February
8
2010
St Tikhon pray for us!
From Fr Hans Jacobse at American Orthodox Institute an update of events in the Church of England:
The Church of England is to go ahead with the plan to create women bishops without giving in to demands from traditionalists for a separate structure of bishops and archbishops untainted by the hands of a woman.
Traditionalists oppose women bishops because they argue that Jesus had no women disciples and that the apostolic succession of bishops, passed down by the laying of hands at ordination, should therefore be male.
Traditionalists warned last night that the decision, to be announced at the General Synod today, will trigger an exodus from the Church of England of many thousands of priests and lay people.
The Bishop of Manchester, the Right Rev Nigel McCulloch, will tell the synod at Church House, Westminster, London, that the revision process he is leading is not finished yet, and as a result the debate that was hoped for this month is delayed until July, when the synod meets in York.
I tend to think pastorally (and as I wrote on AOI) and so I think that–in the long run–it was a good thing for St Vladmir’s Seminary to reach out the Archbishop of Canterbury and through him hopefully the larger Anglican Communion. Let me explain.
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February
8
2010
James Chastek blogging at Just Thomism has a very neat and concise summary of the difference between reading Scripture with, and without, faith. I found it interesting and thought folks here might find it valuable as well.
In Christ,
+Fr Gregory
When we read Scripture with faith in Christ, it is principally the unified text of a single author, composed secondarily by diverse authors. Without faith, it is only a library of texts from diverse authors. This makes for two very different hermeneutics. For example, consider reading John’s claim at the beginning of his gospel that “No one has ever seen God”, and then reading Paul’s claim at the beginning of Romans that the eternal power and divinity of God has been clearly seen since the foundation of the world. For any reader, there is a tension here that needs to be resolved, but it is a completely different tension for someone with faith and someone without it. For the one with faith, the tension is how do I read these texts as the complementary texts expressing a single mind? We might look to the distinction between God known by revelation, and God known by reason; or God known in beatitude and God known in this life. When read without faith, this need for a single unified teaching vanishes, or at least is no longer necessary. The two texts are, prima facie, expressing different theologies and diverse doctrines. Any unity they have need not be the unity of doctrine.
When read without faith, the historical order of the authors takes on a primary significance. This is easily seen when we compare it to the exegesis of one with faith. On such a reading, Scripture author A and author B can always be said as speaking to a single doctrine, even if one of them lived hundreds of years before the other. We can quote Paul in order to explain something in Isaiah, even though, historically, Isaiah could never be influenced by Paul, or take him as a source. Figuring out who wrote what, and when, is not of essential importance. But when Scripture is read without faith, this order and source-referencing of authors is all-important- it is even the primary goal of the Scripture scholar. Notice how this source-texting is at the heart of the block quote given above. Doctrinal order and development, along with the irreconcilable conflicts of the authors, is the whole point of explaining Scripture. The texts need not be taken as expressive of a single mind, and it might even be extremely unreasonable to take them in this way.
Read the rest here.
February
8
2010
Asceticism as such is not uniquely Christian. Much less is it unique to the tradition of the Orthodox Church. Off the top of my head I cannot think of a major world religion whose adherents do not practice some form of asceticism. What is unique about Christian asceticism is its connection to the Eucharist.
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February
6
2010
When I remember to do so I post a music video on Saturday. Since today is Soul Saturday (one of the several Saturdays set aside in the Church’s liturgical calender to pray for the dead) I thought I would post Fr Apostolos Hill’s Evlogitaria for the Dead (Tone 5).
A copy of the text of the video can be found under the video.
Eternal memory to all those who have fallen asleep in Christ!
+Fr Gregory
The Evlogitaria of the Dead, in Tone 5:
Blessed are Thou, O Lord, teach me Thy statutes.
The choir of saints has found the Fountain of Life and the Door of Paradise; may I also find the way through repentance. I am the lost sheep: call me back and save me, O Saviour.
Blessed are Thou, O Lord, teach me Thy statutes.
O saints and martyrs who preached the Lamb of God and like lambs were slain, who now are translated to the eternal life that knows no age: pray fervently to Him, that He may grant us the forgiveness of our sins.
Blessed are Thou, O Lord, teach me Thy statutes.
All ye who in this life have trod the narrow way of sorrow, bearing the Cross as a yoke and following Me in faith: come and receive with joy the honours and the heavenly crowns that I have prepared for you.
Blessed are Thou, O Lord, teach me Thy statutes.
I am an image of Thine ineffable glory, even though I bear the marks of sin. Take pity on Thy creature, O Master, and cleanse me in Thy loving-kindness. Grant me the fatherland for which I long, making me once more a citizen of Paradise.
Blessed are Thou, O Lord, teach me Thy statutes.
Of old Thou hast created me from nothing and honoured me with Thy divine image; but when I disobeyed Thy commandment, Thou hast returned me to the earth whence I was taken: lead me back again to Thy likeness, refashioning my ancient beauty.
Blessed are Thou, O Lord, teach me Thy statutes.
Give rest, O God, to Thy servants and establish them in Paradise, where the choirs of the saints and the righteous shine as the stars of heaven. Give rest, O Lord, to Thy servants who have fallen asleep, and overlook all their offenses.
Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.
With reverence let us praise the threefold radiance of the one Godhead, and let us cry aloud: Holy art Thou, O Father who has no beginning, coeternal Son and Holy Spirit. Illumine us who worship Thee in faith, and snatch us from the eternal fire.
Both now and forever and to the ages of ages.
Hail, holy Virgin, who for the salvation of all hast borne God in the flesh. Through thee mankind has found salvation: through thee may we find Paradise, O Mother of God pure and blessed.
From: Monachos.net – Saturday of the Dead
February
4
2010
The current issue of the Weekly Standard has an interesting article about the sad state of the Christian churches and religious buildings on the Turkish side of Cyprus.
In Christ,
+Fr Gregory
Soon after the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, the roof of St. Andronikos church in Kythrea caved in and fell into its sanctuary. No one came by to clear the rubble, so there’s a heap of ruins on the ground covered with tangled greenery. From where I stand, on top of that heap, I can see that the walls, once known for their frescoes, have been stripped white and are now marked with black and neon graffiti. In some places there remain a few painted figures, including ones of Saints Peter and Paul, but their faces are chiseled out and their bodies have been pockmarked by bullets. Cars roll by every so often, but the one persistent sound is the hum of bees coming from a smashed clerestory window.
I came across this church off a road near the Agios Dimitrios crossing point on the Green Line, the boundary running through the island of Cyprus and keeping it cloven in two radically disparate parts: the free, government-controlled area of Cyprus, and the upper third of the sovereign territory of the Republic that Turkey seized in 1974. Turkey has since held that part under illegal military occupation, and turned it into a rogue breakaway “state” called the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), recognized by Turkey only.
Dilapidated churches like St. Andronikos are a common sight here. As the journalist Michael Jansen observes, the north, full of 12,000 years of history at a key crossroads in the Mediterranean, now looks like a “cultural wasteland.”
Read the rest here Bare Ruined Choirs
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February
3
2010
John Allen, a reporter for the National Catholic Reporter, makes a some interesting observations in his review of French sociologist Olivier Roy’s La Sainte ignorance: Le temps de la religion sans culture (Editions du Seuil 2008; the English translation, Holy Ignorance: When Religion and Culture Diverge, is scheduled for release in May 2010, Columbia University Press). Allen is trying to make sense of what he (and others) calls “evangelical Catholicism” or that movement within the Catholic Church that seeks “a strong reassertion of traditional Catholic identity coupled with an impulse to express that identity in the public realm.”
Based on Roy’s work, Allen argues that evangelical Catholicism is part of a broader impulse among religious believers to revive a “traditional identity and . . . to proclaim that identity in public.” Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism all have their own evangelical movements. And so parallel to “the explosive growth of Evangelical and Pentecostal forms of Christianity,” we see “the success of Salafism, Tablighi Jamaat and neo-Sufism within Islam, the comeback of the Lubavich movement inside Judaism, as well as the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in India and the popularity of Sri Lankan theravada Buddhism.”
While there certainly are difference among these movements, they nevertheless according to Allen share common characteristics. He quotes Roy as saying common to all these movements is “The individualization of faith, anti‐intellectualism, a stress on salvation and realization of the self, [and] rejection of the surrounding culture as pagan.”
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February
2
2010
And the Studies Show . . .
It’s been a good period for the release of new sociological/statistical studies of issues important to Catholics [and Orthodox Christians!]:
- Pornography Undermines Marriages: A study by Patrick Fagan of the Family Research Council.
- Abstinence Education Decreases Promiscuity: A study published in one of the journals of the American Medical Association
- Catholic Higher Education Doesn’t Strengthen Faith: A study by ACCU/CARA which confirms the crisis in Catholic university education.
via Catholic Culture : Commentary : Insights.
February
1
2010
A complex and controversial figure, Dr. Williams has been widely criticized in both Orthodox and conservative Anglican circles, particularly for his writings on homosexual unions (especially in his 1989 paper “The Body’s Grace”), and his promulgation of arguments in favor of the ordination of women, beginning at the 1988 Lambeth Conference. Conversely, he has equally challenged liberal theologians and post-modern atheists: he defended the bodily resurrection of Christ in the face of Anglican Bishop John Shelby Spong’s ridicule of the doctrine, and has poked holes in the logic of Richard Dawkins, author of popular anti-theistic books, including The God Delusion.
Press Release, St Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary
Criticism is easy. Significantly harder is to find common ground in the midst of disagreement. This is especially so, as in the current case, when the disagreements seem as sharp as those between the Orthodox Church and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams. And yet in inviting Archbishop Williams to present the 27th annual Father Alexander Schmemann Memorial Lecture St Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary has attempted to do just that, to find the common ground for reconciliation.
Not that this has been without controversy. Many in the Orthodox Church are angry and hurt because St Vladimir’s didn’t simply invite Williams to speak but granted him an honorary doctorate as well. While I sympathize with those who disagree with the Seminary’s decision, I also think that, as I said earlier, this decision has brought to the surface the underlying lack of trust that has gripped the American Orthodox Church.
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January
31
2010
Not that it matters much in the ultimate scheme of things, but according to the site tracking company Alexa.com, Kononia is now securely within the top 1,000,000 sites world wide with a rank of 861,540. Among US sites, it has a popularity rank of 136,152. So somewhat to my surprise and delight, this is a VERY popular blog! All I can say is thank God and thank all of you for your support!
In Christ,
+Fr Gregory
