DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF ST. JOHN, ARCHBISHOP OF SHANGHAI AND SAN
FRANCISCO
ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN WITNESS (USPS 412-260)
is published monthly by St. Nectarios American Orthodox Cathedral,
10300 Ashworth Avenue North, Seattle, Washington 98133-9410.
POSTMASTER: Send address changes to
OCW, 10300 Ashworth Ave. N., Seattle, WA. 98133-9410
Fr. Neketas S. Palassis, Editor Email: frneketas@stnectariospress.com
Telephone (206) 522-4471; (800) 643-4233 U.S. & Canada;
Fax: 206-523-0550
JUNE, 2007, VOL. XLI, No. 6 (1573)
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
1. MISSIONARY ACTIVITY UPDATE
2. TINY TABLET PROVIDES PROOF
3 .ONCE UPON A TIME PARIS WAS WORTH A MASS
4. PEARLS FROM THE HOLY FATHERS
5. NEW ITEMS FROM THE BOOK CENTER.
I have heard that there were two old men who dwelt together for many
years, and who never quarrelled, and that one said to the other, “Let
us also pick a quarrel with each other, even as other men do.” Then his
companion answered and said unto him, “I know not how a quarrel
cometh,” and the other old man answered and said unto him, “Behold, I
will set a brick in the midst, and will say, ‘This is mine,’ and do
thou say, ‘It is not thine, but mine’; and from this, quarrelling will
ensue.” And they placed a brick in the midst, and one of them said,
“This is mine,” and his companion answered and said unto him, “This is
not so, for it is mine”; and straightway the other replied and said
unto him, “If it be so, and the brick be thine, take it and go.”Thus
they were not able to make a
quarrel.
The Paradise of the Holy Fathers, Volume Two, p. 66, #299
1. MISSIONARY ACTIVITY UPDATE
(From the Missionary Bulletin of the Holy Orthodox Metropolis of
Boston.
Vol. 1, December 2006. Issue 1)
In its latest meeting, the members of the Benevolent Missionary
Fund (BMS) voted to start again issuing the Missionary Bulletin to
inform the faithful of the work of our missions in Uganda, Kenya,
Georgia, Russia, Guatemala, and in other parts of the world in which we
are involved. Succeeding issues of the Missionary Bulletin will report
in detail parish by parish a]4 aspects of the work of our missions.
This issue will give to our readers an overview of our activities in
Uganda. In this beautiful tropical country of East Africa a strong
desire to know the Orthodox Faith has been exhibited, and parishes are
being established at a high rate. A number of men have exhibited
obedience and willingness to espouse the Holy Orders and several others
have expressed the desire to become monastics. Currently there are 8
parishes in Uganda and two sub-parishes or missions. There are two
primary schools run by orthodox administrators and two secondary
schools. Foundations for a monastery in the outskirts of Kampala, the
Capital city of Uganda, have been laid, and with God's help it will be
fully functioning in a year's time. There is a schema monk as well as
several other aspirants to monastic life who will be occupying a
beautiful site, purchased by the Missionary Society, conducive to
contemplative life. In a later issue of the Missionary Bulletin a full
description of the site with photographs wi4i be given.
The parishes that we serve in Uganda are: St. Basil in the village of
Kibo_ga, served by Fr. Spiridor@ who studied in an Orthodox seminary in
Romania and who is the head priest in Uganda. In addition to his
pastoral duties at his parish, he is the advisor to the other clergy.
He also oversees the projects that have been undertaken and supported
by the BW of our Metropolis of Boston. He is truly an untiring laborer
in the vineyard of our Lord. Last year, two of Fr. Spiridon's sons
received ordination and 2 new parishes in nearby villages were formed.
One is the St. Euphemia Orthodox Church in Kikwatambogo, where Fr.
George Ssempa Kisomose is the rector and his brother Fr. Deacon Paul
assists him. Another sub-parish of St. Basil has now been named the St.
Mary of Egypt Church. This is in the village of Zira and is served by
Fr. Christopher Kyagulanyi.
In Nttyana, another town about an hour and a half west of Kampala, St.
Menas parish is established. It is located on the grounds of the Trio
Primary School which has been directed for many years by Fr. Azaria,
who has been ordained a priest, and is now serving this parish. I-Es
son, Joel, a university graduate, is the director of the Byzantine
choir of the church. The parish currently holds its services in a
classroom which has been modified into a chapel. They hope one day to
have their own church.
A few miles from St. Menas parish, in the village of Nkwale, is the
parish of St. Mark of Ephesus. This parish is also served by Fr.
Christopher Kyagulanyi. An acre of land was donated to this parish by
Fr. Azaria for their establishment. At present the church building is a
temporary edifice and plans are discussed for a permanent building in
the future when funds become available.
In the village of Kangulumira, about 60 miles northeast of the capital,
is found St. Nicholas parish. This parish has about 300 members who are
fairly recent converts to Orthodoxy. The rector of the parish is Fr.
Christopher Tamale, who also directs a primary and a secondary school.
This parish is similar to the parish of St. Menas in that the services
are also held in a classroom of the school. Many of the parishioners
are children who attend this school. Near the school is a grain mill
project, funded by the BMF and is supervised by Fr. Christopher; it has
been successful in providing income for the parish. St. Nicholas parish
also has a St. Mary Magdalene Women's group. This group of faithful
women worked very diligently to raise enough funds to acquire a small
herd of cows which will now provide the schoolchildren, many of whom
are orphans, with extra nourishment.
In Seeta, about 20 miles from the capital, St. Katherine's parish and
secondary school is located. The school is run by Orthodox Christians
who are members of our church, and there are hopes to establish an
Orthodox center here which will serve as a training place for
catechists and clergy and perhaps the headquarters of the Mission in
Uganda. The school of St. Katherine was selected as the place where the
twelve orphans, currently being sponsored by both the BW and the
Friends of Ugandan Orphans (FOUO), are receiving their secondary
education. They are able to reside there as this school has dormitory
facilities.
In Kampala itself, the beginnings of St. John the Baptist parish have
been laid and there are approximately 30 families who attend weekly
catechetical lessons by Deacon Kevin, himself a convert. The gatherings
take place every Tuesday in a school house due to lack of proper
building for a church at the moment.
In Kampala the parish of St. Nectatios is located. This parish
currently uses a building which was purchased by the BW, and a lovely
chapel has been made there. This building is to be owned by the
Metochion* of the Metropolis of Boston, which has been officially
registered and established in Uganda. This site is most likely where
the monastic community will be established.
During the visit of Metropolitan Makarios, Father Deacon Barsanuphius
and Eutychios Kalogerakis last September, the mother of Fr. Spiridon
donated a parcel of land in the area of Nsinze, which is in the eastern
part of Uganda. This was given for the establishment of the parish of
St. Cyril of Alexandria. Fr. Spiridon's brother, Noah, was ordained a
priest to minister to 30 families he had brought to the Church by his
own efforts.
There is a lot of enthusiasm and love for the Church in Uganda, as
there is in Kenya. But as these countries are rediscovering the
Orthodox Faith, they need us to help them to build a strong foundation.
They need people to catechize the many children and adults who come to
the Church to translate liturgical books, to train teachers and above
all to pray for their establishment in the faith.
All these activities require funding, and since our Orthodox brethren
in this country are of the poorest, the BW and the Friends of Ugandan
Orphans have undertaken to raise funds to assist with some of the
projects and support the orphans.
Metropolitan Ephraim had requested that each parish designate a contact
person to be in touch with the members of the BMF and become informed
of the missionary work in Africa. Also, he requested that we provide
some monetary assistance in support of the BMF. One way' to raise funds
is to have an annual parish dinner dedicated to the missions or to
support the walk-a-thon, which is being organized by the Friends of
Ugandan Orphans and takes place in June of each year. This year the
walk-a-thon is scheduled to take place on the 23d of June 2007 at the
Artesani Park in Brighton, Massachusetts. More details of this activity
will be forthcoming.
*metochion” is a Greek term meaning “a holding” that is an
entity that owns real property in a certain area or country, and can
hold real property in another with all assets belonging to and
controlled by the home entity.
If you want to support the missionary effort of the Metropolis, please
send your checks to Benevolent Missionary Fund (BMF), 1476 Centre St.,
Roslindale, MA 02131. Inquiries regarding the work of the BMF should be
sent to the above address or e-mail: umission@aol.com
________________________________________________________________________________________
2. TINY TABLET PROVIDES PROOF FOR OLD TESTAMENT
By Nigel Reynolds, Telegraph Media Group, Ltd., U.K. All rights
reserved.
The sound of unbridled joy seldom breaks the quiet of the British
Museum's great Arched Room, which holds its collection of 130,000
Assyrian cuneiform tablets, dating back 5,000 years.
But Michael Jursa, a visiting professor from Vienna, let out such a cry
last Thursday. He had made what has been called the most important find
in Biblical archaeology for 100 years, a discovery that supports the
view that the historical books of the Old Testament are based on fact.
Searching for Babylonian financial accounts among the tablets, Prof
Jursa suddenly came across a name he half remembered -
Nabu-sharrussu-ukin, described there in a hand 2,500 years old, as "the
chief eunuch" of Nebuchadnezzar II, king of Babylon.
Prof Jursa, an Assyriologist, checked the Old Testament and there in
chapter 39 of the Book of Jeremiah, he found, spelled differently, the
same name - Nebo-Sarsekim.
Nebo-Sarsekim, according to Jeremiah, was Nebuchadnezzar II's "chief
officer" and was with him at the siege of Jerusalem in 587 BC, when the
Babylonians overran the city.
The small tablet, the size of "a packet of 10 cigarettes" according to
Irving Finkel, a British Museum expert, is a bill of receipt
acknowledging Nabu-sharrussu-ukin's payment of 0.75 kg of gold to a
temple in Babylon.
This fragment is a receipt
for payment made by a
figure in the Old Testament
The tablet is dated to the 10th year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II,
595BC, 12 years before the siege of Jerusalem.
Evidence from non-Biblical sources of people named in the Bible is not
unknown, but Nabu-sharrussu-ukin would have been a relatively
insignificant figure.
"This is a fantastic discovery, a world-class find," Dr Finkel said
yesterday. "If Nebo-Sarsekim existed, which other lesser figures in the
Old Testament existed? A throwaway detail in the Old Testament turns
out to be accurate and true. I think that it means that the whole of
the narrative [of Jeremiah] takes on a new kind of power."
Cuneiform is the oldest known form of writing and was commonly used in
the Middle East between 3,200 BC and the second century AD. It was
created by pressing a wedge-shaped instrument, usually a cut reed, into
moist clay.
The full translation of the tablet reads: (Regarding) 1.5 minas (0.75
kg) of gold, the property of Nabu-sharrussu-ukin, the chief eunuch,
which he sent via Arad-Banitu the eunuch to [the temple] Esangila:
Arad-Banitu has delivered [it] to Esangila. In the presence of
Bel-usat, son of Alpaya, the royal bodyguard, [and of] Nadin, son of
Marduk-zer-ibni. Month XI, day 18, year 10 [of] Nebuchadnezzar, king of
Babylon.
_______________________________________________________________________
3. ONCE UPON A TIME, PARIS WAS WORTH A MASS
From the Wall Street Journal, c. April 24, 2005
At Mass last Sunday, Amiens's gothic cathedral,
the largest in France, was virtually empty. Not just sparsely filled —
it was, except for a handful of tourists, vacant. Mass was being
conducted in a side chapel fit for the couple dozen worshipers who
showed up for it (I among them).
Amlens is hardly the exception. Europe's
largest churches are often unused these days, reduced to monuments for
tourists to admire. And there is a reason for this neglect. In "The
Cube and the Cathedral," George Weigel describes a European culture
that has become not only increasingly secular but in many cases
downright hostile to Christianity. The cathedral in his title is Notre
Dame, now overshadowed in cultural importance by the Arc de la Defense,
the ultra-modernist "cube" that dominates an office complex outside
Paris. "European man has convinced himself that in order to be modern
and free, he must be radically secular," Mr. Weigel writes. "That
conviction and its public consequences are at the root of Europe's
contemporary crisis of civilizational morale."
It is true that throngs of believers recently
descended on Rome to bid farewell to Pope John Paul II. And yet even as
Roman Catholics mourned the pope's passing, Socialists and Greens in
France decried the French government's decision to fly the flag at
half-mast in his honor. Officials were reduced to claiming, in
response, that the honor was afforded to John Paul II in his capacity
as a head of state, not as a religious leader,
The incident that forms the centerpiece of Mr.
Weigel's critique is last years debate over whether "Christianity"
should be explicitly acknowledged in the European Union's
constitutional treaty. "By the time the draft constitution was
completed in June 2004, a grudging reference to 'the cultural,
religious, and humanist inheritance of Europe' had been shoehorned into
the preamble's first clause," Mr. Weigel notes derisively. This was
about as much religion as Europe could stand in a constitution that
runs, by Mr. Weigel's count, to 70,000 words.
Practicing Christianity in Europe today enjoys a
status not dissimilar to smoking marijuana or engaging in unorthodox
sexual activities — few people mind if you do so in private, but you
are expected not to talk about it or ask others whether they do it too.
Christianity is considered retrograde and atavistic in a "progressive"
society devoted to the good life — long holidays, short work hours and
generous government benefits.
What is the deeper source of European antipathy to
religion? For Mr. Weigel, the problem goes all the way back to the 14th
century when scholastics like William of Ockham argued for
"nominalism." According to their philosophy, universals—concepts such
as 'justice" or "freedom" and qualities such as "white" or "good" —do
not exist in the abstract but are merely words that denote instances of
what they describe. A current of thought was set into motion, Mr.
Weigel believes, that pulled European man away, from transcendent
truths. One casualty was a fixed idea of human nature.
"If' there is no such thing as human nature," Mr.
Weigel argues, "then there are no universal moral principles that can
be read from human nature." If there are no universal moral truths,
then religion, positing them, is merely a form of oppression myth, one
from which Europe's elite's see themselves as liberated.
This is a big argument for a small book, and much
more could be said to make it wholly convincing. One place to go for a
fuller discussion is Richard Weaver's "Ideas Have Consequences," which
Mr. Weigel slyly alludes to but does not cite. "The issue ultimately
involved is whether there is a course of truth higher than, and
independent of, man," Weaver explained a half-century ago, "and the
answer to the question is decisive for one's view of the nature and
destiny of humankind"
Mr. Weigel is on firmer ground when he analyzes
Europe's present condition, with its low birth rates, heavy debts,
Muslim immigration worries and tendency to carp from the sidelines when
the fate of nations is at stake. In what is certainly the most
attention-grabbing passage in an engagingly written book, Mr. Weigel
sketches the worst case scenario — the "bitter end" — for a Europe that
is. religiously bereft, demographically moribund and morally without a
compass: "The muezzin summons the faithful to prayer from the central
loggia of St. Peter's in Rome, while Notre Dame has been transformed
into Hagia Sophia on the Seine — a great Christian church become an
Islamic museum."
One need not find this scenario especially plausible
to feel persuaded by Mr. Weigel's more measured arguments about
Europe's atheistic humanism. Without a religious dimension, Mr. Weigel
notes, a commitment to human freedom is likely to be attenuated, too
weak to make sacrifices in its name. Europe's political elites
especially, but its citizens as well, believe in freedom and democracy,
of course, but they are reluctant to put the "good life" on hold and
put lives on the line when freedom is in need of a champion — say, in
the Balkans or, especially, in Iraq. (Mr. Weigel is at pains to
emphasize, however, that his analysis is not born of disenchantment
over European popular opposition to the Iraq war.)
The good of human freedom, by European lights, must
be weighed against the risk and cost of actually fighting for it. It is
no longer transcendent, absolute. In such a world, governed by a narrow
utilitarian calculus, sacrifice is rare, and churches go unvisited
_______________________________________________________________________
4. PEARLS FROM THE HOLY FATHERS
Everyone devotes all his energy to the work he has in hand,
forgetting completely the work of prayer because he thinks that the
time he gives to God is lost to the work he has purposed to do. For the
craftsman considers that the Divine assistance is quite useless for the
work he has in hand. Therefore he leaves prayer aside and places all
his hopes in his hands, without remembering Him Who has given him his
hands. In the same way he who carefully composes a speech does not
think of Him Who has given him speech; but he pursues his own and his
pupils’ studies as if he had brought himself into this existence; hence
he fails to realize that something good might come to him through the
action of God and prefers study to prayer.
St Gregory of Nyssa, On the Lord’s Prayer, Sermon One
We must not imagine that anyone slips and comes to grief by a sudden
fall, but that he falls by a hopeless collapse either from being
deceived by beginning his training badly, or from the good qualities of
his soul failing through a long course of carelessness of mind, and so
his faults gaining ground upon him little by little.
Saint John Cassian, Conference with Abbot Theodore, ch. xvii
_____________________________________________________________________
5. NEW ITEMS FROM THE BOOK CENTER
(NWP) NICHOLAS WINS THE PRIZE: Young Nicholas Experiences the
Sacrament of Confession, by Eleni Christos and Helen Iakovos-Dalalakis.
A picture book in full-color introducing children to Confession through
an event in the life of young Nicholas. 24pp. Paper
e$16.00
BARSANUPHIUS AND JOHN: LETTERS, translated by John Chryssavgis.
The long-awaited set of the complete letters of Sts. Barsanuphius and
John of early 6th century Gaza (some of the shorter letters are in the
book, “Letters From the Desert.”. Although written in response to
monastic questions, the precepts are just as applicable to Christian
life in the world. Fully indexed. (fathers of the Church Series)
Cloth f$40.00 each volume
Vol. 1:
344pp. Vol. 2: 346pp.
(WSI) THE WISDOM OF SAINT ISAAC THE SYRIAN by Sebastian Brock. A
selection of 153 sayings of St. Isaac taken from the First Part (now
temporarily out of print) and the Second Part (available as “Isaac of
Nineveh”), with a brief introduction and subject index.
20pp. Paper f$8.00