VOL. 49 | NO. 4 | FALL 2019 In This Issue Bishop Nicholas Anniversary Memory Eternal Bishop John Elya Letter to a needful vineyard CONTENTS ophia SThe Journal of the Eparchy of Newton 3 50 Years in the Service of Our Lord for Melkite Catholics in the United States www.melkite.org 7 Memory Eternal Elya, Youssef and Hull Published quarterly by the Eparchy of Newton. ISSN 0194-7958. 10 Letters to the Editor Made possible in part by the Catholic Home Mission Committee, a bequest by the Rev. Allen Maloof and generous supporters of the annual Bishop’s Appeal. 11 SOPHIA - an award winning magazine MEMBER CATHOLIC PRESS ASSOCIATION 12 Holy Land Churches are more than a pilgrimage PUBLISHER Most Rev. Nicholas J. Samra, Eparchial Bishop 14 Campaign to bring food, medicine to Syria EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Archimandrite James Babcock 15 Annual Synod of Melkite Catholic Bishops COPY EDITOR 16 Eden to Eden: A 70-year retreat Jim Trageser 18 Letter to a Needful Vineyard DESIGN AND LAYOUT Doreen Tahmoosh-Pierson 20 Why I take my kids to church SOPHIA ADVISORY BOARD Archimandrite Fouad Sayegh 21 Orientale Lumen Conference Archimandrite Michael Skrocki Fr Thomas Steinmetz | Fr Hezekias Carnazzo 22 Why I Decided to become Eastern Catholic Cary Rosenzweig 23 Pope Francis gives Orthodox patriarch relics SUBSCRIPTIONS/DISTRIBUTION Please send subscription changes to your parish office. If you are not registered 24 Pope Francis Beatifies7 Romanian martyrs in a parish please send changes to: Eparchy of Newton 26 The Power of the Cross 3 VFW Pky, West Roxbury, MA 02132 27 Melkite Catholic young adults find hope The Publisher waives all copyright to this issue. Contents may be distributed free and without special permission in publications that are distributed free. Wherever possible, 28 Bishop Nicholas’ Jubilee / please include a credit line, indicating the name of SOPHIA magazine. Unsolicited manuscripts, articles, and letters to St Peter the Apostle, Part 2 (Arabic) the editor are welcomed. The editors assume no responsi- bility for lost manuscripts or photos. The content of all ar- 34 Why did Early Christians prefer Codex? ticles, past, present and future, remains the expressed personal opinion of the individual author and may not reflect, in its entirety, the opinion of the Melkite Eparchy of Newton. 35 Dad with Down Syndrome inspires his son © 2019 SOPHIA Magazine. 38 Twenty Questions about the US Melkite Bishops Share Your Voice With Us! Have you ever dreamed of being a writer? Is there a 40 Around the Eparchy subject that you have wanted to address or a story that you are excited to tell? We would love to hear from you! SOPHIA welcomes updates and photos from all 46 NAMW of our parishes, and invites manuscripts, articles and letters to the editor from parishioners. Submissions 49 ByziKids The Service of Prayer will be subject to review by the editorial staff and only those approved by the publisher will be published. 49 Bishop’s Appeal Roll Call All submissions can be sent to: [email protected] 55 Navigating the Eparchy or SOPHIA Letterbox All materials (photos/articles/parish news) 3747 Vista Campana, #84 | Oceanside, CA 92057 SUBMISSIONS for the Winter issue of SOPHIA magazine 714 600 3660 DEADLINE are due November 1, 2019. 50 years in the Service OF OUR LORD n October 3, 2019, His Grace, Nicholas Samra, Eparchial Bishop of Newton, will celebrate 50 years as a priest and 30 years as a Bishop. His remarkable journey Ofrom growing up as a boy in Paterson and Clifton, New Jersey where he delivered newspapers to serving as a bishop for the Melkite Catholics in the United States is most inspiring. Having completed his education at St. Basil Seminary in Methuen, MA, St. Anselm University in Manchester, NH, and St. John Roman Catholic Seminary in Boston, he requested ordination to the holy priesthood at the hands of His Grace, Archbishop Joseph Tawil, the new Exarch of the United States. Having been ordained to the diaconate at St. Joseph Parish in Lawrence, MA, on April 5, 1970, his ordination to the priesthood took place at St. Ann Parish in Paterson, NJ, May 10, 1970. At this same church, he was ordained to the hierarchy 19 years later on July 6, 1989. In 1970, following his ordination to the priesthood, the then-Father Nicholas was assigned to St. Anne Parish on the other side of the United States in North Hollywood, CA. The parish was then staffed by Archimandrite Michel Bardaouil who was assisted by Archimandrite Maximos Mardelli. As a newly ordained priest full of enthusiasm, he began working with the youth of the parish and organizing a religious education program. He formed an English-language choir, and in time presented the off-Broadway play “Godspell” which proved to be a huge success. Together with Fr Maximos, he helped found Holy Cross Mission in Anaheim, CA, (subsequently moved to Placentia) and a Mission in West Los Angeles. Sadly the successive clergy of St. Anne let this mission die – it was large enough for a parish. At Holy Cross, Fr Nicholas later assumed responsibility for its growth and development, where he was named administrator in 1978. While serving in California, Fr Nicholas served Continued on page 4 THE JOURNAL OF THE MELKITE CATHOLIC EPARCHY | 3 50 years in the Service Continued from page 3 as an instructor for adult education in eastern Christian studies for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, and was a member of of the Archdiocese’s Ecumenical Committee and Adult Religious Education Board. He was a presenter at the Los Angeles Archdiocese Catechetical Conference in Anaheim where he celebrated the conference’s first Eastern Catholic Divine Liturgy. His sojourn in Southern California proved to be brief. That same year, 1978, he was named pastor of St. John the Baptist Parish in Northlake, IL, near Chicago. While there, he discovered a large community of Melkites living on the Illinois/Indiana border in the cities of Hegewich and Hammond, where he formed St. Michael the Archangel Mission. In 1979, and for the next eleven years, Fr Nicholas served as the chairman and coordinator of the annual Melkite Clergy Conference. In 1981, Fr Nicholas was appointed pastor of his home parish of St. Ann in West Paterson, NJ. (since renamed Woodland Park), as well as St Demetrius Mission in Nicholas with grandparents Cliffside Park, NJ, where he developed the sacrificial giving concept of stewardship Nicholas and Eugenie Balady, 1945 instead of constant fund raising events and bingos. In October of 1985, Fr Nicholas was granted the title of archimandrite by Archbishop Joseph Tawil, Eparchial Bishop of Newton. Four years later, on April 22, 1989, he was named auxiliary bishop of Newton with the Titular See of Gerasa by Pope John Paul II. In 1990 he founded and laid the groundwork for St. Nicholas Mission in Delray Beach, FL. The same year he was named rector of St. Gregory the Theologian Melkite Seminary in Newton Centre, Mass., where he served for one year before moving to Warren (Detroit) Michigan as regional auxiliary bishop. Over all these years, His Grace served various offices of the Diocese of Newton: • Diocesan Pastoral Council • College of Consultors • Personal Board • Liturgical Commission • Continuing Education Commission • Ecumenical Commission Pascha, 1946 From 1989 to 2005 His Grace served as protosyncellus, vicar general of the Eparchy of Newton. Since 1989, he has served a member of the United States Catholic Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). From 1995 until 2000 he served as president of the Eastern Catholic Associates (the Eastern Catholic Bishops in the USA). In 1995 he was appointed acting pastor of Our Lady of Redemption Parish in Warren, MI, where he oversaw the construction of a large classical new church. For the last 24 years, Bishop Nicholas has been an active member of the Orthodox/ Catholic Bishop’s Dialogue, United States Catholic Conference, as well as a member of the USCCB Committee on Ecumenical and Inter-religious Affairs. He was for three years a member of the USCCB Committee on Catechesis, and an adviser on the USCCB Monastic Inter-religious Dialogue and on the Committee on Relationships Between Eastern and Latin Catholic Churches. He also served as member on the USCCB Committee on Evangelization. In 1999 His Grace was the organizer and coordinator for the Encounter of the Eastern Catholic Churches of America and Oceania held in Boston, which was sponsored by The Sacred Congregation of the Eastern Churches in Rome. In the year 2000, His Grace participated in the Orthodox/Catholic Bishops’ Nicholas and Dialogue pilgrimage to Mount Athos and Crete. And since 2000 he has been a brother Basil, 1948 4 SOPHIA | FALL 2019 liaison from Eastern Catholic Associates (ECA) to the Eastern Catholic Eparchial Directors of Religious Education (ECED). From 2000 to 2011, His Grace was a member of the Orthodox and Catholic Ecumenical Committee in the Archdiocese of Detroit. In 2001, he was a representative at the Canon Law Symposium for the 10th Anniversary of the Promulgation at the Vatican. In 2003, His Grace was a member of the Catholic bishops’ visit to Armenia headed by Cardinal William Keeler upon the invitation of Catholicos Karekin II. His Grace in 2003 was a speaker at the International Catholic Stewardship Council’s Conference held at the Christian Brothers Generalate in Rome, where the presentation was “Stewardship in the Eastern Churches.” This was the same presentation given at the Council’s conference in Orlando, FL, several years before and was attended by all the Melkite clergy of the Eparchy of Newton. He celebrated the Melkite Liturgy at both conferences. Priestly Ordination – May 10, 1970 On January 11, 2005, His Grace submitted his resignation as auxiliary bishop of Fr Nicholas with parents and grandfather Newton, which was accepted by His Holiness Pope John Paul II.