Oh No, Your Eminence, Not Again!

Elpidophoros, the one and only Archbishop of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese, is back at St. Bart’s. Yes, it’s true. Elpi is returning to the grand byzantine structure to officiate at Great Vespers on Saturday, June 10.

Symbolism and virtue signaling are part of the clerical syllabary. Without speaking a word, a bishop uses familiar non-verbal communication to indicate the authority of his office and the policies that he plans to execute. Nothing else need be said in addition to the obvious symbols displayed at the juxtaposition of Abp. Elpidophoros, St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church and the Feast of St. Bartholomew.

Patriarch Bartholomew, the Narcissist, appears to give his blessing to this travesty on his name day.

Nevertheless, I am going to say them anyway because Elpidophoros’ plans for tomorrow amount to insult added to injury. This isn’t the first time that the archbishop will have gone out of his way to pray in this most unorthodox Protestant parish. He went to St. Bart’s in June of 2021, not for Vespers, but to celebrate the Divine Liturgy! Even then it was clear to all that St. Bart’s stood for the “queering of Manhattan”. Their website promoted such perverse sexual policies, and the gay flag of many colors snapped smartly outside the west door to the church. It was no mystery that the parish had been captured by the deceptively named “progressive movement”.

Even if Elpidophoros had passed under the rainbow flag in a tee shirt, it would have raised eyebrows. But on that occasion, he boldly entered the church, vested in his archiepiscopal finery, and celebrated at the same high altar that is used weekly by heretics and scoundrels. The message communicated by this brazen act was this: We identify with you and concur with your policies. I don’t think that I am reading too much into the symbolism.


St. Bart’s Pride Flag now has a transsexual chevron, evidence of ever-deepening depravity.

That act by Elpidophoros caused a firestorm of protest. We need to pause, and remind ourselves, that the objections raised by many who were scandalized were not raised on the basis of some novel teaching favored by the masses. On the contrary, they were made in support of the Orthodox Church’s own teachings against sexual sin. The people said the very things that the archbishop himself should have been saying! Why had he turned the tables on us? Why were the laity put in the uncomfortable place where they felt the need to guard the Faith against its own hierarchy?

One would think that Elpi would have learned from his gross error in judgement two years ago. But no, he certainly did not. He’s back at it again, going to the same parish on the same occasion to do the same thing. This sort of recalcitrant action indicates one of two things: either 1. Elpi is stupid; or 2. Elpi just doesn’t give a damn what the Church teaches about sex and he’s out to overturn the age-old norms. I’ve met His Eminence, so I doubt whether he is stupid, but having spoken with him one on one, I suspect he doesn’t give a damn. He has a counterargument for every conventional opinion, whether it be on this subject or on the Ukrainian situation or on issues of GOA polity.

What we’re seeing here is this, folks. Elpi is raising his archepiscopal middle finger to the GOA and to all of the Orthodox paying attention. Remember that your silence will amount to tacit approval.

–Lawrence Wheeler, Originally posted at Handwritings on the Wall

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