About a Liberal nun in "ROCOR" - MP

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Barbara
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About a Liberal nun in "ROCOR" - MP

Post by Barbara »

If this is not the right place for this post, be sure to move it.

I guess Facebook has been the scene of a major firefight in recent days. I only learned of that when I saw this stern reprimand to -- yes, exactly this : An Insider's Attempt to Disorient the Orthodox.

Here the insider is a widely-listened to speaker on her youtube channgel, Sister Vassa [Larin], daughter of Fr George Larin, who wrote that he had been an altar server for St John Maximovitch in Shanghai. Whether this is fully true or not, probably no one can say at this late juncture. After all, anyone could magnify their contact with St John in retrospect to enhance their prestige and position.

However, let me preface this with the observation that Sister Vassa had made some BIZARRE remark on RocorStudies site. I could go dig it up if anyone is interested. The main point is that the well-educated sister's tone was shockingly strident. She pounded angrily against the 'patriarchy'. She may not have employed that term but the gist of her comment was in that vein. Coming from a nun raised from childhood in Metropolitan Philaret's Rocor ?? Perhaps that comment she made a couple of years ago was a RED FLAG for her ultra-liberal viewpoint compared with that of Rocor.

Here is the crackdown on her outrageous remarks on her facebook page. This was an important step to stamp out the flames of this scandal before it spreads farther.
Also to dissociate the Rocor Synod from this radical in its ranks. If one follows the trajectory from her angry feminist commentary on RocorStudies to her facebook writing discussed here, one despairs of where she may head next. One worries that she is almost ready to abandon her monasticism and take up some unthinkable life. God Forbid !

I see Sister Vassa dared to post this on St John Maximovitch's Feast Day. What an insult to the memory of the Saint -- and that of her own parent. Though Fr George Larin is retired now, in 2 years he will have served as a Priest for 50 years, says the internet. One can detect an acute displeasure with the wayward nun in the use of the word "the" before her name in the first paragraph here. Outraged commentary by individual clergy will be posted tomorrow, as it is edifying for any Traditional Orthodox reader.

Surely this behavior of Nun Vassa's was a stab in the back to her Synod. Insider attacks are some of the most insidious.

"July 19, 2017
Circular Communique from the Chancery of the Synod of Bishops

The Holy Synod, having received the recent text of a publicly-posted e-mail exchange, dated 2nd July 2017, between the Nun Vassa (Larin) and a correspondent, entitled “EMAIL OF THE WEEK: (from a mother, on MY SON IS HOMOSEXUAL),” together with follow-up correspondence, also posted publicly on 8th July 2017, is compelled to confirm to its flock and to all Orthodox Christians that the counsel contained therein is in contradiction to the Church’s teaching on sexuality, repentance and family life. It does not represent an Orthodox understanding of anthropology or theology, and in the counsel it purports to offer presents a grave spiritual danger to those who might follow it, in terms of their own understanding of sexuality, as well as in the rearing of children.

While it is not the norm to reply from the Office of the Holy Synod to materials posted on the internet, in this instance the wide readership of the various resources published by this author, who is an Orthodox monastic, has the potential to lead readers astray and we therefore feel compelled to issue a brief word to the faithful. It should be clear to men and women of faith that mere verbal acknowledgement, with regards to homosexuality, that “actively living it out is a sin,” is not sufficient to establish a text’s keeping with Orthodox teaching in the light of the Gospel, when the same text nevertheless equates homosexuality in numerous places to a “God-given gift, and cross,” or “one’s gift-and-cross of (homo)sexuality” — suggesting, in utter departure from all Christian teaching, that this or any means of behaviour which God identifies as sinful may be His deliberate bestowal upon some (thereby falling into the social trap of suggesting that “God made me that way”); further, that such an entrance into sin is “not a ‘choice’”; and moreover, rather than encouraging that a parent of a child identifying as homosexual should help him, with the Church’s loving care, to repent and seek healing unto redemption of soul and body and the fulness of life, instead suggest either that the child be encouraged to remain in his sin as a “humble presence in [his] parish,” falsely equating a consequent withdrawal of approach to the Holy Mysteries to the example St. Mary of Egypt, whose long struggle without Holy Communion was not due to her steadfastness in sin but to the extreme conviction of her utter repentance; or yet worse, that the parents of a child should seek out a parish that deliberately and knowingly “is acceptive of your son’s particular gift-and-cross,” once more ascribing homosexuality as a bestowal of God, encouraging at the same time the departure from ascetic transformation and the seeking out of a community that might wilfully abandon the Gospel teaching towards repentance, knowingly permitting the faithful to languish in their sin rather than be healed.

In these spiritually confused times, when many are being led astray by social norms that employ the pretensions of compassion to abandon the creation order and the teachings of Christ, which are the only true source of authentic compassion and genuine spiritual healing, there can be no room for ambiguity or false witness on such critical matters. Only the Gospel, which Christ proclaims in His Church, provides true spiritual medicine; all deviations from its life-creating message only contribute to the wounds and illness of an already-beleaguered society.

We instruct therefore that the contents of these publicly-posted materials be disregarded by the faithful as contrary to the teachings of the Gospel and pastorally harmful; that they be withdrawn and removed from any web sites or publications that seek authentically to represent Orthodox theological and pastoral teaching; and that in the future such materials be treated with most extreme reticence and caution."

http://www.synod.com/synod/eng2017/2017 ... otice.html

A quick glance through some of the responses to Sister Vassa's distasteful remarks shows that some are blaming her association with Catholics. She was taught by Archimandrite Robert Taft as I recall, who is a famous Catholic theologian.
But that is a ridiculous argument.

Instead the problem stems from something far out of balance within her. Is it that anger I detected in the RocorStudies post ? And could it be demons of pride which got inflated by her success with her 'coffeehour' video series ? I skimmed through the first episode but could not watch more, even due to the name of coffee !
[ What's wrong with calling the program Tea with Sister Vassa ? ] But also because her style didn't click with me. I notice in her wording in the aberrant facebook writings that Sister Vassa employs the typical modern pop terms and style of speaking. That's strange for a monastic, but it's always a bad sign. It means the speaker in the mainstream mentality. Sure enough, her advice to the writer of the question shows that she subscribes to that mainstream agenda which promotes this deviant evil in order to force the public to first tolerate it and then condone it.

Perhaps the Rocor Synod needs to take further action by suspending Sister Vassa until she retracts the offending statements.
So far, according to Fr John Whiteford's refutation of her postings, the nun has not apologized to date.

If Sister Vassa doesn't agree to issue such a retraction, then perhaps she has percolating inside her a host of other clashes with Traditional Orthodox views which have yet to come to the surface. In such case, she should leave her monastic vocation and Rocor too, perhaps join the OCA..

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Re: About a Liberal nun in "ROCOR" - MP

Post by Justice »

Sister Vassa said that! wow too bad I really liked her and her educational videos. I hope she will take back those statements.

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Re: About a Liberal nun in "ROCOR"- MP

Post by Priest Siluan »

Dear All,

It is just for keeping you aware of.

I read on FB that Email, from the the "Super" liberal and crypto-papist sister Vassa (Larina) -it is the origin of the ROCOR-MP official document on link-, really it is shameful and anti-Orthodox...

But the ROCOR-MP synod stooped the whole matter with a official letter (in Russian and English).

http://www.synod.com/synod/2017/2017071 ... otice.html

http://www.synod.com/synod/eng2017/2017 ... otice.html

However, with this, we can see what is the real spiritual condition inside the unionist "ROCOR".Now they stopped this, but every time will be more difficult to stop more and more innovations because of their spiritual fall...

I thought that maybe you could be interesting about this new.

PS: Additiona info: Far as I know this "nun" started his "monastic life" in Lesna... and now she is the "Mrak" of Berlin's person after the Vatican (she partakes in "joining commission" with the Papist and other Ecumenist about liturgical and theological issues...

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Barbara
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Re: About a Liberal nun in "ROCOR" - MP

Post by Barbara »

Perhaps this is the article which Fr Siluan kindly posted, but in English ?

We all thought Ancient Faith Radio was too liberal. At least they stood up firmly, AS EVERY SINGLE DECENT ORGANIZATION SHOULD DO. Ancient Faith Radio excised Sister Vassa's name and blog from their site. Yippee !

"Ancient Faith Radio (AFR) is currently in the process of removing its content from Sr. Vassa (Larin), the popular but controversial monastic podcaster known especially for her show “Coffee with Sr. Vassa.” As attested to by another AFR contributor Fr. Thomas Soroka, this move was prompted by Sr. Vassa’s publication and distribution of an email in response to a request for “insight” from the mother of a 14-year-old boy who recently told his parents he was a homosexual, in which the riassaphore nun admittedly contradicts Church teaching.

Sr. Vassa’s answer went out to her subscribers in her daily emails, and was also published on her personal Facebook page, although the post has since been removed. However, the email has been posted and can still be read on other user’s Facebook pages.

The mother of the teenager writes to Sr. Vassa that she and her husband are showing their son unconditional support, but that she is not sure how his homosexual inclination will fit into their Byzantine Catholic faith, explaining that she is not comfortable revealing the situation to her priest. “What happens as he gets older and possibly wants to date?” the mother asks, explaining, “I want to do what is best for my child and have realized this may involve finding a faith community that would be more accepting of my son.”

Sr. Vassa’s controversial answer which has prompted AFR to remove her content from its site begins, “I can’t reply to your question officially, but will reply to it personally. Because my personal opinion is not line with some official pronouncements of my Church.” Although she asks the mother to “just accept it as [her] personal opinion,” she then spread the email publicly.

She applauds the parents’ attempt at unconditional love, noting that none of us wholly fulfill the Gospel commands, and that many of us have our own sexual sins. Sr. Vassa does rightly note that to actively live a homosexual lifestyle is a sin, however many have noted that she seemingly downplays this truth by following it with, “But there are so many other things, which we tolerate in ourselves as ‘only human.’” As the homosexual inclination is most often not a conscious “choice,” but is formed in children from 3-4 years old, according to scientific studies, Sr. Vassa writes that there is therefore less culpability for homosexual sins than for many other sins, arguing that most people have a double standard about homosexuality.

Sr. Vassa correctly noted that her publicly-spread opinions contradict Church teachings, as evidenced by St. John Chrysostom’s words on the sin of homosexuality in his fourth homily on the book of Romans:

All passions are dishonorable, for the soul is even more prejudiced and degraded by sin than is the body by disease; but the worst of all passions is lust between men…. The sins against nature are more difficult and less rewarding, since true pleasure is only the one according to nature. But when God abandons a man, everything is turned upside down! Therefore, not only are their passions [of the homosexuals] satanic, but their lives are diabolic….. So I say to you that these are even worse than murderers, and that it would be better to die than to live in such dishonor. A murderer only separates the soul from the body, whereas these destroy the soul inside the body….. There is nothing, absolutely nothing more mad or damaging than this perversity.

Particularly controversial is Sr. Vassa’s ensuing advice that the parents should allow their son to date boys at home, although she had already stated that to do so would be sinful. As he most likely will not commit himself to celibacy, she writes, “I would say, late him ‘date’ in the daylight, with your knowledge, so he’s not chased into some kind of underground, of illicit hook-ups in certain kinds of pubs of bars.” She reasons that to invite her son’s boyfriends to the house would in some way not be an encouragement to indulge in his homosexual inclination.

Regarding the mother’s question about their church community, Sr. Vassa advises the child to either “suck it up” and be the odd man out, even if it means to be denied Holy Communion, or to find a more accepting parish. In a passage that has proved particularly controversial, Sr. Vassa compared the heroic ascetic struggle for repentance of the great St. Mary of Egypt to that of a homosexual who would be penanced with a denial of Communion for choosing to live a homosexual lifestyle. “Your sons’ humble presence in your parish could benefit both him and others, in unexpected ways. Just like the story of Mary of Egypt has been beneficial to all of us, even though she had no Holy Communion for over 40 years,” she writes.

Note that Sr. Vassa nowhere speaks of the healing grace given to the repentant in the Orthodox Church.

The “Coffee with Sr. Vassa” host’s controversial email and post caused an immediate response on social media. Many have written that their comments were removed from the post and they were blocked from Sr. Vassa’s account for posting comments that disagreed with her advice.

It was then noticed that Sr. Vassa’s name no longer appears in the list of authors on AFR, her blog no longer appears in the blog list, and searches for her name or blog bring up no results. Sr. Vassa hosted her podcast on AFR from October 2013-February 2016, before moving to a subscription service at Patreon, although AFR had kept her name and blog in its lists until this past week.

Fr. Thomas Soroka, the host of the “Sermons at St. Nicholas” and “The Path” AFR podcasts, has stated that he contacted AFR and received confirmation that her name and blog title were removed “in direct response to recent events.” Although her archived material can still be found on the site for now, Fr. Thomas further comments that “It's been absolutely confirmed that all content is being removed.”


From the “Coffee with Sister Vassa” website:

Sr. Dr. Vassa Larin (born Varvara Georgievna Larina, December 11, 1970 in Nyack, New York, United States) is a Russian Orthodox riassaphore nun, the host of the popular show “Coffee with Sr. Vassa,” author of many scholarly articles and a monograph on Byzantine liturgy and theology, and outspoken public intellectual on current issues of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (ROCOR).

She recently taught Liturgical Studies at the Catholic Theological Faculty of the University of Vienna in Austria for 7 years. Sr. Dr. Vassa Larin is a member of two Commissions of the Inter-Council Presence of the Russian Orthodox Church: the Commission on “Liturgy and Church Art,” and the Commission for “Canon Law.”

http://www.pravoslavie.ru/english/print104995.htm

"Outspoken public intellectual" ?? Outspoken, yes. So brazenly in fact that Sister Vassa should be kicked off these Commissions immediately.

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Re: About a Liberal nun in "ROCOR" - MP

Post by Barbara »

Yes, Father. I read that too that Sister Vassa started out at Lesna and then went to Jerusalem.
Conveniently, the 'nun' - I agree with your putting this term in quotation marks - has an 'interview' featuring herself out 3 days ago posted on the Facebook. Surely she is trying to redeem her reputation. In it, she skips right over that key phase of her monastic formation which might shed light on who she is today. It's rather a boring account. I find it lifeless and soulless. As though she is missing spirituality !
One can be expert in such fields as she is, which of course is commendable. But what about the soul ?

No one could write such blasphemous things as she has in this email communication and be wholesome and healthy inside.

I suspect an inner emptiness. Which always means the presence of demons, who rush in to fill the void. Demons use slick, soothing words all the while promoting the dark ideas of the evil side. Her tone is like that.

If anyone thinks I am being too harsh, here is the clincher : demons can not stand to be criticized in any way.
I saw a sassy-sounding reply from her so-called "Crew" [ emphasis is mine ]

"From Sr. Vassa's Crew, to anyone whose comments have been DELETED from this page... if your question is "WHY" (did you delete and/or ban me from Sister Vassa's page?), the answer is: because we CAN.
We're terribly sorry and all that, as befits the crew of a nun, but let's move on now, people. And let our boss get some sleep.
That's it.
Love from all of us in Vienna,
SV's Crew"

The flippant tone sounds obnoxious, at least to my ears. Not only were the comments deleted but those who protested her outrageous Facebook posting were BLOCKED from her site !

Sister Vassa talks too much about "her Crew", calls it "Sister's Crew". I would say there is a major delusion of grandeur operating here which ill-befits a monastic.

Further, she writes to whom she terms 'a cousin' :

" Hey X! [ What kind of greeting is that from a purported NUN ? ]
Thanks for writing and caring, my brother. No, I didn't delete the post because I'm retracting it in any way. I just thought that, after three full 24-hour days of people fighting about it, it was enough. But please note that ca. 90% of the response I got has been positive. I have more followers now, on Facebook, and also more subscribers to my audio-podcasts. So, this isn't some kind of catastrophe or "failure," for me. OK?
I don't believe I said a single thing that is untrue, including my statement, in no uncertain terms, that active homosexuality is a "sin." And that one's denial of Holy Communion is a consequence. And that one shouldn't leave the Church nonetheless. Not everyone in "the homosexual community" (whatever that means) was thrilled with that. My point is, it is simply untrue that I have somehow "championed" the homosexual lifestyle. I don’t “champion” my own “lifestyle” either, you know. I just champion following my vocation, if you get what that means.
... I think that for whatever reason, known only to God, I need to speak on certain issues, because I happen to be called to. "

Again, delusionary thinking. Why would God call HER to 'speak on certain 'issues' ' - especially THIS one in SUCH A WAY ?

Notice that her mind is completely on WHAT THE homosexual COMMUNITY THINKS OF HER> Not on what her Synod of Bishops thinks of her !

There is so much wrong here I could write all night. Her language seems to be the language of the evil homosexual culture. I noted places on her Facebook where she terms the complaints she received - those deleted comments - as 'hateful'.
HATEFUL ??? Whose side is she on ? I think it's becoming clearer and clearer.

Her other concern is her number of followers on Facebook ! It's so ridiculous that one almost has to laugh. This is a nun ?
It's obvious this entire 'fame' has gone to her head. She is breezily referring to her followers as 'her zillions' [ of fans ]. The
Narcissistic Personality Disorder afflicting this person is exposed for all to see.

I strongly suspect another less-known Personality Disorder is active, but I will wait on that one.

Notice, too, how Sister Vassa has to add "OK?" after asserting that this has NOT been a failure for her. That is a tipoff that she is not so sure herself but is trying to put a confident face on this disaster. The disaster is a spiritual one, not one of her popularity ratings.

I cut out a lot of the ramblings she made in that one reply to the "cousin" alone. It was to me, WORD SALAD> this is when people string together a bunch of words to cover up or distract from something they are trying to hide. However the words are jumbled or meaningless when the listener tries to dissect what the narcissist ACTUALLY said. Word salad is a prominent trait of narcissists [ and sociopaths as well as other abusive types ].

Sister Vassa ends her self-congratulating ramblings in this same reply with a real shocker :

"So I don't regret publishing this email-and-response. You know, when C. S. Lewis was asked about homosexuality, he said, I can't speak about an enemy I haven't met in battle. It's akin to what Pope Francis said (Who am I to judge?) Were many people upset that both of these men refused to homosexual-bash or at least condemn the "sin"? Sure. But both those men "matter,"and people care what they thought/think, because they're "the real deal," rather than party-line mediocrities who just repeat "safe" formulas."

This is too nauseating for words !
And WHO might be those 'party-line mediocrities' ? Possibly many clergy of her own jurisdiction, Rocor-MP ? She is clearly making a dig.

So, Justice, it looks like there is no hope for Sister Vassa to retract her demonic "advice" in the above matter. Let alone to repent ! It would be fitting for Sister Vassa to resign her 'ministry'. Perhaps for her to make a lengthy retreat in an appropriate convent. But this Coffee gambit seems to be her sole identity, so she won't rock the boat. Horrors, she might jeopardize all those new Facebook fans...

To date, she sounds utterly unremorseful. With her choice of 'real deal' people as heros to back up her stance, one can safely say she has nothing to do with true spirituality or the ascetic spirit. Why are the Optina Elders not held up as examples ? Or St John Maximovitch ? These and other Saints would figure prominently in the mind of any real Russian Orthodox monastic. But no, to Sister Vassa, they might be 'mediocrities repeating "safe" formulas' of ANTI-Homosexuality !

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Re: About a Liberal nun in "ROCOR" - MP

Post by Barbara »

I know this entire subject is touchy. But I can't resist making even more of a controversial remark.

When Sister Vassa mentioned her 'cousin', I immediately thought of "The Cousins". Who are they ? This is the nickname that the American and British intelligence agencies have traditionally used for each other. A sort of code between the 2 major English-speaking Western spy outfits.

Now, let's take a look at Vienna. Of course this cultural center was long the ruling seat of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, as well as famed for the waltzes of Johann Strauss.

I doubt either connection is a draw for Sister Vassa. More recently, during the Cold War, Vienna was a sensitive listening post for what were called the Iron Curtain countries. [ Explaining because younger people seem uninformed about this ANTI-Communist era ]. Vienna was a free world gateway for the Communist bloc, particularly the Balkan countries, Poland, and even Ukraine. Trains used to depart from Vienna's station to the major East bloc Communist capitals. Even as far as Moscow, I think I recall.

So let's ask ourselves WHY Sister Vassa, having lost her contract at the prestigious Catholic institution, lingers in Emperor Franz Josef's former capital city ? Why doesn't she return to the States ? Or choose a country of more interest to the Orthodox ? Well, the answer could be simple reasons like convenience, laziness to move, resistance to change -- all of which afflict almost everyone.

What if she has been working for one or another of these agencies and needs to keep her cover intact ? Certainly a nun in long black robes with a big smile and an American-style coffee mug in her grasp would look above suspicion. What if her secret assignment requires her to reside in this central crossroads of Europe, Vienna ?
After all, she is assumedly Russian and German speaking, which language facility would be a great asset to spy agencies.

Surely, this angle could explain why she is brazenly displaying herself as more and more mainstream. [ Certainly diametrically opposed to her Church's stance. ] That would fit the needs of such intelligence agencies, which are believed to have been involved in this attempt to shift the culture and morality farther and farther left. She would be the perfect Pied Piper agent to entice the masses of World Orthodox away from any vestige of Traditional Orthodox moorings into the contemporary Cult of the Homosexual.

It also would add another layer of explanation as to why Special Agent Vassa sounds arrogant when confronted -- rather than showing even an ounce of contrition, as any TRUE nun would. To date, she has not publicly acknowledged, let alone responded to, the strict reprimand from her Archpastors. The fact that they had to issue that denunciation shows how seriously she deviated from any expected norm for a Rocor nun or any Orthodox nun.

By the way, WHO made her 'privy' to the conversation about whether her youtube series should remain on the Rocor Church website ?? Was it Archbishop Mark, her 'spiritual father' ? Or an outside eavesdropping capability ? Maybe it was just her natural father. I am referring here to her remarks in the interview she must have staged to bolster her sinking reputation. I will comment on that in another post.

As for the agent of influence explanation advanced in this post, one cannot leave any stone unturned to solve this bizarre case.

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