Byzantine, Texas

So the new website needs a bit of attention. Wide browser windows break the navigation bar, there are some trackers I wish weren't in use, the top bar cuts off content because they aren't clearing the top of the pages correctly, and many of the things I've had linked to for years are now broken. It's also rather "mobile friendly" in organization at the expense of the usability for people on normal desktops. ( Antiochian.org ) - Beloved clergy and faithful of the Antiochian Archdiocese: Greetings in the Name of our Lord, God and Savior Jesus Christ. We pray this letter finds you well at the start of our Lenten journey. Wednesday, February 28, 2018 marks a new beginning, a relaunch, for the Archdiocesan website: www.antiochian.org. We have a much cleaner look and feel, and are now friendlier for mobile devices for faster access to its wealth of materials, news and resources. Without doubt, the most-accessed resource on the website is the Online Liturg...

BOSTON, MA ( Patch ) – A man whose son raped, choked and robbed a woman in her Fenway apartment in 2015 will face a charge of his own after an alleged confrontation with the victim in court this week. Joseph Purpura , an Orthodox priest who the Boston Herald identified as an associate professor at a New York seminary (St. Vlad's lists him as being on administrative leave) , will be arraigned Jan. 19 on a witness intimidation charge. His son, 38-year-old Michael Purpura, of Westwood, was sentenced to 15-18 years in prison Wednesday. The woman the younger Purpura was convicted of raping appeared at his sentencing to deliver a message of support to other survivors of sexual assault. She told the court: "It has taken me over two years to understand and realize that I am allowed to walk home by myself on a Monday night. Everyone is allowed to go on a date, to walk home, to buy groceries, and to talk on the phone...for a while I felt like this was my fault, but that isn't t...

( Custodia ) - We, the heads of Churches in charge of the Holy Sepulcher and the Status Quo governing the various Christian Holy Sites in Jerusalem - the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, the Custody of the Holy Land and the Armenian Patriarchate - give thanks to God for the statement released earlier today by Prime Minister Netanyahu and offer our gratitude to all those who have worked tirelessly to uphold the Christian presence in Jerusalem and to defend the Status Quo. After the constructive intervention of the Prime Minister, The Churches look forward to engagewith Minister Hanegbi, and with all those who love Jerusalem to ensure that Our Holy City, where our Christian presence continues to face challenges, remains a place where the three Monotheistic faiths may live and thrive together. Following these recent developments we hereby announce that the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, that is the site of the crucifixion of Our Lord andalso of His Resurrection, will be reopened to the pil...

As the prophets beheld, as the apostles have taught, as the Church has received, as the teachers have declared, as the world has agreed, as grace has shown forth, as truth has been revealed, as falsehood has been dispelled, as wisdom has become manifest, as Christ awarded; Thus we declare; thus we affirm; thus we proclaim Christ our true God, and honor His saints in words, writings, thoughts, sacrifices, churches, and holy icons; On the one hand, worshiping and reverencing Christ as God and Lord, and on the other, honoring the saints as true servants of the same Lord of all, and offering them proper veneration. This is the faith of the apostles. This is the faith of the fathers. This is the faith of the Orthodox. This is the faith on which the world is established. Therefore, with fraternal and filial love we praise the heralds of the faith, those who with glory and honor have struggled for the faith, and we say: to the champions of Orthodoxy, 'faithful emperors, most-ho...

STATEMENT ON MUNICIPAL THREATS AND THE DISCRIMINATORY  “CHURCH LANDS BILL” 25/02/2018 We, the Heads of Churches in charge of the Holy Sepulchre and the Status Quo governing the various Christian Holy Sites in Jerusalem – the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, the Custody of the Holy Land and the Armenian Patriarchate – are following with great concern the systematic campaign against the Churches and the Christian community in the Holy Land, in flagrant violation of the existing Status Quo. Recently, this systematic and offensive campaign has reached an unprecedented level as the Jerusalem Municipality issued scandalous collection notices and orders of seizure of Church assets, properties and bank accounts for alleged debts of punitive municipal taxes. A step that is contrary to the historic position of the Churches within the Holy City of Jerusalem and their relationship with the civil authorities. These actions breach existing agreements and international obligations whic...

( Jerusalem Post ) - Jerusalem heads of churches announced on Sunday, in a rare move, that they are closing down the doors of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in protests of recent moves made by Israeli authorities. The moves include the Jerusalem Municipality's intention to collect property tax (Arnona) from church-owned properties that are not prayer houses and legislation initiated by MK Rachel Azaria (Kulanu) that would limit that ability to sell church-owned land to private hands. Two weeks ago the Jerusalem Municipality notified the Finance, Interior and Foreign ministries, and the Prime Minister’s Office that it will start collecting a total of NIS 650 million in tax from 887 properties that are not houses of prayer. It said that it refrained from doing so thus far because it the state didn't allow it. It also stressed that the tax would be collected only from properties that do not have churches or any other kind of prayer houses. These moves by the Israeli ...

( OrthodoxSaints ) - Many centuries ago, the village of Kola was located at the source of the Mtkvari River. There Christians and pagans dwelt together as neighbors. Christian and pagan children would play together, but when the Christian children heard church bells ringing, they recognized the call to prayer and dropped their games. Nine pagan children—Guram, Adarnerse, Baqar, Vache, Bardzim, Dachi, Juansher, Ramaz, and Parsman—would follow the Christian children to church. But the Christians always stopped them near the gates of the church and reprimanded them, saying, “You are children of pagans. You cannot enter God’s holy house.” They would return sorry and dejected. One day the nine pagan children tried to enter the church forcibly, but they were cast out and scolded. “If you want to enter the church, you must believe in our Lord Jesus Christ and be baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” they were told. “You must receive Holy Communion ...

( Pacific Islands Church ) - We are very happy and proud to share these photos with you - photos which capture a very significant and historic event: the Enthronement of the Abbess Gerontissa Melani of the Monastery of the Dormition of the Theotokos in Saweni, Fiji. Doxa to Theo!! Gerontissa Yuliani, the Abbess of the Kehrovounio Monastery in Tinos, was also in Fiji for the Enthronement as Gerondissa Melani, together with Sister Anissa, spent one and a half years at the Monastery in Tinos. It is particularly touching that Gerondissa Melani is not only the first igoumeni in Fiji but that she is a native Fijian as is Sister Anissa. Many years to our new Gerondissa and may our Panagia protect and guide her in this role. Πάντα Αξία Γερόντισσα Μελάνι και να σάς προστατεύει ή Παναγία μας!

Why not just let the child turn 18 and let her make her own decisions? Why do all this and force the issue with less than a year to her majority? The government is not your friend. It's a blunt instrument now under the control of a deluded ideology. ( Washington Times ) - A Hamilton County, Ohio, judge took a transgender teen away from her parents on Friday because they refused to allow the 17-year-old to undergo hormone treatments as part of a female-to-male transition. Judge Sylvia Sieve Hendon awarded custody of the teenager to her grandparents, who will be allowed to make medical decisions for the minor and legally change her name. The parents objected to the transition procedures because of their religious beliefs and refused to call their daughter by her chosen, male name, court records show. “It is unfortunate that this case required resolution by the Court as the family would have been best served if this could have been settled within the family after all parties ...

( NAPS ) - The Institute for Ecumenical Research, Lucian Blaga University of Sibiu, is convening an international conference on the Byzantine Liturgy and the Jews, 9-11 July 2019. Presentation abstracts of no more than 200 words should be sent to cces@ecum.ro by 1 July 2018. Anti-Jewish elements have persisted in the Byzantine liturgy for over a thousand years in areas under the influence of the Eastern Christian Empire. These elements have spread through translation from Byzantium to all countries and cultures which worship today according to the Byzantine rite. Despite the profound theological and liturgical changes that have taken place in the second half of the 20th century in Western Christianity, hymns that were composed in the polemical context of the 8th -9th centuries are still used today in Eastern countries and in the Christian Orthodox Communities of the diaspora. The conference with the topic Byzantine liturgy and the Jews addresses the issue of liturgical anti-Judais...

It is understandable that people might consider baptism to be the preferable process in the reception of people into the Faith. Such a method certainly has historical backing and is still the process of some in the Americas. As more and more denominations become unmoored from the traditions they received (of which the baptismal formula is sadly also a victim), we can speak less surely about the baptisms those people received. On the other hand, asking someone to step into a horse trough to be submerged into water in front of other people is also a daunting thing to ask especially as we have established norms on the books already that usually require no such thing. This is, to me, just another marker in the well. The water level will continue to sink and our reliance on the practices of others will continue to recede. Will it even be another 20 years before baptism becomes the norm and not the exception? Englewood, NJ / February 20, 2018 ( Antiochian.org ) - In response to nu...

( orthochristian.com ) - In the communiqué of the regular session of the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, held from February 7 to 9, the Ecumenical Patriarchate has declared that it considers the actions of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church regarding the schismatic and unrecognized Macedonian Orthodox Church to be un-canonical, reports Sedmitza. The Macedonian Orthodox Church, which formed as a schism from the Serbian Orthodox Church, appealed to the Bulgarian Orthodox Church in November, to take on the role of its “Mother Church” and to intercede on its behalf to the other autocephalous Local Orthodox Churches to bring it back into communion with the Orthodox Church. The Bulgarian Church resolved on November 27 to help the Macedonian Church, a move which has also drawn serious criticism from the Serbian and Greek Churches. His Holiness Patriarch Neofit of Bulgaria was present in Constantinople in late January for the ceremonial reopening of the city’s famous Bulgaria...

( Jerusalem Patriarchate ) - On Saturday February 4/17, 2018, hundreds of Christians rallied in support of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate and the rest of the Jerusalem Churches against the recent tax measures (Arnona) imposed by the Israeli Jerusalem Municipality on the Holy Churches and their adjacent buildings. These tax measures are a flagrant violation of the Status Quo of Jerusalem, which has been established by the long-term sacred history and respected by the many rulers of Jerusalem over the past decades. The peaceful protest, was followed by a rally that was launched at the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem through the Christian Quarter and in the area before St. Helen’s gates and the Metochion of Gethsemane opposite the Holy Sepulchre. Protesters then roamed around the Holy Sepulcher Church while chanting against the Municipality measures. After their march, leaders of the groups participating in the rally were received by H.H.B. our Father and Patriarch of Jeru...

If you bought the new Hieratikon, it comes with a booklet that explains all the changes from previous publications. It's a level of attention to detail and professionalism I find refreshing. For those curious about the directives mentioned below, the changes are added here. Some might be surprised by the second one, but it has been a topic of discussion in clerical circles for some time online (usually in the weeks leading up to Lent). It's good to get clarification. To remove the interpolation “Making the change by thy Holy Spirit” from the Epiclesis in the Anaphora of St. Basil. The deacon’s three-fold Amen, together with a low bow or prostration, is now to come immediately after “…shed for the life of the world.” To clarify, in accordance with the ancient, universal tradition of the Church, that at the Divine Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts, when the presanctified Lamb has been placed into the chalice, the wine mixed with water truly becomes the Precious Blood of our...

Moscow. February 19 ( Interfax ) - Overwhelming majority of Russians (82%) believe it unacceptable to make jokes about the Church no matter what are the circumstances, the VTsIOM (the Russian Public Opinion Research Center) reports. The poll showed that Russians also do not accept jokes about Russian history, the USSR, Russian Empire (70%), national peculiarities and traditions of various peoples (65%), Russian historical personalities who have passed away (64%), Russian military forces (62%). Most part of respondents believe it acceptable to laugh at Russia’s economic and social problems (53%) and acting authorities in general (54%). The poll was held on February 9-10 among 2000 respondents.

( Romanian Church ) - The Holy Synod of the Romanian Orthodox Church held this year’s first working session Thursday, February 15, at the Synodal Hall of the Patriarchal Residence, under the chairmanship of His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel. During the meeting, the members of the Holy Synod proceeded to the election of an assistant bishop to the Romanian Orthodox Diocese of Italy and an assistant bishop to the Romanian Orthodox Diocese of Spain and Portugal. The Holy Synod elected by secret vote the Very Reverend Archimandrite Atanasie (Tudor) Rusnac as Assistant Bishop to the Romanian Orthodox Diocese of Italy. The new assistant bishop will bear the title of His Grace Bishop Atanasie of Bogdania. The Holy Synod also elected by secret vote the Very Reverend Archimandrite Teofil (Petru) Roman as Assistant Bishop to the Romanian Orthodox Diocese of Spain and Portugal. The new Assistant Bishop will bear the title of His Grace Bishop Teofil of Iberia. The following decisions were mad...

( OMHKSEA ) - Message by His Eminence Metropolitan Nektarios of Hong Kong and South East Asia on the occasion of the Chinese New Year of the Dog Dear brothers and sisters, Dog is the eleventh in the 12-year cycle of Chinese Calendar. The Chinese tradition regards dog as an auspicious animal. If a dog happens to come to a house, it symbolises the coming of fortune. Dog is man’s good friend who can understand the human’s spirit and obey its master. It is loyal, faithful and grateful. The virtue of the dog is a great example for the spiritual life of every Christian. We ought to be loyal, faithful and grateful to our Master and Saviour Jesus Christ. He gave to us a life of meaning and purpose! A means of change and transformation! A wellspring of mercy and forgiveness! A worldview of divine love and unconquerable hope! This is what faith in Christ can mean to each one of us. We ought to be vigilant and to safeguard the freedom given to us by our Saviour Jesus Christ, and no...

February 15, 2018 ( OCA-MW ) - Message from Bishop Paul regarding recent school violence To Our Youth and their Parents in the Midwest Diocese, Once again we have heard about another tragic mass shooting that occurred at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Parkland, Florida earlier this week. “Police say the 19-year-old suspect, Nikolas Cruz, killed 17 people and wounded at least a dozen others in the rampage,” reports Yahoo News. “Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel told reporters that Cruz had been expelled from the school for ‘disciplinary reasons.’ Israel said that an AR-15-style weapon and ‘countless magazines’ were recovered at the scene. According to the Associated Press, Cruz purchased the weapon legally about a year ago.” This AR-15 style weapon, according to Yahoo News, has no fully automatic mode, but it is still marketed as coming from a lineage of military-grade arms. It is modeled on the M-16 used by the US Army and Marine Corps and carried by thousands of t...

CHICAGO, IL ( OCA-MW ) — Dr. David Ford, Professor of Church History at Saint Tikhon’s Orthodox Theological Seminary, South Canaan, PA, will deliver a lecture titled “Wisdom on Marriage from the Saints through the Centuries” at Holy Trinity Cathedral, 1121 North Leavitt Street, Chicago on Saturday, March 3, 2018. His lecture and refreshments will begin at 3:00 p.m. Vigil will be celebrated at 5:00 p.m. Dr. Ford holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in History from Colgate University, Hamilton, NY; a Master of Divinity degree from Oral Roberts University, Tulsa, OK; and a Ph. D. from Drew University, Madison, NJ. The public is invited. For additional information please contact Priest Alexander Koranda at ajkoranda@gmail.com.

As is my annual custom, St. John Chrysostom "On Fasting." Fasting is a medicine. But medicine, as beneficial as it is, becomes useless because of the inexperience of the user. He has to know the appropriate time that the medicine should be taken and the right amount of medicine and the condition of the body which is to take it, the weather conditions and the season of the year and the appropriate diet of the sick and many other things. If any of these things are overlooked, the medicine will do more harm than good. So, if one who is going to heal the body needs so much accuracy, when we care for the soul and are concerned about healing it from bad thoughts, it is necessary to examine and observe everything with every possible detail Fasting is the change of every part of our life, because the sacrifice of the fast is not the abstinence but the distancing from sins. Therefore, whoever limits the fast to the deprivation of food, he is the one who, in reality, abhors and ri...

Vatican City, Feb 13, 2018 / 06:55 am ( CNA ) - At Mass at Santa Marta Tuesday, Pope Francis concelebrated Mass with the patriarch of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, Youssef Absi, saying that offering the liturgy together is like an embrace between the two Churches. “This is what the ceremony of today means: the embrace of the father of a Church with Peter. A rich Church, with its own theology within the Catholic theology, with its own wonderful liturgy, and with a people,” the Pope said Feb. 13. Speaking in place of a homily, Francis noted how a great number of the people of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church are being “crucified, like Jesus.” He also said that the Mass was being offered “for the people that suffer, for persecuted Christians in the Middle East, who give their lives, give their goods, their properties, because they are driven away. And we also offer Mass for the ministry of our brother Youssef.” At the end of the Mass, Patriarch Youssef, who concelebrated...

Full disclosure: My wife is getting dinner and a movie tonight. ( GOARCH Blog ) - Now a commercialized holiday celebrating modern Western courtship and romance, the ancient Christian origins of Saint Valentine’s Day are largely forgotten. The actual Orthodox liturgical Feast Days of Valentinos (Greek)/Valentinus (Latin) commemorate two Early Christian saints, Saint Valentine the Presbyter of Rome (July 6) and Hieromartyr Valentine the Bishop of Intermna (Terni), Italy (July 30). Although the historical records for these two saints are not complete, and what we do know about their lives has often been subjected to considerable confusion, their martyrdoms are well known to us. Because of their refusal to renounce their faith in Christ, both Valentines were imprisoned, tortured, and executed around 270, during the persecution of Christians under the Roman Emperor, Claudius II. Because they shared the same name, were contemporaries, resided near each other in central Italy, and ulti...

Minya, Egypt, Feb 13, 2018 / 04:01 pm ( CNA ) - The Coptic Orthodox Church will dedicate on Thursday a new church to the 21 Martyrs of Libya, who were beheaded by the Islamic State, three years after their deaths. The church will be opened Feb. 15, according to Fides News Agency. It is located in the village of al-Our in Egypt’s Minya Governorate. The village was home to 13 of the martyred men. “Any way that the Church of today can honor her martyrs is a blessing. The story of these 21 brave men is worth telling. In way too many places Christians are under siege from the dark forces of extreme hatred, and their freedom is conditioned by this hatred,” Bishop Gregory Mansour of the Maronite Eparchy of Saint Maron of Brooklyn told CNA. The church may someday house the 21 martyrs’ remains, which were identified in a mass grave on the Libyan coast in September. The Coptic Orthodox Church recognized the 21 Coptic Christians as martyrs to be commemorated every Feb. 15 within only a w...

( Armenian-Western Diocese ) - On February 14, the Armenian Church celebrates the Feast of the Lord’s Presentation to the Temple. Tiarn’ndaraj, or Candlemas as it is known in the West, symbolizes the presentation of the 40 day-old Christ Child to the Temple in Jerusalem. In accordance with the Law of Moses, the infant Christ was brought to the Temple by Mary and Joseph and presented to God. A man named Simeon was there, to whom it had been revealed that he should not see death before he had seen the Lord. Simeon held the infant in his arms, blessed God, and said, “Lord, let your servant now depart in peace, for my eyes have seen your Salvation, which you have prepared before the face of all people. A Light to lighten the Gentiles, and the Glory of Your people, Israel.” (Luke 2:29-32) In the tradition of the Church, Evening Services (Nakhatonak) are conducted on the night preceding the Feast Day. At the conclusion of the service, the priest lights a candle from the Holy Altar...

Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick's post entitled " The Rejection of Universalism in the Triodion " remains a timely article I'm sad to say. Closed communion and universal salvation doesn't track, people. ( Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy ) - One of the big problems with an Orthodox Christian embracing universalism is that he has to reject a large portion of the liturgical tradition of the Church in order to do so. The eternality of the punishment of the wicked is ubiquitous in the services of the Church. This may be less apparent if one does not have access to frequent church services, but it really becomes apparent the more time you spend in church listening to what is being sung. The Church doesn’t spend all its time talking about the eternality of Hell, but mainly focuses on encouraging sinners to repentance and to embrace the resurrection of Christ. But even though we are definitely running toward something, we are also very much running from something. And the Church ...

mlado-starchestvo - The phenomenon of young and inexperienced clergymen adopting the role of elder. ( ROCOR Studies ) - "On Safety Techniques in Church" by Deacon Andrei Psarev. Fr. Andrei, the question is, I would say it this way, of abuse in the church on the part of either priests or overly active parishioners. How can they be defended against? For example, there can be a tyrannical priest who imposes unattainable obediences upon his parishioners, totally without regard to the fact that people can have a family, or that these are elderly or sick people. So people simply cannot maintain this, and we often lose such parishioners. The fact is that we cannot avoid responsible membership in the Church. And, of course, discernment, which is a supreme virtue that is only linked with humility, so it is quite difficult to make up any kind of directive here. Although, in fact, we do have a directive – our Synod adopted “Guidelines on Issues of Sexual Misconduct by Cler...

CHARLOTTE, NC ( WSOC ) - A priest is in stable condition after he was brutally attacked in the parking lot of his parish in south Charlotte Friday night. Church officials said 67-year-old Fr. Steve Dalber, a priest at St. Nektarios Greek Orthodox Church on Kuykendall Road, is recovering from a broken arm and injuries to his back. “That was needless and senseless,” said Fr. John Wallace, one of Dalber's colleagues at St. Nektarios. Officials said the attack unfolded when he was looking for his cellphone in the parking lot. "My mind went to, 'Was this some sort of targeted attack?'” parishioner Elizabeth Kleto said. William McCloskey, 17, is now facing charges for assault and hit-and-run. "It just made me wonder what kind of people are out there that would attack a priest like that,” Kleto said. Channel 9 learned that in the past month there has only been one incident, a car theft, reported within a half a mile of the parish. "You think of a...

Some people emailed asking about what Bp. Demetrios was going to do following the election of an Archimandrite to fill the empty see. Here's your answer. ( GOA-Chicago ) - Dear Colleagues, Co-Ministers, and Friends, As a new Metropolitan of Chicago has been elected and will soon be enthroned, I will be starting a one-year sabbatical beginning February 10, 2018. Throughout my ministry in the Holy Metropolis of Chicago, I have been blessed by working with so many gifted, talented and generous persons. To all with whom I have shared this time, I wanted to express my deepest gratitude as I embark on a new path and journey. I pray that the Metropolitan-Elect of Chicago will come to enjoy his time with you as have I, and that you will continue to pray for me as I do for you. Bishop Demetrios of Mokissos

( Pemptousia ) - The feast of the Reception of the Lord (Candlemas, the Meeting of the Lord) which we celebrated recently is held exactly forty days after the Nativity. The name in Greek means ‘meeting’, but not in the sense of a mere encounter. It’s more in the way of a welcome, that is, someone going out to receive another person, as Symeon is depicted as doing in icons of the feast. In the 6th century, February 2 was appointed as the day of the celebration by the emperor Justinian, and this date was chosen because it falls exactly 40 days after Christmas, which had been established in the 4th century as December 25. We draw our evidence for the Reception of the Lord from the Gospel according to Saint Luke. In the second chapter of his Gospel, Luke the Evangelist mentions two basic events: a) the circumcision of Jesus on the eighth day after His birth (Luke 2, 21) and b) the arrival of the divine infant at the temple in Jerusalem 40 days after His birth, both procedures being p...