Byzantine, Texas

So I survived my first class in New Testament Greek this morning. Having taken a smattering of Homeric Greek in the past, I was surprised with all the differences. By the time the New Testament was written the language appears to have been streamlined; things I had to learn in ancient Greek serve no purpose now. I can blissfully ignore a lot of the jots and tittles that slowed me down before, though some changes grate on my ears. Getting to Denton (where the classes are held) was, as always, a straight line North followed by a single turn off the highway (actually the church is a whopping mile from where my previous two children were born). St. Maximus is a converted house with a narthex on the other side of the front door and the nave to your immediate right. The grounds are large and filled with blooming plants, and the plans I saw for a future stand-alone church looked very stately. There's a small bookstore with some books I had in the queue to order (note to self: buy Jordanv...

While I like a lot of the stylistic elements of the blog layout, the template I chose is a little limiting. Expect some ugliness as I play with CSS to see if outpatient template surgery will provide the necessary nipping and tucking I want to see effected.

In an effort to fill every waking moment with something to do, I've sent in my application to St. Stephen's Course in Orthodox Theology and also found a New Testament Greek course starting up at St. Maximus the Confessor Orthodox Mission in Denton, TX. I've taken Homeric Greek before... haltingly, but I hope to really go after it this time. Amusingly, Greek was not my original intent. I had emailed the local OCA cathedral to find some instruction or reference material on Slavonic. They in turn pointed me to St. Maximus, who, when I called, mentioned the Greek class. There is no Slavonic course to be had, but the priest there (Father Justin Frederick) said that he might have time to answer any questions I might have after Greek class. I also called a few seminaries and a book was recommended to me that I think will have to be purchased from Light and Life. The things I do for prostopinije. It seems the class will be from a lot of the ROCOR/OCA/GOA parishes around Tarrant...

From the Institute on Religious and Public Policy news section. Washington, D.C. – A Turkish court Tuesday declared that the Istanbul-based Orthodox Patriarch is only the head of the city's tiny Greek Orthodox community and not the spiritual leader of the world's 300 million Orthodox Christians. While this has no impact on the status of the Patriarch outside Turkey, it strengthens Turkish internal resistance to acknowledging the greater role of the Patriarch and the Orthodox community in Turkey. "This decision is yet another indication that Turkey has no interest in advancing a fair and balanced approach to freedom of religion," commented Institute on Religion and Public Policy President Joseph K. Grieboski. Turkey maintains tight controls on the Orthodox community, including rules requiring that patriarchs must be Turkish citizens. This sharply limits the potential pool of candidates to one day succeed Bartholomew. The patriarchate also has pressed Turkey to allo...

A little note to commemorate Louisiana's (pronounced Loo-zee-anna's) outlawing late term abortion 99 to 1 . BATON ROUGE -- Legislation that won nearly unanimous approval in the Louisiana House of Representatives on Monday would make the state the first to pass its own ban on a controversial late-term abortion procedure since a recent U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the constitutionality of such laws. The complete news article is here .

I have relatives that, like most of us do, who differ from me in positions on moral matters. That is to be expected and during my more magnanimous moods I welcome such opportunity for discussion. Most recently the topic of In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) came up and not in that hypothetical "angels on the head of a pin" drinking coffee at 2 in the morning and debating the issues of the day sort of witty banter way. This was in the making a phone call to tell you we're going to do this way. Most arguments I run into have a simple Team αλφα vs. Team βετα character to them. I take my side and you take yours and we will continue on unto the other side is convinced (a rare occurrence), one side is sufficiently bloodied by by the jabs of the other, or one or both sides grows so enraged as to believe the other to be an idiot and unworthy of continued waste time. Oddly, for me, the IVF argument defies such simplified fisticuffs. I don't debate IVF as it stands before me - a ...

A friend and a coworker both had babies... no wait... both had wives that had babies this month. I'd give all the accolades to the dads, but moms seem to take this as a sign of disrespect - as if I had forgotten about basic human anatomy or the look of pain a male relative with kidney stones gave me in the throws of that special man-pain. Anyway, two babies: Wyatt Charles, Ken and Elizabeth's 4th. All their kids are cuties. I expect no less from this little 'un. William Austin, the first for Sam and his wife. I will nod knowingly while he complains about the horrors of taking care of _one_ small child while I am simultaneously throwing off my five like a man attacked by leeches hungry for tickle time. At least one of the five is always going for the "dim mak" instant death strike in a juvenile attempt to "get daddy's attention." My attention often comes with a groan and one last desperate look for aid from the wife before I fall to the ground in pai...

I read Orthodixie daily. Today's posting was hilarious. By all means, frequent his blog! Recently, at dinner with a group of Orthodox Christians – both Cradles and Converts -- the topic of Evangelism came up. We’d all just finished worshipping together, the same God, same Creed, same Communion, same Church … when a man who’d spent his whole life within the bosom of the Orthodox Church said: “You do know that we Orthodox don’t evangelize … don’t you?” He was dead serious. I was speechless … I ended up practicing one of my religious survival techniques … I bit my tongue, smiled pleasantly, and nodded my head. Sure enough! It worked … soon, the topic changed! Now, you might consider that a cop-out but, really, what would have been the point? What fruit would argument bear? What would change? You know how we Orthodox are about change, don’t you? How many Orthodox does it take to change a light bulb? WHAT! You can’t change that light bulb – my grandfather donated that light bulb! Then ...

Sitting on my deak for many days like a bill I didn't want to pay was an unopened Jesus of Nazareth by Pope Benedict XVI. Don't get me wrong, I like his writings, but where two words will do he uses two pages. I actually took on his Introduction to Christianity and waited patiently for the attendant merit badge to come in the mail. I felt my efforts to get through hundreds of pages on the simple word "I believe" would warrant some accolade. Maybe an indulgence or a commemorative rosary (who doesn't get enough of those in the mail?) to show off to the adoring crowds... but I digress. One has to begin a Benedict / Ratzinger book reading with 2 short prayers. One is for understanding and the other is for patience. The understanding one needs is to remember that these books came from German. That is why no sentence goes un-comma-ed, un-semicolon-ed, or id-est-ed. There is a central point to the section and like the great Mississippi River there are numerous tribu...

As someone who prays for a reunited church daily, the on-again off-again conferences aimed at having Pope Benedict XVI and Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexei II meet face to face have been frustrating. History (mainly Soviet in my mind), theology, and seemingly accepted anti-Catholic disdain all swirl together to put up a rampart evocative of the Berlin wall between the two sides. For my part, the old grudges and finger pointing sound to me like a never-ending violin recital. Child #15 on the program schedule is playing the same song and with every new rendition the piece gets more and more tired sounding. The filioque sat around for 200 hundred years and we had unity before a split. How many dialogues do we have to have on that issue - how many signed documents and glad handing leading to nothing? How much vitriol by the Orthodox on proselytism in Russia by the Catholic Church? Should Catholics then ask the Orthodox to close down their great seminaries in France and buy train tickets ...

This certainly warranted a post. Originally found on Ad Orientem .

Long trip combined with the explosion of household appliances and subsequent insurance communiques have kept me from my beloved blog. I'll be posting some more than a little bit in the next few days. Until then, read these: The Anglican Right by Rev. Dwight Longenecker. As someone who was married in a pastoral provision church I found this to be quite an interesting article. Also, this article on benedictions at supposedly religious institutions by Fr. John Parker was very well done and reminded me of the graduation ceremonies I have attended in the past.

I usually shun mailing list posts like most people shun Amway salespeople or Blockbuster late fees, but my wife sent me this and it seemed worth a post. It reaffirmed my understandable disposition towards guffawing the public school system as it stands today. After being interviewed by the school administration, the eagerteaching prospect said: "Let me see if I've got this right. You want me to go into that room with all those kids, and fill their every waking moment with a love for learning. And I'm supposed to instill a sense of pride in their ethnicity, modify their disruptive behavior, observe them for signs of abuse and even censor their T-shirt messages and dress habits. "You want me to wage a war on drugs and sexually transmitted diseases, check their backpacks for weapons of mass destruction, and raise their self esteem. You want me to teach them patriotism, good citizenship, sportsmanship, fair play, how to register to vote, how to balance a checkbook, and h...

It is very common for churches of the Constantinoplean tradition to have the Pantocrator surrounded by the images of four creatures. Many people will either give little thought to their appearance or just consider them a "pretty" addition to the icon. They are in fact the traditional forms of the Four Evangelists as described in Revelation, Chapter 4: After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter. And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne. And he that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald. And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their h...