Orthodixie

KNOXVILLE (WATE) — A Knoxville firefighter claims she’s being discriminated against because she used to be a man.

Fire Capt. Jamie Faucon has filed a grievance against Knoxville Fire Chief Carlos Perez and her supervisor, Mark Foulkes.

She accuses them of depriving her of a take-home car, of reassigning her and cutting out her overtime because she is a transgendered firefighter.

Faucon also says in her grievance Foulkes used incorrect gender terms when referring to her in conversations.

HT Drudge

Every year I would go to the service of the Great Canon, and it’s quite an experience: the darkened candle-lit church, incense smoke twining overhead, golden light glinting off the icons, and chanters singing the verses to ancient Byzantine melodies. After each verse everyone responds, “Have mercy on me, O God,” and bows to touch the ground. It’s serious, and timeless, and piercingly beautiful, and kindles humility and a yearning to be healed from all the poison within. In every way it contrasts with the image Christians (often deservedly) have in today’s culture. I wanted to make it available to more people.

The Great Canon is part of the Eastern Orthodox tradition, but really, it’s part of *every* Christian’s tradition; we all go back to first century Jerusalem. The Canon makes more sense when you experience it in context, as part of the continuous flow of Orthodox prayer, liturgy, fasting, and sacraments. But I wanted to offer this introductory taste in hopes that it will leave some readers hungry for more.

Kathryn Jean Lopez of National Review asks Frederica Mathewes-Green questions about her new book:

1. What is “the Great Canon of St. Andrew” and what’s so great about it?
2. Who was it written for?
3. Who was St. Andrew?
4. What does St. Mary of Egypt have to do with Andrew and his canon?
5. Who is your book written for?
6. Are there aspects of the Canon that are peculiar to the Eastern Orthodox?
7. Is this the kind of spiritual writing that makes converts, or do you have to be pretty intensely prayerful already to get into it?
8. Can you “read” a book like this?
9. Uh, so “Forty Days,” did you write this FOR Lent?
10. For folks who aren’t into Lent, they might know it as the time when some of their friends don’t drink. Something along those lines. Do you “give up” stuff during Lent? How do you look at the forty days? How do you tend to describe it to the uninitiated?
11. What got you interested enough to write this book?
12. Besides your own book, of course, what will you be reading this Lent?

(FM-G’s answers available at subject link — or here for the lazy.)

COLUMBIA, SC (March 1, 2006) – The Unborn Victims of Violence Act of 2006 (S1084) passed the S.C. Senate on a voice vote Wednesday ending an eight-year political battle to overcome Senate opponents who say that recognizing an unborn child as a separate victim of crime is a stepping stone to overturning Roe vs. Wade.

The bill now goes to the SC House. The House has passed the Unborn Victims bill three times in eight years only to have it defeated by extremist pro-abortion senators.

The South Carolina Unborn Victims of Violence Act means that when a criminal attacks a pregnant woman and the unborn child is killed or injured, that child is a separate victim and the criminal can be charged with crimes against two victims.

The state legislation parallels the federal “Laci and Connor’s Law,” which President George W. Bush signed into law in April of 2004. The federal bill is named in memory of murder victims Laci Peterson and her unborn son Connor.

U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., strongly supports the SC legislation and recently urged the state senate to pass the bill. He was a primary co-sponsor of the federal bill when he served in the U.S. House.

Thanks to FWD from Paul Witt.

MONTREAL — In a rare public dissent, 19 Catholic priests have denounced the Vatican’s opposition to gay marriage and allowing homosexuals into the priesthood.

The priests said the church was invoking “natural law” to make its case against homosexuality, arguing that slavery was also once considered “natural.”

“What we are saying is that human nature is constantly evolving,” Claude Lemieux, one of the signatories, told The Associated Press by phone Tuesday. “We believe this position is closer to that which is shared by our parishioners.”

HT News Forum

by Bishop KALLISTOS (Ware)

It is no coincidence that on the very threshold of the Great Fast, at Vespers on the Sunday of Forgiveness, there is a special ceremony of mutual reconciliation: for without love towards others there can be no genuine fast. And this love for others should not be limited to formal gestures or to sentimental feelings, but should issue in specific acts of almsgiving. Such was the firm conviction of the early Church. The second-century Shepherd of Hermas insists that the money saved through fasting is to be given to the widow, the orphan and the poor. But almsgiving means more than this. It is to give not only our money but our time, not only what we have but what we are; it is to give a part of ourselves. When we hear the Triodion speak of almsgiving, the word should almost always be taken in this deeper sense. For the mere giving of money can often be a substitute and an evasion, a way of protecting ourselves from closer personal involvement with those in distress. On the other hand, to do nothing more than offer reassuring words of advice to someone crushed by urgent material anxieties is equally an evasion of our responsibilities (see Jas. 2: 16). Bearing in mind the unity already emphasized between man’s body and his soul, we seek to offer help on both the material and the spiritual levels at once.

‘When thou seest the naked, cover him; and hide not thyself from thine own flesh.’ The Eastern liturgical tradition, in common with that of the West, treats Isaiah 58: 3-8 as a basic Lenten text.
So we read in the Triodion:

While fasting with the body, brethren, let us also fast in spirit.
Let us loose every bond of iniquity ;
Let us undo the knots of every contract made by violence;
Let us tear up all unjust agreements;
Let us give bread to the hungry
And welcome to our house the poor who have no roof to cover them,
That we may receive great mercy from Christ our God.

Always in our acts of abstinence we should keep in mind St. Paul’s admonition not to condemn others who fast less strictly: ‘Let not him who abstains pass judgment on him who eats’ (Rom. 14: 3). Equally, we remember Christ’s condemnation of outward display in prayer, fasting or almsgiving (Matt. 6: 1-18). Both these Scriptural passages are often recalled in the Triodion:

Consider well, my soul: dost thou fast? Then despise not thy neighbor.
Dost thou abstain from food? Condemn not thy brother.
Come, let us cleanse ourselves by almsgiving and acts of mercy to the poor,
Not sounding a trumpet or making a show of our charity.
Let not our left hand know what our right hand is doing;
Let not vainglory scatter the fruit of our almsgiving;
But in secret let us call on Him that knows all secrets:
Father, forgive us our trespasses, for Thou lovest mankind.

Thanks to FWD from Fr Mark Mancuso.