Orthodox Observer - January 2000

VOL. 65 NO. 1169

http://www.goarch.org/goa/observer E-mail: observer@goarch.org

JANUARY 2000

Light and Grace upon Faithful Attending Tarpon Springs Epiphany ARCHBISHOP DEMETRIOS, PROUD OF FLORIDA PARISHES TARPON SPRINGS, Fla. It is widely known in the area as Epiphany Day and this was the 97th year since it was first celebrated in Tarpon Springs. It is a small town on the west coast of Florida. A fishby Stavros Papagermanos ing town. It is the town were many Greek immigrants mainly from the Dodecanese, and especially from the island of Kalymnos, settled long ago. There, they could do what they did back home, what they were skilled to do. Fishing and diving. Sponge fishing. They made it their home, raised their families, broughtup their children, and built their churches. Today there are five flourishing Greek Orthodox communities in the Tampa Bay area.

It must be Epiphany day As Archbishop Demetrios, flanked by a dozen children crossed through the busy Tampa airport terminal, another dozen of photographers, cameramen and reporters, hustled around them in an attempt to secure the perfect shot, or that blurb that would make it on the 6 o clock news.

In any other airport, people would go about their business, trying to get to their gate on time, or find their arriving luggage and hop into a taxi home.

Some would ask the usual: what s going on, who s the guy in black robes?

Not in Tampa.

It must be Epiphany Day said a woman in her early 70 s to her husband as they faced the Archbishop s entourage. Most people stopped for a moment and clapped and they were not the ones among the few dozen of Greek Orthodox who came with their children to the airport to greet His Eminence. After all this is a major event for the area, covered extensively by local media every year and the locals know a Greek Orthodox Archbishop when they see one. It was a good 10-minute walk to the Press Conference room that was set-up for the Archbishop s arrival.

Epiphany and the environment Your Eminence is a privilege and an honor to welcome you as our spiritual leader today, this blessed day in our diocese and in this area. said His Grace Bishop Alexios of Atlanta, as he introduced Archbishop Demetrios to the press.

This is a first, said Archbishop Demetrios.

Photos D. Panagos

Archbishop Demetrios tosses the cross in the bayou waters.

Moments later 16 year-old Valantis Pilatos raises his right hand holding the cross he had just retrieved.

It was the first time for the Archbishop in this area of Florida, certainly the first time he felt so moved and overwhelmed by the warm expressions of love, especially from the children present, who clung to him throughout.

In his remarks the Archbishop gently introduced the people of the press to the importance and meaning of the day to follow, Epiphany Day. Tomorrow is a ceremony and a celebration of life and joy and salvation and thankfulness to God for what he has given us. It is a celebration that is internationally known an explosion of joy in a ceremonial and festive mood

DIOCESE OF ATLANTA: Archdiocese News Books

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Challenge

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Classified ads

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His Eminence masterfully connected the feast of the Epiphany to the sanctity of life and our environment.

Stressing the fact that the water that is being sanctified is a major part of our natural environment. He said that the ceremony of the Epiphany, proclaims the sacredness of the environment which is to be respected and honored and be kept beyond any violation. The ceremony of tomorrow, His Eminence continued, is a prohibition to any violation of nature. We don t have the right to exploit and pollute nature beyond any limits and make it ugly and render it useless.

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ARCHDIOCESE PRESBYTERS RETREAT AND FORUM:

Ecumenical

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Parish Profile u 8

Ecum. Patriarchate u 4-5, 18

People u 8

Greek section

Reflections u 13

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In Memoriam u 2 2

Relating to the Faith u 6

Clergy Updates u 27

Of Special Interest u 26 , 29

Religious Education u 12

Contemporay Issues u 1 2

Opinions u 10

Retired Clergy u 27

Diocese News

Orthodoxy Worldwide u 14

Voice of Philoptochos u 9

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ARCHBISHOP S ENCYCLICAL

Feast of the Three Hierarchs and the Day of Greek Letters To the Most Reverend Hierarchs, the Reverend Priests and Deacons, the Monks and Nuns, the Presidents and Members of the Parish Councils of the Greek Orthodox Communities, the Day and Afternoon Schools, the Philoptochos Sisterhoods, the Youth, the Hellenic organizations, and the entire Greek Orthodox Family in America Brothers and Sisters in Christ, On the occasion of the Feast of the Three Hierarchs and the Day of Greek Letters, we have an opportunity to reflect on the unparalleled legacy of learning that is ours as Greek Orthodox Christians. Borrowing an expression from Homer s Odyssey, Saint Basil the Great once wrote that it is important as a proof of education to have seen the cities of many men and to have learned their minds (Epistle 74).

ÌÝãá ðñüò ìáñôõñßáí ðáéäåýóåùò ôü ðïëë`ùí [áíèñþðùí éäå¡éí {áóôåá, êáß íüïí ãí`ùíáé... ([ ÅðéóôïëÞ 74)

In these few words Saint Basil captures a particular understanding of the nature of education that is at once thoroughly Hellenic and truly Patristic.

For in the Hellenic understanding there is first of all an appreciation for the immensity of knowledge. To be a literate

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A R C H D I O C E S E

JANUARY 2000

N E W S

Archbishop to Speak at Greek Letters Day Event NEW YORK Festivities honoring the Feast Day of the Three Hierarchs in the Greater New York area on Jan. 30 will include a Liturgy and Vasilopita reception on Friday, Jan. 28, and a Greek Letters program with Archbishop Demetrios as the featured speaker.

His Eminence also will preside at a Divine Liturgy for parochial school students, teachers and principals at St. Demetrios Church in Jamaica, Queens, beginning at 9:30 a.m., Jan. 28.

After the Liturgy, the Archbishop will recognize students who have scored 100 in the 1999 Modern Greek Language Regents exam.

Later in the afternoon, Archbishop Demetrios will host a Vasilopita reception at the Archdiocese, 5 to 7 p.m., for administrators and teachers of area parochial and afternoon schools.

The Jan. 30, a celebration will take place at the Cathedral Center on East 74th Street between 4 and 6 p.m. His Eminence will speak on the Three Hierarchs and Greek Letters. Admission is free.

Orthodox Observer

ANNUAL TREE LIGHTING Archbishop Demetrios presides at the annual tree lighting ceremony at Archdiocese headquarters a few days before Christmas.

He also spoke on the spiritual message of Christmas and sang carols along with the entire staff.

New Alumni Trustees Hold First Meeting New trustees of the Hellenic CollegeHoly Cross Alumni Association discussed future goals and programs in support of HC/HC at their first meeting Dec. 1.

According to information from Fr. Peter Karloutsos, Association president, the board heard reports on the institution s progress from acting senior officer Dr. James Skedros. Chief Financial Officer Leon Zaimes reported on financial needs and Director of Student Life Fr. Gerasimos Makris discussed living conditions at Polemanakos Hall, the main dormitory for single students.

The Alumni Day program, to take place in conjunction with the annual Commencement on May 20, also was discussed. The program will honor the Classes of 1975 and 1950 on their 25th and

50th anniversaries, respectively.

Festivities also will include a dinner on May 17 to honor selected alumni. Reunion classes will consist of 1960, 70, 80, 90, 95, and 99.

In addition to Fr. Karloutsos, new officers are: Frs. Dennis Strouzas, vice president; Dimitrios Antokas, treasurer; and Elias Velonis, secretary.

Board members and their dioceses are: Frs. James Moskovites, New York; George Dounelis, New Jersey; James Gordon, Chicago; Aris Metrakos, Atlanta; Mark Leondis, Denver; Thomas Chininis, Boston, Theodore Petridis, Pittsburgh; Constantine A. Zozos, San Francisco; and George Matsis, Detroit.

Sally Koloyiannides of the HC/HC Development Office, served as meeting and program facilitator.

D. Panagos VASILOPITA CEREMONY Archbishop Demetrios cuts the Vasilopita for clergy and their families of the Archdiocesan District on Jan. 4. The service took place at the Archdiocese Chapel of St. Paul. A reception followed.

Oratorical Festival Scholarship Amounts to Increase BROOKLINE, Mass. The Rev. Dr. Frank Marangos, director of the Department of Religious Education, has announced that the year 2000 Oratorical Festival Finals will take place in Daytona Beach, Fla., June 2-4, and will be hosted by the Diocese of Atlanta.

The host committee, chaired by the Rev. Nicholas Manousakis, pastor of St. Demetrios Church in Daytona Beach, met recently with Presbytera Margaret Orfanakos, Archdiocese co-chairwoman, to discuss the plans for the festival.

Aware that college tuition has increased many-fold over the past decade, the Oratorical Scholarship Foundation, chaired by Fr. Marangos, voted to increase the college scholarships awarded to the top three speakers in each division.

Beginning this year, the first-place speaker in each division will receive a $2,000 college scholarship; second-place speakers will each receive a $1,500 scholarship; third place speakers will each receive a $1,000 scholarship.

U. S. Savings Bonds, awarded to all the participants who receive a rank of honorable mention, will be for $500.

The theme for the 2000 Oratorical Festival is Holy Tradition.

Two of the topics are: Unique in its

architectural structure , the Orthodox Church is designed for the celebration of the Liturgy. Discuss the importance of Byzantine architecture in maintaining the patristic traditions of Orthodoxy, and, The Orthodox Church has a rich heritage of sacred hymns which contribute radiant and poetic splendor to Orthodox worship , thus, opening the way to God. Select your favorite Church hymn and talk about how it strengthens your faith.

The complete list of topics is found in The Arc (The Annual Resource Companion), Vol. II, available from the Department of Religious Education (1 800-5661088) and on the Internet at:www.goarch.org/goa/departments/religioused.

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ARCHBISHOP DEMETRIOS greets the children of St. Basil Academy at their annual Christmas Pageant in December.

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JANUARY 2000

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N E W S

Dimitriou Named Executive Director of Administration

Archdiocesan Cathedral Begins Renovation NEW YORK Holy Trinity Archdiocesan Cathedral Dean Fr. Robert G. Stephanopoulos and trustees, with the blessing of Archbishop Demetrios, have announced plans for a $1 million renovation and expansion program for the Cathedral interior and Cathedral Center.

Work begins this month with a projected completion date of March.

Established in 1892, Holy Trinity was designated the official Cathedral of the Archdiocese in 1960 by Archbishop Iakovos, former primate of the Church in America, who said at that time: The Cathedral is not meant to be solely a religious center or simply a place of worship or a home of Christian benevolence. It must be made to symbolize America s Greek Orthodox Church and community, and in general to reflect the entire Hellenic Omogenia. It shall be our primary commitment to elevate and expand it in all religious aspects so that we shall be ever proud of this Jewel of Orthodoxy.

Planned improvements include repairing the church interior ceiling and walls, painting the entire interior, upgrading the air conditioning system, refurbishing the existing mosaics and the interior metalwork, chandeliers and church artifacts, repairing the art glass windows and enhancing all interior lighting and sound systems, to make the Cathedral television and radio broadcast-compatible.

The new project will include the transformation of the Cathedral Center mezzanine into a full service library, reading center and book store open to the public daily.

According to Cathedral Board President Elias Kulukundis, the estimated cost of the renovations is $1 million and he invites Greek Orthodox faithful from throughout the Archdiocese to contribute to the Holy Trinity Cathedral Renovation Fund, 319 East 74th Street, New York, NY 10021. For information please call Peter Chrisanthopoulos at (212) 237-7777

Archbishop Demetrios presents antimisia (the consecrated cloth used by a priest who places it on the altar to celebrate the Divine Liturgy) to clergy of the Archdiocesan District during their recent syndesmos meeting at Holy Trinity Archdiocesan Cathedral. Fr. Emmanuel Gratsias prepares to accept his antimision from the Archbishop.

Mission Lecture at Holy Cross

Are Foreign Missions Really “Foreign”?

His Grace Bishop Dimitrios of Xanthos recently offered the annual Mission Lecture at Holy Cross School of Theology, titled “Orthodox Missions through the Ages.” With His Grace are (from left): Dr. James Skedros, acting dean of Holy Cross; Dr. Aristotle Mihopoulos, acting dean of Hellenic College; Dr. Diane Kesler, general secretary, Massachusetts Council of Churches; Rev. Dr. George Papademetriou, HC Lecture Series chairman; Fr. Euguene Pentiuc; Rev. Dr. Alkiviadis Calivas and Dr. Lewis Patsavos.

Computer Seminars at 2000 Clergy-Laity IONIAN VILLAGE TO MARK 30TH ANNIVERSARY Due to the tremendous success and response from the attendees of the 1998 Clergy-Laity Congress, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese Department of Internet Ministries and the Department of Information Technologies are once again are planning to set up a computer lab and training center for the attendees of this summer s Clergy Laity Congress.

In order to best meet the needs of you the clergy and laity of the Archdiocese we would like to know what classes you would like us to conduct at this year s Clergy Laity Congress. The 1998 Clergy-Laity Congress classes covered topics such as: 1) Computer basics 2) Parish administration software training 3) Using the Internet.

An email account has been set up for you to email your suggestions and questions directly to computerseminars @goarch.org. We appreciate your support, comments, and prayers and look forward to seeing you all once again this summer at Clergy-Laity.

Please note that this email address is not to be used to inquire about items related to other aspects of Clergy-Laity, such as registration, dates, hotel info, etc.

NEW YORK Archbishop Demetrios has appointed former director of finance and administration Jerry Dimitriou to the newly created position of executive director of administration, as of Jan. 1.

Mr. Dimitriou previously served at the Archdiocese from 1987 through February 1998.

In his 11 years with the Church he was associate director of economic development through 1992 when he was named director of finance and administration. He held that position through 1996, then continued as finance director until his departure from the Archdiocese.

Mr. Dimitriou went on to become chief financial officer of Chase/USI, the commercial insurance division of Chase Manhattan Bank in New York, a position he resigned to assume his new duties.

NEW YORK Ionian Village, the summer camp and travel program operated by the Archdiocese, is gearing up for an unforgettable summer as preparations are underway to celebrate its 30th anniversary, according to Director Michael Pappas.

Since 1970, nearly 15,000 teen-agers and young adults from the United States and Canada have passed through this idyllic setting on the shores of the Ionian Sea. And for three decades Ionian Village has served as a lens through which young people have deeply experienced their rich Greek culture and their precious Orthodox faith.

What s more, Pappas said, Ionian Village is a place where memories and friendships are made to last a lifetime.

While campers travel to some of the most significant historic sites in Greece, like the Temple of Poseidon on Cape Sounion, Delphi, and Ancient Olympia, the site of the first Olympic games, the heart of Ionian Village is experiencing life in an Orthodox country and walking where Orthodox saints once walked.

Participants travel to the pristine mountain village of Kalavrita and then to

Mega Spileon to venerate an icon of the Theotokos by St. John the Evangelist.

They also journey to the Ionian island of Zakynthos and to the shrine of St. Dionysios.

In Patras, they will gaze in amazement at the holy X -shaped cross where St. Andrew was martyred upon, and venerate the relics of the First-Called Apostle of Christ.

Ionian Village offers three exciting programs: Summer Travel Camp, for ages 12 15; Byzantine Venture for ages 1618; and Spiritual Odyssey for young adults, 19 and older.

The program is also actively recruiting for talented and committed Orthodox Christian young people to work in the following areas: arts and crafts, athletics, music and Greek culture, orthodox life, lifeguards (certification required) and nurses or doctors for the Infirmary (RN or MD required).

Staff members must be 21 or older by June 25, and available from June 25, to Aug. 16.

For more information or to become a staff member, call (212)-570-3534, or email: ionianvillage@goarch.org.

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. The 11th annual Orthodox Mission Retreat, scheduled for March 3-5 at Twin Pines Resort and Conference Center in Sterrett, Ala., will bring foreign missions into daily life with the theme Are Foreign Missions Really Foreign.

Several mission speakers will present talks on the call, the need, the vibrant activities of Orthodox missions, and ways that individuals can become involved.

Daily prayer services, enriching workshops, and fellowship are a part of this spiritual weekend.

This year s retreat falls before the start of Great Lent (Meat Fare Sunday is March 5).

The retreat is open to all those interested in missions and in gaining a deeper understanding of Christ s teachings on this most important and central aspect of the Orthodox faith.

Speakers will include the Rev. James Gavrilos, pastor of St. Mark Church in Boca Raton, Fla., and an OCMC Board member; Metropolitan Athenagoras of Panama and the Caribbean; team leader and past OCMC president Fr. Paul Costopoulos of Holy Trinity-Holy Cross Cathedral in Birmingham, Ala.; and Fr. Martin Ritsi, executive director of the OCMC in St. Augustine, and a past missionary to Africa and Albania.

Also, participants will have the opportunity to visit with OCMC staff and other guests.

Twin Pines Resort and Conference Center in Sterrett, south of Birmingham, is a spacious, heavily-wooded 200-acre retreat nestled among beautiful trees, mountains and a 46-acre lake.

It features country-cooked meals, comfortable rooms and southern hospitality.

Mission Retreat registration will include overnight accommodations (double occupancy), all sessions, and meals at the Twin Pines Conference Center.

Registration is $210 single/ $410 married couples.

To register and for more information: contact OCMC (Tel. 904/829-5132; e-mail ajlekos@ocmc.org)

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E C U M E N I C A L

JANUARY 2000

P A T R I a r c h a t e

Orthodox Leaders Seek Unity at Christmas Gathering

by Elaine Ruth Fletcher © 2000 Religion News Service

BETHLEHEM Bearing gold-clad Bibles, candles and goblets of powdery incense, dozens of Christian Orthodox church leaders launched Christmas eve celebrations here Jan. 6 in the Church of the Nativity in an unprecedented display of unity among some of the world s oldest church bodies.

Led by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, the bishops and patriarchs chanted the liturgy in the Greek, Arabic and the Russian hymns of the Eastern liturgy, while long processions of priests encircled the church repeatedly swinging bell-decked goblets of powdery incense intended to uplift the spirits of believers.

The Orthodox Christmas celebrations, the first major religious festivities in the Holy Land during the millennial year, also drew nearly a dozen political leaders from eastern Europe and the republics of the former Soviet Union, including former Russian president Boris Yeltsin, who arrived on Wednesday.

Yeltsin, who resigned two weeks ago from the presidency, is visiting here on what has been described as a private religious visit.

In the year 2000 of Christianity, I find myself in the Holy Land for the first time, said the former Russian president exuberantly, just after receiving the honor of the Knights of the Holy Sepulcher in a ceremony in Jerusalem on Thursday morning hosted by Greek Patriarch Diodoros I. Nonetheless, Yeltsin didn t hesitate to air his opinion on political matters either, declaring Russia would continue its military offensive against rebels in Chechnya and also support Palestinians in their quest for statehood.

In a month or two we will have crushed the terrorists. We are not leaving Chechnya, no, said Yeltsin, following the awards ceremony that also included the presidents of Belarus, Georgia, and the

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Thousands of Orthodox pilgrims gather at Manger Square near the Church of the Nativity for the Christmas celebration.

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CELEBRATING CHRISTMAS — Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew is joined by hierarchs from all Orthodox jurisdictions for the celebration of old calendar Christmas at the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. Shown with His All Holiness, from left, Archbishop Christodoulos of Athens and All Greece, Patriarch Catholicos of All Georgia Elias II, and Patriarch Alexy of Moscow and All Russia.

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Ukraine, as well as leaders from the Balkan states of Romania, Bulgaria and Greece.

Later, at a lunch with Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat in Bethlehem, Yeltsin hugged the Palestinian leader and declared: Russia will do everything it can so that full peace and concord can be established in the Middle East ... Russia will not change its position of helping Palestine to achieve statehood.

Thousands of Palestinian Christians and Muslims thronged the city s newly renovated Nativity Square Thursday at noon to greet the arrival of the patriarchs, archbishops and bishops in the city of Jesus birth.

Palestinian mounted police carrying small green, red and black Palestinian flags escorted the limousines of guests to the ancient Church of the Nativity, which dates to the Byzantine era of the 6th century.

A procession of Greek Orthodox priests, clad in orange brocade cloaks and carrying an enormous gold-bound Bible, led the delegation into the church s main entrance, a tiny 4-foot-high passageway.

The door, dating to the medieval period, was built to prevent Mameluke Muslim rulers from entering the sacred hall on horseback.

The arrival of the Orthodox leadership has proven a morale booster for many Christians in the local Bethlehem and Jerusalem communities, whose numbers

have been radically depleted by years of Israeli-Palestinian political turmoil that have spurred economic instability and emigration to the West.

Christianity is strong, we are strong, we are united and we have faith, said homemaker Nadia Jahshin, a Greek Orthodox mother of two, who was present at the church on Thursday afternoon to celebrate the Christmas Eve liturgy of St. Vasilius together with the patriarchal delegation.

We look for the Star of the Nativity to light her light over all of the world. We hope that every year will be like the year 2000, said Jahshin.

Her husband, Issam, meanwhile, was hoping the visits by the religious and political leadership of eastern Europe, the Balkans and the former Soviet Union would lead to more practical gains for the Christian tourist-based economy here by heralding the arrival of more tourists in the millennial year.

The religious leaders gathered here were also looking to the theological significance of the Christmas gathering. They described it as a prelude to a formal Great Synod conference among the Eastern Orthodox churches of the sort that has not been held since the 8th century.

A series of meetings between the panOrthodox leadership over the past two days have laid the groundwork for such an event, said Archbishop Szymon of Poland, who presides over the church in the Lodz region.

This is a preparation for a pan-Orthodox council to talk about different religious points, he said. Separation is not good. The church should become one, unified. But in what time that will happen, we shall have to see.

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the spiritual head of Orthodoxy, has been a strong supporter of unification moves.

In addition, the 15 patriarchs and archbishops who lead the various Orthodox church denominations are eager to preserve the equality they all enjoy in the religious world where Bartholomew is regarded as a first among equals rather than as a papal figure with absolute doctrinal authority.

One of the big differences in the Eastern churches is that they don t accept the primacy of a pope as in the Roman Catholic world, said Bishop Jann, a religious leader of the younger generation of the Orthodox Church in Albania.

The problems include greater demands for autonomy from congregations in ethnic locales ranging from Estonia to Arab Palestine. A large section of Israel s 100,000 Arab Orthodox population, in fact, is today revolting against the authority of the dominant Greek church here.

On Wednesday several hundred Palestinians gathered in Jerusalem outside of the patriarchs meeting to protest the local Orthodox church s alleged misuse of monies from the rental of vast church properties as well as its neglect of local Arab community needs.

Conversely, Orthodox leaders today must grapple with congregations of adherents who have been radically shuffled and displaced by the mass population movements of the last century.

No longer are Greek, Russian, and Balkan denominations of believers neatly organized according to ethnic affiliation in the old strongholds of the former Soviet Union, the Balkans and eastern Europe. Instead, they have become increasingly mixed and dispersed throughout Western Europe and the Americas.

JANUARY 2000

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ECUMENICAL PATRIARCHATE

Patriarchal encyclical on the feast of chrstmas

Chicago Boston

í BARTHOLOMEW

By the mercy of God Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch To the plenitude of the Church: Grace, mercy and peace from Christ the Savior born in bethlehem.

O

ur Holy Orthodox Church has instituted that we should celebrate the im portant events of God s saving work according to set periods in order that through their celebration we may appropriate the divine grace by partici pating in those events both spiritually and bodily.

Among the most important events of God s salvific plan is the birth according to the flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ, the celebration of which the Church has established from the earliest centuries of her life.

Our connection to the crucial historical events of God s saving work must not be only of sentimental nature. The aim is not to remember joyful events simply to be happy and mournful events simply to grieve.

Our connection must possess aspects of serious study and deep appropriation of the grace of those events. We meditate on past events in order to prepare for things to come for which we hope.

In this manner, both individually and together, we seek to be essential participants in the actualization of the mystery of salvation of the world.

Past events of God s plan of salvation, as well as the unfolding present, are comprehended by faith in the light of their telos or fulfillment.

The criterion of both comprehension and interpretation of the past and the present, as well as of all things as they unfold in time moving toward the future, is the reality of the last things, that is, the journey toward the Kingdom of God. Truth is the reality of future things, says St. Maximos the Confessor. Consequently, truth is also to be discovered in everything that contributes to our participation in that transcendent reality and not to be found rather in the changing actualities of this world.

What was the purpose behind God s love for a wayward world which had distanced itself from Him by its own volition?

It was to accomplish the restoration of humanity to its original beauty and to the Kingdom of God, that is, to the true life and full blessedness of the future eternal age.

Thus, God gave His Only-begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). It was for our sake that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14).

The Orthodox Church continuously lives the revelation of the Incarnation of God s Word she lives this event in the Divine Liturgy in which the whole mystery of the incarnate life of God s Word is celebrated.

The Church lives all the great moments of Christ s saving ministry His birth according to the flesh, His earthly visitation with us, His teaching, His Cross and Resurrection, His bodily Ascension, the descent and indwelling in us of the Spirit who is the Comforter, as well as our reconciliation with the Father through the Son. At the same time, the Church lives the future reality as through a glass darkly (1 Corinthians 13:1), a reality that she beholds and earnestly seeks (Hebrews 13:14).

The Orthodox Church knows that each believer s struggle to put on Christ takes place in this world and presupposes not only love for God but also love for neighbor which is expressed through readiness to bear our brother s burdens as if they were our own (Matthew 25:34, 36; James 2:14, 20).

It is on this account that the Orthodox Church, employing the most useful and effective means, namely, the proclaimed word, the grace of the sacraments, the icon, the symbols, and the feasts, calls her faithful to imitate Christ according to their strength in order to be able to ascend to the divine and ineffable beauty of the virtues of Christ.

In the true spirit of her pastoral care, the Orthodox Church, our common Holy Mother, takes this opportunity of the completion of two millennia from the birth according to the flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ to call us once again today, as the does each year, each Sunday, indeed each day, hour and moment, to the knowledge of Christ, to vigilance, repentance, prayer, ascetic striving, sobriety.

She admonishes and exhorts all the faithful to pass the present life redeeming the time because the days are evil (Ephesians 5:16).

The Mother Church never ceases to pray and to do all in her power, both at all times and on this auspicious feast, for peace in the whole world; for the unity and stability of the holy Churches; for reconciliation and friendly relations; for respect toward human life, freedom and the natural environment; and above all for all human beings, that through repentance, love and commitment to what is pleasing to the Lord, they may be saved by the grace of Christ who was incarnate, crucified and risen on behalf of all people, especially those who believe.

Only by His light is it possible for every inquiring soul to know who God is and what is freedom, duty, love, and neighbor. And also to know what is racial discrimination, ethnophyletism, religious fanaticism, as well as unspiritual zeal that lacks true knowledge.

In conclusion, we greet you paternally and bless all of you. Above all we exhort and beseech you: open and widen your hearts to love the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who bestow upon all the faithful the Patriarchal blessing, wishing you a Blessed Christmas and a New Year 2000 of the Lord s salvation to be without any cause for grief, but rather joyful, peaceful, and in every way auspicious, happy and blessed by the Lord.

My brothers and children in the Lord, do not ever forget that: Christ who was born in Manger 2,000 years ago is the only hope, the hope of all, indeed the hope of the entire universe.

The Fanar, Christmas 1999

Fervent intercessor before God for all of you í Bartholomew of Constantinople

New York

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JANUARY 2000

T H E

F A I T H

The ‘Epiphaneia’ of the ‘Unknown God’ in Jesus the Christ

by Fr. Demetrios J. Constantelos

Writing to his disciple Titus, the Apostle Paul speaks of an epiphaneia- an epiphany of God s chrestotes and philanthropia which took place in time through the person of Jesus the Christ.

Chrestotes has several meanings. In Paul s language it means goodness, an innate attribute of God. Philanthropia unmistakably means love, sacrificial love, not simply benevolent or loving kindness.

In ancient Greek thought philanthropia is by far the most prominent characteristic of the God upon earth, writes the renown classical scholar Gilbert Murray.

The Apostle says that When the goodness and the philanthropia of God our Savior toward man appeared he saved us...through Jesus Christ our Savior. (Tit. 3:4-6).

The conjunction when implies a division of time, the closing of one and the opening of another period in history.

God s epiphany took place in the person of Jesus the Christ, an epiphany that brought man s quest for the discovery of God to an end. No more searching, no more doubts about the existence of God, about an unknown God.

A Perpetual Quest The existence or non-existence of God has preoccupied many ancient and modern philosophers and thinkers. No matter how well one eats and drinks; no matter how many times one copulates; no matter how many material things one may possess; no matter how many books one might have read and how much one may know, one is constantly on a pilgrimage, on a perpetual quest.

The thinking person is never satisfied with the fulfillment of biological needs and intellectual achievements. There remains an emptiness within us which seeks to be filled and satisfied with something other than material possessions and accumulations of knowledge.

Thus, as little birds instinctively open their mouths for food, human beings instinctively search for their gods or God. The sea does not rise in waves unless the wind blows, nor is the tree set in motion unless the wind touches it; so also man does not act unless he is impelled by the heavenly providence, writes the ancient Greek historian Kallisthenes (d. 327 BC), a disciple of Aristotle (or pseudoKallisthenes). And some 400 years later, the Stoic philosopher Epiktetos (d. AD 120) wrote that when dark-

ness falls and you find yourself alone, do not be afraid; for you are not alone, God is within you!

Greek antiquity, especially the centuries known as Hellenistic, experienced religion with intensity, and religious worship was pursued with passion and even frenzy.

Greek philosophers, the Stoics in particular, conceived of and inherited a passion for a personal god in as vivid a fashion as some Hebrew prophets of old. If a man could only subscribe heart and soul, as he ought, to the doctrine that we are all primarily begotten of God, and that God is the father of all human beings and of gods, I think that man will entertain no ignoble or mean thought about himself, write Epiktetos.

Descriptions of God But what is God? In a prayer of the Greek Orthodox liturgy, God is described as anekphrastos, aperinoetos, aoratos, akataleptos, aei on, osautos on; that is, God is beyond description, beyond understanding, invisible, incomprehensible, always existing, likewise always the same.

At the same time God is called philanthropos, evergetis, eleemon, panoiktirmon, lover of the human person, benefactor, merciful, all compassionate.

Thus, while God is forever incomprehensible, to the searching mind and the loving heart God is comprehensible and existential because God s love became incarnate in the person of Jesus the Christ in whom the totality of God dwelt.

What the ancient thinkers and visionaries, prophets and philosophers, could not reach in time and space was revealed

by God in Christ, the ultimate Love, and those who love fellow man and beast, flowers and trees, mountains and hills, rivers and lakes, deserts and green pastures, clouds and rain, those who love the cosmos and cosmos means beauty abide in God; and the more you love the cosmos the more you love God, the more you love God the more you enter into God, as Clement of Alexandria put it (cf.

1 Jn 4:6).

Thus the encounter of Jesus the Christ with searching Greeks (John 12:2022) and the exclamation of Christ that the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified (John 12:23) highlights both the arrival of the Greeks at the end of their quest, but also the vision of the Hebrew rabbi that the visit of the searching Greeks was the sign that his message (evangelion) would be carried outside of the limited space of Palestine to a wider world.

The search had come to an end and the emptiness in the human heart could be filled to the brim.

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The search of the Greeks for the unknown god coincided with a growing expectation of the Jewish people for a Messiah a liberator from foreign rule (the Romans) but also from sin, guilt, and fear of death.

By the first century, Judaism had aborted much of Greek culture. For more than 300 years the Greek language, Greek philosophy, Greek aspects of culture had influenced Judaism to the extent that hellenized Judaism produced important literature in Greek, including Philo and Josephus.

The Wisdom Literature of the Old Testament and the New Testament books, both products of Hellenistic Judaism, reflect a literary level and many features characteristic of Greek biographical, didactic, and historiographic literature.

Relating to literature Biblical scholarship of the last 25 years has convincingly demonstrated that the Gospels in particular, but also other books of the New Testament such as Acts of the Apostles, are related to several types of Greek literature.

The Gospels of Matthew, Luke, and John and, to some degree even Mark, appropriate various Greek literary devices and techniques to advance their objectives.

The dramatic element and the dialogic motif are clearly Greek classical influences reflecting the Greek cultural background in which the Gospels were written.

The Jewish Diaspora but also Jewish Palestine proper was extensively hellenized. A distinction between Judaism of the Diaspora and Judaism of the Palestine has been described as artificial.

The hellenization of the Jews was voluntary, and reaction against Hellenic thought, literature, history, poetry, theater, art, architecture, onomatology was minimal.

More Jews of all classes spoke Greek than was believed 25 years ago. Professor Erich S. Gruen, a prominent scholar at the University of California at Berkeley, in his thought-provoking book Heritage and Hellenism (1998) writes that Jews engaged actively with the traditions of Hellas, adapting genres and transforming legends to articulate their own legacy in modes congenial to a Hellenistic setting...while simultaneously keeping faith with ancestral practices and belief.

This phenomenon is similar to the experience of the Jews in the United States who are fully Americanized, yet hold on to ancestral belief and practice.

The name Hellenes [Greeks] was no longer used in terms of race but of education, culture. Racism, as such, was foreign to the ancient Greeks.

The barbarian was not of an inferior race but of a less advanced civilization, education, learning. Hellenized Phoenicians, Syrians, Jews could be called Greek as in Mark 7:26 (df. Rom. 1:16; Gal. 3:28; Col. 3:11).

The heritage of Greece became ecumenical after the conquests of Alexander the Great, who established numerous Greek cities in the Near and the Middle East, disseminating Greek ways of life language, athletics, philosophy, art, architecture, literature, religious beliefs and practices.

The Maccabeans The Maccabean revolt of the second century before Christ was not

against hellenization proper, which continued long after even by the successors of the Maccabeans, but against the policy of a monarch Antiochos IV Epiphanes not to mention the fact that some scholars, including Jewish and Israeli, consider the Maccabean revolt a civil war, caused by the conflicts and aspirations between Onias III, Jason, and Menelaus, who contended for the position of high priest.

The idea of persecuting Judaism arose as a result of the development of affairs at Jerusalem, not as a preconceived plan as the Israeli scholar V. Tcherikover writes.

Perhaps St. Paul is one of the best illustrations of a Hellenized Jew. Paul s citations from Epimenides, Aratos and other poets and Stoic philosophers as in Acts 17:28, Rom. 2:11ff, 1 Cor. 5:1, 1 Cor. 15:33, Gal. 6:7-8, Tit. 1:12, indicate that St. Paul s Hellenic education was not drilled into him, but breathed in, in the words of Adolf Deissman.

In fact, St. Paul s citations from Greek philosophers such as for we are of his race and in him [God] we live and move and have our existence and his attitude in general toward Hellenic education and thought served early Christian intellectuals, ecclesiastical writers, and leading Church Fathers as principal witnesses in the defense of the continuity of non-Christian Greek literature and Christian literature. Greek thought and philosophy, including logic and ethics, were perceived not as feuding with Christianity but as collaborators guiding humankind to enlightenment, liberation, and ultimate salvation.

Although early Christianity was represented by a number of Apostles, Apostolic Fathers, and groups with varied viewpoints and practices, it was characterized by unity in its concerns, especially with the problems of man.

The Solution All Christians, whether of Jewish, Greek, Syrian, or Latin background, saw in the person of Jesus the Christ, the solution to the human problem.

As Jesus had impressed his disciples with his convictions and convinced them that he was the Messiah, the way, the truth, and the life, likewise the disciples and especially Paul convinced their disciples of the kerygma they proclaimed.

Whatever was behind this firm conviction, it became certain that no one no Jewish priest, no Greek philosopher or Roman prosecutor could put an end to the Christian movement.

Christianity could not have survived in ghettos; if it had to convert and influence people it had to accommodate and adjust to cultural and intellectual climates of the Greco-Roman world.

It was out of the meeting between Greek quest and Hebrew expectation that Christianity was able to appeal to people of various walks of life.

It was this synthesis that contributed to the formation of Christian theology doctrinal, ethical, liturgical. It was for this reason that Christian theology was developing and Orthodox catholic Christianity took nearly 800 years to become standardized.

In Greek Orthodox Christianity, eternal truth, the immutable nature of dogma derives from divine revelation as we find it in the Scriptures.

Yet the Scriptures are the work of

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JANUARY 2000

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N E W S

SYNDESMOS Board Returns from Prague

by Elizabeth M. Economou

P

RAGUE (Czech Republic), dubbed as the city of 100 spires, played host to the newly elected SYNDESMOS Board of Administration during the first week of November.

The gathering, according to Father Anastasios Bourantas, director of the Archdiocesan Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministries, and recently elected American delegate to the SYNDESMOS Board of Administration, brought together representatives from all the

can participation for quite some time. We need to make the rest of the world know that America is not what they see on television: the soap operas, the sit-coms, or what they see on the news, he says, America is Orthodoxy and there a lot of Orthodox faithful.

Meanwhile, the newly elected group, consisting of 15 total members, is also laying the ground work for a number of programs including an ecology project to mirror the work done by SYNDESMOS participants every year on Mt. Athos. For several years, SYNDESMOS has been going to the

WENCESLAYS Square in Prague, Chech Republic

world s regions to put together training programs geared towards Orthodox youth workers of all jurisdictions and ethnic backgrounds.

In addition, the group led by Fr. Anastasios Bourantas and Fr. Daniel Na, dean of St. Paul Orthodox Church in Puk Inchon, Korea, worked diligently to flesh out a tentative agenda for the new SYNDESMOS Board members at work year. And as early as this summer, the fruits of Prague could Holy Mountain and assisting for a two-tomanifest themselves in a string of different three week period on a litany of projects programs including: pilgrimages, ecology like building roads, and planting gardens. projects, summer camps, youth festivals, In an effort to localize the effort, this year SYNDESMOS will sponsor a similar enand training sessions.

Father Anastasios is especially look- deavor (in addition to Mt. Athos) at Orthoing forward to June 2000. If all goes as dox Monasteries in the United States.

But perhaps, what is closest to Fr. planned, he is slated to lead a pilgrimage to Spruce Island, Alaska, the site where Anastasios s heart are the opportunities St. Herman, North America s first Ortho- he has to work with young people in training sessions and youth exchanges. dox saint, lived for more than 40 years.

It was there where St. Herman fully I feel that as a Christian, as a priest, I dedicated himself to the Lord s service can make a difference by promoting Orand to bringing the Gospels to the native thodox and instilling our faith, and our Aleuts. In 1837, Venerable Herman, as beliefs to the young people and therefor he was called, passed away. He was can- they can pass it on and carry it through the ages as it was passed onto us that onized in 1970.

According to Fr. Anastasios, it is edu- can be done through our example, cationally and spiritually significant to be through our actions.

And while Fr. Anastasios will have connected to the saints. Seeing where and how St. Herman lived, he says, lots to do juggling his dual role as the could encourage us to become more like American delegate to the SYNDESMOS Board of Administration and the direchim, to become holy.

Founded in 1953, SYNDESMOS, is an tor of the Archdiocesan Office of Youth international federation of Orthodox and Young Adult Ministries, he believes youth organizations, theological schools, that this combination will ultimately enand Orthodox associations.Today, hance his ministry.

I can share with the youth of the SYNDESMOS counts more than 100 Archdiocese, here in America, he says, the member movements in 41 countries.

But despite the growing awareness of events in other Orthodox countries and SYNDESMOS worldwide, according to Fr. communities, and help promote an unAnastasios, there has been limited Ameri- derstanding of world Orthodoxy.

IONIAN VILLAGE ADVERTISEMENT

ORTHODOX OBSERVER

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PEOPLE u Fr. Limberakis Feted for 50 Years Service VALLEY FORCE, Pa. Parishioners of St. Sophia Church honored their pastor, Fr. John A. Limberakis, for the golden anniversary of his priesthood on Oct. 30.

More than 400 persons from throughout the county attended the tribute.

A native of Boston, Fr. Limberakis attended Holy Cross School of Theology in Pomfret, Conn., graduating in 1948. While at the seminary, he served as registrar and as executive secretary to the dean, Bishop Athenagoras Cavadas.

After graduating, he married Elizabeth Constantine of Los Angeles. He was ordained a deacon on Nov. 1, 1949 at Sts. Demetrios and George in Manhattan, and as a priest the following Sunday.

His first parish was St. George Church, in Fresno, Calif., where he initiated a building program. He was next assigned was Annunciation Church in Providence, R.I., where again he started a building program.

Fr. Limberakis next was assigned to Annunciation Church in Elkins Park, Pa., near Philadelphia, in 1970, and built a new church there. After retiring for one week, in 1990, he moved on to St. Sophia Church in Norristown and proceeded to launch a building program. The parish relocated to Valley Forge in 1996.

He holds the offikia of economos, sakkelarios and protopresbyter of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and Archdiocese. He was also bestowed the Cross of the Holy Sepulcher Medal from the Patriarch of Jerusalem.

Fr. and Presbytera Limberakis have three children: Dr. Cary Limberakis of Jenkintown, Pa., Dr. Anthony Limberakis of Philadelphia; and Catherine Tsatalis of Dayton, Ohio. Their first-born child, daughter Evangeline, died at age 11. The Limberakises also have nine grandchildren.

Fr. Limberakis has led 10 pilgrimages to the Holy Land, Mount Sinai and the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

Guests included the late Bishop George, Fr. Alexander Leondis, Diocese of New Jersey chancellor, relatives from Massachusetts, New York, California and Nevada, and numerous parish priests.

u Fr. Paleologos Honored for 25-Year Milestone WORCESTER, Mass. St. Spyridon Cathedral members honored their pastor, the Rev. Fr. Dean Paleologos on his 25th anniversary in the priesthood Oct. 23.

More than 300 parishioners, family members, clergy from other Orthodox churches in Central Massachusetts, and guests attended a reception and dinner held in his honor at the Cathedral Hall.

Speakers included Steve Maminakis, Cathedral president; Gregory Paleologos, Fr. Dean s older brother; Theresa Sampson,

JANUARY 2000

Mid-size Parish Serves Alabama’s Gulf Coast

A

city directory from 1850 listed five persons who may have been of Greek background, when Mobile was a leading cotton shipping port. But most of the first substantial numbers began arriving in the mid-1880s, according to a parish history.

Many of them came from Patmos, as did Fr. Cleondis relatives.

A few others emigrated from Chios, Kastelorizo, Andros, Crete, Kalamata and Asia Minor.

Like their immigrant counterparts

PARISH

Pantazopoulos.

The first permanent priest and Greek teacher, Fr. John Santorineos, came to Mobile in November 1926 at a monthly salary of $150, but with all his gratuities going back to the church for one year.

Later that year, members rented a room above a bank as a temporary church for $50 a month.

After a meeting on Christmas Day 1926, one of the community s founders as well as one of its ablest leaders and benefactors, Jason Malbis, offered to pay the priest s salary for one year and also

with an enrollment of 62, holds classes every Tuesday evening and includes a dinner.

A dance group meets on Mondays, and a Greek culture class for children and anyone interested takes Wednesday nights.

The parish has an active Philoptochos, a large Ahepa chapter and Daughters of Penelope chapter.

The community includes members who work in many professions in this economically diversified port city of about 200,000. Among them

profile

Name: Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church Location: Mobile Ala. Founded: 1912 Diocese: Atlanta Size: About 260 families Clergy: Fr. James. J Cleondis, (Holy Cross 61) Noteworthy: Priest also serves two small churches in nearby towns ANNUNCIATION GREEK ORTHODOX CHURCH throughout the United States, the first settlers established common business selling produce from pushcarts, or operating pool halls, saloons and small cafes.

By the early 1900s, 80 Greeks lived in Mobile.

In January 1912, 36 members of the community met with the priest from Pensacola, Fla., 60 miles to the southeast, Archimandrite Joachim Georgiou and established the Greek Orthodox Brotherhood of the Annunciation. The designated their brotherhood a community in March 1914 and set dues at 50 cents.

They engaged the servi- MOBILE ces of the Pensacola priest for occasional liturgies, weddings, baptisms and funerals.

The community took steps to build a church, which proved to be an extensive and (in those days) an expensive process.

In August 1915, they purchased a lot in downtown Mobile for $2,300 from a Mr. L. Liakopoulos. But because the lot was not large enough to build upon, the community bought a house on the next lot for $3,775 in 1923.

The community hired two temporary priests in 1920 and 1922 to teach Greek school, the Rev. Theodore Lekkos followed by the Rev. Basil representing the Philoptochos, which hosted the reception; Presbytera Cynthia Paleologos; Fr. Nicholas Krommydas, assistant priest, representing the Boston Diocese; and Michael Constantinou, event chairman, with his wife Joan.

Family members attending include Presbytera Cynthia and their children; his mother, Presbytera Theodora; his brothers, Gregory and Philip, and his sister, Neia.

Born Aug. 7, 1946, in Peabody, Mass., to Fr. Nicholas and Presbytera Theodora Paleologos, Fr. Dean was the second of

donated a parcel of land for construction of a church, school and priest s house.

But in May 1927, a general assembly attended by 22 members voted to buy the First Christian Church building for $19,000.

The community was then under the supervision of a Metropolitan Vasilios, who persuaded the parishioners to switch from the new (Gregorian) calendar, to the old calendar, as it was the only appropriate one, the parish history stated. In 1929, this Metropolitan persuaded them to switch back to the new calendar.

The church served the parish until the early 1960s, when the community finally built a new house of worship and community center.

Most of the current membership is either American-born of Greek background, or converts through intermarriage, Fr. Cleondis noted. One member who became Orthodox through intermarriage, Patti Panayiotou, serves as parish president.

Most parish revenue comes from stewardship, supplemented by the Greek festival held the last weekend in September.

Annunciation has a catechetical school of about 100 children. Each year during Lent, the children attend a camp held at the Malbis plantation.

The Greek school (Hellenic academy)

are 17 doctors.

Fr. Cleondis has served the parish since 1994. A native of Montgomery, the state capital, he served there for 22 years before coming to Mobile.

He also served as priest in Little Rock, Ark. Twice a month, he holds services at Presentation of the Theotokos Church in Malbis. (Located on the east side of Mobile Bay, the town was named for the Malbis family).The church was built in the 1960s, but has no full-time priest. About a dozen Greek Orthodox attend the services.

They maintain the church throughout the year.

He also is a frequent lecturer at two institutions of higher learning in Mobile, the University of South Alabama and University of Mobile.

Occasionally, Fr. Cleondis also travels to Gulf Shores, a seaside community about 40 miles southeast of Mobile on the Gulf of Mexico where a new chapel built by a Greek Orthodox family serves mainly tourists and a few local residents. Active and retired clergy are invited to spend their vacations there and to hold services.

Fr. Cleondis said his parish exudes a spirit of harmony. It s a peaceful community, he said. We all like each other and it has been a great five years.

four children.

He attended school in Peabody, Mass., Columbia, S.C., Tulsa, Okla., Jamestown and Newbury, N.Y., Canton, Ohio, and Marlboro, Mass.

He graduated from Holy Cross School of Theology in 1974. On Sept, 14, 1974, he was ordained a deacon at Holy Cross Chapel, and a priest on the 15th at Transfiguration Church, Lowell, Mass.

Fr. Dean was assigned to serve with Fr. Byron Papanikolaou at Sts. Constantine and Helen, Palos Hills, Ill.

He celebrated his first Divine Liturgy as the new priest of St. Spyridon in December 1981.

Fr. Dean and Presbytera Cynthia have three children. Their son, Nicholas, is a student at Holy Cross School of Theology.

Their older daughter, Irene, is a junior in the Chamberlayne School of Design, at Mt. Ida College, Newton, Mass.

Their youngest daughter, Christen, is a freshman at Suffolk University in Boston. Presbytera Cynthia is a teacher at the Nelson Place Elementary School, Worcester.

compiled by Jim Golding

JANUARY 2000

ORTHODOX OBSERVER

The Voice of

PAGE 9

Philoptochos

Care Ministry Group Visits St. Michael’s

Portland’s Camp Agape Marks 5th Year

by Daphne Semertgis

by Christine Rulli

PORTLAND, Oregon Six years ago, local Philoptochos members coined the words, Camp Agape, a Place Where Love and Life Meet for our camp brochure.

Its purpose was to help families visualize the facility, and how their entire family could benefit from such an experience.

Portland s Camp Agape, Kids N Cancer Program, is one of three Philoptochos camps within the San Francisco Diocese.

Our goal was to provide a residential camp environment for families with children suffering from cancer. Little did we anticipate the benefits that we as volunteers of Holy Trinity community would receive.

Volunteers work year-round to raise the funds and plan the camp so it can be provided at no cost to families. What began as a seed of an idea six years ago, has blossomed into one of the most meaningful outreach programs of our Church.

What began with a few members has now multiplied into more than 100 volunteers.

The Buddy Program was later instituted to provide free time for parents on a daily basis. Buddies are young people of the parish who want to become involved in community service and give of themselves. They also relieve volunteers for a few hours each day.

As a result, the program has enabled parish youth to spend a few hours each day giving to the cancer children and their siblings.

Many have even brought friends along who want to be a part of this program. As a result, Camp Agape gets stronger each year, with new, fresh ideas and support from a cross-section of the community.

Even Vacation Bible School students give in their own way. As part of their arts and crafts program, they created a welcome banner, made personalized frames for each family along with centerpieces and placemats.

Thus, joining our community s efforts, they showed their agape to the children of Kids N Cancer.

This year s themes were Oregon Day, which included a Footsteps to History presentation with hands-on pioneer activities; Theater Day, which included live singers, a professional storyteller who brought her own hand sculptures puppets, a face painter, costumes and hairdresser for the kids to prepare their own talent show; Fitness Day, offering archery, aerobics, fishing, miniature golf and swimming; Greek Day, a standard that included an altered states presentation from Oregon s Museum of Science and Industry, and Greek dancing lessons.

Meals were planned keeping these themes in mind.

Daily schedules allowed time for the computer lab, library, videos, arts and crafts projects, painting sessions and copper etching with an artist in residence, and nightly campfires with songs and treats.

Frs. James Retelas and Demetri Tsigas held services, participated in the camp and offered their guidance.

The final day of camp, Father Jim held a Trisagion in the memorial gardens where members planted a tree and released three doves in memory of three children who died.

Any Orthodox families throughout the Archdiocese whose children are suffering from cancer are invited to participate.

For more information, write or call: Camp Agape, Kids N Cancer 3131 N.E. Glisan St.; Portland, Ore. 97121. (503) 635-7661 Philoptochos Diocese of San Francisco 245 Valencia St.; San Francisco, Ca. 94103. (415) 431-2600

GREENLAWN, N.Y. Philoptochos members and their Care Ministry from St. Paraskevi parish visited to St. Michael s Home in Yonkers, where they attended a workshop and prepared small baskets containing Holy Water from the Shrine of St. Paraskevi and holy oil from the Shrine of St. Panteleimon, along with icons and booklets of each saint that were distributed to residents.

A $500 donation from our ministry funds was presented to Fr. Andonios Paropoulos, director of the Home for the construction of the nursing home which Orthodox Observer

EARTHQUAKE RELIEF National Philoptochos President Eve Condakes presents Archbishop Demetrios with a donation of $45,000 to benefit victims of the earthquake that struck Athens, Greece, in September, resulting in several deaths and injuries and the displacement of thousands.

The funds were contributed by the more than 500 chapters nationally to the Athens Earthquake Relief Fund.

Michigan Chapter Sponsors Many Projects

by Evy Eugene Marvelliis

ANN ARBOR, Mich. As a part of their parish s Care Ministry, the St. Nicholas Philoptochos has sponsored numerous charitable projects.

Under the leadership of President Teddi Kales and immediate past President Presbytera Eve Paul, the chapter raised funds for many philanthropic and humanitarian projects, including the sixth annual Y assou Golf Tournament and first Y assou Double Tennis Open which raised $4,000 to support educational and research programs of the McAuley Breast Cancer Center.

A community walk-a-thon raised $1,000 for youth camp programs for the National Kidney Foundation of Michigan.

Ann Arbor s Philoptochos also hosted a recent Welcome Orthodox College Students Dinner for students attending the University of Michigan and Eastern Michigan University.

The Philoptochos held its annual spaghetti dinner in November at the Church

Fellowship Hall as a Thanksgiving benefit.

All proceeds supported local charities with food baskets and gift certificates for needy families.

The group also sponsored a holiday bake sale featuring baklava and spanakopita and the recently published their Greek Kouzina Cookbook.

Philoptochos supported the local Salvation Army in December by providing volunteers for the Ring the Bells fundraising campaign for indigent families.

The chapter participated in the community Warm the Children drive to provide funds for poor children in need of coats and winter clothing.

The year final activity was the Operation Christmas Child in which members provided gift-filled shoe boxes for distribution to needy children around the world. Nearly 100 shoe boxes were filled with essential items-pencils, notepads, pens, socks, toiletries, stuffed miniature animals, crayons, calculators, slippers, woolen mittens, hats, gloves, and scarves.

Cooley’s Anemia Receives $3,000 from Chapter

by Lisa Lange

BLOOMFIELD HILLS, Mich. St. George Church chapter held a luncheon tea Nov. 18 to benefit Cooley s Anemia Foundation, which is leading the fight against thalassmia.

Bishop Nicholas of Detroit and Fr. Nicholas Pathenos, parish priest, joined 180 ladies, including former Presbytera Catherine Gouvellis for the tea.

Marietta Samaras, a Cooleys Anemia/ Thalassemia Foundation board member, discussed thalassemia. She told the inspirational story of her daughter, who lived a full life in spite of her thalassemia, from infancy through young adulthood.

Mrs. Samaras explained that thalassemia is an inherited characteristic of the blood primarily found in people of Mediterranean, African, Southeast Asian, Asian and Indian descent.

Thalassemia reduces the amount of hemoglobin a body can produce, so it can cause anemia. There are two forms of thalassemia: thalassemia trait and thalassemia major.

People having the thalassemia trait are generally healthy, but if two people with thalassemia trait both pass this trait to their

child, the child will have thalassemia major.

It is estimated that more than two million people in the United States carry the trait. thalassemia major, which is sometimes called Mediterranean Anemia, Cooley s Anemia, or homozygous Beta Thalassemia, is a very serious blood disorder, which begins in early childhood.

Children with thalassemia major cannot produce hemoglobin. Every two to four weeks they need blood transfusions and other medical treatment.

The World Health Organization recognizes Cooley s Anemia as the most prevalent inherited genetic blood disorder in the world. There are more than 300,000 patients worldwide.

You can arrange for a simple blood test to screen for the thalassemia trait through your doctor.

The St. George Philoptochos Society urges all people of Mediterranean, Indian and Oriental descent to be tested for this condition.

At the end luncheon, the Philoptochos members presented a $3,000 check to Mrs. Samaras for the Cooley s Anemia Foundation.

CARE MINISTRY representatives Daphne Semertgis and Maria Kouttron, chapter president, present gift to Fr. Paropoulos.

is planned for the near future.

The Care Ministry of St. Paraskevi chapter was organized in order to reach out to patients in nursing homes and to those who are homebound.

Our group provides Christian caring, support, and direct services to all those who can no longer travel to Church.

The Care Ministry was organized in 1996 under Fr. John A. Heropoulos, pastor.

Through recruiting sessions on Sundays after church, 26 church representatives have since joined to serve this ministry with love and understanding.

The Care Ministry group visits 17 nursing home patients and five homebound parishioners around the North Shore area of Suffolk County, and also ministers to veterans in the Long Island State Veterans Home in Stony Brook.

All volunteers visit patients at least twice a month.

The women are so devoted to this ministry, that most visit every week and have formed a special bond with patients and their families. Birthdays and namedays are also special, as is Holy Week and Christmas.

Workshops are held for the two holidays where Easter baskets are prepared with dyed red eggs, tsourekia and koulourakia. Each are accompanied with icons of the church s patron saints, St. Paraskevi and St. Panteleimon.

At Christmas, all representatives are given monies to purchase a gift for the patient and Christmas decorations to bring the holiday spirit into their nursing home rooms.

Our community s children s JOY group also prepares a special decoration for them.

Any parish interested in starting a Care Ministry should contact St. Paraskevi Church at (631) 261-7272.

ORTHODOX OBSERVER

PAGE 10

EDITORIAL

T

The Clergy-Laity Congress

he Clergy-Laity Congress will soon be upon us.

Preparations are currently underway for the 35th biennial event that will take place July 1-7 in Philadelphia.

The Church in America faces many challenges and this will be an opportunity for the official representatives from parishes throughout the United States to better understand the concept of stewardship and come away with a greater awareness on how we can become better stewards.

But the top priority of the Congress will be to reflect on the moral and spiritual values that we profess and uphold, under the theme Ageless Traditions in a New Millennium and Jesus Christ is the Same Yesterday,

Today and Forever.

While administrative, economic and other business matters of the Church must be discussed to enable the Archdiocese to function, parallel consideration must be given to stewardship, to religious education and to the spiritual needs of the faithful as we progress into the future.

The Clergy-Laity Congresses have provided our Church with the foundation on which our Archdiocese has grown, developed and reached the point where she is today.

The Congresses must now become the platform on which the gently, but powerful voice of Orthodoxy can be heard in society.

Our Church s future depends on it.

The Importance of Stewardship W

e have much to be thankful for as Greek Orthodox Christians: our Church, our families, our freedom, the roofs over our heads, our ability to earn a living through work we enjoy doing, and more.

And we are called upon to express that gratitude to God who gives us all that we can be thankful for, not only with prayer and in tangible ways as well.

Stewardship is the most visible form that our thankfulness can take.

Our Lord Jesus Christ had much to say about money. He knew that our attitude toward mammon is a very good indicator of our spiritual condition.

Some of Christ s parables show that people adopt one of three attitudes toward money as the basis of their lifestyle.

There are those who squander it, as the parable of the prodigal son illustrates; those who hoard it, as is depicted by the rich fool; and those who use it wisely and responsibly, as shown by the parable of the good steward.

Christ knew that the acquisition of material possessions and money consumes most of our time, energy, efforts and expertise in whatever field we have chosen to develop the talents that God has given us.

If we are not careful, our attitude toward money can become a source of spiritual disease, or a source of destructive power and prestige.

But it can also become the vehicle to enable us to express thanks to God

u The ‘Energizer’ Bishop and Priest t Editor, I have a marvelous opportunity for you! were the first words I heard from, then Fr. George Papaioannou as I bent my head for Andithoro my first Sunday morning at St. George Church in Bethesda, Md. With these words our former priest would spin a loving Christian web of ministry tasking up an unsuspecting

for the love and blessings we enjoy.

Jesus made it clear that thanks to God cannot be expressed simply through prayer.

Since the earth is the Lord s God does not need our possessions.

Christ said that we are to express our thanks by sharing our resources with persons who are less fortunate: those who are suffering in jails because of their support of righteous causes; those who are naked and hungry because they are victims of disasters, or of oppressive regimes, or of prejudices that deny them their right to better their lot; those who come as strangers, asking to be let in and share our goods, because they have been forced by wards or political situations to flee their homelands; and those who suffer from physical or mental afflictions, either from birth or the result of accidents, wars or other sources of pain and anguish.

Jesus also had something to say about how people give money. Some give only for recognition and prestige, or to cause from which they stand to benefit.

Others will find it possible to share a portion of their leftovers with those in need. And others freely and lovingly desire to share unselfishly, even to the point of self-denial.

All these teachings of Christ lead to one conclusion: the sharing of our material goods and money is an important expression of our faith and we must act responsibly and with integrity.

parishioner or friend.

The tasks were always urgent and most important... they were always going to be satisfying and spiritually rewarding and were always going to be fun with little or no supervision.

But Fr. George could not let a sparrow fall without giving aid and comfort, never found a fund-raiser cause he didn t love and certainly couldn t hold back on

uuu

JANUARY 2000

caring or checking up on a project and, if it was a ceremony, he would always modify it at the last minute to the consternation of the parish president.

We all remember the liver for Monk Moses, the dispossessed Albanian families, the floods and earthquake and tata the festivals. But we accepted all these tasks because we knew Christian love was behind them we also accepted them because we were swept along by the absolute flood tide of energy from Fr. George.

The words, but of course, you must do this... we must do this thing. What would God say if we didn t do this was his battle cry.

This energy continued and even intensified when he became bishop of New Jersey.

Many others and I shall miss him and the challenges he passed to us because he made the words and work of Christ relevant here on earth. He walked as he talked, never tasked anyone with a heavier load than he himself carried, up to the very last day when God called him up for the most marvelous opportunity of his life.

Vice Admiral Michael Kalleres, USN (Retired)Florida

u Shameful apathy t Editor, Having traveled extensively throughout the United States, while on business trips and vacations, I had ample free time to visit the Greek Orthodox churches in various cities.

As a member of my church council

and general chairman of our Greek festival for three years, I looked forward to meeting with other council members and festival chairmen to discuss common issues or simply tour their church. Although most of my visits were during weekday afternoons, I was usually able to meet the local priest, church secretary or council members.

Unfortunately, I found a very high degree of apathy, with the exception of the priests, regarding my visit.

When I introduced myself as a fellow Greek Orthodox and Greek-American who was visiting and a stranger to the area, I did not expect any special treatment but I did expect some of the hospitality or philoxenia for which the Greeks are known.

In many instances, the council members or secretary were rude and appeared annoyed by my intrusion and barely lifted their heads up from their desks to speak with me.

Frankly, I was appalled by their actions and could not understand such lack of courtesy to a visitor who was many miles from home.

My daughter also ran into this problem when she stopped at a Greek Orthodox church in a distant city to purchase a book of the Divine Liturgy of St. John in English. The secretary told her that she was too busy to sell her the book and to come back another time.

When will these people get wise to the fact that they are ambassadors of their church and heritage and show some degree of caring and hospitality. Shame on them!

Nicholas J. Spiliotis Hockessin, Del.

The Subject is Funny Editor s note: The following was submitted by Fr. William Christ, pastor of Holy Trinity Church in Tulsa, Okla.

Author is unknown.

Funny how a $20 bill looks so big when you take it to church, but so small when you take it to the mall.

Funny how long it takes to serve God for an hour, but how quickly a team plays 60 minutes of basketball.

Funny how long a couple of hours spent at church seems, but how short they are when watching a movie.

Funny how we can t think of anything to say when we pray, but don t have difficulty thinking of things to talk about to a friend.

Funny how we get thrilled when a baseball game goes into extra innings, but we complain when a sermon is longer than the regular time.

Funny how hard it is to read a chapter in the Bible, but how easy it is to read 100 pages of a best selling novel.

Funny how people want to get a front seat at any game or concert, but scramble to get a back seat at church services.

Funny how hard it is for people to learn a simple gospel well enough to tell others, but how simple it is for the same people to understand and repeat gossip.

Funny how we believe what the newspaper says, but question what the Bible says.

Funny how everyone wants to go to heaven, provided they do not have to believe, or to think, or to say, or do anything.

Funny how you can send a thousand jokes through e-mail, and they spread like wildfire, but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing.

Funny how we are rarely late to work, but always late to church.

Funny how we call God our Father and Jesus our brother, but find it hard to introduce them to our family.

Funny how small our sins seem, but how big their sins are.

Funny how we demand justice for others, but expect mercy from God. Funny how much difficulty some have learning the gospel well enough to tell others, but how simple it is to understand and explain the latest gossip about someone else.

Funny how we are so quick to take directions from a total stranger when we are lost, but are hesitant to take God s direction for our lives.

Funny how people want God to answer their prayers, but refuse to listen to His counsel.

Funny how we sing about heaven, but live only for today.

Funny how people think they are going to Heaven, but don t think there is a Hell.

Funny how it is all right to blame God for evil and suffering in the world, but it is not necessary to thank Him for what is good and pleasant.

Funny how when something goes wrong, we cry, Lord, why me? but when something goes right, we think, Hey, it must be me!

Or, wait maybe all this isn t so funny after all.

JANUARY 2000

ORTHODOX OBSERVER

ARCHBISHOP S ENCYCLICAL

on the Feast of Three Hierarchs and Greek Letters

u page 1

person, a person of understanding, is not the achievement of a few years; it is rather the work of a lifetime of study in a spirit of continual interest and curiosity, humility, and patience. Education is like a vast and varied pilgrimage. Both the ancient Greek philosophers and the Fathers of the Church had an absorbing interest in all fields of inquiry: cosmology, anthropology, philology, literature, music and the arts, medicine, zoology, to name but a few. Of course, in the case of the Three Hierarchs, the immensity of knowledge is ultimately referred to the truly fathomless, limitless, and ineffable knowledge of God. In the face of the immensity of knowledge, whether of things seen or unseen, our intellectual and spiritual forebears also approached their inquiries with a second characteristic, namely, a sense of real joy: the joy of thinking, discovering, creating, and comprehending. Whether one reads the works of Plato or Aristotle, or even more, the works of Saint Basil, Saint John Chrysostom, and Saint Gregory the Theologian, one readily detects a constant spirit of delight bound up with the seriousness of their writing. At times this intellectual joy in the writings of the Fathers rises even to the level of amazement at the wonders of God and His world.

This is a quality that is basic to the Hellenic outlook on learning: in order to have real progress in knowledge, a person must be able to admire, to be surprised and, on occasion, to be thrilled by the vastness of the world of thought.

The quotation above from Saint Basil also expresses another aspect of learning that is fundamental to the Hellenic and especially the Patristic mind: an appreciation for knowledge as a matter of human concern. Paideia is intimately related to philanthropia. We study so that we may better understand both ourselves and our fellow human beings and thereby improve the condition of all people. As Hellenes and Philhellenes, and as inheritors of the Orthodox ethos, we value learning as a means of drawing ourselves closer in love to the rest of humanity, and not as a tool for asserting ourselves over and against our fellow man. We value the achievements of scholarship and erudition, but we prize equally the virtue of love and concern for others.

For this reason both the Fathers and the philosophers of old spoke of goodness by means of the same set phrase êáëüò ê[áãáèüò an expression that combines the ideas of goodness and beauty into a single notion. Learning is a matter of the greatest moral relevance. This is a third characteristic that is basic to the Hellenic outlook on learning: true knowledge is that which advances us morally as well as intellectually.

How then do we fulfill Saint Basil s criterion of education for ourselves? Though we all cannot travel the world like Odysseus or make pilgrimages throughout the Near East like Saint Basil, we are all able to glean the wealth of knowledge that awaits us in the world of Greek Letters. This literary legacy is our birthright, and we honor the Feast of the Three Hierarchs best by entering into the joyful and humane spirit of inquiry that they exhibited. We do this by reading their works for ourselves, by striving to grow in knowledge and goodness as they did, and by applying ourselves with zeal and perseverance to learning and teaching the marvelous Greek language which embodies some of the finest ideas ever conceived by the mind of man.

We also honor this feast by strongly supporting the work of our daytime and afternoon Greek schools. These schools are the primary means by which our GreekAmerican community passes on the gift of Greek Letters to the next generation. As we appreciate the value of our intellectual heritage this day, we cannot but recognize that our Greek Schools are worthy of our highest support.

Through the intercessions of the Three Holy Hierarchs and Ecumenical Teachers, may the Lord our God grant us to grow in the knowledge that is full of joy and wonder and virtue, to the praise of His glorious wisdom and grace. And may God bless the students, the teachers, and the supporters and benefactors of Greek Letters in our communities and around the world this day.

With paternal love in Christ,

ARCHBISHOP OF AMERICA

HOLY SCRIPTURE READINGS FEBRUARY ..........................................

1 T .................. Gal. 5:11-21; Mk. 7:5-16 2 W ................. Heb. 7:7-17; Lk. 2:22-40 3 Th ................ Eph. 1:1-9; Mk. 7:24-30 4 F ................... Eph. 1:7-17; Mk. 8:1-10 5 S ......... 1 Cor. 10:23-28; Mt. 24:34-44 6 SUN ....... 2 Cor. 6:1-10; Mt. 25:14-30 7 M ........ James 2:14-26; Mk. 10:46-52 8 T ............ James 3:1-10; Mk. 11:11-23 9 W ........ James 3:11-4:6; Mk. 11:23-26 10 Th ...... James 4:7-5:9; Mk. 11:27-33 11 F .... 1 Pet. 1:1,2, 10-12, 2:6-10; Mk. 12:1-12 12 S ........ 1 Thes. 5:14-23; Lk. 17:3-10 13 SUN ....... 1 Tim. 4:9-15; Lk. 19:1-10 14 M ...... 1 Pet. 2:21-3:9; Mk. 12:13-17

15 T ......... 1 Pet. 3:10-22; Mk. 12:18-27 16 W .......... 1 Pet. 4:1-11; Mk. 12:28-37 17 Th ....... 1 Pet. 4:12-5:5;Mk. 12:38-44 18 F ................ 2 Pet. 1:1-10; Mk.13:1-8 19 S .............. 2 Tim. 2:11-19; Lk. 18:2-8 20 SUN .... 2 Tim. 3:10-15; Lk. 18:10-14 21 M ......... 2 Pet. 1:20-2:9; Mk. 13:9-13 22 T ............ 2 Pet. 2:9-22; Mi. 13:14-23 23 W .......... 2 Pet. 3:1-18; Mk. 13:24-31 24 Th ........ 1 Jn. 1:8-26; Mk. 13:31-14:2 25 F .................. 1 Jn.2:7-17; Mk. 14:3-9 26 S ........... 2 Tim. 3:1-9; Lk. 20:45-21:4 27 SUN .... 1 Cor. 6:12-20; Lk. 15:11-32 28 M ......... 1 Jn. 2:18-3:10; Mk. 11:1-11 29 T ........... 1 Jn. 3:11-20; Mk. 14:10-42

PAGE 11

President Hellenic College and Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology Brookline, Massachusetts The Presidential Search Committee invites nominations and applications for the position of President of Hellenic College and Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology.

Founded in 1937 as the seminary of the Greek Orthodox Church in the Americas, the combined fully accredited institution now serves as an international center for scholarship in Orthodox Christianity and Hellenic Culture.

Hellenic College confers bachelor of arts degrees in the classics, religious studies, human development, and elementary education.

Holy Cross confers several masters degrees in Orthodox Theology.

The campus is located in Boston and Brookline, Massachusetts.

Candidates must be Orthodox Christians and possess significant knowledge of the Greek Orthodox Church in the Americas.

Additional qualifications include experience in administration, education, human relations, resource development, communication, and leadership.

Hellenic College and Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology welcomes nominations and applications from qualified individuals.

Candidates should submit a letter of application and curriculum vitae

Applications should be sent to: GEORGE D. BEHRAKIS Chairman, Presidential Search Committee Hellenic College/Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology 50 Goddard Avenue Brookline, MA 02146

farrar book 1/4 page ADVERTISEMENT

ORTHODOX OBSERVER

PAGE 12

JANUARY 2000

RELIGIOUS

The Year in Movies

by Fr. Angelo Artemas

B

ack in the spring of 1999 the sleeper-hit movie was The Matrix starring Keanu Reeves and Lawrence Fishburne.

The movie received good critical reviews, grossed over $100 million at the box office and continues to be a top-10 video rental.

Why did this sci-fi movie quietly captivate moviegoers? It struck certain universal chords such as reality, intelligence, slavery and free will. In a future world, computer generated artificial intelligence creates a matrix that traps humans, in an artificial reality.

Human beings are slaves in a world full of boundaries created by computers.

Correct in assuming that viewers desire freedom for humans, the story features the character Neo (Keanu Reeves) a hero prophesied by an oracle as the chosen one who will free human beings from the matrix.

A computer geek unaware of his calling, Neo (from the Greek word for new, as in New Adam?) must be persuaded by Morfeus (from the Greek word for appearance), who is a sort of quirky forerunner, that he must accept his role as a savior.

Neo is tempted, deceived and discouraged by his co-worker Cypher (as in Lucifer) as he begins to conclude reality is futile. Strengthened by a female character called Trinity, Neo discovers truth, real love and life, and his artificial self dies as he liberates humanity from the bondage of the matrix.

Christianity teaches that when Adam and Eve acquired knowledge after being deceived by the serpent, humanity slipped into bondage and was held captive by Satan. Humanity was freed from bondage when the New Adam/Jesus Christ redeemed His creation through death and resurrection.

As in the movie, perfect love and new life are found in Trinity.

As the movie concludes, Neo announces the following: I am not here to tell everyone how this all ends, but how it begins, with no boundaries.

Concerning the last days of this earth, Jesus told his disciples that no one knows but the Father alone.

For believers and non-believers alike, there is a universal human need to assert

and reassert free will, for it is a sign that humans are created in the image of God. The success of The Matrix rests in the triumph of human free will over the demonic power of artificial intelligence.

As 1999 was drawing to a close, another movie tugged on the universal heartstrings of free will.

End of Days, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, features an ex-cop in New York City struggling with faith and family tragedy by relying on alcohol and guns.

Thrust into the middle of Satan s attempt to procreate with a human bride, the macho hero (Jericho) resolves his faith crisis, and prevents a catastrophic reign of the devil on earth.

Based on an erroneous interpretation of Revelation 20:7, the movie asserts that on Dec. 31, 1999, the devil will be loosed upon the earth to deceive and destroy all nations.

Properly understood, this passage refers to the long period of time that Satan reigned over human souls before the coming of Christ.

After Christ s victory over Satan through His Death and Resurrection, Satan lost the war but furiously strives to win battles with human beings everyday. Satan was unleashed when he lost.

Despite the false premise that Satan will procreate with a human female ushering in the end of days, the movie cleverly demonstrates the power of human free will over Satan himself.

The once suicidal hero of the story puts down his guns, prays to God for strength, and defeats Satan face to face.

While Hollywood may need to cast Keanu Reeves and Arnold Schwarzenegger as the triumphant heroes and champions of free will, the Orthodox Church casts every little infant that has been baptized as a champion. One need not be 220 pounds and a former Mr. Universe to defeat Satan.

The Mysteries of the Orthodox Faith give all the strength that is needed.

The only power that Satan has is the power that human beings freely give him.

As in all things, the choice is with each person.

Paraphrasing Neo in The Matrix, Year 2000 is not the end of days, but a new beginning. It is a beginning without boundaries and another period of time in which human free will shall transform the world.

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EDUCATION

Religious Education in the New Millennium: Plumbing the Well of Cyberspace

by Fr. Frank Marangos

A miniature icon from an illumi nated gospel lectionary at St. Dionysiou Monastery on Mt. Athos depicts Jesus engaged in serious conversation with a woman.

Both have their right hands outstretched toward each other. Beside them the iconographer has painted a series of jagged mountain peaks with two groups of onlookers in the background murmuring among themselves.

While Jesus clutches his robe the woman tightly holds a long rope attached to an earthen jar. At the center of the icon is a well Jacob s Well.

The Gospel of John, chapter 4, gives a detailed description of the Samaritan woman s story, recounting an unusual, yet theologically focused, conversation between Jesus and a woman who came to draw water from the famous well.

Due to her questionable moral character, the woman was not allowed to draw water in the morning with the other women of the village. So she approaches alone at the sixth hour (about noon).

A metaphor The woman s story can be understood as a corrective metaphor for our own contemporary approach to the ever-deepening well of information and knowledge from which technology invites us to drink.

As we enter a new millennium, the Church should use the opportunities that technology provides as effective, profitable learning tools. They represent a water pitcher that can plumb the depths of a sacred well where the waters of wisdom do not remain stagnant but are ever-flowing the Well of Holy Tradition that can quench the palate of those thirsting for religious instruction.

Nearly 21 million American households have Internet access. By the year 2002 that number will rise to 47 million.

According to a recent study, more than 12.8 million households -- 38 percent of all families with children -- own desktop computers.

Ninety percent of these families have children who use computers an average of 5½ hours a week. Most of this time comes at the expense of television.

In 1994, 50 percent of teens responding to a survey said that it is in to be online. Today, the figure is a staggering 88 percent.

Successive revolutions Technology, which traditionally has produced revolutions within education, should function as a major driver of religious education initiatives in the 21st century.

The first such transformation took place more than 2,500 years ago when scholars and students moved beyond the Socratic model of simple oral exchange to the more complex practice of reading and writing.

Although the rich technology of the written word could not guarantee that readers understood the author s intent, it enabled teachers to reach more students and gave learners more time to critique complex arguments.

Consequently, the written word ushered in a revolution that heralded wider access to education.

The second revolution occurred with the development of resident scholarship that galvanized independent scholars and students into a learning community.

The resulting campuses gave greater access to more sources and models of inquiry, and libraries and laboratories of-

fered learning possibilities that no single faculty member could have created.

Teachers, students, administrators, publishers and trustees benefited from the collective wisdom of generations of organized study that promoted quality changes in academics.

Like the previous shift in teaching techniques, the adoption of campus technology had negative and positive outcomes.

Specialization fostered isolation and passive learning among students who waited in anticipation for experts to bestow knowledge. While some students thrived in lecture halls and libraries, others did not.

Effects of technology Futurists and experts tell us that we are in the throes of yet another shift in education, which again is driven by technological advances that offer opportunities and also threaten learning.

Those of us engaged in theological and catechetical education must reflect on the scope, direction and degree of change that technology influences our educational agendas.

Computers, multimedia, virtual reality, compressed video, and the entire spectrum of telecommunications advances have sparked this third revolution in education.

As in preceding revolutions, existing learning boundaries are being re-drawn and changes are under way in the duration, pace and quality of interaction between students and teachers, students and students, faculty and faculty.

Scholars and learners again receive greater access to even wider ranges of experiences, expert opinions and academic resources.

Most important, however, are the opportunities that technology brings to the teaching process.

Current technologies invite teachers to reflect on the most important issue of all our teaching methods. As in past historical revolutions affecting education, new questions need to be addressed.

Passion and opinion undoubtedly have their place in the discussion, but the important issues created by emerging information and instructional technologies should be considered carefully along with the objective rigors of academic research and evaluation.

Current shift The current pattern shift in education has important consequences for theologians and Orthodox Christian religious educators.

The challenge is to avoid restrictive agendas based on quick judgment and personal assumptions, but to proceed with a mature and critical eye focused on opportunity and growth.

Instead of debating between only two options, like Mount Gerizm and Jerusalem (John 4: 20), our task will be to seek the Truth in alternative ways.

Here, we should recall Jesus answer to the Samaritan woman when asked to choose between Gerizm and Jerusalem.

The hour will come, He insists, and now is, that neither on this mountain (Gerizm) nor in Jerusalem will they worship God. True worshipers will seek Him in Spirit and Truth (John 4: 21-24). Consequently, the contemporary well of information can and should be used for such boundary-less inquiry.

As with earlier changes, how teachers respond to contemporary issues will

u page 30

JANUARY 2000

ORTHODOX OBSERVER

PAGE 13

REFLECTIONS A Spiritual Inventory

by Fr. Demetrios Kavadas

Á

ll the people of the world talk about the end of the 20th century. This fact of human history compels us to stop and look into our parish and complete a spiritual inventory.

St. Paul wrote to the Christians of the city of Corinth for the last time and ending his second letter to them he offers this advice: Put yourselves to the test and judge yourselves, to find out whether you are living in faith. (2 Cor. 13, 15).

A personal examination Orthodox Champions tell us to stop and examine ourselves. The selfish personal relationship between yourself and you.

Sometimes we cannot do this because all we see in the mirror is what you like to see.

Usually, we offer so many excuses that we do not even take into consideration how ridiculous and blasphemous we become. How cathartic will be if we see the weakness we have, rush to the Doctor of the souls and receive the inspiration how to cure our ailment, and go ahead for better days! We must be brave to fight the sickness, strong to wrestle with the enemy and extremely careful of repetitions.

Make Christmas the hospital for the cure and face the new century with faith, hope and love. With God, our saints and with personal friends

Our Parish obligations Worship must be the first item on the investigation of our agenda. Although we have approximately 300 to 400 in our Sunday morning liturgy as average and 80 to 100 average during our evening liturgy, we must pray hard that the Lord and those who do come on a steady basis are to be pleased for this great privilege of frequent fellowship in prayer and Holy Communion.

However, we cannot overlook the fact that 80 to 90 percent of our Christian souls do not come to worship.

A puzzled phenomenon that must be systematically examined. Both our liturgies are enriched with excellent choirs, superb iconographic visual aids, continuous attempts to discover the truth through religious education, social fellowship, athletic supplements and rich traditional and cultural programs.

We must find an army of believers willing to do a powerful home-mission to educate and attract the churchless. This is the motto of the 21st century: Bring them

to Church to pray with us!

Administration and finances Frequent observers of various responsibilities (including our hierarchy) offer an A-plus to our administrative system. However, the people have indicated some weakness in comprehending the administrative and financial structure of the parish, of the diocese and of our Archdiocese.

Some have the short vision - as many call it- and cannot connect the parochial with the national, the individual with the group, the isolated with those who are willing to sacrifice for the good of the parish.

Our clergy, our lay leaders and those we call Good Samaritans fail to understand why more than half of our members do not feel the obligation of becoming good stewards.

Stewardship is a parish s daily bread.

The Tree of Life is the solid foundation upon which prudent leadership prestrengthens the future programs, like repairs, philanthropy, religious education and other various foundations that hold the building strong for today and for the future.

The art of giving has the following secrets, and we must dwell in these conditions beginning with the first month of the year 2000.

In gratitude for God s gift of life to us we should share that gift with others. The art of giving encompasses many areas. It is an outgoing, overflow way of life. Basically we give what we are.

Emerson said it well: Rings and jewels are not gifts. The only true gift is a portion of thyself.

We give of ourselves when we give gifts of the heart: love, kindness, joy, understanding, sympathy, tolerance, forgiveness.

We give of ourselves when we give gifts of the mind: ideas, dreams, purposes, ideals, principles, plans, inventions, projects, poetry.

We should give our community a good person. We should give our home a devoted husband and father, a wise parent.

We should give our country a loyal citizen. We should give our parish a good, faithful member. We should give our world a lift toward that one far-off divine event toward which all creation moves.

The finest gift a man can give to his age and time is the gift of a constructive and creative life. That is what will make the New Year and the new century a period of prosperity, happiness and a satisfaction that we performed a duty to the best of our ability.

Ecumenical

OLYMPIC HAS THE MOST NON-STOPS

WCC Commission on Orthodox Discussions The Special Commission on Orthodox participation in the World Council of Churches (WCC) met Dec. 6-8 in Morges, on Lac Leman, Switzerland, to deal with matters of planning and procedure for its Protestant-Orthodox discussions scheduled over the next three years.

Long-standing tensions between Orthodox and Protestants in the WCC surfaced publicly during the preparations for the WCC s eighth assembly in 1998, when the Orthodox churches of Georgia and Bulgaria withdrew from membership in the WCC. The Eastern Orthodox family most recently expressed its dissatisfaction with the present situation in a statement drafted at Thessaloniki, Greece, in May 1998.

In their statement, the Orthodox

churches emphasized their long ecumenical tradition and their strong involvement in the WCC, but complained that the present WCC structures make adequate Orthodox participation difficult. Other points of criticism in the Thessaloniki statement referred to the lack of progress in multilateral theological discussions between Christians, liturgical language used in the WCC and questions concerning the ordination of women and sexual orientation.

In view of the differences that had emerged, it was decided at the eighth assembly in Harare in December 1998 to set up an Orthodox-Protestant Special Commission to consider the Orthodox criticisms and work out possible solutions.

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ORTHODOX OBSERVER

PAGE 14

The Greek Orthodox Church in Australia

D

uring the past two years, I have had the opportunity as a retired priest to travel to Australia to serve our Church there, first during and after the Holy Week 1998, and most recently for two and a half months this past summer. Both times I served primarily at Sts. Anargyri Church in Melbourne, where Fr. Nicholas Moutafis is the pastor.

Fr. Nicholas, an excellent priest and truly a spiritual person, was born in Crete, Greece, and came to Australia as a young adult.

He completed his education at the University of Melbourne and has served Sts. Anargyri Church since its founding in the early 1960 s.

Both of us have in common that we were ordained into the priesthood

by Archbishop Athenagoras Cavadas, cofounder and first dean of Holy Cross School of Theology.

This past June, Fr. Nicholas led a group of parochial school students on a religious tour of Greece and, because there is a shortage of priests in Australia and very few retirees, he asked that I serve in his absence.

Serving Sts. Anargyri parish for more than two months was inspirational but very tiring.

Because of the priest shortage, Australian parishes tend to be much larger than ours.

Currently, there are about 110 priests for 120 parishes. Rarely does a church have more than one priest. Fr. Nicholas, for example, is the only priest at Sts. Anargyri, considered the largest in Melbourne.

No one, though, really knows the size of the parish because this and other churches there have no membership or stewardship programs as we know them, and do not generally maintain mailing lists.

Fr. Nicholas and other community members believe that perhaps 10,000 people at one time or another worship at Sts. Anargyri Church.

According to the latest census, Melbourne has a Greek population of more than 250,000. The Greek government considers Melbourne to be the largest Greek city outside of Greece.

Because of an official Australian government policy of multiculturalism, Greek Australians have maintained their Greek identity to a greater degree than Greek Americans. This is reflected not only in the fact that many second and even third generations speak Greek, but often among themselves.

They travel to Greece to live and work, obtaining Greek passports to be able to do so and often patronize Greek social and cultural events.

Most Greek churches seem as if they recently were transported from Greece.

S t s .

Anargyri Church is typical in this respect.

Most communicants are immigrants who came from Greece in the late 1950 s and throughout the 1960s, and their Australian-born children.

About 15 percent of the clergy were born in Australia. All the services are conducted in Greek. English is generally not permitted at Sts. Anargyri and the hierarchy discourages its use in churches nationally.

On two occasions, however, during week days, for parochial school students, I was permitted to celebrate the Divine Liturgy entirely in English.

I also used English, in part, in weddings, baptisms, funerals and confessions, as needed.

Furthermore, Sts. Anargyri Church has no mixed choir, except for the Good Friday Lamentations and no organ music.

Chanters sing all the responses.

Generally, women stand or sit on the left during services and men on the right.

Sunday church attendance is from 700 to 800 and, for many, it is standing room only.

Usually about 300 or so receive Holy Communion at each Liturgy. Most of the faithful follow fasting rules strictly and come to confession beforehand. Almost all of my evenings, particularly during the two weeks before Aug. 15, were set aside to hear confessions.

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Because there are many retired persons in the parish, attendance at the weekday services is almost as large as on Sundays. Each Saturday and Sunday, it is not unusual to have two or three weddings and three or four baptisms, all performed by one priest.

Additionally, Sts. Anargyri has a Sunday School of 40 or 50 students. It also has a very active young adult group that meets weekly. About 30 or 40 attend these meetings and study the Bible, hear lectures, discuss moral and social issues and strengthen their religious faith.

However, only a small number of parish youth attend church. Encouraging young people to become involved in the Church is a very significant challenge in Australia.

The community has the largest Greek Orthodox day school in the country with more than 800 students from pre-kindergarten through the 12th grade.

In addition to other courses in the vigorous curriculum, they receive religious instruction and are involved in many Church-related activities.

In contrast to Sts. Anargyri Church, St. George, in the upper class Sydney suburb of Rose Bay, is at the opposite end of the spectrum. I have had the opportunity to serve with its pastor, Fr. Miltiades Chryssavgis, a leading theologian and scholar in the Australian Church.

Fr. Miltiades son, Deacon Dr. John Chryssavgis, currently lives in America with his family and is a professor at Holy Cross.

St. George Parish is smaller than Sts. Anargyri. Perhaps its congregation numbers only 5,000 people. While a large number of immigrants attend, most are second- and third-generation Greek Australians.

Consequently, a significant portion of the service is in English, homilies are both in Greek and English and, the last Sunday of each month, the service is entirely in English. (This despite the fact that Archbishop Stylianos actively discourages the use of English in any services).

There is an active Sunday School program, youth activities are in evidence and a mixed choir chants many of the responses.

On my travels to Australia, I have had the opportunity to visit with all its hierarchs, including Archbishop Stylianos, an insightful and rather outspoken cleric.

During our visits, it has been interesting hearing his views on the state of the Church, not only in Australia but elsewhere.

He reports that the Church in Australia is progressing, that he is fortunate in having outstanding bishops to assist him and that the problem of dissident or anti-Archdiocese breakaway groups is diminishing.

He is especially proud of the St. Andrew s College, the seminary he founded in 1986, which has 35 seminarians enrolled.

Each year several graduates are ordained and assigned to churches throughout the country. The Archbishop strongly believes that the Church s future in Australia rests on the shoulders of these Australian-born young priests.

In touring the seminary and talking with students, I have been impressed with their sincerity and enthusiasm. They see themselves as pioneers, just as we did in Pomfret in the late 30 s and early 40 s.

Australia, like America, is an immigrant country with a growing Orthodox population.

There is much that the Church there can learn from our experience, and much that our Church can learn from them.

We can try to emulate their system of day schools (currently numbering 10).

JANUARY 2000

Epiphany at the Jordan River

by Maria C. Khoury, Ed.D.

When Thou was baptized in the Jordan, O Lord, the worship of the Trinity was made manifest... (dismissal Troparion of Theophany).

JERUSALEM The Monastery of St. John the Baptist next to the Jordan River was filled with pilgrims and local Palestinian Orthodox Christians as they gathered to celebrate the Baptism of Christ here in the Holy Land.

This usually inaccessible monastery is in the worst shape from any of the Holy sites because it stands in what is considered no man s land. The property is really in such terrible and appalling condition.

The Israelis, Jordanians, Palestinians and others have shed plenty of blood in the past for its control.

Now, this precious site where 2000 years ago ...the heavens were opened unto Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon Him...

(Matthew 3:13-17), is zoned in an area that is technically under Israeli occupation since 1967 and land mines surround it.

The Israelis allow the faithful to enter and pray once a year only and the rest of the time it is restricted as a military zone. The Patriarch of Jerusalem is not allowed to fix any of the broken windows, doors or maintain the property in any manner whatsoever because he can t have access to it.

The Epiphany service is conducted outside the monastery by the Jordan River with people traveling from long distances to attend. Four streams combine to form the Jordan River which enters the Sea of Galilee at its northeastern tip and leaves it at its southwestern corner.

The Jordan flows towards the Dead Sea. It is the most important river in the Holy Land not only because of its spiritual and religious significance but because it is an excellent source of water.

The Baptism of our Lord was celebrated on a rainy, cold and windy day that left most pilgrims swamped with mud by the time the outdoor service was complete. But, people here are of deep faith and they arrive from 7 a.m. to venerate and await the annual service that takes place around noon.

Whenever I ve visited any parochial school, I have been extremely impressed with the dedication of its headmaster and teachers.

The network of Greek Orthodox nursing homes and retirement villages, the St. Basil homes, far outpace what we ve been able to establish. The social services and counseling centers that many of their communities have establishes are models for such organizations in Australia.

Finally, we can emulate the deep faith and piety that so many of the people I met possess. They truly believe and live their Orthodox faith. They are examples for all of us.

Fr. Kalpaxis is a retired priest of the Archdiocese and lives in Baltimore.

ÅÔÏÓ 65

ÉÁÍÏÕÁÑÉÏÓ 2000

ÁÑÉÈÌÏÓ 1169

ÐëÞñåò ×Üñéôïò êáé Öùôüò ôï åïñôáóôéêü ôñéÞìåñï ôùí Èåïöáíåßùí óôï ÔÜñðïí Óðñßíãêò ôïõ Óôáýñïõ Ç. Ðáðáãåñìáíïý

ÔÁÑÐÏÍ ÓÐÑÉÍÃÊÓ. ÅíåíÞíôá-åðôÜ ÷ñüíéá ðñéí ïé óöïõããáñÜäåò ìåôáíÜóôåò ðïõ åãêáôáóôÜèçêáí óôï ãñáöéêü áõôü ÷ùñéü ôçò Öëüñéäáò ãéüñôáóáí ãéá ðñþôç öïñÜ ôïí Áãéáóìü ôùí ÕäÜôùí êáé ôçí ÊáôÜäõóç ôïõ Ôéìßïõ Óôáõñïý. Ñßæùóáí, äçìéïýñãçóáí ïéêïãÝíåéåò, åêêëçóßåò êáé ó÷ïëåßá. ÓõíÝ÷éóáí áäéáëåßðôùò êáé êõñéïëåêôéêÜ ìå èñçóêåõôéêÞ åõëÜâåéá, ôçí ðáñÜäïóç ðïõ îåêßíçóáí ôüôå ïé ðáððïýäåò ôïõò. Óôçí åõñýôåñç ðåñéï÷Þ ôïõ êüëðïõ ôçò ÔÜìðá áíèïýí óÞìåñá ðÝíôå Åëëçíïñèüäïîåò êïéíüôçôåò êáé ç 6ç Éáíïõáñßïõ, óôï ÔÜñðïí Óðñßíãêò, ôçí <ðüëç ôùí Èåïöáíåßùí> åßíáé ï ìåãáëýôåñïò óå ìÝãåèïò, ðáëìü êáé óõììåôï÷Þ åïñôáóìüò óôï äõôéêü çìéóöáßñéï. ¸÷åé êáèéåñùèåß êáé åßíáé ðéá ðáñÜäïóç ôùí ôñéÞìåñùí åêäçëþóåùí íá ðñïÀóôáôáé ï Áñ÷éåðßóêïðïò ÁìåñéêÞò.

Ôçí ðáñáìïíÞ

ÌïíáäéêÞ êáé áíÝëðéóôç ÷áñáêôÞñéóå ôçí õðïäï÷Þ ðïõ ôïõ åðåöõëÜ÷èç óôï áåñïäñüìéï ôçò ÔÜìðá ï Áñ÷éåðßóêïðïò. Ôá ðáéäéÜ êáé ôá åããüíéá ôùí ðñùôïðüñùí åêåßíùí Êáëýìíéùí óöïõããáñÜäùí ìåôáíáóôþí ìáæß ìå ôïõò éåñåßò ôïõò êáé ôïí Èåïö. Åðßóêïðï ÁôëÜíôáò ê. ÁëÝîéï êáé ìå ôéò áãêáëéÝò ôïõò ãåìÜôåò ëïõëïýäéá õðïäÝ÷èçêáí ôïí íÝï Áñ÷éåðßóêïðï ÁìåñéêÞò óôçí çëéüëïõóôç ðïëéôåßá ôïõò. Ï Óåâáóìéüôáôïò ìå Ýêäçëç ôçí Ýêðëçîç êáé ôçí ÷áñÜ óôï ðñüóùðü ôïõ, ðåñéôñéãõñéóìÝíïò áðü ôïõò ìéêñïýò ìáèçôÝò êáé ìáèÞôñéåò, ðïõ äåí åííïïýóáí íá îåêïëëÞóïõí áðü äßðëá ôïõ, êáé õðü ôçí ðïëéïñêßá ôùí öùôïñåðüñôåñ åëëçíéêþí êáé áìåñéêáíéêþí ôïðéêþí ÌÝóùí ÌáæéêÞò ÅíçìÝñùóçò êáôåõèýíèçêå óå áßèïõóá óõíåíôåýîåùí ôïõ áåñïäñïìßïõ.

ÌÇÍÕÌÁ

ôïõ Ïéêïõìåíéêïý ÐáôñéÜñ÷ç ê. Âáñèïëïìáßïõ ðñïò ôïí Áñ÷éåðßóêïðï ÁìåñéêÞò ê. ÄçìÞôñéï êáé ôçí ÏìïãÝíåéá Éåñþôáôå [ Áñ÷éåðßóêïðå [ Áìåñéê`çò, õ ] ðÝñôéìå êáß å{ îáñ÷å [ Ùêåáí`ùí [ Áôëáíôéêï`õ ôå êáß Å éñçíéêï`õ, å[ í ] Áãß~ù Ðíåýìáôé á [ ãáðçôÝ [ á äåëöÝ êáß óõëëåéôïõñãÝ ô` ç ò ] ç ì` ù í Ìåôñéüôçôïò êýñéå ÄçìÞôñéå, ÷Üñéò åªéç ô`ç ~ õ ] ìåôÝñ~á Éåñüôçôé êáß å éñÞíç ðáñÜ Èåï`õ.

Äçì. ÐáíÜãïò

Ï Óåâ. Áñ÷éåðßóêïðïò ÁìåñéêÞò ê. ÄçìÞôñéïò åõëïãåß ôïõò ðéóôïýò êáè ïäüí ðñïò ôï Óðñßíãê Ìáãéïý ãéá ôçí ôåëåôÞ ôçò êáôÜäõóçò. Óôï ðëåõñü ôïõ Ï Èåïö. Åðßóêïðïò ÁôëÜíôáò ê. ÁëÝîéïò êáé ïé Èåïö. Åðßóêïðïé Áìïñßïõ ÉùÜííçò êáé ÊáôÜíçò ÉÜêùâïò.

<Óåâáóìéüôáôå, áðïôåëåß ãéá ìÝíá éäéáßôåñç ôéìÞ êáé ÷áñÜ íá óáò êáëùóïñßóù óÞìåñá ùò ôïí ðíåõìáôéêü ìáò çãÝôç óôçí ÅðéóêïðÞ ÁôëÜíôáò, óôï Íüôï, óôçí êáñäéÜ ôçò Öëüñéäáò, üðïõ êáôïéêïýí êáé äçìéïõñãïýí ðïëëïß ¸ëëçíåò ðéóôïß...> åßðå ìåôáîý Üëëùí ï Èåïö. Åðßóêïðïò ÁôëÜíôáò ê. ÁëÝîéïò ðáñïõóéÜæïíôáò ôïí Áñ÷éåðßóêïðï óôïõò äçìïóéïãñÜöïõò. Óôçí ðáñïõóßáóÞ ôïõ ï Áñ÷éåðßóêïðïò åîÞãçóå ìå áðëÜ êáé êáôáíïçôÜ ëüãéá ôçí Ýííïéá ôùí Èåïöáíåßùí. <Ç áõñéáíÞ ôåëåôÞ åßíáé ìéá ìåãÜëç ãéïñôÞ, ìéá ãéïñôÞ æùÞò, ÷áñÜò, óùôçñßáò, áëëÜ êáé åõ÷áñéóôßáò ðñïò ôïí Èåü>, åßðå êáé óõíÝäåóå ôç ãéïñôÞ ôïõ Áãéáóìïý ôùí ÕäÜôùí ìå ôçí éåñüôçôá ôçò áíèñþðéíçò æùÞò êáé ôïõ ðåñéâÜëëïíôïò. Éäéáßôåñá áíáöÝñèçêå óôï ãåãïíüò üôé ï õäÜôéíïò

üãêïò ðïõ ìáò ðåñéâÜëëåé êáé ðïõ áãéÜæåôáé ôçí çìÝñá ôùí Èåïöáíåßùí áðïôåëåß óçìáíôéêü êïììÜôé ôïõ öõóéêïý ìáò ðåñéâÜëëïíôïò. <Ç ôåëåôÞ ôùí Èåïöáíåßùí öáíåñþíåé ôçí éåñüôçôá ôïõ öõóéêïý ìáò ðåñéâÜëëïíôïò ðïõ ðñÝðåé íá ðñïóôáôåýåôáé áðü êÜèå åßäïõò êáôÜ÷ñçóçò áðïôåëþíôáò ñçôÞ áðáãüñåõóç êÜèå åßäïõò ðáñáâßáóçò ôçò öýóçò. Äåí Ý÷ïõìå ôï äéêáßùìá íá ìïëýíïõìå êáé íá áó÷çìïíïýìå åðß ôïõ öõóéêïý ìáò ðåñéâÜëëïíôïò>, ôüíéóå ï Óåâáóìéüôáôïò. Åñùôçèåßò åîÜëëïõ ï Áñ÷éåðßóêïðïò ðïßá èá Þèåëå íá åßíáé ç óõìâïëÞ ôçò ÅëëçíéêÞò Ïñèïäüîïõ Åêêëçóßáò óôçí áìåñéêáíéêÞ êïéíùíßá, ìåôáîý Üëëùí áíáöÝñèçêå óå < ...ìéá áõîçìÝíç åõáéóèç-

u óåë. 16

ÁÑ×ÉEÐÉÓÊÏÐÉÊÇ ÅÃÊÕÊËÉÏÓ

EïñôÞ ôùí Ôñéþí Éåñáñ÷þí êáé ôçò ÇìÝñáò ôùí Åëëçíéêþí ÃñáììÜôùí Ðñïò ôïõò ÓåâáóìéïôÜôïõò êáé ÈåïöéëåóôÜôïõò Áñ÷éåñåßò, ôïõò ÅõëáâåóôÜôïõò Éåñåßò êáé Äéáêüíïõò, ôïõò Ìïíá÷ïýò êáé Ìïíá÷Ýò, ôïõò ÐñïÝäñïõò êáé ÌÝëç ôùí Êïéíïôéêþí Óõìâïõëßùí, ôéò Öéëïðôþ÷ïõò Áäåëöüôçôåò, ôá ÇìåñÞóéá êáé ÁðïãåõìáôéíÜ Ó÷ïëåßá, ôçí Íåïëáßá, ôéò Åëëçíïñèüäïîåò Ïñãáíþóåéò êáé ïëüêëçñï ôï ×ñéóôåðþíõìïí ðëÞñùìá ôçò ÉåñÜò Áñ÷éåðéóêïðÞò ÁìåñéêÞò. Áäåëöïß êáé ÁäåëöÝò åí ×ñéóôþ, Ç ìåãÜëç åïñôÞ ôùí ôñéþí Éåñáñ÷þí êáé ç ÇìÝñá ôùí Åëëçíéêþí ÃñáììÜôùí ìáò ÷áñßæïõí ôçí åõêáéñßá íá ìåëåôÞóïõìå ôçí ìïíáäéêÞ êëçñïíïìéÜ ðáéäåßáò, ìéá êëçñïíïìéÜ ôçí ïðïßá Ý÷ïõìå ùò Åëëçíïñèüäïîïé ×ñéóôéáíïß. Ï ÌÝãáò Âáóßëåéïò ÷ñçóéìïðïéþíôáò ìéá öñÜóç áðü ôçí Ïäýóóåéá ôïõ ÏìÞñïõ Ýãñáøå óå ìéá åðéóôïëÞ ôïõ: ÌÝãá ðñüò ìáñôõñßáí ðáéäåýóåùò ôü ðïëë` ù í á [ íèñþðùí é äå¡éí á { óôåá, êáß íüïí ãí`ùíáé... ([ ÅðéóôïëÞ 74) üôé äçëáäÞ áðïôåëåß ìåãÜëç áðüäåéîç ðáéäåßáò ôï íá Ý÷åé

êáíåßò éäåß ôéò ðüëåéò ðïëëþí áíèñþðùí êáé ôï íá Ý÷åé ãíùñßóåé ôéò óêÝøåéò ôùí. Ó áõôÝò ôéò ëßãåò ëÝîåéò ï ìåãÜëïò áõôüò ÐáôÞñ ôçò Åêêëçóßáò, ï ÌÝãáò Âáóßëåéïò Ý÷åé åêöñÜóåé ôçí åéäéêÞ áíôßëçøç ãéá ôç öýóç ôçò Ðáéäåßáò, ìéáí áíôßëçøç ç ïðïßá åßíáé åíôåëþò ÅëëçíéêÞ êáé áëçèéíÜ ÐáôåñéêÞ. Äéüôé óôçí ÅëëçíéêÞ áíôßëçøç ðåñß ðáéäåßáò õðÜñ÷åé ðñùôßóôùò ìéá âáèåéÜ åêôßìçóç ôçò áðåñáíôïóýíçò ôçò ãíþóåùò. Ôï íá ãßíåé êáíåßò ìïñöùìÝíïò Üíèñùðïò, Üíèñùðïò êáôáíïÞóåùò áðïôåëåß åðßôåõãìá ðïëëþí åôþí. Åßíáé Ýñãï ìéáò ïëüêëçñçò æùÞò óðïõäÞò ðïõ êõñéáñ÷åßôáé áðü ðíåýìá óõíå÷ïýò åíäéáöÝñïíôïò êáé ðåñéåñãåßáò, ôáðåéíïöñïóýíçò êáé õðïìïíÞò. Ç Ðáéäåßá ìïéÜæåé ì Ýíá ìáêñý êáé ðïëýðëåõñï ôáîßäé. Ôüóï ïé áñ÷áßïé ¸ëëçíåò öéëüóïöïé üóï êáé ïé ÐáôÝñåò ôçò Åêêëçóßáò åß÷áí Ýíá ôåñÜóôéï åíäéáöÝñïí ãéá üëá ôá ðåäßá åñåýíçò: ôçí êïóìïëïãßá, ôçí áíèñùðïëïãßá, ôçí öéëïëïãßá, ôá ãñÜììáôá, ôçí ìïõóéêÞ, ôéò ôÝ÷íåò, ôçí éáôñéêÞ êáé ôçí

u óåë. 17

ÌåôÜ ìåãÜëçò ÷áñ`áò êáß óõãêéíÞóåùò á [ ðåõèýíïìåí äéÜ ô`ùí ðáñüíôùí Ðáôñéáñ÷éê`ùí êáß å[õ÷åôéê`ùí ]çì`ùí ÃñáììÜôùí ï ] ëïêÜñäéïí ÷áéñåôéóìüí ðñüò ï } ëçí ôÞí å[ í [ Áìåñéê~ç ` ëßáí ç ] ì¡éí á [ ãáðçôÞí öéëü÷ñéóôïí ] ÏìïãÝíåéáí, ôÞí äéáôçñï` õ óáí ôÞí ðáñáêáôáèÞêçí ô`çò ] Ïñèïäüîïõ Ðßóôåùò êáß ô`ùí ôéìáëö`ùí ôï`õ ÃÝíïõò Ðáñáäüóåùí å[ í ìÝó~ù á [ ðåéñáñßèìùí èñçóêåõôéê`ùí êáß ðïëéôéóôéê`ù í é äåïëïãé`ù í, á é ] ï ðï¡ é áé å[ ðéäéþêïõí íÜ ðñïóåëêýóïõí ôïýò ðÜíôáò ðñüò å] áõôÜò. Å®éíáé ðñÜãìáôé á { îéïé óõã÷áñçôçñßùí êáß å[ ðáßíùí ï é ößëôáôïé ï ] ìïãåíå¡éò äéÜ ôüí æ`çëïí êáß ôÞí öéëïðïíßáí ìåôÜ ô`çò ï ] ðïßáò å[ ñãÜæïíôáé ðñüò öýëáîéí êáß ìåôÜäïóéí å éò ôÜò íÝáò ãåíåÜò ô`çò ðáñáêáôáèÞêçò ô`çò á [ ìùìÞôïõ [ Ïñèïäüîïõ Ðßóôåþò ìáò êáß ô`çò ] Åëëçíïñèïäüîïõ Ðáñáäüóåùò. Å éò á[õôÞí ôÞí ôéôÜíåéïí ðñïóðÜèåéáí ô`çò ] Ïìïãåíåßáò } ï ðùò [ á íôéóôáè~ ` ç å é ò ôü ï ] ñìçôéêüí ê`õìá ô`çò á [ öïìïéþóåùò ðñüò ôü ðïëéôéóìéêüí êáß èñçóêåõôéêüí ðåñéâÜëëïí, [áíáðüöåõêôïí å®éíáé }ïôé èÜ ]õðÜñîïõí äéáöïñåôéêáß [åíßïôå [áðüøåéò ðåñß ô`çò á [ êïëïõèçôÝáò ìåèüäïõ, ô`ùí êáôáëëÞëùí ìÝóùí êáß [åíäå÷ïìÝíùò êáß ]ùñéóìÝíùí óôü÷ùí. Á é äéáöïñåôéêáß ï } ìùò á[õôáß ãí`ùìáé äÝí ðñÝðåé íÜ ï ] äçãï`õí å éò äé÷áóìüí, á [ ëë å éò å éñçíéêÞí óõæÞôçóéí, ù ] ò ãßíåôáé å éò ôÜ äçìïêñáôéêÜ ðïëéôåýìáôá, ìåôáîý ô`ùí ï ] ðïßùí êïñõöáßáí èÝóéí êáôÝ÷åé êáß ôü ô`çò íÝáò ðáôñßäïò õ ] ì`ùí. [ Áíáëïãéæüìåíïé ðüóá äåéíÜ ðñïêáëå¡é ï ] äé÷áóìüò, êáß ðüóïí êáôáóôñåðôéêüí å®éíáé íÜ êáôáäáðáí`ùìåí ôÜò äõíÜìåéò ç] ì`ùí ï ] å éò êáôÜ ôï`õ á { ëëïõ, å[õ÷áñéóôï`õìåí ô~ù ` Èå`ù ~ äéüôé ç~\ ñåí å[ ê ìÝóïõ õ] ì`ùí ôüí ðåéñáóìüí ôï`õôïí êáß ç} íùóåí õ] ì`áò, êáß ðáôñéê`ùò ìåô á [ ãÜðçò ðïëë`çò [áðåõèõíüìåíïé ðñüò }ïëçí ôÞí á [ ãáðçôÞí ] ÏìïãÝíåéáí, å[ ðáíáëáìâÜíïìåí ðñüí ôÞí [áãÜðçí óáò ôïýò ëüãïõò ôï`õ [ Áðïóôüëïõ Ðáýëïõ: <ÐëçñþóáôÝ ìïõ ôÞí ÷áñÜí, é¬ íá ôü á[õôü öñïí`çôå, ôÞí á[õôÞí á [ ãÜðçí å{ ÷ïíôåò, óýìøõ÷ïé, ôü å} í öñïíï`õíôåò, ìçäÝí êáôÜ [åñßèåéáí {ç êåíïäïîßáí, [áëëÜ ô`~ç ôáðåéíïöñïóýí~ç [áëëÞëïõò ]çãïýìåíïé õ] ðåñÝ÷ïíôåò å] áõô`ùí> (Öéë. 2, 2-3). { Å÷ïíôåò óðïõäáßáò å[ íäåßîåéò ï } ôé ç ] ]ïìïøõ÷ßá ô`çò öéëôÜôçò ]ïìïãåíåßáò {å÷åé á [ ðïêáôáóôáè`ç êáß ï } ôé õ] ðü ôÞí ðåðíõìÝíçí ðïéìáíôïñßáí ô`çò õ ] ìåôÝñáò ößëçò Éåñüôçôïò èÜ å] äñáéùè`ç ~ å{ ôé ìÜëëïí, ðáñáêáëï`õìåí èåñì`ùò ôüí Êýñéïí ç ] ì`ùí Éçóï`õí ×ñéóôüí ï } ðùò å[ ðéâñáâåýó~ç êáôÜ ôü å[ ðß èýñáéò óùôÞñéïí å{ ôïò 2000 á } ðáíôáò ôïýò á [ ãáðçôïýò ] Ïìïãåíå¡éò êáß å éò ôü å[ ðßóçò [áãáðçôüí [ Áìåñéêáíéêüí { Åèíïò ð`áóáí å[õëïãßáí ðíåõìáôéêÞí êáß ð`áóáí ðñüïäïí å[ í ôï¡éò å{ ñãïéò á[õô`ùí, é¬ íá å[ í õ ] ãåß~á, å éñÞí~ç, óõíåñãáóß~á, ðñïüä~ù êáß êáë`~ç èåëÞóåé äéÝëèùìåí á[õôü êáß ðÜíôá ôÜ å{ ôç ô`çò æù`çò ç ] ì`ùí, å[õöñáéíüìåíïé å[ í ô`ù ~ Êõñß~ù êáß å[ í ôï¡éò ðñüò ç ] ì`áò äþñïéò ô`çò á [ ãÜðçò Á[õôï`õ. ÄåêÝìâñéïò 1999

ÓÅËÉÄÁ 16

ÏÑÈÏÄÏÎÏÓ ÐÁÑÁÔÇÑÇÔÇÓ

ÔÁ ÁÃÉÁ ÈÅÏÖÁÍÅÉÁ

<Ç åêðëÞñùóç ôçò Ïéêïíïìßáò ôïõ ×ñéóôïý> <Åßíáé çìÝñá åêðëÞñùóçò ôçò Ïéêïíïìßáò ôïõ ×ñéóôïý> óýìöùíá ìå ôïí éåñü õìíùäü ôçò Åêêëçóßáò ìáò. Ç êôßóéò ïëüêëçñç öùôßæåôáé, ôá åðßãåéá êáé ôá ïõñÜíéá åõöñáßíïíôáé, ïé Üããåëïé êáé ïé Üíèñùðïé <óõììßãíõíôáé> ãñÜöåé Ýíáò Üëëïò õìíùäüò. <ÅðåöÜíç ç ÷Üñéò ôïõ Èåïý ç óùôÞñéïò ðÜóéí áíèñþðïéò, ç ïðïßá êáôáõãÜæåé êáé ðáñÝ÷åé ôï ìÝãá Ýëåïò> óå üóïõò äÝ÷èçêáí âÝâáéá ôçí Üãéá åðéöÜíåéá ôïõ ÓùôÞñïò êáé ôçí Ýêáìáí áíáðüóðáóôï ìÝñïò ôçò ðíåõìáôéêÞò ôïõò æùÞò êáé áöéåñþèçêáí ïëïêëçñùôéêÜ óå áõôÞ. Ìå ôï ÂÜðôéóìá ôïõ Êõñßïõ óôïí ÉïñäÜíç ðïôáìü æïýìå êáé âéþíïõìå, äñáìáôéêÜ èá Ýëåãå êáíåßò, ôï ìÝãá èáýìá ôçò áíáðëÜóåùò, ôçò êáèÜñóåùò êáé ôïõ ðáíÜãéïõ öùôéóìïý ôùí áíèñþðùí. Óå ôÝóóåñá óçìåßá êõñßùò óõãêåíôñþíåôáé ç åõëáâÞò ðñïóï÷Þ ôùí éåñþí óõããñáöÝùí, üóïí áöïñÜ óôï ÂÜðôéóìá ôïõ Êõñßïõ óôïí ÉïñäÜíç ðïôáìü. Ðñþôïí, óôçí üíôùò èáõìáôïõñãéêÞ ÖáíÝñùóç êáé Ðáñïõóßá ôçò Áãßáò ÔñéÜäáò. Äåýôåñïí, óôçí ôáðåßíùóç êáé õðáêïÞ ôïõ êáè. Ãåùñãßïõ ÌðåìðÞ ôïõ Êõñßïõ íá äå÷èåß ôï ÂÜðôéóìá áðü ôïí ÉùÜííç ôïí Ðñüäñïìï. Ôñßôïí, óôïí êáèáãéáóìü êáé åõëïãßá ôùí õäÜôùí êáé ïëüêëçñçò ôçò öýóçò. Êáé ôÝôáñôïí óôçí ëýóç êáé êáôÜëõóç ôïõ ðñïðáôïñéêïý <êáôáêñßìáôïò> ôïõ ÁäÜì êáé ôçò áíõøþóåùò ôïõ áíèñþðïõ óôçí <ïäüí óùôçñßáò> êáé óôï <öùò ôçò èåïãíùóßáò>, ãéá íá ìåôá÷åéñéóèïýìå ôçí èñéáìâåõôéêÞ ãëþóóá ôïõ áãßïõ Óùöñïíßïõ ôïõ ÐáôñéÜñ÷ç Éåñïóïëýìùí ôïí Ýâäïìï áéþíá. Ôï éåñü áðïëõôßêéï ôùí Èåïöáíåßùí äéáêçñýôôåé ôçí <öáíÝñùóéí êáé ðñïóêýíçóéí> ôçò Áãßáò ÔñéÜäïò. ÁõôÞ ç Áãßá ÔñéÜäá <áäéáñÝôùò> öáíåñþèçêå êáôÜ ôï ÂÜðôéóìá ôïõ Êõñßïõ. Ï ÐáôÞñ ìÝóù ôçò <åíáñãïýò ìáñôõñßáò Ôïõ>, ìÝóù ôçò Ðáíá÷ñÜíôïõ öùíÞò Ôïõ, ï Õéüò ìÝóù ôçò õðïêëßóåùò ôçò ôßìéáò ÊåöáëÞò ðñï ôïõ Âáðôéóôïý ÉùÜííïõ êáé ôï ¢ãéï Ðíåýìá ìÝóù ôçò ðáñïõóßáò Ôïõ åí åßäåé ðåñéóôåñÜò. Áêüìç êáé ïé ÷ïñïß ôùí áãßùí ÁããÝëùí ìå èÜìâïò áíôéêñßæïõí ôï öïâåñü ãåãïíüò, íá âëÝðïõí äçëáäÞ ôïí Êýñéï êáé ÐïéçôÞ ôïõ ïõñáíïý êáé ôçò ãçò íá ãõìíþíåôáé ùò ôáðåéíüò äïýëïò êáé íá âáðôßæåôáé áðü äïýëï, ãéá ôçí óùôçñßá ôùí áíèñþðùí. Ï <á÷åéñïðïßçôïò êáé áíáìÜñôçôïò> ÓùôÞñáò Ýñ÷åôáé óôïí ÉïñäÜíç ðïôáìü ãéá íá ëÜâåé <äïõëéêüí âÜðôéóìá> áðü ôá <ôñåìÜìåíá> ÷Ýñéá ôïõ Âáðôéóôïý ÉùÜííç ãéá ôçí óùôçñßá, ôïí êáèáãéáóìü êáé ôïí öùôéóìü ôùí áíèñþðùí. ÅðéðëÝïí, ïé éåñïß õìíïãñÜöïé óõíå÷þò ðñïâÜëëïõí ôï ãåãïíüò ôïõ êáèáãéáóìïý ôùí õäÜôùí ôïõ ÉïñäÜíç, <ÓÞìåñïí ôùí õäÜôùí êáèáãéÜæåôáé ç öýóéò êáé ñÞãíõôáé ï ÉïñäÜíçò>, <ÓÞìåñïí ç êôßóéò öùôßæåôáé, óÞìåñïí ôá ðÜíôá åõöñáßíïíôáé...> ¸ôóé ìÝóù ôïõ êáèáãéáóìïý ôùí õäÜôùí ôïõ ÉïñäÜíç, ôï êñÜôïò ôçò áìáñôßáò óõíôñßâåôáé, êáé ìå ôïí ×ñéóôüí <óõíáíáöÝñåôáé> óõíáíõøþíåôáé, ïëüêëçñïò ï êüóìïò. ÔÝëïò, ìÝóù ôïõ âáðôßóìáôïò óôïí ÉïñäÜíç ðïôáìü, ï Êýñéïò ùò íÝïò ÁäÜì áíáðëÜèåé ôïí ðáëáéü ÁäÜì, êáèáñßæåé ôïí ñýðï ôçò áìáñôßáò, êáé öùôßæåé üëïõò ôïõò áíèñþðïõò, ôïõò êáèéóôÜ õéïýò ôïõ Èåïý êáé Ðáôñüò êáé ôïõò áíõøþíåé åê ôïõ ýäáôïò ðåöùôéóìÝíïõò êáé óùóìÝíïõò. ÁõôÞ åßíáé ç èåïäßäáêôç êáé èåïöþôéóôç åìðåéñßá êáé äéäáóêáëßá ôçò Åêêëçóßáò ìáò, ç ïðïßá æåé, ãåñáßñåé êáé åîõìíåß ôá ðáíÜãéá ÈåïöÜíåéá óáí äþñï èåüðåìðôï, óáí èáýìá ìÝãá, ôçò åí ×ñéóôþ Èåßáò Ïéêïíïìßáò. Ïé éåñïß õìíùäïß êáé ÐáôÝñåò ôçò Åêêëçóßáò óåìíýïíôáé êáé áêñïþíôáé êáé ìå áíåßðùôç åõëÜâåéá êáé äéÜêñéóç ãéíþóêïõí êáé áíáãéíþóêïõí ôá ÉåñÜ ÅõáããÝëéá, ôá ïðïßá ìå óåìíüôçôá êáé èåßá öþôéóç ðåñéãñÜöïõí ôá ôïõ Âáðôßóìáôïò ôïõ ÓùôÞñïò ×ñéóôïý. Óôï ôñßôï êåöÜëáéï ï Ìáôèáßïò, óôï ðñþôï êåöÜëáéï ï ÌÜñêïò, óôï ôñßôï êåöÜëáéï ï ËïõêÜò êáé óôï ðñþôï êåöÜëáéï ï ÉùÜííçò, äéáãñÜöïõí åí Ðíåýìáôé Áãßù, ôçí <óùôçñéïëïãéêÞ> Ýííïéá ôçò Âáðôßóåùò ôïõ Êõñßïõ, ôïíßæïíôáò éäéáßôåñá ôçí ðñïóùðéêÞ ìáñôõñßá ôïõ Âáðôéóôïý ÉùÜííç, üôé ï Éçóïýò åßíáé <ï õéüò ôïõ Èåïý> (Éù. 1, 34) êáé <ï áìíüò ôïõ Èåïý> (Éù. 1, 36). Ç ÂÜðôéóç ôïõ Éçóïý Ýãéíå, ðñïöáíþò óôï êÜôù ìÝñïò ôïõ ÉïñäÜíç ðïôáìïý, êïíôÜ óôçí Éåñé÷þ êáé ôç ÍåêñÜ ÈÜëáóóá. ÓùóôÜ ãñÜöïõí ïé éóôïñéêïß üôé ôá Üãéá ÈåïöÜíåéá åßíáé ç áñ÷áéüôåñç ÄåóðïôéêÞ ãéïñôÞ ìåôÜ ôï ÐÜó÷á. Óå ó÷åôéêÞ Ýñåõíá ðñïÝâç ï äéáðñåðÞò êáèçãçôÞò ôçò ËåéôïõñãéêÞò óôï ÐáíåðéóôÞìéï Èåóóáëïíßêçò ê. Öïõíôïýëçò (Èñçóê. Åãêõêëïðáßäåéá ô. 6ïò) êáé ï áåßìíçóôïò êáèçãçôÞò ôçò ÅêêëçóéáóôéêÞò Éóôïñßáò óôï ÐáíåðéóôÞìéï Áèçíþí ð. Âáóßëåéïò Óôåöáíßäçò (Åêêëçó. Éóôïñßá ó. 314). Áôõ÷þò ôá óõìðåñÜóìáôá ôçò Ýñåõíáò áõôÞò äåí äßíïõí ðëÞñç åéêüíá ôçò åîÝëéîçò ôçò ãéïñôÞò ôùí Èåïöáíåßùí. Äßêáéá üìùò êáé ïñèÜ, áìöüôåñïé ïé ¸ëëçíåò êáèçãçôÝò ôïíßæïõí ôçí êáô áñ÷Þí ôáýôéóç ôïõ åïñôáóìïý ôçò ÃÝííçóçò ôïõ ÓùôÞñïò êáé ôçò ÂÜðôéóÞò Ôïõ, óôéò 6 Éáíïõáñßïõ. Ôïí 4ï áéþíá, ï ÌÝãáò Âáóßëåéïò ïíüìáóå ôá ×ñéóôïýãåííá ùò ãéïñôÞ <Èåïöáíåßùí>, áëëÜ áñãüôåñá ï ößëïò ôïõ ï Üãéïò Ãñçãüñéïò ï Èåïëüãïò åéóÞãáãå ôïí üñï ôá Üãéá Öþôá. Ôçí 39ç ìÜëéóôá ïìéëßá ôïõ ôéôëïöïñåß <Åéò ôá ¢ãéá Öþôá>. Óôçí ïìéëßá áõôÞ ï Üãéïò Ãñçãüñéïò áðïêáëåß ôá ¢ãéá Öþôá <èåßïí êáé õøçëüí ìõóôÞñéïí>, äéüôé ü÷é ìüíï ãéïñôÜæïõìå ôçí ÂÜðôéóç ôïõ Êõñßïõ, áëëÜ åðßóçò èõìüìáóôå üôé ï ×ñéóôüò åßíáé ôï áëçèéíü öùò ðïõ öùôßæåé êÜèå Üíèñùðï ï ïðïßïò Ýñ÷åôáé óôïí êüóìï. (Éù. 3,3). ÐñÝðåé ëïéðüí, êáôáëÞãåé ï Üãéïò áõôüò ÐáôñéÜñ÷çò Êùíóôáíôéíïõðüëåùò, íá êáèáñèþìåí êáé íá ãßíïõìå ðñáãìáôéêÜ êáé ôÝëåéá öþôá, ìÝóá óôï ìåãÜëï öùò ôïõ ×ñéóôïý ãéá íá ìõçèïýìå êáé æÞóïõìå óôç <öùôáãùãßá ôçò Áãßáò ÔñéÜäïò>. Óå áíÜìíçóç ôùí Èåïöáíåßùí Þ <Åðéöáíåßùí> ôåëåßôáé êáé ï ÌÝãáò Áãéáóìüò, ï ïðïßïò êáô áñ÷Þí ãéíüôáí ôç íý÷ôá ôçò 5çò ðñïò 6ç Éáíïõáñßïõ, êáôÜ ôçí ïðïßá åðßóçò ùò ãíùóôü ãéíüôáí êáé ôï Üãéï ÂÜðôéóìá ôùí Êáôç÷ïõìÝíùí. Áò óõììåôÝ÷ïõìå êáé åìåßò óôçí ÷áñÜ ôïõ óùôçñéþäïõò Âáðôßóìáôïò ôïõ Êõñßïõ ìáò. Êáé áò áöÞóïõìå ôçí ðïßçóç ôïõ éåñïý õìíùäïý íá áíôç÷Þóåé ìÝóá óôéò êáñäéÝò ìáò. <ÁãáëëéÜóèù Ãç ðÜóá... Ïõñáíüò åõöñáéíÝóèù. Êüóìïò óêéñôÜôù... Áé Ðçãáß êáé ëßìíáé, ¢âõóóïé, èÜëáóóáé, óõã÷áéñÝôùóáí... ôÝñðïõ, ÷üñåõå ÁäÜì êáé Åýá ðñïìÞôïñ. ÅðåäÞìçóåí ç áðïëýôñùóéò ðÜíôùí...>. Ï ê. Ãåþñãéïò Ó. ÌðåìðÞò åßíáé êáèçãçôÞò Ðáôñïëïãßáò,óôçí ÈåïëïãéêÞ Ó÷ïëÞ ôïõ Ôéìßïõ Óôáõñïý, ôçò É. Áñ÷éåðéóêïðÞò ÁìåñéêÞò.

ÉÁÍÏÕÁÑÉÏÓ 2000

ÈåïöÜíåéá 2000:

u óåë. 15

ôïðïßçóç ãéá ôçí áíèñþðéíç ýðáñîç, ìéá åê íÝïõ áíáêÜëõøç êáé åðáíáðñïóÝããéóç ôïõ áíèñþðïõ ðïõ êéíäõíåýåé íá ÷áèåß êÜôù êáé ðßóù áðü ôçí êáèçìåñéíüôçôá, ôïõò áñéèìïýò, ôéò óôáôéóôéêÝò êáé ôïí êáôáêëõóìü ôçò ôå÷íïëïãéêÞò ìáò åðï÷Þò. Ùò Åêêëçóßá, ôüíéóå ï Áñ÷éåðßóêïðïò, ïöåßëïõìå íá óõíåéóöÝñïõìå óôïí åìðëïõôéóìü ôçò áíèñþðéíçò ýðáñîçò ðñïóöÝñïíôáò ÁãÜðç^ ìéá áãÜðç ÷ùñßò üñéá, ðïõ ðñïÝñ÷åôáé êáé ðçãÜæåé áðü ôïí Èåü ðïõ Üëëùóôå åßíáé Áõôüò ðïõ ìáò ÷áñßæåé ôç æùÞ êáé ôçí ýðáñîÞ ìáò. ¢ëëùóôå äåí íïåßôå Ýíáò áíèñùðéóìüò ÷ùñßò Èåü>. Ëßãï áñãüôåñá ç Öéëüðôù÷ïò ôïõ Éåñïý Íáïý ôçò Áãßáò ÔñéÜäáò ôïõ Êëéáñãïõüôåñ ðáñÝèåóå ãåýìá ðñïò ôéìÞ ôïõ Áñ÷éåðéóêüðïõ Äçìçôñßïõ êáé áêïëïýèçóå óýóêåøç ôïõ ÓåâáóìéïôÜôïõ ìå ôïí êëÞñï ôçò ðåñéï÷Þò. Ôï ßäéï âñÜäõ, ðáñáìïíÞ Èåïöáíåßùí, ôï ôïðéêü ôìÞìá ôçò Á×ÅÐÁ ðáñÝèåóå ôï 64ï åôÞóéï äåßðíï ôïõ óå åëëçíéêÞò éäéïêôçóßáò åóôéáôüñéï ôïõ ÔÜñðïí Óðñßíãêò. ÊáôÜ ôç äéÜñêåéá ôïõ äåßðíïõ ï Áñ÷éåðßóêïðïò óõíå÷Üñç ôçí ÏñãÜíùóç ãéá ôá <Ýñãá áãÜðçò> üðùò åßðå ðïõ ãéá ðïëëÜ ÷ñüíéá ôþñá åêôåëåß êáé ãéá ôéò áäéÜêïðåò ðñïóðÜèåéåò ôçò Á×ÅÐÁ íá åíóôáëÜîåé ôï Åëëçíéêü ðíåýìá óôçí ÁìåñéêÞ. ÅîÜëëïõ Ýêáíå éäéáßôåñç áíáöïñÜ óôïí ðñüóöáôï Ýñáíï ðïõ áðÝäùóå ôï åíôõðùóéáêü ðïóü ôùí äéáêïóßùí ÷éëéÜäùí äïëáñßùí êáé ðïõ ç ÏñãÜíùóç äéÝèåóå ãéá ôá èýìáôá ôïõ ðåñóéíïý óåéóìïý ôçò ÁèÞíáò. Ï Áñ÷éåðßóêïðïò áíáöÝñèçêå éäéáßôåñá óôç óõìâïëÞ ôïõ Åëëçíéêïý ðíåýìáôïò óôç äéáìüñöùóç ôçò óçìåñéíÞò ìáò Åëëçíïñèüäïîçò ôáõôüôçôáò. <Ìéá ôáõôüôçôá ðïõ áðïôåëåß Èåßï äþñï áëëÜ ü÷é êáé áðïêëåéóôéêü äéêáßùìá...> åßðå, êáé óõíÝ÷éóå ôïíßæïíôáò üôé <...åßíáé êáèÞêïí ìáò êáé èá ðñÝðåé íá ãßíåé ìÝñéìíÜ ìáò íá ìïéñáóôïýìå ãåííáéüäùñá ôï Èåßï áõôü äþñï ìå üëïõò ôïõò óõíáíèñþðïõò ìáò>.

ÈåïöÜíåéá 2000

Ç éåñïðñÝðåéá êáé ç ðíåõìáôéêüôçôá ÷áñáêôÞñéóáí ôçí Áñ÷éåñáôéêÞ Èåßá Ëåéôïõñãßá ðïõ ôåëÝóôçêå ôï ðñùß ôçò 6çò Éáíïõáñßïõ óôïí Éåñü Êáèåäñéêü Íáü ôïõ Áãßïõ ÍéêïëÜïõ. Ìå ôïí Óåâáóìéüôáôï óõëëåéôïýñãçóáí ï Èåïö. Åðßóêïðïò ÁôëÜíôáò ê. ÁëÝîéïò, ï Èåïö. Åðßóêïðïò Áìïñßïõ ê. ÉùÜííçò êáé ï Èåïö. Åðßóêïðïò ÊáôÜíéáò ê. ÉÜêùâïò âïçèïýìåíïé áðü ôïí Éåñáôéêþò ðñïúóôÜìåíï ôïõ Íáïý ð. Ôñýöùíá Èåïöéëüðïõëï, ôïí ð.

ÉùÜííç Êáôóïýëç êáé ôïí ð. ÄçìÞôñéï ÑïõóÜêç êáèþò êáé ðïëëïýò Üëëïõò êëçñéêïýò ôçò ðåñéï÷Þò. Åííéáêüóéïé ðåñßðïõ ðéóôïß ðáñáêïëïýèçóáí ìå êáôÜíõîç ôç Èåßá Ëåéôïõñãßá åíôüò ôïõ íáïý êáé óôï ðáñáðëåýñùò êïéíïôéêü êÝíôñï ìÝóù êëåéóôïý êõêëþìáôïò ôçëåüñáóçò. Óôï êÞñõãìÜ ôïõ ï Áñ÷éåðßóêïðïò áöïý åðáßíåóå ôïí êëÞñï êáé ôïí ëáü ôïõ ÔÜñðïí Óðñßíãêò ãéá ôçí áðïäåäåéãìÝíç áöïóßùóÞ ôïõ êáé èñçóêåõôéêüôçôÜ ôïõ áíÜëõóå ìå áðëÜ êáé ìåóôÜ ëüãéá ôç äéðëÞ óçìáóßá ôçò çìÝñáò ôùí Èåïöáíåßùí. ÆÞôçóå áðü ôïõò ðéóôïýò íá áíïßîïõí ôéò êáñäéÝò ôïõò êáé íá äå÷ôïýí ôçí Èåßá ×Üñç êáé ôï Öùò ðïõ ðñïóöÝñåôáé óå üëïõò ôçí çìÝñá áõôÞ ôùí Èåïöáíåßùí. Ôá óôåíÜ äñïìÜêéá ðïõ ïäçãïýí áðü ôï íáü óôï Óðñßíãê Ìðáãéïý êáé ç áêôÞ åß÷áí ðëçììõñßóåé áðü êÜðïõ åßêïóé ÷éëéÜäåò ðéóôþí ðïõ óõãêåíôñþèçêáí íá ðáñáêïëïõèÞóïõí ôïí Áãéáóìü ôùí ÕäÜôùí êáé ôçí ÊáôÜäõóç ôïõ Ôéìßïõ Óôáõñïý. Ïé 55 öÝôïò âïõôç÷ôÝò, Ýöçâïé 1618 ÷ñïíþí, Þôáí Ýôïéìïé. ÂñÝèçêáí óôç êåöáëÞ ôçò ðïìðÞò. Êé áêïëïõèïýóáí ïé ìéêñüôåñïé ìáèçôÝò ôùí ó÷ïëåßùí ìå åèíéêÝò åíäõìáóßåò, ôá ìÝëç ôçò ÷ïñùäßáò ôïõ Áãßïõ ÍéêïëÜïõ, ôá åîáðôÝñõãá, ï Áñ÷éåðßóêïðïò ÄçìÞôñéïò, ï êëÞñïò, êáé ðëÞèïò ðéóôþí êáé ðñïóêõíçôþí ðïõ åß÷áí óõññåýóåé áðü êÜèå ãùíéÜ ôçò ÷þñáò, áêüìç êé áðü ôïí ÊáíáäÜ. Êáèþò ðëçóßáóáí ïé Ýöçâïé <âïõôç÷ôÝò> Ýôñåîáí ðçäþíôáò óôï íåñü êáé ðÞñáí èÝóç óôéò âÜñêåò ðïõ ðåñéóôïß÷éæáí ôçí åîÝäñá. Ïé öùôïãñÜöïé, äçìïóéïãñÜöïé êáé ïé ïðåñáôÝñ ôçò ôçëåüñáóçò óôñéìþ÷íïíôáí ãéá ìéá ðñïíïìéïý÷ï èÝóç. ¼ëïé ðÞñáí ôéò èÝóåéò ôïõò êáé Üñ÷éóå ç áêïëïõèßá ôçò ÊáôÜäõóçò ôïõ Ôéìßïõ Óôáõñïý. Êáèþò ï Áñ÷éåðßóêïðïò äéÜâáæå ôçí åõáããåëéêÞ ðåñéêïðÞ ðïõ áíáöÝñåôáé óôçí åìöÜíéóç ôïõ Áãßïõ Ðíåýìáôïò åí åßäåé ðåñéóôåñÜò, ç 16÷ñïíç ìáèÞôñéá Áíôùíßá Èáñßí åëåõèÝñùóå ôï ëåõêü ðåñéóôÝñé ðïõ ùò ôüôå êñáôïýóå ìå åõëÜâåéá óôéò ðáëÜìåò ôçò. <Åõ÷áñéóôïýìå ôï Èåü ãéá ôçí ðáñÜäïóç áõôÞ ðïõ ìáò Ýäùóå. Åßíáé ãéá ôçí ðüëç ìáò ìéá ìåãÜëç ðñáãìáôéêÜ ìÝñá>, åßðå ï äÞìáñ÷ïò ôçò ðüëçò, Öñáíê Íôé ÍôoíÜôï, óå óýíôïìï ÷áéñåôéóìü ôïõ óôïõò ÷éëéÜäåò ðïõ ðáñåõñßóêïíôáí ãýñù-ãýñù áðü ôï êïëðßóêï ôïõ Óðñßíãê Ìðáãéïý. ÁëëÜ ãéá ôïõò Åëëçíïñèüäïîïõò óôï êüóìï üëï êáé éäéáßôåñá üóïõò óõãêåíôñþèçêáí êÜôù áðü ôïí ãáëáíü êáé çëéü-

ÉÁÍÏÕÁÑÉÏÓ 2000

ÏÑÈÏÄÏÎÏÓ ÐÁÑÁÔÇÑÇÔÇÓ

ï Áãéáóìüò ôùí ÕäÜôùí áãéáóìüò üëçò ôçò öýóçò

ÓÅËÉÄÁ 17

ÁÑ×ÉEÐÉÓÊÏÐÉÊÇ ÅÃÊÕÊËÉÏÓ

EïñôÞ ôùí Ôñéþí Éåñáñ÷þí êáé ôçò ÇìÝñáò ôùí Åëëçíéêþí ÃñáììÜôùí u óåë. 17

ëïõóôï ïõñáíü óôçí <ðüëç ôùí Èåïöáíåßùí> Þôáí ìéá ìÝñá éåñÞ. <Ìå ôç ãéïñôÞ áõôÞ ãßíåôáé ï Áãéáóìüò ôùí ÕäÜôùí êáé ìÝóù áõôïý ï áãéáóìüò üëçò ôçò öýóçò. Ï åïñôáóìüò áõôüò êáé ç óçìåñéíÞ ôåëåôÞ åßíáé ìéá Ýêöñáóç åõ÷áñéóôéþí ðñïò ôï Èåü ðïõ ìáò ÷Üñéóå áõôÞ ôçí üìïñöç öýóç>, åßðå ï Áñ÷éåðßóêïðïò ÄçìÞôñéïò ìéëþíôáò óôï ðëÞèïò ôùí óõãêåíôñùìÝíùí. Ïé âïõôç÷ôÝò Þôáí ðéá öáíåñÜ íåõñéêïß êáé áíõðüìïíïé, éóïññïðþíôáò óôéò âÜñêåò ðïõ ó÷çìÜôéæáí çìéêýêëéï ìðñïóôÜ óôçí åîÝäñá. Êáèþò áíôÞ÷çóå ç öùíÞ ôïõ Áñ÷éåðéóêüðïõ óôï áðïëõôßêéï ôçò çìÝñáò, <åí ÉïñäÜíç âáðôéæïìÝíïõ Óïõ Êýñéå...>, ôï ÷Ýñé ôïõ Ýñéîå ôïí îýëéíï ëåõêü óôáõñü óôá íåñÜ ôïõ ìéêñïý êïëðßóêïõ. Ðáñáäüîùò ï óôáõñüò ðïõ ôï åóùôåñéêü ôïõ ãåìßæåôå ìå ìïëýâé äåí âõèßóôçêå öÝôïò ùò óõíÞèùò áëëÜ åðÝðëåõóå óå êÜèåôç èÝóç. Ìüëéò ëßãá äåõôåñüëåðôá ÷ñåéÜóôçêå ï 16÷ñïíïò ×ñõóïâáëÜíôçò ÐéëÜôïò ãéá íá öôÜóåé ôïí óôáõñü êáé íá ôïí óçêþóåé øçëÜ óôïí áÝñá. Ôï ðëÞèïò ÷åéñïêñïôïýóå êáé åðåõöçìïýóå êáèþò ï íåáñüò ×ñõóïâáëÜíôçò, ðïõ ãåííÞèçêå óôï ÔÜñðïí Óðñßíãêò êáé êáôÜãåôáé áðü Êáëýìíéïõò ãïíåßò, êáôáóõãêéíçìÝíïò êáé Üöùíïò Ýöôáóå ìðñïóôÜ óôïí Áñ÷éåðßóêïðï ôïõ ðáñÝäùóå ôïí óôáõñü êáé Ýëáâå ôçí åõëïãßá ôïõ êáé Ýíá áíáìíçóôéêü Ýðáèëï. ÃåìÜôïé ðåñçöÜíéá ïé ãïíåßò ôïõ Ãåþñãéïò êáé Ìáñßá ìéëïýóáí ãéá ôïí ðñùôüôïêï ãéï ôïõò. <Åßíáé ðñÜãìáôé ìéá ðåñßðôùóç åíôõðùóéáêÞ ç ôåëåôÞ óôï ÔÜñðïí Óðñéíãêò êáé êáôáëáâáßíù ôþñá üôé öÝñåé åðÜîéá ôçí ïíïìáóßá Ðüëéò ôùí Èåïöáíåßùí>, äÞëùóå ï Óåâ. Áñ÷éåðßóêïðïò ê. ÄçìÞôñéïò ëßãï áñãüôåñá åêåßíï ôï áðüãåõìá óôï ãåéôïíéêü ðÜñêï, üðïõ ðñáãìáôïðïéåßôáé êÜèå ÷ñüíï ðáñáäïóéáêü åëëçíéêü ãëÝíôé ìå åëëçíéêÝò ëé÷ïõäéÝò, åèíéêÝò åíäõìáóßåò êáé ðáñáäïóéáêïýò ÷ïñïýò áðü êáëÜ ãõìíáóìÝíá ÷ïñåõôéêÜ óõãêñïôÞìáôá. Ç çìÝñá Ýêëåéóå ìå âñáäéíÞ ÷ïñïåóðåñßäá óôçí ïðïßá ôéìÞèçêáí üëåò ïé ãõíáßêåò ðïõ óôá 96 ÷ñüíéá ðïõ ðÝñáóáí åß÷áí åðéëåãåß íá êñáôïýí êáé íá åëåõèåñþóïõí óõìâïëéêÜ ôï ëåõêü ðåñéóôÝñé.

Ôïõ Áãßïõ ÉùÜííïõ óôçí ÔÜìðá

Ç ôñßôç êáé ôåëåõôáßá ìÝñá ôùí åïñôáóôéêþí åêäçëþóåùí Þôáí ç ãéïñôÞ ôïõ Áãßïõ ÉùÜííïõ ôïõ Ðñïäñüìïõ êáé Âáðôéóôïý ðïõ ãéïñôÜóôçêå óôïí ïìþíõìï íáü óôçí ÔÜìðá. Ï Óåâ. Áñ÷éåðß-

óêïðïò ÁìåñéêÞò ê. ÄçìÞôñéïò óõëëåéôïýñãçóå ìå ôïí Èåïö. Åðßóêïðï ÁôëÜíôáò ê. ÁëÝîéï, âïçèïýìåíïò áðü ôïí Éåñáôéêþò ðñïúóôÜìåíï ôïõ íáïý ð. ÉùÜííç Ðñùôüðáðá. Ï Óåâáóìéüôáôïò, áðåõèõíüìåíïò óôï ðïëõðëçèÝò åêêëçóßáóìá åîÝöñáóå ôç ìåãÜëç ôïõ ÷áñÜ êáé åõãíùìïóýíç óôï Èåü äüôé âñÝèçêå ôçí çìÝñá áõôÞ, <çìÝñá ãéïñôÞò åíüò ìåãÜëïõ ðñïöÞôç êáé ðñïäñüìïõ ôçò Åêêëçóßáò ìáò, ôïõ Áãßïõ ÉùÜííç ôïõ ÂáðôéóôÞ, óå Ýíáí Íáü ï ïðïßïò åßíáé áöéåñùìÝíïò óôç ìíÞìç ôïõ> êáé ôïõò åõ÷áñßóôçóå ãéá ôçí <ðñáãìáôéêÜ èåñìÞ õðïäï÷Þ> ðïõ ôïõ åðåöýëáîáí. ÊáôÜ ôçí åßóïäü ôïõ óôï Íáü, êïñßôóéá áðü ôï çìåñÞóéï Åëëçíéêü Ó÷ïëåßï ôçò Êïéíüôçôáò, Ýñáíáí ôï äéÜâá ôïõ ìå ñïäïðÝôáëá êáé ôïõ ðñüóöåñáí ëïõëïýäéá. Áíáöåñüìåíïò óôç æùÞ êáé ôï éåñáðïóôïëéêü Ýñãï ôïõ Áãßïõ ÉùÜííç ôïõ Ðñïäñüìïõ, óõíÝóôçóå óå üëïõò íá áêïëïõèÞóïõí ôï ðáñÜäåéãìÜ ôïõ. <Ç åëëçíïñèüäïîç ìáò ôáõôüôçôá åßíáé ðáñÜëëçëá êáé ìéá óõíå÷Þò éåñáðïóôïëÞ. ÐñÝðåé íá åßìáóôå äéÜêïíïé êáé íá óôÝëíïõìå óõíå÷þò Ýíá ìÞíõìá, ôï öùò ôçò ðßóôçò ìáò. Äåí åßíáé êÜôé ðïõ ðñÝðåé íá êñáôÞóïõìå ãéá ôïí åáõôü ìáò. ÐñÝðåé íá åßìáóôå áðïóôïëåßò ôïõ ìçíýìáôïò ôïõ Èåïý>, ôüíéóå ÷áñáêôçñéóôéêÜ ï Áñ÷éåðßóêïðïò ÁìåñéêÞò. ÌåôÜ ôï ðÝñáò ôçò Èåßáò Ëåéôïõñãßáò ç êïéíüôçôá ðáñÝèåóå ãåýìá ðñïò ôéìÞ ôïõ Áñ÷éåðéóêüðïõ. Ï Áñ÷éåðßóêïðïò äåí ðáñÝëåéøå íá óõíáíôçèåß êáé íá óõíïìéëÞóåé ìå ôá ðáéäéÜ ôïõ çìåñÞóéïõ ó÷ïëåßïõ ôçò êïéíüôçôïò, ôá ðáéäéÜ ìå ôá Üäïëá ÷áìüãåëá êáé ôá ïñèÜíïé÷ôá ìÜôéá. <Åßìáé áëçèéíÜ ðåñÞöáíïò óÞìåñá ðïõ åßìáé Áñ÷éåðßóêïðïò óáò. Êáé ðùò ìðïñþ íá ìçí åßìáé ðåñÞöáíïò ìå êïéíüôçôåò óáí ôçí äéêÞ óáò>, åßðå ï Áñ÷éåðßóêïðïò ÄçìÞôñéïò áíôáðïêñéíüìåíïò óôç Ýêäçëç áãÜðç êáé åíèïõóéáóìü ôùí Åëëçíïñèïäüîùí ðéóôþí ôçò ÔÜìðá. Óôéò åêäçëþóåéò áíÜìåóá óôéò ÷éëéÜäåò ðéóôþí, ðáñåõñÝèçêáí ï ÐñÝóâçò ôçò ÅëëÜäïò óôçí ÏõÜóéãêôïí, ÁëÝîáíäñïò Ößëùí, ï Ãåíéêüò Ðñüîåíïò óôçí ÁôëÜíôá, ÄçìÞôñçò Ìáêñõíéêüëáò, ï ðñüåäñïò ôïõ Óõìâïõëßïõ Áðüäçìïõ Åëëçíéóìïý, ¢íôñéïõ ¢èåíò, ç ðñüåäñïò ôçò ÅèíéêÞò Öéëïðôþ÷ïõ, Åõáíèßá ÊïíôÜêç, ï Åëëçíïáìåñéêáíüò Êüíãêñåóìáí-âïõëåõôÞò ôçò Öëüñéäáò ÌÜéêë ÌðéëéñÜêçò êáé ï ðñüåäñïò ôçò Á×ÅÐÁ Ãåþñãéïò Äáñéþôçò.

æùïëïãßá, ãéá íá áíáöÝñïõìå ìåñéêÜ áð ôá ðåäßá áõôÜ. Áóöáëþò, óôçí ðåñßðôùóç ôùí Ôñéþí Éåñáñ÷þí ç áðåñáíôïóýíç ôçò ãíþóåùò áíáöÝñåôáé ôåëéêÜ óôçí áðýèìåíç, áðåñéüñéóôç, êáé Üññçôç ãíþóç ôïõ Èåïý. Åí üøåé ôçò áðåñáíôïóýíçò ôçò ãíþóåùò, åßôå ç ãíþóç áõôÞ áíáöÝñåôáé óå áüñáôá åßôå óå ïñáôÜ ðñÜãìáôá, ïé äéáíïïýìåíïé êáé ðíåõìáôéêïß ðñüãïíïß ìáò ðñï÷þñçóáí óôéò ÝñåõíÝò ôùí Ý÷ïíôáò Ýíá äåýôåñï ÷áñáêôçñéóôéêü, äçëáäÞ ìéá áßóèçóç áëçèéíÞò ÷áñÜò. Ðñüêåéôáé ãéá ôçí ÷áñÜ ôçò äéáíïÞóåùò, ôçò áíáêáëýøåùò, ôçò äçìéïõñãéêüôçôïò êáé ôçò êáôáíïÞóåùò. ¼ôáí äéáâÜæåé êáíåßò åßôå ôá Ýñãá ôïõ ÐëÜôùíïò Þ ôïõ ÁñéóôïôÝëïõò, åßôå áêüìç ðåñéóóüôåñï, ôïõ ÌåãÜëïõ Âáóéëåßïõ, ôïõ Áãßïõ ÉùÜííïõ ôïõ ×ñõóïóôüìïõ êáé ôïõ Áãßïõ Ãñçãïñßïõ ôïõ Èåïëüãïõ, åýêïëá äéáêñßíåé Ýíá ìüíéìï ðíåýìá ÷áñÜò ôï ïðïßï äéáðïôßæåé ôçí óïâáñüôçôá ôïõ ãñáøßìáôüò ôïõò. ÌåñéêÝò öïñÝò áõôÞ ç äéáíïçôéêÞ ÷áñÜ, üðùò äéáöáßíåôáé óôá Ýñãá ôùí ÐáôÝñùí, öèÜíåé óôï åðßðåäï ôïõ èáõìáóìïý åíþðéïí ôùí ìåãáëåßùí ôïõ Èåïý êáé ôïõ êüóìïõ ôïõ Èåïý. Åäþ Ý÷ïõìå ìßá ðïéüôçôá ðïõ åßíáé èåìåëéþäçò ãéá ôçí åëëçíéêÞ áíôßëçøç ðåñß ìáèÞóåùò êáé ðáéäåßáò: Ãéá íá õðÜñîåé áëçèéíÞ ðñüïäïò óôç ãíþóç ï Üíèñùðïò ðñÝðåé íá åßíáé éêáíüò íá èáõìÜæåé, íá åêðëÞóóåôáé êáé ìåñéêÝò öïñÝò íá öèÜíåé ó Ýíá åßäïò åêóôÜóåùò åíþðéïí ôçò áðåñáíôïóýíçò ôïõ êüóìïõ ôçò óêÝøåùò êáé äéáíïÞóåùò. Ôï êåßìåíï ðïõ áíáöÝñáìå ðñïçãïõìÝíùò áðü ôïí ÌÝãáí Âáóßëåéïí åêöñÜæåé ôáõôï÷ñüíùò êáé ìéá Üëëç Üðïøç ðáéäåßáò êáé ìáèÞóåùò ç ïðïßá åßíáé âáóéêÞ óôï Åëëçíéêü êáé åéäéêÜ óôï Ðáôåñéêü ðíåýìá: ðñüêåéôáé ãéá ôçí åêôßìçóç ôçò ãíþóåùò ùò óôïé÷åßïõ ðïý óõíäÝåôáé ìå ôçí ìÝñéìíÜ ìáò ãéá ôïí Üíèñùðï. Ç Ðáéäåßá óõíäÝåôáé ïõóéáóôéêÜ êáé Üññçêôá ìå ôçí öéëáíèñùðßá. ÓðïõäÜæïõìå þóôå íá ìðïñÝóïõìå íá Ý÷ïõìå ìéá êáëýôåñç êáôáíüçóç ôüóï ôïõ åáõôïý ìáò üóï êáé ôùí óõíáíèñþðùí ìáò, þóôå íá ìðïñÝóïõìå íá âåëôéþóïõìå ôçí êáôÜóôáóç üëùí ôùí áíèñþðùí. Ùò ¸ëëçíåò êáé ÖéëÝëëçíåò êáé ùò êëçñïíüìïé ôïõ Ïñèïäüîïõ Þèïõò, åêôéìïýìå ôçí ðáéäåßá ùò Ýíá ìÝóï íá óõíäåèïýìå óôåíüôåñá åí áãÜðç ìå ôïõò Üëëïõò áíèñþðïõò êáé ü÷é ùò Ýíá åñãáëåßï ãéá íá åðéâÜëëïõìå ôïõò åáõôïýò ìáò åðß ôùí óõíáíèñþðùí ìáò Þ åíáíôßïí ôùí óõíáíèñþðùí ìáò. Åêôéìïýìå ôá åðéôåýãìáôá ôçò ìïñöþóåùò êáé ðáéäåßáò áëëÜ åêôéìïýìå åðßóçò ôéò áñåôÝò ôçò áãÜðçò êáé ôïõ åíäéáöÝñïíôïò ãéá ôïõò Üëëïõò. Ãé áõôüí ôï ëüãï ïé ÐáôÝñåò êáé ïé Öéëüóïöïé ôçò Áñ÷áßáò Åðï÷Þò ìßëçóáí ãéá ôçí êáëïóýíç, ãéá ôçí áãáèïóýíç, ÷ñçóéìïðïéþíôáò ôçí ßäéá öñÜóç êáëüò ê[áãáèüò ìéá öñÜóç ç ïðïßá óõíäõÜæåé ôéò éäÝåò ôçò êáëïóýíçò êáé ïìïñöéÜò óå ìéá êïéíÞ Ýííïéá. ÌÜèçóç êáé ðáéäåßá åßíáé óôïé÷åßá ìå ôåñÜóôéá çèéêÞ óçìáóßá. ÁõôÞ åßíáé ôï ôñßôï ÷áñáêôçñéóôéêü, ôï ïðïßï åßíáé âáóéêü óôçí åëëçíéêÞ áíôßëçøç ðåñß ðáéäåßáò: áëçèéíÞ ãíþóç åßíáé ç ãíþóç ç ïðïßá ðñïùèåß ôïí Üíèñùðï çèéêÜ üðùò êáé äéáíïçôéêÜ. Ôï åñþôçìá, ôï ïðïßï ôßèåôáé, åßíáé ðùò ðñáãìáôïðïéïýìå ôï êñéôÞñéï ôï ïðïßï ìáò ðñïóöÝñåé ï ÌÝãáò Âáóßëåéïò ó÷åôéêÜ ìå ôçí ðáéäåßá. Ìïëïíüôé äåí ìðïñïýìå üëïé íá ôáîéäÝøïõìå ó üëï ôïí êüóìï üðùò ï ÏäõóóÝáò Þ íá êÜíïõìå ðñïóêõíÞìáôá ó üëç ôçí ðåñéï÷Þ ôçò åããýò ÁíáôïëÞò üðùò ï ÌÝãáò Âáóßëåéïò, åßìåèá ðáñÜ ôáýôá üëïé éêáíïß íá ðÜñïõìå êÜôé áðü ôïí ðëïýôï ôçò ãíþóåùò ç ïðïßá ìáò ðåñéìÝíåé óôïí êüóìï ôùí Åëëçíéêþí ÃñáììÜôùí. ÁõôÞ ç êëçñïíïìéÜ, ç ðïëéôéóôéêÞ êáé ìïñöùôéêÞ êëçñïíïìéÜ ðáéäåßáò, åßíáé Ýíá äéêáßùìá ðïõ ìáò Ý÷åé äïèåß åê ãåíåôÞò. Ôéìïýìå ôçí åïñôÞ ôùí Ôñéþí Éåñáñ÷þí ìå ôïí êáëýôåñï ôñüðï åÜí åéóÝëèïõìå ó áõôü ôï ÷áñìüóõíï êáé áíèñùðéóôéêü ðíåýìá åñåýíçò ôï ïðïßï ïé ìåãÜëïé ÐáôÝñåò Ýäåéîáí. Ðñáãìáôïðïéïýìå áõôü ôï Ýñãï ìåëåôþíôáò ôá Ýñãá ôïõò, ðñïò ïéêïäïìÞí ìáò, ðñïóðáèþíôáò íá áõîÞóïõìå ôçí ãíþóç êáé ôçí êáëïóýíç, üðùò åêåßíïé Ýêáíáí, êáé åöáñìüæïíôáò ìå æÞëï êáé åðéìïíÞ ôéò ïäçãßåò ôïõò ãéá ðáéäåßá êáé äéäáóêáëßá ôçò èáõìÜóéáò ÅëëçíéêÞò Ãëþóóçò, ç ïðïßá åíóáñêþíåé ìåñéêÝò áðü ôéò åêëåêôüôåñåò éäÝåò ðïõ óõíÝëáâå ðïôÝ ôï áíèñþðéíï ðíåýìá. Ôéìïýìå åðßóçò áõôÞ ôçí åïñôÞ ìå ôï íá õðïóôçñßîïõìå äõíáìéêÜ ôï Ýñãï ôùí çìåñçóßùí êáé áðïãåõìáôéíþí ìáò Åëëçíéêþí Ó÷ïëåßùí. ÁõôÜ ôá Ó÷ïëåßá åßíáé ðñùôáñ÷éêÜ ìÝóá ìå ôá ïðïßá ç ÅëëçíïáìåñéêáíéêÞ ìáò Êïéíüôçôá ìåôáäßäåé ôï äþñï ôùí Åëëçíéêþí ÃñáììÜôùí óôçí åðüìåíç ãåíåÜ. Êáèþò ðñïâÜëëïõìå ôçí áîßá ôçò ðïëéôéóôéêÞò ìáò êëçñïíïìéÜò áõôÞ ôçí çìÝñá, äåí ìðïñïýìå ðáñÜ íá áíáãíùñßóïõìå üôé ôá ÅëëçíéêÜ ìáò Ó÷ïëåßá áîßæïõí ôç ìåãßóôç õðïóôÞñéîÞ ìáò. Åßèå ï Êýñéïò êáé Èåüò çìþí äéÜ ðñåóâåéþí ôùí Ôñéþí ÌåãÜëùí Éåñáñ÷þí êáé Ïéêïõìåíéêþí ÄéäáóêÜëùí íá ìáò ÷áñßóåé ôï äþñï íá ðñïïäåýóïõìå óôçí ãíþóç ðïõ åßíáé ãåìÜôç áðü ÷áñÜ êáé èáõìáóìü êáé áñåôÞ åéò äüîáí ôçò óïößáò êáé ÷Üñéôïò Áõôïý. Åßèå ï Èåüò íá åõëïãÞóåé ôïõò ìáèçôÜò, öïéôçôÜò, äéäáóêÜëïõò, õðïóôçñéêôÜò êáé åõåñãÝôáò ôùí Åëëçíéêþí ÃñáììÜôùí óôéò êïéíüôçôÝò ìáò êáé ó üëï ôïí êüóìï áõôÞ ôçí ÇìÝñá ôùí Åëëçíéêþí ÃñáììÜôùí. Ìå ðáôñéêÞ áãÜðç åí ×ñéóôþ, Ï ÁÑ×ÉÅÐÉÓÊÏÐÏÓ

ÓÅËÉÄÁ 18

ÏÑÈÏÄÏÎÏÓ ÐÁÑÁÔÇÑÇÔÇÓ

ÉÁÍÏÕÁÑÉÏÓ 2000

¸íäåéîç åíüôçôïò ç Ðáíïñèüäïîç óõíÜíôçóç óôïõò Áãßïõò Ôüðïõò ôïõ Íéêüëáïõ Ìáããßíá

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Þíõìá áãÜðçò êáé åéñçíéêÞò óõíýðáñîçò áðçýèõíáí ðñïò üëïõò ôïõò áíèñþðïõò ôçò ÏéêïõìÝíçò, ïé ÐñïêáèÞìåíïé ôùí Ïñèïäüîùí Åêêëçóéþí áðü ôç ÂçèëåÝì. Ç óýíáîç ôùí ÐñïêáèçìÝíùí ðïõ Ýãéíå ìå ôçí åõêáéñßá ôçò Ýíáñîçò ôùí åïñôáóìþí ãéá ôç óõìðëÞñùóç 2000 åôþí áðü ôçí ÃÝííçóç ôïõ ×ñéóôïý óôïõò Áãßïõò Ôüðïõò ôçò ×ñéóôéáíïóýíçò, Ýäùóå ôç äõíáôüôçôá ãéá ìéá Ðáíïñèüäïîç óõíÜíôçóç ùò Ýíäåéîç åíüôçôïò ôçò Ïñèüäïîçò Åêêëçóßáò. Áêüìç ç óõíÜíôçóç ôùí ÐñïêáèçìÝíùí Þôáí ÷ñÞóéìç óôçí áíôáëëáãÞ áðüøåùí ãéá ôçí áíôéìåôþðéóç ôùí óõã÷ñüíùí ðñïâëçìÜôùí ôçò áíèñùðüôçôïò. Ìå ôïí ôñüðï áõôü êáôáäåéêíýåôáé üôé ç Ïñèüäïîç Åêêëçóßá åßíáé åõáßóèçôïò äÝêôçò ôùí ìçíõìÜôùí êáé ôçò áãùíßáò ôïõ áíèñþðïõ ôçò åðï÷Þò ìáò. Óôï ìÞíõìá ôùí ÐñïêáèçìÝíùí ôùí Ïñèïäüîùí Åêêëçóéþí äéáãñÜöåôáé, ç äéá÷ñïíéêÞ èÝóç êáé óôÜóç ôçò Ïñèïäïîßáò, ï ðïëõóÞìáíôïò ñüëïò ôçò êáé ç äõíáìéêÞ ôçò óôçí áíôéìåôþðéóç ôùí ðñïâëçìÜôùí ôçò êïéíùíßáò. Ðñüêåéôáé ãéá Ýíá ìÞíõìá ðïõ áðåõèýíåôáé óå üëïõò ôïõò áíèñþðïõò, áíåîáñôÞôùò öõëÞò êáé èñçóêåýìáôïò, ÷ùñßò äéáêñßóåéò. Åðéóçìáßíåôáé éäéáßôåñá ôï óêÜíäáëï ôçò äéáéñÝóåùò ôùí ÷ñéóôéáíþí. Áðåõèýíåé äå Ýêêëçóç óôïõò éó÷õñïýò ôçò ãçò ãéá ôç äéáóöÜëéóç ôçò åéñÞíçò, êáôáäéêÜæïíôáò ôïí èñçóêåõôéêü öáíáôéóìü, ôïí åèíéêéóìü êáé ôïí öõëåôéóìü. ÐñïóâëÝðåé óôçí åõñýôåñç ïéêïäü-

Ðáíïñèüäïîç Èåßá Ëåéôïõñãßá, óôï Íáü ôçò ÃåííÞóåùò óôç ÂçèëåÝì, ôá ×ñéóôïýãåííá ìå ôï ðáëáéü çìåñïëüãéï (1/7/2000), ðñïåîÜñ÷ïíôïò ôïõ Ïéêïõìåíéêïý ÐáôñéÜñ÷ïõ Âáñèïëïìáßïõ êáé ìå ôç óõììåôï÷Þ ôùí Ïñèïäüîùí ÐñïêáèçìÝíùí êáé åêðñïóþðùí ôïõò. Óôç Èåßá Ëåéôïõñãßá ðáñÝóôçóáí ïé Ðñüåäñïé ôùí Ïñèüäïîùí êñáôþí êáé ï ðñüåäñïò ÃéáóóÝñ ÁñáöÜô. Öùôïãñáößåò Íéê. Ìáããßíáò

Ï Ïéêïõìåíéêüò ÐáôñéÜñ÷çò Âáñèïëïìáßïò ðñïóêýíçóå ãïíáôéóôüò ôï óðÞëáéï ôçò ÃåííÞóåùò óôç ÂçèëåÝì.

Ï Ïéêïõìåíéêüò ÐáôñéÜñ÷çò Âáñèïëïìáßïò ìå ôïí ÐáôñéÜñ÷ç Ìüó÷áò êáé ðÜóçò Ñùóßáò ÁëÝîéï óõæçôïýí êáôÜ ôç äéÜñêåéá ãåýìáôïò ðïõ ðáñÝèåóå ï ÄÞìáñ÷ïò ôùí Éåñïóïëýìùí.

ìçóç ôïõ Äéáëüãïõ ôçò Ïñèïäïîßáò ìå ôïí Éïõäáúóìü êáé ôï ÉóëÜì. Óôï ìÞíõìá äåí ðáñáëåßðåôáé áêüìç ç õðüìíçóç ôïõ êéíäýíïõ ôçò äéáôáñá÷Þò ôçò éóïññïðßáò ôïõ öõóéêïý ðåñéâÜëëïíôïò êáèþò êáé ç áíÜãêç åíßó÷õóçò ôïõ èåóìïý ôçò ïéêïãÝíåéáò. Ïé ðáíçãõñéêïß åïñôáóìïß Üñ÷éóáí ìå Äïîïëïãßá óôï íáü ôçò ÁíáóôÜóåùò ðñïåîÜñ÷ïíôïò ôïõ Ïéêïõìåíéêïý ÐáôñéÜñ÷ïõ ê. Âáñèïëïìáßïõ êáé ôçí ðáñïõóßá ôùí Ðáôñéáñ÷þí êáé Áñ÷éåðéóêüðùí êáé ðëÞèïò Éåñáñ÷þí ôùí êáôÜ ôüðïõò Ïñèïäüîùí Åêêëçóéþí. Áêïëïýèçóå ç óõíÜíôçóç ôùí ÐñïêáèçìÝíùí óôïí êáëáßóèçôï íåüêôéóôï Ðáôñéáñ÷éêü Ïßêï, üðïõ üëïé ïé ÐñïêáèÞìåíïé óå ÷áéñåôéóôÞñéåò ïìéëßåò ôïõò ðñïò ôïí ÐáôñéÜñ÷ç Éåñïóïëýìùí Äéüäùñï åîÝöñáóáí ôç ÷áñÜ ôïõò ãéá ôçí ðáñïõóßá ôïõò óôïõò Áãßïõò Ôüðïõò êáé ôéò åõ÷áñéóôßåò ôïõò ãéá ôéò åïñôáóôéêÝò åêäçëþóåéò. Ôï Ðáôñéáñ÷åßï Éåñïóïëýìùí åß÷å áíáëÜâåé åê ìÝñïõò üëùí ôùí ÐñïêáèçìÝíùí ôç äéïñãÜíùóç ôùí åïñôáóôéêþí

u óåë. 20

Áðü ôç óõíÜíôçóç ôùí ÐñïêáèçìÝíùí ôùí Ïñèüäïîùí Åêêëçóéþí êáé ôùí ÐñïÝäñùí ôùí Ïñèïäüîùí êñáôþí óôï Ðáôñéáñ÷åßï Éåñïóïëýìùí üðïõ ðáñáóçìïöïñÞèçêáí áðü ôïí ÐáôñéÜñ÷ç Éåñïóïëýìùí Äéüäùñï.

Ïé ÐñïêáèÞìåíïé ôùí Ïñèüäïîùí Åêêëçóéþí êáé åêðñüóùðïé ôùí êáôÜ ôüðïõò Ïñèüäïîùí Åêêëçóéþí óå áíáìíçóôéêü óôéãìéüôõðï óôï Ðáôñéáñ÷åßï Éåñïóïëýìùí.

<Ç Ïñèüäïîïò Åêêëçóßá óõíå÷ßæåé íá ðñïâÜëëåé ðñïò ôùí óýã÷ñïíï êüóìï ôïí Óôáõñüí ôïõ Êõñßïõ, ôïõ ðñÜïõ êáé ôáðåéíïý ôç êáñäßá, ôïõ áãáðþíôïò ðÜíôá Üíèñùðïí áíåîáñôÞôùò öõëÞò, ÷ñþìáôïò, öýëïõ Þ Üëëçò äéáêñßóåùò, ìÜëéóôá äå ôïí áìáñôùëüí, êáé ôïí åëÜ÷éóôïí áäåëöüí, ôïí ïðïßïí ïé éó÷õñïß ôçò ãçò èõóéÜæïõí ðïëëÜêéò ùò áíáîßáí ëüãïõ ðïóüôçôá ðñïêåéìÝíïõ íá åðéôý÷ïõí ôïõò óêïðïýò ôùí>. <Ôï óêÜíäáëï ôçò äéáéñÝóåùò ôïõ ÷ñéóôéáíéêïý êüóìïõ... êåßôáé åíþðéïí çìþí ùò ÷áßíïõóá ðëçãÞ, äéÜ ôçí èåñáðåßáí ôçò ïðïßáò êáëïýìåèá ðÜíôåò íá ðñïóåõ÷þìåèá áäéáëåßðôùò, íá ìåñéìíþìåí äéáñêþò êáé íá åñãáæüìåèá áüêíùò>. Ìå óáöÞíåéá äå ðñïóÝèåóáí üôé <åðéèõìïýìåí íá êáôáäéêÜóùìåí ôçí õðü ïñéóìÝíùí åôåñïäüîùí Åêêëçóéþí êáé èñçóêåõôéêþí ïìÜäùí Üóêçóéí ðñïóçëõôéóìïý>. <Áðåõèýíïìåí Ýêêëçóéí ðñïò ôïõò éó÷õñïýò ÇãÝôáò ôçò ãçò, ßíá äéáóöáëßóïõí êáé ðáãéþóïõí ôçí ðïëõðüèçôïí ÅéñÞíçí åéò ôçí ðåñéï÷Þí ôáýôçí êáé äéÜ ðÜíôáò ôïõò åíôáýèá ïéêïýíôáò ëáïýò, óåâüìåíïé ôï áðü áéþíùí êáèéåñùìÝíïí êáèåóôþò ôùí Áãßùí Ôüðùí>. <ÐñïóâëÝðïìåí ðñïò ôáò Üëëáò ìåãÜëáò èñçóêåßáò, éäßá äå ôáò ìïíïèåúóôéêÜò ôïõ Éïõäáúóìïý êáé ôïõ ÉóëÜì, ðñïôéèÝìåíïé íá ïéêïäïìÞóùìåí Ýôé ðëÝïí ôáò ðñïûðïèÝóåéò Äéáëüãïõ ìåô áõôþí åðß ôù ôÝëåé ôçò åéñçíéêÞò óõíõðÜñîåùò üëùí ôùí ëáþí ç Ïñèüäïîïò Åêêëçóßá áðïññßðôåé ôçí ìéóáëëïäïîßáí êáé êáôáäéêÜæåé ôïí èñçóêåõôéêüí öáíáôéóìüí, ïðïèåíäÞðïôå Þèåëáí åêäçëùèåß ôïéáýôá öáéíüìåíá>. <Ôåßíïìåí åãêáñäßùò ÷åßñá öéëáíèñþðïõ óõìðáèåßáò êáé áñùãÞò ðñïò ðÜíôáò üóïé äéþêïíôáé äéÜ ôáò ðåðïéèÞóåéò áõôþí êáé üóïé õößóôáíôáé äéáêñßóåéò åéò âÜñïò ôùí, ïéáóäÞðïôå ìïñöÞò, åðß ôù ëüãù ìüíù ôçò öõóéêÞò, êïéíùíéêÞò Þ ðïëéôéóìéêÞò áõôþí äéáöïñÜò>. <Áðïññßðôïìåí ðÜóáí ôÜóéí åèíéêéóìïý êáé åèíïöõëåôéóìïý, ôåßíïíôïò íá áëëïéþóåé ôçí Ïñèüäïîïí Åêêëçóéïëïãßáí>. <Áíáãíùñßóáíôåò ôáò íÝáò äõíáôüôçôáò åê ôçò ðñïüäïõ ôçò åðéóôÞìçò, åðåóÞìáíáí ôïõò êéíäýíïõò, ïé ïðïßïé åíõðÜñ÷ïõí äéÜ ôçí äéáôáñá÷Þí ôçò éóïññïðßáò ôïõ öõóéêïý ðåñéâÜëëïíôïò, êáèþò åðßóçò ôçí õðï÷ñÝùóéí ôçò Åêêëçóßáò íá âïçèÞóåé ôïõò íÝïõò ðñïò åðßëõóéí ôùí ðñïâëçìÜôùí ôùí êáé ôçí áíÜãêçí åíéó÷ýóåùò ôïõ èåóìïý ôçò ïéêïãåíåßáò. ÔÝëïò, õðïãñáììßóáíôáò üôé <ôï ÷ñÝïò åêÜóôïõ ôùí ÷ñéóôéáíþí åßíáé íá ïéêåéùèåß> ôï ìÞíõìá ôçò ÂçèëåÝì, <ùò áðáñ÷Þí ôçò íÝáò ÷éëéåôßáò, äéÜ ôçò êáèáñüôçôïò ôçò êáñäßáò, ôçò ôáðåéíþóåùò êáé ôçò ìåôáíïßáò>, äéåêÞñõîáí üôé <åê ôïõ óçìåßïõ ôïýôïõ ôçò åí ôùí êüóìù ÃåííÞóåùò ôïõ Ëõôñùôïý Êõñßïõ åêêéíïýíôåò êáé ðñïò Åêåßíïí ðÜíôïôå ïäåýïíôåò åëðßæïìåí, åõ÷üìåèá êáé ðéóôåýïìåí, íá âçìáôßóùìåí Üðáíôåò áíáãåãåííçìÝíïé õðü ôïõ Áãßïõ Ðíåýìáôïò êáé åéò ôçí íÝáí ÷éëéåôßáí>.

ÉÁÍÏÕÁÑÉÏÓ 2000

ÏÑÈÏÄÏÎÏÓ ÐÁÑÁÔÇÑÇÔÇÓ

ÐÁÔÑÉÁÑ×ÉÊÇ ÁÐÏÄÅÉÎÉÓ ÅÐÉ ÔÏÉÓ ×ÑÉÓÔÏÕÃÅÍÍÏÉÓ í ÂÁÑÈÏËÏÌÁÉÏÓ

ÅËÅ~Ù ÈÅÏÕ ÁÑ×ÉÅÐÉÓÊÏÐÏÓ ÊÙÍÓÔÁÍÔÉÍÏÕÐÏËÅÙÓ, ÍÅÁÓ ÑÙÌÇÓ ÊÁÉ ÏÉÊÏÕÌÅÍÉÊÏÓ ÐÁÔÑÉÁÑ×ÇÓ ÐÁÍÔÉ Ô~Ù ÐËÇÑÙÌÁÔÉ ÔÇÓ ÅÊÊËÇÓÉÁÓ ×ÁÑÉÍ, ÅËÅÏÓ ÊÁÉ ÅÉÑÇÍÇÍ ÐÁÑÁ ÔÏÕ ÅÍ ÂÇÈËÅÅÌ ÃÅÍÍÇÈÅÍÔÏÓ ÓÙÔÇÑÏÓ ×ÑÉÓÔÏÕ ] Ç ] ÁÃÉÁ [ ÏÑÈÏÄÏÎÏÓ [ ÅÊÊËÇÓÉÁ ÌÁÓ ì`áò ðáñÝäùóå íÜ å] ïñôÜæùìåí ôÜ óðïõäá¡éá ãåãïíüôá ô`çò èåßáò ï éêïíïìßáò êáôÜ ôáêôÜò ÷ñïíéêÜò ðåñéüäïõò, é¬ íá äéÜ ôï`õ å] ïñôáóìï`õ ï éêåéïðïéþìåèá ôÞí èåßáí ÷Üñéí, óõììåôÝ÷ïíôáò ðíåõìáôéê`ùò êáß óùìáôéê`ùò å éò á[õôÜ. Ìåôáîý äÝ ô`ùí óðïõäáéïôÜôùí ãåãïíüôùí ô`çò èåßáò ï éêïíïìßáò óõãêáôáëÝãåôáé êáß ç ] êáôÜ óÜñêá ãÝííçóéò ôï`õ Êõñßïõ ç ] ì`ùí Éçóï`õ ×ñéóôï`õ, ôüí å[ êêëçóéáóôéêüí å] ïñôáóìüí ô`çò ï ] ðïßáò ç ] [ Åêêëçóßá êáèéÝñùóåí á [ ðü ô`ùí ðñþôùí á éþíùí ô`çò æù`çò á[õô`çò. ] Ç ó÷Ýóéò ç ] ì`ùí ðñüò ôÜ óðïõäá¡éá é óôïñéêÜ ãåãïíüôá ô`çò èåßáò ï[éêïíïìßáò äÝí ðñÝðåé íÜ å{ ÷~ç ÷áñáêô`çñá óõíáéóèçìáôéêüí. ÄÝí å[ íèõìïýìåèá ôÜ å[õ÷Üñéóôá á ] ðë`ùò äéÜ íÜ ÷áñ`ùìåí êáß ôÜ ëõðçôåñÜ á ] ðë`ùò äéÜ íá ëõðçè`ùìåí. { Å÷åé ÷áñáêô`çñá óðïõä`çò êáß ï éêïéþóåùò ô`çò å[ î á[õô`ùí ÷Üñéôïò. Ìåëåô`ùìåí ôÜ ðáñåëèüíôá äéÜ íÜ å] ôïéìÜóùìåí ôÜ ìÝëëïíôá êáß å[ ëðéæüìåíá. Êáß ï ] êÜèå å} íáò á [ ðü ç ] ì`áò êáß ï } ëïé ìáæß å[ ðéäéþêïìåí íÜ å{ ÷ùìåí ï[õóéáóôéêÞí óõììåôï÷Þí å éò ôÞí ðñáãìáôïðïßçóéí ô`çò óùôçñßáò ôï`õ êüóìïõ. ] Ç ðßóôéò å éò ôüí ×ñéóôüí íïçìáôßæåé ôÜ é óôïñéêÜ ãåãïíüôá ô`çò èåßáò ï éêïíïìßáò êáß ôü ðáñüí á [ ðü ôü <ôÝëïò> å éò ôü ï ] ðï¡éïí ôåßíïõí. ÌÝôñïí êáôáíïÞóåùò êáß å] ñìçíåßáò êáß ôï`õ ðáñåëèüíôïò êáß ôï`õ ðáñüíôïò, á [ ëëÜ êáß ðáíôüò ï } ,ôé å[ êôõëßóóåôáé å[ íôüò ôï`õ ÷ñüíïõ å[ í ô`ç ~ ñï~ç ` á[õôï`õ ðñüò ôü ìÝëëïí, å®éíáé ôÜ <{åó÷áôá>, ç { ôïé ç ] ðïñåßá ðñüò ôÞí âáóéëåßáí ôï`õ Èåï`õ. <[ ÁëÞèåéá å®éíáé ç] ô`ùí ìåëëüíôùí êáôÜóôáóéò>, ëÝãåé ï ] } Áãéïò ÌÜîéìïò ï ] ] ÏìïëïãçôÞò^ êáß å] ðïìÝíùò, á [ ëÞèåéá å®éíáé êáß ð`áí ï } ,ôé óõíôåëå¡é å éò ôÞí óõììåôï÷Þí ìáò å éò ôÞí êáôÜóôáóéí á[õôÞí êáß ï { ÷é á é ìåôáâáëëüìåíáé êáôáóôÜóåéò ôï`õ êüóìïõ ôïýôïõ. ×Üñéí ô`çò á [ ðïêáôáóôÜóåùò ôï`õ á [ íèñþðïõ å éò ôü á [ ñ÷á¡éïí êÜëëïò êáß å éò ôÞí Âáóéëåßáí ôï`õ Èåï`õ, å éò ôÞí á [ ëçè`ç äçëáäÞ êáß ðëÞñç æù`çò êáß ìáêáñéüôçôïò êáôÜóôáóéí ôï`õ ìÝëëïíôïò á [ ÷ñüíïõ á éù ` íïò, ï}õôïò ç [ ãÜðçóåí ï ] Èåüò ôüí ðáñáóôñáôÞóáíôá, êáß äéÜ ôï`õôï á [ ðïìáêñõíèÝíôá êáô é äßáí ðñïáßñåóéí á [ ð Á[õôï`õ, êüóìïí, <}ùóôå ôüí Õ éüí á[õôï`õ ôüí ìïíïãåí`ç å{ äùêåí, é¬ íá ð`áò ï ] ðéóôåýùí å éò á[õôüí ìÞ á [ ðüëçôáé, á [ ëë å{ ÷~ç æùÞí á éþíéïí> ( ÉùÜí. 3,16). Êáß ÷Üñéí ç ] ì`ùí <]ï Ëüãïò óÜñî å[ ãÝíåôï êáß å[ óêÞíùóåí å[ í ç ] ì¡éí> ( ÉùÜí. 1,14). ] Ç [ Ïñèüäïîïò [ Åêêëçóßá âéþíåé óõíå÷`ùò ôÞí á [ ðïêÜëõøéí ô`çò å[ íóáñêþóåùò ôï`õ Ëüãïõ ôï`õ Èåï`õ^ ôÞí âéþíåé êáèçìåñéí``ùò êáôÜ ôÞí Èåßáí Ëåéôïõñãßáí, êáè }çí å[ ðáíáëáìâÜíåôáé ï } ëïí ôü ìõóôÞñéïí ô`çò å[ ðß ã`çò å[ íóÜñêïõ ðáñïõóßáò ôï`õ Ëüãïõ ôï`õ Èåï`õ. Âéï`õóá äÝ á[õôÞí ôÞí êáôÜ óÜñêá ÃÝííçóßí Ôïõ, ôÞí ìåè ç ] ì`ùí á [ íáóôñïöÞí Ôïõ, ôÞí äéäáóêáëßáí Ôïõ, ôÞí Óôáýñùóßí Ôïõ, ôÞí [ ÁíÜóôáóßí Ôïõ êáß ôÞí [ ÁíÜëçøßí Ôïõ, êáß, ôÝëïò, ôÞí êÜèïäïí êáß ôÞí å[ í ç ] ì¡éí å[ íïßêçóéí ôï`õ ÐáñáêëÞôïõ Ðíåýìáôïò, êáß ôÞí äéÜ ôï`õ Õ éï`õ êáôáëëáãÞí ç] ì`ùí ô~ù ` Ðáôñß, âéþíåé ôáõôï÷ñüíùò <äé å[ óüðôñïõ å[ í á éíßãìáôé> (Á´ Êïñ. 13,1) êáß ôÞí ìÝëëïõóáí ðñáãìáôéêüôçôá, ðñüò ôÞí ï ] ðïßáí ðñïóâëÝðåé êáß ôÞí ï ] ðïßáí å[ ðéæçôå¡é (] Åâñ. 13,14). ] Ç [ Ïñèüäïîïò [ Åêêëçóßá ãíùñßæåé, ï } ôé ï ] á [ ãþí ôï`õ êÜèå ðéóôï`õ íÜ å[ ðåíäõè`ç ~ ôüí ×ñéóôüí å[ êôõëßóóåôáé å[ í ÷ñüí~ù å[ íôüò ôï`õ êüóìïõ êáß ðñïûðïèÝôåé ï { ÷é ìüíï ôÞí á [ ãÜðçí ðñüò ôüí Èåüí, á [ ëëÜ êáß ôÞí á [ ãÜðçí ðñüò ôüí ðëçóßïí, ç ] ï ] ðïßá å[ êäçëï`õôáé å éò ôÞí ðñïèõìßáí ìáò íÜ á { ñùìåí ç ] ìå¡éò ôÜ âÜñç ôï`õ á [ äåëöï`õ, ù ] óÜí íÜ ç \ óáí é äéêÜ ìáò âÜñç (Ìáôè. 25, 34, 46, Éáê. 2, 14, 20). Êáß äéÜ ôï`õôï, ç ] [ Ïñèüäïîïò [ Åêêëçóßá êáëå¡é ôïýò ðéóôïýò Ôçò å éò å} íá á [ äéÜêïðïí á [ ã`ùíá íÜ ìéìçèï`õí êáôÜ äýíáìéí ôüí ×ñéóôüí, äéÜ íÜ äõíçèï`õí íÜ á [ íõøùèï`õí êáß á [ íá÷èï`õí å éò ôü èå¡éïí êáß á { ññçôïí êÜëëïò ô`ùí á [ ñåô`ùí ôï`õ ×ñéóôï`õ, ÷ñçóéìïðïéï`õóá ù ] ò ðëÝïí ðñüò ôï`õôï ðñïóöïñÜ êáß å{õóôï÷á ï } ðëá ôüí ëüãïí, ôÞí ÷Üñéí ô`ùí ìáñôõñßùí, ôÞí å éêüíá, ôÜ óýìâïëá, êáß ôÜò å] ïñôÜò. [ Åí ô`ù ~ ðíåýìáôé ôïýô~ù ô`çò ðïéìáíôéê`çò á[õô`çò ìåñßìíçò ç ] ] Áãßá êïéíÞ ÌÞôçñ ðÜíôùí ç ] ì`ùí [ Ïñèüäïîïò [ Åêêëçóßá äñÜôôåôáé êáß ô`çò å[õêáéñßáò ô`çò óõìðëçñþóåùò äýï ÷éëéÜäùí å[ ô`ùí á [ ðü ô`çò êáôÜ óÜñêá ÃåííÞóåùò ôï`õ Êõñßïõ ç ] ì`ùí Éçóï`õ ×ñéóôï`õ, é¬ íá êáëÝó~ç êáß ðÜëéí óÞìåñïí ôÜ ðéóôÜ ìÝëç ôçò, ù ] ò êáè å} êáóôïí å{ ôïò, êáè å] êÜóôçí ÊõñéáêÞí, êáß å] êÜóôçí ç ] ìÝñáí, ù } ñáí êáß óôéãìÞí, å éò å[ ðßãíùóéí ×ñéóôï`õ, å éò å[ ãñÞãïñóéí, å éò ìåôÜíïéáí, å éò ðñïóåõ÷Þí, å éò á { óêçóéí, å éò í`çøéí, íïõèåôï`õóá êáß ðñïôñåðï`õóá á } ðáíôáò íÜ äéÝñ÷ùíôáé ôÞí ðáñï`õóáí æùÞí, å[ îáãïñáæüìåíïé ôüí êáéñüí, <}ïôé á é ç ] ìÝñáé ðïíçñáß å éóé> (] Åâñ. 5, 16). ] Ç ÌÞôçñ [ Åêêëçóßá äÝí ðáýåé íÜ ðñÜôô~ç ð`áí ôü å[ ð á[õô`ç ~ êáß íÜ å{õ÷åôáé êáôÜ ðÜíôá ÷ñüíïí êáß êáôÜ ôÞí ðáñï`õóá å{õóçìïí ç ] ìÝñáí, õ ] ðÝñ å éñÞíçò ôï`õ óýìðáíôïò êüóìïõ^ å] íüôçôïò êáß å[õóôáèåßáò ô`ùí á ] ãßùí [ Åêêëçóé`ùí^ å[ í ×ñéóô`ù ~ êáôáëëáã`çò êáß óõìöéëéþóåùò^ óåâáóìï`õ ô`çò á [ íèñùðßíçò æù`çò, ô`çò å[ ëåõèåñßáò êáß ôï`õ öõóéêï`õ ðåñéâÜëëïíôïò^ êáß ðñü ðÜíôùí, õ ] ðÝñ ï } ëùí ô`ùí á [ íèñþðùí, é¬ íá ìåôáíïÞóáíôåò êáß ôÜ á [ ñåóôÜ ô`ù ~` Êõñß~ù á [ ãáðÞóáíôåò êáß ðñïêñßíáíôåò óùè`ùóé, ÷Üñéôé ôï`õ õ ] ðÝñ ðÜíôùí á [ íèñþðùí, ìÜëéóôá äÝ ðéóô`ùí, óáñêùèÝíôïò, óôáõñùèÝíôïò êáß á [ íáóôÜíôïò ×ñéóôï`õ. Äéüôé ìüíïí å[ í ô`ù ~ öþôé Á[õôï`õ å®éíáé äõíáôüí íÜ á [ íôéëçöè`ç ~ ï ] êÜèå ðåñß ôïýôï äéáðïñ`ùí, ôß å®éíáé ï ] Èåüò, ôß ç ] å[ ëåõèåñßá, ôß ôü ÷ñÝïò, ôßò ï ] ðëçóßïí, ôß ç ] á [ ãÜðç, ôß á é öõëåôéêáß äéáêñßóåéò, ôß ï ] å[ èíïöõëåôéóìüò, ôß ï ] èñçóêåõôéêüò öáíáôéóìüò, ôß ï ] æ`çëïò ï ] øõ÷éêüò êáß ï[õ êáô å[ ðßãíùóéí. [ Åðß äÝ ôïýôïéò, ðáôñéê`ùò ÷áéñåôßæïíôåò êáß å[ ðåõëïãï`õíôåò á } ðáíôáò, ðñ`ùôïí ìÝí ðñïôñåðüìåèá êáß ðáñáêáëï`õìåí: á [ íïßîáôå êáß ðëáôýíáôå ôÜò êáñäßáò óáò^ á [ ãáðÞóáôå ôüí äé ç ] ì`áò å[ íáíèñùðÞóáíôá Óùô`çñá êáß Êýñéïí Éçóï`õí ×ñéóôüí, âÝâáéïé ï } ôé ðëçóßïí Ôïõ èÜ å}õñåôå ÷Üñéí á éþíéïí^ å®éôá äÝ êáß å[ ðéäáøéëåýïíôåò å éò á } ðáíôáò ôÞí Ðáôñéáñ÷éêÞí å[õëïãßáí å[õ÷üìåèá <ÊáëÜ ×ñéóôïýãåííá> êáß á { ëõðïí, å éñçíéêüí, êáß å éò ðÜíôá áªéóéïí êáß å[õôõ÷Ýò êáß ðáñÜ Êõñßïõ, å[õëïãçìÝíïí ôü íÝïí óùôÞñéïí å{ ôïò 2000. [ Áäåëöïß êáß ôÝêíá ] ç ì`ù í [ å í ×ñéóô`ù ~ , ìÞ ëçóìïí` ç ôå ðïôÝ } ï ôé: ] Ï å[ í ÖÜôí~ç ãåííçèåßò ðñü ÷ñüíùí äéó÷éëßùí ×ñéóôüò å®éíáé ç ] ìüíç å[ ëðßò, ç ] ðÜíôùí å[ ëðßò, ç ] ðáíôüò ôï`õ êüóìïõ å[ ëðßò. Á[õôï`õ ç ] ÷Üñéò êáß ôü ìÝãá å{ ëåïò åªéçóáí ìåôÜ ðÜíôùí á [ íèñþðùí. [ ÁìÞí. ÖáíÜñéïí, ×ñéóôïýãåííá 1999

í Ï Êùíóôáíôéíïõðüëåùò äéÜðõñïò ðñüò Èåüí å[õ÷Ýôçò ðÜíôùí õ ] ì`ùí.

ÓÅËÉÄÁ 19

Óå ðíåýìá åíüôçôïò ïé åñãáóßåò ôçò à ÓõíÝëåõóçò ôïõ ÓÁÅ

(óôç ðñþôç óåéñÜ áðü áñéóôåñÜ) Â. ÐáðÜò (âïõëåõôÞò), Äçì. ÐáíôåñìáëÞò, Ãñçãüñçò Íéþôçò, ¢íôñéïõ ´Áèåíò, .... Ìáãêñéþôçò (õðïõñãüò Ìáêåäïíßáò-ÈñÜêçò), Äüëëçò, ×ñÞóôïò ÔïìáñÜò.

ÈÅÓÓÁËÏÍÉÊÇ. Ìå ôçí åðáíåêëïãÞ ôïõ ê. ÁíäñÝá ¢èåíò óôç èÝóç ôïõ ÐñïÝäñïõ ôïõ Óõìâïõëßïõ Áðüäçìïõ Åëëçíéóìïý ïëïêëçñþèçêáí ôïí ðåñáóìÝíï ÄåêÝìâñéï óôçí Èåóóáëïíßêç ïé åñãáóßåò ôçò à ÓõíÝëåõóçò ôïõ ÓÁÅ. Óôçí äéÜñêåéá ôùí åñãáóéþí ðïõ äéåîÞ÷èçóáí óôï óõíåäñéáêü êÝíôñï ÉùÜííçò Âåëëßäçò áðü ôéò 3 ìÝ÷ñé ôéò 9 Äåêåìâñßïõ, ïé óýíåäñïé áðü üëïí ôïí êüóìï, åß÷áí ôçí åõêáéñßá íá óõììåôÝ÷ïõí êáé óå åéäéêÜ öüñïõì ãéá ôïí ðïëéôéóìü, ôïõò ÅëëçíéóôÝò, ôïõò ÅðéóôÞìïíåò, ôïõò Åðé÷åéñçìáôßåò, ôç íåïëáßá, ôéò åëëçíßäåò êáèþò êáé ôï öüñïõì ãéá ôá ìÝëç ôçò ÄéáêïéíïâïõëåõôéêÞò ¸íùóçò Åëëçíéóìïý. Ôáõôü÷ñïíá åß÷áí ôçí åõêáéñßá íá êáôáèÝóïõí ôéò ðñïôÜóåéò êáé ôéò éäÝåò ôïõò ãéá óõ÷íüôåñç åðáöÞ êáé áìåóüôåñç åðéêïéíùíßá ôùí Áðüäçìùí ÅëëÞíùí ìå ôçí Ìçôñüðïëç. Ôçí Ýíáñîç ôùí åñãáóéþí êÞñõîå óôçí äéÜñêåéá ôçò åéäéêÞò ôåëåôÞò ôïõ áãéáóìïý, ï Ðñüåäñïò ôçò ÅëëçíéêÞò Äçìïêñáôßáò ê. ÊùóôÞò Óôåöáíüðïõëïò, ðáñïõóßá ôïõ Ðñùèõðïõñãïý ê. Êùíóôáíôßíïõ Óçìßôç, ôïõ õöõðïõñãïý Åîùôåñéêþí ê. Ãñçãüñç Íéþôç, Üëëùí ìåëþí ôçò ÅëëçíéêÞò ÊõâÝñíçóçò, ôïõ Ìçôñïðïëßôç Áõóôñßáò ðïõ åêðñïóùðïýóå ôï Ïéêïõìåíéêü Ðáôñéáñ÷åßï, ôùí áñ÷çãþí ôùí êïììÜôùí ôçò ÂïõëÞò, ôïõ ÐáôñéÜñ÷ç Áëåîáíäñåßáò êáé ðÜóçò ÁöñéêÞò ê. ÐÝôñïõ ôïõ Æ´ êáé ôïõ Áñ÷éåðéóêüðïõ Áëâáíßáò ê. ÁíáóôÜóéïõ. Óôçí ôåëåôÞ ôïõ áãéáóìïý ÷ïñïóôÜôçóå ï Ìçôñïðïëßôçò Èåóóáëïíßêçò ê. ÐáíôåëåÞìùí. Óôï åðßóçìï äåßðíï ðñïò ôéìÞ ôïõ ÐñïÝäñïõ ôçò Äçìïêñáôßáò, ôéìÞèçêáí ãéá ôçí ðñïóöïñÜ ôïõò äéáêåêñéìÝíá óôåëÝ÷ç ôçò ÏìïãÝíåéáò, üðùò ï óêçíïèÝôçò Êþóôáò ÃáâñÜò, ï Áñ÷éåðßóêïðïò ÁíáóôÜóéïò êáé ï ÐáôñéÜñ÷çò ÐÝôñïò. ÔéìÞèçêáí åðßóçò ï Ïëõìðéïíßêçò ÊÜêéïò Êáêéáóâßëé, Ëåùíßäáò Êüêáò êáé ÂáëÝñéïò Ëåùíßäáò êáèþò êáé ï ôñáãïõäéóôÞò Ãéþñãïò ÍôáëÜñáò. Ï ê. Íéþôçò ðñïÝâç êáôÜ ôçí äéÜñêåéá ôïõ äåßðíïõ óå áðïëïãéóìü ôùí 6 ÷ñüíùí áðü ôçí äçìéïõñãßá ôïõ ÓÁÅ êáé áíáöÝñèçêå óôçí óçìáóßá ôçò ïñãÜíùóçò ôùí ìåãÜëùí äéêôýùí ôïõ Åëëçíéóìïý, ðïõ óõìðåñéëÞöèçêáí ãéá ðñþôç öïñÜ óôçí óõíÝëåõóç áõôÞ, ïëïêëçñþíïíôáò ôéò äïìÝò ôïõ ÓÁÅ.

Ôï ìÞíõìá ôïõ Ïéêïõìåíéêïý ÐáôñéÜñ÷ç

Óôï ìÞíõìÜ ôïõ ðñïò ôïõò óõíÝäñïõò ï Ïéêïõìåíéêüò ÐáôñéÜñ÷çò ê. Âáñèïëïìáßïò åðåóÞìáíå üôé <ç ÌÞôçñ Åêêëçóßá åéñãÜóèç êáé åéñãÜæåôáé ðñïò äéáöýëáîç

ôçò Ïñèïäüîïõ ðßóôåùò êáé ôùí Åëëçíïñèïäüîùí ðáñáäüóåùí áëëÜ êáé ôçò åíüôçôáò ôïõ ÃÝíïõò çìþí>, ï Ïéêïõìåíéêüò ÐáôñéÜñ÷çò êáôÝëçîå åõ÷üìåíïò <ðáôñéêþò êáôåõüäùóéí êáé åðéôõ÷ßáò ôùí åñãáóéþí ôçò Óõíåëåýóåùò>.

Øçößóìáôá

ÁíÜìåóá óôá øçößóìáôá ðïõ åãêñßèçêáí áðü ôçí ïëïìÝëåéá ôïõ óõíåäñßïõ óõìðåñéëÞöèçêå êáé åéäéêÞ áíáöïñÜ ãéá ôï Ïéêïõìåíéêü Ðáôñéáñ÷åßï, óýìöùíá ìå ôçí ïðïßá æçôåßôáé áðü ôçí ÔïõñêéêÞ Ðïëéôåßá íá óõìâÜëåé óôçí åëåýèåñç ëåéôïõñãßá ôïõ Ðáôñéáñ÷åßïõ, ÷ùñßò åìðüäéá êáé ðïëéôéêÝò óêïðéìüôçôåò, åö üóïí áðïôåëåß ìüíï ðíåõìáôéêü êáé èñçóêåõôéêü ßäñõìá. Óå Üëëç ðáñÜãñáöï ôïõ êåéìÝíïõ ôùí øçöéóìÜôùí æçôåß åðßóçò íá åðéôñáðåß ç åðáíáëåéôïõñãßá ôçò ÈåïëïãéêÞò Ó÷ïëÞò ôçò ×Üëêçò.

ÔéìÞèçêå õðåñáéùíüâéá

Ìéá áðü ôéò óõãêéíçôéêÝò óôéãìÝò ôïõ óõíåäñßïõ Þôáí ç áðïíïìÞ ôéìçôéêÞò ðëáêÝôáò óå äñáóôÞñéá õðåñáéùíüâéá, ôçí êá. Öéëéþ ×áúäåìÝíïõ, 102 ÷ñïíþí, ðñüåäñï ôïõ ÓõíäÝóìïõ Ìéêñáóéáôþí <Áëçóìüíçôåò Ðáôñßäåò> êáé éäñýôñéá ôïõ Ìïõóåßïõ Ìéêñáóéáôþí óôç Í. ÖéëáäÝëöåéá ÁôôéêÞò. Ç êá. ×áúäåìÝíïõ ðïõ ãåííÞèçêå óôç Óìýñíç, ôéìÞèçêå ãéá ôçí ìáêñü÷ñïíç ðñïóöïñÜ ôçò, óôç äåýôåñç ðáôñßäá ôçò ôçí ÅëëÜäá.

Ôï íÝï Óõìâïýëéï Ç åðáíåêëïãÞ ôïõ ê. ¢èåíò óôç èÝóç ôïõ ÐñïÝäñïõ ôïõ ÓÁÅ, Ýãéíå üðùò áíáöÝñèçêå, ìÝóá óå êëßìá óõíáßíåóçò êáé ïìïøõ÷ßáò. Ï ê. ¢èåíò áíáêçñý÷èçêå íÝïò ðñüåäñïò ÷ùñßò øçöïöïñßá, áöïý ï öåñüìåíïò ìÝ÷ñé ôçí óôéãìÞ åêåßíç óõíõðïøÞöéïò ê. Èåüäùñïò Óðõñüðïõëïò, áðÝóõñå ôåëéêÜ ôçí õðïøçöéüôçôÜ ôïõ. Óôï êåíôñéêü óõìâïýëéï ôïõ ÓÁÅ åîåëÝãçóáí åðßóçò ïé: Êþóôáò ÐáððÜò, ÁíáðëçñùôÞò Ðñüåäñïò êáé ùò Ãñáììáôåßò ôïõ ï Êùíóôáíôéíßäçò ÄçìÞôñçò, ÃåùñãáíÜò Êþóôáò, Êùíóôáíôéíßäïõ ÅëÝíç, ÐñïôóÝíêï-ÐéôóÜôæç ÁëåîÜíäñá. Áíôéðñüåäñïò Êýðñïõ åîåëÝãç ï ×áñÜëáìðïò Óïöïêëßäçò. ÅîÜëëïõ óôçí ÐåñéöÝñåéá ÁìåñéêÞò åðáíåîåëÝãç ùò Ðñüåäñïò ï ê. ×ñÞóôïò ÔïìáñÜò êáé óýìâïõëïé ïé: ÐÜíïò Íéêüëáïò (ÊáíáäÜ), ÃïõÝóô-×ñéóôïäïõëÜêç Åõãåíßá, Êáñáâßáò ÅäïõÜñäïò (ËáôéíéêÞ ÁìåñéêÞ), Êùìïäñüìïò ÁíäñÝáò, Óôáõñéáíßäçò ÐÜíïò, ËÜìðñïõ ÅëÝíç.

ORTHODOX OBSERVER

PAGE 20

JANUARY 2000

ÍÅÁ ÕÏÑÊÇ. - Ï íÝïò Ãåíéêüò Ðñüîåíïò ôçò ÅëëÜäïò óôç ÍÝá Õüñêç ê. ÄçìÞôñéïò ÐëáôÞò, åðéóêÝöèçêå ôïí Óåâ. Áñ÷éåðßóêïðï ÁìåñéêÞò ê. ÄçìÞôñéï áìÝóùò ìåôÜ ôçí áíÜëçøç ôùí êáèçêüíôùí ôïõ. ÌåôÜ ôç óõíÜíôçóÞ ôïõò, óå óýíôïìç äÞëùóÞ ôïõ ï Óåâ. Áñ÷éåðßóêïðïò ôüíéóå üôé áðïâëÝðåé óôï óõíôïíéóìü ôçò êïéíÞò ðñïóðÜèåéáò êáé áìïéâáßáò óõíåñãáóßáò <ãéá ôçí ðñïþèçóç ôïõ Ýñãïõ ôçò Åëëçíïñèïäïîßáò óôçí ÁìåñéêÞ>. Äçì. ÐáíÜãïò Äçì. ÐáíÜãïò

ÍÅÁ ÕÏÑÊÇ.- Åïñôáóôéêü ãåýìá ðñïò ôéìÞí ôùí áíèñþðùí ôùí Åëëçíïáìåñéêáíéêþí ÌÝóùí ÌáæéêÞò ÅíçìÝñùóçò, ðáñÝèåóå ï Óåâ. Áñ÷éåðßóêïðïò ÁìåñéêÞò ê. ÄçìÞôñéïò, ôéò ðáñáìïíÝò ôçò Ðñùôï÷ñïíéÜò. Óôçí öùôïãñáößá ôïí Óåâáóìéüôáôï ðëáéóéþíïõí (áðü áñéóôåñÜ) Óôáýñïò Ìáñìáñéíüò, ÄçìÞôñçò ÁìðåñéÜäçò, Ðáýëïò Êïôñþôóéïò, ÊõñéÜêïò Ëáãüò, Ðáíáãéþôçò ÌáêñéÜò, ÄçìÞôñçò ÊáóôáíÜò, Ðáíßêïò ÐáðáíéêïëÜïõ, Ìáñßá Æïõðáíéþôç, ÅõÜããåëïò ËÜìðñïõ, Êùíóôáíôßíïò Êïëßôóáò, Ðáíßêïò Ðáíáãéþôïõ, ÌéñÝëëá ÃåùñãéÜäïõ êáé ÄçìÞôñçò ÃÝìåëïò.

Ãåííáéüäùñç âïÞèåéá ôçò Öéëüðôù÷ïõ ðñïò ôïõò óåéóìüðëçêôïõò ôùí Áèçíþí

Äçì. ÐáíÜãïò

Ï Óåâ. Áñ÷éåðßóêïðïò ÁìåñéêÞò ê. ÄçìÞôñéïò äÝ÷ôçêå ðñüóöáôá ôïí ðñüåäñï ôïõ Äçìïôéêïý Óõìâïõëßïõ ôçò ÍÝáò Õüñêçò ê. Peter Vallone. ÊáôÜ ôç äéÜñêåéá ôçò óõíáíôÞóåùò ôïõ ÓåâáóìéïôÜôïõ ìå ôïí Äçìïêñáôéêü äçìïôéêü çãÝôç Ýãéíå áíôáëëáãÞ áðüøåùí åðß èåìÜôùí áìïéâáßïõ åíäéáöÝñïíôïò êáé õðïãñáììßóèçêå ç óçìáóßá ôçò ðñïóöïñÜò õðçñåóéþí ðñïò ôçí Åêêëçóßá êáé ôçí êïéíùíßá ãåíéêüôåñá. Ï ê. Vallone åêðñïóùðåß ôçí 22á åêëïãéêÞ ðåñéöÝñåéá ôçò ðåñéï÷Þò Astoria, Queens.

Ðáíïñèüäïîç óõíÜíôçóç u óåë. 18 åêäçëþóåùí óôá Éåñïóüëõìá êáé ôç ÂçèëåÝì. Óôçí ïìéëßá ôïõ ï Ïéêïõìåíéêüò ÐáôñéÜñ÷çò ê. Âáñèïëïìáßïò áíáöåñüìåíïò óôç ÷áñÜ áëëÜ êáé ôç óõãêßíçóç ðïõ ôïí äéáêáôåß÷å åðéóêåðôüìåíïò ôïõò Áãßïõò Ôüðïõò åîÝöñáóå ôçí åõãíùìïóýíç ôïõ ðñïò ôçí áãéïôáöéêÞ áäåëöüôçôá ãéá ôçí äéáöýëáîç ôùí éåñþí ðñïóêõíçìÜôùí ëÝãïíôáò ó÷åôéêÜ ìåôáîý Üëëùí: <Ôï éåñüí ôïýôï ðñïíüìéïí, ôï åðß äåêÜäáò áéþíùí åõëáâþò åêðëçñïýìåíïí õðü ôïõ ðáëáéöÜôïõ Ðáôñéáñ÷åßïõ Éåñïóïëýìùí, åí ìÝóù ïõ÷ß ðÜíôïôå áíÝôùí óõíèçêþí, áñêåß êáé ìüíïí ôïõ äéÜ íá ðñïêáëÝóåé ôçí Ýêöñáóéí ôçò åõãíùìïóýíçò üëùí ôùí ÷ñéóôéáíþí êáé éäßùò ôùí ïñèïäüîùí>. Ôï êåßìåíï ôïõ ìçíýìáôïò ðïõ áðçýèõíáí ïé ÐñïêáèÞìåíïé ôùí Ïñèïäüîùí Åêêëçóéþí (âë. óåë. 18) åß÷å ðñïåôïéìáóèåß óôç Ñüäï ôïí ÄåêÝìâñéï ôïõ 1999 êáôÜ ôç óõíÜíôçóç ôçò Äéïñèüäïîçò ÅðéôñïðÞò, áðü åêðñïóþðïõò ôùí êáôÜ ôüðïõò Ïñèïäüîùí Åêêëçóéþí, ðïõ óõíÞëèå õðü ôçí Ðñïåäñåßá ôïõ Ìçôñïðïëßôç ÐåñãÜìïõ ÉùÜííç. Ôï êåßìåíï åãêñßèçêå áðü ôïõò ÐñïêáèçìÝíïõò êáôÜ ôç óõíÜíôçóÞ ôïõò óôá Éåñïóüëõìá êáé áíáãíþóèçêå êáôÜ ôçí Ðáíïñèüäïîç Èåßá Ëåéôïõñãßá óôï Íáü ôçò ÃåííÞóåùò óôç ÂçèëåÝì áðü ôïí Ìçôñïðïëßôç Âüóôñùí Ôéìüèåï, Áñ÷éãñáììáôÝá ôïõ Ðáôñéáñ÷åßïõ Éåñïóïëýìùí. Óôéò Ðáíïñèüäïîåò åïñôáóôéêÝò

åêäçëþóåéò Ýëáâáí ìÝñïò ï Ïéêïõìåíéêüò ÐáôñéÜñ÷çò Âáñèïëïìáßïò, ïé ÐáôñéÜñ÷åò Éåñïóïëýìùí Äéüäùñïò, Ìüó÷áò ÁëÝîéïò, Óåñâßáò Ðáýëïò, Ñïõìáíßáò Èåüêôéóôïò, Âïõëãáñßáò ÌÜîéìïò êáé Ãåùñãßáò Çëßáò, ïé Áñ÷éåðßóêïðïé Êýðñïõ ×ñõóüóôïìïò, Áèçíþí êáé ÐÜóçò ÅëëÜäïò ×ñéóôüäïõëïò êáé ï Áëâáíßáò ÁíáóôÜóéïò, êáèþò êáé ï Ìçôñïðïëßôçò Âáñóïâßáò êáé ðÜóçò Ðïëùíßáò ÓÜââáò. Ï ÐáôñéÜñ÷çò Áíôéï÷åßáò äåí ìåôÝâåé óôá Éåñïóüëõìá ëüãù ôùí ðïëéôéêþí ðñïâëçìÜôùí ìåôáîý Óõñßáò êáé ÉóñáÞë. ÅêðñïóùðÞèçêå ìåôÜ áðü óõíåííüçóç ôïõ ÐáôñéÜñ÷ç Áíôéï÷åßáò Éãíáôßïõ ìå ôïí ÐáôñéÜñ÷ç Âáñèïëïìáßï, áðü ôïí Ìçôñïðïëßôç ÐåñãÜìïõ ÉùÜííç. Áðü ôéò åêäçëþóåéò áðïõóßáæå åðßóçò êáé ï ÐáôñéÜñ÷çò Áëåîáíäñåßáò ÐÝôñïò, ï ïðïßïò äåí ðÞãå óôá Éåñïóüëõìá ëüãïõ áéöíßäéáò áóèÝíåéáò ôïõ. Ôïí åêðñïóþðçóå ï Ìçôñïðïëßôçò ÊáñèáãÝíçò ×ñõóüóôïìïò. Ôçí Åêêëçóßá Ôóå÷ßáò êáé Óëïâáêßáò åêðñïóþðçóå ï Åðßóêïðïò Ìé÷áëüöôóå ÉùÜííçò, ëüãù ôçò ðñüóöáôçò åêäçìßáò ôïõ Áñ÷éåðéóêüðïõ ÐñÜãáò ÄùñïèÝïõ. Ïé ÐñïêáèÞìåíïé ôùí Åêêëçóéþí êáé ïé Áñ÷çãïß ôùí Ïñèïäüîùí êñáôþí ðáñáóçìïöïñÞèçêáí áðü ôïí ÐáôñéÜñ÷ç Éåñïóïëýìùí Äéüäùñï. ÓõíáíôÞóåéò êáé ãåýìáôá óôïõò ÐñïêáèçìÝíïõò êáé ôïõò Áñ÷çãïýò ôùí Ïñèüäïîùí êñáôþí ðáñÝèåóáí ï Ðñüåäñïò ôïõ ÉóñáÞë Ezer Weisman ï Ðñüåäñïò ôçò ÐáëáéóôéíéáêÞò ÁõôïäéïéêÞóåùò ÃéÜóóåñ ÁñáöÜô êáé ï ÄÞìáñ÷ïò ôçò ÉåñïõóáëÞì.

Äçì. ÐáíÜãïò

Ôá ìÝëç ôçò Öéëïðôþ÷ïõ Áäåëöüôçôïò ìå ôïí Óåâ. Áñ÷éåðßóêïðï ÁìåñéêÞò ê. ÄçìÞôñéï êáôÜ ôçí åðßóêåøÞ ôïõò óôçí Áñ÷éåðéóêïðÞ.

ÍÝá Õüñêç. Ç ê. Åõáíèßá ÊïíôÜêç, Ðñüåäñïò ôïõ Óõìâïõëßïõ ôçò ÐáíáìåñéêáíéêÞò Öéëïðôþ÷ïõ Áäåëöüôçôïò êáé ç ê. Óïößá ¢ëôéí, ìÝëïò, åðÝäùóáí óÞìåñá óôïí Óåâ. Áñ÷éåðßóêïðï ÁìåñéêÞò ê. ÄçìÞôñéï äùñåÜ ýøïõò $45.000.00 ãéá ôçí áíáêïýöéóç ôùí èõìÜôùí ôïõ êáôáóôñåðôéêïý óåéóìïý ôçò ðåñéï÷Þò Áèçíþí, ï ïðïßïò ôïí ðåñáóìÝíï ÓåðôÝìâñéï Üöçóå óôï ðÝñáóìÜ ôïõ ðïëëïýò íåêñïýò, ôñáõìáôßåò êáé ÷éëéÜäåò Üóôåãïõò. Óôç óõëëïãÞ ôïõ ùò Üíù ðïóïý, ôï ïðïßï èá ìåôáâéâáóèåß óôï Ôáìåßï Âïçèåßáò ôùí ÓåéóìïðëÞêôùí Áèçíþí, óõíÝâáëáí ðåñéóóüôåñåò áðü 500 ôïðéêÝò ïñãáíþóåéò Öéëïðôþ÷ùí ÁäåëöïôÞôùí ôùí ÇÐÁ. Ïé åêðñüóùðïé ôïõ Óõìâïõëßïõ ôçò Öéëïðôþ÷ïõ Áäåëöüôçôïò åðÝäùóáí åðßóçò óôçí Dr. Anne Hurlet, Äéåõèýíôñéá ôïõ ôìÞìáôïò Áéìáôïëïãßáò/Ïãêïëïãßáò êáé óôçí Kristin Tristleton, Äéåõèýíôñéá ÐáéäéáôñéêÞò ÊëéíéêÞò ôïõ Ðáíåðéóôçìéáêïý Íïóçëåõôéêïý Éäñýìáôïò Ðáßäùí óôï Newark ôçò ÍÝáò ÉåñóÝçò, äùñåÜ ýøïõò $25.000 ðñïò ôï Ôáìåßï ÉáôñéêÞò ÐåñéèÜëøåùò Ðáßäùí ôçò Öéëïðôþ÷ïõ Áäåëöüôçôïò ãéá ôçí áíáêïýöéóç Åëëçíï-

áìåñéêáíþí ðáéäéþí ôá ïðïßá Ý÷ïõí áíÜãêç âïçèåßáò. Áðü ôçò éäñýóåþò ôïõ ôï 1988, ôï Ôáìåßï ÉáôñéêÞò ÐåñéèÜëøåùò Ðáßäùí ôçò Öéëïðôþ÷ïõ Ý÷åé ðñïóöÝñåé âïÞèåéá óå ðåñéóóüôåñá áðü 4.000 ðáéäéÜ. Ïé êõñßåò ÊïíôÜêç êáé ¢ëôéí åðÝäùóáí åðßóçò óôçí Meg Gardinier, åêðñüóùðï ôçò UNISEF äýï åðéôáãÝò, ìßá ýøïõò $9.500 ðñïò ôï ôáìåßï áíáêïõößóåùò äåéíïðáèïýíôùí ôïõ Êïóóõöïðåäßïõ, ôï ïðïßï ðñïóöÝñåé âïÞèåéá óå ðáéäéÜ êáé óõìâÜëåé óôçí áíïéêïäüìçóç êáôåóôñáììÝíùí ó÷ïëéêþí êôéñßùí êáé óôçí åõáéóèçôïðïßçóç ôçò êïéíÞò ãíþìçò ãéá ôçí áíôéìåôþðéóç ôïõ ðñïâëÞìáôïò ôùí íáñêïðåäßùí êáé ìßá åðéðñüóèåôç åðéôáãÞ ýøïõò $20.000 ðñïò ôï ãåíéêü ôáìåßï ôçò UNISEF. ÌåôÜ ôçí åðßäïóç ôùí åðéôáãþí, ï Óåâ. Áñ÷éåðßóêïðïò ÁìåñéêÞò äÞëùóå <...èá Þèåëá íá åêöñÜóù ôéò èåñìüôáôåò åõ÷áñéóôßåò ìïõ ãéá ôç èáõìÜóéá áõôÞ åõêáéñßá óõíáíôÞóåùò ìå áíèñþðïõò ðïõ åñãÜæïíôáé ìå ôüóç åðéìÝëåéá, ìåèïäéêüôçôá êáé áõôïèõóßá ãéá ôÝôïéïõò éåñïýò óêïðïýò>.

JANUARY 2000

ORTHODOX OBSERVER

B O O K S Fr. Harakas Completes 12th Book: Wholeness of Faith and Life BROOKLINE, Mass. Holy Cross Orthodox Press has published Fr. Stanley Samuel Harakas 12th book, Wholeness of Faith and Life: Orthodox Christian Ethics.

The book addresses numerous ethics concerns from the rich heritage of the Orthodox Church providing not only historical information, but also provides insight into contemporary issues from the perspective of the ancient Eastern Orthodox Christian faith tradition.

The collection of 16 essays has been published in three separate parts of about 150 pages each, making for easy access and reading.

The first part, Patristic Ethics, deals with the writings of selected Church fathers, on the topics of the method and content regarding Orthodox Christian ethics.

Among the early Christian sources treated are St. Gregory the Theologian, St. John Chrysostom, St. Basil the Great, the

Sixth Ecumenical Council, and an important overview of the teachings of the Church fathers on Peace.

Part two, Church Life Ethics, shows the ethics aspects of doctrine, icons, philanthropy, the challenges of the modern world and community life.

The final part, Orthodox Social Ethics, covers issues such as economic development, ecology, international relations, bioethics, and the relations of Church and State in the United States.

Fr. Harakas is Emeritus Archbishop Iakovos Professor of Orthodox Theology at Holy Cross School of Theology. He is also the author of such works as Living the Liturgy, Towards Transfigured Life, Living the Faith, and Health and Medicine in the Orthodox Church.

The three parts may be purchased individually ($12.95) or as a set from Holy Cross Bookstore, (800) 245-0599.

Publications on Health and Healing CAMBRIDGE, Mass. A compilation of lectures by members of OCAMPR (Orthodox Christian Association of Medicine Psychology and Religion), Sickness or Sin Spiritual Discernment and Differential Diagnosis has been published by Holy Cross Press.

The papers offer interdisciplinary sensitivity to critical matters in judgment concerning curing and healing. The contributors offer a holistic perspective while maintaining the professional standards of their particular methods of inquiry.

Featured papers in this compilation include: Fr. Philotheos Faros on Caring, Curing, and Healing; Dimitrios G. Oreopoulos, M.D., Legalizing Euthanasia and Healing and the Patient/Physician Relationship; Stephen Muse, Ph.D., Eros, Asceticism, and Marriage; Rev. George Morelli, Ph.D., Emotion, Cognitive Treatment and the Faith; Demetra Jaquet, M.Div., Identifying and Healing Child

Abuse; and John T. Chirban, Ph.D., Th.D., The Process of Sexual Development.

Several other publications are available at reduced prices, including: Personhood: Deepening the Connections Between Body, Mind, and Soul, (Bishop Kallistos (Ware), D. Phil., Dr. Ana-Maria Rizzuto, Dr. Christos Yannaras; Clergy Sexual Misconduct: Orthodox Christian Perspectives (J. Stephen Muse, Ph.D., John T. Chirban, Ph.D., Trilby Coolidge, Ph.D.); Ethical Dilemmas: Crises in Faith and Modern Medicine (Martin Marty, Ph.D., William F. May, Ph.D., Vigen Guroian, Ph.D.); and Healing: Orthodox Christian Perspectives in Medicine, Psychology, and Religion (Theocharis Theocharides, Ph.D., M.D., George Pazin, M.D., Milton Efthimiou, Ph.D.).

For more information and prices, write to: OCAMPR, PO Box 958, Cambridge, MA 02238.

Former Professor J. Frangoulas Publishes 2 Books by the Rev. Dr. Stanley Harakas

Professor John Frangoulas, who taught dogmatics, symbolics and preaching to students during the transition between Pomfret and Brookline in 1948, and remained on the faculty of Holy Cross School of Theology until August 1954, has recently published two books. Born Oct. 31, 1906 on the island of Skiathos, Greece, Frangoulas left an indelible mark on hundreds of graduates and priests of the Archdiocese, both as a professor who was crystal clear in his classroom presentations, and as a sub-dean and acting dean in the latter years of his service to Holy Cross, which he left to become the dean of the ecclesiastical school of Lamia.

Published in 1997 was his book ÌõñùìÝíá Ëïõëïýäéá, (Anointed Flowers), a collection of model sermons. Represented in this collection are sermons on Great Friday, various Sunday pericopes, the Sunday of Orthodoxy, and sermons that were characterized in his classes as çèéêïðëáóôéêÜ, (character formative ) among others.

In 1998, Professor Frangoulas published his autobiography, which consists of six chapters. The longest, chapter 4, is titled Professor in America. It describes

in intimate detail stories of his arrival and his dealings with deans, fellow faculty members and with students.

In addition to those details, the chapter is full of until now, as far as I know, unpublished photographs, including several class photos taken with him surrounded by his beloved students. The chapter concludes with letters of appreciation for his service to the school from Archbishop Iakovos, then Dean Fr. Alkiviadis Calivas, and Frs. Stanley Harakas and Demetrios Constantelos.

These books are written in plain, yet attractive, and easy to understand Greek and include texts of speeches made at various occasions in the life of the school, as well some of his favorite poems.

An interesting, warm and informative description of a life lived in faithful service to our Holy Church, both here and in Greece, the work deserves wide readership, and perhaps, even translation by some student of his, who has time on his hands and the ability and desire to translate?

The books were published by Åêäüóåéò Ùñåò, ÆÜððá 14, Í. Éùíßá, Ìáãíçóßá, Greece. You can order the books or simply write to Dr. John N. Frangoulas at ÅðéóêïðÞò 44, 382 21 Volos, Greece. His phone number is (0421) 41 416.

PAGE 21

ORTHODOX OBSERVER

PAGE 22

I n Fr. John Athas PRICE, Utah The Rev. John Peter (Athanasiou) Athas died Oct. 31 after a prolonged illness. Born April 3, 1926, in Somerworth, Mass., he entered Holy Cross seminary in Pomfret, Conn., in 1944 after high school, and graduated in 1949 with a bachelor of arts degree and a Masters in Theology when the seminary relocated to Brookline, Mass. He later pursued postgraduate work at Penn State University.

He married Sophia Cavoulas on Oct. 8, 1950, in Aliquippa, Pa. They had three children: Stephanie Tsantes of Seattle, Peter Athas of Price, Utah, and George Athas of Orlando, Fla. Father Athas was ordained to the priesthood Nov. 5, 1950, in Steubenville, Ohio. Dedicated to his calling, he faithfully served the Greek Orthodox churches of Holy Trinity in Altoona, Pa., for four years, St. Demetrios in Daytona Beach, Fla., for 13 years, Holy Trinity in Clearwater, Fla., for 10 years and Assumption in Price, Utah, for four years where he retired.

He held the office of Protopresbyter, the highest office bestowed upon a married clergyman.

A man with a big heart and great sense of humor, Fr. Athas was a man for all seasons. His priestly ministry was truly inspirational. As a liturgical he had a resounding voice creating the suitable atmosphere for meaningful worship. He was a compassionate and caring priest. As a result he was constantly surrounded by his flock, especially the youth, who knew an individual who they could turn to for any situation. He had the uncanny gift of reach-

JANUARY 2000

M e m o r i a m

ing people on all levels of life touching their hearts. He truly believed and professed People have golden hearts. He loved people and was well beloved by those who came into contact with him.

He was one of four Greek Orthodox priests who signed the petition that would have the Greek Orthodox Faith recognized as a major religion in the state of Florida.

He also served as president of the Clearwater Clergy Association.

Fr. John enjoyed many hobbies and pastimes. He took pleasure from working in his vegetable garden. He derived joy through his artistic abilities in oil painting. He was an avid reader, especially enjoying history, and he was a devoted Trekkie.

Services for Fr. Athas took place at Assumption Church in Price, Nov.4-5.

In addition to his children, survivors also include a daughter-in-law, Lisa (Mrs. George) Athas; three grandchildren: John, Chrystal and Julia Athas; two sisters and brothers-inlaw, Helen and the Rev. Stephen Anthony of Farmington Hills, Mich., and Sarah and Ted Iltsopoulos of Cocoa Beach, Fla., and several nieces and nephews.

18, 1954.They served parishes in Ansonia, Conn.; Pensacola, Fla.; Birmingham, Ala.; Jacksonville, Fla.; and Tallahassee.

Her husband died in 1993. Presbytera Demetra was active in these communities, including the choir, Sunday School and Philoptochos.

Presbytera Demetra was very much a mother to the whole community, commented Fr. Dionysios Listermann-Vierling, pastor of the Holy Mother of God Church, She was a kindly, warm, and sweet woman who extended genuine love and friendship to everyone in the parish. Her sudden passing has brought us much anguish.

Survivors include a son, Jim Leftheris of Tallahassee; two daughters Fay Johnson of Orlando and Sophia Christakis of Boca Raton; one brother, Eli Dalabakis of St. Petersburg; a sister, Stacy Segallis of St. Petersburg and six grandchildren.

The Trisagion took place November 1. The V. Rev. Nicholas Graff, from the parish of St. John the Divine in Jacksonville, representing Bishop Alexios of Atlanta, celebrated the funeral service on Nov. 2. He was assisted by Fr. Frank Kirlangitis of St. Barbara in Sarasota, Fla., Fr. Dean Gigicos of Holy Trinity in Orlando, Fla., Fr. Listermann-Vierling and Fr. Milton Magos of St. John the Divine in Jacksonville.

Presbytera Demetra Leftheris Fr. Theodore Tselentakis TALLAHASSEE, Fla. Presbytera Demetra Leftheris, 68, widow of Fr. Constantine Leftheris, died Saturday, Oct. 30, following a stroke. She was born in 1931 in Weirton, W.Va., to Jim and Sophia Dalabakis.

She married Fr. Constantine on July

The Rev. Economos Theodore Tselentakis, 76, died recently in Greece.

He was a former priest at Transfiguration Church in Corona, N.Y.

Born in 1923, he served at the Corona parish 27 years, from 1956-1983.

During his tenure he saw the building of the church in 1957, and the school in 1967 and other buildings of the community.

He continued to serve the parish even after his retirement. After a catastrophic fire in 1988, he helped collect donations for the renovation of the church.

He retired in Thessaloniki.

His funeral service was held in Crete, his native island. A memorial also was held at Transfiguration Church.

Dr. John Boojamra Dr. John Boojamra, executive secretary of the SCOBA Orthodox Christian Education Commission, author, adjunct professor and director of the Religious Education program at St. Vladimir s Seminary, and Religious Education director of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese, died suddenly Nov. 11, at his home in Demarest, N.J. He was a founder of the OCEC as well as the original Orthodox Peace Fellowship. He held degrees from Brooklyn College; St. Vladimir s Seminary; and Fordham University.

He is survived by his son, Constantine Boojamra, Ph.D., of San Francisco, and his daughter, Nicole Boojamra, of Demarest, N.J. He was predeceased by his wife, Stellie Ann Anagnos Boojamra.

He was a good friend and mentor to many in the Orthodox Church.

Funeral services took place at St. Mary Church in Brooklyn, N.Y. on Nov. 17.

JANUARY 2000

ORTHODOX OBSERVER

Youth Ministry

Why 2K?

challenge S AINTS AND F EASTS St. Athanasios the Great

by Fr. Anastasios Bourantas

We are still waking up in the morning.

We are still brushing our teeth.

We are still able to run our faucets.

We can still retrieve money from the ATM. We are still able to drive our cars (unless we have had a flat or out of gas).

We can still speak on our telephones.

The mail is still being delivered.

Our computers for the most part still work, using 00 as the year.

Our television sets still provide us with the same garbage as they have.

People are flying, running, and going about their daily lives.

Why? Because no man, no corporation, weather forecaster, news anchor, or computer will predict what will happen, or when the world will end, or when Christ will return, except for GOD. GOD alone will change the course of this world.

We may pollute it and destroy its beauty, and think we are the creators, however, GOD will decide.

Genesis, the first book of the Old Testament states that In the beginning GOD created the heavens and the earth, And GOD said, Let there be light ; and there was light, and then the LORD, GOD formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. (Gen.1,2) Instead of placing the importance on the 2000th anniversary of the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the world decided that it was more important to watch the calendar (which was man-made) turn from the year 1999 to the magical year 2000.

Really, this was only a number change. Nothing changed except for four numbers. It was as important as watching your car odometer change from 19,999 miles to 20,000 miles.

Is this reason for excessive celebration and spending millions and even billions of dollars on one-night events and extravagant displays of jubilation?

There was pageantry and spectacle. There was dread and fear. But now that it is 2000, it doesn t feel any different than last week, last month or last year.

While many throughout the world expected rampant changes when the year 2000 hit, many were probably disappointed.

Change won t occur because a number becomes different. Change occurs over time. Today, in the 2000th year after our Lord s birth, we don t feel any different solely by the turn of the calendar, but the true changes will lie in the decades, centuries and millenniums ahead that are guided by the Holy Trinity.

Father Anastasios is director of the National Office of Youth and Young Adult Ministries

PAGE 23

St. Athanasios was born about the year 295 A.D. in Alexandria of poor parents. He had a keen mind and succeeded in obtaining a high level of learning by private study.

He was ordained deacon by Alexander, at the age of about 25 years. As archdeacon, he followed Alexander to the first Ecumenical Synod where he became eminent in combating and the condemnation of the heresy of Arius.

After the death of Alexander, he was chosen Bishop of Alexandria in 328. With his speeches, writings and journeys, he supported the Orthodox believers and restored many Arians to Orthodoxy. He also at-

tempted to Christianize the Abyssinians.

His efficient and dynamic efforts aroused the Arians who never ceased to slander him before every emperor. As a result of these slanders, he was exiled five times, and five times was restored to his throne among his flock who worshiped him.

He wrote profound literature, the greatest of his works being those against paganism and religious heresy. He was named the most heroic of the Saints and Pillar of Orthodoxy.

Reprinted from an icon distributed by the Department of Religious Education

Challenging Puzzle WORD SEARCH on the Three Hierarchs In the fourth century there lived three great saints of the Church. Each saint had his particular characteristics and gifts. The first is known for his purity and courage. The second is recognized for his theological writings and the third is widely known as a great orator (speaker). They are considered patron saints of schools, teachers and Greek Letters, meaning Hellenic Classical Education. After a debate as to which Bishop was the greatest, the

B H H E G R P E L G H H S

T E S T E U R O T A R O R

A H A R R R T T N I R N E

S G E I E U H H I A X O H

I R T O O T O T A N O R T

L Y T R L Y T F S J D S A

church finally sanctioned a common feast day. On January 30, the Orthodox Church commemorates these three saints, also known as the Three Hierarchs, and honors them as great Fathers of Orthodoxy.

After all the bold words are found in the WORD SEARCH, the letters that are not used will reveal the names of these three saints. (The remaining letters are in order)

S E T A R O M E M M O C F

P A T R O N G E L O H Y E

Y R A U N A J I O H T S A

P O H S I B H O C N R O S

H I E R A R C H S A O S T

N O I T A C U D E C L T O

T E G E C I N E L L E H M

----- --- -----, ------- --- ----------, ---- ----------

Email: youthoffice@goarch.org

From the Church Fathers To Us! In addition to the study and true knowledge of the Scriptures are needed a good life and pure soul and virtue in Christ, so that the mind, journeying in this path, may be able to obtain and apprehend what it desires, in so far as human nature is able to learn about God the Word. For without a pure mind and a life modeled on the saints, no one can apprehend the words of the saints.

- St. Athanasios the Great

Upcoming YAL Events!

17TH ANNUAL DIOCESE OF CHICAGO YAL CONFERENCE Seeking the Roots of Christianity in the Old Testament

February 18-21, 2000

Marriott O Hare Hotel, Chicago, IL For further information: Call 1-888-OYAL-99 E-mail: YALChicago @aol.com Website: www.yalchicago.com DIOCESE OF DENVER SNOW CONFERENCE 2000 Repentance and Confession: The Forgotten Medicine March 2-5, 2000 Park City, Utah Questions:Call: Basil Chelemes (801) 262-8219 E-mail: www.

YALSNOW 000@aol.com Website: www.godenverdiocese.org/youth/

Special Events!

J O I N T H E T E A M !

STAR IN THE SOUPER BOWL OF CARING In support of the International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) Who: Orthodox youth Where: Your local parish community When: Super Bowl Sunday - January 30, 2000 What:As parishioners leave worship on Super Bowl Sunday they are invited to give $1 each and a canned good to help hungry and hurting people.

Young people standing at sanctuary exits receive the dollar donations and canned goods in soup cauldrons.

These canned goods are delivered to local charities serving the hungry and the proceeds are sent directly to the charity the parish chooses.

Call 1-800-358-SOUP or visit www. souperbowl.com to report the amount your parish collected so that the efforts of Orthodox Christians will be added to the national total. For more information call IOCC at toll-free at (877) 803-4622.

Challenge is the youth supplement to the Orthodox Observer, a service of the Department of Youth & Young Adult Articles reflect the opinion of the writers.

Write to: Youth & Young Adult Ministries, Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, 8 East 79th Street, New York, N.Y. 10021 Contributors to this page Natalie Kulukundis Father Aanastasios Bourantas John Bourantas

PAGE 24

DIOCESE OF ATLANTA ORTHODOX OBSERVER

JANUARY 2000

Bishop Alexios Bestows Awards at Banquet ATLANTA. Bishop Alexios bestowed the Archangel Michael Honor on more than 100 faithful from 53 parishes in the Diocese of Atlanta at the second annual banquet named in honor of the Diocese s patron saint.

The honors program and dinner, held Nov. 13 at the Atlanta Marriott Marquis, is held during the week of the feast of the Archangels Michael and Gabriel to honor one adult and one youth from each community within the Diocese who are cited by their respective parishes as living examples of the Orthodox Christian life.

Bishop Alexios, in praising the devotion of the honorees, thanked them for offering your talents, knowledge and most importantly, your time. It is an honor for me to have you here and to honor you.

God bless you.

The dinner, attended by more than 500, opened with an impressive procession with Frs. Michael Kouremetis and Michael Eaccarino of Atlanta s Annunciation Cathedral carrying a flower decorated icon of Archangel Michael into the ballroom followed by Bishop Alexios and Bishop John of Amorion and other priests of the Diocese.

Theodora Campbell, general chairman for the program, described the honorees as dedicated steadfast stewards who diligently serve our Holy Orthodox Faith though their local parish church, adding: Their faithful diakonia is an example for all of us to emulate. We thank you for your unceasing support, your unfailing sacrifice of time, your tireless efforts and most importantly, we thank you for teaching us the true meaning of Christian love.

In addition to the 104 Archangel Michael awards presented, there were four

SOME OF the 1999 honorees with Bishop Alexios and Diocesan Chancellor Fr. Petros Kopsahilis.

The second award is presented to an honoree among the retires clergy who now calls the Diocese of Atlanta home.

Honored was the Rev. Protopresbyter Stanley S. Harakas who was cited for his distinguished work in the advancement of the aims, purposes and diakonia of the Diocese.

In accepting the honor, Clonaris, who is a member of both the Archdiocesan and Diocesan councils, praised Bishop Alexios for his sensitivity, thoughtfulness and the love he has for his flock. In speaking for the honorees, Clonaris noted that we do these things because we need to do them.

Vicky Patronis was master of ceremonies for the event and served as co-chair with Ann Woodward.

Other speakers at the dinner included: The Very Rev. Sebastian Skordallos, clergy syndesmos, who told the honorees, we are very proud to have people like you serving in our parishes.

You are there when we need you. No words I can say can express our thanks.

Harry Tom Cavalaris, also of Charlotte who is chairman of the DiocWITH BISHOP Alexios and Fr. Kopsahilis (at left) are Eula Carlos and Georgia esan Council, thanKampakis, accepting the posthumous awards for their husbands. ked the honorees for their energy special awards that Bishop Alexios an- and unbounding devotion to the Church nounced. and for their love and compassion for their The Wings of Archangel Michael fellow man.

Awards were presented posthumously to The Rev. Petros Kopsahilis, Diocese Andrew C. Carlos of Atlanta and Sergei chancellor, presented the Class of 99 with Kampakis of Birmingham, Ala., for the ser- the praise of well done, good and faithvice they gave to the Church during their ful servants. Each honoree was presented lifetimes. Both men died in the past year an oval-shaped Archangel Michael medaland their awards were accepted by their lion and a certificate. wives, Eula Carlos and Georgia Kampakis, Awards recipients were: the co-chairs of the 1998 inaugural ArchNORTHEAST CONFERENCE angel Michael Feast and Honors.

Also presented were two Bishop s Holy Trinity Cathedral, Charlotte: Nick Choice awards. The lay award went to P. Karras (adult) and Pete J. Pappas Gerry Clonaris of Charlotte, N.C., who was (youth). St. Nectarios, Charlotte: Steve cited for devotion by example. This award Constantelos (adult) and Victoria Flaherty is selected with the assistance of the con- (youth). Dormition of the Theotokos, ference vicar and clergy and is rotated Greensboro, N.C: Dena Konoulas (adult) and Amy Contogiannis (youth). Annunamong the Diocese s seven conferences.

HIS GRACE bestows Archangel Michael Honors Medal upon Fr. Harakas, the Bishop’s choice from the retired clergy.

ciation, Winston-Salem, N.C: Maria Chamis (adult) and Jimmy Chrysson (youth). Sts. Constantine and Helen, Fayetteville, N.C: Penny Poulos (adult) and Maria Kanos (youth). St. Nicholas, Wilmington, N.C: Mike Papan (adult) and Andrew Whitley (youth). Holy Trinity, Raleigh, N.C: Mike Cederas (adult) and Jeff Beneker (youth). St. George, Knoxville, Tenn: Nick Liakonis (adult) and Ekaterina Winkie Ilic (youth). Holy Trinity, Bluff City, Tenn: Anna Yallourakis (adult) and George Scoulas (youth).

COASTAL CONFERENCE St. George Cathedral, Greenville, S.C: Katherine (Kay) Leventis (adult) and Katherine (Kay) Efstratiou (youth). St. Nicholas, Spartanburg, S.C: Perry Nicholas Trakas (adult). Transfiguration of Our Savior, Florence, S.C: George Leris (adult) and George Kampiziones (youth). St. John the Baptist, Myrtle Beach, S.C: Aspasia Pappas Buck (adult) and James D. Leftis (youth). Holy Trinity, Columbia, S.C: John Metropol (adult) and Nick Stefanovski (youth). Holy Trinity, Charleston, S.C: Toula Latto (adult) and John Tsahakis (youth). Holy Resurrection, Hilton Head, S.C: James George (adult). Holy Trinity, Augusta, Ga: Philip J. Phillips (adult) and Maria Madias (youth). St. Paul, Savannah, Ga: Charles V. Miltiades (adult) and Christopher Roach (youth). St. George Chapel,

Brunswick, Ga: Jerry Vandora (adult).

CENTRAL CONFERENCE Annunciation Cathedral, Atlanta: Eugenia Poolos (adult) and Brittany Gennadopoulos (youth). St. Philothea, Athens, Ga: Frieda Dekazos (adult) and Pano Dekazos (youth). Holy Transfiguration, Columbus, Ga: Pete Kleto (adult) and Donald Joseph Rice (youth). Holy Cross, Macon, Ga: Steve Sarandis (adult) and Alex Saratsiotis (youth). Holy Transfiguration, Marietta, Ga: Demetrius Lymberopoulos (adult) and Charles Miltiades (youth). Sts. Ralph, Nicholas and Irene, Cumming, Ga: Mary Makris (adult) and Thanos Caras (youth). Holy Trinity/ Holy Cross Cathedral, Birmingham, Ala: Irene Michael (adult) and George Kustos (youth). Holy Cross/ Sts. Constantine and Helen, Huntsville, Ala: Flora Bordman (adult) and Nicholas Robbins (youth). Annunciation, Montgomery, Ala: Katherine Mitchell (adult) and Gregory Cumuze (youth).

WESTERN CONFERENCE Annunciation, Mobile, Ala: Pete Vrachalus (adult) and Tonie Ann Coumanis (youth). Holy Trinity Cathedral, New Orleans: Bessie John Vlahos (adult) and Nektarios (Aki) Christakis (youth).

Holy Trinity, Biloxi, Miss: Lee Ann LoCicero (adult) and Mellie Williams (youth). Holy Trinity/St. John the

u page 26

JANUARY 2000

news

ORTHODOX OBSERVER

DIOCESE

A Spiritual Journey to St. Basil Academy

Presbyteres Hold First Biennial Retreat The National Sisterhood of Presvyteres held their first biennial retreat, Oct. 8-10 weekend, at Our Lady of the Snows Shrine in Belleville, Ill., near St. Louis.

Mother Christophora, the retreat master and Abbess of the Holy Transfiguration Monastery in Ellwood City, Pa., spoke on the theme We are all members of another. (Ephesians 4:25) The event drew presbyteres from 15 states, ranging from those just beginning their ministries to those who have been presbyteres for over 40 years.

Commenting on the retreat, National Sisterhood of Presvyteres President Margaret Orfanakos said: The retreat provided a wonderful opportunity for the presbytera to break away from her daily routine. She added, We learned from Mother Christofora, the importance of in-

by Anastasia E. Weaver

PRESBYTERES of the National Sisterhood with Mother Christophora, retreat master. corporating quiet time into our lives so that we can hear the Word of God. Presbytera Pauline Pavlakos, coordinator, observed that the retreat was highly successful, especially for a first-time event.

She is already planning for the next retreat, to be held in Estes Park, Colo, Oct. 12-14, 2001 and has booked the Antiochian Village Conference Center in Legonier, Pa., for the 2003 retreat.

Folk Dance Festival at Calif. Parish to Host Spiritual Seminar Long Island Cathedral HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. St. Paul Cathedral will hold a Greek Folk Dance Festival Feb. 13 at 110 Cathedral Ave. It will be an evening of traditional Greek dance, music and song with live performers and musicians featuring: Greek American Folklore Society, Greek Folkdancers of NJ-Karpathian Society, Pontian Society of Norwalk, Conn., Friends of Traditional Greek Song Chorus of Hicksville, N.Y. Doors open 3 p.m. Showtime 4 p.m.

Glendi for eveyone after the performance.

Donation $10.00. Info: 516-354-8960.

Music Society Produces CD of Desby Recording LOS ANGELES The Greek Sacred and Secular Music Society here has rereleased Frank Desby s music for the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom on compact disc.

The recording was first made in 1959 and was the second in a series of three recordings by Dr. Desby and the Byzantine Chorale.

Dr. Desby was conductor and music director of Annunciation Church choir in Los Angeles from 1948-52. During that time, he composed and arranged music for regular Sunday services, Christmas and Easter, as well as for special church holidays.

He distinguished himself as a Byzantine music scholar and made several trips to Mount Athos to study and photograph ancient manuscripts that provided material for his doctoral dissertation.

He also made transcriptions of Byzantine chants that he performed with the Chorale and arranged several Greek folk songs for mixed chorus and piano.

For more information, contact Thomas B. Lappas, publisher, Greek Sacred and Secular Music Society, 1324 South Normandie Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90006, or e-mail Mary Futris: Futris@juno.com.

The society plans to release two other Desby recordings: Treasures of Byzantine Music and Greek Folk Songs.

PAGE 25

IRVINE, Calif. St. Paul s Greek Orthodox Church in Irvine, Calif. will host its fourth annual Spiritual Odyssey seminar Feb. 3-7 with the theme The Apocalypse: An Orthodox Christian Understanding.

Frs. Theodore Stylianopoulos and Thomas Hopko will lead this year s seminar.

Fr. Stylianopoulos is a longtime professor of the New Testament at Holy Cross School of Theology, and Fr. Thomas Hopko is dean of St. Vladimir s Orthodox Seminary in New York.

This seminar series is free-of-charge and a wonderful way in which we at St. Paul s can share our faith with the community, said Fr. Steven Tsichlis, pastor at St. Paul s. This year s topic, the Apocalypse, is deserving of attention as we enter the new millennium. TV preachers, movies and other media are both sensationalizing and trivializing the message of the Book of Revelation. We need a sound, clear understanding of the message Revelation presents us today.

Fr. Stylianopoulos will speak on Feb. 3 at 7:30 p.m. Title of his presentation will be Thus says the First and the Last: 7 Letters to 7 Churches.

On Feb. 4 at 7:30 p.m., Fr. Stylianopoulos will further explore the seven letters that appear in the first three chapters of the Book of Revelation and their application to the life of the Church today.

His talk is titled Be zealous and repent: A call to holiness and steadfast witness.

On Feb. 5, Fr. Thomas Hopko will give three talks. The first, at 10 a.m., is titled The worship of the Lamb, the seven seals and silence in Heaven; the second, at 1:30 p.m., is titled The Dragon, the Beast and Babylon; and the third, at 7 p.m., will be on The New Jerusalem and the River of Life: Maranatha.

Also on Feb. 5 there will be a youth rally from noon until 4 p.m. led by Fr. George Gray, pastor of St. Nicholas Church in Portland, Oregon.

Joining Fr. Gray is Peter Jon Gillquist, a singer, songwriter and college student who just released his fourth CD entitled Real. The rally is for middle school to high school age youths.

Fr. Thomas Hopko will deliver the sermon after Divine Liturgy on Sunday, Feb. 6 from 10 a.m.-noon.

On Feb. 7 at 11 a.m. ,there will be a special program for senior citizens. Fr. Stylianopoulos will speak on The power of the Gospel of Christ, followed by a luncheon at noon.

Running concurrent to the Spiritual Odyssey is an Orthodox Christian Book Fair, a unique showcase of books, icons, audio and videotapes, and other religious items for sale, as well as displays featuring Orthodox ministries.

All events, services and food (except book and other merchandise purchase) are provided free of charge as an outreach ministry of St. Paul s Greek Orthodox Church.

CHICAGO Fifty-seven parishioners from St. Demetrios Church recently visited St. Basil Academy in Garrison, N.Y., as part of a trip entitled An Offering of Spiritual Fragrance.

The journey was organized and led by Fr. Apostolos Georgiafentis of St. Demetrios Church in Chicago. The group visited several monasteries and convents in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Canada and St. Basil Academy.

Fr. Constantine Sitaras, the director of St. Basil Academy greeted us warmly at the gate.

We entered the small but very beautiful church for vespers. There was a special tranquillity that one could feel here and I knew that this was a very special place that has been so dear to our hearts for so many years. This is where the children attend services every day.

Following the vespers we shares dinner, prepared by the staff, as one large church family in a magnificent edifice of St. Basil Academy. There is beauty everywhere and it is gratifying to know that this gem of the Archdiocese nestled in this wonderland of God s creation, exists to care for the young children of our Greek Orthodox Church who are in need of protection, shelter, education but most importantly the love and security that only a Christian home can provide.

Now, 22 such children ages of 5 to 16 call St. Basil Academy home. They attend a nearby public school during the day, then upon returning home study Greek, use the computer laboratory and experience art, music, sports and their Greek Orthodox faith.

There is every opportunity for these children, in spite of their lack of a home life, to experience the love of people who care and achieve greatness. We saw first hand the beautiful Christian environment established by Fr. Sitaras and his staff.

The focus at St. Basil Academy is on the total child. The children are provided not only with the best possible educational resources but there is one aspect that is most visible the love provided to each child. There is evidence of the caring, respect and affection. This is not just an Archdiocese institution where children are placed by one or both parents, or from broken or indigent homes.

St. Basil, is a special place whose leader, Fr. Constantine Sitaras, is both inspired and blessed with God s love and understanding. And as we waved goodbye, we too felt the warmth and love that surrounds each child that calls St. Basil Academy their home.

Atlantic City Church Has Grand Opening

Orthodox Observer

Successful project — During a recent parish visit, Archbishop Demetrios congratulates the faithful at St. Demetrios Church in Merrick, N.Y., for the successful completion of their roof restoration project in record time. Under the leadership of Fr. Savas Zembillas and Andrew Louca, president (at left), parishioners raised more than $300,000 beginning in January and saw the project completed before Thanksgiving.

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. St. Nicholas parish held the Thyranoixia (grand opening) for its new church Dec. 5.

The new structure, which is built in the basilica/Byzantine style, is on the corner of Atlantic and Mt. Vernon avenues, and will serve the spiritual needs of nearly 250 Greek Orthodox families in the Atlantic City area.

The old building, located behind the new church, that dates from 1933, will remain as a chapel.

The event marks the beginning of a year-long celebration in commemoration of the parish s 75th anniversary.

PAGE 26

S

I

ORTHODOX OBSERVER

JANUARY 2000

of pecial nterest Archdiocese Presbyters Retreat and Forum BOULDER, Colo. Archdiocese clergy held their bi-annual National Retreat and Forum Oct 4-8 with several themes presented for their spiritual renewal.

Ninety-seven priests attended the event sponsored by parishes of Denver and Boulder who worked with the Archdiocese Presbyters Council president, Father Chris Kerhulas, in planning this event.

Archbishop Demetrios met informally with clergy and discussed many important issues with them.

Also attending was the host hierarch, Metropolitan Isaiah of Proikonisou, presiding Hierarch of the Diocese of Denver, Bishop Demetrios of Xanthou, and the V. Rev. Archimandrite Gabriel Karambis, executive director of National Ministries and Stewardship.

On Wednesday, and Thursday morning the retreat theme of Ordained to Service was the focus of the three speakers.

Archbishop Demetrios presentation Ordained to Serve God was followed by extensive questions and intense discussion.

The second presentation was titled, Ordained to Serve Self. Dr. Charles Nectum, executive director of the Clergy Family Confidential Assistance Program, a hot line type of support mechanism for clergy and their families.

Mr. Nectum talked extensively about the stress clergy have to deal with and the care we must take of ourselves in order to remain healthy servants of the Lord and our people.

Fr. Constantine Sitaras, director of St. Basil Academy, Garrison, N.Y., spoke on Ordained to Serve Each Other.

Are our clergy pastors to each other?

Do we take care of each other? These crucial issues at this time in our history led to over two hours of intense discussion of clergy and clergy family issues.

The Denver Assumption Cathedral, Sts. Peter and Paul of Boulder, and Sts. Constantine and Helen Church of Denver all hosted meals and presentations.

The final part of the program consisted of two excursions. Bishop Deme-

ARCHDIOCESE CLERGY with Archbishop Demetrios, Metropolitan Isaiah and Bishop Dimitrios of Xanthos

trios led a group of priests to Colorado Springs and the United States Air Force Academy. At the academy the new icons and chapel for Orthodox cadets were blessed and dedicated by His Grace and the attending clergy.

The second excursion traveled to the high country. Crossing the Continental Divide at 11,000 feet after eight inches of snow had fallen that morning, the clergy romped through the snow and threw snow balls.

Fr. Kerhulas led this group to Prophet Elias Chapel in Hot Sulfur Springs (elevation 11,000 ft.). The chapel, built by the father and relatives of Presbytera Kerhulas in the 1950s, has several Photios Kontoglou icons.

HIS EMINENCE discusses a question with Metropolitan Isaiah during a retreat session with clergy

BESTOWS AWARDS u page 24

AT PROPHET ELIAS Chapel, clergy visit one of the world’s highest Orthodox worship centers.

Theologian, Jackson, Miss: Ellen Hontzas (adult) and Matthew Bowman (youth). St. John the Theologian, Panama City, Fla: George Gouras (adult) and Christine Hall (youth). Sts. Markella and Demetrios, Fort Walton Beach, Fla: Mary Walters (adult) and Dea Robison (youth). Annunciation, Pensacola, Fla: William Stamitoles (adult) and Emily Young (youth).

NORTH FLORIDA CONFERENCE St. Elizabeth, Gainesville, Fla: George Scheffer (adult) and Roxanne Khuri (youth). Holy Mother of God, Tallahassee, Fla: Kathleen Talantis (adult). St. John the Divine, Jacksonville, Fla: John Pappas (adult) and Danny Mitsios (youth).

St. Demetrios, Daytona Beach, Fla: Anne Stratis (adult) and John Louizes (youth).

TAMPA BAY CONFERENCE Holy Trinity, Clearwater, Fla: Michael Mastorides (adult) and Keith Mastorides (youth). St. Nicholas Cathedral, Tarpon Springs, Fla: Panagiota Critikos (adult) and Nikitas Kavouklis (youth). St. Stefanos, St. Petersburg, Fla: Mathew Balasis (adult) and Markella Balasis

(youth). St. Barbara, Sarasota, Fla: John Olenick (adult) and Nicholas Raymond Nimey (youth). St. John the Baptist, Tampa, Fla: Terry Kappiris (adult) and Mike Xenick (youth). St. George, New Port Richey, Fla: George Psetas (adult) and Athanasios (Tom) Letsos (youth).

Holy Trinity, Port Charlotte, Fla: Bessie Manos (adult) and Athanasios (J.T.) Sanders (youth).

SOUTH FLORIDA CONFERENCE St. Mark, Boca Raton, Fla: John Christakis (adult) and Julie Eliades (youth). St. Catherine, West Palm Beach, Fla: Virginia Soteropoulos (adult) and Lena Habib (youth). St. Sophia Cathedral, Miami: Renee Karnegis (adult) and Evangelia Prevolis (youth). St. Demetrios, Fort Lauderdale, Fla: James Franzelas (adult) and Stephanie Catsicas (youth). Annunciation, Fort Myers, Fla: Effie Kapetan (adult) and Georgia Todd (youth). St. Nicholas, Fort Pierce, Fla: Peter Economys (adult) and Andrew Lasoff (youth). St. Katherine, Naples, Fla: Theresa (Dimitra) Tiglias (adult) and John Tsiskakis (youth). St. George, Hollywood, Fla: Marika Kiagiadakis (adult) and Christina Vasilakis (youth).

JANUARY 2000

ORTHODOX OBSERVER

by Fr. Nicholas L. Vieron

F

or many years, in some in stances for as long as they ve been widowed, the presbyteres were forgotten souls.

Stripped not only of their companion, they were also removed from the national register of church family. No one had a record of even their names.

They were occasionally remembered only in local parishes where some were fortunate enough to be embraced and continued to be loved. For the most part, they were dismissed.

In 1988, the Retired Clergy Association was founded and, from then on, an effort has been made to gather the names of our beloved widowed presbyteres and to reinstate them in the Church family.

Presently, we have the names of 82 widowed presbyteres.

Through our RCA organization and monthly newsletter, The Epistle, they are again embraced.

Here are a few expressions of gratitude for what RCA has done for them: I am grateful for all the widowed presbyteres for the way the RCA has embraced us and made us feel at home again. Irene Zanetos.

The Epistle is a treasure. It is enlightening, informative, fun, and makes us widowed presbyteres feel very special.

Sevasti Tsamutalis.

For many of us the Epistle is the only communication we have with our clergy family. I also enjoy the humor. - Effie Vangelopoulos.

Thanks to your RCA network on your endeavors for the meaningful Epistle which keeps us all in the Family.

Theodora N. Paleologos.

In honoring the widowed presbyteres we also, in a small way, honor their spouses the priests. It s the least we can do.

We dedicate this column to them.

Read the names as you would a litany, for each name is like a living prayer reflecting the name of a priest who also gave his last full measure of devotion to the Church and to the Lord he served: Helen Andrews (ÿApostolos); Barbara Angelides, Jeannie Apostolos (ÿVasilios); Anna Athans (ÿArthur); Evanthia Bacopulos (ÿGeorge); Angela Berris (ÿJohn); Penny Bithos (ÿPeter); Marina Bitzas (ÿThomas); Mary Bogolea (ÿStefan); Irene Boubaris (ÿIsidoros); Helen Bouyoucas (ÿEmmanuel);

Rozalia Christulides (ÿGeorge); Angelyn Christon (ÿJames);Eurydice Constantinides (ÿPanos); Kathryn Constantinides (ÿPhaethon); Rallia Dagios (ÿJohn); Artemis Demopulos (ÿHomer); Anastasia Diavatis (ÿSpyridon); Mary Dovas.

Anna Gallos (ÿGeorge); Evangeline Georgaroudakis (ÿAndrew); Catherine Gouvellis (ÿSoterios); Helen Geranios (ÿJohn); Harriet Grenias (ÿLouis); Mary Hallick (ÿConstantine); Mary Hatzidakis (ÿConstantine); Stavroula Hondras (ÿJohn); Catherine Kalariotes (ÿElias); Diane Kanavos (ÿAnthony); Anastasia Karastamati (ÿJohn); Dorothea Kastanas, Bessie Kerames (ÿGeorge); Evelyn Kleoudis, Louella Kostopolos (ÿJohn); Eva Koutroulelis, Sophia Koutsaris.

Lula Latto (ÿDennis), Bess Macres (ÿGeorge); Anne Macris (ÿSpyridon); Jennie Makredes (ÿMichael); Anna Macris (ÿSpyridon); Lillian Martin (ÿDean); Sophia Merkouris (ÿJohn); Lillian Martin (ÿDean); Malamati Metaxas, Connie Marinos, Bessie Moulas (ÿChristos); Effie Nikolopoulos (ÿNicholas); Virginia Nitsiotis, Jean Olas (ÿJoseph); Theodora Paleologos (ÿNikolas); Mary Pallas (ÿJohn); Olga Papadopoulos, Julia Papadoulias (ÿStephen); Madeleine Papageorge (ÿNicholas); Bessie Pasalis, Olga Psillas (ÿJohn); Bessie Remoundos (ÿPeter); Sophia Roussos (ÿGeorge); Katherine Seder (ÿGeorge); Stella Sfikas (ÿJohn), Inkeri Shin (ÿPavlos); Hrisafie Sophocles (ÿSophocles); Elaine Stephanides (ÿGeorge); Anastasia Stephanopoulos (ÿGeorge); Effy Stephanopoulos (ÿElias).

Pauline Terezakis (ÿNicholas); Panagiota Thalassinos (ÿTheodore); Sevasti Tsamutalis (ÿSocrates); Pauline Tsoumas (ÿGeorge). Effie M. Vangelopoulos (ÿNicholas); Mary Vaporis (ÿNomikos); Helen Varunas, Garnette Vasilakis (ÿEmanuel); Jean Vasilas (ÿAndrew); Efrosini Vasiliou Frances Velis (ÿNicholas); Sultana Volaitis (ÿConstantine); Helen Zanas, Maria Zanis (ÿStavros); Irene Zanetos (ÿJohn).

(If you know a widowed presbyetera whose name is not on this list, please let us know. Send her name and address to: Fr Nicholas L. Vieron, RCA Epistle editor, Pastor Emeritus, Annunciation Church, 573 N. Highland, Memphis, TN 38122; (901) 323-9530 or e-mail address: nlvieron@ixmemphis.com)

Fr. Paraschou Retires The Rev. Paraskevas (Parry) Paraschou, retired recently from parish ministry after serving St. George Church in St. Paul, Minn., for the last 24 years.

A retirement celebration dinner was held in his honor by the St. George Church at the Radisson Hotel in downtown St. Paul with more than 350 people were in attendance.

The MEOCA (Minnesota Eastern Orthodox Clergy Association) presented Fr. Parry with a new Holy Gospel for St. George, and his parishioners presented him with a monetary gift.

To highlight this special occasion Fr. Parry was honored with many tributes, including a musical and a slide presentation by his immediate family and a musical duet by parishioners.

The presiding bishop of the Chicago Diocese, Metropolitan Iakovos, also attended.

Fr. Paraschou was born in Thessaloniki, Greece, in 1934. After graduating from the School of Theology in the University of Thessaloniki in 1959, he served in the Greek Royal Air Force as officer of religious education, attaining the rank of 2nd lieutenant.

Fr. Parry came to the United States in 1963 on a scholarship from the Mennonite Biblical Seminary in Elkhart, Ind., where he studied Christian education for one year.

In 1964, Fr. Parry became a full-time lay assistant at All Saints Church in Joliet, Ill., where he directed Christian education, Greek language school, chanting and parish administration until 1970. He married Miriam Andrews of Wheaton, Ill., in 1969.

On April 19, 1970, he was ordained as a deacon and, on May 21, was ordained to the Holy Priesthood.

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R ETIRED CLERGY Widowed Presbyteres, Too, Gave Last Full Measure of Devotion

PAGE 27

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CLERGY U P D A T E Ordinations To Priesthood: Rev. Presbyter George Nikas, by Bishop Philotheos of Meloa, at St. John the Theologian, Tenafly, N.J. - 12/05/99 Received into the ranks of Archdiocesan clergy Rev. Presbyter Elias Greer, from the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia.

Rev. Presbyter Benjamin Henderson from the Patriarchate of Moscow.

Rev. Presbyter Patrick Irish, from the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia.

Rev. Presbyter Danut Suciu, from the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese of North America.

Rev. Presbyter Photius Bouton, from the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia.

Assignments Rev. Presbyter Michael Constantinides, Annunciation, Milwaukee, Wis., (Assistant)1/1/2000 Rev. Presbyter George Orfanakos, St. George, Clifton, N.J. - 12/23/99 Rev. Protopresbyter George Passias, Holy Cross, Brooklyn, N.Y. - 12/1/99 Rev. Presbyter Philemon Sevastiades, The Twelve Holy Apostles, Duluth, Minn., - 12/1/99

Rev. Presbyter Elias Greer, St. Athanasios, San Angelo, Texas - 12/1/99 Rev. Presbyter Benjamin Henderson, Transfiguration, Sioux Falls, S.D. 12/1/99 Rev. Presbyter Patrick Irish, St. Nicholas, El Paso, Texas - 12/1/99 Rev. Presbyter Danut Suciu, Transfiguration, Ogden, Utah - 12/1/99 Rev. Presbyter Photius Bouton, St. John the Prodromos, Amarillo, Texas 12/1/99 Rev. Deacon (now presbyter) George Nikas, St. John the Theologian, Tenafly, N.J. - 11/1/99 Offikia PROTOPRESBYTER, bestowed upon Fr. John Rallis, St. John the Prodromos, Des Plaines, Ill.,by Metropolitan Iakovos of Krinis - 1/7/2000 ECONOMOS, bestowed upon Fr. John G. Panagiotou, Pittsburgh, Metropolitan Maximos of Ainou - 10/1/99 Deposed Emmanuel Koveos, former priest of Dormition Church in Burlington, Vt., is now deposed from all sacred functions of the Holy Priesthood and his name has been removed from the ranks of the clergy of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America by the Holy and Sacred Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

ORTHODOX OBSERVER

PAGE 28

JANUARY 2000

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ORTHODOX OBSERVER

PAGE 29

OF SPECIAL INTEREST Unique Orthodox Center Opens GABRIDGE, England-The first students have arrived at a new international and inter-Orthodox study centre in Cambridge.

The Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies is the only Orthodox institution in Europe to offer theological education and training in the English language, and one of a handful in the world that to do so within a university and inter-Christian setting.

Bishop Kallistos (Ware) of Diokleia, the well-known writer and teacher, has been involved in the project from the beginning. I am convinced that the Institute will make a positive and greatly needed contribution to the life of the Orthodox church, he says. Not only will it be able to assist in the training of future clergy and lay leaders within the Orthodox Church, but it will also assist the growing number of other Christians who wish to obtain a serious knowledge of the Orthodox tradition.

He also emphasises that the courses and degrees offered by the Institute will be validated by the University of Cambridge. This is a guarantee of the academic standards to be observed by the Institute.

It began as an idea around the kitchen table just over two years ago, explains Fr. John Jillions, director of the new Institute. Since then we have been blessed by God in ways that we could not have imagined. Doors have opened unexpectedly. With support from the academic community, from the Orthodox Churches in Britain, plus the generosity of other Christians, the dream has become a reality. The Institute s board represents this mix of support and is headed by Bishop Kallistos (Ecumenical Patriarchate) and Bishop Basil of Sergievo (Moscow Patriarchate).

Fr Jillions has been a priest for 15 years and has served parishes in Australia and America. Born in Canada and raised as an Orthodox Christian by Russian and English parents, he completed his theological training at St Vladimir s Seminary in New York. He arrived in Cambridge four years ago after one year at the University of Thessaloniki to continue Ph.D. research in New Testament theology, writing a doctoral dissertation on divine guidance in the New Testament. His publications include English translations of works by Fr. Alexander Schmemann. He is married to a Greek-American and has three children.

In the West, people know little about Orthodox churches and often have images only of extreme nationalism or hostility to the West and its churches. However, interest in the Orthodox tradition of theology and spirituality has grown in recent years.

For their part, the Orthodox acknowledge many of their faithful, including clergy and lay leaders, have too little direct knowledge of Christians of other churches.

The Institute for Orthodox Christian Studies will address both situations. Its students, who do not have to be Orthodox, will receive a thorough grounding in Orthodox theology and spirituality but not in isolation from contemporary multi-faith society. The Institute is a member of the Cambridge Theological Federation, which is a consortium of theological colleges, and will also work closely with the Cambridge University Faculty of Divinity.

In its first year the Institute has full-time students from Greece, Korea, and India. About 25 part-time students have also registered and there are plans to launch an international distance learning course through the Internet.

The Institute hopes to be a resource for Orthodox scholars around the world, and this year there are two visiting scholars from Paris and Thessaloniki. There is a valuable monastic presence as well. Mother Joanna Burton, the Director of Studies, is an Orthodox nun from Paris and one of the full-time students is a Greek-Orthodox nun from South Korea.

About 350,000 Orthodox Christians live in Britain. Most have roots abroad and immigrant culture continues to play an important role in their communities. However, there is growing awareness the Church s message must be expressed in new ways that can be heard by people born and raised in the West.

The training of Orthodox clergy, laity and scholars who are equally at home in the West and in their Orthodox communities, is therefore essential. The new Orthodox institute will respond to this need.

Fr. Jillions says there is already high demand for places at the Institute but funding for students, particularly from abroad, is a problem. In fact, the financial future of the Institute is as yet unresolved.

This does not deter Fr Jillions. All the Orthodox traditions represented in Britain have given their support for the Institute and encouraged us to press ahead and not wait until finance is secure. Frankly, we do not know where all the money will come from. This is a work of faith, he said. But I and all those who have been involved in this project are certain that this is God s work, and that by His grace, benefactors have and will come forward to support this pioneering effort.

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ORTHODOX OBSERVER

PAGE 30

RELATING TO FAITH u page 4 divine inspiration but also of human grasp, interpretation, and historical progression. In the development of Christian dogma, the Greek mind contributed to the apprehension of divine truth, and the hellenization of Christianity was a historical process under the guidance of divine revelation which accompanied it especially in the early Christian centuries.

Here lies the importance of the seven ecumenical synods which labored and elaborated on divine truth in earthly vessels.

Orthodox Christian theology, though a theology enshrined in the Bible and decrees of ecumenical synods and conscious of its unity with patristic theology, is open-ended and in a constant gignesthaie becoming. This is so because the Holy Spirit (To Pneuma), is ever present, is a life-creating and everpresent creative Spirit. Pneumatology, as

we understand it, is the source of the Christian community s growth, guidance and renewal.

Holy Tradition, patristic thought, theology in history, are manifestations of the Holy Spirit s presence and involvement.

Two ways It is because of this understanding of Pneumatology that Orthodox thealogy cannot be one-sided either apophatic or cataphatic. It is both: two ways to the search for knowledge of God s existence and ever-presence in the cosmos, including the human being.

While apophaticism speaks of the divine transcendence and the surrounding mystery as a spiritual and personal experience, cataphaticism accepts a knowledge that can be acquired through human reason, as logos, as gift, of the Divine Logos.

Apocalypsis, divine revelation, embodies what is usually called metaphysical, beyond nature, supernatural, while

natural revelation is understandable through both the gift of reason, historical experience, and the physical world.

It is a physical theophany of God s presence in the cosmos and in every created thing that is seen dynamically as living, sustaining, governing energy rather than as dead matter.

God s Pneuma spiritualizing everything, creatively and evolutionarily, affirms that the creation is an unfinished cosmos in a constant becoming because God is pantahou paron kai ta panta pleron as one of the most beautiful prayers of the Orthros-Matins says.

Thus, Greek Orthodox Christianity has crowned the natural quest for God of the ancient Greeks, Romans, and others without overturning or diluting the fundamental teachings of Jesus the Christ.

The Rev. Dr. Constantelos is Professor Emeritus of history at Stockton State College, New Jersey, and a retired priest of the Archdiocese.

JANUARY 2000

REL. EDUCATION u page 12 greatly affect educational results.

One objection educators and students raise is that, in accepting information and instructional technology into the teaching context, interaction with the teacher, seen as the chief ingredient in helping students learn, is lost. They warn that technology will disrupt the sense of community and destroy the teacher-student relationship.

The debate concerning the interpersonal relationship between the teacher and the student is as old as Socrates and Plato.

It did not begin with the invention of the computer or World Wide Web, but with the technological advent of the written word.

It has continued with the successive innovations such as the book, campus, library, lecture hall, and even the blackboard.

While the current revolution in education runs the risk of disrupting interpersonal interaction if we let it, the prudent and strategic use of technology has been proven to have the reverse effect.

Encourages interaction

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Instructional technology has the capability of effectively encouraging greater community interaction between a larger diversity of members, which may draw from outside experts as well.

Technology likewise provides the opportunity for a moderate pedagogical pace and a safer place for thoughtful and unbiased conversation to emerge. The thirsty do not have to approach the well alone at midday anymore.

Technologies such as e-mail, computer video and audio conferencing, synchronous and asynchronous chat, and web page instruction make it possible to approach the well of information at anytime and from any location.

It has the power to draw together more diverse students and faculty and create the opportunities for providing a greater mix of learning styles.

Teachers can take advantage of these new technologies to better serve and dialogue with different student backgrounds, values, and academic desires.

Students, on the other hand, do not need to rely only on the resident instructor but can draw from a larger group of experts.

How our contemporary world approaches the electronic well of information provides ample evidence that mankind still thirsts for living water.

However, like the Samaritan woman whose seven husbands conjure images of our society s ever-changing spiritual apostasy, the educational model that technology provides must be tempered against mankind s courtship with post-modern relativism.

And, like the woman approaching Jacob s Well with a rope-tied bucket, today s thirsty are tied to a cable-connected computer mouse.

Their need to continually plumb the bottomless well of cyberspace reflects our contemporary global thirst for community, knowledge and Eternal Truth.

Rev. Dr. Frank Marangos is director of the Department of Religious Education; e-mail: frfrank@omaccess.com, and also serves as project director for the Lily Endowment Fund Grant used for instructional technologies at Holy Cross.

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JANUARY 2000

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ORTHODOX OBSERVER

PAGE 31

Archbishop Demetrios Leads th 97 Epiphany Celebration in Tarpon Springs

The ceremony of Epiphany offers an additional, much broader message, the Archbishop concluded, which is respect for human life, human environment and whatever contributes to the enhancement of this human life and this environment.

The AHEPA dinner

That evening, of Jan. 5, the 64th annual AHEPA dinner was hosted at Pappas Restaurant in Tarpon Springs. Many distinguished guests and simple people attended. Among them were Mr. George Dariotis, Ahepa s Supreme President; Andrew Athens, World President of SAE; Evanthia Condakes, President of the National Philoptochos and many others.

You are all distinguished proclaimed Archbishop Demetrios as soon as he took to the podium, and for that I ask you to please stand up, as everyone applauded and welcomed him enthusiastically.

His Eminence praised AHEPA for their work of love through out the years and their efforts to instill the Hellenic spirit in America. He made a specific mention to AHEPA s recent fundraising efforts for the Athens earthquake victims that totaled $200,000, double their initial goal.

Further in his remarks the Archbishop acknowledged the tremendous contribution of Hellenism to our current identity as Greek Orthodox. He stressed the classical, hellenic meaning and importance of Knowledge, Beauty and Ethos. These virtues and principles when combined with Love, the kind of limitless love that the Son of God demonstrated with His immersion in the waters of the Jordan River, become the gift that we ve been granted, the gift of our Greek Orthodox identity.

This is not an exclusive right, said the Archbishop. Rather it is our mission to share it with all possible generosity with others and be able to say thank you to God for the immensity of His gifts.

Spirituality and transformation The wisdom of the Orthodox tradition in providing liturgical and ceremonial guidelines along with the desire of both clergy and laity present at Tarpon Springs, for a true spiritual experience made the Archieratical Liturgy at St. Nicholas Cathedral an epiphany morning to remember.

Concelebrating with His Eminence were Bishop Alexios of Atlanta, Bishop John of Amorion and Bishop Iakovos of Katania, assisted by the dean of the Cathedral, Fr. Tryfon Theofilopoulos, Fr. John Katsoulis, assistant priest, Fr. James Rousakis, Vicar of the Tampa Bay Conference of Greek Orthodox churches and numerous other area clergy.

More than 900 faithful attended the liturgy inside the cathedral and the adjacent community center, through closed circuit television.

In his homily, the Archbishop first praised the Cathedral faithful and clergy for their long devotion and demonstrated spirituality and then analyzed in simple yet meaningful words the double meaning of the day. He called the feast of the Epiphany a celebration of transformation a simultaneous manifestation of the fact that God becomes human in the person of Jesus Christ and the fact that this God is three persons in one substance . He further urged the faithful to open their minds and hearts and accept the grace and light of the Epiphany, of the Holy Trinity; and through this light and grace and through the immersion in the baptismal waters, be regenerated and transformed and holy.

Soon after, the Archbishop s message reverberated through the text of the Sanctification (aghiasmos) service that followed.

The procession and the dive for the Cross As the services inside the St. Nicholas Cathedral concluded, last minute organizational details and arrangements were being made. The 55 divers, 16-18 year old teenagers had congregated, nervous but ready. The Florida sun was shining bright over Epiphany City.

Aleck Alissandratos, who coordinates the divers, was confident. Everything is positive this year, he said.

D. Panagos

The teenage divers who have just dived for the cross carry the cross retriever, Valantis Pilatos on their shoulders, back to the St. Nicholas Cathedral.

As it has been recently established those who participate in the dive are required to attend a religious education class about Epiphany in order to qualify for the dive.

For Stellios Zografakis was his first try, his first year. I feel nervous, he said. Asked why he decided to dive, he said: It is just a big honor. Growing up we ve been raised to dive for the baptism of Jesus and the joy of celebrating it.

It is going to be something to remember for the rest of our lives, said 16 year old Achileas Houllis, also attempting the dive for the first time. Indeed it was.

Soon the group of the teenage divers led a colorful procession. School children in ethnic costumes, the St. Nicholas choir, Archbishop Demetrios and the clergy, followed by a large crowd of faithful, locals and visitors who had filled the narrow streets of Tarpon Springs. It took about 15 minutes to the bayou.

The divers rushed and jumped in the water to position themselves on the dinghies. Cameras and photographers were hustling for a good angle. About 20 thousand people had filled the banks of Spring Bayou. Two television helicopters were hovering above.

As the Archbishop read the passage from the Gospel of Mark

shoulders back to the Cathedral.

There returned the Archbishop to conclude the service and offer blessings to those who participated and their families.

Valantis Pilatos is the first born of four children. His parents Maria and George were thrilled and deeply moved. They immigrated to Tarpon Springs 20 years ago from Kalymnos but had tried to repatriate for a while and finally returned back to Tarpon Springs about a year ago.

He is my first born and I feel very proud he retrieved the cross among so many others, said a surprised but proud father. I know he prayed last night and I too whispered a prayer as they were about to dive.

His mother Maria could not hide her pride but found some words to say as she was besieged by microphones. I m very happy, she said. He wanted to get it and got it. He is a good boy, he gets up in the morning he does his cross and leaves the house. Every time he does anything, he does his cross first and then anything else; He s good at school, an A and B student.

That afternoon the action moved to the nearby Craig Park for the traditional Glendi festival. Greek food, traditional music and dances performed by many well-trained dance troupes highlighted the afternoon. Archbishop Demetrios walked around the park, as he greeted and met with many of the faithful.

Fr. Theophilopoulos expressed his joy to the Observer at the success of the event.

The celebrations were excellent, he said.

There was a lot of peace and tranquillity prevailing this year. The services were very pious and solemn. It was fantastic.

Commenting on the faithful s reception and impression of the Archbishop, Fr. Tryfon said the people are very excited. Everyone has something good to say about the Archbishop.

He continued, they were extremely impressed because he showed such an interest in the people, especially the young people. This man brought something nice here and we appreciate it.

Later that evening, the Annual Epiphany Ball was held at Westin Innisbrook Resort. About 500 people attended. A moving moment was the presentation of commemorative statuettes to the dovegirls of years past. Many grandmothers now, walked to the podium with eyes filled with tears of joy. A 97-year-old tradition was coming full circle.

Proud to be your Archbishop

The feast of St. John the Baptist was celmentioning the Spirit descending upon Him like a dove, Antonia ebrated the next day in the Tampa Greek OrthoTharin, 16, released a white dove dox Church bearing St. John s name. His Emishe carried cupped in her hands nence was greeted, as he arrived that morning, by a group of school children with arms filled with from the cathedral.

The divers were impatient and flowers and faces adorned with genuine smiles. bursting with anticipation as they He concelebrated Divine Liturgy with Bishop balanced on the rocking dinghies. Alexios of Atlanta assisted by Fr. John Protopapas.

Archbishop Demetrios started the Among those attending were Ambassador of apolytikion and tossed the white Greece to the U.S. Alexander Philon, Consul of wooden, lead-filled cross in the Greece in Atlanta Dimitris Macrynicolas, Andrew bayou waters. Unexpectedly the Athens, Eve Condakes and many others.

Following Divine Liturgy Archbishop DemePrecious Cross did not trios had the opsink as usual but reportunity to meet mained vertical on the the children of surface. the community s I tried to swim as day school and atfast as I could. I didn t tend a luncheon look up and when I that was hosted in looked up the cross his honor. The was right there. Last pastor of St. night I prayed before I John s Church, Fr. went to bed and said, John Protopapas I hope I get this. I m spoke of the Archspeechless now but I bishop s visit as a feel blessed, said Hri divine kiss and sovalantis (Valantis) blessing to their Pilatos, the 16 year-old community. Later cross retriever. The the Archbishop crowds applauded as replied: With Valantis, in a state of churches and disbelief came before communities the Archbishop to resuch as yours, I ceive his blessing and am truly very a trophy adorned with the Cross. The divers D. Panagos blessed to be your carried him on their Atnonia Tharin, 16, was this year’s dove-bearer. Archbishop.

ORTHODOX OBSERVER

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JANUARY 2000

1999

Archdiocese Extends Appreciation to Total Commitment Parishes AS OF DECEMBER 1st, 1999

1999

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ARCHDIOCESAN DISTRICT: Annunciation Church Stamford, CT Assumption DIOCESE OF SAN FRANCISCO: Holy Transfiguration Church Anchorage, AK Church Danbury, CT Holy Trinity Church Bridgeport, CT Holy Trinity Church Assumption Scottsdale, AZ Holy Trinity Cathedral Phoenix, AZ St. Haralambos Waterbury, CT Saint Basil the Great Church New Haven, CT St. Barbara Church Church Peoria, AZ St. Katherine Church Chandler, AZ Annunciation Church Orange, CT St. George Church New Britain, CT Saint Sophia Cathedral Wash- Modesto, CA Annunciation Church Sacramento, CA Assumption of the Blessed ington, DC SS. Constantine & Helen Church Washington, DC Annunciation Virgin Mary Long Beach, CA Church of the Resurrection Castro Valley, CA Greek Church New York City, NY Archangel Michael Church Roslyn Heights, NY Orthodox Church of Roseville Roseville, CA Holy Trinity San Francisco, CA Assumption Church Port Jefferson, NY Church Of Our Saviour Rye, NY Church Nativity of Christ Church Ignacio, CA Prophet Elias Church San Bernardino, CA of the Assumption Windham, NY Church of the Resurrection Glen Cove, NY St. Barbara Church Santa Barbara, CA St. Basil Church San Jose, CA St. Basil Holy Cross Church Middletown, NY Holy Cross Church Whitestone, NY Holy Church Stockton, CA St. Constantine & Helen Church Cardiff-By-The-Sea, CA St. Demetrios Church Camarillo, CA St. Trinity Cathedral New York, NY Holy Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church ConTrinity Church Hicksville, NY Holy cord, CA St. George Greek Orthodox Trinity Church New Rochelle, NY Church Downey, CA St. Gregory of Kimisis Tis Theotokos Church Island The Department of Stewardship Ministries extends its Nyssa El Cajon, CA St. John The BapPark, NY Kimisis Tis Theotokou deepest appreciation and thanks to all the parishes who faithtist Church Anaheim, CA St. John the Church Brooklyn, NY Saint Sophia fully participated in the Total Commitment Program of our Baptist Church Salinas, CA St. Church Albany, NY SS. Anargyroi Katherine Church Redondo Beach, CA Church New York City, NY SS. Holy Archdiocese.

St. Katherine Greek Orthodox Church Constantine & Helen Church Jackson The National Ministries are our witness to the world, and Elk Grove, CA St. Nectarios Church Heights, NY SS. Constantine & Helen Covina, CA St. Nicholas Church Church West Nyack, NY St. Barbara all parishes who contribute their offerings each month are Northridge, CA St. Nicholas Church San Church New York City, NY St. Basil an important part of that witness.

Jose, CA St. Paul Church Irvine, CA Church Troy, NY St. Demetrios CaThis is a listing of those churches which have met their The Prophet Elias Church Santa Cruz, CA thedral Astoria, NY St. Demetrios SS. Constantine & Helen Church HoChurch Jamaica, NY St. Demetrios Total Commitment obligations for 1999. We pray that 2000 nolulu, HI Holy Trinity Church PortChurch Merrick, NY St. Eleftherios will continue to be a year of commitment and inspiration for land, OR St. George Church Eugene, Church New York City, NY St. George OR Assumption Church Seattle, WA - St. Demetrios Church New York City, all of our Orthodox faithful.

Holy Trinity Church Spokane, WA Saint NY St. George Church Kingston, NY Very Rev. Father J. Gabriel Karambis Sophia Church Bellingham, WA St. George Church Schenectady, NY Director of Stewardship Ministries St. John Church Blue Point, NY St. DIOCESE OF ATLANTA: Annunciation John The Baptist Church New York Mobile, AL Annunciation Church City, NY St. Nicholas Church Montgomery, AL Holy Trinity Church Port Charlotte, FL SS. Markella & Newburgh, NY St. Nicholas Shrine Church Flushing, NY St. Paraskevi Church Demetrios Church Ft. Walton Beach, FL St Demetrios Church Daytona Beach, Greenlawn, NY St. Paul Cathedral Hempstead, NY St. Spyridon Church New FL St. Andrew Church Miami, FL St. Catherine Church West Palm Beach, FL York City, NY Transfiguration Church Corona, NY Transfiguration Of Christ St. Elizabeth Greek Orthodox Church Gainesville, FL St. George Church HollyChurch Mattituck, NY Zoodohos Peghe Church Bronx, NY wood, FL St. George Church New Port Richey, FL St. John The Baptist Church DIOCESE OF NEW JERSEY: Holy Trinity Church Wilmington, DE Annuncia- Tampa, FL St. John the Divine Jacksonville, FL St. John The Theologian Church tion Cathedral Baltimore, MD SS. Constantine & Helen Church Annapolis, MD Panama City, FL St. Katherine Church Melbourne, FL St. Stefanos Church St. St. George Church Bethesda, MD St. George Church Ocean City, MD St. Petersburg, FL Holy Cross Macon, GA Holy Transfiguration Marietta, GA Theodore Church Lanham, MD Evangelismos Jersey City, NJ Holy Trinity Holy Trinity Church Augusta, GA SS. Constantine & Helen Church Monroe, LA Church Egg Harbor Township, NJ St. Andrew Church Randolph, NJ St. An- Annunciation Church Winston-Salem, NC Dormition Of The Theotokos thony Church Vineland, NJ St. Barbara Church Toms River, NJ St. Demetrios Church Greensboro, NC Holy Trinity Church Asheville, NC Holy Trinity Church North Wildwood, NJ St. George Church Asbury Park, NJ St. George Church Raleigh, NC SS. Constantine & Helen Church Fayetteville, NC St. Church Clifton, NJ St. George Church Piscataway, NJ St. Nicholas Church George Church High Point, NC St. Nektarios Church Charlotte, NC St. NichoNewark, NJ St. Nicholas Church Wyckoff, NJ Evangelismos Greek Orthodox las Church Wilmington, NC Holy Trinity Church Charleston, SC Holy Trinity Church Philadelphia, PA St. George Cathedral Philadelphia, PA St. George Church Columbia, SC St. John The Baptist Church Myrtle Beach, SC TransChurch Media, PA St. Luke Church Broomall, PA St. Sophia, SS. Faith, Hope & figuration Church Florence, SC Agape Jeffersonville, PA Dormition of the Virgin Mary Winchester, VA SS. DIOCESE OF PITTSBURGH: Annunciation Church Akron, OH Annunciation Constantine & Helen Cathedral Richmond, VA St. George Church Lynchburg, Church Cleveland, OH SS. Constantine & Helen Church Mansfield, OH St. VA St. Katherine Church Falls Church, VA St. Nicholas Church Virginia Beach, Demetrios Church Warren, OH St. Paul Church North Royalton, OH All Saints VA The Nativity of the Theotokos Fredericksburg, VA Transfiguration Church Church Canonsburg, PA Annunciation Church McKeesport/White Oak Boro, PA Charlottesville, VA Holy Cross Church Stroudsburg, PA Holy Trinity Church Pittsburgh, PA DIOCESE OF CHICAGO: St. Demetrios Church Waterloo, IA St. Elias The Prophet Kimisis Tis Theotokou Church Aliquippa, PA Presentation of Christ Church Church Dubuque, IA St. George Church Des Moines, IA St. John The Baptist East Pittsburgh, PA SS. Constantine & Helen Church Reading, PA St. Mary s Church Cedar Rapids, IA All Saints Church Joliet, IL All Saints Church Peoria, Church Johnstown, PA St. Nicholas Church Bethlehem, PA St. Spyridon IL Annunciation Cathedral Chicago, IL Annunciation Church Kankakee, IL Church Monessen, PA Assumption Church Morgantown, WV St. John Church Ascension of Our Lord Greek Orthodox Chu Lincolnshire, IL Assumption Church Charleston, WV Chicago, IL Holy Apostles Church Westchester, IL Holy Taxiarchai - St. DIOCESE OF DETROIT: Annunciation Church Little Rock, AR Holy Trinity Haralambos Church Niles, IL Holy Trinity Church Chicago, IL Saint Sophia Church Indianapolis, IN Assumption Church Louisville, KY Panagia Church Elgin, IL SS. Constantine & Helen Church Palos Hills, IL St. Andrew Pantovasilissa Lexington, KY Annunciation & Agia Paraskevi New Buffalo, MI Church Chicago, IL St. Anthony Church Springfield, IL St. Athanasios Church Annunciation Cathedral Detroit, MI Annunciation Church Muskegon, MI AsAurora, IL St. Basil Church Chicago, IL St. Demetrios Church Elmhurst, IL sumption Church Flint, MI Holy Trinity Church Grand Rapids, MI Holy TrinSt. Demetrios Church Waukegan, IL St. George Church Dekalb, IL St. John ity Church Lansing, MI SS. Constantine & Helen Church Westland, MI St. The Baptist Church Des Plaines, IL St. Nectarios Church Palatine, IL St. Nicholas Demetrios Church Saginaw, MI St. George Church Bloomfield Hills, MI St. Church Oak Lawn, IL Three Hierarchs Church Champaign, IL St. Andrew George Church Sault Ste. Marie, MI St. George Church Southgate, MI St. John Church South Bend, IN St. Demetrios Church Hammond, IN St. Iakovos Church Sterling Heights, MI St. Nicholas Church Ann Arbor, MI St. Nicholas Church Valparaiso, IN Holy Anargyroi SS. Cosmas & Damianos Rochester, MN Church Troy, MI St. Panteleimon Monastery Lexington, MI St. Athanasios St. Mary s Church Minneapolis, MN The Twelve Holy Apostles Church Duluth, Church Elmira, NY St. Nicholas Church Jamestown, NY St. Vasilios Church MN Assumption Church Town & Country, MO St. Nicholas Church St. Louis, Watertown, NY St.Catherine Church Ithaca, NY Holy Trinity - St. Nicholas MO Annunciation Church Milwaukee, WI Assumption Church Madison, WI Church Cincinnati, OH Holy Trinity Cathedral Toledo, OH SS. Constantine & Holy Trinity Church Fond Du Lac, WI Kimisis Tis Theotokou Church Racine, Helen Church Middletown, OH Holy Trinity Church Nashville, TN WI St. Nicholas Church Appleton, WI St. Spyridon Church Sheboygan, WI DIOCESE OF DENVER: Saint Catherine Church Greenwood Village, CO SS. DIOCESE OF BOSTON: Holy Trinity Church Norwich, CT St. Nicholas Church Peter & Paul Church Boulder, CO St. John The Baptist Church Craig, CO St. Enfield, CT Annunciation Church Newburyport, MA Annunciation Church Michael Church Colorado Springs, CO St. Nicholas Grand Junction, CO SS. Woburn, MA Assumption Church Lowell, MA Dormition of the Virgin Mary Constantine & Helen Church Boise, ID St. Dionysios Church Overland Park, KS Church Somerville, MA Holy Trinity Church Fitchburg, MA SS. Anargyroi Annunciation Church Missoula, MT Annunciation Church Lincoln, NE AsChurch Marlboro, MA SS. Constantine & Helen Church Andover, MA St. George sumption Church Bayard, NE St. John The Baptist Church Omaha, NE St. Cathedral Springfield, MA St. George Church Lynn, MA St. George Church Elias the Prophet Church Santa Fe, NM Holy Trinity Tulsa, OK St. George New Bedford, MA St. Gregory the Theologian Mansfield,, MA St. John The Church Oklahoma City, OK Annunciation Cathedral Houston, TX AssumpBaptist Church Boston, MA St. Nicholas Church Lexington, MA Transfigura- tion Church Galveston, TX Assumption Church San Angelo, TX Holy Trinity tion of Our Saviour Church Lowell, MA St. Demetrios Church Biddeford, ME Dallas, TX Saint Sophia Church San Antonio, TX St. Andrew Church Lubbock, Annunciation Church Dover, NH Assumption Church Somersworth, NH Holy TX St. Demetrios Church Fort Worth, TX St. John The Baptist Church Euless, Trinity Church Concord, NH St. Nicholas Church Manchester, NH St. Nicho- TX St. John the Theologian Orthodox Church Webster, TX St. Nicholas Church las Greek Orthodox Church Portsmouth, NH St. Vasilios Church Newport, NH Corpus Christi, TX St. Nicholas Church El Paso, TX St. Nicholas Church Waco, Taxiarchai Church Laconia, NH Annunciation Church Cranston, RI Assump- TX Transfiguration Greek Orthodox Church Austin, TX Assumption Church tion Greek Orthodox Church Pawtucket, RI Dormition Of The Mother Of God Price, UT Transfiguration Church Ogden, UT Holy Trinity Casper, WY SS. Church Burlington, VT Constantine & Helen Church Cheyenne, WY

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