Put HOCNA on the Map.

[spiridon]

I know someone very dear who is a simple and honorable Priest, and he lived at HTM for many years right before the scandal broke and he says he never saw any of the things that HTM was accused of, of course because of the scandal it was recommended that many of the Novices transfer(free of charge to another monastery) and he was transfered to jordanville at which time he didnt persue another novice term and instead left for the world to become a parish Priest and help the laity...
one of his strong points is, "thruout the history of america, one can always see that when a person or an organization (religous,medical,political,legal,financial) if something occurs on the grounds of sexual or financial musconduct on an individual or a group of people there will always be lawsuits of criminal prosecution and taken to a court of law, and neither of the above has ever been done towards HTM in a court of law, in fact there Books are still a strong source of information and being sold and stocked at many,many ORTHODOX Church book stores to this very day... when they published the new prayer book, they couldnt keep them printed fast enough(a jewel of a book,that i recommend) anyway this all brings me to a scandal that did go to a court of law, Blanco Texas , which ironically has made papers again last week and I will enclose it below;

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/ ... 45ad0.html
Blanco ponders monastery scandal

Web Posted: 07/27/2006 01:07 AM CDT

Zeke MacCormack
Express-News Staff Writer

BLANCO — With most of its monks incarcerated, the nearly deserted Christ of the Hills Monastery was left to pets and journalists Wednesday.
Its famed "weeping icon" was seized with computers and other evidence Tuesday by law enforcement officers who also arrested three of the four monks living at the enclave on charges of sexual assault of a child and organized crime.

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Also indicted Monday were the monastery's founder, Sam A. Greene Jr., who's been staying in Austin because of poor health, and Jonathan Hitt, a former monk already serving time for a separate abuse conviction.

Doors on offices and homes at the vacant monastery were unlocked. Some stood open.

Meanwhile, in nearby Blanco, residents read news accounts and traded rumors about the latest scandal to envelop the mysterious men in black who opened the monastery outside town in 1981.

"It's very disturbing," said Sue McMahan, 60, during a visit to the post office. But, she said, "It's not unique to Blanco. This stuff goes on everywhere."

It went on here before.

Greene, 61, and Hitt, 45, were convicted of indecency with a novice monk in the late 1990s. Greene pleaded guilty and accepted a term of 10 years' probation in 2000 after seeing Hitt convicted in 1999. Hitt received a 10-year prison term.

The latest complaint was filed by a man who claims years of sexual abuse by those indicted Monday began shortly after he arrived as a 15-year-old novice monk in 1993, according to Blanco County Sheriff Bill Elsbury.

But Anglican Catholic priest Tom Flower, a longtime friend of Greene and former monastery resident, said he doesn't believe the alleged confession police said Greene made or claims of sexual abuse.

"I went there year after year and I never observed anything like that going on," said Flower, 74, who runs Blessed Martin de Porres Urban Mission a street church in San Antonio.

Fearful about theft or vandalism at the monastery, he plans to take up residence there today and to stay as long as necessary.

Although the monastery is in peril, he predicts it will recover.

"It's survived so many ups and downs over the years, including a lot of persecution from the people in that town, that God must have some purpose for it," he said.

However, monastery critics such as Melanie Sakoda see the devil's hand at work and cheered the Tuesday morning police raid.

"I hope this round will shut down that hellhole permanently," said an e-mail from Sakoda, who helps run a California company, Pokrov.org, that tracks clergy abuse and advises victims.

Elsbury said investigators were led to the latest complainant by Greene, who he said told his probation officer last July that he'd abused many boys he'd met at various camps and social organizations since the 1970s.

Elsbury said Greene also was recorded saying that the weeping icon, a picture of the Virgin Mary that purportedly cried tears of rose oil, is a fraud.

That claim led to the involvement of the Postal Service police and the Internal Revenue Service because the monastery raised hundreds of thousands of dollars from "pilgrims" who visited the icon or sent money with prayer requests by mail.

Also charged Monday was the monastery's abbot, William E. Hughes, 55, aka Father Vasili Walter P. Christley, 44, aka Father Pagratios and Hugh Brian Fallon, 40, aka Father Tihkon, said Elsbury.

Greene was released Tuesday on a personal recognizance bond. The other defendants are each being held under $250,000 bonds. They are slated for arraignment Monday.

[Sean]

Sean, one cannot read your spirited defence of Father Panteleimon without recognising your passion. However there is a seeming large body of evidence pointing to serious questions.

http://euphrosynoscafe.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6849
Situations like these are not uncommon in the life of the Church. This is simply a more recent example. St. John Chrysostom, St. Photios the Great, and St. John Maximovich were all accused of various false charges too. They meekly endured many persecutions, just as Geronda has.

And if he is defamed, has he sued anyone? These questions have been around for a great time and never been satisfactorily dealt with.

This has been discussed. In fact, one of our monastics is a well known attorney who did his internship at the United States Supreme Court. He had prepared multiple libel and character defamation suits, but , as I said, the Elder is a very Christian man. His response to the notion of going after his persecutors was something any of the Fathers of the Church would have said in their hagiographies: "If I allow people to slander me for things I didn't do, perhaps God will forgive me for the things I have done."

One phenomena that does not inspire confidence is that of so-called 'jurisdiction hopping'. And frankly some clergy and monasteries appear to merit having "I was born under a wandering star" as their anthem. Again this raises questions about stability, integrity and motive.

If you're referring to the founding fathers of HOCNA, "jurisdiction hopping" isn't what they did. We were under the omophore of the retired Met's. Akakios and Gabriel, but because of meddling from then Abp. Laurus, Met. Gabriel abandonned us. Met. Akakios had actually blessed us to find other bishops because he knew we needed shepherds to guide the flock in North America which he could not consecrate for us by himself. He didn't like the fact that we chose Blessed Abp. Afksentios, but this was over personal differences, and not ecclesiastical matters. Met. Akakios didn't support the Kiousis faction that betrayed and slandered kyr Afksentios. In fact, Met. Akakios was a retired member of the Synod of the True Orthodox Church of Greece under kyr Afksentios who simply stopped going to Synod meetings. He did not form a schism, in opposition to the True Church as others did.

Some of those who slander us also like to say that Abp. Maximos, kyr Afksentios' immediate successor, deposed our bishops in America and that we formed our own group, but this is a fabrication. For one, this lie follows the logic of papal ecclesiology. The president of a Holy Synod is not a pope. He can't simply convene a "council in his head," and depose half of the members of the Holy Synod. To give you the details on what actually happened, I will quote something I wrote on another thread:

kyr Maximos conducted no "investigation," [into the false charges] 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.

Sobriety might be a quality to try and cling to in all of this rather than join in with what appears too readily as a 'head banging contest' more appropriate to football supporters.

Agreed. Sometimes I come off a bit too pompous in my writing style. I shouldn't have been so sarcastic towards buzuxi. Forgive me, brother. I will be the first one to admit that prayer ropes and prostrations are what we need to be doing to bring about Sobornost in the Church against this great evil that is attacking it, and not going "tit for tat" on the internet. I'm a lot more laid back in person, and I'm more than willing to talk to those in ecumenist jurisdictions.