Texas' Tikhon, "Deacon" of ROCOR?

[away]

I want to apoligise for my stupid post and the bother it caused you, Justin.

[Tikon]

I want to apoligise for my stupid post and the bother it caused you, Justin.

We are all Orthodox Brothers and sisters here. No Apology is needed.

[Justin Kissel]

away,

I apologize to you. I overreacted yesterday. I guess my problem is that it was a member of the Lardas family who contacted me (so I knew it was more than just about the forum), and I think it's an important issue, so I was getting too emotional about it when I saw others not taking it as seriously. I'm sorry if I've offended anyone on the thread.

[Justin Kissel]

Tikon,

I hope you stay on the board. No, an inquisition is not called for, but apparently one of the Lardas family thought it important enough to come to me about it (after having seen the thread). I also think it important because you said you were a Deacon. But whatever the case, if everyone could let it rest, then I am as well. One matter complicates things though: I'm sure you would not want to cause anxiety for anyone in the Lardas family any more than someone on the forum here. Perhaps it would be helpful, then, to contact Fr. George or Matushka Anna and tell them who you are in real life, so they will know? Such information need not come out on the forum if you absolutely do not want it to come out.

[away]

Thankyou Tikon and Justin.

I feel sorry for the people in the world who do not know it is Lent.

Glory to God!

[Joseph D]

Sorry, Tikhon, for assuming you to be a Freemason just because you defended Masonry. You know what they say about assuming; well I suppose it is true. I think I misrepresented myself, apologies.

Joseph

[Matushka Anna]

I've never been a believer in anonymous posts.
When the late Met. Philaret received an anonymous letter, he tore it up and told the person with him, "An anonymous letter is written by a scoundrel -- and believed by a fool."

As Orthodox Christians, we are given the name of a saint at baptism. Our patron saints give us someone to turn to for inspiration and intercession, and at the same time they offer us a standard by which to measure our own spiritual progress. So to use a name that isn't the one bestowed upon us by the Church is already something of a betrayal.

But it is even graver to add to this impersonation of clergy. To be ordained deacon, a person must have the approval of his spiritual father and the consent of his ruling bishop. A man must have reached a certain age and must be either married or a monk. There is an interview and an application and an oath. Therefore the words of a deacon carry a certain weight; someone has chosen to let him live with them forever and a priest and a bishop confirm that he is moral and stable. Often a deacon has been to seminary. Certainly he is required to read the scriptures daily.

So this "Tikhon," whoever he or she may be, has already violated the principal of the list ("Have a drink of the truth!") by taking a name and rank which the Church has not bestowed. There IS no deacon Tikhon of the ROCOR in all of Texas.

This person then claimed to know my husband well and to be a friend.

Lots of people know my husband. He's lived in four States, attended school and college and grad school and seminary, was a deacon and then for fifteen years a priest. He's served dozens of weddings and baptisms and funerals, besides which he writes and translates.

But his friends do not claim to be who or what they are not. His friends are people of integrity, who use their own names when they write things no matter what the consequences.

What bothers me most about "Tikhon's" mendacity is that it was needless.

This isn't a list that requires that people be real. He or she could have signed on under a favorite adjective, or phrase, or bible verse.

So the question becomes, what do you do when someone invokes the weight of real things to support false words? It became necessary to speak up. Ordination is a real act performed by a real bishop. It bestows the Holy Spirit upon a man and changes him forever. Texas is a real place with its own ethos and rules -- being a Texan means something. Being a member of ROCOR means something; we guard the traditions which were given us and strive to pass them on. My husband is a man and a priest and his life has a certain integrity which is threatened by being called upon to witness that someone is who he isn't, was ordained when he wasn't, speaks for our bishops when he doesn't, and lives where he doesn't. (It's against netiquette to invoke the witness of someone who is not a list member and who will not read your words. My husband does not participate in internet discussions with the exception of closed clergy lists. When he wants his words published, he brings them to Orthodox publishers.)

I don't know who this Tikhon is, what religion he or she follows or what he or she was trying to do. But I felt I had to ask the moderators to step in based on something St. John Chrysostom wrote.

Christ was driving the demons out of a man and they called him the "Son of God" and begged him not to do so. Christ rebuked them and ordered them silent. Why? St. John wrote that it was for two reasons. One was that preaching Christ was the ministry of the apostles, not of the devils. The second was that, having said one true thing, the demons would have captured the attention and trust of the people and could therefore mislead them later by uttering false words which would be believed.

This "Tikhon" was claiming the authority of a deacon and was teaching things contrary to the Church already about Masons. Who knows what he or she would have written next? Things that would have been accepted, by extension, as being the teachings of ROCOR, Texas and Fr. George. Not good.

The internet, like the telephone, the xerox machine, or the human voice, can be used for evil or for good. It offers false intimacy, and false authority. Anyone can post anything, and all posts are held to be of equal value. A bishop in California, a reader in Georgia, a housewife in Connecticut, all writing about Orthodoxy all carry the same weight -- or could all be personae created by someone else, someplace else, with different motives.

Caveat lector.

I am striving to scale back my own internet participation and feel that I've come to the end of my usefulness as a participant in this forum. I wish you all a fruitful fast and a blessed Pascha.

In Christ,
Matushka Ann Lardas