Barcode Orthodoxy versus Lived Orthodoxy… the Main Event

A row of McMansions… the perfect metaphor for the twisted ideas and ideals of the crowd in Syosset and Englewood Cliffs… it so totally fits their chosen surroundings, doesn’t it?

Last Saturday, Nicky and I were motoring north towards Saratoga, and we passed through several new suburban “developments”. Well… we’ve all seen those cheesy monstrosities known as “McMansions”. Gaudy, over-decorated, in abysmally poor taste (if there is any taste shown at all)… if one notices, they are ALWAYS built close to the road, not only for the sake of cheapness (less land is required for the house-lot), but, so that the passing public can see the construction and fawn over it. Nicky and I have stock phrases for such offences against good-taste, such as, “There’s another chiropractor’s house!” “No, there are too many pillars in front. It’s gotta be a shyster lawyer in there”. One wonders what the McMansion of the senior partner of the law firm that is on retainer to the OCA looks like… they’ve gotten enough money from the Iliff and Koumentakos cases, not to mention the Sidebottom case and all the other legal agreements that have been signed over the years. With the sum of money that has come from so many brushes with the courts, why, a monument to crassness and biliousness could be built!

The McMansion… need I say more? Would you trust anyone who lusts to live in such a house?

There is “Barcode Orthodoxy”… a monstrosity built upon the godless Americanist consumerist mentality. It finds its home in such havens of the affluent effluent as Syosset on the Island and Englewood Cliffs in Jersey (both are considered amongst the most vulgar, amoral, boorish, and debauched suburbs of NYC, only Manhasset and the Hamptons are worse). These are people who use lawyers to issue forth Newspeak of the most disgusting and perverted character. Birds of a feather DO flock together.

The Mayfield Volunteer Fire Department… people you can TRUST!

Opposed to this is “Lived Orthodoxy”… this is a much more modest and humble enterprise. One finds it in Mayfield PA or in Toledo OH… it is found in the simple homes of common folk, those not considered “important” by society. Yet, the streets are clean, the houses are well-kept, often, there is a garden in the backyard… these are people who mean what they say and say what they mean. You DO have a choice in what you favour… shall it be Syosset and Englewood Cliffs… or, shall it be Mayfield and Toledo? Hmm…

The Ford Focus… the chosen car of the ecologically-aware and socially-conscious… it has been seen in Syosset and Englewood Cliffs.

Barcode Orthodox are Politically Correct and show their support for all the “Correct Causes”. They are Goodthinkers who drive Ford Focuses.

A drag-racin’ funny car… put the pedal to the metal! It has been seen in garages in Mayfield and Toledo… are you gonna mess with someone who drives THIS?

Lived Orthodox are direct and straightforward… they don’t know what the latest PC cant is, and wouldn’t pay attention to it if they did. They are Good Ol’ Boys who drive hot rods that are barely street-legal (they had Wally the Mexican from down the street fix the front-end so that it jumps up and down… pretty neat, huh?).

The Osmonds… the Ideal of the Barcode Orthodox… niceness trumps everything!

If there is one thing that Barcode Orthodox harp upon, it is “niceness”. Mind you, not “goodness”… merely adherence to procedure and superficial smiles (see Igor Burdikoff or Lyonyo Kishkovsky for illustrations of such… or look at the goofy photograph that JP circulated of himself with the wide (and insincere) smile). Everyone is happy… everyone is “well-adjusted” (whatever that means)… everyone smiles and everyone slaps one another on the back. Mind you, you needn’t actually be good… you just have to follow the “rules”. They ignore the common rules of hospitality (as you shall see if you go to New Skete or Tolleshunt Knights… the wife of a friend of mine just came back from the latter, and she wasn’t even given a glass of tea… horrid!).

The Cossacks… the Ideal of the Lived Orthodox… don’t tread on me!

Lived Orthodox are not “nice”… they are good. They do not stand on ceremony, nor do they care overly much for procedures, lawyers, or statutes. They DO care for rightness, honour, and decency (three things the Barcode Orthodox have forgotten… or, is it that the Barcode Orthodox have never heard of these concepts? Their actions do seem to indicate such!). You shall always receive kindness and hospitality (as you shall see if you go to Jordanville… the brothers would go without before they would let a guest go hungry).

The Lawyer… the perfect personification of the Barcode Orthodox

What more need I say? Without the Lawyer, the modernists would have been sunk by their actions… only look at the Iliff and Koumentakos cases for confirmation!

The Hero… the perfect personification of the Lived Orthodox

Lived Orthodox have stood up for Christ and His Church more than once and paid the price in blood many times over! Ask any Greek whose people came from Ionia or ask any Serb whose family is from Bosnia or ask any of the Russians who fled the Reds. Most of all, ask the folks from Russian Hill in Mayfield PA who had to fight the Syosset cabal to retain their parish-church in the 80s… look at them and see the true meaning of “struggle” and “sacrifice!”

What do you want? You DO have a choice.

You can have brunch in a fern-bar with the Barcode Orthodox and their cheap-jack chiropractor, shyster lawyer, and scheming developer friends…

Or… you can have a bite with the Lived Orthodox over at Katz’s Deli on Houston and Ludlow, between the Lower East Side and Soho… Hey, Manny! Gimme a pastrami on Jewish Rye with horseradish mustard and a half-sour and coleslaw on the side… Siddown and take a load off your feet!

I know where I belong… what about you?

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Monday 5 October 2009

Albany NY

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Patriarch Kirill said, “The Deliverance of Russia from Godlessness Is the Main Achievement of the Last Two Decades”.

Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev (1946- ) of Moscow and all the Russias

On Thursday, the most revered holy object of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR), the Kursk-Root icon of the Mother of God of the Sign, was brought for one day to a restored cathedral in Kursk oblast. Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev of Moscow and all the Russias led a ceremony that was held at the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Most Holy Mother of God. The ceremony was attended by Metropolitan Hilarion Kapral of New York and the Eastern US (the First Hierarch of the ROCOR), and hierarchs from Russia, the Ukraine, and Byelorussia. The event gathered many believers not only from Russia, the Ukraine, and Byelorussia, but, also pilgrims from France, Germany, the UK, the USA, and Australia.

“It took 90 years to bring back this wonder-working icon to the place where it once belonged”. Patriarch Kirill played a part to the return of the icon to its original home. During the time that he was Metropolitan of Smolensk and Kaliningrad, he was one of the architects of the reconciliation of the ROCOR and the MP, ending a debilitating schism that stemmed from the events of the Revolution and Civil War in early-20th century. On Thursday, 24 September, Vladyki Kirill received the highest award of the ROCOR, the Znamensky Order of the First Degree from Metropolitan Hilarion in recognition of his contributions to church unity. When he received this award, Patriarch Kirill said, “The deliverance of Russia from godlessness is the main achievement of the last two decades. The main achievements of August 1991, when an attempted coup against democratic progress was thwarted, were the end of the persecution against the Church and the revival of spiritual life”.

His Holiness Kirill emphasised that the difficult path travelled by Russia in the 20th century was not in vain because the Russian nation washed away its guilt before God with its sufferings. Georgy Poltavchenko, the Presidential Envoy to the Central Federal District, said that the visit of the Kursk-Root icon symbolised the beginning of a new spiritual revival in Russia and initiated another phase in its spiritual development.

Milena Faustova

24 September 2009

Voice of Russia World Service

http://www.ruvr.ru/main.php?lng=eng&q=51896&cid=59&p=24.09.2009

Editor’s Note:

I am going to be slowly returning to publishing news items from Russia. It has taken awhile since editing and/or translating items takes more concentrated effort than original work (believe it or not!). The visit of the Kursk-Root icon is particularly important in that it came just before an unwarranted incursion by the EP on the canonical territory of the MP. That event, connected with the schismatic and uncanonical body known as the “Ukrainian Autochephalous Orhtodox Church”, was a serious blow to church unity in the Orthodox pleroma. If the EP does not retreat immediately and apologise for its undue meddling and interference, it shall result in, at least, strife between Orthodox, or, at worst, a breach in relations between the various Local Churches. The only winners in such would be godless secular politicians in the Ukraine (backed by the USA and the Vatican), the Galician Uniates (and their supporters in the papal confession), a small group of power-hungry clerics about Bartholomew (such as the pro-papist John Zizioulas), and atheist elements in the EU and the USA.  God save us from such… may the EP abandon this anti-Orthodox policy and apologise for its untoward attack on a sister Local Church to the entire Orthodox world. It is the only sane result possible.

BMD