20 May 2012. Gleanings From My Mailbag…

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Editor’s Foreword:

I’m in plain type; my interlocutors are in italics.

BMD

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General definition of treating someone as a “mushroom”: Keeping someone in the dark and feeding them shit.

It’s a legacy of Stokoe’s Syosset days as a minor apparatchik. I’ve found him cold and calculating. I’ll speak up if Moriak tries to screw him, but I’ve no liking for him at all. He wants to get back in Syosset along with his gang, re-establish what he sees as the salad days of the OCA, and he’s a Renovationist nutter. Yet… as I say, I won’t be silent if they try to attack him. That’s clear. Sometimes you have to speak up for bastards… that’s the way of it. Fair is fair. I don’t like him and find him untrustworthy in the extreme (he’d betray anybody if he felt that it was to his advantage). Yes… he’s an ally… but one that bears constant watching. That’s what my grey hairs tell me…

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We’ve got to stick together… and realise that people are what they are, and they’re NOT going to change. You don’t have to agree with someone totally to work with them amicably (and even be friends!)… that’s obvious. That being said, though, Mark’s slippery… he’s the sort that USES people. Have a care in his presence… please…

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You have to understand that they’ve grown up in an environment suffused with secrecy and émigré politics. That’s led them to associate with rightwing nutters in the West, and all such sorts are “conspiracy theorists”. There are NO conspiracies… there are only associations of like-minded individuals. In any case, the powers-that-be smile at such lunacies… if people are chasing chimeras, they’re not making trouble for the First Families.

What worries me more are the paranoid conspiracy theorists in the OCA. When you think what they did to the Serbs by welcoming the Albanians! Kishkovsky may be the only brains left in the OCA… that’s saying something!

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I’ve seen the so-called “American Orthodox” trumpeting their attacks on Patriarch Kirill all over the internet. It’s merely thinly-disguised Russophobia hitched to the “mean machine” of rightwing extremism. I have a deep fondness and respect for Russia and for the Russian people, and I concur with Ilya Glazunov, “A Russian is anyone who loves Russia”. I stand with the MP and against the hypocrites of the West.

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“You can’t go home again”… although I wish that we could turn the hands of the clock back to 1980 and defeat Slobberin’ Ronnie. I fear that we’re going to pay a hard price for the affluent effluent’s greed. The ‘50s were a time of a fairer distribution… that’s all that there’s to say on the matter. It’s gone… not only this, but also the days of Captain Alexander at Jordanville and Metropolitan Leonty at St T’s. Nevertheless, we MUST look forward, not backwards, and FIGHT. That’s our duty…

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We’re on the same page… identical? NO! That’s NEVER the case. As for me, I realise it’ll take three generations to put the Church here to rights. Healing is SLOW. VERY SLOW. I fell and hurt my shoulder a couple years back, and it took a year to knit together just right. I followed my doctor’s orders and took my meds. As I did so, it allowed my body to heal itself. Now, it’s as good as new… but it took a whole year. Institutions are much more “unforgiving”… there’s such a thing as “corporate memory”, and it takes a long time to heal that. The generation that witnessed the abomination has to pass on before the healing’s over. That’s the way it is…

A friend wrote to me saying that “every” priest reads my website. That means that my responsibility’s the greater. I have to double-check things more thoroughly… I have to be careful as well as hard-hitting. It’s sad that the “official” news media in the Church in the diaspora is so poor… it’s good in the homeland. However, do remember that’s a result of the Rodina having been purged by the godless unbelievers, as a result, all the phonies are out of the Church now (we have some dumb jabronies and some clueless idiots, but NO Black Hundreds). We in the diaspora didn’t go through such a cleansing… ergo, we have all sorts of heretics and fanatics amongst us. They’ve taken over the Church… they think they “are” the Church (especially, SVS has an l’église c’est moi attitude, for instance). God’s justice grinds slowly, but it grinds exceedingly fine, they say. Don’t look at the official websites or listen to the seminaries… the sans-culottes are stirring, and “a spectre is haunting Europe“.

“What is to be done?”

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A Portrait of a Sans-Culotte

Louis-Léopold Boilly

first third of the 19th century

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Note the supreme contempt in many clerical circles for the “people”… Freddie M-G, for instance, believes that we have to “follow the clergy in all things”. If we were to do that, the Church would fail… do remember the Iconoclasts, the Union of Brest, and the Russian Renovationists… the clergy supported the “wrong” side and the PEOPLE stood up for what was right!

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Apparently, Berezovsky’s running the anti-Kirill and anti-Church campaign in Russia. It’s his revenge for the Church’s lukewarm support for Putin. Of course, the West loves it… Berezovsky loves the West.

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That’s why I don’t care for konvertsy… “swims with the tide”… “that doesn’t prevent him kissing up to the EP when he wants to”. You just described the typical Angliochian to a tee. I know why they support Renovationism… that’s what passes for “traditional” amongst a certain set of Anglicans (the Stand Firm in the Faith lot). What we mean by Tradition, and what prideful former Anglicans mean by “tradition” are two diametrically opposite things.

You see, if you already “know”, you won’t learn. They’re all “scholars”, dontcha know! As for me, I’ve learnt tons since I started my site. It requires research, and that means that one learns, especially, if one’s on the track of the truth. If all that you’re doing is mouthing your oddbod opinion and pious platitudes, you sink deeper into prelest with each post (such as one sees with Freddie M-G, Dreher, and Honeycutt). Sad, ain’t it? They’re on the hell-bound train, and not only do they not know it, they insist that we join them! Note this well… all of the American Angliochians have ties to Gleb Podmoshensky in one way or another (Paffhausen, Dreher, Freddie M-G, Jensen, and all the HOOMies, amongst others, have direct ties to him). They hate sodomy (supposedly)… and yet look at who’s their guru! One of the most questionable sorts ever to exist in the American diaspora (Lebedeff admitted in a public post on the Indiana List that the deposition for serving under suspension was a dodge… which they used to keep certain things hidden)!

Live and learn, eh?

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Patrick Reardon and David Bleam (both AOCANA convert priests) went to Syria for Philip Saliba and wrote glowing reports on Assad… it was printed in the archdiocesan magazine.

That’s because if they didn’t, Philip would bore ’em a new arsehole. They’re all punk cowards as far as I’m concerned.

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You KNOW how it is… the closeted gay blades make the most noise. I think that they canned Frederick because he was catching on. Watch for MAJOR disillusionment amongst some of the konvertsy when they find out. They’re beginning to catch on… do note that the Centre’s not bankrolling the OCA… a friend of mine said, “We know what’s going on. We take the LOOONG view”. That’s all he wrote… but I think that you know what he means.

By all means have more than one… but remember Aquinas’ dictum, ad usque hilaritatem… once you get “nice”, don’t overdo… or you’ll pay the next day. I speak from EXPERIENCE…

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Love BT (more like Hatred BT) sums up EVERYTHING that’s wrong with the OCA… They hate Russia, they hate Tsar St Nikolai, and they hate Putin. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot…

Also… they LOVE the Godless West, the Uniates, and the Almighty Dollar. FOUR DAYS for a Holy Synod meeting… why, the Centre’s content with one day for a meeting (shades of Clemenceau commenting on Wilson!)! Paffhausen’s turning on his allies… he’s a goner.

Of course, the opposite of Russia is the Godless West, the opposite of St Nikolai are the Uniates, and the opposite of Putin is the Almighty dollar, Mammon himself…

Yes… and they’re drowning… as I say, JP’s turning on his last allies. My only question is, “Who’ll be JP’s Bennigsen?” “It ain’t personal… it’s only business”… but it won’t save them. I think that His Nibs is on to them, but he’s letting them cut their own throats. Nevertheless, the melon’s ripe for the plucking…

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I can’t believe that some want Gerasim as Bishop of the Diocese of the South of the OCA… I’m shocked, but many people don’t know about his ties with Gleb Podmoshensky.

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There IS a serious fight… over the USA. The EP is serious when it claims the USA as its own. The Centre’s not going to stand for that, and that may be the pretext for it shutting down the OCA (St Fagomyr’s has been quasi-EP ever since the Schmemanndorff days). It IS serious…

I know it’s serious, but the MP was here first… in Sitka AK! So, the EP doesn’t have a claim. It’s all about money, Barbara… the Phanar’s broke… they need American money…badly.

The GOAA IS the EP… full stop. That’s why it’ll NEVER allow an “autocephalous” Church in the USA… the OCA wasn’t an autocephalous Church, it was nothing but an MP dependency with big ideas (which caused its downfall and demise). 99 percent of the EP’s money comes from rich Greeks, and the rich American Greeks transmit Washington‘s orders to the Phanar… think of George Stephanopoulos and his interference in ROCOR internal affairs (through his sister, who was a nun in the ROCOR, but left it after the 2007 reconciliation).

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I don’t know when… the older I get the easier it is for me to say, “I don’t know”. One of the good things about running a news site is that you LEARN. It’s an education… truly, if you pay attention to what you report. Remember, most “journalists” aren’t REPORTERS, they’re COMMENTATORS. I seek out REALITY… not OPINION. It’s chastening at times, and always enlightening…

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30 April 2012. Konvertsy “Experts” at OrthoWiki Delete St Serafim Vyritsky From Their Site… How Dare They… He’s One of the Greatest Saints of the Soviet Period

St Serafim Vyritsky (1866- 1949)… He prayed on a rock for the victory of the USSR in the VOV… no lie… is that why the konvertsy snub him?

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I was looking for quotes from St Serafim Vyritsky today, so, I Googled his name, using several different formats (those familiar with Russian transliteration know what I mean). Well, guess what the konvertsy “experts and scholars” at OrthoWiki did? They deleted the article on him! Fancy that! One of the greatest saints of the Soviet period, and they shitcanned him… they have tons on squiffy Renovationist creepozoids like Aleksandr Schmemann, John Meyendorff, and Aleksandr Men… but a true saint of the Church? Down the slop chute with him! This was on the page: This article has been marked for deletion. This could be for a number of reasons, including OrthodoxWiki policy. See further information on its talk page (click here for the page in question).

Here are their criteria for deletion:

An article may be deleted from OrthodoxWiki by a sysop for any of the following reasons (non-exclusive):

• Its sole purpose is vandalism (obscenity, nonsense, etc.).
• It has no content (may include only headers or external links).
• It is not encyclopaedic (may be an essay, personal opinion, polemic, directory, etc.)
• It is not directly relevant to the Orthodox Church.
• It is non-notable (i.e., not important enough to history to be included in an encyclopaedia).
• It duplicates an existing article.
• It is in a user’s personal userspace who has requested deletion.
• There is a consensus of editors and sysops that the article is inappropriate or unnecessary.

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Well, firstly, St Serafim Vyritsky IS an acknowledged saint of the Church. Therefore, he IS directly relevant to the Orthodox Church and he IS notable, and if there IS a “consensus of editors and sysops that the article is inappropriate or unnecessary”, it only proves the belief held by many that OrthoWiki’s somewhat “soft” as a source… as a priest-friend of mine said, “Most of it’s convert rubbish”. For instance, they don’t have an article on Antony Bartoshevich, one of the most notable ROCOR bishops of the 60s and 70s.

It DOES take all kinds. To give St Serafim, who prayed on a rock during the entire Great Patriotic War for the victory of the Red Army and the deliverance of the Russian people from the Fascist aggressors, short shrift whilst trumpeting the Renovationist lies of the SVS crowd is just unconscionable. However, you know the sort… they lurk behind usernames on Monomakhos and OCATruth (they don’t have the guts to sign their names to their screeds). There’s no need to go “off”… this is just another proof that the konvertsy not only aren’t of us… they never were, and are utterly incapable of being such. Sad, ain’t it?

As for me, I DO honour St Serafim Vyritsky… and, no doubt, so do you. Light a candle and pray to God… that’s all that we can do until these loopy sorts leave us…

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Monday 30 April 2012

Albany NY 

Just Got This Department: 

One of the Kitchen Cabinet sent this: 

The OrthodoxWiki article on St Serafim of Vyritsa is here. The deletion page is for the URL with the spelling “Viritsa”, which doesn’t comply with their transliteration standards. That said, OrthodoxWiki entries must be taken with a grain of salt. I personally know clueless young housewives and ignorant basement-dwellers who create articles like it’s their job. Also, people like Whiteford spend an inordinate amount of time editing articles there for the sake of propaganda. So, caveat emptor.

I knew that if I threw this into the pond, something would come up. This was the only entry on the search results page from OrthoWiki, Google’s caught with its nicks around its ankles yet again.

BMD

2 November 2011. Stokoe and Lil’ Mizz Ginny Aren’t On the Same Page Regarding JP’s Supposed “Evaluation”…

He’s going to “evaluation”… is that what the ordinary rank n’ file believers gave the “widow’s mite” for? Do try selling that one to Baba…

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According to Mark Stokoe, Paffhausen agreed to undergo “evaluation”… if so, that’s news, and rather important news. Therefore, when I report to you that Lil’ Mizz Ginny at oca.org doesn’t mention this item explicitly at all, THAT’S news. Don’t forget Fathausen’s persistent pattern of lying, delaying, and saying different things to different audiences. He made such a promise earlier… this one’s no more real than that one was. In short, the lying SOB fibbed to you yet again. Do note that Vladyki Nathaniel Popp did NOT speak after Fathausen’s histrionic “confession”. That’s an interesting omission.

We’re all set for a repetition of the events earlier in the year. Once Fathausen gets over the immediate crisis, he reverts to type. He’s blubbered out a confession once before… one can see readily that his latest performance is sheer and utter BS without any grounding in reality whatsoever. In any case, this “evaluation” is sheer bunkum… it’s what the RC hierarchy does do to convince willing suckers in the press and the courts that they’re actually doing something about abusive clergy. Note well that the cost of this “evaluation” isn’t mentioned. The OCA doesn’t have a pot to piss in, and it’s going to waste what little money it has on what’s in essence a PR stunt and exercise in CYA.

I’ll say this… Stokoe’s ballyhooed post is worthless without an explicit acknowledgement of this on oca.org. That’s NOT going to happen… and Mark knows it’s not going to happen. He’s Lyonyo’s loyal shill… and he’s trying to “get over” on you. The guy’s a former Chancery layabout who wants to regain a position at the high table at your expense. Why is Stokoe suddenly so solicitous of Fathausen? It’s because if JP goes under, so does his patron Lyonyo. Lyonyo’s doing his best to orchestrate this Sobor… and he’s failing to ignite any spark, the meeting’s flatter than a beer left overnight in a hot kitchen. Rebecca Matovic’s exasperated jeremiad is worth quoting (don’t refuse to read it because she’s an SVS nudnik… g’wan, you gotta know what they say):

Lots and lots of little bits of conversations, some in passing, some at length… lots of perplexity and struggle; lots of people with visceral reactions to different things; lots of harkening back (for those whose memories go that far back) to the life of the OCA in the ’70s and trying somehow to figure out where we’ve lost our way since. I realise that’s a problematic thought for many, given that it is popular to “re-evaluate” (i.e., snipe snidely and self-satisfiedly about) Fr Schmemann and Fr Meyendorff… but we’ve lost something, and for those of us who do remember, there seems to be a common instinct that perhaps we need to reach back and recapture it. Or, maybe not… perhaps the perplexity wins out.

The above shows that the apparat and SVS are in disarray. Rebecca Matovic is a Schmemannite true believer… she’s one of the more rabid Renovationists out there. You can see that they’re lost without their guru. Aleksandr Dmitrievich had charisma, no doubt… he WAS a “rainmaker”… the people he showered attention on still view him as the Great Coryphaeus of all Wisdom (you can see this in Stokoe and Ms Matovic). Ivan Feofilovich WAS the ideologue of autocephaly and the brains of the operation, that’s clear to all concerned who look at the situation clearly. However, neither one of these men had any idea of tserkovnost… “Churchliness”. The full impact of this isn’t seen well in the translation… neither one of these men understood tserkovnost and its related concept sobornost (literally, “Assembly-ness”… perhaps, “Meeting of the Minds”). Both of these men were conscious rebels against the Tradition… so it’s clear that they couldn’t honour the Church or the Assembly. I know that’s a poor translation of Soborny, but it’s the best that English gives us. English doesn’t give us the nuances that are present in the Russian (that’s what makes translation so damnably difficult… each language is a thought-world onto itself). You see… we must stay loyal to the Church and to its accumulated Tradition, which is embodied in the all-too human Assembly of believers. It’s NOT found in the airy-fairy speculation of over-educated scholars and their worthless theories and books. You’ll learn more about the Church and the Assembly by worshipping with the people on Russian Hill than you will by reading the books written by Schmemann and Meyendorff. You’ll learn more (and get more) from a heartfelt Khristos voskrese and a kiss to your fellow believer than you will from any lecture from any “scholar”. Reflect well on the fact that Mark Stokoe and Rebecca Matovic both supported ADS’ attacks on the people of Mayfield.

This brings us back, full circle, to the beginning of this post. Stokoe and Lil’ Mizz Ginny are misleading you for the sake of preserving a faction… an ideology. That’s not kosher. I’d say that you have a choice… you can stand with Mark Stokoe, Lyonyo, Lil’ Mizz Ginny, JP, Jillions, and all the rest, or, you can stand with the people of Russian Hill. I know where I stand… which side are YOU on?

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Wednesday 2 November 2011

Albany NY

20 October 2011. SVSniki Start New Renovationist Gasbag Website

Bozhe Moi! I’ve seen it all! Now, there’s a new Renovationist website run by four of the most gaseous and ungrounded pseudo-intellectuals around. One is Alexis Vinogradov, who creamed his jeans over Rowan Williams coming to SVS. He actually said that it’d “excite” all the former Anglicans in the OCA (I shit you not). Another is Eric Wheeler, who’s part of the Ol’ Boys Network at the Chancery… along with Hunchak, Hopko fils, and Stokoe (one wonders why Stokoe didn’t pump this up on his website… Lyonyo probably didn’t let him). All four of ’em are condescending snots and insufferable know-alls. There’s Robert Arida, who never uses one word where ten will do… and an unknown putz, a M Stankovich. They’re all Struve clones… all poured out of the same ratty ol’ ADS crucible. Click here to see it. Do look at it! GOWAN! DO IT! They expect to be taken seriously. THEY DO. They truly think that they’re the latest thing, and that all of the rest of us are clueless boobs and REQUIRE to be taken by the hand and spoon-fed their superior guidance. BY THEIR FRUITS YE SHALL KNOW THEM.

By their “fruits”… what a choice of words! One of their profs was Pierre l’Huillier… who had “interesting” tastes. There was Dmitri Royster, who was part of an investigation into abusive “sexual tourism” in Mexico. Let’s not forget Bobby K… none of these paladins opened their mouths at the time. Wheeler got the boot from Bobby, probably to make way for a Friend of Bobby… that’s the only reason for his umbrage. I’ll bet that they’ll have “guest spots” from Anglicans pretending to be Orthodox like Reardon (who teaches at an Episkie seminary) and Haffield (who accepted a degree from his old Anglican alma mater). Now is a good time to bring something up. I’ve noticed that EVERY former Anglican amongst the Orthodox clergy still retains the heresy of the Branch Theory. What does that tell you about Fathausen? Not only are the former Anglicans “not of us”, these academic blowhards aren’t either. Note the title they give their website… WE ARE THEIR LEGACY. THIS is why these people and the former Episkies (who are their sworn and dyed-in-the-wool allies) are the enemies of all grounded and REAL Orthodox. We don’t need them… we don’t need ADS’ “legacy”… and we don’t need tired ol’ Silly Sixties solutions to contemporary problems. Pass me the jug… take a hit yourself… it’s NEVER boring, no siree.

Get your tickets for the A D Schmemann, now! It’s to the same design as the Hindenburg, dontcha know…

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Thursday 20 October 2011

Albany NY

Editor’s Postscript:

A friend just sent me this:

I just looked at that site and I’ll throw up in short order. Thanks a lot. Oh look! They know Greek, don’t you know? They use the Greek-English dictionary on Strong’s Concordance! What scholarship! Using Strong’s to “define” Greek words is the equivalent of doing paint-by-number iconography. Come to think of it, they probably do that too. Shameless posers…

I quite agree… don’t be fooled by imitations. Insist on WATL… after all, it’s Old Doctor Schmemann’s Snake Medicine… good for every ailment of man or beast (secret ingredient… grandpa’s old moonshine).

BMD