Protodeacon Nikolai Porshnikoff

It is with great sadness that I report to you that Protodeacon Nikolai Porshnikoff has fallen asleep in the Lord. He reposed yesterday morning, November 10/23, 2004, after a long illness. At the time of his death, he was reportedly awaiting a kidney transplant. He was ordained to the diaconate by St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco -- probably the last person ordained by St. John -- and he always took the fact that he was ordained by St. John as a great and wondrous blessing.

I first encountered Fr. Nikolai at the Divine Liturgy at Holy Virgin Cathedral in San Francisco, where he served faithfully for over forty years. He was a giant of a man, with a voice that, I swear, literally shook the building at times. The stories of his physical strength abounded. He owned and operated an auto body shop; and I was regaled with tales of how he could fix dents with the hammer blow of the side of his fist; and how he could raise the front end of a car just by lifting it with his arms and legs. To see him, and to hear his wonderfully powerful and deep bass voice, made me a believer in these tales. Why not? He was legendary -- and when I became a presluzhnik (acolyte), the legend only grew greater.

He seemed to be a fierce, gruff man. What I found was that he had a heart that was at least as large -- if not larger -- than his physical frame and presence conveyed. He had a deep and profound joy in serving in the temple of the Lord; and he was willing to take the time to instruct (and, where necessary, correct) the altar servers, such as myself. This was especially true for me after I was ordained as a deacon. He took time to teach me how to serve; for which I will always be grateful. He knew of my desire to one day be a priest, even while I was still just a presluzhnik; and I have no doubt he prayed for me to become a priest, if that was God's will. I know he shared that desire, as he told me one day while we sat at the church in Russian River; he longed to be "one of the brotherhood." There is no need to say that he was far more worthy than I will ever be of that honor and privilege.

Brothers and sisters, of your mercy, pray to God for the blessed repose of this giant of a man, whose voice, and very being, were an inspiration to so many. May God have mercy, and give rest, to His servant, the Protodeacon Nikolai.

Memory Eternal!

Bombing Mosques and Dodgeball

In a "Plugged In" segment written for the Arizona Republic, contributor and quasi-blogger Salvador Reza writes that someone has asked, "What would U.S. citizens do if their cathedrals, their synagogues, their churches were being bombed, attacked and destroyed?" His answer? "Independent of party affiliation they would rise up in arms the same way the average apolitical Sunni population is doing right now." He concludes, "It is time to take a deep breath, reassess the situation and get out."

No argument about the need for an "exit strategy" -- although it might be that we would be better served if we had a exit strategy for the 5,000 or so U.S. military personnel still on the ground in Bosnia. Remember Bosnia? The troops were deployed there in 1995, during the first Clinton Administration, and were only supposed to have been there for "a year or so." Here's what President Clinton said in his address to the nation about the U.S. intervention in Bosnia-Herzegovina:

First, the mission will be precisely defined, with clear, realistic goals that can be achieved in a definite period of time. Our troops will make sure each side withdraws its forces behind the front lines, and keeps them there. They will maintain the cease-fire to prevent the war from accidentally starting again. These effects, in turn, will help create a secure environment so that the people in Bosnia can return to their homes, vote in free elections and begin to rebuild their lives. Our Joint Chiefs of Staff have concluded that this mission should -- and will -- take about one year.

Five years later, in December, 2000, the Pentagon announced a troop rotation schedule for the next five years -- in other words, until some time next year, in 2005. If it has been so difficult to withdraw from a relatively quiescent Bosnia, what does this mean for any attempts to withdraw from Iraq?

But I'm wandering from the point of the citation from Mr. Reza's quasi-blog. His question about what we would do if our churches and cathedrals were targets brings two thoughts to mind. The first is that, when we bombed Serbia (again, during the Clinton Administration), churches and cathedrals were bombed -- we dropped bombs on the Orthodox Christians of Serbia on Pascha (Easter Sunday, for those in the West). The second is that, if Christians use their places of worship as armories and fortresses, launching attacks from a church or a cathedral, and harboring the attackers upon their retreat to such places, we should not be surprised if these houses of prayer become targets. I don't think for a minute that there is any great plot to destroy mosques as such; but when a mosque is used for purposes of insurgency, it loses its status as a place of worship worthy of protection, and becomes a legitimate target.

I also note that a school in Albany, New York, is being sued because a seven-year old girl was injured during a game of dodgeball. As a result, the school has banned the game, as have schools in Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York, Texas, Utah, and Virginia. I'm not surprised, mind you. But it does make me wonder how we managed to survive our days in school, lo, these many years ago, without the army of lawyers and the agents of government there to make sure that no one got hurt; or, if they did, they received payments for the pain and suffering and trauma...

My Sister Joins the Blogosphere!

Click on the title/link above and be transported (by the magic of the internet) to HeatherPond, the blog started and maintained by my sister, Heather; and an expansion of a group she has hosted on Yahoo! Groups for some time now. Heather, a self-styled elf from Lothlorien, brings an interesting perspective to matters of this "middle earth." (Yes, she's a huge fan of the Lord of the Rings saga...) We don't always agree on everything; but we do agree on many things!

Welcome, sis, to the blogosphere! And y'all check it out, hear?

Post-Election Blues (and Reds)

The election has been over for a few days now; and yet I can't seem to get it out of my mind. I'm still attached to the news and analysis programs on Fox and MSNBC, and the News Hour on PBS, in a manner reminiscent of how a recovering heroin addict clings to his methadone. I've spent a lot of time and energy reading the secular blogs of both the left and the right; and hardly any time at all reading the Orthodox blogs. I'm still trying to make sense of "what it all means" for the days and weeks and months and years ahead; and to chart a course for myself, our family, and our parish, as we look at the maps showing a deep red interior with a blue border to the north, east, and west.

For those of you into the maps, you'll already know about the red states/blue states map. There's also one colored, not by state, but by county -- and the red is even more pronounced. There are also a series of maps that are done by percentage by state, and by county, that have been dubbed by many the "purple haze" maps, as the blends of reds and blues result in a predominantly purple map. Then there are the maps that are "weighted" by population density, and so are also purple; and the ones that show the staes in sizes based upon the number of electoral votes. Anyway, one can spend an inordinate amount of time examining these maps, trying to sense the national dynamics -- and still not get anywhere. I guess it boils down to the fact that 59,459,765 people voted for the re-election of President Bush; while 55,949,407 people preferred Sen. Kerry. Not very many votes, as a percentage of the total votes cast, separate these two totals; while in many ways, the ideological differences are, on many issues, enormous. Put another way: the distance between the vote totals is like the distance from the curb-top to the street; while the ideological distance is more like the Grand Canyon...

Analysis of the results abounds. I highly recommend:

• "we are here, we are here!"


• Satan, Secession, Etc.

(as well as several others posted at Right on Red


• What is the Matter with These People? (Part Two)


• More on the Election Aftermath


• What is the Matter with These People?

And hundreds and hundreds more...

The levels of distrust and hatred seem staggering; but part of this is probably magnified by the anonimity of the Internet. At least, I hope this is the case! In the speech he gave following Sen. Kerry's concession, President Bush acknowledged the need for "the healing" to begin; and indicated he would "reach across the aisle" in an effort to accomplish this healing. This has prompted some to say that, having won, it is not the President who needs to reach out, but the Democrats. In response, some Democrats have pointed out that, after the votes received by the President, more than any other candidate for the office, the next-highest vote totals were achieved by Sen. Kerry, who also got more than any other candidate, except for President Bush. This election was one of the three closest elections in history (the closest being in 2000); about as far away from a "landslide" as one could get and still be victorious; and certainly not, according to the more "classical" understanding of the term, a "mandate." As it is not unreasonable to expect the Democrats to be gracious in defeat, it would not be out-of-bounds to hope that the Republicans would be magnanimous in victory -- for the good of the country, and for all of the people who dwell in this land. We have a lot of work to do; and we're going to need each other to get it done.

Election Day at Last! (Peace and Quiet Hereafter?)

Well, as of this moment, three of the four registered voters in our household have already voted. The polls in Arizona opened at 6 a.m., and we arrived shortly thereafter to get in line. My wife's was the seventh vote cast in our precinct; our eldest daughter's the ninth vote, and my ballot was the tenth to be cast. The change of address (made on-line) for one of our daughters didn't go through, apparently. They offered her a provisional ballot, but I said I'd take her to our old precinct, and see if she is still on the rolls there. If she is, great - she can vote there. Otherwise, we'll go back to the first polling place, and let her cast a provisional ballot. The line of people who wanted to vote had grown three or four times in length during the 20 minutes or so we were actually present at the polls. It's going to be an interesting day...

It's too late to be of any help, but I just found a web site that lists all of the non-major-party candidates for the Presidency. Well, it's interesting to read! You can find the list here.

Richard Viguerie, the man who raised direct-mail political contact and fund-raising to an art form with the election of Ronald Reagan as President of the United States, was interviewed by Bill Moyers for a segment of the program Now; the interview was shown yesterday on our local PBS station. He said something interesting: the battle for the heart and soul of the Republican Party begins on November 3rd. As he described it, this struggle between the conservatives and the "neo-cons" will take place regardless of the outcome of the election taking place today. His remarks touched on the distinction he finds between the "conservative movement" that arose with the nomination of Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater as the Republican Party's candidate for President in 1964, and the "neo-conservative movement" that has more recently directed policies and events in the Republican Party. I mention this in part because my semi-random surfing of news and discussion on the elections has brought me to a seven-part series on the transformation of the conservative movement, and the possibility for the establishment of a fascist-style government in the United States. I've only read the first part; but the information presented, and some of the links, make interesting reading. Here is a link to the seventh part of the series, "It Can Happen Here," with links to the first six parts above it. Oh, and if you want to have some "fun" with the topic, there's a quiz you can take: "Are You a Neoconservative?" The four categories of the quiz are "Isolationist," "Liberal," "Realist," and "Neoconservative." This will probably come as a shock to some of you who know me, but, of the four, I was a "Liberal!" I'm doing more research now to determine if this is a "good" thing... Anyway, given the earlier threads regarding persecution, I want to finish the series mentioned above about fascism in America. I'll report back later if there's anything worth discussing. I suspect there will be, as, in an introductory piece, the author wrote,

But after awhile, even an honest conservative will have to start wondering just what George Bush has to offer, other than an ability to attack his opponent. And he might even start to notice that Bush and the "conservative movement" aren't really all that conservative. At least, not the kind of conservative that I used to know.

Do the labels "liberal" or "conservative" even apply in the Orthodox realm? I'm not asking this question to set up a response -- it is genuinely and sincerely put on the table for discussion here. I don't have a preconceived notion. In part, this is because of the tension that exists between who I am now, and who I was before I became Orthodox -- in other words, the cultural legacy/baggage I bring to my life in the faith; and the tension that comes from being a citizen of both the Kingdom of heaven and of an earthly polity. If nothing else, this election cycle has brought these questions to the conscious level in a way I've never before experienced; and in a way that impels me to consider them, nto only for myself, but also in my capacity as a "public figure" -- as a priest, called to be (and accountable before God and my hierarch and peers) as an example for the people of God. Well, your observations and comments are obviously invited on this point!

If I don't stop here, this could ramble on for a long time; and there are some things to do before I leave to pick up the last voter in our household... So, that's all for now!