Byzantine, Texas

From the Sounding Orthodox Blog, a post entitled " 10 Ways Orthodox Parents set Children up for Moral Failure " written by Christina Pessemier . It's very good. I'd love to see an expanded version made into one of those Ancient Faith Publishing brochures I like so much. Life gets busy and we don’t step back enough to see what we might be doing as parents to hurt our children’s spiritual growth. Being an intentional Orthodox Christian parent is hard work…but it’s worth it. We have a legacy of faith, wisdom and experience we can pass on to our kids if we pay attention. But if we don’t—we could cause more harm than good. 1. Buying them smartphones. People look at us like we’re freaks, but my husband and I refuse to buy smartphones for our kids. Not only are they expensive, but they allow unsupervised access to the internet, among many other faults. Some parents trick themselves into believing their kids will use internet on their smartphones for “educational” purpos...

(Captions available in: RUSSIAN, SPANISH, ENGLISH.) A brief, weekly reflection on the church calendar with Sr. Dr. Vassa Larin, a Russian Orthodox liturgist of the University of Vienna. Theological reflection with a bit of humor.

The blog Juicy Ecumenism has a post entitled " Pantheism in the Prayer Book " on an effort by the Anglican Environmental Network to make some revisions to some rather foundational prayers. It is not for those with heart conditions, high blood pressure, or people currently taking medications for dyspepsia. It also underlines how far afield one can go when one starts tossing out basic tenets of ones faith and begin hanging dream catchers while streams of patchouli smoke waft in from the contrails of the Earth Mother. It is one of the many benefits, and indeed, one of the purposes of liturgical worship that it cannot easily be manipulated to suit some passing whim. Most liturgical traditions contain the same basic elements: the singing of the Psalms, the Lord’s Prayer, the Confessions, the Creeds, the reading of the Scriptures, and the ancient hymns that have been passed down to us from the early church. The order of service can be an emotional experience, but it is not dri...

( RNS ) The weeks leading up to the Jewish High Holy Days are supposed to be marked by self-questioning: What failings must I atone for, and to whom must I apologize? A group of artists, writers and animators are hoping a cartoon goat may help. They call it the eScapegoat , and it’s supposed to approximate the original scapegoat, described in Leviticus as an important player in the atonement ritual of the ancient Israelites, who symbolically placed their sins upon the animal and sent it into the wilderness. Since its Aug. 8 debut, more than 7,900 people have submitted their sins to the interactive eScapegoat, the work of the non-profit San-Francisco-based G-dcast , which produces whimsical animated short films and mobile apps on the Hebrew Bible and Jewish holidays. Mostly, they’re not the kind of transgressions that cause too much angst on Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, which begins on sunset on Sept. 13. “Sometimes I hire a babysitter just so I can go read in...

( Atlas Obscura ) - France's Amiens Cathedral contains a preserved skull (facial bone sans lower jaw) which is supposedly that of famed prophet John the Baptist. While the grim relic has said to have been lost and found a number of times throughout its centuries of history, the skull found its way to its current home after traveling from the defunct city of Constantinople. During the Fourth Crusade (1202–1204),Wallon de Sarton, a Crusader from French Picardy discovered a relic consisting of a half-ball of transparent crystal that contained the facial section of a human head resting on a silver plate in the ruins of a palace in Constantinople. Greek letters engraved in the plate affirmed that the pate was that of John the Baptist. Wallon de Sarton had to sell the silver plate to pay for his voyage back to France, but he kept the head and in 1206 he gave the relic to the bishop of the town of Amiens. Realizing the significance of the item, the church immediately began constru...

( My Central NJ ) - It has been a few months since the untimely death of our beloved Father Michael S. Rosco. Various priests, among them Father Myron Zuder, Father Stephen Krivonak and Deacon Gregory have ably conducted Sunday services, unfortunately to more empty seats in the pews than ever. Church officers starting with Steve Gallant have performed very well. Now we have been informed that a priest has been chosen for our parish, St. John the Baptist Orthodox Church. But no name has been mentioned. It is not in our best interest nor that of the diocese that the new priest will not be available until next Oct. 1. Apparently this is due to a shortage of priests in our diocese. No diocese I know of keeps priests on retainer - able to jump in and replace priests at the drop of a hat. To blame your diocese for not being able to immediately supply you with a priest while at the same time already having a priest and deacon step in to assist... This is a good time for our diocese to co...

In Boston ( Boston Globe ) - One by one, they streamed into the cathedral Sunday, tears and grief filling their eyes. Four days had passed since a fire ripped through their beloved St. John the Baptist Albanian Orthodox Church, an old South Boston worship center and gathering space for Albanian families. On Sunday, church members mourned. “We’ve lost a beautiful church,’’ said longtime member Sofia Louise Andon after a private service Sunday. “I’m devastated. It was my second home.” About 50 St. John members — including the choir director, Sunday school teacher, and others — had gathered at St. George Cathedral, a sister church on East Broadway that opened its doors to the displaced congregation. They huddled in a chapel, praying, reading Scripture, and sharing tearful stories of their memories of St. John: baptisms, weddings, funerals, and celebrations. “We were all crying,’’ said Sandy Nazzaro, the Sunday School teacher and a member for 70 years. “Each of us had an oppor...

In many icons of the Dormition of the Theotokos, one can see a strange scene near the bottom: an angel invisibly cuts off the two hands of a certain man. What is the story behind this scene? Bewailing their separation from the Mother of God, the Apostles prepared to bury Her all-pure body. A solemn procession went from Zion through Jerusalem to the Garden of Gethsemane. Unbelieving inhabitants of Jerusalem, taken aback by the extraordinarily grand funeral procession and vexed at the honor accorded the Mother of Jesus, complained of this to the High Priest and scribes. The Jewish priest Jephonias (or Athonios), out of spite and hatred for the Mother of Jesus of Nazareth, wanted to topple the funeral bier on which lay the body of the Most Holy Virgin Mary, but an angel of God, some say the Archangel Michael, invisibly cut off his hands, which had touched the bier. Seeing such a wonder, Jephonias repented and with faith confessed the majesty of the Mother of God. He received he...

( OCP News ) - With the Grace of God and following the strenuous efforts and prayers of his Eminence Innocent Bishop of Burundi and Rwanda, the first steps of the Orthodox Church in Rwanda began. On Saturday 17 -8-2013, His Eminence accompanied by Fr George Schinas and hierodeacon Nektarios Stogiannis and a team from the Church of St Dimitrios Loumbardiaris in Athens, as well as a group of women from Uganda organised a catechetical meeting with about 500 Rwandans. The meeting included an introduction by his eminence Bishop Innocent, dividing the local people into work groups, a concluding homily and a meal. Questions were asked and answers given on crucial matters of the Orthodox Faith. The Rwandan’s interest was genuine and their zeal for Orthodoxy is continually increasing. The next day, on Sunday morning, a hierarchical Divine Liturgy was celebrated which our Rwandan brethren attended as catechumens and were amazed by the liturgical wealth of our Church. After the Divine Li...

( RNN ) - Fred Stobaugh isn't a singer, but he is a man who was struck by love and 75 years later, still hasn't recovered. Stobaugh, 96, met his sweetheart, Lorraine, at a car hop at an Illinois root beer stand in 1938. "She was the prettiest girl I ever saw … I just fell in love with her right there," Stobaugh said in a YouTube video produced by Green Shoe Studio (see here ). They dated for two years and married, spending more than seven decades as man and wife. Along the way, they had children and grandchildren in an all-around happy life Stobaugh says felt like a dream. "It felt kind of unreal, dreaming or something. But it was real, that's all I can say. It was real," he said. The final chapter of their love story closed when Lorraine died earlier this year just shy of their 73rd wedding anniversary. Stobaugh channeled his feelings of love and loss, grief and gratitude for the years they had together, writing a love song in her memory t...

( ROCOR ) - Orthodox Christians Respond to an LGBT Protest With Joint Prayer of Clergy and Laity of the Patriarchal Parishes in the USA and the Russian Church Abroad Clergymen and laity of the Moscow Patriarchate and the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia responded to an LGBT protest with joint prayers. On Sunday, August 25, 2013, a protest was held before St Nicholas Patriarchal Cathedral in San Francisco, CA, by local LGBT members against legislation passed in Russia last June banning the propagandizing of homosexuality to children. The day before, blogs on the internet called for supporters of the LGBT community to gather at San Francisco’s Patriarchal cathedral during Divine Liturgy with anti-Orthodox and anti-Russian placards. With the blessing of His Eminence Archbishop Justinian of Naro-Fominsk, Administrator of the Patriarchal Parishes in the USA, clergymen Protopriest Georgy Roshchin, Representative of the International Russian People’s Council to the United ...

( CNEWA ) - In a cave-like basement a short walk from Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity, nine students huddle over Formica tables, patiently practicing their brushwork. The bearded face of Christ takes shape in burnt sienna on a dozen sheets of white paper: a dozen variations with a dozen irregular sets of features. Some of the students are established artists, others have little or no artistic training, but this new craft is a challenge for all of them. They work through mistakes and false starts, scowling and sighing in frustration. The instructor is patient, demonstrating the basics again and again — how to draw a line with a brush, how to mix the paint, how to find a face in a sheet of white. “Move the paper so it’s easier to draw,” he explains. “Work to your strengths, and know your weaknesses — which is a good spiritual principle! Because what you’re doing is learning spiritual life, really — in a very practical way.” The teacher is Ian Knowles, a British iconographer ...

From the Bible Design Blog a post entitled iPads in the Pulpit . I'm actually a long-time reader of this blog as it rather reliably enjoyable reading on what many would think to be a dry, uninteresting topic. Writing for the Gospel Coalition blog, Matthew Barrett shared the concern earlier this week that the replacement of physical Bibles with iPads in the pulpit, while a “subtle shift,” comes with several potential dangers. His post –– " Dear Pastor, Bring Your Bible to Church " –– got a lot of people thinking, which is to say, it got them riled up. An iPad in the pulpit, Barrett contends, sends a different message than a physical Bible to the congregation, because people associate the iPad with media consumption. The physical book we now think of as the text, whereas we still distinguish between the e-reader, a technological device for consuming the text, and the text itself. When the pastor flashes his iPad, we see the device, not the Bible. Barrett also shares ...

( irk.aif.ru ) - Four years ago in Irkutsk was the first procession on motorcycles. It was initiated by the abbot of St. Alexander Nevsky Church Father Mark. Then the father, Mark did not dare to sit behind the wheel in a cassock "iron horse" and would prefer to be a passenger. But later still bought the bike and became a full member of the biker movement in Irkutsk. "The Insider" priest The one who often looks at the Alexander Nevsky church, motorcycles at the main entrance is surprised. Under a plaque "In Memory of motorcyclists killed" women discuss their problems in life, not paying attention to them passing by men in leather vests and bandanas. Father Mark says that lovers of bikes come in here often. Someone comes for advice, someone in the case - to get married or baptize children. A few years ago, parishioner - the architect of ice at the Cathedral of the Epiphany of the town and the actor Vadim Semenov bought a motorcycle. Then the pri...

I'm quite a fan of The Low Churchman's Guide . The below is an example of its appeal. Flowers are the reproductive organs of angiospermic plants. The current consensus opinion among botanists holds that they are necessary to ensure the continued existence of such valuable plants as the apple tree, the rhododendron, the Southern Ironwood, and Heracleum mantegazzianum. For the time being, at least, it seems that flowers are here to stay. It is one thing to admire a row of daisies by the side of the road, however, and quite another to tolerate the deliberate and premeditated arrangement of flowers on the altars of our churches, a custom that strikes at the very roots of the English faith. There are many reasons for the loyal churchman to be wary of altar flowers. A vase filled with verdant foliage is large enough to hide an even more sinister object from view: a copy of Ritual Notes, perhaps, or the image of the Bishop of Rome. Flowers are also capable of causing discomfor...

H/T: Praying with My Feet

( mospat.ru ) - His Beatitude Patriarch John X of Great Antioch and All the East sent a message to His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, in which he expressed his gratitude for the efforts that the Russian Orthodox Church makes to defend Christians in the Middle East. In his letter, His Beatitude Patriarch John X mentioned the celebration marking the 1025th anniversary of the Baptism Russia, which was held in Moscow, Kiev and Minsk with the participation of the Primates and representatives of all Local Orthodox Churches, saying in particular, “I was… so happy to see the brothers gathering about the holy Divine Altar and praising the Author of Life, Our Lord Jesus Christ who blessed Russia and the Russian People and granted this great nation all his heavenly blessings to be a true and sincere witness of Christendom. The baptism of Russia is not only an historical event, but it is also a concrete and lived reality that all people and nations can “come and see” (John ...

DETROIT, MI ( OCA-DMW ) — The Council of Orthodox Christian Churches of Metropolitan Detroit (COCC) will sponsor a concert to benefit ZOE for Life! on Sunday, September 15, 2013 at 6:00 p.m. at Saint George Romanian Orthodox Cathedral, 18405 W. Nine Mile Road, Southfield, MI. The concert program will consist of Orthodox hymns and songs of worship performed by the Orthodox Choir of Metropolitan Detroit conducted by Matushka Victoria Kopistiansky, artistic director. “Orthodox parishes across Detroit reach out to help others in many ways, and the COCC is expanding these efforts through the treasure of our music to bring greater awareness of our community and mission,” said Subdeacon John E. Lazar, COCC president. “This concert allows us to extend our hands and hearts to aid those in need, and make at least a small difference through needed funds and the spirit of Christian love.” The concert will be open to the general public free of charge. Donations will be collected to supp...

( British Orthodox ) - The Synod of the British Orthodox Church has submitted a recommendation to the Holy Synod of the Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria (see PDF ), that in the reception of those who have previously been members of churches accepting the Council of Chalcedon (including the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches) it should be by confession of faith and prayer, without any requirement for the reception of Baptism or Chrismation. This recommendation is made on the basis that: (1) The Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate has always received Chalcedonians by confession of faith and prayer on the clear and authoritative instruction of our holy Fathers including St Timothy, the 26th Pope of Alexandria, St Philoxenus of Mabbugh and St Severus. Even during periods of violent persecution our Orthodox Church has not deviated from this procedure. (2) This has been consistently used as the only method of receiving Chalcedonians from the 5th century to the 19th cen...

PHILADELPHIA ( CBS ) - For anyone who might say giving away a free funeral at a baseball game as entertainment is morbid, and crass, you would have a point. But a guy by the name of Steve Paul would argue you’re wrong. Wild and wacky promotions are a way of life in the world of minor league baseball, but a funeral giveaway? That might be over the top. The idea came from Kurt Landis the General Manager for The Lehigh Valley IronPigs. “Teams are used to pushing the envelope and teams want to be crazy and fun,” Landis said. But for 64-year-old Steve Paul, the funeral giveaway valued at $10,000 is a blessing. Diagnosed with ALS in June, the Lehigh Valley man entered an essay contest with the IronPigs to win, knowing his disease is fatal and irreversible. “For a person who is not looking at their own mortality, yes it would be morbid. For a person who is trying to find some sort of peace and some sort of direction knowing what lies ahead, it is very comforting,” Paul said. ...

( Atlas Obscura ) - On a tiny island in a lake just outside of Bucharest stands Snagov Monastery which local tradition states is the burial place of Vlad the Impaler, the inspiration for Bram Stoker's Dracula. Originally founded in the 14th century and later excavated in 1933, the monastery is a seemingly simple place of worship taking advantage of the calm its water-locked isolation brings. However the story goes that after his notoriously cruel lifetime, Vlad Tepes III was buried in the church as per his request prior to his death. A number of archeologists and historians have worked to verify whether this tale is fact or simple apocrypha and none have been able to prove that the dictator was ever laid to rest on the island. After having dug up some of the site's burial stones all that was found were a mix of horse and human bones, but nothing that confirms the possible Dracula's interment. Most historians now believe that the Prince of Wallachia was buried in a m...

( Times of Israel ) - Amid escalating violence against Egypt’s Copts, churches in Minya, located in upper Egypt, cancelled Sunday Mass for the first time in 1,600 years. Other churches in Minya also didn’t hold prayer services. “We did not hold prayers in the monastery on Sunday for the first time in 1,600 years,” Priest Selwanes Lotfy of the Virgin Mary and Priest Ibram Monastery in Degla, just south of Minya, told the al-Masry al-Youm daily. He said supporters of ousted president Mohammed Morsi destroyed the monastery, which includes three churches, one of which is an archaeological site. “One of the extremists wrote on the monastery’s wall, ‘donate [this] to the martyrs’ mosque,’” Lotfy added. Copts, the largest indigenous Christian minority in the Middle East and North Africa, make up about 10 percent of Egypt’s total population of some 90 million people. One of the world’s oldest Christian communities, they have generally kept a low-profile, but have become more politic...

( Pravoslavie.ru ) - Both love and duty today fashion my homily for your charity. It is not only that I wish, because of my love for you, and because I am obliged by the sacred canons, to bring to your God-loving ears a saving word and thus to nourish your souls, but if there be any among those things that bind by obligation and love and can be narrated with praise for the Church, it is the great deed of the Ever-Virgin Mother of God. The desire is double, not single, since it induces me, entreats and persuades me, whereas the inexorable duty constrains me, though speech cannot attain to what surpasses it, just as the eye is unable to look fixedly upon the sun. One cannot utter things which surpass speech, yet it is within our power by the love for mankind of those hymned, to compose a song of praise and all at once both to leave untouched intangible things, to satisfy the debt with words and to offer up the first fruits of our love for the Mother of God in hymns composed according...

A timely reminder as school is starting for many families in the US. His Grace Zachariah Mar Nicholovos ( Orthodox Herald ) - Blessings to the Vicars, Assistant Vicars, and faithful of the Northeast American Diocese, especially our students. Dearly beloved, As many of you are preparing yourselves for a new chapter in your lives, whether it be in a new grade, entering into Middle School or High School, or beginning your College Education, or Post Graduate education, we remind you of your vocation – to be a child of God. When we read the Holy Scriptures, taken from Wisdom of Sirach 10:5, we read “The success of a man is in the hand of the Lord…” In this day and age, there are many different hands offered to you. These hands may be ones that bring you only temporary happiness. Seek the Hand of God which brings you eternal joy, which is in the life of His Church, and never sacrifice your life as a Christian, even for your academic career. Finally to the parents. It is true tha...

Please pray for our brothers in Egypt. Countless churches defaced or destroyed, murder and abuse in the streets and in the churches, and no end in sight. A FATHER had a family of sons who were perpetually quarreling among themselves. When he failed to heal their disputes by his exhortations, he determined to give them a practical illustration of the evils of disunion; and for this purpose he one day told them to bring him a bundle of sticks. When they had done so, he placed the faggot into the hands of each of them in succession, and ordered them to break it in pieces. They tried with all their strength, and were not able to do it. He next opened the faggot, took the sticks separately, one by one, and again put them into his sons’ hands, upon which they broke them easily. He then addressed them in these words: “My sons, if you are of one mind, and unite to assist each other, you will be as this faggot, uninjured by all the attempts of your enemies; but if you are divided among yo...

( AOB ) - The Executive Committee of the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of North and Central America held an official meeting at the Greek Orthodox Archdiocesan headquarters in New York on Tuesday, August 13. Under the chairmanship of His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios, the Executive Committee made final preparations for the fourth general Assembly of Bishops meeting in September. The members of the Executive Committee also reviewed the process by which the Assembly would reach consensus, when required. An issue of such importance it can't be overstated. Getting this right will be a major requirement for the success of the committee. It is worth stating that this very issues is one of the primary impediments to holding the upcoming Great and Holy Council.  Participating in the meeting were: Archbishop Demetrios (Ecumenical Patriarchate); Metropolitan Philip (Patriarchate of Antioch, by phone); Archbishop Justinian (Patriarchate of Moscow); Bishop Longin (Patriarchate ...

( Fox News ) - Attacks on Coptic Christian churches in Egypt continued for a second day Thursday, the country’s state-run news agency said, as Muslim Brotherhood supporters torched a church in a province outside of Cairo. Egypt's MENA agency said supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi set fire to the Prince Tadros church in the province of Fayoum, where three similar attacks occurred on other churches the day before. Ishaq Ibrahim from The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights group, documented as many as 39 incidents of violence against churches, monasteries, Coptic schools and shops in different parts of the country on Wednesday. Violence across Egypt in the past two days has left at least 638 dead and 4,200 injured, according to Health Ministry figures. Looking to crack down on church-related attacks, Egyptian authorities on Thursday referred 84 people in Suez, some Muslim Brotherhood protesters, to military prosecutors on charges of murder and burning churches,...

So far the individual committees have spent their time collecting data. They now know who their priests are and where they serve, which youth groups are active and what they are doing, the legal entities in existence, and how different jurisdictions do things. The next step is to do something with that data. We'll see what Chicago produces. ( AOB ) - The Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of North and Central America will hold its annual meeting September 17-19, 2013 at the Chicago Marriott in Schaumburg, Illinois. This is the fourth Annual Meeting of the Assembly. The agenda, which includes discussion of the Assembly’s vision, proposals for canonical restructuring, and an Assembly-sponsored national youth conference, can be found here. The Assembly requests the prayers of all clergy, monastics, and laity. The Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops is comprised of all 65 active Orthodox hierarchs serving the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

( AINA ) - The Antiochian Orthodox church of Sts. Sergius and Bacchus was a landmark of al-Thawrah (also known as al-Tabqah). It was an impressive, modern structure with a large yard, surrounded by a high wall and well-situated on a main street near the corniche -- a well landscaped area hugging the southern bank of Lake Assad which was popular with locals going on an evening stroll. Its elegant dome, surmounted by a cross, could be seen from all parts of the Third Quarter (also known as Hayy al-Ishtirakiyah), where it was located. Spiritually, this church was under the jurisdiction of the archdiocese of Aleppo, the metropolitan of which, Boulos al-Yazigi, was kidnapped (and allegedly murdered) on April 22 of this year, along with the Syriac Orthodox metropolitan of the same city, Mor Gregorios Youhanna Ibrahim. It was built between 1985 and 1994, on land offered by the al-Thawrah's city council, and could accommodate up to 300 worshippers. Moreover, not only did this church se...

( IBTimes ) - Supporters of ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi have attacked churches in Dilga, Menya and Sohag after government security forces backed by armoured cars and bulldozers stormed protest camps outside Cairo's Rabaa al-Adawiya mosque. Coptic churches were attacked after hundreds of Muslim Brotherhood members were feared dead when troops used live bullet rounds and teargas to clear a protest camp in Cairo. The Churches of Abraham and the Virgin Mary in Menya were burning after Morsi supporters set fire to the outside of the building exteriors and smashed through doors. Russia Today reported that at least 1,000 pro-Morsi protesters were involved in the attack before police armed with teargas dispersed them. Muslim Brotherhood members also threw firebombs at Mar Gergiss church in Sohag, a city with a large community of Coptic Christians who represents up to 10 percent of Egypt's 84 million people, causing it to burn down, the official MENA news agency sa...

By way of clarification: I was informed by someone in the know about this that no release was given from the Antiochian Archdiocese. He simply informed them of his intent and made the change. ( Assyrian Church ) - On the Fourth Sunday of Summer, 28 July 2013, His Grace Mar Awa Royel, Bishop of the Diocese of California, formally and publicly received the Rev’d Qashisha Ephraim Ashur Alkhas into the Assyrian Church of the East for the Diocese of California. The reception by clerical confession of faith, oath of obedience and vesting was given and completed before the witness of the clergy and faithful at Mar Zaia Cathedral in Modesto, California. ​On 14 July, Fr. Ephraim was officially but privately received into the Assyrian Church as a priest of the Diocese of California. He was received from the Diocese of Los Angeles of the North American Archdiocese of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Antioch (الروم الأرثوذكس). ​Fr. Ephraim grew up in Saint Mary’s Assyrian Church of the Eas...