These words are so hateful and because of this, it is impossible regardless of the facts you float about, to accept your perspective. You represent a polarity which eagerly awaits the day that you will be 'free' of the Mother Churches. It is antithetical on the most basic levels to Orthodoxy. Jesus didn't refute tradition but complied and established the Apostles to the head and they instituted deacons etc. St. Paul is very clear about from whom you take your direction always redirecting the people about who is graced with the privilege of leading the church. Your venomous disregard for the Ecumenical Throne and the Mother Churches is indicative of a renegade; recklessly imposing defiance and disobedience to those that may be impressed by your knowledge. With all your knowledge you have no wisdom, no insight and certainly no respect. You are probably one of the most prideful individuals I have met. I, however do not claim insight or greater understanding then those that have come before me. I bow down to the order of the church and look to the Holy Fathers of the Church the Great Patriarchs for direction. I am not naive enough to believe that all the Patriarch were honorable but that would be their personal problem as the faithful are protected by the rites of the Mysteria. The priesthood not the priest. I do not claim to understand more then Met. Jonah or the hierarchy of any jurisdiction I am however able to state accurately and object to the disorder and disregard for the traditions which have served the faithful and church for generations. Perhaps Met. Jonah will have greater judgment because he should know better and the only reason not to be obedient is personal ambition and ignorance and delusion. There is not a single American saint that can lay claim to the grace in insight of those great leaders. You must understand that there is nothing new under the sun. That with the death and resurrection and ascension of our Lord there is no new revelation of God no new insight. You look back to understand the future. We don't innovate and fashion ways to separate the flock. We complete Christ's mission the Sheppard with his flock, the Vine with his branches etc. The saints of old SS John Chrysostom and Gregory the Theologian, Basil the Great etc create the foundation and provided the framework for Orthodoxy. Jesus is the head the salvation of the world but he in time put these men and others to establish correctly the worship and practice for his people. They were chosen not Saint John Maximovitch or Saint Raphael of Brooklyn. You asked during an earlier posts how many contemporary American Saint the GOA has and implied that the OCA was flourishing with many. Don't you think it is pragmatic for the OCA to 'establish' saints to give credibility to their position? It is a bit too convenient to expedite the canonization of so many contemporary saints. Saints do not arise from prideful disorder or defiance.
4 comments:
Please, please, get your facts straight. Many of the "OCA's" saints were canonized by others. SS. Innocent of Alaska/Moscow, Tikhon, John Kuchurov and Alexander Hotovitzky were canonized by the PoM, all but the first being neo-Martyrs: or do you have to killed by a Turk for it to count?
Nikolai Velimirovic was canonized by the Church in Serbia.
Perhaps the "sister churches" of the Phanar and the Vatican are upset about the glorification of St. Alexis Toth, who brought hundreds of thousands from submission to the Vatican to the freedom of Orthodoxy.
So since these saints, along with the Martyr St. Peter the Aleut (killed in SF by the inquisition because he refused to submit to the Vatican, same problem as with St. Alex?), the monk St. Herman who labored decades among the natives who rememberd his kindness for centuries, St. Juvenaly killed while evangelizing the natives, and St. Jacob the first native priest who baptized thousands of the Alaskans, did not arise out "prideful disorder or defiance," what is your point?
I can't tell if you are smearing St. John Maximovitch on purpose: it is because he spoke the Truth?
"Such an outward abasement of the hierarch of the city of St. Constantine, which was once the capital of the ecumene, has not caused reverence toward him to be shaken among Orthodox Christians, who revere the See of Sts. Chrysostom and Gregory the Theologian. From the height of this See the successor of Sts. John and Gregory could spiritually guide the whole Orthodox world, if only he possessed their firmness in the defense of righteousness and truth and the breadth of views of the recent Patriarch Joachim III. However, to the general decline of the Ecumenical Patriarchate there has been joined the direction of its activity after the Great War. The Ecumenical Patriarchate has desired to make up for the loss of dioceses which have left its jurisdiction, and likewise the loss of its political significance within the boundaries of Turkey, by submitting to itself areas where up to now there has been no Orthodox hierarchy, and likewise the Churches of those states where the government is not Orthodox. Thus, on April 5, 1922, Patriarch Meletius designated an Exarch of Western and Central Europe with the title of Metropolitan of Thyateira with residency in London; on March 4, 1923, the same Patriarch consecrated the Czech Archimandrite Sabbatius Archbishop of Prague and All Czechoslovakia; on April 15, 1924, a Metropolia of Hungary and All Central Europe was founded with a See in Budapest, even though there was already a Serbian bishop there. In America an Archbishopric was established under the Ecumenical Throne, then in 1924 a Diocese was established in Australia with a See in Sydney. In 1938 India was made subordinate to the Archbishop of Australia.
At the same time there has proceeded the subjection of separate parts of the Russian Orthodox Church which have been torn away from Russia. Thus, on June 9, 1923, the Ecumenical Patriarch accepted into his jurisdiction the Diocese of Finland as an autonomous Finnish Church; on August 23, 1923, the Estonian Church was made subject in the same way, on November 13, 1924, Patriarch Gregory VII recognized the autocephaly of the Polish Church under the supervision of the Ecumenical Patriarchate—that is, rather autonomy. In March, 1936, the Ecumenical Patriarch accepted Latvia into his jurisdiction. Not limiting himself to the acceptance into his jurisdiction of Churches in regions which had fallen away from the borders of Russia, Patriarch Photius accepted into his jurisdiction Metropolitan Eulogius in Western Europe together with the parishes subordinate to him, and on February 28, 1937, an Archbishop of the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarch in America consecrated Bishop Theodore-Bogdan Shpilko for a Ukrainian Church in North America."
see again the news on the UAOC to see how things haven't changed.
cont....
"The moral authority of the Patriarchs of Constantinople has likewise fallen very low in view of their extreme instability in ecclesiastical matters. Thus, Patriarch Meletius IV arranged a “Pan-Orthodox Congress,” with representatives of various churches, which decreed the introduction of the New Calendar. This decree, recognized only by a part of the Church, introduced a frightful schism among Orthodox Christians. Patriarch Gregory VII recognized the decree of the council of the Living Church concerning the deposing of Patriarch Tikhon, whom not long before this the Synod of Constantinople had declared a “confessor,” and then he entered into communion with the “Renovationists” in Russia, which continues up to now.
In sum, the Ecumenical Patriarchate, in theory embracing almost the whole universe and in fact extending its authority only over several dioceses, and in other places having only a higher superficial supervision and receiving certain revenues for this, persecuted by the government at home and not supported by any governmental authority abroad: having lost its significance as a pillar of truth and having itself become a source of division, and at the same time being possessed by an exorbitant love of power—represents a pitiful spectacle which recalls the worst periods in the history of the See of Constantinople."
http://www.aoiusa.org/main/page.php?page_id=122
As for the Mother Churches: at present I am under Antioch, but my heart belongs to Alexandria. Both were Apostolic Thrones and teachers of the Church LOOOOONG before the upstart on the Bosphoros (which, btw, deposed St. Gregory and exiled St. John to his death). That I don't confuse obeissance to the Ecumenical Throne for obedience to the Gospel doesn't make me disobedient in the least, particularly as ALL the Mother Churches have had to have the EP "bow down to the order of the Church and look to the Holy Fathers of the Church for direction" and repect their them for being "able to state accurately and object to the disorder and disregard for the traditions which have served the faithful and church for generations."
Elgreca: Please excuse our pastoral note here to Isa Almisry, but, at this time, we sense enough is enough.
Isa Almisry: Many must pray for your metanoia.
Your internal rage and external hatreds are spiritually toxic to many. It seems you are quick to verbal vengeance, seeking to denigrate anyone near or unlike you, leaving victims scattered rather than rising to the sacred image of the Good Samaritan.
At every given opportunity, you puff your chest and claim the prerogatives of the Holy Spirit. Clearly, then, you must be in great distress to exude prelest (i.e., plani) with such bitter need.
Your heart must be quite heavy, extremely distraught, and so disconnected from any semblance of empathy or human intimacy. This is quite sad, that you've fallen to a vacuous state away from grace and mercy - neither receiving, and never dispensing.
You've not learned the sacred mystery of ἡσυχασμός, of hesychasm, of an all-pervading holy silence rendered as a gift of the Holy Spirit. You waste minutes and hours and precious breaths screaming to the world as if you alone have access to the Word.
St Anthony, seeing the world covered with sinful and evil traps, asked God: "Who can escape these snares?" And a Voice replied: "Humility."
You entrap Elgreca (and, no doubt, scores of others) with your verbose (and ever-inaccurate), prideful comments set as snares. Certainly you applaud yourself for being a great defender the Faith.
Isa Almisry, have you no personal experience of the divine? An iota of humility and metanoia renders the greatest healings from God. But sacred silence would benefit you the most.
Please turn to a spiritual guide (priest, bishop, startez/geronda) and expose yourself, asking for help. Seek to acquire humility. And a prayerful life of silence.
We will remember you at the Prothesis come the morning's liturgy. We will offer up our prayers, those of three priests under the Holy Omophorion of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
The ones you minimize will pray for you.
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