Batiushka Michael and Matushka Ksenia Oleksa. Batiushka Michael is one of the confessor-priests in Alaska today. He is not the author of the letter, but, he is one of the leaders for truth in the Church in Alaska.
Do you want to know how we Alaskan clergy feel? We feel betrayed. Period. We hoped that the HS would act and give us some relief, but that relief did not come. Instead the wolf was given the key to the sheep fold. And we are all genuinely afraid of what is coming over the next few weeks.
The bishop has characterized us as disedents, as adolescents just acting out. Naughty school children that do not want to do as teacher says. Then when the whisper became a shout, he deflected the whole thing away from himself by calling it a plot hatched in Syosset to get control of the Alaskan lands.
Isidore himself, on TV, said that those priests who spoke out have problems in their villages, including alcohol abuse. And the intimation was that it was the clergy who are abusing the alcohol and that is the root of the problem.
The village clergy are whining, complaining, naughty, drunks.
I am sick to my stomach and I must say that I don’t know how much longer I can hold out.
But thank you Fr Alexander G., for your efforts on our behalf. It is not your fault that things turned out the way they did.
This is my next to last post. The next time I write it will be to announce to world my stepping down from this jurisdiction; from this diocese; from this parish; and very possibly from the Orthodox Church altogether.
The only love here is for the rubrics, the typicon, the canons, and for a church that never existed in the first place. Even those who tow the line, who bow and scrape are not loved. Even they are dismissed as those who had better keep it up and watch out.
Enough. Good bye. For now.
Anon Ak Priest (for now)
Anonymous Alaska Priest on 2008-03-29 11:26
Orthodox Christians for Accountability
The Morning After: Comments
http://www.ocanews.org/serendipity/index.php?/archives/227-The-Morning-After.html#comments (in English)
Editor’s Note:
This can make the stones weep. I shall not offer commentary on such a raw, heartfelt, and soulful appeal. If this does not convince you that the OCA is (and has been) a dysfunctional organisation, nothing shall.
The faithful, elders, and clergy of Alaska need our support now. Nikolaios delenda est. Nothing else shall fill the bill.
