A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand

If we could first know where we are, and whither we are tending, we could then better judge what to do, and how to do it… In my opinion, it will not cease, until a crisis shall have been reached, and passed. “A house divided against itself cannot stand”… The result is not doubtful. We shall not fail – if we stand firm, we shall not fail. Wise counsels may accelerate, or mistakes delay it, but, sooner or later, the victory is sure to come.

Abraham Lincoln

A House Divided: a speech before the Illinois Republican State Convention

16 June 1858

Over the past ten years, one of the things that I have noticed is how the konvertsy increasingly distance themselves from real Church life. They are building an incestuous little circle particular to their exclusive, but, diminutive (but, as Fr Alexander Lebedeff noted in regards to those who opposed the ’07 reconciliation, such groups are much louder than their small size warrants), coterie. In short, they have become an identifiable faction with a life of their own, a dangerous situation in any institution, not just a religious one. This state of affairs is NOT new; it has brewed since the mid-60s at the least. What exacerbates it is that there are now “convert parishes” and “ethnic parishes”… and the two hardly mix at all… a VERY bad sign, I would say.

Firstly, were they ever completely one with us? Sadly, I believe the answer is no. As proof, look at this very short item from oca.org:

http://www.oca.org/news/1995

Love it, don’t you? A non-monastic is speaking on the Prayer of the Heart… “The Jesus Prayer”… that’s how heterodox refer to this practise! In any case, the Prayer of the Heart is a VERY serious exercise that one engages in only under the supervision and guidance of an experienced and grounded monastic elder. Ms Matthewes-Green is not such (neither am I, but, I don’t have hubristical ideas about my spirituality)… any road, if you DO receive such instruction and help from a starets, you are NOT supposed to pass it on to others. The general rule is that the advice of an elder to a private layperson is normally not for publication. It is always very specific, tailored for the unique needs of a specific Orthodox Christian. The Prayer of the Heart is an extremely dangerous thing to muck about with in such a cavalier way! It is, perhaps, one of the easiest things to turn demonic if one does not practise it with care and discernment. I do NOT have the level of spiritual clarity necessary to use the Prayer of the Heart… neither does Ms Matthewes-Green.

This is, perhaps, the main difference between grounded Orthodox and konvertsy. I KNOW what is on my plate… it does not separate me from God and His Love… but, it does tell me that I am no saint or spiritual giant. If I were to give a public lecture to you, I would speak of the fine and performing arts (both Russian and  in the world at large), Russian and Central/Eastern European history, the scenic and historical beauty of the Northeastern USA and Québec, and how an ordinary laywoman does her best to live a Christian life. I would NEVER lecture you on the Prayer of the Heart. THAT is arrogant, conceited, and delusional beyond all words. Only a monastic elder could give such a talk… and, then, only to an individual, and only if that person was ready to hear it (a state that I, of all people, would be unable to judge aright… and neither can Ms Matthewes-Green). If this does not show you that konvertsy have not learned the most basic lessons of Orthodoxy, nothing shall.

You see, the konvertsy are ploughing their own furrow, and have done such since the beginning, I fear. One of the things that one hears from them nowadays is how irrelevant being out of communion with the other Local Churches is. THAT is dangerous. They believe that they can live outside of the Visible Body of Christ. I can see now who these people are, and they are not merely a set within the OCA… there are three main groups that are coalescing together into a new church-body. Firstly, there are the OCA modernists such as JP, BP, Hatfield, Brum, SVS, New Skete, the ex-HOOMies, and, probably, the OCA Dioceses of the South and the West. Secondly, there are the ex-EOC crowd and the Anglican konvertsy in the AOCANA. They are one in mind with the SVS lot. Thirdly, there is the Orthodox Christian Laity bunch in the GOA… they have broken with their Greek roots in their heart-of-hearts… they are OCA in all but name. These sorts share an ideology, a vision, and a campaign-plan. They do NOT like us… they hold us in utter contempt, in fact.

This all leads to an unstable situation. Eventually, the Church is going to reject this foreign entity, just as the human body rejects anything that is not of it. I have no insider knowledge of what shall cause this split or when the break shall occur. However, it is clear to everyone who appraises the situation objectively. The konvertsy are “living separately”, just as the papists started living separately in the ninth century, not in 1054. Just like Cardinal Humbert, they are going to lay a bull of excommunication on the altar and they are going to prance out with their noses up in the air. We should NOT follow them… they are not of us, they never were… they came to us because they hated what had happened to their former confessions, not because they loved Christ and His (Unique) Church.

I can see the coming schism clearly; I can see the sect gelling into form. There are deep divisions in the house of Russian Orthodoxy here in the USA and Canada… and “a house divided against itself cannot stand”. When it falls, we shall have to build anew from the ruins. It shall remind us, yet again, if the Lord builds not the house, the workmen labour in vain. God willing, the lesson shall sink home, this time.

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Sunday 8 November 2009

Albany NY

The Leaven in the Lump…

Even I’ve heard about Bishop Job! He’s got a great reputation. He hammered Herman for quite a while as I recall. The Hammer of Herman! But, I think the OCA is just going to go POOF. How fitting with all its poofters! Seriously, it just doesn’t have a reason to exist. The MP and ROCOR are legitimate, and they have an EXCELLENT reputation among all Orthodox. The OCA is an odd thing that no one really knows what to do with. Add to that the historical and other falsehoods and Metropolitan Open-Mouth-Insert-Foot, and I’m sure Moscow is just biding its time.

It’ll be interesting to see what the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Greek Archdiocese are up to. Something’s definitely cooking. The silence of the bishops after Jonah’s initial outburst was extremely odd. Actually, the candour of those responses was quite telling, too. Our bishops are skilled in Byzantine ways, in all the meanings of that word. Their communiqués are usually very carefully crafted so that the main point lies not in the words on the paper, but, typically, in how they use those words. But, instead of a whisper in the ear this time, their response was an in-your-face shout:  BACK OFF, CHILD! Then… silence, while they plan a Byzantine reorganisation of the empire, so they can spring on him… he hasn’t the slightest inkling of what he’s really done and what they’re about to do to him. This should be good! It’s time to change into comfortable clothes, order a pizza, chill the beer mugs, and sit back to watch the show!

A Good Ol’ Workin’ Chap

Those of you who are familiar with old English music-hall songs know that “a good ol’ workin’ chap” (actually, “a common ol’ workin’ lad”… hey, I used a liberty or two) is from the old Will Fyffe standard, “I Belong to Glasgow”. The character described in that song seems to fit my friend. So… I made him into a Greek Scotsman… or is it a Scots Greek? Hmm… Here’s a video of the song (This one’s for you, hon. I think you’ll love it and agree that it fits you to a tee!). Many thanks to Timothy Connelly for originally handing the link to me… (Sorry, Tim, for what happened on Easter Sunday… that was a dumb thing I did… I should have realised that Easter is a crazy time and that it is too easy to mess things up. Egg on face… OUCH.)

What I like about my Greek friends is that they are as Orthodox as we Russians are, but, of course, their thought processes are so DIFFERENT. You can live in the same town, and, yet, see the same thing with a very dissimilar perspective. That is why I asked him what he thought of the OCA situation. It’s interesting to note that the only OCA bishop that he named was Job Osacky… it seems that he is one of the few OCA hierarchs to have any respect outside of his archdiocese (“jurisdiction” is a weasel-word from ADS… we shouldn’t use it). Metropolitan Open-Mouth-Insert-Foot… I wish that I had thought of that one! It so TOTALLY describes what JP did at Antiochian Village in his rant before the OCL pirates. “Unity in our time…” Wow… Goldilocks and the Three Bears has more reality than that… the Millennium is just around the corner. Now, just send your checks off to Syosset…

Nevertheless, what is important is the EXPECTATION that the Workin’ Chap shows. “I’m sure Moscow is just biding its time… he hasn’t the slightest inkling of what he’s really done and what they’re about to do to him”. In short, he sees JP as a Dead Man Walking. They’ve divvied up his belongings and they’re getting ready to fillet him neatly and evenly from stem to stern… yet, JP hasn’t an inkling of what’s going on. I believe that he shot himself in the foot with his idiotic statements about “overseas patriarchs” earlier this year and the Nashotah House débâcle just nailed the coffin-lid down tighter. On top of that, he ranted in front of one of the most narcissistic groups in the Church (and one of the most hated, by all accounts… OCL is an organisation that is nothing but a front for a naked anti-clerical power-grab on the part of the affluent effluent) on how we are going to have “unity in our time”.

He’s not connecting with Demetrios Trakatellis or Hilarion Kapral. The only person he’s enlisted in his cause is Philip Saliba… and Saliba is really no-one’s friend… he’s a devious, deceitful, and crafty politician through and through (a true and dutiful son of Niccolò Machiavelli and Lucrezia Borgia if there ever was one), and he’ll leave JP hanging in the breeze without a second thought or any lingering hesitation… “It’s not personal, it’s business”.

I agree with the Workin’ Chap that the OCA is not long for this world. I chose the title of this post with malice aforethought. There are those of you who caught the scriptural quotation… but, how many of you understood the culinary note? Before the days of packaged dry yeast (or even cakes of pressed baker’s yeast), the rising agent in bread was an unbaked piece of dough from the previous batch… the “sourdough”. Back then, people called that the “leaven”. What we would call the “dough”, they called the “lump”.

One can see the meaning of the scripture, can’t you? The baker briskly kneaded a piece of the last batch of risen dough into a new batch to leaven it. Nowadays, we no longer use “sourdough” (except for flavouring), but, you still have to knead dough for bread with energy and vigour… you must PUNCH IT DOWN… you must push it against the surface with all your strength. In short, it ain’t passive in the least! The analogy with the present situation is clear. The Good Lord is readying a new batch of dough… the Russian Orthodox Church in the US and Canada. The “sourdough” for it is plain… the MP and ROCOR… and most of the OCA, as well (but, not JP, BP, Hatfield, SVS, and New Skete or their fellow-travellers). The Baker shall knead it all together energetically, leave it for a while to rise, punch it down again, shape it into loaves, leave it for the second rising, and, finally, place it in the oven to bake. When He takes it out, it’s gonna be very good, indeed. It’s not ADS Wonder Bread (aptly named… you wonder if it is bread at all)! It’s the Bread of Life baked by the Creator Himself… not that phony witches’ brew concocted by a bunch of half-crazed and delusional pseudo-intellectuals drunk on their own chimerical illusions and delusional whimsies.

Note well that the baker kneads the dough energetically, punches it down with vigour, and pushes it with some force against an unyielding object. We are in that stage now… that is, there’s some time left to go before we finish things and we take the loaf out of the oven for dinner (isn’t the odour of freshly-baked bread SENSUAL?). However, one can see the result of it all… and that gives me hope. I am the Bread of Life… Our Lord was not referring to a loaf with the consistency of a pillow and the taste of sawdust (ADS Wonder Bread)!

He’s preparing the good stuff now… that’s why it’s dicey at present. He’s kneading away with joyous abandon… can’t you hear the happy tune that He’s whistling? I do! Boy, that kneading and poking is unpleasant. Nevertheless, He has to do it so that it turns out right! Keep the faith and have a wonderful weekend.

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Saturday 7 November 2009

Albany NY

“St Vladimir’s Seminary Receives Distinguished Russian Guests”: A Supposed Brobdingnagian Turns Out to be a Lilliputian

The battleship Borodino sinking at the Battle of Tsushima (she finally went down after a direct hit from a Japanese 12-inch shell detonated her magazines… only one of her crewmen survived the explosion)… I find this a fitting metaphor for SVS and the OCA. They are sinking, it is obvious to everyone, yet, they won’t let the crew escape… for now.

First, read this article on oca.org: http://www.oca.org/news/1991

That sounds impressive, doesn’t it? I say… wait a minute! There’s a great deal less to this than meets the eye. This is the BEST that this bunch can do… they are crowing about a third-tier RF cabinet minister and a complete unknown from a nebulous foundation. The International Foundation for the Unity of Orthodox Christian Nations (IFUOCN) probably has the same reality as the Hallelujah (or, is it Hosanna?) Community of Seraphim Sigrist… that is to say, it smells like an “internet special” with no real presence anywhere.

Vitaly Churkin, the RF Ambassador to the UN and Sergei Garmonin, the RF Consul General in New York were not present at this love-feast (Ambassador Churkin WAS at the MP/ROCOR Unity Service at St Nick’s last year… Nicky and I saw him there with family members). Sergei Kislyak, the Ambassador of the RF to the USA wasn’t there either. This means that none of the permanent representatives of the RF in the New York City metro area or in Washington DC was there. Ergo, Mr Konovalov’s visit was strictly unofficial, on his own nickel, without the RF government’s sanction, and, probably, at Hilarion Alfeyev’s instigation (trying to bolster up his pseudo-intellectual friends at SVS, no doubt). Nobody from the MDA, the SPDA, or St Tikhon Orthodox Humanities University accompanied Mr Konovalov on his visit to SVS. That is, no accredited Russian theologian wished public association with ADS. I find that interesting, don’t you?

This proves nothing beyond the bare fact that a relatively unimportant member of the RF governing apparatus who dabbles in theology as a hobby has a yen for ADS. Mr Konovalov is not a first-rank silovik (“power-player)… I would be impressed if President Medvedev, Prime Minister Putin, Finance Minister Kudrin, Foreign Minister Lavrov, Interior Minister Nurgaliev, or Defence Minister Serdyukov had shown up. Indeed, such second-tier figures such as Boris Gryzlov, Igor Shuvalov, Sergei Mironov, and Lyubov Slishka are higher in status than Mr Konovalov is. His visit had no official dimension to it whatsoever. In short, this is more complete and utter GIGO from SVS and oca.org (did Mr Konovalov continue on to Jordanville or visit Metropolitan Hilarion Kapral afterwards… or did he confine himself to this self-serving pack of modernists? Did they tell him about Nashotah House and their covenant with heretics? Perspiring minds want to know!).

They are doing their best to pump up the IFUOCN award. A friend of mine in Moscow said that they are going to hold the ceremony in one of the conference halls underneath the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, not in the church itself, and that His Holiness normally does not attend such fetes. Trust me, KMG spends a great deal of his time in audiences and ceremonies (reflect on the fact that he must meet with a bishop on every one of his working weekdays in Moscow (excluding time off for trips and holidays) if he is to meet each of his bishops in private once a year). He scribbles his signature on hundreds of documents… mostly, sight unseen. Friends tell me that he spends two hours a day in minor audiences… that is, five minutes in total, a handshake, photo, and a gramota from the hands of His Nibs Himself (that’s 24 minor audiences each working day… poor old sod…). Oh, yes… this award didn’t rate such an audience, did it? It wasn’t even handed over by a senior MP cleric… it is nothing but a pretty piece of paper proffered by an unknown professor (this Professor Alekseyev is not as well-known as Profs Kirill Frolov or Aleksei Osipov or Deacon Andrei Kuraev).

I often start to feel sorry for this wretched and pathetic little set of posturing and gibbering Sad Sacks… until I realise that what is happening now is just the inevitable result of the accumulated nastiness of the past two generations coming home to roost. These reckless poseurs ran many good people out of the Church in their mad attempt to transform our Church life to fit their imagined and fevered notational fancies. I knew many of those they chased out… trust me, the least of them were superior people to JP, BP, and Hatfield. We are paying for it now. SVS and Syosset are like the Soviet Union of the late 80s and early 90s. The system has rotted to the core, everyone knows it (Behr told a friend of mine, “There is no future in the OCA”.), but, no one knows what shall replace it, so, there is a great deal of fear about the future. I would like you to remember a scene from the early days after the collapse of the USSR. Wherever one went, one saw old red party-membership books littering the pavement. People got rid of them as quickly as possible. It shall be the same when the ship of the OCA and SVS sinks.

People shall discard their volumes of ADS and breathe a sigh of relief. The true believers shall gather around JP, BP, and the rest of their obsequious hangers-on. Let them go… their ship will have sunk and they shall spend the rest of their days like Kerensky… blaming the world for their own personal failings.  Deus videat et iudicare (Let God see and judge)…

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Friday 6 November 2009

Albany NY

“Unity in Our Time”: What Has JP Been Smoking?

“Unity in our time”… JP, what are you smokin’, who’s your connection, what’s the price, and where can I get some?

I have recently seen with my own eyes that OCA priests have not vested and served in GOA liturgies, though all others do. The canonical status of the OCA is, of course, peculiar, with the autocephaly recognised only by a Moscow Patriarchate of nearly 40 years ago, under vastly different circumstances.

What I’ve noticed is that the Greek hierarchs here have gone silent about Jonah Paffhausen just after his intemperate, inconsiderate, and foolish comments during Lent. A number of bishops issued statements in response at that time, politely ripping him a new one, but, since then:  zilch. That means something is undoubtedly up. But, what that may be is unclear as yet. Like all well-mannered people, our bishops are keeping their cards close.

From what I’ve seen, the OCL is dealt with like a crazy, ranting cousin:  politely listened to because they’re family, but, their recommendations are completely ignored. It has no canonical or ecclesiastical status, and thus has no standing. It’s that simple. Greeks love to argue, of course, even when they’re wrong (as the OCL is!). The converts that get into the OCL are usually former Episcopalians or radical Latins that want to take over the Church and remake it in their own image. Everyone I know holds the OCL in scorn, and thinks people are simply wrong for participating in it. There have certainly been various scandals and problems, but, the OCL is by no means a solution, although it was ostensibly those scandals that led to its creation by disgruntled parishioners.

But, yes, I’ve seen that same division you mention:  the OCA and AOCANA (we call them “the Arabs”) on one side, and everyone else on the other. Saliba has too much power, and is grasping for more. You know all his pet evangelicals? They first applied to be accepted en masse into the Greek Archdiocese, but, they were told:  “No, you’re not ready. You need more instruction”. Among other things, they had “problems” with the role of the Virgin Mary in the Church! So, they got pissed, turned around, and went to the Arabs, who hoovered them right up, though at least demoting their bishops to priests (which the Greeks were not willing to do at all:  they wanted everyone to convert individually, without retaining their corporate structure or ordinations). So, just a few years later, the Ben Lomond schism happened, and a bunch of them solicited the Jerusalem Patriarch (talk about canonically odd!) to bring them under his omophorion. The rest stuck with Saliba and his treacherous gang. It’s a total mess.

A Good Ol’ Workin’ Chap

I asked a friend of mine in the Greek Church for their take on the noises about unity coming from JP and Co as of late. The above was their answer to me. Before you do anything else, do read the following on oca.org:

http://www.oca.org/news/1990

Read it? Good! You just looked at something that we should nominate for the Pulitzer Prize in Fiction! It doesn’t show the real world as it is… JP is stoking up the bong and inhaling deeply, friends and neighbours.

First, Orthodox Christian Laity (OCL) is not an official organisation of the GOA… indeed, one could say that it is a group of malcontents at odds with the GOA hierarchy. Most Greek circles hold it is in very low repute. That is to say, JP addressed a faction that is anti-clerical and in rebellion against its bishops. He did not speak to a group that is in good odour with the GOA. Then, we must add to this mutinous soupçon the fact that it took place at Antiochian Village, an official facility of the AOCANA. For Saliba to give the use of one of his facilities to a set that often attacks the GOA leadership is, essentially, an attack against the GOA. Note well that oca.org is pumping this meeting up as an important event. If we take this and add to it his attack on the GOA earlier this year, JP is in trouble. He is in the deep kimchi and all the King’s horses and all the King’s men will not be able to pull him out of it.

Apparently, there are already places were OCA clergy cannot concelebrate at a GOA liturgy. I should add that when Iggy had our church dedication liturgy on Saturday 30 May, only one GOA priest showed up (he was a classmate of the Iggster at a special programme at SVS… so he doesn’t count). The rector of the largest GOA parish (St Sophia in Albany NY) wasn’t there… neither were any clergy from Jordanville (we are a 90-minute drive (some 110 kilometres) from the monastery… so it was practical for clergy from there to have been present). Doesn’t sound too united to me! JP drew only 80 people to this event… I counted them. I was there. I saw the autos in the car-park and noticed that their licence-plates were from Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York State. It took people from three different states to come up with less than 100 in attendance. That is meagre, derisory in the extreme, I say. It calls all the puffery on oca.org into question.

The above destroys the oca.org article. There is no need to go into a long discussion on  the Chambesy gabfest. It was NOT a meeting of First Hierarchs, nothing of note happened, for they agreed to nothing binding. It was nothing but a pointless and windy talkathon… a bunch of irrelevant theologians made the usual lot of useless resolutions and said the usual empty phrases about unity. It would impress me if, let’s say, Fr Vsevolod Chaplin or Bishop Mark Golovkov were to have said something about this (they are trustworthy sources). Instead, we have the usual windy talk from Hilarion Alfeyev… don’t forget that KMG took major portions of the DECR away from him and that HA is only a titular bishop (Volokolamsk is in Moscow Oblast, some 125 kilometres from Moscow City, thus, it is directly under the Patriarch (in reality, under his vicar, Metropolitan Yuvenaly)).

Therefore, unity is not around the corner… indeed, by flippantly speaking to the disobedient and unruly buccaneers at OCL, JP put a serious and grievous roadblock on the way to real unity! I agree with my Greek friend. Something is in the works and JP is not going to like it when Demetrios Trakatellis gives him a good dose of Granny’s castor oil (with the open and hearty aid of KMG, you can bank on that).

Reading oca.org is like reading Pravda of old… there is little there that corresponds to reality, but, there is gold for those who are willing to dig for it. I’ll say this; it’s never boring covering the OCA beat… things keep getting curiouser and curiouser. Let’s see what’s next… JP as His All-Holiness Infallible Pope and Patriarch of all America, Canada, Mexico, and the Outer Islands? (Shaking my head in wonderment and bemusement) It DOES take all kinds, doesn’t it?

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Thursday 5 November 2009

Albany NY

Let’s Look at the Toteboard!

It never ceases to amaze me that people prefer a comfortable delusion to the truth about reality. I understand the attraction, I suppose, but, it’s much more important to know and believe what has truly happened, rather than some Pravdaesque concoction that soothes all fears and reinforces all one’s wrong beliefs and keeps the purveyors of lies in their undoubtedly lucrative jobs.

A Good Ol’ Workin’ Chap

All of us have spent a pleasant day at the track… if you haven’t, you should! One gets to wear a pretty frock and hat, sit in the clubhouse with friends, watch the horses, and have a pleasing spot of fun betting on the races. In short, it’s one of the more enjoyable and agreeable ways of spending a summer day. One of the more important fixtures at the track is the toteboard. Nowadays, like everything else, it’s a computerised gizmo. At one time, it was a mechanical whiz-bang, and older hands tell me that, at one time, before that, it was really a board. The bookie chalked up the changing odds on it (they still do it that way at some English racing meets, by the way). Now… can’t you hear Freddie Caposela at Belmont and Chic Anderson at Churchill Downs calling the races again or see The Shoe riding Ferdinand to a long-shot victory in the ’86 Derby in your mind’s eye (that’s a stroll down Memory Lane, wot?)?

Well… Tyotya Vara is putting up a toteboard for JP and Co. I’m not taking bets… it’s a sure thing that they are going to finish dead last. Much of the information is out there already, but, let’s look again… we might find something useful. Let’s see what they’ve done to date… it’s like reading the Daily Racing Form, isn’t it? First, you see who’s riding the nag and who the trainer is. Hmm… Benjamin Peterson is riding this one… his record isn’t very good at all (he’s no Shoe, that’s for sure). BP was a protégé of Nikolai Soraich, he of sorry Alaska infamy… they served together in Las Vegas. He also gave refuge to David Brum, John Dresko, and Innocent Brittain (the last one named is not listed in the oca.org clergy directory, but, reputable reports place him in a parish in Oregon in BP’s diocese). That is, two deposed Syosset apparatchiki and Nikolai Soraich’s reputed homosexual lover are clergy under the shelter of BP’s omofor. Furthermore, he ostentatiously lives in a “homeless shelter” run by the HOOMie clique. Overall, it adds up to a questionable total, especially when one adds that BP is a supporter of Gerasim Eliel (GE’s known ties to Gleb Podmoshensky should disturb any grounded Orthodox Christian).

Who is the trainer? That is, who was the crucial influence in JP’s formation? If this does not alarm you, nothing can. JP is the spiritual son of Gleb Podmoshensky… the ROCOR Holy Synod deposed him for very good reason… they caught GP in naughty doings. JP went to Russia under GP’s auspices…  St Herman’s Press published Russki Palomnik… I remember seeing the adverts for it at the time… The MP did NOT publish it, as oca.org claims. Indeed, JP was under GP’s influence for over a decade before going to Russia (I would say that JP was under the sway of GP from shortly after his reception in ’78… that is some fourteen years before his trip to Russia). His attempts to advance Gerasim Eliel are proof positive that JP has never repudiated GP and his heretical ideas (GP taught that Pavel Florensky was a saint… I asked a friend of mine who is a priest in the MP if that were true… he said, “Emphatically not! Sophiology is a heresy!”), for GE and Damascene Christiansen are the only two members of the St Herman’s Brotherhood to defy the ROCOR Holy Synod and stay with GP after his suspension and deposition (the rest of the brotherhood departed in disgust).

THAT’S bad enough! Now, does JP have any major strikes against him? That is, has he suffered any major defeats? Yes, he has suffered two, so far. The first is his abortive attempt to move the OCA main office to Washington DC. The MC shot it down, mainly due to a lack of funds. This is no longer talked of… it is too embarrassing a defeat for JP and Co. It now leads to an interesting situation… the Archbishop of Washington and the Bishop of New York and New Jersey shall live on the same territory. Of course, this was so with Feodosy and Peter in the past… two scabrous peas in a pod. The konvertsy scream about the canons incessantly… now, their hero is going to transgress one of them! Watch them excuse it! I say, “If you shout for oikonomia in this case, you must shut up about the canons in future. If it is good for your idol… it is good for everyone else”. It is the same phony situation as we saw in the past… remember, they tell us, “Everything has changed!” It has? I think not!

His second defeat was in his attempt to bring David Brum into the episcopate. That was BOLD… that was BRAZEN. Brum had been Secretary to Feodosy and Herman… do you recall JP saying that no one remained from the former administration in Syosset… hmm… methinks I smell a rat here! Brum authored a controversial document, the so-called “Brum Doctrine”, where he argued that the First Hierarch of the OCA has papal-style dominance over all the other bishops. Brum is a former papist priest with no Orthodox formation, so, this is not surprising. Reflect well on the fact that Feodosy, Herman, and JP had no quibble with that (despite the obvious fact that no Orthodox First Hierarch has ever had such power)… the first two promoted Brum to high office… the last attempted to make this poseur a bishop. Do not forget that Brum’s reception into the Church and instantaneous shake n’ bake ordination was at JP’s monastery in 1997. Brum’s promotion hit a roadblock, thank the Good Lord. However… JP shall try to push his friend forward at the next-available opportunity.

Three strikes and you’re OUT! Is there a third strike in the offing? Yes… there are persistent rumours that JP is going to start an Anglican Rite in the OCA. If such occurs, that shall cause uproar amongst the faithful. It may even be the spark to set off the explosion destroying the OCA. Taking JP’s latest tirade at Antiochian Village to the GOA dissidents of the OCL into account, one cannot be optimistic about the situation. I am going to cover this in another post, so, we aren’t going to look in detail at it. (I still wonder if Philip Saliba informed Demetrios Trakatellis before the fact (that is, before the OCL publicised the event)… I doubt very highly that the GOA is very happy about all this).

We are at a point now where everyone knows what is going to happen. The Titanic has hit the iceberg… do recall that it took nearly three hours for the ship to sink, a long time. In this case, there are enough lifeboats for all, indeed, the rescue ships are hovering nearby, fully lit and entry-hatches open. The officers are refusing to lower the boats… “The ship is unsinkable… go back to your cabins… disregard the listing of the ship… it’s a normal thing, trust me, the ship is stable… that is not in question”.

The bookie has toted it up… the odds are on the board. I’ll not wager a penny on this one… what about you?

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Thursday 5 November 2009

Albany NY

Disinformatsiya in the Raw… “The Youth Want Unity”

A map of Antiochian Village, Ligonier PA… I believe that this was the site of JP’s speech to the OCL dissidents… I wonder what Metropolitan Demetrios Trakatellis thinks of all that?

Here is something that you must read to believe it. Trust me, I made none of this up, and it proves, even to the slow learners, that JP is out of touch with reality.

******

Orthodox Christians Celebrate Independence in America

Orthodox bishops in America are now free to use the A-word. That’s autocephaly — meaning a self-governing church that doesn’t answer to an authority overseas. America is now divided into overlapping ethnic jurisdictions, most of which answer to a church in Eastern Europe or the Middle East. Many of those overseas churches had squelched talk of autocephaly for their mission dioceses in places such as the Americas and Australia. But, in June, they unanimously called for all bishops in each of those regions to assemble and make decisions about their own territories. “It is a transition that will lead us, as quickly as possible, to our goal of a united, autocephalous American Church”, said Metropolitan Jonah, national leader of the Russian-rooted Orthodox Church in America. The Russian Orthodox Church declared his church autocephalous in 1970, but, that wasn’t recognised by other patriarchs, leaving Metropolitan Jonah’s status in the new body uncertain.

He encouraged the national conference of Orthodox Christian Laity, which met in Ligonier this week, to embrace the new unity process. It will have far greater impact on bishops and priests than on laity, he said, but, the laity will be crucial to the changes that count. “Part of the challenge is simply to be together: to work together, to pray together, and for our children to grow up together, our seminarians to study and pray together, and our people to marry one another. There is a gradual process of integration that will take generations and will eventually result in a completely unique American Orthodoxy”, he said in a Thursday night speech.

When the Russian Orthodox Church declared the Orthodox Church in America autocephalous in 1970, it hoped that would be the basis of a single American church. Instead, Metropolitan Jonah said, all jurisdictions, including his own, must give up their own structures to form a new church. “When the time comes for that autocephaly, then, the vision that we were given in 1970 will be fulfilled in something much greater than we are ourselves”, he said. Creation of such a church will require a Great Council of the global church, which has been in the planning stages for decades. Many speakers addressed what American Orthodoxy might look like, urging that it focus on outreach to all Americans. Christopher Shadid, 22, a senior at the University of Pittsburgh, said that campus Orthodox fellowships are already models of unity where students worship without ethnic distinction. “The youth want unity”, he said.

While a new American church mustn’t be limited by ethnicity, it must honour all of its heritages, Metropolitan Jonah said. He suggested using his own church’s model of having both territorial dioceses and non-geographical dioceses for parishes that need ethnic ministries. “We need to … figure out a way in which not only our history, but, all of the other histories — the Romanian experience, the Albanian experience, the Greek experience — all of that is seen not as just their experience, but, our common experience”, he said. A united American Orthodoxy will be more effective than the current ethnic groups in lobbying for the rights of persecuted Christians in Turkey, Sudan, and elsewhere, he said.

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, the first among equals of the Orthodox patriarchs, is visiting the US this week and next. Metropolitan Jonah met with him, and felt encouraged by the patriarch’s public words and their private conversation.

31 October 2009

Ann Rodgers

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

As quoted in Orthodox Christians for Accountability

http://www.ocanews.org/news/RodgersOnUnity11.3.09.html

******

To begin with, I have no doubt that Ms Rodgers is a person of good-will… however,  JP’s honeyed words fooled her due to her abject ignorance of the subject (that is clear throughout the piece, as she didn’t ask the proper questions of JP when he left obvious openings for such).

As for the putative proclamation, “they unanimously called for all bishops in each of those regions to assemble and make decisions about their own territories”… that is pure moonshine and fakery. The assembled body of Orthodox bishops took no such decision… if that was a fact, we’d all be talking about it. There was no major meeting of all the First Hierarchs of the Local Churches last June… THAT would have been a major news item in the Orthodox world (and we would have had commentary from people such as Metropolitans Hilarion Kapral and Demetrios Trakatellis, more believable and reputable sources than JP). What JP is referring to is probably nothing more than sparkles in the eyes of Hilarion Alfeyev (whom the MP has had to bring to heel several times, due to his overenthusiastic fawning over Benedict Ratzinger) after some minor meeting. Do look at how the OCA broke out in paroxysms of jubilation after SVS received a minor gramota (probably at HA’s instigation, no doubt)… a minor flunky carried it to Syosset; Zacchaeus Wood didn’t rate a minor audience with KMG to receive it or even a minor reception in the office of HA. That is, it was pure stuff n’ nonsense (originating in the Boy Wonder’s office, no doubt).

Note well that JP boasts that he attended a meeting of a group that calls itself Orthodox Christian Laity. That is a group within the GOA of anti-clerical affluent effluent… they wish to govern the Church and short-circuit the bishops. I have read this group’s material and found them modernist to the bone in theological/liturgical matters and believers in “democracy” in administrative affairs. “Democracy”, in this context, usually means that a clique runs a parish, diocese, or archdiocese. If you thought the Afghan election was in the good ol’ Chicago tradition of stuffed ballot-boxes and bought votes… just look at “democracy” in the Orthodox Church in the US and Canada. Year after year, parishioners choose the same set of familiar faces… and unscrupulous clerics use such sorts to advance their agendas.

Ms Rodgers does not mention (for she, probably, does not know it) that the EP still does not consider the OCA a canonical body. JP was silent on that. I’ll tell you what… hey, Post-Gazette! I’ll interview JP for you! I’ll ask the RIGHT questions… “Can you tell me why four years of diocesan financial records are missing? Your Secretary said, ‘they simply don’t exist’. Why didn’t you dismiss the responsible parties? At best, it was a ‘workplace violation’; at worst, it was ‘honest services fraud’”. “Why are you meeting with Orthodox Christian Laity, which is a group of people under the GOA? Did you receive permission from Metropolitan Demetrios Trakatellis to do so? Do you have written proof of that permission?” “Is the talk of a so-called Anglican Rite only internet chatter, an idle rumour, as it were; or, is it being actively considered?” “Why do you approve of “the Orthodox Feast of ‘St’ Francis?” There! JP and his entourage would run out of the room before I even warmed up… they would pull out their mobiles to complain to the editor that I was badgering and humiliating them.

This is just another unashamed piece of utter and out-and-out GIGO from the autocephalist crowd… mark down well that it comes from Mark Stokoe… he comes off as a stooge for JP. Mr Stokoe is a fanatic OCA apologist; extreme even amongst autocephalists… one has to bear that in mind when using his website. As for the statement, “The youth want unity”… consider the venue in which Mr Shadid said it. It was a conference held by a rebellious organisation of GOA laity, a group that favours a reductionist approach to all Church issues. If JP is saying that he supports such sorts… that tells us a great deal about the man and his plan. The above interview does not give me confidence about the persistent rumours about the so-called Anglican Rite. I fear that JP is going to set it up and stick out his tongue at the rest of Orthodoxy (it would lead to the MP disowning the OCA… he would burn the only canonical bridge that he has).

The Pittsburgh article DOES raise an interesting question though. When the OCA falls apart (it has reached the point where one must say “when”, not “if”), are dissident elements of the GOA and AOCANA going to join the modernist residue that shall be the only remnant of it (my Nicky believes that JP and BP are going to hold court in New Skete… by God, he’s probably right!)? Note well that the OCL meeting took place in Ligonier PA, the site of Antiochian Village, a camp facility of the AOCANA. Was the OCL meeting held there? I know of no other major Orthodox facility in the area capable of hosting such a meeting. Did Philip Saliba tell Metropolitan Demetrios Trakatellis of this meeting? Did Philip tell Metropolitan Demetrios that JP was going to speak to the gathering? THAT raises interesting queries, does it not?

As a priest-friend of mine said to me, “There is much information and disinformation out there”. This is some of the latter, I am afraid. Caveat lector… as always.

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Wednesday 4 November 2009

Albany NY

Is You Is or Is You Not My Baby?

New Skete, Cambridge NY… is you is or is you not my baby? That is, are you fish or are you fowl… Orthodox or heterodox? Stand and deliver!

Many of us know that New Skete (OCA) in Cambridge NY has a “unique” understanding of Orthodox monastic practise and liturgical ordo. Quite often, they defend it by claiming that they base their interpretations on the life and observances of Optina Pustyn Monastery in Russia. I have a modest proposal.

LET’S PUT THEM TO THE TEST.

It’s put up or shut up time for this pack of Renovationists. What we should do is to take the ordo as found in New Skete and compare it to the ordo as performed by the contemporary Optina Pustyn brotherhood. In every instance where the practises differ, New Skete must agree to change its ordo to that of the Optina Pustyn. The first thing that they have to put on the table is the so-called “Orthodox Feast of ‘St’ Francis of Assisi”. If Optina celebrates such… fine. If not… they should acknowledge this as an aberration and halt its observance. I say that this method is eminently fair, scrupulously objective, and without bias of any kind whatsoever. Secondly, New Skete agrees to remove any icon in its chapel that portrays a “saint” not accepted by the Optina brotherhood. If Optina recognises that Dorothy Day, Edith Stein, and Alexander Schmemann are saints… well, I have no quibble either.

We should use the above method to test the entire New Skete ordo… it is only taking them at their own word, after all. Even though this “test” is fair and based on their utterances, I do not think that they shall ever carry it out. You see, when they claimed that Optina is the inspiration for their ordo, they did NOT mean it. It was only an empty set of “weasel words”. Laurence Mancuso (who wrote up the New Skete ordo) was nothing but a Vatican II RC fanatic who drew up his own fantasy ordo… he based it on nothing in the real world. In truth, it was nothing but his notional “reconstruction”, his fancied imagining of a “pristine” past.

Indeed, he did not follow his Uniate Catholic traditions. Whilst they were still Uniates, New Skete commemorated the RC Bishop of Albany in their liturgy (you can hear it on an old vinyl LP issued by them in the 70s)… that is a major faux pas liturgically. Uniates are only supposed to commemorate their own bishop… not the RC bishop… so, one can see that New Skete was a rebellious, wilful, and defiant lot even before they became Orthodox. To compound it all, New Skete took its property with them. New York State recognises the legal principle that the bishops of hierarchical churches own the property, not the parish or monastery. However, New Skete held on to its property after it bolted the Uniate Franciscans. At the time, rumours floated in Orthodox circles that the RC Diocese of Albany owned the property under the monastery. I fear that Mancuso screwed the Uniate bishop (Stephen Kocisko of Pittsburgh) out of his just and due rights in the real estate.

I don’t bloody care about their posh cheesecakes or their upmarket dogs. What matters to me is that these folks claim to represent Orthodoxy. I don’t think that I am the only person who notices that their practise and preaching are not the same as the rest of the Church. Would the Athonite Fathers accept this muddled hotchpotch as Orthodoxy? I think not! I’d like to see them try to convince the brotherhood at the Great Lavra to adopt their aberrations! They’d chase them off the Mountain with clubs… in very short order.

Again, I repeat my modest proposal:

Take the ordo as found in New Skete and compare it to the ordo as performed by the contemporary Optina Pustyn brotherhood.

It’s a wonderful and beautiful proposal… it shall never be implemented, for it would destroy the illusionary constructs of the Renovationists. I say the following to Jonas Paffhausen:

“If you claimed that this seditious monastic establishment was ‘mature’, you owe all of us an apology. Indeed, you owe all Orthodox in all Local Churches an apology. Is defending a little band of malcontents that important to you? If so… compare their ordo to that of the rest of the Church. I would argue that your words were untrue; they were disrespectful to the rest of the monastics of the Church, who are content to follow the traditional monastic path. Compare New Skete and Jordanville… which one follows the Orthodox Way?”

Which do you want? Do you want “the Orthodox Feast of ‘St’ Francis of Assisi” or do you want the Orthodox Way, straight-up, just as faithful people still follow it all over the world? The choice IS yours.

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Tuesday 3 November 2009

Albany NY

Editor’s Postscript:

I give many thanks to an e-mail correspondent who asked me questions about New Skete. God willing, the above gives you clear answers. I found that as I was writing a reply to you that others might find this informative as well. Be good.

“It’s All Over!”

Positive mental attitude is a psychological term that describes a mental phenomenon in which the central idea is that one can increase achievement through optimistic thought processes. PMA implies that one has a vision of good-natured change in one’s mind; it employs a state of mind that continues to seek, find, and execute ways to win, or find a desirable outcome, regardless of the circumstances. It rejects negativity, defeatism, and hopelessness. Part of the process of achieving PMA employs motivating “self-talk” and deliberate goal-directed thinking.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_mental_attitude

Affirmations in New Age and New Thought terminology refers primarily to the practise of positive thinking… fostering “a positive mental attitude supported by affirmations will achieve success in anything”. More specifically, an affirmation is a carefully-formatted statement that should be repeated to one’s self and written down frequently. For an affirmation to be effective, it needs to be present-tense, positive, personal, and specific.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_thinking

Cognitive dissonance is an uncomfortable feeling caused by holding two contradictory ideas simultaneously. The “ideas” or “cognitions” in question may include attitudes and beliefs, the awareness of one’s behaviour, and facts. The theory of cognitive dissonance proposes that people have a motivational drive to reduce dissonance by changing their attitudes, beliefs, and behaviours, or by justifying or rationalising their attitudes, beliefs, and behaviours.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance

The fact is that when the Church is persecuted, people can either support the persecuted or else support the persecutors. It is our Christian duty to forgive our persecutors, but, we cannot and, indeed, must not forget, so that this does not happen again.

Archpriest Andrew Phillips

http://orthodoxengland.org.uk/judgement.htm

JP and Co tell us continuously, “It’s all over! Everything has changed!” Of course, the Millennium is not upon us, the Second Coming has not occurred, the lion has not lain down with the lamb, and the Money Tree has not sprouted in the backyard. The very vehemence of this statement is a sign that the driving ideology behind JP is NOT Christian… it is emphatically an example of an “affirmation”, which is a form of “Positive Mental Attitude” (see the definitions above). Don’t confuse Positive Mental Attitude with the Positivism of Comte and Durkheim… they are NOT the same; the former is more a petit-bourgeois affectation (found especially in the affluent effluent in American suburbia), whilst the latter is a real intellectual thesis (although I, and others, would argue that it is deeply flawed).

One reason why people are rejecting this statement of JP is that the facts on the ground contradict his words, causing an acute case of cognitive dissonance (see definition above). For instance, immediately after his election, and directly after he declared the ancien régime dead and buried, everyone saw the news of the Sidebottom settlement on oca.org. THAT set off alarm bells in many minds, mine included. It was the same old lawyerly evasion that the old gang used… set in the same prissy and evasive prose… “We have done no wrong”. Then, why was there a “confidential settlement?” Everyone was waiting for an apology from JP to Mr Sidebottom… it didn’t occur. Doubt entered the door… it wasn’t cognitive dissonance yet… but, it put many of us on the alert.

Then, the Koumentakos case lingered in the courts, and the OCA backed Raymond Velencia to the hilt. JP went to Venice FL to pay his respects to Bobby K (who kept his sinecure as “Parish Outreach Coordinator”… an office lacking in most parishes due to lack of funds)… Igor Burdikoff stayed on as Dean of Upstate NY (after “losing” four years’ worth of diocesan financial records)… Lyonyo Kishkovsky retained the same office that he occupied since the days of Feodosy Lazor… and expenses not delineated in the published budget surfaced (LK going to Kazakhstan, JP and Co going to Moscow, and the legal expenses for the Koumentakos case, for instance). As “Moses” put it so well, “Well, the new boss looks just like the old boss”.

If there has been substantive change… where is it? There is one change… and it was not for the better. Matushka Nina Stroyen pointed up to me, “Herman was a megalomaniac, but, he was Orthodox to the bone”. That is true… Herman Swaiko was a bastard, to be sure… but, he WAS “one of us”. I could NEVER imagine Herman allowing SVS to sign a pact with a TEC seminary. Herman would not have done so… he would have sent a drooling “absent-minded professor” academic priest to that spurious Anglican conference, and that would be that. Certainly, he would sign no “covenant” with the TEC, thank you very much. JP and Hatfield did so. This was a MAJOR break with the past. It was also a MAJOR break with the policy of the MP as regards the TEC (Moscow has broken off “dialogue”)… but, that’s another story, isn’t it? (I think that it’s unwise in the extreme for JP to disregard Moscow in this… after all, they are his only “canonical lifeline”. He doesn’t seem to care… interesting, nicht wahr?)

What is interesting for us in this present case is that JP and Co are not “defending” their actions (at least, not in accessible public venues)… it is as if they believe that if they ignore it long enough, it shall “go away”. That brings us back to “affirmations” and “Positive Mental Attitude”. These are major portions of what I call “Godless Suburban Positive Therapeutese”. Its high priests are “therapists”, “facilitators”, and “counsellors”, that is, the “shrinkie-dinkie” has taken the place of the clergyman. Indeed, in the OCA (and, I believe, the AOCANA) no man can enter seminary unless a shrink vets him (shades of Timothy Blumentritt, eh?). True, they are just aping what they see in the heterodox confessions… God forbid that we should follow our own path… they may not invite us to their parties!

Note well that oca.org acts as though everything is “normal”, everything is “fine”, and the situation is “stable”. I have seen this on a smaller scale in my parish. During the years of crisis under Herman, one heard not a peep about it (I am NOT lying… no one said a word). One only saw that this one or that one “disappeared”. No one said anything… and if one asked about it, one received either evasions or a smile from the Iggster (he has the broadest insincere “sincere smile” that I have ever seen… I have seen the face of evil… it is not “ugly”, it is bland and smiling). Everything was “normal” and “fine”, and everything was “stable”. Note well that Iggy is one of those around JP and Co (they don’t mind that he “lost” church records… they do keep him in office, after all!)… he is also deeply up to his neck with the New Skete crowd (do recall JP’s fulsome praise of that lot). Therefore, I have had direct observation of one of the most notorious and hated modernists in the Church… I can see how JP and Co are going to act… they are going to act with the same smiling evasive blandness that Iggy employs. If it is evil in the case of Igor Burdikoff, it is evil in the case of JP. There is no way around it.

We’ve been “had”, people. We all believed in a will o’ the wisp because our hatred of the actions of Herman Swaiko blinded us as to the true nature of JP. Now, there is an unholy trinity of former Episkies (JP, BP, and Hatfield) running the OCA. They intend to take the OCA into an Anglican direction, as  the Nashotah House pact indicates. All that shall linger, I fear, is an Orthodox shell, a mere “Eastern” liturgical veneer over a noxious mixture of Anglican comprehensiveness and convert hubris. We did want Herman out “at all costs”, didn’t we? Well… I’ll admit freely that my dislike of Herman’s overbearing highhandedness blinded me… I think that I am NOT alone. “At all costs”… the bill is now due for payment, and we don’t like it. However, there is a fly in the ointment, folks. The Lord gave us EXACTLY what we asked for.

“It’s all over!” Yes, it is… but, not in the sense that JP means. Furthermore, we must, first, REMEMBER. As Fr Andrew points up, “We cannot and, indeed, must not forget, so that this does not happen again”. Think on that when someone like JP or BP tells you to “move on”… ask yourself, “WHY?” Otherwise, we shall chain ourselves to a carousel of folly. Our fate shall be self-inflicted and fatal… our children shall show more sense than we have… they shall pick up and leave (as too many have done over the past 40 years due to mischief by clerics and the gossips they allow free rein).

I believe that there is still time to turn back to sanity… shall you join me?

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Tuesday 3 November 2009

Albany NY

Pig Rasslin’, Anyone?

Discourage publicity-seeker convert nerds, who just want an argument anyway, because they have no life. The more you argue with them, the more they get aggressive, because it’s their psychology that’s warped. If an article can’t make them see it, let life do it for them!

An Ornery Country Batushka

One of my priest-friends sent that to me in an e-mail. By God… I’ve never seen it put so well or so concisely. It dovetails exactly with what I’ve heard from friends and well-wishers, lately. However, no one else has put it so clearly and to the point. I just HAD to share it with all of you.

Father’s contention is excellent. There are those who only wish to stir up strife… don’t accommodate them, I say. There is a difference between speaking frankly on “touchy” topics and inciting friction. The first is looking clearly at the record left by public figures in their official actions. The second is, all too often, only mud-slinging at powerless common folk… it is why I do not give names of private individuals… you can censure a particular action, but, there are, indeed, limits. No doubt, some angry sort shall assert that I transgress such restrictions with some frequency… I beg to differ… there is a different standard for authority-figures in positions of influence and ordinary sorts with no such power. The latter, I argue, have a right to FAR greater privacy than the former. Those who have taken public office (both religious and secular) do so with “malice aforethought”… that is, most are “willing volunteers”… few (if any) are “reluctant conscripts”. In short, examination of the known doings of public figures is not only acceptable, it’s NECESSARY. Otherwise… you get the picture, no doubt (and if we do NOT do so, we deserve everything that comes to us).

For instance, Jonas Paffhausen made a public statement in Moscow earlier this year that he had replaced all the previous administration, save for a house-cleaner and some secretaries. If I point up that this statement was a lie because Lyonyo Kishkovsky (who accompanied JP on this junket) was an influential member of the previous junta (there are others as well, but, you need only one to contradict JP’s assertion conclusively)… indeed, LK holds the same high-ranking title that he has held since the time of Feodosy Lazor. To expose THAT statement as a lie is acceptable behaviour. If I were to say, “Wladyslaw Prune is beating his wife and he is a deadbeat, so, don’t believe anything you see on his website”, that is wrong. Mr Prune doesn’t have any power… he’s an ordinary sort. JP calls himself “Metropolitan of all America and Canada”… I do believe that is a public title for a public office… therefore, his public utterances are open to critical inquiry. That is true for all other “public figures”, as well.

Again, I don’t doubt that there are those who consider any critical study of the past actions of the Church and its hierarchs inherently disrespectful and slanderous. One has to ask here, “Why do they oppose such studies? Why do they oppose probing questions?” I think that the answer is obvious. Such sorts, when they say such, especially if they were placeholders who had a direct influence on the events concerned, signal that there is something amiss… there is, probably, something irregular that person had a hand in shaping or influencing (yes, Virginia, there are Slim Shadies amongst the clergy). Some who say such, unfortunately, are priests who are either afraid of their superiors or those forced to speak against their wills (that is all too common in some quarters, I fear).

Therefore, one sees that it is not as simple as some would have it. I would say that one should notice how a poster treats ordinary and powerless sorts. It is why I do my best to follow the advice given me by good friends and advisors. We can name public figures, but, we should cover over the sins of those who cannot influence affairs. That is, we can speak of Bartholomew Archontonis, Hilarion Kapral, Jonas Paffhausen, and Kirill Gundyaev and their sayings and doings… these are all known and influential gentlemen. If it is something from another common person… one can name the action, but, the person’s identity is sacrosanct… at least, that is the advice that some gave me… and I find it VERY good… VERY good, indeed.

Anyone who does not respect the privacy and confidentiality of private people is a gossip… and I say so openly. Bear that in mind that gossips have driven more good people out of the Church than any other cause save for the ruinous OCA-ROCOR feuds of the past.

Can we afford such pig rasslin’? I would say not.

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Monday 2 November 2009

Albany NY

Biff and Muffy Revisited

The public library in Salisbury CT… we motored past this yesterday… doesn’t it look oh-so-Episcopalian?

Yesterday, we took a lovely motor east through Columbia County south of Albany to Connecticut and returned home via the Berkshires in eastern Massachusetts. It’s mid-autumn now, the leaves have changed already and they’re past their peak… indeed, there is a thick carpet of them on the ground and those left on the trees are either withered or muted and rusty in colour. We’re on the verge of what we Russians call “wounded autumn”… that time of year when all the leaves have fallen to the ground, the trees are bare, the grass is sere, but, the snow hasn’t fallen yet. The earth seems to expect the coming winter. To me, that’s the saddest time of the year. Winter has its own splendour… a snow-covered landscape has its charms. Spring is the upsurge of new life yet again. Summer is life coming to full flower. Early autumn is the harvest and the brilliant and radiant colours of the trees. “Wounded autumn” is sad… the earth is looking forward to its “rest” in winter, to prepare for yet another cycle of life, but, it’s the “deadest” time of the year.

We drove on 199 towards 44… That was a fairly blah drive. It had no particular scenery, there were only a few farms, and there was no settlement of size. However, when we got into north-western Connecticut on 44, it changed. It became what I call “Episcopalian country”. Of course, I am speaking sociologically, in this case. Not all Episkies are “Episcopalian”… and not all “Episcopalians” are Episkies. Indeed, some “Episcopalians” are other flavours of Protestant (but, NEVER Baptist, Pentecostalist, or American Cultist (Mormon, JW, etc)… no matter how much money they may have), a few are Russian Orthodox… like the Sikorskys (First-Wavers only, no other Orthodox are let in, though), and some old-line RC Irish and Germans (none others need apply). There are no non-Christians in the lot… there are no Jews, to be specific. This is not anti-Jewish; it is only states what I have observed in fact. It is why there are “Jewish” and “Episcopalian” country clubs in Westchester County… the two do NOT mix… William Jefferson Clinton belongs to a club of the former set, not the latter, interesting, no?

It is easy to spot Episcopalian Country. There are absolutely pristine “farms” with immaculate lawns with picture-postcard-perfect white or black wooden fencing with horses in the field (and one can see nary a cow or goat or chicken… we even saw a burro… Nicky thought it belonged to a “climber”, he thought that “real Episcopalians” would keep their burros in Texas or Mexico… I agreed with a hearty laugh). Actual working farmers have wire fences, there is a purposeful jumble on the property, and, trust me, there are few (if any) horses, and there are certainly no burros! One sees “adorable” little inns and “quaint” B&Bs… there are pretentious gold-picked signs everywhere, usually over an affected little “gift (or antiques) shoppe” or “boutique”… the restaurants have nauseatingly cute names and one wonders what euphemism on their menu alludes to a hamburger (“chopped steak” was popular at one time)… if they even offer one. It is the playground of the highest social class and set in the US (if you think that the US is a classless society, do think again… if you persist in such a notion, I shan’t argue with you… fools are best left alone, for there is no convincing them with reasonable argument).

Some predict the end of Episcopalianism and Episcopalians. THAT is fatuous and vacuous. The highest social class in America is not going to disappear. Ergo, the church that embodies such is not going to die out. True, the nature of that church may change… it may transmute itself for the sake of sheer survival. Nevertheless, Episcopalianism as a distinct faith is not going to perish, and “Episcopalians” as a social set are not going to fade away (indeed, the latter’s persistence shall be a main prop of the continued existence of the former). I know Episcopalian people and I can assure you that this group is not going to fade away, either in the short-term or in the longer future (don’t believe the criticisms of malcontents who left this organisation… in many cases, they are trying to explain their exit).

Let’s be frank… the so-called dispute amongst Episcopalians is not new… it has gone on since the first ordination of women to the clergy in 1978. Some left then, some left with the first female bishop, others left after V. Gene Robinson’s installation. There’s not that many “conservatives” left in TEC (reflect on the fact that Nashotah House remains in TEC… interesting, no?)! There are more in the C of E, but, that is because it is the “church by law established”… many have hung on for the sake of a living, to speak frankly. There aren’t that many left for poachers to pick off the flock… most of those who remain in it AGREE with the present direction of the confession… and the ones that do not (and are still within both TEC and the C of E) are relatively few. They are not from the highest reaches of the group, either organisationally or socially (one finds few disgruntled sorts at St Bart’s…).

Therefore, I believe that the predictions of an imminent demise for TEC are premature. I would remind all that when the TEC caught a treasurer embezzling church funds, they turned her over to the authorities, she stood trial, and served some eighteen months in a New York State slammer (plus probation, I believe). THAT is a healthy group’s reaction. Hmm… some of you can guess what I’m thinking… I’ll leave it as a hint for the gang in Syosset. To think that some believe that Biff and Muffy are going to worship with the unwashed plebs… silly rabbit! If it hasn’t happened in the past, it’s not going to happen in future, either.

Northwestern Connecticut was the playground of Episcopalians a century ago… it shall still be such a century from now… no matter what some think. There’s life in that thar ol’ dawg, yet… don’t count ‘em out!

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Monday 2 November 2009

Albany NY