Wanted: A New Guy Fawkes

A great political struggle on the Brexit issue is going on in the United Kingdom. It is not the political struggle between the elite of the EU and the UK. It is not the struggle between Leavers (‘Brexiteers’) and Remainers (EU worshippers). It is not the struggle between the Prime Minister and Parliament. It is not even the struggle inside the two main political parties, which, true, are completely divided on Brexit, and always have been. No, the great struggle is between the Parliament and the People, for the former refuses to implement the wishes of the People, even after almost three years (some might say ever since 1973). ‘Representative democracy’ has once again failed to be either representative or democratic, but has shown itself to be an elitist tyranny – as the whole British Establishment construct and the whole EU project always have been.

Historically, Parliament as we now know it came into being in the seventeenth century. This was at the behest of wealthy and power-hungry aristocrats and capitalist businessmen (‘merchants’), interested in colonialist exploitation and slavery, and also rich farmers. Together they usurped and then murdered the Christian King, the defender of the People, so that they could gain even more power and make even more money on the backs of the exploited and enslaved. (Indeed, incredibly, a statue of one of the most bloodthirsty capitalist farmers, he who murdered the King and then killed a million Irish men, women and children, still stands outside Parliament unchallenged to this day). Thus, the utterly corrupted Members of Parliament were simply the puppets who carried out the orders of the moneyed elite. Many, it seems, still do the same.

Guy Fawkes, born in York in April 1570, was the son of Edward and Edith Fawkes (the names of our Old English saints). He was a provincial and devout, but naïve and idealistic Roman Catholic who challenged Parliamentary tyranny. However, he tried to do this by violence, by blowing up Parliament with gunpowder. And that was his undoing. For he was betrayed on 5 November 1605 and then tortured and in January 1606, aged 35, murdered. His name is the origin of the word ‘guy’, meaning man or person. It seems to us that we now need a new Guy Fawkes, a non-violent ‘guy’ who will blow up Parliament with words, as the pen is always mightier than the sword. Guy Fawkes has been described as ‘the last man to enter Parliament with honest intentions’. We would say ‘the last man to enter Parliament with honest intentions so far’.

 

 

The Future of Trafalgar Square

The time will come when, after nearly a thousand years, England will be free again. Then she will regain her independence from the pagan Roman / Franco-German (Norman-Hanoverian) myth of Britannia / Britain. And then, eventually, after much discussion, the problem of Trafalgar Square will have to be decided. At present the Square, its very name, its central Column and the many statues around it honour various aspects of nineteenth-century Imperialism. Thus, a statue of a certain Major-General Havelock stands in the south-east corner, a statue of the equally little known General Napier stands in the south-west corner and a statue on horseback of the dissolute, unpopular and obese alcoholic, King George IV, stands in the north-east corner. Until quite recently in the north-west corner there was an empty fourth plinth, but this is now used to exhibit temporary works of art.

In the free England of the future, let this Square be renamed ‘Alfred Square’, for in the centre will stand Alfred’s Column, with the statue of King Alfred the Great, England’s Darling and Lawgiver, standing on top. Around it will stand the four main statues:  that of an Englishwoman from before 1066, standing as a the English Mother of the Nation; a statue of Langland’s Piers Plowman (+ 1380) as a symbol of the medieval common man, the backbone of the nation who suffered but remained faithful despite enslavement from above; a statue of the world-renowned English literary genius Shakespeare (+ 1616); and one of an ordinary infantryman, a Tommy Atkins, standing as a symbol of the lions who gallantly saved England despite being led by donkeys. And when will this be? When at last the four nations of this island archipelago have freed themselves from the deadweight of myths of the past.

 

The Myth of White Supremacy

With such a title some might be expecting me to affirm simply that the idea that white people are superior to other races is a myth. That is so obvious that it is not what I have to say. The real myth is far more radical than that.

White supremacy began in the eighth century when the tyrant Charlemagne massacred 4,500 Saxons at Verden in October 782: this was white against white, the white elite against the white people. There is no such thing as White Supremacy – only White Elitism. After a period of nearly three centuries of chaos, White Elitism raised its ugly head again in 1054 when the spiritual descendants of Charlemagne broke away from the Christian Church and founded their own self-justifying, pseudo-religious organization in Rome, once the capital of the incredibly cruel and barbaric pagan Roman Empire. Again, it was white against white. The whites have always been the first victims of the White Elitists.

In 1066 the White Elitists in Rome used their Norman shock troops to massacre 100,000 English; white against white. They continued to massacre in Wales, Ireland and Scotland. There followed the barbaric ‘Crusades’ when white elitists massacred members of the Orthodox Christian (white), but also Arab and Jewish races. However, that was exceptional. Most of the Middle Ages in Western Europe was the history of the bloodshed of white people by the White Elitists, for example, in ‘Wars of Religion’. And in fact it was only really after 1492 that the White Elitists began to massacre other races systematically by organized violence through elitist projects like the Spanish or French or British Empires.

And even then they did not stop massacring other white people, as, for instance, the English Hitler, Cromwell did in Ireland, massacring a million. In the 20th century the White Elitists continually massacred white peoples, and over 40 million white people died in two European wars, 30 million Slavs alone. This was the White Holocaust. Why? Because the White Elite had renounced Christ. White ideologues like Lenin and Hitler made their atheism plain. The people were oppressed by the Elite. It can be seen today in the Brexit debate, where the White Elitists are ready to betray the People, as they have done in England for the last 953 years. And they claim to run a ‘representative democracy’!!!

In New Zealand, a pro-Kiev regime white terrorist who had murdered whites in the Ukraine, murdered fifty Muslims. He was not a White Supremacist, but a White Elitist. As the old proverb says: ‘A fish rots from the head’.

 

On President Erdogan and the Church of the Holy Wisdom

I have been asked by a US correspondent about our attitude to President Erdogan of Turkey, who has recently spoken about the massacre of Muslims by a Fascist fanatic in New Zealand and about turning Agia Sofia into a mosque again. Now, we have in our parish three Turkish Orthodox parishioners and soon there will be a fourth. Interestingly, they all have the same attitude to President Erdogan, the neo-Ottoman ‘Sultan of Turkey’: they consider that he is a nationalist dictator and find him very unpleasant and distasteful.

In this way, he is perhaps similar to many another tyrannical Middle Eastern ruler. We think immediately of the rulers of Saudi Arabia, who behead people by the dozens every year, keep most of the people dirt-poor and the rich ultra-rich, and have carried out a huge genocide (with enthusiastic Western backing) against the people of the Yemen. Not to mention the fact that they tortured and cut into little pieces a Saudi journalist in their consulate in Istanbul last October. Apparently this barbaric behaviour is quite agreeable to the Saudis and their Western sponsors and guardians. In other words, there is always worse than Erdogan, but, true, there could be better, only be careful – you may end up with worse. Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and the Ukraine are outstanding examples. Thus, in Turkey, the US attempt to assassinate President Erdogan in July 2016 would surely have led to incredible strife and thousands of deaths.

Of course, there are Orthodox who strongly dislike President Erdogan, not because they are Turkish, but because they hate his threat that the Church of the Holy Wisdom in Istanbul, for long a tourist site, may yet again become a mosque. However, this is a false problem. The real problem is that the Orthodox have shown themselves unworthy of having an Empire and a Capital. Until the Russians repent for their betrayal in 1917, there will be no Orthodox Emperor, and until the Greeks repent for their betrayal of Christianity which led to 1453, they will never have any power, and until they repent for their latest crimes in the Ukraine in 2019, Agia Sofia will become a mosque. The same is true for apostate Greek Cypriots, the northern third of whose island was occupied 45 years ago by Turkey, with full Western backing, and true for the Serbs in Kosovo, who forgot their Faith and were outpopulated by Albanians.

You always lose your territory when you show yourselves unworthy of having it. You bring it on yourself. Territory does not belong to us, it belongs to God and is only on loan to us for as long as we remain faithful to Him. Thus, Belgium was devastated in the First European War because of its crimes in Central Africa (millions of Africans mutilated or murdered), Britain lost its Empire because it swapped the Bible for the exploitation of natural resources and the same can be said for umpteen other empires throughout history, ancient and modern, from China to Babylon, from the Hindus to the Egyptians, from Timbuktu to Machu Picchu, from the Mayas to Zimbabwe, from France to Austro-Hungary. Power hangs by a thread; it is an illusion to think we have any power, we only have what is granted by God. The USA will lose its power for the same reasons. Spiritual and moral decadence is always followed by catastrophic collapse.

When Greeks or Russians begin converting Turkey to Christ, instead of hiding in their ethnic corners, then Istanbul will become Constantinople again and the Church of the Holy Wisdom will echo to praise for Christ in Turkish from the Turkish Orthodox faithful. But until then, expect only worse and worse. The fruit of non-repentance and self-justification is humiliation. It is the only thing that can bring humility to the unrepentant. In other words, there will be no Church of the Holy Wisdom until you have shown Holy Wisdom.

 

Questions and Answers (March 2019) From Recent Correspondence

The Parish Church

Q: Where is the Colchester church financed from?

A: St John of Shanghai Church in Colchester was bought and equipped in 2008 with money donated for 95% by English Orthodox. The rest came from various kind individuals in ROCOR, from Venezuela to Alaska. Not a penny came from inside Russia. We had no support from there at all, or from many obvious rich people in London or locally, who could have helped us. One English convert used to boast that he had £2 million – he never gave us even £1!

Over the first ten years we spent a lot more money on getting an abandoned building up to scratch. Almost all that money has come from the faithful. They are nearly all quite poor Eastern Europeans, not wealthy ex-Anglicans, so of course every penny they have given us has been valued.

Q: You are part of ROCOR, so is your ethos in the Colchester church Russian?

A: Our ethos is Orthodox. Inevitably, as part of the new ROCOR (not the old ROCOR, which was often nationalistic and even racist), we are multinational, 24 nationalities, with three languages and a Romanian second priest. We are in effect an ‘Imperial’ church, that is a multinational church, simply the church for all faithful and traditional Orthodox locally, that is, within a radius of 50 miles.

Nationalism

Q: Why did the Patriarchate of Constantinople set up a new organization in the Ukraine for schismatics and heretics and then recognize it?

A: Over two decades ago the Polish-American Zbigniew Brzezinski was proclaiming the need for the US State Department to implement a schism in the Orthodox world, following the US takeover of that Patriarchate in 1948. The US has now done this through flattering Greek nationalism in Istanbul, keenly supported by the notorious US ambassadors in Kiev and Athens. There is now little doubt that this schism from the Orthodox Faith will prove to be permanent and that nationalists and other secularists (liberals and LGBT activists) who have infiltrated a few other Local Churches will join that schismatic-supporting Patriarchate.

However, there will also be faithful Orthodox in the Patriarchate of Constantinople who will join us. This is above all the long-awaited schism of the Greek Orthodox world which has undergone Westernization for the last 100 years. Westernization always ends in schism, as we saw in Russia in the 1920s. However, the schism is small, that of a Westernized splinter-group, that of a few hundred thousand against over 220 million in the Church

Q: Why are there still people in Russia who think that Stalin was a great man?

A: Why are there still people in the UK who think that Churchill was a great man? In other words, the answer is because he was the country’s leader at the time of the victory over Fascism in 1945. In other words, the answer is because of nationalism. Churchill was in fact very unpopular with ordinary people in the UK (that is why he was voted out by a very large majority in 1945). He was hated for Gallipoli, his hatred of the miners, his complete lack of understanding for the poor and, abroad, for the gassing of the Kurds, the Bengali Famine in which millions died, and his astounding racism, which was similar to Hitler’s, only towards Non-White races.

Just as some nationalistic Russians forget that Stalin was a foreigner, a Georgian, and caused the deaths of millions and millions of Slavs, people also forget that Churchill was half-American and a profound White Supremacist. In Russia, such marginal nationalists and xenophobes (often anti-Semites) also adore Ivan IV (‘the Terrible’) who was responsible for the deaths of at least 2,000 innocent people. (Though this means that he was a lot less ‘terrible’ than his contemporaries, the Tudors: Henry VIII and Elizabeth I killed at least 150,000 between them).

Q: Did you mention the terror attack in New Zealand in your sermons last Sunday? And what do you think of this massacre?

A: Of course, I did not mention it! People come to church to get away from such grisly secularism. It is the last thing they want to hear about. Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and unto God what is God’s.

What do I think of it? I am shocked that Tarrant, this Neo-Nazi White Supremacist, was allowed the freedom to do this. Tarrant had already been reported several times to the Australian government by Semyon Baykov, the ataman of the Zabaykal Cossacks in Sydney, for his terrorist activities in the Ukraine. He had been fighting for the Kiev Fascist regime against the Orthodox freedom-fighters in the Donbass. (The Australian government had ignored his reports). Birds of a feather flock together, fascists fight with fascists.

Missionary Work in Western Europe

Q: Why have only small numbers of Western Europeans joined the Russian Orthodox Church in the last hundred years?

A: It is because most Western people are attached to their very nationalistic culture, which thinks that it is superior to all other cultures, in other words, they are attached to Western worldliness. (Nationalism is by definition worldliness). Let me explain

In order to be an Orthodox Christian, you have to reject the deformations of the last thousand years of Western history. If you do not, but still join the Church, you will not last in it, but will lapse quickly. In other words, you may join the Orthodox Church, but you will never become Orthodox. For example, the later Metr Antony (Bloom) used to chrismate heterodox into Orthodoxy just a few days after meeting them. In this way he received at least a thousand people; but they virtually all lapsed from the Russian Church, attached only to his highly controversial but hypnotic (look at photos of his cold eyes) personality. Most of them lapsed very quickly, though some lapsed only many years later after he had died and therefore the cult was over.

This lapsing was because these ‘converts’ had held on to Western heterodox culture and never accepted Western Orthodox culture from the first millennium and its continuation in the reality of Russian Orthodox culture of today. The same thing happened for the same reason in Paris (where Metr Antony was from), where also at least a thousand heterodox were received into the Paris Jurisdiction (the ex-Exarchate and ex-Russian Church), mainly over the last 60 years, but virtually all of them lapsed. However, here, the ex-Exarchate has actually always boasted that it is ‘Western’, i.e. spiritually impure!! Such impurity cultivates only disincarnate narcissistic intellectual and emotional fantasies, but not spiritual life. To use the language of the Gospels, you cannot build a Church on sand, only on rock. In other words, you cannot be Orthodox without spiritual purity.

Orthodox Life

Q: Is it true that most baptised Orthodox do not attend church?

A: Yes, it is true that most baptised Orthodox only attend church when they have a problem. This is different to the mass of baptised Non-Orthodox, who take to drink, drugs and anti-depressants when they have a problem.

Global Warming

Q:  What is your position on manmade global warming as a religion and political ideology?

A: Basically:

  1. Clearly, it is not good to pollute. Thus, China today is similar to England 150 years ago in terms of pollution. (Thus, when the West boasts of being clean, it is hypocritical because its production for its consumer society and so its pollution has simply been transferred to China etc). Pollution is bad because we should respect and not destroy and disfigure the environment because God made it. Clean air, water and land are literally vital. But does (manmade) pollution create global warming?
  2. Global warming exists, but that is the nature of climate: it always changes. Currently, having come out of the period of the medieval ice age (global cooling), we are simply returning to the climate of 1,000 years ago. So perhaps this climate change is quite natural.
  3. The opinion of most scientists that it is manmade is clearly coloured by the business and political lobbies who pay them very richly for their reports. Significantly, a minority of independent scientists contradict the majority opinion. Are they right? I don’t know, but I wonder.
  4. Spiritually, it is clear that the Western world has entered a period of paganism, nature-worship (‘tree-hugging’). For many, ecologism is the new religion, which has replaced the worship of the Creator with the worship of creation. This is called idolatry and pantheism.

Brexit and the End of Unions

We know that the world will end because of a Union, the global Union under Antichrist who will reign from Jerusalem. Despite the obvious preparations for this global reign in the present movement known precisely as globalism, over the last thirty years we have seen the end of several unions, the Soviet Union, the Czechoslovak Union and the Yugoslav Union. It is highly likely that other unions will break up within the next twenty years, as Northern Ireland will leave the UK and Catalonia will leave Spain.

However, other artificial unions may also collapse even before then: for example, the Communist-created and US-supported bankrupt Ukraine. This will surely be reduced to a small area of the far west borderlands of the present conglomerate of territories known as ‘the Ukraine’, with most of its artificially combined territory returning to Poland, Hungary, Romania and, above all, Russia. Then there is Belgium – returning to France, Germany and, above all, the Netherlands. Even possibly, the North American Union, the USA, which was a creation out of the genocide of the US Civil War over six generations ago will vanish in the revenge of Confederationism. However, it is far more, likely, almost certain indeed, that the artificial European Union, the EU, a post-1945 US political invention, will disappear.

As regards this EU, it is true that few at present are discussing its survival. Instead, they are discussing Brexit. This is a mistake, for Brexit is only a local problem, not the real, international problem (regardless of when or even whether the people’s Brexit will happen – given that the Westminster elite is in control). Brexit was caused by the blind arrogance of the EU elite which refused and refuses to listen to the dissatisfaction of the people. And the problem of Brexit is in fact identical throughout the EU, from Greece to Spain, from Slovakia to Sweden, from Cyprus to Latvia, from Hungary to the Netherlands, from Poland to Italy, from Austria to France and its permanent yellow vest revolt.

The first question here is not if the EU will collapse, but when. Even more important, however, is the second question: what will replace it? It is clear that there cannot in future be a tiny group of aggressive and xenophobic European nationalist states, permanently at war with each other. But nor can there be a tyrannical and centralized Union, which benefits the rich and makes the poor poorer. Instead there will have to be a Eurasian Confederation, stretching from the Pacific to the Atlantic, and not just a motley collection of US vassal states in the far western corner of Eurasia combined in a dictatorial Union. (Europe itself is only an artificial construct, just a tiny corner of the Eurasian Continent, artificially separated from the rest). There must be a Confederation, not a Union, an alliance of countries, not a political tyranny. Time will show us what will come to be.

 

 

Our Future: An Imperial Orthodox Church or an Imperialist Non-Orthodox Church?

 

Having rejected the Orthodox Christian teaching on the Holy Trinity, formulated by the Universal Councils of the Church, in the second millennium after Christ Western Europe was for centuries torn apart by the question of whether its ‘Church’ should be centripetal (centralizing), like Roman Catholicism, or centrifugal (centre-fleeing), like Protestantism. Indeed, whole very bloody wars were fought over this issue for centuries. Although today both Roman Catholicism and Protestantism have largely died out in most of Western Europe and been replaced by Secularism, the question has not gone away, for cultural patterns and reflexes have persisted.

Thus, three years ago, the arrogant and foolish centralized EU, a secular imitation of Roman Catholicism and going back to the Treaty of ‘Rome’, produced the reaction of the vote for centre-fleeing Brexit in the Protestant culture of the UK. It is clear that this is only the first step in the inevitable disintegration of the EU, which has already been under immense pressures from all sides for many years. All of this would have remained merely a political issue, except that in the Orthodox Church it has recently become a spiritual issue. For the US-founded EU’s centralization is being imitated and pursued by the US-financed secularists of the ‘Patriarchate of Constantinople’ in Istanbul.

Here modernist and ecumenist, pro-LGBT ‘Euro-Orthodox’ Greeks have created schism from the Orthodox Church. Made up of fourteen universally-recognized, Independent (‘autocephalous’ in Greek jargon) Local Churches, the Orthodox Church is thus threatened with the loss of part of its flock. For this tiny Greek Patriarchate in ‘Constantinople’ has, with breath-taking arrogance, openly declared its intention of taking back all the autocephalies of Local Churches and creating one ‘Super-Church’, with, naturally, itself in control. Thus, secular-minded Greek Istanbul imitates Brussels.

Having already done this in the small groups of the Diaspora (Western Europe, the Americas and Oceania) and in Estonia in recent decades, the Istanbul Greeks have within the last few months done exactly the same in the Ukraine also. Invading ancient Russian Orthodox territory against all the canons and traditions of Christianity, with full Ukrainian State and US financial and political backing, they have set up a semi-Fascist, ultra-nationalist organization, which it calls the ‘The Church in the Ukraine’, but which is under its full control. This is, of course, pure Greek Imperialist tyranny of the sort practised for centuries by the Istanbul Greeks in Jerusalem, Alexandria, Antioch and Bulgaria and elsewhere, but now extended worldwide.

In this Imperialist model, in its own words, this Greek Imperialist Patriarchate sees itself as a single ‘Church’. It will ‘take back’ the autocephalies (full independence) given to found several of the other Local Churches over previous centuries. And then it will grant them back a very, very limited self-government. In this way it will combine centralization with extremist local nationalism. In such a case, of course, it may well be asked, why Jerusalem, the first Church, does not take back the autocephaly given to Constantinople and take back all power for itself? Theologically and historically speaking, all of this comes from a purely Secularist Roman Catholic/Protestant mentality.

This is no surprise when we see where the bureaucrats and ideologues of the Greek Patriarchate were trained: at the Gregorian University in Rome (like Patriarch Bartholomew himself, together with very many of his bishop-acolytes) and in the faculties of Protestant Universities in Germany. The Orthodox model of governance of the Church is of course the Holy Trinity: Unity in Diversity, the Apostolic model evident from the first century in the Epistles, addressed to the various Local Churches. This is the meaning of the word ‘Catholicity’ (everyone doing things in their own way, but in the same spirit), which means something quite different from ‘Catholicism’ (everyone doing exactly the same thing under tyrannical and bureaucratic centralist control).

Today, in the Orthodox Church, we are now facing a choice between:

Constantinople: An Imperialist, Single-Nationality ‘Church’

Either belong as second-class citizens (because you are not Greek) to the tiny Church of a long-dead Empire, which governs all who belong to it tyrannically and nationalistically, regardless of whether they are Christians, regardless of whether they are canonically ordained, and regardless of whether they are involved in the violent and racist theft of churches from Christians and their persecution. In this case you will neither be Orthodox, nor Christian, indeed less Christian even than Uniats and Protestants.

New Jerusalem: An Imperial, Multinational Church

Or belong as first-class citizens (whatever your nationality and native language) to the very large Church of a living Empire, or to one of the Autocephalous Local Churches which are in communion with it, which governs all who belong to it justly and multinationally, because they are Christians, canonically ordained and do not steal by violence and racism churches from other Christians or persecute them. In this case you will be Orthodox Christians because you follow the Holy Trinity, living in the Catholicity of unity in diversity.

You choose.

On the Present Western Gender Confusion

The primitive and pagan (‘classical’) world did it: pagan Greece and Rome were full of sexual perverts, incestuous, sodomites, bisexuals, pansexuals, pedophiles, copulators with animals etc. Moreover, they glorified these activities in their literature. For pagans such bestiality was considered normal, like all sorts of other barbaric practices (for example, slavery, leaving unwanted newborn babies to die by the roadside). With its catastrophic loss of Faith, the Western world is now returning precisely to these ‘classical’ (i.e. neo-pagan) Western ‘standards’ (slavery, mass abortion and incinerating the unborn, and sexual perversions) and even imposing them on the Free (i.e. Non-Western) World by economic bribery (‘sanctions’).

Now, it is a dangerous thing to mix up the sexes. The very word ‘sex’ comes from the Latin word meaning ‘cut’, showing that the two sexes are cut off from each other, as in the Book of Genesis, where it is clearly stated that ‘Male and female He created them’. It is clear that God created no-one somewhere inbetween: any kind of gender confusion is completely a result of the Fall, either, voluntarily, through personal sin, or else, involuntarily, through the sin that is in the world, ancestral sin.

On the contrary to this, Orthodox Christians have always emphasized and indeed exaggerated the differences and even stereotypes between the sexes. Men and women must dress differently, carry out different roles and tasks, boys and girls must be brought up differently and all sex differences, however small, are prized. Men are men and women are women. All confusion is dreaded. This is in order to stop the inevitable unhappiness which comes from confusing the sexes (as we see so very clearly in today’s world).

Feminists have long tried to alter the Holy Scriptures in order to make out that God the Father is a ‘She’, or perhaps bisexual, and that God the Son is a Daughter or maybe, like Michael Jackson, androgynous. Strangely enough, feminists have never tried to change the sex of the devil. He remains he. Now, Feminism, which started Transgenderism, was born by reaction in ex-Protestant societies, notorious for their repression of women, as in Victorian times. And the one clear fact about Protestant societies is that they all rejected the veneration of the Mother of God.

It is here that the key to ‘Transgenderism’ lies. If you reject the female role in salvation (and the first person in the Kingdom of God is not a mere man, but the Most Holy, Most Pure, Most Blessed Ever-Virgin Mother), clearly you also reject the female sex. And if you do this, then you will find that all you can offer women is to become men. This is what today’s Western world calls ‘equality’. It is not equality, it is the appalling denigration of the female sex, forced down into becoming a man, the ultimate misogyny, the ultimate hatred of women. And from here it is only one step to Transgenderism and all the contemporary tragedies and blasphemies that flow from it.

 

Akathist to the Holy Blessed Andrew of Constantinople, Fool for Christ (870-936)

After many decades of thought and prayer, we have been able to compose an akathist to St Andrew, Fool for Christ. Like the other services we have composed to canonized saints over the last 20 years (see below and on http://orthodoxengland.org.uk/zliturgics.htm), the final inspiration has come to us very quickly.

Since St Andrew was a Slav living in Constantinople, we hope that his prayers may yet help in overcoming the present terrible schism, as it has led to the little Church of Constantinople falling away from communion with the vast majority of Orthodox worldwide.

Other Services:

  1. Service to All the Saints of the Isles (2006)
  2. Service to All the Saints of the Western Lands (2015)
  3. Service to St Alfred, King of England (2014)
  4. Service to St Audrey of Ely (1998-1999)
  5. Service to Edmund, King of East Anglia (1998-1999)
  6. Service to St Felix, Apostle of East Anglia (1998-1999)
  7. Akathist to the Felixstowe Icon of the Mother of God (1998-1999)

 

Archpriest Andrew Phillips, England

9 March 2019

 

 

Akathist to the Holy Blessed Andrew of Constantinople, Fool for Christ, 2/15 October

 

Kontakion 1

Chosen saint of God and fool for Christ, O holy blessed Andrew, from thy childhood thou didst love the Holy Scriptures and Holy Church, renouncing all worldly things. Therefore thou wast found worthy to behold the protection of the Mother of God who appeared with the saints in the church of Blachernae. Now honouring thy holy memory, we offer thee this song of praise and as thou hast great boldness before the Lord of mercy, deliver us from all misfortune, temptation and despair that we may call out to thee thus:

Rejoice, O blessed Andrew, who seest the Protecting Veil of the Mother of God over all the faithful!

Ikos 1

O all-wise Andrew, thou wast found worthy of a life equal to the angels. Once a slave of Theognostes who knew God, thou too didst know God. Once a slave, fair in appearance and outstanding in character, thou didst become a servant of God who found true freedom in renouncing the vanities and illusions of this world. Therefore hear this praise which we offer thee now, saying:

Rejoice, O vessel chosen for the wisdom of God, which is foolishness for men!

Rejoice, O trusted slave who didst become the friend and brother of the angels!

Rejoice, O favoured slave who became the favoured servant of God!

Rejoice, thou who after an angelic vision didst take up the feat of foolishness for Christ!

Rejoice, thou whose heart flowered to Christ’s teaching, accepting unfading crowns from Paradise!

Rejoice, thou who didst reckon the things of this world as nothing!

Rejoice, thou who didst show the strength of God in a weak human body!

Rejoice, O blessed Andrew, who seest the Protecting Veil of the Mother of God over all the faithful!

Kontakion 2

Beholding thy most strange life in which thou didst despise every care for the mortal flesh, naked in the freezing cold thou wast warmed by the sweet flowers of Paradise on account of thy burning love for Christ. Seeing thy humility and the presence of the world to come in thee, the faithful servant of Christ Barbara of the City of Constantine sang to God: Alleluia!

Ikos 2

O blessed Andrew, thou didst conceal the reasoning mind given by God by feigning folly. Thy spirit was quickened in the purity of thy soul and thy heart offered the Lord unceasing prayer for sinners in the silence of thy lips. As for us, astonished and consoled by thy vision of the Mother of God, we call out to thee in praise:

Rejoice, thou who didst extinguish the burning fire of pride from thy youth up!

Rejoice, thou who didst take up the heavy cross of foolishness for Christ’s sake!

Rejoice, thou who didst hide the brightness of grace by assuming folly!

Rejoice, thou who didst appear to be a fool to all!

Rejoice, thou who didst acquire the gift of seeing through the world by thy feat of prayer!

Rejoice, thou who wast caught up to heaven to see the Master Christ and all the beauty of Paradise!

Rejoice, O most wise Andrew, and make us wise through thy foolishness for Christ!

Rejoice, O blessed Andrew, who seest the Protecting Veil of the Mother of God over all the faithful!

Kontakion 3

What is not possible for men is possible for God, for the strength of God is made perfect in weakness; the blessed one shows that we weak sinners may trample down the ancient enemy of mankind by self-renunciation for the sake of Christ. O blessed Andrew, by thy prayers strengthen us sinners, that we may be found worthy to sing this heavenly song: Alleluia!

Ikos 3

O most wise Andrew, thou wast a seer of the Providence of Divine judgements. Undaunted by the illusion of the demons, who though strong in appearance are weak in power, thou wast bound with chains and consoled by the holy Anastasia and John the apostle of Christ. Therefore the faithful now flee to thee for help, singing thus:

Rejoice, thou who didst take up the easy yoke and light burden of Christ!

Rejoice, thou who didst accept the mockings of men as praise!

Rejoice, thou who like Lazarus didst lay in filth, despised even by dogs!

Rejoice, thou whose intercession heals the impure and those who love gold!

Rejoice, thou whose ragged shirt was fairer than garments woven with gold!

Rejoice, thou who didst see things to come in the present!

Rejoice, thou who didst hear unutterable words and see invisible beings!

Rejoice, O blessed Andrew, who seest the Protecting Veil of the Mother of God over all the faithful!

Kontakion 4

We see thee, O blessed Andrew, as a star shining forth from among the Slav peoples, brightly gleaming in the firmament of the Church. Thou wast revealed in the City of Constantine to those deluded by every lust, showing us all the heights of humble wisdom and teaching us to sing to God: Alleluia!

Ikos 4

O most wise Andrew, who didst foresee in thy soul the sweetness that is to come, as thou didst tell thy disciple Nicephorus, show thine intercession for the faithful of the City of Constantine and the Orthodox everywhere. As for us, astounded by the acts of Divine Providence for us unworthy and hard-hearted, we call to thee with tender prayer thus:

Rejoice, thou who wast clothed in a robe woven with lightning!

Rejoice, thou who becamest like unto the angels in humility!

Rejoice, thou who wast wondrously raised up on high by thy lowliness!

Rejoice, O Slav who became the boast of faithful Greeks!

Rejoice, O glory of all the peoples of the Church of God!

Rejoice, O intercessor for all who seek true wisdom!

Rejoice, O most pure vessel of the Holy Spirit, who didst love the poor!

Rejoice, O blessed Andrew, who seest the Protecting Veil of the Mother of God over all the faithful!

Kontakion 5

O most wise Andrew, thou becamest like unto a star following after Christ, by thy life thou didst adorn the City of Constantine, shining forth by thy feat of renunciation. Now teach us who drown in the sea of worldly passions and guide us to the calm haven of salvation by thy prayers. And, glorifying the Lord Who glorified thee, we cry: Alleluia!

Ikos 5

O blessed Andrew, the Lord made thee worthy to serve Him by showing thee the bitterness of the world and the sweetness of paradise. Having beheld Christ on His throne of glory, thou didst voluntarily suffer all privations for His sake. Now as thou dost taste of the bread of heaven in everlasting life, pray for us who are sick in body and soul and cry out to thee with tender feeling:

Rejoice, thou who wast inspired by a heavenly vision to become a fool for Christ’s sake on earth!

Rejoice, thou who wast near naked and starved to show us the wisdom of God!

Rejoice, thou who didst suffer torments and slander from all!

Rejoice, thou who didst shame the demons!

Rejoice, thou who didst see the angels!

Rejoice, thou who didst see through the thoughts of men!

Rejoice, thou who helpest those who have lost hope!

Rejoice, O blessed Andrew, who seest the Protecting Veil of the Mother of God over all the faithful!

Kontakion 6

Thou wast a preacher of the Cross, to those who perish a stumbling-block and foolishness, but the power and wisdom of God to thee who art saved. Seeing the height of thy lowliness, O blessed Andrew, the Lord granted thee the gift of seeing the unseen. With this gift of wisdom thou didst turn many from sin to repentance. As for us, seeing such things as these, we sing to God: Alleluia!

Ikos 6

O blessed Andrew, thou didst become poor in spirit and so receive the kingdom of God, thou didst become pure in heart and thus see God. Knowing this, we fall humbly to our knees before thine image and ask that thou mayest beseech from the Saviour of our souls a Christian ending to the lives of all who cry to thee such things as these:

Rejoice, thou who wast trampled down by men and dogs alike!

Rejoice, thou who didst drive away every earthly attachment by thy voluntary martyrdom!

Rejoice, thou who didst reveal the vanity of the world in the rich man who died, mocked by the demons!

Rejoice, thou who didst wholly give thyself up to God!

Rejoice, thou who didst shine like a flaming pillar!

Rejoice, thou who didst perceive the future in the present!

Rejoice, thou who like the apostle wast caught up to the third heaven!

Rejoice, O blessed Andrew, who seest the Protecting Veil of the Mother of God over all the faithful!

Kontakion 7

O all-wise Andrew, forsaking the vanity of the things of the world, thou didst forsake even the reason of men. By feigning folly thou dost show us the truth of things beyond reason and so dost shine with the unearthly light and joy of the world to come, hearing unutterable words and seeing the beauties of Paradise. Honouring thee, we ask that we too may know of that light and joy, singing to God: Alleluia!

Ikos 7

In thy feat of humble renunciation the Lord has given a sign of His mercy to us who drown in the delusions of possessions and lusts. For we have gained thee as an intercessor before the merciful God and call out to thee with thankful hearts and voices:

Rejoice, thou who hast ever raised up thine eyes with hope on the Lord!

Rejoice, thou who didst keep thy soul free from passions and so didst become bright with grace!

Rejoice, thou who hast acquired the heights of lowliness!

Rejoice, thou who wast crowned by the Lord with blessedness!

Rejoice, thou who becamest a new intercessor for faithful Orthodox!

Rejoice, thou who didst witness to Christ wandering from church to church in prayer!

Rejoice, thou who didst grow rich in wisdom by foolishness!

Rejoice, O blessed Andrew, who seest the Protecting Veil of the Mother of God over all the faithful!

Kontakion 8

On account of the sins and iniquities of unfaithful men who betrayed the purity of the Orthodox Faith, God allowed the City of Constantine to fall to the Hagarenes; however, by Divine Providence the Church was established in thy native Slav Lands, O blessed Andrew. Protect the Orthodox Faith there and everywhere from temptations and schisms that we may find salvation in these latter times, protecting us from the cunning wiles of the evil one. And we the faithful, wondering at thy holy life, ever sing with joy to God: Alleluia!

Ikos 8

Having acquired the inexhaustible riches of purity and wisdom through poverty, thou didst diligently serve the Lord as a fool for Christ. Therefore, like a star illuminating the way, thou dost enlighten all who seek the path of Christ. For this feat we call out to thee such things as these:

Rejoice, thou who didst despise earthly fame and win heavenly glory!

Rejoice, thou who dost denounce pride of mind with thy humility!

Rejoice, thou who dost keep us from open misfortunes with thy secret prayer!

Rejoice, O model of obedience to Christ!

Rejoice, O beauty of humility and abstinence!

Rejoice, O man who was like unto an angel!

Rejoice, O living temple of Divine wisdom!

Rejoice, O blessed Andrew, who seest the Protecting Veil of the Mother of God over all the faithful!

Kontakion 9

O blessed Andrew, thou didst endure all manner of sorrow and privation, beating, spitting, reviling and mocking, walking the narrow way with joy, knowing of the mysteries of Paradise by thy visions. Having lived according to the commandments of Christ, the King of Glory glorified thee and set thee in His everlasting kingdom with the blessed. Together with them thou dost sing the angelic song: Alleluia!

Ikos 9

Neither the tongues of orators nor the minds of philosophers can grasp the meaning of thy life in which thou didst follow Christ, O all-wise Andrew. Who can tell of the heights of thy lowly feat of foolishness for Christ and who can recount thy renunciation in living as a heavenly man and an earthy angel? As for us, conquered by thy humility and wisdom, we call out to thee such things as these:

Rejoice, thou who didst not spare thy flesh!

Rejoice, thou who didst intercede for those who beat thee!

Rejoice, thou who didst pray for those dragged down by their sins!

Rejoice, thou who didst warn of the sickness of greed!

Rejoice, O bright daybreak of humility, lighting the souls of sinners!

Rejoice, O warmth of the love of God warming our cold hearts!

Rejoice, O star enlightening the folly of the proud with the wisdom of the humble!

Rejoice, O blessed Andrew, who seest the Protecting Veil of the Mother of God over all the faithful!

Kontakion 10

The Lord preserves those who follow Him and therefore we sing to thee, blessed Andrew, as a wellspring of grace washing away the impurities of this world. For Christ granted grace to thee and grants grace to all who have recourse to thee with prayer and sing to God: Alleluia!

Ikos 10

Thou didst reveal the mystery of the Veil of our Sovereign Lady, shining forth like lightning and protecting the City of Constantine, to thy youthful disciple Epiphanius. And he too, seeing the Mother of God, spoke, saying: ‘I see, holy father, and I tremble’. Then thou didst foretell to him that he would receive the episcopal dignity. We beseech thee, blessed Andrew, who seest our thoughts and things to come, humble the pride of our minds and teach us to sing to thee thus:

Rejoice, thou who didst count as nothing the fleeting pleasures of this world!

Rejoice, thou who hadst nowhere to lay thy head!

Rejoice, thou who didst destroy all pride in thyself!

Rejoice, thou who didst serve Christ God all thy life!

Rejoice, thou who didst inherit everlasting blessedness!

Rejoice, O firm support of those who have set out on the path of repentance!

Rejoice, O wondrous consolation of all faithful Orthodox!

Rejoice, O blessed Andrew, who seest the Protecting Veil of the Mother of God over all the faithful!

Kontakion 11

Accept our prayerful song, O blessed Andrew, for behold, we run to thee with faith and love. Bowing our stubborn hearts before thy humble wisdom and glorifying the Lord Who glorified thee, we pray to thee: Still the stormy sea of our life, calm our passions, that we may call out to our God Who is wondrous in His saints: Alleluia!

Ikos 11

O all-wise Andrew, thou didst see the gates of heaven opened and the souls of the righteous flying forth like unto swallows. Obeying the Gospel, thou didst lose thy life and so save it. Lit by the light of this feat, we firmly believe and hope in thine intercession for us unworthy sinners and cry out to thee such things as these:

Rejoice, thou who wast enlightened by the gift of prophecy!

Rejoice, thou who didst not forsake us on leaving the earth!

Rejoice, thou who dost beseech Divine mercy for us!

Rejoice, O vessel emptied of passions and so filled with the Holy Spirit!

Rejoice, O receptacle of purity and humility!

Rejoice, O container of the wisdom of Christ!

Rejoice, O seer of God who dost pray for all who have recourse to thee!

Rejoice, O blessed Andrew, who seest the Protecting Veil of the Mother of God over all the faithful!

Kontakion 12

O blessed Andrew, thou didst accept grace from the Lord to see every secret sin and hidden sickness of the soul with thy spiritual eyes. Therefore grant us who are also blinded by sin to see our darkness and unworthiness, that healed by repentance, with pure heart and lips we may sing to God the angelic song: Alleluia!

Ikos 12

Let us sing of thy feats, O Andrew wise in God, let us honour thy sacrifice of foolishness for Christ, let us glorify thy manly courage in a weak body and, praising the feat of thine earthly life, let us bless thy holy repose, crying such things as these:

Rejoice, thou who didst find everlasting riches through poverty!

Rejoice, thou who didst find the world on high through lowliness!

Rejoice, thou who didst find the love of Christ through the hatred of men!

Rejoice, thou who dist find everlasting glory with Christ through the temporary mockings of the demonic!

Rejoice, thou who didst humble those whose minds were darkened by the delusions of pride!

Rejoice, thou who didst melt the ice of unrepentant hearts with the warmth of thy love!

Rejoice, thou who didst acquire the wisdom of Paradise through foolishness for Christ!

Rejoice, O blessed Andrew, who seest the Protecting Veil of the Mother of God over all the faithful!

Kontakion 13

O most glorious saint of Christ, seer of the mysteries of the human soul, O holy blessed Andrew, our intercessor before the God of mercy! Accept from us unworthy sinners this offering of prayer made out of love for thee and by thy prayers calm our passions, humble our proud minds, straighten out the crooked paths of our sins, grant us the gift of true repentance and cleanse us from every impurity, that together with thee we may cry out to our Lord and Saviour the angelic song: Alleluia!

This Kontakion is read three times and then we sing Ikos 1 and Kontakion 1.

Prayers to the holy blessed Andrew, fool for Christ

First Prayer

O saint of Christ, faithful servant and favourite of the Lord God, the Creator of all, most blessed Andrew! Hear us who are mired in sin and call on thy holy name. Pray for us who now fall before thy most pure image, accept this our unworthy prayer, ask for Divine mercy for us sinners and by thy prayers heal every sickness of our fallen souls and bodies. Make us worthy to run the course of our lives unharmed by enemies visible and invisible and come to a Christian ending to our lives, painless, blameless and peaceful, obtaining the inheritance of the Kingdom of Heaven with all the saints unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Second Prayer

O saint of God, blessed Andrew, on earth thou didst live in renunciation and so in heaven didst receive the unfading crown of righteousness, which the Lord has prepared for all who love Him. Seeing thy holy image, we rejoice in the most glorious ending of thy life and honour thy holy memory. As thou standest before the Throne of God, accept our prayers and offer them up to the All-Merciful One, that we may be forgiven every transgression. Help us to resist devilish intrigues, that we may be delivered from sorrow, sickness, misfortune, temptation and every evil, that we may live in piety and righteousness in this present age and be counted worthy to glorify the One God, Who is glorified in the saints, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

Troparion, Tone 1

Hearkening to the voice of Thine Apostle Paul saying: We are fools for Christ’s sake, Thy servant Andrew became a fool for Thy sake on earth, O Christ God. Therefore, now honouring his memory, we beseech Thee, O Lord, to save our souls.

Kontakion, Tone 4

Voluntarily feigning foolishness, thou didst hate the beauties of this world and make the thoughts of the flesh to wither away through fasting and thirst, the heat of the day and freezing cold, rain and snow, and unbowed by other inclemencies of the air, thou didst purify thyself like gold in a furnace, O blessed Andrew.