Dear Rostislav,
Glory be to Jesus Christ! I have been following this thread for weeks now, and I have also read some of your other posts on different threads, particularly your very astute and articulate defense of Papa Ephraim and his monasteries. You seem like a very intelligent man and I hope that you will consider HOCNA's side of the story, as you urge others to hear the perspective of St. Anthony's monastery in your quote:
Until the RDR Constantine can say he HEARD THESE THINGS FROM THE ELDER's OR THE ACCUSEDS' LIPS or
witnessed them with his own eyes, his denunciations are a second hand smear with an ADMITTED LACK OF SUBSTANTIATION.
If you will please listen, I will begin.
Kollyvas wrote:Just before things came to a head (with regard to the accusations about him), Fr. Panteleimon had this to say:
"The Synodal Church [the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad] is a real standard of Orthodoxy.... Therefore, discerning where the Truth is found, we remain in unity under our bishops in the midst of many trials and temptations...because grace abides in the Synod.... We uphold our Synod primarily and foremostly as a standard of Orthodoxy. All others have betrayed the Truth. This was demonstrated of late by the election of our new Metropolitan [Vitaly]...." (Fr. Alexey Young, The Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia: A History and Chronology (San Bernardino: The Borgo Press, 1993), p. 77f. Original source: A personal letter from Fr. Panteleimon to Fr. Alexey Young, dated February 10, 1986 -- a month after the first accusers came forward.
This only gives testimony to a little known fact that THE ELDER WAS THE LAST PERSON WHO WANTED TO LEAVE ROCOR. He knew and loved Met. Vitaly and Abp. Anthony of LA, but many of the other fathers at HTM and clergy then in ROCOR were beginning to realize that Sergianists were rapidly gaining control of the Church Abroad. This is substantiated by the fact that all ROCOR hierarchs with an Orthodox ecclesiology, believing that heretics did not possess the Holy Mysteries, were eventually and systematically all either forced into retirement or accused of trumped up charges. Met. Vitaly and Abp. Anthony themselves both fell victim to the former treachery.
The dean of the New England Deanery and Monk Ephraim spoke in defense of Fr. Panteleimon. Fr. Panteleimon was extensively questioned, denied the charges, but asked to be relieved of his duties as abbot. The Synod granted this request on May 16/29, and decreed that Fr. Panteleimon was retired -- this decision was relayed to him by Met. Vitaly personally. Archbishop Anthony was appointed by the Synod to oversee the Monastery, and Heiromonk Isaac was given temporary charge pending his arrival. Instead of obeying the Synod, HTM elected Fr. Isaac as it's new abbot, despite being told that neither he nor the Monk Ephraim could be considered until charges against them had been cleared.
What this fails to consider is that HTM petitioned the Synod of ROCOR for an entire year to send Vl. Anthony to the monastery, as promised, to investigate the false charges. And what did ROCOR do? What they've always done! THEY SAT ON THEIR HANDS. In the meantime, several of the HTM fathers and clergy in ROCOR saw the pattern that was forming in ROCOR's new policy on heresy (namely, Met. Vitaly's Nativity epistle of 1986 which was further elaborated upon by Fr. Alexander Lebedeff's explanation that ROCOR didn't really anathematize the ecumenists, but effectively only anathematized itself.). As Canon Law stipulates that if an investigation is not conducted into accusations of a moral character within a year's time, the charges must be dropped, coupled with the fact that ROCOR had placed itself under its own Anathema, HTM and a full tenth of ROCOR's clergy saw no canonical obstacles to leaving the Church Abroad for the True Orthodox Church of Greece.
Rumors started to circulate that the Boston monastery was thinking of joining the more numerous, but of very bad reputation, synod of Archbishop Auxentios (who at that time had been deposed by his original synod on charges of having ordained a proven homosexual for money and other crimes).
As regaurding Blessed Abp. Afksentios, the above account is over simplified and expresses many untruths perpetrated by the Kiousis group. Met. Kallistos of Corinth, a former Matthewite bishop who joined the Synod of kyr Afksentios, with the aid of another bishop (whose name, forgive me, I can't remember), without the blessing of the Holy Synod consecrated several other bishops in secret and formed a surreptitious, schismatic synod. Then several other bishops within the canonical True Orthodox Church of Greece left kyr Afksentios and joined forces with this surreptitious group, which later elected Abp. Chrysostomos Kiousis as their first hierarch.
If Blessed Abp. Afksentios could be accused of anything, it would be of being too guileless and trusting of others. Which is why he allowed the Church to become so top-heavy with hierarchs, who in many cases were men whom he accepted on their word as being persecuted by the State Church over ecumenism, when in fact some of them could have had deeper problems. This is vindicated by the fact that upon kyr Afksentios' blessed repose, several of the hierarchs of the Kiousis group who had betrayed him were at his funeral weeping and begging his forgiveness for slandering him. This was the reason the Lamians finally seperated from Kiousis, after their consciences had weighed upon them.
Auxentios' successor, Maximos, eventually began a serious investigation of the charges against Fr. Panteleimon and Fr. Isaac and the other monks [now 'bishops'] involved in their unnatural activity, and reduced the HOCNA-bishops to simple monks. It was during these events that HTM and company fled yet again from their ruling synod. However, now with bishops from the monastery and under Fr. Panteleimon's thumb, they had no need to join any established Old-Calendar synod, but soon established their own: the 'HOCNA'.
This is also an innaccurate statement. kyr Maximos conducted no "investigation," as the Holy Synod of which he was a part under kyr Afksentios had already conducted a thorough investigation of the false charges and held an ecclesiastical trial upon reception of our American clergy and parishes. At the time of this so called "investigation" by kyr Maximos, the Holy Synod was comprised of himself, kyr Athanasios, who succeeded him after his schism as first hierarch, kyr Photios of Lyons, kyr Ephraim, and kyr Makarios, both from America. Not a single one of these hierarchs continued on with kyr Maximos after the formation of his schism. What actually happened was that kyr Maximos without the due election by the Holy Synod consecrated "bishops" in secret with the aid of Demetrios Beefus, a new calendar, vagante bishop, who falsely claimed to be a hierarch of the Patriarchate of Alexandria but was in fact self-consecrated. kyr Maximos seperated himself from his own Synod. In fact, when kyr Maxiomos was elected Archbishop of Athens upon the repose of kyr Afksentios, twenty of our parishes in Greece left us because they knew he was unstable. Incidentally, many of these parishes have now come back to us, with several others petitioning our hierarchs to be recieved back.
To this incriminating pattern may be added the testimonies of over 22 monks and novices that have left HTM between the mid-1970's and the present all of whom alleged that Fr. Panteleimon and others there were complicit in homosexual victimization of those under 'holy obedience' to Fr. Panteleimon. Over 22 independent witnesses (whom we ourselves have met and spoken with) to a man's criminal behavior is overwhelming evidence of his guilt.
I too know and have spoken with many of these accusers. The only one who seems to have kept his monastic vows is the deposed Abp. Gregory of Colorado. Without personally smearing this monk's name or integrity, I will let his past track record of accurate testimony and truthfullness in other matters speak for itself. With regards to the other accusers I will quote a statement I made on another thread:
What a lot of people don't know is that when we petitioned Blessed Abp. Afksentios to be recieved into the True Orthodox Church of Greece, he also conducted an investigation of these charges and held an ecclesiastical trial, and the Holy Synod found the charges to be trumped up and groundless. This is also reinforced by the fact that all the young men who accused the elder, so they could leave their monastic vows and get married, never sought legal recourse in a secular court. This is because our American justice system, however flawed, would have conducted a thourough, nonbiassed investigation of the charges, and if the plaintiffs were discovered to be lying, they would have gotten in BIG trouble.
I also believe that the number 22 is too liberal a figure. Less than half that number would be more accurate. If you're getting that number from the deposed Abp. Gregory's writings, I know for a fact that he includes in his figures all of the senior fathers at Holy Cross Monastery in Wayne, WV, who recieved their monastic formations at HTM. I lived at that monastery for two years and know everyone there personally. I have spoken with them extensively about HTM, and NOT ONE OF THESE FATHERS have made accusations against the Elder.