Presence of CPI-M Politburo Member at Church Altar Kicks Up Row

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Some of the laity at St George Malankara Syrian Orthodox Cathedral in Thiruvananthapuram are up in arms following what they termed “a violation”, which took place when Communist Party of India-Marxist Politburo member Kodiyeri Balakrishnan walked up to the altar to greet the bishop. The incident took place at end of last month, when Balakrishnan, a former Home Minister and CPI-M legislator, was at the church to attend a wedding. When Metropolitan Gabriel Mar Gregorios was at the altar, Balakrishnan came to the altar and had a brief chat with him before leaving the church.

On Sunday morning, after liturgy, parishioners signed a petition expressing anguish over this incident for submission to the supreme head of the Malankara Syrian Orthodox Church at Kottayam. A member of the church who didn’t wish to be identified said, “Today (Sunday) morning, after service, a member of the church came with a letter addressed to our supreme head citing this incident. I put my signature on the petition because what happened is a serious lapse as far as the tradition of the church is concerned. We wish that such incidents wouldn’t take place. I saw that numerous people had signed the petition”.

According to the Malankara Syrian Orthodox Church’s traditions, apart from priests, those who enter the altar of the church must first receive a special blessing. A senior priest of the Orthodox Church, who requested anonymity, told IANS that he too heard of this episode, but found it pointless to blow it up, saying, “Yes, the rule is that only those who receive special blessings can be at the altar. At the same time, there’s also a rule that only those who are baptised can enter our church. But tell me, can that happen? We have so many people from other faiths coming to our churches, especially for weddings and funerals. This controversy is needless”. Incidentally, Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy attends Sunday liturgy at St George Cathedral.

2 September 2012

New Kerala.com

http://www.newkerala.com/news/newsplus/worldnews-74604.html#.UEOORbJlSkE

Editor’s Note:

This illustrates the proper enforcement of the canons throughout all of Orthodoxy… both Eastern and Oriental. The canons aren’t straitjackets, they’re guidelines. The priest involved here showed good sense… most probably, the bishop and the politician were friends. Trust me, this has gone on since Day One.

In the time of the Great Persecutions in the late pagan Roman Empire, Bishop Mensurius of Carthage (one of the wiliest foxes of Church History, and a hierarch well-worth emulating) was able to deflect the worst of the pagan persecution from his Church because he was friends with the pagan magistrate. Foxy Ol’ Mensurius even finessed the pagans when he received orders to turn over the Scriptures. He did… he handed over heretical copies without the slightest demur. Some disappointed pagans tried to argue with the magistrate, but he told them, “Bishop Mensurius was ordered to turn them over, he did, I took them, and I burned them, and that’s that” (no doubt the magistrate wrote up a fulsome report to his superiors, happy as a clam that he got to look good). Now, that’s how a bishop “bishes” and spares his Church.

By the way, a sorehead priest by the name of Donatus got seriously pissed off that Mensurius wasn’t “strict enough” with those who sacrificed during the persecution. Let’s cut to the chase… the Church ruled on it, and it found Donatus was chock full of shit. It praised Mensurius, and condemned Donatus. Donatus gave his name to a heresy… Donatism. It means anyone who’s TOO gung-ho and wants to apply the letter of the canons, not their spirit. That describes all of the konvertsy that I’ve ever met, wouldn’t you agree?

This smells like a setup to me. That is, a faction opposed to Mar Gregorios is trying to raise a stink. That impression is heightened by the priest’s reply to it all. Indeed, it smells very much like an old faction that keeps repeating the same stale arguments and accusations (they do sound like the konvertsy, don’t they?).

BMD

11 August 2011. We Don’t Know Whether Moriak’s a Bad Man… We DO Know that He’s a Weak One…

Patriarch Sergei Stragorodsky (1867-1944) of Moscow and all the Russias blessing members of the “Dmitri Donskoi” Tank Brigade during the VOV… he HAD to bend in order to save the Church (but he bent only so much as he had to)… he suffered imprisonment TWICE… Moriak’s a gutless coward who folded without any resistance… DO note that.

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Moriak’s recent anti-Stokoe missive wasn’t about homosexuality or “respect” at all… not really. After all, the rolling fagorama in the upper reaches of the OCA has been going on since ADS’ accession to effectual power in 1965. In fact, one of my correspondents wrote me:

If the rumours are true, and Moriak still had the nerve to write that mess to Mark… well, nothing’s changed… same old hypocrisy… same old shit.

Feodosy Lazor’s homosexuality is well-known, indeed, it’s why the OCA removed him as First Hierarch (the rumour that he had AIDS was a result of the hushed-up truth that he was a faygeler)… he was supposedly in ill-health in 2002, but he’s still alive n’ kickin’ some nine years later! Herman Swaiko’s homosexuality’s a matter of open knowledge; he lives openly with his partner near the grounds of St Tikhon Monastery in South Canaan PA. Jonas Paffhausen served publicly with both of these men at the same time at the St Tikhon Memorial Day Pilgrimage in 2010. It was a SCANDAL to all the faithful… it UPSET most people who heard of it. It was a grave blow to the Church’s cred. Does Matthias Moriak take Fathausen to task publicly for this very public enabling of the homosexual agenda by a high churchman? NO! There’s utter silence… Matthias Moriak’s as mute as a fish… he says NOTHING about this or about any of the other questionable actions of the present and past OCA hierarchy.

If he attacks Mark for “disrespect”… well… the Church deserves it for its unconscionable actions. As for the promotion of homosexuality… look at the example I cited above. It’s far more glaring and egregious than anything that Mark or his correspondents have done. In short, Jonas Paffhausen has done more to advance the “homosexual agenda” in the Church through his actions than Mark ever did through what he or his correspondents wrote. Let’s get a grip and keep a proper perspective on things! I don’t bloody care what people SAY… time and again, that’s utter bullshit, and one must disregard it (often enough, good people have to say crook things to survive in crank times such as these are… any other attitude is outright Donatism). I care for what they DO… that’s God’s standard, too. He didn’t say, “Talk about others as you would be talked about”… He said, “DO unto others as you would be done by”.

Moriak fails the test utterly by this standard. All that he needed to do was to continue Vladyki Job’s oikonomia. There are a thousand and one ways to obfusticate an importunate superior. “You know, that’s a serious question, I’ll have to discuss that at my next annual Clergy Conference… certainly, I need more input on such an important and weighty topic”… then, when one’s superior presses again, “I really have to get the sense of what the laity feel on this… I’ll have to bring it up at the next annual Diocesan Convention”. Of course, when El Gordo came champing at the bit, again, Moriak would say, “We found that there were serious ramifications for the Church in this… we formed a clergy/laity committee that’ll give its report at the next Diocesan Convention… when’s that? Oh, next year… it’s an important issue; you can’t rush on such things, can you?”

In short, a clever and wily bishop would KNOW how to spin out the process so that it would take YEARS (trust me, I mean that literally, kids), resulting in either the importunate superior dying, or, the crisis/question would “die” a natural death without any action being taken to roil the waters unduly. That’s why one of my heroes in Church History is foxy Bishop Mensurius of Carthage… I’ll talk of him at length in a later post (he inspired the opposition of the Donatists)… he and the pagan magistrate were close bros and Bishop Mensurius knew how to twist the “letter of the law” during the Maximian persecution in such a way that he safeguarded the Church, protected his pal the magistrate, and kept the Imperial authorities satisfied… all at the same time! Moriak had an OBLIGATION to do likewise… he chose not to emulate Bishop Mensurius… yes, he chose his present path.

Indeed, circumstances can restrict one’s options (and can even make one unable to intervene positively), but one does have the obligation of taking the least injurious route. However, Moriak’s a gutless punk coward (there are rumours that Moriak has a “partner” himself… did Bobby use that to pressure him?)… but, then again, Fathausen ordained him, so, he’s El Gordo’s creature, which means that one would expect him to be JP’s toady and Step n’ Fetchit. Sergei Stragorodsky couldn’t do much in the face of the Early Soviet persecution of the Church, but he never “threw a pinch of incense on the altar”… he wasn’t a sacrificator, thurificator, or libelliticor (categories of lapsi… “one who sacrificed”, “one who threw incense”, or “one who attested, but didn’t”). At most, he was a traditor (one who handed over holy things) and acta facientor (one who made false statements to survive)… which were necessary, under the given circumstances… that’s why his hometown of Arzamas put up a statue in his honour. Moriak didn’t even do that… don’t forget that the Chekists imprisoned Sergei twice… he just didn’t roll over and “play dead”, as Moriak did.

Don’t fear evil men… there’s not as many of them as we think there are. Don’t fear corrupt men… they’re obvious to kids and fools… for instance, a Piggy Iggy or an Alexey Karlgut is an object of general scorn, not respect. Don’t fear apparatchiki… they’re rather clear, too… a Lyonyo or a Potapov fools no one. Don’t fear the professors… they’re just full o’ stuff n’ nonsense… no one pays attention to a Vanya Behr or a Paul Meyendorff. DO FEAR WEAK MEN. Most iniquity in the world enters because of weakness, not because of outright evil. “My hands were tied”… what arrant nonsense! Is that what they’re going to tell Almighty God on the Last Day? Are they going to tell Him (as they did in more than one secular court document), “We admit no guilt or wrongdoing” (with a pious look on their face, no less)? Don’t forget what Our Lord said, “Throw them into the outer darkness, where there’s wailing and gnashing of teeth”. That’s a meaty reflection, kids…

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Thursday 11 August 2011

Albany NY