Volume 56 No. 7 September 2012 SPECIAL OLYMPICS Antiochian
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Volume 56 No. 7 September 2012 SPECIAL OLYMPICS ANTIOCHI2012AN VILLAGE VOLUME 56 NO. 7 SEPTEMBER 2012 editor’s letter contents COVER: SPECIAL OLYMPICS 2012 at Antiochian Village. What Do the Church, the Eucharist and Orthodox Christians All Have in Common? 3 EDITORIAL by Bishop JOHN f the title of this edito- by the standards and 4 ELDER’S REFLECTION by Economos Antony Gabriel rial sounds like a riddle, expressions that bear perhaps it offers some witness of heaven to 7 THE TALE OF TWO MEN: A CRADLE ORTHODOX AND insights into what some the world. AN ORTHODOX CONVERT I think are the ultimate Christians are by by Very Rev. Joseph Antypas questions: What is life for? definition those who 8 WILL WE BE READY FOR THE Why am I here? and Why did gather around the COMING EVANGELICAL COLLAPSE? God create us? bishop (or presbyter by Kevin Allen The Most Reverend First, let’s look at our question in the title. You in his absence, expressing the teachings of the Metropolitan PHILIP, D.H.L., D.D. Primate 12 ARE YOUR EARS BURNING? may have already answered that “all are in the faith) and the Eucharist (food for heaven), and by Father Andrew Harmon The Most Reverend body of Christ, all share communion (“common- who live now, reflecting the worldto come: heav- Archbishop JOSEPH 16 MANUAL OF HIERARCHICAL DUTIES union”) with the Holy Trinity and each other, and en. This is both prophetic and hopeful. Christians The Right Reverend AND RESPONSIBILITIES (VERSION 3.0) Bishop ANTOUN all express the Kingdom of God in time, space must live lives that teach the world what our head and eternity.” This is the key to understanding the or source, Jesus Christ, teaches us to live, and The Right Reverend 20 A REAL SPRING BREAK Bishop BASIL by John Mahfouz true meaning of our lives and for finding happi- thus reflect now the Kingdom of God. It is the The Right Reverend ness. It is in the Church that we find the source Christian’s vocation to make visible to the created Bishop THOMAS 22 WORKING TOGETHER: TEEN SOYO AND THE ORDER OF ST. IGNATIUS of real life. In Christ, our lives are quickened and world what the Kingdom of heaven is. We do this The Right Reverend Bishop ALEXANDER nurtured by the Eucharist and our Christian re- by living now as an example of the world to come. 23 THE DEPARTMENT OF The Right Reverend CHRISTIAN EDUCATION lationships with each other. The Holy Spirit joins This is what the “leaven” of the Old and New Tes- Bishop JOHN us to one another and to our single Creator. The taments refers to. A witness of truth will change The Right Reverend 27 BIBLE BOWL 2012 Eucharist is the food that makes us who we are: the world; a serious mistake or witness of untruth Bishop ANTHONY members of Christ and citizens of His kingdom. will taint and confuse the Church community, and The Right Reverend 28 ORATORICAL FESTIVAL Bishop NICHOLAS The Church is the bond that unites us to each ultimately the entire world. ARCHDIOCESAN OFFICE Founded in Arabic as 30 other, both in heaven and on earth. She grafts us Christians face new and improved images of Al Kalimat in 1905 by Saint Raphael (Hawaweeny) 32 SYRIAN RELIEF FUND to the Trinity, and in that life she connects us to idolatry, selfishness and pride today. It is most Founded in English as each other and all our loved ones already glorified often expressed as individualism and personal The WORD in 1957 35 COMMUNITIES IN ACTION by Metropolitan ANTONY (Bashir) in heaven. rights. In order to protect our members from Editor in Chief The Rt. Rev. Bishop JOHN, DMin. The Church gives us direction and teaches us falling into these very old sins, we need to teach Assistant Editor Christopher Humphrey, Ph.D. how to live, work and play. With the Scriptures and model Truth, which is Jesus Christ, with love, Editorial Board The Very Rev. Joseph J. Allen, Th.D. and Tradition, she educates, challenges, protects patience and forbearance. I encourage every par- Anthony Bashir, Ph.D. and nurtures us. Like the Church, and represent- ish community to support its members in under- The Very Rev. Antony Gabriel, Th.M. Letters to the editor are welcome and should include the author’s full name and The Very Rev. Peter Gillquist parish. Submissions for “Communities in Action” must be approved by the local ing it, the Eucharist is the common uniting food standing the challenges of our times. Ronald Nicola pastor. Both may be edited for purposes of clarity and space. All submissions, in that shows where the Church is, and represents Orthodoxy is all about being a community Najib E. Saliba, Ph.D. hard copy, on disk or e-mailed, should be double-spaced for editing purposes. The Very Rev. Paul Schneirla, M.Div. our faith. This Eucharist expresses our coopera- which lives the Christian way or lifestyle as taught Design Director Donna Griffin Albert ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION: tion and unity with God and with each other. This and lived by the Church since the apostolic time. U.S.A. and Canada, $20.00 Member Eucharist shows us where the Church is, and de- In America, we need to work at understanding and The Associated Church Press Foreign Countries, $26.00 Conciliar Press Single Copies, $3.00 fines it. It is the expression of our spiritual family, living the church life better. We need to work at Ecumenical News International The WORD (USPS626-260) is published monthly, except July and August, by the celebrated by our bishop and his presbyters who understanding God’s will for us and for His world. Orthodox Press Service Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America at 358 Mountain together unite us to all of Orthodoxy in the entire We need to be that leaven. Joy and peace require Editorial Office: Road, PO Box 5238; periodicals postage paid at Englewood, New Jersey 07631- The WORD 5238 and at additional mailing offices. world in all time. The Eucharist and the Church a communion with God and with His people. 2 Lydia’s Path unites us to God and each other. It is from God There can be no real joy and peace without this. Westborough MA 01581-1841 Postmaster send address changes to: The WORD, 358 Mountain Road, PO Box e-mail: [email protected] 5238, Englewood, NJ 07631-5238 in grapes and wheat, from mankind in bread and ISSN 0043-7964 www.antiochian.org. Note: A possible resource for an adult study group is To- Subscription Office: wine, and from God in the body and blood of Je- ward a Eucharistic Vision of Church, Family, Marriage 358 Mountain Road Canada Post Publications Agreement No. 40065483 sus Christ. In the Incarnate One we are united, and Sex, by Fr. Philip LeMasters, published by Light and Life. PO Box 5238 Return Canada address to: Englewood, NJ 07631-5238 Atlas International Mail, PO Box 1051, Fort Erie, ON, L2A 6C7, Canada learn how to live and be who God creates us to be. The community of believers prays and acts by Bishop JOHN 2 The Word The Word 3 As I began this year to “celebrate” They were utterly human, yet transcendent in of men, living on meager salaries while their wives their thinking; not only were they scholars in the worked to help out, and they asked nothing of the fifty years in the priesthood, I Western sense, but imbued with the mystical spiri- school in terms of security (so important to today’s tuality of the East that values the role of the human clergy), only that they have the time and space consider myself blessed to have person as reflective of the Holy Trinity. What gifts to communicate the depth of their living faith to they possessed and unselfishly passed on to future us who were hungry and thirsty for the truth. We studied under contemporary generations, who remember them with warmth and hungered for that ontological reality that cannot be Orthodox theologians who were tender love! They are remembered, because theirs marginalized by the forces of secularism, so per- was a lived theology that was beyond the books vasive during the upheavals of the sixties in North not only great, but possessed a and the so-called intellectual-scholastic approach. America, nor by the Communist and Fascist ideolo- Allow me a few stories. One day Nicholas Ar- gies that brought these men to these shores. special charisma to teach us despite seniev was “lecturing” on the transcendent experi- I was so young – 19 – when I entered St. Vladi- ence St. Paul had in the “third heavens.” All of a mir’s. I used to babysit the Schmemann and Mey- the most difficult circumstances: sudden his voice echoed a hollow sound that rever- endorff children. Masha called me “icon eyes” berated in the class at Union Theological Seminary, while running away, giggling. Being the youngest Alexander Schmemann; Vesilin and when we looked around, he had levitated. Talk student at that time besides Lynn, my wife (the first about being awe struck; the hairs on our heads barrier-breaker), my professors alternately had me Kesich of recent memory; Serge stood up! for breakfast each morning (black coffee and roll), And who can forget Serge Verhovskoy lecturing and to this day I carry within my bosom the wisdom Verhovskoy; Nicholas Arseniev; my for an hour and half with his eyes closed, never look- that they imparted in these casual conversations. “Godfather,” Jean Meyendorff; ing at his notes? Or the lively Schmemann classes: Being a middle child, I kind of mumbled a bit, he peppered his lively stories on early church his- trying to get in what I had to say in a large family.