Worthy of Your Attention

A few days ago, a writer for The Duran reached out to us to discuss the following piece.  The Duran did an excellent job with the piece and we don’t want you to miss it!  

It begins, as follows:

On February 2, 2021, the Orthodox Church in America’s Diocese of the West sent this letter out from Archbishop Benjamin. This originally appears on the Orthodox Christian site Monomakhos.com, and we are indebted to George and Gail Michalopulos for their dedication in running it.

We reprint it in full for the reasons of fairness in the midst of our criticism of this stance. We will offer commentary after the letter, but we hope our readers will read it through more than once, because we believe it reflects misdirection and lack of faith more than a deliberate act of anti-Christianity. . .

See the following link for the rest of the story:

https://theduran.com/the-tragedy-of-faithless-church-leaders-video/

Comments

  1. Thanks for posting this.

    The response of all bishops, not just Archbishop Benjamin, have been horrible.

    I mean look at Archbishop Elpidophoros, marching with BLM, an explicitly anti-Christian organization, yet closes the churches for Pascha. Anaxios on him and all bishops who have locked us out.

    It is the laity and the parish priests who have suffered through this.

    Like the laity defending the faith after the false Council of Florence, we laity in America should stand up and defend our faith against our erring bishops, as sincere as they may be trying to be.

    In trying to “save” us from a virus by locking the churches, they are spiritually killing us which is a far worse and everlasting death.

    The laity are voting with their feet, and I’m sure the OCA Diocese of the West will suffer the same financial ruin that has plagued the Greek Archdiocese of both America and Canada (see Orthodox Reflections new post). We faithful are going to go to parishes, monasteries and jurisdictions where we re being spiritually fed…at least the veil has finally been pulled back for all to see.

  2. Austin Martin says

    Maybe I’m being stupidly optimistic, but I think the OCA will let up on the restrictions soon. Finances have dried up, and there have been almost no ordinations in a year.

    The OCA prides itself on being the jurisdiction that evangelizes the nation (I’m not saying that that’s true or false or good or bad — just that that’s often their self-image). Many a mission parish will collapse over this, and there will be an even further shortage of priests.

    And again, websites like this give them a rare window into the actual faithful. Let’s give the bishops the benefit of the doubt. Most of them are career academics, and no one is more divorced from reality than a teacher.

    • And again, websites like this give them a rare window into the actual faithful

      If they are actually reading Monomakhos, The Durian, Orthodox Reflections, etc. I hope they are. It would be very sad to see the OCA, or any jurisdiction implode on itself.

  3. Jane Tzilvelis says

    The Duran article was truly an inspiration.

    Whether we want to admit it or not, the CCP has infiltrated our churches and three branches of government. All Christians are being re- educated via church leaders who are forced to accept the “mandates authorized” or suffer the consequences. This is only the beginning.
    ☦️☦️☦️

    2 Peter 2:19 – While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.

    2 Corinthians 3:17 – Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord [is], there [is] liberty.

    Even if our bodies are in bondage, the authoritarians can never steal the Spirit of the Lord from our hearts no matter what they do to us. Let us pray for our church leaders. They have been compromised by a tyrannical political agenda.

    • anonimus per Scorilo says

      An alternative viewpoint is that the CCP, after exporting the virus to the US and Europe from Wuhan (last year one could fly from Wuhan to Milan but not to Beijing) is now flooding the internet with anti-mask and anti-vax professionally constructed propaganda, with the hope of delaying as much as possible the recovery of the US economy, and gobbling up as much economic power as they can from this crisis.

      When you see a professionally made video against vaccines, with military-grade emotional manipulation that makes you want to forward it to everybody you know, you can ask yourself: who pays for these things and whose interest do they serve ?

      It will not take you much to get to the CCP.

      • The Chinese don’t want the U.S. to recover from Covid. The longer this drags on in the U.S., the more empowered China becomes.

      • Another alternative viewpoint is that the CCP, after exporting the virus to the US and Europe from Wuhan (last year one could fly from Wuhan to Milan but not to Beijing) is now flooding the internet with pro-mask and pro-vax professionally constructed propaganda, with the hope of delaying as much as possible the recovery of the US economy, and gobbling up as much economic power as they can from this crisis.

        When you see a professionally made video supporting vaccines, with military-grade emotional manipulation that makes you want to forward it to everybody you know, you can ask yourself: who pays for these things and whose interest do they serve ?

        It will not take you much to get to the CCP – or Big Pharma.

        • So, Big Pharma is possibly manipulated by the Chinese. What about the Russian vaccine, Sputnik 5?

          • Steve, my post above is a satirical response to APS’s post.
            Compare and consider.

            As for Russia’s vaccine, who needs a vaccine when Vit C, D3 and Quercetin are all you need to not have to worry
            about Covid 19, or even influenza.

            • Brendan, thanks for the tip. My daily breakfast cereal of Multi-Grain Cheerios has a multivitamin. I suppose that, washed down with a gin and tonic, and the chances of me passing Covid on to my neighbors and loved ones should be next to zero.

              • I would not recommend Cheerios as a prophylactic.
                As for the gin and tonic, the quinine in the tonic is the medicine
                while the gin is the “spoonful of sugar [to] help the medicine go down”.

        • Thank you Brendan for writing the common sense reply.

      • Peterburgskaya says

        It did not take propaganda to convince me that I am simply unable to breathe comfortably with a mask on. Even after everything opened up I didn’t go anywhere for weeks because they were required everywhere, until I got an exemption for church. I would be purple and having chest pains. You will probably puff out some of the usual gaslighting propaganda saying this is all in my head and that there is “no objective data” that it increases CO2 or decreases spO2 or increases the work of breathing meaningfully. But all kinds of sources from before last year disagreed with your propaganda and validated my experience, oddly enough. The more pro-maskers bully and abuse people like me, a wife and mother just trying to get around and survive in life, a person who actually has several conditions that make me “high risk” and who has survived serious bacterial pneumonia in the recent past as well as a bout of pulmonary edema which means my lungs are uniquely vulnerable AND prone to stress from increased work of breathing, the less I feel like humoring you or complying with your demands. And the more I question your motives. You are certainly not trying to protect ME, who you would just as soon see keel over in the supermarket as “stay safe.”

        It also does not take propaganda to see that the vaccine was rushed out and is protected by unique liability shields and consists of unique technology never before used on humans to this extent. Anyone with sense would be cautious about putting something like that in their body.

  4. Bravo for the Duran!
    The hierarchy needs to know how out of touch they are with their flock.
    Which leads us to the question of getting back to the canonical norm of one bishop per city. Perhaps in America as a mission/diaspora country we could amend the canon to say “One bishop per county”. If the bishops were closer to their own people then perhaps they wouldn’t be so brazen in dictating commands that go against what so many of the faithful believe. Either that or we have theoretically unleashed unprecedented micromanagement and oppression upon our parishes in said concept.

  5. Hierarchs continue to fail us…one after another. The latest to drop the ball is the Patriarchate of Antioch. They released a statement saying that the questions regarding the COVID vaccine are “outside the realm of theology”. This cowardly document does not mention one word about aborted fetal tissue cells being used for pre-trials in the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines. Is abortion no longer in the realm if theology?!? These men are digging holes so deep, they’ll never be able to climb out.
    https://orthochristian.com/137257.html

    • anonimus per Scorilo says

      Wow !

      The Church of Constantinople has failed us on the vaccines

      The Church of Alexandria has failed us on the vaccines

      The Church of Russia has failed us on the vaccines

      The Church of Antioch has failed us on the vaccines

      The Church of Jerusalem has failed us on the vaccines

      The Church of Greece has failed us on the vaccines

      The Church of Romania has failed us on the vaccines

      etc.

      I do not know who the us refers to, but it must be getting pretty lonely out there…

      There are three options:

      1. Realize that the anti-vax propaganda is a bunch of lies, which come from the father of lies, and as such all the Orthodox Churches are rejecting it.

      2. Join the True True True True True Orthodox Church in Greece, or some other group who accepts the anti-vax dogma, and who claims is the unique orthodox church.

      3. Believe that you and Robert Kennedy are the new Saint Mark of Ephesus and the new Saint Athanasius, who alone defend the truth against the coward, heretic pro-vax bishops of all these churches.

      • Michael Bauman says

        APS, with even such secular news outlets like Fox News recognizing that there are several currently available, cheap, highly effective agents to protect and recover the insistence on a genetic agent that is clearly dangerous is beyond foolish.

        When even a serious and respected historian such as Victor Davis Hanson is suggesting that a breakup of the American Union is a credible possibility, we have gone past the point where “normal” will ever return.

        That is not even considering the testimony of Seraphim and Peterburgskaya below to which I will add my own observation that the enforced lack of participation of our young, especially our young boys in Church life will likely be crippling, the institutional church has not only failed, it is crumbling before our eyes.
        To paraphrase Shakespeare: “see what a scourge is laid upon our fear that heaven doth find means to kill our joys.”

        That being said, ” there is more in heaven and earth than is dreamed of in our philosophies.”

        Let us remember the Prayer to the Venerable Cross
        “Let God arise! Let His enemies be scattered! Let those who hate Him flee from His presence! As smoke vanishes, let them vanish! As wax melts from the presence of fire, so let the demons perish from the presence of those who love God and who sign themselves with the sign of the Cross and say in gladness: Hail most precious and life giving Cross of the Lord for Thou drivest away demons by the power of our Lord, Crucified on Thee. Who went down to hell and trampled on the power of the devil and gave us Thee, His venerable Cross for driving away all enemies. O most precious and life-giving Cross of the Lord, help us with our Holy Lady, the Virgin Mother of God and with all the Saints throughout the ages. Amen”

        May the life of this prayer be fulfilled in each of our hearts.

        • Peterburgskaya says

          Michael it gives me hope to see the families I do still see in church. Some of these little folks probably have no memory of anything but lockdown times but their parents bring them faithfully to receive communion, venerate icons, visit any monasteries still receiving visitors, and do everything possible to live the faith. I hear little voices singing the liturgy and one little guy dragging his parents around and around to every icon for another wide-eyed look. These little ones will be our future.

        • George Michalopulos says

          Michael, your perception of what happened to our young men is a fearsome one.

          Truth be told, we have only scratched the surface re the unintended consequences.

          • Michael Bauman says

            George, fearsome indeed but that is the world pure and simple. There are always barriers. But those barriers melt before those who love God.
            My son grew up in the altar serving in a Cathedral. When my brother was ordained my brother’s bishop blessed my son to serve. Turned out my son had more experience serving Hierarchical Divine Liturgies with ordination than any of the priests. They, to their credit, recognized that and asked him questions on how to do it.

            He has gone through many struggles recently but he said something the other day that is good to remember, “I am not afraid to die.”

            In certain circles that affirmation is looked upon as convincing evidence that he needs to be put in a mental hospital on max zombie drugs.

            The way he said it was not longing for death BTW.

            It took the death of my late wife and being shown what happens when an Orthodox person dies that got me to that point: the prayers, the Angelic care for the person as they die and the sure and certain hope of the Ressurection.

            Jesus has overcome the world. Just not fully in my heart yet. But His deep and abiding mercy is working on that as well.

            “I do not fear death.”

            What would our life in Christ look like (COVID or not; dualistic ideologies and tryanny or not) if each of us submitted our fears for ourselves and each other to the Mercy of the Living God. Incarnate, Crucified and Ressurrected.

            I suspect I would not be as upset as I tend to get over all matter of things–even the constant pain in my joints, etc, etc, etc.

            Glory to God for All Things.

      • George Michalopulos says

        APS, thank you for this thoughtful reply. However, I must say that there phenomena being interspersed here that are muddying the situation.

        First of all, the COVID skeptics are not “anti-vaxxers”. Some are, but not all.

        Second, the skepticism about the entire “pandemic” can be argued in terms innocent of the vaccines. Specifically, that the protocols that were taken last year were, in retrospect, excessive. Even then many critics raised warning flags.

        Third, the criticism of many within the Church for those Churches that succumbed to the panic was that many hierarchs bought into the panic. This was the preachment of fear, something that is antithetical to Christianity.

        I could go on (especially about the vaccines) but as far as I’m concerned, the above points (especially #3) crystallize the entire critique of those of us who are distressed by the Church’s accommodation to the world.

      • Respectfully, do you have evidence that people who are against the mRNA vaccines are spreading lies? Also, what’s the deal with the ad hominem attacks?

      • “1. Realize that the anti-vax propaganda is a bunch of lies, which come from the father of lies, and as such all the Orthodox Churches are rejecting it.”

        If by 2025, 2030, the only Orthodox alive are those who didn’t take the mRNA shots, then every Orthodox Church will have rejected it. That also applies if the Mark of the Beast grows out of vaccination passports.

      • BWHAHAHAHA!! Sure ASP, Big Pharma does what they do out of the goodness of their collective heart and their deep concern for the fellow man. Never mind the billions in profits they make, every quarter of every year. And never mind their army of lobbyists.

    • I’m struggling with this because most (all?) of the patriarchates and our own Assembly of Bishops in America, as well as some monks on Athos have come out and said the vaccine is either ok to take, or, it’s not a theological issue. So, there’s one of two things:

      1) All of the patriarchs and most of the bishops are in heresy at worst, or, severely misguided at best.

      2) The vaccine really is not a theological issue.

      I am struggling with this because if it is #1 then things are much more severe than we may think.

      • Gail Sheppard says

        It’s God’s Church, not ours. God can be trusted.

      • Petros, here is a link which Xenia supplied to me another thread.
        https://mindofthefathers.wordpress.com/2021/02/06/crown-of-creation/

        The article there deals comprehensively with
        whether the vaccine is a theological issue.

        • Wisdom of Jesus ben Sirach (chapter 38)

          “Honor a physician with the honor due unto him for the uses which ye may have of him: for the Lord hath created him. For of the Most High cometh healing, and he shall receive honor of the king. The skill of the physician shall lift up his head, and in the sight of great men he shall be in admiration. The Lord hath created medicines out of the earth; and he that is wise will not abhor them. Was not the water made sweet with wood, that the virtue thereof might be known? And He hath given men skill, that He might be honored in His marvelous works. With such doth He heal men, and taketh away their pains. Of such doth the apothecary make a confection; and of His works there is no end; and from Him is peace over all the earth. My son, in thy sickness be not negligent: but pray unto the Lord, and He will make thee whole. Leave off from sin, and order thine hands aright, and cleanse thy heart from all wickedness. Give a sweet savour, and a memorial of fine flour; and make a fat offering, as not being. Then give place to the physician, for the Lord hath created him: let him not go from thee, for thou hast need of him. There is a time when in their hands there is good success. For they shall also pray unto the Lord, that he would prosper that which they give for ease and remedy to prolong life…”

          This wisdom is primarily about trusting in God and not refusing the good gifts He provides. It assumes that physicians and apothecaries are themselves prayerful, trusting in God and not their skill alone. But lest we place our trust in physicians or apothecaries themselves he concludes…

          “…He that sinneth before his Maker, let him fall into the hand of the physician.”

          Every quotation of our holy Fathers on this subject is reflective of this passage.

          • Indeed, Brian, we must treasure the good gifts God provides.
            But I don’t think these include ‘vaccines’ made
            from the bodies of murdered bairns.

            • Neither do I, Brendan. These “apothecaries’ who developed the vaccines (the ones available in the US anyway) can hardly be said to be prayerful. Neither are those physicians who blithely (and blindly) promote them. I have no objection whatsoever to “consulting my physician” on medical matters, but I have no need to consult anyone on murder or long-term effects that no man can possibly know.

      • Jane Tzilvelis says

        ? The soonest the Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech experimental vaccines could be considered by FDA for full licensure (in adults only) is when the trials are expected to conclude, on October 27, 2022 and January 31, 2023, respectively. RFK Jr.

        (They cannot force anyone till the trials are over. They can scare us everyday, cajole, and threaten but no store or business can force us to take an emergency authorized vaccine. Jane Tzilvelis statement)

        PCR testing and COVID vaccines are not fully licensed products. RFK Jr.

        They are EUA products,8 which by their very nature are legally considered investigational. As these are experimental medical products, it is unlawful and unethical for schools to mandate either the RT-PCR test or any currently available COVID vaccine. Federal law confirms explicitly that an EUA product must be voluntary because the federal statute requires “the option to accept or refuse administration of the product.”9. RFK Jr.

        ?Of note, specific laws such as the US Federal Regulations, notably the National Research Act [Title II, Public Law 93-348],11 Regulations for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Research [45 CFR 46]12 and revisions of various regulations, rules, and laws ([21 CFR 50]13, [21 CFR 56]14, [45 CFR 46 Subpart D]15, [10 CFR 745]16, [45 CFR 46 Subpart B]17, [45 CFR 46 Subpart D]18) specifically and permanently guarantee that all persons in the United States are entitled to exercise the right of informed consent to accept or to refuse to enroll in any medical experiment. RFK Jr.

        • Thank you Jane! I have a family member who is concerned about mandatory vaccination, and I have also quoted this type of info to her.

          I also always like to remind people that lots of people have allergies to things, and if you’ve had or think you’ve had an anaphylactic reaction to a component of any drug, including a vaccine, in the past, that is a contraindication to taking said drug and no person wanting to decently cover their own butt would “make” you take it.

  6. Peterburgskaya says

    There are so many people in my parish who I have not seen nor heard from since this started a year ago. I don’t mean frail elderly who may be reasonably hiding at home, either. (Most of them have actually appeared either at outdoor liturgies or other times when they felt safe enough to venture out, or have sent prayer requests to the mailing list or otherwise made their presence known.) I mean middle aged and younger people who have vanished, including some people who have children. Not at liturgies. Not showing up for “curbside pickup” of the Eucharist outside after liturgy (I hate to sound cynical but that’s what it IS!) Not sending in notes to the prayer list asking for us to keep them in our thoughts as they endure a lengthy exile. Sadly I know that some of these people have left for good. The confluence of the lockdown and the severe trial to faith that is represented in the pressures of the woke revolution and 9 months of riots (here on the left coast the pressure to conform and pledge allegiance to marxist BLM is beyond intense) has had tragic impacts. In one case, total apostasy was the result, with the person going so far as to donate all of his/her icons and precious out of print books to the parish free box on the way out the door to secularism. Spiritual suicide, I couldn’t help but think- you know how people give away their prized belongings when they are going to do away with their earthly life? It seemed so similar.

    These things happen, people drift away, people have crises of faith, but this year someone having a little trouble would have had so much difficulty finding a way through due to the enforced isolation, a challenge that any other year could have been dealt with on one Sunday in one confession, communion, and a good talk with a friend at coffee hour could easily fester for weeks and blow up into something that leads to storming out of church and dumping your out of print Seraphim Rose books in a free bin. There is no zoom meeting or e-conference or webinar that takes the place of a weekly routine, a hand on your shoulder, solid human hands and sacred objects, not to mention the Mysteries. Without these things, people float away irretrievably. Do the bishops feel ANY responsibility for these lost souls, or are these just more eggs you have to break to make a saving-grandma-flattening-the-curve omelet?

    A friend and I got talking reckoning how much smaller the parish will be when the restrictions are taken away. It used to be big and growing, loud, too warm indoors, and actually quite annoying at times for those who get overwhelmed in crowds. Now, when the attendance limits loosen a bit, there is not really any change in who attends. Our core has whittled down to less than half what it was. Will it ever come back? And what will become of the little kids who had been growing up in our Sunday school and running around on our oriental rugs who never get brought in an Orthodox church again? Will they remember and come back one day, or will they be thoroughly conditioned by their thoroughly conditioned parents to think of church as a backwards and dirty place where crazy people share a spoon? Will we ever have little kids handing out handfuls of antidoron to old folks again, as used to be their spontaneous custom? Or will that be permanently phased out as too grandma-kill-y?

    My enduring memory of the “last day” a year ago is being stopped at the entrance and being told not to kiss any icons and feeling repelled, like something terribly wrong was going on and I should just leave. I went in anyways, and was standing there greatly troubled, when I saw a little 2 year old running around kissing every cross and icon she could reach as though to make a point. Perfect love drives out fear. We need someone to lead us out of this with love like that little child has, but I fear it is not coming.

    • This makes me want to cry

    • And now…for a hopeful story.

      I know of a parish that was on the verge of extinction before the so-called pandemic. There were a handful of elderly people and a smattering of middle aged Church-goers (perhaps 15 total on a good Sunday). Many were ill…and funerals were far outnumbering baptisms. The priest is elderly, and it seemed that the Church could close down at any time. Enter the “pandemic”.

      The elderly priest refused to mandate putting a diaper on the face and social distancing. He permitted everyone to kiss Icons, Crosses, and his hand. Nothing changed.

      Suddenly, new parishioners started to arrive…young parents with children…Russians, Ukrainians, Serbians, Greeks. Every week there was someone new or another family. There are now more than 50 people in this small humble Church. Everyone gathers for a meal after the Liturgy. New friendships are forged and the faith is strong. This tiny Church made a 180 degree turn because the holy Orthodox faithful wanted to worship in an Orthodox manner. Thus far, they have flown under the radar. Will the bishop shut down the Church or suspend and censure the priest? I do not know. But I have witnessed a small miracle…and it warms my heart.

      • Gail Sheppard says

        It warms my heart, too. Thank you for sharing this.

      • Stories such as this maintain hope.
        Thank you.

        • George Michalopulos says

          Ditto!

          I miss so much of the little things, even Trapeza was something to look forward to. “Church” on Sunday was Liturgy, thanksgiving prayers (about 15 min), then Trapeza/fellowship about (another 1 -2 hrs).

          Get home by 2pm ish, just in time for a PLN (post-liturgical nap). It was the highlight of our weeks.

    • It is may be true that some who don’t come back have bought into the lies of CNN.gov and adopted the BLM, “woke” culture imposed on us by the Inner Party and the Ministry of Truth. However, it is my opinion that most will not come back because this wholesale capitulation to the zeitgeist has meant that the institution (or “organism” for the therapeutic ones reading) they joined out of much prayer, study, reflection, and discipline has abandoned them by their actions. People feel betrayed and deceived and not surprisingly they are angry and depressed. Signing up for a service on the internet, livestreaming, not communing, wearing a mask, not venerating the icons, etc. implies that there is nothing particularly eternal and transcendent about the Church and her rituals, customs, and beliefs.
      Our actions have demonstrated that we care more about our insignificant reputations, our careers, our “lifestyles”, the opinions of our e-friends and colleagues, and we have chosen to virtue signal and prove that we are, in fact, just like the world that Christ said would hate us. When one realizes these things (or some approximation thereof), he is brought low, his faith diminishes, and he no longer thinks that any of it is worth it. Perhaps those who are strong can withstand the onslaught of unbelief within the broader Christian world but most won’t. Christians and churches are now so much like the world that at some point one asks, “what’s the point?” Indeed, why not go hunting or fishing on Sunday morning where I can find peace and quiet and pray without the incessant politically charged prattle that makes up the content of everyday discourse?
      Personally, I’d like to find some big piece of land somewhere in the middle and pray that the Thought Police just leave me alone.

      • “CNN.gov”.
        Perfect. I wish I had said that.
        “Don’t worry, Oscar. You will…”

        Seriously now, I understand your fears and all I can offer is the faith
        that Christ will not abandon us – whatever the bishops may do.

      • Peterburgskaya says

        Certainly there are people for whom this is the case too. I have talked to some who are angry that everything they were taught in catechism is apparently not believed by those who taught them. I can understand that. I don’t know that it’s 100% the case- I think most priests are between a rock and a hard place, trying to protect the weak while getting knocked around themselves- but I understand how they end up feeling that way. I know it is terribly difficult, almost impossible perhaps, but the answer is to come closer not to go farther away. I am trying to be encouraging to those close to me who are feeling discouraged like this. Everything you saw when you first came to Orthodoxy is still here. It’s real, always has been. No one has deliberately lied to you. It is just that we are all weak sinners, every one of us. Please pray for us, and stay as close as you reasonably can. Find a way in, fight off that voice that says “what’s the point” and just keep showing up no matter what “they” say.

      • Someone….you know, I had never thought of it like this, but you make some great points in your comments. Thank you for sharing. Love your point that it’s actually the faithful who may not come back because they’ve been betrayed.

        • Gail Sheppard says

          We should all go back and read Atlas Shrugged. It was my favorite in college and I think if I reread it, I’d still be a fan.

          • Michael Bauman says

            Gail, sorry to hear that. Ayn Rand came to my school, did a group conversation. She came across as a truly vile person with no interest in anyone but herself. God was an unnecessary construct to her. I had friends who loved her work but I lost all interest after actually encountering her.

            • Gail Sheppard says

              Yeah, I didn’t say I liked her! I loved the book.

              • I love Wagner. The music. Not the man.

                • George Michalopulos says

                  Wagner is sublime. Beethoven however is magnificent. He is the pinnacle of sound.

                  • Wagner was an opera man – a storyteller.
                    Beethoven was not. He was a musician.
                    I would not compare the two together.
                    In music, they were both one-offs.

                    Perhaps the best pairing for Wagner would be with Tolkien.
                    They used the same materials to deal with the same subject:
                    the lust for power and the corruption caused by that lust.
                    The work of both is on the same astonishing depth and scale.
                    Where Wagner used leitmotifs, Tolkien used speech registers.
                    Both ended with destruction (of Valhalla and Barad-dur) and the Ring returning to its source (the Rhine and the Cracks of Doom).
                    In neither did evil finally prosper.

                    • Brendan “Wagner was an opera man – a storyteller.
                      Beethoven was not. He was a musician.
                      I would not compare the two together.”

                      You just did 🙂

                    • George Michalopulos says

                      True, Wagner was “the poet of Lohengrin” but as great as his operas are, Beethoven is the apogee of music.

                    • @Martin

                      No. I distinguished (discriminated?) between them.

                      Yes. I am a discriminator – a shameless discriminator.
                      I discriminate between: good, better and best;
                      and between: bad, worse and worst.

                    • @George.

                      I never said he wasn’t. I never said I love Wagner
                      more than I love Beethoven (I don’t).

                      What I was doing was responding to Gail’s example of
                      how the art, but not necessarily the artist, can be loved.

                    • George Michalopulos says

                      Forgive me. On my bucket list is to see the entire Ring cycle.

                    • George Michalopulos says

                      VERY Well put, Brendan.

                    • If you want a recording of the Ring Cycle,
                      I recommend the Decca version of 1966 by the Screaming Skull (alias Sir Georg Solti) and the Big Bang Big Band of Vienna (alias the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra).

                      There is a version to be had on Amazon that includes Deryck Cooke’s ‘An Introduction to Der Ring Des Nibelungen’,
                      which explores the links between all the leitmotifs throughout the entire 14-hour structure. It is compelling.

                      (Amazon…??? I know! I know! But check it
                      out here and try to source it elsewhere.)

                      US: https://www.amazon.com/Wagner-Ring-Nibelungen-16-CD-ROMCombo/dp/B00VVZUXRS/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen Sir Georg Solti&qid=1613515532&s=music&sr=1-1

                      UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wagner-Nibelungen-Sir-Georg-Solti/dp/B00VVZUXRS/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=Wagner: Der Ring des Nibelungen Sir Georg Solti&qid=1613516568&sr=8-4

                      According to both Grammophone Magazine and BBC Music Magazine, this is the greatest recording (of anything) ever made.

                      I almost agree. The Deutsche Grammophon recording of (who else but) Beethoven’s Symphonies 5 and 7 by the Vienna Philharmonic and the great Carlos Kleiber blows everything else out of the water as far as I am concerned.

                      Be that as it may, if you have seen the film Apocalypse Now, you have heard part of Solti’s Ring – for the music of the Ride of the Valkyries accompanying the helicopter attack was taken from this very recording.

    • Petersburgskaya…..Amen, Amen, Amen!

  7. Great article. I would like to respectfully make a couple of points, though. Some of this the post touched on but anyway…

    1. The myth of how deadly this virus actually is may have been exposed, but I believe that issue itself is almost irrelevant. Even if it were as bad as the media claims, I feel the church is where we need to be. If I am going to die, where would be a better place to do so? We don’t have to be “reckless” or make a show of our faith as some claim we’re doing. It comes down to: do we believe in the Grace of the priesthood, the power of the Mysteries, and Christ’s victory over death? I think this thing has not caused a lack of faith, but simply revealed what was there the whole time.

    2. I feel that the failure of our bishops also pertains to a blindness about what’s really going on here. There is an eschatological element at work here. Is this the end of all things? Who knows? But it is a moment of crisis for the world, and for those of us in the States, it is bound up, whether we like it or not, with the political situation. It has provided a key ingredient for the powers here to take more power and begin a slow stripping of our freedoms. With all my heart I believe that one day this country will be like communist Russia. The days of the Catacomb Church in America is coming sooner than we think. One priest I know thinks priests should have everything they need to serve at home with them, ready the moment we need to go underground. Where we are on this timeline, none of us know for sure. But we’re on dangerous ground. And our bishops seem blind to it. It’s like they think that this will all just pass and everything will go back to normal. I don’t think it ever will.

    3. Lastly–and your comments here made me think of this–they think doing things normally would have been reckless. I think they have been reckless in their own way. You’re right. What if restrictions are lifted? Who will come back? Do they really think a lot of people won’t just give up and leave the Church altogether? As I think about this I believe I have become convinced of something: if our clergy had stood up at the beginning and showed courage and faith and encouraged their flocks not to be afraid and done services normally, yes there would have been some who hated it. But honestly, I think after awhile even some of those would have come around. Brave leaders make for brave followers. Would the Scots have gained their independence without brave leaders like Robert the Bruce and William Wallace? Very doubtful. “Men don’t follow titles. They follow courage.”

    • Peterburgskaya says

      With regards to point 2 you are far from alone. I have seen it coming for years, I have been screaming at people to take cover while most insisted that all was well. Many of my friends have not seen it on the radar as long but we all see it now. How can the bishops miss it? Or is it that they think, to use the smug phrasing of the leftist press, “this is a good thing, actually”? Do they truly think that if they just keep their heads down and comply a few weeks more, they will be free to resist when things get taken up another notch? It has never worked that way in the past. At the start of all this, there was no hint that a bishop who stood up to the governor of a state would be thrown in jail. Why were they so eager to comply then? Why do they not see the terrible risk in opening our churches to the CCP via Zoom? THAT at the very least should be advised against. Why are they not encouraging parishes to at the very least shut off the livestream cameras when the Eucharist is brought out from the altar, to protect the integrity of the Mysteries and to protect the privacy of the faithful whose names are each recited as they come forward to receive? Why are there no efforts to gather in the lost sheep, no diocesan calls to reach out and check on your neighbors in the faith to be sure they are not lonely, struggling, or suffering in isolation and doubt? No, EVERYTHING is about distancing and masking. Nothing else. For all they claim that this is done out of concern for us, it seems like they locked up the churches then clocked out, because these things have not even been thought of, it appears.

      • George Michalopulos says

        The irony of course is that both Gruesome Newsom and Killer Cuomo will be driven out of office soon enough.

      • “EVERYTHING is about distancing and masking. Nothing else.”

        Exactly this. My parish managed to hold a drive through food festival but couldn’t figure out how to have Liturgy with more than 25% of the congregation. There was and still is no effort to maintain any sense of community. At this point, so few people are going that the sign ups aren’t really monitored and the weekday Liturgy was dropped. My family has not attended in nearly a year but we would attend a parish like Mikhail mentioned. Unfortunately, the only parishes in my area are OCA under the same bishop. As far as I’ve heard, the Covid restrictions are strictly enforced.

    • Art Samouris says

      Very well stated Seraphim!!!

    • George Michalopulos says

      Brilliant!

      Gail raised an interesting point last evening about the quality of leadership, the hallmarks of the ecclesial situation and comparisons to secular institutions. The question was: “Can we expect an institution like this to survive based on all these demerits?”

      The only answer I could give was “No”.

      But then after thinking about it added this rejoinder: “But this is God’s Church. Jesus said it would survive until the end of time.”

      So, regardless of the cowardice of the bishops and the indifference of the laity, it’s Christ who’s going to have to clean up this mess.

      That actually gives me hope. Plus, the sheer awfulness of 2020 has stripped me of all illusions.

      • Gail Sheppard says

        Yes, my dear, but He may have to tear it down and start all over. We have too few bishops who are the real deal and they’re ready for a well-deserved retirement.

        The others aren’t even marginal, in my opinion. They certainly don’t lead. They’re like schoolmarms who wave their finger at you.

        In the beginning no one knew what we were dealing with but now it’s a year later and they have officially changed little in the way of rules. I say “officially” because, as we have seen on this blog, they all talk the same talk but don’t walk the same walk. Bishops who have the same regulations as other bishops are letting some (maybe all???) parishes skate on the rules. “Just don’t get caught” seems to the the rule of the day.

        Of course some, (the “horrible bishop” comes to mind) like to play with their priests like a cat plays with a mouse, but they’re of a different ilk.

        • George Michalopulos says

          I don’t disagree at all, my dear! I’m just looking at things on the macro level.

          Where I disagree with is the whole “He may have to tear it down” in order to “start all over”. If by “tearing it down” you mean pruning it as the Husbandman does the Vine, I have no quarrel.

          We forget the laity are the Church as well, and from what I can tell by the “institutional Church” is that the laity leave almost as much to be desired as the hierarchy.

          Speaking about all my own misspent years, as a leader of my local parish, I wasted so many years helping to make the annual Greek festival the extravaganza that it became. The things that I thought were so important were inconsequential. Moral of the story: until we Orthodox laity stand up and demand better from our bishops, we ain’t gonna get.

          • Moral of the story: until we Orthodox laity stand up and demand better from our bishops, we ain’t gonna get.

            Amen, George

    • I think the last sentence in paragraph 1 says it all. People of faith I know have looked for and found many different ways to cope and stay connected to God in this crises. As they have down through the centuries in other crises.

      We always have options. God honors our efforts to stay connected to Him. He does not honor whining when something is taken away and we do nothing but complain.
      If the bishop has failed, so be it. Pray for his conversion. And get on with life.

      If you have to wear a mask in church take your pick. Stay home or go to church masked. Your choice. To me this is a small price to pay for the privilege of entering God’s house.
      And so forth.

      But please stop whining and instead thank God for His many blessings. Develop an attitude of gratitude, a phrase I learned years ago. Maybe, just maybe, COVID is the fire that is cleansing the Church. Maybe we are in the fiery furnace.

      • Peterburgskaya says

        Again, I just really wish people would take a minute to put themselves in the shoes of someone who really, honestly, sincerely has problems wearing a mask. Not “I’m too proud to cover my face” but “I feel smothered, I feel like I can’t breathe, I have debilitating panic attacks, I have chest pains and turn purple, I cannot stand or walk for more than a few minutes without my hands and feet going numb and getting dizzy, I have to take powerful medications to be able to wear this mask and function normally.” There are a LOT of us. Why is it so impossible to muster the smallest amount of compassion for us? Why this constant brusque, judgmental attitude towards us? Many of us are in the same category as those “grandmas” you are allegedly trying to “save.” But we cannot go out without fear of being accosted, even literally physically assaulted, by self-appointed mask enforcers. Does anyone stop to question why that is, and what that is REALLY about? And if it has ANY place in the Church?

        • Gail Sheppard says

          I’ve had 4 nasal surgeries and I cannot breathe with a mask.

          • Mat. Joanna says

            I am also one of those who cannot wear a mask without much anxiety. To solve this problem I’ve worn, this past year, a very filmy, loose-woven head scarf that I wear also to church. I pin it to my hair on the sides and bring up one end very loosely over my mouth and bottom of my nose (like a Moslem, but i wear my cross) and pin again, knotting the loose ends on my shoulder. Many have stopped me to say how beautiful it is and no one has complained about it not being a mask (not even my doctor). I’ve learned how to move my chin to raise and lower it a bit when no one is around. Best of all, I feel prayerful out in public, due to its association with worship.

          • Peterburgskaya says

            I keep finding studies from before this hysteria that validate our very obvious observation that masks make it harder to breathe. In this case they simply looked at surgeons at work in the operating room.

            “Our study revealed a decrease in the oxygen saturation of arterial pulsations (SpO2) and a slight increase in pulse rates compared to preoperative values in all surgeon groups. The decrease was more prominent in the surgeons aged over 35…Since a very small decrease in saturation at this level, reflects a large decrease in PaO2, our findings may have a clinical value for the health workers and the surgeons.”

            https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18500410/

        • “…we cannot go out without fear of being accosted, even
          literally physically assaulted, by self-appointed mask enforcers.
          Does anyone stop to question why that is,
          and what that is REALLY about?”

          The world is (sadly) full of those who wish to peck their way to a
          higher rung in the henhouse than that which they currently occupy.
          Given nice uniforms and shiny boots, they will be totally brazen about it.
          But what they really crave is just an audience to display their power before.

    • I think this thing has not caused a lack of faith, but simply revealed what was there the whole time.

      I could not agree more Seraphim. In this sense, this COVID “crisis” has been a ‘judgement’ on all of us – not in the sense of punishment or retribution as such, but in the sense of revealing the truth of what is in each one of us.

      I feel that the failure of our bishops also pertains to a blindness about what’s really going on here…

      Precisely. This, too, is a judgement in the same sense described above. It is disappointing, to say the least, even heartbreaking. Many of us were uneasy before, but we were inclined to question ourselves (as indeed we should). We now know beyond a reasonable doubt. No, we cannot rid ourselves of them, but nothing they say will ever carry the weight it once did. Those similarly blinded will, of course, accuse us of disobedience and/or lack of respect for the episcopate, but they, too, have chosen to close their eyes.

      May God be merciful to them and to us all.

  8. 1. Realize that the anti-vax propaganda is a bunch of lies, which come from the father of lies, and as such all the Orthodox Churches are rejecting it.

    The vaccination itself is a lie. Anyone who gets a vaccine that contains aborted fetal cells or which uses aborted fetal cells in pre-trials and/or production, is complicit in the sin of abortion. The father of lies definitely has his hand in this mess…but it is not on the so-called “anti-vax propaganda”.

    • Is there any vaccine that you would consider taking? What about the Russian vaccine, Sputnik 5? Is the Russian vaccine also morally compromised?

      I would think that in a system where competing drug companies are vying to make the best vaccine possible, that this should work in favor of the public, at least in the long run.

      I highly doubt that all Covid vaccines are being overseen by some evil genius lurking in the shadows. There must be at least one that is preferable to the others.

      • Gail Sheppard says

        Sputnik V uses double-stranded DNA. I am not a fan of any vaccine that impacts our genetic material.

        • What about the Novavax vaccine? More traditional approach, although spike proteins are artificially synthesized and it does not use fetal cells in the production but is more akin to the flu vaccine.

          • Why do you want a vaccine? What’s wrong with:
            Vitamin C, D3, Zinc, Quercetin, Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine?

        • Mark E. Fisus says

          Well, Sinovac uses inactivated virus.

      • Peterburgskaya says

        In general I like to wait a while for new drugs and vaccines to be on the market before trying them or especially before letting my children try them. My children have all the usual childhood vaccines but I had a lot of questions about some of them that were more recent additions to the routine. It’s reasonable to want to wait a couple years because often the worst effects of these things are not even discovered until they have been on the market a few years (see Vioxx). I would consider a well-tested covid vaccine that saw good results and used traditional means of immunity (not mRNA) by around the year 2023 at the soonest.

        • Vitamin C, D3, Zinc, HCQ, Ivermectin. They work.
          What more do you need?

          • Archpriest Alexander F. C. Webster says

            That is a heart-rending tale, Cheryl, but it seems from what you write that your daughter’s unexpected COVID-19 situation has taken a turn for the better. During my weekly intercessory prayers tonight and throughout the week, I shall, God-willing, pray for a full recovery by your daughter

          • saunca,
            I’m very sorry your daughter is ill. She has clearly had a dreadful time.
            But she had a compromised immune system before covid came along.
            Do you think she would have fared better with an mRNA ‘vaccine’ hijacking her cellular DNA to produce non-human proteins which her immune system would then attack, plus the polyethylene glycol to give her an allergic reaction? What do you think would happen then if covid was added to the mix? Read about some of the possible side effects:
            ‘ the new mRNA vaccine technology utilized by Pfizer and Moderna has “the potential to cause microvascular injury (inflammation and small blood clots called microthrombi) to the brain, heart, liver and kidneys in ways that were not assessed in the safety trials.” ‘
            https://principia-scientific.com/are-covid-vaccines-causing-blood-clots-brain-injury-heart-attacks/

            As for vitamins, there is no ‘magic’ involved.
            It is a matter of keeping the immune systen strong in normal times
            and ramping up the necessary nutrients in times of stress/sickness.
            How much Vitamin C was she taking? How much Vitamin D3? Zinc?
            Did she increase the dosages of these? If so, by how much?

            Lupus is an illness associated with Vitamin D deficiency.
            If she was just taking enough to keep the lupus under control
            and was then hit with covid, she would need more, much more.

            As for Vitamin C, how much of this was she taking?
            1 gram per day is enough to stop scurvy, but that is about all.
            When sick she would need vastly more than that.
            Was she getting it?

            Everybody is different and not everyone reacts the same.
            But the best way to go is to give your immune system the tools it needs.
            That is what God gave it to you for.

          • PS: My opinions expressed here are my opinions.
            They are not to be taken as “Medical Opinions, Diagnoses or Prescriptions”. If you want those, consult a medical practitioner.

            • My medical practitioner recommended that I get the vaccine. So, I did.

              • NHS Scotland offered me a vaccine and sent a leaflet
                containing Important Information to encourage me to accept.
                They also allocated me an appointment to come and get jagged.
                The Important Information includes the following statement:
                “We only use a vaccine if it has been through rigorous clinical trials.”

                That statement is a barefaced lie. Clinical trials have not been completed and will not be completed for at least two years.

                I didn’t bother to ‘decline’ the jag, which I never asked for.
                I just ignored the offer and didn’t go.

              • PS: I pray you have no adverse reactions.

              • Michael Bauman says

                Steve, God bless you but if you expect any “medical practitioner to not recommend the vaccine, your expectations are not grounded in reality. Primary care docs are creatures of the both the state (licensure) and the prevailing “wisdom”, i e. the current protocols.

                Usually that is quite OK it tends to insure a certain average competence and most people do not get obviously hurt.

                Even in good times I am not an easily compliant patient though. The best men I have met are the human mechanics (surgeons). I would not be here now except for the humanity and skill of the man who operated on my heart. My wife would be a cripple save for the surgeons who replaced a knee and repaired her shoulder.

                The worst are the neurologists.

                The over-reliance on pharmacological medicine has distanced us all from what is actually going on in our bodies and the deeply spiritual nature of all disease and healing. But you see that is just not “scientific”.

                Like most things in the modern world medicine is bifurcated.

                So people who question this vaccine are labeled “anti-vaxers”. Those who accept it are also labeled pejoratively.

                We tend to forget that we all sin and fall short and only His mercy keeps us alive and saves us.

                • Gail Sheppard says

                  Well said, Michael. I think if I were going to go in for my doctor’s opinion, I would bring him the list of Pfizer’s “unknowns” with me.

                  Although I am very healthy (I have nothing wrong with me), I do have autoimmune issues. When they looked at my titers for things, where a normal score would be 19, mine is over 300. My immune system is in over drive. As a matter of fact, I am in a small group of people being studied at UCLA because it appears I’m immune to COVID and they’re looking for possible antibodies. In addition, I produce no cytokines. – Further evidence that my daughter is correct when she says I’m an alien. My usual retort is, then what does that make you?

                  Sanca, I’m so sorry to hear about the rough time your daughter is going through. When you talk to one of her doctors, ask them about “vaccine-enhanced disease” and if that might be a reason to avoid the vaccine in her case.

                  This term means that the vaccine actually makes you susceptible to something that would make you much sicker than the disease itself. – They found this with the mRNA vaccine in previous coronaviruses studies with animals. Even though the vaccine worked in vitro (in the lab), when the animals were exposed to coronavirus in their environment down the road, their immune systems went into overdrive, causing organ damage and killing the animals. They do not know if the same thing will happen to people who receive the COVID vaccine. The study was too short to find out.

                  • Gail Sheppard says

                    I will definitely pray for your daughter’s complete recovery. It has been a very long year.

          • So this is where everyone needs to take a deep breath. The response to covid is highly based on a persons physiology and genetics. My wife was on HCQ for lupus and had a day of symptoms before returning to normal. My eldest son and I were quite sick but he got it the worst and prednisone and his asthema meds probably kept him out of the hospital.

            Medicine is complicated and magic bullets occur very rarely. Study methods are also problematic. This should give pause to discounting something that works for some and not for all. It should also give pause to rushing out for the pseudo vaccine.

          • Prayers for your dear daughter.

            There are studies circulating regarding the reasons for the low number of COVID cases in places like Africa and certain Asian country. They believe that it is because Hydroxy is sold over-the-counter like aspirin because of malaria. Everybody takes it. Having said that, nobody is advocating that these vitamins and treatments are a preventative or cure. Nobody is saying that you will be asymptomatic if you take these things and get COVID. It is merely being stated that there is an option of treatment to boost the immune system with vitamins and treat the individual with anti-viral drugs if they contract COVID. I will take my chances with these substances over an experimental vaccine that uses untested mRNA technology with pre-trial confirmation using aborted fetal tissue cells.

            God’s will be done.

          • George Michalopulos says

            Saunca, I second Fr Alexander’s sentiments regarding your daughter.

            As to the virus itself, the view of most all epidimiologists that I can recall is that it would spread throughout the entire population (as does the seasonal flu). Unless this is an engineered bioweapon, it is part of nature.

          • Peterburgskaya says

            I don’t know that I personally will obtain a vaccine for this disease. I will have a look at the risk:benefit ratio when the time comes that there is a vaccine I would even deign to consider. That time is not now. As for the other things you mention, yes, they have been found to be useful in various capacities and doses. I would not suggest to anyone taking ivermectin or hcq on a regular basis though. They are powerful drugs and should only be taken as needed, after a known exposure, and with supervision from someone who knows what they are doing. Zinc, too, although it is “natural” and available over the counter, can have deleterious side effects when taken in large doses and over time. Even vitamin D, which it’s hard to go wrong with in the northern hemisphere, can be hard on your kidneys if you take too much. All things in moderation, and with good information and guidance.

      • cynthia curran says

        Sputnik. Its name after the space Sat that went up in 1957.

  9. Covid 19 is not Justinian’s Plague. It is no worse than a bad flu.
    Some people will die, to be sure: the very old, those with co-mormidities etc.
    But to the vast majority it will be (at worst) no more than a minor inconvenience.
    For those at risk, however, there are a number of proven prophylactics and cures:
    Vitamin C, Vitamin D3, Zinc, Hydroxychloroquine, Ivermectin, Quercetin etc.

    Yet almost the whole of Western civilisation now cowers in fear before this spook,
    and queues up to be injected with an mRNA auto-immunity-disease causing agent,
    which will prevent neither infection with nor transmission of the Sars-Cov-2 virus,
    and for which no safety trials have ever yet been completed.

    Truly, this is an experiment which Josef Mengele himself would be proud to direct.

    And if that were not bad enough, what do we find in an Orthodox Church?

    We find a bishop (an Archbishop, forsooth!) threatening to deny Holy Communion
    to those whose faith is strong enough not to need the shibboleth of wearing a mask,
    a mask which is as effective in blocking transmission of aerosolised virus particles
    as is a chain-link fence against the passage of midges or mosquitoes.

    What would Julian the Apostate say, I wonder?
    “See these Christians? See how they deny the body and blood of their Lord
    to those among themselves who will not cover the ikon of that same Lord?”

    God forbid that he should then go on to say: “Galilean, thou art conquered!”

    Lord have mercy!

    • Brendan, you live in Scotland right? How is it there right now? Are you under Bishop Irenei? I’ve been talking a little with Fr. Spyridon in England and he said not only is the Russian Church open but they are doing things normally.

      • Seraphim, Fr Spyridon Bailey’s parish is in Wallasey, in England.
        Scotland has different rules, Currently Glasgow is in full lockdown.
        The rules for places of worship are: Closed for public acts of worship.
        Open for the purpose of leading an act of worship (broadcast or online).

        https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/factsheet/2021/01/coronavirus-covid-19-stay-at-home-infographic/documents/stay-at-home-infographic/stay-at-home-infographic/govscot:document/Stay at Home infographic – 19 January 2021.pdf

        As far as I know, there are no ROCOR parishes in Scotland. Saint Kentigern’s Russian Orthodox Parish in Glasgow is in the Diocese of Sourozh in the Moscow Patriarchate.

        For myself, I am a member of St Luke’s Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Glasgow,
        in the Archdiocese of Thyateira and Great Britain, under Archbishop Nikitas.
        This is the Church and Parish in which I was baptised. I would be very reluctant
        to leave it. However, I am keeping a close watch on what happens in relation
        to Constantinople’s treatment of Metropolitan Onuphry and the UOC – as well as its relationship with the increasingly pagan Pachamama Papacy in Rome.

        Still, as far as I am aware, my Bishop has made
        no public statement on these matters.
        Thus I have no right to anticipate his opinion.

        • I understand. Personally, I am disgusted with how Pat. Bartholomew has handled the whole Ukranian situation. And the leaders of the Greek Archdiocese both here in the States and in Canada have made me feel no better. That said, it’s wise to not leave quickly or easily. We would all do better to measure seven times and cut once. I have to admit I might be a little inclined to the Sourozh diocese cause I’m a huge fan of Metropolitan Anthony. I have quite a few of his books and he has taught me so much.

          In any case, I’ve been in love with Scotland for years, ever since I saw Braveheart. So when I started researching my ancestry and looked for every Scottish connection I could find. It makes me sad they have tied the Church’s hands like this. However, it does seem like western Europe as a whole has sort of led the way in the secularization of our world. Which is why I’m grateful for every person like you that’s over there keeping the Faith.

          • Braveheart is fiction.
            It depicts the battle of Stirling Bridge without a bridge.
            It shows an Edinburgh Castle without a rock underneath it.
            Robert the Bruce’s father was not a leper. Robert became one later.
            Piers Gaveston was not thrown ot of a window by Edward I.
            He had his head cut off years after Edward was dead.
            Wallace never raided south of Hexham so never went to York.
            He never had an affair with Isabella of France (Edward II’s wife)
            who was ten years old, in France, and unmarried when he died.
            Forbye that, Wallace was a giant of a man. Mel is, well, Mel.

            Finally, the Scotland so beautifully depicted in the film was Ireland.

            It was a good film, but it’s Hollywood. It’s not real.

  10. Austin Martin says

    While sort of on the subject, is the GOA still not a thing anymore? They revoked the charter, effectively dissolving it. Did they ever undissolved it?

  11. If the Archdiocese is dissolved, of what is the Archbishop chief?

    • With or without the dissolution the Archbishop is increasingly overseeing a smaller flock anyways with the natural attrition that is occurring in the Greek Archdiocese.

      If the Greek Archdiocese does by some miracle survive long term, or, remains actually viable it will be because of those faithful priests and parishes in GOARCH (and they definitely do exist). It will also, and probably more-so, be because of the monasteries and with the intercession of Elder Ephraim of Arizona. If the GOARCH ship has any chance of being righted I’m convinced it will come from the monasteries….if they leave like Gail has alluded to, then I can almost guarantee its “lights out Irene” for that jurisdiction.

      • We’ve still heard nothing about their forthcoming departure, despite the ongoing rumors. How long are they going to hold out for?

        • Gail Sheppard says

          So, let me run this by you and you can tell me what you think.

          If you look on the Greek Archdiocese website you’ll find an agreement between the monasteries and the archdiocese saying that the monasteries own their assets. (They can’t move their buildings, though! I have no idea what’s up with that.)

          Anyway, I think the Greek Archdiocese is trying to put a kibosh on the monasteries taking their assets with them so they’re challenging a previous court decision regarding the Episcopal Church.

          The issue with the Episcopal Church was this: “Whether the Texas Supreme Court’s decision awarding the sanctuary and rectory of the petitioner, All Saints’ Episcopal Church (Fort Worth), to a dissident faction in contravention of the will of petitioner’s parishioners and an express-trust provision is consistent with the free exercise and establishment clauses.” https://www.scotusblog.com/case-files/cases/all-saints-episcopal-church-fort-worth-v-episcopal-diocese-of-fort-worth/

          The GOA reasoned, “the Greek Orthodox Church can join the Episcopal Church as an amicus because the outcome of this case affects the Greek Orthodox Church’s freedom promised by the First Amendment to arrange its internal affairs as it wishes without court interference. While the Greek Orthodox Church and the Episcopal Church differ in significant and well-known ways, including in their structure and doctrine, they share a common concern: by interpreting this Court’s so-called neutral principles approach to presuppose congregational autonomy, well-meaning courts are interfering with hierarchical churches’ ability to arrange their own internal affairs.”

          They go on to say, because “the Greek Orthodox Church has been a hierarchical church. Accordingly, it holds all church property in a manner that reflects this longstanding hierarchy. All church property – regardless of which church entity it is held by – is held expressly for carrying out the faith and purpose of the Greek Orthodox Church.” In other words, the assets belong to the GOA and not to the monasteries because the monasteries belong to them hierarchically. https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/20/20-534/161111/20201118143332016_20-534%20Amicus%20Brief.pdf

          The Supreme Court ruled against the Episcopal diocese last May and until the GOA can resolve this, I don’t think the monasteries are going anywhere. https://www.episcopalnewsservice.org/2020/05/22/texas-supreme-court-rules-against-episcopal-diocese-of-fort-worth-in-property-dispute/

          That’s my guess what the hold up is.

    • Mark E. Fisus says

      They would be archbishops of nominal dioceses, in the same way some members of the Constantinopolitan Curia are overseers of defunct dioceses long overtaken by Turks.

  12. Ivermectin is effective for COVID 19:
    real-time meta-analysis of 39 studies

    https://ivmmeta.com/

    •100% of the 39 studies to date report positive effects. Random effects meta-analysis for early treatment and pooled effects shows a reduction of 81%, RR 0.19 [0.11-0.33]. Prophylactic use shows a reduction of 90%, RR 0.10 [0.05-0.23]. Mortality results show 78% lower mortality, RR 0.22 [0.12-0.41] for all treatment delays, and 86% lower, RR 0.14 [0.03-0.62] for early treatment.
    •100% of the 20 Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) report positive effects, with an estimated reduction of 72%, RR 0.28 [0.17-0.47].
    •The probability that an ineffective treatment generated results as positive as the 39 studies to date is estimated to be 1 in 550 billion (p = 0.0000000000018).

    Early treatment 81% improvement RR 0.19 [0.11-0.33]
    Late treatment 52% improvement RR 0.48 [0.35-0.64]
    Prophylaxis 90% improvement RR 0.10 [0.05-0.23]
    Total 39 studies 275 authors 11,371 patients
    RCT 20 studies 153 authors 2,793 patients

  13. Vitamin D is effective for COVID 19:
    real-time meta-analysis of 48 studies

    https://vdmeta.com/

    •Vitamin D is effective for COVID-19. Random effects meta-analysis of the 16 treatment studies to date shows an estimated reduction of 65% in the effect measured, RR 0.35 [0.24-0.52].
    •Sufficiency studies show a strong association between vitamin D sufficiency and outcomes. Meta-analysis of the 32 sufficiency studies shows an estimated reduction of 54%, RR 0.46 [0.39-0.55].

    Treatment studies 65% improvement RR 0.35 [0.24-0.52]
    Sufficiency studies 54% improvement RR 0.46 [0.39-0.55]
    Total 48 studies 394 authors 16,342 patients
    Treatment 16 studies 171 authors 11,061 patients

  14. HCQ is effective for COVID 19:
    real-time meta-analysis of 48 studies

    https://hcqmeta.com/

    •HCQ is effective for COVID-19. The probability that an ineffective treatment generated results as positive as the 204 studies to date is estimated to be 1 in 18 quadrillion (p = 0.000000000000000056).
    •Early treatment is most successful, with 100% of studies reporting a positive effect and an estimated reduction of 66% in the effect measured (death, hospitalization, etc.) using a random effects meta-analysis, RR 0.34 [0.27-0.44].
    •91% of Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) for early, PrEP, or PEP treatment report positive effects, the probability of this happening for an ineffective treatment is 0.0059.
    •There is evidence of bias towards publishing negative results. 88% of prospective studies report positive effects, and only 76% of retrospective studies do.
    •Studies from North America are 3.7 times more likely to report negative results than studies from the rest of the world combined, p = 0.00000025.

    Total 204 studies 3,211 authors 181,752 patients
    Positive effects 160 studies 2,510 authors 137,809 patients
    Early treatment 66% improvement RR 0.34 [0.27-0.44]
    Late treatment 25% improvement RR 0.75 [0.69-0.81]

  15. There being effective treatments for COVID 19 [see above],
    the Emergency Use Authorisation for the mRNA vaccines should be cancelled.

  16. Long-term Mask Use May Contribute
    to Advanced Stage Lung Cancer

    https://principia-scientific.com/study-long-term-mask-use-may-contribute-to-advanced-stage-lung-cancer/

    ‘ A recent study in the journal Cancer Discovery found that inhalation of harmful microbes can contribute to advanced stage lung cancer in adults. Long-term use of face masks may help breed these dangerous pathogens. ‘

    It just gets worse…

    • Good information Brendan. There is nothing that could convince me to get this awful experimental vaccine.

    • Between the vaccine and what you posted, I am curious how many people will die in the next couple of years. We haven’t even seen a wide scale vaccination in Africa yet. Something tells me they will be targeted

    • I’ve actually wondered the same thing. People in the textile industry had lots of provblems due to fiber inhallation and masks put a source of fibers up close and personal.

  17. The Great Vaccine Scam
    https://principia-scientific.com/the-great-vaccine-scam/

    ‘ “South Africa suspends Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine rollout after researchers report minimal protection against variant” announces the headline of a recent Washington Post report.

    The article’s opening sentence reads as follows:

    “South Africa will suspend use of the coronavirus vaccine being developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca after researchers found that it provided ‘minimal protection’ against mild to moderate coronavirus infections caused by the new variant first detected in that country.”

    The information conveyed by the above exposes the gargantuan fraud that has been perpetrated upon humanity in the name of COVID-19.

    Even though many people will be deeply disappointed and disheartened by what happened in South Africa, the news should not have come as a surprise to anyone, since the vaccine failure was completely predictable and inevitable.

    Here is the truth: It is not possible to devise an effective vaccine for the type of virus that causes COVID-19. Why? For the very reason that AstraZeneca’s vaccine has failed in South Africa and will fail elsewhere as well.

    Coronavirus is a type of virus that mutates widely and because of that it is impossible to come up with a vaccination protocol that would stop its spread…

    Consequently, billions of people pinned their hopes on the vaccine and desperately waited for its deliverance. At the same time, governments channeled billions of dollars into the development of these fake concoctions and a number of pharma executives and scientists became billionaires on the news of “progress” and “successful” trials…

    While the effectiveness of the vaccines to protect against COVID is questionable at best, there is no doubt that they have already produced some serious side effects. One of these side effects happens to be death

    Being administered on the order of millions of doses a day, we can only pray that the potential side effects of these untested concoctions hastily cobbled together by ruthless profiteers will not produce the greatest man-made medical calamity in history. ‘

    And the economic destruction is as bad, if not worse.

    As the Prophet said:
    “Hear now this, O foolish people, and without understanding;
    which have eyes, and see not; which have ears, and hear not:”

    [Jeremiah 5:21]

  18. INSANITY: NY Times’s Klein Ponders Having
    to ‘Dim the Sun’ to Fight Climate Change

    https://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/business/joseph-vazquez/2021/02/10/insanity-ny-timess-klein-ponders-having-dim-sun-fight

    ‘ Klein began his piece with a creepy quote from environmentalist Stewart Brand,
    “We are as gods and might as well get good at it.” ‘

    Bill Gates is funding a project to dim the sun.
    Human Hubris stands at the Gates of Nemesis.
    What could possibly go wrong?

  19. Sweden [beginning to] ban masks
    https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/international-news/disease/no-scientific-evidence-that-masks-do-anything-sweden-banning-masks/

    ‘ What is really amazing is how far we as societies are allowing politicians who have no qualifications in medicine to roll out draconian decrees. These measures are really intent on dividing the people to prevent civil unrest because the socialistic system is collapsing and they needed an excuse to throw all the economic restraints out the window.

    I have shown before that I purchased a box of masks from Amazon, and on them, it clearly states it will not prevent any disease. So obviously, if you get corona and wore even two masks to bed at night, and a condom just in case you might get aids while sleeping alone, you have no legal case to sue the mask manufacturer for a faulty product.

    Even the chronic liar Dr. Anthony Fauci stated at the beginning that masks will not do anything.

    Here we have Fauci selling “inequality” and the Great Reset for the World Economic Forum. Where does he now have expertise in economics as well?

    Officials in Halmstad municipality, Sweden, recently forced a teacher to remove their mask and prohibited the use of masks and all forms of PPE in schools. The municipality said there was no scientific evidence for wearing masks, citing the Swedish public health agency.

    When will the people wake up and realize that this entire set of regulations from masks to lockdowns is really about suppressing freedoms to further the climate change agenda? It is not about health. Even the leftist Washington Post, which hates capitalism, had to admit that masks did not work during the 1918 Spanish Flu epidemic where nearly 3% of the population died. ‘

    Perhaps the tide is on the turn?

    • George Michalopulos says

      One can only hope.

      In the darker recesses of my mind, I’ve entertained the thought that all of these strictures last year were designed to see how far the globalists can push our buttons before we snap.

  20. The Bernician is back:
    Senior British Officials Stand Accused of Pandemic Fraud
    https://principia-scientific.com/senior-british-officials-stand-accused-of-pandemic-fraud/

    ‘ After yet more damning evidence arose last week, further additions had to be made to the court papers, which we are now aiming to lay in the coming week. The four defendants will be Matt Hancock, Chris Whitty, Patrick Vallance and Neil Ferguson, each of whom has inextricable and ultimately incriminating connections with Bill Gates and Big Pharma.

    As well as three counts of fraud by false representation and seven counts of fraud by non-disclosure, under sections 2 and 3 of the Fraud Act 2006, we can now also prove that the entire worldwide scamdemic originated on these shores.

    In fact, we can show that, without the dishonest statements and non-disclosures of the four defendants we are initially proceeding against, COVID-1984 would not have transpired.
    Fraud Unravels All, Including Parliamentary Privilege

    Furthermore, the 1st defendant, Matt Hancock, cannot rely upon the defence of Parliamentary Privilege, on the ground that none of the evidence relied upon by the prosecution is capable of preventing parliamentarians from carrying out their lawful business in Parliament.

    The motive for conspiring to commit the heinous crimes alleged was paradoxically simple, despite the complexity of the deceptions perpetrated – the maximisation of ‘vaccination’ uptake, as per the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal of ‘immunising’ the entire world population.

    Just imagine, if you will, a man charged with poisoning people to death with lethal pharmaceuticals being tried before a jury rigged with people who have direct links to the companies who researched, developed, manufactured and distributed the poisons which killed the alleged victims.

    The prosecution barrister would no doubt successfully apply for a mistrial, on the ground that the jurors were prejudiced by blatant conflicts of interest, which would more than hamper the delivery of a just decision, upon the evidence.

    Now transpose those circumstances to COVID-1984, change the defendant to ‘vaccine’ and change the jury for the secretary of state for the DHSC, the chief medical officer, the chief scientific officer and the WHO’s senior advisor on ‘pandemic’ identification and response, and you will begin to comprehend how Big Pharma hijacked government policy, for the sole purpose of maximising ‘vaccination’ uptake, whatever the cost.

    Furthermore, evidence has also arisen which demonstrates that Facebook and Google met with the UK Government and agreed to censor any content which exposes this nefarious agenda.

    Which naturally means the individuals concerned are complicit in the conspiracy to commit the criminal frauds alleged in the PCP, as well as being jointly and severally liable for the consequences of them.

    Given that Facebook deleted my last PCP Update and banned me from posting for 24 hours, then went on to do the same for simply sharing my own blog posts on the TGBMS page, we will hold those actions as evidence of conspiracy to commit fraud, along with any other similar acts of censorship which precede and follow this public notice.

    However, before I end this brief dispatch from the frozen north, once again I must pay tribute to the tens of thousands of people who have never wavered in supporting this endeavour, since the moment you knew of its existence.

    Take heart that our ever-growing number is about to explode exponentially, when the details of the utterly compelling prima facie evidence we have amassed become public knowledge.

    For those of you who have been following my work for a decade or more, this moment of sudden widespread realisation will be akin to the moment people heard, in the summer of 2014, that a certain stubborn Geordie recalcitrant, against all the might of the rigged system, proved mortgage fraud in the high court and had a fraudulent mortgage cancelled by the Land Registry.

    Until that happened, even most of those who supported my work at the time never believed it would actually happen, until it did.

    From my own perspective, this stage of the PCP feels identical in nature, but I have absolutely no problem with the doubts, skepticism and nihilism of others, which can easily cloud the mind at terrifying, tumultuous and tyrannical times such as these.

    Nevertheless, I can promise that, even if it doesn’t happen as soon as we would all prefer, this Private Criminal Prosecution against Hancock, Whitty, Vallance and Ferguson will be laid, with enough prima facie evidence to nail guilty verdicts, ten times over, as soon as the papers and evidence bundle are ready to lay. ‘

    Let’s hope this one flies…

  21. CDC Investigation: FREE Online Event Feb. 17, 2021
    https://principia-scientific.com/cdc-investigation-free-online-event-feb-17-2021/

    ‘ In March 2020, the CDC abruptly changed how death certificates were recorded. While this might seem like a mere formality, the CDC only made this change for one type of death — COVID-19 — and circumvented multiple federal laws to do so.

    Join our panel of experts — researchers, doctors, lawyers, medical ethicists, educators and lawmakers — as they take an in-depth look at the CDC’s actions and the dire consequences they’ve had on all of American society. This includes unending lockdowns, school and business closures, an increase in suicides and mental health issues, economic hardship and despair, loved ones being forced to die all alone, and many more atrocities that have been inflicted on individuals in the name of “protecting public health.” ‘

    Worthy of a listen, perhaps?

    • I saw this today and thought it would be appropriate to include as a subsection of Brenden’s thread.

      LOCKDOWNS IN CHINA, 2021
      Shocking video footage of lockdowns in China so far this year as “new strains” erupt, including welding people in their cement block apartments, and surprise-raiding entire villages with Covid tests

      https://swprs.org/lockdowns-in-china-2021/

      Why is China doing this while Switzerland is relaxing mask mandates?

      • Oh, here we go again…

        Say hello to COVID-21

        • Please people, it’s called psyops.

          • Quite. I should have wrote “COVID-21”

            • Michael Bauman says

              Basil: you “should have written”…

              • Thank you, but is this sort of nit-picking really necessary?

                • Gail Sheppard says

                  No!

                  • Michael Bauman says

                    “If we shadows have offended, think but this and all is mended. That you have but slumbered here
                    Whilst these visions did appear.
                    And this weak and idol theme,
                    No more yielding but a dream.
                    Gentles, do not reprehend.
                    If you pardon, we will mend.
                    And, as I am an honest Puck,
                    If we have unearned luck
                    Now to ‘scape the serpent’s
                    tongue,
                    We will make amends ere long.
                    Else the Puck a liar call.
                    So good night unto you all.
                    Give me your hands if we be friends,
                    And Robin shall restore amends.”

                  • George Michalopulos says

                    Truly. I’d prefer that we keep things on as macro a level as possible.

                • In Scots dialects “should have wrote” is braw.

                  • I had to Google ‘braw,’ and I am very happy to hear that my occasional grammatical idiosyncrasies would fit right in with such a fine people.

                • Michael Bauman says

                  Basil and Gail: Only if one loves nits. Courtesy of my 11th grade grammar teacher, Mr. Scherling, who made such nits fall like a cudgel on my head. He was a rare breed in the wild even in 1965.

                  I ignore most but this one was a particularly heavy blow. The word choice made your comment less effective.

                  Grammar, even in spontaneous venues, makes a difference. A legitimate one.

            • Gail Sheppard says

              Are you sure, my friend? Perhaps you should have written Ebola-21. I feel like that little girl sitting in front of the TV in Poltergeist saying, “It’s here.”

              • Maybe just “Something-21.” Brace yourselves, folks.

                • George Michalopulos says

                  Of course. They’re going to have to roll out something, and quick. Old Joe is losing it and Kommiela is itching to sit in the Oval. The problem is that she has no known constituency, ideology, ideas, etc. Just power for the sake of power.

                  She didn’t sleep with Willie Brown for no reason.

      • Anonymous II says

        This reminds me of the propaganda coming out from Iraq just before the Gulf War…

      • How do we know these films are not
        from the 2020/21 covid/flu season?

        The virus itself is not very dangerous.
        The fear of it most certainly is.

        • That website provides the most reliable information that I’ve found so far, including reports of media bias, and a commendable level of self-reflection and disclosure (considering what they are doing).

          With Covid-19, China put masks on its citizens and opened the factories back up.
          What on earth is this?

        • Sorry. I meant the 2019/20 covid/flu season

          • Reading through the Twitter account that initially posted the relevant video clips, I don’t think there’s anything new to worry about. The journalist on Twitter likens China’s recent response to northwestern province outbreaks to China’s policy in the late 1950s. As millions were starving, China continued to export rice — in order to save face. As people are locked in their homes, starving, contemplating suicide, etc., China has it “all under control” — in order to save face.

  22. Deaths of healthy elderly people in Germany
    after vaccination – Complaints of coercion

    https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=auto&tl=en&u=https://www.pronews.gr/ygeia/963773_thanatoi-ygeion-ilikiomenon-sti-germania-meta-ton-emvoliasmo-kataggelies-gia

    ‘ For the first time, there is a report from eyewitnesses from a Berlin nursing home about the situation after the vaccination. It comes from the AGAPLESION Bethanien Havelgarten nursing home in Berlin-Spandau. There, within four weeks of the first BioNTech / Pfizer Comirnaty vaccination, eight of the 31 seniors who suffered from dementia but were in good physical condition depending on their age before vaccination died …

    From the available 2020News information, patients have not been properly informed about the risks of this vaccine . One reason is that no detailed information has been provided on the novelty of this conditionally certified mRNA vaccine in the European Union …

    A vaccination team consisting of an elderly vaccinator, three assistants and two federal soldiers in camouflage uniforms performed the vaccinations …

    During the first vaccination, an elderly civilian who resisted was held by a nurse under the watchful eyes of German soldiers , an eyewitness said. No court order had been issued for the detention, which is therefore coercive and therefore requires in principle a judicial assessment in each case … ‘

    It seems the Nuremberg Code is no longer accepted in Germany.

  23. Confirmed: PCR Tests CANNOT Detect
    SARS-CoV-2, Cause of COVID19

    English Translation: https://principia-scientific.com/confirmed-pcr-tests-cannot-detect-sars-cov-2-cause-of-covid19/

    Spanish Original: https://www.dsalud.com/reportaje/la-estafa-se-constata-la-pcr-no-detecta-el-sars-cov-2/

    ‘ The genetic sequences used in PCRs to detect suspected SARS-CoV-2 and to diagnose cases of illness and death attributed to Covid-19 are present in dozens of sequences of the human genome itself and in those of about a hundred microbes…

    None of the seven “human coronaviruses” have actually been isolated.
    Moreover, all the sequences of the primers of their respective PCRs as well as those of a large number of fragments of their supposed genomes are found in different areas of the human genome and in genomes of bacteria and archaea.

    THE SEQUENCES OF THE SO-CALLED SARS-COV-2 ARE FOUND BOTH IN HUMANS AND IN NUMEROUS MICROBES!

    …the sequence of that initial PCR primer that is supposed to be specific to SARS-CoV-2 actually corresponds to 74 fragments of the human genome and a hundred microbial fragments as well!

    Finally we decided to test with the initiators of the Japan Protocol, the only one that includes target sequences of the S gene and, the reader will have already guessed, the results were once again similar: a hundred microbe sequences and 93 sequences of the human genome with an identity percentage between 94.12% and 100%!

    CONCLUSIONS

    The consequence of all that we have just explained is clear and immediate: THERE IS NO VALID TEST TO DETECT SARS-COV-2, neither antibody or antigen tests nor RT-PCR. And we included those based on the supposed gene that codes for the S1 or spike protein. And that means that ALL THE NUMBERS OF “CASES”, “INFECTED”, “SICK”, “Asymptomatic” OR “DEAD DUE TO COVID-19” LACK A SCIENTIFIC BASE AND ALL “POSITIVES” ARE FALSE POSITIVES … ‘

    ‘Tis nothing but a Magic Shadow-show

    • Gail Sheppard says

      Guess it shouldn’t surprise us given none of these tests were, themselves, tested. – “Nothin to see here, folks.” Move along.” I feel like we’re in a carnival.

  24. Here’s one that was prepared earlier [2006]:
    To Save the Planet, Kill 90 Percent of People Off, Says UT Ecologist
    https://reason.com/2006/04/03/to-save-the-planet-kill-90-per/

    ‘ A University of Texas professor says the Earth would be
    better off with 90 percent of the human population dead.

    “Every one of you who gets to survive has to bury nine…”

    “This is really an exciting time…Death. This is what awaits us all.
    Death…May you live in interesting times”. ‘

    They’ve been planning this for a while.
    To be fair, they don’t try to hide it.
    So, what are you going to do about it?

  25. My Expulsion from Medical Practice
    https://principia-scientific.com/my-expulsion-from-medical-practice/

    ‘ It’s a very bizarre state of affairs when, as a doctor for over 30 years, I suddenly find myself completely isolated from people I know, and from humanity. In this situation, there seems to be no way to help with healing or caring or treating, because I have been expelled like a priest excommunicated from the church. I have been cancelled.

    This happened because I was not conforming to the religion of medicine. I said things that were against the perceived modus vivendi. I was immediately suspended and completely and utterly cut off, as if I were a dangerous, evil person …

    In this COVID-19 epidemic situation, the simple nutritional supplements that could prevent COVID-19, such as vitamin C, vitamin D, zinc, magnesium, and hydrogen peroxide sprays are looked upon by the medical establishment as being useless and are banned. This is also the case with social media who rely on “fact checkers” who have not been educated in nutrition.

    Hippocrates said “Let food be your medicine and medicine your food.” This applies to an excellent diet that provides the essential nutrients while avoiding excess sugar and processed foods with empty calories, as well as safe and inexpensive vitamin and mineral supplements. It can also apply to drugs that are effective against COVID-19 and do little harm such as hydroxychloroquine/zinc and ivermectin. If everyone would take the vitamin and mineral supplements (vitamin C 1000mg 3x/day or more, vitamin D 5000IU/day, magnesium 400 mg/day, zinc 20 mg/day, etc.) we could end the pandemic in a month. But any doctor who says these things in public will be cancelled …

    The international and USA media make no connection between the fact that people are going to get COVID-19 simply because they haven’t got the immune strength to defend themselves against a virus, any virus! And what about the new COVID-19 variants that may be able to evade current vaccines? Virus variants are nothing new, that’s how viruses propagate, and that’s why the annual flu vaccines aren’t universally effective. Bottom line – the immune system empowered with adequate nutrition and supplementation will likely provide excellent protection — as a strong immune system can generate new antibodies faster than new vaccines can be developed! … ‘

    And there’s the truth of it.

  26. Michael Bauman says

    https://www.goarch.org/chapel/saints?contentid=2334
    This link is to a page describing the Holy New Martyrs of China recognized by the Church. May they be our intercessors for all things regarding China: COVID et. al.

  27. Bill Gates: The Final Solution
    https://www.bitchute.com/video/GsqHwG91MCQG/

    His choice of words is singularly revealing.

  28. Stop Using These Dangerous ‘Brain Scraping’
    COVID Nasal Swabs!

    https://principia-scientific.com/stop-using-these-dangerous-brain-scraping-covid-nasal-swabs/#comment-45994

    ‘ Health care workers often jokingly describe nasopharyngeal swabs – the extra-long Q-tips used for many coronavirus tests – ‘brain-scraping’ implements. But for the Iowa woman, that joke was too near to reality.

    Shortly after she went for COVID-19 testing, the woman’s nose started dripping profusely, her head started hurting and she became so nauseous she was vomiting.

    When her head and neck got stiff and she tasted metal, the woman went to the doctor, where scans revealed a hole at the base of her skull … ‘

    ‘ But for now, let’s try to persuade as many as possible to avoid these totally unnecessary nasal swabs to ‘detect’ COVID because the science proves they are not needed.

    For that look no further than this Yale University study which has found that a coronavirus saliva tests seemed to perform as good as nasal swabs, which may encourage more frequent use of self-collected samples.

    As reported in myhealthyclick.com:

    “Dr. Anne Wyllie of the Yale School of Public Health and her team conducted testing on 70 hospitalized patients who were already tested positive for COVID-19 through nasal swab specimens. After 1 to 5 days of diagnosis, more than 80% of the saliva samples were positive compared to 71% of the nasopharyngeal swab specimens.

    Dr. Wyllie and coauthors published their findings in the New England Journal of Medicine. Dr. Wyllie told Medscape Medical News that 76% of the saliva test was positive at days 6 to 10 after diagnosis compared to 65% of the nasal swab specimens.” ‘

    Yet another unnecessary but dangerous procedure
    while an easier and more accurate one already exists

  29. UK Will Infect Healthy Young People With COVID
    in World’s First Human Challenge Trial:
    Proponents say first human COVID trials will yield valuable information, but critics argue that with no cure for the potentially deadly virus, the trials are unethical.

    ‘ The UK announced Wednesday that it will be the first country to run human challenge trials on COVID-19, a type of study that requires deliberately infecting healthy people with the potentially deadly virus.

    The controversial study — the first of its kind on COVID — is geared toward understanding the virus, testing the effectiveness of current vaccines and accelerating development of newer vaccines, according to a UK government press release.

    Proponents of the strategy say it’s about saving lives by speeding up development of vaccines and understanding the virus. According to The New York Times, scientists and bioethicists say the risk of coronavirus “seriously sickening or killing young, healthy volunteers — the sort of people who would be infected — is low enough as to be outweighed by the possibility of saving tens of thousands of lives.”

    But critics of human challenge trials suggest that infecting healthy people with a potentially deadly virus, for which there is no cure, is unethical. ‘

    But there are cures – cures which do not involve vaccines.
    Are these cures to be part of the test?
    If not, why not?

  30. New Study: Gardasil HPV Vaccine Contains Chemical
    Used in Biological Warfare PMSF, a nerve agent, is used to manufacture HPV vaccines, but it is not supposed to be in the final product. However, new research documents its presence in Merck’s Gardasil and Gardasil 9 HPV vaccines.

    https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/gardasil-hpv-vaccine-contains-chemical-biological-warfare/

    ‘ A new peer-reviewed study, “The Expanding Cocktail of Harmful Ingredients in Human Papillomavirus Vaccines,” by Brawer, A.E. and Sullivan, D.H., documents the presence of undisclosed, highly toxic volatile organic chemicals called AEBSF (aminoethyl benzenesulfonyl fluoride) and PMSF (phenylmethylsulfonyl fluoride) in Merck’s two HPV vaccines — Gardasil and Gardasil 9.

    PMSF, also known as toluene, is a serine protease/acetylcholinesterase inhibitor, which means it can act as a nerve agent to inactivate central nervous system functions. When PMSF blocks the enzyme acetylcholinesterase, the result can be uncontrollable firing of motor signals which can manifest as seizures or other biochemical or physiological disorders. PMSF has been used as a nerve agent in biological warfare.

    PMSF and AEBSF are used to manufacture HPV vaccines, but are not supposed to be in the final product and therefore do not have to be listed as ingredients.

    However, this new study documents that these toxic organic chemicals are in the final vaccine product and likely initiate the onset of a host of serious adverse events that have been reported following HPV inoculations… ‘

    And Merck have no legal liability…!

  31. The country that just forgot about COVID
    https://principia-scientific.com/the-country-that-just-forgot-about-covid/

    ‘ We know the story by now: countries are supposed to do well against the virus when they listen to “public health authorities” and stay home, close their businesses, etc. When countries don’t do well, that’s because their people are misbehaving, being selfish, etc…

    Well, the case of Nepal is interesting. After a lockdown that ended in July, they decided essentially to proceed as normal. They’re a poor country, and they chose the radical, unheard-of approach of overturning a policy that would have had them starving to death.

    And guess what? They’re doing great.

    “Public health officials” are stumped, but at this point who can be surprised by that?

    “It’s as if nothing has happened,” says Sameer Mani Dixit, a public health specialist. “The nightclubs are crowded. Schools and colleges are reopening. Sports venues are full. It doesn’t seem like there is any Covid. It defies logic.” …

    And yet, cases have plunged. ‘

    As one comment on the story reads:

    “This is a political and economic disease.
    Not a physical disease.”

    • Gail Sheppard says

      And as Brendan and FTS have pointed out, it is very much a psychological disease. I will add that fear is a powerful motivator when it comes to making people more compliant.

  32. The [Covid] World Is Suffering From Mass Delusional Psychosis
    https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2021/02/18/the-psychological-state-of-america.aspx?ui=86ea657f0b6d0e537d7640d04bdf8a573e6b19591b8e542f4ddc28b173adc1dd&sd=20160514&cid_source=dnl&cid_medium=email&cid_content=art1HL&cid=20210218_HL2&mid=DM808191&rid=1087228656

    ‘ According to psychiatrist and medical legal expert Dr. Mark McDonald, the true public health crisis is not COVID-19 itself; rather, it’s the fear of the infection, which has “morphed and evolved into a form of mass delusional psychosis”
    Many enter a state of hysteria when they see an unmasked person, even if they look perfectly healthy and clearly are not suffering from any kind of respiratory issue. This is a highly irrational state that has no basis in reality
    Delusion is defined as believing something that doesn’t conform with reality
    There are serious concerns about the lasting effects this widespread insanity will have on children as they grow up. One of the worst traumas children suffer as a result of all this fearmongering is the idea that they may kill their parents or grandparents simply by being around them
    Treating the children’s trauma in therapy is not going to be enough, as parents and other adults are the ones creating the trauma by their own exaggerated fear response. To heal a generation of traumatized children, we must first address the psychosis of the adult population ‘

    ‘ “We started out with fear and hysteria. We moved to delusional psychosis, and now we have group control,” McDonald says. “Now we don’t have police officers and government coming after us. What we have more of is our fellow citizens now castigating us, legally limiting us from getting into vehicles [such as Uber or plane], going into businesses [and] getting jobs.” ‘

    ‘• We must firmly reject masks as a virtue signal; the idea that action taken out of fear — such as donning a mask — is virtuous. Fear is not helpful and never virtuous.

    • We should protect those at greatest risk — meaning elderly, frail individuals with comorbidities and those who are in poor health — using simple, inexpensive and readily available prophylactics, including vitamin D, hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin and zinc.

    • Healthy people should never wear masks, social distance or self-isolate. Not only are these strategies unhealthy from a physical standpoint, they also perpetuate the delusional psychosis gripping the nation and therefore must end. ‘

    The Pied Pipers of Bill-Melin are leading us all to the Gates of Hell.

  33. This calls for a McEnroe moment: “You can NOT be serious!”

    Fauci wins $1 million Israeli prize for ‘defending science’
    https://principia-scientific.com/fauci-wins-1-million-israeli-prize-for-defending-science/

    ‘ Dr. Anthony Fauci, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was awarded Israel’s $1 million Dan David Prize on Monday in recognition of his leadership on HIV research and AIDS relief, his advocacy for the vaccines against coronavirus and for “courageously defending science in the face of uninformed opposition during the challenging COVID crisis.” ‘

    For sheer fatuity, this ranks alongside Kissinger’s Nobel Peace Prize.

  34. Vatican says employees who refuse
    Covid-19 vaccine could lose their jobs

    https://www.rt.com/news/515930-vatican-vaccine-mandatory-covid/

    ‘ The Vatican has effectively made Covid-19 vaccination mandatory for its employees, warning those who decline to receive the shot that they could face dismissal.

    In a seven-page decree, Cardinal Giuseppe Bertello, head of the commission governing Vatican City State, said that getting the jab was “the responsible choice” and that those who refuse to do so could risk termination. The guideline points to a 2011 law which stipulates that employees who refuse “preventive measures” could be disciplined.

    The new policy will allow people with legitimate health reasons to forgo the shot, but such personnel might be reassigned to positions that would have contact with fewer people. Their pay would remain the same even if the new assignment is a demotion.

    Bertello himself tested positive for Covid-19 in December and was quarantined in his apartment until he was cleared to return to his regular duties.

    Vatican City State, the world’s smallest independent nation-state, has a population of around 800 people, but employs more than 4,000 people.

    Pope Francis has been an outspoken proponent of global vaccine drives against the virus. In an interview last month, the pontiff said that getting the shot was an “ethical choice” because “you are gambling with your health… [and] also gambling with the lives of others.”

    However, none of the vaccines currently on the market have undergone studies showing that they prevent transmission or slow the spread of the virus.

    Francis received his first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech drug a day after the Vatican began its vaccination program on January 13. He received his second shot in early February.

    The Pope has slammed apprehension about Covid-19 vaccines as “suicidal denial” and has suggested that it’s everybody’s duty to take the jab. Some Catholics have objected to the shot because tissue from aborted fetuses was used in their development, but the Vatican has insisted that the jabs are still “morally acceptable.”

    The leader of the Catholic Church has been similarly outspoken about his support for controversial lockdown measures. In January, he scolded people who traveled abroad during the holiday season to escape Covid-19 restrictions, accusing them of being irresponsible and only thinking about “having fun.”

    Many other countries around the world have made it clear that people who refuse to be vaccinated will face retribution. In Israel, for example, the government has said that those who decline the jab will be restricted to “supermarkets and pharmacies.” ‘

    How long before Black Bart echoes his Brother…?

  35. Spain: second Pfizer shots halted after 46 nursing
    home residents die after the first shot

    https://thecovidblog.com/2021/02/16/spain-second-pfizer-shots-halted-after-46-nursing-home-residents-die-after-the-first-shot

    ‘ LOS BARRIOS, SPAIN — The Nuestra Señora del Rosario (Our Lady of the Rosary) nursing home is reeling due to mass deaths after mRNA inoculations.

    All residents and workers at the facility received the first dose of Pfizer mRNA in early January, according to Spain mainstream media outlet ABC de Sevilla. Most residents became extremely ill shortly after the shots. It is believed many came down with COVID-19, despite being “vaccinated against it.”

    The Andalusian Health Service reported that at least 46 residents have died since January. For perspective, Our Lady has a maximum capacity of 145 residents. The Junta de Andalucía (regional government) intervened in early February to curtail the death count. But people continued dying. Spain’s Ministry of Health is now in charge of mitigation. The Ministry said in a statement:

    In view of the imminent risk to public health, and in particular for the [residents] and workers of this center, as the current protocol for disinfection and isolation of positive cases cannot be guaranteed.

    The situation remains dire, as at least 28 residents and 12 staff members were COVID-19 positive last week. Health officials halted all further mRNA shots as a result. The Federation of Public Services criticized Our Lady for not taking action sooner. The workers’ union said the response was inadequate after eight people died by January 18. The death count grew to 30 by January 28.

    Spain is continually in the news related to mRNA shots. Health Minister Salvador Illa said in December that his agency is keeping a database of all citizens who refuse the mRNA. He said the list will be shared with all EU members. A healthcare worker in Spain also recently reported that several mRNA recipients have been admitted to Hospitals in the Region of Murcia for encephalitis. ‘

    It seems ‘curtail[ing] the death count’
    does not ‘curtail the death[s]’.

  36. Michael Bauman says

    We had a normal Churching this morning complete with the kiss of peace from our priest 5o the mother and child. God is good!

  37. EPA Approves Chemical ‘Air Treatment’ Against
    COVID, Despite Known Health Hazards

    https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/epa-approves-chemical-air-treatment-covid-health-hazards/?utm_source=salsa&eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=7669d08c-efe7-4459-b6c6-06e4f4efc065

    ‘Georgia and Tennessee are first states to gain approval to diffuse a chemical known to trigger asthma and other serious respiratory illnesses throughout government buildings, healthcare and food processing facilities and intrastate transportation…

    According to the EPA, the Grignard Pure product has the ability to “permeate and kill. . . over 98 percent of COVID-19 [virus] particles.” Dispersal of Grignard Pure is proposed “via a building’s HVAC system, or using conventional haze/fog machines typically deployed in entertainment venues and in fire training.” ‘

    Given that the Sars-Cov-2 (COVID-19 causing) virus has never been isolated,
    how can the EPA possibly know that the Grignard Pure product has the ability
    to “permeate and kill. . . over 98 percent of COVID-19 [virus] particles“?

  38. Big Brother’s Biometric Passports to Check Your Vaccine Status
    https://principia-scientific.com/big-brothers-biometric-passports-to-check-your-vaccine-status/

    ‘ Ping Identity has introduced the Project COVID Freedom biometric vaccine status solution to enable healthcare providers, businesses, and individuals to share proof of COVID-19 test results and vaccinations with ease and speed…

    Andre Durand, CEO and founder of Ping Identity, reiterated the ease with which their solution can handle vaccine proof issues: “Achieving normalcy post-pandemic will demand a level of verifiable safety in the places where people come together most. Using secure and private technology that’s easily accessible from a smartphone, Project COVID Freedom helps simplify the vaccination process so individuals, businesses and healthcare providers can increase in-person safety without compromising users’ digital identity,” Durand said… ‘

    What has this to do with simplify the vaccination process?

    Anyway, Project COVID Freedom is Project COVID Slavery.

  39. The Fauci/COVID-19 Dossier: Revealing 22 Years of Research
    https://principia-scientific.com/the-fauci-covid-19-dossier-revealing-22-years-of-research/

    Dr David E Martin gets the goods on Fauci. His video was deleted by YouTube.
    The link above is to a mirror where it can be accessed.
    His 205 page dossier, dealing with the evidence, can be accessed at:
    https://f.hubspotusercontent10.net/hubfs/8079569/The FauciCOVID-19 Dossier.pdf

    (Please note: the full line from https to pdf required to access.)

    He discusses the dossier in the video and then says what the public need to do if any of the miscreants (Fauci) are to be brought to justice and the scam ended.

    The first 26 pages detail the case. The remainder lists the commercial patents.

    David Martin has fashioned the silver bullet.
    Only the people can fire it.

  40. Predatory testing labs are complicit in the COVID crime
    https://principia-scientific.com/predatory-testing-labs-are-complicit-in-the-covid-crime/

    ‘ If you, or someone close to you, is being pressured to take the COVID PCR test, ask the clinic or the doctor’s office how many cycles the test will deploy.

    Chances are high they’ll tell you they don’t know, and only the testing lab has that information. Ask for the name of the lab.

    Call the lab and ask them. Chances are high they won’t tell you. Inform them that the number of cycles affects the outcome of the test. Make them aware you know this.

    Except in Florida … US labs are under no obligation to inform the patient or the doctor how many cycles the PCR test deploys. They never inform doctor or patient.

    Why? Because a crime is underway. The positive or negative result of any given PCR test is hanging in the balance, depending on the number of cycles.

    A cycle is a quantum leap in magnification of the swab sample taken from the patient.

    As even Fauci has asserted, at 35 cycles and above, the test result is useless.

    Worse, at 35 cycles and above, the tendency of the test is to spit out false-positives.

    Yet … the CDC and FDA recommend doing the test at up to 40 cycles; and therefore, most if not all labs will follow that guideline.
    This is a disaster for the patient, and it results in a flagrant inflation of COVID case numbers, which in turn provide a rationale for the lockdowns.

    People at testing labs who have a few active brain cells to rub together know all this. They keep their mouths shut. They’re complicit in the crime.

    They’re part of a silent bureaucracy that is there to rule The People.

    Comments:

    Finn McCool: Ask him [the doctor/vaccinator] if he will accept all legal and financial liability for recommending that he inject you with an untested and unproven chemical.
    Ask what is your absolute risk of dying from a SARS-CoV2 infection and how this injection will reduce it. Given your personal circumstances.
    Ask him if it will stop you from being infected with SARS-CoV2
    Ask him if it will protect others from being infected by you.
    Ask him if the ‘cure’ will have no ill effects if you happen to be infected by the wild virus.
    Ask him to explain to you what mRNA is and it’s role in human cells and explain how the mRNA in the injection will work to inoculate you.
    Ask him why multiple injections are deemed necessary.
    Ask him about what side effects have already been reported and how he is personally reporting side effects.
    Ask what qualifications he has in immunology and virology.
    Ask him how many billions of £ Pfizer has been fined in the past for improper treatment and why…

    Photios: Here is a quotation from the website of Pall Mall Medical, a private medical services company in England:
    https://www.pallmallmedical.co.uk/tests-scans-and-diagnostics/coronavirus-test/

    “Our PCR swab test will determine whether you have an active coronavirus infection, even in asymptomatic cases (when you have no symptoms). This test is highly accurate at 99.9% with the correct sampling technique and approved by Public Health England…”

    The test is described thus:

    Type: COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) testing by PCR assay
    Method: Nasal/Throat Swab
    Kit: Postal pack to complete at home
    Results: Typically in 4-6 days from order placement
    Accuracy: 100% Specificity & 98% Sensitivity
    When: following onset of symptoms

    I can find no mention on the website of the number of amplification cycles used.

    Given that ‘an active coronavirus infection’ is as likely to mean ‘having the common cold’ as ‘having COVID-19’, £129 does seem to be a lot to pay for such a non-specific diagnosis.

  41. Bacterial Pneumonia Caused Most Deaths
    in 1918 Influenza Pandemic

    https://principia-scientific.com/bacterial-pneumonia-caused-most-deaths-in-1918-influenza-pandemic/

    “The weight of evidence we examined from both historical and modern analyses of the 1918 influenza pandemic favors a scenario in which viral damage followed by bacterial pneumonia led to the vast majority of deaths,”

    says co-author NIAID Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D.

    “In essence, the virus landed the first blow
    while bacteria delivered the knockout punch.”

    And what is an excellent environment for growing Streptococcus Pneumoniae?
    A respiratory tract whose natural respiration is restricted by a cloth face mask.
    Fauci knows this…

  42. White House Enlists Social Media Giants
    to Suppress Vaccine ‘Misinformation’

    https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/white-house-enlists-social-media-suppress-vaccine-misinformation/?utm_source=salsa&eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=711fe5d0-cb44-45eb-8f85-d5dba5495368

    ‘ The White House is asking Big Tech giants Facebook, Twitter and Alphabet Inc.’s Google to “clamp down on chatter that deviates from officially distributed COVID-19 information,” according to the New York Post and other news reports.

    Reuters reported that Biden, concerned that “fear about taking the vaccine has emerged as a major impediment” to his administration’s pandemic plan, wants help from the social media moguls to keep “misinformation” from going viral. … ‘

    In August, 2020 Children’s Health Defense filed a lawsuit charging Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg and several fact-checking organizations with censoring truthful public health posts and for fraudulently misrepresenting and defaming the children’s health organization.

    The complaint alleges that Facebook has insidious conflicts with the pharmaceutical industry and health agencies and raised detailed factual allegations regarding the CDC, CDC Foundation, and WHO’s extensive relationships and collaborations with Facebook and Zuckerberg calling into question Facebook’s joint action in a censorship campaign with the government.

    Earlier this month, Kennedy’s Instagram account was deplatformed without advance notice for what the media claimed were “false COVID claims” or “vaccine misinformation.” Some reports falsely characterized Kennedy as an “anti-vaxxer.”

    Kennedy unequivocally rejects those characterizations. He wrote in response to Instagram’s censorship:

    “Every statement I put on Instagram was sourced from a government database, from peer-reviewed publications and from carefully confirmed news stories. None of my posts were false. Facebook, the pharmaceutical industry and its captive regulators use the term ‘vaccine misinformation’ as a euphemism for any factual assertion that departs from official pronouncements about vaccine health and safety, whether true or not. This kind of censorship is counterproductive if our objective is a safe and effective vaccine supply.”

    As Kennedy has stated numerous times, “for a democracy to function, civil debate of issues — including vaccine science — must be allowed. Censorship of that debate is anathema to democracy.” … ‘

    In whom do we trust? Jeff, Jack ‘n’ Sleepy Joe?
    Or RFK Jnr? I go with the latter.

    • George Michalopulos says

      You see, this is a twofer: first my assessment that the Left is not confident and second, they’re eating each other. RFK, Jr, seriously? You’re gonna throw him under bus?

      I guess you will if that’s what it takes to control the narrative.

      • Kennedy is not ‘on board’with the narrative.
        So they will run him down with the bus, if they can.

  43. Air Force Surgeon: It’s Your ‘Duty’ to Get COVID Vaccine
    https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/air-force-duty-covid-vaccine/

    The transcript of a mandatory video briefing for airmen at a Texas Air Force base reveals false statements made by Lt. Gen. Dorothy A. Hogg about COVID vaccine safety, and shows a clear intent to coerce, not inform.

    ‘ Hogg minimizes side effects with her personal experiences while ignoring the alarming data in the VAERS database:

    “I got the vaccine even after I had COVID, because I would rather have my arm hurt and some fatigue for a day and experience the effect of COVID again. The CDC recommends vaccination even if you have already had COVID-19. Since you may be able to contract the virus more than once. Every one of my patients who got vaccinated all responded differently. For me, I just had a sore arm. I was a bit more tired than usual, after the vaccine. You cannot contract COVID-19 from the vaccines as they do not contain the live virus. You may, however, experience one or more side effects. Possible side effects include a sore arm, headache, fever and body aches, which will all resolve in a few days. These are all signs the vaccine is working to build immunity.”

    As of February 5, 2021, VAERS data include 12,697 reports of COVID-19 vaccine adverse reactions including: 653 deaths, 1382 hospitalizations, 2792 urgent care visits, 1654 office visits, 154 cases of anaphylaxis, and 145 cases of Bell’s Palsy.

    Hogg is seemingly unaware that the VAERS is reporting a far greater rate of reactions to COVID vaccines than to the influenza vaccine, while she falsely claims the vaccine “has undergone the most intensive safety monitoring in U.S. history.” … ‘

  44. PCR Testing Saga: Were We Duped?
    https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/pcr-testing-incorrect-use/?itm_term=home

    ‘Were federal health officials and experts at WHO really unaware that the recommended high cycle count (CT) for PCR tests would produce an exorbitant number of false positives for COVID?’

    Story at-a-glance:

    Curative offers a PCR test using spit rather than swabs from the back of your nasal cavity. Initially only authorized for use on symptomatic patients, the company has requested the U.S. Food and Drug Administration expand its authorization for use on asymptomatic individuals.
    According to company data, the spit test accurately identifies about 90% of positive cases when compared against a nasopharyngeal PCR test set to 35 cycle threshold (CT).
    According to the FDA, that comparative CT is too low, and will produce too many false negatives. This, despite the scientific consensus, which states anything over 35 CTs is scientifically unjustifiable as it produces enormous amounts of false positives.
    According to an April 2020 study, a CT of 17 must be used to obtain 100% confirmed real positives. Above 17 cycles, accuracy drops dramatically. At 33 cycles, the false positive rate is 80%. Beyond 34 cycles, the false positive rate reaches 100%.
    Because the PCR test cannot discern between live virus and dead, noninfectious viral debris, the timing of the test is important. Recent research shows the median time from symptom onset to viral clearance confirmed by viral culture is seven days, whereas the PCR test continues to detect nonviable (noninfectious) SARS-CoV-2 for a median of 34 days.

    For several months, experts have highlighted the true cause behind the COVID-19 pandemic, namely the incorrect use of PCR tests set at a ridiculously high cycle count (CT), which falsely labels healthy people as “COVID-19 cases.” In reality, the PCR test is not a proper diagnostic test, although it has been promoted as such.

    An important question that demands an answer is whether the experts at our federal health agencies and the World Health Organization were really too ignorant to understand the implications of using this test at excessive CT, or whether it was done on purpose to create the illusion of a dangerous, out-of-control pandemic. ‘

    My guess is it was done on purpose.

  45. Lawyers Promise ‘Nurember[g] Trials’
    Against All Behind COVID Scam

    https://principia-scientific.com/lawyers-promise-nurember-trials-against-all-behind-covid-scam/

    ‘ Right now, a second Nuremberg tribunal that is in preparation, with a class action lawsuit being set up under the aegis of thousands of lawyers worldwide behind the American-German lawyer Reiner Fuellmich, who is prosecuting those responsible for the Covid-19 scandal manipulated by the Davos Forum.

    In this respect, it is worth recalling that Reiner Fuellmich is the lawyer who succeeded in condemning the automobile giant Volkswagen in the case of the tampered catalytic converters. And it is this same lawyer who succeeded in condemning Deutsche Bank as a criminal enterprise. … ‘

    This guy has a record of success

  46. Schwab’s Fourth Phase
    https://4m4knb2y34ezqibv33ezmzbph4–www-maurizioblondet-it.translate.goog/la-quarta-fase-di-schwab/

    ‘ “ We all know, but don’t always pay enough attention to, the frightening scenario of a global cyberattack that would lead to the complete shutdown of power, transportation, hospital services and our society in his outfit. The covid-19 crisis is, by comparison, a small disruption compared to a serious cyberattack. We have to ask ourselves, in such a situation, how we could allow this to happen despite all the information about the possibility and severity of an attack with such risks. Cybercrime and global cooperation should be high on the global agenda. ”

    A simulation of the attack has already taken place

    We recall the Event 201 held in New York under the auspices of the World Economic Forum in October 2019 with the Rockefeller Foundation, Bill Gates and John Hopkins, simulated a new coronavirus pandemic that spreads all over the world and causes serious disruptions to the global economy; and a few weeks later the first case of COVID-19 appeared. The gentlemen were ready for the thing that the simulation simulated to “prevent” ..

    It will surprise you to learn that on February 3 the World Economic Forum ( announced that next July will take place the simulation of a global cyber attack that will hit the supply networks and the “shutdown” of the internet or theft of private data held by the banking system? tutorial is called Cyber ​​Polygon 2021 on the newly updated event website, it is warned that, given the massive digitization in progress of every economic activity, itself made necessary by the “pandemic” and the lockdowns, it happens that “a single vulnerable connection is enough to collapse the entire system, with a domino effect”, adding that “a secure approach to digital development today will determine the future of humanity for decades to come”. …

    Does the fact that Cyber ​​Polygon 2021 is set for July mean that the predicted hacker attack will happen after that date? Nothing is less certain. …

    The Orcs are coming…

  47. Synthetic mRNA Covid vaccines: A Risk-Benefit Analysis
    https://off-guardian.org/2021/02/22/synthetic-mrna-covid-vaccines-a-risk-benefit-analysis/

    With a “vaccine” based on untested technology, and safety trials still ongoing, is it safe to take the shot? And does it even work? And does a disease with an IFR of 0.2% even justify that risk? …

    This is the absolute risk reduction for Pfizer/BioNtech, each group had over 18,000 people!

    Injection Group: 8/18,198 = 0.04%
    Placebo Group: 162/18,325= 0.88%

    Therefore, the absolute risk reduction for Primary
    Efficacy Endpoint is 0.84%. (ie. 0.88-0.04)

    This means, that someone who takes the Pfizer/BioNtech injection, has less than 1% chance of reducing at least one symptom of non-severe “Covid” for a period of 2 months. This means that someone who takes this injection has over 99% chance that it won’t work, regarding the efficacy. Over 100 people have to be injected for it to “work” in one person. …

    … for Moderna 81.9% experienced any systemic reaction. Grade 3 reactions (considered severe) were experienced by 17.4%. This is 79X more likely than the incidence of severe Covid in the Moderna group. (17.4/.22=79X) Based on preliminary reports of adverse events …

    This is an injury rate of 1 in every 40 jabs. This means that the 150 shots necessary to avert one mild case of COVID will cause serious injury to at least three people.“ …

    According to the data, and elaborated by Tal Zaks (CMO of Moderna) the trials are not designed to demonstrate a reduction in transmission, due to “operational realities”. It is therefore baffling how medical doctors and public health officials are proclaiming these SGTs will promote herd immunity. …

    Dr Michael Yeadon, former Vice-President of Pfizer has also stated [emphasis added]:

    “All vaccines against the SARS-CoV-2 virus are by definition novel. If any such vaccine is approved for use under any circumstances that are not EXPLICITLY experimental, I believe that recipients are being misled to a criminal extent.” …

    To exercise informed consent, any recipient of this SGT [Synthetic Gene Therapy] must be made aware that they are now participating in a clinical trial. There is no claim about reduction of transmission. All risk-benefit analysis must be focused on the individual, as is treatment with a drug therapy.

    Therefore, the potential trial recipient must understand IFR, the absolute risk reduction in symptoms, and potential side effects, including ADE as well as efficacious alternatives for treatment if the need arises.

    If the potential trial subject is not relayed this information, or does not comprehend the information, it is a blatant violation of Nuremberg code. …

  48. WHO insiders blow the whistle on total immunity
    of Bill Gates through GAVI – global vaccine alliance

    https://www.bitchute.com/video/s8ywf3Y47oZ4/

    [Video 28:37]

    Why would Bill want total criminal immunity?

  49. NBC Nightly News Admits COVID-19 Doesn’t Even EXIST!!
    https://odysee.com/@HighImpactFlix:ca/COVID19DoesntExist:9

    [Video 8:20]

    No Sars-Cov-2 virus isolate? No valid Sars-Cov-2 virus detection test…
    No valid Sars-Cov-2 virus detection test? No valid reason for lockdown. None!

  50. Murder by Misinformation – Dr Janet Menage, BMJ
    https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n314/rr-8

    [This is a BMJ Rapid Response letter to :
    Covid-19: Social murder, they wrote – elected, unaccountable,
    and unrepentant, by Kamran Abbasi.

    https://www.bmj.com/content/372/bmj.n31 ]

    ‘ From a medical perspective, it was clear early on in the crisis that disregarding clinical acumen in favour of blind obedience to abnormal ventilation measures, reliance on an unsuitable laboratory test for diagnosis and management, and abandoning the duty of care to elderly hospitalised patients and those awaiting diagnosis and treatment of serious diseases, would create severe problems down the line.
    Doctors who had empirically found effective pharmaceutical remedies and preventative treatments were ignored, or worse, denigrated or silenced. Information regarding helpful dietary supplements was suppressed. …

    When medical professionals allow themselves to be manipulated by corrupt politicians and influenced by media propaganda instead of being guided by their own ethical principles and common sense based on decades of clinical experience, the outlook becomes very bleak indeed. … ‘

    ‘Murder by Misinformation’:
    that is exactly what it is.

  51. UK Health Authorities: Not A Single Case Of Flu Detected This Year
    https://summit.news/2021/02/23/uk-health-authorities-announce-not-a-single-case-of-flu-detected-this-year/

    ‘ Health authorities in England have announced that not a single case of influenza has been detected this year, with one professor suggesting that mask wearing should be kept in place during winter to drive down flu deaths to “zero.” …

    Professor Christina Pagel went on to suggest that some of the measures brought in to fight coronavirus could be kept in place to combat flu infections.

    Asserting that “we can reduce flu deaths to pretty much zero,” Pagel said it is “worth encouraging people to wear masks” on public transport and in other busy environments every winter. … ‘

    [BUT]

    ‘ Last month, top epidemiologist Knut Wittkowski asserted that, “Influenza has been renamed COVID-19 in large part.”

    According to the CDC, the cumulative positive influenza test rate from late September into the week of December 19th was just 0.2%, compared to 8.7% from a year before.

    According to Wittkowski, former Head of Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Research Design at Rockefeller University, this was because many flu infections are being incorrectly labeled as coronavirus cases. … ‘

    Given that Sars-Cov-2 has not been isolated, it cannot be detected by PCR test.
    Given that Sars-Cov-2 cannot be detected, it cannot be used to diagnose Covid-19.

  52. Mark E. Fisus says

    To those heaping scorn on the bishops and synods, I’m curious – what’s your end game? What do you expect to happen/hope to achieve from all this bluster?

    • Gail Sheppard says

      No one is “heaping scorn” on anyone. They do it to themselves. Why would we have an “end game” other than wishing they would stop their nonsense?

    • The “end game” is patristic, honest, and of course loving leadership directing faithful toward the Kingdom of God and away from the lies and deceit of fallen men.