A voice from Ghana: "If we truly wish to be called a Christian..."

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Orthodox Church in Ghana

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How easy it is to worship with all piety and correctness while standing in a service within an Orthodox temple, yet make no effort to live Orthodoxy during the rest of our week. If we are abusive towards our spouse, abrasive with a coworker, and short tempered with a neighbor, all the piety and liturgical correctness of our Sunday morning is of no value.

If we cheat on our taxes, steal pens from the office, or refuse to point out an error to a clerk who has failed to ring up an item, we will have reduced our life in Christ to no more than membership in a club. If we walk past a child who is being bullied, without intervening, we have become the bully. If we fail to call the police when we hear a neighbor pleading with an abusive husband, not wanting to get involved, we are a wife beater. If we smile at the racist joke of a coworker, we are just as guilty of racism as he.

Being a Christian is far more than adherence to a set of doctrines, or the adaptation of liturgical forms of worship and piety. To be a follower of Christ is not like joining the Elks Club, where paying your dues and attending meetings makes you a member. Taking the name of the Saviour for ourselves, and calling ourselves Christian, must mean that we imitate the Saviour’s life. It must mean that others see Christ in us, each and every hour of our day.

Fr. Andronicus Acquah, St. John the Baptist 
Orthodox Church in Gomoa Akropong, Ghana (from here).

We must be the neighborhood peacemaker, the one who is quick to forgive when wronged, the person who is always looking for ways of being in service to others. If we truly wish to be called a Christian, we must put aside hypocrisy in all its forms, and live Christ.

We must work towards changing the world by beginning with ourselves. Saint Seraphim of Sarov told us that if we acquire peace in our heart, we will save a thousand around us. Justice and peace does not come with revolution, but comes when the hearts of men and woman are transformed by the Holy Spirit, and this change can only begin, when we put aside all hypocrisy, and replace it with genuine, heartfelt commitment to Jesus Christ, living in imitation of the Saviour.

With love in Christ,
Abbot Tryphon


The Prayer of St. Ephrem the Syrian
 
Orthodox Church in Ghnana
 
O Lord and Master of my life!
Take from me the spirit of sloth,faint-heartedness, lust of power, and idle talk.
But give rather the spirit of chastity,
humility, patience, and love to Thy servant.
Yea, Lord and King! Grant me to see my own errors and not to judge my brother, for Thou art blessed unto ages of ages. Amen.

See also

The Orthodox Church in Ghana & Ivory Coast 
Vérité Cherchant: Le cours passionnant de l'Eglise orthodoxe au Ghana
African Initiated Church in Search of Orthodoxy...
Ortodox Mkristo Liturujia takatifu katika Kasoa, Ghana - Orthodox Christian holy liturgy in Kasoa, Ghana
Orthodox Ghana (tag)