[Accor$314]

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/...ber/30.40.html

[Trikaduliana]

Hiya

I think it is starting off by continuing to be the Pentecostal century. Certainly outside of Europe. If we consider Asia, Africa and South America, they have and are experiencing massive Christian growth through the medium of Pentecostalism.

I am hesitant to imagine that the whole world will be swept by Orthodoxy when I look around at the Orthodox material God has to use! We seem to find it very hard to do mission even our doorstep.

But God can do all things. I do think that if we are to talk about the 21st century being the Orthodox Century then we need to change the sort of people we are, or else we are just engaging in an empty triumphalism.

Peter

[Stengapsept]

Dear Antonios,

Many thanks for this link.

Rick Henry has posted a copy of this in the 'American Orthodoxy' thread, and it is, indeed, a most thoughtful and interesting contribution to that discussion.

Professor Nassif sets out the challenge facing us very persuasively; let us see how we meet it.

Christ is born, glorify Him!


John

[bUqLfXRI]

Somehow I felt the following could only fit on this particular thread.

Friday, January 19, 2007 · Last updated 10:07 a.m. PT

Zeus worshippers demand access to temple

DEREK GATOPOULOS
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

ATHENS, Greece -- After all these centuries, Zeus may have a few thunderbolts left. A tiny group of worshippers plans a rare ceremony Sunday to honor the ancient Greek gods, at Athens' 1,800-year-old Temple of Olympian Zeus. Greece's Culture Ministry has declared the central Athens site off-limits, but worshippers say they will defy the decision.

"These are our temples and they should be used by followers of our religion," said Doreta Peppa, head of the Athens-based Ellinais, a group campaigning to revive the ancient religion.

"Of course we will go ahead with the event ... we will enter the site legally," said Peppa, who calls herself a high priestess of the revived faith. "We will issue a call for peace, who can be opposed to that?"

Peppa said the ceremony will be held in honor of Zeus, king of the ancient gods, but did not give other details. The daily Ethnos newspaper, citing the group's application to the Culture Ministry to use the site, said the 90-minute event would include hymns, dancers, torchbearers, and worshippers in ancient costumes.

Greece's archaic religion is believed to have several hundred official followers, mainly middle-aged and elderly academics, lawyers and other professionals. They typically share a keen interest in ancient history and a dislike for the Greek Orthodox Church.

Ancient rituals are re-enacted every two years at Olympia, in southern Greece, where the flame lighting ceremony is held for the summer and winter Olympic games. But the event is not regarded as a religious ceremony and actresses are used to pose as high priestesses.

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Last year, the Culture Ministry, fearing damage to monuments, blocked an initiative to hold an international track meet at Olympia. A panel of ministry experts ruled against Sunday's ancient ceremony at the ruins of the Temple of Zeus on similar grounds.

"Ancient sites are not available for this kind of event," ministry official Eliza Kyrtsoglou said. It was not clear whether the government had plans to block the worshippers.

Peppa's group, dedicated to reviving worship of the 12 ancient gods, was founded last year and won a court battle for official state recognition of the ancient Greek religion.

Those who seek to revive the ancient Greek religion are split into rival organizations which trade insults over the Internet. Peppa's group is at odds with ultra-nationalists who view a revival as a way to protect Greek identity from foreign influences.

They can't even agree on a name for the religion: One camp calls it Ancient-Religion, another Hellenic Religion.

The worshippers also face another obstacle: Greece's powerful Orthodox Church.

About 97 percent of native born Greeks are baptized Orthodox Christian, and the church regards ancient religious practices as pagan. Representatives of the church in the past have not attended flame ceremonies at Olympia because reference is made to Apollo, the ancient god of music and light.

Christianity took hold in Greece in the 4th century after Roman Emperor Constantine's conversion. Emperor Theodosius wiped out the last vestige of the Olympian gods when he abolished the Olympic Games in 394 A.D. The modern revival of the Olympiad maintains a slender link to ancient ceremonies.

"Christianity did not prevail without bloodshed," said Peppa, a novelist and historical writer. "After 16 centuries of negativity toward us, we've gotten something in our favor."

Ellinais is demanding government approval for its downtown offices to be registered as a place of worship - a move that could allow the group to perform weddings and other ceremonies. They threaten further court action unless that permission is granted.

"There should be respect for people who want to express their religious feelings in a different way, that is not the typical Orthodox or Christian way," Peppa said. "We should not be stopped or denied our rights."

[Stengapsept]

Dear Fr. Raphael,

Now that I have stopped laughing (and I needed a lift this morning, so thank you), I have to say that we have the same sort of thing in the UK with self-styled orders of Druids turning up at Stonehenge at the solstices and claiming the 'right' to carry out their 'religion' there as their ancestors did; that no one knows what their 'ancestors' did, and that no one has done it for ages is, it seems, no bar to their enthusiasm.

It ought to be added that these Druids are different from the Welsh Druids who turn up at the National Eistedfodd for a celebration of Welsh culture - and of which order the Archbishop of Canterbury is an honorary member (or did I just make that last one up?)...

I occasionally wonder whether there is an unconcerted effort to read through all the patristic literature on heresies and revive each of them in turn?

At the last UK census enough people entered the word 'Jedi' into the box for 'religion' to make it an officially recognised one! May the force be with them.

In Christ,

John

[bUqLfXRI]

Dear Fr. Raphael,

Now that I have stopped laughing (and I needed a lift this morning, so thank you), I have to say that we have the same sort of thing in the UK with self-styled orders of Druids turning up at Stonehenge at the solstices and claiming the 'right' to carry out their 'religion' there as their ancestors did; that no one knows what their 'ancestors' did, and that no one has done it for ages is, it seems, no bar to their enthusiasm.

It ought to be added that these Druids are different from the Welsh Druids who turn up at the National Eistedfodd for a celebration of Welsh culture - and of which order the Archbishop of Canterbury is an honorary member (or did I just make that last one up?)...

I occasionally wonder whether there is an unconcerted effort to read through all the patristic literature on heresies and revive each of them in turn?

At the last UK census enough people entered the word 'Jedi' into the box for 'religion' to make it an officially recognised one! May the force be with them.

In Christ,

John

Yes, I also got a bit of a chuckle about:

"These are our temples and they should be used by followers of our religion," said Doreta Peppa, head of the Athens-based Ellinais, a group campaigning to revive the ancient religion. Somehow combining such a modern way of thinking about religion (the proprietary word "our" occurs twice in one sentence) with the attempt at reverting to something more ancient and 'pure' makes this prime material for a comedy sketch similar to the satirical programs popular in Canada. (This whole thing could be a great skit on Royal Canadian Air Farce).

Then I also loved:


Those who seek to revive the ancient Greek religion are split into rival organizations which trade insults over the Internet. Peppa's group is at odds with ultra-nationalists who view a revival as a way to protect Greek identity from foreign influences.

They can't even agree on a name for the religion: One camp calls it Ancient-Religion, another Hellenic Religion. Hey, they're trying to steal our thunder! (sorry Zeus). Must have all been raised in Orthodoxy.

In Christ- Fr Raphael

[redDoodia]

... At the last UK census enough people entered the word 'Jedi' into the box for 'religion' to make it an officially recognised one! May the force be with them.

For more info see the Office for National Statistics website.

There were 390,000 people who put Jedi as their religion (0.7% of England and Wales) but this does not make it an official religion - well, not yet anyway.

With love in Christ

Alex

[immoceefe]

What one hopes and prays for is a spiritual revival, not just a surge in religious enthusiasm. That will only come when the elites of the world become humble and recognize that they are not here to remake the world in their own image. The "common man" will always be religious in some sense. But it is the elites who always govern a society and culture through their intellectual, artistic influence. And we await some sign of repentence there. If it comes, where will they turn for direction? Hardly the pentacostals I should think. But something with meat on the bones. That is why it is so important to keep the traditions alive, not as a museum piece, and to constantly live out our theology, and to produce both saints and theologians. Not in the academic sense, but people who have the charism of theologizing.

[appabessy]

May it be the time for orthodoxy to return to its genuine meaning, before remaining as just ancient wonderful picture, no more.
In One Christ, Theopesta