Bishop Melchisedek Pleska (1942- ) of Pittsburgh (bishop at the front left, facing the Blunder)… as the acting Chancellor of the OCA, he has the power to call an emergency meeting of the Holy Synod to deal with JP’s disobedience… shall he? Shall he set things right or shall he punk out?
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This was on Stokoe’s site:
Meanwhile, in another act of defiance, Metropolitan Jonah tonsured a nun to the Great Schema this past week for the so-called newly-established Entrance of the Holy Theotokos into the Temple Orthodox Community in Washington DC. Jonah’s continuing involvement with the nuns is sure to be a topic at the next Synod meeting, as is his continuing support. The “community” is presently housed in buildings belonging to Jonah’s Washington Cathedral.
Based on a recent investigation and report by Bishop Michael Dahulich of New York in a related matter, the Synod had already agreed not to accept the nuns into the OCA. They are presently canonically dependent on a monastery in Greece, from which their local Bishop has refused to release them. Moreover, the Synod had already explicitly refused to bless the establishment of a new convent in DC for them.
Firstly, let’s take care of a small, but telling, matter. Mark, stop capitalising bishops’ names or putting crosses in front of them (I took them out… I won’t allow such boobishness on my site). It’s a sign of an ignorant and stupid person not conversant with the actual practises of the living Orthodox press in the real Orthodox homelands. I’ve never seen Milena Faustova use such a cretinous and silly usage… and she’s one of VOR’s top religion writers… I’ve never seen any other Russian or Greek religious journalist from a major and recognised outlet use it either (it’s beloved of vagante sectarians outside the Real Church, though). It wasn’t seen amongst American Orthodox until Love BT brought in the cultish HOOMie wannabes in 2000. Stop it, Mark… or, do you prefer the company of the HOOMie phonies to real Orthodox Christians? This tells you that Mark Stokoe isn’t a grounded Orthodox Christian… rather, he’s a Renovationist fanatic.
Let’s keep this simple. No First Hierarch can act independently of the Holy Synod of his Local Church. In all REAL Local Churches, the highest authority is the Archpastoral Council (or its equivalent), that is, the body of ruling bishops sitting enbanc as the ruling assembly of the Church. No First Hierarch is an independent actor; he’s merely the bishop of the most important city in the country. That’s why “Archbishop of Washington” is an idiotic title for the First Hierarch of the OCA. The District is an odd place… it’s not a “real” city… it’s full of transients, no one is “from there”… Dubuque IA or Normal IL has more of a real cultural life (if you’ve ever seen the monstrosity that’s called the Kennedy Center, you know what I mean).
JP is acting on the basis of a heretical doctrine thought up by his pal David Brum (Brum was a classmate of JP’s at BTU… so were Gerasim Eliel and (I believe) Damascene Christiansen (the latter I’m not so sure of)) that many call the “Brum Doctrine”… that is, the First Hierarch of the OCA is a little dictator who can overrule the Holy Synod as he wills, and all bishops serve at his pleasure. Of course, Brum’s a former papist priest, and the papal roots of this lunacy are clear to all comers. Brum wrote this up for Herman Swaiko, but when the shit hit the fan in ’05, Brum skedaddled off to Arizona so fast that it wasn’t funny (Love BT was still bishop in the West… he sheltered him… when BT’s protégé BP took over, Brum still had his bolthole).
To burn out this cancer to the root, the Holy Synod must not only defrock JP… it must defrock Brum and Eliel… and do so immediately, without waiting for Easter. The MP Holy Synod just held a regularly-scheduled meeting on 22 March, so, Holy Synod meetings are possible in the Great Lent. Don’t forget the orders of the MP Holy Synod to the OCA Holy Synod contained in Report 25 of its last meeting:
Expressed hope that the situation in the OCA will be handled in strict accordance with the sacred canons of the Church.
This means that Melchisedek Pleska, in his role as Chancellor of the OCA, has the duty to convoke an emergency meeting of the Holy Synod to deal with this case of open disobedience by Fathausen. The Holy Synod can depose a bishop, as was made clear in 1999, when the MP Holy Synod defrocked Archbishop Nikon Mironov of Yekaterinburg and sent him to the Pskov Pechersky Lavra to work his repentance as a simple monk. Another precedent I could quote is when the MP Archpastoral Council deposed Diomid Dzyuban as Bishop of Anadyr recently. Historically, one could mention the deposition of Patriarch Nikon Minin by a Local Council in the 17th century. Simply put, no individual bishop is immune from the actions of the episcopate as a whole.
The Holy Synod must defrock JP… and they must do likewise to Brum, his theological enabler, and to Eliel, his ideological confederate. Nothing less will do. It’s time for Mel Pleska to show us what he’s made of… I’ve heard much talk about him… what about some action? It’s called for in this case. I’d say to Bishop Mel, “Don’t take my word on the fact that the Holy Synod can deep-six a First Hierarch, if need be… check it out with reputable and solid people like Vsevolod Anatolyevich and His Holiness… they’ll give ya the straight story. Then, defrock this POS for defying your open and manifest order. Defrock his pal Brum for his heresy. Defrock Eliel for being a fellow traveller”.
It’s time to get down to business and rid ourselves of this “turbulent priest”… then, it’ll be time to get out the humane killer… this rabid beast known as the OCA has to be put down.
On 2 April, in Tver, there’ll be a musical evening dedicated to St Patrick’s Day sponsored by the Diocese of Tver. The dance ensemble Kamelot (St Petersburg), the folk music group Ashel (Tver), the musician Tetra Nazarenko (Moscow), young violinists from Tver, and others will perform at the event, the Missionary Department of the Diocese of Tver reported to Interfax-Religion on Tuesday. Archpriest Alexander Shabanov, the chairman of the Department, will host the affair.
Dancing on St Patrick’s Day in Moscow…
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On 3 April, also at under the aegis of the Diocese, the parish of The Three Holy Confessors will hold an international colloquium, In the Footsteps of St Patrick: The Lessons of His Mission. On the programme of the symposium are talks by experts in the history of Western Christianity, missionaries, clergy, and staff of the post-graduate Centre of Celtic Christianity (UK); they will discuss the patristic heritage and the missionary experience of the Orthodox Church in the British Isles. As expected, Archdeacon Andrei Kuraev, a professor at the Moscow Theological Academy, will attend the event.
St Patrick’s Day Parade in Moscow on Stary Arbat Street…
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Both Roman Catholics and Orthodox revere St Patrick as the protector (покровитель) and patron saint of Ireland, as he was the founder and first bishop of the Irish church. St Patrick arrived in Ireland as a missionary in the fifth century. According to tradition, preaching the great mystery of the Holy Trinity, he plucked up a piece of clover from the ground, and, raising the shamrock over his head, he told the Irish that if they could see this, they could imagine what the Holy Trinity was like. Since then, the green three-leafed clover became the Irish symbol of the Holy Trinity, the green shamrock is the national symbol, and everyone recognises green as the national colour of the country.
Is Fearrde Thú Guinness. Guinness is Better for You (than Anything Else Is)
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Editor’s Note:
Tomorrow is Orthodox St Patrick’s Day… don’t argue with me… it’s what it is. So… you can put colcannon, champ, barmbrack, boxty (some recipes don’t have eggs in ‘em), farl (both regular and potato), kippers, salmon, cod, cabbage (kapusta falls under this rubric), mushrooms, baked beans, and soda bread on the menu. Wash it all down with a cuppa Barry’s or Lyons for breakfast, and some Guinness or something with a wee bit more bite later in the day.
If you dare, toast your friends in Poitín… it’s legal, now… look for “Bunratty Mead and Liqueuer” and “Knockeen Hills Poteen”. If ya don’t know what it is, ask any friendly neighbourhood Irishman… they’ll be glad to clue you in on the whole megillah (essentially, it was Irish country moonshine made by bright-eyed and bushy-tailed Gaelic-speaking peasants evadin’ the Royal revenooers). Reputedly, it’s one of the strongest alcoholic beverages in the world, renowned for its ability to get the drinker drunk again the morning after drinking it by drinking water, thereby bringing the remaining ethanol back into solution.
The Rare Old Mountain Dew (Clancy Brothers)
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Some people have asked me why Russians and Greeks, in particular, are strongly opposed to Uniatism, but are friendly with Roman Catholics. That’s easy to answer… RCs are mostly people from Catholic cultures, such as Polish, Irish, German, Italian, Spanish, French (including Québécois), Czech, or Latin American… they are what they are, they’re no threat to our Orthodox culture whatsoever. Orthodox and RCs have often gotten on well. Katz’s Deli Orthodox know that Catholics are what they are… and that’s that. Uniatism, on the other hand, is a deliberate tool of some in the Curia to hoodwink gullible Orthodox into abandoning Orthodoxy for Catholicism. This gets most real Orthodox hopping mad. I tell my RC friends, “Just accept this… it’s a fact of life. It doesn’t affect how we deal with you, anyway” (said to a Polish friend as we broke opłatek one Catholic Christmas).
Anyway… get ready for Orthodox St Patrick’s Day tomorrow. May the luck o’ the Irish be with ya… and may St Michael and all his Angels help you cheat the Devil Himself if it isn’t (a saying of old Mr O’Leary… God rest him)…
In this Russian comedy, the loss of Larissa Debomonova in the Ural taiga became a strange event. However, hunters discovered a recording on her Camcorder that allows you to sort out the details of the strange history of the disappearance of journalist and her encounters with the Yeti…
Former Research Fellow Sergey Mamontov is now redundant, “looking for where to apply himself and his untrammelled intelligence”. In the end, he hatches a plan… Mamontov orders mock “securities” with a richly ornamented imperial pattern, water marks, and with his own portrait in the centre. He set an arbitrary price for these pseudo-bonds, and he starts to trade them using the principle, “It’s always more expensive today than it was yesterday”. This is an adaptation of an autobiographical novel by Sergei Mavrodi of the boldest financial scam in late-twentieth century Russia.
The word “Generation” is in English in the title of this Russian comedy-drama. The main character, Vavilen Tatarsky, a graduate of a literary institute, is trying to find his place in life at the time that Russia was plagued by the Nasty 90s. As a result, he became an employee at an advertising agency and he penetrated into the innermost secrets of life. It’s interesting to note that the plot of the movie is from the eponymous book by Viktor Pelevin.
