Orthodox Reflections

The epistles from the Burning Bush Brotherhood were controversial. You can read them here and here. This is a link to the Brotherhood’s official Website. The Brotherhood’s statements gathered a lot of support. Many Orthodox Christians are desperate for clergy, any clergy, to speak out about the issues within American Orthodoxy. With controversies raging from ecumenism to an all too-enthusiastic embrace of Covid mitigations / vaccines – many Orthodox Christians are hurting. As His Eminence Metropolitan Ambrosios (of Greece) said, “Wherever there is Orthodoxy there are wounds.”

But not every one was happy to read the epistles from the Brotherhood. The Brotherhood is publishing anonymously. This upset Orthodox Christians who feel that priests should be going on record with their opinions. Hiding behind anonymity struck them as a form of cowardice, especially since members of the laity are putting their careers on the line to make many of the same points. Others criticized the flowery writing style of the epistles. Still others criticized the wordiness. The first epistle is quite long, and the word “succinct” does not come to mind when reading it. Another point was the idea of a “movement” within Orthodoxy seemed strange, particularly for clergy.

Of course, no controversy in American Orthodoxy would be compete without the dreaded “P” word – Protestantism. Priests speaking out about their bishops’ actions will always be labeled by some as Protestantism. The bishop could be celebrating a divine liturgy in an Episcopal Church with a giant rainbow flag on the front, during Pride month – but some Orthodox are of the mindset that you are the problem for pointing out the issues with that. Repent and be obedient, you heretical Protestant! Don’t you know that you must be obedient to the bishop, no matter what? Obviously, anonymous clergy taking their bishops to task for poor leadership must be inherently wrong.

There are more than a few historical and theological problems with claiming that Orthodox bishops are to be always obeyed, whether they are are adhering to Holy Tradition or not. Please see St. Mark of Ephesus, additional saints, and modern hierarchs such as His Eminence Metropolitan Ambrosios, the former Metropolitan of the Metropolis of Kalavryta and Aigialeia in northern Greece or Metropolitan Neophytos of Morphou.

Priestly Isolation

Regardless of whether you liked the epistles or hated them, one key issue was completely lost in the discussion. Being a traditionalist-minded Orthodox priest in the United States, particularly one who questions the “Covid narrative”, is extremely isolating. You can literally feel like you are the last priest (or deacon or monk) with objections to what you see.

This is a typical cry from the heart of one such traditionalist Orthodox priest that we received during the height of the “pandemic:”

I am going to leave a comment here, but I am NOT going to leave my name. Why, you may ask? Because I am an Orthodox priest. You may call me a coward if you want to. That’s OK with me. I am writing anonymously because I cannot trust my fellow priests OR lay people OR the hierarchs. On a few occasions I have made comments about injustices done to priests by their bishops and was then threatened by my bishop. The priest was guilty of simply speaking the truth. Guilty of speaking the truth about what the Scriptures teach, guilty for asking questions of the bishops about their compromises with sin, their turning a blind-eye to the scandalous behaviors of wealthy, politically connected laypeople who support abortion and gay marriage and family members who live in open homosexual relationships. There are many hundreds of priests who are afraid to speak the truth because if they do their hierarch will suspend them, or remove them from their parish. In other words, deprive them of their livelihood! There are many good and pious priests who are trying to care for their people and protect them from the secularist agenda of the present political administration. Instead of being supported by their bishops they are censured, ridiculed and labeled as bigots, racists, narrow-minded, malcontents, trouble-makers and rabble-rousers.

Imagine you love God and His Church. Imagine that you feel that things have gone dangerously off-the-rails. The Church has bowed down to secular authority in ways you could never have dreamed of. The leadership of the Church is making compromises with sin under the guise of neighborly ecumenism. But you are afraid to talk about all that with your people, lest someone rat you out to the bishop for unapproved attitudes. You are afraid to confide in your fellow clergy, because unless you are bosom buddies, they could also denounce you to authority for your crimethink.

On the other hand, if you are a priest who supports ecumenism, progressive politics (abortion, LGBTQ, BLM, CRT, unchecked immigration, etc.) and the official Covid narrative (NPIs work, we can stop the virus if we all work together, we must follow the law as the government just wants to help, get vaccinated you sinners, questioning Big Pharma is a conspiracy theory, communion has historically changed so changing it now is no big deal, Fauci is a genius, etc.), then you can write blogs, post on social media, march with BLM, or just generally do or say anything you wish.

We saw that fact fully on display with the Fr Mark Hodges suspension for attending the “Stop the Steal” rally in Washington. Fr Mark is a political and social conservative who had been active on social media and as an author. His overall activism seems to have figured into his suspension. During the controversy, Orthodox bloggers uncovered multiple cases of very progressive priests who post inappropriately on social media but are left in peace by the bishops. Archpriest Gregory Hallam provided a scathing response to the Burning Bush Brotherhood under his own name and even provided a link to his parish in the UK. The good priest’s response could have been written by the BBC. It was the epitome of endorsing the “official line” on all things. Which is why he has no fear of writing under his own name.

There are some traditionalist priests, with objections to the “official” line on Covid and progressive politics, that are in secure situations affording them the opportunity to speak out as they see fit. They are lucky, few, and far between. At least in the jurisdictions I am most familiar with. For most, it is keep silent or run the risk that persecution won’t come from the government, it will come from your fellow Orthodox Christians.

In terms of freedom of speech, some clerical animals are more equal than others. 

Even in the best of times, being a priest in America often leads to loneliness, frustration, and isolation. Add in the current fear factor, and things get especially difficult. During the past year, an Orthodox Church census (Pdf) found that 45% of the OCA clergy and 36% of GOA in the survey considered leaving pastoral ministry. 33% of the OCA and 24% of the GOA clergy at some point even doubted if God had called them to ministry at all. Having been close friends with multiple Orthodox priests, I do not doubt that these figures hold true across-the-board.

Clearly our priests need fellowship and support – particularly from other priests. But that can be tricky, because trust is an issue as we already noted. Traditionalists can find themselves feeling isolated, and the hierarchy can be guilty of reinforcing that isolation for their own ends.

In an article titled The Broken Covenant, an anonymous group of OCA clergy (see a trend?) described how dissenters from the Covid narrative were psychologically manipulated:

As the priests, one by one, objected they were told that they were the only priest having the problem.  Some priests who objected were told they might need a psych exam.  After all, if someone doesn’t care if people die and are continuing in practices leading to death and are therefore guilty of murder, the priest must be crazy!  Lock him up for his own good!

In unity there is strength, which is why authoritarian power structures always try to convince dissenters that they are alone. You have a problem, everyone else is fine. Just shut up and get back in line before someone notices that you are mentally disturbed. After all, we wouldn’t want anything bad to happen that priesthood of yours, now would we?

What the Burning Bush Brotherhood Can Contribute

The Burning Bush Brotherhood is not a perfect approach. There are some definite flaws. But I think it should be seen as an overall positive development. Frankly, I am surprised it took us being 18 months into our current crisis before such a movement arose. In any case, here is how I think the brotherhood can make a real difference:

• Help traditionalist clergy feel less alone, less crazy, and more emboldened to stand firm for the Faith. Everyone needs encouragement, even clergy. They are human, after all, and they have been given a very large burden to carry.
• Provide a forum for traditionalist clergy to network and “find” each other. Perhaps the brotherhood will expand and bring more like-minded men into the fold. When they go public, hopefully it will be in an organized fashion and with such numbers that attention will have to be paid.
• Remind us of the need for our own repentance. All of us have sinned and come short of the Glory of God. Sometimes in our zeal to contend for the Faith, we all get too carried away and real harm is done. Humility is called for, and nothing teaches us to be humble more than confronting our own sins.
• Call attention to very real issues in the Church, even if done in a way that is too “wordy” or too “flowery.” This intrudes on the “echo” chamber that many progressive laity and clergy (of all ranks) tend to live in. A common progressive strategy is to “manufacture” consent by stifling any and all opposition. The Brotherhood makes that harder. It also complicates the ongoing attempt by some in power to bring forth a “revolution within the form.”
• It reminds us laity to be less judgmental. The priests are carrying real burdens. Especially the good ones. It is easy for us to criticize them for insufficient martyrdom from the comfort of our own couches. If we want to encourage them to greater boldness, then we must support their efforts.

My prayer is that if the brotherhood is not up to realizing the above goals, then may God bring forth a group of men who are.

Nicholas – member of the Western Rite Vicariate, a part of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese in America