Journey Into Orthodox Great Lent
by Frederica Matthewes-Green The Orthodox Church’s ‘Rite of Forgiveness’ is an exhilarating kick-start for a time that just gets harder. I had to apologize to someone Sunday night. In fact, I had to apologize to about a hundred people–one at a time, face to face. It was great. For Orthodox Christians, Lent begins differently than it does for Protestants and Catholics. The observance of Ash Wednesday is dramatic and beautiful but is not in the Eastern tradition. For us, Lent comes in gradually [Read more...]
Orthodox Christians Encouraged To Participate In March For Life
From Antiochian.org His Beatitude, Metropolitan Jonah, will once again lead Orthodox Christian faithful at the annual March for Life here on Monday, January 24, 2011. Joining Metropolitan Jonah will be His Grace, Bishop Tikhon of Philadelphia and Eastern Pennsylvania; His Grace, Bishop Michael of New York and New Jersey; His Grace, Bishop Melchisedek of Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania; Archimandrite Matthias, Bishop-Elect of Chicago and the Midwest; students from Saint Tikhon’s Seminary, South Canaan, PA and Saint Vladimir’s Seminary, Crestwood, NY; and hundreds of [Read more...]
Formed In The Tradition
by Fr. Stephen Freeman Thinking of raising Christian children (in the light of St. Silouan’s family experience), I offer these few thoughts. The Nativity season offers many opportunities for families to be guided by Holy Tradition – just as we are also swamped by the distorting demands of commercial culture. May God guard our children and keep us all by His grace. +++ Sometime back, I watched a group of linguistic-psychologists (of varying sorts) in a panel discussion (CSPAN). All of them were [Read more...]
Christians Are The Most Persecuted Faith In The World
by Martin Barillas, Spero News At least 75 percent of religious persecution is directed at people of the Christian faith. Each year 170,000 Christians suffer because of their beliefs. These are some of the conclusions that have led the Commission of the Catholic Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community (COMECE) to organize a conference on the persecution of Christians, to be held in Brussels (Belgium) on October 5, 2010. The initiative, as the organizers note in a statement, has been supported by various [Read more...]
Orthodox Leader Predicts Christian Springtime
Urges Knowledge of Church Fathers BARCELONA, Spain, OCT. 5, 2010 (Zenit.org).- Orthodox Archbishop Hilarion Alfeyev of Volokolamsk is expressing the conviction that the 21st century will see a flowering of Christianity, without divisions between the followers of Jesus. The chairman of the Department of External Affairs of the Moscow Patriarchate made these comments today in a ceremony in which he was given an honorary doctorate by the faculty of theology of Catalonia, which is under the patronage of the Gregorian University of Rome. [Read more...]
Why Orthodox Christians Prefer The Septuagint: Part 4
October 20, 2010 by frjohn
Filed under Biblical Studies, General
6. THE CASE OF THE MISSING VERSE Psalm 144 (Ps. 145 in the Masoretic text) is an “acrostic Psalm” in Hebrew, that is, each of its verses begins with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet. But there is a problem in today’s Hebrew Masoretic text. The verse that should begin with the Hebrew letter “N” is missing. At the same time, people have noted that in the Greek version of the Book of Psalms (i.e. the Septuagint text), there is an “extra” verse [Read more...]
Why Orthodox Christians Prefer The Septuagint: Part 1
October 20, 2010 by frjohn
Filed under Biblical Studies, Featured, General
by Metrpolitan Ephraim of Boston Preface The purpose of these articles was to explain to our faithful, in a simple and easily-understood manner, some of the differences that exist between the Old Testament (Masoretic) text used by most of today’s Roman Catholics and Protestants and the Septuagint Old Testament used by Orthodox Christians since the time of Christ. All told, there are some 300 textual differences between the Masoretic and the Septuagint texts, some of them important and some of them insignificant. These [Read more...]
Catechumen Classes Underway
For those who have attended our New Member Class, and are ready to begin serious preparation for entrance into the Church, our series of catechumen classes is starting up! Our classes for catechumens take place monthly on the 2nd & 4th Saturdays, at 11 am. Catechumen classes at St. George Church are typically are held on the 2nd and fourth Saturday of the month, and are for those interested in learning about the Orthodox Christian faith and preparing for entrance into the Orthodox [Read more...]
Secular Man and Christian Man
by Fr. Stephen Freeman Fr. Stephen is the priest of St. Anne Church in Oak Ridge, TN. Many Orthodox writers have spoken about the nature of the secular world, the defining form of our modern world. I take some opportunity to make comparison between the secular man and the Christian. The secular man may believe that there is a God, but he also believes that the situation and outcome of the world are dependent upon the actions of human beings. The Christian man [Read more...]
Pre-planning an Orthodox Funeral & Burial
LIVING FAITH Class for October 16th, 2010 St. George Church will hold a seminar on the Orthodox Christian Funeral & Burial customs, and information about pre-planning an Orthodox funeral and burial. Cassandra Pavka from Heritage Memorial will be present to offer free advice, free ‘pre-plan’ paperwork and information to all present. You will find out what happens at an Orthodox Christian funeral (and why), what can be prepared for ahead of time, what the schedule of services will be, who is permitted an [Read more...]
