TO OUR BELOVED HIERARCHS, BROTHER CONCELEBRANTS, AND OUR FAITHFUL FLOCKS,
Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ!
We write this letter in anguish and pain of heart, carrying a burden we have borne in silence for too long. Today we write with boldness, a boldness that is found not in ourselves but in our desire to hold fast to the Holy Traditions of our beloved Orthodox Faith—the true medicine of the world. We write as a brotherhood of clergy in America not bound by jurisdiction or diocese. The fires of current trials have brought us together, and our brotherhood has been forged in tears, brokenness, and prayer. It is in the ashes of what this past year and a half has wrought that we have felt the disruption of the Church at many levels, but have found like-minded brother priests whose resurrectional joy, silent suffering, and confessor-like endurance kept the spark of zeal ignited. Sadly, because of the nature of our testimony, we cannot publicly disclose ourselves, but we judge our voice to be a necessary voice crying in the wilderness out of love and pain for the Church. We are keeping anonymity not on account of cowardice but for the reason we have been silent for many months: we have deep concern what may happen to our flocks if we are identified. Truly, a lamentable predicament to be in! It is the suffering cries of the laity and our flocks, however, that have inspired us to speak out with a necessary tone of repentance and healing. We will address the laity whom we have neglected, exhort our brother priests to awake, and exhort our beloved fathers and chief hierarchs to fervent apostolic witness.
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Firstly, to the faithful. The past year has revealed much in our hearts. It would be easy to place the blame on some outside circumstances or some other person—society at large or authorities in the government or in the Church. Yet we acknowledge that, above all else, sin starts in our own hearts. Above all else, we are personally responsible for the shortcomings and failings that the Lord has laid bare. It is He who has allowed the many tribulations and temptations of the past year on account of our many sins. These trials are for our chastisement and healing; they are for the turning of our hearts back once again to the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe, as the saints testify, “Because of your sins the Lord has allowed this trouble to come upon you, because you keep forgetting God” (St. John of Kronstadt).
As clergy, we take responsibility for the many stumbling blocks set before the flock of Christ the Lord, especially in the turbulent year 2020. We acknowledge that, in many ways, we, the clergy, acted out of weakness and ungodly fear. We humbly ask for forgiveness. We know that the actions of clergy made dire prophecies ring true. “The time will come when we will not find even a tiny piece of antidoron, and we will say to ourselves, ‘Where can I get a little antidoron? I used to have it every day. I took and ate it by the handful. Where are you my little antidoron, that I might partake of you?’ The time will come when we will not have either antidoron or holy water.”[1]
Forgive us for not sounding a clear call to repentance. Forgive us for closing churches in a time of deep spiritual need. Forgive us for limiting services and restricting attendance. Forgive us for turning the people of God away from Church and the Holy Mysteries in a time of profound need, effectively “not allowing those who are entering to go in.” Forgive us for allowing the altering of the mode of Holy Communion for fear of the spread of illness, such as the use of multiple spoons and the wiping of the communion spoon in a disinfectant. Forgive us for refusing in-person holy confession during a time of great crisis. Forgive us for forbidding the proper veneration of icons held by the Holy Fathers of the 7th Ecumenical Council, a veneration our forefathers and mothers shed blood for. Forgive us for making face-masks a requirement for entering the Holy Temple of our Lord. Forgive us for placing secular narratives above the teachings of the Holy Orthodox Faith.
Forgive us, for we should have served more services. We should have had public repentance, prayer and fasting. We should have had processions with holy icons and fervent supplications. We should have served the service of blessing of holy water and the sprinkling of the people of God therewith. We should have served Holy Unction, for the healing of soul and body. We should have called, in both word and action, the people of God first and foremost to a hope, trust, and faith in God above all else. We should have shown forth steadfast courage and faith in the holy things of the Faith. Forgive us for failing to walk in the way of our Holy Fathers. Forgive use for blurring the divine lines of the Holy Liturgy with the dark ink of fleshly reasoning and justification.
Forgive us for neglecting your children and reversing their catechism, asking them to experience God through a screen and forcing them to conceal their angelic faces behind an iconoclastic mask. We did not heed the words of our Savior, Who calls your children to Him, and we allowed the millstone of directives to drag us into the dark depths of a burdened conscience. We beg for your forgiveness and for theirs, seeking the life giving breath of repentance.
We firmly resolve never to abandon you or your families again, no matter the circumstance or the cost—to the shedding of our blood.
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Secondly, to our brother priests and deacons. We must confess, in the words of the New Hieromartyr Peter, “But this is our grief – we have invented all the wrong means by which we think to be saved from this terrible sickness that has mercy on no one. We try to utilize various serums and vaccines … and the vast majority of people almost completely leave out the spiritual starting point in a person—his soul.” We started from externals and not from the spiritual starting point. Our weakness and sin, manifest in the past year, are but symptoms of a more profound ailment, one that surpasses COVID in gravity and it appears has infected a large amount of people.
We have led Orthodox Christians to reason more according to the spirit of the fallen world than by the Life and Spirit of Holy Orthodoxy. Our hearts have gradually grown accustomed to worldly thinking rather than having the mind of Christ. The past year was not the ailment, it but revealed in a more acute light the ailment already afflicting us. When, as priests, we received the Holy Body of our Lord into our unworthy hands at ordination, we pledged to preserve it whole and unharmed until our last breath, acknowledging our accountability at the Second Coming. How have we slipped so far as to forget our promise before God and become so foreign to the ways of our holy fathers who served worthily before us?
We have permitted a humanistic ecumenism to supplant the Divine One Holy Catholic and Ecumenical Church, which is the very Body of the Theanthropos. The predominance of our placing faith in the resolutions of men reveals that we have begun, in the words of St. Justin Popovic, “to replace faith in the God-man with a belief in man, to replace the Gospel of the God-man with a gospel according to man, to replace the philosophy of the God-man with a philosophy according to man, to replace the culture of the God-man with a culture according to man. In brief, they [we] seek to replace life according to the God-man with life according to man.”
In many places we allowed our liturgical life to cease, depriving the world of the sacred power of the divine liturgy which restrains the power of the evil one. “Do you know how much this guards us? An elder once told us that when a person carries the Gospel with him, it protects everyone in the surrounding neighborhoods. Just imagine then, the power of Christ’s sacrifice that happens every day.”[2] Today, clergymen stand in awe at the evil that has escalated over this past year but have neglected to see the cosmic significance that our vocation plays in it. “The Divine Liturgy is the way we know God and the way God becomes known to us,” says St. Sophrony. It is the Church’s greatest mission, and we laid it aside! In this great work, the Lord’s work, the same Saint says, “We feel His Divine presence within us, outside of us, at the highest grandeur of the universe, in the face of man and in the radiant intellect. And in the hours that the unwaning light illumines, our hearts we realize we will not die.” However, many of us allowed the divine presence of God that is imprinted on the dear faces of our people to be concealed under a mask and abandoned them to be pursued by the jaws of wolves without participation in divine services. Furthermore, we let down the world and ceased to sanctify it, allowing evil to unmask itself and act more openly.
Much of this was done under the guise of love—but it was not Christian love. It was a “love” defined by politicians and slick spokesmen who also advocate for the “right” to murder unborn children, who bomb our Orthodox countries on Pascha, and who will not even lift a finger for the poor of their own cities. Some of our people died without the Holy Mysteries, without the faithful by their bed, without proper burial. Others withered away in loneliness, battled thoughts of suicide, and were lost to the clutches of this world.
Open and common prayer with heretics and schismatics, contrary to the canons, has become all-too common. And this sad sin has widened its wound now to encompass prayer with non-Christian groups. “What harmony,” we ask, “has Christ with Belial? Or what portion has a believer with an unbeliever.”[3] Blatant rejection of the clear Orthodox teaching on morality is permitted in broad daylight, bareheaded, and those who uphold the Orthodox Faith remain silent. The broad and easy path of compromise is continually sought and the healing traditions of the Holy Fathers are neglected.
Related Articles:
For these things, we ought to offer the world our public repentance. We have forgotten God by trusting more in the powers of this world. The world now needs priests and deacons who are confessors, men of prayer, and who strive for an austere life of asceticism. If we are lukewarm, not only will we be spit out by our Lord, but also by the world—for it knows all too well the wretched stench of a compromising clergyman.
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Lastly, to our beloved shepherds, the bishops. Often when we look back upon the deep wounds experienced by the Church throughout history, we see the abnormal break between the people and their shepherd as the cause of that wound. We, as a brotherhood of your priests whom you endearingly call sons, have now experienced such a break and suffer feelings of orphanhood. The biggest anguish this year has brought is the absence of courageous apostolic shepherds.
The voice of your fatherly guidance and protection became to us the voice of a stranger, for no longer did we hear the consoling voice of the Lord, the Holy Fathers, or the healing medicines of the Church, but the voice of the world, corrupt politicians, and medical advisors that are now profiting off a dire situation. The wolves in politicians’ dress co-opted Christian morality, and the same that teach our women to murder their children in their womb pontificated “love for neighbor”—and the hierarchy parroted this shamelessly. “Love for neighbor” became not burying our dead properly and isolating our flocks to the point of suicide. It contributed to the escalating rise in household abuse, and more. Fear and this pseudo “love for neighbor” led our bishops [you!] to instruct us not to allow our people into the temple for healing. All of us in this brotherhood began to realize that your voices had become foreign worldly, full of fear, and not the voice of Whom we pledged our lives to serve—our One Good Shepherd.
We love you and we long for your care, but if you continue to be strange voices we cannot do anything but heed the One True Voice that leads us to the pastures of life. We do not see this path as disobedience, but the ultimate obedience to our Lord and His Bride—the Holy Church. For, under the guise of obedience, we were told to follow this strange new path that is unprecedented in our history as a people of God. In many cases, we have silently resisted this new strange voice that we have heard and have led our people as best we could—struggling on our own in silence. In heartache and despair, we have watched our shepherds become drunk with the drink that this world offers and uncover themselves; we have labored to hide your nakedness from your sheep. They love you—they thank you in their prayers for not shutting them out, not forcing masks upon them, not changing the method of communion, etc., when in reality you told us to force these deadly ideas upon them. Forgive us, but we had to find the Voice of the Master and in grief we had to resist the strange path we have seen you sadly forge because there is no life in it—all we saw in the parishes from these worldly measures was spiritual death.
Please return to us once again as loving shepherds with the Voice that brings us life. We have felt orphaned, without apostolic guides, and have suffered the unnatural severance between father and son. Whether you have been silent or have outright supported the deterioration of our parishes through worldly mandates, you have grieved us and have shaken the innermost depths of our hearts. We cannot fully express in words how this betrayal has affected us—you saw the wolf and ran, you have scattered the sheep, but there is time to return to care for the flock. In great sadness we have watched you now pat yourselves on the backs, congratulating yourselves and boasting that the impositions over the past year were right and correct. Yet, when your people for long months were deprived of the medicines of the Church, were pushed to the brink of darkness, were seized in the clutches of the children of hell, and forced to participate in the liturgy through a screen like starving children watching a feast through a window, you must admit that this truly was not a victory.
As your sons, we must tell you that we cannot be obedient to the voice of the murderous spirit of this age and that we have found it coming from your chanceries in the form of mandates, sermons, political conferences, and zoom meetings. We have great love for you and reverence your office, but sadly cannot follow you down a foreign road so we beg you to return to bold apostolic speech. We know that obedience is discriminate, not indiscriminate, from both our Holy Fathers and the divine Scriptures, for both speak of true and false shepherds. We know the holy examples of St. Maximus the Confessor and the erring hierarchy who aligned with the impious Emperor. We remember St. Athanasius and the heretical presbytery who opposed him. We recollect the faithfulness and boldness of St. Mark of Ephesus and how the compromising hierarchy were shamed by the laity on the docks of Constantinople. We are inspired by the recent boldness of the Russian martyrs who were imprisoned and suffered under Sergianism and its allegiance to an atheistic regime. The path of schismatics is riddled with disaster, and this path we will never take, but we discern in the lives of these holy ones the painful path of blessed disobedience. “Obedience makes the subordinate one with the one he obeys. The Holy Writ says: ‘and the flocks conceived before the rods’ (Gen. 30, 39) […]. One may say: the subordinate’s faith can replace the elder’s inadequacy. Wrong! Faith in truth saves. Faith in lies and in diabolical deceit harms!”[4]
St John of the Ladder writes, “Above all, you should leave the integral faith and the pious dogmas as a legacy to your children, so that not only your children but your grandchildren too will you manage to guide towards the Lord by walking the path of Orthodoxy.”[5] This is the legacy that is not foreign, and in these times it is impossible to be silent as a shepherd in the face of treachery. Teach us, lead us, and leave us the legacy of Truth and Life. St Paisios warned us saying: “If Christians don’t begin to witness their faith, to resist evil, then the destroyers will become even more insolent. But today’s Christians are no warriors. If the Church keeps silent, to avoid conflict with the government, if the Metropolitans are silent, if the monks hold their peace, then who will speak up?” Truly, we must recognize that it is because of the Church’s silence that evil has all the more prevailed in these times.
Speak, beloved hierarchs! Speak out against the mandates that have deprived us of spiritual life, speak out against the immoral agendas of the LGBTQ movement that publicly seeks to snatch your children, speak out against false unions! Embolden your priests and do not deprive us of shepherds for the sake of ease, of legal immunity, or out of indifference. We are the prey of this current age, save us! We feel as the prophet wrote, “As I live, saith the Lord God, surely because my flock became a prey, and my flock became meat to every beast of the field, because there was no shepherd, neither did my shepherds search for my flock, but the shepherds fed themselves, and fed not my flock. Therefore, O ye shepherds, hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I shall visit the shepherds; and I will require my flock at their hand, and cause them to cease from feeding the flock…”[6] Return to feed us, your poor priests and people.
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To all, in humility before God, we vow not to return to the strange path of the past year that so many have experienced and are still suffering under. We will not return to practicing the following.
- We will not deprive the people of the life-giving sacraments of the Church out of fear.
- We will not change the method of Holy Communion.
- We will not limit the occupancy in the Temple of God.
- We will not deprive the faithful of the veneration of holy icons, relics, and other holy objects or vessels.
- We will not require the iconoclastic masking of our people.
- We will not urge or require our people to inject themselves with experimental injections, especially those manufactured and/or tested on aborted fetal cell lines.
We therefore resolve to uphold the Holy Orthodox Faith of our Fathers and we call upon all faithful Orthodox to do the same. First and foremost, this is a call to deeper repentance and spiritual resolve. We all have a responsibility to identify the sickness of the modern age and to heal it by calling on the sweetest name of our Lord Jesus, saying, “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me.”
Your Servants,
THE BURNING BUSH BROTHERHOOD – Click here for a PDF copy of this letter.
July 31st/July 18th P The Year Of Our Lord 2021
[1] Gerondissa Makrina Vassopoulou, Words of the Heart, pg 504. She said these prophetic words on the 19th of December, 1992.
[2] Gerondissa Makrina Vassopoulou, Words of the Heart, pg 504. She said these prophetic words on the 19th of December, 1992.
[4] Saint Ignatius Brianchaninov, op. cit., tome I, pp.141.143.146ff
[5] Saint John of Sinai, On the Shepherd 97, edition Holy Monastery of Paraclete, Horopos Attica, 19946, p.402 (PG 88, 1201A).
Update 8/3/2021 – We received the following email from the authors of the epistle.
“The Lord’s blessing!
[…] Antim, în fața căreia se rugau acei intelectuali de frunte creștini care se întâlneau acolo. Și ei lansează un apel către toți ierarhii, preoții și creștinii ortodocși din lume să revi…. Normalitatea nu poate fi decât una singură și este cea dinainte de criza pandemiei. Să revenim […]
[…] Scrisoare deschisă a „Frăţiei Rugului Aprins” (clerici ortodocși din America de Nord) […]
[…] Antim, în fața căreia se rugau acei intelectuali de frunte creștini care se întâlneau acolo. Și ei lansează un apel către toți ierarhii, preoții și creștinii ortodocși din lume să rev…. Normalitatea nu poate fi decât una singură și este cea dinainte de criza pandemiei. Să revenim […]
A friend shared an article from this website with me, and I just read this letter. I’ve only been back to my parish once in past 18 months (for Pascha this year). I haven’t been able to bring myself to attend due to 1) My own spiritual struggles, and 2) The total disillusionment with everything I thought Orthodoxy stood for.
I think I just found my people!
Pray for me, a miserable faithless sinner!
123, I just have two questions: If these Covid measures that you are in such favor of are so practical, effective and in your view should be a part of the American(or even international) ethos and conscience, then why isn’t Hollywood producing movies with everyone masked and social distancing? Why would people aligned with your ideology such as Obama and Omar just to name a couple recently participate in activities that run contrary to the recommendations of the agencies that you esteem so highly?
Reminder to all!
If you post anything on the internet, assume it will be used against you.
For example, If you say I will not take the little devil, this will be added to a database as your response to the issue and used against you.
Replying Anonymously doest work either because your name is or in is associated to the post.
God help us.
Perhaps now that Trump’s favorite authoritarian and his captive church says it you’ll change your tune:
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/vaccinate-or-repent-russian-church-says-amid-hundreds-daily-covid-19-deaths-2021-07-05/
First, it was a Metropolitan who was suspect in any case. Second, it was actually taken out of context and misreported. Third, are you canonically Orthodox? If so, you are in communion with that “captive church”. The same one that endorsed unequivocally the right of informed consent.
https://orthodoxreflections.com/orthodox-christianity-and-vaccine-informed-consent/
As for Putin, he actually undid all of the vaccine mandates that we are aware of. But it is not just Russian bishops that have an issue with vaccine mandates. Greek hierarchs, Serbian, Georgian, Romanian, OCA, and Antiochian all have endorsed informed consent. None of us tell you to not take the vax or the next x nbr of boosters they offer. We tell you the usage of fetal cell lines and the fact that the cost benefit analysis makes no sense. But if you want that, God have mercy on you. Why try to make us comply with that when we don’t want it?
Oh, sorry. Forgot to mention. There is zero chance those of us who are American (Canadians can’t vote) will be in favor of Trump. Been there, done that, don’t need the hassle again. Bad choices, bad tweets, undisciplined, horrible policy decisions, bad management, bad staffing, etc. more interested in rallies than governing. Much better choices.
How has the Church dealt with infectious diseases in the past, e.g., plague? Were churches ever closed? Were other changes made to decrease infections? Was there a difference in actions taken before and after the Church came to understand the immediate cause of disease?
This answer would address #3.
Regarding 1 and 2, it would seem priests are not barred from providing people “the life-giving sacraments of the Church”, individually, at their homes, and priests can easily retain “the method of Holy Communion” parishioner by parishioner (are communion spoons never respectfully cleaned?)
Regarding 4, no one is iconoclastically barring any Orthodox Christian from venerating holy icons, relics, and other holy objects or vessels they just cannot do it in a place or way that would put others in danger.
As far as we know, there were never changes to anything to prevent infections. They did not understand germ theory in any case, so the Churches are where people went to for comfort. Even in the black plague and more recently the Spanish Flu, the churches remained open. Even in the non-Orthodox community of North America, the idea of closing churches would have never been accepted prior to our current period. This is from an earlier plague:
https://orthodoxreflections.com/st-dionysius-paschal-encyclical-orthodox-faith-in-time-of-plague/
And this one is a good meditation on how much we have fallen from our forebears in the Faith:
https://orthodoxreflections.com/truly-following-the-gospel-in-a-time-of-plague/
And you are not actually correct. Many, many priests were barred from taking the eucharist to the parishioners at home, even if they were already dying:
The quotes are from here: http://www.monomakhos.com/the-broken-covenant/ which is another group of priests.
On iconoclasm – you are required to venerate icons in church. This has never been optional, at least since the 7th council and there never has been any evidence that surface played any role in the spread of Covid. Least of all on a Holy surface. Running away from icons was one of the most shameful spectacles of this whole ordeal.
The idea that “masking” is “iconoclastic” makes a mockery of the Fathers’ teaching on us being created in the image and likeness of God. The image of God in man is not the bottom half of our face.
123,
Regarding masking:
The German Medical Doctor and Epidemiologist Prof. Sucharit Bhakdi (the name does not look German, he is of Thai descent), who is one of the leading figures of the German resistance, in the course of an assembly with citizens in Kiel in Northern Germany in summer 2020, when asked about face masks, made the following statement:
“Our face was given to us by God, it is what makes us human, and now they are trying to take that away from you and me and our children.No!”
Prof. Bhakdi is a Bhuddist.
Like other oppositional voices in Germany, he is now (absolutely unjustified by taking one remark out of context) accused of anti-semitism, which is astonishing in light of the current close collaboration of Germans and Israelis in the resistance movement.
Critical voices are defamed as “covidiots” , right-wing and whatever, with the Wikipedia as one main propaganda tool; in reality the resistance movement in Germany looks like this (or looked like this; mass anti-government protests are now outlawed to avoid spread of infections; mass gatherings for Christopher Street Day are still okay, though):
https://childrenshealthdefense.org/news/robert-f-kennedy-jr-speaks-at-berlin-rally-for-freedom-and-peace/
While it is true “our face was given to us by God” it is not Orthodox to say that a face ”is what makes us human”. The face is not the image of God in man, to say otherwise is un-Orthodox, whatever Thai-German Buddhist epidemiologists may believe.
And besides I will see your expert MD epidemiologist in resistance and raise you a thousandfold more around the world in favor. That’s the problem with the “argument from authority”. It’s possible your expert is a lone prophet crying in the wilderness like the “Father of Plate Tectonics”, Alfred Wegener, but it’s more likely he’s simply this generation’s anti-fluoride and anti-microwave activist, creationist, flat earther, and moon-landing conspiracist. Since presumably neither you nor I are virologists or epidemiologists, why would we go with the minuscule minority voice rather than with the vast majority of diverse experts around the world (who are all also taking the vaccine themselves)?
I can’t speak to protests in Germany, but I can tell you there was concern in liberal circles in the US regarding the BLM protests spreading Covid-19. Unlike Trump rallies the same summer, though, the BLM protesters I saw were almost always masked and also socially distanced from other groups within the protest (which you can see from high camera angles vs straight on). We have since come to realize the importance difference between indoor and outdoor gatherings, and between crowded and socially distanced outdoor gatherings (especially with Delta).
Resistance is not in itself a virtue. It is as irresponsible to not yell fire in a crowded theatre that is on fire as is the reverse.
I happen to be sitting next to an MD who took the day off for our kids’ first day of school. She is a surgeon, but has some slight medical insight. There are tens of thousands of medical professionals who question everything about our approach to Covid, including the vaccines. They have been extremely vocal. Here is one example:
https://gbdeclaration.org/
It is not lone individuals who say masks don’t work. Outside of government and progressive circles, which are ideologically committed to masking, it is readily acknowledged that masking cannot stop an aerosolized virus. There is no proof it does, could, or ever has. The data is all on the other side of this argument.
The BLM protests may have featured masks, but they also featured riots. And the Trump rallies were not “super spreader events.”
As for vaccines, the Covid vaccines are failing, were never particularly effective, and have extremely high (especially compared to benefits) risks of side effects.
Resistance to tyranny is a virtue, particularly when it involves compromising the faith.
Glad you know better than the bishops what compromise to the faith entails.
There is no tyrrany in caring for our neighbor. And earing a mask is not tyrrany; neither are limitations on indoor gatherings of any kind (including those in churches) in the midst of a highly infectious virus.
Again, the vaccine and mask misinformation you are sharing is easily rebutted and contextualized by a diverse set of reputable, global organizations and experts specializing in epidemiology and virology rather than say family practice, surgery, or osteopathy. But if one starts with the premise of a New World Order, governments are bad, elites are in cahoots with Big Pharma, bad theological reasoning, hyperindividualism, etc. you are obviously going to prefer self-styled voices in the wilderness who will tickle your ears.
Please, feel free to rebut. Which you won’t. The oncoming booster shots, the increase of cases in highly vaccinated areas, the lack of proven effectiveness of masking (all the studies run the other way), the fact that Pfizer is planning to make $35 billion dollars (can buy a lot with that money) – all of this indicates the complete opposite of your stance. Many bishops, but not all, have simple abandoned reason and accepted a narrative which is unsupported by facts. We have been saying the same thing since the beginning:
https://orthodoxreflections.com/will-your-mask-in-church-save-a-life/
Or here:
https://orthodoxreflections.com/lockdowns-kill-why-do-orthodox-bishops-ignore-the-victims/
or here:
https://orthodoxreflections.com/covid-lockdowns-prove-new-christian-leaders-are-needed/
NPIs do not work. Who cares if it spreads? The wife (an MD) and I plus my 85 year old mother already had it. For 99% percent, mild symptoms. For most people the symptoms of the Delta variant can be mistaken for allergies. Let it spread. That causes immunity, and without the symptoms of the virus. The bishops who market the vaccine, require the vaccine, or encourage the vaccine are an issue. Those that simply allow people to choose are not.
I think you have sufficiently demonstrated your objection is not theological or pastoral. You just don’t believe Covid is a dangerous and the public health measures and vaccines advocated for worldwide – but it feels like a better argument if you give it a sophomoric religious sheen to it.
Call it what you want, but these are not specifically Orthodox Reflections – they are just the reflections of a right wing conspiracy nut who happens to be an Orthodox Christian, too.
Rebuttals and clarification to your all too common but simplistic misinformation are available from innumerable, reputable sources of medical information. Start with the CDC and the FDA, and their counterparts worldwide, as well as the WHO, and leading epidemiological and virology departments at major academic medical centers, not to mention the single payer and union healthcare insurers and providers worldwide that have no financial incentive to cooperate with (scare quotes!) “Big Pharma”.
So let’s address these in order:
So the Burning Bush Brotherhood argued masks on a theological basis. You did not approve of their arguments, but that is of no importance. It was based on theological and pastoral considerations. Plenty of other articles as well.
Brian Fahling contributed this piece, https://orthodoxreflections.com/a-theology-of-fear/
Cassandra St. John contributed this piece, https://orthodoxreflections.com/why-are-the-orthodox-fiddling-while-earth-burns-an-open-letter-to-bishops-and-priests/
Nicholas penned this, but it hinged on quotes from Fr. Henry Patrick Reardon, https://orthodoxreflections.com/faith-over-fear-apostolic-boldness-in-the-age-of-covid/
Taking our beloved Bishop Anthony at his word, let me make the following suggestion:
I would say that a priest of such vast experience calling it the “disgrace of a surgical mask” is a pretty potent point.
We did not publish this piece in its entirety, but we quoted it at least twice. https://russian-faith.com/masks-forbidden-church-orthodox-priest-explains-why-n3671
We could keep going, but that should suffice. We have treated the subject of masks from a Theological standpoint, a pastoral standpoint, and a practical standpoint. Masking fails on all levels.
Couple issues there. First, this is a group blog. Notice that we referenced multiple authors above? There is not one “right-wing” conspiracy nut. There are in fact quite a number of contributors, and we don’t all agree politically. We do, however, agree on the topics we cover her. No one expects a progressive to see our way, but these are all articles written by Orthodox Christians within an Orthodox Christian context. More than a few of our contributors were actually apolitical or even mildly left-wing until Covid. Economically, many of us are still leftist in that we don’t hold to traditional free market thinking and all of us are anti-war.
We have put a tremendous amount of research into what we publish concerning the Covid vaccines, the failures of NPIs, etc. The problem you have is that the entire narrative is collapsing in front of you. From the Daily Telegraph:
NPIs and vaccines will simply not stop Covid from spreading. The vaccines, in fact, are useless. Maybe, and this is a big maybe, they might be of some efficacy for very high risk. The mass testing with unreliable PCR tests is what is driving our current panic. We need to simply live with an endemic virus. There is no other rational choice. The uselessness of the vaccines is evidenced all around you. Israel, with one of the highest vaccine uptakes in the world, is now officially listed as “do not travel” by the U.S.: https://twitter.com/disclosetv/status/1425240918068715520?s=20
The vaccines do not work, and the boosters will not help the situation. They are not worth the risk. They will not stop the spread, they will not stop you from getting sick. The more vaccinated the population, the less Covid you would expect. But that is not the case. High vaccination rates will not help. That will continue to show up, and no one will be able to deny it.
An Orthodox medical researcher posted that fact on our site months ago:
https://orthodoxreflections.com/the-real-efficacy-of-covid-19-vaccines-a-medical-researcher-debunks-the-claims/
More and more doctors are speaking up. This is a great video in which a doctor trained in infectious disease demolishes the idea that we can “contain” or “battle” the virus with masks:
https://twitter.com/SebGorka/status/1424603849952829442
I don’t expect you to watch it, but it is good information. We’ve been saying that we simply need to stop all this hysteria since July of 2020.
As for cooperating with Big Pharma, that is an ongoing issue. There is simply so much money at stake. Pharma advertises and spreads money around like no one else. Pfizer expects to earn $36 billion this year off the vaccines and the boosters. Look at the stock prices of Pfizer, BioNtech, and JNJ. This is great for business. The pharma companies are actually sociopaths.
There are so many therapeutics, ways to enhance the immunity, and none of that is mentioned in the mainstream press or official science. Not to mention natural immunity, which is completely ignored. Coronaviruses are seasonal. They come and go. The average age of death is 78.6 from Covid. Here is a great talk from a doctor on the science:
https://rumble.com/vgjvkl-latest-on-covid-19-by-dr.-ryan-cole.html?fbclid=IwAR2vrozEUrE73bszq74tMGWVLjaCXQ_msa0-wO5lJW4R92xVa5eTZMLne60
“There is no such thing as cold and flu season. There is low vitamin D season.” That is a powerful message. And Pharma hates that message, because you can’t make billions off Vitamin D.
What we can’t understand is how progressives turned into shills for sociopathic, billion-dollar companies. Money buys influence. Money suppresses good science in favor of bad science. Money buys censorship.
The FDA is owned by the companies it is supposed to regulate: https://ethics.harvard.edu/blog/risky-drugs-why-fda-cannot-be-trusted
You control what you pay for. https://today.uconn.edu/2021/05/why-is-the-fda-funded-in-part-by-the-companies-it-regulates-2/#
Here’s the Rand analysis to wrap up. Lockdowns don’t work. Masks don’t work.
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/jul/3/shelter-place-orders-didnt-save-lives-during-pande/
123,
You write:
“ And besides I will see your expert MD epidemiologist in resistance and raise you a thousandfold more around the world in favor.”
You do not “raise” anyone.
You write:
“ …why would we go with the minuscule minority voice rather than with the vast majority of diverse experts around the world (who are all also taking the vaccine themselves)?”
Why not?
Besides, you cannot know which position is the majority position; that one position is generally perceived as the majority position might just be a result of incessant propaganda.
Some, or many, scientists and doctors might, like others, submit to the vaccination program just to get on with their lives.
Some, or many, scientists and doctors might be afraid of the defamation, harassment and persecution of oppositional voices, which is real.
And that fear is understandable. Come to think of it, you are here pushing a position which you apparently perceive as the position of a vast majority vs. a minuscule minority – and even doing so, you do not use your name but hide behind “123”. So you might just want to consider for a second that members of that “minuscule minority” might be even more hesitant to go public.
(Using “123” instead of your real name is quite convenient: Later on, you will be able to claim that you have been on the right side all along.)
Almost everybody around me (not doctors, ordinary folk) got vaccinated, but in fact none did so for health reasons.
There is one exception, though. I personally know only one person who indeed got vaccinated being afraid of Covid 19 – that person is jobless and watching CNN all day long.
As for compliance with sanitary rules during mass gatherings: It is not only masks that quite a number of participants in the recent Christopher Street Day crowds did not wear.
Would you cover half the image of God and expect that to be a good thing?
The bottom half of the face is NOT the image of God in man.
Unless your argument has nothing to do with Orthodox Christian theology, in which case you can argue what you like outside of the Church to those outside of the Church. And given your support for priests disobeying their bishops…
And here we go. We don’t encourage priests or anyone to disobey their bishops. We encourage bishops to do stop doing harmful things. If the human face is irrelevant, then why do our icons all have faces? People matter. Not only do masks not work, which is why they keep trying to put us back in them, but they are harmful.
https://orthodoxreflections.com/faithfulness-to-covid-at-the-expense-of-souls/
The masking is simply an effort to instill fear and divide people into camps. There are multiple studies who show what we already knew – masks harm children the most.
As for disobedience, we wrote this specifically:
https://orthodoxreflections.com/vaccine-segregation-in-american-orthodoxy/
If you go to a bishop’s parish, you have to follow his rules. Because we could not follow the GOA’s rules, we are now Western Rite. You don’t have to stay in a given jurisdiction if there are better options with more faithful bishops.
Your vaccine and mask misinformation is a separate issue, and people should talk to their doctor a d consider the diverse, global array of expertise arguing in favor of both over and against political pundits and snake oil (er, “supplements”) salesmen like Dr. Mercola and others.
Theologically, the “image of God” has a definition the author (and you) is obviously unaware. Orthodox Christian priests (or whoever wrote this post) should not make such uninformed theological statements.
No one said “the human face is irrelevant”, but a person with a covered or deformed face is still created in the image of God; a person whose nose, mouth, and jaw surgically removed is still created in the image of God; and an icon whose face has been distorted or damaged (or was poorly rendered to begin with) is still an icon.
The argument that masking is “iconoclastic” should be embarrassing to whoever made it. I’m sure it sounded “theological” in their head, but it isn’t.
Actually, if MD’s were not terrified into silence on the vaccine, that would be good advice. But since so many are, it is best to do your own research. “Misinformation” simply equates to “information that undermines my leftist / progressive case.” The expertise arguing for the vaccines for everyone, including children and pregnant women, is largely bought and paid for by vaccine companies, progressives who seek other goals by way of vaccine passports, or the misinformed. There is no such thing as settled science. The flip flops by the CDC should indicate that, so should the booster shot program. The vaccines are not a solution, they are simply a different problem for a virus with a 99% plus survival rate that is endemic and should be ignored. If Trump were still president, how would you feel about the vaccines? We would feel the same way, regardless of who is president and we said as much before the election.
If the vaccines were working, we would not have the demands for more masking and lock downs. The vaccines do not protect a very paranoid class of vaccinated individual, which is why we have all these conversations. Which, by the way, are dividing the church. We are fine with you getting the vaccine. You should be fine with us not getting it. That is the position of the Church. You should be fine masking, while you allow us to go our way without masking. That is freedom of, we are fine with you covering your face. Don’t make us cover ours.
Do tell – why not explain to us how mandating (which many bishops never did) masks is completely irrelevant? Because if you had my bishop you would be probably sending him emails that he needs to mandate masks. Which he never did. Same thing if your bishop was Irenei or many other bishops who taught against masks:
https://orthodoxreflections.com/bishop-irenei-the-church-will-never-alter-her-beliefs-or-practices-out-of-fear/
Faces are important. Masking dehumanizes which ruins our ability to communicate as people. Simply because some poor individuals have been scarred by accidents does not mean that covering our smiles and our expressions is a good thing for people.
So let the masking as “iconoclastic” go. You still can’t make even a practical argument for masking. The RCT’s that have been done all indicate that it is not only ineffective, but harmful, particularly to children. This is a personal preference. It won’t save your neighbor, and it won’t save you, but go ahead and do it if that makes you feel better.
Only in the top half. Got it.
I am still an enquirer and while visiting several types of Orthodox parishes over the past 18 months, I have been asking the Lord, “If this is the ‘One True Church’ …how can they sometimes continue to be so deluded and torn about Covid?
Even the mask thing seems so wrong and obvious as to why it would not be glorifying to wear one in the Holy Place of God…the God who breathed His breath into humanity to begin our existence…
Yet, many parishes I visited enforced mask wearing, which I found disconcerting, troubling etc.
Thank God for this letter from the BBB, it has given me a glimmer of hope.
You may have to consider at some point that the Bishops have left the church and are the schismatics, much like the heresiarch Sergius was.
Thank God! This is what I have been waiting to hear for the last year and a half. I offer my most glad forgiveness and support to you all. Please let me know how I can support you. Thank you for speaking up courageously for this most precious faith and unearthly hope that we have and against the heinous grievances against the people of God of this last year and a half.
“But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep hear his voice; and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.”
I’ve been reading through some of the comments. I feel like we all need to stop and breathe, including me. We’re all on edge. It’s to be expected after 18 months of this garbage.
I understand why we want to know who these men are. I certainly do. If I did, I would support them whole-heartedly. But can I offer one more consideration? These men have no episcopal support. The bishops aren’t standing up and doing anything. Some have/are actively pushed for the lockdowns, church restrictions, etc. This is not in the Soviet Union where you had multiple bishops standing up for the truth. The priests are on their own. They are torn between their duty to their flocks and their obedience to their bishops. I do not envy them.
Maybe instead of criticizing these priests for not being as vocal as we want we should pray for them and see if there’s a way to flood their site or inbox or whatever with letters of support. The bishops can defrock priests, but if we all stood up, it might get their attention.
Christ is risen, my joys!
I whole heartedly agree with the Brotherhood. If they were to reveal their identities at this juncture, they would be persecuted, defrocked, and dismissed by their bishops. There is much vitriol coming from the hierarchs. It is very reminiscent of Soviet times and the “Living Church”. The Ukrainian Church USA has just re-activated their COVID mandates. They added some strong condemnation against those who will not receive the so-called vaccine. It is going to get worse before it gets better…but this is God’s will. At this time, we need the Brotherhood’s support, and unanimity is imperative. The time will come when all is revealed. Satan is sifting us like wheat.
Most Holy Theotokos save us!
Holy Three New Hierarchs, Ss. Photios the Great, Gregory Palamas and Mark Evgenikos intercede for us all!
Unworthy priest, Demetrios
Posting this as a comment, and an edit to the epistle on our site. We received this from the authors:
“The Lord’s blessing!
Thank you for publishing the letter. After months of prayerful consideration, we all decided to remain anonymous. We already knew the consequences and predicted this type of response from many—especially of those whom the letter would provoke. We maintain it is wise to conceal ourselves in order to continue to work more freely. It is not about who we are, but about the message and call to repentance. If we were to reveal our identities and our parishes throughout North America, we would be attacked nonetheless and be dismissed ad hominem. We will address this more on our website in coming days. Taking council together, we chose not to engage in comment threads that many times have meaningless outcomes. Your readers may message us privately if they’d like to. You may share this in the comments if you’d like. Forgive us and may God bless your ministry, a number of the Fathers are regular readers.
BBB”
It is one thing to decide to remain anonymous.
It is a totally different thing to remain anonymous and at the same time to state:
“Today we write with boldness …”
There certainly is absolutely no boldness in posting anything anonymously on the internet, and to claim “boldness” for such an action is utterly delusional. And plain stupid.
In light of the current events around us, there are many valid and serious concerns, and quite a number of distinguished and courageous people from various fields have been expressing such concerns, and some of them have been doing so at a great personal cost.
And they have been doing so in an intelligent and sophisticated way,
On the other hand, this letter from the “Brotherhood of the Burning Bush” is so poorly written, so verbose, so presumptuous, so void of any joy of life, so silly that it will put all oppositional voices in a very bad light if one were to take it, pars pro toto, as an example of oppositional voices. It can do, and might have already done, tremendous harm to a good cause.
This “Brotherhood” would have better remained silent, and should do so from now on.
Provided that there is any “Brotherhood” at all, and not only one lone, deranged impostor.
You make some valid points. We have had clergy reach out to us about joining the Brotherhood, and we have had quite a few readers express their joy at reading their epistle. So to us, it looks like they have had some positive impact. As you might imagine, with all that is happening in the world, we are definitely moving on to other topics.
The thought of clergy wanting to join that “Brotherhood” makes one shiver.
Be merciful. We get emails daily from monks, priests, and deacons just spilling their hearts out. Some we publish, the vast majority we don’t. The clergy have been under a ton of pressure over the past few months. Many of them do not at all agree with their hierarchs, but have had to swallow that and go along out of obedience. As we have covered, they are not even given an option to express the needs of their parishes. No one wants to hear it – not chancellors and not the bishops. Just this morning we got in emails from two priests who are under extreme pressure to take the vaccine and to promote the vaccine, even though they feel it is both dangerous and immoral. They need moral support, but where are they supposed to get it? So it is not a surprise to us that the Burning Bush Brotherhood has arisen. It is surprising that it took 18 months of this to happen. My own wife (an MD) has been scolded by the hospital for not only not getting vaxxed, but not encouraging the staff sufficiently. She is morally and practically opposed. Her career could eventually be in jeopardy. The priests are facing this already.
How they write may not be the best, but they are obviously stepping into a real need. As long as priests are alone, they are prone to the gaslighting – YOU are the problem, you are alone, and you must comply. This will definitely fulfill a needed role, even if it could be done better.
Thank you Burning Bush Brotherhood…from the bottom of my heart. Those of us (and there are many) who felt that we did not have a voice, have finally been given one. I have watched my beloved Orthodox Church and most of Her bishops, bow to the secular authorities because of a virus. Never in my life did I ever think it was possible to walk into an Orthodox Church and be forbidden to kiss an Icon (Iconoclasm). Never in my life did I think that I would be forbidden to kiss the priest’s hand and his hand Cross. Never in my life did I think that our hierarchs would be so paralyzed with fear that they would resort to multiple spoons and/or chalices…or to use disinfectant on the spoon. Never in my life did I think I would be forced to have my temperature taken when walking into Church, and then be contact traced henceforth. Never in my life did I think that people would be turned away from the holy Liturgy because of “a dangerous number of attendees”. Never in my life did I think that I would be asked to stay away from people in the Church as I wear a covering over my face. Never in my life did I think that Churches would lock their doors and cancel Pascha for the people. Never in my life did I think I would hear clergy and hierarchs justifying the abomination of abortion so that they could argue in favor of an experimental “vaccine”. And yet all of this happened, and more. Thank you Burning Bush Brotherhood. Today, my heart sings.
I write this to show that the anonymity of this letter is not to be a cause of disregard and is tied to actual clergy.
I have confirmed one of the Priests that penned this letter, however, out of respect I will not share his name…
My opion is, He should reveal himself, because,the parish which is under His care would have followed him after His defrocking, His is a true Father, and ROCOR could have taken him in as an orphan.
Please let him know, if you can, that we would appreciate him responding to the criticism of his fellow priests. His perspective would be greatly valued.
Dear O.R.:
No, no. No more anonymous clergy declarations seemingly penned in basement bunkers, no more cryptic messages left in comment sections, with you needing to act as an intermediary. No justifications, no speculations. These are priests who claim to be willing to shed their blood, but they need you to pass messages for them?
Do not publish anything else on this topic, until the priests or those behind this letter have uncloaked themselves, period.
We did it this time, but almost didn’t. This is the first one of these we ran, and the second one we quoted which was run on Monomakhos. Everything has now been said. All points have been made. It is now time start taking stands. We have contributing medical professionals that are putting their licenses on the line by refusing to give or take the vax. Places to hide are running out.
OR Staff,
I misunderstood the Priest I was referring to. Forgive Me.
This priest told me, he was not involved in it.
Please either approve this or delete the previous comment or both.
Fair enough. Thanks for clarifying.
I will not let Fr Gregory Hallam stand alone here.
Your anonymity is a serious moral issue. You have defended this decision to Fr Gregory Hallam by telling him that he is on the side of the powerful and has nothing to fear, but you need to be anonymous because you have much to fear. Laying aside the use of ad hominem and alternate narratives in your response, the fact remains that you have failed to defend the morality of your anonymity. Whether Fr Gregory (or I, for that matter) have anything to fear is beside the point. If you are truly traditional, which you claim to be, then the martyr’s example should compel you to man up and take the consequences.
You’ve pretty much pledged yourselves to defying directives from the hierarch that you deem contrary to your understanding of Holy Tradition (disregarding, of course, any other understanding). Whether you want to or not, you are morally required to inform your people and your hierarch that you are dead set on defiance.
In addition, you are strongly encouraging the faithful of other churches and other jurisdictions to send your letter to their hierarchs and the Assembly of Bishops. What is striking here is that you want them — who will be sending it under their name — to send your anonymous letter.
You claim that you love the faithful. How can that really be, when you are sending them to do something that you are unwilling to do. “But whoso shall offend one of these little ones which believe in me, it were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and that he were drowned in the depth of the sea” (Matthew 18.6).
I haven’t the foggiest idea who you are. I don’t know if you’re clergy or laity. But it is clear what your political partisan bent is, as the articles on your site make abundantly clear. Perhaps you’re a Russian bot, for all I know.
Be brave.
My name is Fr Jonathan Tobias.
Greetings Father Tobias-
Father bless. We need to separate the letter from the Orthodox Reflections website. This Website, Orthodox Reflections, is not responsible for the content of the letter. We do not know who wrote it. It was sent to us, and to other Websites, from an anonymous Protonmail account. After discussing it, the decision was made to publish it. We agree that a pledge is actually a lot stronger if you put your name to it. As is an act of repentance. The danger of cancellation is real of course. A reader of this site reported being excommunicated because he sent this letter to the Assembly. His priest evidently asked him, just three months after his baptism, not to return to church. It reminded us that a contributor who signed his article against multiple spoons had to deal with Archbishop Sotirios demanding his entire family not return to church. Ever. Or the angry Presbytera who tried to dox us because she wanted to get us all fired from our secular jobs.
The contributors to this site sometimes sign their work in full, but often do not provide full names. We as editors, however, always know who they are. This was the one and only time that we thought the overall value of the letter outweighed our need to know identities. It certainly continued the discussion. We have reached out to the email address from which we received the submission and asked if a representative of the authors would be willing to address questions / comments or if they would at least give us permission to provide their email address.
That being clarified, the responses to Fr. Gregory were written by our staff, and have nothing to do with the authors of the epistle. Hopefully, as we stated above, that will change. No one is attacking Fr. Gregory as a person. His comments, however, we find lacking in humility, kindness, or any generosity of spirit. Hopefully the authors of the epistle will respond to both of you, but in their absence, we stand behind what we said to Fr. Gregory and to you, Father. The NPIs (including masks) have been deeply controversial. Fr. Gregory simply dismisses objections to them by comparing opposition to scribblings on a fortune cookie. He equally waves away the vaccine situation, which is growing quite dire at the moment with mandates appearing seemingly everywhere. There are rational reasons, and genuinely faith-based reasons, to oppose an experimental effort to turn humans into spike protein factories. The limiting of attendance at liturgy was treated with derision by Fr. Gregory, even though it hurt so many. Read the comments on this site, or on social media, or contributed by other clergy. He implies opposition to limiting church is akin to not understanding the fire code. This is not just a response to the authors of the epistle, this is an attack on everyone who opposed limits on attendance and pointed out that in many areas, churches were limited while secular businesses were not.
And Fr. Gregory’s excusing the limiting of veneration of icons based on Middle Eastern tradition was simply insulting to Orthodox faithful who have endured 18 months of this. If you, Father Tobias, are concerned about the “least of these,” then perhaps reach out to your fellow priest and explain to him that his angry, dismissive writing is deeply hurtful.
As we said before, for us Orthodox, callousness is the real pandemic. To us as laity, Fr. Gregory comes across as the kind of priest we would run away from. We can only imagine facing a vaccine mandate, or other violations of our civil / religious liberties, and relying on what we perceive Fr. Gregory to be like as our spiritual comfort. It is frightening.
But we have experienced that quite a bit over the past 18 months. Fr. Gregory’s style is abusive. We recommend he think over communication methods and also consider repenting of his own shortcomings.
Now the authors can defend their choice to remain anonymous themselves, but we will reiterate that Fr. Gregory, and you are on the establishment side. That is why you have no fear. MD’s who question the vaccine’s efficacy or safety, for example, are threatened with suspension of their licenses. We speak of that from personal experience. But what you and Fr. Gregory say will get you praise from the powers of this world, not condemnation.
We wish priests would stand up publicly for freedom and traditional Orthodoxy. We wish bishops would do so as well. Here we are about to face lockdowns, masks, AND vaccine mandates all that same time. Yet our moral leaders seem to simply go along, never asking, “What is this all about?” We pray for that day. We have written thousands of words laying out the case for why the very things Fr. Gregory seems to espouse are useless at best, harmful at worst, and do nothing but divide the Church.
Your editorial decision should have been unacceptable to you. I immediately discard anonymous letters or messages. I would never suggest that my people send a nameless letter under their own name.
Your suggestion that I’m on the establishment side is remarkable. Which establishment? I can assure you that there are a number of establishments where my name is not welcome. You assume much in that regard. You might not acknowledge it, but you have your own establishment out of which you expressed words to Fr Gregory were at least intemperate.
I think you’re right that callousness is pandemic, and that priests should stand up for the faith. I write a column every week in my town’s paper about the apostolic faith, morality, and the ethical issues of extremism and uncivil behavior. Partisans at both extremes are not pleased.
So yes, in the midst of much callousness, I stand up for Orthodoxy and the Apostolic Proclamation. But you and I — whoever you are — will disagree about what that Proclamation entails, and about where that callousness is located.
We can disagree on that editorial decision. Regardless of the source, if the ideas are valid then they are valid.
Father Gregory expressed views that came across as decidedly pro-vaccine, pro-NPI, and utterly dismissive of any opposition. Not just to the letter, but read objectively to anyone else. It is impossible that you don’t understand what we mean by “establishment” in regards to this statement. Now, you might not be all the way in that court, the way Fr. Gregory came across. But at least in this regard, you are not risking anything with your criticism of this letter. All the usual suspects, inside Orthodoxy and inside the power elite, will all hate the letter and its contents. As for callousness, there are wounds everywhere in Orthodoxy. Can we not acknowledge that?
While the anonymity of the letter would ordinarily be a problem, I think in this case not so much. As things are now moving more toward lockdowns, masking, and forced vaccines, those who have signed on will be put to the test. At some point, their behavior will be obvious. At the same time, it is dangerous to accept unsigned documents, because there would be no way of figuring out if it is a pure fabrication by some well informed laypeople pulling a practical joke on us all, or hoping to stir the pot toward an end. Even if it is, the content has found the mark we have been waiting for. Will priests ignore bishop’s channeling government in the future? We’ll be watching.
Thank you OR Staff. Sorry (to you), but I have a hard time with supposed clergy who deny the faith, and actively seek out Clergy and parishioners, in order to punish them. These people need to be exposed for who they really are.
We are frustrated too, believe us. We write about it all the time. The temperature lately is getting very high in the comments, and very good clergy have asked us to be more mindful. We are all still Orthodox, even if we are at our wits’ ends with 18 months of this nightmare.
Fr, can you please expound a bit on anonymity being a “serious moral issue?” I don’t seem to recall reading that in the Canons, or from the Fathers, or from any Saint. But it’s possible that I just missed it. Thanks in advance for your help.
Anonymity itself is an evasion of responsibility, and its moral problematic is self-evident. Not all morality is contained in the Canons or Patristics. The Fathers and the Rudder say nothing about conspiracy theory on social media, but we know implicitly that it is wrong.
Father – you sure you want to do the conspiracy theory charge right now? With Twitter and other tech companies colluding on suppression of free speech to protect favored vaccines, policies, and politicians? We are ignoring natural immunity, the 99.97% survivor rate, and the adverse reactions to push for complete vaccination. While Pfizer books an estimated 35 billion in profit? We have a dementia patient as a president who is clearly controlled by handlers. Hundreds of thousands of small businesses closed and millions were thrown into poverty to fight a virus that was a risk to a small population of largely elderly. In the US churches were closed, and even now human rights are being eviscerated in Canada, NZ, and Australia. Now come the vaccine mandates for vaccine that is clearly failing, and we are already talking boosters when the first doses were given less than a year ago. Politicians everywhere are using Great Reset slogans like “Build Back Better.” The southern border is wide open, even while the government claims we need restrictions to control Covid. Election reform to require ID is racist, but requiring proof of an experimental vaccine for dinner at a restaurant is public health. 47 studies and empirical evidence debunk masks, but we are back in masks. PCR tests are highly inaccurate, but they are being used to stoke hysteria even in the absence of hospitalizations and deaths. We need new conspiracy theories, because they are all coming true.
Money and power. The unscrupulous use each to pursue the other. It is not really a conspiracy when they do it in plain sight and quite frequently tell you what they are doing.
LOL Father. Swing and a miss…….
Father Jonathan,
With regards to “conspiracy theories”,
1. Think
2. Then: Write.
https://corona-ausschuss.de/
https://off-guardian.org/2021/03/12/on-the-psychology-of-the-conspiracy-denier/
https://doctors4covidethics.org/covid-vaccine-necessity-efficacy-and-safety-3/
This is from April 2020:
https://off-guardian.org/2020/04/23/the-seven-step-path-from-pandemic-to-totalitarianism/
No “We did not know”, no “We were just following orders”, none of these possible when accounts are going to be settled. In spite of all the censorship, all vital information has been accessible – for anyone who cares to search and find, that is.
If anyone saw his lottery ticket’s numbers listed as the winning numbers in a newspaper, before ordering the Ferrari and the Steinway piano, one would go to the sources and confirm that the newspaper information is indeed correct.
One would have hoped that our bishops and priests show as much diligence before communicating publicly concerning infringements on human rights.
Father Jonathan,
Would this fall under the “conspiracy theories” you implicitly know to be wrong? If so, state so!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=r02j7HaKYe8
Father Jonathan,
Starting here at 1:44:16:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NpnSC1WugW0
What is your assessment of that?
Conspiracy theory you implicitly know to be wrong?
Father Jonathan,
What’s your take on this one?
https://cormandrostenreview.com/report/
Conspiracy theory?
Father Jonathan,
https://www.thelastamericanvagabond.com/richard-werner-interview-covid-measures-and-the-central-controls-over-the-economy/
Conspiracy theory, implicitly wrong?
Mr. Tobias,
What is your take on this one:
https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/plague-poor-gutentag
Conspiracy theory, implicitly wrong?
What is your take on this one:
https://off-guardian.org/2021/10/01/programmable-digital-currency-the-next-stage-of-the-new-normal/
Conspiracy theory, implicitly wrong?
What is your take on this one:
https://dailysceptic.org/2021/10/03/436-randomly-generated-peer-reviewed-papers-published-by-springer-nature/
Conspiracy theory, implicitly wrong?
My take on this one:
https://janotec.typepad.com/terrace/2021/09/index.html
Uninformed, poorly written, sanctimonious hogwash. Evidently wrong.
…. Said Sergius to the catacomb church.
Hey, thanks for posting this! My parish priest just put me out of communion with the Church because I sent this letter to the Assembly of Canonical Bishops asking if they had a response to it.
Just baptized three months ago. Is this the love of Christ? Wow!
Hang on a minute. You sent this letter (PDF form?) to the Assembly of Bishops and told your priest that you did that? Instead of discussing it with you, his response was to tell you not to come to church?
No. I sent the letter to the Assembly of Bishops, which includes my bishop. I asked them if they will be responding to the letter. I also sent the letter separately to my bishop. My priest contacted me. We had a difficult discussion. He excommunicated me, saying that I clearly do not know understand the Orthodox Church, and that I will be readmitted to Communion once I have been properly instructed. I was baptized three months ago. I have researched what being excommunicated means. This is a very serious matter. I texted my priest asking him for a document that spells out the grounds of the excommunication. Haven’t heard back.
May God have mercy. This was his decision or the bishop?
The bishop is supposed to be like a father. You cannot send a letter to your father and ask about it?