Month: September 2013

Turning the World Upside Down: Five Ideas for Orthodox Christian College Students

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By Andrew F. Estocin

Each September a Sunday is set aside for Orthodox Parishes across the country to focus on the lives of college students. As students settle on campus for another academic year, it is certain that they will encounter a world full of questions about the very meaning of life and how best to live it. They will be challenged by ideas both ancient and new. Campus life will confront them with issues from what it means to be human to how to understand sex and marriage. Today’s college students are tomorrow’s parish council members, Sunday School teachers and youth group leaders. More importantly, they are tomorrow’s parents and how they understand their faith and the Church will shape Orthodox Christianity in America for years to come.

Keeping college students connected to the Church has been the focus of campus ministry for decades. However, the question must be asked: What kind of Church are we keeping college students connected to? Is it an ethnic Church that frequently worships in a language most do not understand? Is it the social Church of meetings, committees, conventions and festivals? Or is it the Church founded by Jesus Christ and lived by the Apostles –-a church that changes lives and since Apostolic times has “turned the world upside down” (Acts 17:5-7)?

Lorenzo Veneziano, Calling of the Apostles Peter and Andrew. 1370 Staatliche Museen, Berlin

Church leaders have underestimated college students for well over thirty years often avoiding the great questions that society asks in an effort to make the Church more comfortable and less in conflict with the culture. An example of this is the issue of marriage. Over the past year there has been a vocal debate on the meaning of marriage on college campuses across the country. However, despite the rich moral tradition of the Church, campus ministries have remained silent and expressed discomfort in addressing such issues often avoiding the moral debates that are taking place. The end result confuses more than it helps students live their faith.

Questions and our ability to answer them matter. As Orthodox Christians, we do a great disservice to students when we avoid the questions society is asking. We do an even greater disservice when we do not share with them the answers to these questions that the Orthodox Church provides for fear of being shunned by popular culture. Young people do not want an Orthodox Church that is convenient or comfortable. They do not want a Church where moral questions are nuanced away as just “difficult issues.” This is not the courage of the Apostles and the Holy Men and Women of the Church who changed the world as we know it.

The Orthodox Church has been the greatest agent of human development in history. No institution has done more for humanity than the Church. Young people want to experience this legacy and this means presenting them Orthodox Christianity in all its demanding fullness. It means challenging students with a robust Orthodoxy that invites them to live the moral heroism and doctrinal witness of the saints. Orthodox Christianity calls upon us all to row upstream against the world.
Given this reality, here are five ideas every college student should consider as they explore their Orthodox Christian Faith on campus. These ideas can help each student better live a faith that turns the world upside down:

Leadership begins at Liturgy: Orthodox Christian Leadership is best described as “Humility Before Honor” (Proverbs 14:3). Orthodox leaders are not to be found solely in meetings, conventions or committees. They are -first and foremost- to be found at liturgy. If you want to be an Orthodox Christian Leader you have to be a liturgical leader that is someone who sacrifices his time to consistently live and learn from the liturgical life of the Church. Liturgy is the first and best school of leadership in the Orthodox Church. Keeping connected to the Church means keeping connected to the Liturgy of the Church.
Morality Matters: One of the great mistakes of modern times has been the idea that there is no such thing as a clear Orthodox Christian morality. This could not be further from the truth. Morality is an essential part of Orthodoxy and what distinguishes Christians from the world. St. Gregory of Nyssa said it best when he wrote: “If we truly think of Christ as our source of holiness, we shall refrain from anything wicked or impure in thought or act and thus show ourselves to be worthy bearers of his name. For the quality of holiness is shown not by what we say but by what we do in life.” Being Orthodox means being moral and embracing what the Church has taught for centuries on such issues as sex, abortion, capital punishment and marriage. It also means discovering that behind each “NO” the Church gives us there is a greater and more beautiful “YES”. Keeping connected to the Church means keeping connected to the moral teachings of the Church.
Difficult Questions Lead To Great Answers: Every great question we encounter in life is a gift from God to deepen our knowledge of and relationship with Him. The greatness of Orthodox Christianity is seen when the Church responds to the great questions of society with wisdom, common sense and compassion. Keeping connected to the Church means keeping connected to the teaching of the Church and we cannot learn from the Church if we cannot question Her. By challenging the Church with loving questions we discover the depth and beauty of Orthodox Christian doctrine –doctrine that is often misunderstood. No question is irrelevant to the Church because every question can help us discover Christ again and again.
Orthodox Christianity is Pro-Life: To identify oneself as an Orthodox Christian is to stand with a pro-life Tradition that is over two thousand years old. Human personhood and human rights begin at conception. The earliest Orthodox Christians understood this and distinguished themselves from those around them by protecting the weakest among us –including the unborn, the elderly and the disabled. Frederica Matthewes-Green says it best when she writes: “ Our Orthodox Christian heritage is absolutely opposed to abortion and child-killing from its very beginnings. This stand against abortion and exposure of infants is, in fact, one of the things that attracted people to the Christian faith.” Keeping connected to the Church means keeping connected to the great human rights struggle of our time that is the pro-life movement.
Religious Freedom is Needed More Than Ever: Religious freedom is a vital issue that must be embraced for the Church to survive. Religious Freedom is more than just being able to go to Church on a Sunday. It is the right to live, express and share our religious beliefs. Religious freedom means being able to seek the truth while respecting the rights of others to do so as well. Being an Orthodox Christian is not a private opinion that gets switched on and off in our lives when convenient. It is not something that is reserved for Sundays but hidden throughout the week in the workplace or the classroom.

Eric Metaxas says it best when he writes: “Faith is either something that informs one at all times or it isn’t anything at all, really. When the …government tells its citizens that they can worship in a certain building on a certain day, but once they leave that building they must bow to the secular orthodoxy of the state, you have a cynical lie at work.” Keeping connected to the Church means being connected to our faith every day and understanding that Orthodoxy has a voice in how we all live our lives whether that be on a college campus or in The United States Congress.

College campuses today are very much like the world the first disciples experienced. They are worlds of competing ideas, moral confusion and an abundance of choices. This is the world in which the first Christians found themselves and yet it was a world they changed by embracing Jesus Christ with abandon and without reservation. If Twelve Apostles can alter the course of the Roman Empire then certainly each Orthodox Christian College Student has the ability to change the campus on which they live.

Perhaps the best advice for Orthodox College students comes from the second century Letter to Diognetus. It is in many ways the best guide for Orthodox Christian campus ministry. Consider these simple words as advice for every Orthodox college student:

For Christians cannot be distinguished from the rest of the human race by country or language or customs. They do not live in cities of their own; they do not use a peculiar form of speech; they do not follow an eccentric manner of life. . . They live in their own countries, but only as aliens. They have a share in everything as citizens, and endure everything as foreigners. Every foreign land is their fatherland, and yet for them every fatherland is a foreign land.

They marry, like everyone else, and they beget children, but they do not cast out their offspring. They share their board with each other, but not their marriage bed. It is true that they are “in the flesh,” but they do not live “according to the flesh.” They busy themselves on earth, but their citizenship is in heaven. They obey the established laws, but in their own lives they go far beyond what the laws require.

They love all men, and by all men are persecuted. They are unknown, and still they are condemned; they are put to death, and yet they are brought to life. They are poor, and yet they make many rich; they are completely destitute, and yet they enjoy complete abundance. They are dishonored, and in their very dishonor are glorified; they are defamed, and are vindicated. They are reviled, and yet they bless; when they are affronted, they still pay due respect. When they do good, they are punished as evildoers; undergoing punishment, they rejoice because they are brought to life. . . .

To put it simply: What the soul is in the body, Christians are to the world.

The second century world of Diognetus is not far from today’s college campus. Orthodox Christian college students deserve compassion, understanding and support as they live their faith. They deserve to meet the Church in all its fullness so that they may struggle, question and grow. This struggle is nothing new and is the essence of staying connected to the Church.

The challenge for each of us is whether not we will rise to responsibility of accompanying them on what is life’s most important journey –- a journey that can help students become the soul of the world and –like the Apostles before them — turn it upside-down.

Andrew Estocin is a lifelong Orthodox Christian and past participant in Orthodox Christian Fellowship. He received his theological degree from Fordham University. His articles have appeared in Touchstone, The Albuquerque Journal and Beliefnet.com He lives with his family in Albuquerque, New Mexico where they attend St. George Greek Orthodox Church.

Politics, Ideas, and the West

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An excerpt from an essay published on OrthodoxyToday.org.

By Samuel Gregg

Yet as the French theologian Jean Daniélou S.J. once observed, there is no true civilization that is not also religious. In the case of Western civilization, that means Judaism and Christianity. The question of religious truth is something with which we must allow every person to wrestle in the depths of their conscience. But if conservatism involves upholding the heritage of the West against those who would tear it down (whether from without and within), then conservatives should follow the lead of European intellectuals such as Rémi Brague and Joseph Ratzinger and invest far more energy in elucidating Christianity’s pivotal role in the West’s development—including the often complicated ways in which it responded to, and continues to interact, with the movements associated with the various Enlightenments.

Such an enterprise goes beyond demonstrating Christianity’s contribution to institutional frameworks such as constitutional government. Conservatives must be more attentive to how Judaism and Christianity—or at least their orthodox versions—helped foster key ideas that underlie the distinctiveness of Western culture. These include:

their liberation of man from the sense that the world was ultimately meaningless;
their underscoring of human fallibility and consequent anti-utopianism;
their affirmation that man is made to be creative rather than passive;
their insistence that there are moral absolutes that may never be violated,
their tremendous respect for human reason in all its fullness;
their crucial distinction between religious and civil authority; and
their conviction that human beings can make free choices.

This last point is especially important precisely because of the difficulty of finding strong affirmations of the reality of free choice outside orthodox Judaism, orthodox Christianity, and certain schools of natural law thought. Beyond these spheres, the world is basically made up of soft determinists (like John Stuart Mill) or hard determinists (like Marx).

There is, however, something more elemental of which modern conservatism stands in desperate need. In the first episode of his acclaimed 1969 BBC series Civilisation, the art historian, the late Kenneth Clark, sat in the foreground of an old viaduct and spoke about the Romans’ “confidence.” By that, he didn’t mean arrogance. What Clark had in mind was the Romans’ self-belief: their conviction that the ideas and institutions which they had inherited, developed, and extended throughout Europe and the Mediterranean amounted to a singular cultural accomplishment worthy of emulation.

Read the entire article on OrthodoxyToday.org.

Orthodox Christian Statement Opposing Military Action Against Syria

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I’ve had my disagreements with the Orthodox Peace Fellowship (OPF) in the past mostly over their stand that pacifism is a viable option in addressing conflicts between people and nations. Pacifism is a coherent and honorable moral position but only for the individual. It cannot be imposed involuntarily and succeeds only when the larger promise of protection by non-pacifists exists.

Nevertheless, with the continuing threat of military action by America in Syria (which today seems to be abating largely through the diplomatic sophistication of the Russians) which is clearly wrong-headed policy by any measure and especially threatens the Christians of the region, the OPF statement deserves support.

Orthodox Christian Statement Opposing Military Action Against Syria

Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, oh God! Psalm 51:14

Dear members and friends of the Orthodox Peace Fellowship and all Orthodox Christians:

On August 21, 2013, a robust chemical weapons attack took place in Damascus, Syria, which US intelligence alleges was carried out by the Bashar Assad government and killed over 1400 civilians.

On August 30, 2013, President Obama asked the United States Congress to approve a limited, punitive military assault against Syria and the government of President Bashar Assad.

On September 3rd, President Obama declared that his goal is to degrade the Assad regime’s capabilities and to upgrade those of the opposition forces to help “set Syria free,” signaling escalatory intentions even before the first missile is launched and his readiness to interfere in the outcome of the civil war.

We agree that any use of chemical weapons is abhorrent and unreservedly condemn their use. However, while many pragmatic arguments against the contemplated military response are circulating, we ground our opposition to a military response, unilaterally or together with one or more international partners, on moral grounds consistent with Orthodox nonviolent, justifiable war, and pacifist traditions.

We urge you to consider our appeal alongside the unprecedented emerging coalition of Orthodox, Catholic, and other Christian jurisdictions and organizations calling on their faithful to oppose the contemplated US military action.

We urge our American members to contact your elected representatives in the House and Senate and ask them to vote no on any resolution authorizing such action, limited or otherwise.

We urge you to contact President Obama and urge him not to attack Syria.

We ask you to lend your signature to this statement adding your voice to our plea.

Note: If you disagree or do not feel you already have sufficient grounds for opposing the contemplated military attack, or if you simply want more information, please visit our website for a narrative foundation for our appeal, supporting material, an appended bibliography, and related resources: www.incommunion.org.

Thank you,

Jim Forest, OPF International Secretary
Alexander Patico, OPF North American Secretary
Pieter Dykhorst, OPF editor of In Communion
Archpriest Alexander F.C. Webster, Chaplain (Colonel) USAR (Ret.)

To sign this Statement, read the Supporting Narrative, or find more resources concerning Syria, please visit www.incommunion.org.

Pat. Bartholomew: No to Homosexual Marriage

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His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew expressed in unequivocal terms that the Orthodox Church cannot sanction same-sex marriage. This is bound to make some of the Orthodox Progressives squirm because there is no room for doubt, no artificial distinction between Church and society where the moral teaching applies to the former but not the latter, where there is a different anthropology implied for those within the Church and those outside of her.

This statement was delivered at a homily in Estonia but also posted on the Patriarchal website so it carries the imprimatur of the Patriarchal office. Note Pat. Bartholomew’s reliance on the book of Romans where the Apostle Paul describes Roman culture at the time. Again, this is significant because the Patriarch’s reference to St. Paul’s admonition shows the teaching applies not only to the Church, but to society as well. The erroneous idea that the Orthodox Church has nothing to say to the larger culture about homosexual marriage has been repudiated by Pat. Kyrill in the past and now by Pat. Bartholomew.

The condemnation, a strong word but borrowed from the text below is quite clear:

To our Lord Jesus Christ, who blessed families through the Mystery of Marriage at Cana of Galilee and changed water into wine, that is, into joy and feasting, and to His Body, the Orthodox Church, the partnering of the same sex is unknown and condemned, and they condemn the contemporary invention of “mutual cohabitation”, which is the result of sin and not the law of joy

Note too the Ecumenical Patriarch’s implicit reasoning that homosexual marriage threatens the family:

The Church, my beloved parents and children, and subsequently the family, which consists lawfully and by the command of God of men and women, and the children acquired, is not a foundation or association or a simple organization, but a Body, as it is wonderfully depicted by the Apostle Paul. And this parallelism is accurate and true. Church and marriage. Husband and wife. Body and its members.

This community, signified in the Mysteries and in the obedience of Faith, both in the Church and in the family, is sanctified and mystagogued through the Mystery of Marriage, which, according to the Fathers, is a mystery of co-creation, and the ontological link of love with the Head of the Body, to ensure health and life, which is salvation and sanctification.

The language is a bit labored as is often the case with missives from Constantinople where too many ideas are packed into too few sentences. Nevertheless, the meaning is clear and the arguments that the Church has no interest in the broader health of the culture and should remain silent about the critical moral issues of the day should be put to rest.

American Source: Mystagogy

Greek (Original) Source: Ecumenical Patriarchate

Translated by John Sanidopoulos.

On September 7, 2013 His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew visited the Holy Cathedral of St. Symeon in Tallinn, Estonia. Early that afternoon, His All-Holiness presided over Vespers Service in the same church, at which time he delivered the Homily. Below is an excerpt of this Homily, in which he addressed the topic of the relationship between Church and Family, and in turn condemned Homosexual Marriage as an innovation foreign to the ecclesiological mindset and way of life.

The Church, my beloved parents and children, and subsequently the family, which consists lawfully and by the command of God of men and women, and the children acquired, is not a foundation or association or a simple organization, but a Body, as it is wonderfully depicted by the Apostle Paul. And this parallelism is accurate and true. Church and marriage. Husband and wife. Body and its members.

This community, signified in the Mysteries and in the obedience of Faith, both in the Church and in the family, is sanctified and mystagogued through the Mystery of Marriage, which, according to the Fathers, is a mystery of co-creation, and the ontological link of love with the Head of the Body, to ensure health and life, which is salvation and sanctification.

As in our Orthodox Church, where no member is forgiven to deal with things in a peculiar form and at one’s discretion and to prey on the proper operation and sincere communion of the love and unity of faith of the other members, or despise and ignore them, because they create cancerous disorders, agitations, dissensions, schisms, and heresies. This applies as well to the miniature church, the family, in which is required compassion, love and unity for the structure to be built, in which the father, the mother and the children have a place inter-embracing one another’s gifts, responsibilities and rights, and they are “individually members of it”.

God blesses our every effort towards the fulfillment of His will, and every struggle in life, according to one’s faithfulness in each and every talent. It suffices to realize in time our given talents and gifts and therefore our obligations for our every personal role, which God expects us to live out in the ecclesiastical and familial body as Orthodox Christians, activating its divine-human nature, within the framework of our God-given limits and conditions. For God created man “male and female”, that we might not imitate those who “exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator — who is forever praised” (Romans 1:24-26).

To our Lord Jesus Christ, who blessed families through the Mystery of Marriage at Cana of Galilee and changed water into wine, that is, into joy and feasting, and to His Body, the Orthodox Church, the partnering of the same sex is unknown and condemned, and they condemn the contemporary invention of “mutual cohabitation”, which is the result of sin and not the law of joy, and by their actions the “females exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error” (Romans 1:26-28). Let this not also be born in you, Orthodox Estonians, brethren and children.

An Open Letter from His Eminence Metropolitan Philip to President Obama

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Metropolitan Phillip

Metropolitan Philip is the leader of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese.

September 6, 2013

President Barack Obama, The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC

Dear Mr. President:

We write to you with a heavy heart having heard the recent news of the attack on the ancient Christian city of Maaloula, Syria by the rebel forces. This city houses one of the oldest and most important monasteries, the Monastery of St. Thekla, which is considered a holy place by both Christians and Muslims.
This attack by the rebel forces, who are supported by the U.S. government, is an unspeakable act of terror, and speaks volumes to the viciousness of those rebel forces who seek to overthrow the Syrian government. Apparently there is nothing that is sacred to these people, and it is very disturbing that these same people are being supported by our government.

Mr. President, we appeal to your humanity, and compassion for people to halt consideration of any U.S military action against the Syrian government. This would be a deadly and costly action, and nothing can be gained by it. If indeed chemical weapons have been used (and this is still to be determined by the UN inspectors who recently returned from Syria), there is no compelling evidence which points to the use of these weapons by the Syrian government. On the contrary, there is some compelling evidence that the rebel forces had both the means and the will to launch such a heinous attack against innocent people, Christians and Muslims alike, who are all the children of God.

May our Lord and God guide you to find a peaceful solution which relies on negotiation and not bombs.

Sincerely

+Metropolitan PHILIP Saliba
Archbishop of New York and Metropolitan of All North America

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