Folks, the only way this kind of heavy-handedness is going to stop is if you demand it to stop.
HT: Byzantine Texas
Following the posting of two comments on OCANews.org last week Fr. Elias Yelovich, of the Antiochian St. James Mission in Westminster, MD, was dismissed from his parish and suspended by Metropolitan Philip.
Fr. Yelovich was summoned to appear before his Dean, Fr. Peter Pier, on Friday, Nov. 5th. Fr. Peter told Yelovich he was meeting with him at the request of Bishop Thomas, the Auxiliary Bishop for the Diocese of Charleston. Fr. Elias was questioned about whether he would publicly repudiate his published comments and also as to whether he intended to post similar comments in the future. (Fr. Yelovich’s comments are posted at the end of this article.) Fr. Elias responded that he would not repudiate his comments because he did not think what he had done was wrong. that he did not currently have any more comments planned, but he could not give assurances that he would not write any comments in the future either.
Fr. Elias Yelovich
On Monday, Nov. 8th, Fr. Peter telephoned Fr. Elias and read him a letter. (The letter was from Bishop Thomas, on behalf of Metropolitan Philip.) Fr. Peter told Fr. Elias that Bishop Thomas would call him later, personally, but that the Bishop was too upset about the situation to call immediately. The letter was not going to be mailed or emailed, but just read to him over the phone. Paper can easily find its way onto the Internet and spread quite quickly from site to site.
In the letter Fr. Elias was informed that due to his publicly “speaking out” against “recent actions” taken by the Metropolitan, he had been removed as the Priest at St. James. He was told to remove all his personal belongings from the rented church space immediately, and turn over his keys and all bank account information to a Parish Council member to be selected by Fr. Peter. The current Parish Council Chair was also removed.
Fr. Elias was then given until 9 AM on Nov. 9th, to publicly repent for his actions. If he complied, he would be attached to the altar of St. Mary’s Parish in Chambersburg, PA. (St. Mary’s was Fr. Elias’ home parish before his assignment to St. James some 4 years ago.) Fr. Elias was informed he could continue to commune as a Priest at the altar, but not serve, for a period of six months, after which time his situation would be reviewed.
Fr. Elias response to the Metropolitan yesterday was simple and direct. He would offer no defense on his behalf, but could not repudiate that “which was a matter of conscience”. He accepted the Metropolitan’s authority, and would accept whatever punishment was to be given. Fr. Elias was then informed that he was not to enter any church of the Archdiocese this coming Sunday.
-Mark Stokoe
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Fr.Elias two comments to OCANews.org:
1st comment: October 27, 2010
On our Legacy and the Reset Button: the Confessions of a Muddled Mission Priest
Glory to God!
I am a muddled mission priest. I am the least of the priests, a worker priest, in the least of the mission parishes in the Diocese of Charleston, Oakland and the Mid-Atlantic in the AOC. The last place in the line of priests was made for me, and in truth, I am overjoyed to take it. I have only a handful of families (maybe 25 or 30), in a county in which there is no other Orthodox presence in a relatively small state. The life of my congregation, however, is dynamic and intense; there is constant movement. People come and go. Catechumens are usually in the process of being taught the faith. And in the midst of it all, I am ‘that’ priest of ‘that’ parish in which God has sent a man with the gift of prophecy and healing. I am the priest of ‘that’ parish about which my brothers either shake their heads, whisper behind closed doors or erupt in anger with wagging tongues and fingers. He, the man with these gifts in my parish, a repentant sinner, prefers silence to talk, and he spends most of his time in the midst of great physical illness and pain directing my spiritual life, which he says is very difficult. This is unquestionably true. I am impossible. But in the time of my priesthood in the small mission parish that I serve, I have cast out demons in the name of Christ, and I have witnessed many healings and miracles of divine intervention. Sometimes I have thought that these events are unique, wondering how and why God would do such astonishing things in our little out-of-the-way place. But I know they are not unique at all. You all do the same things in your own parishes, I daresay without ever realizing the greatness of them. Yet, I have documented so many events of clairvoyance and healing and prophetic utterance at St. James, however, that I wonder how many more pages my encrypted journal can hold. I add pages to it most every week. The intensity of the spiritual life at St. James is both without question, and at least in one sense, it is entirely understandable: Where else would God do such mighty acts other than in the least of the mission parishes served by the least of the priests? This is the way He is.
I am 60 years old; a convert from the Lutheran ministry in which I served for over a decade. I was Chrismated and then made a subdeacon in the OCA, where I served for about another decade or so; then I was made a deacon in the AOC for six years and now a priest for five more. I celebrated the fifth anniversary of my ordination to the Holy Priesthood on the Feast of St. James last week, the patronal feast of my parish. The celebration of the Divine Liturgy of the Holy Apostle James is always an experience of great joy, and it has also always been a spiritually intense experience. This year the core congregation was present along with a few visitors from local parishes and about a dozen homeless people who live outside the doors of our church. A couple of them sleep literally on the mat on which the faithful wipe their feet. When I walk into the temple on Sunday morning, I must apologize to them for asking them to move so that I can open the doors; I then put on the hot water for their instant coffee, and I help them get up and get into the single bathroom that we have before even saying Kairon. This past Sunday the same group came to church again, the Sunday of the demoniac. Two of them broke into a fist fight outside the church, and one of my altar servers, a young man in his late twenties, left the subdeacon and me in the Altar to complete Proskomedia as he went out to break up the fight. The police siren in our burglar alarm was jostled as one of the weak homeless people fell against it, and it screamed out the siren as the faithful came to church. After everything calmed down, and we were able to turn our minds and our hearts to prayer, I was able to celebrate the Divine Liturgy. The homeless people remained. As I preached on the release of the demoniac from the horrific power of legion, one of the homeless people screamed from the back of the temple: “Drive them out of me, Father; please.” This I did after the final blessing as I have done before; the congregation gathered together as I prayed for release for the poor soul; the demons always leave; they are fearful of His Name. She begged for a cross to wear after kissing the icon of our father among the saints, John Maximovitch of San Francisco, so dear to all of us. This is who we are at St. James Mission.
I have nothing to teach any of you who will read this. I have the same education as the rest of you, and like you, I accept the faith of the Holy Orthodox Church without reservation or exception. Like you, I love the Lord with all my heart. But I am very, very muddled and upset. The reason I am muddled and upset has to do with my catechumens and with the inconsistency between what they are being taught as catechumens and everything we are now hearing and reading on the ‘OCAnews.org’ site. Perhaps my words will be added to the other submissions on that site; perhaps not. I will submit them either way, for even the least of the priests in the least of the missions is a part of the Body.
Let me explain. The substance of what I teach my catechumens is summarized in the Creed and in chapters 5 through 7 of the Gospel according to St. Matthew. I tell them, as I tell all my people repeatedly, ad infinitum, that we follow the example and the teachings of our Lord, because He is our Lord, period. We do not ask if those teachings work in any worldly sense, or if they will make things better for us or for the world in any practically. We follow them, because He is the Lord, and we are bound to Him. We follow them without question, because He is our Shepherd and we are His sheep. As our patron, St. James taught, we must not be double-minded. We ask and we pray and we praise and we serve in simplicity of faith; single-mindedly. We have no assurance that it will be easy, or that we will even exist as a mission beyond the next collection. We are not permitted to have one foot in the world and the other in the Kingdom. We are to be single-minded in our faith, totally of the Kingdom, not double-minded. We are to follow the Lord, because He is the Lord. And we are to follow Him in all things, without looking to the left or to the right; we follow the narrow way, the way of love and sacrifice and absolute obedience to Him and absolute trust in Him. We never look at outcomes, ever. Never, never, never, do we look at outcomes. The only outcome that matters is the Victory of Jesus Christ, nothing else. We do the Will of the Master, Jesus Christ, and we pray that our own will is crucified. Crucified. We do so, because we are His, period. We do so for no other reason. Outcomes in our lives in the world as priests and as bishops and as disciples at any level are in His hands. This I tell my people repeatedly.
So you see, what I explain to my people and to my catechumens about double-mindedness is now being challenged by the actions we are reading about. What can I say? The inconsistency is so clear. Only Bishop MARK (whom I do not know) may be held before my people at the present moment as one who has shown single-minded faith in Christ through this present crisis. He has been vilified, threatened by laity and then threatened within the hierarchy with exile, forced to consider having to apply to another national Orthodox communion. *What great glory for him!* This, you see, my catechumens understand, because they have read the Beatitudes: “Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for you reward is great in heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you.” But why he has been so threatened by those in the Body I cannot explain without hanging my head in shame. How terrible, and what a missed opportunity for the Archdiocese. How the legacy of the Archdiocese and its present leaders would be given the flavor of salt if only they would stand up and defend him, or any who have been or will be so vilified. It is still possible, you know, and it really is *not* something that should be foreign to our understanding. What is the loss of income or approval on the part of those who vilify, if it means the hearing of those most desired of all words from the Gospels, “Well done, good and faithful servant; enter into the joy of the Lord?”
On the backside of my iconostasis at St. James, a few weeks ago, the man with the prophetic gifts in my parish, the man who directs my spiritual life, drew a small picture of a button. Beneath it he wrote, “Press here to reset.” God has given all of us the reset button of repentance. Bishop MICHAEL at our annual priest’s retreat spoke of this to us at the Village about a month ago; it burned a hole in my heart. He said everything very plainly: God’s mercy to us is shown above all by the Grace of repentance, he said. God owes us nothing; He deigns in the beauty of His sovereign majesty to show us, who do not deserve it, mercy. Push here; reset; repent. How wondrous is our God!
This I pray with all my heart will be the legacy of the AOC in which I, the least of the priests in the least of the missions, serve with gratitude. We can still reset. The survey that came out a few weeks ago should make us very glad indeed. How few we are! With so few of us in church on a Sunday morning! How glorious to be part of the Little Flock that holds the ancient ways and the Holy Tradition of the Fathers and walks the narrow way. Why must we try and make it appear successful or better from a worldly perspective? Why may we not rejoice in the words of our Lord, “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom”? Why?
So if and when I will be able to tell everything to my catechumens about the present crisis will depend on whether or not we press that reset button. Push here; repent.
My only question at this point from the least of the priests is: *Where are you, Senior Priests and Bishops, our leaders – Where are you? And why do you not call for the legacy of reset, repentance, now in our beloved Archdiocese?*
Please; let’s push that button.
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2nd comment: Posted November 3, 2010
On Fathers and Beatings
My father was a gentle man. This once seemed very strange to me, since he had been a drill sergeant in the Army and then became a blasting expert and foreman in a Bethlehem Steel quarry where we lived in Pennsylvania. But still, in spite of his ability to be tough, as he was with me and with my brother, the memory of him that still brings tears to our eyes is that of his gentleness. I loved him very much and still miss him each day, even though he has been gone now for over ten years.
One of the things he taught me was that a father must never beat his children. A father guides, helps, intercedes, pushes and pulls, teaches by example, suffers for, waits in patience, prays for and loves his children; but, a father never beats his children. Never. My father would not even have beaten the stray dog that once came into the yard and bit him. He would have seen that as beneath his humanity.
How distressed I am over this report about the action taken against Fr. David Moretti. I could care less about clerical shirts and cassocks. Why they should matter is a mystery to me. Only Christ and His love matters. Whether we look like Roman Catholics, old country Orthodox priests or Protestants of this or that variety is completely irrelevant to me. We are priests of Jesus Christ, period. We are to bear the wounds of His Precious Body. Has He not put us on? So when I hear that one of my brothers in the priesthood has apparently been beaten for wearing a cassock, or for that matter, for any reason that has to do with misperceived resistance to authority, I am once again horrified. I do not understand. As usual, I am confused beyond words.
*“Does not authority within the Body denote pastoral care?”* (asked rhetorically by our Parish Council Chair today) Does it not denote love, charity, guidance and the qualities of the Father of the Prodigal Son – patience – eternal patience and hope and faith in the Heavenly Father, on which all behavior should be modeled – on His humility, His extreme humility? Surely it does. What an embarrassment for us to read about these things – a beating to one of our brothers, who apparently complied with stated guidelines as told and then was beaten nevertheless.
The members of the Parish Council of my little mission have also read the account here on their own. We have voted to take our voluntary tithe (10 % skimmed of the top of all income to our parish) and offer it for the remaining months of this year to Fr. David to help him get things in order. It’s not much. As a mission parish, we have no legalistic obligation to send it into the Archdiocese. But we do have an obligation of love. And since love flows like water to the lowest point – to that point most needful – we allow it to flow this time to the family of one who has been beaten. May it help his family, and may his suffering bring glory to Christ!
Why are so many powerful and influential lay members of the Antiochian Church who understand the travesty unfolding before us and seeing the unjustified persecution of so many decent and loving clergy still silent? How much worse will it have to get for them to SPEAK OUT and ACT!
While listening to Ancient Faith Radio last summer I heard a really insightful quote from St. Ambrose. I don’t recall the exact wording, but here’s the gist of it.
St. Ambrose exhorted Christians to not only take care of the poor but also to share the truth with others. He said that those that know the truth and fail to share it are just as culpable, or more so, than those that do not do acts of charity for those in need. The closest quote that I could find by St. Ambrose that matched the one I heard was this one:
With much concern and a heavy heart I also repeat Fr. Elias’ call to all the good shepherds in the Holy Orthodox Church:
The time for silence and inaction has long ended. It’s time for every faithful shepherd and true sheep to stand for truth, for justice, for the defense of the innocent, and for Christ. Too many good shepherds have been persecuted and too many sheep scattered by a devouring wolf who remains unchallenged and unaccountable before the entire Church.
“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
Chris, wonderful words. I fear that in the AOCANA, the opposite dynamic exists than was found in the OCA, that is a retrenchment to its original ethnic core attendent with a willingness to overlook criminality and corruption. This of course will not result in anything good for the Antiochians but they’ve made their bed. So be it. I’m more concerned now about the GOA, specifically how long will the laity take the present regime of stagnation and entropy? If the Chrysovolantou travesty continues to fester, then we will see one of two things: either a rising up in righteous indignation or apathy. If the latter, then the stagnation will continue.
As for Stokoe’s reportage, I have only one quibble: He labeled Bishop Thomas as an “auxiliary bishop.” Although that is the present locution prefered by the primate, this is a nullity. Except for the chorepiscopoi of the late Classical period (who were not demoted but appointed as exarchs), there has never been an example of ordinaries being demoted to auxiliary status.
Chris, they are still waiting for Met. Philip to die. It is, after all, Met Philip being Met. Philip what else is new. Life goes on.
The OCA mess began to heal when +Job spoke out. The laity will do nothing (some fear for their priests, other’s will wait, other’s don’t care while, most perhaps, wait for a leader).
The only public discussion is conducted on websites run by a members of the OCA, nothing from any Antiochians at all as far as I know.
Priestly sites are silent even if the priests are not under Met. Philip (the discusion is not ‘spiritual’ enough).
What Met. Philip does or does not do with the other bishops will work itself out eventually. What he does and has done with the money will have far more impact although spiritual corruption is at the root of both. With the money the laity can have the most impact (we supply it) and arguably the most authority.
Fear, uncertainty, apathy, lack of leadership.
BTW, Fr. Moretti was publically obedient both in words and in actions to Met. Philip’s directive on cassocks.
I pray for Met. Philip’s soul and for us all.
Dear John,
I agree..there is a level of fear in the AOCA that I never witnessed in the GOA, not on it’s darkest day.
Further, consider that the AOCA is comprised of a high proportion of converts, converts who witnessed the utter chaos in their previous Protestant denominations – and are therefore less likely to speak out against an errant priest or bishop.
It’s a very bad combination because it ends up limiting the effect of the laity. So, in this case, where you have a tyranical, megalomaniacal and obviously out of control hierarch – there is no counterbalance. There is no VOITHIA, there is no OCL springing up to challenge the errant hierarch.
A very dark day for Orthodoxy.
Dean Calvert
As one who is Antiochian, I may not be running a website, but I am sharing this info far and wide….and that’s how it starts.
Have we forgotten about our constitutional right of freedom of speech in America?
External censorship of speechis only an infringement of free speech if the federal government curtails it and this prinicpal has been extended to all levels of government (although it was not originally so). Free speech also does not connote speech free of consequences or obligation. It has never existed, in the American political sense, in the Church. Nor should it. The Church is hierarchical and obedience is a key element of our life in the Church. Such obedience is a governing virtue for clergy and a necessary spiritual discipline for all of us.
Unfortunately, obedience is only tested when we are required to do something we don’t want to do.
Free speech also has a companion obligation, i.e, personal involvement, willingness to sacrifice, etc. The laity, as George rightly points out below, have been conspicuous in our absence.
It appears that +Philip may be losing control. The regime in Englewood has retrenched into its ethnic core for about a year now. This is somewhat normal as in a severe economic downturn, people tend to become more tribalistic. Having said that, the increasing heavy-handedness on display cannot last forever, at most it will buy it some time. In the political sphere we saw this recently in the days and weeks leading up to the last election in which the owers that be became increasingly shrill and antagonistic. Republicans were called “enemies” by President Lightworker in a speech to a Latinos, whom he views as a Fifth Column. Amore apt analogy may be the fall of the Iron Curtain which began in 1989. Once it was clear that Marxism had lost its moral foundation, ordinary people started rebelling and actually chipping at the Berlin Wall. The Soviet Empire collapsed almost immediately.
Will this happen with the colonial eparchies in North America? If it doesn’t then they are doomed to demographic oblivion. Philip, by his heavy-handed antics has already proven that he has lost the moral high ground. The supposed hyper-evangelistic/Americanist outreach of the Antiochian jurisdiction is now laid bare for what it was: a slavish, cultic obeisance to the Maximum Leader by earnest members of the Evangelical Orthodox Church who were coopted and most likely fooled into believing his evagelistic claptrap. Now we see it for what it really was, “all hat, no cattle” as Texans are fond of saying.
It didn’t have to be this way. Even if it was all a charade, Philip could have continued playing the game, pretending at least that he was serious about evangelism. In time, he may have come to believe it. He could have gone out on a positive note. But it was not to be.
Why?
Because Philip (and the other ethnic exarchs) are not beholden to the American project. They are ethnarchs; leaders of ecclesial ghettos who cannot forget that they are beholden to their tribal and foreign roots. We may blame the Old World patriarchates but its their laity which ultimately enable their ethnic nostalgia cults to continue. If I’ve said this once, I’ve said it a million times: the Church of Christ cannot function in a normal manner where there is no locality, transparency, or accountability. We know that Istanbul, Damascus, Belgrade, etc. don’t get this fundamental fact (or don’t understand it) but we here in America don’t have that excuse. Sure they bear some blame, but so do we in the laity. Until we understand that, Orthodoxy will only be able to struggle on in its only Americanist branch –the OCA. (Which as we have seen has corrected its internal problems on its own terms.)