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Makarios, left, and Bragg. Image via Facebook

Odd bedfellows: an Orthodox Greek prelate & a gay rights champion

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By on Governance & Unity Essays, Governance & Unity News

Source: Patheos – The Free Thinker BY BARRY DUKE BACK in 2017, ahead of Australia’s plebiscite to legalise gay marriage, the Greek Orthodox Church spent a great deal of time and money opposing same-sex unions. Then, at the beginning of this year, church members had a WTF? moment when the man who successfully pushed hard for marriage equality – Liberal Party Senator Andrew Bragg – was awarded the highest honour the Greek Orthodox Church in Australia can bestow. Bragg became the the first non-Greek and non-Orthodox person to receive the Order of Christ-Loving and was proclaimed a Grand Commander by the church’s newly-appointed head, His Eminence…

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ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY, SYSTEMIC RACISM, AND THE WRONG SIDE OF HISTORY

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By on Governance & Unity Essays, Governance & Unity News

Source: Public Orthodoxy by George Demacopoulos and Aristotle Papanikolaou When Archbishop Iakovos stood alongside Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma in 1965, he was maligned by many Greek Americans who took offense that their Archbishop would “fraternize with Civil Rights agitators.” Fifty-five years later, opinion has shifted dramatically. Iakovos’ march alongside MLK is widely regarded as one of the iconic moments of Orthodox Christianity in the United States, if not globally. Today, we either ignore or apologize for that generation of Orthodox who did not understand the moral necessity of the Civil Rights movement. We now find ourselves at a similar moment. Will our…

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DO THE SACRAMENTS PREVENT ILLNESS?

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By on Governance & Unity Essays, Governance & Unity News

Source: Public Orthodoxy A SURVEY OF LITURGICAL SOURCES by Rev. Dr. Nicholas Denysenko The global COVID-19 crisis has ignited a number of difficult discussions among Christians. The method used to distribute Holy Communion is fiercely debated. In the Churches that remain open, many Protestants and Catholics are withholding the cup, so faithful are receiving in one kind only, the body of Christ. In Orthodox communities, clergy and laity are discussing the possibility of trying new methods for distributing Holy Communion that prevents the spread of disease through a common spoon. This issue has generated emotional statements claiming that it is impossible…

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A Note on the Common Communion Spoon

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By on Governance & Unity Essays, Governance & Unity News

Source: Orthodoxia.info REVEREND DR. ALKIVIADIS C. CALIVAS Liturgical spoons existed from at least the sixth-seventh century.[1] But it does not mean that they were used for Communion. In fact, canon 101 of the Penthekte Synod (691-692) prohibits the use of any receptacle for the reception of the consecrated Bread other than the human hand.[2] The canon reads: “So that if anyone should wish to partake of the pure Body during the time of the synaxis…let him form his hands into the shape of a cross, and thus approaching, let him receive the communion of grace. For we nowise welcome those men who…

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Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and Pope Francis smile during a meeting at Jose Marti International Airport in Havana in this Feb. 12, 2016, file photo. (CNS/Paul Haring)

A Proposal for Catholic-Orthodox Eucharistic Sharing During the Pandemic

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By on Governance & Unity Essays, Governance & Unity News

Source: National Catholic Reporter by John D. Faris In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Pope Francis March 27 characterized the worldwide trauma as: “God’s call on people to judge what is most important to them and resolve to act accordingly from now on.” Can this occasion also be a time of deeper communion among us? Catholics, Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox hierarchs, pastors and faithful agree that the Eucharist, the body and blood of the Son of God, is the most precious gift of God to the church.  It is of paramount importance to us! Nevertheless, while sharing the same belief in the…

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Orthodox Spiritual Renewal – A Slide Presentation

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By on Governance & Unity Essays, Governance & Unity News

Source: Orthodox Christian Laity by V. Rev. Timothy Cremeens, PhD CLICK HERE or on the image above to view a PDF slide presentation. Please use this presentation individually and in your parish community as an introduction to spiritual renewal and to better understand that the unity of the Church starts with our own spiritual renewal. Feel free to contact Fr Timothy about this presentation. Other Resources Pathway to Orthodox Renewal by Fr Eusebius Stephanou of blessed memory.

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Fr Frank Marangos

THE CREATIVE COCOON OF COVID-19: A RUBRIC FOR HIGHER THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION

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By on Governance & Unity Essays, Governance & Unity News, Uncategorized

Source: Oinos Educational Consulting By Frank Marangos, D.Min., Ed.D., FCEP “One of the clearest and most concrete facts of history is that men of spiritual resources may not only redeem catastrophe but turn it into a grand creative moment.” ~ Herbert Butterfield Crisis is the cocoon of creativity. Indeed, the current Covid-19 crisis has stimulated abundant examples of creative innovation in public health, economic, education, and faith-based institutions.  Resourceful ingenuity has additionally appeared in many family homes and neighborhoods. While the pandemic has undeniably inspired many levels of creativity it has, nonetheless, also generated societal fears, inertia, and depression. Why the disparity?…

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Exclusive: Juxtaposing the Coronavirus Response: Patriarchates of Constantinople and Moscow

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By on Governance & Unity Essays, Governance & Unity News

Source: The Orthodox World By Elias Damianakis, Hagiographos, Archon Maestor “God’s grace is as evident in the healing power of medicine and its practitioners as it is in miraculous cures.” -St. Basil of Caesarea Hindsight is 20/20 and 2020 in hindsight, is the tale of two Patriarchates. Seemingly simple, the requested initial reflection was basic: what are the realities between the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic in Constantinople and Moscow? So, I developed a timeline, a list of quotes of church leadership and news articles. The results are dramatic, shocking, and sad. Considering the human crisis over the past few months,…

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Rodoljub Kubat, a full professor at the Old Testament Chair (Department) of the Theological Faculty of the University of Belgrade

SILENCING THEOLOGIANS IN SERBIA

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By on Governance & Unity Essays, Governance & Unity News

Source: Public Orthodoxy After a critical statement about the situation with the coronavirus, Vukašin Milićević, lecturer at the Theological Faculty in Belgrade, was banned from speaking publicly by the Holy Synod of the Serbian Orthodox Church. In this interview, his colleague Rodoljub Kubat sheds light on the background and tensions around the Faculty. This interview was previously published in German in the newsletter “Nachrichtendienst Östliche Kirchen.” 1) The Serbian Holy Synod forbade the lecturer Vukašin Milićević to address the public. How has it come to that? Let me remind you that the ban about addressing the public came from the Patriarch…

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