10 November 2017. Whither Thou Goest, ROCOR?

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I wrote the following to a clergyman I consider a friend:

However, [the ROCOR Synod] dances to Potapov’s tune because he has money. Apparently, Langley wants to revive the old CIA-ROCOR alliance. This time, the people won’t have it. There’ll be those who’ll remain loyal to Ilarion and his Synod (I don’t see him losing Australia), but that won’t be due to Langley money, most will simply be Brother Junipers. However, most of our people are post-Sov emigres, not anti-Red DPs or ex-White elements (most of those are gone outside the Golden 400). Indeed, both the KPRF and CPUSA not only allow believers, they DEFEND them (one of the critics of Matilda was from the Moscow KPRF Gorkom… she said that no one has the right to offend believers).

We live in a new world where the verities of the 60s, 70s, and 80s are gone forever. We live on the “new shore”… where Reds and believers not only coexist but are one and the same… the old shibboleths are gone… for good. Remember… Nikodim Rotov was once a demonic figure to most of us, but most of us now know that he did his best to preserve the Church under harsh conditions. We have a seemingly-new Church that’s really the old Church. We find that all our Russian legacies… Old Russia, Moskovy, Imperial Russia, and the USSR… must live together or we have no legacy at all. If we try to cut anything off, we’d do what Stolypin warned us against (“If you cut off one of our Russian eagle’s heads, it’ll only make him bleed to death”). It may sound odd, but Marxism, tsarism, and Christianity are converging. I know that you may not agree with me totally, but I know that you are a fellow traveller of good heart, and that suffices for me. Have patience and keep good cheer. You do have a friend, here…

I removed all tell-tales that might hint at the identity of my interlocutor. The ROCOR is in serious straits indeed. The episcopate is isolated from the people and doesn’t seem to realise that times have changed and that the old ways and old expressions no longer work. The people are post-Soviet, so they ignore all diatribes against I V Stalin. The ROCOR is now mostly former-Sov émigrés, so the former anti-communist shibboleths no longer have traction. If the ROCOR Holy Synod continues on its present course, it’ll lose many parishes to the direct jurisdiction of Moscow. In fact, in Geneva, elements in the ROCOR Synod threatened to boot out clergy unless they signed a questionable document expelling a pious couple. Some feel that Metropolitan Ilarion Kapral is too lenient and not up to it. If things continue as they are, much of the present ROCOR may go under Moscow because of sheer incompetence. By the way, Paffhausen now weighs about 400 pounds (@180 kilos)… he’s ballooned since the OCA got rid of him. It’s ultra-obesity… a real tragedy.

No one knows how this play will end. However, it’ll be “interesting”, and we all know what that Chinese idiom really means…

BMD

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1 October 2017. These are the People that the ROCOR Labelled “Murderers”… I Find that Offensive and Mendacious

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Recently, the ROCOR issued an official statement (posted on their official website, with the signature of Metropolitan Ilarion Kapral) calling communists “murderers”. This caused much uproar in Russia amongst believers, as well as it should. In the Donbass, in the Peoples Republics today, one sees a vibrant and inspiring coming-together of socialism and Orthodoxy. The Orthodox patriots embrace socialism and find it GOOD. Note well that the ROCOR statement would label these people “murderers”, for they honour the Soviet legacy. People such as Victor Potapov were paid employees of the CIA; they worked to enable its hateful agenda against the Rodina. The ROCOR hasn’t lived down its filthy collaboration with the CIA (they’ve never asked forgiveness for having aided the godless American postwar global project)… they received its blood-money… Fr Alexander Lebedeff admitted that in public. Yes… the ROCOR had more than one “Chekist in a riassa” (clergy who worked for the Western special services) and more than one Sergianist (clergy who sold out Christ’s Church to pander to one political faction or another). It has no warrant whatsoever to label communists (and by implication all leftists) as “murderers”. It helped the CIA (as did elements of the OCA, too… A D Schmemann worked for Langley, too)… which has a long history of murder, mayhem, and viciousness. If the communists are “murderers”, so is the ROCOR… for it took the money of killers and helped to enable the killers’ agenda. The blood of innocents is on their hands, too…

Have a care… we live in perilous times. Some want to ally the Church with godless American neo-imperialism. Shall they succeed? God willing, no…

BMD

13 February 2016. A Word or Two on the Brouhaha Surrounding the “Catholic Church of the East”

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Firstly, there’s no official “word” out on this yet. NONE. Ergo, none of the internet Sturm und Drang has any actual backing in the real world. That goes for that Uniate poseur “Josephus Flavius”, too (there’s no “Eastern Church”… that’s a damnable heresy)… he has no real information. He has no more than I do… that is, word from OCA and ROCOR clergy on unpublicised chancery doings. The word “out there” is that the ROCOR suspended the so-called “Archbishop” Ramzi, who became the canonically ordained Hieromonk Elias, as for unknown reasons he still referred to himself as a bishop. I think it was a nice idea to want to bring in 60 parishes, but I don’t think it’s clear that they had intent to be Orthodox. Why do we keep accepting groups that insist on doing their own thing? It seems that Hilarion Kapral is too nice and accepting of people; he needs to learn to say “no” sometimes. It seems that we didn’t learn from the Blanco TX (Christ of the Hills Monastery) and other Western Rite fiascos, nor from those crazy nuns in DC.

One of my sources sent me this (from the ROCOR Western Rite FB Page):

These communities are under the oversight of Metropolitan Hilarion and Metropolitan Jonah as they make their conversion and transition to Holy Orthodoxy.

So, Paffso rides again… but I reiterate… there’s no OFFICIAL word yet. NONE. NONE WHATSOEVER. There’s NOTHING out of the ROCOR Holy Synod nor from any other official source. Just because a Uniate blogger is out there shouting away doesn’t bind the ROCOR Holy Synod. Let’s wait for the official word from the Church. So far, there’s none… be patient… don’t let loudmouth Uniates colour your opinion (what I do know from clergy sources is that there’s no final word on the situation as of now). There WILL be a definite dénouement for this…

BMD

3 January 2016. Cabinet Vox Pop on “Brother Nathanael”

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I got this from a well-regarded senior lay source:

Regarding your post on “Brother Nathanael”, I’m astounded to read that he has any connection with any canonical Orthodox diocese. By accident, I came across several of his YouTube rants and always assumed that he was a total impostor pretending to be an Orthodox monk, and could just as easily have claimed to be the Pope of Rome. He comes across as having an obsession with the Jews, and various Middle Eastern sources, possibly even Islamic, quoted him favourably as sharing their disdain for Jewish people. This is bad for the Orthodox Church if a bishop officially recognises him as authentically Orthodox. Not to my knowledge has he mentioned what monastery he actually abides in, and how is he not under ecclesiastical supervision regarding self-glorification by promoting himself in mass media?

I need add nothing. Vladyki Hilarion brought disgrace upon the Church by his (albeit vague and tepid) approval of this jabronie. I’ll speak the truth to power, if necessary… Vladyki Hilarion, be clearer… CONDEMN Nathanael’s rants or people will think that you approve of them…

BMD