Media

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew on 60 Minutes

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His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew

The Order of St. Andrew the Apostle announced today that Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew “will be featured on the CBS News program 60 Minutes reported by Bob Simon, scheduled to air on Sunday, December 20, 2009 at 7 p.m. EST. The segment will focus on the Orthodox Church, the most ancient Christian church, and its development from its earliest years to modern times in what is now the Republic of Turkey.”

Commenting on the upcoming broadcast, Archbishop Demetrios of America said: “The appearance of the Ecumenical Patriarch on a program such as 60 Minutes is an extraordinary opportunity for the American public to become aware of our Orthodox Christian Faith. Millions of people who would otherwise have limited knowledge of the Orthodox Church will have the chance to see and hear the highest ecclesiastical personage of our Church in their living rooms. It is also a tremendous opportunity for our own Orthodox Faithful in the United States to see His All Holiness in a way that will surely touch their hearts and minds with love and deep respect.”

The Medium is not the Message

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OrthodoxNet.com editor Chris Banescu has posted a brilliant response to a priest’s criticism of Web communications:

Chris Banescu

The many faults Fr. George finds with the Internet and the blogosphere are mostly true, but morally meaningless. Yes, the web and instant Internet communications can suffer from all the troubles and ills he outlined. Yes, free men will abuse their freedom and lie and insult. Yes, some will try to muddy the waters and distract from the truth. So what? That’s freedom, that’s democracy, that’s life! The right not to be offended does not exist in the Constitution. For freedom to exist and democracy to thrive such things must and will always exist. We must deal with it, not run away from it.

The mountain of truthful information, solid reporting, trustworthy testimony, and ethically sound reflections and insights, would never have seen the light of day without the power of the Internet. The positive and constructive impact OCANews.org has had on the Holy Orthodox Church stands as a testament to the power of liberty and the functionality of the medium. Should a few poorly worded and irresponsible posts in the public comments of the website overshadow the thousands of other solid, thoughtful, and intelligent posts, and the hundreds of excellent reflections and articles posted? To hear Fr. George explain it, just a few tares justify the removal of all the wheat also. I seem to recall a different Gospel message.

What is at issue in all the exchanges and multiple spiritual, moral, and financial crisis threatening the Orthodox Church is the lack of truth, lack of ethics, lack of integrity, and lack of Christ. Christ warned us to be watchful and discerning. He taught that “You shall know them by their fruits!” OCANews.org showed us exactly what “fruits” were produced by these false prophets. Many of those who claimed to follow, preach, and practice His word, were actually impostors who squandered His Talents to fuel their greed and lavish lifestyles, used His teachings to excuse corruption (moral, spiritual, and financial) and enable abusers, and misused their authority to escape accountability and liability.

Read The Medium is not the Message on ONet.

Report: Greek Orthodox bishops in U.S. may take Turkish citizenship

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Theodore Kalmoukos of the National Herald is reporting that “the government of Turkey seems to be willing to grant Turkish citizenship to all those hierarchs of the Ecumenical Patriarchate who serve outside of Turkey. Turkish citizenship will allow them to freely participate in all the administrative activities of the Patriarchate including the right to be candidates for the Ecumenical Throne when a vacancy arises. It was made clear by the Ecumenical Patriarch himself that ‘they will have the right to elect and to be elected.’”

Kalmoukos said that no American bishop has yet to “express an opinion” on the matter:

The issue was brought up at the meeting of the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate and official letters were sent recently to hierarchs serving outside of Turkey urging them to file – if they so wish – their applications to become Turkish citizens. Patriarch Bartholomew brought the letters with him when he came to the U.S. on October 21 and gave them to Archbishop Demetrios to send to the hierarchs of the Archdiocese.

[ … ]

It is noted here that a hierarch cannot participate in two Synods. Until a few years ago only Turkish citizens were allowed to participate in the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, but Patriarch Bartholomew changed the rules so that at any given time six hierarchs from Turkey serve six month terms and six others from abroad serve one year terms. This development has been met with mixed reactions from hierarchs of all categories. Sources from the island of Crete told The National Herald that the hierarchs there have expressed some uneasiness because of fears that the local population will wonder about the loyalty of hierarchs who would be potentially under the influence of the Turkish government.

None of the hierarchs of America have yet to express an opinion. Concern has also arisen among high ranking officials of the Phanar since such a substantial increase in the number of eligible hierarchs will dramatically affect the dynamics of future patriarchal elections. Until now only Turkish citizens had the right to be candidates for the Patriarchy and only the Turkish members of the Holy Synod were allowed to vote. The hierarchs outside Turkey used the so-called “symsifon” meaning that they simply expressed their consensus on the decision of the Synod in Constantinople.

Furthermore, the Synod at the Phanar was obligated to submit the official list of candidates for Patriarch to the Turkish government for its official approval. The Turks had the right to delete the names of those hierarchs they did not want to be elected to the Ecumenical Throne. At the last Patriarchal election no names were deleted. The then-Metropolitan of Chalcedon Bartholomew was the leading candidate, and he was ultimately elected.

Το μνημόσυνο του Εθνικού Σταρ για τον Michael Jackson

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Even if you don’t understand Greek, you will still understand what is going on.

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Ecumenical Patriarch releases agenda for Mississippi Symposium

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The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese released the schedule for Ecumenical Patriarch Batholomew’s visit to the United States in October. Separately, a detailed agenda for his upcoming environmental symposium has been posted online.

The patriarch’s “Symposium VIII — Restoring Balance: The Great Mississippi River” offers a rare opportunity to present Orthodoxy’s distinctive, sacramental understanding of the stewardship of Creation to America and the world. And this trip, which will involve about 200 participants in all, will no doubt generate a huge volume of media attention. We will be following the symposium closely here on the Observer.

If the text accompanying the agenda is any indication, the work of the symposium will be heavily inflected by an environmentalist ethic that looks at humanity primarily as a source of pollution and largely ignores the benefits of balanced economic development that does not degrade or abuse Creation. There is the utopian dream of returning the Earth to its pristine, pre-industrial state. Example:

But the fate of the Mississippi waters is more than one aspect of global warming. It is also, very acutely, an ethical crisis. The exploitation of the great river – its pollution, the disastrous confinements of its course and the draining of its wetlands – is starting to produce catastrophic human and natural consequences. But it is not clear that the lessons of the Katrina hurricane have been learned. Development for short-term gain rushes ahead, especially in the Delta itself.

The Mississippi is a challenge not only to human responsibility for the environment, but to democracy. Many people know what should be done: a curb on development and a massive, costly programme to restore the river to something like its ancient health. But few are ready to vote for it. That is the real Mississippi crisis.

The Symposium agenda writer also notes, about a Day One stop in Memphis at the National Civil Rights Museum, that Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream of racial equality has been only partially realized with the election of President Barack Obama. “Yet fulfilling the dream of economic justice and what is termed today ecojustice, which is of particular concern to the Symposium, has not been realised,” we are told. Continue reading →

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