By: Dn Brian Patrick Mitchell

Dn Brian Patrick Mitchell — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 16:21:40 +0000

I work as a speechwriter, but not for His Beatitude. My life would be hell if I had to produce transcripts of every talk my speakers give. We routinely post and distribute prepared remarks that always differ in some way from actual remarks, some more, some less. We don’t usually label them as prepared remarks unless the difference is great. Sometimes we don’t post or distribute prepared remarks if the actual remarks are mostly extemporaneous. Maybe that should have been done in the Acton case, but it’s hardly a crime that it wasn’t. Why do you suspect deception? Who would he have been trying to deceive? And what did he deceive them about?

By: Matushka Jan Koczak

Matushka Jan Koczak — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 21:34:12 +0000

Fr. Basil, I’m puzzled by this. A reader on another site said that “Apparently, Fr. Basil is unfamiliar with extemporaneous public speaking and the concept of “going off on a tangent.” If our Metropolitan Jonah had prepared remarks, as evidenced by what was posted by Acton and other (Orthodox Christian) blogs, that is not extemporaneous speech. From the Merriam Webster dictionary definition of extemporaneous: a (1) : composed, performed, or uttered on the spur of the moment : impromptu (2) : carefully prepared but delivered without notes or text.

I think it would have been appropriate and a better stance for Acton and all re-posters of His Beatitude’s remarks to note that here they are posting his prepared, written remarks, but his actual speech varied, and post a transcript of the actual remarks, as you have done.

It’s strange. I do not want to speculate as to the reason this happened.

Thanks for enlightening us.

Comments on: More on the Asceticism Talk

By: Dn Brian Patrick Mitchell

By: Matushka Jan Koczak