Byzantine, Texas

( OCA ) - Saint Tikhon’s Orthodox Theological Seminary [STOTS], South Canaan, PA, inaugurated its first Ancient Faith Ministries Live Call-In Studio during the last week of July 2019, according to Archpriest John Parker, STOTS Dean. “The initial podcast— ‘The Spirit of Saint Tikhon’s’ —features an interview with His Eminence, Archbishop Michael of New York and New Jersey and Rector of Saint Tikhon’s,” said Father John. “The podcast provides a wonderful way that we can connect our seminary with the world—to tell the Good News of what God is doing here, to share our remarkable faculty and staff with the world, to introduce our students and their families, even to solicit support for the Seminary. “The podcast further is named for the once-print-media newspaper of Saint Tikhon’s and carries along the tradition of sharing our blessings with those who will listen,” Father John added. “Please post and share on your Facebook, etc. This is a ‘very simple’ way to continue to share ou...

( Pravmir ) - Both in the recent godless time and to a large extent today, Orthodox Christian women play a crucial role in the Christianization of society. His Holiness, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia spoke about this in his sermon on the feast day of the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Princess Olga on July 24, 2019. “Children receive their first teaching on faith from their mothers and grandmothers. Although, grandmothers often have little power to influence the life of a young family, they put so much effort: by setting a sincere example, through love and piety. It is done in order to bring Christian ideals, Christian foundations closer to the hearts and minds of infants and children”, said the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church. The Patriarch compared the “quiet” service of ordinary faithful women to the life deed of the Holy Blessed Princess Olga and encouraged them “to never quit their equal-to-the-Apostles service, to perform the Christian upbringing of their chil...

( SAAOT ) - St. Athanasius Academy of Orthodox Theology is now offering online Orthodox studies for homeschooling families. For grades 6-8: New Testament with Fr. Joel Gillam Lives of the Saints with Fr. Michael Heningham Virtues and Passions with Fr. Paul Girgis ​For high school: Old Testament with Fr. David Bibeau  World History with Fr. James Purdie  English with Fr. Fred Shaheen  Virtues and Passions with Fr. Paul Girgis Classes begin next month, so check out the details now.

( Romfea ) - A Quebec judge decided to ban the wearing of religious symbols by public employees. The decision issued by Quebec’s Superior Court prohibits teachers, police, judges, prison guards, and all public servants from wearing any religious regalia including as yarmulkes (kippahs), hijabs, and crosses. The ruling also bans face coverings while providing public services, which would seriously impact the growing number of Muslim women that work as teachers. Private civil liberties groups, the National Council of Canadian Muslims, and the Canadian Civil Liberties Association appealed the decision only hours after it passed in the hope that they could keep the measure from taking effect until it could be publicly debated. According to the group, the decision contains major legal as it discriminates against people based on how they dress “This is both absurd and abhorrent – it has no place in a society that values justice, equality and freedom,” said Noa Mendelsohn Aviv, equalit...

Catholic aren't alone. Many Orthodox are still a tad perplexed as to why he did it and why so seemingly offhandedly. It's not as if we'd be okay giving relics of St. Andrew away to Rome. In fact, I think there would be hundreds of angry internet stories about it. We won't be sending them back to Rome of course, but we also - as a people - are making the face one does when handed a gift without preamble and it isn't even our birthday. ( Catholic Herald ) - The decision to send the relics of St Peter from the private chapel of the papal apartment to the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople is still in need of explanation. The manner in which it was done remains inexplicable. On June 29, the feast of Ss Peter and Paul, Pope Francis gave to the delegation representing Bartholomew, the primus inter pares of the Orthodox Church, a reliquary containing nine bone fragments of Peter the Apostle. While the majority of Peter’s relics are under the high altar of St Pe...

( RISU ) - "The stolen Churches, or bridges to Orthodoxy?" - this was the topic of a theological conference, held on 19-21 July 2019 at the Academy of the Roman Catholic diocese Rottenburg-Stuttgart (Germany), which set a goal to find new impulses for dialogue between the Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches. It was reported by communication service of the Diocese of Paris of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. The initiator and organizer of the conference was Georgetown University (Washington DC, USA) in cooperation with the Ecclesiological Investigations International Research Network (EIIRN), University of Leuven and Ukrainian Catholic University, the Wallachian Greek Theological Academy and some other institutions working in the field of Orthodox-Catholic dialogue. The West had a wide geography: speakers were from almost all countries of the European Union, as well as the USA, Canada, India, Australia, Ukraine, Russia, Belarus. During the two and a half days of the...

May we follow their lead! ( Romfea / HT:  Full of Grace ) - The Establishment of the Day of the Unborn Child was announced by the Holy Synod in a decision taken on July 9, which is officially taking a stand against abortions. As stated in the relevant circular, this decision was taken to protect the child and to solve the country’s demographic problem. The movement “Let me live,” that took the initiative, has announced: “We received the decision of the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece, to establish the first Sunday after Christmas as a day dedicated to the protection of the life of the unborn child, with feelings of joy and gratitude. Our movement, “Let me live”, faithful to the Gospel and the tradition of the Orthodox Church, proclaims the truth that the unborn child is a person, the image of God, since the beginning of the conception, and is fighting for the protection of the child’s life without terms and conditions.”

07/23/2019 Egypt ( International Christian Concern ) – Coptic Christians living in the village of Kom Al-Raheb have once again been forced to hold a funeral in the street because their church was closed by police in December 2018. The church, which was operating without a license, is seeking official recognition but was targeted by hardline Islamists who do not want to see an official church in the village. The village currently has no church, but there are approximately 2500 Coptic Christians living there. The police had closed the church in order to pacify the Islamists. A reconciliation session resulted in an agreement that the church would be closed until it is granted a license and local politicians would speed the process. Instead, the church remains closed eight months later. This was the third funeral that Christians have held in the streets of Kom al-Raheb within the past five months. The funeral was held on July 17th, when temperatures were 109 fahrenheit. Frustrated at...

( Today I Found Out ) - In modern times if you want to show off extreme wealth, you may purchase expensive sports cars, buy a private jet, wear flashy jewelry, or, as boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. has been known to do, travel around carrying suitcases filled with sometimes millions of dollars in cash. Such extravagant displays of wealth are a trademark of the boxer with Mayweather reportedly having a standing arrangement with his bank to have huge sums of money in cash periodically delivered to his palatial home with the primary purpose being to facilitate flaunting his fabulous wealth, instead of using a card like mere plebeians. Going back a few centuries in Britain, a popular way to achieve a similar effect was to simply hire a random person to live on your property, with their job generally being to cease bathing or grooming in any way and otherwise spend their days sitting around doing a whole lot of nothing but looking like a stereotypical hermit, all for the enjoyment of guests....

( Syrian-EUS ) - From July 19th to July 22nd 2019, His Eminence Archbishop Mor Dionysius John Kawak, paid a pastoral visit to Sts Peter and Paul Parish in Southfield, Michigan. During his visit he met with Parish Council and on Sunday July 21st, 2019 he celebrated the Holy Liturgy (Qurobo) and during the Holy Qurobo, His Eminence ordained the following deaconess (Mzamronyotho): Rana Tallo Al-Sheikh, Ahlam Ajaj Abdul Nour, Mariam Farhood, Nawar Abbawy Alsheikh, Nadine Kassab, Watheka Mumtaz Dawood, Rand Zaem, Nada Hasso, Dina Salloomi Al-Banna,Sally Askar,Evon Fawzi Samaan.His Eminence was assisted by Rev. Imad Al-Banna (pastor of the church) in the presence of Very Rev. Father Edward Hanna. In his sermon, His Eminence spoke about service hood and about the role of the Deaconess in the Church historically and he explained their role in our today’s church. He also thanked Father Imad and Fr. Edward for their commitment and good service at the church, then he offered congratulations t...

( Romfea ) - The Synaxis of the Holy Fathers of the Vatopedi Monastery was celebrated at the Vatopedi Monastery. Bishop Adrianos of Halicarnassus presided over the liturgies accompanied by the Abbot of the Vatopedi Monastery, Elder Efraim. The celebration was attended by dozens of hieromonks and monks of Mount Athos. Hundreds of pilgrims visited the Monastery from different places, such as Greece, Cyprus, Russia, Georgia, Romania, as they do every year.

It is fair to say that the Greek Archdiocese has had a complicated relationship with its monasteries. The Ephraimite monasteries have been cause for concern for the synod and laity with letters and pronouncements and all the rest put out to "warn" people or "clarify" who should give whom spiritual direction over the past years. There is a disconnect - one might say - between the notable austerity and akríveia of the monasteries and the purported laxness in the parishes. Is this meeting a "getting to know you" meeting or a "getting on the same page" meeting? Time will tell. NEW YORK ( GOARCH ) – His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros wishing to further promote the value and importance of monasticism in our Οrthodox tradition and the spiritual life of the faithful, decided to convene a Monastic Assembly, on September 21-22, 2019 in the Holy Monastery of Saint Nektarios, in Roscoe, NY. Participants in this Assembly, will be all the Abbots and Abb...

Church is not a form of meditation where everything is put in perfect order and where people are seeking the oblivion of a Liturgy that passes them by as if in an unremarkable and inoffensive moment. I think some parishioners are just as happy to have the Liturgy go smoothly so they can tune out as there are those that care about the "good order" of a service bringing them closer to God. Children are not little adults who simply haven't read enough Robert's Rules of Order. They are children with children's brains and children's energy levels. You could no more make a one-year-old understand why not making noise so it can echo in church is a bad idea as explain to him that at parish council meetings that you can't bring up new business if you haven't read the minutes from the previous meeting first. Children are going to make noise. That's the unavoidable truth. Another unavoidable truth is that a parent has no idea when the child is going to ma...

"After a number of decades as a Christian, passing through several different iterations of the creed, I'm convinced Christianity needs a Christendom." So said a recent blog commenter. Many people recoil from the idea of an intentional Christian community as if those people (in some misguided Benedict Option cult-mindedness) are unwilling to engage with the wider world. It's odd to me that we build our lives around all sorts of things, but when we mention building our lives around Christians living next to other Christians and sharing in a liturgical life together, it's seen as some form of white-feathered retreat. For my part I find it odd that we think Christianity is done any favors by living in places that are hostile to it. We can acknowledge the unitive effect of cheering on a sports team and know for certain that wearing a Cowboys jersey in Philadelphia is going to get you jeered at publicly. And yet we live in places where neighbors call the police o...

I have, almost since the day this blog started, received a steady stream of emails asking if I know of any "good" Orthodox parishes near where the emailers live. If I do happen to know any of the clergy nearby, I will point them there, but as often as not I direct them to some online resources for finding Orthodox parishes near their homes or wherever they are traveling to. You don't need high-tech solutions to go to church, but it helps. This is not the first time I have touched on this topic. One of the most popular posts from the blog has been " Priests don't answer emails ," which catalogues my complaints about the prima facie simplicity of just getting in touch with a parish to get basic questions about things like address or service times answered. I find myself joining those emailers and will have to travel in August to drop a child off for her first day at college. One would think that getting in contact with the local parish would be a simple t...

These are our missionaries serving in Guatemala. You could join them and offer your talents where they're needed, all around the world! ( OCMC ) - Could you see yourself spending a gap year of service in the mission field? What about just a few months? Until now, at OCMC, we didn’t have an easy way to facilitate that; people would usually either spend 10 days in the mission field with a team, or dedicate 2+ years in long-term missionary service. We’re excited to be rolling out some more options, however, that will give more people the opportunity to serve in whatever capacity suits them the best. Mission Team Member. Teams travel for two to three week periods, on set dates. Mission Team members empower communities by working, witnessing, worshipping, and making disciples. Team members work together in a manner befitting Orthodox Christians, rendering service to help the Church with ongoing projects. Teams have contributed construction, youth ministry, teaching and evangel...

Moscow, July 15 ( Interfax ) - Head of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate Metropolitan Hilarion believes that old concept “Moscow is the third Rome” is outdated and cannot be referred to present-day Moscow. “I don’t think that today we can use concepts that were formulated many centuries ago, they reflected a certain historical reality, but can hardly be applied to current reality,” Metropolitan Hilarion said on air Church and the World program on Rossiya-24 TV. He explained that absolute majority of Russians today are not enchurched people and the Church is facing “a great missionary task” - to enchurch people who consider themselves Orthodox Christians, but in fact, are far from being such. “I think that it is much more important task than any talks about the “third Rome” and the role of Moscow as the the center of Christianity,” Metropolitan Hilarion said. However, according to him, everyone who comes to Moscow and in Russia notes that R...

His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of America Meets President Donald J. Trump in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Tuesday, July 16, 2019. Also present at the meeting were Vice President Mike Pence; Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar; and Vicar General of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America Fr. Alex Karloutsos.

( EP ) - After journalists’ questions about offensive statements against the Ecumenical Patriarchate, which were allegedly made recently by a member of the autonomous presence of the Patriarchate of Moscow in Ukraine, the Director of the Press and Communication Office of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, Nikos Papachristou, said: Allegations or information from anyone claiming that the Ecumenical Patriarchate, in order to grant the Tomos of Autocephaly to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, allegedly sought and received, or requested, any form of compensation, financial or other, whether from political or ecclesiastical persons, is absolutely false, unsubstantiated and slanderous. At the same time, such allegations are also highly offensive to the Mother Church of Constantinople, from which nine other local Churches, including Moscow, received their Autocephaly, through analogous and similar processes. It is characteristic that the Ecumenical Patriarch, in a recent speech referring to t...

Given that the unions (Brest, Uzhorod) that created the Unia were political actions and not religious ones and that the current belief is that Greek Catholics are not a "third way" but are understood to be "Orthodox in communion with Rome" by many of the faithful, I wonder why they need to continue to separate themselves from Orthodoxy at all. If you were to make a list of all the things the UGCC, Melkites, et al. share with the Orthodox and what they share with Rome, the list would be far longer on the Orthodox side. Even as they declare themselves a bridge between East and West, the Eastern side considers Greek Catholicism to be the opposite - a conditio cum qua non - an impediment to further work on unity. The OCU is not subject to Moscow, which was a major historical obstacle. And today, if the OCU is only acknowledged by some in world Orthodoxy, the UGCC is accepted by none of it. But is a volatile OCU preferable to the seemingly benevolent hand of Rome? I...

( GetReligion ) - In this politically polarized world, there are issues that can drive a large wedge between people — including several that, one way or another, are tied to religion. Immigration and abortion are two of the biggest in the Donald Trump era, issues that dominated the Supreme Court’s recently-completed term and the Democratic presidential primaries that are just underway. Then again, immigration and abortion are the issues that dominate news on the web and cable TV. Religious freedom, an old-school liberal issue now largely taken up by conservatives, is often lost in mainstream news coverage. Lost in this coverage is an issue of such importance to Roman Catholics, that it may very well be the biggest fallout to come from years of clerical sex abuse when it comes to how it affects the law. The California State Senate, controlled by Democrats, recently passed a bill (the first of its kind in the United States) that would compel a priest — violating centuries of Ca...

Moscow ( AsiaNews ) - Archbishop Ioann of Chariopoulis (Jeanne Rennetau), exarch of European Russians, has convened an assembly of the archdiocese's clergy for 7 September, in order to definitively resolve the fate of this particular Orthodox community. The exarchate was formed among the emigrants who fled from Russia after the 1917 revolution, creating their own European ecclesiastical structure, based in Paris, under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Due to the dramatic split between Moscow and Constantinople, following the establishment of the autocephalous Church of Ukraine, Patriarch Bartholomew (Archontonis) dissolved the exarchate last December, forcing the Russians to sell their churches to the Greeks. On February 23 of this year, the assembly of Russian priests in Paris voted 93% for the preservation of the archdiocese, effectively refusing the decree of dissolution issued by Constantinople. Some parishes in Italy and France have decided indepen...

( Interfax ) - The Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church expresses profound concern over the worsening situation with the dioceses of the Serbian Patriarchate in the territory of Montenegro where during several years the unity of Orthodoxy has been suffering from the schismatic actions of the so called Montenegrin Orthodox Church. An alarming trend of increasing the authorities’ pressure on the canonical clerics and laypersons has emerged in Montenegro. The Holy Assembly of Bishops of the Serbian Orthodox Church held on May 9-18, 2019, stated: “there are attempts to violently take away our holy sites in favour of the canonically and realistically non-existent ‘Montenegrin Orthodox Church’ and threats to destroy” certain places of prayerful veneration. President of Montenegro Milo Ðukanović at the party meeting in Nikšic on June 8, 2019, voiced an intention to “restore the Montenegrin Autocephalous Church.” The draft law on freedom of religion or beliefs and legal status of reli...

Moscow, July 8 ( Interfax ) - Women's mental capabilities are, as a rule, lower than men's, but they are more selfless than men, Archpriest Dimitry Smirnov, the head of the patriarch's commission on family issues and protection of mothers and children, said. "Women aren't as smart. Of course, there are women like Marie Curie, but they are still rare," the priest said on Radonezh radio. At the same time, women are more patient and have more love, he said. "The care women give to children cannot be compared to what a man can do. Everything a woman does is a heroic deed [...] it's exactly what the Lord expects from every person; in the first place, naturally, from men, but they evade it," Father Dimitry said. To illustrate his words, he mentioned a situation from his parish life. "A woman comes to church, she brings her husband along, and he's just standing there like the capital of Cambodia, Phnom Penh, blinking, and can't say a...

( Basilica ) - Marking this year’s International Romani Day, His Eminence Metropolitan Andrei of Cluj presided over a Romanian-Romani bilingual Divine Liturgy at an Orthodox parish led by a Roma priest in Turda. The Orthodox Archdiocese of Cluj includes two missionary parishes dedicated to Roma people, one in Pata Rât and the other in Turda. The 27-year old priest Marin Trandafir Roz who belongs to the Roma community is the first Roma priest to be ordained in the Cluj County. It is interesting to note that Metropolitan Andrei Andreicut previously served as a parish priest at the Nativity of St john the Baptist parish in Turda-Fabrici for several years (1978-1985), thus showing a high appreciation for the Roma priest by his appointment to this parochial community. The Orthodox Archdiocese of Vad, Feleac and Cluj constantly helps the Romani communities in Pata Rât, Turda, Cluj and Bistrița-Năsăud, having a number of 50 social projects and programs dedicated to Roma people. The...

( RISU ) - The Pope has invited the Metropolitans of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church and the Permanent Synod to a meeting that will take place in Rome on July 5 and 6, 2019. His Beatitude Sviatoslav shares his expectations of the upcoming meeting. According to the Head of the UGCC, since the Ukrainian Orthodox Church launched new processes, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church was subject to a very powerful attack on the part of Russia. They alleged that the UGCC acted deliberately to separate Orthodox Ukraine from the Russian Orthodox Church and, consequently, to bring it to the union. "I asked the Holy Father for his support. Therefore, Pope Francis will convene a meeting in order to demonstrate on the part of the Vatican that there is no condemnation of the UGCC, no one crosses out neither our existence nor our future. Why? For such a meeting has three objectives: support, consolidation and development,” says His Beatitude Sviatoslav. He notes that now it is perhaps h...

As always, the blue sections are my own commentary (and in the case of this post, the image is mine as well). ( The Morning Offering ) - When parishes are forced to close, it is not just because the children have moved away, and the old folks have died off. The problem is much greater than this. With increased numbers of immigrants joining parishes, often with the expressed desire to preserve their Russian identity, we can easily fall prey to believing our churches are on solid ground, and will thrive into the next generations. In our collective joy at seeing our churches packed for Sunday Liturgies, we forget about previous influxes of immigrants, whose children, upon growing into adulthood, became so Americanized that they saw the Orthodox Faith as relevant only for their parents and grandparents, but meaningless to themselves. It's really a trapeze act of flying through the air out of the hands of one person into the hands of another. How do you take Orthodoxy so tied into...

( Orthodoxy Today ) - As publicly confirmed by a senior OCA priest and privately confirmed by other OCA priests, at the Nineteenth All-American Council in July 2018, a Resolution aimed at asking the bishops to correct errant clergy and lay persons who promote false teaching on same-sex relationships was rejected by the OCA Synod of Bishops and not permitted to be voted on by the assembly. Concerned that publications such as The Wheel were perceived to be given a tacit blessing by the hierarchy, senior priests urged the bishops, through the resolution, to send an unambiguous message that false teaching will not be tolerated. The OCA Synod rejected the resolution citing that it was not appropriate for the All-American Council to “give direction” to the Synod. The OCA bishops also did not provide any feedback to revise or edit the priests’ statement to make it more acceptable to them. The answer of the resolution’s sponsors was that the resolution was a plea, not a demand. As a result...

Cerement - Waxed wrappings for the dead; loosely, grave-clothes generally. Also: cerecloth; winding-sheet, shroud. The verb form means the act of wrapping in same. Etymologically we get it from "cirer" to wax and "cere" to wrap (a corpse) in a waxed cloth or shroud. In pronunciation it is "seer-muh nt" and not like "ser-uh-" as you would find in ceremony. The Protection of the Mother of God is one of the most beloved feast days on the Orthodox calendar among the Slavic peoples, commemorated on October 1. The feast is celebrated additionally on October 28 in the Greek tradition. It is also known as the feast of the Virgin Mary's Cerement. The Deposition (or Placement) of the Venerable Robe of the Most Holy Mother of God at Blachernae is celebrated on July 2nd. In most Slavic languages the word "cerement" has a dual meaning of "veil" and "protection." The Russian word Pokrov (Покров), like the Greek Skep...

( Romfea ) - The Holy Community of Mount Athos has sent a letter to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Greece, George Katrougalos, with which it expressed its strong protest regarding the visit of an Hierarch of the Autocephalous Church of Ukraine. Specifically, the Holy Community communicates to the Minister of Foreign Affairs a Romfea.gr article, which concerned a visit by Metropolitan Mikhail of Lutsk and Volyn to Mount Athos. The Holy Community describes the action of the Metropolitan and his escort as provocative, for they were holding Ukrainian flags while they chanted the National Anthem of Ukraine. “The action of this Metropolitan, following his visit to the Holy Epistasis, constitutes a violation of Article 184 of the Charter of Mount Athos, on the basis of which ‘any moral, religious, ecclesiastical, social, nationalist and any other kind of proselytizing and propagandistic action in Mount Athos’ is absolutely forbidden and punished with the expulsion penalty”, as the ...

( EP ) - The delegation of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, which participated in the celebration of the throne feast of the Church of Rome on 29 June 2019, received from Pope Francis an unexpected and valuable gift: a reliquary with the holy relics of Saint Peter the Apostle, which were kept in the private chapel of the Pope at the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican. These are nine fragments of Saint Peter’s bones, which, after important archaeological excavations, have been confirmed to be authentic. At the request of Pope Paul VI in 1968, these fragments have been separated from the rest of the relics and placed in a bronze reliquary with the inscription: “Of the bones found in the Vatican Basilica belonging to the holy Apostle Peter”. These relics were exhibited in the Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican only once, on 24 November, 2013, on the occasion of the closing of the Holy Year of Faith. The rest of the relics of the Apostle are kept under the main altar of Saint Peter’s Basi...