One Nation Under God

Posted on by Fr. Peter
In 1892 Baptist Minister and Christian Socialist Francis Bellamy wrote the pledge of allegiance.  It was first released in a children’s magazine and was designed to be said by children.  The pledge has been changed four times since it writing and the last change, signed into law by President Eisenhower in 1954 added the phrase “under God” to the pledge.  I have been giving this some thought since my post yesterday Does God Care Who Gets Elected?
The question I have is whose God are we one nation under?  The Christian God, the Jewish God, the Muslim God (all three are the same by the way), or are we united under the Buddhist god or any number of the gods that happen to be in fashion today.  Money and power is a god for many people so maybe it is that one.  We are the most religiously diverse nation on the planet so the question remains whose god are we united under?
I am a priest and an Orthodox Christian, and the Orthodox have what is called an Orthodox World View.  Each religion or denomination has a world view based on what their denomination teaches.  Some religions teach the same thing about God and others do not.  Abraham Lincoln wrestled with this during the Civil War when he said in his second inaugural address, “Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes his aid against the other…. The prayers of both could not be answered–that of neither has been answered fully”  Oddly enough Lincoln would say these words just six weeks before his life would be taken.

Our understanding of God is very different now than it was 200 years ago.  My Orthodox View of God is very different then say the Lutheran or Anglican view of God let alone the Buddhist or Zoroastrian God. So can we say we are under God?  This is one of the reasons I get nervous when people start saying we need to start returning to our countries Christian roots!  We are not the same country we were 200 years ago, we have evolved and become very diverse.

I would have to say yes we can.  You might ask why I come to this conclusion and I would simply say that our diversity is our greatest strength.  The fact that we are the most religiously diverse nation is exactly what makes us able to say we are under God, mainly because we can say that!  Imagine, we have a law that says we are under God!  What other nation on earth can say that?  We do not judge, or at least we should not, judge another for their beliefs or lack of belief.  We have freedom to express our vision and understanding of God as we see fit, that is what makes us One Nation Under God!

In 1782 by an act of Congress the phrase “E Pluribus Unam” was added to the Great Seal of the United States.  “Out of many, one” has been the motto of the United States ever since.  The philosophy comes from a poem attributed to Virgil and describes the blending of colors into another color.  Another way of thinking about it is to say out of our diversity comes our unity. (E Pluribus Unam is the motto of the Great Seal, by act of the 84th Congress “In God We Trust” was adopted as the official motto of the United States of America.)

As long as we have been a nation we have called upon a deity for prayer and protection.  It is printed on our money, over the objections of President Theodore Roosevelt because he thought it was sacrilegious to put God’s name on money, and it is in the Pledge of Allegiance.  The writings of the founders echo with themes of God and God was invoked at the founding of this great nation. 

I would say we are indeed Under God, the god of your choosing, and that is what makes this country great!

Blog Action Day: Water

Posted on by Fr. Peter

Today over 5,000 bloggers around the world are joining together to blog about the necessity of clean water.  We are trying to bring awareness of this important issue to those around the world.  Here is my little contribution to this project.

Right now, almost a billion people on the planet don’t have access to clean, safe drinking water. That’s one in eight of us.

charity: water is a non-profit organization bringing clean, safe drinking water to people in developing nations. We use 100% of public donations to directly fund sustainable water solutions in areas of greatest need. Just $20 can give one person clean water for 20 years.


Blog Action Day 2010: Water from Blog Action Day on Vimeo.

health and sanitationUnsafe water and lack of basic sanitation cause 80% of diseases and kill more people every year than all forms of violence, including war. Children are especially vulnerable, as their bodies aren’t strong enough to fight diarrhea, dysentery and other illnesses.

90% of the 42,000 deaths that occur every week from unsafe water and unhygienic living conditions are to children under five years old. Many of these diseases are preventable. The UN predicts that one tenth of the global disease burden can be prevented simply by improving water supply and sanitation.

women and childrenIn Africa alone, people spend 40 billion hours every year just walking for water. Women and children usually bear the burden of water collection, walking miles to the nearest source, which is unprotected and likely to make them sick.

Time spent walking and resulting diseases keep them from school, work and taking care of their families.

Along their long walk, they’re subjected to a greater risk of harassment and sexual assault. Hauling cans of water for long distances takes a toll on the spine and many women experience back pain early in life.

With safe water nearby, women are free to pursue new opportunities and improve their families’ lives. Kids can earn their education and build the future of their communities.

economies / communities

In Africa alone, the overall economic loss due to lack of safe water and sanitation is $28 billion, or about 5% of GDP. In areas where gathering water is impossible, small-scale private water distributors charge full market prices, forcing the poorest households to spend up to 11% of their income on life’s most basic need. Even this water is most likely contaminated if it has been collected from unprotected rivers or ponds.

Does God Care Who Gets Elected?

Posted on by Fr. Peter
Icon from Orthodox Images
This is a question I have been chewing on for a long time.  Does God really care who wins an election?  My feeling is He does not care.  God is not about the salvation of an entire nation, but of individual salvation.  The other part of this would be that if God does care, and the other guys wins, does He withhold blessings from the people who voted for that guy or the nation as a whole, again I would say no.  God, my God anyway, is not a God of retribution.  Some tried this with the earthquake in Haiti and the Hurricane in New Orleans.

God is concerned how YOU live and how YOU treat your neighbor.  The bottom line is God is concerned about YOU, not the government of any country.  If God cared don’t you think His guy would always win?

Here is my thinking on all of this.  In Scripture, especially the New Testament, God’s relationship is personal.  Jesus did not come to earth and run for King of the Jews.  He was called that yes, but Jesus did not come to free us from the bondage we have here on earth, Jesus came to free us from the bondage of sin. 

He asks us to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the sick and those in prison, these are things that we are to do as individuals not as the government.  I have written about how I feel that the church needs to give the government out of business and we the church need to take on these responsibilities, we need to care for our neighbor, that’s what we are required to do.

So the bottom line is I do not believe that God cares who gets elected.  I think He cares about how you live your life and how you care for others.  He cares about Justice and truth and peace, all things that we need in our own lives.

God sent his only Son to save sinners not governments.

How are you caring for your neighbor?

14 October ~ St. Parascheva the New

Posted on by Fr. Peter
Our venerable Mother Paraskeve the New lived as a monastic in the 11th century. She is beloved in Romania as Parascheva and in Serbia and Macedonia as Petka. She is also distinguished from other saints of the same name with the descriptions “the New” or “the Young.” Her feast day is celebrated on October 14.
from http://www.roea.org/
Troparion (Tone 4)
You chose a silent and solitary life;
You followed Christ your Bridegroom.
You took his easy yoke in your youth,
Arming yourself with the sign of the Cross.
You contended against spiritual enemies
Through fasting, tears and labors,
O glorious Paraskeva.
Now you stand before Christ with the Wise Virgins:
Intercede for us who honor your precious memory.

Did God Rescue the Miners?

Posted on by Fr. Peter
Sean O’Key/CNN
Much has been written about the rescue of the 33 miners from Chile yesterday.  I could not seem to pull myself away from the TV reports and did cheer a little each time another one came up from below.  I great sigh of relief went up all over the world as the last miner was retrieved, followed by the 6 men who went down to save them.  All are out and a cap has been placed on the hole that was used to bring them up.

Someone asked a question last night about God’s role in all of this.  Did God rescue the miners?  I would say if your answer to the question is yes, then you would have to be willing to say that God allowed them to be trapped in the first place.  I do not believe either of these statements are true.

First off God does not allow or allow things to happen in the same sense the we humans think about things.  Is there a plan? Yes.  Is God up there moving us around like pieces on a large chess board?  No.  I would say that God gave the miners the strength that they needed to withstand what they went through whilst they were in captivity.  I would say, the prayers of the people all over the world gave them strength as well.  Perhaps God had something to do with the knowledge the guys had who figured out how to rescue them but that is open to interpretation.

When we pray we pray that God’s will is done in the situation we are praying about.  Heal so and so if it be your will, rescue this one, if it be your will and so on.  How can we explain that God rescued these guys but not others?  Part of the mystery I guess.

As an Orthodox Christian I do not believe that God is up there pulling the strings.  God created all and set it in motion, He gave us free will to make choices, He sends people in our path to guide us, He wants us all to come to the love and knowledge of Him, but he does not force Himself on us.  We are free to choose or not.

So did God rescue the miners?  I don’t think He was running the equipment, but I do think He was involved in some mysterious way.

Your thoughts?

Lazarus Come Forth

Posted on by Fr. Peter
Mario Sepulveda leads a cheer for Chile after being lifted from the mine early Wednesday.
Sepulveda was the second miner to be rescued.
Photo from the Government of Chile
Unless you have been under a rock the last 2 months you have heard the story of the miners trapped in Chile.  Well in the early hours of this morning they started to be freed from their subterranean home.  One by one the miners are coming out of a little hole in the ground and greeted by cheers and hugs form their families.  I have to admit I have been up most of the night watching.  And I will also admit a tear came to my eye when the first one came out!  It is truly amazing.

It bring to mind all of those people who do jobs that most of us would never consider doing.  Years ago a show began on the Discovery Network called Deadliest Catch.  If you have not seen the program it is about crab fishermen in Alaska, this is considered the deadliest job on earth.  Followed by Ice Road Truckers on the History Channel.  These men and women have jobs that keep the world moving but we would never do.  We like to watch them do it, but would not want to do it ourselves.  Men and women put themselves in harms way everyday at their particular place of employment.  We need to remember these folks.

So for the last 60 plus days 33 miners have been underground in some of the worse conditions we can imagine.  To be rescued they stand in a small tube that is pulled up through a hole in the ground that really is no bigger then they are.  It’s a 20 minute ride from the bottom to the top.  They will have to wear sun glasses for a few days to get used to the sun and will be taken to hospital to be checked out.  Most of them have already said they will return to the mine.  That is dedication to their job!  As I write this number 11 has just been rescued.

One of the truly amazing stories I heard during this whole ordeal was the fight they were having over the order that they would be rescued.  They were not fighting over who would go first, but they were fighting over who would go last!  Amazing!

God bless all those men and women who put themselves in harms way each and everyday to make our lives a little bit easier.  God bless the men who are being rescued and God bless those who did not make it out alive.

12 October ~ St. Wilfrid of York

Posted on by Fr. Peter
Born in Northumberland in 634, Saint Wilfrid was educated at Lindesfarne and then spent some time in Lyons and Rome. Returning to England, he was elected abbot of Ripon in 658 and introduced the Roman rules and practices in opposition to the celtic ways of northern England…
In 664, he was the architect of the definitive victory of the Roman party at the Conference of Whitby. He was appointed Bishop of York and after some difficulty finally took possession of his See in 669. He labored zealously and founded many monasteries, but he was obliged to appeal to Rome in order to prevent the subdivision of his diocese by St. Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury. While waiting for the case to be decided, he was forced to go into exile, and worked hard and long to evangelize the heathen south Saxons until his recall in 686.
In 691, he had to retire again to the midland suntil Rome once again vindicated him. In 703, he resigned his post and retired to his monastery at Ripon where he spent his remaining time in prayer and penitential practices, until his death in 709.
Saint Wilfrid was an outstanding personage of his day, extremely capable and possessed of unbounded courage, remaining firm in his convictions despite running afoul of civil and ecclesiastical authorities. He was also a dedicated pastor and a zealous and skilled missionary.

2010 Orthodox Census

Posted on by Fr. Peter
This past week the 2010 Orthodox Census was released as part of a larger study of Congregation Study. There are some very interesting findings in this report. Although membership numbers do not always tell the strength of a church it is important to note how many of us there actually are.
This study, which can be found here, gives information on the following items:
1. Parishes and monastic communities in American Orthodox Christian Churches including the so-called Oriental Orthodox Christian Churches.
2. Church “adherents” the most inclusive category of church membership which includes children and anyone participating even occasionally in church life.
3. Church “regular attendees” the persons attending church on a regular basis.
The information was gathered directly from the parishes and not from the HQ’s of the Jurisdictions. Numbers are a funny thing and depending on who is asking depends on the answers to the questions. I am sure there is a percentage of error here with the numbers but for the most part it looks like it is spot on.
Let’s get to the data and some observations.
The survey show there is 1,044,000 adherents of the Orthodox Church in the United States. This number is significantly lower than the usual five million number we usually here. I have heard in the past for example that the Greek Archdiocese has a million adherents as does the Orthodox Church in America (OCA). So where did 4 million people go? Well I think we are seeing the real number now in this survey.
Last year a denominational survey was taken and it showed that Orthodox Christians made up less than one percent of the entire population of the USA, so the one million number would make more sense.
American Orthodox Christians worship in 2,380 local churches and represent 20 different national Orthodox Church bodies. Again, this number seems more realistic with an average parish size of 438 versus an average parish size of 2,100 if we use the five million number. Now I have not been to all 2,380 Orthodox parishes in the USA but I find it hard to believe the average size is 2,100! That’s individuals not families.
In the last 10 years the Orthodox Church in the USA has grown by 16 percent. Now there is no data available as to what this growth looks like. For example, my Archdiocese the Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese in the Americas has grown 121% in the same time period. The Archdiocese grew from 14 parishes in 2000 to 31 in 2010 in the USA. All of those parishes are filled with immigrants from Romania who were already Orthodox. I would be interested in the growth by non Orthodox that is where the money is, so to speak. People who change churches from one Orthodox Church to another are not considered growth, it is growth but it is transfer growth. The growth of a church should be measured by the number of new Christians the Church has.
The most staggering number is the percentage of adherents that actually attend church on a regular basis. This number came by asking the parishes the number of people who attend on a typical Sunday. Now this leaves much to interpretation on what a typical Sunday is. However, according to the survey, 27% of Orthodox Christians in the USA attend Church on a regular basis. In my parish my average is 26.25% of my adherents attend Church. This is not on a typical Sunday this is all year. Last year I counted each of the Sundays we worshipped, excluding Easter, and came up with an average of 35 people. I have 75 names on a list that would be 26.25% that number is way too low. We can do better.
Another interesting fact is that the largest population of Orthodox Christians in the USA lives in just 5 states. California (14.5%), New York (13.5%), Illinois (7.2%), New Jersey (6.9%), and Massachusetts (5.9%). Cool, Massachusetts made the list!
It would appear from the survey that the Orthodox Church is in the same position as many other Christian Churches in the USA; we have low numbers of people who attend on a regular basis. I would be interested in a survey as to why the 73% does not attend church. That is the important group, not that the ones who come on Sunday are not important, but they are there.
This fall the Roman Catholic Church launched a media campaign called “Come Home to the Catholic Church” or something along those lines. Maybe we need to do the same thing.
When I came here to this parish more than six years ago, we had a discussion about how to increase church membership. I remarked that we need to get the parishioners to come to church, and then the growth will come from that! If we can get the ones we already have to come to church, the church will be in a much healthier place, and then we can focus on those from without.
Any thoughts on the numbers?

Relics of St. Vladimir Coming to Seminary Chapel

Posted on by Fr. Peter
Date: November 13, 2010 – November 14, 2010
The relics of the Seminary’s patron saint, Holy Great Prince Vladimir, Equal-to-the-Apostles, who converted to Christianity in AD 988 and who proceeded to baptize all of Kievan Rus’, will be in our Three Hierarchs Chapel for public veneration from Saturday, November 13 through Sunday, November 14. This will be the only such opportunity in the United States for Orthodox Christian faithful to venerate the relics, since St. Vladimir’s Seminary is the only location in the country that will be privileged to receive them.
Chancellor and CEO of the Seminary, Archpriest Chad Hatfield, expressed his joy in anticipation of upcoming weekend. “We are deeply honored to receive these relics of the patron saint of our school. During this extraordinary occasion, we anticipate welcoming thousands of pilgrims to our campus.”
We will update our Website regarding the details and schedule of services for this noteworthy event as we draw closer to this special weekend in November.

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11 October ~ St. Ethelburga, Abbess of Barking

Posted on by Fr. Peter
She lived in the 7th century. Benedictine abbess of a dual Monastery, daughter of the king of the East Angles and sister of Sts. Eronwald Bishop of London, Etheldreda, Sexburga, and Withburga…
Saint Erconwald founded a convent for her at Barking, in Essex, England. She was trained as an abbess by St. Hildelid, who came from France to assist her.
Ethelburga proved herself a sister worthy of such a brother and Barking became celebrated, not only for the fervour of its nuns, but for the zeal they displayed for the study of the Holy Scriptures, the fathers of the Church and even the classic tongues.
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