Fr Peter Heers – Why Him, Why Now, Is the American Deep State Involved?

Fr. Peter Heers is an Orthodox priest, blogger, podcaster, author, publisher, and conference speaker.  In modern America, he attracts controversy like few Orthodox clergy. Fr Peter was vehemently against COVID vax mandates, against the vaxes themselves for their connection to abortion, against the lockdowns, church closures, changes to liturgical practices, against transgenderism, against gay rights, against the US-backed persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, and strongly in favor of traditional Orthodox morality. Fr Peter has often been attacked over his teachings, both by those inside and outside of the Church. But lately there is another reason that has made Fr Peter controversial. There seems to be some question about his canonical status. Namely, is he under a canonical bishop? An Orthodox blogger named Craig Truglia provided some context on this matter last year. Below is an excerpt, here is the full article

The priest petitions to the Metropolitan and First Hierarch of ROCOR, who unambiguously receives the priest after being sent documentation permitting the priest to be received. The First Hierarch of ROCOR then assigns him to a local bishop.


For more than half a year there is no issue with this arrangement. Suddenly, for reasons not publicly enunciated, members of ROCOR’s synod and the First Hierarch then reconsider the latter’s decision to receive the Greek priest. They continue to consider him a priest of good standing. However, they now recognize him not as a priest who has already transferred from the Moscow Patriarchate, but rather as one in the process of transferring. Then, months later, after reviewing the matter members of ROCOR’s synod allege the transfer never went through and the Greek priest is still under the Greek Metropolitan. The Greek Metropolitan, who canonically released the Greek priest, refuses to recognize this, citing his letter of canonical release. As for the Greek priest, having been released long ago by the Greek Metropolitan and then accepted into ROCOR from the Moscow Patriarchate, this reneging on his reception makes his status uncertain. In effect, there are multiple episcopal authorities alleging that the Greek priest belongs to a different jurisdiction — a set of circumstances out of his control.


The above situation can be summarized as follows: a Greek priest is released to enter the Moscow Patriarchate to serve in America. The MP’s plans change so he moves to ROCOR. Decision makers in ROCOR ex post facto “invalidate” his reception, presuming that he belongs to a Greek Metropolitan. This is despite the fact that the Metropolitan had given the priest a canonical release to the Russian Church. Due to the preceding facts not yet being made public, many scrupulous laymen fear that somehow the priest is a free-agent, thereby invalid sacramentally. However, if documented evidence demonstrates his reception, in reality the priest is properly under his canonical bishop.

It is not my intent to argue over the canonical status of Fr Peter Heers. Rather, let us focus on that phrase from the above excerpt, “For more than half a year there is no issue with this arrangement.”  (That was last year. More time has elapsed since then.) Fr Peter is not new on the American Orthodox scene. He has been a well-known figure for quite some time. Now though, all of a sudden, Fr Peter has become the first priest in history whose canonical status has been specifically addressed by the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the United States of America via a “special communiqué”

According to the communiqué, in November 2022 the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (known as ROCOR and which does not participate in the Assembly) wrote a letter to the Assembly (which it doesn’t participate in) indicating, “that the Very Reverend Archpriest Peter Heers is not a clergyman of the Eastern American Diocese or of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, nor is there any pending consideration of his reception.”

For some reason the Assembly got this letter, was very disturbed about its implications, but then waited until 4/20/2023 to issue an unprecedented and very urgent communiqué letting everyone know about the letter from ROCOR and that:

The Assembly can further confirm that Archpriest Peter Heers is not a clergyman of, or on loan to, any other canonical Orthodox jurisdiction in the United States. To the extent that this individual purports to act as an Orthodox priest in the United States, including celebrating the Divine Liturgy and the other services of the Church and teaching the faithful and those who inquire into Orthodoxy, he does so in a manner outside of the Holy Canons.

This raises some serious questions, especially because the Assembly is not an actual Orthodox Synod:

…the Assembly is both consultative and programmatic. It is consultative insofar as, while it has no administrative authority, it is a forum for the exchange of ideas and creation of templates, best practices, and models for each Bishop to implement as he sees fit in his own diocese. At the same time, the Assembly is to be programmatic in its goal to coordinate and ultimately unite the common ministries and pastoral practices of the various jurisdictions.

 

The Assembly meets annually and functions by a consensus of all its members. 

 

Should this proposal be accepted, it is hoped that the Assembly of Bishops will be succeeded by a governing Synod of a united Church in the United States.

No administrative authority, and operates by consensus on the basis of an annual meeting. Yet, somehow, this body with no actual authority, in between meetings, was able to get the agreement of over 50 separate bishops, in different jurisdictions, to put out a communiqué casting aspersions on the canonical status, and thus the teaching authority, of a very politically incorrect (faithfully Orthodox) priest? 

How did this happen? Which Orthodox bishops thought, even with Orthodox persecution in Ukraine, persecution of Palestinian Christians in Jerusalem, the ongoing sanctions / occupation of Syria harming Orthodox Christians, plus our own mounting troubles in America, that the most important thing to do right now was put out a communiqué about Fr Peter Heers? 

Seriously?

Who started this? Were all the bishops asked for their opinions? All 50+ of them? Maybe just a majority? Were any of the bishops even asked for their opinions? The communiqué is unsigned. There is no information available as to how such a communiqué was issued and by whom. It simply appeared, and enemies of Fr Peter then spread it far and wide.

The situation makes one wonder, did this whole thing originate from Archbishop Elpidophoros and his staff at the Greek Archdiocese? One must wonder that, because Archbishop Elpidophoros is the Chairman of the Assembly.

If you have been paying attention, you might have noticed that the United States is less a nation than it is a funding source for various public / private “complexes”: Military-Industrial-Intelligence Complex, Pharmaceutical-Hospital-Public Health Industrial Complex, Prison-Law Enforcement Complex, Educational-Teachers’ Union Complex, Environmental Complex, etc. If all the pigs at the public trough had an official Christian chaplain to provide cover for their nefariousness, he would be the Patriarch of Constantinople, currently named Bartholomew, with Archbishop Elpidophoros mostly standing in for him in the US.

Since at least WWII, the Patriarch of Constantinople has been an exemplary asset of the US Security State (the mother who birthed all the baby complexes mentioned above). The ties between intelligence and the Patriarchate are so tight, that the US has openly decided Patriarchal succession and policies.

In 1948, the 62-year-old Archbishop Athenagoras of America was elected the new Ecumenical Patriarch. The CIA described this event the following way: “Soviet attempts to use the Greek Orthodox Church as a medium for persuasion and propaganda have undoubtedly received a setback with the election of Athenagoras.”

 

Athenagoras was received by President Truman who offered the presidential airplane for the Patriarch-elect to fly to Istanbul.

If you think anything has changed, please note that Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople suddenly went from recognizing Metropolitan Onuphry as the head of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, to considering him a foreign nobody in his own nation simply because Joe Biden and the US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo at the time, came calling. As explained on The American Conservative website in an article entitled Zelensky vs. the Ukrainian Orthodox Church:

The State Department and politicians of both parties carried out work to promote the new church. Two months before the creation of the OCU in 2018, Filaret and Epifaniy met in the United States with Joe Biden, who declared his gratitude for their work. State Department Ambassador for Religious Freedom Samuel Brownback, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and special representative for Ukraine Ambassador Kurt Volker declared their support for this project.

 

Immediately after its creation, the OCU received its first official congratulations from the State Department and the U.S. Embassy. At the same time, Ambassador Brownback and the U.S. ambassador to Greece, Geoffrey Pyatt—who was also ambassador to Ukraine from 2013 to 2016—visited church leaders and Mount Athos to urge them to recognize the OCU. Both Ambassador Volker and Secretary Pompeo met with Epifaniy many times. All facts indicate that the promotion of the OCU was part of U.S. policy in Ukraine.

So now Metropolitan Onuphry and his UOC, whom Fr Peter Heers and 80% or better of the Orthodox world support, are suffering for Christ. A fact that the Patriarchate of Constantinople in general, and Archbishop Elpdophoros in America specifically, go to great lengths to cover up, deny, and excuse.

The American Deep State, the author of our horrible Ukrainian policy, clearly appreciate Archbishop Elpidophoros’ dedicated service, and seem to consider him one of their own. The Archbishop is even privileged to speak at the National Intelligence University:

NIU is a unique and technologically advanced university that focuses on the profession of intelligence and is the only institution of higher education in the nation that allows its students to study and complete research in the Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmentalized Information (TS/SCI) arena.

A sincere question to all those who deny the ties of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, and the various “Greek” Archdioceses around the world, to the US Security state – can you explain what we are seeing here?

Persecution of the UOC is reaching a fever pitch, such that even the UN has taken notice. The war is clearly not going in Ukraine’s favor, and even the mainstream press has had to acknowledge that. Against that backdrop, an effective advocate for the canonical Church, such as Fr Peter Heers, is suddenly declared an uncanonical wandering priest with no teaching or sacramental authority? By the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops, of all things, which has no real authority, and has never commented on the canonical status of a priest before. And, which oddly enough, is headed by a bona fide asset of the Deep State?

One can’t help but wonder about such coincidences.

The American Deep State has spun many a narrative that is beginning to unravel, and not just concerning Ukraine. Among these is the fitness of President Joe Biden to be in office. The DNC already announced that there will be no Democratic Primary debates. The DNC has put its thumb on the scales of democracy before. The RNC has as well. We all know that Ron Paul was unacceptable to the ruling class, as was Bernie Sanders. Neither was allowed to seriously contest for their respective party’s nomination. But back then, both national committees feared being this brazen about stealing a nomination. Now it is all done in the clear light of day. 

Donald Trump took the Deep State by surprise with his winning populism. The Governing Elite will take no chances of another populist victory in 2024. There is simply too much money and power at stake. Joe Biden has to win. 

There will be no debates in the Democratic Primary. Media, social and mainstream, will be kept on a tight leash. Especially with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. threatening the sitting president with pesky, traditional Democratic ideals such as pro-middle class polices, peace, and freedom. Deep State power must continue unimpeded, and that requires enforcement of fidelity to the Vax, to endless global war, and to Woke, including all its dogmas: transgenderism, worship of power, corporate supremacy, gay rights, “Democracy” (correct outcomes only), Greenism, CRT, abortion / anti-natalism, open borders, ecumenism (many paths to God), and censorship of incorrect opinions. In all this, Archbishop Elpidophoros is the Global Elite’s guy. Fr Peter Heers is not.

One could really fill a whole book with the awfulness that are the services Archbishop Elpidophoros has rendered to the American Deep State. His Eminence embraced Joe Biden as a candidate and practically endorsed him for president when praying at the Democratic National Convention. Archbishop Elpidophoros actually declared that Orthodox Christians could not refuse the mRNA jabs, despite their link to aborted fetal cells. 

Patriarch Bartholomew and Archbishop Elpidophoros gave Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla the Athenagoras Human Rights Award in 2021. This was done after even the dullest knives in the drawer had realized the mRNA “clot shots” did not stop transmission of COVID, did very little at all for younger people who were mostly unaffected by the virus, were responsible for horrific side effects, and had no long-term safety data. Never mind all those pesky details, or concerns about medical freedom and human dignity. Archbishop Elpidophoros was one of the most COVIDian of all bishops, and defends those misbegotten policies, including masking toddlers in Church, to this day. Big Pharma, Big Capital, and Big Government were happy with hysteria-driven power and profits, so Elpidophoros and Bartholomew were fully on-board then, and still are now. 

Elpidophoros marched with BLM, a communist organization. Archbishop Elpidophoros and employees of the Greek Archdiocese regularly espouse CRT. Archbishop Elpidophoros has openly discussed communing non-Orthodox spouses, a radical change in the life of the Orthodox Church. During the Pandemic, he was a champion of using multiple spoons for the Eucharist.  As part of his commitment to ecumenism, Archbishop Elpidophoros celebrated Divine Liturgy in an Episcopal Church, St. Bart’s, that was decorated at the time by a giant “Gay Pride Flag”. 

Archbishop Elpidophoros is pro-choice on abortion. He actually said this out loud at the March for Life in 2022.

He’s doubled down on that stance since in subsequent interviews.  His abortion comments earned a justified rebuke from other Orthodox Bishops. Curiously, the organizer of said rebuke, Metropolitan Joseph of Antioch, was not long afterwards embroiled in a “scandal” and resigned

One tends to wonder about such happy coincidences

Archbishop Elpidophoros is also a huge friend of President Joe Biden, the most pro-abortion, pro-war, pro-sexual exploitation of children, and generally anti-human president we have ever had. According to the Archbishop, President Biden is a true friend of “Hellenism”. In an interview on the 20-year anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center in New York, Archbishop Elpidophoros had this to say about President Joe Biden:

In July 2020, after the reconversion of Hagia Sophia to a mosque, he was quick to call me on the phone to reconfirm his unequivocal support to the Ecumenical Patriarchate, while this past March, he honored us by speaking through video at the celebration of the bicentennial of Greek Independence Day. I know that in President Biden, our Church and Hellenism has a friend in the Oval Office.

The love is mutual, by the way, as Joe Biden never misses an opportunity to praise the Patriarchate of Constantinople and the loyalty of the Greeks:

“The one thing about the Greek community I’ve learned over these years — and it’s been 50 years, I hate to admit it, it’s that long — but is loyalty, loyalty, loyalty. And I tell ya, I think my sister and I, my family and I, have returned it. But you’ve been incredibly, incredibly loyal,” Biden said.

The Greek Archdiocese is the base of support for the Fordhamites who are academics committed to changing the Orthodox Church’s teachings on a host of issues. The Patriarch of Constantinople commissioned the ghastly Social Ethos document that practically made the “Great Reset” of the World Economic Forum part of Orthodox moral teaching. 

The rich and powerful Archbishop, whose cringe-worthy behavior regularly repels potential Orthodox converts, is not the subject of a communiqué from the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops. That would be weird. He’s the chairman after all. Why would the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops take him to task just because he does and believes so many really, really, blatantly anti-Orthodox things?

Instead, the honor of being the subject of a special communiqué falls to a simple priest. One who just happens to oppose the “official narratives” at a time, unfortunately for Fr Peter, when control of the narrative is all the Deep State has. Reality has already left them behind. The powers-that-be are running a senile old man for president as he stumbles through an expensive, hopeless war in Ukraine. The US Elite are backing a Ukrainian government of ultra-nationalists who are abusing Christians – women, children, monks, priests – while closing media and silencing opposition. All in the name of “Democracy”, of course. As we send billions to Ukraine, the US is falling apart at the seams. Americans are robbed blind by inflation, drowning in debt, and increasingly angry. All the while, our beloved leadership class is busy ruining the same military with Wokism that they plan to use in fighting a war against China.

Never fear though, despite wallowing in a pit of failure, the Ruling Elite will continue to find time to lecture average Americans on the joys of deviant sex, childlessness, and outright child sexual abuse. The Woke are targeting our children, and more people know that now than ever. Which makes it seem quite strange when Archbishop Elpidophoros, and many in his Archdiocese, dismiss all this blatant grooming as mere “culture war” politics. 

So Tucker Carlson got fired from Fox News, as his commentary hurt the official narrative of everything is fine – just vote for Joe Biden in 2024. More media heads than his rolled as well, and we can expect more to roll in the future. We can also expect even more private / public partnerships to censor and control the media. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. brought to our attention a partnership between the Pentagon and financial behemoth Vanguard:

It is the desperate hope of the Deep State that the “narrative” can be kept alive through November 2024, and a senile octogenarian can be re-elected to keep the power and money flowing for the “in-crowd”. 

Archbishop Elpidophoros helps that goal. Not only domestically, but also through his endorsement of the Zelenskyy Regime and his condemnation of those evil Russians. Many of the “Greek” academics and clergy around him are just as corrupt in service to the Ruling Elite as he is. However, corruption within the Church is not limited to just the “Greeks”. The Orthodox Church in America also has its share of issues.

Given the situation with Fr Peter Heers suddenly being “unreceived”, one might question whether issues with corruption extend to ROCOR as well? (If there is more to this story from the ROCOR side, now is the time to tell it.)

Unfortunately for him, Fr Peter is both popular and extremely dedicated to Christian Orthodoxy, which the anti-Christ fools running the “West” desperately want to control and even transform into a prettier Episcopal Church. That is why the canonical status of a regular priest like Fr Peter is suddenly such a hot topic. It’s not really about his canonical status, or lack thereof. If Fr Peter were Woke, or at least pro-Zelenskyy and pro-Joe Biden, then neither the banishment from ROCOR nor the unexpected communiqué would have ever happened.

Woke, pro-Deep State clergy never suffer for their politics, their heresies, their actions, or their crimes against Orthodoxy. 

Cosmas – an Orthodox Christian

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