Voting with Their Feet

During an interfaith dialogue in Mumbai, Hindu and Catholic leaders denounced religious conversions and recent anti-Christian violence in Kandhamal district in India.

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The Hindu pontiff, Jayendra Saraswati, pointed to "conversion" as the chief reason for the growing violence on minorities. He sought an assurance from the Catholic Church to halt such activities. Catholic leaders denied engaging in any proselytizing and blamed Protestants.

Not every conversion is a “forced” conversion. The term “forced conversion” seems to run the gamut from providing food and shelter in exchange for attending a Church service (or possibly suggesting it) all the way to REAL coercion at gunpoint. If Hindus are being converted to Christianity by violence, this is wrong, according to the Christian standard. Otherwise, shouldn’t people be free to choose between religions of their own accord. There would be no religion, native or otherwise anywhere unless that were the case.

Even if India has a many thousand year history of Hinduism at some point, people freely chose to be so just as later they’d freely choose to be Christians, Muslims, and Buddhists. Even within Christianity, we Orthodox Christians see people leaving our Church steadily for the charismatic movement. How can we blame them if we ourselves are not offering them the depth and fulfillment our Faith is capable of providing? If there truly is no compulsion, then this is the most free democratic result of people being able to think freely. If a religion, Christian, Hindu, or otherwise is seeing people leave of their own free will, then it is that faith tradition’s responsibility to convince its wayward sheep to stay.

-Steve K.

"Knowing About" and "Participation in"

We are all so often deceived into the trap of dividing Christianity up into the “ritual” and the “necessary.” The Eucharist along with the other Sacraments are discarded as “ceremony” because of their scripted nature and repetitiveness while believing in a handful of central truths like the Resurrection and the Trinity are all that’s needed. If the intellectual exercise of belief were all that was necessary, then why did Christ even command us to be baptized? Is one born again in the waters of baptism or is he or she born again when the choice is made to be baptized? Obviously at least one “ritual” has been demanded by Christ as a “condition” for Salvation (John 3:5).

The point is that Christianity is not simply an act of knowing a certain truth, but active participation in that truth. So often this is abstracted to have a social meaning, that is to say doing good deeds, feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, and other certainly righteous acts. However, the Orthodox concept of Sacrament is not restricted to that, but also to real participation in Christ. We are baptized into death and resurrection with Christ as He was also baptized. We participate in the once and for all Sacrifice of Christ on the Cross in the Eucharist. We are given the gift of the Holy Spirit in Chrysmation just as Christ gave the Disciples the gift of Spirit at the Pentecost. Just knowing about these acts of Christ is far different from having them realized in our lives in the here and now- which is to say through the Sacraments.

-Steve K.

Orthodox Priest Candidate Suspended from Clerical Duties

This article with the title above normally signals men behaving badly .. however, in this case, the Finnish Orthodox Church took a courageous and strong stand to divide Church and politics.

The story reports how the Finnish Orthodox Church's Council of Bishops has ruled that Mitro Repo may not serve as a priest while he is running for the European Parliament or if he wins a seat. The bishops explained that participation in political activity violates the tradition of the Orthodox Church canon. They added that a Member of the European Parliament wearing priestly attire would place the Finnish church into a questionable position internationally.

Especially as politics and religion in America, India and elsewhere grow uncomfortably more and more entwined, the Finnish Orthodox stance and explanation that points back to the original Church teachings (Matthew 22:18-22) is wonderful. It's clear in the Holy Scripture and the early Church teachings that Christ was neither a politician nor a power-monger, and it's time for all Christians to understand this point.

But arguably the most thought-provoking point from the article was Mitro Repo's acceptance of the ruling and his statement that "the council had made a wise decision".

It's kind of like MySpace except it's for Orthodox Christians and those interested in Orthodox Christianity.

After reading reddit. i found this cool site. It like a myspace for Orthodox Christians.
Take a look. http://www.orthodoxcircle.com/

Anil George
St. Mary's Malankara Orthodox Syrian Cathedral of Philadelphia

The Orthodox and the Artificial

The Orthodox and the Artificial

If there is a future for Orthodox Christianity in America, it will be grounded in its authentic expression of Christianity. Our claim is that we have a living and organic continuity with the Apostles, and the Eucharist we celebrate is the same which was celebrated by Christ with those Apostles in the Upper Room. Each time we gather together for the Eucharist, we participate in the Sacrifice offered once and for all on the Cross. Christ made this manifest around a table, so in essence we too are gathered around a table as well during the Liturgy.

The Eucharist then, is at heart a very simple act; simple yet mysterious. The Liturgy has developed, to be sure, but always keeping in fidelity with the central act of offering by the priest. Every hymn, every vestment, every work of Church art and architecture is never an "innovation" so much as an accessory intended to deepen the mystical experience of the Sacrament.

It is in stating this, then, that I have grown seriously concerned with the use and overuse of instrumentation in the Liturgy. Over centuries the Church has corporately developed a discipline towards Liturgical music particularly demonstrated by the tonal system. Once again, the underlying wisdom behind this is the deepening of the experience of the central offering, particularly repentant and triumphant tones when appropriate. If there is to be instrumentation during the Eucharist, let it be orient the congregation towards the altar. The abuse of the organ, synthesized beats, and raucous tunes do nothing but direct attention to the choir instead. Choirs, of course are expendable, but the altar is not.

If the hallmark of our faith is authenticity, why do we then trade that in for the artificial? If the new generation of Orthodox Christians were simply looking for a good beat, they'd find better quality productions elsewhere. We should be experiencing the Liturgy in calm and in peace, not as if we were at a concert, but instead the Holy Table of Christ.

-Steve K.

Orthodoxy in a Nutshell

Thanks to Demetrios1 for this quote:

"This is the Church that began with the dudes that hung out with Christ. I figure any other church is going to be more 'dude like' and less 'Christ like.'"

What's Bringing People to Orthodoxy?

Recently I've been getting acquainted with the podcast "Journeys to Orthodoxy" on the OCN. As is the case with the conversion stories I've heard on Ancient Faith Radio, the most often repeated reason for joining the Orthodox Church is AUTHENTICITY.

Now, I was born in the Church, so my take is admittedly a bit different. But what I thought would be the most attractive part of Orthodoxy would be CONTINUITY, in that over time and space the Church has consistently taught the same thing as Christ did to the Apostles; it's not just antiguity, it's accuracy.

There is so much depth to Orthodoxy that many people will come to this Faith by many different roads, whether it's through the beauty of our services, the mystical experience of asceticism, or even our social outreach. The problem is that anecdotally, in the Malankara Church, none of this is being communicated!

So, from the twitter and facebook readers, I would like to know what draws you to, or keeps you in this Church and how that will continue to sustain you. That's the homework for tonight. Thanks :)

-Steve K.