Deprecated: trim(): Passing null to parameter #1 ($string) of type string is deprecated in
/home/aoiusa/public_html/wp-content/plugins/sexybookmarks/public.php on line
388
Deprecated: trim(): Passing null to parameter #1 ($string) of type string is deprecated in
/home/aoiusa/public_html/wp-content/plugins/sexybookmarks/public.php on line
394
Deprecated: trim(): Passing null to parameter #1 ($string) of type string is deprecated in
/home/aoiusa/public_html/wp-content/plugins/sexybookmarks/public.php on line
400
Protocol 09–12
September 24, 2009
The Reverend Clergy, and
The Pious Faithful of the Holy Metropolis of Denver
Beloved in the Lord,
Met. Isaiah of Denver (GOA)
Earlier this year I attended the 25th Anniversary Banquet of one of our parishes, and was invited to offer a few remarks before the final prayer, which I did. As I do at all anniversary celebrations of parishes, I express the hope and the prayer that the parish will continue to exist even to the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
In mentioning the glorious return of the Lord, I also allude to the final day events in the world which the Lord states will be like the final days of Sodom and Gomorrah (Luke 17:29,30) and that the people of the Church must try to live according to the teachings of Christ for their salvation.
At this particular parish I did the same thing, using two examples to stress the fact that we are living in the last days before violent events take place. I mentioned the legality of abortion in this country, which has killed tens of millions of unborn infants. I also mentioned the idea of making “same sex marriage” legal in our country. I neither condemned nor did I criticize anyone, because I could not do this.
Unfortunately, one or two persons took offense at my mentioning the legality of “same sex marriage”, and one of them verbally accosted me as I sat down. Since that day I have received two letters condemning me for what I said in regard to “same sex marriage”. Continue reading →
Deprecated: trim(): Passing null to parameter #1 ($string) of type string is deprecated in
/home/aoiusa/public_html/wp-content/plugins/sexybookmarks/public.php on line
388
Deprecated: trim(): Passing null to parameter #1 ($string) of type string is deprecated in
/home/aoiusa/public_html/wp-content/plugins/sexybookmarks/public.php on line
394
Deprecated: trim(): Passing null to parameter #1 ($string) of type string is deprecated in
/home/aoiusa/public_html/wp-content/plugins/sexybookmarks/public.php on line
400
Father Pat’s Pastoral Ponderings
Fifth Sunday of Advent
December 13, 2009
Fr. Patrick Henry Reardon
As I write these lines, more than a quarter-million people have signed the Manhattan Declaration, released this past November 20. I suppose I should be personally gratified, in the sense that never before have so many people agreed with me! I was, in fact, one of seven Orthodox Christians who went on record to endorse the document prior to its publication.
There are several ways in which the Manhattan Declaration is significant.
The first, I suppose, is the content. This is a public and deliberately political (though not partisan) pronouncement on three points: It is pro-life, pro-marriage, and pro-religious freedom. Under these headings it makes specific assertions about abortion, the scientific or medical use of human embryonic tissue, the proposed extension of legitimacy to sexual unions other than that between a husband and wife, and the limitations imposed on the State with respect to the conscience.
Second, the document is significant in the great variety of its authors and original signers, a group embracing members and leaders from several Christian bodies. Indeed, the Manhattan Declaration was endorsed by Christians very little disposed, as a rule, to append their names to documents described as “ecumenical.”
My friend, for example, Dr. Albert Mohler, the President of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, was among the first to sign. Explaining the reason he determined to do so, Dr. Mohler wrote: “I want my name on that list. I surrendered no conviction or confessional integrity to sign that statement. No one asked me to compromise in any manner. I was encouraged that we could stand together to make clear that to come for one of us on these issues is to come for all. At the end of the day, I did not want my name missing from that list when folks look to see just who was willing to be listed.”
Third, the Manhattan Declaration is significant in some of the public reaction to it. I don’t mean the reviews of secular critics, of course, who detested the document’s contents. Their assessments were uniformly predictable. Neither do I have in mind the insouciance of those who, on principle, avoid politics. Nor am I thinking of Christians who filter their ethical sympathies through a different weave (those, for instance, to whom executing murderers is morally equivalent to murdering babies). Such reactions were entirely expected.
Continue reading →
Deprecated: str_replace(): Passing null to parameter #3 ($subject) of type array|string is deprecated in
/home/aoiusa/public_html/wp-content/themes/genesis/lib/functions/image.php on line
116
class="post-5286 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-blog-archive tag-ecumenical-patriarch-bartholomew-i tag-ecumenical-patriarchate tag-law tag-news tag-orthodox-church tag-politics tag-religious-freedom tag-turkey tag-turkish-deep-state entry">
Deprecated: trim(): Passing null to parameter #1 ($string) of type string is deprecated in
/home/aoiusa/public_html/wp-content/plugins/sexybookmarks/public.php on line
388
Deprecated: trim(): Passing null to parameter #1 ($string) of type string is deprecated in
/home/aoiusa/public_html/wp-content/plugins/sexybookmarks/public.php on line
394
Deprecated: trim(): Passing null to parameter #1 ($string) of type string is deprecated in
/home/aoiusa/public_html/wp-content/plugins/sexybookmarks/public.php on line
400
’We cannot breathe, the Patriarchate is dying,’ says patriarch
ASLI AYDINTAŞBAŞ
ISTANBUL – Milliyet
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Following criticism of his controversial statement to a U.S. television network describing his community’s problems, Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew says his comments were emphasized, but the serious problem of opening Halki seminary needs to be addressed.
Criticized for telling U.S. network CBS that he felt “crucified in Turkey,” in an interview he told daily Milliyet, “We are without oxygen, the Patriarchate is dying.”
He said the interview with CBS was not planned and that the media had emphasized the crucifixion quote. He said this was a metaphor for detailing Greeks’ problems in Turkey, highlighted by the issue of the Halki seminary located on Heybeliada, one of Istanbul’s Princes’ Islands in Marmara Sea.
“What will we do, if we cannot raise men of the cloth? Our metropolitan bishops in Europe are over 70 years old. The ones here are 75 years old. Now, who will I nominate to this post,” said the patriarch, who will turn 70 this February. “Why should we nominate people to this post who were not raised in Turkey and educated on Heybeliada?” he asked.
“The seminary was open during Ottoman rule; [Mustafa Kemal] Atatürk [founder of Turkish Republic] did not close it down. But it was wrongly closed down in 1971, since it did not have university status but was a vocational school for higher education,” he said. Continue reading →
Deprecated: str_replace(): Passing null to parameter #3 ($subject) of type array|string is deprecated in
/home/aoiusa/public_html/wp-content/themes/genesis/lib/functions/image.php on line
116
class="post-5279 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-blog-archive tag-christmas tag-nativity tag-theology entry">
Deprecated: trim(): Passing null to parameter #1 ($string) of type string is deprecated in
/home/aoiusa/public_html/wp-content/plugins/sexybookmarks/public.php on line
388
Deprecated: trim(): Passing null to parameter #1 ($string) of type string is deprecated in
/home/aoiusa/public_html/wp-content/plugins/sexybookmarks/public.php on line
394
Deprecated: trim(): Passing null to parameter #1 ($string) of type string is deprecated in
/home/aoiusa/public_html/wp-content/plugins/sexybookmarks/public.php on line
400
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2AfqVNs_50[/youtube]
Kontakion in the Third Tone
On this day the Virgin cometh to a cave to give birth to God the Word ineffable, Who was before all the ages. Dance for joy, O earth, on hearing the gladsome tidings; with the Angels and the shepherds now glorify Him Who is willing to be gazed on as a young Child Who before the ages is God.
Deprecated: str_replace(): Passing null to parameter #3 ($subject) of type array|string is deprecated in
/home/aoiusa/public_html/wp-content/themes/genesis/lib/functions/image.php on line
116
class="post-5281 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-blog-archive tag-alexander-filippov tag-fr-daniel-sysoyev tag-law tag-news tag-orthodox-church tag-politics tag-russian-orthodox entry">
Deprecated: trim(): Passing null to parameter #1 ($string) of type string is deprecated in
/home/aoiusa/public_html/wp-content/plugins/sexybookmarks/public.php on line
388
Deprecated: trim(): Passing null to parameter #1 ($string) of type string is deprecated in
/home/aoiusa/public_html/wp-content/plugins/sexybookmarks/public.php on line
394
Deprecated: trim(): Passing null to parameter #1 ($string) of type string is deprecated in
/home/aoiusa/public_html/wp-content/plugins/sexybookmarks/public.php on line
400
Source: Voice of America
Peter Fedynsky | Moscow 23 December 2009
The second murder of a Russian priest in as many months has prompted a call by the Orthodox Church for Russians to think about their country’s spiritual and moral condition. The killings follow more violence this year directed against Muslim clerics in Russia’s troubled Caucasus region.
Tuesday’s shooting death of 39-year-old priest Alexander Filippov is alleged to be the act of two intoxicated men in the village of Satino-Russkoye near Moscow. His widow is quoted as saying Filippov had reproached the suspects for relieving themselves at the entrance of their apartment building. Continue reading →
Fatal error: Uncaught Error: Call to undefined function nuthemes_content_nav() in /home/aoiusa/public_html/wp-content/themes/prose/archive.php:58
Stack trace:
#0 /home/aoiusa/public_html/wp-includes/template-loader.php(106): include()
#1 /home/aoiusa/public_html/wp-blog-header.php(19): require_once('/home/aoiusa/pu...')
#2 /home/aoiusa/public_html/index.php(17): require('/home/aoiusa/pu...')
#3 {main}
thrown in
/home/aoiusa/public_html/wp-content/themes/prose/archive.php on line
58
