3 October 2011. WHY We Must Oppose the Konvertsy and ALL Their Works

We can quote the Canons and the Fathers… ain’t that SPECIAL…

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Today, the entire “Establishment” is a clueless and hopeless blob of self-interested craven opportunism. Even the arty fringe… the people who pretend to be an avant-garde… are nothing but narcissistic self-branding operations masquerading as culture leaders. Of course, it’s cosmically ironic that the same generation of Boomer-hippies that ran in the streets and marched through the maze of service roads around the Pentagon has become a new “Establishment” more obtuse, feckless, greedy, and mendacious than the one they battled with over 40 years ago. I guess they just don’t see that their time has come to “get right” with reality… or get shoved aside and trampled.

James Kunstler

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This is a bit more “free-form” and “stream-of-consciousness” than the usual post… just a warning…

In both politics and the Church, we face squalling children who want to pull down the structures of the ages in order to empower (and enrich) themselves. In politics, the extreme rightwing (Limbaugh, Koch brothers, Rand Paul, et al) embodies such juvenile truculence; in the Church, we find it amongst the formerly-Anglican and “Evangelical” konvertsy. Therefore, why should it surprise you that most konvertsy also trumpet rightwing shibboleths and promote rightwing fantasies such as the Manhattan Declaration? Despite all their screams of “conservatism”, these factions are “Radical” in the European sense… they’re against hierarchy, authority, and tradition (as their basis is in the bourgeoisie, they can’t be “conservative”… no mercantile-based ideology can be). Mind you, they scream much about all three. Yet, trust me… they’d not be accounted conservatives by the standards of Burke, TR, Bismarck, Stolypin, or Tsar Aleksandr Aleksandrovich. Furthermore, Ike, Dief, Rocky, Macdonald, and Abe Lincoln (who wanted to free the slaves, thusly interfering in a “capitalistic investment”) would’ve disowned them in a second.

We see this incarnated in the Legion of Christ and Opus Dei amongst the Catholics. They’re secretive, evasive, abusive, and protective of predators. That DOES sound familiar, doesn’t it? It sounds a lot like Paffhausen and his crew of scurvy apologists… do note that JP won’t “come clean” on his relationship with Podmoshensky (don’t forget, Freddie M-G and Dreher have direct and personal ties to Platina, too). Today, the entire “Establishment” is a clueless and hopeless blob of self-interested craven opportunism. Amen, amen, amen! Do note that the konvertsy support predatory clergy whilst screaming for the blood of homosexuals at the same time.

I don’t believe that the konvertsy left Anglicanism for the reasons that they give… friends in the TEC tell me that they’re simply rightwing disgrunts who lost a battle for control in their church, full stop. Why did we take such amongst us? Isn’t it obvious that any fish caught in troubled waters are likely to be toxic? Look at Reardon and Freeman… I rest my case. St Pavel Florensky (crossing myself and rolling my eyes at the same time)! That’s absolutely barmy and crackbrained. Even Mitrofanov won’t go as far, and he’s one of the Blunder’s aspirantura in Bolshaya Ordynka.

To show this in another light, a friend of mine wrote me:

Is [Love BT] crazy? He’s bloviating on the Monahakos Blog that there was no evidence of sexual abuse at Holy Trinity Cathedral in San Francisco after someone said he blew the investigation… is he mad or bad? The Sobor is turning into a political event… the OCA is imploding, and the converts are worried about gays. Buttons with Metropolitan Jonas on them? This is getting sick

One can only repeat, Today, the entire “Establishment” is a clueless and hopeless blob of self-interested craven opportunism. Don’t excuse it because BT’s “mentally disturbed”… he isn’t… he’s bad. We’ve all made mistakes… we’ve all done things that hurt others. However, it’s usually been in the context of family life, so, the damage has been limited. I’m NOT excusing it… certainly not in my own case, at least (I’ve been a rotter more than once, to be truthful… as have all of us). Yet, there IS a difference when a larger group is involved. “Quantity has a quality all its own”, as Stalin’s reputed to have quipped. More than one child was involved and the venue was a public church… that changes it from a private tragedy to an item of public interest (some “private tragedies” are also abuse, so, they’re against the law… the courts should deal with those). He wants to conceal his complicity in this… and his support of Nikolai Soraich, his former Chancellor (surely, he can’t claim that he was unaware of Soraich’s reputed tastes?). No one dare call it “self-interested craven opportunism”. Don’t drag in “mental illness” when “sin” will turn the trick well enough.

Keep the FACTS in mind. Eric Iliff brought suit… he “committed suicide”… Kristi Koumentakos brought suit… OCA clergy savaged her family and Lebedeff brutalised and savaged her on the OF along with Michael Reagan. Is Love BT going to protest this? NO… a thousand times, no.

These people are up to their usual old tricks. Do you want this to continue? Do think well upon that…

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Monday 3 October 2011

Albany NY 

Fr Vsevolod Chaplin: Russia has Fifty Years to Prevent its Collapse

Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin (1968- ), the head of the MP Department for Church and Society

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Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, the head of the MP Department for Church and Society, believes that Russian society will perish if it doesn’t undergo a spiritual transformation, saying in an interview with the Russian edition of Rolling Stone, “Our society needs a moral revolution, or, if you prefer to put it so, a counter-revolution. Without such, our society won’t make it; instead, our society will sink deeper. I’d say that we have a period of fifty years for Russia to make such a moral revolution, or, we’ll finally pass the point of no return and die“. He considers it an “either/or” situation, “either we become morally a quite different society, or we simply won’t exist”.

Fr Vsevolod related his first meeting with Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev of Moscow and all the Russias in 1986, when Kirill was Archbishop of Smolensk and Vyazma. Fr Vsevolod recalled, “He’d just been transferred to Smolensk. I was very impressed to have a chance to talk with him, especially because I had studied the life of his spiritual mentor Metropolitan Nikodim, and as I was going to write something about [Nikodim], I wanted ask Archbishop Kirill what his thoughts were concerning Metropolitan Nikodim and his legacy for the future of the Church. When I visited him, it was at a low point in his career, I spent some time talking with him and hung around as he performed the usual round of services. In general, he was like a young lion locked up in a cage, full of ideas, plans, and hopes. He was confident that he’d be able to carry them all out, whilst everyone else mocked him”. He went on to say that Church circles in Moscow “were glad [at his discomfiture], they said, ‘This presumptuous upstart has finally been rusticated, let him rot’. Government circles were even happier, they said, ‘His activism’s over; let him vegetate in Smolensk’”.

Fr Vsevolod also gave his opinion concerning the contemporary debate about the place of the Church in society, saying, “It isn’t as heated as it was in the nineties. Then, the attitude towards the Church was ninety percent negative… that isn’t the case today. There was a time when we had to give thirty interviews a day. As for today, it’s just not as heated. This is as we expected, so neither I nor the Church as whole want to mess with it, as the old Soviet attitudes are gradually dying out, including the Soviet model of the place of religion in society”. He explained that he had in mind the idea that “the Church’s place is only within the gates of the parish”. Fr Vsevolod concluded by saying, “The Church belongs everywhere”.

3 October 2011

Interfax-Religion

http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=42465

Editor’s Note:

Fr Vsevolod sees Classical Liberalism as the greatest danger to the Church. That is, he opposes what passes for “Conservatism” in Anglosphere countries. Classical Liberals (“conservatives”) demand the destruction of the social safety net and the shredding of government regulation in favour of an unchecked and untrammelled “Free Market”, along with societal anarchy and “freedom” (as typified by Radical American Sectarians)… THAT is what the Church opposes when it opposes “Liberalism”. It does NOT oppose Social Justice, Socialism, or fair treatment of minorities/helpless individuals. In short, Fr Vsevolod is saying that Russia must turn away from American-style consumerism, plutocracy, and rightwing deregulation… if it doesn’t… it’ll die.

If that’s true of Russia, it’s true of America, as well. Think on that one well…

BMD 

3 October 2011. Some of My Favourite Things… Concerts by the Pyatnitsky Russian Folk Choir

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Here’s a concert under Church auspices…

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Here’s a concert put on by the KPRF…

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This group needs no introduction… the Pyatnitsky Russian Folk Choir is one of the most famous choral ensembles in the world. Here’s a one-hour concert from the Культура (Kultura: Culture) TV channel in Russia and an one-hour KPRF event. The venue for the Church concert is the hall of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour… this proves that this choir sings at both KPRF and Church events and sees no contradiction in it. That shouldn’t surprise you… both the Party and Church learned from the mistakes of the Sov era. Both Party and Church believe in Social Justice… NOT the Free Market or Neoliberal greed. Most contemporary Communists are believers… most contemporary believers (including His Holiness) are sympathetic to a revival of the Soviet Union under non-atheistic auspices.

The honoured dead of the Repressions and VOV did NOT die in vain…

The Cross and the Red Banner are not only not in opposition… they stand for the SAME things… ponder that.

NB:

There’s some spoken portions, but they’re short… less than four minutes.

BMD

2 October 2011. Back to the Future! The Central Assessment for the Metropolia in 1950 was ONE DOLLAR PER WORKING PERSON… What happened?

Look at the old chart above… someone kindly sent it on to me. There are still a lot of old-timers left who remember the Metropolia days. Of course, there’s been inflation in our money since 1950… but it sure wasn’t a 10,500 percent increase! The 105 USD per person assessment (the current OCA Central Annual Assessment (CAA)) in 2011 is considerably more money than 1.00 USD per person in 1950. Look at the following table on gold prices (that’s a good take on actual inflation):

Year	Gold Price: USD/troy ounce
1970	37
1975	140
1980	590
1985	327
1990	391
1995	387
2000	273
2005	513
2010	1,410
1970 to 2010 net change as a percentage
	+3,792

This means that 1.00 USD in 1970 is worth 38 USD in today’s baloney dollars. I’d say that the most that 1.00 USD/1950 would be worth today is 50 USD. That’s to say, the CAA has increased a little over twice as much as inflation would have it. Yet, we have to add in another factor…  in 1950, 25 percent of the CAA went for clergy pensions. Today, parishes have to pay for their priests’ pensions in addition to their per capita CAA. Thus, there hasn’t been a 10,500 percent increase in the costs covered by the CAA; there’s been a 14,000 percent increase in the CAA, when there’s been a 5,000 percent increase in the general price level, meaning that the CAA has outstripped inflation by a factor of 2.8. None dare call it legal fees and “confidential settlements!” in short, its creative accounting of the most noisome and malodorous sort… I can smell the “cooked books” from here. Valerie Ringa CAN’T explain this one away, can she?

That’s not all… the Griswold Estate in Westwood (some wits called it “Pishtey’s Folly”) wasn’t acquired by the Metropolia until 1957. Eventually, all central administrative operations went there and it became what we now know as the “OCA Chancery” (or in metonymy, “Syosset”). Don’t forget, Alexander Warnecke had his greasy hand in this, just as he did with the purchase of the old St Vincent’s ha-ha hotel (de-institutionalisation emptied most of it and the shrinks moved to Harrison) for SVS (one wonders how much of the money stuck to his greedy fingers). Now, in 2011, the OCA can’t afford to maintain Westwood, support the First Hierarch, and make the Chancery payroll… it’s simple… even with a 280 percent real increase in the CAA (adjusted for inflation).

Do notice that the vast majority of po-nashemu folk… clergy and laity alike… aren’t attending the upcoming Sobor. This is barmy… if they don’t attend… even at the last minute… they could hand over the Sobor to the konvertsy toddlers. It would be a religious version of what happened in 2010… people stayed home from voting in the mid-term election to “send Obama a message”. All that it did was that the rightwing kooks DID vote, electing extremist slimers, and our country received grievous wounds to its social safety net as a result (at a time of raging depression, no less). No doubt, things will be set partially right in the next election, but the damage’s been done. Thousands are now suffering to enrich pill-popping pigs like Rush Limbaugh (who moved to Florida because of its laxer laws regarding prescription drug abuse) and Ayn Rand worshipping extremists such as Paul Ryan and Rand Paul.

In 1950, the Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church of America (Metropolia) was much larger than today’s Orthodox Church in America… perhaps, there was a quarter of a million people in it. It was over twice the size of the present OCA. The loss was due ENTIRELY to the lunatic and crackbrained policies put in place by Aleksandr Schmemann and Ivan von Meyendorff. Interesting… the konvertsy worship these two and won’t let anyone criticise them. The konvertsy would destroy the Church as we know it if they felt that they had a chance to implement their chuckle-headed nostrums.

Do you want a REAL Church? Are you going to let the konvertsy steal it from us? Think on that…

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Sunday 2 October 2011

Albany NY