More inaccuracies in OCANews…

For those of you who have been following the recently-released purloined letters of Screwtape, I must tell you that “Jack Lewis” has decided to take a few days off to clear his head. Maybe Monomakhos should as well. But being the foolhardy Hellene that I am, I can’t help myself.

So, here goes:

We are now sure that OCANews has almost completely lost its credibility and its +Jonah-hating agenda has been laid bare for all the world to see. In my previous expose, I listed three assertions by its author that were peddled as hard fact. I easily showed that they were not. For those who want a re-cap here they are in brief:

1. +Jonah’s “autocratic style.” (You’ve GOT to be kidding!)
2. The “damage” done to Istanbul-OCA relations by +Jonah’s March 2009 speech in Dallas.
3. The disinvitation of the OCA to the upcoming Episcopal Assembly meeting (May 2010) which HB’s 2009 speech supposedly caused. This was pure speculation on Stokoe’s part.

Besides these errors of commission, OCANews has perpetrated errors via the mechanism of insinuation which are harder to prove but easy to see in retrospect. The following clearly points to an agenda and to my mind, further destroy’s ocanews’ credibility. Here they are:

4. The political finesse that the Chancery office in Syosset supposedly posesses and which +Jonah should have listened to. Let me explain: who was Metropolitan in 2005 when +Nikon was elected Bishop of Boston? Do they not remember the breaking of Communion between the GOA and the OCA in New England because of this matter? Where was their vaunted finesse then? (Hint: +Jonah wasn’t even a bishop at that point in time.)

5. The SMPAC report. The particulars of this report are uknown at present, however Stokoe has decided to go ahead and publish the names of several people currently (probably?) under investigation. For one thing, this is a clear breach of confidentiality (again, Stokoe serves on the Metropolitan Council). For another, he only mention the names then refrains from saying anything further. This is no different from a parish council member who went to his priest for Confession, admitted that he stole $500 from the collection plate, said he’d make four-fold restitution, and then receives absolution. Now follow me: next Sunday, the priest in his sermon mentions mentions only that a certain parish council member came to him and asked for forgiveness because he stole from the collection plate but that he was now forgiven. Notice that the priest did not mention the miscreant by name so techinically speaking, he did not break the seal of the Confessional. But what he did was almost as bad because the result is hysteria.

6. Omissions from the SMPAC report that makes the HS look bad. The new site www.ocatruth.com just released their latest issue last night. In it, “muzhik” breaks the story about an archdeacon who is most probably a homosexual and living with a retired bishop in Miami. As it so happens, this archdeacon was reprimanded by Archbishop +Dmitri Royster of Dallas back in 2007, who asked him for the good of the Church and his own salvation to resign from the diaconate and to return to lay monasticism. Later, when +Jonah assumed the position of locum tenens of the South, he tried to do the same thing. Guess who went to bat for the archdeacon in question? The four bishops named by Stokoe and who were part of his purloined e-mail exchange (when the masses of the OCA were supposedly going all “Tahrir Square” on the tyrant +Jonah). Who was Metropolitan in 2007? Where was the Metropolitan Council? Muzhik then describes how the elderly (and increasingly frail) archbishop was “browbeaten” into silence in this matter and how +Jonah refrained from fighting them when push came to shove. Mind you, no one is covered in glory in this matter, not +Dmitri, not +Jonah, both of whom unfortunately gave in to the Holy Synod on this issue, but certainly not the Holy Synod which fought against the Church’s teachings in this regard. Indeed, episodes such as this not only shows the bias of ocanews, but helps explain to great extent (I might add) the “tensions” that have existed between the Holy Synod and +Jonah. In other words, it was not +Jonah’s “style” of governance that caused the supposed ruptures between him and the other bishops, but his insistence that homosexuality be rooted out from the priesthood (and the episcopate as well?)

No doubt others will turn up in time. For now, I can confidentaly state that ocanews’ original story was not only full of inaccuraces, but had a clear axe to grind.

Soon, I will elaborate on the culture of corruption in American Orthodoxy. In the meantime, if you’d like an excellent summation of where we stand right now as a Church, please go to www.ocatruth.com. And tell ’em Monomakhos sent you! 🙂

Comments

  1. George,

    In the OCA:

    1. Who’s in charge?
    2. What does being “in charge” mean?
    3. To whom is the person, or persons “in charge” accountable for their actions?

    Thanks.

  2. Ashley Nevins says

    George,

    The divisive divison will be the end of the OCA by war between the laity and hierarchy. This the beginning of a melt down like is going on in Japan right now. There are just too many earth quakes and following tusami’s to stop the destructive forces from imploding this church. It can survive, but what will it really survive as in the receding outflow of damage left behind by these never ending events?

    I see nothing but religious political solutions of man in his own power taking place on both sides of the different issues and those unresolved issues are the path of the tusami’s destroying this church. The props have all been washed away and what really is holding this church up is now revealed for all to see. Corruption is the unity glue that holds this church together and that just will not stand before a Holy God.

    All of what is taking place are mere sysmptoms pointing to a deeper cause that the Orthodox deny is the cause of the corrupt, failed, irrelevant and dying state of their church. The Orthodox in America fail as a church because they apply the cause of the problem to the problem as its solution and that only results in a circular without solution church bent on its own implosion. The disciples of divisivness will receive their just desert. The whole church is exposed for what it really stands for and for what really props it all up.

    I predict this is the year of the beginning of the end of the two largest jurisdictions in America. They now both operate in a survival existence state of corrupt failure without solution. That is their best possible future outcome no matter what anyone tries to do to stop the dying state of these jurisdictions.

    Proverbs has much to say about the fool who will not listen and what his consequences are. The fool is circular without solution. The fool only listens to the foolishness of his fool thinking and he is made the fool for it. The fool is alone right and true in the thinking of his mind and the consequences that come to the fool prove his foolish mind thinkings are neither right or true. You cannot tell the fool he is a fool. He is too much of a fool to listen. The fool in his self destruction is right and WISDOM is wrong.

    BTW, my son escaped the elder ephraim cult in the middle of night two weeks ago. Wisdom came to the fool and he left the cult of fools. Reading Jesus in the Gospels is what set him free of the fools lie believed. He was at the center for 6 years and knows many things. From my sons’ mouth to my ears…the elder is a charlatan and the GOA is a cult. He knows things that the monastery and hierarchy want no GO to know. I warned the GOA and it did not hear my warning. It’s we are Gods only right and true church pride and arrogance will by its sure end. That is all any Orthodox really listens too. Go be right and true above all others Orthodox. The means to GOA corrupt cult end with our son were more important than what that corrupt end would lead too for the GOA by placing him into a cult. The entire GOA operates like that and now the consequences come home like a TSUAMI.

    The GOA and OCA share much in common. They are both being destroyed by the same cause denied. And, yes, Orthodox there is a common denominator cause that is bringing both of them to their survival existence corrupt state of church end.

    The GOA is in at least as serious of trouble as is the OCA. Actually, I believe it is in far worse trouble. Its laity is far more apathetic and indifferent than is the OCA laity that is also powerless to stop the self destruction of their church. The Greek ethnocentric religion social club church will implode by self protection of its pride in what it believes it represents and is. Corrupt self protection will be the end of both the GOA and OCA.

    The covers hiding the debacle have yet to be pulled completely off to see the true degree of corruptions in both the GOA and OCA, but God is working hard to expose them all. Mark is the latest expose’. So the one who leads the expose’ is now the expose’ for his lifestyle choice. God will not be mocked and He will make a mockery out of what mocks Him. God is making a mockery out of EOC America and He is not going to stop until the Orthodox stop making a mockery out of God. You will not stop making a mockery of God and you can’t stop because of the cause of mockery you all deny.

    No amount of sea water pumped in will stop this church melt down. Its all too little too late. I promise, and all of my promises to the Orthodox come true. All of them. You were warned and refused to listen. What Jesus in the Gospels confronted is your clear warning. What Paul confronted in the NT is your clear warning. You have become the warning that God warns us of and it mocks God just like the Sanhedrin mocked God.

    Yes, I know, the Orthodox disagree. They are right and those not of them are wrong in comparison to how right all of you are in your corrupt church failure that has no solution. All of you have the solution and when any solution provided always proves itself a failure.

    No solution mocks God by using what mocks God as solution. All who follow the solution mock God. All who mock God by the solution that mocks God will be mocked by the solution they provide and follow.

    Ashley Nevins

    • Ashley, I just saw this reported on the Orthodox-Forum… I am so glad you have seen your son restored to you. I would hope that his experience with the Ephraimites has not soured Scott on Orthodoxy entirely, for the Ephraimites are by no means representative of it, but I would completely understand it if it has. I will not judge; I believe God will have mercy on whom He will have mercy.

      In Christ,
      Rd. DC

  3. Raskolnikov says

    Ashley Nevins, would you mind being more direct? What are you talking about? Homosexuality in the clergy? Among the bishops? What?

    • Ashley Nevins says

      Raskolnikov,

      It goes far deeper than homosexuality in the church leadership. Such sexual corruptions are only symptoms pointing to a more serious causation. What I am about to tell you is not nice parish coffee and cookies after church and where everyone looks Orthodox good. It is the reality of the real world denied by the EOC and that denial is killing the EOC dead.

      Religious addiction in the Orthodox context is the result of theological totalism power and control. It causes the entire church under that kind of power and control to be made powerless religious codependents to that power and control. The sexual corruption of an entire church system comes out of this power and control. Yes, individuals often are found sexually corrupt on their own. That is not what I am addressing here. I am addressing systemic sexual corruption that involves an entire church and not just a few individuals.

      Yes, I know, you most likely do not understand what it is I am talking about. I am using rational termonology of modernity. It is modern church growth termonology that is not closed, subjective or isolated in its single dimension eastern only thinking that believes it is superior to all other thinking. It deals in what either kills a church or makes a church relevant. It understands church dyfunction and functionality. It thinks causation to relevancy or failure. It thinks and talks totally outside of the Orthodox box. That is OK if you do not understand. I didn’t either at one time. We all start someplace with such understandings. The two things the Orthodox cannot stand I use to explain the corruption. They cannot stand them because they threaten Orthodox power and control by exposing them with objectivity that only the church can have since it is alone right and one true. Think for yourself and think that one through for yourself to come into understanding and expose’ of how your church really thinks and how you really think inside of it.

      The Orthodox do not expose themselves to themselves in this way. A closed system cannot expose itself to itself like an open system can. Jesus the open system exposed the closed system of the Sanhedrin. It does not work the other way around contrary to Orthodox alone right thinking. The Orthodox are a closed system that hides, keeps secrets, cover up, lies and spins. The more closed the system the more such a system is found in this corrupt state of LYING and LIES BELIEVED. A closed system is all about the self protection of the system and that kills the Gospel in a church DEAD. Christ was all about transparency and accountability by being an open system. Get it? If you have a closed system mind set you most likely do not get it or you only get it to the degree your mind is not closed by a closed system.

      If you cannot tell I am one of the most radical bottom up and open system Christians you will ever engage and no it is not Martin who is my thinking. Christ in the Gospels by how He really came to us is my thinking. I am beyond reform thinking that only modifies a structure and system and does not go far enough. I am anathema, heretic and rebellion to the Orthodox Mind. To the Orthodox I am completely outside of God in my thinking of church structure and system. I am your diametric opposite in thinking in most ways of thinking about church structure and system. I love change to relevancy that leads to a Christ alive church that is with solution. I am under its mind control and its mind control is all about thinking for itself outside of a a corrupt church failure and corruption is too how the Orthodox think or their church would be this corrupt on this large of a scale and for as long as it has really been in this state.

      Not a one of you can see the degree of the subtle mind control you are under by how totalism molds you into its failed religious codependent thinking. You treat symptoms instead of cause for the cause blinding you to it by its deception. It is classic codependency to only to try to fix or save by a symptoms approach to the problem. All of you are in a unhealthy way ENMESHED with your power and control church that renders you powerless to stop its dying state. You can moan and complain about it, but thats about all you can really do about it. Nothing has changed in the OCA except the window dressing and by the looks of things that window dressing is about to change again. Are there sexually corrupt in this new window dressing?

      Codpendency is NOT OBJECTIVE about itself and nor is a closed, isolated and subjective church structure and system. Can any of you see the dual set up for failure in that? It stops you dead in your tracks no matter what you try to do to reverse how it stops you dead in your tracks by using codependency to solve the problem.

      If you understand religious addiction you will come into an understanding of how it thinks and operates like sexual addiction. Both are Masters of their Universes. Both play God and therefore are not transparent and accountable. The two are often found epidemic in such a systemically corrupt church. The organization psychology of such a church takes on a dangerous pathology that is carnally sexualized and the church becomes sexualized by ways and means it does not see. As God peals the layers of the rotten onion away more and more of the sexualized corruption is seen. A corrupt sexology that is its lust theology of power and control is seen and it reveals itself in more ways than by sexual corruption of a church. The church becomes pornographic and not sexually healthy or ethically moral.

      The Orthodox spend their time causing fires and putting them out in a never ending cycle of self destruction. Evil has you all right where he wants you. He has you circular without solution by the solutions you apply and they are not solutions come to you from God. Care to take a wild guess who is providing the solution that never works? If you found true solution what kind of a threat would the EOC be to him? Let me tell you what I think it would mean to him…it would result in a revival on a scale the Orthodox have never seen before in their history. You would come after him instead of dancing this sick dance with him. You would reverse the murder and murder him.

      The ultimate danger here is a toxic church that is characterized by corruption, abuse, abandonment and serious demise. Those with ethical and/or moral issues are looked to solve the ethical and moral issues and that is circular without solution. This kind of a church is not safe, healthy or healing. It is a church that places its power and control over the people of God and that destroys the people of God and Gods church. Power and control come over the top of you and abuses. The humility of Christ comes under you and raises you up and out of such corruption by healing you.

      The two largest EOC jurisdictions have very serious sexual problems and I know why from the cause the Orthodox deny. So, when someone like Hopko makes statements about Jonah I wonder what his sexual history in the church is. I wonder what Mark’s is. I wonder what the hierarchy’s is. If all three have a problem then you got serious problems. Even if only one of the three has problems in this way you got serious problems. If they are not speaking from a place of sexual integrity you got serious problems as a church. I think for myself and understanding how to think about such issues goes a long way in understanding how a entire church can take on a sexually corrupt pathology.

      Oh, you personally may not be sexually corrupt, but the church you enable is. Talking about doing something about this and doing something about this are two entirely different things. If most of you were honest you would admit how powerless you truly are to stop this. The never ending complaining reminds me of a backed up toilet that will not flush and is running all over the floor. It reeks.

      In healthy and safe Christianity that is spiritually mature you ask these kinds of questions when the corruption is this systemically problematic. I don’t win the popularity contest by asking hard questions and in Orthodoxy there seems to be a predominate preoccupation with not asking the hard questions for fear someone might not think good Orthodox thoughts of you if you do. You verify integrity and then trust. You do not concern yourselves with what anyone thinks when you do. You stand up right in the middle of parish or diocese and confront it to its face if you have too, and even if you get thrown out. Like Paul would worry about being thrown out of a corrupt church, yeah right.

      The Orthodox verify to trust backwards and that is because they are not grounded in a Christian morality that is uncompromising with sexual sin and corrupt power and control sin. It is irrational to operate a church like this and a corrupt church that is dying is always found operating irrationally. Totalism power and control writes the rules of morality and they are relativistic rules that are based upon situational ethics. The idol makes the ethical and moral standards for the church and not God. That is irrational in Gods rational mind, but it is totally rational in the totalism mind.

      All of you by religious codependency enable this in ways none of you see. Codependency if you truly understand it is nothing more than a compromise of character and integrity. It is idolatry of MAN. I say that because of the epedemic pathology of corruption controlling your church and that has no solution. If you had TRUE solution from GOD you would not be found in this circular without solution state.

      Do any of you remember Jonah’s speech he gave at his enthronement? I have brought this up before. He told the audience that he had the most PROFOUND RESPECT for the bishops on stage with him. You verify then trust. His mentality towards corruption was not verified before you ALL placed trust in him. You will do the same with who ever replaces him. Only two people noticed what he said in that meeting. I was one of them. Where were all of you? You were all trusting and not verifying. That’s where you all were. You were listening to your rulers over GOD! You listened to your new ruler idol over God. Now place your MOST PROFOUND RESPECT in the next administration before you verify their competency, integrity and humility. Repeat the failure the over again and prove me right, you are circular without solution by applying the problem to the problem as its solution.

      Do a one of you have any concerns what-so-ever of the moral integrity of the bishops who placed Jonah on administrative leave??? That leads me to ask myself a thinking for myself question, if they do not have the integritry then how can what does not have integrity hold another to an integrity standard? If you cannot see the circular without solution that one question raises up you are in bondage to the circular without solution that is blinding you to see what real Christian leadership with real integrity is all about. You are trusting more in your corrupt hierarchy than you are in God and it shows badly that you are doing exactly that. They are your solution and they are proved failed at being the solution.

      Well, what was Jonah’s sexual history before he was made Met? Do any of you really know? What is the sexual history of the rest of the hierarchy? Do any of you really know? What is the sexual history of those laity who are in public exposing the corruptions? Do any of you really know? The continual problem in this area tells me not a one of your really knows or at the very least you would rather just complain about it than do something about it.

      Hyprocrisy is no solution, but all of you seem to believe that it is. You will compromise and accept the lessor evil as rule in your church and that is still evil in rule over your church. Most all of you think that replacing rulers until you get the right set of rulers will solve the problem. It will not. The rule is still based upon top down power and control that corrupts and that comes right out of the theology that designs the structure and system of totalism power and control. The more your church exersizes top down power and control the more out of control it becomes. The more out of control it becomes the more it self destructs.

      Evil wants you making religious political power and control decisions and not spiritually mature and uncompromising IN CHRIST decisions. He wants you to make OUT OF CHRIST decisions in mans power that lead you into circular without solution failure that kills your church dead. He is using your own power to do all of this with and to undermine the power of Christ to heal you. Like Proverbs says, pride goes before the fall and where there is no vision the people perish. Satan has a prideful vision for your church. Do any of you see how that vision is practically working itself out in the reality of the real world where Christ really lives in humility and true vision that takes a church to relevancy?

      Evil always has a predictable outcome. It is the obvious evil seen. Do any of you see the evil I see by verifying before you trust? I saw right through Jonah and all I did was listen to his words. The Orthodox do not listen to what they do not want to hear. The Anxios of circular without solution corruption seems to be the wax in their ears or the only thing they want to hear. Religious codependency has selective hearing in its relativistic enabling of sexual corruptions that are dysfunctional church coming out of religious addiction and religious codependency of the church. Are you hearing me now?

      Ashley Nevins

  4. Ashley,

    RE The Orthodox in America fail as a church because they apply the cause of the problem to the problem as its solution and that only results in a circular without solution church bent on its own implosion.

    The above intriguing sentence caught my eye. What “cause of the problem” are the Orthodox applying as the solution to the problem?

    Thanks.

    • Ashley Nevins says

      Gregf,

      The structure and system of Orthodoxy is the issue. Christ did not come to us as a top down authoritiarian church/state theology and resulting structure and system that is self centered, self protective and self sufficient. Christ did not come to us as a totalism structure and system. Christ did not come to us as a closed, isolated and subjective structure and system that is corrupt, failed, irrelevant and dying. That is both the Orthodox problem and the Orthodox failed solution applied to the problem. When you apply the problem to the problem as its solution you end up circular without solution.

      Christ in the Gospels came to us as a bottom up and open system that confronted His opposite of theology, structure and system. The comparison could not be more clear. He came to us at our top down ruled OVER, SUPPRESSED, ABUSED and ABANDONED bottom and raised us up out of that structure and system of dead religion and false salvation. He did not come to rule top down mold press into the mindset of religious dictatorship that brings us into bondage to the idol of religious dictatorship dead religion. Christ in the Gospels was not circular without solution. Who and what He confronted was. It is very simple to see this in the simple Gospels. Christ is not top down rule authoritarian power and control complex. He is very humility bottom up and open system simple. Humility is simple. Power and control are complex. Think for yourself and think it through for yourself without a church of top down self centeredness thinking for you.

      The Orthodox are in religious denial of the cause of their corrupt church failure and until they stop trying to solve the problem with the problem the problem will continue to exist. All the props that once held the EOC up are now gone and what is really propping the whole structure and system up is now clearly seen. Without totalism power and control the EOC has no solution to itself. It really only succeeds where it is in absolute power and control. Place it in freedom of mind, individual and religion options and it is found irrelevant and dying by the totalism theology and resulting totalism structure and system.

      Orthodoxy is following this pattern in its failure:

      Pride to unrepentance to carnality to corruption to irrelevancy to failure to dying church.

      Christ in the Gospels follows this pattern to success:

      Humility to repentance to transformation to change to relevancy to Christ alive church.

      Here is a Orthodox Mind blower…pride is top down and humility is bottom up. Get it?

      One structure and system molds you into its character of corrupt failure and the other structure and system transforms you into the character of Christ. It is the obvious comparison that Christ made between Himself and those He confronted in the Gospels. He makes it clear in scripture like John 8:31-59 and where He outlines to them what is really going on in their failure and who is truly LEADING that failure. The Orthodox failure is more than just a few bad leaders going south and who make a church look bad. That is to be expected and no church is immune to that. This goes way beyond that. It is an entire structure and system that is in corrupt failure and the CAUSE is the theology that creates the structure and system that is the obvious failure seen.

      Your salvation is either your solution or it will be your end. Religious totalism is not the salvation of Christ come to us in the Gospels. It was the end of the Pharisees and the Sanhedrin. They too believed they were Gods only true religion and salvation. They too believed they alone were right and true in their Orthodox minds. They too believed they had the right history, worship, belief, traditions, fathers, theology, structure and system. They were a corrupt failure by being totalism theology, structure and system. Christ came opposite of them to draw the distinct comparison and to give fair warning not become like this in any way, shape or form.

      Here is a secular example that may bring this issue home to you. At the end of WW2 America did not replace the totalism structures and systems of Imperial Japan or Nazi Germany with totalism structures and systems. That would be circular without solution by the solution applied. We replaced what was top down and closed system with what is bottom up and open system. We didn’t want to fight WW3 with them as totalism dictators again. I think that makes for common sense. I believe Christ has common sense too. The Orthodox do not have this sense of common sense. The closed structure and system cloeses out such common sense and replaces it with subtle totalism mind control that is always the right solution by being the only true solution from God to the Orthodox.

      When you are alone right and the only one true are the only right and true solution to yourselves. You have no other solution and anyone with eyes can see what solution you are applying to the problem. The latest example is the OCA that is now in WW2. After this war it will start WW3 with another totalism religious dictatorship. That is, if it survives. Honestly, it cannot stand up on its own two feet without totalism theology, structure and system holding it all up and that is now more than proved to be a total failure of totalism theology.

      None of you learned your lessons from ROC circa 1917? That made PTL look like three year olds playing with Legos. PTL went away, remember? God will not be mocked and He will reverse the mock of who ever mocks Him in time. Now Binny Hinn gets his turn. He was above transparency and accountability because he was in total rule power and control. Oh, yes, but the Orthodox are different. They would never turn man or their church into an IDOL and the state of their church proves they would not. That is why the EOC is such an outstanding role model of transparency and accountability to Christianity outside of them. Orthodoxy and Orthodox rulers as idols to the Orthodox!?! That is impossible in the Orthodox Mind. The Orthodox Mind is the impossible mind. It is the alone right and true mind of totalism. You cannot reason with such a mind. It is always right and true in its mind. It is the mind set of dictatorship religion and the dictator must always be right and true or the dictator looses power and control. The Orthodox do not listen. They don’t have too. They alone are Gods only right and true and so they really only have to listen to themselves.

      I believe the OCA is child’s play compared to the corrupt failure of the GOA. The consequences are real and the cause of them is denied by the Orthodox. Denial, if you have never noticed, is also circular without solution until the denial is broken. This is what the Orthodox deny…Christ came to us as a safe, healthy, relevant and alive church that is with solution and it is with solution because Christ and not corrupt man is the true center of such a church living in the alive Christ solution.

      More Orthodox dysfunctional drama queen is coming. The GOA will be coming to a theater to you real soon. It will be another MEGA DISASTER MOVIE. You have seen the movie trailers of Cleveland, Florence and Astoria, to name a few. The EP will be the movie director. There will be a cast of thousands. It will be epic.

      Yes, I know, I am wrong and the EOC is always right. The only alone right and one true church structure and system is the solution to the corrupt, failed, irrelevant and dying EOC structure and system in America. Who can argue with who is Gods only alone right and one true truth Christians? They have the only right and true solution and any other solution in comparison to their solution is sure failure. They are Gods alone right and true role model and example to all of Christianity outside of Orthodoxy as to what a safe, healthy, relevant and alive by Christ church is all about. All other churches are failures in the comparison to them in their right and true state of salvation and church. If only all those other churches would follow the Orthodox role model and example of what it means to be Gods special elect church then the Gospel would move forward as Christ intended it too in the Gospels.

      Go be Gods only alone right and true Christians with the only alone right and true solution from God.

      That is the problem and your solution applied to the problem. I hope this answers your question.

      Ashley Nevins

      • Michael Bauman says

        God bless you Ashley. May our Lord visit and heal your wounds.

        • Ashley Nevins says

          May God heal what your church is doing to all of you and may He bring you into the realization of what the true cause of all of this is and may you be set free by the truth of the cause that sets your free.

          • Michael Bauman says

            Ashley, for both of us the way forward (toward Christ) is through prayer, repentance and forgiveness so that we may know and proclaim that “Christ is risen from the dead trampling down death by death and upon those in the tombs bestowing life”; so that we may know and proclaim Christ’s own words: “Be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world”.

      • Thanks for the comprehensive reply.

      • DnNicholasJ says

        diatribe |ˈdīəˌtrīb|
        noun
        a forceful and bitter verbal attack against someone or something

        • Ashley Nevins says

          DnNicholasJ,

          We have something in common. I love word studies too. Reading the dictionary is fun. Can you also define the following words?

          Corruption

          Failure

          Irrelevancy

          Death

          It would also be really cool if you post the synonyms to each word too. I believe that will help bring deeper understanding of the real world issues the EOC is facing in the practical reality of the sane Christian world where Christ in relevancy really lives.

          Thank you, for your hard work in solving the failed state of the EOC in America by helping the EO in America understand the ramifications that important definitions are having on their church in the present and the future.

          Ashley Nevins

          • George Michalopulos says

            Ashley, as usual your verbosity and pomposity gets the best of you. Yes, i know some of what you say is true but your bigotry against the Orthodox Church gets the better of you all the time. You paint a straw man/caricature of the Church. It’s not “top-down,” and never was. The Christian Church is full of sinners (such as myself) but She is still the Bride of Christ. She’s lasted 2,000 years and will remain until Her Bridegroom returs.

            Failure? Death? Etc.? Tell me where the perfection is in your Protestant Church? Or are you a one-man church, accountable to no one but yourself? And don’t tell me you’re accountable to Christ, for He put Apostles to guide His Church, giving them the “power to bind and loose.” That’s real accountability Ashley, not your “me and Bible.”

            • Ashley Nevins says

              George,

              Your response does not talk cause and take you to solution. So what is the solution to the circular without solution? Treating symptoms and not cause is the issue. That is Biblical and not Protestant. Biblical treats cause that symptoms point too. So what is the cause of this corrupt church failure? It goes deeper than the sinner. It goes to theology that creates structure and system. Is a survival existence state of continual church corruption without solution the Orthodox solution?

              You can believe your church is not a top down closed, isolated and subjective structure and system of totalism power and control by church/state theology. You can believe that the totalism theology and its resulting structure and system are not self centered, self protective and self sufficient by self righteously claiming itself to be Gods only alone right and one true church and salvation. You can believe all that you desire and your desire will not lead you to the cause of the corrupt church failure that has no soluton by the failure itself being applied to the failure as its solution.

              The Bible is your transparency and accountability no matter how you see me or what you call me. Obviously, the Orthodox disagree with God and His Bible by the state of their church failed by a serious lack of Biblical transparency and accountability. A self centered, self protective and self sufficient we are Gods only alone right and true church is only transparent and accountable to itself in its own power. That is the corrupt failure seen of the EO in America.

              Yes, I know. I am wrong and the Orthodox are right. Go be right in your church failure and keep applying your right solution to the problem that has no Orthodox solution. Write this off by what ever ways or means works for all of you. Make me the problem somehow for pointing the obvious and avoid, deny and reject the true cause of the corrupt church failure.

              The corrupt church failure that is circular without solution tells me three things:

              1. The Orthodox refuse to listen to God the Holy Spirit in their consequences
              2. The Orthodox refuse to listen to Christ in the Gospels and NT in their consequences
              3. The Orthodox refuse to listen to any solution that works in their consequences

              Now, you can call me a Protestant or anything else all day on this and if that turns your crank to make me less than Orthodox correct on any of this that is really OK with me. I am not in the church that has no solution. The type of disagreement with me you offer up does not take you to cause that would then take you to solution. It only makes you circular without solution and by the facts, proofs and evidences seen the EOC in America love being circular without solution by applying the circular to the circular without solution as its circular solution.

              Jesus in the BIBLE was not circular without solution. He is solution that stops circular without solution. I read that in my Bible. The Bible will provide your dying church solution to its corrupt failed state that has no Biblical solution applied or it would not be found in this never ending state of circular corruption without solution. In the end your argument or disagreement is not really with me. It is with God who you do not have solution from. I just know why you don’t have solution from God. I read what I know why you don’t have solution in the Bible. Obviously, most all of you don’t believe the cause of your corrupt church failure and its solution is found in the Bible or you would have solution from the Bible. I read my Bible for solution. I do not look to what does not have or cannot find solution for solution. That is not wisdom. It is fool. I read that in Proverbs that is in the Bible.

              The depth of the problem and the length of time it has existed without solution is only proof I need to see with my own eyes why the EO in America are without Biblical solution by denying what the Bible says is the cause of the corupt failed state of church and its solution. You can not like me and you can disagree with me when I tell you this. It is just more of the same circular without solution that refuses to find or see Biblical solution that stops the circular without solution.

              This conversation has now taken on the Orthodox context of circular without solution that refuses solution outside of itself for corruption being the solution to the corruption. That mentality will not find your church solution and it is the mentality found in your church that tries to find solution with that mentality. It does not matter who or what delivers this message to you or how it is delivered to you. You will not listen to the consequences and so that means you will not listen to God no matter how He tries to deliver the message to you. You all believe you are the solution to yourselves in your church made of all of you and that is without solution by all of you.

              The Orthodox do not listen. Not listening is circular without solution.

              I now part ways with all of you and leave to yourselves as your own solution.

              Ashley Nevins

              • George Michalopulos says

                ok. I still don’t get your argumentation. It’s not logical or historical.

          • DnNicholasJ says

            The “troubles” of the EO Church today are nothing new to us. Such things have been instigated by Satan against us many times during our 2000+ year history. And their result has been to bring us to sincere, authentic repentance, and so return us again and again onto the narrow and hard way that leads to eternal life.

            You are obviously not aware that the Orthodox Church and Orthodox Christians were enslaved by the Ottoman Islamist is southeast europe for nearly 400 years, and by the Mongols in southern Russia and the Ukraine for over 200 years. Also, your opinion of us is exactly the same as the atheist communist of the 20th century in Russia and the European Balkans who tortured and martyred (murdered) millions, yes millions, of us for our Faith and Church.
            We are still here; where are they?
            So I have confidence that we will still be here long after you and your personal diatribe are obliterated by time.

            PS: It is simply absurd of you to blame the monastery for your sons leaving it. Was he forced to go there or to stay? Never. He just was not capable of the intense dedication to living our Lord’ commandments required of Orthodox Monastics, especially those of the Athonite tradition. So when he “discovered” by reading in the bible for himself that it was all wrong, he really was just looking for a reason to quit anyway when he really did not need one. His (and yours) ignorance is of the fact that it is stated in the NT itself that holy scripture is not open to private interpretation. That is why we Orthodox treasure the writings and life experiences of holy scripture of our Saints over the past 2000+ years who acquired the holiness required to interpret it correctly at all its level of revelation.

            PPS: Wake up! The Devil does not attack those who are “asleep” (i.e. already on the road to perdition).

            • Ashley Nevins says

              Ephraimite,

              No matter how you try to justify it by tradition or try to twist Scripture to make it work there is absolutely no Biblical basis or calling in the Gospels or NT for monasticism.

              Here is three examples of GOA cult monasticism:

              1. Cleveland
              2. Astoria
              3. Florence

              Here is just one example of what REALLY goes on in the guru cult leader elders’ monasteries:

              http:/gotruthreform.org/ruths-blog/

              Yes, ephraimite, tell me how this is just a misunderstanding of the elder and how that proves me all wrong. Tell me how this is not Biblically wrong and does not warrent them leaving the elder. Tell me how they were just looking for an excuse to leave and because they could not cut it. Tell me how this is just blame of the elder or Satan against the elder. Tell me how ignorant that I am. This story told is not an isolated incident. It premeates the ephraimite cult monasteries. Denial of what is really going on with the ephraimite monastics is not going to solve that corruption problem. It will only enable it to make further abuses and sooner or later one of those abuses is going to cause serious problems for the entire GOA.

              Now, ephraimite, defend the elder before the entire Orthodox world. I can’t wait for your cult apologist response. Figuring this out Biblically by Christ in the Gospels is simple unless you are of an ephramite mentality that sees no corruption, heresy, abuse or cult in GOA monasticism.

              Ephramite, you can disagree with me and others who see right through the guru cult leader elder, but that is not going to keep his divisive divisons from doing their part in destroying the GOA from the inside out and from the top down. The GOA is over. Its best possible outcome is a corrupt dying existence state of circular without solution. A dead church can continue to exist, but what does it continue to exist as is the important question all Orthodox need to answer by thinking for themselves without their corrupt failed church thinking for them that led them into the corrupt church failure.

              Ephraimite, here is how you ask a question that thinks for itself…

              Corrupt EP + incompetent Archbishop + homosexual bishops + powerless priests + cult monastism + apathetic and indifferent laity = what kind of a church?

              I believe that equates to the GOA as a cult church. Christian cult experts not recognized by the Orthodox call that a Christian cult. Of course, in the ephraimite mind the elder is the solution to the corrupt and failed GOA state by not being spiritually corrupt himself. He along with the entire structure and system of corruption is not corrupt himself. He stands outside of all the corruption as its HOLY SOLUTION.

              Would the GOA be a church that the ATF and FBI would want to look into? What is God telling the GOA by having freedom of religion rule of law investigating and busting them? Yes, I know, you disagree. There is no freedom of religion or rule of law in EOC church/state theology and just like there is no freedom of individual mind or inalienable individual rights. Since there is none of this in EO church/state theology of course you will disagree and because EOC rule is above the rule of western rational law in freedom of religion and individual thinking mind America. Thinking for yourself is heresy to the Orthodox who really only let their corruptly heretical church think for them. The church thinking for you as solution is obvious to see by its corrupt church failure.

              This is not about the perfect church. I have stated that before in other posts. This is about a church being a Holy Spirit centered safe, healthy, relevant and alive church. There are no perfect churches and just like there is no Gods only alone right and one true church. There are though churches that fail forward to Gospel relevancy and then there is the corrupt GOA that is not safe, healthy, relevant or Christ alive that fails backwards into oblivion.

              The guru cult leader elder is just one more symptom pointing to the theological cause of the corrupt church failure that is circular without solution. The elder is a charlatan and the GOA is a cult. It could not be more Gospels and NT simple to figure that out. Thinking for yourself via the Gospels figures the elder out. His spiritual abuse, spiritual divisiveness and spiritual abandonment tell the story you deny is being told to you as the truth of him. In the ephramite mind he is a living saint and the spiritual father that leads to salvation.

              Ephraimite, I am glad this discussion exposed who you truly are and your cult apologetic response to ‘The elder is a charlatan and the GOA is a cult’. I knew this discussion would bring you out. Pushing ephraimite buttons is fun. They just can’t stand to be exposed for who they are and they always by response expose who that they truly are. You are an enabler of what cult abuses and abandons. You have the elders same corrupt cult mind set that denies the obvious abuses and can see no graphic or horrific wrong in anything that takes place at his monasteries. He is above it all in your cult ephraimite mind.

              This will be all I have to say about that particular issue and all other issues regarding the pathologically sociopathic state of the GOA as an organization bent on its own self destruction by spiritually killing itself dead. John 8:31-59 tells me clearly from the Gospels who is the true ruler behind the scenes of this corrupt church failure that has no solution what so ever by the solution being applied. That ruler is a sociopath with the mind of a psychopath. That ruler will only provide you with circular without solution solutions to keep his rule over you all and all of you are allowing it. He has you all right where he wants you…CORRUPT without solution for applying his solutions to the problem that both he and all of you with him create, accept and apply.

              Good bye ephramite and good luck and because luck is all the GOA has left. I will be leaving this forum now that I have answered the two responses to my post. I will let all of you have the last talk, talk, talk that provides absolutely no solution. Give it your very best ephraimite shot. Show the Orthodox world what the ephramite mind is really all about. Defend by cult apologic self protection the indefensible. Spin it, down play it, rationalize it, justify it and marginalize it and just like the GOA does its cult corrupt state of church that is devouring itself by corruptions without solution.

              Ashley Nevins

              • Dn Brian Patrick Mitchell says

                I think we’ve heard enough from Ashley Nevins. I recommed that George block her from commenting any further, to keep her from continuing to hijack the discussion. Responding to her in any other way only encourages her in her error.

                • George Michalopulos says

                  Deacon, for myself, I’ll allow Ashley to continue blogging on my site if only to show the world what true illogic and bigotry is. I still can’t get my head around a lot of what he/she believes about Christianity. It’s like trying to eat soup with a knife.

                  • Christopher says

                    I have a different opinion of Ashley. Much of her criticism reminds me of Simone Weil. Perhaps you are familiar with her Ashley? If not you might want to take a gander. While she would be sympathetic to some of your criticism (particularly the negative “social” aspects of an often dysfunctional hierarchy) she might lead you to a more nuanced view.

              • DnNicholasJ says

                Well, I don’t know what a “ephramite” is, and I myself am not and have never been a monastic. In fact, I’m a “cradle American” who has been married to the same women for nearly 60 years with 3 children, 9 grandchildren, and one great-child, and not ordained until I retired from working in the world as a professional engineer for over 40 years.
                As I said before, firmly believe and as history shows, the Orthodox Church and Orthodox Christians will still be here, no mater what you believe or what trials the Lord puts us through, long after you (and I) are gone forever.
                -End of discussion-

              • George Michalopulos says

                Ashley, to compare Florence with Astoria is like comparing the Boy Scouts to the Black Panthers. As an aside, if Florence was operated as a cult, then why was your son allowed to leave? The vast majority of cults don’t allow their members to leave. Once in, always in (cf: “Islam,, Apostasy from”)

  5. Prospective Nomad says

    This speculation will not be especially popular on this site, but I wonder whether the Holy Spirit brought about the rapprochement between Moscow and ROCOR in order to give the faithful a refuge as the rest of American Orthodoxy descends into complete madness. I say this as a member of the Antiochian Archdiocese who has never set foot in a ROCOR parish. Antioch’s American bloodletting may yet close my parish and force me to seek alternatives. If that happens, I intend to consider ROCOR intensively. There is a heart-breaking story on OCATruth about a convert who would like to shake the dust off her feet but laments that there’s nowhere else to go. There is always somewhere to go, because Christ will never leave us nor forsake us. If Metropolitan JONAH’s enemies succeed, that somewhere may be ROCOR.

    Moscow has to be running out of patience with the OCA’s protracted spectacle of scandal–not least because the OCA’s disarray is strengthening Constantinople’s hand. The fact that Patriarch KIRILL has dispatched Metropolitan HILARION to hear from Metropolitan JONAH’s critics indicates that the Patriarchate may weigh in on the matter. One can assume that Metropolitan JONAH has been pleading his case to Moscow all along. If Moscow decides that JONAH has done nothing worthy of deposition and the OCA Synod sacks him anyway, one can imagine JONAH being received into the Russian Church and the Russian Church abandoning its self-imposed restraint on the formation of new parishes in North America in order to receive those who authentically want to flee the chaos. Make no mistake, however, this won’t be like the evangelicals “coming home” to Antioch. The gate will be narrow, and the road will be hard. One enters ROCOR exclusively on ROCOR’s terms with no quarter asked or given. How many will be willing to stand through three-hour vigils and two-hour liturgies that are at least half in Slavonic (of which I don’t speak a word)? How many will be willing to endure the alienation from family and friends that comes with celebrating Christmas on January 7 and fasting every Independence Day? How many clergy will be willing to give up middle-class salaries and benefit packages to work two jobs and retire with little or no financial security? The pearl of great price is getting more expensive, but we are promised that it will always be attainable.

    • George Michalopulos says

      Nomad, I personally think it is certainly possible that the Holy Spirit has allowed the failings of human beings to get to the point of the possible implosion of the OCA and its reconsistition with ROCOR/MP under +Jonah. It’s even possible that the writ of autocephaly will be expended only to those parishes and dioceses within the present OCA that are not in the lunatic/Left camp..

      As for the rigors of ROCOR, they are as you state, but not nearly as dire to those of us who attend OCA parishes in the South. Also, I’ve attended a ROCOR church in which the liturgy was exclusively in English.

      Regardless, I could easily see a flood of OCA staltwars/traditionalists become part of an OCA which is allied with ROCOR/MP and without the liberal nonsense that the grovelling spirit of Syosset has imposed on it for 4 decades now..

      • Christopher says

        Very interesting angle. Still, I don’t consider the OCA of the South in any better shape than any other part. I left the an OCA parish in the south due to both my parishes inaction and +Dimtri’s diabolical action during the height of the financial scandal. By the way George, I appreciate your view of all this even if I most strongly disagree with your positive assessment of +Dimitri. My contention is still the same: There is a rot within the OCA (and to a greater or lessor extant in all of the “jurisdictions) that is cultural (mostly reflective of it’s old world roots) and is not ever going to be solved by this or that “leadership”. It’s a rot all they way to the parish level, and this or that scandal is merely a symptom. In the end it comes down to Orthodoxy’s failure to become part of the positive aspects of western culture, mostly due to it bringing along with it the negative aspects of it’s eastern culture. As a priest told me once, Orthodoxy is still a “missionary” church in America. Well, so far at least, it is on a failure path…

        • George Michalopulos says

          Christopher, all men are fallible, Vladyka +Dmitri included. However his record as hierarch of the most successful diocese in the OCA speaks for itself. I for one pray that I will be able to stand in his shadow on Judgment Day.

  6. Fr. Yousuf Rassam says

    Dear George,

    Whilst you are on about inaccuracies in web reporting, in your point 6 you write:
    “Guess who went to bat for the archdeacon in question? The four bishops named by Stokoe …”

    Check again. I believe that I have read what posts are available on the subject. I have read Muzhik’s among others. I feel your retelling is quite problematic.

    It is the opinion of the retired Bp. Tikhon (Fitzgerald), who “broke” the Burke story on the Indiana list, Burke should be considered self deposed. According to both Bp. Tikhon (Fitzgerald) and Muzhik, some on the Synod felt that the Archdeacon had repented. Bp. Tikhon (Fitzgerald) thinks that repentance can not help an automatic self deposition, and holds that automatic self deposition follows upon contracting marriage, as Burke is alleged to have done. Muzhik names four bishops, (who are NOT the same “appalled four” of Mark Stokoe), who thought that Burke’s repentance should be accepted.

    Also, none of your sources say, as you do, that Abp. Dmitri was browbeaten into silence. It was said that the retired Bp. Mark (Forsberg) and the priest from Miami came to ask Abp. Dmitri to lift Burke’s suspension, which Abp Dmitri did. Their manner of request was characterized by Muzhik (on what basis we know not,) as “thuggish”. But lifting a suspension and blessing Burke to serve as a deacon is not silence, it is action.

    According to Muzhik, Bp. Nikon as locum tenens, may now suspend Burke simply by a letter, yet in your telling and I think, Muzhik’s, the Synod blocked Met. Jonah as locum tenens from suspending Burke. I do not understand how Bp. Nikon has more authority as locum tenens than Met. Jonah did. Muzhik is willing to demand quite forcefully that Bp. Nikon do something in two weeks whilst making excuses for Met. Jonah not doing the same thing in over a year.

    On the whole you have taken Muzhik’s telling and turned it up a notch. All of this is very problematical, especially as there is some serious slinging of accusations going around. You go on to make emphatic reference to “the Holy Synod which fought against the Church’s teachings in this regard.” (your emphasis). I understand that you may agree with Bp. Tikhon that repentance is insufficient to salvage the man’s clerical ministry, and believe that that is the teaching of the Church, properly understood, and if that is the case, you and he may be correct. Yet the whole tenor of your point 6 would lead one to conclude that the Holy Synod is “fighting” the teaching of the Church on the sinfulness of homosexual acts. That is quite misleading. Are you contending that four (any four, mix & match!) of the Synod now hold a strange doctrine that contracting a same sex marriage is not a sin, but should be repented of anyway? No, you are omitting the reference to repentance in order to bolster your accusations.

    In the above, I have attempted to simply lay out facts as they are available, not to offer any opinion on the Archdeacon’s future in clerical ministry.

    What I do offer is a sense that especially your point 6 in this post was notably egregious. If you are going to try to give an alternative to Stokoe’s version, you might try to give one that is actually less tendentious, less egregious than his. If given a choice between yours and his, well, I choose neither.

    • George Michalopulos says

      Deacon, there’s a lot to chew on here and I will attempt to clear up any inaccuracies I may have made and/or propagated. One thing that I would like to say at the outset, that, speaking for myself, I do not believe that “repentence is insufficient” in any way whatsoever. To be truthful, I found it hard to understand the intricacies of the former bishop’s letter/e-mail/etc. It just appears to me upon a first (and second) reading that there was something mighty peculiar about this particular deacon. Which of course leads me to wonder why in heck Stokoe never mentioned anything about it at all. I smell a rat, which is what selective reporting is. As for the deacon in question, I understand that Arb +Nathaniel was asked directly in Dallas last week about the situation and he replied that the deacon and Bishop +Mark (retired) are living “chastely.” I’ll let that stand.

      And yes, you were right, the four bishops in question were not the exact same as Stokoe’s “Appalled four” but I believe two of them were. (Please forgive me, I’ve read the leaked e-mail now at least a half dozen times and I can’t keep the cast of characters straight). The point which Muzhik is trying to make is that Stokoe goes on and on about “The DC Nuns,” and others but is studiously silent about this particular case which raises as many suspicions (if not more) than the DC Nuns do.

      As to whether a single bishop can suspend a deacon/priest I don’t know. I’m not a canonist so I can’t say. I always thought they could but I also know that bishops are responsible to each other (Apostolic Canon 34). In such a scenario, if this deacon had a following on the Holy Synod, I could see why +Jonah did not pursue it on a prudential basis. BTW, I still think he was wrong to not suspend him, as was +Dmitri.

      This however begs the question: if +Jonah and +Dmitri were wrong not to do so, then shouldn’t +Nikon do the right thing?