Met. Methodios To Cardinal O’Malley: “This Is Your Cathedral As Well…”

On behalf of Helleniscope I post the translated comment of the “Captain”
My prophecy that Orthodoxy
will shine in Russia is confirmed.
Unfortunately, the only way to stop Tragia driving sheep to slaughter is if we all stop contributing
financially and helping all
the Orthodox Churches of the old
calendar, fortunately there are
plenty. The True God cares for
true Christians.
Those clergy who do not react to
Everything that happens in our Church means that they are aligned
with their now headless heads,
and are unworthy to bear the lip. To their question what
can we do?, the answers are many, talk openly to your flocks about where the
Greek Orthodox Church is headed and if
you do not find a response, resign. Don’t think about them
economic consequences, God has
for everyone, don’t you tell us? or
do you say it and don’t believe it?, if
your resignation is a group, you will
scare everyone and perform miracles… if we do not rise up together
, they will become monsters and signs,
all that is happening is the macabre plan of the Globalists, among whom are they included?
the Pope, Bartholomew, Elpidophoros… and Blessed.
You need nothing but Faith
of the grain.Initiate
my brother Father Eleftherios,
who was aware of Makarios’ fears
and before Makarios could tease him, proceeded to
wall up, founded the Greek
Orthodox Church of St. Paisios
in Australia and thousands of people
follow him if he dares to step on him
the foot of the Papist…… He will cut off his legs. It is the plaque that asked him
back the seaweed that the Patriarch had
given him, every time he
sent him a cheque the Patriarch
would also send him an oalgium, pack them
and send them to Makarios by courier. Dear co-religious brothers
, yesterday, Elpidophoros, today Methodius, whose one foot is already in the pit, tomorrow others will follow, and when the space of the mixed Christians is completed, then we will
See, the sariki, the tulupani, and
the robes to infect our temples, lucky those of us who will have managed
to find elsewhere a sanctuary… port

John,
If you are not being sarcastic, then you are spewing Protestant-Vatican “selective/twisted theology” and Propaganda…

The gospel of St. Luke, in chapter 17 allows for “rebuking of a sinner”, and also presents repentance as a pre-condition for forgiveness…

3 προσέχετε ἑαυτοῖς. ἐὰν ἁμάρτῃ ὁ ἀδελφός σου ἐπιτίμησον αὐτῷ,
καὶ ἐὰν μετανοήσῃ ἄφες αὐτῷ·
4 καὶ ἐὰν ἑπτάκις τῆς ἡμέρας ἁμαρτήσῃ εἰς σὲ καὶ ἑπτάκις ἐπιστρέψῃ πρὸς σὲ λέγων, Μετανοῶ, ἀφήσεις αὐτῷ.

So in verse 3 specifically,
Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; {that’s what we are doing now with this article} and if he repent, forgive him {that’s definitely where we’d all like to get to}.

And in verse 4,
And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him.

Where do you see the official statement of repentance? Where do we see (in writing) that the Vatican has officially rebuked its dogmas concerning the Filioque, Papal Primacy, Purgatory, twisted theology re: the Theotokos, its introduction of “Confirmation” at the age of 13, its forbidding of married priests, its apostasy from the original tradition of Fasting, and many other well-known apostasies from the first few centuries of the Bishop of Rome’s history (when Popes or Rome were actually preaching Orthodoxy), so that Methodios can be justified in saying the statement “this is your Cathedral too”?

This isn’t a cartoon show here, where an Orthodox Metropolitan can laugh at a Cardinal’s statement: “I’ll pay you Tuesday, for a hamburger today…” Luke 17 is clear in situations like this…first comes true repentance, and then the reward of forgiveness follows…the key scriptural word establishing a conditional clause is “if”, folks!…read it again if you need to…

That’s also the spirit of our hymnography…so it’s not a “one way street” here…

Meg,
The big problem here is that with his statements, Methodios is openly declaring himself “ex-Orthodox” at this point when he states that Cardinals are “his leaders”, but he’s still trying to present himself as Orthodox and retain control of “the flock” in order to lead it astray…the flock just needs him to take the next step now, like we said above…he should go down the street to O’Malley’s for good, and leave us alone if what he said is what he believes…

The people need to walk away and shun him wherever he shows up, and the parishes need to vote to cut funding to his metropolis & archdiocese right away and consider plans to vote on how to move the entire parish under a different jurisdiction if the traitors don’t reverse course ASAP (so you don’t have to drive hours)…that’ll get him and others out the door fast…cash flow and “worldly power” is the only thing they understand or care about…this is obvious now.

Playing smart is not the right way here. The fact is that suddenly this Easter we have numerous occasions of Catholics (and others) in our Churches. Whether they co-celebrate or not is another story. They certainly co-officiate. If you want to hide behind your finger, yes they sit together in the Church and enjoy the iconography.

Getitright,

Form of respect? Is that what we call it now? Does O’Malley respect the Holy Trinity when he recites the heretical Filioque? Is Methodios respecting the legacy of St. Mark of Ephesos and his stance in the Council of Ferrara by doing everything he is doing for years with O’Malley and saying what he is saying in the video? What exactly are we supposed to be respecting here? Who exactly is the correct Orthodox model of a bishop here? St. Nektarios / St. Mark of Ephesos or Metropolitan Methodios?

If we want to get technical, let’s get technical all the way, not just part of the way, and only then can we determine what lines have been crossed and what lines remain “technically unbreached”…

For starters, Methodios is part of an Eparchial Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, and O’Malley certainly links back to the Pope of Rome. If we want to “follow the subject of Canons” closely, maintaining Communion ties with another a hierarch that has concelebrated or prayed with heretics is also a Canonical violation…in theory, (according to the strict interpretation of Canons), this means that if Bartholomew concelebrates or prays with heretics, the other hierarchs like Methodios should “technically” either vote to depose him like the Synod of Jerusalem did to Eirinaios (for other reasons), or at least stop commemorating him… to but let’s refresh our historical memory here…although the first instance of these televised specials go back to 2006, we can take a quick look at what transpired at the Phanar on November 30th 2014

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJl2VezEG1g

While many violations occurred at these “attendances”, for the sake of brevity, we can focus on the following 2 or 3:

1:31:37 – a “wonderful” violation where Bartholomew exits the bema (out of protocol), and “kisses” the Pope as an equal hierarch, during a moment of liturgical “intent”. Again, technically, this is done outside the bema to “side-step” the argument that it is an act of concelebration in the bema, but it’s still a violation of procedure. This controversial innovation was first perpetrated in 2006, at least on live television, as far as the available records show.

1: 51:00 The Pope reciting the “Our Father” in an Orthodox Liturgy…would you or the Fathers of the Ecumenical Synods who wrote the Canons classify this as Bartholomew and Francis “praying together” in this instance?

And here’s another “gem” from 2006…they chanted a “polychronion” for Pope Benedict at the end of liturgy…what does this qualify as in your book?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-IZlDxnPYLQ

Now, coming back to the “technicality of the matter”…As an Orthodox hierarch who is aware of the Canons, did Methodios publicly object to any of these documented violations, since you “followed this subject so closely for so many years”? Does he continue to commemorate Bartholomew, who clearly allowed two Popes to engage in Common Prayer with him during Liturgy at Constantinople? Did he ever vote to depose Bartholomew after these Canonical violations?

The next “technical” questions apply to the latest encounter between Methodios and Cardinal O’Malley:
1) What do the Canons say about non-Orthodox being in the Central part of the Church during Divine Liturgy, especially when the Creed and the “Our Father” are recited by the faithful?
2) What do the Canons stipulate about Orthodox clergy and bishops specifically entering heretical places of worship, like Methodios admitted to doing?
3) In the video, he also admitted “celebrating Easter twice”…how does that work for an Orthodox hierarch in light of the Canons, exactly? If you are “celebrating” the feast of the heretics, what does that mean?
4) Isn’t the two minute “video of admission” from Anastasi service the other night sufficient? Isn’t it technically a Canonical violation to subjugate the rest of the bishops of a Synod to the will and whim of a single Patriarch, who apparently “alone with the Pope” plans to redefine the date of Pascha next year? Isn’t it a problem for a hierarch to verbally state his “support” for this planned discussion between Bartholomew and Francis and its outcome? Do you find this to be Canonical or Traditional in any way?

O’Malley and Methodios may “respect” each other, but I’m not sure the Orthodox faithful are able to match this level of respect when they try to show up at an Orthodox venue and see a Cardinal in their midst…why don’t they “mutually respect themselves” offline and stop provoking the faithful? It’s not “his” Church.

As you see, my friend, others have also been “following this broader subject closely” for years as well, but it is quite clear that our individual “lines of tolerance” for hierarchical violations of appropriateness are miles apart… I personally don’t advocate waiting until the day that the “Common Chalice” is consumed by both parties to raise the alarm…Per St. Paisios, a fire needs to be extinguished when it is a small flame, because it is too late when it is a raging inferno and consumes you…

JK .. and for that matter, and by the letter of the Laws of the Original Church of Christ and the 27 laws of the New testament written in “Greek “JK” why is the “International fellowship of Evangelical Christian and Jewish Monasteries … still in communion with GOA and the Ecumenical Patriarch?
And why .. are they also still in communion with the EU and U.S congress, where their “Crimes are legal?

JK,

You are misinterpreting “the logic” used here, and (deviously / intentionally?) obfuscating the aforementioned concept of Canonical obligations for hierarchs of a specific synod to quickly and decisively isolate and eliminate a cancer whose source is a specific bishop before it spreads to the larger Church body… You are also adding an inference that non-bishops (including monasteries) are automatically guilty of and engaging in the same heretical conduct (which they may not be) merely because they happen to be trapped in an ecclesiastical structure with a very narrow Canonical exit option that is a vicious circle that involves a formal declaration of a heresy by other bishops. You are also inferring that I am “promoting the letter of the law” because some tangible examples for discussion were brought up, but this isn’t about legalism, but it is about tradition, and responsibility to uphold it…it’s about basic expectations and obligations of hierarchs (to their flock) to stick to Orthodox teaching and tradition. That’s their primary purpose. The bishops of a synod are the “first line of defense” against adopting heretical conduct and belief…plain and simple. If one of them goes astray, the others need to reign them in, just like we read in the scriptures that St. Paul also had to admonish St. Peter at one point. The hierarchs need to step up to the plate and deliver, or resign as being incapable to fulfill the obligations of the office.

I am not an eye-witness about what goes on in the North American monasteries these days, but I have yet to hear of a Roman Catholic Cardinal or a Pope being invited by the abbot to attend services there, being asked to recite the Lord’s Prayer during Liturgy there, or being asked to participate in the service of Holy Friday evening by sprinkling the faithful with aromatic ointments in remembrance of the Myrrh-bearing women as is customary nowadays…I have also not heard of any abbot / abbess or monk confessing that Cardinals are “their leaders”, or that Greek Orthodox monasteries are also the “Cardinals'” monasteries as well…if you have any evidence to the contrary, I’m sure Helleniscope would gladly post your article on that topic.

What I have heard of, however, is a battle that occurred in Canada when the Archbishop there tried to impose “multiple spoons” upon a monastery during Covid by deviously showing up himself to do so. You can call someone locally there for the details of what actually transpired, because it’s not appropriate or necessary to describe them here. Nevertheless, that monastery decided to perform a “confession of faith” even under threat of punishment by an “irreverent hierarch”, which is exactly according to the phrase of the troparion of the Katavasies of Christmas (“δυσσεβους προσταγματος καταφρονησαντες…” yep, it’s in Greek..feel free to translate it). So, if that’s the answer you are looking for, it seems to me that this is some tangible evidence of “confession of faith” against heretical and non-traditional concepts. Bottom line…the particular monastery in this case “spoke up against the assault on Tradition”, and other hierarchs did not.

Also, if you recall, Mt. Athos recently sent a strong message of dissatisfaction by not greeting Elpidophoros with their normal protocols as well…that was unprecedented. Mt. Athos is also under Constantinople. Constantinople has had heretical Patriarchs at times throughout its history, too, but you’ll have to study a bit on your own too to understand what happened during the interim when monasteries were resisting and dealing with those heresies of the past…that’s the model to follow, and we can’t keep writing encyclopedias here on this blog simply because people don’t feel like doing their homework privately… :)

Look at history….these battles take a long time to sort out (iconoclasm took over a century, Arianism and others took years to filter out). It doesn’t happen overnight despite the fact that we live in the “McDonalds” generation where we have low patience and seek “instant gratification” and “instant solutions”…that’s never realistic in these situations…however, instant protest and resistance by the people is normal, and that’s what we are doing…setting the spiritual bar high for our hierarchs…we are looking for bishops to step up and do the right thing, and then the faithful (and possibly monasteries) will clearly know who to follow, based on who “delivers”. Then, things will finally be back “in order”…until then, there will be turmoil.

EVERYONE should be rebuking the abominations we are witnessing, yes.
The normal process would be that the bishops break commemoration and/or communion with each other when one of them crosses the line (Bartholomew broke commemoration with Christodoulos of Athens for a while, too if you recall)…when it’s done unilaterally by one monastery, the results are largely ineffective, such as the case with Esphigmenou since 1972 when they stopped commemorating the Patriarch in the aftermath of (surprise, surprise) dialogue & agreements with the Vatican. In a historical perspective, they seem to have complained for the right reasons, and with every attendance of a Cardinal perhaps they become more justified in their complaints, but they took a hard-line approach in isolation that was much different than the remainder of the monasteries, and found themselves in a tough situation years later. Like we said, these things can take hundreds of years to decisively sort out some times…they are painful.

However, when monasteries (and the faithful in general) stick together as a group, then things are more effective for sure…Mt. Athos stood strong and in solidarity to keep the Julian Calendar in 1924, and they still have it today. That was a “red line” for them, and they made it clear. The general population of Greece was less combative about that topic in 1924, so the “will of Metaxakis” and others eventually prevailed. Let’s see what happens as we get closer to that reported joint session between the Pope and Bartholomew next year…

It will certainly require a combination of all the faithful (monastic or not) in this instance, but more importantly, I personally feel, CASH FLOW as the quickest leverage point, as the “Archbishop Spyridon experiment” teaches us…that’s exactly how they got rid of him.

In the meantime, it’s one bishop at a time here, from the layperson’s perspective. Try to find an Orthodox bishop you are not scandalized by. At some point the bishops have to do their duty and “clean things up”, but we said these things take time (years / decades). Meanwhile, walk away when you are offended by the bishop bringing Cardinals to your church services…leave him with empty buildings and coffers to preach in, and eventually, they will get rid of him unfortunately NOT because of blasphemy or heresy, but because he couldn’t “meet his revenue goals” for the year…

That’s where we are at…