Where we live: Signs of life

http://www.columbusdispatch.com/live/content/local_news/stories/2009/08/23/WEINLAND_PARK.ART_ART_08-23-09_B1_0AER78F.html

Weinland Park
Where we live: Signs of life
Weinland Park is known for its poverty, violence and drug problems, but some residents see a community with potential
Sunday, August 23, 2009 3:44 AM
By Mark Ferenchik
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH
I'zah Ward, 8, left, plays with 5-year-old Quessence Lyles, top, and Quilaya Lyles, 3, in Weinland Park. Data show that in 2000, six of every 10 children there lived in poverty, but millions have been spent to fix blighted housing." src="http://www.columbusdispatch.com/wwwexportcontent/sites/dispatch/images/aug/01_weinlandpark.jpg_08-23-09_B1_LLER45F.jpg" border=0>
Courtney Hergesheimer Dispatch PHOTOS
I'zah Ward, 8, left, plays with 5-year-old Quessence Lyles, top, and Quilaya Lyles, 3, in Weinland Park. Data show that in 2000, six of every 10 children there lived in poverty, but millions have been spent to fix blighted housing.Archbishop John-Cassian Lewis of Saint Sophia Orthodox Cathedral cooks with junior chefs Tatiana Eagle, 12, left, and Daejana Riggins, 8. As many as 80 people attend the free daily dinner the church offers. It also provides bagels and coffee every morning. " src="http://www.columbusdispatch.com/wwwexportcontent/sites/dispatch/images/aug/04_weinlandpark.jpg_08-23-09_B1_LLER45O.jpg" border=0>
Archbishop John-Cassian Lewis of Saint Sophia Orthodox Cathedral cooks with junior chefs Tatiana Eagle, 12, left, and Daejana Riggins, 8. As many as 80 people attend the free daily dinner the church offers. It also provides bagels and coffee every morning.
Click to enlarge map

Video
Where We Live
On the front of a worn brick apartment building on N. 4th Street in the Weinland Park neighborhood, someone scrawled the words "Short North Jungle."
It's a landmark drivers see as they pass through the neighborhood on their way from Downtown to Clintonville or the Ohio State University area.
And an unfortunate symbol, some say.
"That's the billboard for our community," said Robert Caldwell, a neighborhood resident and former president of the Weinland Park Community Civic Association.
But it's not the complete story.
A sign next to a church a few blocks away announces "Fresh bagels in the morning!" as well as Wi-Fi.
Last weekend, the civic association presented its annual community festival featuring family events and music.
Other positive signs include that nearly $30 million has been spent on renovating 450 units of what had been blighted, neglected public housing.
Joyce Hughes, who has lived in Los Angeles and other parts of Columbus, returned to Weinland Park. She has owned her N. 6th Street house since 2002.
"I like it because -- this is really funny -- my neighborhood is really safe," said Hughes, president of the civic association.
That might be a well-kept secret. Many people drive through Weinland Park but few stop.
There is crime. And poverty.
But this small neighborhood has far-reaching influence.
Weinland Park is technically in the city's University District, abutting the OSU area, including South Campus Gateway at the neighborhood's northwestern tip.
"It's important because activities in Weinland Park affect the neighborhoods around it," said Steve Sterrett, spokesman for Campus Partners, a nonprofit that seeks to improve the neighborhoods around OSU.
At the heart of the neighborhood, at Indianola and E. 9th avenues, sits St. Sophia Orthodox Cathedral, a small stone church that is an oasis in a desert of instability.
Archbishop John-Cassian Lewis located his church there a decade ago, despite the bullet holes that riddled the building.
Cassian, who goes by one name, was looking for the most crime-plagued neighborhood in the state.
In 2000, almost half of Weinland Park's residents lived in poverty, including six of every 10 children. Similar data are not available for this year.
But today, about 15 percent of the homes are vacant. One in four properties was in foreclosure from 2006 through 2008.
The doors to the church's basement outreach center are always open. The center provides bagels and coffee every morning and a meal at 5 p.m. As many as 80 people show up every evening, said Cassian, 57. The church also sponsors a youth football team.
Operating in the neighborhood hasn't been easy. Last Wednesday, Cassian ran out of paper products and money, he said. He prayed for help, and later that day, a benefactor brought $150.
Over the years, Cassian has grown tired of the violence and desperation around him. He hung 16 banners, to mark each time a neighborhood child died from violence. He removed four. It just got to be too many, he said.
Statistics show that things have improved, but drug dealing, break-ins and burglaries still plague the area, he said. "It's gotta stop."
And he, like others, doesn't appreciate the "Short North Jungle" moniker written by a few "cowards," as he calls them.
"I've never met a gang member who is a real man," he said.
Caldwell, the civic association's former president, said events such as the annual festival show people there's more to Weinland Park.
"The main thing is to correct the misperception of our neighborhood," he said.
Positive signs include the nonprofit Ohio Capital Corp. for Housing spending $29 million -- $65,000 per apartment -- to renovate 450 units of subsidized housing.
"We think the Section 8 housing has been significantly improved so it's no longer the housing of last resort," Sterrett said.
And the Wagenbrenner Co. is teaming with Campus Partners to redevelop the old Columbus Coated Fabrics site along N. Grant Avenue between 5th and 11th avenues. The project, estimated to cost as much as $80 million, might include as many as 305 houses and 300 apartments.
For now, commuters still speed through the neighborhood.
The city shelved plans this year to convert Summit and 4th streets from one-way to two-way. Officials said they wanted to hold off until a decision is made about running light-rail lines down parts of the streets.
Some residents say two-way streets would help create a more walkable neighborhood.
"We have streets where the kids come together and play. We have a diverse community," Hughes said.
"We're striving to have a real neighborhood."
mferenchik@dispatch.com

Wanna see Matthew 25 at work? Check out this vid of our archbishop Mar Cassian's church done by the Columbus Dispatch newspaper..God bless!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iezMGNbcip8

Without Sanctuary

http://withoutsanctuary.org/main.html

Searching through America's past for the last 25 years, collector James Allen uncovered an extraordinary visual legacy: photographs and postcards taken as souvenirs at lynchings throughout America. With essays by Hilton Als, Leon Litwack, Congressman John Lewis and James Allen, these photographs have been published as a book "Without Sanctuary" by Twin Palms Publishers . Features will be added to this site over time and it will evolve into an educational tool. Please be aware before entering the site that much of the material is very disturbing. We welcome your comments and input through the forum section.Experience the images as a flash movie with narrative comments by James Allen, or as a gallery of photos which will grow to over 100 photos in coming weeks. Participate in a forum about the images, and contact us if you know of other similar postcards and photographs.

Downsizing cities for monastic use?

I read this story of how they want to downsize cities for greenspace. How about allowing monastics to utilize this space for hermitages and monasteries. I cant think of better neighbors to have than monastics and hermits. We need the prayers thats for sure...especially here in Detroit.

http://www.freep.com/article/20090719/NEWS05/907190475/Is-shrinking-Detroit-the-way-to-end-city-s-woes?

The Hidden Benefits of Helping

The Hidden Benefits of Helping
VOLUNTEERS RESOURCE

The Hidden Benefits of Helping

(Adapted from Helping You is Helping Me by Virgil Gulker (World Vision, Inc., 1993), pp. 29-38. Used with permission.)


Volunteers get a kick out of helping others. There is just something about helping others that literally makes people feel good. In a study published in Psychology Today, the main sensations reported while volunteering were: “high”, “stronger, more energetic”, “calmer, less depressed,” and a “greater sense of self worth.” Volunteers are often excited about helping others and sending the message that people care.

Volunteers gain a sense of impact or significance not always available through career or other responsibilities. While family and work responsibilities provide a deep satisfaction, there is often something missing in our experience of life. Volunteering just a few hours a week to help others can make a real difference and provide a much needed sense of accomplishment. Volunteers can find fulfillment in an opportunity to share high level skills or more often, just being there for someone.

Volunteering Enhances Employability. Volunteering provides the side benefit of a valuable work experience. It is a real opportunity to provide invaluable help while broadening your network of potential references and employers.

Volunteering helps you to discover what color your parachute is. “Discovering the color of your parachute” is the process of exploring your vocational strengths and interests. For those entering the workforce or exploring a career change, volunteering is an excellent opportunity to field-test your interests and discover new abilities.

Volunteering helps turn negative life experiences into strengths. When you consider how you may be able to help others, don’t simply think about what you may be good at, think about what you have been through. People in tough circumstances often need to talk to others who will listen with real understanding and speak to their concerns with conviction and authority. Your failures and negative experiences may hold the key to your effectiveness in helping others.

Volunteering can provide a break from preoccupation with your own problems. Working with the less fortunate allows you to change your whole frame of reference and begin to focus on what you have rather than what you lack. Volunteering often allows you to move beyond your own problems and sense of dissatisfaction to focus on the needs of others.

Volunteering provides an advanced degree in the school of life. Volunteers often tell of invaluable lessons learned from those they are helping. Sharing in the sufferings, failures and triumphs of others who are in need can provide you with a more profound and diverse perspective on life.

http://www.urbanministry.org/wiki/hidden-benefits-helping

How Different is The Eastern Orthodox Church?

How Different is The Eastern Orthodox Church?Dr. Paulos Mar Gregorios
Several people have asked me this question in several different forms:
Who are these Orthodox-- Protestants or Roman Catholics?
What do they believe differently from the others?
What is the difference between Orthodox and other Christians?Let me try some simple answers to these three questions.
Who are the Indian Orthodox?First, both Roman Catholics and Protestants are Western Christian groups. The Orthodox Church is not Western Christianity. Eastern in origin, it was from the beginning open to influences from all cultures. In the first century, Christianity was primarily an Asian-African religion. Only by the 4th century did the Roman Empire become increasingly Christian. The Strength of Christianity in the early period was in Palestine, Syria, Greece, Asia Minor, Egypt, and Libya. We can make a list of the earliest Churches -- the Churches of the first century.
In the West, i.e. Italy: 2 Churches -- Rome and Puteoli (today Pozzuoli near Naples)Western Greece: 5 Churches -- Nicopolis, Corinth, Athens, Thessalonica and Philippi.Eastern Greece (Asia Minor, today Turkey): 15 Churches -- Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea, Troas, Miletus, Colossae, Perga, Pisidian Antioch, Iconium, Lystra, Derbe.Syria and the East: 6 Churches -- Antioch, Tarsus Edessa, Damascus, Tyre, SidonPalestine: 4 Churches-- Caesarea, Jerusalem, Samaria, PellaCyprus: 2 Churches-- Paphos and SalamisEgypt: AlexandriaPentapolis (North Africa): CyreneIndia: Malabar
As you can see, only 2 out of 37 Apostolic Churches are strictly Western. If Western Greece and Cyprus are also regarded as Europe, then nine Churches are in Europe, while 28 are in Asia and Africa.The Orthodox Church claims to be the true successor of all these Apostolic Churches, including the Italian Churches, which used Greek as their language of worship in that century. So the Orthodox Church is neither Roman Catholic nor Protestant. It regards itself as the true and faithful successor of the ancient Apostolic Church, and regards the Western or Roman Catholic Church as a group that broke off and went astray from the true tradition of the Christian Church. The Protestant Churches broke off much later (in the 16th century and after) from the Roman Catholic.The Orthodox are today in two families -- the Oriental Orthodox family, to which the Indian Orthodox Church belongs, and the Byzantine Orthodox family, which is four times as large.The Oriental Orthodox family has five Churches -- India, Armenia, Syria, Egypt and Ethiopia - three in Asia and two in Africa. Total membership is over 25 millions.
The Byzantine Orthodox family has over 100 million members -- in Greece, Russia, Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Western Europe, America, Australia and so on. Their members are mostly Slavic, Greek or Roman in origin. But they are also regarded as Eastern, though they are a bit less Asian-African.Thus the Indian Orthodox Church is a strictly Asian-African Church, an Apostolic Church in continuity with the ancient West Asian Apostolic Church. This Church was established in India in the very first century by the Apostle. St. Thomas, one of the twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ. It is one of the 40 or so ancient Apostolic Churches of the world.What do they believe differently?The very question is a Western one. In the West a Church is defined mainly by what it believes, ie. by its doctrines and teachings. This intellectualist orientation of faith does not belong to the Eastern tradition.The Orthodox confess the same faith as the ancient Church -- the faith as was later formulated in the fourth century in the councils of Nicea and Constantinople.We object to certain later additions made by the Roman Catholics, for example the addition of the word ‘filioque’ in the Latin creed. They, for example, teach that the Holy Spirit, one of the Three Persons of the Trinity, proceeds from the Father and the Son (filioque means ‘and from the Son’). We do not teach so. The son is begotten by the father; the Spirit proceeds from the Father. The words “begotten’ and ‘proceeding’ delineate the difference between the Son and the Spirit in their relation to the Father. In later centuries, especially after the fifth century when the Western Church broke from the Asian-African moorings, it misunderstood the word ‘proceeding’ as related to the coming of the Spirit in the Church on Pentecost. This coming, of course, is from the Father and the Son, but that is not what is meant by ‘proceeding’. The latter word denotes the eternal relation between the Father and the Spirit, and not the relation in time and history.
In the eternal dimension we cannot say that the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. Therefore ‘filioque’ is out of place, wrong and misleading.There are other doctrines and dogmas which the Roman Catholic Church has added to the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed -- eg. the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, the dogma of Papal Infallibility, and the dogma of the bodily assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The first two are wrong and the third is not dogma, for the Orthodox. We do not believe that there is any special miracle called Immaculate Conception connected with the origin and birth of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Nor do we believe that the Pope or any other human being is infallible. As for the teaching about the bodily assumption of Mary, We do teach it, but not as some central dogma of the Church.Nor do we believe that believing in the right dogma is the evidence of a true Christian. We put equal emphasis on the way of life, on the way of worship, on the way of disciplining oneself as on the way of thinking and belief.What then is the difference between East and West?It is not so easy to pinpoint the difference in words. It seems the difference is more one of ethos, of orientation, of spirit rather than of dogma or belief.Let us state some of the more obvious differences. The Roman Catholic Church, for example, believes in a universal organizational structure for the Church with one particular bishop, namely the Bishop of Rome or the Pope, holding a unique position in the whole world. We Easterners do not accept any one bishop as having universal jurisdiction or authority. So the Orthodox have no Pope. What they have is really an Episcopal Synod for each local or national Church. The President of the Synod may be a Patriarch, a Catholicos, and Archbishop or even a Pope as in the case of the Coptic Church of Egypt. But no such Synod or its president can have universal jurisdiction over the Churches of other countries. Each local or national Church with its Episcopal Synod and Patriarch is autocephalous, ie. it has its own head, and does not look to any other Church to exercise authority over it.
This difference in turn is based on a more profound understanding of what we call the Church Catholic. The Church Catholic is not the Roman Catholic Church. It is the whole Church, in all time and space, in its qualitative and quantitative fullness. The universal Church is not the Church Catholic. The latter includes all those who have ever lived on earth as Christians in former times, ie. Christ and the Apostles, the prophets, martyrs, confessors, fathers, doctors, ordinary believers and so on. The universal Church is, of course, composed only of those now living. The Orthodox Church had no category called the universal Church. The attempt to create a category called the “ecumenical church” by the Constantinople Church, has been virtually rejected by the Orthodox tradition.
Now the Roman Catholic Church has something called the Universal Church, and the Pope is the head of this Universal Church. So, for them, the fullness of the Church means the Universal Church which is for them, the manifestation of the Church Catholic. Because they think this way, the local Church is only part of the Universal Church and cannot be autocephalous or having its own head. The local church is ever incomplete, according to this view, without the head of the Universal Church, the Pope, since the part is never complete without the whole. Hence the insistence of the second Vatican Council that“The College or body of bishops has no authority unless it is simultaneously conceived of in terms of its head, the Roman Pontiff, Peter’s successor.... Together with its head, the Roman Pontiff, and never without this head, the Episcopal order is the subject of Supreme and full power over the Universal Church. But this power can be exercised only with the consent of the Roman Pontiff.” (Lumen Gentinum: 22)This teaching the Eastern Orthodox regard as rank heresy, and based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the relation between the local Church and the Church Catholic. The Easterners believe that the Church Catholic is fully manifest in the local Church, where the people are in communion with the bishops of the Episcopal Synod. We do not regard the local Church as part, but as the manifestation of the fullness, of the Church Catholic. The error in the teaching of the Roman Church, we feel, is due to its breaking away from the tradition of the Church Catholic in the 5th century.
Neither does the Orthodox Church teach that the bishop or college of bishops alone exercise authority in the Church. Every baptised Christian shares in the kingly, priestly and prophetic authority of the Church, though the bishop has a certain fullness of spiritual power which others in the Church do not have. But the bishop separated form the Church is nothing. It is only in communion with the Church. With the college of presbyters and deacons and with the people that he exercises his power. The Orthodox Church is thus much more conciliar and communitarian in structure.Neither did the Orthodox Church ever develop an aggressive or institutional mission such as Roman Catholics and Protestants have developed. The witness of the Orthodox is a quiet one, based more on worship and a holy life of love and service, than on preaching and proselytism. This lack of aggressiveness is often criticized by Western Christians as a lack of missionary fervour. But we know that the aggressive Western missionary movement is intimately linked with the economic, cultural and colonial expansionism of the West, and we would rather not be associated with such an aggressive and institutionalized mission.
The worship of the Church is the centre of the Orthodox ethos, rather than its mission. The mission follows naturally from true worship and feeds into it. It is in the eucharistic worship of the Church that the Orthodox have a foretaste of the Kingdom which is coming. To join with the angels and archangels in the adoration of the one True God and to rejoice in his presence of the Spirit through the Son-- this is the heart of the Orthodox ethos. The Orthodox Churches under Muslim or Communist oppression always survived because of this worship orientation.The West separates action from contemplation, thought and prayer. For us it is in and from eucharistic worship that all action, contemplation, thought and prayer derive their significance.
source: http://malankaraorthodoxchurch.in/index.php?Itemid=219&id=129&option=com_content&task=view

Peace of KISS...

In christianity, from ancient times in our worship services there was space given for the Kiss of peace. Today I want to put a play on words to that. Instead of discussing the "Kiss of peace", I want to discuss the Peace that comes from KISS. (No not the rock band lol), let me explain.
When I was in computer training class to get into the IT field, there was one professor that told us to KISS when troubleshooting pc's. Keep It Simple Stupid has been a phrase that I live by in my profession.
I remember once before I was married, being called by a lady friend of mine that I was fond of to come fix her printer. Here I am thinking I am the big computer/tech guy. I go into looking at drivers, ports, ip addresses etc... Spent like a half hour and was so distraught that I could not impress this lady with my technical prowess. Next thing I knew, this lady friend opened the printer and noticed no ink....then I thought "KISS!!!"
So many times in christianity we fail to allow the peace that comes with KISS to allow us to rest in God. Its almost as if we subconsciously say to ourselves "I really dont trust God enough to provide a way of salvation and healing for me, so I need to find all kinds of theology, dogma, rituals, etc.. in order to make me feel as though this Christianity thing is working". Now dont get me wrong, I am not subscribing to a reformist/minimalist orientation, far be it from me to just throw a "roadkill of a sacrifice of praise" upon the "alter" of my heart.

St. Saraphim of Sarov stated "The true aim of our Christian life consists in the [increasing] acquisition of the Holy Spirit of God. As for fasts, and vigils, and prayer, and almsgiving, and every good deed done for Christ's sake, they are only means of acquiring the Holy Spirit of God." Thats as simple as it gets. But many times we tend to complicate this thing for one reason or another. Christ Himself said the whole of the law can be done by one simply loving ones neighbor as himself and loving God with the whole being. Simple...There's such a peace that comes from that, rather than trying to duplicate and actually live out the tenets OT Law.

Just the other day I was pondering what is meant by the term "spirituality". I was going to post my findings in this blog. I decided to take a apophatic approach to it. I spent all night working on it, editing it, rewriting sections, moving things here and there. Finally at 2am, I felt it was finished. I was ready to post. and I must say, it was good, and there may have been some ego involved with that, Lord have mercy.

I hit "post", then looked at the blog..and...nothing but a title (some of you probably saw that)....Once I got over my anger with my browser (that lasted until the morning lol) and determined not to take a hammer to my pc. I must admit maybe there was some part of me that was angry that everyone didnt get to see how great a theologian I presumed I was. I eventually realized that maybe it wasnt meant for me to post on this. So I decided to let the Lord have His way and not post on it.

I hadnt thought about this since, until a good priest friend of mine, sent me a response to my inquiry for suggestions for what true spirituality is, just a few minutes ago. His suggestion?...You got it... Keep It Simple...

Be blessed in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit!!!

Orthodox Spirituality

Orthodoxy Spirituality
IntroductionSpirituality may be defined as the life in and with the Holy Spirit. It is an ascetic and pious struggle against sin through repentance, prayer, fasting and participation in the sacramental life of the Church. St. Paul Says: “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish…. Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like…… But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. And those who have are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit” (Gal. 5:16-25). Orthodoxy has preferred always to use the terms ‘life in Christ’, ‘life in Spirit’, ‘the spiritual life’, and the ‘life in God’ to describe the life of the Christian in union with God, regardless of the level of this life. See Galatians 3:28; 3:20; 2 Corinthians 4: 11; 1 Corinthians 7: 8; Romans 8: 15; Ephesians 3: 16-17; Colossians 3:3; John 14: 23; 1 John 3:24 etc.
What is Orthodox Spirituality and what is it Goal?Orthodox Spirituality presents the process of a Christian’s progress on the road to perfection in Christ, by the cleansing of passions and the winning of the virtues, a process which takes place in a certain order. Spirituality describes the manner in which the Christians can go forward from the cleansing of one passion, to the cleansing of another, and the same to the acquiring of the different virtues. Thus a certain level of perfection is reached and culminates in love. This is a state that represents the cleansing of all passions and the winning of all the virtues. As man/woman climbs toward this peak, he/she simultaneously moves toward union with Christ and the knowledge of Him by experience, which also means his/her deification.
The goal of Orthodox Spirituality is the perfection of the believer by his/her union with God in Christ. But as God is unending, the goal of our union with Him, or our perfection, has no point from which we can no longer progress. So all the Eastern Fathers say that perfection is unlimited. Thus our perfection is not only the goal but also an unending process. In this process two great steps can be distinguished: first, the moving ahead toward perfection through purification from the passions and the acquiring of the virtues and secondly a life progressively moving ahead in the union with God. At this point, man’s work is replaced by God’s. Man contributes by opening himself up receptively to an ever-greater filling with the life of God.
In short, we may narrate the following features of Orthodox Spirituality:
The culminating state of the spiritual life is a union of the soul with God, lived or experienced.
This union is realized by the working of the Holy Spirit, but until it is reached, man is involved in a prolonged effort of purification
It takes place when man reaches the ‘likeness of God’. It is at the same time knowledge and love.
Among other things, the effect of this union consists of a considerable intensification of spiritual energies in man, accompanied by all kinds of charisma.
The Orthodox uses the word ‘deification’ or participation in the divinity to characterize the union with God. It, however, does not mean that here there is a pantheistic identification of man with God. But it asserts with courage the possibility of a ‘union’ of man with God, of a direct ‘vision’ of Him, of a ‘participation’ in Him, through grace.
Orthodox Spirituality and this worldIt is very important to note that Orthodox Spirituality does not call for an indifference to life, for a withdrawal from its affairs and for a pre-mature eschatology. The Church Fathers have demonstrated the movement of God’s creation (universe) and the need for every person to participate in it, if he/she wants to reach the perfection represented by the mystical union with God. There should be a synergia (co-operation) of human will and the divine grace (human will and divine grace are two unequal but equally needed forces in the movement to attain perfection. The Church denies any kind of teaching that deny either the divine grace or the human will in the process of attaining perfection). This movement is intended in general to elevate a person to the level of the highest good and to perfection.
The road to Christian perfection does not exclude this world and the works in it, but it does require that it contribute to the winning of virtues. No one should imagine that the work he/she does is an end in itself; it has the role of beautifying his nature, with the virtues of patience, of self-control, of love for his neighbor, of faith in God, and in turn of opening his eyes to the wise principles placed by God in all things. The ultimate purpose of work and the taking part in the life of this world is not so much the development of nature as it is the normal development of the dormant possibilities in man and in his neighbours. Even in the enduring of troubles, which is one of the most important means of Christian striving, we don’t have to run away from the life of the world, but persistence in it. The care for one’s own formation and that of our neighbours, by beautifying ourselves with virtues, does not mean a non-participation in the life of the world.
The one who has reached the peaks of spiritual living is no longer pre-occupied with external activity, but contemplation. Even so, he/she exerts an influence on the development of the world, by an attraction and a power which touch his neighbours, that they might become as he/she is, by the same fulfillment of the commandments, by the same virtous works. The person who has reached the peak of perfection exerts an influence and an attraction on his/her neighbours, which makes them strive to reach the ideal goal. Because the very highest of the virtues, which the spiritual man struggles for, is love. In love there is knowledge too and the love of God cannot be separated from the love of the people.
Holy Trinity is the basis and Love is the Hallmark of Orthodox SpiritualityThe very basis of Christian life is in the mystery of Holy Trinity and Incarnation. Orthodox spirituality has as a basic conviction on the existence of a personal God, who is incarnated and who is the supreme source of radiating love. God prizes man and does not want to confuse him/her with Himself, but maintains and raises him to an eternal dialogue of love.
But the personal God, the supreme source of love, can’t be conceived of as a single person, but as a community of persons in a perfect unity. The God of the New Testament and of the holy Fathers is living and irreducibly three in one the Holy Trinity.
We may describe the Trinitarian basis of our spirituality in the following lines: Only a perfect community of supreme persons (the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit) can nourish, with its unending and perfect love, our thirst for love in relation to it and between ourselves. The Father wants to extend love in its paternal form. So after the creation of man, He wanted His Son to become man so that His love for His Son, made man, would be a love which is directed toward any human face, like that of His son. In the Son made flesh we are all adopted by the Father. The Father loves all of us in His Son, because the Son was made our brother. God the Son, too, thus shows His love as a supreme brother. But the Son’s love for us is not separated from the Father’s love for us, but in His love as a brother He makes the Father’s love and also His love for the Father, engulf us. In us the Father welcomes other loving and loved sons because His Son was made our beloved brother. However, this paternal love is poured out on us in the form of the Holy Spirit flooding the Son. By the Incarnate Son the Holy Spirit radiates within humanity and the world, as the love of God for us and of ours for God. The Holy Spirit brings into creation inter-Trinitarian life and love. He raises us to the level of deification. The invocation of the Holy Spirit in the Holy Qurbana (epiclesis) hasn’t only the purpose of changing the bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ, but of brining divine life into the creation. This is why the Church invokes the Holy Spirit in all her sanctifying services. We are raised up by the Holy Spirit to the divine world or in the other way the divine world penetrates us. This is what really the meaning and goal of our spirituality or spiritual life.
The Soul of Orthodox spiritualityThe soul of Orthodox spirituality consists in the practice of virtues and especially in the gift of prayer. There is no spiritual life without prayer and there is no labour greater than praying to God. The Church has got canonical prayer of hours (seven times a day) and the unceasing prayers that can be recited privately even in the time of doing some jobs. Through prayer a faithful will be illumined and prayer is the measuring rode of a person’s spiritual life. St. Dionysious the Areopagite divides the spiritual life into three stages: Purification, illumination and deification (union). We may compare these stages with the stages of the practice of virtues, the contemplation of nature and the contemplation of God Himself. Practice of virtues begins with repentance. The baptised Christian struggles with God’s help to escape from enslavement to passionate impulses. By fulfilling the commandments, gradually he/she attains purity of heart and it is this that constitutes the ultimate aim of the first stage. At the second stage, the contemplation of nature, the Christians sharpens his/her perception of the being of the created things, and discovers the Creator present in everything and thus it leads him/her to respect and give honour to fellow creations. This leads him/her to the third stage, the direct vision of God, who is not only in everything but above and beyond everything. The full vision of the divine glory is reserved for the age to come, yet even in the present life, the saints enjoy sure pledge and first fruits of the coming harvest.
The first stage is called ‘active life’ while the second and third jointly designated the ‘contemplative life’. It is to be noted that not only the social worker or family member or the missionary who is following the active life, the hermit or the recluse is likewise doing so, in as much as he/she is still struggling to overcome the passions and to grow in virtue. In the same way the contemplative life is not restricted to the desert or the solitude, but a miner, a clerk, a typist or a house wife may also possess inward silence and prayer of the heart, a may therefore be in the true sense a ‘contemplative’.
Three Presuppositionsi) The Orthodox tradition is intensely conscious of the ecclesial character Christianity. It is of course true that there are many who reject Christ and His Church, or who have never heard of him; Whether they will be saved or not cannot be answered properly by us and let God will do as His will. But, as Church members, we believe that even a solitary in the solitary in the desert is as much a churchmen as the artisan in the city. The ascetic and mystical path is at the same time social and communal. The Christian is the one who has brothers and sisters. He/she belongs to a family and that family is the Church.
ii) Spiritual life is not only a life in the Church but also life in the sacraments. It is the sacraments that constitute our life in Christ. Our path is the path of corporate worship, centred around the sacraments and especially the sacrament of Eucharist. That is to say that it is in the communion of the Body and Blood of Christ that the Christian life is based and moved towards perfection.
iii) The spiritual life is also evangelical. At each step upon the path, we turn for guidance to the voice of God speaking to us through the Bible. After being inspired by what is written in the Bible, we lead ourselves to be the real witnesses of our Lord to our neighbours. We are asked to preach the Gospel and witness our Lord by practising the virtues of prayer, fasting and alms giving. Prayer unites us to God; fasting sanctifies us and alms giving (Charity) is really an extension of the divine Grace in us to our fellow beings and the rest of the creation.These presuppositions obviously show the Trinitarian Christological, Pneumatological, Sacramental and ecclesiastical character of Orthodox spirituality.
Conclusion:Orthodox spirituality gives enough and equal space for family life and monastic life. That means it gives equal value to those who follow family life and monastic life and no clear marked distinction is given to their goal although their style of life is different. The practice of virtues is highly extolled in both ways of life in the manner that is befitting to each of them.Orthodox spirituality is not an ecstatic movement like some contemporary so-called spiritual movements. It gives us a lesson for the perpetual and continuing bliss that one can really experience in the Eucharistic worship of the Church. Flight from division, ascetic silence and hospitality are highly extolled in Orthodox spirituality. For the Church Fathers, ‘to flee from the world’ means to flee from every thing that divides. Also, the spirituality must ultimately be understood in terms of paschal mystery. It is an affirmation of the Cross-as the path of resurrection. The ability to bear the cross comes from the joy of being saved. Joy in our Lord is our strength. The aim of the exercise that at times is found painful is a purified love of God, of neighbours, and of the whole creation. But that also means an increase of joy.
Fr. Dr. M. John Panicker, Orthodox Seminary, Kottayam
source: http://malankaraorthodoxchurch.in/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=112&Itemid=246

"Nonviolence in the Orthodox Tradition" by Rev. Dr. George Tsetsis

Very good conference of speeches on non-violence in the Orthodox Tradition:

http://www.goarch.org/resources/conferences/violenceandspirituality/presentations/nonviolence


"Nonviolence in the Orthodox Tradition" by Rev. Dr. George Tsetsis

Seminars presented at the 2005 Violence and Spirituality conference.

Related Multimedia
"Religion, Violence and Peacemaking" by Dr. Marc Gopin
"Hermeneutics and Fundamentalism" by Dr. Richard Kearny
"Violence, Religion, and Globalisation"
"Witnessing the Peace of God in a Violent World" by Dr. Antonios Kireopoulos
"Christian Anthropology for a Culture of Peace" by Dr. Athanasios N. Papathanasiou
"Violence and the Freudian 'Death Instinct' from a Christian Orthodox Point View" by Rev. Dr. Adamantios Avgoustides
"Domestic Violence - Violence against Women: Panel Discussion 2 by Dr. Kyriaki FitzGerald
"Domestic Violence - Violence against Women: Panel Discussion 1 by Rev. Dr. Diane C. Kessler
"Domestic Violence - Violence against Women: Panel Discussion 3 by "Domestic Violence - Violence against Women: Panel Discussion 3 by Dr. Philip Mamalakis
"Forgiveness and Reconciliation in the Patristic Tradition" by Rev. Dr. George Dion Dragas
"Building an Identity of Forgiveness and Reconciliation" by Dr. Rodney L. Petersen
"A Trinitarian Approach to Ecumenical Peace-Church Ecclesiology" by Rev. Dr. Fernando Enns
"Ecumenical Spirituality for a Culture of Peace" by Dr. Konrad Raiser
"Blessed are the Peacemakers" by Rev. Dr. Thomas FitzGerald
"Discerning the Spirit of God in an Ambivalent World" by Rev. Dr. Emmanuel Clapsis
"Praying and Experiencing God's Justice and Peace in the Liturgy" by Rev. Dr. Alkiviadis Calivas
"The Spirit of Compassion in the Canonical Tradition of the Church" by Dr. Lewis Patsavos

Small protest targets violence in Detroit

Small protest targets violence in Detroit

A group of mostly young people fed up with the toll of gun violence on Detroit took to the streets to protest today on the city’s east side.
Many of the youths work with Detroit’s Neighborhood Service Organization on programs aimed at preventing gun violence, substance abuse and other social ills among young people and were stunned to learn that the brutality had hit close to home.
A 15-year-old girl involved with the NSO’s youth initiatives program lost her 19-year-old brother to gunfire Saturday in Detroit, said Tavarus Lewis, 17, a peer educator in the program. The girl lives a couple of blocks from where the group was protesting.
“We’re out here supporting her and trying to stop the gun violence in the community,” Lewis said as he and others held up signs and drivers passing by honked their horns on Mack Avenue near Yorkshire.
“We’re all pretty close,” Lewis said of the young people in the NSO group. “When we promote for it not to happen and it happens, it hurts.”
“This happened to someone close to us, so we were shocked and saddened,” added Gaoia Vang, 17, also a youth program peer educator. “It sucks. It totally sucks.”
The protest came after a 13-year-old girl in a separate incident was shot in the head in an altercation when a group of people in a car threw gang taunts and then opened fire on about four or five friends walking near 7 Mile and Ryan in Detroit on Wednesday night.
Detroit Police said they were still investigating the shooting, and the girl was in critical condition today at Children’s Hospital of Michigan in Detroit.
Protester Tyrone Owens, 49, of Harper Woods said he was there to stand up against gun violence that’s sending a chill through the city.
“It’s very shocking and it’s senseless,” Owens said. “It’s got to stop.”
Contact MATT HELMS: driving@freepress.com.

Reconciliation Services

I just wanted to highlight this great mission work in Kansas City, MO:

http://www.rs3101.org/index.html

Mission
The mission of Reconciliation Services is to promote personal and community healing throughout Kansas City by treating each person as the image of God.
Provision
Since Reconciliation Services is based on an Eastern Orthodox Christian paradigm, services are provided to all, without regard to race, religion, ethnicity, color, class, age, gender, sexual orientation, or disability. All are served as the Icon or Image of God.
Organization
Reconciliation Services is a 501 (c)3, Missouri, not-for-profit Corporation. It is led by a diverse board of directors. It receives additional guidance from its advisory council comprised of representatives of area Orthodox parishes, area social service agencies, and consumers of its services
Funding
Reconciliation Services is funded by donations, grants, sliding scale fee-based services, and insurance funding when available.
Collaboration
Reconciliation Services seeks to carry out its purposes in a collaborative way with other agencies, instutions, faith-based initatives, and individuals striving to restore a sense of integration between various systems for the good of individuals, families, and society.
3101 Troost Avenue
Kansas City, Missouri 64109
Telephone: (816) 931-4751
Fax: (816) 931-0142
http://rs3101.org
Background
Troost Avenue has been known as the racial dividing line in Kansas City, Missouri. Yet, the word Troost is translated as Comforter in Dutch. Even earlier it was translated as tree, trust, and true.
For too long fear has divided us. Too often we see those different from us as the "other", or the "stranger".
The time is now to discover the amazing person in front of us as the image or icon of God.
Vision
The vision of Reconciliation Services is to experience life together as a community, as a village where evry human being is treated as if he or she were Christ Himself.
The vision of Reconciliation Services is to see Troost transformed into the city's gathering place, where healing, love, joy, friendship and community grow from the scarred soil of discrimination.
The vision of Reconciliation Services is to see the Troost community become a tree once again, rooted in being true to one another, nourished on restored trust, and embracing the tremendous varieties of life in our midst.
Purpose
Reconciliation Services seeks to:
Promote community development
Heal racial and ethnic divisions
Overcome personal and institutional discrimination
Provide comprehensive social services, focusing especially on:
Prevention and treatment of mental health & substance abuse
Prevention of and treatment for domestic violence, abuse, and related trauma
Providing for case management, emergency assistance, and referrals.
For more information regarding these, other services, please follow this link.
Social Teaching
Reconciliation Services conducts its affairs according to Orthodox Christian social teachings with special emphasis on respect for the dignity of the human person made in the image and likeness of God. It promotes the value of life from the moment of conception until the time of death. It seeks to cooperate with movements of peace, harmony, dialogue, and reconciliation with people of all cultures, "transcending human aggressiveness & social conflicts & achieving harmony in relationships among human beings & between entire peoples." (Yannoulatos, 2003)

First Visit to an Orthodox Church: Twelve Things I Wish I'd Known

First Visit to an Orthodox Church:
Twelve Things I Wish I'd Known
by Frederica Mathewes-Green

Orthodox worship is different! Some of these differences are apparent, if perplexing, from the first moment you walk in a church. Others become noticeable only over time. Here is some information that may help you feel more at home in Orthodox worship--twelve things I wish I'd known before my first visit to an Orthodox church.

1. What's all this commotion?

During the early part of the service the church may seem to be in a hubbub, with people walking up to the front of the church, praying in front of the iconostasis (the standing icons in front of the altar), kissing things and lighting candles, even though the service is already going on. In fact, when you came in the service was already going on, although the sign outside clearly said "Divine Liturgy, 9:30." You felt embarrassed to apparently be late, but these people are even later, and they're walking all around inside the church. What's going on here?

In an Orthodox church there is only one Eucharistic service (Divine Liturgy) per Sunday, and it is preceded by an hour-long service of Matins (or Orthros) and several short preparatory services before that. There is no break between these services--one begins as soon as the previous ends, and posted starting times are just educated guesses. Altogether, the priest will be at the altar on Sunday morning for over three hours, "standing in the flame," as one Orthodox priest put it.

As a result of this state of continuous flow, there is no point at which everyone is sitting quietly in a pew waiting for the entrance hymn to start, glancing at their watches approaching 9:30. Orthodox worshipers arrive at any point from the beginning of Matins through the early part of the Liturgy, a span of well over an hour. No matter when they arrive, something is sure to be already going on, so Orthodox don't let this hamper them from going through the private prayers appropriate to just entering a church. This is distracting to newcomers, and may even seem disrespectful, but soon you begin to recognize it as an expression of a faith that is not merely formal but very personal. Of course, there is still no good excuse for showing up after 9:30, but punctuality is unfortunately one of the few virtues many Orthodox lack.

2. Stand up, stand up for Jesus.

In the Orthodox tradition, the faithful stand up for nearly the entire service. Really. In some Orthodox churches, there won't even be any chairs, except a few scattered at the edges of the room for those who need them. Expect variation in practice: some churches, especially those that bought already-existing church buildings, will have well-used pews. In any case, if you find the amount of standing too challenging you're welcome to take a seat. No one minds or probably even notices. Long-term standing gets easier with practice.

3. In this sign.

To say that we make the sign of the cross frequently would be an understatement. We sign ourselves whenever the Trinity is invoked, whenever we venerate the cross or an icon, and on many other occasions in the course of the Liturgy. But people aren't expected to do everything the same way. Some people cross themselves three times in a row, and some finish by sweeping their right hand to the floor. On first entering a church people may come up to an icon, make a "metania"--crossing themselves and bowing with right hand to the floor--twice, then kiss the icon, then make one more metania. This becomes familiar with time, but at first it can seem like secret-handshake stuff that you are sure to get wrong. Don't worry, you don't have to follow suit.

We cross with our right hands from right to left (push, not pull), the opposite of Roman Catholics and high-church Protestants. We hold our hands in a prescribed way: thumb and first two fingertips pressed together, last two fingers pressed down to the palm. Here as elsewhere, the Orthodox impulse is to make everything we do reinforce the Faith. Can you figure out the symbolism? (Three fingers together for the Trinity; two fingers brought down to the palm for the two natures of Christ, and his coming down to earth.) This, too, takes practice. A beginner's imprecise arrangement of fingers won't get you denounced as a heretic.

4. What, no kneelers?

Generally, we don't kneel. We do sometimes prostrate. This is not like prostration in the Roman Catholic tradition, lying out flat on the floor. To make a prostration we kneel, place our hands on the floor and touch our foreheads down between our hands. It's just like those photos of middle-eastern worship, which look to Westerners like a sea of behinds. At first prostration feels embarrassing, but no one else is embarrassed, so after awhile it feels OK. Ladies will learn that full skirts are best for prostrations, as flat shoes are best for standing.

Sometimes we do this and get right back up again, as during the prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian, which is used frequently during Lent. Other times we get down and stay there awhile, as some congregations do during part of the Eucharistic prayer.

Not everyone prostrates. Some kneel, some stand with head bowed; in a pew they might slide forward and sit crouched over. Standing there feeling awkward is all right too. No one will notice if you don't prostrate. In Orthodoxy there is a wider acceptance of individualized expressions of piety, rather than a sense that people are watching you and getting offended if you do it wrong.

One former Episcopal priest said that seeing people prostrate themselves was one of the things that made him most eager to become Orthodox. He thought, "That's how we should be before God."

5. With Love and Kisses

We kiss stuff. When we first come into the church, we kiss the icons (Jesus on the feet and other saints on the hands, ideally). You'll also notice that some kiss the chalice, some kiss the edge of the priest's vestment as he passes by, the acolytes kiss his hand when they give him the censer, and we all line up to kiss the cross at the end of the service. When we talk about "venerating" something we usually mean crossing ourselves and kissing it.

We kiss each other before we take communion ("Greet one another with a kiss of love," 1 Peter 5:14). When Roman Catholics or high-church Protestants "pass the peace," they give a hug, handshake, or peck on the cheek; that's how Westerners greet each other. In Orthodoxy different cultures are at play: Greeks and Arabs kiss on two cheeks, and Slavs come back again for a third. Follow the lead of those around you and try not to bump your nose.

The usual greeting is "Christ is in our midst" and response, "He is and shall be." Don't worry if you forget what to say. The greeting is not the one familiar to Episcopalians, "The peace of the Lord be with you." Nor is it "Hi, nice church you have here." Exchanging the kiss of peace is a liturgical act, a sign of mystical unity. Chatting and fellowship is for later.

6. Blessed bread and consecrated bread.

Only Orthodox may take communion, but anyone may have some of the blessed bread. Here's how it works: the round communion loaf, baked by a parishioner, is imprinted with a seal. In the preparation service before the Liturgy, the priest cuts out a section of the seal and sets it aside; it is called the "Lamb". The rest of the bread is cut up and placed in a large basket, and blessed by the priest.

During the eucharistic prayer, the Lamb is consecrated to be the Body of Christ, and the chalice of wine is consecrated as His Blood. Here's the surprising part: the priest places the "Lamb" in the chalice with the wine. When we receive communion, we file up to the priest, standing and opening our mouths wide while he gives us a fragment of the wine-soaked bread from a golden spoon. He also prays over us, calling us by our first name or the saint-name which we chose when we were baptized or chrismated (received into the church by anointing with blessed oil).

As we file past the priest, we come to an altar boy holding the basket of blessed bread. People will take portions for themselves and for visitors and non-Orthodox friends around them. If someone hands you a piece of blessed bread, do not panic; it is not the eucharistic Body. It is a sign of fellowship.

Visitors are sometimes offended that they are not allowed to receive communion. Orthodox believe that receiving communion is broader than me-and-Jesus; it acknowledges faith in historic Orthodox doctrine, obedience to a particular Orthodox bishop, and a commitment to a particular Orthodox worshiping community. There's nothing exclusive about this; everyone is invited to make this commitment to the Orthodox Church. But the Eucharist is the Church's treasure, and it is reserved for those who have united themselves with the Church. An analogy could be to reserving marital relations until after the wedding.

We also handle the Eucharist with more gravity than many denominations do, further explaining why we guard it from common access. We believe it is truly the Body and Blood of Christ. We ourselves do not receive communion unless we are making regular confession of our sins to a priest and are at peace with other communicants. We fast from all food and drink--yes, even a morning cup of coffee--from midnight the night before communion.

This leads to the general topic of fasting. When newcomers learn of the Orthodox practice, their usual reaction is, "You must be kidding." We fast from meat, fish, dairy products, wine and olive oil nearly every Wednesday and Friday, and during four other periods during the year, the longest being Great Lent before Pascha (Easter). Altogether this adds up to nearly half the year. Here, as elsewhere, expect great variation. With the counsel of their priest, people decide to what extent they can keep these fasts, both physically and spiritually--attempting too much rigor too soon breeds frustration and defeat. Nobody's fast is anyone else's business. As St. John Chrysostom says in his beloved Paschal sermon, everyone is welcomed to the feast whether they fasted or not: "You sober and you heedless, honor the day...Rejoice today, both you who have fasted and you who have disregarded the fast."

The important point is that the fast is not rigid rules that you break at grave risk, nor is it a punishment for sin. Fasting is exercise to stretch and strengthen us, medicine for our souls' health. In consultation with your priest as your spiritual doctor, you can arrive at a fasting schedule that will stretch but not break you. Next year you may be ready for more. In fact, as time goes by, and as they experience the camaraderie of fasting together with a loving community, most people discover they start relishing the challenge.

7. Where's the General Confession?

In our experience, we don't have any general sins; they're all quite specific. There is no complete confession-prayer in the Liturgy. Orthodox are expected to be making regular, private confession to their priest.

The role of the pastor is much more that of a spiritual father than it is in other denominations. He is not called by his first name alone, but referred to as "Father Firstname." His wife also holds a special role as parish mother, and she gets a title too, though it varies from one culture to another: either "Khouria" (Arabic), or "Presbytera" (Greek), both of which mean "priest's wife;" or "Matushka" (Russian), which means "Mama."

Another difference you may notice is in the Nicene Creed, which may be said or sung, depending on the parish. If we are saying that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father, and you from force of habit add, "and the Son," you will be alone. The "filioque" was added to the Creed some six hundred years after it was written, and we adhere to the original. High-church visitors will also notice that we don't bow or genuflect during the "and was incarnate." Nor do we restrict our use of "Alleluia" during Lent (when the sisters at one Episcopal convent are referring to it as "the 'A' word"); in fact, during Matins in Lent, the Alleluias are more plentiful than ever.

8. Music, music, music.

About seventy-five percent of the service is congregational singing. Traditionally, Orthodox use no instruments, although some churches will have organs. Usually a small choir leads the people in a capella harmony, with the level of congregational response varying from parish to parish. The style of music varies as well, from very Oriental-sounding solo chant in an Arabic church to more Western-sounding four-part harmony in a Russian church, with lots of variation in between.

This constant singing is a little overwhelming at first; it feels like getting on the first step of an escalator and being carried along in a rush until you step off ninety minutes later. It has been fairly said that the liturgy is one continuous song.

What keeps this from being exhausting is that it's pretty much the *same* song every week. Relatively little changes from Sunday to Sunday; the same prayers and hymns appear in the same places, and before long you know it by heart. Then you fall into the presence of God in a way you never can when flipping from prayer book to bulletin to hymnal.

9. Making editors squirm.

Is there a concise way to say something? Can extra adjectives be deleted? Can the briskest, most pointed prose be boiled down one more time to a more refined level? Then it's not Orthodox worship. If there's a longer way to say something, the Orthodox will find it. In Orthodox worship, more is always more, in every area including prayer. When the priest or deacon intones, "Let us complete our prayer to the Lord," expect to still be standing there fifteen minutes later.

The original liturgy lasted something over five hours; those people must have been on fire for God. The Liturgy of St. Basil edited this down to about two and a half, and later (around 400 A.D.) the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom further reduced it to about one and a half. Most Sundays we use the St. John Chrysostom liturgy, although for some services (e.g., Sundays in Lent, Christmas Eve) we use the longer Liturgy of St. Basil.

10. Our Champion Leader

A constant feature of Orthodox worship is veneration of the Virgin Mary, the "champion leader" of all Christians. We often address her as "Theotokos," which means "Mother of God." In providing the physical means for God to become man, she made possible our salvation.

But though we honor her, as Scripture foretold ("All generations will call me blessed," Luke 1:48), this doesn't mean that we think she or any of the other saints have magical powers or are demi-gods. When we sing "Holy Theotokos, save us," we don't mean that she grants us eternal salvation, but that we seek her prayers for our protection and growth in faith. Just as we ask for each other's prayers, we ask for the prayers of Mary and other saints as well. They're not dead, after all, just departed to the other side. Icons surround us to remind us of all the saints who are joining us invisibly in worship.

11. The three doors.

Every Orthodox church will have an iconostasis before its altar. "Iconostasis" means "icon-stand", and it can be as simple as a large image of Christ on the right and a corresponding image of the Virgin and Child on the left. In a more established church, the iconostasis may be a literal wall, adorned with icons. Some of versions shield the altar from view, except when the central doors stand open.

The basic set-up of two large icons creates, if you use your imagination, three doors. The central one, in front of the altar itself, is called the "Holy Doors" or "Royal Doors," because there the King of Glory comes out to the congregation in the Eucharist. Only the priest and deacons, who bear the Eucharist, use the Holy Doors.

The openings on the other sides of the icons, if there is a complete iconostasis, have doors with icons of angels; they are termed the "Deacon's Doors." Altar boys and others with business behind the altar use these, although no one is to go through any of the doors without an appropriate reason. Altar service--priests, deacons, altar boys--is restricted to males. Females are invited to participate in every other area of church life. Their contribution has been honored equally with men's since the days of the martyrs; you can't look at an Orthodox altar without seeing Mary and other holy women. In most Orthodox churches, women do everything else men do: lead congregational singing, paint icons, teach classes, read the epistle, and serve on the parish council.

12. Where does an American fit in?

Flipping through the Yellow Pages in a large city you might see a multiplicity of Orthodox churches: Greek, Romanian, Carpatho-Russian, Antiochian, Serbian, and on and on. Is Orthodoxy really so tribal? Do these divisions represent theological squabbles and schisms?

Not at all. All these Orthodox churches are one church. The ethnic designation refers to what is called the parish's "jurisdiction" and identifies which bishops hold authority there. There are about 6 million Orthodox in North America and 250 million in the world, making Orthodoxy the second-largest Christian communion.

The astonishing thing about this ethnic multiplicity is its theological and moral unity. Orthodox throughout the world hold unanimously to the fundamental Christian doctrines taught by the Apostles and handed down by their successors, the bishops, throughout the centuries. They also hold to the moral standards of the Apostles; abortion, and sex outside heterosexual marriage, remain sins in Orthodox eyes.

One could attribute this unity to historical accident. We would attribute it to the Holy Spirit.

Why then the multiplicity of ethnic churches? These national designations obviously represent geographic realities. Since North America is also a geographic unity, one day we will likewise have a unified national church--an American Orthodox Church. This was the original plan, but due to a number of complicated historical factors, it didn't happen that way. Instead, each ethnic group of Orthodox immigrating to this country developed its own church structure. This multiplication of Orthodox jurisdictions is a temporary aberration and much prayer and planning is going into breaking through those unnecessary walls.

Currently the largest American jurisdictions are the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese, The Orthodox Church in America (Russian roots), and the Antiochian Archdiocese (Arabic roots). The liturgy is substantially the same in all, though there may be variation in language used and type of music.

I wish it could be said that every local parish eagerly welcomes newcomers, but some are still so close to their immigrant experience that they are mystified as to why outsiders would be interested. Visiting several Orthodox parishes will help you learn where you're most comfortable. You will probably be looking for one that uses plenty of English in its services. Many parishes with high proportions of converts will have services entirely in English.

Orthodoxy seems startlingly different at first, but as the weeks go by it gets to be less so. It will begin to feel more and more like home, and will gradually draw you into your true home, the Kingdom of God. I hope that your first visit to an Orthodox church will be enjoyable, and that it won't be your last.

© Conciliar Press

Worship in the Syriac Orthodox Church

Worship in the Syriac Orthodox Church

The Syriac Orthodox Church is heir to an ancient tradition of Christian worship that is distinguished by the antiquity and beauty of its prayers and rituals. As recounted in the Acts of the Apostles, the early adherents of the Christian faith fleeing persecution in the Holy Land reached Antioch, a prominent center of commerce in the eastern part of the Roman empire. There they were first called Christians. St. Peter is believed to have founded a church in Antioch in AD 39. Meanwhile, in Edessa, the capital of the Kingdom of Urhoy on the borders of Syria and Mesopotamia, a Church was in existence before the end of the first century. In the course of the next two centuries Edessa became the centre of a Christian culture using the Edessene dialect of Aramaic, called Syriac, as its language. While the Church in the West adopted Greek as its language for worship, the Church in the East, addressing itself largely to the Jewish Christians of the diaspora, continued to speak Aramaic. The forms of worship in the Syriac Orthodox Church reflect the Antiochene and Edessene heritage of the Church.

The sense of awe and wonder before the divine Mystery pervades the Syriac Church. The Syrian liturgy is dominated by the scene in the vision of the prophet Isaiah, when, he saw the Lord on a high and lofty throne in the temple in Jerusalem, and heard the angels crying, ‘holy, holy, holy’ before him. In every Syriac church there is a ‘veil’ drawn across the sanctuary, representing the veil in the temple of Jerusalem, and the sanctuary itself is held to be the ‘holy of holies’, the place where God himself appears in the New Covenant with his people, This scene is recalled at the beginning and the end of every office of prayer and the sense of wonder and mystery which inspires it fills the whole liturgy. Together with this sense of awe in the presence of the holiness of God is a profound sense of human sin. As the prophet was led to cry out, ‘Woe is me, for I am man a of unclean lips and I dwell among a people of unclean lips’, so the Syriac liturgy is filled with this sense of human sin and unworthiness. One of the principal themes of the liturgy is that of ‘repentance’. But this sense of sin and the need for repentance is accompanied by, or rather an expression of, the awareness of God’s infinite love and mercy, which comes down to man’s need and raises him to share in his own infinite glory. Thus there is a wonderful balance of dreadful majesty and loving compassion, of abasement and exaltation.

The Syriac Orthodox liturgy, reflecting the Christological history of the Church, places emphasis on the divine nature in Christ. Its Trinitarian doctrine, mostly derived from the Greek and even using Greek terms, is distinctive in the custom of addressing prayer directly to Christ as ‘our God’ and not to the Father through ‘Jesus Christ our Lord’. Immense veneration is paid to Mary as the ‘Mother of God’, or more literally ‘She who brought forth God’. This profound devotion is based entirely on a continued meditation on the fact that the person whom Mary brought forth was truly God. This is the source of endless wonder and at the same time of amazing paradox, which is expressed in poetic terms: ‘in your arms you embraced the flames and gave milk to the devouring fire; blessed is he, the infinite, who was born of you’. This deeply biblical and theological devotion to the Virgin Mary grew up in the Church as a direct consequence of belief in the Incarnation.

Together with devotion to the Mother of God goes a devotion to the prophets, apostles and martyrs, as members of the Mystical Body of Christ, those who proclaimed and those who died for the sake of the Gospel. Here again this devotion to the saints is expressed in one of its purest forms, deeply rooted in a biblical view of life and springing wholly from devotion to the person of Christ and the authentic message of the Gospel. What is most evident throughout the Syrian liturgy is its biblical background. It is as though the liturgy sprang from the very same soil as the Old and the New Testament. The ‘saints’ of the Old Testament, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; Moses and David and the Prophets, and in’ particular Job and Daniel and three holy men in the furnace of Babylon, are as familiar figures as the apostles and are felt as living witnesses to the mystery of Christ always alive within the Church. Even more interesting is the frequent reference to ‘our father Adam and our mother Eve’, which takes the mystery of salvation back to the first man and woman, and sees Christ descending ‘to Sheol, the place of the dead, at the resurrection, to proclaim the message of salvation to all the dead and to raise up Adam and Eve. The feeling for the dead as waiting in Sheol for the resurrection at the second coming of Christ is also a theme which takes us back to early Jewish Christian theology, from which the Syriac theology so largely derives, and helps us to see how devotion to the faithful departed grew up spontaneously in the early Church.

The Syriac Orthodox liturgy is derived from the prolific works of its poet-theologians. Works of Mor Ephrem, Mor Ya`qub of Sarug, Mor Philoxenos of Mabbug, Chor Episcopus Mor Balay, among others figure prominently in the liturgies. Liturgy is poetic in form, being based on a regular syllabic pattern, but still more in spirit. They are, in fact, one of the most authentic expressions of the Christian spirit. All the mysteries of the Christian faith, the Trinity and the Incarnation, the Cross and the Redemption, the Resurrection and the Second Coming, the Church as the Bride of Christ, Mary, the Mother of God and the saints of the Old and New Testament, the dead in ‘Sheol’ and the expectation of the return to Paradise, all these themes are treated with a wealth of poetic beauty. The meditation on the mysteries of faith seems to awake in these writers (who were mostly monks) an inexhaustible flower of poetry, which is both profoundly theological and astonishingly original. The liturgies have long antiphons known as qolos and bo`oothos and the shorter antiphons known as eqbos and enyonos. It is in these songs that the immense poetic beauty of the Syriac liturgy is found.

In accordance with Psalm 119, verse 164, “Seven times in the day have I praised thee for thy judgments, O Righteous One,” the Syriac Orthodox Church set the times for prayer to seven: Evening or ramsho prayer (Vespers), Drawing of the Veil or Sootoro (meaning ‘Protection’ from the Psalm 91, which is sung at this prayer, ‘He who sits under the protection of the Most High’), Midnight or lilyo prayer, Morning or saphro prayer (Matins), the Third Hour or tloth sho`in prayer (Prime, 9 a.m.), the Sixth Hour or sheth sho`in prayer (Sext, noon) and the Ninth Hour or tsha` sho`in prayer (Nones, 3 p.m.). The Midnight prayer consists of three qawme ‘watches’ (literarily ‘standing’). The ecclesiastical day begins in the evening at sunset with the ramsho. Today, even in monasteries, the evening and compline prayers are said together, as also the midnight and morning prayers, and the three, six and nine o'clock prayers, reducing the times of prayer to three.

Each of the hours has its own particular theme or themes and the sense of the natural background of morning, evening or night is often present and often calls forth the most charming poetry. Thus the natural and the supernatural world are marvellously blended and provides a sense of wholeness. It is the whole mystery of Christ which is presented here in all its majesty from the creation of the world to the Second Coming of Christ, from the Trinity in the height of heaven with the angels and the watchers, who surround it, to man on earth, his sin and suffering in this passing world with all its beauty, his redemption by the Cross and his hope of glory with the prophets and apostles and martyrs, who have entered into glory, and to the dead who wait in Sheol for the coming of the Son of Man and the general Resurrection.

Sources:

http://sor.cua.edu/WOrship/index.html

Patriarch Ignatius Aphram I Barsoum, The History of Syriac Literature and Sciences. tr. Matti Mousa. (Pueblo, CO: Passeggiata Press, 2000).

Fr. Bede Griffith, The Book of Common Prayer of the Syrian Orthodox Church, Kurishumala Ashram.

The Syriac Orthodox Church

The Syriac Orthodox Church
A Brief Overview

Few Christian denominations can claim the antiquity of the Syriac Orthodox Church of Antioch, whose foundations can be traced back to the very dawn of Christianity. The Church justifiably prides itself as being one of the earliest established apostolic churches. It was in Antioch, after all, that the followers of Jesus were called Christians as we are told in the New Testament, “The disciples were first called Christians in Antioch.” (Acts 11:26).

According to ecclesiastical tradition, the Church of Antioch is the second established church in Christendom after Jerusalem, and the prominence of its Apostolic See is well documented. In his Chronicon (I, 2), the church historian Eusebius of Caesarea tells us that St. Peter the Apostle established a bishopric in Antioch and became its first bishop. He also tells us that St. Peter was succeeded by Evodius. In another historical work, Historia Ecclesiastica, Eusebius tells us that Ignatius the Illuminator, “a name of note to most men, [was] the second after Peter to the bishopric of Antioch” (III, 36).

In the mid of the 5th century, the Bishop of Antioch, and his counterparts in Alexandria, Byzantium and Rome, would be called patriarchs. The Syriac Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch used to be known by his own name; however, since 1293 the patriarchs of Antioch adopted the name Ignatius, after the Illuminator. The See of Antioch continues to flourish till our day, with His Holiness Patriarch Ignatius Zakka I, being the 122nd in the line of legitimate patriarchs.

The patriarchate was forced to move from Antioch in ca. A.D. 518, after a period of turbulent history, to various locations in the Near East until it settled in the monastery Dayro d-Mor Hananya (also known as Kurkmo Dayro, Deir az-Za'faran--Syriac and Arabic respectively for Saffron Monastery) in Mardin, Turkey, during the 13th century. After another period of heinous violence during and after World War I, which took the lives of a quarter million Syriac Orthodox faithful, the patriarchate was transferred to Homs, Syria, in 1933, and later to Damascus in 1957.

The Syriac Orthodox Church is quite unique for many reasons. Firstly, it presents a form of Christianity, which is Semitic in nature, with a culture not far from the one Christ himself experienced. Secondly, it employs in its liturgy the Syriac language, an Aramaic dialect akin to the Aramaic spoken by Christ and the Apostles. Thirdly, its liturgy is one of the most ancient, and has been handed from one generation to another. Fourthly, and most importantly, it demonstrates the unity of the body of Christ by the multiethnic nature of its faithful: A visit to your local Syriac Orthodox Church in Europe or the Americas would demonstrate, for example, the blend of Near Eastern and Indian cultures in the motifs and vestments of clergy. The Syriac Orthodox faithful today live primarily in Middle Eastern countries and the Indian State of Kerala, with many communities in the diaspora.

The Syriac Orthodox Church has been a member of the World Council of Churches since 1960, and is one of the founding members of the Middle East Council of Churches. The Church takes part in ecumenical and theological dialogues with other churches. As a result of these dialogues, the Church has issued two joint declarations with the Roman Catholic Church and another with the Eastern Orthodox churches.

In Syriac, the proper name of the Church is `idto suryoyto treeysath shubho. In the past, the name of the Church had been translated to English as “Syrian Orthodox Church”. The Holy Synod of the Church approved the translation “Syriac Orthodox Church” in its session of March 28-April 3, 2000.

History
Throughout Syria and Mesopotamia, Aramaic, in its many dialectical forms, was the language of the land, and Syriac, originally the Aramaic dialect of Edessa in Northern Mesopotamia, must have been the most influential literary form of Aramaic. When we speak of Syriac Christianity, we refer to Christians whose native tongue was Syriac and those who employed Syriac as their liturgical language.

Syriac Christianity was not centered just in Antioch, the Roman capital of Syria. In fact, Syriac Christianity can be traced further East in Mesopotamia. As local tradition tells us, Christianity was received in Edessa during the time of the Apostles. This is reported in a number of documents including Eusebius's Ecclesiastical History. He gives us the text of a correspondence between the city's king, Abgar Ukomo, and none other than Jesus Himself:

Abgar Ukomo, the toparch, to Jesus the good Savior who has appeared in the district of Jerusalem, greetings. I have heard concerning you and your cures, how they are accomplished by you without drugs and herbs ... And when I heard of all these things concerning you I decided that it is one of two things, either that you are God and came down from Heaven to do these things, or are the Son of God for doing these things. For this reason I write to beg you to hasten to me and to heal the suffering which I have ...
The reply from Jesus to King Abgar, according to the same tradition, was carried by a certain Ananias and read:

Blessed are you who believed in me, not having seen me ... Now concerning what you wrote to me, to come to you, I must first complete here all for which I was sent, and after thus completing it be taken up to Him who sent me; and when I have been taken up, I will send to you one of my disciples to heal your suffering and give life to you and those with you.
The story continues to describe how one of the Seventy Disciples, named Adai, was sent to King Abgar to heal his disease.

Historical literary sources tell us that by the second half of the second century there was an established church in Edessa, though probably most of the inhabitants remained pagan. The Chronicle of Edessa tells us that in the year 201, a disastrous flood destroyed the church of the Christians in the city. However, it took only about a century until most of the city was under the umbrella of Christianity. Edessa, home of the Syriac form of Aramaic, indeed prides itself as the first kingdom that officially accepted the new faith.

Syriac Christianity has had a long history in India. According to tradition, Christianity in India was established by St. Thomas who arrived in Malankara (Kerala) from Edessa in A.D. 52. The close ties between the Church in Malankara and the Near East go back to at least the fourth century when a certain Joseph of Edessa traveled to India and met Christians there. The church in Malankara today is an integral part of the Syriac Orthodox Church with the Patriarch of Antioch as its supreme spiritual head. The local head of the church in Malankara is the Catholicos of the East, consecrated by and accountable to the Patriarch of Antioch.

Syriac Christianity spread rapidly in the East. The Bible was translated into Syriac to serve as the main source of teaching as early as the second century. Till our day, the antiquity of the Syriac biblical versions is upheld with high esteem by modern scholars. In the words of Dr. Arthur Vööbus, “In our search for the oldest translation of the Greek original [of the New Testament] we must go back to the Syriac idiom” (Studies in the History of the Gospel Text in Syriac, p. 1). The Syriac Church Fathers made no less than six translations and revisions of the New Testament and at least two of the Old Testament. Their scholarship in this domain has no equal in Church history.

The Church of Antioch was thriving under the Byzantine Empire until the fifth century when Christological controversies split the Church. After the Council of Chalcedon in A.D. 451, two camps of the one Church emerged: The Greek Church of Byzantium and the Latin Church of Rome accepted Chalcedon, but the Syriac and Coptic (later Armenian as well) Churches rejected the council. The former group professed that Christ is in two natures, human and divine, whilst the latter adopted the doctrine that Christ has one incarnate nature from two natures. It is worth noting that the drafts of the Council were according to the position of the Syriac and Coptic Churches. The final resolution, however, was according to the doctrine of the Western Churches and was rejected by the Syriac Church. This schism had sad consequences on the Syriac Church during the next few centuries.

As the Emperor supported the Chalcedonian camp, the Syriac Church came under much persecution. Many bishops were sent to exile, most notably Patriarch Mor Severius, who was later given the epithet togho d-suryoye, ‘Crown of the Syriacs’. Mor Severius died in exile in 538. By the year 544, the Syriac Church was in an abysmal situation with only three bishops remaining. It was at this time that Mor Yacqub Burd`ono (Jacob Baradeus) emerged to rejuvenate the Church. Mor Yacqub traveled to Constantinople for an audience with Empress Theodora, the daughter of a Syriac Orthodox priest from Mabbug according to Syriac Orthodox sources, and wife of Emperor Justinian. Theodora used her influence to get Jacob ordained as bishop in 544. Later, Mor Yacqub would travel across the entire land reviving the Church. He managed to consecrate 27 bishops and hundreds of priests and deacons. For this, the Syriac Orthodox Church honors this saint on July 30 of every year, the day of his death in 578. A few centuries later, adversaries labeled the Syriac Orthodox Church ‘Jacobite’ after St. Jacob. The Syriac Orthodox Church rejects this belittling label which wrongly suggests that the Church was founded by Mor Yacqub.

Aside from their ecclesiastical role, Syriac Churchmen have contributed to world civilization. As early as the fourth century, academies and schools were set up in monasteries throughout Syria and Mesopotamia. Monks and scholars where busy studying the sciences of the Greeks, commenting on and adding to them. It is no surprise that when the Arabs, who conquered the Near East at the end of the seventh century, wanted to acquire Greek knowledge, they turned to Syriac scholars and churchmen. Arab caliphs commissioned Syriac scholars to translate the sciences of the Greeks into Arabic. In his film Forgotten Christians, Christopher Wenner describes the impact of Syriac scholars and Churchmen when he describes the school at Deir az-Za'faran monastery, “It was through the monks here that the Arabs received Greek learning, and it was the Arabs of course who passed it back to Europe. Had it not been for the Syriac monks, we in Europe might never have had a renaissance.”

The Syriac Orthodox Church survived under the dominion of many empires in the centuries that followed. Under the Arabs, Mongols, Crusades, Mamluks and Ottomans, the Syriac Orthodox Church continued its survival. Neither intimidation nor oppression could suppress the faithful, but the Church diminished in size to a fraction of what it was.

By the beginning of the 20th century, Syriac Orthodox Christianity was confined mostly to mountainous rural areas, such as Tur Abdin, and various towns in the Ottoman Empire. The worst of the persecutions was yet to come. During World War I, massacres and ethnic cleansing befell the Syriac Orthodox Christians at the hands of the Ottoman Turks and the neighboring Kurds. The year 1915 is known in Syriac by sayfo, or ‘[the year of the] sword’. It is estimated that a quarter of a million perished; villages were emptied; monasteries and Churches were destroyed. This resulted in what the Syriacs call (in Turkish) sefer berlik ‘the collective exodus’, a migration to the newly established countries of Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Palestine. Some left the Middle East all-together, forming new communities in the Americas.

As a result of further immigration that ensued, the Syriac Orthodox Church today has faithful not only in the Middle East and India, but in Europe, the Americas and Australia as well.

Faith and Doctrine
The faith of the Syriac Orthodox Church is in accordance with the Nicene Creed. It believes in the Trinity, that is one God, subsisting in three separate persons called the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The three being of one Essence, of one Godhead, have one Will, one Work and one Lordship. The special aspect of the First Person is His Fatherhood, that of the Second Person His Sonship, and that of the Third Person His Procession.

The Syriac Orthodox Church believes in the mystery of Incarnation. That is, the Only Son of God, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, took to Himself a body and became man. It further believes that at the time of Annunciation, when the Angel Gabriel was sent to the Virgin Mary, the Holy Spirit came upon her and cleansed her of all natural impurity, filling her with His grace. Then the Only Son of God came down and entered her immaculate womb, and took to Himself a body through her, thus becoming a perfect Man with a perfect Soul. After nine months, He was born of her and her virginity was maintained contrary to the laws of nature. It further believes that His true Godhead and His true Manhood were in Him essentially united, He being one Lord and one Son, and that after the union took place in Him, He had but one Nature Incarnate, was one Person, had one Will and one Work. This union is marked by being a natural union of persons, free of all separateness, intermixture, confusion, mingling, change and transformation.

The Syriac Orthodox Church calls Mary yoldath aloho, ‘Bearer of God’, because she gave birth to Christ, God truly incarnate.

The Syriac Orthodox Church believes that the death of Christ was the separation of His soul from His body, but His deity did not at any time leave either His body or His soul. It further believes that by His death for us, He conferred upon us salvation from eternal death and reconciliation with His Heavenly Father.

The Syriac Orthodox Church believes that the Holy Spirit is the Third Person of the Holy Trinity, the Spirit of Truth, proceeding from the Father. The Holy Spirit is equal with the Father and the Son. (Note. The word for ‘spirit’ in Syriac, ruho (which is also the word for ‘wind’), is grammatically feminine. Holy Spirit is referred to with the feminine pronoun in almost all early Syriac writings, though later writings refer to it in the masculine.)

Concerning the Church, the Syriac Orthodox Church believes the Church is the body of true believers in Christ, and that the Head of the Church is Our Lord God Jesus Christ. The Chief Bishop of the Syriac Orthodox Church is the Patriarch of Antioch.

With regards to Sacraments, the Syriac Orthodox Church believes that the Holy Sacraments are tangible signs designated by the Lord Christ to proclaim divine grace, which He gave for our sanctification. The Sacraments of the Church are: Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, Repentance, the Priesthood, Anointing of the Sick, and Marriage. Holy Sacraments are offered by the Bishops and the Priests. Only believers can receive the Sacraments. All but four of the Sacraments are essential for salvation: Baptism, Confirmation, Repentance and Eucharist. Of the sacraments, Baptism, Confirmation and the Priesthood may be received only once.

The Syriac Orthodox Church conforms to the teachings of the Three Ecumenical Councils of Nicea (A.D. 325), Constantinople (A.D. 381) and Ephesus (A.D. 431). It rejects the Council of Chalcedon (A.D. 451).

Form of Worship
In accordance with Psalm 119, verse 164, “Seven times in the day have I praised thee for thy judgments, O Righteous One,” the Syriac Orthodox Church set the times for prayer to seven: Evening or ramsho prayer (Vespers), Drawing of the Veil or Sootoro prayer (Compline), Midnight or lilyo prayer, Morning or saphro prayer (Matins), the Third Hour or tloth sho`in prayer (Prime, 9 a.m.), the Sixth Hour or sheth sho`in prayer (Sext, noon) and the Ninth Hour or tsha` sho`in prayer (Nones, 3 p.m.). The Midnight prayer consists of three qawme ‘watches’ (literarily ‘standing’).

The ecclesiastical day begins in the evening at sunset. For example, Monday starts at sunset on Sunday evening. Hence, Monday's evening (ramsho) and compline (sootoro) prayers, are actually performed on Sunday in our modern reckoning. Today, even in monasteries, the evening and compline prayers are said together, as also the Midnight and Morning prayers, and the Three, Six and Nine O'Clock prayers, reducing the times of prayer to three.

During prayers, the worshipper stands facing the East, holding his hands stretched out. (For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of man - Matthew 24:27.)

The sign of the cross is made with the right hand. The thumb, first finger and second finger are brought together and the first finger is extended further than the thumb and second finger, indicating that Christ is the One and Only Savior. The sign of the cross is drawn starting from the forehead, down to the breast and then from the left to the right shoulder. This tradition symbolizes that the Lord Christ, came down to earth from the heights, and redeemed our earthly body from the gloomy paths of darkness (left), to the paths of truth and light (right).

Public prayer is important in Syriac Christianity. Traditionally, the Holy Qurbono, i.e. Eucharist, is celebrated every Sunday, Wednesday and Friday. Presently, only monasteries observe the Wednesday and Friday Holy Qurbono. Monasteries, and some churches, observe daily prayers known as shhimo ‘simple [prayers]’.

Apart from sermons, all prayers are sung in the form of chants and melodies. Thousands of tunes and melodies existed, most of which are unfortunately lost. Still hundreds of melodies remain and these are preserved in the Treasury of Tunes known in Syriac as Beth Gazo. Since a musical notation system was not developed, the tunes were transmitted down the ages as oral tradition. As a result a few schools of music emerged, most notably Mardin, Edessa, Tur `Abdin, and Kharput, to name a few.

During the celebration of the Eucharist, priests and deacons put on elaborate vestments which are unique to the Syriac Orthodox Church. Whether in the Middle East, India, Europe, the Americas or Australia, the same vestments are worn by all clergy.

Church Hierarchy
The supreme head of the Syriac Orthodox Church is the Patriarch of Antioch and all the East. He also presides over the Holy Synod, the assembly of all bishops.

The local head of the church in Malankara (India) is the Catholicos of the East. The Catholicos is under the jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Antioch and is accountable to the Holy Synod and the local Malankara Synod. He is consecrated by the Patriarch and presides over the local Holy Synod.

The local head of every archdiocese is an archbishop. He is under the jurisdiction of the Patriarch and is accountable to the Holy Synod. The archbishop is ordained by the Patriarch and at least two bishops. Some archdioceses are ‘patriarchal vicarates’; the patriarchal vicar, regardless of ecclesiastical office, is accountable directly to the Patriarch.

Each parish is assigned a vicar. He is under the direct jurisdiction of his archbishop and is directly accountable to him. The parish is run by a board of trustees (or a committee) which is elected by the parishioners and approved by the archbishop.

Deacons assist the priest in the administration of the liturgy. Each archdiocese may have one archdeacon who is called “the right hand of the bishop.” Only qualified and learned deacons are elevated to this office.

There are three ranks of priesthood in the Syriac Orthodox Church:

Episcopate: Within it there are the ranks of Patriarch, Catholicos, archbishop, and bishop.
Vicarate: Within it there are the ranks of chor-episcopos and priest or qasheesho.
Deaconate: Within it there are the ranks of archdeacon, evangelical-deacon, subdeacon, lector or qoruyo and singer or mzamrono.