2 September 2012. A Picture IS Worth a Thousand Words… Bishop Abel of Lublin and Chełm in the USA

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The above image shows Archbishop Abel Popławski of Lublin and Chełm whilst he was on a visit to the USA. This reminds us that we’re part of a larger Church, one that won’t be affected by the fall of the OCA, that is, we’ll have help in putting things back together and back to rights. It also reminds us that our parishes will all be here after the OCA falls… and that these parishes will go on as they’ve always done. Remember, the Church survived the fall of Nemolovsky in the early ’20s… the Church survived the Church War after ’65… the Church survived the attempt by Fathausen and the clueless konvertsy to take us over… yes, Virginia, the Church will survive the fall of the OCA, too.

Never forget that the strength of the Church is in the parishes, the so-called “national Church” is nothing but a crudely-welded-on superstructure. Indeed, do our parishes need TWENTY bishops (ten active and ten “retired”)? That’s inane and is proof that the inmates are running the asylum (that is, the “national church”). This image is proof that the Church is NOT Syosset, SVS, the Metropolitan Council, or the OCA itself… it’s us… it’s our coreligionists abroad… but it’s not slobbering phonies like John Behr, John Jillions, Lyonyo, Freddie M-G, or Rod Dreher.

We will survive. After all, we did it before, so, we can do it again…

BMD

26 August 2012. Moriak Talking Out of Both Sides of His Mouth

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You will love this one, kids… here’s what one of the Cabinet whispered to Tyotya Vara:

I was talking with someone who was just recently engaged. In discussing the wedding date with their priest, they were shocked to be told that Saturday weddings are now an option. Moriak has sent a letter out to priests that Saturday weddings are permitted. My friend, being good Orthodox, was insistent on a Sunday wedding. Now, in itself, this isn’t a terribly huge thing, but combine it with Moriak’s wanting to do things the more traditional way, yet pushing it on the diocese in a very heavy-handed manner… well, it’s a good example of how hypocritical he is. I’m told that even SVS will only permit Sunday weddings in the seminary chapel.

Trust me, Moriak’s gonna be in the hot seat if the Parma Sobor comes off. The reason that I say “if” is that discussion between interested parties no longer has to wait for a Sobor… it takes place over the internet (privately, not on public fora). Such internet discussion has more privacy and security than a public confab at the Sobor, too. There’s no doubt that Moriak’s latest gaffe is making the rounds, and it’s not gonna please people one little bit.

If there’s a Sobor, the participants could demand a vote on things other than the election of a metropolitan. At the least, the attempt by Lyonyo and Jillions to run a stage-managed Sobor is deader than a doornail. Bobby may have been corrupt, dishonest, and high-handed, but he was competent. It’s why the Sobor that elected him gave a standing ovation. They didn’t like him or his ways at all (which led to his eventual dismissal), but when given the real-world choice of Kish or Bobby, they chose Bobby. Jillions is nothing but Lyonyo’s sockpuppet; he’s nothing but Lyonyo’s Charlie McCarthy. Neither Lyonyo nor Jillions have any real managerial experience… and the Chancellor is a business manager, at base.

For instance, look at this idiocy about a “one-day Sobor”. That’s impossible for a group of a couple hundred people. You’re going to spend at least two to four hours on registration alone (a rather important part of the procedure). It’s really a two-day Sobor, with registration taking place the night before; oca.org should adjust its publicity accordingly. Registration would mean that an official registration desk would hand out Sobor credentials and information, coffee and light refreshments would be on offer, and the bar would be open. That’s how COMPETENT people would do it. In fact, it’s how Bobby would’ve done it… mind you, he was dishonest and a thief, and we shouldn’t reinstate him or put aside his discipline, but he was competent (unlike the clueless Lyonyo and Jillions… the former is an overblown rector of a minuscule parish; the latter is nothing but a traitorous ivory-tower academic who took the Uniates’ shilling).

Things are NEVER boring in American Orthodoxy… do pass me the jug…

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Sunday 26 August 2012

Albany NY

18 May 2012. Is Alikov Coming to the USA?

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Some of us are following the events at the OCA Representation in Moscow… the starosta, Sergei Alikov, allegedly is skimming off the top. The grapevine sez that some of the OCA pooh-bahs sent for him or demanded an explanation (it’s not clear which). If I were the Moscow authorities, I’d watch the airports or (better yet) keep a tail on Alikov… if  he IS skimming, he’s got every motive to bolt and the OCA pooh-bahs have every motive to protect him… to keep it quiet. The names I hear whispered are Tosi, Jillions, and Kishkovsky… but there’s nothing solid on these jabronies. Yet, everyone knows that they’ve all been up to their ears in other schmutz… do recall that Tosi said, “The records simply don’t exist”, that Jillions willingly took the Uniates‘ shilling, and that Lyonyo’s been a hardball practitioner of ecclesiastical politics for years. That’s what out there now… it could change in a flash. Cookie the Bookie ain’t laying odds…

BMD

Sophia Kishkovsky Lies to You Yet Again by Omission… What Does That Tell You About the OCA/ROCOR First Families?

Note well that Lil’ Mizz Sophia didn’t tell you about how the Socialists, nationalists, and commies were the driving force behind the recent demonstrations for fair elections… a fact that her Langley puppeteers didn’t want you to know…

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Sophia Kishkovsky’s issuing misleading white propaganda again. If you wish to read it, click here and here. Firstly, she didn’t give you what the Russian press reported on Fr Vsevolod’s essay on Thursday. Here’s what he wrote:

This 10-day ‘party’ can create the powerful impression for some people that everything’s back to business as usual, to the political calm of the past decade. No, it won’t return… it’ll never come back. … The leaders of Russian organisations were ashamed to have to stand on the same platform with Boris Nemtsov, Garry Kasparov, and Ksenia Sobchak. … we should start a serious national dialogue about the basic political and economic structure of the country, including the role and status of the Russian people. … If the government doesn’t want a slow degeneration, and if the people don’t want to pay for an occupying army and enrich foreign business, you need to move from ‘stability’ to the realm of conscience and freedom. Freedom… both political and moral. Much of what’s happening in Russia is profoundly abnormal and isn’t responsive to the will of the people, it’s a legacy of the ‘90s of the last century, and we must decisively reject it. … Soldiers in Russia shouldn’t be below ‘mere merchants’ (ниже торговцев) in social status. Every officer of the armed forces and law enforcement agencies should have a house, even in the Moscow region. However, we need to tie this housing with their posting or [as a reward for] a decent retirement. This is the best remedy against corruption. Let 2012 be a year of a resolute and moral Russia. Let us be a country with a strong sense of the meaning of life… both today and in the future.

She quoted none of this, but that shouldn’t surprise you. Langley has an agenda… it wants to put pro-Western zapadnik oligarchs in charge of the government and put a pro-Western lickspittle heretic like the Blunder at the head of the Church. This article shows you that Ms Kishkovsky doesn’t give you the “whole truth and nothing but the truth”. She only gives you what’s useful for US white propaganda purposes (the line that Russians want American-style “democracy” and “laissez-faire” capitalism, etc, etc, etc).

Note well that Ms Kishkovsky NEVER EVER interviews Fr Vsevolod… the gaybisti know that the OCA Schmemann and Kishkovsky families are ravening pro-Westerners and enthusiastic allies of the Rodina’s foes (don’t forget, ADS was a keen and willing US propaganda mouthpiece on Radio Liberty), both in the political and religious sphere (it’s why ADS was forbidden to go to the USSR and Serge Schmemann was only allowed to go there in 1990). They know that Ms Kishkovsky wouldn’t tell the truth and would distort the transcript; ergo, Fr Vsevolod won’t speak to her directly. Talking about the truth… do note how a tabloid caught Dickie Wood and photographed him at an oligarch’s party at a ritzy restaurant at the Centre. The good word is that no one in higher Church or state circles trusts him… by the way, what HAS happened to him? Where was Lil’ Mizz Sophia? She and her father Lyonyo are as SILENT AS THE TOMB on Dickie Wood’s whereabouts (certainly, they can’t be scared of Dickie’s consigliere?)

There’s another facet to all this. “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”. Her father is Lyonyo Kishkovsky… he’s NEVER told the truth, he’s an old hand at the “memory hole”, and do remember how nasty he was in the Sea Cliff dispute in the ‘70s. Therefore, why should it surprise you that she refuses to tell the truth, when her father did likewise as editor of The Orthodox Church for years? She saw that lying and deception paid… and she saw how her Uncle Serge got ahead at the New York Times, too. Now, if she told the truth… that would be a news story!

Let’s go on to Lil’ Mizz Sophia’s second story, which had a dateline of today. Guess what? She did comment on His Holiness’ interview of yesterday, but, again, not completely. She claimed that he said the following:

If the authorities remain insensitive to the expression of protest, this is a very bad sign, a sign of the authorities’ inability to adjust. … Every person in a free society must have the right to express his opinion, including disagreement with the actions of the authorities. … If demonstrations ahead of the 1917 revolution had ended in the expression of peaceful protests and had not led to a bloody revolution and a fratricidal war, Russia would have had a population of more than 300 million and would have challenged or maybe even surpassed the United States from the point of view of economic development.

This is what Interfax reported him as saying:

People should be able to express their disagreement, but they shouldn’t yield to provocations and destroy the country, for we’ve reached the limits of keeping one another at arms length… those in authority should hold a through dialogue and listen, to put society on the right course, and, then, all will be well for us. If people are deprived of [the right to criticise the authorities], they perceive it as a restriction of liberty; it’s very painful… but we must show wisdom in doing it.

If the demonstrations prior to the 1917 Revolution had ended in peaceful protests, not being followed by a bloody revolution and fratricidal war, today, Russia would have more than 300 million people and would be on the same level as the USA in terms of economic development, or even higher. We weren’t able to maintain our balance and we lost our heads. We destroyed our country. Why did this happen? To put it simply, political forces seeking power very cleverly used the just protests of the people.

[In this regard, His Holiness recalled the appeals of “democrats” in the late Soviet era calling for the destruction of the Nomenklatura, to chase out all those who drove “black Volgas”, and other such things.] Indeed, thousands marched under this slogan… what happened? Those in power abandoned their ‘black Volgas’ and traded them in for a ‘black Mercedes’; they changed their spots and shared the resources of the country amongst themselves. It was a classic example of how easy it was to tempt a person [to do the wrong thing]. The same thing happened in connection with the 1917 Revolution. ‘Take from the plunderers’. After that, people broke into apartments, destroyed estates, and put the torch to the country. Where did the stolen goods go? The new élite got their hands on it, and did the people really begin to live better?” [The task of the present day is] to protest in the right way, which would then lead to a correction of policy. That’s the main thing. If the government is insensitive to the expression of protest, that’s a very bad sign.

There’s more than a slight difference, isn’t there? There’s a reason why Lil’ Mizz Sophia didn’t give you the last paragraph of the Interfax submission… her father is one of the “black Volga-driving nomenklatura” of the OCA (and a member of the warmongering CFR to boot)… he’s cut of the same mouldy cloth as the Sov nomenklatura was… Lyonyo Kishkovsky is one of the most hated individuals in the combined OCA/ROCOR apparat. Yes… I used the singular, not the plural. As a correspondent wrote me:

In the “old days”, with such strong personalities as Platon Rozhdestvensky and Antony Khrapovitsky, I think [that the conflict] was real. Then it sort of degenerated into a “turf war” exacerbated by the ROCOR’s move to the USA. It was sort of peaceful in the days of Leonty Turkevich and Anastasy Gribanovsky, but I believe Georgi Grabbe mucked things up and set the ROCOR off on the wrong path, alienating the ROCOR from just about everyone else. The ROCOR provided a “way out” for dissatisfied OCA clergy and parishes, but the numbers were relatively small. The posturing in the past two decades has been a sham, a lot of it sort was nothing but personal fights on a local level. By and large, the apparat was happy to use it for its own purposes. Now, all those “illegal” moves seem to have been forgiven.

I wrote in reply:

Looking at it all through the lens of current events, it seems that they were shadow-boxing… for if there were a united Church, SOMEBODY would lose a position (not money… we don’t have it… POWER over people… that’s what they want).

To which my interlocutor shot back:

I can’t disagree. Certainly, a lot of people are happy to be relatively big fishes in a small pond, and they won’t give up that status.

It all comes back to basics. Sophia Kishkovsky learned how to lie and obfuscate at home, from her father. It’s why none of her antics surprise any grounded Orthodox Christian… it’s the same kind of goofy shit that ADS, Lyonyo, and Hopko have been dishing out for years. It does prove one thing… the younger generation of the First Families have certainly learned its lessons from its elders. That’s why the entire edifice is rotten to the core. Mark Stokoe was like a Roy Medvedev… Stokoe’s thesis was that the OCA was sound, all that we had to do was to return to the wisdom of ADS. I’m like Solzhenitsyn… I submit that the entire construct’s crumbly at its foundations, and it was always such, and it was NEVER sound in the first instance. We need to remove it before it collapses with God-alone-knows what consequence, and we need to expose the plug-uglies… we needn’t “punish” them… we need only expose them, to bring them to admit their crimes and corruption (which, of course, would lead to their removal and discrediting).

Ms Kishkovsky’s a symptom… not a cause. She’s merely an untalented hack journalist who spews forth whatever she’s told to produce. Yet, it’s proof that the OCA/ROCOR First Families aren’t supermen… if THIS is the best that they’re capable of, the present edifice is ready to fall, and much sooner than most of us expect… however, it’s not going to happen tomorrow or next week (it could… but it’d be a great surprise to all, like the August Events). Take my hand… the path’s rather murky at this point, don’t you agree?

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Sunday 8 January 2012

“The Second Day of Christmas”/The First Day of the Svyatki

Albany NY