Daily Archives: September 24, 2014

‘Greek Poverty Premeditated’

One of the most respected bishops of the Church of Greece, Metropolitan Seraphim of Piraeus, has organized a highly popular concert in aid of the Greek poor. Substantial amounts of money were collected at the concert on behalf of those suffering from the financial crisis.

The Metropolitan spoke out at the concert, saying: ‘We live at a time of tragedy for our country. The reason for the catastrophe is not some natural cataclysm, but the greed and premeditated plan of the global government. But Greece has lived through much harsher trials and has always overcome them with faith in Christ and the immortal ideals of our people. Notably the Orthodox Church has always been the ark of salvation for Greeks’….’The Church is not a ministry of social defence, her aim and task is the Kingdom of Heaven and that is why she is an inspiration for us in overcoming our weaknesses. In today’s situation when the State is helpless, like a vacuum, the Church has taken on itself its task. Our means are few, but with unlimited love and trust in the Lord we are carrying out our ministry. If need be, we are ready to sell off even the candelabra and lamps from our churches in order to help those in need’.

http://ruskline.ru/news_rl/2014/09/24/prichinoj_katastrofy_stali_ne_prirodnye_kataklizmy_a_prednamerennyj_plan_mirovogo_pravitelstva/

The Glory of the Isles

Written from an Orthodox standpoint and intended primarily for older children and teenagers, this booklet, first printed in 2009, sold out and now reprinted, can also be read by adults. In simple language, it explains the history of the first thousand years of Christianity in Great Britain and Ireland. Giving the lives of the main saints of Britain and Ireland, it is abundantly illustrated with a map, eleven line drawings and thirteen icons, all printed on glossy paper.

Its chapters explain the Glastonbury legend of St Joseph of Arimathea, the stories of St Alban and the Celtic saints, Patrick, David, Columba, Aidan, the Italian Archbishop of Canterbury St Augustine, the Greek Archbishop of Canterbury St Theodore, then St Bede and other English heroes like St Edmund, St Alfred (with his unique icon) and St Alphege. It considers the Norman Invasion with sadness and looks forward to a potential rebirth of native Orthodoxy under the spiritual guidance of St John the Wonderworker and St Elizabeth the New Martyr. It concludes:

‘For we have a spiritual secret weapon buried in our Isles, which can deliver us from the fury of the Northmen, from whom we have suffered for a thousand years. This secret weapon, which the world cannot see, understand or take from us, is the prayers of the saints of the Isles – our True Glory. The Glory of the Isles is not in the pride of the past and its crimes. It is in the humility of the Saints. And this is what makes sincere Orthodox Christians different from others’.

Printed on high quality paper, with the 2012 icon of All the Saints of Britain and Ireland on the cover, this is an ideal resource for Orthodox church schools.

Bury St Edmunds, 2014. 38 pages. £4 (6 euros/$12) postage included.

The Tragedy of the Archbishop of Canterbury

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, has stated in an interview with The Independent newspaper, well-known for its agnostic liberal-democrat stance, that he sometimes doubts in the existence of God because of the injustices in the world. ‘The other day I was praying over something as I was running and I ended up saying to God, Look this is all very well but isn’t it about time you did something – if you’re there’. Earlier in the interview, when asked if he had moments of doubt, Archbishop Welby replied: Yes. I do, in lots of different ways’. ‘There are moments, sure, when you think is there a God, where is God?’ (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/archbishop-of-canterbury-admits-doubts-about-existence-of-god-9740965.html). The scandalizing interview has today met with the characteristically Orthodox comments of a well-known St Petersburg priest, Archimandrite Nectarius (Golovkin). He has said (http://ruskline.ru/news_rl/2014/09/24/dyavolskij_krik_dushi_glavy_anglikanskoj_cerkvi/):

‘Western Catholicism gave birth to Protestantism, which entailed rationalism and atheism. Here is the spiritual chain of Catholicism. The grace of God leaves those who fall away from the living and rooted system of Orthodoxy. The soul of one who has fallen away from God is not in contact with the miracles of grace, but is subject to the invasion of false and demonic signs. This unfortunate man, the head of the church of England, has not been found worthy to witness a single miracle in his life. In the Orthodox Church every priest is repeatedly in contact with Divine miracles in his ministry. I can enumerate an incalculable number of miracles in my thirty years of pastoral ministry. There have been miracles ranging from the sending of rain through the prayers of Orthodox Christians to amazing and incomprehensible signs from God. I can only feel sorry for this Anglican because he belongs to a so-called church which is sterile. There is no grace in it, no sense of standing before God’.

‘The head of the church of England belongs to a withered branch that has fallen away. Anglicanism has abandoned the living power of Orthodoxy, the rooted system fed by the grace of the Holy Spirit. We have not spilled and squandered apostolic teaching, we have kept it with great care, we have cared for the chalice of the grace of God in the bosom of the Orthodox Church’.

‘The statement by this Anglican is indicative of the state of a soul which is outside the grace of the Orthodox Church….It is not by chance that it is said: ‘God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble’. The pride which engendered the fall from Orthodoxy has produced Divine resistance. All sects and heresies arose from pride. When some reformer or other states his teaching, he opposes himself to the Church, to the Universal Councils. When someone leaves the Church, it is a sign of pride, which allies him with the devil’.

For our part, we wonder why the former oil executive, Justin Welby, has not the honesty to give up his large salary and prestigious home and hand over his office to someone who actually believes in and knows Jesus Christ, the Son of God.