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June 2006 Word Volume 50 No. 6 June 2006 VOLUME 50 NO. 6 JUNE 2006 COVER contents ICON FROM THE CLOUD OF WITNESSES CHAPEL of St. Nicholas Cathedral in Los Angeles 3 EDITORIAL by Very Rev. John Abdalah 4 AN ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN VIEWPOINT ON THE GOSPEL OF JUDAS by Fr. Michel Najim 6 THE CLOUD OF WITNESSES CHAPEL by Charles Ajalat 10 THE AUTHENTICITY OF ORTHODOXY The Most Reverend IN A POST-MODERN WORLD Metropolitan PHILIP, D.H.L., D.D. by Andrew Nova Primate The Right Reverend Bishop ANTOUN 13 THE DEPARTMENT OF DEVELOPMENT The Right Reverend Bishop JOSEPH 15 THE FELLOWSHIP OF The Right Reverend ST. JOHN THE DIVINE Bishop BASIL The Right Reverend 17 PUBLICATIONS DEPARTMENT Bishop THOMAS The Right Reverend Bishop MARK 25 THE ORTHODOX WORLD The Right Reverend Bishop ALEXANDER 26 ARCHDIOCESAN OFFICE Founded in Arabic as Al Kalimat in 1905 29 COMMUNITIES IN ACTION by Saint Raphael (Hawaweeny) Founded in English as The WORD in 1957 by Metropolitan ANTONY (Bashir) Editor in Chief The Very Rev. John P. Abdalah, D.Min. Assistant Editor Joanne M. Abdalah, MSW Editorial Board The Very Rev. Joseph J. Allen, Th.D. Anthony Bashir, Ph.D. The Very Rev. Antony Gabriel, Th.M. The Very Rev. Peter Gillquist Ronald Nicola Letters to the editor are welcome and should include the author’s full Najib E. Saliba, Ph.D. name and parish. Submissions for “Communities in Action” must be The Very Rev. Paul Schneirla, M.Div. approved by the local pastor. Both may be edited for purposes of clar- Design Director Donna Griffin Albert ity and space. All submissions, in hard copy, on disk or e-mailed, should be double-spaced for editing purposes. Member The Associated Church Press ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION: Conciliar Press U.S.A. and Canada, $20.00 Ecumenical News International Foreign Countries, $26.00 Orthodox Press Service Single Copies, $3.00 Editorial Office: THE WORD (USPS626-260), published monthly except July and August, The WORD by the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America at 635 Miranda Drive 358 Mountain Road, PO Box 5238, periodicals postage paid at Pittsburgh, PA 15241 Englewood, New Jersey 07631-5238 and at additional mailing offices. e-mail: [email protected] Postmaster send address changes to: THE WORD, 358 Mountain Road, FAX: 1-412-831-5554 PO Box 5238, Englewood, NJ 07631-5238 Subscription Office: ISSN 0043-7964 www.antiochian.org. 358 Mountain Road PO Box 5238 Englewood, NJ 07631-5238 2 The Word editor’s letter The Victory of Surrender In this issue of The WORD, there are several articles that deal with knowing God. Ultimately, to know God, and to open ourselves to recognizing that God knows us, we must surrender to God. In our competitive society, sur- render often has negative connotations, but when it comes to our relationship with God, we have the ultimate par- adox. Surrendering to God leads to salvation. Surrendering to God means sharing with Him His victory over death. Surrendering to God means peace, consolation and joy. Surrender means we win. Not to surrender means being enslaved by passion, habits and other influences of the fallen world. We are often aware when we face temptations from the enemies outside of ourselves. We sometimes recognize how busyness threatens our ability to pray and to be one with God. We sometimes are aware of the effects of sen- suous images that bombard us in almost everything that we see, everywhere we go. We even recognize our pas- sions when we become angry with one another. Yet, somehow we are blind to our internal fears and our mistrust of God, which threatens our relationship with Him. It should be no surprise that we mistrust God. After all, when we trust each other, and sometimes even our- selves, we are often disappointed. We have been disappointing each other and ourselves all of our lives. Yet God is ultimately not like us. Even though we were created to be like Him, He is not like us. He is uncreated, perfect love. We rebel; He does not. We get tired; He does not. We get bored and shift our priorities; He does not. God loves per- fectly, He is good, He calls us to salvation and He will not change His mind! We try to be like Him, often with great success, but a pot is not like the potter, nor is a painting, even a self-portrait, really like the artist. Our disap- pointments at the hands of each other must not be the basis of our level of trust for God. Trust is taught. We have learned not to trust because of failing one another. Now we must be untaught and then re-taught when it comes to trusting God. I believe that, like any other kind of learning, trusting God happens and grows with practice. We can make conscious efforts to identify things in which we think we can trust God, and then see that God will not fail us. Now, I know that we cannot test or manipulate God, and I even know that God will not always agree with me about what I think is best for me; yet I have learned that trusting God grows with every effort and experience. Only when I have failed myself and reached out to God have I found peace and joy. Only by surrendering my own will have I come to trust and have life. Self-reliance is valued highly in our culture. Surely, such self-reliance has its benefits and place. However, when it lets us think that we are ultimately self-reliant and don't need God, we lose God, peace and salvation. When we set our self-reliance aside in favor of surrendering to God, in everything, we find God. Perhaps, more accurately said, we recognize how God has found us. By living in this relationship of knowing each other, we will be more in reality, recognizing our needs and our limits, as well as the power and abilities of God. God has been working for our salvation from the beginning of creation. It is an awesome thing to fall into the loving arms of the Lord. Surrendering is the only way to victory. I pray that your time with the thoughts and images of this issue of The WORD will bring you to know God bet- ter, and to have the courage to surrender to our loving Savior. by Fr. John Abdalah The Word 3 An Antiochian Christian Viewpoint on the Gospel of Judas Christ is Risen! Truly, He is Risen! Beloved brothers and sisters in Christ, I greet you all with the Paschal greeting: Christ is Risen! Please pray for one another on the road towards Holy Pascha in the great joy and light of the Resurrection. For my part, I pray that this Holy Pascha will strengthen you and all the faithful to spread the spirit of philanthropy and self-sacrifice, so that our Risen Lord Jesus Christ will always reign in human hearts. In spite of the media’s relentless avalanche of anti-Christian propa- ganda concerning our Lord, I am confident that you are standing firm in your faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Battling for our Orthodox Faith, which bears the Truth of Who Jesus Christ is, we must remain undismayed by attacks that the media launches against the accuracy and veracity of the four Gospels. The controversial publication of the Gospel of Judas, just a week before we celebrate Christ’s resurrection at Easter, is sure to scan- dalize any faithful Christian. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the media is fascinated by Gnostic ideas that were popular in the days of early Christianity. Consequently, the media is seeking to resurrect these defunct ideas with this so-called Gospel of Judas as Christians celebrate the true Resurrection. Orthodox Christians, however, believe that the truth of the four Gospels stands eternally unwa- vering. We retain strong confidence in the authenticity of the New Testament and, in particular, of the four Gospels. Unfortunately, any discovery of an ancient text, especially one rejected by the early Church, is lavished with all kinds of media attention. This recent “new gospel,” better entitled the Judas Document, is neither “good news” (the meaning of Gospel) nor was it written by Judas Iscariot — nor is it even particularly “new.” Although this ancient manuscript was recent- ly found by some Egyptian peasants in the mid- to late-1970s, it was well known by the early Church Fathers. In fact, the Gospel of Judas was roundly condemned and refuted by the Fathers. For example, St. Irenaeus (ca. 125-202), bishop of Lyons, in his book Against Heresies mentions the doctrines of a Gnostic sect known as “Cainites,” who declared that Cain (the son of Adam who murdered his brother, Abel, in a fit of envy) and all of the “evil” characters of the Old Testament were to be venerated because of their “persecution” by God. According to historians, this sect never had many adherents, and by the beginning of the third century AD, Hippolytus of Rome barely mentions them while listing the heretical groups of that time. 4 The Word The final words on the last page of the codex read: Gospel of Judas. National Geographic Society © 2006 In the so-called Gospel of Judas, Jesus refers to Gnostic concepts such as “aeons” and the “eternal realm” of “emanations.” He explains the so-called eso- teric mysteries of the cos- mos, and He teaches about “the error of the stars; and … sent it … on the twelve aeons.” This document The Cainite heresy asserts that there are some sins that thus creates a false synthesis of ancient mythology and even Christ cannot cleanse with His blood, and that the scars Christian theology, syncretizing elements from many differ- left on the body and the soul by old transgressions are some- ent religions, Christianity being merely one of these.
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