Orthodixie

On September 9, 2005, while on a working visit to the Republic of Greece, V.V. Putin, the President of the Russian Federation visited Holy Mount Athos.

At the port of Athos, Daphne, the head of the Russian Federation was met by the governor of the Holy Mount, George Dalakyros, after which President V.V. Putin and the personnel accompanying him went to the administrative center of Athos-Karyes. Here the President of the Russian Federation and the Russian delegation were met by the Sacred Kinot of the Holy Mountain, at the head of which the Protos, Monk Paul, and the Hegumens and representatives of the the Athos monasteries. In his capacity as representative of the Constantinopolitan Patriarch the Metropolitan Demetrios of Sebaste took part in the welcoming ceremony, and he welcomed the President of Russia, in the name of the His Holiness the Patriarch, and pointed out the importance of a visit by him to the Holy Mountain.

In the very ancient Holy Dormition temple, V.V. Putin venerated one of the greatest of Athos’s sacred treasures-the wonderworking Icon of the Mother of God “It is truly meet.” A molieben was served here, after which President V.V. Putin and members of the Russian delegation visited the Holy Kinot’s building.

Words of greeting were extended by the Sebaste Metropolitan Demetrios, the Protos, and the governor of the Holy Mountain. In the name of the Kinot, the Protos gave V. V. Putin and icon of Saint Athanasius of Athos, while the governor gave him an icon of the Theotokos.

Addressing the members of the Sacred Kinot, the Russian President thanked them for the warm reception afforded him and underlined the special spiritual connection between Russia and Greece, and, in part, Athos. VV. Putin, in part, remarked that Russian is a state with a rather large Orthodox population, as, the historical seeds of Christianity entered Russia from Byzantium and Greece. Thus, the relationship between Russia and Greece, which have a long and rich enough history which provides the necessary prerequisites for growth in a spirit of complete trust. Speaking of the connections between Russia and the Holy Mountain, the President remarked that Russia was ready to completely restore their centuries-long relationship. According to V.V. Putin’s words, “This has to be a harmonious relationship, based on absolute trust and shared spiritual ideals.”

The special importance of the ties between Russia and Athos had been mentioned at the meeting earlier between V.V. Putin and the Prime Minister of Greece, C. Caramanlis. The head of the Greek State remarked that Holy Mount Athos, which the high-ranking Russian guest would visit is “the connecting link in the relations of our peoples.”

In the Guest Book of the Sacred Kinot the President left a commemorative inscription: ” To all Ascetics, servants of the Lord, all Christians of Orthodox Faith and the Guardians of Orthodox sacred treasures, respectfully, V.Putin.”

The President of Russia presented the Sacred Kinot a gift of the Vladimir Icon of the Theotokos.

After a reception at the Kinot in honor of this important Russian guest, V.V. Putin went to the Monastery of Iviron, where the head of the Russian state was met by the Hegumen of the community, Archimandrite Vasileos (Gontakakis) and the brotherhood. The President went to the Monastery’s Catholicon, where a short Molieben was served.

Then the Hegumen of the community talked about the history of the monastery and its numerous ties with Russia. Father Vasileos recalled, among other things, the Iviron chapel located in the center of Moscow, which has now been restored, after being destroyed during the years when the Church was persecuted. The Hegumen expressed his conviction that he main strength of the Russian people was its love of God, about which the great Russian writer F.M. Dosoevsky wrote so clearly. Archimandrite Vasileos likewise remarked on the importance of further growth of friendly relations between the peoples of Greece and Russia. As a gift to the President of Russia, Archimandrite Vasileos presented an icon of the Mother of God with the inscription: ‘Most Holy Theotokos, protect thy servant, Vladimir.”

“You are right, the strength of Russia is spirituality before everything else,” answered V.V. Putin to Archimandrite Vasileos’s greeting. After thanking the Hegumen and the brotherhood of the community for the warm reception, the President said that the revival of Faith is one of the foundations of Russia’s present revival. The head of state commented on the extremely good relationship between the Most Holy Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, Alexi, and the monasteries of the Holy Mountain, including the community of Iveron. V.V. Putin also thanked the Hegumen for the icon.

Then the President went to the chapel of the Iveron Icon attached beside the Metochion, where he venerated that great Holy Treasure. Upon his departure, the Russian President signed the Guest Book of the monastery.

Going on, the President arrived at the Russian Saint Panteleimon Monastery. At the entrance, the head of the Russian state was met by the brethren of the Monastery, headed up by the Hegumen, Archimandrite Jeremiah (Alekhin). While the bells were rung and the sound of the song, ‘It is truly meet,” sung by the monastery choir, V.V. Putin went to the temple of the Holy Great Martyr Panteleimon, where he venerated the Saint’s relics. The brethren served a short Molieben, during which, according to Athos usage, the Great Chandelier was swung, which is usually done during Great Feasts.

After the Molieben, the Hegumen of the Monastery, Archimandrite Jeremiah spoke to the President of the joy occasioned by the visit of this high guest and, as a prayerful memento, gave him a copy of the icon of Saint Panteleimon.

The President thanked the brethren for preserving the spiritual treasures and “for serving the Lord, to Whom you have devoted your whole life.” The head of state also gave the monastery a new Tabernacle for the Altar. Then V.V. Putin visited the monastery’s temples of the Protection and of the Dormition of the All-Holy Theotokos., as likewise the temple of the Holy Archangels Michael and Gabriel, went up into the monastery belltower where he rang on a bell three times, and he likewise visited the monastery’s sewing factory.

After venerating the communities Sacred items, the President took part in the brethren’s trapeza. After the trapeza, the head of state thanked the inhabitants of the community for their prayers for Russia and for all Orthodox Christians. “As a sign of recognition in the name of the entire Russian people,” V.V. Putin awarded the Hegumen of the monastery, Archimandrite Jeremiah (Alekhin) the Order of Friendship..

This high award was authorized Father Jeremiah by an Ukaz of the President of September 3rd, for ” Great contribution to the preservation and increase of spiritual and cultural traditions, to the strengthening of friendship between peoples.

The President also thanked the Greek authorities and the governor of Athos “for help and support” shown to the representatives of Russia by the brethren of the Monastery

During the visti of the President to Mouth Athos, there was also present the deputy head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Dept. of External Church Relations, Bishop Mark of Egor’ev.

Taken from the website of the Moscow Patriarchate and translated by His Grace Tikhon, The Bishop of San Francisco, Los Angeles, and the West; The Orthodox Church in America

We are always at war. It did not begin with a Bush, but a Tree. Since eating of the tree, that day, in a Garden — We have been at war.

We are at war with ourselves, our passions, our perversions, our weaknesses. Not being very successful in this campaign, we set our sights on another arena: Our neighbor.

We wage war on our neighbor, because we are too weak to save our souls.

Yet the battle for our soul rages on. We may not believe it precious enough to fight for. But the Enemy does. We see his attacks, the effects, the decay.

The Enemy’s ever present visions may tempt us with blindness to all but death.
(He is the original Terrorist.)

But one death reigns supreme: the One that also views our soul — yours, mine — as precious. Peace begins with this Man. That Tree. Another Garden. And amazingly … Life.

Guard your peace. Be faithful!

And may Paradise consume us.

We move next week. Prayers coveted.

Dear to Christ, Father Joseph:

Blessings to you, Khouriya Elizabeth and your children in the Name of the Lord Christ.

Please be advised that effective Friday, September 23, 2005, you are to assume responsibility as assistant priest at St George Orthodox Christian Church in Houston, Texas, under the direction of the Proëstamenos, The Reverend John Salem.

I have asked the chair of the St George Parish Council to be in immediate contact with you so that together you may make all necessary plans for your move to Houston.

St George Church in Houston is one of leading congregations in our Diocese of Wichita and Mid-America, and its church temple is one of the most beautiful in the entire Archdiocese. I am confident that your ministry there will bear much fruit to the glory of the All-holy Trinity and the upbuilding of Holy Orthodoxy here in the Heartland. Be assured of my love, prayers and blessings.

Your father in Christ,

+ B A S I L

Bishop of Wichita and Mid-America

Love and Death and Prayer in the Ruins

by J. Mark Christian

We live about an hour away from metropolitan New Orleans, Louisiana.

Helicopters are presently passing over our home in Baton Rouge – one after the other, some military, some civilian. In the past week, the population of our adopted city has grown by over 100,000. Every main thoroughfare is clogged like a perpetual rush hour. Many of the evacuees are driving around the city, everyone seems to be on their mobile phones, frustrated by the recurring busy signals and “all circuits are busy” messages. Many more are in shelters: some provided by civil government, others by churches.

Many are dying. Reports from New Orleans depict corpses floating in the muckish, polluted water, others abandoned on interstate overpasses, others left in makeshift graves fashioned from tarp and bricks, marked with spray paint in the desperate hope that someone, someday will find their loved one and provide proper burial.

In The Ladder of Divine Ascent, St. John Climacus tells us that “the monk has a body made holy, a tongue purified, a mind enlightened. Asleep or awake, the monk is a soul pained by the constant remembrance of death.”

My body is tired, my tongue is tied, my mind is clouded by too much information, too much upheaval, too much traffic. Yet asleep and awake, my soul is pained by the constant remembrance of death… and destruction… and displacement.

Many have observed that it all seems so inexplicable, so surreal. At our home we had heavy wind, a number of branches fell, power was out for just over a day. Compared to the devastation to the east, we were unscathed. My children complained because the cable TV was out for almost a week. I struggled to explain that there are worse things than missing Sponge Bob Square Pants. But I don’t fault them for their complaints; I realize that it’s not just about Sponge Bob. They want normalcy. And everything, at varying degrees, is so utterly abnormal.

Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy.

Over thirty years ago, the novelist Walker Percy (another Louisianan by adoption) began his novel Love in the Ruins with a question that conveys the apocalyptic mood that suffuses this part of the world:

Now in these dread latter days of the old violent beloved U.S.A. and of the Christ-forgetting Christ-haunted death-dealing Western world I cam to myself in a grove of young pines and the question came to me: has it happened at last?

Has “it” happened? Is this the way the world ends? Not with a bang or a whimper, but with wind and rain and fire and flood? For countless Louisianans, their world has ended. Will they build another one?

The church where we worship – St. Basil’s Orthodox in Metairie – is almost certainly flooded. We still don’t know for sure. We went to Liturgy on Sunday in a little Greek chapel here in Baton Rouge. The place was packed: Greeks from New Orleans, Antiochians from Metairie… the priest was Romanian, an IOCC representative. He celebrated in English, the cantor responded in Greek. The congregation stood in prayer, disjointed, displaced, unsure what to make of it all, some crying, some unable to enter the temple because of their grief. They stood outside, wanting to be a part of things, but overwhelmed by the fact that their life in New Orleans isn’t there for them any more. As we read in the Ladder, their souls are pained by the constant reminder of death and destruction.

Months ago, I remember reading David Hart’s editorial in the Wall Street Journal reflecting on the tsunami that hit Southeast Asia. His words have stayed with me, perhaps so that I can remember them now… how Orthodox Christians believe that we exist in “the long melancholy aftermath of a primordial catastrophe,” in a broken and wounded world that languishes in bondage to principalities and powers – spiritual and terrestrial – alien to God. And yet, the incarnate God entered His world to rescue “the beauties of creation from the torments of a fallen nature.”

Hart reminded his readers that when we are confronted with the sheer immensity of worldly suffering, we are permitted only to hate death and waste and the imbecile forces of chance that shatter living souls. For now, we must remember that creation is in agony in its bonds, divided between two kingdoms, and that only charity will sustain us against “fate.” For now, I’m trying to remember all of that.

We’ll do what we can to “love in the ruins.”

And we’ll keep saying our prayers:

Crossing the waters as on dry land,
In that way escaping From the evils of Egypt’s land,
The Israelites cried out exclaiming:
To our Redeemer and God, now let us sing.

Glory to the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

To God and the Savior you’ve given birth;
I ask you, O Virgin,
From the dangers deliver me;
For now I run to you for refuge,
With both my soul and my reasoning.

In other parts of the country, particularly out West, beef barbecue is the norm. Here in North Carolina, pork BBQ is king.

So I was surprised when, at a recent meeting in Houston, I saw the back of a T-shirt that read: “Best Butts in Town.” On the front was an ad for a BBQ joint.

A few days later, as the kids were setting table for dinner, I told my wife about that T-shirt, saying: “You know it’s got to be referring to pork butts … I mean they don’t use cow butts in anything except, maybe, hot-dogs.”

Basil, age 7, innocently said: “Uh, Dad. I thought they used another private part for hot-dogs.”

Quick glance at the wife, simultaneous jaw dropping & eye-widening! “Noooooooooo, son. Oh, no, no, no.”

We laughed, stammered some sort of hot-dog ingredient mantra, kept looking at each other and trying not to snort.

Innocently, during dinner, Basil said: “Well, I’ve got to tell some people.” It turns out he’d told a few of his buddies how [he thought] hot-dogs were made.

It was one of those dinners where you couldn’t help but smile. Parents. Children. Innocence. Glory to God.

Then, just before we were all done with the meal, a rather serious looking Basil was still searching for answers: “Mom. Dad? Well … why do they call them weenies?”

(Forgive me.)