. . . why Monomakhos has taken a political arc lately, it’s not because we’ve gone all political, Trumpist or what-have-you. You see, the Church is being affected.
How so? I’ll be glad to explain. For now, let me just give you the thumbnail sketch: It’s because the Church is the whole ball of wax as they say.
There are so many layers to this. For one thing, in case you had any doubts about the “canonicity” of the new, hastily-cobbled together “church” that Patriarch Bartholomew created for Ukraine, you can pretty much put them to rest.
Second, what does the following announcement tell us about the See of Constantinople? We’ve long suspected that they were all aboard with the globalist agenda. But now we don’t have to suspect any more, do we? Mikhail Dumenko, the “metropolitan” of this “autocephalous church” has for all practical purposes come out of the closet and declared that his “church” is OK with the whole LGBTQ+ thing. It’s right there in black and white (or red-orange-yellow-green-blue-indigo-and-violet) if you don’t believe me:
“The schismatic ‘Orthodox Church of Ukraine,’ created and approved of by the Patriarchate of Constantinople, has offered its blessing and full support to an LGBT organization in all its ‘God-pleasing work’ and its labors to ‘spread true Christian values’.” https://orthochristian.com/136107.html
There are several reasons as to why his sect came out and openly proclaimed support for the homosexual agenda. One purpose is to normalize sodomy in the Ukraine, one of the most anti-homosexualist countries in Eastern Europe. There are other reasons, as well, as the entire gay rights agenda is a pretext for continued Western interference in that country. It is also a pretext for continued anti-Russian provocation by NATO.
We could go on. No doubt more things will follow. As for those of us here in America who are groping our way to Orthodox unity, we have to come to grips with what it means to be “autocephalous” under the auspices of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
And for those of us who prefer that Orthodox Christianity should be a quietist religion, one unconcerned with the secular sphere, I ask that you reconsider. Especially in light of this recent revelation.
Folks, when it comes right down to it, they just ain’t gonna leave us alone.
I will not agree to GOA church lunacy. The devil has got ahold of the Patriarch and Archbishop.
This is the result of corrupted church leaders accepting tax exempt status from the government. I got an email from a GOA priest. I am on a subscribe list. The priest sent out a big science article about planet Saturn to the laity. Why is the priest sending out science articles?
Then, I got another email from the same priest giving instructions for Christmas caroling. The children will sing 15 Christmas songs in the church parking lot. They will open the windows or sun roof of their parent’s cars and sing aloud.
The GOA has lost its noodle. I have not lost mine. I have left the GOA and moved on to a sane Orthodox sect.
The planet Saturn has occult significance. Makes you wonder…
Basil, the occult significance comes from pagan Rome. Saturn, the planet of death (physical and spiritual death)
This is one paragraph from email I received re Saturn and Jupiter by GOA priest. This paragraph comes from web page “This Week at NASA.” May the Lord shed light on us.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-christmas-star-jupiter-and-saturn-alignment-sparks-comparisons-11608472851
Today is Monday, December 21, 2020. Thank you for posting news article. I cannot open it because I am not subscribed to WSJ.
The science article sent by an Orthodox priest to his flock does not feed the faithful. The priests feed our soul. We need the priests to feed our soul. Amen. ☦️
What’s wrong with sharing an article on Saturn? Why can’t priests distribute science articles?
Nothing’s wrong…unless they’re doing this instead of doing what they were ordained to do.
I pray that the monasteries of Elder Ephraim have a plan in place that can be implemented quickly. It’s going to get really ugly.
Here’s clips from the start of the Covid hysteria; showing that the demand for masks and lockdowns swelled up from the general public, despite the legal disclaimers on the masks themselves, science, healthcare industry, and even the mainstream media itself.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jylNenU9dV0
These parody songs are all relevant as well.
I Wear My Face Mask in the Car (May 9, 2020):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DDXG-dHugc
We’re Watching (June 14, 2020):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqrrnIFB7Gc
Flood the Zone (July 28, 2020):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a5Dpc7PrE14
Paint it Vax (Sept 26, 2020):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QzYySCB_DMc
Bill has a new vaccine for the summer flu,
genomic change is coming soon for me and you,
if they try hard enough they’ll inject everyone,
my genes forever changed, I’ll pass them to my son
“New humanity” with Elon Musk’s chip: what awaits Christians (UOF, Union of Orthodox Journalists):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtGSUgOYcKU
So there’s multiple transhumanism pathways coming down the line, so you can choose a vax in your right arm, or a neural link implant in your brain/forehead.
Never forget that this is where it all started. When we (the Right) were on the right path.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lydWQoqDNp8
This isn’t after-the-fact pontificating. I watched this broadcast on the night it aired, and I was concerned about it before then…
Thankfully I was able to find it archived here. Hopefully it never finds its way to the “memory hole.”
Every time we downplay this, we let China get away with murder, and we give ammo to the Left to discredit us and put forth their vile social agenda. We should be giving the finger to China and doubling down on our calls to secure our borders; reminding the world just who made this mess possible. Instead, we have a Honduran horde making its way up here while Americans are made to stay home. The only effective way to deal with this is to call out the problem, not to claim it doesn’t exist.
Don’t forget where we stood when this started. When China was lying to the world, and when the Left was telling us to ignore the problem.
Don’t forget just who was insinating that this something comparable to a garden-variety flu, that to be concerned was “racist.”
https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/30/health/flu-deadly-virus-15-million-infected-trnd/index.html
Never forget.
WHO Changes Definition of “Herd Immunity” to Eliminate Pre-COVID Consensus:
https://www.newswars.com/who-changes-definition-of-herd-immunity-to-eliminate-pre-covid-consensus/
Former Pfizer vice president and scientific director Dr. Michael Yeadon wants Covid-19 vaccine studies stopped, in particular the Pfizer one:
https://www.zerohedge.com/medical/ex-pfizer-exec-demands-eu-halt-covid-19-vaccine-studies-over-indefinite-infertility-and
https://lbry.tv/Mike-Yeadon-Unlocked:0
But, who cares what that guy thinks, when you can listen to the People Magazine’s “Sexiest Doctor Alive,” doing interviews alongside Dr. Fauci and promoting masks, social distancing, and lockdowns, while ignoring of his own advice:
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8977891/Dr-Mike-called-hypocrisy-hes-seen-partying-maskless.html
I agree with your statement “but who cares.”
Personal comfort is more important than freedom to the majority. Who cares about the future generations. It’s all about “the me, the my, and the I.” God help us.
This isn’t about “lack of concern,” but misplaced concern. We aren’t going to further the Gospel with “an eye for an eye” and using “their tactics.”
From the Gerontikon:
They said of Abba Macarius the Egyptian that one day he went up from Scetis to the mountain of Nitria. As he approached the place he told his disciple to go on ahead. When the latter had gone on ahead, he met a priest of the pagans. The brother shouted after him saying, ‘Oh, oh, devil, where are you off to?’ The priest turned back and beat him and left him half dead. Then picking up his stick, he fled. When he had gone a little further, Abba Macarius met him running and said to him, ‘Greetings! Greetings, you weary man!’ Quite astonished, the other came up to him and said, ‘What good do you see in me, that you greet me in this way?’ The old man said to him, ‘I have seen you wearing yourself out without knowing that you are wearing yourself out in vain.’ The other said to him, ‘I have been touched by your greeting and I realize that you are on God’s side. But another wicked monk who met me insulted me and I have given him blows enough for him to die of them.’ The old man realized that he was referring to his disciple. Then the priest fell at his feet and said, ‘I will not let you go till you have made me a monk.’ When they came to the place where the brother was, they put him onto their shoulders and carried him to the church in the mountain. When the people saw the priest with Macarius they were astonished and they made him a monk. Through him many pagans became Christians. So Abba Macarius said, ‘One evil word makes even the good evil, while one good word makes even the evil good
The Complete Destruction of Our Country
“In keeping silent about evil, in burying it so deep within us that no sign of it appears on the surface, we are implanting it, and it will rise up a thousand-fold in the future. When we neither punish nor reproach evildoers, we are not simply protecting their trivial old age, we are thereby ripping the foundations of justice from beneath new generations.” – Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Yes, but… All of this (the creation of a false “church” by the EP in Ukraine, the persecution of the canonical Church there, the use of the gay rights agenda as a pretext for continued Western interference in Ukraine and anti-Russian propaganda, the recent statement by Dumenko, etc) happened under Trump’s watch.
So, how can any of this be a reason to vote one way or the other in US elections? Clearly, BOTH parties in the US are on board with all of this.
They ain’t gonna leave us alone, yes, but “they” includes Trump and his associates, too. The president appoints ambassadors, you know. Trump could have single-handedly fired Pyatt or the other explicitly anti-Orthodox agents working for the US government. He did not. He doesn’t care.
Abbot Tryphon had an illuminating post on Ancient Faith entitled “Why Americans Hate Russia” which helps explain the rationale/prejudice behind our US bipartisan misguided action in the Ukraine. Ancient Faith asked him to remove the post and it is apparently still on his Facebook page, though comments were reportedly later deleted. As an Orthodox convert I have been blessed to know more people of Russian and Slavic heritage which led me to read Solzhenitsyn and know more than the typical American. I hope Orthodox Christian will post his entry. Until Russia and China can be seen realistically in their very different presentations, we are behind the eight ball in understanding. Praying that will change.
The Paganization of Christianity is happening before our eyes, and sadly for many of us over-zealous converts to Orthodoxy we thought we would be spared the devolution into the Anti-Church that chased so many of us out of our former communions. But God has allowed the wolves to infiltrate among the flock to sift the wheat from the chaff. As my former Anglican pastor used to say: Be the wheat. Don’t search for the chaff or seek to pull out the weeds from among the vines lest you disturb the roots of the vines.
We are entering into a true Dark Age, when the light of the Church will be eclipsed by the dark splendors of the Anti-Church. We Orthodox must prepare ourselves for the real Apostasy that is coming, as this is only a warm-up for infernal heat that the Dragon is issuing forth from his belly. Prayer, penance and focusing on our relationship with Christ must become our first priority, because no amount of earthly politicking will save us or His Church. He alone can resurrect the Church after the Crucifixion she is undergoing.
Isn’t it ironic? For centuries the protestant narrative has been that Constantine the great paganized Christianity.
Dear George,
Yes it is ironic, they have many rather destructive narratives. They can’t see when they say things and Orthodox Christians groan within their hearts while saying a prayer for them, it’s some sort of good grief.
When people remove Christ, the Theotokas and the Saints from one another and from Christ’s Orthodox Church anything can be said and can happen because they sever blessed coherency and continuity.
Likewise, when people remove Christ, the Theotokas and the Saints from society and one another anything can be said and can happen again.
That’s why America is falling apart yet we are always more than hopeful.
“These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. ”
To all have a blessed Christmas!
Prayer, penance and focusing on our relationship with Christ must become our first priority, because no amount of earthly politicking will save us or His Church. He alone can resurrect the Church after the Crucifixion she is undergoing.
Amen!
Karin, I couldn’t agree with you more.
Do we defend Orthodox Christianity or not?
https://youtu.be/Rx8hvlsKbB4
I just finished reading one of the best books I’ve ever read in my life: Genesis, Creation and Early Man: The Orthodox Christians Vision by the incomparable Fr. Seraphim Rose. Earlier in the year when the demonic riots began, I re-read his book Nihilism: The Root of Revolution in the Modern Age and was strengthened by Fr. Seraphim’s insight in the middle of such insanity. However I had never read the Creation book till now, two decades past my chrismation. I was reminded when reading Fr. Seraphim’s books just how important it is to stay tethered to the Holy Fathers right now as our world is in chaos. The Scriptures and our beloved Holy Fathers have the guidance we need to go through every one of these challenges and tests. I know this may not be relevant to this particular discussion, but for those reading this blog who haven’t had the chance to read those two books, may I wholeheartedly recommend kicking off the New Year with both Nihilism and Genesis, Creation and Early Man by Blessed Fr. Seraphim Rose? You won’t regret it. Merriest Christmas Eve to those on the new calendar!
Thanks, Christine!
Dear Christine:
How beautiful to read your appreciation of Creation, Genesis & Early Man! That’s a Christmas gift to me for sure. I absolutely LOVE that book and few seem to have read it. If every person read how we were created to be and were before the Fall, how God meant for us to be and meant for Adam and Eve to be, and how He did all He could for us after the Fall, all according to the Holy Fathers, I believe Orthodoxy would be the most sought after Tradition and the planet would be overwhelmed by His Love for us and all hard hearts would simply melt. At least mine has. I too am grateful to have discovered Fr Seraphim through his books and through the Orthodox Survival Course tapes and transcripts, but this book is the most important to me, and a true compendium of the Holy Fathers. I rejoice to read your post, thank you!!!
@ Nicole
Trump never was (and is not now) fully in charge in Washington.
The situation in the US seems to me to be much like that in the UK
where the Foreign Office has long worked in despite of Prime Ministers,
even Prime Ministers as strong as Margaret Thatcher, never mind BoJo.
This is why Brexit has been such a shambles, despite ‘the will of the people’.
I suspect the State Department has done the same in regard to Trump.
In any case, Pompeo operates more like a Deep Stater then a Trumper.
“Trump could have single-handedly fired Pyatt or the other explicitly anti-Orthodox agents working for the US government. He did not. He doesn’t care.”
This stuff isn’t on Trump’s radar screen, beyond awareness of how much money the Biden family made out of corruption in the Ukraine, and how the Democrats impeached Trump for just looking into it.
Bingo!
Why doesn’t anyone want to call it out though? Trump’s policy failures were by and large the product of his concessions—and I wonder if perhaps they may have been forced—to these “Deep Staters.”
What would you do if you were arrested in church for not wearing a mask? Here is a short video about an old couple that went into a health food store without a mask. They were arrested. The wife died a not long after but she fought for liberty!
https://youtu.be/Q7J7GGUzFlw
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-migrants-bosnia-fire/police-blame-residents-for-fire-at-bosnia-migrant-centre-idUSKBN28X1EF?il=0
Glad this didn’t happen in Serbia. Imagine how this would have been spun if it did…and if the official in question were Serbian rather than a Bosniak.
test
Χρόνια Πολλά
https://blogs.ancientfaith.com/morningoffering/2020/12/the-surrender-of-self-will/
From many manuscripts of Antiquity