Editor’s Foreword:
This is obviously from Syosset, not any official MP source. One can tell this by the fact that it contains fibs that anyone who’s knowledgeable could refute with ease. I should state that patriarchia.ru made its last post today at 18.32 MSK, and this news isn’t reported there (America’s the backwoods in the Centre’s eyes).
BMD
******
The OCA official website explained the removal from active ministry of Metropolitan Jonas Paffhausen, its First Hierarch, by a desire on his part for a pause for spiritual growth. As the OCA website reported on Saturday night (Как сообщил в ночь на субботу сайт ПЦА), Metropolitan Jonas approached the Synod with a request to give him time for “spiritual renewal”. The Synod gave him a 60-day leave and appointed Archbishop Nathanael Popp of Detroit as acting First Hierarch, instructing him to assume the temporary management of the Church during Metropolitan Jonas’ leave of absence. In addition, as “additional assistance” (дополнительной помощи), the OCA Holy Synod “freed Metropolitan Jonas of his responsibility for the Dioceses of the South and Midwest, and appointed two new acting diocesans. The Synod also accepted the resignation of Fr Alexander Garklavs from the post of Chancellor, and appointed Bishop Melchizedek Pleska of Pittsburgh the temporary Chancellor of the OCA. Despite this lengthy leave granted to the OCA First Hierarch, we know that in late April, after Easter, he will ordain Archimandrite Matthias Moriak as Bishop of Chicago and the Midwest. On Friday night, ocanews.org, an unofficial source on OCA affairs, reported that Metropolitan Jonas had been relieved of active duties as the OCA First Hierarch. Previously, retired Bishop Tikhon Fitzgerald of Los Angeles posted on the Internet a message relating that Metropolitan Jonas “had gone on leave”.
The all-American Sobor elected Bishop Jonas Paffhausen Metropolitan of all America and Canada in November 2008. James Paffhausen, the future Metropolitan Jonas, was born in Chicago in a Protestant family. In 1978, when still a student, he converted to Orthodoxy, and became a member of an MP parish in San Diego. In the early 1990, James Paffhausen worked in the MP Publishing Division in Moscow {this is a lie… more on it in the editor’s note: editor}. Archimandrite Kirill Pavlov, a Confessor of the Holy Trinity St Sergius Lavra, blessed James Paffhausen to enter monasticism {quite dubious… this has never been claimed before: editor}. The MP considered that the election of Bishop Jonas Paffhausen as OCA First Hierarch was an event that opened a new page in the history of the OCA, which received autocephaly (independence) from the MP in 1970. Official sources in the MP declined to comment on the situation, as there’s no current information available. “We’re looking forward to more detailed information”, Fr Igor Yakimchuk, the head of the Secretariat of the MP Department for External Church Relations, said to our Interfax-Religion correspondent on Friday.
26 February 2011 (MSK)
Interfax-Religion
http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=39674
Editor’s Afterword:
Firstly, Interfax posted this at 00.19 MSK (21.19 UTC 16.19 EST 13.19 PST), that is to say, very late for a normal post. Usually, there aren’t any posts after 19.00 MSK, and English translation seems to shut down at 17.00 MSK. In short, this was a rush job. I don’t think that there was a “hard copy” and I don’t think that Zacchaeus Wood read it… I think that Mr Wood received a rude and loud ring from someone like Kishkovsky, Tosi, or Burdikoff… screaming at him that there was something coming in his e-mail, and that he had best get it publicised ASAP (remember, the oca.org post went out at approximately 15.00 EST (23.00 MSK 20.00 UTC 12.00 PST)). Wood got in touch with a friend at Interfax, explained the situation, said that a Russian version was coming, and asked it they could post it immediately, as a favour to him. No doubt, there’s someone at Interfax amenable to the Blunder’s faction (indeed, one of the Interfax people is a fellow who used to work for a Catholic newspaper in Russia… he probably posted it). I don’t believe that anyone read the post… no one. That’s what happens when you can send something by merely pushing the “enter” key.
The second paragraph is a MRE… “A lie three ways”. Firstly, JP didn’t work for the MP Publications Department… everyone knows that he went to Russia under the aegis of the deposed sodomite Gleb Podmoshensky. Secondly, look at this:
The MP considered that the election of Bishop Jonas Paffhausen as OCA First Hierarch was an event that opened a new page in the history of the OCA, which received autocephaly (independence) from the MP in 1970.
That’s so ludicrous that it requires no commentary. Thirdly, there’s a new claim that Archimandrite Kirill Pavlov blessed JP to become a monk… until now, the claim has been that JP was a member of the brotherhood at Valaam, and that the superior there blessed him to become a monastic.
Quem deus vult perdere, dementat prius… That’s all one can say. Reflect on the fact that the konvertsy eat BS like this up. It’s time to go home… let’s stop the fun n’ games. We have a Church to rebuild… it’s not gonna be short and it’s not gonna be easy.
BMD
Barbara-Marie Drezhlo
Voices from Russia 
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