I encourage all visitors to read this full article carefully (i.e., much slower than “web speed”). St. Ignatius makes many helpful points regarding how delusions first appear to the fallen mind, how they then develop, and how they are especially common among “beginners” on the spiritual path.

As he says, “The most dangerous and most incorrect method of prayer is when he who is praying fabricates, on the strength of his imagination, dreams or pictures, borrowing them ostensibly from the Sacred Scriptures, but in actuality from his own sinfulness and self-delusion.”

First and foremost, I remind readers of this site that the primary goal here is not to report on details of any particular scandal. Rather, the blog exists to discuss matters of leadership in the Orthodox Church. To that end, the recent conflict within the Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church in America provides much material for reflection on leadership.

The most recent events in the scandal – primarily the release of confidential emails between Archpriest Joseph Fester, Bishop Nikolai (Soraich), Mr. Rod Dreher, and others – have turned everything upside down. I am not surprised at the names of the principals of OCATruth.com. I had already deduced the identities of two of them solely by their words and actions, prior to the revelations from the ugly emails. What is of greater concern now is that a site devoted to “truth” is, in fact, built upon lies.

Up until this past weekend, OCA Truth has absolutely dominated the narrative about what was going on in the OCA since the site’s inception in early March. OCA Truth provided the “facts” that shaped the discussion of the entire matter. Consider that the following points first appeared at OCA Truth:

• That attempts were being made to depose Metropolitan Jonah,
• That Metropolitan Jonah did not agree to a leave of absence (and that the minutes of the Santa Fe meeting were, at best, inaccurate, and at worst, manipulated),
• That Mark Stokoe’s email was positive proof of a growing coup (with no possibility of being descriptive rather than prescriptive),
• That Metropolitan Jonah was being opposed by a “liberal” cabal of bishops and Metropolitan Council members on the basis of his conservatism,
• That the Metropolitan was being sent to a substance abuse rehab center,
• That the Soviet method of declaring enemies of the state to be “insane” was in play,
• That the Metropolitan was the only real monk on the Holy Synod, and many more.

(If this list is wrong, please send proof using the contact form, and I’ll note corrections here.) Not only were these points promulgated by OCA Truth, OCA Truth was the only source of that information in most cases. It is possible that some of these points are true, but no serious evidence was ever adduced in support of them. Rather, the charges were repeated, and distributed to proxies on other blogs, and, after a while, accepted as axiomatic by many even when the basis was still questionable.

Yet, in the end, we now see that OCA Truth was built on lies:

• The writers lied to protect their anonymity. This is perhaps excusable absent the other lies. On the other hand, OCA Truth would likely have had a different reception had Fr. Fester’s involvement been known. Further, it was anonymity that enabled Mr. Dreher to indulge his journalistic Id, against all academic preparation and professional discipline.
• The writers then lied in order to misrepresent their identities, enabling them to act as shills, as in the case of Mr. Dreher writing pseudonymously (as Muzhik) in order to quote himself under his real name as a reputable authority.  This is fraud. If you do it on eBay, they suspend you. Doing so on a credit card application can earn you a visit to jail.
  • UPDATED 5/4/2011 8:15am: The principals did similar things by posting under real names like “Rod Dreher” and “Jesse Cone” or pseudonyms like “Southern Comfort” in other fora, including monomakhos.com, giving the appearance of different individuals supporting the writers at OCATruth.com.
  • UPDATED 5/4/2011 8:39am: One reader writes to suggest that Mr. Dreher never posted “Dreher” material under the “Muzhik” identity, instead leaving “Parishioner” and “Tovarishch” to do that. I am researching this now, for the sake of accuracy, although I don’t think it changes the basic charge.
  • UPDATE 5/4/2011 8:39am: Further, Mr. Dreher appeared in other fora (notably monomakhos.com) and claimed he knew the people running OCATruth.com, but that he was not one of them.
• The writers lied in order to characterize their opponents and other hierarchs as liberals—pro-gay, pro-abortion, feminist, etc.—even in the face of clear evidence to the contrary. References to the Episcopal wing of the OCA (or “Piscies”—i.e., Episcopalians—elsewhere) were not made to suggest that their opponents had good taste and lots of money, but rather that they supported an Episcopalian-style liberal agenda. A fawning article about the Metropolitan in the Washington Post was shaped by this narrative of conservative-metropolitan-against-liberal-establishment and then employed as a club with which to bludgeon the “liberals.”
• Worst of all, the writers lied in order to bear false witness. This was done when OCA Truth denied having possession of the confidential SMPAC report in order to attribute that possession, falsely, to Mark Stokoe, when exactly the reverse was true. It was done in the case of deliberately misrepresenting an email sent from Faith Skordinski to (attorney) Alexandra Makosky as being instead sent to Archpriest Alexander Garklavs in order to impugn both Skordinski’s and Garklavs’s motives.

I am not interested in waving Mark Stokoe’s banner, one way or the other. (I’ve certainly disagreed with his editorial decisions by private email on several occasions, as he can attest. We have never met in person.) What I am interested in is seeing is the return of leadership that is built on truth, trust, and accountability. If we define leadership as influence, OCA Truth has been a leader without peer over the last two months. Sadly, that leadership was built on lies, and those were built on anonymity and a total lack of accountability. (I wrote previously that OCA Truth’s heated rhetoric was only making the possibility of a reconciliation within the Holy Synod even more remote.) Detractors might respond with, “But Stokoe did it, too!” but he didn’t. At a very minimum, his name was on what he wrote, so that people could evaluate the source and his history in the same way I read or don’t read several columnists in the paper based on my perception of their credibility. I know several members of the alleged cabal, and, despite any disagreements I might have with them, I know them to be honest, upright, and Christian.

In the end, OCA Truth has provided a negative example of leadership, by demonstrating how lies and, really, anonymity ultimately come to ruin. For now, it is time for us to return to prayer for our real leaders, to ask that they be guided by the Holy Spirit and that the divisions of the recent couple of years and the acrimony of the past two months can be healed. We need the concerns of the first cohesive Holy Synod seen in decades to be addressed for the sake of God’s people.

“Lying lips are abomination to the Lord: but they that deal truly are his delight.” -Proverbs 12:22

In the event OCATruth.com goes offline, I’ll do my best to get my own archive of the site’s contents up and running here.

Don’t forget to pray.

I start today’s brief post with a couple of Scripture passages that pertain to our current situation in the OCA. Please read them now, rather than skipping over them to get to my comments below. If you’re not reading the Scriptures regularly, you’ve got no business even thinking about this situation.

And the Lord passed by before [Moses], and proclaimed, “he Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children’s children, unto the third and to the fourth generation.” -Exodus 34:6-7

I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.  –Ephesians 4:1-3

Most of the readers here already know of the situation that has developed between Metropolitan Jonah, the Holy Synod, and the Metropolitan Council. Like me, most readers know little beyond what has been produced by two web sites and a couple of less-than-edifying mailing lists.

The basic trajectory was an internal dispute within the Holy Synod, followed by a leak by a former bishop with less than honorable intentions, a lot of other chatter and documents, and, in the end, the Metropolitan himself postponing the spring meetings of both the Holy Synod and the Metropolitan Council. Since that time, the Holy Synod has been quiet, as has the Metropolitan Council. Perhaps they’re all talking privately, but that’s generally no problem (absent a legal gag order).

Nonetheless, the continuing spitefulness from the retired bishop in a public forum, the ongoing conjectures and accusations from a site claiming to be committed to the truth, resolutions from a diocesan council, more negative gossip in the various mailing lists and discussion fora, has served only to sow discord and distrust in many corners of the Orthodox Church in America.

This discord is already having tragic consequences. The distrust is daily making it more difficult for our leaders – the bishops of the Holy Synod, the esteemed members of the Metropolitan Council, the officers and administrators in Syosset – to be reconciled. His Beatitude talked pointedly about the role of discord prior to his selection as Metropolitan: “If we can build that community of love and respect, seeing how our passions have distracted us from that living communion with God, have turned us against one another, and have created all sorts of hostility between–well, we just saw it, between the body of the All-American Council and the Synod of the Bishops. … Between the Synod of the Bishops and the Metropolitan Council–talk about a sick dysfunctional situation!”

Indeed. We are quickly moving to a position where each of us will be at each other’s throats, every part of it built on suspicion, accusation, and, saddest of all, falsehood. Such would be a position that makes reconciliation and resolution nearly impossible. (Of course, all is possible with the Holy Spirit, but human freedom can and does interfere.)

In spite of the difficulties within the Holy Synod, our bishops appear more united, and more cohesive, than they have been in decades. But, if this continues, we can expect a return to the old order of parochialism, meanness, and dysfunction. We can expect a return of the manipulators and thieves who stand ready to gorge themselves on money and sin amid the chaos. They will not be easily pushed out, if the last go-round was any indication. Once again, our own children will grow up distrustful of Christ’s own Church, and even more individuals – men, women, boys, girls, those enslaved to their passions, those who’ve never known a god willing to take on human flesh – will not hear the Gospel. Our sins will be visited upon our children, and our children’s children.

Lent is half over. We have spent these preceding weeks listening to all of this, distracting ourselves from holy things in favor of the trashy fare of the checkout lane.  It’s time for us to let our leaders pray (and even repent) rather than respond to the darts being hurled at them. It’s time for us to pray ourselves. I encourage each of us to add twelve metanias (prostrations) and accompanying prayers to our prayer rule for each time we think on this affair in the course of the day, simply to ensure that prayer is part of our deliberations.

I have written this in haste, and I ask your forgiveness for editorial sins and for any offense it causes. Kyrie eleison.

Read it: What to do about a bad priest?

As you work your way through it, consider St. Theophan’s counsel in light of many reactions today to poor leadership. Readers are invited to weigh in in the comments.