Відео

No one jurisdiction is free of problems. I had the worst spiritual experience of my Orthodox life at a ROCOR parish. It was plagued by legalism, fear mongering, literalism, and authoritarianism in general. And I found that this attitude is also well represented by the Holy Trinity Seminary bunch.

@@gigachad2221-g4n I agree. It depends parish to parish. I found that most churches here didn't seem very "serious" The Greeks definitely felt more like a community center more than a church. ROCOR is where I found the community that seemed to be both welcoming and serious about Orthodoxy. As in, it wasn't a extention of their culture, but something to be lived.

@@Moskal91 I attended a very wonderful Greek Orthodox Church. You had ever opportunity to advance in the father through ascetic practices (fasting), confession and the Eucharist. The activities and conversations of people at Social Hour tells you nothing about the soul of a parish. The opportunity to go deeper into the Faith was there, I am certain of it. Did you try? Di you talk to your Father Confessor about your feelings and ask for help?

@@kansashoneybadger7899 not only did I go to the Greek Orthodox church in my city, but I still visit, I know the priest, I altar served there after my baptism with my friend, I spent 2 months of my inquiry going there regularly actually. Most of my Orthodox friends go there. My decision was simply a better feeling with ROCOR and many many reservations about GOARCH as a jurisdiction and things I have heard about the actions of Greek Orthodox bishops in recent affairs, specifically concerning handling covid.

Well duh they’re living in sin and basically telling God that he thinks God got his gender wrong

thats not surprising shes literally trans 💀

​@@keko7198this is not helpful.

Prayers for you and your friend, sounds like a very difficult situation to be in. God is with you always, never forget that. We are all lost and need the Lord to show guidance to us.

@@gigachad2221-g4n I believe the phrase is "Go and sin no more."

If you're wanting to convert, the most important action to take is to find a parish with a priest, a priest that seems like someone you can trust: take your time. Some priests are very good, while others are hidden reefs (Jude 12) and trusting them could lead to your destruction. I suggest finding a parish over watching videos because primarily an encounter with the Church should be physical as well as mental. I won't explain much further, but when someone says they "repent", the Greek literally means something more than a mental change: it's a noetic (nous) change, a change of the person. As an example, some of the most mystical saints did hundreds of prostrations a day. Watching videos may help, but they can only go so far. (sorry, I don't know any ones to suggest.) Take your time looking for a parish and priest. If you have more than one parish available near by, try several parishes, including ones that are not fully in English. Some parishes are very warm while others may not be healthy to join. I suggest you look for a priest who is interested in you and people in general. I've met quite a few priests who are far more interested in Church services, theology, ethnicity, CONTROL, etc... than people. Some of the best priests/bishops I have met are serving in parishes which are not primarily (or at all) in English. (It's important to bear in mind here when choosing a parish that the titles given to a bishop are ancient titles for a slave of slaves in a house. ie., it's not about control. it's about being a servant/slave of the LORD.) You might also consider starting to do the Jesus Prayer, but it's more important to find a parish and a priest. You just repeat this prayer for a period of time. The most common form is "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, the sinner." While it's certainly not of utmost importance when choosing a parish, if you're single and wanting to get married at some point, look around and see if there are young children in the parish and suitable women to date. If you ultimately find there are several parishes that you like and one has much better options, you might want to factor this in. I'm aware it seems odd to suggest considering this, but l have met quite a few lonely single men and women who converted and then found it difficult to find someone to marry. So choosing a parish with some marital possibilities may help you in the long term. Again, this shouldn't be your priority, it's just a practical consideration. Why is Orthodoxy so divided is a difficult question. The Church is like a family of people and sometimes there are strong disagreements. As a layperson, these divisive issues shouldn't effect you too much. Once you find a priest who seems legit, he may be able to answer this more to your satisfaction. I made this video to warn people of the OCA, but the warning mostly applies to the administration. Please understand, there are good clergy in the OCA, but I consider it's administration a brood of vipers, and some it's priests/bishops to be very dangerous for one's soul. If you have a few minutes, watch my video concerning how the OCA doesn't care about children to get a little sense of what I mean. (I wasn't able to share everything: it would have been worse.) But this was why I suggested you find a parish and priest that seem interested in people. I cannot comment on Jay Dyer, as I no longer know enough about that situation. If you like Jay Dyer's writings, etc... my guess you may find yourself more comfortable in a ROCOR parish, but that's just a guess. I don't have videos to suggest, but "The Orthodox Way" by Kallistos Ware is a popular book which may help. Depending on your predilections, there are many perhaps more suitable books for you to choose. All the best. Take care.

Yes, go to a Parish! Go in person! The Liturgy teaches us everything we need to know about Orthodoxy. The Liturgy is our School and a Hospital for our soul. There are too many wolves in sheep’s clothing on the internet. Remember the words in the Bible “Come and see”… which invited the people to hear Christ in person. The World is divided and we are humans that live in the World. The Liturgy goes on. Through the eras of persecution under Communist Atheism, Ottoman Rule, Roman purges, more recent beheadings and tortures…The Church survives because the foundation does not change.

I'm truly saddened to read this, and I hope you found a Church to call home. I cannot speak to the "bunch of hoops". This varies greatly. I know one woman who walked into a parish and was baptized the following week. (Her ethnicity may have been a factor.) But those "hoops" can actually be a good for some people. I know some priests have moved in this direction to help ensure the faithful understand the faith. Sadly, like many things, these "hoops" can become a hollowed out institution and lose the spirit they are attempting to help impart to the person. Again, I hope you the best.

Well, I guess I'm not a saint? I do not know what to say to this. I don't remember how I was feeling when I made any of these videos, except being extremely tired. I can say it's very difficult not to be angry, when i know of many people who were orthodox for 17+ years who now have no interest, respect, or trust in the church, and many of the people in the church assume everyone deserved what happened, and the "authorities" in the church protect lies, etc by their clergy members. I met up with several families on the day of forgiveness Sunday and while there were roughly 16 youth there - all of whom loved the church prior to this, none of them have any trust in clergy in general, and I don't blame them. Sure, they know and likely have some trust in a few priests they've known for their entire lives, but what has happened has eroded their faith that I'm not sure any will return to the church in the future. I am not GOD, so I have no idea of their future. I wish I could include more of what has happened, but it is not my place to speak on private matters of others; moreover, the potential harm to some people could be extremely high.

I would love to speak to you in private at some point.

Nope. not at all. not even approximately what happened.

I believe I was explicit in the video that I DO NOT KNOW WHAT I WAS ACCUSED OF. I was accused of 2 things: 1. not following the rector's leadership; 2. following my self-interest instead of Jesus Christ as shown through my actions and words. These are completely vague and I have no clue what they mean. I asked for clarity - and bear in mind they reportedly put more than 100hrs of work into this - and nothing more was given, except to say that "THIS" was done in love. To my knowledge, I had never been notified before 9:40pm of that night of any wrong-doing. So I do NOT know what I did wrong. To make things more bizarre, one clergy who spoke to the bishop later asked why was I disciplined and his reply was "yes, why was he disciplined?" I didn't include this as I didn't many other details because I only had one person reporting it and I wanted the focus to NOT be about whether I was guilty or innocent. Also be reminded that when the Dean of the region came to speak with people after this had occurred, he not only said he was not consulted beforehand - which was contrary to what the Chancellor Philip had formally indicated - but also he was surprised that I was accused - both visibly and audibly. I admit I am more vague in this video than I would like. I have given a reason for some of the vagueness in a comment, but some of it is simply because I'm obviously not good at speaking in videos.

@@orthodoxchurchexile How does anyone get the other side of the story? Can't be found the way you are presenting things. This is a smear and it doesn't advance Orthodoxy or anyone's salvation.

Ad hominems are arguments.

You are guilty of judging without cause. Go pray for forgiveness.

@@johnsambo9379 Most important comment. Hearing both sides of a controversy is the first thing an ethical person does. Go pray for forgiveness for participating in the slader and smearing of people who have been blocked from defending themselves. Slap forehead Remember if we accept one-side stores which smears people's reputations and moral conduct, without hearing the other side, it can happen to you next Virtuous and ethical people have the duty to give people who are accused of something what amounts to "due process." People are entitled to a specific statement of exactly what they did wrong. Thy are also entitled to a statement of what standard of conduct they violated (for instance Church canon law). This is a smear. Vague and undefined "wrongs" were committed, apparently, by clergy but those wrong acts are never specified. You can listen to the whole thing and not figure it out. It would be impossible for a "accused" person to defend their conduct as he has never identified the particular conduct that was out of line. For all we know he is a complete crackpot. The accused individuals have never had the right to cross-examine him. Maybe, just maybe there is something in his conduct that was out-of-line. Are you assuming without the full facts that our speaker is totally innocent of any inappropriate or unethical conduct? Apparently you are. I, for one, do not conclude that some person has committed wrong acts unless I get the full facts and ..... drumroll please... both sides of the storey.

@@johnsambo9379 You are guilty of presumptuousness. People who post defamatory information for the world, as this man has, need to make sure that they are truly improving the situation. All I hear from this man, is some kind of self-pity and vague accusations from which no on can identify the actions taken against him. The Clergy can't defend themselves from smears like this; the Orthodox Church has had its reputation besmirched with no way to defend itself. There is zero net benefit to anyone from this presentation.

I'll try to answer this a little, but it is difficult. I hope this helps. The issues I'm trying to raise in this video are intended to address officially accepted attitudes of clergy towards parishioners. This is perhaps the biggest reason why I tried to keep the details vague. Another three reasons the details are vague are that (i) I honestly don't know why this really happened; (ii) some of the people affected have been incredibly hurt and I haven't wanted to make their specific situation more acutely depicted; and (iii) what I have provided is actually a summary of the details. What they gave us for information is in places contradictory and other places divergent in focus. Now asking for clarity is honestly quite reasonable, but it is surprisingly difficult to answer, because I wasn't told why I was targeted: I literally did not receive any warning beforehand of any wrong-doing. I know several clergy who were surprised I was included in this discipline - including the Dean who was allegedly a part of the investigation, according the Chancellor Philip Eerikson. Another example is the first words out of a parishioner upon finding out I was included said of me, "what? The guy who sits in the corner and says nothing?" Speaking for myself, I was fed up of how the last priest went seemingly out of his way to attack vulnerable people and when the new priest came and cared even less about people (plus other traits I have no desire to share here), I disliked him more and more. I stopped all manner of serving and intended to sit in the back and come every second Sunday until he was moved to another parish. I can also add that I have been told some details which I only have from word of mouth or private situations which I believe bear directly to this situation exploding, but the people in these private parties are not directly involved. I believe these details are important for the context, but I cannot divulge them. The private details are not divulged because they are private. I also have no wish to be open with the word of mouth details because I am uncertain of the exact wording. A REASON The following is not the only reason the situation went bad, but essentially the new priest got into a disagreement with long-time parishioner. This parishioner was loved by most of the community, but is "neurodivergent" and in order to accept change she needs to be patiently and openly communicated with. And remember how I wrote this priest doesn't care about people? Well, he told her not to come to the parish. Why? If I recall correctly, it was because she didn't agree with what he was accusing her of, but he wouldn't listen to her. Someone stepped in to try to help mediate the situation, but the priest didn't give a damn and had no interest in listening to anyone. There were some semi-public outbursts between these parties, so the Chancellor (not the Dean) initiated his witch-hunt. Bear in mind, I had nothing to do with this. I was never present for any of these outbursts and was never a witness when this intermediary spoke to this priest. I would add that a later conversion, it was said that the only person who was doing anything wrong was the neurodivergent woman. (This conversation was between the person who stepped in to help and the interviewing priest who was also a counsellor.) The disgusting part of that conversation was that allegedly the priest started saying very negative traits about this neurodivergent person and insulting her. The discussion (zoom-call) ended when a child of this person slammed the laptop closed. The problem is that they were not clear and forthright with us. I have strong reasons to believe there was much being discussed (and gossiped) behind the scenes, but I don't know what was said or when it started. All I know it started long before these priests came to the parish. Nevertheless, I do not know enough to say anything more here, so I haven't.

Sorry brother, this is too nebulous, the alleged misdeed of the clergy and your response to it. Be upfront. If someone wants to be gray, let them be, we should be white as snow.

@@aborarealty Can you please give me an example of what detail I could be "white as snow" with? I do not intend to be evasive, except to occlude the identity of people. I will also be upfront and say that I'm not writing this to be defensive. I'll try to provide clarity if I can. This all said, I am reluctant to make another video on this specific topic, but it may become necessary.

I have named most who I believe bear the most responsibility. Philip Eerikson, Chancellor Irenee, bishop Alexander Rental, Archchancellor Tikhon, Primate Synod of Bishops In terms of accusing these men of particular actions, it's very difficult. eg., It's hard to say one person is lying, because the evidence of the "lie" is that some other priest said something completely incompatible. The only two who I have not named who bear responsibility are the priests who visited the parish, who coerced some people, misconstrued the private words of young child and used those words in their public report, and who also lied to the parishioners in their report about our decision-making process. I have no love for these men, but, up to now, I have had no desire to name them. I will think about it, but it can't be too hard. How many Canadian OCA priests are professional counsellors or child-protection workers? I did not want to name the priests of this parish because there is direct connection between what happened and them, and I don't want the people of this parish to feel like they are being attacked. I gave some examples of the behaviour I have seen in priests, and, while I don't like the behaviour, I do not believe there is anything uncanonical in what they've done. So I don't wish to name any of them.

@@orthodoxchurchexile that's probably a good way to deal with the situation. Calling out atypical behavior is important for an ORTHODOX church, but you have to be careful in going about it the Christian way avoiding pride and overt judgement. This is a perfect example of practicing righteous judgement

You must be an abuser yourself!

OCA is corrupt