Fr Vsevolod Chaplin Asked the Authorities to Give a Clear Answer to the Accusations of Fraud in the Recent RF Gosduma Election

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Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, the head of the MP Department of Church and Society, believes that all those who doubt the honesty of the recent RF Gosduma elections should get an answer. He said, on-air during a broadcast of Комментарий недели (Commentary on the Week) on the Soyuz TV channel, “It’s very important that we give a proper response to all allegations of dishonesty in the counting of votes, irregularities in conduct, and improper staging of the vote. We mustn’t leave them hanging in thin air. Right now, we can’t say whether such accusations are true or not. To answer this question, first of all, we need to find objective and clear facts, facts that we can substantiate in court and in honest debate”. In his opinion, when we prove what the facts are, we should take them under judicial review, and hand them over to the investigative agencies and the TsIK (Central Election Commission). He emphasised, “Obviously, there are many people, both on the right and on the left, conservatives {“nationalists” in Anglosphere usage: editor} and liberals {“conservatives” in Anglosphere usage: editor}, who’d like to see some changes in the political life of the country. That doesn’t mean that these people’s opinions represent most of our society, that it’s normative in all cases. However, this doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t listen to their opinions”.

Fr Vsevolod believes that the active involvement of a majority of the people in the debate about the fate of the country today “would help us to avoid political extremism, to give us an understanding of how the system needs to be corrected, to know where worthiness is, so, that we could know what’s worthy of support”. In his view, society would benefit from a “serious dialogue” about the elections, the electoral process, its organisation, and the means of public control over them, to avoid abuses and violations. Fr Vsevolod suggested that all parties, not merely those in the RF Gosduma, be involved in this dialogue, along with various public bodies, including the opposition, factions that don’t have enough support either in the political parties or in the Duma, and the organisers of protest rallies. He was also clear in pointing up that today, in order that Russia not fall apart, we must be “very seriously concerned about civil peace and avoid anything that would lead people to clash on social, ethnic, or political grounds.”

27 December 2011

Interfax-Religion

http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=43582

Editor’s Note:

Americans are getting the election turmoil all wrong… they think that Russia will find a solution to its problems in a flawed political process. Thank God, that isn’t the case. There are two institutions holding the country together at present… the Church and the Army. VVP will have power as long as the Church and the Army say so. If he loses the “Mandate of Heaven” and the Church and Army turn away, all of his friendships with siloviki will be for naught.

His Holiness gave us an exemplar in how a hierarch (or any clergyman) should approach politics. He voted in a public way, to show people, through his example, that they should vote, too. However, he did NOT endorse a particular party or attack a particular party. That means that Fathausen, Potapov, Webster, and Reardon have to cease all their pro-Republican activities IMMEDIATELY. It’s anti-Christian! His Holiness showed us the way… these guys showed us what NOT to do (although I admit that’s a service, in and of itself).

Also, bear in mind that His Holiness reiterated his opposition to clergy serving in political office, stating his view that it’s incompatible with the priesthood. I agree empathically. Potapov spat on Christ on by being a lackey of the Republican Party and an American government official. His actions implied that the Church approves of “democracy” and “freedom”… a highly dubious submission, I’d say. He did NOT resign when the USA bombed Serbia on Easter 1999, against protests from all over the world. THAT should tell you something.

In short, Fr Vsevolod shows us the Church’s way out… don’t forget that he’s the closest confidant to His Holiness that there is. If Vsevolod Anatolyevich says it, be sure that it’s also His Nibs’ opinion (although if he says it, it gives Nibs the chance of “deniability” if something hits the fan). I’d advise you to listen to him… not crank Western journalists like Sophia Kishkovsky and Serge Schmemann…

BMD

23 October 2011. Jillions “Accepts” Chancellor’s Office… Is He Going to Live in Ottawa or Syosset?

Fallen Angel

Fr Vladislav Provotorov

undated (1990s?)

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Read this.  Jillions officially accepts the post… this means that Eric Wheeler et al are back. It’s sad to say, but true, that Robert Taft SJ is a “Catholic John Jillions” and John Jillions is an “Orthodox Robert Taft SJ”… Taft/Jillions… Jillions/Taft… what’s the difference? God preserve us. Ginny Nieuwsma did her usual incompetent job… of course, in part, one has to admit that she’s stuck with a nasty dogsbody’s lot. She has to print whatever copy Lyonyo and El Gordo thrust at her (it does speak to her character… not good, is it?). Firstly, note this:

He was a founding director of the Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies in Cambridge and served as its first Principal from 1999 until 2002. 

Sounds impressive, huh? Several sources familiar with the English scene told me that this “institute” was nothing but a set of tatty hired rooms in a ramshackle commercial building. On top of that, Jillions ended up accomplishing nothing because of interference from his harridan wife, Denise. In addition, it’s not clear where Jillions is going to live. Is he going to move to Syosset, or, is he going to stay in Ottawa? After all, his “ruling” “hierarch”, Her Grace Bishop +DENISE, may not “bless” the move… and he’s been an obvious Caspar Milquetoast for years.

Another thing left out of Lil’ Mizz Ginny’s gushing encomium was that Jillions was a priest at the very parish in Ottawa that Bishop Lazar Puhalo claims Storheim was visiting and hearing confessions at. That is… Jillions allowed a suspended clergyman to hear confessions, which is NOT according to Hoyle. If you look at oca.org, you’ll find no listing for Storheim under the heading “Bishops”, nor will you find him under “Archdiocese of Canada”… and serving under suspension’s a grave no-no, one that’s punishable by deposition. Don’t forget… Puhalo was a vagante until Storheim regularised him (and his pal Varlaam Novakshonov). That is, the fact that Storheim was his benefactor taints Puhalo’s statement. What’s especially puzzling is that Seraphim accepted Puhalo and his confrère as “retired bishops”, when they had NEVER served as OCA hierarchs in the first place. It’s not usual; in the normal course of events, the Church receives vagante bishops as archpriests or archimandrites. The more that one looks into this, the murkier it becomes.

Lil’ Mizz Ginny also “forgets” to tell you that Jillions is an employee of the Uniates. Of Uniates! Instead of going on and on… Let me give you some statements that I translated from Archimandrite Tikhon Shevkunov… a solid and trusty man:

Fr Alexander Schmemann’s negative attitude toward symphonia is simply his personal idiosyncrasy. Many great fathers of the Church made a completely different appraisal of the symphonia between Church and state. In symphonia, of course, there are both negative and positive aspects. Between the Orthodox government and the Orthodox Church there was co-operation and concerted creative work. Sometimes, it was at a cost, of course. Does it happen otherwise? Symphonia can be ridiculed, but we can also see its unquestionable merits.

https://02varvara.wordpress.com/2008/11/23/%E2%80%9Cthe-truth-even-if-it-is-bitter-will-prevail-with-time%E2%80%9D-an-interview-with-archimandrite-tikhon-shevkunov/

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The Return of the Prodigal Son

Ilya Glazunov

1977

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We CAN turn away from the drivel taught by Schmemann and carried out by Lyonyo, Stokoe, Jillions, Love BT, and Wheeler… but shall we?

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Demetrios Rhompotis

Russian and other Eastern European churches have suffered, and are suffering, from the activities of Uniates, a very treacherous process sanctioned by the Vatican, in which appearances are kept intact, whilst the Faith is essentially compromised. This is one of the major obstacles in the dialogue, really, what kind of a dialogue can you sustain with someone who claims to be infallible, between the schismatic Romans and the Ecumenical Patriarchate. What’s your take on that?

Archimandrite Tikhon Shevkunov

I’ll return once again to the film. Many critics reproach the film as being “anti-Western”, but that isn’t true. Two things are very clearly stated about the Roman Catholic West, Of course, it’s senseless to say that the West was to blame for Byzantium’s misfortunes and fall. The West was only pursuing its own interests, which is quite natural. Byzantium’s historical blows occurred when the Byzantines themselves betrayed their own principles upon which their empire was established …The Byzantines were supposed to understand that the West wanted only complete and unconditional religious and political submission. Not only was the Pope to be recognised as infallible, but the West itself as well. These two postulates, the exclusiveness of their own interests and their infallibility, it seems to me, remain unchanged in the Vatican’s policies even now. It would be naïve, at the least, not to take these two basic constants of Roman Catholicism into consideration.

As for the Uniates, those who now talk today, for example, about autocephaly for the Ukrainian Church, forget that this is, in fact, part of an old Roman Catholic project worked out during the tragic Union of Brest in the Ukraine back in the 16th century. Later, the leader of the Ukrainian Greek-Catholics, Metropolitan Andrei Sheptytsky, wrote in a letter to Emperor Franz Joseph in 1914 that, in order to make the Ukraine Roman Catholic, it’s necessary to separate it from the Russian Church, create a “Kiev-Galician Orthodox Patriarchate”, and, then, soon afterwards, transfer it to the “bosom of the Catholic Church” through the Uniate process. Of course, you could say to me in the words of Heraclitus, “No man ever steps in the same river twice”. That’s true, of course… but you can easily jump into one and the same puddle.

https://02varvara.wordpress.com/2008/09/04/an-interview-with-archimandrite-tikhon-shevkunov-on-the-fall-of-an-empire-the-lesson-of-byzantium/

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The Kiss of Judas

Ilya Glazunov

1985 

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I don’t need to tell you what this represents… there are those who believe in power before they believe in Christ… things haven’t changed, have they?

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Here’s what Fr Vsevolod Chaplin had to say:

These people didn’t know that we believe that not all of those who confess the Name of Christ can hold joint prayer together. We found out who our friends were. Some were our brothers and sisters in Christ, who understood the situation when we explained to them in a charitable manner why we don’t pray with heterodox Christians. Others turned up their noses and refused to speak to us.

https://02varvara.wordpress.com/2008/05/27/27-may-2008-a-thought-from-fr-vsevolod/

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The Orthodox faithful can visit Catholic or Protestant churches, they can attend heterodox services, without joining the common prayer, of course, and they can say Orthodox prayers in shrines common to all Christians, all of these are permissible, it goes without saying. However, we should decline participation in common public or private prayer with the heterodox.

https://02varvara.wordpress.com/2008/03/06/orthodox-should-not-join-in-common-prayers-with-christians-of-other-confessions-according-to-fr-vsevolod-chaplin/

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Archimandrite Tikhon is the Superior of the Sretensky Monastery in Moscow and the confessor of the Putin family. Fr Vsevolod is the head of the MP Department of Church and Society, and he’s the closest confidant to His Holiness. Neither of these men are Renovationist lightweights like John Jillions. You DO have a choice. Firstly, you must decide… shall I follow Lyonyo (Jillions’ obvious puppeteer) or shall I follow Fr Vsevolod and Archimandrite Tikhon? If you follow the former, you spit on Our Lord Christ by approving of the Unia. If you choose the latter course, you must understand that the SVS mob will hate you… the konvertsy will shout imprecations at you… but you’ll stand for Christ. It’s hard… and I’ll not say that it’s an easy decision. Let’s wrap this up with something that I wrote earlier on my art site concerning a painting by Glazunov… when you see it, you’ll understand why I chose it.

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Christ and Antichrist

Ilya Glazunov

1999

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This illustrates an essential point in Orthodox theology. The Anti-Christ shall be so much like the real Christ that he’ll fool many. It’s also an indication of an important point raised by Aleksandr Isaevich Solzhenitsyn. The dividing line between good and evil doesn’t run between people, it runs in the midst of each human heart. If we don’t cleanse our hearts of as much evil as we can manage, we shall mistake Anti-Christ (evil) for Christ (the good). If you need an illustration, one need only look at the present OCA situation, where a small number of pseudo-intellectuals and apparatchiki have hijacked the church.

It reminds me of an actual situation between two twin brothers, identical physically, but antipodes apart in attitude. One brother was faithful to the Church and its traditions, he fought for the right, he loved his heritage, and he ended well. The other was faithless (although he was a priest), he taught his deviations as truth, and he didn’t end well. Orthodox in America know one of the brothers very well. He was Aleksandr Dmitrievich Schmemann, the former rector of St Vladimir’s Seminary, unfortunately, a ravening Modernist. He was the faithless brother. His identical-twin-brother is unknown to most American Orthodox, as SVS does not wish the OCA faithful to know of his dedicated life and good works. Nevertheless, God shall reward Andrei Dmitrievich Schmemann for his loyalty and defence of tradition.

See, it’s like the painting. One has to have clear inner vision to discern the truth. I don’t claim to have the clearest vision, but I see well enough to avoid the pit-falls. So should you. Spare a prayer for the repose of the soul of the Loyal Servant of God Andrei; we’ll sorely miss him.

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One last thing… Archimandrite Tikhon singled out Andrei Sheptytsky as a particular enemy of Christ’s Church… John Jillions worked at a Uniate establishment named for this hesiarch. THAT speaks volumes, and tells you what to do, doesn’t it? We have a Church to rebuild… and we can’t pour “new wine” into “old wineskins”. God willing, Jillions’ “reign” will be short and ignominious. I’d advise him NOT to quit his Uniate job… he’ll need it.

Barbara-Marie Drezhlo

Sunday 23 October 2011

Albany NY

Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin said that we should Punish Anonymous Hate Speech on the Internet with More Vigour

Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, the head of the MP Department for Church and Society, thinks that we should more vigorously pursue those who make anonymous posts on the internet inciting ethnic or religious hatred. On Tuesday, at a roundtable discussion at the RF Public Chamber, he said, “The Internet’s a communications channel. Why do people think that if they hide behind a pseudonym, a username, that they can insult other nationalities or religions? Why do some people think that such a thing’s OK? We don’t accept it anywhere else”. At the same time, Fr Vsevolod urged us to use greater vigour in identifying abusive Internet users and holding them accountable for their actions. “I’m absolutely convinced that we must apply the full force of the law to crimes committed using the Internet”, he emphasised.

Interfax-Religion

11 October 2011

http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=42592

Editor’s Note:

Fr Vsevolod doesn’t have any quarter on “anonymous posters”… nor should you. Note well that most of JP’s most rabid supporters hide behind “usernames”… which means that Fathausen approves of such chicanery. These people are punks and cowards, full stop. My pieces are ALWAYS signed or have my initials. I stand up… I can be counted. How can you “count” a sock-puppet username? Such people are the scum of the Internet… and I say so loudly and proudly. I have GOOD company in that assertion… Fr Vsevolod agrees with me. You can agree with Fr Vsevolod (and me), or, you can agree with Fathausen and his merry band of anonymous posters. Openness and honesty or secrecy and duplicity… make no mistake on it, Fathausen’s offering you the latter. Is that what you really want?

BMD 

Fr Vsevolod Chaplin: Russia has Fifty Years to Prevent its Collapse

Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin (1968- ), the head of the MP Department for Church and Society

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Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, the head of the MP Department for Church and Society, believes that Russian society will perish if it doesn’t undergo a spiritual transformation, saying in an interview with the Russian edition of Rolling Stone, “Our society needs a moral revolution, or, if you prefer to put it so, a counter-revolution. Without such, our society won’t make it; instead, our society will sink deeper. I’d say that we have a period of fifty years for Russia to make such a moral revolution, or, we’ll finally pass the point of no return and die“. He considers it an “either/or” situation, “either we become morally a quite different society, or we simply won’t exist”.

Fr Vsevolod related his first meeting with Patriarch Kirill Gundyaev of Moscow and all the Russias in 1986, when Kirill was Archbishop of Smolensk and Vyazma. Fr Vsevolod recalled, “He’d just been transferred to Smolensk. I was very impressed to have a chance to talk with him, especially because I had studied the life of his spiritual mentor Metropolitan Nikodim, and as I was going to write something about [Nikodim], I wanted ask Archbishop Kirill what his thoughts were concerning Metropolitan Nikodim and his legacy for the future of the Church. When I visited him, it was at a low point in his career, I spent some time talking with him and hung around as he performed the usual round of services. In general, he was like a young lion locked up in a cage, full of ideas, plans, and hopes. He was confident that he’d be able to carry them all out, whilst everyone else mocked him”. He went on to say that Church circles in Moscow “were glad [at his discomfiture], they said, ‘This presumptuous upstart has finally been rusticated, let him rot’. Government circles were even happier, they said, ‘His activism’s over; let him vegetate in Smolensk’”.

Fr Vsevolod also gave his opinion concerning the contemporary debate about the place of the Church in society, saying, “It isn’t as heated as it was in the nineties. Then, the attitude towards the Church was ninety percent negative… that isn’t the case today. There was a time when we had to give thirty interviews a day. As for today, it’s just not as heated. This is as we expected, so neither I nor the Church as whole want to mess with it, as the old Soviet attitudes are gradually dying out, including the Soviet model of the place of religion in society”. He explained that he had in mind the idea that “the Church’s place is only within the gates of the parish”. Fr Vsevolod concluded by saying, “The Church belongs everywhere”.

3 October 2011

Interfax-Religion

http://www.interfax-religion.ru/?act=news&div=42465

Editor’s Note:

Fr Vsevolod sees Classical Liberalism as the greatest danger to the Church. That is, he opposes what passes for “Conservatism” in Anglosphere countries. Classical Liberals (“conservatives”) demand the destruction of the social safety net and the shredding of government regulation in favour of an unchecked and untrammelled “Free Market”, along with societal anarchy and “freedom” (as typified by Radical American Sectarians)… THAT is what the Church opposes when it opposes “Liberalism”. It does NOT oppose Social Justice, Socialism, or fair treatment of minorities/helpless individuals. In short, Fr Vsevolod is saying that Russia must turn away from American-style consumerism, plutocracy, and rightwing deregulation… if it doesn’t… it’ll die.

If that’s true of Russia, it’s true of America, as well. Think on that one well…

BMD