I received this from a non-OCA source. I don’t have corroboration… it’s what’s out there…
HELLENIC REPUBLIC SACRED DIOCESE OF THESSALIOTIS & PHANARIOPHERSALA METROPOLITAN IEZEKIEL 30, GRâ€431 00 TEL. 24410â€75010. FAX. 24410â€22968 KARDITSA REG. NO. 400 In Karditsa 11 April 2009
To The Elders’ Council of the Holy Monastery of Petra at Kataphygion:
In answer to your document of 11 April 2009, Reg No 19, we make known to you that we approve Section B of the Minutes/11 April 2009 concerning the issuance of a joint Letter of Canonical Release to the brothers of your Monastery, the Very Rev Archimandrite Serapheim and the Rev Hieromonk Symeon (lay name John Kharon), following upon the Letter of His Beatitude Jonah, Archbishop of Washington and New York, for the foundation of Sacred Monasteries therein.
THE METROPOLITAN
(signature)
C Y R I L
of Thessaliotis and Phanariophersala
(seal)
The leader of the Syosset-based Orthodox Church in America resigned and been replaced amidst questions about whether he failed to report to church officials or law enforcement an allegation of a rape by a priest and other sexual-misconduct claims. The church issued a statement saying Metropolitan Jonah, the Archbishop of Washington, submitted his resignation in a letter on 6 July. The letter from Jonah noted the resignation had come at the request of the Holy Synod of Bishops. Jonah didn’t refer to the rape allegation in his letter. Part of the letter to the bishops said he begged “forgiveness for however I have offended you, and for whatever difficulties have arisen from my own inadequacies and mistakes in judgment”. There was no telephone listing for Jonah, who couldn’t be reached for comment on Thursday.
On Monday, the church issued a three-page statement detailing Jonah’s four-year tenure as its leader. It said Jonah failed to report a 2010 rape allegation involving an unidentified priest to authorities when he learned of it last February. The statement said in light of sex abuse scandals involving the Catholic Church and at Penn State University, “the risk of liability to which the Metropolitan has exposed the church can’t be overstated”. It also said Jonah had “repeatedly refused to act with prudence, in concert with his fellow bishops” regarding the church’s standards and procedures regarding sexual misconduct. It said for several years there had been a repeated pattern of Jonah “taking other unilateral actions that were contrary to the advice of the Holy Synod and/or the church’s lawyers”. It added he withheld information from brother bishops and church lawyers “concerning litigation matters, and matters that might have resulted, and still might result, in litigation”. It said he gave unauthorised people a detailed internal church report concerning “numerous investigations into sexual misconduct”, which risked leaking names of accusers and the accused.
Father Eric Tosi, a church spokesman, referred any additional questions to the church statement. There are approximately 80,000 OCA members in more than 800 parishes and institutions in the USA, Canada, and Mexico.
The modern economy is built largely on fraud; it creates money out of thin air. Money’s a token of human labour and of our God-given resources, such as coal, ore, and oil, along with our intelligence, physical labour, culture, and spirituality. However, every company produces its own money in the form of shares, which is passed onto the secondary market, becoming not just simple securities; they are traded and used as items of speculation. If these mere phantasms earn billions, not even backed by labour or real capital, then, how can such an economy exist? Who is going to pay for all of this? Why, the simple worker is going to, who produces the value behind all of this bubble. We need a fair economic system where money and capital are equivalent and are the expression of real work.
Despite all of that, I hope and believe that our great country and its hardworking people will overcome all the adversity now facing us. The Nativity “has shown to the world the light of wisdom”, it’s another reminder of the evangelical admonition that we all need to work together. If we draw upon the ancient traditions of our people, it would help us to build up the ideals of labour, social justice, and brotherhood; it would help us to achieve a decent life, peace, and happiness for each and every one of us.
Keep the above quotes in mind as I speak about Rod Dreher (who’s trying to align our Holy Church with the worst segments of the American Right). Previously, I wrote:
If you wish to know more on our social teaching, click here, here, here, here, and here. There’s no need to go on and on about it. Paffhausen and the konvertsy are wrong; they don’t represent the Church’s teachings accurately. In general, they don’t know the difference between a canon and a cannon. The Church SUPPORTS state healthcare… do look at the image above of HH with the Cuban doctors. You should do likewise… you’ll be in good company.
It’s why I’m so vehement about lying distorters like Dreher. One of the Cabinet sent me this:
Rod D. has referred to those he calls your “sources” as “cranks, loons, and crypto-Cossacks sitting in suburbia” in a recent post on monomakhos.com. Frankly, as one of VFR’s “Cabinet Members”, I take exception to these characterizations. Would you be willing to respond to Rod’s invective on VFR?
Normally, I wouldn’t reply to such drivel… but as Fearless Roddie’s attacking my friends, I stand up for them, no matter what. Most of my personal sources are outside the USA… so, how could they be suburban? Indeed, Sir Roddie just described his sources to a Tee… Freddie M-G, Terrence Mattingly, John Behr, Breck, Ray Velencia, Jillions, Lyonyo, and the whole First Family crowd. Much of my material comes straight off reputable Russian websites such as patriarchia.ru (the official MP website), VOR, RIA, Interfax, and Pravoslavie (the Russian side, edited by Fr Tikhon Shevkunov, VVP‘s confessor)… plus, I read many sources I don’t use because they’re too long for a journalistic endeavour. In fact, one can see from the internal evidence of Roddie’s posts that he not only doesn’t know the Russian sources, he has no interest in knowing them.
Where was Sir Roddie when Mike Regan had to beg in public? Sir Roddie was MISSING. Where was Sir Roddie was Nikon Liolin spat on the Church by kissing up to the Kosovo organ-sellers? Sir Roddie was MISSING. Where was Sir Roddie when Moriak exercised nepotism in his son’s favour? Sir Roddie was MISSING. However, Sir Roddie was there to kiss JP’s bum… he did it more than once, in public, and willingly. Yes, Sir Roddie has the gall to schmooze up to Uniates and laugh at the Mountain because it pleases his SVS pals.
Sir Roddie doesn’t know the first thing about the Church… if he did, he’d know that the Church SUPPORTS state single-payer healthcare! He’d know that HH is friends with LEFTISTS, not rightwing droolers like him. Look at the images posted above. You can believe me, who posts evidence, or you can believe Sir Roddie, who posts none. He thinks that JP and Potapov represent the Church… they do not. Hey, if Rod Dreher (and JP and Potapov) wants to kiss up to Moonies and Mormons, that’s his affair, but don’t drag in Christ’s Church, Roddie… the Church is RED (as in SOCIALIST)… it doesn’t favour godless money-worshipping “libertarians”… as you do.
I wouldn’t reply to this at all, but I’ll say this… he attacked my sources, and he was wrong. Roddie’s attachment to the Republican Party, indeed, proves how far he is from the “Mind of the Church”. If you read HH’s Pro-Life programme, at its heart is an extensive and comprehensive state social welfare scheme. In fact, Roddie, HH called the capitalist economy a fraud, and I got that from patriarchia.ru, VOR, and Interfax. It’s all there in Russian, Roddie. It’s no secret.
In short, YOU are out of step with Christ’s Church… and you have NO right to attack good Orthodox Christians. Why don’t you leave with all the rest of the Monomoron crew? How many of those phoney usernames are yours, Roddie? In any case, the OCA is in its last days, and the Church will be better off when it’s gone. You did something unpardonable, Roddie… you attacked a Russian’s friends, and that isn’t done. We’re not backstabbing zapadniki sludge, sir… put Prokofiev’s Aleksandr Nevsky on and give it a listen… that’s what we are.
******
Arise, O Russian People and The Entry of the Russian Host after the Victory in the Battle on the Ice from Prokofiev’s Aleksandr Nevsky
As I say, I wouldn’t have replied to Roddie, where it not for the fact that he attacked friends of mine (and got it utterly wrong). Roddie knows nothing of the culture, art, literature, history, or weltanschauung of the Orthosphere. He hasn’t listened to Lyapunov, watched Bessmertnova dance, read Valentin Rasputin, tapped his foot along with Okudzhava (Vash Blagorodie, anyone?), looked at the art of Levitan, smiled at Nu Pogodi or Masha i Medved, or know the difference between a Mordvin and an Ossetian. He’s wrenched our religion away from its roots, so, why it surprise you that his expression of the faith is juvenile and without substance? Compare his mockery of the faith with Gennady Zyuganov’s genuine Christianity. There’s no comparison, is there?
I agree with my correspondents (both here and abroad)… the sooner the konvertsy leave us, the better off Christ’s Church will be. They’re Avvakum Petrovs, and you know what he did. God do help us all.
Barbara-Marie Drezhlo
Friday 20 July 2012
Albany NY
Comments Off on 20 July 2012. The Harpoon Sank Home… Dreher Pouts in Public
Getting shot in place of wild game isn’t a prime concern for outdoor vacationers, but local investigators said that’s what happened to three men camping out in Sverdlovsk Oblast. The Oblast SKP said that four men were in a group hanging out near a local forest, but three of them were hit with bullets early on Friday. Without releasing the victims’ names, the SKP said that one of the victims, a high-ranking private security guard, died, whilst the other two had to be rushed to hospital in unspecified condition. Reports say that the shooter, who fled the scene in an off-road vehicle, was some 70 metres away from the picnic when he fired a hunting rifle. The perpetrator possibly mistook the men for boars in the dark, without elaborating on what exactly could prompt the hunter to confuse vacationers with wild swine. Police are looking for the hunter, who faces up to two years in prison for involuntary manslaughter. This wouldn’t be the first instance of such an incident, last September, an elderly poacher in Tyumen Oblast shot his son-in-law dead during a hunting expedition. The victim, seemingly bored of waiting for the game, played a prank on his relative by imitating boar noises, prompting the man to take a wild shot in the dark that hit the target.
Voices from Russia 
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