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Metropolitan Philaret Vakhromeyev of Minsk and Slutsk, Patriarchal Exarch of all Byelorussia, appealed to the Greek authorities, asking them to release Archimandrite Ephrem, Abbot of Vatopedi Monastery on Mount Athos, BelTA learned from the Belarusian Exarchate. A Greek court made a ruling on the arrest of Archimandrite in December 2011. The charges involved dodgy property transactions between the Greek state and the monastery. The actions of the Greek authorities have sparked a general outcry amongst believers around the world. Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev of Moscow and all the Russias, the First Hierarch of the MP, sent a message to Greek President Karolos Papoulias asking him to free the abbot. Metropolitan Philaret, who addressed Greek Prime Minister Loukas Papademos, President Karolos Papoulias, and Procurator of the Supreme Court (Areopagus) Ioannis Tendes, also made the same request.
Metropolitan Philaret said, “We can only interpret the court’s decision and the arrest of Abbot Ephrem, a spiritual mentor and an elderly man, at a time when we celebrate Christmas, the birth of hope and love, as a provocation and an expression of hostility to the Church, in a country which is Orthodox by its Constitution. Many lawyers in Greece dispute the contentions that are the grounds for the prosecution of Archimandrite Ephrem; they cast doubt on the investigation being fair and free”.
As previously reported, from 10 to 17 November last year, Archimandrite Ephrem visited Byelorussia with the blessing of Metropolitan Philaret of Minsk and Slutsk. His delegation brought an exact copy of the wonderworking Icon of the Mother of God “Comfort and Solace”, which they donated to the Holy Annunciation Monastery in the village of Lyady. During the visit, Igumen Ephrem also met with members of the House of Representatives of the Byelorussian National Assembly, monks from a number of monasteries, clergy of the Dioceses of Vitebsk and Novogrudok, the leadership of the Education Ministry and the Byelorussian State University. Metropolitan Philaret awarded Archimandrite Ephrem the Order of St Kirill of Turov; in turn, Archimandrite Ephrem announced the establishment of scholarships for the best students of the Minsk Suvorov military school.
12 January 2012
BelTA
Editor’s Note:
Here are the REAL reasons for Abba Ephrem’s imprisonment. Since 1991, the USA has mutated into a ravening monster… Americans are spoilt and wilful brats, who stamp on the faces of those who disagree with them at the slightest provocation. America stands for torture, indefinite detention, indiscriminate bombing of civilian populations, the demonising of religious groups other than Sectarian Evangelicalism (Catholics are given a grudging tolerance, due to their number in America), the first use of violent means before all others, and a Hobbesian “war of all against all”… “Greed is good”, dontcha know. The Republicans are further down this road than the Democrats are, but the official Democratic Party isn’t far behind its GOP colleagues.
Igumen Ephrem sits in prison for his pro-Russian views. Langley wants to show everyone how “powerful” it is… so it had its stooges in the Greek government arrest Abba Ephrem and had its ecclesial running-dog-lackey Bart savage him (I wonder how much a role that ambitious little twit George Stephanopoulos played in all of this). It hasn‘t worked! The Greek “street” is behind Abba Ephrem solidly… the Church of Greece is behind him, too. The latter stance is courageous, as the Greek state could retaliate against the Church by withholding salaries to the clergy. Note well how pro-Langley journalists such as Sophia Kishkovsky and Serge Schmemann castigate the MP for its links to the state, but are silent as fishes about the even-closer ties of the Church of Greece to the Greek state. Interesting fact, nicht wahr?
Also, bear in mind that Langley loves the Greek government, for it intends to pay for the sins of thieving politicians and business élites by squeezing the ordinary people of Greece… not the pols, not the plutocrats, not the moneybags influence peddlers. That sounds like the Rush Limbaugh/Mitt Romney method of sharing the pain… the common people get all the pain, the McMansion dwellers get all the gain. America has a lotta damned gall to talk about corruption in other countries… not after the surfacing of attested ties to health insurance interests to people such as John Boehner, Mitch McConnell, and Rand Paul (ever wonder why they’re against single-payer healthcare funding? Pure personal gain… that’s why). Hell, Jerry Jennings here in Albany could teach the Greeks a thing or two about “Better Living Through Better Thieving”. Oh… I’m not against the local “machine”… they do as good a job as any “reformer” would… I merely point up that America has no right to yawp about corruption… we have our share, and our guys are as “good” as theirs are.
In short, the corrupt pols of the USA are using the corrupt pols of Greece to further the interests of the Global One Percenters. Note well that NONE of the pols has their thieving arse in the slam… only an honest monk does! That shows you how much respect America’s ruling class has for real religion. They wish to replace REAL Christianity with emotional and saccharine Sectarian goo… they want to replace the Golden Rule with the Rule of the Gold… think on that. Abba Ephrem sits in a cell… the pols sip their drinks and pinch their mistresses’ bums. What’s wrong with that picture?
BMD
NB to Orthodox people:
Paffhausen, Potapov, Reardon, and Webster are all silent about Abba Ephrem’s Golgotha and have seen to it that there’s no reportage on this on the main OCA and ROCOR webistes. SILENT. Note well that all those I named are extremist rightwing fanatics and they drag the Church’s name in the mud through their silence (and link it with the worst elements of the Republican “Greed is Good” ideology). Stand up and speak the truth, or, be denounced on the Last Day as enablers of the persecutors of Christ’s Church. YES… it is that serious…
BMD
