Troy Polamalu and Family Welcome Newborn Child Ephraim Polamalu

According to Pittsburgh Steelers star Troy Polamalu: "Today the Steeler Nation has acquired a new citizen. Theodora, Paisios, and I welcome Ephraim Polamalu. Boy born 5:01 AM this morning."

We know that Troy, a devout Orthodox Christian, named his first child after Elder Paisios the Athonite. Seeing that he is a regular parishioner of Elder Ephraim's monastery in Saxonburg, Pennsylvania, we can probably guess his newborn son is named after Elder Ephraim of Arizona.

In an interview last year, Troy was asked what his greatest wish was for his first son, and we can suspect that his answer below applies to Ephraim as well:

"Without a question, my greatest wish would be for him to understand the spiritual struggle and to be a pious Orthodox Christian. That’s what I want for myself, as well. Sometimes parents want their children to be what they never were. And that’s one thing that I am gracious for Paisios to have: that he’s able to grow up in the Orthodox church around monastics and priests that I was never able to experience as a kid - to grasp that, not take it for granted and really culture that."

Elder Ephraim

Read more about the Orthodoxy of Troy at the following links:

Orthodox Glad To Claim Polamalu As One Of Their Own

A Wild Interview With Troy Polamalu

NFL Players Still Turn To Religion For Solace

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The Passion of the Holy Great-Martyr Euphemia the All-Praised

St. Euphemia the Great Martyr and All-Praised (Feast Day - September 16 and July 11)

by St. Dimitri of Rostov

During the reign of the impious Diocletian, Chalcedon was governed by the proconsul Priscus, who was appointed to his position by the Emperor. Priscus, wishing to celebrate a feast in honor of the demon called Ares, sent a decree in the Emperor’s name to the cities and villages roundabout, commanding that all should gather together in Chalcedon for the feast and that each, according to his means, should offer a sacrifice to Ares. In his decree, Priscus threatened with great torments those who refused to obey his command to come to the feast, which was to take place in eight days.

When the day appointed for the demonic feast arrived, a great multitude of people gathered together with the beasts which they had brought for sacrifice. They celebrated the feast riotously, sacrificing sheep and oxen and worshipping the lifeless idol – or rather, the demon that dwelled within it. The Christians who lived in Chalcedon and near that city denounced the festival, which was hateful to God, and hid themselves, fearing the Proconsul’s dreadful threats. Gathering together in secret places, they offered up prayer to the true God, our Lord Jesus Christ. The persecutor ordered that a diligent search be made in order to discover whether anyone had failed to comply with his decree and had not worshipped the idol of Ares. He learned that the Christians had not fulfilled his command, refusing to render a demon the honor which is due the true God alone. The tormentor was angered that the Christians had not obeyed him, and he ordered that they be found and brought to torture.

In a secret place there were forty-nine Christians concealed who offered up prayer to God. Among them was a fair and noble maiden Euphemia, the daughter of illustrious parents, Philophronus the Senator and his wife, Theodorosia. These Christians were betrayed t the persecutor, who ordered that they be seized and brought before his tribunal. In accordance with the tormentor’s instructions, his cruel lackeys with their weapons in hand fell upon the rational flock of Christ in their hiding place like beasts eager for the kill. They surrounded the house in which the faithful served God in secret and blocked its doors so that no one could escape. Mercilessly they dragged them out one by one, and mocking and insulting them, they brought them before the Proconsul. Having been led like sheep to the slaughter, the humble servants of Christ stood before the proud persecutor. Seeing that they were ready to profess their Lord, even to the shedding of their blood, the haughty magistrate said, “Do you oppose the edict which the Emperor and I have enacted? Do you refuse to sacrifice to the great god Ares?”

They answered, “If your decree and the Emperor’s is not contrary to the commandments of God of heaven, we will obey it. If it stands in opposition to God, then not only will we disobey it, but we will seek to overturn it. If you were to command us to do that which we are obliged to do, we would render to Caesar the things which are Caesar’s. However, inasmuch as your ordinance is opposed to God’s commandments, and you, in a manner hateful to God, require us to honor that which is created rather than the Creator, worshipping and offering sacrifice to a demon rather than to the most high God, we shall never obey your decree; for we are true worshippers of the one God, Who dwells in the heavens.”

Then the persecutor spoke. Having sharpened his false tongue like a razor, he sought to entice the Christians with flatteries and promises of gifts and honors. He hoped that by his cunning speech he could lead those whom Christ had acquired by His precious blood away from the right path to the pernicious idolatry which he espoused. At the same time he threatened them with bitter torments should they refuse to do what he demanded of them.

The saints answered him thus, “Gifts and honors such as those you promise us we have long since renounced and come to despise, counting them as dung, for we await heavenly reward, which are greater and better than all the good things of the world. The good things of this world are transitory and fleeting while that which is heavenly is eternal and unchanging. We do not fear the cruel torments with which you threaten us; on the contrary, we greatly desire to undergo them so that the power of our God may be made manifest in us and that you might be filled with amazement and put to shame when you see that your gods, hateful to the true God, are powerless. But why do we need to prolong our speech and multiply our words? Do what you have resolved to do. Try us, and you will find that our zeal to suffer surpasses your ability to torment us.”

Then the persecutor handed them over to torture, wounding them and placing them in shackles. For nineteen days the saints underwent various torments: each day wounds were added to their wounds, and they suffered hunger and thirst. Among their number was the holy virgin Euphemia, who was young and fair. To strengthen her, her companions said, “Labor for the sake of the Heavenly Bridegroom; labor so that by your sufferings, you will please Him. Labor to meet Him together with the wise virgins so that He, loving you as His bride, will lead you into His bridal chamber.”

On the twentieth day the saints were brought to judgment and questioned thus by Proconsul: “Now that you have been punished, will you obey our edict?”

Saint Euphemia, together with the other holy martyrs, answered, “Do not think that you can lead us away from the right path. The mountains would sooner be reduced to dust and the stars fall from the sky, than our hearts turn from the true God.”

The persecutor was enraged by these words and ordered that the prisoners be beaten in the face, but seeing that this had no effect, he decided to send them to the Emperor. In the meantime they were cast into prison.

The Proconsul had observed that Saint Euphemia was young and beautiful and that she shone forth among the other holy martyrs like the moon amid the stars. Therefore, as the saints were being led to the dungeon, he snatched her out from among the flock of Christ like a wolf which singles out a sheep. Lifting up her eyes and hands to heaven, she cried out, “Forsake me not, O my Bridegroom, Jesus Christ; in Thee do I hope! Deliver not unto wild beasts the soul which loveth Thee and which confesseth Thy holy name. Let not mine enemies rejoice over me, but do Thou strengthen Thy frail handmaiden, that iniquity might not overcome me.”

The persecutor, hoping to incline Euphemia to the godlessness which he espoused, tried by every means to entice her by kind words, numerous gifts, and various promises, attempting to lure her virginal heart. But she said manfully, “Do not think that you will easily exploit my frailty, turning me to wickedness and impiety by your enticements. Although I am a woman by nature, by heart is more manly than yours, and the power of my faith is greater than any power you possess. By the grace of Christ I am wise beyond all your heathen sages, whom you regard as learned but who are truly more ignorant than any illiterate, for they do not desire to acknowledge the true God but have the devil as their god. Do not think that you will entice me with your crafty words as once the serpent beguiled our ancestor Eve. And do not imagine that you will make this hateful world seem sweet to ne my offering its allurements, for I regard all these things as bitter herbs, for the sake of m sweetest Jesus. By all your tortures you will not overcome my strength, which is made perfect in weakness. For I place my hope in Christ, Who will not forsake me nor withdraw trample the proud head of the devil underfoot.”

The persecutor, having been brought to shame, was greatly angered. His vile love for the martyr was transformed into hate, and he ordered that a wheel be prepared for her torture, on which were fixed many sharps knives. These knives were sharpened so that all her flesh might be cut and sliced to the very bone. The saint was fastened to this wheel, and the Proconsul’s henchmen began to turn it; her body was cut up and her members mangled. But Euphemia prayed fervently to God, saying, “O Lord Jesus Christ, the Enlightenment of my soul: the Fountain of Life, Who granteth salvation unto those who trust in Thee! Come now to mine aid, that all might know that Thou alone art God, the certain hope of those who put their trust in Thee, and that no evils and no scourge shall come nigh unto those who make the Most High their refuge.”

When she had said this, the wheel immediately stopped, and the Proconsul’s henchmen collapsed, exhausted. An angel of God came down and wrecked the wheel, from which the holy virgin descended, healed of her wounds and made whole. Joyfully she chanted, giving thanks to God and glorifying His all-powerful might.

When the torturer and all those present saw these things, they were perplexed and marveled greatly at this miracle. Nevertheless, since the eyes of their mind were blinded by wickedness, even this great wonder brought them no benefit. They were unable to perceive the workings of the mighty hand of the true God, for seeing, they did not perceive, and hearing, they did not understand; for their hearts were hardened, and they ascribed that marvelous wonder to sorcery.

Then the tormentor ordered that a furnace be prepared so that the saint might be cast into the fire. As the furnace was being heated and the fire was being stoked, the holy martyr arrayed herself in the armor which the Three Youths had worn, that is, prayer. She withstood the burning of the material fire with the power of the fire of her love for God, and as she lifted up her eyes to heaven, she said, “O God, Who art exalted, yet lookest upon the lowly; Who protected the Three Youths in Babylon, who had been delivered unto fire for the sake of the Law, keeping them whole and unharmed by the flames, preserving them by Thy holy angel and sending down dew upon them: be Thou my Helper, for I am Thy handmaiden and I enter this contest for the sake of Thy glory, O my Christ!

When Euphemia had said this, she signed herself with the Cross, arming herself in this way as though with a weapon. She stood ready for the fire, waiting for them to cast her in. At that moment two of the soldiers, Victor and Sosthenes, who had been ordered to hurl the martyr into the flames, saw a wondrous apparition in the fire: they beheld an angel of God in the furnace, who parted the flames and forbade them to touch the bride of Christ. Having seen this marvel, they said to the persecutor, “Proconsul, we cannot touch this honorable virgin with our defiled hands and cast her into the fire even if you were to cut off our heads, for we have seen a most extraordinary wonder, which your eyes cannot see. It would be better for us to suffer your wrath than the wrath of the luminous man in the fire.”

When the tormentor heard this, he was angered at the soldiers, and thinking that they did not wish to cast the maiden into the furnace because they were Christians, he imprisoned them and had two others, Caesarius and Barus, do what had been commanded. They seized the virgin and hurled her into the furnace, and as they did this, great flames leaped forth toward their faces, burning them to ashes and causing the other servants to take flight. But the saint, rejoicing in the furnace as though she were in a bright chamber or in refreshing dew, chanted the hymn of the Three Youths: "Blessed art Thou, O Lord, the God of our fathers, and supremely praised and supremely exalted unto ages." Truly, this was a most glorious miracle! The fire did not touch her nor even her garments, for her immortal Bridegroom Himself, Jesus Christ, mystically came to His holy bride in the furnace and covered her with dew. When the furnace was extinguished, the saint emerged unharmed, to the astonishment of all. The persecutor, not knowing what to do next, had her cast into the dungeon and said, “Tonight I will determine what to do with this sorceress.”

He also had Victor and Sosthenes brought to him. He became enraged with them and vowed that he would kill them if they did not worship the idols. But they answered him, “Until today, we were in error. We did not know the true God, but now we have come to know Him Who alone created heaven and earth. We believe in Him and worship Him, and we will no longer bow down before your gods, whom we formerly worshipped, not perceiving the demon’s deception. Do with us what you will. Our bodies are in your power, but our souls are guarded by God.”

And so the persecutor condemned them to be consumed by wild beasts. As the saints went to the place where they were to be eaten by the beasts, they prayed fervently to God that He be merciful to them and that He remit the sins they had committed while yet in their former error and that He cause their souls to dwell with those who believe in Him. Immediately a voice from heaven summoned them to repose. Hearing the voice, they joyfully surrendered their souls into the hands of God. Their bodies were never touched by the beasts but were secretly buried by the faithful.

When the night had passed and morning came, the tormentor sat upon his tribunal, and Saint Euphemia was brought from the prison, chanting joyously as she came, “O God, a new song shall I sing unto Thee, I shall glorify Thee, O Lord my strength. I shall chant unto Thee among the nations and glorify Thy name, for Thou art the only true God, and there is none like unto Thee.” As she chanted, she was brought before the tribunal where she was questioned and tortured in an attempt to make her sacrifice. When the persecutor saw that her heart could not be moved to worship the demons and that she would not submit, he ordered that she be suspended and that her flesh be scraped with sharp knives; nevertheless, after undergoing this torture, her body, by the power of God, was found to be unharmed. Then a deep pit was dug and filled with water, and a multitude of snakes, vipers, and venomous serpents were placed in it. When the hole had been filled, the torturer commanded that Saint Euphemia be cast into it. Signing herself with the Cross, she said, “O Jesus Christ, my Light! Thou didst preserve Jonah unharmed in the belly of the sea monster; Thou didst deliver Daniel from the jaws of the lions. Guard me by Thy mighty hand, that Thy holy name may be glorified in me!

Having said this, the saint threw herself into the pit. The snakes and vipers drew near her but did her no harm. It seemed, rather, that they were solicitous for her, for they bore her on their backs so that she would not sink into the water which filled the hole. Thus, by the grace of God, the saint emerged from the pit altogether unharmed.

The persecutor was uncertain what to do with her next. He still wished to put her to death and concluded that the sorcery which he ascribed to the saint could only overcome the direct application of torture and not covert schemes. Therefore, he ordered another hidden pit to be dug with sharp spears, swords, and daggers were placed, driven into the ground with their pointed ends upward. After the top of the pit had been covered with branches and earth, he commanded the martyr to walk across the concealed pit, hoping that, unaware of the existence of the pit, she would fall upon the sharp weapons and die of the wounds she would thus suffer. But the saint crossed over the mouth of the pit nimbly, like a bird flying over a net, while certain pagans, who did not know of the pit’s existence, fell into it and perished. When the persecutor saw this he was aghast, and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "He opened a pit and dug it, and he shall fall into the hole which he hath made".

Meanwhile, the saint praised God, singing, “Who shall tell of the mighty acts of the Lord? Who shall make all Thy praises to be heard, O Lord? For Thou hast preserved unharmed by wounds Thy handmaiden who suffereth torment. Thou hast saved her from fire; Thou hast shielded her against wild beast, water, and the tortures of the wheel; and Thou hast brought her up out of the pit. And now, O Lord, deliver my soul out of the hands of him who from the beginning hath been Thy foe. The sins of my youth and mine ignorances remember not, but may the drops of Thy blood, poured forth upon me, cleanse the defilement of my flesh and spirit, for Thou art the cleansing and sanctification and enlightenment of Thy servants.”

The Proconsul attempted yet again to entice Euphemia with kind words, saying, “Do not dishonor your family, do not destroy the flower of your youth, do not deprive yourself of life. Be converted to the worship of the great Ares, and you will be honored and praised, and greatly glorified by all of us, and will possess much wealth.”

In this manner the Proconsul sought to deceive the saint with his words, but she laughed at him and reviled him as a fool. Then he resorted again to torture. After having her beaten severely with rods, he ordered that she be cut in half with a sharp saw, but the saw would not cut her body. Next he commanded that she be seared in a heated pan, but the pan was made cool, for an angel preserved the bride of Christ amid all these torments.

Finally, Euphemia was handed over to be consumed by wild beasts. As the saint was being led into the arena where she was to be fed to the beasts, she prayed to God that He put an end to her suffering, the He receive her soul into His hands, and that He summon her spirit to come forth from her long-suffering body to the land for which it longed, and she said, “O Lord of all the hosts of heaven, Thou hast made manifest in me Thine invincible power and Thine unconquerable right hand. Thou hast revealed the feebleness of the demons and the mindlessness of the persecutor and hast made me impervious to all torments. Wherefore, as Thou hast formerly accepted the slaughter of the martyrs who preceded me and the shedding of their blood, so receive my sacrifice, which if offered to Thee with a contrite soul and in a spirit of humility. Grant my soul repose in the habitation of the saints and the choirs of the martyrs, for blessed art Thou unto the ages. Amen.”

When Euphemia had prayed thus, bears and lions were released upon her, but when they approached her they merely licked her feet. One she-bear, however, wounded her foot slightly, causing blood to flow. When this took place, a voice came from above, summoning her to heaven, and immediately she surrendered her spirit to the Lord, for Whom she had resolutely suffered. As her soul departed, the earth trembled, the city was shaken, its walls tumbled down, and its temples were razed to the ground. The people were terror-stricken, and all fled from the arena in fear as the saint’s holy body lay dead in the sand.

Euphemia’s parents came and took their holy daughter and reverently buried her near the city, giving thanks to God and rejoicing that they had been deemed worthy to be the parents of such a daughter, who by the shedding of her blood became the bride of Christ, the Heavenly Bridegroom and King of all.

Read also:

Η ΑΓΙΑ ΕΥΦΗΜΙΑ ΣΤΙΣ ΣΧΕΣΕΙΣ ΠΑΠΩΝ ΚΑΙ ΑΥΤΟΚΡΑΤΟΡΩΝ

The Relics of Saint Euphemia the Great Martyr

Saint Euphemia's Conversation With Elder Paisios

More on the Relationship Between Elder Paisios and Saint Euphemia

The Holy Monastery of Saint Euphemia in Kerkyra

Apolytikion in the Fourth Tone
O Lord Jesus, unto Thee Thy lamb Euphemia doth cry with a great voice: O my Bridegroom, Thee I love; and seeking Thee, I now contest, and with Thy baptism am crucified and buried. I suffer for Thy sake, that I may reign with Thee; for Thy sake I die, that I may live in Thee: accept me offered out of longing to Thee as a spotless sacrifice. Lord, save our souls through her intercessions, since Thou art great in mercy.

Kontakion in the Fourth Tone
Thou strovest valiantly in thy sacred contest; and even after death, thou makest us holy with streams of healings, O all-praised Euphemia. For this cause we venerate thy most holy dormition and with faith we stand before thine all-venerable relics, that we be freed from illness of the soul and also draw forth the grace of thy miracles.

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How the Myth of the Flat-Earth Dogma Started the Religion-Science War

Matt J. Rossano
September 16, 2010
The Huffington Post

Starting a war on false pretenses is nothing new. But when a few nineteenth-century academicians declared a science-vs.-religion war, they did us all a disservice.

John W. Draper (1811-1882) was born in England into a devout Methodist family. In 1832, he emigrated to the U.S., studied medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and later became professor of chemistry and biology at New York University and head of the medical school. Along the way he rejected his family's religion and acquired an intense antipathy for Catholicism. Two factors were pivotal in shaping his attitude: the debates over Darwinian evolution erupting shortly after the publication of On the Origin of Species in 1859, and the reactionary attitude of Pope Pius IX toward liberal progressivism encapsulated in his Syllabus of Errors published in 1864.

In 1874, Draper published The History of Conflict Between Religion and Science, in which he argued that current (nineteenth-century) events were reflective of the totality of Christian history. Christianity was currently opposing progress because it has always been an impediment to science, reason, and progress. An especially egregious example of this was the Church's insistence on a flat earth, a laughable dogma that stubbornly persisted until Columbus demolished it, bravely prevailing despite the ignorant protests of the Spanish cardinals.

Draper, with a little help from Washington Irving, thus popularized the "flat earth" myth, the idea that prior to Columbus there was a widespread, religiously-inspired belief that the earth was flat. Contemporary historians have squashed this myth, with Jeffrey Russell's book Inventing the Flat Earth probably being the most detailed account of how and why it arose. Historian of science David Lindberg summarizes the medieval understanding of the earth and cosmos in his book The Beginnings of Western Science: "At the center of everything is the sphere of the earth. Every Medieval scholar of the period agreed on its sphericity, and ancient estimates of its circumference (about 252,000 stades) were widely known and accepted" (p. 253).

The rather mundane fact is that most educated Christian writers accepted Greco-Roman teachings about the earth and cosmos and quickly moved on to more urgent matters of sin and salvation. No Christian authority of any consequence ever taught that the earth was flat.

So from where did Draper get the idea of a medieval Christian belief in a flat earth? He read William Whewell's book History of Inductive Sciences, published about three decades earlier. Whewell, a Cambridge Vice-Chancellor and Anglican priest, made intellectual stars out of two minor Christian authors, Lactantius and Cosmas Indicopleustes. Lactantius was a fourth-century pagan convert to Christianity who took particular delight in arguing against pretty much everything any pagan philosopher ever said, including that the earth was round. Christians wanted converts, but even they couldn't stomach Lactantius, whose works were posthumously condemned.

Cosmas Indicopleustes was an even more peculiar specimen. A sixth-century merchant-sailor who later adopted monasticism, Cosmas boasted a hopelessly literal mind. To him, the projected rectilinear-shaped maps of Strabo and Eratosthenes meant that the earth was physically flat. Furthermore, they confirmed a literal interpretation of Biblical descriptions such as the "four corners of the earth" (which most everyone else took allegorically). Unlike Lactantius, Cosmas' ideas were too silly to condemn. He was just ignored. But Whewell dug him up along with Lactantius, and Draper ran with the corpses. Thus did a long-forgotten heretic and an oddball nobody become the standard-bearers for medieval Christian geography.

Draper was followed in 1896 by Cornell University president Andrew Dickson White, who published the two-volume set History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom. A better historian than Draper, White realized that the case for the medieval flat earth was pitifully thin. His tactic was to stealthily misrepresent a few church fathers as flat-earthers (Basil, Chrysostom) and to argue that the non-flat-earthers were a few brave soles swimming against a colossal tide. Exactly how folks such as Origen, Ambrose, Augustine, Clement, and Aquinas could be swimming against a tide of their own creation was never explained. But no matter. Facts only confuse a good story. The narrative was bold, simple, and eagerly embraced by the nineteenth-century intelligentsia, who asserted that today, as always, religion subverts knowledge and progress. It was a classic fight of good vs. evil, progress vs. regress, ignorance vs. enlightenment -- just what the papers needed to sell copy.

There never was a flat earth dogma. When Columbus faced off with the Spanish cardinals, the issue was the size of the earth, not its shape. And the Cardinals were right: the earth was a heck of a lot bigger than Columbus believed. His mission was ill-conceived, and it failed. But it failed gloriously. Columbus went to his grave erroneously thinking he had bumped into some far corner of Asia.

Whewell, Draper, and White all made laudable contributions to science and society, but their involvement in the flat-earth error is a regrettable blot. They fabricated a false history highlighted by a non-existent dogma and used them to brand religion as unceasingly reactionary, dim-witted, and anti-science. In reality, science and religion have had a complex history, one defying simple labels. The same reactionary Pope of the Syllabus of Errors also established the Pontifical Academy of the New Lincei (later the Pontifical Academy of Sciences) dedicated to the promotion of science. Furthermore, clergy have often been important contributors to scientific progress: Mendel in genetics and Lemaître in big-bang cosmology. But there are infamous nadirs as well: the muzzling of Teilhard de Chardin and the Galileo affair. Claiming that science and religion have known only unrelenting warfare betrays one's ignorance of history and possibly one's social/political agenda.

The lesson in all of this is that both science and religion are human endeavors, and human nature imposes itself upon them. Whewell, Draper, and White let human nature intrude on good scholarship. Sadly, dividing up into opposing factions is deeply engrained in our primate heritage. Even more than friends, we humans need enemies. They define us, give us purpose; often, without them we are lost. Searching for points of agreement and constructing common ground are not sexy; they don't stir the senses or make the blood boil. It's so much more fun to wave a sword around and cry out, "Get the bad guys!" Usually it is too late when we realize that we are the bad guys.

Within both science and religion, however, there lies inspiration to resist destructive tribalism. At its best, religion teaches us to be humble, to be instruments of divine peace, to seek to understand rather than to be understood. Likewise, at its best, science teaches us to falsify our most cherished and comforting ideas, seek to prove them wrong. Science and religion are not enemies of one another. Small minds and dim imaginations are enemies of them both.

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G.K. Chesterton: On Democracy and Tradition

I was brought up a Liberal, and have always believed in democracy, in the elementary liberal doctrine of a self-governing humanity. If any one finds the phrase vague or threadbare, I can only pause for a moment to explain that the principle of democracy, as I mean it, can be stated in two propositions. The first is this: that the things common to all men are more important than the things peculiar to any men. Ordinary things are more valuable than extraordinary things; nay, they are more extraordinary. Man is something more awful than men; something more strange…

This is the first principle of democracy: that the essential things in men are the things they hold in common, not the things they hold separately. And the second principle is merely this: that the political instinct or desire is one of these things which they hold in common. Falling in love is more poetical than dropping into poetry. The democratic contention is that government (helping to rule the tribe) is a thing like falling in love, and not a thing like dropping into poetry. It is not something analogous to playing the church organ, painting on vellum, discovering the North Pole (that insidious habit), looping the loop, being Astronomer Royal, and so on. For these things we do not wish a man to do at all unless he does them well. It is, on the contrary, a thing analogous to writing one’s own love-letters or blowing one’s own nose. These things we want a man to do for himself, even if he does them badly. I am not here here arguing the truth of any of these conceptions; I know that some moderns are asking to have their wives chosen by scientists, and they may soon be asking, for all I know, to have their noses blown by nurses. I merely say that mankind does recognize these universal human functions, and that democracy classes government among them. In short, the democratic faith is this: that the most terribly important things must be left to ordinary men themselves–the mating of the sexes, the rearing of the young, the laws of the state. This is democracy; and in this I have always believed.

But there is one thing that I have never from my youth up been able to understand. I have never been able to understand where people got the idea that democracy was in some way opposed to tradition. It is obvious that tradition is only democracy extended through time. It is trusting to a consensus of common human voices rather than to some isolated or arbitrary record. The man who quotes some German historian against the tradition of the Catholic Church, for instance, is strictly appealing to aristocracy. He is appealing to the superiority of one expert against the awful authority of a mob. It is quite easy to see why a legend is treated, and ought to be treated, more respectfully than a book of history. The legend is generally made by the majority of people in the village, who are sane. The book is generally written by the one man in the village who is mad. Those who urge against tradition that men in the past were ignorant may go and urge it at the Carlton Club, along with the statement that voters in the slums are ignorant. It will not do for us. If we attach great importance to the opinion of ordinary men in great unanimity when we are dealing with daily matters, there is no reason why we should disregard it when we are dealing with history or fable. Tradition may be defined as an extension of the franchise. Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about. All democrats object to men being disqualified by the accident of birth; tradition objects to their being disqualified by the accident of death. Democracy tells us not to neglect a good man’s opinion, even if he is our groom; tradition asks us not to neglect a good man’s opinion, even if he is our father. I, at any rate, cannot separate the two ideas of democracy and tradition; it seems evident to me that they are the same idea. We will have the dead at our councils. The ancient Greeks voted by stones; these shall vote by tombstones. It is all quite regular and official, for most tombstones, like most ballot papers, are marked with a cross.

From G.K. Chesterton's book Orthodoxy.

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Former Atheist Sounds A Wake-Up Call

THE RAGE AGAINST GOD: HOW ATHEISM LED ME TO FAITH
By Peter Hitchens
Published by Zondervan, $22.99

Reviewed by Diane Scharper

Like many self-righteous adolescents, Peter Hitchens, brother of well-known contrarian Christopher Hitchens, had numerous reasons for abandoning his belief in God.

But the real reason, suggests journalist and author Peter Hitchens in The Rage Against God, is that he felt entitled to do whatever he wished. A similar sense of entitlement fuels today’s anti-theist philosophy, and it has pushed Western civilization to the brink of chaos.

That’s the premise of this thought-provoking, carefully written book, which isn’t as much about atheism and how it led Peter to faith (despite the subtitle) as it is about the death throes of Christianity and religion in the West, mainly in the United States and England. In The Rage Against God, Peter, who has since returned to his Anglican beliefs, sounds a wake-up call.

Hitchens’ older brother, Christopher, fills his bestsellers with references to his atheist philosophy and sexual escapades. He makes headlines with his views on everything from the existence of God to the career of Mother Teresa of Calcutta to the rightness of George W. Bush’s war in Iraq. His most recent release, Hitch-22, has been reviewed by nearly every major newspaper and magazine.

By contrast, Peter’s The Rage Against God, published in the United States in May, has largely been ignored, although it earlier received some attention in Britain, where it had a different, more accurate subtitle: “Why Faith Is the Foundation of Civilisation.”

Written mostly to refute another of his brother’s highly-touted books, God Is Not Great (2007), The Rage Against God shoots down some of his brother’s theories, such as his notion that the order to love thy neighbor as thyself is too extreme to be obeyed. Or that religious education is tantamount to child abuse.


Ultimately, as Peter Hitchens sees it, the relativism and secularism propounded by his brother and other atheists have replaced Christian principles, not just relegating those principles to the sidelines but also diminishing Christian influence in education, law and nearly every aspect of Western culture.

Memoir, argument and cultural history, The Rage Against God contends that secularism is a political movement that “seeks to remove the remaining Christian restraints on power.” And in an age of power worship, “the Christian religion has become the principal obstacle to the desire for absolute power.” Peter describes the abuses of power he saw at the end of the Cold War when he lived in the Soviet Union as a foreign correspondent. He shows how these abuses have seeped into British and American society. Now, he says, secularism is poisoning culture and replacing liberty with tyranny.

Other circumstances have also contributed to the collapse of religious belief in the West, Hitchens argues. Patriotism is often conflated with religion -- as happened during the world wars, Vietnam, and the invasion of Iraq. People are persuaded that God is on their side. When they learn of wartime atrocities, they grow disenchanted with patriots and priests.

He writes that the “anything-goes” era of the 1960s and 1970s added to the decline of belief and moral standards, as did the sexual revolution and a spirit of rebellion that seemed to consume young people.

Equally disturbing to Hitchens, Anglican and Roman Catholic liturgies have watered down their services into pep rallies hoping to attract youth and increase the number of parishioners. They’ve replaced poetry and tradition, he writes, with “denatured committee-designed prayers and services” that are “ugly.”

Decrying the loss of traditional prayers, Hitchens poignantly describes the beauty of chants “spiraling up into chilly stone vaults at Evensong ... and the mysterious ... poetry of the Magnificat and the Nunc Dimitis.”

Only poetry, Hitchens says, can truly counter atheism and “ambush” the heart.

Even so, faith is the bottom line.

Accepting God’s existence is a matter of faith, he says. And since no one can prove or disprove the existence of God, atheism is also a matter of faith. Despite his brother’s atheism, Peter Hitchens insists it’s “better by far to believe.”

He makes that point in a compelling book that deserves more attention than it has received.

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Hell And God's Love: An Alternative, Orthodox View

Eric Simpson
September 13, 2010
The Huffington Post

Common depictions of the Christian doctrine of hell, perhaps borrowing images from classic literature and Dante, portray it as a place of literal fire, where tortured souls repose in anguish, a vision much used by itinerant evangelists and manipulative preachers.

A further degradation of this cartoon vision finds human souls not only suffering extreme torture, but prodded by red devils with tiny horns, cloven hoofs for feet, spiraling tails, and pitchforks at hand, a caricature used to both trivialize the concept as well as mock the very idea of hell.

In the Revelation of John, we discover a lake of fire, prepared for the devil and his angels, as an abode of punishment, as well as a bottomless abyss. Jesus himself, of course, named hell as the place where the worm doesn't die and the fire is never quenched, but he spoke of eternal darkness as well, eternal destruction and eternal death.

Such descriptions are at best figurative, much like other parts of the Bible where, for instance, God is described as a hen brooding over her chicks (God isn't literally a fowl.) Rather, it seems apparent that according to the teachings of the ancient Church, the non-literal descriptions of hell that appear in Scripture and elsewhere pertain to fundamental qualities of a disposition of being, not one defined primarily as punishment, but of death.

Strains of western Catholicism and Protestantism have fundamentally defined death as legal punishment, an expression of God's wrath. Death is entrenched within a judicial context; it is a sentence for sin. God is angry, according to the western view, and Christ's merit applied to us satisfies his anger, so He dies as a sacrifice to appease the Father.

A gross oversimplification and popular notion of the historical understanding of death in the West paints an ugly and frightening picture for those who take it seriously. Good people or redeemed people who have faith in Jesus, whom the Father punishes in our place through an expression of divine anger, overcome the punishment of death and go to heaven; unrepentant sinners suffer their just punishment and are cast howling into hell for their evil deeds. Death is the judicial sentence of all humanity; some overcome it totally through an abstract and forensic transaction, others do not.

The Greek fathers and the eastern churches historically do not share the western legal emphasis, nor the consequent view of atonement. The fathers of the church teach that humanity is the author of death, not God. St. Basil in the fourth century writes, "God did not create death, but we brought it upon ourselves." Death is the result of sin; it is the final product that we, apart from God, create for ourselves through the power of the human will, that also ensnares and condemns us.

For the Christian Orthodox, death is much more than what happens when the lungs quit, the heart fails or the brain stops functioning; it is also the source of corruption and spiritual myopia, producing deep-rooted fear and a whole legion of consequent disorders, maladies, pathologies and suffering. The separation of the spirit and the body at the end of physical life is the culmination of a long period of smaller separations; existence is filled with estrangement. Death is embodied by division and the truncation of significance. As the late Orthodox theologian Alexander Schmemann writes:

"When we see the world as an end in itself, everything in itself becomes a value and consequently loses all value, because only in God is found the meaning (value) of everything, and the world is meaningful only when it is the "sacrament" of God's presence. Things treated merely as things in themselves destroy themselves because only in God have they any life. The world of nature, cut off from the source of life, is a dying world. For one who thinks food in itself is the source of life, eating is communion with the dying world, it is communion with death. Food itself is dead, it is life that has died and it must be kept in refrigerators like a corpse."

It is possible to envision death, defined in this way, as at least tolerable, but if we posit the reality of redemption, that is, from a certain perspective, the added imposition of the presence of infinite and divine personality figuratively signified by fire, death then takes on a further dimension. Death doesn't dissolve away into nothingness, but energized by the presence of creative, personal and divine love, it becomes a separation fixed in an eternal position. Death is transmuted into bitter torment and despair.

As St. Symeon the New Theologian writes:

"God is fire and when He came into the world, and became man, He sent fire on the earth, as He Himself says; this fire turns about searching to find material -- that is a disposition and an intention that is good -- to fall into and to kindle; and for those in whom this fire will ignite, it becomes a great flame, which reaches Heaven. ... [T]his flame at first purifies us from the pollution of passions and then it becomes in us food and drink and light and joy, and renders us light ourselves because we participate in His light." (Discourse 78)

The same fire, the love of God, that ignites in the hearts of the faithful transmutes in the experience of those who reject it into the fire of hell; it purifies the former, but burns the latter, per St. Isaac the Syrian:

"It is totally false to think that the sinners in hell are deprived of God's love. Love is a child of the knowledge of truth, and is unquestionably given commonly to all. But love's power acts in two ways: it torments sinners, while at the same time it delights those who have lived in accord with it." (Homily 84)

Hell in this view is understood as the presence of God experienced by a person who, through the use of free will, rejects divine love. He is tortured by the love of God, tormented by being in the eternal presence of God without being in communion with God. God's love is the fire that is never quenched, and the disposition and suffering of the soul in the presence of God who rejects him is the worm that does not die. Whether one experiences the presence of love as heaven or hell is entirely dependent on how he has resolved his own soul to be disposed towards God, whether communion or separation, love or hatred, acceptance or rejection.

Hell, then, is not primarily a place where God sends people in his wrath, or where God displays anger, but rather, it is the love of God, experienced by one who is not in communion with him. The figurative, spiritual fire of God's love is transcendent joy to the person purified and transfigured by it through communion in the body of Christ, but bottomless despair and suffering to the person who rejects it, and chooses to remain in communion with death.

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Photographs of the Right Hand of St. Spyridon in Russia

September 15, 2010
Romfea.gr

The right hand of St. Spyridon arrived in Moscow today, Wednesday 15 September 2010, with the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kyrill of Moscow and All Russia as well as that of His Eminence Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens and All Greece.

The relic was received and prayers were said in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow amidst a large number of hierarchs, clergy and pious faithful.

Photos by С. Власов

Read more here.

Read also: The Right Hand of Saint Spyridon

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Orthodoxy is the Second Largest Church in Austria

It was the hope of Metropolitan Michael Stakos of Austria to make Orthodoxy in Austria more visible with the visit of Patriarch Irinej of Serbia to Austria between September 10-14.

He said that there are over 400,000 Orthodox Christians in Austria, and if including the Oriental Christians, the figure reaches half a million.

As a result, the Orthodox Church is the second largest in presence in the country after the Roman Catholic Church, said the Metropolitan to the Austrian Catholic news agency Kathpress.

For the past two hundred years, Austria also houses the Greek National School, the oldest Greek school outside Greece.

Patriarch Irinej visited churches in Vienna and Linz, and the Mauthausen concentration camp.

He also scheduled met with Austrian President Heinz Fischer, Vienna Mayor Michael Haeupl and Cardinal Christopher Schonborn, the archbishop of Vienna.

Read more here.

Read also: The Contribution of Orthodoxy on the Course Towards a United Europe by Metropolitan Michael (Stakos) of Austria

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Ecumenical Patriarchate Opposes the Liturgy in Hagia Sophia on September 17th

The Ecumenical Patriarchate has officially opposed the Divine Liturgy set to take place Friday, 17 September 2010, at Hagia Sophia in Constantinople by approximately 250 Greek-Americans of the International Congregation of Agia Sophia lead by Chris Spyrou.

During a press conference on September 1st the President of the International Congregation of Agia Sophia Chris Spyrou stated:

“On the 16th of September 2009, on behalf of the International Congregation of Agia Sophia, I wrote to Prime Minister Erdogan and informed him that on the 17th of September 2010, the day the Orthodox Christian religion celebrates the holy feast day of Sophia, Faith, Hope and Love, a delegation of the International Congregation will visit Constantinople. The aim of the visit of the delegation of the International Congregation in Constantinople is the celebration of Divine Liturgy in Agia Sophia.”

See also: A Divine Liturgy At Hagia Sophia on 09/17/2010?

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Russian Orthodox Pilgrim To Walk From Siberia to Jerusalem

14 September 2010
Interfax

Two residents of Irkutsk, who are carrying out a pilgrimage to Jerusalem on foot, arrived in Petropavlovsk in northern Kazakhstan, an Interfax correspondent reported.

Irkutsk Cossacks captain Vladimir Bragintsev, a former policeman now pensioner, started for a long journey on May 8 in Siberia; novice of St. Michael the Archangel Monastery Alexander Serebrennikov joined him a little bit later. For more than four months the pilgrims walked about 3,000 kilometers, visited Krasnoyarsk, Kemerovo, Novosibirsk, Omsk and other Russian cities and towns.

The pilgrims are going to walk to Jerusalem and worship at Orthodox Christian shrines.

The pilgrims have an ordinary tourist set in their rucksacks – a tent, sleeping bags, a pot, matches, food supplies and a medicine box. They buy food on the way taking money from their banking card.

The pilgrims often sleep in the woods in their tent, but sometimes strangers give them a warm reception.

Bragintsev believes his trip to Jerusalem will take him not less that four years, but on his way he dreams of visiting Solovki and Valaam to pray for his relatives killed in World War II.

See also the article from June 25, 2010: A Siberian Pilgrim Goes on Foot to Jerusalem

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The Veneration of the Holy Cross in Cyprus

Cyprus is a significant landing post between the Holy Land and Europe when travelling via the Mediterranean. For this reason strong tradition relates that St. Helen, the mother of Emperor Constantine I, stopped in Cyprus following her discovery of the Holy Cross on Golgotha on her return to Constantinople in 327 AD. It is said she anchored off in the southern shores of Cyprus, between Larnaka and Limassol, where even to the present day the place is named 'Vasiliko' (Basil - after the plant that grew over the spot where St. Helen discovered the Cross on Golgotha). Subsequently, the reverence and veneration of the Holy Cross was transmitted throughout Cyprus, with the most important places of veneration being the villages of Lefkara, Tochni, Anogyra and Kouka, all boasting important churches and monasteries; especially the village of Omodos, where the Monastery of the Holy Cross has preserved a piece of rope with which the soldiers bound Christ.

However, the fame of the Cross also spread to other parts of Cyprus, where important monasteries have been preserved: the Monastery of the Holy Cross of Agiasmati in Platanistasa; the Monastery of the Holy Cross Minthis in Tsada of the district of Paphos; and the Church of the Holy Cross in Pelendri.



The itinerary begins with Stavrovouni Monastery, situated at a height of 700 metres on the summit of a mountain that is at the easternmost point of the Troodos range. The monastery is inaccessible to women; however it can be admired from the area below the monastery, together with the superb view. This monastery was built, according to tradition, by a donation of St. Helen. According to the 15th century Cypriot chronicler Leontios Makhairas and the tradition he received from St. Kyriakos (Oct. 18), when St. Helen arrived in Cyprus the Cross disappeared mysteriously but was miraculously discovered when a light was shining on the summit of Olympos, as Stavrovouni [the mountain of the Cross] was then known, where there was a pagan temple. After the miracle and after a few failed attempts to remove it, St. Helen built the church and dedicated to it part of the holy relic. There are references from several sources which report that the Holy Cross used to stand unsupported in the air. Nowadays the part of the Cross is kept in a large silver Cross and it gives off a fragrance. Other relics left at the monastery by St. Helen include the Cross of the Good Thief, a nail and according to some, a part of the rope that Jesus was tied with on the Cross. Read more here and here.



Subsequently, one may visit the Church of the Holy Cross in Pano Lefkara to venerate the 13th century Cross that holds a small piece of the True Cross. Read more here, here and here.


The Church of the Holy Cross (or Sts. Constantine and Helen's) in Tochni is more recent, perhaps replacing an older one, but is the only church in Cyprus constructed over a bridge. According to Makhairas, both the original bridge and church were built by St. Helen. The Chronicle of Amadi records that Alix of Ibelin had a small speech impediment which was cured by a miracle performed by the Holy Cross of Tochni which had been rediscovered in 1340. See a video here and read more here.


Following a course to the west, one may visit the Church of the Holy Cross in Pelendri, whose magnificent wall paintings date to the 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th centuries. Read more here and here.


The cruciform Church of the Holy Cross in Kouka dates to the 12th century in which beautiful wall paintings have been preserved. The church was once surrounded by monastery buildings, but all that now remains is a building to the west that formerly contained an olive press. The church, according to St. Kyriakos, is associated with the legend of the Holy Cross and on the north side is a small square chamber probably built to contain the original relic of the church, which was a quantity of sawdust from the Cross when it was chipped into pieces on the order of St Helen. See video here and read more here.



Not far from Kouka to the west is the famous Monastery of the Holy Cross in Omodos, where a small piece of the rope that the soldiers used to bind Christ is kept. This rope is described as red coloured and "stained by the blood of Christ". It is said a monastery already existed here prior to the arrival of St. Helen, so this rope was given as a gift. Also preserved in this church is the skull of St. Philip the Apostle.

According to tradition, one night the inhabitants of the neighbouring villages Pano (Upper) and Kato (Lower) Koupetra, which do not exist today, observed a fire in some bushes at the area where the monastery stands today. When it dawned they went to the spot where the fire was seen but there was no sign. This phenomenon repeated for several nights. So they started to dig the earth, discovering a small cave in which they found the Cross. In order to thank the Lord, they constructed a chapel over the cave and kept their precious treasure there, which became a sacred place of adoration for them. With the passage of time the chapel expanded and was converted into a monastery with many monks and a vast fortune - not only in Cyprus but also abroad - maintaining a grange (monastery dependency) in Constantinople and real estate in Russia. Read more here and see video here.


The pilgrim can also visit Anogyra to visit the Monastery of the Holy Cross to the south of the village. Today's church is built over the remains of an early Christian basilica. At the end of the 15th century, the present church was built over the foundations of older churches, and is a barrel-vaulted church with a single nave and dome, decorated with exceptional wall paintings in the Paleologan style. Read more here.


In Paphos one should visit the 12th century Monastery of the Holy Cross Minthis a little way from the village of Tsada. Minthis Hills Golf Course is a golf course on the land owned by the monastery. Many players claim to have seen the ghost of a monk in the disused monastery when teeing off on the seventh, though it's generally assumed that this ghost story simply makes a jolly good excuse for a diabolical drive.

Thus from east to west this itinerary will lead the pilgrim to some of the various churches and monasteries in Cyprus linked with the veneration of the Holy Cross.


For more information on the Holy Cross brought by St. Helen to Cyprus, read here and here.

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Elder Arsenie Papacioc: Don't Judge Priests

Criticism is allowed, but passing judgement upon priests isn’t. As the saying goes, to criticize someone or someone’s work is to put a wreath upon it [and that is a good thing]. But to judge a person belonging to the clergy, to judge in a context where everyone tends to criticize precisely because the clergy are the ones who emanate the power and grace of God and everyone points at them all the time… well, let us not forget they are human, too. Moreover, they have the possibility to save themselves more easily than you, because they have the grace and the Church Mysteries and works/duties that have been given to them — and last but not least, they must have some conscience, too!, don’t you think?

And let me tell you this – no clergyman becomes so without the will of God. God directs such a person’s life.

But we are going back to our earlier point: we tend to criticize everyone else but ourselves!

Think about it – when you go up there and meet Christ and it is shown that you judged the priest – that he did that instead of the other, or whatever. Things of that sort… so what you did was to judge the priest’s deeds and movements through life and that is a big mistake.

I’m telling you this once again: no matter what sort of cup you drink your wine from – whether it’s crystal or pottery, it’s still wine that you’re drinking. One drinks wine from the Holy Chalice, which contains the Holy Blood and Body of our Savior. Because it is not the priest’s worthiness that is responsible for the wonderful transformations that take place then, when the wine changes into the Holy Blood and the bread into the Holy Body of Christ — but God’s grace!

So, whether he is worthy or unworthy, the priest’s work depends on grace, not on anything else. So don’t rush to judge him, because you’re making an enormous mistake. And here I must get back to a previous question – you should not judge anyone, not even some terrible murderer – let alone a priest! Why should you intrude in his life so! You will be condemned much more seriously because of that. You have come to Christ? Pray to Christ, to help him.

My dear ones, I repeat: we are responsible for all the mistakes that are done in this world – we are personally responsible for them, every one of us. There. So we must have this attitude of sacrifice. Because the mystery of man’s salvation, for everyone of us, is carried out on the Cross. What we should understand from that is that the Cross is the earth’s greatest gift, of the greatest utility.

So what should your “sacrifice” be? Sacrifice your judging the other one because of some mistake s/he has made. And if you go as far as judging people within the Church wherein dwells the grace of God and you judge the priest, you are making a terrible, terrible mistake! Make it a habit, all of you, to see Christ when you look at the Church, because there’s a prayer that the priest reads before the Cherubic Hymn, which goes like this: “Because You are the One Who brings, the One Who brings Yourself, the One Who is received, and the One Who is shared.” So what is the priest if he is in charge with such things? …It’s like… “Yes, but without you, my priest, I cannot do these things”, Christ replies – not without the grace of priesthood. And, ok, maybe that guy isn’t a terribly sophisticated person, as a priest, but he does have the grace, and that is a divine thing. So you condemn yourself terribly if you judge him. He is responsible for his deeds; but you, on the other hand, you will be held terribly responsible for your deeds and his deeds, too, because you have judged him.

There was this great hermit who one day, received the visit of a believer from his village, who had come to see him in the wilderness. In the hermit’s village was this very sinful man. The hermit asked the visitor: “Has that X fellow changed his ways or he’s just as I used to know him?” The man answered: “He hasn’t changed, Father.” And the hermit uttered only an: “Oh!” The next day, an angel came to the hermit and asked him: “God has sent me to ask you: where should He put the soul of that man, who just died last night – in Heaven or in Hell? Because you have judged him.” The hermit lamented and repented for the rest of his life to receive a sign of God’s forgiveness and still had none. And the man that he had judged had been a big sinner indeed! But he had judged him.

“God, please, have mercy for him. God, please protect him.”, he should have said instead. I repeat and I stress this, and please forgive me for being repetitive: WE are guilty for the other people’s mistakes. The whole tragedy of humanity depends on the mess in our own lives.

Because if one talks about love, it’s love! There is no going around it. Look at things as they truly are. It’s like: I am a human being, with hands, fingers etc, there is no question about it whatsoever. With a heart, too! One cannot go around these things. The Christian teaching is about the integrity of the human being. So we are not to negotiate a whole series of things that can pull us behind – or stall our lives. I’m telling you – this judging of others that we do is so serious that (I think I have written it somewhere, too) I believe that most of the souls who are in hell are people who have badmouthed others. They all excuse themselves by saying: “But I’m not the only one who badmouths.” or: “Doesn’t s/he deserve to be judged?” No. If someone is guilty, you, too, are guilty for his guilt, because you haven’t prayed for him – and, of course, if you have judged him, you have made an even bigger mistake.

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Chapel Boat Begins Voyage on the Volga

September 13, 2010
ACN

A boat laden with the relics of eight saints from the first millennium of the Church has started a historic ecumenical journey along the Volga River.

The Chapel Boat set off on Monday, September 13th, transporting across Russia the relics of eight saints from the age of the undivided Church.

The ship carrying the relics is called ‘Fr. Werenfried’ after Aid to the Church in Need’s founder, who spearheaded the initiative to convert boats into chapels to allow services to be celebrated in places that have no church.

The relics are a gift from the Catholic Church to the Russian Orthodox Church.

ACN’s Russia expert Peter Humeniuk, who was involved in the organization of the project, said he believes that it will have a profound symbolic impact.

“Since the earliest days of Christianity, the Church has been seen as a ship, an ‘ark of salvation.’”

“On board the vessel, the relics of those saints from the era of the still undivided Church will be a powerful reminder of precisely those times when this image of the Church was first formed and when Christians were still united.”

The relics being carried are those of saints who are important to both Churches. The saints are Saint John the Baptist, Saint Anne, Saint Bartholomew the Apostle, the martyrs Saint Stephen and Saint Lawrence, Saint George, Saint John Chrysostom and Saint Cyril, the missionary to the Slav people.

The boat, whose ecumenical journey has received the blessing of Russian Orthodox Patriarch Kirill, will travel some 1,900 miles from the mouth of the River Volga to Moscow.

On the way the ship will stop at various towns and cities, including Saratov, Kazan, and Novgorod, as well as many smaller places, to enable as many people as possible to venerate the relics it is carrying.

There will be an Orthodox priest on board at all times to celebrate the Divine Liturgy in the boat’s chapel, dedicated to St. Vladimir, who baptized Russia.

The ship’s voyage will include stops in regions that suffered from drought and wildfires in July and August.

The Apostolic Nuncio to the Russian Federation, Archbishop Antonio Mennini, sent a letter expressing his hopes that those in the affected regions will find comfort and consolation through this visit.

Yesterday (Sunday, September12th), a service was held on the quayside in Kirovskij harbor, Volgograd.

It was led by Russian Orthodox Metropolitan German of Volgograd and Kamyshin.

Msgr. Visvaldas Kulbokas, the first secretary of the Holy See’s Apostolic Nunciature to the Russian Federation, also took part in the service and carried the relics on board the chapel boat.

In order to make its epic journey from the Volga delta to the upper reaches of the river, the chapel boat will first of all travel south, visiting the regions of Kalmykia and Astrakhan.

From there it will travel northwards along the river called “Highway of Russia.”

The chapel boats, which are still in use on the Volga and Don rivers, were called the “flotilla for God” by ACN’s founder Fr. Werenfried van Straaten.

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In Australia, Souls Should ‘Outweigh’ Salads In Cemetery Debate

September 14, 2010
Southern Courier

The Greek Orthodox Church has broken its silence to support a plan to expand the Botany cemetery into the neighbouring Chinese market gardens.

The parish priest at St Spyridon Greek Orthodox Church in Kingsford and spokesman for Archbishop Stylianos, Primate of the Greek Orthodox Church in Australia, Father Steven Scoutas has become a voice for the concerns about diminishing burial space.

"It's of great concern to the church that vegetables are regarded to be of greater heritage value than that of human beings,” he said. “Nothing is more sacred than the human person.”

Father Steven, who blamed consecutive governments for failing to secure additional land for the cemetery during the past 30 years, said thousands of his parishioners had signed a petition on the issue.

“The Greek Orthodox Church has voiced serious concerns for many years about this acute shortage of burial spaces. Archbishop Stylianos, Primate of the Church in Australia, again raised the matter in 2006 with the State Government.

“This is vital, not only for Christians, but for our brothers and sisters of other religions as well.

“The deceased should be afforded every dignity. Their personal contribution to the shaping of the nation and the heritage of the world should not be devalued.”

A shortage of space in Sydney’s east has led management of the Eastern Suburbs Memorial Park, which incorporates Botany cemetery, to submit a plan to the State Government to acquire 60 per cent of the adjacent heritage-listed market gardens, a 7ha slice of crown land off Bunnerong Rd in Matraville.

The submission has divided the community between those who would prefer to see the land remain with the living, the three families who cultivate the gardens, and those more concerned about the diminishing space to bury their loved ones.

Chinese community and heritage groups are opposing the planned resumption of the market gardens at La Perouse for use as a cemetery.

The land on which the market gardens sit has been used for food production for more than 150 years, and managed by Chinese gardeners for more than a century.

The management of the cemetery has claimed that without the land transfer it will run out of burial space within 12 years.

The situation has been worsened by cultural sensitivities surrounding burial practices. Cremation is forbidden by some religions.

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Egyptian Security Forces Storm Monastery, Assault Monks

Mary Abdelmassih
September 10, 2010
AINA

On Tuesday, September 7, at 8 PM a 300-man security force, backed by a large number of cars and armored vehicles, attacked the Monastery of St. Macarius of Alexandria in Wadi Rayan, Fayoum province, 150 KM south of Cairo. The monks in the monastery were assaulted with tear gas, batons and stones. Three monks were seriously wounded.

The security forces prevented the delivery of limestone bricks to be used for the construction of cells for the monks within the grounds of the ancient Monastery. The forces also attempted to confiscate bricks already delivered but the monks sat on the bricks and refused to move.

The authorities claim that Wadi Rayan is a conservation area, while the monks say they are building cells within the grounds of the Monastery, which was built before the area was designated for conservation.

Security forced surrounded the Monastery until 12 AM the following day, but withdrew "after seeing the insistence of monks to assert their rights," said Father Boulos elMakkary, one of the 85 monks living in the monastery. "They left with the commander promising to be back soon."

Monk Mina elMakkary said the security forces surrounded the Monastery as "if we were terrorists. We are monks who left everything behind to come and worship God, and they come to attack unarmed monks."

The monks believe that the government wants to prevent any construction on the premises to prevent any increase in the number of monks living there, "though cells for the monks are badly needed," said Father Boulos. Presently 5-8 monks share one cell, when each should be living alone.

Gerges Bouchra of Copts-United said the incident started when the head of the police in Fayoum was passing by in his car when he saw three trucks loaded with limestone bricks, which had been sent as a donation to the monastery. He protested and removed the registration plates from the trucks. Later he sent a force and took away the trucks with their cargo and drivers. "I told the officer-in-charge, Islam Moawad, that we understand our rights and that he was breaking the law as he had no warrant supporting his actions," Father Boulos said. "Apparently this was not enough, so the forces came on Tuesday evening to confiscate what bricks we had offloaded."

Father Boulos said the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency has built a big rest house for its staff with a swimming pool within the Monastery grounds, under the pretext of watching rare birds, but more likely "to watch us," and the swimming pool is "just for conserving water" we were told. He added that two months ago the Agency had given permission to a private investor, Hany Zaky, to build a tourist attraction within the conservation area, 5 KM away from the Monastery, and he had stipulated that monks should not build there.

The Monastery of St. Macarius, also called the "Buried Monastery" as most of its cells are caves in the mountain, has been uninhabited for a long time due to desert conditions and being without electricity or water. Monks have, however, lived there from time to time until 1996, when they decided to remain there permanently and obtained permission from the Minister of Environment to live there.

Problems with the authorities started with the increase in the number of monks and the need for cells. Two years ago newly built cells were demolished on orders from the Environmental Affairs Agency. "We got fined 2 million Egyptian pounds for supplying the monastery with water, we went to court and won through reconciliation," monk Mina said. "Police in Fayoum, State Security and the Agency collude against the Monastery and they do not give us any permits. They want us to get a Presidential decree from President Mobarak," he added.

Father Boulos said that State Security might import Arabs to the area to get rid of them as they did in Abu Fana in the Minya province. "During a meeting with a top State Security one of our priests official in Fayoum was threatened and told the monastery might be destroyed, and people would be sent to the monastery to harm the monks."

Speaking on behalf of the monks, Father Boulos said that they are not afraid as they do not care about their lives. "We are ready for martyrdom. Maybe if we die now, the next generation can live in peace."

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Four Contemporary Miracles of the Holy Cross

The Cross of Preveli Monastery

1. The Cross of a Prosecutor

In a termination hearing, one of the last big trials, the Prosecutor Liberis Papandreou told me the following, when he noticed a cross around my neck. He also showed me a cross that he wore around his neck and told me the following:

"This cross saved my life. Without this I would have been dead in the Winter of 1943. It was the period when anyone who fell into the hands of the Germans and brought to the torturers, on the road Merlin, did not leave except to go to the cemetery.

During this time I also was arrested. I was accused by a senior official of the Municipality of Piraeus - a German organization - and a Mayor of a Settlement of Piraeus as a General Prosecutor of the Communists, because these two men I had arrested for the abuse of food, which was intended for the hungry. My refusal, in which I denied any "blame", infuriated my investigators.

For this reason I was brought to be tortured. On the third day of my martyrdom I was lead into a spacious room. This was hell on earth. Inside paraded five giant torturers, each of which exhausted all his powers upon me. Slowly I started to feel that soon I would be dead there.

After the huge torturers, I was taken by the investigator himself. In a furious moment he took me with both hands by the throat and began to squeeze. I felt that I would die of asphyxiation. He used all his power and I was freed from his hands. Immediately I tore my shirt for my chest to breathe. I had not even thought about what I did. At the same time I noticed my torturer become pale. He turned white, more white than the wall of the room. He tried to lift his hands but could not succeed.

He then began to cry... Yes, crying like a frightened baby! He then came near me, leaned on my chest and kissed this here cross! I confess that I could not believe what I saw with my eyes.

After a little while he called out to be brought a glass of water. With this he washed, with his own hands, which now could move, my wounds, and after he sat me on a chair to recover. He then left to return to several colleagues, to whom he recounted the following:

'Once this man opened his chest, lightning flashed before my eyes from this tiny cross. This flash formed a fiery "nein" [German for "no"]. Now that I've recovered, gentlemen, I can say that God is close to the faithful.'

Then he returned to me and said:

'I would ask you to offer this cross to me to protect me from this unjust crisis. Not from death, because I do not fear it. But I'm not worthy, I do not believe in God like you. Because if I believed...' and he stopped short the sentence.

So, my beloved one, it saved me from certain death thanks to my faith," said the Prosecutor Liberis Papandreou.

From Ν. Καπιτσόγλου, "Θαύματα που γίνονται σήμερα", περιοδ. Κιβωτός, αριθ. 21/ Σεπτέμβριος 1953, σελ. 347.

2. The Cross of Preveli Monastery

This miraculous relic constitutes the "Palladium" of the Monastery and is associated with many miracles especially related with eye diseases. It's a big silver cross (Dim. 0.56 x 0.25) with wider points at the ends and protruded decorative buttons and tokens in a wire working process. The Baptism of Jesus Christ is shown from one side. The Father on the upper part and the Angels beside the points of the cross. On the other side the crucifixion are the symbols of four Evangelists. A big crystal is attached to the handle of the cross and in the perimeter of the cyclical base the donation inscription appears: "The Fatigue And Hard Work Of Abbot Ephraim, Whom The Lord Saved From Hell Fire". The cross demonstrates the level of folklore silversmiths in Crete had during the second half of 18th century, when the active and energetic Abbot Ephraim Prevelis lived. The cross is kept in a shrine in the main church of the Monastery.

The Cross was carried in the front line of every battle thus greatly encouraging the fighters. In 1823, in the unequal battle against the Turks at Amourgeles, in Monofatsiou province, the Holy Symbol was lost. The Cross was found at the end of 1823 in the hands of Genoese sailors, who had purchased it in Heraklion. According to the legend, they returned the Cross to the Monastery when their ship simply stopped in the water, in a a quite mysterious way, while sailing in the Libyan Sea near the Monastery of Preveli, and was able to proceed only after the precious relic was given back. In 1941, German officers removed the Cross from the Monastery and attempted to send it to Germany. The airplane though which would transfer the Holy Symbol away could not take off. They put the Cross in another airplane without result, the second airplane could not start. They attributed this event to the Holy Symbol, so a few days after the looting, the Cross was back in its position. It was also September 13th, the eve of the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, the feast day of the Monastery.

Source

3. The Hodja Who Became A Christian

According to reliable sources, a well-known Hodja of Egypt with his family abandoned Islam and were baptized Christians. As he says, it was because of a miracle.

The former Hodja, now a Christian convert, said that his daughter was suffering from an incurable disease. They went to every hospital and saw many doctors where they lived in Egypt, and even travelled abroad. They would recommend treatment, but did not have much hope. Indeed they would inform the desperate father to take his daughter home since there really was no treatment. The Hodja prayed daily to Allah for help.

A close friend saw the father's grief, and offered to put a cross on the pillow of his daughter. On hearing this proposal, the father responded: "It is not possible for me to do something like that..., I will not sell my faith." The idea however began to occupy his thoughts. Without telling anyone, he bought a cross and placed it on the pillow of his daughter. The days passed and his daughter entered a comatose state, losing all consciousness. The whole family and the people of the area served by the former Hodja waited for her death. The desperate father day and night sat next to her, crying. Inside, as he confesses now, there was a hope that something would happen.

One evening as the depressed father held the hand of his daughter, he saw the cross that was on the pillow to emit a bright light which spread all over the bed. Initially he thought that it was a dream or something wrong with his mind because of his sadness. However, the light he saw was obvious. Suddenly he saw his daughter getting up from bed and saying: 'Dad, I am hungry, bring me something to eat." The Hodja could not understand what had happened. He went to the kitchen overjoyed. The voices roused his wife and the neighborhood. Soon the house was crowded. He told and re-told what happened. He spoke about the miracle of the cross. He even phoned his friend who had proposed to put the cross on the pillow of the daughter and thanked him.

Neighbors and friends tried to ascribe the miracle to Saint George, who is accepted by Muslims. But he knew the power of the cross. He experienced the miracle. The daughter no longer had anything and physicians aware of the situation did not believe their eyes when they saw that the new tests did not show anything. A few days after the miracle the former Hodja had made a decision. He told his wife he would become a Christian. She initially was against this and thought of the persecution that will follow the entire family by Muslims. "They will kill us" she said. But he was already on his way. He notified her that they leave permanently from Egypt. "We will be baptized and live in another country." So it happened.

However, the news of his entering the Church of Christ, was widely circulated in the city he served, and to Muslim clergy. Today, the former Hodja and now Christian convert studies theology. For Muslims today, he and his family are outlaws. This is why we cannot publish more data.

4. The Miraculous Power of the Cross and Prayer - A Scientific Study

The Sign of the Cross and Orthodox Prayer Are Capable of Killing Microbes and Change the Optical Properties of Water - A Study

Read the rest here.

Translations by John Sanidopoulos

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