A friend of mine sent me some information on the HOOMies and how they were received into the Church in 2000… at least, the group at Platina that became part of the Serbian Church. Do read the following quotation… it is enlightening. My friend’s identity is kept anonymous at their request.
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Bishop Maxim “inherited” the HOOMies from Bishop Jovan Mladenović, formerly of Western America and now of Šumadija. Bishop Jovan received their monasteries, along with some of their parishes out west, into the Serbian Church back in 2000. He did so, of course, without so much as a passing glance at the dark history of that group, and without catechesis. His modus operandi was in this case methodologically indistinguishable from that of the OCA, but, this should come as no surprise: Bishop Jovan is, after all, a Schmemannite Renovationist, like others of his ilk in the Serbian Church (both at home and abroad) he mimics whatever he sees the Schmemannites doing. There was a news item about his diocese from last year which reported on his suspension of clergymen DURING HOLY WEEK AND PASCHA (author’s emphasis) because they refused to serve according to liturgics cooked up at SVS. People, of course, took to the streets.
Now, Bishop Maxim isn’t all that much different from Bishop Jovan, except that he is a young hotshot with a doctorate and academic airs. That is to say, he is like a Schmemann of the ’50s or a Hopko of the early ’80s. His connection with the HOOMies is that they’re in his diocese and he gives them free rein… while at the same time keeping them ignorant of what’s really going on in the Serbian Church at home. It’s all a disaster.
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Now, this did NOT surprise me. I find it indicative that my source wishes to remain anonymous. The HOOMies are known for their secretiveness and nastiness… they did not abandon such when the OCA and Serbs received them (I do not say, “When they became Orthodox”, for they did no such thing… they’re still cultish nutters and should be treated as such).
NO, this is not a large amount of information, but, it is another piece to fit in the puzzle. No doubt, JP showed the same lack of attentiveness to catechesis to the HOOMie “converts” as Bishop Jovan did. This is SCARY. Reflect well on the fact that credible accusations of sexual abuse have been levelled at this lot. When added to the credible accusations against Feodosy (Theodosius) Lazor, the suicide of Eric Iliff, the Koumentakos case, and the present “loss” of four years’ worth of financial records, this should make even the slow-learners prick up their ears. JP and Benjamin Peterson, in particular, surround themselves with such scurvy rotters.
In a related vein, it may be just a coincidence (but, I doubt it highly), but, many of the questionable characters in present-day Orthodoxy in the US are former Episcopalians/Anglicans (I wonder what people like Fr Pat Reardon think of this?). I fear that these people did not come to us because they loved Orthodoxy, but, because they hated what they saw in contemporary Anglicanism. That is NOT the same thing, I would argue. They are with us… for the present… they are not “one with us”. Their heart is not in the Church… that is obvious… mark down well that these “conservative Anglicans” almost invariably ally themselves with the most radical elements in the Church such as SVS. It speaks volumes about both SVS and about how “conservative” these Anglicans are!
Note well that rumours that are flying about JP proposing an “Anglican Rite” in the OCA. A priest-friend of mine said, “So Metropolitan Jonas is imitating the pope, grabbing at the Anglican remnants… Not a thing to do…” I agree emphatically. We do not need a group espousing the 39 Articles, the neo-Calvinism of N. T. Wright, the branch theory (explicitly condemned by the MP, by the way), and “comprehensiveness” amongst us. If such were to occur, it would spark off a crisis that would make anything that has gone on so far look like a picayune tempest in a teacup, indeed. My commenter Joe was correct when he said that implementing such would make the OCA a “dead man walking”.
JP and Co are sitting on top of a Sarajevo Powderkeg and they are throwing lit matches all about with giggly abandon. If it were just them, I would say, “Bugger the lot of ‘em. Let ‘em blow up and go to hell… and let it come swiftly”. Unfortunately, there are many innocents who would be hurt in any such explosion along with the perps. Have we reached the point were an explosion is inevitable? I don’t know… my crystal ball is in the shop… I certainly hope not. It’s in our hands… God DOES give us total freedom, even the freedom to muck things up completely and utterly (DON’T say that “things are in God’s hands”… that is fatuous and blasphemous nonsense. God would not have allowed us to get to this point… it takes a human-being exercising their God-given free-will to screw things up so thoroughly and nastily).
What do you think? THAT shall determine things…
Barbara-Marie Drezhlo
Friday 23 October 2009
Albany NY
Voices from Russia 
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