I used to think that the internet could be used as a tool for good, to enlighten people and lead them to the Faith, to comfort the lonely and to reach out to those near no parish. And, I still believe in that possibility.
But I've come to see the dark side. My heart is sore. People whom I know and love have, through internet participation, found themselves members of more jurisdictions than they've been to Paschal Liturgies. Discussions which could be edifying instead tear down, and put the participants in danger of violating the canons:
Canon 121 of the Nomokanon (Abridged Collection of the Holy Canons of the Holy Apostles, St. Basil and the Holy Councils) states:
"It is not meet for a layman to reprove a priest, or to strike him, or to rail against him, or slander him, or to rebuke him to his face, even if what he [the layman] says is true. If he should dare to do this, let the layman be accursed, and let him be cast out of the Church, for he is cut off from the Holy Trinity and sent to the place of Judas. For it is written, 'Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people.'"<
I am a member of ROCOR, and have been since my baptism in 1974. My bishops are the ones who instructed us in the dangers of ecumenism and the need to pray for the healing and restoration of Russia. When they ordain someone, he's a priest forever after the order of Melchizadek. When they defrock someone, I am not to consider him an authority.
A few years back, I was offered a lucrative editing job putting together a volume of Mothers' Prayers from all over the world. The book was to have Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Hindu, Moslem, and Jewish prayers as well as those from small tribes. The volume, done by someone else, sold well and brought in a lot of money. But I couldn't participate, because to line up the Orthodox prayers next to the Jewish and the Native American was to say that they are all the same, that they are all of equal value.
I can't pretend that an epistle written by someone my bishops defrocked is the same as one written by Met. Laurus. The internet is full of reports (wars and rumors of war) about ROCOR and the path that she followed and the path that she's on. I can't encourage people to read these things. I encourage people instead to go to church.
For a long time I justified my participation on the list -- a voice of dissent, a chance to defend. But people will believe what they will. I think the best I can do now is to log off and work on my own life. It is the path that St. Seraphim encourages. I will probably lurk from time to time, but I think we've reached the end of my usefulness as a poster.
I wish you all better things than the internet offers.
I wish you a fruitful fast and a blessed Pascha.
In Christ,
Matushka Ann Lardas
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) tonight. That's the type of thing I could not be reminded of enough.
