My brief exchange with Hegumen Andrei Erastov

Just sharing, for a better understanding of this unjustified schism – My brief exchange with Hegumen Andrei Erastov in Melbourne-

 Thursday September 15, 2016, 

  email conversation, 

  oldest email on top

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From: frandrei

To: oregdan

> Dear Daniel,

> You once sent me your thoughts on the rights of a bishop in the church. You used the meaning of the word despot in your reasoning. May I ask you to resend me this message. 

> H. Andrei

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From: oregdan

To: frandrei

Well, what's the use, Fr. Andrei?

Nothing I say or have said, will stop you from what you are a party to.

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From: frandrei

To: oregdan

There were interesting thoughts which I was planning to use

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From: oregdan

To: frandrei

Dear Fr. Hegumen Andrei (Erastov),

Nothing... I... have to say..... matters.

I am a nobody, not a bishop!

Read on intertnetsobor.org, the informative and authoritative articles and his wise comments below them, of Vladyka Agafangel, -OUR HEAD BISHOP, as he knows what is genuine Orthodoxy.

He is qualified and consecrated/gifted .... by the Holy Spirit, to teach you the Orthodox Faith, and teach it well!

And only if that bishop, falls from his holy office, and goes into heresy and apostasy, and himself departs from obedience to the Holy Church,  ...then...we must flee him and refuse his authority,.. and ONLY THEN!

*As otherwise, even if that ruling head bishop may have a 'difficult personality', or be seen as 'hard-headed', or he may make some judgement mistakes in his rule of the flock [including mistakenly listening to and trusting some advisors who do not give him the full or truthful information on persons or events, or MISLEAD the bishop for their own selfish purposes, ...who is after all, a human being and therefore is capable of being imperfect in some aspects, etc.]... even then, we cannot throw him out or say that he is no longer our lawful ruling bishop!

In such cases, we need to speak with him, in love, and with RESPECT to his high office, and explain our grievances.  That is the Christian thing to do, and not to make a church destroying schism, full of malicious hate and slanders and lies.

And it is his God appointed place to TEACH US THE FAITH!... and to keep order in the Church.

HE applies the canons. He administers discipline... and blessings.... just as the apostles did, and Orthodox bishops have for over 2000 years.

BUT SURELY YOU MUST KNOW THIS!

If you do not know Orthodox Church history and patristics and canons, and lives of the saints, and the central place of bishops, [yes, guided by the Holy Spirit], to rule the Church, which means to apply DISCIPLINE when needed, [to protect souls from their evil influence, and to call the sinners to repentance, to thus, SAVE THEIR SOULS],  ...since the time of the 12 Apostles till now, how can I ....educate.... you?... I who am a long ago tonsured and now a long retired, reader,... only.

However, the more of your surprising statements of your peculiar and personal beliefs that I read, the more I see in you, a fellow Protestant, which I used to be, in my childhood till about 16, and which  Protestant belief system I was deeply schooled in and raised as, before I became Orthodox.... in a long catechumenate before I converted to Orthodoxy, – it was not a sudden move for me, but it was God's lead.

The Church has never been ruled by 'feelings' instead of by the canons or the bishops, [as you recently asserted in your newest letter posted on rocana.org ] ...instead of canons, or Bishops.  It has been, ruled and overseen by living consecrated PEOPLE, Bishops, successors of the Apostles... applying/administering...  the LAWS of the Church, in either 'economia' [liberality] or 'akravia' [strictneass], the SACRED Canons.... a central part of our Orthodox Holy Tradition.

But why do... I.... have to teach you this?

Have you landed from another planet in the solar system?  Were you born on Mars? ..or on the mythic 'Krypton' [like the movie figure, 'Superman')?  Or, did you start  your earthly life, [in Russia I assume] originally holding to sound pious Orthodoxy, and then, somehow, bit by bit, straying into heterodox sectarian myths and fantasies? 

Have Baptists or who? influenced your thinking?... perhaps in Russia, some 'priestless' Old Believers? ..[which we have here in Oregon], ..or some other non-Orthodox, but Russian sectarians?..  perhaps the Orthodox hating, Molokany... or perhaps Russian Pentecostals or Seventh Day Adventists' ?..or who else?

Perhaps you have read and absorbed their books, their ideas?

Perhaps Ecumenism has poisoned your mind?  Perhaps living in Russia, you have been scared and influenced by Sergianism, from the Moscow Patriarchate?

You, the highly esteemed former Jordanville teacher, [and as a graduate yourself of it?]  and a monk-priest, and one who should know basic fundamental Orthodoxy?

From things you say, you seem to be, at best, some sort of a 'renovationist'... which is basically, what the Protestants believe was the 'Early church', etc... THEIR MYTHIC IMAGINED, 'PURE Early Church'... one which actually never existed.

Protestants are mostly ignorant of Church history... which is the impression which some of your statements also indicates about your approach.

They too, do not believe that bishops have any authority, but that by the will/vote of the 'Priesthood of all Believers', [i.e. the mostly un-ordained majority of laity] they... run church life, even deciding on what doctrines they believe, or wish to change from time to time,  ...that all 'believers' are EQUAL ....in knowledge and in spiritual gifts and wisdom and authority.

Your rejection, and indeed, your malicious public mocking HATRED of lawful Orthodox episcopal authority, especially of our Vladyka Metropolitan Agafangel, and our Holy Synod, and also your public disparaging of and impious anti-Orthodox disrespect for the person of our lawful ruling hierarch, and our ROCA Holy Synod, proves that you are... or have become, a heretic, not only a schismatic. 

WHAT HAS GONE SO WRONG IN YOUR LIFE, your spiritual journey, that you have come to this sad dead end, this non-Orthodox mind-set?

Truly, the more strange and bizarre statements that you make, and have posted on the internet and on rocana.org,  [again, more typical of Protestants] with your fellow know-nothing schismatics, ..the more I am amazed  by you, indeed I am shocked...... REPENT of your leading others to Hell.

And if you no longer believe in The Orthodox Faith, the authentic version, then best for you to openly leave it, and form your own new Protestant style sect, or join other sectarians, as their pseudo-bishop or 'Elder' as they often title such a leader-(?).  You of course, would have to be a leader, not a mere follower.

May you stop and reconsider your entire gone-sour belief system, and return to PIOUS REAL Orthodoxy... for your own soul's sake, and to encourage others to cease this church destruction.

And finally I ask you: Are you part of,--- [you as a guiding-ideologue leader figure for them,] of this destruction of ROCA, because you in your heart really support the MP?... and Putin?.. which is the clear easily-proven reason that the Ishevsks clergy and those two bishops with them, left our ROCA... on their own... because our ROCA would not support what Putin has done in Ukraine, and they being pro-Putin 'Russian patriots'. 

Do they pay you?

May God save you... from yourself and from heresy and schism.

Return to Orthodoxy, to the Russian Church Abroad.

Rd. Daniel Everiss in Oregon

P.S. What you and your fellow schismatics are doing now, is no better than what the betrayers and Sergianists have done before you all, before then, under Sergius Stragorodsky, but also in 2007.

And if you all get your fondest fantasy wish, that some sort of a kangakoo-style court of an 'All-Diaspora Sobor' can be called, [somewhere] why do you seem to automatically expect that it will depose and boot out, our Metropolitan Agafangel, ..and rather... not all of you schismatics, instead?

The Canons are all against you folks.

Plus you have no right to even call for or attend such a sobor.

You are lawless, and anti-Orthodox, making up your own new sect, and not purifying the church.

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From: frandrei

To: oregdan

You are funny, Daniel. I don't deserve that you spend so much time for me 

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From: oregdan

To: frandrei

But Fr. Andrei, what you are doing is not funny!

Who is laughing?

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