Dear All in Christ,
As many of you know, I was retired as a deacon after I questioned some uncanonical actions of the vicar bishop administrating the ROAC in America 2 years ago. For those that do not know about this situation, I politely wrote a letter to the vicar with my questions and concerns. I even had the letter edited by other clergy, including the bishop's Chancellor, to ensure the tone was proper. Writing the letter only led to my mission being closed down and attacks. So I wrote Metropolitan Valentine, synodal head of the ROAC and his other brother bishops with my original letter. Vladyka Valentin told me I was right to question his vicar but nothing came of my questioning other than attacks on me by said vicar. As such I have retired from the diaconate. With the administrator of parishes in America being a vicar bishop insistent on attacking me, I left the ROAC, as I was clearly no longer wanted.
After much thinking, I really liked the idea of clergy running the Saint Euphrosynos Cafe, but I was no longer a deacon but now a layman again. Truly Father Mark Smith takes care of running this forum on a day-to-day basis. However, Ioannis and I had really slacked with the administrative back-end issues, being so busy since we both work 12 hour work days. Hence the lack of updates to the forum software, maps, links, books of the month, etc..
Father Anastasios Hudson, who before becoming a priest, has been an on-and-off moderator here at the Cafe over the years, was kind enough to offer to upgrade the forum and take over the technical end of running the Cafe. So over the last month, Father Anastasios has worked to move the site over to its new PHPbb 3.x base and making improvements to the site. Unfortunately this led to more downtime than we expected. But as you read this, the site is back and in the capable clerical hands of Fathers Mark and Anastasios and continuing to be Moderated by Father Siluan Dignac. The three presbyters running this site are each from different jurisdictions and countries, but continuing the spirit of the site as a global pan-Orthodox traditionalist site. Please join me in wishing them congratulations, good luck, and "Many Years, Batushki!"
Thank you to all of you for helping make this site a great community over the last 6+ years. I may be stepping down as an administrator and moderator, but I will continue on as a participant at the greatest pan-traditionalist orthodox web forum on the world wide web, The Saint Euphrosynos Café!
