but where comes the goings on of John Rigas et al?
Theophan,
There are a handful of people, such as John Rigas, "fr." Athanasios of Gregory's decipleship, ect. who are intent as much as anyone can be, of creating rumors by lying.
A classic case of this kind of rumor-mongering was clearly made known this past summer. In Chicago at our sister church Holy Unmercenaries, an Orthodox woman married a man who was formerly a Monophysite, but was received by Chrismation. This man tells people he is Coptic, which is true because Coptic is like saying you are Hellenic or Celtic. Many people however take this to mean that he is saying he is monophysite, which is understandable since the terms are almost synonymous. I mean, if I tell someone I am Greek I would expect them to also presume
I am "Orthodox".
So anyway, a couple of people had a loose relationship with "fr." Athanasios (the same one on Paradosis) in Wisconsin, were scandalized and reported this to this man. It was only a few days before it was all over Greece that we married an Orthodox woman to a heretic! This schismatic was quickly all over the internet telling people we give the Mysteries to heretics. This is why Met. Pavlos had to write an encyclical explaining his position and the whole affair - to spell out the truth so the lies could be put to rest.
But it did not end there. This schismatic kept on spreading these lies when I finally stepped in a said basically, "look, you read the encyclical, why are you spreading lies?" He repsonded by telling me that he was taught, without telling me the source of this teaching, that everyone has to be received by Baptism, that the old canons on economia are expired! Therefore, in his mind, the Monophysite was never received and he
considered him as still being a Monophysite. This was his justification to tell people that we Marry heretics in our Church!
Where is Christ's love in all of this rumor-mongering?
The same basic conditions exist for the rumors about communing "new-calendarists" - they don't agree with how they are received, and so therefore, they pretend they are still new-calendarists and spread the same rumors.
It is just amazing how well established a lie can get.
