On the Feast Day of St. Bartholomew, June 11th, Archbishop Elpidophoros of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America presided over a Divine Liturgy at St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church in Manhattan. He was joined by several other GOARCH hierarchs and Archbishop Michael of New York and New Jersey of the Orthodox Church in America. This liturgy caused quite a bit of controversy. The Episcopal parish of “St. Bart’s” is very pro-sodomy. Just five days before the Orthodox hierarchs presided over this liturgy, the parish held a “blessing” for a “Pride” flag to fly from the front of the building the entire month of June. This is the announcement of that event from the parish Website:
The LGBTQ+ Pride flag, which will fly over Park Avenue for the entire month of June, will be blessed in a brief ceremony on the Church steps after the 5 pm Eucharist on Sunday, June 6. Come and celebrate the inclusive nature of God’s love! All are welcome!
The flag, evidently representing the love of God, was “proudly” flying from the front of the building while Orthodox hierarchs were presiding over a Divine Liturgy inside. The juxtaposition of this imagery is jarring:
This liturgy should not be considered an isolated event but part of an ongoing revolution. A revolution, you might ask? Wouldn’t you notice that, if it were happening? Like the way art, liturgy, and spirituality changed in the Roman Church after Vatican II? Or the way Catholicism is changing dramatically in Germany as clergy openly defy the Pope by blessing same sex unions?
The structure of the Orthodox Church makes such overt revolutionary tactics close to impossible. Orthodoxy is specifically designed not to change. The Church is decentralized, making it difficult to propagate innovations. The Faithful are dedicated to tradition and historically prone to vocal resistance. Dogma is considered fixed, and Orthodox moral teachings aren’t voted on at periodic conventions. In the West, multiple jurisdictions co-exist side-by-side. Anything too openly radical would panic the Faithful, who would then likely flee taking their checkbooks with them. Precious few Orthodox parishes have trust funds to cover such a loss of revenue, unlike our Episcopal “brothers” who are blessed with over $4.5 billion in assets between their parishes and dioceses.
Given the peculiarities of Orthodoxy, our Orthodox revolutionaries have to be smarter than those in other “Christian” traditions. They must introduce changes slowly and incrementally. All the while, Orthodox revolutionaries must convince the “unenlightened” that nothing of any great importance is actually happening. In many ways, this stealth method of revolution is more dangerous than overtly challenging the existing norms as the potential opposition can’t decide if there is even a threat. Called a “revolution within the form,” this method of transforming historical institutions has been stunningly successful at winning the battle before most of the victims even notice they are under attack:
Revolution within the form is a subversive tactic that seeks surreptitiously to replace the form of old things or words with new and/or progressive meanings in order to bring about a contrary state of things that normally would not be accepted by society. Basically, the names of the old things are preserved, but their meanings have been altered. This can be applied to laws, forms of governments, traditional philosophy, art, and language. Just like camouflage on clothing obscures the wearer and is beneficial in military situations, so this method is quite successful because when another meaning is being hidden under an old thing, it becomes imperceptible to many and the new is easily adopted. It is only one of the many modalities of revolutionary strategy. Society is transformed without it ever being conscious of what is going on.
This is not a new concept, as it was first described by Aristotle. Machiavelli endorsed this method for transforming Italian city states into modern polities, despite the wishes of their citizens. Joe Sobran, a Catholic commentator, said of the revolutionary tactic: “The revolutionaries realize that their power depends on the illusion of continuity. The overturning of fundamental principles, the destruction of tradition, the creation of new powers; these must all be presented as mere ‘reforms’.?”
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Nothing to See Here
For such a revolution to succeed, plausible deniability must be maintained for as long as possible. The goal is for any actions taken in furtherance of the revolution to be explainable as, “Nothing to see here. Everything is normal. You are overreacting.”
Minutes after word of the liturgy at St. Bart’s hit the news, well-meaning commentators were already defending the event: “What’s the big deal? Only Orthodox clergy concelebrated. Our mission parish rents a hall to do liturgy. This is common! This liturgy in an Episcopal Church was a great way to evangelize!” The first reaction of many Orthodox Faithful is to find any and all reasons to defend the actions of a hierarch, no matter how suspect.
This innocent tendency to defend the hierarchs is something the revolutionaries absolutely depend on. The situation is even better for them when there is at least some truth in the defenses raised over any perceived hierarchical misstep. Renting a hall or space for a liturgy or special event is actually quite common, particularly among impoverished parishes. That fact is not in dispute. However, the totality of circumstances around this particular “rental” are not at all normal or common:
- How many rental locations chosen by Orthodox parishes to hold liturgy are essentially LGBTQ clubhouses?
- How many are adorned with Pride flags prominently displayed on the building during an Orthodox liturgy?
- How many Orthodox clerics, holding liturgy under such circumstances, would proudly boast of their actions to the entire world?
Good questions. But the genius of “revolution within the form” is that if you want to ignore such questions, you can. In fact, if you are of such a mind, you can righteously and indignantly attack anyone expressing doubts about this liturgy as “a protestant who wants to tear down our bishops.” You can use an important Orthodox principle, obedience to spiritual authority, as cover for accepting an Orthodox hierarch enthusiastically serving as a pro-sodomy propaganda prop.
Quite a few commentators pointed to the presence of Abp. Michael of the OCA as proof that everything with this liturgy was spiritually fine. The Archbishop is known as a traditionalist, so if he attended there must be no problem with the liturgy or the venue – “Pride” flag on the front of the building or not. His presence forced Metropolitan Tikhon of the OCA to defend the event in an email to a concerned OCA layman:
“Let me be clear and state unambiguously the following: the fidelity of the Orthodox Church in America to the faith and moral teaching of the Church is unchanged. The concelebration of His Eminence Archbishop Michael with His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros and other bishops of the Greek Orthodox Church was exactly that, a concelebration of Orthodox hierarchs and clergy. No texts, statements, or gestures were undertaken, made, or even proposed with respect to any moral issues. In no way should this event be taken by anyone as a modification in any way of the Church’s moral teaching, or as laying the groundwork to modify it in way.”
In case you are concerned about the optics of the event undermining our Orthodox witness, or that we are lending our moral authority to prop up the thoroughly debauched Episcopal “Church”, or that this event will serve as precedent for worse to come – please just calm down. The Metropolitan of the Orthodox Church in America has officially declared, “Nothing to see here, please move along.”
During his homily, while serving liturgy in a building bedecked by a massive and “blessed” LGBTQ flag, Archbishop Elpidophoros proclaimed a very interesting concept of ecumenicity:
As Orthodox Christians, we are not about exclusivity, but about authenticity. We say with the Lord Jesus Christ, “whoever is not against us is for us!” [*] We openly embrace those who differ from us, not to manifest any compromise, but to extend to others the love and acceptance of Christ.
We are very welcome here indeed, and the honor shown by our Episcopalian brothers and sisters to our Patriarch is a sign that bodes well for the future of the ecumenical movement. By this time, we all know what gulfs separate us. Perhaps, then, we should spend more time focusing on building bridges than on acknowledging walls.
For as the Lord said: “By this shall all people know that you are My disciples, if you love one another.” [†] Therefore, this ecumenical commitment stands at the very heart of what it means to be a Christian.
To make such statements of fraternal solidarity with the Episcopal “Church,” it was necessary to gloss over many things in the name of “love.” Even as Archbishop Elpidophoros did so, an OCA “traditionalist” Archbishop was next to him, implicitly endorsing all that was said and done. Since Metropolitan Tikhon defended the event after the fact, everything must have been just hunky-dory.
Brilliant move that, making the OCA complicit. Too bad they didn’t rope in a ROCOR bishop to really squelch all potential future criticism.
The New “Love” is all That Matters!
Archbishop Elpidophoros’ sermon borrowed the essential theme of the “gay pride” movement – love is all that matters and the revolutionaries get to define what “love” means. Love means that unconverted spouses of Orthodox Christians can share in the Holy Eucharist. Love is love, right? We, as Orthodox, are not about exclusivity. Archbishop Elpidophoros said so.
Why are you against a nice couple like Demetrios and Jennifer and their cute kids being united in church, just because Jennifer wants to stay Methodist? Do you want to drive them out of the church, you bigot? Never mind that this move is an uncanonical innovation. Never mind that unworthily receiving the Eucharist is actually spiritually harmful to the unconverted spouses. Also ignore that this move opens the door to intercommunion with other heterodox in the future. After all, are not the Episcopal and Roman “churches” our brothers in Trinitarian belief? What are a few differences in Theology, morality, ethics and liturgical practices to compare to love? Let’s focus on bridges and not walls, okay?
Love means that, “The witness of the many Christian homosexual couples speaks against the concepts proclaimed by the rigorists of the binary mindset.” So says Inga Leonova, editor of The Wheel, a quarterly journal of Orthodoxy and culture, while writing in Public Orthodoxy (sponsored by Orthodox Christian Studies Center at Fordham University). Nice, committed homosexual couples should be treated the same as heterosexual couples. To do otherwise is mean and unloving. The revolutionaries use appeals to love to soften and hide their true aims lest anyone panic: “We aren’t going to change the mysteries of communion and marriage – we are just expanding them out of love by blessing same-sex marriages and opening our communion to other Christians! Yay, more love! Everything will be the same, only better!”
Isn’t such unity the way things should be? After all, Archbishop Elpidophoros said in his sermon about Patriarch Bartholomew, “He is a living Apostle of love, peace and reconciliation.”
Love means following Covid mandates, no matter what they are, to “save lives.” Close parishes? Change liturgical practices? Mandate masks for unvaccinated parishioners, even toddlers? Close your businesses and stay home? Deny your children education? Silence hierarchs who question the vaccines and the mandates? Make seminarians take an experimental vaccine that has a history of severe reactions for younger men? All good! If you love your neighbor, then do what you are told, follow the hierarchs, and stop asking inconvenient questions.
Ignore the fact that each accommodation sets yet another precedent that government edicts supersede Orthodox religious freedom and Holy Tradition. Ignore the fact that such precedents make even more stringent government control likely in the future. Could the government someday successfully outlaw discrimination in employment and facility rental? Or mandate vaccine passports for attendance at liturgy? If any of that happens, can you not already hear the voices shouting that the Orthodox Churches must comply as we did during Covid? Homosexual clergy, female clergy, trans-clergy, trans-human clergy, gay weddings, polyamory, restricted attendance at liturgy, clergy politically vetting parishioners, vaccine passports, government writing Church school curriculum – no choice! As Christians we must obey the law, otherwise we are not good citizens or good Christians.
But none of that will ever happen they assure us. Covid was a one-time deal. Quit being selfish just because you were denied communion for a brief time and now have to wear a mask because you refuse a perfectly safe, experimental vaccine. There is no Christian persecution. You are imagining things. You are just a bad, pre-modern person who doesn’t love others and clings to an outdated view of your Orthodox Faith. Get with the program and stop worrying!
What if our “love” helps send people to Hell because we actively encourage them to remain in their heresies and sins by accepting them? Or makes them slaves to sin in this life, causing them utter misery? Isn’t real love telling the truth in hopes that people repent and embrace God?
Never mind that you Neanderthals, that was the “old” Christian love! Love is new and improved. A loving God would never condemn anyone to Hell, just ask David Bentley Hart! Eternal life is for everyone, a fact you will all come to acknowledge one day, whether you like it or not. We need to focus on things that really matter such as combatting systemic racism and climate change. Those are real Christian priorities for the modern world. Especially since we can agree with the Episcopal “Church” and Pope Francis on those things and side-step all those icky “historical” points of disagreement that keep us from getting invited to the really good cocktail parties.
Vive la Révolution!
From a revolutionary perspective, the Divine Liturgy at St. Bart’s could not have been a more stunning success. Those who wish to defend it have cover to do so. Those who support transforming the Orthodox Church can take heart at the words, actions, and symbolism on display. For them, this was a mighty loud “dog whistle.” Those who oppose changing the Orthodox Church, but who wish to avoid crimethink, can plausibly pretend everything is just fine. Their willing disbelief and inaction are essential to the revolution. By the time they realize anything is amiss, it will likely to be way too late to do anything anyway. Those complaining about the true significance of the event, both implicit and explicit, can be dismissed as (pick your favorites): “convertdox,” “conspiracy theorists,” “anti-Greek,” “Russian bots,” “fanatics,” “racists,” “homophobes,” “Trump worshippers”…. So many insults to choose from. The same people so concerned about “othering” are certainly anxious to do so in the case of evil conservatives.
Sadly, as long as the same hierarchs, perform the same liturgical rites, in the same churches, with the same icons, and in the same languages while the most radical positions are advocated only by academics and not the hierarchs who fund them – the revolution will roll on inexorably and incrementally while hidden in plain sight.
Nicholas – member of the Western Rite Vicariate, a part of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese in America, a COVID refugee from the Greek Archdiocese
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
-William Butler Yeats
I agree with your sentiments. As a former Episcopalian and convert to Orthodoxy now a member of the GOARCH, I am mortified by the archbishop’s recent action. I’ve written an essay on this scandalous incident. If you are interested please read it and comment.
https://weborthodox.com/2021/06/26/elpidophoros/
Dear Lawrence,
Your essay, “Writings on the Wall,” was a real eye opener into the struggles of the Episcopal church and the dangers brewing in the basement of the Greek Orthodox Church, which has been introducing one innovation after another. Regarding the multiple spoons, Ab Elpidophoros, himself, said, “this is a test” to see how many will accept the innovation. I believe that the Liturgy at St. Bart’s was also a test, probably one in a series of planned tests, to see how far our hierarchs can go as they try to advance their Ecumenist agenda. I am certain we will see more such “tests”, until the final step is taken to enjoin all the churches. Just the other day, I was horrified as I watched a video my son showed me. A young man was interviewing a Greek Orthodox Priest on our Church’s views on dating. The priest actually encouraged him to date any Christian of any denomination and if they ended up married and with children, they would know theirs was a healthy marriage and family if they taught the children about both their faiths so that the children could choose for themselves which faith to adopt. There was no mention of catechism or conversion of the heterodox spouse, and even worse, no mention of baptism for the children. This is the kind of advice the youth are getting from certain hierarchs and priests in our church. Elpidophoros himself, has a PhD in ecumenism and I have heard him address t issue of our “ecumenical families “. Well, how do you expect not to have such an issue when you are actually helping to create the problem?
Dear Rina,
Thanks for your reply. The Greek Archdiocese is in trouble if it thinks it’s a good idea to open the barn doors and watch the horses bolt. My life has been forever changed – a pessimist might say ruined – by the infiltration of secular humanism into the Episcopal Church of my rearing and ordination. Thanks be to God I have found the pearl of great price in the Orthodox Church and I will do what I can to help the fight to maintain its worth. I’m sure that you will, too. Lord, have mercy.
Keep deleting and refusing to post comments that question your propaganda, you racist, russophile ethnophyletist scum
Leo, this will be last of these comments we ever publish. Not just from you, but really from anyone. No one who contributes to this site is afraid of criticism. Your “criticism” however, is not really worth troubling with. See this handy chart:
Your level of “argumentation” falls at the very bottom and is really worthless in furthering any substantive dialog. You are pure ad-hominem, which makes us wonder – do you even read any of the articles? Curiously, the only real vitriol we get along these lines is from people who identify as “Greek.” About 1/5 of our articles are published in English and Greek. We actively quote Greek saints and current Greek hierarchs. So, not sure what you are keying off of, unless you are one of those who thinks any criticism of the actions of Archbishop Elpidophoros or HAH Bartholomew is the same as “heresy.”
If you feel like actually substantively criticizing an article, feel free to submit that comment. We will approve it, and enter into the debate over it. However, no more of this simple invective will ever be published. We have been more than fair with you. You could also, if you choose, please explain terms that you and others like you use such as “pseudo-Church.” What does that mean, and which churches are you asserting are not real, canonical Orthodox Churches? That comment would be interesting to the discussion, as that phrase is thrown around by some Greek commentators, but no one ever explains it.
Now on a side note, we rarely, if ever, resort to an argument from authority. That is “listen to me because my credentials or my resume makes me an expert and you must listen to me.” A resort to that kind of argumentation is fallacious. Experts are wrong frequently, see Anthony Fauci as an example. In this case, however, we are going to suspend that rule for just a moment. The primary editor of this site and two other contributors are American veterans. The primary editor is a United States Marine whose son is currently serving on active duty. These are the men you accuse frequently of being in Putin’s hip pocket, being anti-American or anti-Greek or whatever.
Now set aside the tactlessness of accusing someone you don’t even know of being against the country they served or against the Greek Archdiocese where they currently worship, or worshipped for decades. Look past that at you laying down an accusation like that on the very day that Nicholas’ son dies or is severely injured fighting for this country, perhaps even against Russian soldiers. You will carry that into eternity, barring sincere repentance. Before the Dread Judgement Seat of Christ, an answer to that behavior will be required. It will not be good.
For your benefit, and for anyone else planning to troll-comment, if you criticize an article on this site in a substantive way, we will gladly publish the comment and engage you in debate, or even agree with you if your point is valid. That has happened more than once. We won’t be publishing, however, any more comments like this one.
There is a big difference between Love and lust. If you truly love someone, you will NOT lust after them and you will certainly not fulfil that lust. The Bible tells us what Love is in 1 Corinthians. Love is Sacrifice. Love is NOT fulfilling your sexual, sensual and pleasurable desires! This is disgusting lust. If our hierarchs cannot tell the difference they should be defrocked!
Also, GOD is Love, just as He is Truth. Therefore, you cannot have true love without Truth. It does not exist that way except in the twisted and depraved minds of pitiable people who have sunk so low in their lustful desires that they have lost all clarity of mind and soul.
Our Holy, Greek Orthodox Church has been hijacked, going back a great many years, by homosexual, Freemason, pro-ecumenist Hierarchs – the three prerequisites to becoming a Greek Orthodox hierarch in this day and age. This did not happen by accident or overnight. It was systematically planned over the course of many years, to veer the Church off its tracks towards unholy and uncanonical union with western churches. Look at all the masonic organizations like AHEPA, Daughters of Penelope, Sons of Zeus, who have infiltrated the GOC of America. The churches have come to heavily rely on them for financial support, while selling out to freemasonry. Why the Greek Orthodox church? In the hopes that the other jurisdictions would follow due to “tradition”. This is my take anyway. Freemasonry is part and parcel of the globalist movement aka the New World Order, whose goal is ONE world religion, ONE world currency and ONE world government led by – none other than the Antichrist himself. It is no coincidence that these innovations we are witnessing today are coinciding with the unprecedented measures taken to “control” the Covid-19 pandemic and the world. The entire history of our planet is the history of man’s rebellion against God, and this rebellion is now coming to a head on a global level. Freemasonry is a veil for those who worship Satan and despise Jesus Christ. It is a secret plot which has become so strong both in numbers of followers and $$$, that it’s not so secret anymore. This type of behaviour in the GOC will definitely continue in a step-wise fashion to garner as many followers as possible (of those who wish to be politically correct more than they wish to be inconvenienced or righteous with God) until we experience a schism in the Church. This will definitely happen (the writing is on the wall) unless God, Himself, somehow intervenes, to rid us of these vipers, these wolves in sheep’s clothing. We need to be very watchful, with prayer and fasting, so that God will have mercy on us and save us.
I’m taking the rainbow back. It represents Noah’s Ark and the Pot of Gold that Leprochaun’s guard, not faggotry and chopping off your wingwang to get a plastic whoohoo installed.
He was evidently tricked into a position where he would have to be impolite or subject to criticism for making a scene, if he were to keep faith with his presumed convictions. His manners evidently trumped his convictions; but is that then a conviction, or just a “position on an issue?” These are cunning serpents the Phanar has spawned. Beware, Orthodox brethren! The fortress is mined; they turn from subterfuge and pretense to open sacrilege.
Why is it that all of a sudden, I feel overwhelmed by the “Spirit of St Nicholas”? (no, not to spread Christmas cheer, but) to slap a heretic hierarch? How can you take the sacred vestments, how can you take the sacred antimencion–with holy relics sewn in–, how can you take the sacred cup, and the sacred elements into a den of debauchery without experiencing the consequences. Oh, wait!! I see a hand writing on the wall… Can anyone tell us, Oh, “Bishop Belshazzar” what this means? “Mene, Mene, Tekel, Uparsin.”
Now I understand even more why the Frs. On Mt Athos are against ecumenism. The fruits it yields are ugly!
Thanks to Nicholas for his insights here. My own interests in the Eastern Churches dates from my teens. Byzantine History was my focus in college, & at GTS, Chelsea Sq., my Honors Thesis was on the 7th Ecumenical Council, yet 50 years ago, I already understood that St Bats was “desecrated ground, unhallowed halls”, so I never crossed its threshold, even then, despite its “imposing Byzantine look”. I was aware it was an Impostor, a deceit, a lure to unsuspecting Orthodox, a trick to fool innocent Anglicans.
“O heavenly King, Comforter the Spirit of Truth, come & abide in us…” If the EP wants to unite Orthodox then HAH will certainly want to pay attention to these concerns as well as those of Metropolitan Nikiferos of Kykkos and Tyllirus, Church of Cyprus http://www.monomakhos.com/the-ukrainian-schism-an-ecclesiastical-and-historical-response/. There will be fallout but who does HAH wish at his side, Orthodox or heterodox whom we of course, love; but isn’t it important that mercy according to God, always goes w truth (Ps 84:10 lxx) or were the Fathers of the Universal councils sometimes just unenlightened & bigots. Maybe “Remove not the ancient landmark, which thy fathers have set” (Pr. 22: 28) should mean something to us? God is not in a box but there can be no support of mistruths when we are called to “warn the people lest their blood be upon [our] heads (Ez ch. 3 & 33). May we all listen to what the Spirit Who has put up with us for so very long is really saying, “repent” before we no longer have this chance.
Just so I know. You clearly do not support this stuff he did? Marriage and love is between a man and a woman only in the romantic sense. Nothing else is and is NOT acceptable.
We absolutely agree.
I won’t be following their lead, taking part or accepting any of this.
This should not come as a surprise to ANY of us. We already heard Elpdophorus say that the multiple spoons was a “test” to see how many faithful would accept it. Clearly, this, too, is a test to see how accepting the faithful are of sodomy. If the first test succeeds, then there will be the next test, and the next. Incrementally, not ROCOR, but the faithful will be roped in. Hasn’t anyone realized yet that the hierarchy of the Orthodox Church mostly consists of many who are sodomists themselves, not to mention Freemasons? They have hijacked the higher positions of the church for a reason. What do you suppose their agenda is? The writing is on the wall, people. This is why I left the Greek Orthodox Church. I will NOT vote yes to Ecumenism and Sodomy with my dollar for my candle, and neither should YOU! Please wake up and find a better Shepherd!
When they found out they were tricked they didn’t have to stay.
Now the role of fixing this problem revolves from the cross to the crescent.
To be clear about one thing: I know from a clergyman under Abp. Michael that was he mislead about where the Divine Liturgy was taking place. I believe he met Abp. Elpidophoros at the GOArch headquarters assuming that they would be serving liturgy at their cathedral, only to be shuffled into a car with everyone else headed towards the Episcopalian church. As you can imagine, he is quite upset about the underhanded tactic.
That being said, I’m not sure I would label him as a “staunch traditionalist”, though he does have many good qualities. Your points are still completely valid, but I felt this was an important detail to include.
Thank you for that. We really feel that intention, as noted in the article, was to “rope in” the OCA.
How can a clergy be “misled”? That’s absurd. If he found himself in such a place, why did he vest-up in that building? He could have just walked out the door, or never entered in the first place; that would have been the right statement to the world regarding the profane place. Without a counter action on his part to protect the sanctity of his own office, he partakes of other men’s sin.
AMEN John! I’m so utterly sick and tired of these completely lame excuses. The only astounding thing is that people continue to buy them. Sorry, I’m simply not buying these sorry stories and neither should anyone with a functioning brain. At some point, if it walks like a duck, looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, you must conclude that what you’re dealing with is….a duck.
Thank you, John! You nailed it. It’s called accountability. What a gut punch it was when he closed the churches and monasteries and introduced the use of multiple spoons. This pageant at the Episcopal house of worship under the alphabet sodomite rainbow is just the last straw. May he repent and seek God’s mercy.