Metropolitan Jonas Paffhausen (1959- ) of the OCA in a meeting with a low-level MP functionary in Syosset NY. Note well that one of the people in the picture is Leonid Kishkovsky… When he was in Moscow earlier this year, JP stated that all the major players under Herman were gone (his exact words were that only a house-cleaner and two secretaries were left)… it seems that he lied… draw the proper conclusion.
Here is something that just crossed my path that is far less than it seems. Trust me… it appears of great importance… then, when one looks closer, it fades into nothingness. Let’s look at the news item, first.
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Primate of the Orthodox Church in America gives audience to president of the International Foundation of the Unity of Orthodox Nations
His Beatitude Jonah, Metropolitan of All America and Canada, received in audience on 26 October 2009, the president of the International Foundation of the Unity of Orthodox Nations, V. Alexeyev, and the representative of the Orthodox Church in America Archimandrite Zacchaeus (Wood).
Mr Alexeyev informed Metropolitan Jonah about his recent visit to St Vladimir’s Seminary in Crestwood NY, to convey to it an official letter from His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, informing the Seminary that it won the Foundation’s Prize in recognition of its efforts for strengthening unity between Orthodox nations in the field of education. They also discussed in detail various projects of the Foundation, the official website of the Russian Orthodox Church Representation in America has reported.
DECR Communications Service
http://www.mospat.ru/en/2009/10/28/news7186/
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Firstly, do NOT be fooled by the URL. This is NOT from the main official website of the MP… it is the official website of the MP DECR… if you go to the homepage, you do NOT go to the homepage of the main site. This is vitally important.
My first task was to see if this news had appeared on the RIA-Novosti, ITAR-TASS, and Interfax-Religion feeds. It had not. In short, this is not considered important by the main secular news agencies that cover religious news. I only bring this canard of an article up because the OCA fanatics are going to beat the drums about this.
Note well that Hilarion Alfeyev did not put his name to this release… the only body named is a nebulous International Foundation of the Unity of Orthodox Nations… I have never heard of it and I follow the Russian religious press fairly closely. It smells contrived and hurriedly cobbled together… there has been no major press release on any of the relevant Russian news-services about this putative organisation to my knowledge prior to this event (there have been one or two articles mentioning this “award”… that is the only sign of life that this “foundation” has shown).
On a minor note, SVS’s address is given incorrectly… it is in Yonkers NY, but, the OCA invariably says it is in Crestwood… Crestwood is not a city, town, village, hamlet, or census designated area… it is only a neighbourhood of the City of Yonkers with no real or legal existence (the OCA does not like using the real address because it lacks the cachet of the rest of Westchester County… Yonkers is in Westchester, but, it has a grittier and more plebeian image). His buddies in Syosset misled HA…
As for the letter from KMG… the poor fellow signs hundreds of documents daily. He has a busy schedule of personal meetings and audiences (I pity the poor fellow… he must spend two hours a day in minor audiences (that is, those quickie 5-minute affairs) alone). Do note well that His Holiness gave no one in the OCA an audience to receive this letter. Zacchaeus Wood did not even get one of those minor five-minute jobs where one receives a smile and a letter from the hand of KMG, and a PR snapshot with the Patriarch. HA did not give him an audience… he did not even get a meeting with anyone important such as Bishop Mark Golovkov, or Frs Vsevolod Chaplin, Mikhail Dudko, or Nikolai Balashov. All that happened is that a “V Alexeyev” (a complete and utter unknown, let me assure you… he has figured in no other major news items from any major Russian or international agency of my knowledge), a very minor flunky and lackey, has brought a letter from a vague (and previously unknown) “foundation” just when JP needed something to distract people from the Nashotah House débâcle and the controversy swirling about the rumours of an “Anglican Rite” in the OCA (God willing, saner heads shall prevail… but, I shan’t hold my breath… it’s unhealthy, you know).
In short, this is total GIGO. It is not worth the paper it is printed on. Does Syosset truly believe that the faithful are that stupid? Have they truly lost contact with reality?
I fear that we know the answer all too well…
Barbara-Marie Drezhlo
Friday 30 October 2009
Albany NY
Voices from Russia 
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