I’d LOVE to know what through the cat’s mind when this snap was taken! Perspirin’ minds wanna know!
BMD
Sunday, 8 May 2011
Happy Mother’s Day 2011 to All the Mums Out There!
Can you believe it, Mother’s Day in Russia is at the end of November. Well… to all you mums out there… ¡SALUD! We all luv ya to no end, and don’t you EVER forget it!
BMD
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His Holiness Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev of Moscow and all the Russias Speaks on the Feastday of St George the all-Victorious (6 May 2011)
I rejoice that the Lord allowed me to commemorate the feastday of the Holy Great Martyr George the all-Victorious here, on Poklonnaya Gora, one of the most sacred places in our capital and, indeed, it’s one of the most sacred in our entire Motherland. It’s no coincidence that there’s a church dedicated to St George here, because the end of the Great Patriotic War coincided with his feastday. On his feastday, the shots were heard no more, there was an end to the fighting. Therefore, strictly speaking, historically, this is Victory Day, and it’s no coincidence, because, of course, St George was the patron of our armed host and people, who had entered into an unequal and mortal combat with a most dangerous enemy.
As St George defeated the serpent, which no one else could vanquish, so, our people defeated an enemy against whom no one else could prevail. No doubt, as St George was weaker than the serpent, our army was weaker than the enemy army was. However, the victory, as God inclined his mercy, wasn’t for the side with the most force, but, rather, it was for the side with truth, as in the saying of the Holy Right-Believing Grand Prince Alexander Nevsky, “God isn’t present in coercion, He resides in truth”. We should remember these words well; we should never use force to achieve evil ends. No matter how powerful the exertions of evil people seem to us, such efforts will always be confounded, and those who carry out evil will suffer punishment, because God is present in this world, not only in His love that supports all of creation, but in His righteousness as well, He judges mankind, not only on the day of His Second and Glorious Coming, but on every day in human history, too. The entirety of human history is evidence of God’s just judgement. Believers see the hand of God in human history, for the hand of God allowed us to disgrace a horrific enemy force, many times superior to us in power, and, like the serpent laid low by St George’s spear, our enemy was prostrate before us. The symbol of this destruction was the historic victory parade in Red Square, where our soldiers trampled on the banners of the defeated foe who had invaded Russian soil.
We should accompany Victory Day with prayerful remembrance of those who laid down their lives for our country. Moreover, today, we made a prayerful commemoration of the leaders, warriors, and all the other war dead. We must always remember their names; we must never stop praying for them, bearing in mind that those who lay down their life for their friends, are beloved of the Lord (cf. The Gospel According to St John 15.13). We believe that, now, our heroes have the opportunity to pray for the Russian land, for Holy Rus, together with the saints glorified by the Church. At the same time, we must make reasonable inferences from historical events. We must never superficially evaluate what happened in the past. One must always strive to see the hand of God in both good and bad occurrences, remembering that the Judgement of God is upon us at all times. May God grant this spiritual vision acuity to us, not to weaken us, but to allow us to avoid sin, evil, and injustice. Remember… whenever we use coercion to support evil and sin… whether we use economic power, the power of the media, the power of technology, or the power of human persuasion, all of this is nothing in the eyes of God, as the wicked dragon was nothing before the spear of St George, even though he symbolised the forces of evil attacking mankind.
May God help us to order our lives in a good manner… for God’s truth shows no hesitation in the face of rumours, it doesn’t simply give us approval, and it doesn’t give us a superficial foreigner’s assessment of our national life. We should rebuild our Motherland with humility, rigour, and deep Christian belief, we should develop all aspects of our national life, including our economic and political systems, to take care of the social and material well-being of the people, but we must always keep uppermost a religious appreciation of human events, for it affects every one of us. If we give priority to the spiritual life, then, we’ll all benefit… the Lord will protect us from error and evildoers, He’ll give us inner joy, peace, and the satisfaction that we’ve willed to do the work of God. I believe that’s how we should transform our Motherland, preserving its true independence from other powers, whilst maintaining the ability to build up its national existence on its own terms, based on the great traditions of the Russian state. On this day, may God bless our government, our forces, and our people, so that we can spend a peaceful life in all godliness and honesty.
I heartily greet all of you on this wonderful, bright, and great holyday, which of especial importance for Moscow, for St George is on its arms, and the coat of arms of Moscow is on the Russian arms. May God bless, through the prayers of St George, this city, our Capital and First City, and our Motherland, as well. Amen.
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I cordially greet and welcome you on this great holyday, the feastday of the Holy Great Martyr George the all-Victorious. As I just said, this was the day that the Great Patriotic War ended… it was the end of hostilities. It wasn’t coincidental that the end of hostilities coincided with a great Orthodox feastday. St George the all-Victorious is on the arms of Russia and on the arms of Moscow. As we all know, the war began on 22 June 1941. Of course, the invaders didn’t know that was the feastday of All Saints Who Shone Forth in the Russian Land. Haughtily, and with contempt for our country, they entered into its sacred limits, destroying everything in their path, with pride in their strength, their superiority, and in the defeats and suffering that they inflicted on our army and our people. What suffering our people went through… whether they bore arms at the front, or worked to forge the weapons of victory, or simply those who worked at ordinary jobs so that people could eat, walk, dress, and live! Within such incredible constraints, with sorrow and suffering touching every family, our people defended the Motherland.
All of the Saints who Shone Forth in the Russian Land, St George the Great Martyr, the Mother of God, the Ever-Virgin Mary, and the Lord Himself observed the delusions of those who encroached on Holy Rus… all of them were with us. However, God doesn’t act deceptively. God relates His will with the actions of people. He weaves his Providence into every human effort. In this terrible struggle with the enemy, we won because we had a real determination to see it through to the end, because we had mobilised all our forces, because we humbly accepted the suffering and sorrow sent down to us, and because we fervently prayed for victory. On the one hand, our prayer, our common grief and suffering, and our willingness to sacrifice for the greater good, and, on the other, the power of God, helped us to defeat the foe.
This should help us to understand that we can overcome the contemporary difficulties facing us. Even though they’re not commensurate with the privations of the war, and they’re not comparable with those that the older generation endured (they were a generation of veterans), nevertheless, we must remember that our difficulties have caused us painful wounds. They’ve created feelings of dissatisfaction, but we mustn’t address them with an arrogant trust in human virtue, with an egotistical confidence in the potency of money or power, or that others will do something for us, and that they’ll help us. We must overcome our difficulties through our own efforts; we must combine them with sincere, deep, and pure faith, and with strong prayer. Then, Russia will regain its former glory… not only the Russian Federation, but also all of Historical Rus, Holy Rus, united by a common Orthodox faith and a unified Orthodox Church. I give you, my dear young people, a special word for today. By participating in the St George Parade, you declare your willingness to live as I have just now described, combining both military strength and civic effort, with sincere faith in building a peaceful, equitable, and prosperous life for our people. I wholeheartedly wish that you’d keep this faith, this philosophy, and this ability to be co-workers with God in this dispensation of our life on earth, to aid in the transformation of our hearts towards a longing for the Kingdom of God.
I heartily greet you all on this holyday. Christ is Risen!
6 May 2011
Patriarchia.ru
Official MP Website
http://www.patriarchia.ru/db/text/1471642.html
http://www.patriarchia.ru/db/text/1471748.html
Editor’s Note:
As always, His Holiness emphasises two things… UNITY and EFFORT. EFFORT is a no-brainer. Nothing is going to fall into our laps… God requires that there be effort on our part, or, He’ll allow things to fall apart. One look at the OCA and the ROCOR is proof of that… we didn’t have the will to press the powers-that-be for the truth… ergo, we’ve ended by receiving nothing but lies and evasions. The only way to put this right is to stand up, be counted, take the heat from the apparatchiki (and their assorted hangers-on), and do something about it. There’s no other way out of it, I fear. Shall we? That’s up to you…
UNITY is self-evident. Not only does the MP embody the unity of Great Russia, Little Russia, Byelorussia, and Carpatho-Russia, it should also include Russia Abroad, that is, those of us in the diaspora. We’re part of Holy Rus, too… we should abandon all prelest-ridden delusions of an “American” Church and go home to the Mother Church (and leave the OCA and the ROCOR in the dustbin of history). We should sit in front of the stove, have a warm, and eat our black bread, shchi, and kasha with our family in the Faith. We don’t have an independent destiny, and the sooner that we realise that, the better off we’ll be.
His Holiness is getting simpler and more to the point the longer that He’s Patriarch. That’s to the good. Whom are you following? Do you stick to His Nibs, with his terse admonitions? On the other hand, do you accept the verbose logorrhoea of the SVS/Syosset/HOOMie crowd? It’s your choice… do choose well.
BMD
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Paffhausen… Is He a Paragon of “Traditional Morality” or Not?
Take a good look at Newt… the konvertsy defenders of “traditional morality” (and that hypocritical “Manhattan Declaration”) usually back him tooth n’ nail (and all the other GOP money-grubbers)… hmm… not quite my definition of morality (it takes chutzpah and brass balls to serve divorce papers on a spouse sick in bed with cancer, but the Newt did that, didn’t he?), but, hey, it takes all kinds in our crazy world…
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A friend sent me this:
I find it funny that some people think that JP is going to bring traditional morality back to the OCA. He sheltered Rymer in his monastery in California, and he wrote the GOAA a letter where he begged them not to depose him… he has gay clergy at his precious Cathedral in Dallas… Deacon Gregory Norris had a male partner when he was an Episcopalian priest in Chicago! Dreher has been duped and used…
This isn’t the half of it. Neither Stokoe nor oca.org touches on El Gordo’s long and deep relationship with Gleb Podmoshensky, nor does anyone dare speak of his trip to Russia under GP’s auspices in the ‘90s. GP’s deposition was very public, and no one was unaware of why the ROCOR Holy Synod deposed him. That is to say, JP, David Brum, Gerasim Eliel, and Damascene Christiansen all kept ties with GP KNOWING that he was spoilt goods. JP is lusting to make Brum and Eliel bishops, and Christiansen mustn’t be far behind on JP’s list, either. Let’s be frank… to have relations with GP after his deposition was the same thing as if they’d had relations with Sam Greene after the truth came out about his oddball doings… it’s a ringing condemnation not only of JP & Co, but of all the HOOMie poseurs, too (it’s why all former HOOMies amongst the OCA clergy must be defrocked immediately, the sooner, the better).
In my last telephone chat with Matushka Nina Stroyen, she made it clear that JP was a cat’s paw of the HOOMie cultists, that they use him to advance their extremist agenda. I quite agree… in all probability, Tate “has the goods” not only on JP, but on BP and Soraich as well. Don’t forget… BP and JP openly concelebrated with Soraich’s reputed homosexual lover, Isidore Brittain. As a friend of mine remarked, “It was a regular fagorama”. No matter what the reality is, the perception out there is that BP and Soraich are homosexuals, and that if JP isn’t one, too, he’s “in bed” with them (at least, figuratively).
I should be clear. I have NO animus against homosexuals. I believe that the bubba-brain Sectarians who harass them are WRONG. I think that no one should lack access to housing or have bias on the job due to their sexual orientation. Indeed, I’m not against civil unions, either. That being said, we have to face a fact… the Orthodox Church forbids the actual practise of homosexuality by its clergy. Full stop. The Church DOES give communion to lay homosexuals… this is at the discretion of the local priest… that’s the way of it, it’s always been that way, and we shouldn’t muck about with it. Therefore, James Silver has to shut his mouth about Mark Stokoe… if he finds fault with Ted Bobosh’s pastoral decision, he should bring it up to the local ruling bishop. Otherwise, he should be quiet. Nevertheless, we must face the fact that past and present bishops high in the OCA were (and are) reputed fags. Feodosy Lazor and Pierre l’Huillier were the most prominent and blatant (ADS didn’t care about the Neon Chicken escapades… so long as he could ram his Renovationist nostrums down people’s throats and run his private empire at SVS, he didn’t mind)… Tikhon Fitzgerald and Dmitri Royster were reputed to be so… it’s most probable that Benjamin Peterson and Nikolai Soraich are such, and most believe that if JP isn’t so, he shelters them. To make a long story short, Mark Stokoe covered for the gay antics of faygeler bishops in the past, just as he covers up for Peterson in the present, and, all things being equal, he would do so again in future. His attitude is, “Let the believers be damned. I have a position to protect”.
Ergo… Rod Dreher, Freddie M-G, Terrence Mattingly, Pat Reardon, George Washburn, Rebecca Matovic, and all the rest of the lot in Stokoe’s comboxes had best stop their rants about “traditional morality”… it invites investigations of JP’s character, at the least, and that DOESN’T stand up to scrutiny. For the record… I’ve never put myself out there as a paragon of morality; I’m no exemplar. I’m not in the clergy, nor am I a monastic… being one of the laity, I’m not subject to the stricter rules of the clerical estate. I’m only a reporter… nothing else. I’ve made no secret of the fact that I’m as sinful-ginful as all the rest of you are.
It’s such a delicious irony… all of these loud and posturing screamers for “traditional morality” are lining up behind Mark Stokoe… a known, open, admitted, practising, and partnered homosexual! Well, it does take all kinds in our fallen world, doesn’t it? Pass me the jug, please, and do have a snort, yourself. Oh… Rebecca Matovic believes me emotional, narrow, ignorant, and out-of-the-mainstream… you don’t mind that, do you? I didn’t think so…
Barbara-Marie Drezhlo
Sunday 8 May 2011
Albany NY
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The “Spin Doctor” Speaks… Stokoe on the Secretive OCA Holy Synod and MC Meetings
You CAN choose to believe Mark Stokoe’s sales patter… it’s your choice! Just remember, he’s an old Chancery hack who’s lusting and scheming to get his old sinecure back… just thought that I’d remind ya!
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Even in our sleep, pain that cannot forget
falls drop by drop upon the heart
until, in our own despair, against our will,
comes wisdom through the awful grace of God.
Æschylus
As quoted by Robert F Kennedy
******
Read this:
http://www.ocanews.org/news/SynodMCMeetinChicago5.6.11.html
Stokoe’s attempt at “spin” was so pathetic that one feels bad in criticising it. Firstly, one must understand that he was a direct participant as a member of the so-called “Metropolitan Council”… that, of course, colours his whole account (which has more than a slight tincture of self-justification).
For instance, the OCA Holy Synod stated, “including a case of clergy interference in another diocese, an unresolved clergy misconduct case, and concerns about a monastic community”. WELL! The MP would name the interfering cleric in the “journals” of the Holy Synod meeting, and they would make his punishment a matter of public record; they would also identify the miscreant involved in the clergy misconduct case, and they would make sure that his discipline was public and available to the believers. WHAT monastic community did the Holy Synod have in mind? They didn’t identify it! Their duty was to be precise and detailed; instead, they were vague and secretive. Let’s be blunt… JP’s actions in re this bunch of “monastics” are irregular, and he deserved deposition for being involved with a group that has no canonical release from their previous ruling bishop.
Note well that Stokoe slobbers over Tosi… don’t forget, “The records simply don’t exist”. He makes a fuss over Fester’s “dismissal”… BIG DEAL! Bobby still has his paid OCA job, Iggy is still Dean of Upstate NY, Lyonyo (Stokoe’s capo) is still in charge of “external relations”, Vanya Behr, John Erickson, and Chad Hatfield (the Three Stooges of the OCA) are still in charge of SVS. Lyonyo and Bobby just threw someone else off the train, just as they did to Tassos and Jarmus (remember them?). Also, note that the fact that Valerie Ringa is simultaneously Treasurer of the OCA and SVS doesn’t bother Mark at all… a conflict of interest, if there ever was one. It makes it easier for Bobby and Lyonyo to steal (oops… I meant to say, “borrow”… “The records simply don’t exist”, dontcha know)… it’s harder to browbeat two people than it is to bamboozle only one. You keep disbursement of funds in multiple hands to “keep honest people honest”… if Lyonyo and Bobby want disbursement in one person’s control, what does that tell us about them and their motives (and Bobby and Iggy’s actions regarding the 125 Gs “missing” from Diocese of NY & NJ funds)?
I don’t bloody care how “frank” they were in private. In public, they kissed JP’s bum and he got away with everything. He got away with concelebrating with Isidore Brittain. He got away with his irregular shenanigans regarding the rebel monastic community. He shielded his pal Jensen from outright dismissal. He got to keep the twice-married cultist Matthew Tate as his close advisor. He got away with his disobedient move to the District (the Holy Synod and MC had the duty to can him for moving without anyone’s say-so). He protected Ray Velencia… RV doesn’t even have a censure from the Holy Synod or the MC.
However, this wasn’t the most egregious omission of the OCA Holy Synod. It had the duty to declare the Brum Doctrine heretical. It didn’t have to anathematise Brum personally (the only two cases of that in recent memory were Philaret Denisenko and Vladimir Rusantsov, if my memory serves me); it merely had to declare his doctrine heretical, as the Church did with the eccentric and crackbrained nostrums of Pavel Florensky and Sergei Bulgakov (the latter was the main influence on ADS’ crankish theology). Normally, unless someone sets up an opposing candy store, the Church condemns the idea, not the person. The Brum Doctrine, simply stated, is that the Metropolitan of the OCA is a petty despot with dictatorial powers over the Holy Synod. Brum worked this up for Herman Swaiko, but he fled to the Diocese of the West (firstly, under the protection of the nutter Tikhon Fitzgerald, later, under the aegis of the drunkard (and suspected poofter) Benjamin Peterson) when the shit hit the fan for Herman in late ’05. Did I mention that David Brum was a classmate of JP at BTU (along with Gerasim Eliel)?
In an “ideal” world, the OCA Holy Synod would abolish the so-called “Metropolitan Council” (it’s nothing but a latter-day Holy Governing Synod, and it’s just as acanonical). In the real world, the OCA Holy Synod has the responsibility to publicly condemn and anathematise the Brum Doctrine (keeping a vigilant eye on Brum himself… not allowing him any promotion, for instance). It would be best to establish an Archpastoral Council on the lines of the one found in the MP, that is, a body of the ruling bishops (no vicars or “retired” members, please), but people such as Mark Stokoe would fight that adamantly… they would (rightly) see it as the end of the Proddie-tinged MC.
In short… Mark’s article is “spin” through and through… his konvertsy amen corner will post the usual gushing and ignorant emotional encomiums in his comboxes, no doubt. NOTHING was done to JP… NOTHING was done to Brum… NOTHING was done to BP… NOTHING of substance was done to Jensen… neither the Holy Synod nor the MC pursued steps to depose Tosi for his defence of Kondratick’s “loss” of Church financial records (this is on top of their craven refusal to discipline Iggy, Bobby, or Velencia). Against that, the only positives were the confirmation of Mel Pleska as Chancellor and the reputed deposition of Fester (I’m a Doubting Thomas on this one… I’ll not believe it until there’s official confirmation on it). We forget the fact that Mark Stokoe was once a lying Chancery drone at our peril… he (along with his pals Wheeler, Hunchak, and Johnnie Hopko) is lusting to get back there as a paid official… Mark has a agenda, and it’s particularly self-centred and greedy.
How long must this Greek Tragedy grind on?
Barbara-Marie Drezhlo
Sunday 8 May 2011
Albany NY
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