Depending on where you live, the lingering hysteria over COVID can be quite distressing. It can seem like nothing but bad news on every side. Mask mandates, attendance restrictions, social distancing are still very much a fact of life around the world. Police in Germany actually arrested a Christmas Market Santa Claus for a mask violation!
There are actual detention camps in Australia and New 
Zealand. The requirement for “vaccine” passports is spreading around the world, in some countries effectively locking the “unvaccinated” out of civilization. Austria is trying to force everyone to get vaccinated or face fines. Greece is doing the same for the elderly. The United Kingdom voted in favor of a vaccine passport. France is moving forward with pension restrictions for those over 65 and unvaccinated. In NYC, kindergartners must have proof of vaccination to eat out with their families. Travel restrictions abound, as do testing and/or vaccination requirements to travel at all. Some in the U.S. Congress want to make vaccination mandatory for even interstate travel. Doctors are being threatened with loss of licenses for spreading “misinformation.” (Otherwise known as their competent medical opinions that vary from the approved narrative.)
In many places, even the ancient Orthodox Church is affected. In the Australian State of Victoria, the Greek Archdiocese has agreed to separate “vaccinated” versus “unvaccinated” services for Advent.
Greek authorities want the Orthodox Church there to check vaccine passports as well. No doubt this requirement will spread. And, also no doubt, most Orthodox Churches will comply for the sake of keeping the doors open. Just as so many complied with all the other restrictions up till now.
We could keep going with the bad news. There is a lot of it. But we won’t. Because the “pandemic” is actually over, and those areas of the world still mired in COVIDism will eventually join Florida in returning to freedom. Most of the United States, some parts of Canada, and even other countries around the world are done with COVID, “vaccines”, and mandates. Mass protests in Europe, South America, Asia, and Australia / New Zealand continue, showing that even in “lockdown” areas, huge numbers of regular people have simply had enough.
Good news is actually everywhere if you can put the doom and gloom aside for a moment. (We know that is hard if you live in deep COVIDism territory, but please bear with us.)
Very few people are buying the manufactured panic over “Omicron.” Borders are closing, mandates are popping up or being tightened, and all for what amounts to a cold. According to Dr. Angelique Coetzee, chair of the South African Medical Association and discoverer of the Omicron variant, expected symptoms are a couple of days of fatigue and malaise.
Omicron is said to be in at least 57 countries globally. Despite this widespread dispersion, only one death has so far been attributed to Omicron. A single patient in Britain who, according to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, “Sadly, yes, omicron is producing hospitalizations, and sadly at least one patient has now been confirmed to have died with omicron.” The word “with” as opposed to “from” in that statement did not go unnoticed.
The massively out-of-proportion response has not gone unnoticed either. If the Global Elites can get this worked up over an over-hyped cold, it makes normal people ask uncomfortable questions to which the official answers are extremely unsatisfactory.
After almost two years of war against a virus, it is very clear that everything the “experts” recommend has failed and will continue to fail. Border closures did not stop Omicron from reaching every inhabited continent. Mask mandates do not reduce “cases.” In fact, the only two sizeable studies evaluating masks in the context of COVID-19 failed to demonstrate statistically significant reductions in confirmed viral transmission either for surgical masks (one study) or for cloth masks (the other). This tracks with the empirical evidence observed over the past almost two years. By now, most people have gotten the message – masks don’t work.
Neither do vaccine passports. Fortunately, people are starting to realize that “case” numbers mean little, as COVID testing is wildly inaccurate. Hospitalizations and deaths are not correlated with asymptomatic “cases” detected by testing only. On the other hand, research has found that the higher the vaccination rate in an area, the higher the excess mortality. Vaccine passports can increase the “uptake” of vaccines, but that doesn’t actually help protect anyone. Still, however, governments fixate on “cases” which are not responding to vaccination and other efforts. South Korea, for example, just imposed the country’s toughest COVID restrictions since the start of the pandemic amid a record “case” surge. 92% of the population is considered fully “vaccinated.” For now at least, until boosters are required.
The failure of the jabs to control Omicron “cases” is being widely reported. Press around the world note that the Omicron “epidemic” is driven by young, vaccinated people, as confirmed by data from countries as diverse as the UK, Denmark and South Africa. The jabs don’t work. They didn’t work very well before Omicron, and they certainly aren’t working now to prevent infection and transmission. Everyone can see that for themselves. So the response from officialdom is to give you more of the same jabs, more of the same masking, more of the same travel restrictions – in other words, more of all the same policies that have failed miserably over the past two years.
Globally, being “fully vaccinated” is a moving target. Pfizer CEO Bourla and multiple major world government officials are already claiming a 4th “booster” will be necessary. With every demand for more “boosters”, more opposition to COVIDism builds. While some may submit to the third shot, who is really interested in the fourth and fifth? The “public health” community has already signaled that you must keep up with boosters to “remain” fully vaccinated. Even the most rabid COVIDian has enough sense to realize you don’t repeat a “vaccine” every few months for the rest of your life.
It especially doesn’t make sense when they are dangerous as well as ineffective. The FDA has asked a federal judge to make the public wait until at least 2096 to see all the Pfizer data and information it relied upon to license Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine. You have an experimental medical product being mandated by governments and private businesses. A product the manufacturer is shielded from liability for any injuries it causes. A product that was approved in record time. Now, the FDA wants you to wait 75 years to see the underlying data relied on for approval. In the meantime, be sure to inject your kids and get your own boosters every few months. Even the dimmest of dim bulbs is going to be bothered by all that.
Somewhere around 8 billion doses of the jabs have been administered worldwide. Despite the best efforts of the government / Big Pharma complex to hide them, word of severe adverse reactions (including deaths) is finally coming to the public’s notice. Too many people have been killed and injured to hide, even when official reporting mechanisms, such as VAERS, are woefully inadequate. But even that system, as bad as it is, provides shocking numbers. The number of reported VAERS deaths in the U.S. in 2021 alone, after COVID-19 vaccines were authorized for emergency use, is greater than the number of deaths after inoculation from all vaccines given from 1990 to 2020 combined.
Damage on this scale is impossible to hide. Especially when you are now, thanks to Omicron, essentially fighting the common cold. That awareness of vaccine risk, coupled with their relative immunity to COVID, explains why more than a month after jabs for kids were approved, barely 15 percent percent of children have been “vaccinated.” The vast majority of parents have simply ignored the massive advertising and media campaign. No one should expect that number to budge much going forward. Even in Deep Blue areas, with some notable exceptions, politicians have evidenced better sense than to mandate experimental jabs for kids.
In fact, even Blue State politicians are throwing in the towel. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, declared in an interview that the COVID-19 emergency is “over”. He won’t be implementing another statewide mask mandate in response to the Omicron variant, explaining that if people aren’t vaccinated at this point it’s their “own darn fault” if they get sick.
Plus, COVID is treatable and preventable! Monoclonal antibodies are now available in Canada, and their use is spreading within the United States. Pfizer has asked for Emergency Use Authorization for its new drug, Paxlovid, that is touted to reduce the risk of COVID hospitalization or death by 85 percent. How does that narrative work exactly? Pfizer is going to tell you that COVID is so dangerous you need an EUA, experimental mRNA jab to avoid it or survive it? While simultaneously telling you that COVID is easily treatable at home with some pills available at your local pharmacy?
The idiocy of that conundrum has not escaped the notice of the general public.
For almost two years, the medical profession has played along with the lie that COVID was novel and no treatments existed. Only a vaccine could save us. As one doctor described the situation,
What changed overnight and across the board, was an anti-science attitude across all specialties to everything related to COVID. A viral infection is not something requiring government management, rather, its encounter is part of a physician’s daily medical practice. The government has seemingly accomplished what medical insurers, medical boards, and hospitals tried, but had not yet succeeded at: complete mind control of physicians. And with that, the last vestige of respect I had for my profession died.
There were doctors who, often risking their licenses, came forward and told the truth. They were alternatively vilified, ignored, and censored. Even though many were quite distinguished, they were openly denigrated as hacks. Most people consuming only mainstream news heard very little of what any of them had to say. Until now. Joe Rogan, the most popular podcaster in the world, just hosted a segment with Dr. Peter McCullough, a famous cardiologist and epidemiologist in academic and medical practice in Dallas, Texas. Dr. McCullough was key in publishing in 2020 the first protocol for treating COVID. Suddenly, an active listening audience of 11 million people heard McCullough’s message that treatment has always been available and that people died needlessly. (Joe Rogan also averages 200 million downloads a month, so the total reach will be much broader.) Here are some excerpts from the interview:
“It seems to me, early on, there was an intentional, very comprehensive, suppression of early treatment in order to promote fear, suffering, isolation, hospitalization and death,” he said. “And it seemed to be completely organized and intentional in order to create acceptance for, and then promote mass vaccination.”
McCullough told Rogan the reason so few medical professionals are willing to speak up against the new, anti-scientific COVID regime is they’re under a “mass formation psychosis,” meaning the COVID fear-mongering and propaganda has placed almost the entire professional field in a state of irrational complacency.
The result has been electric. Even some doctors, who were previously afraid to speak out, have found their voices.
The treatment genie is not going back in the bottle. Thanks to the media push for Pfizer and monoclonal antibodies, everyone now knows we have widely available “official” treatments. Thanks to Joe Rogan’s treatment protocol (including “horse paste”), and his interview with Dr. McCullough, tens of millions now know about the other safe, effective treatments available.
Did you know that you could naturally boost your immunity to COVID? A few doctors have been talking about that for some time, but with a new surgeon general, the State of Florida is now urging Floridians to “Talk to your health care provider about how certain supplements or foods containing vitamins and minerals might help boost your immune system, such as zinc, vitamin D, vitamin C and quercetin.” These are all well-known supplements that have been shown to have a positive impact on your COVID-19 risk.
Imagine, a state Department of Health that is encouraging things that make people healthier. Who would have thought? But for the COVID crowd, the news out of Florida gets worse.
“Physicians should use their clinical judgment when recommending treatment options for patients’ individualized health care needs. This may include emerging treatment options with appropriate patient informed consent, including off-label use or as part of a clinical trial.”
Paging Dr. McCullough – sounds like Florida is ready to put your treatment protocol of off-label drugs to work. Given that Florida is the 3rd largest state in the world’s most powerful nation, this might get some attention.
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The U.S. Court system has not been kind to pandemic hysteria either. So far, courts have struck down every federal mandate. Lacking the excuse of a “federal mandate”, even woke behemoths like Disney and Oracle have voluntarily ended their vaccine requirements. Nor are just major corporations pausing their jabs. A recent survey found that 75% of all U.S. employers won’t require COVID-19 vaccination or weekly testing to work. The constant clamor for “boosters” to keep your “vaccinated” status isn’t helping companies who want to keep their mandates in place. It is one thing to fight 20% to 40% of your labor force, in a tight labor market, once. Who wants to do that over and over again every few months?
Despite what is happening in New York and with some high-profile corporations such as Kroger, the trend is definitely against vaccine mandates. Even the Los Angeles public school district suspended its vaccine mandate for students. If you can’t hold the line in California….
All of this has some media outlets in full-throated denial of reality. Unfortunately for them, shifts in tone have been obvious in such unlikely places as the New York Times and even The Atlantic of all places. The Atlantic just published a piece called, Where I Live, No One Cares About COVID:
outside the world inhabited by the professional and managerial classes in a handful of major metropolitan areas, many, if not most, Americans are leading their lives as if COVID is over, and they have been for a long while.
Ouch.
However, despite all the evidence that the “pandemic” is truly over, children are still being abused in many blue areas of the United States. Schools are still closing. Even universities such as Cornell, which have 100% vaccination requirements and mandatory masking, are shutting down campuses. Public schools in some places are following suit. In too many areas where schools are remaining open, kids are still wearing masks the entire day. In some places, kids are being forced to eat lunch outside in the cold, or on the floor in silence.
These kinds of abuses, and more, are happening in blue areas across the country, and parents are fed up.
The fact that all these polices contributed to a 50.6 percent increase in suicide for girls aged 12-17 has not made parents any happier. Nor has crossing the 100,000 mark for annual deaths from overdoses. Children have lost precious years of their lives. Children born in the “pandemic” are lagging behind in development. As a society, we may never recover from all this.
The more people know about they way they have been swindled, the bigger the coming backlash is going to be. People are increasingly waking up, many of whom previously had wholeheartedly supported every single COVID measure. This backlash will be felt in the loss of credibility of public health. It will be felt in the loss of credibility of the mainstream media. It will be felt in the loss of credibility of the medical profession. It will be felt in the loss of credibility for Big Pharm, Big Tech, and Big Government. It will most assuredly take the form, in the United States, of a “Red Wave” in the next few elections that will devastate the Democratic Party. The election results in Virginia are likely just a foretaste of how bad that will be.
All that is good and to be applauded. Our fear, however, is that Jesus and His Church will get caught in that backlash as well.
Potential Backlash Against Orthodoxy
I have a friend who is a very successful business man. A life-long Southern Baptist, we have been discussing Orthodoxy for several years now. I even managed to get him to visit the Divine Liturgy a few times. I really believed he was starting to see the truth in Orthodox Christianity. But then Archbishop Elpidophoros announced that there are no religious exemptions for Orthodox Christians, despite the jab’s ties to aborted fetal cells. That was a tough blow, and our conversations changed after that.
When the Greek Archdiocese gave Pfizer CEO Bourla the Athenagoras Award, my friend called me and gave me his condolences. He told me that I had almost “gotten him”, but that the independent church model was clearly superior to having centralized administration by bishops. His pastor answered to no one but the local community, and would never kowtow to the world the way our bishops did. The office of bishop, absolutely essential for the practice and continuity of the Orthodox Faith, was seen by this sincere, intelligent man as a fatal weakness. He is not alone.
Roman Catholic bishops have sued in various places opposing COVID restrictions. So have Protestants. Pastors of various heterodox denominations have defied restrictions, willingly facing fines and even arrest to keep their churches open. Heterodox pastors have written letters supporting vaccine religious exemptions for Orthodox Christians. This was necessary because their own priests had refused to help them, citing directives from their bishops.
Heterodox and secular leaders have demanded an end to the abuse of children in schools. They have opposed draconian mandates and medical apartheid. For once, it seems, the “religious” entrepreneurial market in the United States (progenitor of thousands of denominations) has been good for something positive.
Just as people feel betrayed by the government and media, so do many Orthodox Christians, catechumens and inquirers feel betrayed by their Orthodox bishops. The results are disastrous. Outreach is hampered. My friend is just one small example. We have gotten many emails over the course of the pandemic from families considering Orthodoxy, but frightened away by what they see as the weakness and timidity of our bishops. Orthodox Faithful are leaving the Church. Some are staying home, but others are joining heterodox churches. When ethnic Greeks praise the faithfulness of the heterodox in resisting COVID mandates, you know we Orthodox have an issue. Other Orthodox Christians are switching jurisdictions, attending less frequently, and/or scaling back their donations.
That is not to say that we don’t have good, solid bishops in the Orthodox Church. We covered some of them in this article about Orthodox COVID heroes. Since we published that article, we have been made aware of even more.
But we need more Orthodox bishops to recognize where we are in this crisis. Millions are waking up each day to the tyranny around us. My friend is only exceptional in that he understood the COVID situation earlier than most. Daily, there are more just like him all around the world. They look, naturally, to the Successors of the Apostles for leadership. Instead of inspiration, they often encounter silence from men who fear being “divisive” and so fail to address the great questions of this moment. Yes, we fully believe that the tide has turned and that the forces of godly freedom will triumph. This time. But at what cost, and how long that will take, are things known but to God. The more positive leadership we have, the lower the human and civilizational costs in the long run.
And the better prepared we will be when the next “crisis” is thrust upon us. It is highly unlikely the Powers-That-Be will simply give up after their “pandemic” has faded from memory. If we do not learn resistance now, then we may not have the chance later.
We highly recommend you watch watch this example of brave leadership from Serbian Orthodox Bishop Photius. His Grace said many important things, such as: “A great battle is being fought for the freedom all around the world.” It is only a few minutes long with sub titles. We need hundreds of heroes in miters just like him. That would change the entire world.
Alexander is a member of the Orthodox Church in America
On the Feast of St. Stephen–from Stephen Gerard Rigdon: For thirty years, at 6 different Orthodox Churches, three jurisdictions, I saw and heard how Orthodox conducted themselves in the good times, 1986-2001, and post 9/11. Some comported themselves honorably, went to Seminary, the Military, served in the Civil Service–I’m speaking of men here. We only had two genders when I was chrismated. Well and good. I watched them earn and enjoy the fruits of their hard labors, marriage, family, buying homes, boasting to Father in private– ‘I’m living the dream’–taking office, the parish council, etc., wearing church medals, the good life, well earned, and justly deserved. God bless them. Ten,a hundred times over. So. 2021. The ‘Pandemic’–of which we all know, struck, with its ramifications for worship and all other aspects of life. And what do I see– these paragons of virtue, when it came time to deliver–there’s that word again–masked up, some, vaccinated, some, and, I hear, even turned away the unmasked from attending Church.So, where do you find Fauci, Collins, & Co. in the Canons? Well, Archbishops? Priests? Deacons? All out of words? Silence. You see, I don’t have to use Patristic citations. Today, on the Feast of St. Stephen, the truth, in simple words, suffices. So. The sanctuary is now a hotbed of communicable diseases, and we must trust, not God, the Holy Spirit, but WHO,NIH,CDC,AMA, and its duly appointed Physicians. Here’s a newsflash for you Professional Orthodox: in the AIDS epidemic of the 80’s, the priest insisted that everyone in his San Francisco parish, Holy Trinity Cathedral, RECEIVE COMMUNION FROM THE SAME SPOON. And we did, all of us. 1986-1991. Got it? I realize, some of you have been to Cornell,St. Vlad’s, Holy Cross, Jordanville, perhaps even, nay, The University of Halki, education which I, a mere Graduate of USF,–why, I couldn’t hold the hem of your robes–but I think you get the message, right? Okay. Maybe not. Let’s try another tack. That’s a nautical term, from the days of the Clipper Ships–around Cape Horn, we have no shortage of horns of evasion here–Let us steer clear of the shoals. The Holy Spirit of God does not communicate diseases in the Sanctuary, but, being all-pure, dispenses His Gifts to the faithful, in due measure, for furtherance of the Life in XC, to the Glory of God the Father. (Now where have I heard that before–no Latin divine,but with my luck, some Greek.[Sound of gnashing teeth]. Now,I have it on good authority that these Gifts also include the Gift of Knowledge, which, apparently, has not been parceled out to lofty places where now, desperately needed, but rather,’To [some] Men , He gave strange gifts.’–The Silmarillion–J.R.R. Tolkien. This is a mystery. Patience. Peter of Christian Orthodox Miracles and Prophecies gives the word from Agion Oriti, the Holy Mountain, from the Fathers, such as Father Savvas, a Canonist, who, alongside Father Peter Heers, Professor of Dogmatic Theology, in Greece, specifically affirms that we are not to obey Hierarchs [and, presumably, their designated representatives, Parish and Diocesan, Clergy-Laity Conference attendees, etc.] ‘Who go against the Tradition.’ Money quote. So those of you, if you are ‘living the Dream’ in America, but are masking up in church, are partaking of mRNA vaccines derived from an aborted fetal stem-cell line, which is murder, need to (1) Man up. (2) Step up. (3) Own it. (4) Come clean. I have watched these orthodox Parish, Diocesan, National Assemby All-Stars, the Calendar-Correct, Master-Fasters, for 30 years now. And what do I see. Compliance. Silence. Submission to the cult of professionalism. Pressuring others to take the vaccines, either by example, exclusion, shunning–it reminds me of St. Athanasius’s time. So. Deliver the goods, as we ‘barbarians’ say in America. As they say in Missouri, ‘Show me.’ Now, if I do not turn up, I cannot accuse you of heresy, and you, for your part, cannot turn me away. Read the Creed. See what it says there. Do you believe it. Really. I can count my friends on the fingers of one hand. And none of them are weaklings in character, nor, Traitors to the Republic. When you see me face-to-face, remember these words on the Feast of St. Stephen.
There is something everyone can do to practice the faith, taking care of the sick, the elderly,providing life-saving information to the ignorant to save them from the mRNA vaccine mandates. Post information on the efficacy of Glutahathione 500mg, NAC, Zinc, Vitamin D3 at 5000 I.U.’s for those who have taken the jab, to degrade the Graphene Oxide they have received into their systems by vaccine administration. You see, (and I’m eschewing theology for the nonce here, I see that we have readership with solid formation here), if our faithful can extend their lives, or ‘bios’ then they can have additional time to participate in the divine nature, or ‘zoe’ and isn’t that worth something? As it is, those who take the mRNA vaccine have 2 years till a likely death, per Dr. Luc Montagnier, a Nobel Prize winning virologist in France, and the wave of deaths follows exactly the wave of vaccinations(from his RAIR and Sifthung Corona Auschuss interviews of May/June 2021). That’s not much time to work out one’s salvation. As for the Covid-fearing Hierarchs, and the priests in lock-step behind them: ‘Fear not him who can destroy the body, but rather, the one who can destroy body and soul together. Yes, I tell you, fear Him’–XC You know, it might seem a minor, irrelevant matter to some, but these vaccines, developed with DoD funding, US research at Chapel Hill, NC, farmed out to the Wuhan BSL-4 Lab, as the second part of a two-part bioweapons deployment, are the devil’s weapon against us,primarily, but secondarily, given gain-of-function and multiple variants, evidence of a bioweapons attack on the United States, and those hierarchs and priests who encourage the administration of this CCP/US/DS population control weapon, are working for the enemy of mankind, and his proxies, the Globalists like Gates/Fauci,et.al., and serving as willing tools in a war against the republic, which makes them traitors, twice-over. I have, contrarily, signaled the above antidotes by memorandum on public platforms and military circulars to save lives while Elpidophoros publicly encourages the vaccine by example. I worship God the Trinity as I learned from reading Sts. Hilary and Augustine, Ambrose of Milan, Gregory the Great, and I will take the City of God, composed of Saints and Angels, over your City of this World–any day, and twice on Sundays. You can keep the church of the lukewarm. Orthodoxy, as I understand it anyway, requires, not only that you hold ‘the correct theology’–it requires that you champion life by your way of life, and that you ‘deliver the goods’ as we say here in our rude, backward, Barbarian America. Assignment for an Archbishop who champions Covid: go read The Moralia on Job by St Gregory the Great. Try reading it five times, minimum. For starters. Learn what it means to be the real thing.
On inquiry, I was told by the local Greek Orthodox priest that multiple spoons were not employed, icons were being venerated. All to the good: then I was told that masks were required for the unvaccinated although vaccine status was not challenged at the door. I honestly replied about my vaccine status. I cannot however lie about it. So I am not complying, and staying at home until this ends, taking care of my elderly cancer-afflicted mother. No support from the Orthodox. You know, I attended church diligently for nearly 3 decades from a young man till now. I saw in various Orthodox Churches, many “All-Star Orthodox” who made much of fasting, calendars, hallmarks of “The correct”, the perfect, but 2 years of Covid, and I see where these super-orthodox are: they are nowhere to be found. One call from a Navy friend at Christmas. That’s it. I will read the Latin Fathers primarily until the Greeks and other Covid compliant priests can rediscover what it means to be, really, Orthodox, and have the courage to stand up for their faith, to look after the widow, the poor, all those they have excluded by kowtowing to the New World Order. I remember a woman I knew walking out of a conference at the name of Augustine being mentioned. Here’s a newsflash for all of you super Orthodox among the correct: St. Augustine, St. Hilary of Poitiers, St. Ambrose, Sts. Leo and Gregory the Great, The Venerable Bede, are, each, and all of them, far more orthodox, more courageous, bolder in the faith than all of you, Greeks, Russians, OCA, who are obedient to the mask mandate, covering up the image, denying the likeness in the temple, turning it into a carnival, and yourselves into real clowns. I’ll wait you out.
The good Holy Elders of Mount Athos and the monasteries of Elder Ephraim of blessed memory, are all united in their unwavering advice “not to leave the Orthodox Church!” We May go to another Orthodox jurisdiction but it we must stay within the Church! Despite the crisis and the scandal, the Holy Spirit still works within and through he to impart God’s grace to the faithful no matter how we treat one another or feel about one another because of our fallen and sinful nature.
Recall the Iconoclastic period, brothers and sisters! Some people lived their entire lives in iconoclasm, never seeing an icon displayed in a church and never venerating the blessed images in public. God allowed faith to be tested for as long as it pleased Him until the Holy Spirit reset the course of the Church through her synodical Tradition.
Now is not the time to take things personally and seek asylum for our hurt feelings and our hurt pride elsewhere, where there is no salvation! Soldiers do not fight because of their feelings! They fight dutifully despite their feelings! Strengthen yourselves with the full armour of God! Stand up for what you believe in peacefully and with conviction INSIDE YOUR CHURCH!!! Do they single you out? Do they embarrass you? Do they make you feel unwanted? Rejoice because you have joined the ranks of the saints. If you flee from this martyrdom and you leave the church, you will have fallen off the Ladder of Ascent and lost your crown.
Keep going back to teach your children what true Christianity looks like.
The good Holy Elders of Mount Athos and the monasteries of Elder Ephraim of blessed memory, are all united in their unwavering advice “not to leave the Orthodox Church!” We May go to another Orthodox jurisdiction but it we must stay within the Church! Despite the crisis and the scandal, the Holy Spirit still works within and through he to impart God’s grace to the faithful no matter how we treat one another or feel about one another because of our fallen and sinful nature.
Recall the Iconoclastic period, brothers and sisters! Some people lived their entire lives in iconoclasm, never seeing an icon displayed in a church and never venerating the blessed images in public. God allowed faith to be tested for as long as it pleased Him until the Holy Spirit reset the course of the Church through her synodical Tradition.
Now is not the time to take things personally and seek asylum for our hurt feelings and our hurt pride elsewhere, where there is no salvation! Soldiers do not fight because of their feelings! They fight dutifully despite their feelings! Strengthen yourselves with the full armour of God! Stand up for what you believe in peacefully and with conviction INSIDE YOUR CHURCH!!! Do they single you out? Do they embarrass you? Do they make you feel unwanted? Rejoice because you have joined the ranks of the saints. If you flee from this martyrdom and you leave the church, you will have fallen off the Ladder of Ascent and lost your crown.
Keep going back to teach your children what try Christianity looks like.
Rita, Your points are very thought provoking and challenging. Although most of the early Church heresies were Christological in nature I would say that scientism is the biggest Church heresy of our modern-day which is ecclesiological in nature. In my opinion the latest and most dangerous iteration of this heresy is “Faucism.”
Informed Orthodox Christians clergy and laity alike such as the people who contribute to Orthodox Reflections and similiar sites I feel have a duty at this point to specifically educate our fellow Orthodox Christians that Fauci rituals i.e., forced face coverings, forced medical experiments, forced isolations of the healthy and forced shutdowns are assaults on human dignity and worth. Anyone at this point in time that does not recognize this I’m sorry to say is either morally obtuse or lacks any capacity for compassion and depth of feeling for people.
Not only should there be zero tolerance for this nonsense in our sacred spaces but should also be condemned in the culture at large. These rituals in my view parallel with Jim Crow laws. These “laws” did nothing but demoralize and dehumanize a person’s natural rights. The natural human rights being violated by Faucism need to be challenges in a similar way as those brave individuals who participated in the Lunch-Counter-Sit-Ins of the 1960’s.
The people who did so rightly recognized that “private businesses” open to the public had no right to discriminate against someone on the basis of race. Because skin color is an inherent sacred God given natural characteristic. Likewise, the burden of proof beyond a reasonable doubt is on the private business open to the public to prove a person breathing naturally, moving about freely and refusing to inject themselves with a substance is an immediate threat or harm to others. As we know that threshold has not been met!
Most recently I did see people in New York City at a Cheesecake Factory use the argument of natural rights to protest vaccine passports. Hopefully this will begin to permeate everywhere including our parishes.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/12/decorated-army-veteran-others-arrested-nypd-cheesecake-factory-refusal-show-proof-vaccination-intense-videos/?utm_source=Gab&utm_medium=PostTopSharingButtons&utm_campaign=websitesharingbuttons
David, I agree with you about Faucism. I’m surprised you did not mention that at the very least he is a Freemason and at most, an Illuminati. Either way, it’s a satanic cult whose ultimate goal is to undermine anything Christian (especially Orthodoxy) and to prepare the world for the Antichrist and Satan’s rule – for the time being, in the name of Scientism, as you explain.
This is nothing new, however. Scientism is just another type of Gnosticism, various forms of which have challenged Orthodoxy from the very beginning; there’s always someone who thinks they have a better understanding or better explanation than the inexplicable mysteries of God. Gnosticism is born by arrogance and both never cease to be used by satanic forces to undermine the Truth. This undermining takes many forms, be it deliberate, or through ignorance, cowardice, or indifference.
Antichrists also are nothing new. The first who comes to mind is Herod the Great who slaughtered innocent babes to physically persecute the Christ Himself, forcing Him to flee as a refugee to Egypt. Soon afterwards many other antichrists appeared from within the Church, who succeeded in implementing their heresies for as long as it pleased God, until the Holy Spirit intervened and corrected the course of the Church, as in the case with Arianism, Iconoclasm, and so many other ecclesial crises.
In all these cases, the gates of Hell have approached, indeed have come very close to, but have never prevailed against the Body of Christ (the Church) as He, Himself, promised. In all these cases, and throughout the history of the Church, the Grace of the Holy Spirit continued to flow through both the worthy and the heretical unworthy clergy to save the faithful, because salvation is only possible through the liturgical and sacramental life of the Church.
Therefore, we the faithful must not abandon the Church, as we have a significant role to play. We definitely must not abandon her because we feel injured by our spiritually ill or spiritually lacking brothers and sisters in Christ who may perhaps need the Hospital more than we do. This would be a sinful act of arrogance on our part. We must show love in all things as we exercise tolerance and patient endurance, for the Holy Spirit WILL do His work, to bring the Church back on her course, when it pleases Him to do so, when, perhaps, more wheat has been separated from more chaff, when perhaps, more Saints have been added to the Heavenly Kingdom, when perhaps, those of us who will live to see the days of the final Antichrist will have been sufficiently trained by the current crisis to withstand him … Leaving the Orthodox Church completely divides and weakens her and does not afford us the opportunity of becoming instruments of the Holy Spirit. This is a demonic ploy that we must not fall victim to.
The Holy Spirit will protect His Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against her. Our choice then becomes a simple one. Is the Holy Spirit going to do His work with us or without us? Are we going to teach our ailing brothers and sisters in Christ with our perseverance and our example or are we going to abandon them because we have deluded ourselves into thinking that we are better because we are more correct?
Beware of this attitude brothers and sisters. No one makes it to heaven by being correct. We are all spiritually sick and we all need our Hospital. Let us therefore, forgive those who point out our incorrectly placed masks, those who police us in our churches and those who accuse us of being unvaccinated and unloving, so that God may also forgive us our sins. Don’t let the novelty of Covid ensnare you in the same old traps.
And do not be dismayed because you have been jostled out of your comfort zones. Martyrdom is not a thing of the past. Why should God love us any less by not affording us the opportunity of a heavenly crown? These crowns are not limited editions. The early martyrs rejoiced when they suffered most cruelly but we whine and complain because we have to drive in our heated car a little further to a church that uses one spoon, or because someone frowns at us or disagrees with us because we are not correctly following Covid protocol. This thing called pride is bigger than we realize, and I am the first in this department.
Salvation is only found in the Church. Those who leave her will be lost, whereas those we deem to be wrong, or “worse” sinners, but stay, can still be saved. Do not think for one minute that they are beyond the power of the Holy Spirit to bring them to repentance and salvation, and even sainthood.
Therefore, let us all stop judging one another and start sticking together in prayer, inside the Holy vessel of our Church. If you disagree with one another, agree to do so peacefully, and wait patiently, supplicating the Holy Spirit to do what only He can do, because only HE can, and will, fix this mess.
Please permit me to also add that far be it from me to dictate whether or not a person should,at the present time, continue to attend the Greek Orthodox churches (in light of Bartholomew being a heretic and schismatic, Elpidophoros being an utter heretic and Sotirios being a strong bully/very weak Christian) or whether he/she should switch to another jurisdiction, as I have done at this time (others left in 2016 and others even earlier). We all have our separate consciences to answer to.
Lawrence, B Wheeler, I read your blog and you make some excellent points, but your are a man of Theology who understands how the Orthodox Church works. There are others who do not have your education, experience, or knowledge, who continue to practice Orthodoxy under a heretical/schismatic hierarch with simplicity but greater faith for Christ than I have ever been capable of. It will take something more flagrant for these people to come to understand what is going on… but if they die before that time comes, this does not mean they have no salvation because they stayed in the Greek Orthodox Church. Remember how the Holy Spirit descended upon Cornelius and his family while they were listening to Peter, even before they were baptized? It is not for us to judge the spiritual status of another. While canonically, they may not be doing the right thing according to our standards, I believe God’s justice is more just than we could ever approach.
Nevertheless, the further these deluded and puffed up hierarchs go, the clearer everything will become to more and more people until it is finally clear to all. Some don’t believe this will ever happen, but if all the Patriarchates fall to the heresy of Ecumenism and embrace one global religion together with the West, then the one true Church will have diminished in size (but not Power) to the level of ancient times. We don’t really have it that hard now, and perhaps God is allowing this now to prepare us for later on. As much as we want this crisis to go away, I think we all know where it is leading to. It has to get worse for the Antichrist to come. Let us hope and pray that God will give us a little reprieve so we can recoop and regroup.
But when the time does come, and our whole Church does cease to be Orthodox, then, the time will be ripe to leave the fallen church and retreat to the catacombs.
I think this is the real elephant in the room that everyone has been afraid to talk about. If we can’t go to another jurisdiction now, we should stay in our current Orthodox church and make the best of it through prayer and forgiveness…but shouldn’t we start preparing ourselves for the worst? Weren’t we given these prophecies in order to prepare? And I mean a spiritual preparation – not a preparation for some sort of out-in-the-bush Zombie apocalypse, although that, too, might be needed.
Elder Ephraim prepared for this by founding a whole bunch of monasteries in North America in remote areas. I think we should start thinking about that.
Rita, you make some good points. I started a response here, but it burgeoned into an article, so with no offense to you or to Reflections, I’ve posted it on my own blog here: weborthodox.com
The question is not, when will our freedoms be restored, the question is–will always be–what will we do with those freedoms when restored. Will we take aggressive steps to propagate the Church or just sit on our XXL blessed assurance.
Here is what I see and why I believe we are on the eve of destruction; more than all the other signs of the times, here is the one the bothers me the most:
Jesus put it this way: “they did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.” What is shocking about what Jesus said, is that eating, drinking, getting married (as apposed to fornicating) are all good things,are they not?
This is what scares me the most and I know it will go unheeded until it is too late. For example, driving home from church Sunday afternoon the roads are choked with cars, people shopping, people going camping, people going to restaurants, people just living their lives as normal. AND THAT IS THE PROBLEM; our fight of evil is centered around restoring our cushy “normal.” We want all the misbehaving (those that misbehave) bishops to behave so we can go to church unmolested (a good thing, right?). While this is wonderful, the problems that will bring down our society–and the world–are much deeper.
God send Jonah to warn Nineveh of the impending judgement; there is a reason this story stands alone as a book in the canon of Scripture. Now that–in our state–that the COVID restrictions have been relaxed, most are just getting out and exercising their freedoms full throttle as if to say–“see there, we are not controlled.”
Desperately we want business as usual to come back, but that is not what God is after. God is after wholesale repentance. We Orthodox are great at fasts–scheduled fasts. Because it is part of the routine, we just get through it without really drawing closer to God. What is happening in the disruptions–even destruction–of jurisdictions is a wake up call to search out God’s purposes with much greater urgency; why are we even here?
Now is not the time of exercising, protecting, and enjoying our freedoms; now is the time of sackcloth and ashes.
John Lee, I do agree that we need to be daily and diligently seeking our precious Lord’s forgiveness and mercy. However I do think we can walk and chew gum at the same time. I think we need to demonstrate the importance of defending our God given rights and how those rights are relational to our Christian witness. Christ has commanded us to go into the world and preach the gospel and to be ready to give an answer for the hope that is in us. Without those God given freedoms it’s not really possible to to exercise those commandments.
Keep in mind, the globalists that brought out COVID have many other tools in their tool box. When the obvious fallacy of the vaccines comes more and more out in the open, the globalists will be pulling out more “rabbits out of the hat.”
At the moment, their control over things is much more than can be assessed. They run the stock market, much of the food production, and much of transportation, so get ready for more.
Some are predicting a total economic collapse. Is that possible? Of course it is; one look at post war Europe and we know economies can be destroyed overnight. The only reason the American economy is not sub-Venezuela is the globalists are still using it to build their increasing power structure. At some point, we may be more obsessed with putting food on the table, than masks. Its already that way in many place.
In other words, stopping the vaccine–as evil as it is–will not alleviate what is ailing the world right now; its much deeper than that.
All true. Which is why we have to say, “If you can’t stop such an obvious fraud, what will you do after they hit you with the next one?”
Again, Beware LONG-GAME pincer moves . No “party” No politicians, No STATE politics will give you the freedom that Christ has given . What one does in their indiuvidual life/salvation is the true activity. Yes, there are States that give the appearance of “freedom”, that is because the father-of-lies and his legion work both sides .POLITICS in Texas, Florida ? Is this supposed to take the place of our heavenly goal ? Walk in Christ . It’s that easy .
“… but frightened away by what they see as the weakness and timidity of our bishops.”
The statements by some of those in positions of authority or prominence in the Church are not at all a sign of weakness and timidity.
They are a sign of vanity, intellectual sloth, and arrogance.
And a full-fledged fascist mindset.
Saints Constantine and Helen Orthodox “Cathedral” of the Pacific, Honolulu, Hawai’i. (The metropolitan’s see is in San Francisco, so what makes this a cathedral? Go figure.) The parish council, with a doctor as a member, has recently voted to EXTEND masking, social distancing, plexiglass shielding and restricted use of the parish facilities. Some of us are feeling blue in this true blue state, so enslaved are we to the Covidian gods, groveling in fear that someone might catch a cold. And they call themselves Orthodox. What an embarrassment!
You’re right. This has destroyed my relationship with Orthodoxy. And people can scream at me about demons or being a bad Christian or whatever all they want and I know they are wrong. I love God. And I still really love my priest, my spiritual father, who is getting older and is basically being abused by aggressive parishioners (I have witnessed what I would call literal menancing verbal violence directed at him by middle aged covidians) and his deranged Woke bishop. I cannot bear to stand by and watch what is going on in my parish, it’s a nightmare. I loved that place like my own hearth and home. I feel traumatized.
I sat outside for the entire year of maskholes and vaxholes and capacity limits. I got yelled at by the door guy when I took too long venerating, and when I got too close to the icons instead of just…idk waving at them from afar I can’t remember what we were supposed to do. I got escorted out by the elbow. I got accosted about masking. I got accosted by a vax pushing harpy. My kids got squeezed out of the Sunday school they loved more than anything when the Boomlettes who run it decided that kids are yucky vectors and have to be muzzled. My kids have a lot of good “excuses” medically for not tolerating masks but I told my priest, I won’t be giving him a doctor’s note this time. He wouldn’t stand up for ALL the kids. And my kids are not going to be medical exceptions. Breathing free and growing unhindered is a human right. If the other kids can’t, then we are not going to be part of this.
I know I could go back any week but I cannot make myself. I cannot go and sit outside anymore. And I cannot go inside and be with these people who terrorized my kids and abused my beloved spiritual father. Who put Everclear alcohol on the spoon and burned my little kid’s mouth, who hid at home on zoom all year and freaked out and screamed at me when I meekly raised the issue of privacy concerns about broadcasting all our faces and names on YouTube.
When it came time to beg my husbands employer for a religious exemption our priest was loving and helpful but said not to mention Orthodoxy in the letter. You know why. Something in me broke. And now it’s like I just can’t make my body turn the corner to go back into that building.
They abandoned us.
Dear Kay,
Sitting here and reading your experiences and those of others I’m filled with a strange sadness. I’m a fairly new Christian, finally coming to Christ’s Church in old age only to see these antics! But it also gives me a resolve to keep in the struggle. This does not mean swallowing their pill or taking part in this distortion.
When you said this has destroyed your relationship with ‘Orthodoxy’ I’m sure you meant something a little more directed than a broad sweep of the brush.
Never forget that none of this is really new. There have been unfaithful, unorthodox priests and Bishops running rough shod over other believers for periods of time in various places. But they never could destroy Orthodoxy. They can’t destroy Christ and they can’t destroy his Church which is his body. Remember what they did to St. Maximus the Confessor? Didn’t these so called holy men cut out his tongue to shut him up? What about St. John Chrysostom? They forced him out, the righteous Bishop that he was and exiled him, forcing him to walk for days. A trip which ended his life. His last words? “Glory to God for all things!”. In withdrawing from them so as not to partake in their blasphemy, we will stay in the struggle and will remain Orthodox. We will continue to live it and pray for all and God grant us piece who is everywhere present and filling all things, full of grace and truth.
I think in the long term sidling up to the political establishment in the West is going to be remembered as a serious blunder, especially the Democratic Party in the US as its approval is in freefall. I’m not going to be sad when Bartholomew and his flunky finally leave office, but that makes me wonder if there’s a way for the laity to canonically rise up against such leaders, the church has had worse (ie, Nestorious). If all of us who understand what’s happening bail out of the church or refuse to convert, all that would remain is the Church of Woke. The problem with just retreating is that you never retreat your way to victory, eventually there will be nowhere left to go.
That said in some areas it’s hard to argue against not going along with it because it’s literally what they voted for. Canada had an election not too long ago, and guess what? They voted for Trudeau yet again. In California you have the same thing, Newsom won the recall election overwhelmingly. We need to remember that not everyone wants freedom. Many just want to be told what to do.
I also wouldn’t underestimate liberals’ willingness to tolerate the intolerable for the sake of ideological purity. New York City started going downhill real fast in the early 1970s, crime skyrocketed throughout the decade and stayed fairly high all the way through the 80s. People were burning down their apartment buildings because the city decided if you lost your apartment in a fire you would be given a better one, so in the 80s the Bronx looked like Berlin in 1945, a bombed out husk. This went on for 20 years, a whole generation, but time and again people voted for the guy with the D after his name. It wasn’t until the early 90s that they voted Guiliani in who cleaned the place up, but even then he had to run twice. Make no mistake, a lot of these people want it to be like this.
This past Sunday I visited a Moscow Patriarchate Orthodox Church. Masks, contact tracing info taken, hand sanitizing, no social, multiple spoons, and seating every other pew were all still in place. (Southeastern Pennsylvania.)
Southern NJ: same thing as above except now we can sit closer than 6 feet.
Disheartened doesn’t even touch how I feel. As far as I am concerned, the beliefs of the Church are being tested and our clergy have failed. Miserably.
In my circle of the world I’m not experiencing the ‘freedom’ you all are. Perhaps that is a blessing that I will see in hindsight (what God wants me to learn). In the meantime, I am not fighting anymore. I am walking and working to stay Faithful.
Another Christmask no doubt followed by yet another MaskaPascha. It is so wrong. It wouldn’t surprise me to see people leave, but where to go?
They will find their own ways, unfortunately. The fact is that we are totally normal in the state of Florida. And in most areas of the United States. A friend in Ottawa says that they are done with Covid. So even in Canada there seem to be freer areas. If we are good in Florida and Texas – how can anyone justify the oppression in your area of Canada? How can bishops in one area say this is a good thing and carry water for Trudeau, when we are playing the super bowl mask free in CA?