Father Matthew Williams has reportedly been allowed to resign his rectorship. His family, from which he is reportedly estranged, has been ordered not to attend either of the parishes formerly under his charge.
Even though ROCOR has taken some action in the matter of the alleged sexual crimes and misconduct of one of their priests, they seemingly did so via the current mounting pressure from numerous accusers. One might wonder however, why ROCOR allowed this suspended priest to resign rather than make an ecclesiastical decision to remove him. So, it was his choice? Is ROCOR about to do the RC thing and heal him, restore him, and send him back into a parish as a changed man?
This begs the question: What must a priest do and how many victims must come forward for you to determine that a ROCOR shepherd is a wolf?
In recent communications from ROCOR representatives the word "healing' is often used in regard to the victims of the recent event. (Although they are still deathly silent on the former matter of the alleged rape of the Stephens girl) ROCOR might garner more trust from its parishioners if they were to have said, "Father Matthew Williams has been removed from his rectorship." ROCOR will only garner the trust of the victims, many of whom hold them accountable for their decade-long lack of action, if they finally say, "Father Matthew Williams has been defrocked and is no longer a ROCOR priest."
The JTO blog is a small media outlet but within the last few weeks has had over 14,000 views from over 40 countries/territories. Other outlets are now picking up the story such as
Orthodox Christian Sexual Abuse Facebook Page. The JTO series
Rape and the Holy Man was also recently linked on Donald Trump's
Truth Social.ROCOR, the world is watching, but more importantly, our Father Yahweh and his son and our messiah, Yeshua, the head of the church- your head- is watching.
ROCOR, in case you have forgotten, in case you lean more heavily on your tradition or policy in these matters, please remember that the Holy Scripture is the foundation of every tenant of faith and Saint Paul said, "I am writing so that you know how a person must conduct themselves in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and foundation of the truth."
ROCOR, you don't have to guess! Once your "court" determines the validity of the accusations toward ANY clergy, Bishops included, this is the only template for action:
1 Cor. 5
"It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is intolerable even among pagans: A man has his father’s wife. And you are proud! Shouldn’t you rather have been stricken with grief and have removed from your fellowship the man who did this?
Although I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit, and I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did this, just as if I were present. When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus and I am with you in spirit, along with the power of the Lord Jesus,
hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the Day of the Lord.
Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven works through the whole batch of dough? Get rid of the old leaven, that you may be a new unleavened batch, as you really are. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with the old bread, leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and of truth.
I wrote you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people.
I was not including the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters. In that case you would have to leave this world.
But now I am writing you not to associate with anyone who claims to be a brother but is sexually immoral
or greedy, an idolater or a verbal abuser, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat. What business of mine is it to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside.
Expel the wicked man from among you.”
How does telling the wife and family not to attend help them? Where are they supposed to go?
ReplyDeleteThat leads us to believe the family was aware of Fr. Matthew's indiscretions. Why would the parish need healing without the family? This is incredibly sad for the whole family but the ROCORs decisions make me believe there is more to the story that we may never know.
DeleteIt will save the Parrish. There is too much resentment and hostility towards them. Remember no one let anyone in the Parrish know that he was off his medication and messing with kids for 2 months... They need to go somewhere else and let the people that were hurt heal
ReplyDeleteWas it common knowledge in the parish that he was on meds in the first place? I’m interpreting that you meant psychiatric meds of some variety. If that’s the case, what’s his diagnosis?
DeleteSave the parish by banishing the wife and kids? You’re assuming the family being thrown out will accomplish that. Make the problems go away by making her and her family go away? Push the blame onto the wife and kids? Easy to blame her, but the true blame is her husband.
DeleteAnd if he is truly mentally ill, why was he ever allowed to continue serving, hearing confessions, and ministering. Did he tell his bishop he is mentally ill? NOW the world knows I guess. Lots of questions but no answers. So now the kids get to pay for the sins of their father. How is this Orthodox?
This whole story just gets more bizarre at every turn.
I am pretty sure the guy who ordained him is dead
DeleteAnon at 7:59
DeleteYes Matthew is to blame, but who allowed him to continue his parish duties under a title of authority? Go ahead, call the detectives in charge of the civil investigation, they will tell you their investigation DID NOT START UNTIL WEEKS AFTER Matthew had done his crime. MEANING Elizabeth did not report said crime to the civil authorities immediately like she is telling her inner circle. Her deflection to her spiritual father’s advice is still deflection and her actions are still her own.
She is currently manipulating people to try to beg the church to let them back in. Because they know they have lost whatever sense of power they’ve gotten during Matthew’s time as Rector, they cannot do it themselves. They are only letting people know the “truth” if you ask them personally.
Why would you do it this way if you already sent a letter of “transparency” out? Clearly they aren't transparent enough and are still hiding the real truth from the world.
A little ironic isn’t it that her family got Carols family exiled from the church as well yes? But there’s no tears for them.
Let’s pretend that the hierarchy is now the corrupt church that they are, but first, real weird that everyone was leaning them the first few months to “sort this out”. Is it possible the clergy are now just mean ol poo poo heads because they’re not giving in to the tantrums that Elizabeth’s followers are being manipulated to do? Matter of fact I distinctly remember EVERYONE saying that the church is the law and they will sort it out in time. Well they clearly have made their decision and you people aren’t happy about it.
But back to my point, if the clergy are corrupt, why are they’re sending the Williams away, what reason is it?
Let’s use “the razor of Occam”. It’s because they simply are cutting off a diseased arm on a healthy body. They cannot let the influence of the Clan to persist in this church. They’ve held so much power and so much influence on the culture that it would be impossible for people to get over the fact that THEIR RECTOR IS A PEDOPHILE and who’s WIFE ALLOWED HIM TO BE AROUND OTHER PEOPLES CHILDREN. If there are any mothers here. Ask yourselves honestly. Would you have been afraid to turn in your TO THE POLICE the Spouse if your child was sexually abused by them? If you would be afraid what’s there to afraid of? The real fear should’ve been in letting a dangerous man around other peoples kids and people finding out you did nothing.
Or are the kids paying for the sins of their mother, who apparently knew about her husband’s proclivities? Judging by the brother in law’s response in a previous post, Matthew Williams’s family members may have known something about this.
ReplyDeleteI know some extended family members knew about it.
Read it carefully. Metropolitan didn’t kick them out of the church - just that parish. This is clearly to protect the family from the immediate backlash and anger fellow parishioners might have towards them. Especially as it’s coming out that it’s been known for sometime. It’s clearly to protect them from the people who might’ve been spiritually abused by Fr. Matthew and their immediate resentment towards the entire family.
ReplyDeleteThe church is in a rural area. The next closest ROCOR parishes are 2+ hours away. This is not as simple as going to church in a different part of a city for a while. This is a cutoff from their church life and church family and it’s cruel.
ReplyDeleteThere is a GOARCH church 7.2 miles from St. Tikhon’s. GOARCH churches are Canonical Orthodox Churches.
DeleteIt appears that the claims of improprieties have merit. Has there been an investigation for all of this by Child Protective Services? Have charges been pressed by the authorities?
ReplyDeleteI agree. Another problem with ROCOR though is that many don’t consider GOARCH canonical. I think folks who grew up on the old calendar have a hard time letting it go. ROCOR is wrong. The Eucharist is the Eucharist, and we are all The Church. (Except in the case of a complete and true schism.)
ReplyDelete