Women in the Altar - Fr. Lawrence Farley addresses some misconceptions

In my experience, when feminists look for sticks with which to beat the Orthodox Church as old, outdated, and misogynistic, as well as making reference to our well-known refusal to ordain women to holy orders, they often also refer to our prohibition against women entering the altar, that is, the area behind the icon screen, the space containing the holy table. “Not only can women not be ordained in your church,” they say, “they can’t even enter the altar area.” By making this observation, the feminists are really asking the question, “What’s wrong with you guys anyway?” In a day when almost all other churches have women clergy who stand at the altar table and preside as priests, our prohibition against women even entering the altar area utterly mystifies them.
So what’s the deal? What does the customary prohibition against women in the altar mean? Admittedly, some Orthodox attitudes about women in the altar do make Orthodoxy something of a hard sell in the world. I think of a story of one clergyman saying that a female iconographer, working in his church, could paint the icons in the altar area, but only after the tabernacle containing the reserved Gifts was removed. And of the story of clergy of forbidding women from entering the altar any time for any reason whatsoever, even to clean it on a Friday afternoon.
Is it true that women, as women, have always been absolutely forbidden to enter the altar area for fear that their presence would somehow defile it? Well, no, actually. In the early Church, from about the third century, anyway, deaconesses were ordained for their specifically feminine ministry, and were ordained at the altar. The early Church, therefore, had no problem with the women being in the altar, provided she had a reason to be there. St. Gregory the Theologian even praised his mother, St. Nonna, for having ended her earthly life “clinging to the altar table,” as he said.
So where does this prohibition come from? In part, at least, it comes from Canon 44 of the Council of Laodicea, held in about the mid-fourth century. Said canon simply reads, “Women may not go to the altar,” without giving any reason or rationale for the prohibition. Presumably everyone at Laodicea then knew the context, and therefore the rationale for the decision didn’t need to be spelled out.
A hint about what that reason might have been can be gathered from Canon 69 of the so-called Quinisext Council, the council that appended in 692 to the Fifth and Sixth Ecumenical Councils held earlier. That canon reads, “It is not permitted to a layman to enter the holy altar, though in accordance with a certain ancient tradition, the imperial power and authority is by no means prohibited from this when he wishes to offer his gifts to the Creator.” This canon prohibits any laity from entering the altar, though it makes an exception for the emperor, who customarily entered the altar to make his own gift. Being an emperor clearly had its own privileges.
It would seem that certain people from the laity were in the habit of entering the altar area, probably because they thought that such a public show would add to their prestige. Canon 69 forbids this, and says that no one should enter the altar area during the service unless there is a liturgical reason to do so. We note in passing that the ordination of deaconesses at the altar, in places where deaconesses existed, would have constituted such a liturgical reason.
Consistent with this, I suggest that in Laodicea certain women were in the habit of entering the altar area for reasons of prestige. Human nature being what it is, I suspect that these were rich women who entered the altar to flaunt their wealthy and important status, and that Canon 44 of Laodicea forbids it because the desire to flaunt one’s importance is not a valid reason to enter a place set apart for liturgical worship.
The abiding teaching of the Church seems to be that no one—man or woman—may enter the altar during the Liturgy unless there is a valid and liturgical reason for doing so. Women in Laodicea then, and universally now, not having a liturgical function of serving at the altar, have no reason to enter, during the Liturgy. This is the interpretation of the prohibition, and is consistent with the present custom of women monastics helping the priest in the altar during the Liturgy when the priest serves in a women’s monastery. There being only women in a women’s monastery, sometimes nuns serve with the priest to hand him the censer, to prepare the zeon, and to perform the other duties. I am told that they do so unvested, that is, not dressed as subdeacons or as acolytes in a stichar, but simply in their usual monastic habit.
This shows that the canonical custom is less about women as women as it is about function and necessity. In all this, the Church’s concern is not to keep down women out of a spirit of misogyny, but rather to preserve the dignity of the altar as a place of liturgy and prayer.


Source:
transcript & Audio

http://www.ancientfaith.com/podcasts/commentaries/women_in_the_altar

Excerpt from Why Sola Scriptura Doesn’t Work

Saint Augustine describes the type of person fit for the proper study and understanding of scripture on Christian doctrine. Fr. Whiteford summarizes for us in this helpful tract saying that such a person

One: Loves God with his whole heart and is empty of pride.
Two: Is motivated to seek the knowledge of God’s will by faith and reverence rather than pride or greed.
Three: Has a heart subdued by piety, a purified mind dead to the world, and neither fears nor seeks to please men.
Four: Seeks nothing but knowledge of, and union with Christ.
Five: Hungers and thirsts after righteousness, and
Six: Is diligently engaged in works of mercy and love.

Absent from this description in Saint Augustine is the kind of PhD a person has acquired, the university that granted it, or a mastery of the finer points of ancient near-Eastern history. While all these things are great in their own right, they neither guarantee nor even suggest that a person with that sort of experience is equipped to understand the scriptures as part of Holy Tradition. Without rejecting scholarship we must be careful to balance scholarship with the necessary holiness, piety and mystical union with Christ which can only take place in His body, the Apostolic and Catholic Church of the interpreter.
If we truly believe that the scriptures are divinely inspired by the Holy Spirit then their right understanding can only be the result of theosis or deification. If our salvation is an acquisition of the Holy Spirit, as Saint Seraphim of Sarov says, then with that acquisition comes the mind of God, a mind that is attuned to the breath of the Spirit as he breathes through the life of the Church.
The Church is not some other competing academic institution alongside seminaries and universities. Those led astray by the academy can be tempted to subvert tradition for the sake of, let’s say, academic merit-badges. But rather than pitting the Church against the scholarly community, we must learn to appreciate both in their proper context, reminding ourselves that the qualities of a true interpreter of Divine Revelation are more related to holiness than they are to academic credentials. If a scholar’s primary goal is to blaze new trails, be controversial or directly subvert Holy Tradition, they are not seeking the mind of Christ.
The Church is the very body of Christ as 1 Corinthians 12-27 says. If it is the fullness or the pleroma of God as it says in Ephesians 1:23, and as Paul writes in 1 Timothy 3:15, it is the pillar and ground (or foundation) of truth.
It is only in the life of that mystical, theanthropic, or divine human communion, that a person can ever hope to acquire this mind, and to both read and understand the scriptures rightly as the precious summit and anchor of God’s revelation to His people.


Source:

full transcript and audio
http://www.ancientfaith.com/podcasts/commentaries/why_sola_scriptura_doesnt_work

Quote by St. Maximos the Confessor

Even if the whole universe holds communion with the [Latinizing] Patriarch, I will not communicate with him. For I know from the writings of the holy Apostle Paul: the Holy Spirit declares that even the angels would be anathema if they should begin to preach another Gospel, introducing some new teaching.

+ St. Maximos the Confessor, The Life of Our Holy Father St. Maximus the Confessor (Boston: Holy Transfiguration, 1982)


Source online:

http://orthodoxchurchquotes.com/category/sayings-from-saints-elders-and-fathers/st-maximos-the-confessor/

Quote by St. Maximus the Confessor

“Inasmuch as you pray with all your soul for the one who has slandered you, so much will God reveal the truth to them who have believed the slander. “

– St. Maximus the Confessor, Chapters on Love, 4.89

Quote by St. Maximus the Confessor

“A soul that is nurtured by hatred toward man can not be at peace with God, Who has said: If you forgive not men their sins, neither shall your Father forgive your sins (Matt. 6:15). If a man does not want to be reconciled, you must at least guard yourself from hating, praying with a pure heart for him, and speaking no evil of him.”


+ St. Maximus the Confessor, Chapters on Love, 4.35


Source online:

http://orthodoxchurchquotes.com/category/sayings-from-saints-elders-and-fathers/st-maximos-the-confessor/

Quote by St. Maximos the Confessor

“He who gives alms in imitation of God does not discriminate between the wicked and the virtuous, the just and the unjust, when providing for men’s bodily needs.”


– St. Maximos the Confessor, First Century on Love, No. 24

Quote by St. Maximos the Confessor

“You should know that you have been greatly benefited when you have suffered deeply because of some insult or indignity; for by means of the indignity self-esteem has been driven out of you.”


– St. Maximos the Confessor

http://orthodoxchurchquotes.com/category/sayings-from-saints-elders-and-fathers/st-maximos-the-confessor/

Quote by St. Maximos the Confessor

“Many human activities, good in themselves, are not good because of the motive for which they are done. For example, fasting and vigils, prayer and psalmody, acts of charity and hospitality are by nature good, but when performed for the sake of self-esteem they are not good.”


– St. Maximos the Confessor
Four Hundred Texts on Love, Second Century


Source Online:

http://orthodoxchurchquotes.com/category/sayings-from-saints-elders-and-fathers/st-maximos-the-confessor/

Quote by St. Maximus the Confessor

“If we detect any trace of hatred in our hearts against any man whatsoever for committing any fault, we are utterly estranged from love for God, since love for God absolutely precludes us from hating any man.”


– St. Maximus the Confessor

Source Online:

http://orthodoxchurchquotes.com/category/sayings-from-saints-elders-and-fathers/st-maximos-the-confessor/

Quote by St. Maximos the Confessor

The sacred Scripture, taken as a whole, is like a human being.  The Old
Testament is the body and the New is the soul, the meaning it contains, the spirit. From another viewpoint we can say that the entire sacred Scripture, Old and New Testament, has two aspects: the historical content which corresponds to the body, and the deep meaning, the goal at which the mind should aim, which corresponds to the soul. If we think of human beings, we see they are mortal in their visible properties
but immortal in their invisible qualities.
So with Scripture. It contains the letter, the visible text, which is transitory.
But it also contains the spirit hidden beneath the letter, and this is never
extinguished and this ought to be the object of our contemplation. Think of human  beings again. If they want to be perfect, they master their passions and mortify the flesh. So with Scripture. If it is heard in a spiritual way, it trims the text, like
circumcision.
Paul says: `Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is
being renewed every day.’ [2 Cor. 4:16] We can say that also of Scripture. The further the letter is divorced from it, the more relevance the spirit acquires. The more the shadows of the literal sense retreat, the more the shining truth of the faith advances. And this is exactly why Scripture was composed.


– St. Maximos the Confessor

Source Online:

http://orthodoxchurchquotes.com/category/sayings-from-saints-elders-and-fathers/st-maximos-the-confessor/

Quote by St. Maximos the Confessor

“Do not say that you are the temple of the Lord, writes Jeremiah (cf. Jer. 7:4); nor should you say that faith alone in our Lord Jesus Christ can save you, for this is impossible unless you also acquire love for Him through your works.
As for faith by itself, ‘the devils also believe, and tremble’ (Jas. 2:19).”


– St. Maximos the Confessor

Source Online:

http://orthodoxchurchquotes.com/category/sayings-from-saints-elders-and-fathers/st-maximos-the-confessor/

Quote by St. Maximos the Confessor

Nothing created by God is evil. It is not food that is evil but gluttony, not the begetting of children but unchastity, not material things but avarice, not esteem but self-esteem. It is only the misuse of things that is evil, not the things themselves.”

–St. Maximos the Confessor


Source Online:

http://orthodoxchurchquotes.com/category/sayings-from-saints-elders-and-fathers/st-maximos-the-confessor/

Quote by St. Symeon the New Theologian

"Our holy fathers have renounced all other spiritual work and concentrated wholly on this one doing, that is, on guarding the heart, convinced that, through this practice, they would easily attain every other virtue, whereas without it not a single virtue can be firmly established."


Source online:

http://orthodoxwiki.org/Symeon_the_New_Theologian

Quote by St. Maximus the Confessor

To the extent that you pray from your soul for the one who spread scandal about you, God will reveal the truth to those who were told the scandal.

- St. Maximus the Confessor, Four Hundred Chapters on Love, Fourth Century, #89


Source online:

http://genuineorthodoxchurch.com/5fromStMaximosConfessor.htm

Saying by Abba Pimen

“A man may seem to be silent, but if his heart is condemning others, he is babbling ceaselessly. But there may be another who talks from morning till night and yet he is truly silent, that is, he says nothing that is not profitable.”

~ Abba Pimen

Quote by St. Symeon the New Theologian

{The man who is united to God } sees things of which I am not able to write. His mind sees strange visions and is wholly illuminated and becomes like light, yet he is unable to conceive of them or describe them. His mind is itself light and sees all things as light, and the light has life and imparts light to him who sees it. He sees himself wholly united to the light, and as he sees he concentrates on the vision and is as he was. He perceives the light in his soul and is in ecstasy. In his ecstasy he sees it from afar, but as he returns to himself he finds himself again in the midst of the light. He is thus altogether at a loss for words and concepts to describe what he has perceived in his vision.


("Symeon the New Theologian: The Discourses", p. 56)

online Source:

http://iwillmanifestmyself.com/Christian%20Mysticism/Symeon/kunda.html

Quote by St. Symeon the New Theologian

Thou hadst come to me and didst seem to me to be washing me in the waters and pouring them upon me and dipping me into them many times. I saw the lightnings that were flashing about me and the rays of Thy countenance mingled with the waters, and I was struck with amazement as I saw that I was being washed with luminous water. I knew not whence it came, or who supplied it; I merely rejoiced as I was being washed and grew in faith. My hope took wings and flew as high as heaven.



("Symeon the New Theologian: The Discourses", p. 372)


online source:

http://iwillmanifestmyself.com/Christian%20Mysticism/Symeon/kunda.html

Quote by St. Symeon the New Theologian

Hitherto I had frequently seen a light, at times within, when my soul had enjoyed calmness and peace. At times it appeared to me externally, from afar, or even it was completely hidden, and by its hiddenness caused me the unbearable pain of thinking I would not see it again. But when I lamented and wept and displayed complete solitude and obedience and humility it appeared to me again. It was like the sun as it penetrates through the thickness of mist and gradually shows itself a gently glowing sphere. Thus Thou, the ineffable, the invisible, the impalpable, the immovable, who always are everywhere present in all things and fillest everything, at all times, or if I may say so, by day and by night, art seen and art hidden. Thou goest away and Thou comest, Thou dost vanish from sight and Thou suddenly appearest. So bit by bit Thou didst scatter the darkness that was within me; Thou didst dispel the mist and dissolve the thickness; Thou didst clean the dim eyes of my intellect. Thou didst remove the barriers of my eyes and didst open them; Thou tookest away the veil of insensitivity. At the same time Thou didst put to sleep all passion and every fleshly pleasure and totally expel them from me. Having thus brought me to this state Thou didst clear the heaven of every mist. By "the heaven" I mean the soul Thou hast cleansed in which Thou comest invisibly (how or from whence I know not). Thou who art everywhere present art suddenly found and manifested like another sun. O ineffable condescension!


("Symeon the New Theologian: The Discourses", pp. 364-365)


Online Source:

http://iwillmanifestmyself.com/Christian%20Mysticism/Symeon/kunda.html

Quote by Saint Symeon the New Theologian

Thou Thyself becamest visible… {Thou} didst grant me to see the outline of Thy form beyond shape. At that time Thou tookest me out of the world -- I might even say, out of the body, but Thou didst not grant me to know this exactly. Thou didst shine yet more brightly and it seemed that I saw Thee clearly in Thy entirety. When I said, "O Master, who art Thou?" then, for the first time Thou didst grant me, the prodigal, to hear Thy voice. How gently didst Thou speak to me, who was beside myself, in awe and trembling… Thou saidest, "I am God who have become man for your sake. Because you have sought me with all your soul, behold, from now on you will be My brother, My fellow heir, and My friend/


Saint Symeon the New Theologian


Online Source:

http://iwillmanifestmyself.com/Christian%20Mysticism/Symeon/kunda.html
 

Quote by St Theophan the Recluse

Examine yourself to see whether you have within you a strong sense of your own self importance, or negatively, whether you have failed to realize that you are nothing.  This feeling of self-importance is deeply hidden, but it controls the whole of our life.  Its first demand is that everything should be as we wish it, and as soon as this is not so we complain to God and are annoyed with people.

Saint Theophan the Recluse


Source:

http://blog.gaiam.com/quotes/authors/st-theophan-recluse

a layman's thoughts ~ Sola Scriptura was it the way of the Early Eastern Church?

Glory to God!



     Is Scripture alone the answer? Can we reconstruct the early Church with Scripture alone? Why was Scripture alone something the reformers were so eager to push forward?


   It seems that the only counter against the church of Rome was Sola Scriptura. It was the counter to the tradition of the Roman Church. We have years and years of tradition and so what do you have? We have Scripture!

   The Church seems to work better when there is both Scripture and Church helping each other. The Two working together to protect each other and the life of the Body of Christ. Scripture protects the Tradition (Church) and the Tradition protects scripture. These should not be adversaries. Christ's Humanity was not at war with His Divinity, but both were in unity working together, never divided, never separated and never mixed. Fully God and Fully man.

   Our Scripture beats your Tradition. This may have been a logical way to fight the Roman Church, but it leads to some strange things over time as these two become adversaries and no longer working in harmony. Scripture without the Tradition that is the Life of the Church can become letter only or even bibliolatry or book worship. While Tradition removed from the Scriptures, the very instructions written for the purpose of leading towards God, can become something invented and mixed with man's weaknesses, traditions of men, missing the mark. That is why we guard both, watch and pray that neither gets fragmented or confused or mixed.

   If Scripture was the answer for all time why was it not successful in dealing with the early heresies? Each of the parties would bring scripture to attest to their points. But during these controversies with Arianism or Gnosticism, etc., each party brought a different scriptural reading and interpretation. Who was right or correct? It had to come down to Tradition. This is the life of the Church, this is how we have lived and, now, you tell us it is wrong. We have understood Christ in this way and now you want to tell us that he is a creature, albeit a lofty one at that, but not God. The answer was simple to the Life of the Church. The Saints and Church Fathers had spoken, the laity had spoken, the Priests and Deacons had spoken. It is always and sometimes expediently easy to get involved with some new "ism" of the day over the course of 2,000 years and let it shape understanding.

   It is easy to bring old sage philosophies that are now "outdated" and use them to interpret big "T" Theology. To bring in Platonism or Augustinianism or Thomism, humanism, etc., and let the schema of man's speculations guide the Faith of the Saints. But should we do it? Should our reason be able even to understand such heights as the Incarnation or the beginning of something coming from nothing? Christ is the culmination and the anticipation of the sages of old and probably mythology points to Christ as well. Christ interprets the past in a more clear picture than the past interpreting Him. The rivers of the philosophers, the myths, and old religions of men all flow into the sea that is Christ. He completes their journey, He is what they were anticipating. He has done it, the work is complete.

   The Scripture alone idea may have been logical to fight off Roman Catholicism, but it was only a matter of time before Denominationalism would confuse and fragment things even more. It seems what was traded was the Supremacy of the Papacy for Supremacy of the Individual papacy. Each person interpreting Scripture with their current age, their biases, their conjectures and imaginations. And all this with no spiritual father or patron Saint or even the deep study of the Church Fathers, Church Councils and the unbroken Life of the Church. It is no wonder that there is so much division and denominations are growing even greater. How will the unity and agreement come forth? By the Wonder of God for sure. However, our participation needs to be willing as there is no love in force.

   Even creeds, Saints, dogmas and these things are not trusted in themselves but in how they lead to the Holy Life... to a life in Christ, theosis, Christ-like. This Holy life is the Tradition or life of the Church. The very road signs to lead to theosis. It is lived by some right now. Heaven is lived by some right now. It is not just a promise of Heaven after you die, but Heaven right now. It is the Life of the Spirit and not the letter which kills.

   What the early Apostles had for scripture where the Old Testament. So how did they build the New Testament Church from the Old Scriptures? There was no New Testament yet and would not be gathered all together, in the 27 books we have today, for some hundreds of years. So how did they construct the Church of Christ? There is good indication that it was started with the Jewish system in mind but with New Convenant sacrifices for the Old, The Body and Blood of Christ. Bishops, Priests, Deacons and Laity where the four that made up the Church of Christ. Apostolic succession was teaching and living handed down to the next generation, not by the fancies of secular life or juridical ideas infused herein, but something other-worldly. If the Scriptures alone had the ability to lead to this life of God, why are we in such division between churches in America, Europe, and the West. And why is the East so far from the West in understanding. Because there is a distinct difference between man's philosophies and imaginations and the mystical experience of men who commune with God and know not from scholastic study or syllogistic arguments, but from Him who illumines all truth, directly. These men came forth when they needed to and were not popular, rich, charismatic, but spoke as they needed to speak in the eloquent tongue of the Holy Spirit. Many of them were exiled and lived hard, painful lives for their confessions of Truth. But these words, recorded in Christ's Church (St. Basil "The Great", St Gregory "The Theologian", St John Chrysostom "The golden mouth", St. Athanasius "The Great" of Alexandria and many more....), were other-worldly and remain Theological teachings that need to be understood theologically and not scholastically or as the scientific method tests and proves things according to its ways. These are beyond the realm of man's rational mind and enter into the Divine realm of which we remain outside of until called.
 
   Should the Church Fathers be a footnote today since all we need is the Scriptures? Should the countless Saints and Elders and their wonders be left out of the Life and History of the Church? Should we dare to remove the Powers and Miracles of God and the mystical and replace it with rational faith, scholastic and reasonable mathematics, worldly philosophies? What is lost in all this? Who benefits from this? Are we more together today than in the early Church? Are we more united and in agreement? Maybe naturalism benefits and atheistic Science? Because if you remove the power and wonders of God... man will make his own wonders, and fulfill his own end apart from God or instead of Him. It is an interesting time between East and West. Does the Church of Christ have anything to offer modern man or will it have anything to offer man when the doctors and therapists become our Priests and the Hospitals become our Cathedrals?

   The idea of Scripture alone has presented problems in the history of Christ's Church as it places the tradition at the hands of the individual and not the collective whole voice of the Church throughout time and this is a shaky place as proved by the many, not soon ending, denominations. We do not need more fragmentation. Our unity as men and women resides in the unity of the Godhead in communion throughout eternity with each other, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Our end is this unity as well, this bliss, this joy, this peace, and this love. It means communion with our brethren, the Body of Christ. What protects Tradition--- Scripture! What protects Scripture--- Tradition! These are not adversaries and neither is greater than the other.


Thanks to:


Christ God eternal
Fr. Photios
Fr. Dean
Brother Lawrence Janic
Clark Carlton
Jordan Bajis
The Church Fathers and all the Saints
and the Eastern Orthodox Church of which I am a small part


May God richly bless everyone to life Eternal and a good account before the awesome judgment seat of Christ. With the intercession prayers of the Theotokos, St Peter, St Basil, St Prophyrios  of Mt. Athos and all the saints. Amen
  
  

  

a layman's thoughts ~ The Church is a Mystery of Eucharistic Community part II

     Why has there become confusion to these Holy Mysteries in the church? Why the divisions? Can Christ be in division? Can there be communion among conflict?

   There reason why is the Western insistence to try to rationalize these things and either explain the power there or remove it all together as unscientific. Our reason can then become something that replaces faith and creates our own strange reality. The Western issue arises somewhere after the dark ages, the influx of barbarian/Germanic philosophies that swept into the fall of the Roman West, and man's scientific method of discovering the world from the outside inward. Here we see the Renaissance and the Enlightenment and the move to Humanism and man becoming the measure of all things.

   The scientific method has its place, but we must remember that it should not be an end in itself. The rational method of discovering the universe should not be understood as being able to explain everything or to even explain God away like some have done using this tool. It is a tool, but not our savior.  It can become and does become a false god, an idol. Somewhere in the West the mysteries of God have been replaced with the reason of man and this has removed beauty from many of the West's Protestant churches. The story of scripture through iconography has been replaced by white walls as if history and Church Fathers and Saints are something to be forgotten. The power of Eucharist and Christ's presence has just become a thing to remember of old, lacking any real power of God, but an empty symbol.

   If we minimize the Powers of God, what are we messing with exactly? How do we cure our condition if we do not take our medicine? How do we heal the heart or nous of mankind? Will this be done through modern medicine and the pharmacy? Can the heart of man solely be cured this way? Yes, we should heal the body and ease our pains; however, it is the heart that is sick before God. We already know that the body is going to decay and die. What about the heart of man and its position before God? The Orthodox Church of Christ sees this issue very clearly and provides the Eucharist the way a hospital would give medicine. This medicine is for the heart. The mystery of Confession serves as a lifetime of removing the cancerous growths in our hearts so that we may partake of God's Uncreated energies, communion with God. When we mess with these gifts that The Church of Christ offers us, we are left with something other, different. We also cease to be in communion with each other and this is denominationalism, division at work. The Church of Christ cannot be divided.

   The Protestant Reformers set out to return to form, but what form? Was the Roman Catholic form accurate before indulgences and other faults that Luther and Calvin wanted to restore? But what was the real form? If the Roman Catholic Church had lost the form due to barbaric philosophies, political instabilities, papal authority, creedal novelties, and other theological issues, then how could it return to a form it did not have? An error can only be reformed back to error or a different type of error.

   The idea of sola scriptura presented  a challenge to Roman Catholic tradition. It was really the only avenue that the Reformers could take. What can fight tradition except our way is "by the book" the Bible is our authority. But it seems that this idea only created another issue, the idea of whose interpretation of Scripture will we go with? It seems that it traded the papacy for the papacy of the individual. The Eastern Church has always protected its Tradition or Life of the Church by both Scripture and Tradition (The Life of the Church). Each of these protects the other and interprets the other. Scripture without the Life of the Church can become something in letter only, while tradition without the Holy Scriptures loses the inspiration of the teaching that inspired the Saints and Church Fathers and the Holy Tradition. The heresies that came upon the Church where not defeated by scripture alone because the enemies of The Church used the same scriptures to argue their cases. What won out in the end was the Life of the Church inspired by the Life of the Holy Spirit. The Church lived its life and that life was The Church, and no false interpretation or sola scriptura alone could defend this.

   Its not to say that the Reformers may not have meant well, but it is really impossible to reform something when the original is not known. Talks between the Orthodox and the Reformers happened, but there was no consensus, as too many of the novelties of the Western church were too far along in the minds of the reformers. It seems true that Luther and Calvin probably believed in the importance of the Church Fathers, but at least the later Reformers and to the present have left these out and focused on Scripture alone. Can we really re-construct the church from the 16th century and now reform it with the influence of the 21st? Seems to me that this would be near impossible without the life of the past and how that life was lived as big "T" Tradition or the Life of the Holy Spirit. This does not come from a book alone for it is the Spirit that gives life. We do not live by letters or words, but by what those words point towards. The Presence of Christ illumines the Scriptures. The Scriptures themselves are man-made words, historical of course and elegantly beautiful, but in and of themselves are not Christ for we do not worship a book or letters. What the mysteries are and why they are important and have been important needs to be looked at again.

   The mysteries or sacraments are an essential part of the Orthodox Church of Christ. They are for us and for the "new man" in Christ. To trivialize these Gifts is to lose something beautiful and powerful that God wishes to share with man. Because what we have gotten in its place is science and our own intellectual powers working alone for the restoration of the universe. We have joined with the created and that remains in decay and death. Without God this painting is once again man made and in error and misses the mark. However, working with God's mysteries and our physical efforts in synchronicity, we who are created enter into the Uncreated glory of God and through theosis, we become Christ-like. But we need to do this in communion with one another and not as fragments or denominations. Christ is with us in communion and agreement not in disorder, schism, and chaos. These latter things are of the devil and darkness and work for disharmony. There is no disharmony in the Godhead, between the loving communion of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

  



Thanks to:


Christ God eternal
Fr. Photios
Fr. Dean
Brother Lawrence Janic
Clark Carlton
Jordan Bajis
The Church Fathers and all the Saints
and the Eastern Orthodox Church of which I am a small part


May God richly bless everyone to life Eternal and a good account before the awesome judgment seat of Christ. With the intercession prayers of the Theotokos, St Eugenia, St Athena, and all the saints. Amen
  
  

a layman's thoughts ~ The Church is a Mystery of Eucharistic Community

Glory to God!


   There can be no rational or scholastic definition of the Church. No set of things that it is. It cannot be defined. That is why is has always remained something unique to the world and outside of it and in it but not of it. It stands forever as a beautiful mysterious image of the earthly united with the Divine and becoming one. How can we explain such a thing? Where is its parallel on earth? When we define the Church of God as an earthly institution or something to that effect, we minimize it. Is the Church just a social hall for Christ or "feel good" place? Is it a place where we talk about Jesus and the Old testament prophets and tell stories? Yes, it has these sort of things. But what or how does the Church of Christ separate itself from things that are not even Christian, like communities of Jehovah's Witnesses or Mormon gatherings, or even other gatherings that speak of Jesus Christ, Unitarians or Universalists. Or even other communities of men and women, things that are secular or atheistic?What makes the Church of Christ unique among the institutions and communities of men?

  
   Should we invent our idea of the Church of Christ and make it suitable or more comfortable for us like choosing a flavor of ice cream? Some people like chocolate and some like strawberry... not so if the Church is not man-made or an earthly institution. We can only receive its revelation, its Life from God, through Christ and the Holy Spirit. We should not, however, attempt to make it in our image or to suit our ideas of progressivism or whatever the "ism" of the day is currently. Or make it a place to "feel good." The Church throughout its history has been sober-minded. It has not looked to entertain or to add novelties from man's imagination. But has looked to save man and have him enter into a relationship with God. Not that our feelings are bad or feeling good in church is bad. But only that our feelings and emotions are not reliable throughout history and are not the best measure of what is Holy, catholic and Apostolic. Catholic meaning in need of nothing, whole and complete.

   If the church does not have mysteries, gifts for man that are outside of man's rational understanding, then how is it like the early Church? For to remove the Saints, the monastic life and the blessed elders, and the Fathers of the Church from the Church is to take away a great deal. To remove memory of the martyrs and their acts or even their presence in the Church is to change it a great deal. Their life was the Life of the Church and they cannot be just a footnote or an asterisk in Church Life.

   Jehovah's Witness gather in Christ's name and so do Mormons, and Unitarians or Universalists, but we do not consider these Christian Churches as their teaching of Him Whom God sent is a different Christ and this was historically and theologically spoken against in the Church Councils. These stand outside the Church and are historic heresies that either have over-emphasized Christ's divinity at the expense of His humanity or have overemphasized His humanity at the expense of His divinity. Many churches meet and speak of Christ, but is that enough? Is scripture reading enough and fellowship with our brethren enough? Anybody can have a community of Jesus and meet their fellow people for social picnics and "get-togethers." But is this the Early Christian Church? Is this the life of the Early Church? Is the Early Church not a gathering of Eucharistic communion, which truly sets it apart from any social gathering in history. The real Body and Blood of Christ, the real communion with God made manifest in the this Mysterion. This Great Mystical Supper is the difference between earthly gatherings and The Church of Christ. Without this blessed mystery of God, the church can becomes earthly and strange and the power of God can become something very much forgotten.

    Can Christ's Church be a contradiction? Can it be a denomination? Should Christian Churches not be in communion with each other the same way the Father, Son and Holy Spirit are in communion? Can the Eucharist and the other mysteries be offered as the full presence of Christ in one church and only a symbol in another? This is contradictory and fragmented. Where is the truth? Can it be a symbol here and the Real Presence of Christ there? This is a problem. One big problem that people no doubt wish to forget. But it is not and cannot be forgotten. Because where there is division, Christ is not present... only where there is agreement in His name is He present. The Holy Spirit does not dwell in confusion and contradiction, that is the domain of man. The Church is whole and complete and has been for centuries. The Eastern Orthodox Church has always understood Herself as pre-denominational and as complete. Because her understanding is that there can be nothing added nor subtracted from the revelation given by the Holy Spirit through men throughout time and space.

   The communion with God is an experience like nothing else, it is no ordinary human feeling
or passion. God uses material things of the world and brings through them his gifts. God restores material things, sprouts living vines from dead sticks, brings forth sweet smelling myrrh from bones of departed saints, heals through cloth like when the woman touched Christ's clothes. He gives forth aromatic smells where death would otherwise bring forth stench. This is a foreshadowing of the restoration, not destruction, of the earth and universe. Matter is not bad and God uses it as He pleases. Eucharistic communion is an example of this, Holy water, Baptism, etc. These can carry the wonderful power of God to us.

   Can these be taken a way from the Church of Christ? It would appear they have been taken away. And what have the results been so far? What has man received in its place? What has replaced it and is it better? To be continued...

  



Thanks to:


Christ God eternal
Fr. Photios
Fr. Dean
Brother Lawrence Janic
Clark Carlton
Jordan Bajis
The Church Fathers and all the Saints
and the Eastern Orthodox Church of which I am a small part


May God richly bless everyone to life Eternal and a good account before the awesome judgment seat of Christ. With the intercession prayers of the Theotokos, St Eugenia, St Athena, and all the saints. Amen





 

a layman's thoughts ~ Roman Catholicism, the West and the infusion of Scholasticism and Roman legalism part II

Glory to God


What do we mean by the infusion of Roman legalism into Christianity? In the Eastern Christian Church, there is no papacy or head of the church. Because the Holy Spirit is its head and the life of the church. The head Bishop in the Eastern Orthodox Church is first among equals and has one vote like the rest; however, he does have power of veto. But he does not hold any special privileges that can depose other bishops or make a novel ruling just on his own. It has to be agreed upon through the life of the Church with scripture, saints and Church Fathers of the past as guides. These guides or sign-posts are worldly structures. They are not necessarily holy or an end in themselves. The Eastern Orthodox Church doe not hold any one person, Saint, Church Father or all of them together as infallible in themselves. But only as breathed forth from the Holy Spirit and taken into the life of the Church. The Holy Spirit blows where He wills and can not be monopolized by anything earthly.

   The structures and ways of the Church are to lead us to God and serve no other purpose in themselves. We do not worship saints or believe everything that was said by them is infallible because they were men. However, what does distinguish the Saints from others throughout history? I challenge everyone who reads this to study the Saints and the Church fathers for themselves. And I encourage a priest or Spiritual elder to help guide a person in these readings. Why were these writings so influential to the Church Life and to the heresies of the day? Because they were inspired by the Holy Spirit at exactly the time they were needed to speak for the Church of Christ. To distinguish Her from the chaos of the world, corruption, the demons and the devil.

   The Church is not just any institution. It rises above this category. It has earthly institutional properties, yes. but it is not an institution for that is again a worldly concept and The Church of Christ transcends this, flies above it. The Church is not a governing authority that  only tries to make people moral or "good people." Since anyone can be a morally good person regardless of belief in God. It is not ruled by a Pope or an Arch-bishop. It is not ruled by its bishops, priests, deacons and laity. It's authority is God alone through Christ and the Holy Spirit. It is a large mystery and serves as the hospital to our souls and bodies for life eternal. We take our Eucharistic medicine, the mysteries (Mysterion), and the confessional serves as a surgical procedure to draw out the corruptive tumors that we live with. But again, it is not an institutional idea, but a Heavenly one.

  As the Church is not an institution it cannot be governed the way the Roman Empire was or have any juridical idea infused into it's Mysteries. If it has creeds and structure or guidelines or leaders it is for exactly the purpose of salvation. It is not necessarily the goal of people to be a "morally good" person but to become a NEW person in Christ. Salvation is not an exterior thing where I follow a bunch of moral rules as an end in itself. This idea is Old Testament. The New Testament looks to bring us into a relationship with a Person. And this Person is Christ Eternal. Christ doesn't cancel our debt on the outside. He restores our human nature, which no one could do for humanity. He restores the human nature we all share before God. He restores us from the inside. Then He invites us to follow The Way, the Truth and the Life for ourselves.

   To cancel a debt is to remove the debt on the exterior. But how does that change a person on the inside where his heart dwells? Cancelling people's debts does not necessarily change them. An act of mercy will not always change your heart. I can pardon a murderer but it does not necessarily pardon him internally or change him at all. Something bigger has to take place within the person's heart and soul and this is a life process.

    Can we satisfy God by just following rules or is there something deeper needed inside? The rules are a start, or following rules is a start. It is an exterior act aimed at an interior reality. But it is the interior reality of the heart that makes the rules go away. He who has a full relationship with Christ has little concern for rules; he is complete and in need of nothing, at peace, in love and at rest. He is afraid of nothing and wants nothing. This is where love casts away fear, perfect love. There is the first act of doing what is right so you do not get punished. There is the second act of doing what is right for a reward and then there is the highest life of the Spirit, being in Love that casts away all fear. This foremost spiritual reality is Christ; it is the Communion Eternal that is within the Godhead and always has been. It is this communion that we lack in the world of contraries, chaos and fear.

   Did God need some juridical act that laid all the sin onto Christ that man has done and will do to cancel a debt. It does not appear so. The life, death and resurrection of Christ was to restore human nature common to all men, to defeat death, to defeat the devil and corruption, and to offer this Life to man. Was God under some legal ruling that He had to satisfy. Did He need to see Jesus before all the faces of men so he would not remain angry anymore? Did He need to unleash His wrath on someone to satisfy Himself? Did all the sin of the World make God so angry that he needed His Son to punish in our place? I don't think so. This is just bad theology. And just makes God seem like man and man's idea of passion mixed with man's justice. These just personify our insecurities and errors onto God. They are more the mythological gods of Rome, India, and Greece. These sound like gods made in man's image. God is not under any law or juridical system that he has to follow. God is above all our ideas of justice, laws or government. He is under no obligation and no system or thing is above Him. God has always looked upon man with compassion and Love, hence taking on Humanity and restoring it through the Logos, The Word of God, Jesus. Did He once see man in anger and now sees His Son instead? God has always seen man with love and compassion. God never changes. It is man who changes, his ideas change, his views change. God is the same today and throughout the ages of ages. The Eastern Orthodox Church would not see God in this way as needing to satisfy some debt with Himself and man because He has never looked at man in any other way than love. He did not once see Adam with love and then when Adam sinned became angry with him... and then when the Son died for Adam and all men...  God is inn love with man again. This to the Eastern mindset is a God that changes. And God does not change.

   This Roman legalistic act of cancellation of debt changes salvation to be something exterior. Salvation is something interior, and not an outside cancellation. it is the nous or the heart that needs to change, transform into the Life of Christ. When we bring man-made philosophies into the Church, we begin to change it and then it unfortunately becomes just any earthly institution and denominational or a fragment. We must remember that the Church cannot be a fragment as there is no such thing. The Church is complete, undivided, not confused and is  all visible, indivisible, and invisible.


I would like to thank:
Christ God eternal
Fr. Photios
Fr. Dean
Brother Lawrence Janic
Clark Carlton
Jordan Bajis
The Church Fathers and all the Saints
and the Eastern Orthodox Church of which I am a small part


May God richly bless everyone to life Eternal and a good account before the awesome judgment seat of Christ. With the intercession prayers of the Theotokos, St Eugenia, St Athena, and all the saints. Amen