Fr Joachim Parr & the MP Mercy House Debacle

DIscussion and News concerning Orthodox Churches in communion with those who have fallen into the heresies of Ecumenism, Renovationism, Sergianism, and Modernism, or those Traditional Orthodox Churches who are now involved with Name-Worshiping, or vagante jurisdictions. All Forum Rules apply. No polemics. No heated discussions. No name-calling.


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Barbara
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Fr Joachim Parr & the MP Mercy House Debacle

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I will say that I was always highly suspicious of this character. The fact that he suddenly jumped from Rocor to the MP was highly suspicious. It indicated obvious demonic influence. I had few facts, however. Finally, the truth - or some of the truth - is out.

A group of refugees from his Mercy House organization in New York City [ and upstate New York 'Treadwell Abbey' ] has created a video to expose their erstwhile spiritual father.
All the charges against the pseudo-elder are painstakingly proven using either official documents or other written material such as school albums in this 20 minute film.

My feeling is that there are WORSE scandals concerning Fr Joachim [Parr] yet to emerge. Probably these are not being revealed to the public until solid substantiation has been produced. Perhaps this is due to a sense of fairness or because of fear of being countersued by Fr Parr for slander.

Note that the producers chose to release this expose on the namesday of the so-called "Schema - Archimandrite Joachim", Sept 22, the Feast of Sts Anna and Joachim !

P.S> Next time around, the narrator should learn how to pronounce Valaam Monastery !

P.P.S. The GOC here is disparagingly termed "the schismatic Old Calendar Greek Church". Fr Joachim joined it for a short while, where he was made a hieromonk at St Irene's in Astoria [ unfortunately after only 2 years of being chrismated into Orthodoxy at the OCA church in New York City.]

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Re: Fr Joachim Parr & the MP Mercy House Debacle

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Here is another fairy tale that Fr Parr told. I heard that he claimed descent from Catherine Parr, the last of 6 wives of Henry VIII of England. She was the only one to outlive the sociopathic monarch, who rebelled against the Catholic Church due to its refusal to give into his wish to break the Church law to satisfy a whim.

This boast of Fr Parr's did not strike me as authentic. But how does one know unless the entire context is visible ? At that time, the internet was not so active to check any information and Fr Parr was still in Rocor. He had not yet revealed his shady character by a sudden leap to the embrace of his jurisdiction's enemy, the Moscow Patriarchate.

The video makes a partial reference to this purported link to the British monarchy. In it, Fr Parr is mentioned as claiming to be descended from "English aristocracy". This must have been among the many blatant falsehoods the self-created elder related to interviewers, and which continues to attract new followers due to having included this pretentious statement in his falsehood-woven autobiography.

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Barbara
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Re: Fr Joachim Parr & the MP Mercy House Debacle

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A possible area of scandal is not elaborated upon by the video, which passes over Fr Joachim Parr's expulsion from the OCA's St Tikhon's Seminary. There must have been far more serious causes for the seminary to kick him out than his faulty autobiographical data shown in the clip !

While the video highlights the nun being hit with a stick by a novice, it was only a novice, not a senior monk or Fr Parr himself. While sad and regrettable that Mother Magdalena was harmed, the story is not necessarily indicting about the co-founder of Mercy House.

I am more concerned about the emergence of the fact from the life overview of Fr Parr's apparent pathological lying. This is not an isolated symptom : it usually denotes sociopathy. If Fr Parr is a sociopath, then we can figure he suffers from other of the key indicators, thus expanding the scope of the problems beyond the video's focus on 'totalitarian cult' control by him of his followers. Some of the list of his supposed draconian rules did not strike me as so terrible, such as what to wear. Regulations at the 2 monastic properties might be only skirts with no pants to be worn by women, and long pants for men. Perhaps even a ban on T-shirts with logos, which the St Paisius Convent in Safford, Arizona prohibits.

A TRUE Elder would often tell disciples whom to marry : Fr Parr was passing himself off as such. Otherwise it would be normal for the spiritual father to suggest or veto matches when consulted. If we remember the story of how St Seraphim emphatically prevented his disciple Motovilov from marrying a noblewoman, Ekaterina, with whom the latter was in love, and demanded Motovilov instead marry an angelic peasant he had never met, then one can see that such direction is not interference. The MercyHouseAbuse group seems to view it as ridiculous or dangerous. Where in fact, Russian Elders' giving direction about a spiritual child's correct match has a long tradition. I suspect that most of Fr Parr's followers did not have wide experience of Orthodoxy before they came to Mercy House.

To me, it's the outrageous lying that is the REAL problem. Fr Parr's mendacity is the tip of the iceberg to get to the truth of the full damage wreaked by Schema-Archimandrite Parr. [ Is that title accurate, even ? ]

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Barbara
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Re: Fr Joachim Parr & the MP Mercy House Debacle

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It looks like that title is NOT accurate, as of the same day the videos appeared, September 22.
The MP's Administrator, Bp John of Naro-Fominsk, has suspended Fr. Parr from the priesthood.

" Igumen Nikodim (Balyasnikov), representative of the Patriarchal parishes, is quoted as stating that Fr. Joachim (Parr) was suspended based upon article 120 of the Nomocanon concerning the revelation of confessions, and violating priestly vows. "

http://www.pravoslavie.ru/english/97426.htm

Doubtless, there was fear of a widening scandal if more problems were to leak out.

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Re: Fr Joachim Parr & the MP Mercy House Debacle

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Barbara wrote:

A TRUE Elder would often tell disciples whom to marry : Fr Parr was passing himself off as such. Otherwise it would be normal for the spiritual father to suggest or veto matches when consulted. If we remember the story of how St Seraphim emphatically prevented his disciple Motovilov from marrying a noblewoman, Ekaterina, with whom the latter was in love, and demanded Motovilov instead marry an angelic peasant he had never met, then one can see that such direction is not interference. The MercyHouseAbuse group seems to view it as ridiculous or dangerous. Where in fact, Russian Elders' giving direction about a spiritual child's correct match has a long tradition. I suspect that most of Fr Parr's followers did not have wide experience of Orthodoxy before they came to Mercy House.

Saint Seraphin was known by everybody to be a clairvoyant elder and could give such piece of advice... but Joachim Parr not... There are so many orthodox who believe that they have a true clairvoyant elder as start as they start confessing to a priest, proudly talk about them as a spiritual father.

Priidite, poklonimsja i pripadem ko Hristu.

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Re: Fr Joachim Parr & the MP Mercy House Debacle

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Yes, Jean-Serge, that's why this is SUCH an important lesson for many converts to Orthodoxy.

I glanced at Fr Parr's facebook page and found this photo which is to me completely deceptive. Look how kindly he appears !
A new convert or someone not experienced in the spiritual life could so easily be taken in :

Image

The image did not show up. It is a ways down the facebook page of Joachim Parr, dated August 6, 2015. The archimandrite is being presented a lovely bouquet of flowers, implying that he is full of light and goodness. Plus that he is revered by his disciples.

I notice only in two or three of the most recent pictures on this facebook page is Fr Parr smiling - or attempting to smile. Normally he looks SO grim that one should be warned away by that alone. Stern asceticism does not look like this. There is still LIFE in the eyes and vitality of spirit. His eyes look, I hate to say, empty and often dead. How are the spiritual children to know this if they haven't studied carefully how to differentiate a real Elder from a false elder, the bane of our day > hence the need for widespread awareness of this problem to prevent souls being deceived or even lost.

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Re: Fr Joachim Parr & the MP Mercy House Debacle

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A jaw-dropping letter suspending then-Abbot Parr by then-Bishop Gabriel of Manhattan [ Rocor ] is below.
Among other offenses, the arch-deceiver Fr. Parr actually traveled to Russia and met with Alexei II. Not once but several times. Unthinkably disobedient and rebellious for a Rocor Priest to do in mid 2001 !

Rather than offering a shred of repentance, Fr Parr defected to the Moscow Patriarchate. This flight represented a betrayal of the jurisdiction which had welcomed him -- likely a virtual ecclesiastical nobody at that time -- and honored and trusted this American with a powerful position as its Director of External Church Affairs.

It would be interesting to find out whether Alexei II had made a deal with Fr Parr, and what the terms of that were.


"Letter of Bishop Gabriel:

To the Faithful of the Parish of Saint Sergius of Radonezh

May the blessing of our Lord Jesus Christ be upon you all!

These past several weeks have witnessed several disturbing developments within your community, which have compelled me, in accordance with my hierarchal oath, to take action so that the spiritual health and safety of your parish, our beloved flock, may be preserved.

Word reached us that your pastor. Abbot Joachim, gathered you together two weeks ago and revealed that it was his belief that our Church Abroad must unite with the Moscow Patriarchate as soon as possible, and that there were no compelling reasons for our Church to remain isolated from the Churches of "official Orthodoxy."

The public airing of such opinions resulted in a number of your fellow parishioners abandoning Saint Sergius parish and attending services in other parishes of the Church Abroad.

On his return to America, I spoke personally with Fr. Joachim. In the course of my conversation with him, he readily admitted that he holds and has given voice to the above-described views, and also that, without receiving a blessing to do so, he has visited and held discussions with Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow on more than one occasion.

By meeting personally with the head of the Moscow Patriarchate without receiving the blessing of the Synod to do so, Fr Joachim has far exceeded any authority he may have as Director of External Church Affairs and has signally failed to observe his vows of monastic and clerical obedience.

Our Council of Bishops will decide when and how we will deal with the Moscow Patriarchate, for the governance of the Church is their responsibility. They must be permitted to proceed at their own pace, and the flock should restrict itself to praying that our Savior will guide them in their endeavors by His grace. For when individual clergymen attempt to anticipate or usurp the hierarchy's authority in any way, chaos and spiritual harm are the inevitable result.

Furthermore, and more disturbing to me, is Fr. Joachim's assertion that there is no substantive obstacle to our Church Abroad's reentering communion with the jurisdictions of "official Orthodoxy".

The Russian Orthodox Church Abroad enjoyed full communion and a high reputation with the autocephalous Churches up until the so –called "Mutual Lifting of the Anathemas of 1054" by Pope Paul V I and Patriarch Athenagoras of Constantinople. As a result of this un–Orthodox and anti-canonical action, the late Metropolitan Philaret, who headed our Church from 1964 through 1985, wrote two Sorrowful Epistles, begging the autocephalous Churches to forsake the path of the pan-heresy of Ecumenism and return to the royal road of true Orthodoxy. His pleas have been unanswered to this day. Indeed, one more and more sees that the situation within world Orthodoxy is worsening with each passing year.

For example, the Patriarchate of Antioch now encourages full Eucharistic communion with the Jacobite Monophysites, heretics who were formally condemned by the Fourth Ecumenical Council. And just this year the Patriarchate of Alexandria has entered into a joint agreement with the Coptic Monophysites to recognize the efficacy of the baptisms and marriages performed by either church.

Under the presidency of Metropolitan Philaret. our Council of Bishops condemned Ecumenism as a heresy, and included an anathema against it in the Rite of theTriumph of Orthodoxy, which we solemnly serve every year after the Divine Liturgy on the First Sunday of Great Lent. This anathema reads:

"To those who attack the Church of Christ by teaching that Christ's Church is divided into so-called branches which differ in doctrine and way of life, or that the Church does not exist visibly, but will be formed in the future, when all branches or sects or denominations, and even religions, will be united into one body; and who do not distinguish the priesthood and mysteries of the Church from those of the heretics, but say that the baptism and Eucharist of heretics is effectual for salvation: therefore, to those who knowingly have communion with these aforementioned heretics or who advocate, disseminate or defend their new heresy of ecumenism under the pretext of brotherly love or the supposed unification of separated Christians, Anathema! Anathema! Anathema!"

This has been the official position of our Church abroad for decades. It is well known throughout the Orthodox world and Fr. Joachim cannot have been unaware of it when he petitioned to be received into our clergy.

Therefore, for his lack of obedience to his ecclesiastical superiors, and for advocating an ecclesiology diametrically opposed to that of our Church, Fr.Joachim has been suspended from all priestly functions until he offers full repentance for his offenses.

The clergy and laity of the Parish of Saint Sergius, and the monks of his community, are admonished that their obedience to their pastor must be superseded by their obedience to the hierarchy of our Church and to the doctrine of the Church which our Church espouses, and which, we firmly believe, the Holy Fathers also held.

If any of you have questions about these matters, please contact me for an appointment, and I will gladly explain in greater detail.

Signed,

Bishop Gabriel
Manhattan,
Administrator of the Diocese
4/17 August 2001
Seven Sleepers of Ephesus"

http://www.monasterypress.com/clarification.html


Thank heavens for Monastery Press !

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