New DVD Purchase

Apostles Creed

I got this recommendation from another Christian site (forgot...) so I'll pass the word down if I think it's good. I see Bishop Kallistos is on the lineup so I expect good things.

Meanwhile I checked out Amazing Grace (about William Wilberforce and the end of the British slave trade...starring Mr. Fantastic from Fantastic Four) a few weeks back and I definitely recommend it though I would have liked for about 37% more religion emphasized.

-Steve K.

She'ol: Is Death a place??- CT

In Psalm 89, the wicked of Psalm 1 become "the enemies," and they seem to have the upper hand over the righteous speaker, seemingly, the Messiah. He cries out, "How long, O Lord? Will you hide yourself forever?" (Ps. 89:46). He describes his sense of forsakenness in terms of death and the hand or power of She'ol (Ps. 89:48).
She'olis a place name for death — but here, it seems to extend to forsakenness.
The Psalm goes on to proclaim that for "the righteous," She'ol is merely a place of temporary distance from God. The Messiah will not remain in this place of distance from the Lord, because "forever" is in the hands of the Lord, not in the hands of the wicked enemies (Ps. 89:51). The enemies of the Messiah may have a temporary hold, and take him through She'ol. But eventually the Messiah, the paradigm of righteousness, will emerge victorious.
-Rajkumar Boaz Johnson (full article)

Christ is Risen!

Indeed He is Risen!

And the steak tastes so good...

Keeping Watch...

I never truly appreciated the Psalms until we read all 150/151 of them on our Good Friday night vigil- Steve K

We bow before your Cross...

That brought us Salvation
And with the thief we cry out
Christ! Remember us when you come!

(source: http://www.bethsuryoyo.com/)

New Book Alert!

My most recent semi-impulse buy from Barnes and Noble:
"How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization" by Thomas E. Woods

So before you scream "HERETIC!" at me, I am more interested in certain philosophies from historical Catholicism rather than certain theological issues. I liked the author from a previous book he wrote, "The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History" so I decided to give the book a chance.

Exodus from the IOC

My recent posting on ICON:

Dear all:

The mass exodus from the Church has been an often lamented subject on this and many other forums. We’ve identified the problems and are aware of the solutions. Clearly, we need all of our liturgies, hourly prayers, and other services translated into English (or any other local language) as soon as possible. We know we need an effective youth ministry for high school and university students staffed with qualified teachers and clergy. We are also well aware of how instability in the Church administration has had a devastating effect on the morale and devotion of many of our members. These are all not so much reforms as they are common sense; any church with a decent sense of ministry would need to do at least this much to minister the most to the most amount of people.

Recently, an article was published on Orthodoxy Today regarding a crisis in the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, however it speaks very much to our own present situation:
http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/articles8/Barakas-Greek-Orthodox-Church.php
It seems that the Archdiocese is in a state of stagnation. I am curious as to what, adjusted for immigration, the population statistics of our own American Diocese would be. I imagine that the story would be the same.

Why are the young people leaving? In a free democratic society, religion is not imposed on us. We are free to choose our guiding beliefs within the framework of an ideological marketplace. People are voting with their feet; churches which do not speak to individual needs are emptying, while churches that have a message that resonates are filling to the brim. While I’m grateful for the freedom to choose, this model unfortunately does not take into account the actual truth value (assuming that our Faith is in objective and real truths) of any denominations’ beliefs. As someone who has freely chosen to remain in the Indian Orthodox Church, I am woefully aware that we have not been able to compete in the open market.

This does not mean that the Church has to re-package itself or redefine Her message. The message is already good and speaks for itself. The real problem is that things other than the Gospel have usurped that position as the beating heart of the Church. Consequently, people are walking out of the Church freely because they have grown up in a shadow-Church: an obscured vision of the Church as it should be. They have never been in touch with a dynamic and vigorous Orthodox vision of Christianity. If there is indeed a “marketing strategy” to pursue, it is bound up in our ability to preach a Gospel in terms of universal truth and not cultural peculiarity.

I have taken great hope in the fact that an unprecedented number of young American-born Indian Orthodox have received the call towards seminary education and ordained ministry. What are they seeing in this Church that others have not? Knowing them all, I’d like to surmise that they see that the Orthodox Church is built on a solid foundation, namely Jesus Christ. They see that there is a real organic continuity of belief, possessing the same thinking from the Apostles handed on down to us. They see that there is a worship that is disciplined, but not ritualistic, filled with mystery while not being esoteric. They see that the Church holds a Truth which transcends time, place, and culture, changing peoples while not being changed by them.

If we are serious about halting a mass migration out of the Church here in America, than we need more than English translations of Services. We need a comprehensive change in ethos towards a wider understanding of the Orthodox Faith. Young people are searching for real marks of heritage and identity, and we who have been baptized belong to Christ first and foremost. That is where our real identity lies. When this Orthodox Faith becomes that vital and integral to the lives of the faithful, this outward flux will certainly end.

G.K. Chesterton FREE MP3s!

Even G.K. Chesterton can be made that much better when his audio book is FREEEEEEE!

Get it HERE

Thanks to Dawn Eden for the H.T.

GO ARCH- Dead or Alive???

"We must abandon the lie that we can live by Christ's Gospel and still retain all the riches and glories of our respective ethnic cultures and identities here in America...keeping the priorities straight is of immense importance for the universal mission of Orthodoxy in America.

The final change that must occur in the Greek Orthodox Church in America is that the Gospel of Jesus Christ must take precedence over preserving watered down aspects of particular old world cultures. Whether they are Hellenic, Russian, Romanian, Antiochian or Serbian, the walls we create by worshiping in a language very few understands hinders the Gospel. The vast amount of Christians who are marrying into Orthodox families will embrace the Orthodox Church the moment they hear it in their own language and they encounter Christ in the people who worship there. "
-Fr. Andrew J. Barakos, Orthodoxy Today (full article)

African Roots of Christianity

"Indeed, many of the shapers of Christian orthodoxy were African. Names like Augustine, Tertullian, Origen, Clement, Anthony, and Pachomius were familiar from my undergraduate church history survey. But my professor had not presented them as Africans ministering and teaching in the context of an African culture.
...
The story of Christian theology has been told from a European perspective. Oden wants to tell that story differently: classical Christian theology was heavily shaped by Africans. The language we use to worship the Trinity, the received definitions of the Christ's two natures, the early church's methods for restoring repentant sinners, the basic patterns of monastic life, our fundamental approach to biblical interpretation, the church's devotion to its martyrs—all of these things have their roots in African theological debate, African prayer, and African biblical study."
-David Neff, Christianity Today (full article)