| Cults In America In and around the fringes of Christendom today, there is a bewildering array of heretical cults attempting to seduce people away from the Orthodox faith.Most vulnerable of all to these allures are young people. Why is that? Because, for good or ill, the older we get, the more set we become in our ways and in our thoughts. The target group, then, both for the Church and for the cults, is youth; the issue, at once both simple and complex, is worship of the true God. Cults In America Rev. Fr. George C. Papademetriou Preface The growing numbers of religious cults which surround us utilize a variety of means to draw people into their devious systems, their “doctrines of demons.” Fr. Papademetriou has shown that their methods of attraction center upon certain areas of human weakness. They dwell among peoples’ emotions and insecurities, particularly upon the spiritually sensitive person’s gnawing doubt that he is truly serving God with his whole heart. Then, dwelling upon religious emphasis, they utilize highly-touted accounts of deep religious experience to draw in the net. My own experience in encountering people in these cults has demonstrated that they are most successful in capturing a specific group of people. It is those whom the Church has made aware of their need for God without teaching them and drawing them into the practice of truly Orthodox worship and spirituality. The effective protection of our youth revolves around that very issue of their worship of the true god. From infancy we must ingrain theological truth, the concept of the Holy Trinity and the incarnate Lord, in their hearts. The ancient, the eternal worship and spirituality brings both protection from errant cults and sure salvation. Fr. Papademetriou says, “Parents often make the mistake of not giving the proper instruction to their children and not strongly imparting to them the experience of our Christian Orthodox faith.” Sunday School and occasional participation in the Divine Liturgy are not enough. We must |
| Patriarch Kirill Meets with a Delegation of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland Source: DECR On September 5, 2018, His Holiness Kirill, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, met with Archbishop Tapio Luoma of Turku and All Finland and a delegation of the Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Finland at the St. Petersburg diocesan administration in the St. Alexander Nevsky Laura of the Holy Trinity. Welcoming the guests, Patriarch Kirill congratulated Archbishop Tapio Luoma on his election as head of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. ‘We consider your Church and the people who belong to your Church to be our friends’, His Holiness said, ‘Today we mark the 40 th anniversary of the demise of His Eminence Nikodim, remembering, among other things, his contribution and that of Archbishop Martti Simojoki to the establishment of special relations between our Churches. ‘I personally participated in the very first steps undertaken by our Church for mutual rapprochement. I have already recalled on several occasions how Easter was celebrated at the St. Nicholas’s Cathedral in 1966 according to the statute precisely because Metropolitan Nikodim invited Archbishop Martti Simojoki to take part in the procession with the cross. Each year the authorities tried to frustrate the procession by provoking violent clashes; many Orthodox people simply suffered, and now, we managed for the first time to celebrate Pascha peacefully because walking around St. Nicholas’s together with Metropolitan Nikodim was Martti Simojoki. Of course, we remember those remarkable pages in our bilateral relations with gratitude. ‘Today it is not so easy in our relations, not through the fault of the Russian Orthodox Church and, perhaps, not through the fault of the Finnish Lutheran Church. But what is happening in Western Protestantism creates new obstacles for our relations. Nevertheless, we continue to regard you as our privileged partners among all the Protestant churches in the world. I do not know whether it will keep you from steps that make our dialogue difficult, but I wanted to say that. |
| the catastrophe of modern education I have already written on multiple occasions of the urgent necessity of creating Orthodox parish schools in America. Our nation’s public schools have degenerated into prison-like institutions which have outlawed all mention of Truth (the Second Person of the Trinity), which forbid any public prayer to the Lord God, which teach sexual propaganda and promote infanticide to kindergarteners , which lead students to believe that they will likely be brutally massacred by their own peers , and which on top of everything else no longer even educate our children in any meaningful sense of the word at all . The situation gets no better when it comes to so-called “higher education.” Even half a century ago, Fr. Seraphim Rose wrote the following words with sorrow: The academic world — and these words are neither lightly nor easily spoken — has become today, in large part, a source of corruption. It is corrupting to hear or read the words of men who do not believe in truth. It is yet more corrupting to receive, in place of truth, mere learning and scholarship which, if they are presented as ends in themselves, are no more than parodies of the truth they were meant to serve, no more than a facade behind which there is no substance. It is, tragically, corrupting even to be exposed to the primary virtue still left to the academic world, the integrity of the best of its representatives —if this integrity serves, not the truth, but skeptical scholarship, and so seduces men all the more effectively to the gospel of subjectivism and unbelief this scholarship conceals. It is corrupting, finally, simply to live and work in an atmosphere totally permeated by a false conception of truth, wherein Christian Truth is seen as irrelevant to the central academic concerns, wherein even those who still believe this Truth can only sporadically make their voices heard above the skepticism promoted by the academic system. The evil, of course, lies primarily in the system itself, which is founded upon untruth, and only incidentally in the many professors whom this system permits and encourages to preach it. a toxic culture |
| In our currcultural context, the witness of true Christian marriage simply must become visible, vibrant, and robust, if it is to be taken seriously by mainstream cultureent . Photo: doski.ru It’s unfortunate when we become so focused on the symptoms of a problem that we ignore its underlying causes. Some Christian rhetoric on same-sex marriage has done precisely that and has failed as a result to transcend the dynamics of conventional partisan politics. Instead of illuminating the unique glory of the life-giving union of husband and wife as an icon of the Holy Trinity and of the salvation of the world, the defenders of traditional marriage often merely skim the surface of public morality. The fundamental problem isn’t that increasing numbers of Americans approve of same-sex marriage; it’s that many Christians and others have forgotten the holiness and unique vocation of the man-woman relationship. Once we lose that key link, the possibility of thinking coherently—and faithfully– about human sexuality is gone. In order to speak with integrity on marriage and family issues, we need first to take a sober look at the failure of the churches to equip our members to embody chastity and sexual purity, and thus to be a witness of holiness in stark contrast to the moral corruption so pervasive in our culture and world. Especially since the dawn of the sexual revolution, Christians have too often turned a blind eye to promiscuity, pre-marital sex, serial divorce and remarriage, and a hedonistic culture that excuses all things in the name of an individual’s pleasure and self-defined happiness. No wonder so many Americans seem to dismiss opposition to same-sex marriage as self-righteous hypocrisy and arbitrary discrimination. Those who tolerate—and at times even seem to condone—sex and cohabitation for unmarried men and women have little standing to criticize the prospect of legal sanction for gay unions. If there is no visible difference between how Christians and others handle these crucial life-shaping matters, why should anyone take seriously what we have to say? If we do not call heterosexuals to holiness, why all the bother about the much smaller population of homosexuals? |
| There are dozens of children’s questions concerning prayer, icons, and church worship… in general, everything related to life in the Church. We’ve collected several of these questions and asked Archpriest Alexander Elatomtsev, the rector of the Church of the Nativity of Christ in v. Rozhdestveno, Istra Raion, Moscow Region, and the spiritual father of Rozhdestvo Orthodox School, to answer them. Why are icons painted in such a cartoonish manner? You’ve found a very sensitive point in the life of the Church. Icon painting is a very important way of preaching the Good News, i.e., spreading the Christian faith. Unfortunately, icons don’t always reach such a high level of artistic perfection. Often, they are painted to suit the low taste of the person who orders them. Sometimes, icon painters aren’t skillful enough. If you look at the real icons, e.g., Holy Trinity by Andrei Rublev, icon of the Mother of God of Vladimir, icons from ancient Athonite monasteries, or Greek mosaics, you won’t find anything cartoonish about them. Some icons seem to be too simple, as if they were painted by a child. Believe me, all true painters were dreaming of being able to paint like children but not everyone can do it. Only holy and pure souls are capable of portraying the saints’ faces with such artlessness and spiritual precision. Sinful adults are trying to fake that purity and simplicity, and that’s where the cartoonish icons come from. Perhaps, you meant that people and animals in the icons look different than in real life? It’s made for a reason, not because the painter doesn’t know how to paint “realistic pictures”. An icon reveals the spiritual world, which is very different from our world. You can’t see it with human eyes, so a realistic manner of painting doesn’t describe it well. Which manner is better, then? The one that conveys the most important meanings, and conveys them symbolically, not literally. This language is the language of icon painting where nothing is painted aimlessly, where everything has its symbolism: colors, sizes, and shapes. There isn’t anything cartoon-like in this way of depicting holy images. If the icon isn’t realistic, does it mean that it’s cartoon-like? |
| Buddhism and Eastern Asceticism Compared to Orthodox Christian Asceticism Statue of Buddha It is unfortunate that there is widespread confusion, not to mention delusion, in the inexperienced, whereby the Jesus Prayer is thought to be equivalent to yoga in Buddhism, or 'transcendental meditation', and other such Eastern exotica. Any similarity, however, is mostly external, and any inner convergence does not rise beyond the natural 'anatomy' of the human soul. The fundamental difference between Christianity and other beliefs and practices lies in the fact that the Jesus Prayer is based on the revelation of the One true living and personal God as Holy Trinity No other path admits any possibility of a living relationship between God and the person who prays. Eastern asceticism aims at divesting the mind of all that is relative and transitory, so that man may identify with the impersonal Absolute. This Absolute is believed to be man's original 'nature', which suffered degradation and degeneration by entering a multiform and ever-changing earth-bound life. Ascetic practice like this is, above all, centred upon the self, and is totally dependent on man's will. Its intellectual character betrays the fullness of human nature, in that it takes no account of the heart. Man's main struggle is to return to the anonymous Supra-personal Absolute and to be dissolved in it. He must therefore aspire to efface the soul (Atman) in order to be one with this anonymous ocean of the Suprapersonal Absolute, and in this lies its basically negative purpose. In his struggle to divest himself of all suffering and instability connected with transient life, the eastern ascetic immerses himself in the abstract and intellectual sphere of so-called pure Existence, a negative and impersonal sphere in which no vision of God is possible, only man's vision of himself. There is no place for the heart in this practice. Progress in this form of asceticism depends only on one's individual will to succeed. |
| Howell, NJ: Bishop Nicholas of Manhattan leads Patronal Feast of Our Lady of Tikhvin Church Source: Eastern American Diocese www.eadiocese.org On Wednesday, July 9, the feast day of the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God, His Grace, Eastern American Diocesan vicar Bishop Nicholas of Manhattan, celebrated the Divine Liturgy in Our Lady of Tikhvin Church in Howell, NJ, leading the parish’s patronal feast day. His Grace was co-served by parish rector Protopresbyter Valery Lukianov, Archpriest Alexander Belya (dean of New York City), Archpriest George Kallaur (rector of “Unexpected Joy” Church in Staten Island, NY), Archpriest Liubo Milosevich (rector of Holy Trinity Church in Vineland, NJ), Archpriest Mark Burachek (rector of Our Lady of Kazan Church in Newark, NJ), Archpriest Petro Kunitsky (cleric of Holy New Martyrs & Confessors of Russia Church in Brooklyn, NY), Archpriest Boris Slootsky (cleric of neighboring St. George’s Church in Howell), Priest Seraphim Chemodakov (parish cleric), Priest Serge Ledkovsky (deputy rector of neighboring St. Vladimir Memorial Church in Jackson), and Protodeacon Michael Soloviev (cleric of Nativity of the Mother of God Church in Albany, NY). Our Lady of Tikhvin Church in Howell became the first church in the Eastern American Diocese in which the newly consecrated Bishop Nicholas celebrated the Hierarchal Divine Liturgy. Greeting His Grace, Fr. Valery wished him God’s aid in his service to the Holy Church, and that in his Archpastoral service he might never forget his glorious forebearers the hierarchs of the Russian Church Abroad. Many of the church’s parishioners, as well as faithful from Brooklyn and across New York City, came to mark the parish feast day of Our Lady of Tikhvin Church and to honor the wonderworking Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God. This icon, preserved in Howell, is renowned as the “Royal Icon:” in 1972, it was donated to what was then St. Alexander Nevsky Church by Lakewood resident Olga V. Astori-Astafiev, whose mother received the icon as a gift from the Holy Empress Alexandra Feodorovna in 1913. |
| Алексей Нестерук Библиография А. Классическая литература и патристика Августин Блаженный Исповедь. М.: Renaissance, 1991. О Граде Божием. В двадцати двух книгах. T. II, кн. 8–13. М.: Изд-во Спасо-Преображенского монастыря, 1994. Enchiridion. Английский перевод (далее – ET [English Translation]): The Library of Christian Classics, vol. 7. L.: SCM Press, 1955. Epistolae 120, ed. A. Goldbacher, в Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum, vol. 34. Vienna: Tempsky, 1895. Letter to Consentius. ET: цит. в D. Lindberg, Science and the Early Church. The Literal Meaning of Genesis. ET: J. H. Taylor, St. Augustine: The Literal Meaning of Genesis. N. Y.: Newman, 1982. On Christian Doctrine. ET: Library of the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers [NPNF]. Translated into English with prolegomena and explanatory notes. Second series. Edinburgh: T & T Clark; Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1996, series 1, vol. 2. On the Trinity. ET: NPNF, series 1, vol. 3; или The Essential Augustine, ed. V. J. Bourke. Indianapolis: Hacket, 1975. Афанасий Александрийский I Великий На ариан слово третье, в Творения в четырех томах, т. II. М.: Спасо-Преображенский Валаамский монастырь, 1994. Слово на язычников, в ibid., т. I. Слово о воплощении Бога-Слова и о пришествии его к нам во плоти, в ibid., т. I. De Decretis, в Patrologiae cursus completes [PG], ed. J. P. Migne. Series Graeca. 161 vols. P.: Migne, 1857–1866, 25.411c. ET: цит. в T. F. Torrance, The Relation of the Incarnation to Space in Nicene Theology. Василий Великий , св. Беседы на Шестоднев. М.: Изд-во Московского подворья Свято-Троицкой Сергиевой Лавры, 1999. Letters. ET: NPNF, series 2, vol. 8. Григорий Богослов (Назианзин), св. Слова. Собрание творений в двух томах. Свято-Троицкая Сергиева Лавра, 1994. Letters. ET: NPNF, series 2, vol. 7. Григорий Нисский , св. Об устроении человека. СПб.: AXIOMA, 1995. De anima ressurectione. ET: C. P. Roth, The Soul and the Resurrection. N. Y.: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1993. Григорий Палама , св . The Declaration of the Holy Mountain in Defence of Those Who Devoutly Practise a Life of Stillness. ET: The Philokalia, eds. G. E. H. Palmer et al., vol. 4. |
| В статье проводится критический анализ исторического значения понятия «автокефалия», а также смежных с ним терминов. В своих крайних трактовках термин «автокефалия» приобретает антисоборное значение, противоречит духу православной экклезиологии, которая, по мысли архим. Софрония (Сахарова) , имеет тринитарную основу. Поместные Православные Церкви есть, по образу Троицы, единосущное полиипостасное единство, не допускающее субординационизма. Для замены понятия «автокефалия» предлагается ряд схожих по значению, но более соответствующих духу православной экклезиологии, терминов. Содержание Понятие автокефалии Глава Церкви, первый епископ, предстоятель Проблемные экклезиологические понятия, соотносящиеся с автокефалией и правом предоставления автокефалии другим Поместным Церквям Богословская оценка соотношения Поместных Церквей между собой Термины, более точно характеризующие соотношение Поместных Церквей Заключение Hieromonk Methody (Zinkovskiy) The concept of autocephaly: historical context and modern connotations The article provides a critical analysis of the historical meaning of the concept of “autocephaly”, as well as related terms. In its extreme interpretations, the term “autocephaly” acquires an anti-conciliar meaning, contradicts the spirit of Orthodox ecclesiology, which, according to archimandrite Sophrony (Sakharov), has a trinitarian basis. The local Orthodox Churches are, in the image of the Trinity, a consubstantial polyhipostatic unity that does not allow subordinationism. To replace the concept of “autocephaly”, a number of terms similar in meaning, but more consistent with the spirit of Orthodox ecclesiology, are proposed. Понятие автокефалии Сегодня вокруг понятия автокефалия (греч. «ατοκφαλον») и ряда других, связанных с ним экклезиологических терминов, разгораются всевозможные дискуссии. В современном православном мире под автокефалией понимают принцип существования Поместных Православных Церквей, который предусматривает их независимость друг от друга в административной, богослужебной и судебной сфере при сохранении догматического и канонического единства 1 . Однако, важно понимать, что так было не всегда. Епископ Бачский Ириней обращает внимание на тот факт, что термин «автокефалия» имеет свою историю становления: «Если рассматривать церковную автокефалию в исторической перспективе, в контексте всех событий истории Церкви, то можно найти разные определения и теории относительно того, что такое автокефалия, каковы ее предпосылки, условия для ее получения и предоставления и так далее» 2 . |
| 1 В кн. Lowrie D. A. Christian Existentialism: A Berdyaev Anthology. London, 1965. — P. 86—87. 2 См. The Trinity and the Religious Experience of Man. New York/London, 1973. — P. 66. 3 Солженицын А. И. В круге первом. Роман. Кн. I//Малое собрание сочинений. Т. I. М., 1991. — С. 101. 4 Священник Павел Флоренский. Столп и утверждение истины. Опыт православной феодицеи в двенадцати письмах//Собрание сочинений. IV. Paris. 1989. — С 99. Ср. Florensky P. Salt of the Earth: Or a Narrative on the Life of the Elder of Gethsemane Scete Hieromonk Abba Isidor. Platina, 1987. — P. 11. (Русский оригинал: Соль земли, то есть Сказание о жизни Старца Гефсиманского Скита иеромонаха Аввы Исидора, собранное и по порядку изложенное недостойным сыном его духовным Павлом Флоренским//Священник Павел Флоренский. Сочинения в четырех томах. Т. 1. М., 1994. — Пер.) 5 Jacob of Serug. Homily on Simeon the Stylite/Trans. S. A. Harvey, ed. V. L. Wimbush//Ascetic Behavior in Greco-Roman Antiquity: A Sourcebook, Studies in Antiquity and Christianity. Minneapolis, 1990(далее — Ascetic Behavior). — P. 21—22. 6 Ascetic Behavior (Vaage L. A.). — P. 117. 7 Philo. On the Contemplative Life 8.66//Ascetic Behavior. — P. 149. 8 On Hermits and Desert Dwellers, lines 329 ff//Ascetic Behavior. — P. 75. 9 Арсений 1//Достопамятные сказания о подвижничестве святых и блаженных отцов. Свято-Троицкая Сергиева Лавра, 1993 (далее — Арсений с указанием номера сказания), также PG 65. 10 Арсений 28. 11 Арсений 13. 12 Макарий 26//Достопамятные сказания... (далее — Макарий с указанием номера сказания), ср. Макарий 40. 13 Преподобный Павел Фивейский. — Пер. 14 См. Vita by Jerome//Ascetic Behavior. — P. 357—369. Сам Павел, возможно, и легендарен, но его история типична. В то время многие реальные люди, чья жизнь исторически зафиксирована, ушли в пустыню подобно Павлу Фивейскому и стойко избегали контактов с другими. 15 Библиографию работ об авторстве Жития Антония см. в кн. Petersen A. Athanasius and the Human Body. Bristol, 1990. — P. 33, примеч. 69. |
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