The Nativity & The Hearafter

If you are New Calendar, tomorrow is the Nativity (Or most likely will start at 11pm tonight and conclude with a Midnight Liturgy). If you are Old Calendar, January 7th, 2008.

I suppose should explain Old & New Calendar.. but not sure I'm adequate to the task so I'll direct you here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_Old_Calendarists for a place to get started.

Anyway, most Christians will somewhere somehow celebrate The Feast of the Nativity i.e. the Birth or Christ, "Christmas" in the next week or so.

It started me wondering. How do they celebrate the Feast in Heaven?

It's hard to believe that I lost Fr. George (Eternal Memory 11/21/2006) a little over a year ago last November.



I wonder, how will he be Celebrating the Feast? And I wonder, as we commemorate the birth of Our Saviour, how do we remember those who are now with Him? With Him due to His Glorious Incarnation.

Soon we will cry "Christ is Born! Glorify Him"

Merry Christmas where ever you are as you keep the Feast.

Seraphim

East vs. West

At first we were confused. The East thought that we were West, while the West
considered us to be East. Some of us misunderstood our place in the clash of
currents, so they cried that we belong to neither side, and others that we
belong exclusively to one side or the other. But I tell you, Ireneus, we are
doomed by fate to be the East in the West and the West in the East, to
acknowledge only heavenly Jerusalem beyond us, and here on earth–no one.

- St. Sava to Ireneus, 13th century

Tradition

In the com-boxes responding to a Rod Dreher blog (a question about books), "Sarah in Maryland" muses about the disadvantage we have in our very "anti-tradition" culture:

I agonize over what to have for dinner. If I were part of a traditional culture,
that would be figured out for me. I wouldn't waste my time reading diet book
after diet book, pouring over recipes. For my wedding, there were so many
choices that I wanted to explode! I wanted to have all those decisions made for
me. If we had more of a wedding tradition, I would have fewer decisions to make
and more time to enjoy the person I was going to marry. Tradition would have
picked out the type of flowers, the ceremony, the vows and the type of food we'd
have. Can you imagine how much mental energy this would save us?

This is a very good point. Even though we are anti-traditional in our culture, we still benefit from tradition even when we don't recognize it. Extended families usually don't quabble about the holidays once they have established a family tradition. Christmas Eve at Grandma's, Christmas Day at cousin Suzie's, the Sunday after Christmas at Aunt Margaret's, New years Day w/ Uncle Bud. We always have a roast. We always eat at 5.

Thats just a minor issue. We Modern Western Christians have thrown away the recieved Tradition, and wonder why we can't stop arguing.

How the Grinch stole BACK Christmas

How the Grinch Stole Back Christmas

‘Tis a tale often told, and every Who knows,
How the Grinch first descended from Mount Crumpet snows
And stole away Christmas (its trappings, at least)
Then had his heart changed, and came back for roast beast.
Not everyone knows what has happened since then;
How the Grinch came to think he must steal it again –

For Grinches are grinchy, and grinch-genes will tell
–And in some ways, he wasn’t adjusting too well.
Though his heart grew three sizes, his brain had not shrunk
And he tired of buying up masses of junk
And dealing with hassles and hustles barbaric
For “holidays” swiftly becoming generic.

The customs traditional, which the Grinch loved
Were watered-down, fluffed-up, or “new and improved”
.Why, at one Christmas feast, by one misguided Who,
The roast beast itself was a glob of tofu!
And the songs which reformed him with simple Who joys
Were increasingly drowned out by “noise, noise, noise, noise.”

And deep in his heart, underneath his green fur,
The Grinch knew that things weren’t right as they were.
His ponderer once more was sore as could be
In the checkout line near the HDTV’s,
When the half-hearted clerk with a faraway gaze
Blandly muttered to him, “Happy Holidays”.

Well, the Grinch’s lips curled in a most Grinchy smile
(More grinchy, perhaps, than he’d been in a while!)
He remembered his heritage, cunning and sly,
He thought, “I was made this way – p’raps this is why!”
Then he fixed his eyes on the unfortunate knave,
And regarded him mildly, and told him, “How brave!”

“Brave?”, asked the clerk, “Why, what did I say?”
“My good man, you have wished me a fine Holy Day!“
I thank, good sir, and return it sincerely;
“For you wished for me, sir, not a merry day merely,
“But a day blessed with favor from our Lord divine –
“I return it; may your Holy Day, too, be fine!”

“No! I just said ‘holiday’,” stammered the clerk,
“For that is the policy here where I work…”
“Delightful!,” the Grinch interjected with glee.
“Such corporate boldness – it overwhelms me!
“A spiritual awakening – that’s what it means!
“Now, sir, sell me some cards with nativity scenes.”

There were no such cards, for he’d sold his last few
But he did have a Santa. The Grinch said, “He’ll do,“
That old Bishop Nicholas, merry and stout.
“He once punched the heretic Arius out!”
And the clerk looked about – and no bosses he saw -
“Merry Christmas!,” he whispered, and shook a grinch paw.

The Grinch strode from the store and out into the street,
“Merry Christmas!”, he said to each Who whom he’d meet,
And he said to himself, “Why, this really is nice!
“A good deed which has gained all the thrill of a vice!
“This holiday season need not make me blue;
“For with each ‘Merry Christmas’, I break a taboo!”

Some heartily answer, returning his greeting;
And others more shyly, ere swiftly retreating –
Some say “Happy Hannukah” back with a grin,
Which the old Grinch returns, and calls that a win/win.
Some never quite notice; too stressed and engrossed.
But some look offended – and these he likes most.

“Now, don’t kid a kidder,” he tells such a one –
“I stole Christmas once, and I know how it’s done.
“But I stole it with style; I stole it with flare.
“You aren’t that clever, or else wouldn’t dare;
“To my exploits, your Christmas theft can’t hold a candle –
“You’re not even a thief – just a wannabe vandal.”

For a Grinch is a Grinch, at the end of the day
(And as he observed, Someone made him that way)
As wise as a serpent (and almost as green)
And not really worried if folks think he’s mean.
He stole Christmas once, but he made his amends –
Now he’ll steal Christmas back, for his more timid friends.

So when you’ve the chance (if, that is, you’ve the guts)
Please join me and the Grinch, driving PC-folks nuts.
Reclaiming the Holy Days, joyous and rightful,
From the purely commercial or pettily spiteful.
Co-conspire in this bold holiday counter-crime –
Committed one “Merry Christmas” at a time.

— Joe Long
(Posted at MereComments)

How to Avoid Cancer

THE TIMES
(London, England)
December 6, 2007

A foolproof anti-cancer diet... with just one or two drawbacks

If you want to avoid cancer, live like a monk. That is the inescapable conclusion from research into one of the world’s most renowned monastic communities. The austere regime of the 1,500 monks on Mount Athos, in northern Greece, begins with an hour’s pre-dawn prayers and is designed to protect their souls. Their low-stress existence and simple diet (no meat, occasional fish, home-grown vegetables and fruit) may, however, also protect them from more worldly troubles.

The monks, who inhabit a peninsula from which women are banned, enjoy astonishingly low rates of cancer. Since 1994, the monks have been regularly tested, and only 11 have developed prostate cancer, a rate less than one quarter of the international average. In one study, their rate of lung and bladder cancer was found to be zero. Haris Aidonopoulos, a urologist at the University of Thessaloniki, said that the monks’ diet, which calls on them to avoid olive oil, dairy products and wine on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, helped to explain the statistics. “What seems to be the key is a diet that alternates between olive oil and nonolive oil days, and plenty of plant proteins,” he said. “It’s not only what we call the Mediterranean diet, but also eating the old-fashioned way."

Small simple meals at regular intervals are very important. Meals on the peninsula, which the Prince of Wales has visited regularly and which can only be reached by boat, are ascetic and repetitive affairs that have changed little over the centuries, although there are variations between the 20 monasteries. The monks sit in silence while, from a pulpit, passages from the Bible are read in Greek. They eat at speed – as soon as the Bible passage is over, the meal is officially completed.

The staples are fruit and vegetables, pasta, rice and soya dishes, and bread and olives. They grow much of what they eat themselves. Agioritiko red wine is made locally from mountain grapes. Dairy products are rare – female animals are banned from the autonomous semi-state.

Life on Athos has changed little over the past 1,043 years. Breakfast is hard bread and tea. Much of the day is taken up with chores – cleaning, cooking, tending to crops – followed by a supper, typically of lentils, fruit and salad, and evening prayers. Some of the seaside monasteries specialise in catching octopus, a delicacy that is softened up by bashing on the rock. Fish also feeds the Athos cats, protected by the monks for their mouse-catching prowess. Of all domestic animals, only cats are exempt from the ban on females.

Some of the monks live in hillside huts or cliff-side caves perched above the sea as satellites of the main establishments, perhaps the closest that modern Christianity gets to medieval hermits. They depend for their sustenance on handouts of bread and olives.

On holidays and feast days such as Christmas and Easter, when other Greeks are feasting on roast meat, the monks prefer fish, their only culinary luxury. Father Moses of the Koutloumousi monastery, one of the 20 organised cloisters scattered over the Athos peninsula, said: “We never eat meat. We produce most of the vegetables and fruit we consume. And we never forget that all year round, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, we don’t use olive oil on our food.”

The olive-oil routine, which also applies to wine and dairy products, appears to have no religious significance, but is a way of eking out their supplies. All the monks stick to the rigorous fasting periods of the Orthodox Church, in which a strict vegan diet is prescribed for weeks at a stretch. Michalis Hourdakis, a dietician associated with Athens University, said: "This limited consumption of calories has been found to lengthen life. Meat has been associated with intestinal cancer, while fruit and vegetables help ward off prostate cancer."

The lack of air pollution on Mount Athos as well as the monks's hard work in the fields also played their part, the researchers said. There was no mention, however, of whether the absence of women had any effect on the monk's renowned spiritual calm.

Salad days Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday
Breakfast Hard bread, tea
Lunch Pasta or rice,vegetables, olive oil
Dinner Lentils, fruit and salad, olive oil. Red wine

Monday, Wednesday and Friday no olive oil

Holidays and feast days Fish and seafood

Wonders of Athos — Most of the monasteries on Athos run on “Byzantine time”, with the clock resetting at sunset — Vatopedhiou, Prince Charles’ favoured retreat, claims to have saints’ bones, the whip used to scourge Christ, St Stephen’s ear, fragments of the True Cross, and the Virgin Mary’s girdle

Source: Friends of Mount Athos, Times research

Artificial Living

A cross post from bonovox.squarespace.com

It seems to me that I have bought into a life that is contrary to nature and reality:

• Instead of working at home in the proximity of, and with my family...........I "commute" to a remote location to work with strangers


• 
  Instead of eating healthy whole foods, grown myself our by a neighbor.......I eat "fast food." Even when I am home, I eat from a box.....ala "stouffers" and "TV dinners."


• 
  Instead of talking to the person next to me............................I talk to someone else, 1 mile or 100 or more miles away


• 
  Instead of raising my children.........................I give them to someone else to do it for me.


• 
  Instead of visiting family on vacation or discovering Europe with our kids...............we go to Disney World and pretend we are in France at Epcot Center.


• 
  Instead of working by the sweat of my brow (in raising my food)...........I pay to go sweat in a gym.


• 
  Instead of worshipping in unison with the natural cycles God has placed in the world and within myself............I worship according to whatever suits me at the moment.


• 
  Instead of the "way of the cross"......................I seek the way of the "Easy Chair."


• 
  Instead of feeling the wind in my face, and hearing the crunch of leaves under my feet.......I watch television.


• 
  Instead of trusting the wisdom of my family going back to Adam..........I really feel myself superior to them, and feel I can do a better job making it up as I go along.


• 
  Instead of living in community.......................I live in isolation


• 
  Instead of being helped by community, in return for my willingness also to help when I am able......I pay a stranger to help me.


• 
  Instead of trusting God.........I trust technology.


• 
  Instead of governing myself........I allow myself to be governed by the powerful.


• 
  Instead of living "holistically"............I live fragmented. (work, family, religion, sex, play....)


• 
  Instead of being thankful for, I have nothing that was not given to me..........I am a deluded proud "self made man."


• 
  Instead of caring for my children and their children, by caring for the world I will hand down to them......I care only for the benefit that this world can give me.


• 
  Instead of caring for my soul.............I care for my comfort and pleasure

I am sure there are more ways that I live "artificially."

It Was a Great Day

Today I went to liturgy. Weekday liturgies can be small. God has blessed our parish greatly with faithful people and usually we have a good crowd, but today it was sparse. There were 2 adults and one teen in the choir, Matushka and her 4 kids, one other mother and her 3 kids and Father serving the liturgy. There were no acolytes or alter servers. No reader really, it was managed by the choir. As sometimes happens a few children got bored and butt scooted around the floor, without pews can be hard to corral.

It was a great day.

As I helped serve the blessed bread to those who had just taken communion, I could see out of the corner of my eye the Icon on the stand that usually sits on a table in the corner of my den. It was in need for today’s service, our parish does not have one.

It was a great day.

There was no sermon, Father had to bring out the bread and wine for the service table himself without help. The reading and music didn’t flow as well as normal, although it was still beautiful. Those who were short handed in the choir were still talented.

It was a great day.

My wife and only child not in school today came close to the end, right before communion was served (no they are not Cradles).

It was a great day.

At the close of the service my all too gracious Spiritual Father chose to sing “Many Years” to someone in honor of it being the name day of their chosen saint, Saint Demetrius. See it was gracious because this person will not be even Christmated till Christmas Day. He is still a catechumen.

I was a great day…

…because I was that Catechumen. If you have a moment today, please ask Saint Demetrius to act as an intercessor for my family and I as many struggles lay ahead.

Whatever Happened to Going to Church?

On my favorite episode of my favorite animated series King of the Hill, Hank and the Family are discussing church when Lucky chimes in with this infamous quote “Me, I don't got to church - church goes with me. I'm worshippin' when I'm drinkin' a beer, diggin' a hole, or fishin' for trout”. I have heard this theology in slightly differing forms all my life.

As a son of a Baptist preacher, one who’s loving mother insisted he wear tight double-knit slacks and a clip-on tie every Sunday for the first 12 years of his life, this comment on modern ecclesiology started sounding right. I mean I could just see myself sitting on a stump, fishing pole in one hand, beer in the other, sitting next to Jesus as we laughed and talked about life. This sounded much better to me than any flannel graph production or doing “Farther Abraham” one more time.

Sadly, as I grew older, I began to study and the Bible and realize that skipping church to fish and drink beer was in fact, just that and nothing more. That sitting home and reading the bible on a Sunday morning was not a proper substitute, let alone a somehow more spiritual notion.

Although I had yet to fully understand what church was, I was certainly beginning to understand what it wasn’t.

If a simple laymen’s study of the bible would conclude that church is essential, if not the guiding force to our growth as a Christian, how did we get to where we are? Why do so many people believe church is unnecessary for Christian growth and development?

I’m not sure you can generalize but I have seen differing events or movements that seem to have attributed to this wholly unchristian phenomenon.

Bigger is Better

The first I think would be the 20^th century church in North America took on the personality of the “American Spirit” in that bigger was better. In the latter half of the 20^th century, the measure of any “good” church was attendance. We looked at anyone cleric who could grow a church into the thousands as almost achieving sainthood. As these men and their parishes were being celebrated, it became clear that something that large with such a head of steam left casualties. Casualties who needed smaller more personal care than the large churches could give. What were these people to do? Go to an “inferior” smaller church? These were the options. So they opted for a third. Simply not going felt better than going. Since it felt better, it must be from God ergo God does not want me in church.

Tradition is of Man, not of God

Our second notion began in the 70’s as a rouge, parachurch movement. The Jesus Freaks, Campus Crusade and many others decided to push the setting of tradition and namely the tradition of church itself into the background. Teaching that a personal relationship was primary, and everything else was peripheral. Of course the natural progression of this though is to exorcise anything that is not essential. Thus each person chose to focus on his or her own salvation. The church itself was seen as nonessential and passé.

The Seekers and Comfortable Christianity

In the 90’s and pushing into the 21^st Century we began to witness a new kind of Church. The Seeker Church. This church was focused on bringing back those who were familiar with church but had seen it as boring and uninteresting. Generally types of these churches focused on church wide curriculums, like Saddleback, that showed you how to target a particular demographic. It showed how to market your services and church structure make this particular “seeker” feel interested and comfortable in your church. It made going back to church easy. Sadly, and I’m trying not to generalize, although explosive growth was experienced inside of the movement, it seems that it lacked depth to see people grow past modern music, multimedia and being big into small groups. In essence people were not pushed towards growing in quiet prayer and study but towards the service of feeding the ever-growing machine that has evolved into the mega church. Eventually these souls get pushed towards Martha service instead of Mary worship and eventually, seeing the end as fruitless labor, burn out and try to find quiet solace.

What we have accomplished in the latter half of the last century and the beginning of the current is to marginalize the sacred practice of regularly attending church. All three movements consist of formulas that grant instant satisfaction but do not focus on proper nutrition. Like a quick hit energy drink, they give instant energy but leave you depleted in the long term.

The Church Fathers, all the way back to Paul, refer to Christians as athletes, and our daily life as training. To utilize this analogy, let’s focus on our “diet”. Early on, dating back to St. James, head of the first church in Jerusalem, Christians had a steady “liturgical diet” of prayer and worship prescribed by the Apostles and their successors. This “diet” was a health conscious diet built for the athlete. This diet not only provided short-term satisfaction, but also was made to sustain the athlete through training and propel him through competition.

But over time we began to break down the deliberate structure of the liturgical diet and have substituted healthier aspects with prepackaged junk food. Preparing the healthy foods and their organic nutrients has been replaced with a drive through, fast food mentality of get it and go. Sadly we have found that the diet of the modern evangelical church, although appetizing and delicious at times, leaves us lacking the proper nutrition sustain the athlete when under duress and needing it most. Of course the logical conclusion is former athletes who have fallen from competition, who claim that diet plays no role in training and competing.

It is in my Orthodox journey that I am rediscovering the proven liturgical recipes that provide the nutrition we need to “run the race” and “fight the good fight”.

What Orthodoxy has to offer Europe...

In the current expansion eastward, however, it is inevitable that the
values and mores of European institutions and alliances will be shaped more and
more by the traditionalist views of Orthodox Christian believers and less and
less by the modern, secularized Protestant assumptions of Western European
democracies. Orthodox believers already far outnumber Protestants across Europe,
and by some estimates they may eventually even surpass Roman Catholics. If
21st-century Europe ever develops a religious complexion, it will be
predominantly Eastern Orthodox.

In the long run, therefore, while the greatest challenge to Europe's
cultural and political identity may come from the growth of Islam, its more
immediate challenge is how to deal with some 40 million to 140 million Orthodox
Christians who, when given a voice in European policymaking, will argue that
churches should have a more prominent voice than heretofore in the shaping of
social policy.

There are two ways of dealing with this challenge. One way is to stick
to a narrow definition of "the West." Make modern-day secularism the gold
standard of democracy and decry all challenges to secularism as examples of a
"values gap" between East and West. This tried and true formula has the
advantage of already being familiar, thanks to the cold war. Unfortunately, it
is also a recipe for a conflict within European institutions. And, given the
rapidly growing numbers, influence, and wealth of the Orthodox Churches of
Eastern Europe, it is a conflict Western Europeans are likely to lose.

from http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1011/p09s01-coop.htm
h/t Rod Dreher

"And they say Creeds don't mean anything......"

I ran acrossed this last night while reading up on Gnosticism. It's a line upon line exposition of the significance of each line of the Apostles Creed in light of the Gnostic heresies that circulated during the time it was written.


"THE APOSTLES' CREED VERSUS GNOSTICISM

A creed generally emphasizes the beliefs opposing those errors that the compilers of the creed think most dangerous at the time.The Creed of the Council of Trent, which was drawn up by the RomanCatholics in the 1500's, emphasized those beliefs that RomanCatholics and Protestants were arguing about most furiously at thetime. The Nicene Creed, drawn up in the fourth century, is emphatic in affirming the Deity of Christ, since it is directed against the Arians, who denied that Christ was fully God. The Apostles' Creed,drawn up in the first or second century, emphasizes the true Humanity, including the material body, of Jesus, since that is thepoint that the heretics of the time (Gnostics, Marcionites, and later Manicheans) denied. (See 1 John 4:1-3)"


http://www.iclnet.org/pub/resources/text/history/creed.apostles.txt




And another article that is worthy of your consideration.......


The Jewishness of the Nicene Creed

"In working on the most recent issue of Christian History & Biography ("Debating Jesus' Divinity"), we once again ran into the old canard that the Nicene bishops relied more on Greek philosophical concepts than on the Bible. That is the conventional wisdom in some circles, but let's take a closer look at what those bishops did. "


http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2005/februaryweb-only/53.0c.html

Coptic Prayers: Prayer for the sick

Coptic icon of St. Mina the Wonderworker, gifted with healing (source)

Offered during matins, the morning prayers in preparation for the Divine Liturgy.

Priest: Again, let us ask God the Almighty, the Father of our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ. We ask and entreat your goodness, O Lover of Mankind: Remember, O Lord, the sick of your people.

Deacon: Pray for our fathers and brothers who are sick with any sickness, whether in this place or in any place, that Christ our God may grant us, with them, health and healing, and forgive us our sins.

All: Lord, have mercy.

Priest: Visit them with mercy and compassion and heal them. Take away from them, and from us, all sickness and all maladies; the spirit of sickness chase away. Those who have long lain in sickness, raise up and comfort. And those who are afflicted by unclean spirits, set them all free.

Those who are in prisons or dungeons, or those who are in exile or captivity, or those who are held in bitter bondage, O Lord, set them all free and have mercy on them. For You are He Who loosens the bound and uplifts the fallen, the hope of those who are hopeless, the help of those who have no helper, the comfort of the fainthearted, the harbor of those in the storm.

All souls that are distressed or bound, give them mercy, O Lord. Give them rest. Give them coolness. Give them grace. Give them help. Give them salvation. Give them forgiveness of their sins and iniquities.

As for us also, O Lord, the maladies of our souls heal, and those of our bodies, too, cure. O You, the true Physician of our souls and bodies, the Overseer of all flesh, visit us with Your salvation.

All: Lord, have mercy.

Faith of our Fathers: A Colloquium on Orthodoxy for Lutherans

This is some good stuff!!!

You can hear lectures online from some Orthodox academics and clergy, all of them converts from Lutheranism, on various subjects like Augustine and ecclesiology, justification, Scripture, and the Trinity.

B Movie Catechism

EC'ers looking for innovative ways to teach the faith through film might find some great ideas at The B Movie Catechism.





Or not. :)

Emergent Liturgy

The new "Liturgical Service," as they call it, has become the most popular service even among young people. After the "standard" evangelical service at 9:30 a.m., workers decorate the platform with candles, non-specific iconography and other religious-looking items. Fitzgerald wears generic vestments and adopts a more somber manner. He reads from a liturgical book and the congregation responds by reading words on the screens.

"I like the reverence and the mood," says one girl, 16. "It feels more spiritual."

"I like the candles," her friend chimes in.

The effort seems to be working to keep church members from straying elsewhere. In St. Paul, Minn., Family Life Center recently created a liturgical service and says some families have opted to stay rather than try out other churches. Jessica Onstead, 38, was dissatisfied enough last year with the "fluffiness" of evangelical church services that she visited an Orthodox service and liked parts of it. But she was uncomfortable with the "kissing of strangers, genuflecting and standing for an hour during the sermon."

She ended up back at her non-denominational church which had by then added an Orthodox-style service. She now attends ...

Read it ALL.

And a reaction.

Hat Tip to Orthodixie

Coptic prayers: The Morning Prayer

This is one snippet from Prime that I really like. Prime is prayed first thing in the morning.

O the true Light Who gives light to every man coming into the world, You came into the world through Your love for mankind, and all creation rejoiced in Your coming. You saved our father, Adam, from the seduction, and delivered our mother, Eve, from the pangs of death, and gave us the spirit of sonship. Let us, therefore, praise You and bless You saying :

Doxa Patri ke Eioa ke Agio Pnevmati (Glory to the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit)

As the daylight shines upon us, O Christ Our God, the true Light, let the luminous senses and the bright thoughts shine within us, and do not let the darkness of passions hover over us, that mindfully we may praise You with David saying, “My eyes have awakened before the morning watch, that I might meditate on Your sayings." Hear our voices according to your great mercy, and deliver us, O Lord our God, through Your compassion.

sunrise on the Nile (source)

The Reformers and the Orthodox

I had been familiar with the correspondence between Patriarch Jeremias of Constantinople and the early Reformers of Tübingen, but still found this paper on the subject fascinating. Check it out. I hadn't known, for instance, that the Reformers actually sent a kind of "embassy" to Constantinople, or that they drew up a Greek version of the Augsburg Confession that was not just a translation, but an earnest attempt to communicate Reformation concepts to the Greek and Orthodox mind.

Coptic Prayers- The Prayer of Thanksgiving

I thought I would do a few posts on the prayers used in the Coptic daily office and other services. I'm going to be highly selective, but you can read all the prayers of the daily office online here and hear some of them being chanted (by readers from our parish!). Most other Coptic services can also be found online in English.

The following is the prayer of thanksgiving that begins every prayer of the hours and is also prayed at many services like the betrothal and wedding. In the hours it's preceded by the Lord's Prayer and you follow it with Psalm 50 LXX (Psalm 51 in Protestant Bibles), expressing penitence for sin.

Let us give thanks to the beneficent and merciful God, the Father of our Lord, God and Savior, Jesus Christ, for He has covered us, helped us, guarded us, accepted us unto Him, spared us, supported us, and brought us to this hour. Let us also ask Him, the Lord our God, the Almighty, to guard us in all peace this holy day and all the days of our life.

O Master, Lord, God the Almighty, the Father of our Lord, God and Savior, Jesus Christ, we thank You for every condition, concerning every condition, and in every condition, for You have covered us, helped us, guarded us, accepted us unto You, spared us, supported us, and brought us to this hour.

Therefore, we ask and entreat Your goodness, O Lover of mankind, to grant us to complete this holy day, and all the days of our life, in all peace with Your fear. All envy, all temptation, all the work of Satan, the counsel of wicked men, and the rising up of enemies, hidden and manifest, take them away from us, and from all Your people, and from this holy place that is Yours.

But those things which are good and profitable do provide for us; for it is You Who have given us the authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and upon all the power of the enemy.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, by the grace, compassion and love of mankind, of Your Only-Begotten Son, our Lord, God and Savior, Jesus Christ, through Whom the glory, the honor, the dominion, and the adoration are due unto You, with Him, and the Holy Spirit, the Life-Giver, Who is of one essence with You, now and at all times, and unto the ages of all ages. Amen.

[Image from touregypt.net]

Not Being able to leave well enough alone.....

I made some of my own "What they said/what they meant" items:

What they say:
"We don't subscribe to tradition. We look to the Bible only."

What they mean:
"We subscribe to the tradition of Sola Scriptura, and many other unlabelled traditions, but we will avoid recognizing it at all costs." (And make sure you have a Ham on Easter!)


What they say:
"We beleive in the priesthood of ALL beleivers."

What they Mean:
"We don't believe in 'preisthood' at all."


What they Say:
"The celebration of fasts and feasts is of pagan origin, and violates a Pauline prohibition on observing days and months and seasons and years."

What they mean:
"Except of course for Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, Mother's Day and the '4th of July'."


What they say:
"We understand the Bible literally."

What they mean:
"except that part of eating and drinking Jesus' body and blood....He meant that figuratively."


What they say:
"All you have to do is accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, and thats it."

What they mean:
"And don't drink, smoke, swear ("shit" is out, "Crap" is OK) go to R movies and get erections until your married." (Something else may have been implied to females....I wouldn;t know.....)


What they say:
"God loves you and only wants you to be succesful and prosper in all that you do."

What they mean:
"Except when you aren't succesful....next time you'll pray more and have more faith."

I better stop now......

Fr. John Behr, The Mystery of Christ: The life in the body and epilogue

This is part three and the conclusion of a review. See here for part one and here for part two.

In his final chapter, Fr. John Behr applies the method of seeing all things through the perspective (the hypothesis or starting point) of the Passion of Christ on to the life of the individual believer in the body. In the church's classic teaching, Christ recapitulated- assumed, took into Himself- all of humanity in His Incarnation and Passion, and we in turn are to recapitulate His life. Living the life of Christ in our body is to live the perfect human life. What does this look like?

Fr. John points to St. Athanasius' On The Incarnation as a key source for theoretical understanding on this, but then to St. Athanasius' Life of St. Antony as this theory shown in practice. St. Antony (icon above) is presented as an example of one who has so assumed Christ, that he can be seen to be the continuation of Christ's life in a "normal" human existence. The text emphasizes that Antony was not a superhuman, that the presence of Christ was not felt in him as something other than human, but as a human being as he ought to be. Particularly notable is that he was neither insensible to natural human emotions and bodily needs or motions, nor was he controlled by them- his was a life of perfect balance, the vision of God ruling the life on earth rather than vice versa: "He maintained utter equilibrium, like one guided by the logos and steadfast in that which accords with nature."

In discussing the way we capitulate the life of Christ in our bodies, Fr. Behr pays particular attention to the confusion over the Christian attitude towards the human body and the material world in general. In both the Scriptures and the writings of the fathers, the body or flesh is portrayed in seemingly contradictory terms: On the one hand as a glorious creation and helper in our salvation, on the other hand as unruly and an enemy to be subjugated. Fr. Behr explains that what is spoken of when the body is called an enemy is the body as regarded by a diseased mind, the body made an idol. The problem is not the body in itself, which was created by God and is good, but an "evil husbandry of the mind" over the body. He emphasizes, "If one does not recognize that the struggle is ultimately with one's own perceptions, then one is left waging war on one's own nature." That is in fact what some outside observers and even some Christians who haven't been rightly taught perceive in these Scriptures and early Christian teaching. Fr. Behr underlines that Christ came to fight in and on behalf of the human body, and it is in our body that we seek to put on Christ. The body participates in the soul's salvation and vice versa; it is not just coming along for the ride or awaiting destruction while we continue on as disembodied creatures.

Fr. Behr then provides brief examples of contrasts between "good husbandry" and "evil husbandry" of the mind over the body. While eating and enjoyment of it is natural, gluttony can pervert this: "Gluttony is a false opinion about the way things are: 'Gluttony is hypocrisy of the stomach. Filled, it moans about scarcity...' " (Here quoting St. John Climacus.) Sex is given to us primarily for procreation, but can also be a ground for sanctification. Again quoting St. John Climacus: "I have watched impure souls mad for physical love but turning what they know of such love into a reason for repentance and transferring that same capacity for love to the Lord..."

This ordering of the body's impulses has been described in Orthodox spirituality as apatheia or detachment. Fr. John explains that "it connotes not repression but reorientation, not inhibition but freedom; having overcome the passions, we are free to be our true selves, free to love others, free to love God." (+Kallistos Ware) Such ordering is not accomplished with severity or austerity, still less with judgmentalism, but by remaining "open and pliable" to the activity of God within oneself. It is ultimately not we who form Christ in ourselves but Christ who does so. Lest it be said that Orthodoxy does not preach grace!

Finally, Fr. Behr brings the book back around to its starting place, to his main goal, which was to strip back some of modernity's constraints around our understanding of the gospel and the Christian life. The picture he paints- in this epilogue literally offering diagrams which I found helpful even though as a former Campus Crusader they initially made me nervous!- is that the Cross is literally the starting point of the whole universe. It is in the Cross that we see the history of humanity not in parallel terms to God's part in "salvation history," with arrows going back and forth between parallel lines (reminiscent to me of both dispensationalism and Calvinism), but as a single trajectory beginning at the Cross. The Cross is not only the restoration of creation, it in fact can be seen as its starting point.

I am reminded of St. Ephrem the Syrian's poem The Pearl, where he warns against the soul's wish to plumb the depths of the Trinity, as it is more than enough to content oneself with contemplation of God the Son. This seems to me precisely what Fr. John is calling us to: To regain the perspective the early church had when they considered Christ's Passion in light of the Scriptures. We have been taught to preoccupy ourselves with historical-critical and rationalistic questions and approaches, and to "what if's." They were caught up in a vision of Christ that filled their whole consciousness. Christ the complete image of God, the Alpha and Omega, through Whom we know all that we can know of God and humanity, in Whose Life we become the full human we were created to be, in Whom we, as St. Athanasius taught, become gods.

Light from the Christian East

Frederica Matthewes-Green gives a hearty recommendation for this new book by a Reformed professor, James Payton. Here's Khouria Frederica's blurb about the book on its jacket:

"James Payton has combined his thorough familiarity with Eastern Orthodoxy with a gracious and respectful sensibility, and produced a book that is inviting, accessible, and more content-rich than an introductory work is expected to be. 'Light from the Christian East' is an excellent book."

You can also see her review of it on amazon.com.

What they SAY. What they MEAN.

Drew Costen posted THIS over on TheOoze (Originally from Jeff Priddy)

What They Say:"There's nothing you must do to be saved..
"What They Mean:"Here's what you must do to be saved:"

What They Say:"You are absolutely, totally helpless to save yourself."
What They Mean:"You must make a wise decision in order to be saved."

What They Say:"God controls all things."
What They Mean:"God doesn't control man's free will."

What They Say:"We can't boast about going to heaven."
What They Mean:"If we go to hell, it's our own fault."

What They Say:"Love never fails!"
What They Mean:"Love can't overcome human stubborness."

What They Say:"Men are in bondage to sin."
What They Mean:"Men are free to choose Christ."

What They Say:"Grace is unmerited favor..."
What They Mean:"... given only to those who merit it with faith and obedience."

What They Say:"GOD IS THE SAVIOR OF ALL MANKIND (1 Tim. 4:10)..."
What They Mean:"... except for about ninety percent of them."

What They Say:"GOD'S LOVE IN UNCONDITIONAL..."
What They Mean:"... as long as you meet certain conditions."

What They Say:"GOD'S WILL IS UNOPPOSABLE..."
What They Mean:"... except by the sinner."

What They Say:"Salvation is not a thing of chance."
What They Mean:"There is no second chance to be saved."

What They Say:"WE HAVE GOOD NEWS FOR YOU!"
What They Mean:"Most of mankind will perish forever."

What They Say:"GOD LOVES YOU!"
What They Mean:"... as long as you love Him."

What They Say:"Christ died for all sin..."
What They Mean:"... except the sin of not believing that He died for all sin."

What They Say:"The Good Shepherd seeks the lost sheep until he finds it!"
What They Mean:"The Good Shepherd seeks until it's too late."

What They Say:"God's justice was satisfied in the cross of Christ."
What They Mean:"God's justice demands eternal torment or annihilation."

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I largely agree with it? I think some Orthodox repsonses would be appropriate.

Sinners and Funerals

There is a big controversy in Dallas right now, over an Evangelical church's refusal to bury a gay man. Story HERE. As I understand it, it is really not a matter of refusing to bury him, but an issue with the powerpoint presentation (which has evidently become the new burial tradition) that would have shown him hugging and kissing his lover.

As I see it, the problem here is not his sinfulness.....and yes, I believe, as Christians always have, that homosexuality is sinful. The problem is that the funeral service has come to be seen as a "celebration of the person's life" instead of a prayer to God for mercy on a departed sinner.

This is the advantage of adhering to a liturgical tradition. We don't have to "create" a burial service. We are given one. And it has nothing to do with "celebrating the life" of the individual. What if Osama Bin Laden was your parishioner? How would you bury him? How do you bury an infant that died when there is not much material for a powerpoint production? What about the guy who cheated on his wife and beat his kids. HOW do you bury him?

Evangelicals and canon

One thing which the Orthodox and many Oozers have in common is a questioning of the biblicism in the evangelical approach to Scripture. So our readers may be interested in this article at bible.org, reviewing the history of evangelicalism's wrestling with canonicity. Props to Energetic Procession for the link.

As I said in my earlier post on the history of anti-Catholicism, it's eye-opening to see where ideas that are taken for granted and stated as revealed truths actually developed at certain points in time, by certain individuals asserting them. Naturally this doesn't necessarily mean the ideas themselves are wrong, but as the article points out it can lead us to read these back in to the early church in anachronistic ways. An example discussed in the article is the widely-held assumption that there even was such a thing as a "closed canon" prior to the Reformation, whereas this simply isn't true. A careful study of history is really essential to a fully-informed faith, in my view.

In any case, this article is a good read and good historical overview, whatever your take on the subject.

Patron Saint? Father George Memory Eternal!

Awhile back Raph (Our own Father Deacon Raphael) asked some of us about a Patron Saint for this 'oozerdoxie' venture.

I'd like to submit Fr. George Calciu...

what follows is a little about him:

---

Fr. Deacon Raphael gave me the sad news from November 21st today.

"The Archpriest George (Calciu), confessor of Christ Jesus, reposed a few moments ago in Fairfax Hospital. Fr George was Pastor of Holy Cross Romanian Orthodox Church in Alexandria and father confessor to many. He had been imprisoned twice in communist Romania (in Pitesti, the most notorious of prison-camps) for preaching the Word of Salvation. (The dictator Nicolae Ceausescu had declared Fr George his “personal enemy”.) He preached at Holy Cross in Linthicum a couple of years ago as we celebrated our Patronal Feast together and we will always remember his deep commitment to the Holy Church, devotion to the Fathers, and sheer joy in the life in Jesus Christ. As you pray for the repose of the soul of Fr George, please also remember his wife, Adriana, their son and grandson, and as well as all of Fr George’s spiritual children."

(from Neepeople)

Fr. George was very, very special to me. I met him on more than one occasion and he personally counseled me in my journey. He encouraged me to become Orthodox.

"Christ is calling you Seraphim. He loves you"

Here is the photo from the last time I saw him, in his parish in Fairfax:



"O Master, Lord our God, Who in Thy wisdom hast created man, and didst honor him with Thy Divine image, and place in him the spirit of life, and lead him into this world, bestowing on him the hope of resurrection and life everlasting; and after he had violated Thy commandments, Thou O Gracious lover of mankind, didst descend to the earth that Thou mightest renew again the creation of Thy hands. Therefore we pray Thee, O All-Holy Master give rest to the souls of Thy servants Fr. George, in a place of brightness, a place of green pasture, a place of repose, and, in that they have sinned in word, or deed or thought forgive them: For Thou art a good God and lovest mankind and unto Thee do we ascribe Glory, together with Thy Father, Who is from everlasting and Thine All-Holy and good, and ever giving Spirit, now, and ever, and unto ages of ages. Amen."

We have lost a living saint.

Memory Eternal. Fr. George, pray for us!

---

Any other candidates? Votes?

Anti-Catholicism, some history

Recently on The Ooze we experienced a wave of trolling some call VV-Gate, others The Recent Unpleasantness. I think of it as The Troubles. It was a technicolor reminder of the vitriol that exists out there against anything related to the Vatican. Like the bile that comes out against George Bush from other corners, the scale and heat of it, seeming all out of proportion to reason, really puzzled me.

Recently I've been listening to a CD course on Science and Religion that mentions some 19th-century pseudo-academic anti-Catholicism, like John William Draper. This made me curious to learn more about the historical roots of anti-Catholic prejudice. I'm always intrigued by the web that history weaves, the roots of present currents of thought that may be hidden in time. After all, even though Draper and his more respected contemporary Andrew White were terrible historians whose ideas don't even make common sense, these ideas (e.g. that the Catholic Church opposed scientific progress) have rooted themselves in the popular mind as fact.

Straight off I should mention that there certainly exists Orthodox polemics against Catholicism and the papacy. It seems to be of a different character than others, however. After all, it is not the presence of a bishop or patriarch that the Orthodox take issue with, but the particular role of the bishop of Rome.

That said, it struck me as really curious to read the statements in the Westminster Confession and Book of Concord affirming as an article of faith that the Pope is the Anti-Christ. The statements declare that the Holy Spirit has revealed this to the church as a firm truth. These are statements that all conservative Lutheran synods, to my knowledge, have affirmed. It seems strange to me to assert something so particular with, dare I say, magisterial firmness, which seems rather based on historical events than careful exegesis. For instance, among the few times Scripture mentions antichrists (yes, plural!) it says they will deny that Jesus has come in the flesh; this can hardly apply to the Pope? Reading this, I was reminded that dispensationalism has earlier roots in this historicist view.

The "magisterial" Reformation lent to the popular imagination visions that soon became more apocalyptic. The only woodcuts in Luther's Bible occur in Revelation, a book he didn't even consider proper Scripture, but which allowed him to illustrate his anti-papal message. For instance, in one of them the seven-headed beast wears the papal crown. (The Counter-Reformation had apocalyptic beasts and woodcut propaganda of their own.) Thus even the illiterate got the message, and ran with it. Once the peasant rebellions and the Thirty Years' War got going in earnest, the apocalyptic visions became more grotesque and urgent. People believed it was the end times, and the Whore of Babylon was trying to usher in hell on earth.

This rather gothic element to anti-Catholicism carried on into later centuries. In the 19th century, besides Draper's novel account of the history of science, several sordid "expose's" from supposed ex-priests and nuns became wildly popular. Though these have been largely discredited as hoaxes, you still see Maria Monk or Chiniquy pop up on anti-Catholic websites as supposed "historical texts." Some commentators attribute their reception to the popularity of gothic fiction. Catholicism is still seen in horror films and movies-of-the-week as the best place to go for real evil. During The Troubles on TheOoze, some people noted the black background of the trolls' home website, in addition to their tabloid-style posting. Visit a well-known anti-Catholic website, Jesus-Is-Lord (to which I will not link, so as not to increase their search engine profile) and you'll be treated not only to black backgrounds and pronouncements of hellfire, but creepy music to boot. Then of course there is Jack Chick's cheerful macabre.

In both the 16th century and 19th century versions of anti-Catholic polemics, the papacy competed for black honors with the Jews, Muslims and the Masons or other secretive societies. Often they were seen to be in cahoots with each other, all to deceive the true faithful remnant. Some even speculated that Islam was a plot by the Vatican to deceive true Christians. This, too, is a feature you'll see in present-day anti-Catholicism, as we saw on TheOoze. The Vatican is either a front or is behind such strange bedfellows as Mormonism, the Illuminati, Unitarians, and the Emergent Church, whose anti-institutional leanings don't keep them from suspicion. In all this the Orthodox either get a strange pass (as with Draper), or are seen as a footnote to the Catholics.

To end on a positive note, we can say that if so much opposition has been cause of purification and humbling for the papacy, it is ultimately to the good. The same might be said of TheOoze, where Christians of diverse opinion were nevertheless able to recognize a kind of faith-promotion to which we do not subscribe and to unite in opposing it. God has a way of working like this.

Fr. John Behr, The Mystery of Christ Part 2: Creation, the Church and Mary

Recapping where we are, Fr. John Behr is exploring the Incarnation and Passion of Christ as a lens, as a hypothesis or first principle, for how to view all things. Doing so tends to turn things on their heads: Darkness becomes light, death becomes a birth, the womb becomes a tomb. This approach is nothing new; in fact, the book is a small trove of the richness available in the early fathers' writings as they reflected on Scripture. Fr. John is also offering nothing other than classic Orthodox doctrine. However, for those of us schooled in the modern historical-critical method and in systematic theology, his book represents a shift of perspective, and it also presents the Orthodox doctrine in the form of a story based on the typology and imagery of the early church. No long list of bullet points here. In fact, I find it difficult in reviewing the book to not make it all more complicated than he does.

In chapter three we consider what the Passion teaches us about creation, the Fall, and our own death. Drawing especially on St. Irenaeus, Behr reminds us that the teachers of the church, when looking back on creation in light of what the Passion revealed to them, were able to see even this event as a part of God's economy of salvation and not its precipitator. God did not cause their disobedience, but in His wisdom foresaw it as the means by which His creatures would learn their weakness and come to a mature humanity. This paradox is reflected in an early icon of the creation which shows Christ blessing Adam and Eve as they flee the Garden, and in a hymn of St. Ambrose which calls the Fall "felix culpa," the happy guilt. The very disobedience of humanity, offered to God, is transformed into His blessing. Creation and salvation are not two distinct processes, but one and the same. The Fall is not some cataclysmic event that necessitated Christ's death, but a pre-figuring of that very death, all with the goal of lifting humanity to knowledge of God.

This understanding of creation parallels how the early Christians viewed physical death. In light of the Resurrection, human death is always an unnatural tragedy, particularly violent death. Yet the Passion teaches us that this utmost expression of our need is paradoxically where Christ's victory is realized and declared. Death is seen in Eucharistic terms, an offering, a change of matter into something greater. It is true birth. As St. Ignatius of Antioch wrote of his impending martyrdom, "I go to become anthropos", a human being; this recalling the words of God in Genesis, "let us make anthropos after our image."

As the Passion reveals the meaning of sin and death, it is also our lens for how to understand the church. In chapter four, we are reminded first of St. Paul's imagery of believers as those who receive the Word and are birthed as young babies, nourished also by its milk. Fr. John then moves on to the multiple examples of early Christian writing which depicted the church as Virgin Mother, pre-existing creation as the womb in which the Logos would be received and birthed in humanity. For instance, Tertullian compares the Passion to Adam's slumber, when he was wounded in order to form Eve, the mother of all. In the same way Christ slept in the tomb, and from His side, the church was taken and formed in flesh as His body.

It is in this context that the early church meditated on the significance of St. Mary not only in historical terms, but also in theological ones, as symbol of the church. In St. John's gospel, for instance, Mary is presented to John as his mother, a fact which has larger significance than only as historical footnote to the fate of Jesus' human family. The womb of Mary is connected in the mind of early Christians to the tomb of Christ. The icon of the Nativity shows Christ wrapped in swaddling burial clothes; in the West, the feast of the Nativity is dated nine months after the Resurrection, a curious but intentional reversal of the usual order of birth and death. We are reminded in this chapter of why the Orthodox fathers insisted that "Theotokos" was a christological term, as St. John of Damascus said: "It is proper and true that we call the holy Mary the Theotokos ['God bearer'], for this name expresses the entire mystery of the economy."

As a footnote to chapter four, while re-reading it I reflected on why from a substitutionary atonement point of view, veneration of Mary can be seen to be beside the point or even idolatrous, why insistence on a physical and visible church is rejected, and why from such a perspective the Fall is viewed in more negative and absolute terms. Fr. Behr's book may offer insights to those outside the Orthodox thought world as to how doctrines like Mariology and sacrament are not extraneous to, but central to, our understanding of God's work of salvation.

Next we will consider the final chapter of the book which explores what the Passion means to the individual's life of faith, and its epilogue, titled "A Premodern Faith for the Postmodern Era."

Talking points for social liberals at evangelical conferences

Orthodox priest Fr. Jonathon Tobias of Second Terrace poses the following provocative scenario:

"Let's assume that you're a nationally sought-after speaker from an eastern college, who for some strange reason has developed egalitarian sensitivities on behalf of the feminist and homosexual consciousness movements.

Let's assume, too, that you will be appearing on stage to about two thousand adolescents and adults and clergy from a denomination that only lately characterized itself as fundamental, but has now stepped boldly into the progressive evangelical church growth (read 'anti-ecclesial') movement.

Let's assume, finally, that this happened last week somewhere in the midwest. What talking points will you (or did you) follow in order to entertain the masses?..."

Read the answer here.

Do you recognize the "nationally sought-after speaker"? Hint: He's popular on the left-leaning side of Emergent circles.

One of the "talking points" is to make misleading reference to Orthodox doctrine, a temptation that is hard to resist if it works for you. As an evangelical I used to do it in debates with Calvinists. "The Orthodox do such and such" is a sentence that even now, I remind myself, I must use with caution!

P.S. Although this post is clearly critical (the sensitive be warned), there are some conciliatory notes in the comments.

My Orthodox Journey: So Far…

“Well how was it?” There it was. My wife had asked and I had to answer and I had to answer her honestly. Fortunately, I only had to look at her, her response was a simple “oh no”. I just nodded and said, “I loved it”. I had experienced my first Orthodox Liturgy and knew before it was over that I could never leave it. I had found the Faith and it was nothing like what I always thought it would look like.

Two years before, I had begun to look at the early church. Among the earliest Church Fathers, those men who had sat and studied at the feet of the 12 apostles when they were yet living, I saw things being practiced that on the surface looked “more catholic” than what I was doing in my church and had to take a strong look at Catholicism. Although I saw similarities it seemed to me that they had added some things to what the early church Fathers had prescribed. Not to be detoured in my search for a more formal church setting and also because a friendship developed with a Lutheran Priest I looked a the Lutheran Faith, but found much in the worship that had no scriptural support, and they themselves held to “scripture alone”.

So although I had seen some “catholic like” practices in the early church, the early church did not seem altogether Roman Catholic. It was here my protestant faith seemed to be strengthening but my faith in church was waning. I started to wonder if any church had it right. I was also wondering why God left it up to me all by myself to look at the Bible and derive all of what was correct and not correct about what Christianity really is. I mean I was reading and studying more than most laypersons I knew and more than even some pastors I knew. As my local church services started to look more like a pep rally than a church service, I became more and more disillusioned with what church services were supposed to be. I began to wonder if St. Peter and St. Paul would have been clapping and singing to the beat of the alternative percussion section of our new praise band. I mean could a wa-wa pedal on a Fender Stratocaster actually contribute more to me communing with the Almighty GOD? I know this may sound bitter or detached but I want to be very honest as to how I felt. The more I read of the lives of the Apostles and their successors I would say with confidence that there is little about our modern worship service that they would recognize.

As you can see my disillusionment was setting in. In my study of the early Church and what the most modern of scholars had written I was coming to one basic conclusion. That is, without much study you can see that the protestant evangelical church of today looks nothing like the church I grew up in, in the 70’s. With even more study you’ll see that the church of the mid 1900’s bares very little resemblance to the church of the late 1800’s. We see that since the reformation the protestant church continues to change and evolve in direct response to culture. So my one logical conclusion is simply, either God made his church to constantly ride the wave of the ever-changing culture, or it’s not to be effected by culture at all. To be honest, while researching both ideas I was hoping for the former, as the latter would seem to leave allot of egg on my spiritual face.

It was this time that I had entered some discussions with some friends who were Orthodox. I was more impressed with their demeanor than anything else. From them I first heard, and later confirmed, that Church of Rome broke from the rest of the Church, not the other way around. I learned that the Orthodox Church does not believe in purgatory and that their parish priests were married. At that point I realized there was one more option that had to be eliminated. I had to investigate the one church that claimed they guarded the Faith through history and were unaffected by culture. I looked up the Orthodox Churches in my town, sent my wife and kids to the church we normally attended and headed off alone to visited Holy Apostles Orthodox Christian Church. I went mostly to eliminate the possibility that this could be the true Church, uncorrupted by this world and it’s culture.

Well as I said in the opening of this article, I loved it. I have gone to church my whole life hoping that if we do everything right, good music, good sermon, good response that maybe God would show up. Well I found myself surrounded that first Sunday with people who came expecting God to show up. Just like he has done every service sense Pentecost. Although friends and family have questioned my decision, I cannot turn back. I am becoming Orthodox everyday. The Orthodox Church is a treasure of spiritual mystery that enriches our lives through the Holy Spirit day by day. For some reason I spent my whole Christian Life studying the first century of Christianity and then ignoring everything else up till the Reformation. The fact is that Orthodoxy has been here the whole time.

It has been a true joy to read of the Church Fathers and understand that the Church of Antioch in the book of Acts, where they were first called Christians, is still in existence today, as is the church in Jerusalem and many others. Churches the Apostles of Christ Himself started and who’s leadership they appointed, who in turn continued to appoint leadership up to this present time. At times I feel late for the party. As if I should have known all this before. But the fact is, it’s not unusual to discover these things later into our protestant life. In fact you can read of Clark Carlton, Frank Schaeffer, Peter Guillquist and many other prominent Protestant ministers and laypeople who have experienced the same types of discovery. When I think of the courage these men showed in following their convictions and embracing the truth, it becomes much easier for me.

Pray for me as I continue on my journey that I may over come the hardships that accompany such a dramatic spiritual transition, but I promise you that the “the Joy of Lord is My Strength” has real meaning beyond the kids chorus I grew up singing. I am truly blessed and experiencing God’s grace in a very real way.

I will add that if I at all offended anyone by what I have written, I deeply apologize. I wish only to convey my feelings and trials as I felt them during that time.

Fr. John Behr, The Mystery of Christ

A book by one of the most significant Orthodox theologians writing today- so say people smarter than me- and which seeks to explain "the reappropriation of a premodern perspective in a cautious postmodern fashion," ought to be of interest to Oozerdoxies and those who love (?) us.

Fr. John is professor of patristics at St. Vladimir Orthodox Seminary. His ongoing project is a series on the formation of Christian theology, one volume already laying out "The Way to Nicea" and the other the formation of Nicene faith. This small book can be seen as a companion volume to those, while standing as a compelling work in its own right.

The "mystery of Christ" is that Christ is at the center of absolutely everything. He is the axis around which all of the universe turns, all of our understanding of who God is, who we are as the church, and of what truth is. Fr. John asks us to go back in time before the formulations and systematizations of later centuries, which tend to put the gospel in the form of an historical narrative beginning at the beginning and leading forward. In this journey back in time we are not seeking a pristine, primitive church age, but Christ Himself.

He writes: "When the apostle Paul speaks of 'its breadth and length and height and depth' (Eph. 3:18), St. Gregory [of Nyssa] sees him as inscribing the figure of the cross into the very structure of the universe created by 'the God revealed through the Cross'... It is likewise only in this way, 'through the church', that the heavenly powers come to know 'the manifold wisdom of God' (Eph. 3:10)." The cross of Jesus Christ is the centerpoint of the universe, mirroring and being mirrored by all creation, and most significantly, an absolutely unique revelation of God.

The first implication of this cruci-centric view of all things is that Christ is at the center of the Scriptures. We have been so influenced by modern historical-critical method, Fr. John argues, that we have a difficult time reading them any other way. Yet for the early fathers, "the Word of God" referred not to a book but to a Person. There is no meaning in the Scriptures except that which reveals Christ. For the early fathers, the Jewish Scriptures were less historical narrative and more a library of images, prototypes and visions testifying to Jesus Christ. Similarly, the New Testament canon can be understood as having been gathered around the theological center of Christ's Passion moreso than any historical or textual criterion.

He uses the illustration provided by St. Irenaeus of a mosaic, whose tiny jewels only acquire their true beauty when seen according to the design revealed on the Cross. That design is set out by the apostles' teaching, where Christ's revelation was safeguarded. Yet here again Fr. John reminds us that the focal point must be Jesus Christ. It is not enough to see the design; to unearth "the author's original meaning"; one must have personal, dynamic engagement with Christ. The Scriptures, church tradition and apostolic succession are a framework which allows this to happen. Their boundaries are not intended to limit the knowledge of God, but to allow such a genuine encounter to happen, unhindered by "regression and mythology."

(to be continued)

Holy pilgrimages

Many Christians past and present have made pilgrimages to holy places for repentance, prayer, to seek a blessing, or for remembrance. In discussion on The Ooze, someone mentioned being baptized in the Jordan River, others trips to significant historical places for Orthodoxy (Alaska) and Catholicism (The Shrine of the Holy Eucharist in Alabama).

I have many, many places I would like to go. High on the list would be a trip back to Turkey, since my time there was before I was Orthodox and the holy places I visited would mean so much more to me now. Pavel and I would also love to visit the very ancient Assyrian churches and monasteries in Eastern Turkey. When I lived in Turkey, it was too dangerous, particularly as a woman, to travel there. It still is now, unfortunately, with tensions in neighboring Kurdistan- that pilgrimage would probably have to wait.

Icon of Christ washing the feet of the disciples, Al Za'afaran (Syriac) Monastery, Turkey

If we made it to Turkey, we would probably also try to go to Egypt and see some of the Coptic churches and monasteries there.

Ruins of the monastery of St. Mina, Egypt

It is more realistic that I will make it to venerate the relics of St. John Maximovitch in San Francisco, and someday soon to the St. Antony Coptic Monastery near Barstow, California, the only Coptic monastery in the US. Before too many years pass, I would love to return to Monastery of the Transfiguration in Pennsylvania, where I spent several very blessed days while still an Orthodox "inquirer."

Crunchy Con's Story

Rod Dreher reposts his journey to Orthodoxy......

http://blog.beliefnet.com/crunchycon/2007/07/why-i-became-orthodox-from-the.html#more

The Lazy Monk

There was a lazy monk. He didn't keep the hours (of prayer) and didn't fast (not that he was a glutton) and didn't attend all the services. But he was never mean, and eveyone like him. When it came his time to die, the other monks of the community gathered around his bunk, and he had such a look of serenity and peace.

The monks were concerned for the spirtual well being of their brother, whom they knew was lazy and hadn't always followed the rules of prayer nor attended the church service, and wondered at his composure.

Brother, one asked, how is it that you are at peace? Seeing that you did not lead a very strict life? You didn't fast, you didn't keep the rule of prayer, the hours, nor were you faithful in church service attendance, how is it then that you are facing your end and the Judgement in peace?

The monk answered. Brothers, while all that you say about me is true, I will share with you my secret. One day while praying and reading the scriptures, I came across the passage,

"Judge not and ye shall not be Judged"

So while I have not done the things you have stated, I've also strived and meditated and sought with all my heart to love my saviour and never Judge my brother.

Shortly after saying this, he passed away, and the room was filled with a beautiful fragrance.

May we seek to live like this Monk.

I'shalom

Seraphim

What is "Oozerdoxie?"

I think an attempt to define what exactly we are doing here is in order. Maybe not so much for the reader, but for us! I solicit input from the other Doxies and Oozers in general.

This is a work in progress. We are an eclectic collection of Orthodox Christians, whose other connection.....and how we know each other.....is that we all post on an "Emergent Christian" website called theooze.com. What is "Emergent?" Well I point you to the Ooze's main page to help you figure that one out. But possibly, none of us would consider ourselves to be "Emergent"...I know I do not. I am very firmly placed within the Holy Orthodox Church.

So what is the appeal of "the ooze?" Perhaps in my case, it was somewhat evangelical. I was (am) a newbie Orthodox, and was excited to see people asking the same questions that had propelled me in MY spiritual journey. Some of my fellow Doxies are Orthodox partly because of things they had read on The Ooze. Two posters here met each other on The Ooze and are now married!

But I think what we really enjoy about The Ooze, is the community. Oozers don't all think alike and quite frankly, there are often some heated discussions. But there is a lot of respect and love that flows around there and we really enjoy being a part of the community.

But as a "subset" of the ooze, we were encouraged to start this blog. So here ya go. We will never be as cool as the "Conservative Reformed Mafia," but maybe we have something to offer.

So, what do you think?