11 June 2013. Free at Last! The Machine is Back from the Geeks…

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Well, I got ye olde machine back from the geeks today. It’s going to take a little bit to get things copacetic again… but we’ll be back in full form before one knows it. Yes, I was at St T‘s for the Memorial Day Pilgrimage… NO ONE expected to see Fathausen there (I was expecting to see Ovchinnikov there, not El Gordo…  but Yustinian wasn’t there… nor were George Schaeffer or Peter Lukianov). As per usual, there was as much socialising as worshipping going on; indeed, the most fruitful time for me was out in the car park, where I had several confabs with priests and laity. I’ll go more into detail later, but the general consensus was, “We don’t expect much from Mollard… he’s in over his head, but he’s the least-bad choice out there”. That is, only the deluded konvertsy, the SVSniki, and the Syossset Mafia still believe in the OCA. Trust me,  I’ve never seen so few clergy take communion at a Pilgrimage. Mollard’s sermon was warmed-over pabulum of the worst-possible sort (he needed to enunciate his vision for his stewardship, which he failed to do).

El Gordo was received rather indifferently by the Valley crowd. It was one thing to bring in Herman… hey, the Valley’s his stomping grounds. However, Mollard was STUPID to have brought Fathausen to St T’s. He should’ve done it in the District or in the City, where he could rustle up a claque for the Fat One. Besides that, he undercut his own authority… it was a rum decision any way that one looked at it. As I say, I’ll get to it more in detail later (some of the things I was told about the Parma Sobor were quite interesting). Yet, bear this in mind… no one voted for Mollard because he was felt to be an intelligent and insightful leader… people saw him as the least-repulsive choice (especially, in comparison to Peterson and Dahulich). In short, he’s going to do the least damage to the Church in the near term… that’s why people voted for him (I got that directly from Sobor participants). However, I’ll be blunt, no one misses El Gordo… the general attitude amongst the ethnic majority is, “Good riddance to bad rubbish”, and Mollard did himself no favours by sucking up to Fathausen so blatantly in public.

It’s certainly not boring covering Orthodoxy in the USA! Yet, Mollard will be able, through his bovine passivity, to heal some of the more-egregious wounds that the Fat One inflicted on the Church. That’s why people voted for him… do remember why people voted for Bobby over Lyonyo… “Sometimes, we mar what’s good enough by trying to do better”… now, that’s a meaty bone to gnaw upon…

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Tuesday 11 June 2013

Albany NY

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24 May 2013. Perich May Be Out in the District… Mollard to Go to St Nick’s In DC Today

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One of the Cabinet checked in:

He’s being ousted as administrator of St Nicholas in DC. Not sure why. Tikhon Mollard to go there tomorrow [today] to work things out. Still, no resolution on JP, even though OCA Lesser Synod of Bishops just met.

Perich was Bobby’s boy. This means that the Synod‘s gotten wind of the evidence against Bobby, and has decided that it has traction and cred. Besides that, Perich was JP’s appointee. That doesn’t augur well for El Gordo… first, the Russia–USA soap opera heated up (bollixing up any approach to the Centre), now, the Synod’s seeing the evidence against Bobby and believing it. In short, Perich has no hope. No doubt, Mollard’s going to the District to tell JP that the Synod didn’t buy his bluster (for instance, the courts knocked down yet another suit by Fr Vasilie Susan… which means that JP’s legal threats have no substance whatsoever). Mollard’s on a thankless errand… no one respects him, and this will end in having more people pissed at him. However, he’s a clueless boob… he’s not an active klutz such as JP. As a genial incompetent, he’ll not understand that the only route to effectively taking control of the OCA is to kick ass and take names. Mollard was a man fit to be a bishop of a “safe” diocese (as Eastern PA, indeed, was), but he’s unsuited to be First Hierarch of anything. Sad, ain’t it?

We can be certain that the shit hit the fan fully and righteously, as this happened on Memorial Day weekend, and Mollard going to the District today is out of character… usually, the First Hierarch is at St T‘s for all of the weekend (including Friday). Is Mollard going to be at the Memorial Day liturgy at South Canaan? Perspirin’ minds wanna know…

BMD

 

14 May 2013. Buzz on the Upcoming St T’s Memorial Day Pilgrimage

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Sources tell me that Fr Sergius Bowyer said that St T’s might have liturgy outside at the bell tower like the old days at the Pilgrimage. Perspirin’ minds wanna know… is he trying to get back the Hunkies who’ve stopped coming? Y’ know… selling only cheap-ass carnival food at the event hasn’t helped attendance… people don’t want deep-fried pickles or Italian sausages… they want kielbasa, galoompkies, and pierogies (American Slavonian misspelling intentional… spiedies from Sharkey’s would be welcome, too)! Hey, this IS the Valley, after all…

In related news, the buzz has it that now ex-Deacon Michael Pasonick is out of the slam (he got nicked for bribery), he wants to be reinstated as a deacon. Talk has it that beaucoup bucks are involved… not only does he want the deposition from the diaconate lifted, he wants to be ordained to the priesthood, too! Hmm… is this brazen ex-con gonna serve at the Memorial Day shindig? Things are certainly not boring in the slo-mo disintegration of the OCA…

BMD

8 May 2013. Here’s the Official Schedule for the Memorial Day Pilgrimage at St T’s

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Here’s the official listing for the Memorial Day Pilgrimage at St T‘s (there’s an article for the monastery in the Russian Wikipedia, but NOT in the English one… it looks like SVS/Syosset is trying to whitewash history):

Monday, May 27, 2013

• 07.30 Divine Liturgy, Monastery Church
• 10.00 Hierarchical Divine Liturgy
• 12.00 Veteran’s Pannikhida and Memorial Service, All Saints Bell Tower
• 13.30 Akathist to St Aleksei Tóth in the Monastery Church (NB: The Russian Wikipedia article is more complete than the English one is… shame on the OCA)
• 14.30 Molieben to the Most Holy Theotokos and Anointing of the Sick,
  Infirm, and all Pilgrims at the Monastery Bell Tower
• 16.00 Vespers and Matins in the Monastery Church

All times are Eastern Daylight Time

For the entire schedule of the weekend, click here. God willing, it’ll be better than the last couple of times. Of course, the question remains… is Mollard going to allow Feodosy and JP to serve with him? Is Mollard going to have some sort of role for his sugar daddy Herman? Perspirin’ minds wanna know…

BMD