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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9 April 2016. A Tale of Two Corpses on Life Support… When Shall They Breathe Their Last?

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Things are quiet now … the Ukraine is simply decaying and rotting from within. The army is unfit for anything … the power plants are shutting down … the shops are empty … everyone blames the Uniates and Anglos. The Americans fucked up in a major way… we should lay back on this one and let it develop. It’s like the OCA story… the Syosset apparat is flying apart before our eyes. Yes… something’s happening… shall we have victory this Easter? Shall Syosset and SVS jump for the Phanar (the parishes are another story altogether… a fact that the apparatchiks forgot)? One can only speculate.. but it hasn’t resulted in a real breakdown yet. We have to let these stories develop. It’s why I’m not writing about it or the OCA meltdown… they’re works-in-progress, and highly volatile. That is, both the OCA and the “Ukraine” are heading for the dustbin, but the details are unknown; they’re still hanging on, although the subject is clinically brain-dead in both cases.

Let’s not embarrass ourselves like “Hank Leaf” did on the Orthodox Forum. He wrote that Paffso was pro-Centre! He did! Paffso is a drooling neocon extremist allied with the Blunder, Potapov, and Shevkunov, not the actual power apparat at the Centre. If you remember, when Fatso went to the MDA, the rector refused to meet with him, but did meet with Mollard when Mollard came. The coverage of Paffso on patriarchia.ru was always restrained, unlike Shevkunov’s pravoslavie.ru, but the latter isn’t official, never forget that (it purveys the idiosyncratic views of Shevkunov and his allies in the Vorobyov Mafia). We don’t know yet what’s happening in the OCA, save that the Syosset apparat is trying to pull a fast one, but the power lies in the parishes, not the apparat (as Mollard’s election proved to all comers… Dahulich was the fave of the apparat and SVS). It’s much too confused and in flux for anyone to issue a coherent opinion. “Hank Leaf’s” piece was an utterly preposterous piece of folly that the author should never have posted.

The same is true of any posting on the Ukraine. Everything that I get is contradictory and confusing, save that all sources agree that the junta is floundering and can’t deliver basic goods and services to the people. Simply reflect on the fact that the Americans arrogantly installed foreigners into the junta apparat. It had the usual response… the people don’t have faith in a “government” that sets foreigners to rule over them. “The Ukraine isn’t dead yet”… but it soon shall be, but no one knows the time nor the circumstances of its fall. I only pray that it comes quickly, to spare all the innocents in the notional “Ukraine”.

Let these two stories “ripen”… I fear that the dénouement won’t be long in arriving…

BMD

Update 10 April 2016:

I got this from a Cabinet member:

One small item. Hank didn’t write the piece. He posted it on the Forum, but George Michalopulos wrote it; it originally appeared on Michalopulos’ Monomakhos blog.

There… that sets the record straight… however, it still remains a drivelling piece of rubbish, and the fact that Michalopulos wrote it only reinforces its marginal status.

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

27 January 2016. This is What REAL Bishops Do… Unlike Bone-Idle Slugs Like Alfeyev and Fathausen

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This is Metropolitan Mark Golovkov of Ryazan, the head of one of the Metropolitan Districts of the MP. Note well that he doesn’t consider scrubbing hospital floors beneath him! Quite unlike lazy slugs like Alfeyev and Fathausen, isn’t it? Don’t forget, Fathausen also believed in the heretical Brum Doctrine, which holds that the Metropolitan is a tinpot dictator who can run roughshod over all other bishops and act as an absolute monarch of the Church. Trust me… senior archpriests have told me that this was the main reason that Fatso got the boot… Fatso wanted to rule the Church like a little Hitler, favouring his konvertsy pals and shitting on all others. His “apology” at Mayfield had NOTHING to do with it. Fatso refused to follow Orthodox custom and tradition, he misused Church funds (some sources actually used the word “stole”, but I find that word unwise to use), he named unsuitable candidates to the episcopate, and allowed a suspended priest to sue a priest in good standing. Mayfield, I reiterate, had NOTHING to do with it.

On the other hand, Patriarch Kirill sets good example… he always visits the poor and the sick… he shows open charity… he urges his bishops to do likewise (not orders them, do note). His bishops take the hint, as Metropolitan Mark shows abundantly. Look at the good trees; look at the bad trees. One can see where the good fruit is and where the rotten fruit is. Shitbirds of a feather do flock together… Fatso likes the nutter Kapner. Get your minds right, people. Follow the “wheat” like Patriarch Kirill, not the “chaff” like Fatso and Alfeyev. By the way, there’s no mention on patriarchia.ru of any captiulation to the EP on the Catholic calendar (there was a post on a ROCOR/MP Dixie Fry at the ROCOR cathedral, though). Irresponsible rightwing religious hobbyists are posting shit on the web, yet again. Be careful, the times be evil…

BMD