Τετάρτη 30 Ιανουαρίου 2019

On the End of January...

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Κυριακή 27 Ιανουαρίου 2019

The inaugural liturgical celebration of Bishop Silvester Kisitu of Gulu and Eastern Uganda!...



Uganda Orthodox Church

Today January 27, 2019 will be remembered in the history of the Orthodox Church in Uganda as the very first time His Grace Bishop Silvester Kisitu of Gulu and Eastern Uganda presided over the Holy Liturgy in Uganda as a Bishop. AXIOS!
Having arrived in Uganda from Greece on Friday 25th January, 4:00 Am at Entebbe International airport, various celebrations have been organized to mark the tremendous blessing that our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ had bestowed on the Uganda Orthodox Church, the formulation of a new Orthodox Diocese of Gulu and Eastern Uganda with Bishop Silvester being the leader.
Before embarking on his official duties in North and Eastern Uganda, His Eminence Metropolitan Jonah Lwanga of Kampala and All Uganda, together with the Orthodox Christians in Kampala and other neighboring Orthodox deaneries organized a welcoming ceremony which also marked the official Introduction of His Grace Bishop Silvester to the Nation through leading the Holy Liturgical mystery at St. Nicholas Cathedral Namungoona.


The ceremony was graced by Honorable Minister of Kampala Beti Kamya Turwomwe as the chief guest alongside other dignitaries that Included the Lord Mayor of Kampala City – Erias lukwago, Rubaga North Member of Parliament Hon. Kasibante Moses, Lwemiyaga Member of Parliament – Hon. Theodore Ssekikubo, Mayor of Rubaga division – OWEK. Ssebugwawo Joyce Nabosa, The Katikiro of the Fumbe Clan among others.
Metropolitan Jonah encouraged all the people present that irrespective of the many challenges faced by the Orthodox Mission in Uganda most especially the North and Eastern Uganda where Bishop Silvester is assigned responsibility, he is optimistic that the Power, Love and Grace of our Lord will guide us to Victory.
His Grace expressed his gratification for the warm welcome he received and encouraged all Orthodox Christians in Uganda to always embrace Unity as one of the strategies in which the grace our Lord will continue to manifest itself amongst all of us thereby upholding our purpose as Orthodox Christians.
The Enthronement Ceremonies of Bishop Silvester in his Diocese is slated for 17th February 2019 at St. Lavrentios Orthodox Parish in Koro Sub-County, Gulu Municipality and later on 24th February 2019 at Holy Resurrection Orthodox Parish in Jinja Town.

May the Name of our Lord continue to be glorified!


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About the Memory of the Blessed Father Cosmas of Grigoriou, the Apostle of Zair († January 27)

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Saints Ephraim the Syrian & Isaac the Bishop of Nineveh, two great holy Fathers (January 28)


Saint Ephraim the Syrian
Troparion & Kontakion
Saint Ephraim the Syrian, a teacher of repentance, was born at the beginning of the fourth century in the city of Nisibis (Mesopotamia) into the family of impoverished toilers of the soil. His parents raised their son in piety, but from his childhood he was known for his quick temper and impetuous character. He often had fights, acted thoughtlessly, and even doubted God’s Providence. He finally recovered his senses by the grace of God, and embarked on the path of repentance and salvation.
Once, he was unjustly accused of stealing a sheep and was thrown into prison. He heard a voice in a dream calling him to repent and correct his life. After this, he was acquitted of the charges and set free.
The young man ran off to the mountains to join the hermits. This form of Christian asceticism had been introduced by a disciple of Saint Anthony the Great, the Egyptian desert dweller Eugenius.
Saint James of Nisibis (January 13) was a noted ascetic, a preacher of Christianity and denouncer of the Arians. Saint Ephraim became one of his disciples. Under the direction of the holy hierarch, Saint Ephraim attained Christian meekness, humility, submission to God’s will, and the strength to undergo various temptations without complaint.
Saint James transformed the wayward youth into a humble and conrite monk. Realizing the great worth of his disciple, he made use of his talents. He trusted him to preach sermons, to instruct children in school, and he took Ephraim with him to the First Ecumenical Council at Nicea (in the year 325). Saint Ephraim was in obedience to Saint James for fourteen years, until the bishop’s death in 338.
After the capture of Nisibis by the Persians in 363, Saint Ephraim went to a monastery near the city of Edessa. Here he saw many great ascetics, passing their lives in prayer and psalmody. Their caves were solitary shelters, and they fed themselves with a certain plant.
He became especially close to the ascetic Julian (October 18), who was of one mind with him. Saint Ephraim combined asceticism with a ceaseless study of the Word of God, taking from it both solace and wisdom for his soul. The Lord gave him a gift of teaching, and people began to come to him, wanting to hear his counsel, which produced compunction in the soul, since he began with self-accusation. Both verbally and in writing, Saint Ephraim instructed everyone in repentance, faith and piety, and he denounced the Arian heresy, which at that time was causing great turmoil. Pagans who heard the preaching of the saint were converted to Christianity.
He also wrote the first Syriac commentary on the Pentateuch (i.e. “Five Books”) of Moses. He wrote many prayers and hymns, thereby enriching the Church’s liturgical services. Famous prayers of Saint Ephraim are to the Most Holy Trinity, to the Son of God, and to the Most Holy Theotokos. He composed hymns for the Twelve Great Feasts of the Lord (the Nativity of Christ, the Baptism, the Resurrection), and funeral hymns. Saint Ephraim’s Prayer of Repentance, “O Lord and Master of my life...”, is recited during Great Lent, and it summons Christians to spiritual renewal. 

From ancient times the Church has valued the works of Saint Ephraim. His works were read publicly in certain churches after the Holy Scripture, as Saint Jerome tells us. At present, the Church Typikon prescribes certain of his instructions to be read on the days of Lent. Among the prophets, Saint David is the preeminent psalmodist; among the Fathers of the Church, Saint Ephraim the Syrian is the preeminent man of prayer. His spiritual experience made him a guide for monastics and a help to the pastors of Edessa. Saint Ephraim wrote in Syriac, but his works were very early translated into Greek and Armenian. Translations into Latin and Slavonic were made from the Greek text.
In many of Saint Ephraim’s works we catch glimpses of the life of the Syrian ascetics, which was centered on prayer and working in various obediences for the common good of the brethren. The outlook of all the Syrian ascetics was the same. The monks believed that the goal of their efforts was communion with God and the acquisition of divine grace. For them, the present life was a time of tears, fasting and toil.
“If the Son of God is within you, then His Kingdom is also within you. Thus, the Kingdom of God is within you, a sinner. Enter into yourself, search diligently and without toil you shall find it. Outside of you is death, and the door to it is sin. Enter into yourself, dwell within your heart, for God is there.”


The repose of St. Ephrem the Syrian in the 
“ultra-desert” society (icon from the post
 The holy anarchists... in the Egyptian Desert)

Constant spiritual sobriety, the developing of good within man’s soul gives him the possibility to take upon himself a task like blessedness, and a self-constraint like sanctity. The requital is presupposed in the earthly life of man, it is an undertaking of spiritual perfection by degrees. Whoever grows himself wings upon the earth, says Saint Ephraim, is one who soars up into the heights; whoever purifies his mind here below, there glimpses the Glory of God. In whatever measure each one loves God, he is, by God’s love, satiated to fullness according to that measure. Man, cleansing himself and attaining the grace of the Holy Spirit while still here on earth, has a foretaste of the Kingdom of Heaven. To attain to life eternal, in the teachings of Saint Ephraim, does not mean to pass over from one realm of being into another, but rather to discover “the heavenly,” spiritual condition of being. Eternal life is not bestown on man through God’s one-sided efforts, but rather, it constantly grows like a seed within him by his efforts, toils and struggles. 
The pledge within us of “theosis” (or “deification”) is the Baptism of Christ, and the main force that drives the Christian life is repentance. Saint Ephraim was a great teacher of repentance. The forgiveness of sins in the Mystery of Repentance, according to his teaching, is not an external exoneration, not a forgetting of the sins, but rather their complete undoing, their annihilation. The tears of repentance wash away and burn away the sin. Moreover, they (i.e. the tears) enliven, they transfigure sinful nature, they give the strength “to walk in the way of the the Lord’s commandments,” encouraging hope in God. In the fiery font of repentance, the saint wrote, “you sail yourself across, O sinner, you resurrect yourself from the dead.”
Saint Ephraim, accounting himself as the least and worst of all, went to Egypt at the end of his life to see the efforts of the great ascetics. He was accepted there as a welcome guest and received great solace from conversing with them. On his return journey he visited at Caesarea in Cappadocia with Saint Basil the Great (January 1), who wanted to ordain him a priest, but he considered himself unworthy of the priesthood. At the insistence of Saint Basil, he consented only to be ordained as a deacon, in which rank he remained until his death. Later on, Saint Basil invited Saint Ephraim to accept a bishop’s throne, but the saint feigned madness in order to avoid this honor, humbly regarding himself as unworthy of it.
After his return to his own Edessa wilderness, Saint Ephraim hoped to spend the rest of his life in solitude, but divine Providence again summoned him to serve his neighbor. The inhabitants of Edessa were suffering from a devastating famine. By the influence of his word, the saint persuaded the wealthy to render aid to those in need. From the offerings of believers he built a poor-house for the poor and sick. Saint Ephraim then withdrew to a cave near Edessa, where he remained to the end of his days. 

St. Isaac the Syrian the Bishop of Nineveh
Saint Isaac the Syrian, Bishop of Ninevah, lived during the sixth century. He and his brother entered the monastery of Mar Matthew near Ninevah and received the monastic tonsure. His learning, virtue, and ascetic manner of life attracted the notice of the brethren, and they proposed that he head the monastery. Saint Issac did not want this burden, preferring a life of silence, so he left the monastery to live alone in the desert.
His brother urged him more than once to return to the monastery, but he would not agree. However, when the fame of Saint Isaac’s holy life had spread, he was made Bishop of Ninevah. Seeing the crude manners and disobedience of the inhabitants of the city, the saint felt that it was beyond his ability to guide them, and moreover, he yearned for solitude.
Once, two Christians came to him, asking him to settle a dispute. One man acknowledged that he owed money to the other, but asked for a short extension. The lender threatened to bring his debtor to court to force him to pay. Saint Isaac, citing the Gospel, asked him to be merciful and give the debtor more time to pay. The man said, “Leave your Gospel out of this!” Saint Isaac replied, “If you will not submit to Lord’s commandments in the Gospel, then what remains for me to do here?” After only five months as bishop, Saint Isaac resigned his office and went into the mountains to live with the hermits. Later, he went to the monastery of Rabban Shabur, where he lived until his death, attaining a high degree of spiritual perfection.
From the early eighth century until the beginning of the eighteenth century, nothing was known about Saint Isaac of Syria in Europe except for his name and works. Only in 1719 was a biography of the saint published at Rome, compiled by an anonymous Arab author. In 1896, more information on Saint Isaac came to light. The learned French soteriologist Abbot Chabot published some eighth century works on Syrian history by Iezudena, bishop of Barsa, where the account of Saint Isaac the Syrian was found. 

See also

The Life and Legacy of Blessed Father Cosmas of Grigoriou (†January 27)
Three Holy Hierarchs: Synaxis of the Ecumenical Teachers and Hierarchs Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, and John Chrysostom (January 30) 

The Saints Wonderworkers and Unmercenaries Cyrus & John and the Holy Martys Athanasia with her daughters, Theoctiste, Theodota & Eudoxia in Egypt  
Building The New City: St. Basil’s Social Vision
The Orthodox New-Martyr of Mexico: Paul de Ballester-Convallier († January 31, 1984)
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Τρίτη 22 Ιανουαρίου 2019

Our Need for a Radical Humility


The Modern Monastic Order Of Saint Simon of Cyrene (African-American)
 
I had the privilege to speak at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Service at Mount Nebo Baptist Church on Sunday, January 20th at 7 pm.  The event was sponsored by the West Point Ministers Association.  For some reason or another, I was unable to print out this manuscript.  I don’t consider myself to be the best at extemporaneous public speaking.  But, I got my points across even if I didn’t get every sentence.

Deacon John and Todd
 … And being found in appearance as a man, He (Jesus) humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.  Therefore, God also highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name.  Philippians 2:8, 9
America will never be great, nor will any resistance work until we learn how to die.  Dr. James Cone, the father of Black Liberation Theology, said in a conference a few years ago that the church today needs to learn how to die.  That the black church spends way too much time striving to be prosperous and successful in the kingdom of earth rather than dying for the kingdom of heaven.  Fr. Turbo Qualls, an African-American Orthodox priest, made the same point in a St. Moses Conference lecture.  It is easy to get caught up in the trappings of religion and ritual.  But, if we are to achieve oneness with God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we need to possess a humility that will allow and cause us to die.  And the scripture teaches us that Jesus did this and was greatly rewarded by the One he humbled Himself to obey.
I believe that our nation’s ongoing problems of class, race, sex, and other issues is that we don’t know how to be humble enough to die.  Not everyone will be shot on a Memphis hotel balcony, run over by a racist in Charlottesville, or be butchered by an Islamic terrorist in Libya.  But, I think we Christians of all branches have a strong bad habit of skipping to the good part of the Gospel message.  In whatever form or style of worship, we all love to get to the part where At the name of Jesus every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father.  We used to play kick-ball in elementary school and we had a playground rule.  If you wanted your turn to kick, you had to spend some time in the outfield.  I loved my mother’s deserts.  But, I had to eat my meat and vegetables before I could have some blackberry cobbler.  Today, we want God to bless our nation, give us breakthroughs and favor.  We cannot have any of that unless, like Jesus, we humble ourselves to be obedient to God to death.

martin-luther-king-rolex-datejust
Black or white, conservative or liberal, eastern or western Christian; we don’t want to die in any shape, form, or fashion.  We have to have the last word in an argument face to face and on Facebook.  Our point of view has to come out on top in every discussion.  Keeping up with the Joneses is not enough, we have to beat them at their own game and make up things that they can’t do.  Anyone who doesn’t fully agree with us is not a friend, not simply an enemy, but not even human.  And we pray that in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ we will defeat them.  We want to live and win this kingdom of earth and will abuse the name of God to do it.  Apparently, we have forgotten history and faith.  Jesus rebuked Peter’s feeble swordsmanship and rather than calling on legions of armed angels, the Lord continued to the Cross.  When the Jewish zealots resorted to armed struggle to re-establish the kingdom of David, the Romans wiped Judea off the map.  And after 300 years of violently striving to destroy the faith, Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity.  C.S. Lewis said it in a nutshell, “If you aim for heaven, you’ll get the earth thrown in as well.  If you aim for the earth, you’ll get neither.”
Look at what we are doing in this nation that has “In God We Trust” on our currency.  We spend more on military protection than twice that of our closest rival and putting ourselves in a deficit in the process.  Our life expectancy rate has declined over the past three years caused by our increasing number of drug overdoses and suicides.  While the rate of abortions have been in decline, adults under 50 are dying of ODs more often than automobile accidents.  Fear and despair are killing us faster than any illegal immigrant or racist cop.  But rather than become repentant and self-evaluating, we chase after catchy slogans, popular marches, and the latest real and fake news of the politicians we don’t like.  We are refusing to die and yet we are dying anyway.  Our Christian ancestors of all races in the first three centuries went to their deaths with joy honored to leave this earthly kingdom for the heavenly one.  Our “Christian” nation today is dying with needles of careless living, pride, and self-righteousness in our arms.   We are quick to condemn those who commit surface sins.  We have to understand our deeper faults of our nation as the Prophet Isaiah 16:49 revealed about Sodom; “pride, gluttony, and calm complacency.”

imgp3844_edited-1I propose that a radical humility, a humility and obedience to death will help us as individual Christians and perhaps save our nation.  This mind that was also in Christ overcomes the evil one.  Among the early African Desert Fathers, Macarius the Great was walking back to his cave when Satan tried to cut him with a scythe and failed repeatedly.  Tired, the adversary said to the saint, “Everything you do, I do even more.  You fast, I never eat.  You wake up and pray at midnight, I never sleep.  The reason I can’t overcome you is your humility.”  Think of how many times churches were bombed, marchers were beaten, and counter protesters opposed the Movement.  One reason why the enemies failed was that the forces of good were made up of share croppers, house keepers, ordinary adults and young folk who knew how to be humble enough to obey to the death.  One cannot be humble and a slave owner at the same time, that’s why Paul sent the runaway slave back to Philemon to learn that it’s better to have brotherhood than bondage.  One cannot be a racial supremacist and obedient to the God who made us all in His image and likeness at the same time.  That is why white supremacy is failing and black supremacy will never succeed.

This radical humility builds community that breaks barriers.  A legion of African soldiers was sent by the Roman Emperor to slaughter the survivors of a Germanic tribe that was defeated in a battle.  The commander, Maurice, and his troops refused because they saw the Europeans wearing the same cross of Christ they believed in.  They saw each other as brothers.  The emperor slaughtered Maurice and his entire legion instead for disobeying him and being obedient to God.  To this day, there are towns and churches named for St. Maurice and the Theban Legion in France, Germany, and Switzerland with the commander’s statue, though with late European armor, very much dark skinned (icon).  A more recent and less gruesome social death was felt by Clarence Jordan of Georgia.  Jordan was highly educated and skilled in agriculture and New Testament Greek.  His Kionia Farm was a place where blacks and whites learned modern farming practices, gained a greater knowledge of early Christianity, and lived together as brother and sisters.  Needless to say, he was one of the most ostracized white men in the South.  The society Jordan was born in considered him dead.
But let us not forget that the Gospel is good news for our salvation to kingdom of heaven, not a religion to rule the kingdom of earth.  So, we must seek a radical humility to better obey the will of God.  That obedience will mean leaving some things of earth for the sake of gaining the kind of life that leads to eternal life.  Arsenius was a wealthy and powerful Roman senator who wasn’t satisfied with his place of comfort.  Seeking a closer walk with Jesus, he fled to the Egyptian desert and was found getting advice from an older Christian peasant.  Someone recognized and asked him, “You are a well-educated man.  Why are you talking with this peasant?”  The saint replied, “As educated as I am, I don’t know this man’s alphabet.”   Moses the Black, a dark Nubian brother, didn’t make excuses for his sins saying, “I was born this way.”  But, he continued a life of disciplined and earnest prayer and repentance for almost 15 years and became one of the most honored saints in our Church.  Mary of Egypt struggled even longer until she got to the point where a monk-priest who thought he was living holy found her to be even holier.  Every 5th Sunday of Lent, we of all ethnicities and nationalities honor her as an example of repentance and redemption.  These and other saints from all the corners of the earth died to their sins so that they could be alive in Christ.

Thou receivest saints of all ages and from all races,
Without caste, without distinction, the last and the first,
Pure of sin, fruitful in goodness,
Noble souls, kindred to thy Christ-
These Thou callest saints.
— Hymn of Praise for Saint Sylvester

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St. Anthony, King, Obama: The Time Is Now (an article from 2013)


The Modern Monastic Order Of Saint Simon of Cyrene (African-American)

The confluence of the days is no coincidence.  Martin Luther King Jr’s Birthday will be celebrated on January 21st.  This is also the same date of the Second Inauguration of President Barak Obama.  Every American, in particular African-Americans, understand the importance and prophetic like significance of these events.  King was the voice for a better America and helped lead the country out of the satanic state of segregation.  Obama is a symbol of what anyone can achieve if they strive to do their best.  There is no way I could nor would want to dispel these two great men.  But, I do believe it is important for we as Protestant Christians, and especially African-American Christians to also regard Saint Anthony of Egypt.  Today is his feast day.

St. Anthony the Great

St. Anthony the Great inherited great wealth from his parents and could have lived a life of great splendor.  Yet hearing the Gospel message, he left his worldly possessions behind and took up a life of prayer in the desert.  His devotion to prayer was a great influence on Bishop Athanasius of Alexandria who gave the church its first creed and was the first to compile the list of books that became our New Testament.  Another Egyptian, Macarius, to write prayers that are still prayed by Orthodox believers around the world.  Anthony’s defence of Jesus Christ as the incarnate Son of God during the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea helped the early church reject the heresy of Arianism.  Yet, rather than bask in the glories of his achievements, Anthony kept returning to his cave.  His followers followed his instructions and buried him in a secret grave so that he would not become the object of veneration.
The importance of Anthony is no less than that of MLK and Mr. Obama.  As we celebrate these to great men, now is the time for us to open our hearts and minds to learn about and celebrate our African-Christian heroes (and the saints of other lands as well).  Had there been no Anthony, the correct doctrines supported by Athanasius, Basil, Nicholas (yes, THAT St. Nicholas), and others may not have been as convincing to Emperor Constantine and the Council.  The rich prayer tradition of Orthodox and Catholic monks and nuns would not have developed in such meaningful ways.  Indeed, where would King have received his Holy Bible from?  What sort of Bible would Mr. Obama take the oath of office on? The “Desert Fathers” of Africa should and must be a part of who we African-American Christians honor during Black History Month as without them, we (and the world) might not be here and not have a true idea of who Jesus Christ is.

Archbishop Iakovos with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

During the era of Dr. King, we were too busy with fighting for our Civil Rights to learn much about our Christian history.  Now, it is possible that an African-American President who struggled during his first term could win a second.  Nothing is stopping us from reading the books of the early church fathers and talking to Eastern and Oriental Orthodox clergy.  Instead of choking our people on a diet of a modern Christian market, we can introduce them to the solid doctrines, prayers, and practices of our African ancestors.  Even if we choose not to convert to Orthodoxy (and I think some of us should), we should know our history.  We have no excuses not to learn.
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Σάββατο 19 Ιανουαρίου 2019

'Trophy' Documentary on Big-Game Hunting


VOA's Penelope Poulou reports on big-game hunting. An American dentist's killing of Cecil the Lion, a collared 13-year-old lion monitored by the University of Oxford in Zimbabwe, sparked widespread outrage and condemnations of big-game hunting. But Trophy, a new documentary by filmmakers Shaul Schwarz and Christina Clusiau, offers a more complex perspective on trophy hunting, an industry that blurs the lines between big-game hunting and wildlife conservation. TV2Africa.


 This documentary about the overlap between trophy hunting and wildlife conservation makes a passionate, if not entirely convincing, argument for the legal hunting of the Big Five (elephant, buffalo, lion, leopard, and rhino) as an alternative to illegal poaching. 
The film gives voice to the commercial case for breeding and hunting, which feels at odds with the emotive way these kills are positioned. Viewers are encouraged to balk at the blunt brutality with which a rhino’s horn (“more expensive than gold or heroin, in weight”) is sawn off, to be moved by the guttural sound of a dying elephant, and to experience indignation when an American hunter poses with a slain buck, holding it up by its horns. The Guardian

***

Trophy is a startling exploration of the evolving relationship between big-game hunting and wildlife conservation that will leave you debating what is right, what is wrong and what is necessary in order to save the great species of the world from extinction. 

DIRECTED BY Christina Clusiau, Shaul Schwarz 
WEBSITE: http://trophy.film/ 
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/trophythefilm 
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/trophythefilm 
INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/trophythefilm/ 
ON DIGITAL AND ON DEMAND DECEMBER 5, 2017: http://radi.al/Trophy 

THE ORCHARD FILMS WEBSITE: http://www.theorchard.com/filmtv 
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/OrchFilms 
TWITTER: https://twitter.com/OrchFilms 

Category
Entertainment
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