Finding a good church

With the Michigan economy in the crapper, a lot of people are packing up their families and leaving the state. Many of them will (hopefully) be looking for new churches. My advice to them is to consider what the interior of a church tells them about the type of activities they can expect to encounter there:

Does it look like a concert hall?



Expect to be entertained.

Does it look like a classroom?



Expect to be lectured.

Does it look like a courtroom?



Expect to be judged.


Does it look like a temple?

Expect to engage in real, sincere, powerful, reverent fall-on-your-face worship...

You can find one here

Comment on Icons

Some time ago, I posted an article called"Not for Lightweights" in which a Baptist pastor recounts his first experience with Orthodox worship. Below is a comment by one of his readers that I thought was worth quoting here:

One of the things I like about the separation (the iconostasis, as the Orthodox call it) is that, unlike in the original Temple, the doors OPEN and the curtain is pulled aside. And even when closed - even when we are reminded that, in our current state, we are outside and needing to repent and go deeper into God - there are still icons on the iconostasis. And what do these say? They say, "This is the way," and "Come this way." They are like windows through the wall looking in on the cloud of witnesses beckoning us forward to the altar - forward to home.
The whole architecture of an Orthodox building is rife with theological significance. For example, the two icons adjacent to the royal doors (the middle doors in the iconostasis) are always the same two icons. On one side is the Virgin and Child, and on the other is Christos Pantocrator (Christ ruler of all) - an image of Christ with the book of Life. The first represents Christ in His first coming, the second is Christ in His second coming. In between them are the royal doors, at which the prayers of the Church are said and through which the Eucharist comes. Between the 1st and 2nd comings, iconically, is the life of the Church. And the life of the Church is communion - the encounter with the risen Christ.

"Something to offend just about everybody."

Orthodox extend hand to Duncan's new Anglican Church
From the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

BEDFORD, Texas -- The spiritual leader of the Orthodox Church in America offered to begin talks aimed at full communion with the new Anglican Church in North America, then named a series of obstacles whose removal could tear apart the hard-won unity among the 100,000 theological conservatives who broke from the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada.

The Anglican Church in North America hopes to be recognized as a new province of the 80 million-member global Anglican Communion, of which the 2.1 million-member Episcopal Church is the U.S. province. The new church believes the Episcopal Church failed to uphold biblical authority and classic doctrines about matters ranging from the divinity of Jesus to biblical morality, a criticism that the Orthodox share.

Metropolitan Jonah, who was elected last year in Pittsburgh, is a convert who was raised as an Episcopalian. He spoke with humor about both traditions, warning, "I'm afraid my talk will have something to offend just about everybody."

"Calvinism is a condemned heresy," he said, to a smattering of applause from some Anglo-Catholics in the new church.

"For ... intercommunion of the Anglican Church and the Orthodox Church, the issue of ordination of women needs to be resolved," he said, again to applause from many of the same people.

"I believe women have a critical role to play in the church, but I do not believe it is in the [priesthood or as bishops]," he said. "Forgive me if this offends you." He called for an effort to "creatively come together to find the right context for women's ministry in the church."

"We will have much to talk about and we will talk," he said.

Read the rest here.

Theotokos, revisited

I try to avoid engaging guests of the monastery in discussions of theology; that's a job best left to the professionals. But the other day a woman who was part of a tour group from a local church confronted me in the gift shop in order to explain to me why we are wrong to refer to Mary as the Mother of God. "God doesn't have a mother," she insisted. "He's eternal." I briefly laid out in clear terms (or what I thought were clear terms) why it is that we affirm that it is entirely proper, in fact necessary, to call Mary, not only the Mother of God, but the Birthgiver of God, or Theotokos.

"I've heard all those arguments before," she muttered, as she waved me off and walked away.

Okay. I know she won't be reading this, but I'll write it as if she will.

We certainly don't shy away from calling Mary the Mother of God (she is identified on icons with the letters ΜΡ ΘΥ. which is an abbreviation of Μητηρ Θεου, the Greek for "Mother of God"). But dogmatically, the Church takes it one step further. According to the Third Ecumenical Council:

If anyone will not confess that the Emmanuel is very God, and that therefore the Holy Virgin is the [Birthgiver] of God (Θεοτόκος), inasmuch as in the flesh she bore the Word of God made flesh [as it is written, “The Word was made flesh”] let him be anathema.

So calling Mary Mother of God is all well and good, but if you stop there, you might be tempted to think that Mary had simply adopted Jesus and raised Him as His mother. But that's not what we believe. We believe that, from the very instant of His conception in the womb, Christ was fully God. He didn't become God some time later, which is the teaching that got Nestorius in so much trouble. So, when Mary gave birth to Jesus, she didn't give birth to a child who would someday take on divinity. She actually gave birth to God.

We don't belive that Mary is coeternal with God or that she is the mother of the Trinity. She didn't give Jesus his divinity, but she did give Him his humanity. They actually shared DNA. I heard recently that when a woman gives birth to a child, she carries some of that child's cells inside her body for the rest of her life.

Just give that a second to sink in.

Is it any wonder that we celebrate and marvel at this awesome mystery, that even the angels themselves don't fully comprehend! Who isn't awestruck at the very thought!

"He whom the entire universe could not contain was contained within your womb, O Theotokos."

And is it possible really to belive in the Incarnation and reject the belief that Mary is the Birthgiver of God? And how does one explain the reaction of Elizabeth, who was "filled with the Holy Spirit," if Mary isn't the Mother of God?

"And why is it granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" (Luke 1.43)

So, in short, insisting that Mary is not the Birthgiver of God makes one a Nestorian heretic, a denier of the Incarnation, and a rejecter of Holy Scripture. Basically, a non-Christian.

Israel: Church Showered With Stones In North

I can't help but wonder how--or whether--American Christians, who for some reason are in love with Israeli Jews but are completely oblivious to the Ancient Church, would react if the stones were flying in the opposite direction...?

MIGDAL HA-EMEQ, Israel, June 22 (Compass Direct News) – When the congregation at St. Nicolay church in this northern Israeli town gathered on that quiet Friday morning of May 29, they never expected to be showered with stones. The Russian Orthodox worshipers, including many women, children and the elderly, had filled the small building to overflow with several outside when they were stunned by the rain of stones. Some were injured and received medical care.

The identity of the assailants is unknown...but eye-witnesses claimed they were ultra-orthodox yeshiva students who frequently cursed the church on their way to the school or synagogue.

“They often assault us verbally, curse and yell at us, although we tried to explain that this is a place of worship, a holy place,” said a frustrated [Oleg] Usenkov [press secretary for the church]...a Russian Jew who converted to Christianity after immigrating to Israel in the 1990s.

Members of the congregation, a few hundred Christians from Migdal ha-Emeq, Afula, Haifa, Nazareth and other Israeli cities still remember how their building was vandalized in June 2006. Under cover of darkness, unidentified men broke in and broke icons and modest decorations, smashed windows and stole crosses.

***

According to Israeli law, non-Jewish relatives of a Jew are also entitled to citizenship, but Jews who have converted to other faiths are denied it.

Read the rest here.

1812

Molieben on the Borodino Field (Egor Zaitsev, 2000-2002) click to enlarge

As we approach July 4th, we will, as we do every year, be hearing a lot of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture. So, with that in mind, here is a quiz for my readers:

What does the 1812 Overture have to do with American independence?

a) It celebrates our victory over the British in the War of 1812
b) It was written to commemorate the death of the last signer of the Declaration of Independence.
c) Absolutely nothing whatsoever...but it has cannons!!!

The correct answer, of course, is "c." The 1812 Overture (also known as Торжественная увертюра 1812-ого года) was written to commemorate Russia's successful defense of Moscow from the invading French forces under Napoleon Bonaparte in September of 1812, which culminated in the Battle of Borodino. This battle, according to Wikipedia, "was the largest and bloodiest single-day action of the French invasion of Russia, involving more than 250,000 troops and resulting in at least 70,000 casualties." The battle ended in a draw, but damaged the resources and morale of the French forces, who were further deflated when they headed to Moscow in search of winter quarters only to find the city burned down by the retreating Russian army. Napoleon and this troops were forced to head home, encountering well-deserved hardship and misery the entire way. By the time they reached Poland, Napoleon's Grande Armée had lost ninety percent of its total force.

Tsar Alexander II commissioned the piece in 1880, and two years later it premiered in the plaza in front of Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow. Then in May 1891, Tchaikovsky conducted the New York Philharmonic in their performance of the piece at the dedication of Carnegie Hall in Manhattan.

Tchaikovsky, an Orthodox Christian, based the intro of the piece on the Troparion of the Cross, which is a hymn that we have sung many, many times in church:

O Lord, save Thy people,
and bless Thine inheritance!
Grant victory to Orthodox Christians
over their adversaries,
and by virtue of Thy Cross,
preserve Thy habitation.

Spasi Gospodi, lyudi tvoya
I blagoslovi dostoyanie tvoye.
Pobedi pravoslavnim khristianom
Na soprotivniya daruya;
I tvoyei sokhranyaya
Krestom tvoim zhitel'stvo.

Here is an abbreviated version of the 1812 Overture with chorus, but without cannons...sorry:

See also:
"How a rousing Russian tune took over our July 4th"
Full score of 1812 Overture

New Orthodox Patriarch Pulls No Punches

ST. PETERSBURG — In just a few months as patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, Kirill I has staked a claim to a powerful voice in the country’s affairs and to newly energized leadership of the only sizable institution in Russia outside of Kremlin control.

In two recent gatherings of thousands of students in Moscow and St. Petersburg, he notably reached out to young people, wading into Russia’s swirling debate over its identity almost 20 years after it shook off communism and embarked on an uncertain quest for greater economic and political freedom.

***

In 2006, Patriarch Kirill held a meeting with rock music stars, some of whom have become devoutly Orthodox, and last summer he spoke at a rock concert in Kiev during festivities marking the 1020th anniversary of the baptism of Rus, which brought Orthodoxy to Russia from Byzantium.

One of his appointees, the Reverend Vsevolod Chaplin, has proposed creating “Orthodox nightclubs,” where young people would gather for late-night fellowship and discussion. There are even Orthodox bikers, and Patriarch Kirill reminded the crowd in St. Petersburg that he used to ride a motorbike.

To some Russian observers, Patriarch Kirill has taken a page from Pope John Paul II, who was often regarded with suspicion by Russian church men.

Read the complete story here

Touching the hem

For anyone wondering why it is that in some parishes the members of the congregation will sometimes reach out and touch the priest's robe as he walks by in procession, here is part of a conversation from the blog Real Live Preacher:

I was also moved by something that happened at the beginning of the service. As the priest walked down the aisle toward the Iconostas, people reached out and touched the hem of his garment. I was told this is common only to the Antiochian Orthodox Church. This is the sort of thing that many Protestants would misunderstand and perhaps be suspicious of. We are historically wary of priests and elevating them too greatly. Remember that the Orthodox Church embraces mystery. So if you are visiting, it is best to be humble and always think the best of what you see. I likened this act to touching the mantle of the Torah as it is carried in Jewish worship to its honored place. The great mysteries of God and the collected prayers of the people are symbolically carried by the priest. Touching his robe is a way, I think, of connecting yourself humbly to such a large mystery. I found myself thinking of the woman who wanted only to touch the hem of the robe of Jesus.

I do not know why the people touch the priests robe. I offer only my impression of what I saw. That was the "mystical" experience I took from it anyway. (source)

Yes Matt [not me], the garments were touhed [sic] during what is called The Great Entrance when the gifts of bread and wine are transferred from the area of preperation [sic] to the Altar.

I do attend St. Joseph's Orthodox Church in Houston and we do commonly reach out and touch the priest or deacon's vestments. This tradition does come back from the woman with the issue of blood who was healed just by touching the hem of the garment of Christ.

Someone asked, if the gifts are not yet consecrated, what are we as Orthodox Christians doing and why? We understand the divinity of Christ, in its totality is such that if Christ touches something, then I can touch Christ by touching that same garment. We know the veracity of this from both the Old Testament (the mantle of Elija) and the New (both the miracles of Christ and we remember the letters of Paul recounting the same) and in our own generations (St. Nektarios of Aegina (1919+) is the first to come to mind who, at his death, while the nuns were changing his garments in the hospital, they laid them on the bed behind and the patient in that bed, upon touching St. Nektarios' clothing was immediately healed). In other words, I am not trying to touch the vestments of Fr. Matthew or Fr. James, or Deacon Mel, I am trying to touch Christ. The reason being is that we understand Christ to be the Physician of our Souls and Bodies and in the eyes of the Church we are all ill, either spiritually, physically or both. By touching something that has touched Christ, I am asking Him: "Lord, I do not even know the ways that I am ill, neither in my soul nor in my body; please heal that in me which is in need of healing. Nevertheless Your will, not mine."

This is an example of physical prayer we use in the Orthodox Church. (source)

The structure of Vespers

From Notes from Underground:

The core of Vespers goes back to the Old Testament: "When Aaron sets up the lamps in the evening, he shall burn it, a perpetual incense before the Lord from generation to generation" (Exodus 30:8).

So at the heart of Vespers are lights and incense. There is a procession of priests, deacons and other ministers with lighted lamps and incense, which comes from the north door of the sanctuary, and goes to the holy (central) door, and the altar and its lamps are censed by a deacon, while the congregation sings the hymn:

O gladsome light of the holy glory of the immortal Father: heavenly holy blessed Jesus Christ!Now that we have come to the setting of the sun, and beheld the light of evening, we praise the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.For meet it is at all times to praise Thee, Son of God and Giver of LifeTherefore all the world doth glorify Thee.

Then is sung:

The Lord is King! He is robed in majesty
For he has established the world so that it should never be moved!
Holiness befits Thy house, O Lord, for evermore!
Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages.
Amen.

Followed by intercessions and led by a deacon, after which it is sung again, interspersed with hymns (Aposticha) on the themes of the day.

You can find more information on Vespers here:
Orthodox Worship: Vespers
Vespers - Orthodox Wiki
What is Vespers? - a blogger writes for a friend visiting Vespers

Ναός τῆς Ἁγίας τοῦ Θεοῦ Σοφίας

For nearly one thousand years, the Hagia Sophia (Ἁγία Σοφία, which means "Holy Wisdom") was the largest Christian cathedral in the world. Construction began in 532 by order of Emperor Justinian and completed five years later. The church included a silver iconostasis fifty feet tall, and was filled with jeweled mosaics and columns of granite and marble, beneath a dome more than one hundred feet wide, and 182 feet high. It was an architectural wonder, filled with arcades, frescoes, marble tiled floors, rich colors and treasures beyond price. When the cathedral was complete, the emperor declared "Νενίκηκά σε Σολομών!" ("Solomon, I have outdone thee!")

For more than a millennium, spanning the reigns of over one hundred Byzantine emperors, Constantinople was the center of the Christian world. That all ended on this date (May 29 by the Church calendar) 556 years ago.

On that Tuesday morning in 1453, the siege of Constantinople by the Ottoman Turks ended and the city was sacked, ravaged, looted, desecrated, pillaged, burnt, violated, and brought under control of the Muslims where she remains to this day.

According to the diary of Nicolo Barbaro, who was present during the invasion,

The Turks made eagerly for the piazza, five miles from the point where they made their entrance at San Romano, and when they reached it, at once some of them climbed up a tower where the flags of Saint Mark and the Most Serene Emperor were flying, and they cut down the flag of Saint Mark and took away the flag of the Most Serene Emperor, and then on the same tower they raised the flag of the Sultan. When they had taken away these two flags, those of Saint Mark and of the Emperor, and raised the flag of the Turkish dog, then all we Christians who were in the city were full of sorrow because it had been captured by the Turks. When their flag was raised and ours cut down, we saw that the whole city was taken, and that there was no further hope of recovering from this.

For the rest of the day these flags were kept flying on the houses, and all through the day the Turks made a great slaugh­ter of Christians through the city. The blood flowed in the city like rainwater in the gutters after a sudden storm, and the corpses of Turks and Christians were thrown into the Dardanelles, where they floated out to sea like melons along a canal.

The cross which topped the dome of the Hagia Sophia was torn down and replaced by a crescent. Minarets were erected, and what was for centuries the largest, most imported and most beloved Christian church in the world became a mosque. The mosaics and frescoes were plastered over or chiseled away. The iconostasis was looted and the relics of saints and other treasures disappeared. The Hagia Sophia served as a mosque until 1932 when the Turkish president, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, had it made into a museum. At that time, work began to uncover the mosaics that had long been hidden behind plaster.

Two worthwhile blog posts concerning this tragic event can be found here and here. And there is, I was surprised to learn, a movement underway to restore the Hagia Sophia to use as a Christian church. The organization behind this effort is called the Free Agia Sophia Council of America.

See also: Paintings and photos of Hagia Sophia

Mr Seeker-sensitive Mega Church Pastor

Not that I have anything against seeker-sensitive mega-church pastors, mind you...

The Divine Liturgy

There are several liturgies in use by the Orthodox Church. These include the Liturgy of St James, which is celebrated daily in Jerusalem, the Liturgy of St Mark, celebrated by the Church of Alexandria in Egypt, and the Liturgy of St Gregory, which is celebrated by Orthodox Churches of the western rite. Other well known liturgies are the Liturgy of St Basil, and the Liturgy of Presanctified Gifts, which are both celebrated during Great Lent, and the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom, which is used by most Orthodox Churches throughout the year. This last one is used far more often than any of the others, and is normally the one people are talking about when they refer to the Divine Liturgy.

The guys at Our Life in Christ have a radio teaching ministry that is absolutely bursting with fascinating information about Orthodox theology, practice, history, worship, music, iconography, and many other subjects relevant to Orthodox Christianity. I have been listening to them since I first became interested in Orthodoxy and have learned a ton from them. I strongly recommend them to anyone with the least interest in the Orthodox Church; they will answer many if not all of your burning questions. Back in 2006, they recorded a nine-part series about the Divine Liturgy. I listened to it recently and have gained a new appreciation for the extraordinary beauty and complexity of the Divine Liturgy.

Among the thing I learned are that the Divine Liturgy:

1) Includes nearly three hundred quotes from the Bible,

2) Contains a hymn written by an emperor,

3) Actually transcends time and space.


How many other church services that you know of can claim all this?

Here are links to the mp3 files. For best results, right-click on the links and choose the "Save Target As..." option. Save the file to your computer and then open it using itunes or another audio application.

Part 1: Introduction

Part 2: The Proskomide - Preparing the Eucharist

Part 3: The Liturgy of The Word

Part 4: The Liturgy of The Faithful

Part 5: The Liturgy of The Faithful, cont'd

Part 6: The Epiclesis

Part 7: Pre-Communion Prayers

Part 8: Receiving the Body of Christ

Part 9: Post Communion Prayers

Venerable Bede, the Church Historian

Saint Bede was a church historian who recorded the history of Christianity in England up to his own time. He was probably born around 673 in Northumbria. We do not know exactly where he was born, but it is likely that it was somewhere near Jarrow.

When he was seven, Bede was sent to St Benedict Biscop (January 12) at the monastery of St Peter at Wearmouth to be educated and raised. Then he was sent to the new monastery of St Paul founded at Jarrow in 682, where he remained until his death. There he was guided by the abbot St Ceolfrith (September 25), who succeeded St Benedict in 690, ruling both Wearmouth and Jarrow.

There is an incident in the anonymous Life of Ceolfrith which may refer to the young Bede. A plague swept through Ceolfrith's monastery in 686, taking most of the monks who sang in the choir for the church services. Only the abbot and a young boy raised and educated by him remained. This young boy "is now a priest of the same monastery and commends the abbot's admirable deeds both verbally and in writing to all who desire to learn them."

Grieved by this catastrophe, Ceolfrith decided that they should sing the Psalms without antiphons, except at Matins and Vespers. After a week of this, he went back to chanting the antiphons in their proper place. With the help of the boy and the surviving monks, the services were performed with difficulty until other monks could be brought in and trained to sing.

St Bede was ordained as a deacon when he was nineteen, and to the holy priesthood at the age of thirty by St John of Beverley (May 7), the holy Bishop of Hexham (687), and later (705) of York. Bede had a great love for the church services, and believed that since the angels were present with the monks during the services, that he should also be there. "What if they do not find me among the brethren when they assemble? Will they not say, 'Where is Bede?'

Bede began as a pupil of St Benedict Biscop, who had been a monk of the famous monastery at Lerins, and had founded monasteries himself. St Benedict had brought many books with him to England from Lerins and from other European monasteries. This library enabled Bede to write his own books, which include biblical commentary, ecclesiastical history, and hagiography.

His books, derived from "ancient documents, from the traditions of our ancestors, and from my own personal knowledge" (Book V, 24) give us great insight into the religious and secular life of early Britain. To read St Bede is to enter a world shaped by spiritual traditions very similar to those cherished by Orthodox Christians. These saints engage in the same heroic asceticism shown by saints in the East, and their holiness fills us with love and admiration. Christians were expected to fast on Wednesdays and Fridays, and there was a forty day Nativity Fast (Book IV, 30).

St Bede became ill in 735. For about two weeks before Pascha, he was weak and had trouble breathing, but experienced little pain. He remained cheerful and gave daily lessons to his students, then spent the rest of the day singing Psalms and giving thanks to God. He would often quote the words of St Ambrose, "I have not lived in such a way that I am ashamed to live among you, and I do not fear to die, for God is gracious" (Paulinus, Life of Saint Ambrose, Ch. 45).

In addition to giving daily lessons and chanting the Psalms, St Bede was also working on an Anglo-Saxon translation of the Gospel of St John, and also a book of extracts from the writings of St Isidore of Seville (April 4). On the Tuesday before the Feast of the Lord's Ascension, the saint's breathing became more labored, and his feet began to swell. "Learn quickly," he told those who were taking dictation from him, "for I do not know how long I can continue. The Lord may call me in a short while."

After a sleepless night, St Bede continued his dictation on Wednesday morning. At the Third Hour, there was a procession with the relics of the saints in the monastery, and the brethren went to attend this service, leaving a monk named Wilbert with Bede. The monk reminded him that there remained one more chapter to be written in the book which he was dictating. Wilbert was reluctant to disturb the dying Bede, however. St Bede said, "It is no trouble. Take your pen and write quickly."

At the Ninth Hour, Bede paused and told Wilbert that he had some items in his chest, such as pepper, incense, and linen. He asked the monk to bring the priests of the monastery so that he could distribute these items to them. When they arrived, he spoke to each of them in turn, requesting them to pray for him and to remember him in the services. Then he said, "The time of my departure is at hand, and my soul longs to see Christ my King in His beauty."

That evening, Wilbert said to him, "Dear Master, there is one sentence left unfinished."

Bede said, "Very well, write it down."

Then the young monk said, "It is finished now."

St Bede replied, "You have spoken truly, it is well finished." Then he asked Wilbert to raise his head so that he could see the church where he used to pray. After chanting, "Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit" to its ending, St Bede fell asleep in the Lord Whom he had loved.

His body was first buried in the south porch of the monastery church, then later transferred to a place near the altar. Today his holy relics lie in Durham Cathedral, in the Galilee chapel. St Bede is the only Englishman mentioned by Dante in the DIVINE COMEDY (Paradiso).

(oca.org)

See also: "Ecclesiastical History of the English People"

St. Augustine of Canterbury, evangelizer of England

He is the founder of the Church in southern England, which at that time was almost entirely pagan, though Christianity thrived in the Celtic lands of Ireland, Wales and parts of Scotland. Augustine, a monk at the monastery of St Andrew in Rome, was chosen by Pope Gregory I to lead a mission to England. He and a party of about forty monks landed in England in 597; they were received warmly by King Aethelbert, who was baptised by Augustine and thus became the first Christian king of the Anglo-Saxon people. In 601 Pope Gregory made Augustine Archbishop of Britain, and he established his cathedral at Canterbury, where he also established a monastery. Saint Augustine worked unsuccessfully to unite his churches with those of the Irish monks and hierarchs, who followed different liturgical practices, kept a different date of Pascha, and disapproved of the less severe Roman monastic practices introduced by the Archbishop. He reposed in peace.

(from Holy Trinity Church, Baltimore, MD)

"Journey to Orthodoxy"

The following is an article entitled "Journey to Orthodoxy," by Father Bill Olnhausen of St. Nicholas Antiochian Orthodox Church in Cedarburg, Wisconsin. It comes to us via the Council of Orthodox Christian Churches of Metropolitan Detroit website.

In September 1989, I became a member and priest of the Holy Orthodox Church. Here are my reactions...TEN YEARS LATER.

What I hoped to find in the Orthodox Church
I was seeking stability in the faith. I sought the Church that St. Irenaeus had described, which "carefully preserves" apostolic teachings and "proclaims them and teaches them and hands them down with perfect harmony", throughout the world and from generation to generation. By process of elimination, I had concluded that only the Orthodox Church fit this description. I came to the Orthodox Church demoralized and exhausted, war-weary from the losing battle of trying to maintain traditional doctrinal, liturgical and moral standards in western Christianity.

In ten years in the Orthodox Church, I have encountered not one disbelieving bishop, priest, theologian or layperson. Certainly there are Orthodox who don't take the faith seriously or who are lax in their practice, but so far as I can see no one denies it or is trying to change it. Orthodox unity in the faith still astounds me. I found what I was seeking.

What I feared as I came to the Orthodox Church
(1) That I would never fit in. Those who have grown up Orthodox cannot imagine how forbidding the Orthodox Church can appear to an outsider. I now find it hard to believe that ten years ago people with Middle Eastern and Greek backgrounds seemed very exotic to me. Orthodoxy felt "foreign" and "ethnic" to this German/Welsh/Irish-American. Partly I was a prisoner of my own ethnic background. But also I was afraid I would break some eastern cultural or religious taboo and cause great offense. Orthodox worship appeared very difficult to master, and I was afraid "cradle" Orthodox would laugh at me as I struggled to learn it. I was wrong. Yes, I have encountered some ethnic differences - which have caused me to grow. I have learned to hug and kiss a lot more, and also to express myself more forcefully. (I have had to abandon Anglican subtlety. There's no point in "beating around the bush" with Orthodox people!) I have eaten things I never ate before. The wonderful ethnic diversity of Orthodoxy has been broadening to me in a number of ways. (Ah, the food at our church suppers!)
But my fears were unfounded. Though I still make mistakes (just ask the bishops...), Orthodox worship has not been as difficult as I anticipated. Furthermore, once you learn it, it holds still: no national liturgical commission is trying to revise and modernize Orthodox worship - thank God! The "cradle" Orthodox who have come to Saint Nicholas have, with almost no exceptions, been sweet and tolerant as I have learned Orthodoxy. Indeed I have never felt so loved in my life. And as for the Antiochian Archdiocese... surely the Middle-Easterners who welcomed us into their Archdiocese must sometimes find us converts and our mistakes and peculiar ways hard to take, but I have found only the warmest of welcomes. There has been not the slightest pressure to become anything ethnically other than what I am. After ten years, I feel far more at home in this "foreign" Orthodox Church than I ever felt in my former denomination.

(2) I was afraid I would starve to death. I feared Khouria Dianna and I would have to live in poverty, being supported only by a struggling little mission in a "poor immigrant Church". I was wrong. I can't speak of all Orthodox jurisdictions and parishes - but I am amazed at the amount of money that flows through the Antiochian Archdiocese and through this congregation. My former supposedly wealthy denomination had nothing to compare to Antiochian Village and Conference Center, or to the style of our Archdiocese Conventions and Conferences, or to the proportion of money that goes to good works outside the Archdiocese. I could never have imagined that in ten years our own small congregation would have a fine temple, mostly paid off, and would have given away well over $100,000. The people of Saint Nicholas have supported me more than generously. Khouria Dianna has found it good to work full time, because her health insurance is so good. But we have got our children through college, for the first time in our life we own a home, my automobile allowance allows me to pay cash for my cars, and we have traveled more and farther than ever before in our lives. This has been a great faith-builder: we have far more trust in the power of God to provide. And I was afraid of going hungry!

What else I have found in the Orthodox Church
(1) The Kingdom of God. I have shared this with many of you before: About the fourth Sunday after I became Orthodox, as I stood at the altar at Divine Liturgy, the presence of God and the saints and angels became Real to me. It was not an intellectual discovery (I had believed it before), nor was it a new feeling. The Kingdom was just Present, almost palpable. That was how I began to encounter the common Orthodox experience of worship as "heaven on earth". It has continued at every service since then. At worship in my former denomination, I tried hard to concentrate my mind on God and the saints. Now I don't have to. They concentrate on me; they surround me; they encompass me. Words are inadequate. I can't describe the indescribable. But most Orthodox know from their own experience what I'm trying to say.

(2) That Orthodoxy has the power to change lives, beginning with my own: My despair and weariness have turned to hope and and energy. Inside, I feel younger than I did ten years ago. And I have seen so many in my congregation turn to God in a new way. Again, I don't deny that there are many nominal Orthodox, and none of us practice Orthodoxy as we should. But I see that the Orthodox doctrine of theosis (that God makes us like himself, makes us holy) is not theory: it is a description of what actually happens to people in the Orthodox Church. In my former denomination I always felt that I had to change people by my own words and efforts. Here God and the Church do it, and I'm simply one of those being changed.

(3) Not only great joy but also lots of fun! Starting a new mission was hard work on the part of all of us, and just conducting Orthodox worship is exhausting. (Western services now seem so short.) But I have never enjoyed myself or laughed so much in my life. This has been a delight.

(4) That the outside world looks odder and odder. Partly this is because American culture has kept changing since I became Orthodox, while Orthodoxy has held still. Things which seemed unconscionable in our culture even ten years ago are now commonplace. But also the world seems stranger to me because Orthodoxy is even more counter-cultural than I ever imagined. In the western denominations, radical theology, pop worship, women's ordination and "gay" rights are ever more the order of the day - while in Orthodoxy these things are still not even being debated, nor is there any sign that they will be. The western secular world continues to think that politics and economics and education can solve our problems, and that a just society can be created by man without reference to God and his truth - while Orthodoxy is God and his truth. I watch the evening news and read non-Orthodox religious publications and just shake my head: what ever do these people think they're doing? As an Orthodox I feel far less threatened by what's going on outside the Church, and I find that now it makes me sad instead of angry - but the non-Orthodox world looks ever more peculiar to me.

Has there been any down side?
Scarcely any. Becoming Orthodox has been overwhelmingly a positive experience for me. However...
(1) For some of the reasons mentioned above, I've discovered that Orthodoxy is more difficult to communicate to our society than I would have guessed. At first I felt that if Americans could only be to exposed to Orthodoxy, they would rush into the Church. Certainly Orthodoxy is growing in the world - and our Antiochian Archdiocese has grown by leaps and bounds during the past ten years - but I also now see that many modern Americans find it hard to understand Orthodoxy. They are so accustomed to human-centered, man-made religion that they find it difficult even to grasp the concept of God-centered, revealed religion. Many do not see the purpose of worship. More than a few have come to our Orthodox services (even in English) and have no idea what's going on. "Making America Orthodox" is not as easy as I thought.

(2) As I moved into Orthodoxy and discovered how good it is, for a while I felt unhappy that I had waited so long to become Orthodox. Why did I waste so much time in western Christianity trying to reinvent the wheel, when the real Church was here waiting for me all the while? I could have spent my whole ministry in the Church; we could have raised our children in the Orthodox faith. I'm still sad about this, but I've come to accept that God has his own timing, that he can use even my slowness and stupidity and stubbornness for good.

Would I do it all over again?
Yes! Yes! Yes! These past ten years in Orthodoxy have been the best and happiest and most fulfilling of my life. Thanks to God and thanks to Saint Nicholas for bringing me home.

In the Church's annual liturgical cycle, Pentecost is "the last and great day." It is the celebration by the Church of the coming of the Holy Spirit as the end - the achievement and fulfillment - of the entire history of salvation. For the same reason, however, it is also the celebration of the beginning: it is the "birthday" of the Church as the presence among us of the Holy Spirit, of the new life in Christ, of grace, knowledge, adoption to God and holiness.

This double meaning and double joy is revealed to us, first of all, in the very name of the feast. Pentecost in Greek means fifty, and in the sacred biblical symbolism of numbers, the number fifty symbolizes both the fulness of time and that which is beyond time: the Kingdom of God itself. It symbolizes the fulness of time by its first component: 49, which is the fulness of seven (7 x 7): the number of time. And, it symbolizes that which is beyond time by its second component: 49 + 1, this one being the new day, the "day without evening" of God's eternal Kingdom. With the descent of the Holy Spirit upon Christ's disciples, the time of salvation, the Divine work of redemption has been completed, the fulness revealed, all gifts bestowed: it belongs to us now to "appropriate" these gifts, to be that which we have become in Christ: participants and citizens of His Kingdom.

THE VIGIL OF PENTECOST

The all-night Vigil service begins with a solemn invitation:

"Let us celebrate Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit, The appointed day of promise, and the fulfillment of hope, The mystery which is as great as it is precious."

In the coming of the Spirit, the very essence of the Church is revealed:

"The Holy Spirit provides all, Overflows with prophecy, fulfills the priesthood, Has taught wisdom to illiterates, has revealed fishermen as theologians, He brings together the whole council of the Church."

In the three readings of the Old Testament (Numbers 11:16-17, 24-29; Joel 2:23-32; Ezekiel 36:24-28) we hear the prophecies concerning the Holy Spirit. We are taught that the entire history of mankind was directed towards the day on which God "would pour out His Spirit upon all flesh." This day has come! All hope, all promises, all expectations have been fulfilled. At the end of the Aposticha hymns, for the first time since Easter, we sing the hymn: "O Heavenly King, the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth…," the one with which we inaugurate all our services, all prayers, which is, as it were, the life-breath of the Church, and whose coming to us, whose "descent" upon us in this festal Vigil, is indeed the very experience of the Holy Spirit "coming and abiding in us."

Having reached its climax, the Vigil continues as an explosion of joy and light for "verily the light of the Comforter has come and illumined the world." In the Gospel reading (John 20:19-23) the feast is interpreted to us as the feast of the Church, of her divine nature, power and authority. The Lord sends His disciples into the world, as He Himself was sent by His Father. Later, in the antiphons of the Liturgy, we proclaim the universality of the apostles' preaching, the cosmical significance of the feast, the sanctification of the whole world, the true manifestation of God's Kingdom.

THE VESPERS OF PENTECOST

The liturgical peculiarity of Pentecost is a very special Vespers of the day itself. Usually this service follows immediately the Divine Liturgy, is "added" to it as its own fulfillment. The service begins as a solemn "summing up" of the entire celebration, as its liturgical synthesis. We hold flowers in our hands symbolizing the joy of the eternal spring, inaugurated by the coming of the Holy Spirit. After the festal Entrance, this joy reaches its climax in the singing of the Great Prokeimenon:

"Who is so great a God as our God?"

Then, having reached this climax, we are invited to kneel. This is our first kneeling since Easter. It signifies that after these fifty days of Paschal joy and fulness, of experiencing the Kingdom of God, the Church now is about to begin her pilgrimage through time and history. It is evening again, and the night approaches, during which temptations and failures await us, when, more than anything else, we need Divine help, that presence and power of the Holy Spirit, who has already revealed to us the joyful End, who now will help us in our effort towards fulfillment and salvation.

All this is revealed in the three prayers which the celebrant reads now as we all kneel and listen to him. In the first prayer, we bring to God our repentance, our increased appeal for forgiveness of sins, the first condition for entering into the Kingdom of God.

In the second prayer, we ask the Holy Spirit to help us, to teach us to pray and to follow the true path in the dark and difficult night of our earthly existence. Finally, in the third prayer, we remember all those who have achieved their earthly journey, but who are united with us in the eternal God of Love.

The joy of Easter has been completed and we again have to wait for the dawn of the Eternal Day. Yet, knowing our weakness, humbling ourselves by kneeling, we also know the joy and the power of the Holy Spirit who has come. We know that God is with us, that in Him is our victory.

Thus is completed the feast of Pentecost and we enter "the ordinary time" of the year. Yet, every Sunday now will be called "after Pentecost" - and this means that it is from the power and light of these fifty days that we shall receive our own power, the Divine help in our daily struggle. At Pentecost we decorate our churches with flowers and green branches - for the Church "never grows old, but is always young." It is an evergreen, ever-living Tree of grace and life, of joy and comfort. For the Holy Spirit - "the Treasury of Blessings and Giver of Life - comes and abides in us, and cleanses us from all impurity," and fills our life with meaning, love, faith and hope. Father

Alexander Schmemann (1974)

(from oca.org)

Are you Saved? An Orthodox Answer

"This is the way we do church."

I got the article below from Transposzing, via orrologion. It was written by a Baptist pastor and captures as well as anything else I've read the confusion, anxiety, and wonderment of a first-time visit to an Orthodox Liturgy:

Last Sunday was the 4th of 13 in my sabbatical time. Each of them is precious to me. Each week I am choosing a place and a way to worship. I’m not a church tourist, hoping to see new things. I’m seeking spiritual experiences. I want to worship. Saturday night Jeanene and I still hadn’t decided where to go. I experienced something common to our culture but new to me. The “Where do you want to go to church - I don’t know where do YOU want to go to church” conversation. I found the Saint Anthony the Great website. It's an Orthodox church that has beautiful Byzantine art in the sanctuary. We decided to go there.

Shelby and Lillian went with us. On the way we warned them that this was going to be different. “They might not have changed their worship service much in a thousand years or so,” I told the girls.

That was an understatement.

Saint Anthony the Great isn't just old school. It's "styli and wax tablets" old school. We arrived ten minutes early for worship and the room was already filled with people lighting candles and praying. There was one greeter. I said, “We don’t know what to do.” She handed me a liturgy book and waved us inside.

Pews? We don’t need no stinking pews! Providing seats for worshipers is SO 14th century. Gorgeous Byzantine art, commissioned from a famous artist in Bulgaria. Fully robed priests with censors (those swinging incense thingies). Long, complex readings and chants that went on and on and on. And every one of them packed full of complex, theological ideas. It was like they were ripping raw chunks of theology out of ancient creeds and throwing them by the handfuls into the congregation. And just to make sure it wasn't too easy for us, everything was read in a monotone voice and at the speed of an auctioneer.

I heard words and phrases I had not heard since seminary. Theotokos, begotten not made, Cherubim and Seraphim borne on their pinions, supplications and oblations. It was an ADD kids nightmare. Robes, scary art, smoking incense, secret doors in the Iconostas popping open and little robed boys coming out with golden candlesticks, chants and singing from a small choir that rolled across the curved ceiling and emerged from the other side of the room where no one was singing. The acoustics were wild. No matter who was speaking, the sound came out of everywhere. There was so much going on I couldn't keep up with all the things I couldn't pay attention to.

Lillian was the first to go down. After half an hour of standing, she was done. Jeanene took her over to a pew on the side wall. She slumped against Jeanene’s shoulder and stared at me with this stunned, rather betrayed look on her face.

“How could you have brought us to this insane place?”

Shelby tried to tough it out. We were following along in the 40 page liturgy book that was only an abbreviation of the service were were experiencing. I got lost no less than 10 times. After 50 minutes Shelby leaned over and asked how much longer the service would be. I was trying to keep from locking my knees because my thighs had gotten numb. I showed her the book. We were on page 15. I flipped through the remaining 25 pages to show her how much more there was. Her mouth fell open.

“Are you serious?”

“Yeah. And I think there's supposed to be a sermon in here somewhere.”

“They haven’t done the SERMON yet? What was that guy doing who said all that stuff about…all that stuff?”

“I don’t know?” I said.

“I have to go to the bathroom,” she said. I looked around and saw the door at the back of the sanctuary swinging shut.

And then there was one.

I made it through the entire 1 hour and 50 minutes of worship without sitting down, but my back was sore. Shelby came back toward the end. When it came time for communion I suggested that we not participate because I didn't know what kind of rules they have for that. We stayed politely at the back. A woman noticed and brought some of the bread to us, bowing respectfully as she offered it. Her gesture of kindness to newcomers who were clearly struggling to understand everything was touching to me.

Okay, so I started crying a little. So what? You would have too, I bet.

After it was over another woman came to speak with us. She said, “I noticed the girls were really struggling with having to stand.”

“Yeah,” I said. “This worship is not for lightweights.”

She laughed and said, "yes," not the least bit ashamed or apologetic.

So what did I think about my experience at Saint Anthony the Great Orthodox Church?

I LOVED IT. Loved it loved it loved it loved it loved it.

In a day when user-friendly is the byword of everything from churches to software, here was worship that asked something of me. No, DEMANDED something of me.

“You don’t know what Theotokos means? Get a book and read about it. You have a hard time standing for 2 hours? Do some sit ups and get yourself into worship shape. It is the Lord our God we worship here, mortal. What made you think you could worship the Eternal One without pain?"

See, I get that. That makes sense to me. I had a hard time following the words of the chants and liturgy, but even my lack of understanding had something to teach me.

“There is so much for you to learn. There is more here than a person could master in a lifetime. THIS IS BIGGER THAN YOU ARE. Your understanding is not central here. These are ancient rites of the church. Stand with us, brother, and you will learn in time. Or go and find your way to an easier place if you must. God bless you on that journey. We understand, but this is the way we do church.”

I’m going back again on Sunday. I started to write, “I’m looking forward to it.” But that’s not right. I’m feeling right about it.

And feeling right is what I'm looking for.

Update: This was actually written on May 26 or 27. I went back to Saint Anthony the Great on Sunday. I found I was following along a little better. I'm REALLY getting a lot out of Orthodox worship. Shelby and Lillian declined to go with me this time.

What's new?

Why Muslims are attracted to Christianity

This is a post from an interesting blog I found called "Islam and Christianity"

I don't know if this can be verified, but I heard that more Muslims have converted to the Way of Jesus Christ in the last ten years than in all the other years since the advent of Islam in the 7th Century. I'm not sure it's an accurate figure, but I will say that something is certainly happening among Muslims and that there is an openness in their society that was not there before. I also want to point out that large numbers of nominal Christians, especially in Europe, are converting to Islam--a main reason being so they can marry Muslim women. Who has more converts? I have no idea. I will say that Muslims converting to Christianity often pay a heavy price in terms of persecution, and that Westerners converting to Islam are afforded generous protection by their governments.

But here is the question: why are Muslims attracted to the way of Jesus Christ? Here are some of the main reasons:

1) The Bible. We forget how compelling and convincing Jesus' teachings and parables are. He was certainly, among other things, a highly talented teacher, and his parables and sayings have the ability to lodge themselves into a person's mind, even after only one hearing. His insights into human nature, society, kindness, forgiveness, and God's power--not too mention the many miracles he worked--are convincing to a good number of Muslims. Of course Islam teaches that the Christian and Jewish Scriptures are muharraf--corrupted. But after a fair reading of the Gospels, sometimes the integrity and wisdom found therein can break through this Islamic doctrine. Incidentally, Muslim background believers from my experience tend to center their thought on the Gospels much more than Paul's epistles--very different than the evangelical tradition which has, in practice at least, tended to give primacy to the Pauline epistles.

2) Dreams, Miracles: What can I say? They are happening, and folks here don't have the initial inclination that Westerners do to "disprove" or "figure out how it was done." A miracle is from God--it's that simple. Often times in dreams people see Jesus, though at times it is one of the saints. This may not result in conversion, but it opens a path of inquiry that sometimes leads to conversion.

3) Charity: "They will know that we are Christians by our love." One refugee from a neighboring country received some help from some Christians, and he said, "We come here and we receive nothing form the Muslims--the Christians are the only ones who take care of us. I know nothing of your religion, but I will become a Christian." We think of the things like the Inquisition and the Crusades, but we forget the quiet, persistent witness of kind, caring Christians from all traditions, including Catholics and Orthodox. Which brings to mind something that Saint Francis, another apostle to the Muslims, said, "Let us not seek to be loved, so much as to love others." If you need to be reminded of the quiet work of the Church around you, just look at how many schools and hospitals are run by Christians or where founded by the various churches.

4) Christian Community: Islam teaches that a man should not speak to a woman unless they are married or of the same family. It is a witness to the beauty of the Christian community, and thus its faith, when Muslims see genuine respect and friendship between men and women who are neither related or married to each other. The assumption among Muslims is that this sort of thing must lead to fornication or adultery; on the other hand, young men and women sincerely yearn for fellowship with members of the opposite sex. When they see this among Christians it reveals that we are a peculiar people, that there is something different about us: fellowship, conversation, and friendship but without all the adultery and fornication they are told must result.

There are other reasons as well, but my experience is that these are the main ones. The challenge is getting people to think. Islam teaches that it alone is the reasonable and logical religion. Since people in the Middle East have extremely weak critical skills due to various reasons, this assertion is simply accepted. These are four things which I know have been important in challenging that assumption, which have led people to ask new questions and venture down new paths.

Peace be with all of you.
Abu Daoud

Saint Æthelberht, King of Kent

Augustine [Archbishop of Canterbury], thus strengthened by the encouragement of the blessed Father Gregory [Pope of Rome], returned to the work of the Word of God, with the servants of Christ who were with him, and arrived in Britain. The powerful Ethelbert was at that time king of Kent; he had extended his dominions as far as the boundary formed by the great river Humber, by which the Southern Saxons are divided from the Northern. On the east of Kent is the large Isle of Thanet, containing, according to the English way of reckoning, 600 families, divided from the mainland by the river Wantsum, which is about three furlongs in breadth, and which can be crossed only in two places; for at both ends it runs into the sea. On this island landed the servant of the Lord, Augustine, and his companions, being, as is reported, nearly forty men. They had obtained, by order of the blessed Pope Gregory, interpreters of the nation of the Franks, and sending to Ethelbert, signified that they were come from Rome, and brought a joyful message, which most undoubtedly assured to those that hearkened to it everlasting joys in heaven, and a kingdom that would never end, with the living and true God. The king hearing this, gave orders that they, should stay in the island where they had landed, and be furnished with necessaries, till he should consider what to do with them. For he had before heard of the Christian religion, having a Christian wife of the royal family of the Franks, called Bertha; whom he had received from her parents, upon condition that she should be permitted to preserve inviolate the rites of her religion with the Bishop Liudhard, who was sent with her to support her in the faith.

Some days after, the king came into the island, and sitting in the open air, ordered Augustine and his companions to come and hold a conference with him. For he had taken precaution that they should not come to him in any house, lest, by so coming, according to an ancient superstition, if they practised any magical arts, they might impose upon him, and so get the better of him. But they came endued with Divine, not with magic power, bearing a silver cross for their banner, and the image of our Lord and Saviour painted on a board [i.e. a holy icon]; and chanting litanies, they offered up their prayers to the Lord for the eternal salvation both of themselves and of those to whom and for whom they had come. When they had sat down, in obedience to the king’s commands, and preached to him and his attendants there present the Word of life, the king answered thus: "Your words and promises are fair, but because they are new to us, and of uncertain import, I cannot consent to them so far as to forsake that which I have so long observed with the whole English nation. But because you are come from far as strangers into my kingdom, and, as I conceive, are desirous to impart to us those things which you believe to be true, and most beneficial, we desire not to harm you, but will give you favourable entertainment, and take care to supply you with all things necessary to your sustenance; nor do we forbid you to preach and gain as many as you can to your religion." Accordingly he gave them an abode in the city of Canterbury, which was the metropolis of all his dominions, and, as he had promised, besides supplying them with sustenance, did not refuse them liberty to preach. It is told that, as they drew near to the city, after their manner, with the holy cross, and the image of our sovereign Lord and King, Jesus Christ, they sang in concert this litany: "We beseech thee, Lord, for Thy great mercy, that Thy wrath and anger be turned away from this city, and from Thy holy house, for we have sinned. Hallelujah."

There was on the east side of the city, a church dedicated of old to the honour of St. Martin, built whilst the Romans were still in the island, wherein the queen, who, as has been said before, was a Christian, was wont to pray. In this they also first began to come together, to chant the Psalms, to pray, to celebrate Mass, to preach, and to baptize, till when the king had been converted to the faith, they obtained greater liberty to preach everywhere and build or repair churches. When he, among the rest, believed and was baptized, attracted by the pure life of these holy men and their gracious promises, the truth of which they established by many miracles, greater numbers began daily to flock together to hear the Word, and, forsaking their heathen rites, to have fellowship, through faith, in the unity of Christ’s Holy Church. It is told that the king, while he rejoiced at their conversion and their faith, yet compelled none to embrace Christianity, but only showed more affection to the believers, as to his fellow citizens in the kingdom of Heaven. For he had learned from those who had instructed him and guided him to salvation, that the service of Christ ought to be voluntary, not by compulsion.

The same blessed Pope Gregory, at the same time, sent a letter to King Ethelbert, with many gifts of divers sorts; being desirous to glorify the king with temporal honours. The copy of the said letter is as follows:

"To the most glorious lord, and his most excellent son, Ethelbert, king of the English, Bishop Gregory. Almighty God advances good men to the government of nations, that He may by their means bestow the gifts of His lovingkindness on those over whom they are placed. This we know to have come to pass in the English nation, over whom your Highness was placed, to the end, that by means of the blessings which are granted to you, heavenly benefits might also be conferred on your subjects. Therefore, my illustrious son, do you carefully guard the grace which you have received from the Divine goodness, and be eager to spread the Christian faith among the people under your rule; in all uprightness increase your zeal for their conversion; showing forth an example of good works, that you may obtain your reward in Heaven from Him, Whose Name and the knowledge of Whom you have spread abroad upon arth. For He, Whose honour you seek and maintain among the nations, will also render your Majesty’s name more glorious even to posterity."

Bede, Ecclesiastical History of England, Book I, Chs 25,26, 32

From Russia with Scorn

You have to know, when the Russians are scolding the U.S. for being "Marxist," that something is dreadfully wrong.
Ouch!

"...their faith in God was destroyed, until their churches, all tens of thousands of different "branches and denominations" were for the most part little more then [sic] Sunday circuses and their televangelists and top protestant mega preachers were more then happy to sell out their souls and flocks to be on the "winning" side of one pseudo Marxist politician or another. Their flocks may complain, but when explained that they would be on the "winning" side, their flocks were ever so quick to reject Christ in hopes for earthly power. Even our Holy Orthodox churches are scandalously liberalized in America."

(Read the rest here)