Met. +Philip takes a shot at the OCA and other disturbing developments

Metropolitan +Philip has begun pulling Antiochian seminarians from St. Vladimir's and St. Tikhon's seminaries. This is apparently in retaliation for the OCA failing to "silence" the owner and editor of OCANews.org, Mark Stokoe. Mr. Stokoe was one of the leading voices in exposing the recent scandals within the OCA's central administration. In recent months he has been directing his attention to the situation in the Antiochian Archdiocese which has been much commented on in the Orthodox blogosphere.

Although Mr. Stokoe is a member of the Metropolitan Council his website has no official connection to the OCA. Still multiple sources confirm that intense pressure was placed on the OCA by +Philip to shut down one of his most staunch critics. This pressure included unambiguous threats if the OCA failed to kowtow to +Philip.

That would be bad enough, but there is some significant, although as yet circumstantial, evidence that other even less savory methods of intimidation may be afoot. I strongly recommend that the reader peruse the Ochlophobist's most recent blog post which may be found here.

For the record I would advise anyone contemplating an attempt to strong arm Owen White into silence to first ponder his most recent work of literary criticism...


ANAXIOS!