In March 2020, it felt like the world had shifted out from under us. When we first heard that churches were going to close, like many Orthodox Christians, our first reaction was, “Not our churches. No way.” We did not believe that the bishops would ever close our parishes and deny the Faithful access to the mysteries. But much to our shock and horror, that is exactly what happened. The Church founded by Christ, closed for the celebration of His most Holy Resurrection. It was too dangerous we were told. As if safety were somehow the aim of a Christian life.
It was heart-wrenching. When parishes did re-open, the liturgical practices of the Church had been drastically changed. Masks everywhere (even when the locality did not require them), no kissing icons, no altar servers, limited attendance – none of us ever expected the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church to change so rapidly for a virus. Let alone a virus that even then we knew had a 99.95% survival rate. We kept asking – how long will this go on? But no one had any answers.
As Summer came, the official narrative hardened into a type of “orthodoxy” itself. COVID protocols were treated as dogma – things to be accepted on faith and rigidly defended. We noticed some priests close to us were unexpectedly forced off social media for too publicly asking perfectly normal questions. When the multiple spoons started, we realized that forces within the Church seemed to be seizing this moment to permanently change the practice of the Faith. We launched Orthodox Reflections in June 2020 to tell the bishops, and the world at large, that the Orthodox Faith cannot, and will not, change out of fear of a virus, fear of physical death, or to placate the demands of secular governments.
Since launch, priests and Faithful alike have both praised us and vilified us for standing up to the bishops. Some readers have thanked us for making them feel less alone. Others have called us evil and unorthodox. As a response to us defending Fr. Mark Hodges from charges based on “guilty by association” (a standard we reject for any clergy), a Progressive Presbytera wrote this to us:
This is not an Orthodox publication. This is a gossip site dedicated to criticizing the hierarchy and pushing your far-right agenda. I am appalled. Your “works” here are causing immeasurable harm. And the authors of this site are very ill and should seek healing from the Church, remove yourself from this act of infecting the faithful with your unorthodox views.
We will cover more of what Presbytera Jessica had to say to us at a future point. She is a fairly standard-issue political and social progressive in the Greek Archdiocese, so her words are quite representative of how those at the “top” of Orthodoxy in America think and feel. Presbytera reacted with such rage towards us because with our humble blog (roughly 80k visitors so far) we dared to intrude upon the peaceful echo chamber she shares with many of the bishops and clergy. We are unworthy to do so, and so we should just shut up.
Unfortunately for the Presbytera, the terms of debate within Orthodoxy have now totally shifted. Priests are finding their voices and are starting to speak up forcefully. While the Presbytera and her ilk may dismiss us mere laity and our concerns, ignoring the men whose service makes the Church possible is going to be much, much harder.
Though rest assured, they will try their best.
The suspension of Fr. Mark Hodges has prompted exposure of the double-standards within American Orthodoxy. Priests who have progressive politics are left alone by the hierarchy, and sometimes even rewarded. While those who are more conservative and traditional must self-censor out of fear for their jobs. This is a typical cry from the heart of one such traditionalist Orthodox priest:
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. They are labeled and therefore marginalized I am fearful of the very people who I should trust, but I can’t. If liberal-minded laypeople don’t turn in the priests they despise then other priests will “throw them under the bus.” We are becoming like the Orthodox Church in Russia, in the late 19th/early 20th centuries, when people would turn in others to the church authorities and political authorities for whatever reasons suited them. We are truly living in the “last days” If not the last days before our Lord’s return, then certainly the last days of our American liberty and republic.
Many priests have been hesitant to speak out. But now, it is abundantly clear that an increasing number of Orthodox priests who support traditional Orthodox faith and morals are losing patience with a system that is actively working to suppress both. Going forward, expect to hear from many more priests, even if they must do so anonymously. If individual priests speaking out is important, which it is, then what just dropped on Monokhamos.com is an absolute gamechanger.
In an article titled The Broken Covenant, an anonymous group of OCA clergy provides a devastating, insider critique of the bishops’ leadership during the past year. All Orthodox Christians in the United States and Canada should read this article today, and share it with everyone they know. Before you go, there are two things from the article we would like to highlight for you to think about.
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!
Modern authoritarianism always misuses psychology. If you question the official narrative, an authoritarian system will strive to convince you that you are the problem. An authoritarian system will also strive to isolate you. Alone, you are easier to bully and manipulate. Resistance is futile! Everything will be fine if you just join the team and get with the program.
This is demonic. Don’t fall for it.
At Orthodox Reflections, we don’t write for the Progressive Presbyteras of the world. We write for those Christians (Orthodox and otherwise) who are at least troubled by the prevailing narratives. We write to support them. To keep them from feeling isolated. To keep them from feeling in need of a psychological exam. We need help in that. Especially if you are a priest or deacon, post and blog as best you can to help those weaker than yourself. If you can’t write or post, then at least read like-minded individuals. Stay connected! We are part of a Church that values being as communion, after all.
The pure witness of our priestly conscience has been replaced with the bishop’s conscience alone. Freewill is replaced with tyranny of a temporal magisterium that can change from day to day. This is the definition of a cult and not the Holy Church. We did not swear obedience to a bishop for anything outside the Holy Tradition. The bishop has no authority in the parish or the life of a priest where he departs from it. Priests are now on the advice of their own legal counsel recording, and documenting conversations between a priest, his dean, and bishop. Threats to one’s status and employment are being documented. Do the bishops have any idea what they are doing to the Body of Christ? Your short sighted, temporal decisions have eroded all trust.
There is no trust in society. There is no trust in the Church. Part of that erosion of trust is no longer believing a bishop can be relied upon to faithfully keep Holy Tradition. From Constantinople trying to promote itself as a kind of “Orthodox Papacy” to the many proposed innovations of Archbishop Elpidophoros to local bishops bullying priests over masks, attendance numbers, or kissing icons – we are witnessing an unprecedented (for Orthodoxy) re-definition of episcopal power as being over-and-above Holy Tradition.
The Progressive Presbyteras of the world are all in favor of this trend. They need centralized, tyrannical authority if they hope to force through their agenda of normalizing abortion and same-sex marriage, female ordination, progressive climate and economic policies, intercommunion, Critical Race and Gender Theories, forever COVID changes, and perhaps even participation in The Great Reset.
The progressives are aware that you can never persuade the Church to stop being the Church voluntarily. For that, you need force. So please read the priests’ article and share, share, and share.
The Orthodox Reflections Staff
I dont like life as it is now compared to when I was growing up in the 50s. Life than was much more enjoyable, too many changes have come about. That being said, I would never have thought that the Orthodox church in America would succumb to secular society as it has.
‘Live not by lies’ Alexander Solzhenitsyn counseled us – “So in our timidity, let each of us make a choice: Whether consciously, to remain a servant of falsehood—of course, it is not out of inclination, but to feed one’s family, that one raises his children in the spirit of lies—or to shrug off the lies and become an honest man worthy of respect both by one’s children and contemporaries.” –Live Not By Lies Alexander Solzhenitsyn
To my brothers and sisters in Christ—
The fact that people attack personality characteristics instead of the “lie” of the issue at hand is because they can’t argue the truth or facts; and as every good lawyer knows if you can’t argue the truth or facts, attack your opponent’s character. And because people leave is because they don’t like what they hear is actually not a real argument regarding the question of whether they needed to hear what offended them or not. In the Gospels, we are told that quite a few people were offended by what Christ taught, and said “This is a hard saying; who can accept it?” (John 6:60). And then we are told that “From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him” (John 6:66). What was Christ’s reaction? Did he call a Church Growth Consultant to find out where He had gone wrong? No. He turned to the disciples that hadn’t left yet, and said “Do you also want to go away?” (John 6:67).
I had thought that as members of the Church and Orthodox Christians we could at least discuss and have “dialogue” in a friendly-family way. However, after attempts to talk and subsequent rejection and refusal, name calling and emotional outbursts, along with the insistence that we cannot discuss these questions and matters, but that we must accept the opinion of the “Orthodox experts” “Official Hierarchy” and their “toadies” that you have counseled on your reasons and be silent and that presumably such imposed silence also means that the we, with the Church must forget about its previously noble tradition of “dialogue with humanity” and “accept” your decisions as if we were strangers and not family.
You ask from our Church not dialogue, but simple capitulation to your own agenda and ideology—of what you believe to be acceptable Orthodox behavior – that we [and the Church as well perhaps?] shut up forever. I understand the nature of such demands. When it occurs in the school-yard, it is called “bullying”—though in this case the muscle is provided by not by violent shoving or hitting the other party with your lunch-box, but by self-righteous rhetoric and gossip via social-media. And, like I did in the school-yard when faced with such demands as a child, I decline to get into it with him. I would rather just walk away and eat my lunch safely and quietly somewhere else.
However, if I did choose to reply, I might say the following, for after all some of the mislead have issued a kind of public manifesto via social-media, and it is to the public manifesto that one can reply. Manifestos invite reply; that is the point of a manifesto.
In my reply, I would first of all say that the Orthodox Christian Church should not heed impassioned demands that it ‘shut up or remain silent’ and give into “name calling” and say nothing when its central teachings are trampled, denied, and distorted. The Church has a divine duty to proclaim the truth to whoever wants to listen, and especially to its own members. St. Paul did not “keep quiet forever” about the false Christology proclaimed by the early Gnostics, or about the supposed necessity of circumcision demanded by the early Judaizers. It is true that both the Gnostics and the Judaizers would have been happier if he did, but such silence would have been spiritually criminal and a betrayal of Christ. Of course, the World will not like it when opposed by the Church. No one likes being opposed and contradicted. It can be very irritating and infuriating. But being an adult involves being committed to non-violent dialogue when such disagreements occur, not screaming at the other party because they dare to challenge and then in response, run away in anger. It is easy to have a tantrum and to scream “shut up!” It is harder to be an adult and go on debating calmly. No doubt the child having the tantrum is “in pain,” but such pain is no excuse for the tantrum.
Blessed Fr. Seraphim describes this passionate decision ‘web-making’ delusional-prelest behavior in a letter he wrote as spinning “A SPIDER WEB OF IDEAS” –
the state of prelest called by the Holy Fathers “fancy” or “opinion”—when a web of ideas is spun which has no real contact with reality, which is why when it comes out it seems so very “far out.” A person then acts according to his passions, but thinks he is being logical according to the web of ideas he has spun. Usually the devil uses one little idea to “catch” us, knowing that it will catch us in something we may be emotional about; and that “catch” is sufficient to get us to weave the whole spider web which trips us up.
–and these important warnings from the Saints as well:
Learn first of all to be at peace with the spiritual situation which has been given you, and to make the most of it. If your situation is spiritually barren, do not let this discourage you, but work all the harder at what you yourself can do for your spiritual life. –Bl. Fr. Seraphim Rose; Introduction to Blessed Paisius Velichkovsky
Sadly, there are those within the Orthodox community – clergy and members of the uncanonical-jurisdictional-overlap who offer an escape and refuge for Her members who make erroneous, uninformed emotionally based decisions and choices when pressures of external troubles burden their inner disposition seeking an ‘Orthodoxy with ease’. That is, a pseudo-counterfeit Orthodoxy where there is no accountability, where active LGBTQ plus can abuse the Holy Mysteries with impunity, where attendance is optional [ok, true—you have the ‘option’ to be complete or not], where one can remain anonymous, remaining an individual with no connection to others within the community, where, ‘stability, vigilance, steadfastness as a virtue of the spiritual life as a Christian’ and loyalty –of which the Fathers highly esteemed as great virtues – are brushed aside. Where struggling, suffering, and “pain of heart” –that is, no sacrifice, no repentance, no metanoia – the change of heart and mind necessary for acquiring the phronema and ethos of the Church – are dismissed. There is no being forged in ‘the purifying fire of lived repentance’ – no growth, no maturing in the faith. No steadfastness. No loyalty to community or relationships. No resolve to be united. No ‘one mind, one heart, one doctrine, one fellowship.’ This is a tenacious, sinister and defective process of spiritual corruption, the ‘carelessness’ that Bl. Fr. John Krestiankin spoke of.
Doxa To Theo’
John
And you proved my point again. More gossip, more hatred, more lies…
I will pray for you, whoever you are. And though you do not ask for it, I forgive you.
Thank you for the prayers.
With all due respect Presbytera your view is myopic. Laying out in writing peoples real day to day experiences and grievances is not gossip. If your so solid in your reality it shouldn’t be a point of contention for you. Publicly making the statement “I will pray for you” is so incredibly passive aggressive and sad. We forget God and our guardian angel witnesses all our doings wether we acknowledge them or not.
It is also presumptuous to offer forgiveness, in this case, when it has not been asked. Christ knew His crucifiers did not know what they were doing when He asked the Father to forgive them. This post bears witness to the truth and the reality that we live and experience. As they have believed, the authors have spoken. I forgive you, Presvytera, for your presumptuousness. But, it is disheartening to see such behavior out of a Presvytera.
The virus has killed more people’s minds than it did people.
You are correct! And it was intentional. Look at the stats on negative coverage from this article:
https://orthodoxreflections.com/faith-over-fear-apostolic-boldness-in-the-age-of-covid/
Then take a look at this update as virus coverage is dropping to second tier status:
https://twitter.com/JeromeAdamsMD/status/1357314162863583237
that doctor is, of course, a COVID panic specialist, so he thinks the fading of coverage is a bad thing. But really, the less coverage the less the panic and the more people will be willing to listen to reason.
John, are you in Omaha? My son is stationed at Offut AFB. Can we talk?
Meanwhile the very same tyrannical progressive bishops have done ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about the homosexualist and LGBT rebellion raging inside the Church.
“The ranks of the false teachers include academics who openly promote the homosexualist agenda and oppose the Orthodox Church sacred Tradition. Some of these individuals openly and proudly self-identify as “homosexual” or “LGBT.” Many are not Orthodox Christians. Some are women “married” to other women. Others are men “married” to other men. Some were deposed by the Orthodox Church. Others abandoned the Orthodox Church to become priestesses in other churches. All want to radically change the Orthodox Church teaching and Tradition to accommodate distorted and corrupt ideas.” ~ Fr. Ioannes Apiarius
https://www.orthodoxytoday.org/blog/2019/07/warning-to-orthodox-church-false-teachers-and-deceitful-venues-that-contradict-and-distort-church-teaching/
Exactly. The false teaching of obedience trumping doctrine and rules/canons has been a Trojan horse to usher in not only these unprecedented self imposed covid restrictions on worship, but also nontraditional theology and morality. I find it likely a schism will occur between Orthodox traditionalists and modernists.
WHAT A GREAT site this is. Funny that the people who don’t like it are progressive “christians”. They might as well be Protestants – in essence they are.
A priest fears losing his LIVELIHOOD above all? Lord have mercy!!!
Good response Ann. I remember years ago hearing about an Episcopal priest who left his “livelyhood”, retirement, to join the Orthodox Church because his bishop admonished him for telling a married couple in his parish that he would not give them communion because they admitted to him they were atheists. The bishop told him to give them communion because they were baptized Episcopalians or he wanted his resignation. The priest told him, “You’ll have my letter of resignation in the morning.” That’s the kind of fortitude we need here.
We have to agree that it is coming to that. Without priests, the parishes close and the bishops find themselves quite alone. We may not see a formal schism, but if the priests and people “melt” away into a sort of “catacomb” jurisdiction (possibly under a hierarch not even on this continent), then a de facto schism will be upon us. We have already left the GOA and some the OCA. This situation is likely to accelerate, as the bishops show no signs of changing.
How hurtful. You’ve proven my point. This is a gossip blog. How did you jump from me calling you out for being ruthless and mean to an innocent lay person and the hierarchy to now I am a “progressive” that wants to force an “agenda of normalizing abortion and same-sex marriage, female ordination, progressive climate and economic policies, intercommunion, Critical Race and Gender Theories, forever COVID changes…”
Do NOT feature me again with your lies, hatred, and bullying. I am extremely offended by the assumptions made about me in this article. You have hurt me and countless others with this blog.
I stand by what I said this is a gossip blog and you have proven that time and time again.
Perhaps we should have mentioned the clinical psychiatrist that works with us as a contributor? Based on your interactions with us and the wording you used (labeling us far-right, using various other tell-tale phrases) it is quite clear that you are definitely not a conservative politically. Further, your demanding and judgmental personality (very “Karenish”) indicates you have definite authoritarian tendencies. In the article, you ignored the part about the Greek Archbishop and focused on Archbishop Paul and Theo – indicating a fixation on gay rights. When trying to convince us we are wrong, you never quoted any Church Fathers, Holy Tradition or even the Bible. You relied instead on feelings and emotions, with a heavy dollop of attempted shaming. That tends to indicate a weak attachment to the historical faith and a more “progressive” mindset. You also aren’t really concerned about our possible loss of salvation by doing the evil you accuse of us. That seems to indicate your love is for select groups of people, and we don’t belong to one of them. Your location in a state that makes you a decided religious minority also probably contributes to a sense of victimhood and sympathy for those whom you feel are oppressed. You tend to favor feelings over facts, and don’t read closely when you don’t agree with the premise. We have seen no indication of any detail-orientation, which is indicative of a “progressive” mindset that favors outcomes over facts or processes. In addition, it is fairly uncommon in the United States that one combines progressive politics with a dedication to Orthodox traditionalism. It happens, but not often. It is much more common in Europe with a typical “working class” mentality. You have an elitist mentality that comes through loud and clear. You may not be in favor of the entire laundry list of progressive stances we laid out, but we are quite confident that you subscribe to the majority. Now, we did not use your full name or your location, or anything else that you didn’t publish publicly yourself on your own comments. So if this shoe doesn’t fit, then fine – consider that we were talking about a hypothetical presbytera and not you. You are, after all, anonymous in this exchange. A privilege you seem to want to deny us.
While on that subject, we did not use Theo’s actual name, her image, or her parish. All of which we know, because Theo was brought to our attention by someone she goes to church with her and who is totally scandalized by what is happening. But that was not the point of the article, and we do not publish personal details like that in any case. We used Theo’s Twitter handle. You seem to know who she is, but 99.9999% of the individuals reading the article will not know her. Therefore, she is anonymous. No one is going to be able to look her up or “find” her or her priest. The point was to indicate that “guilty by association” applies to the Archbishop and to a lowly priest. We aren’t accusing the Archbishop of anything other than having unusual friends and allowing a transgender woman to commune openly in one of his parishes. Beyond that, we make no assumptions, and we shouldn’t make any because that would be, in fact, “guilty by association.”
Thank God for your site, your perspective, your avenue for priests to speak openly, and revealing that you have a contributing clinical psychiatrist. I am a laywoman and in that field myself and have often felt quite alone in my profession as well as in conversation with other Orthodox during this period of challenge and disturbing revelations about our hierarchy. I am grateful to find you.
Axios to the priests of the OCA who have spoken out. If only priests from the other jurisdictions could find their unified voices and speak out.
More ands more we the faithful are running out of options in terms of fleeing errant jurisdictions and bishops. If our own priests aren’t willing to fight for us, it will be up to us the laity to fight
Despair not–you are not alone. There’s always a faithful remnant. Lots of us, laity and clergy alike, are ready, willing, and able to stand up for traditional Orthodoxy. This crisis is not unprecedented, and as other demonically inspired efforts to undermine Holy Church, this too will fail. “Gates of hell shall not prevail!”.
I am grateful to God that he gave you courage to speak out because by silence we betray God!
Fear of bishops is unjustified fear for betraying Orthodoxy. Preservation of Orthodox faith has never been easy throughout the history. During the monothelitic heresy St. Maximus the confessor was the only Orthodox priest left in the east while all others were in heresy! He suffered, but he saved Orthodoxy and his soul! During the iconoclastic heresy many bishops, priests and especially monks were murdered. If our predocessors had feared like many priests today, Orthodoxy would only exists in history text books! We all must rise against heretics and those who want to destroy the church from within, because if we don’t we will be complicit in the betrayal of Christ.
Lets’ not forget that almost all heretics throughout the history were bishops! At ordination we promise obedience to the Bishop as to Christ, as long as he does not demand from us something that is contrary to Christ. Then, we are obligated to refute them and call them out! Remember that a coward cannot be witnesses of truth, for to witness the truth in this world requires sacrifice, and a coward is not ready to sacrifice, thus he remains just another onlooker while the mob is spitting and beating his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! His excuse – it is not my thing to do anything, it’s up to the bishop!
Great article! Wonderful comment by my parish priest Fr. Sasa. “Gate of hell shall not prevail” against Holy Church. Arians, iconoclasts, monotheletes, and heretics end up on the ash heap of history and so will the church covidians and modernists. The One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church is an unbreakable rubber band–pull it too far and it snaps back hard. It’s snap time!