The zeal for thy House has Consumed Me
0 Comments Published by georgy on Tuesday, November 4, 2008 at 9:22 AM.
King David was zealously aspiring to build a Temple for God to dwell in among the people, but was not allowed because of his hands spilling a river of blood that was the foundation stone of erecting an Israelite empire or kingdom, despite God was not in favour of having a king, as the Almighty wanted to lead His flock by Judges whom He used to choose from time to time. God’s presence till the time of King Solomon, the son of David building a permanent building in
books delineate such things meticulously.
We can ascribe two reasons for not maintaining the codified set rules like that of Moses’ Pentateuch for the NT Christians, firstly, they were under the impression that the Lord would come to collect them during their lifetime, secondly, they also were not sure that bible would be printed and truck loaded in every corner of the world or could be presented in a match box size or in internet web, so that everyone could read and deal it in their own way. The bible was treated with full respect by the mainstream churches till yesterday, but it doesn’t bring any respect or acceptance by some sects that either keeps it under their armpits or in between the thighs or wherever they like to. I had once two room mates, one a Marthommite and the other a Catholic, Reeth. The Marthommite friend showed a portion from the bible during the course of their hot arguments of the scripture; the Reeth friend got the bible in a fury and just threw it against the wall. There was no physical altercation because both of them were relatives. The Catholics don’t encourage or venerate the bible reading because they give infallibility to the Pope, whereas the extreme Protestants’ infallibility approach of the bible mislead them to their own undue destinations.
The
Parish Assemblies
Despite there have been sacrileges, corruptions, money games, blasphemes and power games in our worshipping places, the modern age that has no respect for justice, values, truth and faith is the uncrowned monarchs of our religious venues due to the blinding of our inner eyes. The difficulty is that these carnivorous desecrations that have driven away the Holy Spirit from the vicinities of our churches and monasteries are the real obstacles for our improvements. I have either read or heard about one of our bishops who participated in a Holy qurbana in a Byzantine Orthodox churches talked to somebody who was in the church after the worship. A woman immediately dashed forward and asked thirumeni to go outside and talk because they have the strict discipline of not speaking any personal matters or seeking queries where they celebrate the holy mysteries. We all had such traditions once, but they are all out of date since the beginning of new theological encroachments. God’s Holiness should be venerated always and everywhere. But tragically the law makers have proved themselves as law breakers. When I was a young adult, I remember to have witnessed an episode that brought the local Congress party members into the church for a branch meeting due to the unexpected raining, but immediately was stopped by a Marxist Communist member of the church. It sounded as if God belonged to the Congress party.
General Body Meetings
In my youth days we used to have meetings in the parish assembly halls, but all these auditoriums now are for food caterings and public theatres that bring money and popularity for the church. In such a scenario, the parish meetings have become a part of the Holy of the Holies, claiming that the sacrosanct meetings are a part of our worship; thus the church has become a place of these meetings and a fortress for the vicar for inducing scare tactics, saying that the parish meetings are all part of the worship. The clergy that attribute holiness to these meetings inject fear into the minds of the devotees, so that the vicar and his cronies can do anything that they want. The fear of God has vanished away from the clergy and the so-called believers, as they think that a decorated church and celebrating festivities in a grand and elaborate way conjure up God for their own advantages. They pre-plan all what they want to decide and the meetings are stage managed in tune with their previous arrangements; hence a sane person tremble to go for a General Body meeting that usually propagate holy hooliganism. The inside of the place also where holy credentials and puja indispensability are kept are lately decorated like pagan worship places, like electric decorations, colourful frills or thoranams that block the Heavenly luminosities and decorated Christmas trees with Christmas gifts and the raiment of Christmas father who give gifts benevolently and taking photos and displaying the valuable roles of each self-assumed heroes in sports, camps, choir and many other public and social activities, making an impressions that the ‘holy’ cosmetics are venerated where the golden urn holding the manna, Aaron’s rod that budded, the tables of the covenant and the mercy seat were placed once, Heb.9: 1-5.
In spite of claiming that the church is holy, all sorts of cheap jokes and vulgarities, character assassinations that make acrimonious scenes are the usual pattern of these meetings. A determined minority that hijacks the vulnerable ones by threats and false statements bring many of them to their knees. They pervert the truth deliberately by twisting with sugar-coated statements. The audited Accounts are many times proven to be a procession of falsities and a procession of fraudulent super computer gimmicks that could tarnish the genuineness of certain individuals and elect their own bravados for running the parish affairs. Such scenarios are artificially created, so that they could do defame certain persons. The religious Ministers’ ejaculations these days are that let the senior people retire, like in the days of King Rehoboam, and the youngsters take charge of the parish for better management, making a false veil that the computer is a Heavenly invention. The Computer technologies are helpful, provided the data that are fed are not falsified.
Many of today’s clergy, together with their associates, doesn’t hesitate to go to any extent and prowl upon the innocent ones by pointing out their victim’s personal, family and social dealings that seemingly create a black aura, as if they were all angels of light. Many priests hire the youth and electrify them with all sort of new versions of modern spirituality and religiosity. This type of political and real estate spirituality has really sedated the church that sends out the committed youths and their family members to the periphery or to the other religious wolves of charismatic venues. If the fear of the Lord has disappeared from the clergy and the flock, who can salvage the shpherdless flock. Litigations, scuffling, feuding and conflicts are the outcome of such acrimonious situations which have struck the last nail on the coffin of the Apostolic churches. Personal gratification that mortifies the body of Christ is the last sign of the doomsday religiosity.
Parish or Hierarchical Elections
The clergy and laity work together for this spiritual suicide that devastates our inner strength and moral fibre. Borrow the good side of the voting system, because we have already assimilated within the gamut of the political hierarchy, but don’t become a carbon copy of the secular mechanism that is not allowed to stimulate religiosity or godly appetite because political system is devoid of spirituality of any particular religion, as there are different religions and castes and ways of worships. Morality and religiosity are the common denominators of religion and politics, not any faith or creed of any religion. Our day to day running of the parish with this sort of an amalgam of anything heterogeneous is not a healthy climate for inculcating human relationship that is the grease of our sound existence. We borrow any filth that can help the money-making venture for the parish and also bring glory for ourselves. Instead of religion becoming a role model and educating the secular system, it is a pity that religion has become an identical twin of the ruling hierarchy. The religious places have become a copycat culture of business enterprises and eating and drinking merriment cafes that also is authenticated by inappropriate biblical verses that sound like ‘devil quoting the bible’, the reason for youth and women power to be highlighted and edified, Is.3: 12.
If we follow Jesus, we have to fight against, firstly, the leaven of the Pharisees, Sadducees, Zealots and Herodians, then, secondly only against the invading Caesar. We become a prey of Caesar when there is disunity among us. But it is certain that one who girds with the weapons of this formula, one will lose his head. Jesus whipped out such business zealots that encouraged these sorts of soul-killing trades from the
Zeal for the House of the Lord
It has really been denigrated as a place of robbery because we have killed the real spirit of worship. We made it unholy through the vanity celebrations and business interests that bring money and pervert the true spirit of chaste faith. Those who intend to go to hell after their death should celebrate their birthdays and wedding anniversaries and other pagan celebrations in this life because we don’t get another chance as there is no room for any enjoyments in the place where wailings and gnashing of teeth are our inheritance. We bury the dead with musical bands and long funeral processions because we also celebrate together at the same time their birth celebrations by angels and the faithful departed ones in Heaven where their virginity continue in luminous gaiety and mirth for ever. One who longs to have an eternal birthday should abstain from all sorts of superfluous enjoyments here. The contemporary writers of Jesus wrote that Jesus never laughed in His life because of His overburdening with the sins of humanity. Instead of sharing and working for the emancipation of the afflicted ones we celebrate in the church all such banalities that are lately imported into our spirituality menu.
While we celebrate such ephemeral prayers after the worship that ask for a happy exit from this plane, is it necessary to pray for a merry birthday when Jesus’ birth, death, resurrection and ascension that carved each individual’s salvation is assured, provided we also move in that orbit? Have our clergy that say “wish you a happy birthday after the Holy Eucharist” condescended down to the level of street merry makers who sing Hurray, ‘He is a jolly good fellow’? Female and gay clergy that are added to the list of abominations of desolation of the Holy Spirit are the final -day saga of the end of the dying planet that is benumbed by climate change, global warming and other geriatric symptoms, Mt.24: 15. The list for the abominations of desolation of the Spirit of God is vast and unending. The first sign of the final day scenario of finishing of this planet is a sign of the real estate spirituality of the knocking off time of this planet. “…there will not left here one stone upon another, that will not be thrown down”, mt.24: 1-2.
Real estate spirituality
Prof E S John, Australia
(Contributing Editor- OBL)
Orthodox Monastery of the Transfiguration
Ellwood City, Pennsylvania
September 27, 2008
Membership in the Orthodox churches in North America in the past forty years has radically decreased. There are probably about half as many people in the churches today as there were four decades ago. It also seems that most adults who attend services in Orthodox churches today are “holding the form” of Orthodox Christianity while “denying the power of it” (2 Tim 3.5) as they ‘pursue happiness” according to “the American dream” as devotees of “the American way of life.”
Concerning the churches’ clergy during the past forty years, I believe that the task of finding, educating, appointing and supporting suitable candidates for the clergy, especially the episcopate, remains the greatest challenge in all Orthodox churches in North America today just as it was four decades ago when (as my friend, the late Fr. John Psinka would say), “few were called and all were chosen.”
Having stated the “negatives” — greatly reduced membership, inept leadership, nominal participation and widespread use of the church for secular purposes – the spiritual achievements in North American Orthodoxy during the past forty years are amazingly many and spectacularly significant. They were accomplished by a relatively small number of people, mostly converts to the Faith, people born abroad and clergy children. They are so remarkable that I am persuaded to call the past forty years a “spiritual springtime” for Orthodoxy in the United States and Canada.
I will comment on the accomplishments as I see them. They are not yet a bountiful “blossoming.” But they are a promising “planting” capable of producing, in due time, a rich harvest of spiritual fruits, including, we may hope, a company of committed and competent bishops, priests, deacons, monastics, church workers and lay leaders for the coming generations.
Eucharist Communion & Inter-Orthodox Cooperation
We are delighted first of all to note that although divisions among the Orthodox of North America in separate ecclesiastical “jurisdictions” still persist, no ethnic groups have warring church parties within themselves anymore, and none is at war with any other. With the exception of a few tiny “old calendarist” and “traditionalist” groups, Eucharistic Communion now exists among all of the Orthodox churches in North America. This is a marvelous blessing, for which we must be boundlessly grateful.
Though structural and administrative divisions continue to exist among the Orthodox in North America, cooperation and interaction for educational, spiritual, missionary and philanthropic purposes has never been greater and more effective among a relatively small number of fervently committed faithful in all the churches. There is still much to do in this regard. We have just begun. But what has already been achieved, thanks to the infusion of zealous converts into the Church, the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe, and the possibilities that now exist for communication and interaction among committed Orthodox Christians in all parts of the world, is truly amazing. The hopes that this engenders among us, with the challenges that it presents, are overwhelmingly positive.
Liturgical Reform & Renewal
The past forty years has witnessed an amazing liturgical renewal in all Orthodox churches in North America. This renewal has been so deep and extensive that I am moved to call it a “revolution,” and not merely a “renewal.”
Four decades ago, the practice in most Orthodox churches in America was to have a Sunday and Feast Day Divine Liturgy with choirs and cantors singing in old country languages, and to have baptisms, weddings and funerals performed as “private services” for the “customers” who ordered them from their priests who were often considered as parochial “employees.”
Lenten services were not those prescribed in the Lenten Triodion. The Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts was virtually unknown. Holy Week for the great majority consisted of the Great Friday Matins with the Twelve Gospel readings on Thursday evening, one service on Great Friday itself, and the Paschal Procession and Matins, with the Sunday morning Divine Liturgy on Holy Pascha. A good number of faithful people attended these services. But few understood much of what was going on, except in an pietistic and emotional way.
Lay people received Holy Communion but once or twice, or at most four times, a year, either with Confession required before every act of Communion, or no Confession at all. This situation still exists in more places that it ought today, but virtually every Orthodox “jurisdiction” in North America now has a growing number of committed members demanding and experiencing a much fuller and deeper liturgical life, including regular participation, with proper preparation, in the Holy Mysteries. And almost all of the new mission churches, with plenty of the old established ones, are “liturgical wonders” compared to what existed in almost all churches forty years ago.
Preaching and teaching, especially Sunday and Festal sermons and parish educational programs, are generally better prepared and more effective than they were forty years ago. There are more educated preachers and teachers nowadays who work at their craft, virtually all of whom can function with some measure of competence in English. But, sad to say, it seems to me that the majority of preachers and teachers are still poorly prepared and do not work very hard, if at all, to improve their products. This is tragically sad since the resources to produce first rate sermons and classes are virtually boundless today compared to what was available four decades ago.
The past forty years has witnessed an explosion of liturgical resources and materials. Competent translations of virtually all liturgical services and offices are now readily accessible. (You just have to know how and where to “go on line” to get them.) Excellent liturgical books are available, with texts and rubrics. Music from all the various Orthodox traditions is also readily available, with many excellent renderings in English. Iconography has also come into its own. Excellently crafted reproductions and excellent originals done by truly talented artists now abound. Beautiful new church buildings are being constructed. Many societies and organizations now exist, such as PSALM and HEXAMERON, where those involved in liturgical matters meet, discuss, work together and also, of course, disagree and argue a bit, for their professional improvement and the spiritual benefit of the faithful people who profit from their labors. Time will tell how all this works itself out, and what lasting spiritual fruit it will bear. But the amount of people and the number of activities and projects in this critical liturgical area of church life is truly significant and gratifying.
Publications & Resources
When I entered the seminary fifty-one years ago one could count all the books about Orthodoxy in English on one’s fingers. Forty years ago there were a bit more educational resources. Today there are more publishers and publications, books, journals, educational materials and audio and video recordings in English than can possibly be counted, let alone carefully read and listened to. The quality and content of these publications, of course, varies greatly – as do that of the music and icons and architecture already noted, but products of highest quality are available to inform, instruct and inspire their users in the truth, goodness, beauty and power of God.
In recent years we also have radio and television programs in many parts of North America with serious and relevant content and quality. We think of Ancient Faith Radio and Come Receive the Light and Orthodoxy Now, and other such programs and projects.
Theological & Spiritual Education
Theological education in North American has never been better organized, presented and accomplished, with more and better qualified teachers and students, than it is today. And there has never been more effective cooperation among those engaged in this crucial work. Competition and mutual criticism still exist, as is to be expected. This is not surprising, and is even quite beneficial when done with love and respect.
The competence and cooperation among the greatly increasing number of Orthodox scholars in North American theological schools and institutes, and, more and more, in colleges and universities, has never been greater and richer. The Orthodox Theological Society in America, now more than thirty years old, is a splendid witness to this wonderful achievement, as are other gatherings of scholars in various areas and disciplines.
It may also be noted that among the most marvelous facts of the last seventy years of American Orthodox history (the one dearest to my heart) is that no major disagreement or animosity ever occurred during this whole time between the faculties of Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Brookline, MA and St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary, in Crestwood, NY, our first graduate theological schools in America. And today harmony and good will exists among all of our Orthodox theological seminaries in the US and Canada, without exception.
Virtually every Orthodox church in North America today has some sort of educational program to instruct people of all ages in the Orthodox Faith, and not simply to introduce them to a language and cultural heritage of an old world country. Plentiful and dependable materials and resources exist for these programs produced by the Orthodox Christian Education Commission and the various jurisdictional and diocesan educational departments, as well as our Orthodox theological schools and publishing houses. This work was just beginning forty years ago.
In addition to parochial and diocesan educational programs, a number of full-time Orthodox schools (such as our Three Hierarchs Eastern Orthodox School in Pittsburgh) have been established. This work, once again, is largely being done by small groups of extraordinarily courageous and gifted people in a fully cooperative “inter-Orthodox” way. Forty years ago no such schools existed.
Until just a few years ago there were virtually no supra-parochial or supra-diocesan activities for American Orthodox high school students that were not of a solely social, cultural or athletic character. Now there are such programs, almost all of an inter-Orthodox nature, whose purpose is to deal directly with the spiritual lives of teen-agers in order to assist them in seeing themselves, their studies, their vocations and their relationships in the light of Christ and the Gospel. Foremost among such activities is the CrossRoad program located at Hellenic College/Holy Cross in Brookline, MA in which qualified Orthodox students from all over the country, from all Orthodox “jurisdictions,” are brought together for strictly spiritual reasons (though they also have a very good social time while they’re at it) under the leadership of well trained and carefully selected teachers and counselors. Other programs on more modest (and less well-organized and well-funded) levels also exist for this purpose at our seminaries, and at places like Project Mexico. There are sure to be more of them as time goes by.
The greatly increased number of church camps and summer programs for children and young people, first among which is the oldest, largest and best organized camp at Antiochian Village in Ligonier, PA must also be noted. Leaders of these camps, most of which are operated in the highest professional manner, regularly meet to share their knowledge and experience. The fruits of these camping efforts are already visible in the relatively large number of church leaders that they have already produced.
Mentioning Antiochian Village, one must also mention the rather large number of retreat houses and conference centers that now exist in virtually all of the Orthodox “jurisdictions” in North America. Forty years ago there were almost none.
The wonderful work of the Orthodox Christian Fellowship (OCF) must also be noted at this point. The OCF exists to serve Orthodox students and young adults in all aspects of their spiritual lives. The Fellowship was extremely strong and influential on American campuses forty years ago under the leadership of Jim Couchell, later Bishop Dimitrios of Xanthas (now retired) who as a priest edited the Orthodox Observer newspaper and directed the Orthodox Christian Mission Center. The OCF movement all but disappeared in the 1980’s and 90’s when huge numbers of my generation’s college age children were lost to the Church. It has now reemerged, renewed and reorganized, to do marvelous work among the Orthodox young people of my grandchildren’s generation.
Mission & Evangelism
Mission and evangelism are now a normal part of Orthodox Church life in North America, at least rhetorically and theoretically. All committed church members speak about mission and evangelism, support it and do what they can to promote and enact it.
The Orthodox Christian Missionary Center (OCMC) now exists as a central and essential part of American Orthodoxy. It grew out of the missions department in the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese that originally resulted from the vision and labors of Fr. Alexander Veronis in Lancaster, PA. This effort then merged with efforts in other churches, particularly the Orthodox Church in America and the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese, especially after the entrance of large numbers of missionary-minded Evangelical Christians into the Church. Indeed, the “becoming Orthodox” of the majority of members of the “Evangelical Orthodox Church” (EOC) led by its small band of courageous “bishops” is among the highest points in North American Orthodoxy in the past twenty years. Indeed, the entrance of the “Evangelicals” into Orthodoxy and the coming of monastic life to North America (which we will soon mention) may be the most important events of this time when one observes the impact that they have had on the Church as a whole. All honor and glory are due to those who made it happen.
The remarkable work of St. Herman’s Brotherhood in Platina, CA must also be mentioned at this point. In addition to its extraordinary achievements in translating and publishing marvelous books on Orthodox spirituality in English, the Brotherhood’s hard work resulted in many converts to the Orthodox Faith, including a company of zealous men and women from the Order of MANS whose impact on church life in all “jurisdictions” greatly exceeds its relatively small number.
Social & Charitable Work
In addition to the OCMC and the OCF that function under the Standing Conference of Orthodox Bishops in America (the consultative body known popularly as SCOBA that was formed more than forty years ago) the amazing work of International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) must be noted. IOCC provides millions of dollars in various kinds of material aid to millions of needy and suffering peoples of all religions and cultures in all parts of the world. Forty years ago such an organization could hardly be imagined. God bless the faithful Orthodox Christians who founded and continue to sustain this work until today.
May God also bless the large number of charitable and philanthropic works that are sponsored and conducted in virtually all Orthodox dioceses and parishes today. Most of these good works are done quietly and modestly, again by relatively small groups of highly committed people; but they are being done. And there are also many more organized and extensive philanthropic and charitable activities as well. We are delighted to note just a few of the more prominent ones.
The largest shelter for homeless people in San Francisco, for example, is run by Orthodox Christians, several of whose leaders were once in the Order of MANS. Raphael House is located in two large apartment buildings in the heart of the city. It has impressive quarters and facilities, and carries on many projects. Over the years it has served tens of thousands of people in need of housing, guidance, inspiration and direction in countless ways.
St. John the Merciful House in Toronto, Canada that does similar work on a more modest level, with greatly fewer resources, must also be mentioned for its heroic labors on behalf of the poor and needy.
Project Mexico founded by Greg and Margaret Yova, with its offices in San Diego, has already built close to 200 houses for families without adequate places to live in Mexico. The Project also operates an orphanage for homeless boys on a beautiful ranch in Rosarito, with a beautiful chapel and full-time Spanish-speaking priest, Fr. Michael Nassir. The Project’s most powerful and far-reaching service for North American Orthodoxy as a whole is the opportunities that it provides for thousands of Orthodox Christians, mostly younger people, from all over the United States and Canada (and other countries as well) to engage in “hands on” work among the poor and needy. Those of all ages who have availed themselves of these opportunities testify with one voice that their lives have been radically changed by the experience.
Short term missionary and philanthropic work is also sponsored by the OCF and OCMC and other organizations providing opportunities for American and Canadian Orthodox people to engage personally in a great variety of missionary and philanthropic activities at home and abroad, in Latin America, Europe, Africa and Asia.
Special attention should also be given to the various ministries outside the church in which Orthodox people are engaged. Orthodox priests have served with distinction for decades in the military, several attaining to very high rank and standing. Priests and deacons, as well as qualified lay people, have served, and are still serving, as full-time and part-time chaplains, spiritual counselors and social workers in hospitals, schools and mental institutions.
Particular mention must be made of clergy and laity involved in the several prison ministries that now exist in the United States and Canada. An organization of Orthodox Prison Ministries composed of experienced leaders in this delicate work provides direction, resources and coordination for the efforts of the volunteers who dedicate themselves to this demanding ministry that includes regular visits to prisons, care for families with members in prison, and assistance to prisoners who have completed their time of incarceration.
Orthodox priests and lay people are also now found in directing and supporting roles in such Christian social agencies as Covenant House and Catholic Worker and Church World Service. Orthodox Christians are now also deeply involved in various “pro-life” and “anti-abortion” organizations and movements such as Orthodox Christians for Life. Diocesan and parish groups and local organizations that provide food for the hungry, shelter for the homeless and care for unborn and new-born babies and their parents, especially women who resist the evil of abortion, must also be noted.
Mention must also be made of organizations such as Orthodox Women in Healing Ministries and the Orthodox Christian Association of Medicine, Psychiatry and Religion that serve to facilitate continuing education, inspiration and inter-action among Orthodox people engaged in various kinds of healing services.
Attention must also be given to the international Orthodox Peace Fellowship led by Jim and Nancy Forest who were well-known forces in North American spiritual and moral life long before they joined the Orthodox Church with their children. The OPF has an office and a significant number of active members in the US and Canada who work for peace among human beings in a variety of ways through a variety of activities.
And surely the organization for inter-Orthodox unity and collaboration on all levels of church life and work, Orthodox People Together, led by Demetra Jacquet and Phil Tamoush, deserves our grateful remembrance for what it has accomplished in so many different ways in past decades.
Forty years ago virtually no philanthropic organizations existed in North America, not even in informal fashion in parishes for the churches’ “own people.” It is tragically true that many Orthodox in the United States and Canada remain ignorant, indifferent or plainly opposed to philanthropic and charitable activities, especially when they are done for the benefit of people who are not members of the Orthodox Church. But a wonderful beginning has been made which, by God’s grace, will produce an abundant blossoming in coming years not only for “our own people” but for all of God’s people, without qualification or discrimination.
We must remember at this point that though an unconditional commitment to Orthodox Christian doctrine and morals, with total responsibility for Orthodox Church teaching and practice, is obligatory for participation in Holy Communion in the Orthodox Church (and, indeed, in all of the Church’s sacramental mysteries), the Church’s charitable and philanthropic services must be available to everyone - whoever, whatever and however they are - without condition or qualification of any kind whatsoever. For when it comes to the “love for humanity” upon which our “good answer at the dread judgment seat of Christ” will depend, no human being can be excluded from our acts of love in Christ’s Name.
Presence in American Life
Orthodox clergy and laity have always been involved in formal and informal organizations and activities dedicated to overcoming misunderstandings and divisions among Christians and non-Christians, and to fostering cooperation among people where such is possible and desirable for the good of everyone, believers and unbelievers alike. Among the too many to name who served with great distinction and responsibility, and much pain and little praise, in this challenging and gravely misunderstood work is certainly Fr. Leonid Kishkovsky. This remarkably courageous and dedicated man labored in many different functions and positions in this thankless work, even holding, for a time, the presidency of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA.
Note must also be taken of the modest, yet not insignificant, presence of Orthodox people in public life outside church circles.
While a sprinkling of Orthodox believers were known in academic circles over the last half century — scholars like Archbishop Demetrios of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese, and Fathers Florovsky, Schmemann, Meyendorff and Harakas, and Professors Arseniev, Fedotov and Geanokopoulos, and in the sciences, physicist Fr. John Turkevich (Metropolitan Leonty’s son) and geneticist Dr. Theodosius Dobzhansky — the impact of committed Orthodox Christians in American public life has been virtually non-existent. Except for Archbishop Iakovos of the Greek Orthodox Church (whose photo on the cover of LIFE magazine with Martin Luther King Jr. and other leaders of the civil rights movement in the 1960’s some people my age still deeply cherish), hardly any other practicing Orthodox Christian has been publicly recognizable in American society in the past forty years.
Things are not much different today. But there are some notable exceptions.
For example, the late Dr. Jaroslav Pelikan of Yale University, whose becoming Orthodox was widely noted in intellectual circles, served as President of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and was voted one of the 200 foremost Americans on the occasion of the 200th Anniversary of the Library of Congress.
The poet Scott Cairns, a convert to Orthodoxy, has been called “one of the best poets alive” (by Annie Dillard) and “perhaps the most important and promising religious poet of his generation.” Nicholas Gage (a priest’s grandson), author of the best-selling Eleni, and other writings about Greek and Greek-American life, has also achievement prominence in the American literary world. Fredericka Matthews-Green, also a convert to the Church, has received numerous honors and awards as one of the best popular spiritual writers in America. David Bentley Hart, who joined the Orthodox Church as a college student, is now hailed in the scholarly community as among the best, if not, indeed, the very best, of contemporary Christian metaphysical thinkers and writers.
Serge Schmemann (Fr. Alexander’s son), among his other honors, was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for his journalistic achievements as an international correspondent for the New York Times. And George Stephanopoulos (Fr. Robert’s son) who served in the Clinton White House is now a distinguished TV newscaster, talk show host and political commentator. Thus we see a few faithful Orthodox Christians in America becoming publicly known for their professional accomplishments.
We can also be deeply grateful and gratified that such talented converts to Orthodoxy as Peter Gillquist, James Bernstein, John Anderson, Matthew Gallatin and Fredericka Matthews-Green have written books about their “very American” journeys into the Church, while countless others have shared their stories in various books, journals and magazines. Such autobiographical literature aimed primarily at a readership outside Orthodoxy did not exist even twenty-five years ago.
And we may, of course, also recall that the most famous Orthodox Christian in the world in the last forty years, who was perhaps also the world’s greatest literary figure of his time, lived in Cavendish, Vermont from 1977 to 1994 – the late Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
Monastic Life
Among the most spectacular achievements in North American Orthodoxy during the past four decades is the establishment of an extraordinarily vibrant monastic life. Forty years ago there were very few monasteries with extremely few members. Today well over a hundred monastic communities of men and women exist in the US and Canada. Most are not large in numbers. But many, even of the smaller ones, have dedicated monks and nuns who provide full monastic liturgical worship (for the most part in English) in beautiful settings, with opportunities for silence and personal prayer, and for spiritual instruction and counsel. The members of these monasteries are mostly foreign-born men and women and converts to the Faith. Only a very small number are “cradle Orthodox.”
(Indeed, if we would take away the converts, the foreign-born and the children of clergy from among our clergymen, seminarians, monastics, missionaries, cantors, musicians, iconographers and philanthropic church workers, there would hardly be anyone left!)
Time will tell how deeply rooted the many new monasteries are in genuine Christian ascetical life, and what “fruits worthy of repentance” (to use St. John the Baptist’s expression, Lk 3.8) will blossom from them over time. But one thing is for sure: Orthodox monasteries for men and women with differing numbers, styles, facilities, properties and traditions are here to stay in North America for the foreseeable future. We rejoice in them, and thank God for their presence, witness and good work among us such as we are experiencing here today at the Orthodox Monastery of the Transfiguration in Ellwood City.
Sacrificial Giving & Philanthropy
All the good things we have noted (and those we have overlooked by fault of mind and perception, and not heart or intention) have happened in North American Orthodoxy because people – still relatively few in number — have made them happen, not only the people engaged in the various services and actions, but those who have contributed to them financially. None of the things mentioned above could have been done without money and material support. And so we rejoice finally to note, with deepest gratitude, that in recent years almost all Orthodox parishes and dioceses in America have vibrant stewardship programs, with planned giving, reasonable budgets and careful reporting. And we note as well, when this has failed to be the case, even on the highest levels of ecclesiastical life, God’s faithful people have stood firm in their opposition to mismanagement and misbehavior, and have demanded transparency, accountability and reparation for immoral actions, with therapeutic (and not punitive) treatment for those guilty of wrong-doing.
In addition to these good and gratifying achievements, one more point must be noted in regard to money. In recent years a number of the wealthiest and most generous supporters of Orthodox Christian life and work in North America have meet in carefully prepared meetings to consider how best to distribute their resources for the greatest spiritual benefit of the greatest number of people. This relatively recent happening may, in some sense, be the most marvelous miracle of all in the last forty years of North American Orthodoxy: wealthy Orthodox Christians sacrificially sharing their wealth for the glory of God and the good of God’s people in a directed and organized manner! As the saying goes, it “doesn’t get better than that,” especially when we remember the Lord’s teaching about the danger of riches.
And so, in this regard, and in general, our very last word concerning the past forty years of North American Orthodoxy is that it has proven without a doubt that “with God all things are possible” (Matt 19:26) for those who strive to keep God’s commandments and to do His will according to their respective callings, means and abilities.
To our Lord, and to all His faithful co-workers, be unending gratitude and glory!
We look to the future of Orthodoxy in North America with confidence and hope, even as our societal and ecclesiastical conditions continue to sadden us and tempt us to despair. The spiritual achievements of the past forty years that have been accomplished in the most difficult circumstances, fragile and humble though they be, afford us every good reason to do so.
– This address was given at the 40th Anniversary of the Consecration of the Chapel at the Orthodox Monastery of the Transfiguration, a monastery for women in Ellwood City, Pennsylvania, September 27, 2008.
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St. John was born in Cyprus in the year 560. His father, whose name was Epiphanus, was the ruler of the country.When John grew up, he married and had children. But his children died. And then, when his wife also died, he was left alone and suffered very much. Then John began to direct his life more towards that of a monk. He practiced all the Christian virtues through his great love for God. St. John had a special love for all men who were poor, and for strangers. He gave them everything that they had need of! The people elected John to be the Patriarch of Alexandria during the time that Heracles was the Emperor. As a Patriarch of he Church, St. John's preaching was like a brightly burning candle, a light which shone into the world. St. John built a special hospital and house for strangers and for poor people, supporting these places from his own riches. He gave of his mercy, not only to the faithful of his flock, but also to those who were not faithful of the Church. Because of this, the people called him "The Merciful One.”St. John lived as Patriarch until he was very old. When he died, the people whom he loved so much cried for him, and buried his body with great honor.
We celebrate his feast on November 12.
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Participation of Women in Religious Decison Making
0 Comments Published by georgy on Sunday, November 2, 2008 at 1:38 AM.
Dear Believers,
I have quoted from here and there from different messages on this topic of women’s participation in the religious decision-making bodies and answering them in scriptural tone.
When you speak of submission, women talk of suppression and oppression because we live in a free world and open society that doesn’t seemingly allow the theoretical victimization of a section of people, ignoring the fact that life is not meant to be easy in our fallen state.
. “This book is firmly grounded in feminist analyses of gender but neglects
race and ethnicity as important analytical sites.”
We have been discussing on the topic of women’s participation in the parish and church decision-making bodies. Whatever book analysis is given on the role of feminism, these have nothing to do with the faith of the Orthodox Church. Any Nick and Harry can write many books, giving their own perverted ideas that the Holy church has not to listen to. St. Mary restored what Eve destroyed, but at the close of the age, Eve will resurrect to devastate what the Mother of God contributed through her submission and sufferings. The culture of toplessness that led amorously to bottomlessness by a handful of lax modern women, the most explosive weapon of sex morality, is a revolution which brought men and Christian morality to their knees forever. Gender balance cannot give social or moral balance because it overturns the family, religion and society to their nadir. The feminism or sex revolution that put the society in topsy turvy condition can only display and watch naked or semi-naked damsels on the face of a mobile phone all over the globe and allowing to enhance sex slavery and sex global sex trade, cutting the tap root of Christian civilization that has been trying to carve out salvation to mankind. I find it hard blaming anyone for raping or making sexual assaults because sex is a fire that to be controlled by moral precepts. Despite Adam and Eve were alone in Eden, they clad leaves to hide their sex. Woman is a product of myriads of mysterious components; woman is clothed in ‘Rahasium’, secret, and the sense of shame. When the sense of shame is lost, man or woman is a brute. Man has nothing at the top to invite the centre of attraction, but the woman who has should cover and clothe it properly. When the top become bait, make sure that biting surely will follow.
You adore nurse culture that created a women chauvinism which minted some money and sent to Kerala for the destruction of the chaste church that has been continuing to go through the intimidation of colonial church imperialism. At last it is destroying the ardent faith of St.Thomas through the nurse culture money because our materially poor church hierarchy can be bought by money and real estate spirituality. The spiritual impotence that destroyed by the nurse culture money is horrendous. I adore the sacrifice made through nursing the sick by the nurses and medical professionals, but don’t make them as your scapegoats for your treasure of women chauvinism. Don’t try to bring bad name to the nurse community by denigrating them as chauvinists by quoting few cases because many of them don’t agree to what you profess. My request, therefore, is that we shouldn’t make few nurses as guinea pigs and try to bash to death the virgin faith handed over by St.Thomas through generations. There may be one or two bishops act as front men who support them for money and power, however, they are not the spoke persons of the Holy Synod.
“What is more important than H.Qurbana esp. receiving the body and blood of Christ; in one’s spiritual life? “
If all men and women are equal, we all, irrespective of gender, should be allowed to celebrate the Holy Liturgy and dispense with the blood and body of Christ, so also we should confess our sins one another. Not necessary to have priesthood at all.
“Don’t we have to believe in the whole Bible or in certain selected portions of our choice only? If selected portions only, who is to decide, which portion
is acceptable and which to be ‘ignored’? “
Secular obeys or secular courts are their goals because then only women get approval for their power thirst. I have been skimming over the postings on this topic that have no biblical relevance; the quoted verses are twisted and sound like ‘the devil quoting the bible’
“Stars and moons and other heavenly bodies were created from the sky and so they are to remain there in their orbits in the sky.” “I believe that there are cardinal differences between men and women; not only in Anatomy. If we believe that a man and woman together make ‘one individual in Christ’; as the head and body of one person; there should be no question of ‘oppression’ or ‘discrimination’. If we do not believe in that; then our ‘marriage union’ itself becomes meaningless and hypocritical! “.
Man and woman are created in the cosmic order. If the sun transmits rays of light and falls on the moon, then only moon can reflect light, so also woman can’t exist without man and the species definitely will cease and comes to nought. “Kala (Arts, latha (tendrils) and vanitha (woman) needs somebody or something for their support and for full-fledged growth. Procreation starts from man, so also Adam was created first and Eve was moulded later from his body. If there was no Adam, no question of the creation of Eve. The predatory instinct that started with Eve who deceived Adam by providing the forbidden fruit prior to the fall; it was reversed after the fall by Adam starting and providing the ingredient for conception to Eve, and that order continues till now without any change, so also providing her with the fruit from the Tree of Life. This is the reason for the church Fathers to teach that the hand that touched the forbidden fruit cannot touch the Tree of Life, the holy blood and body. As sexuality was the net result of tasting the apple in Eden, the mingling of both sexes in the venue where the Fruit of Life is given is certainly a forbidden fruit, supporting the fact that there is no sex in Heaven; hence no mingling of both sexes in second Heaven, the church.
The Decision-making venue is the first step of women’s ordination, as it happened in the other churches. This lobby group that gives incentive indirectly is from the hand of Satan who showed the fruit and said it was good to look at and make her wise as God. The lion is the king of the animal kingdom, and there is a food chain that is the predatory instinct after the fall, not before it. In humans, it shouldn’t become predatory, but the adjustment of the reproduction role of procreation and conception is a god-given formula. As long as woman remain as the mother and man as father, we can’t reverse the spiritual order of God’s worship of man giving the Blood and body of Christ. Becoming the body or tail as the head is like putting the cart in front of the horse. If you put the cart in front of the horse, the horse will turn around and pull the cart in the reverse order, and that is what is happening now. My God, everything is reversed, and this is the sign of Kaliyuga; everything is turned around and put tin the reverse order, the sign of doom and boom and gloom.
“I am absolutely convinced that Orthodox doctrines are based on pure, unadulterated Biblical instructions and Apostolic traditions.”
Who cares about purity or chastity of individuals and church? I won’t blame the lobby chauvinists; I blame the church hierarchy that tries to appease the pressure group and cling on to power and money games. How dare a bishop who is a member of the Holy Synod pull his own leg and the other Synod members’ and pressurize women to rebel against the local parishes and write to the head of the churches to execute their loose agenda immediately. It is certainly treason for a bishop to walk over his own decision or the Holy Synod’s decision that he is a part of it. He betrays his own conscience because he hasn’t given his resignation if he was against the decision of the Holy Synod, instead of playing a double role. Self-betrayal is the highest form of spiritual suicide. If this betrayal had taken place in secular system, he would have been dismissed; if in political nature death penalty because of unpatriotic activity, but everything is proven to be good in war and religion during the culture of doom.
People can misquote the bible for their own advantage, the reason for the multiplication of cults and denominations. There are other verses also to contradict your views. “Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. Yet woman will be saved through bearing children, if she continues in faith, love and holiness, with modesty”, 1.Tim.2:11-15. I can vouchsafe that I will follow this bishop and his followers, if he can write in this site that he went to Paradise, like St.Paul who was lifted up to the third heaven, Paradise, and witnessed the celestial truths there. Can anyone show me a biblical passage that testifies that women can be ordained, when you say that nowhere it has stated that women can’t be ordained? If you argue for women’s ordination, does it mean that you nullify all the divine formulae prescribed by St.Paul and st.Peter, 1.Pet.3: 4-9, two apostles of the builders of the church? Have you people read that the Heavenly Jerusalem has 12 foundations, and the 12 apostles’ names are written there, Rev.21: 14? Don’t try to scoff of the Lamb’s apostles for the sake of preaching the political spirituality that gives earthly benefits. Aren’t you jeering at all the apostles and church fathers who were transported to Heaven and participated in the celestial realities? If you haven’t read my books that unfold the truth that there is no femininity in Heaven, and terrestrial femininity is just for the propagation of the species, so that God can choose the ‘Elects of the Spirit for Heavenly Jerusalem, where Heavenly manhood is the only species there, Lk.20: 36. Nakedness is the product of the disobedience of the 1st commandment; know that sex is fire that can set fire to the House of the Lord, the reason for not both sexes mingle in the church, the 2nd Heaven and religious venues. How can we ridicule the Fathers of the last 6000 years? Misinterpreting the word of God or deliberately ignoring the everlasting truths of the centuries is the art of power mongers and charlatans. If one can’t experience the myriads of mysteries in the bible that is bundled up with, it becomes only like the blind man’s imagination of an elephant.
Here these people are calling for sedition; this is treachery and a sign of incendiarism. You are invoking blind passion in the real believers, and ask them to take swords for you. If you don’t adhere the principles and doctrines of the church, better leave the church. Your aim seemingly is to divide the church and take a section of passionate and emotional church members with you. The family is the miniature church that becomes a social alliance for the social worship in the church. Just as Christ is the head of the church, man is the head of the family that is represented by man, not by woman whose main duty is to bring up children for God. Woman cannot be the head of the family, as she is made from the small rib that is close to the heart, the seat of love. Hence she is the love incarnate that is the main qualification of maternity that was entrusted to you in Eden.
Well and good if the wife is working in the secular system, but cannot allow her to translate all what is happening in the workplace culture. Parish is one thing and the parish school is another thing. Wife is to follow the husband, like the tail that cannot be dismembered from the head, who takes decision for the family. We read eph.5: 22 onwards in every marriage ceremony. You make a pledge there that you will obey your husband and church, and then violate your own pledge for the sake of power and money games. Don’t bash the sacred family life that spins salvation for each member of the family. Seeking equality in decision-making in the parish is a political lobbying that is totally against the doctrine of the parish on the basis of pure theological doctrines. The dictum ‘sree moolam nirmoolam’ that started in Eden will culminate certainly at the end of the aeon too. The curse of Christianity is the bible that was written in Heavenly style which is not understood by earthly commoners who fight like dogs and cats that bark and bite viciously for a single bone. Better that our sick and senile shepherds retire before they mislead the shepherdless flock that thirst for spiritual hunger; we don’t want the commercialized spirituality that rot and destroy the human soul, truly the body also because of receiving the Holy Body without any compunction of heart. Many spiritual narcotics about the Kingdom of God is not transparent to an everyday man, unless revealed by the Spirit of God due to one’s struggles and sufferings caused deliberately by wayward people: they should accept a policy of “follow me”, Jn.21 (Jesus and apostles as done till yesterday), not Judas who did miracles in the name of Jesus but betrayed Him later for money and position.
Despite Jesus knew beforehand that Judas would betray Him, He couldn’t avert it because of the gift of free will given to every man. I started writing since 1990 about the inevitable, impending dilemma of the Orthodox Church that it would face blaspheme at the end of the day, with regard to the dynamiting of the Orthodox faith from within, but I can’t stop it because “it is your time and the hour of darkness”. All the prophesies will have to be fulfilled before the coming of the Lord; bashing of the Orthodox faith is the hidden sign of His coming, Lk.18: 8, despite the outward signs of cataclysmic changes due to 7 plagues, 7 bowls, etc. and the fig tree becoming tender and put forth its leaves-resurrection of the Israelite Kingdom will also coincide with it. I heard a sermon recently also that the Son of Man, except the Father, also doesn’t know the hour of His coming, ignoring the fact that “Father and I are one”, Jn.10: 30. This is why I repeat that the blind lead the blind always. In spite of the deterioration of my health, I continue writing these messages for the sakes of a handful of believers who thirst for truth and justice, whereas I confront personally the tortures inflicted by social and religious forces who don’t have a clue of the hidden scheme of the Saviour with regard to the destiny of mankind. “Let both grow till the harvest” is the only consolation. The political spirituality of the Jewish hierarchy and Herod vanished by the three-hour darkness that nailed the devil on the cross and Jesus resurrecting from the dead. I can refute and argue against each sentence that comes in the site on this topic, but nothing can change the heart of Pharaoh because everything will have to come to an end at its appointed time. However, believers, don’t bow down to this pressure group that has dreamt that “it is better to reign in hell than serve in Heaven”. Talibanism has become a reality in every religion and church denominations during the monstrous reign of Kali or kaliyugam that derail and suffocate the spirit of true religion. This sort of talibanisation of the chaste and holy faith is the naked sign of terror incarnation.
By
Prof E.S.John, Australia
Contributing Editor (OBL)
