This Time, the Archbishop Gets it Right

What a difference an election makes.

Eight years ago, His Eminence, Archbishop Demetrios Trakatellis of the GOA, did not cover himself in glory when he grovelled before President Obama, calling him “another Alexander the Great”.

Yesterday (which was Greek Independence Day), His Eminence spoke glowingly about President Trump and the role that Greeks have played in American history. Specific mention was made about the Greek mercenaries who augmented the first Marine expeditionary force in their war against the Barbary Pirates back in 1803.

This is to the good. I’d like to think that the New World Order nonsense which Bush the Younger peddled (and which Obama augented) will quietly go down the memory hole. Hopefully, our European brothers will take the necessary lessons and act accordingly.

Links about this event as well as the civilisational war will follow.

I raise a glass and make a toast to both President Trump and His Eminence: “Axioi!”

Comments

  1. George Michalopulos says
  2. Estonian Slovak says

    I think Greeks are used to surviving under hostile foes, the Turks, etc. Just like all the Orthodox in the Austro-Hungarian empire. Or the Orthodox in today’s Poland. Hence Poles who convert to Orthodoxy today have to go to Greece to be baptised because the Polish Orthodox Church will not even chrismate them. I suppose in Turkey the few remaining Orthodox are in the same predicament.

    • Why would they do that ??

    • Estonian,
      Greeks in Greece, still have issues paying taxes to this day as well, because of the Turkish occupation. It must be in the blood, after decades of paying extra Islamic poll taxes (Jizya) to the Turks, and years of corruptions, after their independence. Old habits are hard to break.

  3. I’d like to think that the New World Order nonsense which Bush the Younger peddled (and which Obama augented) will quietly go down the memory hole.

    It probably will, but not until McCain, Graham, and their ilk exit the stage.

    But even if it does take a little longer, globalism is a dying ideology. Whether conservative or liberal, Millennials have been bent against this utopian pseudo-religion by globalist governments overplaying their hand since 9/11—from the surveillance state to endless wars to rapefugees.

    Short of globalists launching some kind of unprecedented world war or authoritarian takeover, I don’t see the post-WWII globalist master plan surviving longer than 5-15 more years.

  4. I have a fondness for Abp. Demetrios. He is wise and holy and he has a sense of humor. He has his faults, as do we all, but he may do the right thing for the Greek Orthodox Church in America regarding this conflict over the council of Crete.

    It is interesting that he has the same basic name as the former OCA Abp. of the Diocese of the South, Abp. Dimitri of thrice blessed memory. Vladyka Dimitri was a lion for the faith.

    Faith is a constant decision. Hopefully, for the sake of the one choosing it, it is steady since one’s emotions will be rocky otherwise. So we must decide what to believe in in order to feel secure. The first thing we need to choose to believe in is the existence of God. If God is not the Author of reality, then we are crazy, delusional and insecure because we instinctively know that we are not the Author of reality and someone had to be.

    We instinctively know that we must manage our emotions which, allowed in the extreme, become destructive passions.

    The next question is, “How do I know what God wants of me to maintain my security?” We trust our own senses but feel more comfortable in community, being creatures connected by family and blood. But this emotional security is a feeling of the spirit, not flesh and blood. So we seek a spiritual family. A family in which there is collected wisdom regarding how to maintain spiritual/emotional security. And that family is a community. So one must decide when one has found the most secure spiritual community one can find. There is no substitute for this process. Faith is a decision. Knowing that no man is the God who created all, one wants to find a community where that God is present and can connect with one as a human being, making one God-like to the extent possible. God is the Author of reality as we have defined Him. So what could be more secure than that?

    You want deep communion with that Being. In fact, you want that type of security inside of you, flowing through you. But you do not want to be responsible for being the Author of reality, of course. There is only one community that offers this vision of God as Essence and Energy who became a God-Man in the flesh, died and was resurrected in order to save our souls and come into our very depths through the Holy Spirit and the Eucharist. And that community is the Orthodox Church of Christ.

  5. Jim of Olym says

    I keep hoping that Trump will somehow get it right, but his choices for cabinet officers and some of his proclamations leave me queasy. He is steering far from the course he allegedly set during the campaign. I think the debacle over TrumpCare might be indicative as the GOP is not united in his favor. We sure do live in interesting times.

  6. Tim R. Mortiss says

    I dunno. As a member of the GOA, who is Anglo all the way down except for some Caledonian, I wish the Greeks would get over this “Greek contribution to America” stuff, after all these generations. The Italians, the Jews, the Croations, the Swedes, etc., all seem to have gotten over it long ago.

  7. Their already looking ahead to the global sweet crude wars of the futture to this keep this sea people system chugging along mindsets are locked in place. The end is a donedeal eyoual. The Command of God is Life Eternal, I suggest we get out of the way