| Thomas E. FitzGerald 7. THE CHALLENGE OF THE NEW WORLD The political developments in the Soviet Union and the Balkans, as well as ethnic rivalries, continued to have a profound impact upon certain elements of the Orthodox in America in the period following World War II. Yet, at the same time, both external and internal factors were also forcing many within the Orthodox Church in the United States to move beyond these divisive tendencies and to take more seriously the pastoral needs of the younger generations, as well as its missionary responsibilities within the wider society. The changes in demographics, the need for new avenues for religious education, the need for liturgical renewal, and the dialogue with the Christian West were powerful challenges that could not be easily ignored. Despite the presence of divisive tendencies, many Orthodox boldly sought to address these challenges. A CHANGING MEMBERSHIP The various immigrant groups who were related to the Orthodox Church had a number of characteristics in common with other immigrant groups in the United States during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The immigrants in most major cities formed an insulated subculture. Within this subculture, the language of the fatherland was spoken, and the ethnic customs were preserved. While the immigrants usually had jobs outside their ethnic neighborhood, their social contact with the wider society was limited. They lived in their own «society» and seldom had much contact with persons from other ethnic backgrounds. As a result of this, interethnic marriage outside one " s ethnic group was uncommon and generally frowned upon. For the Orthodox immigrants of the various ethnic backgrounds, the parish church was central to their subculture. Normally, the parish church was at the geographical heart of their neighborhood. The immigrants could easily walk to the church for the liturgical services not only on Sunday and feast days but also at other times. The music, ritual, and especially the language of worship not only nurtured their spiritual development but also heightened their emotional contact with the Old World. |
| Followers of murdered priest Daniel Sysoev continue to preach among migrants/Православие.Ru Followers of murdered priest Daniel Sysoev continue to preach among migrants Moscow, November 22, 2010 A year after Priest Daniel Sysoev was killed, his followers are continuing Father Daniil's practice of active missionary work among migrants. On the priest's memorial evening held last Sunday in Moscow, Viktor Kupriynchuk, warden of St. Thomas Church where Father Daniel served, said that missionary team of the martyred pastor continue his mission to diasporas. They distribute missionary leaflets for migrants in English, Tajik, Uzbek and Vietnamese; leaflets in Kyrgyz are being prepared, and a book about Orthodoxy in Chinese has been published for the Chinese diaspora. Parishioners of the St. Thomas Church continue their practice of street mission, carry out " missionary raids " along Moscow streets, and this street missionary work is growing. Additionally, Fr. Daniel's followers have set up a missionary school in Kazakhstan, and publish method books for missionaries on disputes with cultists. On November 19, 2009, Fr. Daniel was shot dead in the St. Thomas Church. Soon afterwards on December 1, a Kyrgyz citizen suspected in the murder was killed in Makhachkala while resisting arrest. Interfax - Religion 24 ноября 2010 г. ... Предыдущий Следующий Смотри также On the Death of my Husband: The matushka of the martyred priest Daniel speaks and reveals that a prophecy has been fulfilled Matushka Julia Sysoieva On the Death of my Husband: The matushka of the martyred priest Daniel speaks and reveals that a prophecy has been fulfilled Matushka Julia Sysoieva Dear brothers and sisters, thank you for your support and prayers. This is the pain which cannot be expressed in words. This is the pain experienced by those who stood at the Cross of the Saviour. This is the joy which cannot be expressed in words, this is the joy experienced by those who came to the empty Tomb. Can One Consider the Death of Father Daniel Sysoev to be a Martyrdom? Hieromonk Job Gumerov Can One Consider the Death of Father Daniel Sysoev to be a Martyrdom? Hieromonk Job Gumerov Father Daniel Sysoev carried out his missionary activity among Moslems. |
| Thomas E. FitzGerald Appendix I. CHRONOLOGY 1741 The Eucharist is celebrated on a boat off Alaskan coast. 1768 Colony of Greek Orthodox in St. Augustine, Florida. 1794 Russian Orthodox missionaries arrive on Kodiak Island. 1798 Father Joseph Bolotov consecrated first bishop. 1812 Chapel at Fort Rus, California. Father John (Innocent) Veniaminov arrives in Unalaska. Father Iakov Netsvetov, first native priest. 1834 The liturgy and catechism translated into Aleut. Consecration of Bishop Innocent. Pastoral school established in Sitka. 1848 St. Michael Cathedral consecrated in Sitka. 1864 Holy Trinity Church in New Orleans established. Subsequently becomes first Greek Orthodox parish. Alaska sold to the United States. Founding of parish in San Francisco. 1870 Father Bjerring establishes parish in New York City. 1878 Oriental Church magazine published. St. Mary parish in Minneapolis enters Orthodox church. Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox parish in New York founded. First Serbian Orthodox parish in Jackson, California. Father Sabastian Dabovich first American-born person ordained. 1895 First Syrian Orthodox parish in Brooklyn, New York. First conference of Orthodox clergy, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Missionary school opens in Minneapolis. Russian-American Messenger begins publication. Bishop Tikhon arrives in America. 1902 St. Nicholas Cathedral in New York built. Father Raphael Hawaweeny, first bishop consecrated in United States. First Romanian Orthodox parish in Cleveland, Ohio. Russian Orthodox Archdiocese see transferred to New York. St. Tikhon Monastery dedicated. Service Book translated by Isabel Hapgood. First Sunday of Orthodoxy Service in New York. Theofan Noli ordained. First Bulgarian Orthodox parish in Madison, Illinois. Albanian Orthodox parish in Boston. Death of Father Alexis Toth. First Orthodox Sunday school, in Holy Trinity Church, New York. Serbian Orthodox clergy come under Church of Serbia. Patriarchate of Antioch sends bishop to organize parishes. |
| David Cheeran, an owner of Bombay Grill here, is an Orthodox Christian, but his staff are all Hindus. Differing religions did not stop manager Pramod Warrier, chef Vijeesh Parayil, the waiters and kitchen workers from welcoming members of St. Paul’s Indian Orthodox Church of Albany, N.Y., which Cheeran attends, who came to sing Christmas carols on Dec. 9. Warrier comes from tropical Bombay -- now Mumbai -- on the Arabian Sea on India’s west coast. " Bombay is a cosmopolitan city, " he said. " Everyone celebrates Christmas -- at least, in my generation. My parents are more traditional. " When he lived there as a young man, he would celebrate Christmas Eve with his Christian friends. First, he would go to midnight mass with them, which he said was fun and sometimes held outdoors. Then they would go out partying, drinking and touring the city sampling its famed street foods. Bombay Grill does not make Indian street food, but will be serving Kerala breakfast comfort food as part of a pre-Christmas brunch buffet on Sunday. The restaurant prepares foods mainly from South India, but also offers pan-Indian specialties Other staff are from Kerala state in South India, where Christianity is said to have begun when the Apostle Thomas visited in 52 A.D., according to Eusebius, a 4th century scholar of biblical canon and a Christian bishop in Palestine. Keralians are predominantly Hindu, Muslim or Christian. Less than one percent of the population are Sikh, Jain, Buddhist, Jewish or practice local tribal religions. The state has historically been " inclusive and open " in its religious traditions, writes French author Dominique-Sila Khan in " Sacred Kerala: A Spiritual Pilgrimage. " The earliest Indian Christians, reputedly Jews converted by St. Thomas in the 1st century, were and continue to be the Orthodox Syrian Church. The Portuguese converted many to Roman Catholicism when they landed in India in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. Later, other Europeans, most notably the Dutch and the English, brought Protestant Christianity. |
| After 15 years as an Anglican priest, including six years as the rector of Trinity Church in Rock Island, the Rev. Thomas Janikowski is converting to Russian Orthodoxy.By the time he and his wife, Shelly, get back from a New York trip, he will be an ordained deacon and priest in the Russian Orthodox church’s Western Rite Communities. He will celebrate the Liturgy of St. Gregory the Great on Sunday as a fully ordained priest of the St. Athanasius parish at 228 W. 15th St., Davenport. Sunday Matins will be sung at 8:15 a.m. with a Divine Liturgy at 9 followed by food and fellowship. The church — once a tattoo parlor named “Joe’s Garage” — is a one-story building with plenty of parking next door, so no stairs are required, Rev. Janikowski said. Learning to speak Russian, he said, is not necessary; everything is in English. Services are conducted largely by Gregorian chant or sung, with the church following the Julian calendar that has Jan. 7 as Christmas Day. “We get all the nice days for Christmas shopping,” Rev. Janikowski said. The church also practices more iconography, he said, and communion is served only to Russian Orthodox church members. Rev. Janikowski was a choral scholar and said he feels extremely confident by chanting and singing everything. He said he’d always wanted to be in the Russian Orthodox Church body and particularly had felt drawn to it for the past 10 years or so. The orthodoxy has remained undivided for 2,000 years, Rev. Janikowski said. It’s reverent and timeless, he said, yet remains mysterious. Code for blog Since you are here… …we do have a small request. More and more people visit Orthodoxy and the World website. However, resources for editorial are scarce. In comparison to some mass media, we do not make paid subscription. It is our deepest belief that preaching Christ for money is wrong. Having said that, Pravmir provides daily articles from an autonomous news service, weekly wall newspaper for churches, lectorium, photos, videos, hosting and servers. Editors and translators work together towards one goal: to make our four websites possible - Pravmir.ru, Neinvalid.ru, Matrony.ru and Pravmir.com. Therefore our request for help is understandable. |
| Churches worldwide unite in prayer for 340 million Christians persecuted for their faith in Christ Source: The Christian Post DELIL SOULEIMAN/AFP via Getty Images To observe the annual International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted on Sunday, churches around the world are praying for more than 340 million Christians who are persecuted or oppressed because of their faith. Marking the IDOP 2021, the U.S.-based persecution watchdog group International Christian Concern said , “the number one thing persecuted Christians ask for is prayer.” “The IDOP is a time set apart to remember all those who share our faith, but not our freedom,” Godfrey Yogarajah, ambassador for Religious Freedom of the World Evangelical Alliance, said . The WEA Religious Liberty Commission launched the first IDOP in 1996, encouraging churches worldwide to dedicate a Sunday in November to pray for persecuted Christians. “For over two decades, every November, the global Church has united in prayer for our persecuted brothers and sisters around the world. Today, more than 300 million Christians live in places where they face persecution for their faith in Jesus Christ. Staggeringly, this is one in eight Christians, globally,” said WEA Secretary General Thomas Schirrmacher. Speaking to CBN News , David Curry, president and CEO of Open Doors USA, put the number of Christians who are persecuted or oppressed because of their faith in Jesus at more than 340 million. “Some of those places like North Korea are exceptionally difficult if you’re caught with the Bible, you may spend the rest of your life in prison or even lose your life,” he explained. “Then there are other places around the world where the Gospel is opposed. You may be harassed and bothered, so there are any number of ways people can be persecuted for their faith.” Behind each number and statistic, there is a human story, notes the World Watch List, which seeks to identify countries where Christian persecution is most rampant. During the lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic, Christians in India, Myanmar, Nepal, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Central Asia, Malaysia, North Africa, Yemen and Sudan, were denied aid, the World Watch List says. |
| Faithful “from near and far” gathered during the Memorial Day weekend at Saint Tikhon’s Monastery here for the 111th annual Pilgrimage May 22 through 25, 2015. Throughout the weekend, liturgical celebrations, including Hierarchical Divine Liturgies on Saturday and Sunday, were held. The main Pilgrimage Liturgy was celebrated at the bell tower chapel on Monday, at which His Beatitude, Metropolitan Tikhon, presided. Concelebrating with him were His Eminence, Archbishop Mark of Philadelphia and Eastern Pennsylvania; His Eminence, Archbishop Michael of New York and New York and New Jersey; His Grace, Bishop Thomas of the Diocese of Charleston, Oakland and the Mid-Atlantic of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America; and His Grace, Bishop John of Naro-Fominsk, Administrator of the Patriarchal Parishes in the USA, Moscow Patriarchate. Numerous clergy from the Orthodox Church in America and other jurisdictions, also concelebrated. Faithful also were afforded the opportunity to venerate the Hawaiian Myrrh Streaming Icon of the Mother of God of Iveron, which was welcomed at the monastery entrance arch on Friday afternoon, marking the official opening of the Pilgrimage, and present throughout the weekend. And as always, faithful prayed before the graves of their loved ones in the monastery cemetery. Many took advantage of tours of the Metropolitan Museum of the Orthodox Church in America and the Guzey Icon Repository offered by Archpriest John Perich, curator. Father John also made it possible for pilgrims who so desired to share in writing or video their personal stories and anecdotes about life in the Church as a “living history.” Not to be forgotten during the weekend were those departed who served in the military and who gave their lives on the field of battle. Archpriest Theodore Boback celebrated a Panikhida at All Saints Bell Tower for all departed Orthodox military chaplains and veterans on Monday. “I couldn’t help notice that there were many young people present this year,” said one pilgrim from New York. “Having attended the Pilgrimage for over four decades, it was most heartening to see the ‘next generation’ present to carry on this century-old tradition.” |
| Photo: antiochian.org Rejoice, O Father Raphael! The stretch of State Street between Hoyt and Bond streets in Brooklyn, New York has been co-named “St. Raphael of Brooklyn Place.” St. Nicholas Antiochian Orthodox Christian Cathedral – the first community that St. Raphael founded in 1895, and the see of His Eminence Metropolitan Joseph – stands at 355 State St. Following the celebration of the Hierarchical Divine Liturgy on Sunday, June 6, 2021, His Eminence led the procession of clergy and laity to the corner of State and Bond streets as they sang the apolytikion (troparion) of St. Raphael. His Eminence tugged on the cord that covered the street sign high above, and revealed the new co-name of the street below honoring North America’s first Antiochian saint. “St. Raphael ministered to Orthodox Christians of all backgrounds and interacted with people of all creeds. He traveled the breadth and width of not only the United States, but Canada and Mexico, gathering his scattered flock,” Sayidna Joseph said. “He planted the seeds of this ancient faith on these shores, a faith now embraced by peoples of all races and backgrounds. “It is for this very reason St. Raphael belongs to this entire community. Both the faithful of this historic Cathedral and those who live and work around it can embrace the life of St. Raphael of Brooklyn. We are honored to share this block, this borough and this city with all of you and this outward example shows that the city and its inhabitants also honor our presence here.” Joining His Eminence were clergy from the different Orthodox Christian jurisdictions, along with the following civil authorities. U.S. Rep. Nicole Malliotakis from New York New York State Senator Andrew Gounardes Mr. John Abi-Habib, Honorary Consul General of Lebanon in New Jersey New York City Councilman Stephen Levin His Excellency, Bassam Sabbagh, Ambassador of Syria to the United Nations New York State Assemblywoman Jo Anne Simon His Eminence thanked Fr. Thomas Zain, dean of the Cathedral, all the civil authorities who secured the renaming, and the Cathedral neighbors and associations who signed petitions to co-name “St. Raphael of Brooklyn Place,” adding that it gave him hope for the future to see communities working together. |
| Photo: http://oca.org His Beatitude, Metropolitan Tikhon will preside at the 113th Annual Pilgrimage to Saint Tikhon’s Monastery , which officially opens on Friday, May 26, 2017 at 3:30 p.m. with the greeting of the Hawaiian Myrrh Streaming Icon of the Iveron Mother of God at the entrance arch. Vespers and Matins will follow at 4:00 p.m. in the Monastery Church of Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk. The icon will be available for veneration throughout the Pilgrimage, which formally ends on Memorial Day—Monday, May 29. Metropolitan Tikhon, President of Saint Tikhon’s Seminary , will preside at the school’s 75th annual Commencement on Saturday, May 27. The day will open with the celebration of the Hierarchical Divine Liturgy in the monastery church at 9:00 a.m., followed by a meal in the dining hall. Commencement Exercises will begin at 1:00 p.m. At the invitation of Metropolitan Tikhon, His Grace, Bishop Thomas of the Diocese of Charleston, Oakland, and the Mid-Atlantic of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America will deliver the commencement address . The day will close with the celebration of the Resurrection Vigil at 4:00 p.m., followed by dinner for all pilgrims in the dining hall. The Hierarchical Divine Liturgy will be celebrated at 9:00 a.m. on Sunday, May 28, followed by a meal for all pilgrims in the dining hall. Vespers and Matins will be celebrated at 4:00 p.m. On Memorial Day — Monday, May 29 — the Divine Liturgy will be celebrated in the Monastery Church at 7:30 a.m. The Hierarchical Divine Liturgy will be celebrated at 10:00 a.m., followed by a Panikhida for Veterans, at All Saints Bell Tower at 12:15 p.m. The Akathistos Hymn to Saint Alexis will be celebrated in the monastery church at 1:30 p.m. The Molieben to the Most Holy Theotokos with the Anointing of the Sick, Infirm and All Pilgrims will be celebrated at the monastery bell tower at 2:30 p.m. The pilgrimage will close with the celebration of Vespers and Matins at 4:00 p.m. Concurrent with the Pilgrimage, the Patriarch Tikhon Russian-American Music Institute [PaTRAM] will hold its Memorial Day Conductors’ and Singers’ Workshop at Saint Tikhon’s. Conference participants will sing the liturgical responses during the Pilgrimage. |
| The word “pilgrimage” means “a journey of spiritual significance.” And every year, the month of August proves to be significant for three monastic communities of the Orthodox Church in America observing their annual pilgrimages in conjunction with their patronal feast days. Nuns carry festal icon during annual pilgrimage to Dormition Monastery, Rives Junction, MI. The Monastery of the Transfiguration , Ellwood City, PA, will celebrate its annual pilgrimage on Saturday and Sunday, August 5 and 6, 2017. The pilgrimage will open with the celebration of Vigil and dinner at 5:00 p.m. on Saturday evening. The following morning, the Akathistos Hymn “Glory to God for All Things” will be celebrated at 9:00 a.m., followed by the procession to the outdoor chapel and Hierarchical Divine Liturgy at 9:30 a.m. His Grace, Bishop Thomas of the Antiochian Archdiocese will preside. A picnic luncheon will be served at noon. At 2:00 p.m., Archpriest Daniel Ressetar will offer a dramatic monologue and youth will offer oratorical presentations. The Sacrament of Holy Unction with the anointing of pilgrims will be celebrated at 3:00 p.m. After light refreshments at 5:00 p.m., the pilgrimage will close with the celebration of Vespers at 6:00 p.m. Additional information is available on-line. The annual pilgrimage to New Skete , Cambridge NY, will open with the celebration of Matins at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday, August 12, followed by a tour of New Skete’s Holy Wisdom Temple. A talk on monastic life will be offered at 12:30 p.m. A presentation titled “We Shall All Be Changed: Armenian Artist-Theologians Ponder the Transfiguration” will be offered by this year’s guest speaker, Dr. Roberta Ervine, Professor of Armenian Studies at Saint Nerses Armenian Seminary, Armonk, NY. She will explain how the Armenian Fathers used the story of the Transfiguration to illuminate other Biblical themes, experiences and events in words, music and the visual arts. Other afternoon events include a guided hike, an iconography demonstration, a dog training demonstration, and a photo exhibit. Pilgrims are also invited to visit the meditation gardens and the Monks’ and Nuns’ gift shops and to enjoy Greek and Lebanese food, which will be available for purchase throughout the day. The pilgrimage will close with the celebration of the Vigil and a Healing Service at 5:00 p.m. Further information is available on-line. |
|
|
