Bitter Sweet Vindication for Carlos Guerra

From the very start of the Accenture/HHSC Privitization debacle, there has been one voice in the media that had this whole thing pegged -- Carlos Guerra of the San Antonio Express. Those who were watching things unravel from the inside had at least some consolation that someone with a voice in the main stream media "got it". I heard later that he was getting some grief at his paper, because he wrote so frequently on the subject... and then unfortunately the frequency of his commentaries on this subject declined sharply. He now has a new piece in which he get's to tell everyone he was right. I am happy for him in that respect, though it is clear that he takes no delight in the fact that so many people had to be hurt before the powers that be finally decided to change course.

This whole disaster was not only preventable, and predictable -- it was predicted by many many voices, my own included.

Here is Carlos Guerra's op ed:

Carlos Guerra: A contract that failed miserably, taking 200,000 Texas kids with it

Web Posted: 03/14/2007 11:01 PM CDT

Express-News

Having first written in May 2003 about what was coming, I wasn't surprised Tuesday morning when Will Rogers of the Texas State Employees Union wrote to say that "Accenture and (the Texas Health and Human Services Commission) will jointly announce that the contract will be 'unraveled,' with each party 'going its own way.'"

Nor did I gag when HHSC and Accenture officials tried to put a positive spin on the dissolution of possibly the nation's largest contract to privatize a state's social services safety net.

I wasn't alone.

"I hate to say that I told them so, but I did — for four years," sighed state Sen. Carlos Uresti, D-San Antonio.

It began when the 2003 Legislature faced a $10 billion budget shortfall and the ideologues in charge were intent on rolling back taxes instead of raising any. So they opted to make up the shortfall largely on the backs of Texas' most vulnerable.

House Bill 2292 was a "reform" and "modernization" of Texas' health and human services safety net, they said, and it would save Texas hundreds of millions through privatization and by being more businesslike. After all, business does everything better than government.

A close reading of 132-page HB2292 revealed the massive reorganization of Texas' social services agencies really was a convenient cover for its more nefarious provisions.

Any real savings, I wrote then, will accrue from slashing or eliminating benefits, unconscionably stiffening eligibility standards and systematically making applying for benefits so frustrating that, needs notwithstanding, people will become discouraged and quit seeking benefits.

At the heart of HB2292 was authorization for HHSC to privatize enrollment for CHIP and Medicaid, and other critical safety net programs.

But a year later, HHSC insisted $177 million would be saved by contracting for four privately run centers to take applications by phone, fax or the Internet, and the firing of 3,377 of the state's 7,864 trained field workers and the shuttering of 217 of the 381 field offices.

Bermuda-based Accenture headed the consortium awarded the $899 million call center contract. But problems surfaced early on, such as interminable hold times and operators giving applicants incorrect information. Software broke down and documents were lost, some of which were inexplicably faxed to a Seattle warehouse.

The new system's roll-out repeatedly was postponed, the call centers' workers had to be retrained, and soon after the trained state workers started getting pink slips — by e-mail, no less — many had to be rehired.

"As (House) Government Reform chair, we had Accenture and HHSC testify, and they kept saying, 'It's getting better, everything is working great'" Uresti says, "when, obviously, that wasn't the truth, or 200,000 kids wouldn't have fallen off CHIP."

And it was shrinking CHIP rolls that set off the outcry that finally has resulted in Accenture getting the boot.

But that's hardly all that has gone wrong.

"This has done more damage to Texas than you can imagine," Uresti adds. "Everyone talks about CHIP and Medicaid because they recognize them; but this has also affected our seniors, our mentally retarded, our disabled, pregnant moms and on and on and on."

And aside from the human cost, this disaster may end up costing hundreds of millions after local indigent health-care costs are factored in.

But there also are lessons.

"We want to balance the budget, but you don't give out a $900 million contract — no company would — without having safeguards in place, without having performance measures and if they aren't met, we cancel the contract, instead of giving them more time," Uresti adds.

Details of what Texas will do now seem to be unknown.

But Uresti's characterization of this debacle is quite apt: "We put all our eggs in one basket, and they dropped the basket."

Senators Urge Accenture Call Center Contract Probe

You can read a shorter version of this story, with commentary from HHSC Employee, by clicking here.

Tyler Morning Telegraph: Senators Urge Call Center Contract Probe

From Staff, Wire Reports

Nearly every state senator has signed a letter asking the inspector general of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission to investigate the failed contract with the company hired to privatize the state's social services eligibility system.

"There are significant questions concerning the contract, and the members of the Texas Senate want them answered," said Sen. Bob Deuell, who circulated the letter.

Deuell, a Republican from Greenville, said he also plans to ask the state auditor to look into the contract.

Sen. Kevin Eltife signed the letter.

"We should demand a full accounting of the Accenture contract," Eltife said. "This venture that was to save the taxpayers millions now looks to have costs taxpayers millions."

The commission announced Tuesday it was ending its contract with the Texas Access Alliance, a group of companies led by Accenture LLP. The letter was released Wednesday.

The consulting giant was hired in 2005 to - among other things - run a new computer system allowing Texans to apply for Medicaid, food stamps and other benefits over the phone, online or in person.

Problems plagued the project from the start, prompting more than a year of harsh rebukes from lawmakers, gubernatorial candidates and advocates for poor families. The commission announced plans to scale back the contract in December, but the two sides couldn't reach an agreement, Executive Commissioner Albert Hawkins said.

The letter, signed by 30 of the 31 state senators, asks the inspector general to conduct an integrity review and, if warranted, a full-scale investigation of both the new computer system and the contract for running it.

Commission spokeswoman Stephanie Goodman said the agency will provide any information that is requested.

"It's hard to imagine that there's a document in the building that hasn't already been provided to every losing candidate for governor, the employees union and IBM's attorneys, but we'll keep the copy machine warmed up and ready to go," she added.

The state's $899 million contract with Accenture was part of a massive effort to make it easier for people to apply for benefits.

The project as a whole was supposed to save the state nearly $650 million over five years. Hawkins said Wednesday he still expects the state to save money, but he could not estimate how much.

Accenture began running the new computer system in Travis and Hays counties a year ago and it was supposed to be implemented in all 254 Texas counties by the end of the year. But technical and operational problems forced Hawkins to indefinitely delay the rollout last spring.

Problems also cropped up when the Texas Access Alliance took over processing applications for the Children's Health Insurance Program, the state's low-cost health insurance program for the children of the working poor. Enrollment dipped below 300,000 for the first time since the program's infancy, but has since rebounded.

Advocates for poor families said contract workers lost CHIP applications and other paperwork, gave contradictory instructions about submitting information missing from their files and failed to credit payments to their accounts.

Democratic State Rep. Patrick Rose, who chairs the House human services committee, said his panel is committed to figuring out what went wrong with the Accenture contract and what needs to be done to prevent it from happening again.

Accenture Deal Dead

For those wondering why an Orthodox Priest cares about this news article, click here.

You should also check out Ramblings of an HHSC Employee Amidst Chaos, for some timely commentary on what is happening.

Texas terminating deal with main social services contractor

Medicaid, food stamp duties going back to state; official defends system, admits flaws

12:00 AM CDT on Wednesday, March 14, 2007
By ROBERT T. GARRETT / The Dallas Morning News
rtgarrett@dallasnews.com

AUSTIN – Texas' rush to privatize eligibility screening for such programs as Medicaid and food stamps was dealt a huge blow Tuesday as the state announced that it would sever its relationship with the lead contractor.

State social services czar Albert Hawkins said protracted disagreements over money and changes to the private company's role persuaded him to end the state's five-year contract with the U.S. unit of Bermuda-based Accenture Ltd. more than three years early.

The contract had put Texas on track to be the first state to mostly privatize the process of determining residents' eligibility for social programs. But a pilot effort to combine contractors' screening of applicants for Medicaid, food stamps and welfare with the already-privatized Children's Health Insurance Program swiftly encountered turbulence in two Central Texas counties early last year.

Further rollout of the new system, which relies heavily on four privately run call centers, has been postponed repeatedly as applications and enrollment fees were lost and thousands of families complained of abruptly canceled health coverage for their children.

Mr. Hawkins insisted that the state will carefully assess whether to continue outsourcing some functions or pull most back into state government. But his move underscored the fact that the deal hasn't saved any of the $646 million that officials promised.

"The opportunity for savings is delayed until we get the model fully in place," he said. His confirmation by the Senate to a third two-year term as head of the Health and Human Services Commission has been held up, in part because of problems with the call centers.

For now, little will change for Texans applying for services. Mr. Hawkins said he expects the duties will be handed off by Nov. 1. A separate negotiation will now begin on how much the contractor will be paid. Through Feb. 28, the state had paid it $186 million, said a spokeswoman for Mr. Hawkins.


Looking ahead

Mr. Hawkins and Accenture spokesman Jim McAvoy dismissed suggestions that the new eligibility system's problems should curb state leaders' enthusiasm for outsourcing.

"I don't really think this is about privatization," Mr. Hawkins said. "It's about still moving forward and achieving the goals of transformation that we set out for our eligibility system," which he said hadn't changed much since the late 1960s.

Mr. McAvoy said, "This has less to say about privatization than about how difficult large [information technology] projects are."

Democrats and state employee groups, though, claimed vindication of their 2003 warnings that the privatization effort would fail – especially when combined with budget cuts and tighter eligibility rules in CHIP, the state-federal health insurance program for children in working-poor families.

"Far too many Texas parents have been left to depend on NyQuil and prayer for health insurance because their children were unfairly denied CHIP coverage," said state Democratic Chairman Boyd Richie. "Republicans have wasted millions of taxpayer dollars on dysfunctional private call centers."

Ed Sills, spokesman for the Texas AFL-CIO, called outsourcing of sensitive government duties "an inherently flawed concept in which the public trust is traded for the corporate profit motive. The Accenture fiasco proved us right at every stage."

Mr. McAvoy responded: "We had problems with the initial pilot. We stabilized it."


Lawmakers' reactions

Republican leaders also played down the decision to end the Accenture contract.

House Speaker Tom Craddick said that while he expects Mr. Hawkins to fix problems in the new eligibility system, he still likes outsourcing.

"Privatizations in a lot of areas of government have been real positive, have done a lot of great services for us, saving dollars and allowing us to increase our benefits to different programs and facilities," said Mr. Craddick, a Republican who lured one of the call centers to his hometown of Midland.

Senate Health and Human Services Committee Chairwoman Jane Nelson, R-Lewisville, said she just wants a "user-friendly" system for poor people.

"Whether the state is performing the function or a vendor, the critical point is that we make it as convenient as possible for citizens to enroll in our state services and that we make the best possible use of online tools to help in that process," she said.

Rep. Patrick Rose, chairman of the House Human Services Committee, has asked Mr. Hawkins to testify Thursday about the project's past and future.

"The Legislature needs to pass legislation to prevent future mistakes," said Mr. Rose, D-Dripping Springs.

Mr. Hawkins said he had informed legislative budget writers he might need some extra state employees, depending on how much he decides to dial back the outsourcing.

Mr. Hawkins said he was not sure whether call centers would continue to be staffed by employees of Reston, Va.-based Maximus Inc. – an Accenture subcontractor – or by state workers.

He expressed confidence that after the state's review he would continue to hire private companies for a variety of technical support tasks, such as printing and mailing notices to aid recipients, and a Midland operation that copies and scans applicants' personal financial documents into computer systems.

However, Mr. Hawkins said, there would be a "direct trade-off" between spending on state employees and payments to contractors – and little if any impact on the budget.


Complex system

Advocates for poor families have said the state's original plan for outsourcing got rid of too many of the state eligibility workers who know the programs' differing and often very complex rules about who can qualify. Call center operators, who make between $12 and $15 an hour, initially didn't grasp many of the nuances. Most had to be retrained.

Mr. Hawkins said the whole idea was to test how much could be outsourced before going statewide with a new system.

"We didn't have it calibrated right," he acknowledged. "There needed to be more of those things retained by the state."

The tinkering has ended long times on hold and dropped calls, he said. But critics say it still takes far too long to process applications for Medicaid and food stamps.

In November, Williamson County entered the new system, joining Travis and Hays counties. A new rollout schedule announced Tuesday calls for 28 additional Central Texas counties to be added over the next five months, with Hill County the farthest north.

Mr. Hawkins said no state employees would be fired or demoted for miscalculating how much work should be privatized.

Mr. Hawkins said his agency and the Accenture-led group, the Texas Access Alliance, were unable to agree on financial terms and a revised division of labor that would be needed to carry out a handshake deal they announced in December.

Under that deal, state workers would perform certain functions originally envisioned for the private sector. Also, the state would slash the contract to $543 million, from $899 million. The Dec. 21 deal also called for the contract, originally for five years, to end in 2008 – two years early.

Staff writer Karen Brooks contributed to this report.

My Fair Lady... Southern Style

The "Jesus Tomb", More Updates

Dr. Ben Witherington gives a morning after update on why this is a hoax.

Codex gives another round up of posts on the subject.

The Lost Tomb?

Dr. Ben Witherington (a real scholar) has a post in which he shows how completely ridiculous the claims of movie director James Cameron (not a scholar by any stretch) that he has discovered the lost tomb of Jesus Christ.

THE JESUS TOMB? ‘TITANIC’ TALPIOT TOMB THEORY SUNK FROM THE START

One does get tired of the media going into a tizzy every time some idiot comes along with such manifestly baseless claims, and making pronouncements about how this could "rock the Christian faith." It would probably help if more people in the media had a real education of their own -- in some field other than how to look good on camera.

Update:
Get Religion weighs in on this as well.

Codex gives a round up of other posts on this subject.

More updates:

Ben Witherington adds to his original comments here.

More from Ben Witherington:

THE SMOKING GUN---TENTH TALPIOT OSSUARY PROVED TO BE BLANK

More from Get Religion:

Can we call Lost Tomb a hoax now?

And Codex gives another days round up of news on this subject.

The Building of a Data Base on the New Martyrs of Russia

H/T anna_I

Click Here.

A Hymn by St. Nectarios

You can hear this hymn in Greek by clicking on the video above. You can read about St. Nectarios, by clicking here.

O Virgin Pure
by St. Nectarios
Plagal First Tone (Tone 5)

Refrain: O Rejoice, Bride Unwedded.

O Virgin pure, immaculate/ O Lady Theotokos
O Virgin Mother, Queen of all/ and fleece which is all dewy
More radiant than the rays of sun/ and higher than the heavens
Delight of virgin choruses/ superior to Angels.
Much brighter than the firmament/ and pure than the sun's light
More holy than the multitude/ of all the heav'nly armies.
O Rejoice, Bride Unwedded.

O Ever Virgin Mary/ of all the world, the Lady
O bride all pure, immaculate/ O Lady Panagia
O Mary bride and queen of all/ our cause of jubilation
Majestic maiden, Queen of all/ O our most holy Mother
More hon'rable than Cherubim/ beyond compare more glorious
than immaterial Seraphim/ and greater than angelic thrones.

O Rejoice, Bride Unwedded.

Rejoice, O song of Cherubim/ Rejoice, O hymn of angels
Rejoice, O ode of Seraphim/ the joy of the archangels
Rejoice, O peace and happiness/ the harbor of salvation
O sacred chamber of the Word/ flower of incorruption
Rejoice, delightful paradise/ of blessed life eternal
Rejoice, O wood and tree of life/ the fount of immortality

O Rejoice, Bride Unwedded.

I supplicate you, Lady/ now do I call upon you
And I beseech you, Queen of all/ I beg of you your favor
Majestic maiden, spotless one/ O Lady Panagia
I call upon you fervently/ O sacred, hallowed temple
Assist me and deliver me/ protect me from the enemy
And make me an inheritor/ of blessed life eternal.

O Rejoice, Bride Unwedded.



You can read the text of this hymn in Greek at:

http://agrino.org/cyberdesert/agni.htm

The Orthodox Church in Mexico

Icon Exhibit this weekend

You can read all about it by clicking here.

One thing we have that is new this year is a guide to the icons that you can use to better understand what you are looking at. The icons are numbered, and by looking up each number in the guide, you can find the story behind that particular icon.

Friday we had a very good turn out, due in part to an article that ran Thursday in the Chronicle's Northside insert, which was placed on the front page of that section, and included a color photo which helped to draw attention to the article (unfortunately, the online version does not include the photo).

Unfortunately the article misquotes me as saying:

"We really want people from all backgrounds to understand Orthodox Christianity not as some weird or exotic religion but as rooted in Christianity"

The reporter was taking notes, rather than recording the interview, and I am sure that this was completely unintentional, but what I actually said was that I wanted people of other Christian backgrounds to understand that their faith traces its roots back to our Tradition.

Nevertheless, we have seen a wonderful turn out as a result of that article.

Last night we also had a wonderful talk from Fr. Joseph Huneycutt.

Oh Gramma, Oh!

When I was a wee kid, my great grandmother used to sing "Oh Johnny, Oh". I never heard the whole song until I was watching the movie "The Chronicles of Narnia". Here are the lyrics:

Oh, Johnny! Oh, Johnny!
How you can love!
Oh, Johnny! Oh, Johnny!
Heavens above!
You make my sad heart jump with joy,
And when you're near I just
Can't sit still a minute.
I'm so, Oh, Johnny! Oh, Johnny!
Please tell me dear.
What makes me love you so?
You're not handsome, it's true,
But when I look at you,
I just, Oh, Johnny!
Oh, Johnny! Oh!

Now.. I was OK with this till I got to that part towards the end.

Here's a video with the music:

St. Crispian's Day

I have been watching videos of Shakespeare's plays, and here is a clip from a particularly well done movie version of Henry V:



This is the St. Crispian's day speech, just before the battle of Agincort, which is considered to be the greatest battle in English history. This speech is also where the "band of brothers" line originated from.

If only Bush could be given "a muse of fire".

This next clip is sort of a movie promo, but it has the hymn "Non nobis" from the play, which is sung after the battle:



The hymn in Latin is

Non nobis domine, non nobis, sed nomini tuo da gloriam
Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto Thee give glory

Which is taken from Psalm 113:9 (KJV)/115:1 (LXX)

For more on the movie version, see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_V_%281989_movie%29

Next, I hope to see the Lawrence Olivier version from 1944:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_V_%281944_movie%29

Clip from the Glorification of St. Xenia, 1978

You can read about St. Xenia by clicking here, and also here.

Original Version of "O Happy Day"

This video has the original version of "O Happy Day"... the images are sort of just filler, but the music is another story:



This video tells a little bit of the story of this song:



And here is the wikipedia article on this song:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/O_Happy_Day

Detroit Becomes Foothold for Orthodox Resurgence

By The Associated Press
Tue, Jan. 23 2007 04:49 PM ET

DETROIT (AP) — Detroit is emerging as a national center for the rebirth of Orthodox Christian churches, which have deep ethnic roots in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.

Social scholars say the churches are growing in the United States through immigration and conversion. Next week, many of Detroit's Orthodox leaders will host the first in a series of conferences planned nationwide for non-Orthodox clergy who want to explore conversion.

The Rev. John Fenton is betting his life on the growing popularity of Orthodox Christianity. He and his wife have packed up their six children from the rectory of a Detroit church where he was a Lutheran pastor until late October. They've moved into a small home in Allen Park, leaving behind Fenton's clergy salary and, soon, his health insurance.

"My wife and I have spent a lot of time in prayer about this whole move, and it is difficult, but we do believe that God is leading us," Fenton told the Detroit Free Press.

On Feb. 10 and Feb. 11 in Troy Fenton plans to join a small number of clergy nationwide choosing ordination as Orthodox priests. Fenton has lined up 16 former Lutherans as charter members of a new Orthodox parish he plans to open.

Why the fresh interest? Fenton said many Christians feel battered by theological controversies in their own churches. In contrast, he said, Orthodoxy represents an oasis of Christian tradition with its centuries-old style of worship and timeless celebration of the mysterious power of saints.

"So many people feel that the world is constantly changing all around them, and they want to find something that's so deeply rooted that it won't change on them," Fenton said. "I think that's the biggest thing that Orthodoxy brings to the American table."

Since the mid-1990s, about 850,000 Americans have been drawn to more than a dozen different divisions of Orthodoxy that have congregations in the U.S.

A Talking Prayer Book

Anastasia Titov's niece recently gave us some of Anastasia Titov's icons and books, and included among them was her Russian prayer book. I had seen her whip this prayer book out many times over the years so that the choir could sing some hymn that was needed, but until now I had never looked at it any more closely than to follow whatever hymn she happened to be pointing to.

Her prayer book is a 1976 edition, Jordanville Prayer Book. The outer spine is now hanging by a thread. The pages of the first half of the Prayer Book (which contains the morning and evening prayers, selections from the Vigil, and the Divine Liturgy) are so worn that the pages are falling out. On the inside of the front cover, she hand wrote an index so that she could more easily find certain hymns or prayers... most of which are used during the services at one time or another. Throughout the Prayer Book you find hymns marked and slashed so that they could be sung more easily. At the back of the Prayer Book she pasted a typed and slashed text of the Kontakion of her patron saint, Great-Martyr Anastasia. Stuck into the middle of the Prayer Book are a photo of her beloved St. John of Shanghai, a Russian news clipping about the celebration of his feast day in San Francisco, a hand written page with the prokimenon and Alleluia verses of the New Martyrs of Russia, a copy of an obituary for her late husband Paul Titov, a clipped article in Russian that (as best as I can tell from my limited Russian) is about the making of the Sign of the Cross, and a photo of a plaque, which looks like it is on the wall of a Church, with the text of the "Our Father" in Slavonic.

This Prayer Book is like a holy relic, and it has much to say about its former owner. Primarily, it tells me again what I already knew from 15 years of knowing her... which is that she was a woman of prayer, who had a deep love for God and a love for the services of the Church.

Someday, someone will be cleaning out our books as well. We should ponder what they will say about us. Hopefully, the prayer books, Bibles, and writings of the Saints that we own will not tell everyone how much we neglected them.

More Americans join Orthodox Christian churches

U.S. Orthodox Christian churches drawing converts
By TOM BREEN
Associated Press Writer
January 13, 2007

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. AP — Greg Mencotti worried he would never find a spiritual home.

The Sunday school teacher grew up Roman Catholic, lost his faith and became an atheist. Eventually, he returned to Christianity, this time as a born-again Christian, spending years worshipping in a Methodist congregation. Still, he felt his search wasn't over.

That led him to the Holy Spirit Antiochian Orthodox Church in Huntington, a denomination with Mideast roots that, like all Orthodox groups, traces its origins to the earliest days of Christianity.

Today, Mencotti is one of about 250 million Orthodox believers worldwide — and among a significant number of newcomers attracted to this ancient way of worship. The trend is especially notable since so few in the United States know about the Orthodox churches here.

"I was like most Americans," said Mencotti, who was urged by his wife to explore Orthodox worship. "I didn't understand anything about Orthodoxy."

Orthodoxy was born from the Great Schism of 1054, when feuds over papal authority and differences in the liturgy split Christianity into Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox halves.

In the United States, Orthodox Christians are a fraction of religious believers, numbering about 1.2 million, according to estimates by Orthodox researchers.

In the past, their growth had been largely fueled by immigration, with churches forming mainly along ethnic lines. Some converts came to Orthodoxy through marriage to a church member.

But now about one-third of all U.S. Orthodox priests are converts — and that number is likely to grow, according to Alexei D. Krindatch, research director at the Patriarch Athenagoras Orthodox Institute in Berkeley, Calif. A 2006 survey of the four Orthodox seminaries in the country found that about 43 percent of seminarians are converts, Krindatch said.

There are no exact figures on the rate of conversion across the 22 separate U.S. Orthodox jurisdictions. But when Mencotti began attending Orthodox worship, the church was packed with converts, including the church's pastor, the Rev. John Dixon.

The Rev. John Matusiak, pastor of St. Joseph Church in Wheaton, Ill., part of the Orthodox Church in America, said his parish has grown from 20 people in the early 1990s to more than 600 today, with the overwhelming majority of new members younger than 40.

Krindatch's research found that one-third of the more than 200 U.S. parishes in the Antiochian Orthodox Church were founded after 1990.

Matusiak said growth is especially apparent in suburbs and commuter towns. "People in Wheaton weren't flocking to Orthodoxy, because there was never a church here," Matusiak said.

Many converts credit the beauty of the liturgy and the durability of the theology, which can be a comfort to those seeking shelter from divisive battles over biblical interpretation in other Christian traditions.

Dixon, who was raised an Old Regular Baptist, an austere faith of the Southern Appalachians, said his conversion grew from his studies about the origins of Christianity as an undergraduate at Marshall University. The turning point came when he first attended services at an Orthodox church.

"As soon as I came in that day," he says, "I knew I was home."

Convert-fueled growth, though, has its challenges.

Like converts in all faiths, the newly Orthodox bring a zeal that can be unsettling for those born into the church, who tend to be more easygoing in their religious observance. Parishes run the risk of dividing between new and lifelong parishioners, Krindatch says.

"Converts to Orthodoxy form their own little quasi-seminary and it's almost a closed group," says the Rev. Joseph Huneycutt, associate pastor of St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church in Houston, who was raised Southern Baptist then became Orthodox.

And some worry about converts' impact on the churches. They are entering the parishes at a time when many lay activists across Orthodox denominations are pushing church leaders to let go of ethnic divisions and pool resources so they can better evangelize in the United States.

Huneycutt, author of "One Flew Over the Onion Dome," a book about conversion, and the editor of OrthoDixie, a blog about Orthodoxy in the South, said he was drawn to the faith by the beauty of its rituals and its teachings.

On his first visit, he said the church was filled with the smell of incense and the sound of the chanted Divine Liturgy. The altar was largely concealed by the iconostasis, a large screen or wall hung with icons of Christ, Mary, angels and Apostles. And worshippers received Communion from a chalice and spoon.

"I had become convinced that the Eucharist was the center of Christian worship — ancient Christian worship," Huneycutt says. "Once I had reached that point in my personal walk with Christ, there was no going back."

More Remebrances of Anastasia Titov

The following was sent to me by my friend John Granger of HogwartsProfessor.com:

My name is John Granger and I met Mrs. Titov when my family lived in Houston , 1996-2001. We were recent converts to Orthodoxy and went to as many services as we could at St. Vladimir’s Russian Orthodox Church. Mrs. Titov, or Anastasia as she insisted we call her, was the choir director there. On Feast Days that fell during the week, oftentimes there were very few people at the Evening Vigil services or the Morning Liturgy. Anastasia and Rustik and Barbara Karnauch, however, were always there at the kliros to chant in English and Slavonic, as frequently as not with only my seven children and a few adults to listen. These are some of our fondest memories of life in Houston because of the kindness and good times we shared with the Karnauchs, Mrs. Titov, and the clergy at St. Vladimir’s. We asked Anastasia to be godmother to our son Timothy, born in 1998, and she agreed.

I remember celebrating Theophany at St. Vladimir’s one year when it was the priest, the kliros regulars, and my family. After the blessing of the waters and before we left for home and work, Anastasia pulled me aside and said she wanted to show me something. She dug into what she called her “God-bag” where she kept the music books and notebooks for the choir and pulled out a photograph about the size of a postcard and of a similar feel. In the picture were thousands of people standing on a snow covered frozen lake. They surrounded a central group of Orthodox priests and hierarchs. Men in rason held processional banners and icons on either side and the back of this group and one held an oversized cross. There was a visible hole in the ice. The thousands of people faced the camera and their numbers filled the picture from edge to edge.

I asked her where the picture was taken. Anastasia explained that it was taken in Harbin , China , on Theophany when she was a little girl. “This,” she said, pointing out the picture and looking me in the eye while smiling, “this was Theophany!” As I looked around the church in Houston , empty then except for the priest and the large glass container of water he had blessed, I marveled at the difference in the two scenes – and was grateful once again for the opportunity we had to worship with people like Mrs. Titov and the Karnauchs whose faith and fidelity bridged this difference and united the two.

I asked Mrs. Titov once if she and her husband Paul had come straight to this country from China after the war. “Oh, no,” she said, shaking her head and laughing at my naiveté. “They wouldn’t allow me to come. I was, after all, a sparrow.” Paul nodded his head and smiled at their inside joke. It turns out Anastasia had gone to the American consulate in China for the visa paperwork necessary to escape the Communists taking over the country. The young man who reviewed her paperwork told her that, unfortunately, she could not immigrate to the United States because she was, as a Russian born in China , “White Chinese” and subject to the quotas set for Chinese immigrants.

Anastasia told me she stood up from the chair in front of this young man’s desk, and, with as much disdain as she could muster asked him, “If a sparrow is born in a barn, sir, does that make the sparrow a cow? Do I look or sound Chinese to you?” The American official, sad to say, did not appreciate the avian treasure before him or her brilliant analogy. Anastasia by good fortune and St. John’s intercessory prayers (he was then in the Philippines ) was only able to escape the Chinese Communists in whose barn she was trapped by flying to South America .

Two quick notes about her unfeigned piety: first, Anastasia, because of her bond with her patron saint, made it a point to go to every baptism held at St. Vladimir’s. At my boy’s baptism, though she was weak and not feeling well, she insisted as Timothy’s godmother that she had to walk behind the priest as he circled the baptismal font. These three trips around could not have been easy for her but she seemed almost to be running or dancing, her head well in front of her body except for the candle she held. This is the mental picture I will always have of Mrs. Titov. I think of her, though, each time I confess. Anastasia did not commune every week but she did confess and receive at least at every major Feast that I can remember. Stone-hearted and self-important as I am, I don’t often feel or think much of anything after I confess. I think of Mrs. Titov when the prayers of absolution are said over me in my callowness because she would always be crying quietly after confessing as she prepared to receive. Memory Eternal!

HHSC Reverses Course on Welfare Privatization

What do you do when you have to release a story that you don't want people to pay attention to? You release the week before Christmas. The following two articles tell the story, but in short, the Texas Health and Human Services Commission is at long last raising the white flag on its privatization plan. For more on the background of this story, click here.

It will be very interesting to see what those who are responsible for these decisions will have to say for themselves in the next legislative session. What an incredible amount of human misery they have caused in the name of saving money... and in the end they have only thrown money down rat holes, and the price to the tax payers will be much higher than they ever needed to be. It will also take years for HHSC to get back to the level it was even a year ago.

Texas cuts contract on benefits
Janet Elliott
San Antonio Express-News Austin Bureau

AUSTIN — Texas is drastically cutting a private contract for social services because of backlogs and errors in processing applications, state officials said Thursday.
The $899 million contract with Accenture to operate call centers to determine benefits eligibility will be reduced by $356 million and will end in 2008, two years early, said Health and Human Services Commissioner Albert Hawkins.

Under the restructured contract, the Bermuda-based company will be largely relegated to data entry, leaving judgments about whether Texans qualify for food stamps, Medicaid and other welfare programs to state workers.

"We didn't draw the line between vendor work and state work in the right place," Hawkins said. "As we rebalance the roles between the state and the vendor, we will be drawing that line in a different place."

For example, if a client applying for benefits fails to list an asset such as a car, and a check of public data indicates a car is registered to the family, the situation now will be investigated by state employees, not Accenture workers.


Additionally, a planned expansion of Accenture-run call centers from two Central Texas counties to other areas of the state won't occur, Hawkins said.

The state will charge Accenture $30 million through service credits and payment discounts to recover costs incurred by the state, which has had to hire extra workers to process applications.

Accenture will retain more control over processing applications for the Children's Health Insurance Program, but state employees will handle all appeals of its decisions. Currently, clients denied benefits must first appeal to Accenture before going to the state.

Critics of privatization seized on the announced changes as evidence that the state's experiment had failed.

"They should have never (embarked on privatization) in the first place," said Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston. "I'm glad they woke up from whatever episode they were having."

No one should interpret the contract changes as a failure of privatization, said Accenture spokesman Jim McAvoy. "Some of the technology and business processes we tried to apply did not succeed. This is why you do a pilot to determine whether new structures will work."

He characterized the $30 million in service credits and discounts as "an accommodation," not a penalty.

The state's announcement was good news for state workers and groups that work with low-income Texans. Hawkins said 900 temporary positions in eligibility offices will be converted to full-time to stabilize the state work force.

"We're glad to see that HHSC is acknowledging that its call-center experiment didn't work," said Mike Gross, Texas State Employees Union vice president.

Gross said the commission should restore staffing levels at its local benefits offices to levels that existed before the contract was signed in June 2005.

Scott McCown, executive director of the Center for Public Policy Priorities, an Austin group that has advocated a more cautious approach to privatization, said Thursday's announcement served as a reminder that not all duties performed by state workers can be transferred to the private sector.

"There's a tremendous amount of expertise and skill in the public sector that the private sector could not replicate," he said.

Hawkins said the state eligibility workers for the most part are better trained and more experienced.

Neither of the authors of the 2003 privatization law, Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Lewisville, and former Rep. Arlene Wohlgemuth, R-Burleson, could be reached Thursday for comment.

Hawkins said the state will continue to convert 8 million food stamp, Medicaid and welfare cases to the state's new computer system, which has had its own problems.

A state audit last month said that failed interfaces between the computer and the HHSC's Office of Inspector General have left investigators unable to check for fraud and overpayments in benefit programs.

Hawkins said he thinks the computer program is working as expected and will serve as the "backbone" of the eligibility-screening system when it is in place statewide in 18 months.

Hawkins declined to comment on a decision by HHSC Inspector General Brian Flood to drop recipient fraud investigations and withdraw pending fraud cases in the Texas Integrated Eligibility Redesign System pilot area.

He downplayed concerns raised by Flood that without electronic tools to ferret out potential fraud in food stamp, aid to needy families, or children's insurance coverage, the state would not know if fraud was being perpetrated and to what amount.


Houston Chronicle:
Dec. 24, 2006, 8:40PM
Undoing the damage
Texas Health and Human Services acknowledges the shortcomings of its privatization plan

When state officials negotiated a contract with private vendors to screen applicants for social service program eligibility, they made an expensive blunder. The privatization scheme caused thousands of recipients to be dropped from the rolls and did not produce the expected savings to taxpayers.

After repeatedly defending the $899 million deal with Accenture against criticism by legislators, Texas Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn and child advocates, Health and Human Services Commissioner Albert Hawkins admitted the obvious. "We didn't draw the line between vendor work and state work in the right place," he said. "As we rebalance the roles between the state and the vendor, we will be drawing that line in a different place."

Accenture leads a consortium hired by the state to handle eligibility screening for Medicaid, food stamps, Children's Health Insurance and other state-managed assistance programs. Private workers at call centers were to replace state employees, but problems created application backlogs. Applicants complained that their documents were mishandled or lost. The Houston Chronicle documented one case in which dozens of applications, including confidential documents, were faxed in error to a Seattle storage warehouse.

Hawkins says his agency is slashing the Accenture contract by $356 million and the pact will be ended in 2008, two years earlier than previously planned. After previously telling state workers they would be laid off, HHS will now convert 900 temporary positions to full time. The state will also charge the contractor $30 million through service credits and payment discounts to recover the costs of rehiring state workers to process backlogged applications.

Unfortunately, Accenture will now handle eligibility screening for the Children's Health Insurance Program, which previously was conducted by a subcontractor, Maximus. Children's Defense Fund Texas Executive Director Barbara Best expressed concern that a privatization process that ended coverage for many children of low-income Texas families will still be handling CHIP applications.

The lesson of the Accenture debacle is that some state services, particularly those that provide a social safety net for the most vulnerable of Texans, should not be contracted out to companies more interested in amassing profits than serving needy citizens. The next time Commissioner Hawkins draws a line between public and private responsibilities, let's hope primary consideration is given for the people who depend on his agency for their health and welfare.

The Handmaiden of God, Anastasia Titov

Anastasia Titov, January 2004, on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land
See also:

More Remembrances of Anastasia

A Talking Prayer Book

This past weekend I had the honor of serving at the funeral of Anastasia Titov, who reposed at the age of 92. She was one of the first faces I saw at St. Vladimir's Orthodox Church, when I moved back to Houston in 1992 as a young convert to the Orthodox Faith of not quite two years. Since then she has had a very special place in my heart, but although our relationship was special, I was not unique in having such a special relationship with her. In fact, after listening to the many warm tributes given at her funeral, I believe that she had a special relationship with just about anyone that she had half a chance to get to know.

I want to write more about her, but for now I will just lay out some of the basic facts of her life, and then quote from a tribute posted online from another of Anastasia's special relationships.

I am basing the following on things I have pieced together over the years... if I have remembered something wrong, I hope someone will correct me, and that others will help me to flesh out this story.

Anastasia was born just as the world was entering World War I. She grew up in Harbin, China, where a large number of Russians had fled in the wake of the Bolshevik Revolution. In Harbin, these Russians recreated the best aspects of pre-revolutionary Russian culture. Anastasia was very well educated, was multilingual, but most of all, she grew up in a world that centered around the Church. When there was a feast of the Church, the first week of Lent, or Holy Week, school’s and businesses were closed, and the people were in Church… for all the services, which during the first week of Lent, for example, means about 10 hours of services... a day.

Unfortunately, the life that made her into the Christian lady that she became did not remain peaceful. World War II began with the Japanese invasion of China, and during this war her first husband was shot by Japanese soldiers. She moved from Harbin to Shanghai, where she worked in the administrative offices of St. John of Shanghai. (I use to say that she had been his secretary, but she corrected me and said that a bishop does not have a woman as his secretary – that is a position usually held by a priest. She told me I should say she was on his clerical staff. She was a lady, in the fullest sense of the term, and such proprieties were very important to her.) It was during this time that she came to know and love St. John.

At the end of World War II, the Soviets invaded northern China, and used the opportunity to forcibly repatriate many Russian refugees, and place them in prison camps… such was the fate of Anastasia’s younger brother.

After World War II, came the communist take over of all of China. St. John and most of the Russian community in Shanghai left before the Communists took control of that city, but Anastasia refused to go, because she still had her parents in Harbin, and would not leave the country without them. She told me how stern the Communists soldiers were… people would attempt to give them flowers, or food, but they would not accept anything from anyone. She talked about how they searched her apartment. She had a chicken on the stove, and so they wanted to know where, when, and from whom she had bought the chicken, and how much it cost; and then they wanted to know were she got the money to buy the chicken. She had sold something to get the money, they wanted to know what she had sold, where, when, and to whom she had sold it, and they then checked out every detail. She also told me how a Chinese Deacon (Fr. Photi) came to her one evening with the antimins and the holy vessels from the Shanghai Cathedral. She told him that she could not even touch, much less take these things because she was a woman. Fr. Photi told her that if she did not take them that the communists would, so she hid them, and then the next night he came back and picked them up. She never saw him again, and did not know what became of him.

She managed to get a visa out of China, at a time when the various embassies were packing up to leave the country themselves. After visiting several of them in an attempt to get a visa, and being refused, she finally came to the Brazilian embassy, and was again refused. However, her tears finally moved the ambassador to make an exception, and to get the necessary documents out the boxes they had been packed into, and he gave her (and I believe her family members) visas… and so this is how she found her way to Brazil. I can’t remember how many years she lived their, but she learned to speak Portuguese fluently. Eventually, she and her second husband Paul Titov moved to the United States, where she worked at the United Nations building in New York.

She once told me about how she and another Ukrainian Orthodox woman came out to meet a Greek Archbishop who was visiting the UN (I believe he was from Crete). They shouted out “Eis Polla Eti Despota!”, which means “Many years, Master!” in Greek, and is the traditional liturgical greeting of a bishop. A UN policeman wanted to get them into trouble. He demanded to know why they were insulting a guest of the UN by calling him a despot!

At some point in her UN career, she had occasion to visit Ethiopia before the Communist revolution there. While there she got to meet the Emperor Haile Selassie.

When she retired from the UN, she and her husband moved to Houston for some reason… I believe something related to Paul’s business dealings. When I met her she was already in her late 70’s.

One thing that always amazed me about her was that it seemed that every time I had a long talk with her, I would discover some new facet of her life, that I had not known before. At her funeral, I discovered many more facets – particularly the deep impact she had on so many lives, and what a witness for Christ she had been throughout her life.

If Anastasia could be in Church, she was. She continued to keep the fasts strictly until the end of her life, when she was no longer able to, because she was no longer able to get enough nutrition no matter what food she ate. She poured herself into her work as the choir director of St. Vladimir’s, and her work as the senior sister of the parish. She radiated the love of Christ to everyone she met.

As I said, I was a new convert when I met her, as was my wife. We had left an English speaking mission of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad in Oklahoma City, and found ourselves in a mostly Russian speaking parish here in Houston. It was a difficult adjustment. For the first few months, my wife was in the parish alone while I was staying in upstate New York. She was a stranger in a strange place… not only was she a new convert, but she was herself from China, but unlike Anastasia she was ethnically Chinese too, and even English was not her first language, much less Russian. Anastasia took her under her wing, made her feel at home, and often spoke of the two of them both being Chinese compatriots.

I learned so much about the faith from her, that I should probably save that for future articles.

Her funeral was like a second Pascha. Everyone who was there was moved by it. Nearly a week later, I am still moved by it in a way that I have never been by any funeral I have ever attended.

So with that lengthy introduction, here is what Matushka Ann Lardas had to say:

She was an amazing woman whose life spanned three continents. She warmly greeted everyone. She and Paul became godparents for many newcomers, and nobody was ever merely accepted, but rather was warmly embraced. Fr. George and I were not just Batiushka and Matushka. To her, he was "Batiushka Dearest," and I was "Matushka Rodnaya." She always addressed the children in the diminutive, so that John thought that "Vanya" was Russian for "John." She insisted on doing things properly but was the first to cover for those who did not, and maintained every year that the only proper way to serve blini was "by the hand of the hostess." She cooked just about every Sunday we were there, always fasting foods during a fast and festive foods the rest of the time. She sang. She conducted. She came midweek to iron vestments and clean the parish house and she cooked and fed anyone who came to the parish. If they were poorly dressed, the next time they came she would give them clothes, new and in their size.

She loved all the children of the parish, and gave them candy on every occasion she could. We have a photo of Anastasia among the children and their Pascha baskets, and she looks like guest host on the Muppet Show. She told funny stories and could have an earthy sense of humor, besides (when I chided her for not even taking time to sit down and eat one busy Sunday, she said held up the plate she had just served herself, arched an eyebrow, and said, "Don't worry. Didn't you know the Russian proverb? 'A good horse does everything standing.'") Even after we moved, she would call on birthdays and namedays to sing, and when we called for her birthday and nameday, she would say, "And now everyone is accounted for." On Annunciation, when I was a new conductor and she couldn't get to church from illness, we sang "Archangelsky glas'" in harmony over the phone, a thousand miles apart and yet together.

If you look at the Normal Sisterhood Bylaws, you will see that Anastasia made sure she covered them all:

The duties of the sisterhood are:

a) maintenance of the Church building, both during the divine services and apart from them; care for the vestry; and the adornment of the church;

b) visitation of the sick; inquiry into the cases of those in need and aid for them; visitation of prisons and aid for the imprisoned;

c) visitation of the dying and informing the priest of such cases; reading the services over the dying; moral support for the families of the dying and care for them;

d) concern for the un-baptized and the unwed; bringing them to the church, that the Holy Mysteries may be performed over them;

e) to aid, with all the means at their disposal, schools for children within the parish.

f) collection of materials and funds, in accordance with pledges distributed by the parish council, signed by the pastor: for the needs of the church (this is done outside the times appointed for the divine services), for the sick, the poor, invalids, etc.

g) to help the church's warden (starosta) in acquiring and distributing religious and liturgical literature, etc.

As sorry as we are to lose her, I am glad that her terrible trial of illness is at an end, and she can be with her beloved parents and husband once more.

May her memory be eternal!

In Christ,
Matushka Ann Lardas

*******************************
Update: 

Here is another story about Anastasia that I included in my spiritual autobiography "A Pilgrim's Podvig":

There are many aspects of Orthodox piety that are subtle, and not the sort of thing you are likely to read about in a book on Orthodoxy, and it is these subtleties that a convert can pick up from being around those who are more deeply rooted in the Faith. One example of this was at the Vigil of the feast of the Dormition. We were singing the sticheron of the feast, which is sung after Psalm 50, and we were singing it in Slavonic. My Slavonic being far more limited, I was not emphasizing the right words, and so since there is a long prayer immediately after this hymn, Anastasia Titov took the opportunity of the pause in singing to explain to me the meaning of the hymn in order to explain what words should be emphasized. She then did an on the fly translation from Slavonic into English which was remarkably accurate (which I knew because I had the Festal Menaion in English opened to this text, and was glancing over at it as she explained. As she read the words of the hymn, and got to the part in which it says “And Peter cried aloud to thee, weeping: “O Virgin, I behold thee clearly stretched out, the life of all, and I am amazed, for in thy body the Delight of the life to come, made His abode! O all-pure one, earnestly entreat thy Son and God, that thy flock be saved unharmed,”” she read it with such warmth and piety that I was almost moved to tears. Her point was that the awe of St. Peter should be reflected in how we sing the hymn, but in making her point she expressed a love and reverence for God, the saints, and the services in a way that a book cannot. My ability to sing that hymn in Slavonic had not improved, but my ability to appreciate hymns on a spiritual level had. I was fortunate to have had such instructors.

The Price of the Colorado Computer Meltdown Continues to Rise

Remember the Welfare computer meltdown in Colorado... well, it seems it's the gift that keeps on giving, even after two years have passed.

CBS4: Welfare Payment Mistakes Cost Millions
Colorado System Possibly Overpaid $98 Million
(Click on the above link to watch the video of this report)

Brian Maass
Reporting

(CBS4) DENVER CBS4 has learned Colorado taxpayers will probably have to pay millions of dollars to solve problems with the state's welfare system. The Colorado Benefits Management System (CBMS), installed more than 2 years ago, has been making more than 11,000 mistakes in an average month.

Critics of the CBMS called the new figures shocking and said it was unlikely taxpayers will ever get the millions of dollars in overpayments back.

"We've always known there were overpayments gong on, but these numbers are new to us also," said Susan Beckman, an Arapahoe County commissioner.

"This is completely unacceptable," said Tom Mayer, a Boulder County commissioner.

CBMS is used to manage the welfare payments for food stamp recipients, the elderly and poor.

"And if we continue to generate claims and overpay people, it's just throwing money away," Beckman said.

CBS4 learned that in the month before the CBMS was installed, there were 349 claims, or overpayments statewide.

In October of 2006, there were 11,300 mistakes and potential overpayments.

State figures show there may have been more than 234,000 suspected overpayments to welfare recipients in the 2 years since CBMS went live. That could account for $98 million lost.

"This system is not fixed, it is not getting significantly better," Beckman said. "We need to pour more resources into it so we stop handing out free money that really people aren't entitled to."

The state said it is unclear how many of the $98 million in claims have legitimate explanations and how many are actual overpayments.

"We will acknowledge we have a major issue to address and we are going to do what federal law requires us to do," said Liz McDonough, spokeswoman for the state Department of Human Services.

Federal law requires the state and counties to seek reimbursements over overpayments. Counties said it will cost millions of dollars to hire more people to sort through claims and figure out what was an overpayment and what was not.

County administrators think it is unlikely they'll be able to collect overpayments from poor and transient welfare recipients.

"If you don't fix the system, it's like pouring water into a bucket with a hole in it," Beckman said. "In 2 years, you'll have paid out another $98 million in taxpayers money and that's not right."

Before CBMS, annual overpayments to welfare recipients in Colorado totaled about $1.5 million a year for 30 years.

County human services departments estimate that over the next 2 years, they will need another $7 million to hire 180 people to work full time to go through the hundreds of thousands of overpayments and figure out which ones are worth trying to collect.

Orthodoxy in China: Senior Orthodox Priest turns 110!

The following article is from the excellent Orthodoxy in China web site, run by Mitrophan Chin.

My wife, who is also from China got to meet Fr. Elias a few years ago, along with my daughters, -- you can see a picture of that by clicking here. You will notice an icon directly behind them. That icon depicts St. John of Shanghai, under whose authority Fr. Elias served for many years, and St. Jonah of Manchuria, the patron of our parish.

The Senior Priest of the Western American Diocese Turns 110!

On Sunday, November 19, the senior priest of the Western American Diocese, Protopresbyter Elias Wen, turned 110. Father Elias was born in the XIX century, in 1896, in Beijing, China. As a boy he received baptism at the Chinese Orthodox Mission. After studies at the Orthodox School run by the Mission, he entered into the seminary which he completed in 1918. The seminary was responsible for preparing missionaries for the Chinese people.

Following the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, the Russian Orthodox Church was unable to continue its missionary efforts in China and so Father Elias, who received a complete theological education, decided to dedicate himself to serving Russian Orthodox refugees in China. In order to accomplish this, he first learned Russian and Church Slavonic.

In 1924 Father Elias was ordained deacon and on November 26, 1931, Archbishop Simon ordained him priest. Thus 2006 also marks Father Elias' 75th Anniversary of the priesthood. It is very probable that he is the senior (by ordination) clergyman of the entire Russian Church, both in Russia and abroad!

Father Elias served a number of parishes in Shanghai. After the new Cathedral "Surety of Sinners" was built he was assigned the position of Dean of the Cathedral and in 1946—the Rector of the Cathedral. In the cathedral he served together with Archbishop John (Maximovitch).
In 1949 Father Elias was sent to Hong Kong to organize a parish there. Because communists occupied Shanghai, he was unable to return there.

In 1957 Father Elias was transferred to the Western American Diocese and assigned to the Holy Virgin Cathedral of the Mother of God "Joy of All Who Sorrow", to which he is still attached. During his active duty at the Cathedral, Father Elias, besides celebrating the services, sang and read on the kliros daily.

In the course of his pastorate Father Elias, who's mind is still clear and has an excellent memory, would recount to the Cathedral clergy events from church life in China, his memories of Saint John, old Russian liturgical practice and the history of the Holy Virgin Cathedral.

It has been about seven years since Protopresbyter Elias Wen has last served. Following Ever-memorable Archbishop Anthony's (Medvedev) repose in 2000, Father Elias took part in one of the memorial services. He had a great love, respect and appreciation for Vladika Anthony.

At present Father Elias lives with his son. He is regularly communed by the Cathedral ecclesiarch, Archpriest Sergei Kotar. Every year on the Feast of the Prophet Elias, Father Elias has a festal lunch for the Cathedral clergy.

On Sunday, November 19, the Cathedral clergy visited Father Elias and greeted him on behalf of the Cathedral parishioners, diocesan clergy and flock.

Another Sign of Reconciliation in the Russian Church

DIOCESE OF EASTERN AMERICA AND NEW YORK: November 13, 2006
The Staff and Vestments of Metropolitan Philaret of Blessed Memory Are Sent to Moscow



Click here for more photos
Click here to see the story in the Russian press... which was the top story on the nightly news today


On Sunday, November 12, with the blessing of His Eminence Metropolitan Laurus, First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, in fulfillment of the wishes of Metropolitan Philaret (Voznesensky, +1985) of blessed memory, and the will of his cell-attendant, Protodeacon Nikita Chakiroff, Mitred Protopriest Roman Lukianov, Rector of Epiphany Church in Roslindale, MA (near Boston), handed over the staff and vestments of the third First Hierarch of the Church Abroad to His Holiness Patriarch Alexy of Moscow and All Russia during a very ceremonious service. Fr Roman would have traveled to Russia himself but could not due to illness. Therefore, praying during Divine Liturgy, which was performed by Priest Victor Boldewskul, Deputy Rector of the parish, along with the other clergymen of the church, was Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov), Rector of Sretensky Stavropighial Monastery in Moscow, sent there by the Patriarch. At the end of Liturgy, Fr Victor addressed the multitude of worshipers with the following words of edification:

"In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit!

"Often, events occur during our lifetimes the meaning of which we do not fully comprehend. Twenty-five years ago, the Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, headed by its First Hierarch, His Eminence Metropolitan Philaret, glorified the Holy New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia. The path leading to their canonization was difficult, for there were various opinions on this matter, some people even being against the glorification of the Royal Family. Still, our bishops displayed their spiritual courage. The events that followed proved that this conciliar decision was the expression of Divine Will and a fateful act, which laid the groundwork for the rebirth of the life of the Holy Church in the homeland. The culmination of this expression of the freedom of the Church was the historic Jubilee Council of 2000 and the glorification of the Holy New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia by the fullness of the Russian Orthodox Church.

"One of the three surviving members of the Council of Bishops that canonized the New Martyrs in 1981, Archbishop Alypy of Chicago and Detroit, in a recent Epistle to his flock, noted that church prayer has great significance in the life of our flock. Further, Vladyka writes: 'For over 70 years in the churches of the diaspora we have prayed that God would deliver our country from the godless authority and our Orthodox Church from cruel persecution. After the glorification of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian land, the Soviet regime finally began to crumble and fell apart several years later. This happened without any bloodshed, and in this we see the hand of God.'

"From a spiritual point of view, one can now say that after the glorification of the New Marytrs, a pre-conciliar period began, which concluded with the decision by the IV All-Diaspora Council held earlier this year on the need for the reunification of the two parts of the Russian Orthodox Church.

"The courageous act of the glorification of the New Marytrs performed by Vladyka Philaret and his brethren bishops laid the groundwork for our joint prayer to them for the suffering Russian land. Our brethren in the homeland have now joined in this prayer. The end of the grave period of martyric sufferings of the Russian land must be understood as the expression of the great mercy of God, by the prayers of the host of New Martyrs and all the children of the Russian Orthodox Church in the homeland and abroad. The convening and God-pleasing decisions of the IV All-Diaspora Council in turn are the direct result of the act of His Holiness Patriarch Alexy and his fellow bishops who glorified the New Martyrs in 2000. This notion is expressed in the following excerpt from the IV All-Diaspora Council: 'Bowing down before the podvig [spiritual feats] of the Holy New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia, glorified both by the Russian Church Abroad and by the Russian Church in the Fatherland, we see within them the spiritual bridge which rises above the abyss of the lethal division in the Russian Church and makes possible the restoration of that unity which is desired by all.'

"Those of us who remember and who were fortunate enough to see Vladyka Metropolitan Philaret over his 20 years of service as First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad cannot picture him without his devoted assistant and cell- attendant, Father Protopriest Nikita Chakiroff. Fr Nikita spent all his energies, all his strength and his whole life to serving his Abba and spiritual father. Both during life and after the repose of Vladyka Philaret, Fr Nikita continued to fulfill his wishes and preserve his spiritual legacy.

"And what is the spiritual legacy of Vladyka? He can be seen not in the everyday responses to current, temporary church events of his day, but in the main prayer of his life, that is, for the rebirth of the Holy Church in Russia and the return of the Russian people to the ideals of Holy Russia.

"After the repose of Vladyka Metropolitan Philaret, Fr Nikita preserved some of his vestments as relics, since many revered Vladyka for his piety. With regard to his vestments, which Fr Nikita himself acquired for him, Vladyka Philaret, before his death, issued his oral instructions to him. Fr Nikita told of this to his close friend, Fr Roman, after Vladyka's death in 1985. Fr Nikita himself soon fell ill, and sent a letter to Fr Roman, in which he wrote the following:

Dear in the Lord Fr Roman! Bless me!

Soon after Vladyka Metropolitan Philaret's repose, with the knowledge of Vladyka Laurus, I left a second set of episcopal vestments of Vladyka First Hierarch, which I paid for with my own funds, so that it would be packed away and given to you, Fr Roman, for safekeeping.

My health is poor, and the doctors say that I will not live long; that is why I leave them to you to safeguard, and when the time comes, when the Lord frees Russia, our Homeland, when blessed days arrive, foretold by St Seraphim of Sarov the Wonder-worker, then take them to our Homeland. Give them to His Holiness the Patriarch of All Russia, and one set must be given to Diveevo Lavra, and tell them whose they were. Say that we preserved them as a treasure, and say that Vladyka Metropolitan Philaret, as he performed the rite of the glorification of the Holy New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia, in his sensitive soul, endured the suffering of every martyr and rejoiced at their staunchness and unwavering strength and devotion to the Truth.

Metropolitan Philaret performed the great deed of glorification in 1981. With conciliarity and with the whole people, in a great church ceremony he glorified the many millions of new Saints of God.

Here I end my letter. I ask you holy prayers and blessing.

With love in the Lord,

Protodeacon Nikita, the sinner.

"And now, dear brothers and sisters, the time has arrived to fulfill the wishes of Metropolitan Philaret and the will of Fr Nikita.

"Today, in our church, Fr Roman will hand over, through Archimandrite Tikhon, Prior of Sretensky Monastery in Moscow, the vestments of that First Hierarch who glorified the New Martyrs abroad to that First Hierarch who glorified them in Russia.

"Brothers and sisters, let us remember the power of prayer and the power of the All-Holy Spirit, Who will overcome our mortal failings and lead us unto Truth.

"The path towards the glorification of the Holy New Martyrs was not easy. The path to the adoption of the 'Act of Canonical Communion,' which combines in the Eucharist both parts of the Russian Church, was also difficult. But these spiritual feats were finalized successfully by conciliar decision of our archpastor after long, prayerful preparation.

"Fr Nikita's letter is remarkable! Who could have foreseen, in 1987, when Diveevo Monastery was still closed, when confessors continued to suffer for Christ under the godless regime, who could have foreseen the coming emancipation and transformation of church life in Russia? Who especially could have thought that this would come to be during the lifetime of Fr Roman? Fr Nikita's letter is nothing less than prophetic. And behind Fr Nikita's words in this letter, one hears the prophetic voice of Vladyka Philaret.

"Now we will serve a pannikhida for the late Metropolitan Philaret of blessed memory, and for Protopriest Nikita. In raising our prayers for their peace, let us thank the Lord that the 'blessed days foretold by St Seraphim of Sarov the Wonder-worker' have arrived, thanks to which we can now fulfill the testament of our spiritual father, Vladyka Metropolitan Philaret. Amen!"

After Divine Liturgy, the vestments intended for the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, and for Diveevo Monastery, were taken out of the altar into the middle of the church and laid beside the pannikhida table, where Fr Roman led the commemorative service along with Fr Victor, Protopriest Alexei Mikrikov and the parish clergymen. After the singing of Eternal Memory , the Parish Rector then welcomed Fr Tikhon and spoke about the life of Vladyka Philaret. In a moving response, Archimandrite Tikhon noted the importance of this event for the Russian Orthodox Church and gave Fr Roman a pectoral cross from His Holiness, along with an icon of Holy New Martyr Archbishop Ilarion (Troitsky) of Verey, containing a portion of his relics, for Epiphany Church. The choir, under the direction of Vladimir Pavlovich Roudenko, then sang Bortniansky's Tebe Boga khvalim , and for a long time, the multitude of worshipers approached to venerate the vestments of the third First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia.

Famous Actors and Actresses you probably didn't know were Orthodox Christians

It is always amazing to discover that some famous person you have known of for years was an Orthodox Christian. Just tonight, I discovered that Jack Palance, who passed away today, was Orthodox.



Jack Palance, born as Vladimir Palaniuk, Ukrainian Orthodox


Some other such folks that I have run across over the years [Mind you, I make no comments on their level piety -- I am just noting their religious background]:



John Belushi, Albanian Orthodox




Natalia Nikolaevna Zakharenko, better known as Natalie Wood, Russian Orthodox




Yul Borisovich Brynner, Russian Orthodox.




Aristotelis (Telly) Savalas, Greek Orthodox




Telly's God-daughter, Jennifer Aniston, also Greek Orthodox




Mladen George Sekulovich, better known Karl Malden, Serbian Orthodox




Tina Fey, Greek Orthodox




And last but not least, Tom Hanks, who was born.... Tom Hanks. He converted to Orthodoxy after meeting his Greek Orthodox wife, Rita Wilson (who was born Margarita Ibrahimoff)-- thus their connection with the movie, "My Big Fat Greek Wedding".

Happy Birthday to the Marine Corps

Marine Cpl. Jason Dunham will be awarded posthumously the Medal of Honor.


By Staff Sgt. Scott Dunn, Headquarters Marine Corps


Quantico, VA (Nov. 10, 2006) -- A corporal who died shielding men in his care from a bursting grenade deserves America’s highest military decoration, President Bush has confirmed (http://www.mcnews.info/mcnewsinfo/moh/).

Actions by Cpl. Jason L. Dunham, who would have turned 25 today, merit the Medal of Honor, Bush said at the National Museum of the Marine Corps’ dedication ceremony, which coincided with the 231st Marine Corps anniversary.

On April 14, 2004, in Iraq near the Syrian border, the corporal used his helmet and his body to smother an exploding Mills Bomb let loose by a raging insurgent whom Dunham and two other Marines tried to subdue.

The explosion dazed and wounded Lance Cpl. William Hampton and Pfc. Kelly Miller. The insurgent stood up after the blast and was immediately killed by Marine small-arms fire.

Dunham lay face down with a shard the size of a dress-shirt button lodged in his head. The hard, molded mesh that was his Kevlar helmet was now scattered yards around into clods and shredded fabric. Dunham never regained consciousness and died eight days later at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., with his mother and father at his bedside.

Dunham’s commanding officers from 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines, investigated his actions and nominated him for the Medal of Honor. After two years and seven months making its way to the White House, the nomination now has the necessary approval from the president. Next, the president will present the medal and citation to the Dunhams.

Hoping the president would make the Medal of Honor announcement on their son’s birthday, Dan and Debra Dunham drove to Quantico from their home in Scio, N.Y. Dunham is buried in Scio.

Before Dunham, the last Marine actions to earn the medal happened May 8, 1970, in Vietnam, according to Marine Corps History Division records. A Medal of Honor citation details Lance Cpl. Miguel Keith’s machine-gun charge that inspired a platoon facing nearly overwhelming odds: Wounded, Keith ran into “fire-swept terrain.” Wounded again by a grenade, he still attacked, taking out enemies in the forward rush. Keith fought until mortally wounded; his platoon came out on top despite being heavily outnumbered.

The last Marine to receive the Medal of Honor was Maj. Gen. James L. Day, who distinguished himself as a corporal in the Battle of Okinawa in 1945. On Jan. 20, 1998, more than half a century later, President Bill Clinton presented the medal to Day. He passed away that year.

Since the Long War began, the president has presented one Medal of Honor. On April 4, 2003, during Operation Iraqi Freedom, Army Sgt. 1st Class Paul R. Smith posthumously earned the medal for organizing a defense that held off a company-sized attack on more than 100 vulnerable coalition soldiers. In the defense, Smith manned a .50 caliber machine gun in an exposed position until he was mortally wounded.

Fr. Seraphim Slobodskoy

The following article gives some biographical detail to the author of one of the great catechetical texts that is now available in English, which you can order by clicking here.

NEW YORK: November 3, 2006
On Sunday, the Russian Church Abroad Will Mark the 35 th Anniversary of the Repose of Protopriest Seraphim Slobodskoy, Renowned Author of the Law of God

From the Editors the ROCOR web site: In connection with the approaching anniversary of the repose of Protopriest Seraphim Slobodskoy, we offer an article written by Protodeacon (now Protopriest, Senior Priest of Holy Protection Cathedral in Chicago) Andre Papkov, written on the 20 th anniversary of the death of his spiritual father.



Fr. Seraphim Slobodskoy


On November 5 of this year, on the day of St James, Brother of the Lord, we mark the 20 th anniversary of the death of our batiushka of blessed memory, Father Seraphim Slobodskoy. Twenty years is a good period of time, and a whole new generation of people has grown up who never knew batiushka . Still, his image stands brightly before those who were fortunate enough to know him. But as time passes, the fruits of his labor continue to grow.

The parish he founded is one of the most exemplary of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, and his creation, the parish school, is the best of all such schools outside of Russia.

It is thanks to his organizational talents that the foundation was laid for all aspects of parish life, and his successors can now easily continue his work.

It is worth noting that during his rectorship, Fr Seraphim's parish grew and flourished, but there was also a complete absence of any commerciality. Batiushka , a bessrebrennik [one disinterested in money] by nature, personally inspired his flock to self-sacrifice, and the church was built with the efforts of the parish itself, without the hiring of outside help. Divine blessing manifested itself in the fact that the bank gave the parish a loan without any conditions. The group of Russian immigrants, headed by their rector, were so well-respected by the local population, that the bank officials provided a loan on their word, with no guarantees.



The Russian Text, Zakon Boshij [The Law of God], which is now widely published in Russia


The parish school, established by Fr Seraphim together with his matushka , grew and blossomed thanks to his unrivaled pedagogic talent, which was equaled only by his exceptional love for children; and this love was requited by them.

One result of his work with children was the text book the Law of God , which has now gained significance throughout the Russian world. It has gone through four editions abroad, and is now printed in Russia in the millions. Most Russian people one meets today either have this book or have heard of it, and it should be a standard book in all Russian Orthodox homes. (Incidentally, because of time limitations, Fr Seraphim often worked on his book at night.)

The pastoral work of Fr Seraphim was moved by his love for God and for his neighbor. Batiushka often said that the Gospel teachings on love for God and for ones neighbor are the cornerstone for every Christian, and loved to stress that it is upon this legacy that “the law and the prophets depend.” In connection with this, batiushka did not approve of those brother pastors who, as he said, “suffer from legalism.” “Yes, he is a good man, but the poor fellow is a zakonnik [slave of the law],” he would say sadly.

Fr Seraphim himself was a zealous observer of church order and a champion of the truth. The 1960's were very troublesome in the internal life of the Church Abroad, and Fr Seraphim sensed with pain the sins against Divine Truth which he witnessed.

As a devotee of Archbishop John (Maximovich, +1966), he grieved over the slander aimed against this righteous man, and himself endured accusations and slander for speaking the truth fearlessly to those who did not wish to hear it. Earnest, and by nature incapable of accepting falsehood, he always courageously defended justice wherever he deemed necessary. The passage of time shows who was right and who was in error in those troublesome times.

When it came to his flock, Fr Seraphim fulfilled the words of Apostle Paul: “I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.” Relentlessly performing all required divine services and services of need, he always found time to visit and spiritually nourish the elderly, the sick and lonely people at home and in hospitals, which attracted everyone who knew him. Batiushka had a rare gift: empathetic love for people, disregard for himself, he tried to help everyone in sorrow and need in every possible way. One remembers the words of one elderly woman in his parish, who remembered with tears, “Yes, Father Seraphim knew us well, his stragglers.”

It could be said that batiushka had no personal life. The doors to his home were always open to all, at any time, day or night, not only in an abstract but a literal sense: he never locked his doors. Bishops, society figures, parishioners of all cultural levels and all ages—Fr Seraphim found a common tongue with all of them, and he had understanding and good counsel for all.

Fr Seraphim's life began in the town of Cherntsovka, in the Penzen guberniya , where his father, Priest Alexei, was a parish rector. When the Bolsheviks came to power, difficult times began for the Slobodskoy family. Fr Alexei was often saved from arrest by peasant parishioners, who hid him in their homes. In his final years, Fr Alexei served in the town of Petushka in Vladimirskaya guberniya , whence he exiled without the right of correspondence, and, apparently, died in the concentration camps.

Fr Seraphim grew up in the church, served as an altar boy and was an expert in bell ringing. After completing middle school, he received art training and worked as an artist in Moscow. Then, World War II struck, he was sent to the front, was captured and then found himself an emigre.

After the War, Seraphim Alexeevich ended up in Munich, where he soon married Elena Alexeevna Lopukhina, who became his lifelong assistant. There he organized a youth group for religious philosophy.

On April 22, 1951, Archbishop Benedict (Bobkovsky) ordained Seraphim Alexeevich to the priesthood. Soon after his ordination, Fr Seraphim arrived in America and was appointed to be the second priest at Holy Fathers Church in New York City. A short while later he was transferred to Holy Protection Community in Nyack, a suburb of New York.

During the War, the notion came to Seraphim Alexeevich to build a church if only God saw fit to preserve him through the war. The church in Nyack became the manifestation of this dream. Fr Seraphim did not rest as he worked on the construction, not only as an administrator, but as a simple laborer, laying cement blocks, hauling wheelbarrows, etc. Fr Seraphim rarely took a vacation and when he did, he was not idle but worked towards educating youth as the spiritual father of Camp NORR.



The English translation


Fr Seraphim was awarded for his zealous pastoral work with a kamilavka , and a gold pectoral cross for his Law of God; he was elevated to the rank of protopriest for building the church; and given a palitsa for his 20 years of service as a priest.

The constant exertion, both spiritual and physical, undercut the great strength of the good pastor, and in 1971, at the age of 59, Fr Seraphim departed from this world. Archbishop Averky (Taushev, +1976), seriously ill at the time, arose from his sick bed and came to escort him "along the path destined for the whole world." In his eulogy, Vladyka gave a clear description of the persona of the reposed priest, as he now remains in our memories: a pastor, a bessrebrennik , a laborer, a lover of truth.

The priest's legacy was read, which is best understood by those who remember the unearthly joy with which Fr Seraphim served on Paschal night.

"I beseech you, I beseech you all to pray for me, a sinner, for the repose of my soul, and on my part, if I am permitted through the mercy of God, I will fervently pray for all of you, so that we all, upon the resurrection of the dead, meet once again in the future life and abide with God.

"Our desire… is expressed in two words, with which I greet you all: Khristos Voskrese [Christ is Risen]! For 'as the Lord lives and my soul lives,' and 'Christ is risen, and life is liberated!'"