Katz’s Deli Orthodoxy

The Verchovyna… in the East Village in the City… sadly, now closed. Vladyki Nicholas was seen here (in civvies and a ball cap, natch) more than once… don’t anyone dare say anything against it, either. Vladyki blessed everything and everyone he touched with his presence… and that means gin mills, too! That PROVES that Nicholas Smisko was Katz’s Deli Orthodox to the nth degree…

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Editor’s Foreword:

One of my correspondents sent me something that got the old brain in gear. It’s another time when God gave somebody else the “good idea”… it’s not fair… all the good stuff starts off in somebody else’s head. All kidding aside, God has blessed me with friends… that’s more important than any money… God luv ya all!

BMD

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Let’s look at two different kinds of Orthodox… Katz’s Deli Orthodox and Konvertsy. When ordering at Katz’s on Houston and Ludlow in the City, Katz’s Deli Orthodox know that Manny’s Jewish, and they understand and respect him as a person, as well as respecting his Jewish faith and his community. They don’t try to convert him to Orthodoxy… they know that if Manny wants to join the Church, he’ll do it on his own time; he doesn’t need their help. That’s God’s business. Konvertsy try to convert America by “witnessing” to Orthodoxy in an attempt to convert Manny. As an aside, Manny, even though he’s Jewish, reminds all Katz’s Deli Orthodox of a relative, an old family friend, a parishioner they knew from childhood.

When ordering at Katz’s, Katz’s Deli Orthodox don’t talk about religion. It’s, “Hey, Manny, gimme a pastrami on Jewish rye, horseradish mustard on the side, and a Cel-Ray”. Konvertsy show off… they talk about “Orthodox Spirituality”, “the Jesus Prayer” (Prayer of the Heart), “Monastic Elders”, etc. Manny doesn’t know or care about that. He knows a few Greeks, so he knows that they go to the Greek Orthodox Church. Manny is like everyone else in the real world in which Katz’s Deli Orthodox live; on the other hand, the konvertsy live on another planet.

Vladyki Nicholas Smisko was Katz’s Deli Orthodox to the maximum degree possible. He did pastor a parish over on East 10th and A (over by Tompkins Square Park, a few blocks from the Stuyvesant Town Houses), after all… he was seen in the Verchovyna (a local watering hole) more than once (in civvies… he deserved it). Vsevolod Chaplin is Katz’s Deli Orthodox, as is KMG in his heart-of-hearts, so is Frank Schaeffer (which proves that not all converts are konvertsy). Fr Basil Stroyen was Katz’s Deli Orthodox… and his widow, Matushka Nina, still is… as were Bishop Kyprian Borisevich and Metropolitan Leonty Turkevich.

Freddie Matthews-Green, Behr, BP, Honeycutt, Dreher, Mattingly, Hatfield, JP, et al are konvertsy “Orthodox”. Look at the contrast. The issue really isn’t ethnicity because there are Greeks, Russians, Carpatho-Russians, Romanians, Serbs, Arabs, Lebanese, and grounded converts who are all Katz’s Deli Orthodox; indeed, most Orthodox in the USA and Canada are. Likewise, the Konvertsy in all the various Orthodox archdioceses who aren’t Katz’s Deli Orthodox include some ethnics as well as converts. John Behr comes to mind… Bishop Maksim Vasiljević on the left coast… Gleb Podmoshensky in Platina, for sure… ADS was another… as was Feodosy Lazor.

My Katz’s Deli Orthodox readers should ask themselves, “Is my parish priest or diocesan bishop Katz’s Deli Orthodox or not?” Interestingly, one can learn a great deal about the Church (and life, in general) from Manny at Katz’s Deli. “Hey, Manny! Make sure that guy in the back drains the coleslaw the next time ‘round! I like to eat my coleslaw, not drink it!” “Hey, get a life! Like I’ve got time to think around here?” Manny keeps ya grounded… and that’s three-quarters of the battle…

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Friday 25 March 2011

Albany NY

Editor’s Afterword:

I’m signing my name to this because I posted this and fleshed it out… but it wouldn’t have been possible without the ideas that other people planted in my head. Thanks, guys! You know who you are… I’m blessed many times over… God IS good.

BMD

New Strong Earthquake Occurred in Japan

Tsunami/earthquake damage in Otsuchi (Iwate Prefecture. Tōhoku Region)

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On Friday, a strong earthquake of 6.2 magnitude took place to the east of Miyagi Prefecture (Tōhoku Region), according to NHK-TV. The quake occurred at 20.36 local time (14.36 MSK 11.36 UTC 07.36 EDT 04.36 PDT); its epicentre was some 40 kilometres (25 miles) offshore. RIA-Novosti reported that the authorities didn’t issue a new tsunami warning. On 11 March, a devastating earthquake of 9.0 magnitude happened in northeastern Japan, causing a tsunami with a wave height of ten metres. According to police, there are 10,035 dead confirmed dead as the result of the quake, and 17,443 are missing. After the earthquake occurred, a series of accidents caused by the failure of its cooling system plagued NPP Fukushima-1. The authorities discovered several radiation leaks, forcing them to evacuate people from a 20-kilometre (12.5 mile) exclusion zone around the plant, as well as a ban on flights over the station within a 30-kilometre (19 mile) radius. Later, information surfaced about the discovery in some parts of Japan of radioactive elements, in particular, isotopes of iodine and caesium, in the air, in the sea, and in drinking water, as well as in food.

25 March 2011

Voice of Russia World Service

http://rus.ruvr.ru/2011/03/25/47973910.html

25 March 2011. A Point of Unity… There be Easter Eggs, I’m Told…

Romanian Easter Egg

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Easter Egg made by Croat craftsmen in Sarajevo (Sarajevo Canton) FEDERATION OF BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

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25 March 2011. Gleanings from My Mailbag…

Editor’s Foreword:

Anything in italics is my interlocutor; anything in normal type is me. If you see a politically incorrect expression (or two or three), this is an unexpurgated record of real conversations. Get real… I don’t hate anybody… I do hate evil and I do oppose all who serve it, though.

BMD

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This is ridiculous…a priest shouldn’t be using the laity in his parish or a clergyman in another in this manner. Any layperson has a right to blog online… who does he think he is? His parish is only a little larger than the OCA parish on the other side of town… it’s really small. C’mon, these people are insignificant nobodies in World Orthodoxy or the wider secular world. Frankly, you need to give him a clear online warning à la Burdikoff when the timing is right.

I shall… when the time’s RIGHT. It’s still Lent, ya know. We ARE getting ready for Easter in a month’s time. If he sticks his foot in it again, he’ll get a rude awakening. I think that he’s smarter than Iggy, though… he sees the ship going down and he doesn’t want to do anything that’ll jeopardise his position in a post-OCA/ROCOR world. What a “nice guy”… you have to face them down publicly… then, they slink back into the cesspit that they crawled out of.

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Herman showed up for the Pannikhida (hey, he’s an old-time Hunkie, after all)… JP didn’t… either he’s a boob who refused to go, or, he’s a boob who was barred from the proceedings. Y’know, barring him doesn’t sound too po-nashemu to me, but JP’s a genius at pissing people off. Crank world, ain’t it?

I wasn’t surprised to see Herman there… Metropolitan Nicholas was at the canonisation of St Alexis Toth in ’94 at St Tikhon’s. Let’s see, a few ACROD seminarians studied at STS over the years, too. Everybody knew that Theodosius wouldn’t show though.

You know, JP really made a mistake with that Lenten address in Dallas in ’09 slamming the EP… he wrecked his relationship with the Greeks… they don’t want him around, I guess. Besides, he’s not like a “real” bishop, anyway… there’s something of the “other” about him… he doesn’t fit in. I CAN’T believe Bishop Tikhon didn’t show up for anything… even Bishop Michael showed up today in Perth Amboy, I think… and given the situation with the latter and Nicholas not wanting to give him a canonical release to the OCA, etc… but Tikhon not showing looked very bad… same for JP. Remember JP isn’t “people”, “street”, or “Church” smart… he’s so clueless… he really can’t deal with po-nashemu folks… that’s why he had to move to DC. BTW, Nikolai Soriach graduated from the ACROD seminary in Johnstown… is that why he came… who knows?

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Kliment has been genuinely interested in Alaska since he was a vicar bishop living in NYC, in 1986, I believe, he travelled there with Theodosius on a pilgrimage… he wasn’t even forty at the time. Fr X probably has more of an inkling than many others do of how close to the precipice the OCA and ROCOR are; hence, he’s jumpy. As far as the break-up of the OCA is concerned, I see it breaking into four pieces… with it going to the MP, EP, AOCANA, and a konvertsy schism. This will all depend on the individuals, parishes, and institutions involved… I do see SVS going to the EP, not the MP, or even the AOCANA. If they go to the EP, the Phanar will make it plain to them that they’ll have to fend for themselves financially. I think we might see a last ditch alliance… a troika… of JP, BT, and Nikolai Soraich with Bobby K and his surrogates in the shadows forming to try to save the OCA before the ship goes down… stranger things have happened…

I see that you’ve come to my point of view. BP, JP, Bobby, Lyonyo, Stokoe… all the autocephalist cabal… will come together (too late) to save their project. I agree… SVS will go EP… but they’ll have to cut back salaries and operations to meet the bills… someone will have to go (and they’ll sell some of their property). Will it be Bouteneff… Meyendorff… who knows? Hatfield will go off with the konvertsy schism… as the AOCANA konvertsy may, too. People such as Nelson and Whiteford might join the konvertsy conventicle, too. MP will get the PA Hunkies, NJ/NY (Iggy may jump to the EP), and the ethnics in the Midwest and West. Alaska will be part of the Mother Church proper (KMG will give Alaska to Kliment just to rid himself of Dmitri Banditsky’s brother). Canada may be a separate MP exarchate (the MP has separate bodies for the US and Canada, and inertia always rules). What’ll happen to the AOCANA turncoat Maymon? Could he go with JP, BP, and Hatfield? I think so… Crook world, ain’t it? Pass the jug… we both need it.

You’re right… SVS will go to the EP… it’s only natural, for it’s where ADS came from. Don’t forget… Behr’s a disciple of Sophrony Sakharov {known as Fr So-Phoney in waggish MP circles: editor}, a renegade who quit the MP for the EP.

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Icon of the Deliverance of the Carpatho-Russian coalminers from a mine disaster on St Nicholas Day (19 December) in 1907

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This icon commemorates the Darr mine disaster in Jacobs Creek PA. Doesn’t this icon exemplify, in a very poignant way, Orthodoxy lived in America, yet, properly rooted in the traditional Orthodox ethos? Take good care. This has been one heck of a Great Lent, thus far…

Was this the time that the Russian Orthodox miners were spared because they were at services for St Nicholas Day (19 December… we’ve got to stop the papal calendar)? On the other hand, is it another incident altogether? This wasn’t the icon that I saw, in particular… but that’s OK… it was probably something painted by a local artist. BTW… don’t you agree, icons are “painted”… not “written”… In Russian, we speak of “icon-painters” not “icon-writers”… “written” is konvertsy over-correctness.

I say “painted”, too. 😉 Yes, this icon was in commemoration of what the event you described, sometime in the early 1900s. All Orthodox Churches, at least Slavic ones, were on the Julian calendar back then. Contrast this and JP & Co’s antics in DC. Which is a reflection of an authentic Orthodoxy lived by Orthodox folk in America… JP et al or what’s depicted on this icon? You know the answer!

All Local Churches were on the traditional Orthodox calendar until the early 1920s, when Miletios Metazakis… a Freemason and Ecumenist of the worst sort… rammed it through a local council of the EP. It was an action taken when the Russian Church was down n’ out due to the persecutions. He’s the one who founded the GOAA and broke Orthodox unity in the USA.

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Now, that’s another good statement by Fr Vsevolod! To think how JP, Wood in Moscow, Syosset, SVS, and even STS, act as though he doesn’t exist…

He’s only the closest person to KMG… just as Vladimir Sabodan is the “Power behind the Throne”. The Uniates will regret choosing to install their chieftain in Kiev. As for the people named… they’re all going down for the count… and they know it.

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Note:

1. The disgraced Bishops Nikolai and Herman paid their respects, as did Mel Pleska (the only active OCA bishop that I saw in the photos)
2. JP, Nikon Liolin, Nathaniel Popp, BP, and Tikhon Mollard didn’t pay their respects
3. Kishkovsky, Bobby K, Behr, and Hatfield didn’t pay their respects
4. I didn’t see Matthias Moriak and Michael Dahulich in the photographs either (and they’re both former ACROD)… did I miss them?

I find all of the above curious in the extreme, especially point number four. Why weren’t Dahulich and Moriak in the photos (did I miss something?)? What gives? Both were high-ups in ACROD… are they viewed as “traitors?”

Reply 1:

If you look at the photos taken in Perth Amboy, you see Dahulich in at least three of them, including one by the hearse in front of the Church… although, I think some in ACROD do view him as a “traitor”. As for Moriak… well, maybe, some in ACROD are upset with him, too… interestingly, on the St Gregory of Nyssa parish website (out on the Island), he’s still listed as rector there. I don’t think they’ve assigned another priest… his son is a priest in good standing in ACROD, though. It’s true that Demetrios doesn’t want JP around, but has he made the others personae non gratae as well?

Reply 2:

Actually, Dahulich IS in the photos… he’s on the extreme right on the very first picture, and in others. He was there, and served at the actual funeral. Herman was allowed to do only a Pannikhida, but Theodosius, who lives in the Greater Pittsburgh area, appears to have been a “no show”. I can’t spot Moriak in any of the pictures, though, and that’s odd… after all, he was widely believed to be Nicholas’ hand-picked successor as Bishop. Metropolitan Nicholas sent him to get his MDiv at STS and to Mount Athos for a while. Then, he mysteriously showed up on the ballot for OCA Bishop of the Midwest, and more mysteriously still, got a release from the late Metropolitan, and actually got elected. As for the quality of the pictures, I’m not surprised… they were contributed by parishioners and seminarians. What’s remarkable is that they were up within hours of the events. Again, this only highlights the incompetence of the Matusiaks of the world.

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Here’s a thought… ACROD has one bishop for 10,000 people. The OCA has 20 bishops and one archimandrite scheduled to be consecrated shortly, making 21. 21 x 10,000 = 210,000. Does the OCA have 210,000 people? At the rate they’re going, pretty soon, there’ll be more OCA bishops than there are parishioners in many of the smaller OCA parishes and missions… sounds more and more like a vagante sect, doesn’t it?

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Editor’s Afterword:

A good deal of what happens right on this site is due to my correspondents helping me get things straight… and I’m big enough to admit it. I’m not like Piggy Iggy, who claims that everything’s his idea, he “knows” everything, and he’s “indispensable”. If it weren’t for you guys, I’d be toast… and right quickly, too. God has HIS ways of teaching true humility (and of punishing sinful pride)…

BMD