A Pressing Concern for Orthodox

A Pressing Concern for Orthodox: Theology and Bioethics

"I ask your forgiveness for being so blunt, but we don't live in the fourth century. I worry about the lack of solid theology, and understanding of some very critical life issues of our times that seem to just be ignored by contemporary orthodox piety....

...I take this opportunity also to ask for your prayers during this season of fasting before the feasts of Nativity and Theophany and ask for your forgiveness."

+ Very Rev. Fr. Roberto Ubertino, Excerpt of Priest Musings, December 2012

Anamnesis: Remembrance of Divine Life

"Anamnesis is fundamental to understanding our own place in the Church. How many people who witness a marriage remember their own marriage at the ceremony? Or who attends a funeral of a friend or loved one and does not consider his or her own mortality? A constant sense of remembering brings to the forefront the reality that we are fully members of the Body of Christ who are being formed and shaped into the likeness of Christ. Once we stop remembering who we are, we stop functioning as members of the Body.

The Christian concept of remembrance stems from the ancient Hebrew understanding of the word, which means to make present. At every Passover meal the father of the house recalls the Exodus story and the deliverance that the Lord performed for his people. The act of remembering the Exodus story makes present Gods saving power in today’s world. Similarly, at every Baptism we are called to remember our own Baptism, and the prayers and symbolic actions once again become powerful for us. The people of God must identify ourselves with the child in the font, for just as he or she is accepting a new birth of water and the Spirit, so too are we accepting the same rebirth in our own lives: the coining of Christ to exorcize the demons from our lives, receiving sanctification and redemption through the baptismal waters, being clothed with the white garment of purity, accepting the call to walk in newness of life." 

+ Fr William C. Mills, "Church, World, and Kingdom: The Eucharistic Foundation  of Alexander Schmemann's  Pastoral Theology" (Chicago: Hillenbrand Books, 2012) 58-59.

Carry one another's burdens

"Carry one another's burdens"
Saint Paul's Epistle to the Romans XV: l-7

By Metropolitan Anthony Bloom

How beautiful and seemingly simple are the last words of to-day's Epistle: 'Carry one another's burdens, and so you will fulfil the Law of Christ'. But how much they claim from us! Linking it with Christ means that we must be prepared to carry the burden of each person, of everyone, whether it is a friend or a foe, whether the burden seems to be great and honourable, or whether it is humiliating to us as it is defiling to the other person.

Theology vs Spirituality?

Is there a seperation between Theology and Spirituality/Pastoralia in Orthodoxy?

"The work of the devil is diabolical: literally, to “throw in two,” from dia (two) and baleo (to throw). The unity of the Church in Christ, by redemptive contrast, is symbolical: Things separated are thrown together."

+ David W. Fagerberg, "Theologia Prima: What Is Liturgical Theology?" 2nd Ed. (Chicago: Hillenbrand Books, 2004) 202. 

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"A devastating aspect of the modern (and post-modern) world is the tendency to separate and isolate, to disintegrate and fracture. The spiritual and material are divided from each other, as are the metaphysical and existential, and the theoretical and practical. Faith and knowledge are opposed. Theology and piety are divorced. Freedom is put in opposition to authority as the individual person— or parish, province, tribe, or region— is placed against, rather than within, the larger community of family, church, society, nation, and world. Prophet is opposed to priest, charismatic to institutional, individual to corporate, private to public. An essential task of Orthodox theological education is to expose this literally "diabolical" approach to reality, and to teach and demonstrate in action the proper relationship between unity and diversity in all areas of human life and activity."

+ Fr Thomas Hopko, "Speaking the Truth in Love: Education, Mission, and Witness in Contemporary Orthodoxy." (New York: St Vladimir's Seminary Press, 2004) 33.

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"I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism. "

+ St Paul (Epistle to the Ephesians 4:1-5)

Introduction to the Orthodox Faith Part 6

The Orthodox Understanding of the Human Person

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPuUF8k4yks

Evangelism and Presence in Orthodoxy

Metropolitan Anthony Bloom on Evangelism:

"We do not try to win people over to Orthodoxy, but we are a missionary Church in the sense that we believe with all our hearts that Orthodoxy is infinitely precious, is capable of bringing joy and vision to people both if things divine and of human relationships and of our total attitude to the created world, and we want to share it - whether people become Orthodox technically or not is something which is secondary to us. What matters to us is that they should become partakers of this exulting joy and wonder which Orthodoxy is. So what we should do is to be a presence that is convincing; that is, looking at us people should see on our faces, in our eyes, in our behaviour,a dimension of wonder, joy and also of a sincere and sober desire to serve; and a disciplined mind and heart capable if serving faithfully whomever is in need if being served. And I think that if we became even a small light - if we became nothing but a handful if salt that prevents corruption- if we could bring a little hope to the hearts of people who have lost all hope, a little faith in the sense of trust and faithfulness and knowledge of God,  a little love, we would be fulfilling our vocation. This is what we should bring, each of us perhaps a crumb, all of us we possess, and express this in the readiness to give without asking any return."+ HE Metropolitan Anthony Bloom, from Gilligan Crow's 'A Man of Vision' (New York: SVS Press, 2005) 158-159.

"It requires true saintliness to see the divine light shining in the darkness of another's personality, but to be seen as an icon of God could be for a person redemption. It is impious to venerate icons without venerating out neighbour, for in serving our neighbour we adore God." + HE Metropolitan Anthony Bloom

The Package

"Even spirituality is marketed. We have a natural hunger for God, but those things that are natural are inevitably swathed in the unnatural voice of the passions. Thus we need God – but we need Him for our passions. Thus we find the God who will underwrite our narrative. The story of conversion becomes our organizing moment (“watch how I follow God”). Religious music is packaged to appeal. The aesthetics of religious experience can thus be more important than the content itself. Nothing is safe from the passions. The highest, most noble pursuits can be as driven by passion as the lowest bestial desires. The consumer shops for his God."

+ Fr Stephen Freeman, http://glory2godforallthings.com/2012/11/23/shopping-for-god/

Two talks about Salvation

An Orthodox Christian View of the Doctrine of Salvation by Faith Alone

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkPcVFx-U-k

Salvation in Christ 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3F7h-TStNd8

Why don’t the Orthodox do more evangelism?

I think the following section from Silouan Thompson's blog is reminder of being authentically Orthodox and reflecting that authentic encounter of Person. Again the theme revolves around our Lex Orandi and our Lex Credendi. Our Soteriology, our approach, our worship and our ethos...

Why don’t the Orthodox do more evangelism?

From: http://silouanthompson.net/faq/#10

Forgiving

"A brotherhood of monks complained to St Macarius the Great about another monk who allowed a woman into his cell. They asked Abba Macarius to come rebuke the monk. So Abba Macarius followed them to the cell of the monk.

When the monk saw them coming, he hid the woman under a large earthenware vessel. Abba Macarius knew this, and as he entered the cell he immediately sat on the vessel, and told the brethren  to search the cell, but that he is tired and unable to get off the vessel. So they searched and did not find the woman. The could not dare to ask Abba Macarius to step off the vessel, so they left in shame.

Abba Macarius rebuked them for attacking an "innocent monk." Then he turned to the monk and said, "Brother, judge yourself before they judge you!" Upon leaving the cell, Abba Macarius heard a voice from heaven saying, "Blessed are you Macarius for you have acted like your Saviour in covering peoples' sins."

+ Desert Fathers