About the "Berean" Protestant...sects. o.e. they are varuous versions of it-Inbox Daniel Everiss |
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Friday, August 17, 2012
About the "Berean" Protestant sects
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Analysis: Syrians, Christians and Russia
ANOTHER!- "Analysis: Syrians, Christians and Russia" (not a bad one, in general) –
Category: Certainly, an interesting analysis, and one that I can, more-or-less, agree with ...much..of.
It....seems.... largely level headed. However, for anyone on this earth!, to put any genuine degree of actual trust or hope, in the KGB-front, called, "The Moscow Patriarchia" – aka, 'The Russian Orthodox Church' (so-called by worldly Orthodox and by the secular heterodox world in general) or it's actual head, V. Putin, is totally absurd and pathetic. To believe that it represents the ..historical authentic Russian Church of historical, Russian Nation, is dumb, dumb, dumb!
Putin and his 'church's' only interests in Syria,(as with anywhere else in this world), have to do with the Kremlin's military and political power schemes, and that's it!........ NOT saving the necks or the souls of Christians, or Moslems, or anyone. And, the very idea, that.... KGB Agent Michael (Kyrill-Gundaev) is truly The Russian Patriarch? (ha! ha! ha!) – what a joke of the century!
That 'church', especially in foreign places, solely expounds and serves the political/military/espionage/propaganda interests of the current Kremlin KGB Putin gangsters, and thus, how!? is it possible that such dastardly proven corrupt atheistic criminals, care one iota about... spiritual matters or with 'saving fellow Christians', etc, in bloody revolution-wracked suffering Syria, ...or anywhere?
It is RUSSIAN-Federation, bombs and bullits and armaments, sent to dictator Assad, by pious Vladimir Putin, which are slaughtering Syrian men, women, and little babies, every day!...and reducing their homes and cites to rubble, daily.
One wonders: perhaps, pious Orthodox Christian, Vladimir Putin is lighting candles in church, crossing himself hundreds of times, and buying many many panachidas, for all those he is helping to kill? (Even Ivan the Terrible, contrary to Putin, had much true heart anguish & guilt for those he caused to suffer and die! even as he continued his foul deeds).
The Communists and their KGB/FSB....have ever? ,.. 'saved souls'? They have indeed, sent many souls out of this world, to meet their Maker, by murder, that is for sure.
We call them, Holy Martyrs!
Just my musings-
Disgusted with KGB/FSB agent V. Putin, KGB agent, Pat. Kyrill, and their..mass-murdering pal, Assad, and the whole world, for just standing by, while the population of Syria is slaughtered like animals.
WHEN will this be brought to an end???.
If not soon, then I fear that Almighty God, will let fall upon the entire world, His final punishments, and we will all get, World War III, a thermo-nuclear war to end all wars.No one will escape that, no one.
God does not turn His blind eye to the sufferings of the innocent, to the murder of the stranger, the orphan and the widow, even if...we...His supposed servants, do.
Rd. Daniel
Analysis: Syrians, Christians and Russia
by Samer Libdeh
Background
Since the beginning of the Syrian revolution in March 2011, Christian leaders have been divided over whether to support Bashar al-Assad’s embattled regime. Historically the Christian community (mainly those affiliated with the Orthodox Church) have enjoyed certain privileges and protections from Assad’s secular-leaning regime, serving in important security, economic and political positions. Whilst Christians were barred from serving as President due to their religious status, they were able to practice their religion freely.
With each passing day the Assad regime looks weaker, and indeed many policymakers and pundits are now talking about when rather than if the Assad regime will collapse, especially following the recent wave of defections. The majority of Syrian Orthodox Christians, much like their brethren in Egypt and in Iraq, now find themselves on the wrong side of history. Will they now decide to throw their support behind opposition forces, thereby ensuring that they have a seat at the post-Assad political table or will they simply flee?
Christians’ Critical Situation
The Christian community in Syria constitutes around 10 percent of the population (approximately 2.6 millions). The majority of Christians belong to the Orthodox Church (approximately 60 percent), which has historic links and ties with Russia. As is well known, Russia is not only a significant political ally of the Assad regime but it is also an important trading partner to Syria. The Assyrians, Protestants and Catholics comprise Syria’s other main Christian denominations.
Low birth rates and immigration to Europe, US, Canada, and Australia especially since the military coup in 1970 that brought the Assad’s dynasty to power has resulted in a steady decline in its numbers vis-a-vis Sunnis and other groups. Nevertheless, Christians continued to enjoy a relatively privileged position under Assad. Understandably the majority of Christians in Syria fear a loss of this status and worse still, potential reprisals from the majority Sunni and opposition groups in the event of the collapse of the Assad regime.
Rather predictably, the Assad propaganda machine has played upon these fears and attempted to present itself as the ‘bulwark against Sunni extremism’ – arguing that life under Assad is better than under a Sunni-dominated government. The view from neighbouring Egypt is hardly an encouraging one for Christians, where the parliamentary and presidential elections won the Muslim Brotherhood and more extreme Salafi parties political power, leaving Egypt’s Christians and secular forces concerned about the possibility of further Islamization of Egyptian culture and open discrimination against religious minorities.
Whilst Syria is not Egypt, the Assad regime’s claims of a sectarian war has been greatly assisted by reports suggesting that Christians have been targeted and killed by Syrian opposition groups.
On July 25, Der Spiegel reported that thousands of Syrian Christians have fled the country to neighbouring Lebanon due to attacks waged by rebel forces. “Thirty-two Christian families have found shelter and asylum in Qa, which is located only 12 kilometres away from the Syrian border.’’ According to one refugee, Christians don’t have much choice other than to align themselves with a strong leader who can protect their interests. “The rebels haven’t managed to convince me they are fighting for more democracy.
Christians and the Russian Orthodox Church
The Russian Orthodox Church has historic ties to Middle Eastern Christians. In 1774, after the treaty of Kucuk Kaynara, the Russian Federation became the official protector of the Orthodox Christians in the Ottoman Empire. Accordingly, Russian became a stakeholder of domestic politics in countries including Syria, Iraq, Palestine, Jordan and Lebanon.
The influential Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, Kirill I, has publicly opposed any “international intervention” (read Western intervention) in Syria and has offered its support to the Assad regime out of fear that Christian interests will be much diminished or even extinguished in a post-Assad Syria. A report suggests that during the Patriarch’s recent visit to Syria, Christians expressed concern over the possible loss of basic freedoms and the protection of their religious rights. Furthermore, there is increasing anxiety and concern regarding the growing militarisation of the anti-Assad uprising and the failure of opposition forces to engage with Christian intellectuals and local leaders.
The Russian government has actively encouraged the Orthodox Church to speak out against opposition forces in an apparent effort to obtain some “cover” for its continued support of the Assad regime, including the repeated blocking of UN sanctions. Reports suggest that the Russian Orthodox Church has been working closely with the Russian Foreign Ministry in an effort to ensure that Syrian Christians concerns and voices are heard. The Church recently hosted an exhibition near the Kremlin dedicated to Syrian Christianity. Speakers at the event were reported as repeatedly expressing great concern about the fate of Christians and Christianity in Syria.
Christian Opposition
Nevertheless, a growing number of Christians, including George Sabra, Fayez Sara, Michel Shammas and Michel Kilo have joined opposition groups like the Syrian National Council and the Assyrian Democratic Organization, which has openly opposed the Assad regime since the initial uprising last year, in clear defiance of the official Church.
Sabra in particular has argued that the Christian community has not been served well by its leaders, and the Orthodox Church’s hesitancy in aligning itself with revolutionary forces may be a significant strategic error as it potentially leaves the majority of Christians politically isolated in a post-Assad Syria.
Indeed, the Orthodox Church appears to be ignoring the fact that continuous fighting has led to senior Christian figures being exiled from Syria, including Father Paolo Dall’Oglio, who was exiled in June after criticising Assad. The Assad regime has also been accused of firing rockets on Churches who they claim have been financially supporting the opposition. Additionally, security forces killed Priest Basilius Nassar while he was helping an injured Christian during clashes between government and opposition forces. There have also been reports that security forces have entered Orthodox Churches and stolen its contents, leading to anti regime protests by some Christians.
Policy recommendations
Orthodox Christians and their leaders would be much better served if they reached out to opposition groups, including Assyrian Christians who have been advocating for a secular Syrian state that protects and respects the rights of all minority groups, including Christians. Christians could be an important ally for the opposition groups, given the Syrian Orthodox Church’s historic connections with Russia.
The Orthodox Church may be able to put pressure on the Russian government to support any future proposed United Nations sanctions directed against the Assad regime, thereby adding more pressure to an already embattled government. Further, given the perilous state of the Syrian economy, foreign investment, including investments from Russia will be critical to supporting and sustaining many businesses and key sectors of Syria’s economy, which has been badly damaged by years of failed state-led policies and now due to internal conflict.
Christian groups and leaders should also be reaching out to their counterparts in the West and elsewhere by advocating for future foreign aid and investment to be linked to the protection of minority rights. Christians have important cards to play, but they need to be played carefully. Christians need to develop allies and push to ensure that their rights are respected and that they can live with dignity and respect. It’s going to be a long and difficult path ahead, and one that few have traveled. It is vital now more than ever that Christians from all denominations come together and agree the way forward for their community through a national dialogue.
While the West is currently nurturing relationships with the new Syrian leadership, mainly the Sunni-dominated Syrian National Council, it is important that the West also lends support to minority groups, including Christians – in order to avoid a repeat of the Iraqi case where violence and religious persecution followed the collapse of the Saddam Hussein regime.
Christian politicians and intellectuals have been the main source of liberal and progressive enlightenment in many parts of the Levant following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and have made an enormous contribution to Arab cultural, and the economy. Whilst the collapse of Arab secular-leaning dictatorships in Egypt, Libya, Iraq, and possibly now Syria presents many challenges for Christians, this important community must be allowed and encouraged to play an important political role in shaping the post-Assad era.
various ancient Byzantine chants
A random SMALL selection of various ancient Byzantine chants: Greek, Arabic, Serbian, - etc.
Among all the world-wide types of ancient worship chants, this tradition is what I am most familiar with.
Missing from this selection are Romanian, Russian, Bulgarian, Georgian, Armenian, Coptic chants, also of ancient or early origins, some of pure Byzantine musical roots,or of even more ancient, PRE-BYZANTINE ROOTS & USAGES others showing a degree or so, of westernization – i .e., the use of HARMONY but – all of these chants, as most of the liturgical texts which are being chanted, are of ancient origin, no matter what language they are sung in.......)
Note: Various... western... 'Gregorian' Chants, also, originate from the basic same, early/ancient worship-musical roots, as Byzantine. Traditionally, no musical instruments, only the human voice, are permitted/utilized in these ancient sacred chants, and still in the Eastern Orthodox Church, are proscribed. Only the human voice is used in divine worship, just as the angels use only their voices to praise God.
1)Byzantine chant-Praise the Lord from the heavens
2) O Trisagios Ymnos (Thrice Holy Hymn)-
3) Cherubic Hymn-Theodoras Vasilikos-Our Home
4) Agni Parthene Despoina
5) "Byzantine Hymn"
6) An Arabic Christmas Carol (sung in Arabic, -'Syro-Byzantine' chant)
7) The Great Doxology (sung in Arabic & in Arabic-Byzantine chant)
8) (Ancient) Hilandar (Serbian) Monastery, (on Mt. Athos in Greece),
Liturgy sung by monastic brotherhood, in Serbo-Byzantine/Old Slavic-chant, with some Greek)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mv_oHFA6SSE&feature=related
Apparently, showing in these many photos by these visitors there, the extensive recent earthquake
Apparently, showing in these many photos by these visitors there, the extensive recent earthquake
damage to many of the buildings. We have also heard, that similar heavy earthquake damge has also hit
many other of the ancient Mt. Athos monasteries. Very sad!
9) Hymn of St. Kassiani-Boston Byzantine Choir (sung in English)-
10) O Virgin Pure-Byzantine chant, sung in English
Russians Want Church Out Of Politics
(From a poll of population): "Russians Want Church Out Of Politics" – WAKE UP! ROCOR/MP!!!
Note: This, RIA Novosti article, can be read in it's original Russian, or machine translated into English (or perhaps into other languages?), ... which choice, any reader has on this site, or through google or some other translation link:
Category: ...interesting, another glimpse of attitudes among average Russians in the Russian Federation. Many, obviously, are more and more, not sympathetic to the MP, and they....see ...it's strong ties to the Putin regime.
Why? ... Oh Why? couldn't the clerical leadership of the ROCOR/MP, also, ( who mostly live here in the free west!, not see these obvious links?, or in the least, NOW-?...even if they were mostly hoodwinked and duped, in the recent past, into that Putin-engineered 2007 're-union' fiasco-?
The 'Moscow Patriarchia',... IS..... VLADIMIR PUTIN and his KGB/FSB gang!
WAKE UP! ROCOR/MP! ... you are in/under/subservient to, a pretend 'church', actually run by the KGB! ........ one which has zero spiritual or canonical connection to that real Russian Church of Holy Patriarch Tikhon or of the countless Holy Russian New Martyrs.
From RIA Novosti/Aleksander Vilf 14 August, 2012,16:28
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
But, the emperor has no clothes!
Actual short video of the full "Punk Band Cathedral Performance" (filmed by themselves)
Why view this? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19047290
And why give any serious importance to the 'Patriarch's" condemnation words of it as, 'blasphemy'?
Of course, no Orthodox people anywhere, can condone such a (seeming) irreligious display, inside any Orthodox church., nor any disrespectful acts inside Orthodox churches, including, TAKING THE NAME OF GOD, IN VAIN!
(Just as most Orthodox would not condone those current MP impious blasphemer invader/raiders inside our ROCA Malin, Ukraine Pokrov Church,
urinating into the Theophany Holy Water container, and then boasting of their feat!) – and all of the impious, MP and governmental seizures and impious outright robbery of the holy objects, even of the holy relics of saints!, of those Suzdal ROAC churches, plus the ever growing blasphemous, attacks, and even burnings, of how many other Orthodox churches or places of worship, by that HOLY 'Patriarch Kyrill' in cahoots with his fellow KGB/FSB pal, V. Putin and gang-?
But, please!...let us keep these matters in their true perspectives.
This relatively mild/short clown act protest act, (actually more silly than truly impious), was directed... not against religion, but against Putin, but it was performed inside a prominent MP show-piece cathedral- ( built largely with Russian-Mafia monies), under which, there are enormous worldly business enterprises going on, daily!, which in itself, is disrespecting the sacred precints, i.e. blaspheming? of a temple of God,-and violating all sorts of ancient Orthodox canons, that corrupt MP church-organization which is 100% always supportive of the corrupt Putin oppressive regime.
And to my view: Who is more guilty of blasphemy?...if not this very
KGB agent wearing patriarch's garb, PIOUS (?) Mr. Kyrill-Gundaev..Putin's .fellow KGB/FSB agent, and the entire false-"Russian Church' named, 'The Moscow Patriarchia'-??? (founded by Joseph Stalin back in 1943),
Constantly, that ...pious?....MP patriarch and his MP-'church' impiously,
attack and confiscate and destroy and...even desecrate, those Russian Orthodox clergy, people, ( some clergy or laity who are murdered!), who reject that false MP'church'.
So, who are the, 'blasphemers'...? (defilers of the Name of God)-?
Certainly not these sincere but clown-like young women.
To me, they are more in the category of the proverbial court jesters (who were often the only ones who dared to mock the king to his face, and live to tell of it), or of the children watching the proud emperor in procession, who was wearing his new 'invisible clothes', who were the only members of the throng, who were honest, and who thus shouted out,
"But, The emperor HAS NO CLOTHES!"
But, just my observations-
Rd. Daniel
P.S. However, we are told by his admirers about V. Putin: "He is a sincere Orthodox Christian, – he crosses himself in church and he lights candles there."
"We want Russia to be a better place"-Punk Band allies to continue protests against Putin-
"Our protest is not at all, anti-religious, but is against Putin!"
Monday, August 13, 2012
Monopolies for Monks
YOY&YUCK!--"[pastoralcr] Monopolies for Monks | The American Conservative"
The Chaotic American-Orthodox Scene:
Category: ?...perhaps?: current confusing inter-Orthodox/Vagante false-'uncanonical'-"Orthodox"? .... shenanigans(?)
(the reader of this, a conversation from the internet, needs to decide who they label with which-ever label! and who they think is in the right or in the wrong, etc.
At any rate, this information is mainly shared for those that might be, somehow, affected by it, as it was sent to me by a retired Orthodox priest, to be... shared.
IF... you, do not feel affected by this, then just forget it!
Monopolies for Monks | The American Conservative
Last Thursday a Boston district court judge ruled in favor of the Holy Transfiguration Monastery, finding that a former member, now an archbishop in another Orthodox sect, illegally copied seven of the monastery’s texts and posted them to his website.
It’s a fascinating case but difficult to break down as it lies at the intersection of two particularly arcane subjects — copyright law and the politics of the Orthodox church. Even the appeal ruling’s single-sentence conclusion conveyed some bewilderment: “Our pilgrimage through the complexities of copyright law concluded, we keep our words here few — for the foregoing reasons, we affirm the decision of the district court.”
At its most basic level, the dispute concerns how to balance the right of the monks to make a living — via a government-granted monopoly — against internet-age understandings of fair use, and the church’s evangelical interest in religious texts being openly available. The texts in question run the gamut from an original translation of the Psalter based on the septuagint to a set of homilies by the seventh-century bishop St. Isaac the Syrian.
The Holy Orthodox Church of North America, a small synod of which the Holy Transfiguration Monastery (HTM) is effectively the spiritual seat, and the Genuine Orthodox Church of America, which Archbishop Gregory now leads, both have their spiritual roots in the Russian Orthodox Church but separated during the movement toward ecumenism in the mid-1980s, which both groups consider a heresy. According to OrthodoxWiki, “HOCNA is not in communion with any mainstream Orthodox church.” Prior to that time, the HTM was “spiritually affiliated” with the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad.
“When the bishops … who took over after the death of the metropolitan in 1985 had a different mind and began changing the direction of the church—which is a very long and complicated story—we broke that,” says Father Pacomius, a monk at HTM who worked on several of the translations in question. “But there was no legal bond between us that gave them any control over our property or copyrights. The copyrights were in the Holy Transfiguration Monastery’s name.”
In the late 1970s, Gregory left the monastery, obtaining permission from the church to start his own monastery in Colorado. Around the same time, the first of what became a pattern of allegations of sexual improprieties began to arise. The ROCA, for its part, decreed the HTM schismatic in 1987 and suspended its leader, Archimandrite Panteleimon, saying the monastery dissolved its affiliation to protect the members from having to openly account for their sins.
In the process of researching the Holy Orthodox Church of North America, I came across this website calling the faction a “cult” and sent an email asking who operated it. Fifteen minutes later I received a phone call from Archbishop Gregory.
Which is to say, the man who has most vocally opposed the monastery’s actions — going so far as to operate a website cataloguing its many sins and in 2000 penning a “Call to Repentance” — has now been successfully sued by them. Given the conspicuous bad blood between Archbishop Gregory and the HTM, and the fact that other illegal copies of these works exist, which Fr. Pacomius concedes, it’s important to question why he was targeted. The monastery claims it was due to the unusual amount of work he posted online: ”He’s the only one who’s done it to this magnitude. He has infringed more than everyone else put together. And this is the second copyright infringement he’s committed against us. In 2005 he printed one of our translations without giving us credit or getting permission.”
Archbishop Gregory claims the copied texts constituted a mere “one percent of one percent of their documents,” and that by suing the monastery is “using the court to get at me. Keep in mind, they never sued anybody else.”
Furthermore, the HTM translations were in wide use at the time they dissolved their ties with ROCA.
“They’re very similar to other translations, but our Russian bishop said ‘let’s get standardized and we’ll use the translation that the monastery did in Boston.’ So we’re all using it, then they leave the church because they’ve been caught in immorality, now they’re saying to the church, which gave them the authority to translate it, ‘no you can’t use it anymore or you have to recognize us.’” As to any further action, he says, “We’re going to talk to the lawyers and see what we can do.”
“One of the works copied was called the Octoechos, his pdf ran to 300 pages,” says Fr. Pacomius. “The work called the dismissal hymns, his pdf ran to 600 pages. Both of those were unpublished, so he was forestalling our right to decide when to publish these works and in what form.”
“The archbishop’s lawyers said our work was merely derivative. We take older translations, cobble them together, they used the word ‘cobble’ over and over again, and slap our copyright on them and sue other people for infringement. We called their bluff. The originals are ancient texts in the public domain. In some cases we consulted previous translations. But we revised them so much that it’s not a simple matter of copying; there isn’t what is called ‘substantial similarity.’”
Needless to say, these distinctions are often difficult to make. “We could have put up others, the translations are so close,” says Archbishop Gregory. ”When you say ‘Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us,’ there’s only one way you can translate that from the Greek. But now if we put up a translation that was made in 1860, and there are translations from the Russian church done very well in England, they could say ‘hey that’s our translation.’ And the judge there in Boston will say ‘yup, that’s word-for-word,’ and find us at fault.”
Some readers might instinctively recoil at the notion of the government intervening to prevent the open dissemination of religious texts, which is what happened in this case. Still others might object to religious texts being used as a revenue-generating device. In any case, given contemporary trends toward open information and free-content business models, it might have made more practical sense for the monastery to post its own pdfs of the texts online for free. Had they done so the entire dispute would have been avoided and the wider distribution would have probably led to more people buying the lucrative hard copies anyway — the kind of people who want a copy of the Horologion aren’t generally going to settle for a pdf on an iPad. It’s also worth noting that the dispute wouldn’t have occurred if the monastery and Archbishop Gregory had remained in the same synod.
Nevertheless, it’s pretty clear that by any reasonable definition, copyright infringement occurred. The court made the right decision, but was the monastery right to seek one? The argument that making the files available cut into the monks’ ability to make a living seems exceedingly weak. Moreover, even if it did — and I very much doubt it would — if the freely-available files led to more people becoming interested in the True Faith, wouldn’t that be worth the potential loss? It’s hard to see the monastery’s actions as motivated by anything other than personal resentment. And it isn’t behavior one would expect from a community concerned with saving souls.
Jordan Bloom is the Associate Editor of TAC. Follow him on Twitter.
It’s a fascinating case but difficult to break down as it lies at the intersection of two particularly arcane subjects — copyright law and the politics of the Orthodox church. Even the appeal ruling’s single-sentence conclusion conveyed some bewilderment: “Our pilgrimage through the complexities of copyright law concluded, we keep our words here few — for the foregoing reasons, we affirm the decision of the district court.”
At its most basic level, the dispute concerns how to balance the right of the monks to make a living — via a government-granted monopoly — against internet-age understandings of fair use, and the church’s evangelical interest in religious texts being openly available. The texts in question run the gamut from an original translation of the Psalter based on the septuagint to a set of homilies by the seventh-century bishop St. Isaac the Syrian.
The Holy Orthodox Church of North America, a small synod of which the Holy Transfiguration Monastery (HTM) is effectively the spiritual seat, and the Genuine Orthodox Church of America, which Archbishop Gregory now leads, both have their spiritual roots in the Russian Orthodox Church but separated during the movement toward ecumenism in the mid-1980s, which both groups consider a heresy. According to OrthodoxWiki, “HOCNA is not in communion with any mainstream Orthodox church.” Prior to that time, the HTM was “spiritually affiliated” with the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad.
“When the bishops … who took over after the death of the metropolitan in 1985 had a different mind and began changing the direction of the church—which is a very long and complicated story—we broke that,” says Father Pacomius, a monk at HTM who worked on several of the translations in question. “But there was no legal bond between us that gave them any control over our property or copyrights. The copyrights were in the Holy Transfiguration Monastery’s name.”
In the late 1970s, Gregory left the monastery, obtaining permission from the church to start his own monastery in Colorado. Around the same time, the first of what became a pattern of allegations of sexual improprieties began to arise. The ROCA, for its part, decreed the HTM schismatic in 1987 and suspended its leader, Archimandrite Panteleimon, saying the monastery dissolved its affiliation to protect the members from having to openly account for their sins.
In the process of researching the Holy Orthodox Church of North America, I came across this website calling the faction a “cult” and sent an email asking who operated it. Fifteen minutes later I received a phone call from Archbishop Gregory.
Which is to say, the man who has most vocally opposed the monastery’s actions — going so far as to operate a website cataloguing its many sins and in 2000 penning a “Call to Repentance” — has now been successfully sued by them. Given the conspicuous bad blood between Archbishop Gregory and the HTM, and the fact that other illegal copies of these works exist, which Fr. Pacomius concedes, it’s important to question why he was targeted. The monastery claims it was due to the unusual amount of work he posted online: ”He’s the only one who’s done it to this magnitude. He has infringed more than everyone else put together. And this is the second copyright infringement he’s committed against us. In 2005 he printed one of our translations without giving us credit or getting permission.”
Archbishop Gregory claims the copied texts constituted a mere “one percent of one percent of their documents,” and that by suing the monastery is “using the court to get at me. Keep in mind, they never sued anybody else.”
Furthermore, the HTM translations were in wide use at the time they dissolved their ties with ROCA.
“They’re very similar to other translations, but our Russian bishop said ‘let’s get standardized and we’ll use the translation that the monastery did in Boston.’ So we’re all using it, then they leave the church because they’ve been caught in immorality, now they’re saying to the church, which gave them the authority to translate it, ‘no you can’t use it anymore or you have to recognize us.’” As to any further action, he says, “We’re going to talk to the lawyers and see what we can do.”
“One of the works copied was called the Octoechos, his pdf ran to 300 pages,” says Fr. Pacomius. “The work called the dismissal hymns, his pdf ran to 600 pages. Both of those were unpublished, so he was forestalling our right to decide when to publish these works and in what form.”
“The archbishop’s lawyers said our work was merely derivative. We take older translations, cobble them together, they used the word ‘cobble’ over and over again, and slap our copyright on them and sue other people for infringement. We called their bluff. The originals are ancient texts in the public domain. In some cases we consulted previous translations. But we revised them so much that it’s not a simple matter of copying; there isn’t what is called ‘substantial similarity.’”
Needless to say, these distinctions are often difficult to make. “We could have put up others, the translations are so close,” says Archbishop Gregory. ”When you say ‘Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal, have mercy on us,’ there’s only one way you can translate that from the Greek. But now if we put up a translation that was made in 1860, and there are translations from the Russian church done very well in England, they could say ‘hey that’s our translation.’ And the judge there in Boston will say ‘yup, that’s word-for-word,’ and find us at fault.”
Some readers might instinctively recoil at the notion of the government intervening to prevent the open dissemination of religious texts, which is what happened in this case. Still others might object to religious texts being used as a revenue-generating device. In any case, given contemporary trends toward open information and free-content business models, it might have made more practical sense for the monastery to post its own pdfs of the texts online for free. Had they done so the entire dispute would have been avoided and the wider distribution would have probably led to more people buying the lucrative hard copies anyway — the kind of people who want a copy of the Horologion aren’t generally going to settle for a pdf on an iPad. It’s also worth noting that the dispute wouldn’t have occurred if the monastery and Archbishop Gregory had remained in the same synod.
Nevertheless, it’s pretty clear that by any reasonable definition, copyright infringement occurred. The court made the right decision, but was the monastery right to seek one? The argument that making the files available cut into the monks’ ability to make a living seems exceedingly weak. Moreover, even if it did — and I very much doubt it would — if the freely-available files led to more people becoming interested in the True Faith, wouldn’t that be worth the potential loss? It’s hard to see the monastery’s actions as motivated by anything other than personal resentment. And it isn’t behavior one would expect from a community concerned with saving souls.
Jordan Bloom is the Associate Editor of TAC. Follow him on Twitter.
The Shepherd August issue
"The August Wolf hot (It's the weather!) off the press."- News/Pious Saints Lives, etc. from England, St. Edward's Brotherhood
From: theshepherd@mac.com
Subject: Fwd: The August Wolf hot (It's the weather!) off the press.
Date: Mon, 13 Aug 2012 15:21:26 +0100
To:
Bless!
The August 2012 issue of "The Shepherd" and the calendar insert for August are now posted on the Brotherhood website: <www.saintedwardbrotherhood.org>
Pray for us as we enter the fast of the Dormition.
With love in Christ,
Fr Alexis, sinner
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