A SAD DAY IN LOS ANGELES

[Michał Kalina]

We ask all who read these words to keep the parish family of St. Andrew, Los Angeles, CA in their prayers during these difficult days.  In the early morning hours of 15 August, an intruder broke into the parish Church and desecrated the Holy Altar, Tabernacle, Iconography and the entire altar and sacristy area.  The most devastating aspect of this horrendous crime was the scattering of the Reserve Sacrament on the floor among and beneath the various altar crosses, candles and vestments strewn throughout the church.  The Holy Altar itself was pulled from its foundation and dragged through the Royal Doors into the nave of the church.  It was a senseless act of destruction and obvious anger that left the Church and the neighboring community in much distress...

[Hiwot]

Lord have Mercy! Lord have Mercy! Lord have Mercy!
O God, the heathen are come into thine inheritance; thy holy temple have they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps. Psalm 78(79):1
The adversary has stretched out his hand over all her precious things, for she has seen the nations enter her sanctuary, the ones whom You commanded That they should not enter into Your congregation. Lamentations 1:10
 
Kyrie eleison!

[biro]

Lord have mercy.

[Gebre Menfes Kidus]

Those that violate the sacred only violate themselves.

"Lord have mercy."



Selam

[LizaSymonenko]

I read this on my BB before getting out of bed this morning. 
Nothing like starting the morning in tears (that are still dripping).

O Lord, save Thy people and bless Thine inheritance, grant
victory to Orthodox Christians over their adversaries; and
preserve Thy habitation by Thy Cross.

[zekarja]

Kyrie, eleison!

[Michael L]

A sad day indeed! Lord forgive us or debts as we forgive our debtors.

[Gamliel]

Seems like people are beginning to think they have the right to go in and desecrate Churches, but the LORD sees.

[Punch]

Seems like people are beginning to think they have the right to go in and desecrate Churches, but the LORD sees.

People have believed this for ages.  There is no "begining to think".  As we ponder on this, let us also think of our bretheran in heathen lands who have their very bodies, the true temple of God, desicrated for their Faith in Satan's rage against the people of God.  As you say, the Lord sees.  Let us hope and pray that they repent so that they may see the Lord's Mercy and not his Wrath.

[bogdan]

Lord have mercy.

That they scattered the presanctified Body in various places and pulled the altar out and such, makes me think the person knew what they were doing. Lord have mercy also on the perpetrator, because s/he is probably in a horrible spiritual state and has something against the Church. May s/he get the necessary help and healing.

[Salpy]

I know that church.  It is on top of a hill near Dodgers Stadium.  You can see it as you drive down Stadium Way, which is a short cut into Downtown Los Angeles.  It has a golden dome, which gleams in the sun.  I visited there many years ago and it was a very pretty church inside.

This is a terrible thing to happen.  Who could have so much hatred toward them?

[PeterTheAleut]

Lord, have mercy!

[sainthieu]

Apparently, a lot of churches have been looted recently. I think it's the economics. Also, our society is becoming more and more contemptuous of the law.

[Michał Kalina]

Apparently, a lot of churches have been looted recently. I think it's the economics. Also, our society is becoming more and more contemptuous of the law.

It wasn't looted. It was purposely vandalised with no economic reason.

[scamandrius]

Apparently, a lot of churches have been looted recently. I think it's the economics. Also, our society is becoming more and more contemptuous of the law.

This heinous act of desecration has NOTHING to do with economics--just the pure hatred for Christ and His Church.

Bring more evils upon them, Bring more evils upon them that are glorious upon the earth.

[Heorhij]

Lord, have mercy! Indeed, what a senseless, barbaric, inhuman act of hatred.

[Fr. George]

Lord have mercy on your people - those who are affected, those who perpetrate, and all those who call upon your Holy Name!

[Russell]

Lord have mercy

[Kasatkin fan]

Pray for that parish, but moreso, the description of the vandalism sounds like someone familiar with Orthodox practice, someone bearing a lot of anger. Pray for whoever did the deed.

[WetCatechumen]

Lord have mercy!




Why?

[ialmisry]

Lord have mercy!

[Nero]

Lord have Mercy, Lord Have Mercy, Lord have Mercy

[miaelizabeth]

Lord have mercy!

Reading that made me sick to my stomach and very sad

[lubeltri]

Kyrie Eleison! 

I read these vandalism/desecration stories regularly, alas. There have been a couple of dozen attacks on Mexico City's cathedral just this year.

But to desecrate the Blessed Sacrament? Satan surely is on the loose! The scary thing is, doing this thing is no longer taboo. Consider that professor (at a PUBLIC university) who, with impunity, solicited online for people to send him the Blessed Sacrament so he could film himself desecrating the Eucharist.

I pray that the church will be restored as soon as possible.

[jah777]

Lord have mercy!

This is very tragic.  I admit then when I read such stories I wonder why God does not immediately allow such desecrators to be struck dead, as a testament to his existence, power, authority, etc.  Would not many come to faith reading that a man, in desecrating the altar of an Orthodox Church, is then found dead without any injuries or identifiable causes, within the parking lot of the desecrated church?  Perhaps God in his mercy sees that even such a desecrator is not beyond hope, and may eventually come to repentance and salvation.  We should at least hope and pray that this would be so.

[recent convert]

Lord, have mercy! May these perpetrator (s) of this evil be brought to shame, remorse, & repentance.

[SubdeaconSL]

Lord have mercy!

This is very tragic.  I admit then when I read such stories I wonder why God does not immediately allow such desecrators to be struck dead, as a testament to his existence, power, authority, etc.  Would not many come to faith reading that a man, in desecrating the altar of an Orthodox Church, is then found dead without any injuries or identifiable causes, within the parking lot of the desecrated church?  Perhaps God in his mercy sees that even such a desecrator is not beyond hope, and may eventually come to repentance and salvation.  We should at least hope and pray that this would be so.

Perhaps God is more interested in showing his patience and mercy than in showing his power. Perhaps he desires people to come to him out of love rather than out of fear.

[elephant]

Lord have mercy!

As the first-called of the Apostles, and blood brother of the most eminent, do thou, Andrew beseech the Master of all, that He may grant peace unto the world, and unto our souls great mercy.

[Fr. George]

Has anyone heard an update on repairs, investigation, etc. in this case?

[HabteSelassie]

Greetings in that Divine and Most Precious Name of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

Apparently, a lot of churches have been looted recently. I think it's the economics. Also, our society is becoming more and more contemptuous of the law.

I'm am really just gossipping here but this doesn't sound like robbery so much as vandalism.  If I were to guess I would say some disgruntled parishioners or schismatics perpetrated this desecration, particularly since there seems to be purposeful disregard to things sacred to the Church like the Holy Communion and the consecrated Altar.  These seems like a statement someone wants to make, perhaps to try to insinuate that they feel this particular parish is not sacred (maybe this is personal attack on the legitimacy of the local clergy or membership or board there?)

With Orthodox in the USA (particularly Los Angeles) there are a lot of political, ethnic, and economic beefs in the Churches which often end up in litigation against each other over various misunderstandings, I blame the bad apple influence of the "American experiment"

stay blessed,
habte selassie

[Alveus Lacuna]

Perhaps God is more interested in showing his patience and mercy than in showing his power. Perhaps he desires people to come to him out of love rather than out of fear.

Or perhaps This is just a cop-out to explain away why nothing ever really happens in retribution toward these people anymore. If the New Testament is right that the Eucharist was causing people to die, or that people who withheld possessions from the community were struck dead, one would perhaps think that occasionally God could step in and do something about it. Forgive my frustration, I'm only trying to be honest.

I think a time may be coming where worship will have to return to homes and to secrecy in order to protect the Mysteries, and that only the baptized Orthodox may enter.

[LizaSymonenko]

This church is "legitimate" and belongs to the jurisdiction of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA.

While schismatics do exist, I doubt they would desecrate the Sacraments.  Even they have the fear of God in them.

These people had no fear of the God (at least not God as we know Him), for no true Christian would dare to do such a thing.

This was vandalism at it's worse.  Nothing was stolen.  This was simple hatred towards Orthodoxy.

I have not heard any updates in the case. 

What's worse, is that I have heard that it was never written up in the local papers.  Nothing.  Very sad.

Let's just pray for the soul(s) of the perpetrators....because they really have no idea what they were truly doing.

I am certain the parish will recover.  We are collecting and sending funds via UOCofUSA to them and they are good, faithful people. 

In time they will recover....let's hope the same for the villain.

[jah777]

Or perhaps This is just a cop-out to explain away why nothing ever really happens in retribution toward these people anymore. If the New Testament is right that the Eucharist was causing people to die, or that people who withheld possessions from the community were struck dead, one would perhaps think that occasionally God could step in and do something about it. Forgive my frustration, I'm only trying to be honest.

While in a previous message I expressed my thoughts that when such things happen I often wonder why God does not allow such desecrators to be struck dead instantly, in the vicinity of the desecration, as a testament to God’s authority and power, I should point out that there are many examples in the history of the Church where God has intervened in a miraculous way to bring such perpetrators to repentance, and/or to strengthen the faith of the believers.  See, for example, the following story regarding the repentance of a thief who stole relics of St. Nikodemos of the Holy Mountain, who then repented and returned the relics after St. Nikodemos repeatedly appeared to him:

Sacrilegious Man Sees St. Nikodemos and Returns His Holy Relic to the Monastery

April 16, 2010
Romfea.gr

Yesterday, Thursday 15 April 2010, in an atmosphere of devotion and excitement, the fathers of the Holy Monastery of Saint Nikodemos the Hagiorite received back the holy relic which was stolen on 15 March 2010.

The man who stole the holy relic saw the Saint fully alive on four occasions, who said to him: "My child, bring me back to my house from which you took me; you have troubled me enough."

Shocked the man ran and found a priest nearby at the Metropolis, to whom he confessed with sobs and tears, saying, "I have sinned Father, I have become sacrilegious", as he handed over the relic.

The priest took the holy relic and excitedly returned it to the Holy Monastery of Saint Nikodemos the Hagiorite.

The testimony above was given by this priest to the police department.

It should be noted that the repentant thief said he will visit the abbot of the monastery soon to ask his forgiveness.

At 6:00PM Saturday 17 April 2010 a celebratory Great Vespers will take place before the holy relic, which will be displayed for veneration by the faithful.

http://www.johnsanidopoulos.com/2010/04/relic-of-st-nikodemos-miraculously.html

The history of the Kursk Root Icon is full of attempts by unbelievers to destroy the icon, and the icon’s miraculous survival.  In some such stories, we may not hear about God’s punishment of the perpetrators, but the effect of such events on the faith of the believers is very clear:

In March of 1898 a group of anarchists, desiring to undermine the faith of the people in the wonderworking power of the icon, decided to destroy it. They placed a time bomb in the Cathedral of the Sign, and at two o'clock in the morning a horrendous explosion rent the air and all the walls of the monastery were shaken. The frightened monastic brethren rushed immediately to the cathedral, where they beheld a scene of horrible devastation. The force of the blast had shattered the gilded canopy above the icon. The heavy marble base, constructed of several massive steps, had been jolted out of position and split into several pieces. A huge metal candlestick which stood before the icon and been blown to the opposite side of the cathedral. A door of cast iron located near the icon had been torn from its hinges and cast outside, where it smashed against a wall and caused a deep crack. All the windows in the cathedral and even those in the dome above were shattered. Amid the general devastation, the holy icon remained intact and even the glass within the frame remained whole. Thinking to destroy the icon, the anarchists had, on the contrary, become the cause of its greater glorification.

http://www.fatheralexander.org/booklets/english/icon_kursk_e.htm

Such stories are not uncommon in recent or past history, but the same news which covers the acts of desecration may fail to inform us of the aftermath, or God’s judgment remains hidden from us.

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