Comments Posted By Jacob
Displaying 151 To 180 Of 232 Comments
An Open Letter to His Beatitude
Carl,
Which Mark? Stokoe or Maymon?
» Posted By Jacob On November 11, 2011 @ 3:45 pm
Harry,
So what is your solution?
» Posted By Jacob On November 14, 2011 @ 3:29 pm
Fr Justin,
Father bless!
Do you know what the line item in the OCA budget was for the Metropolitan Council? I know that diocesan reps travel is paid by their dioceses, but do they pay for their own rooms while they meet in New York or is that born by the OCA? The OCA covers the travel and room for the at-large delegates? How much does a typical MC meeting cost?
Also, I believe the number of MC members is 30+. How many employees of the OCA Syosset staff do they actually oversee? I believe if I am not mistaken that all the committees that the MC has set up since 2006 appears to inflate their relative importance over a shrinking budget and reduced Syosset staff. I guess my question is if the cost ratio to actual personnel is a justifiable expense in the OCA budget. It might be an area that comes under closer examination going forward with the $105 only for 2012 and less after.
» Posted By Jacob On November 14, 2011 @ 3:04 pm
Of course none of these priests ever go on the record do they? Would you like to name them Thor since you seem to be so close to them and they confide in you? Would you like to offer up a quid pro quo or two to back up your claims? Have you ever met either Kondratick or Fester? Have you ever worked with either of them? Or is this just another drive by shooting post?
» Posted By Jacob On November 14, 2011 @ 2:47 pm
Chris,
Glad to hear you were not. I thought that they were so transparent and heavy handed. No more reply buttons so I posted here.
» Posted By Jacob On November 14, 2011 @ 11:36 am
Chris,
Were you in favor of the DOW resolutions passed against Jonah by Bishop Benjamin?
» Posted By Jacob On November 14, 2011 @ 11:25 am
Hear Ye. Hear Ye.
From someone who worked in Syosset and now has the perspective of being outside the Northeast Bubble, the FORMER TREASURER OF THE OCA agrees with the consensus of the Church gathered in Seattle that to continue the current obsession with keeping the OCA in Syosset is fiscal madness. Bad stewardship.
Thank you Fr. Michael.
Are you listening Syosset. All options, ALL OPTIONS need to be on the table. Fr Tosi. Put you house on the market now. It will take a couple of years for you to sell it.
» Posted By Jacob On November 7, 2011 @ 9:55 am
Lola,
The DC Cathedral Resolution on the Sanctity of Marriage passed. However other resolutions, such as the OCA pulling out of the NCC were successfully stalled by Kishkovsky as was the resolution asking all the Synod members to go through the same evaluation as Jonah. The Synod blocked that one. They pushed these to the last day and they ran out the clock. Old trick. Attempts to move these important issues earlier in the agenda we overruled by the Synod, so you knew at that point that they were playing games.
However the Marriage Resolution was a stinging rebuke of the Jillions, Arida, Wheeler, Stankovich, Vinogradov pro-gay agenda. I believe in large part due to the coverage given here on Monomahkos. Keep it up George.
» Posted By Jacob On November 7, 2011 @ 9:18 am
Michael,
I do accept him at his word. I always have done so. And I accept his word now. What I don’t accept nor trust is the double-dealing of Bishop Benjamin who’s record speaks for itself. He is in no wise competent to call Jonah’s kettle so black when his own kettle is blacker. It get’s done to motive and I do not trust the motives of Benjamin and Nathaniel.
Time will tell.
» Posted By Jacob On November 4, 2011 @ 1:43 pm
Michael and Carl,
The Metropolitan, as George stated, has already gone through a complete psych workup with a professional clinician. Someone who the Metropolitan had no prior relationship. The doctor’s evaluation was done by all common standards in that field of medicine. And the results, the Metropolitan is not gravely troubled. He has no addictive behavior. He is not depressed, not bipolar, not a drunk nor an abuser of controlled substances. He was and is in a highly stressful work environment, but even under those circumstances he does not display any abnormal psychological behavior. Period. From the profession clinician.
Why is it so difficult to see that because Benjamin ran rough shot over the Synod and threw out, yes, threw out those results because Jonah didn’t go to the drunk and druggie farm that Benjamin insisted and Benjamin in a shameless display of disharmony in the Synod and his Metropolitan embarked on a childish campaign to discredit Jonah with those infantile DOW resolutions, his personal agenda that became church policy.
You just don’t get it. However, maybe if the entire Synod, as a sign of solidarity with Jonah all checked into the same facility, and as brothers in Christ went through the same work up and evaluation program, whatever that may be and what is best from them personally and as a group, and maybe if they refuse, especially Benjamin, maybe, just maybe then you can begin to see that what has been going on since Stokoe unleashed his cabal to throw Jonah out, and Hopko, right on cue, threw in his “gravely troubled” sans Holy Spirit at Pittsburgh babble, maybe you can see that what is being said here, because you won’t get Stokoe to post anything that he can’t use to make his point, maybe, just maybe you can see that Jonah has been the victim, and still is on the edge of being thrown out as part of another high tech lynching in the OCA, as part of a cover to keep the dark lives of Benjamin and Nathaniel from closer inspection and the old guard ways in power.
The OCA is killing itself with this crap and if the bishops and the MC who have been at the center of this the last three years can’t admit their part, why should Jonah take all the blame?
But, he has done the noble thing. He has done it in the past. He is not an alley fighter like Benjamin, Nathaniel and Melchesedek. He is a monastic who has struggled to kill his ego, unlike Benjamin and Nathaniel, in particular. This is the new face of the OCA that the old guard, including a dysfunctional Hopko, are not willing to accept.
The OCA now is mind driven not heart driven and until the OCA heart informs the mind again it will continue to be on the track to insignificant oblivion.
Will the Bishops step up and really lead by example, like Jonah, or will they return to their dens of casting stones? Will they co-suffer with their brother Jonah or will they in another example of self-righteous chest pounding simply wimp out and continue to point fingers? I fear they will continue to do the ignoble and not the noble, continue to display an arrogance of the elite and not self-emptying love.
I hope they prove me wrong for the sake of Orthodoxy in this land. I really do because if they can’t or won’t, they will continue to be an ever diminishing figure in the rear view mirror of the rest of us Orthodox of all jurisdictions moving forward.
» Posted By Jacob On November 4, 2011 @ 11:07 am
What Are We Getting for $105? Part II. Syosset and Salaries: An Analysis
What the Metropolitan gets from 9 parishes in his DC diocese does not bring him up to those who are working for him in Syosset. Look at the organizational chart. Who is, at least on paper, on the top of the chart? Let’s put it in terms of the parish. If in a parish all positions were paid, do you think that the parish council president, secretary and treasurer should be paid more than the parish priest?
If the folks in Syosset are going to wait for an invitation to Constantinople, they are gonna be sitting around for a long time waiting for the phone to ring. You think that the previous administration just sat there and waited for the phone to ring? You make your opportunities.
» Posted By Jacob On October 24, 2011 @ 6:51 pm
JD
This is the bottom line compensation package. Whether in salary or in total compensation, us folks need to pony up that amount to pay these folks. If you say that $105K is in keeping with these positions, etc. why does the Metropolitan get paid less? What value are we getting for paying these salaries?
The OCA is declining. Its standing in the international Orthodox community is at an all-time low. Not one, NOT ONE person represented the OCA this past weekend in Constantinople for the 20th anniversary of Bartholomew as EP. +Justinian of the MP here in the USA was there! But not the OCA. What signal does that send about us here?
So, yes, your point is well taken but the question before the Church still is, are we getting value for our money?
» Posted By Jacob On October 24, 2011 @ 5:07 pm
This is great news for the DOS. 2013/14 is locked in because they are already on a proportional system. $50 will be about 23% of budget but the DOS has already committed to a 25% level to the OCA. This means that least $100K more for the DOS use on diocesan growth.
Mission accomplished. Who cares what the MC does.
» Posted By Jacob On November 3, 2011 @ 5:21 pm
Benjamin may be a better administrator than Jonah, but when it comes to matters of the heart, where Jonah’s first impulse is forgive, Benjamin’s is to condemn. Would that Benjamin, as an act of charity and support for his brother, Metropolitan Jonah, also undergo an evaluation at the same facility. That might do more to begin the healing of the OCA than anything else.
» Posted By Jacob On November 2, 2011 @ 1:52 pm
Battle in Seattle? — Part 1 One
Michael,
Are you a member of the OCA? Do you commune and confess in an OCA parish?
Yes or No.
» Posted By Jacob On November 2, 2011 @ 2:45 pm
I think that when this sad chapter in the book of the OCA is written, Jonah will be remembered and Benjamin forgotten. When you put the two side by side, it is obvious which one is lacking and troubled. If those who are working the levers of power permit Jonah to survive he can become the new example to follow and not the old guard who want only the status quo. If the OCA has a chance to regain its place here in the USA it will be under under the patient humble model of Jonah and not the arrogant angry example of Benjamin.
There is a sense of longing for the days when the OCA meant something positive. It must be more than mere nostalgia but a reset of our priorities. Jonah has tried that, but the push back of those seeking the status quo has been forceful. I think Hopko’s push back against Jonah is rooted in Hopko’s sense that the days of blind acceptance of all things Schememann and Meyendorf, all things SVS, are at hand. Jonah has a very healthy balance of what these men and institution were but also what they were not. To speak against Fr Alexander in anyway is anathema to Hopko. Hence the attempt to stir up Fr. Alexander’s memory by using Matushka Julianna. Indeed it was a nice warm and fuzzy video, but Frs Alexander, John and those halcyon days of SVS are also over.
Sadly, the immaturity of people like Benjamin, so quick to judge and condemn and so slow to forgive, is where the OCA finds itself today. Benjamin has been a major player in the demise of the OCA as a positive force for Orthodoxy in this land to one that shoots her wounded. His anger has fed so much of that unsettled sense we have today. His displays of dismissive contempt mirror how he leads his diocese where clergy are afraid to speak up for fear of retribution. Hence clergy signed those ridiculous DOW resolutions that were mean-spirited against Jonah. Benjamin surrounds himself with willing cohorts like Solodow and Wilson who feed into that uncharitable spirit.
Two bishops will accompany Jonah for his evaluation, Michael and Tikhon, probably the two who need the least to be with him. It seems so clear that so much of the anger that Benjamin has for Jonah is a projection onto Jonah of Benjamin’s own demons. If this Synod had any sense of balance they would insist that Benjamin also undergo an evaluation with Jonah since he, Benjamin was the one who cast the first stone against his brother.
We all have flaws but those who would aspire to leadership, Orthodox bishops, need to set the example. In the end, if given a chance, Jonah can be that better example when compared to his chief rival, Benjamin. The question is, will Jonah survive? Can one conclude that if Jonah has a chance at surviving but if Jonah goes down, so to the OCA?
» Posted By Jacob On November 2, 2011 @ 7:25 am
Touchy there Carl. Come on now. We here on Monomahkos have each other’s back. Unlike a group of bishops on display in Seattle right now.
Coven is one of those words like gay. You can’t use it because it has been co-opted. So no matter who answered, we are all one big happy family here. Hey you can say we are a gay (happy) coven (collection of individuals with similar interests or activities.)
» Posted By Jacob On November 1, 2011 @ 8:41 pm
Helga,
Not as easy as in the good old days when ROCOR was schismatic. Then if you came, they would accept you. Now, with them being reunited with the MP, it is a much different proposition. Jonah would have to be released from the OCA, by the Synod before he could be accepted into ROCOR. I do not think there is anyway that they would let Jonah go to ROCOR or the MP. Heck, if they are not willing to let him just go back to the DOS as a diocesan bishop, they sure won’t let him go outside the OCA.
Nope, he either tows the line and is a good boy, and that might not be enough, or he is sent out to pasture, “for the good of the Church” and the rest of us are left with who to lead the OCA?
» Posted By Jacob On November 1, 2011 @ 5:34 pm
If it is St. Luke’s, and I believe it is, Jonah will have the stigma of being a “graduate” of that place and that is nothing you put on your CV. It is all part of the plan to outsource him.
» Posted By Jacob On November 1, 2011 @ 5:15 pm
He is just hacked off because no one is wearing a button of him! Too bad. So sad!!
» Posted By Jacob On November 1, 2011 @ 4:50 pm
Carl,
The Synod is dysfunctional. Jonah as the First Hierarch like the captain of a ship, takes responsibility and does so sincerely. But then you get “monkey butt” comments from Benjamin. Come one, you are suppose to comport yourself with so sort of dignity. Benjamin is a real problem inside that Synod and he has run rough shot over Jonah since Day 1.
Jonah has accepted responsibility TOO MUCH, in my opinion. Sure he has screwed up. You would too if you were one against the many. He has tried, sincerely. But it is never good enough, and this time will be no different.
» Posted By Jacob On November 1, 2011 @ 4:42 pm
And who will determine when the patient (Jonah) is cured? If it is up to Benjamin, he will never be cured. That is the setup. What bar is being set for Jonah? What are the pre-determined benchmarks he is suppose to achieve? With this group you will get down to the 1 yard line, and suddenly they will add 50 more yards to the field.
If Jonah goes into this without knowing what these yahoos want, he ain’t every gonna cross the goal line. I said it before and I will say it again, the fix is in. They get through this week and then out of sight, they bring the knife.
» Posted By Jacob On November 1, 2011 @ 4:24 pm
The only ones who can have an agenda at this so called Council is Benjamin and his coven. The man is a train-wreck. What a total hypocrite. The whole bunch sitting up there really can’t be taken seriously. “If you here with an agenda………” The man is not all there.
» Posted By Jacob On November 1, 2011 @ 4:20 pm
Time will tell Carl. Time will tell. My bet is that Jonah will be put into this “clergy assistance program” where he will then be tagged as “gravely troubled ” again with Bps. Tikhon and Michael being his episcopal guards who will then deliver to him the news that he is being retired.
Solodow was and still is part of the movement to rid the OCA of Jonah. Remember the Stokoe emails?He has always, and continues to carry Benjamin’s water. He did on the SIC, and he still does now on the MC.
I have no doubt that Jonah was told, “you either say it was your fault or you will be out of a job.” It is a redux of Santa Fe – and another fight because Jonah was able to fight off his loving and faithful brothers then because he had people fighting for him. Thank God for this website which the Synod members and Syosset staffers read daily because those loyal to the Metropolitan were disposed of by Benjamin.
Remember this Carl, Benjamin had three people from his diocese on the SIC. Talk about being objective. Not. Benjamin positioned himself to be the successor of Herman. It was supposed to be between him and Job. Benjamin never saw Jonah coming, who did, out of the blue to be elected. From that moment, Benjamin kept his SIC team, minus one, who got the hell out of OCA life on that level after the SIC charade, she also being a lawyer. But he kept Solodow and WIlson close and both now have OCA roles that put them in positions to keep Jonah boxed in for Benjamin.
As I said, time will tell and we should know pretty soon, by the end of the year, if Jonah survives as an empty suit Metropolitan or is retired, “for the good of the Church” of course.
Carl, if you think that events on this level of Church life just happen, you are very naive. These manuevers are well planned and calculating. The entire week of the AAC is scripted. It has always been that way. New faces, same goal – control the outcome. Jonah threw a big monkey wrench in their plans and they still don’t like it.
Solodow played his role. Benjamin is playing his role, the bully on the block. His time will come, it always does with bullies. I just hope I am still around to see it.
Keep a sharp eye folks. This is just the beginning.
» Posted By Jacob On November 1, 2011 @ 2:21 pm
George,
This website has brought balance to the cyber wars against the OCA launched by Stokoe and Wheeler back in 2006. I pray that it will continue to do so. The OCAN assaults will not cease and the fact that Stokoe has held back, even at this hour, proves to me that he was in on this speech and told to stay quiet until after the speech was over.
If Stokoe comes out with an olive branch or at least not a gun, it tells me that there is something bigger down the road that he knows of which will be the real end game against Jonah. Given that this website is now a constant counter to every word he writes and to the com box remarks on OCAN, Stokoe now may be “leading from behind.” But it should be noted that the difference in his tactics before the Pittsburgh Council and this one are like night and day.
Stay alert. This fight is far from over.
» Posted By Jacob On November 1, 2011 @ 12:06 pm
I am looking forward to reading his speech and not just the spoken word. Knowing your background in speech writing, Deacon Patrick, I value your opinion of his address.
Time will tell as to how this all plays out. Hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst!
» Posted By Jacob On November 1, 2011 @ 11:52 am
Helga,
I like your read on the Metropolitan’s address and the subsequent Q & A session. The key will be what type of “rehab” or “clergy care” facility we are talking about. Benjamin is the loud mouth on the Synod. He is the alcoholic on the Synod and acts out in public like the dry drunk that he is. He is not a nice person and when cornered he attacks. Jonah on the other hand when attacked accepts, but accepts too quickly in my opinion, and not with proper discernment for his role as Metropolitan. If he can learn how to accept responsibility when appropriate and when he is getting blamed for things that are not his fault, not to just accept the blame but direct and lead to a solution, then he has a chance. I don’t know if he can learn that. He has not shown the ability to do that up to now.
Not one of the other bishops on the Synod right now is better than Jonah as Metropolitan. Jonah has his faults but so do they and the Church elected him BY THE GRACE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT (you listening Hopko?) in Pittsburgh. If this Synod continues to beat him up going forward, the scapegoat will be them, the Synod, and rightly so.
You are right, in a perfect world, Jonah has nothing to fear from a legitimate, unbiased evaluation. But he got that back in April and the Synod did not buy it. Why? Because they were not looking for that, they were looking for ammo to remove him. I don’t think that has changed. The only difference now is that they must do it without raising the anger of Moscow.
Sorry to be so jaded on this, but I still see a Synod being bullied by Benjamin, working with his inside men, Tosi, Garklavs, Kishkovsky, Solodow and Mechesedek out flanking the Metropolitan and until I see the Synod change its tune, I will continue to raise the red flag.
» Posted By Jacob On November 1, 2011 @ 11:00 am
I think the next card to be played will determine how subsequent hands are played. Where Jonah is going to “get help” will speak volumes. Let’s be frank, the Synod is not sending him to some Dale Carneige school. Benjamin was the one who wanted him to go to an alcohol and drug rehab center in February. Jonah said he is going into a “clergy care” program. Clergy care for what? Anybody know of a clergy care program for clergy who have a hard time organizing their time? For being a bad administrator? Does he have to take the fall for everything bad in the OCA in public just because he can’t get his calendar in order? No, where Jonah goes for help will tell the rest of the story.
I have to agree with Rod. Jonah has been beaten down. Stripped of people who tried to protect him from people like Benjamin and Solodow, Jonah fought this fight with no one in his corner. Jonah may have a persecution complex, that is, he loves to be beaten up, somehow understands the abuse as some sort of podvig, or the cost of leadership. He may be too selfish in that view of his role and thus does not take advice easily. I sure hope his loving brother bishops have his back.
But, it is also clear that the Synod was put in a corner by Moscow. They set the rules by making it very clear back in March and April that if Jonah goes for any reason other than a canonical infraction, the MP will not recognize his removal. But this is why the location of Jonah’s rehab is so critical.
Whatever the outcome, Jonah’s speech or at least that section of the speech where he falls on his sword sounded like an insert from the Synod playing to Moscow but also keeping the door open to keep their options open to remove Jonah sooner or later. Thus, Jonah keeps his job for this week but I really believe that the real future of Jonah will be written after the AAC.
This week, the Synod papers over Jonah so that they can move on to the issue of the Assessment. It is of paramount importance for the Syosset staffers to leave Seattle with their $105 in hand, even if the AAC votes for the $50, the Synod will overturn that vote. They will pull out all the stops, even a 2 minute video by Matushka Schememann to recall an “era of OCA good feelings” with the sole purpose to keep the assessment money flowing under the guise of the OCA vision not yet fulfilled.
Jonah is now either a short-term figurehead or a long-term one. He is a kept man who will further be limited in his role. It really is the same old same OCA. Old style, new actors. Theodosius was a kept man by Schememann, then by subsequent chancellors, a victim of his own weaknesses. Today, Jonah is a kept man by the Synod, MC, and Syosset staffers with the stigma of “needing help” and that always being held over his head.
And, in the meantime, the OCA is whistling by the graveyard. It continues to lose members, lose prestige and more of a Potemkin Village than ever. This AAC is the worst attended since 1980. I look now at those who are charged with turning this ship around, and frankly, I don’t see anyone except Jonah, but he will only be a mouthpiece for what others expect him to say. Not too inspiring, but we can hope, I guess.
» Posted By Jacob On November 1, 2011 @ 10:03 am
Yes.
» Posted By Jacob On October 31, 2011 @ 11:24 pm
«« Back To Stats PageSo let’s give Syosset a raise and keep the head tax at $105 since we lowly and stupid laity can’t possibly understand the machinations of the Synod. Just pray, pay and obey. If you vote to lower the head tax to $50 we will simply overrule you and keep it at $105 and demand you pay it.
The Synod pinned every ill on Jonah, like they did Herman, like they did Kondratick, and even like they did Schmemann when they kicked him out.
So who will be the next leader of the OCA? Oh wait, we already know. A rotating series of Temporary Administrators. Stokoe told us that before and Kishkovsky also told us before when he planned the ouster of Jonah based on the Rodizanko Plan. – “call him gravely troubled and keep telling people that and eventually we will wear our victim down.”
But remember kids, we are a bunch of conspiracy wackos. Yeah. Right!
» Posted By Jacob On October 31, 2011 @ 11:08 pm
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