Bookings are now available for all our Parishes and Communities throughout Australia

OFFICIAL OPENING

His Eminence Archbishop Stylianos will officially open the Bribie Island Retreat and Recreation Centre on 1^st October 2013 in the presence of Federal, State and Local politicians together with other official guests and our youth from around Australia.

This exciting and highly anticipated event will be part of the 10^th Annual Youth Conference to be held in Brisbane.  The Conference will commence on Sunday 29 September and finish on 1 October with the official opening of the Youth Centre at Bribie Island.

YOUTH EVENTS – Centre’s first events

Before this official opening a historic and busy four days between 28 June and 1 July will take place at the Centre. There will be three major events to mark the first use of the Bribie Island Retreat and Recreation Centre.  Educators will be the first to benefit with a two day retreat and workshop aimed at nurturing their emotional, psychological and spiritual well-being.  Teaching is a high stress profession, especially for those who juggle professional lives with family responsibilities.  We trust that the practical nature of this retreat will benefit delegates in both their professional and personal lives.  It is hoped to expand this event to an annual feature of the Bribie calendar for Orthodox educators, locally and nationally.  Mother Kallistheni, our guest for this weekend, will be the keynote speaker providing reflections on “Education as a Personal Spiritual Journey”.

On June 30 the site will host a Community Open Day with a Divine Liturgy and family fun activities. Following the Liturgy the accommodation cabins will be open for inspection and there will be dancing performances and displays in the community hall.  A highlight of the day will be the “1000 Helping Hands” beach chain.  This event will highlight the potential “miracles” that can occur when a whole community rallies together for a cause, in this case “Our Youth”.  All are welcome.

The Centre’s operational start date is 1 July.  This milestone of our Greek Orthodox Archdiocese will be celebrated with a youth excursion for teenagers and young adults with events planned at the Centre and on the beach.

BOOKINGS  & DONATIONS REQUIRED

Bookings are now available for all our Parishes and Communities throughout Australia.   With the completion of construction only weeks away, the Committee continues to seek financial support to furnish and fit out the Centre with essential equipment in its kitchen and community hall as government funding only covers the construction.  Please support this project and help generations to come.  Donations to the Building Fund are tax deductible.

For more information, please refer to our website: www.gobribieisland.org or become a Facebook friend. Bookings are now available.  Contact Helen Passaris (07)  3349 7647  

Author: Fr George Dimopoulos

Source: Orthodox Sermons for all the Sundays of the Year – Volume I

Publisher: Christian Orthodox Editions

“It is not reason that we should leave the word of God, and serve the tables” (Acts 6:1-7).

I read the other day an article in a newspaper concerning the sermons of contemporary preachers. The title was, “What Is Lacking Today From the Pulpit”? The newspaper columnist expressed a real truth which we the priests often discuss. There doesn’t exist a strong sermon which can attract people to the church and inwardly shake them up like an earthquake does. I heard a preacher, on St. Nicholas Day, speak about the life of the saint. Among others, he said that St Nicholas is honoured by the Protestants and Catholics. And the cantor of the church murmured, “Oh the poor priest doesn’t know that the Catholic Church excommunicated, by her agiologion, St Nicholas from the catalogues of the saints. If a powerful sermon is lacking today in the Orthodox churches, are we, the priests, totally responsible? Is it due to our negligence, or due to our work which is many-fold and complicated? Do the priests have time to work and to prepare for a good sermon, or have they not? The answer is given to us in today’s epistle reading from the Acts of the Apostles (6:1-7). The text is very instructive and very timely and we have to pay special attention to it. The church, as well as the laymen board and board of trustees, very unfortunately expect a priest to do everything.

After Pentecost the number of Christians astonishingly increased daily. The first church, along with delivering the sermon, undertook the responsibility of feeding the poor people. That means the apostles, besides their pastoral work, were busy not only with the sermon but also with serving the tables. Complaints started from the first days as always happen to the Church, “And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily administration”.  The apostles could not give all their attention to the administrating of the tables and to act as waiters. But on the other hand, it was also the obligation of the church. The church cannot ignore and must not ignore the poor, the sick, and the needy. “For I was hungry and ye gave me meat, I was thirsty and ye gave me drink, I was a stranger and ye took me in, naked and ye clothed me; I was sick and ye visited me, I was in prison and ye came unto me” (Matt. 25:35-36).

When the apostles saw that the work of administering the tables was becoming a failure, they decided to solve the problem differently. They could devote themselves to the tables. The first is first. St John Chrysostom says, “We cannot put the head to the feet or vice versa, the feet to the head”. The holy apostles, enlightened by the Holy Spirit, neither neglected the sermon nor were indifferent to the poor. What they did, the Book of the Acts relates to us. “Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them, and said, it is not reasonable that we should leave the word of God and serve the tables”. Then they entrusted all members of the church to elect seven faithful people with fear of God, modesty, tender heart and delicate feelings with whom they could charge the care of the poor.

“Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Spirit and Wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business”. It is difficult for the priest to do everything in the imminent field of the church. On the other hand, all laymen are not properly qualified for ecclesiastical office administration. The office requires much attention and much prudence of the church’s part as well as on the people’s part. Many times the people choose the most improper and most indifferent people to serve as co-workers of the priest and servants of the people. Such people have only one purpose, how to counteract the work of the priest and his mission and the mission of the church, and how to perpetuate their own teachings and theories on the administrating of the church. How many such examples do we have? Such people who would probably not be permitted to stay in the courts of the church, due to their immoral life and uncharacteristic social Christian behaviour, have offices in the church. Now we need not elaborate more about this subject, because we respect the principles and rules of the sermon.

The many that serve and work in the church should be people with wisdom, prudence and with fear of God, “Full of the Holy Spirit and Wisdom”. The priest would not be distracted; instead, he could be occupied with the spiritual works: performing the divine liturgy, preaching the word of God, preparing himself for the extraordinary charisma, confessing the people, visiting the sick and staying with them one, two or three hours and performing spiritual and priestly works that his co-workers cannot do. As the apostles said, “But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word”.  Prayer and sermon are the first and most important tasks of the priest. When I say “Prayer” I mean in general the whole worship and the sacramental life of the Church, among which the divine liturgy takes precedence. Unfortunately, many of these important facets of our religion today are of necessity sometimes neglected. We, the priests, in many cases do not have enough time for prayer and the ministry of the word because of the time we must devote to things which are irrelevant to our divine ministry. Many tasks, such as arranging for bazaars, films, dances, banquets, and picnics, can be performed by the laymen without encroaching on the limited time available to the priest.

In a parish where the laymen do not accept their responsibilities regarding these non-priestly activities, a strong and inspired pulpit sermon may be lacking, and other important facets of our religion are sometimes neglected. The first and main purpose of the Church is the saving of souls and not providing recreation for the people. The duty of the priest is to perform the holy worship and to preach the Word of God. He should also take an interest in the poor. We should leave the responsibilities for all other activities in the hands of the priest’s co-workers, mainly to the members of the board of trustees. These men must be “men of honest report, full of the Holy Spirit, and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business”. Efficient co-workers and deacons will see the church as the centre of the whole community life, as the ark of salvation, and will regard the priest not as a hired clerk but as the Father of the community and the representative of Christ.

By Archpriest Michael Vorobiev

The Typikon calls every festive meal a “great consolation for the brethren.” Pascha, which in importance stands outside the ranks of the twelve main feast days and is called the “Feast of feasts and the Celebration of celebrations,” presupposes a particularly abundant and diverse trapeza. However, in allowing this consolation, the Church nonetheless does not particularly endorse refinements that require many components or dishes that are difficult to prepare, considering pretentious culinary novelties to fall under the sin of gluttony. On the Paschal table should be several simple, inexpensive, but remarkably tasty dishes that bear within them a deep symbolic meaning.

From the very first week of the fast, the responsible housewife begins to save onionskins, which color eggs in the most proper reddish-brown color better than any imported powders. Painting Easter eggs is a real art. Miniaturist artists are able to depict churches and monasteries, fantastic bouquets, celestial lights, the sea, forests, steppes and mountains, saints and angels on the convex surface. Except that all this painting comes from the influence of the West, and true Easter eggs are always colored with onionskins!

The explanation given for the custom of dying Easter eggs red comes from a rather late apocrypha that speaks of the Roman Emperor Tiberius’ conversion to Christianity. Wishing to put an end to the preaching of Mary Magdalene, he declared that he would sooner believe in a white egg turning red than in the possibility of the resurrection of the dead. An egg turned red, and this became the last argument in the polemic that culminated in the Roman Caesar’s Baptism.

The custom of exchanging colored eggs entered the life of the Church. The symbolic meaning of the egg as the beginning of a new life was known even earlier. Christians saw in this symbol confirmation of their faith in the coming general resurrection. The Easter egg’s red color symbolized the all-conquering Divine Love, which alone could destroy hell!

The Paschal kulich resembles artos in form, bread that is blessed at the Paschal Divine service and distributed on Saturday of Bright Week. The Paschal artos is a symbol of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Addressing the disciples, He said: I am that bread of life… This is the bread which cometh down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever: and the bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world (John 6:48-51). Artos is always prepared from leavened dough. This is not Jewish unleavened bread, in which there is nothing living. This is bread in which leaven is breathing, life that could last forever. The ontological status of artos does not allow the addition of anything superfluous. It contains no bakery goods, no aromatic additives. Artos is a symbol of the most daily bread – Christ the Savior, Who is Life!

However, the Paschal kulich, this artos that is brought to the festive table, does, to the contrary, have bakery goods, and sweetening, and raisins, and nuts. Properly prepared Russian kulich does not go stale for weeks; it is aromatic, beautiful, heavy, and can stay good, without spoiling, for all forty days of Pascha. This modification of the artos also has a symbolic basis. The Paschal kulich on the festive table symbolizes the presence of God in the world and in human life. The sweetness, bakery goods, and beauty of the Paschal kulich, in this way express the Lord’s concern for all of human existence, His compassion, mercy, condescension to the infirmities of human nature, His willingness to listen to any prayer, to come to the aid of the least sinner.

The name the “Sweetest” given to the Lord Jesus in one of the most ancient akathists helps one to understand the symbolism of the Paschal kulich.

Yet another indispensable element of the Paschal table that is just as aromatic and beautiful is cheese pascha, whose symbolism is also deeply rooted in Holy Scripture. A land of milk rivers flowing through kissel banks is one of the most widespread archetypes characteristic of the most diverse cultures. Milk rivers flowing along kissel banks were an eternal dream of Russian peasants, which was manifest in stories and folk songs.

The Lord, addressing Moses, promises His chosen people a good land and large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey (Ex 3:8). This characterization of the Promised Land persists throughout the entire story of the Passover, the passing over of the Jews from Egypt to Palestine. It is a prefiguring of the Heavenly Kingdom, the path to which is for a faithful person more difficult than the forty-year journey of the Jews. Its “milk and honey” is an image of the endless joy, the blessedness of the saints found worthy of salvation and eternal sojourn before the throne of God.

Thus cheese pascha is a symbol of Paschal joy, the sweetness of paradisiacal life, of blessed Eternity, which is not an endless continuation of time, a senseless repetition of the same thing but, according to the prophecy of the Apocalypse, “a new heaven and a new earth.” And the “hill,” the form into which pascha is made, is a symbol of the Heavenly Zion, the enduring foundation of the New Jerusalem – the city in which there is no temple, for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it (Revelation 21:22).

Source: Ora et Labora

ASSASSINATION PLOT AGAINST PATRIARCH BARTHOLOMEW UNCOVERED

An alleged plot against Fener Greek Orthodox Patriarchate Bartholomew is being investigated by an Ankara public prosecutor, private broadcaster NTV reported today.

The investigation was launched after a letter was sent from the Central Anatolia province of Kayseri, claiming that the Istanbul-based patriarch would be the target of an assassination attempt on May 29, the 560th anniversary of Istanbul’s conquest by Mehmed the Conqueror.

A man was detained and police forces are searching for two others. The suspects recently arrived in Istanbul from Kayseri, police sources said.

S.A., the detained suspect, refuted the claims and said he was in Istanbul to visit his relatives and he had no intention or plan of murdering Bartholomew.

A file opened by a Kayseri prosecutor has been handed over to the Ankara public prosecutor.

The investigation revealed that another letter was sent to prosecutors in 2008 claiming that S.A. was planning to murder Bartholomew.

Hürriyet Daily News – May/10/2013

PLOT TO KILL ORTHODOX PATRIARCH BARTHOLOMEW UNCOVERED BY TURKEY

ISTANBUL, May 10 (Reuters) – Turkey is investigating an alleged plot to assassinate Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, and has stepped up security around the patriarchate in Istanbul, his spokesman said on Friday.

Spokesman Dositheos Anagnostopoulos said the patriarch had not received any direct threats but had learned of the alleged plot from Turkish media, which was later confirmed to the patriarchate by Turkish police.

“Later in the day, police informed the patriarchate of a possible threat and dispatched additional police officers,” Anagnostopoulos said.

Turkish broadcaster NTV said one man had been arrested in relation to the alleged plot, after state prosecutors in central Kayseri province received an anonymous letter saying there was a plan to assasinate Bartholomew on May 29, the anniversary of the Ottoman conquest of present-day Istanbul.

It said police were still searching for two men in relation to the alleged plot.

The Ankara chief public prosecutor’s office, which local media said is leading the investigation, could not be immediately reached for comment.

There has been at least one previous assassination plot against Bartholomew in recent years but the patriarchate sought to play down Friday’s reports.

“The patriarch is not taking this too seriously. He doesn’t believe there is a serious threat,” Anagnostopoulos said.

Known often by his full title Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, the historical name for Istanbul, he is the spiritual head of worldwide Orthodoxy, which split from the Roman Catholic Church in 1054. [Mode of Life Comment: This sentence evidently shows complete ignorance of historical reality. It was not the Orthodox Church which separated itself from the Roman Catholic Church, since there was no Roman Catholic or Orthodox Church to begin with, but was one Apostolic, Catholic and Orthodox Church of the Seven Ecumenical Councils. The schism was of a consequence of the gradual development of the Roman papacy from the time of Charlemagne onwards. To which we should add, that it was the representatives of Rome, who without permission from appropriate Roman ecclesial authorities, created the schism by excommunicating and anathematising Ecumenical Patriarch Michael Keroularios. A man who we should cite, would not concede to false “innovations” within the Church’s episcopal structure and order, as confronted by the formation of Rome’s papacy and claim of universal jurisdiction which goes contrary to what the Apostles and all succeeding Church Councils had set down, whether local or ecumenical.]

Previous attacks on Christians have raised concerns about the safety of religious minorities in Muslim Turkey, which has around 100,000 Christians out of a total population of 76 million.

In 2010, a leading Catholic bishop was stabbed to death at his home in southern Turkey by his driver and in 2006, a Roman Catholic priest was murdered in the Black Sea town of Trabzon by a teenager with suspected links to ultra-nationalists.

In 2007, three members of a Bible publishing company, one of whom was a German citizen, were tortured and killed in Malatya in central Turkey. (Reporting by Ayla Yackley; Writing by Jonathon Burch; Editing by Michael Roddy)

THE PHANAR MEETING

By YUSUF KANLI (yusuf.kanli@hurriyet.com.tr )

It was “just” a return visit for a visit by Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew to the Religious Affairs Directorate a year ago to congratulate the new director, Mehmet Görmez. It was a get together of a top Muslim man of religion with a Greek Orthodox man of religion. Whatever, it was a historic occasion.

The Greek Orthodox patriarch was considered for decades by this state as a “local Phanar patriarch” which under Turkish law was not even a national institution, forget being an ecumenical one. The patriarch and the patriarchate were like a “dagger in the chest” of the nation, “working constantly against Turkish interests” as if it was “an agent of Greece.”

Indeed, even today many people in this country still share the paranoia that like the Vatican the patriarch is trying to carve out a holy “Ecumenical Greek Orthodox Patriarchate” city in Istanbul. For that reason the patriarchate and rich Greeks were constantly suspected of buying out properties in the historical heartland of the largest Turkish city. Restoration of rights of minority foundations and such developments were all condemned as the government was giving in to international pressure and surrendering to Greek utopias.

Such considerations were of course all products of the past traumas the Turkish nation suffered. Be they be classified as “Balkan defeat syndrome” or the “Sevres Syndrome” of course such conditions should have been healed long ago and should not have been allowed to survive to this day. The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) might be undertaking the “Greek opening” or “patriarchate opening” with a neo-Ottomanist overconfidence – like Sultan Mehmet II, who conquered Constantinople, today’s Istanbul, and after the conquest provided the patriarchate with vast powers.

The visit of Religious Affairs Director Görmez to the patriarchate yesterday was important and heralded a mentality change in official Ankara. If after almost 90 years the republic could understand that the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate is an asset not a threat, perhaps tomorrow the same official Ankara will succeed in understanding that rather than a security threat an ecumenical patriarchate might be an efficient tool in better explaining Turkey’s positions to the global community of nations. Perhaps, as Görmez underlined while leaving the patriarchate, Ankara will manage to understand as well that the Halki Seminary must be reopened and the “Greeks of Turkey” and those following the “Greek Orthodox Church” all through the world can raise their men of religion at a “Turkish education institution.”

At a time when “grandiose obsessions” of the current political Islamist team reached the limits of building at Çamlıca a grand mosque with at least six minarets and visible all through the city, a “grandiose gesture” like the first-ever visit to the patriarchate by a religious affairs director might indeed demonstrate the sui generis character of this land and people.

A multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-religious society was the richness of the Ottomans. Is Turkey indeed not remembering that historical treasure as it is trying to leave behind that rigid, uniform, secular nation-building mentality?

Hürriyet Daily News July/06/2012

READER COMMENTS

Murat (7/6/2012 6:28:35 PM):

What has happened to our Greek minority is a national and historic disgrace. An Orthodox Vatican belongs to Istanbul, nowhere else. It is a national and world treasure in spite of all the dark chapters in its history. It is our history. A solution should be found to Halki issue within the framework of Turkish laws and educations system, if necessary through special laws.

dogan kemal ileri (7/6/2012 12:05:45 PM):

Wise words Mr Kanli and you are 100% correct. Turkiye will realise all its peoples including all the ethnic minorities are sum of its entire human resources and are indeed its major asset. Its happening now Turkiye is changing for the better fast.

WHY SOME “TURKS” ARE LESS EQUAL

By BURAK BEKDİL  (burak.bekdil@hurriyet.com.tr )

Back in 2009, Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I quietly complained that “we are being crucified daily.” The government’s response was a quick, not-so-veiled threat, issuing a statement that said, “[We] hope that was a slip of the tongue.”

Never mind the threatening wording of the response. Luckily the patriarch has not been literally crucified since then. But it was most bizarre that the official reply to the remarks of a Turkish citizen had come from the foreign minister. Where was the foreign element in the words of a full Turkish citizen?

The bitter truth remains unchanged: Some Turks are “foreign.” Last week, press reports revealed that the prosecutor’s office in Istanbul that had tried the Israeli soldiers involved in the Mavi Marmara incident had asked the intelligence services for a listing of Turkish Jews who travelled to Israel two weeks before and after the incident. The suspects were allegedly put under surveillance and a list was sent to the court.

Once again, the Foreign Ministry replied to allegations of a Turkish Jewish witch-hunt. The ministry’s spokesman said “we strongly rebuff efforts to give the image as if there is any sentiment against our Jewish citizens.” Another little foot note of no importance had been engraved in Turkish history: The foreign – not the justice or interior – ministry officially commented on a prosecution against Turkish citizens.

But why do the Turkish diplomats see nothing weird about commenting on the domestic affairs of fully tax-paying Turkish citizens? And why do tens of millions of Turks just accept that as normal, as the norm, as if there is nothing bizarre about it? Can anyone with a little bit of sanity find it normal if the U.S. Secretary of State “denied efforts to give the image as if there is any negative sentiment against American Jews?”

Let’s call a cat a cat. In both cases, i.e., the patriarch and the Turkish-Jewish “traitors,” the foreign minister and his ministry showed the reflex of getting involved simply because they, like an overwhelming majority of the nation, see something “foreign” about the Turkish citizens in question. And that foreignness is about the fact that those Turkish citizens are not Muslim.

This thinking and behavior are a violation of the Constitution, but does no one seem to care? That’s why I have often argued that the Turks would always find de jure ways to breach even the best-written constitution and, hence, too much talk over a new constitution is just too much talk.

One of the most poignant moments in Jenny White’s new book “Out of the Chrysalis,” according to the Economist, is an exchange with Ishak Alaton, Turkey’s best-known Jewish entrepreneur and a frequent target of anti-Semitic rants in the Islamic media. “Jenny, you can write this in your book,” Alaton said, “that the man you interviewed today, who has reached his 82-years-old, has never been given the feeling by this nation that I am part of it.”

But there is an element of fairness here. The Turkish state and most Turks have always indiscriminately discriminated against the “other,” whether the other is “foreign” or not. Before the AKP supposedly rebuilt democratic culture, there was systematic discrimination against non-Muslim Turks, Muslim or non-Muslim Kurds, Muslim or non-Muslim Alevis, devout Muslims and communists. All of those Turkish citizens felt precisely like Alaton felt: they were not part of this nation.

And in the years of the AKP’s “advanced democracy,” there is systematic discrimination against non-Muslim Turks (foreigners, are they not?), Muslim or non-Muslim Kurds, Muslim or non-Muslim Alevis, communists, anarchists, atheists and secular Muslims.

The foreign ministry’s spokesman’s words that “the Jewish community are [made of] equal citizens and an integral part of our society” can be more creative than Hans Christian Andersen’s but are certainly much less amusing.

Hürriyet Daily News – December/26/2012

Author: Fr George Dimopoulos

Source: Orthodox Sermons for all the Sundays of the Year – Volume I

Publisher: Christian Orthodox Editions

“And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God”.

We call today the Sunday of Antipascha, dear brethren, because it is today that the feast of Easter draws to a close, although we continue to sing joyous paschal music until the feast of our Lord’s Ascension. We call the week following Pascha (Easter) “Bright Week”, from the Latin “Dominica in Albis”, for in the ancient years the newly baptised wore white robes from the day of their baptism, Great and Holy Saturday, until the Sunday of Antipascha.

This day is also known to us as Sunday of Thomas, because eight days after Christ’s first appearance to His disciples, at which time Thomas was not present and refused to believe, Christ appeared to all of the disciples, and bade Thomas “reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and not be faithless, but believing” (John 20:27).

Christ had nothing to fear from scientific research then, and He has nothing to fear today. Rather, He helps all those who with good intentions and feelings seek to know and learn about Him, and to meet Him. Christ does not attempt to force us to believe in Him. He forces no one, but invites all to follow Him, and as many as follow Him freely, He freely accepts. Jesus respects the freedom of will with which man was created. Many will reject Him, initiating horrible persecutions of all who unconditionally accept Him. Atheists and unbelievers will continue to plan lessons and special courses to contradict His teachings. Scientists will run the words of Jesus through their man-made computers in vain attempts to prove that those words are not authentic. Meetings and conventions will continue to be organised to oppose Christ. The very passions of sinful men will oppose Him. Yet, over and above the voices of the persecutors, the atheists, and the unbelievers, we can still hear the voice of Thomas crying, “My Lord and my God”.

Thomas’ first attitude of “unless I see I will not believe” is illogical. We don’t apply it to everything else; why apply it to religion? How could schools function on this attitude? How could teachers prove to students that Socrates, Plato, Napoleon, Lincoln and even Eisenhower actually lived? How could teachers prove that the conquests of Alexander the Great and the battle of the Waterloo took place? And how could a court convict a single criminal, if the entire jury had to see the crime to take place in order to give a verdict of “guilty”? How illogical is all this!

We live and are moved by the confidence that others have in us, and that we have in them. Ten of the best friends of Thomas, whom he had known for at least three years, assured him they had seen the Lord. Their stories all agreed. They were the sane men. Yet Thomas refused to believe without seeing. Many people today repeat the words of Thomas, especially those who would destroy the major doctrines of the Christian Faith.

If people are going to take this attitude of “I won’t believe it unless I see it,” one would think that they would at least bother to investigate carefully. Some time back a young man said to me with great arrogance, “Father, I believe that Socrates was greater than Christ”. I told him, “If you can back up what you say by concrete proof, I’ll believe that too”. He began to comment upon the “writings” of Socrates, noting that Christ wrote nothing. How confused he was when I explained to him that Socrates wrote nothing, and that we all know of him is what we can glean from the writings of such men as Plato, Xenophon and Plutarch. He refused to believe me until I showed it to him in black and white in an encyclopaedia. If careful research and preparation have no part in your studies, you will become like an empty barrel, having no content except for inarticulate sounds.

As a hotel in New York City a person was complaining about business. Someone said, “Don’t worry; the rich will die just as we will, and their wealth won’t do them any good in the future life”. The first man replied, “Do you really believe in such mythical nonsense? Who ever returned from the dead? I believe heaven and hell are right here on this earth”. At this point I felt I had to enter the conversation. “Why don’t you investigate, and see whether anyone ever returned from the realm of the dead”, I suggested. “Do you know what the Bible teaches about heaven and hell, and about One who returned from the dead? Have you ever seriously investigated the Christian religion?” The answer, of course, was no He knew nothing whatever about religion, yet still expressed his opinion that heaven and hell do not exist as distinct places. How can a person possibly claim the right to an opinion about a subject concerning which he admittedly knows nothing?

Yet such is the concern of Christ for one soul, beloved, that He condescends to the doubting Thomas, permitting him to see and touch Him, thus verifying the truth of the resurrection. “Be not faithless”, He says, “but believing”.

St John Chrysostom writes, “In beholding the infidelity of the disciples, we see and understand the great love of our Lord, who lowered Himself to the test of a faithless disciple”. When Thomas saw the Lord, he instantly believed, crying out, “My Lord and my God!” The reply of Jesus is intended for each of us: “Blessed are they who have not seen, and yet have believed” (John 20:29). “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou salt be saved” (Acts 16:31).

PALESTINIAN CHRISTIANS ‘MISTREATED’ BY ISRAEL AT EASTER CELEBRATIONS

(Source: AlArabiya)

Israel is causing “countless difficulties” for Palestinian Christians and Muslims to reach their holy sites, the Palestine Liberation Organization said late Saturday as Orthodox Christians held the “Holy Fire” ceremony in Jerusalem.

Thousands of Israeli police officers were deployed on the eve of the Orthodox Easter as throngs of Christians filled Jerusalem’s ancient Church of the Holy Sepulchre and surrounding streets for the ceremony.

“It is not only that Israel has isolated our occupied capital from the rest of our country – forcing our people to apply for special military permits to access their families and holy places for religious occasions – but even Palestinians from Jerusalem were beaten when trying to reach the Church of the Holy Sepulchre,” Hanna Amireh, a member of the PLO Executive Committee and Head of the Presidential Committee on Church Affairs, told AFP news agency.

Israeli police said tens of thousands of faithful gathered in the streets around the site where Christians believe Jesus was crucified, buried and resurrected, causing huge delays at dozens of checkpoints.

“The Israeli forces turned a religious occasion into a battle camp scenario,” said Amireh.

“This is part of Israel’s plan to turn Jerusalem into an exclusive Jewish city.

“Palestinian Christians and Muslims face countless difficulties in order to reach their holy sites and conduct their celebrations, while Jews from anywhere are allowed to freely pray at their holy places.

“It is time for the international community to take real action,” he added.

“What was witnessed in Jerusalem was an attempt to cancel a tradition of 700 years.

“The Israeli government is doing everything possible in order to achieve its goal of changing Jerusalem’s landscape, by building more settlements, demolishing more Palestinian homes, revoking more IDs and by attempting to prevent the normal celebration of Christian and Muslim religious events…”

The PLO said Israeli police stopped a visit organized by Palestinian Christian groups with foreign diplomats and Adnan Ghaleb al-Husayni, the governor for Quds (Jerusalem) Governorate, as they tried to enter the Old City of Jerusalem.

“Even praying has become an act of resistance for Palestinians,” said Amireh.

THE MASS EXODUS OF CHRISTIANS FROM THE MUSLIM WORLD

Raymond Ibrahim, 8 May 2013

(Source: FoxNews)

Pope Tawadros II, the 118th pope of the Coptic Church of Egypt, leads the Easter Mass at St. Mark’s Cathedral in Cairo, Egypt

A mass exodus of Christians is currently underway.  Millions of Christians are being displaced from one end of the Islamic world to the other.

We are reliving the true history of how the Islamic world, much of which prior to the Islamic conquests was almost entirely Christian, came into being.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom recently said: “The flight of Christians out of the region is unprecedented and it’s increasing year by year.”  In our lifetime alone “Christians might disappear altogether from Iraq, Afghanistan, and Egypt.”

Ongoing reports from the Islamic world certainly support this conclusion:  Iraq was the earliest indicator of the fate awaiting Christians once Islamic forces are liberated from the grip of dictators.

In 2003, Iraq’s Christian population was at least one million. Today fewer than 400,000 remain the result of an anti-Christian campaign that began with the U.S. occupation of Iraq, when countless Christian churches were bombed and countless Christians killed, including by crucifixion and beheading.

The 2010 Baghdad church attack, which saw nearly 60 Christian worshippers slaughtered, is the tip of a decade-long iceberg.

Now, as the U.S. supports the jihad on Syria’s secular president Assad, the same pattern has come to Syria: entire regions and towns where Christians lived for centuries before Islam came into being have now been emptied, as the opposition targets Christians for kidnapping, plundering, and beheadings, all in compliance with mosque calls telling the populace that it’s a “sacred duty” to drive Christians away.

In October 2012 the last Christian in the city of Homs—which had a Christian population of some 80,000 before jihadists came—was murdered.  One teenage Syrian girl said: “We left because they were trying to kill us… because we were Christians….  Those who were our neighbors turned against us. At the end, when we ran away, we went through balconies. We did not even dare go out on the street in front of our house.”

In Egypt, some 100,000 Christian Copts have fled their homeland soon after the “Arab Spring.”  In September 2012, the Sinai’s small Christian community was attacked and evicted by Al Qaeda linked Muslims, Reuters reported. But even before that, the Coptic Orthodox Church lamented the “repeated incidents of displacement of Copts from their homes, whether by force or threat.

Displacements began in Ameriya [62 Christian families evicted], then they stretched to Dahshur [120 Christian families evicted], and today terror and threats have reached the hearts and souls of our Coptic children in Sinai.”

Iraq, Syria, and Egypt are part of the Arab world.  But even in “black” African and “white” European nations with Muslim majorities, Christians are fleeing.

In Mali, after a 2012 Islamic coup, as many as 200,000 Christians fled.  According to reports, “the church in Mali faces being eradicated,” especially in the north “where rebels want to establish an independent Islamist state and drive Christians out… there have been house to house searches for Christians who might be in hiding, churches and other Christian property have been looted or destroyed, and people tortured into revealing any Christian relatives.” At least one pastor was beheaded.

Even in European Bosnia, Christians are leaving en mass “amid mounting discrimination and Islamization.”  Only 440,000 Catholics remain in the Balkan nation, half the prewar figure.

Problems cited are typical:  “while dozens of mosques were built in the Bosnian capital Sarajevo, no building permissions [permits] were given for Christian churches.” “Time is running out as there is a worrisome rise in radicalism,” said one authority, who further added that the people of Bosnia-Herzegovina were “persecuted for centuries” after European powers “failed to support them in their struggle against the Ottoman Empire.”

And so history repeats itself.

One can go on and on:

• In Ethiopia, after a Christian was accused of desecrating a Koran, thousands of Christians were forced to flee their homes when “Muslim extremists set fire to roughly 50 churches and dozens of Christian homes.”
• In the Ivory Coast—where Christians have literally been crucified—Islamic rebels “massacred hundreds and displaced tens of thousands” of Christians.
• In Libya, Islamic rebels forced several Christian religious orders, serving the sick and needy in the country since 1921, to flee.

To anyone following the plight of Christians under Islamic persecution, none of this is surprising.  As I document in my new book, “Crucified Again: Exposing Islam’s New War on Christians,” all around the Islamic world—in nations that do not share the same race, language, culture, or economics, in nations that share only Islam—Christians are being persecuted into extinction. Such is the true face of extremist Islamic resurgence.

ARE TURKEY’S ORTHODOX CHRISTIANS WAITING FOR GODOT?

By Orhan Kemal Cengiz, 8 May 2013

(Source: Al-Monitor)

Metropolitan Apostolos Daniilidis, an Orthodox bishop at the monastery attached to the Halki school, is seen at “Tracing Istanbul,” an exhibition of works by Greek artists, at the Greek Orthodox seminary in Heybeliada island near Istanbul, Sept. 4, 2010. (photo by REUTERS/Osman Orsal)

The memorable play of Irish author and playwright Samuel Beckett, “Waiting for Godot,” has become a metaphor for situations in which people wait for someone unlikely to come, or do not even know what they are expecting. They just keep waiting and waiting.

The handful of Orthodox Greeks left in Turkey appear to be waiting for Godot, too, caught in a very typical Turkish situation. The Theological School of Halki, which is attached to the Ecumenical Patriarchate, has been closed down since 1971. Almost every day for the past 42 years, the Orthodox community has been anticipating the news of the school’s re-opening, but to no avail.

To understand why the anticipation has become so exhausting and frustrating, one has to look back through history and comprehend the significance of the seminary to the Orthodox community.

Named after the island of Halki in the Marmara Sea, where it was founded in 1844, the school used to train clergy to meet the needs of not only Turkey’s Orthodox community but also hundreds of churches across the world affiliated with the Ecumenical Patriarchate. By the time it was shut down in 1971 under a ruling by Turkey’s constitutional court, 930 clergymen had graduated from the seminary. Twelve of them eventually became patriarchs, meaning that almost all patriarchs have been graduates of that school. Hence, the seminary was not just a theological school, but also an important milestone on the way to the spiritual helm of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. The school’s closure cut a lifeline of the Patriarchate and forced it to struggle for its very survival.

The collapse of the Ottoman Empire and its succession by the Republic of Turkey marked the beginning of the long road that eventually led the Ecumenical Patriarchate into its current predicament. Throughout the republic’s history, the Patriarchate has seen an array of its properties confiscated and endless red tape, all intended as pressure to force it out of Turkey.

In the eyes of the republic’s founders, the Patriarchate was an “enemy within” that had collaborated with the foreign occupiers of Istanbul in the wake of World War I. The negotiations that led to the signing of the Lausanne Treaty, Turkey’s founding document, reveal that moving the Patriarchate out of the country was an essential Turkish objective. In the end, the Turks grudgingly accepted that the Patriarchate would stay, but object to any moves to regenerate the institution.

The closure of the Theological School of Halki was a watershed in efforts to suffocate the Patriarchate. It was based on a 1971 ruling by the constitutional court, which annulled provisions in the Law on Private Educational Institutions (Law No. 625) that had made it possible to run private institutions of higher education. The reason the 1965 law was deemed unconstitutional six years after it took effect was undoubtedly political. Tensions ran high in those years between Turkey and Greece over the Cyprus conflict. By issuing the ruling that would lead to the closure of the Halki school, the constitutional court had laid the ground for Turkey to make a retaliatory move.

Articles 40 and 42 of the Lausanne Treaty clearly oblige Turkey to grant equal treatment to non-Muslims and facilitate their religious affairs and worship services. Thus, the closure of the seminary was yet another violation of the Lausanne Treaty in Turkey’s treatment of its non-Muslim minorities.

Ever since then, the Orthodox community has eagerly awaited the re-opening of the school. Optimism has grown since the Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in 2002, pursuing perhaps the friendliest policies regarding minorities in the history of the republic. The AKP has never said it will not re-open the school. On various occasions — both public and behind closed doors — officials have asserted that the school could be re-opened. Those encouraging statements go back to 2003 when Huseyin Celik, then-education minister and AKP heavyweight, said that the seminary should be re-opened.

As Turkey’s ally, the United States has taken every opportunity to urge Ankara to re-open the school. In 1999, President Bill Clinton visited the school and told his counterpart Suleyman Demirel that it ought to be re-opened. In various resolutions since 2002, the US Congress has issued similar calls on Turkey. When President Barack Obama addressed the Turkish parliament in 2009, he also emphasized the importance of re-opening the school. Not only the United States, but the European Union and an array of European countries, too, have urged Turkey to re-open the school.

Regardless, the seminary remains closed, and remarks by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, reported in the media on March 29, reveal why. Erdogan wants two mosques to be opened in Athens in return for the re-opening of the seminary. This nonsensical demand shows that the prime minister is simply perpetuating the mindset of his nationalist predecessors, in which non-Muslims are regarded as “foreigners.” The seminary’s abbot, Elpidophoros Lambriniadis, has highlighted the incoherence of Erdogan’s demand: “Had we been Greek citizens, his demand could have made more sense. But we are Turkish citizens.”

Erdogan and his government may be critical of the Kemalist state mentality, but we know that when it comes to certain fundamental issues about non-Muslim minorities, they act with nationalist instincts.

Another point hard to understand here is why the Patriarchate is standing by so passively. Why is it not taking legal action in the face of this flagrant injustice, while it has repeatedly taken Turkey to the European Court of Human Rights over confiscated properties — and succeeded? This question is perhaps one of the most difficult to answer.

Instead of resorting to legal means, the Patriarchate is insisting on trying the same methods that have already proved to be utterly ineffective, believing that “foreign pressure” will induce Turkey to re-open the seminary. The fact that on April 30 the US issued yet another appeal to Turkey to re-open the school upon the initiative of Gus M. Bilirakis is an illustration of how the vicious cycle.

The Ecumenical Patriarchate will continue to wait for Godot as long as it relies on futile foreign pressure and holds back from seeking its rights through legal means.

IN EGYPT, RELIGIOUS VIOLENCE CASTS PALL OVER EASTER

By Shahira Amin, 8 May 2013

(Source: RIAN)

Orthodox Christians celebrated Easter on May 5, and crowds thronged the streets near the Coptic Orthodox Cathedral in Cairo’s Abbassiya district. Traditionally, Easter is a time of celebration and joy here, as Coptic Christians mark the resurrection of Christ, and end their forty day fast. But the mood this year was somber, marred by the memory of a brutal attack on the Cathedral by security forces a month ago.

Although the country has witnessed a spate of attacks on Christian places of worship since the January 2011 mass uprising, last month’s targeting of St. Mark’s Cathedral in Abbassiya served reminded the country’s Coptic Christian community (they comprise 12 percent of Egypt’s population) of their vulnerability as Islamists continue to consolidate power, post revolution.

The assault on the Cathedral in April came as Christian mourners were leaving the building after a funeral mass for five Christians killed in sectarian clashes that took place days earlier in the village of El-Khosous, Qalyubia governorate, which lies to the north of Cairo.

Two Christians were killed in the Abbassiya clashes when security forces outside the Cathedral fired tear gas and birdshot at the mourners who had been chanting slogans against President Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood supporters.

This latest violence came in the wake of simmering tensions between Muslims and Copts after sporadic incidents of sectarian violence that have forced 100,000 Copts to flee the country since the Muslim Brotherhood came to power.

In a televised address following the Abbassiya clashes, President Morsi described the assault on the Cathedral as “a scathing attack” against him personally. Christians however, dismissed this comment as “mere lip service,” complaining that the President had done little to protect them since coming to power.

In an interview with Reuters a week after the violence, head of the Coptic Orthodox Church Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria and Patriarch of the See of St. Mark said that Egypt’s Christians felt marginalized and rejected in their own country, and that many were fleeing in the wake of this unrest.

Egypt’s Copts took part in protests against the Mubarak regime during the 18-day uprising in January 2011.

Scenes of Coptic Christians forming a ring around Muslim protesters to protect them as they knelt to pray mesmerized viewers watching the mass protests on their TV screens, bringing the hope that Christians would enjoy equal rights as majority Muslims in the ‘new’ Egypt.

There had been sporadic outbreaks of sectarian violence under Mubarak, and some has suggested that it was the attack on a church in Alexandria on New Year’s Eve in 2011 that sparked protests demanding regime change less than two weeks later.

It was not long however, before Egypt’s Coptic Christians came to realize that there would be little change in their situation. Weeks after Mubarak was toppled, the torching of a church in Atfeeh south of Cairo brought home the hard-hitting truth that there was no love lost between Egypt’s Muslims and Christians.

The Atfeeh incident was the first in a wave of attacks on churches and homes of Christians across the country resulting in the deaths of scores of Christians and the forced evacuation of dozens of Coptic families from their homes in Dahshur, Amreya and Rafah during the months that followed.

In an interview broadcast on State TV in September 2012, Morsi failed to acknowledge that there was a sectarian problem that needed the authorities’ attention.

Asked what he would do to discourage Copts from leaving the country, he sarcastically replied “who is leaving? Some Muslims too are leaving the country in search of better livelihoods.”

Analysts note that Egypt’s sectarian challenge cannot be addressed while those in power continue to bury their heads in the sand.

Suleiman Shafiq, a writer and researcher specializing in Christians’ rights, recently told a conference on religious freedom in Egypt, post-revolution that “Egypt’s persisting culture of legal impunity for violence and discrimination against Coptic Christians was the root cause behind the sectarian divide.”

Ultra-conservative Salafi preachers, notoriously intolerant of non-Muslims, have been fanning the flames of anti-Christian sentiment via Islamist satellite channels. In April, influential Salafi cleric Yasser Borhami provoked an outcry from moderate Muslims in Egypt when he said that he hates Christians and is repulsed by them.

Blogger/activist Mahmoud Salem filed a civil lawsuit against Borhami, accusing him of inciting violence against the Coptic Christian community, and drawing long-overdue attention to the dangerous rhetoric of radical Sheikhs and to the genuine threat they pose to Egypt’s Coptic minority.

A few months earlier, Abu Shadi, another Salafi cleric, sparked controversy when he said that Christians must pay jizya (a poll tax levied by early Islamist rulers on non-Muslim citizens in their community) or convert to Islam.

A week ago, Muslim Brotherhood leader Abdel Rahman Bahrr issued a fatwa (religious edict) stating that “Muslims can only wish their Christian countrymen Happy Easter provided the greeting does not come at the expense of our Islamic religion.” His words sparked a heated debate over whether or not it was Islamic to wish Christians Happy Easter.

Such divisive statements and other instances of hate speech by Salafis, emboldened by their victory in the recent parliamentary elections, has raised particular concern among Egypt’s Christians over their rights and religious freedom in this predominantly Muslim country, after the revolution.

A provision in the country’s new constitution granting Christians the right to worship freely and build churches (unlike during the Mubarak era when a presidential decree was needed to build churches) has done little to allay those concerns and ease tensions between Muslims and Christians. Morsi, meanwhile, failed to put in an appearance at the Cathedral on Sunday to greet the Pope in person, instead sending a government envoy to represent him.

The envoy was given a cool reception by his Coptic Christian hosts, quite unlike the military envoy and the moderate Grand Sheikh of Al Azhar Ahmed El Tayeb who were both warmly welcomed with cheers and applause from the crowd.

Egypt’s Christians, the majority of whom voted for Ahmed Shafik (a former regime man) in the country’s first presidential election post revolution, largely because of their mistrust of the ruling Islamists, have in recent months participated in anti-government protests demanding that Morsi step down, and calling for a return of the military to power.

“We are tired of being treated as second class citizens and no longer want to feel threatened, submissive or insecure,” said Farid Mitry, a Christian Engineer who works for an oil company.

“The Christians who have stayed in the country will fight the tide of conservatism sweeping Egypt because this is our country too,” he added.

Patriarch of the Georgian Orthodox Church, Ilia II, has called on the Georgian authorities in his Easter epistle for adopting anti-abortion law, saying that it would contribute to resolving country’s “grave demographic situation.”

“Abortion is a heinous murder of an innocent creature committed with a decision and intent of parents. A doctor is a direct accomplice to this crime as well. This merciless murder of infants still continues unhindered and there is no one to protect them – neither the sate nor the society,” the Georgian Patriarch said.

“Those who do not want to give birth to a child for economic reasons… please do not commit this terrible sin; if you cannot afford raising children, the Church will take care of them.”

“Today, when there is so grave demographic situation, we think that the state must adopt relevant laws to ban abortion (of course exceptions should also be taken into consideration),” reads the Georgian Church leader’s Easter epistle.

Commenting on the issue, PM Ivanishvili said on May 5, that the Patriarch was right while pointing out at Georgia’s “demographic problems”; he, however, indicated that focus should be made on economic development in general in order to tackle this problem.

“Only this issue [anti-abortion law] cannot solve this problem. In order [to tackle] the demographic problem it first and foremost needs economic development… there are other issues as well, but I think that the major factor is revenue for the families,” Ivanishvili said.

GD lawmaker, Dimitri Khundadze, who chairs parliamentary committee for healthcare and social issues, said that he was against of an “outright ban” of abortion, but in favor of banning sex-selective abortions.

“This is an issue which requires cautions approach. I think that selective abortion should be banned, which takes 30% share of all abortions in Georgia,” MP Khundadze said on May 6.

“But I think that an outright ban of abortion is inadmissible, because it may lead to an increase in unregistered abortions and an increase in newborn mortality rate,” he said adding that his committee was planning to invite experts to work on the issue.

In October, 2011 the Parliamentary Assembly of Council of Europe (PACE) adopted a non-binding resolution condemning the practice of prenatal sex selection.

“In recent years, a departure from the natural sex ratio at birth has been observed in a number of Council of Europe member states and has reached worrying proportions in Albania, Armenia and Azerbaijan, where the sex ratio at birth is 112 boys for 100 girls and in Georgia where it is 111 boys for 100 girls,” the resolution reads.

The resolution calls on Council of Europe member states to “introduce legislation with a view to prohibiting sex selection in the context of assisted reproduction technologies and legal abortion, except when it is justified to avoid a serious hereditary disease.”

The resolution calls on Georgia in particular to study causes and reasons behind “skewed sex ratios” at birth and to ensure the collection of “reliable data” on sex ratios at birth; it also calls on the Georgian authorities to step up efforts to raise the status of women in society and ensure effective implementation of laws and policies on gender equality and non-discrimination.

Source: Civil.ge

Prot. No. 388

† BARTHOLOMEW
By God’s mercy
Archbishop of Constantinople-New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch
To the plenitude of the Church
Grace, peace and mercy from Christ risen in glory

Beloved concelebrants and devout, god-loving children of the Church,

Christ is Risen!

The proclamation of the Resurrection by the myrrh-bearing women to the disciples of Christ was considered delirious. Yet, the word, formerly conceived as delirious, was confirmed as Truth. The risen Lord appeared to His disciples on several occasions.

In our time, the proclamation of the Resurrection is again considered delirious by rationalists. Nonetheless, we faithful not only believe in but also experience the Resurrection as a profoundly truthful fact. Indeed, if necessary, we seal our testimony with self-sacrifice because in the risen Christ we transcend death and are liberated from its fear. Our hearts are filled with joy when we repeat: The Lord has risen. Our saints, who have died according to the world, continue to live among us, responding to our petitions. The world that follows death is truer than the world that precedes death. Christ has risen and dwells among us. He has promised to be with us to the end of the world. And so He is – as our friend, brother, healer, who bestows all good things.

Blessed is our God, who has risen from the dead, granting eternal life to all people. O death, where is your sting? Christ has risen, revealing and ridiculing the one who formerly boasted without end to be a mockery. (See the Canon of St. John Damascene, 4th tone, 9th ode) Everything is filled with light and our hearts are replete with limitless joy.

And more than joy, they are filled with strength. For whoever believes in the Resurrection is unafraid of death; and whoever is unafraid of death is spiritually unyielding and unbending inasmuch as what may be the most terrible threat for the majority and for the disbelievers is of little significance to the Christian; for it is the entrance to life itself. The faithful Christian lives the Resurrection even prior to his or her natural death.

The consequence of experiencing the Resurrection is the transformation of the world. It inspires the soul. And an inspired soul also attracts other souls to its ways, when these souls are moved by the genuine joyous experience of immortality. Christ’s Resurrection and our own resurrection are not simply an abstract truth. They are a dogma of faith. They are a tangible reality. They are a force that overcomes the world despite the extremely harsh persecutions waged against it. “This is the victory, which has conquered the world, namely our faith” (1 John 5.4) in His Resurrection. Through the Resurrection, humanity is called to divinity through grace. Through the victory of the light of Resurrection over the impure passions, divine eros and a strange love, which surpasses human boundaries, are established in our souls.

Therefore, Christ is Risen! Our hearts are filled with the light and joy of the Resurrection. We approach the Risen Lord with authenticity and simplicity. For, as the royal Prophet David says, our God, who supervises our hearts from above, “will not despise a broken and contrite heart.” (Psalm 50.19)

The Resurrection is our strength, hope, joy, and delight. Through the Resurrection, we transcend pain and sorrow for all the evils of this natural, worldly life. The Resurrection is God’s response to the helplessness of wounded humanity before the suffering of worldly humanity.

We do not surrender to the difficulties and challenges of the modern world. The gathering of the Lord’s fearful disciples in the upper room in Jerusalem encourages us. We are not afraid because we love everyone, even as He loved us and gave His life for our sake. Mysteriously and invisibly, the Lord accompanies us. We only need to have – and we do have – love. For though love, we understand the power of the Mystery; we know the Mystery itself.

If others hesitate, “garnering their actions in thick sheaves” (Vespers of the Prodigal Son), yet we boast. And if we do not “winnow the chaff of our [sinful and passionate] actions with the wind of His loving-kindness or on the threshing floor of repentance,” the Risen Lord is Love and disperses all forms of darkness and fear that surrounds us, entering our hearts and our world, even when the doors are closed. He “remains with us” permanently through the cross of love. His calling is peace, and He grants us His peace. The powerful of this world pledge and promise peace, but can never produce or realize it. Whereas the power of divine Love, Peace and Wisdom remains beyond all human panic. It is not found on the margins of reality or the surface of human convictions. Instead, it is the heart of humanity, the center of life, the lord of life and death. It is Truth.

The incontestable transcendence of Power invisibly controls the reigns and directs all things, especially at a time when “the minds of so many lie in darkness.”

At this time of widespread dissolution throughout the world, the hope of all throughout the universe, the Wisdom of God, is the presence of the heavenly solution and harmony. At a time of collapse and anticipated death, we have the reality of Resurrection and the strength of our conviction in Christ.

The peace that derives from Him who trampled down death by death through his self-emptying, together with the joy of love, flow and heal our contemporary humanity that sighs and suffers as well as all of creation that groans and laments with us, who “await adoption and redemption” as well as “the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” (Romans 8.20-23)

Truly the Lord is Risen, beloved fathers, brothers and sisters!

Holy Pascha 2013
† Bartholomew of Constantinople
Your fervent supplicant before God

PATRIARCHAL PASCAL MESSAGE

Protocol No: 68/2013

THEODOROS II,

BY THE GRACE OF GOD POPE AND PATRIARCH OF ALEXANDRIA

AND ALL AFRICA TO THE INTEGRITY 

OF OUR APOSTOLIC AND PATRIARCHAL THRONE

GRACE AND MERCY AND PEACE FROM

OUR RISEN LORD AND GOD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST

            My dear brothers and sisters,

 Christ is risen!

The Son of God became Incarnate so that man could be restored to his former completeness. The Son of God was crucified so that man could form a redeeming relationship of communion with God. The Son of God abolished death so that man could acquire the prospect of salvation; a prospect founded on the incorruptible, unconditional and limitless love of God for mankind.

Salvation, through the Cross and Resurrection of Christ, means that all obstacles which darken the heart of mankind are abolished. Salvation means that the disease which conceals God from man is cured. Salvation means daily recognition of mankind through his existential alignment with the life of Christ Himself.

The predominant open existence for God is children. Children have a very distinctive capacity to admire, to be delighted, and to experience joy and unhappiness. Children have a very distinctive ability to trust, to open themselves to love, to believe with their entire being. They have the capacity to see, to hear, to feel all that adults have ceased to see, to hear, to feel. That is why Christ told us: “Become like children” (Matthew 18: 3).

However, today, children’s right to experience the existence of God is threatened. Their right to escape from harsh daily reality is threatened. Their right to transcend the cynical mistrust of adults is threatened. Their right to what the world of adults often forgets, living in Christ, is threatened.

Children fall victim to civil strife and religious fanaticism. Children are initiated from their early age for the service of self interest. Children become object of labor exploitation. Children come to know family violence. Children are undernourished and have no health care. Children live with the prospect of an environmental holocaust due to the abuse of God’s creation.

My dear brothers and sisters,

Christ said: “Let the children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the Kingdom of God” (Mark 10:13-14). This command needs to be transformed into a large embrace of the children who, without being to blame, are scarred by the choices of adults. Through this command, a readjustment of childhood identity is needed, as it has been impaired by the instability of our times. It is absolutely necessary that this command means the return to the original beauty of childhood for the implementation of the Lord’s words: “whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God like a child, shall not enter it” (Mark 10:15-16).

It is this command of the Gospel that the Orthodox Church of Africa puts into practice, working hard to build a world of respect and solidarity for the children. Through its witness and its activities, the Orthodox Church of Africa takes on, transforms and renews traumatized children’s souls. It articulates its own proposal for life, its own hierarchy of life, at the head of which is the child as the dynamic bearer of promising prospects for a world which is the truth in love.

†  THEODOROS II

Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa

In the Great City of Alexandria

Holy Pascha 2013

PATRIACH JOHN X’S PASCHAL MESSAGE 2013

Paschal Letter 2013

With the Mercy of God

John X

Patriarch of Antioch and all the East

To all our beloved in the Lord
the children of the Antiochian See, clergy and laypersons,

On the great day of Resurrection, on which Christ rose and raised us with Him, it pleases me to remember with you the meanings of Resurrection and to explain some of its aspects.

The resurrection of the Lord is the resurrection of each one of us. In the resurrection the power of the devil, our enemy, was brought to naught. Although death terrifies human beings, yet the Lord Jesus has defeated it with his life-giving resurrection. He descended in His death to the abode of death, that is, to Hades, and exploded it from within, abolishing its effects. It is true that death is still there, however it has become a mere passage to true life, a complete liberation from temporal things and a way to eternity. Resurrection gave us grace instead of sin, immortality instead of corruption, life instead of death. The rule of the evil one is gone and the kingdom of God has appeared. Darkness gives way to light.

The resurrection is a new creation, a new man, a new people. It is a proof of the power of life and the energy of renewal. It is the supremacy of light and the everlasting rule of truth “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come” (2 Cor 5: 17). The resurrection is the victory of God over the powers of sin and death which distort creation and humankind and seek to destroy them. It is the victory which inspired the Apostle Paul to proclaim: “Oh Death, where is your victory? Oh Death, where is your sting” (1 Cor 15: 55).

In His resurrection Christ has opened to man the way of true life, the life of happiness, light, love and renewal. In His resurrection Christ renewed our old nature, and made it in the beauty of His image, enabling us to become a people of resurrection in word and deed. If we believe and truly desire it then the resurrection of Christ becomes our own personal Pascha. “Christ is buried in us as in a tomb. He unites Himself with us and raises us again in Himself.” (Saint Simeon the New Theologian) When we become pure vessels for the Holy Spirit, our celebration of Pascha becomes a continuous celebration and “happens in us mysteriously at all times”.

True resurrection is never separated from the Cross. The Cross is the way that leads to it. The resurrection of the Lord cannot be lived without remembering His cross and carrying it. In order for us to participate personally in the resurrection of the Lord we must not forget the Cross which preceded it. Without the cross we cannot have a share in the glory of the risen Christ. If we are not aware of the Cross in our lives, from what will we be risen then? If we remain where we are now, where then are the signs of our resurrection? If the darkness of sin continues to prevail in us, how can the light of resurrection dwell in us? We cannot celebrate the resurrection of Christ if the light of the Savior does not fully dispel from our souls the darkness of our sins. Easter visits us now while our concerns increase, our fears grow greater, destruction expands, evil intensifies and killing is everywhere and at all times. How can we celebrate the resurrection while our country is doomed, the number of hungry and displaced people is increasing? How can we live the resurrection when the cross is always present?

This is the mystery of Christ, “Through the cross joy came to the whole world”. There, where the Cross is, true resurrection is to found too. Otherwise Pascha would only be mere poetry and chanting. The world does not like the cross. It seeks to abolish it, while it is surrounded by crosses on all sides. True believers would never have these crosses out of sight; they face them with the spirit of resurrection and take from them the new life and put on them the clothes of the light of life. The energy of the resurrection which is in Christ transforms the cross into a tool of joy, a way of life, a witness of love and a sign of communion and solidarity.
How can we live the resurrection? How can we embody it in our lives? How can we translate it from books to the reality of our life?

We celebrate the resurrection and live it when we do not allow evil to enter us and dwell within us under any circumstances whatsoever. We live the resurrection when we do not answer evil with evil. We live it when we continuously purify ourselves from all traces of hatred and rancour. We live it when we stick with constructive truth which does not separate but gathers, which does not cause grief but happiness, and which does not destroy but builds. Let us behold then the truth to which we were called, (if we know it), the truth which liberates us from all sorts of chains of evil. Let us behold the truth which is in the others and respect it, so we might truly communicate with our fellow citizens and fulfill each other, in order to build both our homeland and humanity.

Beloved,

What we are saying about Cross and resurrection takes on today a deeper realistic meaning as some of our brethren have suffered the troubles connected to the painful events we are witnessing. Our brothers, that is a number of Metropolitans, Priests and lay persons are still being held by their kidnappers. A number of priests and lay persons have been killed here and there, and thousands of believers have been displaced from their homes. We are carrying the cross of what all of them have suffered and are still suffering. We share the grief and the tragedy of the Archdiocese of Aleppo, as well as every parish. However, we should use this grief to make a way to a greater steadfastness and an occasion to proclaim our faith in the Resurrection. We have made until today every effort with international and local authorities, asking them to help in the release of the kidnapped. This is the least of what we could do. We need to work for peace to prevail in our regions and we call for an immediate cessation of violence in actions between fellow citizens. We will not surrender to these circumstances as the Lord did not succumb on the way to Golgotha. We shall continue in our way and we shall always claim the rights of man to a decent and peaceful life, mindful that the resurrection is certainly going to happen. For these reason I call upon you for more unity, more prayer, more steadfastness in your faith, more love for your homeland and more openness toward your fellow citizens. Only then can we be more powerful and more efficient in asking for the removal of oppression, a safe return of the kidnapped and the removal of every tear from the faces of those who are sad.

We become children of the Resurrection when we become bridges of communication and encounter between those who are separated, and between those who are in conflict. Let us be bridges exactly like the Lord who did not ask anything for Himself, but gave the world everything, to such an extent that He offered Himself for the salvation of the world. Let us serve as ways of rapprochement for all. Through love, sacrifice and in deeds and truth we shall build our countries.

We become children of Resurrection when we live our faith in genuineness, depth and meaningfulness. External expressions are bound to change with cultures and ways of living, but the genuine Christian content preserves the trust which has been handed down to the saints under many different circumstances, l cases and cultures. Let us imitate the courage of Christ who did not fear anything, even death. Instead He faced the cross with love and brought us to resurrection. Let us face the cross of this crucified East with overwhelming love for all those who are crucified on it, until we reach with them the resurrection we all expect. Let us live these painful days in simplicity, enjoying the bare necessities of life and experiencing the true wealth which is life with God. Let solidarity, cooperation and communion be for us a priority. Needy persons are numerous and the numbers of those affected by troubles are increasing. Let us all be one family and one household. Let us not forget the words of the Gospel, “and whoever… gives one of these little ones a cup of cold water to drink… he shall not lose his reward” (Matt 10:42).

At this stage I address our children in the diaspora wishing them blessed days and praying for their welfare and that they may receive the blessings of God, reminding them of their role and the necessity of expressing their love toward their peoples and countries and in their communion with them. You can extend to us a helpful hand in any way that would be suitable for you.

Last but not least, we do not forget that God is the Lord of history, so we may always hold to patience and hope which do not fade away. Let us remember the words of the prophets and how much they called, in times of distress, for repentance and faith, until God intervenes and removes the distress. In these troubled days we are witnessing, we are in sore need of faithful witnesses. Let us move out of our distress with more faith, more purity and greater loyalty. When we understand that we only need God and no one else, the effects of resurrection will appear in us and in all our humanity. When this happens all around us shall be transfigured.

Christ is risen!
Indeed, He is risen!

MOSCOW PATRIARCHATE PASCAL MESSAGE 2013

The Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, Kirill, addressed the faithful with his traditional Pascal sermon:

Christ is Risen, dear brothers and sisters!

I would like to share the joy of the holy day of Easter with all of you. The Lord has indeed saved us all through his resurrection. And in order to comprehend the significance of this for us as mankind we could consider this example. Just imagine that someone innocent took the blame, responsibility and penalty for all the crimes ever committed by all the wrongdoers and rendered them all free by taking their penalty for them. Our Lord Jesus Christ did just the same, yet with one condition – he didn’t open the doors of the prison cells the sinners are contained in, but undid their locks. And now it is our free choice – to step out and be free or remain locked up. In one of the hymns, we praise our risen Savior saying that He smashed open the eternal fetters and chains and freed us of them. But in order for us to step out of that door and become free we need to make our way towards Him, because there is only one way that leads to the door beyond which the freedom lies.

Our circumstances in life, superstitions, all kinds of stereotypes and false values lead us off this path. We often get tempted with other ways to freedom. At times people spend their entire lives pursuing these ways only to find out in the end that they’re still locked up and instead of obtaining freedom have hit the wall. Some may still have the time and energy to resume their search for a way out, while others may give up the hope to escape their imprisonment.

If we turn to Christ, we open the door that He unlocked for us. We become free and empowered by His ways and commandments. We become free to live a full life. This doesn’t require any exhausting effort. It only takes to believe that Our Lord Jesus Christ has risen and saved us. It only takes to believe that the door is open. It only takes to believe that living by His will is the true freedom while any other way is the opposite.

And when we begin to realize this, a whole new life opens to us. We find it easier to be good to people, refrain from foul words or judgments and make our way through life without hurting other people or crippling them.

We discover that we are able to love, be faithful, and carry the truth into the world. That’s what life in Christ means, that’s what the true freedom is. Maintaining freedom isn’t easy. Each one of us knows how difficult it is for a state to protect its freedom and independence. It sometimes takes a lot of hard work. Protecting one’s freedom from numerous temptations and illusions that the dark powers are sending our way to drive us off the way to salvation isn’t easy just the same way.

The holy day of Easter is a celebration of victory and freedom. Let’s embrace this holy day with these feelings and make the decision, as much as we can, to start making our way towards our risen Saviour through the door that He gracefully opened for us by His holy deeds of mercy and truth – and we can do so by helping those who need our help, promoting peace, justice and love among all of us.

Christ is risen indeed! Amen!

SERBIAN PATRIARCHAL PASCHAL ENCYCLICAL 2013

2. May 2013

THE SERBIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH
TO HER SPIRITUAL CHILDREN
AT PASCHA, 2013

I R I N E J

BY THE GRACE OF GOD

ORTHODOX ARCHBISHOP OF PEC, METROPOLITAN OF BELGRADE-KARLOVCI AND SERBIAN PATRIARCH, WITH ALL THE HIERARCHS OF THE SERBIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH – TO ALL CLERGY, MONASTICS, ADN ALL THE SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF OUR HOLY CHURCH: GRACE, MERCY AND PEACE FROM GOD THE FATHER, AND OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST, AND THE HOLY SPIRIT, WITH THE JOYOUS PASCHAL GREETING:

CHRIST IS RISEN! INDEED HE IS RISEN!

“For you will not leave my soul in Sheol,
nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.”
 (Psalm 16:10)

True, indeed, is this word of God’s prophet by which he announces the radiant feast of Christ Resurrection, this feast of great Christian joy and spiritual celebration. If there is a day among all days for celebration, that is today — the day we celebrate the Resurrection of Christ our God. Thanks to this holy day, all the days of mankind — from the beginning to the end of the world — receive their true meaning, and all that has happened in those days and is happening receives its proper meaning. If there is an event to which Christianity can be narrowed down, then that event truly is the Resurrection of Christ. If there is a feast to which all feasts can be narrowed down, then again, that is the Resurrection of Christ. That is why the Church calls the feast day of Christ’s Resurrection the Feast of Feasts; and in the Church we sing: This is the day the Lord has made! Let us rejoice and be glad in it! (Psalm 118:24).

STYLIANOS

By the grace of God Archbishop of Australia to all the Reverend Clergy and devout faithful of our holy Archdiocese

Brother concelebrants and “illumined children of the Church”,

Once again, the grace of God, who is All-Good, has enabled us this year also to reach Holy and Great Lent and prayerfully experience the characteristic stations of prayer and fasting. This is just as our reverent Forefathers – who had “placed all things in good order” provided and established for us centuries ago.

And it is indeed true that, throughout the entire ecclesiastical year, there is no other period that is as rich in purifying and alternating services, as this blessed period.

What can one mention first, and what last, from this vast spiritual journey and feast? There are the: Sundays of the Triodion, the Saturdays dedicated to the Souls, the Salutations to theTheotokos, the divine Annunciation of the Virgin Mary, and the five Sundays of Lent, Palm Sunday and the astounding days of Holy Week with the awesome Passion and resplendent Resurrection of the Lord.

In this way, we arrive soundly at the morning of the Resurrection, during which the loving Mother Church speaks to all the faithful without exception with the words:

“Come receive the light from the unfading light, and glorify Christ who is raised from the dead.”

And of course, the illumination that each person will receive shall no doubt depend upon the willingness of each to respond to that invitation. However, precisely because the invitation is directed to all people, it must be stated unreservedly that it is not the subjective factor that introduces us to the redemptive process of the abolition of death. Rather, it is the all-accomplishing power of the God-Man Christ who by death trampled upon death.

The death and Resurrection of Christ are proclaimed by the Apostle Paul as the guarantee also of our own Resurrection, since our baptism in the name of Christ secures not merely an ethical improvement of our former life, but a radical renewal “through the glory of the Father”:

“Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.” (Rom. 6:4)

Yet, if the Resurrection of Christ is for the Apostle Paul directly connected with the “glory of the Father”, for John the Evangelist our Resurrection is the fruit of God’s Love for the believer, a Love so powerful that it can even compel the sacrifice of the only-begotten Son:

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” (John 3: 16)

To the risen Lord Jesus, who for all people died and rose, be all glory, honour and worship to the ages Amen!

EASTER 2013

 With fervent prayers in the Risen Christ

Archbishop STYLIANOS

Paschal Epistle of His Eminence, Hilarion,
Metropolitan of Eastern America and New York,
First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia

Your Eminences, fellow hierarchs, God-loving monks and nuns, priests and deacons, beloved in the Lord brothers and sisters!

CHRIST IS RISEN!

A wondrous energy lies hidden in these words and penetrates the whole soul: Christ is Risen! How joyous are these words for the soul of a Christian! Can more festive words than these be found in the entire human language? These joyous words were first uttered by the Angel to the Myrrh-bearers who had come to the life-bearing Tomb. With our mind’s eye we see Christ Resurrected and hear His sweetest words to the Myrrh-bearers: Rejoice! (Matt. 23:9). The Resurrected Lover of Mankind directs the same joyful greeting to us: Rejoice!

With Paschal jubilation I greet all of you with this radiant world-saving triumph of Christ’s Resurrection! Rejoice, and again I say, rejoice! May each one of you, partaking of the joy today of Christ’s Church, overcome the sorrows and crosses you bear in life; overcome the despondency due to personal sinfulness, and the temptations and scandals which surround us. With a breath of festive compunction let us and those around us partake of the many faceted mercies and blessings of this all-good and radiant celebration. For the Feast of Pascha is not just another ordinary festival or proclamation of resurrection; it is not a mere promise of life eternal for people; it is the triumph and victory over all grief and anguish, over all sorrow and sadness of this earthly life.

May this Paschal joy, this triumph of life reign throughout our Russian Church Abroad, in each parish, in each monastery, in each family, so that “the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:3), spoken of by the Apostle, may be visible within our church life. And may whatever transpires among us be peaceful, amicable, cordial and according to the precepts of the Church!

As St. John of Kronstadt expresses in his writings: “May our joy of the Resurrection be rational, deep, holy and dynamic. May it move us to greater love of the Resurrected One, to a life of holiness and mutual love.” Amen.

With Paschal joy in the Resurrected Christ and a request for your prayers,

+Hilarion,
Metropolitan of Eastern America and New York,
First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia.

Pascha 2013

BY THE GRACE OF GOD BISHOP OF THE METROPOLITANATE OF AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND OF THE SERBIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH

Beloved monastics, clergy, all sons and daughters, faithful spiritual children of our Holy Church in Australia and New Zealand, from a paternal heart overflowing with Paschal joy, We greet all of you on this great and radiant Feast of Feasts exclaiming in the inspired words of Saint John Damascus:

CHRIST IS RISEN!

And truly, let us look round about and see, beloved, and let us rejoice boundlessly, for this most holy dawn has awaken. This dawn gives birth with it to the sun of a New Day and true freedom in Him who conquered death! Christ is risen and having assembled us, His children from the West and the North, from the South and the East, brought us joy so that we may more perfectly commune with Him in the unfading day of His Kingdom! This is the First Day of a New Creation beneath our ancient sky, one in which truth has again shone forth to gather that which was scattered and return it in the glory of His Resurrection from the dead!

Behold, life once again reigns and death no longer exists! Christ is risen and has taken our sorrow from us! He confirmed the indissoluble community of His truth and His love in Him who is Truth and Love! Death, where is your victory? Death, where is your sting? (I Cor. 15:55). According to the words of the Holy Apostle, the sting of death is sin (I Cor. 15:56), and sin is found outside His community! Therefore we, as the Holy Mary Magdalene, the first witness of the living Christ, are invited to overcome ourselves and our selfishness and to hasten! We are invited to hasten and to share that blessed and all joyous news with others who suffer, who sorrow, and who are deprived of their God-given freedom!

With the heralding of the Edict of Milan in 313AD, the enlightened Roman Emperor, Saint Constantine the Great, by birth from Nish (Naissus) granted freedom to confess the Christian faith, and also freedom to all other religions. Sadly, even though 1,700 years have passed since then, we continue to be witnesses to the religious persecution of Christians and Christian minorities in many lands. So it is with our Serbian lands, and especially in Kosovo and Metohija. It is our duty, we who live in free countries, to confess the Resurrected Christ, to witness truth before the entire world. However, we must first ask ourselves are we, beloved, in unity with those who suffer? Are we truly in unity with our Mother Church and with the entire Orthodox Church?

For this reason, the great contemporary confessor of our Serbian generation, Saint Barnabas of Hvostna, clearly states – There is no sorrow to which sin is not the cause. Therefore, freeing yourself from sin means to be wedded unto joy! And being wedded unto joy is possible only in the unity of Him who defeated the last enemy of humankind – death, which had held us in the yoke of slavery. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free, states the Apostle to the Gentiles (Gal. 5:1). Truly, every kind of persuasion against submitting to truth does not come from Him who calls us into His communion. Those who are of a different plan and rebel will have to pay the penalty, whoever they may be (cf. Gal. 5: 8, 10).

In the peace of Christ and in His unity our Holy Church throughout the world invites all peoples to gather. The Church is a sign that the Gospel speaks the truth! The Church is the Body of Christ, which inspired of the Holy Spirit makes Christ the community of love, compassion, comfort – the pure face of the Resurrected Christ. According to the teaching of Saint Maximus the Confessor, in all that we do God seeks an objective . . . let us have as an objective not the pleasing of people, rather pleasing God, so that beholding Him always, doing all for Him, that we do not undertake an effort and loose the reward (Book III of 100 Texts, On Love, No. 48).

Therefore, with the plenitude of Christ’s Holy Church, from the West and the North and the South and the East, our firm community and sure source of our freedom, truth and love, let us from all our heart exclaim:

CHRIST IS RISEN!
TRULY, HE IS RISEN!

Author: Fr George Dimopoulos

Source: Orthodox Sermons for all the Sundays of the Year – Volume I

Publisher: Christian Orthodox Editions

With hearts and faces of radiant joy, dear brethren, we celebrate again this year the Divine Resurrection – the miracle of miracles of our Faith, and the greatest event in all of history. The resurrection is simultaneously an historical event and an event and an extraordinary miracle. As an event, it occurred in history, certified by men in the same way as other historical events. As a miracle, it remains beyond time and space, as well as the comprehension of man. It is explicitly a miracle, and naturally inexplicable. For this reason, the Church does not seek to explain the Lord’s Resurrection; she merely proclaims it in faith. Such metaphysical acts of God cannot be scientifically researched by the believer. Rather, they must be venerated in faith.

The Apostles, as eyewitnesses of the Resurrection, presented themselves to the world, not as interpreters of how Christ rose from the dead, but as preachers of the fact that He did rise! With this faith they ended their lives, more often than not with martyrdom, “for we cannot keep from telling what we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20).

The Resurrection can be demonstrated to be an historical fact; but as an incomprehensible miracle, it cannot be explained. As an event of history, the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is the basis and foundation of all of the Church’s preaching over the centuries. The Church herself is a living testimony to the authenticity of Christ’s Resurrection. How else could the Church have come into existence? “It is what existed from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our own eyes, what we have beheld, what our own hands have touched, about the very message of life – and that life has been unveiled to us, and we have seen it and now testify to it, and we now announce it to you, yea, the eternal life that was with the Father and has been unveiled to us. I repeat, it is what we have seen and heard that we now announce to you, so that you too may share this fellowship with us, for this fellowship that we have is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ”, (1 John 1:1-3).

And St Paul penetrates even deeper into the mystery when he writes: “And if Christ didn’t rise, our preaching means nothing, and your faith means nothing”, (1 Corinthians 15:14). Thus we see that the Resurrection of Jesus Christ is inseparably linked with the Christian message and its proclamation. Our preaching and faith would be empty indeed, were it not for the life-giving Resurrection of our Saviour. The preaching of the Apostles was not founded upon clever myths, nor yet upon philosophical ideologies, but upon unquestionable historical fact. “We didn’t follow any clever myths when we told you about the power of our Lord Jesus Christ and His coming. No, with our own eyes saw His majesty”, (2 Peter 1:16).

The Resurrection of Christ, as something that occurred within the limits of time and space, is not only witnessed by the existence of the Church, but by the tremendous influence that the Church has exerted upon secular world for nearly two thousand years. If the Resurrection of Christ can be denied, then so can every other indisputable historical event. This same Jesus “showed Himself alive…by many infallible proofs;” (Acts 1:3) for forty days and nights speaking to His Apostles, appearing to them, allowing them to touch Him, eating with them, walking with them, and teaching them. They felt His presence so vibrantly that their hearts were aflame. Who ever saw or heard of dead man exerting such influence on the living; arming them with such power and wisdom; emboldening and enlightening such simple, uneducated men. St John Chrysostom writes, “A great proof of the Resurrection of Christ is the great power He manifested after His death. His Resurrection convinced the living to abandon their country, their home, their friends, their relatives, their wives, children and parents, and to take little thought of the danger to their own lives. All these are the achievements, not of dead man who remained in his grave, but a resurrected God”.

The Resurrection of Christ as a miracle, is not only an historical event, but something which we live every day. Not only in apostolic times, but even in our modern epoch, numberless are the people who preferred to die rather than deny their Lord’s Resurrection. The Gospel proclamation that the Lord is risen is a witness to the historic Faith of the Apostles, the martyrs, the righteous; it justifies all of their struggles, even the blood which they shed for the mysteries of the Faith. The Apostles knew that their Lord was risen. Out of this faith and conviction was born the Christos Anesti (Christ is Risen) which the Church so gloriously proclaims for 40 days; and the witness of nearly 2,000 years answers joyously, Alithos Anesti – Indeed, He is Risen!