Here is a list of the top posts of the week here at Shepherd of Souls
Russian Church Absent from Pope-Patriarch Summit
Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the USA and the USCCB Issue Joint Statement
The Appeal of the Bishops of Serbian Orthodox Church
The Queen of England and the Church of Scotland
Troubling Trends in America’s Calvanist Revival
Joint Statement of Cardinal O’Malley and Metropolitan Methodios of Boston
OCMC Serving the Disenfranchised in Romania
by Fr. Thomas FitzGerald
When Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew meet in Jerusalem on May 25-26, 2014, they will recall the meeting of their predecessors Pope Paul VI and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras in the same city in 1964. In the midst of prayer and recollection in the Holy Places, the leaders of the Catholic Church and Orthodox Church will give thanks to God for the dramatic change in the relationship between their churches in the past fifty years. They will recall the prayer of the Lord for this disciples ‘that they all be one’ (John 17:21).
Within five decades, the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church formally have moved from isolation to engagement, from monologue to dialogue, and from misunderstanding to mutual enrichment. These developments can only have taken place with the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and with the commitment of devoted clergy and laity to the process of reconciliation.
While the relationship between the churches may differ from place to place, these are some of the significant developments in the past fifty years:
Speaking of the quest for unity, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew says:
We know that the process of reconciliation is not always easy. The division between the Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church has persisted for centuries. Yet, we firmly believe that, with the guidance of the Risen Lord, our differences are not beyond resolution. Moreover, we believe that we have a solemn obligation to our Lord to heal our painful divisions. For this reason, we must be persistent in our prayer. We must increase our expressions of love and mutual respect. We must strengthen our theological dialogue.
Rev. Dr. Thomas FitzGerald, Protopresbyter of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, is Professor of Church History and Historical Theology, and former Dean at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in Boston, MA. He is the Orthodox Executive Secretary of the North American Orthodox-Catholic Bilateral Consultation in North America.
There is often confusion around what Memorial Day is for and as much as I like to gather with my family for a cook out in the back yard, the primary purpose is to memorialize those who have given the ultimate sacrifice.
Prior to the Civil War, people would gather in cemeteries to decorate the graves of the war dead. This became known as Decoration Day and would include a picnic right there in the cemetery. First they paid their respects to the dead, and then they had the cook out.
Memorial Day is also NOT Veterans Day and although I believe we should thank our veterans every day of the year, Memorial Day is not for the living but for the dead. Take time on this Memorial Day to pay a visit to your local cemetery, maybe you can locate the grave of a veteran that no one is caring for, and place some flowers, say a short prayer, and thank them for their service. It is the least we can do!
In 1868 the Command in Chief of the Grand Army of the Republic released General Order 11 setting out the reasons why we celebrate, then the 30th day of May, as the day to recall those who have gone before us.
General Order
No. 11Headquarters, Grand Army of the Republic
Washington, D.C., May 5, 1868I. The 30th day of May, 1868, is designated for the purpose of strewing with flowers or otherwise decorating the graves of comrades who died in defense of their country during the late rebellion, and whose bodies now lie in almost every city, village, and hamlet churchyard in the land. In this observance no form or ceremony is prescribed, but posts and comrades will in their own way arrange such fitting services and testimonials of respect as circumstances may permit.
We are organized, comrades, as our regulations tell us, for the purpose, among other things, “of preserving and strengthening those kind and fraternal feelings which have bound together the soldiers, sailors, and marines who united to suppress the late rebellion.” What can aid more to assure this result than by cherishing tenderly the memory of our heroic dead, who made their breasts a barricade between our country and its foes? Their soldier lives were the reveille of freedom to a race in chains, and their death a tattoo of rebellious tyranny in arms. We should guard their graves with sacred vigilance. All that the consecrated wealth and taste of the Nation can add to their adornment and security is but a fitting tribute to the memory of her slain defenders. Let no wanton foot tread rudely on such hallowed grounds. Let pleasant paths invite the coming and going of reverent visitors and fond mourners. Let no vandalism of avarice or neglect, no ravages of time, testify to the present or to the coming generations that we have forgotten, as a people, the cost of free and undivided republic.
If other eyes grow dull and other hands slack, and other hearts cold in the solemn trust, ours shall keep it well as long as the light and warmth of life remain in us.
Let us, then, at the time appointed, gather around their sacred remains and garland the passionless mounds above them with choicest flowers of springtime; let us raise above them the dear old flag they saved from dishonor; let us in this solemn presence renew our pledges to aid and assist those whom they have left among us as sacred charges upon the Nation’s gratitude,–the soldier’s and sailor’s widow and orphan.
II. It is the purpose of the Commander-in-Chief to inaugurate this observance with the hope it will be kept up from year to year, while a survivor of the war remains to honor the memory of his departed comrades. He earnestly desires the public press to call attention to this Order, and lend its friendly aid in bringing it to the notice of comrades in all parts of the country in time for simultaneous compliance therewith.
III. Department commanders will use every effort to make this order effective.
By command of:
JOHN A. LOGAN,
Commander-in-Chief.N. P. CHIPMAN,
Adjutant-General.
I recently had the honor of speaking to a group of veterans at the Soldiers Home located in Chelsea Massachusetts. I was invited by a group of veterans that belong to the Sons of Union Veterans of the Civil War and the topic was the role of the chaplain during the Civil War.
This was my first visit, but anyone traveling North of Boston on Route 1 has seen the place sitting on top of the hill. I recall, when I was in the Army, we used to donate $2 a month to the Soldier’s Home fund and always wondered if I would end up there one day. Although there is no replacement for in home care, I am grateful that places like this exists to care for our veterans. Keep in mind this is not just for veterans that need skilled nursing care; it is more of a rest home I think than that.
The soldier’s home is an interesting place. Located on the top of Power Horn Hill in Chelsea, a suburb of Boston, it is home to about 300 veterans of all branches of the service and of all wars. For some veterans this is their only home and if it was not for this state run home, they would be on the streets or in shelters. The home is a hospital, but it is also a nursing home and skilled care facility. It is a sort of little city with barber shops, a theater, church, and all of the other amenities that one would think of in a city.
Founded in 1882 as a home for veterans of the Civil War the Soldiers Home in Chelsea joins her counterpart the Soldiers Home in Holyoke Massachusetts. The Soldiers Home in Chelsea is a sprawling campus of brick buildings that reminds me of the many military bases I have been stationed on. As with most institutions the homes struggles for funding and does the best it can with they have. There have been some issues at the home recently but there is an Interim Superintendent in place and changes are starting to be made.
According to the US News and World Report Best Nursing Homes of 2014, rating just the 88 bed skilled nursing facility at the Soldiers Home, the home was given a 5 star rating, the highest rating that can be obtained.
With all of the nonsense in the news about the care at the VA, it is nice to see a place like this.
A Joint Letter on the Meeting of
Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in Jerusalem
May 21, 2014
Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
We give thanks to our Lord for the coming meeting of Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew which will take place on May 25-26, in the holy city of Jerusalem. We pray that this meeting in the sacred place of our Lord’s Death and Resurrection will contribute to the restoration of full communion in faith and sacrament between our churches, and the salvation of the world.
This meeting marks the 50th anniversary since the historic encounter between Pope Paul VI and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras in 1964 in Jerusalem which opened a new period in the relationship between our churches. We began a process of reconciliation through prayer, theological dialogue and common witness. Since that time, Popes and Patriarchs have met together regularly. Our churches have established formal theological consultations in this country in 1965 and internationally in 1979. These dialogues have been nurtured by the prayers of the faithful and countless acts of mutual respect. As Popes and Patriarchs have affirmed, we have come to see ourselves as ‘sister churches’ who are responsible together for affirming the faith of the Apostles.
The flourishing relationship between clergy and laity of the Archdiocese of Boston and the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Boston has contributed to the process of reunion. As clergy and laity, we have prayed together, undertaken pilgrimages to Rome and Constantinople and have addressed critical issues facing our society. The brotherhood which has grown here is a treasured gift from above. As Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras said fifty years ago, “Having found one another again, we meet the Lord together.”
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston and the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Boston will sponsor a conference on September 25 to mark the 50th anniversary of the historic encounter of 1964.
We thank God for the work He has begun between us and trust firmly in Him for its completion. In fidelity, we commit ourselves to continue working for His will.
In the words of Pope Paul IV, we call our faithful to “a love which, learning from the past, is ready to forgive, tends to believe more willingly in good than in evil, and is above all concerned to follow the pattern of its Divine Master and to allow itself to be drawn to Him and transformed by Him.”
We ask our clergy and laity to continue to pray for the unity of the Church and the witness of the Gospel in our world.
Cardinal Seán Patrick O’Malley, O.F.M. Cap. Metropolitan Methodios of Boston
There is so much in this essay that we Orthodox can learn from, only reading Orthodoxy writers and bloggers, being afraid to engage outside of the tradition, tribalism, egoism all of these same issues, in my opinion, plague some corners of Orthodoxy in America!
by Jonathan Merritt
When Mark Oppenheimer declared that “evangelicalism is in the midst of a Calvinist revival” in The New York Times earlier this year, he was only partially correct.
According to a 2010 Barna poll, roughly three out of 10 Protestant leaders describe their church as “Calvinist or Reformed,” a proportion statistically unchanged from a decade earlier. According to the research group, “there is no discernible evidence from this research that there is a Reformed shift among U.S. congregation leaders over the last decade.”
And yet, Oppenheimer is correct that something is stirring among American Calvinists (those who adhere to a theological system centering on human sinfulness and God’s sovereignty that stems from 16th century reformer John Calvin). While Calvinist Protestants—including Presbyterians, some Baptists, and the Dutch Reformed—have been a part of the American religious fabric since the beginning, Oppenheimer points to a more vocal and visible strain that has risen to prominence in recent years.
They’ve been called the “young, restless, and reformed” or neo-Calvinists, and they are highly mobilized and increasingly influential. Their books perform well in the marketplace (see John Piper or Paul David Tripp), their leaders pepper the lists of the most popular Christian bloggers (see The Gospel Coalition and Resurgence), and they’ve created vibrant training grounds for raising new recruits (see Reformed Theological Seminary, Westminster Theological Seminary, and The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary).
This brand of Calvinists are a force with which to reckon. But as with any movement, America’s Calvinist revival is a mixed bag. None can deny that many have come to faith as a result of these churches and leaders. The movement is rigorously theological, which is surely one of its greatest contributions. Just as Quakers teach us much about silence, Mennonites teach us much about peace, and Anglicans teach us much about liturgy, so Calvinists spur us on with their intellectual rigor.
And yet, from where I sit, there are several troubling trends that must be addressed if this faithful faction hopes to move from a niche Christian cadre to a sustainable and more mainstream movement.
A wind-driven wildfire that broke out in the late afternoon on Monday, May 19, 2014 inched within two miles of the Athabascan village of Tyonek. Settled in the first half of the 19th century, Tyonek is the home of Saint Nicholas Orthodox Church, which traces its origin to 1891 and serves the majority of the village’s residents.
According to firefighters, the Chuitna River separates the fire from the village, but spots began burning on the village side as of Monday evening. While the village had yet to be evacuated, many residents had arranged to spend the night elsewhere.
The region has experienced little rain and high winds in recent weeks.
Prayers are requested for the safety of the villagers, their historic church and their homes. Archpriest Peter Chris is Priest-in-Charge of the parish.
Additional information will be posted as it is received.
by Floyd Frantz
Poverty and lost hope for a decent life are the most difficult issues we deal with in Romania today. It is like a kid falling off a merry-go-round, but it is going around too fast for him to get back on. When someone in the States falls off the merry-go-round into poverty and disenfranchisement from the society, there are programs that help the person to get back up, to resolve their problems, to find work, and to re-enter the mainstream of society. Here in Romania, such programs are nearly nonexistent. It must be said also that current economic conditions in Romania are amongst the lowest in Europe, and so there generally is not much opportunity for people to better their lives. Through OCMC and the Romanian Orthodox Church, Floyd and Ancuta Frantz are providing such opportunities for families and individuals facing very difficult life circumstances to lift themselves up and to reorganize and begin life in a new and meaningful way.
The Protection of the Theotokos Family Center (PTFC), managed by Ancuta Frantz, helps single mothers who are not able to care for their newborn children to find a way to live without abandoning the child to the Romanian state for care. Many of these mothers are orphans themselves, and so lack skills necessary for building a home and caring for a child. In addition to day-care services, the PTFC provides job services, helps the families to find shelter when needed, and gives the family food to help sustain them until the mother can be more independent. This is done in a program which also provides personal counseling to the mother in both practical and spiritual venues.
The St. Dimitrie Program, managed by Floyd Frantz, offers addictions counseling and social services to the homeless and poor people living on the streets of Cluj, Romania. At the St. Dimitrie Day-Center, people are able to find support to reorganize their lives and to live alcohol and drug-free. Hosting 12 Step meetings, the center also provides personal and spiritual counseling so that the person can find a way out of their difficult situations. The staff of the St. Dimitrie Program visits local psychiatric hospitals, jails, and the long-term tuberculosis hospital in Savadisla offering recovery and hope for a better life to those in institutions.
By August, a diversion program will begin in Cluj with OCMC funding through OCMC’s AGAPE Canister Program. This program is a necessary shift from the usual jail time or fine for those who face court due to alcohol-related crimes to focusing on rehabilitation. It will become an option for offenders to be offered the diversion program with a suspended sentence upon completion rather than jail time and no attempts at reform. This is an important change in Romania, as it is necessary for society there to understand, accept, and implement a program to truly help those with alcohol issues rather than just lock them away without rehabilitation.
Because of the success of these programs, the St. Dimitrie Program also helps local churches in other cities around Romania to begin similar programs in their dioceses.
To learn more about, or support the work of, the Frantz family please visit: http://www.ocmc.org/TheFrantzFamily.
Deeply concerned and grief-stricken, but also filled with unshakable faith in love and grace of God, we address all priesthood, monks and faithful people of our Holy Church, as well as all the people of good will, on the occasion of the disastrous floods and terrible suffering of numerous families in Serbia, Republic of Srpska and the whole region. And we call upon everyone, and above all upon our clergy, to show both Christian and human solidarity with all the victims and the affected, to actively and committedly participate in the defense of settlements and vitally important objects from the destructive element, and to provide shelter, aid in food, clothing and medicines, finances and any other support for their neighbors.
In particular, we urge priests and monks to multiply their prayers, to perform daily prayers of supplication during the forthcoming days of heavy rains and to be front row with those who testify Christ’s love by helping the rescue of the suffering brothers and sisters. As a good example we would like to point out relentless rescue of the people performed by the state leadership and civil services (army, police, gendarmerie and others), as well as by all our citizens who participate voluntarily in this God-pleasing and noble action, often exposing their lives to danger.
Source: Serbian Orthodox Church
Moscow(Reuters) – When Pope Francis meets the spiritual head of the world’s Orthodox Christians next week, the speeches and symbolism will focus on how these ancient western and eastern wings of Christianity want to come closer together.
After almost a millennium apart, however, the key to the elusive unity they seek does not lie in Jerusalem, where the Catholic pope and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew will embrace on May 25. If anywhere, that key lies in Moscow.
The Russian Orthodox Church (ROC), by far the largest church in the Orthodox world and increasingly influential at home and abroad, has long been wary of the closer ties Francis and Bartholomew want to work towards.
Its opposition has only stiffened in recent months amid the crisis in Ukraine, where the political standoff between Russia and Europe has deepened tensions between the Moscow Patriarchate and three competing churches, one of them linked to the Vatican which Moscow accuses of trying to woo away its worshippers.
“All these unfortunate events … take us back to the situation when Catholics and Orthodox didn’t consider themselves as allies but as enemies,” said Metropolitan Hilarion, the ROC’s “foreign minister” at the unusually young age of 47.
The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, which supports pro-European movements there rather than the pro-Russian ones the ROC favors, “is becoming once again … a huge obstacle for any progress in our bilateral relations,” he told Reuters in an interview in Moscow’s Danilov Monastery.
The dream of overcoming the Great Schism of 1054, one of European history’s greatest splits, is still far off, but both sides try to work together to promote Christian values and avoid the disunity Jesus warned his disciples against.
PLANS DASHED
In recent decades, theologians have met often to seek common ground. Bringing churches closer means making possible changes on everything from the authority of their leaders to the dates of feast days. The Vatican and the Ecumenical Patriarchate are searching for ways to do what they can to find agreement.
But the Russian church, with 165 million of the world’s 250 million Orthodox, wants change only on its own terms.
Its close ties to President Vladimir Putin assure it considerable influence. The Russian state and generous donors have helped it restore or build 25,000 churches in Russia and over 60 countries in the last 25 years.
By contrast, Bartholomew has a prestigious post dating back to when his base in Istanbul was Constantinople and capital of the Byzantine Empire, but his local church has only 3,000 members and Turkey keeps tight limits on it.
Hilarion stressed that Moscow and Rome had common interests in defending traditional moral values and said his two meetings with Pope Francis last year were positive.
“We even made some plans about the future,” he said in fluent English perfected during studies at Britain’s Oxford University. He gave no details.
LOCAL CHURCHES
In fact, Ukraine is only the latest reason Moscow has given in recent years to explain why it has not agreed to a meeting between the pope and its Patriarch Kirill.
But for that, Russia wants agreement on the traditional Orthodox view that the pope – whose 1.2 billion-strong flock makes up more than half of all Christianity – is simply the bishop of Rome with no world-wide authority.
The Vatican insists Rome’s ancient role as the most important of all Christian churches gives it a special status even if it is defined minimally.
The ROC also sees the Ecumenical Patriarch in a strictly limited way, saying Bartholomew can act on behalf of other Orthodox churches only if they make a formal request.
He did not ask other Orthodox for a green light to meet Francis, Hilarion said, so the meeting is less than it seems.
“It is a meeting between the pope of Rome and the head of the Orthodox Church of Constantinople,” the Moscow prelate said.
The ROC has secured its future influence by ensuring that the pan-Orthodox council in 2016 – the first in 13 centuries – will decide issues by consensus rather than the majority voting Bartholomew wanted.
The pan-Orthodox council was first proposed in the 1960s to bring the Orthodox closer together to respond to the unity call of the Catholic Church’s Second Vatican Council (1962-1965).
While now ready to hold a council, the 14 Orthodox churches still disagree on key points that could block movement towards intercommunion, common feast dates or other changes that would make unity more visible to the Catholic and Orthodox faithful.
“There must be more work among the Orthodox before we can consider bilateral Catholic-Orthodox issues,” said Nicolas Kazarian, a church historian at the Orthodox seminary of Saint Serge in Paris.
(Reporting By Tom Heneghan; Editing by Andrew Heavens)