Orthodox faith eng fall 2014

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CONTENT OUR FAITH

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ANSWERS TO THE ATHEISTS

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WHO STOLE HALLOWEEN?

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STAYING BALANCED IN A TILTED WORLD

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WHY JESUS IS BOTH GOD AND MAN?

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ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY AND THE IDEA OF HOMOSEXUAL MARRIAGE

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HAS OUR PURSUIT OF THE "AMERICAN DREAM" BECOME A BALL AND CHAIN?

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MORALITY OR MORALISM?

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THE LONELINESS OF MODERN MAN

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MODEST ≠ FRUMPY! ATTRACTIVE CLOTHING FOR CHRISTIANS ON THE MAKE

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IS NOT THE BODY STILL HOLY AFTER DEATH?

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LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR

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DISTRIBUTED WITHIN DIOCESAN JURISDICTIONS: †

With the blessing of His Eminence Metropolitan JOSEPH, Diocesan prelate of the Bulgarian Eastern Orthodox Diocese of the USA, Canada, and Australia. †

With the blessing of His Beatitude JONAH, Archbishop of Washington, Metropolitan of All America and Canada, Head of Orthodox Church in America. †

With the blessing of His Grace HILARION, Metropolitan of Eastern America & New York, First Hierarch of The Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia †

With the blessing of His Eminence GABRIEL, Archbishop of Montreal and Canada, Head of Canadian Diocese of Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia †

With the blessing of His Eminence IRENEE, Bishop of Quebec City, Head of Administration of Archdiocese of Canada, of Orthodox Church in America.

ISSN 1920-1672 Publisher: Fr. Boris Kriger Address:1415 Limberlost Road, Huntsville, Ontario, P1H 2J6 altaspera@gmail.com General Editor: Fr. Boris Kriger, Editor: Artur Arzanov

2015 Call for Papers We invite you to submit your papers on Orthodox issues Please send your works in electronic form. altaspera@gmail.com

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OUR FAITH

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ABOUT THE ORTHODOX CHURCH Where did the Orthodox Church originate?

Jesus Christ founded His Church through the Apostles. By the grace received from God at Pentecost, the Apostles established the Church throughout the ancient world. St. Paul founded the Church of Antioch; St. Peter and St. James, the Church of Jerusalem; St. Andrew the Church of Constantinople; St. Mark, the Church of Alexandria; St. Peter and St. Paul, the Church of Rome.

For one thousand years the Church was one (East and West), unbroken and undivided! After the Great Schism of 1054 A.D., when the Latin or western church tragically separated from eastern Christendom (at Constantinople), the

eastern non-Oriental churches became known as the ―Eastern Orthodox Church‖, to distinguish them from what subsequently became known as the ―Roman Catholic Church‖.

What is the “The Orthodox Church”?

The Orthodox Church, also known as the Eastern Orthodox Church, is a communion of Local Churches worldwide bound together by apostolic succession (from the Apostles), history, faith, creed, Ecumenical Councils, canons and liturgy.

It is the second-largest Christian group in the world after the Roman Catholic Church, unless you consider Protestant groups and denominations as one 3

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entity.Estimates of the number of worldwide Orthodox Christians range from 250 million to 350 million. Estimates of American members are between one and two million and the Orthodox Church is one of the fastest – growing Christian churches in America, drawing a rising numbers of converts from Evangelical and other Christian faith traditions.

Isn‟t the “historic Church” Roman Catholic?

The ―headquarters‖ of the ancient Christian faith was in fact not Rome but in the Eastern world! The apostles founded the majority of Churches in the Eastern world (and only two in the West). It was from the East (not from Rome) that the apostles and Paul were sent out with the Gospel. The West was not a center of the early Christian movement – it was the ―mission field‖! For over 1,000 years, with the exception of Rome, all the major centers of Christian belief were found in the East – in Jerusalem, Alexandria, Antioch and Constantinople.

All the fundamental dogmas regarding the faith were formulated and defended in the East – essential dogmas like Christ being ―of the same essence‖ with the Father; that Christ is fully God and fully human; that the Holy Spirit is a divine Person; and the nature of the Trinity.

The first schools of Biblical interpretation, Antioch and Alexandria, were in the East. Their perspectives of interpretation still influence much of our understanding of the Scriptures today.

The East was the site for all the Ecumenical Church Councils (that is, the first seven from 325 to 787 A.D.) which formulated doctrines which Christians of all orthodox traditions accept as normative. The overwhelming majority of 4

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the bishops present at those councils were Eastern as well.

Do Orthodox Christians have a “Pope”?

The Roman Catholic Church tragically broke from the Eastern churches in 1054 A.D. largely over the issue of the encroaching authority of the Roman Pope by the western church. The eastern churches consistently rejected this encroachment for 1,000 years of Christian history (and continue to today). The Orthodox Church does not have a single leader. It is organized into ―jurisdictions‖ following national and historic lines, based on the early Church model of conciliar church leadership seen in the Book of Acts (Chapter 15). Each group is governed by synods (councils of bishops) who have equal authority and who do not interfere in one another‘s affairs. The Patriarch of Constantinople is known as the ―Ecumenical‖ (or universal) Patriarch, and since the schism has enjoyed a position of honor among the Orthodox communities. But, he does not have the right, for example, to interfere in the internal affairs of other churches. His position resembles that of the Archbishop of Canterbury in the worldwide Anglican Communion.

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What is Orthodox Christian hope based on?

Our entire hope is Jesus Christ. As the Apostle Paul says: "…by the commandment of God our Savior, and the Lord Jesus Christ, our hope" (1 Tim. 1:1).

We receive and will receive everything through him. Our Lord Himself teaches: "And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son‖" (John 14:13) Our hope is based on the sovereign grace of God, since it was given through Christ, as Scripture says: "For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ" (John 1:17).But we also have our part to play! First, there is the following of God's will, that is, the commandments.

Christ himself tells us: "He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him" (John 14: 21). Second, through the communion of the holy mysteries of the body and blood of Christ, through which Christ the Lord abides. ―He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him‖ (John 6:56); and ―unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you‖ (John 6: 53). And third, through persevering prayer, as the Apostle Paul teaches: "But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life" (Jude: 20-21).

How does the Orthodox Church understand “salvation”?

Eastern Orthodox theologians contend that Western Christian doctrines of sin and salvation have been overly

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dominated by legal, juridical and forensic language and categories. By this they mean the West‘s almost exclusive use of terms of divine law and justice to describe salvation; ideas that are perhaps taken from the context of Roman civil law.

While we affirm the use of legal metaphors by Saint Paul, the eastern church fathers contend legal concepts should not dominate (as they have in the West), but should be balanced among the many other biblical metaphors used to describe the redemptive work of Christ.

An example of how far removed the Christian East and West are in this area is the fact that the doctrine of justification by faith (how guilty people can stand before a just God or Judge), which is so prevalent in the West, is almost entirely absent in the East! Eastern theology does not focus so much on guilt, as on mortality (i.e. death!) as the main problem of humanity.

We tend to see the work of Christ more in therapeutic, healing, renewal, or rescue terms than on exclusively or primarily juridical, legal, forensic terms.

Psalm 82:6 says, ―I say, ‗You are gods‘; you are all sons of the Most High‘.‖ 2 Peter 1:4: ―Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.‖ Saint Cyril of Alexandria 5

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commenting on this passage tells us that we are all called to participate in divinity, not just a few ―saints‖. Although Christ alone is God by nature, all people are called to become God – like, ―to participate in the divine nature‖ (without of course becoming what God is by nature!). To ―participate in the divine nature‖ is how Orthodox Christians understand the full meaning of salvation.

Salvation is more than simply saying a ―sinner‘s prayer‖, or belief in or adherence to a set of doctrinal or moral premises. A person becomes the perfect image of God by discovering his or her likeness to God, which is the perfection of the nature common to all human beings. As Metropolitan Kallistos Ware writes, salvation is understood as direct union with the living God, the total transformation of the human person by divine grace and glory – what the Greek fathers termed ―deification‖ or ―divinization‖.

Orthodox Christianity and the Bible Orthodox Holy Tradition, Orthodox theology and the Holy Scriptures are intertwined. They all speak of the same Orthodox Christian life and faith. They come from the same apostolic and patristic sources of the early Church. Frankly, it is barely possible to fully understand the 6

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Bible without understanding the historic, ecclesiastic, liturgical and theological context of the early Church. For example it was on the basis of a common knowledge of ―authentic‖ Church Tradition that the church fathers of the pre-Reformation Church were able to agree on the content that became the New Testament biblical canon we have today.

The canon was compiled from myriad ancient text sources, many of which were spurious or even heretical. As we affirm, the Bible was given to the historic Church.

Orthodox “Tradition”?

The Orthodox Church sees the Bible as inspired by God and authoritative. However, Saint Paul in Thessalonians (2:15) wrote, ―Therefore brethren, stand fast and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word or our epistle.‖ A Bible-Only (―Sola Scriptura‖) criterion is therefore in conflict with the Scriptures! Orthodox Christianity sees the Christian faith in light of the whole tradition, that is, in terms that encompass the entire tradition of understanding of the faith (oral and written) from Apostolic times. This was called ―The Rule of Faith‖. Western Christianity (especially Protestant) often understands Christian faith through its interpretation of certain parts and interpretations of the Bible, retrospectively. The Orthodox Church affirms that authentic Apostolic Tradition comes from the Holy Spirit in the Church.

This is the same Spirit who inspired the Bible and the teaching of the Apostles, whether oral or written.

Sources of Orthodox “Tradition”?

There are five basic sources that comprise ―Orthodox Tradition‖, passed

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down from one generation to the next, from Christ to the Apostles, in written and unwritten forms. The first is Holy Scripture, both Old and New Testaments.

The second source is the Liturgy, which includes the entire body of the Church‘s common and public worship (including the sacraments of the Church). The third are the councils of the Church, the first one recounted in the Book of Acts (Acts 15), and their subsequent creeds and canons. The fourth are the Saints of the Church, especially the writings of a particular group of saints called the ―church fathers‖. The fifth source of Church Tradition is Church art. Saint John of Damascus said that words written in books are ―images‖, as are material images like icons. Art is the use of the material to express the intangible and the revelation of God. How ancient are the Orthodox liturgical services?

Eastern Orthodox services trace their beginnings back to the Old Testament liturgical rites and services of the Hebrews. They are a treasury of Scripture readings, prayers, hymns, and canons composed by the Saints and pious Christians throughout the ages. Like our Jewish predecessors, Orthodox services are liturgical, sacramental, and ceremonial. Many of the hymns you hear come from the Psalms. Most of them are sung or chanted, as has been the tradition since the days of Jewish - Christian practice. Some of the ancient document sources of the Orthodox liturgical order of service go back to the second (Justin Martyr, c. A.D. 150) and third centuries (Hippolytus, c. 215 A.D.). Eastern liturgies went through development in the fourth and fifth centuries. They became stabilized in the sixth century, and by the

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eight century were so fixed that they have not changed even today.

What is the content of Orthodox liturgical worship?

One of the striking characteristics of Orthodox worship is its near total integration with its theology. It is this blending of theology and worship that gives Orthodoxy its thoroughly liturgical character. From the Orthodox Christian perspective, Western Christianity exhibits a breach or rupture between theology and liturgical experience. In Orthodox Christianity they are a single, inseparable act. Participate in the liturgical cycle of the Orthodox Church and you will hear and see its theology, through its text, chant, hymnography and iconography.

Why does Orthodox music often sound “sorrowful”?

Orthodox music is dynamic and its style varies, depending on the liturgical cycle, the liturgical calendar and the text being sung or chanted. It also varies according to the culture from which it developed! Some music is written to lead us to repentance and is therefore somber.

Other music is celebratory and joyful.

Orthodox music expresses the Orthodox ―ethos‖, which has been described as ―joyful sorrow‖. Like The Psalms from which much of our musical text derives, there is a full range of human emotion expressed in Orthodox liturgical music.

Why is there so much emphasis on repentance in the Orthodox Church?

Some of the first words that Jesus spoke are recorded to be, ―Repent, and believe in the gospel." (Mark: 1:15). Many Christians today seem to focus exclusively on ―believe‖, without remembering that Our Lord says first we must ―repent‖! Just as His command to ―believe‖ is not 7

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understood by Orthodox Christians to be a one-time act, in the same way Orthodox Christians understand repentance to be a continuing command as well. The Orthodox attitude towards spirituality, its very ―ethos‖, reflects the attitude of the tax – collector, the sinner, as extolled by Christ Himself (Luke 18:10-14). You will hear a lot of ―Lord Have Mercy‖, in Orthodox services!

What do candles represent?

You will see candles burning before the icons and on the altar, signifying the light of truth given by the Lord, illuminating the world with spiritual radiance. Candles also represent the noncreated light of the Holy Trinity, for the Lord dwells in an unapproachable light.

They also represent the fire of Divinity which destroys our ungodliness and sins.

Candles also symbolize our soul's burning love of God and the spiritual joy and triumph of the Church. The candles before the icon of Christ signify that He is the True Light which lights every man that comes into the world.

What is the reason for the use of incense in the services?

The incense spreading in the church symbolizes the prayer of the faithful sent up to God and at the same time it is a symbol of the Grace of the Holy Spirit mysteriously embracing 8

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them.Before every censing a priest reads a secret (quiet) prayer: "We offer onto Thee, 0 Christ our God, this incense for an odor of spiritual sweetness which do Thou accept upon Thy most heavenly altar, sending down upon us in return the Grace of Thy Holy Spirit." Listening to this prayer we understand that the smoke visible to everybody denotes the invisible presence of the Lord‘s Grace, which is sanctifying the faithful.

Do Orthodox worship icons?

Wall icons and artwork appeared in Jewish temples early in ancient history (note: Duros Europos Temple destroyed in the mid 200‘s) even before their use in Christian churches. Because the Son of God took on human flesh and became incarnate as man in Jesus Christ, the Church decreed (not without much debate) it was appropriate to portray the glory of God incarnate visually through icons.

Icons are NOT idols or graven images (which depicted images of false gods), and their place in Christian worship and piety was clearly articulated, defended and approved at the Seventh Ecumenical Council of the Church in the 8TH Century. Byzantine icon style may seem austere and strange at first. They are not meant to depict the natural beauty of the material world, but rather the spiritual beauty of the Kingdom of Heaven and its inhabitants (Saints). Icons are venerated, but not worshipped, by Orthodox Christians. This is a misunderstanding by some in modern Christendom, especially those who have been influenced by Puritan and Anabaptist traditions, and the Islamic tradition, which rejects any and all images.

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Do Orthodox worship Mary the Mother of God (Theotokos) and the saints?

In our services and in our piety we praise those who were with Christ on earth and whom we know to be ―alive‖ in Christ‘s presence now although departed from the body (the saints)! Hebrews 12:1 writes, ―…we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses…‖ In God and His Church there is no division between the living and the departed. As we pray for one another and ask for one another‘s prayers, so we ask the faithful departed to pray for us and we continue to pray for them out of love. After the Holy Trinity, we especially venerate the Mother of God (Theotokos in Greek), the Blessed Virgin Mary. This praise has a biblical basis (Luke 1: 28; 42-43; 48) and is due her because of her unique role as the ―birthgiver‖ of God. By giving honor to the Mother of God we honor the Son whom she bore. We never forget that Our Lord was truly incarnate, that He truly had a human Mother, and a real family history!

We reject any notion that Our Lord simply passed through Mary as water through a pipe, to be discarded after being used!

Mary the birth-giver of God was specifically chosen by God before all time to bring forth, nurture and raise the Son of God! She was the first follower of Christ!

She is our model of faith! She is with Him now in the heavens! Having said this Orthodox Christians do not blur the line between God and the Mother of God, and worship is offered only to the Holy Trinity through Christ.

Why do Orthodox kiss the right hand of the priest?

This is done out of reverence and respect for the Holy Eucharist, not for the

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man. Saint John Chrysostom (one of Christianity‘s greatest church fathers) wrote if one were to meet an Orthodox Priest walking along with an Angel, he should greet the Priest first and kiss his hand, since that hand has touched the Body and Blood of the Lord.

Why do you call the priest “Father” when the Bible says not to call any man “father”?

Orthodox understand the "call no man father" passage (Matthew 23:9) specifically in the context of our Lord contending with certain rabbis of His day who were using these honorific titles to accomplish their own selfish, prideful and hypocritical ends. Had these same apostate rabbis been using other titles, like "reverend" and "pastor," Jesus might as easily have said, "Call no man reverend or pastor." His condemnation was not of the use of ―father‖ (or any specific title) but of the hypocrisy and pride of the Pharisees and rabbis in their use of it. St. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 4:15. "For though you might have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers…" St. Paul seems to claim to be the ‗Spiritual Father' of the Corinthians!

St. Paul, an Apostle of Christ Jesus obviously did not interpret our Lord‘s words to mean that only our Heavenly Father can be called ―father‖. In Luke 16:24 Jesus tells us that the rich man cries out ―Father Abraham, have mercy on me...‖ Abraham did not correct or criticize the rich man by saying, ―call no man father‖! Are we saying that the Apostle ignored Jesus? Are we saying our Lord Jesus Christ contradicted Himself and violated his own statements? We think not! Rather the passage must be understood in its specific context of condemning hypocrisy, self9

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aggrandizement and pride, rather than a universal condemnation of the use of ―father‖.

Is Orthodox Christianity „faith‟based or „works‟- based?

The faith-works divide, especially in the Protestant West, reflects a decisive (and Orthodox believe regretful) innovation in Christian theology beginning in the 16th century. It was largely a reaction against the use of ―indulgences‖ by the Roman Catholic Church and their proper rejection by Martin Luther and the Reformers. The Orthodox Church believes the Reformers‘ theology went too far however, by driving a wedge between faith and works. The faith-works dichotomy does not exist biblically, or in the eastern Christian spiritual tradition. We are clearly called to ―Have faith in God‖ (Mark 11:22). But we are also exhorted to ―work out your own salvation with fear and trembling (Phil.

2:12)‖. And we are reminded that ―…faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead‖ (James 2:17). Perhaps the most sobering warning comes from Saint Paul who warns us of ―the righteous judgment of God, who ‗will render to each one according to his deeds‘‖ (Rom. 2: 5-6).

Orthodox theology and spirituality therefore emphasize a balance between faith and works.

What comes first - faith or works?

Since "…without faith it is impossible to please Him" (Heb. 11:6), a Christian who wants to please God and be assured his works will be accepted by God, must first have faith in God and then form his life and activity accordingly. It is on the basis of our faith and our works that we will be judged!

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What must the Christian do to gain eternal life?

Have right belief ("ortho-doxy") and good works! Whoever has these two has certain hope of eternal salvation. As Scripture says: "You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith alone."

(James 2:24) A little later in the same place: "For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead" (James 2:26). Elsewhere St. Paul says the same thing: "…having faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected, concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck" (1 Tim. 1: 19).

What are the Holy Mysteries?

The early Church called the Sacraments of the Church, Holy Mysteries. Mystery is the reality through which the invisible grace of God is effected in or conferred upon the souls of the faithful under a perceptible form (sanctified matter). It was established by Christ as the means through which the faithful appropriate the grace of God. What is the purpose of the Holy Mysteries?

To provide remedies for removing our sins.

How many Mysteries or Sacraments does the Orthodox Church recognize?

Seven: Baptism. Anointing with Chrism. The Holy Eucharist. Ordination.

Penance-confession. Holy Matrimony.

Healing consecration with oil.

What about "spiritual gifts"?

When the young Church was getting underway, God poured out His Holy Spirit on the Apostles and their

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followers, giving them spiritual gifts to build up the Church and to serve each other. Among the specific gifts of the Spirit mentioned in the New Testament are apostleship, prophecy, evangelism, pastoring, teaching, healing, helps, administrations, knowledge, wisdom, tongues, and interpretation of tongues.

These and other spiritual gifts are recognized in the Orthodox Church. The need for them varies with the times. The gifts of the Spirit are most evident in the liturgical and sacramental life of the Church.

What is the view of the Orthodox Church towards non-Orthodox Christians?

Saint Irenaeus said where the Spirit of God is, there is the Church. We believe there is only one earthly Church (―I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic church‖ – the Nicene Creed). We know where the visible Church is, but we cannot know for assurance where the Spirit of God may or may not be outside ‗the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church‘!

Orthodox Christians must not therefore presume to pass judgment on nonOrthodox Christians or their communities, think or speak triumphalisticaly about the Orthodox Church, but rather strive to live out their faith without compromise, in humility and repentance.

What does Orthodoxy teach about “free will”?

Free will is man's unrestricted ability to decide from reason, which leads to doing good and evil. This reason was complete in its perfection during the state of man's innocence (before the Fall), but became damaged on account of sin.

However, although the will remained inclined to evil (after the Fall) it is still

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nevertheless able to choose to do good. St. Basil the Great: "From one's intention and free will anyone can be holy or the opposite.‖ And in the Gospel of St John: ―‘But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God…."' (John 1:12). If this were not the case (use of free will) it would not be possible for St Paul to write of ―the righteous judgment of God, who ‗will render to each one according to his deeds.‘‖ (Rom. 2: 5-6). How could we be judged by God by according to our deeds if our will is incapable of choosing between good and evil?

Does the Orthodox Church teach a “pre-tribulation rapture”?

Orthodox Christianity and the early Church teaches that the Lord will come once and for all after the tribulation (Matthew 24: 29 - 31). The Nicene Creed states that Jesus Christ, ‗will come again with glory to judge the living and the dead, whose kingdom shall have no end‘.

On that day everyone will receive eternal and perfect payment for their deeds. There is no-pre-tribulation ―rapture", nor is there a one thousand year reign taught in the Holy Scriptures, or by any church father east or west. In fact, the 5th Ecumenical Council of the Universal Church specifically rejected the idea of a 11

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"thousand year reign" as a heresy! These heterodox teachings supposedly came through a dream someone had in the 18TH century and were subsequently promulgated by the Scofield Bible translators and adopted by certain Protestant Evangelical groups later.

Do Orthodox teach an intermediate purgatory?

No Scripture makes mention of a temporal punishment that cleanses souls after death. In fact, the opinion of Origen was condemned because of this by the Church at the Second Council of Constantinople. The soul can receive no sacraments after death; and if it were to make satisfaction for its sins, it would have to perform a part of the sacrament of holy Penance, which would be contrary to the orthodox teaching.

Why do Orthodox Christians pray for the departed?

Out of love for them! Orthodox believe from the teaching of Sacred Scripture that we are obliged to pray to God for the departed, to offer the Holy Eucharist for them in remembrance and to give alms in their behalf, since they cannot do this for themselves. We leave the results – or even whether there is efficacy in prayer for the departed, since we cannot know for certain – up to God and His mercy.

Blessed Theophylact speaks about this: "For the sinners who die are not cast into hell (until the Final Judgment); but it rests in the power of God such that he may even pardon them. But I say this because of the sacrifices and almsgivings made for the sake of the dead, which works are of no small benefit even for those who have died in grave sins. It is not so certain, 12

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therefore, that God sends to hell one who has killed, but rather that he does have the power to send him. And so let us not cease working hard through almsgiving and prayers to win over him, who has indeed the power of sending, so that he may not use this power fully but be able to pardon.‖ Why would the Orthodox Church appeal to Americans?

The Orthodox Church is the original and historical church established

by Jesus and His Apostles. Many Americans are looking for a living continuity with the Church of ancient times. An ever-increasing number are looking for a stable faith rooted in apostolic tradition, apostolic succession, and the Bible. In fact this Church, which Jesus Christ Himself said would ―prevail against the gates of Hades‖, has in truth continued in unbroken succession, through the transmission of her faith and the succession of her bishops, from the day of Pentecost to the present (see the TimeLine of Church history). The Orthodox Church has survived steadfastly despite persecution and martyrdom and has never accepted any kind of change or innovation which contradicts earlier established doctrine, reached in consensus with the universal Church and led by the Holy Spirit. Her doctrines were clarified (and consequently, certain heresies were defined) at seven ecumenical councils held between the 4th and the 8th centuries.

If you are looking for the ―one, holy, catholic and apostolic church‖ of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, you found her! It is the Orthodox Church!

From St. Barnabas Orthodox Church

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ANSWERS TO THE ATHEISTS What are the ways of knowing God? Why would a man need God? Why would a person be thinking about spiritual things, that goes beyond the ―normal‖ everyday life?

All that we see in our lives, everything that we are used to, what we call the ―apparent‖ only poorly explains how we live, twists of fate, and does not explain to us the meaning of our existence, the meaning of birth, life and death.

Therefore, any person, regardless of their education and life experience, sooner or later wonders whether there is a force which brought him into existence, which is leading him through life, or everything that happens to him is a random, chaotic and full of meaninglessness?

Despite the fact that the atheists think that they have original ideas and arguments, they don‘t. We can generalize almost all their arguments in ten points.

1. "I haven‟t seen God, no one has seen."

Maybe someone saw? You do not know everybody. God is the supreme power, so that to understand or see him is uneasy.

The set of material things is hidden from our view. We can not see radio waves, we cannot see the planet Earth in its entirety, even though we live on its surface.

2. "If God created the world, who created God?" God is immaterial, it is eternal, incomprehensible, God was, and always will be. Thus He is the absolute Creator whom, by definition, no one has created.

3. "If God exists, why are so many injustices?"

Injustice is incompliance laws of 13

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God. The more people keep the commandments of God, the less injustice.

And why did God create people who do not keep His laws? Answer: He creates them free.

4. "The priests congregations sin."

and

their

In this case they do not comply with the laws of God. Pseudo-religious that's what God condemns, including, for example Christ basically denounced the clergy of that time - the Pharisees.

5. "In the history of religion there is a lot of violence" (the Crusades, the Inquisition, etc.).

There are materialists in any religion who proclaim God's will that is beneficial to them personally, so you should see if it is sanctioned by Scripture or not. Regarding violence in general, some law enforcement in society is necessary to maintain order in the country and is also provided in the scriptures.

6. everything"

"Science

7. "Even if God exists, he is not knowable, it can only be believed in" Why not knowable? The world is knowable, consequently, Creatir is knowable, at least to the extent to which the Lord reveals Himself.

8. "God invented for exploitation of the population through religion."

If people coordinate their actions with the commandments of God, it is more difficult to exploit them. Rather, the rulers would be more profitable if they abandon religion, to intensify the exploitation of the population. In a secular state explotation was not connected to religion.

explained

Academic science is not giving a final answer to the fundamental question – How this world came into existence, what is life, what happens to it after death, etc.

There are some theories eg the "Big Bang", "Origin of Species", "superstrings" and the others, but in fact they do not contradict the existence of God the Creator and have not been confirmed experimentally. Matter itself can not get organized into such complicated structures as living cell, and entropy (destruction processes) – increases with the time – this all speak in favor of the fact that the 14

universe is created.

9. "Religion enslaves" If a man lives by the law of God, he becomes free from many sins and passions that continually plagued the people.

10. "God - this is just another word for nature, the universe."

Universe - one of the forms of God but is merely His creation.

Fr. Boris Kriger

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WHO STOLE HALLOWEEN?

This is the time of year when a lot of people start talking about Halloween (or Hallowe‘en, if you prefer), but what they say or think about it depends very much on their cultural background and theological background.

It‘s a big American cultural festival, and so a lot of talk on it goes on in the USA, where children dress up. To a lesser extent it‘s celebrated in the British Isles. Here in South Africa it is almost unknown, though adults occasionally use it as an excuse for having fancy-dress balls, and the TV stations seem to increase the number of ―horror‖ movies that they show. These ―horror‖ movies rarely have anything to do with supernatural horrors, however; they are more usually ―slasher‖ movies. so that the season of All Saints is commemorated by showing all sinners.

The word ―Halloween‖ is short for ―All Hallows Eve‖, or the ―Eve of All Saints Day‖, as celebrated by Roman Catholics and Anglicans. Protestant groups regard it with some suspicion, not holding with cults of saints and the like, and some claim that it is ―pagan‖ or even ―demonic‖.

All this is a bit remote from me.

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Halloween isn‘t big in South Africa. And I‘m an Orthodox Christian, and our Halloween is the Saturday after Pentecost, so the 31st October isn‘t of much interest, as it‘s a purely Western phenomenon.

Neopagans (or some of them) claim it as theirs, and celebrate it as Samhain (pronounced sow-in, I‘m told), and say it is of Irish origin, but some of the Irish disagree about that.

So what can I say about it? Why not just give the synchroblog a miss this month, and leave it to those to whom Halloween means something?

But I read a very interesting book about it – The stations of the Sun by Ronald Hutton (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1996). So perhaps I may find something interesting there. Hutton is a British historian, and his book is a very well-researched study of seasonal festivals in Britain. Some of his observations may be of interest to those who get their knickers in a knot over Halloween — either pagans who think Christians ―stole‖ it, or Christians who think it must be ―demonic‖.

At the end of the nineteenth century, two distinguished academics, one at Oxford and the other at Cambridge, made enduring contributions to the popular conception of Samhain. The former was the philologist Sir John Rhys, who suggested that it had been the „Celtic‟ New Year… Rhys‟s theory was further popularized by the Cambridge scholar, Sir James Frazer. At times the latter did admit that the evidence for it was inconclusive, but at others he threw this caution overboard and employed it to support an idea of his own: that Samhain had been the pagan Celtic feast of the dead. He reached this belief by the simple process of arguing back from a fact, that 1 and 2 November had been dedicated to that 15

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purpose by the medieval Christian Church, from which it could be surmised that this was been a Christianization of a pre-existing festival. He admitted, by implication, that there was in fact no actual record of such a festival, but inferred the former existence of one from a number of different propositions: that the Church had taken over other pagan holy days, that „many‟ cultures have annual ceremonies to honour their dead, „commonly‟ at the opening of the year, and that (of course) 1 November had been the Celtic New Year. He pointed out that although the feast of All Saints or All Hallows had been formally instituted across most of north-west Europe by the Emperor Louis the Pius in 835, on the prompting of Pope Gregory IV, it had already existed, on its later date of 1 November, in England at the time of Bede.

He suggested that the pope and emperor had, therefore, merely ratified an existing religious practice based upon that of the ancient Celts.The story is, in fact, more complicated. By the mid-fourth century Christians in the Mediterranean world were keeping a feast in honour of all those who had been martyred under the pagan emperors; it is mentioned in the Carmina Nisibena of St Ephraem, who died in about 373, as being held on 13 May. During the fifth century divergent practices sprang up, the Syrian churches holding the festival in Easter Week, and those of the Greek world preferring the Sunday after Pentecost. That of Rome, however, preferred to keep the May date, and Pope Boniface IV formally endorsed it in the year 609. By 800 churches in England and Germany, which were in touch with each other, were celebrating a festival dedicated to all saints upon 1 November instead. The oldest text of Bede‟s Martyrology, from the eighth 16

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century, does not include it, but the recensions at the end of the century do.

Charlemagne‟s favourite churchman Alcuin was keeping it by then, as were also his friend Arno, bishop of Salzburg, and a church in Bavaria. Pope Gregory, therefore, was endorsing and adopting a practice which had begun in northern Europe. It had not, however, started in Ireland, where the Felire of Oengus and the Martyrology of Tallaght prove that the early medieval churches celebrated the feast of All Saints upon 20 April. This makes nonsense of Frazer‟s notion that the November date was chosen because of „Celtic‟ influence: rather, both „Celtic‟ Europe and Rome followed a Germanic idea….

For what it‘s worth, the Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church notes that Pope Gregory III of Rome (d. 741) dedicated a chapel in the basilica of St Peter to ―All the saints‖, and Gregory IV ordered its universal observance. Sixtus IV (d. 1484) added an Octave, which was suppressed in 1955.

The idea that Christians ―stole‖ it from pagans, therefore, seems pretty farfetched. In fact the evidence seems to point the other way: the neopagans seem to have unintentionally ―stolen‖ it from the Christians, as a result of a rather wild guess by Sir James Frazer.

What about the accusation by some that it (or at least the dressing up part of it) is ―satanic‖, ―demonic‖, or ―evil‖?

Well, I‘ve never seen ―trick or treat‖ in action, but from reading descriptions of it, and seeing films about it, the idea of kids going around saying ―give us sweets or we‘ll do something nasty to you‖ sounds a bit like a juvenile protection racket to me, and that is potentially, if not actually, evil. It‘s only one step from that to going round to shop

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keepers with a gun and saying ―give us X, and we‘ll protect you from Y‖.

Now I‘ve been told by many Americans that it is not like that at all, and that it is all harmless fun, so I must have been misled by the films and the books I‘ve read. But the idea still makes me a bit uneasy. I‘m glad there was no tradition of that sort here when my kids were growing up. And I suspect that if they‘d tried it in our neighbourhood the neighbours would have been astounded at the cheek of it, and probably offended when they had second thoughts. But that‘s just our culture.

As I pointed out, for Orthodox Christians All Saints Day (All Hallows, or Hallowmas) is the Sunday after Pentecost, and this year it was celebrated on 3 June.

The Vigil of the Feast (Halloween, All Hallows Eve) was Saturday 2 June. And here‘s what is said about it: The Sunday following Pentecost is dedicated to All Saints, both those who are known to us, and those who are known only to God. There have been saints at all times, and they have come from every corner of the earth. They were Apostles, Martyrs, Prophets, Hierarchs, Monastics, and Righteous, yet all were perfected by the same Holy Spirit. The Descent of the Holy Spirit makes it possible for us to rise above our fallen state and to attain sainthood, thereby fulfilling God‟s directive to “be holy, for I am holy” (Lev. 11:44, 1 Peter 1:16, etc.). Therefore, it is fitting to commemorate All Saints on the first Sunday after Pentecost.This feast may have originated at an early date, perhaps as a celebration of all martyrs, then it was broadened to include all men and women who had borne witness to Christ by their virtuous lives, even if they did not shed their blood for Him. For more information about All

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Saints Day, see Questions about the Sunday of All Saints, and All Saints Day. So what can be said about Hallowe‘en?

That Hallowe‟en was, and still is, a Christian commemoration. It wasn‘t chosen to coincide with any pagan or Celtic festival, and has in fact been observed by Christians at different times of the year and still is. If neopagans want to observe the period 31 October to 2 November as Samhain, that‘s fine too.

There are only a limited number of days in the year for festivals and commemorations, and there‘s no obligation on any one group to choose one that has not already been chosen by someone else.

As for the secular customs that have grown up around the Western date for Halloween, haven‘t had much experience of that, except for the ―slasher‖ movies. I quite enjoy real horror movies (if well done), but to me ―slasher‖ movies don‘t qualify as real horror. It has to be really spooky to be horror.

What should American Orthodox do about Hallowe‘en?

This question was asked on an Orthodox forum, and a priest from New Zealand made this suggestion: So what do you do when trick-ortreaters come to your door? Tell them you‟re Orthodox and slam the door in their faces? Just don‟t answer the door at all?

My suggestion, if you want to be really pro-active, is to set up a small ―shrine‖ on your porch – a few icons and a sand box where candles can burn.When the kids come, make them welcome, ask them if they‘d like to light a candle and say a small prayer. Give them an icon print along with the lollies.

Deacon Stephen Hayes 17

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STAYING BALANCED IN A TILTED WORLD Throughout our day, we must always return to that still, quiet spiritual desert within us. We must start our day there, we return to it throughout the day, and we then return there at the end of the day.

It is difficult to stay or feel connected to God due to our frenetic pace in which we often live our lives. We often rush from one activity to another without taking time to be still, mindful in the present, and process what we have been doing. This can often lead to us feeling out of control or like things in our life are spiralling out of control around us. There is a way however to maintain some level of peace, awareness, and calm even when living life with a hectic pace. It involves maintaining an inner stillness even when all around us seems chaotic. What keeps us grounded and what keeps us balanced throughout the day, even when everything around us seems tilted, is maintaining a constant awareness and connection with God throughout the day.

Sounds great and obvious doesn‘t it? The following is a reminder of a practice and way of life we all need.

First we have to assess how often, if it all, we focus our mind on God throughout the day. That focus may be in the form of simply reflecting on God, assessing how we are doing spiritually that day (with regards 18

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to our thoughts and behaviour), or deliberate prayer even. This awareness of God and of our souls must become a constant undercurrent running beneath the activities of our daily life. In essence, our main daily activity is this awareness of God and monitoring our soul, while our daily earthly activities are the brief ventures out and away from this spiritual activity. For many, this involves a complete reversal to what they are accustomed to. Most of us get lost and immersed in our daily activities, only then making a brief venture out of our earthly duties to reflect on God or our soul.

Are we prepared to make this shift?

Throughout our day, we must always return to that still, quiet spiritual desert within us.

We must start our day there, we return to it throughout the day, and we then return there at the end of the day. God awaits us there and it is the place where we refresh our weary souls from our ventures out into the world. It is where we are replenished with God‘s peace. We need to remember the Prophet Elijah‘s encounter with God outside the cave on Mt. Horeb. God was not in the destructive wind, the earthquake, or the fire.

The presence of the whispering breeze or still voice marked the presence of God (I kings 19). We all need our own Mt. Horeb where we seek an encounter with God. If we do this, if we make our awareness of God, of our souls, and withdrawal to our quiet place (to pray, reflect, process the day) the rule and not the exception, we will never feel out of control or like our lives are out of control. The mere connecting of our mind and heart to God has a rejuvenating power and brings peace.

It grounds us, brings the chaotic nature of our life into focus, and simplifies our life by bringing us back to the basics. The still, gentle, and whispering breeze of God‘s presence is constant and always there, but we don‘t make the time to see it. Let us go forth and meet it.

Priest Demetrios Makoul

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DIONYSIUS THE AREOPAGITE ON THE HEAVENLY HIERARCHY That every divine illumination, whilst going forth lovingly to the objects of its forethought under various forms, remains simplex. Nor is this all. It also unifies the things illuminated.

You can buy this book at: http://www.lulu.com/shop/dionysius-the-areopagite/on-theheavenly-hierarchy/paperback/product-21901175.html

ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM NO ONE CAN HARM THE MAN WHO DOES NOT HARM HIMSELF I know well that to coarse-minded persons, who are greedy in the pursuit of present things, and are nailed to earth, and enslaved to physical pleasure, and have no strong hold upon spiritual ideas, this treatise will be of a strange and paradoxical kind: and they will laugh immoderately, and condemn me for uttering incredible things from the very outset of my theme…

You can buy this book at: http://www.lulu.com/shop/john-chrisostom/no-one-canharm-the-man-who-does-not-harmhimself/paperback/product-21901190.html SAINT JEAN CHRYSOSTOME LA DIVINE LITURGIE ORTHODOXE Avant d‘accomplir le sacrifice divin, le prêtre doit s‘être réconcilié avec tous et n‘avoir de ressentiment envers personne. Il doit garder son coeur libre de toute pensée impure, s‘abstenir de tout aliment depuis le soir jusqu‘à l‘heure même du sacrifice.

You can buy this book at: http://www.lulu.com/shop/saint-jean-chrysostome/la-divineliturgie-orthodoxe/paperback/product-21887457.html

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ST. JOHN CHRYSOSTOM CHRISTIAN PRIESTHOOD The events recorded in this celebrated treatise on the Priesthood must have occurred when St. John Chrysostom was about twenty-eight years of age. His father had died when he was a young child; his mother was a devout Christian, but had not destined him for the clerical vocation.

The great ability which he showed in early youth seemed to mark him out for distinction in one of the learned professions, and at the age of eighteen he began to attend the school of Libanius, the most celebrated sophist of the day, who had won a great reputation as a professor of philosophy and rhetoric, and as an eloquent opponent of Christianity, not only in his native city, Antioch, but also in Athens, Nicomedia, and Constantinople.

You can buy this book at: http://www.lulu.com/shop/john-chrisostom/christian-priesthood/paperback/product21901203.html

DIDACHE THE TEACHING OF THE TWELVE APOSTLES The Didache meaning ―Teaching‖ is the short name of a Christian manual compiled before 300 AD. The full title is The Teaching of the Twelve Apostles. Some Christians thoughtDidache was inspired, but the church rejected it when making the final decision which books to include in the New Testament. Didache contained instructions for Christian groups; and its statement of belief may be the first written catechism. It has four parts: the first is the ―Two Ways, the Way of Life and the Way of Death;‖ the second explains how to perform rituals such as baptism, fasting, and Communion; the third covers ministry and how to deal with traveling teachers; the fourth part is a reminder that Jesus is coming again, with quotations from several New Testament passages which exhort Christians to live godly lives and prepare for ―that day.‖ You can buy this book at: http://www.lulu.com/shop/twelve-apostles/didache/paperback/product-21901155.html

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WHY JESUS IS BOTH GOD AND MAN.

It is not easy to be an Orthodox Christian in the modern world. Or more accurately, in what is now called by the historians and sociologists, the ―postmodern‖ age, where the only truth is personal opinion, and where the fallen human will to will whatever it wants, no matter what the consequences may be, is the only supreme and sovereign good.

But then again, to be a follower of Christ has never been easy in any age or culture, pagan, secular, or otherwise. Even in the so-called ―golden era‖ of the patristic age, from the 4th through the 8th centuries ad, troubles and tribulations abounded. St. Athanasius the Great, ardent defender of the Nicene Creed, took to the desert in order to be hid from death by the Egyptian monastics no less than 5 times.

St. Basil the Great, author of the Church‘s most beautiful Liturgy, died with only a few bishops at his side who had not ―bowed their knees to the Baal‖ of the Arian heresy. At that time, towards the end of the 4thcentury, the entire Byzantine Church had succumbed to the Arian creed, as decreed by the Emperor! St. John Chrysostom was exiled from his throne at the Great Church of St. Sophia‘s in

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Constantinople not once, but twice, dying from the hardships he encountered during his second exile. A century later, St. Maximus the Confessor was tortured, once again by the Byzantine authorities, on account of his refusal to give in to the heresy of ―monotheletism,‖ the false teaching that Christ only had one divine will. While imprisoned, his tongue and right hand were cut off in order to prevent him from confessing the truth of the faith – no longer could he speak, no longer could he write. These are just a few examples showing that things were not so ―golden‖ during these earlier centuries of Church history.

Today there is no doubt in my mind that the greatest error of this age is the denial of something more elemental than let‘s say, the Church‘s doctrine of the two natures of Christ, or that the Virgin Mary is indeed, the ―Theotokos,‖ the Mother of the Son of God – the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. The problem we currently face is, instead, more fundamental in that it deals not with the ―Who and What‖ of the Divine Reality, but with the ―who and what‖ of human reality. For at the heart of the secular view of the world, is the assumption that we human beings are at the very best, ―tool-making‖ mammals, naked apes. Any talk of the beauty of the soul, of eternity and the love of God, or the transcendent calling of life has been proscribed from our vocabulary, simply because such dangerous ideas belong not to world rational thought, but to the realm of superstition and myth. So they say.

The difficulty of living in this era as an Orthodox Christian is thus realizing that we have been seated in the corner of the world‘s classroom and that a cone with the label ―dunce‖ has been placed on our heads for all to see. Even worse, at least in my mind, is the fact that there are many 21

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Christians content to sit there with their faces to the wall and pretend that things are not so bad as they would seem. But deny it or not, the reality is that we Christians have been expelled from the public forum, and the so-called ―secular elite‖ has made sure that the power of law, politics, and academia, remains squarely in their hands. One is no longer allowed to speak with any seriousness of thought to the possibility that human existence contains within itself anything higher and nobler than the physical brain, which thereby regulates all emotions, thoughts, decisions, and actual behaviors through the firing of electrical impulses through its billions and billions of neurons. All of human life is here seen as being an electrical-chemical phenomenon, and nothing more.

Yet to preach Christ in this ―day and age‖ simply means to remind everyone we possibly can, and in whatever way we possibly can, that we cannot be truly human unless we move beyond that which is merely physical in order to see the eternal mystery of Christ within the human soul. We human beings 22

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are made from the dust of the earth, no doubt. And yes, we do share vital a solidarity with all living things - flora and fauna. But it is wrong to think that this is all there is to the phenomenon of a living, human person.

Which brings us to the final point.

For if the holy fathers of the Church suffered and died for their belief in the full divinity of the Virgin‘s Son, (―light from light, true God of true God‖) we today must not be afraid to defend the next logical supposition of this teaching, which is that the Son of God became the Son of the Virgin precisely in order to show us the way towards our truest goal, to achieve deification, to become by grace all that God is Himself by nature. ―And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.‖ (Gen. 2:7).

The breath of life by which we live is the eternal life of Christ given to us as gift through the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Apart from this divine breath, we remain at a ―sub-human‖ level of existence, not really living the way we are meant to live ―in the beginning.‖ So here is the message we whisper into the ears of those who would rather not hear what we have to say: ―Are you ready to become something more than you presently are?

Are you ready to become an authentic human person with all its wondrous and infinite spiritual potentialities?‖ ―If so, then come, and let us to show you a higher and far more joyful way. ― Archpriest Paul Jannakos

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ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY AND THE IDEA OF HOMOSEXUAL MARRIAGE

In the film, Monty Python‟s The Life of Brian, there is a scene where a group of revolutionaries are discussing tactics. One of them, played by Michael Palin, suddenly announces that he wants to be a woman from now on and have babies. After a certain puzzlement, the group decides that, although he can‘t actually have babies, they agree that he has the right to have babies. Perfectly in line with the post-modern culture of rights, even outside the bounds of nature, this satire seems to mirror recent events in the Swedish Lutheran Church.

The news that the Swedish Church is to permit ceremonies for the marriage of same-sex couples came as no surprise at all. The states of Sweden, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and Norway all recognise such unions as having the same status as heterosexual marriage and we might seek the reasons as to why this has happened now. There is no question but that, from the perspective of Orthodox Christianity, Holy Tradition knows nothing of such unions and ceremonies purporting to bless such ‗marriages‘ can, at best, be seen as a sham.

Whether in history or even prehistory there ever were societies that

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sanctioned homosexual marriage, is for anthropologists to discover yet it is hard to think of any great civilisation that has been founded on such an idea. Theology apart, there is one obvious and pressing reason why societies have always granted a privileged place to (usually) monogamous heterosexual marriage. At a purely naturally level, marriage involving some form of contract relationship, the raising of children and the passing on of inherited property, has lain at the heart of much social legislation, certainly since the Laws of Hamurrabi in ancient Mesopotamia. Even in a culture like that of Athens in the days of its ancient glory, marriage was considered the norm as a practical necessity, even when paedophilic relationships were practised alongside it.

In classical Indian civilisation, on the other hand, homosexual relations appear not to have been common and certainly not built into the social structures. This raises the question as to the origin of homosexual behaviour itself: whether it might be genetically determined, as some have tried to show or whether it might be largely a social construct (which must play a part, whatever the case). For this reason we may indeed ask why certain societies and even certain states now seem not only to tolerate but even actively to promote same-sex relationships. Indeed, some are going so far as to implement sanctions against any who disagree or exhibit the entirely fictitious syndrome of what is termed ‗homophobia‘. (I am not talking here of ignorant prejudice or any cruelty practised against people with same-sex attraction which is obviously sinful.)

Looking at the countries that have sanctioned same-sex marriage, the first thing that is obvious is that they are largely post-Christian societies. In addressing this post-modern phenomenon, 23

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I do not intend merely to counter a novelty by outlining the Orthodox Theology of marriage. Sound as that would be, others have done so before and far more competently than I. Rather, I am interested in how these countries have arrived at this point, whilst at the same time putting forward the reasons why this is completely incompatible with a life lived in the Orthodox Christian way.

The first observation is that the social normalisation of same-sex relationships is entirely consonant with the secular understanding of human rights.

Rooted in the eighteenth century Enlightenment, the newly autonomous and free human being, lives a life liberated from the shackles of tradition or social obligations and, in his (and no doubt, her) post-modern incarnation, is able to select from the supermarket of life-style choices.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the concept of the sexual life which must, according to this way of thinking, be let loose to wander in any desired direction (within currently, as least, the constraints of consenting adulthood), because any suppression of ones desires would be psychologically damaging and would suggest a repressed and cowardly personality.

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From the Orthodox Christian perspective, of course, this is precisely a social construction; mankind refashioning himself in his own fanciful image. As soon as one loses sight of the concept that God has made us for himself in his own image and likeness, then we arrive at something less than human; we fall into the baser man, the fallen Adam. It is precisely what the world considers the avenues of indulgent self-fulfilment that we as Orthodox Christian must recognise as blind alleys, ultimately devaluing our true dignity as children of God. This is, of course, the paradox of all Christian morality, in that our true liberty is not found in Rousseau‘s analysis - that we have only to set at liberty the noble savage within – but in our humble obedience towards God. I other words, the truly fulfilled person is the Orthodox saint, the one who has discovered the true meaning of his humanity by fulfilling and completing his human nature in Christ, the process we called Theosis. In short, any form of sexual expression outside what God has blessed for our good must necessarily be sinful, a falling short of the glory of God. When it comes to the question of same-sex relations, I do not think we need be especially condemnatory. As Orthodox, we may rightly point out that monogamous heterosexual marriage is the only context where our sexuality can lead to sanctification. Therefore any other indulged form, from thought to action rooted in the passion of lust is, by nature, sinful. This is equally true of heterosexual fornication or adultery as it is of any homosexual activity. It is interesting that word homosexual itself is not devised until the nineteenth century; before that, same-sex relationships were often referred to as the unnatural vice. Certainly, the idea

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of someone possessing a set sexuality and being homosexual in his/her very essence would certainly have been alien, say, to the mediaeval mind. The very idea of defining someone as set within a form of sexuality, is a very modern or rather, postmodern idea. Of course, apparent homosexual activity may be observed in other animal species but in absolute terms it cannot have any natural function in the primary sense; it cannot produce offspring. For human beings it can only ‗function‘ at the level of libidinous gratification or within a mutually rewarding emotionally relationship. No doubt, those in the Lutheran Church of Sweden were sympathising with the latter case when they voted to promote the possibility of same-sex marriage but as Orthodox Christians, we still stand on the principle that we can only accept what God has blessed as part of Holy Tradition.

We would also affirm that our whole Orthodox way of life is predicated on the pursuit of eternal salvation. We understand this as meaning that the present natural man is a fallen creature and his instincts, no matter how powerful, need directing aright: we have a different vision of what it means to be fully human in Christ.

The crux of my argument against the Swedish Church‘s action is that it has surrendered to the mores of its environment, rather as if St. Paul had given up and merely told the Corinthians to go ahead and ‗play the Corinthian!‘ It is typical of post-modern morality that it can take what is fundamentally unnatural and just because it becomes possible, elevates it into a human right. Of course, human rights culture lies at the very heart of this controversy. Rather like Michael Palin‘s character referred to above, the Swedes appear to have agreed to the right of

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homosexuals to marry when, in fact, the very word marry means, by the natural definition, the union of a man and a woman. All they have done is to pervert the word‘s meaning into semantic nonsense.

Same-sex couples can participate in mutual sexual activity; they can even be emotionally enwrapped with each other but that does not make it a Christian marriage: an icon of Christ‘s relationship - bride and bridegroom - with his Church. Just a woman cannot be ordained priest, the icon of Christ the Bridegroom at the Divine Liturgy, so a same-sex marriage cannot be sacramental of the mystery St. Paul speaks of in the epistle to the Ephesians. In fact, the Swedes have voted for a sham, not far short of a blasphemy drawn from an heretical ecclesiology.

Ultimately, we are dealing here with the perception of the source of freedom. Drawing on the Enlightenment ideals of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity, we can only presume that the Swedish Lutheran Church imagines that Mankind is autonomous and at liberty to construct the world of its own devising. Around this notion in recent years, a whole industry has been built, championing the rights of the unnatural, ultimately rooted in the cult of death (abortion and euthanasia for example.) For Orthodox Christians, on the other hand, the source of freedom is in the service to God, for freedom is not the random surrender to the whims and dictates of human passions: that way lies our enslavement to a false humanity.

Rather, we would say that freedom is the ability to fulfil our true nature, as the Creator intended – freedom is the ability to be true to what we are meant to be and what we are meant to be was laid down in the beginning, as created: male and female.

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I must end in warning that in abiding by our Tradition we will increasingly come under attack from the habitual intolerance of liberalism. No matter! Orthodox has survived worse. In a recent address, Metropolitan Hilarion of the Moscow Patriarchate spoke of how the real divisions in Christianity now are not between Orthodox, Catholic or Protestant so much as between liberals and traditionalists. Being in the latter camp, as far as we are able we must align ourselves with our co-religionists. True, this innovation is the product of the postCatholic and post-Protestant worlds but secularism has a way of creeping up on our institutions and for Orthodoxy in the West, where our people live the life in Christ but often very isolated, we need to speak out very clearly. Only, we must be positive, we are not ‗anti‘ anybody; we are not ‗anti‘ any group in society but we are certainly for marriage as part of the way to salvation.

Fr. Chrysostom MacDonnell

HAS OUR PURSUIT OF THE "AMERICAN DREAM" BECOME A BALL AND CHAIN?

Both of my parents were born and raised in the same small village in 26

Northern Greece. They both received the equivalent of a 6th grade education. My dad came to the states in 1919 and my mom in 1948, after they were married in their village in Greece. They settled in Detroit and gave birth in the early 1950s to my older sister and me. They came here and worked hard for a better way of life.

They wanted their children to get a good education and go to college so they could get decent jobs and enjoy a better standard of life than they did. Something like ―I don‘t want my kids to have suffer like I did‖ way of thinking. This in a nutshell is the ―American Dream‖. It still motivates many who immigrate to this country today. It is a major value that still motivates those who have been born here and their families.

The vehicle to get there of course has been to get that good education. The only difference today is that it seems an undergraduate degree today functions more like a high school diploma did in the 1950‘s and early 60‘s. The Bachelor‘s degree may not be enough. More and more, post graduate study is becoming necessary to get that ―good paying job.‖ Has our pursuit of this dream gotten out of hand today? From a Christian perspective has the pursuit of the good life here in America supplanted or replaced our pursuit of the Kingdom of Heaven? Are we really living better today because of the ―American Dream?‖ I ask these questions based on the following observations.

Over the last 40 years there seems to be a noticeable drop in family involvement in the life of the Orthodox Christian faith. The censuses of church school programs have been decreasing over the years. Involvement in any worship for most families with children is strictly limited to Sunday morning (not

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necessarily every Sunday either). Family involvement in activities tied to the public school system has noticeably increased. It is not unusual for many families to be involved in multiple sports leagues or activities, music lessons, band competitions, etc. This is happening throughout the week, in the evenings, on the weekends, during school vacations, and in some cases on Sunday mornings.

Most children by the time they are five know more about Barney, the Muppets, and the plot lines of many Disney DVDs than the life of Jesus. All these activities and events aren‘t free. Parents have to pay a fair amount of money and give a lot of their time in support of these things.

In addition parents have a huge commitment to provide for college education. Some parents do this by mortgaging their houses. Even with this help, it is becoming more common for young adults to graduate from College having $30,000 or more in student loans to pay off (this is just undergraduate school).

This high level of activity in the secular world is accompanied by an increased consumption and use of material wealth and possessions. We have and want more toys to play with (for both adults and children), everyone has a cell phone, and some high school students

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drive to school with cars bought for them by their parents. We have gone from a one car to a four car garage household.

Finally, there are many charitable organizations (in addition to church) that bombard families with their requests for help. With all of these changes over the last 30 years, the bottom line is when families pay the bills for this lifestyle; the check to the Church may not the first one that is written. For some it might be the last check written if it is written at all.

The latest financial instability we have experienced in the stock market and the economy is threatening the lifestyle we live today. Have we become addicted to that lifestyle? Are we making matters worse by trying to hold on to what we have? The pursuit of the ―American Dream‖ is not a bad thing. Many do these things because they want to and choose to.

But when is too much too much? In our drive to gain the whole world, are we losing our soul? (Matthew 16:26) Have these good things that we seek for our children and ourselves become idols that have replaced or compromised our witness as Orthodox Christians? I cannot answer that question for others I can only answer it for myself. I have asked all of these questions because it raises the whole issue of how do we address the offering of our time, talent, and money to our local parish given the above realities?

I offer this word from St. Paul for use as a litmus test to address the questions I have asked: “Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Philippians 4:11-13) I 27

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love this scripture verse from St. Paul. It states there is nothing sinful about having material wealth. There are aspects of pursuing the ―American Dream‖ that are not contrary to living in this world as an Orthodox Christian. But St. Paul also puts forward the idea that he is not defined by what he has or what he lacks in the secular world. Having Christ in his life is the standard that defines him as a person and gives meaning to the world he lives in. His contentment in life has nothing to do with being rich or poor in worldly matters but has everything to do with the relationship that has been cultivated in his life with Jesus Christ!

When is too much too much when it comes to our pursuit of the American Dream? We might answer that question by looking at how what we do serves to strengthen our life in Christ. Or does it make us more self indulgent and thus result in our forgetting God in our daily pursuits? If the life of Christ is being choked out, chances are we have replaced Christ and are now serving mammon instead of God. (Matthew 6:24) Instead of us pursuing the ―American Dream‖, the dream has become an idol which has enslaved us. This addiction will only make us more miserable if we think having more of it will make us happy.

The management (stewardship) of what we offer to the local parish in terms of time, talent and resources speaks directly to the quality of our life style. If we seek to increase our giving to the church it means our life style will change.

Is this a bad thing? Do we welcome this change? This brings us back to St. Paul.

Can we be content with having less if that is what is called for? Do we really need a house with a four car garage? Do we need a $35,000 car? Can we be content with planning vacations that are less costly?

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Does Fr. Paul really need that 44 ounce pop, every day? Do I need to play three sports a year? How many HDTV‘s and cell phones do we really need? How important is it that Ken and Barbie have that new fall wardrobe collection now available at Wal-Mart? If our heart‘s desire is to grow and mature in Christ, the gifts we have been entrusted with, our time, talent and our resources will be first offered towards that end. By giving our time to honor and observe the fasting and worship cycles of our Orthodox Christian Church, it will help us to become stewards of creation instead of slaves of creation.

This can only work if this is something we truly hunger for and do so out of love, and the joy we experience in seeking first His Kingdom and righteousness. We are told that if we make that our first priority, our worldly needs will be taken care of.

(Matthew 6:33-34). Help us Lord to pursue this ―Orthodox Christian Dream‖ and may we find fulfillment in doing so.

V. Rev. Paul Gassios

MORALITY OR MORALISM?

Today a great many people are entering the Orthodox Church from other, generally Western confessions. Their tendency, quite understandably, is to bring with them notions of sin and guilt,

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obedience and virtue (merits) that figure strongly in the way those confessions construe the means by which we attain salvation. Whether they remain in a lay state or become ordained, they often allow their "former delusion" to influence the way they conduct themselves and the way they expect others to behave within an Orthodox setting. They determine for themselves and for those around them just what degree of rigor is necessary in order to live a virtuous life. The upshot is that a quest for virtue and morality often results in legalism, moralism and selfrighteousness.

Cradle Orthodox, laypersons and clergy, can also succumb to this temptation, of course. All of us, in fact, are susceptible of passing judgment on those whom we suspect of neglecting the rules or making choices that are not pleasing to God. There are priests, for example, who have simply condemned a woman who confesses to having had an abortion, with very little concern for her circumstances or for the pastoral care she requires.

Others have excommunicated or otherwise punished parishioners for having merely contemplated the possibility of divorce, without really being aware of the circumstances (infidelity, domestic violence, child abuse?). Some laypeople who consider themselves to have special authority within our parishes make it a point to monitor and censure the behavior of everyone from the priest and altar boys to teen-aged girls and the parents of noisy infants, whenever any of the closelywatched offend their sense of propriety.

They take umbrage at an apparent lack of zeal in everything from celebration of the Divine Liturgy to observance of fasting, tithing and similar disciplines. Their vocal criticisms, however, unwittingly expose

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and undercut any pretension they may have about the virtuousness of their own life.

A great deal of the emphasis on "doing it right," however, derives less from self-righteousness than from fear.

Some people are afraid that if they don't obey the rules in the most rigorous way, God will be displeased and will condemn them for their laxity. During Great Lent, for example, many Orthodox faithful read food labels with uncommon scrutiny, just to be sure no trace of dairy products will pass their lips during the fasting period.

Some, who mistakenly think it's obligatory, make it a point to observe in the strictest way the fasting guidelines laid down for monks, while others refuse to take prescribed medicine prior to coming to communion (or refuse to receive the Holy Things because they had to take their medications).

If people adopt such practices out of fear that they will become the objects of divine wrath, then they have simply missed the point. Depending on our personal circumstances, we can faithfully adopt varying degrees of rigor in ascetic practice. If it is assumed out of fear or guilt, however, rather than out of a 29

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genuine desire to allow those practices to work a healthy transformation within our spiritual life, then that discipline can be destructive, spiritually and physically.

And when we try to impose excessive rigor on other people, fearing for them or judging them when they do not conform to our standards, then we violate the most fundamental and important rules of all: to love our neighbors as ourselves, and to leave judgment in the hands of God. Our desire for morality, a life of virtue and obedience to the divine commandments, in other words, can all too easily turn into moralism. Moralism is the antithesis of authentic morality. It makes of such positive and essential values as keeping the commandments and questing after virtue something other than what they were always meant to be.

Moralism leads to idolatry. It substitutes the means for the end. It substitutes a "virtuous life" for him who is the sole Author of life.

Returning to the quotation with which we began the previous column: The true progression in Christian existence, when lived out according to the Gospel and in the freedom of the Spirit, is not: inherent faith that produces fear of (a redoubtable) God, which compels us to obey the commandments, and which finally issues in a life of (Godless?) virtue.

It is rather a progression marked by ongoing repentance and a calling upon 30

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divine mercy for forgiveness and the gift of faith ("Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!"). With this gift, we can strive ever more consciously to be faithful to the will of God as expressed in the commandments (epitomized as "Love one another as I have loved you..."). And this finally, and by the sheer grace of the Holy Spirit acting within us, can lead to the ultimate goal: unbroken and unending life in blessed communion with the God whose very nature is love.

The Very Rev. John Breck

THE LONELINESS OF MODERN MAN In the Benedictine tradition, a monk makes four vows: poverty, chastity, obedience and stability. Most people are familiar with the first three but not with the fourth. In classical Benedictine practice it meant that a monk stayed put: he did not move from monastery to monastery. It was not a new idea. Before Benedict had written his rule, there was already the saying from the Desert: ―Stay in your cell and your cell will teach you everything.‖ Staying put or stability doesn‘t sound all that difficult; nothing at all as hard as poverty, chastity and obedience.

But it may indeed be the hardest of all.

The ―noonday devil‖ which tended to afflict monks from the beginning, was especially known as the temptation at some point to leave your cell and just go visiting, where gossip and many far worse temptations could make themselves manifest. Staying put was the hardest battle of all. In its most extreme form in the the East we see the Stylites, the monks who lived on the tops of pillars (St.

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Simeon‘s was over 300 feet tall!)

In our modern world stability is an extremely rare commodity. The average American moves once every five years.

When I first came to Oak Ridge (Tennessee), I was constantly told by the old-timers, ―People in Oak Ridge are from everywhere!‖ In 1943 when this city was founded as part of the Manhattan Project, that statement was truly unusual.

Americans rarely relocated. But I had to break the sad news to my new co-citizens, ―Everywhere you go, people are from everywhere!‖ There was a time in my hometown in South Carolina that a trip to the store or Mall would bring a dozen casual meetings with friends and acquaintances. Now they are all strangers when I visit – or rather I am the stranger. I do not live there anymore.

All of this would just be sociologically interesting if it had not effect on our lives. But it has a profound effect.

In 1935 (to pick a date), the most common pattern in our country was for a local boy to meet and marry a local girl and to settle down and raise their children in the community in which they themselves were born, with relatives and friends forming a network of relationships that surrounded and nurtured (or

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harrassed) them. Divorce rates and crime rates were relatively low in most places.

Stable communities tend to have stable families. The network of relationships promotes this. Human beings have lived in these relatively stable forms for most of human history.

In 2007 (to pick another date), the more common pattern is for a boy to meet a girl in college or later – he is from Virginia (say) and she is from Ohio (say).

They marry, move to Oregon and begin their careers, or they met there and married. Family is the stuff you negotiate as in ―whose parents do we visit at Thanksgiving this year, etc.‖ The network of friends is often his friends from work and her friends from work, and frequently not much more.

In 1980, living in Columbia, S.C., I attended a conference in which the lecturer asked an auditorium of about 400 to raise their hands if they new 5 people on their city block. A few hands went up. I wound up in the last group. I knew no one in the Apartment Complex where we lived. Most of us did not know a single neighbor. And that is not an unusal modern pattern.

This brings us to the loneliness of modern man. The internet has probably made us more connected, in a virtual sense, than we have been in a generation.

But, of course, their is an extreme level of volunteerism in this virtual community. If I don‘t want to post today there is nothing you can do about it. We are not a natural community.

I cannot touch you or hear you laugh. I share a photo so you know something of what I look like. But how do I sound? How much of my native Appalachian dialect still clings to my tongue (not much, but some).

And we only know what we choose 31

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to share. It makes for a very thin village indeed.

As modern man has lost his stability (I blame our economic structures largely for this phenomenon – moving expenses are tax-deductible, for example) so we have lost the fruit of stability.

Crime, divorce, the simple consensus that makes a culture a culture disappears. The 1950‘s three channel television and whitebread families were probably the last cultural manifestation of an earlier consensus that will not return. It cannot return without stability.

I have lived in Oak Ridge since 1989, in six years it will be the longest I have ever lived anywhere. I know many people in this town of 25,000 and I know my parish of 100+ souls quite well.

Stability for me means I will be buried in this town. It is a goal I have, though, it is one of my long-term goals.

For all of us, some form of stability is necessary, even if it is one we must largely create ourselves.

I would point to the Orthodox Church as an example of stability. I can read from centuries of writings and recognize and understand what is said. St. Athanasius is as interesting to me on a daily basis as, say, Fr. John Behr. The ―latest thing‖ in Orthodoxy just isn‘t very late. There is a stability that comes within that part of life – a stability I cannot create but to which I can submit. I am Orthodox and I can daily seek to imbibe more fully what that means. It can create me (which is probably much to be preferred).

I cannot leave the modern world (or post-modern if you prefer). I was born in 1953 and there‘s is nothing to be done about it. But there are commitments that I can make – that any of us can make. I am married. I do not take a vow of poverty, but everything I own is owned by my wife 32

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as well (no private property). If you have children, you will learn a certain form of poverty no matter what. I do not take a vow of chastity. But I only have one more woman than a monk. As far as all the other 3 billion women in the world are concerned – I am a monk. For the married, faithfulness is the natural form of chastity.

I do not take a vow of obedience (nor did my wife for that matter), but I have a life of mutual submission – my will is not my own. We are not here because I alone wanted to be here. We are here because we wanted to be here (ultimately, I suppose there is obedience – to my Bishop, and to my God – but on a daily basis His Eminence does not interfere.

God can also be strangely silent).

But stability is more fleeting. I think that only by becoming part of a larger community, even larger than the present and reaching into the past, do we begin to find stability. Oddly, Oak Ridge is more stable now than most towns. But none of it matches the stability of 2,000 years of living Tradition. To live my life in the neighborhood of the Kingdom of God where the saints know my name and encourage or harrass me if necessary.

God give us the grace to come to the place of stability in you. Put me some place where I can stay put.

Fr. Stephen Freeman

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MODEST ≠FRUMPY! ATTRACTIVE CLOTHING FOR CHRISTIANS ON THE MAKE It's Sunday morning, you're at church, and your mind begins to wander a little bit during the Litany of Supplication.

You begin to look around to see whom you might try chatting with during coffee hour. If you're a single girl, your gaze might go to the young man in the dark suit and tie who stands by himself. He looks pretty sharp, and yet a little stiff, like maybe he's on his way to apply for a mortgage. You put him on the list of possibilities, and then you spot...

The tall handsome firefighter who has come in to church in a tight navy Tshirt that says "Battalion 6" and shows off every one of his muscles. Running your eyes along the contours of his shoulders, you can identify his deltoids, biceps, triceps and pectorals, and before you know it, you're wondering what his adductor longus looks like. This fellow has all of your attention now, whether you want to think about him or not. He's the human equivalent of a cheesecake during Lent.

If you're a single guy, your gaze might go to the young woman in the brown headscarf, brown blouse with long sleeves, and brown long skirt. You've seen her around a few times before, and she has a nice smile. Maybe you'd like to know a little more about her, you think, but you're also wondering if she's actually a novice in a women's monastery. Then you spot...

A young woman who's "topless" -both in the sense of not having a headscarf and in the fact that the top she's wearing on her upper body looks like a balcony with no railings. If your hormones carry the same sort of messages that mine do,

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this isn't just a distraction of your attention, it's a domination, like a news bulletin during your favorite TV show: "We interrupt this broadcast to bring you the following important announcement. A shapely young lady who doesn't waste fabric in her apparel choices is nearby at approximately 70 degrees to your right, 25 feet down range.

All thoughts taking place in this brain are hereby suspended for the purpose of coming up with a lame opening line for a conversation with the owner of the figure of your fixation. If you would like to have the use of your brain again soon, put your head in a bucket of ice."

My guess is that the two "hotter" hypothetical church-goers -- Mr. Muscles and Miss Sternum -- are likely to score more phone numbers during coffee hour.

But, we need to think more about whether that's our goal in meeting people. The clothes we wear don't have a lot to do with who we really are, but they do have an effect on the people whom we meet. They can serve the purpose of showing respect for what's going on, or welcoming others to come near us. They can also stir up passions in others, as the main character of the romantic comedy Clueless explains: "Sometimes you have to show a little skin. This reminds boys of being naked, and then they think of sex."

If a girl tries this on Orthodox single boys who have an active spiritual life, it will work in stirring them up, but it's also likely to remember the last time they followed that line of thinking, which landed them in Confession, which wasn't fun at all.

The question of how to dress is an 33

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important one for Christian singles because we're called to be humble people, both in our behavior and our appearance.

But, we are not required to put up a wall of total exclusion with our clothes.

Humility doesn't mean that we have to dress like frumps or nerds, for example:

I don't know a whole lot about fashionable clothing, but with this chapter, I'd like to offer some suggestions for things that we can wear to be inviting and engaging in our appearance, which we need to be when we're looking for someone special. We can look eyepleasing without crossing the line to becoming eye-candy. We ought to think about this because as Christians, we want to be a part of the worship that brings joy into each others' lives. If there's one thing that regular church-goers hold in common, it's that the gentle sights, sounds and smells (provided the altar boy doesn't overload the censer) of our worship draws them in and helps them pray, and through prayer, we return to who we really are.

Anything we do for those we love ought to help draw out their true selves, and that's unlikely to happen if we dazzle them with our appearance.

Most women's fashion these days seems to be oriented towards helping women take control of situations by 34

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controlling the male attention. Or, at least that's how it seems whenever I get bored enough to open up a women's magazine at the grocery store. Ashley Tisdale here on the cover of the most recent Cosmo is pretty typical of magazine beauty these days. Wearing something to be noticed, or something that helps you engage with people of the opposite sex is great, but Ashley and most every Cosmo girl I've ever seen seems to be trying to overwhelm men.

Try thinking of it in terms of music: The high-energy electronic dance song with a heavy beat sure does get your attention while it's playing, but can you remember a thing about it after it's over?

What about the folk song that tells a story of some love or tragedy, both through its words and its melody? You might actually remember something about the culture that the folk song came from.

This is not to say anything bad about Ashley Tisdale. In fact, I don't know anything about her. Her Wikipedia article says that she stars in a lot of chick flicks.

I'm going to try to be careful not get

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preachy in this chapter because I'm sure you've gotten the "appropriate dress" lecture from your priest or school principal at one time or another, and hearing it again from a goofball like me isn't going to help matters much.

"Appropriate" is different for different people. While most girls wouldn't want to seem overly flaunty at church, at the same time, I doubt they want to have an appearance that says "My future involves having lots of babies and hand-stitching curtains."

I think most men would like to look appropriate at church, too, but I doubt that means they want to look like they're on their way to a funeral, either.

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I think we should avoid setting rules on this subject as much as possible, because then piety becomes about following rules rather than actually trying to have a better spiritual life. If a head scarf makes you more humble, by all means, wear one, but this does not mean that tying a tablecloth around your daughter's head is going to keep her from fooling around with boys.

Similarly, a skirt is not going to make you more pious, but it can be a beautiful way of showing humility. Or, as my mother-in-law (a priest's wife) puts it, "Any time my husband has to wear a dress, so do I." Subtler beauty

Be humble; don't get hung up on rules I have been to more than a few churches that had signs at the front dictating that women should not wear trousers in church, and that, according to St. Paul, they should have their heads covered in church. At other churches, no women wear a head scarf. One of the fastest ways to empty a party is to bring up this divisive issue and start challenging each other's faith over this issue.

Before invoking St. Paul in this debate, we need to remember a few things about what he was writing:  This was in the Letter to the Corinthians, and he was really ticked off when he wrote it.  Judging from the letter, some kind of strange cult involving loud and chaotic worship had taken hold in the Church of Corinth. He was trying to calm them down.  The letter is, in general, an exhortation to humility, and covered heads were a practical step in that direction.

There is this group on Facebook that I think many of you would enjoy. It's called the M.M. Club, or "Matushka Material" club. Matushka Anna Lardas writes about the opportunities presented by the headscarf: Hey, the platok is a statement.

Under the chin for humility (or obscuring your looks if you don't like the seminarian chasing you), behind the ponytail if you are a free-thinking brazen hussy, and wrapped all around the head like you have a bad toothache if you have a flair for the dramatic. Now that we are married more than 20 years and esconced in a parish that tolerates such things, I wear my hair down with a hat stuck on it at the last minute (often after my sons have spent the drive to church knocking dents out of it). But in Houston the starosta's mother insisted that a matushka could ONLY wear her hair in a bun. But I thought the girls who wore really cute hats to the monastery for syezd were just making things way too easy. The 35

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seminarians should have to work out for themselves who is available, who is interested, and who is not. If you make it too easy, they won't understand that they have to work to get you. And you want them to have to work at it, so they will value you...

So many things you men don't have to think about. You put on a nice suit, or, even better, a clean podrasnik, and you're ready to roll. While we.....

I just love Matushka Anna. She lives in Connecticut, so I haven't actually met her in person, but she's given me so many good ideas for humor articles.

And it's not just scarves that present an opportunity to look good, but skirts, too. The large area of uninterrupted fabric of a skirt presents an unparalleled opportunity to have a beautiful pattern or print visible. For example...

Doesn't this look nice? And, long skirts make you look taller, too. Also, a skirt emphasizes the gracefulness of your movements rather than your figure. Okay, I guess I should admit that I don't really know that much about women's clothing.

This particular skirt would also make you 36

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look like a fruit salad. My wife says that no woman in her right mind would wear it. But I hope you get the point.

Miri and I like to go contra dancing, which we used to do in Berkeley, Calif., and almost all of the women who attended wore skirts and dresses. This wasn't because of a sudden outbreak of conservatism in Berkeley, but because the whole swish-swish motion of a skirt while making a turn is fun. And, I noticed that the skirts did an especially good job of emphasizing the gracefulness of the women's movements rather than the shape of their figures.

Spring dresses offer greater freedom of movement, like this one from Old Navy...

But, it needs to be worn with a shirt underneath and tights. I saw a 15-year-old girl wearing an outfit like that this week at church, and it worked well for her. She also likes playing touch football after church with the boys in the field behind the parish house, and she can outrun the boys in a skirt. Church football is fun to watch, especially when they give 5-yard penalties for swearing.

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My friend Stephanie also offered some thoughts on how aiming for good fit in clothing is just as important as selecting the clothes themselves.

I honestly think that wearing clothes that fit right is the key to dressing well. I find that tailored shirts and jackets with skirts that are about knee length, or fitted knee length dresses work really well on me. So often I see lovely girls wearing baggy shirts with long square skirts. I absolutely understand the need for modesty in church, but we don¡¯t have to dress in clothes that give us the shape of a refrigerator box. Women come in all shapes and sizes and it is important to accentuate your God-given assets, even in church, and especially if you are looking to meet someone. When you feel that you look good you exude confidence, and confidence it the most attractive thing you can have. A friendly smile doesn¡¯t hurt either!

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everybody's as smart as you. It's a good thing that you pay attention in school," I said. Tina looked at me like I was pulling her leg.

There's no doubt that a girl can get lots of attention by emphasizing or revealing a lot of cleavage. But, at the same time, she needs to think about the quality of attention that she might get. One has to keep the Boob Paradox in mind, which states that whatever additional attention a woman gets by showing cleavage causes the stupidity of the man looking at her to double. If she gets 20 percent more attention from a man, that man is 40 percent more of a boob as a result. The following cartoon by David Horsey of the recently defunct Seattle Post-Intelligencer (I used to work there, its departure is sad) explains this better:

So that's my list of suggestions for nice outfits for women. I did promise not to lecture about the "thou-shalt-nots" of fashion, but one thing I need to add is...

Cleavage: Show a man your heart without exposing its immediate neighbors When I was driving the Raphael House school van a couple of years ago, a 7-year-old girl saw a woman on the sidewalk in a low-cut top, and she asked me why she was wearing a shirt that showed half of her breasts. And I said, "She's afraid her breasts will jump off and run away without her. With that shirt, she can look down and check."

"Breasts don't jump off and run away, Thomas," she said.

"Yes, dear, you know that, but not

If you do wear something that shows a lot of chest, remember that we stand up during the liturgy and don't stand near a tall boy. Your privacy will be invaded.

Neathage: Absolutely not. And, minus one point if you actually know what that word means.

My goodness, I have written an awful lot about what women ought to be wearing. I'm not one myself. Maybe I should actually write about men's clothing.

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Men, pay attention From the brief survey of women I did in researching this article, a podrasnik (or cassock) is really attractive. But, generally you need some kind of rank (reader, choir director, etc.) to be wearing one of those, so manly black dresses are not for everyone.

Suits and ties also got high marks even though I was poking fun at them earlier. They do make you look sharp, although I would avoid light gray as a color for suits since they make you look like a funeral home director.

One outfit that's not as formal that I've been able to make work goes like this: Collared dress shirt with no tie, top button open. On top of that should be a corduroy jacket with lapels, or a leather jacket.

Wear dark slacks with a dark pair of dress shoes and dark socks. (And yes, the shoes actually are important. I know one bishop who shall remain nameless who wears white tennis shoes while serving hierarchical services and it just doesn't look that good.)

This outfit is pretty versatile in that it's the sort of thing you could wear to most workplaces (on the west coast, anyway) but, you also might be a poet on your way to a reading of your work. This shows a little bit of mystery to you. And, a little searching through thrift stores can find you a nice corduroy jacket that isn't too pricey. Another look that got high marks from one of my readers was wearing a sweater under a tweed jacket.

One other benefit with sweaters and fleeces is that if you have some aspect of your body that looks a little "scary," like being taller than Arnold Schwarzeneggar, or a particularly strong brow line that looks like a grimace even when you're happy, a sweater or a fleece 38

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with a soft visual texture can make you seem a little more teddy-bearish.

You also should come up with an outfit for Pascha, and make it pretty bright. In 2006, I bought a pair of bright white slacks and wore them with black dress shoes, a bright red shirt and a bright red tie and a white boutinier. The girl I was trying to impress told it was kind of nice, and then ran off to Canada with a guy she met at a dance club two months later. In 2007, I put on the same outfit shortly before Paschal Hours started, and my fiance (now wife) exclaimed, "You look like a sunburned smurf!"

So, I'm still working on my Pascha outfit. When I get the money to try again, I think I'll try a brand-new superwhite shirt and a red pullover sweater vest with a little button of the Resurrection and a white boutinier.

Oh, the boutinier. You ought to think about one of those from time to time, too. They cost less than $10 from most florists, and they add a certain festiveness to your appearance that most guys don't think about. (And, girls like flowers! Maybe when a girl compliments you on your flower, you could sneak in a pick-up line like, "You like flowers? Want me to bring you some tomorrow night?")

Beards We all know that beards have been an "in" thing for Christian guys for at least 2,000 years, but if you're scouting for a handmaiden, you need to follow some limits about trimming. One, make sure your lips are visible. If she's into you at all, she's thinking about a first kiss, and not with a carpet. My friend Elena adds that a beard should also not be allowed to fan out in all directions like tropical tree fungus.

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A little attention to detail goes a long ways. Beards are good, but make sure your lips are at least visible.

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Try to relax about it, too

Know your parish I tend to shy away from wearing a suit in church because it seems to scare people with that much formality, especially in my home parish in Washington state. Maybe it has to do with my height, being 6 foot 9. Imagine talking to a man in a suit who's a foot and a half taller than you, and doesn't that put you in the mindset of being in the principal's office when you're 10? People call me "sir" and "mister" a lot when I'm in a suit, and it didn't help me finding girls back when I was single.

Other parishes I've attended have been more formal in attire -- in city parishes in San Francisco and Pittsburgh, I saw more suits on the men, and more business-like dresses on the women.

There, the applying-for-a-mortgage look might actually be the right thing.

Photos of people in nice "comesay-hi" church clothes

I hope that I haven't made anybody self-conscious about their appearance with this chapter. Finding good clothes has been a challenge for me all of my life because I've been both tall and large, and big & tall stores carry clothes for men who are tall, or who are large, but not both.

(Actually, I think they should be called "big OR tall stores.") And, whenever I did find a piece of clothing that fit, it was always a senior-citizen kind of style, which is, I guess, better than nudity. Some day, when I have oodles of cash (something one won't get writing a blog) I would like to get a tailored outfit made for me just so I can feel what it's like to have clothes that fit just right. And, so, I can make all the other girls jealous of my wife.

I don't actually remember what Miri was wearing the day we met, and she doesn't remember what I was wearing. I remember what her father was wearing, a riasa, a pectoral cross and a gold epitrachelion. But, then, he was one of the two priests, serving vigil.

One of the things I liked early on about Miri was the fact that she wasn't high-maintenance in the fashion department. She had several nice skirts she wore to church, and a pleasant 39

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triangle-on-a-string kind of white headscarf that allowed her face to be seen.

She rarely wore makeup, either. I was a little biased towards this way of thinking about women's fashion because my older sister rarely wears makeup or "girlie" outfits. She's been an avid windsurfer since she was 12, so her favorite outfit is a wetsuit. She asked if she could wear one to my baptism since it involved a dunking in a creek, and I demurred. Then, she wanted to know if a drysuit would be more appropriate.

So, none of what I've said should be taken to mean that you have to run off to buy a new wardrobe. It's not the most important part of finding someone, by any means. My friend Stephanie, whom I quoted above, got engaged a few months ago, and has this to add about the boys she was meeting before her fiance came along: Fashion wise what someone is wearing was never really all that important to me. I do appreciate it when a guy looks clean and wears clothes that demonstrate he has respect for the church.

That generally means clothes one might wear to work. Church is a holy place that we treat with respect, and I think it is showing respect to dress nicely-something as simple as a pressed pair of pants and button down shirt.

For me finding a guy who was actively involved in the church, but also had interests outside of the church was very important. A number of the young men I had met seemed¡well, how do I say this without being sacrilegious¡hyperfocused on church doctrine, theology, history, etc. For me living the faith is more important than constantly discussing all the particulars of it. My fianc¨¦ is a man who is as devoted to living the Orthodox life as I am, but we share similar interests outside of the church as well.

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Ahh... finding someone at church.

Here, we worship and we love. And, it's so delightful when we can share that.

Thomas Eric Ruthford

IS NOT THE BODY STILL HOLY AFTER DEATH?

Anything goes in Amsterdam. A recent Economist article describes how Dutch mortuaries are pioneering a novel field in alternative energy, one that gives new meaning to the phrase "people power." Since cremating corpses involves so much energy, crematory furnaces are being connected to municipal power grids lest any of this valuable resource go to waste. Some folks are literally dying to become cheap and renewable resources.

There's just one catch. Waste emissions from the process aren't quite green enough for Dutch ecological sensibilities, so further research is needed to develop a truly "clean corpse" technology. This may seem an extreme scenario, but it's not far from where we've come in accepting a practice once considered anathema.

I've heard some unenlightened reasons for opposing cremation, such as the idea that God won't be able to reassemble scattered ashes at the Resurrection. Such nonsense not only calls

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into question God's power, it offends the memories of those killed in accidental fires or the horrors of war.

Since the Catholic Church stopped forbidding cremation in 1963, the Orthodox Church (along with Orthodox Judaism) has increasingly had to explain its own opposition not only to the general public, but to its own faithful as well. The Orthodox insistence on burial is founded on respect for the human body as God's handiwork. The biblical account of our creation in God's image doesn't apply only to our rational faculties, but also to our physical being. The goodness of the created world, and of the body, is proven when Christ becomes flesh to redeem it.

The notion of an incarnate deity was anathema to the pagan Greco-Romans (along with Gnostics and other "dualists" both ancient and modern), who believed all things material were inherently corrupt and illusory, and only the immaterial had any redeeming value. They practiced cremation as a means of liberating the good soul from the bad body. Cremation meant destroying the soul's material prison, allowing it to escape.

Early Christians and Jews, on the other hand, venerated the bodies of the dead as still reflecting the sacredness of

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God. For those who celebrated the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, cremation became unthinkable. They treated their dead like Christ, anointing them with fragrant spices, wrapping them in burial shrouds and laying them in the earth. The places of the dead, catacombs became the gathering places for worship.

When they began suffering persecution, Christians carried away the bodies of their martyrs, kissing their bones and eventually making pilgrimages to their tombs. As church buildings appeared, martyrs' shrines were incorporated into them by placing their bones in the altar tables, an Orthodox practice to this day.

Few things seem more macabre to the enlightened mind than kissing the bones of the dead. Conversely, few things would have seemed more anathema to early Christians than burning a body, crushing its bones and scattering the ashes or keeping them in a jar.

Cremation, outlawed as a pagan desecration by a fifth-century imperial edict, is becoming the preferred method of body "disposal" even among Christians.

Although hardly deliberate, strands of the ancient dualism do permeate a modern death. I once had to inform a woman who already had her husband's ashes in a box that I couldn't bury him. She didn't think a funeral was necessary anyway, since he was already partying in heaven. His soul was the "he," while his body was now insignificant.

As a seminary instructor of mine once quipped, "We live like hedonists and die like Platonists." We live as though our body is the essence of our being, but suddenly it becomes nothing when we die.

It's not my intent to offend those who've had loved ones cremated, but to provoke thoughtful consideration of how we want 41

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to be treated when we die. Every method implies a belief about the meaning of the body, either that it is a divine icon or simply an empty shell.

Priest Barnabas Powell

LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR

- My Christians, how are you doing here? Have you got love for each other? If you want to be saved, do not ask for anything else here, in the world, but love.

Is there any of you who has got this kind of love towards his brothers? Let him rise and tell me so that I may wish him well and make all Christians forgive him. He will receive such forgiveness which he would have been unable to find had he given thousands of pounds of gold.

- Holy man of God, I love God and my brothers.

- Good, my child. You have got my blessing. What is your name?

- Costas.

- What do you do for a living?

- I am a shepherd.

- Do you weigh the cheese which you sell?

- I do.

- You, my child, have learnt to weigh cheese and I have learnt to weigh 42

love. Is the scales ashamed of its master?

- No. - Let me then weigh your love now and, if it is right and not false, then I shall wish you well and I shall make all Christians forgive you. How can I know, my child, that you love your brothers?

Now that I am here and walk and teach the people, I say that I love Mr Costas like my eyes, but you do not believe me. You want to try me first and then believe me. I have bread to eat, you have not. If I give a piece of it to you, who have not, I show that I love you. But if I eat the whole loaf and you are hungry, then what do I show? I show that the love that I feel for you is false. I have got two cups of wine to drink, you have not. If I give you some of it to drink, then I show that I love you. But if I do not give you, my love is false. You are sad. Your mother or father has died. If I come to console you then my love is true.

But if you are crying and weeping and I am eating, drinking and dancing, my love is false. Do you love that poor child?

- I do.

- If you loved him, you would buy him a shirt because he is naked so that he would also pray for your soul. Then your love would be true. But now it is false. Is not it so, my Christians? We cannot go to paradise with false love. Now, since you want to make your love gold, take and dress the poor children and then I shall make them forgive you. Will you do this?

- I will.

- My Christians, Costas understood that the love which he had till now was false and wants to make it gold, to dress the poor children. Because we have edified him I beg you to tell three times for Mr Costas, may God forgive and have mercy on him.

From the teachings of St. Cosmas of Aetolia