All credit goes to you, OrthodoxInMichigan ! YES< now I note that the picture has transformed itself 100%. No more creepy, dark hand signs, and no more dejected countenance !
A new improved Sister Vassa now appears with a big grin [ a nice smile - at least outwardly ], looking much more wholesome indeed.
Keep at the incisive critiques, Orthodox, and maybe she will put in the massive amount of effort required to suppress that intense narcissism, exterminate all streaks of feminist and radical moral ideas and settle down to a truly CONSERVATIVE Orthodox 'apostolate'. I can't bring myself to call it a ministry : in my opinion, that term solely pertains to protestant ministers.
At the same time, the inhabitant of Vienna can start a new trend amongst her followers by drinking aristocratic TEA instead of vulgar types of coffee.
Those 'zillions' will thank her for it some day when they receive their medical reports and learn how much healthier they are than coffee-consumers of the same age and general health profile.
About a Liberal nun in "ROCOR" - MP
Re: About a Liberal nun in "ROCOR" - MP
Elder Anthony of Optina, after all, observed with his usual incisiveness,
"For the proud, criticism is a sharp knife ; for the humble, a rich find".
Hopefully Sister Vassa will fall into the latter category in her response to the many remarks in this thread and employ them constructively.
"For the proud, criticism is a sharp knife ; for the humble, a rich find".
Hopefully Sister Vassa will fall into the latter category in her response to the many remarks in this thread and employ them constructively.
Re: About a Liberal nun in "ROCOR" - MP
How about promotion of Kusmi Tea ? It looks so traditionally Russian, as if it just came through Kyakhta* by camel.
From the company's website : "The eldest son of a peasant family, Pavel Mikhailovich Kousmichoff left home at the age of 14 to work for a tea merchant in Saint Petersburg. The merchant, impressed by his potential, initiates him into the secret world of tea blends and gives him a small tea house as a wedding gift in 1867."
In 1880, Pavel Mikhailovich created a tea blend called "Bouquet de Fleurs" was said to have been Tsar Alexander II's favorite tea.
Through various vicissitudes, Kusmi Tea, though no longer in the Kousmichoff family, hit success with its headquarter store opened in 2012 on the Champs Elysees in Paris.
"Kusmi Tea... is just as strong as it was back in the time of the tsars. In a little over a decade, the unrivalled tea house has opened 85 boutiques in 35 countries, offering 100 different tea blends (all of which are produced near Le Havre) and employing over 600 people worldwide."
Would THIS beverage be good enough for Sister Vassa to 'market' in her materials and programs -- ??
The tins - recently brought back, by the way, by the Kusmi Tea Company- are the neatest ! I have kept mine for decades due to the nostalgic sense of great eras of the past in the illustration and writing. Here is a new type of tea but the same beautiful packaging :
I also appreciate the French writing "Kusmi-The". Everything about these tins -- except their names which are jarringly contemporary : "Detox Tea" - "Be Cool" - "Euphoria" -- makes one feel like sitting down and having a lovely intellectual or spiritual discussion.
The small tins are lightweight and intriguing in their originality. In contrast, that clumsy coffee mug that Sister Vassa iconically wields looks declasse. Not to mention the fact that most cultured viewers would rather be shown an ethereally beautiful scene of Old Russia than be confronted with the sister's own visage on her mugs !
Why not advertise something relevant to her subject matter ? What does coffee - whether Folgers or fancy Java popular today - have to do with the cultural milieu of Russian Orthodoxy ? Note how much of the historical background of the Kyahkta area is tightly intertwined with the building of Churches.
***********
* Kyakhta's pivotal location made it famous through Russia for the tea carried through here :
"the town of Kyakhta, for centuries the main border crossing for trade between Russia and China. Located about 150 miles south by road from Buryatia’s capital Ulan-Ude, Kyakhta was originally an aglomeration [ < =correction: agglomeration ]of three settlements dating from the early 18th century that served to regulate trade and customs between Russia and China. Situated by the small Kyakhta River, the settlement was on the most direct caravan route between the Siberian center of Irkutsk and Beijing. In 1727, work began on the New Trinity Fort, founded by Count Savva Vladislavich-Raguzinsky and named after its Church of the Trinity. Later that year, the Russian and Chinese Empires signed treaties formalizing the border and establishing trade relations. In 1805 the settlement around the fort was designated a town named Troitskosavsk in honor of the two altar dedications of its main church (Trinity and St. Savva).
While the Trinity Fort fulfilled administrative and security functions, trade was handled by the adjacent settlement of Kyakhtinskaya Sloboda (Kyakhta Quarter), also founded in 1727. Here Russian merchants gathered to trade fur, leather, hides and cattle for a variety of Chinese goods, including silk and some porcelain, but with special emphasis on spices such as ginger and rhubarb, which were highly valued for medicinal properties. By the 1760s, Kyakhta Quarter had become the primary border point for trade with China, and the population and prosperity of both Russian settlements increased accordingly. Chinese merchants gathered across the border in a third settlement, known as Maimachin—a generic Chinese term meaning “trading center.”
By the late 18th century, the most significant import by far was tea, which for almost a century Kyakhta provided not only to the enormous Russian market, but also to much of Europe. Some of the buildings constructed to handle the tea trade still stand in various conditions, including the main Merchants’ Court, located near the Resurrection Church. Within its large rectangular courts, bales of Chinese tea were repackaged for shipment west.
During the first century of Kyakhta’s existence, all its structures were built from logs. As the 19th century progressed, however, the log churches were replaced with large masonry churches in a neoclassical style, a move that reflected the town’s increasing prosperity. The most notable of these churches was the Cathedral of the Trinity, begun in 1812 with the support of donations from local merchants and completed in 1817. A major expansion of its refectory in 1870 gave it an appearance that more closely resembled western churches, rather than the typical Russian Orthodox design. Closed during the Soviet period and converted to a museum in 1934, the cathedral was gutted by fire in 1963. Its bare walls still stand as an imposing classical ruin.
Not to be outdone by the reconstruction of the cathedral in Troitskosavsk, in the 1830s, merchants in the Kyakhta trading quarter paid for the construction of an imposing new Church of the Resurrection, built according to a design by the Moscow architect Grigory Gerasimov. With the completion of the church and the dedication of its three altars in 1838, this dusty border town could claim two of the most impressive churches in the Transbaikal region, a tribute to its commercial significance for the China tea trade. And in 1884-1888 the Cemetery Church of the Dormition was constructed to replace an adjacent log church
Perhaps the greatest charm of Kyakhta is its individual houses, which are built primarily of wood. With a minimum of maintenance, they have been relatively well preserved in the area’s dry climate. One of the few large masonry houses in the town belonged in the mid-19th century to the philanthropist Alexei Lushnikov, of a family known not only for its support of culture and philanthropy, but also for hospitality. The many guests to visit the Lushnikov house include the renowned American traveler and author George Kennan.
With the opening of Chinese ports to English ships in the mid 19th century and the subsequent building of the Suez Canal, Kyakhta’s importance to the tea trade waned. Its importance was further diminished by the town’s distance from any rail link. Nonetheless, Kyakhta retained regional importance for trade with northern China." -- https://www.rbth.com/articles/2011/10/1 ... 13582.html
From the company's website : "The eldest son of a peasant family, Pavel Mikhailovich Kousmichoff left home at the age of 14 to work for a tea merchant in Saint Petersburg. The merchant, impressed by his potential, initiates him into the secret world of tea blends and gives him a small tea house as a wedding gift in 1867."
In 1880, Pavel Mikhailovich created a tea blend called "Bouquet de Fleurs" was said to have been Tsar Alexander II's favorite tea.
Through various vicissitudes, Kusmi Tea, though no longer in the Kousmichoff family, hit success with its headquarter store opened in 2012 on the Champs Elysees in Paris.
"Kusmi Tea... is just as strong as it was back in the time of the tsars. In a little over a decade, the unrivalled tea house has opened 85 boutiques in 35 countries, offering 100 different tea blends (all of which are produced near Le Havre) and employing over 600 people worldwide."
Would THIS beverage be good enough for Sister Vassa to 'market' in her materials and programs -- ??
The tins - recently brought back, by the way, by the Kusmi Tea Company- are the neatest ! I have kept mine for decades due to the nostalgic sense of great eras of the past in the illustration and writing. Here is a new type of tea but the same beautiful packaging :
I also appreciate the French writing "Kusmi-The". Everything about these tins -- except their names which are jarringly contemporary : "Detox Tea" - "Be Cool" - "Euphoria" -- makes one feel like sitting down and having a lovely intellectual or spiritual discussion.
The small tins are lightweight and intriguing in their originality. In contrast, that clumsy coffee mug that Sister Vassa iconically wields looks declasse. Not to mention the fact that most cultured viewers would rather be shown an ethereally beautiful scene of Old Russia than be confronted with the sister's own visage on her mugs !
Why not advertise something relevant to her subject matter ? What does coffee - whether Folgers or fancy Java popular today - have to do with the cultural milieu of Russian Orthodoxy ? Note how much of the historical background of the Kyahkta area is tightly intertwined with the building of Churches.
***********
* Kyakhta's pivotal location made it famous through Russia for the tea carried through here :
"the town of Kyakhta, for centuries the main border crossing for trade between Russia and China. Located about 150 miles south by road from Buryatia’s capital Ulan-Ude, Kyakhta was originally an aglomeration [ < =correction: agglomeration ]of three settlements dating from the early 18th century that served to regulate trade and customs between Russia and China. Situated by the small Kyakhta River, the settlement was on the most direct caravan route between the Siberian center of Irkutsk and Beijing. In 1727, work began on the New Trinity Fort, founded by Count Savva Vladislavich-Raguzinsky and named after its Church of the Trinity. Later that year, the Russian and Chinese Empires signed treaties formalizing the border and establishing trade relations. In 1805 the settlement around the fort was designated a town named Troitskosavsk in honor of the two altar dedications of its main church (Trinity and St. Savva).
While the Trinity Fort fulfilled administrative and security functions, trade was handled by the adjacent settlement of Kyakhtinskaya Sloboda (Kyakhta Quarter), also founded in 1727. Here Russian merchants gathered to trade fur, leather, hides and cattle for a variety of Chinese goods, including silk and some porcelain, but with special emphasis on spices such as ginger and rhubarb, which were highly valued for medicinal properties. By the 1760s, Kyakhta Quarter had become the primary border point for trade with China, and the population and prosperity of both Russian settlements increased accordingly. Chinese merchants gathered across the border in a third settlement, known as Maimachin—a generic Chinese term meaning “trading center.”
By the late 18th century, the most significant import by far was tea, which for almost a century Kyakhta provided not only to the enormous Russian market, but also to much of Europe. Some of the buildings constructed to handle the tea trade still stand in various conditions, including the main Merchants’ Court, located near the Resurrection Church. Within its large rectangular courts, bales of Chinese tea were repackaged for shipment west.
During the first century of Kyakhta’s existence, all its structures were built from logs. As the 19th century progressed, however, the log churches were replaced with large masonry churches in a neoclassical style, a move that reflected the town’s increasing prosperity. The most notable of these churches was the Cathedral of the Trinity, begun in 1812 with the support of donations from local merchants and completed in 1817. A major expansion of its refectory in 1870 gave it an appearance that more closely resembled western churches, rather than the typical Russian Orthodox design. Closed during the Soviet period and converted to a museum in 1934, the cathedral was gutted by fire in 1963. Its bare walls still stand as an imposing classical ruin.
Not to be outdone by the reconstruction of the cathedral in Troitskosavsk, in the 1830s, merchants in the Kyakhta trading quarter paid for the construction of an imposing new Church of the Resurrection, built according to a design by the Moscow architect Grigory Gerasimov. With the completion of the church and the dedication of its three altars in 1838, this dusty border town could claim two of the most impressive churches in the Transbaikal region, a tribute to its commercial significance for the China tea trade. And in 1884-1888 the Cemetery Church of the Dormition was constructed to replace an adjacent log church
Perhaps the greatest charm of Kyakhta is its individual houses, which are built primarily of wood. With a minimum of maintenance, they have been relatively well preserved in the area’s dry climate. One of the few large masonry houses in the town belonged in the mid-19th century to the philanthropist Alexei Lushnikov, of a family known not only for its support of culture and philanthropy, but also for hospitality. The many guests to visit the Lushnikov house include the renowned American traveler and author George Kennan.
With the opening of Chinese ports to English ships in the mid 19th century and the subsequent building of the Suez Canal, Kyakhta’s importance to the tea trade waned. Its importance was further diminished by the town’s distance from any rail link. Nonetheless, Kyakhta retained regional importance for trade with northern China." -- https://www.rbth.com/articles/2011/10/1 ... 13582.html
Re: About a Liberal nun in "ROCOR" - MP
I see that Sister Vassa has not recorded a youtube broadcast in something like 6 months.
Does anyone know what's going on ?
Maybe this wayward nun has been reined in AT LAST !
For, the previous video she did was from 9 months ago ; before that, all videos are dated by youtube from A YEAR AGO !
There is one featured on - yawn yawn YAWN - Alexei Navalny [whether he is a martyr or not].
Note how Nun Vassa ALWAYS picks the topics which will endear her to Western liberals - only.
Re: About a Liberal nun in "ROCOR" - MP
Latest Sister Vassa folly :
ROCOR’s Sr. Vassa in Kiev: Liturgy, lectures, and meetings with persecutors, schismatics, suspended priests
"Sr. Vassa (Larin) took a trip to Kiev last week during which she met with representatives of the schismatic “Orthodox Church of Ukraine,” suspended priests who apostatized from the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, and persecutors of Orthodoxy in Ukraine.
She also attended Sunday Liturgy at a schismatic parish led by a formerly Orthodox priest.
Sr. Vassa is the host of the Coffee with Sr. Vassa show and a professor of liturgical studies at the Catholic Theological Faculty of the University of Vienna in Austria.
She is also a riassaphore nun of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, which supports the canonical UOC and roundly condemns the schismatic OCU. Sr. Vassa herself was censured by the ROCOR Synod in 2017 after she advised a mother to allow her teenage son to engage in homosexual activity at home and said that if he were to be excommunicated for it, he could be an inspiring example like St. Mary of Egypt, who lived in the desert for years without receiving Holy Communion.
Sr. Vassa documented her time in Kiev in several Facebook posts. First, on May 7, she reports that she “was glad to interview Viktor Yelensky, the head of the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience.”
Yelensky openly positions himself as an enemy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, working tirelessly to deprive millions of Ukrainians of the largest religious structure in the country. It was his department that staged an “examination” of the UOC’s canonical status and declared that it still operates as part of the Moscow Patriarchate, which, in the eyes of the Ukrainian state, is the justification for banning the UOC.
Yelensky replaced the former State Service head Elena Bogdan, who was fired for confirming that the UOC has separated from the Moscow Patriarchate and for publicly opposing the persecution of the Church (interestingly, the State Service under Yelensky continues to host online the updated statutes of the canonical UOC which confirm Bogdan’s analysis).
Sr. Vassa writes that most of her questions for Yelensky concerned precisely the law that declared a ban on the UOC, which she positively describes as “protect[ing] against the influence of Ukraine of religious organisations that undermine the national security of the country."
Sister Vassa with Yelensky - rather a goofy angle for her.
No one should take Sister Vassa seriously
On May 8 and 9 she gave talks at the schismatic OCU’s Kiev Theological Academy. The first concerned issues of the typicon and contemporary and liturgical practices and in the second she offered an analysis of how the terms “freedom” and “peace” are used in Russian propaganda, in particular to influence Western audiences.
In particular, she thanks Evstraty Zorya for his hospitality. Along with Yelensky, Zorya is one of the main enemies of Orthodoxy in Ukraine. His ministry, largely conducted online, is centered on denouncing the faith of his fellow Ukrainians in the UOC. As one of the main public faces for the OCU, he actively supports both the ban on the Church and the violent seizure of churches. In the fall of 2023, he was part of a propaganda tour throughout the U.S. aimed at convincing politicians that Ukraine is a bulwark of religious freedom.
The Theological Academy also notes that Sr. Vassa was introduced by Fr. Andrei Dudchenko, who is not only a priest of the schismatic “church,” but an apostate from the UOC who was suspended from the priestly ministry in January 2019. The ROCOR nun describes Dudchenko as a friend.
On May 8, Sr. Vassa toured the famous St. Sophia Church in Kiev with the OCU’s George Kovalenko, another suspended formerly canonical priest. He has shown contempt for those in the UOC to whom he once ministered, saying their destroyed churches shouldn’t be rebuilt, so they will feel the pain of war by praying amidst the rubble.
On May 9, she met with Sergei Bortnyk—the only member of the canonical UOC that she reports interacting with. Bortnyk is a professor of the UOC’s Kiev Theological Academy.
As a member of the UOC, he opposes and criticizes the state’s ban on the Church. At times he has spoken about how the state is destroying the UOC and attempting to force it into the OCU, “which remains an extremely politicized structure today,” while at other times, such as an August 2024 article published on Public Orthodoxy, he has spoken about establishing a rapprochement between the two structures through the mediation of the Patriarchate of Constantinople.
Finally, on Sunday, May 11, Sr. Vassa attended not an Orthodox Liturgy of the canonical UOC, but of the schismatic OCU. The service at the Church of All Kievan Saints in the Podol District of Kiev was led by another former UOC priest, Sergei Berezhnoy, who left the Church in 2019. OrthoChristian was unable to find an official notice of his suspension by the UOC hierarchy.
Berezhnoy caused waves in November 2023 when footage surfaced of him teaching a girl how to cense and serve as a deacon."
https://orthochristian.com/169689.html
Re: About a Liberal nun in "ROCOR" - MP
YAY !!!
"To His Grace Bishop Luke of Syracuse,
And to Barbara Larin (formerly the Nun Vassa)
At the session of the Synod of Bishops, convened in London on 26 April / 9 May 2025, THE FOLLOWING WAS CONSIDERED: The
correspondence between Bishop Luke of Syracuse and the Ryassophor-Nun Vassa (Larin).
The most recent letter of Bishop Luke was read, in which His Grace removes from her the ryassa and klobuk for disobedience.
IT WAS RESOLVED:
1) To confirm the decision of Bishop Luke of Syracuse.
2) To forbid the former nun Vassa from wearing monastic attire and from using the name given to her at tonsure, and from presenting herself in public appearances as a nun of the Russian Church Abroad.
3) To publish this decision.
Whereby this Decree is issued.
- NICHOLAS
Metropolitan of Eastern America and New York
President of the Synod of Bishops"
-
SavaBeljovic
- Member
- Posts: 256
- Joined: Tue 9 January 2024 1:19 pm
- Faith: True Orthodoxy
- Jurisdiction: ROAC
- Location: Abita Springs, Louisiana
Re: About a Liberal nun in "ROCOR" - MP
Being an Ecumenist heretic isn't enough to get censured in the ROCOR-MP these days... But recognizing the OCU is.
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding."