INFECTED PRIEST

By dogcatcher on February 25th, 2012
  Has your Priest been infected by Ephraimite Theology? While reading this article, ask yourself if your priest is an Ephraimite. If you can still ask him questions, you are more fortunate than others. Most Ephraimites stopped asking questions when they began following an Ephraimite elder or one of their surrogates. If you belong to the Metropolis of Chicago, you should know that many priests are Ephraimites. Some can be referred to as “closet Ephraimites” while others are “hard-core Ephraimites”. However, one of their national leaders and lead recruiters is a Priest in the Metropolis of Chicago. This intelligent and highly charismatic priest has converted more Greek Orthodox Priests and Christians into Ephraimites than any other Priest in America. This occurred under the watchful eye of the Hierarchs our Metropolis. This priest has also been able to influence certain Parish Council members who serve on councils, committees and organizations of the Metropolis and Archdiocese. In order to determine if your priest is an Ephraimite, look for the following signs: 1. His views from the pulpit: • Does he speak extensively about ‘the evil one’; • Does he ask you to be obedient to your spiritual father; • Does he tell you to live like monks or nuns; • Does he call those who question him ‘Nominal Christians’; • Does he foster an ‘us vs. them’ bunker mentality; • Does he send you to the Monastery for confession, marriage counseling or spiritual healing; • Does he criticize other religions; • Does he avoid reading the Encyclicals from the Archbishop or the Patriarch during Christmas and Easter; • Does he preach about god’s love or does he use the fear of god like a weapon; • Does he focus on the long abandoned traditions of the faith that he portrays as currently practiced canons or conventional wisdom; • Does he mention that Elder Ephraim or Seraphim Rose are future saints of the church; • Does he embrace a victim position every time someone questions his leadership or decisions; 2. His interaction with the youth: • Does he think that alter boys scandalize the liturgy; • Does he discourage students from attending Camp Fanari by saying things like “it is just not for our kids or our kids just do not get anything out of it”; • Does he lower his voice and speak kindly and softly to little children thus giving a false impression of spirituality; • Does he encourage fear of Satan and a vengeful God; • Does he remove all G.O.Y.A. advisors and parents from GOYA meetings; • Does he avoid watching the youth in sports activities; • Have his kids attended Camp Fanari or has he sent them to a more ‘spiritual camp’ in Iowa; • Has he failed to promote Archdiocesan programs like Ionian Village; • Are preschoolers told their fathers will not go to heaven unless they say and count their prayers each day; 3. His relationship with the Parish Council: • Does he see himself or even refer to himself as King of his parish; • Does he isolate members of the Parish Council who ask questions; • Do his Ephraimite followers on the Parish Council think it is inappropriate to ask Father questions because “Father is higher than the angels”? Does the priest ever correct this perversion of our theology; • Do the parish council members blindly agree with everything the priest states; • Have you noticed that the parish council president is now one of the most compliant persons on the parish council; • Have key individuals who have served on your parish councils for decades left the parish; • Does your priest seem relieved that certain families who have been members for decades have left; • Does your priest seem unphased when families and long term friendships become divided over the change in theology; • Does your priest treat the parish council as mere ‘advisors’; • Does your Priest view and does your parish council act as a rubber stamp; • Has your priest responded with statements such as “I am not an employee of the parish”; 4. Fund Raising issues: • Did your priest stop the Parish from hosting bingo because it is considered gambling and not Christian; • Has he tried to change the methods traditionally used at your church to fundraise; • Does he refrain from using neighboring facilities that belong to different Christian or non Christian faiths because of religious differences; • Has your parish received large sums of money from anonymous sources; • Has there been a change in the benefactors of the parish to those who frequent Elder Ephraim’s monasteries; • Does he ask the Parish Community to trust in him or God rather than engage in a serious and professional dialogue in order to manage financial and legal issues; 5. His Effect on the Parish Community; • Are there two growing camps or factions within the parish; • Are Koumbari and relatives no longer speaking to each other because they are members of these different factions; • Are the priest’s followers more concerned with being observed practicing their faith than being observant in their faith; • Does he and his Presbytera try to convince the parish that they are victimized because they are more spiritual; • Does your priest seek out rich families by going to their homes and crying in order to invoke sympathy and then try to use them as tools; • Has your parish lost its transparency; 6. His plans for the parish community; • Does your priest take groups to the Ephraimite monastery; • Does your priest want to build a parochial school or charter school on church property; • Is he unphased by parish members leaving their church after being members for decades or even longer than ½ a century; • Is he delighted when the son or daughter of a parishioner decides to enter Elder Ephraim’s monasteries as a novice monk or nun? Do any of the priests’ children enter the monasteries? • Does he advocate having less members because they are more spiritual; • Does he avoid posting work hours or keeping a work schedule at his home parish in order to afford him the flexibility to visit the Monastery; • Has he ever convinced parishioners to seek matchmaking services provided by the Elders at the Monasteries; • Does he try to encourage as many complacent members as he can to run for parish council; 7. His methods to takeover and control your parish. The Ephraimite priest will key in on certain families facing personal problems. There is a modus operandi for each kind of situation. It is as if there has been a training camp run by the Ephraimites to help priests indoctrinate their members. A. Death. • The Ephraimite priest becomes a fixture in the home of the grieving family prior to and after death. They want to sit vigil in the home. What is unusual is that they visit families who are members at other parishes; • He will without shame approach families that have been attending other parishes in order to harness them into confession and conversion to the Ephraimite Doctrines. The priest has even been known to hold group confessions with all family members present; • Ephraimite Monasteries recommend only certain priests who are worthy to bury the dead; • They tell people that the dead will go to a higher place in heaven if they are buried at the Monastery; B. The rich widows. • Rich widows report that Ephraimite priests try to become their friends; • They are encouraged to attend the monastery for confession; • The Presbytera may become involved by becoming overly friendly; C. The Troubled • Parishioners who have had past difficulties including past drug use or promiscuity somehow appear on some Ephraimite priests’ radar screens; • The Ephraimite priest will use the confessional relationship to either cement his role as their spiritual father or to dole out drastic penitence; • Once you become their spiritual child, you must refer to them for all major and minor life decisions. You lose your emotional freedom. • Your new spiritual father must now be obeyed. Personal obedience is the hallmark of the Ephraimite Cult. Free will, which has been granted to you by God, has been handed over to the movement. D. Those who Question • Have long time members of parishes been leaving in large groups; • Is the parish experiencing serious financial problems; • Does the priest refer to people who ask questions as “those influenced by the evil one or under Satan’s influence.” 8. Theological Themes you should watch for: • Your priest tells you Elder Ephraim will some day be made a saint; • Your priest tells you to live your life like monks and nuns; • He tries to persuade you to visit St. Anthony’s Monastery in Florence, Arizona. Suddenly, parishioners are spending their vacations at the Monastery; • He tells you only people who are fully immersed in baptism will go to heaven; • He avoids Chrismating Catholics or he requires them to be fully immersed and re-baptized in order to be Chrismated; • He speaks ill against all other religions and declares them to be false; • He refuses to allow your parish to host any prayer service where other religions are present; • He refuses to even recognize a Clergymen of non-orthodox denominations when they show their respect by attending funeral services; • He professes obedience to his own spiritual father who is often a monk at a monastery and not one of the Hierarchs of our church; • He uses bizarre or illogical reasoning to justify the theology of Elder Ephraim and his followers; • He tells you he does not believe in the Patriarch or he believes the Hierarchs to be corrupt and that he has no respect for them; • He promotes the heretical teaching of Aerial tollhouses which are passageways for souls on their way to heaven. Some Ephraimites believe there are 20 and even 40 such tollhouses. According to the Ephraimites, the only way to pass through these demon occupied edifices is if monks and nuns have prayed for you while you were alive. They defend this teaching by telling their followers it is a conservative theology that is not taught at the seminary because the seminary is either operated by progressive elements, it is too serious to be taught at the seminary or that it needs to be intensely studied to be understood; • The Ephraimite Priest categorizes those without spiritual fathers as those who are spiritually dead among us; • They encourage women facing marital troubles to go to the Monasteries for counseling; • At confession, have you been asked questions about intimate relations with spouses or others; • He will criticize nonephraimite priests or predecessor priests telling parishioners that they had a bad relationship with the Monastery and that he his attempting to bring peace and true orthodoxy to the parish. The truth is that many parishes have suffered. The peace that once existed in these parishes is gone. People are attacking each other at parish assembly meetings. The environment, especially in the Metropolis of Chicago has turned toxic. When using this guide, keep in mind that there is a spectrum of loyalty and different degrees of obedience. They have even created different titles at the Monasteries. Beware that even clergy with slight allegiance to the Ephraimite movement can permanently damage a parish.