St. Mary the Protectress

More From Mar Cassian's Ministry

2011-05-23T17:55:00.000-04:00

Antiochian Syriac Orthodox Church

2010-11-03T12:28:00.000-04:00

Antiochian Syriac Orthodox Church

The Holy Virgin Mary in the Syrian Orthodox Church=?ISO-8859-1?B?oA==?=

2010-10-24T13:19:00.001-04:00

The Holy Virgin Mary in the Syrian Orthodox Church

Written by His Holiness Moran Mor Ignatius Zakka I Iwas

How greatly appealing the discourse about the Mother of God, the Holy Virgin
Mary is! Our Holy Church fathers had extensive scrutinizing studies of her
biography; inspired ecclesiastical poets wrote beautiful poems in
glorification of her; celebrated artists sculpted the most beautiful statues
of her and skillful painters filled the world with her splendid portraits.
The Virgin Mary is the Patron Saint of the most magnificent Cathedrals the
faithful have erected for her worldwide.

The Virgin Mary¹s Feasts

Ever since its existence our Syrian Orthodox Church has incessantly extolled
the Virgin Mary¹s virtues and canonized her as a patron saint of the church,
repeating her Holy name in church prayers day and night. Our church has set
commemorative days for the Virgin Mary to be celebrated all the year round.

It was a common practice in the church to celebrate commemorations of saints
and martyrs after their departure to heavenly abodes following the
termination of their spiritual struggle on earth. The Holy Virgin Mary and
St. John, however, were excepted.

The Syrian Orthodox Church usually celebrates the nativity of the Virgin
Mary on Sept.8. It used to celebrate the Feast of the Virgin Mary¹s
presentation in the temple, in addition to three others; the Feast of the
Virgin Mary for the blessing of the crops, the Feast of the Virgin Mary of
the sowing and the Feast of the Virgin Mary for blessing of the vineyards.

Syrian poets called the Potters attribute setting these feasts of the Virgin
Mary to John, the Evangelist. Those poets are quoted saying: ³With dew and
drizzle the land of Ephesus was sprinkled when St. John brought to it the
messages of the Virgin Mary commanding that the blessed Feasts of the Virgin
be celebrated three times a year. The Feast of the Virgin Mary of the sowing
is in January. In May is the Feast of the Virgin Mary for blessing the crops
and in August is her Feast of the blessing of the vineyards, which are the
symbol of the mystery of life².

These three Feasts are on the fifteenth day of the three aforementioned
months. Assumption of the Virgin Mary replaced the Feast of the Virgin Mary
for blessing the Vineyards, which falls on August 15th. Due to the
sacredness of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, the church instituted that
the faithful should go on a fast in preparation for the celebration of this
fast. It is called the Virgin Mary¹s Fast. In the past this fast used to
last for fourteen days starting on August the first, during which the
faithful used to have one Meal a day. This meal was free of meat, eggs or
dairy product. It consisted mainly of vegetables and beans usually taken in
the evening.

The faithful also refrained from having any drinks. Nowadays the church has
become more tolerant by limiting the fast to five days starting on August
10th and permitting two or three meals a day and having fish and seafood.
The church also celebrates a commemoration day of the Virgin Mary on the
second day of Lord Jesus¹ Nativity, which is called the Feast of the
Glorification of the Virgin Mary at the Lord¹s birth; and one on the day
following the Resurrection of the redeemer and His rising from the dead. On
June 15th the church celebrates also the feast of the first church built
after the Virgin¹s name.

The most celebrated and greatly significant feast in Christendom is the
Feast of the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary, which falls on March 25th.

At the beginning of the Liturgical year the Syrian Orthodox Church observes
the Sundays, usually known as the Sundays before the Nativity of Christ,
which include Annunciation of the Virgin Mary, the Sunday of the virgin
Mary¹s visitation to Elizabeth, the Sunday of St. Joseph¹s Revelation, on
which Gabriel affirmed to Joseph, who was betrothed to Mary, the Virgin¹s
innocence and revealed the divine Mystery, that the conception was of the
Holy Spirit.

Church fathers praised the Virgin in poetry and prose while celebrating her
feasts and set rites included in huge volumes called (Fanaquith). The book
of daily offices repeated weekly and called (Shehimo) includes hymns in
poetry and prose sung daily in the morning and evening. The themes of these
songs are the declaration of the Orthodox doctrinal concept of the Virgin
Mary and the confession of faith in her. These Hymns are meant to show the
exalted position of the Virgin in the hearts of the faithful and in the
church at large, in addition to manifesting the intercessory and
supplicatory character of prayers addressed to her. Some excerpts are quoted
from the book of daily offices and stated hereinafter: in relation to the
feasts of the Virgin Mary and the aim of celebrating these feasts the prayer
of the first office on Monday night reads: ³Oh, Virgin Mary, Mother of God,
may your name be a source of blessing. May you answer the prayers of those,
close and others far away. May you heal the sick and beseech (your son) to
give courage to the oppressed. May you expel the evil within those
tormented. May the power of your intercessory prayers have mercy on us,
hallelujah, and may your prayer support us².

The prayer said on Monday evening reads:

³May the commemoration of the blessed Virgin, the Mother of God, be eternal,
because in her virginity she gave birth to Jesus, the king, the savior of
the whole universe, hallelujah. May her prayer be with us².

A hymn sung on Thursday evening reads:

³Oh, blessed Virgin, who became the Mother of God in chastity and holiness
and without the seed of a man, may you, on this commemoration day of yours,
have mercy on us so that the dead will have rest and the living may have
hopeŠThough you are so far away from us in the flesh, yet your prayers are
always with us. So may you implore the hidden power (the Son), who descended
from His throne and dwelled in you, to forgive us².

The prayer said on Friday evening includes a Litany by Mar Jacob of Serugh
(+521) that reads:

³How beautiful and pleasant the commemorative day of the Blessed Virgin
Mary, who became the Mother of the Son of God, is! May you, Oh God, through
the intercessory prayer of hers, keep wrath away from all those who, in
faith, seek refuge in her².

In the prayer of the first office, said on Saturday night St. Jacob says:

"Let us venerate the day of the blessed (Mary), glorify it with extreme
love, with faith, ³watchfulness² and long vigil, and by going on giving alms
and praying, for (the virgin) doubles the reward of those who venerate her".

May you, Oh Holy Saint, distribute, on your day, your gifts among our
gathering who are thirsty for your prayers and litanies.

May the Lord be the fence that protects all those who venerate you, and may
the Lord keep all blows and wrath away from themŠ. The power that
strengthens you is that which empowers us so that we become able to praise
you. This power calls on us, through your prayers, to join the abodes of
light May the Lord count all those, dead and alive, who venerate your
commemorative days and seek you as a refuge, among the Choir of Angels. The
congregation raises to you, Oh Lord, on the day of your mother, genuine
praise sung to sweet melodies. May you draw the sign of the Cross on their
highly elevated gates and keep them away from distress. Glory be to you,
your father and to the Holy Spirit.

The prayer said on Saturday morning reads:

"May the commemoration of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, the Holy in
her virginity, whose virtues found favor with the king of kings that He
descended and dwelled in her womb, be celebrated in churches and
monasteries".

The Virgin Mary in the Prophecies of The Holy Scripture

Throughout our study of the biography of the Holy Virgin Mary and our
elaboration on her Holy life, we have had to depend on the books of divine
inspiration and on the extensive exegesis and hermeneutics of the Holy Book
that our church fathers have left for us. According to the teachings of
these church fathers dozens of prophecies declared by the divine inspiration
and stated in prophetic books in the Old Testament have been fulfilled in
the Virgin Mary. Church fathers saw as well, in some characters of the Holy
Book and in some events in it symbols and signs of the Virgin Mary. She is
the woman referred to in God¹s promise of salvation by saying: " Her seed
shall bruise thy head" (Gen. 3:15). Her seed is Jesus Christ who was
conceived of the Holy Spirit and not of the seed of a man. She is the new
Eve and her son Jesus is the new Adam. In the same way God took a rib from
Adam and created Eve, the first woman, the incarnated God, the second Adam,
was in the renewal of creation, born of the virgin, who is the second Eve.
She is the Virgin, Prophet Isaiah (8th century BC) referred to in his famous
prophecy: " Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call
his name (Immanuel). (Is 7-14), " which being interpreted is, (God with us)
(Mat 1:23).

Church fathers tackled these prophecies, symbols and signs in their writings
and some of these symbols and signs were included in prayer books. You find
hereinafter part of what has been put down in the weekly (office) prayer
book (Shhimo).

The prayer of the first office, said on Wednesday night, reads:

³Sadducees of old gave Mary, the daughter of David, the Holy virgin,
beautiful and glorious names. Ezekiel, the son of exile, called her a shut
gate and Solomon called her a locked paradise and a sealed spring. David
called her a city in which Jesus grew to be the grass without sowing and to
be the meat for all the people. On his birthday Jesus freed us from curse².

The prayer said on Tuesday morning reads:

³The bush that Moses beheld on Mount Sinai, symbolizes you, oh, Holy Virgin.
It represents your holy body, its leaves, which did not burn stand for your
virginity Hallelujah, Hallelujah; and the fire in the bush is a symbol of
God who dwelled in you².

The prayer said on Wednesday evening reads:

³The chariot, the chosen Prophet Ezekiel beheld, is way behind your beauty,
for the animals, tied to it, while the cherubs are blessing, and the images
of the four figures, that is the lion, the ox, the eagle and man, are
different from one another. Whereas your knees, oh blessed Mother, have
become a chariot for him, and your arms a wheel and your mouth, in
glorification, hymns².

The prayer said on Saturday evening reads:

³Moses¹ bush, your father David¹s Ark of the Covenant, Gideon¹s fleece, the
ladder of Jacob, the Sadducee, by means of which the human race ascended to
heaven were all symbols of you Mary².
A litany by Mar Jacob in the prayer said on Wednesday morning reads:

³May you be blessed oh, Mary; for the Ark of the Covenant, made by Moses as
a pattern, is an implicit symbol of you, for it included the two tables
written by God and you were the dwelling of the real bread of life².

The prayer said on Saturday morning reads:

³The rock out of which the rivers in the wilderness sprang is a symbol of
you oh, Holy Virgin Mary. From you the Son of God, who is the rock of
righteousness, according to St. Paul, shone forth. It¹s you, Oh Virgin, who
are full of beauty that king David predicted saying: the daughter of the
king stood (to the right of the king) in glory and holiness and the king was
so enchanted by her beauty that he descended and dwelled in her womb².

Some fathers discerned other symbols that stood for the Virgin such as the
thicket found on Mount Moria, under which, there was a ram which delivered
Isaac from being slain and Aaron¹s rod that bloomed and yielded almonds.

The Genealogy of The Virgin Mary

The Holy Virgin Mary descended from the tribe of Judah. She is of the house
of David and a relative of Elizabeth, the mother of John, the Baptist. In
the Holy Gospel Elizabeth is called "the virgin¹s cousin (L.1: 36). It is
reported that Elizabeth is her aunt. Salome, the wife of Zebedee and the
mother of James and John is a relative of the Virgin Mary as well (Mathew
27:56, 19:25). It is in the Holy Gospel that we read about the genealogy of
Jesus Christ on the side of Joseph, who was betrothed to Mary (Mat. 1:16,
Luke 3:23, Act 2:20, Rom 1:3). The Virgin and Joseph belong to one tribe.
The Virgin Mary is the descendant of priests, kings and prophets. She is the
daughter of David. For this reason the angel said unto her upon Annunciation
of the divine conception: ³Thou shalt conceive in your womb, and bring forth
a sonŠ. He shall be great, and shall be called the son of the Highest Šand
the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And He
shall reign over the house of Jacob forever². (Luke 1-31-32).

Joachim and Hanna, The Virgin Mary¹s Barren Parents

Ecclesiastic tradition, based on the teachings of the Apostles reports that
the parents of the Virgin Mary are Joachim and Hanna, and that the father of
Hanna is priest Mattan of the house of Levi and of the house of Aaron and
the mother of Hanna is Mary of the house of Judah. Joachim and Hanna used to
live in a village near Nazareth in Galilee and they were well to do. They
used to donate their profits to the temple and to the poor and use the rest
for their livelihood. They were barren and righteous before God, abiding by
God¹s laws. The Jews, however, considered bareness, as a curse inflicted by
God and a reproach before people. Each Jewish girl, therefore, was so eager
to give birth to Jesus, the Messiah, and kept praying for achieving that.
Accordingly Joachim and Hanna kept praying and beseeching God to remove this
reproach from their house. They became so old without having their request
answered. It is reported that Joachim once came to the Lord¹s temple to
present an offering but the priest refused the offering because it came from
a barren person.

So Joachim returned home grieved, disheartened and humiliated. He sobbed so
bitterly with his wife Hanna before God that God answered their request and
a daughter was born to them, they called her Mary.

Mary is a Syriac compound name consisting of two syllables (More) and (Yam)
which means the sea of bitterness. Some say the meaning of ³Mary² is the
star of the sea and it also denotes light.

Conception and Birth of Mary

It is noteworthy to mention that the conception of Mary took place according
to the natural law for she was of a man (Joachim) and a woman (Hanna).

Mary is the daughter of two barren persons just like Isaac, Samuel and John,
the Baptist. She inherited, just like them, and like other people, the
original sin of Adam and Eve, which is the sin of all humanity starting with
Adam who represented his race when he committed sin so his descendents were
charged with sin, which could not be obliterated from falling humanity
except by the incarnation of the second hypothesis of the Holy Trinity.
That¹s why the Apostle Paul says:

³Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and
so death passed on all men, for that all have sinned² (Rom.5: 12), and David
said:

³Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me²
(Ps. 51:5.). Of all those who put on flesh, it was only Jesus Christ who was
excepted from the legacy of this sin. ³Who took everything we have except
sin² and who became the propitiator for the sins of the whole world.

³Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in
Christ Jesus: whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in
his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are
past, through the forbearance of God². (R.3: 23,24). ³Wherefore, as by one
man sin entered into the world², so by one man it was obliterated (Rom.5:
12:15). Just like all other people, the Virgin Mary, who was, most probably,
born in Nazareth, was not without sin.

The Virgin in the Temple

When the Virgin Mary was three years old her parents fulfilled their vows
and presented her to the temple. During her stay in the temple her parents
died knowing nothing of the future of their daughter. Church fathers have a
different version stated in church liturgy. The payer read from the book of
daily offices (Shehimo) on Friday morning reads:

" Mary became an orphan, for her parents passed away. She was left for the
priests to take care of her. They took her to Jerusalem according to the
command of Moses to be brought up there. The Lord of Prophets descended from
high. He blessed and sanctified her. Hallelujah. May the prayer to her be a
fence and protection to us".

According to both versions we notice that the Virgin Mary was brought up in
the temple from childhood and was consecrated to God. She worshiped God,
Almighty serving in His temple with other elderly women worshipers such as
Hanna the prophetess, daughter of Phenol, who served GodŠnight and day (L.
2:37). The Virgin Mary studied the books of Divine inspiration and kept the
law.

It has to be understood that the Virgin Mary did not take a vow of lifetime
virginity because it was not the custom of the Jews to take such vows and
because every Jewish girl was eager that she might give birth to Messiah.
Every Jewish girl looked forward to her wedding day. This is manifested when
the daughter of Jephtah knew about the vow taken by her father that ³Whoever
comes forth of the door of his house to meet him when he returns in victory
he will offer it up for a burnt offering². She was the first to come forth
and receive him, and her father had to keep his vow in her. Although taking
vows was considered against the law (Deut.12: 31), ³she said unto her
father, let this thing be done for me: let me alone two months, that I may
go up and down upon the mountains, and bewail my virginity, I and my
fellows² (Judg. 11:37).

Monasticism was known among pagans. It was introduced to Judaism as well,
and was practiced by the Essens. This was, however, a violation of Jewish
religious traditions and of the teachings of the Pentateuch which considers
marriage a necessity in fulfillment of the Command of God, Almighty.

³Be fruitful and multiply² (Gen. 1:28). Some prophets kept celibacy such as
Elijah, John, the Baptist and others. This was, however, in fulfillment of a
divine end. These celibates were considered as weird and never can weirdness
be the norm.

The Virgin Mary¹s Betrothal to Joseph, the Righteous

Being an orphan, who lost both parents, Mary was taken care of, at the age
of fourteen, by the priests who acted as her parents. According to customs
prevailing at the time, her closest kinsmen were summoned and the decision
was taken by lot that Joseph, the Righteous, was to be considered the Virgin
Mary¹s spouse. Some suggest that Joseph was a widower and had children of
his dead wife who were later called the Lord¹s brethren. Some others suggest
that he was a celibate. Joseph was no doubt a simple carpenter in Nazareth,
stricken by abject poverty.

Annunciation

The custom of the day usually required an interval of one year of betrothal
before consummating marriage union. It was during this interval that the
angel of the lord, Gabriel was sent unto a city of Galilee named Nazareth,
to Mary who was espoused to Joseph. The angel saluted her and annunciated
the divine conception saying:

³Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou
among women Šthou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and
shalt call his name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of
the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father
David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and of his
kingdom there shall be no end.² then said Mary unto the angel, ³How shall
this be, seeing I know not a man?² And the angel answered and said unto her:
³The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall
overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee
shall be called the Son of God². And Mary said in humility: ³behold the
handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word². (Luke 1: 26-38).
The moment Mary yielded to God¹s Command, the Holy Ghost came upon her
absolving her of sin and sanctifying her (Luke 1:35). Divinity dwelt in her
womb and of her blood a full man was created initiating, thus the mystery of
Divine Incarnation without the seed of a man ³before they came
together²(Matt 1:18).

The Lord had the complete human nature of his mother, that is a real body
with articulate human soul (Luke 23:46 Matt 26:38), resembling us, yet
without sin (Heb. 4:15).

So the holy thing which shall be born of the virgin shall be called Holy and
the Son of God. (Luke 1:35).

The event of Annunciation of Divine Conception marks the beginning of the
two mysteries of Incarnation and Redemption. In honor of the Holy Virgin
Mary Syrian Church Fathers instituted that the faithful read the angel¹s
salutation at the end of daily offices morning and evening, and even at the
end of individual prayers at their will.

The Magnificent reads:

³Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou
among women. Blessed is he, who is conceived in your womb, Holy Mary, the
Mother of God. May you pray for us, we the sinners, now and at the hour of
our death, Amen².

In reference to Annunciation, the prayer said on Tuesday reads:

³Gabriel flew with spiritual wings. He hailed Mary and conveyed the
salutation forwarded to her saying, hail be to you, the Lord is with you,
The savior of the universe shall shine forth from youŠyour virginity
astounded Gabriel, oh Mother of God. He folded his hands and prostrated in
adoration before you and hailed you because he beheld His Lord dwelling in
your womb. You were equal to the chariot carrying the bearer of mankind.²

The prayer of the third hour said on Wednesday includes the following lines
of poetry by Jacob of Serugh:

³With amazement and wonder I speak of the great status the daughter of
mankind has attained. Was it the grace that made the son of the highest
descend onto her, or was it she who desired to be the mother of her only
son? It is clear that God descended to earth by Grace. Mary, who was so
godly, yielded and he beheld her humbleness and innocence and dwelled in
her, for it pleases the Holy to dwell in those who are humbleŠ ³Only in the
humble and innocent I dwell². He saw that she was the humblest of mankind,
those who are born to women. None has ever been more humble than Mary.
Neither has anyone ever been more exalted than her. Glory be to the Father,
who chose her for her humility and adoration be to the son who descended in
humility (from high) and dwelled in her. Thanks are due to the (Holy) Spirit
who is pleased to dwell in humble ones. Glory be to the one nature of the
TrinityŠMay you, oh, Son of God, through the prayer of Mary, who bore you
nine months, keep wrath away from us".

The Virgin Mary Visits her Cousin Elizabeth

The Virgin Mary heard the angel saying to her: ³Behold thy cousin Elizabeth,
she has also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month
with her, who was called barren.²(Luke 1:36), and Mary is filled with joy
for the Great News and feels so happy for her cousin- a sentiment which
reveals great love. Mary leaves Nazareth and heads towards the hill country
of Judah to visit Elizabeth, the wife of Zecharia. Elizabeth saluted her by
a prophetic hymn in which she said:

³Whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For,
lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe
leaped in my womb for joyŠblessed is she that believed: For there shall be a
performance of those things which were told her from the Lord², to which
Mary replied by a more magnificent hymn with eternal prophetic words the
church repeats every morning in her prayers in which she says:

³My soul doth magnify the Lord, And my spirit hath rejoiced in God my
Savior. For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden: for, behold,
from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. For he that is mighty
hath done to me great things; and Holy is his name. And his mercy is on them
that fear him from generation to generation (Luke 1: 42-50).

Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months, and some say she stayed
until Elizabeth gave birth to John. Some others argue that Mary left the
house of Zecharia before Elizabeth¹s birth of her son, John, lest the Virgin
Mary, the mother of God, might be thought to have served her cousin, the
mother of John, who later said that he was not worthy to bear Lord Jesus
Œshoes.

How beautiful the terms used by the fathers in description of the meeting of
the Virgin Mary with Elizabeth are!

The prayer said on Wednesday morning reads:

"Elizabeth, the mother of John, the Baptist and Mary, the mother of Jesus
are two bastions that stand for barrenness and virginity, chosen by the
king. The babe leaped in Elizabeth¹s womb. The new encountered the old who
saluted his master saying, come in peace, for your peace shall prevail in
the universe"._

The prayer said on Friday evening reads:

³Mary and Elizabeth are two miraculous vessels heading towards the harbor.
Elizabeth gave birth to the preacher and Mary gave birth to the savior of
the world HallelujahŠtheir prayer invigorates us².

The prayer said on Saturday morning reads:

³Who has beheld two vines planted in the vineyard of the Lord and the whole
universe enjoys the wine squeezed of their clusters? The two vines are
symbols of Mary and Elizabeth and the two clusters are Jesus, the
bridegroom, betrothed to the holy church and John is the best man Šat the
betrothal.

Joseph¹s Suspicions and Reassurance

When the Virgin Mary returned to Nazareth, her pregnancy was apparent, It
was only Joseph, who was betrothed to her, who suspected her. Their
betrothal was performed according to Jewish customs, which entitled the man,
within the interval of one year of betrothal to a girl to be actually
married even though she might still be living with her family, and before
wedding festivities after which she takes residence in her husband¹s house.
Accordingly, no one was suspicious of Mary except Joseph who wished to
divorce her privily. Others, however, thought that Mary and Joseph
consummated their union and Joseph was the father. So Mary was considered as
betrothed to Joseph because marriage vows were taken but without marriage
festivities; and she was also his wife having been espoused to him by a
marriage contract. When the angel appeared to him confirming Mary¹s
Chastity, the angel called her his wife saying: ³Joseph, thou son of David,
fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her
is of the Holy Ghost. (Matt. 1:20).

The Virgin Gives Birth to the Incarnated God

The Virgin was espoused to Joseph, took residence in his house in Nazareth.
They went together to Bethlehem (Luke 2:4-20) to be taxed according to the
decree from Ceasar Augustus.

In Bethlehem Mary gave birth to her first born son in a stable annexed to
the inn. She remained virgin during conception and until after birth. Due to
the greatness of the Incarnation of God, the word, Mary remained a virgin
before birth, at birth and until after the birth of Jesus. The miraculous
virgin birth of the Lord was similar to the penetration of sun¹s rays
through glass without fracturing or breaking it. Just as the Lord entered
the upper room and appeared to his disciples while the doors were shut; and
as he rose from the grave while still sealed, He was born and the seal was
intact. No wonder, therefore, that the virgin kept her virginity after the
birth of her first son, Lord Jesus. It was she who said of herself: ³For he
that is mighty hath done to me great things². She was to behold these
miracles that almighty God made in her and for her. For this reason she was
called the ever virgin and the mother of God because she gave birth to the
incarnated God (Luke 1:49, Gal. 4: 4 Is 7:14).

The prayer of the first office said on Monday night reads:

³I know not what attribute to give you, oh, daughter of David. I know not
what name to give you, oh, Mary. Shall I call you the virgin? And behold a
son is suckling from you! Shall I call you a mother! And your virginity is
confirmed! I shall call you the Mother of God and let contenders, who dare
argue and investigate about the mystery of your son, hallelujah, be ashamed
and let the one who attempts to fathom this mystery be Anathema².

The prayer of the first office said on Wednesday night reads:

³The virgin gave birth to a miraculous child. Let¹s go and behold the
swaddled baby, who is older than ages. Behold the man of old being born of a
virgin. The mighty, the great and steady as mountains held in (Mary¹s arm).
Behold the suckling infant giving bread to the poor. The eternal son with no
beginning, willed that he, the eternal, have a beginning. A beginning he had
and was born. He, the eternal, who is infinite².

The prayer said on Wednesday evening reads:

³Confiding to her son Mary said: you strengthened me to bear you, and when I
gave birth to you in a manger in the stable you revealed your glory to me.
Behold the fire embracing the little manger and the Seraphim with their six
wings fluttering over it. May you command them to stop fluttering so that I
may be able to enter, kneel in adoration before you and suckle you, giving
you the pure milk you favorŠ Mary said, I am poor; I own no house on earth,
no resting place and no bed. I wrapped him, He, the oldest of all, and in a
manger I placed the Lord of creation, the son whose father in heaven is one,
and his mother is peerless on earth. He is the Lord betrothed to church and
I am his maidservant².

The prayer of the first office said on Thursday night reads:

³When the Virgin Mary gave birth to Jesus, she addressed him saying: I know
not, son, what to call you! Shall I call you a child and you are older than
ages? Or shall I call you an old man and you are a child? I shall call you a
ray, shining forth from the Father, illuminating all creations, Hallelujah.
Blessed be your light, blessed be your brightness, and adoration be to your
Father, who sent you for our salvation.

Mary said to her virgin friends:

I am rejoiced and joyful because I bear the bearer of mankind, who is served
by the angels. I coo to Him, who taught melodies to mankind. Ranks of
illuminators surround His glory, Hallelujah, and hail Him saying, Holy, Holy
is the Lord and blessed is His Sanctity".

The prayer said on Monday morning reads:

"The Lord shone forth from the Father and the daughter of David (gave birth)
to the Savior and Bethlehem (granted) the bread of life to the peoples who
had faith in Him. Adoration be to the Father, who sent His son, and Blessed
be Mary, who gave birth to Him, Blessed be the church that embraced him,
singing (hymns) of glorification to HimŠ

I was going through Bethlehem when I heard the voice of Mary in the stable
cooing to her son and saying:

Blessed me, oh, son, because I became your mother and suckled youŠ Never
shall I approach you unless you permit me"._

Ever Virgin

Behold the virgin, the Mother of God, with everlasting virginity. The first
born of first borns and the virgin of virgins, who gave birth to the
Incarnated Lord. She remained virgin until after the birth of Jesus as
stated before. When Mathew, the Evangelist, referred to the Virgin saying "
And knew her not till she had brought forth her first born son (Matt. 1:25),
he meant to confirm to us that she was a virgin before the birth of Jesus,
remained a virgin during childbirth and until after the birth of Lord Jesus
and that she conceived her son of the Holy Spirit without the seed of a man.

Mathew did not refer to Mary¹s virginity after Jesus¹ birth and the
affirmation that Joseph did not know Mary physically and that they did not
consummate their union before the birth of Jesus, does not imply the
confirmation that he knew her after Jesus¹ birth. The term (unto) is not
always used to denote inapplicability to what follows afterwards. This can
be clearly understood, based on the use of the term in other contexts in the
Holy Book such as: ³Therefore Michal, the daughter of Saul had no child unto
the day of her death² (2 Sam (6:23). Who would ever infer that she gave
birth to children after her death?

The phrase "did not know her" might have meant Joseph did not know how
venerable she was and how great her spiritual status in the eyes of God was
until she gave birth to her first born son, and he beheld the miraculous
virgin birth and the angels surrounding the manger. To sum up, Joseph did
not consummate their union and Mary is ever virgin.

The First Born Son

³Her first born², the phrase stated also in the Gospel of (Luke 2: 6-7) does
not mean that the virgin gave birth to other children after Jesus, and
consequently, she was not ever virgin. This expression ³the first born² is,
however, an appellation usually given to the first child whether he had
brothers after him or not. This is the concept conveyed in the Holy Book
where the commandment instituted that the first born be the redeemer, and he
was not expected to have had other brothers to be confirmed as the first
born. It goes without saying that had Jesus had brethren he would have
handed his mother over to them and would not have entrusted her to John, the
disciple he loved.

Many are the connotations of the phrase ³the first born² used as a
descriptive term of Jesus. He is the first born of the heavenly Father, the
first born of Mary, and the first born of the departedŠ. EtcŠ

The Lord¹s Brethren

Those, Who were called the Lord¹s brethren in the Holy Gospel (Matt 13:55)
were his relatives, that is his cousins on both mother¹s and father¹s side,
because this term ³brethren² is used in the divine inspiration to denote
relatives and members of one tribe (Gen. 31:37, Ex. 2:11). For that reason,
Abraham called Lot, who was his nephew, his brother.

The Mother of God (Theotokos)

The Holy Church called the Holy Virgin Mary ³The Mother of God² as stated
before, because she gave birth to the Lord in the flesh. However, in the
fifth century, Nestorius, the patriarch of Constantinople, denounced this
appellation given to the Virgin. He was declared anathema in the third
ecumenical council convened in Ephesus 431 in the presence of 200 bishops,
who declared that Jesus had one hypostasis, one nature after the union
without confusion, without commixtion, without division. They also put down
the introduction to the creed, which confirmed that the Holy Virgin Mary was
the Mother of God stating:

³We venerate you, oh, Mother of true light and glorify you, oh, Holy Virgin,
Mother of God, because you gave birth to the Savior of the whole universe².

No wonder that the title " The Mother of God" summarizes the magnanimous
doctrine of Incarnation. This title has been used by the Holy Church ever
since the early ages of Christianity and was mentioned in the writings of
early fathers. It was approved and confirmed by the council of Ephesus in
431. St. Cyril the Great said:

³This is the teaching carefully instituted by Orthodoxy everywhere. Our holy
fathers adhered to it. They were so confident about giving this title, (the
Mother of God) (Theotokos) to the Holy Virgin Mary not because the nature of
the word (the physis), or divinity, was first derived from the Holy Virgin,
but because His Holy body with rational soul was born of her and His flesh
was united with the prosopon of God, the Word, and for this reason it was
said that he was born of her in the flesh².

The title (Theotokos), the Mother of God, given to the virgin is not meant
for honoring the virgin, but for instituting a theological doctrine
confirming that Jesus, who was born of the Virgin, made His Humanity one
with His divinity- one physis, one hypostasis, one prosopon. We are
entitled, therefore, to call the Virgin, (the Mother of God), because she
gave birth to the flesh and because this flesh has a rational soul and is
united in His Divinity by one Nature, one Hypostasis and one Prosopon. Mary
is called the Mother of God in the same way any woman is called the mother
of someone composed of body and soul- which are created by God and not
given birth by that woman. We call her, however, the mother of this person
because his soul and body are united in one nature and one person, hence she
is called his mother. The Virgin Mary is, likewise, called.

The prayer said on Wednesday morning reads:

"Let everyone, who does not believe that Mary gave birth to God, be
anathema. And everyone who does not confess that the one born is God and the
Son of God shall be deemed as Godless and a blasphemer.

He was eternally born of the Father and shone forth of Mary at the end of
ages. He, who was born of the Father and of Mary, is one and the same, to
whom glorification and adoration be due. Let whoever contends otherwise, and
tries to fathom his mystery be anathema"._

St. Gregory of Nazianzus (329-389+) said:

³Whoever does not believe that Holy Mary is the Mother of God (Theotokos)
shall be a stranger in God¹s eyes².

Mary Raises her Son Jesus

So many events took place after Jesus¹ birth during which we beheld the
Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, bringing up her son according to God¹s law,
in fulfillment of the Lord¹s will. Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and
in favor with God, and man.

He was circumcised on the eighth day of his birth. And forty days after his
birth He was presented in the temple and Mary accomplished her days of
purification according to the Law of Moses (Luke 2-22:39). Simon took him up
in his arms saying to Mary, his mother " yea, a sword shall pierce through
thy own soul". This prophecy was fulfilled to the letter during the life of
Mary, the grieved mother.

The Magi came and visited the newly born child, they fell down, worshiped
him and they presented unto him gold, and frankincense and myrrh. The
vicious intentions of Herod, who wanted to kill the child, were unveiled.

The Flight into Egypt

The angel of the Lord ordered Joseph to take the young child and his mother
and flee into Egypt.

One of the interesting narratives related about the Virgin while fleeing
with her child into Egypt with Joseph the righteous, was that they went past
a peasant who was sowing, and the virgin blessed the land, and the plants
grew taller. After their departure a squad of Herod¹s soldiers arrived
aiming at arresting them, but they could not find them and when the soldiers
inquired of the peasant whether a man and a woman with a child, had passed
by, the peasant answered yes, they did. When the soldiers asked him when was
that? The peasant answered: that was on the day I was sowing seeds. When the
soldiers saw the crops had grown to a full height they thought the family
had gone past the place a few months earlier so they were disappointed and
relinquished their pursuit.

It is also reported that before entering into Egypt the Holy family was
attacked by thieves who tried to assault the Virgin, her son and Joseph and
rob them. The chief of the gang prevented them; God, therefore, rewarded him
by allowing him to be crucified to the right of the redeemer and in
repentance have faith in him. He became worthy of hearing the Lord¹s promise
to him ³verily I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with me in paradise².

Some fathers report that Egyptian idols fell whenever child Jesus¹
procession went by their temples. The Lord entered into Egypt, lifted the
curse under which Egypt was; and thus the Lord¹s words " blessed be my
people in Egypt" were fulfilled.

Residence in Nazereth

When Herod was dead one year after the Virgin Mary¹s flight with her son to
Egypt, the angel appeared to Joseph in a dream, and ordered him to go back
to Palestine. Joseph returned to Nazareth so that the prophecy " I called my
son out of Egypt" (Hos. 11:1) be fulfilled and the Holy family took
residence in Nazareth.

The Virgin, The Virtuous Woman and Loving Mother

In her daily life, the Virgin Mary lived the life that good, virtuous women
usually led. In her life Solomon¹s verse was fulfilled ³who can find a
virtuous woman? For her price is far above rubies² (Prov. 31:10).

Joseph, who was betrothed to Mary was a carpenter for his livelihood ³and
Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.²

Jesus might have studied the law and the prophecies with the children of his
hometown and practiced carpentry in the workshop of Joseph, who was legally
but not physically his father.

We have known that the Virgin Mary kept religious offices according to the
Law of Moses. She went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover
(Luke 2:41). When child Jesus was twelve years old they took him to the
temple where all males were to appear before the Lord God. According to
Jewish customs, he was considered at this age, " The son of the Pentateuch",
which means being committed to all commandments of the Law which include
prayers, fasting and appearance before the Lord (Deut. 16:16). When the
eight days of festivities were over they returned to Nazareth with their
friends who accompanied them to Jerusalem and the two male and female groups
walked separately. At sunset they used to meet at a site agreed upon for
staying the night. In the evening, the caravan arrived in a town called
³Al-beereh² to stay the night there. Joseph and Mary, supposing Jesus to
have been in the company, sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance
but they did not find him. So they turned back again to Jerusalem seeking
him. After three days they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of
the doctors, both hearing them and asking them questions. His mother said
unto him, ³Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? Behold, thy father and I
have sought thee sorrowing² (Luke 2:48) and he said unto them: ³Wist ye not
that I must be about my father¹s business?² (Luke 2:49)

The Virgin Mary, The Patron Saint in Cana of Galilee

When Jesus was thirty and he started His divine ministry in public, the
Virgin Mary¹s responsibilities became greater, We heard her saying to him at
the marriage ceremony in Cana of Galilee:³they have no wine². Jesus said
unto her ³woman what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come².
Mary saith unto the servants " whatsoever he saith unto you, do it", knowing
that he never refuses a request of hers. So at Cana Jesus performed his
first miracle changing water into wine before his disciples at the request
of His mother.

So clear was Mary¹s attitude towards Lord Jesus¹ message. She had faith in
her son. Could she ever be doubtful or skeptic, having had the angel
annunciating His divine status? " He shall be great and shall be called the
son of the highest and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his
father David, and He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever". When we
read in the Holy Gospel that ³His friends went out to lay hold on him, for
they said He is beside himself² (Mark 3:21) we should not be misled into
thinking that His mother agreed with them and disavowed her son. We also
read what Mark put down: ³There came then his brethren and his mother, and
standing without, sent unto him, calling him. And the multitude sat about
him, and they said unto him, Behold thy mother and thy brethren without seek
for thee. And he answered them, saying, who is my mother or my brethren? And
he looked round about on them, which sat about him, and said, behold my
mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is
my brother, and my sister, and mother² (Mark 3: 31-35).

With such a statement Lord Jesus does not mean to undervalue his mother¹s
dignity; on the contrary he aims at elevating the believers in him, his
disciples in particular, whom he had just chosen, to her most sublime
spiritual rank. What the Holy Gospel said about his mother asserts this.

³Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart². Every disciple
therefore, and every faithful of both sexes who keeps God¹s word and acts
according to His will as Mary did shall have the same grace bestowed on
them.

In the Holy Gospel we also read in (Luke 11:27-28) that a certain woman of
the company lifted up her voice and said unto him ³Blessed is the womb that
bare thee.and the paps which thou hast sucked². But he said, " yea, rather
blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it". This verse
includes a praise of the virgin as well.

The Virgin Entrusted to John, The Beloved Disciple at The Cross

The Virgin Mary followed her son Jesus to the Golgotha and it was at the
cross that the prophecy of Simeon was fulfilled " a sword shall pierce
through thy own soul"; for she saw her Holy son crucified on the Cross. She
beheld him dead, and participated in burying him. She beheld him afterwards
rising from the dead. She must have been with the disciples on the Mount of
Olives and must have seen him ascending to heaven.

In the Acts of the Apostles (1:14), it is reported that the Virgin Mary with
the disciples and the brethren of the Lord continued with one accord in
prayer and supplication. She was with them at Pentecost in the upper room
where they were all filled with the Holy Ghost.The day of Pentecost marks
the birthday of the church, when three thousand persons believed following
the address of Peter, the chief of the Apostles. They were also baptized due
to the importance of baptism for salvation according to God¹s words.

³He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not
shall be damned² (Mark 16:16). Some might ask whether the virgin did receive
the sacrament of baptism. The Holy Book is silent in relevance to this and
there is no mention, whatsoever, of having the Apostles baptized or not. In
the Syrian Church, in his treaties on the Apostles¹ sanctification of
chrism, Mar Iwannis of Dara (860+) mentions, in passing that the Virgin was
baptized with the aim of giving the issue of baptism and Chrism great
significance. No where else in our tradition have we ever come across a text
that supports Iwannis of Dara¹s view. This is not, however, a doctrine of
the church, but just a view of one of the church fathers. We have no idea
where the virgin dwelled after being accompanied by John, the beloved
disciple. Most probably she stayed in Jerusalem.

Some historians suggested that she visited Ephesus with John and stayed
there for a while and returned to Jerusalem afterwards.

The Virgin¹s Assumption

The virgin longed to ascend to heaven to join her son Jesus. Her dormition
was in peace. The date of her death and how old she was have always been a
controversial issue among historians. Most probably that was in AD 56 when
she was seventy. Her Assumption in the flesh and soul was not instituted by
the Syrian Church as a doctrine. The Virgin¹s Assumption is a confessional
patristic tradition based on the Syriac narrative of Apostle Thomas. In this
narrative we read about the gathering of the Apostles in spirit in Jerusalem
for the Dormition of the Virgin Mary, and about the late arrival of Tom, his
encounter with the Virgin up in the sky on the way up to heaven, and his
acquisition of her girdle, which he brought to the Apostles and his request
to them to reopen her grave. When the Apostles did that they did not find
her holy body. Thomas declared to them the truth of her ascension to heaven
in her glorified flesh and that he witnessed her procession and received the
girdle from her in testimony whereof. The Apostles believed him. Syriac
tradition reports that Thomas took the girdle with him to India where he was
martyred at the hands of pagan priests. When Thomas¹ relics were taken to
Edessa in the fourth century the girdle was brought with them. Finally the
girdle reached the Church of the Virgin in Homs, which has been called the
Church of the Virgin¹s Girdle ever since. The girdle was discovered in 1852
during the time of Archbishop Mar Julius Peter (Later Patriarch Mar Ignatius
Peter 4th.). The girdle was placed in the altar. Late Patriarch Ephrem I
Barsoum, of blessed memory, rediscovered the girdle in 1953. The shrine of
the girdle in the church in Homs has become a source of blessing for the
faithful.

The Possibility of the Virgin¹s Ascension to Heaven

According to tradition, the virgin ascended to heaven. The question posed
is: was paradise the abode of her soul just like all the righteous and
pious? Or did she ascend to heaven soul and body? Her ascension to heaven in
her glorified flesh is not something irrelevant to the Spirit of the Holy
Book nor to the tolerant Christian confessional truths. If ³Enoch walked
with God and he was not, for God took him² (Gen. 5:24) and Elijah, the
prophet ascended to heaven in a chariot of fire (2 Kings 2:11) wouldn¹t the
Virgin Mary, who bore the Lord nine months in her womb, gave birth to him
and suckled him, rather be considered as worthy to have her body kept
without corruption and to have it transformed into a spiritual one; and to
ascend to heaven in soul and flesh to enjoy being with her beloved son Lord
Jesus Christ? St. Jacob of Serugh, the doctor (521+) said in his Memre in
Syriac on the death of the Virgin Mary,³When the virgin was on her death
bed, Angels, the righteous, prophets and fathers descended on her from high
upon the order of God. The twelve Apostles and Evangelists cameŠthey buried
her in a rocky cave. Glory prevailed in heaven and on earth when the angels
beheld her soul ascending and flying towards abodes of lights². The book
ascribed to Dionysius the Areopagyte, the bishop of Athens (+95) relates
that " upon the dormition of Mary, all the Apostles gathered together so
quickly coming from the Four Corners of Earth, where they were preaching the
word. They arrived in Jerusalem, the Residence City of blessed Mary, and
then Jesus came with His angels. Jesus received her soul and handed it to
Michael, the Archangel.

On the next day the Apostles laid the body in a grave and guarded the grave
waiting for the appearance of the Lord. Jesus appeared once more and
transferred her holy body to heaven on a cloud. Up there, her body was
united to her soul to enjoy her everlasting joy."

The Virgin¹s Intercession

The Virgin Mary is a patron saint in the Syrian Orthodox Church. Uncountable
are the miracles made by the Virgin Mary in the church and for the faithful.
Her girdle is the focus of honor and a source of blessing. No wonder about
that, when one bears in mind that raiment used to be put on the body of the
Apostle Paul and then put on the bodies of sick people in quest of healing
.One may justly pose the question: wouldn¹t the girdle of the Virgin Mary,
which she had woven with her own holy hands, put around her waist, and most
probably had had contact with the body of the redeemer himself, rather be
deemed as a source of blessing?

Worship Due Only to God

It¹s already been mentioned that the Syrian Church venerates the Virgin Mary
and that prayers to God include interceding with the Virgin Mary, but the
faithful in the Syrian Church do not worship her. Only God is worshiped. We
do denounce the legend of worshiping Mary. No name but that of Jesus is in
heaven, on earth, or in the underworld. To him the faithful prostrate
because He is the savior of the world. The virgin is human and whoever
worships her shall be a blasphemer (Acts 14:11-16). The Virgin Mary says of
herself ³And my spirit has rejoiced in God my savior. For he has regarded
the low estate of his handmaiden: for behold, from henceforth all
generations shall call me blessed. For he that is mighty hath done to me
great things² (Luke 1:47-49).

We shall have to canonize her by following in her footsteps in virtue and in
keeping God¹s words and pondering on them in her heart by means of true
prayers. She is a good example for the Celibates and virgins, for the
married of both sexes, for fathers and mothers in bringing their children up
in a good way, by making them keep the law of the Lord and observe offices.
May God bless whoever intercedes with the Virgin Mary and whoever sets her
holy life, as a good example.

A Litany written by Jacob of Serugh would be the best statement with which
to conclude our discourse about the Virgin Mary.

³Your prayer accompanies us, oh blessed. Your prayer accompanies us. The
Lord answers your prayers and forgives us. May you, who is full of grace
offer up supplications to the merciful and beseech Him to have mercy on
those souls seeking it, Amen".

source: http://www.socdigest.org/articles/08jun10.html

The Virgin Mary - Part II

2010-10-24T13:17:00.001-04:00

Virgin Mary - Part 2 by Johan Andersonr The Ever-Virgin

Other teachings which we have about the Virgin Mary is that she is always a
Virgin. In Syriac Œbtholath bkolzban¹.
As we we already have seen the Holy Bible clearly testifies that Mary was a
Virgin when she became pregnant with Jesus, through the Holy Spirit. But we
also say that she remained a Virgin after she gave birth to Jesus and that
she remains a Virgin forever.

The Brothers of Jesus

But, our protestant brothers asks us, it says in the Holy Bible that Jesus
had brothers and sisters (Mt. 12:46). Before you make conclusions by the
words of the Holy Bible it is important to understand in what cultural
context it was written. Of course, the Bible is the Word of God and
infallible, but it has been written in a distinct cultural context and we
need to know certain things to be able to understand the Holy Bible fully.
For instance it says that Lot and Abram (Abraham) were brothers (Genesis
13:8 - according to the Hebrew original) but Lot was the son of Abrams
brother (Genesis 14:14-16). Genesis also refers to Jacob as Laban's brother,
(Genesis 29:15), but in reality Jacob is the son of Laban's sister (Genesis
28:15). In the first book of Chronicles 15 it is written that Asaja had 220
brothers (verse 6), Joel 130 brothers (verse 7) and Shemaja had 200 (verse
8).

As you can see the Holy Bible uses the word brother in a totally different
way than we use it in the society today. It is a similar difference between
the use of the word cousin within Syriac and Swedish culture.

Some other proof that Jesus¹ ³brothers² were not the children of the Virgin
Mary are:

1. It never says that the brothers of Jesus are the children of the Virgin
Mary. The Bible simply calls them brothers of Jesus, and brothers have a
very wide meaning.

2. When Jesus died on the cross the Virgin Mary and John stood at the foot
of the cross (John 19:25-26). Just before Jesus gave up his spirit the
Gospel states: ³When Jesus saw his mother and next to her the disciple that
he loved he said to his mother: ³Woman, behold your son². Then he said to
the disciple ³Behold your mother². And from that moment the disciple took
her to himself². (John 19:26). The Virgin Mary moves in to St. John¹s house,
this would be impossible if the Virgin Mary had other children.

3. The Bishop Eusebius of Caesarea writes in his Church history about Jacob
the just, one of the brothers of Jesus. He uses the writings of a Jewish
Palestinian Christian named Hegesippus, who lived (ca) 110-170. He says that
Jacob and Simon (both mentioned in the Gospels as the brothers of Jesus) are
his cousins (Church History Book IV; XXII, 3-4).

The tradition tells us that a man name Cleopas, the brother of Joseph, was
married to the Mary that is mention in the Gospels as ³the mother of Jacob
and Joseph² (Matt. 27:56). Thus the parents of Jesus¹ brothers (and sisters)
are Cleopas and another Mary. And are the cousins of the Lord Jesus.

³Not until² (Matt. 1:25).

Another phrase in the Holy Bible that the Protestant often uses against the
perpetual virginity of Mary is Matthew 1:25: ³He (Joseph) knew her not until
she had born her son². They say that this proves that Joseph knew her after
Jesus was born.

Once again we see the importance of reading the Greek original text and
understanding the culture of the Bible. In the Greek text it says ³heous
hou² (in Syriac Œdamo) which is normally translated into English as ³not
until². ³In English when something is negated ³until, before² you assume
that a change has taken place after a certain time or action. But when you
discuss the Greek word ³heous hou² (not untilŠ not before) after a negative
K. Beyer shows in ³Semitiche syntax im Neuen Testament² (Göttingen,
Vandenhoeck, 1962) that in Greek and Semitic language this negation often
has no assumption about what happens after the period of the word ³until,
before² has gone out² (Raymond Brown, The Birth of the Messiah, page 135).As
we can see the Greek word ³heous hou² does not have the same meaning and use
as the English word ³until². Therefore we can not use this text, in any way,
as ³proof² that Joseph would have known the Virgin Mary. One of our Church
fathers, St. John Chrysotom, (In Syriac ŒIvanis Fomo dahbo¹) explains: ³He
(Matthew) used the word ³until² here, not so that you would suspect that
afterwards he knew her, but to inform you that before birth the Virgin was
untouched by a man. Perhaps you say, but why did he use the word ³until²?
Because it is often used in the ScripturesŠ In the same way it says about
the arch: ³The Corp did not return until the earth had dried up² (Genesis
8:7). Never the less the Corp did not return after the earth had dried up.
And speaking about God the scripture says: ³From time until time you are²
(Ps. 90:2), not to set any limits. And again when it proclaims the Gospel it
says: ³In his days righteousness will flourish with peace until the moon
disappears² (Ps. 72:7) this does not set a limit of this wonderful part of
creation. In the same way here it (the Bible) uses the word ³until² to make
it clear what happened before the birth, but concerning what happen after it
makes yourself draw a conclusionŠ Because if he would have known her and had
her as a normal wife. How is it possible for Our Lord to give her, as
unprotected and without anybody else, to his disciple and command him to
take her to his home?²[1]

Firstborn (Luke 2:7)

Yet another word in the New Testament that is used as Œproof¹ against the
perpetual virginity of Mary is that Jesus is called her ³firstborn² in Luke
2:7. Also this text needs to be read in the Greek original. In Greek it
says: ³prototokos² (In Syrian ³bro bokro²). ³The fact is that the title
³firstborn² only says that there was not any child before Jesus and
therefore he had the privilege and rights that the Hebrew tradition gives to
the firstborn (Ex. 13:2; Num. 3:12-13; 18:15-16). Luke mentions it here to
prepare for the presentation at the temple in chap. 2:22-23 as was the
privilege of the firstborn. That the name ³prototokos² not need to mean more
children afterwards is clear from a tomb of the Jewess Arisone, near the
ancient Leontopolis in Egypt, dated back to 5 BC. The Greek text says that
³In the pains of giving birth to my firstborn (prototokos) fait led me to
the end of my life². If she died while giving birth to her firstborn
(prototokos) it is clear that she could not have given birth to any more
children² (The Birth of the Messiah, page 398).

³The Greek word firstborn ³prototokos² is continually used in the O.T.
(Greek text) for the child that would continue the name of the tribe and to
receive the double share in the possessions of the forefathers (Genesis 27;
Deut. 21:17). In some cases this name proved of a strong messianic
importance: by the firstborn (prototokos) the patriarchal blessing was
mediated (Gen. 27) and Israel¹s religious inheritance was mediated by the
firstborn (prototokos²) (Ex. 4:22; Rom. 8:29; Col. 1:18). The strong Jewish
character of the birth story in Luke¹s Gospel explains the use of the word
³prototokos² instead of ³monogenes² (only born)² (The Jerome Biblical
Commentary, The Gospel According to Luke, page 124)

Thus we see that Jesus is called ³firstborn² of totally different reasons
than that the Virgin Mary would have given birth to several other children.

[1] Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church Vol X Johannes
Chrysostomos Homilies on the Gospel of Matthew, Homily V, 5, Matt. 1:23 f,
s.33, WM. B. Eerdmans publishing company, Michigan, 1986,USA

source: http://www.socdigest.org/articles/01sept10.html

The Virgin Mary - Part I

2010-10-24T13:14:00.000-04:00

The Virgin Mary (Part 1)

From Saint Mark's Convent, Jerusalem by Johan Andersson, Student at the
Syrian-Orthodox Patriarchate

The Holy Virgin Mary has a big place in the Syriac Orthodox Church and that
can create confusion within other Christians who do not understand or have
not yet discovered who she is or why she is so important.
In the New Testament, Luke 1:26, we read: ³In the sixth month the angel
Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named NazarethŠ The angel
came in unto her and said: ³Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is
with thee: Blessed art thou among women² (Luke 1:26-28).

The Virgin Mary is full of grace. In Syriac we say: ³malyath taybotho² and
in the Greek original text: ³Chairotomene². The one who comes with this
greeting is not just anybody, but the Archangel Gabriel ³who stands in front
of Gods throne² (Luke 1:19). It is very obvious here that the Virgin Mary
has been given a special task and is chosen for this. Just like God says to
the Prophet Jeremiah: ³Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and
before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee²(Jer. 1:5).

The Holy Bible also says that ³every generation shall praise² (Luk. 1:48)
the Virgin Mary blessed. Let us therefore look a bit closer as to why.

The Virgin Mary as the new Eve

Very early in the Church came the comparison between the Virgin Mary and
Eve. The Apostle Paul speaks about Christ as the second Adam (Rom. 5:12-21;
1 Cor. 15:45 etc.) and early in the Church they saw the second Eve in Mary.
First we find this in the writings of Justin the Martyr (100-165) and later
on the Church father Ireneaus of Lyon (120-200) developed a deeper theology
about it. It is easy to see the opposite of Eve in the Virgin Mary,
especially if we think of Christ as the second Adam. The fallen Angel,
Satan, who is described as the snake in the first Book of Moses, Gen 3:1-7,
tempts Eve to the fall of man, but the Archangel, in Luke 1:26-38, leads the
Virgin Mary to say yes (1:38) to the restoration of mankind.

Justin the Martyr (100-165): ³And He (Christ) became man of the Virgin, so
that the disobedience that came from the snake could meet its destruction in
the same way that it first came to be. Because Eve, who was a Virgin and
untouched, brought forth after hearing the word of the snake death and
disobedience, but the Virgin Mary receives faith and joy when the angel
Gabriel explains to her the good news that the Spirit of the Lord will come
over her and that the power of the most high will overshadow her; because of
this the Holy One is brought forth by her, the Son of God²[1]

Ireneaus of Lyon (120-200): ³Just like Eve, the wife of Adam, although still
a Virgin became the reason for the fall of man through her disobedience, so
the Virgin Mary, also betrothed but still a Virgin, by her obedience became
the reason for the salvation of her self and the whole human raceŠ And so it
was that the knot tied by the disobedience of Eve was untied by the
obedience of Mary. Because what Eve had tied in disbelief the Virgin untied
by faith²[2]

The Virgin Mary as the second heaven

A term that is very dear to our Syriac Orthodox Church is that the Virgin
Mary is the ³second heaven² (in Syriac smayo tarten). This term is simply
explained by the fact that God lives in the heaven. And the second place
that God literary has ³lived² in is the womb of the Virgin Mary. Therefore
the glory of heaven came with Jesus to the womb of Mary. Therefore we call
and venerate the Virgin Mary as ³the second heaven². Because of this you see
the blue color on our icons and images of the Virgin. Blue is the symbol of
heaven.

The Virgin Mary the Mother of God

One of the names that you hear the most in our Churches is ³Yoldath Aloho²,
literary ³she who gave birth to God² or the ³Mother of God². This title was
confirmed and proclaimed at the third Ecumenical Council at Ephesus 431.
This title is a dogma in both the Orthodox and Catholic Church. A dogma
means that it is something that must be believed and accepted by the
faithful as something divinely revealed by the Holy Spirit.

What does the name mean?

It means first and foremost an emphasis of the faith that Jesus Christ is
³true God of true God². Jesus is the second person in the Holy Trinity and
Himself ³of the same essence as the Father², that is to say God. That the
mother of Jesus, the Virgin Mary, received the title ³mother of God² is a
consequence of the incarnation.

This title was proclaimed to underscore Jesus divinity but also his
humanity. Jesus is true God and true human. God himself gets born of a
Virgin from the city of Nazareth in Galilee. The role of the Virgin Mary in
the salvation plan of God is therefore higher and more exalted than all the
prophets, archangels, patriarchs and apostles. No one who comes before or
after her will be like her.
This title ³mother of God² is proved in the Holy Bible. When the Virgin Mary
was at her cousin Elisabeth the following happens:

³When Elisabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the Child in her womb leaped
with joy and she was filled with the Holy Spirit and proclaimed with a loud
voice: blessed are you amongst women and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
But how could it be that the mother of my Lord comes to me?² (Luke 1:41-43)

In the Psalm 118:27 we read that ³The Lord is God². So if Mary is the mother
of the Lord, then she is the mother of God.

³Whoever venerates the Virgin is in effect venerating Christ Himself. If to
honor one¹s mother is the first commandment with a promise (Eph. 6:2); (Ex.
20:12); (Deut. 5:16), should we not venerate our mother the Virgin, the
mother of the Lord Jesus Christ and the mother of the Apostles? The Virgin
is the one to whom the angel said: ³The Holy Spirit will come upon you and
the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One
who is to be born will be called the Son of God² (Luk. 1:35). She is the one
who was praised by Elisabeth who said: ³Blessed is she who believed, for
there will be a fulfillment of those things which were told her from the
Lord² (Luk. 1:45)Š With regard to God¹s indwelling in the Virgin during the
Incarnation, the Church calls her the Second Heaven and the TabernacleŠ²
(Comparative Theology, page 111-112)

The Universal motherhood of the Virgin Mary

We believe that the motherhood of the Virgin Mary is not just limited to
Jesus Christ but also to all Christians. Therefore we call her the mother of
Christians and the mother of the Church. We believe this is proven by:

1. Jesus gave the Virgin Mary to the beloved disciple at the cross and said
to him: ³behold your mother² (John 19:27). John, the beloved disciple is a
symbol of all Christians. Therefore is the word of Jesus also directed to
us: ³behold your mother². The Virgin Mary is our heavenly mother and she
prays for, protects and helps her children.

2. In the Book of Revelation 12, the apostle St. John sees a vision about a
³women clothed in the sun² (12:1). This woman is the Virgin Mary who is
clothed with the grace of God (clothed in the sun). The whole chapter is
about the enmity between the Virgin Mary and Satan and we read that: ³in his
fury against the woman the dragon went away to fight against the rest of her
children, against those who obey the commandments of God and keep the
testimony of Jesus³ (12:17). When Satan was unable to defeat the Virgin Mary
he went away to fight against the rest of ³her children², that is to say the
Christians.

[1] Justinus Dialogue with Trypho, 100, s. 249, The Ante-Nicene fathers,
Vol. I, The apostolic fathers Justinus Martyr Ireneus, New York, The
Christian literature company, 1890, USA
[2] Ireneus, Adversus Her. III, 22, 4, s. 455, The Ante-Nicene Fathers Vol
1, The Apostolic Fathers Justin Martyr Ireneus. New York: The Christian
Literature Company. 1890

source: http://www.socdigest.org/articles/07jun10.html

Syrian Orthodox Church - BBC

2010-09-01T11:51:00.000-04:00

Syrian Orthodox Church in Jerusalem

2010-09-01T11:33:00.000-04:00

Sacred Music And Hymns in Worship

2010-08-27T19:20:00.003-04:00

Holy Qurbana Terms And Traditions

2010-08-27T19:20:00.001-04:00

The Sacrament of Holy Qurbana

2010-08-27T19:19:00.001-04:00

A Visual Introduction To The Holy Qurbana

2010-08-26T12:59:00.000-04:00

Our Journey Home to Orthodox Christianity -pt2

2010-08-22T09:57:00.000-04:00

Our Journey Home to Orthodox Christianity -pt1

2010-08-22T09:56:00.001-04:00

Orthodox Christianity: Coming into the Faith Part II

2010-08-22T09:56:00.000-04:00

Orthodox Christianity: Coming into the Faith

2010-08-22T09:55:00.000-04:00

Are you saved? - an Orthodox Christian answer.

2010-08-22T09:54:00.000-04:00

Christless Church or Churchless Christ? : Journey To Orthodoxy | The Orthodox Christian 'Welcome Home' Network for Converts

2010-08-22T09:52:00.000-04:00

Christless Church or Churchless Christ? : Journey To Orthodoxy | The Orthodox Christian 'Welcome Home' Network for Converts: "One day years ago I was handed a tract entitled, “Which Church Saves?” I recall immediately disliking it, just by the cover. It looked like a con-job treatment of an incredibly serious topic. In today’s terms, it was hype. But I went ahead and read it anyway."

Predictably, the author took a poke at many of the various denominations in Christendom, particularly at those with strong historical roots. Then, he went on to tell his readers that when all is said and done, the Church really never was all that crucial to our salvation in the first place. All you need is Jesus.

The New Monastic and the Old Monk: When the Center Does Not Hold

2010-08-18T18:29:00.000-04:00

The New Monastic and the Old Monk: When the Center Does Not Hold At the moment I am somewhere in Oklahoma with our oldest son, trying to provide moral support while he struggles with some very difficult issues. My wife joins us as she can, given her work; and our friends are praying for us.

It’s unbearably hot here, sometimes almost unbearably hard here, and overall it’s very depressing. I try to keep a chipper public face, especially where I am somewhat in “public” (e.g. on Facebook) … but I’m not chipper. Nor is my faith at the moment.

That's the setting, the emotional and spiritual context, for what follows. It applies to the situation of my loved ones here, but as I pondered it all, things quickly went "global" on me earlier today. With that condition in mind, I wasn’t surprised at what was whispering through my head as I woke up today.

Follow the link and read all of this article......

Interview with Matt Brown

2010-08-05T21:49:00.000-04:00

Why In The World Would An Episcopalian Become Orthodox : Journey To Orthodoxy | The Orthodox Christian 'Welcome Home' Network for Converts

2010-08-04T21:43:00.004-04:00

Why In The World Would An Episcopalian Become Orthodox : Journey To Orthodoxy | The Orthodox Christian 'Welcome Home' Network for Converts: "an increasing number of Episcopalians have looked to the historic Church of Christ known as the Eastern Orthodox Church as a place of refuge. In fact, many Episcopalians, especially those who come out of Anglo-Catholic backgrounds, were taught that the church catholic exists in three historic branches: Roman Catholicism, Anglicanism, and Eastern Orthodoxy."

The Doctrine of the Orthodox Church: Worship & Sacraments

2010-08-02T21:27:00.000-04:00

The Doctrine of the Orthodox Church: Worship & Sacraments: "By its theological richness, spiritual significance, and variety, the worship of the Orthodox Church represents one of the most significant factors in this church's continuity and identity. It helps to account for the survival of Christianity during the many centuries of Muslim rule in the Middle East and the Balkans when the liturgy was the only source of religious knowledge or experience. Since liturgical practice was practically the only religious expression legally authorized in the former Soviet Union, the continuous existence of Orthodox communities in the region was also centred almost exclusively around the liturgy.

The concept that the church is most authentically itself when the congregation of the faithful is gathered together in worship is a basic expression of Eastern Christian experience. Without that concept it is impossible to understand the fundamentals of church structure in Orthodoxy, with the bishop functioning in his essential roles of teacher and high priest in the liturgy. Similarly, the personal experience of man's participation in divine life is understood in the framework of the continuous liturgical action of the community."

Coptic Orthodox Church of South Africa (Part-2).

2010-07-11T09:08:00.000-04:00

Coptic Orthodox Church of South Africa (Part-1).

2010-07-11T09:06:00.000-04:00

My Everyday Life and Orthodox Faith: Pt 1 : Journey To Orthodoxy | The Orthodox Christian 'Welcome Home' Network

2010-06-29T17:13:00.000-04:00

My Everyday Life and Orthodox Faith: Pt 1 : Journey To Orthodoxy | The Orthodox Christian 'Welcome Home' Network: "She moved back home with us. After months of struggling with her own faith , she remembered having learned a little bit about the Orthodox faith. She went to Ukraine with the purpose of teaching English and hopefully winning the Orthodox to Christianity. ( This is sad, because the Orthodox Church is the most ancient and pure form of Christianity.) In her search , she began studing and reading."

Medicine and ethics

2010-06-28T15:32:00.001-04:00

Article from OED Book / October 7, 1995

Christian ethics is an ambiguous category that sits uneasily in the spectrum of Orthodox theological concerns. No one knows quite how to define it or how to distinguish it from the more traditional discipline of "moral theology."
In very general terms, "ethics" studies human behavior. It is a descriptive science that attempts to discern and analyze the underlying principles and values that govern human conduct. "Moral theology," on the other hand, is typically prescriptive: it proposes the "oughts" that shape the moral life in response to God's commandments and purposes as they are revealed in Scripture and other sources of Holy Tradition. To speak of specifically "Christian" ethics, however, complicates the matter, since it suggests that the purpose of the field is not only to analyze our behavior but to propose a cure for our moral illness, our sin. In common usage, then, Christian ethics and Christian moral theology are virtual equivalents, since the act of making ethical judgments involves by its very nature a striving toward sanctity or holiness.
This is true as well with regard to the relatively new discipline of "medical ethics." The expression could refer simply to the way doctors and other health-care specialists treat patients. As such it would either be purely descriptive (analyzing the values, motives and intentions of the medical team); or, if it ventures into the realm of prescription (how the team should behave and why), its moral directiveness would be governed by the ethicist's own philosophical outlook. "Christian medical ethics," on the other hand, if it is in any sense "orthodox," presupposes a value system grounded in certain truths, or rather in "the Truth" that has revealed itself and continues to reveal itself within the Church, meaning the all-embracing reality of God's presence and purpose within creation.
In the limited space available here, I would like to recall in the briefest terms a few of the foundational truths that guide Orthodox moral reflection and note their importance in the field of medical ethics. Each of these could be developed at book-length. What follows is merely an indication of the way Christian medical ethics must be informed and guided by the church's theology.
Orthodox ethics, and particularly medical or bio-ethics that deals specifically with issues of life and death, is based on the following presuppositions:
1. God is absolutely sovereign over every aspect of human existence, from conception to the grave and beyond. The divine imperative to "Choose life!" is fulfilled by loving the Lord, obeying His voice and cleaving to Him (Deut 30:19); that is, by offering ourselves in total surrender to His sovereign authority and purpose. It is precisely that authority that requires Orthodox Christians to reject "abortion on demand," active euthanasia, and any procedure that means "taking life (and death) into our own hands."
2. The Holy Trinity characterized by "community and otherness," by essential unity and personal distinctiveness should serve as the model or icon, of every human relationship. Bound together by our shared humanity in the communion of the ecclesial Body, yet serving one another with differing spiritual gifts, we are called to "responsibility": to respond to one another with a self-giving love that both images and conveys the love of God in Jesus Christ.
3. Growth in the moral life is only possible insofar as we experience the "eschatological tension" of eternal life present in our midst. "The hour is coming and now is," when the sole meaning and value of human existence is to "worship the Father in Spirit and truth" (Jn 4:23-24). Christian ethics is essentially "teleological," with its focus on realizing in the here and now the beauty, truth and perfection of life in the Kingdom of God.
What do these three principles or presuppositions imply with regard to medical ethics? Given the climate in which we live today, the following points stand out:
1. Health and wholeness have ultimate meaning only within the perspective of God's eternal purpose, the divine economy to be fulfilled at "the second and glorious coming" of Jesus Christ. Medical care, therefore, should serve not only the proximate goal of restoring or improving bodily health; it should strive to provide optimal conditions for the patient's spiritual growth at every stage in the life cycle. This means curing disease; but it also means, particularly in terminal cases, easing pain and distress by any appropriate means in order to allow the patient, through prayer, confession and communion, to surrender him/herself into the hands of God. "Medical heroics" result all too often from the prideful attempt on the part of care-givers to avoid "failure," defined as "losing" the patient to death. Such hubris is responsible for a great deal of unnecessary suffering on the part of patients and their families, and it represents idolatry of the worst sort insofar as the medical team assumes the role of God.
2. Matters of "informed consent" and "patient's rights" need to be evaluated in the light of the Gospel's teaching on freedom and responsibility. Some Christian ethicists today are suggesting that our unity in the Body of Christ implies a mutual commitment that in certain cases transcends the need for informed consent and transforms the self-centered notion of personal "rights" into the self-giving gesture of care offered to others in love. While this raises the specter of the "slippery slope" in a stark and perhaps dangerous way, the theological vision behind the suggestion is profoundly "evangelical." It recognizes that from the point of view of healthcare, ultimate meaning and value in life lie not in the mere preservation of biological existence, but in the total surrender of self to the loving sovereignty of God. And it grounds personal relationships, between doctor and patient as between the medical team and patient's family, in the ultimate relationship of love, trust and mutual devotion shared by the three Persons of the Holy Trinity.
Modern medical technology has performed wonders for which many of us will be forever grateful. But like any human invention, that technology and its application must be subject to constant re-evaluation and judgment in the light of Holy Tradition. To paraphrase a well-worn maxim, "ethics is too important to be left to the ethicists." At its core, Christian ethics is a theological discipline. This means that the work of doing ethics is a communal, ecclesial work for which each of us is responsible. Just as each Christian is called to be a theologian by offering self and the world to God in prayer, each is called to be an ethicist, a "moral theologian" in the proper sense. Informing ourselves of the issues, discussing them in family, parish and on the job, and taking a stand, both public and personal, that reflects our understanding of the Gospel and of God's imperative in our life, we can faithfully and usefully serve the many dedicated health-care givers who live to serve us, while providing them with the guidance and discernment they seek. And thereby, "medical ethics" can be restored to its proper place as a theological discipline that serves the glory of Christ and the spiritual health of the members of His Body.

source: http://www.pravmir.com/article_1012.html

Antiochian Syriac Orthodox Church

2010-06-27T15:19:00.000-04:00

Antiochian Syriac Orthodox Church
New web site for the American diocese of the Antiochian Syriac Orthodox Church.

Bishops Visit Our Parish

2010-05-29T18:16:00.000-04:00

An Anti-Depressant Found In Every Orthodox Church

2010-05-24T09:08:00.001-04:00

An Anti-Depressant Found In Every Orthodox Church

Incense Found To Be Psychoactive

21 May 2008
by Kate Melville
Science A Go Go

Biologists from Johns Hopkins University and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem have discovered that burning frankincense (resin from the Boswellia plant) activates poorly understood ion channels in the brain that alleviate anxiety and depression, suggesting that an entirely new class of medicinal drugs might be right under our noses.

Reporting their findings in The FASEB Journal, the researchers said that the active compound - incensole acetate - significantly affected areas in the brain known to be involved in emotions as well as in nerve circuits that are affected by currently prescribed anxiety and depression drugs.

"In spite of information stemming from ancient texts, constituents of Boswellia had not been investigated for psychoactivity," said researcher Raphael Mechoulam. "We found that incensole acetate, a Boswellia resin constituent, when tested in mice lowers anxiety and causes antidepressive-like behavior. Apparently, most present day worshipers assume that incense burning has only a symbolic meaning."

To make their discovery, the researchers administered incensole acetate to mice and found that the compound activated a protein called TRPV3, which is present in mammalian brains and also known to play a role in the perception of warmth of the skin. When mice bred without this protein were exposed to incensole acetate, the compound had no effect on their brains.

"Perhaps Marx wasn't too wrong when he called religion the opium of the people: morphine comes from poppies, cannabinoids from marijuana, and LSD from mushrooms; each of these has been used in one or another religious ceremony." said Gerald Weissmann, Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal. "The discovery of how incensole acetate, purified from frankincense, works on specific targets in the brain should also help us understand diseases of the nervous system. This study also provides a biological explanation for millennia-old spiritual practices that have persisted across time, distance, culture, language, and religion - burning incense really does make you feel warm and tingly all over!"

On the Church

2010-05-21T09:34:00.000-04:00

by Fr. John Romanides

Our father in the faith, John Romanides (1927 – 2001), was a prominent 20th century Orthodox Christian priest, theologian, and writer. He argued for the existence of a “national, cultural and even linguistic unity between Eastern and Western Romans” that existed until the intrusion and takeover of the West Romans (the Roman Catholics) by the Franks and or Goths (German tribes).

The Church is the body of Christ, which is comprised of all those faithful in Christ; of those who participate in the first resurrection and who bear the betrothal of the Spirit or even those who have foretasted theosis (deification).

The Church has existed even before Creation, as the kingdom and the glory that is hidden within God and in which God resides, along with His Logos and His Spirit. By a volition of God, the aeons were created, as were the celestial powers and the incorporeal spirits or angels therein, and thereafter, time and the world within it, in which man was also created, who unites within himself the noetic energy of the angels with the logos-reason and the human body.

The Church is both invisible and visible; in other words, She is comprised of those who are enlisted (in active duty) on earth and those who are in the heavens, that is, those who have triumphed in the glory of God.

Among the Protestants there prevails the opinion that the Church is invisible only – where the sacraments of Baptism and the Divine Eucharist are merely symbolic acts – and that only God knows who the true members of the Church are. The Orthodox Church, on the other hand, also stresses the visible aspect of the Church. Outside the Church, there is no salvation.

The Church, as the body of Christ, is the residence of God’s uncreated glory. It is impossible for us to separate Christ from the Church, as it is to separate the Church from Christ. In Papism and Protestantism there is a clear distinction between the body of Christ and the Church; that is, one can participate in the body of Christ, without being a member of the Papist church.

This is impossible for Orthodoxy.

According to the Calvinists, after His ascension, Christ resides in heaven, and consequently the transformation of bread and wine into the actual Body and Blood of Christ is impossible. A complete absence of Christ. Approximately the same thing is highlighted in the Papist church, because Christ is regarded as absent, and through the minister’s prayer, He descends from the heavens and becomes present. This implies that Christ is absent from the Church.

Members of the Church are – as mentioned previously – those who have received the betrothal of the Spirit and the deified ones.

When the ancient Church referred to the body of Christ as the Church, and Christ as the Head of the Church, they of course did not mean that Christ was spread out bodily all over the world and that He – for example – had His Head in Rome, the one hand in the East and the other in the West, but that the whole of Christ exists in every individual church with all its members, that is, the Saints and the faithful of the universe.

In this way, according to the teaching of the Fathers, when we perform the Divine Eucharist, not only is Christ present, but all His Saints and the Christians of the Universe are present, in Christ. When we receive a tiny morsel of the Holy Bread, we receive all of Christ inside us. When Christians gather together for the same reason, the whole Church is gathering together, and not just a fraction of it. This is the reason that it has become predominant in Patristic Tradition to refer to the church of a monastery as the “Katholikon”.

The destination of all the faithful is theosis (deification). This is everyone’s ultimate objective. This is why a Christian must proceed “from glory to glory”; in other words, the slave must first become a salaried worker, then a son of God and a faithful member of Christ.

There cannot be salvation outside the Church. Christ offers redemptive grace to all people. When one is saved outside the visible Church, it means that Christ Himself has saved him. If he is a heterodox member then he is saved because it was Christ who saved him, and not the religious “offshoot” that he belongs to.

His salvation therefore is not effected by the ‘church’ he belongs to, because One is the Church that saves – and that is Christ.

Wherever the Orthodox dogma does not exist, the Church is in no position to opine on the authority of the sacraments. According to the Fathers, the Orthodox Dogma never separates itself from spirituality. Wherever there is an erroneous dogma, there is an erroneous spirituality and vice-versa.

There are many who separate the dogma from piety. That is a mistake. When Christ says “become ye perfect, as the Father is perfect” it implies that one must be familiar with the meaning of perfection. The criterion for the authority of the sacraments for us Orthodox is the Orthodox dogma, whereas for the heterodox, it is Apostolic Succession.

For the Orthodox Tradition, it is not enough to trace one’s ordination back to the Apostles, but to possess the Orthodox dogma.

Piety and dogma are one identity and cannot be separated. Wherever there is upright teaching, there will be upright action. “Orthodox” means:

a) upright glory
b) upright action

The terrestrial, actively engaged Church is the Orthodox Church. “Orthodox dogma” and “Scriptural teaching” are one and the same thing, because the dogma exists, and it comes from within the Holy Bible.

source: http://preachersinstitute.com/2010/05/on-the-church-fr-john-romanides/

Sermon on the Feast of Pentecost

2010-05-20T09:33:00.000-04:00

by St. John Chrysostom

Our father among the saints John Chrysostom, Archbishop of Constantinople, was a notable Christian bishop and preacher from the fourth and fifth centuries in Syria and Constantinople. He is famous for eloquence in public speaking and his denunciation of abuse of authority in the Church and in the Roman Empire of the time. His banishments demonstrated that secular powers had strong influence in the eastern Church at this period in history.

Let us spiritually extol the grace of the Holy Spirit in spiritual hymns, since spiritual grace has on this day shown upon us from heaven. Though our words are too weak to express adequately the greatness of this grace, we shall praise its power and activity to the extent of our abilities; for the Holy Spirit probes all things, even the depths of divinity.

We are celebrating the day of Pentecost, the day of the Descent of the Holy Spirit to the Apostles, the day of the hope of perfection, the end of expectation, the longing for salvation, the fulfillment of prayer and the image of patience. Today the Spirit Who acted to scatter the nations in the time of Heber has formed tongues of fire among the Apostles. His action of old led to the confusion of the nations, in order to restrain the will of man from its brazenness and consequent chastisement; on this occasion, however, amidst fiery tongues, the deeds wrought by the activity of the Holy Spirit served to preserve us as recipients of preaching, in fulfillment of the will of God.

In the beginning the Spirit of God moved over the water, and later, in the time of Christ, the same Holy Spirit of God rested upon him . Then He moved, and now He rested, as being one in essence, equal in honor, ever-existent and unoriginate together with the Father and the Son.

He Who by the flight of a dove over the waters of the Flood heralded fair weather to Noah, the same Holy Spirit, by the sight of a dove at the waters of the Jordan, showed the world the Sonship of Him Who was baptized. Moreover, the Lord had a terrifying answer for those who dared to utter blasphemy against the Holy Spirit:

“Whoever speaks blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.”

David, declaring his desire for this Holy Spirit, prayed to God, saying: “Cast me not away from Thy presence, O Lord; and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me.”

As is well known, where He is absent, every sort of corruption sets in. Thus, the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an evil spirit entered into him, wherefore David said,

“Take not Thy Holy Spirit from me.”

This same Holy Spirit sanctified the prophets, instructed the apostles and empowered the martyrs. This same Holy Spirit consecrated Isaiah, taught Ezekiel and revealed the resurrection of the dead. As he says,

“The hand of the Lord was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the Lord.”

This same Holy Spirit chose Jeremiah from his mother’s womb, and raised up Daniel to deliver Susanna. As it is written,

“God raised up by the Holy Spirit a young youth, whose name was Daniel.”

David so loved the presence of this same Holy Spirit that he prayed to God, saving,

“Thy Holy Spirit shall lead me in the land of uprightness.”

This same Holy Spirit of God came to dwell in the holy Virgin Mary, embracing her with the communion of the Divine Word at the good pleasure of the Father, and making her the Theotokos. Elizabeth, being filled with this same Holy Spirit, understood that the Lord had come to her by means of the Virgin; wherefore she said,

“And whence is this to me, that the Mother of my Lord should come to me?”

Zachariah, the father of John, was filled with the same Holy Spirit, whereby he declared that the son born to him would be the prophet and forerunner of the King Who was to come. John himself was also filled with the same Holy Spirit; the eyes of his intellect were given light, and he beheld the heavens opened, and the Holy Spirit hovering over Him Who was being baptized, Him Who baptized with the Spirit and fire.

By the action of the same Holy Spirit, the Lord Himself, when He was giving His Apostles His teaching in detail and strengthening their minds for the time of His Passion, said to them:

“If I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you.”

Moreover, revealing to them the Spirit’s consubstantial power, He said:

“When the Holy Spirit is come, Which proceedeth from the Father, He will guide you into all truth.”

The holy Apostles waited expectantly for the coming of the power of this same Holy Spirit; they waited together to be clothed with power from on high, according to the commandment of the Lord, Who had said:

“Tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high; for, behold, I shall send the promise of My Father upon you.”

And, as it is written,

“when the day of Pentecost was fully come, all the holy Apostles were assembled with one accord in one place, and the Paraclete was sent to them under the appearance of tongues of fire.”

Having received the abundant promise of the Father and the Holy Spirit, they were strengthened, and they manifested Him Who was sent to them, His grace and His power. The martyr and protodeacon Stephen, filled with the same Holy Spirit, Whom he received by the laying-on of hands of the Apostles, did great wonders and miracles among the people. Being full of the Holy Spirit, he saw the doors of heaven opened and the Only-begotten Son and Word of God standing in the flesh at the right hand of the power of God. Filled with this same Holy Spirit, Paul became the preacher of divine mysteries. As Ananias said to him:

“The Lord, even the Savior, hath sent me to thee, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”

And Paul afterwards said with assurance:

“And I think also that I have the Spirit of God.”

The same Holy Spirit came to Cornelius and those that were to be baptized with him, and each of them spoke in his own tongue and magnified God. This same Holy Spirit came upon the Ethiopian eunuch after he went down into the water [of baptism], and he was filled with joy, and he went on his way rejoicing.

This is the same Holy Spirit Who preached by the prophets, Who gave understanding to the apostles, Who spoke to men. He was given to them by the Lord, and all their adversaries were not able to gainsay or resist Him. For, as the Lord said,

“It is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father Which speaketh in you.”

This Holy Spirit also ordains priests, consecrates churches, purifies altars, perfects sacrifices and cleanses people of their sins. This Holy Spirit abides with the godly, refines the righteous and guides kings. This same Holy Spirit preserved the soul of Simeon, lengthening the time of his life and reversing the rules of death, until the day when he beheld Him Who is the Redeemer of life and death; for it had been promised unto him by the Holy Spirit, that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ.

It was the same Holy Spirit Who gave strength to Elijah, and Whose power Elisha desired when he asked of Elijah:

“Let there be, I pray thee, a double portion of thy spirit upon me.”

This Holy Spirit enlightens souls and sanctifies bodies. It was the same Holy Spirit Who descended upon the Apostles and filled them with divine wisdom. Having received His gifts, they were all filled with the knowledge of God; not only were they given divine knowledge, but also spiritual gifts.

Simon Magus, being a stranger to the Holy Spirit, fell to his perdition. As Peter said to Simon:

“Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast desired to purchase the priceless grace of the Holy Spirit with money.”

Therefore, beloved, let us strive to keep our bodies uncorrupted; for one who has acquired a new body, which is a temple of the Holy Spirit, has become a true victor over the devil. What the Spirit of God has said, may it be done unto me.

Moreover, Joseph, strengthened by this same Holy Spirit, desired not that his body be defiled by the vile deeds of this life; for he knew that the Spirit does not abide in a body that has commerce with sin; therefore, he attained a royal rank. This Spirit enlightened Bezaleel, so that he fashioned the tabernacle with all beauty and skill. Joshua the son of Nun, possessing the same Spirit, became a faithful heir to Moses and obtained the inheritance of the Promised Land for his people. As God said to Moses:

“Take to thyself Joshua the son of Nun, a man who has the Spirit of God in him.”

This is the Spirit of Whom the Lord, when He breathed upon His disciples after His Resurrection from the dead on the third day, said:

“Receive ye the Holy Spirit.”

And again, it is the same Spirit Who has vouchsafed to give eternal life to the faithful after the general resurrection from the dead. As it is written:

“Thou wilt send forth Thy Spirit, and they shall be created; and Thou shalt renew the face of the earth.”

Many are the gifts of the Holy Spirit; many and all-powerful are His gifts.

As it says in a certain place: By the Word of the Lord were the heavens established, and all the might of them by the Spirit of His mouth. And Isaiah says:

“The Spirit of God shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and godliness.”

And Paul adds,

“The Spirit of adoption and of grace.”

He Who is equally ever-existent, and equally unoriginate, and Who shares the throne and the honor of God, His Son and Word, called this Spirit the Spirit Who is our Comforter. David calls Him the Holy Spirit, since the Holy Spirit is sent by holiness; the governing Spirit, since He has dominion over all, because all things came from Him and are kept in existence by Him; and the good Spirit, since salvation and all kinds of goodness are from Him.

And what does Isaiah call Him? The Spirit of God, because He proceeds from God the Father; thus does God Himself speak of the Spirit of God as proceeding, in the words, Which proceedeth from the Father. Isaiah further calls Him the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, because all wisdom and good understanding have been given through Him; and the Spirit of counsel and strength, because He is able to bring to pass that which is desired; and also the Spirit of knowledge and godliness. Ezekiel, a man of the spirit, says:

“And I will give you a new heart and a new Spirit.”

He is one in essence, one in principle and one in counsel with the Father and the Son. Wouldst thou believe? Listen to what the Scriptures say of Him:

“When He prepared the heaven, I was present with Him.”

The prophet further says:

“The Lord, and His Spirit hath sent me.”

Lest anyone think, from what was said, that this new Spirit would come from any creatures living or yet to come, or from any other person, He says:

“And I will put My Spirit in you;”

inasmuch as He said,

“A new Spirit.”

In the Acts of the holy Apostles, this was expressed in commandments:

“The Holy Spirit said, ‘Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them.’”

And again,

“It seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us;”

even as it had been said,

“I will put My Spirit in you.”

Would you demonstrate that this was indeed His coming, as was foretold in parables, and that it was His grace acting upon the holy Apostles? Will you believe what was said? Listen to St. John the Evangelist, who says:

“The Holy Spirit was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified.”

Paul called this Spirit the Spirit of adoption and the Spirit of grace, inasmuch as in the waters of the baptismal font men are born again of water and the Spirit, and we receive the adoption of sons. In the same way, the Lord said to Nicodemus:

“Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.”

Thus, the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of sonship and the Spirit of grace; for grace and truth came by Jesus Christ, through the Holy Spirit, for those who have been born by the power of God.

Moreover, the Spirit is called the Comforter, because He is also our advocate with the Father. And not only is He with the Father, but He is always with us also as a gift.

“And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever,”

comforting your hearts and making them steadfast in divine patience and trust in Christ. Whereas the holy Apostles received this testament after Christ’s holy Rising from the dead, and were sent forth to teach and to baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and whereas we have already been vouchsafed this true washing by the Holy Spirit, let us strive to keep our souls and our bodies undefiled as we glorify the Most holy and consubstantial Trinity, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

source: http://preachersinstitute.com/2010/05/sermon-on-the-feast-of-pentecost/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+PreachersInstitute+%28Preachers+Institute%29

What is the Rapture - Part Two

2010-05-13T08:38:00.004-04:00

by Fr. Dimitry Cozby

Let us summarize what we have found so far. St. Paul does speak of a sort of rapture, in the sense of a carrying up into the sky of the righteous at the time of the Second Coming. The Fathers generally agree on that . But St. Paul and the Fathers see this as an event which accompanies Christ’s return and immediately precedes the Judgment and the establishment of the Kingdom.

The Rapture which Darby and Scofield taught and which Lindsey, Walvoord, and others still teach is different from that. They talk about it as a separate happening, part of a decades long program of events leading up to Christ’s Coming. The dispensationalists see the Rapture as the disappearance of the faithful from the earth before the Great Tribulation and many years before the Judgment. This is foreign to the Apostle and to the Tradition.

St. Paul mentions no period of affliction and persecution following the Rapture.

In an effort to forge a link between the Rapture and the Tribulation, supporters turn to Matthew 24:40-42, quoted above (in part 1). Certainly we have here references to a time of horror and suffering, and 24:21 even speaks of “great tribulation” (but not “the Great Tribulation”). Matthew 24 and 25 comprise a long discourse by Jesus. The occasion for this teaching is the first days of Holy Week, when Christ and His disciples were in Jerusalem on that last visit which ended in His death and resurrection. The Lord and His entourage have been in the Temple. As they leave, one of the company remarks on the structure’s splendor and grandeur (24:1-2).

Jesus replies by prophesying its coming destruction, which took place some 40 years later (70 AD). The group proceeds to the Mount of Olives, across the Kedron Valley from the city. They halt at a place which even today offers an admirable panorama of the Old City and the Temple site. The disciples, perhaps alarmed by Christ’s words, ask when “these things,” meaning the Temple’s destruction, will happen and what will be the signs of Christ’s return.

Christ’s sermon is His response to these questions. In order to understand it properly we must remember that there were two questions, one about disasters which would befall Jerusalem during the Roman-Jewish War of 66-72, the other about the end of time. Parts of the speech address one concern, some the other.

Much of what Christ says is intended to keep His followers from confusing the two events, taking the horror of the Jewish War as a sign of the Second Coming. We see this in the warnings He gives: that the Gospel must be preached in the whole world before the end comes (vs. 8), that many deceivers will arise claiming to be Him (verses 23-26), that no one knows “the day or the hour” except the Father (vs. 36), and many more.

Christ is concerned that His followers not confuse the impending disasters in Judea with the cataclysms of the end. To make His point clear He emphasizes the suddenness and unpredictability of His return.

We must interpret 24:40-42 in light of Christ’s insistence that He will return

“at an hour you do not expect” (24:44).

It would seem strange if Christ were to make this point over and over in the early verses of chapter 24, then in verses 40-42 describe an occurrence which would certainly tip everyone off that something was about to happen, and all the more peculiar if that tip-off were to happen seven years before His appearance, as the dispensationalists assert. The key to understanding the passage is the Greek word normally translated “taken.” The word (“paralambano”) has two meanings.

The first we might render “to take,” but not in the sense of “to lift up,” the meaning which the dispensationalists give it. It means instead “to bring along,” as in English we might say that someone takes a friend to the movies. That does not seem to fit the use of the word in Matthew 24, so we turn to the second meaning, “to accept” or “to choose.” Either of these words would be better in these verses than the imprecise “take.”

This second meaning fits with what the Lord has been saying in the passage in question, that His followers must be ready for His coming lest they be caught off-guard like the world, unprepared for the Judgment. Some will have heeded His commandments, will face the Judgment in confidence, and will be “accepted” into the Kingdom. Others, though living and working with the first group, day by day, will not have lived the life of the Gospel and will not be chosen or accepted by Christ when He returns.

These verses form part of Christ’s exhortation to all who hear Him to respond to His message and thereby avoid condemnation at the End.

The verses do not supply the idea of the Rapture.

Conclusion

What conclusions can we draw from our discussion? As we have seen, neither of the two passages upon which advocates of the Rapture rely mean what they say they do. Both refer to Christ’s final return. Those who support this doctrine neglect the context of the verses they use, distort the meanings of words and verses, and, in one case, take advantage of a loose translation. We must approach the Bible with more reverence. We must avoid pulling verses out of context. Instead, look at the surrounding verses to see what the Biblical writer is talking about and how that may affect your interpretation of a problem verse.

Beware, also, of interpretations which disagree with or attack the Tradition of the Church.

As we saw in our discussion of 1 Thessalonians 4:17, the Fathers of the Church pointed the way to the proper understanding of the verse. We must investigate the origin of ideas which other groups advocate, especially when they seem to contradict Orthodoxy.

The concept of the pre-Tribulation Rapture only appeared in England about 150 years ago. Orthodox Christians of great piety and learning have been reading the Scriptures for 2000 years. Would an important doctrine have escaped their notice? Very often these new doctrines do not really come from a careful reading of the Bible but from “special revelations”; their adherents have then ransacked the Scriptures for difficult or obscure verses which they can use to support them. Sometimes they arise when a reader tries to make sense out of hard-to-understand passages and does not succeed.

Orthodox Christians have the living witness of the Holy Spirit who, as Christ said, will guide us to all truth (John 16:13), and we also have the tradition of the Fathers to help us in our search. These are not two different sources but one and the same thing. The Fathers knew and listened to the voice of the Spirit; they affirm that the Spirit lives in the Church even up to the present day; they are one of the ways the Spirit has chosen to continue His work of teaching and guiding.

Trying to make the Bible support one’s own preconceived notions or insisting on one’s own limited understanding without seeking the guidance of Holy Tradition will not lead us to a true appreciation of what the Bible says or of what God says to us through it.

Sometimes too, the groups which support these new teachings are anti-Church. In their view the Church, and the Christian’s life in it, plays no part in preparation for the Second Coming and the Judgment.

In fact, membership in most religious groups is a hindrance, since they have abandoned the Gospel. The dispensationalists emphasize the individual independent congregation, “where the Bible is believed and preached,” as they often say. They advise the Christian to shop around until he finds a congregation which, in his personal opinion, fills this criterion. The Rapture doctrine reflects this; it will reveal those who have been the true “Bible – believing” Christians (their people), because these will be the ones to disappear, leaving the rest to face the Tribulation.

The dispensationalist view of the Church entraps us in circulation reasoning.

Following it means you must look for a congregation where you can learn their “true Gospel,” yet you must know that Gospel in order to judge whether it is taught in that congregation or not. The individual, weak and ignorant and sinful as he or she is, becomes the final judge of truth. Doesn’t it seem more logical to turn instead to the institution which Christ founded to preserve and to propagate His Gospel and to cleanse and strengthen its members through His sacraments? As the Ethiopian said to St. Philip,

“How can I understand if no one guides me?” (Acts 8:31)

We have a guide, the Church, where we can still learn the Gospel which Christ taught, the Apostles proclaimed, the Fathers defined, and the Martyrs confessed with their last breath.

Finally, we must keep our perspective and not give less significant doctrines an importance they do not deserve. Even if the dispensationalist understanding of the Rapture were true, should we give it the emphasis that they do? Dispensationalism generally places the greatest importance on the time-table of the Second Coming and on determining the order of events leading up to it.

This is not what is important to the New Testament authors or to Christ Himself, as His own words testify. Recall the passage discussed above from Matthew 24 and 25. Christ stressed that no one could predict when He would return. His primary concern was to exhort His followers (us) to be ready for His return. What we must know about the Second Coming and the Judgment is not when it will be or what occurrences will precede it, but whether we are ready to face it.

Have we committed our lives to Christ’s Gospel?

Are you living lives of repentance and faith?

Have we drawn near to Him in fervent prayer, diligent reading of the Scriptures and frequent and sincere reception of the Sacraments?

Are we using the grace of the Spirit imparted to us by Christ to grow in the Father’s image and likeness?

The answers to these questions are more important than whether the Rapture immediately precedes the Judgment or occurs seven years earlier. We must resist anything such as speculation about the end which distracts us from our salvation. Christ spoke often of the last days, but always with one purpose: to incite us to repentance and to encourage us to grow in His Gospel and to persevere in the Faith.

If we respond to His exhortation, then, when He returns, we will go to meet Him in the clouds, escort Him to His Judgment Seat, and stand at His Right Hand with the prophets, the apostles, the martyrs and all the saints, ready to enter the glory of His Kingdom.

Source

source: http://preachersinstitute.com/2010/05/what-is-the-rapture-part-two/

What is the Rapture - Part One

2010-05-13T08:37:00.001-04:00

by Fr. Dimitry Cozby

Some of our evangelical or pentecostal neighbors occasionally speak about “the Rapture” as one of the events leading up to Christ’s Second Coming. By this they mean the physical removal from earth of the true believers in Christ in preparation for the “Great Tribulation,” a seven-year period of unparalleled calamity which will herald the end. (A few advocates say that the Rapture will follow the Tribulation. Most who believe in it, however, contend that it precedes the Tribulation.) The Rapture’s purpose, according to its advocates, is to safeguard the righteous during that horrible time. Its most familiar champions are Hal Lindsey (author of The Late, Great Planet Earth and other books), John T. Walvoord (of Dallas Theological Seminary), and the late Cyrus Scofield (author of The Scofield Reference Bible).

These ideas are popular with groups who are enchanted, even obsessed, with speculation about the Second Coming and who have convinced themselves that they see in current events signs that His return is near. These speculations form part of a broader ideology called “dispensationalism.” Dispensationalists come in all shapes and sizes and what we say about one may not apply to all. Still we can list some general characteristics which virtually all dispensationalists share. The name comes from their division of history into eras or “dispensations.” They believe that the Bible outlines the whole course of mankind’s religious history.

Each stage in God’s program is a dispensation, and in each dispensation God relates to the world and His chosen peoples in a different way. Some dispensationalist schemes encompass all human history; others include only Christian history since the time of Christ. Most often these systems are based on a symbolic interpretation of the “letters to the seven churches” of Revelation 2 and 3, with each church standing for the Christianity of a particular period. (Since dispensationalism is Protestant in origin its “Church history” is strictly Western. The dispensations take into account almost nothing of Orthodox history after the period of the early councils which we share with the West.)

The dispensational system includes the future as well as the past. Thus dispensationalism presents a detailed program of events leading up to the Second Coming. Two of the events in this master plan are the Rapture and the Great Tribulation.

Such opinions seem odd to Orthodox Christians. Still, strange as they are, we cannot turn our backs on them or their advocates. After all, the Orthodox Church too affirms that Christ “will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead” (as we say in the Creed). The Rapture’s advocates claim to base their notions on the same Bible that we read, and they can sometimes be very persuasive, particularly since too many Orthodox are woefully ignorant of what the Bible really says. As a result, some Orthodox have been led astray by this doctrine. The Church’s teachings about the end of time (called “eschatology” by theologians) are important, though neglected.

Referring to eschatology, St. Athanasius wrote,

“When one knows properly these points, his understanding of the Faith is right and healthy; but if he mistakes any such points, forthwith he falls into heresy” (Against the Arians I 12,50).

We need to examine it, sift the true from the false, and put what is true into its proper place within the framework of the Orthodox Faith. We must explain the true meaning of the Bible passages in question as interpreted by the Fathers, the great Orthodox teachers of past ages. And we must put this doctrine in perspective and accord it its true importance. Our purpose in this article is to examine the Rapture doctrine and the Scripture passages on which it relies to determine the proper Orthodox approach and interpretation.

Proponents of the doctrine of a pre-Tribulation Rapture claim that it rests on Scripture and has always been a part of Christian teaching. The truth is that it dates from about 1830 and was largely the creation of John Nelson Darby, a one-time Anglican priest and founder of a sect called the Plymouth Brethren. He contributed much to the dispensationalist scheme, and in particular he was the first to include the Rapture among the catalogue of phenomena of the last times.

The Rapture’s recent origin is one of the things which should make us skeptical. Neither the Apostles nor the Fathers expounded any such teaching (nor, for that matter, did any of the notorious heretics of the past). Even Darby’s circle, although they claimed to find support for their teaching in the Bible, did not maintain that they had arrived at this doctrine through study of the Scriptures, but that they had received it through a revelation. According to its supporters the pre-Tribulation Rapture is an extremely important part of the Christian message. Yet it was unknown before 1830.

The Rapture’s supporters derive their opinions ultimately from a single Scripture verse, I Thessalonians 4:17,

“Then we who are left alive will be carried off together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and thus we shall always be with the Lord.”

Less popular but often cited is Matthew 24:40-42,

“Then there will be two in the field. One will be taken and the other left. Two will be grinding at the mill. One will be taken and the other left. Therefore, be vigilant, for you do not know on what day your Lord will come.”

Other passages are frequently quoted in connection with these (for example, I Corinthians 15:23-28), but even believers in a pre-Tribulation Rapture will admit that the other verses can be taken to refer to that doctrine only if interpreted in the light of the I Thessalonians passage, their principal support.

The paragraph which contains the first verse quoted above, I Thessalonians 4:17, forms the Epistle reading for funerals in Orthodox worship. The passage begins with 4:13. In preceding verses St. Paul has spoken of the necessity for holiness of life and for brotherly love among Christians (4:1-12). With verse 13 he turns to another topic, the fate of Christians after death. Misunderstandings on this issue had apparently caused needless distress and apprehension in the church at Thessalonika. It seems that some people believed that Christians who died before Christ’s return would somehow miss out on that glorious event. St. Paul seeks to calm their fears (vs. 13). He points out that as Christ returned from the dead at His Resurrection, so also, at the end of time, His followers who have died in the interim will be restored through resurrection (vs. 14).

At the Second Coming, the Christian dead will be raised (vs. 16). Then they and the faithful who are still alive will be caught up into the clouds to welcome Christ as He descends (verses 15,17). Paul then discusses other matters relating to the Second Coming, beginning with the date it will occur.

When we look at verse 17 in context, it is easy to see that is does not really support the doctrine of the Rapture. There is no reference to a Great Tribulation or to any other events preceding Christ’s Return. The verse refers to something that will happen as part of the Lord’s Coming. The course of events St. Paul presents is simple and straight-forward. At the time of the Second Coming, the dead will be raised, and all the faithful (the dead now restored and those still alive now transfigured) will ascend to be with Him as He comes down. This is the universal interpretation of the Fathers who see the verse as referring to the last days.

Why does St. Paul speak of an ascension of the righteous?

The Fathers suggest at least three answers to this question. St. Gregory of Nyssa says that the ascension is a natural consequence of the purity of the transfigured resurrection body:

“…this change which takes place…when the resurrection trumpet sounds which awakens the dead in an instant transforms those who are left alive to incorruptibility according to the likeness of those who have undergone the resurrection change, so that the bulk of the flesh is no longer heavy nor does its weight hold them down to earth, but they rise up through the air…” (“On the Making of Man” 22,6).

St. John Chrysostom and others say that it is to provide Christ with a proper escort for His appearance on earth and to demonstrate His favor toward the faithful.

“If He is about to descend, why shall we be taken up? For the sake of honor. When a king enters a city, those who are in his favor go out to meet him, but the condemned await their judge inside. Or, when a loving father comes, his children, and also those worthy of being his children, are taken out in a chariot to see and kiss him, but the servants who have offended him remain indoors. So we are carried out upon a chariot to our Father…See how great our honor is? As He descends we go out to meet Him, and what is more blessed, we shall be with Him always” (Homily 8 on Thessalonians).

The third opinion is that St. Paul’s words should be taken symbolically. St. Ambrose and St. Jerome, for example, suggest that the verse does not speak of a real physical ascent at all, nor does it even refer to the Second Coming. What the Apostle means is that the righteous, even when living in the body, are already with Christ in heaven.

St. Methodius of Olympus presents a more acceptable symbolic interpretation. He agrees that the passage refers to the Second Coming, but he contends that “the dead” and “the living” do not mean different types of people. The dead, in his view, are our bodies; “those who are alive” are our souls. These will be reunited at the resurrection and then carried up to meet Christ.

Let us summarize what we have found so far.

St. Paul does speak of a sort of rapture, in the sense of a carrying up into the sky of the righteous at the time of the Second Coming. The Fathers generally agree on that. But St. Paul and the Fathers see this as an event which accompanies Christ’s return and immediately precedes the Judgment and the establishment of the Kingdom.

The Rapture which Darby and Scofield taught and which Lindsey, Walvoord, and others still teach, is different from that. They talk about it as a separate happening, part of a decades long program of events leading up to Christ’s Coming. The dispensationalists see the Rapture as the disappearance of the faithful from the earth before the Great Tribulation and many years before the Judgment.

This is foreign to the Apostle and to the Tradition. St. Paul mentions no period of affliction and persecution following the Rapture.

Click here to read Part Two

(Fr. Dimitri Cozby studied at Holy Cross Orthodox Theological Seminary, received his Ph.D. from Duke University and has done a considerable amount of study in the area of eschatology.)

Source

source: http://preachersinstitute.com/2010/05/what-is-the-rapture-part-one-by-fr-dimitry-cozby/

Marriage as Revelation

2010-04-27T12:38:00.002-04:00

What do we mean by the word Orthodox?

2010-04-25T21:23:00.001-04:00

By St John Maximovitch

Shortly after the doctrine of Christ began to be propagated among the Gentiles, the followers of Christ in Antioch began to be called Christians (Acts XI:26). The word “Christian” indicated that those who bore this name belonged to Christ-belonged in the sense of devotion to Christ and his Doctrine. From Antioch the name of Christian was spread everywhere.

The followers of Christ gladly called themselves by the name of their beloved Teacher and Lord; and the enemies of Christ called His followers Christians by carrying over to them the ill-will and hatred which they breathed against Christ.

However, quite soon there appeared people who, while calling themselves Christians, were not of Christ in spirit. Of them Christ had spoken earlier:

Not everyone that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; but he that doeth the will of My Father which is in heaven (St. Matt. VII:5).

Christ prophesied also that many would pass themselves off for Christ Himself: Many shall come in my name, sayings I am Christ (Matt. XXIV:5). The Apostles in their epistles indicated that false bearers of the name of Christ had appeared already in their time:

As ye have heard that Antichrist shall come, even now there are many antichrists (I John II:19).

They indicated that those who stepped away from the doctrine of Christ should not be considered their own:

They went out from us but were not of us (I John II:19)

Warning against quarrels and disagreements in minor matters (I Cor. I:10-14), at the same time the Apostles strictly commanded their disciples to shun those who do not bring the true doctrine (II John I:10). The Lord, through the Revelation given to the Apostle John the Theologian, sternly accused those who, calling themselves faithful, did not act in accordance with their name; for in such a case it would be false for them.

Of what use was it of old to call oneself a Jew, an Old Testament follower of the true faith, if one was not such in actuality? Such the Holy Scripture calls the synagogue of Satan (Apocalypse II:9).

In the same way a Christian in the strict sense is he only who confesses the true doctrine of Christ and lives in accordance with it. The designation of a Christian consists in glorifying the Heavenly Father by one’s life.

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven (St. Matt. V:16).

But true glorification of God is possible only if one rightly believes and expresses his right belief in words and deeds.

Therefore true Christianity and it alone may be named “right-glorifying” (Ortho-doxy). By the word “Orthodoxy” we confess our firm conviction that it is precisely our Faith that is the true doctrine of Christ. When we call anyone or anything Orthodox, we by this very fact indicate his or its non-counterfeit and uncorrupted Christianity, rejecting at the same time that which falsely appropriates the name of Christ.

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Read more: What do we mean by the word ORTHODOX | Preachers Institute

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How to govern a Church

2010-03-26T09:22:00.002-04:00

I want to contrast the way the institutional Catholic Church is struggling to deal with its problem bishops, versus the way the Orthodox Church in America (my church) has done it recently. It shouldn’t be necessary to say this, but I probably need to: this is not an argument for why Orthodoxy is more true than Catholicism. It is only a comment about administration.
A church is both a human and a divine institution. Because of its human element, there will always be sin among its people, including its leadership. As the famous saying goes, if you find a perfect church, join it, but know that the minute you yourself walk in the door, it will cease to be perfect any longer. It is hopelessly unrealistic to expect that the clergy of any church will always be free from sin. What matters is how those in authority deal with that sin once they become aware of it. The Catholic scandal is not really over priests molesting children, but over bishops who became aware of it refusing to deal effectively and justly with the sins and crimes.
When I joined the OCA, it was embroiled in a very serious scandal at its summit. The then-Metropolitan, one Herman, stood accused of fraud and corruption, possibly criminal. As I understand it, the scandal was primarily financial, but it was a messy one indeed. There had been longstanding attempts by concerned laity and priests to compel the Holy Synod to deal forthrightly with this cancer growing in the church, but they kept kicking the problem down the field. Whether out of weakness, naivete, loss of nerve, or whatever, the Synod of Bishops, who had the authority to act, did not. Meanwhile, the laity and some prominent voices in the clergy grew ever angrier.
Note well: they did not want to change church doctrine. They wanted rather the Metropolitan to live by church doctrine, which included not committing fraud, and involving the church in potentially criminal activity (btw, the OCA just released the executive summary of its own investigation into Herman’s corruption). They kept up the pressure in a direct way. The church really was coming apart over all this, and over the inexplicable paralysis of the Holy Synod in the face of Herman’s behavior. And then, at an anxious All-American council of bishops, priest and laity called to elect a new Metropolitan, the newly ordained Bishop Jonah was told he had to address the assembly. He had three minutes to prepare.
If you go to this item on my old Crunchy Con blog, you can find your way to an audio link of the speech Jonah gave that fateful night. I remember standing in my kitchen in Dallas listening to it. Jonah, who had only recently left the monastery of which he was abbot, spoke with a gentle but firm voice, but he said things that that landed like thunderclaps. He said the two previous Metropolitans were “corrupt,” and had “raped the church.” He said that the OCA had been without leadership for 30 years. He said that had to end, and it was going to end. He said that if the church is only about beautiful liturgy, nobody should care about it. And then he said:
“Authority is responsibility. Authority is accountability. It’s not power.”
A friend of mine in the audience said as he spoke, you could feel the atmosphere in the room changing. Suddenly, people had hope, and could see the way clear. Shortly thereafter, his brother bishops elected him the next Metropolitan.
He has had a very, very difficult time trying to clean up the filthy messes his predecessors left. But his view of the primate as a servant of Christ and his people, and not as an enabler of episcopal power exercised for its own sake, and in service to lavish episcopal lifestyles, was not only the correct one, but had the power to renew a church in despair over decadence among its bishops. Jonah spoke the truth — and it changed everything. But if his were only words, and had not been accompanied by the Synod, under fire from the laity and the lower clergy, forcing Herman to resign, they would likely have made people cynical.
Words and deeds. Humility. Authority inseparable from accountability. That’s what a true servant-leader of mine or any church should be about. With great power comes great responsibility.

source: http://theorthodoxchurch.info/blog/articles/2010/03/how-to-govern-a-church-a-case-study/

Evening Meal at St. Sophia

2010-03-17T15:11:00.001-04:00

Every day Mor Cassian and his volunteers prepare and serve meals for those in the neighborhood around St. Sophia. Several hundreds are served every week.

A Place Called Community

2010-03-11T14:00:00.000-05:00

by Parker J. Palmer

Dr. Palmer is dean of studies at Pendle Hill, a Quaker living-learning community near Philadelphia. This article appeared in the Christian Century March 16, 1977, p. 252. Copyright by the Christian Century Foundation and used by permission. Current articles and subscription information can be found at www.christiancentury.org. This material was prepared for Religion Online by Ted & Winnie Brock.

“We expect a theophany of which we know nothing but the place, wrote Martin Buber, “and the place is called community.” Surely his words in Between Man and Man are prophetic. God comes to us in the midst of human need, and the most critical needs of our time demand community in response. Today the thoughtful citizen might well ask: How can I participate in a fairer distribution of resources unless I live in a community which makes it possible to consume less? How can I learn accountability unless I live in a community where my acts and their consequences are visible to all? How can I learn to share power unless I live in a community where hierarchy is unnatural? How can I take the risks which right action demands unless I belong to a community which gives support?

In contrast to the difficulties raised by such hard questions as these, the popular image of community is distressingly pastoral and sentimental. White middle-class folk especially value community for the personal nurture it promises us, while we ignore its challenge of political and economic justice. We speak of “life together” in romantic terms which bear little resemblance to the difficult discipline of a common life. But the problems of our age will yield neither to personalism nor to romance. If the idea of community is to speak to our condition, we must change the terms of the discussion. And the church must play a central role in setting these new terms. For if the church would search its faith and history it would relearn those truths about community which we most need to hear. We would remember that God calls us to live in community not for ourselves but for others. We would recall that there are true communities and false ones -- and that God will know the difference even if we do not. We would learn again that true community leads inevitably to politics, to confronting the powers arrayed against the human interest. Although the contemporary church is a main source of sentimentalism about community, our history will remind us that community is no flourishing utopian garden but a place of promise and discipline where God prepares parched earth for the planting of the kingdom.

The Political Role of Community

Much current enthusiasm for community comes from our longing to cure loneliness. But when we define community simply in these terms, we not only fail to see community whole; we also fail to grasp the vital connection between personal problems and political facts.

For loneliness is not just a personal problem; it has political causes and consequences. We are lonely because a mass society keeps us from engaging one another on matters of common destiny. And loneliness makes us prey to a thousand varieties of political manipulation. Our loneliness renders us not only pathetic but politically dangerous. If we could understand that fact, we might create communities which contribute to political as well as personal health.

Political scientists have long known that community in all its forms can play a key role in the distribution of power. Families, neighborhoods, work teams, church and other voluntary associations mediate between the lone individual and the power of the state. They provide the person with a human buffer zone so that he or she does not stand alone against the state’s demands. They amplify the individual’s small voice so that it can be heard by a state which can turn deaf when it does not want to listen. In such communities most of us gain whatever skill we have in negotiating our interests with those of the group.

If these communities decline in number or in quality, the condition known as “mass society” sets in. Mass society is characterized not simply by size but by the fact that individuals in it do not have relations to one another which are free of state interference or control. In mass society the person stands alone without a network of associations to protect personal meaning, to enlarge personal power, or to learn the habits of democracy. The loneliness of men and women in such a society is a measure of their political impotence; and it is a short step from mass society to a totalitarian one.

As we seek relief from our loneliness, we must learn that personal health depends on our capacity to be concerned about more than ourselves. The ultimate therapy is to identify our own pain with the pain of others, and then band together to resist the conditions which create our common malady. Health ultimately requires the outgoing act of building communities which will empower us to guard and nourish our humanity.

True Community and False

Not all communities are capable of affirming life, so we must learn to tell true community from false. Selma, Cicero, South Boston: these were all communities, but false ones. As we learn the difference we will move even further from sentimentality about the common life.

The most notable example of false community is the very totalitarianism to which the decline of true community leads. In the midst of mass society people yearn to identify with something larger than themselves, something that will redeem their lives from insignificance. That hunger runs so deep that even the appearance of community will feed it, and totalitarianism always presents itself as food for the masses. What was Nazi Germany except a demonic form of “life together”? What is nationalism or racism except the idea of community run amok?

False forms of common life differ from true forms> in many ways. False community, for example, tends to be manipulated by the state, while true community is independent of government power. In false communities the group is always superior to the individual, while in true communities both individual and group have a claim on truth. False communities tend to be homogeneous, exclusive and divisive, while true communities tend to unite people across socially fixed lines.

But there is a theological way of making the distinction that brings us quickly to the heart of the matter: false communities are idolatrous. They take some finite attribute like race or religion or political ideology and elevate it to ultimacy. They confuse their own power with the power of God, and eventually try to use that power to decide questions of life and death. False communities are ultimately demonic, which is not to say that true communities are divine, for both retain their human character. But true communities will take the form of covenant; they will experience both the mercy and the judgment of God.

Community is finally a religious phenomenon. There is nothing capable of holding together a group of willful, broken human beings except some transcendent power. What that power is, and what it demands of those who rely upon it -- these determine the quality of a community’s life.

Demythologizing Community

Any effort to define true community will require the destruction of certain romantic myths common in contemporary thought -- myths which have replaced the reality of community. There is first the myth that community is a creature comfort which can be added to a life full of other luxuries. For the affluent, community has become another consumer item: you can buy it in weekend chunks at human potential centers, or you and your friends can have it by purchasing a stretch of rural property. But community is one of those strange things which will evade you if you aim directly at it. Instead, community is a by-product of commitment and struggle. It comes when we step forward to right some wrong, to heal some hurt, to give some service. Then we discover each other as allies in resisting the diminishments of life. It is no accident that the most impressive sense of community is found among people in the midst of such joyful travail: among minority groups seeking identity and justice, among women seeking liberation into fully humane roles, among all who have said No to tyranny with the concrete affirmation of their lives.

Another myth tells us that community equals utopia, that in easy access to one another and the comfortably supportive relationships which will result, we will quickly find ourselves brothers and sisters again. But community is not like this; it is more like a crucible or a refiner’s fire. Community means the collision of egos, and while there is the pain of not getting our way, there is the promise of finding the Way.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer knew this situation very well:

Innumerable times a whole Christian community has broken down because it had sprung from a dream wish. . . . God’s grace speedily shatters such dreams. Just as surely as God desires to lead us to a knowledge of genuine Christian fellowship, so surely must we be overwhelmed by a great disillusionment with others, with Christians in general, and, if we are fortunate, with ourselves. . . . God is not a God of the emotions but the God of truth. . . . He who loves his dream of a community more than the Christian community itself becomes a destroyer of the latter, even though his personal intentions may be ever so honest and earnest and sacrificial [Life Together (Harper, 1954), pp. 26-27].

The great danger in our utopian dreams of community is that they lead us to want association with people just like ourselves. Here we confront the third myth of community -- that it will be an extension and expansion of our own egos, a confirmation of our own partial view of reality. But in true community we do not choose our companions. Instead, they are given to us by grace. In fact, true community might be defined as that place where the person we least want to live with always lives!

If we live this way we can avoid the trap that Richard Sennett in The Uses of Disorder (Random House, 1970) has called “the purified community.” Here, as in the typical suburb, one is surrounded by likeness to the extent that challenge is unlikely and growth impossible. In true community there will be enough diversity and conflict to shake loose our need to make the world in our own image. True community will lead us to risk the prayer that God’s will, not our own, be done.

In examining each of these myths about community we are reminded again that true community is a spiritual reality which lies beyond psychology and sociology. Community is a by-product of active love. Community can break our minds and our egos open to the experience of a God who cannot be contained. Community will constantly remind us that our grip on truth is fragile and incomplete, that we need many ears to hear, the fullness of God’s word. And the disappointments of community life can be transformed by our discovery that the- only dependable power for life lies beyond all human structures and relationships.

The Risk of Seeking Community

The hard facts which lie behind these wish-dreams of the common life help explain why American rhetoric about community has always outdistanced commitment to it. For despite our dreams, Americans operate on the assumption that the possibility of true community has passed and that we had better learn to stand on our own two feet.

Such is the thesis of Philip Rieff’s The Triumph of the Therapeutic (Harper & Row, 1968). Rieff argues that community itself was once the vehicle by which individuals maintained or regained psychic health. But as community began to wither under the impact of industrialism and urbanism, a new mode of therapy emerged (notably Freudian) whose aim was to make the individual strong, autonomous, less dependent on others. Behind this therapy lies the assumption that seeking to integrate our lives through community is, in the modern world, a foolish risk.

The same assumption and strategy can be found in our systems of education. Schools, which once came from and created community, now teach students that they have to make it on their own and at the expense of others. Education is essentially competitive, not cooperative, as illustrated by the common practice of grading on a curve, or the fact that students getting together to cooperate on their work are said to be “cheating” -- so highly are the communal virtues regarded in our schools. But what else should we expect from an educational system whose primary social function is to monitor competition over the scarce resources of wealth and power? If we did not teach young people to compete (the argument goes), we would not prepare them for the “real world.”

The assumption that community is gone can also be found in much that passes for the “new spirituality” these days. The community called church having disappointed us, the religiously obsessed in the ‘70s turn to the glory of the self: its nurture, its growth, its destiny. In quarters where the self appears to be taken as the true referent of the word “God,” “spiritual development” consists largely in “getting in touch with one’s self.” Lost is the confrontation between the self and the living God who comes to us in the history of human communities.

The assumption that it is risky to count on community must be credited with utter realism; community in any form is hard to find and even harder to create. But C. Wright Mills was correct when he called such assumptions “crackpot realism,” for when we act on them we help guarantee that the future will contain only more of the same. Such a future we cannot survive. Every soul shaped by the “go it alone” strategy in therapy, education or religion is a soul lost to the vital task of reconstructing a common life and is a danger to us all. We must replace such short-run realism with the long-term truth. We must cultivate in ourselves and each other the courage to risk community despite all the evidence to the contrary. The alternative is the war of all against all.

Models of Community

The communal movement of the past ten years has contained much cultural arrogance in its assumption that the small intentional community, withdrawn from the larger society, is the only worthy form of common life. Clearly the emergence of such communes is important to us; they do provide models, and they serve as schools for less intensive forms of community life. But they are out of reach for many people. We need to help each other build community where we are rather than encouraging dreams which turn to despair over a community that will never be for us,

For some people the community to build is the extended family. If we are drawn to do so, however, we must weigh our own aspirations against the economic pressures which have torn the family apart for three generations. On a large scale Americans have readily weakened family ties in favor of the mobility necessary for personal advancement and economic success. We will rebuild community in the family only if the lure of achievement can take second place to the cultivation of our roots. (And this may be the right moment in history to reconsider our commitments, as we begin to see that the economic escalator will not go up forever.)

For some of us the place for building community is in our neighborhoods, which tend to be held together more by mortgages and zoning laws than by the religious understanding of the word “neighbor.” But again, we must test our motives. Don’t we want to protect some private space in our busy lives, to stay loose of entanglements with those who live next door, to be free to move without breaking bonds when job advancement calls us elsewhere? We will be able to place the neighborly ethic above our precious privatism only if we have a larger commitment to public health, to the commonweal.

For others among us the community to build is in the places where we work or go to school, for these have become the major arenas of alienation for many Americans. In them we are pitted against one another in hierarchy and competition so that something called “higher performance” can be achieved. But when we destroy the community of work, we get unethical products and degrading services. When we destroy the community of scholars, cruel teaching and learning are the result. We will build community in these places only if we see that performance at the expense of community is no achievement at all.

Community and the Church

Finally, there may be those among us who are called to build community in our churches. There is irony in that suggestion since the very idea of church is the idea of community, and if we have any model of true community it is in the biblical vision of what the church should be.

So the church falls far short of God’s intent. And it fails to conform to our fantasies of what a community should be. But if we could drop those fantasies, as Bonhoeffer advises us to do, we might find it easier to know God’s will for the church. More than any other major institution in our society, the church still contains the potential for life together. The symbols of community are there; the tradition of community stands behind us; and sometimes the leadership for community is also present.

Most important, the church contains a more typical cross-section of people than any institution around, a human diversity which is held together in theory by commitment to a transcendent truth. In practice the church usually tries to suppress the diversity it contains, and when the suppression fails, fragmentation is the result. But the church might yet learn to deal with its secondary differences in the context of its ultimate unity. If so, the church could become the most compelling model of community in American culture.

That will not happen until we reconceive the task of theology. Theology should be no more and no less than constant reflection upon the human experience within the community of faith -- without fantasies. Theology should face the disillusionments of community squarely, while continually reminding us that God calls us to live life together. And theology should help us cultivate the courage to risk community in that place between the difficult facts and the joyful hope. This will be no simple task, for theology has largely divorced itself from community; it is shaped more by academic norms than by the experience of the church. Shall the specialization of our institutions go so far that congregations will live the religious experience while seminaries will think about it? If so, then neither the living nor the thinking can bear fruit since one is lifeless without the other.

The difficulty of the questions will not discourage those who truly seek life together. In community one learns that the problems we pose for one another are not obstacles blocking our progress but ways of refining our understandings, and if we can embrace the problems (and each other) then the possibilities appear. That is so because we know that as we turn to one another we turn to God. And as we turn, God’s promise of life in communion will be fulfilled.

source: http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=1143

Welfare, Charity and Ministry: Postures in the Helping Relationship

2010-03-11T13:59:00.001-05:00

by Gilbert R. Rendle, Jr.

Gilbert R. Rendle, Jr., is pastor of Central United Methodist Church, Reading, Pennsylvania. This article appeared in the Christian Century May 2, 1984, p. 464. Copyright by the Christian Century Foundation and used by permission. Current articles and subscription information can be found at www.christiancentury.org. This material was prepared for Religion Online by Ted & Winnie Brock.

Running a soup kitchen and a food pantry has turned out to be a pretty tough job -- for surprising reasons. Donations of food and money are sufficient. There is a core group of volunteers, each of whom gives ten to 20 hours every week to keep things running. They are backed up by 150 volunteers who cook the soup, clean the kitchen, buy the foodstuffs, and tend to a thousand other jobs. And the 150 to 300 people who come to us for food on any given day are great. They are, for the most part, polite and gracious. We laugh with them, cry with them, sometimes argue, sometimes yell with them. So, all things considered, the daily operations run pretty smoothly.

What makes running a soup kitchen and food pantry such a tough job is that so many others want us to do it differently. Some of our sister churches want us to “save their souls before we warm their bellies.” Some of our contributors want us to help the hungry, but to “keep them in their place” while we do it. A local state legislator wants us to screen people according to income and possessions before we feed them. And the local neighborhood historic district committee wants us simply to close down or move our operation out of the neighborhood because its members don’t like the way we attract “those people” to our church building; it’s bad for property values.

All in all, one of the hardest parts of running a food program is trying to remember who we are: a local church in an urban setting that has extended its active ministry to address the issue of hunger as it manifests itself on the streets of our own city. What posture are we going to assume in our relationship with the hungry? Experience over the past two years has taught us that different people (and different institutions) choose different postures from which they offer help.

As a matter of fact, one of the gifts and challenges the food ministry has given us is the opportunity to learn about the various helping postures that institutions adopt toward groups of people with substantial needs. We have learned the differences between “welfare” “charity” and “ministry.” We have come to understand some of these postures more clearly, to fight openly against others, and to struggle to achieve the one we cherish most. Perhaps a description of these positions would help in explaining our struggle.

Welfare: This is the institutionalized stance that many community agencies and helping groups take toward poor people in our society. It is backed by local, state and federal financial support and a bureaucratic organization. Welfare is clearly a major element in the helping relationships in our nation. It has a history that includes governmental participation under the New Deal and the Great Society. That history also includes substantial religious and secular participation by the local community through United Way and local crisis and support centers.

But there is an underlying factor in the posture characterizing welfare: the question of eligibility. The essential question asked from the posture of welfare is: “Who deserves to be helped?” Clearly, this question is asked because the helping agency needs and wants to be equitable. Nonetheless, the person turning to the agency or institution for help discovers that if one doesn’t meet the eligibility requirement, one doesn’t get helped. Working along with our local food bank, an outgrowth of the national Second Harvest net-work, we have been given recommendations (not requirements) that recipients of our food ministry have incomes under 125 per cent of national poverty guidelines ($6,075 for a family of one or $8,175 for a family of two. etc.) and that we inquire about any government assistance they might be receiving before we offer help.

We understand the need for such questions and can support the effort to be just and equitable. Limited resources in the face of growing local and national need for help require that ways be found to use resources to their best advantage; this is a matter of stewardship, a fundamental Christian principle. But in our own situation we fight quietly against two basic assumptions underlying the welfare system. The first is that someone other than the recipient can always determine that person’s need. At times others can perceive our real needs better than we can. But the fallacy of the assumption at the heart of welfare is that this determination can be made statistically for all people and defined in eligibility guidelines: “If you don’t have a need defined by our guidelines, you don’t have a need.”

Our food ministry experience has turned up many exceptions to that rule. For example, one man who eats at our soup kitchen sleeps outside under a local bridge for protection. The unemployment check he receives pays for a tiny apartment for his wife and children. But his marriage is failing and he can no longer live in harmony with his wife; however, he cannot provide for both himself and his family. According to the guidelines, he receives his fair share. But a man who sleeps under a bridge in winter without wanting to does have a need.

The second assumption we fight a against is that the institution and the workers who provide welfare are somehow “better than” the people coming for assistance. Accompanying this attitude is a technological approach analogous to the nation’s pervasive medical model. Like the cardiologist who treats the patient’s heart without ever listening to the patient’s concerns about relationships, work problems or diet frustrations; like the orthopedic surgeon who sets broken bones but never hears about the patient’s need for attention from family and friends (making a broken hip a “valuable” possession); so the posture of welfare offers prescribed help without paying attention to the underlying human need. How else can we explain “emergency assistance checks” that take six to eight weeks to reach recipients? How else do we explain FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) funds that can be poured into a community for a 16-week period, and then withdrawn -- as if the need had been satisfied and the help were no longer needed?

Charity: It is with this concept that we have our largest quarrel, for charity, unlike welfare, belongs to us. It is part of our Judeo-Christian history and tradition. Charity is hard to fight because it looks a lot like ministry (which will be described later). But charity has become distasteful to us because its sole foundation seems to be the personal (not institutional or national) assumption, “I am so much better than you that I will help you, even though you don’t deserve it.”

Charity is much more subtle than welfare because it often does help people according to their needs instead of according to prescribed guidelines. But the people helped are never included in the helper’s life, values or understanding. For example, a few volunteers in our soup kitchen work hard to get the soup ready, but tell racist jokes in the presence of a black volunteer who also eats his meals there. A few helpers in our kitchen make the classist assumption that cleaning the pots and wiping up spills on the floor are jobs for the kitchen’s clients who assist with the program, not for the church or community volunteers, who are “above” that kind of labor. The message, over and over, is that by virtue of race, class or status, the helper is better than and apart from the one being helped.

The posture of charity is the hardest for us to deal with, because it excludes awareness that we need the people whom we are trying to help. It considers only their need for us and assumes that although we participate in their salvation, they have neither the resources nor the abilities to participate in ours. For these reasons we must oppose charity forthrightly because it is for our own salvation that we are fighting. Charity is ultimately hardest on the helper, since it permits a false sense of power and independence and so undercuts our awareness of our dependence on God and interdependence with others in the gift of life.

Ministry: In our own church life and involvement we struggle to assume a posture of ministry. We acknowledge that we have come to this posture partially in reaction to the aspects of welfare and charity that most disturb us. We seek a helping relationship instructed by faith and informed by experience.

Ministry establishes no eligibility requirements for being helped. The posture of ministry does not allow room for numerical or statistical judgments of a person’s needs. Insofar as possible, eligibility is mutually determined -- by what we have to offer and what others feel they need. It becomes an issue of responsible “sharing.” People engaged in ministry run the risk of being “taken” or “used” by some who do not need what we offer but who take it nonetheless. We live with examples of this problem, but we continue to put the burden of eligibility on those who come to us. Our willingness to run this risk has kept our programs open to some people who might not meet an eligibility requirement but who come to our church because of personal needs. Eddie, for example, used the soup kitchen to get through a debilitating emotional depression-connected with a job loss; and Hill, though financially stable, is so socially limited that his personal contacts are only with people who share our lunchroom with him.

We try to address the differences we see between helpers and those being helped. without drawing the quick conclusion that the helper is somehow “better.” As we watched people’s hunger needs met by a bowl of soup or a bag of groceries, we have also watched helpers’ needs for self-understanding and self-acceptance met as they learn to live and work with people whose lives differ from their own. It has been a stroke of God’s grace to experience how nervous, self-conscious middle-class people whose identity, happiness and self-worth are tied to job, possessions and community status can be moved by people who continue to be happy and have feelings of worth -- yet have no job, possessions or status. We have come to understand that ministry is the paradox of the gospel: the first shall be last, and the last first. But contained in that paradox is the new awareness that first and last are in fact interdependently connected in a way that often makes it hard to distinguish who is first, who is last and why.

Ministry operates not only in relation to the human needs it seeks to satisfy, but also in relation to the promises and values of one’s own religious faith. According to the Bible, sometimes when one encounters the “stranger” one is, in fact, encountering God. Abraham welcomed passing strangers into his tent and was confronted by God. The two men who walked from Jerusalem to Emmaus, talking with a stranger, discovered to their surprise that their companion was the risen Christ. The parable of the last judgment in Matthew 25 tells us that when we have fed, clothed, visited and cared for the strangers in our midst we have done these things for God.

Ministry is the effort to grow past, to evolve beyond, the limitations of welfare and the indifference of charity. It recognizes that our own relationship with God is not different from our relationship with the people of our own world who may seem most unlike us. It is here that the notion of “hospitality” offered by Henri Nouwen in his book Reaching Out most applies. For ministry is possible when we are able to convert our hostilities (our racism, classism, sexism, ageism) to hospitality which will allow us to convert our enemies (those most unlike us) into our guests (those valued for their differences). Ministry discovers that in seeking to help others who become our guests, we paradoxically experience God’s grace in our own lives.

Isministry the only posture the religious person should assume in helping others? Clearly, our answer must be No. The welfare model is necessary in American society because it is so difficult to effect an equitable distribution of our large portion of the earth’s resources. Major inequities between groups of people continue to necessitate a large-scale effort to gather resources from some and distribute them to others. Similarly, the posture of charity, as limited and as seductive as it is, has some value. It does permit people to participate directly through acts and indirectly through monetary gifts, in an effort to alleviate the injustice that is part of our world. And it invites people to share from a perspective of faith and from a desire to address need.

But above all, the struggle we are experiencing in our center-city church, its soup kitchen and pantry program is a struggle to recognize and defend the legitimacy of the posture of ministry. We are struggling to maintain a posture of ministry, while understanding stewardship as a process of gathering foodstuffs from a complex network of sources, and of making them available in a hospitable way to people who need them. We struggle to maintain an attitude that invites the stranger to be our guest; in this process we can discover our own relationship with God and the paradoxical truths about ourselves that God would have us know.

source: http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=1397

Building Communities From the Inside Out

2010-03-11T13:56:00.000-05:00

by Robert Bachelder

Mr. Bachelder, who has worked in banking, in 1987 was minister of Worcester City Missionary Society (United Church of Christ) in Worcester, Massachusetts. This article appeared in The Christian Century, August 2-9, 2000, pp. 802-804. Copyright by The Christian Century Foundation; used by permission. Current articles and subscription information can be found at www.christiancentury.org. This material was prepared for Religion Online by Ted and Winnie Brock.

According to articles in the New Yorker and Business Week, churches are leading an urban renaissance. The media have celebrated the churches’ role in prompting economic development in distressed areas as well as the social services that churches offer to low-income residents. Presidential candidates are supporting measures to increase charitable giving so that churches and other nonprofit organizations can enlarge their role.

But there are serious problems with this scenario. It is true that the resurgence of the voluntary sector’s involvement has unleashed great energy and fostered some promising strategies for meeting social problems. But the prospects for sustained success are limited. We should remember that it was the limited effectiveness of church workers in the settlement house movement and other voluntary, local efforts in the 1880s that led to the large-scale government social programs of the 20th century.

As impressive as the churches’ work is, its long-term success depends on commitments and policies at the state and national levels. While religious leaders have the attention of politicians and the media, they must advance a comprehensive agenda for urban change informed by the principle of subsidiarity. Subsidiarity is the principle that local organizations maintain those functions that they perform effectively. As the U.S. Roman Catholic bishops wrote in a 1986 pastoral letter: "Government should not replace or destroy smaller communities and individual initiative," but should "supplement their activity when the demands of justice exceed their capacities."

During the 1960s, many people thought that government policies would replace the initiative of local communities. But passive, disorganized neighborhoods proved incapable of converting outside resources to productive use. At the cost of billions of "Great Society" dollars, we learned that neighborhoods as well as individuals must be motivated to help themselves.

Scholars, activists and foundation officials now believe that the key to revitalizing distressed neighborhoods is to rebuild the community’s social capital -- its capacity and resources for cooperation and collaboration. As political scientist Robert Putnam argues, prosperity grows out of the trust, the relationships and the norms of reciprocity that exist within a community. The Equal Opportunity Division of the Rockefeller Foundation, for example, maintains that simply transferring income to the poor does not reduce poverty because it has no impact on the problem of social isolation. Individuals need personal relationships, networks and connections. When the Worcester Area Mission Society in Worcester, Massachusetts, cosponsored a program to help women move from welfare to work, the program included training for jobs as practical nurses and legal secretaries. But the key to success was linking each participant with a mentor, someone who had already made the transition from welfare to work.

John McKnight of Northwestern University says that "neighborhoods must rebuild themselves from the inside out" by mobilizing their own assets, including residents, churches, colleges and businesses. Whether by creating new collaborative structures or working through existing agencies such as local community development corporations, neighborhoods need to assume the central role in designing and implementing strategies for their own improvement.

To be successful, development efforts must be comprehensive, because social problems are interrelated. The comprehensive effort considers every aspect of community life: economic opportunity, physical development and infrastructure, public safety, and services and institutions. This does not mean, however, that a neighborhood should try to do everything at once. Instead, it should address one or two high-priority issues, thereby building local confidence and talents. At the same time, it must develop a broader vision and strategy. Successful neighborhood leaders call this blending of process and product "learn as you go," and describe it as a spiral rather than as a straight line. Such initiatives transcend the divide that has existed since the ‘60s between human service advocates who focus on people, and community development professionals who think about neighborhoods.

The church’s role in mobilizing neighborhood action is often overlooked. In Worcester, All Saints Episcopal Church, St. Andrews Roman Catholic Church, Worcester Interfaith and the Worcester Area Mission Society have played this role in four different neighborhoods. As neighbors gained greater control over their area, they saw a payoff in rebuilt housing, and in the number of children who left the streets for programs. Residents’ shared experiences and hope encouraged them to seek more progress. They saw that systems such as education and economics must operate in new ways in their communities. They learned that they needed government intervention to supplement their initiatives.

Some new and constructive responses are coming from local, state and national governments. Municipalities, for example, are now more open to partnerships with neighborhood groups. Realizing that strong inner-city neighborhoods are crucial to its regional economic and social health, Indianapolis shifted the focus of its redevelopment efforts from downtown to seven inner-city neighborhoods, and implemented a program to train community leaders and pay for neighborhood coordinators. At the national level, the Empowerment Zone/Enterprise Community program awards block grants to foster local collaboration, and tax incentives to encourage private sector investment,

The former mayor of Albuquerque, David Rusk, believes that inner cities will continue to deteriorate unless cities and their suburbs are politically connected, either through metropolitan government or through policies. His study of 320 metropolitan areas confirms that poverty and crime are much less likely to reach critical mass in politically integrated metropolitan areas. This approach breaks the impasses created when a concentration of poverty overwhelms individuals and exacerbates social chaos. Political integration can create opportunities in housing, jobs, schools and services.

Legislative measures are needed to achieve political integration. Poor neighborhoods need fair housing policies to encourage low- and moderate-income housing in all jurisdictions; fair employment and fair housing policies to ensure minority access to job and housing markets; and tax-sharing arrangements to offset tax-based disparities between cities and suburbs.

We also need new policies at the national level. William Julius Wilson proposes several measures targeted at Americans who are experiencing declining incomes and job displacement. Changes would include a system of national performance standards in public schools, a national system fostering the transition from school-to-work, further expansion of the earned income tax credit, additional child care programs, and universal health insurance. Wilson hopes that such race-neutral proposals might become the basis for a new political coalition of groups pressing for economic and social reform.

Of course, any plan that implements concurrent strategies at different levels will be frustrated when the strategies conflict with each other. Improving economic opportunity for individuals and families, for example, does not necessarily lead to improving a neighborhood. Once residents gain training, resources and connections, many move to a better area, leaving behind the most distressed families and significantly increasing the challenge of renewing the neighborhood. Robert D. Yaro of the Regional Plan Association in New York City observes that inner cities are in trouble in part because of the country’s success in creating an African-American and Latino middle class. As members of these groups prosper, they head to the suburbs for the same things other Americans have sought: safe neighborhoods with good schools and services.

Some have suggested that we should skip the task of rebuilding social capital in inner-city neighborhoods by moving the poor to neighborhoods and suburbs where social capital already exists. But as Peter Edelman points out, such efforts would be doomed to failure even if they were coupled with an effective income maintenance system. It is the place-based social infrastructure, including social networks and institutions, that gives people sufficient security to think about getting out in the first place.

Churches should be realistic about the limits of what they can accomplish in the inner city. Perhaps their goal should be simply to build a city that creates conditions for social mobility like those that existed a century or so ago, before African-American workers encountered racism and segregation in the northern cities and began to feel imprisoned in inner-city neighborhoods. As Richard Wade reminds us, the cities of 80 to 100 years ago were more dirty, dilapidated and dangerous than those of today. But there was this major difference: these conditions were tolerable to the immigrants because they considered them to be temporary. The neighborhoods were seen as staging areas for upward and outward mobility.

In a "good enough" city, the city that the churches seek to build, unskilled immigrants, single women with children and young adults would be able to secure a promising foothold. Bolstered by national and state policies, local initiatives would generate the necessary social capital, physical infrastructure and human development programs to help the neighborhood even as mobile residents move out. In a good enough city, social progress would be possible and meaningful, but the work of justice would never be finished. Moses and the Hebrews learned that they had to gather manna each morning, that they had to look to God each day. In a city where poor newcomers are always arriving and successful residents are leaving, the church must always be rebuilding community from the inside out, constantly replenishing the store of social capital, and creating human relationships and networks that work for the good of all.

source: http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=1953

Creating Open and Welcoming Communities

2010-03-11T13:44:00.002-05:00

by James R. Adams

James R. Adams is President, The Center for Progressive Christianity, which sponsors the Jesus Seminar. The following is a transcript from a workshop conducted by James Adams at the 1997 National Forum of The Center for Progressive Christianity. Information and resources from the Center for Progressive Christianity are available at www.tcpc.org.

Jim Kelley and I asked the participants in the two workshops to tell stories from their own experience about what has worked in creating open and welcoming churches. In the course of the workshops, we became clear that what works may differ depending on people's stage of involvement with the church.

Stage 1 -- People who want something

What people want most from the church may be food. A congregation that now averages over 100 people at a 7:00 a.m. Sunday service of Holy Communion began in earnest when the church offered a free breakfast to homeless people. This particular mission is supported by several parishes, and now members of those parishes often join the street people for worship and breakfast.

People may be longing for an experience of intimacy. If they have moved frequently, and if they have become disillusioned by institutions, they may be lonely and wanting to be a part of a community. Or they may want a safe place to discuss their most vexing problems, such as money, sexual orientation, family obligations, or trouble with religious dogma. These issues cut across lines of class and race. For example, a panhandler and a physician may discover that they have much in common when they talk together about money.

Some people may want boundaries and discipline to order their lives. They may feel as though they are drifting and want a place where they can be of service and be accountable for their behavior.

In being open to people in Stage 1, the church leadership must first discover what the people in the neighborhood around the church most want. That means getting to know the demographics of the area and getting to know some of the people who do not go to church. If the investigation shows that what people most want is dependable day care, then that is what the church offers. Giving people what they want may sound like crass marketing, but it may in truth be the only way that the established church can show that it cares about people who are not already members.

Advertising can sometimes be of help in letting people know the church may have what they want. One congregation decided to put an ad in a publication that is aimed primarily at gays and lesbians. They are they only church, except the predominately gay Metropolitan Community Church, that does so. Many new people have showed up as a result. The kind of publicity a new church uses to get started will have an impact on the way the congregation develops. Typically, contacting 3,000 people in a newly developing area will produce 300 people to organize as a congregation, but what if the appeal from the beginning was to those who had doubts and questions?

Stage 2 -- Permanent Guests

In finding something of what they want, people may decide to become regular participants in some aspect of the church's life, but they may be unwilling to make a formal or financial commitment. Some of these people may feel that their lives are too fragile to risk breaking their ties with the religious traditions of their childhoods. Others may have been emotionally burned by their involvement with churches or clergy and are leery about setting themselves up for further hurt. One person told us about a congregation that makes everyone feel welcome. Only 20% of the regular worshipers in this welcoming church make pledges of financial support. The money in the plate offering often equals the pledged money on a given Sunday, but the situation creates difficult problems at budget time.

One congregation has dealt with the budget problems that come with accepting permanent guests, by having two offerings each Sunday. The first is for the support of the church. The second is for people who need assistance. The second offering provides an opportunity for permanent guests who have received help from the church to provide help for others.

What often works with permanent guests, however, is to provide them with experiences in which commitment to a group or to a process can be life giving. In reaching out to people beyond the church walls, one congregation offers classes on a wide range of subjects, but each class carries the same fourfold demand: regular attendance, homework, class participation, and a fifteen minute period of quiet reflection or prayer every day. The study groups all meet on the same night so that they can eat together before gathering in small groups, no more than ten each. Some of these people never, or rarely, come to Sunday worship, but they have a place in the life of the church.

The mission to the homeless people also discovered that the people who attended regularly wanted some demand placed on them, even if they had no intention of joining the church. Some street people said that they felt demeaned when at first no opportunity was made for an offering at their 7:00 a.m. service. They may give only a bus token, but they want to give something. Many have responded to the daily opportunity for Bible study, and have accepted the discipline that such study requires. So valuable has this discipline been, that people with full-time employment have joined them.

Stage 3 -- Members

Early in our discussion, some participants felt a contradiction between welcoming all people to the Lord's table and requiring a rigorous catechumenate for potential members. In many congregations, new members have found substantial rewards in taking lengthy and demanding courses prior to their joining the church. For some, the apparent conflict in the two values -- welcoming all without question and demanding discipline for membership -- was resolved in part by recognizing the validity of each stage. A congregation can welcome everybody to the celebration of communion and can celebrate the welcome of those make a commitment to the community.

At the third stage, an appropriate commitment will include responsible financial support for the church and a willingness to volunteer time as well.

What is Required to Make an Open and Welcoming Community Work?

1. Honesty The most important ingredient for an open congregation is honesty. For a church to be genuinely open, people must be able to say what they think and not feel required to be a certain way. The congregation must be up front with faith issues. For an atmosphere of honesty to prevail, the pastor must clearly give permission for people to say what is on their minds.

2. Humility The obligation falls on the stage 3 people to accept people in the other two stages as their equals. They cannot look at themselves as more spiritually advanced, or righteous, or in any other way superior to people in stages 1 and 2. Stage 3 people have made choices that are different from the choices made by the other people, but their choices do not mean that they are better people. They do not speak contemptuously of "cheap grace" when they see the uncommitted receiving communion. The community includes people in all three stages.

3. Acceptance One of the hardest tasks facing progressive Christians is accepting people who are bigoted, racist, sexist, or homophobic. We can open our doors to gays and skeptics, but we have trouble welcoming members if the National Rifle Association or the local militia. A truly open church would make room for everyone.

4. Discretion Sometimes it may be necessary to push the limits of what the denomination allows, or even to break the rules. Open congregations risk open conflict with the authorities, but most often they quietly go about doing what they need to do in order to be faithful.

5. Diversity Even some of the most conservative congregations may tolerate small groups of questioning, agnostic, and skeptical people. As the progressive cells within a church develop, if they can accept the established members, the established members may grow to accept them.

What Gets in the Way?

1. Pastors Clergy have a way of squelching attempts at diversity, muzzling creative people, stifling questions, and inhibiting thinking along experimental lines. A change in staff can undercut lay initiatives. Congregations have a hard time transcending the limitations of their pastors.

2. Anxiety Congregations anxious about their own survival have a hard time being open. They are so fearful of alienating the few remaining members that they cannot welcome new people and give them a voice in the affairs of the church.

3. Theology Ways of talking about Jesus and the cross that were useful in a previous age may not be useful in our time. The purpose of the church today may be to offer holy community, with the message of the cross as a means to this end. We may have to talk of Trinity, not as a description of God, but as a reminder that the essence of community is diversity.

4. Impatience We may try to move people more quickly than they are able to move. We must be patient with newcomers letting them be among us until they are ready to ask questions, such as, "What is giving me the sense of wholeness, peace, and community?" We must be patient with a congregation dominated by narrow, prejudiced people, letting them die off and replacing them gradually with more open leaders.

Questions

At the end of one discussion, we were left with questions for progressive Christians to ponder:

1. What is the medium and/or the message for young people?

2. What is really important? What must we preserve from our tradition? Where must we innovate?

3. To what extent are we responding to pain in the world around us?

4. What is the source of our support?

5. Does the church really exist for those who do not belong?

6. If we get them to the table, what will be the menu?

7. What will be the cost of the meal?

source: http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=1641

Forty Holy Martyrs of Sebaste

2010-03-09T19:19:00.000-05:00

The names of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste are Acacius, Aetius, Aglaius, Alexander, Angus, Athanasius, Candidus, Chudion, Claudius, Cyril, Cyrion, Dometian, Domnus, Ecdicus, Elias, Eunoicus, Eutyches, Eutychius, Flavius, Gaisus, Gorgonius, Helianus, Heraclius, Hesychius, John, Lysimachus, Meliton, Nicholas, Pholoctemon, Priscus, Sacerdon, Servian, Sisinus, Smaragdus, Theodulus, theophilus, Valens, Valerius, Vivanus, and Zanthias.

The Holy Forty Martyrs of Sebaste
Their Feast Day is on March 9th

When the pagan Licinius ruled the eastern half of the Roman Empire (307-323 AD), it was his evil intent to eliminate Christianity from the lands under his control, and especially, for fear of treason, among the troops. One of his supporters was a cruel man by the name of Agricola who commanded the forces in the Armenian town of Sebaste, in what is now eastern Turkey. Among his soldiers were forty devout Christians who wielded equally well the sword of battle and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God (Eph. 6:17). These men formed an elite bodyguard. When it came to Agricola's attention that they were Christians, he determined to force them to renounce their' faith and bow down to the pagan gods. He gave them two alternatives:

"Either offer sacrifice to the gods and earn great honors, or, in the event of your disobedience, be stripped of your military rank and fall into disgrace."

The soldiers were thrown into jail to think this over. That night they strengthened themselves singing psalms and praying. At midnight they were filled with holy fear upon hearing the voice of the Lord: "Good is the beginning of your resolve, but he who endures to the end will be saved" (Matt. 10:22 ).

The next morning Agrricola summoned them once again. This time he tried to persuade them by flattering words, praising their valor and their handsomeness. When the soldiers remained unmoved, they were again thrown into prison for a week to await the arrival of Licius, a prince of some authority.

During this time they prepared themselves for the trial of martyrdom. One of them, Cyrion by name, exhorted his fellow soldiers:

"God so ordained that we made friends with each other in this temporary life; let us try not to separate even in eternity; just as we have been found plea sing to a mortal king, so let us strive to be worthy of the favor of the immortal King, Christ our God."

Cyrion reminded his comrades in arms how God had miraculously helped them in time of battle and assured them that He would not forsake them now in their battle against the invisible enemy. When Licius arrived, the soldiers marched to the interrogation singing the psalm, "O God, in Thy name save me" (Ps. 53), as they always did when entering upon the field of contest.

Licius repeated Agricola's arguments of persuasion, alternating between threats and flattery. When he saw that words were of no avail, he ordered the soldiers sent to jail while he thought up a form of torture sure to change their minds.

After prayers that night, for a second time the soldiers heard the voice of the Lord:

"He who believes in Me, though he die, yet shall he live. Be bold and have no fear of short-lived torment which soon passes; endure...that you may receive crowns."

The next day the soldiers were led to a lake. It was winter and a frosty wind was blowing. The soldiers were stripped of their clothes and ordered to stand through the night in the freezing waters. A guard was set to watch over them. In order to tempt the holy warriors of Christ, warm baths were set up on the side of the lake. Anyone who agreed to sacrifice to the idols could flee the bitterly cold waters and warm his frozen bones in the baths. This was a great temptation which in the first cruel hour of the night overpowered one of the soldiers. Scarcely had he reached the baths, however, than he dropped to the ground and died.

Seeing this, the rest of the soldiers prayed the more earnestly to God: "Help us, O God our Saviour, for here we stand in the water and our feet are stained with our blood; ease the burden of our oppression and tame the cruelty of the air; O Lord our God-on Thee do we hope, let us not be ashamed, but let all understand that we who call upon Thee have been saved."

Their prayer was heard. In the third hour of the night a warm light bathed the holy martyrs and melted the ice. By this time all but one of the guards had fallen asleep. The guard who was still awake had been amazed to witness the death of the soldier who had fled to the baths and to see that those in the water were still alive. Now, seeing this extraordinary light, he glanced upward to see where it came from and saw thirty-nine radiant crowns descending onto the heads of the saints, immediately, his heart was enlightened by the knowledge of the Truth. He roused the sleeping guards and, throwing off his clothes, ran into the lake shouting for all to hear, "I am a Christian too!" His name was Aglaius, and he brought the number of martyrs once again to forty.

The next morning the evil judqes came to the lake and were enraged to find that not only were the captives still alive, but that one of the guards had joined them. The martyrs were then taken back to prison and subjected to torture; the bones of their legs were crushed by sledge-hammers. The mother of one of the youngest, Heliton, stood by and encouraged them to endure this trial. To their last breath the martyrs sang out, "Our help is in the name of the Lord," and they all gave up their souls to God. Only Meliton remained alive, though barely breathing.

Taking her dying son upon her shoulders, the mother followed the cart on which the bodies of the soldiers were being taken to be burned. When her son at last gave up his soul, she placed him on the cart with his fellow athletes of Christ.

The funeral-pyre burned out leaving only the martyrs' bones. Knowing that Christians would collect these relics to the eternal glory of the martyrs and their God, the judges ordered them to be thrown into the nearby river. That night, however, the holy martyrs appeared to the blessed bishop of Sebaste and told him to recover the bones from the river. Together with some of his clergy, the bishop went secretly that night to the river where the bones of the martyrs shone like stars in the water, enabling them to be collected to the very last fragment. So also do the holy martyrs shine like stars in the world, encouraging and inspiring believers everywhere to be faithful to Christ even to the end.

Thus they finished the good course of martyrdom in 320, and their names are: Acacius, Aetius, Aglaius, Alexander, Angus, Athanasius, Candidus, Chudion, Claudius, Cyril, Cyrion, Dometian, Domnus, Ecdicius, Elias, Eunoicus, Eutyches, Eutychius, Flavius, Gaius, Gorgonius, Helianus, Herachus, Hesychius, John, Lysimachus, Meliton, Nicholas, Philoctemon, Priscus, Sacerdon, Severian, Sisinius, Smaragdus, Theodulus, Theophilus, Valens, Valerius, Vivianus, and Xanthias.

The Troparion of the Forty Martyrs in Tone 1
Those noble soldiers of the Master of all let us honor, for they were united by their faith as they passed through fire and water, and being enlisted by Christ they entered to divine refreshment. Now those pious warriors stand and intercede with Christ God for those who cry out. Glory to Him that hath given you strength. Glory to him that hath crowned you. Glory to Him that made you wondrous, Holy Forty Martyrs.

Another Troparion of the Forty Martyrs in Tone 1
Be Thou entreated for the sake of the sufferings of Thy Saints which they endured for Thee, O Lord and do Thou heal all our pains, we pray, O Friend of man.

The Kontakion of the Forty Martyrs in Tone 2
Having left every military array on the world, ye cleaved unto the Master Who is in the Heavens, O Forty Prizewinners of the Lord; for having passed through fire and water, O blessed ones, ye rightly received glory from Heaven and a multitude of crowns.

source: http://www.40martyrs.org/forty-martyrs.html

Open Mic Night

2010-03-08T12:09:00.004-05:00

Open Mic Night and Community Supper - Friday March 12th

2010-03-08T10:19:00.001-05:00

Have you written a new poem? Just learned to play the guitar? Have a band
looking for a place to play? Looking for an evening of entertainment and
fun? This Friday the place for you is the Mor Gregorios Community Center and
their Open Mic Night.

Everyone is invited to the Mor Gregorios Community Center¹s next Open Mic
Night, Friday, March 12, starting at 7:00 PM. The Community Center will
also host a free supper of homemade soup and more starting at 6:00 PM. It
is an evening of food, entertainment, fun, and friends and neighbors.

All levels are invited to perform from beginners to advance. Poets,
jugglers, musicians, singers, comedians are all invited. If your talent is
just listening and having fun, you are encouraged to attend. The Open Mic
starts at 7:00 pm in the Great Room. You do not need a talent to attend and
be entertained. If your talent is listening, you are also invited. The
evening¹s entertainment is free.

The center¹s computer center will also be open that evening.

The Mor Gregorios Community Center is located at 1000 South Michigan Street,
Plymouth, Indiana. The center is located in the white A-frame building on
the corner of Oak Hill and Michigan streets across from the Webster
Elementary School.

For more information, you can call the center at 574-540-2048, or by email
at monastery@synesius.com

OBL News

2010-03-05T18:30:00.000-05:00

OBL News
News Blog. Get into the latest from the World of Orthodoxy. Great source for information about Orthodoxy around the world.

NBC Network Will Broadcast Pasca

2010-03-05T18:26:00.000-05:00

The video presentation of “Pascha: The Resurrection of Christ,” a program highlighting Orthodox Christian Pascha, or Easter, will broadcast on NBC affiliates nationwide this April. The program, produced by Greek Orthodox Telecommunications and sponsored by FAITH: An Endowment for Orthodoxy and Hellenism, highlights Holy and Great Week, focusing on the deeply moving and ancient services that recount the Gospel narrative leading to the Death and Resurrection of Christ. Archbishop Demetrios of America leads a procession of the faithful around the church and outside where, following the reading of the Gospel of the Resurrection, they proclaim the joyous hymn “Christ is Risen!”

The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America is working with affiliates nationwide, urging them to broadcast the program within their local area. Broadcast information will be posted as soon as it becomes available from affiliates. Below you will find a listing of NBC affiliates by state. Please check the listing for exact date, time and station. Please contact the Department of Communications if you need assistance. You may also contact the Program Manager locally to request coverage.

For more information on coverage please log on to www.goarch.org/special/paschatv

DVD copies of the program available for pre-sale ($25, plus $6 shipping). To pre-purchase please contact the Department of Communications at 212.774.0244 or email gotel@goarch.org.

source: http://theorthodoxchurch.info/blog/news/2010/03/nbc-network-to-air-pascha-the-resurrection-of-christ/

Patriarchal Encyclical of the Holy Great Lent

2010-03-05T14:33:00.001-05:00

An Ancient Church, and a New Venture of Faith in It

2010-02-21T21:53:00.000-05:00

By Mother Edith, O.M.S.E.

Cut off from the rest of India by a mountain range six to seven thousand feet high, lies the long narrow strip of coast-land called Malabar. It is a land of great natural beauty, with high blue mountains to the east, while on the west the sea runs inland in a chain of lagoons fringed with thick groves of coco-palms, and it is crossed by several large rivers sweeping swiftly from the mountains to the sea. The southern part down to Cape Comorin is the state of Travancore, and the northern part is Cochin, each ruled by a Maharajah of its own, under British protection.

This beautiful but secluded land is the home of the earliest Christian Church in India, the ancient Syrian Church of Malabar, founded according to local Christian tradition (and modern research is tending to confirm its very ancient origin) by the Apostle St. Thomas himself, who after his mission to King Gondophoros in northern India, is said to have visited Malabar and made converts among the Brahmins there, before passing over to the Coromandel coast to meet his death by martyrdom at Mylapore, near Madras. Tradition also tells of an influx of several hundred Christians from Syria under Thomas of Cana in 345 A.D., and of another colonist party of Syrian Christians who settled about 825 A.D. at Quilon, one of the chief trading ports; just as two colonies of Jews from Syria settled in early times in the port of Cochin. Our English King Alfred sent an embassy with gifts to the Christians of St. Thomas in Malabar, and one of the documents belonging to the embassy is preserved in the Record Office in London.

The heathen rulers of the land in early times granted various privileges to their Christian subjects, giving them the place they still hold among the aristocracy as next after Brahmins; but at other times they oppressed them, and made very stringent laws which are still in force to prevent Brahmins from becoming Christians; a Brahmin who does so loses not only all his property, but the guardianship of his own children. Yet still this little Christian community, far from Christian neighbours and support, continued to exist in India for more than a thousand years. Then in the sixteenth century, during the time of the Portuguese domination on the west coast, all the Syrian Christians, except a few who fled to the mountains, were compelled by the Portuguese to acknowledge the supremacy of the Pope, and conform in their worship to the ritual prescribed by Rome; their own original Syriac liturgies and books being taken from them, and as far as possible destroyed. But after 80 years of Portuguese dominion the Dutch gained possession of the trading-ports of Malabar, and the Portuguese were driven back northwards to their possessions at Goa; and that district has ever since been the great Indian stronghold of Roman Catholicism, and was the last place in the world where Christians were burned for heresy, the Inquisition only coming to an end there in 1818.

During the Dutch supremacy in the 17th century the fugitive Syrians came back, and such of their ancient liturgical and other books as had survived were brought out from their hiding-places, and many of the Syrians who had conformed to Rome under compulsion returned to their ancient faith and manner of worship, reestablishing connexion with their spiritual kinsfolk at Antioch and Edessa, although a still larger number remained in their new communion with the Church of Rome.

Thus the primitive Syrian Church of Malabar was reduced to being only a poor remnant of its former self, deprived of half its members, of most of its books and places of education and churches, and of almost all its resources, and unable to obtain real help from the Church at Antioch, itself then suffering under Moslem oppression. The marvellous thing is that it survived at all. How poor and oppressed yet faithful it was at the beginning of the last century we learn from the letters of the Oriental scholar, Dr. Claudius Buchanan, who in 1817 visited it from Calcutta, and brought news of its condition to Bishop Heber, who was greatly interested. And then returning to England (taking with him to Cambridge various Syriac manuscripts, and some very ancient charters inscribed on copper plates) Dr. Buchanan pleaded for help, especially educational help, to be sent to these isolated yet steadfast Christians of the east.

For nearly another century Malabar remained an isolated and almost unknown part of India, communication being cut off on the landward side by its high range of mountains, and seaward by the silting up of its harbours. But the last few decades have seen a great change; the capitals, first of Cochin and then of Travancore, have become accessible by rail from other parts of India; and right down the country the Maharajah’s highway, with its splendid new bridges over the swift river, carries a constant stream of motor traffic from one end to the other of this land, where the former mode of transit was chiefly by slowly-punted boats down the peaceful lagoons.

Meanwhile within the country itself another great change had been going slowly forward during the last century of its isolation. In response to Dr. Buchanan’s appeal to England, the C.M.S. sent out Missionaries to Malabar, by whom his hopes of raising the standard of education among the Syrian Christians have been amply fulfilled; although the type of mission-of-help to the ancient Church which he had in mind was perhaps too far in advance of the ideas of the day for its achievement to be possible at that time. Thanks, therefore, mainly to the influence of the schools started in the eighteen-twenties by the C.M.S. the Syrian Christians of Malabar are to-day a well-educated community (they were by inheritance an upper-class and intelligent one), and many of the high posts in the state are now filled by Christians; while the education thus started has gradually spread through the whole country, till the state of Travancore (which, needing no army, can devote 1/5th of its revenue to education and hospitals), has now the highest average of literacy for both men and women of any part of India; and Syrian Christians who go out from their country to study at other universities take high places in the honours lists. A Syrian Christian lady, who was one of the most brilliant students at the London School of Medicine for Women, is now State-physician in Travancore, with a seat on the Legislative Council (the first woman in India to have this), and is in charge of a splendidly-run State Hospital for women; while another Syrian Christian, an ex-fellow of Balliol, is used by the Government of India as an adviser on financial matters.

Contact with the outer world is now freely open to Malabar; the land is full of eager young students; and since high-school and college education is carried on there in English, all that can be read in English is theirs to lay hold of and discuss; and every year great conferences are held, attended by thousands of students, and addressed by people from all parts of India, and sometimes from America, and new influences of all kinds are being brought to bear upon them.

Syrian Christians form 1/7th of the total population of Travancore and Cochin, and number about 770,000; of these 403,000 (more than half) are Romo-Syrians, and 250,000 are Syrians in the direct line of spiritual descent from the earliest Christians of Malabar, who call themselves the ‘Orthodox,’ but are popularly known as the ‘Jacobite’ Syrians, both rather misleading names from a historical point of view. Another large body of 110,000 are Mar Thomites, a semi-Protestant, progressive sect, who separated themselves from the main body in 1889; there is also a small body of Syro-Chaldeans in Cochin state, and several smaller sects. A certain number of Syrians have joined the Anglican Communion through the C.M.S., but the greater number of the adherents of the C.M.S. are not Syrians but converts gained from heathendom.

The above short statement shows what deep cleavages exist within the Syrian community, but it is not of this sad side of things, but rather of a venture of faith in the “Orthodox” branch of the Syrian Church that I have been asked especially to write, in the hope of gaining the sympathy and prayers of many of the faithful for the first community of Sisters in this ancient Church.

In the Malabar Syrian Church, as in the Greek Church, the parish priests are married, but all the bishops are monks. There are, however, no monasteries, for they are monks of the Order of St. Anthony of the Desert, each living alone, as in the earliest days. The bishops have no possessions, but at each church and seminary a room, as simply furnished as the prophet’s chamber, is provided for the bishop to occupy while he is there, and this room generally communicates with a gallery at the west end of the Church, which serves the bishop as an oratory; wherever the bishop is, the faithful of that place provide him with food during his stay, and they convey him by boat or palanquin to the next place he is visiting.

The liturgy in use is the East Syrian form of the liturgy of St. James and it is said mostly in Syriac; so all priests before their ordination study Syriac in the seminaries, and bishops are required to have attained a yet higher degree of scholarship in Syriac, which is the ecclesiastical language; all the entries, for instance, that they make at the end of their “Pontificals” recording the use of the services in it for making a monk, or consecrating a church or a bishop, must be made in Syriac. Their Pontifical descends from that of St. James of Edessa; and, besides the Order for making a monk, it has also one for making a nun, which until lately had not been used for 400 years, since the time of the Portuguese ascendancy.

The Romo-Syrians of Malabar, however, have about fifty convents of Indian Sisters as well as seventeen monasteries, all connected with western Religious Orders, and a desire for religious life in community has been growing among the “Orthodox,” both in men and women, and has already reached it first expression in the foundation of the order of the “Imitation of Christ,” under the guidance and inspiration of Fr. Gevergese (George), who has lately been consecrated as the first missionary bishop of the Syrian Church with the name of Mar Ivanios. Mar Ivanios (who besides being a Syriac scholar took the M.A. degree with honours at Madras University), has gathered round him at Bethany for the past sixteen years a keen band of young men, of whom 20, after long probation, have been admitted to the Brotherhood, 6 of them having been also ordained as priests and 5 as deacons. Their aim is to follow our Blessed Lord in His two-fold life of much prayer and of active work for the coming of the Kingdom; and their work, especially among the outcasts, is already bearing fruit.

But besides the men who gathered round Fr. Gevergese to devote themselves with him to the religious life, there were those among their sisters and cousins who were feeling drawn by the same call from our Lord to the life of absolute dedication. What could be done for them? Fr. Gevergese turned, for help to the Oxford Mission to Calcutta, with whom he was already in touch through the O.M. Brothers’ coming yearly to speak at the Students’ Conferences in Travancore.

Far away in East Bengal a little group of Indian women in connexion with the Oxford Mission were trying to prepare for the Religious Life, and he asked that a few Syrian girls might come there too, to study and pray and wait for guidance. The first to take the long six days’ journey to Barisal were three young girls aged 11 to 16, who came in the summer of 1916; they were followed by several others, among whom was a rather older but still young widow, who under the guidance of her uncle, a hermit-monk, had been living for some years a life given to prayer and good works. Fr. Gevergese arranged that whenever possible a Syrian priest and deacon should be at Barisal, so that they might not be cut off from the ministrations of their own Church, and three other Syrian girls, who were studying in Calcutta for the B.A. degree, came to spend Christmas with them, one of whom has since joined their Sisterhood. After a time the child who came at 11 years old was sent back to finish her high-school course, but she too returned afterwards to the community. The Bengal women found the arrival of these Christian girls from another part of India deeply interesting. Here were women not western but Indian, whose families had been Christians for centuries, so that they had grown up in Christian homes, and had generations of Christian tradition and training behind them; while they in Eastern Bengal were either themselves converts or children of converts, and had all lived surrounded by a wholly heathen atmosphere. One of them expressed the difference they felt by saying, “We can’t be good even when we try; while they don’t know how to be bad even if they wanted to be.”

The Christian home-life in Travancore is often very beautiful; the women, who are held in honour and educated, have charming manners, and are very gentle and affectionate. A noticeable feature of Syrian home-life is that every household comes together three times a day for prayer and worship led by the father of the family; even among the poorest the father of the family gathers the children together for these prayers before going out to his daily work, however early he has to start. And the Syrian girls who desired to be Sisters seemed to have great natural aptitude and gifts for the prayer side of their life. The great public corporate religious service of the Syrian Church is the celebration of the Holy Liturgy, which they call ‘Qurbana,’ the Gift, every Sunday and on the twelve great festal days of the year; all are present at this and take their part in the singing and prayers, but very few make their Communion frequently, except some specially pious persons. Beyond this there are very few services in the Churches except during Holy Week, and sermons are only preached occasionally, generally by a bishop; so that, although trained in offering worship both public and private, , the ‘Orthodox’ Syrian Christians have very little public instruction in their faith, or in the Holy Scriptures. Another difficulty in the way of Bible-study has been that the printed scriptures are translated into such difficult language that people say they can understand them much better when they know enough English to read them in our version than they ever could in their own vernacular. So a good deal of the time of the Syrian candidates at Barisal was spent in the study of the Holy Scriptures, and in learning how to give religious instruction to children, as this was likely to be an important part of their future work.

When the Brotherhood of the Imitation was well established in its community life and work, and the women candidates had spent over four years in preparation at Barisal, his Grace the Metran Dionysios, with the consent of the other bishops, allowed them to come and make an experimental, beginning of community life at Tiruvalla in Travancore, under the charge of an Oxford Mission Sister; but it was another five years before any of them were actually Clothed and consecrated as Religious, for the bishops felt that each step onward must be most carefully prepared for. But several of the candidates were by this time admitted to “discipleship in Holy Religion,” which corresponds to the western noviciate, although the Religious Habit is not given until Profession.

At Tiruvalla the house and chapel of the Novices adjoined the grounds of the Syrian Church High School for girls of the “Orthodox” community, so they gave religious instruction to the girls in the High-school, and in a vernacular school close by, besides having Sunday-school classes in connexion with the Parish Church; and later on they started a very interesting and successful day-school for children of the outcastes, who are in Travancore some of the most down-trodden and degraded people in the world.

Then in 1925, on September 21st, which in the Eastern Churches is the Festival of our Lady’s Nativity, the first three Syrian Sisters were ‘Clothed’ at Tiruvalla. A description of the service may be found in the Oxford Mission Quarterly paper for January, 1926; it took place in the Qurbana, and began at dawn, lasting for four hours. For one year more an Oxford Mission Sister stayed to see the Sisters well started in their new life, and then in September, 1926, another Sister was professed, and the eldest of them, the widow-lady, became their first Superior, and the little community of four professed Sisters and six ‘disciples’ or novices, began its own independent life.

The Sisterhood has as yet no formal Constitution, but has a simple rule of daily life approved by the bishops, and a ‘Guide’ as to the principles and practices of the Religious Life compiled from the teaching of St. Basil.

After a year the Oxford Mission Sister who had trained the Syrian Sisters went back to pay them a visit; she writes, “There is a most beautiful feeling of peace and joy and prayer, and everyone looks well and very happy. The Sisters are evidently succeeding almost better than we could have hoped in making their community a happy and united family, and a home of love. They seem to be just the best material for making Sisters, for they are naturally religious-minded, affectionate and teachable, cheerful, and calm, though they may not have the originality of English women.”

source: http://www.orthodoxchristianity.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=18:an-ancient-church&catid=14:articles&Itemid=2

The Moment When the Prodigal Started Home

2010-02-20T16:20:00.001-05:00

Archpastoral Homily for the Lenten Season of 2010

In this season of the Great Fast, it is the duty of all Christians to enter into the Holy Mystery of Confession. It is not the only thing that we must do in Lent to prepare for the Feast of Pascha: but it is surely a necessary preparation for that Great and Holy Feast of Feasts. There is no way for us to feel the joy and peace of the Resurrection Festival without first going through preparation of Confession: one must climb the mountain path before he can enjoy the view from the mountain top.

Confession must be done the right way, in the right manner. It cannot be easy. Confession that is done as routine is simply not Confession. By its very nature, Confession is difficult. If it were not so hard, then Confession would never have been required. It would never have been recognized as "Lenten" and "penitential" or "ascetic."

You and I both know that Confession must hurt before it makes us feel better. We both know that it is not enough to say that we ate meat on Fridays … that we did not fulfill our church obligations or missed Liturgy. We both know that it is the easiest thing to do, during Confession, to talk about other people and how they made us so angry or so depressed, or how other people keep us from prayer or going to church.

You and I both know that when we make Confession "easy," we are not confessing at all. When we talk about other people, we are trying to confess their sins, and not our own. When we take the easy path of confessing the sins of other people, we turn a blind eye to our own. We become judgmental, instead of penitential. The two attitudes cannot co-exist … not in the same heart.

Confession is a hard, hard thing, and it is about one person, and one person alone who is opening his eyes and waking up … and looking around and finding out that he is in the wrong place in life … and that he desperately needs to go home … and to go home, that one person needs to come to his senses, to return back to his soul, to change his mind.

And that person is you. And that person is me.

Every single Holy Mystery of the Orthodox Church is deeply rooted in Holy Scripture, and Confession is no exception to this rule. There are many Biblical moments of this sort of recognition of wrong, and this point of decision to turning around. There is King David, who came to grief over his adultery with Bathsheba. There is King Manasseh, who wept bitter tears over his immorality and pagan idolatry. There is the Apostle Peter, of course, who groveled for three days in the darkness after the Crucifixion, because he denied his Lord three times.

But the singular, ultimate icon of the Holy Mystery of Confession and Reconciliation is the Prodigal Son.

You know the story well, and so do I. We have heard it every year in the Orthodox Church for decades. We know all the facts by heart. We have grown almost too familiar with the story. It has become part of the surroundings, and, I wonder, just another phase of the yearly routine.

But this story is hard and dangerous, just like Confession. If you enter into it, with eyes wide open and a heart that is exposed to the heat of the sun, like ice melting on a Spring day, then you cannot help being changed. You will look up and around, and your mind willturn.

You will repent: and God knows, as we all know, that repentance is the thing that our sinful selves fear the most. At the same time, repentance is the thing that our sinful minds needthe most.

I want to look especially at the very moment when the Prodigal Son shook his head and woke up from his drunken hangover. I want to look at that instant when he opened the eyes of his mind and realized where he was, and what he had become.

You remember the story. You remember the young boy who prematurely demanded his full inheritance from his father. You remember how he took all the money and traveled as far as he could get away from his father and his home. You remember how he spent all his money in pleasure and comfort.

He left no passion untouched. He left no sin unexplored. He experimented with every form of depravity and decadence. He threw his money around and became popular among the drinkers, the dancers, the drug-takers and the adulterers, the fornicators and the celebrities, the actors and actresses, the rich and the famous. It seemed that the party would never end, and they could dance all night, and the wine flowed freely and the laughter and the lust went on and on until the morning sun rose up and revealed the polluted infestation of sin.

It was on such a morning that the famine came, and the young boy's funds dried up in the drought. A recession hit and the banks failed. The blue chip stocks took a nose dive, and the stock brokers and the accountants and all the good-time drinking buddies of the Prodigal Son took their money and ran.

No one was there to lend him a dime. No one, in the far country, gave him even a slice of bread, and the once laughing Prodigal Son now began to weep and despair.

He had squandered away the inheritance of his human nature. Once he was able to think clearly. Once, he was able to control his emotions and make good decisions. Once he was able to love and accept being loved. Once upon a time, long ago, he was friend to the animals and to the trees and fields, and he was able to look up at the sky and give thanks to the God of all. Once, he was able to speak in truth and in love. Once, he was able to pray without ceasing and to pray and move mountains.

These were the riches, the Fathers say, that the Prodigal Son squandered away, far off in the country, far from the Father and his home.

For the Fathers also say that the home that was left by the Prodigal Son was nothing other than Paradise, and the far country he ran to was this world of lamentation, sorrow, earthquakes, snowstorms, untimely death, cancer and pain. This world of sin and darkness is the far country where the riches of the created human nature are squandered and wasted.

And when the Prodigal Son hired himself out to a citizen of that far country to feed the pigs, our Lord said that the boy was so hungry, so desperate and poor, that he looked upon the slop that was given to the swine and wanted to take and eat.

How low this Prodigal Son has descended! How is it possible for a boy, fashioned in the Image of God, who belonged once to the House of the Father, who had eaten bread at the High Table – how is it possible for this boy who had been so noble, so beautiful – how is it possible that any of us Prodigal sons and daughters to ever want to eat the food of pigs?

For the secret is out: you and I play the part of the Prodigal Son, whether we'd like to admit it or not. We were once made to be noble, and to share in the glories of Paradise, but in sin and passion we descended to the place of the swine.

In life, there are moments of possibility that the Lord mercifully arranges for each one of us. They usually come when we hit the bottom, and find ourselves friendless, homeless, hopeless and rootless. These are the moments when we understand the truth of ourselves – that our hearts are desperately sick and deeply wounded … that our minds are darkened by the passions of pride and despondency, of lust and gluttony, of greed and self-esteem.

These are the moments of deep Confession, when we "come to ourselves" like the Prodigal Son. These are the moments when we recognize that the entire far country, from the very moment when we stepped foot outside the gates of our Father's House – that that was the moment when we first stepped foot into the place of the pigs. Confession is the moment when we recognize that all the drinking, all the carousing, all the parties and fornication and riotous living were nothing other than languishing in the pig pen of life.

Confession is also the moment when we speak the words of the Prodigal Son: "In my Father's house there was bread enough and to spare." We remember the sweetness and light of Paradise. We remember the taste of the Eucharist, which is the "daily bread" of the Lord's prayer, the "super-substantial bread" that is truly "bread and enough to spare."

We remember that God is Love, and that the Trinity, One in Essence, is the divine outpouring of love from the Father to the Son to the Holy Spirit, and this outpouring is so over-abundant that it spills out into the entire universe as Uncreated Light.

We remember that Jesus is our Good Shepherd and Good Samaritan. We remember that this world is not our home. We remember that we were made for better things, that our souls were meant to be filled with light, and not the darkness of passion and sin. We remember that there was a time in which we knew the names of animals and we tended our gardens, and there was Springtime and sunlight, and green fields and flowers that sprung up in the abundance of our homes, our families and our life in the Church.

And so, with the Prodigal Son, we make up our mind to say, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you." And like the Prodigal Son, we rise up and begin our journey home.

We walk home to Paradise these forty days of the Great Fast. We fast every day, even Sundays, with the diet of Adam and Eve who ate no meat. We give generously of our money to the poor, rejecting our once sinful prodigal lifestyle. We turn off our entertainments. We switch off our televisions. We turn down our party invitations.

Instead, we pray and pray, and with ever "Lord have mercy," we take another step along the way.

It will be, on a Bright and Glorious Day, at the end of this journey, that we will find Him waiting, our Good and Heavenly Father, Who is always looking for the return of every Prodigal Son.

Even you. Even me.

+ METROPOLITAN NICHOLAS

source: http://www.acrod.org/metropolitan/homilies/lenten-homily-2010

Nicene Creed

2010-02-18T14:26:00.000-05:00

The Ecumenical Council of Nicea and Nicene Creed

The Oriental Orthodox Churches recognize only three ecumenical councils and the council of Nicea is the first among them. The Nicene Council, also known as First Ecumenical Council, was held in 325 and is one of the most important councils in Christian history. It was originally called by Emperor Constantine in order to address the challenges posed by Arianism. The council established the foundations of orthodox Christian belief with the Nicene Creed.

Two reasons are usually cited to justify the council’s ecumenical status. Firstly, the Emperor ordered that all legitimate bishops from the whole Church shall participate and secondly, a problem that affected the whole Church, namely, the Arian controversy was discussed and decided upon in the council. It was the Emperor Constantine himself, who opened the council on 20th May 325. He affirmed that the decision of the council shall be binding to the whole Church and he promised himself as the guarantor of unity between the state and the Church so that the decision of the council shall be universally binding. Also he declared that his successors would follow his policy.

318 bishops participated in the council, who are called ‘holy fathers of Nicea’ or just ‘holy 318’. The number 318 has a biblical significance as the bishops are seen like 318 servants of Abraham (Gen 14:14). Main participants were Ossius of Cordoba, Alexander of Alexandria, his deacon and secretary Athanasius, Eusthathius of Antioch, who was consecrated to the see of Antioch shortly before the council, and Eusebius of Caesarea, who accepted the homo-ousius teaching just before the council of Nicea. Arius and Eusebius of Nicomedia and some other Arian supporters were also present in the proceedings. The council concluded on 19th of June officially, although, some records say that the council went on for some more time.

The council gave out four documents: 1. Confession of faith (Symbol), which Arius and two of his supporters declined to undersign and were thereby excommunicated and exiled to Illiricum. 2. The council decided upon the date of Easter and controversies on this issue were settled. 3. 20 Canons to the question of ecclesiastical discipline. 4. A synodal letter, which was sent to all sister Churches to explain the proceedings of the council and thereby a call to obey the decisions of the council.

Symbol of the Council of Nicea:
“We believe in one true God, the Father almighty, maker of all things visible and invisible; And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only begotten, begotten of the Father, that is, out of the ousia of the Father, God out of God, Light out of Light, true God out of true God, begotten, not made, of the same ousia as the Father, through whom all things were made, both those things in heaven and those on earth, who for us men and our salvation came down, took flesh, and was made human, suffered and rose up on the third day, ascended unto heaven and will come to judge both the quick and the dead; And in the Holy Spirit.

But those who say that there was a when, when He was not, and that He was made out of nothing (what did not exist), or who say that He is of another hypostasis or ousia, or that the Son of God is created or subject to change or alteration, the Catholic and Apostolic Church anathematize.”

Date of Easter:
From the time of Polycarp of Smyrna (first half of the second century), the date of Easter was a matter of dispute. Irenaeus of Lyon has also expressed his opinion on this issue, but there was no consensus about this problem among the Church as a whole and therefore, the council of Nicea decided upon this question. Alexandrine Church as well as the Western Church celebrated Easter on the first Sunday after the first full moon in spring season and this was according to the Synoptic tradition. The Church in Asia Minor celebrated Easter according to the Jewish pattern, namely, the first Sunday after Nissan 14th, which was eventually the Johannine one too. The council of Nicea decided that Easter was to be celebrated according to the Alexandrine-Western practice, namely, on the first Sunday after the first full moon in spring season.

Canons of the Council:
Council of Nicea issued 20 canons on issues that matter to the discipline of the Church. Ecclesiastical structures are dealt with in canons 4-7, 15 and 16. Dignity of ordained people is mentioned in canons 1-3, 9, 10 and 17. The problem of open confession of sins during a liturgical action is the theme in canons 11-14. The question how to reinstate the lapsed, schismatic and heretics etc. into the Church is dealt with in canons 8 and 19. Liturgical admonitions are given in canons 18 and 20. From the above narration, it is clear that there is no systematic treatment of problems in the order of canons. Yet, these canons are considered as most important and binding to the whole Christian Church even today.

The history of Nicene Creed:
As it seen above, the Nicene Creed was first adopted in 325 at the First Universal Christian Council of Nicaea. The Coptic Church has the tradition that the original creed was authored by Athanasius. There is also a strong tradition that the Nicene Creed was the local creed of Caesarea brought to the council by Eusebius of Caesarea. However, the creed was not in the full form that we see and use today! It is in the second Ecumenical Council in 381 added the section that follows the words "We believe in the Holy
Spirit" hence the creed is also known in the history as "Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed", referring to the Creed as it was after the modification in Constantinople.

The third Ecumenical Council, Ephesus in 431, reaffirmed the 381 version, and decreed that "it is unlawful for any man to bring forward, or to write, or to compose a different Faith as a rival to that established by the holy Fathers assembled with the Holy Ghost in Nicæa."

The Filioque controversy:
Amongst the Latin-speaking churches of Western Europe, the words "and the Son" (Filioque) were added to the description of the procession of the Holy Spirit, in what many have argued is a violation of the Canons of the Third Ecumenical Council. Those words were not included by either the Council of Nicaea or that of Constantinople, and hence Eastern Orthodox theologians consider their inclusion to be a heresy. The dispute over the Filioque clause was one of the reasons for the East-West Schism. The clause had been adopted in the west , although the Third Ecumenical Council (431) had prohibited to individuals the promulgation of any other creed. The manner of the clause's adoption was therefore controversial and in the 10th century Photius, the Patriarch of Constantinople, used this clause in his conflict with the Pope. He accused the West of having fallen into heresy and thereby turned the Filioque clause into the doctrinal issue of contention between East and West.

Conclusion:
The Eastern Orthodox Churches those who follow the uncorrupted faith of the Three Holy Ecumenical Synods have thus the Creed in the following formula. Since it the declaration of our Faith and cream of our theological stand point, it is the duty of the Church and believers to recite it in all our liturgical prayers and keep hold its faith in their daily life.

I have also did a biblical analysis of the Nicene Creed to show that how much its words and usages are owed and quoted from the Holly Bible, the word of God and the chief resource of the Church. One could see many more quotations from the word of God, however, what I did is giving model study of it.

The Nicene Creed
We believe in one true God (Heb 11:6, 1 Corinthians 8:4-6, Romans 3:29-31, Eph 4:6)
The Father Almighty (1Cor. 8:6Rev. 1:8)
Maker of heaven and earth (Ex. 20:11, Gen. Ch. 1 &2)
and of all things visible and invisible (Jer. 32:17. Col. 1:16)
And in the one Lord (Acts 10:36) Jesus (Matt. 1:21) Christ (John 4:25-26),
the only-begotten Son of God (John 1:14),
begotten of the Father before all worlds(1 John 4:9),
Light of Light, very God of very God (John 1:4, 1 John 1:5-7, John 12:35-37, John 5:18),
begotten, not made (John 8:58),
being of the same substance with the Father (John10:30);
and by whom all things were made (John 1:3);
+ who for us men and for our salvation (Mat 1:21) came down from heaven (John 3:31),
+ and was incarnate of the Holy Virgin Mary, Mother of God (Luke 2:6),
by the Holy Ghost (Luke 1:35), and became man (John 1:14);
+ and was crucified for us (Mark 15:25) in the days of Pontius Pilate (Matt 27:22-26);
and suffered, and died, and was buried (Matt 27:50-60);
And the third day rose again (Matt 28:6) according to His will (1.Cor 15:4),
and ascended into heaven (Luke 24:51), and sat on the right side of the Father (Mark 16:19); and shall come again in His great glory (Matt 25:31),
to judge both the quick and the dead (2 Tim 4:1);
whose kingdom shall have no end (Luke 1:33);
And in the one living Holy Spirit (John 14:26),
the life-giving Lord of all (2cor 3:17-18, Is. 6:8, Acts 28:25 Rom 8:2, 2.Cor 3:6),
who proceeds from the Father (John 15:26):
and who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified (Rev. 4:8),
who spoke by the Prophets and Apostles (2 Peter 1:21);
And in the One (John 10:16), Holy (Eph 5:26-27, 2 Peter 2:5&9),
Catholic (Rom 10:18 "Catholic" means universal or comprehensive, as well as "relating to the ancient undivided Christian church")
and Apostolic (Eph 2:20) Church;
and we acknowledge one Baptism (Eph. 4:5) for the remission of sins (Acts 2:38),
and look for the resurrection of the dead (Rom 6:5),
and the new life in the world to come (Mat. 25:34., Rev. 21:1-7). Amen.

Fr. George Pulikkottil, D.Th.

source: http://malankaraorthodoxchurch.in/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=104&Itemid=217

Great Lent: ‘Restore Me To The Paradise From Which I Departed’

2010-02-16T13:02:00.001-05:00

The center of the liturgical year in the Orthodox Church is Kymtho, the celebration of Christ’s Resurrection. It is extolled in the services as the Feast of feasts and Triumph of triumphs. Justifiably so, for as the Apostle Paul declares, if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain (I Cor. 15:14). The sense of resurrection joy forms the foundation of all the worship of the Orthodox Church; it is the one and only basis for our Christian life and hope.2 Through His redeeming Passion, Christ freed us from the tyranny of death and opened for us the door to Paradise and eternal life. This is the goal of our life-long spiritual journey, a journey from death to life, from darkness to light – a restoration to paradise from which we have departed. It is a long journey and we travelers get weary; we get distracted and wander off or even lose sight of the road. To help keep us focused, the Church every year compresses for us this journey as it prepares us to greet the Feast of Christ’s Resurrection. This preparatory time is the joyous period of Great Lent. Without this preparation, without this expectant waiting, the deeper meaning of the Easter celebration will be lost.

The primary aim of fasting is to make us conscious of our dependence upon God. It is to lead us to a sense of inward brokenness and contrition; to bring to us, that is, to the point where we appreciate the full force of Christ’s statement, `Without Me you can do nothing’ (John 15:5). During the Great Lent, we have to strip ourselves from the specious assurance of the Pharisee who fasted, it is true, but not in the right spirit. Lenten abstinence gives us the saving self- dissatisfaction of the Publican (Luke 18:10-13). Such is the function of the hunger and the tiredness: to make us `poor in spirit’, aware of our helplessness and of our dependence on God’s aid. Abstinence leads to a sense of lightness, wakefulness, freedom and joy.

Lent is a time of joy. It is a time when we come back to life. It is a time when we shake off what is bad and dead in us in order to become able to live, to live with all the vastness, all the depth, and all the intensity to which we are called. We are at the threshold of the Great Lent. We have to believe the power of fasting as it relates to prayer is the spiritual weapon that our Lord has given us to destroy the strongholds of evil. Fasting might seem hard, but with each passing day, God’s call will grow stronger and clearer. Finally, we will be convinced that God has called us to fast, and He would not make such a call without a specific reason or purpose. With this conviction, enter the Great Lent with excitement and expectancy mounting in our hearts, praying, Lord, “I have walked away from You and Your precepts. But now I return, merciful Lord, and cry to You: I have sinned.”

As we begin to fast, our confidence in the Lord will help us. The longer we fast, the more we sense the presence of the Lord. The Holy Spirit refreshes our soul and spirit, and we experience the joy of the Lord as seldom before. Biblical truths leap at us from the pages of God’s Word. Our faith soars as we humble ourselves and cries out to God and rejoices in His presence. Fasting calls on the Holy Spirit and brings us to repentance, prayer and almsgiving. We need to revive our commitment to fasting and prayer and the rest of the Church will respond to this call. Spent time in reading God’s word and make your time with the Lord more spiritually rewarding. There is no point in fasting and prayer until it equips you for spiritual awakening. Hope this Great Lent will not slip by without having made a genuine effort to prepare ourselves for the resurrection of Jesus Christ our Savior. “Let us set out with joy upon the season of the Fast, and prepare ourselves for spiritual combat. Let us purify our soul and cleanse our flesh; and as we fast from food, let us abstain also from every passion. Rejoicing in the virtues of the Spirit may we persevere with love, and so be counted worthy to see the solemn Passion of Christ our God, and with great spiritual gladness to behold His holy Passover.”3

The whole journey into the Resurrection can become our own if we are able to stand in examination of our lives, see how far we have brought ourselves from the life God intends for us, and then long, truly long to return to our true home, to paradise. We must turn with tears toward the home from which we have sinfully departed and resolutely start our journey back, begging God’s forgiveness in our return. True repentance begins with the acknowledgement of self-imposed exile. Such knowledge pains us, but it is a pain that leads to action, and action that leads to reform. And as Christ re-forms us into His heavenly life, we begin truly to live. Apart from God, there is nothing. We have each experienced this ‘nothing,’ for we have each turned from God. But now, as we prepare to enter into Great Lent, we long for the great ‘something’ that is God’s love and sanctification. Begging His mercy we strive for true repentance, that we may receive His salvation in all joy.

“Behold, O Christ, the affliction of my heart; behold my turning back; behold my tears, O Savior, and despise me not. But embrace me once again in Your compassion and count me with the multitude of the saved, that with thanksgiving I may sing the praises of Your mercy.”4 I end with the words of Ephrem the Syrian from his hymn ‘On Fasting’: “This is the fast of the First Born, the first of His victories. Let us rejoice in His coming; for in fasting He has overcome. Though He could have overcome by any means, He revealed for us the strength hidden in fasting, Overcomer of All. For by means of it a man can overcome that one who with fruit overcame Adam; He became greedy and gobbled it. Blessed is the First-Born who encompassed our weakness with the wall of His great fasting. Blessed is the King who adorned the Holy Church with Fasting, Prayer and Vigil.”5 Rahaim ‘layn aloho abo aheed kool ethraham ‘layn.

Written by Tenny Thomas

source: http://indianorthodoxchurch.org/2010/02/14/great-lent-%E2%80%98restore-me-to-the-paradise-from-which-i-departed%E2%80%99/

Of Mercy and Forgiveness

2010-02-14T15:12:00.001-05:00

Why do we beseech the merciful Lord for mercy? what is forgiveness

Sunday of Forgiveness

2010-02-14T15:11:00.001-05:00

Orthodox Forgiveness
(Sunday of Forgiveness)

This is a Day when younger ask the elderly for forgiveness.
But it also goes among friends.
On the plea:
Forgive me...
the custom respond is:
You are forgiven....

This feast preceding the Honourable Fast Season (Great Lent) is established to remind of the spiritual character of fasting. It is dedicated to forgiveness or more essentially to repentance, which in the Church represents the only true content of personal relationships. Bodily abstinence practiced during the fast is inseparable from the God-yearning love of the Christians. Itself it implies aspiration to live in the virtues of mercy, meekness, long-suffering, humility, and all kinds of philanthropy. The faithful, through fervour in these virtues and particularly through the practice of the Jesus prayer tend to prepare within them abode to the Holy Spirit.

True repentance

2010-02-13T22:22:00.001-05:00

From the 1997 Patriarchal encyclical of His Holiness Moran Mor Ignatius Zakka I Iwas
Translated and Published by
the Archdiocese Of
The Syrian Orthodox Church of Antioch
For The Eastern USA, March 1997
IN THE NAME OF THE ETERNAL, DIVINE AND ALMIGHTY BEING

IGNATIUS ZAKKA I IWAS PATRIARCH OF THE APOSTOLIC SEE OF ANTIOCH AND ALL THE EAST, SUPREME HEAD OF THE UNIVERSAL SYRIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH.

WE EXTEND OUR APOSTOLIC BENEDICTION, BEST WISHES AND GREETINGS TO OUR BROTHERS THE EMINENT METROPOLITANS; TO OUR SPIRITUAL CHILDREN: THE HONORABLE PRIESTS, MONKS, NUNS, DEACONS AND DEACONESSES; AND TO ALL OUR ESTEEMED SYRIAN ORTHODOX PEOPLE. MAY THE DIVINE PROVIDENCE PROTECT THEM THROUGH THE INTERCESSION OF THE VIRGIN MARY, CHIEF OF THE APOSTLES SAINT PETER AND ALL THE SAINTS AND MARTYRS. AMEN.

TRUE REPENTANCE

“From that time on Jesus began to preach: ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near’.” ( Matt. 4:17 )

Man, with all his intelligence, can not fathom the depth of God’s love to mankind or to comprehend its essence. For He (God) has loved them even to death, the death on the Cross. The Holy Gospel declares: For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. (Jn. 3:16). Love was the main reason why God sent His Only-begotten Son into our world. He was incarnate by the Holy Spirit and of the Virgin Mary, and was crucified for us, and died and was buried and rose on the third day according to His will, as stated in the Nicene Creed of Faith. Thus He redeemed us who believe in Him, and forgave the original sin we inherited from our first parents, along with our personal sins committed before we were baptized in His Name and received salvation, thus fulfilling His divine promise: Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned (Mk.16:16). Because we were baptized in His name, we were born through the water and Spirit a second birth from heaven, and we were justified and sanctified to be children of God by grace, and heirs to His heavenly kingdom. This is the ultimate motive behind the mystery of incarnation and redemption. Concerning this, the Apostle Paul says: Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners— of whom I am the worst. (1Tim.1:15). Therefore, when the Lord Jesus publicly began His divine mission in the flesh, by announcing His noble heavenly message, the Gospel of Repentance, He said: Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near (Matt.4:17). he also said: The time has come and The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news (Mk.1:15). The Apostle Peter also told those who were troubled in their hearts, after hearing his sermon on the fiftieth day, and asked him and the other apostles: Brothers, what shall we do? Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:37-38). Hence, the message of redemption, brought by our Lord Jesus Christ, is to prepare man for eternal life, by true repentance and true faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, by accepting Him as the Savior of the world, by being baptized in His Name and by obeying His divine laws. In this regard, our Lord Jesus says to His heavenly Father: Now this is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, Whom You have sent (Jn. 17:3).

Yes, God Almighty knows that we are weak humans, always prone to enter into hard temptations, and eventually fall into the pit of sins so long as we are in this human body. Yet, since we have been baptized in our Lord’s Holy Name, and the Holy Spirit dwells in us, God has prepared for us a way of repentance in order to return to Him after we confess our sins and are sorry for the trespasses which we have committed. Before the ascension of our Lord Jesus into heaven, He gave His pure apostles, and just disciples, the authority to bind and loose sins by saying: Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven (Jn.20:22-23). Through this divine power, the Lord grants graciously the forgiveness of sins to the believers who present to God a pure repentance, because sin is a rebellion and a transgression against the Almighty, and an alienation from Him. The Prophet Isaiah says: But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden His face from you, so that he will not hear (Isa. 59:2). The Apostle John, describes sin also as a transgression: Everyone who sins breaks the law (I Jn. 3:4). This law-breaking is the lack of harmony between the thoughts, words and deeds of man; and the commandments of God. By sinning, he breaks the law, rebels against God and obeys Satan, the enemy of God and man at the same time. For Satan is the tempter who tries to entrap man and snare him into disobedience. Moreover, any kind of sin is deemed as breaking the law of God, His commandments and all He forbids, as if it were committed directly against the Almighty. This is what prompted the Prophet David, who committed a terrible sin, to plead with God saying: Against You, You only, have I sinned and done what is evil in Your sight (Ps. 51:4). Yet, to explain that this sin was personal, and that he also inherited the original sin, he adds: Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me (Ps.51:5).

Sin is very awful indeed and leads to eternal death. The Apostle James said: and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death (Jas. 1:15). For the wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23). Therefore when sin overtakes a person, he becomes overwhelmed with apprehension, anxiety, guilt and instability. In fear and trepidation, He expects severe punishment as a consequence for what he has committed. But thanks be to God for sending His Son, Who became an atonement for us by His death on the Cross, thus abolishing sin by His resurrection from among the dead. In so doing, He reconciled us with His heavenly Father, Who wants us to be at peace with heaven in order to be worthy to inherit the kingdom of God. For we have been justified from the original sin when we were buried with Christ in Baptism, even to death, and rose with Him to a new life. Yet, we are humans, and are always susceptible to sin, but on Judgment Day the Lord shall not ask: why did you sin? but rather: why didn’t you repent?

Repentance is a return to God and an obedience to His divine laws. When a sinner searches his soul entirely, deeply, faithfully and honestly, and compares his wretched and sad state of sin, with the happy state which preceded his fall into sin and iniquity, when he was in his Father’s abode with a clear conscience and at peace; he will confess his sins, and feel sorry for his wrongdoing and transgression against God’s laws, and anxiously determine to return to God through repentance. He should not be content with simply doing so, but should also emulate the Prodigal Son who said: I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men (Lk. 15:18-19). Sure enough, he (the Prodigal Son) wearing his worn-out and soiled clothes and with his many sins, went to his father, and lo, he found him impatiently waiting for his return. So, The son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found’. (Lk. 15:21-24).

All this signifies God’s love for the sinner and His anticipation for him to return safely to his home. Furthermore the Lord, Who is the Good Shepherd, always searches for the lost sheep. And when He finds him, He carries him upon His shoulders and brings him to the sheep’s fold. Likewise, the father restored to his prodigal son his rank and stature, and dressed him with a new robe, to become a new man with a new life. He placed on his finger the ring of the Covenant, thus renewing with him the Covenant and his trust in him. He also hosted a fancy feast for the local people that they could rejoice with him, and joyfully welcome the return of the prodigal son into their society.

The anger and sadness of the eldest son on his brother’s return, represents the hypocrisy of the Scribes and Pharisees and their lack of desire to save the tax collectors and sinners. They do not enter the kingdom of God and they do not let anybody else enter either. Those Scribes and Pharisees even objected to the Lord Jesus for He befriended tax collectors and sinners and sat with them and opened for them the door of repentance to attain salvation by saying: It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners (Matt. 9:12-13). The Lord confirmed this when He accepted the penitents who came back to Him with solid faith, by forgiving their sins. In this manner, the Lord forgave Zacchaeus and Matthew, the tax collectors, Mary Magdalene, the adulterous woman, the Samaritan woman at the well of Jacob, the apostle Peter, the remorseful thief and others. Moreover, the Lord Jesus still forgives all penitents who come to Him with a true and complete repentance. Concerning this, the apostle John says: My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atonement for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world (I Jn. 2:1-2).

Oh, how great is God’s love for the world, His mercy to the sinners and His desire for their return to Him in repentance! He will surely receive them just as the father welcomed his prodigal son. And how wretched is the sinner, who is ignorant of his misery while he is in a sinful state and has no desire to return to God in repentance. The persistence of the sinner in his sin, and his creation of phony excuses to justify himself, are but an insult to the long-suffering patience of Almighty God. Whereas true repentance produces spiritual happiness which fills the heart of the penitent with joy for his salvation, by making peace and reconciliation with the Lord God. Even heaven rejoices with the penitent. The Lord Jesus says: I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent (Lk. 15:7). This joy points to the true and ultimate faith which fills the heart and the mind.

Surely, the penitent who receives forgiveness for his sins from the Lord by means of a valid priest, (authorized by the Lord Jesus to loosen sins) must continue his relationship as a son with the Heavenly Father by living virtuously, thus producing fruit in keeping with repentance. (Matt. 3:8). Likewise, John the Baptist commanded those who came to him to confess their sins, and then he baptized them with the baptism of repentance, and gave them the good news of the eminent coming of the Savior, saying: “Produce fruit befitting repentance…”.

A penitent should not simply be content with the forgiveness of his sins, but he should ask God like the Prophet David, who sinned and repented, cried and begged the Lord saying: Have mercy on me, O God, according to Your unfailing love; according to Your great compassion blot out my transgressions…. Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from Your presence or take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners will turn back to You (Ps. 51:1,10-13). A penitent is in need of renewal, renewal of the heart as well as of the conscience. He must pray to God that the Holy Spirit not be taken from him, because if the Good Spirit leaves a person, the evil spirit will replace it as in the case of Saul. David himself experienced this and prayed that the Holy Spirit not depart from him, but rather lead him into the proper paths, that he might remain firm in a state of justification and righteousness: the state which was restored to him after he came back to God through true repentance.

Truly, evil has spread wildly in this corrupt generation. We are drowning in iniquity, and are in desperate need of true repentance, reflected by sorrow and regret over the sins which we committed and are determined to avoid. Again, let us emulate the Prophet David in asking forgiveness from God and doing penance to Him. And, just like the Prodigal Son, may we return to the Father’s home, with sorrow and repentance. Moreover, let us confess our sins to a lawful priest, that he might enrich us with his spiritual advice, as a healing and protecting medicine. And by the authority of the Sacred Priesthood ascribed to him by God, he will recite the prayer of absolution. Through this, we earn the right to return to our previous state of grace, which we received from our Savior and Redeemer Jesus Christ. Dearly beloved,

In this evil generation, as we prepare to bid farewell to the twentieth century and usher in the twenty-first, we observe humanity marching in darkness, lost in the crooked ways of this world, enslaved by the heavy yoke of sin, and resembling the Prodigal Son in leaving his father’s house and squandering his money on a wasteful life. May the sinning believer also emulate the Prodigal Son in his true repentance and righteous return to the home of his father, that the Father may receive him joyfully. The Holy Church is in need of a goodly number of our budding youth, of both genders, who fear God and heed His commandments, produce good fruits worthy of repentance, and whose hearts are purified and souls renewed. People who make themselves good examples to others by keeping God’s laws and regulations. Who, along with us, listen to the Lord Jesus and hear His divine voice calling us today, just as He called the people twenty centuries ago and until now, through the mouths of His priests: The time has come," He said. "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news (Mk. 1:15). If the time of our Lord Jesus Christ’s coming, twenty centuries ago, has been fulfilled, and all prophecies have come true and salvation completed, then, the time for His second coming approaches according to His true and divine promises. He also Had appointed it since the beginning. Therefore, let us repent and believe in the Holy Gospel as the Lord commands us. May we also heed the call of the Holy Spirit as He warns and cautions us saying: Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts (Ps. 95:7-8). Also, let us repent immediately because we do not know when the Lord will come again to judge the world, or when we are going to depart from this temporal life to eternity. If we are not in a repentant state, it will be too late for sorrow. Therefore, let us be ready, awake and anxious for our meeting with the Lord Jesus, so that He may make us worthy to be with the Good Thief in the paradise of joy.

May God accept your repentance, your fasting, your prayers and offerings. May He also be merciful to your faithful departed, and prepare you to celebrate His Glorious Resurrection with spiritual joy and happiness. After a full life, may He also make you worthy to enjoy the grace of His heavenly kingdom in the company of the repentant faithful, the just and the righteous. Amen.

http://syrianorthodoxchurch.org/library/patriarchal-encyclical-letters/true-repentance/

Shubhkono - First Monday of Lent Service

2010-02-13T22:19:00.001-05:00

The Shubhkono service is on the first Monday of the Great Lent after the noon prayers. This service is a preperation for lent and forgivness and is marked by 40 prostrations and the kiss of peace at the end of the service.

Shubhkono service is all about love and forgiveness. The Gospel reading for the service is the "Parable of the Unforgiving Servant." The Gospel reading reminds us that not only must we be willing to ask for mercy or forgiveness but we must be willing to practice forgiveness and mercy. The Gospel of Saint Luke further reminds us of this when our Lord says “Be you therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.” (Luke 6:36) Our Lord even reminds us of this when He teaches us to how pray in the prayer Our Father; “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” (Matthew 6:12).

When our Lord was asked by the Apostle Peter how often he should forgive sin our Lord replied “Until seventy times seven.” (Matthew 18:22) When our Lord said this he did not mean a specific number of times. He was using the biblical understanding of numbers to explain how patient we should be with the sinner or the one that trespassed against us. The number seven in biblical terms means fullness. Thus, seventy times seven means that we are to be willing to forgive forever. This truly shows the extent of God’s love for us and the extent that we must be willing to love the sinner.

The greatest example of practicing forgiveness that we have is when our Lord is on the Cross and says “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34) This shows the extent that we should be willing to forgive.

[Part of the above article is taken from a sermon by Fr.Milan Medakovic of the Serbian Orthodox Church]

Readings:

1 John 4: 11 - 21 (Seeing God through Love) (Commentry from Orthodox Bible Study)
1 Corinthians 13: 4 - 10 (Love the Greatest Gift) (Commentry from Orthodox Bible Study)
Matthew 18: 18 - 35 (Parable of the unforgiving servant)

Articles and Essays:

True Repentence - H.H Ignatius Zakka I , Patriarch of Antioch and all the East

Some hymns from the day:

Priyare! Teekshnatha kattuka

Kalpana kappananyonyam

source: http://sites.google.com/site/syrianorthodox/home/greatlent/shubhkono

First Sunday of Lent - The wedding at Cana

2010-02-13T10:09:00.002-05:00

Wedding of Cana

The Great Lent starts by commemorating the first miracle performed by Jesus i.e. turning water into wine at the wedding feast at Cana of Galilee. This is a passage that is full of symbolisms and inner meaning.

Wine in Rabbinic Judaism is a symbol of Jewish Torah or Law. At the Wedding of Cana this old wine (ie old Jewish Law), was not sufficient to satisfy the needs of the guests in the banquet. To make the guests satisfied and content, Jesus had to make new wine (ie new law). The new law that Jesus gives through pouring out of his blood is sufficient to make every one more than content and satisfied.

The six jars were used to store water for the ceremonial cleansing. There were only six jars, one short of seven the biblical number of perfection and fullness. In the Gospel we also read, Jesus instructing the servants to fill them up. So we can also infer that these jars were not full. The six jars, one short of number seven and the fact that there were not full is to show the inadequacy or incompleteness of the old Jewish customs.

There is a sacramental image in this miracle. Jesus asked the ‘servants’ to fill the jars with water. In the original Greek text of the Gospel, the word used for servant is DIAKON (Deacon) and not DULOS (meaning domestic servant or slave). Jesus asks the deacons to get water in the jars kept for the purification rite. The water is then turned to wine and nobody knows how it happens. Then He asks the deacons to serve the wine to the guests. In the Holy Qurbana the bread turns into the body of Christ and the wine turns into the blood of Christ. Nobody knows how it happens. It is a divine mystery.

In this passage we also see the presence of St. Mary the Mother of God. Jesus addresses his mother as ‘O Woman’. The Greek word used in the original text is ‘gunai’ and it does not have any tone of disrespect. Addressing someone as ‘gunai’ in those times is the equivalent of addressing someone as ‘O Madam’ or ‘O Lady’. In the entire Bible, St. Mary the Mother of God speaks very few words. In the Gospel reading on Kothine Sunday she says: "Do whatever He tells you" .In this passage we can see the role of saints; they stand with us in prayer (in this case taking a particular need of lack of wine to the Lord) and directs us to follow Jesus.

The Church requires us to read and meditate on this passage on the opening day of the great lent which prepares us to the most important event of pouring out of the cleansing wine on the cross and the glorious resurrection.

Like the bride and bridegroom of Cana, let us invite Jesus into our hearts. The presence of Christ by way of ‘being invited’ will certainly remove all our inadequacies and turn them into moments of greater joy and satisfaction. Mary and saints are always there and they pray with us and ask us to follow Jesus’ commandments.

Readings:

Before Holy Qurbana

Exodus 20: 1-21(Ten Commandments)
Joel 2:12-20(Call to repentence)
Isaiah 58: 5-14 (Fasting pleases God)

Holy Qurbana

Acts 11:19-26(called Christians in Antioch)
Colossians3: 1- 17(Rules for Holy Living)
St. John 2:1-11 (Wedding of Cana: Do whatever He tells you) Homily by St. John Chrysostom

source: http://sites.google.com/site/syrianorthodox/home/greatlent/first-sunday

The Great Lent - Patriarchal Encyclical -His Holiness Moran Mor Ignatius Zakka I Iwas

2010-02-12T22:24:00.002-05:00

The Great Lent
Declare a holy fast; call a sacred assembly (Joel 1:14)

We extend our apostolic benediction and greetings to our brethren, His Beatitude Mor Baselius Thomas I, Catholicos of India, and their Eminences the Metropolitans; our spiritual children the reverent priests, monks, nuns, deacons and deaconesses and out blessed Syrian Orthodox people all over the world. May the divine providence embrace all through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, and St. Peter, the chief of the apostles, and the rest of the Martyrs and Saints. Amen.

We trust you are well and in good health and offer our apostolic benediction and benevolent prayers as we say:

Here comes the time of the Great Lent. This is a golden occasion offered by our holy mother church, at time to examine our souls. It is a time to avoid vice and cling to virtue. It sis a time to return to God in repentance: “In an acceptable time I heard you and on the day of salvation I helped you” (II Corinthians 6: 2). As the eagle trains his small children to fly high in the sky, the holy church teaches the faithful to soar in the spiritual skies. The holy church provides them with the grace to escape earth and the things that pull them downwards. The church seeks to overcome the difficulties of spiritual life so that the faithful grow in the life of virtue to the peak of evangelical perfection through the suppression of the lowly bodily desires: “Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life” (John 6: 27). During Lent, the faithful fast from eating food for a certain time: then they eat light fasting food voluntarily. Thus, their hearts beat with holiness and they grow from power to power through the submission of the body to the Spirit “For the body desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the body. They are in conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want” (Galatians 5: 17) as St. Paul puts it. Through fasting, the faithful are able to avoid the desires of the body and do the good deeds they desire to do.

Indeed, God established fasting: He commanded it to the first man. When he broke this commandment, he fell into sin and deserved death. After being so close to God, man was driven far away from Him. He even hid from His holy face and could not see Him anymore (Genesis 3: 8) because he had disobeyed His divine orders and had not kept the fast commanded to him. To please God, the forefathers and prophets fasted in different ways. God ordered Moses to sanctify himself reaching Mount Sinai to receive the commandments (Exodus 19: 1-25). Moses fasted forty days and forty nights (Exodus 34: 28). He found grace in the eyes of God and was worthy to see His glory (Exodus 33: 13 and 18); he brought down the law for the people.

The prophet Elijah fasted forty days and forty nights (I Kings 19: 8); he triumphed over the pagan priests and attracted the people to the law; consequently, he merited being taken to heaven in a chariot of fire.

The prophet Daniel fasted three weeks during which he did not eat meat of drink wine (Daniel 10: 2). He was thus able to keep the jaws of the lions shut and they did not hurt him. The people of Nineveh fasted with their children and cattle (Jonas 3: 7). As a result, God accepted their repentance and their city was saved from destruction.

The forefathers and good prophets practiced the virtue of fasting as a way to please God and to avoid sins, especially during crisis and temptation.

Our Lord Jesus Christ taught us how to fast; he fasted for us forty days and forty nights, and when he finally felt hungry (Matthew 4: 2) he was tempted by Satan. He defeated Satan and gave us the secret of the victory over Satan and his powers saying: “But this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting” (Matthew 17: 21). When He was asked why His disciples ignored fasting – as claimed by their enemies – He replies that His disciples should fast when He ascends to the heavens saying: “But someday the from will be taken away from them, and then they will fast” (Matthew 9: 16). In another place, He ascends to the heavens saying: “But someday the groom will be taken away from them, and then fasting should be, saying: “When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do” (Matthew 6: 16).

Furthermore, we learn from the Acts of the Apostles that the Disciples observed fasting especially before the election of leaders and during persecutions, wars and plagues. Paul also fasted continuously (cf. II Corinthians 6: 5 and 11: 27 and Acts 27: 33).

The disciples taught the faithful how to fast. The church took this from them and ordered additional fasting. The history of the church shows that Christians observed the Great Lent since the dawn of Christianity along with fasting during the Week of Passion and Wednesdays and Fridays on a weekly basis. The laws of the church punished the clergy and faithful who broke the commandment of fasting. Exceptions were made for old people, babies, the sick, menstruating and pregnant women: these exceptions were not some sort of luxury, but were borne out of necessity. Saturdays and Sundays are not complete Eucharist, the one who fasts, breaks his fast and receives food. As a way of sanctifying Sundays, our Holy Syrian Church does not start Lent on Sundays: if it happens that Lent starts on Sunday, as a respect for the “Lord’s Day’ we start on Monday decreasing thus the number of fasting days by one.

The Holy Church does not prescribe the types of food to eat and ones to avoid on a particular day. The aim of fasting is submission of the faithful to God’s will through piety and the exercise of virtues, especially that of obedience to the commandments of God spoken through the tongues of the bishops who have been given authority to legislate laws and to bind and loose. They make rules for the benefit of the faithful and for the glory of His Holy Name. Since the church is a loving and caring mother and good teacher, she does not put heavy burdens on the faithful which they cannot life, according to the Lord’s words: “You experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them” (Luke 11: 46). Consequently, the Late Lamented Patriarch Elias III (1932) allowed the eating of fish during the Great Lent. In addition, he allowed the faithful in America to fast only the first and last week of the Great Lent, in addition to Wednesdays and Fridays. Similarly, the Late Lamented Patriarch Aphrem Barsoum (1957) allowed the same for the Indian Church, as well as decreasing the number of fasting days for all in 1946. Furthermore, the Late Lamented Patriarch Jacob III (+1980) allowed the fasting of only the first and last week of the Great Lent as well as Wednesdays and Fridays for the clergy and people. In 1966 he permitted the use of all sots of food on the rest of the days. He also allowed feasts, weddings, baptisms, the Divine Liturgy and commemorations to be celebrated on any day that falls in that period between the two aforementioned weeks. The permission of our predecessors, the holy patriarchs, allowing the decreasing of the days of the Great Lent for the faithful comes as an act of mercy and compassion so that they do not break the commandment and incur God’s wrath – God forbid. Hence, those who make use of this allowance are not sinning and are not considered among those who break the law. Al for those who fast all the days of the Great Lent and the Week of Passion, God shall multiply their rewards.

Dearly beloved, we are called to follow our righteous forefathers, abiding by the teachings of the Holy Bible: “Remember your leaders, who spoke the work of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith” (Hebrews 13: 7). We shall abide by it especially that we live in a period when faith is about to be extinguished in our hearts, love is frozen in our veins and we have neglected our duties of fasting and prayers. Nowadays, we are more materialistic; we have neglected charity work and are the concrete example of the unfaithful whose “God is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame” (Phillippians 3: 19). This is the alarm bell that rings and alerts us to the danger, that of the separation from God. Let us hear the Lord speak through the tongue of the prophet Joel: “Declare a holy fast; call a sacred assembly…Rend your heart and not your garments” (Joel 1: 14 and 2: 13). Let us fast and acceptable Lent, not only from food and drink, but also from evil deeds and sins. Let our thoughts fast from evil imagination, our tongues fast from meaningless utterances, our bodies from hideous desires; let our wills be submitted to God’s and our fasting be acceptable to Him in the words of the prophet Isaiah; “Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter…Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I” (Isaiah 58: 6-9).

May the Lord accept your fasting, prayers, charity and repentance. May He make you worthy to celebrate the glory of His resurrection in joy, happiness and good health. May He also have mercy on our faithful departed through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, Mother of God, and St. Peter, the chief of the apostles, and the rest of the Martyrs and Saints, and God bless you.

Issued at our Patriarchate in Damascus, Syria
On the 25th of January, in the year two thousand and ten
Which is the 30th year of our Patriarchate.

source: http://syrianorthodoxchurch.org/library/patriarchal-encyclical-letters/the-great-lent/

Church remembers HH Patriarch Saint Mor Ignatius Elias III Shakir

2010-02-12T20:40:00.000-05:00

Church remembers HH Patriarch Saint Mor Ignatius Elias III Shakir on February 13th. Pilgrims from all over the world reached Manjinikara by end of the day. Elias III is the only Patriarch of Antioch whose remains are interred in Malankara and his tomb stands as a towering symbol of the sacrifices made by the Syriac fathers to nurture the church in Malankara. On October 20, 1987, Patriarch Mor Zakka I through encyclical E265/87 permitted the Church in Malankara to remember his name in the fifth diptych.

A Short Biography of Patriarch Saint Mor Ignatius Elias III Shakir

Patriarch Saint Mor Ignatius Elias III Shakir the second son of Chorepiscopus Abraham and Maryam, was born in Mardin, Turkey. He was called Nasri. He had 4 brothers and 3 sisters. After the death of his mother, Nasri was raised in the care of his elder sister Helena. He worked as a shoemaker in his teens and served in the government service for about three months. At the direction of Patriarch Peter IV, Nasri joined the theological school of the forty martyrs. In 1887, he joined Deir al-Za`faran and was ordained deacon by Patriarch Peter IV in 1887. He became a sharwoyo (novitiate) in 1888 and a monk in 1889 upon which he came to be known as Elias. Elias was ordained qashisho (priest; lit. presbyter) in 1892 by Patriarch Peter IV.

In the waning years of the 19th century, numerous Armenian and Syriac Christians were massacred in Turkey. Qashisho Elias endeared himself to the Armenian Christians providing refuge for about 7000 in the monastery of Mor Quryaqos. He was later appointed the reesh dayroyo (Cheif of the Monastry) of the Mor Quryaqos as well as Deir al-Za`faran. In 1908 Qashisho Elias was consecrated bishop of Amid (Diyarbakr) by Patriarch `Abded Aloho II and was named Mor Iwanius. Mor Osthasios Sleeba, the delegate of the Holy See of Antioch to India, was also ordained along with Mor Iwanius. In 1912, he was transferred to Mosul where he served until his elevation to the patriarchate in 1917. After Patriarch `Abded Aloho passed away on Nov 26, 1915, Mor Iwanius was elected Patriarch and assumed the throne in 1917. The firman (decree) was issued to Patriarch Elias III by the Ottoman sultan Muhammad Rashid. The sultan conferred the Ismania medal to the Patriarch. In 1922, when civil war broke out in Turkey and Gazi Mustafa Kemal Pasha assumed leadership of the newly formed democracy, Moran Mor Elias III spent a few months in Jerusalem. Moran laid the foundation stone of the church our lady atJerusalem on 22 March 1926. He established a printing press there and began publication of journals in Syriac and Arabic.

Mor Elias III was the last Patriarch to reign at the Kurkmo Dayro (Deir Za`faran) in Mardin, Turkey the seat of the Patriarchate for most of the second millenium. Following the massacre of the Syriac Christians in South East Turkey in the waning days of the Ottoman Empire and during World War I, the Patriarch was forced to leave Mardin. In the aftermath of the saypho massacres, Mor Elias III undertook pastoral tours to the Middle East, the first in 1919 and the second in 1925 to Aleppo and Jerusalem. Mor Elias III held a synod Dayro d-Mor Matay, Mosul, Iraq in 1930.

Lord Irwin, then British Viceroy to India, wrote to the Patriarch on December 1, 1930 requesting his intervention in person or through a delegate in resolving the schism that had erupted in the Malankara Church.

His Holiness responded to the Viceroy's letter, on December 15, 1930 accepting his invitation with certain conditions. Given his cardiac problems, his doctors attempted to dissuade him from the trip. His 75 year old sister also discouraged him from the trip. His Holiness said to her, "Death is inevitable whether here or in India; I would rather sacrifice my life for the sake of our children in Malankara."

Mor Elias III left Mosul on February 6, 1931 accompanied by Mor Clemis Yuhanon Abbachi, Rabban Quryaqos (later Mor Ostathios Quryaqos), and Rabban Yeshu` Samuel (later Mor Athanasius Samuel of North America), his secretary Zkaryo Shakir (his brother Joseph's son) and translator Adv.Elias Ghaduri. They set sail to India on February 28, 1931 from Basra on the ship "Warsova" and disembarked at the Karachi port on March 5, 1931. They were received at Karachi by the Patriarchal Delegate Mor Yulius Elias Qoro, Mor Athanasius Paulos of Alwaye and several clergymen and faithful. On March 6, 1931, the Patriarch and his entourage proceeded to Delhi by train reaching there on the 8th and visited Lord Irwin. On March 14th, the Patriarch arrived at Madras and stayed as a guest of the British Governor Sir George Staly. From there, he arrived at the Thrikkunathu Seminary in Alwaye on March 21st, and offered the divine liturgy there on March 22nd.

H.H. Mor Elias III convened conciliatory meetings at Alwaye, Karingachira, Panampady and Kuruppumpady. The Patriarch lead the passion week services at St.George Church, Karingachira. A church delegates meeting was held at Kuruppumpady on July 5, 1931. The denho (Epiphany) services in January 1932 were at the St.Thomas church, Pakkil, Kottayam.

On February 11, 1932, at the invitation of Qashisho Kuriakos Elavinamannil, the Patriarch arrived at the Manjinikkara Mor Stephanos church from Kallissery. The inability to bring about reconciliation in the church had weighed down heavily on the Patriarch; moreover, the hardships of the long travel had taken its toll on His Holiness. On arriving at Manjinikkara, the Patriarch said, "This place offers us much comfort; we desire to remain here permanently." On February 12th, His Holiness requested the priests who came to visit him not to leave for a couple of days. In the evening, the Patriarch recited many prayers of the qandilo (unction) and contemplated on the departed. On February 13th, Mor Clemis Yuhanon Abbachi offered the Holy Qurbono; His Holiness gave the sermon during the liturgy.

After the noon prayers and lunch, as was his routine, the Patriarch spent time recording events in his journal; he asked for a dictionary to get clarification for the meaning of a word. Following that, he complained of pain in his head. Soon he fainted and was placed on a cot by the monks where he slipped into eternal rest at 2:30 pm. Many eye witnesses recount the deep gloom that cast its spell in the area that evening and the wails of the monks who accompanied the Patriarch.

Different opinions arose regarding the final resting place for the Patriarch—a situation that the church in Malankara never had to confront before. The decision was in favor of interring the mortal remains in a plot of land to the north of the Mor Stephanos church, the title deed of which was transferred to the Patriarchate. On February 14th, the funeral services for His Holiness were held there. Mor Dionysius Michael consoled the gathering.

Tomb of Saint Mor Ignatius Elias III Shakir Mor Ignatios Dayro church attached to the tomb of late Patriarch was built by the Patriarchal delegate Mor Yulius Elias Qoro. The memory of the holy Patriarch is revered throughout the Syriac Orthodox Church and especially in Malankara where thousands of pilgrims reach the tomb by foot on the annual feast day, February 13, from various parts of the Kerala state.

Mor Elias III is the only Patriarch of Antioch whose remains are interred in Malankara and his tomb stands as a towering symbol of the sacrifices made by the Syriac fathers to nurture the church in Malankara. On October 20, 1987, Patriarch Mor Zakka I through encyclical E265/87 permitted the Church in Malankara to remember his name in the fifth diptych.

Source : http://www.manjinikkaradayara.org

source: http://luthiniya.blogspot.com/2010/02/hh-patriarch-saint-mor-ignatius-elias.html

On the Priesthood: Saint John Chrysostom

2010-02-12T13:58:00.000-05:00

by Rev. Fr. Prince Mannathoor, Rome

Priesthood is an institution of Christianity for which a person is ordained a priest and held the post of minister of Church. And it is a body of priests who have special religious authority or function. Priesthood is more than celebrating Mass and telling people about God. It is about knowing the central call of life and giving all for this call. Priests are called to be forthright messengers of hope, strong community leaders and spiritual guides for both the lost and the faithful. About this topic many of the early church fathers wrote as well as how to live priest and how to do priestly life. John Chrysostom is the one of the main church father wrote about the priesthood. He wrote around six books which dealt with the Christian Priesthood. In this essay I am discussing about the John Cristostom’s writings on the Priesthood and its evaluation.

John Chrysostom : A brief biography.

John Chrysostom was Patriarch of Constantinople and is considered one of the greatest Christian preachers. In the 6th Century has been attributed to him the name Chrysostom (Greek for "golden mouth"), under which he is known today. He has also known as Ivanios. He was born around 347 (according to Western sources - approximately 349) of Antioch in Syria. He led an ascetic life. In 371 he left Antioch and went into the wilderness. After six years of being a hermit returned and was ordained a priest. He was revered as an ascetic and was known for his talent in public speaking as well known for his appearance against the misuse of church and state authority. Controversial are its massive negative statements about Jews in his earliest surviving sermons. During his life he was a fearless defender of morality, branding the abuse of the faithful, even the emperors - it was dragged to his persecution. He also practiced theology - dealt with Christology, issues of original sin, repentance and the priesthood, and above all the Eucharist.

His main works

John Chrysostom preached much, much writing. While many works formerly attributed to his patronage, have been restored to their rightful owner, the number of authentic works nonetheless considerable. It divides its messages in several groups:

a) Main Homilies and speeches

Homilies were written down by the audience and subsequently circulated, revealing a style that tended to be direct and greatly personal, but was also formed by the rhetorical conventions of his time and place. [1] Homilies on the texts of the Bible (Genesis, Psalms, Isaiah, Matthew, John, Acts of the Apostles, Epistles to the Romans, Corinthians, Ephesians, Galatians, Philippians, Colossians, Thessalonians, Timothy, Titus, to Philemon, to the Hebrews); Homilies on the incomprehensibility of God; Finally, even if not directly to him, the usual Liturgy of the Orthodox Church bears his name. Also, read the homily at the Easter Vigil, is attributed to St. John Chrysostom. In every Easter, the greatest feast of the church year the Eastern Orthodox Churches also read his Catechetical Homily.

[2] Sermons on Jews are series of fourth homilies that have been circulated by many groups to foster anti- Semistism.

b) Treaties

Exhortations to Theodore; Treaty of priesthood; Apology of monastic life; comparison of solitary and King Treaty of compunction; Treaty of illicit cohabitation; Treaty of virginity; Treaties against the second marriage controversy Treaties. Other important treatises written by John include, Instructions to Catechumens, and On the Incomprehensibility of the Divine Nature. In addition, he wrote a series of letters to the deaconess Olypias, of which seventeen are extant.[3]

On the Priesthood

This Treaties’s content is his dialogue with St. Basil ‘ On the Priesthood. He was highly influenced by Gregory, and he built upon his ideas about the function of the priest as teacher and shepherd, describing in more detail the difficulties, perils and temptations he encounters in his service. But he also added new themes that were not touched in Gregory’s treatise. [4] The first book of the treatise on the Priesthood opens with a description of his friendship with Basil; how they studied the same subjects together under the same teachers, and how entirely harmonious they were in all their tastes, and inclinations. The remaining books on the Priesthood treat of the pre-eminent dignity, and sanctity of the priestly office and the peculiar difficulties and perils which beset it. They abound with wise and weighty observations instructive for all times, but they are also interesting from the light which they throw upon the condition of the Church and of society in the age when Chrysostom lived.[5]

In discussing the responsibility of the priest for the souls of his flock and his liturgical and sacramental functions, Chrysostom found in them a reason to ascribe to him an awesome dignity, a high honour, and even a character which is different from human: “When one is required to preside over the Church, and to be entrusted with the care of so many souls, the whole female sex must retire before the magnitude of the task, and the majority of men also; and we must bring forward those who to a large extent surpass all others, and soar as much above them in excellence of spirit as Saul overtopped the whole Hebrew nation in bodily stature: or rather far more. For in this case let me not take the height of shoulders as the standard of inquiry; but let the distinction between the pastor and his charge be as great as that between rational man and irrational creatures, not to say even greater, in as much as the risk is concerned with things of far greater importance.” (Book 2:2)[6]

‘For the priestly office is indeed discharged on earth, but it ranks amongst heavenly ordinances; and very naturally so: for neither man, nor angel, nor archangel, nor any other created power, but the Paraclete Himself, instituted this vocation, and persuaded men while still abiding in the flesh to represent the ministry of angels. Wherefore the consecrated priest ought to be as pure as if he were standing in the heavens themselves in the midst of those powers.” (Book 3:4)

Chrysostom sees that the role of priests in the sacraments of reconciliation, baptism and Eucharist makes our salvation dependent upon them! “For if any one will consider how great a thing it is for one, being a man, and compassed with flesh and blood, to be enabled to draw near to that blessed and pure nature, he will then clearly see what great honor the grace of the Spirit has vouchsafed to priests; since by their agency these rites are celebrated, and others nowise inferior to these both in respect of our dignity and our salvation. For they who inhabit the earth and make their abode there are entrusted with the administration of things which are in Heaven, and have received an authority that God has not given to angels or archangels. For it has not been said to them, “Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in Heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in Heaven.”.... this binding lays hold of the soul and penetrates the heavens; and what priests do here below God ratifies above, and the Master confirms the sentence of his servants. For indeed what is it but all manner of heavenly authority which He has given them when He says, “Whose sins you remit they are remitted, and whose sins you retain they are retained?” What authority could be greater than this? “The Father has committed all judgment to the Son?” But I see it all put into the hands of these men by the Son. For they have been conducted to this dignity as if they were already translated to Heaven, and had transcended human nature, and were released from the passions to which we are liable.”(Book 3:5)

“For transparent madness it is to despise so great a dignity, without which it is not possible to obtain either our own salvation, or the good things which have been promised to us. For if no one can enter into the kingdom of Heaven except he be regenerate through water and the Spirit, and he who does not eat the flesh of the Lord and drink His blood is excluded from eternal life, and if all these things are accomplished only by means of those holy hands, I mean the hands of the priest, how will any one, without these, be able to escape the fire of hell, or to win those crowns which are reserved for the victorious?” (Book 3:5)

John Chrysostom reaches the conclusion that the authority of the priests over the Sacraments of Baptism, Reconciliation, and Anointing is a reason for them to be more feared and honored than kings and Jewish priests and to be more loved than parents: “These verily are they who are entrusted with the pangs of spiritual travail and the birth which comes through baptism: by their means we put on Christ, and are buried with the Son of God, and become members of that blessed Head. Wherefore they might not only be more justly feared by us than rulers and kings, but also be more honored than parents; since these begat us of blood and the will of the flesh, but the others are the authors of our birth from God, even that blessed regeneration which is the true freedom and the sonship according to grace. The Jewish priests had authority to release the body from leprosy, or, rather, not to release it but only to examine those who were already released, and you know how much the office of priest was contended for at that time. But our priests have received authority to deal, not with bodily leprosy, but spiritual uncleanness--not to pronounce it removed after examination, but actually and absolutely to take it away. Wherefore they who despise these priests would be far more accursed than Dathan and his company, and deserve more severe punishment. ...God has bestowed a power on priests greater than that of our natural parents... For our natural parents generate us unto this life only, but the others unto that which is to come. And the former would not be able to avert death from their offspring, or to repel the assaults of disease; but these others have often saved a sick soul, or one which was on the point of perishing, For not only at the time of regeneration, but afterwards also, they have authority to forgive sins. “Is any sick among you?” it is said, “let him call for the elders of the Church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up: and if he have committed sins they shall be forgiven him.” Again: our natural parents, should their children come into conflict with any men of high rank and great power in the world, are unable to profit them: but priests have reconciled, not rulers and kings, but God Himself when His wrath has often been provoked against them.”(Book 3: 6)[7]

Chysostom’s Theology of Priesthood

John Chrysostom’s Six books on the Priesthood shows the influence of Gregory’s ‘’ Fight to Pontus’’, and, therefore, we see developing the great tradition in pastoral theology that nearly two hundred years later would extend into the West through Gregory the Great.

Chrysostom’s personal views of the role of the pastor and preacher can be best understood by examining his own articulation of them in his treatise, On the Priesthood. He wrote this work between 390 and 391 to defend himself from accusations that in his youth he had belittled the office of the priest (presbyter) by hiding from those who would ordain him. Chrysostom replies that he escaped ordination precisely because he had such high regard for the office and did not believe he was worthy of it.[8]

The mystical nature of the priestly office, in Chrysostom’s mind, also involved a mystical bond between the pastor and his congregation, reflecting the “mystery” of Christ’s union with the Church as the Husband with His bride (Eph 5.32).

In his work on the Priesthood, St John does occasionally speak in very high terms of the priest as the liturgical officiant, but his main concern is with the priestly ministry more generally, following the example of Christ, who came to serve rather than be served. As he puts it, while the priesthood is ranked among the heavenly ordinances, it is nevertheless is enacted on earth. And the tasks of the priest are numerous: he was the teacher and moral guide of the community; he was the liturgical leader, deciding which catechumens should be admitted to baptism, and he presided at the Eucharist; he was the spiritual guide for those who wanted to lead more ascetic lives; he received guests from other churches; he maintained an elaborate system of charity for the care of strangers, the support of widows, orphans and the poor, he cared for the women who were ranked in the order of “virgins,” ordained presbyters and deacons.[9]

Conclusion

The contribution provides the teaching of St. John Chrysostom on the Priesthood of Christ. John touched the descendants and ascendants of view of the priestly office to run. The soteriological aspect of the priestly ministry of St. John Chrysostom reflects. Through the Incarnation of the Son of God, a New Covenant between the Creator and the creature is bound. In it, the new priesthood is established, which is essential to the person bound by the God-man who brought the heavens and the divine world of grace close to the earth. Consubstantial with the Father, the eternal High Priest, brought about by his sacrifice, the redemption of the world. His priestly ministry continues through his mystical body, the church and spread to the whole created world. His unsurpassable, unique victim initiated a very nature of communication between God and man, which are connected to heaven and earth.

None of the early church Fathers’ works is more popular than On the Priesthood. John Chrysostoms’s unique gift for linking concrete observation and theological vision is nowhere more evident than in On the Pristhood. Its presence helps to account for the work’s power to inspire and challenge Christians in all ages.

Foot Notes

[1] LEWY YOHANAN, ‘John Chrysostom’ Encyclopedia Judaica (CD-ROM Edition Version 1.0), Ed. Cecil Roth, Keter Publishing House, 1997.
[2] JASON BARKER, ‘Pascal Homily', Be Transformed. Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America, dept. of Youth Ministry. 2005.
[3] JOHANN PETER KIRSCH, ’St. Olympias’. Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11248b.htm. Retrieved 2009
[4] RODOLPH YANNEY, Priesthood between St. Gregory the Theologian and St. John Chrysostom, CCR, New Jersey, 1999. p.137-139.
[5] w. r. w. stephens John Chrysostom: Treatise on the Priesthood, Books 1-6. Adapted from the translation of the
NPNF, first series, volume 9, 2005. p 2.
[6] Ibid. 33-83.
[7] RODOLPH YANNEY, Priesthood between St. Gregory the Theologian and St. John Chrysostom, CCR, New Jersey, 1999. p.139.
[8] J. N. D. KELLY, Golden Mouth: The Story of John Chrysostom-Ascetic, Preacher, Bishop, London, 1995. p. 25.
[9] JOHN BEHR, A lecture delivered at the parish of St John Chrysostom Orthodox Church, House Springs, Missouri, 2007.

source: http://www.socdigest.org/articles/02jan10.html

Schedule of Services and Activities for Lent 2010

2010-02-07T21:05:00.000-05:00

Schedule of Services and Activities for Lent 2010

February

February 2 Tuesday– 10:00 AM Liturgy Presentation of Christ
February 3 Wednesday– 6:30 PM – Liturgy at Culver Academies
February 5 Friday– 7:00 PM – Open Mic Night
February 6 Saturday – 10:00 AM – Memorial Saturday Service
February 7 Sunday– Liturgy 10:30 AM - Sunday for All Departed
February 10 Wednesday– Liturgy– 6:30 PM – Culver Academies
February 13 Saturday – 10:00 AM – Memorial Saturday Service
February 14 Sunday– First Sunday of Lent – Cana Sunday – 10:30 AM Liturgy
February 15 Monday– Beginning of 40 day fast
February 17 Wednesday– 6:30 PM Liturgy at Culver Academies
February 12 Sunday– Second Sunday of Lent – Leper Sunday – 10:30 AM Liturgy
February 24 Wednesday– 6:30 PM – Liturgy at Culver Academies
February 28 Sunday– Third Sunday of Lent – Paralytic Sunday – 10:30 AM Liturgy

The Great Lent starts by commemoration of the first miracle performed by Christ Jesus, the turning of water into wine at the wedding feast at Cana of Galilee. The Gospel readings for each Sunday of Great Lent are about one of the miracles performed by Christ Jesus.

March

March 5 Friday– Open Mic Night – 7:00 PM
March 7 Sunday– Fourth Sunday of Lent – Cripple Woman Sunday – 10:30 AM – Liturgy
March 9 Tuesday– Mid Lent Eve & Healing Service – 6:00 PM
March 10 Wednesday– Liturgy 6:30 PM at Culver Academies
March 14 Sunday– Blind Man Sunday – 10:30 AM Liturgy
March 17 Wednesday– Liturgy 6:30 PM at Culver Academies
March 21 Sunday– Blind Man Sunday – 10:30 AM Liturgy
March 24 Wednesday– 6:30 PM Liturgy at Culver Academies
March 25 Thursday– Annunciation to St. Mary – 6:30 PM
March 27 Saturday– Lazarus Saturday – 10:00 AM
March 28 Sunday– Palm Sunday – Blessing of the Palms – 10:30 AM Liturgy
March 29 Monday– Bridegroom Service – 6:00 AM
March 30 Tuesday– Healing Service – 6:00 PM
March 31 Wednesday– 6:30 PM – Liturgy at Culver Academies

We celebrate the Feast of the Annunciation to St. Mary twice a year. On the third Sunday after Koothosh Eetho and on March 25^th the Holy Eucharist must be celebrated on this day even if it comes during the Great Lent, during Passion Week on Good and Holy Friday. (The Holy Eucharist is not celebrated during the Great Lent except all Saturdays and Sundays, Wednesdays of Mid Lent, 40^th Friday, and Maundy Thursday during Passion Week.)

April

April 2 Friday - NO open Mic Night this month
April 2 Friday– Holy Friday Service – 3 PM
April 2 Friday – Penance starting at 12 Noon
April 3 – Holy Saturday – 10:00 AM
April 4 Sunday– Easter – 10:30 AM – Feast and blessing of Paschal Baskets to follow

Other services, prayer services, Bible study, and other events may be scheduled. If you need of a hospital visit, home visit, or any spiritual need, please call the Mor Gregorios Community Center at (574) 540-2048

The Orthodox Community of Mor Gregorios of Parumala

Mor Gregorios Community Center

St. Mary the Protectress Orthodox Church

1000 South Michigan Street

Plymouth, Indiana 46563

The center is located on the corner of Oak Hill and Michigan Streets across from the Webster Elementary School.

Syrian Orthodox Church - BBC

2010-02-05T15:44:00.001-05:00

This video is taken from the First Part of a 6 part series called A History of Christianity produced by BBC. It speaks in brief about the Syrian Orthodox Church

Mor Gregorios Community Center Continues to Provide Free Help and Free Lunch

2010-01-29T13:18:00.001-05:00

Free Help with Unemployment and Free Lunch

The Mor Gregorios Community Center continues to provide help for individuals
with their unemployment claims. Using the center¹s computers, individuals
can file their unemployment claims and weekly unemployment reports, as well
as receive other worked related help.

Since the first of this year, the center has seen an increase in the number
of people seeking help. Last week, the Indiana Department of Workforce
Development announced that Indiana¹s unemployment rate had increased to 9.9
percent. This has also meant increased numbers at the Mor Gregorios
Community Center.

The Mor Gregorios Community Center provides free help to individuals in
Marshall, Starke, Fulton, and other surrounding counties. Volunteers trained
by the Indiana Department of Workforce Development on how to file
unemployment claims and weekly reports provide the assistance. The DWD also
provided the center with computers for the program. Other computers were
provided by Ancilla College. The center is one of the several community and
faith based organizations, which have partnered with Workforce Development.

On Sunday, lunch is provided to all using the services. And every day there
is coffee and support and help. Lunch is served on other days as well.

According to the Center¹s director, Father Theodosius Walker, ³Work is an
expression of our dignity and our involvement in God¹s creation. In this
time of economic crisis, as more and more people are losing their jobs, it
is harder for them to express this dignity. It is also harder for them to
pay their bills, provide shelter for their families, and generally make ends
meet.²

To file unemployment claims in Indiana, claimants must file online. Many
people lack the computer skills and computers to do so. Some find access at
friend¹s homes and libraries. But, more are turning to the Mor Gregorios
Community Center¹s employment program. For those who lack any computer
skills, volunteers help individuals actually filing their claims. The center
also helps individuals prepare resumes and file for jibs online.
Interviewing skills are also taught and practiced. There is also an
employment support group. The groups and the volunteers also help in any
way needed to provide practical job skills, career information, education,
technology, and support and mentoring to participants. The program supports
the pursuit of work and fair wages.

In addition to the employment program, the Mor Gregorios Community also
provides several other public programs. Some of these programs include the
following:

* Recovery Program: 12-Step classes and small groups for those with
additions, hurts, hang-ups, and other problems. Individual and pastoral and
spiritual guidance and direction are also available.
* Re-Entry Program: Working with recently released inmates from jail and
prison, helping them become productive citizens.
* Information and Referral: Case management. Provides information and
referral for emergency assistance to other agencies and programs.
* Community Development: Help with community outreach, mentoring, and
community development.

Father Theodosius said that, ³The early Christians, because of their faith
and experience of God¹s love, were able to perceive one another as brethren.
In their view, those on the margins of society (the poor, the widows, the
orphans, and the strangers) were the scale by which the justice of the whole
society was weighted. We can make a difference in the lives of your friends
and neighbors, and are called to do so by God.²

All Mor Gregorios Community Center¹s programs are open to all people.
Participants do not need to be Christians. The programs are open for those
of faith and of no faith. Everyone qualifies for the programs offered. All
programs seek to be supportive, respectful, and are always confidential.

The hours of the Mor Gregorios Community Center are as follows:
* Sunday 12:00 noon until 4:00 pm with free lunch served
* Monday 10:00 am until 4:00 pm
* Tuesday 10:00 am until 4:00 pm
* Wednesday 10:00 am until 4:00 pm
* Thursday 10:00 am until 4:00 pm
* Friday by appointment
* Saturday closed

The Mor Gregorios Community Center is located at 1000 South Michigan Street,
in the white A-Frame building on the corner of Oak Hill and Michigan
Streets, across from the Webster Elementary School, in Plymouth, Indiana.
Their telephone number is (574) 540-2048.

The Mor Gregorios Community is under an allegiance with the Syriac Orthodox
Church lead by His Holiness Ignatius Zakka I Iwas and the Catholicose of
India, His Beatitude Baselios Thomas I. Their bishop is Archbishop John
Cassian Lewis of Columbus, Ohio. The executive director is Father
Theodosius Walker.

For more information, please contact Father Theodosius at (574) 540-2048, or
by email at monastery@synesius.com.