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11-11-2005, 08:00 AM
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#3 |
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Friends,
It is best to keep this forum focused on the matters of patristic, monastic and liturgical discussion as much as we can. There are many venues for other matters. INXC, Matthew |
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11-18-2005, 08:00 AM
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#4 |
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> I agree with all that you said EXCEPT the part about the Turkish barbaric past....What past? What was still is...There is not a past that is different to what remains to this day with those people. They were and still are barbarians with no respect for the lives of others; much less their human rights. The hacking to death of the two who in an act of protest attempted to take down a Turkish flag in Cyprus is fresh in my mind.. This bludgeoning to death was performed by a group of locals form a Turkish community; and they used pick and ax handles ..After all that was only 2 years ago. Vasilis Kirikos
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12-09-2005, 11:29 AM
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#5 |
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12-10-2005, 08:00 AM
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#6 |
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Archeologists Discover Medieval Monastery In Kyrgyzstan
8 August 2005 -- Archaeologists in Kyrgyzstan say they have discovered the remains of a medieval Christian monastery on the northern bank of Lake Issyk-Kul. Aleksandr Kamyshev, who is heading the team from the Kyrgyz-Russian Slavic University, told ITAR-TASS that archeologists have long suspected the existence of a monastery built by Armenian Christians on the shore of Issyk-Kul. Maps from the time charting the Silk Road suggest the remains of the Apostle Matthew are buried near the monastery walls. Kamyshev said the monastery was built around the 14th century and is designed in a style similar to medieval Armenian Christian monasteries. |
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12-29-2005, 08:00 AM
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#7 |
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Renovators in Egypt say they find oldest monk cell
08 Aug 2005 13:56:02 GMT Source: Reuters CAIRO, Aug 8 (Reuters) - Renovators working in an ancient Egyptian monastery have unearthed the oldest example of a building housing Christian monks, a member of the restoration project near the country's Red Sea coast told Reuters on Monday. The cell, a building that served as the living quarters for monks, dates from between the fourth and fifth centuries and will help shed light on the early days of monastic life, said Father Maximous, a monk working at the site. "It is the oldest physical evidence of a cell from that age ... It's the oldest in the Christian world," said Maximous, who works on restoring Coptic monuments. The renovators had been repairing paintings inside a fifteenth century church on the site of St. Anthony's Monastery, founded in the mid-fourth century by disciples of one of Christianity's most influential hermits. St. Anthony, who lived between the third and fourth centuries, is credited with developing regulated monastic life. Before him, individual hermits lived solitary lives dedicated to prayer and contemplation. The renovators also found an eighth century church on the same site. Historical texts make mention of the early monks living at the site but no archeological evidence had previously been found from before the sixth century, Maximous said. The cell is a collection of rooms with private living areas and a central communal room, where the team found cooking implements, he said. St. Anthony's Monastery, 155 km (100 miles) south west of Cairo, is one of the Christian world's oldest monasteries. |
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12-30-2005, 08:00 AM
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#8 |
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The summer camp operation needs to be authorized from the government and to be certified on issues like health and safety.
But the Turkish state is always taking its time (decades) when must serve Greek institution in order to drive them out of business. (the ethnic Turks are served in a normal procedure, but for an ethnic Greek (or Kurd,or Armenian) the same procedure takes several decades to be completed, if they ever complete at all.) These are normal tactics of genocide that the Turkish state is following against Greeks and Kourds and Armenians since 1900 ! Now days they can not kill Greeks in massive executions, like they did in the past, but they can make one's civil life intolerable and eventually drive them out of the country. |
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01-13-2006, 08:00 AM
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#10 |
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Kosmos,
In Christ Jesus! Why so numbers seem so important? It doesn't matter! This seems to me to be only comparisons of some sort. It is the Faith in the heart of the believer that is essential, isn't it? by the way that "Original source" is an Episcopalian bloggers' site, not an official statistic. mega church growth? God be praised and glorified! Now it is the "Living of the Faith" that is, -- the so to say, -- "proof of the pudding" marie_duquette |
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01-17-2006, 08:00 AM
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#11 |
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Support for Bulgarian Christians
On the first anniversary of the police crackdown on Christians in Bulgaria, the Evangelical Alliance in the UK is calling on the Bulgarian government to end its repression of the Church. On 21 June 2004 the Bulgarian police invaded 170 churches and monasteries and violently removed their priests. The action was in response to their failure to recognise Patriarch Maxim, whom they claim was installed by the Bulgarian Communist Party. Speaking ahead of this week's rally to commemorate the crackdown in Sofia, Dr Don Horrocks, head of public affairs at the Evangelical Alliance UK, said: "The situation in Bulgaria is appalling. The authorities have no legal grounds to formally recognise Maxim as a patriarch but they do so for their own ends. Repression of any kind must be firmly rejected; it has already led to the loss of life. The actions of the Bulgarian Government highlight the need for the European courts to step in and deal with this situation as soon as possible." Campaigners have turned to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Currently, those priests banned from their churches have been carrying out official and spiritual duties to their congregations outdoors, often in harsh conditions. Julia Doxat-Purser, from the European Evangelical Alliance, said: "It is tragic to see the Orthodox Church paralysed in this way. It is unbelievable that the Bulgarian government allowed itself to get involved by sending in the police to violently break up worship services and evict the priests. We call on the European Union to challenge the Bulgarian authorities." Orthodox believers and clergy will be gathering in the centre of Sofia on 21 July to remember the violent actions of a year ago. THEGOODNEWS Tuesday 19 July 2005 |
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01-21-2006, 03:17 AM
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#12 |
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02-08-2006, 08:00 AM
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#13 |
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That was great Vasili.
I might send this to some of my friends. ~ Kosmas |
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02-08-2006, 08:00 AM
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#14 |
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An Orthodox choice
BY ROBIN GALIANO RUSSELL The Dallas Morning News DALLAS - (KRT) - The Eastern Orthodox Church, as far removed from a nondenominational or evangelical congregation as you can get, is nevertheless attracting a growing number of converts who are drawn by the tug of an ancient faith. Converts are trading in their PowerPoint sermons and praise bands for the ancient rhythms of a liturgy that hasn't changed in thousands of years - a pendulum swing from the casual, seeker-friendly services that have dominated contemporary evangelicalism. Their numbers are still small compared to megachurch growth patterns, with 1.2 million Eastern Orthodox Christians in America. But adherents say there's been a surge in people drawn to the faith. The Antiochian Orthodox Church, the most evangelistic of the American Orthodox churches, has tracked conversions for several decades. The number of its churches in the U.S. has doubled in 20 years to more than 250 parishes and missions. About 80 percent of its converts come from evangelical and charismatic backgrounds, 20 percent from mainline denominations. Many go on to become Orthodox priests. About 78 percent of clergy in the Antiochian Church are converts, up from 10 to 15 percent 25 years ago. Nearly half of the students in America's two largest Orthodox seminaries are converts. Those who convert say they are drawn to an aesthetic beauty and spiritual mystery in Orthodox worship that are often lacking in their own Protestant services. It's like entering a time machine that allows congregants to worship as the early Christians did. Not that it doesn't take some getting used to. Orthodox services are based on the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, which can last two hours or more. Congregants stand much of the time, while priests in vestments offer incense and chant the Psalms. `STARTLINGLY DIFFERENT' Frederica Mathewes-Green, a former Episcopalian and author of "Facing East: A Pilgrim's Journey into the Mysteries of Orthodoxy," said the experience of Orthodoxy was "startlingly different" from anything she'd known in Western churches. But it clicked when she saw it was directed toward God rather than her own emotional needs. "It called us to fall on our faces before God in worship and to be filled with awe at his glory. I could never go back. I now find Western worship tedious and sentimental. To me, the contrast is jolting." Mathewes-Green also prefers the Orthodox view of the Christian life as a healing process and a journey, rather than a one-time "sinner's prayer." She and her husband converted from a liberal Episcopal Church in 1993 and helped found an Orthodox church made up mostly of American converts. "It's not about getting the sin-debt paid, the ticket punched and now you wait around to die and go to heaven. Orthodoxy is a transforming journey where every day the Christian is being enabled to bear more of God's light. That's exciting," she said. Stan Shinn, who was raised in the Assemblies of God denomination and attended Oral Roberts University, recalls feeling nearly overwhelmed when he stepped inside Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in North Dallas for the first time. What looked good on paper - definitive answers to his search for early Christian worship and doctrine - had taken him to a "very bizarre and strange" church with icon-filled walls, heavy incense and Byzantine chanting. "I felt like there was a gauntlet thrown down in front of me," he said. He and his wife, Janine, and their three children converted in 2002 from their nondenominational church to the Eastern Orthodox Church. Like the Shinns, those who convert are joining 350 million Orthodox Christians around the world. FIRST-CENTURY CHURCH "Orthodox" means "right belief." The Orthodox Church traces its origins back to Jesus' apostles and first-century practice. The Roman Catholic Church makes that same claim, but the two branches of ancient Christianity differ in ecclesiastical hierarchy and a few doctrinal points. Roman Catholics believe the pope has ultimate authority, while Orthodox Christians say their council of bishops is more in line with Scripture and church tradition. (The early church had five centers of Christianity - in Antioch, Alexandria, Jerusalem, Rome and Constantinople, which is now Istanbul.) Orthodox Christians also disagree with the Catholic doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, which states that Jesus' mother was born without sin herself. The two branches of ancient Christianity split in 1054. Today, the Orthodox community is led by patriarchs and a hierarchy of bishops who must be celibate. Unlike Catholic clergy, Orthodox priests can marry before ordination. Archbishop Dmitri, 81, leads the Archdiocese of Dallas and the South for the Orthodox Church in America. He grew up as Robert Royster in a Southern Baptist family in Teague, Texas, but converted to Orthodoxy as a teen because he wanted more out of faith. "Everything was true, but it was not complete. It wasn't that I needed to repudiate it. I just went on to find the rest of it," he said. The Orthodox consider themselves to have a bond with other Christians but believe they have a more accurate understanding of the faith. At a recent daylong festival in Dallas about Orthodox Christianity, Archbishop Dimitri encouraged people in other denominations to cling to the elements of the historic faith that their churches uphold, but added an invitation: "If you find there are holes at the bottom and you have to abandon ship, then head for one that's still afloat," he said. IN SEARCH OF HISTORY Conversion to Orthodoxy often begins with an intellectual quest, Stan Shinn said. He began searching when he saw modern churches abandoning historic Christian tenets, such as the Nicene Creed, and stripping their sanctuaries of any religious symbolism to be more seeker-friendly. "The elements of Christianity were disappearing before me like the Cheshire Cat in "Alice in Wonderland." What kind of Christianity would my grandchildren inherit, and would the Gospel even be recognizable?" he said. Studying church history and tradition raised even more questions: Why was the Apocrypha a part of Scripture until the Reformation? Did the early church really have bishops instead of the congregational rule that governs most Protestant churches? Why did they have such a high view of Communion and baptize infants? And the ancient liturgies, chants, incense and sacraments used in Orthodox services, he discovered, were not taken from medieval Catholicism - as his Protestant upbringing taught him - but from early church worship. "It all caused me to re-evaluate my core assumptions. Instead of me judging history, I decided I wanted history to judge me and tell me what should I practice," Stan Shinn said. The unchanging nature of the Orthodox Church is a strong draw for "serious Christians" who are tired of Protestant individualism yet disagree with the Catholic Church's teachings, said the Rev. Peter Gillquist, chairman of missions and evangelism for the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America. "It's charismatics and evangelicals, those diamonds in the rough who are looking to find Christ's church. There's a lot of people who love the Lord and his word, but they're still looking for his church." Father Gillquist was a "card-carrying evangelical" himself before his conversion to Orthodoxy. He attended Dallas Theological Seminary and Wheaton College, and was a director for Campus Crusade for Christ, a nondenominational evangelistic campus organization. Now he uses evangelistic strategies to promote Christianity and the Orthodox Church. Most who come into the church now are people from other denominations who are confused by the hundreds of Protestant denominations and disturbed by increasing theological liberalism, he said. ETHNIC FLAVOR But some who are ready to convert still think the church might be too exotic for them, said the Rev. Anthony Savas, pastor of Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in Dallas. "They're afraid it's too ethnic. They wonder, `What will my friends think?'" he said. It's true that the Orthodox Church in America took on the ethnic flavors of 20th-century immigrants. The dozen Orthodox churches in the Dallas-Fort Worth area reflect these geographic and ethnic heritages. Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church is Dallas' largest, with 1,500 active members. The church holds services in Greek and English and hosts an annual Greek festival with ethnic foods, dance and crafts. St. Seraphim Orthodox Cathedral in Dallas' Oak Lawn area is predominantly Russian. At Sts. Constantine and Helen, an Antiochian Orthodox Church, 80 percent of the families speak Arabic. Services at both are in English. There's a Hispanic congregation in Dallas' Oak Cliff neighborhood - Holy Transfiguration Hispanic Orthodox Mission. Converts become more familiar with the church through catechism classes and the guidance of spiritual godparents (individuals and couples in the congregation who mentor new converts). If they've already been baptized in another church, they also must be chrismated, or anointed, to be received in the Orthodox Church. Americans who convert to Orthodoxy know they will be part of a minority faith. That doesn't bother Father Savas at Holy Trinity, who grew up Orthodox among Mormons in Salt Lake City. "It's wonderful to practice the ancient Christian faith in an environment that doesn't know what to do with it. A minority can be a beacon of light, like the apostles, who took it beyond their own country," he said. "It's a beautiful eye-opening experience for people to see the church of the New Testament is alive and thriving today. We don't define ourselves by who we're not. The church is just here. And we're here to lift it up." --- ORTHODOX CHURCH IN AMERICA Adherents say there is only one Orthodox Church, which is administratively organized into several jurisdictions. The faith, worship and doctrine is the same, but churches differ in language and administration. Dioceses of Orthodox Churches are administrated by bishops in North America, as well as archbishops and patriarchs abroad. Orthodox Christians belong to two major ecclesiastical families: the Orthodox Oriental (Coptic, Syrian) and the Orthodox Byzantine (Greek, Russian, Serbian, Romanian). Greek Orthodox Archdiocese is the largest American Orthodox body, with more than 530 parishes, and was founded by Orthodox Christians from Greece and the surrounding areas. Orthodox Church in America has its roots in Eastern Europe and Russia. It was established when Russian missionaries landed in Alaska in 1794. Ethnic variations of the Orthodox Church of America include Serbian, Romanian, Albanian and Bulgarian. It includes about 700 parishes, missions, communities, monasteries and institutions throughout the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Antiochian Orthodox, from the Archdiocese of Antioch, was established by immigrants from the Middle East, and includes more than 200 parishes and missions in the U.S. and Canada. Coptic Orthodox Church, established by Arab-speaking Orthodox Christians from Egypt, includes about 700 parishes, missions, communities, monasteries and institutions throughout North America. --- 2005, The Dallas Morning News. |
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02-10-2006, 08:00 AM
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#15 |
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You are right
Numbers are nothing but at least we are getting recognised. People don't even know what Orthodox means. Most people know the Catholic Church and every other Church but not the Orthodox Church. It makes me wonder. There are no Roman Soldiers waiting to chop our heads off anymore, so why are we stil hiding in the shadows? |
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02-20-2006, 08:00 AM
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#16 |
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Glory be to God! Some beautiful gifts we've been given this Dormition period!
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02-25-2006, 08:00 AM
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#17 |
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Dear Folks,
I feel that this might be helpful here: http://www.pigizois.gr/agglika/agglika.htm LORD, BLESS MY ENEMIES By St. Nikolai of Ochrid Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them. Enemies have driven me into your embrace more than friends have. Friends have bound me to earth, enemies have loosed me from earth and have demolished all my aspirations in the world. Enemies have made me a stranger in worldly realms and an extraneous inhabitant of the world. Just as a hunted animal finds safer shelter than an unhunted animal does, so have I, persecuted by enemies, found the safest sanctuary, having ensconced myself beneath Your tabernacle, where neither friends nor enemies can slay my soul. Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them. They, rather than I, have confessed my sins before the world. They have punished me, whenever I have hesitated to punish myself. They have tormented me, whenever I have tried to flee torments. They have scolded me, whenever I have flattered myself. They have spat upon me, whenever I have filled myself with arrogance. Bless my enemies, O Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them. Whenever I have made myself wise, they have called me foolish. Whenever I have made myself mighty, they have mocked me as though I were a dwarf. Whenever I have wanted to lead people, they have shoved me into the background. Whenever I have rushed to enrich myself, they have prevented me with an iron hand. Whenever I thought that I would sleep peacefully, they have wakened me from sleep. Whenever I have tried to build a home for a long and tranquil life, they have demolished it and driven me out. Truly, enemies have cut me loose from the world and have stretched out my hands to the hem of your garment. Bless my enemies, Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them. Bless them and multiply them; multiply them and make them even more bitterly against me: so that my fleeing to You may have no return; so that all hope in men may be scattered like cobwebs; so that absolute serenity may begin to reign in my soul; so that my heart may become the grave of my two evil twins: arrogance and anger; so that I might amass all my treasure in heaven; ah, so that I may for once be freed from self-deception, which has entangled me in the dreadful web of illusory life. Enemies have taught me to know what hardly anyone knows, that a person has no enemies in the world except himself. One hates his enemies only when he fails to realize that they are not enemies, but cruel friends. It is truly difficult for me to say who has done me more good and who has done me more evil in the world: friends or enemies. Therefore bless, Ο Lord, both my friends and my enemies. A slave curses enemies, for he does not understand. But a son blesses them, for he understands. For a son knows that his enemies cannot touch his life. Therefore he freely steps among them and prays to God for them. Bless my enemies, O Lord .Even I bless them and do not curse them. ORTHODOX HERITAGE. APRIL 2005. BROTHERHOOD OF ST. POIMEN ps the website where this came from is well worth a look. Most of it is in greek, but it also has English and French sections. In XC peter |
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02-28-2006, 11:31 PM
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#18 |
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03-01-2006, 11:06 AM
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#19 |
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How interesting! Antonios, do you have any information on the reaction to this news of the people or hierarchy of Patras, the city where Apostle Andrew preached and was martyred? As far as I know, the Cathedral of St Andrew in that city has a relic of the apostle, one of his fingers, I believe. It wouldn't surprise me if the Patrines would want this "new" relic of their patron to be repatriated to their city!
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03-02-2006, 12:14 AM
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#20 |
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I dont have any more information but if I run into any, I will definitely post it!
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