We stood at the parsonage door in the rain, worrying that we were at the wrong place — could this ramshackle house in Oak Lawn really be where the archbishop lives? — and that we were underdressed for the dinner to which we had been invited.

We had seen Archbishop Dmitri in his church, St. Seraphim’s Orthodox Cathedral, on the Sunday we visited, and found the very sight of him — tall, gaunt, his long white beard resting against his black cassock — thoroughly impressive, but thoroughly intimidating.

The man looked like an Old Testament prophet. Julie and I didn’t dare turn his invitation down.

Read the full article.

For those who have followed recent events within the OCA (as reported on www.oca.org,  www.ocanews.org and www.ocatruth.com and elsewhere) it is clearly evident, regardless of which interpretation of events you subscribe to, that there is a crisis within the OCA.

According to this report, The OCA’s synod of bishops is meeting meeting today and tomorrow May 2-3, and is discussing these serious and troubling matters.

Please pray for those in the OCA leadership. Among serious issues being discussed is a controversial SMPAC (Sexual Misconduct Policy Advisory Committee) report which describes (according to many insiders) a grave pattern of mishandling clergy sexual abuse issues on the part of some OCA church leaders. While there are many issues in the OCA which deserve attention, I know of none more serious that those concerning the safety of children and vulnerable adults.

May God grant the Bishops of the OCA wisdom and moral courage to deal with these difficult issues in a way which will resolve the scandal, reveal the truth behind these matters, and restore integrity to the OCA’s leadership.

– Stan Shinn

Editor, The Orthodox Beacon

Ancient Faith Radio [AFR] has launched “Journeys Through Great Lent,” a series of recordings that make an excellent resource for the lenten journey.

The collection includes recordings from the past and the present and will be updated throughout the season.

“Journeys Through Great Lent” includes lessons and reflections from Father Thomas Hopko, Father Meletios Webber, Frederica Mathewes-Green, and Scott Cairns, among many others. This resource will be certain to enrich and inspire the personal lenten journey of every Orthodox Christian.

Please visit www.ancientfaith.com to download or listen to this inspiring special collection.

Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk delivered the following lecture at the protestant Dallas Theological Seminary on February 12, 2011. An excerpt:

Christian communities today should denounce the imposition of ‘civil society institutions.’ These are a form of ghetto into which secular civilization has driven them and into which they themselves have agreed to enter. Bearing witness to traditional Christian moral values will promote strong opposition to those who conspire to remove them permanently from social life. Following Christ may incur conflict with social forces whose aim is to corrupt and degrade. But if Christians are simply content to exist as honest tax-payers, indifferent to the growth of corruption in society and reliant on the separation of church and state, then they betray Christ and cease to be the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its savour, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot (Mt. 5:13).

As never before, today’s society needs to be reminded of traditional, absolute moral values that are based on divine law. It is necessary to educate people, not through complex theological reasoning, but rather with very simple ‘conventional’ truths.  Here are some examples: marriage is the union of a man and a woman; every child has the right to have a father and a mother – not parent number one, two or three; human life is precious; it is inadmissible, at any time between conception and natural death, to terminate life artificially. These and other similar moral axioms, constantly being challenged by modern secular society, should be restored in public consciousness.

Our Saviour says, Have salt among yourselves (Mt. 9:50), which means, be that which does not exist in the world. And in our time it is this salt that constitutes the inner moral content of a unique Christian personality raised on experience and communion with God. It is this personality who serves as a moral guideline for those near us; it communicates to them the life in Christ, so that people will come to appreciate the fruit of this experience and its value for themselves. In these ways, moral values move from the category of individualism to that of collective personhood; they contribute to the common good and to the establishment of peace and harmony in society. Briefly put, sound moral qualities in society breed healthy inter-personal relations, stability, benevolence, joy and happiness to all.

Read the full lecture at: http://www.mospat.ru/en/2011/02/13/news36219/

Can we always be at peace with those in the world? Can we always be at peace with those in the Church? In an article titled “War and Peace in the teachings of Christ“, Fr. Vasile Tudora tackles this tough topic, saying:

Jesus Christ is considered by all Christians a messenger of love and peace, and this is absolutely true. Christ came to replace an eye for an eye with loving your enemy and turning the other cheek; He wants all men to become one, uniting them with God through His crucified body. But the same Jesus declares “Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth. I did not come to send peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and the daughter against her mother. (Mat 10:33-35) This is to say that “harmony is not always a good thing”, as St. Theophylact of Bulgaria, observes, because there are situations that may hinder our faith and we should separate from them, rather than trying to cover them up with relativism or misplaced acceptance.

Christ never hesitated, when deemed necessary, to call the things as they were, by name, without clever subtleties or embellished rhetoric’s. The Scripture is full of such examples. The Sadducees and the Pharisees that were surrounding Him, waiting to find in Him a fault were admonished with blunt words “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! (Luke 11:44). He uncovered their two-facedness of justifying themselves behind their chosen status while dwelling in sin: “ Why do ye not understand my speech? Even because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. (John 8:43-44) He called them “generation of vipers” (Mat 12:34-35), “a cup clean only on the outside” (Luke 11:49), “washed graves” (Luke 11:44) and so forth.

Read the full article here.

Why did God become human? Simple answer: To destroy death. Fr. Ted Bobosh writes:

God becomes human in order to die so that He cdan destroy death and enable humans to become divine and live in life everlasting. Only by becoming mortal can God defeat death — not prohibit it, or simply avoid it or banish it — but actually take it on and trample it down and triumph over it.
…
The Incarnation — God takes on not only human flesh to save it, but also takes on death to destroy it. For in the eternal kingdom of Heaven death is destroyed not simply defeated (Revelation 20:14, 21:4).

Read more about the deep mystery of the incarnation of the Word of God here:

http://frted.wordpress.com/2010/12/16/why-did-god-become-human/

By Stan Shinn

Why did God become a child? Why did Christ have to suffer? And what did His death mean for our human condition? The answers to these questions, as taught by the early church, are summed up in this amazing treatise by St. Athanasius, Archbishop of Alexandria, who lived three hundred years after Christ came. A very timely book as we celebrate Christ’s incarnation this Christmas season.

I’ve created this free 50 page PDF (based on the free, public domain text from www.ccel.org) and formatted it to be very readable and pleasing to the eye. If you haven’t yet read this amazing treatise, you owe it to yourself to ponder this summation of early church teachings on the meaning of Christ becoming Man. Click here to download it.

Note: the original text is from the public domain text at http://www.ccel.org/ccel/athanasius/incarnation.txt, the open collection of early Christian classics where you can find many other amazing texts. You can also read more about St. Athanasius here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athanasius_of_Alexandria.

Fr. John A. Peck writes on The Preacher’s Institute:

It’s older than you’ve been told!

The present Feast, commemorating the Nativity in the flesh of our Lord Jesus Christ, was established by the Church. Its origin goes back to the time of the Apostles.

In the Apostolic Constitutions (Section 3, 13) it says, “Brethren, observe the feastdays; and first of all the Birth of Christ, which you are to celebrate on the twenty-fifth day of the ninth month.”

In another place it also says, “Celebrate the day of the Nativity of Christ, on which unseen grace is given man by the birth of the Word of God from the Virgin Mary for the salvation of the world.”

In the second century St Clement of Alexandria also indicates that the day of the Nativity of Christ is December 25. In the third century St Hippolytus of Rome mentions the Feast of the Nativity of Christ, and appoints the Gospel readings for this day from the opening chapters of St Matthew.

In 302, during the persecution of Christians by Maximian, 20,000 Christians of Nicomedia (December 28) were burned in a church on the very Feast of the Nativity of Christ. In that same century, after the persecution when the Church had received freedom of religion and had become the official religion in the Roman Empire, we find the Feast of the Nativity of Christ observed throughout the entire Church.

Read the full article at: http://preachersinstitute.com/2010/12/02/the-ancient-feast-of-christmas/

(Orthodoxy Today) — Human exceptionalism advocate and author Wesley J. Smith speaks with host Kevin Allen of the Illumined Heart radio program on Ancient Faith Radio about the animal rights-animal liberation movement and its insistence on the “moral equivalence” between animals and humans! How does this compare with Orthodox teachings about the “brotherhood” of humans, animals and inanimate nature (St Gregory Palamas)?

Orthodox Today highlights an Ancient Faith Radio broadcast on this here:

http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/OT/view/the-animal-rights-movement-from-an-orthodox-perspective

On a wall behind the altar of an Orthodox camp chapel near Ligonier is a larger-than-life icon of Jesus freeing souls from Hades.

The 8-foot Jesus, robed in white, stands on his broken cross. Its shards also represent the shattered gates of Hades, which in Orthodox theology is where the righteous and unrighteous await judgment. Grasping the hands of Adam and Eve, he raises them from a dark pit.

The icon illustrates an ancient understanding of Jesus’ resurrection as the gift he offers to all humanity on a renewed Earth. While all Orthodox churches are filled with icons, the Resurrection icon in the camp chapel at Antiochian Village retreat and conference center is one of the largest in Pennsylvania and possibly the United States.

Read more: http://goo.gl/zznd