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Monday - May 11, 2009Thursday - March 12, 2009It is Not GoodIn order, then, to draw the average Christian, a church must market itself. It must present Christianity as a commodity where their particular brand is more attractive than another. Music that is hard to tell apart from modern punk/rock/whatever, slick multimedia, promises of health and wealth, even the charismatic promise of an individual spiritual experience, all are necessary to draw people in. Doctrine must necessarily fall by the wayside as it tends to challenge folks and demand that they change. Sometimes that is appealing to folks, but this is a culture where pre-packaged peanut butter sandwiches can actually sell. The work free option is always preferred. Saturday - February 28, 2009Friday - February 27, 2009Acquire the Spirit of Peace and a Thousand Souls Around You Shall Be Saved
Friday - February 27, 2009Encyclical of Archbishop Demetrios on the Beginning of Great and Holy Lent
Monday - February 23, 2009Thursday - December 25, 2008What is the Purpose of the Incarnation?In a discussion of Christmas Hymns, a noted LCMS pastor and radio personality likes best those hymns which focus on the cross, as the only reason for Christ's incarnation is for him to die. The theology of the Ancient Church, however, does not find itself limited in such a fashion. Sunday - December 07, 2008Monday - November 24, 2008Thanksgiving Encyclical from our MetropolitanIn keeping with my habit of posting Encyclicals from our Heirarchs, here is one from his Eminence, Gerasimos, Metropolitan of San Francisco. Friday - November 21, 2008Wednesday - August 27, 2008Let's Go to the RudderCanons of the Holy Orthodox Church regarding abortion Thursday - April 17, 2008Encyclical from out MetropolitanTruly, my beloved in the faith, the Sabbath has passed with the setting of the sun. It is very early in the darkness of the morning. But in that moment of darkness your candles give light. Night thus passes and in a little while comes the dawn of the New Day. It is a day that is like no other. It is a day which finds us not only a candle bearers, but as light givers. Thursday - April 17, 2008OuchThe hymns of Holy Week are wonderfully rich, and awfully challenging at times. Thursday - April 17, 2008Paschal Proclamation of the Ecumenical PatriarchBehold then, dearly beloved brethren and children, the crown of our Great Feast and the atmosphere of springtime; in the midst of its first bloom the Church announces the Good News to the Universe. The heavy winter of death has passed away! The icy tyranny of the devil and his domination have been overcome. The frightful reign of darkness and perdition has been undone. “The Lord is King, He has girded Himself with majesty! Wednesday - April 16, 2008Encyclical of Archbishop Demetrios for Holy PaschaAs Orthodox Christians, we celebrate the Feast of Pascha each year with the belief and the knowledge that the Resurrection of Jesus Christ remains the most important event that has ever taken place in human history. Appropriately, our Orthodox Church refers to this event as the “Feast of Feasts.” Friday - March 07, 2008Wednesday - March 05, 2008Encyclical from our MetropolitanAn encyclical on Great Lent from Metropolitan Gerasimos Thursday - February 28, 2008The Church as OrganismBut the members of an organism share
one and the same life and are ordered to one and the same end. The members of
an organization share a similar life and or ordered to similar
ends."
Wednesday - February 27, 2008Branch Theory and IntellectualismOn a message board I occasionally post
on, a member of some offshoot of the World Wide Church of God was proposing that
his group is one of the four main "branches" of Christianity - which are
Catholicism, Orthodoxy, Protestantism and Sabbatarians (his word, not mine -
refers to 7th Day Adventists and the
like.)
This was on a Roman Catholic message board, where many attempt to argue him toward Catholicism. ...Keeping in mind that I am not a Bishop (who has primary responsibility for rightly teaching the word of truth), nor a Priest, nor even a Reader (although I am somewhat in training for that). From an Orthodox perspective, membership in the Church is being a patient at the hospital for our soul. Membership in this hospital necessarily requires assent to its doctrines, although it doesn't require that I necessarily understand all of them. Even those that I may intellectually understand, I may not understand with my nous - that aspect of human nature that allows us to comprehend, to some degree, God.... God is a Trinity, and thus the notion of individual salvation, even the notion of an individual, is foreign to the understanding of the Church. ...We are to pray (more than I do), fast (or try more than I do), and love God and our neighbor (that which I do least well). ...Merely holding to a list of doctrines does not make you a member of the Church. The Church has specific mechanisms for grafting you to the body - and that has always been the case.... We are transformed by the renewing, not of our mind, as Romans is often mistranslated (mostly due to the lack of an appropriate English word), but by the transformation of our nous. ...The problem with the notion of the invisible Church is that it reduces, in the case of most other "entities," the definition to holding just the right doctrines, thereby either excluding those with less intellectual prowess, or basically saying that almost everyone but the staunches atheist, is a member. In the case of Anglicans, they'll add Apostolic succession to the list, as if it is the magical glue that makes it all hold together. ...There is an identifiable organization that has the right to declare who is and is not a member. I can claim to be a member of Mensa all I want, but that does not make it so. The key here, as noted above, is the we are not saved as individuals, nor are our parish communities saved in isolation. ...Part of the reason I attempt to spend less time on message boards, and in particular debating, is that proving that you are wrong on a specific point is likely not to accomplish much, and may, in fact, be detrimental. If I prove, say, that the souls of the righteous departed are in heaven awaiting the second coming, has that made you more saved?... Perhaps to the degree that you are nudged closer to joining the Church, its good. Monday - February 25, 2008AsceticA boy once approached his father,
‘Old man, why do you
fast?’
‘Beloved boy, I fast to know what it is I lack. ...no longings, and so my desires are never fulfilled. But it is empty, and so I weep. ...and by it I curse the earth. ...and have never known joy. ...Read the whole thing at Monachos.net. |