Month: November 2009

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Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew sums up visit with Greek ‘diaspora’ in America

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Turkey, Nov. 10, 2009

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew referred to the great progress made by the Greek Diaspora in statements he made upon his return from a two-week visit to the United States.

Addressing the faithful in the Church of the Taxiarchs in Bosporus, the Ecumenical Patriarch stated that the progress achieved by the Greek Community, its dedication to the Mother Church and the Ecumenical Patriarchate were evident everywhere he went, adding that the Greek-Americans enjoy the respect of the US authorities.

Bartholomew stated that he was received with great honors by the US leadership, the academic world and major institutions.

The Ecumenical Patriarch emphasized the comments made by US Vice President Joe Biden who underlined that the Ecumenical Patriarchate has been brave despite the insecurity surrounding it and the adverse conditions under which it performs its ecumenical mission and service, thus winning great respect and appreciation.

In a formal dinner hosted in the Ecumenical Patriarch’s honor, US Vice President Biden quoted the ancient Greek fabulist Aesop who said “It is easy to be brave from a safe distance,” and addressing Bartholomew stressed: “You have always been brave and never from a safe distance. You have stared down those who seek to erode the authority of the Church tirelessly, professing the Greek Orthodox way for millions of followers.”

Source: ANA-MPA

The Greatest Scandal

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Occasional commentator David Holford writes on his blog Solomon Hezekiah about the voting record of Orthodox Christians on abortion-related legislation and is rightfully appalled. The only elected official at the federal level who has not sided with the culture of death is Rep. Gus Bilirakis, a Republican from the 9th District of Florida. (See his video and statement here opposing the government takeover of health care.)

In a post titled, “The Greatest Scandal in American Orthodoxy,” Holford says he is not so “naïve to imagine that either the Congresspersons or the hierarchs will actually listen” to what he’s saying. But the laity need to speak up on this issue, even if the bishops won’t.

After seeing an article about the clash over abortion between US Rep. Patrick Kennedy and his diocesan bishop Thomas Tobin of Providence, RI, I decided to look into the voting records of the one senator and five representatives who are members of the Orthodox Church. The results are not surprising, but equally as shameful. I almost don’t know where to start.

The teaching of the Orthodox Church concerning abortion is just as clear and just the same as the teaching of the Catholic Church. It doesn’t matter that it is an issue the Ecumenical Patriarch skirts around, perhaps because it takes away from his main job of opening evironmentalist conferences and exhibitions. And just like the Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church has members who have been elected to public office and act in direct opposition to the Orthodox Christian faith. It is not a matter of what they do in their private lives, for which they should go to confession and after which their priest should happily partake with them of the most precious body and blood.

Rather, it is a matter of what they lead their country to do. They have chosen to take a public stand against the teaching of the Church. They have appropriated the public purse for the killing of unborn children. They have otherwise refused to protect the unborn and directly facilitated those who would kill them.

It is the duty of the diocesan bishops of those members of the Orthodox Church who openly and knowingly pay for, or otherwise facilitate, the killing of the unborn to excommunicate those persons. Any bishop who knows what a Congressperson who claims to be under their spiritual authority is doing in this regard is failing in their responsibilities if they to otherwise.

Any Orthodox bishop, including the Ecumenical Patriarch, who praises or elevates such a person in the Church should be causing a scandal far worse than the misappropriation of funds in the OCA, or a drunk Antiochian touching up girl in a casino. Every clergy and every lay person of such a diocese who cares about the integrity of the Orthodox Church should be writing to their bishop.

Read the entire post on the Solomon Hezekiah blog.

Serbia’s Patriarch Pavle (1914-2009)

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Serbs lining the Belgrade streets to view the body of the late Patriarch Pavle at the cathedral church

BELGRADE (Reuters) – Patriarch Pavle, who headed the Serbian Orthodox Church during the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s as Serbs warred with neighbors of other faiths, died on Sunday, a top church official said.

Pavle, 95, died at a special apartment in Belgrade’s Military Hospital where he had been treated since 2007 for various ailments, Bishop Amfilohije, the acting head of the church’s Holy Synod, said in a statement. “The death of Patriarch Pavle is a huge loss for Serbia,” President Boris Tadic said in a statement. “There are people who bond entire nations and Pavle was such a person.”

Thousands of mourners flocked to churches throughout the country after Pavle’s death was announced. The government ordered three days of national mourning until Wednesday.

Critics say Pavle failed to contain hardline bishops and priests who stoked Serb nationalism against Catholic Croats and Muslim Bosnians and publicly blessed paramilitaries who committed war crimes in Croatia and Bosnia. After the war, he became more vocal in politics and openly criticized the policies of Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic.

More here.

Radio Srbija’s biography of the patriarch here.

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew issued a statement:

We repeat the timely words of the Serb poet M. Betskovic about the late Patriarch: “None in this noisy era spoke so softly and yet was heard so widely as he. None spoke less and yet said more. None in our delusional age confronted truth with such calmness as he.”

May his memory be eternal!

Russian Orthodox launch the St. Gregory Nazianzus Foundation

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Robert Moynihan, editor of the Inside the Vatican newsletter, is in Moscow visiting with Archbishop Hilarion of Volokolamsk and other church people. He reports that “the Russian Orthodox have now decided to engage with Catholics, and others, in a collaboration which can be compared to an actual alliance against the great social evils of our day, not only in Russia, but also throughout Europe and the world.” Moynihan says that this effort will be directed by a new think tank, the St. Gregory Nazianzus Foundation, which has the blessing of Patriarch Kirill.

Archbishop Hilarion, working with a team of young Orthodox clergy and laymen, decided to found the St. Gregory Nazianzus Foundation in order to work together with Catholics and others in the West, to support traditional spiritual values in Russia, but also throughout the world,

St. Greory was a theologian in the 300s, well before the division of the Church into East and West, and so is venerated both by the Catholics and by the Orthodox. He is a Father of the Church for all Christians.

The co-founders of this new foundation are Archbishop Hilarion and Vadim Yakunin, one of the wealthiest businessmen in Russia. Yakunin has made a personal commitment to support the spiritual and social vision articulated by Patriarch Kirill. Continue reading →

Frontier Orthodoxy

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Fr. Oliver Herbel

The folks over at the always-interesting Society for Orthodox Christian History in the Americas are introducing a new column called Frontier Orthodoxy by Fr. Oliver Herbel. Fr. Herbel provides an introduction to his work, and some biographical detail, and what surely is the Quote of the Week in the Orthodox Christian blogosphere:

I have come to see that modesty is a virtue that is in very very very short supply in our culture, that love and kindness are all too often hard to come by, and that courage and fortitude are rare on the issues that count and abundantly present in the face of some of the least important issues in life. Most importantly, I have learned that if one wants to be in the Ark, the Church of Christ propagated through the Apostles, one has to enter the Holy Orthodox Church and put up with the breath taking stench. The other option doesn’t stink, of course, but a rotten smell still beats lungs full of water.

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