Byzantine, Texas

( antiochian.org ) - Ancient Faith Radio's newly released podcast in their series "Ancient Faith Presents" features Bobby Maddex interviewing Fr. Charles Joanides and Pres. Kerry Pappas about the upcoming Orthodox Clergy Couples Retreat. Hosted by Antiochian Village , the retreat will take place May 22-24 in Ligonier, Pennsylvania. In the interview, Fr. Charles and Pres. Kerry provide a brief overview of the retreat, titled "Protecting and Growing Our Marriages," with a description of the sessions and how clergy couples can benefit from the workshops. Couples may still register here (PDF).

( YouTube ) - His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios of America celebrates the Anastasis service at St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in Flushing, NY.

CHICAGO, IL ( OCA-DOMW ) - For over a year, the faithful of the Orthodox Church in America’s Chicago-based Midwest Diocese have been without a bishop. But a significant change for the diocese’s thousands of faithful will occur on Saturday, April 30, as Archimandrite Matthias [Moriak] is consecrated Bishop of Chicago and the Midwest at Christ the Savior Church, 927 North LaSalle, Chicago, at 8:30 a.m. Great Vespers and the Profession of Faith will be celebrated on Friday evening, April 29, at 6:00 p.m. He succeeds His Eminence, the late Archbishop Job [Osacky], who had overseen the diocese from the early 1990s until his unexpected repose in December 2009. Selected from a slate of three candidates at an assembly of clergy and laity in Minneapolis in the fall of 2010, Archimandrite Matthias subsequently was elected to the episcopacy by the Church’s Holy Synod of Bishops, many of whom, including His Beatitude, Metropolitan Jonah, will concelebrate at the consecration. On Sunday, Ma...

( RISU ) - Today the head of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC), Metropolitan Mefodii (Kudriakov), addressed the Standing Conference of the Orthodox Bishops Outside Ukraine with a statement and request to “include the Ukrainian question in the agenda of the Special Synod of Eastern Patriarchates.” On April 23, 2011, the patriarchate of the UAOC sent a similar address to the Standing Conference of Heads of the Ancient Patriarchates, reports religion.in.ua. According to the address, one of the painful issues of modern Orthodoxy “is the problem of church division in Ukraine.” “There are about five and a half thousand Orthodox communities in Ukraine that are not part of the Moscow Patriarchate but that have not broken their organic unity with the Ecumenical Orthodoxy and sincerely aspire to come out of the canonical crises through establishing communion with the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the national Orthodox Churches.” The UAOC welcomed the coming Synod of Heads o...

Attempting to post all that is said on the matter would be an exhausting, fruitless undertaking. The three most prominent blogs on the topic can be found here should you choose to keep abreast of the discussion (posted alphabetically): Monomakhos OCA Truth Orthodox Christians for Accountability

Kiev, April 27 ( Interfax ) - Human sins were the reason why the disaster happened at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, said Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia. "The sin that has infiltrated human nature and pushes people to commit mistakes for the sake of achieving sinful goals. A horrible error was the cause of the Chernobyl disaster," the Patriarch told the believers assembled for the liturgy at the Kiev Monastery of the Caves on Wednesday. "God could have stopped the hand of the operator who made the horrible error while operating the reactor. God let it happen. And many people, by their death, might have contributed to the atonement for sins," he said. The Chernobyl disaster occurred not without "the finger of God, because the cleanup in the aftermath of the disaster became a great act of moral courage for thousands of people," he said. A disaster such as Chernobyl shows that "when a man acquires an enormous strength through his m...

H/T: Mystagogy ( Balkan Insight ) - Although many Serbs want to see their former Patriarch canonized as soon possible, the Serbian Orthodox Church says the complex process of declaring people saints must be followed carefully. As the Catholic Church in Rome prepares to beatify the late Pope, John Paul II, on May 1, Serbia's powerful Orthodox Church is readying to turn its own late head, Patriarch Pavle, into a saint. But nothing is being rushed. "The Church must be very careful when it comes to canonization, so the whole process of choosing and proposing the candidate takes time," a Church source told Balkan Insight. The first step is to see whether a cult exists around the candidate, the source added. If there is,the relevant bishops inform the Church's Council with a request to consider the proposal for the person to be declared a saint, the source explained. Preconditions for being turned into a saint include: a justified reputation for having lived...

( antiochian.org ) - The Department of Internet Ministry has rebuilt our Discover Orthodox Christianity section, one of the most highly trafficked sections of Antiochian.org. Education and evangelistic outreach is of the utmost importance to the bishops, clergy and laity of the Antiochian Archdiocese. In support of their efforts, Discover Orthodox Christianity now provides a topical library of links and reflections presenting the faith to site visitors in an engaging and accessible format. We hope this will be a useful tool for teaching of the faith, for both newcomers and for people who are rediscovering Orthodoxy. Visitors to Discover Orthodox Christianity will be able to read within nine subsections covering topics such as Our Sacraments , Who is God? and What is the Church? Authors include Fr. Thomas Hopko, Metropolitan Anthony Bloom, Fr. Patrick Reardon, Fr. Touma Bitar, Frederica Mathewes-Green, and many others. Links in each section point to supplementary books, podc...

As we know, a lot of this back-and-forth reporting is conjecture and posturing. It's hard to know the real situation, and will be, until the three groups (UOC-MP, UOC-KP, and UAOC) return to unity. ( RISU ) - Patriarch Kirill of Moscow proposed to the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church (UAOC) to join the Russian Orthodox Church. So said the head of UAOC, Metropolitan Mefodii (Kudriakov) during a program of the 5th Channel. “He said you have conducted negotiations with the Ecumenical Patriarchate for more then 10 years without a result, but I offer you the status enjoyed by the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad: you retain autocephaly and the existing system, all your Churches and funds will remain at your disposal but the only thing is that you will have to attend the councils of Metropolitan Volodymyr (Sabodan) (UOC-MP),” said Metropolitan Mefodii. The Russian Orthodox Church Abroad joined ROC in 2007 on condition of retaining its autonomous status. Recently, a scandal br...

Quite long, but well worth reading. ( ocl.org ) - Letter from William Souvall, OCL President, to the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Christian Bishops - Orthodox Christian Laity April 25, 2011 Bright Week Feast day Great Martyr George His Grace Rt. Rev. Bishop Basil Bishop of the Diocese of Wichita and Mid-America Secretary of the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Christian Bishops Christ Is Risen! The officers and members of Orthodox Christian Laity hope this letter finds you, your family and the faithful of your Diocese in good stead and spirit. We also pray that the Holy Spirit inspires you and your brother Bishops with wisdom and courage as you prepare for the next meeting of the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops. It is because of your direct responsibility in coordinating the Assembly’s activities that we are writing to you at this time. We write, not as critics or monitors of your work and the work of the Assembly, but rather as supporters and advocates, for near...

H/T: Under the Dome These are great. Enjoy!

( OCA-DOW ) - A video of His Grace, Bishop Benjamin, serving the Great Blessing of Waters in Alaska and explaining the plight of the native people facing devlopment jeopardizing the waters, is now online:

I found the web special 'Overtime' piece to be as intriguing as the main story itself. Link available here . Apologies I can't embed it; Blogger and CBS aren't playing well together.

My opinion: Communing infants is the ancient practice. Most of the ritual churches in the Catholic Church do as well. The idea of understanding is a slippery slope that I'm not sure finds much of a foothold in the Fathers. We could apply this sort of logic to Baptism, which would of course make many Protestants happy. This should never have been handled like this. It should have gone to the bishop first. There should have been a long, prayerful meeting on the topic. There should have been a better explanation of the rite of anointing of the sick. The USCCB's own guidelines (PDF) tell them what to do: "It is important to note, however, that the criterion for reception of holy communion is the same for persons with developmental and mental disabilities as for all persons, namely, that the person be able to distinguish the Body of Christ from ordinary food, even if this recognition is evidenced through manner, gesture, or reverential silence rather than verbally. Past...

More great photos available from the Sacramento Bee's Frame . Romanian Christian Orthodox believers visit the ossuary of Pasarea monastery shortly after the Easter religious service as local nuns light candles for those who have died in Pasarea village (20km east from Bucharest) April 24, 2011. AFP/ Getty Images / Daniel Mihailescu

( OCA-DOW ) - On Lazarus Saturday, April 16th, 2011, His Grace, Bishop Benjamin, presided at the ground-breaking for a chapel dedicated to St. Barbara and St. Eugene at St. Barbara Monastery in Santa Paula, CA. For over five years, the monastic community has used the large living room of their house as a chapel. But this arrangement, while workable, is far from adequate and has always been understood to be temporary. The simple yet elegant design for the 1,450 square foot chapel consists basically of an octagon with an added apse on the east side and an added narthex and porch on the west, crowned with a clerestory and a single cupola. Although definitely different, it is reminiscent of our church in San Anselmo. In their March newsletter, the nuns recounted a little of the history leading up to the decision to build this chapel. Here is what they wrote: “The story begins back on the very last day of World War II. Just hours before peace was declared, the young Eugene Luri...

More wonderful selections of Paschal pieces from the Holy Pochaev Lavra available from Pravmir here .

H/T: Vladimir Grygorenko

( The Economist ) - Religions have a rum relationship with calendars. They invite people to enter a reality that transcends all the limitations of time, space and finitude; yet faiths are often disputatiously obsessed with pinning down the precise moment at which certain cosmically important events occurred or should be celebrated. Christian quarrels over the date of Easter are a perfect example. Both the Western and Orthodox Christian churches use a complex system, based on the spring equinox and the lunar cycle, to compute the date when the resurrection of Jesus Christ (and the rites that follow and precede it) should be marked. But the methods of calculation are different. This year, as last year, Western and Eastern Christians happen to agree; but the Easter dates can be as much as five weeks apart. That can pose problems in places where Orthodox and Western Christians rub shoulders. One lot may be holding lively Paschal celebrations while the others are observing a Lenten fa...

More photos from the set on this Russian village priest are available here .

DAMASCUS, Syria, April 22 ( UPI ) - Syrian troops fired on protesters in at least three cities Friday, witnesses said. At least three people were wounded in Douma, near Damascus, and gunfire was reported in Homs and Hama, the BBC said. The opposition called for a "Great Friday" of protests after weekly Muslim prayers. Christian churches across the country canceled outdoor Good Friday services. "All of the Syrian churches have decided this together because of the bad situation and because of the martyrs who have died in recent days, out of respect for them," Bishop Philoxenos Mattias, assistant to the Syriac Orthodox Church patriarchate in Damascus told The Daily Telegraph of London. Services for the Christian minorities, estimated at about 2 million people, will still take place inside the churches, but all street processions and public music performances were canceled, he told the newspaper. "We decided to postpone them till next year," he sai...

( YouTube ) - On April 21, the services of Holy Thursday were started in the early morning in the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin. At midday, the service of Washing of the Feet was offered in the Mother Cathedral. The Members of the Brotherhood escorted His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, from the Pontifical Residence to the Cathedral. Following the readings of prayers and the Gospel, His Holiness blessed the oil and water with the Holy Cross. Following the example of Jesus Christ, the Pontiff of All Armenians washed and anointed with blessed oil, the feet of twelve persons symbolizing the Apostles. Among the twelve were two bishops, two archimandrites, two monks, two seminarians, two soldiers and two youngsters.

In no particular order (certainly not "by the diptychs") and added as they become available: Orthodox Church in America The Ecumenical Patriarchate 2011 Patriarchal Proclamation for Pascha Moscow Patriarchate Paschal Message of His Holiness KIRILL, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, to the Archpastors, Pastors, Monastics and All the Faithful Children of the Russian Orthodox Church Romanian Patriarchate Irenical letter of the Patriarch of Romania at the feast of the Resurrection of the Lord Orthodox Christian Mission Center Christ is Risen! - A Pascha Greeting from the Orthodox Christian Mission Center (OCMC) Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese in the Americas PASTORAL LETTER ON THE FEAST OF OUR LORD’S RESURRECTION 2011 Assembly of Canonical Bishops of North and Central America Great and Holy Pascha 2011 Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America ENCYCLICAL OF ARCHBISHOP DEMETRIOS FOR GREAT AND HOLY PASCHA 2011 Ukrainian Orthodox Church Paschal message of...

NEW YORK ( GOARCH ) - The Holy Mountain Athos, the over a thousand year sanctuary of Orthodox Christian monasticism, and which is directly under the spiritual jurisdiction of His All Holiness, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, will be featured on the CBS News program “60 Minutes”, scheduled to air on Pascha Sunday. The segment, “The Monks of Mount Athos”, will recount 60 Minutes Correspondent Bob Simon’s journey to a remote peninsula in North Greece that millions of Orthodox Christians consider the most sacred place on earth, Mouth Athos. On the recommendation and with the blessing of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, who opened the doors for the “60 Minutes” team, and after two trips to the mountain and two years of dialogue with the Anthonite community, last Fall Simon and the “60 Minutes” team were given unprecedented access to document monastic life on the Holy Mountain. The result is a portrait of a place rarely seen where prayer has been offered by holy men everyday, with no ...

For my 3,000 th post I was hoping to put up some pictures from recent services I've attended. Instead, I find myself being the on-call this week with a very good chance of being forced to miss Pascha itself. My mental choices were to write off the week or double-down on prayer and after-dinner discussions with the children. I chose the latter as my work situation is no excuse for depriving them of a better understanding of Holy Week. Here's a post entitled " Tips for Surviving Evening Services with Little Ones... " from the blog Charming the Birds from the Trees  with some added commentary. 1. Feed your little ones well and with good, healthy food before church. If a child's tummy is full and they aren't thirsty, their behavior will be a lot better. I know some parents take the ascetic instruction to pray while hungry with some seriousness. I have yet to experience a tranquil service with hungry children. More often I have to keep leaning down to listen t...

Some background information on this important effort below (from the blog Praying with my Feet )... Lost Innocents You may have noticed another blog listed in my profile. " Lost Innocents " is under construction right now and it will be a little while (possibly Pentecost) before it's done. It is intended to be a safe place for Orthodox Christians to go for practical information about miscarriage and burial, encouragement and solace. In the event that you are curious you can go ahead and have a peak. I will go ahead and forestall any thoughts about how arrogant it is that I would start such a site with 'so little experience' by saying that I've already had those thoughts myself and I stand accused. However, I had to piece information together from myriad sources and I had resources that not everyone has. I want to put it together in one place and offer an Orthodox perspective. If anyone wants to offer any suggestions or criticisms, please feel free to email...

A reminder that it's about that time to sign your children up for Orthodox summer camp (the above video is from the Antiochian Village Summer Camp, which has just opened up registration here ). If you need information on camps near you, I recommend the Orthodox Camps website available here . About The Orthodox Christian Camp Association The Orthodox Christian Camp Association is a group of Orthodox Christian camp professionals from all Orthodox Christian jurisdictions. Operating with the blessing of SCOBA (The Standing Conference of Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas), the Orthodox Christian Camp Association is to witness to the truth and love of Jesus Christ through the Orthodox Christian camping experience by Overseeing the operation of the annual Camp Conference of camp directors and staff to share and provide resources to Orthodox Christian Camping Programs Prayer for Orthodox Camping Programs O Lord Jesus Christ our God, who condescended to enter under the...

( UOC-USA ) - On Lazarus Saturday, April 16th 2011, with the blessing of the Ruling Hierarch of the Western Eparchy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA His Grace Bishop Daniel, the faithful of Holy Trinity Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Bensenville IL, along with Orthodox Homeschooling families from the area attended a Spiritual Outing to the Protection of the Most Holy Mother of God Serbian Orthodox Monastery (New Gracanica) in Third Lake, IL. The day started with Divine Liturgy served by His Grace Bishop Longin of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Archimandrite Thomas Kazich – Abbot of the Monastery, Rev. Stavrofor Milorad Loncar, and Very Rev. Bohdan Kalynyuk of Holy Trinity Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Choir members from Holy Trinity joined the Monastery choir and prayerfully sang the responses in Ukrainian, Church Slavonic, Serbian, Greek and English. All of the children also received bells to wear which is symbolic of a Serbian Tradition – while ringing bells, the children i...

( spc.rs ) - With Mercy of God, by the invitation of Metropolitan Constantine of the Patriarchate of Antioch and with the blessing of Serbian Patriarch Irinej and Bishop Milutin of Valjevo, father Radomir Aleksic, priest of the Diocese of Valjevo, was in Kuwait on Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday. This visit pleased all the Serbs who live and work in Kuwait as well as many Russians and Ukrainians. Fr. Radomir concelebrated during the Holy Liturgies on Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday as well as during the procession, along with priests of the Metropolitanate of Kuwait, Baghdad and all the Gulf - father Philemon and father Joseph. On this liturgical gathering many Orthodox people from all parts of the world, Kuwait, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, Serbia, Russia, Ukraine... The Liturgy was served bilingually, in Serbian and Arabic with reading of the Gospel and the Apostles in both languages. The visit of father Radomir left a great trace in hearts of our people who live ...

This is a repost from 2009 to reiterate how much I value those who doff their caps in reposting material read here. It is much appreciated. I recently received an email asking what the "odd H/T thing" was on some of my posts. For those not familiar with the term, "Hat Tipping" is Internet cant for referencing back to the original poster. I use it liberally. Now would seem to be a good time to thank those who do the same for me. There are many of you. This is an equally good time to ask those that don't to do so. I ask not for my own self aggrandizement, but as someone who finds new blogs to read quite often through spidering from hat tips.

H/T: Aggie Catholics

Rome, Italy, Apr 19, 2011 / 03:10 pm ( CNA ) - Two skeletons attributed to two married martyrs from the third century could be authentic, say researchers taking part in a new National Geographic Society documentary. “All of the evidence we have gathered points toward the relics having belonged to Chrysanthus and Daria,” said investigation leader Ezio Fulcheri of the University of Genoa. “This has been a very rare opportunity to be able to study bones and other relics that relate directly back to a legend that has been passed on for almost 2,000 years. The completeness of the skeletons is also rare for martyrs of this era, implying that these relics were protected and venerated in their entirety at a very early point in history.” The remains of the saints, martyred around 283 A.D. for spreading Christianity, are said to have been interred in the crypt of the cathedral in the northern Italian city of Reggio Emilia since the 10th century. A 2008 renovation at the cathedral caused ...

( antiochian.org ) - At Bridegroom Orthros on Great and Holy Tuesday, the Church sings the following hymn by St. Kassiane : O Lord, the woman who had fallen into many sins, perceiving Thy divinity, fulfilled the part of a myrrh-bearer; and with lamentations she brought sweet-smelling oil of myrrh to Thee before Thy burial. 'Woe is me,' she said, 'for night surrounds me, dark and moonless, and stings my lustful passion with the love of sin. Accept the fountain of my tears, O Thou who drawest down from the clouds the waters of the sea. Incline to the groanings of my heart, O Thou who in Thine ineffable self-emptying hast bowed down the heavens. I shall kiss Thy most pure feet and wipe them with the hairs of my heads, those feet whose sound Eve heard at dusk in Paradise and hid herself for fear. Who can search out the multitude of my sins and the abyss of Thy judgments, O Saviour of my soul? Despise me not, Thine handmaiden, for Thou hast mercy without measure. St. Kassi...

Article here (in Russian) and great photos available here .

( FaithWorld ) - A controversial photograph of a crucifix submerged in the urine of New York artist Andres Serrano has been vandalized during an exhibit in Avignon and the museum’s employees have received death threats. “ Piss Christ ” — a photograph that sparked an uproar when first exhibited in the United States in 1989 — was damaged Sunday “with the help of a hammer and an object like a screwdriver or pickaxe,” said the Collection Lambert, a contemporary art museum in France’s southwestern city known for its theater festival. Moreover, the three vandals physically threatened three museum guards before fleeing, the museum said in a statement. A second photograph, “The Church,” which depicts the torso of a nun with her hands in her lap, was similarly vandalized. The museum, which shut its doors immediately after the incident, said it would reopen on Tuesday and display the damaged works “so the public can appreciate for themselves the violence of the acts.” “Several people hav...

JOHNSTOWN, PA ( ACROD ) - The fortieth day memorial service for + Metropolitan Nicholas will be broadcast live from Christ the Saviour Cathedral on Thursday, April 21, 2011. It will take place at the conclusion of the 8:00 am Holy Thursday Vesperal Liturgy of St. Basil the Great (which will be broadcast in its entirety). The memorial Service will be archived for later viewing as well. Other divine services schedule to be broadcast live from Christ the Saviour Cathedral will include the Matins of Holy Friday -the Reading of the Passion Gospels - (Thursday April 21 at 7:00 pm), Vespers and Entombment of Our Lord - Friday April 22 at 7:00 pm, Resurrection Matins -Saturday April 23rd at 8:00 pm and Paschal Divine Liturgy - Sunday April 24, 2011 at 9:00 am.