Browsing: Governance & Unity Commentary

Source: Orthodox Christianity We have all seen by now the disruptive reports describing in detail just how deadly and serious the coronavirus is. While that is true, the way that many within the Church are responding and, in particular, the guidance that we have received from many bishops, is disconcerting. We are directed now by hierarchs in several jurisdictions that the laity are to remain at home viewing the services via live-streaming, while the clergy are to serve a full cycle of services in near-empty churches, accompanied by a skeleton staff of altar servers and readers or singers. What is…

Source: St. Phoebe Center Webinar: “The Female Diaconate in a Time of Pandemic” Sunday, May 3 7 – 8 pm Eastern Daylight Time REGISTER HERE On Sunday, May 3, the Church reads from Acts 6:1-7 in which the apostles appoint others to help with ministry in the early Christian Church. This has traditionally marked the beginning of the office of the deacon. On this day, the Church also reads an account of the Myrrh-Bearing Women who, when they go to anoint Christ’s body, are told of His Resurrection and instructed to tell the disciples, beginning the Christian witness to the…

Source: Orthodox Christian Laity Christ is risen! As Bishop Maxim, shepherd of the Western Serbian Diocese, says in his Paschal Message (please find 12 minutes to listen to it), Spring and liturgical Easter are unapproachable this year because of the coronavirus.  But, can we “say that the world doesn’t experience spring? … No!  Can we say Christians do not experience Pascha?  Not at all.  Our faith is that the Holy Spirit constitutes the Church also in the time of coronavirus.” Those of us who could and had the equipment, knowledge and ability, experienced the Pascha Services via live streaming or…

Source: Telos Project Dear Orthodox Young Adults, My name is Billy Tabrizi (CrossRoad ’08) and along with Kosta Nicolozakes (Telos Project, St George Chicago), we are reaching out today in the hopes of rallying some young adults together to help our parishes and communities during COVID-19. It seems like so many of us are already helping our parishes in this new online world, and we think we can come together to make an even bigger difference. Many parishes are worried: parishioners need help, parishes aren’t sure how they are going to pay their bills, and ministries need to be reimagined…

Source: Oinos Educational Consulting By Frank Marangos, D.Min., Ed.D., FCEP “Hear, my son, your father’s instruction, and forsake not your mother’s teaching, for they are a graceful garland for your head and pendants for your neck.” ~ Proverbs 1:8-9 The custom of salutation varies throughout the globe. While New Zealanders greet one another by touching noses, Tibetans stick out their tongues. Ethiopians touch shoulders, Asians bow, and Europeans embrace and kiss the cheek. The most common gesture of welcome around the world, however, is the handshake. As a symbol of peace, verifying that neither party is carrying a weapon, the handshake, referred…

Source: CBS News St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and the iconography it housed were destroyed in the attack on the World Trade Center. After almost two decades, the church is rising again with new iconography from a monastery on Mt. Athos. Correspondent: Scott Pelley This year, Easter dawned in a dark hour. We cannot see the end of the pandemic, but Easter and spring remind us of victory. Our next story is a tale of triumph over adversity. It begins with America’s first crisis of the 21st century. In all that was lost on 9/11, nearly forgotten was the only house of…

Source: Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church Bulletin, Kankakee, IN Dear Parishioners of Annunciation Kankakee and Friends Everywhere: Let us be there with Christ, Tonight, Tomorrow, This Week, and Always! This is the day that the Lord has made! Let us rejoice in it and be glad! Tonight is the eve of Holy Week for hundreds of millions of Orthodox and other Eastern Christians, and the eve of Easter for even more numerous Western Christians. As ever, all Christians are united in the unity of our essential belief, and the small things that identify us as different, best serve to give us new…

Source: The New Yorker By Paul Elie In the time of the coronavirus, the symbolic motifs of religion have turned literal. Lent, the forty-day season of preparation for Easter, is usually a time of symbolic deprivation: giving up meat on Fridays, giving up chocolate, giving up unkindness, giving up carbon. This year—Lent began on February 26th—the coronavirus has demanded quite literal deprivation: no going out, no eating out, no shopping, no seeing friends. For too many people, it has brought the pain of job loss, illness, and death. Ambulance sirens ring out constantly in the otherwise empty streets of New York…

Source: Oinos Educational Consulting CORONA-QUEST: A QUESTION FOR THE 21st CENTURY CASTAWAY By Frank Marangos, D.Min., Ed.D., FCEP “In the 21st century, knowing all the answers won’t distinguish someone’s intelligence, rather the ability to ask all the right questions will be the mark of true genius.” ~ John E. Kelly, IBM Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be marooned on a remote tropical island? While the image of palm trees gently swaying in a warm ocean breeze might appear romantically quixotic, the globe’s current experience of social distancing has shown that such a respite would swiftly become monotonous,…

Source: Public Orthodoxy by Rev. Dr. Nicolas Kazarian In the midst of an unprecedented crisis, it is often hard or even impossible to think about what comes next, after the crisis ends. What will our life after lockdown look like? What will happen to our personal dynamics after social distancing? And what about our spiritual life after not going to Church for what feels like an eternity? All these questions, and many more, are legitimate. Every crisis gives rise to a judgment. In a way, that is the role that crises play in history, sorting out the chaff from the wheat…

Source: Public Orthodoxy A (TELEPHONE) CONVERSATION WITH METROPOLITAN OF PERGAMON JOHN ZIZIOULAS (MARCH 23, 2020) We wish to hear your views on the current situation, since your theology plays a great role in the present circumstances. Metropolitan John: My theology, unfortunately, cannot be applied. In Greece, they have already closed the churches, and the Divine Liturgy is not being served. Is it served in Serbia? Taking into consideration the decision of the government that the number of people in one place be limited, as well as the issue of getting around and social distancing, the Patriarch Irinej’s newest decision is…

Source: Oinos Educational Consulting By Frank Marangos, D.Min., Ed.D., FCEP “People have forgotten what life is all about . . . what it is to be alive. They need to be reminded of what they have and what they can lose!”   —  Leonard Lowe Leonard Lowe is a fact-based character in the 1990 Academy Award-winning film “Awakenings,” starring Robin Williams and Robert De Niro. Based on the neurologist Oliver Sacks’ 1973 memoir of the same title, the movie focuses on a 50-year old catatonic patient who, as a young boy, contracted the “sleeping sickness,” Encephalitis Lethargica. Estimated to have infected more…