Byzantine, Texas

( SVOTS ) - V. Rev. Dr John Behr (Dean) spent two intense but immensely rewarding weeks in October, travelling and speaking to different groups in southern and central India as the guest of the Malankara Orthodox Church. He was invited by Rev. Dr Bijesh Philip, an SVS alumnus (1994), now Professor of the St Thomas Orthodox Seminary in Nagpur, and founder of the Prerana Special School for the mentally challenged. Fr John's visit strengthened existing connections between St Vladimir's Orthodox Theology Seminary and the Malankara Orthodox Church. It also prompted both sides to begin exploring new possibilities for further collaboration. Fr John took a camera with him and documented many aspects of the trip. This is what happened... Meetings with hierarchs Fr John arrived in India on Wednesday September 30th. Almost immediately, he was granted an audience with the Catholicos of the Malankara Orthodox Church, His Holiness Baselius Mar Thoma Didymus I, and his assistant and Ca...

( guardian.co.uk ) - The Greek Orthodox church of Cyprus has taken Turkey to the European court of human rights over allegedly preventing the 500 Greek Cypriots living in the Turkish north worshipping at religious sites there, a church lawyer said today. The lawsuit concerns 520 churches, monasteries, chapels and cemeteries under Turkish control since Turkey invaded Cyprus in 1974, said Simos Angelides. The north's Greek Cypriot community cannot worship at these sites because they are either derelict or have been converted into mosques, army barracks, stables or nightclubs, he added. Turkish officials were not immediately available for comment. The Mediterranean island is split along religious as well as ethnic lines. The Greek-Cypriot south, seat of the country's internationally recognised government, is overwhelmingly Greek Orthodox. The Turkish-Cypriot north is Muslim, but some 500 Greek Cypriots still live there. The lawsuit will likely further stoke tensions betwee...

( ARCHONS ) - His All Holiness, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew received warm, fraternal greetings from Pope Benedict XVI on November 30th, the Feastday of the Ecumenical Throne, of St. Andrew the First-Called Disciple. The Pope's message was delivered to the Ecumenical Patriarch by Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, during the Divine Liturgy in the Patriarchal Cathedral of St. George. The Vatican delegation also included Bishop Brian Farrell, Fr. Vladimiro Caroli, Fr. Andrea Palmieri, and Archbishop Antonio Lucibello, the apostolic nuncio in Ankara. The Pope's message to His All Holiness can be read below: To His Holiness Bartholomaios I Archbishop of Constantinople Ecumenical Patriarch Your Holiness, It is with great joy that I address Your Holiness on the occasion of the visit of the delegation guided by my Venerable Brother Cardinal Walter Kasper, President of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian...

From ROCOR United . A letter from Matushka Yulia Sysoeva on the murder of her husband, Fr. Daniil Sysoeva . Dear brothers and sisters, thank you for your support and prayers. This is the pain which cannot be expressed in words. This is the pain experienced by those who stood at the Cross of the Saviour. This is the joy which cannot be expressed in words, this is the joy experienced by those who came to the empty Tomb. O death, where is thy sting? Fr Daniel had already foreseen his death several years before it happened. He had always wanted to be worthy of a martyr's crown. Those who shot him wanted, as usual, to spit in the face of the Church, as once before they spat in the face of Christ. They have not achieved their goal, because it is impossible to spit in the face of the Church. Fr Daniel went up to his Golgotha in the very church which he had built, the church to which he gave up all his time and all his strength. They killed him like the prophet of old – between the t...

I was unable to make it to the blessing, but more picture are available here .

( UOC-MP ) - The decision made by the European Court on 3 November 2009 to the effect that the presence of crucifixes violates human rights in Italian schools has prompted Archbishop Hilarion of Volokolamsk to send the following message to the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone: Your Eminence, The decision made on 3 November 2009 by the European Court of Human Rights in the case of Lautsi versus Italy to the effect that the presence of crucifixes in state-run schools in Italy violates human rights has raised our great concern. We consider this practice of the European Court to be an attempt to impose radical secularism everywhere despite the national experience of church-state relations. The above-mentioned decision is not the only one in the practice of the Court, which has increasingly shown an anti-Christian trend. Taking into account the fact that the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights have clearly lost touch with legal and historical realit...

KYIV ( RISU ) — “The purpose of our dialogue with the non-canonical church groups is not a desire for canonical separation from the fullness of the Rus Church but an aspiration to restore the church unity,” reads the Address of the Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) to Faithful Children passed during the extended session of its synod of November 24, 2009. In this document the leadership of the church clearly set out its position as to the unification of Ukrainian Orthodoxy and stressed the conditions of that process. First of all, it repeated its position that “the way to restore the unity is through repentance, that is a graceful ‘change of mind’ and way of life of those who are in separation” and that “the only acceptable model of restoration of church unity and unification of all Orthodox Christians in the within the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church, that is the return of the separated ones to where they came from.” As for the way of organizati...

KYIV ( RISU ) — Representatives of the Kyivan Patriarchate commented on the decision of the Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate (UOC-MP) of November 24, 2009, as to the preparation of a dialogue with the Kyivan Patriarchate. “One had ambivalent impressions from these decisions. On the one hand, it is positive that the process of preparation for the dialogue can be continued and that it will not be abandoned. For before the session of the Holy Synod, there were fears that radical opponents of the dialogue in the synod will pass resolutions which would make the further process of communication of the work team impossible,” commented the spokesman of the Kyivan Patriarchate, head of its information and publishing department, Bishop Yevstartii (Zoria). “On the other hand, there are also negative tendencies: the documents passed by the synod are filled with the rhetoric of the past. Such words were used ten-fifteen years ago. If anyone hopes that one can overcome the ...

From The Standard & the Times . It touches on something of a pet topic of mine that I have posted on a number of times. Secular teaching is not the absence of religion, it replaces religious teachings with the popular opinions of the day. As such is changes often and trends towards being ever more permissive. In response to Christian attempts to preserve the moral order of our society, those opposed to the natural law and the law of God often retort, “You can’t legislate morality.” Legislation informed by God’s revealed law is portrayed as being contrary to freedom and to a free country, and unjustified imposition of religion on people who want none of it. And so, in response to every attempt by Christians and others who acknowledge the existence of a moral order given by God to have that order reflected in the law of the land is met with the dismissive words “You can’t legislate morality.” To say that you cannot legislate morality is true in a trivial way, but it is false in ...

H/T: Torn Notebook Already for centuries, and apparently with a pure conscience, not only individual Christians but also whole churches have affirmed that in reality Christian love must be directed toward one’s own—that to love essentially and self-evidently means to love neighbors and family, one’s own people, one’s own country—all those persons and things that we would usually love anyway, without Christ and the gospel. We no longer notice that in Orthodoxy, for example, religiously colored and justified nationalism long ago became a genuine heresy, crippling church consciousness, hopelessly dividing the Orthodox East and making all of our profuse talk about the ecumenical truth of Orthodoxy a hypocritical lie. We have forgotten the other, no less strange and frightening words that the gospel contains about this merely “natural love”: “He who loves father or mother…son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me” (Mt 10:37), and “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own fa...

( Swiss Info ) - Swiss voters' clear decision on Sunday to ban the construction of minarets has generated a wide range of emotions, from stunned joy to rueful concern. Supporters of the initiative said the Swiss electorate wanted to put a brake on the Islamicisation of their country, whereas opponents were concerned about the violation of rights, not to mention an international backlash and possible boycott of Swiss products. "Forced marriages and other things like cemeteries separating the pure and impure – we don't have that in Switzerland and we don't want to introduce it," said Ulrich Schlüer, co-president of the Initiative Committee to ban minarets. Oskar Freysinger, a member of the rightwing Swiss People's Party and a driving force in the campaign, said he was "stunned and dumbfounded" by Sunday's result "since the entire establishment was against us". "I would like to say to all the Muslims listening that this will i...

H/T: Creative Minority Report

From Again & Again : As nearly all dioceses of the Serbian Orthodox Church organized transportation for Patriarch Pavle’s funeral last Thursday, Fr. Jovan Plamenac ran into a little bit of a problem. As he serves liturgy every day the train ride from Montenegro to Belgrade would not give him the opportunity to do this. So he was left with no other option but to serve the liturgy…on the train. (Of course, he received the bishop’s blessing.) More photos available here .

( ARCHONS ) - Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew visit to Washington generates legislation Washington, D.C. 11/23/2009 Some of the most influential United States Senators introduced legislation calling on Turkey to reopen the Ecumenical Patriarch's theological school of Halki, "without condition or further delay" and to "address other longstanding concerns relating to the Ecumenical Patriarchate." "The Executive and Legislative branches of Washington are still reverberating from Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew's extraordinary impact. We anticipate additional proactive steps to be taken by top U.S. policy makers in the weeks ahead," said Andrew Manatos, Chairman of the 2009 Visit of the Ecumenical Patriarch to Washington, DC and President of CEH. While in Washington during the first week of November, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew held in-depth discussions with President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Cl...

sempiternal: (adj) dateless, endless, sempiternal (having no known beginning and presumably no end) "the dateless rise and fall of the tides"; "time is endless"; "sempiternal truth"

If you are unaware, there is currently a rather sizeable effort underway by the laity to bring the unsavory moral positions of some Orthodox American politicians to the attention of their bishops through a letter writing campaign. The hope is that it will motivate (by and large the focus seems to be the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese) the bishops to challenge politicians who profess the Orthodox faith, but at the same time support and vote against the teachings of the Church. The recent Manhattan Declaration seems to have further catalyzed the movement. Here is one such letter (from Solomon Hezekiah ): My Letter to Metropolitan Gerasimos November 23, 2009 — sol I will be posting this letter along with the letter to Rep. Dina Titus: His Eminence Metropolitan Gerasimos Greek Orthodox Metropolis of San Francisco 245 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94103 Your Eminence As an American member of the Greek Orthodox Church currently living abroad, I was appalled when I learned that ...

H/T: Mystagogy and ROCOR United ( Moscow Times ) - Hundreds of mourners gathered Sunday to pay their respects to Father Daniil Sysoyev, a Russian Orthodox priest famous for his missionary work and criticism of Islam, after he was gunned down in his church last week. Church insiders said the attack, which happened late Thursday in southern Moscow, could have been the work of radical Islamists, who had regularly threatened him for preaching to Muslims. Law enforcement officials said they believed religion was the primary motive in the killing. The 35-year-old Sysoyev, who led the St. Thomas Church on Kantemirovskaya Ulitsa, was shot point-blank four times by an unidentified man wearing a medical face mask, police said. He was severely wounded and died in an ambulance. Vladimir Strelbitsky, a 41-year-old regent who was nearby during the attack, was also shot and remains hospitalized in serious condition. Citing sources with knowledge of the matter, Interfax reported that the k...

The video available from the news website is worth watching. LA MESA, Calif. ( 10News ) - A La Mesa church has been the target of multiple thefts and vandalism the last few weeks, and police said they may know who is responsible, 10News reported. The Ukrainian Catholic Church has been broken into four times in less than a month. Church leaders have started putting up signs that are letting people know there's nothing left to take. "It's very disturbing to know that this space has been violated by somebody who I believe has hatred of some sort," said Father James Bankston. Bankston said the most recent attack happened on Tuesday when he found the church doors left open and bizarre signs that someone had been in the building. "Hand lotion in a bottle had been put on the altar. Other things had been turned over, and the Holy Eucharist had been spilled upon the altar," said Bankston. Bankston also said a hand cross was turned upside down, something ...

Come one! Come all!

NEW YORK, NY ( OCA Communications ) - His Beatitude, Metropolitan Jonah, Primate of the Orthodox Church in America, and the Very Rev. Chad Hatfield, Chancellor of Saint Vladimir's Seminary, were among some 125 US religious leaders who signed a 4,700-word declaration addressing the sanctity of life, traditional marriage, and religious liberty here recently. The statement, known as the "Manhattan Declaration: A Call of Christian Conscience," issues “a clarion call” to Christians to adhere to their convictions and informs civil authorities that the signers will not “under any circumstance” abandon their Christian consciences. The text of the declaration, which already has generated considerable controversy, was released on Friday, November 20, 2009. "The Manhattan Declaration is the result of several months of dialogue among Orthodox, Catholic, and evangelical Christian leaders culminating in a gathering of approximately 100 leaders in New York City on September 2...

H/T: OBL News

( svots.edu ) - On November 3–7, 2009, Dr. Paul Meyendorff, the Father Alexander Schmemann Professor of Liturgical Theology at St. Vladimir’s Seminary, participated in a meeting of the St. Irenaeus Orthodox-Catholic Working Group in Kiev, Ukraine. The group was hosted at the Kievan Monastery of the Caves and the Kiev Theological Academy and was graciously received by Metropolitan Wolodymir of Kiev. The Working Group, founded in Germany in 2004—a time when the official Orthodox-Catholic international dialogue was at a standstill—is an informal gathering of twenty-four scholars and theologians, equally divided between Roman Catholics and Orthodox. Meeting annually since its inception, the group has recently focused its work on questions related to primacy. This sixth meeting of the group centered on the Vatican I declarations on the infallibility and universal jurisdiction of the Pope, which pose a major stumbling block in the relationship between the two churches. “A close reading o...

I enjoyed this bit of commentary found by Leitourgeia kai Qurbana from the comment box of The Ochlophobist . Saints preserve me should I fall into such foppishness. There is a certain type of young man who generally pursues the priesthood. We dance around it, but in my mind it is unequivocally true. In Orthodoxy there are certain forms and postures that are, aesthetically speaking, humble, but which are easily practiced and replicated, and do not necessarily reveal the inner heart – soft, slightly effete voice, a way of walking in the cassock, a way of mentioning the contrary opinions of others and pleading one’s ignorance on matters even as it is quite clear you’ve got a strong opinion and you want it to be deemed the right one, a slightly affected, sentimentalish manner of being around icons, prayer ropes, the altar &nave, and so forth, a slightly affected manner of quoting sayings or hagiographic tidbits of the saints, etc. But beyond all that, you spend some time with the fe...

From Mystagogy : Patriarch Pavle was often referred to by some as a "walking saint" based on his simple lifestyle and humility. Whereas bishops around the world are often wrongly criticized for the cars they drive and despite the fact that every bishop in Serbia owns a car to travel around their diocese, he did not. When asked why he never obtained an automobile, he replied: "I will not purchase one until every Albanian and Serbian household in Kosovo and Metohija has an automobile." Below are two other stories regarding the way Patriarch Pavle preferred to travel: The deacon of Patriarch Pavle of Serbia once learned the following lesson while in Belgrade as they were going to a church in Banovo Brdo. He asked the Patriarch: "With what shall we go, with a car?" "No, with the bus!" said the Patriarch emphatically. "But the bus is always crowded and the heat is esphyxiating. It is not even nearby." "This is how we are g...

( ROCOR ) - On Monday, November 16, 2009, His Eminence Metropolitan Hilarion met with His Beatitude Metropolitan Jonah at the Syosset, NY, headquarters of the Orthodox Church in America. Greeting the First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia at the main entrance, His Beatitude invited His Eminence to St Sergius of Radonezh church for a joint funerary litiya to commemorate His Holiness Patriarch Pavle of Serbia, who had died the day before. At the end of the service, His Beatitude Metropolitan Jonah noted that the entire Orthodox world considered the newly-reposed hierarch “a living saint,” and “a great spiritual leader of the 20th century.” His Beatitude then gave a warm welcome to His Eminence Metropolitan Hilarion, wishing him Divine assistance in his difficult archpastoral labors. In response, His Eminence Vladyka Hilarion expressed his joy at the joint prayer for His Holiness, the Primate of the Serbian Orthodox Church, which in the last century had provide...

( MassWePray ) - A family shouldn’t have to wait until Sunday to worship the Lord. Now you can go to church every day without leaving your home. Participate in more than 24 unique and exhilarating Ceremonies. Be sure to try them all. The more you play, the more Grace points you collect. Then trade in your Grace points to unlock the Holy Mysteries.

I added the otherwise unrelated photo for emphasis. Imagine the godparent thinking, "I don't believe any of this rubbish. Wonder what sort of food they'll have at the reception. Hopefully not potato skins. I really don't like how much green onion she puts on them, though I do like the bacon, so, hmmm... bacon..." ( PewForum ) - Thanks to a website, it has never been easier to defect from the Catholic church, and people are beginning to take up the option. Some of those who have opted out speak to KATE HOLMQUIST FOR ORLAITH FINNEGAN, a 29-year-old atheist from Cork, defecting from the Catholic church took only a week. She used the website Countmeout.ie to apply and sent her letter on August 25th to the Cork diocese, providing the parish and year of her baptism, and received confirmation of her defection on August 31st. A note was made on her baptismal record stating that she had officially left the church. "That was very fast when you think of how they us...

( spc.rs ) - Thanks to the Serbian Broadcasting Service (RTS) , the official website of the Serbian Orthodox Church www.spc.rs will broadcast directly the Divine Liturgy, the funeral service and the burial of Patriarch Pavle of blessed repose.

November 17, 2009 ( LifeSiteNews.com ) - Poland's president, Lech Kaczynski and the leadership of the Greek Orthodox Church have both hit out at a decision by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) attempting to ban the display of crucifixes in Italian public schools. At the same time, a general revolt against the ruling in municipalities all over Italy has been started by public officials, who are now ordering the display of crucifixes in schools, and levelling fines for non-compliance. The November 3rd ECHR ruling, made in response to a complaint by an Italian secularist campaigner, said that the display of crucifixes violated the religious rights of pupils. During Independence Day celebrations on Wednesday in Warsaw, Poland's Kaczynski said that "nobody in Poland will accept the message that you can't hang crosses in schools." "One shouldn't count on that. Perhaps elsewhere, but never in Poland," Kaczynski said. The reaction from Poland...

Next month National Geographic will have a piece on Mount Athos (available in electronic form here ).

From Mere Comments ... WHAT: Orthodox, Catholic & evangelical Christian leaders will release the Manhattan Declaration at a Washington, D.C., press conference. Addressed not only to Christians, but to the president, Congress, and civil authorities, the 4,700-word document - signed by more than 100 religious leaders - addresses the sanctity of life, traditional marriage and religious liberty. WHERE: National Press Club, Lisagor Room 529 14th Street NW Washington, DC 20045 WHEN: Friday, Nov. 20, at noon ET WHO: Manhattan Declaration Drafting Committee: Robert George, Professor, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, Princeton University Timothy George, Professor, Beeson Divinity School at Samford University Chuck Colson, Founder, Prison Fellowship and BreakPoint Signers of the Manhattan Declaration scheduled to attend include: Justin Rigali, Archbishop of Philadelphia, Diocese of Philadelphia Donald William Wuerl, Archbishop of W...

I received an update on the upcoming Fr. Hopko lectures in Fort Worth on December 4th, 5th, and 6th. A registration form is available here . More details are available here . The talks will be on "The Work of God’s People," “The Real Jesus," and "Christ in Orthodox Spirituality.” They expect registration to fill up quickly so email or call to reserve a spot.

Priests perform a memorial service as Serbian Patriarch Pavle lies in repose at the Congregational church, in Belgrade, Sunday, Nov. 15, 2009. Patriarch Pavle, who led Serbia's Christian Orthodox Church through its post-Communist revival and called for peace and conciliation during the Balkan conflicts of the 1990s, died Sunday. He was 95.

I have posted on this process earlier, but I thought the article well done and worth a read. ( FaithWorld ) - If U.S. voters elected their president in the same way the Serbian Orthodox Church chooses it patriarch, they could have seen Ralph Nader, Ross Perot or other third place finishers taking up residence in the White House. That’s because the Church, in a move originally aimed at thwarting Communist authorities, uses a system that incorporates a lottery within the election by church elders to choose a leader. The Holy Synod of Bishops, the Church’s top executive body, will use that system within the next three months to elect a successor to Patriarch Pavle, who died on Sunday. Pavle headed the Serbian Orthodox Church during the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s as Serbs warred with neighbours of other faiths. Pavle, 95, died at Belgrade’s Military Hospital where he had been treated since 2007 for various ailments. As his health deteriorated, although nominally still head o...

There is still time to join in, for all who might be interested. I'm listening to the first class as I go through email this morning. JOHNSTOWN, PA ( ACROD ) - The Diocesan Apostolate For Christian Education is pleased to report that the first of a seven part on-line introductory class on Orthodox Christianity, Orthodoxy 101, took place this evening, November 16, 2009. At the time of broadcast, online enrollment numbered 138 people from 20 states in the U.S. and from the United Kingdom, Columbia, Brazil and Australia. The make up of the class is mixed with 1/3 being inquirers including pastors of other Christian Churches, 1/3 recent converts, and the remainder more seasoned Orthodox Christians and Orthodox Clergy. The class, led by Fr. Peter Paproski, will be broadcast live each week from St. John the Baptist Orthodox Church in Stratford Connecticut. The class will begin at 7:00 pm EST and will last approximately 90 minutes. During the next six weeks the follow...

The Prosopon School of Iconology introduces students to the practice and theory of the ancient Christian art of icon-writing in the Byzantine-Russian tradition. Apprenticeship in this discipline of the hand, mind, and heart can lead beyond technical competence; the method of study promotes the incarnation of the principles of the painting experience into all aspects of one's life. In accordance with the Orthodox Church’s teaching that Icons are the ‘Gospel in light and color’, the Prosopon School welcomes inquiring students from all backgrounds. The School additionally encourages the search for a more profound experience of icons by means of exhibits, lectures, and the publication of the journal Prosopon.

The Diocese of the West (OCA) has an article on Bell Ringing in Scripture and Liturgy . Dear Brothers and Sisters: Church bell ringing is an intrinsic and permanent part of the Orthodox liturgical and musical tradition. It is deeply rooted in Scripture and thoroughly presumed in the Typikon. It’s not just “decorative”, a “nice” thing to have with our liturgy. “Church bell ringing is an integral part of Orthodoxy’s divine services, and its absence can be justified only by lack of the necessary instruments.” Accordingly, the teaching of our bell-ringing tradition is an important part of liturgical music education, and so it’s good to examine the Church’s tradition in some detail. Bells, as such, are mentioned in the Bible in one context only: small bells are to be attached to Aaron’s vestments, which “shall be heard when he goes into the Holy Place before the LORD, and when he comes out, so that he does not die” (Exodus 28:33-35). This suggests that the sound of bells is protective,...