December, 2014 - Orthodox Christian Laity

Monthly Archives: December, 2014

A sad Christmas for the Christians in the Holy Land

By Webmaster on December 16, 2014 Orthodox News, Orthodox News Top Stories

Source: Aid to the Church in Need Despite visit from the Pope: Christians in the Holy Land are not looking back on a good year By Oliver Maksan Musa is over seventy. Wistfully he looks out over the tranquil valley with its ancient olive trees. It is a place where fruit and a well-known wine are also grown. Over the course of his long life, the Orthodox Christian from Beit Jala near Bethlehem has seen much suffering in the Holy Land, wars, intifadas, flight and expulsion. However, nothing has touched him as deeply as the impending expropriation of his land.…

Is Orthodoxy Ethnically Exclusive?

By Webmaster on December 16, 2014 Orthodox News, Orthodox News Top Stories

Source: Orthodox Christian Network By Fr. Ernesto Obregon in The Sounding Periodically, I am asked the question as to how I could be part of the Orthodox Church. After all, are not the Orthodox somewhat exclusive? You are not Russian; you are not Greek; you are not Middle Eastern; how could you ever be accepted by the Orthodox? I suppose that I cannot blame people for thinking that. Even for those of us who are converts, we have experienced some Orthodox parishioners who think the same thing. Why are you here? So, let me be honest, I have experienced some…

Churches in Japan are witnesses of peace and justice

By Webmaster on December 15, 2014 Orthodox News, Orthodox News Top Stories

Source: ACNS News Service From the World Council Churches “Churches in Japan are true witnesses of Jesus Christ through their words and deeds. Their strength even in a minority situation is impressive. Their voices in critical times are significant for Japan, paving a way towards justice and peace,” said the Revd Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC) during his visit to member churches of the WCC in Japan. Tveit went on to say that the WCC needs its member churches in Japan as a “voice of truth”. He said their engagement and contributions…

Jesus Loves His Church, So You Should Too [An Important Reminder at Christmas]

By Webmaster on December 15, 2014 Orthodox News, Orthodox News Top Stories

Source: Crossway This is an excerpt adapted from The Unfinished Church: God’s Broken and Redeemed Work-in-Progress by Rob Bentz (May 2014). A Troubling Narrative The “I love Jesus, but I hate the church” narrative has become commonplace within the Christian culture today. Library shelves of books and articles have been written about the issue. Facebook posts and tweets touting this antichurch brand of Christianity are rampant. And for the most part, it has become increasingly accepted as a viable option on the smorgasbord of living out your Christian faith. “As long as you love Jesus,” many in our culture say, “You’re good!”…

Why Was Jesus Born In Bethlehem?

By Webmaster on December 13, 2014 Orthodox News, Orthodox News Top Stories

Source: MYSTAGOGY By John Sanidopoulos Five or six miles southwest of Jerusalem lay the tiny town of Bethlehem in the Judean hills. It was here that man’s eyes first saw God in the flesh. Why this place and not another of so many other possibilities? Bethlehem was the perfect place for Christ to have been born. Of course it was the home of Joseph and Mary’s ancestors – the city of David. But it was more. Bethlehem was “the house of bread”. This is what the word Bethlehem means. To have received such a name, Bethlehem must have produced some…

Ukrainian Orthodox Church Canonizes Bartholomew (Bondarenko) the Fool for Christ (+ 1931)

By Webmaster on December 13, 2014 Orthodox News, Orthodox News Top Stories

Source: MYSTAGOGY On Sunday, 7 December 2014, His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufry of Kiev and All Ukraine glorified Bartholomew Bondarenko, a Staretz and Fool-for-Christ’s Sake of the Cherkassy Eparchy of the UOC-MP. His was chosen to be numbered among the saints by the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church on 16 September 2014, due to his popular veneration. Saint Bartholomew was born in 1870 near the Holy Monastery of the Holy Trinity in Chyhyryn. As a youth he spent his life in prayer and in the contemplation of God’s perfection and the imperfection of humanity. People were drawn to the…

Communique of the Metropolitanate of Australia and New Zealand Regarding the Desecration of Graves in Sydney

By Webmaster on December 12, 2014 Orthodox News, Orthodox News Top Stories

Source: Serbian Orthodox Church On the desecration of Russian and Serbian graves at Rookwood Cemetery in Sydney An unknown vandal or vandals during the night between Tuesday (09/12/2014) and Wednesday (10/12/2014) desecrated seventy six (76) graves in the Russian and Serbian Section No. 1 at Sydney’s Rookwood Cemetery. We are amazed and saddened by this act of vandalism witnessed in the desecration of graves. Graves and cemeteries have always been, in all cultures and cultured societies, considered sacred places and, as such, were respected and spared even from enemy armies during times of war. We believe that such vileness belongs…

Orthodox Theologian Sees “Big Step Forward” with Francis Visit to Istanbul

By Webmaster on December 11, 2014 Orthodox News, Orthodox News Top Stories

Source: Alteteia “Now we see it is not in any way true” that the Pope wants to subjugate the Orthodox Churches. by JOHN BURGER A leading Orthodox theologian has said that Pope Francis’s words while visiting Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I in Istanbul “represent a big step forward.” While speaking at the Patriarchal Church of St. George in Istanbul’s Phanar district Nov. 30, Pope Francis said that in the context of the efforts being made to achieve full communion with the Orthodox Churches, the Catholic Church “does not intend to impose any conditions except that of the shared profession of faith.” “Coming…

Russian group abandons ‘evil’ Eye of Sauron installation after Orthodox Church warning

By Webmaster on December 11, 2014 Orthodox News, Orthodox News Top Stories

Source: Toronto Star A church spokesman told Moscow radio a project to place the Lord of the Rings’ flaming eye atop a skyscraper would symbolize the “triumph of evil … rising up over the city.” By: Dan Peleschuk Globalpost MOSCOW— Russian fans of the writer J. R. R. Tolkien were disappointed Wednesday after a local art group abandoned plans to install a flaming eye from his The Lord of the Rings series atop a Moscow skyscraper. The group, Svechenie, said it would not re-create the evil Eye of Sauron, after the Russian Orthodox Church complained the installation would invite mysterious…

Kowtowing to Moscow=Bad Ecumenism

By Webmaster on December 10, 2014 Governance & Unity Essays, Governance & Unity News

Source: Aleteia The Vatican’s ecumenical default positions badly need re-setting. by GEORGE WEIGEL In his tireless work for Christian unity, St. John Paul II often expressed the hope that Christianity in its third millennium might “breathe again” with its “two lungs:” West and East, Latin and Byzantine. It was a noble aspiration. And when he first visited Orthodoxy’s ecumenical patriarchate of Constantinople in 1979, perhaps the successor of Peter imagined that his heartfelt desire to concelebrate the Eucharist with the successor of Andrew would be realized in his lifetime. It wasn’t to be, but not for lack of trying on John…

Archbishop Demetrios Speaks Out and Touches Hearts

By Webmaster on December 9, 2014 Orthodox News, Orthodox News Top Stories

Source: Greek Reporter by Catherine Tsounis “The Power of the Saints and Martyrs have saved Christianity,” said His Eminence, Archbishop Demetrios, Primate of the Greek Orthodox Church of America, in his historic speech before more than five hundred people on Friday evening, December 5, 2014, at the Feast Day Vespers of St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church of Flushing, New York. “During the WWII Occupation of Greece, people believed in the Virgin Mary and the saints. Cyprus is living a drama, with part of the island called the Katehomena (Occupied) and thousands of refugees in their own country. This is chaos. People are living a difficult…

Address by His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to His Holiness Pope Francis during the Divine Liturgy for the Feast of St. Andrew in the Venerable Patriarchal Church (November 30, 2014)

By Webmaster on December 9, 2014 Governance & Unity News, Governance Top Stories, Uncategorized

Source: Ecumenical Patriarchate Your Holiness Pope Francis, beloved brother in Christ, bishop of Senior Rome, We offer glory and praise to our God in Trinity for deeming us worthy of the ineffable joy and special honor of the personal presence here of Your Holiness on the occasion of this year’s celebration of the sacred memory of the First-called Apostle Andrew, who founded our Church through his preaching. We are profoundly grateful to Your Holiness for the precious gift of Your blessed presence among us, together with Your honorable entourage. We embrace you wholeheartedly and honorably, addressing you fervently with a…

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Monthly Archives: December, 2014