DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF ST. JOHN OF SAN FRANCISCO

   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. METROPOLITAN EPHRAIM AND BISHOP MOSES ON THE TERRORIST ATTACKS AGAINST     OUR N0ATION.
2. PRAYER OF BISHOP NIKOLAI VELIMIROVIC
3. ST. JOHN THE ROMANIAN AND HIS CENSORED LIFE
4. TWO LETTERS FROM UGANDA
5.  AN E-MAIL MESSAGE FROM OUR SISTERHOOD IN    MOSCOW.
6.  NEW STUDY SHOWS HOMOSEXUALS CAN CHANGE
7. THE EUCHARIST, THE WORD AND THE BISHOP
8.  ICONS INSTALLED IN DOME OF ST. NECTARIOS CHURCH
9.  NEWS FROM THE HAYWARD, CALIFORNIA MISSION.
10.  ON HALLOWEEN
11.  THIS MONTH’S WEB SITE:. http://www.hocna.org/st_annas/
    Be sure to read the “bulletin” Section.
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Saints Alexander John and Paul
Patriarchs of Constantinople
The New Martyrs of Serbia slain by the Papist Croatians during WWII
August 30/ September 12, 2001

Beloved Fathers and Brethren in Christ,

    In this time of national crisis, when thousands of innocent victims have perished as a result of ruthless terrorist attacks in our national capital and in New York City, both His Grace Bishop Moses and I call upon you to say special supplicatory canons for the safety and welfare of our country and for all those in authority that they guide our country with wisdom, discretion and prudence through this time of crisis. In our homes we should also add prayers for those that died or were injured in these attacks.

    We are mindful of the fact that in one other time of calamity, that is to say, during the time of this nation’s Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln called upon the nation to observe a period of fasting, in order to call down God’s mercy on this country’s suffering peoples. Now that the feast of the Exaltation of the Precious Cross is approaching, we should be aware that many of our monastic communities observe a period of fasting from September 1 through September 13 in honor of the Precious Cross. In view of the calamitous events that occurred yesterday, both Bishop Moses and I urge you also to consider observing a special fast during the above-mentioned period of time, with special prayers and supplications, to draw God’s mercy upon us, and to seek His forgiveness in whatever we may have sinned as a nation; for there is no doubt whatsoever that, in these latter times, we have erred in many grievous ways as a country.

    May our Savior overlook our transgressions and protect this nation from further harm.

    Your fervent suppliants unto God,

    +Ephraim, Metropolitan of Boston,
    +Moses, Bishop of Roslindale
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Bless my enemies, 0 Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them.

Enemies have driven me into Your embrace more than friends have. friends have bound me to earth, enemies have loosed me from earth and have demolished all my aspirations in the world.

Enemies have made me a stranger in worldly realms and an extraneous inhabitant of the world. Just as a hunted animal finds safer shelter than an unhunted animal does, so have I, persecuted by enemies, found the safest sanctuary, having ensconced myself beneath Your tabernacle, where neither friends nor enemies can slay my soul. Bless my enemies, 0 Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them.

They, rather than I, have confessed my sins before the world.

They have punished me, whenever I have hesitated to punish myself

They have tormented me, whenever I have tried flee torments.

They have scolded me, whenever I have flattered myself

They have spat upon me, whenever I have filled myself with arrogance.
Bless my enemies, 0 Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them.

Whenever I have made myself wise, they have called me foolish,

Whenever I have made myself mighty, they have mocked me as though I were a dwarf.

Whenever I have wanted to lead people, they have shoved me in to the background.

Whenever I have rushed to enrich myself, they have prevented me with an iron hand.

Whenever I thought that I would sleep peacefully, they have wakened me from sleep.

Whenever I have tried to build a home for a long and tranquil life, they have demolished it and driven me out.

Truly, enemies have cut me loose from the world and have stretched out my hands to the hem of Your garment.

Bless my enemies, 0 Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them.

Bless them and multiply them; multiply them and make them even more bitterly against me:

so that my fleeing to You may have no return;

so that all hope in men may be scattered like cobwebs;

so that absolute serenity may begin to     reign in my soul;

so that my heart may become the grave of my two evil twins: arrogance and anger,

so that I might amass all my treasure in heaven;

ah, so that I may for once be freed from self-deception, which has entangled me in the dreadful web of illusory life.

Enemies have taught me to know what hardly anyone knows, that a person has no enemies in the world except himself.

One hates his enemies only when he fails to realize that they are not enemies, but cruel friends.

It is truly difficult for me to say who has done me more good and who has done me more evil in the world: friends or enemies.

Therefore bless, 0 Lord, both my friends and my enemies.

A slave curses enemies, for he does not understand But a son blesses them, for he understands.

For a son knows that his enemies cannot touch his life. Therefore he fively steps among them and prays to God for them.

Bless my enemies, 0 Lord. Even I bless them and do not curse them.

(Taken from the October 2001 Bulletin of St. Spyridon Orthodox Cathedral, Seattle, WA)
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    It's strange, Some people recognize the holiness of the men and women of God, but they don't keep their teachings or emulate their lives. "Ye call me Lord, Lord, but ye do not the things which I say" (Luke 6:46).

    And in addition, they sometimes muzzle the teachings of the Saints in a very provocative way vote. But I came to grips with opposing this resolution during the very painful memorial service toda y. As a member of the clergy so eloquently said, "As we act, let us not become the evil that we deplore.".

    The Life of our holy father John the Romanian was published recently in Greek by the Sacred Monastery of Gregoriou of the Holy Mountain, Athos. Since the good fathers of the monastery are educated and erudite, they did a very commendable job.

    Our holy father, Saint John, was one of the rare spiritual personalities of the twentieth century. His holy relics were fragrant when they were uncovered from the earth, and to this very day they remain incorrupt.

    The new calendar Patriarchate of Romania has recognized him as a saint and included his name in the canonical list of saints of the Romanian Church. This, however, is quite ironic. Saint John was a zealot. Neither in Romania, nor later in Jerusalem, did he ever give the Holy Mysteries to new calendarists. He told everyone that the new calendar churches had no grace and he considered their sacraments invalid ¾ and this at a time when the heresy of Ecumenism had not yet progressed as it has today.

    Consequently, when the Patriarchate of Romania declared him a saint, it signed its own condemnation. The Athonite fathers of the Monastery of Gregoriou also signed their own condemnation since, although they recognize his sanctity, they do not follow his teachings or example. They include themselves among all those whom Saint John  ( for the entire span of his brief life) declared to be schismatics and out of the Church.

    Let us, however, return to the purpose of this article. The Athonite fathers translated most of the biographical details of Saint John's life. Nonetheless, there are significant omissions, and these are worthy of note, especially since they deal with matters of the calendar issue and the Orthodox Christian Faith. Saint John considered these matters to be extremely important and he was absolutely consistent in applying his beliefs on these issues. This, apparently, presented some difficulties to the Athonite translators of his life --especially since many Athonites are "old calendarists" only out of necessity. So, strangely (or perhaps, not so strangely), our Athonites decided to conceal some facts under the bushel. Obviously, these facts bothered the Athonite commemorators of the ecumenistic, new calendar Ecumenical Patriarch.

    For the sake of our readers, we would like to supply these omitted portions. These details, which are part and parcel of the original Life of Saint John, were recorded by his disciple, Father Joannicius, and it was this Life precisely which the Athonite translators had before them when they prepared the Greek edition. This Life, by the way, has been translated in its complete form into English.

    So now the pieces, which are missing from the puzzle (in the Greek translation), are put into their place and we get the complete picture. Note the content of the missing pieces. They may be the most important part of Saint John's life and message to us:

    The following is missing from page 15 of the Greek edition:

      At the monastery, [Father John] befriended the oldest and most learned fathers, with whom he discussed the salvation of the soul and, also, the calendar change, which then constituted a major topic. He befriended a brother from Bukovina, which for many years was an Austrian-occupied territory where the Orthodox suffered violent persecution from the Latins. This brother, whom the abbot wanted to enter the monastic order, desired first that he should be truly baptized by immersion, as the Holy Apostles directed, and not by sprinkling with water, as it was then the custom in Bukovina. After the baptism, Elias [Father John's secular name] was tonsured a monk. He decided to go to Mount Athos where the true Orthodox Calendar was observed.

    The following is missing from page 16 of the Greek edition:

    In the fall of 1936, he was on his way to the Holy Land, where they keep the Orthodox Calendar unchanged, as it was inherited from the Holy Fathers and the Eastern Church.

    The following is missing from page 20 of the Greek edition:

    After some time, the Patriarch Nicodem [of Romania] passed away and, according to tradition, all Orthodox patriarchs were to offer forty days of memorial services. When the Patriarch of Jerusalem also was to offer a panikhida, Archimandrite Victorin called on Father John to take part in it. He did not go, however, because Patriarch Nicodem had persecuted those who continued to follow the truly Orthodox calendar. Father John had received his ordination here in Jerusalem, where the true Orthodox calendar is celebrated; and, for the zeal of keeping pure and undefiled his vows, he refused to serve or to communicate with other priests who did not follow the true calendar.

    The following is missing from page 23 of the Greek edition:

    From the moment he was ordained to the end of his life, Father John had not concelebrated with another priest. When he was celebrating the holy liturgy, he did not mention at Proskomide the names of certain priests who, he had heard, were Masons.

    As far as we can ascertain, these are the parts that were left out ¾ censored? by the Athonite translators.

    The truth sometimes slips by the censors and reveals itself. And those who wish to call themselves Orthodox are left with empty titles! They claim that they "follow steadfastly in the steps of the Holy Fathers," but in actuality, they cut and paste the teachings of the Saints according to their own heterodox measure.
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July 24, 2001

To the Clergy and Faithful in North America and to His Eminence Metropolitan Ephraim of Boston, Fr. Panteleimon, Fr. Isaac, Prof. B., Fr. Nicholas, Fr. Pachomius, and the entire brotherhood of the Holy Transfiguration Monastery

We pray that this note finds you all well in our Lord’s name Jesus Christ. Amen. We thank you very much for your prayers and for whatever you are doing for us here in Uganda. We also thank you for praying and blessing both Steven Babumba and Joseph for their travelling to Uganda, and for the time they stayed here.

I would like to bring to your attention today, for about nine years before you received us, we never experienced any love, good relationship etc. and we the old calendarists the Orthodox Church in Africa, were a laughable Mission having nothing, no church, very poor, but now it is wonderful we have such a nice church, though not yet finished. The care being taken on the Orphans, and easing the clergy's transport by motorbikes, have changed our lives, and the very people who used to laugh at us, are the very people who are now wondering, saying, really God is great. We thank God for all things. We are always praying that the Almighty God gives you good health, wisdom, courage that you continue to lead his people to salvation.

Please we kiss your right hands, yours faithfully in Christ,

Unworthy priest, Fr. Joachim Kiyimba
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September 13, 2001
His Eminence Metropolitan Ephraim of Boston:

We have heard with regret the disaster that happened in America, done by selfish barbaric people. We condemn whatever happened and we feel so sad for the lives of innocent people. We pray that God finds a solution and comforts us during this difficult time.

Asking Your Eminence to pass this message to His Grace Bishop Moses, Archimandrite Panteleimon, Fr. Isaac, and all our friends.

Asking your prayers and blessings,

Fr. Joachim.
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Dear in Christ Father Neketas! Evlogeite!

We greet you with the Holy Feast of the Nativity of the Holy Theotokos and wish you spiritual joy and consolation. It's a difficult time. We all are still shoked with the events on Septemeber 11. Nowe we feel this tragedy and can understand  since we ourselves experienced the terrorists attacks in different places and especially - last summer in Moscow metro and 2 years ago also  in September, when 2 big appartment houses in Moscow were detonated and hundreds of people were suffered.

We are afraid that there might be even much more terrible events. We don't want to think about it, but it seems the big war will break out and then no one could avoid it's fire.

Forgive us for this pessimistic message. We are so weak and one thought that our dearest ones are so far and we can lose the connections  (not thinking about more serious things) make us very sad.

 Please, pray for us.
       With much much love in Christ
       Your most unworthy and weak
            Lydia, Elena and all
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     Many Americans believe homosexuals are born that way and can't do anything about it. For most of his professional life as a practicing psychiatrist, Dr. Robert Spitzer helped promote that belief. He has changed his mind.

    He now believes that some practicing homosexuals can change their sexual orientation and become practicing heterosexuals. He believes they can fall in love with a person of the opposite sex, have children, and successfully reorient their sexual mindsets and transform their lives.

    Spitzer is not a right-wing nut or a religious fundamentalist. He describes himself as an "atheistic Jew." In 1973, he led the politically correct fight that resulted in the removal of homosexuality from the American Psychiatric Association's (PAP) diagnostic manual of mental disorders.

    On May 9, 2001, at the annual meeting of the APA, Spitzer, who is currently chief of biometrics research and professor of psychiatry at Columbia University, released his study of 200 former homosexuals who have experienced a significant transformation from homosexual to heterosexual behavior and maintained it for at least five years. They attributed their success to prayer, therapy, and a strong desire to escape a lifestyle they abhorred.

     "Like most psychiatrists," Spitzer said, "I thought that homosexual behavior could be resisted, but sexual orientation could not be changed. I now believe that's untrue ¾ some people can and do change."

     For years, homosexual activists and the popular media have aggressively promoted the idea that the homosexual is unchangeably what he is from the moment of conception. This message implants in the minds of fair-minded Americans this thought: if you are born a certain way, how can you be judged for being that way?

     But if it is not true that homosexuals are hapless pawns of their biology, the consequences could be enormous. The belief that they are "what God made them" immunizes them from criticism, "normalizes" their behavior, and serves to shield them from the horrible onus of sexual practices that spread AIDS and numerous other heinous diseases.

     A widespread understanding that environmental factors such as early childhood experiences, parental relationships, and cultural conditioning contribute to the development of homosexuality - or work to prevent its development - would cause a significant social revolution in America. Parents might feel at first threatened, then outraged by the flagrant promotion of homosexuality in the classroom, on television, and in the movies. Some Americans would rethink their inclination to believe the Boy Scouts of America is a hate group because BSA does not want practicing homosexuals to serve as scoutmaster role models to young boys.

 Liberated from the myth that homosexuality is "genetic and unchangeable," there would be an       immediate rejection of the homosexual agenda, which includes: the right to marry, the right to adopt and raise children, repeal of sodomy laws, hate-crime laws making crimes against them more significant than crimes against heterosexuals, affirmative-action status that gives them a legal weapon with which to intimidate others, the right to serve openly in the military, and a lowered age for legal consent of sexual behavior.

     So what is the truth? The truth is this: There is no "gay" gene. The scientific search for a biological basis for homosexuality has been a complete failure. Highly touted studies, including the study of the brains of 35 male cadavers by Simon LeVay (1991) and the heralded study of 40 pairs of homosexual brothers by Dean Hamer (1993), have not stood up to rigorous scientific scrutiny.

     The widely respected Dr. Joel Gelertner of Yale University in an article in Science made this observation about various studies trying to link genes with complex human behavior. "All were announced with great fanfare; all were greeted unskeptically in the popular press; all are now in disrepute."

     Studies of identical twins are especially revealing. Identical twins, unlike fraternal twins, have precisely the same genetic makeup. If same-sex orientation were genetically determined, one could expect identical twins to always have the same sexual orientation. Dozens of studies prove they do not. Almost all scientists who have studies human development agree that environmental influences and life experiences play a significant role in essentially all complex human behaviors, including sexual mindsets.

     The bottom line is this: No child is born to be a homosexual. Homosexuals are made, and they can be unmade. This is the truth that more psychiatrists and psychologists need to acknowledge. This is the truth that the American people need to know, parents of young children need to heed, and politicians need to understand.
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    Are there any conditions under which the non-Orthodox may be given the Holy Communion of the Orthodox Church? Is “inter-communion” possible, that is, may Orthodox and heretic share a common Eucharist?

    Before we can answer these questions, we must resolve a few others: What is the relationship between the Eucharist and the Church? Why does the Eucharist exist? Who are members of the Church?

    I think all Orthodox will agree that Christ instituted the Eucharist. He gave the Eucharist to the Church through the Apostles as the sign and seal of unity with Him (Jn. vi, 52-57). It is also true—if we may trust the Gospel narratives—that faith (pistis) and love (agape) are presupposed as something intrinsic to that unity in the Sacrament (Mark xiv, 24).

In other words, the Eucharist is central to our very understanding of the Church. The Church is the fellowship of believers organically united to a high priest (bishop) for the purpose of hearing the divine truth (word) which unites the whole people in the Eucharist, that is, Christ.

    As St. Ignatius of Antioch puts it: “Come together in common, one and all without exception in love (agape), in one faith and in one Jesus Christ…so that with undivided mind you may obey the bishop and the priests, and break one Bread which is the medicine of immortality and the antidote to death, enabling us to live forever in Jesus Christ    (Ep. ad Eph., 20).

    Again, he says: Apart from the bishop, let no one perform any function pertaining to the Church. Let the Eucharist be held true which is offered by the bishop or one to whom the bishop has committed this charge. Wherever the bishop appears, there let the people be; as wherever Jesus Christ is, there is the Catholic Church” (Ep. ad Smyr., 8).

    For a “true Eucharist” to exist St. Ignatius is careful to insist upon “true doctrine”: “Make no mistake, brethren. No one who follows another into schism inherits the Kingdom of God. No one who follows heretical doctrine is on the side of the Passion. Be zealous, therefore, in the observance of the Eucharist. For there is one flesh of our Lord, Jesus Christ, and one chalice that brings union in His Blood. There is one altar, one Bishop…   (Ep. ad Phil., 3-4).

    According to this disciple of St. John the Evangelist and successor to St. Peter, only the Church has a Eucharist and the so-called Communion of heretics is “foreign fodder”: “For the heretics mingle poison with Jesus Christ as men might administer a deadly drug in sweet wine, without giving hint of their wickedness. Thus, without thought or fear of the fatal sweetness, a man drinks his own death” (Ep. ad Tral., 4).

    He exhorts the Trallians to eschew heretics and “keep close to Jesus Christ and the Bishop and the ordinances of the Apostles” (7).

    The writings of St. Ignatius make it very clear that heretics are not members of the Church and that their “eucharist” is but a parody of the Church’s Eucharist.

    Two centuries later, the Latin Father, often considered St. Ignatius’ “Western counter-part,” St. Cyprian of Carthage also had some interesting things to say about “the Eucharist, the Word and the Bishop.” He calls the Eucharist, “the sacrament of unity,” for as the “union of many grains” makes one bread and as the wine which is “pressed from many grapes” makes one chalice, so the Eucharist symbolizes “the unity of God’s People.” Participation in the Body and Blood of Christ announces the oneness of the Church (Ep, LXXV, 6). It is a “oneness” in the bishop (Ep. LXVIII, 8).

    From the unity of God’s Church—and from Her Mysteries—he is separated who “divides the Church, destroys the faith, disturbs the peace, dissipates charity, profanes the sacrament” (De Unit. Eccl., 15). Essential to that “unity,” Cyprian states, is “the bishop,” “the sacrament” and “the apostolic tradition” (9). It is the Devil who seeks to negate these three dimensions of the Church by inventing “heresies and schisms, whereby he might subvert the faith, might corrupt the truth, might divide unity” (3).

    It is evident from the writings of St. Ignatius and St. Cyprian— indeed, from all the Fathers—that without the Eucharist there is no Church; but there can be no Eucharist without the bishop and he is not a bishop who does not believe and teach “the faith once delivered to the saints” (See also Canon I of the 7th Ec. C.).

    For these reasons, then, St. John of Damascus, in his summary of patristic doctrine, wrote:
“For since we partake of one Bread, we all become one Body with Christ; and one Blood, and members of one another, being one with Christ. With all our strength, therefore, let us beware lest we receive Communion from or give it to heretics. ‘Give not what is holy to the dogs,’ says the Lord. ‘Neither cast your pearls before swine,’ lest we become partakers in their dishonor and condemnation. For if union is in truth with Christ and with one another, we are assuredly voluntarily united also with all those who partake with us” (De Fid. Orth. IV, 13).

    In other words, to share “the one Body and Blood” with non-Orthodox is to admit heresy into the Church, to “subvert the faith,” “corrupt the truth” and to “divide unity.”

    There is no Father of the Church, Greek or Latin, who would agree to share the Holy Communion with heretics. Not because the Church is unmerciful, but because the Eucharist exists for Her children, for the fellowship united around the bishop “in truth and love.” To partake of the Holy Communion with heretics is to reject the very reason for which, the condition under which, the Eucharist exists.

    Of course, if one does not confess that Orthodoxy is precisely the Church and concedes that the Papacy—which has added to the Apostolic Tradition—and Protestants—who have subtracted from it—are in the Church, then, the whole question of “inter-communion” may be viewed by the Orthodox as nothing more than a canonical problem.

    But, then, such an attitude must be taken as a radical revision of traditional Orthodox ecclesiology. The Eucharist, the Word and the Bishop are three dimensions of the same reality, the sine qua non of the Church, without which there can be no Church.

    The Orthodox Church cannot give Papists and Protestants the Holy Communion because they are “heretics,” that is, not members of the Church by virtue of their doctrinal deficiencies which denies to them, consequently, both the Bishop and the Eucharist. In a word, the idea of “intercommunion” is theological nonsense. As the Orthodox representatives at Oberlin declared in 1957:

    “Communion in worship is only possible in the unity of faith. Communion presupposes Unity. Therefore, the term ‘inter-communion’ seems to us an epitome of that conception we are compelled to reject. An inter-communion presupposes the existence of several separate or separated denominations which join occasionally in certain acts or actions. In the true Unity of Christ’s Church, there is no room for several “denominations.” There is, therefore, no room for “inter-communion.”
Under such circumstances, moreover, it is difficult to see how the Antiochian Orthodox Church, recognizing the ostensible "mysteries" of the Monophysites, can avoid the conclusion that she is in communion with them. I am curious to watch her justify this intercommunion with the so called "Orientals" who condemn the Fourth Ecumenical Council, as well as all of the subsequent Ecumenical Councils. How will she treat the canons that forbid even prayer with these heretics? Shall we call the Antiochian jurisdiction Orthodox despite her contempt for Orthodox ecclesiology? She will not admit, of course, that she has Ecumenism to thank for this innovative understanding of the heterodox, for this new relationship with the "Orientals" or "non-Chalcedonians."

    It takes no master logician to identify Ecumenism as responsible for the growing disunity in Orthodoxy, the subversion of the Faith, the corruption of the Truth, the apostasy of bishops, and blasphemy against the Eucharist --- a tragedy in which the Antiochian Orthodox Church is in the forefront.

    Taking into consideration all these facts, we must view the recent sacramental concessions of “World Orthodoxy” to the heterodox with genuine alarm. The ecclesiological implications of these action are momentous. Either these Patriarchs and their Holy Synods believe that the heterodox are a “church” or that the Eucharist may be given to heretics despite their separation from the Church. Neither position is justifiable if we accept the Biblical, Patristic and the Oberlin witness to the Apostolic Tradition.

    Under such circumstances, moreover, it is difficult to see how “World Orthodoxy” can avoid the conclusion that it is now in communion with heresy. I am most curious to understand how it will justify its extra-doctrinal, extra-canonical actions and the criteria which it will use to reconcile its position with traditional Orthodox ecclesiology. Personally, I can no longer consider “World Orthodoxy” as Orthodox. I am still pondering the question: if an Orthodox bishop condones and ratifies the “Balamand Statement” and the agreement with the “Oriental Churches,”—that is, if he remains in communion with those who condone and ratify these statements— is he not in communion with heresy? Would it not be possible for me to convert to Roman Catholicism or the “non-Chalcedonian” Coptic “Church” and still remain Orthodox— inasmuch as the Eucharist defines the limits of the Church?

    Is it not to Ecumenism to which we must assign these lamentable developments within World Orthodoxy? Does not communion with World Orthodoxy’s jurisdictions now separate us, alas, from the Church, from Christ Himself?

An earlier edition of this text originally appeared in the Saint Nectarios Education Series, #52
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Editor’s Note:
    Since this Patristically grounded article was first published in 1969, another landmark has been canonically introduced, viz. The Anathema Against Ecumenism of 1983, unanimously signed by all the Bishops of the Holy Synod of the Russian Church Outside of Russia under the Presidency of the New Confessor, Saint Philaret of New York. At that time the aforementioned Holy Synod directed that this Anathema be added to the Synodicon of Orthodoxy. The text of this Anathema is to be found in The True Vine, Nos. 27 & 28, Spring 2000, pp 71ff; please see also p. 72 n. 93 of the same issue.

    Put under Anathema are all those “…who do not distinguish the priesthood and mysteries of the Church from those of the heretics, but say that the baptism and eucharist are effectual for salvation.…”

    On September 21 the icons of six Holy Prophets, as well as of 8 Seraphim were installed in the dome of St. Nectarios Church. The icons were painted by iconographer Andrij Maday. Mr. Maday is the official iconographer for the Church. He has indicated that he would like to make our church a real spiritual “gem”. Each additional installed icon makes that goal closer to being fulfilled.

    The first Divine Liturgy at St. Peter the Aleut American Orthodox Mission was celebrated on September 9, 2001(n.s.), by the V. Rev. Neketas S. Palassis of St. Nectarios American Orthodox Church in Seattle, Washington.

    Fr. Neketas arrived in the Bay Area on Saturday September 8th and served Vespers that evening in our chapel.  On Sunday we had 40 people gathered in prayer in our small chapel, a witness to the fact that we need a new and larger space for our Divine Services.  After receiving the Holy Mysteries and the conclusion of the Divine Liturgy, all of us gathered for fellowship with one another and discussed our Holy Orthodox Faith.

    On Saturday, Sept 29th, Fr. Neketas read the prayers receiving my 60 year old father as a catechumen into the Church. On Sunday, Sept 30th, Fr. Neketas once again served the Divine Liturgy for our small but growing community.

    The members of the Mission of St. Peter the Aleut, located in Hayward, California, are presently being served by Fr. Sergius of St. Gregory of Sinai Monastery and Fr. Neketas of St. Nectarios Church, Seattle. The members make their pilgrimages to the Monastery several times a month. Presently individuals and families come from St. Helena, Vallejo, San Francisco, Oakland, Fairfield, and Hayward for the Sunday Divine Liturgies. Many of those attending are looking forward to their reception into the church through either baptism or Chrismation.

    In November, Metropolitan Ephraim will visit the mission and serve Divine Liturgy there and discuss the organizational details of the mission. God willing, Fr. Peter Farnsworth (from Worcester, Ma.) will celebrate the Divine Liturgy for the parishioners on Dec. 9th. It is Fr. Peter’s hope to serve the mission during Holy Week and Pascha, also..

    Timothy Vargas, the mission’s founder who hosts the mission’s chapel, has announced that Fr. Peter has indicated that the mission does NOT need any liturgical vessels or books or icons. Father Peter will be bringing with him all the liturgical vessels, books and icons that he presently has in his own private chapel.

    Anyone wishing to help the property acquisition fund should make their checks payable to: St. Nectarios Church and ear-marked St. Peter Aleut Property Fund. Checks should be sent to

    Until the parish is formerly incorporated all donations should be made to St. Nectarios Church which will hold all donations in trust until the formal incorporation of the mission.
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    It is that time of the year when the secular society in which we live is preparing for the festival of Halloween. Though non-Orthodox Christians, our schools, our local community organizations and all forms of entertainment in television, radio and the press will share in and capitalize upon the festival of Halloween, it is impossible for Orthodox Christians to participate in this event at any level. The issue involved is simple faithfulness to God and the Holy Orthodox Christian faith. Halloween has its roots in paganism and continues to be a form of idolatry in which Satan, the angel of death, is worshipped. As we know, the very foundation of our Holy Church is built upon the blood of the martrys who refused under the painful penalties of cruel torture and death to worship, venerate, or pay obeisance in any way to the idols who are Satan's angels. Because of the faithfulness through obedience and self-sacrifice of the Holy Martyrs, God poured out upon His Holy Church abundant Grace and its numbers were increased daily, precisely at a time when one would have expected the threat of persecution to extinguish the flame of faith. But, contrary to the world's understanding, humble faithfulness and obedience to God are the very life lines of our life in Christ through Whom we are given true spiritual peace, love and joy, and participation in the miraculous workings of His Holy Spirit. There- fore the Holy Church calls us to faithfulness by our turning away from falsehood toward Truth and eternal life.

    With regard to our non-participation in the pagan festival of Halloween, we will be strengthened by an understanding of the spiritual roots and history of this anti-Christian feast. The feast of Halloween began in pre-Christian times among the Celtic peoples of Great Britain, Ireland and northern France. These pagan peoples believed that life was born from death. Therefore, they celebrated the beginning of the "new year" in the fall (on the eve of October 31 and into the day of November 1) when, as they believed, the season of cold, darkness, decay and death began. A certain deity whom they called Samhain was believed by the Celts to be the Lord of Death and it was he whom they honored at their New Year's festival.

    There were, from an Orthodox Christian point of view, many diabolical beliefs and practices associated with this feast which, it will be clear, have endured to this time. On the eve of the New Year's festival, the Druids who were the priests of the Celtic cult, instructed their people to extinguish all hearth fires and lights. On the evening of the festival a huge bonfire built from oak branches, which they believed to be sacred, was ignited. Upon this fire sacrifices of crops, animals and even human beings were burned as an offering in order to appease and cajole Samhain, the Lord of Death. It was also believed that Samhain, being pleased by their faithful offerings, allowed the souls of the dead to return to their homes for a festal visit on this day. It is from this belief that the practice of wandering about in the dark dressed up in costumes imitating ghosts, witches, hobgoblins, fairies and demons grew up. For the living entered into fellowship and communion with the dead by what was, and still is, a ritual act of imitation, through costume and the activity of wandering around in the dark of night, even as the souls of the dead were believed to wander.

    The dialogue of trick or treat is also an integral part of this system of beliefs and practices. It was believed that the souls of the dead who had entered into the world of darkness, decay and death, and therefore into total communion with and submission to Samhain the Lord of Death, bore the affliction of great hunger on their festal visit. Out of this grew the practice of begging which was a further ritual enactment and imitation of what the Celts believed to be the activities of the souls of the dead on their festal visit. Associated with this is the still further implication that if the souls of the dead and their imitators were not appeased with "treats", i.e. offerings, then the wrath and anger of Samhain, whose angels and servants the souls-and their imitators had become, would be un- leashed through a system of "tricks," or, as an Orthodox Christian would under- stand it, curses.

    Obviously then, from an Orthodox Christian point of view, participation in these practices at any level is impossible and idolatrous, a genuine betrayal of our God and our Holy Faith. For if we participate in the ritual activity of imitating the dead by dressing up in their attire or by wandering about in the dark, or by begging with them, then we have willfully sought fellowship with the dead, whose Lord is not Samhain as the Celts believed but Satan, the Evil One who stands against God. Further, if we submit to the dialogue of "trick or treat," we make our offering not to innocent little children, but rather to Samhain, the Lord of Death whom they have come to serve as imitators of the dead, wandering in the dark of night.

    Evil spirits do exist. The devil exists. Christ came into the world "so that, through death, He might destroy him that had the dominion of death, that is, the Devil" (Hebrews 2:14). It is imperative for us to realize as Christians that our greatest foes are not our political enemies, but the Evil One who inspires nations and individuals to sin against mankind, and who prevents them from coming to a knowledge of the truth. Unless we realize that Satan is our real enemy, we can never hope for spiritual progress within our lives. "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the world rulers of the darkness of this age, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Ephesians 6:12).
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TIME MAGAZINE'S NEW APE-MAN PUBLICATION'S LATEST EVOLUTION CONTENTION LESS-THAN-BELIEVABLE

By James Perloff  © 2001 WorldNetDaily.com  Tuesday, July 24, 2001

In 1999, following the controversial de-emphasis of evolution in Kansas schools, Time magazine struck in its August 23 issue with an editorial denouncing creationists and a huge cover story called "How Man Evolved." The latter displayed man's supposed oldest ancestor ­Ardipithecus ramidus while neglecting to tell readers that its fragments had been found scattered over an area of about one mile, and put together to form a "missing link." Time's cover was of a reconstructed ape-man skull, yet well less than half the skull consisted of actual fossil fragments ­ the rest was plaster, molded by imagination.

The most recent issue of Time, dated July 23, takes no less liberty. On the cover is a painting of an ape-man called Ardipithecus ramidus kadabba with the headline "How Apes Became Human." Inside, the article begins: "Meet your newfound ancestor." The painting is based on some fragmentary bones recently found in Ethiopia by a graduate student named Yohannes Haile-Selassie. Time assures its readers that the creature walked upright. The evidence for this? A single toe bone. Time displays the bone with the unequivocal caption: "THIS TOE BONE PROVES THE CREATURE WALKED ON TWO LEGS." But not until the last page of the eight-page article do readers learn that the toe bone was actually found some ten miles from the other bones. What evidence exists that the toe bone belonged to Haile-Selassie's other specimens? None, other than speculation.

There is great danger in basing conclusions on a single bone. In 1922, paleontologist Henry Fairfield Osborn, an ardent evolutionist, was shown a single tooth found in Nebraska by geologist Harold Cook. After examining it, Osborn declared it belonged to an early ape-man, whom he named Hesperopithecus haroldcookii in Cook's honor. Popularly, it became known as "Nebraska Man."

Osborn hailed the tooth as "the herald of anthropoid apes in America." At the American Museum of Natural History, William K. Gregory and Milo Hellman, specialists in teeth, said after careful study that the tooth was from a species closer to man than ape. Harris Hawthorne Wilder, a zoology professor at Smith College, wrote: "Judging from the tooth alone the animal seems to have been about halfway between Pithecanthropus [Java Man] and the man of the present day, or perhaps better between Pithecanthropus and the man of the Neanderthal type. ..." In England, evolutionist Grafton Elliot Smith convinced the Illustrated London News to publish an artist's rendering of Nebraska Man. The picture, which appeared in a two-page spread and received wide distribution, showed two brutish, naked ape-persons, the male with a club, the female gathering roots. All this from one tooth.

However, further excavations at Cook's site revealed that the tooth belonged neither to ape nor man, but to a peccary, a close relative of the pig. Or take the Piltdown Man. It was declared an ape-man, 500,000 years old, and validated by many of Britain's leading scientists, including Grafton Elliot Smith, anatomist Sir Arthur Keith and British Museum geologist Arthur Smith Woodward. At the time the discovery was announced (1912), the New York Times ran this headline: "Darwin Theory Proved True." For the next four decades, Piltdown Man was evolution's greatest showcase, featured in textbooks and encyclopedias.

0 But what did the Piltdown Man actually consist of? A very recent orangutan jaw, which had been stained to look old, with its teeth filed down to make them more human-looking, planted together with a human skull bone, also stained to create an appearance of age.

Those who think such mistakes no longer occur need only consider the Archaeoraptor, promoted in a 10-page color spread in the November 1999 National Geographic as the "true missing link" between dinosaurs and birds. The fossil was displayed at National Geographic's Explorers Hall and viewed by over 100,000 people. However, it too turned out to be a fake ­ someone had simply glued together fragments of bird and dinosaur fossils.

Even if Time turns out to be correct, and Ardipithecus ramidus kadabba walked on two feet, would it prove he was our "newfound ancestor"? This assertion is based on a long-standing evolutionary assumption, usually stated something like this: "Humans are the only creatures that have evolved to the point where they can walk on two feet; therefore, if we can find the fossil of an animal that could walk on two feet, such a creature was our ancestor."

However, the assumption that two-footed mobility establishes human kinship is groundless. Gorillas occasionally walk bipedally; Tanzanian chimpanzees are seen standing on two legs when gathering fruit from small trees; Zaire's pygmy chimpanzee walks upright so often that it has been dubbed "a living link." Science News reports of the latter: "Like modern gorillas they tend to be knuckle-walkers on the ground, yet they seem to be natural bipeds, too, frequently walking upright both on the ground and in the trees." So even if a fossil creature did have some limited ability to stand on two feet, it doesn't make it man's ancestor any more than these modern apes. And man is not the only bipedal creature. Birds are bipedal; so was the T. rex. Therefore, are they human
ancestors?

Time refers to "fossil discoveries as far back as Java Man in the 1890s" as validating the relationship between man and ape. But Time does not relate much of what is known about those finds.

 The Java Man story began with Ernst Haeckel, the German zoologist who has become notorious for using fraudulent drawings of embryos to prove the theory of evolution (See the July issue of WorldNet Magazine). Haeckel was convinced that an ape-man must have existed, and he named it Pithecanthropus
alalus: ape-man without speech.

One of Haeckel's students, Eugene Dubois, became determined to find Pithecanthropus. Haeckel believed men might have separated from apes somewhere in Southern Asia. So in 1887, Dubois signed up as a doctor with the Dutch medical corps in the Dutch East Indies (now Indonesia), intending to hunt for fossils during all his spare time. Dubois, it should be noted, had no formal training in geology or paleontology at the time, and his "archaeological team" consisted of prison convicts with two army corporals as supervisors.

Years of excavation produced little of significance. Then, in 1891, along Java's Solo River, the laborers dug up a skullcap that appeared rather apelike, with a low forehead and large eyebrow ridges. Dubois initially considered it from a chimpanzee, even though there is no evidence that this ape ever lived in Asia. However, the following year, the diggers unearthed a thigh bone that was clearly human.

Dubois, like Piltdown's discoverers, presumed that an apelike bone somewhere near a human bone meant the two belonged to the same creature, constituting Darwin's missing link. Haeckel, who had not even seen the bones, telegraphed Dubois: "From the inventor of Pithecanthropus to his happy discoverer!"

In 1895, Dubois returned to Europe and displayed his fossils. The response from experts was mixed, however. Rudolph Virchow, who had once been Haeckel's professor and is regarded as the father of modern pathology, said: "In my opinion, this creature was an animal, a giant gibbon, in fact. The thigh bone has not the slightest connection with the skull."

The circumstances of Dubois' find were unorthodox. He had apparently been absent when the convicts dug up his fossils. Maps and diagrams of the site were not made until after the excavation. Under such conditions, a modern dig would be disregarded.

In 1907, an expedition of German scientists from various disciplines, led by Professor M. Lenore Selenka, traveled to Java seeking more clues to man's ancestry in the region of Dubois' discovery. However, no evidence for Pithecanthropus was found. In the stratum of Dubois' find, the scientists found hearths and flora and fauna that looked rather modern. The expedition's report also noted a nearby volcano that caused periodic flooding in the area. Java Man had been found in volcanic sediments. The report observed that the chemical nature of those sediments, not ancient age, probably caused the fossilization of Pithecanthropus.

Nevertheless, the Selenka findings and various deficiencies of Dubois' work were largely ignored, and Java Man became one of evolution's undisputed "facts."

Then there was Peking Man, worked on and validated by a number of Piltdown alumni, including Davidson Black, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and Smith. In seeing textbook portrayals of Peking Man, few students learned that the skulls had been found in scattered little fragments, and that the reconstructions were actually composites taken from various individuals. Where fragments were missing, plaster substituted, and the famous final images of Peking Man were the creations of a sculptress named Lucille Swann. Later, all of the Peking Man fossils mysteriously vanished, except for a couple of teeth, preventing Peking Man from being subjected to the kind of checking that doomed Piltdown Man.

Neanderthals were long portrayed as ape-men, stooped over. This misconception was largely the result of a faulty reconstruction by French paleontologist Marcellin Boule, who mistook the skeleton of a man with kyphosis (hunchback) for an ape-man in the process of becoming upright. Another snag: Neanderthal skulls are larger than those of modern humans. This flies in the face of evolutionary tradition, which says that man evolved progressively from creatures with smaller brains and skulls. In any event, Neanderthals are no longer classed as "ape-men," and some evolutionists have even discarded them as human ancestors. Which basically leaves us with australopithecines, currently in vogue as man's ancestor.

However, australopithecine fossils show that they had long forearms and short hind legs, like today's apes. They also had long curved fingers and toes, like those apes use for tree-swinging. This may pose a problem for Time's thesis, since it claims the toe bone of Ardipithecus ramidus kadabba was over 5 million years old, yet relatively human-like ­ implying that it was more evolved than the toes of australopithecines, who supposedly came 2 million years later.

The main substance to the claim that australopithecines are our ancestors is some evidence suggesting that the famed "Lucy" and her peers may have walked upright. But as noted, limited bipedality does not prove human ancestry, and a number of scientists ­ contrary to the impression created in Time ­ have disagreed that australopithecines are man's relatives.

Britain's Lord Solly Zuckerman, who was raised to peerage for his scientific achievements, was a leading authority on australopithecines, having subjected them to years of biometric testing. He stated:

    For my own part, the anatomical basis for the claim that the australopithecines walked and ran upright like man is so much     more flimsy than the evidence which points to the conclusion that their gait was some variant of what one sees in subhuman     primates, that it remains unacceptable.

Charles Oxnard, former director of graduate studies and professor of anatomy at the University of Southern California Medical School, subjected australopithecine fossils to extensive computer analysis. Stephen Jay Gould called him "our leading expert on the quantitative study of skeletons." Oxnard concluded:

    [T]he australopithecines known over the last several decades are now irrevocably removed from a place in the evolution of     human bipedalism, possibly from a place in a group any closer to humans than to African apes and certainly from any place in     the direct human lineage. All of this should make us wonder about the usual presentation of human evolution in introductory textbooks, in encyclopaedias and in popular publications. In such volumes not only are australopithecines described as being     of known bodily size and shape, but as possessing such abilities as bipedality and tool-using and -making and such     developments as the use of fire and specific social structures. Even facial features are happily (and non-scientifically) reconstructed.

The July 23 Time includes a graphic showing the evolution of man, starting with the supposed Ardipithecus ramidus kadabba, with progressively more human figures culminating in man. However, it is very easy to arrange bones to demonstrate "evolutionary progress." In 1927, Osborn, along with other evolutionists, created a diagram of man's evolution. Skulls were displayed in progressive order. No. 1 in the sequence was the fraudulent Piltdown Man. No. 4 was a Neanderthal; No. 6 Cro-Magnon Man. No. 8 was labeled "Australian" (aborigine). No. 9? "Negro." No. 10? "Chinese." No. 11 (and last)? "Caucasian."

 Because 99 percent of an organism's biology resides in its soft anatomy, it is very easy to invest a bone with imagination. For this reason ­ despite the protests of Darwinists ­ evolutionary anthropology is not a science like physics or chemistry. The laws of physics and chemistry can be demonstrated in a high school laboratory. Evolutionary anthropology, on the other hand, consists of speculations about unobserved events that supposedly occurred millions of years ago. Science cannot observe the past with the same authority as the present. As Lowenstein and Zihlman noted in New Scientist: "The subjective element in this approach to building evolutionary trees, which many palaeontologists advocate with almost religious fervor, is demonstrated by the outcome: There is no single family tree on which they agree."

There was a wealth of evidence concerning the assassination of John F. Kennedy: hundreds of eyewitnesses interviewed by the Warren Commission; the Zapruder movie that caught the actual slaying; the autopsy; fingerprint evidence; ballistics evidence. Nevertheless, controversy has never stopped raging about what actually took place. Scores of books challenged the evidence, offering widely differing explanations as to who killed Kennedy, from what angle(s) he was shot, etc. Even the autopsy results were challenged in a best-selling book.

Granted, the Kennedy assassination was a politically charged event. Nonetheless, if that much disagreement can occur over something that happened just 38 years ago, how can a paleontologist pick up a fragment of bone, supposedly 5 million years old, and declare its meaning with a high degree of certainty? Unlike the Kennedy assassination, there are no eyewitnesses who saw this creature, no Zapruder movie of it, no soft tissues to examine.

Other weaknesses permeate the Time article. It states that Haile-Selassie's bones are known to be 5.6-5.8 billion years old, because this "can be accurately gauged by a technique known as argon-argon dating." It says the result was "confirmed by a second dating method." However, argon-argon dating has been demonstrated in various studies to be unreliable, and Time doesn't mention what the second method was.

Time refers to the "astonishingly complete skeleton of Lucy"­ but those words belie the fact that about 60 percent of Lucy's skeleton, including most of the skull, was missing.

In explaining why apes began to walk upright, Time quotes anthropologist C. Owen Lovejoy: "To walk upright you have to do so in synchrony. If the ligaments and muscles are out of synch, that leads to injuries. And then you'd be cheetah meat." But even fully coordinated, healthy human beings cannot outrun a cheetah!

Time also neglects the fact that species vary widely within themselves. Darwinian anthropologists use cranial capacity (skull size) to judge the evolutionary status of our supposed ancestors, but even in modern humans, cranial capacity ranges from 700 to 2200 cubic centimeters, and has no bearing on intelligence. People's bone structure varies greatly, based on heredity, age, sex, health and climate. Some are big-boned, some small-boned. There are sumo wrestlers and pygmies. Doubtless, our ancient forebears were also diverse in their looks. How, then, can one assign a single fossil bone to a distinct place in human history? Apes vary widely, too; australopithecines may simply be a type that became extinct. Science journalist Roger Lewin, though an outspoken evolutionist, has noted:

    It is an unfortunate truth that fossils do not emerge from the ground with labels already attached to them. And it is bad enough     that much of the labeling was done in the name of egoism and a naive lack of appreciation of variation between individuals;     each nuance in shape was taken to indicate a difference in type rather than natural variation within a population.

Another oddity surfaces in Time's diagram of the evolution of humans, chimps and gorillas. Human ancestors are shown going back almost 6 million years. But no chimpanzee or gorilla ancestors are depicted before a million years ago. If chimps and humans really diverged about 7 million years ago, as Time asserts, then where are all the fossils of chimpanzee and gorilla ancestors? Why does every bone fragment turn out to be a human ancestor?

Perhaps that question was answered by Dr. Tim White, anthropologist at the University of California, Berkeley. Though quoted in Time, and noted as Haile-Selassie's thesis adviser, he has previously stated: "The problem with a lot of anthropologists is that they want so much to find a hominid that any scrap of bone becomes a hominid bone."

As creationist Marvin Lubenow notes, "No one will care if you discover the oldest fossil broccoli, but if you are fortunate enough to discover the oldest fossil human, the world will beat a path to your door."

Editor's note: James Perloff covers the debate over evolution in more detail in his cover story for the July edition of WorldNet magazine, WorldNetDaily.com's offline companion. Entitled "EVOLUTION: The complex and profound basis of all life, or a fairy tale for scientists who reject God?" Perloff's investigative report is a must-read for anyone interested in the origins of life. Readers may subscribe to WorldNet at WND's online store.

Perloff's book, "Tornado in a Junkyard," has been widely praised as one of the most reader-friendly ­ yet scientifically accurate ­ books available on the fallacies of evolution. It sells in WND's online store for $16.95, plus $5 shipping. But between now and the end of this month (while supplies last), new 2-year subscribers to WorldNet can receive the book FREE ­ a $21.95 value.