and Some Comments about Last Issue's Question on Communion and Non-Orthodox
We have a long issue for you this time; mostly because so many of you are
writing in with things to say. Feel free to keep on writing. You send it
in and we'll include it. One request, however: please try to keep it as
short as you can while still saying what you have to say. We don't want to
overwhelm you all with too many pages.
And to our graduates ...
May you use what you have learned to help and serve others for the
glory of God!
Jn 17:1-13 (From the Gospel on the Sunday Commemorating the Fathers of
the 1st Ecumenical Council)
The more we read scripture the more and more we find what we are supposed
to do as followers of Christ: to love one another. It's a simple calling,
but often not an easy one. To truly love one another we must also forgive
one another, be patient with one another, help one another, and so on. It
all comes out of the foundation of love, the love of Christ within us,
since St Paul tells us "we love because He first loved us."
The words in this reading, however, are astonishing. Here we find Jesus
praying for us, His children, with powerful and passionate words! His
prayer makes abundantly clear His tenderness and love for us. It also
reveals his deepest desire for us - not only that we give ourselves in
love to one another, but that we love each other enough to actually become
ONE ... even as Christ and God the Father are one.
That's a lot of love. And it's what God asks of us.
Something to think about:
"Lord Jesus Christ, it amazes me that You know that I am capable of so much
love - even if it seems more that I feel that I can do! Help me today to
take one small step to become as loving as You said in your beautiful
prayer for your followers. Amen."
For nine years we watched four of the most unsympathetic, self-absorbed,
self-gratifying, and greedy people do and talk about things that we had all
thought about even though we tried to pretend we didn't. Jerry, Elaine,
George, and Kramer gave us four completely unlikable characters who did all
the things we sometimes want to do but don't because of ... well, for all
sorts of reasons.
In many ways they were our "dark side." Each and every episode we would
laugh as they deliberated over the "dos" and "don'ts" of our society
judging them based upon how relevant they were in their lives with little
to no thought of the other people around them.
In a fitting last episode, society finally fought back. Our four
anti-heros were put on trial for breaking a "Good Samaritan Law" in Latham,
Massachusetts.
After making an emergency landing on their way to Paris in a private jet,
our characters watched and mocked an overweight man as he was robbed at
gunpoint, not realizing that this had recently become illegal. The montage
of character witnesses brought forth to testify against them, not only
helped us relive our favorite episodes, but also clarified the pettiness of
the characters and the devastation they had brought upon themselves and so
many others.
The guilty verdict reassures us that these attitudes, however often we may
have them, are not acceptable to our society. The "crew" is sentenced to a
year in prison and mainstream society is "kept safe."
Overall, not a bad episode: it could have been better; it could have been
worse. It definitely was not worth all the media hype. Television will
indeed go on.
On the up side:
On the down side:
This is a great opportunity to spend some time learning more about our
Faith and how we can serve our Church. The theme this year is "Words
and Worship in the Christian Tradition":
-- Bishop Kallistos Ware of Oxford University will join the
seminary faculty and a select group of theologians, scholars,
translators and musicians in a study of the significance of
words and silence in the life and worship of the Orthodox
Church.
-- The institute's music section will offer workshops in practical
conducting skills and the composition of liturgical chants in
various traditions and styles. Participants will be
responsible for the liturgical services throughout the week.
They will also focus in their sessions on questions of
language, phrasing, and translations of biblical and liturgical
texts.
Two graduate credits (or academic units) will be given by the seminary
for qualifying levels of work completed in either the pastoral or music
section. Credit for course work must be arranged at the time of
registration.
Registration should be received no later than May 22, 1998.
For more information contact: St Vladimir's Seminary Summer Institute,
+1.914.961.8313. www.svots.edu
More info?:
www.svots.edu/Events/Summer-Institute/1998-institute.html
To advertise your event here send information to:
youth@oca.org
Recent census projections show our world's population reaching 6 billion
people by the year 2000. Interestingly, projections show little to no
growth in many of the western European and industrialized countries, while
others more than make up for it. These "low to non-growth" countries are
often the wealthiest, most powerful, and most educated, and are also the
largest consumers of world resources.
As we prepare to enter a new millennium with more and more people and less
and less resources, we need to begin asking and discussing certain
questions:
Regardless of the answers to these questions, we can be confident that our
Lord understands the problems better than we do and that, if we are
listening,
He will tell us how best we should address them.
Q.
(from GL from GA)
A.
The Orthodox Church determines its feast days and fast days according
to two distinct calendars: the Julian (old) Calendar and the Gregorian
(new) Calendar. The Julian Calendar is attributed to the Roman Emperor
Julius Caesar, whose name it bears, and the Gregorian calendar is
attributed to Pope Gregory XIII, who corrected it in the sixteenth
century due to an ever-increasing discrepancy between the calendar's
time and astronomical time. [For example, at present December 25 on
the new calendar falls 13 days earlier than December 25 on the old
calender. That is why Churches who follow the "old" Julian Calendar
celebrate Christmas on January 7 (13 days later).]
Despite the efforts of the emissaries of Pope Gregory to convince the
Orthodox to accept this new (Gregorian) calendar, the Orthodox Church
rejected it since the date of the celebration of Easter would be
altered contrary to some of the Church canons (canon 7 of the Holy
Apostles, and canon 1 of Ancyra). Following the new calendar, Easter
would sometimes coincide with the Jewish Passover according to the
Gregorian calendar.
In 1923, however, an "InterOrthodox Congress" was convened at
Constantinople by the Ecumenical Patriarch. No unanimous agreement
was reached on any of the issues discussed, including the calendar
issue. Over time, however, the following Orthodox Churches did
eventually adopt the new calendar: Constantinople, Alexandria,
Antioch, Greece, Cyprus, Romania, Poland, and Bulgaria.
This leaves the Churches of Jerusalem, Russia and Serbia, along with
the monasteries on Mt. Athos still following the old calendar.
In order that the unity of the Church be maintained, the Orthodox
Churches adopting the new calendar agreed to use the following formula
for determining feast days: immovable feast days are to be observed 13
days earlier than in the Old Calendar; while Easter and all the movable
feast days dependent on it are still calculated according to the Old
Calendar. As a compromise with those who opposed the change, the
necessary revisions were made to correct the old calendar, while the
calculation of Easter was retained as before so as not to violate the
holy canons.
If you have a question, or know a friend who does, send it to us at
youth@oca.org. We'll give you a direct
and concise answer!
Well readers, last issue we presented a new question for you ...
Here are some of your answers so far:
PA from FL writes:
LD from PA writes:
Christ is Risen!
In my opinion, what we can do to work toward this goal is to try to
establish links to the youth of the other jurisdictions that have a
presence within their own local areas. If they are members of college
OCF's or individual parish youth groups, they should approach their
advisors about initiating and participating in pan-Orthodox
undertakings such as worship services, social activities (mixers,
retreats, athletic tournaments, conventions), summer camps, community
projects, etc.
For canonical unity to occur, unity of mind and purpose must occur
first. The best way to accomplish this is through personal
relationships established Orthodox-to-Orthodox through contacts between
diverse parishes and organizations.
A good place to begin might be with some form of interaction between
jurisdictional national youth organizations as AROY and the junior
FROC, and also the Antiochian youth organization. Such contacts need
to focus on what we have in common among all Orthodox jurisdictions --
our theology, our spiritual lives, liturgical cycles, Holy Tradition,
etc. -- while recognizing, respecting and preserving the ethnic
diversity and differences of "local custom" that characterize the
Orthodox experience in North America.
To restate: the first and most important requirement for unity is the
realization by all Orthodox Christians that we are one body, one faith,
one people -- regardless of our ancestry -- and that we need give up
nothing of our various ethnic heritages to be "one."
Finally, the youth [and the adults] need to pray daily to the Saints
with whom we associate Orthodox unity in North America -- St. Tikhon
and the soon-to-be-canonized Raphael (Hawaweeny) -- to add their
prayers to ours for the healing of internal divisions and the
establishment of a common purpose among all the Orthodox faithful in
North America.
The example set by Orthodox youth in such endeavors can be a powerful
inspiration for attitudinal change among the rest of the faithful.
Want to add something to the discussion? Let us know at youth@oca.org.
In other areas ...
SY from Switzerland writes:
Hey, first of all, great idea with this YO-Mail. What a terrific way
to keep people involved. God bless you and all your work. I just had
a few questions with regard to your response to the last issue's
question. [About non-Orthodox receiving communion.]
You state that the main reason that non-Orthodox can't partake in Holy
Communion is because they do not recognize what it is. You go on in
the next paragraph attempting to define what Holy Communion is.
However, nowhere in that paragraph can I find a statement of what Holy
Communion is. No where in the paragraph can I find the statement,
"Holy Communion is the Body and Blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ." When explaining to someone what Holy Communion is, is there
any reason to use any other statement? Is there any reason to do what
religion so often does, that is, to confuse ? The beauty that I find
in Orthodoxy is its simplicity. There is no reason to cloud what we
believe. IT is what IT is.
My second question is in regards to this statement:
The statement that strikes me in this sentence is: "and understand the
consequences of their actions." Sorry but this sounds too negative.
Religion already has a bad rap on being too negative. No reason for us
to enforce it. What are the consequences anyway? Can we know what
they are? If Holy Communion is the mystery of mysteries then wouldn't
the consequences be as much a mystery? And even if we were to be given
the Grace to know what the consequences are, don't you think no matter
how much one has not prepared for the reception of Holy Communion the
consequence can only be positive? Don't we say in the prayer before
Holy Communion "be neither to my judgment but to the healing of soul
and body. Amen." Holy Communion is not something that was given to us
so that God might test and measure us. It has been given to us so that
we may know our God. So that we may be one in our Lord Savior Jesus
Christ.
Every year I look forward to the Midnight service for Holy Pascha. The
part of the service that is particularly meaningful is the Paschal
homily of St John Chrysostom where he states in very simple terms what
makes Orthodoxy and Christianity for that matter so special, for he
says that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ ... accepts the first as the
last. Jesus Christ accepts the sinner the same as the saint. The man
who has prepared from the first hour as the man who has waited till the
11th hour. WOW. This is what it is all about.
We are all accepted into the joy of joys, the miracle of miracles, Holy
Communion. Christ is Risen!
>>
Our response to last issue's question was intended to address the
specific question, "Why do we Orthodox Christians deprive our
guests that come to our Church of the Body of Christ (Communion)?"
and not to give a complete explanation of what communion is. You
bring up some great points, however, that are essential to our
understanding of what Communion is as the Body and Blood of Christ.
It is a gift that we can never be truly worthy of, except by
God's grace, and the consequences of receiving this gift are indeed
positive (the healing of soul and body, remission of sins, and the
gift of life everlasting) to those who do so "with faith and love"
(as the priest or deacon says as the chalice is brought out to the
people).
One might, however, get the impression from your comments that
anyone can approach the chalice without even thinking about it.
St John Chrysostom welcomes all Orthodox Christians to approach the
chalice on Pascha regardless of the amount they have fasted during
Great Lent. He is not discussing whether or not they are
believers. In fact, in many of his other sermons he warns people
about receiving carelessly.
This still leaves us with the original question: "Why can't
non-Orthodox receive communion in the Orthodox Church?" Perhaps
something we should add to last issue's response is that, for
Orthodox Christians, receiving the Eucharist not only ties us to
Christ, but to every other member of the Church, both living and
dead. The history of the Church and the lives of the saints
become our history. They teach us that when we receive Communion
we are declaring that not only do we believe in everything that the
Orthodox Church teaches, but that we are also willing to fight and,
if need be, die to preserve it. As Orthodox Christians, we need to
be sure that both Orthodox and non-Orthodox understand and take
this seriously.
DJ from PA writes:
Hi! I just read the newsletter (#7). I really enjoyed it!
One issue I would like to discuss, though, is the Church's stance on
forgiveness. I realized fully the importance of this at the [Orthodox]
College Conference [in Ligonier, PA this past December]. We had a
speaker who I enjoyed very much, but like so many more before her, the
issue of forgiveness was vaguely discussed. One thing that separates
us from other religions is our belief that God is a FORGIVING God
rather than a vengeful God. And yet we rarely talk about this. We
talk about repentance but not forgiveness.
We say so much to our youth: practice abstinence, don't do drugs,
peace, not violence and yet we overlook the fact that we are all human
and have committed some of these sins. So what do we say then? I
agree on the teachings of what is right and what is wrong, but I just
think we should stress the fact that God does forgive and will forgive.
Thank you. (you may print my name) Chrisa Alberts
In case you forgot: YO-Mail is your mail.
If you have an opinion about something in YO-mail or something going on
at school, in the Church, or in society, send it in! Send it to
youth@oca.org Don't worry! All entries
will be treated anonymously unless you tell us otherwise.
From the Office:
A Long Issue and 'Congrats to our Graduates!'
Congratulations! God grant you many years!
Food for the Soul
"I pray for them ... that they may be one as We are one. ..."
An Orthodox Look: The Last Seinfeld Episode:
Seinfeld vs Humanity
On the Calendar
Saint Vladimir's Summer Institute, June 21-26, 1998
In the News
World Population Approaches 6 Billion by Year 2000
Real Questions, Real Answers!
Why Are There Differences in the Dates when Orthodox Celebrate Certain Holidays?
Why are there differences in the dates when Orthodox celebrate certain
holidays? It is common for Orthodox holidays such as Pascha to occur
later than Western Easter, but, then again, certain Orthodox churches
celebrate feast days at different dates. For example, the Russian
Orthodox and Greek Orthodox celebrate Pascha on the same date, but the
date of Christmas differs in the Russian Church (Jan. 7) and the Greek
Church (Dec. 25). Why does this difference occur when Orthodox
Churches are united despite of ethnic differences.
Well, GL, your question is as much about history as it is about faith.
Readers Write ...
On Orthodox Unity, a Forgiving vs Vengeful God, and Some Comments about Last
Issue's Question on Communion and Non-Orthodox
How can we actively participate in helping to develop a single unified
Orthodox Church in North America where all Orthodox Christians of all
ethnic backgrounds witness to the Gospel of our Lord?
The Metropolitans [Leaders of the Various Jurisdictions] should poll
the lay people. I have the feeling that Orthodox Christians really
want to be unified in North America, but this power is the bishops' and
they have the responsibility to initiate unity. I think it is time to
talk unity. I think Americans should reflect on the old testament
story of the tower of Babel. Is America becoming a modern tower of
Babel?
"The main reason for this is based upon a strong conviction in what
the Holy Eucharist is."
"... are cautioned not to receive unless they have prepared
themselves, realize what they are doing, and understand the
consequences of their action."
Thanks for the input, SY. It's great to hear that people are
taking these issues seriously.