After a long hiatus...

Christ is in our midst!

I took quite some time away from to blog due to life circumstances, but alas I return.  For a while, I was posting on another blog to reflect on some important personal lessons (which I intend to also return to), which can be found at "thethingaboutforgiveness.blogspot.ca."

Where did I leave off?  Right....I was working on a hybrid of the Agpeya.  Sadly, this has not progressed since I last posted.  I actually need to find the files I was working on, but I will and I hope to post a portion as a sample.  In the meantime, a little news on the home front...

Many of the few of you who were (and maybe are?) following this blog know of the upcoming "Great and Holy Council" that has been of great interest to clergy and layperson alike.  Status?  The Chalcedonian Orthodox jurisdictions in North America, South America, Australia, and Europe have been told by their mother Churches to 'get your house in order.'  This is because of the multi-jurisdictional and canonical anomalies that exist in these regions.  In North America alone, there exist almost every national church (Greek, Antiochian, Russian, Serbian, etc.), which overlapping dioceses, episcopal thrones, pastoral divergences, etc.  This prompted the formation of the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops in each of the regions of the diaspora.  They are working out how to approach these irregularities and find resolutions for them.  Once this is complete, work will likely begin toward dissolving the jurisdictions in the diaspora into local Autonomous or Autocephalous churches.

Two problems I forsee in holding a "Great and Holy Council": the Pope of Rome is still given to heresy and the Holy Church has not installed another Pope for the Orthodox there, unless they decide to leave that Seat as lost (can they do that?).
The second problem is the non-Chalcedonian Orthodox Churches are not yet back in full communion with us.  This problem is something that can be solved within this generation, but it will take mutual humility and repentance of both sides.  The Chalcedonian Church will need to repent of the blood spilled on account of the misunderstanding in 451 AD, and admit there has not been adequate effort to seek mutual forgiveness and understanding.  The Patriarchate of Antioch has been proactive over the last hundred years in seeking to heal this division with the See of Alexandria, but has come under heavy criticism for it.  The non-Chalcedonian churches will need to repent of rejecting and vehemently opposing the Holy Fourth Council.  Both sides will need to reexamine some anathemas issued against certain saints of the "other" side.  And before the Chalcedonians get all up in arms about this and how impossible it may seem, I bring you back not even ten years ago when the Moscow Patriarchate and ROCOR reconciled.  Perhaps a similar model could be followed.

In the meantime, we as lay people need to pray for and show our support to our hierarchs as they head down the road toward becoming canonically clean.  We cannot criticize them, as we have enough on our own plates: our own sins, our own 'churches' (our families and homes), our neighbours who do not know The Lord, and our own hypocrisies that soil any virtues we have.  Our Saviour has chosen each of the bishops for His Church through his Church to govern his Church, and we must remember to submit to them and support them.

Project Part One of...

Christ is in our midst!

As promised, I have been working on my Agpeya projects, and I have finished a couple of drafts of the First and Third Hours, according to Coptic Orthodox usage.  I am waiting for a couple of Coptic Orthodox friends to proof-read my first couple drafts, and then I will finish the others.

After I finish this one, I will be working on a hybrid that synthesizes the EO and OO traditions of praying the Hours.  This is not to stir a pot of any kind, but rather to help prepare us for reunion.  Both the EO and OO will find the layout familiar and easy to use, but will have an element of, "oh, this is different."  The tradition of praying the Hours has changed from the time of the Apostles to the split of the OO and EO in 451 AD, and while my attempt at marrying the two traditions will likely be a poor one, I hope it will serve as a springboard for the Ecclesiarchs of the OO and EO churches to work on this now and have liturgical forms in place for concelebration and joint prayers that will be faithful to both traditions.

If you would like to preview my drafts, search for me on the Tasbeha.org forum and I will send them to you.

Forgive me,

stavros tou theou

Christ is Risen! Truly, He is Risen!

I greet you all in the joy of our Lord, God, and Savior: Jesus Christ. 

With the Paschal season here for the next 37 days, I wanted to take a survey of interest regarding steps toward reunion between the EO and OO.  Of course, great steps have been taken already by our God-fearing and God-protected hierarchs, and may God grant them many, many years.  To start, it would be great to have a collection of lay people--and clergy are certainly invited as well--to begin gathering together and praying the Agpeya (The Hours) and supporting our hierarchs together.  Meeting together not just on virtual forums and blogs, but also in our local cities by visiting each others' parishes (while attending your own for the Divine Liturgies, as this we must retain and be consistent in out of obedience to Christ through our Bishops) and even meeting together in public domains and eventually in each others' homes.  EO and OO faithful gathering together and celebrating Christ's Holy Resurrection and praying for His Holy Church.  To do this, go to this forum page: http://tasbeha.org/content/community/index.php/topic,11327.0.html.  I hope and pray we can work on this together to support our Bishops during this time, all to the glory of Christ our God, to whom is due all honour, praise, and worship, with His Father who is without beginning, and His All-Holy, Good, and Life-Giving Spirit, always, now and ever, and unto ages of ages.  Amen. 

My project...

Christ is in our midst! 

I am currently working on compiling a Book of the Hours, or Agpeya, that is a beautiful fusion of the Byzantine EO and the Coptic OO forms--because I am EO, I do apologise in advance of any bias that may appear.  I am currently working on the Midnight Hour and will be using a more formal English version as a base.  I will use the Psalter as published by Holy Transfiguration Greek Orthodox Monastery, since it was translated to be used liturgically, and it also uses more formal English.  The format of the Psalms, however, is especially beautiful in the Coptic usage and I want to preserve that. 

It would also be helpful to compile a comprehensive list and collection of EO and OO services, including the various liturgies in their various forms.  If anyone has any services saved as a PDF file, please feel free to contact me and send them to me, or simply post them as a link in a 'Comment' on this post. 

Great Lent is also drawing to a close, which means Holy Week is just a week and three days away.  May we continue to look joyfully to the glorious feast of the Resurrection of our Lord, God, and Savior Jesus Christ--our Great and Holy Pascha who was incarnate for us and our salvation. 

Through the prayers of St. John Climacus and St. Mary of Egypt, O Lord Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us.  Amen. 

Eygopticos Ordhodhoxiya

 The Coptic (Egyptian Orthodox Church) has done a marvelous job of compiling hymns, teachings, activities, etc. pertaining to the Orthodox Faith.  They have services and events broadcasted live, and you can listen to them posted here:

CopticChurch.Net - Coptic Orthodox Church Network

A word about hypocrisy and hate, and why they have no part in us Orthodox Christians...

In a time where so many parts of the world are falling apart, whether it be revolution or natural catastrophe, it is especially encouraging to see complete strangers banding together to accomplish a task, laying aside their differences.  In Egypt, we see Orthodox Christians and Muslims embracing each other in Tahrir Square in a common bid for freedom, we see Muslims in Egypt helping the Orthodox Christians rebuild a very precious church temple that some misled extremists destroyed, we see Japanese Shinto, Buddhists, Orthodox Christians, Protestants, Catholics, and Atheists consoling each other and supporting each other in the face of the recent earthquake and tusmani that have claimed the lives of 7300 people (with another 11000 missing), we see normally conflicting tribes and Muslim denominations linking arms and standing up for freedom and equality in Libya, and the list goes on, but I wanted to draw on these examples, largely the first, since I have been increasingly reading, hearing, and seeing grotesque and barbaric remarks and actions by one nation against another, one people against another, one faith against another, and one person against another.  This is largely addressed to my Orthodox Christian Brothers and Sisters, but this equally applicable to those who are not Orthodox Christians, or even of any faith at all (in which case, you have more faith than I).

We live our day to day lives meeting so many different people.  In fact, every person we encounter is a different culture in our midst.  We may walk into a hardware store in downtown and get a similar vibe from everyone there, because by and large the folks who spend the most time in hardware stores share a vast number of character and personality traits that draw them to and allow them to feel comfortable in a hardware store.  We usually label these people as a bit gruff, slightly dirty (in language and hygiene), very hands-on in their intelligence (usually not as "book smart"), and by golly can they talk up a storm while leaning over the sales counter on their arm with a cup of coffee so weak that it cannot even be classified as coffee.  We know this stereotype, because if we are not of that group, we've pointed out these things in other people who frequent hardware stores.  The beautiful part of this stereotype is that there is absolutely nothing wrong with people who frequent hardware stores, in fact, they are truly beautiful people with wonderful stories and challenging quirks.

The observations I made about people in hardware stores could, on a domain level rather than a category level, be made about other types of people.  And furthermore, all of these "hardware store folk" who I just lumped together in a stereotype are all completely different in their own regard, and yet they are exactly the same as you and me.  You see, we were created in the same image, regardless of persuasion, faith, employment, lifestyle choices, etc., and this is something that we, as Orthodox Christians, hold exceptionally close as fundamental to our faith and life in Christ Jesus.  The problem, however, lies in what we as Orthodox Christians are doing while we are on the track, running the race marked before us, and before the very eyes of a world that is doing everything it can to find fault in the Faith: we are judging and hating others.  Please afford me a brief explanation:

This morning I logged onto my Facebook and did my usual scrolling through updates from all of my friends.  One of my friends had "Liked" a particular picture of a poorly depicted prehistoric Muslim with a sword being punted by a white North American leg with a workboot.  The comments were also rather bothersome, and this not the first I've seen from many of my friends and family on Facebook, or even outside of Facebook.  I find it interesting that, as Orthodox Christians who preach unconditional love and compassion, many of us have audacity to judge another people because of their faith.  We judge the Muslims, of all people, because a few extremists fly planes full of people into buildings, a few more collapse a tunnel on Britons in England, and few here and a few there perform acts of insufferable intolerance and hate.  I am sorry, my Brothers and Sisters, but you are demonstrating the same hatred as those extremists who have slaughtered innocents. 
Jesus Christ offers us Himself as the Bread of Life and the Fount of Immortality, and He does so seeing and knowing the depths of our hearts and the extent of our filth, but yet the same God draws us to Himself.  Consider for a moment your body, that flesh-covered bone structure that is so susceptible to disease and suffering: Christ Jesus, our Lord and God and Savior, took that upon Himself in its fullness and was crucified in it for us and our salvation that the Gospel of Salvation may be first for the Jews and then the Gentiles (aka "the world").  Christ our God did this not when mankind was on its best behaviour, but when Romans were nailing criminals to trees and crosses, when Britons were using their enemies skulls as soup bowls,  when Slavs would disembowel their enemies for sport, when Greeks had full-time prostitutes in their polytheistic temples (and Jews would sometimes frequent them), and when the Jewish nation itself had all but walked away from God, forsaking His freeing commandments.  Instead, Jesus Christ came when we seemed to need Him most, at the most critical moment in time, so we would be ready for Him.  He came for the Jew, the Briton, the Roman, the Slav, the Greek, the African, the Indian, the Aboriginee, the First Nations, the Canadian, the Quebecois, the Albertan, the American, the Californian, Texan, Mexican, the Arab, the Berber, the Pakistani, etc.  He came for them all and loves them all, regardless of their faith, regardless of their lifestyle choices, regardless of their diet, regardless of their goings-on.  "While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us," so with that always in mind, do you not think it would be most sensible to acquire the mind of St. Paul, "to know Christ and Him crucified," that we may, "work out our salvation with fear and trembling," and not judging others, lest we bring the judgement of God upon ourselves? 

What faith teaches hate against another?  What kind of god teaches to mock and ridicule another religion and/or faith in the name of itself?  What kind of religion teaches love and compassion while they are cutting down another person?  I understand we are people with weakness who are always tempted to do this--I would know, I'm the worst offender, just ask my family and friends who were (and thank God some still are) close to me--but this is not an excuse to let ourselves jump on the bandwagon of hate.  This dreadful thing I saw this morning was about Orthodox Christians mocking Muslims and saying how evil they are, while wearing their crosses around their necks, posting pro-God stuff on their walls, while quoting Scripture verses, while commenting on holy events and saints, while claiming to be this, and declaring they are doing that, but still all the while demonstrating why Orthodox Christians are no different than any other person--that they are in the world, and, quite frankly, of it too.


***Taken from "My Notes" on Facebook, published 03-19-2011.

An Introduction...

Christ is in our midst! 

I am a Christian of the Orthodox Faith who is passionate about the healing of the schisms of the churches.  For 1560 years, the "Eastern Orthodox" (EO) and "Oriental Orthodox" (OO) have lived apart from each other, not experiencing the beauty and glory of communion together.  The initiative that was active for some years that was designed to work toward unity between the two bodies has fizzled out, likely because of the major steps taking place in the EO leading up the Great and Holy Council, however the Great and Holy Council is a reason for our bodies to be united again.  In 1990, both the EO and OO sat together and worked out theology and, without surprise, we agreed that we share the same faith--we are unified in faith.  However, we are still not in communion for various reasons that require patience but extreme endurance in pressing forward in the struggle for God-pleasing reunification. 

I ask you to pray with me for the healing of the schism between the EO and the OO, and that you join me in forming a visible body of lay people to support and pray for our bishops during this time.  More thoughts will obviously stream from here, but I just wished to commend these opening thoughts and words to you all. 

Forgive me, a sinner.