My Journey To Orthodoxy: October 2008

Spanish abortion supporters call for church burnings

From the sea like pirates they came, a hundred or so Dutch women from "Women on Waves", a floating abortion mill, to the yacht harbor of Valencia. The locals came out in droves to protest the "Ship of Death", while the abortionist passed out matches with the message “The only church that brings light is the one that burns. Join us!” and images of burning churches. It was the largest pro-life rally in the city's history. The flotilla's purpose is to ferry impressionable women out to international waters to perform their heinous acts of death and dismemberment on the defenceless youths. On October 19, the feminists met again to distribute matches but decided to disband after they were overwhelmed by the large number of pro-life protesters who gathered at the port where the abortion ship was docked.

Pray with me that this plan of the adversary is thwarted...

Statement from the Meeting of St. Michael’s Seminary Curriculum Committee of the American Church

The Curriculum Committee of St. Michael’s Seminary, USA met in Olathe, Kansas October 16-17, 2008. Those in attendance were the Patriarch, Bishops Doug Kessler and Mike Davidson, Archdeacon Bill McLoughlin, Canons Mark Finley, David Almond, Robert Wills, Fr. Terry Hedrick, and Deacons John Garrett and Steve Phelps. Canon Mark Pearson was unable to attend the meeting because he is recovering from surgery.

On the first day, the Patriarch addressed the members of the committee. He commended the committee for the excellent work they have done in setting curriculum and in teaching and mentoring men around the United States and Canada. There is always need for improvement because our culture is slowly entering a post-Christian era. Our men need to be educated and prepared for the days that face us.

After discussion of the Patriarch’s comments, the committee continued with their work. At the conclusion of the two days of meeting they prepared several recommendations to the United States House of Bishops.

The are recommending that St. Michael’s be the official seminary of the Charismatic Episcopal Church in the United States and that every Diocese use the seminary for preparing men for ordination.

There was a lengthy discussion of the spiritual and moral formation of seminarians and clergy. They are recommending to the Bishops of the U.S. Church that all clergy be mandated to be involved in continuing education and spiritual direction. They are reminding the Bishops and the seminarians that St. Michael’s Seminary is contextual education and involves spiritual/moral formation, practical ministry, and academics. The committee also recommended that there be programs developed for the wives and families of clergy and those seeking ordination.

Finally the Committee recommended to the Patriarch, who is also the Primate of the United States, that the Seminary seek accreditation and that he appoint a group to research the possibility. The Patriarch responded by appointing a group to work on this process.

The Primate reappointed Bishop Doug Kessler as the Dean of the Seminary and Dn. Steve Phelps who serves at the Cathedral in Kansas City will assist him in administrative matters.

From http://www.cechome.com/?p=549

International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church

Churches around the world will join in prayer for the millions of Christians worldwide who continue to be persecuted for their faith.
The International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church (IDOP) on 9 November is an initiative of the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) Religious Liberty Commission in collaboration with ministries that support the persecuted church, including Voice of Martyrs, Open Doors and Gospel for Asia.

Global IDOP coordinator, the Rev Johan Candelin said the day of prayer said it could be the “biggest prayer group in the world”. The theme will be “Refined in Fire”.

“When the Lord's children go into the refining fire of persecution, they come out purer with deeper faith and greater strength, more Christ-focused and more unified,” said the Rev Candelin, who is also the Executive Director of the WEA’s Religious Liberty Commission.

“Those who are being persecuted can therefore be encouraged to look with hope at how they are being sanctified. And those who pray for them can be reminded to place sanctification on a higher pedestal than prosperity.”

More Christians were martyred in the twentieth century than all previous centuries combined, and persecution continues unabated into the twenty-first century. In India’s Orissa state, scores of Christians have been killed and thousands left homeless in a wave of attacks by Hindu mobs since the end of August.

“More than 200 million Christians do not have full religious freedom today,” added Candelin. “The least we can do is the most we can do: Pray.”

Specific prayer requests concerning 36 nations and 46 national leaders plus other resources for targeted praying, are available from the global IDOP website.

“IDOP is an important opportunity for the church around the world to stand in solidarity with brothers and sisters from across the globe, who are suffering as they seek to follow Christ,” said Dr Geoff Tunnicliffe, the International Director of WEA.

“I urge all churches to participate in IDOP. It will be life-changing.”

On the web: www.idop.org

Blog Action Day 2008 - Poverty

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Achtiname of Muhammad

The Achtiname of Muhammad, also known as the Covenant or Holy Testament of Muhammad, is the document or ahdname which is a charter or writ ratified by the Prophet Muhammad granting protection and other privileges to the monks of Saint Catherine's Monastery, Mount Sinai. It is sealed with an imprint representing Muhammad's hand. ""This is a message from Muhammad ibn Abdullah, as a covenant to those who adopt Christianity, near and far, we are with them. Verily I, the servants, the helpers, and my followers defend them, because Christians are my citizens; and by Allah! I hold out against anything that displeases them. No compulsion is to be on them. Neither are their judges to be removed from their jobs nor their monks from their monasteries. No one is to destroy a house of their religion, to damage it, or to carry anything from it to the Muslims' houses. Should anyone take any of these, he would spoil God's covenant and disobey His Prophet. Verily, they are my allies and have my secure charter against all that they hate. No one is to force them to travel or to oblige them to fight. The Muslims are to fight for them. If a female Christian is married to a Muslim, it is not to take place without her approval. She is not to be prevented from visiting her church to pray. Their churches are to be respected. They are neither to be prevented from repairing them nor the sacredness of their covenants. No one of the nation is to disobey the covenant till the Last Day."

Prayers by the Lake - St. Nikolai Velimirovic

Who is that staring at me through all the stars in heaven and all the creatures on earth?

Cover your eyes, stars and creatures; do not look upon my nakedness. Shame torments me enough through my own eyes.

What is there for you to see? A tree of life that has been reduced to a thorn on the road, that pricks both itself and others. What else-except a heavenly flame immersed in mud, a flame that neither gives light nor goes out?

Plowmen, it is not your plowing that matters but the Lord who watches.

Singers, it is not your singing that matters but the Lord who listens.

Sleepers, it is not your sleeping that matters but the Lord who wakens.

It is not the pools of water in the rocks around the lake that matter but the lake itself.

What is all human time but a wave that moistens the burning sand on the shore, and then regrets that it left the lake, because it has dried up?

O stars and creatures, do not look at me with your eyes but at the Lord. He alone sees. Look at Him and you will see yourselves in your homeland.

What do you see when you look at me? A picture of your exile? A mirror of your fleeting transitoriness?

O Lord, my beautiful veil, embroidered with golden seraphim, drape over my face like a veil over the face of a widow, and collect my tears, in which the sorrow of all Your creatures seethes.

O Lord, my beauty, come and visit me, lest I be ashamed of my nakedness—lest the many thirsty glances that are falling upon me return home thirsty.

Who put me in this bed of worms? Who buried me in the dust, to become a neighbor of snakes and a banquet for worms?

Who pushed me off the high mountain, to become a companion of bloodthirsty and godless men?

My sin and Your justice, O Lord. My sin stretches from the creation of the world, and it is swifter than Your justice.

I count my sins throughout my entire life, throughout the life of my father and all the way back to the beginning of the world, and I say: Truly, the name of the Lord's justice is mercy.

I bear the wounds of my fathers on myself-wounds that I myself was preparing while I was still in my fathers—and now they have all appeared on my soul, like a spotted hide on a giraffe, like a cloak of vicious scorpions that sting me.

Have mercy on me, O Lord, open the floodgate of the heavenly river of Your grace, and cleanse me of leprous evil, so that without this leprosy I may dare to proclaim Your name before the other lepers without them ridiculing me.

At least raise me up by a head above the rotten stench of this bed of worms, to inhale the incense of heaven and return to life.

At least raise me up as high as a palm tree so I can laugh at the serpents chasing my heels.

O Lord, if there has been even one good deed in the course of my earthly journey, for the sake of that one deed deliver me from the companionship of bloodthirsty and godless men.

O Lord, my hope in despair.

O Lord, my strength in weakness.

O Lord, my light in darkness.

Place just one finger on my forehead and I shall be raised. Or, if I am too unclean for Your finger, let a single ray of light from Your kingdom shine upon me and raise me-raise me, from this bed of worms, O my beloved Lord.

III

Are there days gone by, O man, to which you would wish to return? They all attracted you like silk, and now remain behind you like a cobweb. Like honey they greeted you, like stench you bade them farewell. All were totally filled with illusion and sin.

See how all the pools of water in the moonlight resemble mirrors; and how all the days that were lit up with your levity resemble mirrors. But as you stepped from one day to the next, the false mirrors cracked like thin ice, and you waded through the water and mud.

Can a day that has a morning and an evening as doorways be a day?

O luminous Lord, my soul is burdened with illusions and longs for one day—for the day without doorways, the day from which my soul has departed and sunk into the shifting shadows—for Your day, which I used to call my day, when I was one with You.

Is there any happiness gone by, O man, to which you would wish to return?

Of two morsels of the same sweetness the second is the more trite. You would turn your head away in boredom from yesterday's happiness, if it were set out on today's table.

Moments of happiness are given to you only in order to leave you longing for tme happiness in the bosom of the everhappy Lord; and ages of unhappiness are given to you, to waken you out of the drowsy dream of illusions.

O Lord, Lord, my only happiness, will You provide shelter for Your injured pilgrim?

O Lord, my ageless youth, my eyes shall bathe in You and shine more radiantly than the sun.

You carefully collect the tears of the righteous, and with them You rejuvenate worlds.

My elders taught me, when I was a youth, to cling to heaven and earth, lest I stumble. For a long time I remained a child, and for a long time I used to lean on the crutch that they gave me.

But once eternity flooded through me and I felt like a stranger in the world, heaven and earth snapped in two in my hands like a frail reed.

O Lord, my strength, how frail are heaven and earth! They look like palaces built of lead, but they evaporate like water in the palm of the hand in Your presence. Only by their bristling do they conceal their frailty, and frighten uneducated children.

Get out of my sight, suns and stars. Sunder yourselves from the earth. Do not entice me, women and friends. What help can I receive from you, who are helplessly growing old and sinking into the grave?

All your gifts are an apple with a worm in its core. All your potions have passed through someone's entrails many times. Your garments are a cobweb that my nakedness mocks. Your smiles are a proclamation of sorrow, in which your feebleness is screaming to mine for help.

O Lord, my strength, how feeble heaven and earth are! And all the evil that men do under heaven is an admission of feebleness and—infirmity.

Only someone strong dares to do good. Only someone who is nourished and watered with You, my strength, is filled with strength for goodness.

Only someone who sleeps in Your heart knows rest. Only someone who plows before Your feet will enjoy the fruit of his labors.

My childhood, nourished with fear and ignorance, came to an end; and my hope in heaven and earth vanished. Now I only gaze at You and cling to Your gaze in return, O my cradle and my resurrection.