Comments Posted By Rdr. Benjamin
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+Jonah’s Release Requested More Than a Month Ago
Bishop +Tikhon,
May God Grant you many years and may the Lord accept your soul into the mansions of the righteous upon your passing from this world, which is not your home into the next. Please pray for me the sinner.
All,
This will also be my last posting. I have discovered that this is simply not good for my soul and have decided to seek shelter outside of the OCA when I move on Saturday. May God have mercy on us all in the coming darkness as our world slides further and further into apostasy. May at least some remember God and be faithful to Him and may the Lord have mercy on our souls.
Yours unworthily,
Benjamin» Posted By Rdr. Benjamin On January 24, 2013 @ 9:55 pm
Master Bless.
I have it on good authority of my parish priest who was one of the last one to speak to His Eminence, Archbishop Job (of Blessed Memory) before he departed from the Cleveland Deanery meeting for Chicago that he stopped at this motel because it was about halfway between Cleveland and Chicago and it is owned by a good Orthodox family. Apparently he often stayed here when he was tired or departed late. According to my priest, (who is a very honorable and devout man, not to mention a sincere and loving spiritual father) he stayed with His Eminence (may his memory be eternal) talking about the diocese, our parish and getting spiritual counsel before leaving as the last ones out. He said that His Eminence seemed tired, but did not show any signs of illness. I hope this helps.
I know that you have had different experiences with Archbishop Job than I did, but I ask, please pray for his soul. If what you say is true (and I truly believe that only God knows the hearts of men) then he needs our prayers more than ever. May he see the mansions of the righteous and dwell in the bosom of Abraham. May his memory be eternal!
» Posted By Rdr. Benjamin On August 21, 2012 @ 1:06 am
Alexander Solzhenitsyn: Live Not by Lies
Master Bless. Your Grace, will you be able to attend the upcoming council? If so I implore you to please bring these allegations up before the whole of the assembly. You have the respect of being a Bishop and father of the Orthodox Church and you ought to be treated in a reverent and respectable way.
Archpriest John Jillions is right, we do need to repent. Where he is wrong however is in thinking that we need to a “repentant council” in some vain and arbitrary Orthodoxish way. Repentance is not some fadish exercise where we all look down and say “well gee I’m real sorry for whatever I did to whoever” and put on a show where we look good by looking bad. We need real repentance for real sins that are affecting real people! These travesties cannot and should not be confined to just this blog but need to be brought up. If certain Bishops try to shut you up or shout you down as has been done in the past, well be like St. Nicholas at the Council of Nicea and SHOUT LOUDER!!!! God will not be mocked, and the truth must come to light. If that truth is on the Monomakhos side, so be it. If it is on the Syosset side, so be it.
But enough of this Orthodspeak where we try to talk around the real issues with somber faces and downcast eyes and just keep letting it continue. The end of days is quickly approaching and we can no longer afford to sit comfortably in the darkness, we must let our light so shine before men that they might see our good deeds and glorify our Father in heaven. Do not the Holy Scriptures say “See how they love each other?” Indeed.
» Posted By Rdr. Benjamin On August 20, 2012 @ 12:36 am
It would really make much more sense for the Mexican Church to be either an Autonomous Mexican Metropolitan Church (much like the Ukrainian Church or the Uzbekh Church under Moscow) under the leadership of the future American Patriarchate or as a part of a future South American Metropolitan Church (which would probably eventually have an autonomous Brazilian Autonomous Church until they reach the critical mass of faith and people to constitute an Autocephalous Church.
Just my little pipe dream at least.
Until then, I, being in the OCA, do think that we might need to be matured through contact and submission to our elder brother and sister Churches in order to establish a strong and natural Orthodox faith not subject to the whims of our current generation of re(de)formers.
» Posted By Rdr. Benjamin On August 2, 2012 @ 12:23 am
The Lavender Mafia: Just a Conspiracy Theory?
I meant Velencia v. Drezhlo et al. My apologies Rod. I got last names mixed up.
The Source:
http://dockets.justia.com/docket/maryland/mddce/1:2012cv00237/198133/» Posted By Rdr. Benjamin On July 16, 2012 @ 11:13 pm
That’s because +MATTHIAS dealt with Stokoe when he did leak those names. That is probably why, along with a lawsuit in federal court that you can look up online on the US Courts website vs him and Dreher et al., he was removed from the Metropolitan council and later shut down his website. Did he have anything to do with the political maneuvers since by Syosett? Perhaps. To think that he ceased communication with his old pals altogether seems out of character for him.
But in the case of +MATTHIAS, that bishop has almost always acted above the law. I appreciate his candor and I hope that if there was another side of the story that he didn’t hear from ++JONAH that he would also come out with another letter detailing those details and how we can more fully understand this situation.
» Posted By Rdr. Benjamin On July 16, 2012 @ 3:15 pm
This is Far From Over: One Week Ago Today
Yet when Met. Jonah asked Fr. Gregory Jensen, not only a solid Orthodox Priest, but also a distinguished psychologist and scholar to look into some unsavory elements in the underbelly of the OCA he was booed off the stage by Stokoe and his OCA”News” stooges, made to look like an idiot and unqualified quack by those who are themselves unqualified to make such a diagnosis.
Why? Because Fr. Gregory Jensen is uncompromising in his Orthodoxy and refuses to agree with the DSM-let’s-give-em-drugs-and-whatever-they-want-to-do-homosexuality’s-just-fine-with-us crowd, advocating an Orthodox holistic approach to the human person instead (He was trained under the great Catholic psychologist Fr. Adrian Van Kaam.)
Just a few days before he was publicly slandered and libeled on the OCA.org website he just happened to post a series of blog posts that got quite a lot of attention about not only the sin of homosexuality but numerous others. His post Barbarians Among Us was of particular note and garnered the ire and attention of the Stokoe crowd who used him as a stick with which to beat Metropolitan Jonah into submission.
Yet another good priest destroyed by the Roberts Rules and Institution of the OCA CA.
» Posted By Rdr. Benjamin On July 14, 2012 @ 2:37 am
This is Far From Over: A Call to Repentance
Here Here George!
Could you make this an online petition so that we can all sign your letter and have it sent to all the bishops (and perhaps to Moscow and/or Constantinople. These are serious issues that must be addressed and I believe that a petition will be much more effective than even this blog because it will force people into action.
Just a suggestion.
» Posted By Rdr. Benjamin On July 13, 2012 @ 10:26 pm
Where do you get this stuff? Though I wish it were true (minus the heavy dose of anti-Jonah) it sounds to me more like conjecture and speculation mixed with a little bit of delusion. Unless things get much worse, the visit will be nothing more than a conspicuous visit where perhaps ROCOR and MP parishes will come under 1 jurisdiction but he’ll probably only do a meet and greet with the OCA bishops if he does at all. It seems every foreign church who has visited here since Theodosius doesn’t want to touch us lepers with a ten foot pole.
» Posted By Rdr. Benjamin On July 12, 2012 @ 4:16 pm
May I also point out that the word that you use “Trinity” was coined by Tertulian. Just because something is written by someone who seems to be or is compromised doesn’t mean that it is wrong. We need to be more careful not to reject something on a gut reaction just because we don’t like the person who wrote it but to read and discern by the Holy Spirit whether it is indeed true or not.
» Posted By Rdr. Benjamin On July 12, 2012 @ 2:55 pm
It’s Time to Bring Vladyka Dmitri Back to His Cathedral
For some reason I cannot comment on the post by Monk James but in the Diocese of Midwest we use the “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And deliver us from evil.”
For me the “and deliver us from evil” makes more sense to me as we are asking God to deliver us not only from Satan and his minions (The Evil One) but also from our own fallen inclinations (disordered Passions). Hence all of these meanings are encompassed by the word Evil. I am open for correction if any see fit (perhaps even my own parish usage is not standard for the DOMW.
I would also be interested to see how it was stated in the Aramaic original. Does anyone know the Aramaic that can shed some light on this?
» Posted By Rdr. Benjamin On May 28, 2012 @ 9:54 pm
Breaking: Has a Nominee for the Diocese of the South Been Found?
George,
Amen.
Though I would put a correction to one point: While Tertulian did embrace montanism, whether he ever formally entered into schism with the Church is questionable. Also, Origen was never condemned during his lifetime and anathematized. He was not anathematized until hundreds of years later, and though what he wrote (or at least we think the Fathers of the Council thought he wrote) may have contained errors, it is questionable to say that that he died outside of the Church. For these two men, like many men, only God and those united to Him in the eternal kingdom know whether they are outside of the Church or not.
» Posted By Rdr. Benjamin On May 5, 2012 @ 1:33 am
While I appreciate the sentiment, the reason we give our hierarchs titles like “Your All Holiness, Your Beatitude, Your Grace” is not because of the dignity of their office, but that of their Lord. Any hierarch who does not understand this and understands it in sense of “I am better than this guy because his see is only 50 years old while mine is 2000, or even “I have served longer” misunderstands the apostles teaching passed down to us to give deference to the Bishops as an image of Christ. They stand as Icons of God to us and those who do not live this way are endangering their salvation and that of those they lead.
» Posted By Rdr. Benjamin On May 23, 2012 @ 10:23 pm
Preparation of Holy Chrism Affirms OCA Autocephaly
Actually, technically that job would fall to the Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria, whose official title is Judge of the Universe (pretty sweet if you ask me, even though it’s referring to his role in determining the date of Easter as literally the one who is to judge the cosmos to determine the date of the spring equinox.)
» Posted By Rdr. Benjamin On April 26, 2012 @ 4:39 am
We need to continue to keep all those involved and affected in our prayers and for a speedy end to the conflict. May the Lord have mercy and may he come again soon, but not so soon that we can not repent.
» Posted By Rdr. Benjamin On March 28, 2012 @ 2:44 am
Thank you brother Joseph. I wholeheartedly agree. I pray the Lord will grant us all Many Years to repent.
» Posted By Rdr. Benjamin On March 28, 2012 @ 2:41 am
Heracleides,
Have you seen the news lately about what the Muslim extremists are doing in Homs to the Christian population. It is being reported that upwards of 90% of the Christian population have been forcibly evicted by Al Queda affiliated groups who are going door to door wreaking havoc. I think that though the government has been quite brutal in suppressing its’ people, we need to also remember that they are experiencing an attempted revolution and given the same situation here in the US, I have no doubt that our government would (after attempts at using tear gas etc have not worked, etc.) enacted martial law and done the exact same thing that Assad is doing. You think it can’t happen here? Think again.
The uprising is proving itself more and more by the day not to be one of Democratic origins, but rather of the Sunni majority (and also with an extremist bent in many places) who would like to see secular law overturned in favor of Sharia, which would put Christians who have already fled from other parts of the Middle East to what they thought was a safe haven in Syria, in a very precarious and life threatening situation. I think it’s much more complicated than “that meany Assad is killing people in the streets. He needs to be overthrown by any means necessary.
Now does that mean I support Assad, or think that he is just swell. No. I just think we need to stay out of their business. Look how well our attempted CIA intervention in Iran went over and the blow back that we are experiencing even today.
That is just my humble opinion though, be free to correct me.
» Posted By Rdr. Benjamin On March 28, 2012 @ 1:28 am
I’ll Gladly Accept Apologies from the Stokovites
Mike,
You can find The Basis of the Social Concept at http://www.mospat.ru/en/documents/social-concepts/
» Posted By Rdr. Benjamin On April 2, 2012 @ 11:04 pm
More Good News? Metropolitan Jonah on Orthodox Unity
Fun Fact in relation to creating new dioceses:
Believe it or not, my county was one of the black ones on the Orthodox population map,
Canton, OH (yeah I know you’ve probably never heard of it except for the Football Hall of Fame) has, count it, 6 Orthodox Churches in the local area, all of which gather together for Divine Liturgy every Sunday of Orthodoxy going on over 6 years now. We have Pre-Sanctified Liturgies on Wednesdays during Lent rotating at all the local parishes and even occasionally outside of Lent. We have a very vibrant Clergy Association that meets every Sunday or two to discuss the lives of their parishes and also to just hang out and get to know one another. The local University (a Protestant one at that) keeps supplying a steady stream of converts (of which I am one). One woman remarked to Bishop Mathias that he should come to Canton and make our little parish his cathedral because we had so many Orthodox here. Just thought you’d all appreciate a good antidote for once since we seem to hear only about monks beating each other with brooms or priests that say “You no speak Russian? We no want you!”
» Posted By Rdr. Benjamin On March 17, 2012 @ 3:49 am
Metropolitan Jonah Speaks on Orthodox Unity in Texas
Or it could just be a case of bad website updating. I can’t tell you how many parish’ websites I’ve been to that were still showing that the latest thing that church did was in 2008. The fact is that most local advertising is probably done from a announcements board, by the priest after liturgy, an internal email to all parishoners, or by simple word of mouth. It doesn’t necessarily speak of Orthodoxy at all, just the fact that Orthodox webmasters don’t typically keep up with the times or technology as well as we should do (Mr. Michalopulos being the wonderful exception to this rule of course
» Posted By Rdr. Benjamin On December 2, 2011 @ 11:06 pm
More Misbehavior Threatening the Unity of the Orthodox Churches in America?
Fr. Patrick,
I apologize for anything that I may have said to offend you. I certainly did not mean it. I also did not read clearly enough that these were only boys and girls, I was under the (mistaken of course) impression that these were Women. I apologize and please pray for me that St. John will not keep me out of the kingdom for bearing false witness about him.
In Christ,
Reader Benjamin» Posted By Rdr. Benjamin On November 1, 2011 @ 11:29 pm
Ok. This does strike me as rather strange and innovative, but let me play devil’s advocate.
Perhaps it has something to do with the re-establishing of the female Deaconate as it was in Constantinople (for instance St. John Chrysostom oversaw nearly 2,500 female deacons).
Since we know that the female deaconess ordination is identical to that of the male (with the exception of several differences in the list of saints mentioned), and though they did not serve in the altar (with the exception of some nuns in small monasteries where they are needed, and even then not in the role that a deacon would take, but in the role of an altar server because “women should not be heard in the temple.”) they certainly were understood to be ordained.
Maybe it’s the GOARCH’s way of possibly reconciling the ordination of deaconesses in light of the canonical “ladder” that one must climb to be a deaconess (I, for one, am convinced that there will NEVER be women priestesses in Orthodoxy, as it is completlely outside of the teachings of Holy Tradition, Holy Scripture, and the writings of the Holy Fathers as well as the canons of the Holy and Ecumenical Councils. No matter what Metropolitan Kallistos may say on the matter.)
Those are my thoughts, but then again, don’t jump on me, because it does still seem rather odd.
» Posted By Rdr. Benjamin On October 30, 2011 @ 1:05 am
Will Adopting the Homosexual Agenda Force Orthodoxy into ‘Mainstream Irrelevance’?
«« Back To Stats PageStephen,
I have been following this conversation for a while, and you have just crossed the line. I am one of those “young adults” who you say is slowly accepting homosexuality. You, sir, are absolutely wrong. “Acceptance of homosexuality is inevitable within the Orthodox church.” I usually take a soft approach, but what I hear in your rant here is the same voice I hear when I read of the words of Arius, Nestorius, and Judas.
Advocating that homosexuality WILL inevitably be accepted by the church is willful ignorance. It is another Gospel that will never be accepted. If this were to happen, I will fight it, even unto my death and the martyrdom of my family. You call me bigoted. You call me uncharitable. You call me “out of touch” and “irrelevant”. I say, anathema!
What you said above is, plain and simple, heresy. It is opposed to the scriptures, the teachings of the Fathers, the proclamations of Ecumenical Councils, and grieves the Holy Spirit. Repent.
And may I remind you of what St. Paul passed on to us in his Apostolic authority, given to him in a revelation by Jesus, my Lord, God, and Savior Himself: “As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to that which you received, let him be anathema.”
I am a sinner, I regularly transgress the Law of God. I follow after my own passions and whims as the wind, but there is one thing that I will never, God-willing, become, and that is a heretic. And I, for one, will NEVER join you in corrupting my infant son or his friends into thinking that God desires another lifestyle than he has portrayed to us in the Holy Scriptures.
» Posted By Rdr. Benjamin On October 23, 2011 @ 4:16 am
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