You hear rightwing elements excoriating Patriarch Sergei Stagorodsky and who blather about “Sergianism“. Arzamas (his hometown) put up a memorial to him. He was in prison for Christ’s sake three times. Bear in mind what “Sergianism” is… selling-out the Church to political elements, often, to factions more inimical to Christianity than Communism ever was. Actually, “Sergianism” was mostly a trend amongst rightwing anti-communist émigrés and you find it amongst present-day konvertsy, who hobnob with the slimiest rightwing fascists imaginable (on the grounds of being “pro-life!” What hypocrisy!). Interesting… that what the right accused Sergei of, they were guilty of themselves! They sold out Christ for a mess of pottage from anti-Church/anti-Rodina elements… they still do!
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Comments Off on 28 May 2017. On Sergei Stagorodsky and “Sergianism”
A good definition of “traitor” is “one who aids the enemies of one’s motherland”. That is, all those who aid Russophobic agencies, projects, and groups are traitors, no two ways about it. Quite often, “dishonesty” walks together with “treason“. An important question is, “Are those duped into treason traitors?” Indeed, can one be “duped” into treason? In an earlier post, I used strong language about Basil Rodzianko. I admit that I did so to provoke comment… for he was a traitor against his Russian motherland in objective terms. It did provoke the comment that I wanted… I apologise as my earlier language was overly harsh… but it was the only way to elicit the comment that I wanted from my Cabinet… and more than one responded to it.
Basil Rodzianko aided the CIA by working as a propagandist for Radio Liberty, the lying American distortion machine directed at the USSR. Was he aware what he was doing? After all, more than one of my respondents said that he wasn’t the most good-sense person out there (one told me, “He was so scatterbrained that his Matushka had to keep him out of the rain”)… he wasn’t a good judge of character at all. Yet, he committed treason against the motherland by aiding the CIA. That’s a fact that no one can deny. Besides that, his extended family were all Hard Right fanatics of the worst-possible sort. To top it all, he aided the career of Victor Potapov, one of the most monstrous figures in our contemporary Church in the diaspora (more than one has told me that he gave neoliberal pigs like John Herbst entry into ROCOR circles). His legacy is spotted… but was he aware of what he’d done? If one is honest, he wasn’t innocent, but he wasn’t guilty, if you know what I’m driving at. Who was guilty, if he wasn’t?
The Vlasovtsy bedevilled our Church here since their arrival starting in 1948. Very quickly, they took over the ROCOR, which was smarting from the Metropolia’s defection after the notorious Cleveland Sobor of 1946. They were anti-communists before they were Christians… there were only a few exceptions such as Ioann Maximovich, and he faced continual opposition from Hard Right factions in the Church. They made alliances with the most retrograde of American rightwing fringe elements and they gladly accepted Langley‘s money (Lebedeff admitted as much). Unfortunately, their lies infected the Church, we aren’t free of them, and we won’t be until we bow in repentance before the entire Church and admit our weaselly treachery as a group.
We owe repentance for the wrongheaded “doctrine” of Sergianism… which was evil in the extreme. Sergei Stagorodsky suffered imprisonment TWICE for confessing Christ… TWICE. None of his detractors suffered anything… indeed, they issued their complaints from the safety of exile. Ergo, we owe repentance for slandering good Christian people who saved what they could in the midst of a firestorm. They deserve our praise… and their detractors deserve our condemnation! We need to shut up those like Victor Potapov, and that’s that. We owe repentance for lying about a non-existent “catacomb Church”. Jordanville was particularly vociferous about it. Lies are lies, and when institutions lie on a massive scale, as the ROCOR did to please its Western paymasters, they owe repentance and reparation to their victims. Note well that the MP didn’t demand such, although by simple justice the ROCOR owed it such, and on a massive scale. It owes repentance for sheltering Nazi collaborators… that makes the Church an accomplice in their crimes, no doubt about it.
You see, the MP NEVER owed anyone any “repentance”… and we must disregard ROCOR lies to the contrary. The MP stood for the motherland in the VOV, whilst the ROCOR (all too often) stood for nasty collaborators of the worst sort. Who owes repentance? Yes, WHO owes repentance? Was it the ones who endured persecution and, yet, forgave their persecutors (as good Christians should), or, was it the ones who issued bilious hatred because of their all-consuming opposition to communism? For instance, the ROCOR never issued a public apology for stabbing the motherland in the back by establishing an anti-canonical establishment in the homeland. That, in Christian terms, is far worse than anything the MP is alleged to have done.
Yet, I don’t hate the ROCOR at all. At base, many parts of it are very healthy, indeed. In fact, in future, it’ll be the basis of a united Russian Orthodox presence in the diaspora. However, before this can happen, the ROCOR must cleanse itself by repenting of its actions in the Cold War and in the period before the forcible removal of Vitaly Ustinov. Such lies are a cancer, and we must remove them root-and-branch if we’re to survive, let alone grow. I must give an “advice” to all of you… not all those who repeat the Jordanville “line” are guilty. Many priests aren’t free… they say what they must to serve their congregations. Interestingly, the rightwingers in the ROCOR are acting exactly as the old gaybisty did (truly, they were REAL “Chekists in riassas“)! Victor Potapov acts just the same as Suslov did… they’re just two sides of the same rotten coin. We have to cleanse ourselves of such… then, God will grant us revival as He’s done in the motherland.
We have to do what Joe Adamov did… “I lied to you and I’m sorry”… with no exceptions and no exculpations. That’ll cleanse us. Nothing else will do. Nothing else will remove the cancer from us. Joe Adamov proved himself a chelovek by doing what he did. Shall we do likewise? God willing, we shall… otherwise, we have no future.
BMD
Comments Off on 3 December 2013. Why the Vlasovtsy are so Dangerous to the Church
Levada Centre specialists spoke to Interfax concerning their research into the depth of Lenten observance in the Russian population. This year, sociologists found that a record number of Russians (26 percent overall), intend to observe the traditional Lenten discipline in one way or another. During an all-Russian poll, 21 percent of respondents confirmed that they’re going to observe a partial fast this year… for example, giving up meat or alcoholic beverages. Over the past five years, this category has increased by six percent (it was 15 percent in 2008, a 40 percent rise in the period studied).
In particular, the respondents in this category were executives/supervisors (31 percent), disabled (27 percent) women (28 percent), Russians over 55-years-old (67 percent), college-educated (29 percent), upper-middle class (29 percent), residents of rural communities (24 percent), and citizens of small cities (less than 100,000 population) (23 percent). According to the survey, this year, as before, 3 percent of respondents are going to follow all the rules of fasting only during Holy Week, and 2 percent shall follow the fast strictly for all seven weeks of Lent.
Pensioners, women, and Russians over 55-years-old all had the highest proportions of those who intend to follow a strict Lenten rule, either in full, or during Holy Week alone. In 2008, 79 percent of Russians stated they that wouldn’t modify their diet during Lent; in March of this year, that figure fell to 69 percent. The groups that most often reported that they don’t intend to modify their diet are schoolchildren and college students (87 percent), business owners (82 percent), housewives (81 percent), men (79 percent), Russians under 25 (83 percent), those with secondary education only (77 percent), upper-middle class (77 percent), and citizens of medium-sized cities (100,000-500,000 population) (72 percent).
Break out the bubbly! The above figures are FANTASTIC. As Fr Vsevolod Chaplin observed, in 1985, virtually no one kept the Lent. A quarter of the total Russian population intends to keep at least some part of the Lent, which means that about a third of all Orthodox Christians in Russia shall observe the Lent in one way or another. That’s great… and the growth is gradual and natural, not forced-draft and phoney (as one sees amongst the konvertsy in the USA). That’s the way REAL Orthodoxy operates… one person at a time giving the “good contagion” to another… as St Serafim Sarovsky put it, “Save your own soul, and thousands will be saved about you”. We don’t need “crusades”, “mission conferences”, “witnessing”, or marching in political parades… we need good old-fashioned self-forgetful religion.
God blesses the one and doesn’t bless the other, that’s clear. We should follow the podvigs of Patriarch Sergei Stragorodsky and St Serafim Vyritsky… not the notional fancies of Victor Potapov, James Paffhausen, Gleb Podmoshensky, and other such pied-pipers… after all, real-deal Christians don’t make demands with a lawyer in tow, do they? Let God see and judge…
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Comments Off on Levada Centre sez More and More Russians Embrace the Meaning of Lent, But Only 2 Percent Intend to Follow It Strictly
Voices from Russia 
3 December 2013. Why the Vlasovtsy are so Dangerous to the Church
Tags: Christian, Christianity, Eastern Orthodox Church, Joe Adamov, Moscow Patriarchate, Orthodox, Orthodoxy, Patriarch Kirill I, Patriarch Sergei, political commentary, politics, Religion, ROCOR, Russia, Russian, Russian Orthodox Church, Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, Sergianism, Soviet Union, USSR
Strike Back!
Unknown Artist
Soviet poster
1941-45
******
Christ… Red… White… United
Uknown Artist
late Soviet poster
******
Was Dead, but Came Back to Life… Was Lost, but was Found Again
Unknown Artist
Soviet poster
late 1980s
This poster meant that the communists had repented… and that there’s no further need of any more repentance… especially, not to those who supported the Nazi persecutors of the motherland…
******
______________________________
A good definition of “traitor” is “one who aids the enemies of one’s motherland”. That is, all those who aid Russophobic agencies, projects, and groups are traitors, no two ways about it. Quite often, “dishonesty” walks together with “treason“. An important question is, “Are those duped into treason traitors?” Indeed, can one be “duped” into treason? In an earlier post, I used strong language about Basil Rodzianko. I admit that I did so to provoke comment… for he was a traitor against his Russian motherland in objective terms. It did provoke the comment that I wanted… I apologise as my earlier language was overly harsh… but it was the only way to elicit the comment that I wanted from my Cabinet… and more than one responded to it.
Basil Rodzianko aided the CIA by working as a propagandist for Radio Liberty, the lying American distortion machine directed at the USSR. Was he aware what he was doing? After all, more than one of my respondents said that he wasn’t the most good-sense person out there (one told me, “He was so scatterbrained that his Matushka had to keep him out of the rain”)… he wasn’t a good judge of character at all. Yet, he committed treason against the motherland by aiding the CIA. That’s a fact that no one can deny. Besides that, his extended family were all Hard Right fanatics of the worst-possible sort. To top it all, he aided the career of Victor Potapov, one of the most monstrous figures in our contemporary Church in the diaspora (more than one has told me that he gave neoliberal pigs like John Herbst entry into ROCOR circles). His legacy is spotted… but was he aware of what he’d done? If one is honest, he wasn’t innocent, but he wasn’t guilty, if you know what I’m driving at. Who was guilty, if he wasn’t?
The Vlasovtsy bedevilled our Church here since their arrival starting in 1948. Very quickly, they took over the ROCOR, which was smarting from the Metropolia’s defection after the notorious Cleveland Sobor of 1946. They were anti-communists before they were Christians… there were only a few exceptions such as Ioann Maximovich, and he faced continual opposition from Hard Right factions in the Church. They made alliances with the most retrograde of American rightwing fringe elements and they gladly accepted Langley‘s money (Lebedeff admitted as much). Unfortunately, their lies infected the Church, we aren’t free of them, and we won’t be until we bow in repentance before the entire Church and admit our weaselly treachery as a group.
We owe repentance for the wrongheaded “doctrine” of Sergianism… which was evil in the extreme. Sergei Stagorodsky suffered imprisonment TWICE for confessing Christ… TWICE. None of his detractors suffered anything… indeed, they issued their complaints from the safety of exile. Ergo, we owe repentance for slandering good Christian people who saved what they could in the midst of a firestorm. They deserve our praise… and their detractors deserve our condemnation! We need to shut up those like Victor Potapov, and that’s that. We owe repentance for lying about a non-existent “catacomb Church”. Jordanville was particularly vociferous about it. Lies are lies, and when institutions lie on a massive scale, as the ROCOR did to please its Western paymasters, they owe repentance and reparation to their victims. Note well that the MP didn’t demand such, although by simple justice the ROCOR owed it such, and on a massive scale. It owes repentance for sheltering Nazi collaborators… that makes the Church an accomplice in their crimes, no doubt about it.
You see, the MP NEVER owed anyone any “repentance”… and we must disregard ROCOR lies to the contrary. The MP stood for the motherland in the VOV, whilst the ROCOR (all too often) stood for nasty collaborators of the worst sort. Who owes repentance? Yes, WHO owes repentance? Was it the ones who endured persecution and, yet, forgave their persecutors (as good Christians should), or, was it the ones who issued bilious hatred because of their all-consuming opposition to communism? For instance, the ROCOR never issued a public apology for stabbing the motherland in the back by establishing an anti-canonical establishment in the homeland. That, in Christian terms, is far worse than anything the MP is alleged to have done.
Yet, I don’t hate the ROCOR at all. At base, many parts of it are very healthy, indeed. In fact, in future, it’ll be the basis of a united Russian Orthodox presence in the diaspora. However, before this can happen, the ROCOR must cleanse itself by repenting of its actions in the Cold War and in the period before the forcible removal of Vitaly Ustinov. Such lies are a cancer, and we must remove them root-and-branch if we’re to survive, let alone grow. I must give an “advice” to all of you… not all those who repeat the Jordanville “line” are guilty. Many priests aren’t free… they say what they must to serve their congregations. Interestingly, the rightwingers in the ROCOR are acting exactly as the old gaybisty did (truly, they were REAL “Chekists in riassas“)! Victor Potapov acts just the same as Suslov did… they’re just two sides of the same rotten coin. We have to cleanse ourselves of such… then, God will grant us revival as He’s done in the motherland.
We have to do what Joe Adamov did… “I lied to you and I’m sorry”… with no exceptions and no exculpations. That’ll cleanse us. Nothing else will do. Nothing else will remove the cancer from us. Joe Adamov proved himself a chelovek by doing what he did. Shall we do likewise? God willing, we shall… otherwise, we have no future.
BMD