Shameful. Christians are all but extinct everywhere in the Middle East except Israel.
Nova Scotia priest fired for praying for Israel
By Joel Jacobson, Atlantic Correspondent, CJN, September 5, 2019 4734
HALIFAX – A Christian Orthodox priest in Nova Scotia was forcibly retired for delivering a sermon that honoured Judaism and Israel.
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The head priest of St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Church in Halifax, Father Vladimir Tobin, received a letter from Orthodox Church in America Archbishop Irénée, the archbishop of Ottawa and Canada, on Aug. 12, informing him that he is being forcibly retired due to the alleged “Jewish twist in your ministry.”
The phrase likely alludes to a sermon Father Tobin delivered that mentioned Israel and Judaism in favourable terms, asked for congregants to pray for Israel and reminding the congregation that Jesus was a Jew.
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“I’ve always been straightforward, have always spoken my mind,” said Father Tobin from his home in New Germany, about 120 kilometres south of Halifax.
He admits that his sermons over the last several years have tied together Christianity’s roots and the Old Testament’s Jewish background.
The 77-year-old cleric said he travelled to Israel in May for the first time in 30 years. In the late 1960s, he visited for two weeks, and returned in 1985 to earn a doctorate in Egyptology at Hebrew University.
I was happy in Orthodoxy, but felt there was some anti-Jewishness there.
– Father Vladimir Tobin
Born in Halifax, Father Tobin said his grandmother was Jewish, but he was baptized a Christian. When studying the early Christian period at Dalhousie University, he said he realized that early Christians were Jewish and their scripture was the Old Testament.
Ordained as an Anglican priest, with a part-time pulpit while also teaching at St. Mary’s University in Halifax, Father Tobin felt something was lacking in that denomination and was urged to go to the Orthodox side.
“I was happy in Orthodoxy, but felt there was some anti-Jewishness there. I wrote a piece for publication, but was told by my superiors that it was ‘too Jewish.’ That increased my determination that Christianity grew from Judaism. My own theology recognized a faith that started with Abraham and grew through the centuries through Christ,” he said.
He was first sent a letter from Archbishop Irénée in April, following a written complaint by the assistant priest, Father Alexander Treiger, who alleged that Father Tobin was, among other things, including prayers for Israel in his services.
“After much thought and consideration, I have decided that effective this date, April 8th, 2019, you are officially retired as Rector of St. Vladimir Orthodox Church, Halifax, NS,” wrote the archbishop.
Father Tobin responded by writing: “It is true that I regularly pray for both Israel and United States, its armies and its president, and for ‘the land of Israel and the armies which protect her.’ What is to prevent us for praying for other countries that need it? The U.S. and Israel are our allies and need our support for peace in the Middle East. There are precedents of praying for other nations within our tradition. My prayers are mainly intended to advance peace in the Middle East .”
The Parish Council, unhappily shocked by the dismissal, wrote a letter urging Father Tobin’s reinstatement, to which Archbishop Irénée agreed, only to renege on last month.
Father Vladimir Tobin (Joel Jacobson for The CJN)
On Aug. 12, the archbishop wrote to Father Tobin: “Now, I place you once more on retirement as of Monday, August 26, 2019. This will permit you to say your farewells to the Faithful of Saint Vladimir Parish and remove your personal possessions from the church premises.”
Father Tobin, while obviously upset, said he has plenty to do in retirement, things he couldn’t do while preaching and teaching.
“I have many CDs to hear and books to read, a dog to walk and a grand piano that wants to be played,” he said with a chuckle in his voice.
“But I don’t feel right deserting the congregation like this. I had planned to retire in a year or so, by my 78th birthday, but obviously wanted to retire on my own terms. I would have been sad. The congregation would have been sad, but everyone would have understood. This way is not the best thing.”
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Achmed Mohandjob
4 years ago
Reading this, I thought it was a reprint for “The Onion” or “The Babylon Bee”. I kept telling myself that this couldn’t be true. Well, as they used to say …. Truth is stranger than fiction.
No one should be surprised that this happened in Canada. This society deludes itself that it is enormously ‘tolerant’ and ‘accepting’ – and it is – until you fail to conform with the now socially ‘accepted’ points of view! Then you discover amazing intolerance. You might even lose your job or be brought before a Human Rights Tribunal because you upset some Muslim or LGBTQ stalwart, or exercised too much freedom of speech .If anyone doubts me just ask Mark Steyn – who finally departed for a life in America – or Ezra Levant.
ahem
4 years ago
Father Tobin isn’t saying anything that hasn’t been taught in the Orthodox CHurch for the last 2000 years. Unfortunately, the OCA is has been invaded by Progressives.
I remember when I was young an Orthodox Catholic woman discovered my father was a Jew. Absolutely shocked. The nuns had taught her that Jews had horns, and my father didn’t have any.
This was in Montreal in the early 1960s. She was a Montrealer so not from a backwoods village, but educated at Catholic schools as Catholics had their own school system.
and the OCA is now the church of Satan. As the Church crumbles before our eyes and the antiChrists who lead these various denominations (abominations) are fooling their masses… their blind sheep…
Worsethanitlooks
4 years ago
No institution is safe from the cancerous Left. It infects and erodes everything it touches. Sooner or later the western coast of the US will have to secede from the union and become a full fledged socialist state. Not as far fetched as this would have sounded 20 years ago.
felix1999
4 years ago
Wow!
Christ is a Jew.
Christians believe they are grafted into the olive tree but they are not Jews.
I’d bet he got shafted because this doesn’t agree with the meaningless one world religion push.
TD
4 years ago
“…written complaint by the assistant priest, Father Alexander Treiger;..”
Clearly out of touch with the evangelical movement and his own members. Lack of loyalty to his mentor.
I suppose that Treiger is offering his services to be the new parish priest, meaning promotion.
Treiger might be out of sync with the real world, but I have the feeling that he is more conniving than not.
SeRiOuSLy!!??
4 years ago
It’s things like this that is forcing people to no longer go to or believe in the church. The reason islam is rising so fast is because those joining says it never wavers in its ideology or bows down to others.
Actually, regarding those who convert to Islam… they are leaving about as fast as they join. They join because they are told lies. When they realize all is not what it was sold as, they leave. That is the majority of converts. However, there are some converts who always seem to misunderstand Islam in the exact same way and become “radical extremists” (aka Quran and hadith following devout Muslim).
Islam rules by force. You aren’t even allowed to question the teachings. So the people who are drawn to that are drawn to that. Islam is essentially a works based religion so people who believe they can earn their way into heaven don’t see any problem with doing anything and everything their imams tell them they must do.
The main reason Islam is rising so fast is their birthrate. A big part of the reason the west is being overrun by Muslims is they are out breading the non-Muslims who seem to be on a quest of self-annihilation. But then Nihilism seems to be growing so is it any wonder that we are slowly committing suicide?.
There is not a single successful Muslim based country that has progressed on it’s own. They all leach from democratic Christian based countries and societies.
RobertLaity
4 years ago
“Jews are our elder brothers and sisters”- Saint Pope John-Paul, II, the Great.
RobertLaity
4 years ago
Pope Francis is erring in my opinion, kowtowing to Islamic influences. Islam has never been an Abrahamic religion. Islam is not a religion at all.
Kyrra_T
4 years ago
Our priests (Roman Catholic, Franciscan order) pray every week, in addition to other prayers that vary week to week for “the protection and comfort of the the children of Abraham, the chosen people of God, our brothers and sisters.”
ed
4 years ago
Justin Turd-0 cannot have prayers for ANY religion in Canuckistan unless they are offered up to sata….I mean alla.
RevRoy
4 years ago
Gen. 12:3..”I will bless those who bless you (Israel) and curse those who curse you; and through you (Israel), all the world shall be blessed”. Pretty well says it all, eh? Be blessed, F. Tobin !!
Psalm 122:6…”Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem; may they prosper who love thee”. Do you love Jerusalem ?? Do you bless the Jews ??
Jesus was born a Jew, lived as a Jew, died a Jew and is coming back to Jerusalem as the Jewish Messiah. Hope you are ready. If not, He is waiting for your call.
Rev. Roy…..<><
Mario Alexis Portella
4 years ago
of course, had he been praying for Iran or Saudi Arabia, it would’ve been just fine. this is absolutely horrible…political correctness has got to stop! https://thegreatarchitect.blog/2019/05/17/776/
fred m
4 years ago
The Bishop forgets, or choses to ignore, that the Church is the lesser vine grafted onto the greater vine, Israel.
But then the Orthodox church in Russia and the Ukraine were the worst persecutors of the Jews until the Nazis arose.
Israel, the Jewish tribes, may have been the first fruits of the proverbial olive tree, but of the branches – they are of God’s- not Israel.
And because of Israel turning away from God, and since the Resurrection of Christ The Redeemer, those Broken Jewish branches that refuse the Salvation in Jesus Christ, need every bit of grafting as any other “unbeliever.”
True the Eastern Churches have never endeared themselves to the Jewish people, but I sense had Fr. Tobin’s prayers included the need for a grafting conversion for the Jewish people to Christ as well- it would have been difficult to go after him….. Unless of course….. thinking the need of conversion of the Jewish people- just as it was with the first Christians- the new First Fruit- is anti-Semitic
“And because of Israel turning away from God, and since the Resurrection of Christ The Redeemer, those Broken Jewish branches that refuse the Salvation in Jesus Christ, need every bit of grafting as any other “unbeliever.”” ? ? ? Absolute dribble man . . . .
God is still dealing with the J*ws & Israel . . . if you had read your Bible you would know that . . . . the Abrahamic Covenant with God was forever !
Dude… I am not a Bible thumper yes……and I AM a very good dribbler……
Where did I say God would forsake his first fruits….. However THEY broke their covenant- see below- and are told HOW they turn away from the ungodliness of Jacob- see below- for whom now the body and blood of the Lamb are the new covenant…. For the Jews to ignore this Gift from God…again…..well that’s just not a good thing.
Jeremiah 31:31-34 31″The days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and with the people of Judah. 32It will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to lead them out of Egypt, because they broke my covenant, though I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD.
Romans 11
26 And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
27 For this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins.
28 As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the father’s sakes.
Hebrews 9
For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.
allie
4 years ago
Liberals is the wrong term for the leftists the West is infested with, they are not Liberal in the accepted sense of the word, they are the exact opposite, they listen to or respect no viewpoint but their own, they are bigoted and intolerant, a new term is needed to describe these people.
Rivia
4 years ago
For those whom have never lived in Canada, know this: The vast majority of Canadians harbor a revulsion and a vitriolic hatred for Israel and for all Jews. To the extent that if it were legally allowed, there would be violent beatings of Jews every single day in every single city, town and village in Canada. Most Canadians are a gang of virtue signalling cucks. They are as racist, and as cruel and malicious as any on earth. They just hide it better than most. And ever since Trudeau, an avowed muslim became the PM, Canadians have become more open and more confident about expressing their virulent diseased hatred for Jews. Don’t believe me? Or think I am being too dramatic? Visit Canada and in any “Social” setting proclaim that you are a Jew, (true or not) and watch the reaction. 99% of these clueless ignoramuses still believe that (all) Jews killed Jesus, and that that is their main reason for hating us.
What the hell are you talking about? Your comment about Trudeau with his intentionally promoting hatred and discrimination is true and most of the discrimination against the Jewish people feeds on his disgusting support of Islamic terrorists. Your “vast majority” is all wrong and you have taken your statements way over the top. Get rid of Trudeau and his Liberals and Canada would be a much better place. Filth and racism feeds on him.
I have traveled the length and breadth of Canada as a Messianic Jew. Have you? You give a great deal of credibility to my assertions. How? Well you state that (rightly) that “Get rid of Trudeau and his Liberals and Canada would be a much better place. Filth and racism feeds on him.” A muslim leader like Trudeau whom has openly declared his vitriolic hatred of Israel and all things Jewish has clearly provided for the facade that the majority of Canadians had, to be removed, to the point that they now feel quite comfortable showing their true fetid unbridled hatred if Israel and Jews. They no longer feel “obligated to virtue signal” but can now publicly show their malicious disdain. “Filth and racism” do not feed on him, his position as PM allows for people to expose their “filth and racism”. After all, surely the cuckold of a self righteous self appointed messiah like trudeau can’t be wrong, being the great white leader of such a gang of virtue signalling idiots. For the record, I ONLY refer to leftists and die hard liberals in my criticisms, and NOT ALL Canadians.
Roma Mikhasev
4 years ago
shame, shame, shame…
Roma Mikhasev
4 years ago
God save Israel/USA!
MajorTom
4 years ago
An honourable man…….dishonoured……..
ninetyninepct
4 years ago
Archbishop Irénée supports, admires and defends Hamas killers and is clearly anti-Semite. It is obvious the wrong person was fired. The Orthodox community in N. America might want to have a chat with the Archbishop including whether or not he has unusual attractions to little boys.
Millionmileman
4 years ago
“Oh! Canada!”
MISS VEGAS
4 years ago
This is so odd to me. I’m Christian & I was taught everything this man is saying by my Church. We were taught to never turn our backs against the Jewish people & Israel.
I have never heard of a Christian church saying you can’t pray for Jews & Israel.
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