In NY, Former HTM Monks Open GOC-K Monastery of St. John Maximovitch

[Cyprian]

So it appears as if this monastery is comprised of former monks from Holy Transfiguration Monastery in Brookline. It will be interesting to see just how far they choose to follow and honor their patron, St. John (Maximovitch).

Fr. Seraphim Rose informs us that St. John commissioned the writing of a special church service honoring Blessed Augustine of Hippo, which was officially approved by the Synod of Bishops of ROCOR under the presidency of Metropolitan Anastassy. Fr. Seraphim said that Archbishop John celebrated this service every year, wherever he might happen to be, on his feast day.

The service was compiled by Archimandrite Ambrose Pogodin (upon the request of Archbishop John of Western Europe), presented by His Eminence Archbishop John to the Synod of Bishops and approved by them to be used in churches.
Synodal Document of May 15, 1955 (o.s.).

Will this new monastery honor St. Augustine in the same manner their patron does?

We shall see about that...

[Barbara]

Inquiring affably, Cyprian [ as opposed to sounding critical ] : what are you getting at here?
Is Blessed Augustine not in good repute with the former Hocna [ a sick feeling struck my stomach as i wrote that acronym without even thinking consciously about the character of that organization ] ?
Is that why you are asking about the new monastery's attitude toward Blessed Augustine ?

I had no idea about all that you wrote about St John's serving on the feast day of Blessed Augustine every year.
We have all heard about St John's marvelous 'bringing back' so to speak of the early Orthodox Saints who had long been forgotten. But never did I see this particular one singled out as respected by St John.

[Cyprian]

HTM in Brookline and the HOCNA have for decades been well-known for not recognizing the sanctity of the Blessed Augustine, slandering the saint's holy memory. I don't think one will find Augustine included in any of their Synaxaria or calendars.

St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco served often at St. Nicholas Cathedral in Seattle. Archbishop John was preparing to serve there in 1966, when he reposed.

In the cathedral of St. Nicholas there was at the time (I assume it still remains) a large fresco where God the Father is portrayed as an old man with a white beard. I took a photograph of it years ago when I visited the cathedral. St. John never made any fuss about or had any issues with venerating these icons.

HOCNA and the Boston monastery are also well-known for rejecting icons of God the Father. So naturally I will be curious to know if this new monastery will follow the path trodden by their patron St. John when it comes to these questions, or are they going to cling to the long-held erroneous HOCNA stance.

When there was a mass exodus from HOCNA a few years ago, and a majority of the clergy and laity came into the synod of Kallinikos, were the clergy required to recant or disavow these unorthodox opinions?

Who knows? I could never get a straight answer when I asked. I never have learned how it was resolved when all the HOCNA people who have long been taught to reject icons of God the Father came into the synod of Kallinikos, which has these icons in their churches.

I have no interest in associating with the synod of Kallinikos, so I never pursued it further.

[Maria]

In my own experience with the GOC-K, from December 2011 through December 2013, I was told that the HOCNA people who had come into the GOC-K were allowed some time to correct their errors and come around to the GOC-Ks way of thinking. In other words, they were allowed to participate fully in the sacraments of the GOC-K without changing their beliefs on

• Blessed Augustine (HOCNA does not consider Augustine to be a saint)
  The Ancient of Days Icon (HOCNA does not permit any icons containing the Ancient of Days/God the Father to be venerated)
  Tollhouses (HOCNA opposes the teaching on Tollhouses)

However, they had to repent and change their beliefs on:

• Heresy of Awake Sleeper
  Heresy of Name-Worshiping
  Elder Worship of Panteleimon of Boston

[Barbara]

That's good to know in detail, Maria. Thanks for answering Cyprian's question.

Cyprian's avatar I noticed is a clear anti-Hocna statement in itself !

Is that true ? I didn't realize that St John was preparing to serve when he reposed.
I had had the impression that the Saint had already served that morning. Maybe not. Maybe he had just arrived, crossed the street to speak with some friends, George Kalfov, I think it was, who then accompanied St John across the avenue to the Cathedral with the Kursk Icon. Perhaps there was no service and St John went up to his quarters [ now the Chapel dedicated to him ] to rest.

But wait - there was the story of the poisoned chalice. So he did serve !

[Isaakos]

There are many of the former HOCNA who flat out call St. Augustine a heretic and imagine he has no feast on the calendar. I have seen this happen myself and corrected the person saying so. I take Fr. Seraphim's line: He is a saint who was prone to some exaggerated understandings. The end.

[Cyprian]

Christ is risen!

Barbara, you are correct, St. John had already served that day. My apologies for speaking incorrectly.

My icon logo is not an anti-HOCNA statement per se. I prefer to view it as more of a positive affirmation or confession that icons of the Holy Trinity, with God the Father depicted as the Ancient of Days, are holy, venerable, canonical, and fully within the tradition and phronema of the Church.

Those who rail against images of the Father are ignorant of the theology of the Church, which fully justifies the depiction of the Father in iconography. They assert that images of the Father are of Latin or Western influence, even though this is false, and they never offer any proof to support their baseless claims.

HOCNA is not the only group who rejects depictions of the Father. There are some other old-calendarist sectarians who also instigate against them, and many new-calendarists and their fellow travelers in "World Orthodoxy" teach they are heretical.

The ecumenist MP Met. Hilarion (Alfeyev), chairman of the Department of External Church Relations, who is praised by some as a "theologian," openly preaches against images of the Father.

Those who reject images of the Father are Arian in their thinking, and oftentimes use Arian arguments in an attempt to justify their position that these images are not permissible.