When Activity is our only "Theology"

“When theology is false, then Christianity is reduced to activities.”

+ Fr. John S. Romanides

"Nowadays, especially in the U.S., the Church is perceived as an enterprise, an activity. The priest constantly harasses people to do something for the Church. And their activism is measured in quantitative criteria: how many meetings, how much money, how much “doing.” I’m not sure it is all necessary. 

What is dangerous is not the activity itself, but the reduction of the Church, the identification of this activity with life in the Church. The idea of the Church, the sacramental principle of its life, lies in taking us away from activity (“let us put aside all earthly cares”), in making us commune with a new life, eternity, the Kingdom. 

And the idea of the Church, the principle of its life, also demands that we would bring into the world this experience of a new life so that we would purify this world, illumine it with the non-worldliness of the experience of the Church. Quite often the opposite happens: we bring activism into the Church, the fuss of this world, and submit the Church, poison its life with this incessant fuss. What happens is not that life becomes Church, but the Church becomes worldly."

+ Fr Alexander Schmemann, Journals, Thursday, February 18, 1982

Orthodoxy on Other Christians…

Orthodoxy on Other Christians…
http://thehandmaid.wordpress.com/holy-orthodoxy-on-other-christians/
by Blessed Fr. Seraphim Rose


A few years before he died, Fr. Seraphim received a letter from an African-American woman who, as a catechumen learning about Orthodoxy, was struggling to understand the uncharitable attitude that some Orthodox Christians showed to those outside the Church, an attitude which reminded her of how her own people had been treated. “I am deeply troubled,” this woman wrote, “as to how Orthodoxy views what the world would call Western Christians, i.e., Protestants and Roman Catholics. I have read many articles by many Orthodox writers, and a few use words like ‘Papists,’ etc., which I find deeply disturbing and quite offensive. I find them offensive because as a person of a race which has been subjected to much name-calling I despise and do not wish to adopt the habit of name-calling myself. Even ‘heretic’ disturbs me….
“Where do I stand with my friends and relatives? They do not know about Orthodoxy or they do not understand it. Yet they believe in and worship Christ.… Am I to treat my friends and relatives as if they have no God, no Christ?… Or can I call them Christians, but just ones who do not know the true Church?
“When I ask this question, I cannot help but think of St. Innocent of Alaska as he visited the Franciscan monasteries in California. He remained thoroughly Orthodox yet he treated the priests he met there with kindness and charity and not name-calling. This, I hope, is what Orthodoxy says about how one should treat other Christians.”

How Atheists can help us...

How atheists can help us....
by Fr Roberto Ubertino

http://stsilouan.org/priestmusings/How%20atheist%20can%20help%20us.html

Resisting the Reductionist "Spirituality" of Secular Presuppositions

"I am an Orthodox Christian – which is not the same thing as saying that I have an interest in “organized religion.” There is much about organized religion that I dislike in the extreme, and I occasionally see its shadow seep into my experience within Orthodoxy. But I repeat unashamedly that I am an Orthodox Christian and admit that one clear reason is that I am not very “spiritual.” Without the life of the Church and its Tradition – I could easily drift into a shapeless secularism – living a mediocre existence, marking time until my time is done.

This article written in 1932 by Archbishop John of San Francisco is truly a humbling one, especially considering the title of this blog. I hope and pray that what is posted on the pages of this blog does not resonate with the sectarianism that Archbishop John is discussing, but rather by saying "Orthodoxy is Orthodoxy" an appeal is made to humbly and self-critically look at our hearts, deeds and mind and be authentic to the beauty that the Church lives out through and with the Saints. 

The appeal is to beauty, to authentic witness, for us to be authentically encountering Father, Son and Holy Spirit, for us to be Orthodox in this sense. Or as the article states:

"Orthodoxy, on the contrary, is humility. It is the confession of the fullness of the Truth, of righteousness and of love. Orthodoxy must win the victory only by its radiance, like the Lord Himself, and by no means through the use of cannon, steel or verbal (there is no difference). Orthodoxy does not shine forth in an Orthodox society that takes pride in its Orthodoxy. It shines forth in those who are humble in their Orthodoxy, who understand the purity of the faith, not only in their puny reasoning, but through the spirit through all their life." 

+ Archbishop John (Shahovskoy) of San Francisco

If any posts appear polemic or sectarian, I ask for your forgiveness and prayers. It is not the purpose of this blog to make statements of Traditions outside of Orthodoxy (ie. we know where the Church is; we do not know where it is not). 

Rather, if reference is made to "non-Orthodox" or "heterodox" presuppositions and means, this is not intended as a slight to those Traditions, but rather an appeal to Orthodox (first of all my own weakness) to live our Faith, the Way, the Divine Life, in a way that is radiant and resonant with the beauty and song of the Orthodox Tradition. It is an appeal for Orthodox to be self-reflective and authentic, not to an ideology or the package of a pseudo-"Orthodoxy" but to Orthodoxy, the Person of Christ and the Divine Life of the Holy Trinity.

"In Orthodox apologetics a clear and strong emphasis must be placed on the explanation of the meaning of the knowledge of the faith in life."

Perhaps Archbishop John's words are affirming that in our witness of the Person of Christ and in our union in the life of Holy Trinity, we are continually called to put on Christ. Put on Christ who is all in all, in theology as well as in prayer, in Truth and in Love, in obedience and in humility, in wealth and in poverty. 

Perhaps this means we are to show compassion for ourselves, each other and those around us who have not yet the acquisition of the Peaceful Spirit which is Orthodoxy.  

Perhaps this suggests that it is our calling for us Orthodox who claim to be Orthodox to actively live out our Orthodoxy, live both actively for truth and within love for all. Our fruit must be beautiful and bring forth life, life as Theotokos and the Saints have brought. Life as we who partake of the Holy Liturgy receive...on behalf of all and for all. 

Archbishop John mentions "Orthodoxy cannot be defended through pagan....arguments." Which suggests that our appeal is not to the second storey presuppositions but to the person of Christ and the paradox of His Kenotic victory of humility, participation, union and unfathomable love of the Cross and Resurrection. 

Perhaps Archbishop John is suggesting that if we do see sectarians or even Orthodox use the fallen presuppositions and arguments, we are to be reminded to pray: pray with a deep divine love, or at least ask for strength to pray as such, for the life of the world, and remember our own sinfulness, our own wonder of this beautiful gift of the Orthodox Church. To pray and work to becoming truly and humbly Orthodox.

I would hope that when one prays that Orthodoxy is Orthodoxy it is a reminder to be called to Truth and the authentic witness of the Church so that our light may shine before others so they may Glorify our Father in heaven. The light of union with God, for those who have been baptized have put on Christ forever, adopted into the divine life of the holy Trinity. What a wonder our baptism is...that we who sin, are nonetheless being transformed into Christ. As Christ our God fulfilled Israel's desire for King, Prophet and Priest, may we encounter Him in our midst, within our very heart and being, as liturgical beings who have been called to the ancient beauty and image of His Reign, His Truth, and His Priesthood.

My weak opinion is that such a journey is rooted in becoming authentically Orthodox, with a reminder that our Faith is very beautiful and cannot be reduced either by moralism or pietism. That we may recognize beauty even in heterodox things but should always be careful not to emulate such things especially when they can hijack our ethos because of the presuppositions of heterodox doctrines and methods.

I feel that as Orthodox, we who are constantly reminded of our sinful nature yet also constantly raised to the stature of royalty in union with God, are called to be that very paradox to all. 

I think that Orthodoxy can truly encounter everything and anything: the worst controversies, the biggest debates, the most vile deeds, because the Church, the Body of Christ, the Saints of the day, have and we pray will always continue to recapitulate and restore things to their eschatological fulfillment. 

Again this suggests that we really be, become and are Orthodox. 

I believe and hope that Orthodoxy should be the Orthodoxy of St Maria of Paris, Metropolitan Anthony Bloom, Pope Kyrillos VI, St Seraphim of Sarov, St Silouan the Athonite, St Isaac the Syrian and of the Most Holy Theotokos and all the Saints who remind us of our and their union with the Holy Trinity and their eternal worship and glorifying of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit unto the ages of all ages. Amen.

Forgive me and pray for me a sinner.

Je Nai Nan.

Sectarianism in Orthodoxy and Orthodoxy in Sectarianism

by Archbishop John (Shahovskoy) of San Francisco

Fr John McGuckin On ”The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church”

"I believe, the future of Orthodox theology is neither Sophianism or Neo-Patristic synthesis; neither Neo-Palamism nor ressourciement, not Nouvelle théologieor even ancienne théologie for that matter; not progressivism or conservatism.  The future of Orthodox theology is fidelity to the Gospel lived out in the interim as we approach the eschaton. We have always known this; and accordingly have always known that we were supposed to resist the isms and secessions, scholasticisms, denominations, and all other sorts of factions that mark off a sectarian mentality from the ecclesial spirit. Now there have been endless temptations of the Christian church in recent generations to dissect itself in ever-diminishing circles. The ecumenical movement that once shone so radiantly in the early post-war years when these Orthodox thinkers of Lossky's time were in their prime, excited and energized, is now a squeaking ghost of itself because of that spirit of divisionism that is rife. Conservative Christians can hardly speak to progressives. But when we Orthodox are being specifically conscious about our mode of discourse today, I think we should remember that the church has always used philosophical method very eclectically to exegete the Gospel; applying a purely utilitarian principle. It can never wed itself to any method or school or system except that which Gregory the Theologian calls ' a fisherman's dialectic.' 

Orthodox have sometimes begun to imagine themselves as a denomination alongside other multiple churches in a pluralist world, and to speak of themselves in that way. But Orthodoxy's role is not to be a subaltern in a post-colonial ambit: to appear quaint when we speak to some putative West, as some putative East. On the contrary, we have to hold an important line: the church is not a sect. It contains within its living body, conservatives and progressives, liberal reformists and die-hard traditionalists, not to mention saints and sinners. Within Orthodoxy those who want to 'synthesize' for the future, and those who want to keep everything intact as it was in the past, both have to learn the hard reality that it is only God's eschaton that makes the correct judgement on what is right and what is wrong with the Church. The spotless Bride who contains all that is necessary for salvation in her trousseau, is ever the same (just seen in a different light) as that annoying baggage that is the Church on earth, which is comprised of an awful lot of flawed and compromised individuals trying to do their best to make their pilgrimage to the Kingdom. The Orthodox always attempt to be ever faithful to the evangelical tradition they have received and which they seek to preserve in the canons and the writings of the dogmatic and spiritual fathers, but above all they are called to live it out, live out that is the resurrectional presence of Christ, through his Spirit, in the largely unseen holiness of the ecclesial community."

+ Fr John McGuckin

Read the entire lecture @ http://svotssynaxis.wordpress.com/2014/02/01/on-the-mystical-theology-of-the-eastern-church/

To Judge or Not To Judge

A very good read...(a similar theme can be found on this page: http://www.antiochian.org/content/what-about-non-orthodox-exclusive-claims-church )

TO JUDGE OR NOT TO JUDGE

by Vladimir Moss on November 1/14, 2007.
Source: http://www.orthodoxchristianbooks.com/articles/209/-judge-or-not-judge/

If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?I Peter 4.18.

     “Judge not, that ye be not judged” (Matthew 7.1) – we all know this very important commandment of the Lord. We know what it means: to express condemnation of a person with hatred or derision. And we know, if we are honest with ourselves, that we very often sin against it… However, the word “judge” has many meanings in the English language; and there is a tendency to use the commandment not to judge in this sense as an excuse for inaction, as a stick with which to suppress dissident opinions, and even, sometimes, as an argument in favour of ecumenism. Let us look at these different meanings.

More On Joint Commission

Two Families of Orthodox

http://lacopts.org/orthodoxy/orthodox-life/two-families-of-orthodox/

Chalcedonians and Non-Chalcedonians: The Last Steps to Unity

"Blessed is the souls that loves her brother, for our brother is our life."

+ St Silouan the Athonite

The late Fr John Meyendorff wrote the article below in 1988 when there was still momentum for the Orthodox Joint Commission.

Such a tragedy that since 1993 there has been growing apathy concerning the hope of the Orthodox Joint Commission (even the simple website www.orthodoxunity.org has been abandoned)...

Je Nai Nan, Lord have mercy on us sinners.

Have mercy on our petty politics, our jurisdictional pride, our spiritual nationalism, our competing for numbers, our lack of compassion.

Je Nai Nan, Lord have mercy on us sinners.

Forgive me, beloved readers, for my presumption. Lord Jesus Christ Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner.


Chalcedonians and Non-Chalcedonians: The Last Steps to Unity
by Protopresbyter John Meyendorff, St. Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly 33.4 (1989) 319-329.
(Originally published in Orthodox Identity in India. Essays in honor of V. C. Samuel. Edited by M. K. Kuriakose, Bangalore, 1988, pp. 105-117)

Our century has witnessed significant steps towards better understanding and doctrinal unity between Chalcedonian and non-Chalcedonian Eastern Christians. Of course, the basic identity of christological understanding between the churches was affirmed earlier; for instance, by the very well-informed Russian Bishop Porphyry Uspensky, who, during his long travels throughout the Middle East, was in close contact, particularly with the Coptic Church, and wrote about his impressions subsequently.

Obstacles to Faith

An excellent post by Fr Stephen Freeman that again calls out the issue of the Two Storey Universe and the presuppositions of the millitant atheist, reductionist and secular worldview. A worldview that has been perpetuated by the Reformation's (and one could also say, Islam's) movement to de-sacramentalize, conquer  and categorize the world into 'sacred' vs 'profane.' 

It's a fascinating and challenging article and one that reminds Orthodox not to buy into the trends and theology of Mega-Church Evangelicalism, Reformation-rooted reductionism, the imposition of 'dhimmah', the slow decay of the 'millah' and the 'millet', and the resurgence of heresies the Church has already responded to with her witness of the Crucified and Risen Christ.

Through the prayers of our Holy Fathers, O Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us and save us!

Obstacles to Faith
By Fr Stephen Freeman

http://glory2godforallthings.com/2013/06/26/obstacles-to-faith-2/

The Problem of Phyletism

Je Nai Nan....

Alas, the element of nationalism, of ethnic narrowness, is a fact that we can see very widely in the contemporary Orthodox Church. And it has of course deep historical roots. It is not only a problem of today.

Is the Orthodox Church Missional?

"If the Church is not about the business of transforming defective humanity into true humanity in the image of God, we are in no wise “missional” or “Incarnational.”...Sure, the community is nice, but you can’t have true community without intimate communion with the all-Holy Trinity (and this does not and cannot occur through mere ideas or devotionals)."

+ SubDeacon Vincent Martini

Is the Orthodox Church Missional?

By SubDeacon Vincent Martini

http://onbehalfofall.org/2012/10/24/is-the-orthodox-church-missional/

Neoplatonic myth

Jurisdictionalism (as Christians in North America and the Lands of Immigration have experienced), Orthodox 'denominationalism', spiritual nationalism and ethnic ghettos are all distortions and misrepresentations of Orthodox lived theology. If we cannot see ourselves and Christ in our Orthodox brothers and sisters, and if we continue to embrace either a sort of jurisdictional pride [thinking we're the only pure Orthodox] or practice in a way that is foreign to Orthodox ethos [becoming unrecognizable as Orthodox to other Orthodox], we make the hope of Orthodox unity increasingly difficult.

Mission and Worship

Does adopting ideas from Evangelical mega-church ethos and presuppositions have any bearing on Orthodox parishes? Can Protestant "Worship" music introduce a possible misdirection in Orthodox Lex Orandi or Lex Credendi? Is Worship the same as Worshiping in Spirit and in Truth? Does it really matter?

As the Church celebrates the Holy Feast of Pentecost we might consider the powerful account of Pentecost in the Acts of the Apostles and consider our mission to the Americas as requiring enculturation of the 'religion' of America and perhaps also adopting her musical traditions in order to speak in the apparent modern American cultural milleu. It is a provocative and tempting argument, for the Apostles were seen speaking in the tongues of all those around them and St Paul speaks of being all things to all people.

However, in his article "Mission and Worship - America and the Orthodox," Father Stephen Freeman gives a compelling critique of the reductionist and consumerist ethos of Evangelical mega-church "Worship" and "Christian Contemporary Music" or "CCM" that is presented as the defacto expression of the American Christian 'Culture'. This article has been referenced briefly here and relates thematically to another article on missiology and American culture that Fr Stephen has written entitled "America and the perversion of Christianity."

It's a fascinating article on enculturation and suggests that Orthodox Churches need to at least be conscious of the presuppositions of what is presented as American culture and evaluate our liturgical embrace and recapitulation of such culture in accordance with the ethos of Christ, the ethos of His Body the Church and her Orthodox Tradition in the ethos and witness of the Fathers, both modern and ancient. 

The article, I would argue, also hints that Orthodox Churches have much to learn from other Orthodox Churches. That if beauty, depth and theology has somehow become absent in one rite, it would be wiser to humbly seek the assistance and encouragement from another Orthodox rite or jurisdiction rather than appeal to reductionist and pop-Christian methods, presuppositions, books, teachings and ethos. This is not to decry the possibility of truth or value in these pop-Christian methods, but rather to suggest that as Orthodox we have a treasure, a pearl of great price and an encounter of beauty from within the Orthodox Life that is much deeper and comprehensive which we as sinners can offer to the fallen world. As liturgical beings offering Truth, Love and indeed even the world itself to God, for the life of the World and encounter of the Kingdom, to the Glory of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

Here is the article reblogged below in its entirety. Please pray for the Church and all the world.

Mission and Worship - America and the Orthodox
By Fr Stephen Freeman

http://glory2godforallthings.com/2007/11/26/mission-and-worship-america-and-the-orthodox/

Orthodox Christian Identity in America

Fr. John H. Erickson on "Orthodox Christian Identity in America: Historical Perspectives, Present Challenges" Recorded on November 15, 2012  at St. Herman of Alaska Orthodox Sobor in Edmonton, AB, Canada. www.sthermans.ca

Fr. John is the Dean Emeritus of St. Vladimir's Orthodox Seminary in New York, USA. Recorded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a8R8oCo4WL8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l5LoJ8RblxY

Transcript:

A Shared Ethos

"I first read St Ephrem, St Severus, and VC Samuel at a Byzantine seminary. In addition, I never understood why we put the cross in the baptismal font during Denaha until I saw what the Byzantines do in their tradition. (and no, I’m not going to share, to find out everyone will have to do the ghastly act of researching another Orthodox experience)

Our exposure to other Orthodox traditions is not a threat, it’s a blessing and helps us understand ourselves better. In seminary I got to learn about Russian, Antiochene, Greek, Ethiopian, and even Armenian traditions. It was an amazing experience. We will not lose our Malankara ethos (whatever you define that as) by opening ourselves to experience the way the Holy Spirit has worked through a people and a culture different than ours. If anything, the Byzantines have learned from us too. Several Byzantine students studied Syriac with us at the Armenian seminary.

Something I’ve noticed is that when a priest or bishop from India studies from a Catholic or Protestant school, it is to their credit. When someone from America studies at an Orthodox institution, it is our handicap. Why?"

+ Fr. Mat Alexander, http://www.orthodoxherald.com/2011/01/22/byzantine-orthodox-ethos-a-threat-to-our-liturgical-theology-fr-mat-alexander/

Father Mat's article raises a wonderful point: that we Orthodox are not made up of Orthodox "denominations" and that in seeing Christ and ourselves in each other we have much to learn and grow together.

Religion in America

Religion in America: Ancient and Modern
By David Bentley Hart

All culture arises out of religion. When religious faith decays, culture must decline, though often seeming to flourish for a space after the religion which has nourished it has sunk into disbelief ... no cultured person should remain indifferent to erosion of apprehension of the transcendent.

--Russell Kirk, Eliot and His Age

Orthodoxy Isn’t a National Ideology

Orthodoxy Isn’t a National Ideology
by Fr. Vasileios Kalliakmanis
http://www.pemptousia.com/2013/04/orthodoxy-isnt-a-national-ideology/


The Gospel Reading (Jn. 1, 44-52)

At that time, Jesus wished to go to Galilee; he found Philip and said to him: “Follow me”. Now Philip was from Bethsaida, from the town of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him: “We’ve found him about whom Moses wrote in the law, as did the prophets: Jesus the son of Joseph, from Nazareth”. And Nathaniel said to him: “Can anything good come from Nazareth?”. Philip said to him: “Come and see”. Jesus saw Nathaniel coming towards him and said of him: “Here is truly an Israelite in whom there is no deceit”. Nathaniel said to him: “Where do you know me from?”. Jesus answered and said to him: “Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree”. Nathaniel answered and said to him: “Rabbi, you’re the son of God, you’re the king of Israel”. Jesus answered and said to him: “Because I said to you that I saw you under the fig tree, you believe? You will see greater things than this”. And he said to him, “Very truly I say to you, you will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the son of man”.

Theological and social approach

Orthodox Interchurch Dialogue (Critical Look at Challenges)

If you've five hours this weekend (especially if you are Coptic Orthodox) I highly recommend listening to the following talk:

Orthodox Interchurch Dialogue (Critical Look at Challenges)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDv_VsNxQjM

On Worship

"It’s not “limiting” God nor “legalistic” to be faithful to what He gave us. The worship “in spirit and in truth” is precisely the vast tradition of Orthodox liturgical worship given by Christ and then elaborated within the Church. To worship in spirit and in truth does not mean that that deposit from Christ is abandoned in favor of the whims of modern taste and secular culture. Christ Himself kept the Jewish calendar and participated in synagogue and temple liturgy, so interpreting His words in such a way as to draw condemnation of His own actions doesn’t really make much sense"

+ Fr Andrew Stephen Damick

A recent post by Fr Andrew Stephen Damick discusses the appeal of the "Rock Band and Sermon" package that has become the tradition of American Evangelical Mega-church approaches. 

Sometimes these trends also have appeal among Orthodox living in the Lands of Immigration. One might hear that there is 'worship' music and then there is Liturgy or Liturgical music, but such dichotomies and categories feed into the secular presuppositions and also imply that Liturgy is not worship but something else.