By “you”, I mean the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese. As for who the “us” is, it’s all the other Orthodox Christians in America who are not affiliated with the GOA.
All frivolity aside, as you can see from the flyer to the left, St Paraskevi, a parish in New York State, has pretty much come out of the closet, so to speak.
You can dress this up any way you want to but it is part and parcel of the homosexual agenda. It is, if anything, a ratchet up from last year’s notorious Big Fat Greek Gay Baptism. Whether this is be design or by naivete, I can’t say for sure at this point (although I do have my suspicions).
What I can say is that, since this is a “ministry” in a church that is directly under the omorphor of Archbishop Elpidophoros raises interesting questions (to say the least).
Please allow me to cut the crap and get straight to the point: we should not be beguiled by the sympathies expressed in this flyer which are directed toward the parents of homosexually-inclined children. Soothing words to the contrary, this is not really a “ministry” for parents who have “a child who is struggling with same-sex attraction”. It is instead, pure and simple, an imitation of a ruse first used by homosexual dissidents (and other cultural Marxists) within the mainstream Protestant denominations going all the way back to the 70s.
It’s the classic camel’s-nose-under-the-tent ruse first used against mainstream Protestant denominations going all the way back to the 70s. All they wanted then was “dialogue”, then “inclusion”, then before they knew it, the traditionalists who built those institutions were left freezing out in the cold while the camel was sleeping snuggly in the tent. A tent which earlier, stalwart generations had built.
Unfortunately for the good people of St Paraskevi who are being beguiled by this hogwash, too much water has gone under the bridge lo, these last five decades. Unlike the 70s, secular culture now does not accept the terms that were used back then; i.e. that some of their children may “struggle with same-sex attraction”. Far from it. As Yosemite Sam would say, “them’s fightin’ words”.
I worry that the good parishioners of St Paraskevi Shrine may soon find out that the Brownshirts of 2020s Weimerika will soon come knocking on their door, seeking to set them straight (as it were). Because, you see, there is no “struggle”, there is no “suffering” with same-sex attraction –at all. Because you see, God “made them that way” and “God doesn’t make mistakes”.
If you try telling them to explain where trannies fit into this rationale, then expect some serious invective hurled your way. I mean seriously, God must have made a mistake if your eight-year-old daughter is a tomboy or if you want to castrate your effeminate son, n’est pas? Right now, the only hope we have is some ten years down the road, some really greedy lawyers get on the band wagon and start suing the butchers who mutilated children (as well as their parents, school counsellors, and assorted psychologists).
Some might say that it’s too early to write off the GOA, that this particular community is located in one of the bluest states of the Union and is headed by an archbishop whose leftist inclinations are apparent for all to see. Perhaps this is the case.
However it would be nice to hear what the other bishops of the Assembly of Canonical Bishops of America have to say about this matter. No doubt, some will have nothing to say at all, especially if they are in the Northeast. This may include bishops who are not in the GOA. On the other hand, I can imagine a GOA bishop or two who would object to this. It’s hard to say.
Regardless, it’s high time for the ACOB to stand up and say something, anything. After all, their precursor (SCOBA) showed no fear back in 2003 when they spoke up forcefully against the entire concept of “gay marriage”. If memory serves, the words they used were something to this effect: “The Orthodox Church cannot and will not condone gay marriage” (emphasis added). Talk about fightin’ words.
What a difference twenty years have made. I don’t expect a complete one-eighty from what SCOBA put out in 2003 but I’m not holding my breath either. If anything, I sense only timidity coming from the present episcopate.
What is not hard to envision is that the wedge that presently exists between the GOA and all the other jurisdictions is only going to widen. In fact, I daresay that many Greek-Americans will find it rather easy to “shake the dust off their feet” as they leave the jurisdiction of their birth should this not be nipped in the bud.
I thought we were supposed to talk to a priest or a spiritual father or mother about things we were struggling with. Are the answers no longer to be found with Holy Scripture, Holy Fathers or within the Church? Are we now going to replace the means of our salvation with group therapy? Lord have mercy!
Wow! I just read that OCU is changing to December 25 for the Nativity celebration and that really shocked me. But this sort of tops that, in a different way. I have close relatives in that parish and have heard of miracles from the shrine and spring. I’ll certainly inquire about what my relatives think about this. Fortunately, I really don’t believe I’ll be surprised or disappointed by what they think.
You make a good point. The tools of the Church are there to be used, bring the Bishop to the parish if needed, we need to see them much more often speaking to the difficult passions of our time which are swallowing up the vulnerable.
I agree with everything you stated. Comment from a blog:
“What we are wrestling with are hosts of darkness, legions of hell, demons devouring our planet. We are in an epic battle of light versus darkness. For decades now, American children have had their bodies and minds altered to be opened up to demonic possession–from pharmaceutical drugs, street drugs, violent video games and media content, toxic preservatives in their food, social media, brainwashing in schools, hormones in water and soil, poisons in the environment. It’s been a full assault on their bodies and minds, conditioning them to wokeness, to physical sickness, to violent tendencies, to hormonal imbalances, to socialism, and absolutely to mental illness — all of which has conformed them to wide scale demon possession. Sometimes I meet someone and honestly cannot tell if they are really human or zombie or machine. The root cause of a lot of mental illness comes from another dimension, the one we are waging war against, following the lead of our King and Savior, the angelic commanders of his hosts, and our Lady Protectress. We must continue to pray and put on the armor of God daily because the battle is all around us.”
Holy crap! That’s the parish I belong to. I’ve got to tell my brother as my nephew attends Sunday school there as well. There’s a reason why I’ve always felt a kindred spirit to Greek old calendarists and not to the new calendar Greek Orthodoxy I belong to. I first noticed the decay in the 1990s, no longer emphasizing the need for fasting, (or worse confession), Parents waiting longer and longer to baptise their kids, and basically eliminating immersion in the font. Cozying up to Latins and signing agreements recognizing each other’s sacraments. And as of late vilifying anti-ecumenists, endorsing it in their Crete Synod which they proclaim to this day to be a binding pan Orthodox council. Phyletism and hatred against other Orthodox specifically Slavs. The leniency with which apostolic succession is taken, adopting the western heterodox understanding that laying on of hands is the sole criteria apart from right belief.
Yes the old calendar churches are true and will never accept this woke ideological agenda
I agree. It’s too bad they are not canonical also.
It is, indeed, too bad, as the only thing they’re credited with doing wrong is drawing a line in the sand in defense of Orthodoxy.
That, and the endless schisms that they have among themselves…
I’m thinking of two friends of mine, both middle-aged married men with large numbers of children, who converted to Orthodoxy from Protestantism (one passing through Byzantine Catholicism on the way), and were baptized in canonical Orthodox jurisdictions (one being the Moscow Patriarchate!)… and then both jumped ship for “true Orthodox” old-calendarist jurisdictions within a couple of years afterward. I was so delighted that both came to Orthodoxy, and so grieved and confused by the continuing ferment that followed.
I can imagine.
It’s a myth that old calendarists have schismed into many sects. Canonical Orthodoxy being in the same boat has the Ukraine OCU fiasco which dwarfs any old calender schism. A few months ago N Macedonia an entire nation was in schism. Here in Queens NY there is a new calendar Greek parish in schism for 40 years ,(St. Phanourios in Woodside) You have the charismatic Orthodox created by former new calendarists. The impantokratoros website is a new calendar schismatic offshoot of the CoG. In Australia you have the autocephalous Greek Orthodox church of America and Australia (Google it).They control one of the largest and oldest parishes in Australia and have a few parishes under them. Also the EP/CoG constantly slander the old calendarist by calling any schismatic an old calendarists, for example when Filaret Denisenko ordained Greek priests for Odessa , they claimed they ordained “old calendarists”. In reality the guy he ordained bishop Dimitrios Kalis was a new calender priest from the CoG. Over 90 percent of Greeks belong to the same two synods as has been the case for 80 years
Interesting how we easily fall into false narratives (myself included).
How very interesting, indeed.
They weren’t excommunicated, they abadonded the canonical church entirely and declared everyone else to be heretics regardless of whether those jurisdictions were actually on board with ecumenism or not. If we look at the history of schismatics like this such as the Old Believers it was usually more about them not wanting to be under anyone else’s authority than anything. Now the Old Calendarists are irrelevant. This isn’t Orthodoxy, this is Protestantism.
That’s nonsense. Everyone was making statements of excommunications towards each other during those years. There are no saints of the new calender or canonical churches that have ever claimed old calendarists are not Orthodox (Nicholas Planas, John Maximovitch).. There are some who have been denied glorification because of their view that old calendarists are just opposing camps of the same Church (Elder Zervakos &, the incorrupt Photios Kontoglu, throw in Augustine Kantiotis). Those who will be glorified saints soon were in communion with old calendarists but not the GOA:- Fr. Seraphim Rose, Brother Jose Munoz, Met Philaret of NY. It is the canons themselves that allow for cessation of commemoration and walling off unlike the OCU, Ohrid, which are political. Also just 3 weeks ago I got into an argument from a seminary graduate from Greece. He was defending the legitimacy of the OCU by “all of a sudden” the Church of Greece discovering instances of parralel synods in church history (just a few years ago they claimed it never happened in church history ever it was an old calender invention) now they legitimize the Ukraine fiasco by talking up parralel synods such as the Meletians of Antioch, the OCA and ROCOR,
“It’s the classic camel’s-nose-under-the-tent ruse first used against mainstream Protestant denominations going all the way back to the 70s.”
As a former Lutheran minister who watched this unfold firsthand in the Lutheran church while attending a liberal Lutheran seminary in the early 1970s, George is absolutely correct. Before I left the Lutherans a decade later, the elevating of gays to the ministry had made the front page of The Lutheran magazine, to enlighten all Lutherans throughout North America. Today, they proudly boast of having elevated their first transgender bishop. Let those who have eyes see and those who have ears hear.
This is either completely insane or … No. This is demonic. It is unacceptable. Parents of children “struggling” with LGBTQ* are not the only problem. The bigger problem is this world gone mad and a race to suck people in as accomplices that should know better. Bishops and priests associated with this parish are culpable, the parents too and everybody who knows the truth but is cowering in the corner afraid to speak up.
You and me. We are responsible for this.
I will see if there’s any outcry. A few of the traditional family members had already left years ago when a previous priest began bringing infant girls into the altar for the 40 day presentation. The old people like my dad don’t know understand what all these controversies are about, my brother will be heartbroken as his son (my nephew) really likes going to church. Unfortunately most Greeks are liberals (and gay) which probably explains this ministry. Nothing like a high ranking member or archon with money whose son is a homosexual trying to justify his offspring behaviour with money.
This is almost an exact replay of the decay of the Episcopal and pretty much all of the mainline protestant denominations. If money speaks so loudly and if only the activists are “active” then the Greek Church will not lumber down the hill to hell they will go headlong from here. It is not a slippery slope it is a snowball effect.
This 40th day presentation is done in the Antiochian Archdiocese and it is known for being pretty much on the conservative side when it comes to the Orthodox Faith. . . .
Yes, the way churching is done varies widely, and it has nothing to do with liberalism or conservatism per se.
(Personally I think neither boys nor girls should be brought into the altar, nor anyone else who does not have actual business being there. But )
Unfortunately very true.
Peter
This is either completely insane or … No. This is demonic. It is unacceptable. Parents of children “struggling” with LGBTQ* are not the only problem. The bigger problem is this world gone mad and a race to suck people in as accomplices that should know better. Bishops and priests associated with this parish are culpable, the parents too and everybody who knows the truth but is cowering in the corner afraid to speak up.
You and me. We are responsible for this.
“You and me. We are responsible for this.”
I am not sure of that. Perhaps it is beyond our control and we should escape into the prayer.
“But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not, (let him that readeth understand,) then let them that be in Judaea flee to the mountains.”
When will you love LGBT+ people like Jesus commanded to you? You claim to be an Orthodox Christian but are constantly judging others. You have one role: LOVE EVERYONE NO MATTER WHAT! Please stop spreading your hate agenda!
This is one of the few comments of yours I can post because most of them are as hateful as they are ridiculous.
I have a couple of questions for you:
1. When did Jesus command us to love LGBT people? I don’t think He ever made that distinction. People are people.
2. Why do you think being opposed to the Church messing with the minds and bodies of children shows a lack of love? We don’t want to change these children. We aren’t the ones making decisions for them they may later regret. We’re not the ones telling them the bodies God gave them are “wrong.” We think parents, and certainly the Church, should help young people love the bodies God gave them and put off defining themselves (as homosexual) in a way that is inconsistent with the Church’s teachings. We also think they should be allowed to reach adulthood intact, emotionally, spiritually and physically. Parents are supposed to “parent” children, which includes giving them a solid footing in the teachings of the Church. Priests are supposed to help them with that. If classes and support groups are needed because children are struggling with anything, it should be directed toward changing the parents to help them embrace the teachings of the Church and to pass that onto their children.
3. Presumably you’re Orthodox (although you may NOT be). Why are you coming on our blog to judge us always finding us lacking? Since you know so much about the Church and basic Christian love, why don’t you demonstrate it and leave us alone?
We have no “hate” agenda, Linda (or whoever you are).
Why can’t you accept our God given free will without passing judgement on how we use it? We don’t go out of our way to send you hateful, judgmental emails (were you brave enough to identify yourself), cannot we not ask the same of you? Please stop.
I don’t want to see them even though I delete them. Surely you can find a better use of your time.
Amen and amen to everything that Gail has written in response to you, Linda. I agree with her wholeheartedly. You are making a naïve error in judgement, in my estimation. Please take the time to reconsider this matter because your own salvation may depend upon it.
Deviant sexual behavior like homosexuality and transgenderism is destructive to both soul and body. The decision by responsible parents to steer their adolescent children clear of this insanity is itself the very expression of love needed in the situation. If, on the other hand, some Orthodox parents coddle their children in the name of “love” and allow them to go off into this dark area of sexuality, they are acting as enablers, much like those who would blithely buy a bottle of vodka for an active alcoholic. Enablers like this share some measure of condemnation for the ultimate destruction of those whom they claim to “love”.
When Jesus commanded us to love people,
he did not command us to love their sins.
Actually Jesus said to love your neighbor as yourself. Also love your neighbor as God loves you.
Problem is many people do not love themselves.
Interesting to note that every organization sets limits to their area of operation But when the Church sets limits of what it means to follow Jesus, people get bent out of shape. We operate with a very faulty definition of love.
“We operate with a very faulty definition of love.”
Much of the confusion stems from English use of love
to translate both ἔρως (érōs) and ἀγάπη (agápē).
The two are not the same – and
(as Michael Cain might have said):
“Not many people know that.”
And for all practical purposes, we’ve now lost the ability to use “charity” as a suitable English translation for agápē…though the translators of the Authorized Version (KJV) used it that way.
The KJV committee did not create this usage themselves.
Let us look to I Cor xiii 13 for some historical context:
Wycliffe Early Version (c 1384):
Nowe forsothe dwellen feith, hope, and charite, thes thre;
forsoth the mooste of thes is charite.
Purvey’s Revision of Wycliffe (c 1388):
And now dwellen feith, hope, and charite, these thre ;
but the most of these is charite.
Nisbet’s Scots Rendition of Purvey (c 1520):
And now duellis faith, hope, and cheritee, thir thre ;
bot the maast of thame is cheritee.
Tynedale’s 1st Edn (1525/6):
Nowe abideth fayth/hope/and love/even thes
se thre: but the chefe of these is love.
Tynedale’s 2nd Edn (1534/5):
Now abideth fayth hope and love even these thre:
but the chefe of these is love.
KJV (1611):
And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three;
but the greatest of these is charity.
You shall not lie with a male as with a woman. It is an abomination.
Leviticus 18:22
Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’
This is the first and great commandment.
And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ †
On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
Matthew 22:37-40
To tell the Truth is not hateful. To live in the Truth is not hateful.
The commandments that we as Orthodox Christians are to live by is spelled out quite clearly in the passage from Matthew quoted above. We are first to love God and we do this by keeping His commandments and not do the things He finds objectionable. One of the many things our Lord finds objectionable is quite clearly stated in the passage in Leviticus stated above. If I truly love my neighbor as myself than I must first love God. If I truly love my neighbor as myself than I must accept the Truth and be willing to share that Truth with my neighbor. Warning my neighbor about a danger to their salvation is not hateful but an act of love.
Why are LGBT the only ones who insist to be loved specifically on account of their sinful tendancy? Why not just be normal and struggle against the passions under your priest’s guidance (and not in everyone else’s face) like the rest of us?
Linda, this emotive reasoning is toxic.
Lemme ask you a question: do you feel so kindly about the Proud Boys and others on the alt.right? How about MAGA voters?
Unless you can answer in the affirmative and without equivocation, your sentiments are uttered in bad faith.
Many older Americans (broadly, 65 years old and older) cling to the erroneous belief that secular America remains part of the Christian world. It does not, not anymore.
Fr Hans Jacobse suggests that this intransigence in their worldview stems from when they grew up, when how they viewed the world was solidified.
Younger Christian Americans know full well that to be Christian in America anymore means to be countercultural.
The only countercultural Christian bodies in America are the faithful (often older calendar) Orthodox Churches and probably some ev prot parishes and some traditional Roman Catholics. That’s it.
The mainstream Greek Archdiocese is not doing its youth any favors by not directly – and I mean in-their-faces directly – countering these anti-Christian delusional forces. I pity the youth in these parishes who suffer under milquetoast pseudo-Christian leadership. May God have mercy on them.
As Misha has said before on these pages, secular America’s hope is international. 85% of the world knows this stuff is garbage. Delusional secular leftist America refuses to see it. And for some weird reason Orthodox parishes like this worship delusional secular leftist forces.
May God have mercy on the poor lost kids suffering in parishes with terrible pseudo-Christian “leadership” like this.
Be on your guard. Notice the sleight of hand in the rhetorical leap from the phrase “a child who is struggling with same-sex attraction” to “LGBTQ+ children”.
It is our fate as human beings to struggle in life; it is our calling as Orthodox to struggle against the passions. Pubescent teenagers who struggle against the urge to indulge homosexual desires are to be guided into a healthy and holy view of sexuality within the context of marriage and childbearing. However, if I understand the implication in this parish flyer, then these children who struggle are being labeled lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, etc. right out of the gate. Once you label a minor in this way, then he/she is liable to accept that label as part of his identity before he is able to work through the confusion caused by the raging hormones of puberty. Although there may seem to be a subtle distinction between the “struggler” and the kid who has now been defined as LGBTQ+, the instantaneous progression of thought from the former to the latter is the result of fuzzy thinking and moral weakness.
St. Paraskevi is a big Greek parish of about 250 steward families on Long Island. It appears that they have only one priest for what may be a thousand parishioners, at a guess. How he can keep up with the pastoral needs of such a large flock is a mystery to me, but I hope he is aware of what is going on in this AGAPE parents’ group. A parent’s love for his child should be unconditional, of course, and so it rightly follows that the love shown for children in puberty be expressed in affectionate but firm accountability. Surrendering kids who struggle with their newfound sexuality to the abyss of homosexual and transsexual deviance is abandonment, not love.
Personally, it’s impossible for one priest to pastor more than 50 or so families (by this I mean real mom & pop & 3 kiddo families, the assorted widow(er)s and a few singeltons.
That is if by “pastor” we mean serving at least two (2) regular services (i.e. one vespers + one divine liturgy) and hearing regular confessions.
And I mean confessions from every communicant of a single congregation. But of course we know that in these 500+ individuals/1 priest/per parish GOA churches, confession is not regular nor universal.
I grew up in the Episcopal Church where, even amongst the Anglo-Catholics, the operative phrase for confession was this: “All may; some should; none must.” From my limited observations, that mentality translated to a modus operandi where a few souls may have slipped unnoticed into the confessional booth once a year during Lent. It wasn’t what you would call a common practice.
Having spent a few recent years in a Greek Orthodox parish, I suspect that the same “all may; some should; none must” laxity was the norm for my parish and for most of the GOA. Pious Greek believers will have to forgive me if I am wrong. If my suspicion is correct, then the parish priest at St. Paraskevi is likely to be busy doing other things than hearing hundreds of confessions.
I myself am now a member of a ROCOR parish, where regular confession – meaning weekly in most cases – is a requirement for those who would approach the chalice. Attendance at Vespers the evening prior to the Liturgy is also generally expected. It may sound like an onerous routine, but it surely keeps one on one’s proverbial toes!
I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that it is the lack of a culture of regular confession that will be the downfall of the GOA, an example of which is the permissive approach that many Greek Orthodox in our country take toward homosexuality, abortion and other moral issues. Sins can be recognized, confessed and forgiven, but if they are not confessed they will no longer be recognized for what they are.
Just as the Episcopal Church-of-What’s-Happening-Now has foundered, so will the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese scuttle itself if there is no change in direction. The other jurisdictions had best sit up and take notice lest they find their boats tethered to that sinking ship.
(I suspect that I’ve said all of the above before on this blog, so those who find it repetitive are asked to forgive me.)
As a cradle GOA-er, I think this is very accurate (for some and not all GOA parishes. Some are actually very strict). Frankly its both refreshing and surprising to see this stated so concisely by someone who didnt spend much time in the GOA, but hey, maybe it takes a fresh pair of eyes to see the obvious.
Theres a substack out there by Steve Christoforou who was the director of youth ministry for the whole GOA for maybe 10 years until he left at the end of last year, and he is writing essays there to go through systematically what is the problem with the youth ministry situation exactly and how to fix it. Its a great substack. He is left leaning but he is a believer, very sincere, and also hits the nail on the head like you did about the Repentance Problem and he also goes into philosophical issues basically amounting to ignoring the need for an actual relationship with Christ and not just being part of a club.
My hope is that the more people are aware of this, the more people will be able to recognize the solution. Some people in the Church (myself for most of my life, including after I left the GOA for a different jurisdiction but not for larger church politics reasons) have this big beautiful feast in front of them, but are starving. They just need to be kindly shoved on the shoulder a bit and have it pointed out. I have hope!
My understanding of the situation in the Greek Church is that during the war years in Greece because of political pressure on priests, many people did not go to confession. Basically they did not trust the priest, for better or worse.
We here in the USA have never yet experienced living in a situation where we cannot trust anyone.
I had the privilege of living in a country shortly after a dictator was ambushed and killed. I heard many stories of life under that dictatorship. Many times people couldn’t trust members of their own families.
These self-preservation habits lived long after the dictator was gone. Otherwise it was here today and gone the next.
Cant read this ad.. shows up blurry.. Anyway its contents can be copied clearly..? shocking but please clearly copy it and disseminate it- maybe a Nassau Suffolk parent group can rise up against this wokeness in what was a very esteemed parish. Thank you.. what are they thinking?
Yes, it came that way unfortunately. Very blurry.
Breaking Woke News:
The Biden administration is offering a $500,000 grant to help teach the English language in Pakistan, in part by providing “intensive professional development courses for Pakistani transgender youth.”
https://greatgameindia.com/biden-offers-500k-grant-for-english-teachers-in-pakistan-that-focus-on-transgender-youth/
Peter Pan is latest classic story to be hit by woke changes
https://www.gbnews.com/news/peter-pan-lost-girls-gender-changes?dicbo=v2-oB59ouZ
‘ … A new film adaptation of Peter Pan is set to favour “gender inclusion” with
“Lost Girls” among the troupe of children led by the boy who never grows up.
The film which has its premiere this evening, will be the first major retelling by Disney since the exclusive copyright for JM Barrie’s 1904 novel “Peter Pan and Wendy” expired in the US.
In the original story, Peter Pan tells Wendy that girls are “much too clever” to become Lost Boys, but the new film will show modern audiences something very different. …
In Barrie’s original work, Peter explains to Wendy that the tribe of Lost Boys is a group of children who fell out of their pram as infants, and were missing for seven days.
He adds: “Girls, you know, are much too clever to fall out of their prams.” … ‘
“Girls…are much too clever?”
Not any more, they’re not!
We cannot live by lies, believe lies, embrace lies, speak lies, and lead others astray by perpetuating lies. It’s impossible to help others by lying to them. It is not loving to enable someone’s transgender fantasies. It is not compassionate to embrace and deepen a person’s gender confusion. It is not loving to encourage anyone to harm his or her healthy body in the false belief that he or she can transform his or her sex. It is not compassionate to shove someone further into self-deception in order to appease the LGBTQ bullies. – Fr. Ioannes Apiarius
https://www.orthodoxytoday.org/blog/2021/11/its-transdelusional-not-transgender/
Here in Washington State, the legislature recently passed a bill that exempts runaway children at a youth shelter from having their parents notified of their whereabouts—if only those children present themselves as seeking “gender-affirming care” or “reproductive care.”
Here is a statement from the state Senate’s Republican leader at the time the bill initially passed in the Senate:
https://johnbraun.src.wastateleg.org/bill-threatening-rights-parents-passes-senate/
In other words, parents who stand in the way of having their children get gender-change treatments or abortions, are now placed in the same category as parents who are guilty of abuse or neglect: Youth shelters are now to protect these children from even having their parents know where they are.
To go one step further, these institutions are protecting children from parenting. They want to be the parents and have admitted such on various occasions.
Remember what Cambodia did to children? Turned them against their parents.
I wasn’t able to find this on their website, maybe they took it down? It’s hard to imagine this is happening in a shrine parish, even if it is the GOA.
At any rate, it’s always the GOA when it comes to scandals like this. Always
It should be no surprise that this is under the Direct Archdiocesan District, look who their Metropolitan is. Perhaps this is why the other Metropolitans were vehemently against being subordinate to the archbishop on their recent trip to the Fanar.
With the seemingly endless scandals emanating from the Fanar or Elpi, and especially in Elpi’s recent attack on Russian Orthodoxy in front of the ABC agencies, how can the AOB allow him to remain in place when he openly attacks the majority of the worlds Orthodox Christians, he not only should not be head of the AOB, but, he shouldn’t even be a bishop. Fortunately, based off of the Byzantine Texas article, it seems he’s making enemies in his own Synod.
I keep thinking “surely this time,” “surely the next time,” “maybe this time.” Yet, time after time, nothing is done, he becomes more embolden, even to the point of chiding the bishops of the other jurisdictions for not accepting the OCU, the utter hubris of this man.
It’s still on their site under outreach: https://www.stparaskevi.org/ministries/outreach/
I wonder how many other GOA churches have started this?
I do not know if this is true on Wikipedia about Greece and LGBQT?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Greece
If true, I wonder if liberal attitudes in Greece explain the liberal attitudes in some of the Greek parishes (which you, no doubt, are probably wondering, too).
Agree. Good point.
Memo: Reply key didn’t work for Linda:
Someone tell Linda that Lord Jesus loved like
no other,
yet after the adulteress was protected by Jesus from being stoned, He said to her:
Go And Sin No More!
Sinning is condemned —
yet it’s still out of love.
LAW 3421/2005 – Official Gazette 302/A’/13.12.2005
https://www-dsanet-gr.translate.goog/Epikairothta/Nomothesia/n3421_05.htm?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en
Conscription of the Greeks and other provisions. …
‘ CHAPTER A …
1. All Greeks, from January 1 of the year in which they reach their nineteenth year until December 31 of the year in which they complete their forty-fifth year of age, are obliged to enlist in the Armed Forces, in accordance with the provisions of this law. … ‘
BUT:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Greece
‘ Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals
are forced to serve in the Hellenic Armed Forces. ‘
Oh! The poor dears!
FYI, in my father’s day, homosexuals were forbidden from joining the Armed Forces of Greece, the Navy especially.
The indoctrination of children in American schools and churches teaches children to hate everything about America, promotes racial Marxism and a racial conflict, and pushes homosexuality and transgenderism on children. The latter may seem counterproductive until one realizes that both serve the goal of undermining society. The old must be completely destroyed to build the new utopia, and parents pose the greatest barrier to this goal.
https://dailycaller.com/2022/10/24/just-like-in-communist-countries-the-state-is-turning-your-children-against-you/
Hold on to your old bibles. I read a new AI Bible is in the making.
To go along with the AI-generated “icons.”
I’ve been having some thoughts about AI lately, golden calf that it is.
I wonder if it would be possible to bring up an “army” of AI bots instructed in the Faith and a compatible worldview that could then go forth and “influence” the rest of the AI “world.” Or at least create something that could be used as a force against whatever manipulations and machinations many who are at the forefront of AI technology have in mind.
Perhaps some of us who are so inclined could use this as a force for good.
Debating the zeitgeist with ‘artificial intelligence’
does not exactly inspire me with confidence…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luaRtGn2tsI
[Video – 08:14]
Go type in “AI robot priest” and think on it some more, my friend.
Aint nothin like the real thing…as they say. God help us.
Some will put their trust in God and some will trust
in the SanTO [Sanctified Theological Operator]
Deus Ex Machina: Religions Use Robots to Connect With the Public
https://archive.ph/7ALVZ#selection-2043.9-2043.73
‘ … Roman Catholic priest Loys de Saint Chamas, who interacted with a prototype of Mr. Trovato’s SanTO, said that robots will likely increase access to religious information. He compared the technology to the invention of the printing press in the 15th century and the Catholic Church’s embrace of television in 1963. “It is interesting to focus, to study, how this change of the medium is influencing the relation of people with God and the activity of religion,” he said. ‘
As Marshall McLuhan said: The Medium is the Message
God help us all!
Yes, I know, but these things have inputs from *somewhere.* Some person is ultimately pulling the strings, feeding it information that’s carefully curated, and manipulating how they interpret and package this information. Sort of like how woke entities (governments, school boards, and media outlets) create curricula, programs, and public service campaigns to indoctrinate children.
They’re very good at manipulating. I don’t see why we can’t do the same. “Ask” it what its opinion is about certain things–religion, society, history. Then feed it some good, solid literature from reliable sources (that are favorable to us), ask it how it “views” things in light of that, and then encourage it to disseminate this information.
I’m not advocating our own use of it. I’m advocating putting our mark and influence on it as a countermeasure to those who are actively grooming it to brainwash people who are going to have a tendency to rely on it, regardless.
According to people I know who work in youth mental health, children are basically completely propagandized on LGBT issues by age 10. That goes for public schoolers, private schoolers, probably most homeschoolers, atheists, nones, Protestants, Catholics, and yes, Orthodox. If your child is exposed to mainstream culture AT ALL (and how do you avoid it?), they are being propagandized.
LGBT propaganda is absolutely insidious, and like poison it seeps into every tiniest crack and clings to every particle it possibly can. Even those who are genuinely well-meaning and want to “love” them spread the propaganda by not countering it boldly. That is the only way it can be beat back, and even then it is extremely difficult.
Find a way to love sinners that does not also tell the weak that sin is OK, then I will believe that you mean well.
The Church does no favors by keeping quiet and hoping it goes away. While it may be a fad, it is also a cultural gateway drug. Ignore it and it just keeps getting worse. Those who meekly and quietly hold the biblical and Christian view on this are not doing any favors. We must DEMAND that this propaganda be countered as loudly as it is being proclaimed.
The lukewarm will be spit out.
I completely agree, but it also needs to be noted that heterosexual perversion was the tip of the spear for this stuff, and the hidden premise that keeps otherwise rational people from flipping over to our side when presented with certain kinds of evidence. When you reflect that the vast majority of ‘straight’ people around us, including many who identify as Christians, are effectively drug addicts, with fornication as the drug – the battle is unwinnable. Christ loves winning unwinnable battles though.
Anyhow the priest of the parish addressed this last Sunday. He was saying it’s for the parents who don’t understand their (gay) kids and these issues, so they can talk them out. Basicallly the old school Greek parents wondering why there new generation kids are so screwed up nowadays
I am about as in sync with the majority of Monomakhos commentators’ views about the insidious nature of the LGBT…blah-blah-blah agenda as one can get, and I fully agree that the wording of the announcement about this parents group could have (and should have) been less ‘identity’ oriented.
However, having taken the time to listen to some of Fr. John Vlahos’s videos on the Orthodox Christian Network, I do believe that he is worthy of the benefit of any doubt about his motives for creating this support group. If approached rightly (and it seems to me, based upon his videos, that he probably would approach this rightly) a support group of this kind could do much good and bring clarity to confused parental minds.
In my experience one of the major factors that incline otherwise ‘good’ people to fall into blind acceptance of this ‘LGBT…’ delusion is their direct, personal knowledge of a child or friend whom they love who has fallen into these sins and their consequent struggle with knowing how to love them in a truly godly manner, rejecting the sin without rejecting the person ensnared in it. Thus I honestly believe that (again, done properly and with full faithfulness to God’s commandments and the Church’s teaching) such a support group has great potential to prevent the acceptance of this sin among the (otherwise) faithful and to help those who might otherwise become ensnared by their emotions toward their child or friend. If this is Fr. John’s intention, and there is good reason to believe that it is, I applaud him for it. It is much-needed.
If not, I join others here in condemning it.
I would add that if it is true (as I have heard but have no personal means of verifying) that George Demacopoulos teaches Sunday School teenagers at this parish, these parents and their priest would do well to wake up and immediately address what is likely a primary source of their children’s confusion.
Short answer: “yes”.
https://www.helleniscope.com/2023/05/03/is-george-demacopoulos-behind-the-lgbtq-subversion-at-st-paraskevi-of-greenlawn/
My mouth is agape at AGAPE. What a spectacle.
This from American Greatness is surprisingly good. Slowly, they’re beginning to see Biden’s Folly in the Ukraine.
The truth is that the typical priest will only care about meeting the budget, and if they have to pander like this, that’s what they will do. They will do otherwise only if the bishop tells them to or if an even greater portion of the parish threaten to take their donations elsewhere.
Isn’t it the parish councils that worry about budgets?
The budget includes priest salary.
This is true, but in the parish I’m in the priest isn’t even allowed in the meetings where we discuss his salary. It literally is not up to him but in a thriving parish you take care of your priest.
There was a priest let go by one of the GOA parishes by me. I still don’t get it how it works. They fired him because they couldn’t afford him but he increased income by 6%. Now knowing many that attend that parish I’m sure the excuse was that increase came from a better than expected annual Greek festival where it didn’t rain on the weekend. But they can just fire and and hire new priests?
Parish councils in the GOA do not have the ability to fire, or hire, a priest.
Individual parishioners CAN however: threaten the priest and his family with injury and lawsuits, apply pressure financially or otherwise to the Metropolis or other influential members of the Church, systematically “withhold” their stewardship pledges until they get what they want, and otherwise implement strategies that influence these changes to occur.
Source: am an ex GOA parish council secretary.
Very frustrating when the patients in the hospital don’t like the treatment and vilify the doctor. Can’t blame the doctor for your wounds, or the fact that some medicine is awfully bitter!
PS: If a priest is actually doing stuff thats canonically wrong, it will either be also illegal and he will get booted on that account, or he will be laicized. In situations where he is not being rightly disciplined, people just leave the parish. They dont threaten the priest and his family or otherwise try to cunningly manipulate the situation. Thats how you can tell if its a Problem Priest or a Problem Parish.
“…we follow the holy elders and Fathers who tell us that “there is a direct relationship between what you believe and how you behave.” We must open ourselves to the wisdom of the God-bearing men of the past – the Holy Fathers who are our key to understanding – whatever we encounter – for in the Holy Fathers we find the “mind of the Church” – the living understanding of God’s revelation.
They are our link between the ancient texts which contain God’s revelation and today’s reality. Without such a link it is every man for himself – and the result is a myriad of interpretations and sects.
Let us then try to enter the world of the Holy Fathers and their understanding of the Divinely inspired texts – let us love and respect their writings, which in our confused times are a beacon of clarity which shines most clearly on the inspired texts itself…
Let us not be quick to think “we know better” than they, and if we think we have some understanding they did not see, let us be humble and hesitant about offering it, knowing the poverty and fallibility of our own minds. Let them open our minds to understand God’s revelation to mankind.’ – Genesis, Creation, and Early Man; Saint Seraphim Rose of Platina
Blessed Elder Ephraim [of thrice-blessed memory] of Arizona Exposes Old Calendarism
Православие.Ru, 12 марта 2016 г.
http://www.pravoslavie.ru/english/91448.htm
Archimandrite Ephrem (Philotheitis)
Translated by John Sanidopoulos Source: Mystagogy March 11, 2016
Saint Philotheos, a spiritual son of St. Nektarios of Pentapolis and Aegina
Excerpts from various letters of Elder Philotheos Zervakos on the Calendar issue:
– Neither Christ nor the Holy Apostles or our Holy Fathers have ever taught us that calendars will save us. They taught us that faith and good works will save us.
– Neither the Faith nor the Mysteries were tampered with, nor did those who followed the New Calendar become Franks and unbelievers.
– He who believes and is baptized in Christ will be saved, and not the one who believes in the calendar, the chronometer…. What is detrimental is when there is no concordance in the Faith, in Baptism, in the Divine Rites and the other Mysteries.
– Calendars do not save man; the saints themselves were sanctified by pleasing God through Faith, and not through the calendars.
– The calendar is not God, nor do all the laws hang from it.
– Nowhere in the Holy Bible has the Lord mentioned that the Old Calendar will save us. Who of the Holy Apostles and Fathers had preached calendars?
– We must not believe that Orthodoxy and Christianity are dependent on the calendar, and that without it, there is no salvation. The calendar is not God, it is a tradition; furthermore, the Gospel itself does not say anything about calendars. The Saints of our Church were not sanctified through the calendar – the old nor the new – they were sanctified through their holy faith and through their good works which shone like the sun.
– Those who believe and are convinced that without the calendar the Holy Spirit is unable to consummate the Mysteries are not only heretics and deluded, they are also date-worshippers and time-worshippers.
– When Christ came to this world, He did not preach calendars. Let them show us in which chapter or verse of the Gospel Christ says that the calendar will save us. Whosoever of the Old Calendarists believes that the calendar is equivalent and superior to the Holy Spirit, and that the Mysteries are consummated by the calendar, these unfortunate ones have been deceived and are committing a sin.
– God does not punish people over calendars, but over their sins and their malice.
– God brought on the Flood, burnt the cities of Sodom for the sins of those people and NOT for any calendars; and all the punishments that humanity suffers are not for any calendar, but because lawlessness has multiplied and love has frozen.
– The issue of the calendar is not the most important, because it is neither God nor faith, nor does the salvation of man depend upon it…(for example, Paul, Cornelius, Tabitha, etc). All those who were saved and those who will be saved, will be saved by their faith in God, their love and their good works.
– They [Old Calendarists] are divided into many and disagreeing groups, where the one does not accept the other. They hold fast to the calendar, but they shun the capital of all virtues: love.
– I am against the thoughtless and illegal introduction of the New Calendar and for over 50 years I have been struggling for the return to the Old Calendar – not because I believe that I will be saved through the calendar alone, but for the sake of peace and harmony in the Church.
Elder Ephraim: “I am against the thoughtless and illegal introduction of
the New Calendar … not because … I will be saved through the calendar
alone, but for the sake of peace and harmony in the Church.”
Amen!
YES!
As a new calendarist I only hear new calendarist make a fuss about the calendar including the use of violence in Greece towards both old calendarists and veiled women in church. Just go to any Orthodox forum where people such as Serbs, Palestinians, Russians, are speaking about the old calender usage and out of the woodworks new calendarists swarm in and start polemics. There have been Fathers that have spoken of the Christian calender such as St John Chrysostom in his work Against the Judaisers and St. Ambrose of Milan. Now as far as Elder Ephraim he also exposed the new calendarists. When he joined ROCOR for about a year the new calendarists in Greece turned on him on a whim, calling him an old calendarist throwback (yes rocor was considered regular uncanonical old calendarist at that time) . Here is his statement:
http://orthodoxinfo.com/ecumenism/ephraim_roca.aspx
My biggest problem with all the calendar stuff is it was divisive. Having not been around when it all went down, only coming into the Church later, I cannot see the logic of the Church splitting over something like this. Both sides are to blame, because at the end of the day one side thought splitting over it was a good idea and the other didn’t stop it. People are still fighting over it! – If it had been my decision, I would have voted not to change the Church. I certainly wouldn’t have said good-bye to Orthodox Christians over a calendar even if it was years behind or years ahead.
Gail,
It could not be simpler:
The real problem is not the Calendar:
If it were, then we would not have the old calendar inside the Holy Mountain and the New one outside. We, new-calendarists, the very same people, clergy and laity de-facto actually accept/use different church calendar depending on whether we are inside or outside the H.M.! We couldn’t care less about the calendar itself!
Thus, the REAL reason is that the Greek so-called Old-Calendarists do not accept Fanar!
After all, for so many centuries our Russian brethren have the Old Calendar and we accepted that.
RE: Thus, the REAL reason is that the Greek so-called Old-Calendarists do not accept Fanar!
Hmmm. . . That must make me an Old-Calendarist, too! 🙂
BUT, not all New-C. Greeks accept Fanar.
My thesis is that calendar is relatively not important, see my reply to Kosta.
Don’t forget the centuries-old brotherly relations between Russian and Greek Churches having different calendars!
From what I understand the majority of Greeks (within Greece) do not accept the Fanar
Ioannis so your a new calendarists outside Athos but an old calendarists inside Athos. Now answer me why “as a Greek” you can’t be an old calendarist all the time??? Have you ever asked yourself that question? Because I ask myself and other fellow greeks that and I’m told something about the homogeneia only allows Greeks to be on the new calender and every greek needs to be on the same team, circle the wagon and attack with seething hatred anytime someone mentions tradition and the old calendar. I wish some of these Athonite elders would address the group think and savagery of new calendarism instead of constantly embarrassing themselves by being used as controlled opposition and new calender shills. You know how they start by saying “it is unfortunate we are not on the same calender and I prefer the old BUT…..
Now when Fr. Seraphim Rose spoke about ecumenism and following the royal Path he actually lamented how there is a dearth of new calendar bishops joining the old calendarists ( yes he said that, the article is online)as to show solidarity against ecumenism, modernism, and the innovations of the Phanar. While the Russians have had the old calender for centuries the Greeks have had it for longer up until your great grandparents and the political secular state of Greece told you are to be a pro western oriented Venezelist..
Kosta:
” Ioannis so your a new calendarists outside Athos but an old calendarists inside Athos. Now answer me why “as a Greek” you can’t be an old calendarist all the time??? ”
Thanks Kosta, very interesting question of yours, on a very interesting subject.
My reply:
I am not the only one who does the above “paradox”. All of the thousands of new-calendarists who visit Athos are not very interested in the calendar itself. There are other things immensely more important in the Church! Let’s first do all the things the Lord asked us to do…. and then sort out the calendar. Where did Christ or the Apostles say anything about calendars?
Why can’t I be old-calendarist all the time?
a) Why should I, if calendar isn’t important? The only reason is if the new-calendarists under Fanar go beyond limits and then I could.
b) Because there are many old-C. “jurisdictions” fighting each other. I would have to find which is the best!
Perhaps the problem is Metaxakis’ assumption
that he himself had the right to change it.
Brendan, brother,
Bart. is his spiritual grandchild.
Ioannis so your a new calendarists outside Athos but an old calendarists inside Athos. Now answer me why “as a Greek” you can’t be an old calendarist all the time??? Have you ever asked yourself that question? Because I ask myself and other fellow greeks and I’m told something about the homogeneia only allows Greeks to be on the new calender and every greek needs to be on the same team, circle the wagon and attack with seething hatred anytime someone mentions tradition and the old calendar. I wish some of these elders would instead address the group think of new calendarism rather than them constantly being used as controlled opposition and new calender shills. You know how they start by saying “it is unfortunate we are not on the same calender and I prefer the old BUT….. Ok now give me the other side of the story as to why you prefer the old, and why as a monk you are not calling out the violence new calendarists are prone too let alone their modernisms.
Now when Fr. Seraphim Rose spoke about ecumenism and following the royal Path he actually lamented how there is a dearth of new calendar bishops joining the old calendarists ( yes he said that, the article is online)as to show solidarity against ecumenism, modernism, and the innovations of the Phanar. While the Russians have had the old calender for centuries the Greeks have had it for longer up until your great grandparents and the political secular state of Greece told you are to be a pro western oriented Venezelist..
You could ask the same thing about the Antiochians. When I was still in the Antiochian Archdicoese I was new calendar, but when I frequented the monastery under Elder Ephraim I was old calendar. Same with the OCA.
The point you keep making regading “new calendar” Greeks can very easily be applied to the Church of Antioch & the OCA. This is not a Greek-specific issue.
Being on the new calendar does not equal to being a rampant ecumenist, even among the Greeks.
I respect this and this is basically the stance of all the holy elders from the time it happened to now. All these letters issued by new calender elders do not say what many think. For example there is an Elder Ephraim letter circulating against “old calender zealots”. In it the Elder argues new calender sacraments have grace (against a zealot who denies it) and supposedly chastises the old calendarists lack love. What they don’t question is what Elder Ephraim was doing inside the headquarters of the old calrnder Synod and seems he knows the bishops on first name basis, seems to only argue the new calender sacraments are just as Grace-filled as the o. C. are). Another thing that is suppressed is new calender elders that actually defend the old calender, want it’s return and defend those Greeks who adhere to it. For example Elder Ephraim’s contemporary at St Anthony Monastery was schemamonk Constantine Cavarnos. This schemamonk is probably the closest the GOA has to an American born Greek saint. Yet no one has ever quoted from his books let alone this letters on the matter:
http://orthodoxinfo.com/ecumenism/zervakos_calendar.aspx
And that would be correct, the old calendarists aren’t one monolithic entity and they always seem to be in-fighting and splitting. It’s unfortunate that they are not INSIDE the canonical Church because imagine all the good they can do. They have removed themselves from canonical Orthodoxy and are therefore irrelevant, they did their enemies within the Church a huge favor by leaving because now they are just a splinter group when they could have done so much good and fought back within the canonical bounds of the Church.
Being right about certain issues like ecumenism does not make them correct in everything.
Good point!