Beginning today, readers of Monomakhos will notice a new heading where “Fr Robert Arida” used to be. We’re calling it “The Memory Hole.”
The name comes from George Orwell’s prophetic book 1984. In that book, the reader learned that the Ministry of Truth was able to shut up all discussion about inconvenient facts by shunting them down said hole.
In the age of the Internet, this is rather harder to do but it’s not impossible, as anybody who has ever gone to “404 Error”-Land can tell you.
What brought this up is a recent phenomenon in which certain controversial clerics and bishops have had to “lose” or otherwise “forget” that they posted of wrote a controversial opinion. Two in particular, Fr Robert Arida and Archbishop Lazar Puhalo for example, have been “instructed” to take down certain things they’ve said, written or posted. That’s a good thing in a sense in that it shows that Orthodox Church is still not ready to go down the path of Episcopalian “inclusiveness” and so on. The push-back has been severe and we here at Monomakhos like to think that we’ve played a significant role in this counter-revolutions.
Be that as it may, we couldn’t do it without you as much of this nonsense has come to us unsolicited from many of you. (I can’t do it all myself.) Eternal vigilance is called for and for this we thank you.
In the meantime, we want to make sure that these idle and pernicious musings are never forgotten. It is our wish to memorialize them. Thus we ask you all to continue being vigilant; scour the Internet, social media, and so on. Take screenshots (always the best) and send them to us whenever you can so that a permanent record is maintained. This is not to humiliate anybody in particular, but to call them to account.
Real Accountability and Transparency if you know what I mean.
Michalopulos:
What’s your evidence for this “CLAIM” ? Fr. Arida’s essay is still available. +Puhalo takes orders from nobody.
Your problem stems from the facts that what you have posted about Fr. Robert Arida and what is reality are quite different. You have made him out to be some sort of demon priest who encourages homosexual activity and compromises church teaching. You are totally wrong. There have been homosexuals in the church since Constantine and the church has handled these issues one-on-one in a pastoral manner. This is the case with Fr. Robert and most priests in the Orthodox Church. This forum is just evil and defames good people. A typical forum that excelled in this was the Indiana List led by convert SYNOD nuts. I guess they just moved over here.
Mr Lemroe, there have been sinners in this Church since Jesus started preaching. I for one am glad that there are compassionate, caring priests out there who are ministering to hurting souls. I’m glad to hear that Fr Arida is one such priest.
We are not talking about private, pastoral advice. Nor about oikonomia as such. What we are talking about are clever encyclicals which seek to generalize from personal. It’s an insidious process. Perhaps Arida means no such conspiracy; if so, then I beg his forgiveness. However I bet I’m a bit older than you and I saw this exact same process play out in the mainline Protestant denominations. I too was beguiled by the soft, caring words; the aristocratic mien of the concerned, and the stark contrast with the bilious fulminations of lower-class fundamentalist preachers. There was no comparison: one side exuded Christ-like humility, the other Billy Sunday-like sputtering. Yet it was the smooth-talkers who destroyed their denominations and from thence set our land on the road to ruin.
Mr. Lemroe, since you apparently have a different understanding than George Michalopulos does on the piece that was originally posted on the Wonder Blog by Fr. Arida, would you mind explaining this particular paragraph?
“…If the never changing Gospel who is Jesus Christ is to have a credible presence and role in our culture then the Church can no longer ignore or condemn questions and issues that are presumed to contradict or challenge its living Tradition. Among the most controversial of these issues are those related to human sexuality, the configuration of the family, the beginning and ending of human life, the economy and the care and utilization of the environment including the care, dignity and quality of all human life. If the unchanging Gospel is to be offered to the culture then the Church, in and through the Holy Spirit will have to expand the understanding of itself and the world it is called to save. That there are Orthodox Christians who misuse the never changing Christ to promote a particular political agenda and ideology or as license to verbally and physically assault those they perceive as immoral along with those who would question the status quo of the Church impose on the Church a ‘new and alien spirit’.”
What exactly is he saying?
Since neither Mr. Lemroe nor OOM have stepped up to answer my question, I’ll do it myself.
Mr. Lemroe stated that what Mr. Michalopulos has “posted about Fr. Robert Arida and what is reality are quite different” and that he has “made Fr. Arida out to be some sort of demon priest who encourages homosexual activity and compromises church teaching.”
Fr. Arida wrote that the Church can “no longer ignore or condemn questions and issues that are presumed to contradict or challenge its living Tradition” and he goes on to say that these questions are controversial — specifically, those “related to human sexuality, the configuration of the family, the beginning and ending of human life…”
Is there any doubt that Fr. Arida is suggesting that the Church’s teaching on homosexuality (and presumably transgenderism, transvestism, etc. etc.etc. as well), gay marriage, abortion, and euthanasia are open questions in the Orthodox Church? Is there any doubt that he is, by his suggestion, encouraging homosexual activity and compromising Church teaching?
No, there isn’t.
Right thinking authentic Christianity brings forth the fruits of a sense of the sacred and a sense of decency. To the pure all things are pure. It is obvious the right thinking produces fruit of the Holy Spirit. It is just as obvious to the pure that what Fr. Aderia expounds does not contain the qualities that bring forth fruits of the Holy Spirit, rather it contends against the Holy Spirit. He wishes of open the evil fruits as an acceptable alternative to the acquisition of the Holy Spirit., . The fruits he champions are always unacceptable, Light has no fellowship with darkness and confusion. I wonder if what he is teaching is not a compromise to the government for allowing the GOA to build the new church in ground zero.by the GOA.
Michalopulos:
Who appointed YOU the Internet and social media police force?
I appointed myself. (Someone’s gotta do it!)
Michalopulos:
We’ve included too many angry ex-Episcoplians, especially among the priesthood, that’s for sure. They bring with them the “new and alien spirit” of which Fr. Robert Arida has written so persuasively and eloquently. It is the tired, dying spirit of fundamentalism.
OOM, as far as I’m concerned, we can never have too many “angry, ex-Episcopalians” in the priesthood! After all, they have much to be angry about.
There are no Aglican fundamentalists. But there are many who now like to call believers in timeless Christian doctrine “fundamentalists”.
OOM, you refer to ‘angry ex-Episcopalians’ and their ‘spirit of fundamentalism.’ I was raised in the Episcopal Church and ‘fundamentalism’ is hardly what comes to mind when I think of the clergy and members I have known over the years. Many were neoterics. Many were there for social reasons. Occasionally one would go ‘Roman’ on us. But fundamentalist? A rare bird indeed. You must be thinking of those right wing secessionist groups that pop up from time to time in the ECUSA, no?
Ah, I see that you, OOM, referenced the quote I referred to above and asked Mr. Lemroe to explain.
Perhaps you’d care to do the same?
My dear OOM!
“Fundamentalist Episcopalian” is an oxymoron. Fundamentalists have strongly held religious beliefs. Worse, they express those beliefs in PUBLIC!!! They actually talk about their belief and faith in JESUS in POLITE COMPANY!!! As I grew up hearing, fundamentalists are, well, not our sort of people. They’re very religious and have the bad form to talk about their religious beliefs in front of everybody. Polite company keep that sort of thing to themselves. It’s very rude to make other people uncomfortable by getting all emotional and talking about, well, you know, “Jesus” and all that sort of stuff.
“Fundamentalists”! All I can say is “My dear OOM!”
Michalopulos:
Georgian Patriarch Blames Deadly Flooding On Communists’ Sins. Is this the kind of UTTER NONSENSE you want us all to find, so that you can hold the patriarch accountable?
“The patriarch concluded that the deaths of people and animals were ‘the result’ of the communist rulers’ actions.
“Ilia suggested that the zoo be vacated and rebuilt in a different location, because the current zoo ‘was founded on sin’.”
I’d be interested to read his actual words, not a description of them.
The Pope has been misquoted a number of times, you’ll recall.
And if that is what he said, well yes, of course he should be asked to clarify himself.
Is there something wrong with asking the same from Fr. Arida?
Patriarch Ilia said that the zoo was built using metal that was robbed from churches, and that crimes like that do not go unanswered, hence the zoo’s disastrous end. Hardly nonsense.
Ah, Father Helga@ Does this mean your God has SHOWN THEM?wow! Does this herald the repentant construction of new churches? Or was it just to satisfy justice…..?
Ah, all of that information must have gone to the same “memory hole” where the 2008 report of the Special Investigative Committee must have gone. That document has also disappeared from a lot of the places it used to live online.
Its official…Met Jonah has been released to ROCOR
We’ve heard this before, but – Yes, it appears to be true this time – thanks be to God! Read more here and here
George. your blog makes my day. keep stirring the aroma is delightful
Speaking of Memory Holes, today in the news the STL Cardinals baseball team is under federal investigation for guessing at former employee’s passwords in order to access the Houston Astros’ network. ESPN and the NY Times are reminding people that such behavior is a violation of federal law and a felony. (Title XIIX. 1030 if I’m not mistaken). Moreover, the penalty grows if information is gathered or disseminated for the hacker’s advantage.
Just a reminder to the Synod of the OCA, and to the diocese of E. PA…
Now Jesse, you’re talking about something important, that is major league baseball. I can assure you that secular standards of rectitude and criminality do not apply to other institutions, at least as far as the Chancery in Syosset and their Stokovite enablers are concerned (sarcasm on).
And what a massive memory hole that is, Jesse! I only wish the matter could have been pursued in court.
It is being reported that the the St. Sergius Institute in Paris has suspended all functions rather than be “restructured” by a Greek bishop – originally from a schismatic Ukranian group from Canada no less – who has been an EP bishop for a total of two years. in asserting its 90-year tradition of being the most prominent and renowned Orthodox Theological Academy on the European continent, the French courts ruled in St. Sergius’ favour & and ordered That they not be interfered withand their endowment funding be restored. Upon appeal by the EP’s Bishop Job as ruling hierarch, he was restored authority, but stripped of the authority grant academic degrees. Students wishing to continue pursuing degrees have been forced to transfer to a smaller seminary of the ROC. http://www.saint-serge.net/evenements/avenir.html#declarationsaintserge
Michael,
Are you able to give us an overview or some back ground to this story? Likewise, if anyone can do the same for this item:
http://byztex.blogspot.com/2015/06/abp-rastislav-of-presov-false-shine-of.html
it would be helpful. Surely I’m not the only one who is clueless as to all the goings-on in world Orthodoxy. Presumably these items are reported because they are of some significance, yes?
What, exactly, is up?
Thanks
This is a rough translation of what is posted on the website of os St. Sergius Institute, dated June 16, 2015:
They apparently intend to conduct their already scheduled summer symposia in Church Slavonic for Chanters, Readers, and choir members through the end of June.
I do not think this corect, they have been told to pursue the studies at other serious Paris institutions with which St. Serge has class-transfer arrangements. I do not think the ROC seminar in Epinay-sous-Senart is anywhere in that group – it reminds me more of the line in the movie “The In-laws”: “This was not a caterer, it was just two guys and a truck and lettuce”
Mr, Woerl,
While my opinion of your cheap theatrical “piling-on” should be quite predictable, I would offer you my thoughts as offered to Fr. Hans on his evolution of Robert Arida from “Episcopalian” to “Gnostic”:
Fr. Hans then asked my opinion, “So what do you think Fr. Arida is saying? What is his thesis? And why did he write in such “vague terms?” And my response was:
It seems to me that a wiser course of action for you and many others would have been to explore the role of Living Tradition in the Church, because it seems to me that this fundamental magical thinking that has guided us to believe that, in the analogy offered by Met. Kallistos (Ware), was posed by the 14th century Byzantine statesman Theodore Metochites, such that, “All that needs to have been said has already been said” has landed us in the moral crisis in which we now find ourselves. As Fr. Florovsky wrote:
Fr. Hans responded to me, “All this is to say that recourse to Fr. Florovsky, Schmemann and the other great luminaries of the Paris exile also demands of your listener that he enters the spirit of the culture as it existed when they wrote. But that culture doesn’t exist anymore. Anyone who was born after the 1980s has no idea of what life in 1950s New York was like. They have no reference point. It’s like us looking at scenes of Bangkok.” I say they were visionaries and fathers of our generation instructing us in the mayhem which was to come, and is now upon us. And by ignoring them, what I pitifully read on this forum is, “What do we do now?” You are simply too shallow an observer, Mr. Woerl to be finger-pointing, not once, but in three posts consecutively. Have a seat somewhere and sell your ROCOR coffee mugs and hoodies out of my sight. There is enough blame for everyone to share.
Apparently, the exact same article appeared in the first issue of “The Wheel,” self proclaimed as “an Orthodox Journal.” So, this call to heed “sophisticated and refined theological scholarship,” which seems is the product of academics who need to “say a new word” to get that next degree, but disdain asceticism and monasticism; that entire milieu is also fond of pointing out disagreements on various topics involving different Holy Fathers, with the upshot that, consequently, we now need the view of whichever academic it is on whichever topic they are addressing, from the Vatican proclaimed “greatest Orthodox Theologian in the world,” to the “Priest (Author/Speaker),” to that guy with a BS in “theology” from a Protestant seminary that feels it a necessity to explain the Canons (of course, on the most pressing issue in Orthodoxy today-the ‘non-canonical’ situation in the US) to Orthodox Hierarchs … because he knows better.
At any rate, following are links to “The Wheel,” and Fr. Robert Arida’s spiel on “How to Expand the Mission,” this time with no “18th All American Council” subtitle … if this is, indeed, the same article that appeared on the “Wonder Blog,” Fr. Arida is sure gettin’ a lotta mileage out of it!
“The Wheel:”
http://www.wheeljournal.com/current/
“How to Expand the Mission,” by Father Robert Arida
http://static1.squarespace.com/static/54d0df1ee4b036ef1e44b144/t/551b305ce4b0f86de554b759/1427845212846/01_03+arida.pdf
And now that ‘gay marriage’ is legal, I suppose efforts will be redoubled by those who seek to have the Orthodox Church also “legalize” it … wouldn’t want anyone to get in trouble with the law, now would we?
The Saint Sergius Institute was staffed, predominabtly, from its beginnings by Russian philosophers who were exiled from the Soviet Union in the early 1920s. Many of them left the Soviet Union on the so-called “Philosopher’s Ship,” and, if they couldn’t afford the ticket, the Soviet government paid their way. The list of these intelligentsia philiosophers was drawn up by Lenin himself. There are also reports that the Soviet government paid stipends to some after their arrival in Western Europe, to help with living expenses. All this, at a time when Orthodox Hierarchs, Clergy, and Laity were being imprisoned and martyred in the Soviet Union. Many of those on the Philosopher’s Ship had been involved with various aspects of the Silver Age of Russian Literature, noted for it’s deep fascination with the occult, perhaps most notably, Madame Blavatsky’s Theosophical Society. Many were early advocates of ecumenism, also advocating, and practicing, “intercommunion” with Anglicans. Of course, St Sergius Institute was the Alma Mater of the Franco-American academic theologians … and where one was introduced to Roman Catholic and Anglican ‘Liturgical Renewal’ movements of the 1930s, for which we have to thank for the rather famous “actually, in the third century” justification of … just about whatever you like! Innovation central! And people wonder about Fr. Arida’s calls for … all he calls for! “Wherever did this come from!” Why, Gay Paree, of course!!
FREE ROCOR HOODY to Dr Stankovich! Wear it in health!