Highlights from the article:
Letter from the law firm representing a client allegedly abused by Passios to Pat. Bartholomew: “Our office has substantial experience representing survivors of childhood sexual abuse, including people abused by clergymen. In this case, our preliminary investigation has revealed allegations that Metropolitan Paisios routinely crossed the physical boundaries of others and inflicted great harm upon the faithful of all ages and genders.”
“Press reports indicate that Ecumenical patriarch ordered Metropolitan Paisios to leave the United States. It has also been reported that the Patriarchate is planning to reorganize the Monastery in Astoria and its Dependencies in the U.S. administratively, financially and legally. Yet nothing has been done to respond to the human suffering. It is fair to infer from these reports that the Church to date has been more worried about the possibility of scandal than responding to survivors and their families.”
Kalmoukes on letter: It is also alleged that other clergymen and servants of the Church were either aware of the abusive conduct, or aware of facts that would have put any reasonable person on notice that the abuse was inflicted.
After the charges came to light, Paisios went to Athens but after the Exarchy team’s report on its investigation during a visit to New York was given to the Patriarch, the Patriarchate decided not to punish him initially, declaring he deserved “ecclesiastical leniency” before growing charges about alleged sexual misconduct and other wrongdoings at the monastery led to his being suspended.
Source: National Herald | Theodore Kalmoukos
BOSTON – A letter charging that the former Abbot of the Chrysovalantou Monastery in Astoria, N.Y., Metropolitan Paisios of Tyana, had sexually abused their client was sent to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and to the members of the Holy Synod by The Zalkin Law Firm New York, which also said Church officials did nothing to prevent alleged sexual misconduct or help the victims. “This letter is written on behalf of Andrew G., survivor of repeated acts of sexual abuse inflicted your brother and servant Metropolitan Paisios Loulourgas,” stated attorney Irwin M. Zalkin in his letter dated January 10, 2011. It also added that “Andrew has already shared the details of the abuse in a letter to Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I. Andrew also met with the Patriarchal Exarchy team headed by Metropolitan Nikitas that was sent to New York to investigate allegations against Metropolitan Paisios.”
Patriarch Bartholomew faces a dilemma in the growing scandal surrounding the Chrysovalantou Monastery in Astoria, N.Y. where charges of sexual abuse have led to a possible civil claim of damages against the Church.
The letter further alleges that Andrew had been traumatized by the alleged abuse the lawyer said had been committed by Paisios, who has repeatedly refused to take calls from The National Herald on the burgeoning scandal nor make any comments. The Patriarchate has similarly refused to talk about the case in which Bishop Vikentios, who worked with Paisios at the Monastery, charged that the former Abbott was involved in sexual misconduct. A former nun at the monastery also went to the police and FBI to make similar charges, but so far no criminal charges have been filed, although the law firm’s letter sets up the possibility of civil claims that could seek significant damages against the church. The monastery is under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate.
The law firm’s letter added that, “As you must be aware, the acts inflicted upon Andrew resulted in substantial damage,” and it said that “Andrew must be provided a remedy for what he endured,” without stipulating what was being sought, although similar cases have cost the Church considerable monies. Zalkin told the Patriarch and his Synod that his office specializes in sex abuse cases. “Our office has substantial experience representing survivors of childhood sexual abuse, including people abused by clergymen. In this case, our preliminary investigation has revealed allegations that Metropolitan Paisios routinely crossed the physical boundaries of others and inflicted great harm upon the faithful of all ages and genders.” It is also alleged that other clergymen and servants of the Church were either aware of the abusive conduct, or aware of facts that would have put any reasonable person on notice that the abuse was inflicted.
The letter also stated to Patriarch Bartholomew that “While fear and embarrassment may have previously silenced the victims of Metropolitan Paisios, that moment has passed. In our experience, the sooner you respond compassionately to the survivors of the wrongfulness brought by Metropolitan Paisios the sooner the healing process for the victims and the Church can begin. Avoidance and delay serves only to squander your own moral authority.”
In a further criticism, the letter alleged that while directives have been given for the reorganization of the Monastery by the Patriarchate, nothing has been done about Paisio’s victims. “Press reports indicate that Ecumenical patriarch ordered Metropolitan Paisios to leave the United States. It has also been reported that the Patriarchate is planning to reorganize the Monastery in Astoria and its Dependencies in the U.S. administratively, financially and legally. Yet nothing has been done to respond to the human suffering. It is fair to infer from these reports that the Church to date has been more worried about the possibility of scandal than responding to survivors and their families.” Zalkin invited the Patriarchate to communicate with his office. He stated in his letter to Patriarch Bartholomew that, “At this time, we invite you to enter into a dialogue with us that will lead to a compassionate response to Andrew and others harmed by Metropolitan Paisios.” The issue of Paisios and Vikentios was discussed again at the Synod’s meeting on January 12th. The Synod reaffirmed the suspension that was placed on both hierarchs Paisios and Vikentios and referred the matter to the Canonical Committee of the Patriarchate for study and recommendation to the Synod, which is scheduled for Feb. 10.
After the charges came to light, Paisios went to Athens but after the Exarchy team’s report on its investigation during a visit to New York was given to the Patriarch, the Patriarchate decided not to punish him initially, declaring he deserved “ecclesiastical leniency” before growing charges about alleged sexual misconduct and other wrongdoings at the monastery led to his being suspended.
George,
What is going on here? The GOA priests are called by God to solve this problem by silence? They don’t like what is going on and tell you that privately behind closed doors? Sounds more like to me that they are placing job security over the lives of children sexually abused and over the greater spiritual welfare of the greater church. Christ would have also told you He did not like it behind closed doors and that his solution was silence too?
Here is a novel concept that the priests can grasp. NO RISK NO RETURN. That is a dead church. The return on the risk taken for Christ in the GOA by its priests is a corrupt, failed, irrelevant and dying church.
No risk = no solution. No return = no solution.
The GOA is out of EXCUSES like it is out of SOLUTIONS. The GOA priests were waiting for these kids to be abused so they could finally break their silence about the problems they see in the church and AFTER the fact of the abuses? Their enabling of homosexual bishops is no indication of their spiritual maturity? I suppose its not any worse than the laity enabling pedophile protecting bishops. Hey, its a whole church project of sex abuse that all of you can now point your fingers at each other over. That can by the unity that holds you all together by mutual misery in the corruptions busted. If don’t kill you it will make you stronger or will it just kill the church?
Those 60 kids sexually abused in NY is an answer to the laity prayers and so they can finally get the opening to do something about all of this? I sincerely hope that kind of WARPED thinking about God is not found among any of you. You make the opening if there is none and you don’t wait for 60 kids to be abused and then say that is God opening us up so we can change things. That not only fails the abused children and it makes God an abuser. SICK. You are all only as powerless to stop this as is your God that you believe is your salvation is powerless to stop this.
The God of my salvation is zero tolerance of such and He does not wait around in SILENCE for the worst to happen to 60 children and as the opening to change things. If that is the breakthrough you all have been waiting for you have just broken through to a deeper level of corruption of your church. I hope none of you are of this mindset.
The EP now acts to change the system of the church and when he knew and did nothing before the fact. Yes, he needs to lead those administrative changes that are going to bring you solution. Ah, will he be replacing himself in that change to be consistent? After all, he is at the center of the failure of the GOA by his leadership over its failure. I thought he changed the system once before after Spyridon. I guess that didn’t work out well either after that Archbishop appointment failed and then that led to the current Archbishop of spin? Obviously, the EP is not the problem. It’s those he appoints to positions of monastic and bishop authority in the church that are problem. You need to blame them like he will to codependently enable him to escape transparency and accountability.
The GOA can replace everyone of its bishops and it will not bring you solution. The solution is deeper than the bishops and EP cannot bring the GOA the deeper solution. The relevancy of the GOA is all the fanfare around the debacles that gives them public attention for the Gospels. Why, the GOA has not seen this much spiritual life since Katinas! The GOA talks more about its scandals than it does to its neighbors about Christ as their salvation. The laity is as silent about Christ to its neighbors as the priests are silent about what corrupts the church.
Shhh, keep this a big Orthodox hidden secret, the GOA is dying by its salvation that cannot get out of the parish and into the streets where those without Christ as their salvation really live. They believe keeping the word ‘GREEK’ in their name is the relevancy that is going to attract non Greeks into their church. It can’t be the ‘Neighborhood Orthodox Church’. It has to be GREEK in pluristic America. It’s no wonder to me why the Greek parish in my city after 55 years is no more than a 100 on a good Sunday. It’s all Greek me, myself and I and my Greek church that is my salvation that is not shared outside of the parish and it really only talked about by safe like others that don’t challenge each other in the Lord to share the salvation of Christ outside of the parish.
Here is what I know about evanglism:
No salvation = no evangelism and no evangelism = no salvation.
That is a dead church and what is dead cannot resurrect itself to new life. Only Christ in SALVATION can. You are only as alive as is your salvation and you will only find solution by your salvation by how alive that it is to all of you. I see where the GOA is headed by where it has arrived. Do any of you???
The world outside of the GOA can now say it knows of the GOA by its corruptions rather than by its witness of Christ’s salvation. That is the relevancy of Satan DESTROYING the relevancy of Christ’s salvation by those who follow the leadership of evil over the leadership of Christ as Lord at the center of authority in the church. My best word that discribes all of this is EVIL.
George, what is going on with the GOA priests? Please correct me if I am wrong, but they seem to be a group of fearful and intimidated powerless men bowing to what makes them fearful and intimidated powerless men. God is not their God. Their corrupt church authority is their God. They tolerate the corruption of God over God and they do that because they are fearful and intimidated powerless men.
Ashley Nevins
Greeks, there is something very interesting taking place at St. George parish in Chicago. That parish had an ephraimite priest assigned to it by the Chicago homosexual bishops. The parish promptly lost a large number of its members as a result. That then led to a group of Chicago Greek laity to organize an effort to expose and stand up to the progression of the elder in the parishes. Now the EP has sent one of his deacons to this parish recently.
You can see the deacon picture on the Concerned Orthodox Laity of America blog site. If you are GOA you might want to think for yourself to find out WHY the EP has sent a deacon to this parish that has seen so much turmoil? I mean, all of you are paying attention to the GO monasteries in America to make sure they don’t get you into trouble, right? You don’t want a monastic ultra fundamentalist and legalistic cult in your church no more than you want a monastic cult of sex abuse in your church, right? I mean, if the GOA will allow homosexual bishops and the enabling of pedophiles it wouldn’t allow a monastic cult into its midst, would it?
Generally speaking, a cult sexually acts in and/or it acts out. It does not have a healthy sexuality and because it does not have a healthy spirituality. Do you any of you know what sexually acting in and sexually acting out are? They are extremes of sexual power and control. The church has a sexual character and identity and just like it has a spiritual character and identity. When the spiritual character of a church goes corrupt so does the sexual character of a church. Acting in is sexual legalism in your own power. Acting out is sexual license in your own power. Both are all about control in your own power or control over OTHERS.
Do the confession practices of the Elder give married people advice on their marriage and sex life? What do they advise married people to do in regards to their sex lives? The closer a married couple get to the monasteries of the elder causes what to take place in their sex lives? Are married couples encouraged to live as brother and sister over living as man and wife? The Greek laity who are all holding their monastics, priests and bishops transparent and accountable to Christ first as the authority over the entire church are paying attention to what is going on inside their monasteries, right?
Greek laity, have there been any FEDERAL investigations of the elder? Are you paying enough attention to even know or is it a NY like laity apathy and indifference to the monasteries all over again?
Some of you may want to go back and look at the KVOA Az TV news expose’ of the ephraim to refresh your memories of the controversy around the guru cult leader. I say this because it has been my experience with those under the authoritarian power and control of the GOA hierarchy that they have short attention spans and long term memory problems due to their apathy and indifference over the issues self destructing their church. When someone or something else is thinking for you that can cause you to forget. Do you understand how that it can?
Ashley Nevins
You’re a trip Ashley. Have you ever visited an Orthodox Monastery founded by Elder Ephraim? Didn’t think so. Stop speaking out of your protestant arse of things you’ve zero knowledge or experience with and go educate yourself with a visit. You’ll be pleasantly surprised, that is, if you can set aside your bias long enough to open your eyes and heart. St. Anthony’s in Arizona is one of the most holy and blessed places I have ever visited.
Heracleides,
You ‘didn’t think so’ is not thinking for yourself. You are assuming because you have no other reply to the challenge to find out if he has been under any Federal investigation. You are thinking in reaction and not by action that thinks for itself to see the problems with the GO monasteries. If you have viewed the KVOA TV expose’ like you were challenged to do you would see that God is giving all of you in the GOA clear warning of the cultic monastery problems in the GOA. What happened to that priest who represented the monastery on the KVOA expose’? Are you thinking for yourself to know and then to connect the dots of the cultic state of the elder? That is only one evidence of scores of evidences that you deny.
The GOA has a pretty candy coated surface like the monastery in Az. Bite down on the candy and its center is rotten and it will give you food poisoning. That is a SICK church that makes all in it as sick as it is by their eating the candy (Or, are all of you just drinking the Kool Aide?) All of you are easily impressed with yourselves and your pretty candy coat. That is we are Gods only alone right and one true church image of yourselves that cannot be wrong. Instead, I am the problem somehow for pointing out the obvious monastery cult problems. What is obvious to someone who thinks for himself as a bottom up and open system Christian is not obvious to you who thinks as a top down and closed system Christian. You can’t see what it is I am telling you because your mind is closed to it by being a closed system of exclusive mindset. Jesus had a closed mindset of exclusiveness?
Your church is not safe, healthy, open or relevent. Now deny that is its state. Your church is corrupt, failed, irrelevent and dying. Now deny that is its state. That is the perfect set up to become a Christian cult and not a one of you will see it coming like not a one of you saw your homosexual bishops, pedophile protecting bishops, monastic sex abuse, incompetent EP and the guru cult leader elder coming. Now deny the obvious that you deny about the state of your church and its monasteries. Your church is in serious danger and the consequences it is involved in are my best proof. You can deny the monastic cult problems like you deny the state of the GOA sexually corrupt bishops and it will lead you in circles without solution.
Deny the cultism of monasticism in the GOA and it will not protect your from the monastic cultism of the GOA. Deny the corruption and incompetency of your EP and it will not protect you from his corruption and incompetency. That would be like believing if you deny the existence of Satan that will somehow protect you from him. You really have no clue who is pulling the GOA puppet strings from the behind the scenes of the rule of your GOA. It is Satan who has turned the GOA into his character of corruption, failure, irrelevancy and DEATH. The evil one is a cult with the character of a cult leader. Now deny that he is and for purposes of denying who is pulling the puppet strings of rule in your corrupt church hierarchy and monasteries. Deception leads to delusion and delusion leads to your denying response of the cultic state of your church. The last person to realize they are in a cult is the person in the cult. Yes, deny that a corrupt church with a top down power and control hierarchy structure and system is not the PERFECT set up to become a Christian cult.
Now go be the good religious codependent you have been indoctrinated to be by being a religious codependent who self protects the cultic state of his totalism church by the defending of religous addiction to power and control and that is the power and control of corrupt bishops and corrupt monastics. Be the self centered, self protective and self sufficient church of closed and isolated subjectivity that defines Christian truth from a position of obvious corruption, failure, irrelevancy and church death. Yes, tell me from that position how you know what a Christian cult is. I can’t wait.
I have told you who that I am in many ways and you still do not know who that I am. That tells me how well you can think for yourself and it proves to me that someone else is thinking for you. Who that I am is staring you right in the face and just like the cultic corruption of your GOA is. That’s a TRIP you are taking that only goes in circles without solution to its circular without solution state. Now, deny that is its state and prove how circular without solution you are by denying the cultic in your church. The more all of you deny the cultic state of the GOA the more GOD is going to EXPOSE its cultic state to all of you. I see exactly where the GOA is going by where it has arrived. Do you? I think for myself think that you do not know where it is going by where it has arrived. Your response is my best proof.
Ashley Nevins
George,
You strike me as a person who is trying to think to the solution to the corruption and failure of his church. Who that I am in this discussion is staring all of you in the face. I am not telling you outright who that I am. I telling all of you to think for yourselves to find out who that I am by the doing the research that will lead you to who that I am. I have even told all of you how to research that. More than that I even gave you my NAME. The Orthodox memory is as short as is its attention span.
The predicted response to who that I am is as predictable as where the GOA is headed in its corrupt state of church. I already know what the response to that discovery will be by the Orthodox and like I knew what the response to this confrontation would be from the Orthodox. It will try to be used to discount, down play or otherwise deny the obvious state of your church by doing that to me. It will be more making me the problem for pointing out the obvious problems. It will be the classic religious codependent denial response of religious denial ADHOMINEM. Adhominem spiritual abuse is the predictable response and those conducting themselves in that fashion will not see how that it is spiritual abuse. I promise that will be the response, and all of my promises the Orthodox come true. All of them.
I have intentionally set the posters up for that response to the discovery of who that I am. In other words, I know how to handle the response by knowing the mind set of the responders and what they will say in response to that discovery. When it has been discovered who that I am that will bring a whole other round of exposing more deeply what the true mindset of those who are involved in a corrupt, failed, irrelevant and dying church is. A deeper Orthodox denial will be exposed. This confrontation is far from over. Discover who that I am and that will become obvious as to why.
George, this confrontation is ALL by design that thinks for itself and it thinks circles around the circular who are circular without solution. I think for myself in out of the box by strategic conceptual thinking and so I can think by a design that is several steps in front of the Orthodox in their stationary closed box that is its only closed thinking strategy. I know exactly where this conversation is going IF just one of you discover who that I am. The closed system Christian mind cannot think out of its box to discover who that I am when a little work that would EASILY discover who that I am? I am not unknown to the GOA hierarchy or to the Orthodox in general.
The Orthodox are lazy because they do not think for themselves to discover who that I am and that same lazy is leading your church into failing to discover what is the cause of your corrupt, failed, irrelevant and dying state of church. This is a confrontation that none of you saw coming and the Orthodox response is highly predictable before and after all of you discover who that I am. It’s all by design, Orthodox. I waited for the perfect opportunity to confront you AGAIN and predictibly it came to me by all of you handing this rotten dead turkey of corruption to me on a solid silver platter and with all the denying trimmings.
Everything I have predicted about the Orthodox has come true. All of it and including this particular new confrontation that all of you handed to me on a silver platter. I knew this was going to happen and like I know worse than this is your coming to your church future. I see right through your church and I have a clear reason too see right through it. You are all the cause of my motivation to see right through it to the cause of its death as a church. Orthodox, you are the cause of my confrontation and just like you are the cause of the corruption being confronted. I warned all of you in the past that this was the future of the EOC and in particular the GOA, and not a one of you listened.
Hint, this is not the first time I have confronted the GOA in a public fashion over corruption and cultism.
Orthodox, let the ADHOMINEM begin!!! I can hardly wait for your alone right and one true truth analysis that denies who that you are by adhominem making me a person with a problem with your problem that you deny is your problem. You will somehow make me the problem for a having a problem with your problem and for the purposes of denying the seriousness of your problem. I know exactly how you will try to do that. Orthodox, that is just one of your problems that denies your problem. There are several more not seen by any of you. That is another promise.
Ashley Nevins
The other problem is the American (largely) attempt to make mini-moastaries out of parishes and monastaries into parishes. Both parishes and monastaries are essential to the fullness of the Church and are complimentary to each other but confusing the two is not right.
Parish life should be centered on the family and the pastorship of married clergy. While obedience is an important part of parish life it is not, nor should it be anything at all like what is normative in monastaries.
The routine mixing of lay, parish faithful with monastics in the monastary creates problems for the monastics as it distracts them from their main activity–prayer.
Again it is the failure to live in acord with proper ecclesiology that promotes and allows such confusion.
A properly constituted local synod with a number of smaller regional syonds to which all bishops are accountable (not some foreign potentate that never vists nor cares to visit unless the check bounces) would go a long way to enabling us to address the problems we have and allowing proper Orthodox spiritual practice to regain its place in both parish and monastic life.
189 words
Michael,
You are a sincere Christian. Your heart sees the problem and wants to apply a solution. The idealism you speak of is not the practical reality of it. Even if it was the practical reality of it that would not stop the theology from making you a closed, isolated and subjective church. You church is top down and closed by it being top down by theology. There is no way of escaping this fact by your theology.
The fact is unless your theology is in church and state power and control that controls outcomes and image your church fails and it would still fail by the idealism you put forward and because you still believe you are Gods only alone right and one true truth church and that all by itself closes you and makes you exclusive.
Your church believes itself to be Gods alone right truth objectivity of Christian measure as to what is a correct church. That is legalism that the Orthodox call their freedom and I clearly see how free in Christ you church is by its corrupt, failed, irrelevant and dying state. The practical reality of the real world is where Christ really lives and I live there with Him. What you stated would most likely help some, but not enough to stop the self destruction. It at most would only slow it down some. You are not seeing how circular your theology and its resulting structure and system are. A closed box is circular inside its closed box. It has no way to break out of the circular closed box into the open running field where you can get into the real game of church relevancy that wins the game. Your church can’t even figure out how to get out of locker room onto the field for it being so circular BY WHO IT CLAIMS TO BE.
I am a practical Christian realist that spiritually thinks for himself and that is why I tell you nothing the Orthodox do will stop the dying state of your church by the theology and its resulting structure and system will work. You may believe that is my bias or a reaction to the destruction of my son by the Orthodox. No, it is my knowledge and experience speaking. I know what builds or dismantles a church by structure and system of church. Your church is shame based and authoritarian by theology, structure and system. Being Gods only alone right and one true truth church makes you this way. You simply do not believe that it does by not seeing how that it does.
Your post was an honest post trying to find solution. An excellent attempt to think for yourself, but you stopped thinking at the point of your Gods only right and one true church structure and system that can only be your structure and system. You are thinking inside a closed box that is limited to the walls of the box and that limits your ability to conceptually think for yourself to a solution that is outside of that closed box.
You can change your structure and system to what you advocate and unless Jesus Christ is the Lordship rule at the center of the church holding all in the church transparent and accountable nothing you do will work. The Orthodox in their closed box do not realize how stop think limiting their thinking is inside their closed box by believing their closed box is Gods only reality of theology, structure and system that is always right by its theology, structure and system.
It’s really simple. A closed system closes thinking and closed thinking cannot find a solution. The best that it can think to solution is by thinking that itself is the solution. The more closed is your church the more it closes out solution. The more closed system you are the more you think in your own power and close out other thinking to solution for you own power being the solution. Is that truth somehow not breaking through your closed thinking for some reason? There is a thinking for yourself answer to that question.
You really don’t believe you are closed system stop think Christian, do you? That sounds really offensive to an Orthodox trapped in that bondage and because bondage is highly offended when it is exposed by thinking it does not think like. It believes it has it all figured out and can see the solution from inside of its closed, isolated and subjective box. After all, since it is Gods only alone right and one true truth church it has it all figured out and it is its own solution by being who it claims to be. In affect, your only solution is the claim of who you claim to be.
Good luck with that thinking. If you cannot see where it has taken your church you will not see where it is going to take your church. The claim itself is a closed box. Denial of the cause cannot see where the cause is going to take you and just like it wonders why it is found in the corrupt and failed state that it is in by cause. Can you think for yourself to see what it is I am speaking too? It’s radical thinking to an Orthodox. The radical Christ in not your Orthodox closed box thinking. You place God in your box and God is in no ones box, Orthodox. God is radical out of the box. That is the Gospels.
The theology, structure and system Christ confronted in the Gospels had the same issues and they did not listen either and they were also circular without solution by their theology and its resulting structure and system of legalisms and traditions as salvation. Your salvation is your only solution and if it cannot provide solution you need to re-think for yourselves outside of the closed box that does not provide solution by its salvation to find the solution. When you do you will find the Lordship of Christ waiting there for all of you as your salvation solution. I promise He standing at the door knocking and the closed and bolted Orthodox door will not let Him come in.
A very good try on your part. It simply will not solve the problems I speak too and for the reasons I speak too. Your solution is not the radical Christ who lives outside of your closed box as the Lordship salvation solution to a corrupt, failed, irrelevant and dying EOC that believes God is its box. Oh, yes, you all do too believe God is in your box and is your box. You are Gods only alone right and one true closed box. That is failure, Orthodox. The closed box Orthodox disagrees that it is failure by its failure. Circular without solution is the closed Orthodox box.
You have to stop destroying young people by finding solution or you will destroy yourselves and take many down with you. I promise that is for you and not against you and all of my promises to the Orthodox come true. All of them.
Ashley Nevins
Ashley, I for one will not engage in ad hominem attacks. I treasure your witness but I cannot discount the immortality of Christ’s Church. It’s bigger than any one of us, bishops and patriarchs included.
Ashley, I will not attack you. In fact, I’ll go so far as to say you are largely correct in many of the particulars you cite (over and over and over and over again)–Ok maybe a slight attack –sorry.
The current organization of the Church is indefensible. It neuters every witness we might otherwise make, regardless of jurisdiction. The sooner we repudiate it and abandon it, the better off we will be. It is a relic of the Roman Empire. It fosters and protects all manner of corruption, complacency and concupiscence. Genuine ecclesial hierarchy founded on the Gospels and the sacramental life is encrusted with Machiavellian machinations motivated by lust and greed.
Unless the bishops start acting like bishops instead of satraps or commissars the official church will crash and burn with a whining whimper leaving a whole lot of decimated people in its wake.
However, you will notice that I still retain the hierarchical structure because it is a necessary requirement for the sacramental life of the Church and the maintenance of sound doctrine.
The abuses you cite and we all witness are not the result of the actual ecclesiology of the Church they are the result of an abuse and a willing ignore (ance) of the proper ecclesiology of the Church.
I have come to believe that the time of dhimminitude under the Turks which began in the 7th century and continues to this day; followed by the captivity of the Church under the late Romanov Czars (a captivity that we too willingly acquiesced to) and the persecution under the Communists have done much to foster the tyranny, corruption, licentiousness and ineptitude that characterizes much of the Orthodox episcopate to this day.
Despite all of that Ashley, the life of the Holy Trinity is still burning brightly within the Church. The doctrine that is the foundation of all genuine Christianity was articulated, defended and is still lived by many within the Church. The Holy Mysteries are a profound and under appreciated fountain of life for the Church and all of Christendom are still celebrated and transform those who have open hearts. Without the Mysteries and the Doctrine that were originally entrusted to us and the grace that has been extended to allow the maintenance of both despite the deep sinfulness of those of us within the Church, there would be no Christianity in the world today.
We are not worthy in any respect of the great trust that has been given to us. We desecrate it and trivialize it every day, but we can still declare with authority: God is with us!
Please forgive me for any offense I give to you. (446 words)
Michael,
Your church does more than offend. It tried to destroy my family like it destroyed those folks in NY.
Michael, I have experienced worse than you from the Orthodox. There is no Orthodox attack I have not experienced or cannot see through. You are dealing with a Christian who can think for himself. I know how unique that is to an Orthodox, but please understand, your not thinking for yourselves is more of an attack upon yourselves than it ever could be upon me. Your GOA destroyed our son. You can’t do worse than that to me no matter how attacking you are. Any attack less than the destruction of my son or the attempted destruction of my family is childs play to me.
You are forgiven Orthodox. You are not trusted. Forgiveness is freely given. Trust, like integrity, is earned. Orthodox, I am your best friend and your worst nightmare both at the same time depending upon who that you are. You individually decide which one I am to you in this confrontation. All of you in your corrupt church are about as trustworthy to me as your corrupt elder, bishops and EP. Your church has zero integrity with me and it reveals its lack of integrity by how corrupt it is. My only conclusion to all of you in your corrupt church is that you all believe it is trustworthy and of integrity or you would not stay. I mean, if you joined an organization and later found out it was controlled by the Mafia would you not leave it? Yes, tell me how the GOA hierarchy is not a organized religious crime organization. I am glad we cleared that up.
If you think the spiritual abuse my family received from the Orthodox is the wrong foundation for this confrontation then also tell that to the victims of Katinas and NY. See how the courts support them in their righteous anger at your corrupt destruction of youth. Most of my confrontation bounces off of the Orthodox like BB’s off the Bismark. You simply do not listen for being so very right about yourselves.
Could it be said that the Orthodox tried to destroy the wrong family, do you think for yourselves think so too? Most of those victims in NY will sign a gag agreement and get their settlement. By now all of you should know enough about me that if it was me court I would not be about the money. There would be no out of court settlement or silence agreement. There would only be your expose’. Look at the KVOA expose’ if you don’t believe me. This is spiritual with me and not material with me and yet some of you will now think this is just the unresolved anger of an emotionally distraught father over the loss of his son, blah, blah, blah. Before you write me off, look again, Orthdodox. It is another victim of your corrupt church in your faces and if you try to in your denial make it anything other than that I promise God is going to bring more of yourselves to you in future failures.
If you enable corruption you will become the corruption that you will destroy yourselves with. What you did to our son and tried to do to my family is the state of church in self destruction and now by religious addiction or by religious codependency deny it. I see right through your church by my spiritual gifts. Most all of you have never experienced a confrontation from someone outside of you before other than the police and courts. It confronts what you are not facing or confronting among yourselves. It’s not pretty or nice, is it. I speak for the victims of your unresolved church that resolved itself to kill the emotional and spiritual life of our son by a cult. Now please tell me of my unresolved issues with your church. I can’t wait to get your spiritually mature expert analysis from your state of spiritual failure.
Any form of adhominem to this confrontation now that you know who that I am is more of the same spiritual abuse that destroyed my son and tried to destroy my family. Adhominem spiritual abuse is an Orthodox expertise and especially if you are an ephramite.
Now what tried to destroy my family is seen destroying your church family. I promise that it is the exact same thing. Are you listening, Orthodox? I said it is the EXACT same thing. That is my forgiveness telling you with tough uncompromising love you are destroying the family of God. GOA, how many families are wounded or destroyed in NY? If you cannot see the apathy and indifference of your church to those it wounds and destroys then you are apathetic and indifferent dead. You all so shocked that this happened when it is your norm state of church. You never cease to amaze me in your corruption.
Yes, write me off and fail to see that I intentionally come at you like I do to draw you all out to show you your failed thinking that led to the destruction of Scott by allowing a cult to exist in the GOA and just like you allow sexually corrupt bishops and a corrupt EP with a sexually corrupt monastery with his ego on its name to rule over you all.
You place your corrupt church over all of you and the end result is spiritual abuse and spiritual abandonment. You place a corrupt church over the evangelism of others outside of your corruption. Thank God that you do. Do you know why I say that? Look at what the state of your church has done to all of you. No one needs to convert away from hell to only find themselves in hell as a church. You got hell as church and not Christ as church and how many more NY’s do you need to prove that to you?
Michael, Your answer is one of the more honest answers an Orthodox has ever relayed to me. I understand the history well and understand how it lends itself to the current state of the church. However, the deeper cause of the corruption and failure is the totalism theology that results in the corruption of church authority by it not being who Christ came to us as authority in the Gospels.
Read the book PAGAN CHRISTIANITY that busts and exposes the traditions of men among your number one competitor in freedom religion competition. That is bottom up and open system church diamterially opposite to your church that is more than proved failed. Reading that book will open the door to what fails all of you by traditions of men that are the authority equal to Christ among you and we all know what Christ told us about such traditions that lead to failure. Oh, but your traditions are somehow different and immune by their being Orthodox tradition. Yes, don’t think for yourselve and re-think anything. Just keep destroying yourselves and taking innocents down with you.
Orthodox, freedom of religion is competition whether you are on the field of that competition or not. You competition is not even aware of you for your irrelevancy in the corrupt state of church. They do not compete against you. They compete against Satan for SOULS and because they do they make you look like the carnal immature flake church that your are in your corrupt state. They are CONSTANTLY evaluating themselves and busting themselves over many the things you do not.
Your competition does not compare themselves to themselves by thinking they are Gods only one alone right and one true church that all are compared too. They compare themselves to Christ and fail forward to Great Commission success. Their defeating the evil one for souls is what is the truth in the comparison of their truth to yours that just can’t stop being an irrelevant and corrupt failure by its salvation.
You can change everyone in the leadership and the structure and the system that comes out of that structure will circle cycle back to what it was before in a short period of time. You have to reform you structure to see reform away from corrupts you. That will not make you Protestant if you do. Right now the jurisdictions operate POPE like in authoritarian power and control. You circular replace incompetent and corrupt hierarchies with the same over and over again. Frankly, you are flat out of excuses and yet you all still make them to somehow sooth the truth of the failure of your church to make the pain of that either go away or be easily ignored by religious denial.
There is not a balance of spiritual power and control authority between the laity and the hierarchy. The more you raise up the hierarchy the more that pushes the laity down and that kills a church dead. I do not see a true priesthood of laity believer authority in your church. I only see elder, bishops and EP authority crushing the life out of the GOA laity and they keep lining up for more! Yes, Greeks, the next time a known corrupt bishop visits your parish swoon over the great spiritual presense and receive your blessing from the corrupt. The corrupt are much closer to holy God than you as laity are and so the hierarchy of corruption blessing you receive will be corruption. You will get the blessing you deserve by bowing to corruption as your God.
This entire problem started when the church merged with the Roman state as one in theology and rule. That is not who Christ came to us as in the Gospels no matter how the failed Orthodox try to say otherwise. It’s really simple. Christ in the Gospels is bottom up and open system. Orthodoxy is top down and closed system. If you are structured to operate opposite to Christ in the Gospels you are going to have an opposite result the more you are structured opposite to who He came to us as.
You can structure yourselves so opposite to who and how He came to us as that you go circular without solution for your wrong structure and system undermining you every step of the way. You get an opposite result by applying an opposite solution. If you place the rule of corrupt man dictatorship in the totalitarian state and into the church as its rule in theology the outcome will be what? It will cause IDOLATRY in the church not seen and it will kill the church dead. You will never see it coming like you did not see your failure as the EOC coming. And, yes, boys and girls it is failed by any measure of Christian reason or common sense. Orthodox, idolatry creates dictators. Do you understand how and why it does?
I can only imagine how awesome the Orthodox would truly be if their structure and system was reformed by the transforming power of the Lordship of Jesus Christ as the center of authority in the church and over the rule of man as its center of authority. You are Christians trapped in a church that provides no solution or way of escaping it. Change jurisdiction and then tell me different. You do not have to destroy yourselves and take others down with you. Are you not reading your Gospels that TELL YOU Christ is the way of escape from such destruction? You can find renewal, revival and transformation away from all of this by priesthood of the believer authority demand that the corrupt failed state of church stop by an organized bottom up and open system revolution. Laity bottom up is the solution and not corruption top down. In your rule top down crushed state of laity powerless you do not see how the relationary Christ is to be your revolution to solution.
Christ is revolutionary relevancy who transforms us to change to innovation to relevancy and to Christ alive church that does not destroy itself. That is for you and not against you. I personally have experienced the destructive power of your church and I stand in confrontation to that in the Lord without compromise. In the Lord I fear no carnal man or corrupt church. 99.99% of the Orthodox fear their corrupt church over fear of the Lord. That .01% left is the likes of George, Pokrov and a very few others. Not enough to turn the tide unless all of you who are of that .01% are constantly in the faces of the apathetic and indifferently laity and too the point the church makes you OUTCASTS or the bishop just throws you OUT by your confrontation in his face continually. It takes great spiritual security and courage in the Lord to be an OUTCAST.
Here is a concept novel to the Orthodox:
No Change = No Jesus and No Jesus = No Change. Is that Orthodox correct or Orthodox wrong?
Michael, you gave an honest answer. However, it was a powerless answer.
Yes, I repeat myself. The Orthodox have a serious UNRESOLVED hearing problem.
On your side by confrontation,
Ashley Nevins
George,
You are not adhominem spiritual abuse. I do not believe that is your character. You fight organized religious crime and do not enable it. You are helping break the bondage of denial that is flat killing your church dead.
Frankly, the GOA is nothing more than an organized religious crime organization. Hey, did you all hear of the big mafia bust by the FBI in the last day or so? It came right after the big organized religious crime bust of the Orthodox in NY. Orthodox organized religious crime, welcome to the rule of law in the freedom of religion and freedom of the individual. Your DON the EP will soon be in rule of law court. Good luck, because luck is all you got and your luck has all run out. You are not going to escape this time. It’s going all the way to the top. Bottom up and opens system inalienable rights of the individual is not the top down and closed collective Orthodox rule power and control. Get it?
Collective salavation is totalism salvation. Individual salvation is Christ. The far left, socialists and communists are big into collective political salvation. Do you understand how that is failure that MIMICS the collective salvation failure of the Orthodox? The Orthodox in Russia circa 1917 went from one collective failure to the next. Do you see how that they did? I bet none of you have thought for yourselves and thought that one through. That is just another symptom pointing to the cause of your COLLECTIVE failure by your systemically connected collective salvation that fails to provide your church with a salvation solution to its corrupt, failed, irrelevant and dyng state. Are you listening, Orthodox?
When the Orthodox who reply to my posts review the KVOA TV expose’ of the elder they will discover who that I am. I am in the expose’ and played a key role in it coming to television. That is when the adhominem will take place. I hope this is a clear enough hint to the discovery of who that I am.
In confrontation with Gerasimos over the elder he threw us out of his posh Pacific Height mansion in S.F. My wife stood in front of the big plate class window and wiped her feet off in front of all of them. The GOA managed to emotionally and spiritually destroy our son and in their doing that they tried to destroy our family. My family is a victim of corrupt Orthodox spiritual abuse and divisive divorce of family. Now what destroyed our son and tried to destroy our family comes to destroy the GOA by its divisive corruption. I told the GOA hiearchy this would happen. They did not listen.
Gerasimos conducted a investigation of the elders monasteries a few years back. An Az. priest who was in charge of that investigation interviewed us and told us he was dealing with a cult. The report was only shared with the bishops and today it is no where to be found. Today the elder by divisive divison is dividing parishes to his ultra fundamentalist and legalistic power and control end. He is the living saint sent to the GOA by the Mother of God to place them back on the Orthodox spiritually correct Mt. Athos path. After a generation of him in the GOA its state has not changed. It has grown progressively worse.
Objective facts don’t matter. Subjective Orthodoxy does.
George, did you know that the elder cannot visit a Zoo? Yes, the story told at St. Anthony’s is that the one time that he did the animals all went wild wanting a blessing from him and so for the good of the zoo he departed. The guru cult leader has special powers no one else in the cult has. Get it? Understand what a cult TRULY is and you will get it. I promise.
Zoology theology does not work in real Christianity, but it does seem to work well in a corrupt, failed, irrelevant and dying church that has no ELDER solution to its obvious state. On top of issues like this obedience without thinking for yourself question is not allowed and so the conspiracy theories coming out the monastery are the truth of the Orthodox at St. Anthony’s. Of course, paranoid conspiracy theories do not point to cult paranoia in the guru’s monasteries. Such paranoia is not a classic cult sign. There is no US vs. THEM conspiracy theories at the holy elders monasteries. Just visit there yourself and find out.
I have visted there three times and have spent a night there too. But, of course some posters think I am speaking from hollow and shallow ignorance about the elder. They saw the guru cult leader coming like they saw their homsexual bishops, pedophile protecting bishops, the decline of their membership and monastery sex abuse coming. They saw NY coming like they saw Katinas coming.
George, the confession practices you know of at the ephraim monasteries is the TINY TIP of an HUGE ICEBERG of corrupt issues surrounding the elder. It is a cult at the SYSTEMIC spiritual center of the GOA and to the GOA the elder is leading them to salvation. Orthodox, sirens of warning are screaming in your ears. Are you listening?
Jesus was the first elder and his Apostles are the first novices and then they later too became monastic elders? No Biblical basis for chuch authority that is a tradition replacing Christ as authority in the church will corrupt a church by the wrong basis of authority. There is absolutely no Biblical basis in the Gospels or NT for the tradition of monaticism. It’s spiritual authority will lead a church into closed, isolated and subjective failure by self protecting what closes, isolates and makes the church subjective. Neither Jesus or the Apostles were called by God the Father to live their lives out in a cave, on a rock or in a tree in closed isolation and therefore made subjective failures. Legalism in a Christian cult just loves to tell you its legalism is your salvation and it is Christ in the Gospels. It will tell you that its legalism is the role model of Christ that must be followed to Christ as your salvation.
False Christ = false salvation = false solution = false church = failed church by its false salvation. That most likely troubles the Orthodox reader and the reaction is highly predictable. I am very popular among the EO and especially to the elder and GOA hierarchy. They just love to see me coming and here I am again and come out of no where.
Oh, I see, because monasticism is a long term tradition in the EOC that makes it Biblical. Gods only alone right and one true church said so and so end of argument. Thinking for yourself Christianity refuses to let something else think for it. Monasticism is thinking for all of you in the GOA and just like your bishops are too. They are the dynamic duo of church spiritual authority that is growing the Orthodox spiritually mature up and out of their corrupt, failed, irrelevant and dying state. Obviously, they couldn’t be leading the Orthodox into a corrupt, failed, irrelevant and dying state by their authority in the church. Just ask Elder Ephraim, the GOA bishops or the EP if you don’t beleive me. Don’t look at the church with objectively sound Christian reason. Believe the sound reason of the elder, the bishops and the EP who spiritually lead the GOA into its relevancy success with the Gospels in our modernity generation.
God has clearly warned the GOA about ephraim. He even put it on television. Of course, to the ephraimite that is persecuting the holy elder and it proves the conspiracy theory of how the world outside of the GOA monastries through Satan is trying to destroy them. The fact that he really is not financially accountable is a clear of a warning as Binny Hinn who refuses financial accountability. The Orthodox cannot read a warning from God if their church future depended upon it, and it does.
The guru is the long term divisive threat ignored and denied. I bet none of you just can’t wait until his monks become your BISHOPS. Why, it’s less than a generation away before your ephraim monastic bishop dreams come true. Don’t look at those Chicago parish outcomes with ephraimite priests. Believe the elder’s story of how he was sent to you to save you by a vision from the Mother of God. He’s got the stamp of GOA bishop approval and EP stamp of approval and so trust him without question of him and just like your trust your bishops and EP. Trust of GOA spiritual authority is your unity in spiritual maturity objectively observed by the GOA as the cause of their growing success.
The Orthodox do not listen. They don’t have too. You don’t listen if you believe you are Gods only alone right and one true truth in church and salvation. Aerial Toll Houses is the salvation of the GOA ephraim monasteries. Anyone who cannot see through that lie of salvation is in the cult of that salvation. It is a doctrine of demons. Yes, GOA make a case that it is not and then tell me how demons are not pulling the puppet strings of GOA failure from behind the scenes of bishop and monastic SPIRITUAL AUTHORITY in the church. Of course, the elder is not corrupt and just like no one else in the top spiritual leadership of the GOA is not corrupt.
The corrupt do not attract the corrupt. They attract the holy. That is a Orthodox Biblical truth seen clearly in their state of church. Fellowship and unity with the corrupt will not lead any church to become corrupt. Just ask the not corrupt GOA bishops or monastics and then compare what they say to what Christ and the Apostles say. Compare their state of church to the Gospels and NT and anyone can clearly see why the GOA is not corrupt. It’s just going through a difficult time and it will correct itself by who is leading it to that correction. That would be its elder and bishops.
Five years ago I warned Atsaves and company of the threat of the elder to the parishes. They did not listen. Now those in Chicago are too little too late in their stance against the guru cult leader. They ignored the sexual corruption of the Chicago bishops that are destroying them, but when the elder came into their parishes and destroyed them they for some reason started paying attention. I really hate telling the Orthodox, I TOLD YOU SO. You don’t have to learn all your lessons the hard way or never learn them at all if you listen to Christian reason. Oh, I see because you believe my reason is western rational it is not Orthodox alone right reason and so it is to be ignored. I see how sane and rational GOA reason is. Do any of you???
Of course, I do not what I am talking about. How could I? I am not Orthodox. Clearly I cannot see the cause of the EOC corruption, let alone GOA corruption. Only those with we are Gods only alone right and truth eyes can see the cause of their church failure. Elder Ephraim was sent by the Mother of God to the GOA as its solution. He is not at the core of the problem. He is the GOA salvation. Do the GOA understand where that kind of idolatry will lead them? It will over time lead them into a worse state of corruption than is seen today. I promise and all of my promises to the GOA come true. All of them.
The GOA do not know what a Christian cult is by being a Christian cult. The last person to recognize a cult is the person in the cult. Cults are all about divisive divison by divorce from reality that destroys the emotional and spiritual lives of the cult members. A cult is closed, isolated, subjective hierachy structure of top down power and control and it will always tell you it alone is your only salvation and if you leave it then your salvation is either in great peril or it is lost.
Is there any question now to who that I am? No, I will not be discussing my son with all of you. You are his emotional and spiritual destruction and you cannot see how that you are by your being involved in a church that is emotionally and spiritually destroying itself and those in it. The latest proof of that is the destruction of innocent children by a GO monastery in NY with the EP’s name on it. I can see your future by where you have arrived. Yes, tell me how I cannot see your future. I can’t wait to hear how well all of you see it in comparison to how I see it. The subjective telling the objective what is objective is the subjective revealing their subjective failure and they cannot subjectively see how that they are failed for how they their subjectivity is the objectivity of God.
The GOA objectively have their bishops figured out just like they have their monastics figured out.
Ashley Nevins