Meeting of the Inter-Orthodox Preparatory Commission in Chambésy Adjourns on Saturday

Original low-res image posted on MP website…

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On 26 February 2011, a meeting of the Inter-Orthodox Preparatory Commission devoted to the future agenda of a possible all-Orthodox Holy and Great Council adjourned. It began its work on 22 February, at the Orthodox Centre of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Chambésy, near Geneva, in Switzerland. Metropolitan Ionnanis Zizioulas of Pergamos and Adramyttion (EP) presided over the discussions of the session, attended by representatives from the fourteen autocephalous Orthodox Churches, including a delegation of the MP led by Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev of Volokolamsk, the chairman of the MP DECR, with Archbishop Mark Arndt of Berlin and all Germany (ROCOR) and Archpriest Nikolai Balashov, the deputy chairman of the MP DECR as members, and A G Churyakov as translator.

The Commission, whose task is to make a preliminary study on the agenda of any future all-Orthodox Council, followed up its discussions of 2009 on the subject of the granting of a Tomos of Autocephaly. Despite a lengthy discussion, the conferees couldn’t reach a unanimous decision on this topic. Thus, it acknowledged that the topic of autocephaly and the manner of its proclamation required further study. The Commission also discussed the topic of the Diptychs of the First Hierarchs of the Autocephalous Local Churches, examined the canonical and ecclesiological aspects involved, described the current practise of the Church in this matter, and studied the present criteria for the inclusion of a Local Church in the Sacred Diptychs and how the order of the First Hierarchs is fixed, as well as noting a need to have a common form of the Diptychs for all the Local Churches in future.

The commission examined the request of the Polish and Albanian Local Churches for standardisation involving the placement of their First Hierarchs in the Sacred Diptychs of the Autocephalous Local Churches. It proposed that these requests merited further study, and that it should study appropriate changes in the Diptychs. At the meeting, the commission also heard requests from the Local Church of Georgia concerning it being in the sixth place in the Sacred Diptychs of the Local Autocephalous Churches and from the Local Church of Cyprus concerning the promotion of its First Hierarch to a higher position in the Sacred Diptychs. At present, the members couldn’t reach a general agreement on these questions, as the differences in the Sacred Diptychs used by individual Local Churches have their origin in the lack of an all-Orthodox consensus regarding the number of Autocephalous Local Churches.

According to Article 16 of the Statute for Pre-Conciliar Inter-Orthodox Meetings, the conferees must approve papers on all topics of the agenda unanimously.

Members of the delegations of the various Autocephalous Local Churches at the commission meeting were as follows:

• Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople New Rome (EP): Metropolitan Emmanuel Adamakis of France, Archimandrite Bartholomaios Samaras, Protopresbyter Giorgios Tsetsis
• Patriarchate of Alexandria and all Africa: Archbishop Sergios Kykkotis of the Cape of Good Hope, Archimandrite Nikolaos Ioannidis
• Patriarchate of Antioch and all the East: Metropolitan John Yazigi of West and Central Europe, George Ghandour
• Patriarchate of Jerusalem and all Palestine: Metropolitan Isychios Kondogiannis of Capitolias, Protopresbyter George Dragas
• Patriarchate of Georgia: Metropolitan Gerasim Sharashenidze of Zugdidi and Tsaishi, Metropolitan Theodore Chuadze of Akhaltsikhe and Sapara, Archpriest George Zviadadze
• Patriarchate of Serbia: Metropolitan Amfilohije Radović of Montenegro and the Primorije, Bishop Irinej Bulović of Bačka
• Patriarchate of Romania: Secretary of the Office of the Holy Synod Gheorghe Grigoritsa
• Patriarchate of Bulgaria: Metropolitan Neofit Dimitrov of Ruse, Professor Pavel Pavlov
• Church of Cyprus: Metropolitan Georgios Papachrysostomou of Paphos and Exarch of Arsinoe and Romaeon, Bishop Christophoros Tsiakas of Karpasia
• Church of Greece: Metropolitan Ignatios Georgakopoulos of Demetrias and Almyros, Protopresbyter Stefan Avramidis
• Church of Albania: Metropolitan Demetrios Dikbasanis of Gjirokastër, Pirros Kondylis
• Church of Poland: Archbishop Jeremy Ancimiuk of Wrocław and Szczecin, Priest Andrzej Kuzma
• Church of Czechia and Slovakia: Archbishop Juraj Stransky of Michalovce and Košice

Secretaries of the Commission were Metropolitan Ieremias Kalligiorgis of Lausanne and all Switzerland and Professor Blasius Fidas (both EP).

26 February 2011

Patriarchia.ru

Official MP Website

http://www.patriarchia.ru/db/text/1417623.html

Editor’s Note:

Since nothing of note came out of this meeting, it means that the MP is standing by the earlier declaration of December 2009 regarding autocephaly. That formulation contains nothing that’s of comfort to the autocephalist extremists in the OCA. If you haven’t read it, click here for my translation of the Russian original (I know, I’ve given the link before, it’s for the latecomers, kids). It’s clear that there’s no joy in Mudville… Mighty Casey has struck out. What the OCA needed was some sort of statement from the Centre supporting either their autocephaly or their initiative in sacking JP (but not sacking him openly). They got neither… in fact, the Blunder’s mouthpiece at Bolshaya Ordynka said, “We’re looking forward to more detailed information”. That is, the only hierarch at the Centre who supports them only issued a lukewarm acknowledgement, when they needed a hearty message of to-the-wall support. Let’s not be coy… the Blunder would put a Tokarev to Fathausen’s head and squeeze the trigger without compunction if he thought that it would advance his (rather large) ambitions by the smallest amount… “It’s not personal, it’s only business”. There’s no official reply to the OCA action to can El Gordo on patiarchia.ru as of 14.30 EST today. That doesn’t bode well for autocephalist fanatics such as Mark Stokoe, Ted Bobosh, and Eric Wheeler. It also doesn’t boost the chances of expedient apparatchiki such as Lyonyo Kishkovsky, Iggy Burdikoff, or Alexei Karlgut. KMG is letting them stew… that’s his way… they take the long view in Moscow.

Is this das Ende for the OCA? Damned if I know… but I’ll be willing to say that I wouldn’t bet the mortgage payment on their survival. I’m told that Mel Pleska HATES Fathausen, all of his queer buddies (were they all brought together by Podmoshensky?), and the OCA homosexual cabal in general, he wants to hang the lot of ‘em from the nearest sour-apple tree… after all, didn’t Ted Bobosh, Mark Stokoe, Gregory Nescott, Faith Skordinski, Alice Woog, and Eric Wheeler cover up the gay blade antics of l’Huillier, Lazor, Storheim, Soraich, and Swaiko in the ‘80s (as they cover up for Peterson, Brittian, and Norris (at St Seraphim Cathedral in Texas) today… they haven’t changed one bit)? Don’t forget… Stokoe only turned against Herman after Herman supported Bobby K in the fight for power at Syosset, opposing Stokoe, Wheeler, and their gang. Mind you, Bobby’s no shining prize either (he’s just an openly nasty and conniving SOB, whereas Stokoe is a conniving SOB with a smarmy “nice” exterior)… but Stokoe turned against Herman because of his feud with Bobby… Stokoe and all of his autocephalist pals supported Herman’s nasty actions in Mayfield in the ‘80s to the max. Never forget that… it means that Mark Stokoe is a mean-ass SOB when he thinks that he has power. He showed no mercy to the folks in Mayfield… he’ll show none to you, either.

All in all, not a boring weekend, wot?

BMD

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Today’s Action by OCA a Last Ditch Attempt to Stave Off the Centre Lifting the Tomos… It’s Nothing but a Finger in the Dike, Though

King Canute ordered the tide to cease its course… the OCA cabal wants to preserve its tattered autocephaly. Canute was proven a fool, the tide still came in… what does that tell us about the OCA conspirators and their vaunted “Americanist” Church?

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By now, all of us are familiar with El Gordo’s “request” to have a “leave for spiritual reflection”. Why this… and why now? It’s all rather disjointed and looks like something that the apprentice ran up whilst the blacksmith was out. Another e-mail from Tikhon Fitzgerald has surfaced on the Indiana List… yes, I know his reputation, but as a friend of mine put it, “he’s got good intel”. The posting itself is a bit disjointed (I’ll run it as an appendix to this post), but it does “name names”. The people involved in this questionable little undertaking are familiar to everyone in the OCA. They are:

• Mark Stokoe
• Subdeacon Dmitri Solodow
• Archpriest John Reeves
• Archpriest Theodore Bobosh
• Faith Skordinski
• Gregory Nescott
• Protodeacon Peter Danilchick
• Archpriest John Behr
• Archpriest Alexander Garklavs
• Archpriest Eric Tosi

These people brewed up the present contretemps in a last ditch effort to save the OCA. Every person named above is an unshakable autocephalist fanatic. Every person named above is an extremist (don’t be fooled by “niceness”… “nice” isn’t a synonym for “good”, is it?) and is a militant supporter of ADS’ Renovationism (and of his innovations in the Church Ordo). As we speak, there’s an MP/EP pow-wow going on at Chambésy in Switzerland. Its real purpose is to fix the meaning of autocephaly, define what it is, and regulate how it’s conferred. If you haven’t heard of it (or of the earlier meeting that issued a preliminary definition of autocephaly), here are the links:

https://02varvara.wordpress.com/2009/12/18/orthodox-theologians-proposed-a-theoretical-model-on-the-provision-of-autocephaly-and-autonomy-in-the-church

https://02varvara.wordpress.com/2011/02/24/mp-delegation-led-by-metropolitan-hilarion-alfeyev-attended-a-meeting-of-the-inter-orthodox-preparatory-commission/

If you haven’t read the first post listed above… I can’t emphasise too strongly that you must do so. Fr Nikolai lays out the MP’s view on autocephaly. Trust me, every one of the OCA stalwarts named in the list above knows what the Centre believes… and they’re scared shitless. I WON’T be coy… I believe that the Centre is about to lift the OCA’s Tomos of Autocephaly, and it intends using the rationale outlined by Fr Nikolai in the first post immediately above. That’s why the actions today taken by the OCA were so hurried and crude… you see, the MP and EP may issue a joint statement on autocephaly in Chambésy tomorrow, 26 February. The OCA worthies are afraid that the Centre would act swiftly, using the joint statement as a pretext, so, we saw the rather disjointed actions of today (to issue a statement after 15.00 on a Friday is rather out of the ordinary). It especially explains the message sent to Interfax. There’s no doubt that they sent it via Zacchaeus Wood. The reaction of the Blunder’s aide in Moscow was priceless, “We’re looking forward to more detailed information”. This means that they didn’t consult with the Blunder before issuing this barmy Heath Robinson/Rube Goldberg missive (the Wonder’s in Switzerland with the MP delegation to Chambésy, and he’s schmoozing with his WCC pals in Geneva).

Well, it’s NEVER boring in Orthodoxy in America, I always say… pass me the jug, I need a slug… what’s that, Bishop Tikhon’s here… sit on down and have a friendly swaller… it’s a crank world, ain’t it?

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Saturday 26 February 2011

Albany NY

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Appendix to the Post

E-mail of Bishop Tikhon Fitzgerald to the Indiana List

All of Bishop Tikhon’s solecisms and grammatical errors are kept in place…

Lee Fitzgerald <vladyka@ATT.NET>

I know that many are bewildered by recent news of actions by the Holy Synod of the OCA and by information published (A) on the website of the OCA (oca.org) and (B) on the website of Mark Stokoe (ocanews.org). Perhaps insight can be afforded by a look at strategic planning by some of those involved in bringing the reported actions about.

For example, in one of a series of emails on or about February thirteenth (13th),  more than a week before the Holy Synod went on its “retreat”, Mr MS wrote to those with him in the cabal, Subdeacon DS, Fr JR,  Ms FS, Fr TB, Mr GN:

“That report was given to Tikhon, the secretary of the Holy Synod, last Thursday, who gave it to the Synod… but not Jonah since it was about him. Danilchik sent a email to the Synod saying that they should watch how Jonah responds to the criticisms: in a thoughtful, reflective manner, or with denial and retaliation. 3. The Synod then decided that Jonah too should see it. It was given to him on Thursday nite in Dallas. He went ballistic. Jonah dropped Alfayev (sic), with whom he was in Dallas for another performance of the Passion, and flew to Syosset. (Alfayev (sic) later had to call Behr (?) at SVS and ask, “What is happening?” I doubt Behr (?) knew…) He told Garklavs and Tosi that they were both fired and had the new OCA webmaster shut down their OCA computers and emails. He went to Bronxville to speak with Dahulich (sic), and the following morning the two went to Syosset. I do not know if they met Garklavs and Tosi on Friday. 4. Meanwhile, the Synod was trying to organise a conference call to discuss the matter, but was unable to organize even their way out of a paper bag because of the problems in Syosset. Four bishops (Nikon, BB, Mel, Tikhon) (SIC) want Jonah removed; Nathaniel is upset but undecided, Dahulich (SIC) the wild card. The three administrators, Irenee, Mark, Moriak (SIC) are being informed, but are out of the decision loop.) The conference is difficult again to organise given everybody’s schedules, and the fact that BB is now in PR with his dad on vacation on a cruise ship…

“However, the emerging consensus of the appalled four seems to be that Jonah should be placed on a Leave of Absence immediately, and left there while an Administrator takes over in the interim until after the AAC (a la Ireney Bekish (sic), who had an administrator for four years). They do not want to retire him now, because that would trigger the Statute, which would require an election at the AAC, and none of them want that. So, he would be ordered by the Synod to a monastery… probably Santa Fe is the only option really possible… and ordered to stay there. (Personal note: Of course, he can’t stay in one spot for three weeks, let alone 9 months, and should he leave, he could be retired immediately for synodal disobedience.) The point is he has to be removed, and this avoids the immediate problem till after the AAC. They would take turns being administrator for six months each.

…

5. So, that is where the war (SIC) stands as far as I know on Sunday afternoon. The Synod is taking the stand Garklavs and Tosi are still in place. Jonah has frozen them out. I don’t know what they think. I hope to hear the latest this evening as I check with sources. “My thoughts over the over the past six weeks of turmoil have been not to publicise any of this as it is technically, actually and really a Synodal problem… and involving the MC (Metropolitan Council) and people would only muddy the waters at this point. They are, so far, acting by Statute. Should they fail to remove him, as the SMC case is appalling, then all bets are off, and I plan to make it all known, at least as far as I know it. But for now, I think it best that you know what is going on, but ask you to keep quiet until the Synod acts… or fails to. In the latter case, we must then decide how to proceed together as one lobby in the MC. I am loathe to share this with the entire MC, because then it will get out to the Church at large, and there is no telling what will happen then… but none of that would be good for the OCA. “I also fear if the SCM report is made public it could/might/possibly hurt us legally… bwdik?… We are at the tipping point”.

OrthodoxList members, here’s the cast of characters for those unfamiliar with OCA acronyms and “honorifics”:

• Mr MS is Mr Mark Stokoe
• Alfayeev refers to Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyeff
• Subdeacon DS is Subdeacon Dmitri Solodow
• Fr JR is Archpriest John Reeves
• Fr TB is Archpriest Theodore Bobosh
• Ms FS is Ms Faith Skordinski, Attorney
• Mr GN is Mister Gregory Nescott
• “Jonah” is Metropolitan Jonah Paffhausen
• “Danilchik” is Protodeacon Peter Danilchick
• “Behr” is Archpriest John Behr
• “Garklavs” is Archpriest Alexander Garklavs
• “Tosi” is Archpriest Eric Tosi
• “Dahulich” is Bishop Michael Dahulich of New York
• “Nikon” is Bishop Nikon of Boston
• “BB” is Bishop Benjamin of San Francisco
• “Mel” is Bishop Melchizedek of Pittsburgh
• “Tikhon” is Bishop Tikhon of Philadelphia
• “Irénée” is Bishop Irénée of Ottawa
• “Mark” is Bishop Mark formerly of the Antiochenes
• “Moriak” is Bishop-elect Matthew (to be of Chicago)
• “Nathaniel” is Archbishop Nathaniel of Detroit
• “Ireney Bekish” is ever-memorable Metropolitan Ireney Bekish
• SCM and SMC are the Sexual Misconduct Committee

I confess that I found the sentiments of an instance famed for his advocacy of “transparency” and “accountability” as expressed in his last paragraphs to be rather remarkably piquant… a voluntary unmasking. It also looks like a trap has been planned for Metropolitan Jonah which would snap shut the very (planned) moment he would be unable to sit still!

Ad hoc, acanonical actions, all presumably based on the ethics of Sacred American Corporate Business Culture. Rarely has such an example of “conciliarity in action” been seen… probably not since Moses came down off the mountain to find his people dancing around the Golden Calf… truly a conciliar resistance to un-American, despotic, imperial, monarchic, etc. evil.

I only printed here ONE of a chain of emails contributed by all the addressees… only one from the instance most noisily accountable and transparent.

Tikhon

Bishop. OCA. Retired

PS

Don’t be shocked by the lack of reference to God or anything remotely connected to Scripture or Tradition in the above email excerpt… that’s the “name of the game”. These are Church leaders, VIPs in today’s OCA. They’re not “religious”. What an idea!!!

God is not mocked.