UPDATE Friday, May 5, 7 pm: We had a warm conversation with Fr. John Vlahos, who assured us that he would do everything possible to protect and project the Orthodox Faith in these talks.  We both recognized that our children are subjected to an avalanche of social media, peer pressure, and school indoctrination regarding LGBTQ identities… We are all fighting an uphill battle against the “megaphone” of this corrupt ideology. The hopeful sign is that it looks more like a fad, a fashion, than an ideology: it resembles the “tattoo fad,” which is now rather subsiding after many years…   But the problem is real: over 20% of young children nationally are already indoctrinated and identify as LGBTQ (although I believe this statistic includes a lot of “experimentation” on the part of many kids and is inaccurate)…  I do not see any other way to win this battle than put our feet down in our families, churches, and communities and protect our Faith’s fundamentals. 

Meanwhile, Fr. Vlahos did postpone the first meeting of this support group for June 12 (it will give everyone time to take a breath and think) and changed the flyer (see below). Our biggest fear does not have to do with Fr. Vlahos but with the Church leadership; they are the ones who openly promote homosexuality, and they are the ones who undermine the Faith… George Demacopoulos is an “Archon” of the Patriarchate: Why does the Patriarchate make an Archon someone who is against basic biblical teachings? 

In the coming days, Helleniscope will expand our thoughts on this issue, focusing on the needs of the parents and children subjected to this unfair brainwashing and how to protect themselves better from deforming their bodies and damaging their lives from this dangerous ideology/fad… We invite any priest, teacher, or theologian to write their ideas on handling this as best as possible.  

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By Nick Stamatakis

The poster below, from Saint Paraskevi of Greenlawn (Long Island, New York), is announcing “AGAPE”, a support group for parents of children who are “struggling with same-sex attraction”…  The support group is supposed to show “unconditional LOVE” and understanding and provide “comfort” in a supportive community… We understand the need to support parents in difficult situations with their children. The Church’s role is to stand by them and support them.  But the Church needs to support them based on the Faith. Not in this case… From what we read and learned, this support group in Saint Paraskevi is supposed to accept homosexuality as not a sin. This poster has been circulating nationwide (!!) for about a week and has made quite a splash: We have received countless emails and calls from people who are distressed with one more “novelty” in the times of AB Elpidophoros…

Before I proceed any further, I will let my good friend George Michalopulos of Monomakhos.com,  frame this story in the right way: “We should not be beguiled by the sympathies expressed in this flyer which are directed toward the parents of homosexually-inclined children.  Soothing words to the contrary, this is not really a “ministry” for parents who have “a child who is struggling with same-sex attraction”.  It is instead, pure and simple, an imitation of a ruse first used by homosexual dissidents (and other cultural Marxists) within the mainstream Protestant denominations going all the way back to the 70s.” (Please follow this link to Monomakhos). I will add that these Protestant denominations were ravaged. As a side effect, we had a wave of protestant “refugees”, desperately coming into Orthodoxy in search of the Bible’s eternal truths and meanings.

If we lived in an ideal world, this support group would be like any other support group, a ministry offering services and comfort to the people. But we are not in an ideal world.  Instead, we live in a revolutionary era where various activists attempt to change fundamental facts, words, history, statues, and everything around us by throwing to the trash can what were accepted “truths” and “givens” for centuries.  When a prospective Supreme Court Judge (Jackson – please link here) cannot define “who is a woman,” all events around us are fluid. Political and social actors try their best to demolish all standard foundations of society, the “glue” that makes us stick together…

And so, we have to question the motives behind a “novelty” such as the “AGAPE” group at
Saint Paraskevi Parish.  I know the Parish fairly well; St. Paraskevi used to be the Church I attended for some years and the Church my sons occasionally attend now. It was not difficult to gather more information about this event. I also tried to get in touch and hope to speak to Fr. John Vlahos soon, who Helleniscope supported when he was removed from the NYC Cathedral.

I had to ask further when I learned that the Fordhamite theologian George Demacopoulos is a St.Paraskevi parishioner. Why? Because he and his intellectual “twin brother”, Fordhamite theologian Aristotle Papanicolaou, are revisionist activists who have created numerous videos like the one below titled “The LGBTQ Agenda in Western Orthodoxy”… I am sure you can easily find more online…

More than being just a parishioner, George Demacopoulos has an active life in the parish, being a parish council member (on the Executive Board, which means additional power) and a Sunday School teacher, grades 9-12, among other things.  Digging deeper, one realizes that George Demacopoulos is the kind of parent who would likely need the services of an AGAPE support group, as he seems to accept and encourage this “ideology” in his own family – and this is public information.

This is how activists work: they start innocently and gradually expand until the parish belongs to them.  Then they will teach all children that “it is not simply OK, but it is preferable to identify as LGBTQ… Christ accepts it!”…

The parishioners have enough “wokeness” to fight against at their school districts – they certainly do not need more in their Church, which they see as a haven… This community and Suffolk County, in general, are conservative.  Like most Greek-American communities, they are morally, politically, AND fiscally conservative. They are 45 miles away from liberal Manhattan, but even the Greek parishes in NYC are not liberal AT ALL… On the opposite, the school districts on Long Island are dominated by the teacher unions and their woke activists – very much in synch with academicians like Demacopoulos…

Helleniscope has proven that we do not harbor negative feelings for anyone. We are simply about the truth, and we support the causes of each parish and our community.  A prime example was the way we treated certain parishes.  In Saint Demetrios of Astoria, we saw corruption and “conflicts of interest,” among other criminal or non-criminal, but reprehensible, behavior.  And we wrote about it. Years later, recently, the Archdiocese intervened, taking drastic measures.  Whether they succeed is doubtful, but Helleniscope’s exposing the truth was 100% verified! In the case of Saint Catherine in West Palm Beach, we saw a “hostile takeover” of the Parish by the Karloutsos family: they wanted to replace the priest loved by 80% of the parishioners. It seems that this hostile takeover was prevented… Again we were verified – and thanked by the parishioners.

We are not here to enter a theological dialogue with the revisionist Demacopoulos.  But we are here to warn all “activists”: This community made you part of it, embraced you as a human being, and accepted you.  It did it because they are profoundly and genuinely Christian. You also must respect the community: it is not patient with your well-hidden attempt at indoctrination.  Enough is enough. I know a few parishioners who already left for other parishes because of this “support group”.  And I know many more who will leave immediately when they learn more about it.

My question to Fr. John Vlahos and the Archbishop is this: Do you want to chase away the faithful from one more wealthy parish? Saint Paraskevi is among the wealthiest parishes of GOA.  Do you want, a few years later, to return and take action as you did recently in Astoria and elsewhere because the parish will be financially insolvent?

Dr. Demacopoulos and whoever agrees with him have many opportunities to form such “support groups” in the local schools (with their active PTAs), the local libraries, and other places. They can find plenty of support there.  In the Orthodox Church, the main objective of such support should be to train the parents to help their children abandon their LGBTQ identities because the Orthodox Church recognizes and denounces these sins.

Providing comfort is accepting that homosexuality is part of the Orthodox faith. When was the last Orthodox or Panorthodox Synod that accepted this? If we let this go, what would the next step be? Start a support group about adultery? Not mentioning once that adultery is a sin and the support group is about repentance?

May 3, 2023, n.stamatakis@aol.com   www.helleniscope.com

DISCLAIMER: The views and statements expressed in this article constitute constitutionally protected opinions of this author.

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43 COMMENTS

  1. How disgusting, every time I see the nauseating face of George Demacopoulos
    I intellectually throw up.
    I remember he came to speak at our NY Cathedral long ago + I was outraged…
    I discovered GD was invited by this new chanter from Greece which Cathedral brought in + many of us suspected as being a plant! Chanter Nektarios was always a strange presence, never answering any questions… + now leaving Cathedral.

    What breaks my heart is our former Dean + highly respected, Fr John is allowing this disgrace to speak at his new church…
    my question is, are his hands tied??

  2. I’m saddened that Fr. Vlahos allowed this. I’m sure this is the archbishop’s doing along with those at Fordham who claim to be Orthodox. Sickening what the GOA churches are becoming–left-wing indoctrination centers. Everyone should e-mail Fr. Vlahos and express their disdain. LGBTQ+ affirmation will lead to more Greek Orthodox youth being chemically castrated and surgically mutilated.

    Please contact Fr. John and express your concern.

    Saint Paraskevi Greek Orthodox Shrine Church
    1 Shrine Place
    Greenlawn, NY 11740

    Voice: (631) 261-7272
    Fax: (631) 261-7295

    E-mail Contacts
    General Information – StParaskeviShrine@Gmail.com

    Rev. Fr. John Vlahos – frjohn@stparaskevi.org

    • I feel sorry for all GOA priests because they’re job is on the line if they don’t follow along marching orders or am I wrong?

      • I misunderstood. At some point the priests either stand with the armor of God or the heretics. Same happened with many employees during Covid. I understand the depth oc what you are stating.

        What will be the straw that broke the camel’s back? I suspect every man has a different breaking point before they stand up. If the planned pandemic and subsequent death vaccine were not enough, I do not know what it will take.
        David DeGerolamo

  3. Plain and simple the woke ideology which includes transgenderism is Marxism with a twist of American characteristics. The goal is the takedown if the republic. The Revolution is in full swing.

    We cannot live by lies, believe lies, embrace lies, speak lies, and lead others astray by perpetuating lies. It’s impossible to help others by lying to them. It is not loving to enable someone’s transgender fantasies. It is not compassionate to embrace and deepen a person’s gender confusion. It is not loving to encourage anyone to harm his or her healthy body in the false belief that he or she can transform his or her sex. It is not compassionate to shove someone further into self-deception in order to appease the LGBTQ bullies. – Fr. Ioannes Apiarius

  5. Snakes infiltrating the holy ecclesia only to dismantle it while the Sheeple priests are dictated to by Satanic Elpi. All this cannot end well.

  6. When 3 of 4 of your children are LGBTQ+, something has broken. Mr. Democopoulos has some soul-searching to do, and I don’t mean group therapy at church. He needs to get down on his knees and pray, pray for forgiveness. I don’t know the priest of this parish, but he needs to find his παλικαριά as St. Paisios would say, and put his foot down. His job is to lead his his flock on the path to salvation, not toward secular group therapy and feel-good support groups.

    • The priest needs support from the Church leadership. Years earlier we could find videos of Patriarch Bartholomew making public statements and explaining that in Orthodoxy homosexuality is a sin. Not anymore. It’s their obligation to come out publicly and verify the faith. If they think there is a dispute they need to call a Panorthodox Synod and solve the issue.

  7. Demacopoulos – just another tool of
    Rasputin Alex Karloutsos to contaminate the Church – aka -global/homo agenda which he strategically does behind the scenes. Behind the green curtain – always the style of GOA’s Prince of Darkness

  8. As a parishoner of this church, I will no longer give any stewardship dollars to support heretical “ministries.” This is a complete disgrace and I am very disappointed in my “church.” I too will be going elsewhere from now on.

    • We should always consider if walking away serves the Church or not before these evil people take over our Churches because all of us woke away. You walking away may be received with happiness. I’m confronted with a woke priest and wanted to leave my parish, but a few parishioners ask me to stay. So for now I am staying and speaking up and standing up any chance I get when we have discussions on theological matters. Even though I don’t have a background in theology I did read a good amount of the holy Fathers and I can in most situations find what they say on a specific matter to confront his ideas. I don’t attack him personally but his ideas in a general way and he gets upset sometimes but I do not care, I serve God, not him.

  9. Father Vlahos is disgusting!! He plays the nice guy but he is a snake. Demacopoulos is the same. Disguisting!!

  11. I agree with Sandy! Stay- Stay– get together a big group-so as to outnumber them! Show up at their next meeting at the appointed time with said group! Try it! Don’t be afraid- just make sure your numbers are larger than theirs! God Bless– THEENAMEE!!– There is strength in numbers.!

  12. 20 years ago SCOBA spoke up forcefully against gay marriage & all things deviant & homosexual. Now it’s a sinister, strategic ploy the Fordhamites use to infiltrate Church & dismantle it along with heretic Hierarchs;
    so people, we need to speak up before we leave, if we must; we need to protest by writing letters & post on Facebook & Twitter, show support for the good priests held hostage.

  13. This is the same George Demacopoulos who falsely and shamefully proclaimed that “Christian moral teaching isn’t black and white.” Of course he will support the lies and delusional narrative of the LGBTQWXYZ activists.

    George Demacopoulos: Christian Moral Teaching isn’t Black and White
    https://www.orthodoxytoday.org/blog/2022/08/george-demacopoulos-christian-moral-teaching-isnt-black-and-white/

    Same Demacopoulos who has for many years promoted blasphemous ideas and corrupt teachings that contradict the true theology of the Orthodox Christian faith. He is an impostor and false teacher!

    Public Orthodoxy: Promoting Cultural Marxism and LGBT Blasphemy
    https://www.orthodoxytoday.org/blog/2017/11/public-orthodoxy-promoting-cultural-marxism-and-lgbt-blasphemy/

    More evidence of the insidious and dark work of this snake:
    https://www.orthodoxytoday.org/blog/?s=Demacopoulos

  14. Why not a well-organized rally consisting of Sunday School Directors/Teachers, Parents, Grandparents; as far as we know, they are waiting for some kind of mass gathering– numbers count..

  15. No need for a lengthy discussion…the solution is simple, and we have mentioned it before…

    1) You are either aligned with the teachings of the Church, or you are not.

    2) If you are not aligned, the door is open, and you are free to exit. God respects your free will, and you can deal with settling the “spiritual account” directly with God when it is presented to you on Judgement Day.

    3) If you are not aligned, do not leave on your own, and continue to insist on not “renouncing Satan with all his pomp, etc” (i.e. non-aligned dogmas), the Church retains the option to simply excommunicate you, and you will no longer be able to publicly mask yourself as “Orthodox” when you are not…

    That’s all…clean boundaries…no more confusion…no more useless debates…no more wolves in sheepskin on parish councils, in Sunday schools, etc…

    Where is the Clergy to stand up and fix this nonsense? Oh yeah…we already know the answer to that question, don’t we…

    • Yes, we do know the answer to the question: Where is the Clergy to standup and fix this nonsense? The answer is that they are bumps on a log (do-nothings) because of their neo-Nicalaitian hierarchs and colleagues who they fear. What were the sins of the original biblical Nicolaitans? They are all said to be guilty of enticing God’s people “to eat things sacrificed to idols” and “to commit acts of immorality” Revelation (2:14-15,20) (14:8; 17:1,2,4,5,15,16; 18:3,9; 19:2). If our Greek Orthodox church was not so teeming with homosexual hierarchs and “hiero”-monastic clergy, we would not have this problem. The boundaries would be very clear and excommunicated heads would roll.

  16. Discussions are nice and very helpful , there is also a but…..for which we have to
    find away to be prepared.
    HELLENISCOPE is fighting always for the
    right and the true and knowing how this
    world works in our times , is taking a risk.
    There are people that are against our values they believe that their values
    are right and not ours. What is going to happen if they will proceed ( because they have money) taking lawsuit action against the Writer and or the side, it is something
    that we have to thing about and be prepared to be able to fight .

    • As you know, they have tried this, and they keep trying… The lawyer against me in the so-called “defamation” case is one of John Catsimatides’ lawyers: a Park Avenue, “white glove” lawyer. It’s time for all in our audience to think about how would each one of you feel if a billionaire’s lawyer was put against you. With help from above, and from some very loyal friends, I was able to win all phases of the case so far, even though i represent myself… But it is not over yet…

  17. Fr. Alexander Schmemann warned us long ago about these false teachers and perversions so don’t trust in their idea for women deaconesses because once that’s allowed, a Pandora’s box opens for every inappropriate thing.
    Make no mistake about it,
    Prof. Demacopoulos is on mission to turn Eastern Orthodoxy into another has-been Episcopalian church which got blown up to smithereens.

    • In another recent thread, we explicitly stated that when you water down the word ιεροδιακονος (hierodeacon) to simply διακονος (deacon), that opens the door to the absurd theories about “deaconesses” (helper) that these folks are trying to peddle… there is NO mention of any “hiero-deaconess” in any manuscript, so this foolish debate is a non-starter. The word “hiero” denotes who is tonsured, and who is not. Anyone claiming something else should consider improving their knowledge of Greek, and examining the liturgical manuscripts a bit closer…

      Again, the solution here is simple…if you are a heretic, you can’t call yourself Orthodox…any “false teacher” has a choice…renounce false dogma, or be subjected to formal excommunication, so that is perfectly clear that you are not Orthodox…

      Given that the solution here is so simple, we have to note the following:
      Ultimately, the phenomenon of “false teachers” is actually a symptom, not a root cause, because it is clear that the current hierarchy isn’t reacting the way that one would expect St. Nektarios, St. Nikolaos, St. Basil, St. John Chrysostom, St. Mark of Ephesos, or other historical pillars of Orthodoxy to have reacted in the same situation…

      The epistle to Titus is key in these situations… “after the first and second counseling…abandon a heretical man…” There are plenty of bishops and other Canonical jurisdictions out there that are still teaching Orthodoxy…stick with those bishops who stick with the dogmas and teachings of the Church…

  18. Mr. Demacopoulos and his fellow Fordamite Aristotle Papanikolai are the darlings of the GOA. They are invited to speak at many GOA sponsored events each year. Six months ago Mr. Demacopoulos spoke at the GOA seminary in Boston MA to a whole room full of GOA priests. Listen to what he has to say at the 39 minute mark. It was shocking to me. To me, he is claiming the Church has sung anti-semetic hymes on Holy Week for the past several centuries. Also, the priest before him has an interesting comment around the 36:45 mark
    Keep in mind…this is the GOA centennial celebration. see attached
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNFfpsxKQ1w

  19. LGBTQ grooms to Transgenderism and Transgenderism grooms to the Post-Human era and a perverted virtual world where you can be a cat one day and a woman the other, therefore rejecting Natural Law and thus God Himself. It’s a very simple algorithm but carefully disguised.

    The GOA and its leaders wiLL burn in Hell for their cowardice in addressing this ideology. Satan laughs at them as vanquished wimps.

    • Indeed GOA freaks in leadership positions never merited, will burn in hell. Especially Bartholomew bc the fish stinks from the head. 🤮

      Succinctly said by everybody here & btw: majority of deviant pedophiles from Catholic Church are All homosexuals.

  23. Our Church is under direct assault from within. There are MULTIPLE fronts: 1) Anticanonical intrusion by our otherwise beloved Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew into the Church of Ukraine and installing ANTICANONICAL clergy there creating a schism within our Church, serving the interests of the heretic and schismatic Latin Pope and all the satellite enemies of Christianity 2) Desecration and blasphemy against Holy comnunion by using multiple spoons 3) Women in the Analogion (and soon to be allowed in the altar) 2) Cameras in the altar 3) Normalizing sin with LGBT, but also allowing mixed marriages, etc 4) The Priests disrespecting their own vocation and schema by refusing to wear their proper attire, the Rasso, the Kalimavkion etc. The Holy Scriptures, The holy Canons and the Holy Tradition are sacrosanct! WE CANNOT CHANGE THEM or put our ego above them. We have to resist the rejection of Tradition which nullifies our Church nullifies its 2000 years of tradition and renders it as one of the other parochial Protestant branches. We have to resist on all fronts… not just economic but also vocal… We are not going to leave our church to the wolves… We have to speak up, we have to unite and we have to organize… The impostors are nothing but a small tiny minority which pretends to have clout. The Legal Mandate of the GOA is on our side since there the legal mandate is CLEARCUT. The GOA has to respect the Holy Scriptures, Holy Traditions and Holy Canons… Our Church is continuous and is a church not of just the living but of the dead as well. It’s time to call “anaxios” ALL THE UNWORTHY PRIESTS, HIERARCHS etc.

  24. To all of concern. I am appalled by all the comments I’ve read.

    Galatians, 3:28. Greek or Jew, man or woman, slave, or free, we are all one in Christ.

    To call Fr. John Vlahos a sellout, and so many other evil words makes me sick to my stomach. This ministry has one purpose and one purpose alone, and that is to help people.

    As loving Christians, it is our job to teach the world to love one another, regardless of who they are. And that first starts with the priest. And that is exactly what Fr. John Vlahos is doing; making everyone feel loved and welcomed.

    The Orthodox Church for many years has considered homosexuality a sin. We are finally moving forward, led by the likes Fr. John Vlahos for all of us to love one another, no matter who we are.

    As an extremely proud father of a gay 35-year old son who lets face it, has felt unwelcome in the Orthodox Church in the past, is finally beginning to feel excepted.

    I’ve had conversations with many priests, who have made gay and lesbians feel unwelcome in the Orthodox Church in the past by condemning homosexuality; and they should definitely be ashamed of themselves. I guess they are singing a different tune now.
    Gus Constantine

    • This website and I am sure most of our readers can make the simple distinction: All are welcome in our Church, all without exceptions – we are all sinners. But the fact that all are welcome in Church without exceptions does not mean that the Church will stop considering theft a sin, adultery a sin and homosexuality a sin. If you cannot make these distinctions I am sorry but you need to look in the mirror…

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