Just as Bach drew church congregations into the drama of Christ’s Passion in his day, so now, Metropolitan Hilarion is offering our post-modern world a corresponding experience with his original St. Matthew Passion, a profound piece of music that combines Gospel narrative with liturgical texts of the Orthodox Church.
[Read more…]
10/14/2010 – Fr. Thomas Hopko –
Orthodox Christians devoted to accountability are surely aware that accountability in behavior cannot be separated from accountability in understanding since practice (praxis) is necessarily connected to vision (theoreia).
This conviction inspires me, given the present state of things, to raise the following question:
Is it possible that the teaching of the Second Vatican Council about the ministry of bishops in the Roman Catholic Church is now being taught and practiced in an adapted and altered form in our Orthodox churches today?
Let me explain why I raise such a question.
According to the Second Vatican Council of the Roman Catholic Church, following Vatican I and the Council of Trent, bishops are not organically connected to the specific dioceses in which they serve. They rather have their episcopal position and power by virtue of their personal sacramental consecration as bishops. [Read more…]
9/13/2010 – David W. Virtue –
Our Church must sever its relations with those churches and communities that trample on the principles of Christian ethics and traditional morals. Here we uphold a firm stand based on Holy Scripture.
In a groundbreaking address at Lambeth Palace before the Nicean Club that included the Archbishop of Canterbury, Russian Metropolitan Hilarion blasted those parts of the Anglican Communion experimenting with sexual innovations saying they threatened continuing dialogue with the Orthodox Church.
In surprise remarks that observers say embarrassed Dr. Williams, Hilarion ripped Western Anglican liberals who have deviated from heterosexual marriage calling it “an abyss that divides traditional Christians from Christians of liberal trend.” [Read more…]
by Editors –
This quote was supposedly written by St. John Chrysostom. Those warnings regarding core principles that form the foundation of socialist/communist ideologies should have been heeded by the Church and taught to the people.
St. John Chrysostom:
“Should we look to kings and princes to put right the inequalities between rich and poor? Should we require soldiers to come and seize the rich person’s gold and distribute it among his destitute neighbors? Should we beg the emperor to impose a tax on the rich so great that it reduces them to the level of the poor and then to share the proceeds of that tax among everyone? Equality imposed by force would achieve nothing, and do much harm. Those who combined both cruel hearts and sharp minds would soon find ways of making themselves rich again. [Read more…]
8/25/2010 – Fr. Josiah Trenham –
A Parishioner Inquires: “I understand that Leo Tolstoi was an excommunicant of the Orthodox church, but in his book The Kingdom of God is Within You, he raises an interesting question. Tolstoi posits that since Christ commands us to ‘resist not’, and to ‘turn the other cheek’, we should not resist physically anybody who would harm us. I have never been able to reconcile this notion to my own experience in life, considering that on more than one occasion, in order to protect those for whom I care, I have resorted to violence or to the threat of violence. In addition, in the life of Father Arseny, there is a passage in which a soldier-turned-priest beats a group of would-be rapists to preserve the honor of his wife. He experiences a measure of guilt for this, but is consoled by his bishop, since the safety of another was concerned. Can you give me an idea of the Orthodox position on the use of violence as a defensive measure?”
Fr. Josiah writes, “We have 20 centuries of warrior saints. Some of our greatest are St. George, St. Demetrios, St. Theodore the General, etc. They were men who utilized immense physical force to suppress evil and defeat injustice. [Read more…]
8/17/2010 – Judson Berger –
The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America accused New York officials on Tuesday of turning their backs on the reconstruction of the only church destroyed in the Sept. 11 attacks, while the controversial mosque near Ground Zero moves forward.
The sidelined project is the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church, a tiny, four-story building destroyed in 2001 when one of the World Trade Center towers fell on top of it. Nobody from the church was hurt in the attack, but the congregation has for the past eight years been trying to rebuild its house of worship.
While the mosque project cleared red tape earlier this month, negotiations between the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the church stalled last year — and will not be revived, according to government officials. [Read more…]
8/11/2010 – Fr. Johannes Jacobse –
I used to preach at the end of the Liturgy.
It was a pragmatic decision. A good portion of my congregation didn’t arrive until after the Gospel reading. The sloppy behavior was ingrained in parish life for decades and wasn’t likely to change soon no matter how strongly I exhorted them to arrive on time. Better to hear the teaching later then never at all I reasoned.
Did some people benefit from the arrangement? Probably. Did it implicitly encourage the sloppy behavior? Most likely. But short of a full-blown renewal in the parish, the late-comers were like to keep on coming in late and what would they remember if I preached earlier? The announcements?
Since moving from a large parish to a mission parish I’ve changed my ways. The sermon is always after the Gospel reading. I used to think that the rubrics required it because the reading was fresh in the minds of my hearers. While this is true, I’m no longer convinced this is the primary reason. I see something new: The timing of the sermon vivifies – breaths life into – the Eucharistic half of the Liturgy. [Read more…]
Greek-American Conservative Republican Candidate for Congress in the First District of New York George Demos appeared on Fox News recently. Demos called on The Port Authority’s Executive Director Chris Ward to immediately stop his bureaucratic roadblocks and that the rebuilding of St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church at Ground Zero must be a top priority.
Demos stated that it was disgraceful that the Port Authority of New York/ New Jersey reniged on a deal with Church officials and for over a year has refused to meet with the leaders of the only house of worship actually destroyed on September 11, 2001. Demos noted that our government is spending billions of dollars to rebuild the infrastructure of Ground Zero, yet no plan exists for rebuilding the Church. Demos reiterated that our Judeo-Christian values are under attack in our nation and that rebuilding the Church transcends any particular denomination. [Read more…]
7/8/2010 – Fr. Johannes Jacobse –
Alexi Giannoulias, Illinois Democratic nominee for US Senator, [and member of the Greek Orthodox Church] supports homosexual marriage. Here’s the introduction from the Greek Star (a Chicago newspaper with Greek readership):
Alexi Giannoulias, Democratic nominee for US Senator, shares why he supports the freedom to marry for all, including people of the same sex. This is something that many of his supporters, and especially Greek-Americans may be opposed to. The Greek-American politician chose to be honest and he should be given credit for being brave to state his opinion on a difficult subject. He stated, “There may be many individuals that may not be happy with my particular stance”. The Greek Orthodox church does not allow, or support, same sex marriage. Giannoulias in the video continues “To me faith has always been less about how you treat God and more about how you treat people.”
6/15/2010 – Conor Humphries –
The Russian Orthodox Church called Wednesday for an end to the “monopoly of Darwinism” in Russian schools, saying religious explanations of creation should be taught alongside evolution.
Liberals said they would fight efforts to include religious teaching in schools. Russia’s dominant church has experienced a revival in recent years, worrying rights groups who say its power is undermining the country’s secular constitution.
“The time has come for the monopoly of Darwinism and the deceptive idea that science in general contradicts religion. These ideas should be left in the past,” senior Russian Orthodox Archbishop Hilarion said at a lecture in Moscow. [Read more…]
