Voices From the Clergy

Dear Patty,

You make two HUGE assumptions.

First you assume that the Synod will meet as scheduled in early September. More than one meeting has been rescheduled for a host of reasons ( no pun intended ).

Second is assuming that the SIC will be released to the church at large at that time. If either of these events don't occur as scheduled, many will talk with their wallets and the rest will let their feet do the walking. We are anticipating both events to occur and the administration is no doubt wondering what their next move is. If only the "few malcontents" would just disappear, things could return to normal. We have been "appeased" with Town Hall meetings. Why can't we just go away already?

The more things change, the more they stay the same. The names are new but the operation is intact. All they have to do is get their stories straight. You couldn't make up a TV series this bizarre.

Let us pray that the meeting takes place and that the SIC report is released.

The situation we find ourselves in is more than disheartening at this point. As Mark has said many, many times ....."The long defeat continues"........

Anonymous

I read the comments of Fr. Mack and he did a very good job of writing that article, as did the others. My concern is that he is still not quite convinced that total change needs to take place.
WHAT IS THAT ALL ABOUT!?! 
His church is on the verge of total implosion and he is still not convinced? He holds hope out that Met. Herman may have a 180 degree change? The time for his repentance has come and gone. Even if he does repent he still needs to GO. He needed to go years ago. Duh.

Fr. Mack is sending his parish and the OCA the wrong message. The message that there is still hope for Met. Herman, if he repents. After all he said in that article he cannot come to the final conclusion that the corrupt need to GO -even if they repent? Who in their right mind, or Orthodox mind, would trust in Herman even if he repented? Does Repentance means there are no consequences in Orthodoxy? 

Fr. Mack does not seem to be able to come to a hard conclusion on based upon the hard facts of what really has been going on. What does Scripture say to do? What is the conclusion of Scripture about people like Met. Herman and the Synod of Bishops? Ravenous wolves in sheep clothing is what I see, and the wolves do not want to leave. Wolves don't repent. They only keep telling you they are not wolves. They do that so that they can keep eating sheep. That's what wolves do.

Can it be more clear? 

"Fr. Schmemann's Dream"? Sorry, not Fr. Schmemann's dream, but the logical progression of any church which originates in a territory and grows. In fact, the idea of the OCA originated with SCOBA (all the canonical Orthodox bishops in America) in 1961. SCOBA wanted a unified Orthodox church in North America and even designated the name to be the OCA. All the ethnic churches in North America united in a synod of bishops as an autocephalous church guiding their own destiny. This was the dream of ALL the churches and bishops. Anyone thinking that going back under the thumb of foreign bishops is just ridiculous. Look at Russia and look at Georgia. The ROC is a police state arm of the Russian government. They have nothing to offer free Americans. The Greeks, well, they're just totally wrapped up in being Greek. The Antiochians are the "luke warm" of the bunch, not committing to anything.

Not Fr. Schmemann's dream, but the dream of ALL Orthodox in North America. Too bad the bishops who started SCOBA reneged on becoming members ogf the OCA. Ultimately, their loss!

Mark:

Your editor's note is FANTASTIC. I knew you learned something at SVS. Schmemann would be proud!

One may not learn how to be a good bishop, but the very fact that they are a bishop means they are not supposed to fall in the evil corruption that our gang has fallen into. This is because they have been chosen by the Church to protect and guide her, to shield her from the evils that are all too willing to befall her. Because they are bishops they have been recognized as having a level of spirituality that is a notch above us, a notch which we should strive for. It shouldn’t be the other way around.

Time and again, we have not presented these guys with tough decisions in terms of what is right and moral. For most people, even the most non interested, but church going member, these decisions would have been cut and dry because the vast majority people are good and know the difference between right and wrong and know that the side we should be on is that of good and right and Godloving. There’s no gray, there’s no nuances, there’s no justifications for doing otherwise. Its not even something that requires special facets of Orthodoxy that others that are not Orthodox would not be able to know what the right decision in. In fact, our Roman Catholic brethren almost every week set an example for us in turning in embezzlers. How many times do people who write here and elsewhere put down our Roman brethren because of their theology? People, in the end, however, they know what is right, what is bad, and the proper decision on which way they need to go. Why have we not evolved to that simple level? I feel personal embarrassment for those that make statements against our Roman brethren over their theologies and then lie silent or support their own bishops who can’t do the right thing even if a great multitude spell it out to them. I truly feel embarrassed.

The law laid down from God via Moses and that by Christ Himself are not tough laws to understand. They are few in number, worded simply. They are not the canons for which there are canonical experts, many of whom contribute here and elsewhere. The laws are simple, for instance, thou shalt not steal. It makes us wonder what part of “Not” our Synod does not understand in that commandment. Our Synod not only doesn't act upon these acts of theft with even an initial "That was wrong, a fundamental law of our Church was broken", but they become complicit in it and cover it up and deny anything happened. No, it doesn’t take the most wise of men to be bishops to do what is right in that case. Why, a little child can tell you that to steal is wrong. Imagine that, a bishop of 40 years cannot come to the same cut and dry conclusion that a little kid approaching his first confession easily comes to. To say its tough to be a good bishop is allowing a cop out that these guys will too easily use. No, we’re not looking for even good bishops, we’re looking for bishops that can understand and act under the minimal Christian law. It’s THAT simple and they cannot do it. It’s a REAL TRAGEDY. And they put themselves out there, shamelessly, for all the world to see. Its’a real tragedy.

So, its not difficult, it requires selflessness, it requires integrity, it requires character, it requires putting something greater than yourself above yourself. That last one, my friends, is difficult to master. Failure to do be able to do the MINIMAL requirements for a good Christian life is tragic, but our bishops are examples of it and continue to ride the low road come hell or high water. It leaves us thinking that the only reason they cannot bring themselves to these simple Christian decisions is because they are very much a part of what went on and fear not God, but fear accountability here on earth. There is no other reason to explain their behaviors.

The time for #1 is LONG past, the only option is #2. He's had every chance to do what's right, now he's got to face the consequences of his actions.

He and Kondratick will both be held accountable.

If Kondratick would just tell us what he knows about Herman it would make the process all the more easier. We weep at his complete lack of concern and help in this, our time of need, especially because we know of his unbounded love and work for the Church that he did before his dismissal in 2006 and his tireless work to resurrect the parish in Venice, FL. Because he does not care to help, maybe because he uses all his time in Venice parish, we have to go a long circuitous route to get to the point that you want us to get with Herman. It's going to take time, going to take time if we are so hobbled without Kondratick's help, but that's the situation he's left us in and we have to make due with his cooperation to this point. In order for us to vindicate Kondratick, who knows so much, he's making us work, but we want to vindicate him.

Unfortunately with just teases like the IRS and FBI need to be involved and that he’s very wealthy, we just don’t have any information that Herman has committed any crimes, although you say so. While we’re at it, let’s say we need to bring in the ATF and the DEA for good measure. Maybe there’s a reason for the INS and Homeland Security. Maybe the CIA needs to be involved. The authorities are not going to go enthusiastically to investigate alleged, unsubstantiated crimes, because Mr. James Silver conjures them up. We need evidence, we need proof, we need a lot more than sour grapes from a discredited non-monk who says he’s a monk. It’s about credibility and proof. Last we looked up our law books, wealth was not a crime. Like, ya know?

Powerful words from Fr. Moore.

What we must all recognize and we have failed to do this is that there is no concern for the Church by the Metropolitan and the Synod. It is there to serve them and protect them. They are men of inexpressable weakness who are guided not by the words of the Gospels and Scripture, but rather by their own fears and their own condemnations of their acts. Guilty consciences on display for all the world to see, all the world to mock, all the world to shake their heads at. Our bishops are a disgrace to put it mildly. Being a Christian is the toughest job there is, being in a position of leadership of Christians, magnitudes more difficult. It is disappointing that these men made it to their position, but not surprising. In a real Church, in a Church where men of faith and God were keeping watch and watching for the good order of the Church, these men would never have been chosen. We must realize that what we have here, the vote of confidence, the failure to call Herman on his actions, are because Herman, Kondratick and the entire cabal stacked the deck and chose the weakest amongst us. They did not call people of the level of Fr. Moore, or Fr. Reeves, they chose men of the likes of Fr. Mollard, and Fr. Liolin, and Fr. Benjamin. Men, who were chosen, not because they would go into the den of Lions and profess their faith and come out untouched, no, these men were chosen because they were weak, easy to be influenced, and malleable. They are men who need nurturing because of their weaknesses, not to be put into a position where they are the ones to nurture the spiritually needy.

Fr. Moore is dead on right, but its harder than he imagines. Its not that these men have to live up to their jobs, these men have to make themselves worthy of these jobs before they can come to the state where they can perform them effectively. It is the opinion of many that each member of the Synod either has had a hand in the malfeasance or has other skeletons in their closet that they can be intimidated and made to play the roles Herman requires. None, save one, has the spiritual confidence, spiritual maturity, to say “this is wrong, I will not be a party to it!” Simple words, powerful words, but, at this point in time, unutterable words from the mouths of our bishops. These are men who’s own insecurities are soothed by the role of honor and majesty that the malcontents put them into. Insecurities about one’s self are always soothed when people will bow down to you and ask your blessing and venerate your hand just because you are a bishop – something that people do as a matter of course, not because the respect has been earned.

There is a balance here between what the job requires and the emotional capacity of those that are in those jobs. We must realize that because these men do not follow the word of scripture, statutes, basic morality, and the word of God in a way that makes them upstanding members of the Church and society as a whole, they are guided by more base motivations. Embarrassment beyond our imaginations, jail, loss of all they have accumulated, disgrace, and removal from the only profession where they could find the emotional comfort they need to function. Each of these a spiritual abyss. A refusal to own up to what they have done and what they are. In other words, they never matured spiritually to the point where they were qualified, spiritually, for the role of a bishop. A maturity that as this scandal grows and spreads out to a fourth year, has shown them as deer caught in the spiritual headlights with no idea of what to do with the oncoming car that is this ever growing scandal. It’s a spiritual immaturity at its most basic level. This is the core of the problem that Fr. Moore is really addressing.

We must feel sorry for the likes of Nikon, Tikon, Benjamin, and the rest. The Metropolitan now and the one past, the Chancellor, and his minions, played these men like a piano because they knew their weaknesses, and it provided them with the cover to commit the acts they have committed. Still yet, and in a manner so blatant as to amaze us, these men are still yet being manipulated to play the Herman/Kondratick Concerto in nearly perfect harmony never missing a note. While they are not worthy of the jobs, it doesn’t make them bad men, they were inept and incompetent for what this job required, they don’t have the faith on a level necessary of a bishop. That doesn’t mean that they will not come around, but the prognosis doesn’t look good. Unfortunately for us, the immaturity they possess, the fears, insecurities, and self condemnations they suffer, will not allow them to come to the point where they can do what’s right. The emotional paralysis stunts the spiritual growth. It’s sad, but the realization we need to come to is that these men will never be part of the solution, but always part of and symbolic of the problems we have. They are not part of the solution as long as they do not mature spiritually – a maturation process we have dearly little time to wait upon. A maturation that should have been present before they were consecrated.

Last year, someone said “God, save us from our Bishops!”. Over a year later this has become more and more apparent as we meander through this scandal with a spiritually bankrupt Synod.