12 June 2013. What Shall We Caption This? “The Last Days of the OCA?”

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The above is a snap taken at St T‘s during the Pilgrimage. Note well that Yustinian Ovchinnikov isn’t there… neither is George Schaeffer, Jerome Shaw, or Peter Lukianov. Nathaniel Popp (and his vicar bishop) is MIA, as is Liolin and Golitzine. None of the AOCANA bishops are there. The only non-OCA bishop present is Hilarion Kapral… and that’s because he’s a “nice guy who doesn’t know how to say ‘no’” (as an exasperated ROCOR clergyman told me). I talked with several sources at the Pilgrimage, and they all told me the same thing:

Mel Pleska‘s too sick to wear the white hat. Don’t say precisely what the problem is, he doesn’t want it known publicly yet. He was out of the running, so, we chose the least-objectionable candidate.

What I can say is that the konvertsy stories about Mel being an alkie are lies. He’s not a Peterson, a Soraich, or a Brittain. Suffice it to say, Mel’s plenty sick, and the Sobor participants were put “in the know” as to the exact story, and that’s where it’s gonna be for the time being. That’s to say, Mollard was the choice of the Sobor, as he wasn’t Dahulich or Peterson, nor was he considered overly-much in Fatso’s camp.

The same situation faced the MP after the death of Aleksei Simansky. Of all the candidates for the funny white hat, Pimen Izvekov was the least-bad of those acceptable to the Party. As one bishop said at the time, “Pimen’s our choice… no, he wasn’t the best choice… but he was the best choice on hand”. Pimen managed to steer the Church in a workmanlike fashion until the election of Aleksei Ridiger (who was one of the greats, as his handling of the situation surrounding the breakup of the USSR proved). In like fashion, Anastassy Gribanovsky pushed forward Philaret Voznesensky in 1964, to avoid a succession fight between Vitaly Ustinov and John Maximovich. Philaret wasn’t the best choice… but he was the only choice available who could be seated without an acrimonious fight.

That’s the result of the Parma Sobor. They did NOT “kick the can down the road”. They had to choose SOMEONE as First Hierarch, so, they chose the least-nasty candidate. Peterson has a “past” and he’s known to be even more solicitous of the HOOMie cultists than JP was. Dahulich didn’t come up in the OCA (that is, he came up outside of the OCA/Metropolia institutional culture), and, even more serious, he carried more than a hint of being Bart‘s man (he’s also the most quasi-papist of the bishops). WHO ELSE WAS THERE? That was the point that my sources emphasised the most strongly. As one priest said, “The OCA’s going down, but it hasn’t sunk yet, so, we had to choose someone to lead it for the time being”.

Tikhon Mollard will stumble and bumble… as the job is beyond his abilities. As one of the Cabinet told me:

I don’t think that he wanted the job. He knows his limitations.

However, what’s needful at the present moment is something different. The OCA needs someone at the helm who isn’t going to go off on this-or-that idiosyncratic tangent, as Paffhausen did. There will be rough patches due to Mollard’s passivity… but there won’t be the rollicking and roiling antics of a James Paffhausen. The OCA neither needs nor wants a visionary… it wants someone who’ll leave the parishes alone to figure out their future. The OCA is a “dead man walking”… all except the konvertsy delusionaries can see that. It’s in the hands of the people, now… and they haven’t made up their minds yet. SVS… Syosset… Lyonyo… Jillions… they’re all superfluous now. The rest of us… it’s wait n’ see…

BMD

15 May 2013. Do You Want to Worship Mammon Like Rod Dreher, Victor Potapov, and James Paffhausen? Or, Do You Want to Follow Christ?

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Here’s the “bible” of the konvertsy… nasty, ain’t it?

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Today, loud rightwing extremists are trying to take over our Church in the American diaspora and link it with godless moneygrubbing “conservative” elements in the the American political scene. Well, they’re NOT in the mainstream of the Church. HH is a LEFTIE. Let me repeat that… politically, HH, like most of the clergy in the Rodina is a Leftie. He’s friends with the Castro brothers… he’s friends with China… he’s supports the Palestinians and Socialist Cuba. That is, he doesn’t support the Rightie lunacy spouted by Victor Potapov, James Paffhausen, Alexander Webster, Terrence Mattingly, Rod Dreher, and Michael Dahulich.

If you’re an Orthodox Christian, you’ll follow HH… as for the people I named, well, they’re following an evil ideology. Oppose them… it does affect the destiny of your immortal soul. Remember this… Our Lord Christ didn’t use the police power of the state to coerce obedience… neither should we.

BMD

 

14 May 2013. Uniate Charlatan Taft Shows True Colours… Exposes Fathausen, Lyonyo, Jillions, Vassa Larina, and Andrei Psaryov as Traitors to Christ’s Church

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A Cabinet member sent me a link and wrote:

Christ is risen!

If you take blood pressure medicine, take it before you read this drivel… the converts will eat this crap up.

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Indeed, Bob Taft was his snarky self… but he did us a service, kids. He named many of the POS Quislings in Orthodoxy. That’s a GOOD thing. Taft didn’t intend to do that, but that’s what he did do. He named many of the worst arse-kissers in the Orthodox camp. He exposed many of the Orthodox who’re kissing the naked bum of the Pope of Rome. That’s no small beer, and Bob Taft forgot that we’d read his unhinged crapola. Here are the worst plug-uglies in the Hall of Shame:

• James Paffhausen
• Lyonyo Kishkovsky
• John Jillions (a man so depraved, he took a Uniate pay-cheque)
• Chad Hatfield (he took an honorary degree from the TEC Seminary that he graduated from… surely, a first, even for the indifferentist OCA)
• Paul Meyendorff
• Sergius Bowyer
• Frederica Matthewes-Green
• Alexander Webster
• Rod Dreher
• Vassa Larina
• Andrei Psaryov
• Hilarion Alfeyev (he and his greasy set of eunuchs are the main pro-Uniate cancer in the MP at the Centre (Tikhon Shevkunov is pro-oligarch, but he’s showed no signs of being pro-Uniate, yet)… when shall HH cut out this locus of infection? God willing, it’ll be soon)

The rot has set in equally in the OCA and in the ROCOR… the worst and saddest one is Vassa Larina… she sold out Christ’s Church for filthy lucre and academic position. Bob Taft “seduced” her with papist money and promises of academic preferment… and she fell for it. Had this been before 2007, George Larin would’ve disowned his daughter for selling out to the Pope of Rome and his Jesuit Uniate minions.

We have major housecleaning to do…

BMD

 

12 May 2013. A Word on Certain Loud Republican Circles Amongst Us

Birds of a feather flock together… and they’re GOOD birds, not shitbirds.

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I say the following… so, don’t instigate a witch-hunt of those who hate the immoral and pernicious pabulum dispensed by the Republican Party. It’s time for Christ’s Church to disassociate itself publicly from the American Religious Right, the US Republican Party, and the so-called Pro-Life Movement (one can oppose abortion, yet, oppose this rightwing construct). After all, HH is/was friends with Fidel Alejandro Castro Ruz, Raúl Modesto Castro Ruz, Gennady Zyuganov, Pyotr Simonenko, and Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías. Birds of a feather flock together! HH doesn’t associate with godless laissez-faire liberals such as Wet Willy Romney, Paul Ryan, the American Enterprise Institute, or Mikhail Prokhorov… he doesn’t hang around braying libertarian shitbirds.

The MP is well-aware of the vitriolic Whites (“nobility”) that dominate some parts of the ROCOR. Such people got the boot in Russia, but their Western sugar daddies protect them here in the diaspora (yet, such sorts caterwaul about their “traditional” stance and love of Russia). The MP is “fed up” (as one put it) with the boorish anti-Soviet rhetoric found in certain ROCOR circles. Of course, it respects valid criticism, but the slurs, defamation, and hatred deployed by well-known parties isn’t welcome, needed, or truthful (especially, as some of the loudest Whites are on the US government payroll). They’re tired of the Whites strutting about and bad-mouthing the USSR. After all, the USSR WAS Russia.

At present, loud Republicans have appointed themselves “commissars” of opinion in our Church. It’s time to oppose them! They’re not telling the truth. Christ’s Church doesn’t stand for raping the working folk to benefit the Affluent Effluent, and that’s that. HH believes that the “Free Market” is a fraud, and has said so explicitly. That tells you much about the ROCOR loudmouths in the District, doesn’t it? Do note that the Centre won’t take in James Paffhausen… by the way, it hasn’t been for the lack of trying on the part of the Republican faction in the ROCOR. Sanity still reigns at the Centre. We should get with the programme… but shall we? Time will tell us…

BMD

10 May 2013. A Picture IS Worth a Thousand Words… HH’s Attitude to the Great Victory

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Here, HH laid a wreath to commemorate the war dead at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in the Aleksandrovsky Sad in Moscow. That is, HH gives due honour and respect to the Great Victory and to the achievements of the USSR, unlike some ROCOR sorts I could name (but I won’t… you know who they are… they post fatuous bloviations on the ROCOR official website). Here’s the choice on offer… you can stand with HH and honour Victory Day, or, you can stand with fathead faction in the ROCOR (thank God, that’s NOT all ROCOR people) and honour the Almighty Dollar. That’s the real world choice. You KNOW where I stand.

BMD

Are the ROCOR Rightwingers in Obedience to HH and Marking Victory Day or are They in Contempt of His Decree?

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In 2011, Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev of Moscow and all the Russia issued a decree stating that all churches, monasteries, and establishments under his authority must serve a Molieben on Victory Day in memory of the deliverance of the people, “from a terrible deadly enemy, from such a danger that we hadn’t seen in our entire history”. In addition, sources at the Centre assure me that he also decreed that all parishes serve Pannikhida in memory of all those who fell in the VOV and for all the civilian victims of the war.

Perspirin’ minds wanna know… are Victor Potapov, James Paffhausen, Alexander Webster, Rod Dreher, and the monastery at Jordanville fulfilling this decree in letter and in spirit? Has the ROCOR forsworn its support of Nazi collaborators and their organisations (and their unwholesome repulsive ties with Western intelligence agencies)? Do they wear their St George Ribbons and Red Ribbons with all due dignity and thankfulness? That is, do they celebrate the Great Victory in all sincerity, gratitude, and joy? On the other hand, do they still believe that “Hitler was a friend of the Church?” To speak bluntly, there was no such thing as *“Sergianism” (at least, not in the form used by ROCOR polemicists since the ’50s). It was a lie cooked up by Far Right Church circles… Sergei Stagorodsky was a great hero imprisoned TWICE for Christ’s sake, he preserved the Holy Church for posterity… shall the ROCOR apologise publicly for its support of the Nazis and the CIA (by the way, it’s the ONLY apology necessary)? Now, that’s a SERIOUS question. Quo vadis, ROCOR? After all, HH stated publicly that he held anti-Sergei opinions as a young man, but that he came to a better understanding with maturity, and that he regretted such a stance now.

That’s the question… perspirin’ minds wanna know… do they stand for the Great Victory that St Serafim Vyritsky prayed for… or, do they still favour the godless and grasping opponents of Russia and the Orthosphere in their heart-of-hearts? Will they come to their senses, disown the “culture wars“, and overturn the Golden Calf of Rightwing Politics? On the other hand, will they harden their hearts and continue to dance around it in Dionysian abandon drunk on the wine of Libertarianism to the tune of the Koch brothers? We’ll have to see, won’t we?

* Addendum:

In its journal of 25-27 October 1990, the MP Archpastoral Council stated that the church isn’t bound by the Declaration of Metropolitan Sergei Stagorodsky of 1927, but it accentuated:

With all truth, we emphasise that the Declaration of 1927 doesn’t contain anything contrary to the Word of God, it doesn’t contain heresy, thus, there was no reason to move away from the accepted Church administration. …

We’re accused of “trampling on the memory of New Martyrs and Confessors“. Here, we’ll definitely state that our Church never interrupted prayerful remembrance of the martyrs for Christ amongst our bishops and clergy. Now, the whole world knows, we’ve started the process of glorification, which according to ancient Church tradition should be outside the influence of ephemeral political trends. …

However, for a long time, the Mother Church has been lenient to its wayward children, despite the fact that in the difficult years of persecution their irresponsible behaviour deepened her wounds and increased her torment. Now, we’re still ready to understand and to forgive. Even despite the fact that the leadership of the ROCOR has strengthened the existing divisions, forming a parallel hierarchy by encouraging parishes on the canonical territory of the MP, we once again extend a hand to them, calling for an open and honest dialogue on all matters of disagreement between us. In this regard, we’re ready to have a public debate in Moscow or elsewhere (within a scientific church conference or otherwise) on all matters of life of our Church in this century, especially, in relation to the Declaration of 1927.

http://www.patriarchia.ru/db/text/525416.html

This journal was issued one year BEFORE the fall of the USSR. That is, the church revival was in full swing. For ten years after the release of this journal, the ROCOR stopped up its ears and continued to attack the MP at the behest of its Western sponsors. Let those with open minds see that the ROCOR circles who claim that the Mother Church “repented of Sergainism” aren’t speaking the whole truth (to put it charitably… some circles that state such aren’t culpable… they’d lose their situations if they didn’t repeat the party-line of the Hard Right).

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Thursday 9 May 2013

Albany NY