grace and peace

The Bible Vs. Modern Israel

2011-05-14T00:00:00.005-04:00

Please remember: Not all Palestinians are Muslims; some are Christians. The following was written by an Evangelical Christian:

Although the modern state of Israel, having been established, has the right to exist like any other nation, Israel must also respect the Palestinians' right to their land in the West Bank. But, Israel keeps building Jewish settlements in the West Bank. That is the main reason why the majority of Palestinians continue to support the radical organization Hamas.

The only reason why Israel finally got out of Gaza was because of Hamas' successful attacks on Israeli settlements in Gaza. Otherwise Israel would have continued building settlements in Gaza indefinitely. In the West Bank, however, Israel methodically continues to confiscate Arab land to build Jewish settlements. More and more Palestinians in the West Bank lose their property and homes every year because of this.

Most Palestinians would stop supporting Hamas if only Israel completely withdrew from the West Bank as it did in Gaza. Then, perhaps, Palestinians would agree to recognize Israel. Let Israel try this and then if the majority of Palestinians still won't recognize Israel and continue to support terrorist attacks against Israel, no one will blame Israel for re-taking the land back and even annexing it.

U.N. resolutions demand Israel to withdraw completely from the West Bank. The United States made a big noise under President Bush about applying U.N. resolutions on Saddam Hussein when he was in power. Why doesn't the United States make a big noise about applying U.N. resolutions to Israel?

Unlike Hamas, the Palestinian Authority is willing to recognize Israel and work with Israel, but Israel's continued occupation of the West bank and expansion of Jewish settlements on Arab land exacerbate the situation and cause the majority of Palestinians to support Hamas instead of the Palestinian Authority.

In 1967 Israel went to war in self-defense and captured Arab land. Israel was right in defending itself. However, the issue now is no longer so much self-defense. The problem is that Israel will not pull back to its pre-1967 borders so long as many Israelis and most evangelical Christians in America continue to believe that present day Jews have a biblical right to all of Arab territory in Palestine. For this reason a biblical examination of the issue is necessary.

As an evangelical and conservative Christian, of Indian origin, I wish to set the biblical issue in proper perspective.

Although the modern state of Israel now has every right to exist as any other nation (as long as it honors the UN resolutions upholding Palestinian rights) this does not mean that Zionism (the belief that Jews have a biblical right to all of Palestine) is correct. And it is Zionism that is primarily fuelling the building and expansion of illegal Israeli settlements on Arab land.

From a purely biblical perspective Zionism has enormous problems.

The fact is that almost none of the Jews in modern Israel are descendants of the original Jews of Palestine thousands of years ago. Most of the Jews in Israel today are descendants of Europeans who had converted to Judaism in the Middle Ages (known as Khazar or Ashkenazi Jews).

The last time God had promised in the scriptures to bring the Jews back to their ancestral homeland was fulfilled centuries ago when He brought them back from their Babylonian captivity. Thus, the Jews in present-day modern Israel are not a fulfillment of that ancient promise.

Furthermore, God's promises concerning the land to the Jews in the Old Testament were conditional - only so long as they continued to obey Him were those promises concerning the land binding (read Deuteronomy 28). In any case, as I have already noted, God fulfilled his promise concerning the land to the Jews centuries ago.

We read in the Book of Joshua 21:43, 45: "And the Lord gave unto Israel all the land which He sware to give unto their fathers; and they possessed it, and dwelt therein. There failed not ought of any good thing which the Lord had spoken unto the house of Israel; all came to pass." Thus, there is no promise concerning the land that still awaits any fulfillment.

Most evangelical Christians today are looking forward to the seven-year tribulation period of Israel which would require for the Jews to be in the land. But this period had already occurred in history during AD63 to AD70. (seven years) when the Roman army besieged and destroyed Jerusalem and the Jewish Temple.

It was this destruction that Jesus said would mark the end of the age (the Jewish Age, that is). During these seven years, there was a brief respite from the attacking Roman army and this respite gave an opportunity for believing Jews (Christians) of this time to escape the final destruction of Jerusalem and have their lives spared.

Most evangelical Christians, who are dispensationalists, are still seeking for an Israel that the New Testament says is the spiritual body of Christ made up of both Jew and Gentile believers in Jesus Christ and who together (as one seed) inherit the same (not different) promises (Galatians 3:14-16).

The New Testament refers to the Christian church as the "Israel of God" (Galatians 6:16). There is good reason to believe that some of the Old Testament descriptions of God's future dealings with Israel are already being fulfilled spiritually in and through the Christian church which is made up of both Jew and Gentile believers in Christ inheriting the same (not different) promises.

The problem with most evangelical Christians today is that they interpret the Book of Revelation literally. But Revelation is a book of symbolism and should not to be interpreted literally. The Book itself tells us not to interpret it literally.

In the very first verse of the very first chapter we read, "The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God (the Father) gave unto Him, to show unto His servants things which must shortly come to pass; and He sent and signified it by His angel unto His servant John" (Revelation 1:1, KJV). The word "signified" in the passage comes from a Greek word meaning "signs" or "symbols". Thus, Revelation was meant by Christ to be interpreted symbolically, not literally.

The Book of Revelation, like the rest of the New Testament, was originally written in Greek so sometimes we must go to the Greek language to have a more precise understanding of certain words.

Many evangelical Christians believe (wrongly) that the "Great City" in the Book of Revelation, which God destroys in His wrath and which is referred to figuratively as Babylon, is Rome. They believe it is Rome because the city is described as being surrounded by seven hills.

However, Jerusalem, also, is surrounded by seven hills. The proof that Jerusalem is the city and not Rome is found in Revelation 11:8 where we read, "And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified".

Was the Lord crucified in Rome or in Jerusalem? The wrath of God against Jerusalem for its apostate Judaism is what the early portions of the Book of Revelation are all about.

The modern state of Israel, now that it has been established, has every right to exist, but Israel should also be made to uphold the UN resolutions concerning Palestinian inalienable rights. Unlike before, almost all Arabs, including Palestinians, now recognize Israel's right to exist or, at least, will not wage war with Israel if Israel completely withdraws to its pre-1967 borders. But, what Palestinians and other Arabs cannot live with is Israel's continued occupation of the West Bank and Israel's continued building of settlements there.

Most Palestinians will stop their resistance and even go after the terrorists themselves if Israel simply gets out of their way (the West Bank) and that is the best way for Israel to stop the resistance and preserve its security and peace - not to mention the security and peace of others.

It is important, however, to have some basic background knowledge of how the modern state of Israel was founded.

As one writer points out: "Israel was created (in the beginning) not by force of arms or military invasion, but terrorist activity advocated by Jewish immigrants, in an effort to get rid of the British Administration (the lawful government of the day, as sanctioned by the predecessor to the U.N). Britain abandoned its mandate and Israel was created by the U.N."

Any solution to the present crisis must also involve monetary or financial compensation being made by Israel to Palestinian families who have had their homes and lands seized and taken away during the formation of the modern state of Israel in the 1940's. (According to the U.N. resolution 194, Palestinian refugees have the right for compensation and repatriation).

During that time Palestinian families suffered huge atrocities at the hands of Jewish immigrants, including many pregnant Palestinian Arab women having their wombs ripped open and their babies slaughtered before their very eyes. This was one of the many horrible crimes committed against Palestinians, even by such notable political figures as former Prime Minister of Israel Menachem Begin, and the Palestinians should be compensated by the modern state of Israel for these crimes. That is only right.

The terrorism committed by Jewish immigrants against Palestinian Arabs in the late 1940's is a major reason for why many Palestinian Arabs fled their homes and land and became refugees.

However, as long as most evangelical Christians in America believe modern Zionism is biblical they will continue to exert one-sided pressure in Washington DC in support of Israel's status quo in the region and prevent any pressure on Israel to pull back to its pre-1967 borders and discontinue building settlements on Arab land.

That is why it is very important to understand that there is no biblical basis for modern Zionism. If America insists Israel must be fair to Palestinians it will not only help achieve peace in the Middle East but also will reduce Muslim extremism, and even terrorism, against the United States.

source

Mount Athos on 60 Minutes, 4/24/2011

2011-04-25T08:44:00.002-04:00

Part 1:

Part 2:

Jerusalem on Holy Saturday 2011

2011-04-23T21:27:00.000-04:00

Holy Fire in Jerusalem

2011-04-23T12:55:00.003-04:00

Thousands mark Easter Week's holy fire rite in Jerusalem church

Daniel Estrin
Associated Press

Jerusalem— The small doorway to the traditional site of Jesus' tomb cracked open to reveal a bright flame and tens of thousands of worshippers cheered ecstatically, marking the pinnacle of Easter Week's holy fire ceremony in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

The annual ritual has been practiced for at least the last 1,200 years on the day before Easter, which celebrates Jesus' resurrection.

Worshippers of various Orthodox Christian sects packed into the Jerusalem church — Christianity's most sacred shrine and revered as the site where Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected. In the ceremony, a flame believed to be miraculously lit emanates from the tomb.

"I'm all vibrating," said Romanian pilgrim Ivan Kurnia. "It's really, really impressive."

Hours before the ceremony, local Christians and pilgrims from around the world snaked through the narrow alleyways of Jerusalem's old city and filled the small courtyard outside the church. About a thousand Israeli police officers processed the crowds through police barricades that filtered access to the church's only entrance.

Inside gathered a colorful mix of clergymen and worshippers representing the different Orthodox Christian sects — from Armenian monks in black robes and pointed hoods to Russian Orthodox women wearing turquoise headscarves.

People crammed against each other in the dimly lit, cavernous church, and police broke up scuffles. One middle-aged American woman fainted, but she remained standing because people were pressed up against her in the densely packed crowd.

Despite the suffocating crowds, the throngs waited in anticipation for the ceremony to begin, clutching bundles of 33 slim candles signifying the years of Jesus' life.

Adorned with a golden crown encrusted with jewels and religious icons, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, Theofilos III, entered the Edicule, the small chamber at the core of the church marking the site of Jesus' tomb. Armenian clergymen entered as well, and the door was sealed, guarded by clergymen and an Israeli policeman.

Then, the door was opened to reveal candles lit with the holy fire — said to be miraculously lit and interpreted as a message to the faithful from the heavens. The precise details of the flame's source are a closely guarded secret.

The flame was quickly passed on from one bunch of candles to another, and soon the dark church was filled with worshippers holding flickering torches and waving it around their faces. Bells rang and people cheered.

"Christos has risen. I feel amazing," said a Russian Orthodox pilgrim from San Francisco who identified himself only as Igor. "It came from God, from the sky."

Police spokesman Shmuel Ben Rubi said around a thousand police officers were deployed to direct foot traffic and keep the peace. He estimated tens of thousands of worshippers were in the church.

Asaf Abras, spokesman for Jerusalem's firefighting services, said about 10 firefighters with mobile units were stationed around the church in case of emergency.

Israeli officials have been worried since the late 1990s that a fire could erupt from the church during the ritual. In 1834, pilgrims in the church panicked, a stampede ensued, and several hundred people were crushed or suffocated to death.

But the six Christian sects that stake claim to different sections of the church have been reluctant to build an emergency exit or a fire escape. The sects zealously guard their portions of the church and brawls have erupted in recent years when clergymen of one sect encroach on another section, even when only sweeping the floor. None of the sects wants to give up an inch of precious real estate in the church to construct a second exit.

After the holy fire ceremony, the flame was immediately taken from the church and past an Israeli military barrier into the Palestinian Authority-controlled city of Bethlehem where it was received at the Church of the Nativity, the traditional site of Jesus' birthplace.

Palestinian Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad attended another holy fire ceremony in a central square in Ramallah, the seat of his government in the West Bank.
In the Gaza Strip, about fifty Christian worshippers attended a mass in one of Gaza's two churches.

Source: Detroit News

Lucky Girls film

2011-04-06T09:04:00.000-04:00

"...though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not love, I am nothing."
1 Cor 13.2

http://theluckygirlsmovie.com/film/

What’s so appealing about Orthodoxy?

2011-03-28T22:22:00.000-04:00

By Rod Dreher

I came to Orthodoxy in 2006, a broken man. I had been a devoutly observant and convinced Roman Catholic for years, but had my faith shattered in large part by what I had learned as a reporter covering the sex abuse scandal. It had been my assumption that my theological convictions would protect the core of my faith through any trial, but the knowledge I struggled with wore down my ability to believe in the ecclesial truth claims of the Roman church (I wrote in detail about that drama here). For my wife and me, Protestantism was not an option, given what we knew about church history, and given our convictions about sacramental theology. That left Orthodoxy as the only safe harbor from the tempest that threatened to capsize our Christianity.

In truth, I had longed for Orthodoxy for some time, for the same reasons I, as a young man, found my way into the Catholic Church. It seemed to me a rock of stability in a turbulent sea of relativism and modernism overtaking Western Christianity. And while the Roman church threw out so much of its artistic and liturgical heritage in the violence of the Second Vatican Council, the Orthodox still held on to theirs. Several years before we entered Orthodoxy, my wife and I visited Orthodox friends at their Maryland parish. As morally and liturgically conservative Catholics, we were moved and even envious over what we saw there. We had to leave early to scoot up the road to the nearest Seventies moderne Catholic parish to meet our Sunday obligation. The contrast between the desultory liturgical proceedings at Our Lady of Pizza Hut and what we had walked out of in the Orthodox parish down the road literally reduced us to tears. But ugliness, even a sense of spiritual desolation, does not obviate truth, and we knew we had to stand with truth – and therefore with Rome – despite it all.

If Catholicism in America had been healthy, maybe we could have held on through the sex abuse trials. But my wife and I had been worrying for some time how we were going to raise faithful Christian children given the loosey-goosey moral teaching in Roman parishes. We considered ourselves orthodox Catholics, meaning we really believed what was in the Catechism, and struggled to live by it. We failed – everybody fails – but the point is, we looked to the church to provide clear moral leadership, and to help us live out the faith with integrity and joy. Here’s the problem: there is very little orthodoxy in the U.S. Catholic Church, and at the parish level, almost no recognition that there is a such thing as “right belief.” It wasn’t that I wanted to throw out all those who don’t live up to Catholic teaching – I would have been the first one shown the door if that had been true – but that I discerned no direction, and no real conviction that parish communities exist for any reason other than to affirm ourselves in our okayness. Though I didn’t have a term to describe it at the time, I was weary to the bone from an ersatz form of Christianity that sociologist Christian Smith calls “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism.” I had been so hollowed out by despair over all this as a Catholic that when the strong winds of the abuse scandal began to blow, the structure of my Catholic belief did not stand.

I say all this not to disparage the Roman Catholic Church – which I still love, and to which I cannot be grateful enough for introducing me to ancient, sacramental Christianity – but to show why Orthodoxy was so attractive to me. When I interviewed him for my book “Crunchy Cons,” my friend Hugh O’Beirne, a convert from Catholicism to Orthodoxy, told me that for a Catholic wearied by the culture wars raging inside American Catholicism, it is blessed relief to find that in Orthodoxy, there is no “war footing.” The kinds of issues that are tearing apart many other American churches aren’t nearly as contentious in Orthodox practice. Though it would be foolish to pretend these conflicts don’t exist in Orthodox parishes, they simply aren’t nearly as much of an issue.

And then there is the liturgy and music. There is nothing comparable to it in other churches. It is overwhelmingly beautiful and deep, and is largely the same Divine Liturgy (though in the vernacular tongue) that St. John Chrysostom, the 5th century patriarch of Constantinople, formalized. The beauty of that liturgy is utterly transporting, and the reverence it inspires is tonic. And while I miss familiar old hymns (in Orthodox services, we chant prayers and Psalms), there’s a lot to be said for never having to endure “On Eagle’s Wings” and other shag-carpeted hymnody endemic to modern American Catholic worship.

The main reason why Orthodoxy is so attractive to converts, at least to this convert, is its seriousness about sin. I don’t mean that it’s a dour religion – it is very far from that! – but rather that Orthodoxy takes the brokenness of humankind with appropriate seriousness. Orthodoxy is not going to tell you that you’re okay. In fact, it will require you to call yourself, as St. Paul described himself, the “chief of sinners.” And Orthodoxy is going to tell you the Good News: Jesus died and returned to life so that you too might live. But in order to live, you are going to have to die to yourself, over and over again. And that will not be painless, and cannot be, or it’s not real.

Because of that, for all its dramatic beauty and rich feasting, Orthodoxy is far more austere and demanding than most American Christianity. The long liturgies, the frequent prayers, the intense fasts – all make serious demands on the believer, especially comfortable middle-class Americans like me. They call us out of ourselves, and to repentance. Orthodoxy is not interested in making you feel comfortable in your sins. It wants nothing less than for you to be a saint.

It’s common among American converts to hear that men were first attracted to Orthodoxy, and their wives followed. It’s not hard to see why. Many men are tired of a soft, bourgeois Christianity that doesn’t call them to much because it doesn’t ask much of them. Men love a challenge, and that’s exactly what Orthodoxy gives them.

Don’t be misled. Orthodoxy is not, at its core, about rules and practices. The more I progress in my Orthodoxy, the clearer it is to me that Orthodoxy is, above all, a way. It is not an institution, a set of doctrines, or a collection of rituals, though it contains all three. It is rather a way of seeing the world, and one’s place in it, and a map to holiness that is paradoxically both ancient and astonishingly fresh, at least to Western sensibilities. It is the way of liberation.

True, it is possible to find dreary parish life in American Orthodoxy, often among the ethnically-oriented older parishes that see themselves as little more than the tribe at prayer. And because Orthodox churches are full of ordinary American people, they are also filled with ordinary American problems. Anyone who comes to an Orthodox church expecting perfection will be disappointed. What you will find, though, is truth and beauty presented in a way that can be breathtaking to modern Americans, and an ancient Way grounded on doctrinal stability, sacramental reality, and practical Christian mysticism – a mysticism that has been marginalized in most other American churches.

I found in Orthodoxy what I thought I would find when I became Catholic. As my patron saint in Orthodoxy, I chose St. Benedict of Nursia, dear to both churches, and a sign of the unity we used to have, and that we might yet have again. The Catholic church needs to be more orthodox, and the Orthodox church needs to be more catholic. I pray, I really pray, that I will live to see that unity return. Until that time, though, I am grateful to God that He gave me a second chance in Orthodoxy, and showed me the Way I had been searching for all my life. When I first came in the door, a spiritually broken mess, I thought it would be impossible for me to learn to endure these long liturgies, this intense prayer, these prostrations, the strict fasting, and – how to put this? – the weirdness of Orthodox Christianity in an American context. Five years on, I can’t imagine how I ever lived without it. You can’t read your way into Orthodoxy. You have to come and see for yourself.

Rod Dreher is a writer in Philadelphia.

By Rod Dreher
06:31 PM ET, 03/17/2011

BBC's "History of Christianity"

2011-03-10T14:45:00.000-05:00

Here is a fascinating and well-made* documentary on Orthodox Christianity produced by the BBC. Enjoy.

*but not perfect. At around the 18:08 mark, the narrator refers to something he calls "Iconoclast Orthodoxy," which, of course, is a contradiction in terms. Then the map shown at 30:40 identifies Carthage as one of the ancient patriarchates. They apparently confused it with Alexandria.

New Poll!

2011-01-29T15:21:00.000-05:00

I know it's been a while since I've added a new poll (I've been busy, okay?), so I went ahead and added one today. It relates to something that Christians lament everyday, but especially last week with the 38th anniversary of Roe v. Wade: abortion.

Click on the "Polls" menu item to the right (or click here) to vote. The new poll will be at the bottom of the page (I put new polls there to encourage people to participate in older polls that they may have missed)

Pro-Life Resources

2011-01-22T00:00:00.008-05:00

On this 38th anniversary of the tragic Roe v Wade decision, I offer a few of the many pro-life resources available on the web:

March for Life 2011, Washington DC
http://www.oca.org/news/2347
http://www.stjohnsnanticoke.org/m4lyfbus.html

Websites
http://maafa21.com/
http://fightpp.org/
http://www.prolifenews.net/
http://www.priestsforlife.org/
Orthodox Christians Are Pro-Life
Orthodox Christians for Life

Essays
Abortion: An Orthodox View
After The March for Life: What To Do Next?

"Christ Reborn in Post-Soviet Russia"

2011-01-15T13:52:00.000-05:00

It never fails to blow my mind that Russia, a country in which Christianity was outlawed for an entire generation, is now more Christian than the U.S., our supposedly "Christian nation."

According to the reporter in the video below, an average of three churches have opened up in Russia every day since the fall of Communism twenty years ago.

"New Converts Flocking to Ancient Church..."

2011-01-15T11:42:00.000-05:00

Why is this newsworthy? Because the fact that so many people are seeing past the glitz of modern American "Christian-tainment" and are discovering that the Church of the New Testament hasn't vanished, hasn't abandon the Faith "once for all delivered," and hasn't conformed to the "pattern of this world," is a beautiful and a wonderful thing. Soon, this will be so commonplace that newspapers won't even bother to devote any ink to it.

From the Houston Chronicle:

Like many of his parishioners, Father Richard Petranek came to the Orthodox church in search of the past.

After 30 years as an Episcopalian priest, Petranek converted to the Antiochian Orthodox Church and leads a new but growing parish in west Houston, filled almost entirely with converts to the ancient faith.

"Most people come for the stability," he said. "The same thing that is taught today in the Orthodox church was taught 500 years ago, was taught 1,000 years ago, was taught 1,500 years ago."

At a time when most mainline Christian churches are losing members, Eastern Orthodox churches — which trace their beliefs to the church described in the New Testament - are growing, both in Houston and across the United States.

***

"We were amazed the church still existed, and it had never changed," said Lana Jobe, who with her husband, Lloyd, left a Baptist church to join Petranek at St. Paul Antiochian Orthodox Church four years ago. "That was so important to us."

***
"People are tired of these worship services that look closer to MTV or the Disney channel than something that goes back into the past," said Schaeffer, son of Christian theologian Francis Schaeffer and the author of books including Dancing Alone: The Quest for Orthodox Faith in the Age of False Religion and Patience With God: Faith for People Who Don't Like Religion (or Atheism). "In the Orthodox church, people are not there for the priest, but for the liturgy."
Jobe points to something else:

"You see churches today splitting over doctrinal issues," she said. "In the Baptist church, there's the Southern Baptists. There's the Texas Baptists. There are controversies over Biblical truths or inerrancy or homosexuality; all kinds of issues come up, and the church wants to vote on it. We don't have to vote on anything, because it was settled from the very beginning."

Read the rest here

Holy Day?

2010-12-14T00:00:00.007-05:00

A recent conversation I had involving the topic of whether "Happy Holidays" is an appropriate or tolerable phrase for Christians inspired me to do a little research yesterday.

During the conversation, I had wondered aloud whether the people who complain the loudest about the use of the phrase "Happy Holidays" rather than "Merry Christmas," and who every year object to the "secularization" of Christmas in the "public square" and in the "marketplace," and who demand that we "keep Christ in Christmas," even bother to attend church on Christmas day. That in turn got me wondering whether most churches (except Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and other liturgical churches) are even open on Christmas.

I don't remember ever—even once—during my upbringing as an Evangelical Christian attending church on Christmas day. Christmas Eve, yes, but never on Christmas day.

So I decided to makes some calls. I contacted fifty local (and two out-of-state) Evengelical churches to find out who was holding services on Christmas day and who was not. Out of fifty-two Evengelical churches, a total of ...zero... were planning to celebrate Christmas on Christmas. In fact fifteen of them (that's 30%) weren't even having services on Christmas Eve! One of the churches that was planning four Christmas Eve services, not only wasn't planning to be open on Christmas day, but wasn't even having services on the 26th...that's a Sunday! Another church was planning a New Years party, and yet another was planning a "burning bowl" ceremony on the 31st (according to the receptionist, that's where you write down all your problems and concerns for the coming year and toss them into a flaming bowl for "god" to receive). Some churches were scheduled to have "candlelight" servies only on the 24th, others on the 23rd and 24th; five churches were planning three or more pre-Christmas services. But not one, I repeat: not a single one was planning to come together as a community on the feast of God's Incarnation in the flesh to celebrate His birth of a Virgin as foretold by the Prophets. Not one.

So, what's my point in all this? My point is that anyone who can't be bothered to get dressed and go to church on Christmas morning might do well to rethink whether or not they have a leg to stand on when demanding that people say "Merry Christmas" rather than "Happy Holidays." I have heard people say of politics that if you don't vote, you have no right to complain about the government. I believe the same principle applies here: if you don't make a practice of attending church on Christmas day, you forfeit your right to complain when someone else says "Happy Holidays."

Furthermore, I would suggest that anyone who attends a church that doesn't even bother to open its doors on Christmas (even if it happens to fall on a Sunday!) is not to be taken seriously when they complain about the secularization of Christmas in the "public square" or when they boycott retailers and other businesses for not giving Christmas its proper respect. (see also here, here, here, here, etc...) My guess (and I welcome your correction if I am wrong) is that these churches have also done away with any observance whatsoever of any other event in the life of Christ (like His baptism, or His presentation in the Temple, or His Transfiguration, or His Ascension), or of the descent of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost; and heaven forbid they should ever commemorate Mary or the Saints!*

I think it's pretty safe to say (and, again, please correct me if I'm wrong) that a lot of these churches that choose to lock their doors on Christmas, and that have decided to eliminate altogether the many other beautiful holy days throughout the year are the same ones that use theater seating, laserlight shows, rock bands, multimedia, and dramatic performance to ~~entertain~~ communicate their message. And these are probably the same ones that have removed from their building any visual cues that would identify the place as a house of worship (except maybe a cross above the rock band).

The "worship space" looks like a high school auditorium hosting a battle-of-the-bands contest, the "praise and worship" music sounds like something you would (and sometimes do) hear on any secular radio station, the feasts of the church are gone, any sense of majesty: gone; any sense of spirituality: gone; any sense of beauty, wonder, humilty, dignity, or awe: gone; any motivation to humble oneself before their Creator: gone. In other words, these places are about as secular as a "Christian" community can possibly be and yet there are people who attend them that actually have the temerity to complain, not about the secularization of their own churches, but about the secularization of the secular world. Hey folks; I undersand you want to put Christ "back into Christmas," but how about first putting Him back into Christianity!

If there is, in fact, a "war on Christmas," it is being LOST in American Evangelical "churches." Please pray for these people, that the scales may fall from their eyes and that they will allow the Lord to lead them into His Church.

*And yet, curiously, some modern churches have adopted the practice of observing Jewish holidays! That's right: they have eliminated all the ancient Christian Holy Days (except for one, Easter. Although I wonder: would these churches even celebrate Easter if it didn't happen to fall on a Sunday every year?) and have replaced them with non-Christian festivals! The old Jewish observances were given for the purpose of foretelling the coming of the Messiah. Now that the Messaiah has come, there is no need to celebrate them. Modern Evangelical Christians would know this if they had not completely lost touch with historic Christianity.

And please don't tell me that merely holding a candlelight Christmas Eve service is equivalent to celebrating Christmas, especially if you're unwilling to allow that "Happy Holidays" is as acceptible a greeting as "Merry Christmas." Christmas is, after all, one of the holiest days of the Christian calendar. At least to some of us...

St Nicholas: He Who Punches Heretics in the Face (and Gives Gifts to Children)

2010-12-06T07:52:00.000-05:00

source
When President Teddy Roosevelt was a college student, he taught a Sunday School class for elementary school children. During this time, Roosevelt awarded a dollar to a boy in his Sunday School class for beating the snot out of a bully who tormented little girls. "You did exactly right," said Roosevelt with pride. However, the congregation disagreed. They immediately dismissed Roosevelt for teaching the "un-Christian" principle of laying the smack down on those who have it coming to them.
Well, if tradition is true, that little boy was also richly rewarded by Jolly Old Saint Nicholas since the good Saint Nick allegedly "h-slapped" ("heretic slapped") the heresiarch Arius. You see, Arius wrongly taught that Christ was not fully divine. Rather, Arius taught that Christ had been created by God the Father.
During the First Ecumenical Council of Nicea (AD 325), Arius was called upon to defend his position on the inferiority of Christ. Saint Nicholas just couldn't listen to all of Arius' nonsense and so he stood up and laid in to Arius with his fist.
The Emperor Constantine and the bishops present at the Council were alarmed by Nicholas' act of violence against Arius. They immediately stripped Nicholas of his office as a bishop by confiscating the two items that marked out a man as a Christian bishop: Nicholas' personal copy of the Gospels and his pallium (the vestment worn by all bishops in the East).
Now if that were the end of the story, we probably wouldn't know about Saint Nicholas, and our children wouldn't be asking him for presents. However, after Nicholas was deposed, the Lord Jesus Christ and the Blessed Virgin Mary visited Nicholas who was being held in a prison cell for his fist-fight with the heretic.
Our Lord Jesus Christ asked Saint Nicholas, "Why are you here?" Nicholas responded, "Because I love you, my Lord and my God."

Christ then presented Nicholas with his copy of the Gospels. Next, the Blessed Virgin vested Nicholas with his episcopal pallium, thus restoring him to his rank as a bishop.

In Defense of the Christmas Tree

2010-12-01T00:00:00.002-05:00

From Mystagogy:

By Father Daniel Daly

Several years ago during the Christmas season, a religious program on television caught my attention. The program featured a discussion on the dangers of cults, especially to young people. I found myself agreeing with the panelists as they warned young people about the hazards of involvement in occult or “new age” spirituality.

During the interview, however, one participant made a statement that shocked me. “…and the Christmas tree is pagan too…,” he asserted. The Christmas Tree? Pagan? Could it be that something most of us enjoy so much might be actually pagan in origin? Despite its growing commercialization, the Christmas tree is still associated with the fondest memories of our early childhood. Who does not remember approaching the tree on Christmas morning? Today people are so captivated by it that some even put it up in November! It finds a place in the homes of believers and unbelievers alike.

Most people are aware that the Christmas tree came to America with immigrants from Germany, but just where did the Christmas tree originate? Are its origins to be found in paganism, as the speaker suggested?

The Christmas tree does not date from early Germanic times. Its origins are to be found in a tradition that has virtually disappeared from Christianity, the Liturgical Drama. In the Middle Ages liturgical plays or dramas were presented during or sometimes immediately after the services in the churches of Western Europe. The earliest of these plays were associated with the Mysteries of Holy Week and Easter. Initially they were dramatizations of the liturgical texts. The earliest recorded is the Quem quaeritis (“Whom do you seek?”) play of the Easter season. These plays later developed into the Miracle and Morality plays. Some were associated with events in the lives of well-known saints. The plays were presented on the porches of large churches. Although these liturgical dramas have now virtually disappeared, the Passion Play of Oberammergau, Germany is a recent revival of this dramatic form.

One mystery play was presented on Christmas Eve, the day which also commemorated the feast of Adam and Eve in the Western Church. The “Paradise Play” told the well-known story of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Paradise. The central “prop” in the play was the Paradise Tree, or Tree of Knowledge. During the play this tree was brought in laden with apples.

The Paradise Tree became very popular with the German people. They soon began the practice of setting up a fir tree in their homes. Originally, the trees were decorated with bread wafers commemorating the Eucharist. Later, these were replaced with various kinds of sweets. Our Christmas tree is derived, not from the pagan yule tree, but from the paradise tree adorned with apples on December 24 in honor of Adam and Eve. The Christmas tree is completely biblical in origin.

The first Christmas tree dates from 1605 in Strasbourg. By the 1700s the custom of the Christmas tree was widespread among the German people. It was brought to America by early German immigrants, and it became popular in England through the influence of Prince Albert, the German husband of Queen Victoria.

The use of evergreens at Christmas may date from St. Boniface of the eighth century, who dedicated the fir tree to the Holy Child in order to replace the sacred oak tree of Odin; but the Christmas tree as we know it today does not appear to be so ancient a custom. It appears first in the Christian Mystery play commemorating the biblical story of Adam and Eve.

How legitimate is it to use a fir tree in the celebration of Christmas? From the very earliest days of the Church, Christians brought many things of God’s material creation into their life of faith and worship, e.g., water, bread, wine, oil, candles and incense. All these things are part of God’s creation. They are part of the world that Christ came to save. Man cannot reject the material creation without rejecting his own humanity. In Genesis man was given dominion over the material world.

Christmas celebrates the great mystery of the Incarnation. In that mystery God the Word became man. In order to redeem us, God became one of us. He became part of His own creation. The Incarnation affirms the importance of both man and the whole of creation. “For God so loved the world…”

A faith which would seek to divorce itself from all elements of the material world in search for an absolutely spiritual religion overlooks this most central mystery of Christmas, the mystery of God becoming man, the Incarnation. “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” Enjoy your Christmas tree.

Originally published in “The Word” magazine, December 2002. The Very Rev. Daniel Daly is pastor of St. Nicholas Orthodox Church, Grand Rapids, MI.

St Quentin (d. 278)

2010-11-13T00:00:00.000-05:00

Quintin was of noble lineage of the city of Rome, and came into the city of Amiens, showing many miracles. And was taken there of the provost of the city by commandment of Maximian, and was beaten until they that beat him were weary, and after was put in prison, but he was unbound of an angel, and he went into the city and there preached to the people. Then he was taken again, and was strained on the eculee, an instrument to torment saints on, unto the breaking of his veins, and beaten with raw sinews right long, and afterwards he was boiled in burning pitch and oil, and yet for all that he mocked the judge. Then the judge did do put into his mouth quicklime, vinegar, and mustard, and yet always he abode constant and unmovable. And then he was brought into Vermandos, and fixed in him two nails from his head unto his knees, and ten nails between his nails and the flesh of his nails and the flesh on his hands. And at the last the provost made him to be beheaded, and threw the body into the water.

Which body was hid there fifty-five years, and then founden there by a noble woman of Rome. For as she was continually in prayer, she was in a night warned by an angel that she should go hastily unto the castle of Vermandos, and it was commanded to her that she should fetch the body of Saint Quintin in such a place and bury it honourably. And when she came to the said place with a great company, and as she made her prayers, the body of Saint Quintin appeared above the water, sweetly smelling and without corruption, which body she took and buried it worshipfully. And for the sepulture that she made honourably, she that tofore was blind, received her sight again for a reward. And then there she edified a fair church, and returned home to her own place again. In which church now is a fair monastery of monks and a good town called Saint Quintins in Vermandos, where daily be showed many great miracles, especially for the dropsy, etc., and swelling of great bellies for over great superfluity of water. For this sickness in especial he is sought, and many men have been cured and made whole by the merits of this blessed saint and martyr Saint Quintin. To whom pray we that we may be delivered from all infirmities, as far as it shall please God, and necessary for us. Amen

source

Things You'll Never See in an Orthodox Church, Part 26

2010-11-04T00:00:00.000-04:00

I must admit, I have always enjoyed listening to Rage Against the Machine, even if I cannot completely agree with their message. Below is a video of a band performing a Rage song called "Bulls on Parade," which was written to denounce the American military-industrial complex. To tell the truth, It's actually a pretty decent performance (although the guitarist is no Tom Morello). The problem is that the performance takes place in what claims to be a church (a place where the pastor likes to deliver sermons like one entitled "You Don't Suck Anymore" and where is the music is so loud that they "offer earplugs to anyone who wants them."). I have said before that I have no problem with the use of contemporary music in church, as long as it's appropriate, decent music (not a re-worded version of a secular pop song, like this one where the F-word has to be removed) and as long as it's not on Sunday. That's the Lord's Day, not yours!!!

As you watch this, keep in mind that this performance is taking place at a Sunday morning worship service; compare it to the dignified, holy, Christ-centered worship of the Orthodox Church and see if you can guess which is more pleasing to God.

Things You'll Never See in an Orthodox Church, Part 25

2010-10-12T07:12:00.000-04:00

Every year, the Cathedral of St John the Divine in New York City hosts what it calls their Halloween Extravaganza when performers dressed as ghouls and goblins parade right down the center aisle. That's right: a "church" hosts an annual Halloween parade in the church building!

And to which Christian tradition does St John the Divine Cathedral belong?

You guessed it: Episcopal.

This is a church that claims to live "in the spirit of Christ" but doesn't seem to have a problem ignoring St Paul's warning not to have "fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness" (Eph 5.11).

Here is the promotional webpage for this year's event.

And here is a video from two years ago.

Note: At around the seven-minute mark you'll hear a familiar tune that in this context is sinister and chilling.

Read more about the event here, and here.
See photos here, here, and here.

Texas Pastor: Worship is About Christ, Not Impressing Crowds

2010-09-22T07:40:00.000-04:00

Here is a Baptist minister who might just be on his way to getting it...
It's very easy for music to become the point during worship in the church, said a Southern Baptist.

But LifeWay Worship Director Mike Harland told pastors that it's not about better bands, advanced technology, newer copyright dates or newer models. Rather, it's about revealing the person of Jesus Christ and giving Him the adoration that is due.
"We don't want to gather trying to impress crowds with our technology, our innovation or creativity, but to passionately worship the God who saves," he said Tuesday at a one-day conference on "Transformational Small Churches."

Harland cited research from the recently released book Transformational Church, which was based on a survey of more than 7,000 Protestant churches and interviews with more than 250 of the church pastors.

The book, written by LifeWay's Ed Stetzer and Thom S. Rainer, identified transformational church principles and among them was a worship that actively embraces Jesus.

"God didn't call us to lead music or to perform worship services for the people's enjoyment," Harland said. "God called us to engage people in the experience of expressing their worship and praise to God."
...

"It's not enough just to put the word of adoration in the mouths of God's people. We've got to tell the story about who Jesus is," Harland underscored.
...

"What do transformational churches do?" Harland posed to pastors at the conference. "They don't get a rock band, they don't get a projection system, they don't get a fog machine. They show people who Jesus is and then give people the opportunity to respond to Him in worship and adoration."
source.

Okay, but instead of reinventing the wheel with "transformational churches," why not save yourself a lot of hassle and do it the way the Church has been doing it for two thousand years? There simply is no worship that better shows who Jesus is.

Orthodox Chapel in Afghanistan

2010-09-01T18:12:00.001-04:00

I had heard (and may have mentioned here) that there was one--and only one--freestanding Christian church of any kind in the country of Afghanistan and this is it.

It is an Orthodox chapel at Kandahar Air Base and was built by Romanian troops fairly recently (at least since I was there six years ago). Here is a link to a slideshow:

link

The Falling-Asleep ("Dormition") of our Most Holy Lady Mother of God and Ever-Virgin Mary

2010-08-28T00:00:00.000-04:00

Troparion (Tone I): In giving birth thou didst preserve thy virginity,/ and in thy falling asleep thou hast not forsaken the world, O Theotokos./ Thou hast been, translated to life, as thou art the Mother of Life.// And by thy supplications thou dost deliver our souls from death.

Kontakion (Tone II): The tomb and mortality could not hold the Theotokos,/ who is untiring in her supplications/ and our certain hope in her intercessions./ For, as the Mother of Life, she hath passed over to the Life// Who dwelt within her ever-virgin womb.

The following is from a sermon by St Gregory Palamas, Archbishop of Thessalonika (emphases added):
My present talk for your appreciation is occasioned both by love, and by necessity. I speak not only by reason of my love for you, and whereof I desire that the word of salvation should gain way to your God-loving hearing, and in such manner, be imbibed of by your souls; but also, wherein it be very needful for me, in conjunction with the churchly laudations, to expound on the majesty of the ever-Virgin Mother of God. And howso this wish, being twofold against the customary wont, doth impel and incline, and thus also inevitably need compel; though word canst not comprehend, that which is higher than any word, like as the sight canst not fix its gaze upon the sun. And insofar as it be not proper to speak about that which is beyond all words, therein ought primarily the love for the Mother of God to be consecrated in psalmody. If "venerable in the eyes of the Lord be the death of His holy ones" (Ps. 115 [116]: 15), and "the memory of the righteous one is with praises" (Prob. 10:7), then how much moreso – is the memory of the Holiest of the holy ones, through Whom – hath become all sanctification for the holy ones, – is the memory of the Ever-Virgin Mother of God, She Whose memory it now becometh us to celebrate with most exalted praises? We now make celebration of the holy Dormition, or Repose, through which was She brought low before the Angels, and yet did She excel beyond compare the Angels and the Archangels, and being over them by the consequent Power of Her closeness to God and by the fore-ordained over the ages wondrous deeds wrought over Her. It was on Her account that the God-inspired prophets did prophesy, and the miracles that beforehand did point out this great and universal wonder – the ever-Virgin Mother of God; manifest of the Spirit; in various ways being the foretype of the future actuality; manifesting the promise to beget without seed He born of God the Father in eternity... The King of all greatly desired the mysteried beauty of the ever-Virgin, and within Her did transpire the incarnating of the Power of the MostHigh, not through darkness and fire as it was for the God-inspired Moses, and not through means of storm and clouds as was manifest His Presence to the Prophet Elias (Elijah), nor by means of some pretext did the Power from on High overshadow the all-pure and virginal womb. What inexpressibly transpired within Her and of Her was that the Word of God came forth incarnated in the flesh, "to appear upon earth and live amongst mankind" (Baruch 3: 38), deifying our nature and granting us, according to the Divine Apostle, that "which the Angels have desire to look forward to" (1 Pet. 1: 12) – and in this is the wondrous glorification and the all-pure glory of the ever-Virgin Mary.

And what words are there, appropriate to explain what transpired after the inexplicable birth? Whereof, the Word of God issuing from on high and begotten through Her in Her co-operating and co-willing, She also is glorified together with Him in the dignity with which He is exalted, conjoined in His great and wondrous majesty. But with the going up to Heaven of He Incarnate of Her, She in turn through what came to Her of Him, – the excelling majesty of mind and word, as it were emulating Him with manifold deeds and prayers, and likewise solicitude for all the world, and the inspiring of preachers to all the ends of the earth. And all and everywhere She was the sole support and consoler, and in every way co-operating in the proclamation of the Gospel good-news, and clearly proving Herself in it with a life filled with struggle and mastery over mind and word. Whereof, certainly, Her life and death hath carried over into Heavenly and immortal life; and the remembrance of it is a joyous feast and universal solemnity. Into the hands of Her Son was taken the God-bearing spirit of the Ever-Virgin Mary; and indeed a short while afterwards, Her kindred body was translated by Him into the eternal Heavenly habitations. And all this was fully just and proper. In actual fact, many were vouchsafed over the ages the Divine condescension, glory and might, as David likewise sayeth: "For me exceedingly be esteemed Thine company, O God, and exceedingly assured be their dominion. I do look over them, and more than the sands be they numbered" (Ps. 138 [139]: 17-18). "Many a daughter, – according to Solomon, – hath acquired riches, and many have wrought power" (Prov. 31: 29-30). And here is She – the All-Pure Virgin Mary, and She is most exceedingly exalted over all and for all: She alone hath come betwixt God and the human race, She alone of all surpassing all nature is manifest the Mother of God by nature, and through the mysteried Birth-giving She hath become the Queen of everything both in the world and of transcendent creation. And in such manner being exalted over all subject to Her through Her Herself, and having Herself been made participant of utmost choosing through the Divine Spirit, She is become the highest of any of the most exalted and most-blest Queen of blessed lineage.

And now indeed She hath celestial proper habitation, as it were a palace most becoming Her, into which today She be translated from earth, to stand at the right side of the Almighty "adorned in golden robes, aglitter" (Ps. 44 [45]: 9-10), as expressed of Her by the psalmodist prophet. Beneathe the gilded garb Her God-worthy body is aglitter with manifold virtues – wherefore She alone with the Son in God-glorified body hath celestial habitation: for the earth, the grave and death have not power to hold on ultimately to the life-originative and God-receiving body more radiant than the heavens and of heaven the habitation of the heavens. And actually, if a soul having habitation (within it) of the grace of God, forsaking the mundane, it is borne up to heaven, as becometh clear from many an example, and we do believe this: therefore, how could there not be carried up from earth to heaven that body, not only having accepted within itself the Only-Begotten and Praeternal Son of God, the inexhaustible well-spring of grace, but moreover having begotten and manifest Him? How didst Thou, though dust subject to decay, Who being yet three years of age, and not yet having in Thyself the Prae-Celestial Indwelling, not yet having begotten the Incarnated One, – how didst Thou come to take up habitation in the Holy of Holies? [Vide 21 November account of feast of Entry of the Virgin into the Temple.] Wherefore, it is in that the body, having by nature begotten, is co-glorified with the God-becoming glory (together) with He-Begotten, and it is co-resuscitated, as expressed in prophetic song, together with the three-day first-resurrected Christ, in being His "Ark of Holiness" (Ps. 131 [132]: 8). There was, moreover, the evidence of Her [assumption into heaven] for the Apostles – the plaschanitsa and burial cloths, which alone remained in the grave and which alone were found in it by those having come to look things over: just precisely the way formerly it had transpired with Her Son and Lord. But here it was unnecessary that She should tarry a certain while upon the earth, as formerly had Her Son and God; and therefore, She was straightaway taken up from the grave into celestial habitation, from whence to shine with a resplendid radiance, illumining from thence all the earthly realm. And for all the faithful this is something worthy of veneration, worthy of praise and of song. Moreover, with what was said at the start, – that She was diminished for a short time before the Angels (in the sense of tasting of death), – this also should serve to the increase in everything in the majesty of the Mother of God. Wherefore also it be entirely proper that everything be united together and considered for the presentday solemnity.

And thus it is proper, that She containing the Fulfillment of all and the Existant before all should Herself achieve all and become foremost of all by Her virtues and utmost worthiness. And thus it is, that over all the ages it helped matters that all the best individual figures were the best, but that they possessed only the beneficences of God (each individually) whether angelic or human, – but all this She doth combine within Herself, and She alone inexpressibly and supra-abundantly: finding immortality through mortality, and in the flesh finding heaven together with Her Son and God, and from that time thereof there is the abundant outpouring of supra-abundant grace for all those honouring Her. She moreover doth bestow the boldness to hasten unto Her, the vessel of so many a beneficence: generously doth She distribute blessings and for us doth never cease this useful bestowing and gracious help.

Seeing in Her the source and treasury of every blessing, whosoever declares, that the Virgin is made perfect by virtue and by living virtuously, is as one for whom there is the sensory light for the creatures living beneathe it – which is the sun. But if he transfer his mental gaze to the Sun, eternally shining forth to mankind from This Virgin, – if gazing towards this Sun, Which by nature and supra-abundance hath everything, which be granted Her by grace, then the Virgin therewith doth stand forth amidst the heavens. And this be so because of the deigning of God through all blessedness, that She hath attained to an inheritance, by far the most precious, moreso than any beneficence beneathe or beyond the skies, – just as the sky is more vast than the sun, but the sun doth shine brighter than the sky.

What word is there to describe Thine God-seemly beauty, O Virgin Mother? It is impossible indeed to explain all about Thee in reasonings and words: so much doth it exceed both mind and word. But I mustneed sing Thine praises, if Thou permit out of love for mankind. For in as Thou – art the fount of all gracious gifts and the fullness of all righteousness, the chosen and inspired image of every blessing and every good, as only alone worthy of the gifts of the Spirit, and particularly alone as having held in Thine womb He its treasure, and having co-wrought miraculous habitation for Him; and wherefore now, having passed through mortality into immortality, and rightly gone forth from earth to Heaven, into the Praeternal habitation, Thou art become co-residing in eternal time, and there (dwellest Thou), not forsaking care for Thine inheritance, but with incessant supplications to Him moving Him to mercy for all. How much closer to God of all those closest to God is the Mother of God, and how much the greatest hath She been vouchsafed, in comparison with all (meaning not only the earth-born, but all even of the Angelic holy ranks).

It was about the angelic chief-ranks that Isaiah earlier once wrote: "and the Seraphim do stand round about Him" (Is. 6: 2). But concerning Her [the Mother of God] on the other hand is David: "the Queen stood at Thy right side" (Ps. 44 [45]: 9-10). Do you not see the variance of standing? And from this variance it is possible to discern also the variance of rank according to worthiness: since the Seraphim – are but around God, while next right beside Him – the One-Only Queen, Which be praised of and glorified by God Himself, announcing as it were concerning Her to His (Angelic) Powers that are round about and saying, as was said in the Song of Songs: "Thou art fair, My Dear" (Song 6: 4), a light most sparkling, a Divine paradise most sweet and of all the world both visible and invisible the most beautiful. And She in all due justice doth stand not only nearby, but at the right side: since that, where Christ is enthroned in the Heavens, She also there now doth stand, having gone up from earth to Heaven, – not only that She did desire this, nor mutually most of all it was wanted thus in accord with some most essential laws, but rather, it was because She is His true Throne. This Throne saw also Isaiah amidst the choir of the Seraphim and he called it high and exalted (Is. 6: 1), thus indicating (by this) the exalting of the Mother of God over the Heavenly Powers. Wherefore the prophet also did present these angels as glorifying God of Her and proclaiming: the blessing of the Glory of the Lord from His place (Ezek. 3: 12). The Patriarch Jacob, contemplatively surmising this, cried out: "for awesome be this place: this be naught other than the house of God, and this the Heavenly gate" (Gen. 28: 17). And David again, in gathering together with the multitude of the saved, as though it were to avail himself of certain tonal strings or the consonant varied notes about Her the Ever-Virgin into one harmony from over the various generations, expresses it in psalmody concerning Her, saying: "I wilt remember Thy name from every generation unto generation: whereof people shalt confess Thee unto ages of ages forever" (Ps. 44 [45]: 17-18).

Do ye not see, that the whole of creation doth glorify This the Virgin Mother, and not only over the course of some prescribed interval, but rather unto ages of ages forever? It is possible hence to deduce, moreover, that She ceaseth not through all the ages to be of benefit to all creatures. Isaiah pointed this out clearly: he saw, that the Seraphim did not directly take hold the offertory coal, but took hold of it by means of a tong, by which he touched it to the mouth of the prophet, bestowing cleansing (Is. 6: 6). This vision of the tongs was identical with that great sight which Moses did contemplate – the bush amidst the flame not consumed (Ex. 3: 2). Who knows, is not this bush and these tongs the Virgin Mother, without burn receiving the Fire of Divinity, such that there was the Archangel present at the Conception [during the Annunciation], by which through Her was adjoined to the human race the Burier of the sin of the world cleansing us through this inexplicable conjoining?

If recompense be in measure of love towards God, and the loving Son be beloved of by His Father, and there be manifest the abode of Both, mysteriedly abiding and dwelling in such as conform to the promise of the Lord (Jn. 14: 21), – then who would love Him more than His Mother, for Whom be He the Only-Begotten, but also begotten virginally, so that for Her there be a twofold cause of love of Him co-united and conjoined (with Her)? And who more than His Mother would be beloved by the Only-Begotten, – and moreover Begotten of Her inexplicably in the fullness of time while yet having been Begotten of the One Only Father in eternity, – how could there not be increase in conformity in mete propriety and honour befitting Her under the law, from Him Who was come to fulfill the law?

And thus, since through Her alone was come unto us He that did "appear upon earth and live amongst mankind" (Baruch 3: 38), and before Her being unseen, such that in the time following He manifest Himself to all as the fount of Divine illumination, and the fulfilled revelation of the Divine mysteries, and the full embodiment of spiritual gifts, being moreover uncontained of all, save Her. She Herself, foremost amongst all the repository of the most exceedingly excellent plenitude of He That filleth all in all, Herself doth furnish to all of Him That containeth all, bestowing to each as is possible in accord and in proportion to the purity of each, since that She is both the repository and the Mediatrix of the riches of God.

If such be the eternal law in the heavens, that through the less there enter into communion those having great power amidst the great, then certainly the Virgin Mother doth possess farmost exceedingly incomparable influence. It is through Her that there be conjoined to God all, who otherwise would not be conjoined. And Her they do recognise as the repository of He That containeth all, which but know God, and would praise Her together with God all who but praise God. She Herself is the pardoner of all that went before Her, and intercessor of all that came after Her, and Mediatrix of eternal blessings. She – is the reason of the prophesies of the prophets, the principal of the Apostles, the affirmation of the martyrs, the foundation of the teachers. She – is the glory of the earth-born, the joy of the Heavens, and the praise of all creatures. She – is the source, the fount and tap-root of inexpressible blessings; She – is the supreme perfecting of all the holy.

O Virgin Divine and now Heavenly! How can I relate everything about Thee? How might I glorify Thee, Thou the Treasury of Glory? Through Thee is illumined the gaze of reason, through Thee is enlightened the spirit discerned of the Holy Spirit, in as Thou art rendered repository and vessel of Its gifts; yet not such which Thou wouldst affirm unto Thyself, but such as Thou wouldst fulfill all with the gifts of grace. For the Master of inexhaustible treasures foreordaineth them unto Thee for the bestowing; else why would He have wrought the blessings, and otherwise remain hidden and unbegotten? Wherefore, O Lady, grant abundantly to all Thy people and this Thine inheritance both Thy mercy and Thine gifts. Grant deliverance from the misfortunes afflicting us; behold, how much and how greatly we are oppressed from both without and within. By Thy might transform all for the best; bestow for our sufferings Thine help and healing, granting unto our souls and our bodies abundant grace for every need. And if we be not, make us worthy receptacles and as such vouchsafe that we, saved and strengthened by Thy grace, might glorify Him Incarnated of Thee for our sakes – the Praeternal Word, together with His Father Without-Beginning and Life-Creating Spirit, both now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.

(source)

Fall of Rome

2010-08-24T00:00:00.074-04:00

On this date 1600 years ago, the Visigoths sacked Orthodox Rome.

It all started when the Huns charged into eastern Europe near the end of the fourth century, sending terrified tribes running for their lives and in search of new homes. The Roman emperor Valens granted the Visigoths permission to settle a parcel of land along the south bank of the Danube river, but when famine broke out, the Romans chose not to supply the refugees with food. The Goths revolted and the Romans struck back, with the emperor himself leading the Roman army into battle against the barbarians. The defeat of the Roman army and the death of the emperor at the battle of Adrianople boosted the confidence of the Visigoths who petitioned Rome for better treatment and for a homeland to call their own. Alaric, king of the Visigoths, began a series of sieges on Rome, broken periodically by sessions of attempted negotiation. After four years, his forces entered the city, by which time the citizens of Rome were diseased and starving.

"By a skilful disposition of his numer forces, who impatiently watched the moment of an assault, Alaric encompassed the walls, commanded the twelve principal gates, intercepted all communication with the adjacent country, and vigilantly guarded the navigation of the Tyber, from which the Romans derived the surest and most plentiful supply of provisions. The first emotions of the nobles, and of the people, were those of surprise and indignation, that a vile Barbarian should dare to insult the capital of the world: but their arrogance was soon humbled by misfortune; and their unmanly rage, instead of being directed against an enemy in arms, was meanly exercised on a defenceless and innocent victim.

"The senate, who in this emergency assumed the supreme powers of government, appointed two ambassadors to negotiate with the enemy. When they were introduced into [Alaric's] presence, they declared, perhaps in a more lofty style than became their abject condition, that the Romans were resolved to maintain their dignity, either in peace or war; and that, if Alaric refused them a fair and honorable capitulation, he might sound his trumpets, and prepare to give battle to an innumerable people, exercised in arms, and animated by despair. “The thicker the hay, the easier it is mowed,” was the concise reply of the Barbarian; and this rustic metaphor was accompanied by a loud and insulting laugh, expressive of his contempt for the menaces of an unwarlike populace, enervated by luxury before they were emaciated by famine.

"At the hour of midnight, the Salarian gate was silently opened, and the inhabitants were awakened by the tremendous sound of the Gothic trumpet. Eleven hundred and sixty-three years after the foundation of Rome, the Imperial city, which had subdued and civilized so considerable a part of mankind, was delivered to the licentious fury of the tribes of Germany and Scythia."
(Edward Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Chapter 31)

Below is a dramatization by the BBC of the events surrounding the sack of Rome. What the video fails to mention, however, is that the Roman Empire continued for another thousand years in the East after Rome fell.

After the Visigoths conquered Rome, they didn't stay put, but continued south looking for ships to transport them to Africa. When Alaric died en route, his second-in-command Athaulf took over as king and led his people north, where they eventually settled in the Aquitaine region of what is not southwestern France. Their territory grew into what is now Spain and in the late sixth century, the Visigoths, who had been Arians, adopted the Nicene Faith.

Transfiguration of our Lord

2010-08-19T00:00:00.005-04:00

Hymn: Quicumque Christum
All who seek for Jesus, raise
Your eyes above, and upward gaze:
There may ye see the wondrous sign
Of never ending glory shine.

Behold Him in celestial rays
Who never knoweth end of days;
Exalted, infinite, sublime;
Older than heaven or hell or time.

This is the Gentiles' King and Lord;
The Prince by Judah's race adored,
Promised to Abraham of yore
And to his seed forevermore.

To Him the prophets testify;
And that same witness, from on high,
The Father seals by His decree:
Hear and believe my Son, saith He.

All glory, Lord, to Thee we pay,
Transfigured on the mount today;
All glory as is ever meet,
To Father and to Paraclete. Amen.

Antiphon on Magnificat
Christ Jesus, † the brightness of the Father and the express image of His person, Who upholdeth all things by the word of His power, while He was by Himself purging away our sins, vouchsafed on this day to shew Himself in glory uppon an high mountain.

Collect
O God, who in the glorious Transfiguration of Thine only-begotten Son didst confirm the mysteries of the faith by the testimony of the fathers, and in the voice which came down from the bright cloud didst marvellously foreshew the perfect adoption of sons: vouchsafe in Thy mercy to make us coheirs with this glorious King, and grant that we may be partakers of His glory. Through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, who with Thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit, liveth and reigneth God, world without end. Amen

(from the Monastic Diurnal, pg. 581, Transfiguration of our Lord Jesus Christ. Lancelot Andrewes Press)

St Oswald of Northumbria, King and Martyr

2010-08-18T00:00:00.000-04:00

Oswald’s great devotion and faith in God was made evident by the miracles that took place after his death. For at the place where he was killed fighting for his country against the heathen [Aug. 5, 642], sick men and beasts are healed to this day. Many people took away the very dust from the place where his body fell, and put it in water, from which sick folk who drank it received great benefit. This practice became so popular that, as the earth was gradually removed, a pit was left in which a man could stand. But it is not to be wondered at that the sick received healing at the place of his death; for during his lifetime he never failed to provide for the sick and needy and to give them alms and aid. Many miracles are reported as having occurred at this spot, or by means of the earth taken from it; but I will content myself with two, which I have heard from my elders.

Not long after Oswald’s death, a man happened to be riding near the place when his horse suddenly showed signs of distress. It stopped and hung its head, foaming at the mouth, and as its pains increased it collapsed on the ground. The rider dismounted, removed the saddle, and waited to see whether the beast was going to recover or die. At length, having tossed this way and that in great pain for a considerable time, it rolled on to the spot where the great king had died. Immediately the pain ceased, and the horse stopped its wild struggles, then having rolled on its other side, as tired beasts do, it got up fully recovered and began to graze. The traveller, an observant man, concluded that the place where his horse was cured must possess special sancitity, and when he had marked it, he mounted and rode on to the inn where he intended to lodge. On his arrival he found a girl, the niece of the landlord, who had long suffered from paralysis; and when members of the household in his presence were deploring the girl’s diease, he began to tell them about the place where his horse had been cured. So they put the girl in to a cart, took her to the place, and laid her down. Once there she fell asleep for a short while; and, on awaking, she found herself restored to health. She asked for water and washed her face; then she tidied her hair, adjusted her linen headgear, and returned home on foot in perfect health with those who had brought her.”

(source)

The Rapture

2010-08-17T00:00:00.000-04:00

I listen nearly every day to a local Evangelical radio personality who discusses news, politics, science and other topics from a "Christian perspective." I disagree with him around 85% of the time, but he's entertaining so I continue to listen. On Friday he interviewed a woman who had written a novel concerning the sorts of horrors that await those who are not spirited away in the "Rapture." They spoke--as Evangelicals do--as if the "Rapture" is a dogma of the Faith and is as certain to happen as the Second Coming itself.
Folks, I have news for you: the "Rapture" is not a dogma of the Faith. It is an idea that was invented less than two hundred years ago. You will find no mention of it in the Bible or in the writings of any of the Church Fathers.

The following is courtesy of Mystagogy (emphases and links are added):

By Fr. Anthony M. Coniaris

As I was driving one day I encountered a bumper sticker admonishing me:

“WARNING! In the event of Rapture, this car will be driverless.”

The strange belief in the Rapture teaches that some day (sooner rather than later), without warning, born-again Christians will begin to float up from the freeway, abandoned vehicles careening wildly. There will be airliners in the sky suddenly with no one at the controls! Presumably, God is removing these favored ones from earth to spare them the tribulation of the Anti-Christ which the rest of us will have to endure.
Unfortunately the Rapture has been promoted widely by the Left Behind series of books that have sold over 70 million copies.

The Rapture represents a radical misinterpretation of Scripture. I remember watching “Sixty Minutes” a year ago and was appalled to hear the announcer say that “the Rapture is an unmistakenly Christian doctrine”. It is not!

It is a serious distortion of Scripture.

It is astonishing that a belief so contrary to Scripture and the tradition of the Church could be propagated by so-called “Christians”.

According to the Bible and according to the belief not only of Orthodox Christians but also of the Roman Catholic and most Protestant mainline churches, the true Rapture will not be secret; it will be the great and very visible Second Coming of Jesus at the end of the world. That is the one and only “Rapture”. It will not be a separate, secret event but one that "every eye shall see" (1 Thess. 4:16-17).

The word rapture is not found in Scripture but hearkens to 1 Thess. 4:17 where St. Paul says that when the Lord comes again “we who are alive…shall be caught up…in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air.”

This “being caught up…in the clouds” — arpagisometha in Greek - is translated by some as “raptured”. The word itself is not found in Orthodox theology.

The notion of a rapture in which Christ comes unseen to take believers away secretly, and only later comes back again for everyone else publicly—this whole teaching is quite novel. It was almost unheard of until John Nelson Darby formulated it in the 1800s as part of a new approach to the Bible, sometimes called “dispensationalism”.

The purpose of the “Rapture” is to protect the elect from the tribulations of the end times. Yet Jesus said nothing about sparing anyone from tribulation. In fact, He said, “In the world you have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world.”

Nowhere did Jesus ever say that He would return secretly to rapture the elect. Rather, He promised to be with His elect in all tribulations.

“Lo, I am with you always.” “I will never leave you or forsake you.” He even had something good to say about being persecuted: “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 5:10).

Those who espouse the Rapture claim that Matthew 24:40-41 refers clearly to the rapture of the just, “Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.”

The entire passage, however, refers to Christ’s second coming where He will judge the living and the dead and separate the just from the unjust.

Darby taught as dogma that when the Scriptures reveal that the Lord will reign on earth for a thousand years (Rev. 20:4), this figure is to be taken literally, rather than as a symbol for eternity as we believe. The Council of Ephesus in A.D. 431 condemned as heresy this teaching which is called Chialiasmos (millenianism or 1000 years).

In fact, the Seven Ecumenical Councils (325-787 A.D.) in which the essential truths of the Christian faith were defined never mention a rapture. Yet Evangelical Christians and Pentecostals keep using obscure passages of the Book of Revelation which purport to give a detailed timetable of what will happen at the end of the world, despite the fact that Jesus Himself warned that no man knows either the day or the hour when the Son of Man shall return.

A major problem with the Rapture is that it ends up teaching not two but three comings of Jesus — first His birth in Bethlehem; second, His secret coming to snatch away (rapture) the “born-again”; and third, His coming at the end of the world to judge the living and the dead and to reign in glory. Yet only two not three comings of Christ are mentioned in the Bible. We have the clearest definition of this in the Nicene Creed when we confess that “the Lord Jesus Christ…will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead. His Kingdom will have no end…. I expect the resurrection of the dead. And the life of the ages to come.”

There is no mention of a “Rapture”.

As already stated, most Christians, Orthodox, Roman Catholics and Protestants do not believe in the Rapture. In fact, one Protestant pastor, John L. Gray, summarized magnificently what we Orthodox and most other Christians believe about the Rapture when he wrote these remarkable words:

"Though many believe and teach this 'Pre-Tribulation Rapture' theory, they erroneously do so, because neither Jesus, Paul, Peter, John, nor any of the other writers of the Bible taught this. Nor did the early Church Fathers, nor any others for many hundreds of years…. Did you know that NONE of this was ever taught prior to 1812, and that all forms of Pre-Tribulation Rapture teaching were developed since that date? …. If I were to preach something, or believe something, supposedly from the Bible, but cannot find that ANYONE ELSE before 1812 ever believed it or taught it, I would seriously question that it is based on the Bible."

Thus the Rapture is foreign to the Bible and to the living tradition of the Church. It is what we call a heresy, a false teaching. False teachings, such as this, happen when people — like John Darby — believe that they have the right to interpret the Scriptures individually apart from the Living Body of Christ — the Church — where the Spirit of Truth abides and leads us to all truth.

I can think of no better words to conclude than those of Jesus when He speaks of the one and only “Rapture”, the Second Coming:

“Be on guard. Be alert! You do not know when that time will come…keep watch…if He comes suddenly, do not let Him find you sleeping. What I say to you, I say to everyone: Watch!” (Mark 13:32-37).

Things You'll Never See in an Orthodox Church, Part 24

2010-08-11T00:00:00.000-04:00

"St Matthews Cathedral Superbowl"

Courtesy of the Episcopal Diocese of Wyoming

Q&A

2010-08-09T00:00:00.001-04:00

Q: Why do Orthodox crosses often portray a skull and crossbones? Isn't that a sign of evil or a symbol of the Illuminati or other secret organizations?

A: That two organizations share a common symbol should not be understood to mean that those two organizations are the same, or similar...or have anything whatsoever in common. The Church used the skull and crossbones for centuries before the Illuminati, or the Bonesmen, or Richard Worley even existed.
That goes for other symbols as well. The inverted cross has been adopted by anti-Christians, but was originally known as the Cross of St Peter, because he is believed to have been crucified upside down.

The skull below the cross is there because the hill on which Christ was crucified was known as Golgotha, which is Aramaic for "Place of the Skull." (in Latin, this is Calvariae Locus, which is where we get "Calvary"). On a Russian Orthodox Cross (pictured), the letters next to the skull stand for "Глава Адамла," which is Slavonic for "the Skull of Adam."

According to Fr. John Shandra, "The skull that viewers can see in iconography of the Orthodox crucifixion symbolically represents the skull of Adam. Some believe (although this is not a dogma of the Orthodox Church, but rather a pious tradition) that Jesus was crucified on the same place where Adam was buried. Theologically, it does make sense because in the writings of St. Paul the Apostle Jesus is called second Adam. Just as through the first Adam we all become inheritors of the fallen human nature and therefore are subject to death, through the second Adam, Who is Jesus Christ, we become inheritors of the renewed, healed human nature and granted life eternal."

In other words, whether or not Golgotha was in fact the actual location of Adam's burial, the theological truth remains: by His crucifixion, Christ, the "Second Adam," conquered the sin and death brought about by Adam's first sin. The skull beneath the Cross reminds us of this fact.

Monachos 2010 Appeal: St. John of San Francisco Orthodox Academy

2010-08-07T10:23:00.000-04:00

From Monachos.net:

As we have done several times in the past, Monachos.net this summer is launching an on-line fundraising drive to raise money for a worthwhile Orthodox cause. Our aim this year is to raise as much as possible in support of the Saint John of San Francisco Orthodox Academy: one of the few complete Orthodox K-12 and College Preparatory schools in North America, providing, in a completely Orthodox context and environment, one of the finest accredited educations to Orthodox children from kindergarten through to their beginnings at College and University.

Read the rest here

ATTENTION TO ALL ISRAEL-LOVING AMERICAN EVANGELICALS

2010-08-04T18:48:00.000-04:00

Your unconditional love and support for the secular, politcal state of Israel is not mutual and must stop. They don't give a damn for the rights of Christians. They hate our Faith; they hate our Christ. This is simply one more in a long list of abuses against the Church.

Pray for Israel, but please stop supporting them as if they are actually the fulfillment of an ancient prophesy.

From uruknet.info:

Israel razes Christian ancient site in O[ccupied]. Jerusalem
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM, (PIC)-- Father Atallah Hanna, the Greek orthodox patriarchate of occupied Jerusalem, said the Israeli municipal council in the holy city demolished and obliterated Christian ancient monuments dating from the Byzantine era in Ein Kerem area.
"We strongly condemn this heinous crime committed against the Christian antiquities in Ein Kerem, which is the birthplace of Saint Youhanna Al-Meamedan (John the Baptist) and his family, and where Virgin Mary lived plenty of time," father Hanna stressed in a statement to Al-Jazeera net.

The Israeli municipal council in coordination with the authority of antiquities and the ministry of tourism is now building illegal stores on the ruins of the Christian monuments discovered in a piece of land adjacent to the spring of Virgin Mary (Mary's well).
Lawyer Qais Naser, a specialist in planning and building law, said that the Israeli ministry of tourism and the municipal council in Jerusalem refused to keep the Christian historical site and turn it into a shrine open to the public.
Naser affirmed that the Israeli excavations revealed an important Christian ancient site related to the spring of Virgin Mary, but the Israeli occupation authority (IOA) insisted on demolishing it and building stores in its place.

(pictured is the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, which was built on the very site of Christ's resurrection)

Palestinian Christians

2010-08-04T00:00:00.001-04:00

Old Roman Chant

2010-08-02T00:00:00.002-04:00

I recently purchased a beautiful CD called "Chants de l'Eglise de Rome: Période Byzantine." It is a recording of hymns from a period in history when the Eastern style of worship had a strong influence on the Church of Rome.

Historically, Rome was always kind of the oddball of the Christian world. They used a different language, had different liturgical practices, and the bishop of the Roman church was the only Orthodox patriarch in the west. These and other differences contributed to the slow drifting apart of the Eastern and Western halves of the Church, and eventually led to the tragic split that became formal in the middle of the eleventh century.

About four hundred years before that split, the Italian peninsula was heavily populated by Eastern Christians (Greek, Arab, etc) whose influence is apparent in the art, architecture, and music of that era.

The liner notes from the CD tell the story in more detail:

OLD ROMAN CHANT 7th-8th CENTURIES
Byzantine period

The repertory to which the works on this record belong is commonly called the "Old Roman." It is the early chant of the Church of Rome, anterior to that which is today called the "Gregorian," which came into existence in the Carolingian Empire, probably in the region of Metz, deriving its structure from the Roman chant, but completely modifying its ornamentation.

The early chant of the Church of Rome took shape during the 7th and 8th centuries. Its distinctly Oriental character, which gives it the aspect of an ornamented cantilation, is by no means surprising when one remembers that at this period Italy was dependent not only on the Byzantine Emperor, but was also a land of asylum for a large Greek colony which had sought refuge there.

In fact, after the invasion of Palestine by the Persians, the number of Syrian and Greek monasteries multiplied in Italy from the South as far as inside Rome itself. And the iconoclast quarrel was all the more reason for the monks to flee from the Orient and re-assemble in the Italian peninsula. Between 726 and 775 nearly fifty thousand monks took refuge in Southern Italy. Many popes of Syrian or Greek origin presided over the destinies of the Church of Rome at the period (fourteen out of twenty popes between 644 and 772 were Greek-speaking). The "Liber pontificalis" mentions, besides their Oriental origins, the musical competence of three of them: Leo II, Sergius I, and Gregory III. It was under the influence of these popes that the Roman liturgy became profoundly Eastern in character.

Introduced into Gaul by Pepin the Short and then under Charlemagne, the Old Roman chant gave birth to the Carolingian chant, similar in musical structure, but very different in ornamentation.

Paradoxically the Carolingian chant later became the official "Gregorian" chant, even to the point of supplanting in Rome itself the Old Roman, which finally disappeared in the 13th century.

Although a number of Roman popes were speakers of Greek, the lingua franca of the western Church at the time was Latin. So, while the hymns on this CD all sound very Byzantine, they are all in Latin rather than in Greek. That's just fine with me, as Latin, in my opinion, is a far prettier language than Greek.

Here is a sample from the CD. It is a hymn called "Terra Tremuit" ("the earth trembled") which is based on Psalm 76:

Terra tremuit et quievit
dum resurgeret in iudicio Deus, alleluia.
Notus in Iudea Deus in Israel magnum nomen eius, alleluia,
dum resurgeret in iudicio Deus, alleluia.
Et factus est in pace locus eius et habitatio eius in Sion, alleluia,
dum resurgeret in iudicio Deus, alleluia.
Ibi confregit cornua arcum, scutum, gladium et bellum,
iluminans tu mirabiliter a montibus aeternis, alleluia.
Terra tremuit et quievit, dum resurgeret in iudicio Deus, alleluia.

(The earth trembled and was still,
when God arose in judgment, alleluia.
In Judah is God known: His name is great in Israel, alleluia,
when God arose in judgment, alleluia.
His dwelling is in peace and in repose, and in Sion is His habitation, alleluia,
when God arose in judgment, alleluia.
There He broke bow arrows, shield, sword, and war weapons,
you are glorious, more wonderful than eternal mountains, alleluia.
The earth trembled and was still,
when God arose in judgment, alleluia)

Poll update

2010-07-31T07:14:00.001-04:00

It has come to my attention that the polls I posted in the Polls page (see the link in the column on the right) were not working properly. So I have used a different polling widget. This one does seem to be working. Sorry, to those of you who already voted (or tried to vote), but please do so again when you can.
Thanks.

Things You'll Never See in an Orthodox Church, Part 23

2010-07-31T07:07:00.000-04:00

What is the purpose of these Things You'll Never See posts? Is it to poke fun at Christians who don't do things the way we do them in the Orthodox Church? Sure, that's part of it. But there is more to it than that.
Sometimes, a thing is best described by identifying what it is not. With these posts, I am demonstrating that theOrthodox Church is not irreverent, flippant, disgraceful, unseemly, tactless, tacky, or driven by what is cool, relevant, sexy or politically correct. It is not interested in celebrating human achievement or in tailoring its understanding of God to match its wordlview. It is not casual, comfortable, or laid back. It is not interested in entertaining you or bolstering your self esteem. It is not interested simply in drawing a crowd (hell, Lady Gaga can do that!) or winning converts, but in making disciples and teaching them to observe everything Christ commanded (Mt 2819-20).
In short, the Orthodox Church is the opposite of what you find in these videos.

This clip comes from Heartland Christian Center in Valparaiso, IN. At the end of his performance, the pastor tells the audience "you never thought you'd come to church and see that."
Truth be told: you won't.

Polls

2010-07-26T00:00:00.002-04:00

I am always very interested in the opinions and perspectives of other people. Even when I disagree with them (and I usually do). Last year I posted a poll on this blog asking viewers to identify their original religious affiliation. I received 94 responses (which is a pretty poor level of participation, considering it is less than 3% of the total number of unique visitors to the blog during the year that the poll was up) with the following results:

Evangelical: 28%
Roman Catholic: 25%
Orthodox: 23%
Other Protestant: 15%
Non-Christian: 6%

Now I have decided to dedicate an entire page to polling my readers. You will see a link to it on the right-hand column of the blog. I have started off with three poll questions and will add another one every month or so. I will announce when a new question has been added and will leave each question up for one year.

Please feel free to participate and leave questions, comments, or suggestions for future poll questions.

Church as Corporation; Pastor as CEO

2010-07-25T16:58:00.001-04:00

Is this guy making disciples? This sort of thing is the exact opposite of what you find when you read the lives of the saints, which of course is something from which we all could benefit greatly.

Things You'll Never See in an Orthodox Church, Part 22

2010-07-20T06:41:00.000-04:00

(Newser) – A Dutch priest is in hot water for praying—in vain—that the Netherlands would defeat Spain at a Mass celebrated the day of the World Cup final, reports the BBC. Paul Vlaar decorated his church in the team color, orange; wore orange and white vestments; and played along as a churchgoer kicked a soccer ball down the aisle. He's been suspended so he can observe "a period of reflection," says his bishop. "Everybody supports Pastor Paul and we don't see what was so bad," a parishioner tells the AP.

source

Church removes cross

2010-06-28T21:37:00.000-04:00

This is not as outrageous as the reporter seems to think it is. (But then, Fox News does tend to sensationalize a bit..."Is it diversity or perversity?")
In fact I agree with the second interviewee and applaud this "inclusive spiritual community" for their integrity. They are clearly not a church, and they no longer believe in or profess the Gospel, so why pretend? Why claim to be something they are not by displaying a cross?

I wish more "churches" would show the integrity that this one has and not only take down their crosses, but quit calling themselves churches and drop the whole "christian" charade altogether.

Here is their website.

Things You'll Never See in an Orthodox Church, Part 21

2010-05-28T15:38:00.000-04:00

From a Roman Catholic source:

Agia Sophia

2010-05-24T07:46:00.000-04:00

This is a fascinating documentary that I recommend to anyone who--like me--is at all interested in history and architecture, especially the churchy kinds.

A couple things to pay attention to as you watch this: First of all, you will see several beautiful aerial shots of the cathedral as is today; remember that the minarets surrounding it and the huge gold crescent at the peak of its dome were not there when it was built. The dome, of course was topped by a cross.

Also, you may notice the images of seraphim on the pendentives in the interior of the church, just below the dome. These are mosaics that were very recently--like last year!--discovered and exposed. They had, like all the sacred imagery in the church, been plastered over when the Turks took over in 1453. You can read more about them here.

And one last thing. The cathedral is not named in honor of St Sophia. The word "άγία," although it can be translated as "saint" (which comes from the Latin word "sanctus," meaning "holy"), in this case refers to the Holy Wisdom--or Aγία Σοφία--of God. (see 1Co 1.20, 2.7; James 3.17)

Enjoy.

Contemporvant

2010-05-14T07:10:00.000-04:00

I just wanted to remind you of the sorts of cool, relevant things that you will me missing out on when you decide to start attending Orthodox Liturgy.
(from Byzantine, TX)

Mother and Child

2010-05-09T00:00:00.000-04:00

Bach: Mass in B Minor

2010-05-06T00:00:00.006-04:00

So there we were: Two Orthodox Christians, sitting in a Presbyterian church, listening to an Episcopalian choir performing the music of a Lutheran.

Two Saturdays ago, Kathryn and I saw the Oakland Choral Society (which is not an Episcopal choir, per se, but is populated by some of our Episcopalian friends) perform Bach's Mass in B Minor at Grosse Pointe Memorial Church, which is a lovely pseudo-Gothic behemoth next to the War Memorial. (if you were at our wedding reception you now where it is.) It was a beautiful performance of one of my very favorite choral works by my hands-down favorite composer of sacred music. Bach's Mass in B Minor was cobbled together using leftover bits from other discarded works, but, even so, it is so powerful and beautiful that I'm nearly brought to tears every time I hear it.

But for all the many hundreds of times that I have listened to this piece, it never really occured to me to pay much attention to the words. This performance was the first time I had heard it since becoming Orthodox, and as I followed along with the performance I was struck by how closely the words of the Latin Mass match those of portions of the Orthodox liturgical services. In some places it's nearly verbatim.

The words of Bach's Mass are the standard words used in every choral Mass and are, with the exception of the first three lines, in Latin. A choral Mass is typically divided into six sections: Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Benedictus, and Angus Dei. Sometimes those are divided further. Here are the sections:

I. Kyrie
Kyrie eleison; Christe eleison; Kyrie eleison
(Lord have mercy; Christ, have mercy; Lord, have mercy)

This is the only portion of the Latin Mass that is not in Latin. Rather, it is in Greek, and I have done some research to find out why that is and no one seems to know. But it is a very familiar phrase to anyone who has been to an Orthodox Divine Liturgy, where we say "Lord, Have Mercy" about fifty times throughout the service.

II. Gloria
Gloria in excelsis Deo et in terra pax hominibus bonæ voluntatis. Laudamus te, benedicimus te, adoramus te, glorificamus te, gratias agimus tibi propter magnam gloriam tuam, Domine Deus, Rex cœlestis, Deus Pater omnipotens.Domine Fili unigenite, Jesu Christe, Domine Deus, Agnus Dei, Filius Patris, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis; qui tollis peccata mundi, suscipe deprecationem nostram. Qui sedes ad dexteram Patris, miserere nobis. Quoniam tu solus Sanctus, tu solus Dominus, tu solus Altissimus, Iesu Christe, cum Sancto Spiritu in gloria Dei Patris. Amen.

(Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will. We praise You, we bless You, we adore You, we glorify You, we give thanks to You for Your great glory, Lord God, heavenly King, almighty God the Father. Lord Jesus Christ, only begotten Son, Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father, who taketh away the sins of the world, Have mercy on us; You who take away the sins of the world, hear our prayers. Who sits at the right hand of the Father, have mercy upon us. For You are the only Holy One, the only Lord, the only Most High, Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit in the glory of God the Father, Amen.)

This section matches almost word-for-word The Great Doxology (from Matins):
Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will among men. We praise Thee, we bless Thee, we worship Thee, we glorify Thee, we give thanks to Thee for Thy great glory. O Lord, heavenly King, God the Father Almighty; O Lord, the only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ; and O Holy Spirit. O Lord God, Lamb of God, Son of the Father, that takest away the sin of the world; have mercy on us; Thou that takest away the sins of the world, receive our prayer; Thou that sittest at the right hand of the Father, have mercy on us. For Thou only art holy; Thou only art the Lord, O Jesus Christ, to the glory of God the Father. Amen.

III. Credo
Credo in unum Deum, Patrem omnipotentem... (I believe in one God, the Father Almighty...)

This is the Creed (a.k.a., the Nicene Creed, a.k.a., the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed) and I won't include the entire thing here. The version used in the Latin Mass is the same one used in all Western (i.e. Roman Catholic and Protestant) churches and matches that used in the East (Orthodox--both Eastern and Oriental--and Byzantine Catholic) except for two elements:

Where the original Creed says "And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only-begotten, begotten of the Father before all ages, Light of Light, true God of true God...," the Latin version adds "God from God" right before "Light of Light.": "Deum de Deo, lumen de lúmine, Deum verum de Deo vero..."

The other addition is that of the Filioque, which the Latin text adds to the line "And in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of life, who proceedeth from the Father..." so that it reads "Et in Spíritum Sanctum, Dóminum et vivificántem: Qui ex Patre Filióque procédit."

IV. Sanctus
Sanctus, Sanctus, Sanctus, Dominus Deus Sabaoth; pleni sunt coeli et terra gloria tua. Hosanna in excelsis

(Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts; Heaven and earth are full of Your glory. Hosanna in the highest.)

This section matches the Anaphora from the Divine Liturgy, which is directly following the Creed:
Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord of Sabaoth; heaven and earth are full of Thy glory. Hosanna in the highest!

V. Benedictus
Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini. Hosanna in excelsis

(Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest.)

This is simply a continuation of the Anaphora:
Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest!

VI. Agnus Dei
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis.
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis.
Agnus Dei, qui tollis peccata mundi, dona nobis pacem.

(Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us.
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, have mercy upon us.
Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world, grant us peace.)

This isn't an exact match, but it's pretty close to a repeat of the Great Doxology from Matins:
Lamb of God, Son of the Father, that takest away the sin of the world; have mercy on us;
Thou that takest away the sins of the world, receive our prayer; Thou that sittest at the right hand of the Father, have mercy on us.

Much of this is simply quoting the Bible, so it shouldn't be too surprising that the services match so closely. Here is the final part of Bach's Mass, called Dona Nobis Pacem (Grant Us Peace), for your listening pleasure. Enjoy.

Making God Seen

2010-05-03T18:32:00.000-04:00

The following is from the Protestant Daily Devotions radio ministry:

Cults of personality expand the masks of celebrities into distortions of false perfection. We create demigods from the clay of human beings, and project upon them our own desires of virtue or corruption, imagining them to be impossibly perfect saints or sinners. One can never be wholly either. When the object of a personality cult wields power - political, ideological, or theological - through words, office, or action, then dangers of distortion appear. This is evident when our need for stability crosses paths with a preacher or politician's charisma, projecting to them holiness or perfection that belongs to only God.

We could take a cue from Orthodoxy, whose priests stand with their backs to their congregation, leading a liturgy that is neither clever nor impassioned, but simply beautiful, like stone smoothed by centuries of rhythmic tides. It's an austere ritual, in the sense of - there's nothing new here; it's sublime, in the sense of - creating a clearer view into Heaven. The priest can be any priest. Who he is, what he looks like, how he speaks, and what he thinks matter little. He hasn't written the service that he officiates. It isn't about him or his prowess. He's an interchangeable functionary draped in brocaded robes, obscured by incense, and, as such, never points to himself, a flawed human, pointing ever and only to the Perfection of the Mysterious Divine. That is the role of every priest or preacher - invisibility, while making God seen.

2010-04-28T10:01:00.000-04:00

"Pascha...is the equivalent of prayer with fireworks."

Fr. Meletios Webber

listen here

Vank Cathedral

2010-04-26T00:00:00.040-04:00

While we're on the topic of Armenians...
I was conducting research for one of my classes this week when I came across something very interesting. In the early seventeenth century, during the reign of Shah Abbas I of the Persian Safavid dynasty, a number of Armenian Christians settled in his capital city of Isfahan. There they built a church, which they completed in 1664. When I saw pictures of it, my jaw nearly hit the floor.

Before we get to the pics, let me just say that I am all for the construction of church buildings in a style consistent with the local culture. By that I do not mean local "pop culture." I mean architecture according to the established norms. I think that can be done without sacrificing important ancient liturgical elements or forsaking whatever it is that allows a proper expression of worship. Building in a style consistent with local heritage speaks to the populace in an architecural language they can understand. It makes that church a part of the enduring cultural legacy of the place, rather than just a visitor from the outside. I think, in other words, that it makes more sense to build a church in China that looks like this, rather than like this. But that's just me.

(Wanna see how this works here at home? Compare the Roman Catholic Baltimore Basilica--built in a neoclassical style that was consistent with a popular architectural style of the period in which it was built, but is enduring and relevant [sorry!] today--with the Cathedral of Our Lady of Angels in Los Angeles, which is...just...awful).

Whoever built Vank Cathedral in Isfahan certainly had an eye for Persian architecture and design. My guess is that they hired local artisans and builders, who applied the styles with which they were familiar.
As you look at these pictures, keep in mind that this is not a mosque, it is a Christian church.
(Click on the pictures for a better view)

360° panoramic view of the cathedral

Եղեռնի զոհերի հիշատակի օր (Genocide Remembrance Day)

2010-04-24T00:00:00.035-04:00

Today Armenians around the world remember the slaughter of 1.5 million of their ancestors by the Ottoman Turks during the first World War.

The Genocide (Հայոց Ցեղասպանություն in Armenian) included forced marches, starvation, serial rape and other atrocities and was an effort by Muslim Turks to remove the Christian Armenian people from existence.

President Obama had made a campaign promise to identify the massacre as a "genocide" but later reneged on this pledge. He had criticized President Bush for failing to recognize the genocide as such, but, on last year's Armenian Remembrance Day 2009, he softened his language, calling it a "calamity" ("Meds Yeghern" in Armenian). The President has received criticism and condemnation for his backtracking, and some have even called for him to give up his Nobel Peace Prize until he makes good on his campaign promise to recognize the "calamity" as a genocide.

Turkey is an ally of the U.S. and recognizing the genocide as such might put that relationship in jeopardy. Armenian-Turkish relations have also improved in recent years, and the fear is that calling the mass killings a "genocide" might strain that relationship as well.

However, 43 states have officially recognized the Armenian Genocide, and in March 2009, a bill was introduced to the House of Representatives by Congressman Adam Schiff, whose congressional district, California 29th, happens to include the city of Glendale, which has the highest concentration of Armenians in the United States. Congressman Schiff's bill, H.R. 252, states that "The Armenian Genocide was conceived and carried out by the Ottoman Empire from 1915 to 1923, resulting in the deportation of nearly 2,000,000 Armenians, of whom 1,500,000 men, women, and children were killed, 500,000 survivors were expelled from their homes, and which succeeded in the elimination of the over 2,500-year presence of Armenians in their historic homeland." It compares the Armenian genocide to the Holocaust, calls for a reduction of aid to Turkey by $3 million "until the Turkish Government acknowledged the Armenian Genocide," and demands that the President "accurately characterize the systematic and deliberate annihilation of 1,500,000 Armenians as genocide."

Learn more:
t h e f o r g o t t e n
Armenian National Institute
Fact Sheet: Armenian Genocide
Armenian Genocide 1915 Recognition Struggle
Armenian Genocide (Armeniapedia)

Take action:
Armenian National Committee of America
Follow H.R. 252 here

Liturgy at Holy Virgin Cathedral, San Francisco

2010-04-23T12:35:00.002-04:00

Stolen Bells Recovered

2010-04-23T12:31:00.000-04:00

From projo.com

Cumberland church bells recovered from scrap yards

CUMBERLAND — All six bells — Stephan, Sophia, Vera, Nadezhda, Lubov and Gabriel — that were stolen from the Dormition of the Virgin Mary Orthodox Church last week have been recovered. But only four of them could ring again in the small bell house in front of the church.

“Well, we miss the bells,” the Rev. Vasily Lickwar, pastor of the Orthodox parish on Manville Hill Road, said at a police news conference Thursday. “They are an integral part of our worship.”

The bell Stephan, named for Saint Stephan the first martyr, the largest at hundreds of pounds, is now in three pieces, and Father Lickwar said that bell and the second-smallest of the bells, Lubov, named for a second-century martyr, now shorn of its top, won’t join the others.

The police say James M. Haselton, 32, of Lincoln, was attempting to sell the bells at scrap yards in Woonsocket and Lincoln. The police said another arrest is possible.

Read the rest here.

Easter in Syria

2010-04-22T11:49:00.000-04:00

I knew that Middle Easterners just love to celebrate by firing their guns into the air, but for some reason I assumed it was just the Muslims that did that. I guess I was wrong.

(You know you've been to too many military firing ranges when you watch this and think "gosh, that's going to leave a lot of shell casings for someone to pick up.")

Funeral of Archbishop Miron

2010-04-22T08:46:00.000-04:00

Click to enlarge

Things You'll Never See in an Orthodox Church, Part 20

2010-04-20T18:26:00.000-04:00

Dallas Morning News: Cathedral of Hope in Dallas says it will host 'gay Jesus' play

In the Valley of the Shadow of Death

2010-04-19T18:03:00.000-04:00

This is an excellent series of podcasts by an Orthodox chaplain deployed to Afghanistan with a battalion of Marines. I strongly recommend listening to it. Click below for the first episode or click here for the AFR page.

Bells Stolen

2010-04-19T13:25:00.000-04:00

Courtesy of Byzantine, TX

Where in the world?

2010-04-17T12:58:00.000-04:00

This, again, has nothing to do with anything, but I thought it was interesting.
In the last seven days, people from the following countries have looked at this blog (in descending order of number of visits):

United States

Canada
United Kingdom
Australia
Spain
Germany
Japan
Italy
Hungary
France
Denmark
Ireland
Taiwan
Netherlands
Kuwait
Poland
Singapore
Thailand
South Korea
Finland
Colombia
Mongolia
Czech Republic
Portugal
Switzerland
Saudi Arabia
Greece
Ukraine
Brazil
Malaysia
Hong Kong
Peru
India

Wieczna Pamięć!

2010-04-14T07:43:00.000-04:00

From the St George Orthodox Military Association's Blog:

On April 10, Saturday, Archbishop Miron, Bishop of Hajnówka, Poland, was killed in the crash of the presidential aircraft Tu-154, reports the official website of Orthodox Autocephalous Church in Poland. Archbishop Miron was a member of a presidential delegation headed to Smolensk, Russia. All eighty-eight passengers, including Polish President Lech Kaczynski, his wife, many other senior Polish officials and eight crew members all perished in the crash as the plane burst into flames while landing in dense fog.

Stefan Dmitruk reports:

“Miroslaw Chodakowski was born on October 21, 1957 in Bialystok. He graduated from primary school in Bialystok, then from the Orthodox Seminary in Warsaw and the Higher Orthodox Seminary in Jableczna.

On December 17, 1978 he was tonsured a rassophore monk, and nine days later was ordained a deacon. On February 15, 1979 he was ordained to the rank of hieromonk. In November of 1979, the Metropolitan of Warsaw, Metropolitan Basil, tonsured him in the small schema as a hieromonk, giving him the name Miron.

Hieromonk Miron served as governor of the monastery church, St. Humphrey the Great, in Jableczna. He was also Rector of the Orthodox Theological Seminary. In 1984 he was elevated to the dignity Ihumen, adopted as part of the clergy Bialystok-Gdansk diocese, and appointed pastor of the parish church of Annunciation of Our Lady in Supraśl. In 1990, he was elevated to the rank of archimandrite and was appointed governor of the monastery in Supraśl.

On May 11, 1998, in accordance with the decision of the Council of Bishops of the Orthodox Autocephalous Church in Poland, Bishop Miron was appointed to the Hajnówka diocese, and on August 15, 1998, the Polish President Aleksander Kwasniewski appointed bishop Miron Brigadier General and Orthodox Ordinary of Polish Army.

In 2003 he earned a doctorate in theology from the Church’s history at the Christian Theological Academy, and on May 10, 2008, Bishop Miron was raised to the rank of archbishop.

May his memory be eternal!

Things You'll Never See in an Orthodox Church, Part 19

2010-04-12T23:25:00.001-04:00

I don't know what's more painful: watching an Elvis impersonator perform in church, or listening to the audience clap on the "1" and the "3"...

Soccer fans

2010-04-12T00:20:00.000-04:00

Here is another item for the "Types of Things You will Never See in the United States" file.

This gives me chills. It is a video that was taken recently at a soccer stadium in Russia. One group of fans is shouting and another is responding. What are they saying?
"Tastes great!" "Less filling!" ???
"Let's go Red Wings!" ???

No, they're shouting "Christ is Risen?" "Truly, He is Risen!"

"Christos voskrese!" "Voistinu voskrese!"

NPR: In Rare Instance, Greek Orthodox Easter Aligns With West

2010-04-09T16:27:00.011-04:00

"Well, this is a phenomenon that no one has in recorded history. Usually the dates of Easter either coincide every four years or they're one week behind or two weeks behind, accordingly. But this year and next year, 2011, is a phenomenon of the Easters coming together back to back. And this I think God's speaking to us. Now, if we don't act on this, he's not going to have too much patience with us because it's never going to happen again for 800 years."

Read transcript here

Botafumeiro

2010-04-09T16:14:00.000-04:00

Some of us were talking about this last weekend, so I thought I'd go ahead and post it. It's the famous incense pot called the "Botafumeiro," which, incidentally, is Spanish for "attractor of curious tourists." It is located in the Santiago de Compostela Cathedral in Spain (which, by the way, also houses the relics of some guy named St James.)

Orthodox church brings traditional Easter celebrations to the mountains

2010-04-09T13:07:00.000-04:00

From the WNC Sentinal

There are screens, projectors and cameras. Stages, lights and sound systems.

Churches that seem to double as concert halls. It’s an increasingly common sight.

In an age of technological enhancement, St Nicholas Orthodox Church may seem a bit untraditional, but only because it’s so deeply rooted in… tradition.

Incense. Saints. More candles than seats. And chanting… verses and prayers.

“It’s connected to the historical stream of Christianity, theology, belief and practice that has changed very little,” Fr. James Blomeley explained. “It’s entirely consistent now with what it was 1,000 or even 2,000 years ago.”

Before St Nicholas opened in Peachtree last August, the few Orthodox believers in the mountains would have to travel to Marietta or Chattanooga to attend services, Blairsville resident Van Crikis said.

Blomeley, the church’s priest, served as a deacon in an Atlanta parish for several years before being ordained last May. During the week he practices law in Murphy.

“I didn’t really know if there were orthodox up here,” he said. “The first Sunday I didn’t know if anyone would show up.”

He said he was surprised to see 20 locals attend the opening service. “They all thought they were the only orthodox in the area,” Blomeley explained. “They had no idea there was anybody else.”

For Holy Week the church held eight different services, actually fewer than the traditional full range, Blomeley said. “It is a lot of work, but for us Holy Week and Easter is just complete emersion,” he said. “When we actually get to Easter it really is the greatest of all feasts.”

Concluding a selective fast, the congregation gathered for bar-b-que at 2 a.m. Sunday morning.
“It was your usual church potluck,” Blomeley said… except for the time. About eight people attend on an average Sunday, Blomeley said, noting that it ranges to 20 on occasion. While most of the congregation is older, one family and some locals in their thirties attend.

“Yes, there is an emphasis nowdays on technology and immediacy and cultural relevence…but what I find is that for a lot of people there is a search not for the surface, but for the depth,” Blomeley said. “The candles, the incense… it speaks to a lot of people.”

Blomeley said that he hopes the parish could one day leave behind the quaint compartment it currently occupies at Peachtree Place and construct a standalone church.

Before that happens, however, the parish has to become financially sustainable. At this point contributions cover the basics and utilities, but Blomeley is serving without a salary.

“We have more people now than we really thought we would at this point,” he said. Fifty to one-hundred families is what you shoot for to become a real parish… If we could get to that point over five to ten years I’d be tickled.”

But no matter how much it grows, the services will stay the same.

“We’re not for everybody,” Blomeley said. “Some find their fullfillment in the technological aspect of services, but others find it in the timelessness.”

Orthodox Christians rejoice following Easter Vigil

2010-04-04T11:15:00.003-04:00

Over 5,000 people attended at the vigil in Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow, the Itar Tass news agency reported, citing the cathedral’s security. Among those present were the country’s leaders.

President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin arrived at the country’s main cathedral to join the congregants for the all-night Easter vigil.

The vigil started at about 11 p.m. The faithful lit their candles from the Holy Fire, which is transported every year especially from Jerusalem. Close to midnight the congregants joined in the sacred procession around the churches, carrying candles lit from the Holy Fire. The people then spoke the traditional declaration, “Christ has risen! Christ has risen indeed!”

Read the rest here.

From rt.com

Happy St Patrick's Day!*

2010-03-30T08:09:00.000-04:00

"Saint Patrick, the Apostle of the Irish, was seized from his native Britain by Irish marauders when he was sixteen years old. Though the son of a deacon and grandson of a priest, it was not until his captivity that he sought out the Lord with his whole heart. In his Confession, the testament he wrote towards the end of his life, he says, 'After I came to Ireland — every day I had to tend sheep, and many times a day I prayed — the love of God and His fear came to me more and more, and my faith was strengthened. And my spirit was so moved that in a single day I would say as many as a hundred prayers, and almost as many at night, and this even when I was staying in the woods and on the mountain; and I would rise for prayer before daylight, through snow, through frost, through rain, and I felt no harm."

After six years of slavery in Ireland, he was guided by God to make his escape, and afterwards struggled in the monastic life in Aesir in Gaul [now France], under the guidance of the holy Bishop Germanus. Many years later he was ordained bishop and sent to Ireland once again, about the year 432, to convert the Irish to Christ. His arduous labours bore so much fruit that within seven years, three bishops were sent from Gaul to help him shepherd his flock, 'my brethren and sons whom I have baptized in the Lord -- so many thousands of people,' he says in his Confession.

His apostolic work was not accomplished without much 'weariness and painfulness,' long journeys through difficult country, and many perils; he says his very life was in danger twelve times. When he came to Ireland, as its enlightener, it was a pagan country; when he ended his earthly life some thirty years later, about 461, the Faith of Christ was established in every corner." (Great Horologion)

The work of St Patrick and his brethren has been called the most successful single missionary venture in the history of the Church.

It is said of St Patrick that he chanted the entire Psalter every day.

From Holy Trinity Church

*Today is March 17th according to the patristic Julian calendar

Good enough for me...

2010-03-26T11:14:00.000-04:00

As you probably know, there are many points on which I take issue with Evangelical Protestantism. This is not one of them.
Enjoy...

Here's another version of the song by the Caravans

*I'm not inviting a discussion over whether or not the Christian Faith is a "religion" in the strictest sense. I think you get the point.

Hey, there's a kid in there!!!

2010-03-22T08:44:00.000-04:00

Orthodox Christians believe that baptism ought always to be done by full immersion. (In fact, βαπτίζω, from which the word "baptism" is derived, means to immerse.) They do not--as do most Christians who practice infant baptism--make an exception with infants. You won't catch an Orthodox priest sprinkling water on a baby and trying to pass it off as baptism. No sir. The baby goes all the way down into the water. Three times! Yeah, that's another thing. Orthodox Christians practice triple immersion. One time down for each person of the Trinity.

Photo courtesy of Christ the Savior Church, Chicago

St. Edward the Martyr, King of the English

2010-03-18T00:00:00.002-04:00

Edward was the eldest son of King Edgar the Peacemaker by his first wife, the beautiful Ethelflaeda Eneda (White-Duck). The lady died shortly after the birth of her son and, after her death, Edgar remarried Aelfthrith, daughter of Ealdorman Ordgar of Devonshire. She bore him two sons, Edmund, who died young, and Aethelred. Edward was thirteen years old when his father died in AD 975. An admirable youth, upright in all his dealings and fearing God, he was elected to the throne by the Witan, largely under the influence of St. Dunstan and Ealdorman Aethelwin of East Anglia.
On 18th March AD 978, when Edward was only sixteen, he was assassinated under controversial circumstances. In reality, this surrounded a magnetic power struggle, led by the Mercian anti-monastic party who favoured Edward's half-brother. However, legend tells a very different story. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle does not record the King's assassin, only that he was killed at eventide at Corfe Castle in Dorset. Henry of Huntingdon says that King Edward was killed by his own people. Florence of Worcester, that he was killed by his own people by order of his step-mother, Queen Aelfthrith. William of Malmesbury says he was killed by Ealdorman Aelfhere of Mercia; but in recording his death, Malmesbury also attributes the crime to Aelfthrith and tells the now traditionally accepted story:
Queen Aelfthrith hated Edward because he had been elected King when she had hoped her own son, Aethelred, would take the throne; and she plotted to have him murdered. One day, the young King was hunting near the Royal Palace of Corfe, in Dorset, where Queen Aelfthrith and Prince Aethelred were staying. Being weary and thirsty, King Edward turned away from his hunting party and rode off to drop in on them and take a rest. When he rode up to the palace gate, Aelfthrith herself came out to greet him with a kiss. The two were on friendly terms as far as the King knew and, without dismounting, he asked his step-mother for a drink. Queen Aelfthrith sent for a cup of wine and the exhausted Edward drank eagerly. But as he drank, Aelfthrith gave a sign to one of her servants, who stepped forward, drew his dagger and stabbed the King in the back! The King cried out in pain, but managed to set his spurs to his horse in an attempt to escape to the safety of his comrades. He slipped from his horse though and, with his leg caught in the stirrup, he was dragged along until the combination of the knife-wound and inflicted head injuries killed him.
Queen Aelfthrith sent out her men to follow the King's bloody trail and retrieve the body. She ordered it buried in Wareham Priory, but not in holy ground or with any Royal pomp. A light from heaven is later said to have shone over King Edward's humble grave and many miracles were reported there. As a good youth, unjustly and cruelly killed, people looked on him as a saint and called him Edward the Martyr. On 20th June AD 980, St. Dunstan translated the body to Shaftesbury Abbey. Relics excavated amongst the ruins, and believed to be his, were for many years the subject of a legal dispute. However, they now reside in the Eastern Orthodox Church in Brookwood (Surrey).

From EBK

See also:
Service to the Holy Martyr Edward, King of England

The Saint of Second Chances

2010-03-17T00:00:00.004-04:00

From Brits at their Best:

The patron saint of the Irish, Patrick he was born and raised in Britain until kidnapped by Irish pirates, and taken as a slave to Ireland.

Enslaved
Growing up in Britain at the end of the 4th century, Patrick did not give anyone the impression he would become a saint with a capital S. Then his life changed abruptly. A teenager, he was kidnapped by pirates and taken west across the sea, to be sold into slavery in Ireland.

He found himself living outside, herding sheep, cold and hungry and at the mercy of those who owned him. Out of desperation he returned to his childhood faith in Christ. For six years he survived, and prayed. One night he heard the voice of God telling him it was time to leave.

Escape
Patrick decided to go. He walked south. Incredibly no one stopped the runaway slave. He reached Wexford, but couldn't find a ship that would take him. Just before a ship carrying wolfhounds to Gaul shipped anchor, he was allowed to board. The sailors offered him their nipples to be kissed - a sign of welcome that Patrick found a little disconcerting.

They landed in Europe to discover desolation. It is speculated that tribes had recently crossed the frozen Rhine and devastated the Roman Empire.

A sunny sanctuary
Years later, still uncertain of his future but following his visionary inner voice, Patrick made his way across Gaul to the monastery on a sunny little island, now called St. Honorat, that lies in the Mediterranean not far from Cannes. Southern warmth brought him the scents of lavender and basil, lemon and roses. His six years of slavery in Ireland disappeared from his mind like a boat over the horizon.

At the monastery the monks maintained a civilised belief in books and in the siesta, spent in the stone coolness of the monastery's fountain-splashed interior. Patrick learned Latin, though not very well, and the stories and sayings of Christ by heart. He learned to preach, but like some modern graduate students he began to think he could live a companionable academic life, shielded from the hectic life outside, forever.

Dream visions
It was only in his dreams that the ship returned, and he saw the outstretched arms of the Irish imploring him to return, and heard their voices calling to him from across the water. Among those voices was one voice he could not forget, from his boyhood. But for a long time, fear kept him motionless.

He was a priest and a preacher approaching middle age when he had another visionary dream. He heard a voice in Ireland say, “He who has given his own soul for you, He it is who speaks in you. Come back to Eire and free us.”

There are people who ignore their visions and die filled with regrets. Patrick ignored his visions until he was strong enough to face them. He made the free but frightening decision to return to the people who had kidnapped and enslaved him, and preach the love of God. He faced violence, betrayal, church snobbery, and his own fears.

Return to Eire
All too aware of the dangers and his own modest abilities, he left the warm scents of the Mediterranean, the sun, and the sea, the easy comradeship and the library of books, and crossed the mountains to the north, travelling through the wilderness that was Gaul. He sailed over the turbulent northern waters, heading toward the cold, green island where there was not one book and where, fifteen years earlier, he had spent six years as a hungry, naked slave boy.

It was eary in the fifth century. The island rose on the horizon like the grey ship of captivity. This was the dreaded country of his servitude, but it was also the place where poverty and calamity have been better for me than riches.

Faced with assault and assassination, Patrick gave himself to God. That proved enough, though as he also observes, he had to give his whole self sincerely, since God was not enthusiastic about theatrical impersonation.

Patrick was said to have sung Faeth Fiadha, the Deer’s Cry as he travelled –

I arise today through the strength of heaven
light of sun,
radiance of moon,
splendour of fire,
speed of lightning
swiftness of wind,
depth of sea,
stability of earth,
firmness of rock.
I arise today through God's strength to pilot me. . .

Living as if God’s strength piloted him, he travelled around Ireland, talking about the gospel of Isu Mac De (the Gaelic for Jesus the son of God). and founding communities of fellowship.

Seeding community
Despite local hostility, his first community grew as he healed the sick, gave pastoral care, and preached. When Patrick was sure the community could survive, he travelled on with his crook-shaped staff. A few members from the first fellowship came with him to help him plant the second so the second community grew quickly, and Patrick could branch out and start a third and a fourth. He was attacked and, at least once, held captive. That he was not killed was due, he wrote simply, to “the Lord.”

His communities were a stunning turnaround in a land where men and women had often waged bloody tribal wars over the ownership of cattle. The reason for their change of heart is visible, even over the distance of many years. People experienced the gospel for themselves by becoming part of the vibrant and loving Christian community; and the existence of such communities was the living evidence for the truth proclaimed (Celtic Gifts, Robert Van de Weyer).

Attacking slavery
Patrick introduced people to a way of life whose love, fearlessness, and generosity he embodied. He was not afraid. He never hesitated to attack the accepted, profitable way of doing things if he thought it was wrong. The Greek playwright Euripides is the first man in recorded history to denounce slavery, that thing of evil, by its nature evil, forcing a man to submit to what no man should submit to. Patrick was the second or third to denounce slavery –

Patricide, fratricide! ravening wolves eating up the people of the Lord as if it were bread!. . .I beseech you earnestly, it is not right to pay court to such men nor to take food and drink in their company, nor is it right to accept their alms, until they by doing strict penance with shedding of tears make amends before God and free the servants of God. . .

According to the Oxford Dictionary, Germans and Celts called their kinfolk ‘free,’ a word that meant they were ‘dear’ to them and so had personal rights and liberty of action not given to slaves. Patrick declared that everyone was dear to God, and therefore everyone should be free. He created communities that defended and nurtured freedom out of his belief that this is what God wanted.

The Venerable Bede, writing in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, reported that the communities which Patrick founded in Ireland became havens of education for young English men. And a century after Patrick's death, Aidan brought learning and Christ's teachings of peace back to England, to strife-torn Northumbria.

At a time of year when the grey trees stand bare, throwing the shadows of their branches across the green grass, the starry blue flowers of the periwinkle open, and the dog-tooth violets lift nodding blooms on crook-shaped stems, Patrick laid down his crook-shaped staff. After he was gone, he seemed to those who knew him to be the best part of themselves, the slave who had returned to the place of his servitude to free slaves, the middle aged man who had dared to let his life be transformed, giving hope to us that it isn't too late to transform ours.
I arise today!

FOCUS North America

2010-03-15T17:12:00.001-04:00

From http://www.focusnorthamerica.org/

Assumption Orthodox Church on Channel 4

2010-03-10T09:32:00.000-05:00

(this is from December...sorry I'm a bit behind the times)

Kosovo

2010-03-09T22:18:00.001-05:00

One more slaughter of Christians about which the western world, including our own "Christian nation," does not seem to be bothered in the least.

This is a very interesting and well-made documentary. I recommend watching the entire thing.

Learn more:
Kosovo: The Land of the Living Past
Kosovo (CIA World Factbook)

Movies

2010-03-06T00:00:00.088-05:00

Tomorrow is the annual festival of self-indulgence and self-congratulation when the American public can watch eagerly as Hollywood heaps praises on itself and announces to the world its deep satisfaction with its own many artistic accomplishments.

Millions of Americans will be glued to their television, but my suggestion is this: Find something better to do. Kathryn and I will be attending the Pan-Orthodox Vespers service at St George's Cathedral in Southfield. This is something that local churches do every year on the five Sundays of Lent, and until recently I thought it was unique to the Detroit area, but I guess there are other cities that have it as well. Get on Google and find a Pan-Orthodox Vespers service in your area. It's a good way to see other churches and meet new people. And normally--as is typical with Orthodox Christians--they serve food after the service, which is never a bad thing.

If you can't attend one of these services, and must watch something on the tube, make it something worthwhile.

Pyotr Mamonov was the Russian Mick Jagger of his day. He was a rock star and an actor in Soviet Russia, but became a Christian in the 1990's and turned his back on fame and fortune. However, he continued his acting and portrayed a Russian monastic in a 2006 film called "The Island" ("Ostrov"). I watched this movie last year and strongly recommend it. Yes, it is in Russian. Yes, it has subtitles.

But it's great. It's funny and suspsenseful and haunting (and not as dark and scary as the trailer below makes it out to be), and it is the only film I have ever seen (there are probably others) that portrays what Orthodox Christians call a "fool for Christ."

The film won several awards, and in is acceptance speech, Mamanov "condemned his own popularity as idolatry and called on Russian women to stop having abortions." Imagine a Hollywood star doing that!

From the Internet Movie Database: "Somewhere in Northern Russia in a small Russian Orthodox monastery lives an unusual man whose bizarre conduct confuses his fellow monks, while others who visit the island believe that the man has the power to heal, exorcise demons and foretell the future."

Website

Debate

2010-03-01T00:00:00.000-05:00

I generally see very little evangelistic value in theological debates. Seldom do they change minds or soften hearts, and it seems to me that the outcome of a debate has more to do with the strength of the debator's skills than with the truth of his position.

If people come to the Orthodox Faith, it will not be because someone debated them into it. It will be because the Holy Spirit led them. One cannot be argued into the body of Christ. We would do better praying for those outside of the Faith rather than arguing with them. That's because the Christian Faith is not merely a collection of theological propositions. It is an actual partaking of the Divine Nature.

Yesterday, we remembered the great saint Gregory Palamas who defended the belief that our Faith is not only a mental exercise, but is experiential. That is, it is not something merely to be contemplated, analyzed, debated; it is to be lived.

That is why one doesn't generally see many Orthodox apologists and debaters, which is something that came as a bit of a surprise to me after having looked closely at the Roman Catholic Church, in which apologists abound. It is also--I suspect--why the Orthodox Church hasn't come up with an official "catechism" the way the Roman Catholic Church has: for fear of giving people the incorrect idea that our Faith can be reduced to words on a page.

That is also why infants are permitted to participate in the sacraments without being required to "understand" or articulate what is going on. In the Orthodox Church, it's often about doing first and then understanding: "A good understanding have all they that do his commandments."

Debates, I think, tend to support the "western" notion that understanding should come first.

But, darn it, they are entertaining!

Around the middle of October, I started following a debate between two bloggers, one Protestant, one Orthodox, on the issue of Sola Scriptura. The Protestant, Rhology from the Rhoblogy blog, naturally took the pro-Sola Scriptura position, while David, the Orthodox proprietor of the blog Pious Fabrications, took the opposite position. I have provided links below to all of the debate entries. Both debaters made some good, interesting points, but, in the end, I am still not persuaded that Sola Scriptura is a valid doctrine.
Sorry Rhology.

1a) Rhology's opening and position statement
1b) David's opening and position statement

2a) Rhology's 1st rebuttal
2b) David's 1st rebuttal

3a) Rhology's 2nd rebuttal
3b) David's 2nd rebuttal

Cross-Examination
4a) Rhology's question for David
4b) David's answer

5a) David's question for Rhology
5b) Rhology's answer

6a) Rhology's second question for David
6b) David's answer

7a) David's second question for Rhology
7b) Rhology's answer

8a) Rhology's third question for David
8b) David's answer

9a) David's third question for Rhology
9b) Rhology's answer

Closing Statements
10a) Rhology's
10b) David's

Here is a link to comment section.

St Raphael of Brooklyn رفائيل هواويني

2010-02-27T00:00:00.002-05:00

Proclamation on the Glorification of Our Holy Father Bishop RAPHAEL (30-Apr-2000)

Our holy Father Raphael was born in Syria in 1860 to pious Orthodox parents, Michael Hawaweeny and his second wife Mariam, the daughter of a priest of Damascus. The exact date of Raphael's birth is not known, but he estimated it to be on or near his Name Day, the Synaxis of the Holy Archangels Michael and Gabriel and all the Bodiless Powers of Heaven (November 8). Due to the violent persecution of Christians, at which time their parish priest, St Joseph of Damascus (July 10) and his companions were martyred, the Hawaweeny family was forced to flee to Beirut for their safety. It was here that the future saint first saw the light of day, and not in the city of his parents. Indeed, as the child's life unfolded, it was evident that he would have no continuing city in this world, but would seek the city which is to come (Heb 13:14). On the Feast of Theophany in 1861, he was baptized with the name Rafla, and later that spring the family was able to return to Damascus. The child attended elementary school, where he did very well, but in 1874 it appeared that Michael Hawaweeny would no longer be able to afford his son's tuition. Fortunately, help came from Deacon Athanasius Atallah (later Metropolitan of Homs), who recommended to Patriarch Hierotheus of Antioch that Rafla be accepted as a student of the Patriarchate in preparation for the priesthood. He was such a good student that he was selected to be a substitute teaching assistant in 1877. The following year he was appointed as a teacher of Arabic and Turkish. On March 28, 1879 he was tonsured as a monk by Patriarch Hierotheus, and served as His Beatitude's personal attendant. Since the Balamand Seminary had been closed in 1840, Patriarch JOACHIM III of Constantinople invited the Patriarch of Antioch to send at least one deserving student to study on scholarship at the School of Theology at Halki, and Saint Raphael was the one who was selected to go. On December 8, 1885 he was ordained to the diaconate at the school chapel. In July of 1886 the young deacon received his Certificate of T heology, and returned to his homeland in the hope of serving the Church there. Patriarch Gerasimus of Antioch was impressed with Deacon Raphael, and often took him along on his pastoral visitations of his parishes. When His Beatitude could not be present, Deacon Raphael was asked to preach the Word of God to the people. Deacon Raphael was not satisfied with the extent of his knowledge, and thirsted to learn even more. This did not stem from personal pride or ambition, but came from his fervent desire to benefit others. Truly, the words of King Solomon could be applied to Saint Raphael: "Give an opportunity to a wise man, and he will be wiser; instruct a just man, and he will receive more instruction" (Proverbs 9:9). Therefore, he asked Patriarch Gerasimus to permit him to do graduate studies at a school in Russia, promising to return and serve as the Patriarch's Russian-language secretary. The Patriarch gave his blessing, and Deacon Raphael was accepted as a student at the Theological Academy of Kiev. In 1889 Patriarch Gerasimus ordered the young deacon to take over as head of the Antiochian representation church in Moscow. He was ordained to the holy priesthood by Bishop SYLVESTER, the rector of the Academy, at the request of Patriarch Gerasimus. A month later, he was raised to the rank of archimandrite by Metropolitan IOANNIKII of Moscow, and was confirmed as head of the Antiochian representation church. After two years, Archimandrite Raphael was able to reduce the representation's 65,000 ruble debt by 15,000 rubles. He also arranged for twenty-four Syrian students to come to Russia to further their education, hoping that they would return to Syria and teach others. When Patriarch Gerasimus resigned in order to accept the See of Jerusalem, Archimandrite Raphael regarded this as an opportunity to free the Church of Antioch from its domination by foreign hierarchs. Burning with love for the Church of Antioch, and wishing to restore the administration of the church to its own native clergy and people, Archimandrite Raphael began a campaign of writing letters to some Antiochian bishops and influential laymen. He also wrote articles in the Russian press, drawing attention to the plight of Antioch. His courageous efforts did not meet with success, however, and there was a price to pay for his outspoken criticism. In November of 1891 Metropolitan SPYRIDON, a Greek Cypriot, was elected as Patriarch of Antioch. Many Arabs believed that he had purchased the election by distributing 10,000 lira to several notable people in Damascus. Archimandrite Raphael refused to commemorate the new Patriarch during services at the representation church. As a result, he was suspended from his priestly functions by Patriarch SPYRIDON. Saint Raphael accepted his suspension, but continued to write articles in Russian newspapers in defense of the Antiochian cause. The Patriarchs of Antioch, Constantinople, Alexandria, and Jerusalem successfully petitioned the Tsar to forbid Russian newspapers from publishing his articles. With this door closed to him, Saint Raphael began to publish his writings in book form. Eventually, Patriarch SPYRIDON wrote to the Assistant Overprocurator of Russia, a friend of Saint Raphael's, asking him to persuade Father Raphael to ask for the Patriarch's forgiveness. He did so, and the suspension was lifted. Saint Raphael was allowed to transfer from the jurisdiction of Antioch to the Church of Russia, and to remain there. He went to Kazan, taking a position as instructor in Arabic studies at the theological academy. He remained there until 1895 when he was invited by the Syrian Orthodox Benevolent Society of New York to come to that city to be the pastor of the Arab Orthodox community. When the holy Apostle Paul had a vision of a man entreating him to come to Macedonia to help them (Acts 16:10), he set off on a great missionary journey. When Saint Raphael heard of the needs of his countrymen who were scattered in a strange land, he crossed the ocean to labor in yet another foreign country. Archimandrite Raphael arrived in New York on November 2, 1895, and was welcomed by a delegation of Arab Christians who were awaiting their leader from Russia. On November 5, his first Sunday in America, he assisted Bishop NICHOLAS in serving the Divine Liturgy at the Russian church in New York city. Less than two weeks after his arrival, Archimandrite Raphael found a suitable place in lower Manhattan to set up a chapel, and furnished it with ecclesiastical items that he had brought with him from Russia. Bishop NICHOLAS blessed the new chapel, which was dedicated to St Nicholas of Myra. This zealous pastor remained in New York teaching, preaching, and celebrating the divine services for his parishioners. It was not long, however, before he heard of smaller communities of Arab Christians scattered throughout the length and breadth of North America. Since these Arab immigrants had no pastor to care for them, it was not surprising that some should turn to other denominations, or completely neglect their religious duties. This was an ongoing concern for Saint Raphael throughout the course of his ministry. Although he was not opposed to dialogue with non-Orthodox Christians, nor to friendly relations based on shared beliefs, Saint Raphael never lost sight of the clear line of distinction that exists between the Orthodox and the heterodox. He always insisted that any church unity must be based on the teachings of the seven Ecumenical Councils. The Orthodoxy of Saint Raphael's life and teaching was demonstrated over and over again by his words and his actions. He always upheld and defended the spotless Faith which was "delivered to the saints" (Jude 3). Although at first he did not understand the teachings of the heterodox, he later discovered how far removed they were from Orthodox doctrine. When he realized this, he took steps to protect his flock from harmful influences. He directed his people not to attend heterodox services lest they become confused by "divers and strange doctrines" (Heb 13:9). He believed it would be preferable for the head of the household to read the Hours at home from the Service Book when it was not possible to attend an Orthodox church. In the summer of 1896, Saint Raphael undertook the first of several pastoral journeys across the continent. He visited thirty cities between New York and San Francisco, seeking out the Master's lost sheep in cities, towns, and on isolated farms. He fed the spiritually hungry people with the Word of God in each place where he stopped. He performed marriages, baptisms, heard confessions, and celebrated the Divine Liturgy in the homes of the faithful where there was no church building. In other words, he zealously fulfilled his ministry as a preacher of the Gospel, enduring many hardships and afflictions, and he was watchful in all things concerning the care of his flock (2 Tim 4:5). In 1898, with the blessing of Bishop Nicholas, Saint Raphael produced his first book in the New World -- an Arabic language Service Book called The Book of True Consolation in the Divine Prayers. This book of liturgical services and prayers was very useful to priests in celebrating the divine services, and also to the people in their personal prayer life. The English version published by Archimandrite Seraphim Nassar is still being used today. Between May-November 1898, Saint Raphael set off on his second pastoral tour. During this trip he became convinced of the need for Arabic-speaking priests to serve in the new churches he had established. When he returned to New York, he made a report to Bishop NICHOLAS expressing these concerns. With Bishop NICHOLAS's blessing Saint Raphael was able to bring qualified priests from Syria. He also sought out educated laymen whom he could recommend for ordination. Both as an archimandrite and later as bishop, Saint Raphael would appoint pastors only after obtaining the blessing of the Russian hierarch who headed the American Mission. This was the normal state of affairs in America at the time. Archimandrite Raphael welcomed Bishop Tikhon when the latter replaced Bishop NICHOLAS as the ruling bishop in America. On December 15, Saint Tikhon came to serve the Liturgy at the Syrian church of St Nicholas. Raphael told his people that their new Archpastor was one who "has been sent here to tend the flock of Christ -- Russians, Slavs, Syro-Arabs, and Greeks -- which is scattered across the entire North American continent." At that time, of course, there were no parallel jurisdictions based on nationality. The Church united those of diverse backgrounds under the omophorion of the Russian Archbishop. This was the norm until the Russian Revolution disrupted church life in Russia, and also in America. In March of 1899, Saint Raphael received permission from Bishop Tikhon to start collecting funds for a cemetery, and for building a new church to replace the chapel which was located in an old building on a dirty street. In the spring he left on another pastoral tour of forty-three cities and towns. Traveling by land and sea, and undeterred by the obstacles and difficulties before him, he spent seven months in the northeastern, southern, and midwestern regions of the United States. Saint Raphael ministered to Greeks and Russians as well as Arabs, performing weddings and baptisms, and regularizing the weddings of Orthodox people who had been married by non-Orthodox clergy. He also chrismated some children who had been baptized by Catholic priests. In Johnstown, PA he reconciled those whose personal enmity threatened to divide the Arabic community. Although civil courts had been unable to make peace, Saint Raphael restored calm and put an end to the bitter feud. While in Johnstown, he received a telegram informing him that Metropolitan Meletios (Doumani), had been elected Patriarch of Antioch. With great joy St Raphael told his people that for the first time in 168 years, a native Arab had been chosen as primate of the Antiochian Church. After the new Patriarch had been installed, Archimandrite Raphael was proposed to succeed Meletios as Metropolitan of Latakia. The Patriarch, however, stated that the Holy Synod could not elect Father Raphael because of his important work in America. In 1901, Metropolitan GABRIEL of Beirut wrote to Archimandrite Raphael asking him to be his auxiliary bishop, but he declined, saying that he could not leave his American flock. First, he wanted to build a permanent church, and to acquire a parish cemetery. The latter goal was achieved in August of 1901 when Father Raphael purchased a section of Mt Olivet cemetery on Long Island. In December of 1901 Archimandrite Raphael was elected as Bishop of Zahleh. Patriarch Meletios sent a telegram congratulating him and asking him to return. Father Raphael thanked the Patriarch, but again declined higher office. He said that he wished to complete the project of building a temple for the Syrian community in New York. The following year, he bought an existing church building on Pacific St in Brooklyn, and had it remodeled for Orthodox worship. Bishop Tikhon consecrated the church to the great joy of the faithful in attendance. Thus, Saint Raphael's second major project was finished. Since the number of parishes within the Diocese of North America was growing, Bishop Tikhon found it impossible to visit all of them. The diocese had to be reorganized in order to administer it more efficiently. Therefore, Bishop Tikhon submitted a plan to the Russian Holy Synod which would transfer the See from San Francisco to New York because most parishes and individuals were concentrated in the east. Since various ethnic groups required special attention and pastoral leadership, Bishop Tikhon proposed that Archimandrite Raphael be made his second vicar bishop (the Bishop of Alaska would be his first). In 1903, the Holy Synod of Russia unanimously elected Archimandrite Raphael to be the Bishop of Brooklyn while retaining him as head of the Syro-Arab Orthodox Mission in North America. The Holy Synod announced the election to Patriarch Meletios, who was pleased by their decision. Bishop Tikhon wrote to Saint Raphael to inform him of his election, and Father Raphael sent him a letter of acceptance. Meanwhile, Fr Innocent Pustynsky was consecrated as Tikhon's first auxiliary bishop at St Petersburg's cathedral of Our Lady of Kazan. On the third Sunday of Lent in 1904, Saint Raphael became the first Orthodox bishop to be consecrated on American soil. Bishop Tikhon and Bishop Innocent performed the service at St Nicholas Cathedral in Brooklyn. The new bishop's vestments were a gift from Tsar Nicholas II. Following his consecration, Bishop Raphael continued his pastoral labors, ordaining priests and assigning them to parishes, and helping Bishop Tikhon in the administration of the diocese. At the end of 1904, Bishop Raphael announced his intention to publish a magazine called Al-Kalimat (The Word) as the official publication of the Syro-Arab mission. This would help to link the people and parishes of his diocese more closely together. Bishop Raphael knew that he could not visit all Orthodox Christians across North America in person, but through the ministry of the printed word, he could preach the word of salvation even to people he would never meet. The content was to be spiritual, moral, and churchly so that the magazine could reinforce people in their Faith. The Word would focus on five primary topics: dogmatic truths, ethical teaching, historical and contemporary ecclesiastical subjects, a chronicle of baptisms, weddings, etc., and official pronouncements. The first issue was printed in January 1905, and Saint Raphael considered this milestone as one equal in importance to the acquisition of St Nicholas Cathedral and the parish cemetery. In July of 1905 Bishop Raphael consecrated the grounds for St Tikhon's Monastery and blessed the orphanage at South Canaan, PA. Three days later, he presided at a conference of diocesan clergy at Old Forge, PA, because Archbishop Tikhon was in San Francisco. Among the clergy in attendance were three who would also be numbered among the saints: Fr ALEXIS Toth, Fr Alexander Hotovitzky, and Fr John Kochurov (the last two would die as martyrs in Russia). For the next ten years Bishop Raphael tended his growing flock. With the growth of his New York community came an increase in the number of children, and he was concerned about their future. He wanted to establish an evening school to educate them in a Christian atmosphere, because the future of the Church in this country depended upon the instruction of the youth. Children who did not speak Arabic were already going to non-Orthodox churches where Sunday school classes were conducted in English. Bishop Raphael saw the absolute necessity for using English in worship and in education for the future progress of the Syro-Arab Mission. Taking heed of St Paul's words to pray in a language that people understood (1 Cor.14:15-19), St Raphael recommended the use of the Service Book of the Holy Orthodox Catholic Apostolic Church (translated by Isabel Hapgood) in all of his parishes. In March of 1907 Saint Tikhon returned to Russia and was replaced by Archbishop PLATON. Once again St Raphael was considered for episcopal office in Syria, being nominated to succeed Patriarch GREGORY as Metropolitan of Tripoli in 1908. The Holy Synod of Antioch removed Bishop Raphael's name from the list of candidates, citing various canons which forbid a bishop being transferred from one city to another. On the Sunday of Orthodoxy in 1911, Bishop Raphael was honored for his fifteen years of pastoral ministry in America. Archbishop PLATON presented him with a silver-covered icon of Christ and praised him for his work. In his humility, Bishop Raphael could not understand why he should be honored merely for doing his duty (Luke 17:10). He considered himself an "unworthy servant," yet he did perfectly the work that fell to him (St Ignatius of Antioch, Letter to the Ephesians). Toward the end of 1912, Bishop Raphael became ill while working in his office. Doctors diagnosed him with a heart ailment that eventually caused his death. After two weeks he felt strong enough to celebrate the Liturgy in his cathedral. In 1913-1914 this missionary bishop continued to make pastoral visitations to various cities. In 1915 he fell ill again and spent two months at home, bearing his illness with patience. At 12:40 AM on February 14/27 he rested from his labors. They called him, but he did not answer. They shook him, but he was gone. From his youth, Saint Raphael's greatest joy was to serve the Church. When he came to America, he found his people scattered abroad, and he called them to unity. He never neglected his flock, but traveled throughout America, Canada, and Mexico in search of them so that he might care for them. He kept them from straying into strange pastures, and he protected them from spiritual harm. During twenty years of faithful ministry he nurtured them and helped them to grow. At the time of his death, the Syro-Arab Mission had thirty parishes with 25,000 faithful. He was also a scholar, and the author of several books. He wrote many, if not most, of the articles that appeared in The Word. He served his own Arabic community, and also reached out to Greeks and Russians, speaking to them in their own language. He became fluent in English, and encouraged its use in church services and educational programs. St Raphael came into contact with all sorts of people, and was a gentle father to them. He gained their love and respect by first loving them, and also through his charming personality and excellent character. He was always kind, merciful, and condescending with others, but was strict with himself. He accomplished many good things during his earthly life, and now he joins the holy angels in offering ceaseless prayer and praise to God. Through the prayers of the holy Bishop Raphael, may we also be made worthy of the heavenly Kingdom. Amen.

From OCA.org

For more information:
Making Orthodoxy Real

Washington

2010-02-22T00:00:00.001-05:00

I recently read a vicious and quite uninformed criticism of this image. It's difficult to see, but it is a Renaissance painting depicting the coronation of the Virgin Mary in heaven as described in Revelation 12.

I found this criticism on an anti-Catholic website that was so ugly, uncharitable and filled with falsehoods and misrepresentations of Roman Catholic and Orthodox beliefs and practices, that I have chosen not even to provide a link. It's simply not worth directing people there.

The website uses words like "blasphemous" and "abominable," to describe images of Mary. It is sad, really, that people see an image of someone we love and admire, and whose example we strive to emulate, and they immediately charge blasphemy and idolatry.

So, with that in mind, I would like to remember the the 278th anniversary of the birth of our first president by posting some pictures not entirely unlike the one above. In fact, if one were to superimpose the Virgin Mary's face over that of Mr Washington, one might elicit charges of idolatry.

I invite my readers to consider whether the image above is really any more objectionable than those that follow:

This last image appears in the eye of the Capitol rotunda in Washington D.C. It is called "The Apotheosis of Washington." Apotheosis literally means "deification."

Surgery of the Soul

2010-02-21T00:00:00.001-05:00

I may not have many books, nor much time to read, but, strangled with thoughts, as if with thorns, I come into the common surgery [hospital, doctor's office] of the soul, the church; the luster of the painting draws me to vision and delights my sight like a meadow and imperceptibly introduces my soul to the glory of God. I have seen the perseverance of the martyr, the recompense of the crowns, and as if by fire I am eagerly kindled to zeal, and falling down I venerate God through the martyr and I receive salvation.

- St. John of Damascus: Three Treatises on the Divine Images, tr. Fr. Andrew Louth (Crestwood, NY: SVS Press, 2003)

Courtesy of Orrologion

Triumph of Orthodoxy

2010-02-20T00:00:00.001-05:00

In modern American culture, an "iconoclast" is someone who is celebrated as a "creative visionary," an innovator, a hero, a trailblazer; someone whose boldness and foresight we are to admire and emulate.

But, in Christianity an iconoclast is a heretic.

A controversy arose in the eighth century regarding the question of whether or not imagery was appropriate in Christian worship. Those who opposed the use of religious images were known as iconoclasts, which means "image smashers." This controvery stirred up so much trouble that the Church convened a council of bishops to settle the matter. They determined that the use of images is not only acceptable but necessary because, for one thing, it affirms the Incarnation.* They also anathematized those who reject the use of religious imagery. That is, they condemned their teaching as heresy.**

(Like other major heresies of the early Church, iconoclasm once again reared its head during the Protestant Reformation.)

The Church celebrates and reaffirms its use of holy images on the first Sunday of Lent (tomorrow), which is known as the Sunday of the Triumph of Orthodoxy.

The following video, which I boosted from the Pious Fabrications blog, provides a brief examination of holy icons and their use within the Orthodox devotional life.

For further reading:
Sunday of Orthodoxy (OrthodoxWiki)
Sunday of Orthodoxy (Antiochian Archdiocese)
The Sunday of Orthodoxy and the Current State of Affairs
Sunday of Orthodoxy (Glory to God for All Things blog)
Sermon on the Sunday of Orthodoxy (Abp Averky)
Sermon on the Sunday of Orthodoxy (Schmemann)
What is Orthodoxy? (orrologian blog)

* "...we keep unchanged all the ecclesiastical traditions handed down to us, whether in writing or verbally, one of which is the making of pictorial representations, agreeable to the history of the preaching of the Gospel, a tradition useful in many respects, but especially in this, that so the incarnation of the Word of God is shown forth as real and not merely phantastic, for these have mutual indications and without doubt have also mutual significations.

"We, therefore, following the royal pathway and the divinely inspired authority of our Holy Fathers and the traditions of the Catholic Church (for, as we all know, the Holy Spirit indwells her), define with all certitude and accuracy that just as the figure of the precious and life-giving Cross, so also the venerable and holy images, as well in painting and mosaic as of other fit materials, should be set forth in the holy churches of God, and on the sacred vessels and on the vestments and on hangings and in pictures both in houses and by the wayside, to wit, the figure of our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ, of our spotless Lady, the Mother of God, of the honourable Angels, of all Saints and of all pious people. For by so much more frequently as they are seen in artistic representation, by so much more readily are men lifted up to the memory of their prototypes, and to a longing after them; and to these should be given due salutation and honourable reverence (ἀσπασμὸν καὶ τιμητικὴν προσκύνησιν), not indeed that true worship of faith (λατρείαν) which pertains alone to the divine nature; but to these, as to the figure of the precious and life-giving Cross and to the Book of the Gospels and to the other holy objects, incense and lights may be offered according to ancient pious custom. For the honour which is paid to the image passes on to that which the image represents, and he who reveres the image reveres in it the subject represented."

** "Those, therefore who dare to think or teach otherwise, or as wicked heretics to spurn the traditions of the Church and to invent some novelty, or else to reject some of those things which the Church hath received (e.g., the Book of the Gospels, or the image of the cross, or the pictorial icons, or the holy reliques of a martyr), or evilly and sharply to devise anything subversive of the lawful traditions of the Catholic Church or to turn to common uses the sacred vessels or the venerable monasteries, if they be Bishops or Clerics, we command that they be deposed; if religious or laics, that they be cut off from communion.

"This is the faith of the Apostles, this is the faith of the orthodox, this is the faith which hath made firm the whole world. Believing in one God, to be celebrated in Trinity, we salute the honourable images! Those who do not so hold, let them be anathema. Those who do not thus think, let them be driven far away from the Church. For we follow the most ancient legislation of the Catholic Church. We keep the laws of the Fathers. We anathematize those who add anything to or take anything away from the Catholic Church. We anathematize the introduced novelty of the revilers of Christians. We salute the venerable images. We place under anathema those who do not do this. Anathema to them who presume to apply to the venerable images the things said in Holy Scripture about idols. Anathema to those who do not salute the holy and venerable images. Anathema to those who call the sacred images idols. Anathema to those who say that Christians resort to the sacred images as to gods. Anathema to those who say that any other delivered us from idols except Christ our God. Anathema to those who dare to say that at any time the Catholic Church received idols." (The Decree of the Holy, Great, Ecumenical Synod, the Second of Nicaea)

Wife of televangelist Benny Hinn files for divorce

2010-02-19T17:02:00.000-05:00

The news here, in my opinion, isn't that she has filed for divorce, but that she managed to stay married to this nut for thirty years!!!

From the LA Times:

The wife of faith healer and televangelist Benny Hinn has filed for divorce in Orange County Superior Court.

The couple married in 1979 and have three daughters and a son, according to a biography on posted on the website for Benny Hinn Ministries.

The silver-haired Hinn is one of the world's most financially successful faith healers.

He lives in a multimillon-dollar home near Salt Creek Beach Park in Dana Point. And he has flown around the world in a leased Gulfstream jet to lead his "Miracle Crusades," during which tens of thousands of followers have packed stadiums and auditoriums to hear Hinn preach about the Gospel and God's healing powers.

Read the rest here.

Septuagint v. Masoretic

2010-02-18T00:00:00.001-05:00

From Mystagogy:

Guns, Lies and Forgeries: A Bible Story
By Robert E. Reis

Once upon a time there was a tribe living in the Middle East that had a collection of sacred texts written in Hebrew, Chaldean and Aramaic. It is the nature of sacred texts to be venerated and transmitted from generation to generation unaltered.

As time passed members of this tribe emigrated to areas where Hebrew and Aramaic and Chaldean were not spoken. A large community settled and prospered in the city of Alexandria in Egypt. Greek replaced their tribal language. They needed an accurate translation of their venerated documents into Greek.

Around 250 B.C. seventy rabbis translated the sacred texts into Greek. This translation was not a bootleg edition. The project was approved by the High Priest and the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem. The Septuagint, the translation of the seventy, was an official document.

A Hebrew Bible exists today. It is used by Jews everywhere. It is called the Masoretic text. It was compiled around 700 A.D. It is almost one thousand years newer than the Septuagint. The rabbis who compiled the Masoretic text were not accountable to the High Priest in Jerusalem. There no longer was a High Priest. The rabbis who compiled the Masoretic text were not accountable to the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem. There no longer was a Sanhedrin.

The Septuagint predates the first appearance of the Masoretic text by almost ten centuries. The Septuagint is based upon Hebrew texts at least twelve centuries older than the texts upon which the Masoretic version is based. .Yet, modern Christian translations of the Old Testament rely on the Masoretic Text, not the Septuagint.

Where is the problem?

Most of the quotations from the Old Testament in the New Testament used the Septuagint as their primary source. The integrity and truthfulness of the [New Testament] is completely dependant on the Septuagint being a truthful translation. Discredit the Septuagint and there is no New Testament.

There was no controversy about the integrity of the Septuagint from 250 B.C. until 135 A. D.

What had happened to provoke dissatisfaction with the Septuagint among the Jews?

Annas and Caiphas and the Sanhedrin had rejected the messianic claims of Jesus. The New Testament documents had been written and were circulating by A.D. 70. The Jews knew that the credibility of the Christian Gospels depended on the credibility of the Septuagint. Something had to be done.

Around 95 A.D. Rabbi Akiva, who later proclaimed Bar Kochba as the messiah, hired a man named Aquila to translate a Hebrew to Greek version of the Old Testament that would undermine the messianic claims of Jesus found in the Septuagint. Some scholars believe that the Masoretic text was based in part on this tendentious translation by Aquila.

How is the Masoretic text different from the Septuagint?

Psalm 22:16 the word “pierced” has been replaced by “lion”.

Psalm 145: 13 omitted entirely.

Isaiah 53:11 the word “light” is omitted.

On 134 occasions the Tetragrammaton, the name of God, has been replaced by “Adonai”.

Psalm 151 was omitted entirely. (It is now omitted by almost all Christian Bibles!)

Exodus 1: The number 75 replaced by 70

Genesis 10:24 some generations removed.

Deuteronomy 32:8 “Angels Of Elohim” replaced with “children of Israel.”

Jeremiah 10 verses 6 and 7 have been added in the Masoretic.

Psalm 96:10 “Say among the nations, YHWH reigns from the wood” omitted.

Isaiah 19:18 “city of righteousness” changed to the “city of the sun” or in some versions “the city of destruction.”

The Masoretic scribes purposely and willfully rearranged the original chapter order in the prophetic Book of Daniel, so that the chapters make no sense chronologically.

Isaiah 61:1 “recovery of sight to the blind.”. Omitted.

In Psalm 40:6 “a body you have prepared for me” was replaced by “you opened my ears.”

Deuteronomy 32:43 ‘Let all the messengers of Elohim worship him.’” Omitted.

Genesis 4:8: “Let us go into the field” is omitted.

Deuteronomy 32:43. Moses’ song is shortened.

Isaiah 53 contains 10 spelling differences, 4 stylistic changes and 3 missing letters for light in verse 11, for a total of 17 differences.

Isaiah 7:14. “Virgin” replaced by “young woman.”

(When Aquila made his Greek translation of the Old Testament at the behest of Rabbi Akiva, he changed the Septuagint’s “virgin” into “young woman”. The Masoretic compilers may have followed his lead.)

The Masoretic text differs from the Septuagint in hundreds of places.How do we know which text is accurate?

The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered just after World War II.

According to carbon dating, textual analysis, and handwriting analysis the documents were written at various times between the middle of the 2nd century BC and the 1st century AD. There are fragments from all of the books of the Hebrew Bible fragments except the Book of Esther and the Book of Nehemiah.

In addition an independent Aramaic translation of the Hebrew Bible exists, the Peshitta.Control of the Dead Sea Scrolls was a military objective of Israelis. It was achieved by their victory in the Six Days War.

The publication of the scrolls slowed to a trickle.

After 1971, the international team even refused to allow the publication of photographs of the material. They excluded scholars who wanted to make independent evaluations.

The embargo was not broken until 1991.An addition to the Dead Sea Scrolls, scholars can use the Peshitta to decide between the Masoretic text and the Septuagint.I have given examples above of some of the places the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Peshitta, and the Septuagint agree.

The Masoretic Text is part of a tradition that began with Rabbi Akiva. Rabbis rewrote the Jewish Bible to destroy the credibility of the New Testament.

The Hebrew versions of the Old Testament have been used to proclaim scores of “messiahs” . The Septuagint was only used once.

St. Juliana Sisterhood

2010-02-15T16:11:00.000-05:00

I recently became aware of a blog by a group called the St. Juliana Sisterhood, which is associated with St Nicholas Church near Dallas. The idea of the blog is "to gather fasting and feasting recipes."

I can hardly wait to get home and give that chickpea curry recipe a try!

St Bridget of Kildare

2010-02-14T00:00:00.000-05:00

Her name is also spelled Brigit or Bridget; she is considered, equally with St Patrick (March 17), patroness of Ireland. She was born in Ulster of a noble Irish family which had been converted by St Patrick. She was uncommonly beautiful, and her father planned to marry her to the King of Ulster. But at the age of sixteen she asked her Lord Jesus Christ to make her unattractive, so that no one would marry her and she could devote herself to Him alone. Soon she lost an eye and was allowed to enter a monastery. On the day that she took monastic vows, she was miraculously healed and her original beauty restored.
Near Dublin she built herself a cell under an oak tree, which was called Kill-dara, or Cell of the Oak. Soon seven other young women joined her and established the monastery of Kill-dara, which in time became the cathedral city of Kildare. The monastery grew rapidly and became a double monastery with both men's and women's settlements, with the Abbess ranking above the Abbot; from it several other monasteries were planted throughout Ireland. (Combined men's and women's monastic communities are virtually unknown in the east, but were common in the golden age of the Irish Church).
The Saint predicted the day of her death and fell asleep in peace in 524, leaving a monastic Rule to govern all the monasteries under her care. During the Middle Ages her veneration spread throughout Europe.

From Holy Trinity Church, Baltimore

O Ye Ice and Cold, Bless Ye the Lord!

2010-02-13T14:48:00.004-05:00

Even though we have lately been bundling up against what feels like cold, the weather here in Baghdad has been pretty mild. No snow or frost, very little rain. But we do get news of the snow storms that have pummelled much of the eastern U.S. Apparently the weather back home has caused a lot of trouble for a lot of people. As difficult as is may seem to those suffering the inconvenience of severe winter weather, the Lord can and does use even the ice and snow for His glory. The prayer below, a portion of the book of Daniel that has, unfortunately, been removed from the abbreviated Protestant Old Testament, reminds us of this fact.

O every shower and dew, bless ye the Lord;

O all ye winds, bless ye the Lord!

O ye fire and heat, bless ye the Lord;

O ye winter and summer, bless ye the Lord!

O ye dews and storms of snow, bless ye the Lord;

O ye nights and days, bless ye the Lord!

O ye light and darkness, bless ye the Lord;

O ye ice and cold, bless ye the Lord!

O ye frost and snow, bless ye the Lord;

O ye lightnings and clouds, bless ye the Lord!

O let the earth bless the Lord;

Praise and exalt him above all for ever!

("Prayer of the Three Young Men," from Daniel 3.35-66, LXX)

Forgiveness Sunday

2010-02-13T14:12:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow is Forgiveness Sunday in the Orthodox Church. It is the final Sunday before the beginning of Great Lent. Immediately after the Vespers service on the evening of Forgiveness Sunday, every person in the church--beginning with the head priest--bows down to the floor before every other person present and begs for their forgiveness for any transgression, any insult, any slight, any wrong committed, whether in knowledge or in ignorance.

I participated in this last year for the first time, and if I had a hint of any remaining suspicion that Orthodox Christianity wasn't for real, it evaporated that night. Aside from my baptism/chrismation, it was the most powerful and humbling thing I had experienced in my Christian life. There were many tears and embraces, and it set the tone for the long and challenging period of repentance that was to follow.

I'm sorry I won't be there to participate again this year in Forgiveness Sunday Vespers. Even so, I plan to begin Lent on Monday with everyone else to the extent that I am able. With that in mind, I would like to offer to those of my readers to whom it applies, my sincerest, most heartfelt apologies for any wrong to have done them, intentionally or unintentionally, whether in knowledge or in ignorance.

Forgive me, a sinner.

Forgiveness Sunday (OrthodoxWiki)
The Fourth Sunday of the Triodion Period: Sunday of Forgiveness (Cheesefare Sunday)
Questions on Forgiveness Sunday

Sanctus Valentinus

2010-02-13T12:42:00.003-05:00

Before Valentine's Day became a celebration of the insipid and the raunchy, it was an occasion to remember the martyrdom of a bishop of the Orthodox Church. The following is from a website called the Struggler:

Yes, Virginia, there was and is a real Saint Valentine who as an early Christian martyr has taken his place in the heavenly mansions prepared by the Savior for those who love Him. He lived in Rome and so long ago when persecutions racked the Church of Christ, that virtually nothing is known of his earthly life.

Given that his name has unfortunately also been conferred upon tokens and practices that are being abused by people today, it seems important that we attempt to discover some overriding element of spiritual truth in the legend about him that has come down to us.

Read the rest here

One Nation, Under God

2010-02-12T15:49:00.003-05:00

A couple weeks ago I wrote something to the effect that our nation was founded on Enlightenment, rather than Judeo-Christian, principles, by deists, rather than by devout Christians. Naturally, not everyone agrees with that assessment.

"[T]he nation’s Christian conservative activists...hold that the United States was founded by devout Christians and according to biblical precepts...When they proclaim that the United States is a “Christian nation,” they are not referring to the percentage of the population that ticks a certain box in a survey or census but to the country’s roots and the intent of the founders."

+++

"'...Christianity has had a deep impact on our system. The men who wrote the Constitution were Christians who knew the Bible. Our idea of individual rights comes from the Bible. The Western development of the free-market system owes a lot to biblical principles."

+++

"For [Texas state board of education member Imet Don] McLeroy, separation of church and state is a myth perpetrated by secular liberals."

+++

"'Many of us recognize that Judeo-Christian principles were the basis of our country and that many of our founding documents had a basis in Scripture. As we try to promote a better understanding of the Constitution, federalism, the separation of the branches of government, the basic rights guaranteed in the Bill of Rights, I think it will become evident to students that the founders had a religious motivation.'"

+++

"One recurring theme during the process of revising the social-studies guidelines was the desire of the board to stress the concept of American exceptionalism, and the Christian bloc has repeatedly emphasized that Christianity should be portrayed as the driving force behind what makes America great."

Read the rest here.

Андре́й Рублёв

2010-02-11T00:00:00.011-05:00

On this day, the birthday of my brother Andrew, the Church celebrates the feast of another Andrew: the fifteenth-century Russian iconographer Andrei Rublev.*

St Andrei was a monk from Holy Trinity Monastery near Moscow who is famous for having painted many beautiful icons including his most famous work, his ubiquitous iconographic representation of the Holy Trinity, picture above (click on it for a high-resolution image). In 1966, Russian filmakers filmed a biographical account of his life, which was banned by Soviet authorities unitl the 1970s. Read more about the film and view the trailer here: Tarkovsky's "Andrei Rublev"

St Andrei's Trinity icon has been called the "most perfect of all Russian icons and perhaps the most perfect of all the icons ever painted." John Sanidopoulos, author of the article cited above writes that

"The icon of the Holy Trinity is highly praised for its pure representation of Orthodox trinitarian theology. Rublev's genius comes in his presentation of the one Christian God in three hypostases, or persons. The three hypostases of the Holy Trinity - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - are depicted as equal, yet unique. Rublev's perfect placement of the three persons allows for a feeling of union between the three, all acknowledging each other, while a symbol of the eucharist, the life they have given the world, rests on a table between them. Between them also exists space in which the viewer of the icon almost seems called to enter by the position of the three persons."

Click here for an explanation of the icon's symbolism.

For a further examination of the icon, see the article "The Spirituality of Andrei Rublev’s Icon of the Holy Trinity."

*He is also remembered on July 17/4.

Fasting

2010-02-09T00:23:00.000-05:00

Great Lent begins in less than a week (Monday the 15th). For those of my readers who don't know, Lent is a period of intense preparation; a time when we clean out the cobwebs and refocus on Christ. It involves many hours of prayer, church services several times a week, and much self denial. This last part is challenging for me because it involves fasting, which I find very difficult. But incredibly rewarding. I can't exaplain it. You have to experience it for yourself.

The following is from the blog Gladsome Light Dialogues:

The idea that any Westerner has about fasting is strongly linked with renunciation, with giving-up, with sacrificing something for God. In the Eastern Orthodox Church however, fasting achieves a much richer meaning. Fasting is not only about giving-up, but it is actually more about gaining, about being able to reach things that are possible only through this spiritual exercise.

In a legalistic understanding of salvation some believe that Christ has come on earth to fulfill a duty, to repair an offense that man has brought unto God. His sacrifice on the Cross satisfies this need and mankind enters again in God’s favors. From this perspective fasting is a similar symbol: a personal sacrifice that one makes to step back into God’s grace. This can be anything ranging from giving up chocolate to abstaining from Facebook for the Lenten period. But such frivolous renunciations really don’t cut it into the genuine meaning of fasting. God doesn’t need any of these sacrifices as He does not need the whole burnt offering of the Old Testament anymore. It is us, not God, who need the fasting rule.

Reducing the fasting to a symbol, to a mere idea of fasting, the entire exercise of Great Lent is perverted. Fasting becomes a theoretical notion that can be achieved through an act that involves little or no effort because, at the end, is not the fasting that is important, but only the idea of fasting. This intellectual reduction is yet another symptom of our brokedness, of the ontological separation between mind and heart. The mind creates an entire new reality that we confuse many times with the true authenticity of existence that only a heart open to God can see.

In this world, made-up by our minds saturated with secular values, the importance of the complete involvement of the body in fasting is forgotten, because for the mind a symbol is enough. But man does not exist in a fantasy of the mind, but lives in the real world, as a true person, body and souls, both physical and spiritual.

Christ came to save the world not by spreading only the idea of salvation, but coming down Himself, taking body from the Virgin Mary and physically becoming one of us; not a ghost, not a spirit, but flesh and bones. His death on the cross was not a symbol, but a painful reality. His resurrection was not a simple story full of morality, but the defining moment of a new stage in human existence. By reducing everything to symbols we end up living in our minds and missing genuine life.

In the Orthodox understanding man is utterly aware that living in a physical world, with a corrupted and fallen nature, the body is subject to passions that affect the state of his entire being. Controlling the body through fasting directs the entire human being towards God, because “a body subdued by fasting brings the human spirit freedom, strength, sobriety, purity, and keen discernment.” (St. Ignatiy Brianchaninov). In a paradoxical way by starving the body the entire human being is nourished spiritually and is able to “ascend on high, to contemplate lofty things and to put the heavenly higher than the pleasant and pleasurable things of life.” (St. John Chrysostom).

We don’t want however to reduce the experience of fasting to a mere vegetarian diet. The Great Lent is a period of total transformation, of metanoia, as the Greek fathers call it. The faster should strive to change his or hers entire way of life, redirecting priorities, seeking new avenues to God, striving for perfection in Christ. As St. Basil the Great says “True fasting lies in rejecting evil, holding one’s tongue, suppressing one’s hatred, and banishing one’s lust, evil words, lying, and betrayal of vows.”

From this perspective we can truly say, paraphrasing St. John Chrysostom, that fasting of the body is a feast for the soul. A soul liberated from the weight of an overfed body and nourished with the manna of virtues can reach into the spiritual heights, free of the passions that drag it to the ground. Such a soul can pray more, can forgive more, can love more. Fasting is not a simple renunciation but an exercise of love, as salvation is not an honor satisfying sacrifice but the greatest act of love ever seen.

Martyr Agatha of Palermo in Sicily

2010-02-05T00:00:00.002-05:00

The Holy Virgin Martyr Agatha was the fifteen-year-old daughter of rich and respected Christian parents from the city of Palermo (formerly Panormos) in Sicily. During the persecution under the emperor Decius (249-251), the city prefect of Catania, Quintianus, having heard about Agatha's wealth and beauty, sent his soldiers after her to bring her to trial as a Christian.

At Catania they housed the saint with a certain rich woman, who had five daughters. They all attempted to tempt St Agatha with fine clothes, amusements and entertainment, urging her to offer sacrifice to the pagan gods, but the saint disdained all these things. The more they tried to move her, the more resolute she became. She prayed that she might soon face martyrdom.

During her interrogation under Quintianus, the holy martyr was swayed neither by the flattery, nor by the threats, and she was subjected to cruel torments. They also tried to remove her breasts with metal tongs, and when this failed, they used knives.

The holy Apostle Peter appeared to her in prison and healed her wounds. St Agatha was led to torture again, and Quintianus was astonished to see her completely healed, with no trace of cutting. Then the torture began once more.

At this moment an earthquake took place in the city, and many buildings were destroyed. Among those killed were two of Quintianus's advisors. The terrified inhabitants rushed to Quintianus, demanding an end to Agatha's tortures. Fearing a revolt by the people, Quintianus sent St Agatha back to prison. There the martyr, offering thanks to God, peacefully surrendered her soul to the Lord.

(oca.org)

Church and (Head of) State

2010-02-01T14:33:00.007-05:00

It was way back in...oh, five days ago or so that I posted an article critial of President Obama for not attending church since his inauguration. Well, the news blog GetReligion (which I highly recommend, by the way) led me to this story by ABC News. It seems the Obama family will finally start looking for a church to attend. Anyone wanna bet he'll end up at an Episcopal church?

NYT on Fr. Moses Berry

2010-02-01T12:07:00.003-05:00

Father Moses Berry is the paster of an Old Calendar OCA parish in Missouri. I first became aware of Fr Moses and his museum via an Illumined Heart podcast last year. His story is an interesting one and I recommend listening to the podcast and reading the article of which I have attached an excerpt below.

[As I was clicking through his church's website just now I came across something remarkable. Fr Moses's parish hosted an American Heritage Music Festival last year and the year before. Until now, the only festivals I have known Orthodox parishes to host have been those for the purpose of celebrating some Eastern ethnic heritage: Serbian, Greek, Russian, etc. The ones that I have attended I have enjoyed--and i LOVE the food--but I have difficulty with the notion that it is among the Church's purposes to preserve/celebrate, etc ethnic pride or nationalism. But as long as we're celebrating heritages...why not celebrate American heritage? We are Americans after all, are we not? I didn't become Greek when I became Orthodox.]

ASH GROVE, Mo. — When he moved back home here 12 years ago, the Rev. Moses Berry wanted to settle down to small-town life with his wife and two children. He did not intend to become a one-man racial reconciliation committee.

But some residents of this nearly all-white, rural town of 1,400 people 15 miles west of Springfield say that he has done just that.

By founding a black history museum here, cleaning up his family’s cemetery and telling his family’s sometimes controversial story, beginning with its roots in slavery, Father Moses, as everyone calls him — an African-American, Orthodox Christian priest in a flowing black cassock — has tried to remind people of a part of the region’s often-forgotten past, and to open up hearts and minds along the way.

Read the rest here.

Ozarks Afro-American Heritage Museum website
Theotokos "Unexpected Joy" Orthodox Church

Why we need beautiful churches

2010-02-01T00:00:00.000-05:00

In the Orthodox Church, the house of worship is more than merely a structure in which the faithful gather on weekends. Like everything else in Orthodox worship, the very design of the building is intended to point us toward Christ. It is yet another thread in the vast seamless tapestry that is Orthodox Christian worship.

The following is from an interview of Andrew Gould of New World Byzantine architects.

Q: Would you mind telling us a little bit of your philosophy on why we need beautiful churches?

A: The question of ‘why this sort of architecture?’ really brings me back to why I started becoming interested in Orthodoxy. I had previously been Anglican and I was interested in designing Anglican churches in gothic style; when I was in college, I studied gothic architecture quite intensively. But as I started to learn about Orthodoxy and Byzantine churches, I was really impressed by the degree to which architecture, iconography, music and liturgy are integrated in Orthodoxy, as one common vision. The way the liturgical movements connect to the different spaces of the building, and then the way the liturgical movements address the different icons, the way in which the icons are painted on the particular surfaces of the buildings in the proper order where they go, and then the way the hymnography refers to all of these saints and to liturgical actions. All of these things work together as an icon of the Kingdom of God in its entirety. Panel icons of saints are not the whole story. They represent the saints, the angels, Christ—but the Kingdom of God is a lot more than that.

If you read the end of the Book of Revelation it describes the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is the City of New Jerusalem: it has foundations made of precious stones; it has columns and arches and beautiful pavements; it has domes—all of this is described. And it has ever been the practice of the Orthodox Church to understand church architecture as iconographic. That it, along with the icons and saints, makes for the full representation of the Kingdom of God, and then that must be filled with liturgy, music, incense, to represent we who make up the Kingdom of God along with the saints and angels worshipping God therein. So if you don’t have that, if you have a room like this {indicates a nave in a temporary office-space – ed.} with icons hanging on the wall, you’ve only got half of the picture. To me, honestly, seeing this situation of a mission church without a church, looks like the Kingdom of God in exile. We have worship, and we have music, we have saints, but where is New Jerusalem? Where is the City?

That’s why you need beautiful architecture. And that’s why the architecture needs to be honest, and solid and sincere. We don’t want to have a stage set, we don’t want to have a building that superficially looks like an Orthodox church, because that’s a stage set, that’s sort of what Baroque architecture is. That’s sort of trying to use plaster and ornament to give a theatrical impression of the Beatific Vision. But Orthodoxy’s not about that, Orthodoxy’s about building something absolutely solid, and permanent and honest that conveys the real ethos of the eternal Kingdom of God.

St. George Orthodox Military Association (SGOMA)

2010-01-31T15:10:00.005-05:00

You will notice that I have just made an addition to my link list. It is for a new organization that I just became aware of through a certain blog to which I am a somewhat frequent visitor.

The St. George Orthodox Military Association began last October and their mission is to "find new opportunities to support and assist our Orthodox Military Members serving in the US Armed Forces Stateside and around the World, because the spiritual wellness of our Orthodox Troops matter."

Grammatical concerns aside, it looks like a good organization and is certainly a worthy cause.

Which is more Christian...

2010-01-26T00:00:00.001-05:00

...the "Christian Nation" of the United States, or "Godless" Russia?

I have engaged in many (many, many...too many) discussions with people who insist that the U.S. is a Christian nation.

Sorry. I'm just not convinced. Yes, the U.S. is a nation in which the majority of people claim to be Christians. Yet, that majority is declining. And I truly do not think anyone will argue that we as a nation don't condone and celebrate some very un-Christian behavior.

Was our country, as some like to claim, "founded on Judeo-Christian principles"? Official documents seem to say otherwise.

Most of the Founding Fathers were not Christians, but were deists (i.e. they believed in a God of the universe, the "Divine Author," "Providence," though not necessarily the Christian God). And some of them had some less-than-flattering things to say about Christianity.

No, our nation was not founded on Judeo-Christian principles (compare the 1st Amendment to the Consititution, which prohibits the official recognition of any one religion, with the First Commandment, which requires it), but rather on the principles of the Enlightenment, to which our founders were firmly committed.

It is not unpatriotic or anti-American to say that the U.S. is not a Christian nation...it's just being honest.

The following is part of an article from MinistryValues.com:

Is Russian leadership more Christian than the United States? Is the Russian Government more Christian than George Bush ever hoped the United States to be? The answer is yes, and not only is it true, but thanks to born again Christians, Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin, Christian influence in matters of State is rapidly on the rise. Let's look at the facts.

A couple of weeks ago Barack Obama skipped Church on Christmas Day while the President of Russia, Dimitry Medvedev, on January 6, 2010, attended mid-night mass services celebrating the Russian Orthodox Christmas in grand splendor in the traditional Vigil liturgy in Saint Christ the Saviour Cathedral in the presence of 4,000 people, including Patriarch Kirill. The Russian Orthodox Church celebrates Christmas following the old Julian calendar, which is 13 days "behind" the Gregorian calendar.

While Russian leaders were attending Church services, half way around the world in America, Chicago Tribune, writing about Obama's troubles finding a Church for his family, said "But as his (Obama) fellow Christians around the world attended Christmas services on Wednesday and Thursday, the president-elect and his family remained sequestered at their vacation compound on the windward coast of Oahu. His lack of attendance at formal religious services showcased a dilemma faced by Obama, who is between churches and often expresses concern about bringing the disruption of his security detail into the lives of others." According to the same report President Barack Obama has not attended a public church service since before being elected.

So what you say? Well, today Russia is investing $100 million to rebuild Christian churches throughout the country. Money to rebuild theses churches is coming from Russian tax payers. This would be impossible in the US of course. Imagine the US Media's reaction if President Obama decided to invest $100 million dollars of US tax payer dollars to rebuild Catholic Churches. In the US there would be outrage yet Russia citizens are supportive of the investment.

[...]

Russia's turn to Christianity is a virtually unknown phenomenon in the United States. Most Christian leaders are oblivious to what is happening in Russia. Pastor Robertson or Pastor Hagee still believe Russia is an atheist and communist country and these prominent End-Times Christian pastors are rasing [sic] money and rattling their sabers to go to war against the Godless state.

[...]

Vladimir Putin and Dmitry Medvedeve go to Church frequently, kiss precious icons of the Virgin Mary and seek political and moral counsel from the Russian Orthodox Clergy. Furthermore, to the surprise of many Americans, particularly Evangelical Christians, Vladimir Putin wears a Christian cross with him at all times.

[...]

Funding to restore Christian sites and the return of properties seized from the Church in Soviet times are but the latest gift of the Kremlin to the Patriarchate. This year, the Russia Justice Ministry will present plans to amend the laws on "Freedom of Conscience and Religious Organisations", which, if approved, would severely restrict the activities of certain religious communities, like Evangelical Christians. In addition, the authorities plan to add religious education in public schools as well as chaplains paid by the state to the armed forces. It also appears possible that the Orthodox Patriarchate of Moscow will be granted the right to vet parliamentary bills before they go to the Duma.

Is the Russian Government building a more Christian society? Perhaps. But try telling that to your buddies at Church this Sunday.

Read the rest here

St. Benedict Biscop, abbot of Wearmouth

2010-01-25T00:00:00.001-05:00

He came from a noble Northumbrian family in Britain, and was tonsured a monk in 653 at Lerins in Gaul. In 669 he was made Abbot of the Monastery of Saints Peter and Paul in Canterbury. He traveled to Rome in 671 to be instructed in monastic practice according to the Rule of Saint Benedict (of Nursia). Returning to Northumbria he established two new monasteries, the first to follow St Benedict's Rule in the British Isles. He went to Rome once again in 678-679, this time bringing back the archcantor of St Peter's, who taught the monks of St Benedict's monasteries the chant and liturgical practices used in Rome. Under the holy abbot's guidance, these monasteries became flourishing centers of Christian worship, scholarship and art. The Venerable Bede (May 26) was one of his disciples. Saint Benedict reposed in peace in 689 or 690, having greatly strengthened the Church and the Christian faith in Britain.

From Holy Trinity Church, Baltimore, MD

Writing the NT

2010-01-24T08:23:00.001-05:00

Office of Prayer and Supplication for the Victims of Abortion (excerpt)

2010-01-22T00:00:00.002-05:00

Deacon:
For our deliverance from all affliction, wrath, danger, and necessity, let us pray to the Lord.

People:
Lord, have mercy.

Deacon:
That He will not remember the transgressions of His people, but will turn away all His righteous wrath which He has stirred up against us, let us pray to the Lord.

People:
Lord, have mercy.

Deacon:
That He will bless the good intentions of His servants who strive to rescue His children from violent death, and allow them to begin successfully and to finish without obstacle, through the power and grace of the most Holy Spirit, let us pray to the Lord.

People:
Lord, have mercy.

Deacon:
That He will guide the hands of His servants to complete their work successfully, let us pray to the Lord.

People:
Lord, have mercy.

Deacon:
That He will bless His servants with the grace of the most Holy Spirit, and make their efforts well pleasing in His sight, let us pray to the Lord.

People:
Lord, have mercy.

Deacon:
That He will assign a guardian angel to banish from this effort every enemy and obstacle, whether visible or invisible, let us pray to the Lord.

People:
Lord, have mercy.

Deacon:
That this work may be ordered in wisdom and may end in perfection, by the grace of the Holy Spirit, let us pray to the Lord.

People:
Lord, have mercy.

Deacon:
Help us, save us, have mercy on us, and keep us, O God, by Thy grace.

People:
Lord, have mercy.

Deacon:
Calling to remembrance our most holy, most pure, most blessed and glorious Lady, the Birth-giver of God and ever-virgin Mary, with all the saints, let us commend ourselves and one another, and all our life unto Christ, our God.

People:
To Thee, O Lord.

Priest:
For unto Thee is due all glory, honor, and worship: to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. Now and ever, and unto the ages of ages.

People:
Amen.

+++

Deacon:
Again we pray for mercy, life, peace, health, salvation, and visitation for the servants of God who strive against the evil of abortion, and for the pardon and remission of their sins.

People:
Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.

Deacon:
Again we beg Thee, O Lord, to hear our prayer, and have mercy on Thy servants who strive to save the lives of Thy innocent children. In Thy grace and bounty, fulfill their petitions and forgive all their transgressions, whether voluntary or involuntary. Accept their sacrifice of praise upon Thy heavenly altar; protect them from every visible and invisible enemy; deliver them from all misery, sickness, and affliction; grant them health and length of days, we pray Thee, O Lord, hearken and have mercy.

People:
Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.

+++

Deacon:
Again we pray for the children of God condemned to death by the unjust judgement of men: that the Lord our God would soften the hearts of those who seek their violent destruction, and rescue those who are being led forth to the slaughter, we diligently pray Thee, O Lord, hearken and have mercy!

People:
Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.

+++

Deacon:
Again we pray for all who have fallen into the hands of the godless civil authority for the sake of God's children, and who languish in courts and prisons: that the Lord our God may look upon them with compassion; that He may comfort, strengthen and preserve them; and that He may deliver them speedily from bondage and oppression, let us all say: O Lord, hearken and have mercy.

People:
Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.

Deacon:
By Thine infinite power, O Lord, our God, move to compassion and mercy the hearts of those who hold Thy servants in cruel captivity; restrain them from doing harm or permitting evil to befall Thy servants, but rather cause them to relent and to release them; free the captives whole and unharmed, O Lord, and bestow Thy mercy upon them, let us all say: hearken quickly and graciously have mercy!

People:
Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.

Deacon:
Thy vile enemies, O Lord, have annihilated Thy children and defiled Thy churches, and have imprisoned Thy faithful servants. Look down from heaven, therefore, and behold, and forsake us not utterly, but quickly cleanse the land of Thy people of the wickedness of those who oppose Thee, with humble heart we entreat Thee, our God Who art mighty in strength and wondrous in wisdom: O Compassionate One, hearken and have mercy!

People:
Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.

Deacon:
Again we pray for all those here present, who await from Thee Thy great and abundant mercy.

People:
Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.

Priest:
For Thou art a merciful God, and lovest mankind, and unto Thee do we send up glory: to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. Now and ever, and unto the ages of ages.

People:
Amen.

+++

Priest:
O most merciful, all gracious and compassionate Lord Jesus Christ our Savior, Son of God: we entreat Thee, most gracious Master: look with compassion upon Thy children who have been condemned to death by the unjust judgement of men. And as Thou hast promised to bestow the heavenly kingdom on them born of water and the Spirit, and who in blamelessness of life have been translated unto Thee; and Who said, "Suffer the little children to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven" - we humbly pray, according to Thy unfailing promise: grant the inheritance of Thy kingdom to the multitude of spotless infants who have been cruelly murdered in the abortuaries of this land; for Thou art the resurrection and the life and the repose of all Thy servants and of these innocents, O Christ our God.
Turn the hearts of those who seek to destroy Thy little ones. We beseech Thee to pour forth Thy healing grace upon them, that they may be convicted in their hearts and turn from their evil ways. Remember all of them that kill our children as on the altars of Moloch, and render not unto them according to their deeds, but according to Thy great mercy convert them: the unbelieving to true faith and piety, and the believing that they may turn from evil and do good.

O Holy Master, Almighty Father and pre-eternal God, Who alone made and directs all things; Who rises up quickly against the evil of the impious ones; who, by providence, teaches Thy people preservation of justice and the obliteration of evil on earth; Who condescends to raise up warriors for the protection of the people of God: we entreat Thee with compunction, that as Thou didst give David power to defeat Goliath, and as Thou didst condescend through Judas Maccabeus, to seize victory from the arrogant pagans who would not call on Thy Name; so too, grant protection to us, Thy servants against the enemies rising against us as we go forth to do spiritual battle against the evil one and those who do his will rather than Thine.

For Thou art a merciful God, and lovest mankind, and unto Thee do we send up glory: to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit. Now and ever, and unto the ages of ages.

People:
Amen.

From ocf.org

Archpastoral Message of his Beatitude Metropolitan Jonah for Sanctity of Life Sunday 2010

2010-01-22T00:00:00.000-05:00

January 24, 2010
Sanctity of Life Sunday

To the Venerable Hierarchs, Clergy, Monastics and Faithful of the Orthodox Church in America

Dearly Beloved in Christ:

As Orthodox Christians, we strongly affirm the value and sanctity of all human life, from the moment of conception to the final breath one takes. This affirmation is theologically based, in that each person bears within him or her self the image of God, and has the potential to fulfill that image by likening him/herself to God. To artificially terminate life is to transgress on that which is holy; it is unthinkable, a grave sin.

Every one of our churches and our homes bear the image of the infant Christ cradled in the arms of His Mother, an image that is supremely human, and supremely divine. It is the image of divine Motherhood, that the Son of God was conceived, borne and nurtured by His Most Pure Mother. God is thus revealed in the Motherhood of the Virgin; bearing us in Her holy embrace of love. This image also reveals God's love for us, that he became like us in every way--a fetus in His Mother's womb, an infant in Her arms, a little child. God has sanctified every aspect of human life, becoming what we are that He might make us like Himself.

As Orthodox, every aspect of our lives is iconic. Every child is an image of the Christ Child, every person an image of God. Each bears infinite potential to attain to the Likeness, to sainthood, to holiness. Marriage also is an icon, as the union of man and woman in the flesh blessed by God, and bringing forth the fruit of children, is an image of our union with one another in Christ in the Kingdom.

Christian marriage and family are the sacred context not only for the rearing of children, but as the basic core of our identity and reference point of stability. The family is the place where we are nurtured and accepted, find solace and consolation, and thus the faithful family becomes the place where these very human emotions and feelings are filled with grace and sanctified. Whether we are very young or very old, the family is the context of our life, in which we work out our salvation. We experience God's Fatherhood, and divine Motherhood; we experience the nurturing love which becomes a participation in divine communion. And as we breathe our last, should we not remember the image of the crucified Christ, carried in the arms of his mother, in her grief, the grief of every mother for her child?

We affirm the sanctity of life, made holy by the incarnation of the Christ. We affirm that every stage of our life has been sanctified. We affirm marriage of one man and one woman as the foundation of the family, the image of our union with God, and the means of sanctifying the lives of all members of that family by the grace of love and divine communion.

These are desperate times. Our society is in despair. It is a despair that manifests itself in the breakdown of essential relationships, of marriage and family. Continued unemployment leads to hopelessness, and the breakdown of trust that one is able to provide; this leads to the breakdown of marriages, and the bitterness that goes with it. Returning soldiers, with posttraumatic stress just below the surface, enter into relationships that often turn brutal and abusive. Marriage, and the very family itself are in question, with the issue of homosexual unions. The majority of marriages end in divorce, and the majority of children grow up without fathers or mothers; and how many pregnancies end in abortion? Despair is the primary context which could make it even possible for a mother to destroy her unborn child.

We offer, always, the way to healing and reconciliation for those who have fallen short and fallen into sin, in an embrace of love. We offer hope to those who have lost hope through the guilt of sin. We offer consolation to those in sorrow. We offer support and guidance to build families that work out their salvation together, and become the rock and foundation of our culture. Through these things, re-incarnating Christ's love and redemption in hearts, in real faces, in institutions of concrete service and healing, we offer hope to our people, our culture, our society, and through that hope, joy as we see God reborn in our lives and in those of all around us.

Yours in Christ,

+JONAH
Archbishop of Washington
Metropolitan of All America and Canada

SANCTITY OF LIFE PETITIONS AND PRAYERS

These petitions are to be inserted into the Litany of Fervent Supplication as part of the annual commemoration of Sanctity of Life Sunday.

--Again we pray that You will grant to the people of this nation the will to do good, to flee from evil, and to practice all righteousness, making us respectful of life and sharers of Your blessings, caring for one another in mercy and truth.

--Again we pray that You will banish all evil from our hearts and wickedness from our laws, enabling us to be servants of Your holy will and performers of Your love.

--Again we pray that You will kindle in our hearts the will to care for the needy, to show kindness to the poor, to aid the homeless and help the helpless.

The following prayer is to be read after the singing of "Blessed be the Name of the Lord" for the second time.

Let us pray to the Lord.

Lord, have mercy.

O Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son, Who are in the bosom of the Father, True God, source of life and immortality, Light of Light, Who came into the world to enlighten it: You were pleased to be conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary for the salvation of our souls by the power of Your All-Holy Spirit. O Master, Who came that we might have life more abundantly, we ask You to enlighten the minds and hearts of those blinded to the truth that life begins at conception and that the unborn in the womb are already adorned with Your image and likeness; enable us to guard, cherish, and protect the lives of all those who are unable to care for themselves. For You are the Giver of Life, bringing each person from non-being into being, sealing each person with divine and infinite love. Be merciful, O Lord, to those who, through ignorance or willfulness, affront Your divine goodness and providence through the evil act of abortion. May they, and all of us, come to the life of Your Truth and glorify You, the Giver of Life, together with Your Father, and Your All-Holy and Life-giving Spirit, now and ever and unto ages of ages. Amen.

"Blessed be the Name of the Lord" is then sung for the third time, followed by the usual dismissal.

From oca.org

Celebrating Theophany in Ukraine

2010-01-20T12:46:00.000-05:00

Forty Christians killed in Nigeria

2010-01-19T17:26:00.002-05:00

From Independent Catholic News:

More than 40 people have been killed in the Nigerian city of Jos, Plateau State, after around 200 Muslim youths attacked Christians near a Catholic church in Nasarawa Jos, yesterday, sparking retaliatory violence.

According to local sources, the Muslim youths claimed to have gathered to renovate a house next to St Michael’s Catholic Church, owned by a Muslim man, who had allegedly murdered three Christians during violence in Jos North in November 2008. However, instead of renovating the house, the youths are reported to have launched an unprovoked assault on a female passer-by before attacking St Michael’s Church, killing and injuring several members. They also set fire to a score of local houses and businesses and churches...

Read the rest here.

2010-01-12T14:34:00.006-05:00

There's some good contemporary Christian music out there, and there's some, ah...not-so-good contemporary Christian music. (I'd put the majority of it in the second category, but that's just me.) When I was in college a friend introduced me to the music of Caedmon's Call, who I still enjoy to this day. Their music was kinda rock/folk. Lots of acoustic guitars and bongos, an occasional banjo. (I haven't heard their more recent material, so I don't know if they're still any good, but they were) I wouldn't necesarily call them a Christian band. But they are certainly a band made up of Christians, with some decidedly Christian themes to their music (like U2, P.O.D., Johnny Cash, Van Morrison).

Not that I've really been searching, but I have not heard any contemporary Christian music that I would compare to (or that is anywhere near as good as) Caedmon's Call. Until now.

I just became aware of an Orthodox Christian country band (yes, you read that right) from Lafayette, IN called the SmallTown Heroes. They claim that they are "not a band," but "friends who play music," and supposedly describe themselves as "Byzantine Bluegrass." I'm not sure what that means, but, having listened to a few snippets of their songs [here], I would definitely not classify them as "bluegrass." Nor is there really anything in their lyrics or music that is overtly Orthodox per se (except for maybe: "I want to be a picture on your Sanctuary wall..."); I mean, they're not singing in Greek or anything.

But they're good. There's something about them that makes me think of Caedmon's Call. Maybe it's the acoustic guitars, maybe it's the occasional female voice. Maybe it's that moody quality that appeals to twenty-somethings. It may not bring you to the foot of the Throne the way the monks of Valaam will, but it seems like something worth listening to. Their CD is available from Saint Romanos Records (which has a lot of non-traditional Orthodox music). And, according to their website, they will be performing live at Sacred Grounds Coffee in Lafayette on Jan 16.

Note: Since I wrote this, I went ahead and bought their CD on iTunes, and I definitely recommend it. It is reminiscent of Caedmon's Call: folksy, with some rock-n-roll, a couple of sappy love songs, country-ish in a few places, with some Christian-themed lyrics. You won't hear any of it sung in church (ever), but it is a good CD.

The Blessing of the Electronics

2010-01-12T14:24:00.003-05:00

Ummm...okay, why not?

From TimesOnline:
Great efforts have been made to modernise the Church of England, but its liturgy dates from before the arrival of the Nokia 6310, and until yesterday, none had been brave enough to adapt its ceremonies to address the modern mysteries of 3G network coverage, iPhone apps and variable battery life.

But if anyone can, [Rev Canon David Parrott] can.

Yesterday, in the church of the City of London Corporation, he presented an updated version of Plow Monday, an observance that dates from medieval times. On this day, the first Monday after Twelfth Night, farm labourers would bring a plough to the door of the church to be blessed.

Men and women coming to his church no longer used ploughs; their tools were their laptops, their iPhones and their BlackBerries.

...the congregation held their phones in the air, and Canon Parrott addressed the Almighty. “By your blessing, may these phones and computers, symbols of all the technology and communication in our daily lives, be a reminder to us that you are a God who communicates with us and who speaks by your Word. Amen.”

Read the rest here

2010-01-10T14:33:00.002-05:00

(CNN) -- Two more churches in Malaysia were firebombed Sunday, bringing the total to six since a court ruled that non-Muslims can use the word "Allah" as a term for God. [so, the government is determining which words may be included in the Church's liturgy??]

No one has been hurt in the attacks, which began Friday. They follow a high court's ruling that Christians can use the word "Allah" in literature printed in the country's official language, Malay.

In Malay, the word for God is "Allah," as it is in Arabic.

But many in the predominantly Muslim country, including the government, believe the word should be exclusive to Islam.

Read the rest here.

The Holy Protomartyr Stephen the Archdeacon

2010-01-09T00:00:00.000-05:00

Stephen was a kinsman of the Apostle Paul and one of those Jews who lived in the Hellenic provinces. Stephen was the first of the seven deacons whom the holy apostles ordained and appointed to the service of assisting the poor in Jerusalem. For this, he is called the archdeacon. By the power of his faith, Stephen worked great miracles among the people. The wicked Jews disputed with him, but they were always defeated by his wisdom and the power of the Spirit, Who acted through him. Then the shameful Jews, accustomed to calumnies and slander, incited the people and the elders of the people against the innocent Stephen, slandering him as though he had blasphemed against God and against Moses. False witnesses were quickly found who confirmed this. Stephen then stood before the people, and all saw his face as it had been the face of an angel (Acts 6:15), that is, his face was illumined with the light of grace as was once the face of Moses when he spoke with God. Stephen opened his mouth and enumerated the many good works and miracles that God had performed in the past for the people of Israel, as well as the many crimes and opposition to God on the part of this people. He especially rebuked them for the killing of Christ the Lord, calling them betrayers and murderers (Acts 7:52). And while they gnashed their teeth, Stephen beheld and saw the heavens open and the glory of God. That which he saw, he declared to the Jews: Behold, I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God! (Acts 7:56). Then the malicious men took him outside the city and stoned him to death. Among his persecutors was his kinsman Saul, later the Apostle Paul. At that time, the Most-holy Theotokos, standing on a rock at a distance with St. John the Theologian, witnessed the martyrdom of this first martyr for the truth of her Son and God, and she prayed to God for Stephen. This occurred one year after the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles. Gamaliel, a prince of the Jews and a secret Christian, clandestinely took St. Stephen's body and buried it on his own estate. Thus, this first among the Christian martyrs gloriously reposed and took up his habitation in the Kingdom of Christ God.

From the Prologue of Ohrid