Orthodoxy 101 On-Line Class

Posted on by Fr. Peter
Favorable Response to Orthodoxy 101 On-Line Class Offering

JOHNSTOWN, PA — The Diocesan Apostolate For Christian Education is pleased to report that there has been a favorable response to the announcement of a seven-week on-line introductory class on Orthodox Christianity, Orthodoxy 101, which will begin next Monday, November 16, 2009.

At the time of press, more than 40 people have registered for the on-line class, approximately half of which are either non- Orthodox Christian inquirers, or newly received converts to the faith. The participants are from 10 states in the U.S, and there are two international students, from the UK and South America.

The class, led by Fr. Peter Paproski, will be broadcast live each week from St. John the Baptist Orthodox Church in Stratford Connecticut. The class will begin at 7:00 pm and will last approximately 90 minutes.. Those faithful living in the greater Bridgeport, Connecticut region are cordially invited to attend the class in person.

Topics to be discussed will include, Salvation History, Holy Tradition, Church History, Doctrine and Dogma, Prayer, Ethics and Morality and discovering one’s vocation in life. Time will be allowed at the end of each session for a question and answer period based on questions raised in person or via email Audio recordings of each session will be archived for later study.

There is no charge for participating, however, those who wish to participate must register on-line to enter the class room and access the broadcast link. Audio recordings of each session will be archived for later study.

There is still time to register. Won’t YOU join our class?

For more information and to register, please click here.

Hatred

Posted on by Fr. Peter
I have posted on this topic before but now we see it on the evening news. Last week all we witnessed that tragic shootings at Ft. Hood, Texas. We are all asking question like how could a soldier shoot other soldiers? Who knew what and when? and questions like that. There has been much speculation about connections with this or that group and I am sure there are details that we do not know now or will we know in the future. Speculation is what the media both liberal and conservative by the way, and we do not need to be involved in that.

The problem is, when someone like this nut at Ft. Hood does something like this we immediately jump to conclusions because he has a Muslim sounding name. I will not make excuses for this person that is not my job but we tend to want to hate someone when something like this happens. We need to make sense out of the entire situation so it is easy to just say, he is a crazy Muslim terrorist. It is only natural for us to want to blame someone to something to make sense out of events such as this. Was this man a terrorist? I would say yes, not because he was a Muslim but because of this actions. He caused terror that makes him a terrorist. Shortly after that event there was a similar event in Orlando Florida. Another man went crazy at his prior place of employment. Of course religion did not play any role in his actions because he did not have a Muslim sounding name so it was not even asked. But this man was a terrorist just like the man at Ft. Hood. If you cause terror you are a terrorist regardless of religion.

Now back to hate. Yesterday there was an article in the news about a USMC Reservist who beat an Orthodox Priest with a tire iron because he thought the man was a Muslim. Okay bad enough that one person would beat another person with a tire iron but to use the excuse that the guy was a Muslim. This is what happens when we jump to conclusions that the man who did the shootings at Ft. Hood is a Muslim. I would call this Marine a terrorist as well.

Hatred under any banner is bad. Hatred does not come from the God of Love hatred comes from the other Guy, the spirit of hate. I understand people are frustrated and I understand the level of hatred but I do not condone it.

An update to yesterday’s story of the Marine now it seems the Marine as sexually assaulted by this Orthodox Priest and that is why he whacked him with the tire iron. When will it end?

St. Triduana

Posted on by Fr. Peter
Scotland’s Saint of the day.
Triduana is believed to have arrived in Scotland in the early Middle Ages as one of the companions of St Regulus, who bore the relics of St Andrew to the country that would adopt the apostle as their patron saint.
Legend tells how the pious Triduana was fierce in her rejection of the advances made by a Pictish Chieftain, Nechtan. His desire for the woman was great, and he proclaimed that her eyes were the most beautiful he had ever seen. The zealous Triduana heard this and proceeded to gouge out those lovely eyes and sent them to Nechtan on a thorn branch. What need had she for such organs?
Her devotion to her God continued unaffected, and she was free of the unwanted lusts of others. If Nechtan liked them so much, then he could have them. A religious site dedicated to Triduana developed at Restalrig, east of Edinburgh and the saint became closely associated with healing, particularly with the healing of eye defects. By the later Middle Ages the shrine was one of the most pre-eminent in Scotland. Pilgrims visited to bathe their eyes in the waters of the sacred place and hopefully benefit from their restorative powers. The well-house was restored in 1906. A stained glass window of St Triduana features in St Magnus Cathedral in Kirkwall, Orkney.

85 Years of Ministry

Posted on by Fr. Peter
Yesterday my parish celebrated her patronal feast day. We also celebrated 85 years of ministry here in Southbridge. 85 years ago a group of faithful people from Eastern Europe came to Southbridge in search of a better life for them and their children. One of the first things they did was to establish a church community and bring in a priest.

I remember years ago whilst I was in the Army and my unit was preparing for a deployment to Bosnia. An Army intelligence officer came to give us a briefing and during the briefing he said how shocked he was that the people in Bosnia would build a church before they would rebuild their houses or schools or hospitals. He did not get it. Faith is important to people.

Southbridge is much different today than it was 85 years ago. American Optical is gone and will not be back. Most of the neighborhood around the church is no longer Romanian, Albanian, and Greek it is mostly Hispanic now. Most of the parishioners live our of town and cannot walk to church. But the Church is still here.

Yesterday we celebrated the Divine Liturgy with our friends from St. Nicholas Albanian Orthodox Church here in Town. A few years back we decided to close our churches on each others feast days and worship together. We will do the same on December 6th. It was such a blessing to have a church filled to capacity with people. All worshiping together and remembering. Remembering those who came before us and sacrificed to build their church.

During the sermon I asked what the legacy would be that we would leave to those who come after us? I don’t have the answer as I am only here for a short time. There have been many before me and please God many after me. I feel blessed and honored to be their pastor and although I do not tell them that often enough it is true. We have had our moments, and what relationship has not, but I am truly blessed. Blessed with great people but also blessed to be serving God in this Community.

After Liturgy we had our annual banquet in the parish hall. What a great day! We had a presentation from IOCC linking us to the greater Orthodox Church and I was pleased to see people using the envelopes that were in the tables to make a donation, of whatever they could afford, to this great work of our American Orthodox Church.

When everyone had left, and I was walking around shutting off all the lights and turning the heat down I had a moment to reflect. I came into our museum and stood in front of the picture of the founding families of our church. I thanked them and asked them to pray for us. They did they hard work, the built the church, the buildings and the community. They left it in our care.

What is the legacy we will leave to those who come after us?

Vision

Posted on by Fr. Peter
I like Rick Warren. I think he has much to offer those of us working in Church leadership. I know some of my more Orthodox readers believe that we cannot learn anything from people like Rick Warren but I disagree. Show me an Orthodox church in the US that has 10,000 souls on Sunday and I will pay attention. I am not speaking of his theology just his methods of church growth.

Yesterday I posted a quote from Pastor Warren “The greatest churches in history are yet to be built. Are you prepared to be used by God? Willing to pay the price? To be hated?” This is what I will focus on today.

The greatest churches in history are yet to be built. Now I might be reading things into this quote but what he is getting at here is not buildings. If you have read anything he has written you know when he speaks of church he means people. That what we need to do as leaders is build up people. We need to build them up and send them out. We need to equip people to face the junk that is out there in the world. We need to speak the truth of the Gospel no matter how unpopular that might be. The other day I posted on facebook a little quote from the Catholic Bishops in US. “Abortion is not health care because killing is not healing” Well as you can imagine that sparked quite a little response from people. I followed that up with a post here on the blog on the Orthodox position on abortion. Again more response. But it is the teaching of the church. The truth hurts, and the truth will set you free. We as preachers at some point in time, decided we need to be liked and popular. Well I would rather preach the truth then be popular!

Are we prepared to be used by God? Another interesting question. God will use us for the kingdom if we are willing to be used. But we have to listen to his call. He is speaking, yes speaking even in these crazy days. If we turn off the TV, radio, computer, ipod, etc… we will be able to hear him. If we equip the saints then he will be able to be heard by them.

The last part of the quote, are we willing to pay the price, to be hated? This is the hardest part of all of this. Visionaries are often hated by those with no vision. Jesus was hated by those in power and he lost his life for it. Jesus was a reformer and a visionary and he died for it, and for us by the way. If you are a leader, or one who is in training to be a leader be prepared to be hated. Yes even in the church people will hate you. In fact I think it is worse in the church. But keep this in mind. If they are kicking your butt it means you are still out in front!

Leadership is not easy. Vision is not easy. But we are required to be visionaries if we are going to be leaders other wise we stand still. And if we have no one following us then we are just out for a walk.

What is your vision? How to you impart your vision to those you lead?

Fort Hood

Posted on by Fr. Peter
If you are a long time reader of this blog you know that I have spent some time, 12 years, in the United States Army and the Massachusetts National Guard. I was shocked as I am sure you all were, yesterday with the news of the shooting at Fort Hood. What makes it more shocking is that it was one of their own. It would have been easier if it was someone from the outside but when one of your own turns on you it is harder.

The other shocking but not surprising thing is the reaction people had once the accused shooters name was released. There is only one person who knows why he did what he did and we should not jump to conclusions. Okay the guy has a Muslim name but that has nothing to do with it. If it turns out that he did it for religious reasons I will change my tune, and I pray that it does not turn out that way. Yesterday I was having a conversation with a parishioner and she said to me that she wished the shooters name was John Smith, I had to agree. We are still feeling the sting of 9/11 so it is understandable when someone with a Muslim name does something like this we jump to conclusions. But what if his name was John Smith?

We need to hold the Fort Hood community in our prayers, those involved and those who will be involved in making some sense out of all of this mess.

On another note, Twitter and Facebook once again came to the rescue. It has been reported that people were finding out what was going on by Twitter and Facebook. I was watching a local news station from Texas online and they were interviewing a woman and whilst the interview was happening she received a text message from her husband how is presently serving in Iraq. He had seen something on twitter and wanted to know what was going on. So there you have it.

Abortion ~ An Orthodox View

Posted on by Fr. Peter
In the previous post I linked to an article on another blog on what to do to make your voice heard. It would appear that the House of Representatives will vote on their version of the Health Care Bill on Saturday. I guess they will try and sneak it past us. Well we need to make our voices heard so go to the previous post and make your voice heard. “Abortion is not Health Care because Killing is not Healing!”

At the Road to Unity Conference this past week, Metropolitan Jonah of the OCA spoke about some statistics that were shown during the conference. It appears that 60% of the Orthodox in the USA believe that abortion is okay. Well his Beatitude said that “If 60 percent of our people support abortion, then we have failed miserably in our teaching!” I agree.

Well I would say that the confusion on the topic perhaps come from the top of the pile. In 1990, then Metropolitan Bartholomew of Chalcedon was interviewed in a newspaper in San Francisco. This is what the now Patriarch of Constantinople and Spiritual Head of the Worlds Orthodox had to say:

Asked the Orthodox church’s position on abortion, Bartholomais described a stand more liberal than that of the Roman Catholic Church, which condemns abortion in all cases and whose clergy have, in some cities, excommunicated leading pro-choice Catholics.

Although the Orthodox church believes the soul enters the body at conception and, ”generally speaking, respects human life and the continuation of pregnancy,” Bartholomais said, the church also ”respects the liberty and freedom of all human persons and all Christian couples.”

”We are not allowed to enter the bedrooms of the Christian couples,” he said. ”We cannot generalize. There are many reasons for a couple to go toward abortion.”

I think His Beatitude needs to read Fr. Stanley Harakas’ Book, Contemporary Moral Issues Facing the Orthodox Christian.

“Since the earliest days of her existence, the Christian Church has consistently declared willful abortion of a human fetus to be equivalent to murder. St. Basil in the fourth century declared that. ‘Those who give potions for the destruction of the child conceived in the womb are murderers; as are they who take the poisons which kill the child (8th Canon of St. Basil)'”

Your Beatitude I do not think St. Basil would say “Generally Speaking” as you have.

Harakas continues:

“As Orthodox Christians, we profess that all life comes from God and that human life represents the most precious gift that our Creator has bestowed upon us. That God Himself places ultimate value on the sanctity of human life is evident by the fact that out of His great love for us, ‘He gave His only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.’ (John 3:16)”

There is an exception to this teaching and Fr. Harakas states that “When the life of the mother is in jeopardy due to her pregnancy, then an exception to the prohibition on abortion may be allowed. Such situations are always tragic… but here the, the particular circumstances of the situation must be taken into consideration, in a spirit of Christian love and sacrifice.”

If that in not enough for Your Beatitude let us turn now to the Sixth Ecumenical Council held in 691 and the 91st Canon: “As for women who furnish drugs for the purpose of procuring abortion and those who take fetus-killing poisons, they are made subject to the penalty prescribed for murderers.” Fr. Harakas continues, “For the Orthodox Christian Church, it is incomprehensible how a well-ordered state can permit, tolerate or encourage any form of murder. Rather it is the duty and responsibility of the state to protect the innocent and the weak. As members of the Orthodox Church, therefore we should consider it our duty to support proper political efforts aimed at prohibiting abortion, except in extreme circumstances. It is therefore obvious that the Orthodox Christian Church, whose position on this issue has stood the test of two thousand years of history, stands opposed today to all efforts to continue to make abortion the permitted practice of this nation!”

Okay I am not the brightest bulb on the tree but that sounds pretty clear to me. It sounds like we Orthodox have a moral imperative to do whatever we can to oppose abortion in all forms, except where an exception can be made! Now I know that English is not the first language of His Beatitude and perhaps this should be translated for him, but it sounds to me that by his words he has taken himself outside of the Church!

He claims to be the Green Patriarch, and his Exarch the Archbishop of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese, who was not present with the other Orthodox Bishops at last years March for Life by the way, stood in the same room with President Obama last year and compared him to Alexander the Great! Perhaps we should call him the Red Patriarch for all of the abortions that he feels, generally speaking are okay!

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