The Pan-­”Orthodox Episcopal Assembly for the British Isles and Ireland has considered the Government’s proposed changes to the law relating to civil marriage and welcomes the opportunity to respond to the public consultation on this important matter. We recognise that we live in a pluralistic society and we value the traditional tolerance of British society in which we enjoy freedom to practise and witness in accordance with our Orthodox Christian faith. At the same time, we cannot be indifferent to the evident signs of the negative consequences of the weakening of the traditional understanding of family life that has undeniably occurred in the last fifty years or so. The tragically high rates of family breakdown and divorce, of teenage pregnancy and abortions and of single-­”parent families are painful to contemplate. The early sexualisation of children and indeed, the loss of childhood itself, fill us with concern for the future of our society.

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The skinny dissident is thrown headfirst into a police van by camouflage-clad officers. Nearby, a dozen bearded men bearing Russian Orthodox crosses and wearing skull-and-crossbones T-shirts cheer on the cops.

It’s the latest flare-up in a growing feud pitting supporters of the influential church, which sees itself as the nation’s spiritual guide, against opponents who say the church has sold out to Vladimir Putin ”” becoming an arm of his regime more interested in gold than souls.

Roman Dobrokhotov was on his way to Christ the Savior Cathedral, Russia’s biggest church, to protest against the arrest of members of female punk rock band Pussy Riot. They were jailed in early March for belting out an anti-Putin “punk prayer” in front of the church’s gilded altar wearing garishly colored balaclavas.

Read it all.

Hopes that Arab Christians can enjoy full recognition in their countries’ post-revolution politics appear to have suffered a setback. The political parties that have swept to power in Egypt and Tunisia are attempting to define their nations in narrow ethno-religious terms ”“ as Islamic with sharia as the principal source of law. In Tunisia, for example, the constitution explicitly prohibits Christians from fielding candidates in the presidential election.

Attacks against Coptic churches and Christians in Egypt have increased during and since the revolution, and Arab Christians have allegedly been attacked in Syria. This has led to much soul-searching in the Arab Christian community, whose numbers and political influence have dwindled significantly over the past two decades owing to significant bouts of emigration.

Read it all.

Close links between the Greek state and the Orthodox Church are turning from a blessing for the clergy into a curse as the debt-laden government struggles to fund the ancient institution, just as impoverished Greeks need its charitable work most.

Starved of money as the state makes huge spending cuts, the deeply conservative church which grew from one of the earliest centres of Christianity is seeking new sources of funds.

Read it all.

Almost every year for over one hundred years on the Saturday before Orthodox Easter, the main street in Ramallah has been overtaken by marching boy scouts and girl scouts banging drums and blowing trumpets before tens of thousands of onlookers.

It isn’t much of a parade. The music is as loud and out of tune as it is enthusiastic. Yet I try never to miss Sabt el Nour and the rowdy procession celebrating the miraculous light that beamed from Christ’s tomb in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the Old City of Jerusalem the day before his resurrection.

Read it all and do not miss the fantastic picture.

This morning the smoke of incense is still dissipating from thousands of churches around the country and the world where, last night, the Great Vigil of Easter was celebrated. This service ”” which begins with a bonfire and continues with readings, psalms, prayers, baptisms and the first mass of the Easter season, all ending (typically) with a big late-night meal to break the fast of Lent ”” was, in the first centuries of Christian history, the central event in the worshiping life of the Church. Today it’s an observance that appeals primarily to liturgy geeks (myself very much included), an unwieldy and time-consuming festival that dramatically complicates one’s plans for baked hams and Easter baskets.

Strange as the Easter Vigil may seem today, it hasn’t lost its original purpose: welcoming new believers into the body of the faithful. What is so powerful about the Easter Vigil, apart from the sheer sensory experience of it, is the way it intertwines the whole story of the Bible with the passing over of Jesus from death on Good Friday to resurrection on Easter. And the men and women who have been preparing for baptism (called “catechumens,” or hearers) step into these entwined stories on Saturday night, just as men and women did back when Christianity was a minor cult of the Roman world.

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…for the Apostle Paul, diversity, not uniformity, in every aspect of human life and language and culture, characterizes the unity and catholicity of the church (1 Corinthians 12:12-31). His own speech, he admits, is “not with plausible words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power” (1 Corinthians 2:4).

“Interestingly,” Tim [Griffin] writes, “for purposes of both ecumenical and interfaith discussions, this approach of humble shared ignorance provides a basis of shared experience. We can begin to see that the categories from which we, as Christians and as Episcopalians, have expressed our understanding of the Holy are limited and provisional. When we acknowledge that, we may be more willing to “listen and listen” and hear, to paraphrase Isaiah. And we will no doubt be more willing to show radical hospitality when we acknowledge that our practices are simply ways of clothing the mystery.”

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We make our way to the front of the convent, where women in their Sunday best, girls in skimpy mini-skirts and sequin-spangled scarves, boys in tight jeans and leather jackets, and men in suits and ties are zig-zagging their way down flights of stone steps with black iron railings decorated with crosses. We pause until the flow subsides before climbing to a landing, where the priest awaits us.

Fr George Nijmeh is a portly, balding man wearing a black pullover with sparkly threads over his cassock.

He echoes the words of Mansour: “The Virgin Mary protected us. Today’s service had many more people than previous prayers. Prayer is among the weapons protecting us and driving away the black cloud hanging over Syria.”

He adds: “We should not have fighting in Syria but there are lots of interests who seek to sabotage our country….”

Read it all.

Check them out–24 in all.

Christians are by far the largest religious group on the planet, and the religion has gone truly global over the past century, according to a new report out Monday, which finds some of the world’s biggest Christian communities in surprising places.

Europe was the clear center of world Christianity one hundred years ago, but today the Americas are home to more than a third of all Christians. In fact, the United States has the world’s largest Christian population, of more than 247 million, followed by Brazil and Mexico.

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Church leaders from ecumenical councils in the U.S. and Cuba wrapped up a five-day meeting in Havana on Friday (Dec. 2) with a call for “normalized relations” between the two countries.

“We declare the following shared conviction: that the half century of animosity between our countries must end,” said a joint statement issued by the National Council of Churches and the Council of Churches of Cuba.

Read it all.

Matthew Garrett makes a living from the tip of his paintbrush.

The 34-year-old paints nearly every day, re-creating scenes from the Bible and heavenly images of the risen Jesus, Christian saints and angels on wood and canvas. He carries forward the ancient tradition of Orthodox Christian iconography in a modest West Boise, Idaho, house that he shares with his wife, Lisa, and her cat, Cecelia.

Garrett has been commissioned by individuals and churches all over the country over the past 17 years, finding jobs through old-fashioned word-of-mouth and through his website. His work is in several churches, among them, St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Boise.

Read it all.

Orthodox Christian Synergy is a pan-Orthodox organization consisting of clergy and lay representatives of Chicago-area Orthodox Christian parishes who seek to project awareness of Orthodox Christianity to the public at large. Synergy works together with its parent organization, the Orthodox Christian Clergy Association of Greater Chicago, and with the blessings of the Chicago-area Orthodox Hierarchs.

The topic of Synergy’s 2011 Symposium was “Orthodox Christianity and Homosexuality,” and featured was Fr. Thomas Hopko, Dean Emeritus of St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Seminary and the author of Christian Faith and Same-Sex Attraction: Eastern Orthodox Reflections. The gathering took place at St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church in Cicero, Illinois, on Saturday, October 15, 2011.

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Ten years after tiny St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church was destroyed by falling rubble from the World Trade Center towers, church leaders reached an agreement Friday (Oct. 14) to rebuild at Ground Zero.

The church, founded by Greek immigrants in 1916, sat in the shadow of the twin towers and was the only religious building to be completely destroyed during the 9/11 attacks.

Under the agreement brokered by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the church agreed to drop a lawsuit filed in February against the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which controls rebuilding at Ground Zero.

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ICAOTD is deepening and consolidating its work on a joint study of the theological riches, in Scripture and our traditions, of the understanding of the nature of the human person, created in the image and likeness of God. From this understanding flow many implications which are of particular importance to our world today. These relate directly to human rights, ecology, the environment and agricultural practices, and the questions that arise around the ethics concerning the beginning and the end of human life, the nature and relationship of man and woman, technology, and the constant warfare that plagues many parts of the globe. At this meeting the Commission developed a framework for its fundamental theological work on the question of the human person.

In the course of their discussions and in intercessory prayers members of the Commission were made aware of the violation of human rights taking place in many parts of the world, and expressed great concern.

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Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, known for over a century now by his Bolshevik nom-de-guerre, Lenin, was one of history’s greatest mass murderers. In the course of his ruthless efforts to impose communism on Russia and its neighbors through brutal force, terror, and extra-judicial homicides in the millions, he became one of the greatest persecutors of the Christian Church in two millennia. Lenin’s minions killed more Christians in a slow week than the last of the great Roman persecutors, Diocletian, did in years. All this is thoroughly documented””to the point where Russian Orthodoxy considers many of Lenin’s victims as martyrs and saints and celebrates their feasts in its liturgical calendar.

And yet today’s Russian Orthodox leadership cannot bring itself to say that this monster’s mummified corpse should cease, immediately, being an object of curiosity or veneration?

Read it all.

[Archbishop] Dmitri [Royster] made that Knoxville trip to ordain yet another priest in his diocese, which grew from a dozen parishes to 70 during his three decades. The 87-year-old missionary died last Sunday (Aug. 28) in Dallas, in his simple bungalow ”” complete with leaky kitchen roof ”” next to Saint Seraphim Cathedral, the parish he founded in 1954.

Parishioners were worried the upstairs floor might buckle under the weight of those praying around his deathbed.

The future archbishop was raised Southern Baptist in the town of Teague, Texas, before moving to Dallas. As teens, Royster and his sister became intrigued with the history of the major Christian holidays and began visiting a variety of churches, including an Orthodox parish. The services were completely in Greek, but they joined anyway ”” decades before evangelical-to-Orthodox conversions became common….

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In view of the tragically difficult times that the whole Middle East, and especially Syria, is going through, H. B. Patriarch Gregorios III wrote a letter on 20 April 2011 to Western leaders, asking them to help boost social and political evolution in the region. He stressed that the current revolutions are unlikely to benefit Christians, and may even result in more Christians being obliged to flee the unrest. He believes that Western support for peace is very important for Muslim-Christian living together in the Arab region, for the Christian presence there, for the communion and witness of its Churches to be maintained and for the aims of the recent Special Assembly for the Middle East of the Synod of Bishops to be fulfilled.

From April, but still relevant–read it all.

(Please note that this was produced by the voluntary hard work of a blog reader. We are incredibly grateful to him/her for his/her efforts since not everyone has been able to listen to the full audio the link for which was posted earlier. Readers are welcome to check it against the audio and please if you would be so kind let us know if there are any corrections–KSH).

Sharing Good News and Building the Church Today

Address of His Beatitude Anastasios, Archbishop of Tirana, Durrës and All Albania to the General Synod of the Church of England 8th June 2011

Introduction by the Archbishop of Canterbury:
The first of our guests is going to be speaking to us in fact by my invitation shortly and that is His Beatitude Archbishop Anastasios of Tirana, Durrës and All Albania who has been head of the Orthodox Church of Albania since 1992 and is also Orthodox President of the World Council of Churches. [Applause]
”¦
As I’ve said, Archbishop Anastasios has kindly agreed to address Synod, and I will now invite him to join me on the platform. For those of you who do not know the extraordinary recent history of the Orthodox Church in Albania, I think I should say that Archbishop Anastasios has been instrumental in reviving a church which had virtually disappeared in Albania during the years of communist rule. The church had suffered acute persecution and privation. In the last decade and more it has revived to the extent of restoring many buildings, putting up impressive new buildings for worship and for service. It has extended to an extraordinary extent, its work with schools and with young people and has continued to play a crucial part in the renewal of the life of the whole country.
This great revival owes very much indeed to a leader whose spiritual qualities, intellectual qualities, force of personality, humility and sanctity have been a beacon to many across Europe over the years. Archbishop Anastasios began his career in Africa and is a missiologist of note and a theologian. Greek by origin, he has taught theology in a number of contexts and has been able to put that missiological and theological skill to the fullest possible use in the rebirth of the Orthodox Church in Albania.

It is a very great delight to be able to welcome him among us for this occasion. Your Beatitude:
[Applause]

Archbishop Anastasios:
Your Grace, I am thankful for your warm and kind words.

Your Grace, beloved Archbishop Rowan, dear Brother Bishops, Brothers and Sisters it is a particular joy for me to address this noble gathering. I feel first of all the need to express my cordial thanks to their Graces, the Archbishops for the honour of this kind invitation.

The topic I was asked to speak on from experience is: ”˜Sharing Good News and Building the Church Today’ offering some personal reflections. In accordance with this proposal, my remarks will be of a quite personal nature. As you are already aware I have come from Albania, a country that during the previous century experienced a most cruel and long lasting persecution. From 1944 to 1967 this autocephalous church underwent the familiar forms of oppression that all the Orthodox Churches in Eastern Europe suffered. But from 1967 to 1990 for 23 long years an atheistic constitution which banned all expressions of religion brought about the complete dissolution of the church. This is the first special characteristic of our church.

The second is that the Orthodox in Albania do not constitute the majority of citizens as is the case with other Orthodox Churches in Eastern Europe. Nor do they form a very small minority as in various Orthodox patriarchates. According to the last statistics in 1942, 68.9% of the population are Muslims, the Orthodox 20.7% and the Roman Catholics 10.3%. Of course today these numbers are not accurate. From this resurrected missionary Orthodox Church I would like to convey to this eminent gathering, cordial and fraternal greetings.

I had never thought about Albania, and never expected to live in it. All my interest had been focused on Africa, and that is where I was in December 1990 when I received a message from the Ecumenical Patriarchate that I had been elected Patriarchal Exarch, a type of nuncio, to Albania. My task would be to investigate the conditions which obtained after the persecution, as well as the opportunities which existed for starting a new missionary effort, and for reconstituting the Church of Albania. I was greatly surprised and harbored a good many reservations.

It was July 1991 when I arrived for the first time in Albania. Together with a small group of old and harrassed men, we made our way from the airport to the ruined Cathedral of Tirana. In order to express the most essential message of my mission, I asked each one of those present to take a candle, and inquired how to say the greeting ”˜Christ is Risen’ in Albanian? I lit the candle exclaiming ”˜Christium Gal’, that is Christ is Risen! One after the other, the candles of the few believers were lit, and they answered ”˜Vertatum Gal’, Truly He is Risen! And their eyes were full of tears and light.

From then on the exclamation ”˜Christ is Risen’ has become the watchword with which we have advanced all these years with the restoration of the Orthodox Autocephalous Church of Albania from the ruins. This phrase gave light to the mystic Autumns and the darkness of the harsh Winters that followed and it dominates the spiritual Spring that finally God granted to us. As Patriarchal Exarch in Albania I visited as many cities and villages as possible where there had formerly been Orthodox communities. People began to become together and hear the Gospel message and liturgies most of which took place in the open air under trees or in the ruins of old churches. The liturgical life and sermons were the basic means of getting the faithful to attend. The central message of the sermons and of spiritual activities was that Christ crucified, buried and risen is the light of the world, that God does not abandon us, and there is hope, however dark everything may seem.

There followed the creation of a seminary to provide basic theological education for future Albanian clergy. This nursery had to be located in Albania in a hotel despite suggestions that we should send candidates abroad. From similar experiences in Africa, I knew that if we did so, most of them would certainly not return to the difficult conditions in Albania. The most difficult dilemma I faced was when the issue of the election of an Archbishop was raised. This was necessary so that the reconstitution of the local church could be properly effected in ecclesiastical terms. When I was sounded out by the Ecumenical Patriarchate, I replied: ”˜If the Orthodox in Albania really want it, if you endorse it, and finally if the government accepts it, then I will give it serious thought. I had already become aware of how harsh the place was and that there was no infrastructure whatsoever. The ground was stony and inhospitable. The old establishment of the atheistic state was very powerful and active. Failure seemed certain.

In the end, after much thought and prayer I decided to take the risk, in the certain knowledge that what was principally required of me at that critical and historical moment was Fidelity to the Will of God, not success in itself. In the spiritual life, freedom from fear is of particular importance. Love casts out fear, even the fear of failure.

My election as Archbishop of Albania took place on 24th June 1992. Conditions were so adverse, I did not find a room to stay or even a piece of paper from the archives of the past. At first my assistant and I stayed in a hotel, later in a sparce flat. There was no guaranteed source of funds. The steady income we had was my salary from the University of Athens where I was a professor for 20 years. In the end though, funds arrived from unexpected places, and these allowed us to meet our immediate needs. We were faced with another serious problem as regards the reconstitution of a united Orthodox autocephalous church. The individual Orthodox communities were not all of the same national background. Apart from Albanian communities there were Greek – Slavs, and so on. In the transitional period after the collapse of the atheistic regime there was lively interest on the part of certain nationalistic Serbs in the Balkans in affiliating these communities and taking them into their own national churches. This could have undermined the creation of a strong local church. Thanks to God, in the end all Orthodox irrespective of origin agreed to join the Orthodox Autocephalous Church of Albania. I often repeated: ”˜A forest is not more beautiful if it only has one kind of tree, what is needful is that all should be free to grow as their potential permits.’

A fundamental element in Christian missionary work throughout the centuries has been the construction of places of worship so that hymns and thanksgiving can be raised to God in the ages of ages. Hundreds of churches had been destroyed or converted to other uses. We were concerned therefore to build new churches in places where old ones had been demolished. Altogether 150 new churches were built, and at the same time, 60 dilapidated cultural monuments were restored. As well as this, in many villages 160 small churches were repaired, as were about 70 buildings built to house the administration of the dioceses, schools, medical centres and various institutions. This broader construction activity contributed to the provision of work for thousands of workers with benefits for a corresponding number of families as well as for the economy of the country in general.

In the administrative sphere, apart from the establishment of the Holy Synod, and the creation of a local Albanian clergy – around 150, about 460 parishes were organised in towns and villages. As well as these, a new Consitutional Charter of the Church was drawn up which reflected the new democratic period in Albania. This included significant new elements such as the participation of the laity, women and youth in the various councils and also at the same time an accord was reached with the government, which was passed into law, which guaranteed autonomy of administration and action for the Church. You understand, that these things in a Muslim country are not so easy.

Because of the total lack of religious literature in the Albanian language, one of our first priorities was to make translations and to set up a publishing house with its own press as well as a radio station and website. The interest of our church was directed in particular to the younger generation. In this traditional transitional period, young people are faced with an enormous vacuum. From the old illusion of the communist paradise they have been led to the illusion of the capitalist paradise without moral inhibitions, and yet thousands of young people have responded to our invitation. In this way, these young people do not represent merely the future of the church, but also the present.

In order to develop a liturgical conscience and Orthodox spirituality we insisted on the need for the continuation of the experience of the Divine Liturgy in everyday life through the extension of the liturgy after Liturgy, a notion that we have first introduced in the early 70’s so that the whole of life will be transformed into a personal liturgical expression in which we will share in thanksgiving the gift we receive with those people who God brings to us.

Thus initiatives were also undertaken from the very earliest year for the involvement of the Orthodox Church in social developments. In particular in matters of social welfare: the provision of the agnostic centre for people of all religions and none, more than one million came during these years; education ”“ primary and secondary schools, technical education and also the core of a new university; agricultural development; culture; and ecology. With all these activities, the church transmits the Gospel of Love in a silent way, to various strata of the population. Besides, when in 1999 [ it is another example] thousands of refugees from Kosovo flooded into Albania, the Orthodox Church in collaboration with other European churches sustained more than 33,000 Muslim refugees. We have cultivated genuine respect for diversity among all human persons and groups of citizens; cultivating relations of peaceful coexistence with other religious communities, Muslim or Christians; but also with those who continue to be completely indifferent or even hostile towards religion. Acceptance of others in sincere love, irrespective of what or if they believe, has been a firm principle for us.

In the midst of the multi-religious situation of Albania, apart from the emphasis on the Christian Credo, we underlined our conviction that of all the religions or philosophical proposals relative to the value and future of humanity, the boldest and most magnificent remains that of Christianity. It insists on the incarnation of the supreme being of the God of love and of the progress of the people towards deification by grace.

We Christians declare that Christ is the light of the world, that the Trinity as a whole is light. Regarding the people of various faiths, in respect of the above symbolism of light, we are thinking many times, that the new wealth of scientific knowledge regarding the nature of created light has given great breadth to the symbolism of the astonishing effects of spiritual light in the world. The fundamental particle of light, the photon, occupies a special place among the particles of matter and energy that make up the world in the form of photons or electromagnetic waves. Light exists and acts in the most remote spot of the universe which we cannot imagine. Equally, the Divine Light can also be active in cases and places where the human mind does not suspect. The light of Christ, the light of the Holy Spirit is recognisable and familiar as is the natural light, but is at the same time inconceivable and inaccessible in His essence. God is called light not according to His essence but according to His energy as St Gregory Palamas explains, and while the essence of God remains inaccessible, all who so desire may participate in His energy.

From the very first years, we made it a priority not only to have cordial relations with the other Orthodox Churches, but also to become members of the Conference of European Churches, and the World Council of Churches and to have bilateral relations with the Roman Catholic Church, and I am very thankful that in these bodies I have the opportunity to have friendship with excellent members of your own Synod.

We were presenting a double message internally, that even though we are a minority, we still belong to a wider global family which monitors our struggles and supports us; and externally that the Church which had been in dissolution for decades is now participating actively in global Christian development.

As far as the future of the ecumenical movement is concerned, I believe that we must avoid both the euphoria of overoptimism and unwarranted disappointment. Our responsibility for the development of the modern world is all the clearer and rapprochement and collaboration among Christians more imperitive. God has opened new horizons for the common actions of Christians such as the issues of world peace, justice and the sustainment of the creation supported by the profound assurance of the faith in Him who is indeed the creator of the Universe, the true being, by the truth and love which he revealed to us in their plenitude. We Christians, we dare to hope, and in this new phase of global history in the midst of pressing problems, we proclaim with boldness: there is hope in our efforts for unity; there is hope in the common battle for peace and justice, when we insist together on the obligation of solidarity between people and peoples, when we intensify our common efforts for unfailing respect for the creation. In the end through the power of the crucified and risen Lord Christ, truth, justice and love will prevail.

Let us not trouble over the future, the future belongs to Christ. He is the one who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty, and he is coming again, from the future.

When we discuss the theme of sharing, my thoughts go to the two lakes of Palestine, the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. Those two lakes have a principal feature in common and a basic difference. Both receive the water or the River Jordan. The first, the Sea of Galilee receives the water and offers it to fertilise the Southern regions. The second, the Dead Sea receives the water but keeps it for itself. In the first there is plenty of life within its waters and around them. In the second, there is no sign of life, and we know that our Lord had nothing to do with the Dead Sea. He started his public mission and performed many of his miracles in the area of the Sea of Galilee.

We Christians have the privilege of receiving continuously the living water of the spiritual Jordan. We receive a great many gifts, spiritual and material. If we keep them only for ourselves, for our communities, for our family, for our nations, we shall lose them. The Dead Sea remains the symbol of what it means merely to receive and keep for oneself. If we offer, we shall be like the Sea of Galilee, full of life. Receiving and sharing is the secret for having life, The Life. Thank you.
[Applause]

Jaroslav Pelikan, an important historical theologian who became Orthodox late in life, once told me, “You evangelicals talk too much about Jesus and don’t spend enough time thinking about the Holy Trinity.” Can one talk too much about Jesus?

I would not want to contrast faith in Jesus with faith in the Holy Trinity. My faith in Jesus is precisely that I believe him to be not only truly human, but also to be the eternal Son of God. I cannot think of a faith in Jesus that does not also involve faith in God the Father.

How is Jesus present to us personally at this moment? How is it that he is not merely a figure from the distant past, but that he also lives in my own life? That is through the Holy Spirit. Therefore, I cannot understand a faith in Jesus Christ that would not also involve faith in the Holy Spirit.

I don’t think we can have too much faith in Jesus. But faith in Jesus, if it is to be truly such, is necessarily Trinitarian. If you look at the lives of the Orthodox saints, you will find a very vivid faith in Jesus. Their affirmation of the Trinity did not in any way diminish their sense of Jesus as their personal Savior.

Read it all.

A Russian pro-life organization is about to launch a network of clinics offering pre- and post-natal care while excluding procedures such as abortion and in-vitro fertilization that “contradict the teachings of the Russian Orthodox, Catholic and traditional Protestant churches,” said Alexey Komov, the project manager.

Read it all.

With cries of “Rebuild now! Rebuild Now!” parishioners and supporters of a Greek Orthodox church that was destroyed in the 9/11 attacks rallied at Ground Zero on Sunday (June 26) in hopes of resuming negotiations to rebuild the church.

St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey have been at odds for several years over the cost and exact location of the rebuilt church.

“Shame on the Port Authority to take this long to rebuild our church,” Nicholas A. Karacostas, supreme president of the American Hellenic Educational Progressive Association, a national Greek-American group, at a rally that drew about 100 people to the site of the former World Trade Center.

Read it all.

My Western background left me completely unprepared for this Eastern take on the feast of the gift of the Spirit to the Church. In Western Churches, Pentecost particularly focuses on the “fire” of the Holy Spirit lighting on the disciples in the upper room and the “empowerment” of the Church for mission. Traditionally in the West, the color of the feast is red (for the fire).

In the East, the color of the feast is green ”“ which is also the color worn for the feast days of monastic saints. In the West, green is the “ordinary” color worn in the “in between” Sundays and weekdays of the Calendar. For the Orthodox, gold serves this function.

Read it all.

Fr. Kimel is to be ordained into the Orthodox Church on Pentecost Sunday (i.e. today) by Bishop Jerome of the Russian Church Abroad, for the Western Rite.

For those of you who may not know, Al is the former rector of Holy Communion, Charleston, S.C. In 1998 it was written about him:

Father Alvin Kimel, Jr. became the 15th rector of the parish in November 1996. He is a scholar and accomplished liturgist. His efforts include an emphasis on improving music to complement the choral Eucharist and to generally raise the beauty of worship. Father Kimel is a superb teacher from the pulpit, in the classroom, and by published worship aid always available in the Church. He is well on his way to a successful ministry and the future of the Church of the Holy Communion looks bright.

A number of years later, Al wrote about himself:

Al Kimel… was a parish priest in the Episcopal Church for twenty-five years. He has published articles in the Anglican Theological Review, Sewanee Theological Review, Interpretation, Scottish Journal of Theology, Worship, Faith & Philosophy, Pro Ecclesia, and First Things. He has also edited two books: Speaking the Christian God and This is My Name Forever. He began [the blog] Pontifications in March 2004 as a way to reflect on the meaning of the Church and to invite others to share in these reflections. In June 2005 he entered into full communion with the Catholic Church. On 3 December 2006 he was ordained a priest in the Catholic Church. He is currently serving as the lay Catholic chaplain at Kean University in Union, New Jersey.

I found an article about Al’s Roman Catholic ordination (with a picture of some of the family) here.

…recent ecumenical contacts by [Hilarion Alfeyev, the] high-profile representative of the Moscow Patriarchate[,] is evidence that times are changing. Time after time, during meetings with evangelical leaders and others here in America, Hilarion has stressed that it is time for Orthodox leaders to cooperate with traditional Catholics, evangelical Protestants and others who are trying to defend ancient moral truths in the public square.

“I am here in order to find friends and in order to find allies in our common combat to defend Christian values,” said the 44-year-old archbishop, who became a monk after serving in the Soviet army. He also speaks six languages, holds an Oxford University doctorate in philosophy and is an internationally known composer of classical music.

For too long, Orthodox leaders have remained silent. The goal now, he said, is to find ways to cooperate with other religious groups that want to “keep the traditional lines of Christian moral teaching, who care about the family, who care about such notions as marital fidelity, as giving birth to and bringing up children and in the value of human life from conception until natural death.”

Read it all.

Watch it all.

BOB ABERNETHY, host: For Eastern Orthodox Christians this is Great Lent, the 40-day period of strict fasting leading up to Easter. The Orthodox are supposed to observe fasts of one kind or another nearly all year; no meat on some days, no dairy or oil on others. Their calendars serve as reminders. The discipline of fasting is supposed to help focus the mind on God and bring the person fasting closer to God. Catherine Mandell of Clearfield, Pennsylvania talked with us about her family’s fasts.

CATHERINE MANDELL: The church generally gives us a calendar to help us track those days that we are to fast and which days we’re allowed not to fast. We have several others fasting periods during the year. If you take all those days together you are fasting for more than half the year….

Read or watch it it all.

Faith is a journey and facing doubts is part of the journey, according to Frank Schaeffer, a best-selling New York Times author and popular blogger for the Huffington Post.

Schaeffer will present a workshop “Articulating an Authentic Faith for People Who Don’t Like Religion (or Atheism)” on Saturday, sharing his journey from conservative evangelical beliefs to joining the Eastern Orthodox Church.

“I tell people my own doubts, my own story. People aren’t used to hearing people share doubts,” Schaeffer said Monday in a phone interview.

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Is the ecumenical project alive and well?

In Russia? As the Holy Father said in his recent book when he gave the long interview to the German journalist that there are number of people in Russia who are frightened of the Catholic Church. Not only because of the many centuries of division, but because unfortunately the Orthodox know very little about the Catholic Church and the Catholic faithful in Russia they know little about the Orthodox Church. From the beginning of my mission in Russia I wanted to be present at the liturgy of His Holiness the Patriarch every year to give him a gesture of respect as he is the head of the most important Church in Russia and considering also the meaning, the importance of Orthodox spirituality and the suffering the Russian people have passed through many decades of atheism and persecution. They have had a sad fate, with a high toll of martyrs and people who lost their lives for Jesus.

Will one of your tasks be improving relations with the Church of England in the wake of Anglicanorum coetibus?

I have not yet met His Grace, the Archbishop of Canterbury, but we have an appointment at the beginning of the next month. From what I know the official relations are very good and very friendly. On the other hand, we understand that this passage is a delicate matter, not only for the Catholic side but also the Anglican side, and so the Holy See wants to make clear that we are ready to accept them, but we don’t want to incite them to leave their identities as Anglican faithful.

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Jonah’s move to Washington strikes at the core of the traditional Eastern Orthodox reluctance to be on the front lines of the culture wars, much less political conflicts. The religion’s 1 million American adherents, who remain split into 20 separate ethnic groups, are more likely known to the general public as sponsors of bazaars featuring Slavic or Mediterranean food, crafts and dancing than as societal firebrands.

“Orthodox Christianity tends to be heavily theological and more concerned with matters of doctrine, liturgy and belief than evangelical Protestants and certainly the conservative Christian right,” said Rabbi Niles Goldstein, a senior fellow at the Utah-based Foundation for Interreligious Diplomacy. “They’re wrestling with how to find this balance between Christianity and activism, which makes it difficult for them to speak with a unified voice on social policy and foreign affairs.”

But Jonah sees American Orthodoxy at a crossroads where the choice is either to remain in ethnic enclaves and be irrelevant or jump into the stream of culture and politics and make a difference. He dreams of Orthodox Americans speaking out “as a conscience for the culture.” They would have clout in Congress, advocating for persecuted Orthodox around the world, such as the Egyptian Copts. They would stand equal with evangelical Protestants and Roman Catholics in opposing abortion, same-sex marriage, cloning and euthanasia. St. Nicholas would be a hive of missionary work and outreach.

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