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Day: October 22, 2008

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Orthodox Patriarch addresses Synod of Catholic bishops

From Ekklesia: Orthodox Patriarch addresses Synod of Catholic bishops for the first time.

“It is well known that the Orthodox Church attaches to the synod system fundamental ecclesiological importance. Together with primacy, synodality constitutes the backbone of the Church’s government and organization. … Therefore, in having today the privilege to address your Synod our hopes are raised that the day will come when our two Churches will fully converge on the role of primacy and synodality in the Church’s life, to which our joint theological commission is devoting its study at the present time”.

A prayer that echos in the PNCC as well.

Dialog is great, but only bears fruit in self examination. Unfortunately the door to self examination appears to be closing – a negative affect of Benedict’s reform. Certain of the Roman Church’s bishops are using Church discipline, focused on correcting liturgical abuses, as an excuse for door slamming. Those very same bishops continue to perpetuate every sort of post Vatican II abuse while at the same time invoking Roman elitism in furtherance of personal agendas; an excuse for closing their ears. Frankly, I agree with Benedict’s reforms. Correct the abuses and excesses of the post Vatican II Church, but don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater. It is not playing that way in the U.S., and appears, at least to me, as an opportunity for self-serving under the cloak of the reform-of-the-reform.

On the Synod itself, I pray that the Roman Church’s Synod on the Word elevates the role of the hearing and preaching on the Word of God. This is one of the sacraments of the PNCC. The PNCC’s understanding of the sacramentality of the Word is core to the Church’s efforts in proclaiming Christ. As a PNCC clergyman you cannot take the role of preacher lightly, or use your time in the pulpit as an opportunity to focus on anything other than the Word. You must seek the inspiration of the Spirit, a gift of your ordination, and use those gifts to God’s purpose.

Christian Witness, ,

Congratulations to St. Peter’s

Fr. Bedros Kadehjian informs me that St. Peter’s Armenian Apostolic Church will be celebrating its 109th anniversary on Sunday, November 2. The celebration begins with the Divine Liturgy celebrated by the Very Rev. Fr. Haigazoun Najarian, Diocesan Vicar to the Primate. Fr. Najarian will also perform the ribbon-cutting ceremony on the parish’s recently completed building expansion project.

The Liturgy and ribbon cutting will be followed by a celebratory dinner (lamb and chicken kebabs, pilaf, Armenian style green beans, salad, Armenian desserts) and a special program including guest speakers Congressman Michael McNulty and Mayor Mike Manning from the City of Watervliet. There will be also be presentations by the St. Peter Church Armenian School and Sunday School children.

I wish all the best to St. Peter’s, its people, and Fathers Bedros, Stepanos, and Garin. Õ‡Õ¶Õ¸Ö€Õ°Õ¡Õ¾Õ¸Ö€Õ¸Ö‚Õ´

They are wonderful people and have supported our entire community through their prayer and outreach. They have welcomed our ecumenical group numerous times and have always stayed true to their traditions and Tradition.

Please say a prayer for their community and wish them well.

The inanimate church, venerable queen,
Gives life and rules over death,
Like the fruit that Adam was said to have eaten.
But this church surpasses all animate beings,
For though inanimate, it performs miracles,
Each undertaking to perfect and renew us,
By etching the image of the glorious light upon us.

She uplifts bodies to soar again with
The lightness of the soul, endowing
The baser element with dignity.
She is not debased by her own faults,
But by being trampled by evil or faithless people.
She is an amazing sign, overwhelming our mind’s understanding,
This unthinking thing, created by thinking creatures,
That helps them as a superior helps its subordinate.
She is greater than man …
Like an eternal mountain she resists attack.
Like a net cast by God she catches souls.

For she is an ark of purity,
A second cause of rejoicing
Who saves us from drowning
In the tumult of our worldly lives.
She is not tossed about on waves of agitation,
But rises above it to the heavenly heights …
She is not built by the hands of Noah,
But is built by the hand of the creator.
She is not in perpetual motion, constantly changing
But is established permanently upon an unshakable foundation.

—St. Gregory of Nareg, Prayer 75
Speaking With God From the Depths of My Heart, from: Here I am, Lord, A collection of prayers and meditations for young adults drawn from Scripture, Armenian tradition, and original compositions.

Fathers, PNCC

October 22 – St. Augustine from the Enchiridion: On Faith, Hope, and Love

And now regarding love, which the apostle says is greater than the other two — that is, faith and hope — for the more richly it dwells in a man, the better the man in whom it dwells. For when we ask whether someone is a good man, we are not asking what he believes, or hopes, but what he loves. Now, beyond all doubt, he who loves aright believes and hopes rightly. Likewise, he who does not love believes in vain, even if what he believes is true; he hopes in vain, even if what he hopes for is generally agreed to pertain to true happiness, unless he believes and hopes for this: that he may through prayer obtain the gift of love. For, although it is true that he cannot hope without love, it may be that there is something without which, if he does not love it, he cannot realize the object of his hopes. An example of this would be if a man hopes for life eternal — and who is there who does not love that? — and yet does not love righteousness, without which no one comes to it. — Chapter XXXI.

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