Month: January 2009

Posted on the main page is direction to an address delivered by Met. Philip of the Antiochian Archdiocese dealing with Constantinople’s interpretation of Canon 28. From the introduction:

“Of all the canons dealing with Church authority and jurisdiction, there is probably none more controversial and debated in inter-Orthodox circles today than Canon 28 of the Fourth Ecumenical Council,” writes Metropolitan Phillip Saliba, leader of the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese and long-time champion of Orthodoxy unity in America.

In “Canon 28 of the 4th Ecumenical Council – Relevant Or Irrelevant Today?,” Met. Philip argues that Constantinople’s interpretation of the canon is historically untenable, interferes with good order, hobbles efforts at jurisdictional unity and, most important, retards Orthodox missionary work in the United States.

Newly elected President Obama, writes John Couretas, Executive Director of AOI in his essay “Obama and the Moral Imagination” frequently makes use of the phrase “common story.” This phrase “may sound strange to the ears. But it is impossible to understand the new president unless his brilliant use of narrative is first grasped,” Couretas says.

It’s a page taken from the Reagan playbook and masterfully executed. Couretas writes:

Reagan biographer Lou Cannon told the Chicago Tribune last year that Obama has “a narrative reach” and a talent for story telling that reminds him of the late president. Reagan “made other people a part of his own narrative, and that’s what Obama is doing,” Cannon said. “By doing it, it expands his reach because he isn’t necessarily just another partisan Democrat.”

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The Blessed Archbishop John Maximovitch, striving to awaken his flock to a more conscious participation in the Church, published the following appeal in his weekly diocesan bulletin (Shanghai, November 24, 1941, no. 503):

Perhaps it will happen that you will die without having once in your life read in full the Psalter of David… You will die, and only then will good people read over your lifeless body this holy Psalter, which you had no time even, to open while you lived on earth! Only then, at your burial, will they sing over you the wondrously instructive, sweetly-wise-but alas, to you completely unknown-words of David: “Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord… Blessed are they who search His testimonies. who keep His revelations, and seek Him with their whole heart.” Do you hear: “Blessed are they who search His testimonies, seek out the revelations of the Lord;” and you had no time even to think of them! What will your poor soul feel then, your soul to which every word of the Psalmist, repeated by a reader or singer over your coffin, will sound as a strict reproach that you never read this sacred book?… Open now, before it is too late, this wondrous book of the Prophet King. Open it and read with attention at least this 118th Psalm, and you will involuntarily feel that your heart becomes humble, soft, that in the words of David are the words of the merit of God, and you will repeat involuntarily, many times, with sighing of heart, the verse of this Psalm: “I have gone astray like a sheep that is lost; seek out Thy slave, Lord!”

Kevin Allen, host of Ancient Faith Radio’s Illumined Heart program, interviews AOI President Fr. Hans Jacobse for a fascinating discussion on “The Culture War and Orthodox Christianity.”

Fr. Hans talks about the need for Eastern Orthodox Christians to engage in the moral and social debates — call them Culture Wars if you will — that are being waged in American society today. In this 35 minute program, Allen also asks Fr. Hans about the recent discussion on this blog about whether “Religious Right” leaning ex-Evangelical converts are taking over the Orthodox churches in America.

Allen asked Fr. Hans if he thought the Culture Wars might be a lost cause, given what we see in society today. Fr. Hans said the battles over moral issues will be difficult, with uncertain outcomes. But he reminded Allen that our faithfulness will determine the shape of tomorrow.

“If it be God’s will that the world be saved — and it is — I think there’s a chance we can turn this around,” Fr. Hans said. “But even if there isn’t, we still have to be faithful.”

As Allen advises his listeners: Buckle your seat belts!

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