Byzantine, Texas

ASTANA, Kazakhstan, NOV. 30, 2010 ( Zenit.org ) - Benedict XVI's secretary of state is in Kazakhstan delivering relics of the Apostle St. Andrew to both the Catholic and Orthodox Churches there. Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone is on a six-day trip to the nation, coinciding with the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) summit. The journey also coincides with today's feast of St. Andrew, making the delivery of the relics particularly timely. In a homily at the Orthodox Cathedral of the Assumption in Astana, the cardinal spoke of Kazakhstan as "a country in which there are ample possibilities for a peaceful and profitable religious coexistence. In this context, for us Christians the duty of reciprocal love is all the more urgent: We are called, in fact, to give witness to all, with words and works, that God is Love. [...] Propitious occasions are not lacking, dear friends, of mutual support and of deepening of friendship." The Catholic Church i...

Constantinople ( AsiaNews ) – Coming on the eve of the feast day of Saint Andrew the Apostle, the return of the Buyukada orphanage is extremely significant for Orthodox Christians and marks an important moment for Turkish Christians. A Vatican delegation led by Cardinal Kurt Koch attends the celebrations. The Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarchate celebrated its foremost feast day today, the day of Saint Andrew, the Apostle of Constantinople, but it also marked the successful end of a legal battle with the Turkish state over the Buyukada orphanage. The Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, after meeting with a delegation from the Holy See led by newly appointed Cardinal Kurt Koch, the new president of the Council for Christian Unity, expressed his emotions in an interview with AsiaNews. “Today is a great day for our Great Mother Church. The orphanage on Princes Island (Buyukada) has been given back to us. What we inherited from our ancestors has also been returned to us. We could not tole...

Troparion - Tone 4 Andrew, first-called of the Apostles and brother of the foremost disciple, entreat the Master of all to grant peace to the world and to our souls great mercy. Kontakion - Tone 2 Let us praise Andrew, the herald of God, the namesake of courage, the first-called of the Savior's disciples and the brother of Peter. As he once called to his brother, he now cries out to us: "Come, for we have found the One whom the world desires!"

From Touchstone's Mere Comments ... The "pro-gay" agenda is the default position so: Apple Pulls anti-gay app from iTunes store . As has been pointed out: first, mere toleration of a behavior, then, acceptance of it, then, required affirmation of it...followed by censorship for criticism of it, then punishment for criticism. (But it is a private company.) (Written from an Apple/Mac computer....) Oh, the "anti-gay app" happens to be the Manhattan Declaration .

In the tremendously atheist country of Estonia two Orthodox Churches wrestle with one another for property, acknowledgement from the autonomous Churches, and with one another. One is connected to Moscow and the other, to some seen as the upstart, is connected to Constantinople. In giving witness to an areligious populace the obvious discord between two Orthodox bodies is a powerful impediment to spreading the good news. Add to this a flood of Protestant and Mormon missionaries and you see the need for a speedy resolution to the problem. ( mospat.ru ) - Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, the DECR chairman, answered questions of the journalists during press conference held at the Department for External Church Relations on November 25. As to the relations with the Patriarchate of Constantinople, he said: “The achieved level of mutual understanding is rather high. Both sides are trying to enhance this level in order to move from competition and mistrust to mutual trust and the system ...

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Almost like clockwork, every 4 months another story comes out from an Orthodox or Catholic source on the possible meeting of the Patriarch of Moscow and the Pope of Rome. Often a reporter will put together an overly sanguine story that states that a meeting is just around the corner. Rome will then say they are always open to such an event and Moscow will say that no such meeting is planned and that there are many "difficulties" that must be overcome first (proselytism in Orthodox countries, expansion of Greek Catholics, etc.). Then, about a year ago, the Moscow Patriarchate took a different approach. Metropolitan Hilarion, cognizant that the theological and ecclesiological divide separating the two Churches was too vast to be bridged any time soon, put the emphasis on fighting secularism and defending traditional Christian morality. Now, knowing reunion is not a "just around the corner" reality, the two sides can work together while not becoming mired in constant d...

( Reuters ) - Egypt's attorney general ordered the detention of 156 protesters involved in clashes with riot police after the authorities blocked construction of a church in a Cairo suburb, the official news agency MENA said on Thursday. One Christian (latest reports now say two) was killed and dozens were wounded in Giza on Wednesday when about 3,000 Orthodox Copts hurled stones at police lines. Some officers threw them back and Muslims also lobbed rocks at the Christian protesters from behind the security cordon. The attorney general decided to hold the 156 protesters for 15 days on suspicion of inciting the riots, MENA reported. It did not say whether they had been formally charged. Some Christians demonstrated near the church and others near the Giza governor's office on Wednesday. Christians make up 10 percent of Egypt's 79 million people. The Interior Ministry said at least 112 protesters had been detained in the Giza area, where the authorities had halted ...

From the blog Deb on the Run . I found this hilarious. No pictures were taken today. We were just too busy. But, it was a joyous time together. Oldest daughter and her husband came and brought along a friend from school who couldn’t get home this weekend. My daughter’s in-laws also joined us. It was happy time around the table …especially because we celebrated our son’s 21st birthday today too. My favorite moment though was when I was preparing the turkey and slathering it with oil. My 19 yr old came up behind me and said to the turkey in an accent…”Now you are Greek.”

( RISU ) - On November 27, to commemorate victims of the Holodomor and political repressions in Ukraine, everyone is invited to take part in the national event "Light a Candle for the Victims of the Holodomor." At 4 p.m. people are asked to light candles in their homes in memory of those who perished during the Holodomor of 1932-1933 in Ukraine and all those affected by the communist totalitarian regime in Ukraine in 1917-1991. November 25-28, 11 countries will hold events to commemorate the victims of Holodomor of 1932-33. Previously the hierarchs of the Ukrainian Catholic and Orthodox Churches of the United States and Canada published a joint pastoral message calling the Ukrainians of the world to honor the 77th anniversary of the Holodomor, which was perpetuated by Joseph Stalin and the Soviet regime against the people of Ukraine in 1932-33. "We will pray together for the souls of the over 7 million victims of this man-made famine. We will raise our collectiv...

( cbc.ca ) - Archbishop Kenneth William Storheim, who has held positions in a number of Canadian communities with the Orthodox Church in America, has been arrested and charged in Winnipeg with two counts of sexual assault. Storheim, 64, turned himself in to Winnipeg police at about 9:30 a.m. CT on Wednesday, police announced Thursday. Storheim has been released from custody on a promise to appear in court on Jan. 10. In October, CBC News reported he stepped down as head of the Canadian diocese of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA) amid allegations of sexual abuse involving pre-teen boys. In a statement released on the OCA website in October, church officials said Storheim was on a leave of absence as police in Canada investigated abuse claims. The allegations are 25 years old, according to Const. Robert Carver of the Winnipeg Police Service, which was leading the investigation. A warrant for Storheim's arrest was issued Nov. 16, police said. Storheim flew to the c...

Fr. Elias Yelovich, who was recently removed from the Antiochian Archdiocese for vocal disagreement with the recent actions of Met. Philip, has joined a non-canonical, Old Calendarist diocese. For more information on this story, please see here . ( Milan-USA ) - The Reverend Father Elias Yelovich was received into the Archdiocese of New York and New Jersey of the Autonomous Metropolia of Western Europe and the Americas yesterday, November 11/24 by Archbishop John at Holy Name Abbey, West Milford, NJ. He will pastor a new mission in Orrtanna, Pennsylvania, with the Entrance of the Holy Theotokos into the Temple as the parish feast. Fr Elias is 60 years old and was previously a priest of the Antiochian Archdiocese. Many Years to Fr Elias and his new mission!

From the Glory to God for All Things Akathist... Life-giving and merciful Trinity, receive my thanksgiving for all Thy goodness. Make us worthy of Thy blessings, so that, when we have brought to fruit the talents Thou hast entrusted to us, we may enter into the joy of our Lord, forever exulting in the shout of victory: Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! (thrice) I was born a weak, defenseless child, but Thine angel spread his wings over my cradle to defend me. From birth until now Thy love has illumined my path, and has wondrously guided me towards the light of eternity; from birth until now the generous gifts of Thy providence have been marvelously showered upon me. I give Thee thanks, with all who have come to know Thee, who call upon Thy name. Glory to Thee for calling me into being Glory to Thee, showing me the beauty of the universe Glory to Thee, spreading out before me heaven and earth Like the pages in a book of eternal wisdom Glory to Thee for Thine eternity in this fle...

( CNN ) -- A Catholic priest, facing criminal charges and a lawsuit alleging that he sexually abused a teenage boy, is now charged with attempting to hire someone to kill the youth, authorities said Tuesday. The Rev. John M. Fiala was in the Dallas County, Texas, jail on Tuesday, charged with one count of criminal solicitation to commit capital murder, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety and the jail's website. He also is charged with two counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child. His bail totals $700,000. Fiala, 52, of Dallas, was out on bond on other sexual assault charges involving the youth, now 18, when he allegedly attempted to negotiate the boy's murder, said Tom Rhodes, the teen's attorney. He was arrested last week after he offered an undercover agent with the Texas Department of Public Safety $5,000 to kill the teen, according to department spokeswoman Lisa Block. "This guy," Edwards County Sheriff Don Letsinger said, "...

Tonight I will be attending the famous and beloved Thanksgiving Akathist also often called the 'Glory to God for All Things' Akathist as it gets its name from the words of St. John Chrysostom as he was dying in exile (his last words in fact). The Akathist has been at times ascribed to Protopresbyter Gregory Petrov (a priest who died in a Soviet prison camp in 1940) as it was found in his possession after his death in samizdat form. Metropolitan Tryphon of Turkestan is said to have been the actual author of it around 1934 (shortly before his death). In looking for a version to print out for the children (I like to talk with them a little before services like this so they have some understanding of what they are hearing) I noted there are quite a few versions available online. Here are three: From St. Jonah Orthodox Church in Spring, TX - The most commonly referenced online. St. Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church in McKinney, TX - This is another popular source. Antioch...

( Daylife ) - A drug addict prays next to an Orthodox priest at the Spaso-Preobrazhenskiy rehabilitation centre for drug addicts in the village of Temnolesskaya, some 30 km (19 miles) from Stavropol, November 13, 2010. The centre was founded in 2004 and built by former drug addicts with the support of Orthodox church.

( Daylife ) - Bulgarian Orthodox priests attend a Divine Liturgy to mark the arrival of the box containing bones, believed to be the relics of St. John the Baptist, in Alexander Nevski cathedral in capital Sofia on November 12, 2010. The remains supposed to belong to St. John the Baptist were found by Archaelogists in the site of a 5th century monastery on Sveti Ivan Island in August this year.

The Eastern Christian New Media Awards is in the final days of the voting phase. Please go vote if you haven't done so or spread the word if you already have.

November 22, 2010, Winnipeg, Manitoba ( ucc.ca ) - The Ukrainian Canadian Congress celebrated the enthronement of His Eminence Archbishop Yurij as Archbishop of Winnipeg and Central Eparchy, and Metropolitan of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada. The ceremony was attended by hundreds of participants, including the Metropolitan of the Greek Orthodox Church, His Eminence Archbishop Sotirios who represented Patriarch Bartholomew, the Metropolitan of the Ukrainian Catholic Church of Canada, Archbishop Lawrence and dozens of bishops and clergy from Canada and the United States. During his address, Metropolitan Yurij underscored his desire to bring the Ukrainian churches together as they once were. Delivering greetings from both the Ukrainian Canadian Congress and the Ukrainian World Congress on behalf of its president Eugene Czolij, UCC President Paul Grod personally congratulated His Excellency from the Ukrainian Canadian community and the Ukrainian Diaspora around the world. ...

( AINA ) - A Standoff took place on November 22 between Copts and security forces, which stormed the Church of St. Mary and St. Michael, in Talbiya, Giza to stop the construction of the church. It was the second time in less than 10 days that security forces stormed the church premises to seal it off. The siege began at midnight and lasted until six AM. Priests and parishioners had anticipated the visit from security. "All priests were inside the premises, and a great number of the parishioners were inside the church since 9.00 PM, praying," a witness said. Security forces surrounded the church and prevented the builders from working, and confiscated four concrete mixing vehicles containing ready-mixed concrete, which were on their way to church. The concrete was spoiled, being kept for over 10 hours, costing a loss of 400.000 Egyptian pounds, reported Wagih Yacoub. Nearly two thousand Copts came to the church as soon as they heard that security forces had stormed the ...

From Pithless Thoughts , the below Orthograph.

On November 18, 2010, the last day of the 4th International Theological Conference of the Russian Orthodox Church on Life in Christ: Christian Ethics, Ascetic Tradition of the Church and Modern Challenges, a round-table talk was held at the Department for External Church Relations Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk to discuss common Orthodox witness. Metropolitan Hilarion chaired the meeting and presented a paper on the Importance of Monasticism for Orthodoxy Today. I particularly liked these portions. The complete article can be found here . Secondly, ascesis, not being an aim in itself, is at the same time an integral part and invariable companion of spiritual life as it affects equally the physical and spiritual spheres. The basic opposition in Christian ascetical tradition is not between body and spirit, not between the material and the immaterial as it is in various dualistic systems (Platonism, Manichaeism, some trends of Gnosticism, etc.) but between life according to the f...

Moscow, November 23 ( Interfax ) - The Russian Orthodox Church has said the use of condoms is acceptable following a similar statement made by Pope Benedict XVI of the Catholic Church last week. I decided not to post on that because the media treatment of the issue was unnecessarily salacious and tendentious in its coverage. Any rational person could have read what he said and drawn out what he meant. Instead of covering it that way, most media outlets grabbed this story and tried to write a Dan Brown novel out of it. See this excellent Get Religion article if you want to read more. "The Foundations of the Social Policy of the Russian Orthodox Church distinguishes between abortive and non-abortive contraception. Priests can allow people to use the latter," head of the synodal Department for Church and Society Relations Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin said in an interview with Interfax-Religion. However, Father Vsevolod added that it does not mean that the Church approves of ...

( SOC-Kosovo ) - Тhe following report contains information about the latest dramatic events in the Diocese of Raska-Prizren. On November 18, former Bishop Artemije and a group of his followers who proclaimed a schism with the Serbian Orthodox Church attempted to occupy some monasteries of the Diocese and establish a schismatic church on the canonical territory of the Serbian Orthodox Diocese of Raska and Prizren. Thanks to the prompt reaction of the Holy Synod of Bishops which defrocked Bishop Artemije and demoted him to the level of an ordinary monk, and the decisiveness of the new Bishop of Raska-Prizren Diocese Teodosije, the renagade former Bishop and his followers were prevented in their attempts. Both occupied monasteries were freed and are now under the control of the Diocese. Monk Artemije and his followers left Kosovo territory in early hours of November 20. As Patriarch Irinej of SOC has officially pressed charges against Artemije Radosavljevic for a criminal attempt to usur...

( mospat.ru ) - On November 21, 2010, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s department for external church relations, administered the rite of reuniting those who temporarily fell away from the Orthodox Church by diverting into schisms and sects, at the church of Our Lady the Joy to All the Afflicted-in-Ordynka.

Whenever I am traveling I like to visit the local parishes as time permits. I was fortunate enough to have been able to watch Texas A&M defeat Nebraska in football and then visit St. Silouan the Athonite Antiochian Orthodox Mission in College Station, TX the following day. My wife was in that area a few weeks ago and tried, without success, to find this parish. With this in mind I headed out a bit early knowing I wouldn't arrive without incident. I was right. After a few passes I found the small sign (not the sign to the right, mind) pointing towards a private drive behind a furniture store. That makes the area sound a bit urban. It's not. To wit, I passed a large flock of gazelles just down the road from the church. I walked in and saw three men at the kliros and Fr. Gregory Gibson in the altar. As a father of 6, being early for any church service is a rarity. Being first is unheard of. People started ambling in after Liturgy had started. As a parent who has foun...

This is a two-fold cautionary tale. The first, that we shouldn't accept the words of the accusers simply because they make the accusation. The second, that the man who sought to extort money from the priest looked only to the short-term monetary gain and didn't think at all about the long-term loss to himself (both now in legal terms and after his repose in the next). Can you imagine giving someone $160 US dollars (the rough equivalent) - not 50 cents or a 10 dollar bill - when he comes to you out of the blue only to have him steal your phone and threaten to announce you as a person that looked at child porn? How do you defend against this? How do you get your reputation back? ( guardian.co.uk ) - A blackmailer who drove a Roman Catholic cleric to quit the priesthood in a bogus child pornography photo scam was jailed for five years yesterday. The judge at Swansea crown court told Michael Costello, 38, from Reading, that he had inflicted "colossal damage" on the p...

( AFR ) - The Psalms have been called the “Hymn Book of the Church” and contain rich and prophetic references to Christ. In this podcast, Fr. Wilbur Ellsworth takes us through the Psalter and helps us to make them the prayer of our hearts.

Pithless Thoughts encapsulates the feelings of many (and a few I think are all his own) in the below post. Please do go vote , visit some sites you've never visited before or listen to a Podcast you've never listened to before. That's the whole idea. Most of the Orthoblogosphere is by now aware of the "Eastern Christian New Media Awards" hosted by Josephus over at Byzantine, Texas . I've been notified this blog has been nominated and Josephus has asked that we bloggers mention the awards voting site so other people can go there to see who else is writing and doing interesting stuff on the internet that you might not be aware of yet. So. Here's the "orthodilemma": 1. If I mention the nomination and the voting site, I can be seen as self-aware and not humble, which of course I want to avoid because I don't want to burst the bubble of all my deluded readers who think I'm humble (in all humility). 2. If I don't mention the no...

The emboldened bit below should perk up a few ears. This is the sort of activity that many expected the US Episcopal Assembly to jump into, but beyond a trip to Constantinople to seek clarification on some points (the possibility of a separate assembly for Canada, the moving of Mexico to an assembly with Spanish speakers, etc.) little if anything has been made public if it is occurring. Even the Episcopal Assembly website seems to be stalled. I look forward to seeing what the British Isles hierarchs formulate because the work done by that body might be mimicked by North American hierarchs when they draw up their own declarations on things like regularizing marriages, handling converts, accepting priests, etc. We'll have to see if issues like the OCA's autocephaly, the complex episcopal situation in the Antiochian Archdiocese, or the current investigations of the activities of one of the Greek Archdiocesan monasteries will retard the process. ( ROCOR-Sourozh ) - On 16th Novemb...

Met. Evangelos (pictured left) BOSTON ( TNH ) - The Ecumenical Patriarchate has appointed Metropolitan Evangelos of New Jersey as acting Abbot of the St. Irene Chrysovalantou Patriarchal Monastery in Astoria until Dec. 1 when Holy and Sacred Synod will decide the fate of its leadership in the wake of charges by a nun there of misconduct and a mysterious bag of money and gold coins. The story has received widespread attention in the Greek American community and without, after The National Herald’s reporting was picked up by mainstream media, particularly in New York City where television channels reported from outside St. Irene’s Church and Precinct 114 police station in Astoria, and the CBS national network covered it as well.

H/T: Ad Orientem VATICAN CITY ( RNS ) A week and a half after losing five Anglican bishops to the Catholic Church, the leader of the worldwide Anglican Communion reaffirmed his dedication to ecumenical relations between the two churches -- and his belief that female Anglican priests should not be an impediment to union.  Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams spoke Wednesday (Nov. 17) at a ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of the Vatican's ecumenical office. Dozens of senior Catholic leaders attended, including the church's No. 2 official, Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.  There is a bit more to the story. Orthodox (see Metropolitan John of Pergamon seated next to Abp. Williams) and other groups also came to this anniversary event. I expect more news stories to filter through slowly in the days to come. While reflecting on progress in Anglican-Catholic relations, Williams admitted to "intractable difficulties" in two areas: disputes over the au...

From the blog My Coptic Faith : The basic habit of a Coptic monk is made up of a leather belt worn under a long, black gown, a black skull cap and a black hood. When a monk is also a priest and is taking a liturgical service he changes into similar garments, but in white. The hood worn by Coptic monks is called a koulla (Coptic), but it is now commonly referred to as qalansuwa (Arabic). There are various ideas and traditions within the Coptic Church about where the idea for the hood comes from. One thought places the origins of the hood back to the garments of late antiquity in Egypt. In the early centuries of the first millennium AD it was not uncommon for children’s tunics to have a hood. The tradition says that the monks took the idea of the hood as a symbol of (childish) innocence. Some tunics at this time also had deep splits at the sides, which are said to have developed into the monastic scapular (a length of cloth suspended both front and back from the shoulders of the w...

An excellent article below. It clarifies terminology in an enlightening and succinct way. If you have the time (the article is rather long), I whole-heartedly recommend it. ( telegraph.co.uk ) - Two more Christians murdered in Iraq on Monday night and another three yesterday, as the community is driven to extinction. And on the Today programme earlier this week there was yet another segment about this persecuted minority, perhaps suggesting that the media are waking up to what many Iraqis themselves call “genocide” (the word, incidentally, was coined in 1936 after a previous massacre of Iraqi Christians). However the Left largely remains in denial about the situation faced by Middle Eastern Christians, despite widespread evidence by various human rights organisation. The Guardian had a piece on Friday in which the writer argued that this was part of a ‘clash of civilisations myth’: One article in Foreign Policy went so far as to suggest the church attack might spell “the end of ...

( WORLDmag.com ) - Muslims set fire overnight to at least 10 houses belonging to Coptic Christians in a village in southern Egypt over rumors that a Christian resident had an affair with a Muslim girl, security officials said Tuesday. The officials said security forces have sealed off the village of al-Nawahid in Qena province, some 290 miles south of Cairo, to prevent the violence from spreading to neighboring towns. They said several people were arrested. The attacks started after locals spotted a young Copt and a Muslim girl together at night inside the village cemetery, the officials said. They added that both were put under police custody as authorities investigate. Clashes between Christians and Muslims occasionally occur in southern Egypt, mostly over land or disputes over church construction. But sectarian tensions have also been on the rise recently in the capital. Last year in Qena, a Coptic man was accused of kidnapping and raping a 12-year-old Muslim girl. The alleg...

For some background see here and here . ( NY Post ) - A nun at a Greek Orthodox church in Queens turned over to the NYPD $260,000 in cash and 100 gold coins mysteriously left behind by the head of the congregation shortly after he left the country, The Post has learned. Metropolitan Paisios Loulourgas, the abbot of St. Irene's Church and Monastery in Astoria for more than 30 years, was summoned to Greece earlier this month to meet with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the head of the Orthodox Church, according to parishioners. When Loulourgas left, he told nuns to safeguard a bag, but didn't say what was inside, sources said. Sister Christonymphi Fitzpatrick eventually opened it up, discovered the dough and panicked, the sources said. On Nov. 6, she brought the stash to the 114th Precinct station house. Cops vouchered the money and still have it. The sources said no criminality is suspected. But the Orthodox Church is holding its own probe, according to the Natio...