A Review of Orthodox Church Events in 2008
0 Comments Published by OBL on Friday, January 2, 2009 at 9:48 PM.
* In spite of intense efforts made in all directions and despite factual concern demonstrated by the European Union and the US Admnistration, the Ecumenical Patriarchate was unable to improve its position within Turkey where human rights and religious freedom seem to be irrelevant and governmental restrictions and existential challenges continue to be daily realities.
Thus, no solution has been found to such fundamental issues as: a) the contestation of the Patriarchate’s ecumenicity and legal character; b) the lifting of the restrictions when electing an Ecumenical Patriarch; c) the re-opening of the Theological Faculty of Halki; d) the seizure of church properties by the government.
With regards to the Patriarchate’s ecumenicity, Turkish authorities continue to systematically contest, at every level, national and international, the Patriarchate’s ecumenical character and role while, at the same time, Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan tells reporters that "the Patriarchate’s ecumenicity is a internal issue to be dealt with by the Christian world and Orthodoxy."
As to the re-opening of the Theological Faculty of Halki, the Turkish government insists on claiming that “the file is being studied.” This unyielding attitude of Turkey led the Patriarchate to request that a "New Halki" be established in Greece. The faculty, whose expenses are to be covered by the Republic of Greece, will be opened at the Monastery of Saint Anastasia in Vasilika, Halkidiki.
Despite the multitude of difficult challenges, the Phanar persists in believing that Turkey’s future admission to the European Union will entail "spectacular changes in the lives of the Greek Orthodox Community, the Mother Church, other minorities, and in the overall structure and make-up of Turkish society as a whole."
Meanwhile, UNESCO gave the Turkish Administration six months time to take whatever measures necessary to safeguard the temple of Saint Sofia from total destruction. In stressing the deplorable state in which the historic temple finds itself today, the international organization gave notice that, if appropriate steps are not taken soon, Turkey will be dismissed as a member of the UN World Heritage Committee.
In 2008, challenges were not absent from Mouth Athos either:
-the situation at the Esfigmenou Monastery continues to remain stagnant. The historic abbey is still occupied by a group of anti-canonical monks who refuse to have any relations whatsoever with the Ecumenical Patriarchate;
- the financial scandal that burst forth at the Vatopedi Monastery caused immense agitation on Athos itself, in Greece and at the Ecumenical Patriarchate. The exchange of real estate with the Greek State following nebulous procedures, the purchase and sale of numerous properties, exorbitant bank account balances and dealings with off-shore companies comprise the Vatopedi scandal which had extremely negative repercussions on the traditional religious feelings of Greek believers. The matter is currently under review by the Greek Parliament and Greek Justice. Church leadership will certainly be happy to see this issue with its many facets (financial, moral, spiritual, and political) put behind them. Not only did it cause tremendous public outrage and diminish the Church’s image, but it threatened to reopen the door for discussing extremely thorny matters such as that of Church property or of the separation between Church and State.
* The recognition of Patriarch Theofilos’ election by the State of Israel, a full two and a half years subsequent to his ascension to the patriarchal throne, seems to have contributed to the normalization of church affairs in Jerusalem.
However, the dismissal of Metropolitan Kornilios of Petra from the Patriarchate’s Synod led to the questioning of said synod’s composition by the State of Jordan. The ministry of Internal Affairs, invoking the act of 1958 which laid down the rules of how the patriarchal institution operates, made it known that "the current composition of the Holy Synod violates the provisions of the law, as the Synod includes 8 bishops and archimandrites not in possession of Jordanian citizenship … also, there are no Arabs of Jordanian origin among the members of the Fraternity of the Holy Sepulcher." The Jerusalem Patriarchate has offered no comment on the Jordanian intervention.
Another serious issue that must be resolved as quickly as possible by the Jerusalem Patriarchate is that of the repeated contestation of the status quo at the Holy Sepulcher Cathedral by the Armenian clergy. The Armenian claims during the past years have led to violent incidents that have had a most negative impact on public opinion worldwide.
* Following 18 years of patriarchal ministry, Alexey II, head of the largest Orthodox Church in the world, passed away. The architect of the spectacular renewal and reconstruction of thousands of churches and hundreds of abbeys in Russia, he led a resurgence of Orthodoxy in his country following the collapse of the atheistic communistic regime and succeeded in bringing the Russian Orthodox abroad back into the bosom of the Moscow Patriarchate.
In Alexey’s time, relations with the Ecumenical Patriarchate have often been tense because of initiatives taken or planned by Constantinople in territories considered by the Russian Church as her own (Estonia, Ukraine and China). The future of these relations remain uncertain as the chief candidate likely to succeed Alexey is Metropolitan Kyril of Smolensk, a favorite of the Kremlin and known to be a strong advocate of his Church’s rigid positions.
* In Serbia, Patriarch Pavle handed in his resignation due to poor health and advanced age. An ascetic figure, Pavle ministered successfully to the Serbs in a exceptionally difficult period following the dissolution of the Yugoslav State and became a symbol of unity to the Serbian people amidst the wars that followed.
* The Church of Cyprus will appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in order to abolish the Turkish ban on the renovation of plundered churches and the reconstruction of collapsed temples in the northern part of the island occupied to this day by the Turkish military.
* For the Church of Greece, a period of exceptional opening to Greek society closed with Archbishop Hristodoulos’ passing. The archbishop of blessed memory proved to be an illuminated hierarch, sensitive to the anxieties of young people and keen on closing the gap between Church and Greek Orthodox youth. Believers, young and old, turned out in huge masses for their beloved religious leader’s funeral in Athens.
Consultations at the highest level took place between the Greek Government and the Ecumenical Patriarchate to discuss Hristodoulos’ succession. It was determined that the new archbishop should, first and foremost, be willing to collaborate with both the government and the Patriachate.
In fact, the election of Metropolitan Ieronymos of Thebes as Archbishop of Athens and All Greece inaugurated a new period in relations between the Autocephalous Church of Greece and the Ecumenical Patriarchate. The age-old requests by the Ecumenical Patriarchate (primarily regarding the Metropolinates in Northern Greece) were immediately satisfied by Ieronymos. With regard to her relations with the Government, the Church of Greece changed course without delay. Church authorities now carefully avoid any comment on issues of broader social or national character for which only the government considers itself responsible.
* At their Synaxis held in Constantinople, the primates of all Orthodox Churches adopted a resolution to have two Pan-Orthodox Conferences convened within 2009. The conferences are to study the issue of how the Orthodox Diaspora is to be organized in the future as well as how to continue the preparation of the Holy and Great Council of the Orthodox Church.
* The theological dialogue with the Roman Catholic Church is progressing "despite significant difficulties and known problems," according to an assertion by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew who visited Rome three times this year.
For her part, the Russian Church denounced, for the umpteenth time, Roman Catholic proselytism in Russia. Such proselytizing activities, according to the Moscow Patriarchate, have a negative impact on the dialogue with Rome.
Roman Catholic news agencies throughout the world broadcast Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew’s positive comments on the idea of "double unity” promoted by the Uniates. That is, the possibility of being completely united with Rome and Constantinople at the same time. The Patriarchate, of course, later denounced such news as inaccurate.
By
His Eminence Spyridon, former Archbishop of America
“Money, money, money that is honey in a rich man’s world”, sings the wandering musical band. Honey is a good body builder, but in excess makes constipation, so also money in excess is allergy that makes spiritual constipation which either hardens one’s heart or loosens it. However, life in a rich man’s world without money is also not easy, as the cashless technological world spins on plastic money that never rot or eaten by moth. Mammon is the god of wealth that relates either in cash or goods or property. “You cannot serve God and mammon. No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other”, Lk.16: 13; Mt.6: 24. Coined money was unknown until late in bible times. Gold and silver in the form of rings or ingots were weighed in payment where we would count coins.
The fossil money that tilted the axis of the earth lately is a chaos maker which the end doesn’t know the beginning, as it overturned the lifestyle of the global inhabitants who live in a fool’s paradise of super life of high-tech doom. “You have laid up treasure for the last days”, Jas.5: 3.
There is no avenue that hasn’t been rewritten into the lifestyle of today’s way of life, including the bedroom life because money and status job is the dictator of the wedded life of today. Love at sight that used to be the barometer of marriage till lately is replaced by the beauty of job and wealth that adds the paraphernalia of a pleasurable detour track of ownership and individualism. There is no ownership or any binding claim on this revolving and changing planet that itself is tilted by a remote-controlled Prime Mover. God says that both husband and wife become one body after the wedlock, whereas the man-made law dictates that their union becomes a case of rape unless there is mutual consent which if later denied often end up in compensation and revenge, whereas any illicit sex transaction on the basis of adult ‘mutual consent’ that violate the code of religious values and morals is abominable in the sight of God. Making two halves, not symmetrical, as one body by the cord of ‘mutual co-operation’ that implies love, nurture and care is the cardinal aim of a Divine married life because the phrase ‘mutual consent’ has a legal binding, while the term ‘mutual co-operation’ is an amicable alliance that has a strong moral and welding relationship.
As agents of God, we enter into marriage relationship that is God’s work of replenishing the earth for the glorification and completion of His works and the nervous, nuptial pleasure that is given to the couple is only a bonus for finer mutual affection and performance of His work on earth. Sexual pleasure is not a right in itself because the remote control of the body and mental health is with the Creator. Sexual union for the sake of mere nuptial pleasure in marital context is not called sanctified marriage in its fullest sense because God the orchard man expects right and mature fruits at tits appointed seasons for His glorification. This lately invention of ‘mutual consent’ is only one example of the evil effect of minting excess fossil money that has touched every shore of our private and external life. Narcotic and ecstatic Drugs and its underworld money, global sex trade and pornographic wealth, alcoholic addiction which accumulates money for a small section of the community and the recent explosion of mineral resources that we have no dimensions to measure with and all other mammoth similar financial transactions which have a ripple effect in everything in this world now is tilted around by technology that has no eye or ear brings excess money in an epic proportion.
Fossil Money
Fossil money that is derived by the underground petroleum and recent boom in mineral resources and all other excavated wealth has made a veritable duplicate hell on earth in letter and spirit because this earth is partially handed over lately to Beelzebub by pumping out the components or ingredients of the underworld resources have conquered this planet. The surfacing of the Beast on the world stage, Rev.13: 1, materializes only when all his credentials are brought beforehand over to the surface when he emerges from the hell. The mega computer by which he holds the grip of the world seemingly is the symbolic presence of the prince of perdition here soon. This representative of the Beast has made upside down our natural life and our social and family life, resulting the greedy and the self-centered ones to bend the marginalized and vulnerable ones to their knees by any form of demonic ways of a pop culture of fossil wealth.
These minority and heartless swindlers have converted this globe as a place of treachery that has touched all arenas of our life, making humanitarian crises because of aggression and weapons of mass destruction and other weaponries. Bringing somebody to subjugation is the predatory instinct that is already ingrained in our nervous system. The uprooting of the members of the whole geographical zone and driving them to distant unknown and hostile destinations is a toy game that is played by atomic powers which are sitting at the remote parts of the world. The modern life style that can’t afford to have any feeling of sympathy and mercy towards others is a total human tragedy. Even the crow flocks together when one of its members is in utter pain, but not human beings who have a stony heart. This earth has been a paradise for the mediocre, but the geriatric mediocrity is outdated lately by the age of the survival of the unfittest that will have to harness the world and its affairs for a short time.
Communal Life
The symptoms of climate change, depletion of ozone layer and global warming are the products of the overuse of petrol and other minerals and mass scale mining and explorations. God used to give only a bare minimum of sustenance wealth by hard living, so that His creations repent of their sins and help together for their routine farming life of austerity. For example, thatching the roof of our houses needed to have more men at the same time because the necessity of finishing the work on the same day was imperative to protect ourselves and the property from the inclemency of weather, so also farming that involves the joint efforts of many people while doing planting and harvesting seasons. Though we need many people in factory lines in modern manufacturing industries, these people come from many parts of the city or other regions that doesn’t need to have any indispensability of a social life. It was a necessity to have a communal life of sharing, helping and working together for a bare minimum in a village life, where everyone knows from childhood to death. Unless one made a good name in the community, his life would have been in misery because of taking birth and dying in the same place. The half-starving life of bygone days was imperative for a religious life of forgiving and forgetting.
High-tech nomadic life
A nuclear family life that has no social intercourse of neighborhood sharing and caring is a curse of humanity. Birth control facilities that limit to a couple of children per family that overprotect, overfeed and superimpose the adult addictions and vices is a hot house growth which detour the life of children to a underground, nomadic world of frustrations, anxieties and helplessness. A large family is always a blessing, on accounts of children sharing, helping, scuffling, fighting and lisping into the hard world of sufferings and back- biting and gossiping. Unless children get immunity from all sorts of childishness and taunting from the beginning, they find it hard to adjust with the later life of intriguing world that tests one’s patience, endurance and courage and nerves. Nervous stability that is acquired by various childhood activities and associations of failures and successes build a life that is full of challenges and confrontations.
It is a sin to throw an infant into a toy world of animated video games and all sort of electronic games and gimmicks and alien acrobatics that exhibit a life of astral world, the region of ‘oyar’- the place of ‘asuras’- or evil spirits. They are the real terminators of everything that is good in a child. The animated weird shows of myriad loose sides of life portray a subterranean culture of animality that sucks away the fine feelings of human affection and care, converting the young ones as morose as astral weird mob. The child is familiar only with wars, weaponries and imaginary space travels. The parents who both work and enjoy the pleasure of the flesh spend most of their money for children and their family adventures, the net result of deleting the inherent feeling of sympathy, mercy and kindness towards the human world. Religion and moral values, the inevitable menu of one’s life, becomes a missing link that creates a void for all the terminator shows and adventures to fill the vacuum. Together with it come all the amorous sides of sex life that wean away the necessary ingredients which build the higher values of life. A mafia world that craves for making commotions and install the dark underworld power to be in charge of the world affairs is working day and night by deleting the moral instincts that is imbedded in our system. Only money that buys the pleasures of life is the lingua franca of these high-tech immoral gymnastics.
Impact of super-tech life on religions
The stereotype religion that is a copycat of the sub-culture erases out the monastic lifecycle of an individual who become a sum-product of ephemeral life cycle which end up in a whirlpool of failures, disappointments and vengeance. Complaints, complaints, complaints, always complaints, but no solutions given by high-tech techniques, rather complaints are spiraled due to the high-flying pleasures of life that whet the lust of the flesh. Don’t think I am blaming anyone because these outcomes are the net result of each day’s changes that take place without our knowledge. As these overnight technological changes that don’t have any eye or ear enhanced our lifecycle to a pinnacle of material pleasures, we became a slave of Rip van Winkle’s dream of lasting sleep. Because the high-tech generations that don’t have a clue of the immense natural sufferings of the bygone generations, the modern man’s eye lids raise up when we present the naked realities of the past, thereby making enemies who want to wreak vengeance upon the innocent yesterday’s man. Is it called generation gap? It is not essentially a natural or superlative generation gap, but it is a systemic exercise of riding on the vices of life that make an unbridgeable chasm between the old and new. Nobody knows what is going on. It is the work of a minority which is a toy of Satan who is behind all the moral and religious avalanches that shakes the world of right-thinking minority. The majority religious mediocre that swings to any side which suits them for that particular moment of time really win their aims. Today’s churches and parishes that have become the prey of commercially-oriented Christian parasites who finds no difference between Sunday and Monday are real pains for the Lord and His true believers.
Today’s clergy that is a product of this toy world doesn’t know the real religion that pleases the Almighty. They think that pompous celebrations which go in tune with all the high-tech products entice God, of course please gods of aerial realms, and collect some money for themselves and charity work that has eventuated as the soul of the religion of today. Such people don’t have an idea of higher corollary values of the true faith: righteousness and love and character-buildup which have become the outcome of any religion. The religious hierarchy that crucified Jesus was only a duplicate copy of Herod and his regime; those clerics observed every rite in letter and spirit, but rejected the real spirit of the religion that only can offer salvation to a repenting soul which roots out “evil thoughts, fornication, theft, murder, adultery, coveting, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a man”, mk.7: 21-23. Long prayers, pompous and ritual celebrations and festivities, deluxe superficial extravaganzas in marriage, funeral, baptism, birth and wedding anniversaries, little charity works for name’s sake, etc. are not the ingredients of inner cleansing; they are the weapons of the Pharisees who revel in their external religious barometers. What is within is more important than without. The money-making and status- building religious external exhibitions have become the unnecessary appendages that invite only the religious fringe groups that expect cheap or superfluous salvation from the rudimentary religious epicentere of the present- day lax religious set up. It is the money culture that is the predator for the extinction of the real spiritual man.
The sub-culture man of today doesn’t need any help from others because there is everything ready made that he can buy from anywhere where there is no direct relationship with any individual, despite there is a hidden bond that he doesn’t care, owing to the fact that all the items of goods or avenues that he uses are done by some sacrificing souls who worked hard by the labour that he did at the one end of the world. There are all sorts of insurances that look after him if there is any mishaps coming into his way, also there are many types of pensions that can provide him with all the basic amenities of everyday life. There are directory assistance for his travels, communications and any kind of extravaganzas. Everything except God is available at his doorstep, in spite of God’s unseen angels is just nearby for his aid at every moment. He can fly, dive and drive that matches with the tele-transportation of the invincible world. The modern recycled man has become the angels of antiquity that depended on the help of the angels of light at every moment of their lives, as the help of the big brother was needed by the younger one.
Who cares others now when we live in a free world of limitless opportunities, the boundary of which is the horizon. Where there are no parents, there are foster parents and welfare groups to support us. If there is no money, there are banks to provide us loans. The mortgage plans that entice us to have housing loans offer us to have luxurious houses and apartments. Loans for those who desire to further their education are an immense help that can equip one for life. How many other loans, such as wedding loans, pleasure trip loans for global tours, medical treatment loans that help us to continue our aspirations of life are blessing bonanzas? The tragedy now is that we have everything that has become a curse, except God and His commandments that nurtures and revitalize the soul. The natural man of yesterday dreamt that we could fix all our earthly problems, if we could have money and inventions that fill our bellies and tear apart the cord of distance which makes better telecommunications. Here are we now; where are we? As God’s inter-planetary emigration has made a great vacuum that is being filled in by the dark angels which find exit zones through the polar holes of Artic and Antarctic regions, is a worry that is to be pondered upon with soul-searching techniques.
Serene family life that is replaced by hobbies, defacto relations, freedom and independence to fiddle with one’s own passions, open society that encourages licentiousness and promiscuities and fads cut the umbilical cord bond between parents and children, making a world that fight like cats and dogs for supremacy and power is a world war which finds its own weapons for self destruction. The family life that lost its bounds created a pandemonium that profess and stretches its tentacles to social and geopolitics to all carnalities is an end of the age invention that cut our roots for our own extinction from this planet that is any way meant for fire ultimately. If this planet has originated from a big bang fire, the natural instinct is that it will have to be buried one day within its own ashes soon after the big bang.
Parish orChurch politics and villainy
Most of the young adults of the parish have been or are members of political, or Arts/ and social clubs of the secular spectrums where they don’t have a chance to play dirty politics because it is stereotyped by stringent rules or mafia type set up. They prowl upon the challengers or dissidents and finish them off if there is betrayal and rough politicking. There are only complaints and grievances that make opportunities for villains to come to surface and bargain for their rights and demands. The vicar comes to a stage where he finds a safety zone of becoming a tool of these business mafias who pretend to protect him by feeding with false truths that they invent for their own survival. As everyone in the eyes of God is the same, we have only a safety haven where we can play politics is the church or parish. The pagan-minded and well-trained people fish in the troubled waters that are muddied by hooligan tactics get into the inner sanctum and try to bribe the Minister with parish money that is collected from the widows of two pennies. The sub-cultural church thrives in its externals, not the internals that trigger for the awakening of inner instincts which are the imperatives of an evolved life of repentance and austerity.
The priest who at one stage of his life was or has been a member of all such clubs before inducted into the religious field also take such opportunities to make as much money and play as much power games to silence the innocent and the generous ones because they are there in that parish only for a short time. Once they grab power and money some of them avail of any means to the extremes that the beginning couldn’t even be dreamt. The real religion of monastic fervour is lost, as we have received our initial training at the lap of TV shows and video games and all other inventions of alien field of occult and animated wild screen shows from the time of our nappy and crawling stages. What is sown in our heart flower will germinate and flower forth for giving suitable yields from the age of young adulthood.
There is no room for complaints and check and balance because of the congenital problems that slots everyone into the right places of this alien culture of brain washing and replacing with occultism and paganism. We can’t superimpose on anything that has a robust and slippery surface. Our seers have seen this final scenario that gulps all the finer things in life and communal life by an astral force of ‘asura’ culture. Parishes and churches have become satellites of political and social predation. Money that has become a multi-faced dragon will have to show its rampage for the closing down ceremony of this age. Money can’t solve major problems; it can only drag on from problems to problems, just like making ripples of waves by the throw of a small stone. Money is a solver of problems, but a creator of a whirlpool of chaos and commotion, despite it is a good servant but a bad master.
Jesus’ Parable
While the Lord was explaining about the close of the age, He reminded to “Remember Lot’s wife”, Lk.17: 32, who looked back to burning Sodom due to its lustful attraction. “And Lot lifted up his eyes, and saw that the Jordan valley was well watered everywhere like the garden of the Lord…; this was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah”, gen.13: 10. Where there is material prosperity that makes a sin paradise attracts the fire of the Almighty. This world that is in unison with Sodom has developed with all the supersonic and technological inventions and telecommunications, and the conversion of it as a technological paradise is a thing of beauty and joy forever, but not a palatable dish to swallow in the long run. Who would like to exit from this paradise of the flesh that needs to have tons of money to live here like a fallen angel who wants to ‘reign in hell than serve in Heaven”?
The priest also is a man who wants to have more money for a deified and dignified life because he is a model and an architect of human destiny in the afterlife. When we live in mansions of luminosities and extravagances, the argument to have a Jerusalem Temple and its ramparts for God and His ministers are also a matter of tacit agreement, ignoring the fact of Solomon’s humility “ Heaven and the highest Heaven cannot contain thee, 1.King.8: 27, explicitly validates that we can’t live like demi-gods on this earth. That Jerusalem Temple also rumbled down to debris and ashes, same is also with the craving of the real estate spirituality that has to take us to the land of Sodom, the translation of the same lately into our theology and church is also a materialization of the wife of Lot’s reminiscence.
Many of us are not aware of the explicit meaning of the parable of “a judge who neither feared Lord nor regarded man”, Lk.18: 1- 8, and upon this topic I wrote a book called ‘Viswasam Kandethumo’ but is the least of my books that is sold on the ground that both the flock and the clergy is only interested in money and power games that is based on commercialization of spirituality by real estate swindles. God is a righteous Judge, Ps.7; 87, and the priest the ambassador of God is the agent of the Heavenly Judge. Therefore, the clergy who neither fears God nor regard man seemingly is the person who neither fear God nor regard man of the parable in question. The widow who is pleading ‘Vindicate me against my adversary’ is the church because the Groom that protects its flock from Satan, the enemy is in the remotest corner of the highest plane. This could be the reason for Jesus’ exasperation that He expressed at the close of the parable, “When the Son of Man comes, and will He find faith on earth? He knew in advance that the church will be run over by Satan at the end of the time. If my interpretation is wrong, I plead God to forgive me, as I don’t have any authority to criticize the Elects of the Spirit of God. But my consolation is that I don’t find fault with any particular one, but has treated as a class action that delineates the symptoms of the age.
This is the reason for the priest praying during the worship time not to punish the flock on accounts of the shepherd’s faults. “And will not God vindicate his elect, who cry to him day and night?..I tell you, he will vindicate them speedily”? Even if the priest /clergy is not a God-fearing man or righteous, it is our duty to request him to help us. He said to himself, “Though I neither fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow bothers me , I will vindicate her , or she will wear me out by her continual coming’. And the Lord said, Hear what the unrighteous judge says”. Refer Matthew 23 also. Because the authority of the forgiveness of sins is the shield and weapon of the priest, our duty is to obey and continually entreat his power of attorney for the forgiveness of our sins. Whether the priest is an ideal man or not, as he has the authority over the soul, instead of abstaining from his sacramental rites and forfeiting our parish membership and seeking refuge to a different shepherd of heretical mould, on account of any discord or disharmony, turns out to be a spiritual suicide.
It is ideal for a religious minister not to accept any offer other than his salary, as the majority of the wives of the priest are also regular wage earners by doing plum pensionable jobs and he also can work and earn as long as he is in good health. The wealth of the parish is the money offerings of the majority poor parishioners of two- penny widows. Squeezing their money and give it to rich ministers doesn’t add up four plus three as seven. Accepting money or reward for the performance of the clerical sacraments also can be treated as bribery because “freely you have received and freely you give”. Usually they grab the jobs for their wives from the institutions that are formed and established by the donations or the contributions of the members of that particular religion or sects, and that denies the opportunity of the parish members and their dependents to get a job in their institutions that they have established.
I am not blaming anyone because these are the signs of the time that are to be accomplished before everything come to a standstill. When the fossil money that has become the lingua franca of the sub-cultural life, “your need is greater than that of mine” has become an obsolete theory. The apostles and Jesus have sternly reprimanded against the vice of accumulating money that is moth-eaten in this plane of treachery and self- deceit. “For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also”, Mt.6: 21; 1.Ti.6: 7-10. “Take heed, and beware of all covetousness; for a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions”, Lk.12: 15. Money, Mammon, is a god, not God.
By
Prof E. S. John, Australia
(Contributing Editor-OBL)
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