ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN WITNESS (USPS 412-260)
is published monthly by St. Nectarios American Orthodox Church, 10300 Ashworth Avenue North,
Seattle, Washington.
Presbyter Neketas S. Palassis, Editor

                        1. ON THE NEW MILLENNIUM, Metropolitan Ephraim
                        2. GLORIFICATION OF ST. PHILARET
                        3. NEWS FROM THE RUSSIAN EXARCHATE
                           OF THE TRUE ORTHODOX CHURCH OF GREECE
                        4. NEWS FROM CANADA: A NEW CONVENT
                        5. ST. NECTARIOS CHURCH
                       6. ACLU ON A GODLESS MISION by Don Feder
                        7. HUMANISM AND PUBLIC EDUCATION
                        8. FORTHCOMING PUBLICATIONS:
                        9. NEW PUBLICATIONS

My beloved brothers and sisters in Christ:

     Now that we have entered the third millennium after the incarnation of the eternal Word of God, the Only-begotten of the Unbegotten Father, it is an appropriate time for all of us to reflect seriously on the millennium that has passed and on what awaits us in the years to come, if God so wills that our world continue to exist for a time.

    In the millennium that passed, two of the world's greatest Christian empires fell ^_ that of Byzantium in 1453, and the Russian empire in 1917. It may be said that the fall of Russia signaled the end of the Christian era and ushered in the post-Christian era; but with the end of the century that has just passed, we observe that there has already been ushered in an openly anti-Christian era in full force, and the beginning of apocalyptic times.

    Just a little over one hundred years ago, the final decade of the nineteenth century became known as the "gay 90's." (How different was the connotation of the adjective "gay" in those times!) It was a period where everything looked optimistic, hopeful, bright, reassuring. At the beginning of the twentieth century, everyone foresaw an era of great expectations, a new dawning, another renaissance, because of the great strides in technology, medicine and the sciences. It certainly seemed that by the end of the twentieth century, a paradisical state would prevail throughout the entire world. Illness, poverty, social inequality would all be overcome, wars would be a thing of the evil past.

    For sober Christians at the time, however, there were forebodings of an impending doom, an unprecedented destruction and disaster if society did not stop its headlong rush into unbelief and secularism, but in repentance turn again to Christ our Redeemer, Who alone could provide mankind with lasting joy and well-being. Saint Cosmas of Aitolia, Saint Seraphim of Sarov, Saint John of Kronstadt, and many other Orthodox Saints prophesied and described the events of the twentieth century. Their prophecies and warnings -- incomprehensible to the world --  went unheeded.

    In the non-Christian world, there was only one dissenting voice heard amidst the rising expressions of optimism and euphoria: this one voice was that of a raving madman who died in an insane asylum in 1900. He predicted that by the end of the twentieth century, there would be the total destruction of all values, ethical standards, morals, indeed, of civilization itself --  and this by violent means. This, said he, was necessary, for only by means of this destruction, only out of these ruins of civilization could there appear a superman, or a super-human race that could rule mankind. The name of this man was Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche.

     In the euphoria of the time, few --  except for a handful of intellectuals --  took notice of this German philosopher. Everyone thought his utterances were the ravings of a sick mind. Yet, by the end of the twentieth century, virtually all of his predictions have come to pass, except for one: the appearance of the superman. But now, with the appearance of genetic manipulation and cloning, is it unlikely that even this monster might appear? And that which Hitler and Soviet society failed to achieve might indeed be witnessed by the present generation.

    It is true that no one can gainsay the great strides that have been made in the twentieth century in science, medicine, technology, communications and travel. But what was not foreseen in the "gay 90's" of the nineteenth century --  and indeed, by all the centuries before --  were the strides that would also be made in the means of mass destruction, along with --  as we now witness --  the complete collapse of all moral and ethical standards. So, at the end of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first, what we see is not a paradise, but what has become a virtual hell for untold millions of people. We bring to mind our Saviour's words:

    And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars ... but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes in divers places …. and ye shall be hated of all nations for My name's sake (Matthew 24:6-7, 9).

  And there shall be … distress of nations, with perplexity, … men's hearts failing them for fear (Luke 21:25-26).

     Never before has mankind witnessed the development of such diabolical means of destruction: chemical warheads, bacterial warfare, nuclear bombs --utterly unimagined before our time!

At the beginning of this encyclical, I mentioned that this is not simply the post-Christian era in which we are living: it is an anti-Christian era. Who, indeed, could have imagined a society --  from which the demons of paganism had once been exorcised --  now promoting the killing of innocents (abortion), defending infanticide, supporting euthanasia, upholding same-sex "marriages", contributing to the promiscuity of the young and teaching sexual perversity in public schools, while the protests and outcries of indignation against these violations of the law of God are labeled "hate speech", or are even forbidden as "politically incorrect", and that these enormities would presently be promoted and legislated in formerly civilized Christian societies!

    In the span of a hundred years, the spilling of innocent blood and the destruction of human lives by the hundreds of millions has taken place, and continues throughout the world today through the pandemic of AIDS --  which presents a new phenomenon in itself: a politically protected, primarily sexually transmitted disease spread by our world's newly-discovered promiscuity "rights". In Africa, life expectancy has, on the average, dropped from 60-65 years to 35-40 years, thanks chiefly to mankind's new-found freedom from the law of God. Two world wars, endless civil wars, revolutions, and political conflagrations confirm what our Saints have foretold and even what Nietzsche foresaw.

    As author R. J. Rummel writes in "Death by Government" (The Schwarz Report, April 2001):
In total, during the first eighty-eight years of the twentieth century, almost 170 million men, women and children have been shot, beaten, tortured, knifed, burned, starved, frozen, crushed, or worked to death; buried alive, drowned, hung, bombed, or killed in any other of the myriad ways governments have inflicted death on the unarmed, helpless citizens and foreigners. The dead could conceivably be nearly 360 million people. It is as though our species has been devastated by a modern Black Plague. And indeed it has, but a Plague of Power, not germs.

    We have entered the third millennium witnessing the enslavement, persecution and death of thousands of people in the Sudan, Egypt, the Middle East, the Far East, China and elsewhere, merely because many of these peoples call themselves Christians. One recent newspaper article notes that "Americans thought of the year 2000 as a year of peace; but seven million people worldwide fled their homes to escape the wars;" yet another article laments how "in war-torn Africa, doctors are fighting a losing battle":

   Millions of people on this Earth, particularly refugees and displaced persons in Africa, have begun the new millennium living in conditions…similar to those that existed a full millennium earlier --  in huts or exposed to the elements, without adequate clothing, sanitation, or health care, preyed upon by their fellow men, and effectively unprotected by the rule of law.
      (The Boston Globe, February 20, 2001)

    Some 140 years ago, during the time of the civil war in the United States of America, President Abraham Lincoln --  taking the repentance of Nineveh of the Old Testament as an example --  declared by a presidential decree that there should be a day of general fasting and prayer for repentance, to draw God's mercy upon the divided and suffering nation. Some 100 years later, in 1962, prayer in public schools was prohibited by the United States Supreme Court, and, the result of that decision, by implication, was the abandonment of a basic principle expressed by the founding fathers of the United States in their correspondence among themselves (America's "unwritten tradition"). And what was that basic principle? That the laws of the newly formed United States should be based on the Holy Scriptures. After the 1962 Supreme Court decision, man -- not God --  effectively became the standard of what is right or wrong, true or false, moral or immoral in the "free world's" most powerful country.

    My beloved Orthodox Christians, this encyclical is addressed to you not as a message of despondency and doom, to plunge you into despair. It is written, rather, to make all of us conscious that we are living in the end times, in a time of great apostasy. As Orthodox Christians, we are neither optimists nor pessimists. We are realists, and this is the reality of our times. When we look around us, what we see does not inspire hope. But when we lift up our heads and look to the Heavens, we are filled with hope and joy. As our Saviour tells us in the Gospel of Saint Luke:

    And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.
           (Luke 21:28)

    This, and this alone, is our true and lasting salvation. The promises of peace, prosperity, security and health in this world are all false. As Saint Paul warns the Thessalonians:

    For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction comes upon them.
         (I Thessalonians 5:3)

    Without Christ our Redeemer there can be no true and lasting peace and safety. There are indeed many false prophets in the world, and their promises are consistently false; they promise us ends which cannot be realized. It is only in the teachings left to us by our Saviour, His Prophets, Apostles and Holy Fathers that our purpose in life comes into clear focus. Therefore, it is needful for us to continue reading and searching the Holy Scriptures and the sacred texts of our Holy Church concerning the end times. More than any other time before us, it is necessary for us to do the work of the Lord more diligently and with greater urgency, to keep the holy fasts, to pray earnestly and partake often of the Holy Mysteries, that we be deemed worthy of redemption. In the Gospel of St. Matthew, our Saviour says: "For wheresoever the body is, there also will the eagles be gathered together" (Matthew 24:28). The "body" is our Saviour Himself, Whom we receive in the Holy Eucharist, and the eagles, as Saint John Chrysostom explains, are "the multitude of the angels, of the martyrs, of all the saints" (Homily 76 on Matthew, 3).

    Looking steadfastly upon our Saviour and not removing our eyes from Him, we shall be able, not only to be rescued from foundering in the sea of this fallen world, but even to walk upon the tempestuous waves that surround us and to trample underfoot all the evil temptations and to withstand the various winds of doctrines that our spiritual enemy sends upon us.

    In these times of turmoil, it is needful for us to hearken to our Saviour Who teaches us to "flee unto the mountains" (cf. Matthew 24:16). And what are those mountains that will be our refuge? St. Barsanuphius answers:

    "Concerning those mountains, and what they are, let us understand them to be the holy Mary the Theotokos, and the other saints who shall be living during those times, and who will certainly bear the seal of God. For the sake of these saints, God will save many" (Questions and Answers, #156).

    My beloved Orthodox Christians, let us not deceive ourselves. It is much later than we think, but our salvation is nigh at hand.

    But of the times and seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord cometh as a thief in the night…. Ye are not in darkness, brethren, that the day should overcome you as a thief. Ye are all the children of light and the children of the day; we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore, let us not sleep, as do others, but let us watch and be sober.
  (I Thessalonians 5:1-6)

     Your unworthy supplicant before God,
 

    +Ephraim, Metropolitan of Boston
    Fast of the Holy Apostles, 2001
    Protocol Number 2010

      In compliance with the July 15/28, 2000 Decision of the Sacred Synod of the True Orthodox Church of Greece, the Solemn Glorification of the Ever-memorable Saint Philaret (Voznesensky), Metropolitan of New York, took place the weekend of May 19 – 20, 2001 (NS). The service was conducted according to the Russian usage at the Holy Resurrection Russian Orthodox Church, Worcester, Massachusetts.

      On Saturday morning May 19 (NS) the Divine Liturgy was served followed by the final Memorial Service for Metropolitan Philaret. The Locum Tenens, His Eminence Metropolitan Makarios, presided together with his brother hierarchs and clergy. That evening the All-night Vigil began amongst a multitude of  clergy, monastics and faithful who had traveled from near and far. During the Polyeleos the icon of the Holy Hierarch was unveiled to the chanting of “We magnify thee, O holy hierarch Father Philaret, and we honor thy holy memory, for thou dost pray for us unto Christ our God.” This icon was specially commissioned and is now located on the church’s new ikonostasis for three altars, one of which is dedicated to St. Philaret – the others to the Holy Resurrection and Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker.

      Sunday morning May 20 (NS) saw another great gathering of the faithful and the beginning of the Hierarchical Divine Liturgy. During the distribution of Holy Communion three chalices were used. His Eminence Metropolitan Makarios gave a moving sermon in Greek and English, which was translated into Russian by Protopresbyter Victor Melehov. At the conclusion of the Divine Liturgy a Service of Supplication was chanted to the Saint. A festive banquet was then held at the Holiday Inn during which the Life of Saint Philaret was read by Archpriest Peter Farnsworth and remarks were made by His Eminence Metropolitan Ephraim, Protopresbyter Victor Melehov and Abbot Adrian of Holy Ascension Skete. The Grace-filled and joyous feast was concluded with a prayer. Saint Philaret the Confessor pray to God for us!

    On June 13/26, 2001, the Locum Tenens of the True Orthodox Church of Greece, His Eminence Metropolitan Makarios of Toronto, arrived in Moscow.  He was welcomed by Protopresbyter Victor Melehov, Exarch for Russia,  Hieromonk Nikifor, assistant to the Exarch, and by a crowd of Moscow faithful.

    After serving Divine Liturgy in the chapel of St. Seraphim of Sarov in Moscow the following day, Metropolitan Makarios and the reverend fathers left by train for Kazan and Chuvashia in order to visit and serve the former catacomb flock of Bishop Gury of blessed memory.  Later in the week, they traveled to St. Petersburg where they were given a warm reception by the faithful of the St. John of Kronstadt parish.

    During this trip, Presbyter Dimitri Dubovitsky of Michurinsk and Presbyter Alexander Pyatyshev of Tuapse, along with their families and flocks, were received from the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia. Metropolitan Makarios also tonsured a reader, Ilya Fokin, for the Moscow community.

    The Russian flock of the True Orthodox Church of Greece now includes parishes in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan and Tuapse.  In addition to this there is a growing number of catacomb communities, scattered groups of faithful throughout the country, and a future convent.  The sisters of this future convent have embarked on a building project last year.  They managed to acquire property in the suburbs of Moscow, and to complete the foundation of their convent before running out of funds.  Two of these sisters, Lydia Sikorskaya and Yelena Bessonnova, spent this past spring in the United States, where they were warmly welcomed by many of the parishes there.

    Anyone wishing to contribute to the construction of the Convent and/or support the missionary activities of the Russian Exarchate may send their donations to:

        Russia Missionary Society
        63 Laurel Street
        Worcester, MA  01605,  USA

 Here is the web-site for directions to the Convent: http://hocna.tripod.ca/ConventMap.htm
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    The Convent of the Holy Dormition is under the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan Diocese of Toronto of the Holy Orthodox Church of North America.  Four mothers of the Holy Nativity Convent of Boston have established the founding monastic community.  The Convent will be under the spiritual guidance of the Holy Transfiguration Monastery of Boston.
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    Iconographer Andrij Maday of Cleveland, Ohio has been chosen to do the interior iconography of St. Nectarios Church in Seattle.  In 2001 he prepared and laid out the church walls  for the installation of iconography.  In 2000, Andrij had painted  the Pantocrator for the dome of our church, as well as two archangels for the back of the sanctuary. This is in addition to the previously completed  Annuncation.  His  long term goal is to execute the icons for the sanctuary, as well as the solea area of the church. Some of his finished icons can be seen on our parish web-site.

    The angels for the dome have been completed and will be installed along with the Prophets sometime in fall.

    Parishioners are contributing to an icon fund for the completion of this project. Icons yet to be donated include the following: the Communion of the Holy Apostles (within the Sanctuary), the 12 Apostles, the major feasts, and the Hierarchs for the side walls of the sanctuary. Donations are being accepted for the iconography project. Checks payable to St. Nectarios should be ear-marked "icon fund".

    About a year ago, His Eminence Metropolitan Ephraim received an urgent request from several clergymen from the Church of Uganda expressing a sincere desire to be received under his spiritual guidance. With some hesitation, His Eminence undertook a trip to Uganda to assess the situation. He was received enthusiastically and saw that the request was genuine and sincere. Thereupon he decided to receive them, thus establishing a true Orthodox presence in Africa.

    His Eminence was struck by the number of orphans for whom the church was caring. He promised to assist with whatever means he could to brighten the li ves of those unfortunate children. Upon his return the Metropolitan gave informative speeches about Uganda and showed video tapes of his trip, depicting the warmth of the faithful as well as their utter poverty. As a result a missionary society was formed to underake fund raising activities for the faithful in Uganda.

    St. Nectarios parishioners have already adopted 30 orphans. Each parishioners has pledged $20. monthly for the support of a single orphan.

    If you wish to support the Mission in Uganda you may contribute directly to the

    The American Civil Liberties Union is on a mission - but not from God.  It's goal: to obliterate evidence of America's religious heritage.

    Last week. the ACLU filed a suit to have a Ten Commandments removed from the courthouse lawn in Vincennes, Ind. Such displays are a breach of the mythical wall separating church and state, according our judicial law-givers.

    In May, the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of a ruling holding a similar monument in Elkhart, Ind, unconstitutional. This statue has stood in front of Elkhart's city hall since 1958, when it vas given to the community by the Fraternal Order of Eagles.

    The ACLU set its sights on the Elkhart tablets when two locals decided they were unable to bear the psychic pain caused by its existence. One confessed that, while he rarely saw it: "I certainly know it's there. It offends me. I think about it". The civil liberties group has its work cut out.

    There are literally hundreds of such monuments across the country, most donated by the Eagles shortly after the premiere of Cecil B. DeMille's epic. They were intended to emphasize the connection between our legal system and Mosaic law. Contrary to what some my believe, prohibitions against murder and perjury did not flow from the pen of Thomas Jefferson. They started at Sinai and were transmitted to us via Christianity and English common law. For the ACLU to be consistent it must broaden its scope considerably. For roughly the first 170 years of our national existence, the Constitution was correctly understood to create no impediment to public acknowledgment of faith.

    In consequence. tokens of insensitivity and exclusion litter the landscape, traumatizing unbelievers and no doubt threatening democracy-.

    Of course, there's " lii God We Trust" on our currency. (I foresee an ACLU suit against the Treasury,) A variation of dmi slogan also is in the lyrics of our national anthem, the singing of which at public functions clearly expresses a government preference for monotheistic religion as does the president taking his oath of office on a ]Bible.

    The seat of our national government abounds in malignant minglings of church and state, The Supreme Court which won't allow Elkhart to have its Decalogue, sits in a chamber decorated with a frieze of Moses carrying the Commandments,

    David Barton of Wall Builders, a group dedicated to the rediscovery of our religious tradition, says a guide at the building once told Mm the prophet is picture delivering the Bill of Rights, Maybe that's why the justices have such a had time understanding  it-, most ='t mad Hebrew.

    The Declaration of Independence (with its multiple references to the Deity) is displayed on public property. at the National Archives building.

    In the U.S.. House chamber. " In God We Trust' is engraved in the speaker's rostrum. Moses is depicted in the House as well.

    Barton notes fully 25 percent of the Capitol's statuary has a religious message, including a statue of Father Junipero Serra (called the Apostle of California) holding a cross and Marcus Whitman, another missionary who helped open the Northwest to settlement, carrying a Bible.

    The Rotunda has 14 foot by 20 foot paintings of the baptism of Pocahontas, the Pilgrims at prayer, and Christopher Columbus in the New World. holding a cross and praying with his crew. Across from the Rotunda, the congressional chapel (the ACLU must shudder at the thought of the goings-on there)) W a stained-glass window showing Washington seeking Divine guidance. Etched into the glass is a line from PSALMS 16: 1.

    At  the White House, the mantle piece in the State Dining Room is engraved with an invocation by John Adams, "I pray Heaven to bestow the best of blessings on this house and all that shall hereafter inhabit it." Thus all three branches of government are tainted by religion.

    The ACLU's suit against Vincennes' Ten Commandments was filed in Terre Haute, Ind.  On Monday, Timothy McVeigh - an agnostic who believed he was a law unto himself - was executed there.

    The mass murderer didn't get it.  Neither does the ACLU. Are we really better off in a nation where the Ten Commandments are treated as a threat to orderly government, instead of its foundation?

    Back in 1849, when the organized Protestants of Massachusetts debated whether or not to support the public school movement, which was then being strongly promoted by the Unitarians, they decided in favor of support, but with some very thoughtful reservations.

    "The benefits of this system, in offering instruction to all, are so many and so great that its religious deficiencies -- especially since they can be otherwise supplied -- do rot seem to be a sufficient reason for abandoning it, and adopting in place of it a system of denominational parochial schools," they wrote.

    "If after a full and faithful experiment, it should at last be seen that fidelity to the religious interests of our children forbids a further patronage of the system, we can unite with the Evangelical Christians in the establishment of private schools, in which more full doctrinal religious instruction may be possible."

    No one can doubt that for the last 150 years the public schools have had that full and faithful experiment, and that the spiritual effect on Christian children has been disastrous. In several schools around the country, Christian children have even been murdered by fellow students possessed by satanic beliefs. How much worse can it get?

    In fact, during the last 20 years, thousands of Christian parents, without knowledge of the debates that took place in 1849, have removed their children from the public schools and have either placed them in private Christian schools or are home-schooling them. They have done this despite the fact that many well-known Christian leaders have not yet sounded the alarm and, in many instances, have urged Christians to stay in the public schools and work to reform them.

    But the simple fact is that the present government education system has as its foundation an anti-Christian philosophy known as Secular Humanism. All one has to do to confirm this is read the two Humanist Manifestos. The first, written in 1933 by young Unitarian ministers, asserted that the spiritual power of orthodox religion was in decline and that it should be replaced by a rational, man-centered, non-theistic religion.

    "Humanism asserts that the nature of the universe depicted by modem science makes unacceptable any supernatural or cosmic guarantees of human values," they wrote. "Religious humanism considers the complete realization of human personality to be the end of man's life and seeks its development and fulfillment in the here and now. ...

    "Religious humanism maintains that all associations and institutions exist for the fulfillment of human life. The intelligent evaluation, transformation, control, and direction of such associations and institutions with a view to the enhancement of human life is the purpose and program of humanism. Certainly religious institutions, their ritualistic forms, ecclesiastical methods, and communal activities must be reconstituted as rapidly as experience allows, in order to function effectively in the modem world." In other words, humanism is the only religion in America that has as its purpose and program the reconstitution of the institutions, rituals, and ecclesiastical methods of other religions. This is an overt declaration of war against biblical religion.

    Forty years later, Humanist Manifesto 11 stated, "As non-theists, we begin with humans not God, nature not deity. We can discover no divine purpose or providence for the human species. ... No deity will save us, we must save ourselves."

  In the January/February 1983 issue of The Humanist magazine, a young scholar by the name of John J. Dunphy expressed the aim of humanists in education with these very blunt words:
"I am convinced that the battle for humankind's future must be waged and won in the public school classroom by teachers who correctly perceive their role as the proselytizers of a new faith: a religion of humanity that recognizes and respects that spark of what theologians call divinity in every human being. These teachers must embody the same selfless dedication as the most rabid fundamentalist preachers, for they will be ministers of another sort, utilizing a classroom instead of a pulpit to convey humanist values in whatever subject they teach, regardless of educational level -- preschool day care or large state university. The classroom must and will become an arena of conflict between the old and the new -- the rotting corpse of Christianity, together with its adjacent evils and misery, and the new faith of humanism, resplendent in its promise of a world in which the never realized Christian ideal of "love thy neighbor" will finally be achieved."

    Mr. Dunphy did Christian parents a great service by telling them exactly what humanists want to accomplish in the public schools. Humanists are forever paying lip service in asserting the separation of church and state when it comes to keeping Christianity out of the schools. But when it comes to humanism, they are strangely silent. As a result, humanism has become the establishment religion in our schools, and no one in the federal government or the Congress has seen fit to do anything about it.

    Obviously, from a Christian point of view, the experiment of government education has been a colossal failure. In plate of God, the public schools offer evolution, multiculturalism, transcendental meditation, situational ethics, drug education, death education, sex education, sensitivity training, gay studies, condoms, whole language, behaviorism, magic circles, and other humanist teachings.

    These programs are creating the new nihilists, the amoral barbarians and the followers of Satan that are devastating the lives of thousands of families. There is hardly a Christian family that has not had to cope with a child lost to drugs, promiscuity, abortion, venereal disease, and pure unadulterated devil worship.

    What will it take for the majority of Christian parents to realize that the public schools have become a spiritual danger for their children? Those Christian children who are strong in their faith still have to contend with the Satanists among the student body who may wish to harm them. The parents at Columbine could not conceive of the notion that perfectly normal American kids could become murderers, killing for the sake of pleasing Satan. That sort of stuff is supposed to belong in horror movies, not in middle-class, suburban families.

    This is something that has never happened before in America, and it is the result of a spiritual disease called moral relativism, which teaches that everyone is entitled to their beliefs, no matter how weird or anti-social, and that no one can judge anyone or anything else. That is why no one at Columbine High felt morally obligated to stop the future killers from expressing their views as wildly and openly as they wished. No one at Columbine took them seriously, because no one there believed that the pure power of evil could take hold of the lives of normal kids.

    The lesson is painfully simple: When a nation abandons moral absolutes, it opens the door to unbridled evil.

  The classic work on spiritual life. Deluxe edition printed in red and black throughout with full color frontispiece. 336pp.  Cloth e$28.00  Order

NEW (MC) THE MIRACULOUS CHILD: A Christmas folktale from old Russia
retold by Alvin Aleksi Currier. Beauitifully illustrated in full color by Nadezhda Glazumova. This charming story is told in blank verse and is fine reading for children of all ages. 24pp. Paper d$8.00  Order

NEW (AAC)THE ALEXIAD OF ANNA COMNENA
translated by E.R.A. Sewter.
An account of the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Alexius I (1081-1118) written by his daughter. A great historical source for the period. 560pp d$15.00  Order

NEW (TRU) THE TRUTH: WHAT EVERY ROMAN CATHOLIC SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THE ORTHODOX CHURCH. Clark Carlton. Helps Orthodox understand why the two churches are not in communion with one another. Points out similarities and differences between the two churches. 271pp. Paper e$23.00 Order

NEW (WAY) THE WAY: WHAT EVERY PROTESTANT SHOULD KNOW ABOUT THE ORTHODOX CHURCH. Clark Carlton. A book to be read by Protestants who want to know what the faith is all about. 222pp. Paper e$23.00  Order

NEW (BYZX) CROSS OF BYZANTIUM. Hand cast cross plaque from, a design on a 10th century reliquary cover in Constantinople. Stones are red carnelians. Indoor or outdoor use. 5 x 7 in. d$30.00  Order
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   Not Even My Name is the unforgettable story of Sano Halo's survival of the death march at age 10 that annihilated her family  as told to her daughter, Thea and the poignant other/daughter pilgrimage to Turkey in search of Sano's home 70 years after her exile. Sano, a Pontic Greek from a mountain village near the Black Sea, also recounts her ancient, pastoral way of life in the Pontic Mountians.

          The dreadful realization that something was amiss came little by little to Sano's village. Strangers began to inhabit the fields and forests, always watching from a distance like birds of prey. Turkish soldiers made periodic raids to seize men for slave labor in foul, lice-infested labor camps, where most died of disease, malnutrition and exposure. Then in the spring of 1920, Turkish soldiers pounded on doors with the butts of their rifles and shouted General Mustafa Kemal's (Atatürk) proclamation: "You are to leave this place. You are to take with you only what you can carry " On their death march, victims lay where they fell and buzzards hung above their heads. So ended the 3,000 year history of the Pontic Greeks in Turkey.

          Stripped of everything she had ever held dear, even her name, at age 15 Sano was sold into marriage to a man who brought her to America. He was three times her age. Not Even My Name follows Sano's marriage, the raising of her ten children, and her transformation from an innocent girl who lived an ancient way of life in a remote place, to a nurturing mother and determined woman in twentieth-century New York City.

          Although Turkey actively suppresses the truth about the slaughter of almost 3 million of its Christian minorities - Greek, Armenian, and Assyrian - during and after World War I, and the exile of millions of others, here  is a rare, firsthand account of the horrors of that genocide. But Sano's story is also one of triumph; a brilliant and mesmerizing memoir written in haunting and eloquent prose, Not Even My Name weaves a seamless texture of individual memory that evokes all the suspense and drama of the best told tales.

      In telling her mother's epic story of survival and ultimate triumph in America, Thea Halo has written an important book about a largely unknown history: the genocide of the Pontic Greeks at the hands of the Turkish government in the years following World War I. Halo's deeply moving portrait of her mother reverberates with large moral issues that affect us all.
    - Peter Balakian, author of Black Dog of Fate

     Dedicated to: my mother and our Pontic family and to all the Greeks, Assyrians, and Armenians who lost their lives, their homes and their country. May they live forever in our hearts and minds.

    As written by her daughter Thea, Sano Halo's harrowing account of the destruction of her family and her world is told with such vivid detail that every page sears the mind and the heart. Not Even My Name is a work of burning intensity, self evidently powerful and true.
- Nicholas Gage, author of Eleni