Category: Christian Witness

Christian Witness, Perspective, Political

A Bishop speaks

From the Albany Times-Union an editorial by Bishop Paul Peter Jesep of the Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church Kyiv-Patriarchate:Please do not beleaguer me with all sorts of comments about Ukrainian politics and Canonical vs. non-Canonical Churches. I know the history here. What I am pointing to is this Bishop’s Christian witness. Real Christians accept differences

Efforts by Christian conservatives to discredit the Democratic presidential nominee highlight how they secularize the country. They attempt to influence an election with fear.

It is the misuse of something sacred that drives the spiritually hungry from God while making them jaded, critical and suspicious of faith. Ironically, those seeking God will be called anti-faith for challenging the improper behavior of not-so-loving Christians.

This letter is not an endorsement of Barack Obama. But it is an endorsement for Christian love and intellectual honesty. There are ways to respectfully disagree with Sen. Obama’s policies without trying to unleash the darker angels within voters. America is home to Christian denominations that dramatically differ from one another. Getting into a debate about who is the “real” Christian is divisive and smacks of hubris.

There is one fundamental bond that should keep God’s Christian children together as a family, though a dysfunctional one. Love God and one another as Jesus unconditionally loves us. No Christian conservatives must like Sen. Obama but they must love him as a brother equally cherished by the same creator.

The politicking of some Christian conservatives proves why a strong metaphorical wall to separate church and state must exist. It keeps politics from compromising the holy. At a time when faith is misused and criticized, the Christian Right shows why the wall must be higher.

Christian Witness, Fathers, Perspective, PNCC, Poland - Polish - Polonia

In the Shadow of Steel Mills – Czerwony Maki (red poppies) and Remembrance

Chuck Konkel wrote a beautiful reflection on family, memory, nation, and the souls of our fathers in In the Shadow of Steel Mills.

I grew up in Hamilton Ontario in the mid 1950s, in the very shadows of steel mills that were still vital and a football team that still won games, the only son of a refugee family who didn’t own a car, nor a television, nor a cottage and whose idea of a vacation was a yearly trek to the Canadian National Exhibition in far distant Toronto and a day’s outing to the great and bustling metropolis of Buffalo.

The neighborhood was diverse and vibrant, ringing with the voices of immigrant families from the wasteland that was postwar Europe, Poles, Ukrainians, Italians, a rag tag bundle of hopes and dreams and frustrations who knew their place in the scheme of things, though they might bridle at it, for it was the Irish who were the Lords of the Manor having arrived a generation before. And Canadians who thought of themselves first and foremost of British stock and only with much prodding admitted that they too were once immigrants with the same insecurities finding themselves at the bottom of the social ladder in a stranger and daunting land.

My father worked the mills and cleaned the open hearth and toiled and sweated in the honest labour it took to put food on our table. My Dutch mother learned to make (kapusta) – cabbage in a barrel and (polskie ogórki) – Polish pickled cucumbers and (pączki) – Polish doughnuts. And every night, without fail, we ate hearty helpings of potatoes and red beets and (kaszanka) -black barley sausage and Polish pierogi. Every Sunday we dressed up in our best for church, a long, languorous service held in a language that I could never master (Latin).

I was an altar boy; it was a rite of passage for all Catholic boys at the time. That was just the way it was. There was no shortage of servers for weddings and funerals and at the three daily masses held in St Stanislaus, the Polish parish church, sandwiched between the Irish rigidity of St Anne’s and modernist cubist lines of the Italian St Anthony of Padua. At Christmas, St Stan’s held two midnight masses, one in the church proper and one in the very basement of the building, there were 40-50 altar boys at the High Mass and the church was full to overflowing.

The ushers and sacristans were veterans all, strong, spare men with florid faces and piercing eyes, brushed back straw coloured hair, booming voices and loud raucous laughs and brown pin striped suits. Men with unpronounceable surnames and remarkable personal histories, Tobruk, Monte Cassino, the Eastern Front, Fallaise, Arnhem, the crinkle blue skies over Europe and the turbulent oceans of the North Atlantic. And among them the remnants of the Home Army and the doomed Warsaw Uprising of 1944, heroes – gallant, brave and foolhardy as only a Pole in battle can be.

Such men could be meek as lambs during Mass, kneeling obediently as knights errant before a gilded altar that was the work of a previous generation of equally stolid Poles, as they listened intently to a sermon from a twinkle-eyed Franciscan who’d been a paratroop chaplain at Arnhem; a bridge too far on Poland’s bloodied road to true nationhood.

They were members of the Royal Canadian Legion, one and all, using the Legion Hall to keep alive, if for only a few precious hours a week, the comradeships they so cherished and the memories of the many friends they had lost in far off lands.

Yet if the Legion branch was the heart of the community …the church was its soul. Replete with chanted hymn, “Boże, coś Polskę” (God Save Poland), Byzantine gold, heavy incense and babcie (grandmas) sitting glowering in the first few pews as, with gnarled fingers, they click-beaded their rosaries and waited for the Black Madonna to free a Poland once more enslaved, this time under the Soviet boot.

Time has passed. It is November and a fitting time for reflection.

The veterans are almost all gone, the graves of southern Ontario holding the soul of a truly valiant Polish generation; a lilt sometimes holding in the wind like the “Hejnal” so played long ago by that lone trumpeter of Krakow, a whispered dream of wandering souls, a faint fleeting memory in a widow’s failing eye.

Perhaps they are all together about us, singing and laughing forever young in our renewed recollection of their glories. I like to think that and I also like to think that you and I, good readers, though proudly Canadian, do carry their torch.

I buried my father in his 89th year. It was a cold Canadian December day and the Legion provided and escort, frail old men they were with the fire dimming in their eyes. They played the Last Post and uttered the words that all veterans do at the graveside of a fallen comrade.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old: Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning We will remember them.

And we answered solemnly: We will remember them!

Then, in the somber tradition of all Poles and dutiful sons from time immemorial, I retrieved some soil from the graveside to keep as a remembrance…

Eternal rest grant onto them O Lord and may the perpetual light shine upon them.
May their souls and the souls of all the faithful departed rest in peace. Amen.

Wieczne odpoczynek racz mu dać Panie, a światłość wiekuista niechaj mu świeci.
Niech odpoczywa w pokoju, Amen.

Christian Witness, PNCC, Poland - Polish - Polonia,

All Saints Day, All Souls Day in Polania

Robert Strybel provides an excellent overview of the commemoration of these Holy Days among Polonia in the United States. His article, All Saints/All Souls Day in Polonia appears at the PolishNews site. Along with the overview he provides suggestions for re-energizing these commemorations, and reconnecting our youth with the legacy of our saints, our forefathers who met the struggle and gained the ultimate victory.

I also want to thank Mr. Strybel for the nice shout-out to PNCC parishes:

All Saints Day is the patronal feast parishes named Parafia pod wezwaniem Wszystkich Świętych (All Saints Parish) — an appellation often encountered among parishes of the Polish National Catholic Church, including Chicagoland’s All Saints PNC Cathedral.

I recall a posting I saw, long before I was a PNCC member. It was a young person lamenting the loss of tradition on All Souls Day, Dzień Zaduszny. He noted that he was heartened to find, in his search of cemeteries on that day, members of the PNCC at a PNCC cemetery, doing the five stations, the blessing of graves, the wypominki (reading the role of the deceased) and ending with the singing of Witaj Królowa Nieba.

[audio:https://www.konicki.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/10/9-witaj-krolowo-nieba.mp3]
Christian Witness, Current Events, Perspective, Political

For Bishops and Church leaders pushing Mr. McCain

Miguel José Ernst-Sandoval at Philadelphia Roamin’ Catholic quotes from an editorial by Chuck Baldwin (a presidential candidate for the Constitution Party) in Pro-which? An excerpted version follows:

Once again, “pro-life” Christians are doing back flips to try and justify their compromise of the life issue by trying to convince everyone (including themselves) that John McCain is truly pro-life. However, these same people know in their hearts that John McCain shares no fidelity to the life issue in any significant or meaningful way. Like many in the Republican Party, McCain’s commitment to life is about as deep as a mud puddle.

Dare I remind everyone that the “pro-life” GOP controlled the entire federal government from 2000 to 2006 and nothing was done to overturn Roe v. Wade or end legal abortion-on-demand? When George W. Bush took the oath of office in January of 2001, over one million innocent unborn babies were being murdered in the wombs of their mothers every year via legal abortions in this countryNot technically correct. The CDC’s Abortion Surveillance — United States, 2004, the latest volume published in November 2007, indicates that abortions have been steadily declining since 1990. A total of 839,226 “legal” abortions were performed in 2004 – horribly sinful, but accurate.. And when George W. Bush leaves office in January of 2009, over one million innocent unborn babies would still be murdered in the wombs of their mothers every year via legal abortions in this countryibid.. Eight years of a “pro-life” President and six years of the “pro-life” GOP in charge of the entire federal government and not one unborn baby’s life has been saved. Roe v. Wade is still the law of the land, and abortion-on-demand is still legal in America.

Had John McCain and his fellow Republicans truly wanted to end legal abortion, they could have passed Congressman Ron Paul’s Sanctity of Life Act. Year after year, Dr. Paul introduced this bill, and year after year, it sat and collected dust in the document room on Capitol Hill.

How can John McCain, and his fellow Republicans in Washington, D.C., look pro-life Christians and conservatives in the eye in 2008 and expect that we take them seriously when they say that they are “pro-life”? If the GOP had truly wanted to overturn Roe v. Wade and end legal abortion-on-demand, they could have already done it. They controlled the White House, the U.S. Senate, and the House of Representatives for six long years, for goodness sake. The reason they did not do it is because they did not want to do it. They merely want to use “pro-life” rhetoric as a campaign tool to dupe gullible Christian voters every election year. And the disgusting thing about it is–it works.

The vast majority of notable “pro-life” leaders in the country are now trumpeting the candidacy of John McCain…

John McCain openly embraces embryonic stem cell research. In 2000, he boldly said he did not favor the overturn of Roe v. Wade. John McCain was a member of the infamous “Gang of 14” senators from both parties whose purpose was to oppose pro-life, strict constructionist judges.

Speaking of judges, John McCain voted for the pro-abortion justice, Stephen Breyer, and the radical, pro-abortion, ACLU attorney, Ruth Bader Ginsburg. So much for the argument that we need John McCain for the sake of appointing conservative justices to the Supreme Court. For that matter, Republican appointments dominated the Court that gave us Roe v. Wade and the one that later gave us Doe v. Bolton. Proving, once again, that the Republican Party, as a whole, has no real commitment to the life issue.

John McCain also gave us McCain-Feingold. This is the law that keeps pro-life or pro-Second Amendment organizations from broadcasting ads that mention a candidate by name 30 days before a primary election or 60 days before a general election. This proves that John McCain believes neither in the right to life nor the right to keep and bear arms. (This is one reason why the Gun Owners of America gives McCain a grade of F.)

In a debate with George W. Bush in May of 2000, John McCain attacked Bush’s support for the pro-life plank in the Republican Party. Still today, John McCain believes that babies who are conceived via rape or incest should be murdered. I remind readers, however, that there are no “exceptions” in the womb, only babies.

If all of the above is not enough, as a senator, John McCain has repeatedly voted to fund pro-abortion providers such as Planned Parenthood with federal tax dollars. In fact, McCain has voted to use federal tax dollars to support abortion providers at home and overseas. Yes, this “pro-life” senator (along with “pro-life” President, George W. Bush) has significantly increased federal spending for abortion providers to levels eclipsing even the appropriations authorized by President Bill Clinton and his fellow Democrats.

Tell me again, Mr. Christian Leader, how “pro-life” John McCain is. What a joke!

Bishops and their clergy should make bold statements, about the Gospel. Preach and teach. Catechize. Do not embroil yourselves in earthly politics, but proclaim the heavenly kingdom. Learn from history. Tying oneself to the fortunes and foibles of political leaders is a sure road to hell. Tie yourself to humanity, to the salvation of souls, to lifting up the sinful… Instead of encouraging the vote, ask the faithful to spend that hour or two helping in a soup kitchen or homeless shelter. Heaven knows, those will proliferate as the global economy continues to sour. Get into gear and touch others with the love of Christ rather than the seeds of division.

For all the Roman Catholic bishops, priests, and Evangelical leaders out there making bold political statements, and a specific bishop doing radio ads discouraging votes for the other major party candidate, believers might as well put their feet up and stay home. You haven’t done the simplest research on these candidates, but selected one as “better” than the other? Really?!?

I previously pointed out Mr. McCain’s horrid track record on life issues. As the Young Fogey repeatedly points out – don’t get played. No one running is a champion of moral courage on life issues. They are simply using issues to corral votes. It really is about money and power for its own sake. If you are voting for a platform based on promises, or based on a bishop’s choice of candidate, as you can see from the editorial above, that and about $2 will get you a Starbucks – and you can enjoy that in less than 4 years.

Christian Witness, PNCC, Political, ,

A challenge for apologists

From Foreign Policy: The List: The Catholic Church’s Biggest Reversals.

In —Think Again: Catholic Church,— John L. Allen Jr. writes, —Catholics who have been around the block know that whenever someone in authority begins a sentence with, ‘As the church has always taught …,’ some long-standing idea or practice is about to be turned on its head.— Herewith, five of the biggest such reversals of doctrine in the church’s history.

The author goes on to describe changes in Roman Catholic ‘teaching’ on usury, slavery, the various changes brought about as a result of Vatican II, capital punishment, and limbo.

I have seen plenty of apologist websites that walk through the development of doctrine argument to ‘prove’ that the very teachings Mr. Allen mentions haven’t really changed. Mr. Allen’s book should further those arguments well into the future.

As Bishop Hodur pointed out in his reflections, especially as summarized in the Apocalypse of the Twentieth Century, the Roman Church’s ties to civil governance and power politics heavily influenced its teaching on these and similar issues. The Roman Church’s influence was not exercised in developing spiritual doctrine, but in expanding its political and temporal power at the cost of man’s spiritual well being. The changes Mr. Allen mentions are not changes in God’s understanding, but in man’s self understanding as defined by the political/economic landscape of the times.

The ultimate dissolution of the Roman Church’s political/temporal power occurred in the mid 1800’s. That dissolution resulted in pronouncements on infallibility and other solemnly proclaimed doctrines that remain an obstacle to Church unity to this day; an unfortunate reactionary move.

As time has moved on, the Roman Church has focused its understanding of self — away from political/temporal power — to proclaiming the power of the Gospel. Let us hope that the obstacles that continue to prevent unity, the political leftovers, and the false developments so influenced by power politics, fall awayI am not delusional on these issues. I have no expectation of results. I only offer a prayer that whatever happens is according to God’s will..

In speaking of the Church and national and social affairs Bishop Hodur wrote:

As is evident from this brief sketch, Christ gave adequate instructions to His followers regarding their behavior amidst these most important currents of human life. They should not try to stop them or oppose them, but they should move with them, refining them and directing them into channels which will lead to the uplift, prosperity and redemption of humanity. The church must not be the instrument of the aristocracy, of the wealthy, or of any particular faction in politics or society. Instead, it should bless and support any human endeavor and righteous work which is directed towards the betterment and enrichment of mankind, towards the creation of a more equitable social and political structure, and towards the triumph of peace, truth, beauty and light – in other words, the triumph of God – within the human soul. — Most Rev. Franciszek Hodur, Our Way of Life, Chapter VI, On Social and National Affairs.

A call to Christian witness in society, properly focused on bearing core faith before the world. Can the Church and its faith change the world? We in the PNCC would answer with a resounding yes.

Christian Witness, PNCC, ,

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.

Christian Witness, Current Events, Saints and Martyrs,

Pray for the Christians of India

From Asia News: Lalji Nayak, martyr for the faith in Orissa

Bhubaneshwar (AsiaNews) – Lalji Nayak, tortured to force him to abandon his Christian faith, died of his injuries two days ago. …”they [his radical Hindu assailants] stuck a knife in his neck and threatened to kill him if he did not renounce Christianity, but Lalji Nayak, even though he was severely bleeding, refused to abandon his faith. He died in the hospital on October 1″.

Lalji Nayak’s village, in Rudangia, was attacked by Hindu fundamentalists on September 30, at four o’clock in the morning. Rudangia is in the district of Kandhamal, the epicenter from which the pogrom against Christians began more than a month ago.

For a complete recap of the martyrdoms, assaults, rapes, and pillaging taking place in India, all directed at Christians, see The Western Confucian’s coverage. The headlines alone are horrific.

Lord have mercy, Christ have mercy, Lord have mercy!
Mary, Queen of martyrs and confessors, intercede for us!
All holy martyrs and confessors, pray for us!

Thank you to the Young Fogey for the link.

Christian Witness

Peanuts, popcorn, Mars Bars, God

A really wonderful post by Adrianus Indra Setiadi at Beacons of Light: Omnipotent Vending Machine. I encourage that you check it out.

Indeed. Coming from a third-world country to a sophisticated country as the US, the biggest difference was how convenient everything was. Everything is easy to get here, as long as we have the means, of course.

Even being a Christian is convenient. If we want to get serious about our Christianity, there is an abundance of churches, conferences, spiritual books, activities, and everything else. Oh my, life is good!

When I started to know God more, I realized how deep His love is for us, how powerful He is, and how faithful He is to us. Alrighty then! Life will be even better now!!

Yes, it is true, but to tell you the truth, it was not as I had expected…

Christian Witness, Perspective, PNCC, Political, , ,

Remembering the working man and woman when you vote

From Interfaith Worker Justice: A Guide for Faith-Based Voters — Vote Your Values 2008

This guide is meant to highlight issues of major importance for working people in the U.S. during this election cycle.

The prophet Amos spoke God’s word thus: —Let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream— (Amos 5:24). The foundation story of the Jewish faith is God’s liberation of His people from slavery in the land of Egypt. Further, the Bible commands us not only to give to the poor, but to advocate on their behalf. —Speak up, judge righteously, champion the poor and the [needy] (Proverbs 31:9).—

At the core of Christian belief is the vision of God lifting up the poor, the destitute, the homeless and the reviled. The Apostle Paul wrote, —Our desire is not that others might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality….Your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. Then there will be equality, as it is written: ‘He who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have too little.’— (2 Corinthians 8:13-14).

In the 2006 elections, —values voters,— men and women whose political choices are influenced by deeply held religious and moral values, were crucial in the outcomes of six successful state referendums to raise the minimum wage. In 2008 we face an economy in freefall, millions of homeowners in danger of foreclosure, many millions more unable to obtain health insurance who face economic ruin if they or a loved one gets sick, workers who cannot take a paid sick day to care for themselves or a family member, workers who are robbed of their wages, and the worst income inequality since 1929.

This voter guide highlights several issues that are clearly critical to working families but that often receive scant attention by the media and by candidates for federal office. Interfaith Worker Justice urges people of faith, and indeed all citizens of conscience, to consider these issues when they cast their votes for president and congress in November 2008.

  • Support the Right of Workers to Organize a Union —“ Pass the Employee Free Choice Act
  • Health Care for All
  • Stop Wage Theft
  • A Job Should Get You Out of Poverty, Not Keep You In It
  • We Need Comprehensive Immigration Reform
  • All Workers Need Paid Sick Days —“ Support the Healthy Families Act

From personal experience I can tell you that these issues are real. Things like wage theft do occur – and much more frequently then you would suspect. The abuses people thought had long passed, the horror stories from the early 1900’s, are just as real today: child labor, forced labor, wages so inadequate that workers must sleep in unheated boxes at job sites, the same workers provided with just enough money to eat. They keep working because there is no means of escape, and in hope of getting paid eventually. I have heard of migrant construction workers who are transported, fed, and housed by companies. They work 12 hours a day, 7 days a week. If they complain they are left at the side of the road, hundreds of miles from home, with no means to get home.

You may think they are illegals – they get what they deserve… Certainly not the way Christians should treat their bothers and sisters. Every human being deserves justice and fair compensation for his work. Hiring an illegal is not the basis for treating that person as a slave, nor is it allowance for breaking even more laws.

Deuteronomy 24:14-15 states:

“You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brethren or one of the sojourners who are in your land within your towns;
you shall give him his hire on the day he earns it, before the sun goes down (for he is poor, and sets his heart upon it); lest he cry against you to the LORD, and it be sin in you.”

I encourage you to read the materials IWJ presents and that you give them due consideration.