The following letter was sent to Archbishop Paul (Gassios), Orthodox Church in America (OCA), Diocese of Chicago and the Midwest, on January 9. This morning, the author shared it with Orthodoxy in Dialogue for dissemination to our readers around the planet. To keep him/her safe from the very real and present danger of death threats in today’s sociopolitical climate, we are publishing his/her letter anonymously.

ADDENDUM (1/11/21): An observant reader informs us that Father Hodges has scrubbed his Facebook page of most references to his participation in the Trump Riot since our publication of this open letter yesterday.

ADDENDUM (1/12/21): See Father Seraphim Holland and Father Mark Hodges Respond to Open Letter on Trump Riot.

Archpriest Mark Hodges
St. Paul the Apostle Church (OCA)
Dayton, Ohio

Greetings, Vladyka Paul,

A blessed Theophany to you. 

Fellow Orthodox believers and I wanted to report that one of your clergy, the Very Rev. Mark Hodges, was present at Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. during the siege attempt of the U.S. Capitol building. 

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NOVEMBER & DECEMBER 2020

4th Annual Christmas Appeal to Feed the Homeless

Dearest Mr. President-Elect: You Offer Hope for a Better Future

Transgender Day of Remembrance

Patriarch of Serbia Falls Asleep in the Lord this Morning from Covid

Doctoral Thesis Proposal: Father Pavel Florensky’s Orthodox Theology of Same-Sex Love

Orthodox Nutjob Launches Petition against the Assembly of Bishops

December 1 Is Giving Tuesday!

Archbishop David of Alaska (OCA) Falls Asleep in the Lord

Memory Eternal ~ Вѣчная Память: Priest Pavel Florensky

Why on Earth Did I Believe That?

Metropolitan Joseph Orders Disobedience of Covid Protocols; Josiah Trenham, Deacon, Parishioners Test Positive

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Thy Nativity, O Christ our God, has shone on the world the Light of knowledge,

for by it, those who worshipped the stars were taught by a star to adore Thee, the Sun of righteousness,

and to know Thee, the Sunrise from on high!

O Lord, glory to Thee!

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Today the Virgin gives birth to the Transcendent One,

and the earth offers a cave to the Unapproachable One!

Angels with shepherds glorify Him!

Wise men journey with a star!

Since for our sake the Pre-Eternal God is born as a little Child!

✠

On this, the great feast of the Birth of Our Lord, God, and Saviour Jesus Christ in human flesh from the womb of His Most-Pure Mother, the Most-Holy Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary, we greet our brothers, sisters, and friends in Christ everywhere around the world, our readers and followers, our writers, those who love us and those who hate us, those who have sinned against us and those against whom we have sinned, those who consider us their friends and those who consider us their enemies. Christ is born! Glorify Him!

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The once globally revered St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary has lost all credibility as a serious institution of Orthodox theological learning. The nauseating poster displayed above must have Father Alexander Schmemann of thrice-blessed memory rolling in his grave. It does not bode well for the future of the episcopate, priesthood, diaconate, and lay workers for generations to come in the Orthodox Church in America and beyond.

That one of the greatest embarrassments to Orthodoxy in America should be invited not only to write the foreword to a book of Father Schmemann’s talks, but to deliver the annual lecture named for him at what used to be one of the world’s foremost Orthodox theological schools, is emblematic of the cesspits that the OCA’s two main seminaries—St. Vladimir’s and St. Tikhon’s—have gradually become under Metropolitan Tikhon (Mollard)’s primatial watch.

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