The Ochlophobist reports Antiochian happenings

From the Ochlophobist...

It just keeps getting better and better, or worse and worse, depending upon one's mood.

Steve Mathewes, son of our most widely published Khouria, FM-G, has posted this on his Facebook page:

At the request of Met. PHILIP (the head of the Antiochian Orthodox Church in America), I am being sent to Holy Cross Seminary in Boston instead of St. Vladimir's in NY where we have already moved. And Jo is still ready to give birth any day. It's crazy and stressful, but we are making it work with the help of friends and family. Lord, grant me the patience, love and humility to get through this.

I cannot imagine being in this poor man's situation. I cannot imagine being in FM-G's situation either, knowing that a tyrant's hubris is interfering with something actually important and good - the birth of a grandbaby. I can imagine what my own mother would do if a corrupt, grasping hierarch were to interfere with the peace and well being of one of her soon to be among us grandchildren, and let's just say Mom's involvement would take care of many of the AOANA problems real quicklike, but then again she is an ex Navy nurse with the sort of maternal instincts that take care of threats to families in a manner that corresponds more to the whip side of Christ-like behavior.

This is an outline of the situation as best as I can make of it at the moment:

Metropolitan +Philip has been threatening the OCA with regard to the activities of Mark Stokoe.

Apparently +Philip thinks that ocanews.org is in some way connected to the OCA, or, at the very least, that the OCA has some means of control with regard to Mark Stokoe (I believe the popular pronunciation of his name is now "Stookey").

Indeed, there is supposedly talk from the highest levels in Englewood of a "liberal wing of the OCA conspiracy" against the AOANA. If it were not for the fact that innocent people are being hurt, I would find this very funny, because as anyone who knows anything about American Orthodoxy knows, if there were going to be a conspiracy against the AOANA from a "wing" of the OCA, it would be the conservative wing, not the liberal wing, but all that is beside the point, because if there are coherent "wings" in the OCA they are just learning to flap again after their own nightmare, and the notion that there is an OCA conspiracy against the AOANA is patently ridiculous. The OCA is still working hard to not self-destruct on its own.

+Philip has apparently met with +Jonah and asked about / insisted upon a hushing. +Philip threatened to pull AOANA seminarians out of OCA seminaries.

Syosset contacted Stokoe in May and relayed the threat. He was encouraged to cease publishing info concerning AOANA affairs, in order that action not be taken against SVS, STS, and the OCA. Stokoe reminded Syosset how Christians should respond to threats of blackmail and vengeance. It was suggested that Stokoe could be removed from the Metropolitan Council, at which point Stokoe reminded Syosset of how the whole Gregg Nescott affair played out. The discussion ended.

Apparently, AOANA officials have also been in contact with Fr. Chad Hatfield and Fr. John Behr of SVS, and Frs. Chad and John again, unsuccessfully, tried to inform a certain hierarch that they have no control over what Mark Stokoe writes on his website.

Thus, this week it was announced that all incoming AOANA M.Div. students at STS and SVS would be transferred to Holy Cross. This is in response to the supposed OCA complicity with the Stookey figure.

One hardly knows where to begin. +Philip has pulled this move before, when after the Joseph Allen affair he pulled all seminarians out of SVS.

One wonders why he did not pull all the seminarians out of the OCA sems, unless it was thought too complicated a move this close to the Fall semester. Perhaps that move is coming later on.

This particular move on the Met's part begs, again, the question of whether or not we have a real Synod. I understand that it is the Archdiocese who pays for the seminarian's education. Of course it is, the Archdiocese owns everything and pays for everything - the local dioceses do not have independent financial structures. +Philip and the Archdiocese, as far as tax documents are concerned, are the same entity. But from an Orthodox point of view, shouldn't the Synod as a whole decide where seminarians are headed, and shouldn't the local bishop be able to make the decision where his local seminarians attend seminary? It is right that a Metropolitan could unilaterally decide where another bishop's seminarians attend seminary?

This also highlights, yet again, how much the AOANA cares about the needs and concerns of women. While I do not suppose there is a huge number of incoming AOANA M.Div. students at the two sems, I suppose that most of them have spouses and some have children, and that moving and housing arrangements have already been made. In the case of the poor family mentioned above, the family already had moved, a baby is about to come, but this does not matter in comparison to a Metropolitan's will to exert control measures - no matter how futile those measures are. How in keeping with the Dormition fast to uproot families who are trying to give their lives in service to God, including a family about to welcome a baby, at the last minute, right before the Feast?

Ocanews.org is not going away. Other voices critical of the mafia control of the Archdiocese and the cult which supports it are not going to go away. Take Mark out of the equation, take an ochlophobist out of the equation, and there are ten more Orthodox folks who have had enough willing to fill in the ranks.

On a final note, allow me to say that while I cannot speak for anyone else involved in the public debate concerning these scandals, it is perhaps time that I say some things regarding myself. This week strange men came to my house asking strange questions of me, after doing some strange things in front of my yard with a tape recorder and pen and paper and then walking, quickly, in an odd route (I had them followed) where they were picked up by an odd vehicle - these were certainly not the usual casers we get in the neighborhood (I may post more concerning this event and other strange things that have happened to other folks who have criticized +Philip next week, as God allows). The local police were notified of this. My name is Owen White. I attend the Antiochian parish in Memphis, TN, a fact which is, I am sure, known by all who wish to know it by now. I am not, contrary to certain rumors, an internet pseudonym for Fr. Oliver Herbel. He is my godfather and my close friend. I live in a house that is now surely worth less than 100K. I lost my manufacturing job last year and am now a student trying to get into nursing school. My wife works for a local group of psychologists and mostly does billing for them. We have three small children, who are cared for at our home. We have little debt, and very little assets, and live what most people would think of as an irritatingly frugal life. I do not go to casinos or expensive resorts. I have a police record - the only times I have been arrested have been at pro-life rescues, where I was arrested with others for locking myself to an abortion clinic in order to prevent murder. On one of those occasions I (along with others) was beaten before the arrest by members of various pro-choice factions while the police watched. My father has also been beaten, and arrested, numerous times, also, always, for matters of conscience. My brother, a police officer, lives 2 blocks away from me, is abreast of the situation at hand, and watches over my family earnestly, something he has always done. I have heard the stories of the woman who asked too many questions of +Philip and had her house ransacked later. I suppose that most of us who dissent from the cult of +Philip have heard that story. My house is usually a disaster area with three small children under foot, so I would be interested to know what some ransackers could do with it. Anything anyone wants of me, well, they can come and take it. I have no abiding city and I do not trust in chariots. Belittle, threaten, excommunicate, steal, create some bureaucratic nonsense, kill. Do what you will. But one last thing, I have Welsh blood in me, and this ain't rural Syria. I come from a long, long line of people who are most comfortable with heels firmly dug.

There will be more details concerning this development regarding the seminarians on ocanews.org later today (here it is now). And there are some other, even more obscene, developments which will be brought to the light next week, as God allows.