Monthly Archives: November 2024

Service to the Holy Martyr Edward, King of England

For nearly twenty years we have been using our own English translation from the original Slavonic of the service to the English King, St Edward the Martyr. Now we are free from the straitjacket of oppression, it is time to publish it.

In it we corrected the many mistranslations, omissions and additions in the foreign translation and also omitted references to venerable Russian saints, like Sts Boris and Gleb, who are not relevant here (the service was composed by a Russian and so gives that perspective). We have also corrected again the Russian cultural confusion between ‘British’ and English’ and sometimes replaced the word ‘relics’ (which exist in only one place) by ‘precious image’, and included the original Epistle and Gospel.

Above all, we have omitted the censorious negativity in the misinformed original in its unproven accusations of murder against St Edward’s stepmother, which were a Norman invention. We have replaced those judgemental accusations, which are so shocking in a liturgical context, with the anonymous word ‘the impious’, leaving God to judge the guilty.

As usual, we do not use the Victorian inversions of the American Hapgood style. She was trying to be more English than the English, with her archaic use of ‘eth’ for the third person verb endings, unnecessary ‘ye’, ‘unto’, ‘upon’, and Latinate Anglicanisms. These are imitations of the style of the old Establishment Anglicanism, to which she as an Episcopalian belonged and which is inimical to our Orthodox Christian Faith.

We also leave aside the use of esoteric and purposely obscure language, which represents the style of the pharisees. Equally, we do not use the ‘anything goes’, ‘make it up as you go along’ style of translation of modernism. The first such translations represent the desire of some for the Establishment religion of old-fashioned Anglicanism and Catholicism, which is political conservatism and old calendarism, the second translations representing political liberalism and new calendarism.

Orthodoxy is and cannot be any of these. Orthodoxy is Christianity. The Church is for all, which is why our translations represent the mainstream and not tiny fringe groups, which try to spread an ideology, and not the Word of Christ. There are those individuals who arrogantly impose and try to force us to speak a foreign language. They do not respect other nations as their equals. We reject their jargon or ‘idiom’ and do not use it in our services.

 

Service to the Holy Martyr Edward, King of England

Commemorated on 18 March

At Vespers

At ‘Lord, I have cried…’, eight stichera, four in Tone I.

As a most fruitful vine of the new vineyard of Christ, planted in thy land at the dawn of its enlightenment, thou didst shine forth in many virtues and wast pleasing to God: therefore, with praises we call thee blessed, O Edward, thou most pious king. (Twice)

Travelling the royal way, O holy king, adorned with the love of Christ, the queen of virtues, thou didst watch over the poor and wretched, and visit the sick, rendering judgement and justice to thy people, O Edward, Who honours God.

Thou didst grant thy precious relics like a great treasure to those who honour thy memory, O Edward. Therefore, thou dost heal the divisions of those who have recourse to them and by thy prayers to God fulfil their petitions which are of profit.

And these stichera, in Tone II.

The iniquitous took counsel against thee, O Edward, likening themselves to those who strived to slay the prophets of God, and they plotted thy murder, for they were not daunted by thy youth, nor by thy meek demeanour, nor yet by thy piety, but benighted through bitter envy they followed the prompting of the devil. (Twice)

Like Judas who betrayed Christ with a kiss, so the impious, plotting evils against thee and taking counsel with their retainers, with deceitful intent invite thee, O king, in full knowledge that they lead thee to the slaughter.

What, then, did you acquire, O foolish ones, who wrested the throne from the lawful king and placed his blooded crown upon the head of another? For, lo! Edward shines forth in the Kingdom of Heaven, adorned with a martyr’s crown, while you, repenting in sackcloth and ashes, pray to receive his forgiveness and intercession.

Glory… Tone VIII.

It is not on a hunt that thou goest forth, O most innocent king, but thou art treacherously called to a council of the iniquitous; thus thou dost not encounter a wild beast, but receivest a cruel death at the hands of beast-like traitors. Yet leaving thine earthly kingdom, thou art crowned with a martyr’s crown and dost inherit the Kingdom of Heaven, making thine abode with the saints and the righteous.

Now and ever… Dogmatikon to the Mother of God in the same tone.

Three readings from Isaiah.

At the Litia, the sticheron of the church and this sticheron to the saint, Tone IV.

Come, let us make haste to King Edward, he who was pleasing to God, and who in the years of his youth received a martyr’s crown, that he may intercede for his people, ever standing before the Heavenly King, praying unceasingly.

Glory… in Tone VI.

Let the impious weep, tearing their garments and hair, beholding thee, unjustly slain, O Edward, and glorified by God with miracles; for thou art vouchsafed a martyr’s crown, while they, mindful of their great guilt and trembling before the impartial Judge, strive to wash their souls with repentance.

Now and ever… Hymn to the Mother of God, in the same tone.

Thou, O pure Bride of God, dost meet and comfort all who suffer sorrows in this earthly life, bringing them consolation and drying every tear from their eyes. Therefore, intercede for all who are in misfortunes and sufferings, granting them swift deliverance, for thou dost assuage every sorrow.

At the aposticha, these stichera, Tone VIII: Special Melody: ‘O most glorious wonder …’

O, glorious wonder! O Divine Providence! A most precious treasure, hidden beneath the earth to preserve it from desecration, is uncovered at the end of the times; for, lo! the holy relics of the martyred king are revealed as a new and much-healing wellspring for all who with faith bow down before them and glorify God, Who is wondrous in His saints.

Verse: I have raised up one chosen out of My people, I have found David my servant.

O wondrous solemnity! O most joyful feast! For we celebrate the most radiant memory of Edward the King, the merciful healer of the afflicted and the sick, the defender of the orphaned, the consoler of the grieving, the uprooter of irreverence and sower of piety, the bold intercessor and advocate for our generation.

Verse: For this I have anointed thee, O God, thy God with the oil of joy more than thy partakers.

O, the wealth of the wisdom of God! O, the Providence of God! The holy relics of the martyred Orthodox king are entrusted to the Orthodox Church! Therefore, let us now bow down with faith, calling on the crowned passion-bearer in prayer: and let us fervently offer thanksgiving to Christ God, Who has granted us such a treasure and ever shows us forth His mercy.

Glory … Tone III.

A valiant warrior who fought against the armies of the foe, O Edward, thou didst array thyself yet more against sinful passions; and revealed as a glorious victor over both, clothing thyself with humble wisdom as with a breastplate, thou didst render glory and honour to Christ God.

Now and ever… Hymn to the Mother of God, in the same tone.

In accordance with the will of the Father, through the Divine Spirit without seed thou didst conceive the Son of God, Who without mother was begotten before the ages from the Father. And for our sakes thou didst give birth in the flesh to Him Who was begotten of thee without a father, and with milk thou didst nourish the Infant. Therefore, cease not to pray that our souls may be delivered from misfortunes.

Troparion, Tone IV.

Celebrating the newly-revealed memory of the holy Edward, who of old shone forth in the virtues and suffered innocently, and bowing down before his precious image, in gladness we cry aloud: truly Thou art wondrous in Thy saints, O God! (Twice)

Rejoice, O Mother of God…

At Matins

At God is the Lord, troparion to the saint twice. Glory… Now and ever… Hymn to the Mother of God, in the same tone, ‘The mystery hidden from the ages…

After the first reading of the Psalter, this sessional hymn, Tone VII.

Passing through the time of the fast in spiritual feats, thou, O Edward, didst ready thy soul for a meeting worthy of the feast of feasts, the holy Easter Festival. But leaving thy life on earth of a sudden, thou didst glorify the Resurrection of Christ in His Kingdom, rejoicing with the angels and the righteous and watching over thy people from heaven.

Glory… Now and ever… Hymn to the Mother of God, in the same tone.

Rejoice, O Virgin Birthgiver of God, full of grace, haven and intercession for the human race, for the Redeemer of the world is incarnate from thee, for thou alone art Mother and Virgin, ever-blessed and most glorious. Pray to Christ God to grant peace to the whole world.

After the second reading of the Psalter, this sessional hymn, Tone V.

Lo! spring has blossomed forth on earth, announcing the end of winter, and the celebration of the spiritual spring of the Resurrection of Christ has shone forth to the world. But thy people, O King, are filled with sorrow, stricken by thine untimely end; therefore, make haste and speedily comfort them, revealing to them that thou dwellest in the Kingdom of Heaven with the Risen Master, Who has granted them to obtain thy sacred relics as a pledge of thy care for those who love thee; that, fleeing to them in reverence, they may receive gifts of healing.

Glory… Now and ever… Hymn to the Mother of God, in the same tone.

O Birthgiver of God, Bride unwedded, thou who changed the sorrow of Eve into joy: we, the faithful, praise and bow down before thee, for thou didst lead us forth from the ancient curse. Pray unceasingly, O all-hymned one, that we may be saved.

Polyeleos and Magnification:

We magnify thee, O holy passion-bearer King Edward, and we honour thy precious sufferings, which thou didst suffer for the sake of Christ.

After the Polyeleos, this sessional hymn, in Tone VIII.

Having suffered death out of season, O blessed one, instead of the cup of treachery thou didst receive an unquaffed cup of joy from the hands of the Saviour. Now, therefore, delighting in the sight of Christ’s most radiant countenance at His banquet, pray that those who honour thee may through Him receive the Kingdom of Heaven.

Glory… Now and ever… Hymn to the Mother of God, in the same tone.

O Sovereign Lady, accept the prayers of thy servants, and deliver us from all want and sorrow.

After Psalm 50, this sticheron, Tone VI.

Though thou didst toil but a little while in the field of Christ, yet having toiled diligently, thou didst receive the promised payment from the hand of God, and didst show thyself to be a faithful steward. Therefore, thou hast entered into the joy of the Lord and acquired boldness before Him, ever interceding for thy people.

Canon to the holy King Edward, the original acrostic of which is: ‘I sing of the memory of the pious King Edward’, Tone VIII.

Ode I

Irmos: Let us sing to the Lord Who led His people through the Red Sea, for He alone has gloriously been glorified.

Let us worthily hymn with songs Edward the King, who shone forth in piety and was glorified by God with many miracles.

Now let the English land keep festival and let the Orthodox Church make glad, glorifying the memory of the divinely wise king.

Having suffered out of season unrighteous killing, thou didst acquire boldness before God, O Edward. Therefore, thou dost grant healings to those who honour thee.

Hymn to the Mother of God: The ranks of angels and the choirs of the righteous, monks and laypeople, poor people and kings, together hymn the Birthgiver of God.

Ode III

Irmos: Thou art the confirmation of those who flee to Thee, O Lord. Thou art the Light of the benighted and my spirit hymns Thee.

Born in accordance with Divine Providence to shine forth in the virtues and show forth an example of piety to thy people, thou didst bring the short course of thy life to a good end.

To Christ, the King of all, thou wast a good and faithful servant, who increased the talent given thee by Him, O wise King Edward. Therefore, thou didst enter into the joy of thy Lord.

Like unto Abel who was slain in his innocence, thou didst endure unrighteous murder; deprived of thy fleeting life, now thou dwellest in the mansions of heaven.

Hymn to the Mother of God: Let us unceasingly hymn the Virgin Birthgiver of God, Queen of Heaven and boast of earthly kings, unshakeable pillar of the Church of Christ and unassailable rampart of the Kingdom of God.

Sessional Hymn, Tone III.

As the pre-eminent Peter said, in every nation he that fears God and works righteousness is acceptable to Him; thus, the saints and the righteous from the ends of the earth have entered into the Kingdom of Heaven. Therefore, O holy passion-bearer and king, come from the West and living righteously, was slain unrighteously out of bitter envy, now partaking of everlasting joys remember also us who honour thee and cry out: Truly art thou wondrous in Thy saints, O God!

Glory… Now and ever… in the same tone.

As an uncultivated vine, O Virgin, thou hast put forth the fairest cluster of grapes, which pours forth the wine of salvation for us, gladdening the souls and bodies of all. Therefore, blessing thee as the cause of good things, with the Angel we ever cry out to thee: Rejoice, thou art full of grace.

Ode IV

Irmos: I have heard of the mystery of Thy Providence, O Lord; I have understood Thy works and glorified Thy Divinity.

Emulating a lamb led to the slaughter, thou, O holy Edward, didst not struggle against the evildoers who slew thee, but yielded up thy soul into the hands of God in an instant.

Celebrating thy joyous memory, we call thy wonders to mind, O Edward, for thou healest the leprous, the paralysed and the blind from birth by thy most bold supplications to Christ.

Desiring to glorify thee openly, Christ God gave healing power to thy precious relics, that, beholding the miracles worked thereby, the pious people might praise the Lord for ever.

Hymn to the Mother of God: The divine prophets have announced thee, O Birthgiver of God; the apostles have proclaimed thee; the martyrs have confessed thee, and the divine minstrels and the venerable have hymned thee in songs of divine beauty.

Ode V

Irmos: Waking early, I cry to Thee: Save me, O Lord, for Thou art our God and we know none other than Thee.

A divine light shone on the woman who was blind from birth when she touched thy body, O King Edward. Therefore, her eyes were opened and she glorified God and thine intercession.

Thy tomb has been shown to be a wellspring of healings for all who have recourse to it with faith, beseeching enlightenment and consolation.

Open the eyes of our hearts also, O Edward, who gavest light to the eyes of the woman born blind, that we may behold God’s most wise providence for us and glorify His power.

Hymn to the Mother of God: Let us not fall idle in our unceasing praise of her who is more honourable than the cherubim and beyond compare more glorious than the seraphim, gazing with the eyes of our minds on her greatness and magnifying her mercy with ardent hearts and warm love.

Ode VI

Irmos: As Thou didst deliver the prophet from the nethermost abyss, O Christ God, as Thou lovest mankind deliver me from my sins and direct my life, I beseech Thee.

When the impious learned of the uncovering of thy relics and of the miracles which had come to pass, O Edward, they desired to fall down in repentance before them, but the power of the Lord then forbade them.

With other kings, thou didst bring thy glory to the Heavenly Jerusalem, O Edward, laying at the feet of the Lord the twofold crown of kingship and martyrdom, and receiving fitting honour from Him.

Thou didst escape the vile pit of perdition, rendering justice and righteousness and feeding the wretched, showing thyself worthy of a royal throne, most wise and right glorious Edward.

Hymn to the Mother of God: May they who do not honour thee as the Birthgiver of God be clothed with shame and fear, denounced by all creation which unceasingly hymns thee.

Kontakion, Tone IV.

As a faithful king and bright martyr, thou didst shine forth in the English land; suffering the wounds and blows of the enemies of the Church and the Sovereign Land, who fell upon thee, thou didst soon pass over to our Saviour; now thou workest a multitude of wonders for those who cry to thee with faith: Cease not to beseech Christ God, that He may return thy homeland to the Orthodox Faith!

Ikos: Lo! the fullness of time is come! Arise, people who bear the name of Christ. For behold! the righteous Judge Who sees all things, mindful of His mercies and compassion, and wishing to fill the dried-up wellspring of piety with life-bearing streams, has revealed to us the relics of His favourite and passion-bearer, Edward the King, which for many years lay hidden beneath the earth; for when the tempest of persecution was raised against the saints of God by impiety and the holy shrines were destroyed, they were buried as a priceless treasure and there they remained even until these days. But now, by the providence and good pleasure of God, the holy relics are once more given to the faithful and again the light of Orthodoxy shines forth in the English land. Therefore, stand fair, O England, thou land of kings! And all you who dwell therein, rejoice, crying out to the blessed Edward, whom the King of kings would fain glorify: Cease not to beseech Christ our God, that He may return thy homeland to the Orthodox Faith!

Ode VII

Irmos: O Lord God of our fathers, Who in the beginning founded the earth and established the heavens by a word: blessed art Thou unto the ages.

Having fought against the foes, and battling the passions yet more, thou wast shown to be a victor over both: but urged on by humility thou didst render glory to God, crying out: Blessed art Thou, O God of our fathers!

The ranks of angels and the choirs of the righteous, accompanying the holy king who is received into the Kingdom of Christ, hymn God, Who is wondrous in His saints, crying out: Blessed art Thou, O God.

Leaving the sin-loving world out of season, thou didst reach the heavenly home, O Edward, where thou prayest unceasingly to the blessed God of thy fathers on behalf of thine earthly homeland.

Hymn to the Mother of God: Fearing not the fiery furnace, the youths who prefigured thee, O Virgin, cried out in thanksgiving for thee: Blessed art Thou, O God of our fathers!

Ode VIII

Irmos: The Lord Who was glorified on the holy mount and Who revealed the mystery of the Ever-Virgin in the burning bush to Moses, hymn and exalt Him supremely unto all ages!

Celebrating the memory of the godly king and marvelling at the wonders that have been wrought by his precious relics, rejoicing in God we cry aloud: Hymn the Lord and exalt Him supremely unto all ages!

Having vanquished all the wiles of hades and put to shame the evil schemes of the impious, called to the Heavenly Kingdom thou didst sing, O holy king: Hymn the Lord and exalt Him supremely unto all ages!

Bowing down before thy precious image and calling on thy name in prayer, O Edward the king most dear to God, we hymn the Lord and exalt Him supremely unto all ages!

Hymn to the Mother of God: Thou didst reveal to men Him, on Whom the angels dare not gaze. Reveal to us also His unutterable mercy, that we may exalt thee supremely unto all ages.

Ode IX

Irmos: Saved by thee, O pure Virgin, we confess thee to be the true Birthgiver of God, magnifying thee with the bodiless choirs.

Thou dost pour forth healings and receive the prayers of the faithful, earnestly praying for those who honour thy memory; therefore, O Edward, we gratefully magnify thee.

Thy memory is glorious and thy rest is with the saints, for thou ever standest before the throne of God. Therefore, we magnify Christ Who gave thee to the people as a new intercessor.

The Orthodox Faith reaches from the East even unto the West. Therefore, the saints of God are glorified throughout the world.

Hymn to the Mother of God: Thy kinswoman Elizabeth has taught us to cry out to thee, O all-pure Birthgiver of God: blessed art thou among women and blessed is Christ, the Fruit of thy womb, Whom we magnify unceasingly.

Expostilarion: Meet it was for thee, who beheld the unwaning Light, to show thy first miracle through light, O most blessed king; for, lo! a heavenly light shone forth on the house where the impious had concealed thy body, and the eyes of the woman blind from birth were opened and giving thanks to God she cried out: Blessed art Thou, O Lord, Who hast revealed to us Thy new favourite!

Glory… Now and ever… Hymn to the Mother of God.

Thou dost cover all the earth with thy radiant stole and embrace the whole world with thy love, O Birthgiver of God, receiving the prayers and entreaties of all who call on thee, and helping all before the throne of thy Son, for He has given thee to mankind as an intercessor forever.

At the Praises, these stichera, Tone II.

Thou dost abide with pious kings in the Kingdom of Heaven, with the fasters and ascetics thou art praised, with the martyrs thou art glorified and with all the righteous thou art blessed, O glorious king Edward. (Twice)

Earnestly we bow down before thine image, celebrating the commemoration of thine untimely end; and mindful of the wonders worked thereby, we ask for thine intercession and help, O righteous king Edward.

O thou who with martyr’s blood didst adorn thy royal raiment more than with purple and amethyst and who has received a crown of suffering from the hand of God, thou didst recline at the banquet of Christ with the elect. O Edward, pray for our souls.

Glory… Tone VI.

Lo! the time is shortened: judgement is at the door! Lo! the souls of the slain cry out for the justice of God: How long, O Lord, dost Thou not avenge our blood? But they are instructed to wait patiently until the number of the saved is completed and the mystery of iniquity is revealed; then will come the Judge, Who will render to each according to his deeds. Thou, O most blessed king, shalt receive the portion of the blessed. Therefore, beseech Christ the Master, that we may be vouchsafed to stand at His right hand.

Now and ever… in the same tone. O Queen and Birthgiver of God, who openest to us the doors of divine mercy, pray to thy Son, with the king and passion-bearer to have mercy on our souls.

At the Liturgy

At the Beatitudes, eight troparia from Odes III and Ode VI.

Prokimenon, Tone VII: The righteous man shall be glad in the Lord, and shall hope in Him.

Verse: Hearken, O God, to my prayer, when I make supplication to Thee.

Epistle to the Romans, Section 99.


Alleluia, Tone IV.

Verse: The righteous man shall flourish like a palm tree, and like a cedar in Lebanon shall he be multiplied.

Verse: They that are planted in the house of the Lord, in the courts of our God shall they blossom forth.

Gospel according to John, Section 52.

Communion Verse.

In everlasting remembrance shall the righteous be, he shall not fear evil tidings.

How the Ukrainian Elite Sold its Soul to Satan

Greed is a universal vice. It can be understood among the poor, though not among the rich, and yet ironically the rich are often the greediest. Many are willing to sell their souls for riches. After all, greed is the foundation and motivation of the capitalist system. In this respect many fingerpoint at the USA, ‘the land of the dollar’.

However, in my experience, most ordinary Americans are very generous, and not at all greedy. Greed is universal, among all peoples, though it does not exist among all, by any means, so generalisations are dangerous. In this respect many point at Ukrainian greed. Is there any truth in this? Let us look at some little-known facts first.

In 2021, the population of the Soviet-created Ukraine was not 50 million or 40 million, as it had been two, three and four decades before. By 2021 it was in fact 31 million. My many visits to the Ukraine on Church matters between 2012 and 2021 showed me that, as elsewhere in Russia and Eastern Europe, which I know well, women were not having children. You just did not see children in the street.

Families of one child were already extremely common by 2021. The general breakdown of family life because of the end of Communism and, far worse, after Communism, was clear to anyone. After all, why have children in countries which have no future, except endemic corruption, crime, alcoholism and as a result crumbling infrastructure? It is understandable.

Many young people were emigrating from Eastern Europe well before 2021. Countries like the Baltic States lost half of their population to the rest of the all-conquering EU and this is true of Moldova and the Ukraine too. For example, from the 90s on it became common to speak of ‘Russian brides’, but usually they were Ukrainians. Some were just poor women, who had no future in which so many men had been reduced to alcoholism or crime after the fall of Communism. I understand. However, some were gold-diggers with a strong sense of entitlement.

This incredibly low birthrate was the background to the Russian Special Military Operation of 24 February 2022. With mainly Ukrainian soldiers, from eastern Ukraine, who considered that they were fighting for their homeland from Kiev oppression, the Operation began to protect Russian-speaking Ukrainians in the south and east of the Ukraine.

They wanted to protect their families from the ongoing genocide run by Nazi Kiev and also from its threats, especially nuclear and biological, to Russia. The then population had been reduced to 31 million not just by the refusal to have children, but also by the millions who had already emigrated to Russia (the main destination, as ‘Ukrainians’ who lived in eastern Ukraine went there), but also many went to Belarus, Poland, Czechia and Slovakia and even further, especially to Germany.

What happened next? Under the influence of the wild propaganda of Kiev, invented by its Western puppeteers, panic set in. ‘The Russians will be in your homes in two weeks’ time, raping, murdering, stealing everything, as they have nothing themselves’. It was all the familiar delusional Western narrative, repeated from World War II. It was all nonsense, but many fell for it.

Up to another ten million fled from February 2022 on, especially to Russia, where many were evacuated to for safety’s sake. The population of the Ukraine today is fewer than twenty million, for hundreds of thousands have died in the army and millions live in the four new ex-Ukrainian, Russian provinces in the south and east.

True, there were the intelligent young Ukrainian men who fled. This was because otherwise they knew that they would be sent to fight and die and if they did not go at once, they would have to pay thousands of dollars in bribes to border-guards to get out a few days later. And many a Ukrainian mother protected her sons in this way. Why should young Ukrainian men die for the USA and its Nazi puppet-regime in Kiev? All this was worthy of praise in the most corrupt country in the world. There was no greed here

In reality, not all Ukrainians who fled in 2022 were actual refugees. Kiev and plenty of other cities are still operating today, the supermarkets are full, there are traffic jams on the roads, building sites work, garages are open, shops, schools, offices all operate in the same way as before. Ukrainians in England sensibly go back home for proper medical and dental treatment, unlike the third world medical treatment (‘take a paracetamol’) they receive in England. All go back to visit family, going through Poland by train.

Most ‘refugees’ never lived anywhere near the war and some left only after they had rented out their flats to other Ukrainians so that they could live in the West for free. For political reasons, Western countries offered them everything. And who would refuse free travel, free housing, free studies, free EU citizenship, a free holiday, free everything? (While at the same time letting poor and real Asian and African refugees from US wars die on the way to Europe, as they seek refuge, and also as Western governments leave their own citizens out in the cold). Such hypocrisy is traditional in the West. However, all the hypocrisy has done is to increase tenfold the Ukrainian sense of entitlement.

Everyone in Europe has seen some Ukrainian ‘refugees’ in their swanky German cars, not least in poor Moldova. Some register as refugees in two countries and get benefits in both. And Ukrainian prostitutes are everywhere. Cynics say that after the conflict, which will surely end in the disastrous collapse of Kiev and quite soon, Ukrainians will suddenly stop speaking Ukrainian and dust off their Russian, which virtually all can speak and well. If the Russians are going to pay better, why not speak Russian? It is easy to condemn all this, but only if you do not live there and have not been through the bitter consequences of the collapse of the USSR.

That Ukrainian sense of entitlement is embodied in Zelensky himself, who never stops asking for more, 50 billion here, 80 billion there, 40 billion elsewhere. And much of the money disappears into the pockets of Zelensky and the other, mainly Jewish oligarchs (like Kolomoisky, his boss, or Poroshenko, his predecessor) to pay for villas in Tel Aviv, mansions in west London and luxury condominiums in Miami. But if the West is stupid enough to give it to them, who would refuse? Much of the rest of the money has gone into the pockets of arms merchants, Lockheed, Raytheon, Boeing, BAE Systems etc and their politician friends who vote for their lobbies.

To get the job that the CIA was offering him, the actor Zelensky had first to improve his English and learn Ukrainian, which he hardly spoke, learn the scripts, written for him by US and UK PR agents and their Hollywood scriptwriters in Kiev, and dress as he was told, as any actor does. He had hit the big time; the world was his screen.

But at what cost? He had to sell his soul. 925,000 dead and wounded Ukrainian men so far and the country bankrupt. It promises nothing for the birthrate, now standing at 0.5 children per woman. The Ukraine is dying out. That was the choice they made. As they say: Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind. Satan is now exacting his price from those who sold their souls to him.

 

The Long March to the Inevitable Local Church of Western Europe

I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the promised land!

Martin Luther King, 1968

Introduction

One of the main hopes in my life has been Church unity and to see a united Local Church here one day. From the outset I could see that the forces of division were very strong. However, I still did not want unity at any price, unprincipled unity, but unity in Truth and in Love. Such unity is only possible once the Church administration is free of politics and respects and tolerates others. It is unity in Christ. Ignorance, narrowness and judgementalism are to be cast aside. However, the existence of a Local Church cannot be an end in itself.

We have the example of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA).  It was a very brave move to establish the OCA, but over 50 years on we can see that it has been a failure. We have to learn from that. As in that example, all the impediments to establishing an authentic Local Church anywhere, in our case, in Western Europe, are ideological, top-down problems, which come from the elite. These impediments are all by definition divisive, not unitive, and therefore cannot build a Local Church. There are three impediments, namely:

Nationalism

When I was young, any young person who approached Greek, Serbian, Romanian or Bulgarian Orthodox churches and asked to join was told, at best, to ‘go away’. ‘You are not of our nationality’. The only Orthodox Church which would accept those not of its nationality was the Russian Church. Unfortunately, the Russians were divided into three anti-unity factions for purely political, reasons. They concerned differing attitudes towards the then Soviet regime in Russia. Nevertheless, we had to be patient. We had no other choice, despite the squabbles imposed top-down on pastors and people. For example, one of these Russian groups was based around a personality cult with indecent undertones. I refused the priesthood there and we left. We sought Christ, not sensualists. It collapsed, as soon as the object of the cult had died. However, we realised that our task, to help bring unity to these three groups, could only be successful once the cause of division, the Soviet regime, had fallen.

In North America, there seemed to be some hope in the Orthodox Church in America (OCA), founded in 1970, which claimed to be the Church for all Orthodox in North America. However, it attracted relatively few of the Orthodox population, only about 10%. This was because it was unable to accept different nationalities, languages, calendars and customs, as it too fell into nationalism, namely, into American nationalism, and tried to impose ‘Americanism’ on all. In other words, it replaced Greek, Russian and other nationalisms with American nationalism and so could not become a Local Church for all. So some criticised it as ‘Coca-Cola Orthodoxy’, as they found much of it turned not towards the spiritual, but towards the lowest common denominator. Some there cruelly imposed the English language and made it obligatory, they had a Protestant spirit, an anti-monastic and modernistic ethos, and created spiritual emptiness, failing to provide the people with spiritual food.

Ecumenism

In the 70s and right up to the early 2000s many Orthodox bishops, some under political pressure, others because they were just superficial careerists and bureaucrats and had little faith, were engaged in a purely political movement called ecumenism. Now, the idea that Orthodox should be good neighbours with Roman Catholic and Protestants is of course accepted by all, except by the pathologically ill (see below). However, ecumenism, as such, is a political ideology, involving freemasonry (I was once promised the priesthood, if I agreed to become a freemason). Ecumenism involved compromises with the Faith, known as modernism, liberalism and, in general, ‘new calendarism’. This is completely unacceptable to anyone with an Orthodox consciousness and who is rooted in our Orthodoxy of the monasteries, pastors and people.

Typically of the ecumenists, many Greek bishops then declared that there was no difference between different Christians; as phyletists (racists) they sent English people away and instructed them to become Anglicans; in the 70s one Russian Metropolitan openly gave communion to Jesuits, whom he admired for their wealth and power (later he died in the arms of a Pope), giving rise to speculation that he had been a secret cardinal; another aristocratic ‘protopresbyter’ celebrated the liturgy in France with the filioque (!), so that ‘the Catholics will not be shocked’ and suggested ‘structures in waiting’, that is, there was no need for a Local Church, as we should wait to be absorbed into Roman Catholicism. true, the ecumenist danger has diminished over the last decade or so, but only to be replaced by yet the latest deformation, described below.

Pathology

The third and no less divisive ideology which impedes the development of a Local Church is neither nationalist, nor ecumenist, but pathological. This stems from immigrant inferiority complexes or else from the insecurity complexes of neophytes. The first complexes come from the second and third generations of immigrants who suffer from insecurity and want to make out that they have some exclusive ideological truth, which condemns all others who do not confess it. This is highly divisive and will never lead to the formation of a Local Church, which requires not intolerance and, even less, fanaticism, but openness to all. Such people are concerned only with exclusivism, to the point of the esoteric. The second set of complexes come from a pathological and unChristian need to condemn those who come from the same original background as the neophyte.

I remember a comment about one Dutch convert to Orthodoxy who came from a strong Roman Catholic family: ‘I am not sure if he is Orthodox, but he certainly is anti-Roman Catholic’. This complex illustrates that it is pathological and can reach proportions of hatred and jealousy which reach psychiatric depths. Such people never belong to the Orthodox Church, but always to sects and are capable of making captive parts of the Orthodox Church into schismatic sects and cults. This can be seen most obviously among old calendarists, but not only. Groups which have lost their ethnic base, like ROCOR and Antioch, and have to recruit from unstable converts, can be prone to such psychopathological fanaticism and exclusivism. Fortunately, such groups are very small and do not impede the majority, who are concerned with the millions of mass Orthodoxy.

Conclusion

What is the situation today? The pathological attract the internet generation of incels and other lonely and often unstable individuals, and not families. There is clearly a psychological disease here. This trend will not continue, for only families are the continuity of the Church down the generations. As for ecumenism, it died after the fall of Communist persecution and nobody talks about it today, though modernism and liberalism are still alive, especially among the old generation. As regards nationalism, the situation has changed.

Unlike fifty years ago, today, ironically, it is the Russian Church which has turned to nationalism and for now is in schism, largely turning its back on Non-Russians and on a Local Church. The problem is that pastors have been replaced by politicians and monks by managers. Now others, especially the Greek and Romanian Churches, which are in any case far larger than the Russian in the Diaspora, are generally turning away from nationalism and towards local people. Here there is at last hope for the future Local Church of Western Europe.

 

On the Suicide of Empires

‘America goes not abroad in search of monsters to destroy.’

President John Quincy Adams, 1821

‘Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.’

(In the Latin version ‘make mad’ is ‘dementat’)

William Scott, 1854

 

The Suicide of the Russian Empire

1916-1991

The Russian Empire was proclaimed in 1721. God gave Russia everything, by far the largest territory on earth, natural riches of all sorts, much genius, and the Orthodox Christian faith. But Russians threw it all away in apostasy. The first shot of the Fall was fired at the end of 1916, announcing the disaster to come. With the Emperor betrayed by the aristocratic elite within, enslavement was carefully planned and organised by their foreign allies. But Russia could only be destroyed by suicide, the suicidal consent to enslavement. After exactly three generations, 75 years, the Empire, at first Russian and then Soviet, had been destroyed. Only in 2022 did the New Russia show that it had learned from the treachery of 1917, declaring all traitors to be foreign agents and closing down all foreign-funded organisations and their media. The suicide had taken seventy-five years. It had ended in the rule of gerontocrats, Brezhnev and his followers.

The Suicide of the British Empire

1916-1956

The beginning of the British Empire can formally be dated to 1707, with the Union of England and Scotland. In 1740 it began singing its anthem ‘Rule Britannia’. In 1916 Milner’s Round Table group began the transfer of British power to the USA. They agreed that Russia would be overthrown and the US would enter the First War immediately afterwards. The British Century (1815-1916) had ended and the American Century had begun. A few months later came the Balfour Declaration, just after the second Russian Revolution, which brought bloodthirsty foreigners to power, implementing genocide there. Thus began the gradual suicide of the British Empire, dying in Suez in 1956, when the US betrayed the UK, establishing its own Empire. The British Empire, condemned by its own injustices worldwide, had ended. Its suicide had taken just forty years. The Empire ended with the half-American gerontocrat, the Victorian Churchill.

The Suicide of the American Empire

1990-2030?

The American Empire can trace its origins back to the centralisation of Unionist power after the Civil War in 1865. This had brought the south into the grasp of the industrial and oligarchic north. However, it was only after the Second World War in 1945 that American power came to dominate the Western world and most of the Non-Communist world. After the collapse of that Communist world which began in Berlin in November 1989, power went to the heads of the US elite and they actually believed that the whole world belonged to them, that history had ended with their triumph. Hubris was destroying them and so began their decline. The end of the American Century came in the Ukraine – the ultimate vanity project which opened in 2014. The slogan ‘Make America Great Again’ means it is no longer great. It had lost its faith, family life and identity. The decline is taking forty years. The demented Biden reflects its gerontocracy.

The Future: Five Great Powers

What of the future? What will replace the only ‘Superpower’, with which name the hegemon briefly flattered itself before its defeat and humiliation? To replace it, the nations of the free world are developing a New World Order, an Alliance of Sovereign Nations called BRICS, which replaces the failed UN, which replaced the failed League of Nations. However, from the world of nearly 200 sovereign nations, five strategic BRICS nations will play a particularly important role in the future, influencing the different regions and continents of the world. Clockwise, north, east, south and west, these are:

  1. North Asia (Russia) and Africa

With the world’s fourth largest economy, the largest in Europe, the Russian Federation is the ideological, diplomatic and military centre of the New World Order. It leads North Asia, that is Eurasia, the 5,000,000 square kilometres of the Eastern half of Europe (European Russia, the New Ukraine (Kievan Rus) and Belarus) and North Asia, including Korea and Japan. Russia also leads Africa ideologically, the land of the ancestors of the Russian national poet Pushkin, renewing the support of the martyred Tsar for colonially exploited Ethiopia and South Africa, both of which countries have been helped by Russia to join BRICS. Others African nations are decolonialising with Russian help and huge Chinese investment and are following BRICS: Algeria, Morocco, Niger, Burkina Faso, Uganda, Nigeria.

  1. East Asia (China) and Latin America

China has the largest economy in the world and is the first industrial and manufacturing centre of the New World Order. This ancient civilisation leads all East Asia, already with countries like Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Indonesia and Malaysia. China also leads Latin America, which Chinese explorers may have visited in about 1420 and is now receiving large Chinese investments, especially through the BRICS founding member, Brazil. China is now returning to its pre-nineteenth century greatness and advanced status as a world power, whose main value is harmony.

  1. South Asia (The Indian Subcontinent)

The most populous country in the world and its third largest economy, India, is the second industrial and manufacturing centre of the New World Order. It leads all South Asia, with the countries of the Indian Subcontinent. India and its neighbours like Bengal (Bangladesh) are returning to their manufacturing pre-eminence, which they had before British exploitation and captivity.

  1. West Asia (Iran)

This is the third industrial and diplomatic centre of the New World Order and leads all West Asia (once incorrectly called the Middle East), with countries like Iraq, Turkey, Syria, Saudi Arabia and all the Arab world. Iran has shown unique moral leadership in the question of Palestine and so will dominate West Asia, with Jerusalem becoming an international capital.

  1. USA and the Anglosphere

Although, weighed down by unpayable debt and perhaps unable to survive in its present form, with the second largest economy in the world,  USA, or whatever will replace it, will continue to dominate the Anglosphere. It has by far the largest population from the English-speaking peoples. The Anglosphere consists of Northern America (USA, Canada and Greenland), Oceania (Australia and New Zealand), and Northern Europe (see below). Although these countries are much weakened and discredited and their future is uncertain, they can, together, recover, though all will need a great dose of humility if they are to take their rightful and humble place as just another part of the world community.

Western Europe

The 5,000,000 square kilometres of the western half of Europe have in recent years been dominated by the organisation known as the European Union (EU). As an amorphous, US-manipulated, anti-sovereignty organisation of very different cultures and languages, this has no future and may well divide into four groups.

  1. The first group of countries consists of the, for the moment ten, largely English-speaking countries of the Northern Union. These are: the UK, Ireland, the Nordics (Iceland, Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland) and the Baltics (Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia). This northern group of countries, of which the UK has already left the EU, are dominated by the English language and ex-Protestant culture. Although the UK will almost certainly disintegrate into England, Scotland and Wales, and Northern Ireland will return to Ireland, all these by then twelve countries will become for a time at least, part of the Anglosphere (see above).
  2. The second group of countries consists of the, for the moment sixteen, countries of south-eastern Europe, the ex-Habsburg, ex-Ottoman countries, many of which are Orthodox countries. These are: Czechia, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Romania, Moldova, Bosnia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Montenegro, Albania, Macedonia, Greece and Cyprus. This large group of countries, including the Non-EU Western Balkans, will co-operate with Russia and China and, on an individual basis, join BRICS. However, first they have to remove their American, NATO or EU puppet rulers. This has already happened in Hungary and Slovakia, but Serbia, Austria, Croatia, Moldova and now Romania are following and others too will join them. The fate of Bosnia as an independent country is still uncertain, Montenegro may yet rejoin Serbia, and the Romanian part of Moldova may one day rejoin a free Romania, making perhaps only fourteen countries.
  3. The third group consists of the, for the moment, eight countries of south-western Europe. These are: Portugal, Spain, Andorra, France, Monaco, Italy, San Marino and Malta. These are all countries of Latin culture and will eventually follow the south-eastern European countries into BRICS. However, Catalonia may yet become independent, making nine countries.
  4. Finally, there is the fourth group, composed of the, for the moment, seven countries of the central strip of Europe (Benelux, Germany, Switzerland. Liechtenstein and Poland). These too will, in time, join BRICS on an individual basis, although the artificial country of Belgium may yet return to the Netherlands and France.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How St John of Shanghai the Orphan-Lover Adopted Us

When we moved back to England in 1997, we did not know to which saint or saints to dedicate our then small family community. So for a time we commemorated the names of the two local saints, St Edmund and St Felix. It was only in 2004 that it was revealed to us who to dedicate our church to in our situation. By that time, with Russians, Romanians, English and other parishioners present, we would need a multinational saint. But who?

Then one Saturday evening before the vigil service we saw a monk entering the church. He was very short, quite stocky and wearing his monastic veil which was moving as if in a breeze. Before we could speak to him, the monk had disappeared. We realised from photos that this monk was St John of Shanghai and he was going to take charge of us, after seven years of being ignored, despised and indeed persecuted by bishops and others.

Since then, in 2008, we bought – miraculously and through him – our own church, without help from any bishop. We now worship in the largest church in the world dedicated to St John. He has protected us from a rapacious man who wanted to take possession of our church and, on failing, then wanted to close it. St John has worked miracles and showed us myrrh and fragrance from our icons. He has comforted us constantly to this day.

We should not forget that St John’s title was ‘of Shanghai and Western Europe’. He spent thirteen years here, in Geneva, Paris, Brussels, London and elsewhere, whereas he spent less than four years in San Francisco, which was where they crucified him. And indeed he reposed not in San Francisco, but in Seattle. It was in Western Europe that we saw his missionary identity, preaching to all nationalities and understanding different needs.

All who are interested in the life of St John of Shanghai will have seen the infamous photo of 9 July 1963. This photo shows him sitting as a defendant in a court room in San Francisco. Sitting beside him were the only three bishops who supported him, one a Serb, Bishop Sava. St John had been put on trial with the approval of other ROCOR bishops from the Synod, who had to their shame also suspended him from his see. He awaited his crucifixion.

Today we recall that St John was born in what is now the Ukraine, the country that ten years ago the US made into its sacrificial lamb. Here too St John shows us the way forward as our inspiration. In February 2022, all our parishioners left their passports at the door. Russians and Ukrainians, Romanians and Moldovans and our 21 other nationalities forget their passports and stand together in solidarity. We have only one passport: Christ, Who unites us.

This is also the passport of St John, who alone can bring unity to the whole tragically divided Diaspora. The universal saint, he lived in exile in Serbia, Macedonia, China, the Philippines, Western Europe, North Africa and North America. His parents lived in exile in Venezuela. Many of his spiritual children took refuge in Australia. He served in Slavonic, Greek, Mandarin, French, Dutch and English and venerated the saints of the Old West. And so do we.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rebaptism and Pathology

Fifty Years of Recent History

Nearly fifty years ago, in 1976, a scandal took place in the Orthodox Church in Guildford, England. A very young, poorly educated and inexperienced Church Outside Russia (ROCOR) priest, married off to the first woman come so he could be ordained at the uncanonical age of 22, rebaptised a group of recent converts. The converts had previously been received from the Church of England into the Moscow Patriarchate in the usual Orthodox way by chrismation. Here they had been receiving the sacraments for some time until they had been told by a rather fanatical priest that they needed to be rebaptised! The local Moscow Patriarchate bishop, supported by all other canonical Orthodox, complained.

His petition went to the then still Orthodox ROCOR Synod in New York. Its leader, Metropolitan Philaret, whom no-one would ever suspect of liberalism, commented that this rebaptism was a form of Neo-Donatism. The priest was rebuked – later he divorced the woman that he had been ordered to marry and left the priesthood and the Church. Sadly, the bishop who had had him ordained and had preached the ‘theology of rebaptism’ to him was not rebuked. However, some years later that bishop also ended up outside the Church and then died. An extreme right-winger, he had first created several more scandals, including consecrating as bishop a pedophile in Russia, outside his canonical territory.

Two years later, in 1978, there took place the rebaptism of the late French Catholic monk Fr Placide (Deseille) in the sea at the foot of the Athonite Monastery of Simonopetra. Fr Placide was very well-known in Roman Catholic France and had great respect as a scholar. Later I met him. However, he had already transferred to the so-called ‘Byzantine rite’, as the Roman Catholic rite had been deformed after the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. Fr (now St) Sophrony the Athonite, whom I knew very well, was very upset. For him this rebaptism was not only quite unnecessary, but also a provocation. He expressed the Orthodox theology of the sacraments, as practised by our 1,000 bishops.

This is that there are no sacraments outside the (Orthodox) Church, but there are sacramental forms or rites. The grace that is missing from them is made up for, completed, by contact with the Church and Her life. Thus, a rite of baptism with water (triple immersion is not compulsory – for Orthodox emergency baptisms are conducted without this) in the Name of the Holy Trinity outside the Church is acceptable as a valid sacramental form. The grace that is clearly missing from it to make it into a sacrament is communicated by reception into the Church. To repeat the sacramental baptismal rite is a type of fundamentalism, formalist literalism, which is actually typical of Protestantism.

Pathology

Today we are seeing again this same Protestant ‘Will I be saved?’ neurosis among some converts from Protestantism to the Orthodox Church. In this there is always the sectarian desire to condemn others, which is why Protestantism consists of a myriad of warring sects. This ‘OneTrueChurchism’ is a typically Protestant reflex. It is pathological because, like all pathologies, it is based not on Christian love, but on hatred for others, not on theology, but on pathology.

There are those who want to prey on the insecurity of neophytes in order to make such new converts doubt in their own Orthodoxy, using jurisdictions just as Protestants use denominations. But why do they want to prey on their insecurity? Simply because they want neophytes to become dependent on them. Creation of dependency is again typical of sectarianism, which is always associated with cults, that is, on guruism, personality cults, lust for power.

There is also a need among these cult leaders or gurus to recruit others. With very small flocks and so lacking money – given their anti-pastoral fanaticism, that is understandable – they are desperate to fill their near-empty churches. Without ethnic groups to attend their ‘temples’ (as they call churches), their only audience is naïve, young people, including the lonely, incels, closet homosexuals and others with problems. They make easy prey for the spiritual vultures.

Thus, one young Englishman I know is on his third rebaptism now. He lasted three years in a parish of 200 in the canonical Church, then went off to a tiny ROCOR community (nowadays they are always tiny) for about one year. However, that group of ten individuals was not good enough for him, so he went off to another tiny old calendarist group, which rebaptised him. He stayed with them for only about one year but they were not exclusive enough for him!

Six months ago he was rebaptised in a group, numbering six worldwide! The latest news is that he is dissastisfied with them, for they too are not strict enough for him. Here is the map of his way out of the Church, because that is how it will end – and it always does end in that way, outside the Church. This ‘anabaptism’ (Greek for rebaptism) is typical of Protestantism, whose underlying mentality and reflex is clear from the outset. It is not Orthodox, for it is not Love.

 

Peace for the Ukraine – and for the Orthodox Church?

US Disengagement?

Even before Trump had been elected, the US elite had realised that it had to disengage from its Ukraine project. Russia had not been weakened, regime-changed, dismembered and destroyed, as had been the US plan all along. Instead its economy was booming, becoming the fourth biggest in the world, President Putin was more popular than ever and BRICS had taken off. As for the illegal Western sanctions, they were ignored by 90% of the world and damaged only the West. The US puppet, Zelensky, in his bunker in Kiev is clearly delusional, taking, they say, cocaine and desperately threatening invasions of Russia, without troops, arms and munitions, and even nuclear war, without nuclear weapons.

The claim by President-elect Trump during his campaign that he would achieve peace in the Ukraine within 24 hours, even before he entered the Oval Office was all presupposition and hubris. How could he end a war which the US had already lost. and Russian victory is ending anyway? Peace does not depend on him, even if the tragedy began as a US proxy war. Peace depends on the actions of the Russian military and President Putin. Indeed, peace may come through Russian military victory and Ukrainian military collapse even before Trump assumes office. That would probably be very welcome to Trump, enabling him to begin as President unburdened of the curse of the Ukraine, which has ruined everything.

The fact is that the President-elect does not want to solve the conflict in the Ukraine, what he wants is to disengage from it, so that the US can save money and at last ‘pivot to Asia’. The Ukraine is now a distraction from US strategic interests. Trump wants to run away from Kiev, just as the US ran away from its failed wars in Saigon and Kabul. Trump can do this very easily, if Kiev collapses before Trump’s inauguration. He can simply blame Biden for everything. This will be his ’exit strategy’. The puppet-master has changed and so the puppets must change too. After all, Trump has from the outset stated that the war would never have begun, if he had been President at the time. And that may well be true.

Peace Talks?

But who can Russia talk too? The Russians cannot talk to the Ukrainians, as their President is illegitimate and talks with Russia were literally outlawed by Kiev in 2022. The Russians cannot talk to Europeans, as they have shown themselves to be delusional liars and treaty-breaking traitors ever since 2014. This can be seen from their refusal to implement the so-called Minsk Accords, which they openly confessed were simply delaying tactics. In any case, the narcissistic and so delusional European ruling class is discredited and hated by the peoples of Europe and represents only the past and its own selfish interests. That ruling class is unable to talk to Russia because it is incapable of dealing with reality – its defeat.

In any case, Russia will certainly not sit down and talk now, when it is on the brink of victory. Would the Allies have stopped in January 1945 to talk to Hitler? Russia will not stop now, victory is in sight. Anyway, as we said, Kiev has literally outlawed talks with Russia and its President is illegal, as his term of service ended earlier this year, like that of his Parliament. The war has continued for so long only because of Biden’s support and EU and UK backing. And bankrupt Europe cannot replace the US, as Europe has run out of money and arms and cannot let its own troops die there. And it is troops that the Ukraine needs, for it has lost nearly a million soldiers, 517,000 of them in the unfinished year of 2024 alone.

As a result, with no-one to talk to, the Russians are taking back more and more territory from the Ukraine, 100 years after it was illegally handed over to the Ukraine by the anti-Russian Bolsheviks. There will be no ‘frozen conflict’ or ‘stalemate’ here, just Russian victory. ‘Frozen conflict’ was possible two years ago. The only people the Russians could talk to now are the Americans – but under Trump. Trump is a businessman and wants to disengage from a loss-making business and must sack Zelensky. As the Americans no longer have any diplomats, the hope is that Trump will appoint the only European politician left – Victor Orban – to talk not only to the Russian President, but also to the Russian Patriarch.

The Russian President

The Russian President could express the following terms to Trump’s representative, perhaps Orban: Firstly, drop all 16,000 illegal anti-Russian sanctions and absurd criminal charges. Then, recognise as Russian the four Russian provinces which have already joined Russia, and, if they have been taken by Russia by then, the next four once Russian provinces of the south and east, including Nikolaev and Odessa on the Black Sea coast, and the three more once Russian provinces to the north-east (Chernigov, Sumy, Poltava). The Russian President would leave the rest to become again the real Ukraine, perhaps to be called ‘Kievan Rus’ (Kiyivska Rus’), more or less mirroring Belarus to the north.

Such a nationally homogenous, Ukrainian-speaking Kievan Rus would consist of 14 administrative areas, just over half of the original 27 (including the two that were in the Russian Crimea), its new easternmost provinces being Kiev, Cherkasy and Kirovohrad. This would represent an area of about 260,000 square kilometres and a pre-war population of about 16 million. This would draw Ukrainian refugees back from Europe. Kievan Rus would be a neutral, sovereign and independent nation, that is, demilitarised (free of NATO) and denazified (free of the EU) which are racist, anti-sovereignty organisations. Agreement could then be reached and Russia would by treaty guarantee the territorial integrity of all European nations.

Of course, they would have to make a condition that Moldova should carry out referenda for any groups among its border population, such as those in Transdniestria and Gagauzia, who may wish to join Russia. Similarly, referenda must be held for Romanian and Hungarian minorities on the borders of Kievan Rus who may wish to ‘go home’. If the three tiny Baltic statelets were at last obliged to grant human rights to their Russian minorities, there would be no threat from Russia to them. With such an agreement, the Western half of Europe would be secure and could slash its military spending. Then Trump would see his dream come true and abandon NATO, which could be dissolved, just like the EU.

The Russian Patriarch

The Russian Orthodox Patriarch also has to be involved in these talks. Leader of by far the largest Local Orthodox Church, the whole Orthodox Church of 200 million has been in chaos ever since the British-orchestrated palace revolt or ‘Russian Revolution’ of February 1917. Without the Russian Church, several key Local Orthodox Churches were taken over through political interference by Great Britain and, after the Second World War, specifically in 1948 with the forced removal by the CIA of Patriarch Maximos V of Constantinople, by the USA. Freedom for the Orthodox Church, the end of Western interference in its internal affairs, is essential for peace in the Ukraine and for justice in Church affairs.

There would have to be an agreement with the Russian Church, which has also suffered as a result of American policy in the Ukraine and elsewhere. This is principally because of the Zionist neocon ideology, implemented by Nuland, Pompeo, Blinken, Biden etc. This established a fake Church in the Ukraine, permitted the open persecution of the real Church there and also sanctioned the Russian Patriarch personally. What could the terms of the Patriarch be and what concessions could he grant in return? Here there has to be mutuality, as there have been excesses on both sides. Here are Russian Orthodox terms to be imposed on the Greek Churches by the USA, with compensation from the USA:

  1. Closure of the fake Church in the Ukraine, the OCU, with Constantinople withdrawing its absurd Tomos, which justified it. All stolen property is to be returned to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (see Concessions 1, 2 and 3 below).
  2. Release of all Orthodox in Finland, Estonia and Lithuania from the uncanonical jurisdiction of Constantinople, introduced from the 1920s on, on condition that all Orthodox there be granted a new Autocephalous Baltic Orthodox Church (see Concession 5 below).
  3. No more interference by Constantinople in the affairs of the Polish Orthodox Church and, especially, in those of the Church of the Czechia and Slovakia.
  4. Granting to the Russian Church of jurisdiction over all Africa, except for Egypt, which has its own historic Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, based in Alexandria (thus returning to the pre-1920s situation). This is on condition that Moscow establishes an Autocephalous African Orthodox Church there by 2050.

Russian Concessions:

  1. Immediate resumption by Moscow of communion and concelebration with the Churches of Constantinople, Alexandria and other Greek Orthodox Churches.
  2. Immediate rescinding of all ‘suspensions’ and ‘defrockings’ of clergy in Russia, the Ukraine, Moldova, Lithuania, Western Europe and elsewhere, which were carried out for political reasons because of clergy disagreements with political, nationalist or uncanonical sectarian ideologies, imposed by certain Russian bishops.
  3. Autocephaly for the Kievan Rus Orthodox Church within twelve months.
  4. Autocephaly for the Moldovan Orthodox Church on the remaining national territory of Moldova within twelve months, in concert with the Romanian Orthodox Church, in order to reunite all Moldovan Orthodox in one Church. The Moldovan Diaspora in Western countries would come under the care of the Romanian Orthodox Church.
  5. Autocephaly for all Orthodox (about 500,000 in number) in the three Baltic States and Finland, forming an autocephalous Baltic Orthodox Church within twelve months.
  6. All Russian Orthodox in the Diasporas in Western Europe, the Americas and Oceania are to be instructed, under threat of excommunication, to merge by negotiation into new Local Churches, to be founded on those territories by 2050. This would be conditional on all other Local Churches which have Diaspora jurisdictions issuing the same instructions to their Diasporas.

 

On Former Archbishop Welby

The resignation of the ultra-woke Archbishop of Canterbury, head of the Church of England, for covering up the crimes of a sadistic pervert is not a surprise. Anglican bishops and certain Anglican clergy have for generations been suspected of being perverts, as was finally portrayed in the 1968 film ‘If’. Surely, the Archbishop’s resignation will be only the first of many more. And there will surely be trials and imprisonments. Justice demands it.

However, their perversions are only some among the many of the whole British Establishment, for example, the pedophiles so far disclosed in the BBC – for the three so far are only the tip of the iceberg. The reason for the Establishment promotion of wokeness is the self-interested impunity of perverts. Now, slowly, the perversions and identities of various ‘queer’ members of the government are being disclosed.

Apparently, there are still as many as 25 million baptised (‘christened’) members of the Church of England, though they are rapidly dying out. However, only some 500,000 of them attend church on Sundays. This means that the proportion of practising is about 2%. This is very similar to the rates of practice in Roman Catholicism and in the Orthodox Church in England, as well as in most of the Western world.

Some Roman Catholics appear to believe that the way out of this scandal is for scandalised members of the Church of England to join Roman Catholicism. This is absurd. The Church of England is profoundly Protestant, anti-Roman Catholic and was founded on enmity towards it. And what about the profound and scandalous pedophilia among Roman Catholic clergy? What would attract Anglicans to perhaps even worse?

In any case, every bishop of the Church of England is a political appointee, not a parish priest with pastoral experience, but an Old Etonian who worked in the oil industry – like Archbishop Welby. No surprise then that Church of England bishops appear to have no spirituality whatsoever. Therefore, surely, there is even less excuse for Roman Catholic bishops, who are not appointed by atheist/Hindu/Jewish Prime Ministers of the UK?

There is even less excuse for Orthodox bishops in the UK, who are not appointed by the UK Prime Minister either. And yet some neophytes to the Orthodox Church appear to think the same as Roman Catholics, that members of the C of E should join the Orthodox Church. This is equally absurd. It is doubtful if even one in a thousand of the practising members of the Church of England (that is, 500 in all) are interested in Orthodox Christianity.

For them Orthodoxy is unProtestant, and ‘full of foreigners’, as one of them told me. (It seems that he did not know that Christ is also ‘a foreigner’ – a brown-skinned Asiatic from the Middle East. He thought that Christ is a middle-class Englishman and Rotarian – like himself). And then there are all the perverts among the bishops of the Orthodox Church. Take the one decades ago who used to ordain his boyfriends.

Then take the one who decades ago was sacked from teaching in Edinburgh for his perversion and was forced to teach in Glasgow. Or the one in Europe who was exiled to Siberia (though his priest-boyfriend went unpunished). We will not go into detail about the two who were deposed in Russia and sent to monasteries. Nor will we say anything further of the recent scandals in Paris and Budapest on the part of bishops of two different Local Churches.

The real problem here is the gay mafias of Orthodox bishops, not just in Eastern Europe, but also in Western Europe and the USA. As gays, they will punish any whistle-blower, who discovers that his bishop has the ‘Grindr’ app (like one of those in Russia too) and spends Saturday evenings drinking in bars with his boyfriend. When the whistleblower discreetly asks for the Grinder addict to be removed, the mafia punishes the whistleblower. It was ever thus.

Their hatred for you comes from the fact that you are more popular than they are, because you have compassion for the people, you are a pastor, a shepherd. Their jealousy comes from the fact you have a normal family life, whereas they are perverts and so do not and cannot have a normal family life. We have had enough of wolves in shepherd’s clothing. Archbishop Welby is only the tip of the iceberg. Orthodox – sort out your own house first before you criticise others.

 

 

Weeping and Gnashing of Teeth in the Ukraine

Mr Trump is not yet President of the United States. However, his election just over a week ago and his nomination of several members of his administration is changing the world, not least in Europe. Here members of the political elite like Scholz, Macron and Starmer are trembling. However, none more so than Mr Zelensky in Kiev. We do not know if Mr Trump likes Mr Zelensky or President Putin. Probably nether of them. They are not very relevant to him. What we do know is that he likes himself. Indeed, as a narcissist, what he now wants is personal vengeance for all that was done to him for eight years.

As a result, many are now trembling. Others, like Mr Pompeo, excluded from his administration, are angry. Among the trembling are some in the Patriarchate of Constantinople, like Archbishop Elpidiforos (who had his photo taken with President Biden, whom he recommended to his flock) or Metropolitan Emmanuel and the other modernists there, unlike those there who hold traditional values. Not least the pseudo-clerics of their fake Church which the above bishops set up in the Ukraine. The pseudo-clerics include Sergei Dumenko and the gangsters and perverts of the ‘OCU’ – ‘Orthodox Church in the Ukraine’ under his authority. Read on:

https://spzh.live./en/zashhita-very/82999-without-pompeo-the-beginning-of-ending-world-support-for-ocu-project

 

The New Age of Sovereignty

You always knew who the goody was and who the baddy was in the cowboy films of the mid-twentieth century. The goody always wore a white hat, the baddy a black hat. Simple. This reflected the Cold War mentality of the time. The Capitalists were good, the Communists were bad. It was all an oversimplified world of good versus evil, right versus wrong, ‘with us or against us’, as per Bush. It was a simple, bipolar, dualist, Manichean world of black and white. It was not of course reality, which is usually lighter or darker grey.

In reality, although nobody liked the tyranny of Communism, especially those who lived in Communist countries, the paradoxical tragedy was that after the fall of Communism, the world became unipolar. In other words, the US and its Western vassals could brook no rivals. It was the ‘spoiled brat syndrome’ – ‘I am the only one’. ‘Hegemony’, that is, supremacy and domination over all, became the order of the day. But hegemony and bossy control freakery do not work – ask any Californian bishop who has tried to impose it.

However, as the whole world, except for the Western, now knows, neither a bipolar world (Capitalist versus Communist), nor a unipolar world (Western), work. Rule by one or two always leads to despotism. The solution is a multipolar world, which breaks the tyranny of the monopoly of one and the warring opposition of two. This is the realm of the Holy Trinity. Sadly, the West wants either unipolar or else bipolar, the ‘democratic’ (West) versus the ‘autocratic’ (East). This is the heretical nonsense of Manichaeism.

The fact is that the Western Establishment oligarchies are certainly autocratic, they ignore and despise their ‘deplorable’ peoples. ‘plebs’, as in France, the UK and Germany, all governed by minority governments. For the people are the greatest threat, as we saw from the very unexpected (for the elites) results of the referendum on Brexit and the recent US election. They were not unexpected for the people. As for the pro-Western CIA-sponsored dictatorships in the Arabian Peninsula, Latin America and Asia, are they not autocratic?

But the most autocratic of them all is the Kiev regime, which has banned other political parties, critical media, sent all opposition to the firing squads, prisons and torture chambers of the dreaded Secret Police, and is now even banning the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. On the other side, India is the world’s largest democracy. And President Putin can easily win any election, in the same way as the very popular political leaders of China and Iran. Some people like such ‘autocratic’ governments – the more the better, they say.

As long as the Western elites and their venal media criminalise or ‘hitlerise’ a dialogue with ‘cancelled’ Russia (though they talked to the USSR and China during the Cold War), the only end to NATO’s anti-Russian war in the Ukraine is Russian victory and their total defeat. And that will not be long now. The Western elite never cared about Ukrainians, or any other Non-Western people, it just used them as proxies, so their own troops did not have to die. However, this does not mean that the Russians are not guilty of mistakes.

For one thing, as President Putin has openly admitted, there was the continual Russian naivety with regard to Western politicians from 1989 on. The Russians actually thought they were dealing with honest people, viz the Minsk Accords. And then there has been the problem of the hangover of the old Soviet centralisation. After 1991, the Russian Federation failed to give the real Ukraine (the north-western half, not the Russian southern and eastern half), autonomy and to respect its culture and language, authentically Ukrainian.

It was the usual condescending Great Russian chauvinism and imperialism, dating back to the pre-Soviet times of the Imperialist Establishment, which says that if you are not Russian, you are a third-class citizen. This is the same attitude as in the Russian emigration, pre-Soviet and post-Soviet, towards all Non-Russians. This imperialist attitude of both many Russians (and many Americans – they have that in common) meant that the US conquered very venal Kiev in 2014 for a paltry $5 billion. But look at the miserable results.

The scale of the events in the Ukraine is that of a Shakespearian tragedy. The main role was performed by the CIA-hired and very overpaid actor and comedian Zelensky, who  firsthad to improve his English, learn Ukrainian and be reclothed in khaki sweatshirts for the role. Like Caesar, expect Zelensky to be betrayed and stabbed by Brutus. The Ides of March are near. President Putin is waiting for free Ukrainians to take power, perhaps with Trump’s backing. Then banned peace talks can start and the European elite can resign.

There needs to be a New Ukraine, sovereign, independent, free of NATO and the EU – which are not going to survive anyway. And as a Sovereign Nation  it must have its own autocephalous or independent Church. Ordinary Ukrainians, unlike their greedy oligarchic elites – usually Non-Ukrainians – have been the sacrificial lambs of both American and Soviet Imperialism. Hopefully, President Putin can persuade the Church in Moscow to abandon centralism and give autocephaly to all Russian Orthodox in territories outside the Russian Federation.

This may mean that before Trump’s inauguration in seventy days’ time the Russians will advance towards the Dnieper, taking from four to seven more Ukrainian provinces, including the Black Sea Coast, so joining up with Transdniestria. The territories outside the Russian Federation, where Russian Orthodox live, would need autocephaly, meaning a Church of the New Ukraine and a Church of the Baltics. All the other Diasporas, as well as Moldova, would have to come to an agreement with the other canonical Orthodox there.

Imperialism has always been a problem. It bankrupted the seventeenth-century empires of Spain and Portugal, of eighteenth-century France and of nineteenth-century Britain, each time the bankruptcy taking place in the century after greatness. Imperialism caused two ‘World’ (European) Wars. Now in the twenty-first century, Imperialism has bankrupted the USA. We believe that the Russian Federation has learned from the bankruptcy of the equally Imperialist USSR. The administration of the Russian Orthodox Church must learn that too.

We have entered the new Age of Sovereignty. Sovereignty is what multipolarity means, where one nation is balanced out by the others and no-one can become too powerful. All defend their own and each other’s interests, as the UN should have done. Away with the old Imperialism of unipolarity, World Dictatorship, and the bipolar Imperialisms of two rival blocs, everyone else crushed between them. We have entered the world of Sovereign Nations. Imperialism caused two World Wars and has nearly caused a Third. Enough is enough.