Category: Commentary

The stature of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem has always been great as that Patriarchate is the protector of the sacred shrines within the holy land. Now comes the news that Patriarch Theophilos of Jerusalem has offered to mediate the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. This is good news as finally an Orthodox Patriarch is rising to the occasion to bring peace.

Unlike the Patriarchs of Constantinople and Alexandria, the Patriarch of Jerusalem has not been tainted by association with the pseudo church of Ukraine. Jerusalem recognizes only the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church. The Patriarch Theophilos and bishops of the Jerusalem Patriarchate have in fact condemned the persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

The Jerusalem Patriarchate has a Greek Patriarch and mostly Greek bishops, but its flock is Palestinian. Also, the Russians, Georgians, and Romanians have a presence in the holy land. The Jerusalem Patriarchate is therefore multi ethnic and pan Orthodox.

It is true that problems remain over the discriminatory treatment of the Arabs. But the potential for the problems of the Patriarchate to be resolved is great as Jerusalem should be an international Church where Arabs, Russians, Georgians, and Rumanians should be included in the hierarchy. In any case, as Constantinople’s position has diminished because of its actions in Ukraine, Jerusalem appears to be rising as the center of Orthodoxy.

In 2020, Patriarch Theophilos took the initiative to convene a gathering in Amman to discuss the schism in Orthodoxy. As less than half of the Churches gathered, there were no binding decisions. But, this remains the only real effort made to address the schism.

Patriarch Theophilos has the respect of the Russian Church and government. He has the respect of Orthodox Churches. He has the independence that could permit him to play the role of mediator between Russia and Ukraine.

The Patriarch of Jerusalem is the successor to Saint James, the brother of the Lord. How appropriate that a peace initiative for Orthodox nations should come from this sacred Church. Patriarch Theophilos is a true Orthodox Statesman!

AXIOS!

As of this writing, it appears the faithful Ukrainian monks of the Great Lavra are going to be forcibly evicted by the fascist police. Orthodox hierarchs worldwide are holding all night vigils and contacting their elected officials to intervene. In America, Metropolitan Tikhon of Orthodox Church in America (OCA) has raised his voice with Orthodox hierarchs.

Archbishop Elpidophoros of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese has said nothing. The morally and spiritually bankrupt Archdiocese has nothing to say on the matter. The Archbishop who marched with the Marxist “black lives matter” and held a liturgy in that pagan temple used by the anti Christian Episcopalians is silent to the plight of the monks of the Great Lavra.

Patriarch Bartholomew has demonstrated he cares only about power. In 2018, he colluded with the State Department to carve up the Russian Orthodox Church. He granted “autocephaly” to a depraved group of laymen who were either defrocked by the Russian Church or never ordained by the real Church.

Patraiarch Bartholomew had no authority to intervene in Ukraine. From 1992 (the origin of the Ukrainian schism) until 2018, the Patriarchate’s official position was that the synod under Moscow was the legitimate Church in Ukraine. It has always been evident that the Patriarch changed his stance because of political factors.

The Churches of Greece, Cyprus, and Alexandria blindly followed Constantinople’s suicidal path. The Greeks of 1821 and 1940 would be appalled by the slavish manner with which today’s Greek hierarchs obeyed the State Department. On matters of faith and ecclesiology.

We have forgotten the State Department’s apathy toward the Greeks of Constantinople and the ethnic cleansing process by the Turks since 1955. The collusion between the Greek hierarchs of Constantinople and the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese with the State Department is obscene. Never let it be forgotten that the Russian Orthodox Church in 1955 condemned the anti Greek pogroms by Turkey.

I’m 2004, Russia helped kill the Annan Plan for Cyprus which would have sealed the Turkish occupation. In 2010, the Russians helped open the Patriarchal Monastery of Pangia Soumela in Trebizond. Russophobia infected the Greeks.

For several years the canonical Ukrainian Church has been persecuted by President Zelensky and his predecessor Petro Poroshenko. This started long before the war. The Ukrainian government and its Neo Nazi militias accuse the legitimate Ukrainian Church of being pawns for Moscow.

The hypocrisy is astounding. The synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church has in fact condemned the Russian invasion. This means nothing to the fascists who lead Zelensky by the nose. The fascists who have been seizing Churches over the last several years have taken them for political reasons.

The blasphemers in Zelensky’s government intend to use the relics of Saints in the Great Lavra to attract visitors to the museum that the Monastery is going to become.

The Ukrainian bishops are accused of serving Russia. This is interesting considering the degree to which the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese serve Turkish and American interests. In 2018, Patriarch Bartholomew blessed the Turkish Army before it invaded the Kurdish region of Syria. Archbishop Elpidophoros appeared with officials of Turkey and the leader of the Turkish occupation of Cyprus in the fall of 2021.

Which bishops are serving which governments? The Greek and Greek American media have been ominously quiet about the Ukrainian schism since it began. Deference to Patriarch Bartholomew has reached an extreme point to which Greeks are unaware that American influence has a hold over the hierarchs in all Greek speaking Churches. This is appalling.

There are voices suggesting the Ecumenical Patriarchate should be abolished. This blog is not among those voices despite abhorring and condemning all of Patriarch Bartholomew’s actions in Ukraine. The downfall of the Ecumenical Patriarchate will occur because it has deviated from Orthodox ecclesiology.

The Ecumenical Patriarchate holds a “primacy of honor” and holds first place among Orthodox Churches. That may change very soon. The Ecumenical Patriarchate turned its back on its sister Churches and Orthodox faithful everywhere to align itself with the atheistic and neo pagan establishment in Washington.

The Patriarch of the Georgian Orthodox Church has written to Patriarch Bartholomew asking him to speak out on the persecution of the Monks of the Great Lavra. The Patriarch’s refusal to speak and to repent may bring about the end of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

The cultural Marxists and the Democratic Party which has been taken over by the former continue throwing tantrums because Roe V Wade was overturned. We are bombarded relentlessly with propaganda that women are losing their rights. We live in a society where people are losing real rights and the left is totally indifferent.

Take for example the transgender issue. Conservative Matt Walsh has made a film called “What is a Woman?”. In interviews with Doctors, Scientists, and Professors he is told that sex has nothing to do with biology. Sex, we are being told is a social construct.

These lunatics have gained much power and influence in America. They are taking over the schools. In many cases, they are undermining parents by teaching this political ideology. Even worse, students are labelled “trans” and encouraged to adopt the identity of the opposite sex without consulting the parents of these children.

So, what about the rights of parents who are Christians and do not want their children brainwashed by ideologues? The left is in no position to be talking about rights. The left now controls the Democratic Party, the media, and most of the schools and universities.

The left provoked the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This is not to say the Russians were right to invade Ukraine.They were not. But years of anti Russian hysteria and the lies that Trump owed his election to the Russians combined with NATO’s annexation of Ukraine made war inevitable.

The lunatic mobs screaming about abortion (there should never be any restrictions on abortion in their minds) do not have a problem with a war between two nuclear powers. Such is the stupidity and ignorance of the barbarians who call themselves “liberals” and make up the core constituency of the Democratic Party.

They are barbarians hastening the demise of civilization. The left has gone from supporting infanticide (the right to abortion in the ninth month) to supporting castrations and masectomies for minors under the guise of compassion. The left also brought us the lockdowns.

Let it not be forgotten that Anthony Fauci is the hero of the left. Fauci who possesses no democratic legitimacy of any kind and who has held his office since 1984 was responsible for funding gain of function research at the Wuhan Lab which resulted in the leak that killed over five million people worldwide. The Democrats having driven Trump from office continue with the January 6 show trials.

What happened on January 6 was deplorable and Trump has behaved irresponsibly. Regardless, the Democrats and their media have brought us all to the brink of World War Three. Democracy no longer exists.

Millions of Americans are deprived of opposing views on Russia-Ukraine, the pandemic, and the social evils that Democrats are promoting everywhere. In Florida, Republican Governor Desantis demanded that schools do not teach students about homosexuality. The reaction of the media was typical hysteria and accusations of “homophobia”. Since when do teachers have the right to make their sexuality a topic of discussion for school children?

Back in 1999, conservative writer and former Presidential Candidate Patrick Buchanan wrote a book called “A Republic, Not an Empire”. Buchanan promoted an America first policy that was anti war. This is the cry of Donald Trump whose foreign policy endorsed America as a Republic, Not an Empire.

It is the Democratic Party that is the war party. Not content to promote homosexuality, transgenderism, and abortion in America, these neo pagans want to promote these policies around the world. The Russians caught on to this. The Russians are wrong on Ukraine but correct in resisting the aggressive paganism and/or atheism of the American Democratic Party. The Biden administration has also been attempting to bully Poland and Hungary into going along with its anti Christian radical policies.

The linkage between ideology and empire can best be seen by the display of the Ukrainian flag at pride parades. The anti Russian sentiment is not because Russia invaded Ukraine. The left (and the LGBT community in general) has been anti Russian since at least 2012 when radicals in Moscow desecrated the Christ the savior Cathedral. The pagan cult that is the Democratic Party is on a Crusade to impose its anti Christian values and morally bankrupt values on other countries (especially Christian ones).

The average Democrat is incapable of discussing history or foreign policy. Christianity is foreign to these pagans. All they know is abortion, transgenderism, and homosexuality. They are declaring war on civilization both militarily and culturally.

Better an American Republic, than an Empire. A Republic representing democracy and peace. Empire representing never ending wars and the promotion of cultural Marxism that the Democrats have turned into the official ideology in the realms of domestic and foreign policy.

Donald Trump appointed three conservative judges to the Supreme Court that overturned Roe V. Wade. A job well done by the former President. This will be remembered as one of his finest achievements in domestic policy. Pro life, anti war, and pro Christian. There has never been a President more friendly to Christianity in my lifetime.

It is impossible to support the invasion of Ukraine and the attacks on population centers. But, there is much more to the story of what has transpired. It is important to keep an open mind at a time when media coverage is fanatically anti Russian.

When we say anti Russian we are not talking about Vladimir Putin or the policies of the Russian government. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and to criticize any and all governments and political figures. In America and Europe there is a climate of hatred against individuals who happen to be of Russian ancestry. A Russian conductor in Germany was forced out for refusing to give an opinion on Putin. In Italy, a course on Dostoevsky was cancelled at a University as if a writer who died in the nineteenth century has anything to do with current events.

I have experience as a Greek American writer with the media and the distorted way they have presented Greece and Cyprus to the American public. For example, in 2006 I made phone calls to the editorial offices of the New York Times to complain about an editorial on Cyprus. Two years earlier Cyprus had rejected a UN Plan for Cyprus that would have solidified the Turkish occupation.

The Times editorial said that Cyprus had rejected a reunification plan for Cyprus. This was flat out wrong and is an example of how the media has misrepresented Greek issues with bias. The best example of media misrepresentation if the example of Serbia. During the 1990’s, a hate campaign was directed against the Serbs (much like the Russians today).

Serbia was bombed by NATO for seventy eight days and the fact is that civilians were DELIBERATELY targeted. General Wesley Clark of the US supported the bombing of civilian targets. By all rights Clark, Bill Clinton, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, and Undersecretary of State Richard Holbrooke should have been charged with war crimes.

America and NATO do not apply the standards they set for others to themselves. We know about the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. We could discuss the use of torture at Abu Ghraib prison by the war criminals George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and others.

Again, one does NOT endorse Russian actions in Ukraine by raising other matters to provide clarification and greater context. In the fall of 2020, Azerbaijan invaded Armenia and slaughtered Armenian civilians and prisoners of war. Few people are aware of this because the media selectively chooses what to cover and henceforth the media decides what people should see.

In 2016, Hillary Clinton wife of the sexual predator and narcissist Bill Clinton lost the Presidential election. The media uncritically accepted her bogus claims that Russia stole the elections for Trump. This is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT in light of current events. Federal Prosecutor John Durham recently released a report making it clear there was NO RUSSIAN INTERFERENCE in the 2016 elections.

How many people know this? Very few because CNN, MSNBC, and the other frauds did not highlight this as they overplayed the false accusations against Russia. Prosecutor John Durham indicted Hillary’s campaign aide Michael Sussman for lying to the FBI about the Russians and the elections.

The media and the Democratic Party turned public opinion against the Russians YEARS before last week’s invasion of Ukraine. Imagine a country’s media spending years espousing anti semitism and hatred of Jews. Would the state of Israel be friendly of that country and its media or would it become hostile and strengthen its defenses in light of the suffering of Jews throughout history.

Well informed people keep up with all viewpoints and look for evidence and facts. There are opposing facts being declared in American media and other sources more friendly to the Russians. It is very hard to figure out what is true and what is not. Some of us have seen the way that Greece has been depicted in the media and we have seen how the Serbs and Arabs have been depicted.

One must always keep an open mind in a wave of hysteria. During the Second World War, Japanese Americans were placed in internment camps. One of the most deplorable policies of the Trump administration was banning people from some Muslim countries from entering the US.

The media have not done anybody any favors by the way they have depicted Russia and Russians in general over the past few years. Much could be said about the American efforts to split the Greek Churches from the Russian Church but that would take too much space. One more thing before concluding.

Russia is a country worthy of admiration and respect. I am proud to be a Russophile. Russia is the last bastion of Christianity in the world. This is the country that has suffered horrendously in history. The is the country that defeated Napolean. This is the country that lost twenty million lives and crushed Hitler while suffering the loss of millions to the Communists.

The slander of Russians by the western media whose expertise is based on the Kardashians is a moral outrage! Serious people want an end to the war that should never have been started. The Russians are in the wrong for invading and to an extent they have made things worse.

But the years of NATO expansion and years of anti Russian hatred have contributed to the events that are transpiring. It should not be forgotten that in 2017 former Clinton advisor Paul Begala recommended that Donald Trump bomb Russia because of the now disproven allegations that Russia interfered with the elections.

The holy synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church under his beatitude Metropolitan Onuphrios has condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Orthodox Patriarchs and Archbishops have asked President Putin to stop the war. The Orthodox Church is conciliar and always under the influence of the holy spirit. Therefore, Russia must end the war!

The Eastern Orthodox Church consists of fourteen local Churches that are considered “autocephalous” or self governing. The largest is the Russian Orthodox Church. Other Churches include the Serbian Orthodox Church, Rumanian Orthodox Church, Bulgarian Orthodox Church, and the Georgian Orthodox Church.

Smaller Churches include the Churches of Poland, the Church of the Czecks and Slovaks, and the Albanian Orthodox Church. Several local Churches are formally called Greek Orthodox. The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch however is not Greek but Arabic and has an Arabic Patriarch and Synod and a flock that speaks Arabic.

The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem has an ethnic Greek Patriarch and most of its bishops are ethnic Greeks. Its flock is overwhelmingly Arab and this is source of major controversy in itself but outside the scope of the subject matter at hand. The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria has an ethnic Greek Patriarch and most of its bishops are ethnic Greeks while its flock throughout Africa is overwhelmingly African.

There are in fact only three Churches calling themselves Greek Orthodox that are in fact Greek by ethnicity. These include the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, the Orthodox Church of Greece, and the Orthodox Church of Cyprus. And they are all in spiritual turmoil owing to the politicized Patriarchate of his all holiness Bartholomew I of Constantinople.

Some essential facts. The Orthodox Church is conciliar or synodical in its ecclesial structure. Unlike the Roman Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church does not have one spiritual leader making pronouncements on behalf of the whole Church. The Roman Catholics believe in the infallibility of the Pope. The Orthodox Church accepts the final authority of an ecumenical council in which the universal Church under the authority of the holy spirit makes pronouncements only with the consent and agreement of ALL Churches.

Another fact is that the Orthodox Patriarchs or Primates are equal except in terms of honor. The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople holds first place in the dyptychs or list of Orthodox Churches. The Primate of the Church of Constantinople is commemorated first by his fellow primates who then commemorate other primates according to their rank in the dyptychs. The Patriarch of Constantinople is “first among equals” with a “primacy of honor”.

Holding first place in honor does not give the Ecumenical Patriarch any special authority or right to intervene in the affairs of an autocephalous Church. It is this claim that Constantinople has put fourth that has triggered the schism in Orthodoxy. When Patriarch Bartholomew proceeded to grant autocephaly to Ukraine he blatantly violated Orthodox canon law and made a mockery of Orthodox ecclesiology.

Some facts regarding the Ukrainian question. First, Constantinople ceded the Ukrainian Church to the Russian Church through the issuance of a tomos in 1686. Ukraine has ever since been an inviolable part of the Russian Orthodox Church. The Ecumenical Patriarchate has no business in Ukraine and no right to make any pronouncements regarding the status of Ukrainian Orthodoxy.

Constantinople has further transgressed the canons of the Orthodox Church by sidelining the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Patriarch Bartholomew extended “autocephaly” to two sects that are not part of the Orthodox Church. A “unification council” was convened in December 2018 that supposedly created an autocephalous entity calling itself “Orthodox Church of Ukraine” (OCU). The “bishops” at this pseudo-council were either formally anathematized by the Russian Orthodox Church or they were never ordained and consecrated by the Orthodox Church.

There are a variety of sects throughout Orthodoxy claiming to be “Orthodox” but are not. These sects that Patriarch Bartholomew recognized are sects, not an Orthodox Church. The situation has gotten more bizarre as the “OCU” suffered a schism soon after its creation. The leader of that schism has subsequently received some old calendar sects in Greece under his omophorion. This entire affair from the beginning has been nothing other than a farce.

There has still not been full documentation of the extent to which secular interests from Ukraine and America worked to provoke the schism. It is a certainty that Kiev and Washington have interfered in internal Church matters to weaken the Russian Orthodox Church as part of its campaign of Russophobia. On the day of this writing, the State Department has accused Russia of using Orthodoxy as a political instrument.

This is laughable considering American intervention not only in the affairs of the Church of Constantinople, but in the affairs of the Church of Greece. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo travelled to Athens in the fall of 2019 to urge Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens to recognize the sect that is the “OCU”. Within the Church of Greece, there was widespread opposition to recognizing the “OCU”. A dozen bishops spoke against recognition citing canon law and Church history.

Theologians, monastics, priests, and laypeople signed a petition that was sent to the holy synod urging it not to recognize the “OCU”. In the end, the cowardly Archbishop of Athens and other bishops chose to recognize the abomination in Ukraine disguising itself as an Orthodox Church. It is to be assumed that the Patriarchate of Alexandria and the Archbishop of Cyprus recognized the “OCU” as a result of pressure from Patriarch Bartholomew and his secular allies in Athens and Washington.

The schism worsened when Patriarch Theodore of Alexandria concelebrated together with the fake primate of the “OCU”. The Russian Church has previously severed communion with Constantinople but maintained communion with some parts of the Churches of Greece and Cyprus in recognition of the fact that there are bishops in those Churches that have been outspoken in their condemnation of the “OCU” and recognize only the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church.

Throughout this entire crisis, the canonical Church in Ukraine has been fiercely persecuted. Their Churches have been seized, clergy and faithful have been the victims of violence, and attempts have been made by Ukrainian authorities to force the canonical Church to change its name. It is a dishonor for Greeks to be associated with the persecution of brother Orthodox Christians, but the primates of Constantinople, Alexandria, Athens, and Nicosia have made Greeks complicit in this persecution.

The Russian Church has proceeded to establish an exarchate in Africa. Whether this was wise or not is unclear. The fact remains that one hundred and two African Orthodox priests asked to be received into the Russian Orthodox Church because they recognize Alexandria has betrayed Orthodoxy by entering into communion with and concelebrating with a sect of anathematized and unordained blasphemers.

Patriarch Theodore had travelled to Ukraine after the crisis in the Church broke out in 2018. He concelebrated the liturgy with canonical bishops and priests and urged the faithful to remain in the canonical Church. Now, in the aftermath of the establishment of the Russian exarchate in Africa he is bitterly insulting and condemning the Russians seemingly unconcerned with his own hypocrisy and cowardice.

One of Patriarch Bartholomew’s bishops in the city of Drama in Greece has expressed anti Russian feelings. The bishops of Constantinople are very clearly motivated by jealousy and resentment. They have betrayed Orthodoxy and the great spiritual heritage of Constantinople.

From a Hellenic point of view, all this nastiness emanating from Greek Patriarchs and bishops is a betrayal of Hellenism as well as Orthodoxy. Those who collaborate with western secular interests against Orthodox Russia have betrayed Christ. They have also betrayed the sovereignty of Greece.

Greek politicians have traditionally betrayed the national interests of Greece. The Patriarchs and their bishops who support them have betrayed the faith of Christ! A much more serious betrayal.

Among the great powers, only Russia has never interfered in Greek domestic affairs or done any harm to Greece. Russophobia is a western obsession. Russophobia and anti Russian sentiments are not compatible with Hellenic interests.

Traditionally, the bishops of Greece have stood up against the Turks, the Nazis, and the Communists. The Greek bishops of our own day succumbed to the State Department! Gone are the days when Archbishop Christodoulos condemned the secularization of Greece and the bombing of Orthodox Serbia. Gone are the days when Archbishop Christodoulos stood up to the Patriarchate’s invasion of the Church of Greece.

The late Archbishop (his memory be eternal) sided with the Russian Church when Patriarch Bartholomew created a crisis in Estonia. What a shame to see how Greek speaking Orthodoxy is faring today. What a disgrace!

With Donald Trump out of the way, the neoconservatives have wasted no time in filling the vacuum in the Republican Party. Republican Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi is without question one of the most ignorant and poorly informed individuals holding elected office. The Democrats are intellectually depraved with their insane ideas about defunding the Police but this Republican is trying to outdo the Democrats by expressing ideas that are even more catastrophic.

The Einstein of Mississippi believes the United States should consider going to war with Russia over Ukraine. What kind of poorly informed person is it that can lightly suggest something like that? Russia is a nuclear country and is the country that crushed Napolean and Hitler.

The Republicans have their own lunatics and Roger Wicker is one of them. What made Donald Trump a good candidate and President was the fact he was not a fanatic or a believer in interventionism abroad. Trump understood America should not be trying to impose itself on other countries and understood the horror that resulted from the wars and interventions in Iraq, Libya, and Syria.

Trump respected the Russians and on that issue alone demonstrated a superior intellect to conventional politicians in both parties. Ukraine has a complex history and American neoconservatives and liberals do not understand the religious and cultural issues regarding Ukraine. In addition, neoconservative fanatics such as Victoria Nuland are back advocating for a strong anti Russian policy.

American Democracy is dead and has been for decades. Donald Trump temporarily revived Democracy for four years but now the war mongering pseudo intellectuals and think tanks have resurfaced. Victoria Nuland and Geoffrey Pyatt (Ambassador to Ukraine in 2014) supported the violent overthrow of Ukraine’s government in 2014 which forced the Russians to intervene to block Ukraine from being used as a base by NATO to attack Russia in the future.

The question of admitting Ukraine into NATO should have been permanently settled then. But fanatics like Nuland and many others who have never been elected to public office and are not accountable to anyone are proceeding to instigate wars under the noses of the members of Congress and the intellectually challenged members of what passes for media in America today. The think tanks are far more dangerous than the CIA ever was during the period of the Cold War.

Attacks on Joe Biden are beginning. National Review is hysterically accusing Biden of supporting autonomy for Eastern Ukraine. If this is true (and I have doubts about that) then Biden should be praised not criticized. American gestures that contribute to the easing of tensions with Russia are productive and correct.

It appears that the historically illiterate war mongers in both parties are going to bring Hitler back. Hitler has been sighted over three decades in Yugoslavia, Iraq, Libya, and Syria. Some of us thought he committed suicide in a bunker in Berlin in 1945. Every time a Republican or a Democrat wants to start a war they refer to a particular leader as the new Hitler.

The Hitler comparison has always been stupid and anyone who really believes that Slobodan Milosovic, Saddam Hussein, or Muammar Khadafi ranked with Hitler is devoid of intelligence. Such comparisons minimize the horrors of the Holocaust and the genuine evil that Hitler and his movement genuinely represented. Hitler caused the deaths of over fifty million people during a six year period, a record of mass murder that other dictators are no where close in matching (maybe Stalin and Mao).

It was Hillary Clinton who compared Vladimir Putin to Hitler in 2014. For war mongering opportunists Hitler is good propaganda. For those who have studied history and rely on knowledge and not propaganda, it is fairly obvious that Hitler’s murderous reign is being diminished.

Even worse. Vladimir Putin is the leader of a country that lost over twenty million lives to the racist regime in Berlin that considered Slavs to be subhuman. Hitler’s war on Russia was a barbaric war aimed at subjugating the Russians and seizing their land and oil. Vladimir Putin was born in Leningrad in 1952. During the war, the Nazi death machine laid siege to that city and brought about the starvation of over one million Russians.

Vladimir Putin’s older brother died during the siege. Putin’s Uncles died in defense of Leningrad. Only those who are stupid and are knowledgeable in political slogans do not recognize the danger of demonizing Russia. Now Senator Wicker joins the geniuses in the Democratic Party and calls for war on Russia.

It was the cretinous and vulgar barbarian Paul Begala (a Clinton administration official) who recommended that Donald Trump bomb Russia in 2017. These people are all psychopaths. The stupidity increases when considering that Nuland, Pyatt and the rest have been supporting Neo-Nazi militias in Ukraine that the Russians fought against.

Who supports Neo-Nazis? Those who support aggression against Russia. Among the Ukrainians who have found favor in Washington, the memory of Stephan Banderas the wartime Nazi collaborator is honored.

It would be nice if those who have political influence knew what they were talking about. It would be nicer if Congress proceeded to take control of the think tanks that have been running amok for far too long.

Patriarch Bartholomew visited the White House and President Joe Biden. Two elderly men declining in health who should be prayed for. One has damaged his country by his reckless actions because of how he withdrew from Afghanistan while the Patriarch damaged the unity of the Orthodox Church as a result of his uncanonical actions in Ukraine.

Patriarch Bartholomew called the President a “man of faith”. This President began his Presidency by restoring funds for the World Health Organization for use in supporting abortions around the world. This President passed the “equality act” which supports transgender ideology and enables boys at school to use the girls restrooms and play in girls sports. What “man of faith” supports anti Christian policies such as these?

It should be remembered that as Vice President, Biden presided over a marriage between two men. He was also a supporter of the bombing of Serbia and the seizure of Kosovo with its historic Serbian Churches and Monasteries which was followed by the ethnic cleansing of Orthodox Christians. As a Senator, Joe Biden voted in favor of the Iraq war and as Vice President supported the arming of jihadists in Syria. The Christians of Iraq and Syria became victims of genocide as a result of these policies. Man of faith?

Patriarch Bartholomew has tried to cover his ecclesiastical crimes in Ukraine under the Greek flag. Former Vice President Biden’s Syria policies helped to flood the Greek islands with Syrian refugees. Both Patriarch and President are intent on keeping Greece (Church and Country) in a state of permanent tension with Russia.

Patriarch Bartholomew’s referring to Biden as a “man of faith” is indicative of how isolated the Patriarch has really become. Between 1994 and 2013 there were about eight assassination attempts on the life of the Patriarch by jihadists and Turkish nationalists. Patriarch Bartholomew admirably stood his ground and refused to leave Constantinople.

The one thing that the Church of Constantinople had going for it was that it was a martyred Church. It should be remembered that the Russian Church supported Patriarch Bartholomew when Russian bishops participated in liturgies served in the old caves of Cappadocia and the Monastery of Panagia Soumela in Trebizond. Regrettably, Patriarch Bartholomew by his actions in Ukraine and his chosen alliances has damaged Orthodoxy and his own Patriarchate.

Aside from Biden, the Patriarchate has aligned itself with the American foreign policy establishment which is as anti Christian as Biden’s social policies. The Patriarch forgets that the Greek Orthodox faithful of Constantinople and the islands of Imbros and Tenedos were ethnically cleansed by the Turks during the the 1950’s and 1960’s with the support of Washington.

Washington supported the Turkish invasions of Cyprus long before the destruction of Serbia and the genocide of middle eastern Christians. Patriarch Bartholomew should have aligned the Ecumenical Patriarchate with Russia. Instead, he is working to estrange the Greek Churches from the whole of Orthodoxy.

Patriarch Bartholomew came to the throne of the Church of Constantinople with the honorable aim of protecting the rights of the Church of Constantinople and the small Greek Orthodox minority that remain in Turkey. He should have spent his energies on that noble effort. Tragically, he became a partisan in Church matters and began a quest for grabbing complete and total authority over the Orthodox Church.

Tragic decisions have been made. It is not too late for the Patriarch to repent. Otherwise, he can and will be deposed.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has cancelled a scheduled meeting with Archbishop Elpidophoros at the Saint Nicholas National Shrine in New York. Reverberations are still being felt over the Archbishop’s attendance at a Turkish center which included representatives from the Turkish occupied territories of Cyprus. Previous to this, Cypriot President Anastasiades cancelled a meeting with the Archbishop.

This diplomatic debacle comes on top of years of scandals at the Archdiocese of New York. The “election” of Archbishop Elpidophoros has not fixed the problems that have plagued the Archdiocese. Most likely, his “election” was never intended to address the issues of the financial and moral bankruptcy of the Archdiocese, the financial crisis at Holy Cross theological school in Boston, the missing funds from the priest pension fund, and the Saint Nicholas Shrine. At the time of his selection, Archbishop Elpidophoros was well known for his support of Patriarch Bartholomew’s claims of universal authority over the whole of Eastern Orthodoxy.

When then Metropolitan Elpidophoros was announced as the new Archbishop of America the whole Orthodox world began paying attention. The Ecumenical Patriarchate had instigated a church crisis after trespassing on the territory of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine. Orthodox hierarchs from around the world had sent letters of warning and protest before and after the beginning of the crisis. Archbishop Elpidophoros was referred to (but not named) as his extreme views on the powers of the Ecumenical Patriarchate had already become notorious.

The election of the Archbishop by Constantinople could be seen as a slap toward the Orthodox world, especially in the context of the Ukrainian crisis. Now nearly two and a half years after his enthronement in New York, the Greeks have finally noticed that the Archbishop does not use good judgement. His appearance at the Turkish Center is an affirmation that his primary concern is focused on promoting the power and authority of the Ecumenical Patriarchate at the expense of everything else.

Greece and Cyprus face mounting dangers from Turkey. Athens and Nicosia do not need to be distracted by the shenanigans that occur at the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese. One of the dangerous consequences of the schism that Constantinople instigated as a result of its Ukrainian venture is that the Orthodox Church of Greece has gone silent.

The Holy Synod of the Church of Greece followed Constantinople’s direction and established communion with a group of Ukrainian schismatics. As Constantinople has established an unhealthy influence over the Church of Greece, it has been clear that the bishops are no longer as assertive as they once were. Gone are the days when Archbishop Christodoulos rallied over 100,000 into the streets of Athens and Thessaloniki to challenge the secularization of Greece and the European attack on Greek national identity.

Gone are the days when Archbishop Christodoulos resisted the encroachments on the Church of Greece by Patriarch Bartholomew. Gone are the days when various bishops in Greece would speak against Turkish aggression and in defense of Greece and Cyprus. Gone are the days when the Church of Greece protested gay marriage and the imposition of transgender ideology.

Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens is quiet and passive. He is a pushover and failed to demonstrate leadership when American officials blatantly intervened in Church affairs and asked him to follow Constantinople’s line on the Ukrainian issue. The two previous Archbishops of Athens Serapheim (1974-1998) and Christodoulos (1998-2008) would never have permitted any foreign government to interfere in Church matters especially as they pertain to the validity of holy orders and the matters of priestly ordinations and episcopal consecrations.

The Greek government can and should make use of the Byzantine concept of Symphonia (harmony). Symphonia is the concept that emerged under Saint-Emperor Justinian of Constantinople. Symphonia refers to the relationship between Church and State at the time and which has been the model for Church-state relations in Greece and Russia up to the present time.

Under the practice of Symphonia, Church and State are partners and work together for the common good. The Church attends to spiritual matters and the State rules the country. But they do so as friends and partners not as disinterested parties as is the case in secular countries.

The Greek government needs to ask the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese to stand down and to stop representing Greece in any sort of official capacity at the White House and other prominent settings. The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese should be focusing on cleaning house and should be carefully pondering on whether there needs to be a new Archbishop for America. Greece needs to be represented by serious and experienced officials who can help make the case for Athens and Nicosia against the jihadist state of Turkey.

Greece needs to conduct its foreign relations very carefully. Relations with both America and Russia are of utmost importance. The Church schism that Patriarch Bartholomew has instigated with the support of the State Department has complicated Greek relations with both Washington and Moscow. Greece needs to use its leverage (financial, political, legal) to force the Ecumenical Patriarchate to cease and desist from complicating Greek relations with the greater Orthodox world.

Greece also needs to address the complex situation regarding the Church of Greece. Mount Athos, Crete, and the Dodecanese islands are part of the omophorion of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. The parts of Greece that gained independence after the war of independence are governed by the holy synod of Athens. The Metropolises of Macedonia and Thrace are administered by Athens but are under the spiritual jurisdiction of Constantinople.

This means that Patriarch Bartholomew is commemorated in the liturgy in northern Greece instead of the Archbishop of Athens. The late Archbishop Christodoulos attempted to address this issue and to rectify it. The spiritual jurisdiction of Constantinople over northern Greece has destabilized the Church of Greece.

It has been speculated upon that a major reason for why the Holy Synod of Athens followed Constantinople’s direction and recognized the schismatic entity in Ukraine is because Patriarch Bartholomew threatened to seize and takeover northern Greece. If Patriarch Bartholomew could invade the territory of the largest and most powerful of Orthodox Churches, what could he do to the Church of Greece?

Political and ecclesiastical matters have become very blurred at the present time. This is because the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese have involved themselves in international diplomacy and intrigue. The presence of Archbishop Elpidophoros at the Turkish center has demonstrated the extent to which the leadership of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese has lost sight of what its proper role really is.

Both the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese have eagerly and enthusiastically embraced the anti Russian policies being pursued by the American foreign policy establishment. The politicization of these ecclesiastical institutions is unmistakable. We should ask ourselves a question? Would Archbishop Elpidophoros have attended a ceremony hosted by the Russians?

We all know that the answer to that question is no. It is good that the leaders of Greece and Cyprus are refusing to meet with Archbishop Elpidophoros. Now that Greek and Cypriot officials are paying attention, they will have to address the problems that have been created by the Archdiocese and the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

Archbishop Elpidophoros of America has angered the governments of Greece and Cyprus by meeting with Turkish President Erdogan at the “Turkevi Center” which is where the Turkish mission to the United Nations will soon be located. Both the governments of Greece and Cyprus are rightfully angry over this meeting. There are several things to be said about this new development within the greater contexts of what has transpired over the past three years.

1) It has always been a mistake for the Greek government to view the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese as a lobby for Hellenic issues. The Church has a spiritual mission and should be focused on that. Greece should have followed the examples of other governments who have established successful lobbies in Washington by leaving these matters to secular organizations. It has been a horrendous mistake to believe that the Greek Archdiocese which has proven to be so ineffective in spiritual matters, could possibly be of any use on matters pertaining to Greece and Cyprus.

2) The Greek government should have noticed that the present Archbishop is a Turkish citizen which creates a conflict of interest. A Turkish citizen can not possibly be entrusted with supporting Greece and Cyprus.

3) The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese has been mired in one scandal after another over the past several years. The influence of the Archdiocese (and by extension, the Ecumenical Patriarchate) should not have been permitted to expand its influence over the formerly free Church of Greece. I say formerly free Church of Greece because since 2019, the holy synod of Athens has come under the influence of the State Department with the approval of Patriarch Bartholomew and the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.

It is well known that former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo travelled to Athens in the fall of 2019 to persuade Archbishop Ieronymos and his synod to recognize the false “church” of Ukraine and its pseudo bishops. When the synod of Athens established communion with a group of laymen dressing as bishops who have been either anathematized or who have never been legitimately ordained or consecrated, the freedom of the Orthodox Church of Greece came to an end.

American “Ambassador” to Greece Geoffrey Pyatt has openly intervened in the affairs of the Church of Greece and in the affairs of the Holy Mountain of Athos. The Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese have long since been compromised but the Church of Greece’s failure to defend the sacred canons and Orthodox ecclesiology in the face of American secular interference in Church affairs is a tragedy that deprived the Greek speaking Orthodox world of freedom. The Greek government should have been aware of and should prevented American officials from interfering in Church affairs since such interference was likewise a violation of the sovereignty of the Hellenic Republic.

4) The Ecumenical Patriarchate plunged the whole of the Eastern Orthodox Church into a major crisis that could result in a full blown schism as a result of both its invasion of the territory of Ukraine (itself the canonical territory of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church which enjoys an autonomous status under the mother Church of Russia) and the distortion of Orthodox ecclesiology that has been formulated by Archbishop Elphidophoros with the approval of Patriarch Bartholomew. As noted above, secular political interests of the United States have contributed to the schism because Washington views the Orthodox Church as a weapon in the new Cold War being directed against Russia. The Greek speaking Churches of Constantinople and Greece have come under the unnatural and unwanted influence of secular political interests.

5) The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria has evidently succumbed to pressure from Constantinople to establish communion with the false “church” of Ukraine. Patriarch Theodore of Alexandria was once a supporter of the canonical Church of Ukraine but dramatically reversed his stance. Likewise, Archbishop Chrysostom of Cyprus who previously organized the Patriarchs of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem in an effort to end the schism ended up recognizing the false “church” in Ukraine

Will the Greek and Cypriot governments take notice of what has been happening in the affairs of their “autocephalous” Churches? Most recently, the destructive interference of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in the affairs of the Greek Church has resulted in division and possible schism within the Church of Cyprus. Archbishop Chrysostom of Cyprus recognized the false “church” of Ukraine without discussing the matter with the synod of the Church of Cyprus. This enraged at least four Metropolitans who reacted harshly.

As with the Church of Cyprus, Patriarch Bartholomew’s support for the fake “church” in Ukraine has led to division in the Church of Greece as pious Metropolitans, priests, and theologians have expressed bitter opposition to the actions of both the synods of Constantinople and Athens. The entire Ukrainian affair has brought nothing but destruction and misery to Orthodoxy and threatens to bring about a permanent and irreversible schism.

Archbishop Elpidophoros is the author of the infamous assertion that the Ecumenical Patriarch is “first without equals”. All the local Orthodox Churches consider the Ecumenical Patriarch to be “first among equals”. All the Orthodox Churches have carefully asserted since the beginning of the Church crisis that Constantinople ranks first in the dyptychs of the Church and maintains a “primacy of honor”.

The supporters of Patriarch Bartholomew are partisans and are colluding in the anti Russian hysteria that has engulfed the western world. In actual fact, the Russians have done nothing to take the first place of honor from Constantinople. The issue at hand has to do with Constantinople’s desire to overthrow the conciliar process and to grab complete and unlimited authority much like the Pope has in the Roman Catholic Church.

Both Patriarch Bartholomew and Archbishop Elpidophoros have dishonored the Greek flag by committing their ecclesiastical crimes in the name of Hellenism. Patriarch Bartholomew who in his thirty years as Patriarch has never condemned the Turkish occupation of Cyprus or the destruction of over five hundred Churches and Monasteries by the Turkish army has suddenly become the spokesman of Greeks everywhere. Patriarch Bartholomew fancies himself as the Greek “ethnarch” but compared to Greek bishops such as the late Archbishop Christodoulos of blessed memory he falls short.

The governments of Greece and Cyprus (along with Greeks everywhere) have failed to be cognizant of how truly obscene the alliance between the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese with the State Department truly is. After the 1955 pogroms in Constantinople which ushered in the final phase of the destruction of Greek Orthodoxy in Constantinople and Asia Minor, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles refused to condemn the Turkish government for the violence directed at the community that made up the flock of the Church of Constantinople and their Monasteries and Churches.

The American government was completely indifferent to the destruction of Greek Orthodoxy in Constantinople. In the subsequent decades, American foreign policy has

1) Assisted the Turkish invasions of Cyprus in 1974 where 200,000 Orthodox Greeks were ethnically cleansed and where Churches and Monasteries were converted into Mosques or destroyed,

2) Bombed Orthodox Serbia over a three month period and gave Kosovo to the Muslims which led to the ethnic cleansing of Orthodox Serbs and the destruction of countless Churches and Monasteries,

3) Invaded Iraq and attempted to overthrow the government of Syria. The Christians of Iraq were decimated in a genocide that occurred after the overthrow of the old regime in Iraq (terrible as that was). The Christians of Syria were nearly destroyed in a genocidal campaign waged by jihadists that American policy unleashed. It was the intervention of Orthodox Russia that saved the Christians of Syria from extermination and saved Syria from being either a failed state, or a jihadist state.

4) The United States (with the exception of the Trump administration) has been provoking Orthodox Russia by overthrowing a government in Ukraine that was friendly to the Russians and replacing it with an anti Russian government.

In conclusion, the Greek and Cypriot governments should recognize that Patriarch Bartholomew and Archbishop Elpidophoros do not act as if they are in service to the holy traditions and teachings of the Orthodox Church. They are espousing an ecclesiology foreign to Orthodoxy and have destabilized the universal Orthodox Church. They have also been making the Greek speaking Churches accomplices in the persecution of Ukrainian Orthodox Christians who are the targets of violence and persecution by persons unbaptized who masquerade as Orthodox Christians and receive the support of the synod of the Church of Constantinople.

At the present time, Cyprus faces an existential threat from Turkey. Turkey has also claimed islands that belong to Greece through international treaties as belonging to Ankara. Hopefully, Athens and Nicosia will recognize that Patriarch Bartholomew and Archbishop Elpidophoros are working against both Orthodoxy and the interests of Greece and Cyprus.