Month: April 2010

Podcast – Evangelism and Orthodoxy

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Addition: Just listened to the entire podcast. I’m giving AOI readers an assignment: listen to this podcast.

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Does the Church merely provide religious lubrication for secular pursuits? All too often it does, answers Fr. Andrew Damick in his latest “Road to Emmaeus” podcast. The belief that “evangelism is not something the Orthodox Church does, or should be doing” is the overwhelming opinion of many Orthodox believers who have been “asleep for centuries.” This is compelling stuff, bracing in its frankness, and hopeful in that way that speaking the truth provides hope.

Part 1 of a lecture on evangelism given on March 7, 2010, at St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral in Bethlehem, PA, at a gathering of the Fellowship of Orthodox Christians of the Lehigh Valley.

Fr. Andrew references an evangelistic pamphlet in his talk. Download it here and print.

The Stormy Petrel of the Cloth

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Over at Orthodox History, Matthew Namee recounts the story of a bold, decisive, and courageous priest who obviously knew the full measure of his calling. He got himself into serious trouble on occassion, but only because he refused to compromise to powerful interests who, like today, subvert the faith for their own ends.

Some highlights:

Like so many of his fellow priests, Petrides traveled throughout his region of the country, ministering to the Orthodox people he found who didn’t have a priest. One time, he went to Ithaca, New York, to do a baptism. After the service, unbeknownst to Petrides, a 16-year-old Greek girl had advertised that she would go into a “spirit trance.” Greeks had traveled from all over to witness the spectacle. Petrides caught wind of what was going on, and he burst into the room, stopped the girl’s trance, and told the people that spiritualism is against the teachings of the Orthodox Church. This was the sort of man he was – completely unafraid to stand up for what was right, no matter what.
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The dictatorship of relativism strikes back—and goes nuclear

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HT: Logia, The Journal of Lutheran Theology

Christendom as a whole is under attack

In a letter to the Sunday Telegraph published in that newspaper’s 28 March 2010 edition, five Evangelical bishops of the Church of England have politely drawn attention to the increasing volume of persecution of Christians in England and, in a governessy sort of way, insisted that the antichristian forces in British society cease and desist forthwith. The bishops’ reproach fell somewhat short of white-hot prophetic vigour: “We are deeply concerned at the apparent discrimination shown against Christians and we call on the Government to remedy this serious development.”
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Instapundit: Good Friday at an Orthodox Cathedral

The Passions in Orthodox perception are deeply imbued with the theme of the Resurrection and radiant Paschal joy

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This is a good interview in its own right. Note that the title attributed to Constantinople is “First Bishop of the Orthodox Church.” Note too the overall sobriety in Met. Hilarion’s tone.

Metropolitan Hilarion’s interview to the Romfea.gr church news portal.

– Your Eminence, I would like to begin with a question about your oratorio which has been recently performed in the church of Agia Irini in Constantinople in the presence of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. It is based on the story in the Gospel of St. Matthews about the last days of Jesus Christ on earth. Tell us a few words about the oratorio which has been met with such a great response throughout the Orthodox world.

– The genre of ‘Passions’ so popular in the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches is not customary for the Orthodox culture. The most famous work in this genre is St. Matthews Passions by Johann Sebastian Bach. There were also other works on this theme but they all came from the Western culture. In the history of the Orthodox Church there has been no precedent for the theme of Christ’s Passions to be reflected in a composition for an orchestra, soloists and a choir. Now the public, both Orthodox and non-Orthodox, has an opportunity to take in precisely Orthodox understanding of the Lord’s Passions represented in the genre of oratorio.
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