Dear All:
I grow increasingly concerned with what I see in the Orthodox community here in America. I was originally Chrismated in the GOA, but I came to embrace ROCOR because of my extreme aversion to ecumenism. Archbishop Isaiah is beyond any doubt profoundly more holy a man than I am. That being said, Fr. William Christ (GOA) is a much holier man than I am as well. And, even though I left the GOA I never saw Fr. Christ do anything wrong. I even went to an interfaith council meeting just to see what it was. Still, I found the priest as innocent as I was of any heretical act. In fact, he was even more innocent. I was searching for wrongdoing as he witnessed to the lost sheep. And I injured my soul that day.
Now I am in the ROCOR, but I find Orthodox people everywhere who are so demanding of piety and holiness in their priests and bishops that they leave their jurisdictions, some even end up praying at home, alone, on Sunday morning. Would these people become hermits? Hardly. That would mean abandoning their error to join an existing Church. Is it true that he who eats alone, the devil takes? Let us reconsider ourselves as a first measure before reconsidering our faith that we may not judge those who have sworn to minister to us for the sake of the salvation of our souls.
In Christ:
Joseph the bumkin