I am not what one thinks of when they think of a techno geek. I blog, I podcast, I email, I use the web, but that is about it. So I discovered google reader last week and I have struck gold! If you read blogs on a regular basis as I do then you need to use this thing. I had been using the blog reader on Internet Explorer but if you go to a different computer then your blogs are not there. Google allows you to travel and keep up with the reading it is a great thing. So go to google.com and sign up it is free.
11 July ~ St. Drostan
A Scottish abbot who flourished about A.D. 600. All that is known of him is found in the “Breviarium Aberdonense” and in the “Book of Deir”, a ninth-century manuscript now in the University Library of Cambridge, but these two accounts do not agree in every particular. He appears to have belonged to the royal family of the Scoti, his father’s name being Cosgrach. Showing signs of a religious vocation he was entrusted at an early age to the care of St. Columba, who trained him and gave him the monastic habit. He accompanied that saint when he visited Aberdour (Aberdeen) in Buchan. The Pietish ruler of that country gave them the site of Deir, fourteen miles farther inland, where they established a monastery, and when St. Columba returned to Iona he left St. Drostan there as abbot of the new foundation. On the death of the Abbot of Dalquhongale (Holywood) some few years later, St. Drostan was chosen to succeed him. Afterwards, feeling called to a life of greater seclusion, he resigned his abbacy, went farther north, and became a hermit at Glenesk. Here his sanctity attracted the poor and needy, and many miracles are ascribed to him, including the restoration of sight to a priest named Symon. After his death his relics were transferred to Arberdour and honourably preserved there. The “Breviary of Aberdeen” celebrates his feast on 15 December. The monastery of Deir, which had fallen into decay, was rebuilt for Cistercian monks in 1213 and so continued until the Reformation.
Feast of St. Benedict
Today on the Roman calendar is the feast of St. Benedict. As some of you may know I spent several years in a Benedictine monastery as a professed member, hence the name of this blog by the way. The Orthodox Church celebrates this feast on March 14th. I wish all of my Benedictine friends a happy feast day.
This Saint, whose name means “blessed,” was born in 480 in Nursia, a small town about seventy miles northeast of Rome. He struggled in asceticism from his youth in deserted regions, where his example drew many who desired to emulate him. Hence, he ascended Mount Cassino in Campania and built a monastery there. The Rule that he gave his monks, which was inspired by the writings of Saint John Cassian, Saint Basil the Great, and other Fathers, became a pattern for monasticism in the West; because of this, he is often called the first teacher of monks in the West. He reposed in 547.
Apolytikion in the Plagal of the Fourth Tone
The image of God, was faithfully preserved in you, O Father. For you took up the Cross and followed Christ. By Your actions you taught us to look beyond the flesh for it passes, rather to be concerned about the soul which is immortal. Wherefore, O Holy Benedict, your soul rejoices with the angels.
Kontakion in the Fourth Tone
O sun that shinest with the Mystic Dayspring’s radiance, who didst enlighten the monastics of the western lands, thou art worthily the namesake of benediction; do thou purge us of the filth of passions thoroughly by the sweat of thine illustrious accomplishments, for we cry to thee: Rejoice, O thrice-blessed Benedict.
John Adams
I just finished watching the HBO mini series John Adams based on the book by the same name. I have to say it was masterfully done and I am glad I was able to watch it. I grew up in Quincy, Massachusetts a stones throw from the Adam’s houses and never spent much time there. I guess that is always the way we never see what is right in front of us. Anyway I was amazed by how the founding father’s felt about what they were creating and how apprehensive Adams was to break away from England. It was not until the law was violated that he felt it was his duty to protest. And protest they did. I was also amazed by the way Washington and Adams felt about political parties they were against them. In fact Washington was quoted as saying political parties would divide the country. Well… I also like the fact that those nominated for high office did not campaign they felt that was beneath them.
Anyway a very good series and I would recommend it highly for your viewing pleasure.
Book Review: In the Eye of the Storm
In the Eye of the StormGene Robinson
Hardcover: 192 pages
Publisher: Seabury Books (April 1, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1596270888
ISBN-13: 978-1596270886
Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.9 inches
I will admit from the very beginning of this review that I was a reluctant reader of the book In the Eye of the Storm by Gene Robinson. I guess I was swayed by all of the press about him and his lifestyle and I assumed that it was going to be another book by a gay man telling the rest of us that we need to accept gay people in the world. I was wrong and I am glad I was wrong. This by far was the best book I have read in a long time.
Bishop Robinson talks about what it is like to be a gay man in our society today and also in the church but he speaks from his heart about what he believes we should be as a people but also what we should be as a church. “We are called by the One who made us merciful, loving, and compassionate – not judgmental.” With these words bishop Robinson begins a discussion of what we are called to be as Christians. “Loving our neighbor begins – and perhaps is only possible – when we love ourselves.” I wrote these words down when I read them and each of us should have these words written on our hearts.Bishop Robinson reminds us again and again, that we need to go where God is calling us not just where we want to go, and to minister to His people and not just the people we want to minister too. “We must go where the Gospel tell us with the poor, the dispossessed and the marginalized.” This is what Jesus did and Bishop Robinson reminds each of us that this is the great commission. “We are about changing the world – we are about loving those who Jesus loved those on the margins.” These are words for each of us in this world that has gone mad.
I was surprised that the theology of Bishop Robinson is not what I expected. Time and time again the book Bishop Robinson calls us to look at what we believe and how we practice our faith and constantly asks us what would Jesus do? He calls us back to the early church teaching of working with those on the edge and not judging people for how they dress, act, or think just love them. He reminds us that before we can love others we need to love ourselves.
Throughout this book he weaves his own experiences with those of Scripture to perhaps shine a light down the dark path that we all need to follow. He speaks of visiting the women’s prison after his election and the vestments that they made for him and now he cherishes those vestments above all the others that he has. He speaks of visits to parishes and the struggles of the people not from a gay straight point of view but from a very human dare I say pastoral place. Bishop Gene, if I may be so bold to call him that, teaches us what it truly means to be a pastor to God’s children.
Towards to end of the book he writes about the Anglican Communion and about the coming Lambeth Conference that he has not been invited too. About his feelings of not having a seat at the table even though his is a canonically elected and consecrated bishop. I get the sense from his words that he is less concerned about himself then his is about his people. By him not being at the table with his brother and sister bishops the people of his Diocese are not represented. Bishop Gene truly loves his flock, all of them, not just the ones that agree with him.
Gene Robinson is bishop of the tiny, rural Episcopal Diocese of New Hampshire, but he’s at the center of a storm of controversy raging in the Episcopal Church and throughout the worldwide Anglican Communion involving homosexuality, the priesthood, and the future of the Communion. This book offers an honest, thoughtful portrait of Robinson, the faith that has informed his life, and the controversy that continues to rock his Church.
Unification
Word has reached us here in the Village of the vote at the Congress of the Romanian Orthodox Archdiocese in the Americas and the Romanian Episcopate to reunite after almost 50 years of separation, well maybe.
As my loyal readers will not I was not at the assembly this year but the vote was taken and from all accounts it was unanimous on both sides. So the Romanian Patriarchate released this press release and then it would seem someone got mad and then they published this one. Thanks to ocanews.org for this information.
I have blogged about this proposal before and what it will mean to Romanians in this country and to Orthodoxy as a whole in the US and Canada. Sometimes people are just looking for an excuse to derail everything, as happened three years ago when we voted on the same proposal. I hope this retraction of the earlier statement does not signal the end again. We shall see.
So you ask why was I not at the Congress this year. Several reasons but the most glaring was language. I serve as a priest in the Romanian Archdiocese. I knew when I came in that many of the people spoke Romanian. I am not one of those by the way and neither are the 70 members of my church. Consistently however at church meetings we are excluded from debates because of language. Oh yes we get a summary of what is said but we do not get all of what is said. In my mind we are treated as second class citizens. Now keep in mind that most if not all of the people at these meetings speak and understand English so that is not the issue. So I chose not at attend another three day event that would all be in Romanian and waste precious church funds by sending me to meeting that we would not be represented at. I also understand that the entire Liturgy was done in Romanian even though we had visitors from many other Orthodox Jurisdicitons in attendance because we consecrated our new cathedral.
Until the Orthodox church wakes up and realizes that they are loosing entire generations because of the language issue we will also be a small, insignificant, immigrant church. I think it is fine to use some of the language of the people in the church services but the majority of the service should be done in English. Everyone speaks English in their place of employment and the children speak English in school so why do we speak other languages in Church.
one thing my trip north taught me was that we need to hang on to our culture and traditions, but not to the detriment of a generation or two of faithful. Gaelic, the language of my ancestors, is almost a dead language. More people speak Gaelic outside of Scotland than inside. How many other languages have met that same fate. It bothers me that my people here do not speak the language of their ancestors. I am not advocating going back, but we need to find a compromise.
Women and the Church
For far too long women have taken a back seat in the church. For years we, men that is, have required women to jump through all sorts of hurdles to gain entrance in to the church. In our own Orthodox Church the tradition is that women should not take communion while menstruating (obviously a man came up with that word) and after child birth there is the ever insulting service called the churching of women. It was not that long ago that in my own Archdiocese women were not given the right to be members of the church and women sat on one side and men on the other.
I have heard all of the arguments out there,mainly from men by the way, and I think they are all bunk. Yes Jesus had only men as his apostles, why? Because in the culture to which he came women were treated worse then slaves so to have women apostles would not have been a good thing for him to do. But who did he appear to first? Who was with him at the Crucifixion when most if not all of the men had run away? Who washed his feet? Who gave him life?
In our modern culture women have a place at the table, not just putting the food on it, and it is time the church caught up with that. Recently the General Synod of the Church of England has approved the ordination of women as bishops of the church. I say good for them, and the rest of us need to hang our heads in shame for not following suit. Why is it women are not allowed to lead our congregations? While in seminary, the Roman Catholic seminary that is, we were not even allowed to speak of such things as women priests and optional celibacy. It’s okay ladies you can clean the church but you cannot serve at the altar!
Jesus did what he did because that was the culture of his time the culture of our time is full inclusion of all of God’s people in the ministry of the church. Some in the Church of England are saying this is end and will be leaving and heading for Rome or elsewhere. So in other words I am taking my ball and leaving. Very adult by the way! That’s the way we Christians handle things. If we don ‘t like a decision we threaten to leave and go find greener pastures that’s why the church is splintered in so many ways!
What would Jesus do? If Jesus were to come today to England or the United States, his apostles would include women and, I hope you are sitting down, people of alternate life style! Yes I said it! Just look at scripture, who did Jesus hang with but the dregs of society, not the learned or the clean, but, wait for it, SINNERS! None of us are perfect and as soon as we realize that fact the better our life will be.
So ladies welcome to the table. It has taken more than 2000 years but you hung in there and slowly you are coming into the place you deserve. We honor Mary as the birth-giver of God, but if she were alive today we would not let her celebrate the Eucharist or preach in one of our churches. The church needs to atone for how it has treated women over years. This is just the first step.
Ancient Hebrew tablet sparks debate on Messiah
JERUSALEM – A 3-foot-tall tablet with 87 lines of Hebrew that scholars believe dates from the decades just before the birth of Jesus is causing a quiet stir in biblical and archeological circles, especially because it may speak of a messiah who will rise from the dead after three days.
If such a messianic description really is there, it will contribute to a developing reevaluation of both popular and scholarly views of Jesus, because it suggests that the story of his death and resurrection was part of a recognized Jewish tradition at the time.
The tablet – probably found near the Dead Sea in Jordan, according to some scholars who have studied it – is a rare example of a stone with ink writings from that era – in essence, a Dead Sea Scroll on stone.
Read the rest of the story Here
Clergy and Politics
Recently I priest that I went to seminary with sent out an email blasting Senator Obama and saying we, as Christians, Should vote for Senator John McCain. I disagree with this email. Not on who to vote for but that clergy should be sending out such things.
Clergy should not preach politics from the pulpit, email, or blog. Now I may cross the line from time to time but we need be careful in this regard. We are supposed to preach what the church teaches and that is it. We can teach what the church teaches and inform the people so they can make up their own minds on who to vote for without ever mentioning a candidates name or a political party. I also disagree with the phrase I am saying this as a private citizen. We are not private citizens, we gave up that right when we were ordained to the holy priesthood.
I am planning a call this fall on ethics and I have asked my parishioners to suggest topics that we can discuss not from a Democrat or Republican position but from an Orthodox position. If there is not Orthodox position well we will cross that bridge when we come to it. Our bishops have spoken on topics such as abortion, stem cell research, homelessness, poverty, the environment, etc. We do not need to know what the Dem or Rep position is just what the church position is and then vote accordingly.
I will say this about politics as well and I believe I have said this before. We need to be informed about what the candidates say. Not what others say about what they say but about what they say, no spin as Bill O’Riley is fond of saying. Read the speeches for yourself and inform yourself.
On another note, I believe the IRS has some pretty strong opinions on what we can and cannot say from the pulpit.
Now back to our regular program.
Anniversary
Today is my 4th anniversary. I was ordained to the holy priesthood 4 years ago today in Chicago. It seems like it was only yesterday.