17 February 2013. Intel from the Cabinet on l’Affaire Moriak

______________________________

I got this from one of the Cabinet:

Bishops from the OCA Synod will be in attendance at the Midwest Diocesan Council meeting this week to gather information from the regional deans on the views of the clergy and laity around the diocese on the matter of Moriak being reinstated.
I don’t know if you saw on Pokrov that Moriak was removed from the schedule of Chicago Deanery Lenten services. He was tentatively scheduled to preach at a service at the Chicago cathedral the evening of 28 April (Palm Sunday). Here is the revised flyer directly from the diocesan website. But most damning is an e-mail making the rounds of the diocese concerning advice from Church Mutual Insurance about Moriak visiting parishes, if he’s reinstated. I don’t know who wrote the original email. That information was removed.

This cut n’ paste of an e-mail was part of the intel given me:

Date: February 15, 2013

Subject: Church Mutual

Information from X, Church Mutual Insurance. This information comes as a result of inquiries to Church Mutual from concerned parishes and their officers. This is a recounting of verbal information from Church Mutual and can be verified by contacting the company. Based on documents (Diocese of the Midwest), Pokrov, Chicago Tribune, as well as the written complaint filed against Bishop Matthias. X is advised by the Sexual Misconduct section of the company not to put anything in writing.  However, the Sexual Misconduct office advises Diocese of the Midwest churches which are insured by them to follow this policy:

• Bishop Matthias should not be allowed to have personal contact with parishioners

• His activities in any setting with lay people should be monitored

• Should any claim against him of sexual harassment or misconduct come from parishioners of these parishes, Church Mutual would not provide any coverage for punitive damages, which constitute the most costly part of claims. This is due to the fact that clergy and officers of these parishes have had cause to protect their parishes from such recurrent actions.

• There is a possibility of personal liability for church officials who place Bishop Matthias in a position of authority should there be a recurrence of the sexual misconduct of which he has been adjudged by the OCA.

This is the intel as I received it. As I wrote my informant:

Crank world ain’t it… [nasty doings] in high places and perverts as bishops… God willing, this shit will end soon. I’m getting burnt out (I shan’t give up… it’s just the same ol’ same ol’ all the time… it’s time to CLEAN HOUSE).

It’s up to you to decide what to do. I say that it’s time to wind up the OCA as expeditiously as possible and go home. Do think on that…

BMD

 

 

Syria at Threshold of Religious War

______________________________

A report recently published by the Open Doors international Christian human rights organisation says that, at present, Syria’s one of the most dangerous countries in the world for Christians to live in. The report says that many Christians in Syria are victims of violence and that many Christian churches and monasteries in the country lie in ruins. Every year, Open Doors publishes reports about violence against Christians in various parts of the world. In last year’s report, Syria was in 36th place on the list of countries where Christians face persecution. Now, it’s in 11th place. Open Doors collected information about Christians killed, kidnapped, or brutalised in those regions of Syria under opposition control, which, in essence, means Islamist rule. The Islamist insurgents have desecrated, damaged, or totally wrecked many Christian churches and monasteries in Syria.

In an interview with VOR, Russian expert in Eastern affairs Boris Dolgov said, “The appearance of this report is very important. I hope that this document helps the world to learn more about violence against Christians in Syria and to seek measures to stop this violence”. Recently, Mr Dolgov visited Syria and met with members of several Christian communities; in particular, with Mother Agnes-Mariam de la Croix, the prioress of St Jacques Roman Catholic Monastery, saying, “I had a long talk with Mother Agnes-Mariam. She’s very concerned that the rebels are now persecuting Christians in Syria. She knows of many cases when Islamists shelled Christian monasteries, kidnapped or killed Christian priests, and expelled Christians from cities now under opposition control… for example, from Homs. She showed photographs to me that depicted the consequences of these crimes. Mother Agnes-Mariam told me that many members of the Syrian opposition belong to al-Qaeda and other radical Islamist groups”.

The Open Doors report noted that if radical Islamists come to power in Syria, they might start to persecute Christians only because Christians didn’t interfere in the conflict between the opposition and the government out of a preference for a peaceful solution of the matter. This may either isolate Syrian Christians domestically or force many to flee Syria. Dolgov agreed with this, saying, “If the most radical Islamist faction within the Syrian opposition came to power, this would be a tragedy, not only for Syria, but also for the entire Middle East. Most likely, they’d start killing Christians, Alawites, Kurds, and members of other religious and national minorities”.

Alawites are a Muslim sect whose beliefs on some points differ from those of the Islamists. President Bashar al-Assad and his family are Alawites, and Alawites currently dominate the Syrian government and military. As a rule, Syrian Kurds either support President Assad or take no sides in the conflict between his régime and the opposition. Recently, the MP also expressed concern about persecution of Christians in Syria. Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev, the First Hierarch of the MP, is of the opinion that ethnic and religious tensions are the main causes of the conflict in Syria. His Holiness said that the MP is ready to render humanitarian aid to Syrian Christians who’ve lost their homes or suffered in some other way from Islamist actions.

10 January 2013

Konstantin Garibov

Aleksei Lyakhov

Voice of Russia World Service

http://english.ruvr.ru/2013_01_10/Syria-at-threshold-of-religious-war/

Church and Ethnic Greeks Reject Results of Albanian Census

Greek minority to the Albanian government… GET ROOTED!

______________________________

The Autocephalous Orthodox Church of Albania stated that the official census figures from 2011 in Albania are unacceptable and unrealistic. The Democratic Union of the Greek Minority (Omonoia) asked the Albanian government and the international community not to accept the published results. Omonoia believes that the results were falsified to the detriment of ethnic Greeks and other Orthodox minorities such as Macedonians and Montenegrins. The Church announced that it’d release an official statement signed by Archbishop Anastasios Yannoulatos of Tirana and all Albania. Omonoia has announced that it’d carry out a parallel census in order to prove that the released results aren’t genuine.

According to the official census, Albania has a population of 2.8 million. It claimed that there are 24,360 Greeks (0.54 percent of the population), whilst Greek is a mother tongue of only 0.15 percent of the citizens. Media and certain officials claim that there are 300,000 Greeks in Albania. The information that there are 8,000 Roma and Cincars in Albania is under question as well. The census claims that 98.7 percent of the population speaks Albanian as their mother tongue. Greek media sources believe that the Albanian census isn’t truthful. Albanian political parties welcomed the results of the census, claiming that they “unmasked the pretensions and chauvinistic manners of Athens and its servants”.

16 December 2012

B92

http://www.b92.net/eng/news/region-article.php?yyyy=2012&mm=12&dd=16&nav_id=83690

Editor’s Note:

Albania has the most kleptocratic junta in Europe, let alone the Balkans. Yet, the USA supports it to the max, and the Americans use it to undermine the position of Serbia in the region. This is a case where Orthodox Christians MUST oppose the American government and media punditocracy… our confrères in the Orthosphere are under American attack (mostly political, but its boiled over into military action at times).

The Albanian census is a joke. Friends tell me that the Albanians only counted the Greek-born as “Greeks”, whilst it counted Albanian-born ethnic Greeks as “Albanian”. In short, its typical Balkan legerdemain, but Albania’s going to get away with it, as it’s the most-dependable American ally in the area. The Americans don’t care that the Albanian government’s thoroughly-corrupt and that most Albanians live in crushing poverty… Albania supports their designs on the Balkans, and that’s that.

By the way, the Church of Albania has 909 parishes… that means that if the Albanian government’s figures were correct, each parish would have less than 30 members! That’s certainly true of many OCA konvertsy conventicles, but it’s not true elsewhere in the Orthosphere (and Albania’s no exception). I think that the estimate of 300,000 Greeks/Orthodox (the two groups overlap, by and large) is the best figure that we’ll have (it gives 335 believers/parish, a credible number).

BMD

 

Patriarch Kirill Visits Bethlehem… Confabs with Abbas

______________________________

On Saturday, on the second day of his Holy Land trip, Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev of Moscow and all the Russias visited the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem and met with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas. After his visit to the Bethlehem church, built over the site where Christians believe Mary gave birth to Jesus in a stable, Kirill met with the Palestinian president at his office in the West Bank city. A statement from the president’s office cited Abbas as telling Kirill that his visit was historical and had political meaning. Abbas said, “We feel it comes from the leadership of the Russian people”, observing that Moscow supported peace and justice in the Middle East. The statement also quoted Kirill as saying the visit was special to him, and especially important “since Christ walked here. I’m fully confident that you’re committed to real peace, and your position is welcome because the people living here know the meaning of living in unrest”.

Kirill heads the Patriarchate of Moscow and all the Russias (Russian Orthodox Church in colloquial usage), a church with some 150 million Orthodox believers; he arrived in Jerusalem on Friday for his first visit since becoming head of the powerful church in 2009, and held prayers at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Over the course of his six-day trip, Kirill will also meet Israeli President Shimon Peres and King Abdullah II of Jordan, in a sign of his new importance as a global religious figure. Israel‘s Ministry of Foreign Affairs called his trip “the most important (religious) visit (to Israel) since that of Pope Benedict XVI” in 2009. The 65-year-old patriarch will visit Christian holy sites in northern Israel as well as in Jordan.

10 November 2012

Agence France-Presse

As quoted by the Business Reporter

http://www.brecorder.com/top-news/1-front-top-news/89927-russian-orthodox-patriarch-visits-bethlehem.html

******

The First Hierarch of the MP, Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev of Moscow and all the Russias, praised Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas for his efforts to bring peace to the Middle East, saying, “War always brings pain. We must achieve all of our goals peacefully. I thank you, Mr Abbas, for backing this position. We’ll pray for peace in the Holy Land”. The patriarch, for whom this is the first visit to the Holy Land since his election as First Hierarch in 2009, also thanked Abbas for supporting Christian shrines in the region.

10 November 2012

RIA-Novosti

http://en.rian.ru/world/20121110/177358302.html