25 October 2011. Lazar Puhalo Issues Impassioned Defence of Fathausen on You Tube

The Most Holy Mother of God “Stand for Christ with the Martyr’s Cross”

Unknown Artist

undated

Contemporary Russian

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A friend of mine sent me a link to a video that I only watched half-way through, then, I closed it down. It was so ungrounded in reality that it was breathtaking. Puhalo posted it on 16 October, nine days ago; it’s attracted 505 hits in all. Let me repeat that… it’s only attracted 505 hits out of a million Orthodox Christians in the USA over nine days… I got 31,658 hits on VFR last week (over seven days). I seem to think that there’s a slight difference. He actually posted, “A response to the vulger (sic), vindictive internet assualts (sic) on our Metropolitan and the Holy Synod, and other subjects, by anti-Christian bloggers within the Orthodox Church”. He sure told all of us! Now, let’s ask a question… “Who IS Bishop Lazar Puhalo?” Bishops are PUBLIC figures… they aren’t ordinary rank n’ filers such as you and me. Indeed, they claim “moral authority” (which I do NOT, emphatically). Click here for a bio of Lazar Puhalo.

Mirabile dictu! He’s supposedly a “retired bishop”… yet, he NEVER served as a ruling bishop in any legit Local Church. That’s right; he never served as a properly-ordained ruling bishop in any Local Church, nor was he ever a Vicar Bishop in one of the recognised canonical Local Churches. He was a wild n’ woolly GOC, in the so-called Milan Synod, and. later, in the schismatical “Patriarchate of Kiev”. Puhalo’s hot to trot about Fathausen and the OCA because Seraphim Storheim “regularised” him in 2003, making him a “retired bishop” of the OCA… what utter fatuity! Nevertheless, that’s why Puhalo’s screaming about “vulger (sic), vindictive internet assualts (sic) on our Metropolitan and the Holy Synod”. If it wasn’t for Storheim, he’d be out in the cold… he’d still be an oddball schismatic. The article in the link mentions that Puhalo’s the Civil Liaison for the Archdiocese of Canada with the Government of Canada… that means that he’s supposed to keep the Canadian authorities abreast of where Storheim’s located. Is he? Is he flouting that responsibility because he believes his known benefactor to be innocent? These are serious questions; the Church NEVER receives vagante “bishops” as bishops… it accepts them as priests (if it accepts them as clergy at all). That meant that Storheim exceeded his mandate, and that Puhalo’s an illicitly-ordained bishop.

Mind you, I don’t believe that Lazar Puhalo’s a personally evil man. I’ve met him… I know otherwise. This is why konvertsy especially make errors in judgement. They think that if someone’s “nice” and “kind”, that they’re holy… that’s not so. I don’t believe that Lazar Puhalo’s a perv… but he did defend Gleb Podmoshensky. He’s not a man of bad habits, rather, he’s an illustration of prelest embodied. He’s always ploughed his own furrow, and he’s going to end by leaving us, I’m sure. Don’t forget… Avvakum Petrov and Arius seemed personally upright men externally… and they were opponents of Christ and His Church. I don’t find opposing Lazar Puhalo pleasant… I don’t find it easy… yet, if we’re to “Stand for Christ with the Martyr’s Cross”… that’s what you and I must do.

Not all the autocephalist fanatics are morally-compromised… Lazar Puhalo isn’t. Never confuse “morally-compromised” with “prelest”. Many people with looney notions about Our Lord Christ have no obvious personal faults. That’s a fact. You can trust most of them in secular affairs… but you must oppose them in matters of faith. I’m NOT going to give you the link to the vid. If you wish to search for it on You Tube… so be it. It’s not worth your time. As I say, after ten days of posting on this popular site, it’s only attracted a little over 500 hits. This is more sad and pathetic than anything else… and one feels bad in having to oppose such a personally-unobjectionable sort. However… the Church is WHAT IT IS… that’s a sharp lesson that I had to learn the hard way. It isn’t WHAT WE WISH IT TO BE. No, it’s not just the bishops… no, it’s not just the clergy… no, it isn’t even just the visible Church. Yet, the Church has a shape, a form, and a history that we go against at our peril.

In any case, if Lazar Puhalo doesn’t like me, he should see some of the Russian secular reporters (that’s who I model myself on). They got some justice in the Vladimir sex abuse scandal… the Bishop of Vladimir took active steps (or he faced sharp action by the authorities if he didn’t, to be sure). Reportage on the Church isn’t “religious”, nor is it “hagiography”… its journalism… in fact, it’s secular journalism, following all of its rules. That’s why I’m ending this. A good journalist gives themselves “800 words” (more or less) to make a point… if you go on and on, it proves that you don’t know what you’re talking about. Not all our opponents are ogres… don’t be disarmed by “niceness” or “kindness”… don’t be repelled by “vulgarity”. Our Lord Christ wasn’t… he chose fishermen over scholars… ponder that.

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Tuesday 25 October 2011

Albany NY

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Bart Celebrates 20 Years as Ecumenical Patriarch… MP Sends Minor Bishop from the USA as its Representative to the Shindig

Patriarch Bartholomew Archontonis (1940- ) of Constantinople New Rome, First Hierarch of the EP

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On 21 October 2011, in Istanbul, the archons of the Order of St Andrew hosted a gala reception honouring the twentieth anniversary of the election of His Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew to the Patriarchal throne of Constantinople. The reception was attended by His Holiness and Beatitude Ilya Ghudushauri-Shiolashvili, Catholicos-Patriarch of all Georgia, His Holiness Irinej Gavrilović, Patriarch of all Serbia (who was on an official visit to the Local Church of Constantinople), and His Beatitude Anastasios Yannoulatos, Archbishop of all Albania, along with bishops, clergy, and laity from the Local Orthodox Churches. Archbishop Yustinian Ovchinnikov of Naro-Fominsk, Administrator of the Patriarchal Parishes in the United States, represented the MP. A V Erkhov, Consul General of the Russian Federation in Istanbul, E V Yaremenko, Consul General of the Ukraine in Istanbul, F Ksidas, Greek Ambassador to Turkey, Francis J Ricciardone, Jr, US Ambassador to Turkey, and other members of the diplomatic corps also attended the reception.

On behalf of the organisers of the reception, Anthony Limberakis, the National Commander of the Order of St Andrew in the United States, referred to His Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew by saying that over twenty years of service to the Patriarchal Church of Constantinople, he achieved success in areas such as inter-Orthodox cooperation, peacekeeping, and strengthened relationships with different Christian confessions and other faiths; he also highlighted Patriarch Bartholomew’s environmental initiatives. Congratulatory addresses from Turkish President Abdullah Gül, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, US President Barack Obama, and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were read out during the course of the reception. Congratulating His Holiness on this auspicious occasion, Archbishop Demetrios Trakatellis of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America (Ecumenical Patriarchate), paid special attention to Patriarch Bartholomew’s contributions to the resumption of the process of preparation of a Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church. In reply to the congratulations, His Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew gave thanks to God for the joys and sorrows that fell upon his patriarchal ministry, and confided that he’d continue his ministry, “without ceasing, throughout the morning, day, and evening, until midnight, pouring oil into the vigil lamp for the sake of Orthodoxy”.

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Here are the two original images for these posts in all of their low-res glory

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On 22 October 2011, a Divine Liturgy honouring the 20th anniversary of the accession of Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople was held at the Patriarchal Church of St George in the Phanar, the main celebrant of the liturgy was Archimandrite Athenagoras of the Great Ecumenical Throne. His Holiness Bartholomew Archontonis of Constantinople New Rome, His Holiness and Beatitude Ilia Ghudushauri-Shiolashvili, Catholicos-Patriarch of all Georgia, His Holiness Irinej Gavrilović, Patriarch of all Serbia, and His Beatitude Anastasios Yannoulatos, Archbishop of all Albania, along with bishops, clergy, and laity from the Local Orthodox Churches attended the service. Archbishop Yustinian Ovchinnikov of Naro-Fominsk, Administrator of the Patriarchal Parishes in the United States, represented the MP. After the liturgy, Metropolitan Constantine of Nicaea offered greetings to Patriarch Bartholomew on behalf of the hierarchy, clergy. Following that, Patriarch Bartholomew His Holiness Ilya, Catholicos-Patriarch of all Georgia, who responded by saying that Bartholomew was a worthy successor to the tradition of his great predecessors in the office, such as Ss Gregory the Theologian, John Chrysostom, Photios the Great, and others. Patriarch Ilya also noted the efforts of Patriarch Bartholomew to strengthen inter-Orthodox unity and friendly relations between the EP and the Local Church of Georgia. Archbishop Yustinian Ovchinnikov of Naro-Fominsk read a congratulatory letter from His Holiness Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev of Moscow and all the Russias to Patriarch Bartholomew marking the twentieth anniversary of his accession to the throne of Constantinople, and gave Bartholomew and a token of the event, an inscribed panagia.

In turn, in reply to these greetings, Patriarch Bartholomew thanked the speakers for their warm regards, and noted that on 13 August of this year he marked the fiftieth anniversary of his ordination as a deacon, which occurred at his native place, the island of Imbros. He also reflected about his years of study at the Theological School of Halki and its significance for the whole of his subsequent life. Patriarch Bartholomew noted that these words of the Saviour guided his life… For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister (The Gospel according to St Mark 10.45). Bartholomew also thanked His Holiness Patriarch Irinej of Serbia for coming on an official visit, and he asked all present to support and prayers for the Holy Local Church of Constantinople. Afterwards, there was a dinner at the Bayti Restaurant in Istanbul in honour of Patriarch Bartholomew, which Archbishop Yustinian Ovchinnikov of Naro-Fominsk attended representing the MP. That same evening, in the Hilton Hotel, there was a reception in honour of His Holiness Patriarch Irinej of all Serbia, as a part of his official visit to the Local Church of Constantinople. At the end of the festivities, Archbishop Yustinian departed for Moscow.

22-23 October 2011

Patriarchia.ru

MP Official Website

http://www.patriarchia.ru/db/text/1654235.html

http://www.patriarchia.ru/db/text/1654318.html

NB:

Both of the above posts came from the DECR Press Service, the Blunder’s establishment in Bolshaya Ordynka, not the official all-MP Information Service headed by Vlad Legoida.

Editor’s Note:

Firstly, the OCA wasn’t invited at all to this Dixie Fry. The note here on oca.org is pure BS… Lyonyo doesn’t want you to ask any questions, so, he didn’t give Lil’ Mizz Ginny any details to post. She, being a subservient little organ-grinder monkey didn’t question him and posted exactly what he gave her. Well, you read about it here first… again. Do notice the OCA had no delegation there… the posted greeting was “too little, too late”. Lyonyo knew of this from GOAA sources at least six months to a year ago. He had PLENTY of time to get something up at the right moment (by 21 October, at the latest). This was two days late… “A few days late and half a pound short”. I’m told that Fathausen’s persona non grata at the Phanar (after his loud badmouthing of the Greeks in ‘09)… so is Lyonyo. The external affairs of the OCA are going from bad to worse… the “last stand hard core” of supporters for the OCA is the Blunder’s aspirantura in Bolshaya Ordynka.

Now is a good time to address the unusual attraction that the Blunder has for superficial people. The guy’s photogenic, has “gee, shucks” good looks, a mellifluous voice, and tremendous presence preaching. He looks and sounds “churchly” and “holy”. What’s wrong with that? You could say the same of Panteleimon Metropoluos, Sam Greene, Dmitri Royster, Aleksandr Schmemann, and Gleb Podmoshensky. They all had charisma… they were all nutters, and some of them were pervs, in one way or another. Yet, they all attracted crowds of the undiscerning with their “holy” exteriors. You CAN NOT tell a person’s holiness by how they look, sound, or preach. NO WAY, NO HOW. The only way to find out whether someone’s actually holy is to observe them over a long period of years, preferably at least twenty. Withhold judgement. Take your time… look at their whole life. Above all, don’t be buffaloed by the loud konvertsy set… they’re still playing with mud pies in the sand box, but they think that they can toss about the Fathers and Canons as if they were confetti at a ticker-tape parade. Bozhe moi! God, do spare me! The older I get, the less that I KNOW… anyone my age will tell you, “I knew it all at 21, and I only became a decent human being when I unlearned 99 percent of it”.

So… the Blunder’s pretty… but he fucked up royally in England during the Osborne Affair and the der Spiegel guys cut him a new one in their interview of him (everyone in the Rodina read it and discussed it). Of course, there’s his routine kowtowing before the Pope of Rome… do note that none of the visits that the Blunder predicted ever came off. Most of the time, Fr Vsevolod Chaplin has to come out and pour ice-water on the Blunder’s predictions (“His Holiness and the Pope are going to meet in Antarctica on a floating ice floe”… Charlie actually said that once and Interfax printed it). However, it all comes back to the fact that most OCA members are myopic… and the SVS/Syosset cabal restricting and censoring the “outside” news doesn’t help that one bit. Yet again, reality shows the OCA to be a “will o’ the wisp”… but most of the konvertsy not only don’t know it, they’re offended if you point it up to them. In any case, I believe that the OCA’s heading for the rubbish tip of history… it can’t happen soon enough for me (I’m sorry for all the people brutalised by the cabal over the years)…

Oh… the MP did NOT send either the Blunder or Archbishop Mark to this love feast (there was NOTHING major in the homeland to tie either of them up). That’s noteworthy (draw your own conclusions, kids… I think that they’re that obvious). They only sent a minor flunky, the bishop in the USA, to it… do note that he was on his way to the Centre. I wonder if KMG talked to him about the upcoming OCA Sobor? Perspirin’ minds wanna know…

BMD

A View from Moscow by Valentin Zorin… Only the Beginning

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Washington political pundits are busy; they’re looking for an answer to the question why none of them anticipated the sudden explosion of social protest shaking America these days. It’d be useful and clarify the situation if we paid particular attention to a report just published by the US Census Bureau. This report provided us with data rarely found in official government documents. In fact, it was sensational information. Without exaggeration, the dry figures stated that more than 15 percent of the population lives below the poverty line. To make that figure more comprehensible, it turns out that, today, poverty stalks a little over 46 million Americans. Economics professor Lawrence Katz of Harvard University wrote in the New York Times, “We’ve lost a decade. We thought that America was a place where each generation lived better than the last one. However, today, we see that the typical American family is noticeably worse off than it was at the end of the ‘90s”. It wasn’t accidental that Professor Katz chose to use the term “typical family”. Of course, he knows perfectly well that, despite the crisis, the fortunes of the most privileged and the size of American business grew to record amounts in American history. In no small measure, these facts give us a clue as to why the streets of American cities these days are full of people who don’t accept the contemporary state of affairs in America.

It would be simplistic to reduce this situation only to being a problem of the poor and hungry. It’s rather more complicated than that. People are disappointed in their politicians and political system. They see that politicians are divorced from the needs and problems of society; they see foreign policy failures, with a humiliating military defeat in Iraq, and clear signs of a stalemate in Afghanistan. An influx of illegal migrants exacerbates racial tensions, and a number of other noteworthy circumstances significantly affect the deterioration in America’s public mood. Nevertheless, the problem of poverty, and the loss of traditional American hopes for a better future, I think, rank amongst the main reasons for the public outrage exploding on the streets of American cities. Indeed, they might be the principal catalysts sparking off that outrage. The increasing tempo of the 2012 US Presidential election campaign just exacerbates this critical problem. Recently, Hillary Clinton said, “Our domestic economy will become the fundamental and crucial theme in the upcoming election, since one of the main effects of the economic crisis was a rise in unemployment”.

The leaders of both so-far-unchallenged ruling parties in American politics are aware that what happens now could decide the outcome of the struggle for the White House and the control of Congress. Connoisseurs of “inside the Beltway” Washington, apparently, not without reason, believe that Obama’s proposal to raise taxes on Americans who earn over a million dollars a year has become the trump card of his re-election campaign. If you can’t feed all the hungry, the leaders of the Democratic Party think that this move might assuage popular anger. Unfortunately, the fly in the ointment is that Obama’s team hasn’t overcome resistance from leading GOP elements to this initiative. The Republican majority in the House of Representatives defeated his attempt to overturn the Bush tax breaks for the wealthy. Soon, it’ll become evident if current events will alter the current position of the die-hard defenders of the “fat cats”. However, the conundrum caused by millions suffering in poverty, whilst a few enjoy unjust and disproportionate wealth, has obviously become the focal-point of political life in the contemporary United States. It seems that the mass discontent splashing out these days on the streets of American cities is just the beginning.

19 October 2011

Valentin Zorin

Voice of Russia World Service

http://rus.ruvr.ru/2011/10/19/58973091.html

 

25 October 2011. Video. Some of My Favourite Things… Valery Leontiev… He’s SO ‘80s… But He’s So Much FUN!

Valery Leontiev (1949- ), Russian mega pop star… he’s a ton o’ fun… and a People’s Artist of Russia. Imagine that!

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Here’s a fun nonsense song, Hafanana… just sit back and smile.

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Here’s a fun song, Kazanova, with English sub-captions. Enable the English-language captions by clicking on the “cc” button on the right-hand bottom side of the vid screen. The lyrics are also translated in the notes under the vid.

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This song’s serious… it’s called Confession. You can get sub-captions in the same way that you did on the previous vid. As above, the lyrics are also translated in the notes under the vid.

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Remember, happiness is the best revenge. Don’t EVER go about with a face like “a misery guts three feet long”… then, they WIN. Flip ‘em the bird and SMILE. Pass me the jug… the world’s still the same crank ol’ crazy place. Don’t let ‘em get to ya… live life to the fullest! Anyway… the Good Lord is with ya… NEVER forget THAT.

BMD