Comments Posted By Nikos
Displaying 31 To 60 Of 674 Comments
Disgusted,
To be fair, the OCA has their annual letter for the Sanctity of Life and special petitions to be used on the Sunday before the March. There is nothing to limit the use of those petitions by a parish priest anytime. Is the annual letter enough? No. Should they speak out more? Not knowing if they have said or done anything else except participate in the March, but knowing that the prevailing thinking in the USA is that a majority of people now believe that R v. W. should not be repealed, there is much work to be done. However it is a challenge for the bishops to speak in favor of life when they abuse the life of one of their own. We lead by example and their recent example is not life affirming. But, they can repent as we all can and should to choose life in all of its wondrous expressions including treating one another with love and respect.
» Posted By Nikos On January 22, 2013 @ 5:24 pm
There is that green-eyed envy about the Greek Orthodox here in the USA. The poor OCA, doesn’t even get a thought by the White House and Inaugural Committee.
Archbishop Demetrios, whether you like it or not, and you obviously do not, is the leading Orthodox bishop in the USA. Deal with it. Did you expect the White House to invite the newest in the turnstile Metropolitans? Heck, do you think they even know?
Whether the President is a Democrat or Republican, they come and go (like OCA Metropolitans) but the GOA has a respected leader, known inside and outside the Orthodox Church. He is a loving man who has more smarts in the tip of his little finger then the entire brain trust of leadership of the OCA synod. Deal with it!
Oh, and by the way, the GOA didn’t pay one penny to be there. They were invited by the White House and they would have been invited if Romney won.
» Posted By Nikos On January 22, 2013 @ 8:08 am
John 20:25
» Posted By Nikos On January 19, 2013 @ 9:04 am
Carl,
I believe that St. Nicholas Cathedral MP in NYC is a landmark and thus subject to restoration rules. Similarly Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow when it was rebuilt needed to follow the same style of western style icons in the main church. However the basement church in Christ the Savior did not exist in the original Cathedral, thus its iconography is not western since there were no previous restoration covenants.
And, no the western style icons at St Nicholas are not “cringe inducing.” They have been prayed before by countless number pious people since the time of St Tikhon and St. Alexander Hotovitsky to this very day. It was not then nor is it now a museum. That is a cringe inducing judgmental statement.
But then again, you all know what is best in the Carolinas!
» Posted By Nikos On January 11, 2013 @ 12:30 am
Carl,
If people talk about bishops in an “audacious” way, as you suggest, should not those same bishops not act in such audacious ways towards their own kind? Leading by example? They do teach their flocks for better or worse!
» Posted By Nikos On January 8, 2013 @ 1:35 pm
TODAY’S OUTRAGE FROM HERR CHANCELLOR JILLIONS
In the epistle, James writes at length and passionately about the damage caused by unkind, unnecessary and unchecked speech. “The tongue is a fire,” and sets people, families, communities and whole nations at war with each other. And yet a good word in season can also be a powerful blessing. “With the tongue we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so.” (James 3:9-10). If only James knew of the internet! I would like to see us all resolve not only to check our own speech (Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary?) but also put to shame those in the household of faith who do not.
Is this guy for real? Where was his outrage when Stokoe and ocanews was at work?
Where was his outrage when the synod wrote the STINKBOMB letter and used the Internet to spread it around like so much manure?
Where was his outrage when Maymon teamed up with Stokoe to print stolen emails?
How about launching your misconduct cases against these people? Oh wait. They are the ones who pay your big salary. I guess they get a pass.
» Posted By Nikos On January 8, 2013 @ 8:35 am
Christ is Born! Glorify Him!
May the Joy of the Feast of our Lord’s Incarnation bring peace and reconciliation to all.
Sadly, Archbishop Benjamin of the OCA Diocese of the West apparently does not believe in the spirit of the Feast.
His Beatitude, Metropolitan Jonah has been invited to lead an OCF in California in January. Also, His Beatitude has been invited to marry a young woman who he brought into the Orthodox Faith. Archbishop Benjamin can’t do a thing about +Jonah leading the OCF retreat, however he has exacted his petty, jealous, envious revenge by barring +Jonah from marrying the young woman and her fiancé. The great Benjamin has pronounced that +Jonah may attend the wedding, but is prohibited from serving.
What utter madness. What a complete breakdown of good Church order, let alone brotherly love….”Peace on earth, good will among men” not quite when it comes to +Benjamin and the OCA synod relating to their brother, +Jonah.
As of December 31, 2012, +Jonah will be cut off and on his own, his brother bishop’s, like Pontius Pilate, washing their hands of him, telling +Jonah to “see to it yourself.”
At +Jonah’s former Cathedral in DC, their 2013 Pledge Drive is almost over with 31 December the deadline date for pledge cards. And what a success it is. All of 30 pledge cards have been returned, and two of those from former tithing members, who are now paying the minimum amount to the Cathedral, Diocese and OCA.
But of course, all is well in the OCA. Things are just fine at St. Nicholas in DC. No need to worry about the bishops and Syosset staffers. Bishop Mark Maymon is now living on the dole of the diocese of eastern pennsylvania as their administration. This man is sure making the OCA rounds, and yet no one wants him. Will the EPA be his last stop?
+Benjamin continues his vicious treatment of +Jonah, yet this is the same man who defecated in the backseat of a Las Vegas Police squad car, drunk as a belligerent skunk. He, however, treats +Jonah as if he was a reprobate. +Benjamin who is a drunk, had to have his stomach stapled because of his passion to food, yet he has projected his demons onto +Jonah.
All of this and more has made the OCA the laughing stock of world Orthodoxy. Let’s see how many Churches show up in January for +Tikhon’s installation, oops sorry, Enthronement. Yeah, right.
Thanks to all of you in Constantinople, Moscow and ROCOR who read this website and are grateful for the real news taking place with +Jonah.
Syosset, if you want the OCA to be an Orthodox sect here in the USA, just tell us so we can make our choice. If you don’t care what other Orthodox Churches think of your actions, that you can just do whatever you want, please just tell us. Did people join the OCA to be part of a sect?
» Posted By Nikos On December 26, 2012 @ 10:50 am
More from Russia, Not with Love
So, Carl, I guess you can’t answer my question? It is a simple question, really, however made much more difficult to answer by the actions of the OCA synod.
LOL on the “demigod” line. With correction and criticism like that, the synod and syosset might as well work for Glenn Beck.
» Posted By Nikos On January 5, 2013 @ 8:26 am
Carl writes,
3. +Jonah did not agree with the speech and was coerced to give it: He still must live with it or suffer the consequence of having broken his solemn consecration vow not to give into coercion, and perhaps a Canon or two that covers the same thing as his vow.
No Carl, it is not just +Jonah who must live with it, the entire OCA now has to live with it, and trying to make sense out of nonsense is a futile exercise.
+Jonah should not have resigned. However the final attack on him was quick, down, and dirty. If he would had not been so beaten down by his brothers and others forcing him into St. Luke’s, making unreasonable demands on him to admit himself for 6 months of observation, treating him like a leper when he was on his leave, ambushing him in Santa Fe, yes maybe a stronger man, or shall we say a more ruthless player may have lashed back, threatened back at his brothers, call to mind for others to see the serious shortcomings of those who were accusing him of the same demons they were suffering from, maybe he would not have resigned. But in doing so, he has shed a light on the internal machinations of the OCA.
Based on such a foundation, one can hardly see how much good fruit can be harvested by such a sick tree.
Of course time will tell but I can’t imagine that any healing will take place unless the OCA heeds the good advice of Her Mother Church to treat her former Primate with respect.
Maybe, Carl, you can try and answer this question, “What is stopping the OCA synod from doing what has been asked by their historic and most important supporter and Her Mother Church?”
» Posted By Nikos On January 3, 2013 @ 10:15 pm
The fact, and it is a fact, that Jonah was forced to take “responsibility” in that section of the Seattle Council address, written for him by the synod, somehow is something that you will not accept. In not accepting this fact, you are forced to create a reality about +Jonah that is not based on the whole truth. I feel sorry for you, and for many like you who took what was fed to you by the synod, Stokoe, Hopko, Kishkovsky, et. al.. It must be a burden to try and live with inconsistencies.
This is the faulty foundation that the new OCA is built upon. It is an administrative house, built on sand by opportunists who are not ready to lead. You should hope and pray that +Tikhon can convince the rest of the synod to let +Jonah go to the MP/ROCOR before the big “enthronement” festivities in DC, because if they don’t, the OCA will be publicly humiliated, again, by her Mother Church and others who will send no representatives to DC.
All the paperwork is set. The request by the MP/ROCOR to accept +Jonah is in the hands of the synod. It is up to them now with chilling consequences if they don’t let +Jonah go. Is it possible that the synod will finally do the right thing after a series of missteps? Is it possible that they will swallow their collective pride? I am sure it is too much for them to admit that they handled the entire +Jonah affaire like bulls in a china shop, but they can take a small step to recoup their tarnished image by letting +Jonah serve the Church of Christ in the MP/ROCOR.
Will they do it? Are they Christian enough? We will all know soon.
» Posted By Nikos On January 1, 2013 @ 1:35 pm
NK,
That is your right to object, but if others don’t think the satirical cartoon is offensive, you are infringing on my rights by being a “thought policeman.”
No one forced you to look at the cartoon. You made the choice to enter the “satire zone.”
Please recall, the satirical cartoon comes from the deacon himself who proudly told the world who he was going to have dinner with last Friday. Being a public figure means that you may be the subject of satire. It has a long history in our country.You may descend your moral high horse now and keep developing your sense of humor.
» Posted By Nikos On December 19, 2012 @ 12:01 pm
Today’s totally irrelevant bit of news from Fr. John Jillion’s Chancellor’s Diary
On a personal note, and along the lines of “rejoice with those who rejoice,” while yesterday’s meeting with the Legal Committee was in full swing, I had word from my oldest son, Andrew (30), that he had successfully passed his PhD defense at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), with a dissertation on international law, From Faith in Rules to the Rule of Law: Constitutional Responsibilities in International Society. My late father graduated from LSE in 1949, which adds another layer of family happiness.
Anyone who has completed a doctorate knows what a hard slog that can be, how underappreciated it often is and how many people they need around them to pull it off. So I raise a metaphorical glass to Andrew, to all who finish their doctorates and to their teachers and supporters along the way, with thanks to God who stands behind every good gift, success and satisfaction.
Yes, a proud dad, nothing wrong with that, but why is it necessary for Jillions to force feed the OCA website readers with personal news? Does he need to validate himself in his role as Chancellor? That is personal business with little or nothing to do with his job (handsomely paid) as Chancellor.
Come on Jillions, get a grip and get back to your job. What are you doing to rectify the continued mistreatment of Metropolitan Jonah? How are you dealing with the continued blow back from other Orthodox Churches who have put the OCA on notice that unless +Jonah is treated with respect and released, there will be consequences?
Hopefully the OCA Legal guys will tell you to stop trying to reopen legally settled and binding misconduct cases which if reopened could lead to the OCA going to court and spending needless money on your sex quest. Why do you continue to ignore the most obvious cases like Archdeacon Gregory Burke? Why are you trying to pursue a case of misconduct which a diocesan spiritual court threw out exonerating the cleric?
I am happy for you and your son, bravo, but reporting it does little to boost my confidence in your abilities nor give you any more credibility as Chancellor. Get back to work. And, btw, I would much rather hear from the Metropolitan on a regular basis and not you.
» Posted By Nikos On December 19, 2012 @ 10:04 am
Thomas,
Again, you are wrong. Totally. Check the other representation churches in Moscow. Sure they use the language of their own national churches but they use a majority of church slavonic in their respective services. Why? Because neighborhood Russians walk to those churches for services.
Also, the MP did not “give” St. Catherine’s to the OCA. The MP permits the OCA to use St. Catherine’s. It is still an MP parish that represents the OCA in Moscow. Sure the idea of english speaking people going to St. Catherine’s was one if its founding ideas, but never was it to be an english only for english speaking only faithful.
Don’t talk about things you don’t know. You just look more stupid.
» Posted By Nikos On December 17, 2012 @ 7:53 am
George,
This latest flight of fantasy writing by TP is so full of misrepresentations and outright lies it borders on questioning the sanity of the writer. However, he has written enough to conclude that with every word he writes he uncovers the spiritual bankruptcy that is not lost on those who read this site.
I must protest again that he has no right to call a bishop of the Church as having an evil character. It is clear that his hero, Dn. Eric Wheeler has led someone like to to write such things when he boastfully calls this same bishop an “old fool.”
The facts remain and those who were at SVS at the time will concur that Wheeler was on his way out and to try and misrepresent those mentioned as believing otherwise is another feeble attempt to rewrite the real history of those days.
It appears that the OCA is convinced that people like Bp Mark Maymon, a self-admitted thief of private emails and the author to the clergy and faithful of EPA of a very sad letter about the events that took place in CT. are the caliber of people they believe are their leaders. Talk of Dn. Eric being a possible candidate for the office of bishop in the OCA is another indication of their ultimate direction and destination.
If these are the people they want to lead the OCA, then let them have them. The result we be clear in years to come as the OCA continues to wither and further embrace the values of this world and not the long-held Traditions of the Church. I can’t imagine was less qualified person to even be a priest, let alone a bishop than TP’s hero. But, that will be up to others to decide, but for us laity, we too will need to decide if this jurisdiction is still our home. Actions have consequences. We know that the recent actions by the OCA have left serious wounds which will take decades to heal. But if TP and others think these people will lead the OCA out of its current malaise, they now have their chance.
» Posted By Nikos On December 16, 2012 @ 2:31 pm
The OCA posted two new “congratulatory” letters sent to Metropolitan Tikhon, one from Metropolitan Sawa of the Polish Orthodox Church and the other from Bishop Ilia of the Albanian Orthodox Church.
In his letter to +Tikhon, Metropolitan prays for the new Metropolitan with the caveat,
(may) Your service contribute to the internal stability of the American Church, which has been affected in recent years. May God help you!
Again the reality of the OCA comes through in the words of Metropolitan Sawa. He knows as well as others that the life of the OCA is not stable in recent years.
Again one must ask the question, Why won’t the OCA synod release +Jonah? Why won’t they do the right thing so that stability in the OCA can have a chance?
» Posted By Nikos On December 14, 2012 @ 4:16 pm
TP,
St. Catherine’s is a parish of the Moscow Patriarchate. It is not an OCA parish. It does some of it’s services in English but never was it an all English community. As usual, you show us how little you know about the internal workings of the OCA with your latest comment about St. Catherine’s.
The vast majority of people who went to the St. Catherine Feastday in December were not the regular communicants of the parish. Those people, well of 100 didn’t show up. Those there were the usual local Moscow folk who go from church to church especially on a parish feast day, expecting a bishop to be there.
Things are far from perfect at St. Catherine’s and reports that the community sent a letter to the OCA asking for their former dean to be returned are true.
People leaving the OCA even in Moscow. Wait, everything is fine. A guess we have a new working definition of “everything is fine.”
» Posted By Nikos On December 14, 2012 @ 7:32 am
NotTrue,
Moscow and ROCOR will be present at the rum installation of +Tikhon. Not that they will be happy to be there, but they will make a presence. +Justinian will be present and maybe a ROCOR bishop. Kishkovsky is calling in whatever markers he has left to make sure the installation is not an embarrassment. But to measure how successful this installation is, compare it to Met. Herman’s installation. Besides members of the OCA synod, active and retired at that time, (one wonders if retired OCA bishops will be invited to +Tikhon’s installation???)….. the following bishops and other clergy representing every Orthodox Church in the world were in attendance:
Among the concelebrating hierarchs representing the sister Orthodox Churches were His Grace, Bishop Savas, Chancellor of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, Patriarchate of Constantinople; His Grace, Bishop Georgios, Patriarchate of Alexandria; His Grace, Bishop Demetri of Jableh, Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America, Patriarchate of Antioch; His Eminence, Archbishop Damaskinos of Jaffa, Patriarchate of Jerusalem; His Eminence, Metropolitan Filaret of Minsk and His Grace, Bishop Mercurius of Zaraisk, Patriarchate of Moscow; His Eminence, Archbishop Nicolae, Romanian Orthodox Church in America and Canada,Patriarchate of Romania; His Beatitude, Metropolitan Sawa of Warsaw and All Poland and His Eminence, Archbishop Abel of Lublin, Orthodox Church of Poland; His Grace, Bishop Simeon, Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia; His Eminence, Metropolitan Daniel of Tokyo, Autonomous Orthodox Church of Japan; and His Eminence, Archbishop Avgustin of Lviv and Galicia, Autonomous Ukrainian Orthodox Church – Moscow Patriarchate. Other Churches were represented by clergy.” (Taken from the OCA website)
Considering the OCA still doesn’t have a hotel and Tosi is in DC now trying to pull this thing off, with Kishkovsky pleading for bishop’s to come to DC in January, I look forward to seeing how the world responds to the OCA 10 years later.
» Posted By Nikos On December 14, 2012 @ 7:24 am
Peter,
You are spot on. The issue with the brain trusts in the OCA regarding +Jonah is money. He is not asking for a “Kings ransom” only an amount over a limited period of time so that he can care for his elderly parents, not himself.
Yet, the OCA seems to think a human being, the former Primate of their Church, is a dead issue. Bishop Benjamin stated boldly to the parish council in Los Angeles that “Jonah WILL NEVER be released.” Well, I think we can conclude that his demons are now the demons of the OCA synod. When will they stand up and tell this broken person that he does not speak for the OCA?
A friend of mine in another Orthodox jurisdiction in California told me that the clergy of the DOW are petrified by +Benjamin. They know how bitter a man he is and how broken a person. How many of them have the courage to stand up to him? If he were to leave tomorrow, there would be nary a tear shed upon his departure.
Until the OCA deals with +Jonah in a respectful fashion, and respectful is not to order a unilateral assignment under +Benjamin, their woes will only continue to grow. And isn’t it ironic, if not the height of hypocrisy that it was the synod that accused +Jonah of making unilateral decisions, yet they project upon him a unilateral decision to go to the DOW?
These men are bereft of spiritual care and are so caught up in the web of their own lies that they seem to have only a choice to continue to try and justify their own sinful behavior. Unless they come clean and admit their mistakes, the dream that once was the OCA will continue to wither and die on the precious Vine that they were called to plant here in America.
On the eve of the Feast of the first American Saint, Herman of Alaska, let us pray that they look to his image, one who cared for the poor and downtrodden, the abused and the neglected, and repent of their sins.
There will be no peace or future for the OCA until they do right by +Jonah.
» Posted By Nikos On December 12, 2012 @ 2:33 pm
“Jonah is a dead issue.” Such care, such understanding, such compassion, so OCA!
Your understanding of the tenure of Archimandrite Wood is quite wrong, but then again, most of what you write here is ill informed. I am glad you think the “OCA is just fine.” With supporters like you, the OCA should really be worried.
Nevertheless, you have no idea how beneficial your comments are here. They are so revealing and confirming to those who have stopped drinking the Kool-Aid being offer by Syosset.
» Posted By Nikos On December 12, 2012 @ 11:24 am
Fr George,
One of the “journalistic tricks” of the now AWOL Mark Stokoe was to hold particularly critical comments on his flawed ocanews, then launch his “editorial comments” to then direct further comments in his direction and the reading of things, thus proving by the volume of subsequent comments of his minions to lend credence to his assaults against those he built his “credibility.”
His site was tightly controlled to produce his end game. Here on Monomahkos, George filters very few if any comments thus providing an open community of commentators. Does George get all the facts correct? No, but his mistakes are not intentional nor are they made to mislead and create an environment for his own aims.
The fact that Stokoe after doing his work to “purify” the OCA now no longer attends his oca parish. He has gone AWOL. Why? I don’t know the answer to that but if he remains AWOL from the OCA it leads one to make their own conclusions as to why he embarked on his ways to rectify the OCA only to now leave it.
Critical comments about the OCA and ocanews based on their actions in the removal of +Jonah and the quite lacking defenses of OCA leadership by some who post here have done little to restore a sense of confidence. Thus, one can ask, “is the OCA in a better condition than it was 10 years ago?” In some ways, apparent fiscal discipline, maybe, but in other more important ways, not.
As of today, +Jonah has forwarded to his brother bishops all the necessary paperwork to be accepted into the MP/ROCOR. And yet, as of today, he is a man who has been cut off by his brothers. One can only pray that finally, Metropolitan Tikhon and his brothers on the OCA synod will do the right thing and let +Jonah go to the MP/ROCOR. What can be any good reason not to let him go? It is apparent that if he stays in the OCA he will be of little or no use to them. Rather he will be quarantined in obscurity with no assignment.
Lest one forgets, when he “resigned” he asked for another assignment in the OCA. Even at that moment of being rejected he hoped to be of further service to his jurisdiction. Since then, however, the synod wrote a terrible letter about him further damaging and degrading him, the famous STINKBOMB letter; a letter not worthy of Archpastors but certainly worthy of the lawyers who wrote it. We know now he neither aided or concealed a rapist priest, one of the cornerstones of their rejection of +Jonah and their STINKBOMB letter only confirmed to those willing to look beyond the surface of that self-justifying attempt that the entire movement to get rid of +Jonah was based on some sort of fear of +Jonah and not in any logical and more importantly Christian foundations. They took an unprofessional and biased declaration of a protopresbyter who branded him “gravely troubled” and used that as cover to legitimate their actions. They rewarded +Jonah former chancellor with a plum parish, then used that parish as the venue for the “nomination” and “election” of the synod’s preselected choice and wrapped it in the mantle of the same protopresbyter who defamed +Jonah. An event that was even more tightly controlled than ocanews! Accountability and transparency?
So now, after such sub-Christian behavior, he asks to be released. He has a Church more than willing to take him, anxious to add him to their ranks knowing that he can be of good service to them.
It is time for the OCA do the right thing. Sadly, there will be many other missteps the OCA will make, which will open them to more discord and clergy and laity leaving their ranks. But for now, +Jonah’s release to the MP/ROCOR is at hand.
Thanks again to George and this site so that it can be some sort of voice of conscience to the OCA leadership and to those who read it from other Orthodox Churches so that they can see that all is not fine in the OCA, yet.
» Posted By Nikos On January 3, 2013 @ 9:54 am
Daniel E. Fall,
Why it is necessary for the bishops of the OCA to annually in January have their letter on the sanctity of life read in parishes? Is it not to remind the faithful of basic teachings of the Church on this subject?
If the bishop directs his clergy to read something in Church and it is not against the teachings of the Church, he is duty bound to do so. It is that simple.
Rather you seem to give parish clergy the power to determine what is the Teachings of the Church and what is not and to be the final arbiter. The parish priest serves at the blessing of his bishop, it is the bishop’s signature on the antimins not the parish priest. He is to uphold with his life those teachings as we have witnessed by the countless millions of clergy who did exactly that under the yoke of Godless atheism in soviet times.
This becomes even more important when one considers that we are a small minority in this land, our parishes are tiny in number and thus even one member espousing wrong teachings can have a devastating effect on the flock. We don’t have the benefit of scores of old babas who would correct such a person in their motherly ways with a swift kick or a smack upside the head of a wayward soul.
Homosexuality is not God’s way, just as abortion is not God’s way, as just two examples. Thus it is good anytime a bishop of the Church, who’s role as archpastor is to teach the Faith and to protect it against any wolves that might wish to invade the flock.
If a priest objects, he can bring it up to his bishop, but he does not have the authority to counter the bishop (except in the case of the teaching of heresy.) If Orthodox Church is a hierarchical then that is what a priest is ordained into and is expected to be faithful to that reality, with blood if necessary, but just as importantly in his daily witness in the myriad of “white martyrdoms” against those who would wish to chip away at the edges of the Truth that is the Gospel of Christ and reshape it into their own desires.
» Posted By Nikos On December 18, 2012 @ 8:43 am
Dan Fall,
Amazing. You say that Fr Gakrlavs was part of the cabal, including Kishovsky, Stokoe, Nescott, Skordinski, Reeves to get +Jonah. Remember that email that surfaced written by Stokoe to all those folks on the MC at the time?
Recall that Kishkovsky told Garklavs to go to the Rozianko file to see how to rid the OCA of Jonah? Brand him crazy, isolate him and then remove him. That is what the sage bishops of the OCA did back then and they replayed it again with +Jonah.
You try and breeze over Garklavs disobedience to his bishop, yet you praise clergy who were possibly “letter of the law” followers by reading the mentioned letter before or after their flock was absent from a service. That is not disobedience?
A priest, like a soldier, is under the authority of his superior, like it or not. If a priest does not like what his bishop does, he owes it to him to tell him, face to face, and then resign his position or ask to be transferred to another diocese or Church. What Fr. Alexander did was try to have his cake and eat it too. And, guess what, the new OCA rewarded him. Just another sign of how far the OCA has slipped into the mire of double-dealing and lies.
Thanks for your post, just another proof text of good people like you trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.
» Posted By Nikos On December 14, 2012 @ 4:26 pm
Collette,
People like TP have a fixed understand of the ROCOR that it is this out of touch Church not knowing that they are reaching out in powerful ways to Americans. They also have the strength of the Russian Orthodox Church behind them and with that, they are going to spread like wildfire, unlike the OCA which continues to step in it at every opportunity.
You made the right choice for your family to flee the OCA and join a Church that keeps its focus on Christ and the spreading of the Gospel.
God bless you.
» Posted By Nikos On December 10, 2012 @ 12:58 pm
Poor Thomas Paine. It is just too much for him to accept that ROCOR has a more robust jurisdiction now than the OCA. The Media Department of just one diocese – ROCOR Eastern Diocese – runs circles around the entire communications department of the OCA. It also must be hard for TP to swallow how the OCA relations with the MP have suffered and now with +Jonah’s ill treatment the rapprocher between the OCA and ROCOR has cooled dramatically.
But then again, TP may just be one of those OCA’ers who doesn’t care about other clergy and faithful in other Orthodox churches, you know, that “we can go it alone because we are an autocephlaous church” gang. Isn’t that right TP? The heck with anyone else, “we in the OCA have it right and everyone should do it the way we do.!” American Orthodox Exceptalism.
» Posted By Nikos On December 8, 2012 @ 2:39 pm
How far has the OCA slipped in the eyes of the Russian Orthodox Church?
Gone are the days when Patriarch Aleksy, Patriarch Kirill, or Metropolitan Hilarion, would routinely visit the OCA Representation Church in Moscow on the Feast of St. Catherine. Gone are the days when the Patriarch would bring a full entourage of bishops, priests and deacons with him. Gone are the days when the Primates of the ROC and the OCA would serve together at the OCA Representation Church in Moscow as a visible sign of their unity.
In the new OCA, it has to supply its own people, Fr. Garklavs in 2011 and Auxiliary Bishop Irenee this year, under the watchful eye of “Lefty” Kishkovsky.
2011 http://oca.org/media/photos/st.-catherine-representation-church-celebrates-patronal-feast-day”
2012 http://oca.org/media/photos/st.-catherine-representation-church-moscow-celebrates-patronal-feastday”Of course, the OCA in their effort to rewrite history, eliminated all the pictures of St. Catherine’s when Archimandrite Zacchaeus was in Moscow, or when Fr. Kondratick was Chancellor when St. Catherine Day in Moscow was a huge event showing the close relations between the Russian Orthodox Church and the OCA. But that was then we certainly don’t want to be reminded of the old days when we have people like Kishkovsky, Jillions, Stokoe and the synod rewriting the OCA history for us. But, those photos are still out there, you just need to do some digging…..
2003 – http://www.st-catherine.ru/gallery/his_holiness_patriarch
2004 – http://www.st-catherine.ru/gallery/photogallery_feast_of
2005 – http://www.st-catherine.ru/gallery/photogallery_the_feast1
2006 – http://www.st-catherine.ru/gallery/photogallery_the_feast6
2007 – http://www.st-catherine.ru/gallery/photogallery_the_feast9
2008 – Pat. Alesky reposed in December just before the Feast of St. Catherine. http://www.st-catherine.ru/gallery/remembering_his_holiness
2009 – http://www.st-catherine.ru/gallery/primatial_divine_liturgyThis year’s snub by Moscow and last year’s when +Jonah was under attack by the synod, in sending NO ONE to St. Catherine’s is intentional and sends another signal that the MP is disgusted with how they treated +Jonah. Unless the OCA releases +Jonah to the MP/ROCOR, Moscow will continue to pull back from the OCA.
Are you reading this synod and syosset? Hello? Anyone there?
» Posted By Nikos On December 8, 2012 @ 8:53 am
Digusted With It, et. al.,
Don’t forget that the OCA did the same thing to the Thrice-blessed Bishop Basil Rodzianko, a man referred to with great reverence in the best-selling (over 1 imillion copies) “Everyday Saints and Other Stories” by Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov). Bishop Basil after his – first call him crazy, then retire him – actions of the synod back in the 1980′s was and is still regarded as a shining light of Orthodoxy in Russia and by an ever growing number of people here in the USA. Yet, he did not fit the “style” of an OCA bishop, so he was sent into internal exile. And not to forget, it was Leonid Kishkovsky who said to the band of MC members and chancery staff, (Garklavs, Stokoe, Reeves, Skordinski, Nescott and Solodow) “get the file on Rodzianko and you will have your blueprint to how to deal with +Jonah.)
Of course there are those, some who post here, who would like to overlook that conversation and those plans to remove +Jonah. Nay, no conspiracy going on here. Just move along. This may be enough to fool the OCA synod, but it wasn’t and isn’t enough to fool the OCA’s Mother Church, not then with Bishop Basil and not now with Metropolitan Jonah.
The OCA has a long history of treating bishops who fall out of favor with abject distain. Say what you will about the foibles of the GOA, but when Archbishop Spyridon was retired, money was found to care for him the rest of his life. +Jonah? His fiscal cliff starts January 1, 2013 when the synod washes their hands of him. No care, no concern, just the self-righteous decision that they he is no longer their concern. Do we wonder why clergy and faithful are fed up with this “do what I say, not what I do” OCA leadership. Shameful.
» Posted By Nikos On December 7, 2012 @ 4:31 pm
George,
Thank you again for re-presenting the steps that the new OCA took to strip away from a man, Metropolitan Jonah, who’s wished to lead the OCA in a new, exciting and necessary direction here in the USA, away from the business as usual of the OCA. He is still respected by the OCA’s Mother Church, and Russia continues to watch very closely how +Jonah is being treated by the synod. And, sadly, their mean-spirited attitude towards +Jonah has not diminished. His requests for release to ROCOR are not only being ignored by spitefully rejected.
Metropolitan Tikhon has stated that “he does not wish to release +Jonah because he has so many talents and gifts that the OCA needs.” Really? Wasn’t this the same man along with his now synod that called +Jonah a protector of rapists? Wasn’t he the same man with his synod that slandered +Jonah by saying that he unilaterally received a rapist into the OCA? They lied then and now they wish to cover their ignorant and cruel attacks against +Jonah by continuing to punish him by “offering” him to be a glorified priest in Los Angeles as an auxiliary bishop under his main antagonist, Bishop Benjamin? Is that how the synod defines treating +Jonah with respect and providing for him? He was a bad Metropolitan, but he is now a possessor of “so many gifts” as a subject cleric un +Benjamin? Do they really think that we and Russia are going to buy their continued punishment of this man and expect us to just get over it and move on?
The facts are this, +Jonah did not shield a rapist. He never received him as a cleric into the OCA. These were two planks in the synod’s platform and campaign to justify their isolation of +Jonah and then his seeking his “voluntary retirement.” Their misdeeds have been exposed to the light of truth and the synod is still found lacking and not a word or even an oblique gesture of sorrow.
They branded him “gravely troubled” thanks to bizarre outbursts of Fr. Thomas Hopko and now his friend, Mark Stokoe is a spokesperson for the OCA. They rode their apocalyptic horse into Parma and now the synod has a Primate of their own liking, someone who will maintain the status quo that is now the OCA. A Primate who will not stand up to the bullies on the synod and will meekly steer the OCA into the calm lands of continued oblivion.
A recent conversation I had with a high ranking cleric of the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow put it bluntly and succinctly, “we don’t think about nor consider the OCA to be important in the USA. We now look to the ROCOR and the MP parishes in America as the missionary arm of the Russian Orthodox Church in America and around the world.” They once looked to the OCA to spread the faith given to them by their Mother Church. Now they know that their daughter Church, like the Prodigal son, is on an alien journey.
Moscow wants +Jonah released and they wish him to be accepted into the ROCOR. The requests have been made, officially! But the petty synod of the OCA will not let him go. They would rather bury him, as Bishop Benjamin starkly proclaimed, than do the right thing. Until they release him, the OCA will not be free of its unsavory past in how they disposed of their Primate and the consequences of their self-centered and myopic decision will be the continued weakening of the OCA. More clergy and faithful will leave the OCA. It won’t be easy for clergy, we know this already because requests to be released from the OCA are being stalled, if not totally ignored. But, for the laity, it will be much easier. They are already leaving and more are ready to leave, to form new mission communities under other jurisdictions, or simply leaving and joining Orthodox communities that are free of the poison of bad leadership that is now the OCA.
So, for those who think that everything in the OCA is now on the right track, that our “time of troubles” are over, I say to you, God’s speed and may you get the Church you deserve. But for those who have had enough of the dysfunction and distractions that have become the OCA, there is life outside the OCA.
Remember, you are not leaving the OCA, rather the OCA left you. For so many of you who left your former confessions for the same reason and came to the OCA, your journey will just need to take another step towards finally coming home.
Peace and strength to all of you.
» Posted By Nikos On December 7, 2012 @ 8:11 am
The Apostolic Mission of Bishops: A Short Reflection
Well, +Archbishop Dmitri, of thrice-blessed memory recommended the KJV. So I guess you think he was an idiot. You Photius should apologize.
Most people who actually study the Holy Scriptures will have several different versions of the Bible at their disposal, including, if one is fortunate enough, also in different languages. If one only has the English language to rely on for their study, then several different translations are essential, of which the KJV is one.
No English translation of the Bible is perfect, thus the more at your disposal the better, and for liturgical purposes, the KJV offers a level of presentation that can be uplifting to the heart of the listener.
But then again, maybe you prefer the Good News Bible with those nifty line-drawings.
» Posted By Nikos On November 30, 2012 @ 9:05 am
Fr Philip,
Bless!
Isn’t it high time for the Archdiocese of Canada to unite with Canadian Orthodox Churches and leave the OCA? There is no pension for your clergy to worry about, you have government health care already, you can’t send money over the border to the USA, etc. Talk about sending the right message, the OCA Archdiocese of Canada could be a model for unity in Orthodox Canada by joining with the MP and eliminating at least one redundant jurisdiction.
» Posted By Nikos On November 30, 2012 @ 8:40 am
Laurie Paffhausen, May Her Memory Be Eternal
«« Back To Stats PageMichael,
The MC is a hold over from the old Metropolia days when there were not real dioceses or diocesan bishops. They were more like auxiliaries with ultimate responsibility residing on 2nd St in NYC. The MC was then more of a inter-church body that administratively held the Metropolia together collecting monies, etc.
The problem with the MC is that it should have become unnecessary when the OCA became an autochephlous church in 1970. However it was seen possibly as some sort of legislative branch or extension of the AAC (the highest legislative body as the OCA statute strangely calls it).
Now, since the Herman days, the MC has taken every advantage of “mission creep” to inject itself into areas that the statute may or may not give them a role. I doubt if the new Metropolitan will do anything to roll back the incursion of the MC, but time will tell.
As for Fr. Alexander, he didn’t usually have a great deal of good to say about bishops (especially in the Russian edition of his diary – the English edition is redacted a great deal) so the continued existence of the MC after 1970 is a possible outcome of F.A.S. mark on the synod. Sadly, I believe that F.A.S. would be scandalized how people like Wheeler and Stokoe have used his name to rewrite not only the history of the OCA but fundamentally change it into an organization of their own desires. He did not suffer fools easily.
» Posted By Nikos On November 24, 2012 @ 8:10 am
Recent Comments