Author: Lawrence B. Wheeler

What a boring topic for an American! Respect your elders? That notion runs counter to the hubris of our youth-centered popular culture. To be honest, I wasn’t particularly respectful of my elders when I was young, but that was a long time ago, so my memory is fuzzy. I do remember being a teacher’s pet in second grade, though.

I went off to live and work in Japan for many years right after college. Oh, how things were different there! The deference granted older people in a Confucian society was quite noticeable. Accurately explained, it is the deference shown to those with seniority, not necessarily those who are just older. Even the young buck in a company was given a modicum of authority over an older person who had been hired at a later date. However, given the glacial uniformity in which Japanese society moves…or did move…those with seniority in any organization were normally older in years since birth as well.

My wife and I received an invitation recently from a young couple for whom we had performed a certain service. It was gracious of them to invite us to dinner at their new home. The wife is a trust fund baby, so they had the financial wherewithal to move up in our expensive urban real estate market. The couple are cheerful and bright and absolutely full of themselves. They are the kind who have little self-restraint in the midst of a conversation. My wife or I might start to say something at the dinner table, but one or the other of the couple would think of something apparently worthy of interrupting what we were trying to say. The conversation inevitably steered back to their affairs and was loaded with boasting about their accomplishments, which are actually few since they are still young, besides all of the gadgets that they have bought on Amazon. My wife and I were the ones who had been invited to dinner, so it would have been rude of us to overpower them and wrest back control of the conversation, and my wife is Japanese, so we remained silent and nodded appropriately as they droned on about themselves. All the while I thought that this sort of conversational domination would not have occurred in the Japan that we remember.

Inevitably, when you are smart and aware of current events and you run off at the mouth, you are apt to delve into politics. The couple were typical liberals from a typically liberal region, who were now living in another typically liberal city. Since they are young and wealthy, and have for their short lives lived in liberal hot houses, they don’t consider their views to be at all out of the ordinary.

To them, abortion rights are a matter of course. Half of all company presidents should be women. The government should raise the minimum wage. And, of course, Donald Trump is a felon. There should be no debate about any of these things as far as they are concerned. I must admit that they allowed me to ask some pointed questions to raise faint objection to the onslaught. When I responded with silence or mild incredulity to their energetic bloviation, they admitted that I was allowed to have a contrary opinion. That was alright. After all, they are liberals. Beyond that, they had not a modicum of the kind of deference that would have been granted an elder in a Japanese household. How could I expect them to be deferent, since their short life experience has been so limited and so trivial?

The whole evening was an ascetic exercise in self-restraint for me. And, the cooking wasn’t very good, to boot. This will sound curmudgeonly, but I don’t plan to invite them for dinner, nor do I plan to accept another invitation from them, should it come. Why not? Beside the dysfunction in conversation that I have described, there is another reason. The expressions of differences in opinion regarding politics are no longer academic exercises, as far as I am concerned. The major problems that we deal with today have immoral causes, and offenses against morals contribute to the breakdown of our society as a whole. As one example, the abandonment by so many fathers of their families, especially amongst the black population, is due to the ravages of the sexual revolution and the replacement of nurturing fathers by the nanny state. This gives indirect cause to violent crime, an even more devastating problem. The depopulation of native Americans – anyone born and raised in our country, not just Indians – is largely due to the proliferation of artificial birth control and easy access to abortion. These are but three examples.

Those are life and death issues for our society, and I would be disingenuous if I simply considered them to be a matter of opinion. Godless progressivism is a national scourge that must be opposed and retarded, if not utterly destroyed. Our American society is slowly committing suicide, and the atheists who promote the pernicious policies of the progressive cause have the gun pointed at our collective temple. Young liberals who don’t understand the threat of their mindset would do well to be quiet and listen to older conservatives who have the experience to speak with a greater degree of wisdom.

Post Script: Pres. Joe Biden was born a month after my eldest brother of blessèd memory, who would have turned 80 this month. In my last article, I demonstrated little respect for our elderly president, so you may consider me to be a hypocrite. If so, I suppose I am guilty as charged. I am not sure that I would show the proper respect for our president if I were to meet him in person, so offended am I at what he has done to destroy our country. I solicit your prayers.

(I wrote this article a year ago this month, but didn’t publish it. Now that I’ve reread it, I’ve decided to “run it up the flagpole to see if anyone salutes”.)

Now a bishop must be above reproach… he must be well thought of by outsiders, or he may fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.

(I Tim. 3:2,7 RSV)

The inimitable archbishop of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese has done it again. Elpidophoros used the occasion of Bartholomew’s name day, June 10, to make the provocative move of returning to St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church in Manhattan for another service.

St. Bart’s has updated their pride flag since this photograph was taken in 2017.

Now we have the transcript of the little non-homily that he gave at the vespers service there, about which I have some things to say. First of all, the clericalism that spills trippingly from the archbishop’s lips leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Elpidophoros lays the obsequious praise on thick when he says,

“His All-Holiness is the very definition of ecumenicity,” and, “The Ecumenical Patriarch is a spiritual father for all people, whether they realize it or not.”

I write this on Father’s Day. Allow me to use this occasion to say unequivocally that, if Bartholomew is to be termed a father, he has failed miserably in his role.

Take Ukraine, for example. Bartholomew has betrayed the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) by creating a phony copy of a church by a similar name at the behest of corrupt political leaders in Ukraine and the United States. Now that the war with Russia is on, Bartholomew has nothing to say in protest against the monstrous treatment that the OCU and Pres. Zelensky have dished out to Met. Onuphry, Abp. Pavel, and the monks and seminarians of the Kievan Caves Lavra. UOC clergy and their parishes throughout Ukraine have been placed in the crucible of terrible suffering for Christ. If Bartholomew is a spiritual father, as Elpidophoros claims, he has behaved like a father who has abandoned his children. He needs to be held responsible for it.

Saints of the lavra

Must it be reiterated to a hierarch that we Orthodox refuse to accept the contention that the “Ecumenical Patriarch” is “a spiritual father for all people”? “All people“, you say? An Eastern Pope is he? Elpidophoros is certainly a stubborn man. He just will not drop the heretical notion of primus sine paribus. No, sir, that patriarch – no patriarch – is first without equal, regardless of the personage who occupies that throne or any throne. An incumbent Patriarch of Constantinople may be an unparalleled saint like St. John Chrysostom, but his preeminence among bishops is only one of honor, not one of authority. It was Rome’s own claim to universal and immediate authority throughout the Church that ironically led Rome astray from the Church, where it remains to this day.

“The Roman Pontiff, by reason of his office as Vicar of Christ, and as pastor of the entire Church has full, supreme, and universal power over the whole Church, a power which he can always exercise unhindered.”

(Catechism of the Catholic Church, Para. No. 882)

This papist claim is rejected by the Orthodox Church, which maintains an ecclesiastical polity of conciliarity. All ruling bishops are equals who render honor to their several patriarchs, but do not relinquish authority over their own dioceses. When they need to make decisions binding upon the wider Church they meet in councils

“His All-Holiness acts like a spiritual wheel in the world – holding the traditions fast in the hub of the Holy Mother Church. But he reaches out as well through spokes that extend in love and compassion to all people. No one is ever beneath or unworthy of the love of God.”

Elpidophoros

Met. Onuphry, UOC

Yeah, tell that to Metropolitan Onuphry, whom Bartholomew has betrayed. No one is unworthy of love except perhaps the people of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which “His All-Holiness” has abandoned like a deadbeat father! Elpidophoros’ obsequious praise rings hollow when one realizes that he is partly responsible for the current suffering in Ukraine. It’s outrageous.

“Being in this church, borrowed from another Christian tradition, is a sign of our expansive and embracing love for all people. It is a symbolic act that many will try to interpret through their own filters of grievance, prejudice, and lack of basic human kindness.”

Elpidophoros

If Elpidophoros did not know what he was doing the first time he rented all-gay St. Bart’s Episcopal Church two years ago, he certainly must have known this time. St. Bart’s is a buzzing hive of the Woke Gospel of Sexual Deviancy. It is not the behavior of a bishop who is above reproach to purposely leave his own cathedral behind and make a not-so-subtle gesture of solidarity with the flaming heretics at St. Bart’s. Elpidophoros’ very presence there officiating at a vespers service was in-your-face scandalous behavior. He could just as well have conducted the service at the cathedral on 79th Street or down in the Battery at St. Nicholas Shrine, but he was deliberately making a gesture to the faithful of the Greek Orthodox Church and other Orthodox in this country. What gesture, you say? Elpidophoros was raising his proverbial middle finger at us. We know it, and he knows that we know it, but he did it despite of it all. A lot of people are justifiably angry at him.

Ouch!

And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord

Ephesians 6:4 KJV

That’s a note for spiritual fathers, as well. Don’t provoke us with deliberate acts of spite and veiled words of scorn.

“Because of this vision, His All-Holiness has stood – an immovable rock of faith and piety – against the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the complicity of the Russian Orthodox Church in its shameful support for this unconscionable war of aggression.”

Elpidophoros

War-torn Ukraine

If HAH Bartholomew had not taken sides against the Russians and created a bogus ecclesial structure before the special military operation began, Ukraine might not be in this mess. Certainly the Ukrainian Orthodox Church would not be, since the Ukrainian government would not have a counterfeit church to claim as the legitimate one. Elpidophoros might be able to proclaim the love of Christ for the Russian Orthodox, too. Both he and his boss may be in for an historically rude awakening if Russian wins this war and occupies Ukraine. The vaunted Ecumenical Patriarchate may be taken down a peg then.

“But more than his long and glorious tenure, he (Bart.) has opened the Mother Church’s embrace to the world, by engaging world leaders at every level. And now, with World Orthodoxy on the brink of fragmentation, he has stood firm for the truth of the Gospel.”

Elpidophoros

Oh, please! World Orthodoxy is indeed on the brink of fragmentation, and Bartholomew’s antagonism to Russia and his ultra vires meddling in the affairs of Ukraine have been the direct cause of the split. Perhaps Bartholomew considers himself to be a true disciple of Jesus Christ who proclaimed that he had not come to bring peace, but a sword. (Note the sardonic tone.)

Elpi and Bart

Elpidophoros’ first visit in 2021 to St. Bart’s Episcopal Church was shocking; this second visit is absolutely exasperating. Unconscionable. I know that I speak for many other people when I express my disgust at his chutzpah, a quality of character that is not normally associated with of a bishop who is above reproach. It’s astounding that Elpidophoros has not been deposed for his repeatedly outrageous behavior. How far has the Greek Orthodox Church sunk that they continue to tolerate this man? How long will the other American hierarchs put up with his heresies?

Elpidophoros, the one and only archbishop of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese, is back at St. Bart’s. Yes, it’s true. Elpi is returning to the grand byzantine structure to officiate at Great Vespers on Saturday, June 10.

Symbolism and virtue signaling are part of the clerical syllabary. Without speaking a word, a bishop uses familiar non-verbal communication to indicate the authority of his office and the policies that he plans to execute. Nothing else need be said in addition to the obvious symbols displayed at the juxtaposition of Abp. Elpidophoros, St. Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church and the Feast of St. Bartholomew.

Patriarch Bartholomew, the Narcissist, appears to give his blessing to this travesty on his name day.

Nevertheless, I am going to say them anyway because Elpidophoros’ plans for tomorrow amount to insult added to injury. This isn’t the first time that the archbishop will have gone out of his way to pray in this most unorthodox Protestant parish. He went to St. Bart’s in June of 2021, not for Vespers, but to celebrate the Divine Liturgy! Even then it was clear to all that St. Bart’s stood for the “queering of Manhattan”. Their website promoted such perverse sexual policies, and the gay flag of many colors snapped smartly outside the west door to the church. It was no mystery that the parish had been captured by the deceptively “progressive movement”.

Even if Elpidophoros had passed under the rainbow flag in a tee shirt, it would have raised eyebrows. But on that occasion, he boldly entered the church, vested in his archiepiscopal finery, and celebrated at the same high altar that is used weekly by heretics and scoundrels. The message communicated by this brazen act was this: We identify with you and concur with your policies. I don’t think that I am reading too much into the symbolism.

St. Bart’s Pride Flag now has a transsexual chevron, evidence of ever-deepening depravity.

That act by Elpidophoros caused a firestorm of protest. We need to pause and remind ourselves that the objections raised by many who were scandalized were not raised on the basis of some novel teaching favored by the masses. On the ontrary, they were made in support of the Orthodox Church’s own teachings against sexual sin. The people said the very things that the archbishop himself should have been saying! Why had he turned the tables on us? Why were the laity put in the uncomfortable place where they felt the need to guard the Faith against its own hierarchy?

One would think that Elpi would have learned from his gross error in judgement two years ago. But no, he certainly did not. He’s back at it again, going to the same parish on the same occasion to do the same thing. This sort of recalcitrant action indicates one of two things: either 1. Elpi is stupid; or 2. Elpi just doesn’t give a damn what the Church teaches about sex and he’s out to overturn the age-old norms. I’ve met his eminence, so I doubt whether he is stupid, but having spoken with him one on one, I suspect he doesn’t give a damn. He has a counterargument for every conventional opinion, whether it be on this subject or on the Ukrainian situation or on issues of GOA polity.

What we’re seeing here is this, folks. Elpi is raising his archepiscopal middle finger to the GOA and to all of the Orthodox paying attention. Remember that your silence will amount to tacit approval.

Some of us will remember exactly where we were when we were told that Pres. John F. Kennedy had been murdered. I was sitting in my fourth-grade classroom at school when Mrs. Kehoe told us that, despite the fact that we may have our political differences, that didn’t take away from the gravity of the assassination of the president of the United States. I had no idea what political differences she might have been talking about, but I guessed that adults just had their political differences.

JFK and RFK

I have my own political differences with JFK’s nephew, Bobby Kennedy, jr., but I hope like hell that, by some fortuitous aligning of the stars, he becomes the Democratic nominee for president. The Manchurian Candidate who is currently pulling our nation apart board by board has just got to go. Biden and Bobby are both elderly Irish Catholic men from the Northeast, but Bobby is a man of integrity, whereas Joe Biden is an apostate puppet with no spine. 

The $64,000 question is whether the Democratic Establishment thinks that Biden can steal his way to reëlection or whether Kennedy has the gravitas to go toe to toe with Trump or DeSantis and is therefore the better bet for the campaign. If the Democrat power-brokers who denied Bernie Sanders his shot at the nomination in 2016 decide that they’re going to stick with Biden next year, just you watch how they turn savage and cut Bobby off at the knees.

Get the book! Read the book!

I’ll probably vote for the Republican opponent, but if Bobby gets the nomination and wins the general election, then the deep pharmaceutical state who prospered so handsomely from the manufactured pandemic, and the dark interior of the federal government will be in grave trouble indeed. So, for that reason, I have ambivalent feelings of both expectation and dread when I consider a Kennedy presidency. Expectation because Bobby will take names and kick ass; dread because Bobby is a Kennedy and the Kennedys have a way of coming to tragic ends.

It’s almost Holy Week so my mind turns toward the liturgies that we will soon sing to glorify Christ’s death and resurrection. The Western Christians, especially the Roman Catholics and other liturgical churches celebrate Palm Sunday today.

The Tridentine (Council of Trent) High Mass, was celebrated (served) as a solemn (incense) sung (Gregorian chant) mass and was a glorious thing indeed. The Low Mass was an abridged daily version of the High Mass. This “Latin Mass” was for four centuries thegolden standard of worship in the Roman Catholic and Anglo-Catholic (High Church) traditions of the West.

The priest elevates the chalice at the Words of Institution during High Mass

Then the 1960’s happened. The Second Vatican Council was called by Pope John XXIII and continued by Pope Paul VI. An Italian liturgist by the name of Bugnini was commissioned to edit the Sacramentarium and he mucked it up for all time. Him I quote:

“We must strip from our Catholic prayers and from the Catholic liturgy everything which can be the shadow of a stumbling block for our separated brethren that is for the Prostestants.” – Archbishop Annibale Bugnini, main author of the New Mass, L’Osservatore Romano, March 19, 1965

Thoroughly modern Novus Ordo, thoroughly lacking mystery.

Having strayed toward Roman Catholicism on my way from traditional Anglicanism to Orthodoxy, I can tell you frankly that the Novus Ordo (New Order) is the religious equivalent of a McDonald’s happy meal. Gone is the penitential spirit, the deep reverence and the transcendental solemnity that was the treasure of the Western Christendom until that liturgical butcher (strong language, I know!) took a meat cleaver to the mass and made it into a drive-in hamburger. (Aside: I remember when McDonald’s ‘burgers cost 10 cents, and that is about as much as they were worth.)

Professor Dietrich von Hildebrand expressed himself in even more forthright terms: “Truly, if one of the devils in C.S. Lewis’ The Screwtape Letters had been entrusted with the ruin of the liturgy he could not have done it better.”

Geoffrey Hull’s magnum opus on the Mass

For those readers who are inclined to look behind the curtain and discover the origins of this “new and improved” mass and how it turned the Catholic Church on its head, I cannot say enough to recommend The Banished Heart by Australian philologist Geoffrey Hull. It is a masterpiece of research and yet is eminently readable. Western Christians who read it from cover to cover will say to themselves, “Aha, so that’s how it all came about!”

When one recognizes how faithful the Orthodox Church has maintained its traditions over the centuries, it’s disappointing to realize that the conversion from the Roman mass of yesteryear to the current substandard one has served only to drive the Romans further away from reconciliation with the Orthodox.