Theophanes wrote:
With regard to another undercurrent in this thread, I don't think it is useful to inject veiled metaphors ('crude' or otherwise) referencing keh-gee-bee-style defamations of character such that the original slander/libel is repeated in some people's minds. I am referring to the "metropolitan / sexual abuse of children" metaphor that was unfortunately injected. IMHO, this can only prepare the soil for more seeds of "distancing" to be planted. I appreciate the energetic discussion though, and hope to learn much for both my own and others' sakes.
Theophan
Dear Theophan,
Again welcome to E Cafe.
Per the rules, at E Cafe, members are not to commit ad hominems or engage in gossip. If this
is occurring, then please report that post, even if it happens to be mine. Sometimes when
members here are in the thick of an argument, they may not be aware that they are breaking the
rules. Accusing someone of being a KGB agent or a Freemason are serious charges without proof.
Nevertheless, we can point to their sermons and writings and address their duplicity and errors.
When conducting an ecclesiastical court, evidence must be presented, but the laity generally are
not trained nor do they have the expertise to bring someone to court and try them.
However, during the Arian heresy, it was the laity and especially the monastics who recognized
that something was wrong as 80 to 90 percent of the bishops had capitulated. It was the hieromonks,
laity and the monastics who kept the faith alive, and who urged the bishops to repent.
In 1924, both people, monastics, and "Mass" priests, who did not have a blessing to serve
the Holy Mysteries, realized that something was diabolically wrong when the EP and certain
Greek Bishops suddenly forced the New Calendar upon them. Nevertheless, God had raised up
saints such as St. Nektarios and other holy Elders who wrote and delivered sermons warning
the faithful people about the dangers of modernistic innovations with their mandate for priests
to stop wearing facial hair and the frock, and with the push for this Papal New Calendar with
its shortening and or elimination of the Apostles' Fast. Note that the modernists in Rome had
previously eliminated the rigidity of the Nativity Fast at Vatican I in 1870, so the modernists in
Constantinople were trying to eliminate the strictness of the Nativity fast too. With the imposition
of the New Calendar, priests, monastics, and laity were imprisoned and tortured for observing
Vespers, feast days and saint's days according to the Old Calendar.
And this was the intent all along as Western educated modernists in the clergy were saying
that Orthodox Christians had to enter the New World, and that clergy had to stop wearing facial
hair and replace their frock with a business suit and Roman collar. Therefore, when humble
"Mass" priests and monks were imprisoned, they were stripped of their frocks and their facial
hair was pulled from the roots, often leaving them to bleed to death or die from infections as
no medical care was rendered in these filthy prisons. This showed the diabolical insanity and
hatred for the Saints.
Even though these True Orthodox did not have the authority to call an Ecumenical Council to
deal with the problem, they had their Holy Tradition, the writings of the saints, and certain
rulings by local synods of the Church that had previously condemned the Papal New Calendar
innovations. These faithful instinctively knew that the New Calendar imposition had created a
schism and they could not be a part of this schism. New Calendarists had compromised the truth.
During this time, St. Matthew the New Confessor kept the Holy Faith and Holy Traditions alive
between 1924 to 1935 when there were no True Orthodox Bishops. It was he who encouraged
the laity to remain faithful and to persevere during these very dark times when all the bishops
and most of the priests and their people had fallen under the New Calendar deception of the
Freemasons, like Meletios Metakaxis who had taken control of our Church, and who were brutally
trying to suppress the True Faith.
St. Matthew covered a lot of territory as a humble preacher and confessor to bring the sacraments
to the villages and cities and islands of Greece, just as the monastics did during the Ottoman Empire.
The faithful and "Mass" priests, who did not have a blessing to serve the Holy Mysteries, would
prepare for these infrequent events by prayer and fasting prior to making their confession and
receiving Holy Communion. "Mass" priests were ordained solely to serve the Divine Liturgy, but
they were the only ones who could receive Holy Communion as they did not have permission to
hear confessions. As during the Ottoman Empire, yiayias and "Mass" priests kept the faith alive
by instructing the children in the Holy Faith and in Her Holy Traditions.
As during the Arian heresy, it was the faithful, the monastics, and hieromonks like St. Matthew
who kept the faith alive, and who were able to encourage three bishops to leave World Orthodoxy
and to establish a True Orthodox Synod of Bishops.
