If this is not the right place for this post, be sure to move it.
I guess Facebook has been the scene of a major firefight in recent days. I only learned of that when I saw this stern reprimand to -- yes, exactly this : An Insider's Attempt to Disorient the Orthodox.
Here the insider is a widely-listened to speaker on her youtube channgel, Sister Vassa [Larin], daughter of Fr George Larin, who wrote that he had been an altar server for St John Maximovitch in Shanghai. Whether this is fully true or not, probably no one can say at this late juncture. After all, anyone could magnify their contact with St John in retrospect to enhance their prestige and position.
However, let me preface this with the observation that Sister Vassa had made some BIZARRE remark on RocorStudies site. I could go dig it up if anyone is interested. The main point is that the well-educated sister's tone was shockingly strident. She pounded angrily against the 'patriarchy'. She may not have employed that term but the gist of her comment was in that vein. Coming from a nun raised from childhood in Metropolitan Philaret's Rocor ?? Perhaps that comment she made a couple of years ago was a RED FLAG for her ultra-liberal viewpoint compared with that of Rocor.
Here is the crackdown on her outrageous remarks on her facebook page. This was an important step to stamp out the flames of this scandal before it spreads farther.
Also to dissociate the Rocor Synod from this radical in its ranks. If one follows the trajectory from her angry feminist commentary on RocorStudies to her facebook writing discussed here, one despairs of where she may head next. One worries that she is almost ready to abandon her monasticism and take up some unthinkable life. God Forbid !
I see Sister Vassa dared to post this on St John Maximovitch's Feast Day. What an insult to the memory of the Saint -- and that of her own parent. Though Fr George Larin is retired now, in 2 years he will have served as a Priest for 50 years, says the internet. One can detect an acute displeasure with the wayward nun in the use of the word "the" before her name in the first paragraph here. Outraged commentary by individual clergy will be posted tomorrow, as it is edifying for any Traditional Orthodox reader.
Surely this behavior of Nun Vassa's was a stab in the back to her Synod. Insider attacks are some of the most insidious.
"July 19, 2017
Circular Communique from the Chancery of the Synod of Bishops
The Holy Synod, having received the recent text of a publicly-posted e-mail exchange, dated 2nd July 2017, between the Nun Vassa (Larin) and a correspondent, entitled “EMAIL OF THE WEEK: (from a mother, on MY SON IS HOMOSEXUAL),” together with follow-up correspondence, also posted publicly on 8th July 2017, is compelled to confirm to its flock and to all Orthodox Christians that the counsel contained therein is in contradiction to the Church’s teaching on sexuality, repentance and family life. It does not represent an Orthodox understanding of anthropology or theology, and in the counsel it purports to offer presents a grave spiritual danger to those who might follow it, in terms of their own understanding of sexuality, as well as in the rearing of children.
While it is not the norm to reply from the Office of the Holy Synod to materials posted on the internet, in this instance the wide readership of the various resources published by this author, who is an Orthodox monastic, has the potential to lead readers astray and we therefore feel compelled to issue a brief word to the faithful. It should be clear to men and women of faith that mere verbal acknowledgement, with regards to homosexuality, that “actively living it out is a sin,” is not sufficient to establish a text’s keeping with Orthodox teaching in the light of the Gospel, when the same text nevertheless equates homosexuality in numerous places to a “God-given gift, and cross,” or “one’s gift-and-cross of (homo)sexuality” — suggesting, in utter departure from all Christian teaching, that this or any means of behaviour which God identifies as sinful may be His deliberate bestowal upon some (thereby falling into the social trap of suggesting that “God made me that way”); further, that such an entrance into sin is “not a ‘choice’”; and moreover, rather than encouraging that a parent of a child identifying as homosexual should help him, with the Church’s loving care, to repent and seek healing unto redemption of soul and body and the fulness of life, instead suggest either that the child be encouraged to remain in his sin as a “humble presence in [his] parish,” falsely equating a consequent withdrawal of approach to the Holy Mysteries to the example St. Mary of Egypt, whose long struggle without Holy Communion was not due to her steadfastness in sin but to the extreme conviction of her utter repentance; or yet worse, that the parents of a child should seek out a parish that deliberately and knowingly “is acceptive of your son’s particular gift-and-cross,” once more ascribing homosexuality as a bestowal of God, encouraging at the same time the departure from ascetic transformation and the seeking out of a community that might wilfully abandon the Gospel teaching towards repentance, knowingly permitting the faithful to languish in their sin rather than be healed.
In these spiritually confused times, when many are being led astray by social norms that employ the pretensions of compassion to abandon the creation order and the teachings of Christ, which are the only true source of authentic compassion and genuine spiritual healing, there can be no room for ambiguity or false witness on such critical matters. Only the Gospel, which Christ proclaims in His Church, provides true spiritual medicine; all deviations from its life-creating message only contribute to the wounds and illness of an already-beleaguered society.
We instruct therefore that the contents of these publicly-posted materials be disregarded by the faithful as contrary to the teachings of the Gospel and pastorally harmful; that they be withdrawn and removed from any web sites or publications that seek authentically to represent Orthodox theological and pastoral teaching; and that in the future such materials be treated with most extreme reticence and caution."
http://www.synod.com/synod/eng2017/2017 ... otice.html
A quick glance through some of the responses to Sister Vassa's distasteful remarks shows that some are blaming her association with Catholics. She was taught by Archimandrite Robert Taft as I recall, who is a famous Catholic theologian.
But that is a ridiculous argument.
Instead the problem stems from something far out of balance within her. Is it that anger I detected in the RocorStudies post ? And could it be demons of pride which got inflated by her success with her 'coffeehour' video series ? I skimmed through the first episode but could not watch more, even due to the name of coffee !
[ What's wrong with calling the program Tea with Sister Vassa ? ] But also because her style didn't click with me. I notice in her wording in the aberrant facebook writings that Sister Vassa employs the typical modern pop terms and style of speaking. That's strange for a monastic, but it's always a bad sign. It means the speaker in the mainstream mentality. Sure enough, her advice to the writer of the question shows that she subscribes to that mainstream agenda which promotes this deviant evil in order to force the public to first tolerate it and then condone it.
Perhaps the Rocor Synod needs to take further action by suspending Sister Vassa until she retracts the offending statements.
So far, according to Fr John Whiteford's refutation of her postings, the nun has not apologized to date.
If Sister Vassa doesn't agree to issue such a retraction, then perhaps she has percolating inside her a host of other clashes with Traditional Orthodox views which have yet to come to the surface. In such case, she should leave her monastic vocation and Rocor too, perhaps join the OCA..