As you will read below, Philaret is keeping things chill in Ukraine. So far that matter is Archbishop Daniel of the Ukrainian branch of Constantinople, who helped engineer the “reunification” of all the schismatic Ukrainian ecclesial bodies. (He was one of the two uncanonical exarchs sent to invade the canonical territory of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church.) Daniel, you see recently memorialized the late Metropolitan Mystaslav by calling him a “patriarch”. https:uocofusa.org/news_190607_2html.
That’s a big no-no because according to Patriarch Bartholomew, “The so-called Patriarchate of Kiev does not exist and has never existed.” It seems that Arb Daniel didn’t get the memo.
https://www.romfea.news/ecumenical-patriarch-in-ukraine-there-was-a-schism-that-had-to-be-dealt-with/
Anyway, things just got curiouser and curiouser.
In case you were wondering the Phanar’s Ukrainian gambit was basically a shakedown operation. According to several sources within both schismatic bodies in Ukraine (both the “official” schismatic body as well as the “Kievan Patriarchate”, Patriarch Bartholomew is demanding in excess of $20 million dollars per month. You could call this “operating expenses” but that wouldn’t make sense as the new UOC is supposedly “autocephalous”. You could also call this simony. (More on that below.)
You can read about it for yourself here: http://orthochristian.com/122143.html
Granted, both “ecclesial” bodies are illegitimate from their very inception so you got to take a lot of what they say with several grains of salt. Jokers and charlatans abound within these bodies. Speaking of illegitimacy, “Patriarch-emeritus” Philaret recently dropped the bombshell that Mr. Epiphany Dumenko is the illegitimate son of a former “Kievan Patriarchate” bishop, Daniel Chokalyuk.
(I had my money on Philaret being his natural father but the resemblance to the other bishop is too uncanny.)
http://orthochristian.com/122139.html
See what I mean by “keeping things chill”?
Anyway, getting back to the thing that really matters, i.e. the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, I’d say that given all the recent fanfare and the resultant attention to finishing the St Nicholas Shrine, then I’m more than willing to believe that this was the Phanar’s back-up plan all along.
Not only would Ukrainian slush-funds finance the Shrine’s completion but it would keep the Phanar in clover for the foreseeable future. And the average Greek-American layman would go “ooh” and “ahh” in amazement at Patriarch Bartholomew’s financial acumen.
Something tells me that this ain’t gonna happen.
Why? Because given the dire financial constraints that plague Ukraine, I seriously doubt that the new government will snap their heels and hand over any amount of money to Istanbul. It’s not in the cards. President Zelenskiy, for one thing, has no reason for doing so as this whole debacle was engineered by his deeply unpopular predecessor. (That’s one the good things about elections –you can wipe the slate clean every so often.)
Indeed, I expect Zelinskiy to mend ties with Russia rather quickly. One of the things that haven’t been revealed by the Western media is that Zelinskiy is a Russian speaker; his popular situation comedy was performed in both Russian as well as Ukrainian as was his campaign for president. (You didn’t know that, did you? I didn’t.) And because he’s Jewish, he doesn’t have a dog in the fight between the new nationalist “church” birthed by Poroshenko (who is a Uniate) and the canonical Ukrainian church. Regardless, Ukraine simply doesn’t have that kind of money to give Bartholomew or anybody else for that matter. You can’t get blood from a turnip.
The moral of the story? Things didn’t work out all that well for Brutus either.
The sitcom is in fact in both Russian and Ukrainian. It is common for Eastern Ukrainians to switch back and forth between both languages.
I’m truly saddened as far as Archbishop Daniel is concerned. I know the man. I’ve seen him in action. He is no neo Nazi type. Sadly, we have a case where Nationalism trumps Orthodoxy. Years ago, there was a legitimate Ukrainian diocese under the EP. That is where Archbishop Dimitri of Blessed Memory came from. I pray for all involved here.
Indeed. Thank you for the correction.
Archbishop Boghdan’s diocese was in many respects an uniate group posing as Orthodox — many uniate practices prevailed and many unprepared clergy were ordained and many non canonicals emanated grom this jurisdiction. As I understand it from clergy who knew them well, that great care needed to be exercised regarding this jursidiction — one of my mentors converted through them and was advised, when seeking to become clergy, to join a different jursidiction,,,,,, so I was led to believe that although a jusidiction was canonical, that this may not reflect all of its practices — we know that both the Carpatho-Russian and Ukrainian diocese under the GOA were more uniate in their practices and that it was many, many years into this relationship that all their churches had icon screens and their bishops and clergy ceased wearing uniate attire and using uniate titles. So my point is to use caution when using these two dioceses as examples. Today, is a different situation – they have morphed into mainline Eastern Orthodoxy. But back in the days of Dimitry Royster the enviroment was much different. My mentor told this story, when Bishop Boghdan arrived in the USA, he was met my Archbishop Athenagoras, and something happened,,,Bishop Boghdan was wearing uniate attire, and the next thing that happened was that he took off his white gloves and slapped the Archbishop with them. It was quite a stuation. I do have photos of both Bishop Boghdan and Bishop Orestes in uniate attire. Bishop Boghdan did evdntually wear a kobluk and cassock,,, I do not remember ever seeing Bishop Orestes in kobluk and cassock. Yet both of these were under the GOA.
Sir:
It is either Bohdan, which would be Ukrainian/Carpatho Russian spelling, or Bogdan, which could be Serbian, Bulgarian, or Great Russian, but never Boghdan.
You are correct about retention of Uniate practices; however Metropolitan Orestes did wear a cassock at times, though it was like that of a Catholic bishop with all the buttons and trimmings, and he wore what I believe the Latins call a zucchetto.
Bishop Bohdan himself did get involved in some questionable activities, serving with uncanonical hierarchs and perhaps even illicit consecrations. At least one other “legitimate” bishop, the Albanian Fan Noli, did similar things.
Some of Bishop Bohdan’s clergy and faithful were scandalized to the point where they actually formed yet another Ukrainian jurisdiction under the EP. It was headed by Archbishops Pallady and Ihor. I used to have a book written in Ukrainian by Fr. Vitaly Sahaydakivsky, a Ukrainian priest in Toronto, who describes some of the details leading to this development.
There was Archbishop John of the self-consecrated group, he arrived circa 1923,,,there was Bishop Joseph Zuk under Archbishop Aftimios Zuk was a former Uniate, and manytimes dressed as such, this was circa 1932,,,then there were the independent Ukrainian churches all of this before 1938. Zuk died, and his remnants were picked up by Boghdan in 1938. Boghdan was under the GOA. After WWII , Archbishop Gregory of the Soborpravna Ukrainian Church came to the USA and had his cathedral in Chicago. Archbishop Mystaslav (sp?) came over and eventually joined with Boghdan, they tried a unfication with Archbishop John, and Mystaslav (sp?) left Boghdan, along with many parishes to join John – who he reconsecrated,,,WWII, and created the Holy Autocephalic Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Exile, which was affiliated with the GOA — both they and Gregory had post WWII communities — the others had both pre and post communities. While this was all going on after WWII Archbishop Vasily of the Byelorussian Church was affiliated with Boghdan and remnants of Vasily’s group are now in the ACROD – There does remain an independent Byelorussian group also. This situation was almost like the abbott and costello bit about who’s on first. so parish wise, and this is just an estimate ( in 1955) John & Myst – circa 80,,,,,Boghdan circa 25 ,,,, Palladi & Ihor – circa 10,,,,, Gregory – circa – 10
btw – palladi and fr vitaly came out of the polish orthodox church in poland
Spelling is same in all languages you mentioned (Богдан/Bogdan). Pronunciation differs.
About so called “Patriarch” Mstislav was ordained Polish Orthodox Church (ironically, Primate was ethnic Russian, Metropolitan Dionisiy Valedinskiy). Same goes for Hilarion Ogienko, Polycarp Sikorski and Paladius (Rudenko)… They weren’t really churchmen, but politicians. Closest thing to theological education was fact that Pelytura (Mstislav’s uncle) graduated at seminary.
the ukrainian situation was a true can of worms — met nikandor, met polycarp, russians becoming polish, russians becoming ukrainian, ukrainian becoming russian etc politics and opportunity it just boggles the mind
What did Bp Boghdan slap Abp Athenagoras for?
RE: “Not only would Ukrainian slush-funds finance the Shrine’s completion but it would keep the Phanar in clover for the foreseeable future. And the average Greek-American layman would go ‘ooh’ and ‘ahh’ in amazement at Patriarch Bartholomew’s financial acumen.”
This makes sense, George. I hope that Ukrainian news reporting will provide an in-depth expose of this money for thermos..I mean, money for tomos deal.
I’m saddened though by your assertion that the average Greek-American layman would be pleased by such treachery. Are we all so very far apart here in America as for our love for one another as fellow Orthodox Christians?
Apropo Epiphanij’s paternity, there were rummors about Philaret being his grandfather. In fact, Philaret was recently asked if that’s true, and then he dropped info about Chokalyuk. Interesting thing was that Chokalyuk was Epiphany before Epiphany… (he also marched through ranks, and found himself at top of Denisenko’s organisation…). In end, Denisenko is 90, and Dumenko 40… So, late Chokalyuk was old enough to be father of later, and son of the former…
It must be bad joke that all Ukrainian “hierarchs” from schismatic bodies insist on clerical vestments of Russian origin… I mean white koukollion which was worn by patriarchs of Moscow, like Philaret Romanov (in secular life, progenitor of dinasty), and Nikon. Besides white koukollion with Cherubs was introduced, by guess who? Ivan the Terrible…
In Russia, all bishops wore black headwear, except archbishop of Novgorod. When Saint Macarius was transfered to Moscow, he kept wearing such hat. Emperor decided to make distinction between headwear of Metropolitan, and Archbishop of Novgorod. Later, Patriarch wore one with Cherubs, and Metropolitans white one.
PS
Concerning Poroshenko and his afiliation. When he appeared, he was parishioner of Canonical Church, he was donor of St. Iona’s Monastery in Kiev. He even wore sticherion in processions. But when he became President, he went visiting Philaret’s quasi Church, and even went to take communion by pseudo-Patriarch of Uniates Svyatoslav Schevchuk. On Pascha he was communed by Dumenko, and week or so he was praying with Uniate priests.. in end he is irreligious man, rather than Uniate.
Good point re vestments. If the Moskals are so evil, then why mimic them? Wouldn’t it be better to dress in phanariote style in all things?
Moscow is magnificent city, with wide boulevards, extravagant architecture Churches… (Like baroque Kiev for that matter)… Constantinople is empress of the cities, but Phanarion is small quarter with narrow streets, lot of wood… Saint George’s Cathedral is baroque building, but it’s not really impressive… not even compared to lesser churches from Kiev.
Moscow is a superb city indeed.
Moscow is the evil magog, grandchildren of satan, which must be decimated by the wonderful nuclear rapture. (National Interest, November 7, 2018, America Must Make Sure It Can Fight and Win a Nuclear War, by David Lonsdale https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/america-must-make-sure-it-can-fight-and-win-nuclear-war-thats-why-inf-treaty-died-35447)
This is a little “out there,” even for you.
A “little” out there? There was a man who talked about obliterating certain unwanted peoples like Russians and Jews. Some of his ideas he was able to put into practice before the world hot wise and stopped him. His name was Adolph Hitler.
Seriously. Look: shouldn’t we here in the West be a little bit more humble about our recent civilizational accomplishments?
All we import now is porn, abortion, feminazism and homosexuality. Why?
Say what you will about Russia, they ain’t doing any of that. In fact, they’ve adopted a complete hands-off approach to all other nations. Yeah, Syria, I get it but they were invited in by the legitimate (if odious) Assad govt. As for Ukraine, that’s their “near-abroad”.
George Kender Comney (July 16, 2019 at 12:52 pm) says:
Moscow is the evil magog, grandchildren of satan, which must be decimated by the wonderful nuclear rapture. SNIP
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I wonder if George Kender Comney thinks that Moscow was this bad before it was enslaved by atheistic communism, while it was enslaved by communism, or now that it is free of communism.
The fact remains that there was always a Christian presence in Moscow and, indeed, in all of Russia for the last thousand years or so. In fact, more Christians died as martyrs under communism in the twentieth century than in all the previous nineteen centuries combined, and many of them were Russians. Tertullian wrote that ‘The blood of the martyrs is the seed of The Church.’ That being the case, is it any wonder that Christianity — especially Orthodox Christianity — should be growing back so vigorously in Russia now?
Whenever the word ‘rapture’ appears in such contexts, it is usually associated with the ‘evangelical protestant’ misinterpretation of 1 Thessalonicans 4:17, a line in one of the sections we often read during services for the dead.
Since these scripture twisters are unable to make proper sense of St Paul’s words here, and yet go on to create a minor yet lucrative media industry out of their odd reading of the text, it comes as no surprise that they should also have bizarre opinions about political developments in the world. These opinions include things like a literal, physical war between good and evil (note the ‘Magog’ reference), and the rebuilding of the temple at Jerusalem, by which they expect that they will cause the physical return of Jesus Christ to Earth as if by magic, like the Lord will jump out of a hat like a prop rabbit.
But this is all nonsense, no more and no less so than the last time this correspondence insulted us here.
I highly recommend that he study some church history beginning in the first Christian century, not the fifteenth, going straight through till now, and read patristic commentaries on the scriptures which he mistakenly thinks support his points.
Thank you Monk James for setting the record straight.
Monk James, the desire of these scripture twisters to “imminentize the eschaton” is indicative to me of their Gnostic roots. They want the physical destroyed because they have no sense of the reality of the Incarnation in which God fills all things. not in some impersonal force or presence but as person.
At the same time they place a lot of emphasis on physical objects to bring it about(the temple, the red heifer, the wonderful nuclear rapture, etc.) It is sympathetic magic and can easily become occult ritual. Indeed Mr. Comney’s chant has more than a bit about it that sounds like an incantation.
The question I have is “Whom do they serve?” Their emphasis on death and destruction indicates to me exactly who.
I doubt that such people are aware of their ‘gnostic roots’, but I agree with you: this could not grow from any other source.
‘There is nothing new under the sun’, The Preacher dourly observes, and all the best heresies originated in Greek. This is old news.
The other proverb remains true, too: ‘Those who do not study history are condemned to repeat it.’
All sorts of protestant fantasies — not that they needed much help in that area — arose especially in North America after the ‘Great Awakening’ of the 1840s. These insane spins on scripture and theology produced such anomalies as the Mormons and the Jehovah’s Witnesses — AND the modern ‘evangelical’ movement. What a misnomer!
Yet none of these aberrant groups produced anything new. All their ideas had been tried and tested in the crucible of The Church’s experience for centuries. Measured against The Tradition, they were found wanting.
In the Symbol of the Faith, we say that we believe ‘in one, holy. catholic, and apostolic Church’. If only the founders of these movements had studied history and believed in The Church instead of their own pride and imagination, led into error by the great deceiver, the enemy of our salvation.!
May the Lord continue to protect and guide His Church!
Monk James, they are not aware for sure. My priest gave a wonderful sermon Sunday on heresy and guarding our own hearts against them. He used the example of Nestorius. I personally think a short course in the incorrect principals of the major heresies in modern garb and the Church’s refutation of them would be good in any catechesis.
I am sorry though, you have the quote on history wrong. What you wrote is a common twisting of what George Santana said: “Those who don’t remember history are doomed to repeat it”.
A profound difference because our Holy Tradition is, at one level, a rememberance of history. A remberance can be passed down and lived. In fact such rememberance is the life blood of culture. Far deeper than study alone, although study is also involved but a study of the heart and the mind both.
And keep it small, apparently, at least in the West.
I’m always nonplussed by Orthodox preoccupations with Protestantism in its various innumerable manifestations, and with Roman Catholicism in its errors, while the Faith is so carefully kept off of the lampstand and under the bushel basket.
Tim, all explained by the fact that the Orthodox Church here has never been a missionary Church except briefly in Alaska. Unfortunately we tend to be fascinated by the barbarians while being afraid they might get out at the same time.
Michael Bauman (July 17, 2019 at 10:07 pm) says:
Tim, all explained by the fact that the Orthodox Church here has never been a missionary Church except briefly in Alaska. SNIP
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ethnically limited exercises in navel-gazing aside, such an assertion can be made only if people are unaware of the work of, for example, St Alexis Toth and St Raphael Hawawini in — both luminaries of the ‘Russian Mission’ which became the OCA — the past, as well as many other holy pioneers of the Faith in North America then and now.
Bringing back many of the Orthodox who had been deceived by the heterodox first in Europe and then here, they also brought the Faith to many of those deceivers, too, showing them the truth and correcting the errors of their ways.
As it is, each Orthodox Christian is called to be a missionary, not only by literally preaching the Gospel to the pagans, but also by the goodness and joy of our lives as individuals and parishes. We are called to place our light high on a lampstand, so that everyone who sees us will give glory to God.
Now, we have the blessed opportunities provided by the Internet Although there are some false teachers there, they frequently trip themselves up and their embarrassment often sends sincere seekers to us, if even on the rebound.
Given the growth of parishes and monasteries all over North America, this witness seems to be bearing fruit,
Michael, thank you for getting to the nub of it.
To all: I highly recommend a book by Philip Lee (a Presbyterian minister):
Against the Protestant Gnostics.
George, I am sure it is a fine book but my priest is quite correct. It is way too easy to go heresy hunting. It is “out there” in “those people”.
It may be but there is a lot of Gnosticism in my own heart which feeds my anger and sense of entitlement. My arrogant assumption that I am right. Putting knowledge above humility. A false ascetic that under values my own work, my own body and all connected to those spheres.
The heresies were not defeated, they were refuted. Thus we must remember and allow the Holy Spirit to conform us to the truth.
It’s not surprising that the new head of that Godless schismatic nationalist structure in Ukraine is the b*stard son of a defrocked schismatic bishop. Lord have mercy. Pray for him!
Is it real?
http://orthochristian.com/122143.html
Pat. Bartholomew demands $28 million dollars a month from Ukrainian schismatics — sources allege
”
According to Vesti Ukraine, Patriarch Bartholomew is demanding from Epiphany and the OCU a monumental “tithe”, specifically from its 7100 communities, the Phanar is allegedly expecting anywhere between $4000 to $20,000 per month. This means even if we take the smallest possible “tithe” and say each church community is expected to pay “only” $4000, then this means the OCU will pay a total of $28 million per month!
A little math is all it takes to realize this number is not only ridiculous but completely unrealistic for Ukraine. One need only know that minimum wage in Ukraine is around 160 USD [1] a month to realize how simple parishes cannot be expected to afford this.”
Martin, I wonder if he’s going to lose all that money when the State Department gets a clue that he doesn’t speak for all Orthodox Christians everywhere as he has always claimed. Not even most. Not even half. And a good percentage of those he does speak for are beginning to have second thoughts. – The U.S. sure isn’t going to be getting NATO in Ukraine any time soon. Contrary to what Bartholomew may have promised, Poroshenko did NOT win and the schematics are NOT united. The schismatics have a schism within a schism and they’re too busy fighting among themselves to be of any help to Pompeo. – Last February, it was announced that Bartholomew would be out here next week to meet with Pompeo and to speak at some environmental conference Pompeo arranged. I haven’t heard a word about it recently, though. If Bartholomew doesn’t show up it may be a sign the U.S. is done with him.
They knew to well about his real influence. State Department stuff has lot of shortcomings. They might be corrupted, short sighted, arrogant, having limited understanding of history… but they know about real influence of EP… They were more interested in making problems for Russia on every possible field. I only hope Patriarch Bartholomew will find courage to admit and fix his errors. For 20 years he was supporting Church in Ukraine… it would be tragedy to get his name stained by this terrible action.
I think they bet on the wrong horse.
“The real influence of the EP. . .” What does that mean? I’m genuinely asking.
Well, he has some leverage over Hellenic Church. That’s why they were only who didn’t publicaly reject EP’s Thermos for Ukraine. It’s about Metropolies of New Lands. After 1913 (First Balkan War), and 1918 (First World War), Kingdom of Greece was enlarged significantly, and amogn other things it acquired dozens of bishoprics of CP. In 20’s of last century, Greek Govenrment simply forced metropolitans of those dioceses to unite with Church of Greece. Constantinople, at end capitulated, but in end, said bishoprices found thmeselves in double submission, to both Synods (Constantinople and Athens). Hierarchs of Church of Greece were genuinely worried, Bartholomew will ask those Metropolitans to reject ties with Athens, so they are rather silent. Bear in mind, in Greece, there are also Metropolinates directly under Constantinople (Dodecanese islands, Crete, Rhodos), under double submission (New Lands, like Thessaloniki) and those who are only under Church of Greece (whitin borders of Greece before 1912). And that’s pretty much where his influence ends.
“Last February, it was announced that Bartholomew would be out here next week to meet with Pompeo and to speak at some environmental conference Pompeo arranged.”
Interesting. Gee, I wonder what they might have in common.
https://scorecard.lcv.org/moc/mike-pompeo
I know! It’s so bizarre!!!! https://www.thenationalherald.com/231058/ecumenical-patriarch-bartholomew-is-expected-to-visit-the-us-in-july/
Evangelism in climate change? LOL
Touche!
Gail Sheppard: “I wonder if he’s going to lose all that money when …”
“that money” simply does not exist. Average Ukrainians are quite poor. It is like trying to extract a fortune from some fringe Protestants in Detroit’s black ghetto. Even Poroshenko would have a difficulty to pay it up from his own private money.
So isn’t the selling of sacraments called simony and isn’t it against the canons?
“Last February, it was announced that Bartholomew would be out here next week to meet with Pompeo and to speak at some environmental conference Pompeo arranged.”
Interesting. Gee, I wonder what they might have in common.
https://scorecard.lcv.org/moc/mike-pompeo
The Pope just gave some of the bones of St. Peter to Bartholomew. If it wasn’t a political move, it would have made more sense to give them to Patriarch John X of Antioch, since his lineage is also founded on Peter, before Peter went to Rome. But obviously it was political. I wonder what the rest of the Orthodox world will think about the symbolism of that. Or maybe I don’t have to wonder.
https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2019/07/02/pope-gives-relics-of-st-peter-to-orthodox-patriarch/?fbclid=IwAR0I7JuK4FIX_DTOLXU4MgtUCoQwjMmLSMdMvScd5Ksyr0bbSIj3Rw4C3iU
Bartholomew is purportedly thrilled. The Pope said the gift was not from him but from God. I think this gesture was his way of saying that the legacy of Peter could be shared by them both. However, what the Pope has in mind at this juncture is full communion with “diversity” (different practices) and without “absorption” (two separate Churches).
George Michalopulos
I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around this one because of that outrageous figure estimate
It’s hard to believe it could possibly be true
And yes, how can we believe the schismatic sources
Is there anything to collaborate this or is it mere hearsay?
For it to even come close for it to be possibly true, the money would have to come from an outside source(s), be funneled through the OCU parishes (to appear somewhat legit) and then back to the Phanar
Only some entity that wanted to by a church to use it as a means to control/steer a nation would do that
Probably not Laos
Probably not anyone, of course!
*buy
So called OCU has some rich benefactors. Like Andrey Matsola, who has large beer bussines in Ukraine, and Russia. Don’t forget Porošenko himself is billionarrie. When Ukrainian schismatics were in Constantinople, to recieve Thermos, among them was Jewish-Georgian-Ukrainian mobster Aleksandr Petrovskij… (few weeks ago, hebwas pictured with Chief Rabbi of Israel writing Torah scrolls… Not that we didn’t see wierder stuff about SCU.
But issue with 28 milion USD a month is simpler. Bartholomew wants them to hand him Churches and monasteries Porošenko promissed as stavropigias. So far they got only Saint Andrew’s Cathedral in Kiev.
Monk James, your recitation of the missionary saints is quite correct and do not forget to add Arb Dimitri of blessed memory. They each show the tremendous vitality within the Church that we often fail to realize. I also must mention a more recent man, Fr. Paul Abernathy of Pittsburg (Antiochian). His work in inner city Pittsburg, the community from which he came is breath taking. He is on You Tube if you want to find out more about him. His ministry has the full support and blessing of his grace Bishop Thomas.
But, the pathology that Tim notices definitely relates to the ethnocentrism founded in the fact that the vast majority of Orthodox Churches in this country were not founded by missionaries with the purpose of evangelizing this land. The result of that is, on the whole, we have often refused the work of putting down roots here that lead to repentance for the particular sins of this land. Still too rooted in the old countries.
The Slavic churches have as you point out done more, praise God. St. Raphael, in fact, was instrumental in establishing my own parish 100 years ago and it was a priest from here that wrote his official biography leading up to his canonization (Fr Paul Hodge who was raised in the OCA). We even had a proto-icon of St. Raphael at the back of our temple prior to his canonization. It was the OCA and the Antiochian Archdiocese together who canonized St. Raphael of Brooklyn, Shepard to the Lost Sheep of America. Personally I think the organic ties that exist between the Antiochians and the OCA that the canonization of St. Raphael demonstrate may perhaps be a building block for a more complete autocephalous church in the western hemisphere.
But, Tim is right too, we tend to have a morbid fascination with the horrors of Protestant theology (as in “where do they get this stuff”) without appreciating and emulating some of the good things they do that the Gospel of Matthew tells us are necessary for our salvation. Although through Focus and local efforts with other such ministries there is more of that going on than many realize.
In the end though you are correct and my explanation was lacking context and fullness. Please forgive me.
I don’t know if anyone here knows the deep dark secret regarding [an archbishop…] of the EP’s Ukrainian Eparchy (UOCofUSA). He is a former Uniate deacon who was kicked out of the American Catholic seminary in the middle of the night for “lewd” behavior with another seminarian. He is an active homosexual and there is a lot dirty laundry regarding his personal life. I have gotten first hand accounts of his homosexual lifestyle from priests that formerly served under him and current EP Ukrainian priests.
Why do you not name the bishop?
How do you benefit the faithful by keeping his identity secret? “Well there’s a bishop who’s an active homosexual who is scandalizing the church and the faithful, but I’m not going to tell you who he is.”
Don’t you think the faithful who tithe to this bishop’s jurisdiction should know whom they are supporting? Don’t you think the faithful who present him with bread and salt at parish visits should know who he is and what he’s doing?
If there were a bishop who was molesting our children, would we feel compelled to keep his identity secret? I shudder to think that many Orthodox would probably say yes – “let’s pretend to ‘protect the Church’ rather than protecting our children.” That’s not an organization that I want to be part of.
Come on, man. This is nuts. God calls us to be *responsible* stewards of what He has given us, not to be blind ostriches.
Anon, Ivan is not at fault. As Editor-in-chief, I removed the offending archbishop’s name.
Permit me to explain: As a rule, I will not champion a man’s sins before the world if it is based only on rumor (or even if it’s an “open secret”). I will however name names if they appear in the secular press (which would include arrest records, mug shots, etc.)
To make things easy for everybody, the sin of sodomy exists in most ecclesiastical bodies. I will say however that there is a higher-than-average correlation between bishops and sodomy in those jurisdictions that have a higher incidence of titular (i.e. non-diocesan ordinaries) bishops. So, whenever you hear about some gadabout “metropolitan-of-an-extinct-diocese” going to some useless inter-faith conference,you can do the math.
Thank you for understanding.
George,
Thanks for your reply – I appreciate it. Though I do disagree, mostly because Church history in America has shown that more often than not, the influential movers-and-shakers in a Church are more interested in protecting the Church’s reputation than in getting the rot out or protecting our children.
Just look at the modern Roman Catholic Church — far too many examples of children being thrown to the wolves so that people can continue to pretend that priest or bishop so-and-so is not an active homosexual and is not molesting our children.
Read Leon Podles’ book “Sacrilege: Sexual Abuse in the Catholic Church.” It’s eye opening and tragically reads like a porn novel as it chronicles the lives of hundreds and more Catholic priests and bishops in America whom the church knew were active homosexuals and many of them pederasts of young boys in their care — the church just shuffled them around, far more concerned about her alleged “reputation” than the permanent damage that these sick men were inflicting on the youth.
I’m not saying that this UOCofUSA bishop is a child molester – I have no idea, obviously. But if he was “kicked out of the American Catholic seminary in the middle of the night for ‘lewd’ behavior with another seminarian [and] is an active homosexual and there is a lot dirty laundry regarding his personal life”…. I mean, come on! Is this the kind of man who should ever have been accepted into the Orthodox faith as a bishop? Is this the kind of man who should be shepherding our parishes and leading our children in youth groups?
This man needs a ton of psychological help — I have compassion for him on that front. But just like I won’t let a remorseful thief house-sit for me, this bishop should not be in a position of authority or of watching over children. Regardless of “wonderful” a bishop he is otherwise, as “Solitary Priest” details below.
Maybe if I had more faith in our institutions to do the right thing on this matter I would feel differently. But I don’t.
At the dread judgment seat of Christ, I think He would more likely ask me why I did not protect my young children and instead trusted them with a corrupt Church hierarchy. It’s enough to make one become a Protestant, though I know too much of the truth of our faith and am far too Orthodox to ever do that.
The UOCofUSA is part of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, correct? That explains some of the situation, I suppose – the Patr of C’ple is full of bishops of extinct dioceses and is full of actively homosexual bishops, from what I’ve read. Recently I read some scandalous stuff about the EP bishop in Paris and his homosexual escapades — the bishop who many thought might replace Abp Demetrios in New York. It’s enough to make one vomit.
Problem is, once you experience the likes of St John of San Francisco or Abp Dmitri of Dallas or many of the current ROCOR bishops, then you expect every Orthodox bishop to strive for that level of holiness.
Most Holy Theotokos, save us.
“As a rule, I will not champion a man’s sins before the world if it is based only on rumor (or even if it’s an “open secret”). I will however name names if they appear in the secular press (which would include arrest records, mug shots, etc.)”
Ha, ha. I commend you, if I may 🙂
If that is true, it’s unfortunate. I’ve seen the man in action. He may well have those tendencies; I don’t fault him for that alone. If he’s acting on those tendencies, now that’s another story.