Month: January 2010

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-5669 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-blog-archive tag-abp-demetrios tag-ecumenical-patriarch-bartholomew-i tag-elpidophoros-lambriniadis tag-hellenism-and-orthodoxy tag-orthodox-church entry">

Orphangate resolved?

7 Comments

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

The two boys who need a home

Well, the New York-Constantinople brouhaha seems resolved — sort of (see: Abp. Demetrios on the way out?). You still wonder though why a hierarch wrote of Abp. Demetrios in terms we could charitably call disparaging over what should have been an easily resolvable dispute. It’s all a misunderstanding Constantinople assures us, even though it took a synodal meeting to reach this conclusion.

Metropolitan Theoliptos, the hierarch who wrote the screed, allegedly went rogue. If so, then shouldn’t his disparagement of Abp. Demetrios (“conscienceless shepherd”) require a public apology? After all, if you besmirch a man in public, you owe him an apology in public.

What we see instead is reassurance that the Ecumenical Patriarch supports Abp. Demetrios alongside the statement that the majority of the synod did not want to send out the letter of support. Yet even the EP’s support is qualified. He says that American Archons (lay members who support the Ecumencial Patriarchate) made him do it. So, no apology, the statement that Abp. Demetrios does not have the support of the synod, and the admission that the EP was “pressured” by some Archons to offer the support that he did. Tepid reassurance all around.

What does it indicate? Relations between New York and Constantinople are rockier than anyone is letting on.

Oh yes, the release mentioned that Archimandrite Elpidophoros Lampryniadis, the Constantinopolitan legate who delivered the untimely speech at Holy Cross Seminary last year, was also in attendance. Why this was reported is anyone’s guess.

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-5662 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-blog-archive tag-abp-hilarion tag-culture tag-ecumenical-partriarch-bartholomew tag-environment tag-hellenism-and-orthodoxy tag-orthodox-church tag-russian-orthodox-church entry">

Archbishop Hilarion of Volokolamsk: “The work of the Church is always mission-oriented because mission is a vocation of the Church”

Leave a comment

The more I read what is coming out of the Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), the clearer it becomes that they understand the culture within the Church and outside of it. The ROC will emerge as the world leader of Orthodoxy because it comprehends that the crisis in Western culture, including Russia, is primarily moral and speak to it with clarity. Note this paragraph:

Archbishop Hilarion added that there were nominal Orthodox believers in the world who consider themselves Christians by birth or by belonging to a certain ethnic group, but they do not completely fulfill that what their religion prescribes. The archpastor expressed his regret, saying: “It is a common problem of all the religions: people identify themselves with a certain confession, but they do not shape their lives in accordance with its teaching.” He added: “This means there is such a phenomenon as a lack of serious and thoughtful consideration of the fact that they belong to the Christian Church. They even agree to perform certain religious rites, but as far as real life is concerned, they are not ready to observe the commandments of Christ.”

Compare that with the Constantinopolitan policy of building the Church on ethnic identity instead of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This policy dims moral awareness and leads to a confusion between moral and political authority. That’s why we see errors such as granting religious imprimatur to secular apocalyptic movements like global warming. If the policy continues, Constantinople will not be able to muster the interior strength and depth that is necessary to meet the challenges facing Western civilization.

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-5658 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-blog-archive tag-culture tag-james-j-jatras tag-manhattan-declaration tag-orthodox-church tag-politics tag-religious-freedom tag-sanctity-of-life entry">

James J. Jatras on the Manhattan Declaration

Pan-Orthodox Sanctity of Life Sunday Presentation

3 Comments

Ancient Faith Radio presents Frederica Mathewes-Green speaking at the second annual Pan-Orthodox Sanctity of Life Sunday Presentation. The presentation was sponsored by the Orthodox Christian Clergy Association of Greater Chicago and took place at St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church in Cicero, Illinois.

Listen here:

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-5652 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-blog-archive tag-orthodox-church tag-saint-michael-orthodox-church entry">

Look at what a single parish can accomplish…

2 Comments

The Climacus Conference of Thoughtful Ascent: A Contemplation of Noble Ideas

Classical Education • Orthodoxy and Postmodernism • Poetry •
Patristic Thought • Logic and Rhetoric • Motherhood • Health and Medicine •
St. John Climacus • The Great Books • Theology and Spirituality

Friday and Saturday:
February 5-6, 2010
Saint Michael Orthodox Church, Louisville, Kentucky

More information here.

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