Dwarves are for the Dwarves

"They began eating and drinking greedily enough, but it was clear that they couldn’t taste it properly."

"They will not let us help them. They have chosen cunning instead of belief. Their prison is only in their own minds, yet they are in that prison; and so afraid of being taken in that they cannot be taken out."

+ The Last Battle

"O Master, Lord Jesus Christ our God, who said to his saintly, honoured disciples and holy apostles, Many prophets and righteous men have desired to see the things which you see, and have not seen them, and to hear the things which you hear and have not heard them. But blessed are your eyes for they see and your ears for they hear. May we be worthy to hear and to act according to your holy gospels through the prayers of your saints." 

+ The Prayer for the Gospel, Coptic Orthodox Rite

Orthodox Missiology: Kenotic Love in All Places

"Our love in Christ must reach all places, even to the hippies in Matala [in Crete]. I very much wanted to go there, not to preach to them or to condemn them, but to live with them, without sin of course, and leave the love of Christ to speak of itself, which transfigures life" 

+ Saint Porphyrios of Kavsokalyvia (Precious Vessels of the Holy Spirit,
Protecting Veil Press, Thessalonica, Greece)

Archbishop Leo of Finland: Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches form fullness of Orthodoxy

From: http://web.archive.org/web/20140624122312/http://theorthodoxchurch.info/blog/news/2014/06/archbishop-leo-of-finland-eastern-and-oriental-orthodox-churches-form-fullness-of-orthodoxy/

and

http://web.archive.org/web/20140624122607/http://theorthodoxchurch.info/blog/news/2014/06/historic-meeting-of-patriarchs-of-alexandria-and-archbishop-of-finland-in-helsinki/

In his speech during the reception provided to the Patriarchs of Alexandria on 23rd June 2014, Archbishop Leo of Karelia and All Finland stated that Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches form the fullness of Orthodoxy. He also recalled that late lamented Patriarch Athenagoras, always stressed on the true essence and fullness of Orthodoxy in Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches.

Archbishop Leo stressed that the relationship between the Church of Finland and Coptic Orthodox Patriarchate is very deep. There are large numbers of Coptic communities living in different parts of Finland. He recalled meeting with the predecessors of Coptic (Pope Shenouda III) and Alexandrian Patriarchates (Parthenius III & Peter VII).

The Primate of Finnish Church thanked Pope Tawadros II and Pope Theodore II for their historical visit to Finland and blessed presence in the country.

Several Orthodox Prelates, faithful and high level delegations from different organizations attended the events.

Oecumenical Grace Series

Here's a wonderful series on Grace over at Fr Aidan's blog:

http://afkimel.wordpress.com/2014/06/10/grace-oecumenical/
http://afkimel.wordpress.com/2014/06/12/oecumenical-grace-eastern-orthodoxy-on-theosis/
http://afkimel.wordpress.com/2014/06/16/oecumenical-grace-roman-catholicism-and-created-grace/
http://afkimel.wordpress.com/2014/06/18/oecumenical-grace-catholicism-and-the-divine-life/
http://afkimel.wordpress.com/2014/06/19/oecumenical-grace-the-protestant-gospel/
http://afkimel.wordpress.com/2014/06/22/oecumenical-grace-comparisons/


Also reblogged in its entirety below:

Aim of Orthodox Mission

"Orthodox mission consists in giving the treasure we have, and leaving the other to decide whether he will take it or not. If the other wants to join the Orthodox Church, you will never say "No." Our aim is to transmit the tradition of the Gospel in all its fullness, remaining free from any anxiety to convert anyone. You cannot impose on anyone's freedom. You are there, you give your witness; you are a candle, lighted by paschal joy, and if the other wishes to take from your flame, then of course, you will not refuse him."

+ Archbishop Anastasios of Albania. From Understanding Orthodoxy: How to distinguish true mission from proselytism.

Trisagion in East Syriac (in the Georgian Orthodox Church)

Here is an amazingly beautiful setting of the Trisagion in East Syriac sung Georgian-style. It seems that part of the Assyrian population of the Republic of Georgia who belong to the Georgian Orthodox Church still use some Syriac liturgically. ( http://araborthodoxy.blogspot.com/2014/04/syriac-in-georgian-chant.html )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArO4CGG6EFY

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkZza4YeAJ4

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

Taking the Fathers Back

Just read "Taking the Father Back" which discusses the challenges of reading the Fathers today and breaking out of the "Anti-East" or "Anti-West" rhetoric that can plague parishes today. Dr Adam also identifies how the Fathers are often misread in the same way that the Holy Scriptures are. 

What does this mean for readings of the Scriptures and the Fathers (and Liturgical Life) which use a reductionist, sentimentalist or Evangelical Protestant hermeneutic? What does it mean for Orthodox Parishes which embrace and perpetuate reductionism, emotionalism, pietism or pop-Christian methodologies?

Taking the Fathers Back

Reblogged from http://easternchristianbooks.blogspot.com/2014/06/taking-fathers-back.html

Liturgical Life of the Church

"In a very real sense the whole life of the Church in the patristic period was “liturgical.” There were no Christian schools or catechism classes, no popular missions or retreats. But there were the daily assemblies for morning and evening prayer, in which the Scriptures were abundantly read and commented. On the Lord’s Day there was the vigil and eucharistic synaxis, with lessons and homilies. And there was Lent, when the bishop prepared the community’s candidates for Easter baptism with long catechetical homilies such as have come down to us from John Chrysostom, Cyril of Jerusalem, and Theodore of Mopsuestia. Even the more mundane ministries were part and parcel of the liturgical assembly. Offerings for the sick and poor were brought there and given to the deacons who saw to their distribution; it was there that catechumens were instructed and baptized, penitents reconciled, the wayward corrected.

So to say that the whole life of the Church was liturgical does not mean the Church did nothing but “say mass.” Contemporary compartmentalization of life into clearly defined and mutually exclusive categories, and the even more recent limitation of parish liturgical life to the Eucharist, were foreign to the early Church, whose life was liturgical in that it was a community whose every activity was leitourgia', a public service of the one Body of Christ."

+ Fr Robert F. Taft, "Beyond East and West: Problems in Liturgical Understanding." 2nd Rev. Ed. (Rome: Pontifical Oriental Institute Press, 2001) 145.

A Proposition for Evangelism

A Proposition for Evangelism
By Fr. Jonathan Tobias
http://web.archive.org/web/20140619202025/http://janotec.typepad.com/terrace/2014/06/a-proposition-for-evangelism.html

Suffering and Christianity

Reblogged from Fr Ernesto's blog:

Suffering and Christianity
http://www.orthocuban.com/2014/06/suffering-and-christianity/