind, salutary. If nothing else, we’re making a virtue out of necessity in that we are able to talk openly and honestly about the problems of the zeitgeist. To this end, I published Fr Hans Jacobse’s earlier response because it was inarguable and held up the standard high for all to see.

To all, I am not at all convinced that the moral tradition of the Orthodox Church will survive in a robust fashion. For one thing, the problem of a gay/secularist/ecumenist cabal is not unknown in the other jurisdictions. The Phanar itself is riddled with Soros-acolytes and prides itself on being used by neocons in our State Department as a counterpoint against Moscow. It is very possible that the Diversity/Tolerance apologetic will be used via “hate crimes” legislation to persecute the Church.

I pray I am wrong.

» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On October 22, 2011 @ 1:58 pm

What Are We Getting for $105? Part I. One Priest’s Question

Fr Alexey, that’s good to know. If nothing else, to clear up the historical record. However, given that Bishop +Mel is now running things in Syosset, is his Diocese still on board with this? I’d like to think so but I rather doubt it. If that’s the case, then “The New York Plan” will how it be known for posterity.

» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On October 23, 2011 @ 5:00 pm

Helga, as usual, an excellent point. The persecution of the DC Nuns shows to me how selective and egregious the SMPAC report was. What exactly was it that these nuns were accused of? Because the men on this committee had no fortitude, they couldn’t bring themselves to level an actual accusation. They couldn’t even insinuate anything. What a spectacle of spinelessness.

» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On October 22, 2011 @ 6:03 pm

Stan, that’s an interesting point you raise. However, I’m not sure that these are distinctions with differences. For example, many criminial incidences which have resulted in police involvement involve sexual natures are not crimes against children. For example, Pee Wee Herman masturbating in a XXX theater, or George Michael willfully exposing himself to another man in a public restroom and masturbating. The same thing with a certain priest in another jurisdiction who was recently caught performing sex acts on adult men at truck stops. There was no sexual assault here, certainly not on children (thankfully). Yet all resulted in criminal charges and public humiliation.

» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On October 22, 2011 @ 3:38 pm

Mark, you’re too kind. I’m rarely right, perhaps I should be more humble but my temperament is such that I tend to jump to conclusions. One of my defects is that I don’t suffer fools gladly and what Bobosh said was plum foolish.

» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On October 21, 2011 @ 8:48 pm

Mark, then let’s play the Stokovite’s game. What about the various sitting bishops who have been coddling priests within their dioceses (out of the reach of the Metropolitan)? Or what about the various bishops themeslves who have have “been found wanting” in certain regards?

Let’s be honest. Bobosh’s outrage is selective. His own parishioner was a walking embarrassment to Syosset during his heyday as head of the “youth” division of the OCA. He was forced to resign and the entire record of his employment was expunged from all computers and files in Syosset.

» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On October 21, 2011 @ 7:58 pm

Fr, regarding your posting yesterday re the various dioceses of the OCA: are we to understand that the 22,000 number of “dues-paying members” does not include anybody from Canada, Mexico, Alaska, and the ethnic exarchates?

» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On October 21, 2011 @ 7:51 pm

J-Tac, a lot of wisdom here. However I’m not so sure that point #2 is the problem. It’s obvious that in a conciliar organization the heads should be conciliar but what makes you think that some of them are? So far, it’s been obvious that Syosset works hand-in-glove with certain people (some of whom are bishops) to confound +Jonah at every turn.

You know, I’ve said this before, I’ll say it again. If the HS wanted to put a stop to this yesterday, they’d put out this simple statement:

‘We, the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church in America, decry all of the past unpleasantness. We condemn all those who have actively worked to subvert our Metropolitan. Those priests, deacons, and laymen who have been complicit in these activities shall be given a chance to repent for their activities have caused scandal to many. We support our Metropolitan and he supports us. Furthermore, we believe that in order to make the Church more conciliar, then the bishops, who have been entrusted by the Holy Spirit to lead the Church as servants, shall work towards strengthening the dioceses and through them, the parishes and missions of the Church. As such, all responsibility and all decisions will be performed by the Holy Synod who will be assisted by those priests, deacons, and laymen who are deemed worthy of assisting them in this Mission.

“To make this transition, we are creating a Financial Transition Board to look into selling the Church assets in Syosset and redirirecting the proceeds thusly:

1. Setting up a trust fund to assist priests who make below a certain level of income,

2. Setting up a scholarship so that no student in any seminary has to pay tuition, and

3. Transferring (and merging) the Central Church Administration with the Archdiocese of Washington, which will be equal to all other Diocesan Chanceries and will only have the additional office of coordinating with the other Dioceses so that the Church will speak with a unified voice. “

» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On October 21, 2011 @ 7:41 pm

Fr, I like your sense of humor! I have to clean the Coke I laughed up on the keyboard however!

» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On October 21, 2011 @ 1:55 pm

From 105 to 50 in a New York Minute — Part III. Syosset: Ends, Means, Wants and Necessities

Helga, Stop It! you’re killing me! Logic and common sense have nothing to do with the Syosset Soviet!

» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On October 21, 2011 @ 3:45 pm

Wow! A bishop of New York IN New York!!! Who’da thunk it? Oh wait, don’t tell me, I think I know the answer! Why lookee here –it’s in the canons of the Church! Smart whippersnappers those Church Fathers.

» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On October 21, 2011 @ 2:41 pm

On second thought, Fr, let’s be fair: either everybody in the OCA pays the head tax or NOBODY pays it. And why do the bishops of the exarchates get an equal vote on the Holy Synod if their flocks aren’t paying their fair share?

» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On October 20, 2011 @ 3:38 pm

This is beyond embarrassing, Fr. We’re veering into Micky Mouse territory.

» Posted By Geo Michalopulos On October 20, 2011 @ 3:30 pm