www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life The Christian East & West Apostolic Letters, Encyclicals, and Instructions

Amen to that. If we could get the Greeks on board, it would help a lot. Someting to pray for.

Priest Thomas

I'm pessimistic about that dear Father, but maybe if we join prayer AND a LOT of fasting :rolleyes: ...who knows?! God help us!

Your brother in the Lord,
+Gregory, priestmonk

My feeling is that you will see a lot of movement toward unity between the OCA and the Antiochians in the next five years. I think it's coming, just in stages.

But that's another topic....

Dear Father Gregory,

I have often been frustrated by the poor quality, boring reading and almost irrelevant encyclicals of the Greek Orthodox Archbishops. There seems to be a disconnect, and I don't know why...perhaps if those who wrote really 'got it' (to quote Bob/Theophan) it would be conveyed, and the result would be a more spiritually grounded laity.

On the other hand, Metropolitan Herman of the OCA impresses me with the inspirational, spiritual and well written quality of his encyclicals.

The Ecumenical Patriarch's have gotten better, and have started becoming more readable--an improvement over the direct translation from the formal style writing of Byzantium. I think that was the problem there.

(as a little aside: I support the EP in his moves towards unity between the Orthodox and Catholic churches.
He deserves our support, because he does not have it on the ecumenical front (clerics)here in the Greek Orthodox Church of the U.S. Judging from the sentiments and attitudes of priests here, he is our only hope for such a reunion, so despite any other criticisms people may have about him, for those of us who want to see the brother Patriarchs of the early Church spiritually reunited, he may be our only hope)

As for a united Orthodox church, I would *not* like to see it if it means severing ties with historic Constantinople. If it is done properly, with all due ties to the Ancient See of Andrew, then it is desirable, indeed.

Yours in Christ,
Alice

P.S. My thoughts are that you can't have really good writing if your focus is on worldly and cultural things. You can't have really good writing if Christ and salvation aren't your central focus. Writing is an extension of what is in your soul. That is why the saints write so beautifully and with such focus, relevance, and charity, and certainly, Pope John Paul II is a saint which God has sent to the whole world.

As for prayers for the Greek Orthodox in the U.S., it should be for the more liberal clergy to get their priorities straight and to stop obsessing about how they are going to finagle a married bishopric--something which does not come from any Christ centered desires, but only secular ones.

Fathers Gregory and Thomas,

I have been ruminating (I knew that, someday, I'd find a way to fit that word into something ) about the original message since I read it yesterday and now, when I was ready to pontificate , I see that Father Thomas has beat me to the post with his very accurate comments on the effect that distinctions between the structures of Catholicity and Orthodoxy have on the issuance of these types of Magisterial documents. (By the way, I don't think that enough exposure has ever been given to the statements of the OCA's Holy Synod of Bishops on the cloning of human embryos [oca.org] and embryonic stem cell research [oca.org] .)

So, in a last ditch effort to justify why I am even posting on the topic, let me just offer the opinion that modern-day Orthodox hierarchs have offered some of the most extraodinarily pastoral writings available to us as Easterners.

In the very recent past, I am particularly reminded of the the Christmas Pastoral Message of His Eminence, Metropolitan Nicholas of of Amissos (ACROD) [acrod.org] and the Final Encyclical of His Eminence Metropolitan Anthony (GOA) of San Francisco [goarch.org] , of blessed memory.

Just my two cents.

Many years,

Neil

Regarding Alice's post, I'm not familiar enough with any of the GOA's encyclicals to make a call, but I do know that His Eminence, Archbishop Demetrios is a theologian of the highest order. I've listened to some of his pastoral messages [goarch.org] via their website, and I thought they were excellent. I suspect, although do not know for sure, that some of the disconnect may be that English is not his first langauge. However, Alice, you may be able to comment on his messages because of your knowledge of Greek. Maybe they read/sound/are understood better in their original langauge.

One negative comment I will make however. SCOBA released a Pastoral Letter on the Occasion of the Third Christian Millenium [scoba.us] that I thought was a complete mess. I never even bothered to distribute it to my people. I felt it's approach was flawed and it was hopelessly muddled. Another lost opportunity.

But again, I believe there is much good pastoral guidance out there from our Orthodox bishops - some of it quite well written, accessible, and useful.

Priest Thomas

Dear Father Thomas,

Perhaps it is a cultural thing--and with no disrespect intended towards my beloved Archbishop Demetrios, I once attended a banquet where former President Bush was being honored by the Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.

His Eminence spoke about God being like art and music, etc. (sounded like the existentialism of my Philosophy 101 class back in college) and our former President spoke about his spirituality, how thankful he was for the prayers for his son (this was a few months after 9/11), and in general was VERY inspirational in touching the heart and conveying Christian spirituality. He even teared up infront of the audience in Christ felt love and gratitude.

Sad to say, but that night, atleast, I thought that the titles should have been reversed.

Billy Graham once said that the success he had in bringing people to Christ and the Christian life was that he always spoke to people as if they were in the seventh grade.

Just some thoughts, and no disrespect intended towards anyone. However, existentialist sounding talks have been my experience on more than one occasion, and while many people may be in awe of that doctorate level of teaching which they do not comprehend,(in his own words His Eminence has said that he is primarily an academician) I have not seen it do anything to further their relationship to Christ and the understanding of Him in the heart.

If we are to keep our people in the Orthodox church and faith, we need to look, in the objective words of one Roman Catholic Bishop I once heard talk, to our Protestant brethren for their successful manner of sermonizing and inspiring.

Kissing your right hand,
Alice, a sinner

I do agree with you Alice, that we need to do everything possible to get THE message across as clearly as possible.

Here's a bit of shameless self-promotion [stnicholas-oca.org] - but I only offer it in the hopes that it might help someone.

Priest Thomas

Bless, Father Thomas!

Thank you for your link to your excellent sermons! I just heard the one on the persistence of prayer.

May God bless you with many years of rightfully teaching the word of the Lord!

In Christ our Lord and Saviour,
Alice

Bless, Father Thomas!

Now I really AM upset that I didn't get to meet you in person!

You're not just any priest, you know . . .

When are you coming to Toronto next?

Alex