I apologize for not seeing this earlier, but when I saw your description of “animation,” it reminded me of when my student job at St. Vladimir’s was to be the janitor of the auditorium, among the responsibilities which was to set up and remove the chairs when there was a lecture. Fr. John Meyendorff taught a Byzantine Church History course on Monday evenings, thereby allowing outside community members to attend. Many times I would sit on the floor outside the doors to listen. One night, someone was carrying on to him about how we had fallen away from the traditions of Byzantium and how it was ruining the church, etc., etc. what would he suggest? Fr. John had such a dry sense of humor which he often did not betray by facial expression, so he responded that he was partial to restoring the practice of several smaller cathedrals in Constantinople with elaborate pulley & rope systems that allowed little boys dressed as angels to “fly” over the iconostasis during the singing of the Cherubic Hymn. Unfortunately, “a spate of injuries” killed the practice. A “spate of injuries.” That cracked me up and Fr. John looked over at me and smiled. I had to leave the building. Byzantine animation at its best.

Me too, I’ve hade my differences with Fr Arey but he’s definately on to something here.

I am with Ginny on this. I support the project for exactly the reasons she described.

And again, I don’t consider biblical comics as a total debasement of the Christian message, but, rather, purveying the Christian message through an alternative medium.

Anything which presents the message of the Gospel to more people in a serious way is nothing to be rejected. After all, Orthodox Christian children books have become some of the most popular Orthodox books just this last decade. Seems they are achieving their purpose.

I look at things like this in that way.

I would simply ask you to consider the benefit of Christian alternatives as witness in the face of all out secular, atheist assault.

You are late to the show, friend. Likewise the former Greek Orthodox Steven Georgiou who performed as award-winning singer & song-writer Cat Stevens, until converting to Islam in 1977, has since written books and music for children (e.g. “A” is for “Allah”) under the name Yusuf Islam.

I would re-phrase your question to ask, “Yes, we believe we are becoming “all things to all men” for the sake of the Christ to make followers, but at what cost?” I personally have never met a single individual who has told me they were so moved by one of these “trendy” approaches as to be drawn to the Church. This, of course, is my subjective experience, for what it’s worth. And at what cost?

The Priest Who Did Not Want To Serve The Divine Liturgy

There was once a priest who did not want to serve the liturgy because it was a cold winter day.

The temperature was 10 degrees below zero and the priest knew that the only person who was likely to come to the service was the chanter. The priest had no idea about the Church’s teaching on the presence of the Triumphant Church and how the Divine Liturgy benefits the living and the departed. With difficulty he forced himself to go to church. On the way to church he kept wishing that the chanter would not come so that he would not have to serve and go home. However, the chanter did come.

The priest did the Prothesis (or Proskomedia, the service of preparing the holy gifts) in a hurry and began the Divine Liturgy. Shortly after, some bishops, priests, monks and nuns and some lay people arrived. Most of them sat in the choir section and began to chant so beautifully that the priest forgot about how cold and lonely he was earlier. His whole body was warm and his whole being was all a flame…. When he did the small entrance he noticed that the church was full of people – most of them familiar – he did not pay much attention and just continued with the Divine Liturgy.

When the time came for the Sanctification of the Holy Gifts he saw three bishops, brightly clothed and radiant entering the Holy Altar. They knelt with him and prayed. The priest then stood up very carefully with fear, took the censer and in a loud voice said,

‘Especially our All Holy, Immaculate, Most Blessed and glorious Lady Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary…’.

The soul of the priest was amazed and filled with divine joy. Peace and heavenly stillness, hesychia, dominated his inner self. When the time came for the elevation and dividing of the Host (Lamb) the whole church filled with the sweetest melodies. The whole multitude of people who were present along with the monks, priests and bishops chanted not only once but many times,

‘One is Holy, One is Lord: Jesus Christ, to the glory of God the Father. Amen’.

Next they chanted the Holy Communion hymn,

‘Taste and see that the Lord is good, Alleluia.’

The priest was wandering what to do. Should he partake of the Holy Communion first or step aside for the three bishops who were present. Just as he was thinking this, one of the bishops nodded to him indicating that he should receive Holy Communion and then to Unify and Place the remaining of the portions of the Lamb into the Chalice along with the portions in memory of the Holy Theotokos and the Saints. Having completed this the priest then opened the Beautiful Gate … and saw no one in the Church… he turned and looked back into the holy altar, he looked to the right, looked to the left, the bishops had disappeared, he stood there speechless, amazed. He slowly opened his mouth and chanted the next petition,

‘With the fear of God and faith and love, draw near …,’

and the chanter slowly drew near to take Holy Communion. The priest was still amazed, still wondering! The whole Triumphant Church was present. All those present in the church were persons familiar to him, they were persons that had departed from this life and he would from time to time commemorate their names during each liturgy:

‘that’s why they were present, that’s why they all seemed so familiar’, he thought.

As for the bishops in the altar they were the Three Hierarchs: Saint John Chrysostom, Saint Basil the Great and Saint Gregory the Theologian.

So many years of study at university, so much research and so many sleepless nights he spent studying and these efforts were not able to give him not even one drop of the sweetness and divine knowledge that this one Divine Liturgy gave him.

http://goodguyswearblack.org/2013/06/04/the-priest-who-did-not-want-to-serve-the-divine-liturgy/

Panning Evangelicals is not helpful either. They have a lot more together than we do: we have everything to learn from their missionary, apologetic, youth ministry, fellowship, relief and stewardship efforts.

As far as the Book of Revelation being a historical allegory for the Persecution of Nero – that is one thought – but the Holy Fathers see the book as eschatological, as a prophesy of the end times, building somewhat on the Book of Daniel and the words of CHRIST.

For the record, I was a supporter of the efforts of +Archbishop Spyridon, to the extent those efforts would have “set things aright” in the GOA in its presentation of Orthodoxy in North America by providing a Greek Orthodox witness which reflected Orthodox practice accurately both in the Greek world and throughout Orthodoxy.

I don’t think that the comic is intended as a spoof, nor in reality that is what it constitutes. I haven’t read it to be certain, but I have read the Apocalypse quite a few times to be able to say it is not light reading and generally not necessarily accessible to teenagers. I understand comics might not really be consumed by the young adult crowd so much any more, but if this is what gets people reading books of the Bible, what is wrong with it? Art being set to Scripture to reach people: that is part of the point behind iconography, right?

I find it a good thing that this Priest is using a venue which normally would be promoting some very different from a religious message to introduce readers to biblical teaching.

I just reflect on the Scripture, “I have become all things to all men that I might save some…”

As far as lack of clerical dress, etc., to even get into that on this topic I don’t think would be edifying. Yes, Orthodox Priests should wear cassocks, but I think that might be one of the least of issues which merit discussion right now.