Second Anniversary

Tuesday, 31 August 2010 08:47

Dear Friends in Christ,

September 21 will mark the second year anniversary of the first liturgy at our mission parish, Nativity of the Holy Theotokos in Greenville! Eastern Carolina is a place where Orthodox Christianity is not familiar to most, and as such founding our mission presented a unique series of challenges. Yet in each case, God’s blessings allowed a solution to be found, often in an equally unique way.

I want to take the opportunity to thank all of the parishioners who have worked with me since Day One to establish, maintain, and grow this community. Those who help to establish a mission are pioneers of sorts, stepping into unfamiliar territory often with nothing more than hope and a vision for a bright future. God allowed a diverse group of people to meet each other and form the core nucleus back in early 2008. Property became available at a most convenient time, and I was ordained a priest by His Eminence Metropolitan Pavlos that summer. From the start, we have realized we are fulfilling a plan that is bigger than any of our own desires, or even the sum total of all our goals and dreams. I certainly look forward to each liturgy, to fellowship with such dedicated persons, and in anticipation of new visitors, who always seem to enrich our church family in some way. We hope you’ll be inspired to attend liturgy if you have not already.

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The Ecumenical Councils and Us

Tuesday, 10 August 2010 09:49

Dear Friends in Christ,

On Sunday, we commemorated the Fathers of the Seven Ecumenical Councils, all those bishops and teachers who assembled on seven occasions between A.D. 325 and A.D. 787 to debate and define precisely the Christian faith against those who were challenging it from within. This is an aspect of the Orthodox Church which is not common in other churches; when correct doctrine is defined in opposition to erroneous opinions, the teachings are not only enshrined in decrees, but are also incorporated into the hymnody. This is in keeping with an ancient maxim: “Lex orandi, lex credendi” or, loosely translated, “what is prayed is what is believed.” Our faith in Christ is proclaimed loudly, and what we believe has a profound and direct impact on our personal spiritual life (c.f. my earlier reflections “Doctrines and Spirituality” and “Spiritual, but not Religious”). One of the hymns states:

Ye have become exact keepers of the apostolic traditions, O Holy Fathers; for in setting forth in council the dogma of the consubstantiality of the Holy Trinity in Orthodox fashion, ye cast down the blasphemy of Arius. Then, after censuring Macedonius, the enemy of the Holy Spirit, ye condemned Nestorius, Eutychius, Dioscorus, Sabellius, and Severus the headless. Wherefore, make ye entreaty that we be delivered from their error, and that our life be preserved blameless in the Faith, we pray (Aposticha of Vespers).

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American Independence and Our Freedom in Christ

Thursday, 15 July 2010 08:07

Dear Friends in Christ,

On Sunday, we celebrated American Independence Day, our nation’s birthday, a day when we thank God for the freedom we have in this country to live where we wish, work in the profession we choose, and worship God as we choose to. In centuries past, and even today, many people have not enjoyed these same freedoms, and live under oppressive governments. In fact, our own Church, the Old Calendar Greek Orthodox Church, was even banned in Greece after the majority of the clergy accepted the forced change of calendars in 1924, and this situation continued technically through the 1970s, although persecutions were the worst in the 1950s. In fact, our first bishop in America, Metropolitan Petros, came from Greece after his family property was seized by the state! We have a lot to be thankful for, indeed.

How we choose to exercise our freedom, though, is the next question. In order to embark on the journey to freedom, our ancestors had to choose to give up certain things, in the hope of gaining other things. There was a price tag, and there were certainly trade-offs. Some knew they would never enjoy the fruit of their own labor, but believed they could provide a better life for their children. Such acts revealed a true self-sacrificial spirit, which laid a great foundation for us.

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Holy Week in our North Carolina Missions

Saturday, 03 July 2010 13:40

Whenever I visit our parishes, or speak to fellow Orthodox Christians, the topic of the missionary work we are doing in North Carolina always generates interest. I have previously written two articles concerning our missionary endeavors in North Carolina, “Our Missions in North Carolina” and “Our One Year Anniversary,” but for some time I have wanted to author another informal reflection to update our friends. Although it is now several months since Holy Week, that blessed time remains ever present in my heart and mind, so I will recount with joy how we celebrate this time in our missions.

I continue to serve both our missions in Raleigh (St. Mark the Evangelist) and Greenville (Nativity of the Holy Theotokos) regularly; generally speaking, three times a month in each location, by a combination of Saturday and Sunday liturgies. I maintain a secular job to support myself, and my on-call rotation has increased, so scheduling is often challenging, but God has always blessed it to work out in the end. I also occasionally find time to visit my other mission station, in Charlottesville, Virginia, or to provide pastoral care for families who have found us elsewhere and are hopeful to establish a mission, such as the folks in Nashville, Tennessee.

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