Dear Nina,<\/p>\n
David brought your note. Forgive my frankness\u2014but why in the world do you want to send copies of Father John\u2019s letter anywhere? Fr. George [Grabbe] already knows from the Synod, if he is supposed to know; and please don\u2019t involve Fr. Panteleimon in anything to do with Etna. No matter what, that will mean disaster for Alexey\u2014which I don\u2019t think you understand yet.<\/p>\n
As for Fr. John and Etna\u2014please do not even think of any \u201cinvitations.\u201d Quite apart from anything else, it is quite obvious that Vladika Anthony does not want him in his diocese at this time, and he will be extremely upset at any \u201cnegotiations\u201d to this effect without his knowledge. (And we will probably be blamed for it.)<\/p>\n
I hope that you are aware that you are now living in the diocese of Vladika Anthony, and that when it is a question of priests and parishes it is his will that is done and must be respected. One may disagree with bishops, and in extreme need even \u201cfight\u201d with them; but one is never to usurp their rights or try to \u201carrange\u201d things without them, as though they were mere figureheads. One should be in fear and trembling before bishops, and never free or familiar. I fear that some of our \u201cAmerican Orthodoxy\u201d in the Synod is doing just that\u2014organizing psychological-spiritual dioceses of their own, and treating bishops as figureheads who \u201cdon\u2019t understand.\u201d God gave them to us, and if there are sometimes difficulties, that also is for our benefit and salvation, and we must approach them with spiritual means.<\/p>\n
Please do not make Etna into parish and diocese business\u2014didn\u2019t you go there to escape things like that? You\u2019ve taken the busy-busy church world with you. Be patient. What you want will come in God\u2019s time, if it is truly His will; just don\u2019t think you are so wise.<\/p>\n
This comes from me; Fr. Herman would probably say it stronger! As far as we know, he made his connections all right and is in Jordanville to say farewell to his Abba [Archbishop Averky]. This is a great, great loss to us. We thank God that we were able to present him as a \u201cliving link\u201d while he was still alive rather than (as is usual) waiting until he is gone before starting to appreciate him.<\/p>\n
Forgive me. Pray for us.<\/p>\n
With love in Christ,
\nSeraphim, monk<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Dear Nina, David brought your note. Forgive my frankness\u2014but why in the world do you want to send copies of Father John\u2019s letter anywhere? Fr. George [Grabbe] already knows from the Synod, if he is supposed to know; and please don\u2019t involve Fr. Panteleimon in anything to do with Etna. No matter what, that will […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1389\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/orthodoxaustralia.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}