Byzantine, Texas

By all accounts Bishop Daniel of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the USA is one of the country's most beloved hierarchs. He's a tireless worker both in this country and in Ukraine. You can see his most recent trip abroad to care for refugees here . He has just been released from the hospital after having complained of chest and arm pain. More tests are scheduled and he is resting at home. O Christ, Who alone art our Defender: Visit and heal Thy suffering servants, delivering them from sickness and grievous pains. Raise them up that they may sing to Thee and praise Thee without ceasing, through the prayers of the Theotokos, O Thou Who alone lovest mankind. Amen.

Antiquities of the Jews - Book XVIII - Chapter 5 HEROD THE TETRARCH MAKES WAR WITH ARETAS, THE KING OF ARABIA, AND IS BEATEN BY HIM AS ALSO CONCERNING THE DEATH OF JOHN THE BAPTIST. 1. About this time Aretas (the king of Arabia Petres) and Herod had a quarrel on the account following: Herod the tetrarch had, married the daughter of Aretas, and had lived with her a great while; but when he was once at Rome, he lodged with Herod, (15) who was his brother indeed, but not by the same mother; for this Herod was the son of the high priest Sireoh's daughter. However, he fell in love with Herodias, this last Herod's wife, who was the daughter of Aristobulus their brother, and the sister of Agrippa the Great. This man ventured to talk to her about a marriage between them; which address, when she admitted, an agreement was made for her to change her habitation, and come to him as soon as he should return from Rome: one article of this marriage also was this, that he should divor...

( AFR ) - Ancient Faith Radio is pleased to announce the debut of its third live call-in program. Titled “Faith Encouraged Live with Fr. Barnabas Powell,” the program will replace “Ancient Faith Today” on the second and fourth Sundays of each month beginning September 14. Kevin Allen, host of “Ancient Faith Today,” retired on August 11, ending his show’s two-year run. “Faith Encouraged Live” will have a slightly different format and focus from “Ancient Faith Today.” While still featuring interviews with prominent Orthodox individuals on contemporary topics, it will also contain reflections and commentary by host Fr. Barnabas Powell, as well as readings from Scripture and the Church Fathers. “The show will be much more varied and eclectic than ‘Ancient Faith Today,’” says Bobby Maddex, Operations Manager of Ancient Faith Radio. “The interviews will represent only a small portion of ‘Faith Encouraged Live,’ and what occurs on the program will change from broadcast to broadcast. W...

Let me preface this by saying that The Sounding doesn't like it when I post entire articles (their original post by Andrew Estocin entitled "Ten Questions for the Assembly of Bishops" here ), but to answer these questions I can't do so without posting the below. Sorry. ( The Sounding ) - In all of God’s earthly creation, only the human person has the ability to ask questions and seek answers. Asking questions reflects the fact that men and women are created in the image and likeness of God. Asking questions is also part of the gift of reason and therefore needs to be cultivated with virtue and compassion. In America’s highly charged political climate, every question asked is considered suspect for its motives. However, questions in the Orthodox Christian Tradition are not viewed with suspicion but are instead welcomed with open arms. Orthodoxy does not view posing a question as an act of disobedience but as an act of fidelity to the Church. Questions are part of...

( Aleteia ) - The cast of “Sister Wives,” a hit television show featuring a polygamous family, has something to celebrate today. On Wednesday, Federal Judge Clark Waddoups finalized his December order striking down a key part of Utah’s statute banning the practice of bigamy. Kody Brown, his four “wives” and their 17 children are Lehi, Utah, residents and members of the Apostolic United Brethren, a fundamentalist Mormon sect that continues to practice polygamy, which in 1890 was formally eschewed by the official Mormon Church, also known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS). That decision was critical to the recognition of the Utah territory as an American state in 1896. The ban on polygamy is written into both the Utah Constitution and statutory law. In 2010, the television network TLC began broadcasting a reality show that examined the lives of the Brown family. The day after the program debuted, Utah Attorney General Jeff Buhman directed police in Lehi to...

BROADVIEW HEIGHTS, OH ( OCA-DMW ) — The 53rd Assembly of the Diocese of the Midwest will be held at Archangel Michael Church here on Tuesday, October 7, 2014. Immediately preceding the Assembly, a Special Diocesan Assembly will be held for the sole purpose of nominating a candidate for the vacant See of Chicago and the Midwest. The name of the nominee will be presented to the Holy Synod of Bishops for canonical election. This Special Assembly will be followed by the regular Assembly, during which the business of an annual Diocesan Assembly meeting will be addressed. Regular, special Diocesan Assemblies to convene Tuesday, October 7, 2014It is suggested that delegates from outside the Cleveland area arrive on Monday evening, October 6. If possible, return flights should be scheduled no earlier than 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, October 7. A block of rooms has been reserved at a group rate at a nearby hotel. Detailed information concerning hotels, the schedule and agenda, registration...

I've been following (and posting on) this story since it first hit the newspapers. I did not foresee the way forward for a parish that couldn't meet its current financial obligations would be to make another parish. To call it "church growth" is also a bit of a stretch. Maybe "church mitosis." MURRAY ( Deseret News ) — A group labeling itself "progressive" voted Saturday to create an additional parish in the Salt Lake Valley. A little more than 100 people gathered at Hillcrest Junior High, 156 E. 5600 South, to create the Greek Orthodox Mission Parish Saturday. The majority voted in the affirmative. "This is your chance to do it right, to do what you've learned over the years and to do it with a fresh start," Father Luke Uhl, chancellor for Metropolitan Isaiah of Denver, told those gathered. If contentions arise, "Resolve them in love," he advised, possibly alluding to the strife that has cropped up in the Greek Ort...

The number of loaves used in preparation of the Gifts is a debated topic that is often oversimplified. The blog Classical Christianity has presented the below in an article entitled " On Multiple Loaves for the Divine Liturgy ." Even the shortest study of the topic will show that the number of loaves used, the organization of the particles, and the prayers said have gone through alterations in different times and in different places so that it is impossible to trace a single "pan-Orthodox" process that would be agreeable to all. "Five loaves is the ancient process" doesn't hold up under any scrutiny but neither does proclaiming a single loaf as the truest form while disdaining the use of five loaves show respect for natural changes that permeates Orthodoxy. In our Russian Church, we use five Prosphora loaves for the Proskomide [the Service of Preparation, or Prothesis, also called Proskomedia, and despite the clear derivation from the Greek, (...

An article by Elizabeth Stoker Bruenig entitled " How Tennessee incentivizes abortions : We need legislation that protects pregnancy and mothers, not just unborn infants." This is an important trend that I fear will have implications for the unborn around the country. ( The Week ) - August has witnessed a bombardment of bad news for America's most vulnerable mothers and babies. First, lawyers for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission released a breakdown of the pregnancy discrimination cases they handled in 2013 — and the big finding was quite distressing. Women in low-income jobs — like food service, retail, and manufacturing — are the most likely to seek help dealing with pregnancy discrimination in the workplace, they found. That's especially alarming when you consider that low-income workers tend to need their work the most, a reality made more grave by pregnancy. Second, there's already been an arrest in Tennessee under a new law that turns newbo...

( One News Now ) - Romanian Christians are familiar with persecution in their home country but they didn't expect to encounter it in America. The Holy Resurrection Romanian Orthodox Church struggled to find a place to worship in California. After finding a place in the Rio Linda area of Sacramento, church members discovered their biggest stumbling block is city government. Brad Dacus, founder of Pacific Justice Institute, says one reason Sacramento gave for refusing permission was the location was near a bar, so the location might not be compatible with the neighborhood. "Another reason given was that they said there were too many churches already," says Dacus, whose law firm is representing the church. "You know, it's not the business of government to dictate how many churches we need." Church members were shocked at the city's attitude and observed that it reminded them of the hostilities they experienced in Romania, which had been ruled unde...

This may be the second or third time I've asked for prayers in the seven years I've run this blog. I'll be short and sweet. I'm awaiting a final answer on a parish assignment and the money to make housing and such work isn't there right now. So, in your kindness, please remember my family and me as we go forward. Moving with school starting in three days is not ideal but I'm trusting in kairos over chronos here.

This might not be newsworthy if I were talking about ROCOR or the OCA, but the Antiochians and the Greeks take a very different approach to missions. I've looked at the Greek requirements for a mission and most Slavic parishes wouldn't qualify. Time will tell as to which model (OCA missions and mission stations or the high hurdles of Greeks) will prove most fruitful. I've been to Greek parishes in the rural South that have money but few people on a Sunday morning and OCA parishes that started with neither and are now thriving. I've also seen men out of seminary put into missions that couldn't support them, forcing young families to go on government assistance and putting them in dangerous situations where a rather pedestrian healthcare emergency bankrupts them. A few hundred years in and we're still feeling our way through how best to effect the Great Commission to the New World. But, returning to the missions at hand, I'll be in both areas in the near fu...

Fr. John Whiteford's blog, a post entitled " Stump the Priest: Triple Immersion ." The video added is my own. Question: "I am not opposed to triune immersion, but I do want to question the idea that triune immersion is the ONLY way. Why isn't there a single mention of triune immersion in the New Testament? Other than the Didache, I see no explicit support for triune immersion from the writings from the first and second century. Tertullian speaks of thrice immersions as being "an ampler pledge" than what is found in Scripture. Ampler means greater. Therefore, he is saying that triune immersion is somewhat greater than what Jesus described in Matthew 28, and therefore something beyond what Christ commanded." There is no explicit mention in the New Testament of either single or triple immersion, and so we have to look beyond the New Testament for answers here. You say "other than the Didache", as if the fact that the Didache does ment...

CHICAGO, IL ( OCA-MW ) — Chicago’s Orthodox Christian Synergy will hold its annual Symposium at Holy Resurrection Serbian Orthodox Cathedral, 5701 North Redwood Drive, Chicago on Saturday, October 18, 2014 from 9:00 a.m. until 2:00 p.m. The theme of the annual gathering is “Operation Thy Kingdom Come: How Do We Live Our Faith in a Secular Age?” The theme will underscore how the Kingdom of God has power to take back His People from the secular world and fill the empty secular heart. His Grace, Bishop Anthony of the Antiochian Orthodox Diocese of Toledo and the Midwest will be the keynote speaker. Born and raised in Ironwood, MI, he attended the University of Michigan, where he received his BA in Literature, Science and the Arts, having a double major in History and English literature. He attended Saint Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary, Yonkers, NY. Registration and payment prior to October 9 is only $35.00. (Husband and wife couples: $50.) From October 10 –18, the co...

( Pravmir ) - The Dormition Fast is preparation for the Feast of the Dormition of the Mother of God. The Theotokos was immaculate, pure, and led a very temperate way of life. Tradition even tells us that she led a life-long fast. Thus, the meaning of this fast is to participate in the pure and immaculate abstinence of the Mother of God in preparation for the Feast of her Dormition. According to the Typicon, this fast is considered strict. From Monday to Friday only xerophagy [literally, “dry-eating,” i.e., food prepared without oil] is allowed, and on weekends oil may be added to food (in our case, vegetable oil). Fish is permitted only on the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord. In terms of strictness, this fast is not inferior to Great Lent, the only difference being that the Dormition Fast is short: two weeks in all. Moreover, it is not spring, when all that is available is melted snow, but August, in which we rejoice in an abundance of vegetables and fruits. During the...

From Syria even unto Rome I fight with beasts, both by land and sea, both by night and day, being bound to ten leopards, I mean a band of soldiers, who, even when they receive benefits, show themselves all the worse. But I am the more instructed by their injuries [to act as a disciple of Christ]; "yet am I not thereby justified." May I enjoy the wild beasts that are prepared for me; and I pray that they may be found eager to rush upon me, which also I will entice to devour me speedily, and not deal with me as with some, whom, out of fear, they have not touched. But if they be unwilling to assail me, I will compel them to do so. Pardon me [in this] I know what is for my benefit. Now I begin to be a disciple, and have no desire after anything visible or invisible, that I may attain to Jesus Christ. Let fire and the cross; let the crowds of wild beasts; let breakings, tearings, and separations of bones; let cutting off of members; let bruising to pieces of the whole body; an...

I have made known some of my pet peeves in the past (e.g. trends in  Orthodox photography ), so here is another one. There seems to be no end of photos or paintings serving as the background for quotations from the Fathers or Scripture posted on the Internet daily. When someone quotes St. Basil the Great and puts an icon of him above a quotation it makes sense. Heck, it is not uncommon to put the quote IN the icon by use of a long scroll or the like. That sort of thing seems to be the minority these days though. What is more common is some quite egregious dissonance between photo and caption. If A is pretty and B is poignant, then A and B should go together goes the logic. I found the photo below to be more amusing than unsettling. I would have expected maybe something like Psalm 25:8 (26:8) "O Lord, I have loved the beauty of thy house, and the place of the tabernacle of thy glory." or maybe Alexandr Solzhenitsyn's reference to Dostoevsky saying "Beauty will save ...

( RISU ) - Council of Bishops of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church elected its Primate. Present Locum Tenens of the Kyiv Cathedra Metropolitan of Chernivtsi and Bukovina Onufry will lead this Church. The results of the elections of Metropolitan of Kyiv and All Ukraine was announced on August 13, the same day the elections started. 48 Bishops of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church out of 78 voted for this candidate. There were two rounds. After the 1st round vote leaders were Metropolitan of Chernivtsi and Bukovynskiy Onufry - 36 votes , Metropolitan Anthony of Boryspil and Brovary - 24 votes, and Metropolitan of Vinnitsa and Mohyliv-Podilsky Simeon. And also... I also thought it might be interesting to see what the voting process looked liked.

Stories of the lives of the people who come to St. John the Compassionate Mission, an apostolate of the Carpatho-Russian Orthodox Diocese located in Toronto, Ontario.

( Life News ) - On July 25th, a car reversed into a Costco store in Ontario, Canada and struck a pregnant mother, Dana McKinnon-Bozek, and her other children, Addision Hall and Miah Bozek. Because of the crash, McKinnon-Bozek immediately underwent an emergency caesarean section a month before her due date. However, her infant died a week later from her injuries. The tragic accident injured six other people including the newborns older sister, Addison Hall who died at the hospital. Their mother, Dana McKinnon-Bozek and her younger daughter, Miah Bozek survived the crash and are in fair condition. The driver, a woman in her 60′s, suffered injuries as well, but has been released from the hospital. Currently, an investigation is underway to uncover the reason for the crash. So far, intoxication has been ruled out, but the authorities are looking into other factors such as a mechanical or driver error. While this case of fetal death should be considered vehicular manslaughter, unborn...

( Foreign Policy Association ) - In an annual report released by the Department of State this week, the Obama administration has yet again pressed Turkey to live up to its commitment as a democracy to ensure religious freedom, citing the need to reopen an Eastern Orthodox seminary that’s been closed for decades. Turkey is a “tier 2″ country according to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), meaning it’s not a “country of particular concern” (i.e., a country, according to the Department of State, “engaged in or tolerated particularly severe violations of religious freedom” that are “systematic, ongoing and egregious”) but there are certain worrisome tendencies. According to USCIRF, these include: listing one’s religion on ID cards, the troubled religious freedom climate in Turkish-occupied Cyprus, a failure to officially recognize certain minority groups such as the Alevis, rising anti-Semitism, and an overall deterioration of both online and off-line priva...

Mosul Archbishop Nikodimos Daoud: ISIS Perpetrates Genocide against Iraq's Christians.

( Naharnet ) - The bishops of Oriental Churches on Thursday demanded Muslim religious authorities to issue fatwas banning attacks against Christians and “other innocents” in the East, urging also parties financing terrorist organizations “to immediately stop arming” these extremist groups. “We call on Muslim religious authorities, Sunnis and Shiites, to issue fatwas banning attacks against Christians and other innocents,” Beirut Maronite Bishop Boulos Matar said after a congregation of the bishops of Oriental Churches at Diman, Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi's summer seat. The conferees discussed the situation of Christians in Iraq and Syria, amid the rising threat of extremist jihadists who are occupying large parts of these neighboring countries and persecuting Christian minorities there, giving them a choice between converting to Islam or leaving their lands. “The conferees discussed the rise of takfiri groups that are violating the sanctity of churches and attacki...

( NPR ) - Before the civil war in Syria destroyed ancient religious sites — and scattered some of the oldest Christian communities in the world — Jason Hamacher made several trips there, taking photos and recording ancient Sufi and Christian chants. The project got its start when Hamacher read in a book about "the world's oldest Christian music." He tracked down From the Holy Mountain author William Dalrymple, who told him there were no recordings of the music — and that "it's not a monastery in the desert; it is a Syrian Orthodox church in the middle of the city of Aleppo." Hamacher ended up staying at that church as a guest of the archbishop, who has since been kidnapped by rebels. As Hamacher tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross, he is planning a series of albums called Sacred Voices of Syria. The first, which was released this summer on his own Lost Origin Productions , is called Nawa: Ancient Sufi Invocations and Forgotten Songs From Aleppo. Ha...

Yes, this is real. I took it out of a narthex brochure stand in Ohio. It is also not an outlandish question as I've heard different versions of it over the years. Still - great title.

Beirut ( OCP ) - Patriarch Ignatius Aphrem II of Antioch and All East received high level Oriental Orthodox prelates at his residence on 5th August 2014. Bishop Anba Bishoy, Bishop of Damietta of the Coptic Orthodox Church, Archbishop Nareg Alemezian – Bishop of Cyprus of the Armenian Orthodox Church in Lebanon, Mor Theophilus George Saliba, Archbishop of Mount Lebanon & Secretary General of the Holy Synod of the Syriac orthodox Church. Also were present Mor Dionysius Yuhanon -Director of Patriarchal Office, Mor Chrysostomos Michael Shimon – Director Patriarchate charitable institutions, and Mor Thimotheos Mathews- Patriarchal Secretary for Indian Affairs. Prelates from Coptic and Armenian Churches conveyed greetings from Pope Tawadros and Catholicos Aram I respectively to Patriarch Aphrem II. Talk on Oriental Orthodox Unity Discussions were held on the progress of the Oriental Orthodox Council in Middle East, reports were submitted to the Patriarch and dates of the upco...

I'll actually be in town then. I wonder if I should go? :) ( AOB ) - The Assembly of Bishops will hold its fifth annual meeting September 16-18, 2014 at the Grand Hyatt Dallas Fort Worth International Airport. This year’s agenda includes a session on evangelism and outreach with presentations by the Assembly’s Agencies (see the list of agencies here ). Canonical regional planning and a national youth rally are other key topics of discussion. The full agenda can be found here (PDF). The hierarchs of the Assembly request the prayers of all clergy, monastics, and laity for a spiritually fruitful meeting.

Today I was happy to receive two related works. The first came in the mail: Economia and Eschatology: Liturgical Mystagogy in the Byzantine Prothesis Rite by Fr. Stelyios S. Muksuris. The second was a notification of Fr. Thomas Hopko's (so far) three part podcast series entitled " The Proskomede - Preparing the Bread and the Wine ." The Prothesis Rite (aka Proskomedia, Proskomede, Office of Oblation, Preparation) is something that many people frankly don't know anything about. Some people I've met have absolutely no idea any preparation is done and assume that everything is taken care of inside the Divine Liturgy. Altar boys are not immune to this ignorance as it is not at all uncommon for a priest to perform the ceremony long before other people arrive at the parish. Then again, some parishes have such an exhaustive commemoration configuration that much of an altar boy's early morning might be in ferrying pieces of paper back and forth from the altar to ...

To make sure this blog is still on the right track - that it is topical and holds interest for readers - I do an annual review of the traffic this blog receives. About half a year has passed since the last review and as this blog just had its two millionth view today, I thought it a good time to do the annual statistical round-up. If you're interested, here's the data. Of traditional readers (people who visit the blog through normal web browsing) the last full month (July) shows 44,000. Total visits since the beginning of the blog is a little over 2 million. Google Friend Connect has reached 287 - up from 272 readers last year. The number one referrer (after removing search engines from the mix) continues to be my good friend at Ad Orientem . Although not much publicized, this blog has a Twitter feed with 1,046 followers, last year's total was 913. Put together, the data would seem to report that this blog is faring rather well. I am, of course, always happy to recei...

( Youtube ) - The monastic rites of ordination start of with the evening prayer with the monk will be ordained into monasticism. He will receive his name in this evening and he will also take his vow in front of the altar and his father of confession.

( First Things ) - Pornography degrades women (those cocksure feminists who claim otherwise have fallen for the biggest male confidence trick of all time). It alters the neural pathways of the brain and literally changes the way its consumers think. It hinders men from developing mature emotional relationships with women. It reinforces and supercharges the notion that sex is a commodity over which the consumer has complete control. Further, if an article by Cosmo Landesman in this weeks Spectator is to be believed, it is impacting the middle-aged as badly as it is affecting the younger generation. The strangest thing about the article is that the author clearly takes personal advantage of the phenomenon which he claims to find so disturbing. Yet perhaps we should not judge him too harshly on this score. Maybe the honesty, the refusal to gloss selfish sleaze as virtue or freedom, is refreshing even if the attitude itself is disturbing. One might take the article as more eviden...

From the blog The Morning Offering ... The summer months are coming to a close and many young people will be facing the prospect of heading off to college, some for the very first time. A scripture passage comes to my mind as I think of these wonderful young people preparing to leave home: "I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves (Matthew 10:16)." College professors almost universally enjoy challenging young college students to question authority, yet are taken aback when their own authority is questioned. They know they are addressing a class of impressionable minds and almost make sport of attacking the positions of their students. My advice to Orthodox students is to refuse to be intimidated and don't be discouraged. Most of these professors took years to acquire the knowledge and the skill to successfully defend their belief system, or lack thereof, including atheism. These professors usually only as...

To be out Wednesday from Potamitis Publishing . Timely and beautiful.

From the blog Icons and their Interpretation , a post on the often hard to read iconographic "ligatures." Today’s post is going to be very boring for all except those few who want to learn more about reading icon inscriptions. Though it may seem a dull topic to many, it is essential to the real student of icons. Inscriptions commonly tell us who a saint in an icon is, which is a great and important aid, given that so many saints are very generic in appearance. Let’s take another little step in the reading of Greek inscriptions by looking at a short and rather messily-written example that nonetheless has something to teach us. It does not have all the accent marks, but for our purposes at the moment it will do... Complete article here .

( Pravmir ) - In compliance with an agreement between Archbishop Justinian of Elista and Kalmykia, authorized by His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia, and the Catholic Primate of Mexico, Archbishop Norberto Rivera Carrera of Mexico City, the 17th century Catholic Church of the Conception of the Virgin Mary was handed over for the free temporary use to the Russian Orthodox Church’s parish of the Protecting Veil of the Mother of God. The agreement was reached during a meeting of Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations, with the Catholic Primate of Mexico in January 2014. On 27 July 2014, Archbishop Justinian and Archbishop Alejo of Mexico City and All Mexico (Orthodox Church in America) celebrated the first Liturgy in the church. Among those present at the service was Rev. Eduardo Losano, dean of the Catholic diocese of Mexico City’s central area, rector of the Catholic seminary in Mexi...