Month: August 2009

From Kathimerini:

The Church of Greece’s finances are in rude health, according to a report handed to Archbishop Ieronymos this week, which indicated that the church made more than 7 million euros profit in 2008.

According to the internal report, which was seen by Kathimerini, almost 20 million euros of revenue flowed into the church’s coffers last year, mostly from the renting out of church property. It also earned some 4.5 million euros from investments.

During 2008, the church spent almost 12.5 million euros. The biggest outlay, just over 4 million euros, was for sponsoring events. Almost 4 million was spent on salaries.

Last year, the robust state of the church’s finances also allowed it to buy 1.6 million shares in the National Bank, taking its stake in the lender up to 7.7 million shares.

Vatican analyst Sandro Magister takes a closer look at the recent meeting between Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I. “But like other conciliatory gestures in the past, this one also risks producing no results,” notes the introduction on Chiesa online. Magister examines Pope Benedict XVI’s reservations about the entry of Turkey into the European Union and “the caution” of Vatican diplomacy.

Erdogan and the Christians. Few Promises, Zero Action

by Sandro Magister

ROME, August 27, 2009 – Samuel Huntington called Turkey “Janus-faced,” you never know if it’s a friend or enemy of the West.

The same thought must have come to mind for Bartholomew I, ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople, when last August 15 he welcomed Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan for a visit to the orphanage and monastery of Saint George Koudounas on the Princes’ Islands in the Marmara Sea.

It was the first time that a Turkish prime minister had gone to the Princes Islands, traditionally inhabited by Christians, and to a building, the orphanage, which after being requisitioned by the Turkish authorities was ruled to belong to the ecumenical patriarchate by the court of Strasbourg in June of 2008.

During his visit, Erdogan, accompanied by four of his ministers, had lunch with Bartholomew I and with representatives of the religious minorities in Turkey – Greek Orthodox, Armenian Apostolic, Jewish, Syriac Orthodox, and Catholic – to whom he made guarantees against all forms of religious and ethnic discrimination.

“My neighbor must be met with love, because he is also a creature of God,” Erdogan said, citing a maxim from the Mevlevi Shiite confraternity, which emerged on Konya in the 13th century, with some elements taken from Christianity.

Asked for a comment, Bartholomew I told Asia News: “Erdogan’s presence was an honor for us, and it gave us an opportunity to present our problems directly, although he already knows about them. We invited the prime minister to the see of the ecumenical patriarchate and to Halki, and Erdogan thanked us for the invitation.”

Halki is another island, the site of the seminary of theological formation for the ecumenical patriarchate, which was closed by the Turkish authorities in 1971. Last June 10, in Brussels, Olli Rehn, the European Union commissioner for enlargement and therefore also overseeing the possible entry of Turkey, stated that this entry is conditional in part on the reopening of the Halki seminary.

Erdogan has until December of 2009 to present the authorities in Brussels with an account of the progress that Turkey has made in meeting the standards necessary for entry into the EU. For the patriarchate, this is one more reason to hope that the theological seminary of Halki will finally be reopened and resume its functions.

Unfortunately, however, “Janus” has repeatedly frustrated expectations, showing this and other religious minorities in Turkey not its friendly face, but its hostile one. Continue reading →

On the Orthodox Christian Network, Fr. Mark Arey, the General Secretary of the Standing Conference of the Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas (SCOBA), discusses the Fourth Pre-Conciliar Pan-Orthodox Conference that met in Chambésy, Switzerland, in June, in an interview with Fr. Chris Metropulos.

“If we’re serious, really serious about Orthodox unity, well my friends, we have to do the hard work and put it together,” says Fr. Arey. “You can’t just snap your fingers and everybody says each bishop can have his own title and then we’re done.”

Fr. Arey talks about SCOBA’s future, in light of the move toward a new episcopal assembly, and how that would affect current governance of American Orthodoxy.

“It’s easy to talk about Orthodox unity when you don’t have to actually do it,” Fr. Arey says.

Listen:

From the Chambesy announcement on the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese Web site:

Acting as formal representatives of the Autocephalous Churches, the members of the Fourth Pre-Conciliar Conference in Chambésy affirmed “that is the common will of all of the most holy Orthodox Churches that the problem of the Orthodox Diaspora be resolved as quickly as possible, and that it be organized in accordance with Orthodox ecclesiology, and the canonical tradition and practice of the Orthodox Church.” The Conference decided to establish an “Episcopal Assembly” in specific regions which are beyond the boundaries of the Autocephalous Churches. The Conference initially identified twelve regions throughout the world. The Episcopal Assembly will include all the canonical Orthodox bishops in a given region such as North America. The representative of the Ecumenical Patriarch (in this case, Archbishop Demetrios of America) will chair the Episcopal Assembly in each region. The Assembly will meet yearly and will have an Executive Committee which will meet every three months. Other committees, composed of clergy and laity, will be established to address particular concerns.

From St. Vladimir’s Seminary:

Teaching for the Future: Frs John and Chad reflect on a stormy summer

Theological reflection and education is essential for the life and future of the Church. Where there is no vision, the people perish (Proverbs 29:18). The vision of Christ himself, and how we are his body, enables us to pass through the storms of this world and move into the future. Theological education in the US has recently become the subject of controversy, division, and manipulation. However, turbulence can also signify new possibilities and new life. As we learn to discern the times, we must consider:

* Diversity in Unity
* A Comprehensive Plan
* Responsible Stewardship

Diversity in Unity

One of the glories of Orthodoxy in the western world is the richness of the diversity of its lived expressions. Orthodox Christians live together, work together, and learn to see each other as members of the one Body of Christ in a specific geographical region. However, in the U.S., different traditions, developed over centuries around the world, are here in one country, flowing into an incomparable experience of Orthodoxy. The recent Chambesy proposal suggested a way to recognize this diversity and to preserve it as we move, as we must, towards greater administrative unity.

Those involved in theological education in this country have to learn how this diversity can not only be valued in theory but experienced in practice by all students, in whose hands lie the future of our Church. We have three ATS-accredited schools in North America – Holy Cross, St. Tikhon’s, and St. Vladimir’s – each with its own valuable tradition and character. However, diversity between schools, rather than within each school, all too easily creates an unhealthy polarization or rivalry between schools. And this leads to students, the future priests and lay leaders of our churches, having little knowledge of each other and little desire to learn. Nothing is more divisive for our future. We fear that division, based upon cultural or ethnic differences, is becoming more prevalent in North America, and it is regarding this that we would voice our greatest concern.

At St Vladimir’s Seminary, we have been committed to a truly pan-Orthodox vision for this country. If our life has been too Slavic for some, there is nevertheless a place, and an increasing one at that, at the Seminary and its chapel for a fully educated expression of Byzantine life to enrich the campus and form students of all the different traditions represented on our campus. This is something that we desire and promote. Likewise, we hope to find ways of working more closely with our sister school, Holy Cross, and the Antiochian House of Studies, to see what we can do together, in an open conversation that leads wherever God may take us.

A Comprehensive Plan

All those involved in theological education in North America need to develop a comprehensive plan for all aspects of the task of education. Continue reading →