If you had any doubt about where the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese stands on gay issues, look no further.
Tonight, at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Church in Whitestone, NY, the local parish PTA hosted a “famous” Greek-American comedian named Gus Constantellis (music by Gus Ballas).
What, you’ve never heard of him? Yeah, neither have I.
His shtick however is all about being gay, from a first-generation Greek-American perspective. Recently, he appeared on the “We’re Having Gay Sex Podcast #98” | “Gay Dating Show.” His hook was “This is Sparta; His Hookups 300” (get it?)
So, because being a gay Greek comedian is –I suppose topical?–he was invited to Holy Cross Greek Orthodox Church for “Meze, Beer/Wine, Entertainment.” All for $100 a ticket! (You can’t beat that with a stick!)
If you couldn’t make it, I bet there will be a repeat performance. I’m sure the Priest and Parish Council got a blessing from their bishop (Archbishop Elpidophoros) for this event.
Well, I imagine so. (I certainly hope so!)
Anyway, we go onward and upward! Perhaps soon we’ll have drag queens prancing up and down the aisles in the naves of our churches, throwing rose petals. (We can’t let the ‘Piskies have all the fun.)
We wouldn’t want to be called intolerant and divisive, would we?
Seriously now, have the laypeople in the GOA had enough? I’m thinking that in that diocese at least, they see nothing wrong. Otherwise, the parish wouldn’t have approved it in the first place.
Per the flyer it was sponsored by the “Greek Afternoon School PTA”.
If you missed him today at Holy Cross in Whitestone, he is being hosted by 3 more Greek Orthodox churches in the next few weeks.
Isn’t that special.
‘Special’ is the word for it!
I have friends in the GOA that are TOTALLY oblivious to what’s going on, even in their own backyard, so to speak. I’ve said things to them, but it’s always, I’ve never heard about this, etc. As Jed Clampett would always say, “Pitiful. Pitiful.”
What are the names of the the other 3 churches?
It appears that Whitestone, New York is in Queens, right across the East River from the Bronx. That puts it in Elpidophoros’ own bailiwick, the Direct Archdiocesan District, if I’m not mistaken.
I think I’m going to vomit ?…
Notice: not till arrival of AB Elpidoforos has
Orthodox Church been under attack like this?
Sure miss the dignity of AB Demetrios —
I hope Whitestone Church organizers who did
this disgrace are severely reprimanded!
FWIW, there were several people standing outside waving signs that said “ANAXIOS!”
Nothing new, this sort of thing has been going on for years, even before Elpidophoros……questionable entertainment at GOA church sponsored events. As long as the entertainer is the right ethnicity……
i agree with you!
I am 13 years old
this teen is NOT happy about it!
i agree!
Stay away from the GOA!
The GOA priests are chicken littles.
Where is their courage?
They took a vow.
Where is it now?
Let the darkness eat itself!
And it will.
Lay people –
Stay away from the GOA!
The illness is called “modernism”. It infects all the jurisdictions to some extent but seems to have done the most damage in GOARCH and the OCA, GOARCH especially.
But it is important to define the problem with precision. There are two types of leaders in the Church. One judges Tradition by Modernity. The other judges Modernity by Tradition. Pat. Melitios IV was a notorious modernist responsible for the calendar situation and the gradual assimilation of modernists parishes of practices such as pews and women going uncovered. These are symptoms, among others, of modernism. These people are all pointed in the same direction. Heteropraxis leads to heterodoxy. The only question is how far along the road each jurisdiction and each parish within have “progressed”. But make no mistake, the “progression” is toward anarchy, chaos and oblivion.
Yes, anarchy and chaos has arrived. It’s all downhill now. Let them bury themselves.
This abomination has the hallmarks of the
Turk – pansy Elpidophoros & his unholy gang.
But remember folks,
the fish stinks from the head.
Feckless Bartholomew is allowing this trash
by strategically choosing only those on
Global/Homo train!
This is what the future of Orthodoxy in America looks like:
These are who are getting all the converts, these are who are getting the participation of the youth and young adults.
You know what is not the future of Orthodoxy in America? Whatever GOARCH is peddling. Aging laity, closing parishes, plummeting attendance.
Either those faithful clergy, laity and monastics within the GOA are going to have to leave or they are going to have to be much, much more forceful in their opposition.
Which will it be?
This is what the future of Orthodoxy in America looks like:
These are who are getting all the converts, these are who are getting the participation of the youth and young adults.
You know what is not the future of Orthodoxy in America? Whatever GOARCH is peddling. Aging laity, closing parishes, plummeting attendance.
Either those faithful clergy, laity and monastics within the GOA are going to have to leave or they are going to have to be much, much more forceful in their opposition.
Which will it be?
Orthodox Ethos is stupendous .
Does anyone know which bishop Fr. Peter Heers answers to? It seems he has lived much of his adult life as a priest in Greece, with a short stint or two in the US. Yet, he seems to be quite interested in influencing and speaking to the Orthodox Church in the US, to try to set it straight. Is he even under episcopal authority or a “Lone Ranger,” as what he produces is always promoted through his publishing company.
I’ve been told it’s Bishop Luke Vicar of the Diocese of Eastern America and New York.
I know he’s a lecturer for Holy Trinity Orthodox Monastery in Jordanville https://www.hts.edu/frpeterheers
However, he’s not listed in the ROCOR directory of priests so I don’t know. https://directory.stinnocentpress.com/viewclergy.cgi?lang=en&search=heers&x=17&y=9
So maybe someone else knows more.
Interesting that the question of whose episcopal authority a particular priest, who markets himself under his own publishing company, cannot be easily answered…
There’s photos of him recently concelebrating with ROCOR, OCA, and Antiochian clergy, so he’s obviously canonical.
Perhaps you should contact Bishop Luke directly and ask him about Fr. Peter’s status – he was the Honorary Chairman of the recent UMP Conference, was in attendance, and even gave a presentation.
I believe you are right about Fr Peter being under the omorphor of Bishop Luke. He is indeed a noted speaker. (I wish I could have been there.) If anybody has any video I’d be honored to post it.
The PTA. That’s the education industry, right? The school system is a bunch of pedophiles.
Are we allowed to say that?
Every male homoerotic subculture has been pedophilic. Pederasty and sodomy go together like communism and burning burnings. Are we allowed to notice?
Can we make the inference that the people running the GOA are also pedophiles? Is that too far beyond plausibility?
Not all homosexuals are pedophiles and not all pedophiles are homosexuals.
I have serious doubts about that, considering that most homosexuals got that way because of abuse.
Most homosexuals have adult partners. Some pedohiles prefer opposite sex children.
As I understand it, many homosexuals
have many partners + one night stands.
Stable partnerships are not their norm.
Relatedly: Notice how Monkeypox disappeared from the news when children and animals started getting this homosexually transmitted disease. Curious!
No, they are not. Yes, you are correct: not all pedophiles are homosexual. In fact, according to the Guttmacher Institute, only 36% of cases involving pedophilia are perpetrated by homosexuals. (This raises an uncomfortable point, given that homosexuals make up only 3% of the population.)
That said, since time immemorial, ephebophilia (or the exaltation of the peri-pubescent youth) has been the ideal in attraction for homosexuals. Indeed, it is around this point in a youth’s adolescence that he is groomed so that he turns into a practicing adult homosexual.
It’s no different for heterosexuals: Playboy magazine made its mark on society by exalting the “Girl Next Door” image. (Note the insistence upon the word “girl,” the emphasis was upon youth and unblemished beauty.)
This was Playboy‘s business model, not the single, business-suit attired career woman, or the married, thirty-something, mother-of-three housewife, or the post-menopausal grandmother.
Honest homosexual activists embrace their emphasis on youth. That’s one reason I suppose that they never condemned NAMBLA (The North American Man-Boy Love Association).
I don’t care to do the research to confirm it, but I read once that Boy Scouts was the most popular gay porn theme.
While it ice true that not all pedophiles are homosexuals, I am not convinced that the other statement is true; i.e., that not all homosexuals are pedophiles. I say this because pederasty is much more prevalent among homosexuals than you would expect, as George noted. But also because the way in which most homosexuals become homosexuals is pederasty and, consequently, there is a psychological urge to repeat the trauma underlying the psychosis.
I mean, when Elton John does a musical number with gay dancers dressed as Boy Scouts, they’re not even trying to hide it. In Russian culture, it is almost assumed that it is the same psychosis and a common slur for gays is “pid”.
In 2020 Pete Bootyjudge helped a 9 year old come out as gay. How is that not grooming? And how does a 9 year old know that he likes gay sex unless he’s been molested? Because that’s what it means to be gay — not some Disney romance but these specific sexual acts.
Then you have all these kids drag shows and pride parades, and no one in the gay community says anything, because all homosexuals are either pedophiles or pedophile enablers.
Eventually a GOA parish will host one of those drag queen touchy times.
That’s a very good point, Austin. How indeed?
Come on over to ROCOR!
We would love to have you come on by and stay awhile!
Whitestone is very much “Ounia Fatsa Ounia Ratsa”, nearly half their kids marry Italian. It is Valiotis home parish, with Malba being one of the wealthiest neighborhoods inside NYC, and including beachfront houses. Watch Mike Stoler’s “Building NY” CUNY TV interview where Pistilli says he put up the Andriotis/Valiotis banks so Greeks can buy Pistilli built homes. And you know Spartans were the first mafia fascist molestors of Sicily hence Rome.
Your outrage implies that you assume that influential people in the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese care that events like this happen.
How much more has to occur before the “outrage” transforms into “dealing with reality”?
If they cared, stuff like this wouldn’t happen. They don’t care.
Might be painful to hear, but I believe that God wants us to confront reality even if it’s painful, rather than live in pretend-land.
The only way events like this make sense is if the leaders in the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese do not care about LGBT issues infiltrating the church. The data already suggest that many/most GOAA leadership have bought into the sanctimonious delusion that “well, God just must create some people gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, so it’s about time the Church owns up to this fact!” (The “modern society knows better than the Church” phenomenon”…. “man, do we have a thing or two to teach St John Chrysostom and St John of San Francisco!” What effrontery, what insolence. But that’s where we are.)
You may not want to hear it, but it’s quite obvious that this is what senior leadership in the GOAA believes, just like the leadership of most protestant churches and of the mainstream Roman Catholics. Barring a miracle, the mainstream Greek Orthodox churches in America and Europe are a lost cause.
I vote that we move past “outrage” and deal with reality.
I should add that this clash between the loud LGBT “God made me this way” crowd and traditional Christians saying “no God didn’t” will continue in conflict until serious scholarship starts investigating once again and talking about the origins of the same-sex attraction lifestyle.
Researchers and psychologists/psychiatrists delved into this topic for much of the 20th century — with some great data and fascinating insights. It continued until about a decade ago, when such research and scholarship was effectively banned in the West (thanks to the tiny but very powerful LGBT lobby in academia and in politics).
These days, I don’t think there’s anywhere for a Christian young man who’s afflicted with unwanted SSA to turn for help, except privately to Christ, His Mother, and the Saints, and (if he’s lucky) to a priest or Christian friend who knows how to deal with this stuff. Many are terrified to touch this topic with a 10-foot pole. For most Christian counselors across the country, addressing this stuff these days in counseling is now flat-out illegal, AFAIK.
They could lose their counseling license, I think, even if they try to help a SSA person understand where his/her SSA feelings come from. “You were just born this way” is the only acceptable answer nowadays, even though everyone knows there are clear external triggers, almost always having to do with childhood emotional/physical/sexual abuse/trauma.
Until we start talking publicly again about the origins of the LGBT delusion — and ways to help and heal those afflicted — this sort of thing will continue to happen, since it’s otherwise a cultural impasse.
This is le mot juste and it is the root problem in the modern world. Most Orthodox people accept that “gay” people are born that way. It is a lie. All lies come from Satan. Much research has suggested that homosexual behavior is a consequence of early sexual trauma. Now we mutilate the bodies of children, that is, if we haven’t slaughtered them in the womb, first.
Mr Constantellis appears to be an “up-and-comer” in GOA circles. He was also at speaker/comediant at the annual YAL (Young Adult League) Conference which was held last July 4th as well.
No one has mentioned also of the filthy words he uses in his presentation as I’ve been told by an eyewitness who if they had known that would have not gone to see him.
IF that priest of Holy Cross Orthodox Church in
Whitestone, NY is not
suspended or reprimanded then we know that both
Priest & Bishop involved are totally sold out
to Global/Homo agenda.
[Priest name is Fr. George Anastasiou
website says he’s chaplain of NYPD?]
Urge EVERYONE to telephone church &
complain – show righteous indignation!
CALL: ☎️(718) 767-2955
& Email: info@holycrossgreekchurch.com
AND PLEASE Sign PETITION
to Depose AB Elpidophoros!!!
I just called the phone number you provided for Holy Cross. An angry man named Hercules did not like my question. I gave my first and last name and he shouted through the speaker phone he was not interested. I asked him if the priest ever meets with the PTA. He did not answer. I asked why a gay comedian is going to entertain the PTA. He said, how do we know what someone is? We have nothing to do with who the PTA invites.
I said, if we do not know if the comedian is gay, we do know the topic chosen by the comedian will be about gay issues. I asked Hercules if this venue is in keeping with Holy Scripture. He told me the theologians no better than we do.
Please call Hercules and ask the questions you need answered.
If the GOA was aware of this is one issue (and I’m pretty sure they are not). Their parish priest should always be aware but I don’t know the priest of Whitestone well enough to know of his involvement with the PTA. Whitestone is one of the larger communities in NYC Metro area and the PTA may be operating without having informed the priest. Sometimes the Greek school PTA’s don’t notify the clergy of all their events knowing that this may be shut down. This is an issue that needs further investigation.
One of the many reasons Metropolitan Joseph of the Antiochian archdiocese is being CANCELED… Lord have mercy on us
It seems as though both Metropolitan Joseph AND Bishop Basil have been retired. Metropolitan Joseph was of course expected, but, I didn’t see Bishop Basil’s retirement coming. I’m guessing it was due to age?
Bishop Basil’s retirement has been in the works for years now. Even before Covid, if I recall correctly. It has nothing to do with current events.
He will be greatly missed. A faithful man who knew how to love truly and be firm in the Faith at the same time
Amen ??
I am a communicant at St George in Wichita and have known Bp Basil for 35 years. He retied for health reasons. Anyone who thinks otherwise is anathema to me.
Retiring due to age is kind of the same thing as retiring due to “health reasons,” as advancing age is one of them. No one is casting any dispersions here. No anathemas are necessary.
His Grace will be missed. Tremendously so. Together with the Venerable Dmitri Royster of Dallas, he was the most successful missionary bishop in the United States since St Raphael Hawaweeny.
You know who I really miss? Bishop Tikhon Fitzgerald. I really grew to love him on this blog, and miss him very much.
George-
Worth checking out- the takeover of the APA and other medical associations by gay and pro-gay activists.
John
A Christian understanding of homosexuality
https://stjohndc.org/en/orthodoxy-foundation/christian-understanding-homosexuality
Introduction
Over the past 45 years, our society has undergone a revolution – there is really no other way to describe it – in the prevailing cultural attitudes towards homosexuality and various related ‘alternative’ sexualities, an entire range of behaviors now collectively referred to by the acronym LGBTQ – Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer (this last term being a catch-all for identities and behaviors that do not fit into any of the preceding categories). Most of the contemporary population has come of age during this revolution. Older readers will remember a time when if such things were even mentioned, it was usually in the form of a tasteless joke, or in the context of an insult.
…
Today, not only does our society broadly tolerate homosexual behavior, it is legally recognized and given protected status. The US Supreme Court’s Obergefell decision in June of 2015 made the United States the 22nd country to officially recognize same-sex marriage. Homosexual characters are everywhere in television and films, and the attention of social progressives is moving towards the mainstreaming of ever more exotic sexual identities. Young people are growing up in an environment where casual acceptance of homosexuality and bisexuality is increasingly seen as the norm, and where dissenters from the new orthodoxy are regarded with contempt, not only as ignorant and unenlightened, but as positively evil.
This change in attitudes presents an array of challenges as we seek to live our lives as Christians. In some respects, the issues we face are similar to those of our brethren in late-classical antiquity. On the other hand, for them the norms of pagan sexuality represented a long-prevailing status quo, for which the Church was proclaiming a revolutionary alternative. For us, we face a newly remade moral landscape, and one which, far from being static, is evolving rapidly as it is driven forward by powerful social and political forces.
With references to:
Sexuality and Gender Findings from the Biological, Psychological, and Social Sciences
https://www.thenewatlantis.com/issues/no-50-fall-2016
Preface • Executive Summary • Introduction • 1. Sexual Orientation
2. Sexuality, Mental Health Outcomes, and Social Stress
3. Gender Identity • Conclusion
Preface
This report was written for the general public and for mental health professionals in order to draw attention to — and offer some scientific insight about — the mental health issues faced by LGBT populations.
It arose from a request from Paul R. McHugh, M.D., the former chief of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Hospital and one of the leading psychiatrists in the world. Dr. McHugh requested that I review a monograph he and colleagues had drafted on subjects related to sexual orientation and identity; my original assignment was to guarantee the accuracy of statistical inferences and to review additional sources. In the months that followed, I closely read over five hundred scientific articles on these topics and perused hundreds more. I was alarmed to learn that the LGBT community bears a disproportionate rate of mental health problems compared to the population as a whole.
As my interest grew, I explored research across a variety of scientific fields, including epidemiology, genetics, endocrinology, psychiatry, neuroscience, embryology, and pediatrics. I also reviewed many of the academic empirical studies done in the social sciences including psychology, sociology, political science, economics, and gender studies.
I agreed to take over as lead author, rewriting, reorganizing, and expanding the text. I support every sentence in this report, without reservation and without prejudice regarding any political or philosophical debates. This report is about science and medicine, nothing more and nothing less.
…
I am currently a scholar in residence in the Department of Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and a professor of statistics and biostatistics at Arizona State University. Up until July 1, 2016, I also held part-time faculty appointments at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and School of Medicine, and at the Mayo Clinic.
Lawrence S. Mayer, M.B., M.S., Ph.D.
At the end of his life Joshua says to the Israelites, (Joshua 24)
14 “Now therefore, fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and in truth, and put away the gods which your fathers served on the other side of [d]the River and in Egypt. Serve the Lord! 15 And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of [e]the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
16 So the people answered and said: “Far be it from us that we should forsake the Lord to serve other gods; 17 for the Lord our God is He who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, who did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way that we went and among all the people through whom we passed. 18 And the Lord drove out from before us all the people, including the Amorites who dwelt in the land. We also will serve the Lord, for He is our God.”
19 But Joshua said to the people, “You cannot serve the Lord, for He is a holy God. He is a jealous God; He will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins. 20 If you forsake the Lord and serve foreign gods, then He will turn and do you harm and consume you, after He has done you good.”
Actually something we must chose every day.
It should be commented that Joshua meant that YHVH would not forgive unrepentant apostasy. He is quick to forgive those who sincerely repent (Psalms 86:5).
Society at large has unbelievably been reduced to: “parents versus pervs;” there are within the mix of pervs, some so-called “parents.” These parents have had to have been “brainwashed” by schools and colleges, therefore; we have entered into the twilight zone of a generational abyss. As far as the Church, here is the $64,000 question: did the “elites” who govern it turn a blind eye? If so, why?
The Patriarchate of Antioch has now recognized the Macedonians. Yet another Church that has recognized the Macedonians because of the canonical order that was taken, and not recognized the illegal actions taken in Ukraine by Bartholomew creating the schismatics.
This one is worth seeing. Don’t miss it if you are in vicinity.
https://eadiocese.org/news_201029_1
This is from two years ago…!
Hospital Cancels Sex Assault Survivor’s Surgery After She Opposed Transgender Nurse Performing ‘Intimate’ Procedure
A British woman has had her surgery canceled by a local hospital after she refused to accept a male nurse wearing a blonde wig as a “woman.”
The anonymous UK woman, who is a retired lawyer and old-school feminist, reached out to the Daily Mail to get the word out about how she’s being discriminated against.
The patient was going to undergo a complex colorectal surgery at London’s Princess Grace Hospital at the beginning of October.
She specifically requested an all-female staff perform the operation as she was previously sexually assaulted by a man and wouldn’t feel comfortable knowing male staff would potentially tend to her “intimate care” while she was immobilized for an entire week following major surgery.
Despite specifically making this request, the woman was shocked when a person she claims was a biological male wearing a blonde wig and makeup opened the door for a pre-op appointment involving intimate medical work.
At this time, the woman made another request for all-female nursing staff and began wondering if she was being targeted for making the request in the first place.
Did the hospital send in the trans person on purpose because she wanted an all-female nursing staff?
“I began to suspect that I had been targeted because my patient records showed that I refused to use pronouns and wanted single-sex facilities, although I have no evidence of this,” she told the Daily Mail.
The woman added, “Then I began to panic that men would be attending to my intimate care at the hospital while I was immobilized for an entire week following major surgery.”
In her second request for all-female nurses, the anonymous patient wrote, “I do feel that the hospital should follow a protocol of offering ALL women patients single-sex nursing care. Please do not make life difficult for women when they are at their most vulnerable by forcing them into uncomfortable and embarrassing situations. I cannot believe that I am the first patient to have raised this with you.”
In a surprising response, the hospital’s chief executive Maxine Estop Green wrote back to the patient, telling her the hospital “did not share her beliefs” and would be canceling her surgery.
The hospital executive’s reply also shockingly claimed the medical facility was protecting its staff from “discrimination and harassment” as well as “unacceptable distress” apparently caused by the patient.
The patient told the Daily Mail, “Everything that has happened is so off the wall and irrational, that it makes me believe that I have been targeted by trans activists within the hospital. As always, this is about appeasing men who claim a gender identity. They will punish anyone who tells the truth.”
She continued, “I will not be forced to use the language of gender ideology, that is, pronouns that don’t apply to me. Women’s safety, dignity and privacy continues to be sacrificed on the altar of this quasi-religion.”
The feelings of men posing as women are being prioritized over the legitimate concerns of actual women thanks to the spread of neo-liberal ideology.
Namee just did an article/lecture on canon 28 which is worth perusing.
I’m really surprised that he admitted this at the very end:
“I am certainly open to being proven wrong about this. I’m not a canonist or a Byzantine historian; perhaps Balsamon and Zonaras simply ignored the “barbarian lands” theory when they expounded upon Canon 28. It’s possible, I suppose, that St Nikodemos at the turn of the nineteenth century also overlooked the theory, and perhaps the Ecumenical Patriarchate did object to Russian jurisdiction in America in some as-yet-undiscovered document. But the simplest explanation – the explanation that is supported by the evidence we do have – is that the “barbarian lands” theory of Canon 28 has its origins at the turn of the twentieth century, when a sizeable Greek diaspora emerged around the world, and then, soon thereafter, the Ecumenical Patriarchate under Meletios Metaxakis had to reinvent itself in the face of a once-in-500-years threat to its very existence.”
The whole Canon 28 thing is a fallacy, from soup to nuts.
Sigh. I guess it’s time for me to dust off my critique of Canon 28.