Praxis - Winter 2012 - Vol. 11, Iss. 2 - Social Justice

Winter 2012

Vol. 11, Issue 2: Social Justice $4.95

T

he icon of the Hospitality of Abraham is one of the most beloved images in the Orthodox Church. The image depicts the scene from Genesis 18:1–15, when Abraham and Sarah welcomed three strangers to rest and dine at their tent. The strangers announce that by the time of their return trip, Sarah will have borne a son. Because of her advanced age, Sarah laughed at this news, but the visitors say, “Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?” Of course, the son is born: Isaac (Genesis 21:1–7).

The icon is also called “The Holy Trinity” because the three strangers can be understood to be a revelation of the Holy Trinity. Throughout the story, the speakers are named as “the Lord.”

Examining the icon more closely, we see a single tree in the background, representing the oaks of Mamre—a place where caravans of nomads and shepherds would

gather, not too far from modern-day Hebron. The building represents Abraham’s tents.

Abraham and Sarah are not depicted in this particular icon. This is a point of discussion among some iconographers. Some argue that their absence diminishes the historicity of the story, whereas others argue that the point is the revelation of the Trinity, so Abraham and Sarah’s presence in the icon is not needed.

The three visitors are depicted as angels, not because the story says they are angelic figures—they are called “men”—but because of their announcing that Sarah will give birth. Each holds a walking stick. A regular question is, “Which one is the Father, which is the Son, and which is the Holy Spirit?” The icon does not tell us. Some have said that the Father sits at the head of the table—in the center—with the Son to His right.

Others have said it is the Son who is seated at the head.

WISDOM, ANCIENT AND MODERN The aim of all those who live in God is to please our Lord Jesus Christ and become reconciled with God the Father through receiving the Holy Spirit, thus securing salvation. If this aim is lacking, all other striving is in vain.

St. Symeon the New Theologian Your throne, O God, is forever and ever; a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom.

Psalm 45:6 Our life of poverty is as necessary as the work itself. Only in heaven will we see how much we owe to the poor for helping us to love God better because of them.

Mother Teresa But how to respond to hatred? Here you learn that often the best dialogue is in silence; it is love without arguments. Only remember you cannot love without cost, neither Christ nor anyone.

Archbishop Anastasios of Albania And if a stranger dwells with you in your land, you shall not mistreat him.

Leviticus 19:33 In the absence of justice, what is sovereignty but organized robbery?

St. Augustine If we all took only what was necessary to satisfy our needs, giving the rest to those who lack, no one would be rich, no one would be poor, and no one would be in need.

St. Basil the Great Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. Ephesians 2:19 Let brotherly love continue. Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some have unwittingly entertained angels. Remember the prisoners as if chained with them— those who are mistreated—since you yourselves are in the body also.

Hebrews 13:1–3 If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead.

James 2:15–17 (NRSV) Love of neighbor is more important than prayer.

St. John Climacus Hunger is the most pitiable of all ills, the worst of miseries, the most fearful of deaths….

Hunger is a long slow punishment.

St. Basil the Great

† DEMETRIOS Archbishop of America

Beloved Brothers and Sisters in Christ, The topic of this issue of PRAXIS, social justice, is very challenging and essential in your work as religious educators. It is a broad area that relates to so many aspects of the life of faith; and it is also a topic where clarity and guidance is needed in the application of our Orthodox Faith to the real circumstances of our contemporary world.

It is crucial that you engage with social justice issues in the teaching ministry of the Church, especially when we teach our children and our young people. First, so many of these issues are directly related to the teachings of Christ regarding our relationships with God and with every other human being. By word and example He revealed that love of God and love of neighbor are the foundation of our faith in Him and our life in the world (Matthew 22:34–40).

Second, it is important that you recognize the extent of these issues and their effects on our lives. Our experience of the grace of God and our understanding of justice as revealed through Christ connects us to challenges of our human experience.

We respond in compassion to human suffering, whether caused by natural disaster or abuse of power. We offer comfort and provision to the sick, the hungry, the poor, the traveler, the prisoner and the elderly. We live as good and faithful stewards of natural resources, property and material possessions, so that we neither waste what has been given to us nor disadvantage others.

We also are prepared to confront any injustice in our world, anything in our society or culture that demeans human life and need or diminishes the security and freedom of others for the sake of power, greed or wealth.

Finally, this focus on social justice within the teaching ministry of the parish is related to your calling to teach by example.

In classrooms, parish halls and sanctuaries, the faithful hear and discuss the relationship of faith to life. They also need real and Christ-like examples, offered by educators who know their Orthodox Faith, who live in communion with God and who are witnesses of grace, virtue and justice through their praxis. All around us are people who need mercy, protection, peace and hope.

You have a great opportunity to lead and teach others through your service, showing them how to respond to these needs and meet the injustices of our world with the grace of God. May He continue to give you strength and wisdom in your faithful service to Him and His people, and may your teaching by word and deed inspire others to seek deeper communion with God and greater compassion for their neighbor.

With paternal love in Christ,

† DEMETRIOS Archbishop of America

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† ALEXIOS Metropolitan of Atlanta

Dear Readers of PRAXIS, As Orthodox Christians, all of us, with our friends and family, are joined together in a unity of love, strengthened and supported for the trials and tribulations of life in our modern society. Too often we take His blessings for granted, and we forget that to give thanks to God and to others is a divine occasion—indeed giving thanks is an essential, but often disregarded, part of our life in Christ. After all, everything we are and all we have is a gift from God. Everything is His. We are merely the stewards, the managers of all that He has given to us.

Sometimes we take for granted the blessings that we receive from Almighty God, including the love and care that we receive from parents, family and friends. Often we think that such care and devotion is just an ordinary part of life. Yet the element that beautifies and transforms ordinary expressions of affection does not come from the giver but from God. With a more thankful heart, we can become less materialistic and more charitable.

During Great Lent, with the Gospel of the parable of the Last Judgment (Matthew 25:31–46), our merciful God shows us the criteria by which we will be judged: our relationship with our brothers and sisters, and how we are to relate to them, no matter how they relate to us. We must care for them and serve them, as we would Christ Himself, in practical, concrete ways: feeding, clothing, visiting and so on. Christ teaches us that our fate will depend on how we have met the physical and spiritual needs of others as we seek to serve each other in His name and by His grace, or as we fail to do so.

The spiritual disciplines of our Orthodox Faith call us to fasting, prayer and charity, so when we observe the Lenten fast, for example, we are not only learning how to control ourselves by not eating certain foods, but also, and more importantly, learning to be charitable.

In learning to be more charitable, we make a connection with the person we are serving. In this way, we transform ourselves, joining with God in a loving relationship and a spirit of serving others. After all, true philanthropia is primarily a relationship with those less fortunate, so that we recognize that the person we are helping is an individual, made in the image and likeness of God, and not just a case to be managed or a hard-luck story. Unlike other philanthropic organizations, which do things altruistically, our service to others is beyond altruism, being grounded in and motivated by the genuine spirit of Christian love.

Then both giving with love and receiving with gratitude becomes a part of the greater unity and love of the Holy Trinity.

Especially as we remember the Birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and look forward to his death and Resurrection, we should not forget those who are in need, the poor, the sick, the disabled, those who are in pain or suffering from psychological trauma, the lonely, the bereaved and the homeless. With them we share our common humanity and a relationship as children of the Heavenly Father.

I pray that His goodness and mercy will so fill our hearts that we do not forget those brothers and sisters that our Lord called “the least of these, my brethren.”

I remain, prayerfully yours, with love in His service,

† ALEXIOS Metropolitan of Atlanta PRAXIS

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1474; 28), CrossRoad (5, 19, 20, 21), Hippy Kitty (12), Steven Klund (9, 24, 32, 35), Dorothea Lange ( Migrant Mother, 1936; 4), Andrea Laurita (11), Theo Nicolakis (37), Orthodox Christian Network (38), Joanne Stavrakas (10), Theologic (1), Hélène Vallée (5, 13), Vincent VanGogh ( The Good Samaritan, after Delacroix, 1890; inside back), Wallpaper Hive (6), Works of Mercy Mural (12th c.; photo by Jim Forest; 5, 10) The views expressed in this magazine are not necessarily the views of the Department of Religious Education. © 2012, Department of Religious Education of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. ISSN 1530-0595.

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FEATURES

Volume 11, Issue 2: Social Justice

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LOVE AND THE KINGDOM

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FEED THE HUNGRY PROGRAM TURNS 20

Rev. Fr. Mark Elliott

Maria A. Karamitsos

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SAINT LUKE’S NIGHT OF SHARING: PUTTING OUR FAITH INTO ACTION Pearl Homiak

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H OMELESS OUTREACH MINISTRY

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I W AS A STRANGER

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T EACHING OUR CHILDREN COMPASSION

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L OVING OUR NEIGHBOR: S EEING CHRIST IN THE FACE OF THE HOMELESS

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Despina Kartson

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Eva Stathi

Melissa K. Tsongranis

Anna Colis

SERIES & ARTICLES 22

B OOK REVIEWS:

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DOING GOOD TOGETHER – JENNY FRIEDMAN AND JOLENE ROEHLKEPARTAIN Reviewed by Aimee Cox Ehrs

THE TOMORROWS CHILDREN FACE WHEN A PARENT DIES DVD Reviewed by Anton C. Vrame

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R ELIGIOUS EDUCATION BASICS: KNOW. BELIEVE. DO. Aimee Cox Ehrs

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P ARENT TO PARENT

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T HE INFLUENCE OF SACRED LEADERSHIP

Jeanette Aydlette & Elizabeth Borch

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Rev. Dr. Frank Marangos

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PARENTS, SPEAK UP! HONORING SUNDAY Rev. Fr. Andrew George

INTERNET PORNOGRAPHY: THE CURRENT PLAGUE

Albert S. Rossi

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T HE RELIGIOUS ALLIANCE AGAINST PORNOGRAPHY

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FROM THE DIRECTOR: M ORE THAN LITURGY...

Theo Nicolakis

Anton C. Vrame

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Love and the Kingdom

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e care for our families and those close to us as a matter of course. We easily love those who love us. In our communities, each and every Lord’s Day, the faithful dutifully pray for “the sick, the suffering, for captives and their salvation.”

Parishes generally practice some sort of philanthropy— collecting food and clothing, periodically taking a turn at the local soup kitchen, maybe even getting involved with a local, state or federal government agency project. Parishbased Philoptochos chapters raise money in order to meet an array of national and local obligations each month. Church schools and youth groups participate in “service projects” that take them out of their comfort zones ever so briefly and leave each member with a warm fuzzy feeling for helping the downtrodden. Peppered throughout, however, are the critics who insist charity begins and should remain at home, or argue that social action properly belongs in the domain of agencies that can muster more substantial federal, state and private sector resources to implement their programs. Sometimes, a parish’s genuine desire for outreach is stymied because of overarching capital expenses. Keeping the lights on and the heating and cooling systems running are real concerns in a parish.

Still, whether we practice some sort of philanthropy as parishes, as organizations within the community or as page 6

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Rev. Fr. Mark Elliott individuals, we are only scratching the surface of our potential as the people of God. For this we should beware; for as the beloved disciple reminds us, “My little children, let us not love in word or in tongue, but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:18). At issue is not the generation of more creative ideas, having another fundraiser or even adding another activity to the GOYA calendar. Such things are overflow from something more fundamental and dynamic: our transformation.

The Apostles who bore witness to the resurrection with great power and grace during the Church’s early days had been transformed by the message of what Christ had accomplished.

This “great grace,” so prevalent in the Church’s earliest days when the Apostles’ testimony to the resurrection of Christ united the faithful in “heart and soul,” is what moved them to care for the needy (Acts 2:43–47, 4:32–5:16). They became receptacles of His love to the point of overflow, and that overflow took shape as their proclaiming the kingdom of God. It is hardly a surprise that the kingdom of God, the central theme of Christ’s teaching, weaves through the Acts of the Apostles.

St. Luke even identifies it as prominent in St. Paul’s preaching as he loosened “the chains of sins for those who believed” (Acts

19:8, 28:23, 31, and Cassiodorus, Commentary on the Book of Acts, PL 70:1406). The authentic Christian life, like that in apostolic times, calls us to internalize the Lord’s command to “seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness” and “not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things” (Matthew 6:33, 34). Although the kingdom is at once never-ending and a future hope, it is also meant to be realized in this world by the Church in its faithful imitation of Christ’s love. This remains no small task, for the desire to imitate God’s love to the point of overflow presumes our own transformation. “What is required,” according to Elder Porphyrios, “is for us all to be one with Christ as the head.

This is the only way in which we will acquire grace, heaven and eternal life” (Wounded by Love, p. 180).

Reception of the body and blood of Christ is the obvious moment in which we experience Christ’s love and union with Him. Gathered as the Church we momentarily experience the kingdom, and feast at a banquet of peace and joy, fed by the One who offered Himself for the life of the world. This all-toobrief ascent shows us, through the grace of the Holy Spirit, the meaning of sacrificial love. We have beheld the resurrection and worshipped the Lord Jesus, the only sinless One, prayed for the world’s transformation and renewed our commitment to the Savior. We “depart in peace” from the kingdom for the world once again, with a greater awareness that it is sorely in need of Christ’s love manifest through us with power and grace. Taking a new course with our lives, His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew says we should awaken from indifference, extending “our compassion to victims of poverty, discrimination and all forms of social injustice” (Encountering the Mystery, p. 151).

Transformation is also experienced when we live a life of prayer and repentance. Union requires communication and the breaking down of barriers. Prayer at its most basic level is conversation. Before Him, shed of pretension and excuses, we can pour out our hearts before God because He loves us unconditionally. He knows the truth about our inner struggles and outward passions, our heart and head, and He can see through the self-delusions that too often shape our daily lives. To come to this realization is quite liberating. Freed from our inhibitions we can learn to repent and be free from our sins. Unburdened from our sins through confession, we are better able to mold our lives so as to imitate Christ’s love. We come to discover that the kingdom we aspire to make real in the world is already spiritually within us. St. Macarius of Optina explains that it is necessary to seek the kingdom within, “cleansing by the heart of the passions and provocations of the enemy, not judging or reproaching anyone” (Living without Hypocrisy: Spiritual Counsels of the Holy Elders of Optina, p. 203). This

kingdom within is nothing SOCIAL JUSTICE less than the presence of the grace of Holy Spirit. And with this grace, amazing things happen through us. While instructing his spiritual son Motovilov, St. Seraphim of Sarov exhorted believers, saying: The Lord seeks a heart filled to overflowing with love for God and our neighbor; this is the throne on which He loves to sit and on which He appears in the fullness of His heavenly glory. “Son, give Me thy heart” (Proverbs 23:26) He says, “and all the rest I Myself will add to thee,” for in the human heart the Kingdom of God can be contained. The Lord listens equally to a monk and to a simple Christian layman…provided they are both Orthodox, and both love God from the depth of their souls, and both have faith in him, if only as a grain of mustard seed (Luke 17:6); they both will move mountains (Mark 11:23). (Archimandrite Lazarus Moore, An Extraordinary Peace: St. Seraphim, Flame of Sarov, p. 172) Initially, all this might suggest a discouraging impasse whereby one must achieve union with God (theosis) in order to build the kingdom on this earth. Not so. Doing the things that will address the needs of a hurting world advances the life-long work of our own transformation. St. Seraphim of Sarov further echoed this sentiment, saying, “The Lord Jesus personally gives us this commandment to love one another, so that, by consoling one another with this mutual love, we may lighten the sorrowful and narrow way of our own journey to the heavenly country” (An Extraordinary Peace, p. 136). Our path to God is through selfless service to others, thus a connection will always exist between the spiritual life and our activity in the world; as His All-Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew insists, “The transformation of the heart can and must lead to the transformation of society” (Encountering the Mystery, p. 151).

Our lives are meant, therefore, to be both a union with God and our fellow human beings, even those who might be distant from Him and His Church. The early Church clearly cared for its own by organizing common meals, raising money to help the poor, widows and orphans, providing material help for prisoners and travelers, as well as burying the dead. All were ways of imitating Christ. The Byzantine Empire, using its significant resources, established hospitals, orphanages, poor houses and hostels for travelers, but these endeavors had a stillhigher purpose, beyond simply relieving sickness and suffering.

Acts of compassion, as undertaken by emperors, the Church and others, were understood to be service to God though they did not constitute a systematized or comprehensive program to eradicate societal woes. As with the reception of Holy PRAXIS

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Communion, philanthropy at once affirmed a mutual fellowship shared by all created in God’s image and likeness, while also giving expression to an eschatological hope for its complete realization in the kingdom to come.

The experience of God’s love naturally moves us to love others. Conversely, loving others leads us to Christ. The transformed person contributes, by God’s power and grace, to the building up of the kingdom of God in this world.

“The man is fortunate indeed who has been found worthy to receive these two loves in his heart; love of God and love for his brothers,” according to St. Kosmas Aitolos. For “If you want to be saved don’t seek any other thing in this world except love.” Loving God and loving others saves us and lays the foundation for the kingdom here and now. To pray “Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven” is to invite our own personal transformation while also dedicating ourselves to making God’s kingdom an earthly reality. When extended to others, a genuine overflow of God’s love from us can show no partiality.

The Lord bases our worthiness of entry into His eternal kingdom upon our feeding the hungry, giving drink to the SOCIAL JUSTICE

thirsty, taking in strangers, clothing the naked and visiting the sick and imprisoned (Matthew 25:31–36). We are also expected to love our enemies and look after our neighbors (Matthew 5:44, Luke 6:22–37). Living in a pluralistic society as we do, it may be tempting to merely extend ourselves to those who form our immediate circle. The love of Christ, however, knows no boundaries but does compel us to first offer physical and spiritual assistance to parents, children, relatives, friends, authorities, benefactors, those under our authority and fellow believers (Metr. Gregory [Postnikov] of St. Petersburg, How to Live a Holy Life, pages 34–38). In particular, we should want to visit and comfort the sick and those with disabilities. Further, we are to pray for those who have fallen asleep in the Lord, and even offer alms in their memory. We should want to inspire our neighbor to live a spiritual life by our sincere and humble example.

Given the opportunity, physical and spiritual help ought to be extended to the morally corrupt, strangers, people outside the Faith and even those hostile to it, including atheists, because all are human beings with immortal souls created in the likeness of God. Of the two types of help rendered, the spiritual is superior to physical; ideally, though, the latter should be offered in such a way that it contributes to the former. Such individuals especially need the example of Christ-like love and our prayers for them. Metropolitan Gregory warns that this will be a cross to bear, for people are usually grateful for physical assistance, but almost never for spiritual help. Spiritual help is frequently met with hostility.

This too comes with the imitation of Christ’s love.

We are called to be transformed by our experience of Christ’s love. This kingdom is indeed within us. The kingdom on earth is built by the overflow of Christ’s love we experience in prayer and worship manifest when we reach out to those in need. The kingdom within and kingdom around us are but glimpses of future eternal kingdom. Those we teach need see our faith, especially our love for God, and they need to be told time and again the story of salvation, and make it their own. And if we expect them to share in our hope for the kingdom to come, they need to be taught to pray and worship in order to experience Christ’s love and discover the kingdom within. Lastly, they need to be given Christian things to do so that the light of Christ in them might be manifest to others. Most likely, they will be doing the same sort of things they did before, but with a different spirit and new sense of purpose. In short, guide their transformations so that others may experience transformation through them by the power and “great grace” of God. Rev. Fr. Mark Elliott is a priest of the Greek Orthodox Church and serves the St. George parish in Huntington, WV.

FEED THE HUNGRY PROGRAM TURNS

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Maria A. Karamitsos

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t’s always been the mission of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Chicago Philoptochos to help those in need. In keeping with this mission, for years, members of the then-Diocese Philoptochos would participate in the Salvation Army soup kitchen, serving meals to the less fortunate. Then one day, Georgia Barris, who served as the president twenty years ago, began to ponder why we were not hosting our own program. She determined to make it happen, and she did. Twenty years later, the program is flourishing and includes all of the Philoptochos chapters in the Chicago area.

“It was back in 1991,” Mrs. Barris recalled. “I felt that we should have our own Feed the Hungry Program. So I approached (then-) Bishop Iakovos, and he gave his blessings to move forward. I told him not to worry; I was sure I could do it.” The representative from the Annunciation Cathedral had noted that many people would come to their door asking for food. Therefore, Mrs. Barris believed that made it both an ideal and central location for the program. “With Fr. Nick’s (Nikokavouras) assistance and a letter from the bishop, we secured the approval of the parish council to use their facilities,

and they agreed to open their doors to us to host our Diocese Feed the Hungry Program.”

On Saturdays, a church nearby the Annunciation also fed the hungry. Mrs. Barris went to survey just how they managed their program. “Then I made up flyers and passed them out. We soon began feeding the homeless once a month, then discovered that wasn’t enough. We needed more programs and more people to host them,” she explained. At the next president’s meeting, she brought a measure to the table, asking all Philoptochos chapters to support the Feed the Hungry Program. The response was a resounding yes. Now twenty-three Chicago area parishes participate in the program.

Each parish takes a turn, which works out to be about once a year. Mrs. Barris is still coordinating this program today— and she’s not slowing down. At the end of each year, she designates dates for each chapter to host for the following year.

The soup kitchens are held on the second Tuesday and the last Tuesday of each month, at 11:30 am. Each chapter is responsible for bringing prepared food and about ten ladies to heat and serve, and then clean the facility. “We serve lunch, and I in-

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sist on a nutritious meal: a meat, a starch, a vegetable, and then a beverage and dessert,” Mrs. Barris continued. They also bring used clothing that they collect in their parishes to distribute. “I don’t ever have to remind the chapters of their dates or what to do. Everyone knows what to do and they are ready to do it.”

The first meal was served to eighty individuals in May 1991.

Today 130–150 people are served at each session. Some estimate that, over the years, more than 25,000 meals have been served— that’s 25,000 people who otherwise wouldn’t have had a hot meal.

“It’s so gratifying to see the expressions on the faces of those individuals and hear the kind words they express,” shared Mrs. Barris.

From the beginning, His Eminence Metropolitan Iakovos

can provide these items to us,” she stated. “It’s something we are proud to do. In fact, there are three or four volunteers who are with us for every single session. The program’s been very successful. It’s a rewarding experience for all who participate,” she reiterated.

“Mrs. Barris is really to be commended for this. We’ve now appointed Georgia Gavaris, a past president of the Annunciation Cathedral’s Philoptochos, to assist her in these efforts,” stated Joanne Stavrakas, Metropolis Philoptochos President.

Mrs. Barris acknowledged all those whose service has made this program a success. “From Fr. Nick and the parish council of the Annunciation Cathedral for the use of their facility each month, to all the chapters, volunteers, and always to His Eminence for supporting this initiative.”

has asked the group to provide a Thanksgiving meal each year.

He attends on that day, helps to serve and spends time with the people.

The financial commitment for each meal is borne by each chapter. The metropolis provides the bread through the generous donations of Mr. Frank Kuchuris of East Balt Bakery. “For years, Ernie Cachanis had been providing cups, napkins, cutlery and sugar packets from his McDonald’s in Wrigleyville. Then he sold the place. So we are always on the lookout for someone who

There are only so many chapters and so many Tuesdays, so at this time the program can’t be expanded, though they do plan to continue it for many years to come, as unfortunately, there will always be people in need.

SOCIAL JUSTICE

Maria A. Karamitsos is Associate Editor and Lead Writer for The Greek Star newspaper.

The preceding article was printed in the December 23, 2010, issue of The Greek Star. © 2010. Reprinted with permission.

, Saint Luke s Night of Sharing: Putting Our Faith into Action

Pearl Homiak I was hungry and you gave me food; I was thirsty and you gave me drink; I was a stranger and you took me in…Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did (these things) to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me. (Matthew 25:35, 40)

A

bby (not her real name; all names have been changed) is a twenty-something who was in a car accident that badly damaged her knee so she could no longer work. Soon she could no longer pay her rent and was evicted.

Brenda, who is in her fifties, has been battling her controlling ex-husband. He continually thwarts her attempts to access the funds needed for housing. Although she found part-time work, she cannot afford to rent an apartment.

Cassie, who is in her forties, has a husband and children, but he threw her out last year. She has few skills and limited employment options.

Della is a fifty-something woman who has diabetes, which recently led to both a foot amputation and eye surgery. Although she was once a certified emergency medical technician,

she can’t work right now and has no place to live.

These are a few of the many actual circumstances that bring 10–20 women (and a few children) to St. Luke every Monday evening for food and shelter.

HOW DID WE GET HERE?

In the spring of 2007, a nonprofit agency called Public Action to Deliver Services (PADS) approached our parish with a need we ultimately could not refuse. PADS asked us to host homeless women and children on Monday nights throughout the winter, beginning on October 15, 2007. Although some parishioners were uncertain about this request, many others felt it was time to put our Orthodox Faith into action.

God had given us a beautiful new building and the means to pay for it. Perhaps PADS’s request was part of God’s plan for the use of our facilities.

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PADS was established seventeen years ago. and since then it has served the homeless by providing nightly wintertime food and shelter. PADS also provides daytime services that our homeless guests can access. Medical care, social services, job skills development and education assistance are just a few of the ways in which PADS helps the homeless get back on their feet.

St. Luke the Evangelist Church (OCA) is the thirtieth SOCIAL JUSTICE

After dinner the guests retire to their beds, watch a movie, read or just chat until about 10:15, when the lights go out.

Between 5:30 and 6:00 am on Tuesday morning, the guests are awakened so they can prepare to leave for the day. They have breakfast and are given a bag lunch, and then they depart between 6:30 and 7:00.

HOW DO WE DO IT?

Facilitating this program at St. Luke (and other sites) requires many volunteers. At least four or five people are needed from 6:00 to 11:00 pm, two or three for each of the two night shifts (10:45–3:00 and 2:45–7:00), and one or two for clean up on Tuesday morning. The food team arrives at 6:30 pm and is ready to leave by 8:30. In addition, other volunteers transport paperwork and laundry and make reminder calls each week.

Even though our shelter site is open every Monday evening, volunteers are asked to commit to just one shift per month, although some do less and others do more.

As of now, thirty-eight St. Luke parishioners have participated in our St. Luke Night of Sharing in one way or another. PADS provides additional volunteers as needed, some of whom are high school or college students who need service learning hours for their classes. Not only do volunteers interact with the guests, but they also get to know each other. We work together to provide a pleasant atmosphere for our guests. We also pray for each of our guests through the St. Luke Prayer Ministry, and we have selected St. Paraskeva of Serbia (known for her care of the poor, and who also moved from city to city) as the patron saint of this endeavor.

HOW MUCH TIME DOES IT TAKE?

faith community in the south suburbs of Chicago, and the first Orthodox parish among them, to provide a winter shelter site for the homeless. Every Monday we lay out twenty mattresses, bedding and towels (all provided by PADS) for our homeless guests. At 6:30 pm they begin to arrive. Each guest must show a PADS identification card to be admitted. At about 7:15, our food team serves a hot dinner to our guests. The food team also provides breakfast and lunch items for the next day. page 12

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Providing time to serve others is easy to do at our St. Luke Night of Sharing. Volunteering once a month for the seven months that our site is open adds up to only about five hours per month, or about thirty-five hours per year. That’s less than half a percent of the year. We each spend about 8 percent of our time each year just eating our three meals per day.

Pearl Homiak is a nun at the St. Barbara Monastery in Santa Paula, CA.

HOMELESS OUTREACH MINISTRY Despina Kartson God bless you for what you do.

Thank you, this really means a lot.

I’ll just take one sandwich and save the other for someone else.

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hese are among the many positive comments our homeless outreach ministry group from Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in New Rochelle, NY, receives from the homeless we serve in New York City. We are all struck by how appreciative our guests are, how courteous they are to us and to one another by standing in line and being respectful, and how nice it is for both us and them to remember one another each time we visit.

Led by our Philoptochos, Holy Trinity has several outreach programs to serve those in the community near our parish and beyond. They include a soup run, community food drives, cooking for a soup kitchen and providing meals and clothing for a men’s shelter. Once a month, our group serves 100–130 individuals who make their homes on the streets of New York City, in the bowels of Penn Station and in the few remaining “drop in” centers in the city. Together with an OCA church from Long Island, we team up to provide soup, sandwiches, toiletries and clothing, including pants, shirts, socks and shoes.

In 2010, our Philoptochos Chapter Challenge Project was “Give an Old Bag New Meaning”—a “purse drive” for donations of purses, bags and briefcases. We were amazed at the response: in just two months, 250 bags were donated.

Many women benefited from the purses and bags when we distributed them to the Human Development Services of Westchester in Port Chester, Hope Soup Kitchen of New Rochelle, and Emmaus House in Manhattan, and to homeless women in New York City. One of the more memorable comments we received when distributing at a homeless drop-in center was when one woman picked out a pretty straw purse and said she would use it for Easter, which was a couple of weeks away. She came back to our group about twenty minutes later and asked very gingerly if she could have a second purse so that she could use it when she went to church on Palm Sunday. We learned so much from these women about their need to have a purse to keep smaller items in, one that they could keep close to them at all times, particularly at night when they are more likely to be robbed of their meager possessions.

We began a community food drive in 1989. During the past three years, our community has donated more than 10,000 non-perishable food items. During the Christmas holiday, we include hams for holiday meals. Members of our parish support HOPE Community Services, the largest food pantry and soup kitchen in our region. HOPE distributes free meals to the disadvantaged, the working poor and the elderly. HOPE’s kitchen serves dinner three evenings a week, fifty-two weeks a year. The food pantry distributes bagged groceries every other week, with special distributions for holidays. Additionally, HOPE also provides social services and substance abuse referrals.

Oasis House, a men’s shelter in New Rochelle, was another one of our focuses. In 1997, we started our “Let’s Get Cooking” project. Once a month we prepare dinner for thirty residents of a men’s shelter. In 2000, our priest, Fr. Nick PRAXIS

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Anctil, turned the project over to the GOYA. For almost fifteen years, our parish cooked for Oasis. About ten years ago, the Philoptochos furnished all of the bedrooms at Oasis with new beds and bedside tables. Sadly, this year the shelter closed due to state funding issues, but we are looking for another opportunity to serve the homeless.

In the last two years, we have launched our Cooking for Hope initiative. We cook for the HOPE soup kitchen, preparing a hot meal for 200 people who have come to rely on this meal. The leaders of HOPE told our Philoptochos president that our food always smells so delicious, that it is filled with vegetables and meat, and that we always bring more than enough so they can give their guests home a take-home bag for their next night’s meal. They are very appreciative, SOCIAL JUSTICE

and we are very fulfilled by this outreach.

We are truly blessed to have incredible support from our parish, both in the offering of time and donations of items and money. Parishioners routinely bring bags of groceries for the food pantry and boxes of toiletries, toothpaste and clothing. Often during our evenings on the streets of Manhattan, we recall the saying “There but for the grace of God go I.” In service to others, we are also reminded of what Moses told the Israelites in Deuteronomy 15:7–8: “If there is among you a poor man of your brethren, within any of the gates in your land which the Lord is giving you…you shall surely open your hand wide to him and willingly lend him sufficient for his need, whatever he needs.”

Despina Kartson is a member of Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in New Rochelle, NY.

I Was a

Stranger

Eva Stathi

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hen you catch the same bus every day, you start to recognize your fellow commuters. Last year I started a conversation with a woman I see every morning. She asked me a question I hear often, one that usually makes me feel extremely inferior. “You have an accent. Where are you from? … Albania? Where’s that?”

When she found out that I work for the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, her next question was, “What is Orthodox?”

I felt like I was a complete stranger to her. How would I relate? This incident made me think of how many other immigrants probably have the same experience, trying to adjust and introduce themselves and their culture to a “new world.” page 14

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The more I thought about it, the more I asked myself, “Why does a person leave his own country? What does it mean to be a stranger, and how should we as Christians behave toward the ‘stranger’?” Using my own experience as an example, I tried to find answers in the Bible and in the history of the Orthodox Christianity in America.

From the very beginning, the people in the Bible were people on the move. They were strangers in a foreign country. Many reasons are given for their immigration, including poverty, slavery, war, love and religion. They left their familiar worlds to go to unknown ones. However, it was because of these traveling strangers that knowledge of God spread to other countries.

Abraham was the first to leave his country of Haran, emigrating to Egypt because of a famine (Genesis 12:10). In Genesis 12:1–3, God made a covenant with Abraham, telling him that through him, all the nations of the world would be blessed because he was being asked to leave his own land. “Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

Isaac went to the land of the Philistines for the same reason as Abraham had left Haran (Genesis 26:1). Isaac was a witness of God to the Philistines and to King Abimelech, who recognized how great Isaac’s God was: “We have certainly seen that the Lord is with you...” (Genesis 26:28–29).

Joseph was a slave in Egypt, but he, a “stranger,” saved Egypt from the famine (Genesis 41, 42). He showed the greatness of God to the Egyptians. “It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace” (Genesis 41:16).

Ruth, a Moabite woman, left her country and followed her mother-in-law, Naomi, to Bethlehem (Ruth 1–4). She voluntarily embraced Naomi’s land, culture and God. Ruth is a perfect example of the unity of God’s people, as she chose Israel’s religion and way of life. “For wherever you go, I will go; and wherever you lodge, I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God, my God” (Ruth 1:16).

Despite the various reasons they had for moving to another country, one can see that immigrants of the Bible did not always have it easy. Some immigrants were persecuted, enslaved, rejected and put to hard labor (Exodus 1:9–14). The results of their immigration differed considerably; some people had been forced to leave, some suffered and some were successful in their relocation. In the Old Testament, a stranger was considered as hopeless and was as mistreated as the poor were.

However, God loved and treated the stranger the same as He treated the orphan or the widow. “He administers justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing” (Deuteronomy 10:18). God was with them when they were strangers in need, and He commanded them to do the same to strangers knocking on their doors.

“You shall neither mistreat a stranger nor oppress him, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt” (Exodus 22:21).

In the New Testament, Christ, the Only Son of God, was Himself a refugee. When He was a child, He and His family were forced to leave their country to escape Herod’s threat (Matthew 2). By living in exile, Jesus identified Himself with the stranger and the poor, instead of emerging in glory and power as the Jews were expecting of their Messiah. He sacrificed Himself for us, but His own did not accept Him, so in

a sense He became a stranger SOCIAL JUSTICE to His own people: “He came to what was his own and his own people did not accept him” (John 1:11). Perhaps the fulfillment of the Old Testament covenant that God placed with Abraham is found in Christ, whom we must accept as friend and master of our hearts. Moreover, Christ appealed to His followers to take care of the needy, the poor and the stranger, and He linked that behavior directly to the kingdom of God. In Matthew 25:31–46, He said, “Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in…” This calling was not only for the Jews present at the time, but also for all of us today. When we feed the poor, give drink to the thirsty and welcome the stranger, we do it for Christ’s brethren just as we do it for Christ.

The motives of biblical immigration probably sound similar to the stories we hear from our grandparents, parents, relatives and friends, or even to our own story. Our Orthodox ancestors immigrated to the United States looking for a better life, hoping for the American Dream. They were subjected to long journeys, leaving behind their country, their language, their Churches and sometimes even their families, not knowing whether the New World would be friendly or hostile. They had to restart their lives, often with little in the way of support.

Life in the New World was not easy for them, as the streets were not “paved with gold.” In many places, there weren’t even streets! They had to pave the streets themselves, and it is because of these hard-working strangers that we have places to worship today in America. Perhaps God had a plan for our immigrant ancestors to spread and maintain our Faith, just like the strangers in the Bible.

Today, immigration continues. Many immigrants have even found it easy to move from one country to another.

However, they are still strangers in our midst, and it is our duty as Christians to love them and take them in.

Eventually, the woman I met on the bus and I became good friends. As hard as it was to hear, once again, that my accent is noticeable, God used my language imperfection so that I could share my faith with her. As St. Paul wrote to the Ephesians, “Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God” (Ephesians 2:19).

Eva Stathi graduated from Holy Cross with a Master’s of Theology degree, with an emphasis on Wealth and Poverty studies.

She works full-time in the Department of Religious Education.

She attends Holy Trinity Albanian Orthodox Church in South Boston, where she teaches Sunday school.

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Teaching Our Children Compassion Melissa K. Tsongranis You must love every man, seeing in him the image of God, disregarding his vices. You must not dismiss people with coldness. – St. Nikon of Optina

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ohn had the day all planned out. He and his daughter, Nina, would take the train to the city to catch a matinee of Mary Poppins for her seventh birthday. Then they would have dinner and go to their favorite ice cream shop.

Nina had on a brand-new dress for her big day with daddy.

As they got off the train, John noticed a man walking toward them. He was dirty. His torn clothes looked as if he had been wearing them for months, and his smell supported that theory. John looked down at the ground and tried to hurry past him. But the man looked right at Nina and said, “Well, look at you, all dressed up. Is it a special day for you?”

Nina smiled and brightly replied, “It’s my birthday and my daddy is taking me to see Mary Poppins!”

John tried to move her along so they could get away.

Before he could, the man said, “You wouldn’t happen to have a dollar I could borrow? I’ve run into some bad luck and I have nothing to buy food with.”

John curtly responded, “We don’t have anything; leave us alone.” He pulled Nina away, walking briskly as her little legs ran to keep up.

They arrived at the theater and settled into their seats. Nina was very quiet. Actually, she looked upset. “Honey, what’s wrong?” John asked.

“Nothing,” Nina replied, in a way that let her father know something was definitely wrong.

“Come on, we have a few minutes before the show starts.

Tell me what’s bothering you.”

“Daddy, why did you lie to that man at the train station?

You have lots of dollars on you, and he asked for just one! Daddy, you were mean to him. You are always telling me to talk page 16

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nice to people and to look at them when they talk to me, and you didn’t do that at all.” Nina continued, “Aren’t we supposed to love everyone and be kind to them like Jesus was?”

Although we may not have ever been challenged as directly as Nina challenged her father, we may have experienced a similar situation. Perhaps it’s a woman standing with a sign asking for money at an intersection. Rather than simply acknowledging her, we often look away and move on quickly. We might make a judgment that casts blame on her, which makes us feel justified for not helping out: “She’ll just use the money to buy alcohol or drugs,” or “Shouldn’t she be spending her time looking for a job?” It can be challenging to recognize these people for what they really are—children of God—but that is exactly what we are called to do.

As Orthodox Christians, we know that God is responsible for creating everyone and everything.

We are called to see Christ in all of the people we encounter—no matter how difficult it is at times. In the Matthew 25:31–46, we read the parable of the Last Judgment. The King says to the righteous, “Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in; I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.” Confused, the righteous people tell the King that they never did any of these things for Him. But the King confirms His statement by saying, “Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.”

Merriam-Webster defines compassion as “sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it.” This is not always an easy task, and it is even more difficult to teach compassion to our children. It isn’t just about reaching out to the poor and giving to charity—although these are important gestures. Compassion needs to permeate our being so that we share it with everyone we encounter—the cranky clerk at the grocery store, our difficult next-door neighbor, or our teenager we just grounded for the second time this month. Teaching compassion to our children is more about what we do every day rather than what we say to our children about it.

GROWING COMPASSIONATE HEARTS

So where and when do we start? We sow the seeds of love in the hearts of our little ones from the moment they enter the world. For newborn babies, their parents are their world.

Children experience everything through their parents’ loving arms. As they grow, their world slowly expands and they are no longer sheltered from all of the challenges of life. For children to become compassionate adults, they must see and experience love. Children will learn compassion when they see their parents act in a loving way toward people from every walk of life—even before they are able to fully comprehend it.

We know that God is love. So for our seed of love to take root, we must shower it with prayer—prayers of thanksgiving, prayers of praise and prayers of intercession for ourselves and especially for others. Make prayer a part of your daily family routine (consult your parish priest for guidance) from the time your child is an infant. Scoop your young child into your arms while you pray so that he or she feels the prayers you are offering. As children grow, they will participate more in the prayers. Use common prayers and hymns of the Church so your children grow accustomed to them early. Teach them to remember the people they encounter—friends and strangers—in their daily prayers. Encourage them to turn to God throughout the day—especially when they come upon someone in need or in a difficult situation.

Our spirit should be quick to reach out toward God, not only when it is engaged in meditation; at other times, also, when it is carrying out its duties, caring for the needy performing works of charity, giving generously in the service of others, our spirit should long for God and call Him to mind, so that these works may be seasoned with the salt of God’s love, and so make a palatable offering to the God of the universe. Throughout the whole of our lives, we may enjoy the benefit that comes from prayer if we devote a great deal of time to it. – St. John Chrysostom

Before our children can SOCIAL JUSTICE experience true compassion for another, they need to learn how to sympathize—that is, how to relate to others’ feelings.

Then they can learn to empathize—to experience others’ feelings. As these feeling emerge (usually during the preschool years), the Bible can shine light on these feelings to help them grow. There are many wonderful stories of compassion, charity and love throughout. When reading these stories, allow children time to process the stories for understanding and to try to figure out how they apply to their lives. Young children can process these Bible stories through pretend play and drawing.

Older children can reflect on what a particular passage means for their life and how they can put it into action.

Passages to Help Your Children Grow in Compassion: • The Parable of the Last Judgment (Matthew 25:31–46) • The Widow’s Two Mites (Mark 12:41–44) • The Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25–37) • “To Whom Much is Given…” (Luke 12:48) • The “Love Passage” (1 Corinthians 13) • “Entertaining Angels Unaware…” (Hebrews 13:1–2) HARVESTING COMPASSION

When thoughts of passing judgment on another person cross your mind, pray God to take them away at once, so that you may love this person as He does…

We must love people and accept them in our hearts as God presents them to us. – Mother Gavrilia, “The Ascetic of Love” Your children need plenty of opportunities to practice their compassion each day. Here are some ideas to help you inspire their hearts toward compassion: • Help them learn about people from backgrounds that are different than them. Teach them to appreciate everyone’s differences. In the fall, order the IOCC Prayer Journal, or begin use the one online at www.iocc.org. This journal will help your children learn about people of different cultures, give them hands-on activities and encourage their prayer life.

• As a family, make a regular commitment to an ongoing charity project—visiting a nursing home, doing yard work for a shut-in or volunteering at a soup kitchen. Projects can PRAXIS

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involve outreach to your local community or something with a more global outreach.

• Practice random acts of compassion. When you hear of someone in need, commit to helping them as you are able, through prayers, collecting needed items and volunteering time to assist.

• Challenge your child’s thoughts. If there is someone in

Nina: John and his wife had spent a great deal of time surrounding their daughter with love and morals of Christian living. They had prayed with her and taught her to pray for those in need. They had done everything to set the stage for Nina to be a compassionate young lady. On that birthday outing, her father learned what a good job they had done, and he learned another thing from his darling daughter—what it means to be truly compassionate.

need, say something like, “Your friend Joey’s mommy just had another baby. I bet she is really busy. Do you think there is anything we can do to help out?”

• As you read a book or watch a show together, encourage children to try to put themselves in the characters’ shoes: “How would you feel if everyone was teasing you?” “What could you do to help someone who is being teased?”

• For teenagers, check out Youth Equipped to Serve (http:// yesnorthamerica.org). This Orthodox Christian group helps teenagers live out the mission of our Church, loving and serving our most needy neighbors.

Looking to Christ as our model, we should respond to others with the love and compassion that He demonstrated during His ministry in the world. Back to John and his daughter

...When we teach our children to be good, to be gentle, to be forgiving, to be generous, to love their fellow men, to regard this present age as nothing, we instill virtue in their souls, and reveal the image of God within them.

This, then, is our first task, to educate both ourselves and our children in godliness; otherwise what answer will we have before Christ’s judgment seat? – St. John Chrysostom, Homily 21 (Ephesians 6:1–3)

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Melissa Tsongranis is Associate Director of the Center for Family Care. Her background is in Early Childhood Special Education and Family Education from California State University, Sacramento. She and her husband, George, have one son, Nomikos, who will be three in July.

Loving Our Neighbor Seeing Christ in the Face of the Homeless You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself. (Luke 10:27)

S

Anna Colis

ince childhood, I have been taught this verse in various Sunday school and youth group settings. In each instance, the teacher asks, predictably, “Who is our neighbor?” I have always responded confidently: “Everyone is our neighbor! We are to love everyone!”

Yet for some reason, my ability to supply the “Sunday school” answer to this question did not seem to affect my actions. I turned away from the lonely at school; I looked down when I passed the homeless on the street; and I avoided conversation with the elderly at church. Looking back, I find myself asking the question, “What is the cause of this disconnect between knowledge and action?” As Christian educators, we are always teaching love. It is the central theme of the Gospel and the foundation upon which we live our lives.

Yet there seems to be a missing link. This knowledge is not transferring into action.

It was not until I was seventeen and nearing the end of the ten-day CrossRoad Summer Institute at Hellenic College that I experienced the fullness of the commandment to “love your neighbor.” Thirty high school students from all over the country—many of us from affluent communities, none of us having ever experienced poverty—found ourselves embarking

on this mission of the Gospel. My fellow CrossRoaders and our trained staff set out in groups of four to roam the streets of Harvard Square at 6:30 am. Our challenge: to approach a homeless person and invite him or her to breakfast.

My group walked up to a man—a man I would have never thought to even look in the eye—and asked him if he knew of a good place for breakfast. I was very nervous before this initial approach; butterflies swarmed in my stomach. Anyone who knows me would find this strange, for I am very social, and connecting with people is one of my strengths. So why was this experience so nerve-racking? I found myself hoping I wouldn’t have to make the first interaction. Why was I so anxious around this man, an ordinary man I knew nothing about except that he was homeless?

“Hi,” one of the members of my group began. “What’s your name?”

“Gary,” he mumbled.

Gary. In a moment, an anonymous homeless man was transformed into a person with a name. I realized I had labeled this man before meeting him. In my head, he was not a person but a set of stereotypes: lazy, dirty, dangerous and wanting to take all my money. I had made assumptions as though I had known this man for years, yet I didn’t even know his name.

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We asked Gary if we could buy him breakfast. He agreed but refused to go inside the Dunkin’ Donuts with us. So we bought the food and sat on the sidewalk next to him. We began a conversation as we shared the meal. Gary is from California, but he has lived in Boston most his life. He has two grown children, is a huge Boston Bruins fan, and hates Boston in the winter. Gary is a child of God, made in His image and likeness, who has a story and who suffers from homelessness.

People ask me, “What is it about CrossRoad that is so incredible?” Even fresh out of the program, this question was difficult to answer. I could not quite identify the difference between CrossRoad and the other ministry programs I had attended. Now, having gained a little perspective, I think it’s because CrossRoad is not a passive learning experience.

CrossRoad teaches its participants and then takes them out to live what they have learned. We could talk theology all day, we could discuss for hours about how Christ has called us to love our neighbor, make lists of who should be considered our neighbor, theorize about what it means to love, but if we didn’t go out and live this theology, what good was all the talk?

In reaching out to the marginalized and acknowledging Christ in the face of my homeless neighbor, I experienced what it means to love. I looked into the eyes of someone I never thought I would have a conversation with, someone pegged by society as worthless, and listened to him tell me how the side effects of his heart attack prevent him from working, how his family has abandoned him. In these moments, I realized he has a story and a journey, and somehow that journey has led him to this point of loss. I was able to set aside my preconceived notions and realize that he, too, is a person with feelings and emotions, one who is deeply loved by God. Perhaps the question should not be “Who is my neighbor?” but “What does it mean to love my neighbor?” We didn’t love our neighbors that day by giving them money or by feeding them breakfast. We loved a neighbor by sitting on the sidewalk, looking him in the eye, and listening to him for fortyfive minutes. We loved this neighbor by valuing him, by expressing to him that he was worth spending any amount of time in our day with him.

Love is a conversation and a listening ear. Love is embracing and valuing someone in his or her state of utter brokenness. It can be easy to love our friends and family, but the love’s depth is in the act of loving the marginalized, in loving when it is not easy. We experience this love in situations where we have to give up our entire self. We must gather up our prejudices and collect all of the selfish desire to sit in our comfort zones, and then put them aside and open our hearts to the other. Love is a state of selflessness. Through it, we move closer to becoming SOCIAL JUSTICE

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our most authentic selves.

I have found that while teaching, I gain a greater understanding of what is being taught. This past summer, I had the privilege of being on the CrossRoad staff, the program that had changed my life six years earlier. The breakfast search was always the aspect of CrossRoad that remained most vivid in my mind during my post-CrossRoad years. Now here I was, leading my own group of seventeen-year-olds through the same streets of Harvard Square. As we prepped the students for the exercise, I found it very difficult to properly articulate what they would experience and to teach them how to carry out the task.

The participants in my group were nervous. They kept looking to me for reassurance as they hesitantly approached a homeless man; I could completely empathize. They finally initiated a conversation with Roger, and my excitement rose as I watched the transformation of my group members’ faces as they gradually became comfortable with him. They listened intently to his story and asked him questions. As we walked away after an hour of conversation, I observed the amazement set in as they processed the connection they had just made, a connection with Christ in the face of a homeless man. They, too, had just experienced a depth of love that they would not be able to explain. I smiled in total understanding.

I have noticed a disconnect in American society between doing and being. We are a society of productivity and doing.

We try to pack as much as we can into one day; our lives are driven by to-do lists, and we often find ourselves doing just to be able to say “we did.” We can give money to different charities, provide bags of food to the local pantry and hand out hot meals on Thanksgiving Day. Although these actions are wonderful, I challenge you to consider how much time do we spend doing for the other, and how much do we spend being with the other? How often do we simply sit and just be with persons who are suffering and walk with them in their struggle? Has our culture’s prioritization of doing inhibited our ability to be?

When I sat across from Gary, listening intently as he told us bits and pieces of his life, I realized that I couldn’t change his life or fix the problems he was experiencing. I could buy him a meal. I could even buy him a meal every day for the rest of my life. But as I sat across from him as he poured out his story, I noticed that he had hardly eaten a bite of his bagel. Gary needed food to survive, but he needed to be heard and acknowledged to live. Christ did not simply alleviate the physical needs of the sick, the suffering and the sinners. He sat and ate with them. He spent time with them, valued them and loved them. Jesus did not have an agenda. His charitable works were not numbered on a list. We could give all the money in the world to the homeless from a distance, but if we

do not love and value them as persons made in the image and likeness of Christ, are we fully answering His call? We need to offer to them the only thing that is truly healing, and that is love.

Through my participation in the CrossRoad breakfast search, I have learned the power of experience in education.

What I learned in the forty-five minutes of sitting with Gary I could not have learned in a classroom or session. Classroom content is crucial, for the knowledge gives us a firm foundation. But for the core of the Gospel—loving others as Christ loves us—to really be transformative, we must go beyond the classroom. Christ-like love is not a concept that we can simply discuss. We must experience it for it to take root and grow. As Christian educators, we must teach by offering experiences of the faith to our students.

Anna Colis is a graduate of Illinois Wesleyan University and is a Masters of Divinity student at Holy Cross. She is focusing her studies on how to serve the youth of our Church and has been involved as staff and in writing various youth ministry programs.

This summer she will serve as Assistant Director of CrossRoad.

For more information visit the CrossRoad website at www.crossroad.hchc.edu. For summer 2012, all students who are accepted will receive a full program scholarship.

The application priority deadline is March 1, 2012.

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BOOK RE V IEWS Doing Good Together:

101 Easy, Meaningful Service Projects for Families, Schools, and Communities Authors: Jenny Friedman and Jolene Roehlkepartain Reviewer: Aimee Cox Ehrs “Modern youth ministry is contrary to Scripture,” asserts Scott T. Brown, the Baptist preacher whose group produced the movie “Divided” (dividedthemovie.com). Brown identifies age segregation, particularly in youth groups and Sunday school classes, as the reason why young people today find it easy to disobey their parents by leaving churches in astonishing numbers. While advancing deeper agendas, Brown champions “family integrated churches” as the solution.

But strengthening family participation does not have to come at the expense of youth groups and Sunday Church schools. In many Greek Orthodox parishes in this country, children worship with their parents and the community at the Divine Liturgy, at least through Holy Communion. They are then released to their teachers’ care in the classrooms. Yet we can provide opportunities for multi-generational study and service. Doing Good Together is a recent book that describes how groups comprised of individuals of various ages—for our purposes, families and parishes—can come together to serve.

Each chapter of Doing Good Together focuses on one type of service, such as promoting peace or easing poverty. The projects are fully fleshed out, more so than the brief project ideas that co-author Jolene Roehlkepartain offered in her previous book, Teaching Kids to Care & Share (Abingdon, 2000). The projects in this book describe not only materials needed, time requirements and budget, but also preproject “connecting points” to make them relevant to every participant’s life, and post-project “debriefings” to help participants reflect on their experience. The included CD-ROM contains all of the book’s reproducible forms. page 22

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Simplicity is key. Many of the projects accomplish a lot with only a little, taking only an hour or two, without much expense and without leaving the parish hall. Because they are self-contained, these projects could easily be completed as part of a retreat or after a service, such as a Presanctified Liturgy during Great Lent.

The book’s defining feature is that it divides each project into tasks that tap into the skills, interests and abilities of different age groups. For example, one project simplifies and streamlines the usually labor-intensive activity of compiling a cookbook for a fundraiser. Preteens can copy original family recipes onto a standard recipe form.

Knowledgeable cooks and bakers review their work.

Younger children illustrate the recipes. Adults and teens then scan the completed recipe pages, print them, and bind the compiled cookbooks with a spiral binder (perhaps borrowed from a parishioner’s workplace).

Some of the projects might seem like they aren’t directly related to the Gospel, such as those that promote education and literacy—until you consider that a lack of education is directly correlated with poverty. And, although the authors have churches in mind as well as secular groups, the projects are not overtly faith-based.

Project organizers will want to connect the activity to the Orthodox Christian Faith, which can be done easily enough by slightly expanding the “connecting points” and “debriefings” with a Bible story for younger participants and perhaps with an excerpt or homily from the writings of a Church Father, such as St. Basil, to nourish the adults.

(See, for example, “The Church Fathers on Social Issues” in the yellow Come Receive the Light New Testament.)

With the ideas in Doing Good Together, we can quickly make a difference. Spending time doing a meaningful project with our families helps us grow closer to one another and to all of God’s people and creation. But more importantly, we see Christ—“hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison”—and show our children how to serve Him. Jenny Friedman and Jolene Roehlkepartain, Doing Good Together (Free Spirit Publishing, 2010), 229 pages.

The Tomorrows Children Face When a Parent Dies Publisher: TM Enterprises Reviewer: Anton C. Vrame The death of a loved one is always difficult for the surviving family members. And the death of a parent is probably the most difficult experience a child, teen or young adult could face in their lives, and, in many ways, that experience and how they dealt with it will affect the rest of their lives.

“The Tomorrows Children Face When a Parent Dies” is a sensitive and often moving DVD that will expose you to the lives of young people, from as young as seven or eight to teenagers and young adults, who have been affected by the death of a parent. In their own voices, the young people tell their experience, what they felt, and how they dealt with the death of a parent, or, in a few cases, both parents. Several of the surviving parents are also shown, telling how they handled the death in the family. Among them is the DVD’s producer, Thalia Marakas, and her children, discussing the death of her husband and their father.

The DVD presents the work of the Dougy Center for Grieving Children and Families (www.facebook.com/thedougycenter or www.dougy.org), a nationally recognized nonprofit organization based in Portland, OR. In addition to the stories from young children, the video also introduces a high school Grief Loss Group. One segement that will move you dramatically is when the teenagers in the group introduce themselves and simply state which parent died and how.

Interspersed through the video are comments and observations from clergy, including Fr. Peter Karloutsos of Danbury, CT. They discuss how the Church, its rites and rituals, and one’s religious faith can be a tremendous resource for the surviving family. Fr. Peter does not speak only as a clergyman; he speaks from experience. He shares that his mother died when he was a child, leaving his father, a priest, to raise him and his siblings. Also, therapists from the Dougy Center discuss various approaches and concerns that the death of a parent raises for a child and the family.

This is not a DVD for children. It is for adults, clergy and other pastoral workers, youth ministers, Sunday school

teachers, camp counselors and others who may encounter a young person who has experienced the death of a parent. “The Tomorrows Children Face” will sensitize you to the issues and raise more questions for discussion and reflection than you can imagine, from your own experience with death to how you may talk about the issue.

The DVD has been around for fifteen years, and it shows its age: hair and clothing styles are dated. The DVD is not in high-definition, so showing it on a large screen could be a bit challenging for viewers. However, the issues the DVD raises have not gone away.

TM Enterprises, “The Tomorrows Children Face When a Parent Dies,” DVD, 47 minutes; www. thaliamarakas.com.

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Know. Believe. Do.

Religous Ed

BA SIC S

Curriculum and Learning Objectives e confidently approach teaching many of the “landmarks” of the Orthodox Christian Faith, such as having students learn to recite the Nicene Creed from memory. Naturally, this task will have to be broken into smaller, more specific steps, such as learning a statement or two each week. Assessing whether they have reached the goal is pretty straightforward.

After a clean recitation or two, mission accomplished.

Then we try to add more dimensions to that knowledge: Believe it. Live it. However enormous these tasks may seem, leading students to the point of “believing” and “living” is the goal of religious education.

When creating lessons, keep in mind all three of Bloom’s learning domains (cognitive, affective and psychomotor), his levels/classifications, and the verbs associated with them. For each lesson, we want the students to know something, to believe something (or at least have the mustard seeds of belief planted within them; Matthew 17:20), and to do something, however small. Visualize the end—the “takeaway.” And then work out the means to reach it.

But we know that being able to recite the Creed isn’t enough, especially for older students. So we forge ahead with the more complicated bits: Understand each phrase of the Creed. Connect the Creed to Scripture. Compare it to the creeds or core beliefs of other faiths. Discuss these differences with peers. (These objectives fall under the cognitive domain of Bloom’s Taxonomy, as Stephanie Mardigian described in the Fall 2011 issue of PRAXIS.)

Think about the range of knowledge and attitudes kids might bring with them into the classroom. The first parts of a lesson help the teacher (and the students themselves) identify what the students already know or think. Then the teacher can guide them from A to B—the objective—with an emphasis on “helping” rather than “ferrying.” Learners benefit most if they reach B at least partly on their own power, especially for the higher-order objectives.

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For young children, this type of lesson plan will probably be very clear and uncluttered; the “content,” in the traditional sense of “concrete items to be learned” or “actions to do,” will often be stated simply and concisely: Recognize that Jesus wants us to love one another. Make the sign of the cross.

We are shaping general attitudes, such as “loving God.” Yet this is not to be confused with simplicity of mind. Even young children and elementary schoolers are developing higher-order thinking skills and can work with some abstraction—more so than we used to think.

Learning objectives for middle schoolers and older students may be more complex and will likely move more quickly into higher-order skills, such as analyzing, evaluating and creating. It’s at this point that we begin asking learners to meet objectives like Connect the Creed to Scripture.

ASSESSMENT: BY WHOM?

Another characteristic of benchmarks and learning objectives is that the result should be measurable. I sometimes get questions from religious educators who are sensitive to the assessment-driven nature of secular education today. “Why aren’t there tests in the DRE’s books?” Part of the answer is that we are passing on not only orthodoxia, but also orthopraxia. To reinforce our curriculum and materials, the DRE has created “What Your Child Should Know” documents, and we are looking at creating parent talksheets for each unit. By engaging families in the task of religious education and spiritual formation, we will be able to do a better job of following through on the less-measurable goals, especially those in the affective domain.

Sunday Church school teachers probably don’t see themselves as being in the business of evaluating student achievement on “believing” and “living” the Faith. We wouldn’t presume, for example, to issue a grade on a person’s prayer life or to gauge the sincerity of his or her repentance. (Naturally, some of this is in the parish priest’s purview, especially in the context of confession.) As for teacher performance evaluations? They could quickly get scary. Former students’ attendance in the Divine Liturgy on Sunday mornings? The content of their late-night Facebook postings when they’re college freshmen?

Levity aside, I worry and question myself. I wonder what I could have done, and what to do now. I accepted the responsibility of teaching, but have I “left a child behind”? But I know that unity with God cannot be (entirely) effected by forty-five-minute sessions on Sunday mornings from ages four to eighteen. Our paths toward Him may sometimes be steep and sometimes gentle, the pace quick or slow. Theosis is the “long run,” the journey and goal of a lifetime.

Learning Materials Textbooks and supplementary resources, such as articles, storybooks and videos, are some of the common “delivery vehicles” content. These materials follow the path of a curriculum via structured units and lessons.

Designing units and lessons in a disciplined and methodical way, with content and instructional methods that clearly further the curriculum, can be difficult. Whenever I come across a great article, book or video, I have the urge to run directly to the classroom with it. “This changed my life! It’s everything you’ll ever need to know! You’ve got to read it! Here it is!” The class sessions devoted to it would be filled with fresh energy. Enthusiasm and conviction are invaluable— and I know they can be hard to maintain, week in and week out, year after year.

But instead of going AWOL from a carefully thought-out curriculum—even when the textbooks are dated—religious education directors and teachers can follow the established path but rework parts of the lessons. They can modernize the instructional methods, working toward the established goals in an interactive way that reaches today’s kids. Swapping out activities and crafts is another way to keep teachers from becoming bored or burned out after using the same text for several years.

Even as the DRE is writing new series and reworking older textbooks that were published in the 1980s and 1990s, we are trying to help by reviewing supplementary materials from other publishers. Many Orthodox Christian authors and educators have published wonderful story books and classroom materials, but we also carefully select some “merely Christian” materials from other publishers. For example, Thirteen Very Cool Stories and Why Jesus Told Them was released in 2009 by Standard Publishing. We ordered a sample copy, and it looked like great fun. I was tempted to use the book in its entirety for the Sunday school class I was teaching that year. But I restrained myself and instead used some of its activities to breathe fresh life into lessons on the various parables in the textbook I was using. The new activities simply supported and supplemented the fullness of the textbook’s Orthodox Christian objectives and content.

Aimee Cox Ehrs is Curriculum Specialist for the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese Department of Religious Education.

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Parent Question: “How should we talk with our children about death?”

It’s Mother’s Day 2011. My sister and I are planning to meet after church to take my mom out, but when we arrive, we see that our ninety-three-year-old father is semiconscious yet very peaceful.

We call the ambulance and pray all the way to the hospital. Once we are in his room in the ER, we can almost feel the angel’s wings as they carry his soul away. Never before have I been so close to death. How could I feel sadness while experiencing such a beautiful moment?

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hen death occurs around us, as parents, we are often unsure of what to tell our children. When Christ lost his friend Lazarus, He wept. We know there is great sadness in death, and yet in the Orthodox Church we do not think of death as the end. When we lose a loved one, it is important to acknowledge our emotions. Yet with children there are a few things to consider when we talk to them about death.

First, we must look at the developmental age of the child.

Children under the age of seven do not view death in the same way as adults. They live more in the here and now, and for them death may not mean much more than that the person is no longer around. These young children will miss seeing the person, yet not fully grasp why. When we speak of death to them, it is important to tell them the truth and highlight their feelings of sadness and/or missing their loved one, but we should also let children know that they will feel okay, too. Bring up a fond memory for the child to hold onto: “Honey, I have sad news.

Papou died peacefully yesterday. We will all miss him and be

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Parent sad for a little while, but it’s okay if there are times you don’t feel sad. You know how much Papou loved when you went out into the garden with him and picked tomatoes.”

Children ages seven to fifteen will understand the permanence of death and will need more time to talk about their memories and experiences. They also need to understand that in the process of sharing, there may be laughter and joy as everyone recalls these moments, but also expressions of anger, sadness and loss. I like to tell kids that it is like there are two feelings crashing into each other at the same time.

Children older than age fifteen often are full of questions and fears. It is important to listen and talk with them as they sort through the realization that death is a part of living. Depending on their relationship to the person who has died, these teenagers may experience anger and regret. As parents, we should not minimize these emotions.

Lastly, it is helpful to share with our children the Orthodox view of death. When my father died, I found comfort in reading the words of the Forty-Day Memorial service, and I believe the service could be summarized for young children. Knowing that our loved ones are in good hands—God’s hands—brings peace to heavy hearts.

Jeanette Aydlette has been an elementary school teacher and counselor since 1977. She has also taught undergraduate and graduate courses on child development and group counseling. She attends St. Katherine Greek Orthodox Church in Falls Church, VA. She and her husband, Mitch, are the parents of two young men.

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onversations about the death of a loved one are probably the most difficult, since parents are feeling their own grief as well as trying to help their children through theirs.

I think it is best to discuss basic concepts about death ahead of time, before a loved one dies, at the level of a child’s maturity and understanding. If a member of your parish passes,

we have to remind ourselves that it is a natural part of life.

Pointing out that relatives or friends are getting weaker or have a chronic health problem introduces the idea that this will come someday. Preparation makes the real conversation easier for everyone.

For extremely young children, under five years old, perhaps, explanations should be simple and brief, tailored to the child’s intellect and maturity. Children often mirror the behavior and attitudes that they see adults exhibit. It is healthy to let the child know you are sad and will miss the loved one’s presence, and, often, the child will respond by comforting you. Let the child know that it is okay for him or her to be sad, too. Let the child’s questions lead the discussion rather than offering more overwhelming information than needed at that moment. End the conversation with the encouragement of our belief in God’s everlasting love and care for us.

Focus on what the child can do to help preserve the deceased’s memory, for example: • Light a candle and learn the memorial and funeral prayers.

• Have the child help prepare or pass out the kolyva if he or she is able. The tradition and scriptural ties to the grain of wheat are beautiful and a comforting analogy.

• Graveside visits with flowers and prayers can help.

• Putting together a special photo album or scrapbook of the loved one could be a helpful activity to provide closure.

• Making the loved one’s favorite recipe together, perhaps for a birthday or anniversary, can bring back pleasant memories.

someone that the child might recognize but not be attached to, it would be an excellent idea to attend the memorial and funeral services. This way the child has the experience when his or her own strong emotions are not likely to be involved.

Use the opportunity to explain what we believe happens to a person’s soul and body. When possible, participate in the traditions. This prepares the child for what goes on and what people do. Understanding the reality without having intense feelings is very helpful. Point out that although the people and saints depicted in icons are all “dead,” their presence and influence is very real to us indeed!

Preparing a child for a relative’s death is also very helpful. Our society separates us from the death experience, and

No one is prepared when someone passes suddenly or accidentally. We do the best we can, asking for grace ourselves and parenting a child through that loss.

A church lending library of age-appropriate books for children on the topics of death and dying is an outstanding idea. This way, books can be available to a family immediately in the event of a death. This gives children the chance to review the concept in another way, in a format that is familiar to them and as they are thinking about it.

Elizabeth Borch is Managing Editor of PRAXIS and the mother of two interesting teens.

JOIN THE CONVERSATION! To submit questions or volunteer for our panel, please e-mail Beth Borch (bethborch@goarch.org) or Anton Vrame (tvrame@goarch.org).

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The Influence of Sacred Leadership

oseph of Arimathea, a prominent member of the Council, who was himself waiting for the kingdom of God, went boldly to Pilate and asked for Jesus’ body. (Mark 15:43)

Pentecostarion for his critical involvement with the burial of Jesus. Although Joseph was not a member of the inner group of apostles, St. John Chrysostom refers to him as an adherent of Jesus’s larger group of seventy followers. His is one of the few narratives mentioned in all four Gospels (Matthew 27:57–61; Mark 15:42–47; Luke 23:50–56; John 19:38–42).

The great promise of Christian leadership is the sacredness of its influence. Christ-centered leaders are generally individuals of virtuous character and honorable reputations distinguished by their desire to inspire others to “self-less” service. Although a minor character with a brief scriptural appearance, the faithfulness and enigmatic courage of Joseph of Arimathea, whose memory is honored by the Orthodox Christian Church on July 31, is an excellent example of the precious influence of sacred leadership.

The Gospel composite of the Arimathean describes him as a rich (Matthew 27:57) and honorable leader of the Jewish Sanhedrin (Mark 15:43) whose personal character, integrity and blameless lifestyle most certainly afforded him considerable influence among the Jews of his day. St. John describes Joseph as a leader who became one of Jesus’s “secret” disciples (John 19:38). St. Mark adds that Joseph “took courage” and approached the brutal Roman procurator, Pilate, and requested the crucified body of Jesus.

It is significant that Holy Scripture depicts Joseph as the primary individual entrusted with the act of taking Jesus’s corpse down from the cross, preparing it for burial and placing it in his personal rock-hewn tomb. The fact that Joseph—and not Jesus’s mother, Mary Magdalene or any of the intimate group of disciples participated in Christ’s burial—provides special significance to his role as a selfless and influential leader.

St. Luke records that Joseph was a member of the Jewish high council, the Sanhedrin, who had disagreed with his peers concerning Jesus’s guilt (Luke 23:50–51). Pilate would have certainly been familiar with this prominent religious leader.

However, requesting the body of a political traitor was tantamount to admitting allegiance with the executed criminal.

Such an act took courage. The Evangelist John reveals that Joseph followed Jesus secretly because of his fear of retaliation from his Jewish religious counterparts (John 19:38). Joseph, however, is most notably described as “waiting for the Kingdom of God” (Mark 15:43). This undoubtedly was the primary reason why this prominent Jewish leader held particular interest in the true identity of Jesus.

In addition to the Myrrh-bearing Women, Joseph of Arimathea is also commemorated on the third Sunday of the

According to the apocryphal Gospel of Nicodemus, Joseph played an important role in starting the first Christian community at Lydda. After the news of the resurrection, Joseph was imprisoned and eventually exiled from Israel. In other extra-biblical accounts, Joseph is further distinguished as the uncle of Mary, the mother of Jesus, and the protector of the Holy Grail, the cup from the Last Supper of Christ. The most enduring legend regarding Joseph of Arimathea regards his establishment of the first Christian Church in England at Glastonbury, in the first century (37 or 63 ad).

The sacred influence of Joseph’s faithful leadership is vividly demonstrated by his courageous appeal to Pilate. The historical record indicates that, when the vote was cast, forty out of the seventy-one legislative members of the Sanhedrin voted to dismiss the case against Jesus. The Jewish High Council, however, controlled most of the wealthy ruling families of Jerusalem and the surrounding areas. Joseph proved to be the exception.

Like Caleb and Joshua, Joseph finally developed the courage to challenge the offensive majority opinion of his peers.

Rev. Dr. Frank Marangos

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The Romans did not bury victims of crucifixion. The sight of dead criminals decaying for days upon crosses in the Jerusalem skyline was a stark deterrent to future evildoers. Consequently, Joseph “took a great risk” when he asked for the body of Jesus. The Greek verb used by the Gospel writer signifies “boldness” or “daring.” By appealing to Pilate for the body of Jesus, Joseph was most certainly jeopardizing his leadership status with the Sanhedrin, if not his very life.

The Apostles had followed Jesus longer than the Arimathean had. Joseph’s influence, however, stretched far beyond the boundaries of time, geography and Jewish politics into the high places of the Roman administration. While Jesus’s disciples were hiding from Pilate during Jesus’s passion, Joseph was boldly negotiating with him, using his unique position, connections and influence to exact critically needed leverage for the cause of Christ’s Kingdom.

Numerous authors have suggested that “influence” is the essential component of leadership. Christian leadership, however, should be fundamentally different from its secular counterpart. It is based on a leader’s relationship with Christ rather than his or her resources of power, control and manipulation.

Influence is sacred when it is the result of a servant-styled model of leadership that is distinguished by virtue, honesty and love (Galatians 5:22–23). Such influence is ultimately based in the sovereign flow of God’s divine purposes.

In his recent book Leadership Is Dead: How influence is reviving it (2011), Jeremie Kubicek describes seven actions that can increase the proper and effective use of such Christ-centered influence. The author presents both the theoretical framework for establishing a new type of influential leader and the practical steps to becoming a selfless influencer. Rather than basing their influence on transactional approaches, Kubicek encourages leaders to adopt a relational process that includes seven phases: (a) trustworthiness, (b) credibility, (c) intentionality, (d) sacrifice before self-preservation, (e) relationship before opportunity, (f) generous service and, finally, (g) significant impact.

The leadership provided by Joseph of Arimathea at the time of Christ’s passion is an excellent example of Kubicek’s model of influence. “Great leaders,” insists Kubicek, “build relationships by serving the needs of others within their sphere of influence.” For this to happen, however, leaders must learn to “break through the protective walls of self-preservation.”

This is exactly the leadership tack that was taken by the Arimathean. The political and religious barriers that could have prohibited him from acting on Jesus’s behalf were legion.

Nonetheless, integrity provided the nobleman with the freedom to overcome whatever long-held inhibitions and fears he may have previously held. In the end, Joseph’s influence powerfully altered the very trajectory of the crucifixion’s historical impact as well as its spiritual implications.

Joseph’s desire to remove the body of Jesus from the cross and provide His corpse with an honorable burial required the direct authorization of Pilate. Joseph had no choice but to first acquire consent by trusting that the notorious procurator would value the noble counselor’s reputation. Joseph was a “respected member” of the Jewish Sanhedrin. His credibility was most certainly not a liability but a desirable leadership component, which Kubicek’s model of influence distinguishes from mere intelligence. By coming forward in such a public fashion, Joseph displayed great trust that Pilate would not punish or betray his heretofore respected politicoreligious status.

Joseph was intentional about his use of influence. There is no question that the Arimathean was using his status, wealth and political resources to procure Pilate’s assent. By publicly breaking through the walls of self-preservation in such a bold and risky fashion, Joseph exhibited Kubicek’s fourth stage of influence.

Joseph of Arimathea’s strategic use of influence was based on his respected reputation and his noble use of political connections. Christian leaders should always use their influence in such an honest and straightforward fashion. By placing relationship and love for others before personal opportunity, influence may be understood as service and not coercion. Influence, according to Kubicek, is the “process of giving ourselves away.”

Consequently, Joseph’s generous provision of his own tomb for Jesus’s burial signaled the very core of his sacred influence.

One would be hard-pressed to find a more powerful image of the sixth phase of the Kubicek Model.

There can be no doubt that the impact of Joseph’s influence on the early Christian community was significant. The Gospel narrative describes how the entire process was observed by many onlookers, including several of Jesus’s female followers, with great respect and admiration (Matthew 27:57–61). The future actions of many of these same individuals were most certainly influenced by Joseph’s selfless, courageous leadership.

Kubicek correctly defines influence as the “combination of high character and trustworthiness with competence and credibility.” Such influence was the centerpiece of the Arimathean’s sacred action. It was a specifically defined mission executed with resolve, ingenuity and wise acuity. It was greatly esteemed, because it made a credible difference in the lives of future generations.

Society is in need of authentic Christian leaders that are willing to use their influence in the manner of Joseph of Arimathea.

Since influence concerns the use of power, however, great care should be taken to properly harness its use for the benefit of others. Influence should be used to liberate rather than to dominate. It should not be employed to manipulate, suppress or coerce, but, like Joseph did, used to guide, inspire and empower followers toward greater creative freedom and productivity.

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Joseph was a leader who effectively used his influence to break down the walls of religious, political and personal inhibitions that prevented others from complementary feats. The influence of Joseph’s courageous action is the lasting legacy of his leadership. This is the reason why the Orthodox Church honors his memory, together with that of the Myrrh-bearing Women, on the third Sunday of the Pentecostarion, for his courageous exploits most certainly influenced theirs.

There are many Orthodox Christians today in leadership positions who, like Joseph of Arimathea, may be characterized as faithful yet “secret” disciples. They are successful, financially stable, honorable men and women, holding prominent positions in business, academia and government whose influential leadership for the cause of Christ’s Kingdom is greatly needed.

These individuals may one day find themselves in the difficult yet precious position of courageously risking their very reputations to advance their Orthodox Christian ideals. There will come a time when, like Joseph, these contemporary leaders will face the challenge of going against the hiss of petty parish politics, popularity and profit, to take a noble stand for the cause of Christ’s Kingdom.

It is significant that Joseph is historically noted for the act of begging for the body of Jesus. Although he was rich, he was not distinguished for contributing large sums of money to charitable institutions. Joseph was a wise counselor, a member of the highest of Jewish councils, yet his noblest act is the record of using his great influence to obtain, anoint and bury a crucified body. Joseph was an affluent, powerful leader whose legacy— the greatest act of his life—was not tied to politics, profit or position, but the humble contribution of his own sepulcher for the unpopular burial of a political criminal called Jesus.

The example of Joseph reminds us that there are times when Christian leaders must behave courageously. Like Joseph, leaders may even have to risk their reputation and position to acknowledge Jesus as Lord. For his courage and faithfulness, Joseph will undoubtedly be honored with the words: “Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord” (Matthew 25:22–23). God grants to every Christian the grace of strategic leadership. It is consequently important that leaders faithfully place their respective influence at His disposal when the critical moment of their life’s history invites a spontaneous response.

Holy Scripture records the sacred leadership of two complementary men named Joseph. The “righteous” Joseph (December 31) was called by God to guard his wife Mary and nurture their infant son Jesus. The “noble” Joseph (July 31) was called by God to honor and bury Jesus’s crucified body.

One was a simple carpenter, the other a rich counselor. One protected the virginal womb, the other a virginal tomb. One placed Jesus in a star-framed cradle, while the other consigned page 30

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Him to a dark crypt. Both men provided the sacred influence of their respective leadership.

The noble Joseph placed the limp body of Jesus in his personal “rock-excavated” tomb (Mark 15:46). Such a vault was characteristic of the wealthy of the time. Christian leadership entails the undertaking of a similar process that excavates the mind and soul to continually receive the life-creating Body of Christ. Only in this fashion can the influence of leadership produce sacred results. The power of persuasion must be generated from the core of Christ’s message and not from any other secular authority.

Joseph’s bold request for the body of Jesus exposed two serious consequences. First, since Jewish law considered contact with a corpse a ceremonial defilement, Joseph would have been excluded from joyfully participating in the current Paschal solemnities. His love and faithful support of the Nazarene, however, enabled him to rise above such self-centered interests.

Second, Joseph’s act must have certainly resulted in immediate and personal liability to his leadership status in the Jewish community. He endangered his reputation. However, because he could not allow the sacred body of Jesus to experience indignation, he was willing to place his very life at great risk.

Christian leaders are more than occasionally confronted with similar personal and professional hazards. The tomb, however, is often the pathway to the sacredness of a Godcentered leader’s indispensable influence. Orthodox Christian leaders must continuously discern strategies that safeguard the Church—the very Body of Christ—from liability and insult.

According to Chrysostom, this in fact, is the courage “to be greatly admired...It is for the love of Christ that Joseph exposed himself to the very danger of death!”

The powerful influence of sacred leadership is the providence of faithful veneration. It is the result of glorifying the body of Jesus, as represented by His holy Church (1 Corinthians 10:7; Ephesians 4:16; Colossians 1:18), with our time, talents and resources. Such influence reveals the discipleship of faith, fortitude and affection. Consequently, like Joseph, God-centered Orthodox leaders must be prepared to overcome timidity by hewing a sacred space for Jesus within their minds and souls. Only in this fashion can they respectfully refuse to yield when deliberations focus on inappropriate opinions and actions. Even if their humble protest places them in minority status, faithful leaders must remain dedicated to the core principles of Christianity. When such difficulties arise, they, like Joseph, will be strengthened by “seeking first the kingdom” and not the schemes of personal interests.

Rev. Dr. Frank Marangos is a priest of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. He is also Adjunct Assistant Professor at Saint John’s University (NY). Please visit www.thecathedral.goarch.org to read other articles on contemporary issues.

Parents, Speak Honoring Up! Sunday

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Rev. Fr. Andrew George

always like to watch people when I’m at an airport. You see people in a mad rush, you see people who look like they have been traveling for days, you see people sleeping, you hear children playing and sometimes screaming, you see people waiting in line, you see people crying and people laughing and hugging. The last time I was at the airport I saw a couple—a young man and woman, side by side, sitting on the edges of their seats, holding hands, their knees touching. And they talked together in low tones, oblivious to everything but each other. They knew that their time together was short. Only one of them had a bag, only one of them was leaving, and they were making the most of their precious time together before they had to say goodbye. Time was short for this couple. They were very conscious of the time.

We are all so time-conscious. How many times do we look at our watch every day? Time demands our attention. It is something that seems beyond our control. Listen to how we talk about time: we make time, we take time, we have time, we find time, we spend time. We try to gain control over time, so we treat time as a possession. You have heard the expression that “time is money.” Time becomes a means to acquire things around us. If we only had a little more time to earn a little more money to buy a few more things to really enjoy life, then we will have made it. We are afraid of time, so we treat it like an object like all of the other things around us—what we eat, what we drink, what we drive, what we watch, where we socialize, where we live, the brand name on

our clothes—all of these things distract us from our feeling of helplessness in the face of time.

Seconds add up to minutes, minutes to hours and hours to days—as we know, seven days comprise our week. God sets aside one day of the week to rest from the things of the world and the demands of making a living for us to be with Him and His people. God intends, through Sunday worship and rest, to help us gain control of our world—not through things or our expensive toys, not from the things around us, but through time. We gain control of time through time.

The “Sabbath” is God’s claim on time that frees us from the burden of things. It is a day to enjoy and celebrate relationships—our relationship with God first and foremost, our relationship with family, our relationship with friends, our relationship with ourselves.

As Abraham Heschel has said: The Sabbath is not for the purpose of recovering our lost strength and becoming fit for the coming labor. The Sabbath is not for increasing the efficiency of our work. The Sabbath is not an interlude, but the climax of living.

The creation story climaxes in God’s day of rest: “…the heavens and the earth…were finished. And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it” (Genesis 2:1–3). Our command to keep the Sabbath is to re-create God’s Sabbath rest, to re-create the seventh day all over again. The Sabbath rest is not idleness.

The Sabbath rest does not mean total inactivity, but rather it is like a twenty-second timeout on the basketball court.

The team members don’t go every which way, practicing free PRAXIS

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throws, running wind sprints or chatting with the fans in the courtside seats. They stop their normal activity, come together as a group, regain their equilibrium, catch their breath, affirm their team spirit and encourage one another. The coach gives them some direction, and then they resume the game.

Sunday morning should be viewed as God’s twenty-second timeout. The writer of Deuteronomy says: “Six days you shall labor, and do all your work; but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God” (Deuteronomy 5:13–14). A time of re-creation. It is a time to admire the world around us, a time for loving the people with whom we share this world, a time to worship God, a day wholly different from any other. Sunday is not a day for diversion or amusement only, but for real refreshment.

Sundays, the Christian Sabbath, however, have become days of stress with various recreational activities that conflict with worship services and family time. A painful dilemma exists for our children who have to decide between playing sports and going to church services. They shouldn’t have to make that choice. Parents can speak up about it. Tell coaches that you would prefer to meet at another time. If enough of you speak up about it, then things will change.

The talking points are simple: “It is unfair to ask our youth to choose between religious services and recreational activities.” They can exist side-by-side. It is a matter of scheduling. Speak up about it. We’re not saying, “Don’t play ball on Sunday,” we’re saying, “Schedule games and practices at other times, and, if necessary to play on a Sunday, do it on Sunday afternoon, not Sunday morning.”

Don’t be fooled by anyone—there is time for both. It is a matter of conviction. We can have ball games as well as repage 32

specting the time-honored hours of worship. But things will change only if you speak up about it. Our children deserve to be able to both attend services and participate in community sport activities. There are benefits in both.

ONE CITY’S EXPERIENCE WITH SPORTS ON SUNDAY MORNINGS

The year of our success was 1991. The previous year, at a meeting of the Cranston Clergy Association (comprised of Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Protestant clergy and Jewish rabbis), I raised a topic I had been hearing from parents in my parish: the conflict with sports on Sunday mornings with the Divine Liturgy and our Church school program.

The parents were always apologetic about missing church, and they wanted to give me a heads-up as to why they would be absent. Other parents would tell me how they had chosen not to have their children involved in any sports activities on Sunday morning so the family could be in the Divine Liturgy together, but that this was creating fricPRAXIS w W tion between parents and children, especially when the kids knew that some of their peers were playing sports on Sunday even though they could not.

This became a wonderful rallying point for the Cranston clergy, something we easily agreed on as an issue of “common concern” in the city. Yes, a “common concern,” even though the Roman Catholics had other times at which they could attend Mass, be it Saturday evening or early Sunday morning. (By the way, I was amazed to learn of the large number of people that attend a 7:00 or 8:00 am Mass. Yet we Orthodox have trouble getting our people to arrive on time for a 9:30 am or 10 am Divine Liturgy—but that’s another story.) The Catholic clergy were in support of addressing the issue for many of their parishes had their CCD classes (religious education) on Sunday morning at 9:00 and 10:00.

Also, our Jewish brethren, even though their worship times are Friday nights and Saturday mornings, had religious education and language instruction on Sunday morning. That is to say, all of these groups ran parish programs on mid-Sunday morning, in competition with the sports associations’ schedules.

I was the vice-president of the Clergy Association, and the president and secretary were both Protestant ministers. We appointed one of the Roman Catholic priests to be the chair of our “Sports on Sundays,” for the majority of the citizens in Cranston are Roman Catholic. As we later discovered, the majority of the leaders of the various athletic leagues in the city are also Roman Catholic, so having a Roman Catholic clergyman as the chair made for extra respect to our concerns.

I took on the role of public relations for the effort and learned along the way how big this issue truly was (and remains to be) across the country...more on that ahead.

Our subcommittee met every two weeks to prepare the way.

It was probably a ten-month process, if not a full year, but in essence what we did was multi-pronged. We first had to find out how many independent leagues exist in the city. Would you believe that one league (Cranston’s League for Cranston’s Future) oversees fourteen sports programs for 3,500 youth?

That was the largest independent organization, beyond what the public schools were offering.

We then sought the support of the mayor of Cranston, who turned out to be our biggest lay advocate, a practicing Roman Catholic and an epistle reader in his parish. He was also a jock and a former coach for one of the city’s largest athletic programs. He offered, even before we could ask him, to host a meeting at city hall. We actually had three meetings there on this topic to enable wider participation. Invited to these meetings were all the leaders of each league for whom we could get a name and address, as well as public school officials.

There were eleven independent leagues (each with numerous sports programs under its aegis, spanning all four season) and two junior highs and two high schools.

But well before this meeting was held, we sent each league’s officials written materials stating our concerns: to respect the time-honored day of Sunday for worship and religious education, this being the Christian Sunday / Jewish Sabbath. Each parish’s clergy preached the same sermon (adjusted to their unique terminology) on the topic on a designated week. We held general parent meetings, open to the public at large, in various locations on various dates.

All of this was covered by the state’s local daily newspaper and, of course, by Cranston’s weekly newspaper. In essence, through a series of news releases, the “Sports on Sunday” campaign flowed along in stages. The amazing thing about this was that even from the first little blip, that the Cranston, Rhode Island, clergy had organized a committee to address the “common concern of sports on Sunday morning.” The story was picked up by the Washington Post, Dallas Morning News and the Grand Forks Herald, to name a few. CNN even came with a TV crew to one of our public meetings. Various clergy associations from areas beyond New England also contacted us.

THE SUCCESS

1. The first key success was the general education of the various athletic league officials (again, being mainly Roman Catholic). They had figured that every kid in town could pick from numerous service times (as they would say, “the Mass schedule”). They had no concept that we Orthodox (plus the various Protestant groups and the Jewish congregation) often had a single service time.

2. Numerous league officials also said, “If parents would have said something, perhaps we could have changed things around.” Beloved parents reading this, you can exert a positive influence on this and other issues in society by simply speaking up, of course politely and respectfully. The best success is effected through an organized effort as a group of “concerned parents.”

3. Our meetings’ effects were seen in the leagues’ plans for the following year, when they were able to establish a new schedule. For example, the opening of the softball season in spring 1992 in Cranston was moved from a Sunday morning to a Saturday. Various other adjustments were made along the way, too many to enumerate in this article. We found overall that most league officials were very understanding and accommodating. All it took was meet face-to-face and talk. We were able to effect an “attitude change.”

4. We also found that some league officials were polite in the meetings, but said other things at their league meetings and to some of the parents. I include this as a success to our efforts, for therein parents knew whom they were dealing with and may have chosen to withdraw their kids from those leagues.

5. It was discovered in our conversations that due to the growth in girls’ sports over the years, that the previous times used for boys’ practices and games now necessitated that other times be found for the same field. Over the years, the league schedules overflowed into Sunday mornings. Thus if the fields could be “lighted” with electricity, enabling games at later hours in the day, and if new fields could be set up, there would be no need to have Sunday morning sports. Thus a plan was born!

THE FRUSTRATION

1. A handful of parents in each of the city’s congregations became involved—and thank God for them! But if more families had been willing, it would have been such a witness. Far too many sat on the sidelines and did not attend meetings. I’m not sure if they spoke privately in favor of our efforts, but they weren’t publicly vocal. Theoretically, even the small number that did get involved made a big difference.

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Honoring Sunday in Cranston • Ronald Reuter, the leader of the largest independent sports league (Cranston’s League for Cranston’s Future), issued his own statement following the meeting with the clergy: “Education and religion are first... sports come last. Our policy is that no child will be hurt by missing a practice or game by attending his house of worship. If the parents have a problem then it’s up to them to come to the president of the league.

He will rule in favor of them.”

• Michael Traficante, the mayor of Cranston, RI, issued the following statement following the meeting with the clergy: “It is important that children, in particular, be given the opportunity to participate in church services without conflict. My administration supports the general position of the clergy and it is my hope that private organizations respect this position as well.” He further announced that city-sponsored events, such as the Fall Harvest Festival road race, which traditionally has been held on Sunday morning, would be moved to accommodate the wishes of the clergy, stating, “I believe that it is important to provide anyone who wishes to attend church with as few conflicts with those services as possible.”

• The Cranston Clergy Association stated in part: “Both religious worship with instruction in the faith and the recreation and sports are essential to the growth and development of the bodies, minds and spirits of our young people. We are therefore asking the civic, educational and recreational leaders of our community to be sensitive to the spiritual development of our youth as we agree to be supportive of the social, recreational and sports activities which seek to involve them.”

2. The response of the Cranston School District was shameful.

They did not make any changes to their athletic schedules and programs. They have school holidays and off-days, yet they expect the sports teams to practice and at times play on days off from school. In certain years, they even do so on Western Good Friday (forget about Orthodox Good Friday). It is no wonder that Rhode Island’s public schools rank low in math and reading when there is such emphasis on sports. Beyond sports activities, they also schedule school dances and major activities on dates that often conpage 34

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flict with time-honored holy observances of the various faiths in the city.

3. The role of the Rhode Island State Council of Churches was very interesting in all of this. It is another organization that encompasses all three Christian groups and has Jewish observers, but they chose back then and to this day to ignore the topic. Each time the council has had a change in leadership, I have spoken privately on this topic to their new executive minister, and no one thus far wants to tackle the topic on the state level.

4. Along the way we learned numerous things from the parents, such as the way some coaches intimidate their players and the parents. “Either you show up at such-and-such day and time, or you can’t play the next time.” I have heard of cases when nothing is exempted, no doctor appointments, no funerals and of course not even special (once a year) church events, like Holy and Great Friday. I remind the readers of this article that it is about children’s sports. Such stress is placed on being present, as if it were a paid job and as if winning every football or soccer game is crucial to a child’s upbringing. There needs to be balance in all things in life for the wise raising of our children. Some sports officials simply overdo it with the kids, as if they were on a professional adult team.

THE CURRENT STATUS IN CRANSTON

Since 1992, we have seen many good changes in Cranston with the independent leagues. But now, twenty years later, it may have waned a bit, largely due to the lack of leadership and commitment to the cause, both at city hall and in the Cranston Clergy Association. What is needed is a sports on Sunday “overseer.” Most leagues will respect and adhere to the suggestions. People in leadership roles concerned on this topic have come and gone in the city, and we currently are waiting for a resurrection.

We hope in the Resurrection and in the improvement of society with godly and focused goals for the youth of today, who become the leaders of tomorrow. Hopefully, out there in your city, someone is willing to be that sports on Sunday campaign overseer!

Rev. Fr. Andrew George is the Director of Religious Education for the Boston Metropolis, and he serves Annunciation Parish in Cranston, RI. Editor’s Note: You may want to look into The Lord’s Day Alliance of the United States (www.ldausa.org). The Alliance exists to encourage Christians to reclaim the Sabbath–the Lord’s Day–as a day of spiritual and personal renewal, enabling them to impact their communities with the Gospel.

The Current Plague

I

Albert S. Rossi

nternet pornography is by far the fastest growing addiction today. It is a wildfire out of control. By all signs, the problem will get much worse unless it is understood and addressed. There are predictions that 3-D images will soon be on the computer, and images will become more lifelike. Pixels will become sharper.

For those being burned by the fire, whether a scorch or a full-body burn, there is hope. There is great hope for all involved in the issue, for confessors, for counselors and, most of all, for those persons caught in the heat of the fire of the Internet pornography passion.

For starters, we need to talk about the issues and deal with them forthrightly.

Fr. John Breck, in The Sacred Gift of Life, makes a striking point. He says, “Our threshold of tolerance toward sexual explicitness and exploitation has been lowered dramatically… [and] the spiritual and psychological toll exacted by this situation is incalculable.” In effect, we are numb to what is really going on and rather baffled about what to do about it.

THE SIZE OF THE PROBLEM

Internet pornography makes more money than the National Football League, Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association combined. It is a big business that protects itself and aggressively markets its wares.

A vast number of people—youth included—use Internet pornography, and a vast number of people are ashamed of it.

Grand paradox. This is how our youth are getting their sex.

According to a study conducted in 2000 by Christianity Today, more than one-third of pastors of all denominations admit to being tempted by Internet pornography.

Internet pornography is a drug. The brain responds in the same way to pornography as it does to cocaine—by flooding the brain with dopamine and testosterone.

Some public and private figures seem to think that “sex-

ting,” the act of sending sexually explicit messages or photographs primarily between mobile phones, can’t become public knowledge. Not necessarily true.

St. Maximos the Confessor says that lust and anger are similar passions. Is it any wonder that there are so many angry people, especially youth? Road rage, aggravated lawsuits and lustful behavior are not necessarily separate issues.

FALSE OBJECTIONS

There are at least two objections we must confront. The first is that pornography doesn’t hurt anyone. “I do it alone.” This

objection claims that viewing Internet pornography is a “victimless crime,” so to speak. Every hit to a pornography site is counted, and every hit contributes to the life choices of the young persons on the screen. Not harmless at all.

The other objection is that “it’s not that bad.” This is a variant of “everybody is doing it” or “boys will be boys.” Our retort is the words of Jesus. He said, “But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28). Of course, this includes all lustful looking. In Jesus’s time adultery was punishable by being stoned to death.

Doing it “once in a while,” for example, every three months, is not acceptable either. Addiction is a difficult term to define.

For our purposes, we can define an addict as anyone who has a pattern of behaviors that he or she wants to stop but doesn’t.

Neural pathways become chemically changed quickly. Spiritually, even occasional adultery is unconscionable.

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If a person were addicted to alcohol, a counselor or priest would probably try to lead the person to Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). A person who is addicted to Internet pornography probably needs to be led to Sexaholics Anonymous (SA). There are many false stereotypes for SA, particularly that members of SA have a history of acting out with other people. The truth is that many SA members have Internet pornography as their “only” sexual behavior, a behavior they detest but can’t stop.

Some persons can’t, or won’t, go to SA. What then? The great enemy of recovery is isolation. Virtually every addict has a secret life. So with Internet pornography, the person needs a system of accountability, a way to get out of the secret life and into a life of honesty and transparency. The person needs to be regularly open with another human being, both inside and outside confession.

This is a delicate issue. The persons chosen to be accountability partners need to be trustworthy, usually older than the addict, of the same sex, and willing to actively listen without judgment or advice-giving. The person who looks at Internet pornography regularly needs to experience being transparent with another human being without being shamed.

One implication now becomes loud and clear. “Revolving door” confession does not help the problem. Revolving door confession aids and abets the problem. We wouldn’t treat a cocaine addict that way. We wouldn’t say, “Fall down, get up and keep talking to me.” That approach simply doesn’t work.

Emotional isolation is especially insidious. This isolation creates inner stress, which creates a need for relief, often a return to the soothing but temporary relief of more pornography.

A downward helix begins: isolation brings darkness, which brings more acting out, which brings more isolation, which brings greater darkness. The solution to isolation is transparency, surrender to Christ and to another human, inside and outside of confession. Confession is a sacrament intended to cleanse the person and bring new union with Christ. But confession can also be used as an easy escape, one that temporarily relieves guilt and shame, but without true repentance and authentic change of behavior.

women need to communicate disgust and revulsion.

• Parents need to discuss this with their children and have appropriate filters on computers. Various programs are available. Some programs also provide filters for phones. One such program is Covenant Eyes (www.covenanteyes.com).

• Adults generally, and men particularly, need to consider joining one of the accountability programs to disclose their computer behavior to a trusted accountability partner. As said above, one program, highly recommended, is Covenant Eyes, which costs $8.99 per month for a subscription. The person joins, provides the email address of a trusted friend, and the trusted friend gets a weekly summary of all the Internet activity of the person. The summary is neatly arranged in categories, beginning with questionable material. The trusted friend can then email the person and simply ask, “Is there something we can talk about?” The cost is well worth the emotional clarity of living an online life that is known to at least one other human being. Also, any person, parish, deanery, organization or diocese can join as a member. Additional members cost $2.00 per month. The original member will know nothing of the computer activity of the added members. The original member will only know that the added member is a member of the group. Period.

• All of us, particularly confessors and persons in spiritually responsible positions, need to become more familiar with SA. Unlike AA, which has some open meetings that nonalcoholics can attend, SA has no open meetings. SA meetings are for sex addicts or those who think they might be.

Again, many members have never acted out with another human being. Their “only” acting out is with Internet pornography. Confessors and persons in spiritually responsible positions need to have phone numbers of local SA meetings and a working knowledge of the organization so that they can appropriately recommend SA if that is the path that is needed. Also, confessors and persons in spiritually responsible positions can contact those who already know about the program and discuss the implications of referrals.

WHAT CAN WE DO?

Diagnosis can be easy. Internet pornography is readily available on laptops, hand-held game machines, smart phones, etc. Remedy is much harder. There are a few things we can do, for starters: • The first is to discuss the issues and become aware of our lassitude toward sexual innuendos, stories, jokes and banter.

We can educate ourselves about the seriousness of lustful thoughts and behaviors. Men need to be more aware of how such behaviors begin to make them “love cripples.” Women need to be less tolerant of others who view Internet pornography. Rather than having a benign attitude of acceptance, page 36

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CONCLUSION

The fire of Internet pornography is not a greater threat than the saving fire of Jesus Christ. We have tools to cooperate with the Lord’s powerful grace and to combat the horrors of Internet pornography. We can be pure and we can empower others to purity through our prayer and our healing presence.

Dr. Albert S. Rossi, a clinical psychologist, is a member of the SCOBA Commission on Contemporary Social and Moral Issues. He is a retired Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology at Pace University, and he teaches Pastoral Theology at St. Vladimir’s Seminary.

THE RELIGIOUS ALLIANCE AGAINST PORNOGRAPHY The Foundation of the Archdiocese’s Efforts to Combat Pornography

I

Theo Nicolakis

n 1986, His Eminence Archbishop Iakovos, along with Cardinal John J. O’Connor of New York, Cardinal Joseph Bernadin, the Rev. Jerry Kirk of PureHope, and twenty-seven other religious leaders, came together to form the Religious Alliance Against Pornography (RAAP). Together, these religious leaders represented more than 100 million Americans. At that time, the goal of RAAP was simple: to serve as an interfaith alliance to combat the dangers of illegal pornography; and, as religious leaders, they would strive to accomplish this goal primarily through education and motivation. Archbishop Iakovos appointed Fr. Milton Efthimiou, Director of the Archdiocese’s Department of Church and Society, to serve on RAAP’s executive board and spearhead the Archdiocese’s response to this initiative.

Over the past twenty-five years, both RAAP and the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese have accomplished far more than simply “education and motivation.” Within a year of the group’s formation, Fr. Milton Efthimiou and the other RAAP members met with President Ronald Reagan at the White House to discuss the issues of pornography. In response to this meeting, President Reagan enacted several tangible initiatives to combat the dissemination of pornography through the U.S. Postal Service. Since then, RAAP has had meetings with two U.S. presidents and six attorneys general. There have been multi-day meetings in Rome with

cardinals and even with Pope John Paul II in the Vatican.

The first international conference on pornography was held in Manila, with forty nations and thirty-six Christian denominations represented.

Fr. Milton worked tirelessly within the Archdiocese as well. Through articles in the Orthodox Observer and publications on the issue of pornography in society, and even the launch of a national “Decency Week” campaign, he played an instrumental role in providing our Greek Orthodox community with a steady stream of information and updates.

Perhaps most importantly, the Archdiocese ensured that issues surrounding pornography were brought to the forefront, and it outlined the Church’s position on pornography for parishioners: Pornography is addictive. Pornography is a poisonous source that exploits and degrades the human person.

Pornography undermines families. It twists social and personal relations. It reduces the gift of God’s sexuality to a level that lacks a sense of the personal dignity, human tenderness, mutual love and ethical commitment that are part of God’s divine plan. In a word, pornography is something that runs directly counter to the Orthodox Christian view that we are all made in the image and likeness of God. THE CHURCH’S RESPONSE TO INTERNET AND MOBILE TECHNOLOGIES

Since His Eminence Archbishop Demetrios was enthroned as Archbishop of America in 1999, he has continued to support the Archdiocese’s participation in this effort. However, realpage 37

izing the rapid advances in technology, both the Archdiocese and RAAP began to focus their educational efforts on pornography delivered through mobile devices. As evidence of this shift, in 2005, Archbishop Demetrios appointed me, as the Archdiocese’s Chief Information Officer, to serve on the RAAP executive committee.

The Archdiocese has made a concerted effort to educate parents and our youth about online safety and the potential dangers that mobile devices can pose if left unmonitored. In March 2006, Archbishop Demetrios and all the hierarchs of SCOBA issued a pastoral encyclical to every Orthodox Christian community in America entitled, “SCOBA Hierarchs on the Well-Being of Children.” It stated, “The technology itself is not dangerous. The danger lies in the fact that there are currently no safeguards or regulations in place to protect children and teens from being exposed to unwanted, seductive and explicit content that is downloadable through these wireless handheld devices.” It was the first such panOrthodox statement on both the benefits of technology and potential dangers it poses.

The encyclical, which was to be distributed to all parishioners, went on to outline the work being done with the wireless industry to ensure that appropriate parental controls and filters would be available to help parents protect their children.

Indeed, not long afterward, the wireless carriers began to roll out programs that allowed parents to control mobile phone usage to protect our children from predators and pornography.

As evidence of this focus, the Archdiocese conducted a series of workshops at the 2006 Clergy–Laity Congress in Nashville to educate attendees about this growing threat of mobile pornography and sexting. In fact, the Archdiocese’s educational efforts to combat pornography were featured on the evening news by the ABC affiliate in Nashville, Channel 2. Since kicking off its educational initiative at the Nashville Clergy–Laity, the Archdiocese has conducted presentations in fourteen cities with more than 2,000 participants in attendance. Venues have included schools, clergy meetings, Philoptochos-sponsored page 38

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events, youth retreats and parish-centered educational events.

Additional efforts coordinated with RAAP have included top-level meetings at the Justice Department, the CTIA (the wireless industry association) and the FCC; a cell phone safety booklet and an educational DVD; and two national summits on mobile pornography.

Today, the Archdiocese meets monthly with the other RAAP leadership members to outline educational strategy and direction. As part of those meetings, the Archdiocese and RAAP have been looking into expanding their focus to encompass action against sex trafficking, which has been receiving more and more media exposure in recent months.

Moreover, the Archdiocese has outlined a concerted program to further these efforts to educate our faithful and provide the tools and resources to equip parents in an ever-changing technological world. In 2012, the Archdiocese, in collaboration with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, will be jointly publishing an Internet safety guide that will synthesize many of the resources available to parents in a single publication.

This publication will also consolidate both Churches’ positions on the sanctity of the human person and the harm that pornography poses.

While the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese and its partners at the Religious Alliance Against Pornography have been making a concerted effort to combat pornography for the past twenty-five years, the battle is far from over. Indeed, as new forms of technology proliferate, so, too, will the distribution channels that pornographers choose to use. However, thanks to the strong, continued support of Archbishop Demetrios, the Greek Orthodox Church in America has a relevant voice and program in place to address this growing pastoral need in our communities.

Theo Nicolakis is Chief Information Officer of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.

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FROM THE DIRECTOR

MORE THAN LITURGY...

DEAR R EADERS, Charitable and philanthropic acts have always been a central component of Christian living, along with prayer and worship, fasting and ascetic discipline, and study. In the last twenty-five years or so, the Orthodox in America have witnessed substantial growth in the numbers of church-sponsored organizations and agencies dedicated to various forms of social justice work. IOCC, OCMC, FOCUS, YES, RealBreak and others bring Orthodox Christians together for various forms of service. They bear witness to an increasing understanding that religious faith is meant to be put into action beyond attending liturgical services. As the late John Boojamra wrote, “The Church is, certainly, liturgy, but it is more than liturgy…

There are other aspects of the Church’s life…which contribute to the ecclesiastical reality which we claim to experience as the Church of God.” In this issue of PRAXIS, we hope to highlight some of the ways that Orthodox Christians at the parish level are engaging in social action, from awareness-building to actual service programs. As with any other topic, much more could be said or shown.

We also hope to make a connection between our action and our theological understanding of these actions. Orthodox Christians are involved in social action not only because it is a good thing to do, but also because our Faith tells us to do them. These are not “add-on” programs operated by “good people”: they should come from deep within our selfunderstanding as Orthodox Christians. For example, when the Ecumenical Patriarchate began raising our environmental awareness, to my knowledge no one disagreed with the idea that we should care about the natural world. The way we, as Orthodox, began to connect our concern for the environment to the depths of our Faith and way of life made perfect sense to us. So it should be with our social action work. There is a rich history of social action and philanthropic work in the Ortho-

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dox Tradition. We should study that legacy carefully and make as many connections as we can to that heritage so that it can inform our social involvement.

There are additional steps we can begin to take. First, every parish can create a line item in its budget for charitable and philanthropic work. We ask our members to be good stewards and give generously to the parish. Might not the parish also be a good steward and give generously to the poor and needy, beyond just passing this task on to a Philoptochos Society?

Proceeds from parish festivals and events could go to a local charity, especially since we invite the local community to them. Might we not show our support for the communities that support us?

Second, we can connect our social action and philanthropic work to our liturgical and prayer life. We can pray for the people we serve—the people we meet at the shelter or food pantry. We can bring our gifts of food and clothing to the church on a regular basis, just as we bring the gifts of bread and wine. The collection area could be in the narthex, quietly witnessing that the work of the people (liturgy) at this parish includes meeting the material needs of those less fortunate.

Third, we can study and address the conditions of our life and in our society that lead to the poverty and homelessness that our philanthropic work and charitable deeds seek to ameliorate. We may not agree on how to “end poverty in our world,” but we can look a little deeper into the issue and how we might begin to work toward those goals in our world today.

Anton C. Vrame, PhD Director