OCTOBER 2003, Vol. XXXVII, No. 10 (1529)

 

1. MARRIAGE AND PROCREATION (concluded), p. 2
2. WHAT IS A GOOD MAN, p. 7
3. JUDGING ONE’S NEIGHBOR, p.9
4. POLITICAL MYTHOLOGY AND THE UNBORN CHILD, p. 11
5. CONCERNING THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL IN HALKI IN 1844, p.14
6. WHY WE HAVE MEMORIAL SERVICES, p. 17
7. NEW ITEMS FROM THE BOOK CENTER, P.19

 

 

 

1. MARRIAGE AND PROCREATION

by Metropolitan Ephraim of Boston

(continued from September issue)

 

There are some further considerations: As a loving mother, the Church also knows that, at every turn, in every event of their lives, and on countless occasions, her children are faced with temptations, with the possibilities and actualities of sin, with an inclination toward evil thoughts and acts. Conception, pregnancy, and childbirth—the entire process of procreation—are certainly no exception, and, indeed, present innumerable occasions for sickness, mental and bodily anguish, and every sort of temptation. Truly, as the Prophet-King David writes, “For behold, I was conceived in iniquities, and in sins did my mother bear me” (Psalm 50:5). Because of our various weaknesses and the temptations we suffer, we are constantly in need of God’s mercy, healing, and forgiveness. This, too, is why the Church expresses these very sentiments when she prays with the words: “. . . . forgive Thy handmaid (name) who hath given birth today” and “Wash away her body’s impurity and the stain of her soul now that she has completed her forty days.”

As is also evident from the prayers of the Church and from the Service of Marriage, that which concerns the Church is that the childbirth be safe for the mother, and that the children be healthy, virtuous, and a source of joy to their parents.

 

LET US NOW EXAMINE how the Holy Fathers interpret the passage “Increase and multiply, and fill the earth” (Gen. 1:28 ). We will find that their understanding and range of interpretations on this passage are far greater than we may have anticipated.

Special attention should be paid to the fact that, in the interpretation and correct understanding of the text “increase and multiply,” we are speaking here about a commandment of God. No one, including monastics, is permitted to transgress God’s commandments. However, if the commandment is an order only to bear children, then monastics – by their very vocation – are transgressors of God’s law. Consequently, we are obliged to uphold St. Gregory of Nyssa’s interpretation of this passage, because otherwise we would be forced to conclude that all monastics (and even St. Paul) are despisers of God’s commandments and that, indeed, they are condemned as such by those who interpret this particular passage to refer only to the birth and rearing of children.

 

Commentaries of the Holy Fathers

On the passage “Increase and multiply, and fill the earth” (Gen. 1:28)

 

“And God blessed them and said, ‘Increase and multiply, and fill the earth.” There is a twofold increase: one of the body, and one of the soul. The soul’s increase, however, is that growth which achieves maturity through instruction; whereas the body’s increase is the development that comes from what is smaller to what is a proper measure [of growth]. Accordingly, “increase” for irrational animals pertains to the maturity of the body, according to nature’s order, but for us, “increase” pertains to the inner man, according to the progress that leads us to God, which Paul speaks of: “Forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before” (Philip. 3:13). This is the increase of mystic visions, the acquisition of godliness, the attainment of fullness [in grace], that we may ever yearn for the things that truly are…Increase, then, with the increase that brings perfection according to God, according to the inner man. Multiply the churches with blessing. Let not discourse concerning God be limited to one place, but let the gospel of salvation be preached throughout all the earth. “Multiply.” Who? Ye that are born according to the Gospel. “Fill the earth.” That is, the flesh [your earthen body] that is given to you for serving [God and mankind]. Let your eye be filled with beholding what is proper. Let you hand be filled with good works. Let the feet be for visiting the sick, and useful for transporting you to what is seemly. Let the whole constitution of your members be filled with works that follow the commandments. This is the meaning of “fill the earth.” The same words were spoken to the irrational animals also, but they take on special significance [for our kind] when we employ that which is “according to the image,” with which we were honored. For the first [the animals] increase bodily, but we spiritually; they fill the earth with their numbers, but we fill with good works the earth to which we are bound; this is our bodily ministry…”

 

“And fill the earth.” Fill it not by habitation, for if it were so, we the living would be constricted, if the earth were as large as our numbers would be. Rather, fill it with your authority. For to us is given rule over the earth. “Fill the earth.” No doubt, men fill it also by necessity, but He has made us lords to fill it, and we fill it with our thought… “Fill the earth.” He has made us lords. We have dominion over all of the earth, even though we do not have the use of [all of] it… “And fill the earth, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowls of the air, and over the beasts of the earth.” This blessing, this legislation, this dignity has been given to us by God.  (St. Gregory of Nyssa, On the Scriptural Passage, “Let us make man…,” Homily I and II, PG, 44:281-184; 272)

 

“But they will perhaps ask, what then is the meaning of ‘male and female’ (Gen. 1:27) and ‘Be fruitful and multiply?’ (Gen. 1:28) In answer we shall say that ‘Be fruitful and multiply’ does not altogether refer to the multiplying by the marriage connection. For God had power to multiply the race also in different ways, if they kept the precept unbroken to the end. But God, Who knows all things before they have existence, knowing in His foreknowledge that they would fall into transgression in the future and be condemned to death, anticipated this and made ‘male and female,’ and bade them ‘be fruitful and multiply.’”  (St. John of Damascus, Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, Book IV, chap. 24)

 

“…These words, then, must not be understood only literally, but also spiritually, as referring to Christ and the Church. And [St. Methodius] says that the divine Paul, after expounding these words, says, ‘This is a great mystery; but I speak concerning Christ and the Church’ (Eph 5:32). But even the words ‘increase and multiply’ were spoken not only concerning those who are born of seed and martial relations, or concerning the increase in vegetation, but also concerning those who are born and made perfect in the Spirit, as Paul also exclaims, addressing as children those who were born in this manner through him. For he says, ‘My little children, for whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you’ (Gal 4:19). And again, ‘for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the gospel’” (I Cor 4:15).  (St. Photius the Great, Myriobiblos, 237, PG 103:1161)

 

“We have now established, by means of Scriptural arguments that are not to be ignored, the fact that the first man may properly be referred to Christ Himself, inasmuch as he is not merely a figure and representation and image of the Only-Begotten, but precisely this has he become – Wisdom and the Word. For human nature, mingled like water with Wisdom and Life, has become one with that pure Light which inundated it. Hence the Apostle could apply directly to Christ, as arrows to their mark, all that was said of Adam. Thus would it be in excellent accord with this that the Church has been formed from His flesh and bone. For it was for her sake that the Word left His Heavenly Father and came down to earth in order to cling to His Spouse, and slept in the ecstasy of His Passion. Voluntarily did He die for her sake ‘that He might present her to Himself a glorious Church and without blemish, cleansing her by the laver’ [i.e., baptism; vid. Eph. 5:27,26] for the reception of that blessed spiritual seed which He sows and plants by secret inspiration in the depths of the soul; and like a woman the Church conceives of this seed and forms it until the day she bears and nurtures it as virtue.

 

“So too the word ‘Increase and multiply’ (Gen. 1:28) is duly fulfilled as the Church grows day by day in size and in beauty and numbers, thanks to the intimate union between her and the Word, coming down to us even now and continuing His ecstasy in the memorial of His Passion [i.e. the Holy Eucharist]. For otherwise the Church could not conceive and bring forth the faithful by ‘the laver of regeneration’ (Titus 3:5) unless Christ emptied Himself for them too for their conception of Him, as I have said, in the recapitulation of His Passion, and came down from Heaven to die again, and clung to His Spouse, the Church, allowing to be removed from His side a power by which all may grow strong who are built upon Him, who have been born by the laver and receive of His flesh and bone, that is, of His holiness and glory. Correctly interpreted, the flesh and bone of Wisdom is understanding and virtue; and His side is the Spirit of Truth, the Comforter, from Whom the illuminated [i.e., the newly baptized] receive and by whom they are rightly begotten into immortality.”  (St. Methodius of Olympus, The Symposium – A Treatise on Chastity, Homily 3,8)

 

ON THIS QUESTION of marriage and procreation, we have primarily chosen to allow the Holy Fathers to speak for themselves. As we pointed out at the beginning of this paper, the views that they present us are far more nuanced and varied than some would lead us to believe. It is evident that this variety of opinion among the Saints addresses people who are “at different points in their spiritual development.” There is, and can be, no one answer for everyone. The Church Fathers, as we have seen, offer certain basic guidelines, but also a variety of opinions within these guidelines. What is suitable for one, is not suitable for the other. One individual can climb the mountain in a few hours; the second will need a few days; the third may require a lifetime; the fourth may hardly make it past the foothills. Not all have the same spiritual abilities, not all have the same weaknesses. The experienced spiritual father knows this, and must gauge his spiritual counsel accordingly. This is how it has always been, and this is how it shall always be. In any case, Canon 102 of Quinisext demonstrates how the spiritual father must use a variety of spiritual medicines in order to heal and spiritually strengthen and edify various individuals. This is what the holy Canon says:

 

CANON 102.

 

IT behooves those who have received from God the power to loose and bind, to consider the quality of the sin and the readiness of the sinner for conversion, and to apply medicine suitable for the disease, lest if he is injudicious in each of these respects he should fail in regard to the healing of the sick man. For the disease of sin is not simple, but various and multiform, and it germinates many mischievous offshoots, from which much evil is diffused, and it proceeds further until it is checked by the power of the physician. Wherefore he who professes the science of spiritual medicine ought first of all to consider the disposition of him who has sinned, and to see whether he tends to health or (on the contrary) provokes to himself disease by his own behaviour, and to look how he can care for his manner of life during the interval. And if he does not resist the physician, and if the ulcer of the soul is increased by the application of the imposed medicaments, then let him mete out mercy to him according as he is worthy of it. For the whole account is between God and him to whom the pastoral rule has been delivered, to lead back the wandering sheep and to cure that which is wounded by the serpent; and that he may neither cast them down into the precipices of despair, nor loosen the bridle towards dissolution or contempt of life; but in some way or other, either by means of sternness and astringency, or by greater softness and mild medicines, to resist this sickness and exert himself for the healing of the ulcer, now examining the fruits of his repentance and wisely managing the man who is called to higher illumination. For we ought to know two things, to wit, the things which belong to strictness and those which belong to custom, and to follow the traditional form in the case of those who are not fitted for the highest things, as holy Basil teaches us.

 

There is one standard of health that is set before all (“Be ye perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect”—Matt. 5:48), but the doctor who applies one medication to all patients will cause more harm than good.

 

Clearly, then, this is a matter of pastoral discernment and wisdom. “He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.” Amen.

 

XEphraim, Metropolitan of Boston

 

2.  What is a Good Man?

By Father Michael Azkoul

Originally printed in St. Nectarios Educational Series No. 55

 

Too many people just assume that they know what a "good man" is. Because a man or an organization (composed of "good men") builds hospitals, schools, an orphanage, an old folks home, gives to medical research to needy relatives, to charities, or because he is pleasant, honest, kind, loyal, refined, cheerful, honorable, or possesses those qualities which endears him to his neighbor, he is called "good", a "good man". I repeat, people assume that a "good man" is defined in this manner, but rarely do people critically examine the assumption to discover whether a "good man" may actually be what he is generally accepted to be.

 

The thinking on the "good man" has simply ignored Christianity and naturally Orthodoxy which is true Christianity. Christian experience, dogma, doctrine, canon law, are casually excluded as something personal and having little to do with the essential character of a "good man". The Church is "what you make it" and very few people would include in their definition of a "good man" his religion. Surely, he is expected to have one and must live up to it, but as such, it is secondary in the analysis. Of course, he must believe in God (whatever that means), but "each in his own way and each in his own words."

 

Now, can these ideas about the "good man" be reconciled with the Christian Truth? Is a "good man" (in the Christian and only sense) to be identified with the common conception of him? Is a "good man", as is ordinarily believed, a man who does "good", "good" as we usually think of it? Is the belief, any belief in God, sufficient to make a man "good"? What is the source of our opinions concerning the "good man"? Are they from God or men? Are the ideas that most of us hold on this matter given by our environment or are they the revelation of God? In any case, let us see what the Church has to say about the "good man".

 

The Church teaches that three things are required for a man to be "good": 1) conversion 2) grace 3) faith. Conversion means repentance (literally from the Greek, "change of mind"). Conversion necessarily requires faith, the right faith, the faith given, revealed, disclosed in Christ Jesus. A man must be converted to be "good". He must be changed from a son of Adam to a son of God by grace. " He must be "born again" (John 3:3), renewed, made a "new creature" in Christ. The result is a new mentality, a "change of mind", a new attitude and approach to all things. This is accomplished primarily by the Sacraments, especially, the Holy Eucharist, which give grace. "But God, Who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him, and made us sit with Him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:4-6). It is grace, an energy of God, a gift, an undeserved favor, divine and activating, which converts us, which makes us "good".

 

With a converted being a man receives "illumination", "light", "sight", so that his faith in God has truth, direction, substance. The life of grace gives Christian faith. That faith is the faith of the Church, the Body of Christ, the Bride with Whom Christ is "one flesh". This communion of Bride and Bridegroom, this common life of Head and Body, this mystical and Divine intimacy, gives rise to the experience of incomprehensible beauty. From it issues Truth, a Truth which is set in words, words which can hardly hold their meaning; and these words are Creed and canon and certitude. This is all obtained in sacred community with others in Christ, in the Church, not alone. Certainly, it must become a personal possession, but the acquisition comes through the common life in the Body of Christ. It is this experience, this knowledge, through conversion, through grace, through love and unity in the Beloved, Christ Jesus, that creates a "good man". A "good man" is the result of what the Blessed Trinity and the Church has done. In other words, it is impossible to be a good man without Jesus Christ.

 

One may build hospitals, donate to charity, etc., be characterized by all those "moral" qualities which the world calls "good", but they are meaningless and illusory without the Christian experience: conversion, grace, faith. The very definition of a "good man" relies upon his relation to Jesus Christ. Thus, an anti-Christian is utterly wicked and a true Orthodox only is fully a "good man". Conversion, grace, faith, that without which a man cannot be "good", no matter what the world thinks. In other terms, the more fully a man is integrated into the life of the Church, the better man he is, and without Jesus Christ and His Bride, goodness would be impossible. "For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by men and hating one another; but when the goodness and loving kindness of God, our Savior, appeared, He saved us, not because of deeds done by us in righteousness, but in virtue of His own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit, which He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ, our Savior, so that we might be justified by grace and become heirs of hope of eternal life. The saying is sure" (Titus 2:3-8).

 

3. JUDGING ONE'S NEIGHBOR

Saint Dorotheos of Gaza

[From Saint Cosmas Aitolos Orthodox Church Bulletin, March 2000]

 

If we do not despise little sins and think they are of no consequence to us, we shall not fall into great and grievous sins. Bad habits are formed in the soul by very small things  when we say, "What does this or that matter,"  and it is the first step to despising great things. It is a great wrong to judge our neighbor. What sin is graver than this? What does God hate and turn away from so much as from this? And yet from things that appear negligible a man comes to great evil. For by accepting a suspicion against a neighbor, by saying, "What does it matter if I say this about him?" or "What does it matter if I find out this about him?"  one begins to forget about his own sins and to talk idly about his neighbor, speaking evil against him, despising him, and from this one falls into the very sins he is condemning in others. Because we become careless about our own faults and do not lament our sins, we lose the power to correct ourselves, and we are always at work on our neighbor. Nothing angers God so much or strips a man so bare or carries him so effectively to his ruin as slandering, condemning, or despising his neighbor....

 

Why are we so ready to judge our neighbor? Why are we so concerned about the burden of others' sins?  We have plenty within ourselves to be concerned about; each one has his own debt and his own sins. It is for God alone to judge, to justify or condemn. He knows the state of each one of us  of our capacities, our deviations, and our gifts, our constitution and our preparedness  and it is for Him to judge each of these things according to the knowledge that He alone has. For God judges the affairs of a bishop in one way and those of a prince in another, the sick man one way, and the healthy man another. Who could understand all these judgments except the One Who has done everything, formed everything, knows everything?  .It happens that a man may do a certain thing, which seems to be wrong, out of simplicity, and there may be something about it which makes more amends to God than your whole life. How are you going to sit in judgment and constrict your own soul? And should it even happen that he has fallen away, how do you know how much and how well he fought, how much blood he sweated before he did it? Perhaps so little fault can be found in him that God can look on his action as if it were just, for God looks on his labor and all the struggle he had before he did it, and has pity on him. How do you know what tears he has shed about it before God? You may well know about the sin, but you do not know about the labor or the repentance....

Those who want to be saved scrutinize not the shortcomings of their neighbors, but always their own shortcomings and they set about eliminating them. Such was the man who saw his brother sinning and groaned, "Woe is me; him today  me tomorrow." Thus he aroused his own fear of sin and escaped judging his neighbor. And going further he said, "He has repented of his sin, but I do not always repent. I am never first to ask for forgiveness, and I am never completely converted." See the divine light in this man's soul?

 

But we judge rashly and indiscriminately and gossip about others. How can we act in this way unless it is because we have no true love? If we have true love with sympathy and patience, we shall not go about scrutinizing our neighbors' shortcomings. And that love should screen our neighbors' sins, as it did in the saints when they saw the shortcomings of men. Were the saints blind? Not at all: But they would not let themselves dwell on wrongs. Who hated sin more than they? But they did not hate the sinners or condemn them or turn away from them; but they suffered with them, admonished them, comforted them, and did all they could to heal them. Let us, therefore, strive to gain this love for ourselves. Let us acquire this tenderness towards our neighbor so that we may guard ourselves from judging and despising him.

 

4. Political Mythology And The Unborn Child

By Stephen Caesar, M.A.

(CHRISTIAN NEWS, December 9, 2002)

 

The women's movement defends abortion by employing two myths that have been exploded by modern science. The first myth is that an unborn child is not a cognizant human being but a "potential life" or a "blob of tissue." This is in contradiction to Luke 1:41, which affirms the cognizance of the unborn child. In this passage, Mary, while pregnant with Jesus, enters the house of her relative Elizabeth, who at the time was pregnant with John the Baptist. The Bible recounts: "And it came to pass, that, when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb." This indicates that a baby can hear voices outside the womb and react to them, something that a "lump of tissue" or a "potential" anything cannot do.

 

Recent technological breakthroughs have shown that the Biblical position is right and that the women's movement is wrong. The Boston Globe recently reported: "In the comfort of the womb, a baby can hear its mother speaking. Scientists have shown that the newborn already recognizes its mother's voice and can also distinguish between the language spoken by the mother and a foreign language" (Cook 2001:6).

 

Further evidence of the unborn child's cognizance of the outside world has been discovered by Alexandra Lamont, lecturer in the psychology of music at Keele University in Great Britain. According to the Globe, Prof. Lamont "asked a group of expectant mothers to pick a piece of music and then play it every day during the final three months of their pregnancy. The children were then not exposed to the music for 12 months after they were born" (Cook 2001:7). Prof. Lamont then played three pieces of music to the 1-yearolds: The song the mothers had played to them in the womb, a similar song, and a song from a completely different style of music. "What she found stunned her," reported the Globe. "The children consistently preferred the exact piece of music they had heard in the womb" (Cook 2001: 7). Prof. Lamont herself' remarked, "I never expected this kind of long-term memory" (Cook 2001: 7).

 

Still more evidence for the unborn child's ability to hear sounds and react to them was reported recently by Scientific American. Ultrasound, the high-tech medical procedure that permits an obstetrician to see inside a pregnant woman's womb, relies on sound wave to form a picture of the unborn child. These sound waves are too high to be heard by adults, but unborn babies can hear them perfectly - a little too perfectly, it turns out, as the prestigious journal reported:

 

"Volumes [of sound from the procedure] can reach up to 100 decibels in utero, as loud as a subway train. An unborn baby would perceive this sound as a high-pitched tone or chord, although the noise would be more akin to a finger tap near the ear than a shriek cutting the air. The finding may explain why babies wiggle more during ultrasound scans than when rest­ing undisturbed" (Minkel 2002: 28).

 

Both of these discoveries demonstrate that an un­born child is a cognizant human being who can react to sounds, just as Luke 1:41 suggests, and in complete opposition to feminist mythology.

 

The second myth used by the women's movement is the claim that an unborn child is not a separate entity, but merely a piece of a woman's body, like her liver or kidney (or a man's prostate). In the Bible, however, the separate personhood of a child in the womb is clear; Isaiah 49:1 states, "The Lord hath called me from the womb; from the bowels of my mother bath he made mention of my name." If a child in a woman's womb were merely a piece of her body, like a lung or a bladder, it would hardly make sense for God to call it, since He is not in the habit of calling out inseparable body parts. However, if the baby is a separate human entity, then Isaiah 49:1 would make perfect sense. Genetics has shown the Biblical position is correct: The cells of the unborn child are so different from those of his or her mother that they are foreign. The research of J. Lee Nelson demonstrates this point. An associate member in the Program of Human Immunogenetics at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and an associate professor in the Division of Rheumatology at the University of Washington ─ Seattle, Dr. Nelson has been trying to find the cause ­ of autoimmune diseases (in which the body considers itself to be a disease which must be fought). According to Nelson,

 

One of the unsolved mysteries of immunology is why the body of a pregnant woman doesn't reject her fetus... In recent years, the mystery deepened as researchers learned that fetal cells get into the maternal blood stream during pregnancy and, what's more, may stay there for decades, perhaps indefinitely... The indefinite persistence of fetal cells in a woman's body ... led me to ask if some so-called autoimmune diseases may be triggered by foreign cells, specifically by fetal cells present in the mother's body"(Nelson 2001: 14 [emphasis added]).

 

If the unborn baby were the genetic equivalent of the mother's kidney or appendix, then his or her cells would not be "foreign," but would have the same ge­netic code as the rest of the mother's cells. The fact that fetal cells are foreign to the pregnant woman con­firms the Biblical truth that an unborn child is a sepa­rate human entity.

 

The findings of modern science are in accordance with Biblical statements, while the women's move­ment is completely at odds with the truth on this is­sue. Isaiah, writing in the eighth century BC, and Luke, writing in the first century AD, knew more about the true nature of the unborn child than science did until very recently. This is yet another indication of the divine source of the Biblical authors' knowledge ─ not to mention the profound wrongness of the women's movement on the question of abortion.

 

References

Cook, G. 2001. "Womb Music." Boston Globe Magazine, October 14.

Minkel, J. R. 2002. "Sonic Womb." Scientific American, 286, no. 2.

Nelson, J. L. 2001. "The Chimeric Self." Natural History, 110, no. 5.

Stephen Caesar holds his master's degree in anthropology/archaeology from Harvard University. He is the author of the e-book The Bible Encounters Modern Science, available at www.Istbooks.com.

 

 

5. CONCERNING THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL

AT HALKI IN 1844

 

"Every time the Greeks get out of order, God corrects them, using the Turks as a whip."

         Elder Ieronymos of Aegina

 

Much discussion is heard today about the reopening of the theological school of Halki, which was closed by the Turkish government some thirty years ago. The Halki theological school was the Ecumenical Patriarchate's foremost theological academy; indeed, most of its bishops earned their degrees there ─ hence the recent attempts of the Greek community to find means to pressure the Turkish government into re-opening the academy.

 

It may come as a surprise to many Greek people today that their forefathers did not share this enthusiasm for the theological school in Halki. The following article examines the concerns those older generations had and the reasons for them.

 

"….Newly established on Halki near Constantinople, through the enactment of a plan, this seminary's purpose is ─ among other things ─ the debasement of all who are to become patriarchs, and the entire hierarchy of the East in general, according to the spirit of corruption and error, through proselytism from England, so that one day, in an 'Ecumenical Council,' there may be legislated Orthodoxy's abolition and its replacement with the Luthero-Calvinist [i.e. Protestant] heresy, while the other [theological] schools simultaneously train many thousands and myriads of Orthodox youth to be of one mind with them and their colleagues,  including clergymen, teachers, and laymen."

(Kosmas Flamiatos, Complete Works, Athens, 1976, p. 99)

 

Kosmas Flamiatos (1786-1852), the son of the priest Andrew Flamiatos, was born in Poulata of Cephalonia. In 1836, he was offered the position of dean of the Ionian Academy in Corfu, but refused it because the Academy was under the supervision of the Anglicans (the British ruled the Greek Ionian islands at that time). In 1838, he became a member of the secret "Society of the Friends of Orthodoxy." This Society opposed the Anglophile and Francophile factions in Greece, which, together with a growing number of Freemasons, sought to introduce the principles of the Western Enlightenment and the spirit of secularism. These factions opposed the pro-Orthodox and pro-Russian party, which urged that the king of Greece be baptized as an Orthodox Christian (King Otto, who was imposed on Greece by England, France, and Germany, was a Bavarian Roman Catholic), demanded the Church of Greece's reincorporation into the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the re-unification of the Ionian Islands with Greece. In 1852, the Greek government under Otto had Flamiatos, as well as the famous lay preacher "Papoulakos'* and some 150 monks of the Monastery of the Great Cave in the Peloponnesus, arrested and cast into prison at Patras. Both Flamiatos and Papoulakos died shortly thereafter, the first of the torture to which he was subjected, the second of poisoning; the monks were simply accused of misdemeanors, threatened and then released.

 

Flamiatos taught that the salvation of the Greek nation would come only through its adherence to the Orthodox Christian Faith. He decried the attempts of the Anglicans to introduce their brand of Western sectarianism into the newly-liberated land of Greece, and he denounced also the efforts of the Freemasons to inject the principles of secularism and syncretism into the government and Church of Greece. He warned that the educational system of Greece, which was being established at that time on the basis of the principles of Western rationalism and secularism, stood in fundamental opposition to the Orthodox Christian traditions and ideals that the Greek people had fought for in their War of Independence against the Moslem Turks.

 

Flamiatos worried that the graduates of the newly-formed theological academy in Halki would one day convoke an "Ecumenical Council" to legislate "Orthodoxy's abolition." Ironically, the much respected theologian, Archimandrite Justin Popovich, now recognized as a saint by World Orthodoxy, expressed a very similar concern! In a letter entitled, "On the Summoning of the 'Great Council of the Orthodox Church,'" and addressed to the Holy Synod of the Church of Serbia on May 7, 1977, Father Justin wrote the following:

Whom do they [the bishops of Constantinople] in fact represent at the present moment, what Church and what people of God? The Constantinopolitan hierarchy at almost all the pan-Orthodox gatherings consists primarily of titular metropolitans and bishops, of pastors without flocks and without concrete pastoral responsibility before God and their own living flock. Whom do they represent and whom will they represent at the future council?... Recently the Patriarchate of Constantinople has produced a multitude of bishops and metropolitans, almost all of them titular and fictitious [Editor: "fictitious" because they have no flocks or real dioceses]. Is it possible that this is a prepatory measure to guarantee at the future "Ecumenical Council" by their multitude of titles the majority of votes for the neo-papal ambitions of the Patriarchate of Constantinople? [emphasis added] . . .  Where in all this is the catholic principle of Orthodoxy? What sort of Ecumenical Council of the Orthodox Church of Christ will this be? . . . Let us be frank: the conduct of the representatives of Constantinople in the last decades has been characterized by the same unhealthy restlessness, by the same spiritually ill condition as that which brought the Church to the betrayal and disgrace of Florence in the 15^th century. . . Are we to believe that Constantinople, which in the persons of its holy and great hierarchs, its clergy and people, so boldly opposed for centuries past the absolutism of Rome, is today preparing to ignore the conciliar traditions of Orthodoxy and to exchange them for the neo-papal surrogate of a "second," "third," or other sort of Rome?

 

Prophetic words, which so accurately reflect the worries that Kosmas Flamiatos had expressed some 125 years before.

 

Perhaps the Greek community should not fret so much over the fact that the Halki theological school was closed by the Turks. After all, judging from Father Justin Popovich's words, it appears that that institution may already have accomplished its purpose. . . .

 

 

6. WHY WE HAVE MEMORIAL SERVICES

by Fr. Panagiotes Carras, Toronto, Canada

 

The Church constantly prays for all of the members of the Body of Christ.  There is no division between the living and the departed, but all are one in the Body of Christ.  Just as Orthodox Christians here on earth pray for one another, and ask for one another's prayers, so they pray also for the faithful departed, and ask the faithful departed to pray for them. Death cannot separate the members of the Church. At the glorious Coming again of our Lord, those who have fallen asleep in the Lord will rise in their glorified form (I Corinthians 15:43). The glorified body and soul will again be joined in their indestructible unity, as Christ, the God-man, both before and after His Resurrection was and is an indivisible unity.  Ours is the duty to pray for all the members of the Body of Christ. From Apostolic times we have been instructed to pray for eternal rest for our brothers and sisters who have fallen asleep in the Lord.  We pray for their eternal memory, that the names of the reposed be remembered by our Heavenly Father eternally.  According to the Apostolic Constitutions XLII, memorial services are held on the 3rd, 9th, and 40th day and on the completion of a year from the date of falling asleep: Let the third day of the departed be celebrated with psalms, and lessons, and prayers, on account of Him who arose within the space of three days; and let the ninth day be celebrated in remembrance of the living, and of the departed; and the fortieth day according to the ancient pattern: for so did the people lament Moses, and the anniversary day in memory of him.  And let alms be given to the poor out of his goods for a memorial of him.

 

Every Saturday is also set aside for prayers for the reposed.  The Church has also ordained as Soul Saturdays, the Saturday before Pentecost and the Saturday before Meatfare. As tokens of the immortality of the soul, boiled wheat (Koliva) is prepared and brought to church for the  Memorial Service (Mnimosinon or Panichida), at which, prayers for the repose of the souls of those  departed are offered .  The wheat symbolizes the hope of new life; as our Lord said, Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies, it bears much fruit (John 12:24).

 

 

7. NEW ITEMS FROM THE BOOK CENTER

Click here to order the titles below

 

 (TM46) The Akathist: GLORY TO GOD FOR ALL THINGS composed by Fr. Gregory Petrov in a prison camp in 1940, shortly before his repose. A beautiful celebration of God’s glory, sung in English to the traditional Russian Akathist melody.  CD only  d$15.00    (Scan: S_tm46.jpg)

 (TM47) MAKE READY O BETHLEHEM.  A       new CD of music from the Nativity season in Byzantine chant in English from the group “Anaphora.”  Very well chanted with ison, and an excellent “learning” tool. D$16.00      (Scan S_tm47.jpg)

 

(OPH) ORTHODOXY AND PHILOSOPHY. Dr. Constantine Cavarnos. Addressed to persons who are deeply interested in comprehending Orthodox Christianity in its significant relations both to ancient Greek philosophy and to Modern Western European philosophy. 237pp. Paper. d$12.00   (Scan:S_ oph.jpg)

 

(BE) BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTIONISM by Constantine Cavarnos.  The evolutionism of Lamarck and Darwin as a philosophy, taught as “proven scientific fact” today, is clearly discussed in this small volume. Important reading for all for a true understanding of the origin of man.  93pp.  Paper  d$6.50    (No scan)