Black Lives Matter/Church Not So Much

One of the hallmarks of irrelevance is the sought-after photo-op.  Sometimes they work.  Like when President Trump claimed enemy territory (in more ways than one) when he marched across LaFayette Park and stood before St John’s Episcopal Church a few days ago, proudly holding up a Bible.  

Others, like the one on the front page, in which Archbishop Elpidophoros Lambrianides tries to recapture that ole MLK/Iakovos Selma feeling, not so much.

This photo-op strikes out on several different levels.  I mean besides the fact that BLM has been designated a domestic terrorist organization.  (Remember “what do we want?/Dead pigs! /Fry ’em like bacon!“?  Yeah, that group.)  Let us count the ways.

For one thing, the late Archbishop Iakovos Coucouzis took a huge gamble of having fire hoses turned on him when he met up with Dr Martin Luther King, Jr way back when.  And despite whatever personal failings MLK had, there was no doubt whatsoever, that he practiced what he preached, which was non-violence.  And there was no way that African-Americans could have been viewed in any other way than victims.  Real victims.  In the legal, cultural and societal sense.  If you were against civil rights, then you weren’t on the side of the angels.

None of that obtains presently.  The march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma was a moral imperative.  The wounds of the American Civil War had not been legally healed and they needed to be, even if it did take a century to do so.  

Today, however, fifty years later, reparations have been paid to African-Americans to the tune of several trillions of dollars.  Previously all-white schools were integrated in order to give black children a better education.  Racial quotas have been put in place which guarantee African-Americans a seat at the academic, corporate and governmental level.   You cannot watch a commercial without noticing that every one shows a mixed-race gathering in the most unlikely situations.  Like a bowling league or a canoe trip, a pick-up basketball game or a research lab.  Things like that.  Interracial marriage is no longer frowned upon, indeed it is celebrated.  

Everything today is different from then.  Everything.  That’s why Lambrianides’ moral preening falls flat.  

To be sure, Coucouzis’ photo-op was propagandistic in its own way.  Yes, there was an element of moral posturing.  As much as I liked and respected him, he was not immune to grandstanding.  (We all have our faults.)  But at the end of the day, he meant what he said and he remained a devoted friend to Dr King’s widow until the end of his life.  The people who make up the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese on the other hand went along their  merry way white-flighting out of the inner-cities of America just like all the other white folks.  The Look magazine cover with Dr King was a one-off and GOA parishes were notorious for not being welcoming to mavri.  But then again, they were never all that welcoming to xeni in the first place.   

Oh sure, there are exceptions.  Always have been.  But, you get the drift.  Got to ask the question:  will the GOA now be known as a sanctuary for BLM types and their SJW hangers-on?  That’s what the photo of the archbishop holding up the sign is screaming out.  I rather doubt it, if past performance is any indication.  But the brainiacs on 79th St should think about it, because this stunt could open up that can of worms and the people in the pews aren’t going to appreciate it.   

When I received this photo yesterday on my Twitter feed, I scrolled down to see the comments.  A whole lot of SJWs with Greek-sounding last names were saying “Right On! Elpi!”  He was being praised as the second coming of Iakovos.  But they also wrote things wondering, “what are we going to do to address the systemic racism in our parishes?” Oops.  It’s going to be hard for 79th St and the Archons to whitewash (no pun intended) that one.

You know, one can only talk the talk for so long.  Eventually, one is going to have to walk the walk.  And something tells me that the majority of GOA parishes are not going to be sanctuaries of racial discourse and healing, no matter how many communion spoons they pass out.  Simply put, as much as the Archons like to brag about their wealth, the GOA doesn’t have the endowments and trust funds necessary to keep them afloat like, say, the Episcopalians.  While I realize that the typical ‘Piskie parish has dwindled down to “fags and hags”, the fact remains, they still have enough moolah to keep them afloat for another generation.  Then they can sell their parishes to the Muzzies. 

In the final analysis, this entire question is probably moot.  Everything else the present archbishop has done since he’s arrived has fallen by the wayside if not flat out failed.  Several week ago, he started a “Pandemic Relief Fund”.  (Remember COVID? I sure don’t.)  Anyway, it went nowhere.  You could almost hear the kerplunk.  One GOA priest reprinted the letter from the archbishop, paper-clipped a five dollar bill to it, took a photograph of it and put it on Facebook, and then sent it in.  This was worse than mockery, it was apathy.  (It reminds of that line from The Rolling Stones, “Miss You”:  “I can’t even get arrested on Seventh Avenue“. ) 

And as 79th Street goes, so goes the Phanar.  Yet another irrelevance.  The St Nicholas Shrine and Ecumenist Contemplation Center will continue to drain funds from wherever the Archons can get their greedy little hands on.  The GOA priests’ pension fund will continue to be raided (or at least not replenished).  And apple-polishing metropolitans will continue to raise the money by whatever means necessary in order to send gold cuff-links over to Istanbul.

And none of it will matter.

In truth, decline has been the hallmark of the GOA ever since Patriarch Bartholomew removed Archbishop Iakovos from the primacy.  It’s been all downhill since then.  All the metrics prove it.  The only thing that has increased in the GOA is its gargantuan budget (and subsequent deficits) and the Phanar’s delusions of grandeur.  (Can somebody please point to me where exactly “New Rome” is on a map?)  Despite Lambrianides’ evident liberalism- cum-grandstanding, the GOA will not magically recuperate, no matter how many fawning profiles and photo-ops he gets in The Pappas Post.

And this brings us to the ultimate crux of the matter:  yes, the GOA is largely irrelevant.  But so are the other jurisdictions at this point.  The “pandemic” has seen to that.  It happened the moment our primates folded like cheap suits when  Grand Inquisitor Fauci told them “BOO!”  Live-streaming liturgies just don’t cut it.

Personally, I have restrained my editorial hand significantly regarding the whole COVID-inspired restrictions on our churches.  (You can ask Mrs Monomakhos about that if you don’t believe me.)  But the various commentators on this blog have not.  One commentator, Mother of Five, wrote one of the most powerful letters I’ve ever seen.  To say it struck a nerve would be the understatement of the year.  It was as if she swung a sledgehammer at a spike which was planted on a fault-line, thereby causing an earthquake.  

Essentially, it boils down to this:  Orthodoxy equal orthopraxy.  And you can’t be orthopractic if you can’t worship.  Because one thing that Orthodoxy has always had going for it was the glory of its worship.  Speaking for myself, one of the joys of being in a Diocese of the South parish of the OCA was the exuberance of the worship, in an elegant language I could understand.  And seeing all the young families with their four, five and six children standing with us throughout the entire Liturgy.  I can’t tell you how many little kids I’ve hoisted in the air and played peekaboo with.  Or how many have sat on Gail’s lap while she reads them a picture-book or makes the rounds with them, kissing the icons.  Or the joyous hours I’ve spent in coffee hour with people who were their because they loved God and not because they had to be there for some tribal reason.

Even a hidebound ethnic Orthodox parish in the sticks whose choir director plays the accordion during processions (don’t ask) has a more solemn and innocent understanding of praise and worship than any other denomination.  The only sect that came close to us was pre-Vatican II Catholicism but the Tridentine Mass was thrown out the window by the reformers faster than you can say “Jackie Robinson”.  And don’t tell me most Catholic dioceses have one or two parishes out there which are still allowed to celebrate the Latin rite.  In Tulsa, you have to drive out to the sticks to find the two parishes that still celebrate the Tridentine Mass.  (That’s by design by the way.)  

I know what I’m talking about:  I’ve raised two sons who were parochially schooled.  I’ve attended more Masses than you can shake a stick at.  All I can say is “thank God for smartphones”.   As much as I admired Pope Benedict XVI, I could never see myself voluntarily in a Catholic setting under any circumstances.  Not because I despise Catholicism (I most certainly do not) but because I have no time for nonsense.  Seriously, one of the few joys in my life at this point is knowing that I’ll never have to see one more “Eucharistic Minister” wearing a tee shirt and jeans distributing wafers at a Mass.

And irrelevance is what we’re talking about.  Lambrianides and the other Orthodox primates here in America made themselves, their jurisdictions, and their parishes irrelevant.  (I’m sorry, I’ve used that word too many times but I don’t know any other word that can encapsulate the sad reality.)  And here’s the sad part:  people are not going to go back and flood the churches like nothing happened.  As if it was all some bad dream.  And of those that do go back, many of their finances will be significantly constrained.  Parishioners will have lost their jobs, others will have taken early retirement.  Yet others will husband their resources more parsimoniously, fearing another manufactured crisis next year.  And the rest are  buying AR-15s and stocking up on ammunition.  Folks, that ain’t cheap.

Something has “snapped” in the collective consciousness of the Orthodox in America.  And I fear that it’s not going to snap back as if nothing happened.  

And stunts like the one that Lambrianides pulled the other day is not going to solve anything.  Yes, black lives most certainly do matter.  And white lives, Hispanic lives and Asian lives as well.  All lives matter, can we at least agree on that?  (Obviously not, some sportscaster just lost his job for saying that and Drew Brees got his ass handed to him for standing up for the flag.)

But so does freedom (matter), especially the freedom to worship.   That matters too.  And our bishops –not our government–took that away from us.  And one of them, the “Exarch of the Atlantic and Pacific,” has chosen to march arm-in-arm with domestic terrorists.  Perfect.  Just Perfect.  

Once this iteration of Electric Boogaloo winds down and the cards are counted, this is one picture that the GOA is not going to be proud of, nor is it one we’re likely to forget –ever.

Comments

  1. Steven J. M. says

    Great piece, George. It makes that crucial distinction between real problems (and the need for real solutions) and just those that mimic them, after having been co-opted by ridiculous politics.
     
    With regard to your bit about all lives mattering, this video is a good one, showing a black girl tearing strips off BLM activists for their hypocrisy. She has a way of getting to the point.
     
    https://youtu.be/Jmt1rcKjScw
     
     
     
     

  2. In another example of the impunity police have in America, the kicker with this incident is that the department put out a statement describing it as a skirmish involving protesters where a person was injured when they tripped and fell:

    https://twitter.com/DavidBegnaud/status/1268716877355810818

    But then, the guy was a domestic terrorist, so I dare anyone on here to feel sorry for him! I don’t want to be an enemy of the state, no thank you.

    • Gail Sheppard says

      Actually, I think this is disgusting.

      • George Costalas says

        Please expound 

        • Gail Sheppard says

          I think it’s disgusting that an officer whose job it is to uphold the peace could push a man down with such force that the man smacks his head hard on the brick beneath him, and that the same officer, an officer of the law, could step over the man, seeing a substantial amount of blood pooling around his seemingly lifeless body.

          If that doesn’t turn your stomach, then there is something wrong with you. (Not talking about you, George, as you may be just as horrified as I am.) That smug, little $%^&* is no officer of the peace. He is a thug and those other officers who serve with him and said and did nothing are no better, because it is their job to get rid of the bad cops because we can’t.

          Suffice it to say, I have no love in my heart for these people. They’re inhuman and give good police officers a bad name. I wish I could say they’re the exception but I’ve seen far too many of them in my own lifetime to know it isn’t true.

          Right before I left CA, I had a small apartment in “The Pike” on Ocean Blvd. in Long Beach. One night, I hear a man screaming in the stairwell, literally begging for his life. He was so scared, he was crying. He kept pleading, “Please don’t hurt me. Please. I’m beggin you.” Whoever was holding him hostage was playing with him, too. I could hear a bang and then another bang, as you would in a metal stairwell if someone slipped or fell. I assumed it was a drug deal gone bad and maybe someone was threatening someone else with a knife. I immediately called the police. They told me a police officer had been dispatched and was probably on the scene. I didn’t know what to do so I banged on my wall and yelled at the top of my lungs that the police were on their way and it went quiet.

          Minutes later I see a gurney with a lifeless body on it from my patio door as they carried the man down the steps to load him into the back of an ambulance. He was not moving. He had not been restrained. There were about a half dozen police officers conferring in the street.

          The next day there was nothing about it in the paper. The manager of my building said it was not their policy to disclose anything to do with a police matter. The police department could tell me nothing because it was an ongoing investigation. I asked the officer on the phone if the detective might want to talk to me, as I was the one who called to report the altercation in the stairwell and gave him my number. Never heard from anyone. My neighbor told me that some guy appeared to be trying to break into the apartment next door to mine and a “cop killed him.”

          I still hear that man pleading for his life in that stairwell. Oh, and he WAS WHITE.

          The problem we’re having with the police force has nothing to do with targeting blacks. It has to do with bad cops giving good cops a bad name and the rest of us having to pay for it when the powers-that-be use travesties like this and pay people to flood our streets, threatening our property and beating the crap out of any poor store owner who might object; even a woman in a wheelchair.

          • “push a man down with such force that the man smacks his head hard on the brick beneath him, and that the same officer, an officer of the law, could step over the man, seeing a substantial amount of blood pooling around his seemingly lifeless body.”

            He walked up to an advancing squad of riot cops and touched them, felony assault and disobeying police orders, if the political will was there to push for it.

            Such force: They barely push him, which can be seen in how he takes a three or four steps backwards, before tripping from being unbalanced.

            Step over: Head injury, call it in (as one of the cops is seen doing), leave them for the medics, worst thing you can do is try and “help” them yourself, that usually compounds the injury.

            Entire Buffalo Police Unit Resigns In Solidarity With Officers Suspended For Shoving Elderly Protester:

            https://www.zerohedge.com/political/new-york-cops-suspended-after-shoving-75-year-old-man-ground-viral-video

            Between the cops quiting, the cops kneeling in surrender to the mob, the police being told to stand, and the push to defund or even abolish police, there aren’t going to be police full stop.

            https://www.zerohedge.com/political/swedish-policewoman-takes-knee-cries-after-protesters-attack-her-vehicle

            A policewoman in Sweden has gone viral after she responded to “protesters” attacking her vehicle by taking a knee, crying and holding a sign that read “WHITE SILENCE IS VIOLENCE.”

            […]

            Similar scenes have been documented in both the United States and the United Kingdom.

            In each case, the person prostrates themselves so as not to get harassed, or in the worst case scenario, physically attacked by the mob.

            This happened while their colleagues were literally being chased down and beaten. Total capitulation. pic.twitter.com/5dUam8arck
            — Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) June 3, 2020

            Two police officers in London were photographed kneeling before protesters yesterday, only for their colleagues to be violently attacked moments later.

            If these are the people tasked with the responsibility of defending us from violent mobs, is it any wonder that armed vigilante groups in America are now protecting their own neighborhoods?

            • Gail Sheppard says

              I agree with a lot of what you’re saying, Myst. Cops have a tough job.

              But the man touched the officers with his cell phone, for pete’s sake! In what universe is that a felony?

              None of the officers appear to be in a conversation with him so how could he have been disobeying them? To me, it looked as if he was senile. It’s not normal behavior to walk into a squad of police officers and touch them with your cell phone! There was nothing to suggest he was doing anything sinister or putting anyone in danger. It looked like he was more of an annoyance.

              And if someone “barely pushes” an elderly person out of annoyance, and that elderly person loses his balance, falls, and hits his head hard enough where he’s bleeding and unconscious, that’s elderly abuse and it’s against the law.

              And what about reasonable force? Is it reasonable to push an old man onto the street for touching you with his cell phone? Couldn’t they have just taken him aside to see what his problem was? Did they HAVE TO STEP OVER HIS BLEEDING body?

              Last question: If these officers who were involved were in the right, how come they were suspended without pay?

              You don’t leave people bleeding in the street and walk over them. We’re no better than they are if we’re going to do crap like that. Again, I’ve seen cops do stuff like this. In this case, when one of them, a “good cop” tried to attend to this man, a “bad cop” pulled him away. Trust me, you don’t want bad cops telling the good cops what to do. I’ve seen it LA.

              Cops can be tough, as well as decent, caring, human beings. It’s as necessary, as it is possible.

              This situation (not the one with the old guy) reminds me of Syria back in March 2011. It started as small uprisings against Assad for not keeping his promises and by the time it was over, every terrorist group known to man jumped into the fight with their own agenda and left the country in ruin. That’s what we’re seeing now, only we’re see it here. These people who are rioting have their own agendas. This is scary because like cochroaches, there is no getting rid of them. They’ll scatter and then come back. I am truly appauled at their behavor. Thank God my child is not our there with them.

              • “But the man touched the officers with his cell phone, for pete’s sake! In what universe is that a felony?”

                First link I pulled up from a search engine (Startpage.com, to be exact), this is why you NEVER lay hands on, attempt to, or let yourself appear to attempt it:

                https://www.williamweinberg.com/assault.html

                “Application of force” requires only the slightest touch, either directly or indirectly as long as it is done in a harmful or offensive manner. Thus, for example, poking your finger at someone’s chest could be an assault. Assault does not require that the touching cause pain or injury of any kind. In fact, since assault only requires the attempt (“present ability”), no actual touching is required to complete the commission of this crime.
                 
                “None of the officers appear to be in a conversation with him so how could he have been disobeying them?”

                It being past curfew, the police were ordered to clear the area, and it seems they gave multiple orders to disperse before advancing, and this gentleman walks up, says, “No, I’m not going to move,” with hands moving all the place.  If the cops didn’t use force in this situation, it could have been used as an example of white privilege. 

                “No black person would have done what he did last night in fear of what happens to them because we all know he could have died,” declared Antonio Wells, Buffalo demonstrator.

                https://www.wkbw.com/news/local-news/75-year-old-man-pushed-by-buffalo-police-is-long-time-activist

                Wells was recording on his phone in front of City Hall Thursday night. Wells was one of the few protesters who stayed after a peaceful protest and initially defied the 8 p.m. curfew and police orders to leave.

                “He got up off the steps, walked up to them and said ‘NO — I’M NOT GOING TO MOVE’ and that’s when the police said ‘push him, push him’ and then they pushed him to the ground,” recalled Wells.

                And if you want the conspiracy theory on this event:
                https://www.ibtimes.sg/police-handling-elderly-buffalo-man-fall-was-staged-fake-blood-used-claims-social-media-46342
                 
                 
                 
                 

                • Gail Sheppard says

                  You’re fine with stepping over the body of a bleeding, unconscious elderly man. I’m not. Fortunately, your rationalizations don’t line up with the spirit of the law and the courts will agree with me. These cops will be sanctioned. Hopefully, they will learn from this experience.

        • Gus Langis says

          Can America die already and her inhabitants live impoverished lives? Sick and tired of listening to them whine and hear about their crappy history. Cry me a damn river… 

      • George Michalopulos says

        As do I.

        The problem however, is that we’re going to such much more incidents like this.  Why?

        I’ll tell you why:  if the “national police reforms” that are being mandated actually go through, then you will see only the worst and least qualified of men entering the police forces.  Guaranteed.

        As for the rest of society, it will re-tribalize, which means re-ghettoize, and people will take the law into their own hands.  Look for interlopers to be shot on sight.

        • “I’ll tell you why: if the ‘national police reforms’ that are being mandated actually go through, then you will see only the worst and least qualified of men entering the police forces.”

          Police, if they exist at all, will do nothing but take statements and file reports, who would risk being charged for assault for trying to arrest someone or control a crowd?

          https://www.thedailybeast.com/buffalo-cops-who-shoved-martin-gugino-are-charged-with-second-degree-assault/main-info

          If you can’t push that guy, then forget about enforcing the law, or any type of order anywhere. Which is why all 57 officers on the unit resigned, and hundreds more are protesting on their behalf. The criminal will be too old, too privileged skin color, too Muslim, too female, too sodomite, too illegal alien, too young (“youths” can now apply to any Democrat backed criminal into their thirties), too Democrat to be arrested, or made to move, anything, against their will.

          The Left nearly took the Whitehouse and the President, fifty SS were injured at the gates, which is why Trump was given a “tour” of the bunker beneath it. Now, the Secret Service has been withdrawn from guarding the Whitehouse, and told to focus entirely on guarding the person of the President. They’ve been replaced by unmarked riot guards from federal prisons:

          https://www.rt.com/usa/490776-unmarked-officers-dc-protests-floyd/

          Just consider the implications of this. The military is acting outside the civilian chain of command to allow the capture of the Whitehouse and President:

          https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/pentagon-disarms-guardsmen-in-washington-dc-in-signal-of-de-escalation/2020/06/05/324da91a-a733-11ea-8681-7d471bf20207_story.html

          Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper made the decision to disarm the guard without consulting the White House, after President Trump ordered a militarized show of force on the streets of Washington to quell demonstrations that were punctured by an episode of looting Sunday, two senior administration officials said. Trump had encouraged the National Guard to be armed.

          ….

          The White House was not involved in the decision to disarm the Guard, said the two senior officials, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. The order from the Pentagon comes as federal and district officials prepare for an estimated 100,000 to 200,000 protesters in Washington on Saturday and as the Pentagon looks to dial back the militarization of the response.

  3. PS…regarding the situation of our betrayer bishops in America right now…..
     
    I hear the weather is really nice in Bulgaria this time of year. ?

    • Sage-Girl says

      Mikhail – funny!
      would you please cut/paste here yesterday’s Video I talked about on conservative black commentator Candace Owens – exposing evil crimes of Gorge Floyd – ?who’s now a “Martyr” by lefty media?

  4. George Michalopulos says

    This is from our friend Nick Stamatakis at Helleniscope.:

    https://www.helleniscope.com/2020/06/04/what-is-wrong-about-this-photo-of-ab-elpidophoros/

    • Let’s see…Cumo gets a human rights award. The Ukrainian nationalist schismatics are given autocephaly. The leader of the OCU schismatics (Epiphaniy) is given a human rights award after his goons beat people from the UOC as they burn or vandalize or confiscate Churches. He cradles a group of defrocked ROCOR clergy and gives them their own vicariate. He locks down his Churches for the flu…then mandates oppressive directives to re-open while changing 1000 years of tradition. He desires to give Communion to non-Orthodox. He declares that the “sacred person” in Constantinople is “first without equal”. 
      ANAXIOS!!!

      • Sage-Girl says

        ANAXIOS! ?

      • Antiochene Son says

        I haven’t been pleased with my Antiochene hierarchy in every way recently, but I was happy to learn they have barred all contact with clergy and members of GOARCH’s Slavic Vicariate, effectively excommunicating them.

    • Archpriest Alexander F. C. Webster says

      Thank you for that link to a very revealing photo.

      Archbishop Elpidophoros (hereafter AE) may be a Iakovos-wannabe, but I would suggest the following:

      1. AE is no Archbishop Iakovos (in terms of civil rights leadership).

      2. The “Black Lives Matter” (BLM) organization and ideology do not constitute a genuine civil rights movement.

      3. The photo of AE with the BLM marchers is a poor imitation of the original photos of Archbishop Iakovos marching with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in Selma, Alabama, in 1965.

      4. AE’s proper place is not marching in the streets with that crowd but presiding in the churches of the GOA, opening them to the faithful immediately now that the last 10 days and the massive crowds without “social distancing”–but with the “blessing” of the left-wing government authorities–have exposed the ultimate fraud of the shutdown of churches and synagogues.

      Lest anyone question my own standing to criticize the current Greek Orthodox Archbishop of America, here is a link to an article I wrote for the Wall Street Journal–at their request when I was research fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, DC–after the death of Archbishop Iakovos in April 2005:

      http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/articles5/WebsterIakovos.php

      • Gail Sheppard says

        Yes, Father, per usual, 100% correct.

        BLM is a poor imitation of a genuine civil rights movement. It’s a political movement designed to destabilize this country and AE either doesn’t know or doesn’t care. What other possible conclusion can one draw?

        I guess it should come as no surprise that he is A-OK with a church that is also a “poor imitation” of the real thing, and he is front and center, leading the march.

        • George Michalopulos says

          Gail, was it Jesus or St Paul who said something about “those who seek the greetings in the marketplace”?

          • Gail Sheppard says

            Jesus – Matthew 23

            Then spake Jesus to the multitude, and to his disciples,

            2 Saying The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses’ seat:

            3 All therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works: for they say, and do not.

            4 For they bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers.

            5 But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments,

            6 And love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues,

            7 And greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi.

      • Funny how AE always conveniently has a photographer at hand for the all important image or five.  There isn’t likely a GOC cleric that doesn’t have the MLK & Iakovos photo hanging in his office.  It’s a good shot, but as observed, Iakovos opposed English in his parishes (they still are REQUIRED to say “Greek” first, then Orthodox on signs, no exceptions) and actively discouraged conversions to Orthodoxy.   How many black clergy in the GOA?  Are they afraid of the dark?

  5. George Michalopulos says

    And this: https:www.helleniscope.om/2020/06/04/the-media-are-lying-to-you-about-everything-including-the-riots/

  6. George Michalopulos says

    This video is of an African-American radio host, Brandon Tatum, a former Tucson police officer who’s the host of the Brandon Tatum Show on KTAR 92.3:

    https://twitter.com/samsenev/status/1268609434210557953?s=12 

    The comments are also worth reading.

    And then you have that idiot mayor of LA, Eric Garcetti who is planning to cut $250 million from the police budget.  I guess he wants to turn his fair city into Thunderdome.

    Bottom line:  Soros and his ilk’s aim is to increase societal guilt to such a point that police must always stand down when confronting a potential black perpetrator.  This will of course result in complete anarchy.

    How long such a state of affairs can last however is another question entirely.

    • Steven J. M. says

      Ah “guilt”. Yes. That’s yet another useful, God-given thing that’s been taken by the globalists and co-opted for their bastardised Christianity – which, in so many ways, is all it really is.

  7. Greatly Saddened says

    Below please find an article from yesterday on the Public Orthodoxy website.
     
    ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY, SYSTEMIC RACISM, AND THE WRONG SIDE OF HISTORY
     
    by George Demacopoulos and Aristotle Papanikolaou
    June 4, 2020
     
    https://publicorthodoxy.org/2020/06/04/orthodox-christianity-systemic-racism-and-the-wrong-side-of-history/

  8. Greek Orthodox police officer shot in Vegas: https://usa.greekreporter.com/2020/06/03/greek-american-police-officer-shot-at-las-vegas-protest-on-life-support/
     
    Where is the Assembly of Bishops statement? Where is the posturing? Where is the condemnation? They’ve basically glorified a drug-addled criminal, while this Orthodox Christian who serves his community and the public at large goes ignored. Shame on them all. They are a disgrace to their office.

    • George Michalopulos says

      Yes, where indeed?

    • Steven J. M. says

      I’m not sure that a better example exists to highlight the topsy turviness of these events 

    • Apparently Elpi is blocking people on twitter who bring his attention to this. There’s really nothing more to say.

    • Antiochene Son says

      Unbelievable. His blood is on Elpy’s hands, no doubt.

    • Sage-Girl says

      Basil ? this post of yours should be cut/pasted sent on live chat or comments section on every Orthodox livestream across America!  The sheeple must not forget …especially when AB Elpidoforos visits their church 

  9. Austin Martin says

    “And despite whatever personal failings MLK had, there was no doubt whatsoever, that he practiced what he preached, which was non-violence.”
     
    Actually he has a mini arsenal in his house. All socialists are hypocrites.
     
    https://www.huffpost.com/entry/mlk-and-his-guns_b_810132
     
    I’m pretty sure he also beat a hooker or something.

    • George Michalopulos says

      He beat his mistress the night before he was assassinated.

      • Sage-Girl says

        ?GM — wow I never heard MLK beat his mistress …
        I like MLK – he was valiant + clairvoyant in predicting he would not live long enough to see …
        also I heard his conservative Minister father never approved of his marrying that liberal wife Coretta

        • Sage-Girl, search for MLK: The Beast as Saint. You’ll find it online in a few places. It’s a short read and will tell you everything.

          • Steven J. M. says

            I didn’t know most of that about Martin Luther King Jr. Not a person whose lead you want to follow.

          • Sage-Girl says

            Thanks Basil ? —
            ugh, I listened to MLK thing, anyone hearing it has to shower?quickly!  I see the Light now: 
            they mythologized MLK – the Left in America decided they needed a ‘Black synthetic version of ’Ghandi’ … funny part is, Ghandi felt contempt for Blacks + now they’re tearing down his statues

          • Antiochene Son says

            MLK is literally a saint in the Episcopal “church,” lol.

  10. Here’s another good take on the riots:
    https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/tucker-carlson-the-riots-are-not-about-george-floyd-or-racial-justice-theyre-about-trump-and-seizing-power
    But I maintain that most of you have a blind spot when it comes to race.  Abp. Iakovos simply happened to be in town when he saw the opportunity for a nice photo-op.  That is how it was explained to me by a priest in the AOC who was in a position to know.  It was an extension of ecumenism.
    As for MLK and Ghandi’s takes on the Gospel, Christ told his followers to cooperate with their Roman oppressors, not to engage in civil disobedience.  But for some that is a bridge to far and stands in the way of “change”. 
    If one cannot see the folly of the dominant ethnic group turning power over to minorities (the Civil Rights Movement) now, in the present situation, then I suspect the realization will never come in time to help prevent the descent of America into a Third World nightmare.
    I’m not Greek, so the misadventures of Abp. Elpi do not preoccupy me.  It is dramatically more conservative in the Russosphere.  Traditional Russian political doctrine is to maintain a mosaic, not a melting pot.  The respective tribes have their lands and residency is somewhat restricted in order to keep the population concentrations stable – to keep the peace as much as possible.
    The Civil Rights Movement was a failure.  It was not about civil rights but about forcing integration and curtailing individual rights of whites.  In retrospect, the activists did not occupy the high ground, though it seemed so at the time.  My own father was involved in the Vista program (voter registration).  It was all a fool’s errand.
    If the police are defunded in a number of these cities, you are going to see a magnificent spectacle of black culture emerging.  It is not for naught that some call Detroit the Mogadishu of the North. 
    One need ask oneself, “Why is it that the levels of white violence in America, even without gun control, are close to those of Europe and those of black violence are closer to those of central Africa?”
    Race?  Culture?  Who really cares?  But it’s true.  And the black mob has been stirred and heated to the point where it is going to boil over.

    BLM and Antifa are domestic terrorist organizations. We should not treat the demonstrations and the riots as separable phenomena. They are really the same thing. It is just that you have a militant and non-militant wing to the BLM movement and so only some percentage of BLM riot whereas that is Antifa’s raison d’etre. Yet they often work in concert, Antifa constituting the shock troops, the tip of the spear.

    It is the reaction that concerns me more.  As of yet, there is very little reaction in rural and Southern areas beyond the stockpiling of weaponry and ammunition.  We tend to look at what is happening in the Blue Cities as just desserts and go on about our business. 
    However, it is possible that this is only the beginning and that the rioting will spread throughout the summer given additional contrived pretexts.  Monkey see, monkey do.  As the election approaches, and it becomes clear that Trump has a fairly good chance of being re-elected, the Left (BLM, Antifa, Bernistas, etc.) will likely see that they have nothing to lose by aggressively pushing for Revolution Right Now.  They will see the prospect of Trump governing for a second term with congressional majorities in both chambers of Congress as unacceptable under any circumstances because there will be no one to rein him in.  They may see the specter of the death of the Left.  And seeing that, they will likely cry havoc and unleash the dogs of war, so to speak. 
    We may remember the George Floyd killing with Ft. Sumter as the beginning of a very nasty conflict.

    If you look at the flag of the former Soviet Union, you will see a hammer and sickle displayed. The sickle represents the peasantry, the hammer, the industrial proletariat. It was a feature of Bolshevism that the masses of the proletariat had to be supplemented by the addition of the peasantry because the relatively small numbers of industrial workers made revolution otherwise problematic.

    Antifa has found its peasantry in BLM.

    • Gail Sheppard says

      RE: “As of yet, there is very little reaction in rural and Southern areas beyond the stockpiling of weaponry and ammunition.”

      If these aggressors were smart, and nothing they’ve done to date suggests they are, they would be VERY concerned that nothing seems to be going on here in the South.

      • Agreed, Gail. I live in the North Dallas suburbs where I would venture to guess almost every house is armed. That’s why the violence hasn’t spread out and has remained in central Dallas 

    • The elite, mayors and governors are colluding  to release hell in all the major cities. Seattle just got rid of curfews, the police can no longer easily use flash bangs and pepper spray. The mayor would hand out flares if she could. This is not incompetence. It is a military operation. We ain’t seen nothing yet. Trust me.
      Glory to God in all things!

  11. George Michalopulos says

    I imagine Jim Carville is having a colon-blow right now:

    https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/06/05/joe-biden-10-to-15-percent-of-americans-are-not-very-good-people/

    Joe Biden’s “basketful of deplorables” moment. GO JOE! LET BIDEN BE BIDEN!

  12. George,
    Your article makes a good point. It is very nice to see a leading clergyman participating in a march against police use of excessive, unnecessary deadly force. In the photo, he is marching shoulder to shoulder with other people, and in fact in the midst of a crowd. Since the march is important and he shows that it is safe to be in the midst of a large crowd of people, doesn’t this prove that he must understand that it’s safe for him to open churches to allow crowds of parishioners to stand next to each other? Certainly churchgoing is at least comparable in importance to a church as marching against police brutality.

    One of the good things about the protesting against police brutality is that it brings people together and helps society get over its excessive fear of the virus.

    • Gail Sheppard says

      Yeah, nothing like death and destruction to bring about the end of the fear of a virus!!! I think your “snark” indicator was on.

      • <<Yeah, nothing like death and destruction to bring about the end of the fear of a virus!!! I think your “snark” indicator was on.>>
        Gail,
        However one views the BLM protests, they tend to help to get people over their paranoia about the virus, because the hysteria requires them to maintain social distance, which they are not doing. Certainly there is “irony of situation” in that Abp Elpidophoros closed churches, and now he is not maintaining any social distancing. The only GOARCH church within a 2.5 hour drive from me is still closed. The virus is in decline, but it is still within the range that it’s been for the last two months. The fact that he is participating in the procession and standing next to people instead of tailing 6 feet from the procession proves that he is actually not scared of getting the virus, regardless of what he says. 
        Take the situation from the perspective of BLM. Consider that generally the looting takes place after and separate from the protests. Consider police brutality against black Americans and use of excessive force to be an important problem and consider public assemblies/protests to be an important way to stop the brutality. 
        Abp. Elpidophoros is head of a church dedicated to God, the creator of everything, the master of life and death and fate. How is the task of worshiping the Creator and the sacraments not comparable in importance for a church leader to making public assembly to protest police brutality?

        • Gail Sheppard says

          Exactly.

          I don’t know that the virus is still “within the range” it has been within the last two months because no one knows what “the range” is:

          #1 We don’t have sufficient testing to have a complete picture.
          #2 The accuracy of the testing we do have is under scrutiny because, ironically, none of the equipment they use for testing was sufficiently tested!
          #3 We still don’t know how many people had COVID but were not sick enough to seek medical treatment.
          #4 The number of deaths they reported include those who died of other things.

          BUT your point is well taken: Nothing has changed except for Elpi, who was so concerned about the virus, he shut down fellowship within our own Church family to the point where we were discouraged from even speaking to one another as we went to and from our cars, BUT thinks nothing of marching shoulder to shoulder with throngs of unknown people down the streets of NY. Clearly, he knew the virus didn’t warrant the draconian measures he forced down our throats to keep us out of Church and away from the Cup. (Doesn’t mean he isn’t going to get sick, though. If you’re going to let down your guard, NY is not the place to do it. He’s not that stupid. For all we know, they hired those people in the pic who are surrounding him.)

          It’s not “ironic” so much as it is criminal (from an Orthodox POV) for a bishop to be so deceitful about something that he believed all along was a “nothing burger”. As you said, “nothing much has changed” (the virus is and was just another virus) except for him. – But has he? Changed, I mean? A case could be made that he was disingenuous from the start.

          With regard to police brutality against blacks, I think police brutality, where it exists (and this is especially true in blue cities) is against anybody they don’t like, which includes many young white males. At least it’s that’s the way it is in CA where whites are now the minority. They currently make up only 36.8% of the state’s population.

    • Sage-Girl says

      Hal S.,
       
      you sure harp on “excessive force by police” but IF criminals like Floyd didn’t resist arrest + Respect authority… 
      Also he died Not by knee of cop, but by drugs Fentanyl  – I have only 2 words for his death:
      RICHLY DESERVED  — he was Jailed repeatedly — he pulled gun on pregnant woman’s stomach, ransacked her home… now insane liberal media elevates this slime into a Martyr. Anaxios!
       
      What reprobates + snowflakes don’t get is Hierarchy … even Angels ? take orders from Archangels who take orders from Seraphim 

    • …and I don’t see six feet between him and those to his right and left; do you?

      • Steven J. M. says

        When the shadow masters wanted lockdown, they got it, and when they didn’t, it didn’t happen. And it all happened with such relative ease. They do wield a lot of power, unfortunately – an ominous sign of how late in the game we really are

        • Gail Sheppard says

          Isn’t that the truth.

        • Steve,
          I sympathize with your “Shadow Masters” statement because (A) the church leadership, particularly in the case of the GOA, is not transparent about their decisionmaking on the shutdown of churches and because  (B) they appear to be acting in concert with other social institutions on this and other strategic issues. Plus, (C) the harshness of the decision was not demanded by the circumstances because even supposing that it was a vastly spreading illness, with a 2% fatality rate, accomodations could have been made like allowing parishioners to meet outside. And (D) in the case of the BLM protests, as you point out, law enforcement allows them to occur and Abp. Elpidophoros is participating despite violation of social distancing rules, and the media isn’t complaining about BLM violating the anti-virus rules.Abp. Mark of the OCA made a good point in his encyclical that the government never required the churches to close their services to all parishioners. As I have heard, he made his decision in submission to the rest of the OCA hierarchy’s opinions. 
          In contrast, even earlier than the OCA made its decision, the EP in Istanbul made an announcement that he was going to close all church services. And it naturally followed that Abp. Elpidophoros was going to make a decision to close services.If there was no government order to close all services, then why did the church leaderships take this step in concert with the “thrust” of the media and major political figures that contradicts the way that the Church would traditionally act? Conceivably, someone probably approached the top figures like Abp. Elpidophoros and the EP, who in turn made this decision to shut services down.Another case of “Shadow Mastery” is the lack of transparency behind the EP’s very sudden Summer of 2018 recognition of Ukrainian schismatics’ autocephaly and the dissolution of the EP’s Russian Exarchate in Western Europe. The recognition of the schismatics’ autocephaly dovetails with Western elites’ geopolitical strategies in Eastern Europe, while it totally contradicts on many levels the EP’s rejection of the schismatics even months earlier in 2018.The term “shadow masters” is apt because the decisionmaking is done in the shadows and indeed the identities and statuses of the masters is unknown. For instance, certain global elites could have met and decided on what measures to take and then the church hierarchies could have complied, even though the elites never announced themselves as taking these steps or fulfilling these roles.

          • Steven J. M. says

            Hal, yeah that’s it – always in the shadows. And even though the devil and his helpers are walking around more brazen than ever – and are likely to continue to open up more and more – there is always a limit in as much as the inevitable conclusion of it all – the antichrist – won’t ever tell anyone who he is or what he really wants. That’s shadowy 

  13. Sage-Girl says

    Soon as I received that photo of AB Elpi from church, without reading it, everything began to crash + burn…
    the Dream is over … I tried so hard to believe in him, but this much I’ll say: after talking with him few times, I find him at heart, a genuine Softy – he wants to truly please everyone And  the kitchen sink,  but ends up with egg on face . Part of problem is, he’s a foreigner + can’t understand ways of America… + it’s why we need an Orthodox Archbishop from America.  Also many Monastics like Elpidophoros are sheltered so long + then they come here from overseas only to self destruct… 
    + I won’t go into how he ruined our last Christmas Eve at Cathedral, even Archons began pulling their hair out while dozens of us walked out ?

    • Gail Sheppard says

      Sage-Girl, that’s how these people get to where they are: They work really hard to appear as “genuine Softies” and perhaps some, who are not as worldly, genuinely are. But the real softies don’t make it all the way to the top. They are relegated to low level cogs in a machine.

      AE is no “cog”. Karloutsos isn’t either. They are men of the world who regularly hob knob with the top of the food chain. IMO, they are psychologically impaired at this point. They’ve been indoctrinated into believing their own hype. You get called “sunflower” long enough and you begin to believe it.

      It’s become a drug and like all addicts he can justify anything to stay on top. He’s like an overgrown adolescent who wants to bilk his grandmother out of what little money she has to support his habit, which by this time is a way of life for him. He’ll slick back his hair the way she likes it and wear that bright, blue suit she bought him with the sleeves that are two inches too short, and pay her a surprise visit just because he “misses her so much.” He’ll let her pinch his cheeks and tell stories about what a sweet little kid he was growing up until she offers him a little “something” to help tide him over until he gets that new job he’s been talking about so he can pay her back and fix that flower box that’s been leaking on her back porch where he used to play. Of course, there is no new job. She won’t see him again until he needs more money. He justifies what he’s doing by lying to himself that he really could get a new job but his conscience kicks in about as long as it takes for him to get from her house to his car. By the time he drives away, he has forgotten all about her, concentrating on next mark.

      At least that’s how I see it.

      These men are wolves in sheep’s clothing, Sage-Girl, and because they have played the role for so long, they are very, very good at it.

      • Sage-Girl says

        Wow, Gail – it’s hit me hard… I’m glad it’s easier to deal with at distance during a Pandemic — but I’m not at all believing that Gen. Alex urged Elpi on; in fact I’ve reason to believe he’s Not for him doing many things including marching …  I’m sure Archbishop accepts every invitation to leave lockdown, it’s his free will — so I just don’t buy it yet … + frankly, where’s proof Gen. Alex did?  I’m confident in due time I shall ask + I shall know the truth 

        • Gail Sheppard says

          Who said anything about Karloutos egging AE on? They are very separate entities. Karloutsos, as far as I know, had nothing to do with the lockdown. He has his own dealings and they are more global/geo-political in nature.

          • Sage-Girl says

            ?Gail, I read it in Nick Stamatakis piece herein, George sent; he says Karloutsos instigated AB Elpidoforos to go to march… but how does Mr. Stamatakis really know that?
            I’m confident in future weeks I shall know the truth  …
            meanwhile, I’ve received communiques + clergy friends nauseated by Elpi photo — they believe as I do, it’s beginning of the End for AB 

            • Gail Sheppard says

              Oh, Nick said that there are people saying Karloutsos thought it might be a good idea for AE to be in the march. I’m guessing people are saying it or Nick wouldn’t have reported it. You can certainly email him and find out.

              • Karloutsos may be the instigator but Elpi has free choice. Even though this may have been a photo op, I commend Elpi for trying to engage in an important cultural issue. Too often Orthodoxy is quiet while the world around is burning.

                Hopefully, Elpi’s participation will cause the GOA to realize the systemic racism which exists within its own communities. It is a shame that more black Americans have not embraced Orthodoxy and nothing is done to reach out to the black community. The average Orthodox would state that blacks don’t belong in “our churches”. Racism exists in all Orthodox jurisdictions, even though there may be an occasional black convert. Elpi may, with the prodding of Karloutsos, have done the church a great service, but he is no Iakovos.

                I believe that many on my his blog would have condemned him if he had not taken any action.

                • Sage-Girl says

                  JK,
                  WRONG… + you’ve gone off the train tracks pal —  your post is not worth my explaining 

                • Sage-Girl says

                  Your in serious Delusion if you commend Elpi for joining in Lefty march…  Listen, there’s Episcopalian church everywhere – you should join 

                • George Michalopulos says

                  Not really.  LP (like most Orthodox bishops on America) is beside the point.

                  One of the things I pointed out is that the episcopate is irrelevant. Not just ours but the Catholics & Protestants as well.

                  We used to be a “post-Christian but now we’re actively an anti-Christian one.

      • One thing worse than a wolf in sheep’s clothing
        is a wolf in shepherd’s clothing.

  14. Austin Martin says

    Black lives matter, but not enough to let them be bishop. Only ethnic Greeks can be a ruling bishop. Is that racism? Maybe the GOA needs a few token diversity bishops.
     
    As a convert who has spent most of my time in the GOA, I’m not offended at the discrimination at who gets to be bishop. What offends me is the gross hypocrisy when they loudly denounce racism.

    • George Michalopulos says

      You hit the nail on the head, Austin. When the Western Elites and other goodthinking whites are looking, Cpole always pulls out their “1872 Council” which condemned ethnophyletism. And then they go back to doing things the old way. It’s a bait-and-switch.

  15. The GOA for decades (probably since its inception nearly 100 years ago) has suffered from “what do they think of me?” syndrome.  It is obsessed with how it is perceived by the American and Western public.
     
    Most Orthodox know that we are perceived as odd, bizarre, strange eastern-style Christians to most Westerners.  We don’t care, and honestly there’s a reason for it — the Church is to be “not of this world.”  Next to western-style churches that look so, well, worldly, Orthodox churches most certainly do appear strange and different.  As we should.
     
    The GOA has always felt this bizarre, codependent need to be accepted and affirmed by the culture in which it lives.  You don’t see this among ROCOR, the Antiochians, or the Serbs.  You do see some of this phenomenon in some OCA parishes, particularly the older northeastern OCA parishes where the priests commonly wear the Roman-style dog-collar clerical collar.  
     
    Abp E’s latest stunt simply proves that he, his archdiocese, and likely the entire Patr of Constantinople continues to be simply obsessed with how they are perceived by mass-American culture at large. He clearly cares more about this than he does about the spiritual well-being of his flock, as he encourages parishes to stay closed. Social distancing means no church, but virtue-signaling-style marching arm-in-arm is A-OK!

    Look, the GOA has been lost for years. Yes, a miracle could save it and C’ple, but come on, I’ve never seen either Patr Bartholomew or Pope Francis backtrack on their mutual commitment to unity by 2025. To those in the GOA who choose not to see that it is lost barring a miracle, well, fine, it’s not my job to make you take your blinders off before you’re ready. Traditional Episcopalians stayed in the ECUSA well past the time that it had begun sinking.

    But I grow tired of these “OMG look what the GOA” is doing articles. What do you expect?

  16. Sage-Girl says

    ? Happy to know after phone chat with Orthodox priest friend in Georgia (he does YouTube talks); he’s hearing from many  priests around the country also disgusted with AB Elpi  photo op. He predicts it’s beginning of the End — + Elpi will leave in 2 years

    • Yes, but will Abp E leave in two years because the elderly Patr Bartholomew will repose in the Lord, and Abp E will then become Patr of Constantinople? 

      As if that would be any better! Talk about one step forward and three steps back!

  17. The degenerate low lives at “Orthodoxy” in “Dialogue” have called a boycott of Pascha Press after the woman who runs it called out Elpi for his hypocrisy: https://orthodoxyindialogue.com/2020/06/03/boycott-pascha-press/ The poor woman has/had cancer, which makes this even more despicable.
     
    Everyone should order some books from Pascha Press to show solidarity and support: http://www.paschapress.com/
     
    Spread the word and don’t let these degenerates win!

    • Sage-Girl says

      Thank You Basil ? !
      degenerates is the word … [pray for that brave woman]…and btw: I checked the Papas Post piece on AB Elpi march + I can’t believe what I saw in Comments: the gay Mr. Papas viciously attacked an old man for commenting his disgust over AB’s antics — so Papas dug up thru old man’s email, his private address + number + threatened him!! Isn’t this against the law? Leftists are always violent 

      • Quakers tend to be nonviolent Leftists.

        • “Quakers tend to be nonviolent Leftists.”

          https://www.friendsjournal.org/new-worldwide-quaker-released/

          380k worldwide, about 20% in the USA (Wiki source), that’s about 76k.  

          Have the Quakers given up on non-violence? (2015)

          https://www.aei.org/society-and-culture/civil-rights/have-the-quakers-given-up-on-non-violence/

          The latest example? An essay regarding the ongoing violence in Baltimore that seemingly rationalizes and excuses violence. Is police brutality a problem? It could be. Does racism exist? Yes. Do African Americans in Baltimore feel marginalized? Yes. (Could the problem be big government policies and empty social justice rhetoric that excuses personal accountability? Well, that’s not a discussion that passes the AFSC’s political litmus test even if it is perfectly compatible with Quaker values). But none of that should be any excuse for an essay written against the backdrop of violence which is going to adversely impact Baltimore and its black population for years if not decades which directly or indirectly justifies that violence. That’s not smart. That’s not justice. And that’s not Quakerly. [but apparently it is Greek Orthodox]

          • cynthia curran says

            Quakers like Anabapist tend to be on the left. Jim Wallis is a left wing evangelical from a Mennonite background.

            • Archpriest Paisius McGrath says

              Anabaptists do not “tend to be on the left.” Granted there are many Mennonites today who are but to say that Anabaptists tend to be left is not accurate either historically or currently.
              And Jim Wallis- while very popular and influential among a particular segment of the Mennonite population- did not grow up Mennonite. He grew up in a Evangelical wing of the Plymouth Brethren who are a 19th century offshoot of the Anglicans and not Mennonite or Anabaptist

  18. I recommend that every Orthodox Christian read this:
    https://orthodoxethos.com/post/the-suicidal-church-in-body-or-in-spirit

    • This is for sure excellent article which sums up lot of things.
      Here is also respond of one of the OCA Bishops.
      https://d50c890e-3c75-49a9-96bb-e3d7d6595e11.filesusr.com/ugd/41320a_36adfe6edcc043caaeb876fc5ddec42b.pdf
      Looks like Bishops are reading this blog and are getting upset and worried. They are so confused and angry that they start using anonymous priests to accuse faithful to be Old Believers 🙂 because they are defending golden spoon and faith of the Fathers.
      What is also obvious is that those Bishops are aware that removing single spoon is a big heresy and apostasy so they use (now anonymous) priests to do their job and introduce this change.

      • George Michalopulos says

        It’s amazing how so many bishops have embraced the new iconoclasm.

        • According to those Bishops they represent all the Orthodox bishops in the world :)) and rest are Old Believers  but that is not true at all. They are only numerous in the Western world but not even there they are majority. I was thinking, for this Bishop and his best priest even Romanian Patriarchate who resolutely defend one spoon are Old Believers. That is a very brave statement.

  19. George,
    This article is a good example of why I like reading your site: because you have articles and news critical of the Greek Church’s hierarchy from a traditional Orthodox perspective. The issue that really first raised the need for criticism for me was the EP’s and Abp. Elpidophoros’ stance on papal-style “EP Primatial Supremacy” over the rest of the Orthodox world, combined with his recognition of the Ukrainian schismatics and his designation of them as a new Autocephalous Church.  … 
    Alot of problems have gained more attention in the wake of this decision, like the missing NYC Shrine funds and the weird financial dealings and subsequent priest deaths in Chicago. The GOARCH hierarch’s February statements on communing heterodox spouses (text here: https://www.greeknewsonline.com/archbishop-elpidophoros-supports-offering-of-holy-communion-to-everyone-married-in-orthodox-church-his-views-on-priests-appearance/)  and then retroactive mischaracterization of his statements help illustrate his problems that appear to involve misportrayals. 
     
    The decision to close church services is another big problem because he and the EP have been leaders in this effort. The EP announced the decision even before the OCA and before Abp. Elpi. did. And it is unnecessary to close the churches because they could have been making accommodations like outside services and because Abp. Elpi is marching for BLM, however good the BLM marches are.
     
    FYI I should say that I don’t agree with some of the political slants on the blog, but I consider that to be a secondary issue because I come to the blog for Orthodoxy, not for political education. To better explain what I mean, I see society’s structure like a pyramid, and whoever is at the top is making obscure decisions like shutting down church services or getting the EP to recognize the schismatics or what kinds of repressive police measures are to be used against the populace (eg. tasers, pepper spray, locks and holds, “black sites”). At the bottom of the pyramid are the unemployed, blacks and other minorities, orphans, petty criminals and convicts, etc. They “cause problems”, but they are not really in control and would ideally like to be better off (ie. they would ideally prefer not to be unemployed, not to be on drugs, not to be in prison, etc.) It is clear to me that the people at the bottom should be helped by society. 
    One can argue with my POV and say that people at the bottom made a choice to be there, that it’s their fault, that it’s not your problem, etc. While those objections to my portrayal may have truth, they are not the whole picture, because circumstances pressure people into their situations. Major Christian teachings are loving God and one’s neighbor, and helping the poor, and in my view we should have a social understanding and slant that aims at caring for society. 
     
    In case you write things that I disagree with for those reasons, I am not sure how helpful it is for me to write criticisms along these lines. It’s unfortunately common for people to react badly to criticisms. I think that I should make criticisms, and it’s a challenge to do so in an appealing way for the person whom I wish to persuade. And even if you had the right politics, I would still be looking for a place that rightly criticizes the GOARCH and EP leaderships, because its decisions are very upsetting, George. Their announcements about papal-style Supremacy, their lack of transparency and lack of accountability in decisionmaking, their harm to the canonical UOC-MP, and now their unnecessary closure of church services in the face of their own contradictions in the matter are distressing. And I appreciate that you are covering those problems and criticizing the EP for them, George.
    Thanks for listening. Peace.

    • Sage-Girl says

      Hal S.,
      Elpi will not last long … I don’t even believe anymore he’ll be next Patriarch like many have been saying; he’s going to be hearing it big time  + these messes will not be going away…
      BLM leftist march sank him, it shows his lack of cognizance, a disconnect with reality, a lack of intellectual understanding of how dangerous the Leftist mentality is, it is the enemy of  All people of faith, + his narcissism in mimicking AB Iakovos, so tacky — his lack of not speaking up seriously to condemn violence that BLM promotes, a lack of loyalty to Orthodox faithful – he could’ve mentioned some outrage over that Greek Orthodox man murdered by a Black man but didn’t.  You have only to read comments by so many Orthodox disgusted with him, not to mention so many priests. Someone needs to tell Elpi, he’d make a wonderful Abbot if he went back to Turkey’s monastery. 

      • That would be nice, but the EP is like this himself apparently. And then there are the Archons organization.

  20. Someone photoshopped the picture of Elpi holding the BLM sign to read: “More spoons and less faith”.

  21. I’m not quite sure where to begin.  It is beyond me why the GOA Archbiship would march hand-in-hand with members of BLM.  BLM is a terrorist organization, like ANTIFA, who is using the tragic death of George Floyd for their political agenda.  To them only certain black deaths matter, only those they can use to cause chaos and destruction.  Where is BLM’s empathy for Chris Beaty, Patrick Underwood, David Dorn, Max Brewer for all the blacks being killed every single weekend in the Chicago area, or the tens of thousands of black babies being aborted in Planned Parenthood clinics?  Don’t their lives matter?  To BLM & ANTIFA, the answer is no.  They are simply collateral damage.
    Does anyone know how many blacks were killed by police in 2019?  The total is 9.  Of those 9, 6 were killed for threatening police.  In 2 cases police were prosecuted.  The last case is still undetermined.  This data is not in dispute.  More blacks have been killed in the current mayhem perpetrated by BLM and Antifa.
    As for our Church and it’s succumbing to “the state” I recommend you read the article by Abbot Gregorios at this link.  His words speak volumes regarding our rendering unto Caesar the things that are of God.
    Let us all pray that The Lord will have mercy on all of our souls.  Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

    • Sage-Girl says

      Thanks John, PLEASE send your post to our most tacky AB Elpi … and all the sell outs

  22. https://www.yahoo.com/news/saved-protesters-protected-lone-cop-231203138.html
    It doesn’t have to end in darkness.   There is still hope, and there is still love in America.   Black and White—–everybody.

    • George Michalopulos says

      Brandon, I COMPLETELY agree with you.

      If there’s one thing I’ve consistently harped upon these last 10 days, is that these riots are being orchestrated by mostly white people to the detriment of black neighborhoods. And that the black folks that live there are waking up to this fact. I even went so far as to say that these SJWs are actually (deep down) white supremacists themselves, not in the alt.right sense of the word but in the fact that they practice the racial ethos of “implicit whiteness”. Things like hanging out together at a local indie coffeehouse with one or two token blacks (who are themselves bi-racial), going to the local indie movie theater to watch some absurdist drama from the Third World, and of course living in a now-overwhelmingly white area of gentrified buildings which used to be part of some historically black neighborhood but were taken over by developers, refurbished and priced out of the reach of the former denizens.

      Gail and I were talking yesterday with a dear old friend of hers (who happens to be black) and let me tell you she is pissed at what is happening. She knows where all this BLM/Defund the Police stuff will end. And it won’t be pretty for African-Americans.

      • Sorry, George, but I have to disagree. Yes, you’re right that there is a lot of outsiders manipulating these riots, but at the end of the day, from what I have seen, the majority of people actually doing the rioting are black. We can point out these SWPL anarchists as much as we want, but the simple fact is that – as we have seen historically – it doesn’t take much for black Americans to get up and start destroying things.
         
        The “despite being only 13% of the population” meme is a thing for a reason.

        • George Michalopulos says

          The majority of those doing the rioting may indeed be black (I’m going to withhold further thoughts until all the stats come in) but the majority of those instigating the rioting are white. That was my point.

          That and the fact that these white SJWs go back to their lily-white enclaves and leave the black folks to pick up the pieces of their shattered neighborhoods. And now of course they’re demanding that the Blue cities defund the police. That will turn these mostly-black cities into a Lord of the Flies wasteland.

          • Sage-Girl says

            George, yea! ?Lord of the Flies is it – it’s gotten truly scary … the demonic attempt to defund Police force —Theotokos Save Us!  I’m convinced clairvoyant Elder Ephraim knew what was coming as did St. Paisios who endlessly called out corrupt Orthodox clergy, politicians + the Pope.

            • I don’t think it’s so much “Lord of the Flies”
              as” Lord of the Rings” Mordor they are after…

          • Antiochene Son says

            Do we have stats on this? I know it’s the conventional idea but it comes across as a new twist on “blame whitey.” 

          • The devil instigated the snatching of the fruit, but the sin belongs to Adam and Eve. Funnily enough, the first thing Adam did afterwards was blame God.
             
            We are all guilty of our own actions.
             
            Saying that whites are instigating it is just another example of ‘blame whitey.’ No one is forcing people to riot and cause mayhem; it’s their own choice to get involved.

            • Funny, I thought he blamed the woman.

              • Michael Bauman says

                No, he said “This woman YOU gave me.” Utter refusal to take responsibility. That is the point.

              • “And the man said, The woman WHOM THOU GAVEST TO BE WITH ME, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.”

              • “And the man said, The woman whom THOU gavest
                to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.”
                 
                “And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, SHE gave me of the tree, and I did eat”
                 
                The text can be read either way.
                It all depends on where Adam points the finger;
                and him being a scared wee man,
                where is he most likely to point it?

                • Michael Bauman says

                  Either way it is read, Adam does not come off well. The first test of his leadership and he goes down in flames refusing to take responsibility for anything. I have often wondered what it would be like if Adam did not give into temptation and led Eve before God in repentance.

                  Can’t blame Eve. At least her temptation was done by the master of deceit.

                  • Gail Sheppard says

                    God put Adam in charge of the garden before Eve even existed. Adam was responsible for everything, including the woman God gave him.

                    It wasn’t just that he ate the fruit that upset God. It was the fact that he put Eve before God, lied to Him about it and then failed to take responsibility for her.

                    In other words, Adam flunked Headship 101.

                    We see this in the world today. Men villainizing women because they [men] have failed to take responsibility for them, abdicating their role. This is why women are running amok.

                    Men are blaming women because they were/are too lazy and/or too fearful to exercise the power God gave them. Very few women do not respond to true, Godly headship but too many men don’t care to learn it or to do it.

                    Adam and Eve weren’t kicked out of the garden; they fell. In other words, if men were to assumed their God given role, we might see aspects of the garden reappear. The garden didn’t fall away into oblivion. We did.

                    – The world according to Gail.

          • Sage-Girl says

            Misha, PLEASE send to AB Elpi — he needs to be embarrassed with his monumental mess + it’s only in 1 year! Let’s hope my clairvoyant priest friend is right, Elpi gone in 2 years?

        • cynthia curran says

          True, you don’t see as many Latinos or rarely Asians.

        • Sage-Girl says

          Basil ? it’s unfortunately True what you say; + ppl living in big cities really witness it – so why is it most peaceful, friendliest blacks are from Jamaica or Africa – like recent black African lady in the News who argued with rowdy Leftist group she didn’t feel victimized at all.

    • Brandon, no argument with you on that.  We have seen this movie before.  Many of us are old enough to remember the 60’s & early 70’s when the weather underground was using the same tactics being used by BLM and ANTIFA.  Today’s activities are much better organized and widespread however, in time clear heads will prevail and good and honest law enforcement will go after and arrest those who are instigating this violence.

  23. You’re 100% right. My state never required that churches close yet my Greek Parish shut the doors on us. They called us “non essential” and created an upper class within the church who were allowed to worship and those of us dogs who can’t sing or aren’t altar servers to sit at home with our popcorn and TV remote. Those of us who took our Orthodoxy seriously fled to the Russian parish which refused to close. We are all nicely installed there now after three months. We’ve made friends. We’ve fallen in love the priest who wouldn’t quit on us. Most importantly we now cling to the liturgy MORE dearly than before in the place that held it dear for us. Now that my Greek Parish is starting a “staged reopening” they’ve encountered basically two responses. “Nah, I’ve found church to be as non essential as it declared me to be .” Or “No thanks, I’m Russian Orthodox now. ” Either way they can’t raise enough money to keep open (they lost some of their biggest and most committed donors) and they can’t get anyone to volunteer to clean, or be an usher, or organize any of their hoops they are having people jump through. They haven’t been able to even keep enough altar servers. It’s sad but hey, they divorced us. They kicked us out of the car we were all riding to heaven in and left us stranded by the side of the road. After years of baptisms and weddings and funerals and endless worship and love, we were kicked to the curb like trash. My heart aches for people who don’t have the choice to attend an open parish. I can’t imagine how they feel. The Greeks especially are going to have a hard time coming back from this. Most of those who return are doing so because they have no choice or they are liberals who agree with everything that was done and therefore aren’t committed to Orthodoxy but to their own fantasies and will usher in gay marriage and universal communion as quick as they ushered out their faithful. 

  24. That Abp. Elpidophoros is participating in a mass crowd procession, standing next to lots of people, is upsetting because at the same time he is probably the hierarch most directly responsible in the US for shutting down Orthodox churches here. It is still upsetting even though the cause of the procession is moral, because what is upsetting is that it shows that he doesn’t really believe that the virus is enough justification to avoid participating in large groups of people. His shut down of the churches has been wholesale, allowing only livestreamed services with a few servers. Now apparently some GOARCH churches opened with limited registration last week, but the problem remains. It is one more strange decision by Abp. Elpidophoros along with his new teaching of EP Supremacy. But the decision to close down churches was taken in the wake of the EP’s earlier announcement that the EP was deciding to close services. So this is a problem for the EP, not just Abp. Elpidophoros. If the cause was Anti-Abortion, Giving Money to the Poor, Commemorations of Law Enforcement who Fell in the Line of Duty, etc., the same criticism and problem with Abp. Elpidophoros’ decision would still remain.
    As for the substance of the issue of police brutality, statistics are helpful to evaluate the issue. Venezuela (has civil conflict), the Phillippines, and Brazil have killings by police at a higher rate than the US, but the US has a higher rate of killings than Mexico, Colombia (has a civil war), Canada, and the other “first world” nations.
     
    Not just ‘a few bad apples’: U.S. police kill civilians at much higher rates than other countries”
    “Police violence is a systemic problem in the U.S., not simply incidental, and it happens on a scale far greater than other wealthy nations.”
    ARTICLE: https://www.prisonpolicy.org/blog/2020/06/05/policekillings/?fbclid=IwAR1fRyYKTcMBjSYHtSYSNePo67DKnlQSG6aVJfhPjcMLEWKPKHXI8dH9pU8
     
     
    Wikipedia statistics globally on police killings per population:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_killings_by_law_enforcement_officers_by_country
     
    A critic of the “Prison Policy” article could argue that the US should be better compared with other Second and Third World nations, because it is a “melting pot” that includes immigrants and descendants of those Third World nations. But even if you compare the US with the Latino “Second World” nations like the Phillippines, Colombia and Mexico, the US is still significant on that list. Further, since the US is economically a “First World” nation and Latin and African Americans are only a minority (under 20%) of the US, you can’t really use minority populations as a justification to consider “Second” and “Third World” nations as a better comparison with the US. 

    • Gail Sheppard says

      If AE believes we needed protecting from the virus then why was he marching under the very conditions he told us we must avoid when he separated us from the Church? If he doesn’t believe the virus was all that dangerous, then why did he separate us from the Church in the first place?

      Anyone who separates the Church from the Body of Christ is an enemy of the Church.

      With the exception of two patriarchates, all the bishops fell for the secular hype and took extreme measures. Had they actually PRAYED about it, I suspect they would have come up with more prudent solutions but clearly they didn’t because the Holy Spirit would not have misled them. But something did.

      At least one priest has noted that the actions of the bishops have done lasting, permanent damage. Some of the Faithful are so traumatized by the measures they employed, they will not drop the masks, venerate the icons, take communion or even embrace their Church families. Some are staying away from the Church altogether believing it is full of germs.

      By their fruits, you will know them. – What does this tell you about to whom we should be obedient? I do not want to be led by a group of men who are not, themselves, obedient to the Holy Spirit.

      If AE’s participation in these marches isn’t a wake up call, I don’t know what is. Again, why didn’t these bishops PRAY and if the Holy Spirit isn’t talking to them, who is?

      • Gail,
        You are asking the right questions. The GOARCH could have taken measures to accommodate services in light of an extreme virus like having services outdoors with people standing 7+ feet apart. But instead he closed services altogether, following the decision by the EP. Since the first hierarch that I know of to take this decision was the EP, and since the EP has been lately making obscure, nontransparent decisions that match certain geopolitical courses, my guess that this explains the answers to your questions. ie. that most likely politically connected figures like the Archons had a discussion with the EP about what measures to take, somewhere along the lines of the decision to switch course on the UOC-MP vs. OCU issue. And so the decision to close churches was therefore made in line with a larger, broader unstated political decision by influential unofficial political decisionmakers.

  25. Michael Bauman says

    Here is an interview with Father Moses Berry from 2012 which also contains an official invitation to Afro-Americans (Fr. Moses preferred term BTW) to join the Church.  
    https://www.oca.org/news/oca-news/interview-with-fr.-moses-berry-the-church-belongs-to-everyone
    I also point to the work of Fr. Paul Abernathy for possibilities. 
    http://healthychurches2020conference.org/2019/2019-speaker-presenter/rev-paul-abernathy/
    You will hear neither of these stalwart men demanding apologies or trying to create guilt in we whites.  What you will hear, if you listen, is the need for repentance, forgiveness and service.   No politics BTW 
    There is a great picture https://unexpectedjoychurch.org/images/Father Moses/IMG_2640.jpg Fr. Paul Abernathy of the two of them together with another, priest to their right.
    I wish I knew the name of the priest on the right.   
     

  26. George Michalopulos says

    So I guess that the Archbishop gets a dispensation?