| Photo: http://basilica.ro/ The Orthodox world is buzzing with the recent news repor t on the ordination of deaconesses in the Patriarchate of Alexandria. To the best of our knowledge, the ordination occurred after the Divine Liturgy in the nave of the temple, and appears to resemble the rite used to ordain subdeacons. This rite includes the presentation of the orarion, handlaying, a prayer, and the washing of the bishop’s hands. The reports do not offer details on the prayer said by the Patriarch. It seems that the Patriarch did not use the Byzantine Rite for the ordination of a deaconess, which takes place at the end of the anaphora (before the deacon intones the litany before the Lord’s Prayer, “Having remembered all the saints”), in the altar, and includes the deaconesses receiving Communion with the other clergy in the altar, according to order. While Patriarch Theodoros II appeared to use the rite for the ordination of subdeacons, the Patriarchate of Alexandria is referring to these newly-ordained women as deaconesses, and has appointed them to perform crucial sacramental and catechetical ministries as part of the Patriarchate’s missionary work. The ordination of these five deaconesses in Alexandria marks a turning point in the discussion about the order of deaconess within the Orthodox Church. To date, the restoration of the female diaconate has been limited to discussion, deliberation, and study – not to mention heated debate. With this ordination, we now have a historical episode of ordination and appointment to ministry, a pattern for what the female diaconate could become. Will the Alexandrian ordination become the new rite for the order of deaconess, or will the Church dust off the Byzantine rite of the ordination of a deaconess? What other ministries might the deaconesses execute? We do not know the answers to these questions. We do know that the debate on the female diaconate is going to intensify. As part of an ongoing research project, I’ve been asking Orthodox lay women and men for their opinions about the restoration of the order of deaconess. The responses seem to fit the positions presented by ideologues in the debate. Some people argue that restoring the order of deaconess is a legitimate application of ressourcement , of drawing upon our liturgical and ecclesiological history to appoint ministers who contribute to the building up of the body of Christ through particular gifts. Others depict the attempt to restore the deaconess as a trojan horse strategy to inject secular egalitarian values into the Church’s political theology. Others are unsure: one lay woman remarked that Orthodoxy “has the Panagia, and the Greek Orthodox Church has the Philoptochos Society – women essentially run the Church – why do we need a female diaconate?” |
| Even in Antiquity Jerusalem was never a large church with a significant sphere of political influence, but it always had a different kind of symbolic influence, and importance, for the universal Christian imagination, chiefly as the site of the holy places where the Lord taught, suffered, and rose again. In its most important patristic phase it was the center of an internationally influential liturgical revival, which followed after Constantine’s building of the Church of the Resurrection (Anastasis) which in the West is more commonly called by its medieval name: the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The story of St. Helena’s discovery of the true cross in Jerusalem was added to by several other major discoveries (by aristocrats, founders, and archbishops) of the relics of New Testament saints such as John the Forerunner or Stephen the Protomartyr; these were stories of visions and findings that electrified not only Jerusalem itself but Christian cities from Constantinople to Rome and Syria, and which led to a massive movement of the building of pilgrimage churches in the Holy Land (many of which are still being excavated – the finding of an octagonal site being the give-away evidence of it as a Byzantine place of pilgrimage). From the late 4th to the 6th centuries, Roman Palestine, with Jerusalem at its center, was renowned throughout the Christian world as a thriving church based around such pilgrim traffic. Its liturgical traditions thus spread because of this to influence many of the rites celebrated in Orthodoxy today. The influence can especially be seen in festivals such as the blessing of the waters on The- ophany (formerly a pilgrimage rite peculiar to Jerusalem, when the clergy and people would make the journey from the holy city to the Jordan river) and the ritual of the Exaltation of the Cross (September 14), which was based around the acts of veneration celebrated in the courtyard of the Anastasis church buildings where a great cross was raised containing relics of the Lord’s own cross. The current festival commemorates the loss ofthese relics from Jerusalem to Persian raiders and their eventual reclamation by the Byzantine emperor. Jerusalem also seems to have adopted the common Orthodox liturgical practice of having the multinational congregation respond to complex prayer-petitions with a simple responsorial “Lord have mercy,” easily learned, in Greek, as Kyrie Eleison. The beautiful Liturgy of St. James is still in use in the Orthodox Church today, though rarely witnessed in the course of a year. It remains as the standard liturgical rite of Jerusalem. |
| Accept The site uses cookies to help show you the most up-to-date information. By continuing to use the site, you consent to the use of your Metadata and cookies. Cookie policy On commemoration day of St. Catherine, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk officiated at the Church of St. Catherine the Great Martyr In-the-Fields the representation of the Orthodox Church in America On December 7, 2020, the commemoration day of St. Catherine the Great Martyr, Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations, officiated at the festive service at the Moscow representation of the Orthodox Church in America - the Church of St. Catherine In-the-Fields. The archpastor was assisted by Bishop Anthony of Moravichi, representative of the Patriarch of Serbia to the Patriarch of Moscow; Protopresbyter Vladimir Divakov, secretary to the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia; Archpriest Nikolay Balashov, DECR vice-chairman; Archimandrite Seraphim (Shemyatovsky), representative of the Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia to the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia; Archpriest Daniel Andreyuk, rector of the St. Catherine Church and representative of the Orthodox Church in America to the Moscow Patriarchal see; Archpriest Kakhaber Gogoshvili, Georgian Orthodox Church, acting dean of the Moscow church district; Archpriest Sergiy Tocheny, rector of the Church of Jacob Zabedee in-Kazennaya Sloboda and the Church of the Finding of the Lord’s Sepulcher in-Barashi; Archpriest Leonid Kalinin, rector of the Church of Great Martyr Clement the Pope of Rome In-Zamoskvorechie and chairman of the Experts Council for Church Art, Architecture and Restoration; as well as clergy of the St. Catherine Church. After the Prayer of Fervent Supplication, Metropolitan Hilarion lifted up a prayer read at a time of the spread of a pernicious infection. After the liturgy, Archpriest Daniel Andreyuk greeted Metropolitan Hilarion and thanked his concelebrants for their prayers and read out the message of greetings from His Beatitude Tikhon, Metropolitan of All America and Canada. |
| Photo: orthodoxcityhermit.com Every religious tradition in the United States is seeing its membership decline. But according to the most recent Pew Study , few Christian traditions are seeing their members head for the doors as quickly as the Orthodox—only 53% of adults who were raised in the Orthodox Church still identify as Orthodox. Professional statisticians will note that the sample size of Orthodox in the Pew study is small, but the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese’s own published statistics on marriages and baptisms over the past forty years suggests that the retention of its younger members is falling dramatically. Is our parochial use of Liturgical Greek part of the problem? As someone who has studied Ancient and Byzantine Greek for the past 25 years, I will be the first to affirm that Greek enables a level of theological nuance unmatched by other languages, especially English. But very few Orthodox in America have the training to navigate the complexity and sophistication of our Liturgical poetry in its original form. Across the United States, GOA parishes vary in their use of language: some are Greek only, some are English only, and most employ some combination of the two, often repeating key elements (biblical readings, the Creed, and the Lord’s Prayer) in both languages. But apart from the sermon, the Greek used is not Modern Greek, it is a form of medieval Greek, composed between the fourth and twelfth centuries.The vocabulary is similar to Modern Greek, but many words are obscure. The grammar and syntactical structure are completely different. To be sure, some aspects of the Divine Liturgy, like the Petitions, are repeated every week, which allows those who attend regularly to follow whether they know any medieval Greek or not. But many hymns and the scripture readings change daily, making them largely incomprehensible, even for fluent Greek speakers. In short, the vast majority of communicants in the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese do not understand what is being said or sung at several points in the course of any given service. And it’s not because quality translations do not exist. They do. But for a variety of reasons, priests across the Archdiocese are not using the translations as often as they should. |
| Patriarch Bartholomew: “The Ecumenical Patriarchate recognizes the difficult challenges facing the blessed Ukrainian people today” Source: The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople Message By His All-Holiness to the Devout Ukrainian People on the occasion of the Triumphal Entry of our Lord Jesus Christ into the Holy City of Jerusalem Your Excellencies, the political and ecclesiastical leaders of the Orthodox people of Ukraine; Beloved and precious Orthodox Ukrainian faithful: Слава Христу! The Holy Mother and Great Church of Christ of Constantinople regards the Ukrainian nation and people as Her precious sons and daughters, born from the baptismal waters that flowed through the banks of the Dnepr River. From the days of our brilliant predecessor, Saint Photios the Great, the love of the Mother Church for the pious Christians of your lands has never abated. The Ecumenical Patriarchate recognizes the difficult challenges facing the blessed Ukrainian people today. Furthermore, it acknowledges the deep scars and open wounds from the grievous Holodomor, the World Wars of the 20th century, and the pressure on a nation emerging from decades of totalitarian tyranny. This is why we take this opportunity, on the celebration of our Lord’s Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem, to exhort all the pious Orthodox Christians of Ukraine that they maintain “the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” (Eph. 4.3) The Kingdom of Christ is not of this world, for as He Himself told Pilate: “My kingdom is not of this world.” (John 18.36) In the “triumph” that is foreshadowed on Palm Sunday, we celebrate the victory of love over hatred, of truth over falsehood, and of life over death. We believe that the goodwill of the Ukrainian people will succeed in bringing healing and ultimate reconciliation. As for the enduring ecclesiastical controversies, we know that by the Grace of God and the agreement of the Heads of the Autocephalous Orthodox Churches, the Holy and Great Synod of the Orthodox Church will be convened by us here in the year 2016. It is our wholehearted hope and prayer that, by that time, all divisions may be healed for the sake of the unity of the Ukrainian people. |
| The New Testament presupposes the stream of Jewish worship and prayer. The Gospel of Luke records exquisite prayers by the Virgin Mary ( Lk. 1.46–55 ), the priest Zechariah ( Lk. 1.68–79 ), and the elder Simeon ( Lk. 2.29–32 ). Jesus himself, circumcised on the eighth day and presented at the Temple on the fortieth, grew up in the tradition of Jewish prayer and piety with frequent appearances at the Temple and the synagogue. He not only gave instructions on prayer but also practiced heartfelt prayer, seeking solitude in the hills where he could pray all night, not least before making important decisions ( Mk. 1.35 ; Lk. 6.12 ). The personal depth of Jesus’ prayers to God the Father breaks forth in dramatic moments of joyful confession ( Mt. 11.25 ), the giving of the Lord’s Prayer ( Mt. 6.5–13 ), the high priestly prayer to the Father ( Jn. 17 ), and the agony at Gethsemane ( Mk. 14.33–5 ), all of which exemplify the intimate relationship with God as a personal and loving Father which Jesus lived and taught. While the early church inherited much of the Jewish tradition of prayer, it gradually moved away from the Temple worship and cultic practices such as animal sacrifices, circumcision, and kosher foods, regarded as no longer compatible with the gospel. Instead, the church focused on its own rites of baptism, the Mystical Supper or Eucharist, and other rites that gradually developed into a whole tradition of worship continuously elaborated in content and structure. St. Paul, large sections of whose letters read like prayers, is a primary figure of the Christian renewal of prayer and worship in trinitarian forms based on the view that each baptized Christian is a living sacrifice to God ( Rom. 6.4, 13; 12.1 ) and the church is the body of Christ and the temple of the Holy Spirit ( 1Cor. 3.16–17; 12.12–27 ). Stirring echoes of early Christian prayers and aspects of worship, replete with Old Testament language, frequently occur in the Book of Revelation, where the eschatological drama of salvation itself is recounted from the perspective of the worship of God (Rev. 4.4–11; 5.8–14; 7.9–12; 11.15–18; 12.10–12; 15.3–4; 19.1–8). |
| City cross procession for peace takes place in Sievierodonetsk Sievierodonetsk (Ukraine), May 27, 2014 On May 24, the feast-day of Holy and Equal-to-the-Apostles Methodius and Cyril, Teachers of the Slavs, a city religious procession for peace took place in Sievierodonetsk. On that day, Bishop Nicodemus of Sievierodonetsk and Starobilsk headed the Divine Liturgy at the Cathedral of Nativity of Christ in Sievierodonetsk. A special prayer was offered up at the service for peace, overcoming of hostility and repose of those killed in the internecine war, reports the Sievierodonetsk Diocese’s website. After the Liturgy, Akathist to the Lord for peace and mutual love among people was read. Then a city procession for peace in the motherland began, carrying a cross with a small portion of the True Life-Giving Cross, the “Tenderness” and “The three-Handed” Icons of the Holy Theotokos, a wonder-working Icon of St. Nicolas the Wonder-Worker and other shrines of the city’s churches. It proceeded from the Cathedral of Nativity of Christ, along the Kosmonavtov Street, the Gvardeiskiy Avenue, the Donetskaya and Energetikov Streets to the Church of the “Tenderness” Icon of the Mother of God. At the end of the procession Bishop Nicodemus addressed all the faithful with an edifying word: “In this time, difficult for each of us, we have celebrated the Divine Liturgy and held a cross procession for peace in our motherland with the Lord’s blessing… “All adversities befall us because we forget the Lord’s commandment about love. So, if we had more love in our hearts, then they would simply have no space for hatred, anger and other sins and vices…” The hierarch also noted the significance of cross processions: “Cross procession is an ancient pious tradition. However, not all people know their meaning. A cross procession is a solemn prayer procession, hence its name. A cross procession is an expression of the people’s one faith and zealous prayer to the Lord, the Mother of God and the saints for divine aid to the Church and people. |
| Michael Prokurat, Alexander Golitzin, Michael D. Peterson Скачать epub pdf CATECHESIS CATECHESIS. In the first four centuries of the Church’s history, the teaching of ethics and basic doctrine-followed by Baptism (q.v.), Chrismation, and the reception of the Eucharist (q.v.)-took place during a catechumenate that lasted from one to three years. This situation changed drastically in the 5th c. when the Christianization of the Byzantine Empire meant that infant Baptism became the prevalent way to receive people into the Church. In the early Church (and in some places today) the instruction of catechumens was not usually given by bishops and priests until the final baptismal phase. (See Cyril of Jerusalem.) Although many people came from pagan backgrounds, this fact alone did not account entirely for the length of instruction in comparison with later practice. Much more information was thoroughly taught in the early centuries. For example, it was common for catechumens to attend a daily matins service. Over the course of the instruction, the entirety of the Scriptures (q.v.) would be read to them and explained by specially appointed teachers. It was expected that the length of the catechumenate would be sufficient to test the ethics of the individual. “Exorcism” (q.v.) as a class in moral behavior followed by a prayer of deliverance from a particular evil-a kind of preparation for confession of sins in the modern practice-was also administered by the laity. The catechumenate was also long enough to secure the person’s full participation in, and assimilation into, the Christian community. Only at the end of this process was the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed (q.v.) and the Lord’s Prayer taught to the catechumen. The Church has historically differentiated between those people who have already participated in Baptism and the Eucharist and those who have not. The lack of differentiation between these two groups seeking to enter the Orthodox Church has clouded the issue of why catechumens were dismissed from the Divine Liturgy in the past: People without experience of Baptism and the Eucharist are not able to understand what happens during the liturgy (q.v.) of the faithful. Further, the catechumens were most likely not “sent away” in their dismissal, but were sent to continued instruction, which did not preclude fellowship with the community. |
| Primate of Russian Orthodox Church celebrates Liturgy at the Church of Kazan Icon of the Mother of God in Havana On February 14, 2016, the 37th Sunday after Pentecost, the Forefeast of the Meeting of the Lord, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the Russian Orthodox church of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God in Havana. Concelebrating with His Holiness were: Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk, Chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department for External Church Relations; Metropolitan Anthony of Borispol and Brovary, Chancellor of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church; Bishop Sergiy of Solnechnogorsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Administrative Secretariat; Bishop Kallistrat of Gorno-Altaysk and Chemal; Bishop Anthony of Bogorodsk, head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Administration for Institutions Abroad; Archimandrite Philaret (Bulekov), DECR vice-chairman; archpriest Andrey Milkin, head of the Patriarchal Protocol Service; and Rev. Alexander Volkov, head of the Patriarchal Press Service. Among those who attended the service were c lerics of the Church of St. Nicholas in Havana (Patriarchate of Constantinople) and Mr. Raúl Castro Ruz, President of Cuba’s Council of State and Council of Ministers. During the service, the Gospel, the Creed, and the Lord’s Prayer were read out in the Church Slavonic and Spanish languages. The Gospel reading was followed by a homily delivered by His Holiness Patriarch Kirill. After the Liturgy, Archpriest Dimitry Orekhov, rector of the Church of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, greeted the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church and presented him with a Kazan icon of the Most Holy Theotokos with images of the Holy Prince Vladimir Equal-to-the-Apostles and St. Cyril Equal-to-the-Apostles. In his primatial homily, Patriarch Kirill expressed his joy over an opportunity to celebrate the Liturgy at an Orthodox church in Havana: This time my visit to Cuba coincided with an event of great significance for the history of Christendom. I had a meeting, brotherly, open and full of love, with the bishop of Rome, Pope Francis. For all the still existing theological differences between the Orthodox Christians in the East and Catholic Christians in the West, we are well aware today of our shared responsibility for what is going on with people. |
| Recently I read an interesting critique of American Christianity. It pointed out that in an earlier day the schoolrooms for our children used to feature the Ten Commandments written on the wall, rather than (for example) the Beatitudes. The author thought this rather odd for a Christian nation, and evidence that something was wrong. I grant you that the preference for the Ten Commandments over the Beatitudes does invite comment. One begins by asking how the Ten Commandments became so prominent in the eyes of Christians to begin with. One of course understands how a Jew would opt for the Ten Commandments which Moses brought down from the height of Sinai, rather than the Beatitudes of Jesus found in the New Testament. But how did the Ten Commandments become so culturally popular among American Christians? In Reformation Protestantism the Ten Commandments were very prominent, and children were required to memorize them as part of their basic catechism, along with the Lord’s Prayer and the Creed. In the reformed Church of England, the Ten Commandments were recited after the Gospel from 1547, and they were embedded at the beginning of the Communion Service from 1552. Through the work of the Protestant Reformers of the sixteenth century, Moses experienced a thorough liturgical baptism, in that his Ten Commandments took a central place in the lives of Christians. I remember vividly my time in the Anglican Church when the congregation knelt down at the beginning of the Communion Service as the priest recited each line of the Ten Commandments. The people responded to each Commandment by saying, “Lord have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law”. At the end of the recitation of the Commandments, they prayed, “Lord have mercy upon us, and write all these thy laws in our hearts, we beseech thee”. It was all very moving, and (had I but known it then) something specific to Reformation liturgy. The medieval catholic liturgies which Cranmer and his Anglican liturgical architects used as their sources had nothing like this in them. Devotion to the Ten Commandments by Christians seems to have entered American schoolrooms through the door of America’s Protestant inheritance. |
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