The Historic Divine Liturgy At Soumela in Pontus

News articles and photos can be seen at the following links:

Turkey: Patriarch Holds Historic Mass at Monastery

After 88 Years, Orthodox Christians Hold Mass at Monastery in Turkey

Orthodox Christians From Abroad Gather in Turkey's Sumela After 88 Years

Turkey: Orthodox Christians Gather For First Mass in Almost 90 Years at Ancient Monastery

Sümela To Host Historic Mass Amidst Nationalist Protests

In Pictures: Historic Orthodox Mass at Ancient Turkish Monastery

The Icons of Panagia Soumela of Pontus

Turkey: Bartholomew I Celebrates First Mass at Our Lady of Sumela After 88 Years

Orthodox Christians Flock to Once-Banned Holy Site of Sumela Monastery in Turkey

The homily of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew can be read here and seen below, along with some footage from the Divine Liturgy below that:







The entire Divine Liturgy can be seen here. Below is a video of the Metropolitan of Drama singing a very old Pontian song to the Theotokos following the Divine Liturgy.

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The Feast of the Dormition at the Tomb of Mary in Gethsemane

The Feast of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos is celebrated with special solemnity at Gethsemane, the place of Her burial. Nowhere else is there such sorrow of heart at the separation from the Mother of God, and nowhere else such joy, because of Her intercession for the world.

The holy city of Jerusalem is separated from the Mount of Olives by the valley of Kedron on Josaphat. At the foot of the Mount of Olives is the Garden of Gethsemane, where olive trees bear fruit even now.

The holy Ancestor-of-God Joachim had himself reposed at 80 years of age, several years after the Entry of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple (November 21). St Anna, having been left a widow, moved from Nazareth to Jerusalem, and lived near the Temple. At Jerusalem she bought two pieces of property: the first at the gates of Gethsemane, and the second in the valley of Josaphat. At the second locale she built a tomb for the members of her family, and where also she herself was buried with Joachim. It was there in the Garden of Gethsemane that the Savior often prayed with His disciples.

The most-pure body of the Mother of God was buried in the family tomb. Christians honored the sepulchre of the Mother of God, and they built a church on this spot. Within the church was preserved the precious funeral cloth, which covered Her all-pure and fragrant body.

The holy Patriarch Juvenal of Jerusalem (420-458) testified before the emperor Marcian (450-457) as to the authenticity of the tradition about the miraculous ascent of the Mother of God to Heaven, and he sent to the empress, St Pulcheria (September 10), the grave wrappings of the Mother of God from Her tomb. St Pulcheria then placed these grave-wrappings within the Blachernae church.

Accounts have been preserved, that at the end of the seventh century a church had been built atop the underground church of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos, and that from its high bell-tower could be seen the dome of the Church of the Resurrection of the Lord. Traces of this church are no longer to be seen. And in the ninth century near the subterranean Gethsemane church a monastery was built, in which more than 30 monks struggled.

Great destruction was done the Church in the year 1009 by the despoiler of the holy places, Hakim. Radical changes, the traces of which remain at present, also took place under the crusaders in the year 1130. During the eleventh to twelfth centuries the piece of excavated stone, at which the Savior had prayed on the night of His betrayal disappeared from Jerusalem. This piece of stone had been in the Gethsemane basilica from the sixth century.

But in spite of the destruction and the changes, the overall original cruciform (cross-shaped) plan of the church has been preserved. At the entrance to the church along the sides of the iron gates stand four marble columns. To enter the church, it is necessary to go down a stairway of 48 steps. At the 23rd step on the right side is a chapel in honor of the holy Ancestors-of-God Joachim and Anna together with their graves, and on the left side opposite, the chapel of St Joseph the Betrothed with his grave. The right chapel belongs to the Orthodox Church, and the left to the Armenian Church (since 1814).

The church of the Dormition of the Theotokos has the following dimensions: in length it is 48 arshin, and in breadth 8 arshin [1 arshin = 28 inches]. At an earlier time the church had also windows beside the doors. The whole temple was adorned with a multitude of lampadas and offerings. Two small entrances lead into the burial-chamber of the Mother of God. One enters through the western doors, and exits at the northern doors. The burial-chamber of the All-Pure Virgin Mary is veiled with precious curtains. The burial place was hewn out of stone in the manner of the ancient Jewish graves and is very similar to the Sepulchre of the Lord. Beyond the burial-chamber is the altar of the church, in which Divine Liturgy is celebrated each day in the Greek language.

The olive woods on the eastern and northern sides of the temple was acquired from the Turks by the Orthodox during the seventh and eighth centuries. The Catholics acquired the olive woods on the east and south sides in 1803, and the Armenians on the west side in 1821.

On August 12, at Little Gethsemane, at the second hour of the night, the head of the Gethsemane church celebrates Divine Liturgy. With the end of Liturgy, at the fourth hour of the morning, he serves a short Molieben before the resplendent burial shroud, lifts it in his hands and solemnly carries it beyond the church to Gethsemane proper where the holy sepulchre of the Mother of God is situated. All the members of the Russian Spiritual Mission in Jerusalem, with the head of the Mission presiding, participate each year in the procession (called the "Litania") with the holy burial shroud of the Mother of God..

The rite of the Burial of the Mother of God at Gethsemane begins customarily on the morning of August 14. A multitude of people with hierarchs and clergy at the head set off from the Jerusalem Patriarchate (nearby the Church of the Resurrection of Christ) in sorrowful procession. Along the narrow alley-ways of the Holy City the funeral procession makes its way to Gethsemane. Toward the front of the procession an icon of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos is carried. Along the way, pilgrims meet the icon, kissing the image of the All-Pure Virgin Mary and lift children of various ages to the icon. After the clergy, in two rows walk the black-robed monks and nuns of the Holy City: Greeks, Roumanians, Arabs, Russians. The procession, going along for about two hours, concludes with Lamentations at the Gethsemane church. In front the altar, beyond the burial chamber of the Mother of God, is a raised-up spot, upon which rests the burial shroud of the Most Holy Mother of God among fragrant flowers and myrtle, with precious coverings.

"O marvelous wonder! The Fount of Life is placed in the grave, and the grave doth become the ladder to Heaven..." Here at the grave of the All-Pure Virgin, these words strike deep with their original sense and grief is dispelled by joy: "Hail, Full of Grace, the Lord is with Thee, granting the world, through Thee, great mercy!"

Numerous pilgrims, having kissed the icon of the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos, following an ancient custom, then stoop down and go beneath it.

On the day of the Leave-taking of the feast (August 23), another solemn procession is made. On the return path, the holy burial shroud is carried by clergy led by the Archimandrite of Gethsemane.








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Bulgaria Honors Dormition of Mary

August 15, 2010, Sunday
Novinite

Sunday is Dormition of the Holy Mother of God, one of the greatest Christian Eastern Orthodox holidays, that brings together many believers.

Known to Catholics and Anglicans as Assumption of Mary, the holiday marks the day the mother of Christ passed away and was accepted in Heaven.

It is a holiday of happiness and joy, for it was the day that the mother of Chirst rejoined him in eternal glory.

In Bulgaria the day is also the name day of persons bearing the widespread name Maria, and cognates like Mario, Mariana.

Many people will flock to churches for the traditional Dormition of the Holy Mother of God services.

The famous Troyan Monastery, which bears the name of the day, has its temple holiday Sunday, and a lot of people are expected this year, as usual. The service in Troyan is to be held by the Bulgarian patriarch Maxim.

Up to 4,000 are also expected for the service at Rila Monastery south of Sofia in the Rila mountain.

The day is also the official holiday of second-biggest Bulgarian city Varna, whose main cathedral bears the name of the Dormition.

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August 15th Celebrations in Greece for the Virgin Mary

August 15th is one of the biggest celebrations in Greece and is a national holiday. It is the Orthodox Church's celebration of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary, only of lesser importance than Easter and Christmas.

In August most people have a holiday and Athens becomes a ghost town as Athenians go back to the villages where they or their parents were born. It’s great if you happen to be having a holiday in Athens, as it’s very peaceful and easy to travel around for a change, but if you are in a holiday resort, it will be packed. Don’t travel without having booked accommodation or you might find yourself having to sleep in a church.

Cephalonia’s (Kefallonia) Snakes Go to the Church Service

In the little village of Markopoulou, on the island of Cephalonia, a miracle is said to occur, that of the Virgin Mary’s snakes. Legend has it that when the island was attacked by the pirate Barbarossa in 1705, the nuns in the convent at Markopoulou prayed to escape being ravished and killed by the pirates, so they were turned into snakes. The pirates were horrified when they entered the convent, as it was crawling with snakes.

Now, at the service which celebrates the Dormition, the snakes enter the church and head for the bishop’s throne and the icon of the virgin, crawling through holes made for the bell ropes, and over the congregation and furniture. The snakes are harmless, and have black cross marks on their heads, villagers say.

Apparently they did not put in an appearance in 1953, the year a disastrous earthquake struck the island, or in 1940, the year before Greece was attacked by the Axis forces. Nor did they appear during some years of the Turkish Occupation of Greece.

There are videos of this event to view on YouTube.

The Island of Tinos is a Centre for Pilgrims

The church at Tinos has many steps to climb before it is reached, and at this time of year, pilgrims ascend the steps on their knees. The church houses an icon of the Virgin, which was found after a nun had a vision of the Virgin, who explained where the miraculous icon could be found. Six months after this vision the icon was unearthed in 1823 and taken to the church. It is believed to have miraculous powers of healing, which is why so many supplicants visit the island at this time of year.

The Greek government arranges more ferries to Tinos at this time, but it would be unwise to go to the island without having booked accommodation well in advance.

Celebrations on the Island of Paros

Celebrations here are slightly different to those held in the rest of Greece, as the 15th of August also commemorates the time in the early 18th century when the island was attacked by the pirate Barbarossa. He took the women and children from Naoussa, and held them for ransom. The islanders would not pay tribute to him, so he set fire to the castro, or castle, in the harbour of Naoussa and killed his captives. The people on the neighbouring island of Naxos saw the fires, and paid him the tribute he demanded so that they would not meet a similar fate.

The islanders now hold reenactments of the pirate raid and these pageants are accompanied by fireworks and celebrations. It is also the time of the Paros wine festival, so a good time is usually had on this island on the 15th of August.

From 1st to 14th August is a Period of Fasting

As in Lent, strict Orthodox Greeks will fast in the fortnight leading up to the Dormition of the Virgin Mary. They believe that she ‘fell asleep’ rather than died, so in some places you will read of the ‘Dormition’ [not Assumption] of the Virgin as being celebrated on this date. Fasting means not eating any red meat, nor any products from red-blooded creatures, nor olive oil, and no wine should be consumed either. Octopus and squid can be eaten as they are not red-blooded. Because of this, there is always a lot of food at celebrations on 15th August, celebrating the end of the fasting period.

In Naoussa, Paros, the food is free and the best place to be is the harbour area.

Name Day Celebrations

A name day is more important than a birthday in Greece, and August 15th is the celebrations for Maria, Marios, Panagiotis, (or Panos), Panagiota (or Iota), Despina and Thespina. As Maria is one of the most common girl’s names in Greece, the chances are you will know one and you might be invited to share the name day festivities. A small gift is always very much appreciated, if you are invited, but of course it’s not compulsory.

Wherever you are in Greece on this day you will certainly be involved in the celebrations. So go ahead and join in the Greek dancing. It’s always fun.

Paros Reenactment in August


Tinos on August 15th


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The Dormition of the Theotokos

by Protopresbyter Dr. George Dion Dragas

On August 15, Orthodox Christians celebrate the greatest of all the religious festivals which the Church established in honor of the All-Holy Virgin Mary (Panagia), the feast of the Dormition (Koimêsis) of the Theotokos.

The feasts of the Virgin Mary (theomêtorikai eortai) are second in importance after those of our Lord Jesus Christ in the annual cycle of festivals observed by the Orthodox Church because, after our Lord Himself, the All-Holy Virgin is the most blessed person in our Church.

If the Lord’s greatest Feast is that of Pascha, the Feast of His redemptive Death and Resurrection, then His Mother’s greatest feast is also associated with her death and metastasis (i.e., translation or transposition) to Heaven. The reason for this is to be found in the basic Christian perception of salvation, which is none other than the reentry of human beings into God’s eternal kingdom, transcending death and regaining the gift of eternal life.

In our Orthodox tradition, the blessed person of the Theotokos is inseparable from the blessed person of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This is exactly what the name, Theotokos (i.e., the God-bearer, Mother of God) constantly declares: namely that the place and significance of the Virgin Mary in the Church can not be understood apart from her relation to our Lord.

What is declared by the name Theotokos is most tangibly depicted on the iconostasion (the icon screen before the sanctuary) of any Orthodox Church. The icon of the Lord’s is always on the right of the Beautiful Gate, and the icon of the Theotokos is always on the left. This particular icon, depicting the All-Holy Virgin Mary holding our Lord and Savior as a child in her arms, is the most characteristic of all icons associated with her blessed person.

The hymns of this feast, which are among the most significant of the Orthodox liturgical year, bring out not only this basic Christian perception of salvation but also the important place that the blessed person of the All-Holy Theotokos has in this perspective.

The Feast of the Dormition was established in the 6th century, although its roots go back to earlier centuries, especially the 5th century, following the dogmatic decision of the 3rd Ecumenical Council of Ephesus (431) to accept and use the term, Theotokos as the most important and defining description of the All-Holy Mother of our Lord in the Church.

According to Dr. Ioannis Fountoulis, Professor of Liturgics at the University of Thessaloniki, this feast was joined to an earlier feast in honor of the Theotokos at the famous church of the All-Holy Virgin Mary in Gethsemane, which had been erected by the Byzantine Emperor Maurice over her tomb.

The details of the celebration of the feast of the Dormition, especially those revealed in its hymns, are based on an apocryphal narrative concerning the circumstances of the death of the Theotokos, which goes back to Saint John the Theologian, the beloved disciple of the Lord in whose care the All-Holy Theotokos had been entrusted.

The narrative tells us the story, which is beautifully depicted on the holy icon of the Dormition. It tells us that the All-Holy Theotokos was visited by the Archangel Gabriel and foretold about her approaching death; that thereupon the Theotokos returned to her home and prepared for this event, praying at the same time that the Apostles should be notified accordingly. John is said to be the first to arrive in a miraculous way, and then all the rest follow. Finally, the Lord Himself appears in His dazzling divine glory, escorted by a myriad of angels, and takes her all-holy soul, which is wrapped up like a newborn babe in swaddling clothes, into His arms in order to transport it to Heaven.

THIS WORLD AND THE NEXT

Before she departs, the All-Holy Theotokos greets the Holy Apostles and the people, promising that “whichever soul is to call her name will not be put to shame, but will find mercy and consolation, understanding and boldness in this world and the next.”

Her funeral follows. The holy body of the Theotokos is then taken to a tomb in Gesthemane where it is buried. Yet according to the narrative, on the third day after the funeral, the holy body of the Theotokos was translated to Heaven. The first hymn of the Great Vespers of the Feast sums it all up.

“O marvelous wonder. The source of life is laid in the tomb, and the tomb itself becomes a ladder to Heaven. Be glad, O Gethsemane, thou sacred abode of the Mother of God. Come, o ye faithful, and with Gabriel to lead us, let us all cry out: Hail, thou who art full of grace, the Lord is with Thee, granting the world through thee great mercy.”

Orthodox Christians honor the All-Holy Theotokos as the supreme living icon of the Church, the Mother of all Christians because, as the holy fathers explain in their writings, she is the “New Eve,” the new Mother of Humanity who, through her obedience, reversed the curse, which followed Eve’s disobedience, and brought to the world the “New Adam,” our Savior Jesus Christ, Who restored mankind’s communion with God the Creator.

PERPETUAL VIRGINITY

Orthodox Christians also believe in the ancient doctrine of the perpetual virginity of the All-Holy Theotokos. That is to say, that she was a Virgin before and during the Birth of Christ, and that she remained a Virgin afterwards. This is depicted in her icon by means of three stars appearing on the veil on her forehead and shoulders and also represents the grace of the Holy Trinity, Which was in her and made her “full of grace (kecharitômenê).”

In line with this, Orthodox Christians disagree with the Protestants, who believe that the All-Holy Virgin had other children besides the Lord, and maintain that the brothers and sisters of Jesus mentioned in the Gospel are most likely children of Joseph from an earlier marriage or cousins of Christ who were under the protection of Joseph, their uncle. Indeed, Joseph was betrothed, but not married, to the All-Holy Virgin.

Orthodox Christians also believe that the Theotokos is all-holy and immaculate, not because of her “immaculate conception” by her parents Joachim and Anna, but because she became such by the Grace of the Holy Spirit, Who “came upon (epeleusetai)” her; the Divine Power, which overshadowed (episkiasei)” her; and the uncorrupted conception of Christ in her womb. The Roman Catholic dogma of the “Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary,” which was declared in 1854, is unacceptable to the Orthodox.

Orthodox Christians believe that the All-Holy Theotokos fell asleep, that the Lord took up her soul to heaven, and that her body was most possibly transposed to Heaven afterwards as some of the fathers teach. They find unacceptable the dogma of the “Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary,” which the Roman Catholic Church declared in 1950 and which not only suggests that the Theotokos’ death or dormition not real, but also that she is Co-redeemer (co-redemptrix) and co-mediator (co-mediatrix) with the Lord. The Roman Catholic position gives priority to Mary rather than to Christ, inasmuch it suggests that He is immaculate because of her, instead of her being immaculate because of Him.

In the United States, many Orthodox have adopted the name Assumption as equivalent to the Greek Dormition (Koimêsis), but they understand it not in the Roman Catholic sense, which is almost identical with the Ascension (of the Lord), but in the sense of metastasis, as explained above.

Orthodox Christians do not share the Protestant objections to the sinlessness of the Theotokos, however, which are based on false premises. Protestant Christians, by and large, basically identify the Virgin Mary with the rest of humanity and fail to see the distinct qualities, and the Grace that abides in her, which make her the New Eve.

Orthodox Christians believe in the all-holiness or sinlessness of the Theotokos, not in the absolute sense, which belongs to God Alone, but in the relative sense, which is the gift of Pentecost (i.e., the gift of the abiding grace of the Holy Spirit in the Mother of God, the Holy Apostles and the Church in general, Which, by definition, makes all of them holy).

Finally Orthodox Christians pray to the All-Holy Theotokos for salvation, not in the sense that she is the primary cause of salvation, for this belongs to Christ Alone, but in the sense that she mediates through her maternal boldness and prayers to the Lord for Christians as her spiritual children.

Protestant objections to such Orthodox prayers to the All-Holy Theotokos and to the Saints are based on a misunderstanding of the above position.

The dismissal hymn of her greatest feast, the feast of the Dormition, sums up all these points of Orthodox belief presented briefly in this article:

“In giving birth, O Theotokos, thou has retained thy virginity, and in falling asleep, thou has not forsaken the world. Thou who art the Mother of Life has passed over into Life, and by thy prayers, thou has delivered our souls from death.”

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The Lamentations of the Dormition of the Theotokos

First Stasis

1. In a grave they laid you
yet, O Christ, you are life
and they now have laid the Mother of Life as well:
both to angels and to men a sight most strange!

2. We exalt you greatly,
Theotokos most pure,
and we glorify your holy dormition now,
as we bow before your honored precious tomb.

3. In your womb you held him
who cannot be contained;
you are life to all the faithful: how can you die,
and your body be contained within a tomb?

4. You brought forth, Pure Maiden,
God the heavenly King,
and today in manner royal are carried forth
to the Kingdom of the Heavens as a Queen.

5. Holy Theotokos,
You have passed from this world,
in departing not forsaking those left on earth,
but delivering this world from every ill.

6. All the earth sings glory
at your grave side, O Christ,
with all reverence, O Master, we also praise
the entombment of your Mother, ever Pure.

7. Overcome with wonder,
are the angels in awe
in beholding you, Pure Maiden, laid out as dead,
for from you has Light beamed forth to all the world.

8. Maiden Pure and Spotless,
and our Heavenly Queen,
once again has God sent Gabriel down to earth
with the joyful news that you have left this life.

9. Now the Bridegroom calls you,
to rejoice, Bride of God.
in a manner both divine and most beautiful
in the Bridal Chamber, holy and divine.

10. You, O Virgin, come now
to the throne seat of God
where the awesome unapproachable Light shines forth
from the Trinity, and lights where you repose.

11. From the earth departing,
You appeared before God.
You were not, O Theotokos, removed from God,
nor has God been parted from His mother’s heart.

12. Your most honored Body,
Theotokos, remained
uncorrupted by decay as you lay entombed
but it passed with you to heaven from the earth.

13. Your all-holy face shines
Purest Maiden, in death,
and your countenance appears now as Paradise,
breathing forth to all believers grace and life.

14. We your children offer
lamentations and love
unto you who are our Mother: accept our gift
which we offer from the deepness of our souls.

15. Look upon your children
who are gathered this day:
may your honored eyes be open that you behold
those who glorify with honor your repose.

16. To us grant your blessing
when you open your lips
O Most Holy Theotokos, departing now
at the ending of your time upon the earth.

17. Leave us not as orphans
when you leave us on earth,
for, O Mother, you are taken to heaven now,
to abide there with your Son and with your God.

18. Gathered ‘round your bedside,
we are calling to you,
our all-holy Virgin Mother, with fervent voice,
“Save the faithful and have mercy upon us!”

19. Mother Anna, join us
Come and stand in our midst!
Come and lead the celebration of this glad feast
of your holy daughter, Mother of our God!

20. Come and let us raise up
praise and glory to God
who has summoned to the Holy of Holies now
one yet greater than the Holiest of Saints.

21. Filled with gladness, Heaven
is receiving her Queen
for the Mother of creation in glory comes
and appears in glory, reigning with her God.

22. Now the God of Glory
takes His mother to Him
and the Son who has received you, O Purest One,
has prepared for you a seat at His right Hand.

Glory to the Father and the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.

23. Now unto the Father
and the Holy Spirit
we with gladness sound forth hymns, Word and God of all,
and we glorify your countenance divine.

Both now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

24. Every generation
comes to know you as blest,
and your holy pure dormition we glorify
Theotokos, ever-Virgin, Sovereign Queen!

(Repeat Verse One)

1. In a grave they laid you
yet, O Christ, you are life
and they now have laid the Mother of Life as well:
both to angels and to men a sight most strange!

Second Stasis

1. Truly it is right
that we magnify you who bestow life,
just as your pure Mother you magnify
for her life-creating falling into sleep.

2. Truly it is right
that we magnify you, Theotokos,
you took your divine and all-blameless soul
and entrusted it into the Hands of God.

3. Wonder strange and new!
For the Door now passes through the Doorway,
Heaven enters Heaven! We stand in awe
as the Throne of God ascends the Throne of God!

4. All angelic hosts
stood and marveled when beholding Christ God,
who is unapproachable now approach
to give honor to His mother as a Son.

5. Angels shook with fear
to behold their God again descending;
with His mother’s soul carried in His hands,
He arose again in glory most divine.

6. Heaven shall be awed,
and the earth unto these words shall hearken;
God above all things, who did once come down,
for His mother’s sake a second time descends!

7. Wisdom now has moved
from her dwelling place on earth to heaven.
and has filled her heavenly mansion there
with the glory that has come from God above.

8. Virgin Bride of God,
who did not descend to us from Heaven,
by her giving birth unto heaven’s King
from this world unto the heavens now ascends.

9. Mankind now may pass
into heaven for the Way is open.
Come therefore, all Christians who bear His name:
Let us rise up with the Mother of our God.

10. Down into the earth
You, the Lord’s unplanted land, descended,
Out of you has sprung forth the Grain of Life,
and unto the Land of Heaven you arise.

11. Mother of the Light!
Now the sun which once beheld the setting
of the Sun of Righteousness now beholds
You, O Virgin, as the setting of the moon.

12. Darkness of the tomb
now conceals the Lord’s light-bearing Mountain
which once covered Heaven with Virtue’s light,
but now lies beneath the shadows of its shroud.

13, Taken from the earth
you arose to be with God in heaven.
All the earth rejoices along with you
and it glorifies, O Virgin, your repose.

14. Pure and incorrupt,
now your body lies enclosed in Heaven
while your grace, O Virgin, is pouring forth
and illuminates the face of all the earth.

15. Filling up your days
singing hymns to God with prayer and fasting
You, O Virgin Maiden, await the time
when you come before the Lord in your repose.

16. Faithful souls rejoice,
and their faces are alight and shining,
Our all-holy Lady, because of you,
who, departing now from us, will join the Lord.

17. See before your tomb
standing piously the true believers;
hear the lamentations our voices raise
unto you, who are the Author of our Life.

18. Early in the dawn
we the faithful rise to sing your glory
praising your dormition, with all our love,
Sovereign Virgin Maiden, free from any sin.

19. Virgin Bride of God!
When you enter into heaven’s kingdom,
Grant that you remember the faithful here
who now honor your dormition with our hymns.

20. As you once foretold,
you are magnified now, most pure Virgin,
by the very power which did create
both the heavens and the earth and all therein.

21. Standing face to face
where the Seraphim their faces cover,
you behold the Trinity that is God
one in essence, and which nothing can divide.

22. All the earth is glad
and the heavens sing in celebration;
angels raise their voices to join with men
and as you ascend to heaven they rejoice!

Glory to the Father and the Son and to the Holy Spirit.

23. God beyond all time,
with the Word and Spirit everlasting,
in that You are God, merciful and good,
let the clarion of Christians be extolled!
Both now and ever and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

24. Life was born of you,
who are holy and most pure, O Virgin,
as you now depart from this world to Life,
grant true life to us who faithfully believe.

(Repeat Verse One)

1. Truly it is right
that we magnify you who bestows life,
just as your pure Mother you magnify
for her life-creating falling into sleep.

Third Stasis

1. Every generation
offers hymns, O Virgin,
to honor your entombment.

2. Come with all creation
to sing the hymns of parting
as you are raised, O Virgin.

3. Disciples of my Lord Christ,
arrive to tend the body
of my God’s purest Mother.

4. Invisibly attending,
the archangels and angels
in ranks sing hymns to praise you.

5. The women high in honor
along with the apostles
are crying out and weeping.

6. O Virgin never-wedded,
the Mother of the Most High,
how shall we bear this passion?

7. The time of your departing
holds joy for all creation,
but leaves us weeping, mournful.

8. O Mother, do not leave us
behind you now as orphans,
without your love and caring.

9. Our Light are you, O Virgin,
how then shall we bear this:
no more to see your sweet eyes?

10. Alas! Your lips which loved God
and ever spoke about Him
have now been bound by silence.

11. “We shall not abandon
the Mother of our Teacher!”
the Lord’s apostles cried out.

12. On up-borne clouds, O Virgin,
again we go before you
unto the gates of Heaven.

13. The holy staff is laid down
inside the tomb and hidden
and from it Life has blossomed.

14. By giving birth she raised up
the dead from their entombment,
and yet, she lies entombed now.

15. “Where, Virgin, are you going?”
her loved one and defender
calls out as Son to Mother.

16. You, who are God’s Mother
with joyful heart now enter
into your Son’s glad presence.

17. Called with the apostles
are you again attending
the wedding feast at Cana?

18. Take me, your child, O Virgin
today as you are raised up
to be with your divine Son.

19. To Heaven you are taken,
and with your Son are living:
Let me be also taken.

20. Together in the Heavens,
may we now stand in glory
who at your cross in pain stood.

21. Gethsemane, be joyful!
Great hosts endowed with reason
descend now with the Master.

22. Be jubilant, be joyful,
O Chorus of Disciples,
Behold the Lord in glory!

23. Once more is God descending!
Today let all creation
beholding Him make merry.

24. Let us go forth, O people,
in haste to greet the Lord, who
is once again descending.

25. This day we may we all listen
to God as He is speaking
with His all-spotless Mother.

26. Come now, sweetest Mother,
and enter with rejoicing
your sweetest Son’s glad presence.

27. Let your eyes behold now
your Son who comes to take you
unto His own, O Mother.

28. “I come to see the glory
of my Mother shining
before my Father’s glory.”

29. “My God,” avows your Mother,
“I glorify your mercy,
and utter loving kindness.”

30. “I glorify you, kneeling
bowed down, my Son, in worship
of your majestic glory.”

31. Since You, who are the nearest
to me, from earth have risen
unto my Father draw near.

32. Enclosed are you, O Garden,
in which we will discover
The Tree of Life Unending.

33. Sealed are you, O Fountain,
from which the streams of life pour
most wondrously with sweetness.

34. “My lips shall sing the praises
of your divine dominion
My son and sovereign Godhead.”

Glory to the Father and the Son and to the Holy Spirit.

35. My God, who are three persons,
Father, Son, and Spirit,
on all the world have mercy!

Both now and ever, and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

36. Deem your servants worthy
to enter in the Kingdom
that is your Son’s, O Virgin.

(Repeat Verse One)

1. Every generation
offers hymns, O Virgin,
to honor your entombment.

Source: Translation by N. Takis.

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88 Years Later, A Liturgy at Soumela Monastery

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On the Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos

ON THE FEAST OF THE DORMITION (FALLING ASLEEP) OF THE ALL-HOLY AND BLESSED VIRGIN MARY, THE THEOTOKOS

By Fr. George Dion Dragas

The Place of the Theotokos in the Church: The Blessed Virgin Mary, the Theotokos (Mother of God) occupies next to Christ the most important place in Orthodox Christianity. This is most obvious in the Orthodox liturgical tradition. Entering into any Orthodox church you first encounter the Theotokos. Her sacred icon is the first to meet and venerate in the Narthex. She appears in her primary identity as the Mother of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Son of God, the Savior of the world, whom she holds in her hands. As you move further into the church, you encounter her again both in the main Nave and in the Sanctuary at the most prominent places. You are thereby reminded that you cannot church yourself and approach God in Christ without the Blessed Virgin Mother of God. She is the primary witness, the new Eve, the Mother of the second and last Adam, your Savior and Savior of the world. She is the Queen of the Church, of the Kingdom of God, of Angels and human beings and of the entire creation, whom the King of all chose as the unique vehicle of his coming into the world to save it and restore in it his eternal Kingdom of freedom, truth and love.

The Feast of the Dormition (Koimesis): The Feast of the Dormition (Falling asleep) of the All-holy Theotokos, celebrated on the 15th of August every year is the greatest among several others which commemorate her Blessed person and life. As such, this Feast marks the completion of her earthly life as her full participation in the salvation and eternal life which the Lord God established for us human beings through Christ. But one may ask. Is this not a contradiction in terms? Does not falling asleep imply death? The answer is Yes and No. Yes, because she truly died. No, because she did not remain in death. The Icon of the Feast of the Falling-asleep of the Theotokos depicts her body resting breathless in a bed while her soul, wrapped in swaddling clothes like a new-born baby, is upheld in the arms of the Risen and glorified Christ who stands behind the bed. This icon is the reversal of the usual icon of the Theotokos which depicts the Virgin holding Christ in her arms. Christ holding the Virgin’s soul in his arms indicates her entry into the Kingdom of Heaven which the Incarnate Christ opened up for us through his saving life and work. It indicates in the most concrete way St. Athanasius’ well known dictum: “God became human that we (humans) may be made divine.” Christ the Savior taking the soul of his Mother to Heaven marks the first resurrection, which Christians experience when they die, thanks to our Lord’s redemptive work. The full resurrection of our humanity, i.e. the resurrection of the body, will take place at the second coming of Christ which will be accompanied by the general resurrection and the last judgment of all human beings.

What happened to the body of the Theotokos? The Feast of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin does not end with her first resurrection, which is the entry of her soul into heaven. There is another mystery also connected with it which refers to her holy body. What happened to the body of the Theotokos? Why there is no tradition in the Christian Church both in East and West that mentions any bodily relics of the all-holy Mother of God, but there are traditions only about her girdle (zone) and garments (estheta and maphorion)? Apparently, according to ancient traditions, her body too was miraculously translated into heaven after its burial in Gethsemane, and was united with her soul. Indeed her tomb was found empty shortly after the burial. This tradition of the translation of the body of the Theotokos from the tomb to heaven (metathesis or metastasis in Greek, transitus in Latin) is very strong in the Orthodox Church as liturgical practice and many and important patristic texts bear witness, although sources do differ on details.

An admirable collection of texts referring to early ecclesiastical sources of this tradition is the book, Early Patristic Homilies On the Dormition of Mary published by St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press (1997). It contains English translations of texts referring to the Falling Asleep in the Lord of the Blessed Virgin Theotokos by John of Thessalonica, Theoteknos of Livias, Modestus of Jerusalem, Andrew of Crete, Germanus of Constantinople, John the Monk of the Old Lavra, John Damascene and Theodore the Studite. The translator, one of the great patristic scholars in this country, Professor Brian E. Daily, S.J., has provided a good discussion of these texts by way of introduction. To these texts one could go on and add several others from the later Byzantine fathers and ecclesiastical authors of the second millennium, such as Leo the Emperor, John of Euchaita, Isidore of Thessalonica, Philotheos of Constantinople, Gregory Palamas of Thessalonica, Nicholas Cabasilas, Damaskenos Stoudites, etc. These texts point to a common tradition, although one observes differences in the details as scholars argue (see the latest discussion of Stephen J. Shoemaker, Ancient Traditions of the Virgin Mary’s Dormition and Assumption, Oxford University Press, 2002). They all agree, however, that the tomb of St. Mary in Gethsemane, where the body of the Blessed Virgin Mary was buried by the holy Apostles, was found empty when they opened it three days later. Here is how this ‘tradition’ is presented by Patriarch Juvenal of Jerusalem to Empress Pulcheria of Constantinople at the time of Chalcedon (AD 451) who asked for the relic of the Theotokos to be transferred from Jerusalem to Constantinople (From Sermon II on the Dormition of St. John Damascene, ch. 18 based on an earlier document called Euthymian History).

The Ancient Tradition (from the St. Euthymius History): “There is nothing in the holy, inspired Scripture about the death of Mary, the holy Theotokos; but we know from an ancient and truest tradition that at the time of her glorious falling asleep, all the holy Apostles, who were traveling the world preaching salvation to the nations, were in an instant lifted up and brought to Jerusalem. As they stood before her, they saw an angelic apparition, and a divine chanting was heard from the higher Powers. And so, in a state of divine and heavenly glory she placed her soul into God’s hands in an ineffable way. Her body, which had received God, was carried with angelic and apostolic hymns, was prepared and laid to rest in a coffin in Gethsemane. It was there and for three days that the angelic choruses and hymns continued unceasingly. After three days, however, the angelic hymnody ceased. The Apostles were there, and since one of them –Thomas– who had been absent from the burial, came after the third day and asked to reverence that body which had received God, they opened the coffin. They could not find anywhere her much-praised body, and since all they could find were her burial swaddling-clothes and the ineffable fragrance that came out of them and filled their bowels, they closed the coffin again. Amazed by the miracle of this mystery, they could only think this: that the One who willed to be incarnated and become human from her in his person, and to be born in the flesh he who is God the Word and Lord of Glory, and who preserved her virginity incorruptible after the birth, he was also the One that was well-pleased to honor her immaculate and spotless body, after her departure from this world, [by endowing it] with incorruptibility and with a transposition (metathesis) [to heaven] before the common, and universal resurrection.”

Orthodox and Roman Catholic Doctrine: This is not the place to present in detail all the variable patristic accounts of the falling asleep of the Theotokos and assess their conclusions. In spite of differences, it is clear that they all point to the glorification of the Blessed Theotokos at her death, which marks her entry into Heaven and taking a place closer to Christ than any other heavenly or human being. The mystery of her bodily transposition which is warranted by the empty tomb is a matter of faith and piety and is based on the mystery of the Incarnation. Based on this logic that pertains to the mystery of Christ and the unique place of the Blessed Virgin Theotokos in it, it is also logical to assume that she too has experienced the resurrection of the body as a unique anticipation of the general resurrection of all humanity in the end of time. In spite of this, the Orthodox Church has not accepted the Roman Catholic dogma of the bodily assumption of the Virgin Mary, Mother of God, which was promulgated by Pope Pius XII on 1 November 1950 through his Bull Munificentissimus Deus. The reasons for this rejection have been both theological and historical. The Roman Catholic Dogma of the Assumption is based on the earlier Marian dogma of the Immaculate Conception (that the Virgin was born immaculate, free from original sin), which was promulgated by Pope Pius IX on 8 December 1854 through his Bull Ineffabilis Deus. In effect this meant that being sinless she could not and did not die but was assumed into heaven both in body and soul. For the Orthodox these Roman Catholic Marian Dogmas are rather rationalizations of piety and are not clearly warranted in the Holy Tradition of the Church. Orthodox piety and faith preserves the mystery of the blessed Theotokos along with the mystery of Christ the Incarnate God and Lord of Glory. The festal hymn of the Dormition proclaims this most clearly: "In giving birth you kept your virginity. In falling asleep you did not abandon the world, O Mother of God. You passed over into life, for you are the Mother of Life, and by your intercessions you deliver our souls from death."

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Panagia of Mikrokastrou and the Dormition Monastery

Panagia Mikrokastrou (Feast Day - August 15)

Mikrokastrou is a village in northern Greece near Siatista in the Kozani district. It is an old village with a chapel dedicated to St. Athanasios dated to 1050 AD with an inscription that says: "Within is entombed the head of Nicholas the Priest". It derives its name from Mount Kastraki which lies on the other side of the village. This mountain is on the way to Siatista and is known for the massacre which occurred there at the hands of the Turks in November of 1912, which is also the year the inhabitants gained independence from the Turks.

The Monastery of the Dormition of the Theotokos was founded in 1753, though the church was not built until 1797 and it was not dedicated until 1842. It houses the miraculous icon of Panagia Mikrokastrou, which is celebrated annually on August 15th amidst much festivity. Thousands come annually from Western Macedonia to venerate the holy icon of Panagia Mikrokastrou, which dates back to 1603 and is of the Eleousa type (experts indicate the icon to be much older, probably from the 12th or 13th century). From 1993 the monastery has functioned as a female convent. Though not functioning today, the monastery at one time operated an old age home, an orphanage, and a hospital for sick children. During war times many sought refuge and sustenance from the monastery, and in turn the people loved the monastery and the bishop who made the monastery a center of the peoples lives. The monastery was the heart of Western Macedonia and it was truly a place where the command to "love one another" was exemplified.

Yearly on the 15th of August the male inhabitants of Siatista parade with their horses (the Cavalry of Siatista) in a procession of the icon from the monastery to Siatista. In Siatista a party ensues and the men dance on the backs of the horses while the wine flows freely, and people break their fasts with a great feast among friends and family till the early morning hours. This festivity goes back to Ottoman times when the Turks granted the inhabitants one day of freedom to do as they wished according to their traditions, and the men would ride their decorated horses to show the Turks their leventia.

Telephone # for the monastery is 24650 23516.

Read more of the modern history of the monastery here.

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Beware of a Parent's Curse

by St. Nikolai Velimirovich

Beware of a parent's curse for a parental curse is a dreadful thing. Appreciate and seek a parental blessing for it will accompany you throughout your entire life.

The all-wise Sirach speaks: "For the blessing of the father establishes the houses of children but curse of the mother rooteth out foundations" (Sirach 3:9 Ecclesiasticus 3:9).

The curse by which Noah cursed the descendants of Ham still follows the unfortunate Hamites today. However, to the sons of Jacob, it was the same as their father blessed them in their life.

St. Sergius, as a young man, begged his parents for their blessing in order for him to become a monk. But, the aged parents begged their son to wait awhile and to labor around them until their death and after that to become tonsured a monk. Sergius obeyed his parents and was blessed until his death.

Bishop Hermogenes relates an incident how a son mistreated his wife. When his mother, with tears, began to scold him because of this, the son attacked his mother, beat her and smashed her head against a wall. The sorrowful mother cried out: "Lord, may my son be cursed and may he not have my blessing nor Your blessing." That same day, the son began to tremble throughout his entire body and for thirteen years he lived in this state of trembling not even able to raise a spoon to his mouth. After thirteen years, he made his confession and received the Sacrament of Holy Communion which made it somewhat easier for him and soon after that he died.

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God Must Be Weeping

Weeping Holy Icon Of The Panagia -Theotokos- Paranythia, from Monastery of Eliakon, near Kykko, Cyprus

by Archimandrite Nektarios Serfes

The shortest verse in the New Testament is Chapter 11, verse 35 in the Gospel of John. It is a sentence containing only two words: “Jesus wept.” The occasion was the death of His friend, Lazarus. Before He raised him from the dead, Jesus wept in front of Lazarus’ tomb. He did this to show that He was fully human, capable of feeling sorrow over the human condition, fully able to empathize with the mourners’ sense of grief and loss. But He wept also because, despite all He had told them, they still did not see Him as their Savior Who would give them all immortal life.

The Scriptures tell us that Jesus wept on other occasions as well. Luke 19: 41 – 47 tells us about Jesus’ return to Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday: “And when He was come near, He beheld the city, and wept over it”. From where He stood on the Mount of Olives, He could look down over what was then one of the greatest cities in the ancient world. The Holy City must have been an impressive sight— gleaming in the spring sunshine, with the great Temple built of white marble and ornamented with polished brass, set like a gem in its center!

Jesus knew that hardly forty years would pass before legions of Roman soldiers would attack and destroy Jerusalem and the Temple along with it. And so He wept for what this city could have been but never would be— a true haven of peace where goodness and justice prevailed and God ruled the hearts and minds of His chosen people. But Jesus saw what really was there and so He wept over the selfishness and meanness and apathy of the people, over their refusal to do God’s will and their indifference toward realizing their potential and becoming all that God calls all of us to become.

Today God must spend quite a lot of time weeping over us.

We too have built great cities but they are not cities of peace where God is honored and life is celebrated as a holy gift. Instead, we oppress one another and we rush to war when mere oppression isn’t enough to preserve our power and control.

We are too busy to tend our own families and too irresponsible ourselves to be adequate role models for our youth. And so without guidance, our children are left to fend for themselves. Too many fall along the way and we abandon them to wallow in drugs and despair and to drown in the cultural sewage we’ve allowed to engulf our lives.

We ignore our poor and elderly, the dispossessed, the mentally ill, the stranger in our midst. We are too busy pursuing our own 15 minutes of fame! We have no time to spare to help others, to visit the sick, to comfort the despairing, to guide the lost, to resettle the dispossessed, to show hospitality to the stranger. Abraham entertained angels but we do not even know who our neighbors are! We do not even see the homeless. The pains and trials of those “not of our class” or “not of our race” are “not our problem”!

All around the world, Christianity is out of fashion. Christians are persecuted and their beliefs are under attack from followers of other faiths and from followers of no faith. Science is perversely misinterpreted to “prove” there is no God; evil is gleefully held up as evidence that “God is dead” or, at the very least, He has gone away, forsaking the world at last. Churches are desecrated. Interpretation of Scripture is stretched beyond the limits even of common sense to confuse those who sincerely seek to do God’s will. Atheism and secularism are written into law and public policy; those who persist in publicly witnessing to their faith are subjected to ridicule, censorship and even prosecution.

Life itself is progressively cheapened. People who cannot defend themselves —the unborn, the severely disabled— are treated as things to be managed (or disposed of) by others. In our greed for personal wealth and power, we trash the environment, God’s glorious creation and the web of life that He designed to sustain us all, as if it were merely our property over which we have a right to do as we please.

If Jesus wept at Lazarus’ tomb because he understood and shared one family’s sorrow, how much more must God weep in empathy with entire nations’ despair over the oppression or destruction of entire races and peoples?

If Jesus wept contemplating the future destruction of Jerusalem, how much more must God weep over the nuclear holocaust with which we continue to threaten our neighbors? Over the damage to the planet which our greed continues to worsen? Over our indifference to the suffering of people “not of our class” and “not of our race” who live in Darfur or New Orleans?

Lord Jesus, Thou hast embraced our own humanity, sharing our grief, experiencing our pain and despair, and the weaknesses of our flesh. By taking on our nature, Thou didst show us how to merge humanity with the divine. Let us never cause Thee to weep over us; but keep us focused on Thee that we may transform the earth into the New Jerusalem.

Amen.

Peace to your soul!

Humbly in our Risen Lord,

+Very Rev. Archimandrite Nektarios Serfes
Who prays for you and with you!

September 2007

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St. Maximus the Confessor: 18 Spiritual Interpretations of the Transfiguration (6)

Continued from Part Five

F. The mode concerned with providence signifies through Moses how out of love for humankind it is raised above those who are embroiled in evil and error and wisely distinguishes among human beings the ways of departure from the material and corruptible and bodily to the divine and immaterial and bodiless, and with understanding implants the divine laws.

G. The mode of judgment suggests through Elijah how judgment punishes by word and deed those who deserve it, and deals with others suitably in each case in accordance with the underlying matter and kind of virtue or evil. For according to this scriptural passage, it is from things seen beforehand that Moses and Elijah sketch figuratively divine matters in the best way possible, each in a way appropriate to the mode of spiritual contemplation.

H. From what they [Moses and Elijah] said to the Lord and their speaking of the exodus that was about to be fulfilled in Jerusalem, they were taught not only about the accomplishment of the mysteries proclaimed beforehand and by the law and the prophets, but equally they learnt that the precise measure of the ineffable will of God concerning the universe is not to be apprehended by any being at all, nor the measure of the divine economies consequent on that will, nor yet the measure of his great providence and judgment, through which the universe is led in an orderly manner towards the end that is known beforehand by God alone. Of this no one knows its nature, or how it will be, or in what form or when, it is simply known that it will be, and then only to those who have purified their souls through the virtues and have inclined the whole of their mind wholly towards the divine. To them there is granted, as has been said, an apprehension of providence and judgment of the whole nature of visible things, and the modes through which the end of this present harmony naturally consist, and is well-nigh expressly proclaimed.

From Maximus the Confessor by Andrew Louth (Routledge: London 1999) pp. 128-134.

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Saint Nazarius of Valaam on the Poor and Needy

by St. Nikolai Velimirovich

"Give thanks to the Lord but do not forget His great men, the poor and the needy, for they can accomplish much with God the Lord." These are the words of the illustrious Russian ascetic of the nineteenth century, Father Nazarius, the abbot of Valamo [Valaam] Monastery. He spoke these words to the wife of a high-ranking official in Petrograd [St. Petersburg] who fell into disfavor with the Tsar because of certain serious accusations. The accused official became ill from worry and lay in bed. Hearing that Father Nazarius arrived in Petrograd, the wife of this official hurriedly sought him out and related the misfortune which had befallen them and implored him to pray to the Lord for her husband. "Do you have any copper or silver coins in change?" Father Nazarius asked her. The woman brought the coins and gave them to him. And so, Father Nazarius left. The same evening Nazarius again returned and gladdened the wife with this news: "Glory to God, all those close to the Tsar have promised to pray for you." Naturally, the wife thought of Tsar Alexander Pavlovitch and his courtiers, while the spiritual father was thinking about the beggars on the streets to whom he had distributed the coins and sent them to pray to God for the husband of this woman. And suredly the news arrived that the emperor ordered that the matter concerning this official be taken up again and reviewed. And, it was just what the official wanted. When the woman began to thank Father Nazarius, he said: "Give thanks to the Lord but do not forget His great men, the poor and the needy, for they can accomplish much with God the Lord."

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The Perils of 'Wannabe Cool' Christianity

by Brett McCracken
August 13, 2010
Wall Street Journal

'How can we stop the oil gusher?" may have been the question of the summer for most Americans. Yet for many evangelical pastors and leaders, the leaking well is nothing compared to the threat posed by an ongoing gusher of a different sort: Young people pouring out of their churches, never to return.

As a 27-year-old evangelical myself, I understand the concern. My peers, many of whom grew up in the church, are losing interest in the Christian establishment.

Recent statistics have shown an increasing exodus of young people from churches, especially after they leave home and live on their own. In a 2007 study, Lifeway Research determined that 70% of young Protestant adults between 18-22 stop attending church regularly.

Statistics like these have created something of a mania in recent years, as baby-boomer evangelical leaders frantically assess what they have done wrong (why didn't megachurches work to attract youth in the long term?) and scramble to figure out a plan to keep young members engaged in the life of the church.

Increasingly, the "plan" has taken the form of a total image overhaul, where efforts are made to rebrand Christianity as hip, countercultural, relevant. As a result, in the early 2000s, we got something called "the emerging church"—a sort of postmodern stab at an evangelical reform movement. Perhaps because it was too "let's rethink everything" radical, it fizzled quickly. But the impulse behind it—to rehabilitate Christianity's image and make it "cool"—remains.

There are various ways that churches attempt to be cool. For some, it means trying to seem more culturally savvy. The pastor quotes Stephen Colbert or references Lady Gaga during his sermon, or a church sponsors a screening of the R-rated "No Country For Old Men." For others, the emphasis is on looking cool, perhaps by giving the pastor a metrosexual makeover, with skinny jeans and an $80 haircut, or by insisting on trendy eco-friendly paper and helvetica-only fonts on all printed materials. Then there is the option of holding a worship service in a bar or nightclub (as is the case for L.A.'s Mosaic church, whose downtown location meets at a nightspot called Club Mayan).

"Wannabe cool" Christianity also manifests itself as an obsession with being on the technological cutting edge. Churches like Central Christian in Las Vegas and Liquid Church in New Brunswick, N.J., for example, have online church services where people can have a worship experience at an "iCampus." Many other churches now encourage texting, Twitter and iPhone interaction with the pastor during their services.

But one of the most popular—and arguably most unseemly—methods of making Christianity hip is to make it shocking. What better way to appeal to younger generations than to push the envelope and go where no fundamentalist has gone before?

Sex is a popular shock tactic. Evangelical-authored books like "Sex God" (by Rob Bell) and "Real Sex" (by Lauren Winner) are par for the course these days. At the same time, many churches are finding creative ways to use sex-themed marketing gimmicks to lure people into church.

Oak Leaf Church in Cartersville, Georgia, created a website called yourgreatsexlife.com to pique the interest of young seekers. Flamingo Road Church in Florida created an online, anonymous confessional (IveScrewedUp.com), and had a web series called MyNakedPastor.com, which featured a 24/7 webcam showing five weeks in the life of the pastor, Troy Gramling. Then there is Mark Driscoll at Seattle's Mars Hill Church—who delivers sermons with titles like "Biblical Oral Sex" and "Pleasuring Your Spouse," and is probably the first and only pastor I have ever heard say the word "vulva" during a sermon.

But are these gimmicks really going to bring young people back to church? Is this what people really come to church for? Maybe sex sermons and indie- rock worship music do help in getting people in the door, and maybe even in winning new converts. But what sort of Christianity are they being converted to?

In his book, "The Courage to Be Protestant," David Wells writes:"The born-again, marketing church has calculated that unless it makes deep, serious cultural adaptations, it will go out of business, especially with the younger generations. What it has not considered carefully enough is that it may well be putting itself out of business with God.

"And the further irony," he adds, "is that the younger generations who are less impressed by whiz-bang technology, who often see through what is slick and glitzy, and who have been on the receiving end of enough marketing to nauseate them, are as likely to walk away from these oh-so-relevant churches as to walk into them."

If the evangelical Christian leadership thinks that "cool Christianity" is a sustainable path forward, they are severely mistaken. As a twentysomething, I can say with confidence that when it comes to church, we don't want cool as much as we want real.

If we are interested in Christianity in any sort of serious way, it is not because it's easy or trendy or popular. It's because Jesus himself is appealing, and what he says rings true. It's because the world we inhabit is utterly phony, ephemeral, narcissistic, image-obsessed and sex-drenched—and we want an alternative. It's not because we want more of the same.

Mr. McCracken's book, "Hipster Christianity: Where Church and Cool Collide" (Baker Books) was published this month.

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'Eat Pray Love' Inspired by Gurumayi, Leader of Cult-Like Ashram

by Roger Friedman
August 13th, 2010
Showbiz 411

The whole “Eat Pray Love” movement – now the inspiration for a Julia Roberts movie – comes from a cult-like ashram that gained popularity in the early 1990s, guided by a woman named Gurumayi.

And it makes you wonder: has Julia Roberts, who now says she’s a practicing Hindu, found her own Scientology?

Now 55 years old, Gurumayi Chidvilasananda – her real name is Malti Shetty — is the swami whom Elizabeth Gilbert went to meet in India in the book, “Eat Pray Love.” Alas, Gurumayi wasn’t there when Gilbert arrived. She was never anywhere as I recall. I wrote a piece about her and her cult-like ashram back in the early 90s. Her disciples — mostly young women – met in a church basement on the Upper East Side. There were dozens of them. They were glassy eyed. They were mostly white, upscale, and having trouble with relationships. Sound familiar?

Around the same time, the New Yorker also did a piece about Gurumayi, who’d inherited her platform from Swami Muktananda as a young woman with her brother. Their parents — the father was a restaurateur – had been his followers. But a civil war broke out between the siblings, and Gurumayi snatched Swami Muktananda’s business from her brother. The way to inner peace is often not a pretty one.

Celebrities came, as they do: Meg Ryan swore by her. Raul Julia was reportedly a disciple. A well known New York actor and director, I was told, ended his marriage to a beautiful model because she’d gotten too involved with Gurumayi. The New Yorker article also noted Jerry Brown, John Denver, Andre Gregory, Diana Ross, Isabella Rossellini, Phylicia Rashad, Don Johnson, Melanie Griffith, and Marsha Mason.

She is a real “Slumdog Millionaire.” Her SYDA Foundation - about which it is hard to gain much information – is worth millions in real estate holdings. She also runs an international organization called Siddha Yoga, a business posing as a religion. Both organizations are tax exempt because they’re regostered as churches. If you’re thinking of looking for Gurumayi now, think again. A few years ago she closed the Catskills facility in South Fallsburg, New York, to strangers. She ended her big public relations push to get more disciples. She is rarely seen anywhere. But she is very rich.

Gilbert learned a lot from Gurumayi. She’s turned her glossy spiritual experience into a money maker. Tonight she’s hosting a special screening of “Eat Pray Love” at the Ziegfeld. Tickets are $25.

Marta Szabo knows all about Gurumayi. She worked for her for over 10 years. Now she’s published her own memoir, called “The Guru Looked Good.” Szabo has never met Gilbert, and her book was published before “Eat Pray Love.” What she says is quite different than Gilbert’s movie would lead anyone to believe.

“Gurumayi is not an enlightened being,” says Szabo. “If she were really enlightened she wouldn’t go around telling everyone. You’d know it.”

Szabo has a lot to say about Gurumayi, and it can be found in her book and elsewhere on the internet. But one thing she told me was pretty weird – when the New Yorker article was coming out, Gurumayi used a form of brainwashing on her disciples. “There were secret rituals,” Szabo recalls. “She practiced long distance Reiki” – a Japanese healing process. And there were “meditations” in “secret places.”

Most of it didn’t work, she says. “A lot of people left after the article.” The New Yorker piece detailed the tug of war to own the ashram, violence enacted against Gurumayi’s brother who eventually started his own ashram nearby in the Catskills, as well as accusations of sexual misconduct against Muktananda.

Julia Roberts would do well to read Marta Szabo’s book.

By the way, I asked Marta, where was Gurumayi all the time? “She would disappear for short periods,” Szabo said. “She was probably staying in a rich devotee’s house.”

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The Liturgies at Soumela and Akhtamar on August 15 and 19

Dormition in Turkey. Liturgy on the Black Mountain

It is being celebrated by the Patriarch of Constantinople, for the first time after many years, at a historic monastery that has fallen into ruin, with thousands of faithful including many from Greece and Russia. But Christians don't trust the concessions of the Turkish government.

by Sandro Magister
August 13, 2010
Chiesa

The news was released at the end of June by the agency "Fides" of the Vatican congregation for evangelization. For August 15, which for the Orthodox is the Feast of the Dormition of the Holy Mother of God, the Turkish government has authorized the celebration of a Liturgy in a place that is a symbol of the Christian faith of the East, as much of its flourishing as of its violent uprooting: the Monastery of Soumela of the Mother of God of the Black Mountain.

The concession was greeted with surprise by the Orthodox community, not only in Turkey, where the Greek-Byzantines of the Patriarchate of Constantinople have been reduced to a few thousand, but also abroad, especially in Greece and Russia.

Nonetheless, it's still a concession limited to a few hours. The Liturgy will be allowed to be celebrated only once, outside of the monastery, in front of the ruins.

The Monastery of Soumela, in fact, after withstanding the storms of history for fifteen centuries and staying alive even during Ottoman rule, was emptied and reduced to ruins in 1923, with the expulsion of the Greek Orthodox by the modern Turkish state.

Since then, it has been forbidden to celebrate the Liturgy there. The monastery, a small portion of which has been restored, has become a destination for tourist excursions from nearby Trabzon, the city on the Black Sea where on February 5, 2006, a young Muslim killed the Catholic priest Andrea Santoro.

For August 19, the Turkish government has made a similar concession for the Armenians. It has authorized the celebration of a Liturgy in the Church of the Holy Cross in Akhtamar, on an island of Lake Van.

This church, which had also fallen into ruin, was renovated in 2007. But it was set up as a museum, and until now the Liturgy has not been permitted to be celebrated there.

When the Armenian patriarch asked for permission to place a cross on top of the renovated church, the Turkish authorities refused. The church had to remain without a cross, without bells, without sacred markings, without pastors, and without faithful. Instead, the ceremony for the conclusion of the renovations prominently featured images of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the modern Turkish state.

The Liturgies at Soumela and Akhtamar on August 15 and 19 will be attended by a few thousand faithful, many of them from abroad: an unusual number for Turkey, a cradle of the early Christianity propagated by Paul and for centuries a land of flourishing Christianity, but where today the churches – or the little of them that remains – don't even have legal recognition.

Moreover, last August 5 two churches dating back to the fourth and sixth centuries in the village of Yemisli in the region of Mardin in southeastern Anatolia were reopened for worship. The buildings were renovated by seventy-two families of the Syriac Orthodox community, which numbers about five thousand faithful in Turkey.

The concessions made this August by the government of Ankara are being interpreted as a move on the chessboard of Turkey's problematic entry into the European Union, which is impossible without minimal standards concerning religious freedom.

But these and other appearances of openness continue to be accompanied by massive and persistent constraint. One of the reasons why the Turkish authorities oppose religious freedom is the fear that an increase in places of worship would bring out into the open the many secret Christians, registered as Muslims, believed to be living in the country.

On the two imminent celebrations, and in particular on the history and symbolic significance of the Monastery of Soumela, here is what was written for the August 1 issue of "L'Osservatore Romano" by a highly informed expert on the subject, Franciscan Fr. Egidio Picucci.
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CELEBRATION AT THE MONTE CASSINO OF THE EAST

by Egidio Picucci

The month of August will be remembered in Turkey for two extraordinary religious events: on the 15th, after 87 years, the "divine Eucharist" will be celebrated in the former Monastery of Soumela, on the outskirts of Trabzon, ancient Trebizond, abandoned by the monks in 1923; and on the 19th, another will be celebrated in the Armenian church of the Holy Cross in Akhtamar, built on an island in the splendid Lake Van, in the eastern part of the country.

The Turkish government has granted the authorization, greeted with surprise and satisfaction by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, which is organizing itself so that everything will go smoothly, seeing that about ten thousand Greek and Russian Orthodox are expected (seven thousand at Van), with the attendance of a few politicians from these two countries.

Greek television will broadcast the entire celebration live, so that in particular the descendants of the Greeks who had to leave Pontus during the Turkish occupation will at least be able to see the places where their ancestors lived and come to know one of the most significant places for Eastern Orthodoxy.

In fact, Soumela is known as the Monte Cassino of the East, because for fifteen centuries, from 385 to 1923, it was the monastery-guide for the safeguarding of Greek tradition, art, history, and culture, and of religion all over the territory of the Pontus, whose inhabitants heard their own language being spoken by the apostles in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost.

The monastery is located fifty kilometers from Trabzon, among the gorges of the Altindere (Torrent of Gold), at an elevation of 1,200 meters, spanning forty meters of a long rocky outcrop of Mount Zigana, at the precipice of a deep ravine.

According to tradition, it was the Virgin herself who showed the place to the Athenian monks Barnabas and Sophronios, who, coming from the Chalkidiki peninsula, turned the smaller caves of the mountain into cells and the largest one into a church, displaying there the most artistic of the three icons venerated at that time in Athens and attributed to Saint Luke.

The fame of the mountain shrine and of the sanctity of the two monks, who died in 412 (on the same day, tradition assures us), drew pilgrims, obtained donations, and above all summoned other monks, becoming the leading center of culture and pilgrimage in all of northeast Asia Minor.

Even the emperor Justinian mingled among the humble people who braved the nearly inaccessible mountain, on the way back from one of his campaigns against the Persians, leaving a silver urn to house the relics of Saint Barnabas and the text of the four Gospels written on gazelle skin.

In spite of everything, the monastery was an easy target for bandits, who did not spare even the monastery, pillaged and burned in 640, but rebuilt four years later by Christophoros of Vazelon, a courageous monk who restored the morale of his fellow monks and fortified the construction so ingeniously that Athanasios of Trebizond reproduced it in building the Great Lavra of Mount Athos.

Experience, nonetheless, taught the monks that in order to protect themselves they needed stronger, military-style fortifications, so they made the monastery an almost inaccessible perch, turning it into an oasis of peace in the midst of a growing turmoil of wars and struggles, allowing it to reach its greatest splendor at the time of the empire of the Komnenos family, the rulers of nearby Trebizond.

In 1350, Alexios III asked to be crowned emperor there, and left a "chrysobull," or golden seal, there. With him, the monastery became a masterpiece of Byzantine art. Manuel III was also crowned there, leaving as a gift a relic of the cross, which was placed in the treasury; a great relic in a great reliquary.

The monastery's activity was not even interrupted by the Turkish conquest in 1461. On the contrary, Mehmed II Fatih ("the Conqueror") paid a very respectful visit there, leaving a "firman," an imperial decree, guaranteeing the monks ownership of the surrounding land. Selim I also held it in high esteem, staying there during a hunting expedition and later sending five huge spiral candlesticks, as tall as himself, encrusted with jewels and gold inscriptions. He returned there on the eve of the war against Ismail of Tabriz, and a third time after his victory, to deliver two massive golden candelabra taken from his enemy.

Gifts and privileges came from other sultans and from various patriarchs, sign of a devotion that placed the "Panàgia tu Mèlas," the All-Holy of the Black Mountain (the name Soumela seems to be derived from a corruption of "tu Mèlas") above even the shrine of Hagia Sophia in Trebizond, the glory of the city nestled on the coast of the Black Sea.

The life of Soumela seemed imperishable: faith, art, technology – it is said that an ingenious communication system permitted messages to be sent between the monastery and Trebizond in just ten minutes – and culture had made it the soul of the Pontus, a cardinal point of the spirit for pilgrims, scholars, and artists; the monks had turned it into a balcony wide open to heaven, and not just a way station in the countryside. Its reddish doors seemed to be painted with the blood that saved from death.

But in the winter between 1915 and 1916, the dream was shattered for the first time in fifteen centuries: the war forced the monks to leave mountain and monastery. They returned after the Russian occupation, and again following the armistice of 1918. It was a parenthesis of five years, because the Greco-Turkish war of 1923 drove them away forever, while unknown hands tried to obliterate Soumela with fire.

The memory of the monastery lived on in time thanks to European scholars who sifted among the ruins, bringing to light the remains of frescoes of surprising freshness and of intense spirituality. The monk Ambrosios saved the most precious relics walled up in the church of Saint Barbara: the icon of the Virgin was taken to the Monastery of Dovràs, near Veria, in Greece, and the manuscript of the Gospels went to the Byzantine museum of Athens.

Today, not a few enthusiasts confront the mountain to visit the ancient relic amid the vegetation, so surprisingly attached to the mountain that it seems suspended between heaven and earth. Even if the remains of a few heavy windows seem like the eyelids of death, behind them flutter recollections of life. The library, the remains of the church of the Dormition, the refectory, the 72 cells for the monks distributed over four floors, the lookout spot on the fifth floor pulse with memories and are a genuine balcony over the infinite, cradled by the waters of the Altindere, snaking through rocky ravines.

Led by Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I, the Orthodox will therefore experience at Meryemana Monastiri, the present Turkish name for Soumela, moments of profound emotion, proud that such ancient vestiges of faith have withstood the fury of time and of men.

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