Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew is in Tarpon Springs, Florida for the feast day of Epiphany this week. I was up there yesterday for a welcoming Doxology at St. Nicholas Cathedral, the church in Tarpon. He will lead liturgy tomorrow, throw the cross into Spring Bayou during the blessing of the waters, and make the usuals rounds of meetings, banquets, etc. that accompany these visits.
Some of the events will be televised: Patriachal visit.
By Rich Barlow | December 31, 2005
Bishop Nikon Liolin wears several miters. He had been archbishop for the Albanian Orthodox Archdiocese. Then earlier this month, the Southbridge resident was enthroned as bishop of New England for the Orthodox Church in America, which counts several ethnic Orthodox parishes as members and has its regional headquarters in Boston. Both elevations were milestones: The diocese of New England had been without a bishop for 13 years, the Albanian archdiocese for 23 years, he says. Liolin attributes the lengthy vacancies to a shortage of candidates because bishops are banned from marriage. (Liolin is a widower.)
It has been almost a millennium since Eastern Christian churches split from Western ones (today, the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches) over doctrine. ”All of the faiths are under attack by some of society’s changing morals and mores,” the new bishop says. ”And the churches and the faiths have to be bastions of morality. . . . There is a moral stance that God has revealed to us.” Excerpts from a recent interview follow.
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Q: Your goal is to increase converts?
A: To increase the number of converts to the church by having more visibility. Without a resident bishop, that made it difficult, because pastors had to work on their own without the on-site direction of a resident hierarch.
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Q: Why should [people] consider being an Orthodox Christian?
A: We want to begin with a relationship with God, a relationship with Christ. When I’m talking about outreach, I’m not talking about trying to reach people that are churched. Many people in the United States attend churches; however, there are more unchurched in the United States than there are churched. So we’re trying to reach people that really have no relationship with God, do not have any faith. The Orthodox do not proselytize for those who already have a Christian base.
Yes, there was a separation between the east and the west churches. However, there are continually dialogues to see how we can come closer. A few years ago, it was an Orthodox priest who was president of the World Council of Churches.
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MOSCOW, December 28 (Itar-Tass) – Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Russia said the Moscow Patriarchate expects Vatican to take concrete steps towards settling disagreements between the two major Christian churches.
In an interview with the BBC Russian Service on Wednesday, Alexy II said, “Now it is early to speak about concrete progress in relations. We laud the statements by the new pontiff who calls for continuing a dialogue. We hope that actions will follow words.”
“What we should meet for in order to show the world that we have no problems? But we have problems too. First it is necessary to overcome problems and then meet. We should solve problems that arouse concern in the Russian Orthodox Church and its flock,” the patriarch explained.
He condemned continuing proselytism by Catholics in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan. “People, especially children, who are baptised as Orthodox Christians are being tried to catholicise. Many Catholics missioners in Russia create children boarding schools, place kids baptised in the Orthodox Church and teach them as Catholics,” Alexy II said.
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Zenit News
“We Must Seek Out God’s Will,” He Tells Joint Panel
VATICAN CITY, DEC. 15, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI received members of the joint coordinating committee of the International Commission for Theological Dialogue between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches.
In his address to the panel today, the Pope expressed his happiness at the resumption of dialogue following years of “serious internal and external difficulties.”
On Sept. 12, Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople made known the decision of the Orthodox Churches to reactivate the commission. It was decided that the first meeting of this new phase of dialogue would be held this week in Rome.
[Read more…]
Ecumenical News International David Fines
Montreal, Canada, 28 November (ENI)–One of the world’s top spiritual leaders has issued a warning about climate change as representatives from more than 180 nations gather for a United Nations’ conference in Montreal on global warming.
“Climate change is more than an issue of environmental preservation,” said Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomeos I who is seen by many as the spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians. “Insofar as human induced, it is a profoundly moral and spiritual problem.”
[Read more…]
Article available seven days only.
Wall Street Journal SAAD EDDIN IBRAHIM November 18, 2005
The Second International Coptic Conference, convening this week in Washington, comes amid Egypt’s parliamentary elections and heightened American and international attention to the democratic advances in the Arab world’s most populous country. Often overlooked is the fact that Egypt’s population of nearly 75 million includes the Middle East’s largest Christian minority, over seven million, the vast majority of whom are members of the Coptic Orthodox Church and have in the last half-century experienced institutionalized discrimination that renders them little more than second-class citizens.
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In Message for Publication of Facsimile of “Menologion of Basil II”
VATICAN CITY, NOV. 17, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI says that a “new stage” has been reached in the path of reconciliation between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church of Greece.
In a message to the archivist and librarian of the Holy Roman Church, the Pope invites Orthodox Archbishop Christodoulos of Athens to the Vatican. He also appeals to Catholics and Orthodox to work together on the new challenges posed to the proclamation of Christ to the contemporary world, “which so needs it.”
[Read more…]
MOSCOW, November 14 (Itar-Tass) – It is highly desirable for the Christian Church to avoid two extremities, one of which is succumbing to the laws of the secular world and the other is plunging into apocalyptic hysteria, Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia Alexy II said Monday in a speech at a
major international theological conference.
The title of the conference, Eschatological Teachings of the Church, indicates that it is entirely focused on eschatology, or the complex of Christian theories about “last things,” including the end of the world.
Teachings in that area of theology have always intensively attracted the minds of theologians and clerics, on the one hand, and secular scholars, on the other, sources at Moscow Patriarchate’ press center said.
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Wednesday, Nov. 9, 2005 Posted: 5:20:31PM EST
Delegates to the 55th National Council of Churches (NCC) General Assembly nominated an Orthodox bishop as president-elect and reconfirmed the need to strengthen ties with Orthodox churches within the Council.
Bishop Vicken Aykazian, a Turkish-born priest who represents the Diocese of the Armenian Church of America in Washington, was nominated on Tuesday – the first day of the Nov. 8-10 General Assembly in Hunt Valley, Md. If confirmed, he will serve for two years as president-elect and be automatically confirmed as president for the next term.
Also on Tuesday, former NCC president Rev. Leonid Kishkovsky of the Orthodox Church in America encouraged members to become “better acquainted with one another to avoid misrepresentation and miscommunication.
[Read more…]
The rites were quiet, yet elaborate, and drew small clusters of dedicated worshippers out of their homes on a Saturday morning and into Byzantine sanctuaries across the nation.
Somewhere in each church stood an icon of a dignified Arab wearing the rich liturgical vestments of an Eastern Orthodox bishop. The worshippers took turns kissing the icon and chanters gave thanks to God for the work of the new saint whose name still causes smiles — St. Raphael of Brooklyn.
“It isn’t every day that you hear the word ‘Brooklyn’ used in a Divine Liturgy,” said Father Gregory Mathewes-Green, the priest in my own parish near Baltimore. “St. Raphael is important not only because he lived a remarkable life, but because of where he came from and who he was. He is a wonderful symbol for Orthodox unity in America. Š
“Our church was unified in his day and we pray it can be unified again.”
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