14 May 2015. Today is the 50th Anniversary of the Death of Metropolitan Leonty Turkevich… The “Last Great First Hierarch” of the Metropolia/OCA

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Today is the 50th anniversary of the death of Metropolitan Leonty Turkevich, considered by many to have been the last great First Hierarch of the OCA/Metropolia. He and ROCOR Metropolitan Anastassy Gribanovsky were towering figures. Older folks told me that Vladykis Leonty and Anastassy would confab together and deal with all the schmutz that arose. There’s been none to equal them since their times. We’ve had relative pygmies since then… can these dry bones live? YES, THEY CAN… IF WE REMEMBER OUR PAST! Ask your priest to mention Metropolitans Leonty and Anastassy at the Proskomidi, light a candle for them, and ask your priest to serve Pannikhida for them after liturgy this Sunday. One of my sources told me:

The question if the day is this… “How did we get from a spiritual giant like Metropolitan Leonty to Fatty and Mollard in a scant ( by Orthodox time) 50 years?”

Honour thy father and thy mother, as the Lord thy God has commanded thee… amen! We need to acknowledge our past as Church, or we’ll have no future… ’nuff said…

BMD

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It’s About Time! St T’s to Honour Vladyki Leonty with Academic Symposium

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St Tikhon Orthodox Seminary announces at this time that they’re planning an Academic Symposium dedicated to the life and work of Metropolitan Leonty Turkevich (1876-1965), tentatively due for 14 May 2015, the 50th anniversary of his death. This will be a day-long programme, including a graveside pannikhida. STOS would also like to announce publicly a call for proposed papers for the Symposium. We ask those interested to forward a brief summary of their proposed topics to Dr David Ford, Professor of Church History at STOS, no later than 30 September 2014 by e-mail at dcford@stots.edu.

Editor:

I’d like to see them discuss the collaboration between Vladyki Leonty and Metropolitan Anastassy Gribanovsky of the ROCOR… the two confabbed closely and kept things solid. After Vladyki Leonty’s death, the Schememann/Meyendorff duopoly and their besotted acolytes sold out the Church. Shall someone speak up at St T’s for a saner time, a time that points to a future union of the healthy parts of the ROCOR and OCA? Time will tell us…

Here are two titbits… Vladyki Leonty stood with the ROCOR in the immediate postwar years in refusing to recognise the MP… Vladyki Anastassy came to New York in 1950, the year that Vladyki Leonty became Archbishop of New York for the Metropolia. Who would’ve thunk it…

BMD

29 May 2014

oca.org

OCA official website

http://oca.org/news/headline-news/stots-announces-academic-symposium-dedicated-to-metropolitan-leonty

2 March 2013. Ura! Midwest Diocese Shows that It Still has that Old-Time Old-School Metropolia Spunk

Back to the future! Not a bad rallying cry, is it? The Lord Christ prayed that we should be as one. That’s a good beginning, I’d say.

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One of the Cabinet whispered this:

I received some extremely encouraging news from various friends this week. There appears to be a popular uprising in some parts of the Diocese of the Midwest. Laity are rising up against Moriak. A letter-writing campaign is underway. The Synod meets before Great Lent begins. People are writing to the bishops on the Synod, demanding Moriak not be reinstated. If that’s not good news, I don’t know what is. The laity are showing they have their heads on straight and which way is up. There’s still time to write to the members of the Synod before their meeting. Their addresses are here (scroll down).

Hooray! The believers still have that old-time old-school Metropolia spunkiness and grit. Look, priests aren’t perfect… neither are bishops. Baba and Dede knew what to do when faced with such… they’d go to the metropolitan in a group, and demand, “Vladyki, in all due respect, we can’t take what he’s handing out. Do something about it”. Trust me, the offending priest (or bishop) “disappeared”. Of course, that’s when REAL First Hierarchs like Leonty Turkevich ruled the Metropolia… and REAL First Hierarchs like Anastassy Gribanovsky ruled the ROCOR (both were friends and consulted each other often… many people saw their mutual comings and goings in New York). This means that the real believers aren’t going to put up with konvertsy bullshit. What the real believers want is a return to the sane, balanced, “live n’ let live” Metropolia days. They don’t want protest marches… they don’t want changes every other week… they don’t want politics mixed in with their religion… they don’t want Orthodox forbearance and oikonomia replaced by Evangelical censoriousness and witch-hunting. They DO want old-time good-sense, a return to our sacred tradition, and old-school respect for our Old Country customs and values… I say, “Amen”. I don’t think that more need be said, no?

We need UNITED Russian Orthodox Church Metropolias under the Mother Church for the USA, Alaska, Canada, and Latin America… I think that I’m not alone in wanting that…

BMD

29 August 2012. A Reliable Cabinet Member Weighs in on Moriak

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A Cabinet member whispered this to me about Moriak in the loggia:

It’s true; he’s done. The word is that he’s getting a leave of absence or suspension! There’ll be a misconduct investigation and the OCA will have a statement soon.

Now, this came from a trustworthy source. That doesn’t mean that its set in stone, but it’s MUCH more believable than anything out of Monomuckos. OK, kids, this means that I can say now that we should look for a confirmation from the OCA, as early as today. If this is true, the Holy Synod should smack down Ray Velencia… hard and publicly. You see, they have to defend a priest in good standing, Mike Regan. Velencia had the brass balls to call himself “Fr Raymond Velencia” in court papers, implying that he was a cleric in good standing. Besides giving Velencia the sack, they should protest Velencia’s usurpation of the title “Father” to the court involved. You see, otherwise, if they don’t, it leaves the OCA open to all kinds of lovely and sticky legal meadow-muffins. Crazy world, ain’t it? Do pass the jug.

If this isn’t proof that we need a united Russian Orthodox Church in the USA, Canada, and Alaska, nothing is. You see, only that is a real first step on the road on the road to a real “Church in America” (and Canada and Alaska). Interestingly enough, the only road “forward” starts going “back”. That’s the way it is, often enough, in real life. The OCA’s a sclerotic failure… and has to go. Then, it’s rebuilding time… not with any grandiose plans, but with the modesty and sobriety of the Metropolia of Leonty Turkevich and Basil Stroyen and the ROCOR of Anastassy Gribanovsky and Vitaly Maksimenko. Vladyyki Leonty and Vladyki Anatassy often conferred together, and acted like brothers. When they died in ’65, Schmemann and Grabbe mucked things up and started the Church War.

It’s time to go home… there’s no place for a notional “American” Church. If there’s going to be one in future, it’ll grow organically, it won’t be “planned”. To paraphrase Gil Scott-Heron, “The Holy Spirit is not televised, brothers; the Holy Spirit will be LIVE!” There’s no place for the Cold War ROCOR. The war is over, and it IS time to “beat our swords into plowshares”. Shall we do it, though?

We DO stand at a crossroads, and I’d say that live to the Parma Synod members, to their faces. It’s time to “quit you like men” and rip up the Tomos. It’s up to us…

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Wednesday 29 August 2012

Albany NY