Free Republic

Christian Atheism The title for this post sounds like an oxymoron, and, of course, it is. How can one be both an atheist and a Christian? Again, I am wanting to push the understanding of the one-versus-two-storey universe. In the history of religious thought, one of the closest versions to what I am describing as a “two-storey� world-view, is that espoused by classical Deism (the philosophy espoused by a number of the American founding fathers).They had an almost pure, two-storey worldview. God, “the Deity,� had created the universe in the beginning, setting it in motion. He had done so in such...

Reports are circulating, in circles which are intensely attuned to the continued warming of relations between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches, of a statement and proposal allegedly made by Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople. If they are confirmed, it may signal a major move toward communion between Eastern Catholics and their Orthodox Brethren.It may also open the path to dialogue on communion between the Churches even wider. The Religious Information Service of the Ukraine, associated with the Ukranian Catholic University, was cited as one source for the articles. Another was a German Ecumenical Journal named after the great Bishops Cyril...

Britain's Jewish community is enjoying a demographic revival for the first time in 50 years because of massive growth in its haredi population. Almost three out of every four Jewish babies in the UK are born to ultra-Orthodox families, who account for 46,500 out of the estimated 280,000 Jews in the UK, according to Dr. Yaakov Wise of Manchester University's Center for Jewish Studies. By the second half of this century, haredim will outnumber secular ones, he said. "Though Britain's Jewish population is the fifth largest in the world, it has declined by 40 percent, from over 450,000 in 1950...

[The following joyful announcement is lifted from the Rorate Ceali blog. --PP] The Chaldean Catholic Diocese of St. Peter and Paul has formally received into its fold, those members of the Assyrian Catholic Apostolic Diocese who, under the leadership of Mar Bawai Soro (pictured above), had asked to be reconciled with the Catholic Church last January 17, 2008. One bishop (Mar Bawai himself), six priests, 30+ deacons and subdeacons and an estimated 3,000 faithful were received into full communion during liturgical celebrations for the Feast of Pentecost. Mar Bawai Soro has long advocated the Primacy of the See of Rome....

The Prayer of Jesus echoes in the Church at the beginning of this new missionary age. We need to make it our own: "I pray not only for them, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me."John 17:20-23 ... Pope John Paul II’s Encyclical Letter "Ut Unum Sint" (On the Commitment to Ecumenism, literally "May They Be One") was a monumental contribution to...

BELGRADE, Serbia: The Serbian Orthodox Church urged its followers in an Easter message on Sunday to take a vow to defend Kosovo. The head of the church, Patriarch Pavle, and other top dignitaries said in the message that "Kosovo is part of every Orthodox Christian Serb's life." "We are urging all, from scientists and politicians to the youngest and most modest sons and daughters of our nation, to deserve and preserve Kosovo with our work and honorable living," the message said. Kosovo was the ancient seat of the Serbian church and the Serbian medieval state. But the region is now...

The Holy Father addressed representatives of other Christian communities during an ecumenical encounter at St. Joseph's Church, New York, 18 April 2008. Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, My heart abounds with gratitude to Almighty God - "the Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all" (Eph 4:6) - for this blessed opportunity to gather with you this evening in prayer. I thank Bishop Dennis Sullivan for his cordial welcome, and I warmly greet all those in attendance representing Christian communities throughout the United States. May the peace of our Lord and Savior be...

WASHINGTON, March 31 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Pope Benedict XVI will lead an ecumenical prayer service April 18, at St. Joseph's Church in the Yorkville area of Manhattan. Participants at the service will include 250 national and local Protestant and Orthodox Church leaders. St. Joseph's Church was built in the 19th century by the immigrant German community that settled in the area and today serves a diverse population. A Sunday Mass is still celebrated in German. The pope will address the group after a reading from Paul's letter to the Ephesians (4:1-6) and before the congregation prays the Lord's Prayer. At the...

BAGHDAD - An Assyrian Orthodox priest was killed in a drive-by shooting Saturday in Baghdad, police and an assistant said, the latest attack against Iraq's Christian minority. The priest, Youssef Adel, was shot by gunmen who drove up in a car and opened fire as he was opening the gate of his house near the St. Peter and Paul church where he presided, an assistant said. Christians have frequently been caught up in the violence or been targeted in this predominantly Muslim country. The body of Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho, one of Iraq's most senior Chaldean Catholic clerics, was found...

If you look up the verb “proselytism” in most dictionaries, you’ll find it defined as any effort to persuade a person to give up one point of view in favor of another. The word is sometimes used in a political sense, but most often it is used religiously. The most common synonym for “proselytize” is “convert”. This will come as a surprise to Catholics, and it requires clarification. For Catholics, who have a highly developed spiritual vocabulary, the standard definition is not adequate. In the Church's lexicon, proselytism typically refers to conversion efforts that fail to respect the prospective convert’s...

Mikhail Gorbachev, the last Communist leader of the Soviet Union, has acknowledged his Christian faith for the first time, paying a surprise visit to pray at the tomb of St Francis of Assisi. Accompanied by his daughter Irina, Mr Gorbachev spent half an hour on his knees in silent prayer at the tomb. His arrival in Assisi was described as "spiritual perestroika" by La Stampa, the Italian newspaper. "St Francis is, for me, the alter Christus, the other Christ," said Mr Gorbachev. "His story fascinates me and has played a fundamental role in my life," he added. Mr Gorbachev's surprise...

With his arms outstretched, his legs straight and his hands nailed to the cross, it is the image of Jesus's crucifixion held dear by Christians for centuries. But now the producers of a BBC drama about Christ's final days have challenged the traditional representation, saying they believe Jesus probably did not die that way. Instead of portraying Christ with his arms out wide and his legs straight down, The Passion will show him nailed to the cross in a foetal position, with his arms above his head and nails through his arms - the way, the producers claim, he may...

The Future Lies in the Past -- Why evangelicals are connecting with the early church as they move into the 21st century.Many 20- and 30-something evangelicals are uneasy and alienated in mall-like church environments; high-energy, entertainment-oriented worship; and boomer-era ministry strategies and structures modeled on the business world. Increasingly, they are asking just how these culturally camouflaged churches can help them rise above the values of the consumerist world around them. For younger evangelicals, traditional churches are too centered on words and propositions. And pragmatic churches are compromising authentic Christianity by tailoring their ministries to the marketplace and pop culture....

I have heard tales of an amazing work taking place among the garbage workers of Cairo since I was an undergrad. So it was very encouraging to read this article from the February Lausanne World Pulse: Transforming Lives in Cairo's Garbage Villages. Villagers collect garbage from city apartments and recycle it. They are the most despised group of people in Egyptian society. They are not paid by the government; however, they receive small tips from the people whose garbage they collect. The rest of their income comes from recycling garbage. It is one of the most ecologically efficient operations in...

ATHENS (Reuters) - Bells tolled across Athens and canon shots were fired as Greece on Thursday buried the head of its Church, Orthodox Archbishop Christodoulos, with a funeral befitting a head of state. Tens of thousands of mourners followed a funeral procession through the city centre to Athens cemetery as public offices and schools were shut on a day of nationwide mourning for the passing of the head of the country's powerful church. Christodoulos, who mended ties with the Vatican but clashed with the Greek state, died after a seven-month battle with cancer on Monday at the age of 69....

The head of Greece's powerful Orthodox Church, Archbishop Christodoulos, died of cancer on Monday at the age of 69.A staunch defender of the role of the church in Greece, he died at his home in Athens, only months after plans for a liver transplant in the United States were cancelled."He was an enlightened church leader whose work brought the church closer to society, closer to modern problems and to young people," Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis said in a statement.Condolences poured in and crowds of black-clad mourners gathered at his Athens home, where he died, as well as the Metropolitan Cathedral...

ATHENS, Greece (Jan. 28) -- The leader of Greece's powerful Orthodox Church, Archbishop Christodoulos, who eased centuries of tension with the Vatican but was viewed as reactionary by his liberal critics, died Monday. He was 69. Christodoulos, who headed the church for a decade, was first hospitalized in Athens in June before being diagnosed with cancer of the liver and large intestine. He spent 10 weeks in a hospital in Miami but an October liver transplant operation was canceled when doctors discovered the cancer had spread. He refused hospital treatment in the final weeks of his life. He died at...

A burglar who broke into a Greek Orthodox bishop's car made off with quite a haul, but fencing one of the stolen items could prove difficult. Among the items stolen from Bishop Metropolitan Isaiah's car was a jeweled crown of gold and silver, which Isaiah estimated to be worth between $6,000 and $10,000. Isaiah, who is based in Denver and is bishop for the Northwest region of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, said he was dining with others at a restaurant when the break-in occurred. He said the car was parked in a well-lit spot. "We came out at...

Getting into the church was easy. The thieves probably walked in through the front door, posing as a few more of the faithful who come to bow their heads in St. John the Evangelist, the most important church in Capranica, 35 miles (56 km) north of Rome. They hid, waited to be locked in after the last people left, then went to work. They ignored the candlesticks, the alms box and the communion chalice: those are for amateurs — easy to grab, easy to sell. These were professionals, and they were after something specific: the Via Crucis, or Stations of...

2008 marks the one hundredth anniversary of the Chair of Unity Octave, which has evolved into an annual pan-Christian week of prayer running from January 18-25. Prayer, it seems, is what is most required in the early 21st century quest for Christian unity, a quest that reached a peek of euphoria in the mid-1960s and that has suffered many disappointments ever since. Cardinal Walter Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, briefed his brother cardinals on the current state of the ecumenical enterprise at the consistory this past November 23. Kasper made several important points in the...

NICE, France — On a February morning in 2006, a group of experts in Russian art approached the onion-domed Russian church here and demanded to be admitted to take an inventory of the building and its contents — icons, liturgical vestments, incense burners, everything. “We refused them entry,� even though they had an order from a local judge, said the Rev. Jean Gueit, for the last four years the archpriest of the Cathedral of St. Nicholas. “It was a long morning,� he added. The cathedral, completed in 1912, was built with the “solicitude and generosity� of Czar Nicholas II, as...

To make Christmas less offensive to the enlightened, anti-Christian tolerants of this country, a reader named Alex proposes that the six million or so Eastern Orthodox Christians in this country demand that their holiday greeting be given equal display time in stores and on postage stamps. Instead of the West’s watered down “Merry Christmas”, the required salutation will be: CHRIST IS BORN! When greeted thusly by Eastern Europeans, all retail employees in America would have to respond with the traditional, “Indeed he is born!” or “Glorify him!” Further, Christmas decorations would have to stay up until after January 7th, which...

Baghdad - At least seven attacks using mortar shells, explosive devices and car bombs hit churches and monasteries in Baghdad and Mosul overnight Monday as orthodox Christians in Iraq were celebrating New Year's Eve. At least six people were wounded, including two guards, Voices of Iraq news agency reported. The attacks happened during the New Year's celebrations according to the Gregorian calendar still used by the Eastern Orthodox Church. On Monday morning, Iraq's Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, a Sunni, condemned the attacks saying he sympathized with the Christian brothers. "I stand with them against this brutal attack that turned happiness...

The Story of Christmasby Abbe Dom Prosper Gueranger By God's design the number 40 is most significant in holy Mother Church's liturgical year, especially in this particular liturgical year. After four weeks of Advent, we follow with 40 days of Christmas called Christmastide, with the main emphasis on the time between the Nativity of our Lord and the Epiphany. This year within four days of the Feast of the Purification, we follow Christmastide with the 40 Days of Lent, then 40 glorious days before Christ's Ascension into Heaven. Alleluia, indeed! "There is scarcely a prayer, or a rite, in...

According to legend, Saint Barbara was the extremely beautiful daughter of a wealthy heathen named Dioscorus, who lived near Nicomedia in Asia Minor. Because of her singular beauty and fearful that she be demanded in marriage and taken away from him, he jealously shut her up in a tower to protect her from the outside world. Shortly before embarking on a journey, he commissioned a sumptuous bathhouse to be built for her, approving the design before he departed. Barbara had heard of the teachings of Christ, and while her father was gone spent much time in contemplation. From the windows...

PRAYER TO THEIMMACULATE CONCEPTION O God,  who by the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, did prepare a worthy dwelling place for Your Son, we beseech You that, as by the foreseen death of this, Your Son, You did preserve Her from all stain, so too You would permit us, purified through Her intercession,  to come unto You. Through the same Lord Jesus Christ,  Your Son, who lives and reigns with You in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, world without end. Amen. First, recite the Prayer to the Immaculate Conception. Then, recite the appropriate prayer of each of the nine days. Day 1 Day...

A document containing 46 articles that sets the foundations for the unification of the Catholic and Orthodox churches after their separation in 1054 was signed by the delegations of the two churches in Ravenna after a meeting in October, Italian daily Repubblica reported on Wednesday. The Vatican representatives at the lengthy consultations were headed by Cardinal Walter Casper, president of the Papal council for Christian unity, while Metropolitan Joannis Zizioulas led a delegation of the Constantinople Patriarchate. Representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church walked out of the summit in Ravenna because representatives of the Estonian Orthodox Church were present, who,...

Feastday: November 12 Josaphat, an Eastern Rite bishop, is held up as a martyr to church unity because he died trying to bring part of the Orthodox Church into union with Rome. In 1054, a formal split called a schism took place between the Eastern Church centered in Constantinople and the Western Church centered in Rome. Trouble between the two had been brewing for centuries because of cultural, political, and theological differences. In 1054 Cardinal Humbert was sent to Constantinople to try and reconcile the latest flare up and wound up excommunicating the patriarch. The immediate problems included an insistence...

"Had we angels' eyes, we should see the earth as a vast field sown with seed for the resurrection. The death of Abel opened the first furrow, and, ever since, the sowing has gone on unceasingly the wide world over. This land of labour and of suffering, what treasures it already holds laid up in its bosom! And what a harvest for heaven, when the Sun of justice, suddenly darting forth His rays, shall cause to spring up as suddenly from the soil the elect ears ripe for glory! No wonder that the Church herself blesses and superintends the laying...

Pope Benedict XVI is to hold an extraordinary consistory of cardinals later this month to promote ecumenical dialogue with non-Catholic Christians. The gathering of 202 cardinals from 67 countries will take place on the eve of the consistory on November 24, convened by the Pope to create 23 new cardinals. The debate on ecumenism will be led by Cardinal Walter Kasper, head of the Pontifical Council for Christian Unity. It follows the Vatican's dialogue with Orthodox leaders at Ravenna last month and an inter-faith conference at Naples attended by the Pope and the Archbishop of Canterbury and organised by...

Czech Orthodox Church commemorates St. Gorazd's death under Nazis Czech News Agency Tuesday, September 04, 2007 8:49 PM Prague, Sept 4 (CTK) - The Czech Orthodox Church today held two events commemorating the 65th anniversary of the martyrdom of Bishop Gorazd, who was tortured to death by Gestapo on September 4, 1942 and declared saint in 1987. Bishop Gorazd was in charge of the St Cyril and Methodius church in Prague, in whose crypt he provided hiding to Czech parachutists after their successful attempt to assassinate Reinhard Heydrich, Nazi Reichsprotector of Bohemia and Moravia, in May 1942. The parachutists died...

  In this short paragraph are hidden 16 names of books in the Bible. Can you find them all? I once made a remark about the hidden books of the Bible. It was a lulu, kept people looking so hard for facts, and for others it was a revelation. Some were in a jam, especially since the names of the books were not capitalized. But the truth finally struck home to numbers of our readers. To others it was a real job. We want it to be a most fascinating few moments for you. Yes, there will be some...

Russian Orthodox Patriarch Explains Stand on Homosexuality to Council of Europe "Love the Sinner, Hate the Sin" By John-Henry Westen STRASBOURG, October 3, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In his first visit to the Council of Europe on a     mission to discuss inter-religious dialogue, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Alexy II, gave a spirited defence of Christian morality. He noted that the notion of human rights in Europe stems, at least in part from Christian morality. "Yet today there occurs a break between human rights and morality, and this break threatens the European civilization," he warned. "We can see...

I am certain that in most respects I differ in no way from other Christians. The vast majority of the conflicts I encounter are my own conflicts and they center around the Gospel and my obedience to Christ. Will I forgive an enemy? Will I turn aside a painful remark with kindness and generosity? I am sure that I could lengthen this list and that any of my readers could add to it as well. There are other kinds of conflicts - those that are larger. Some exist on the parish level, some the diocesan or deanery level, some on...

Retired Croatian colonel Marko Jagetic says that 70 bodies of Serb civilians were collected after the campaign Medacki Dzep. Retired Croatian Army medical corps colonel Marko Jagetic testified at the trial of generals Rahim Ademi and Mirko Norac. He said that, after the campaign Medacki Dzep, more than 70 corpses of Serb civilians were collected in nearby villages and that many of them had marks that indicated torture and massacre. - Almost all the executed [people] were civilians and no weapons or documents were found on any of them – said Jagetic, who was the army doctor in charge of...

Nearly two decades after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the return of religion to public life, localities in Russia are increasingly decreeing that to receive a proper public school education, children should be steeped in the ways of the Russian Orthodox Church, including its traditions, liturgy and historic figures. The lessons are typically introduced at the urging of church leaders, who say that the enforced atheism of Communism left Russians out of touch with a faith that was once at the core of their identity. The new curriculum reflects the nation’s continuing struggle to define what it means...

21 September 2007, 17:46 Serbs will never become a “spat-upon rag” by accepting Kosovo independence - ruling bishop of Kosovo Moscow, September 21, Interfax - Bishop Artemije of Raska-Prizren, Serbian Church, has stated that the Serbs would sooner perish from the face of the earth than allow Kosovo’s independence. “The Serbian people believe they had better disappear from the face of the earth than accept it, for a man - and a people - without honor and self-respect, without dignity, is an empty place, a rag spat upon and nothing else”, the bishop said during an international conference held this...

(The following is excerpted from Dom Prosper Guéranger's entry in The Liturgical Year for the Ember Days of September, in Volume XI of the 1983 Marian House edition of the English translation by the Benedictines of Stanbrook.) "We have already spoken of the necessity of private penance for the Christian who is at all desirous to make progress in the path of salvation. But in this, as in all spiritual exercises, a private work of devotion has neither the merit nor the efficacy of one that is done in company with the Church, and in communion with her public act;...

Kochi (Kerala, India), SVM News, September 8, 2007: An 81-year-old village bishop of Malankara (Indian) Orthodox Church was severely beaten and hospitalised on August 29 at Kanjiramattam in Ernakulam district of Kerala state, India. Mathews Pulimoottil Cor-episcopa, aged 81, the village bishop and the vicar of the Kajniramattom St. Ignatius Orthodox Syrian Christian Church was severely beaten on Wednesday on the public road near his house while on his way home from the church after the funeral of a member of his parish. The accused, known as Baby of Kaniyamparmbil, apparently slapped the bishop on his face several times until...

This is a religious vanity post I suppose. I am a Christian raised mainly Baptist with some attendance at other denominations. I have, in the course of my life, had a couple of experiences of the intercession of the Holy Virgin for my help and Protection. I have also witnessed the Mass a few times as an outsider and felt drawn away from my Protestant identity. The order and sense of Apostolic succession appeals to me in the Church as opposed to the churches. However, my main point of confusion now is whether to draw close to the Roman Catholic...

Metropolitan Herman greets ROCOR Metropolitan Laurus on anniversary Article posted: 9/6/2007 11:59 PM SYOSSET, NY [OCA Communications] -- His Beatitude, Metropolitan Herman, sent a letter of greeting to His Eminence, Metropolitan Laurus, First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia, on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of his consecration to the episcopacy. The text of the letter, dated September 3, 2007, reads as follows. "On this, the fortieth anniversary of Your Eminence's episcopal consecration, I extend to you, our brother and concelebrant, heartfelt greetings. Please also accept our prayers and congratulations. "Your Eminence's long service in the vineyard...

Russian Orthodox Bishop Says Christianity is Necessary for Europe to Survive Calls Christianity "a powerful source of support for European civilization" By Meg Jalsevac ROMANIA, September 7, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In an address to the Third European Ecumenical Assembly in Sibiu this week, outspoken Russian Orthodox Bishop Kirill said that in order for Europe to survive the tribulations that have befallen previous civilizations, it must retain its Christian identity. According to a report on interfax.com, Kirill explained that an increasing amount of Europeans Christians and non-Christians alike have come to recognize "Christianity [as] a powerful source of support for European...

Moscow Patriarch in favor of Motu Proprio and older Mass CATEGORY: SESSIUNCULUM — Fr. John Zuhlsdorf @ 10:26 am At various times in my articles in The Wanderer, during talks and on this blog I have opined that if we are serious about an authentic ecumenical dialogue, we have to get our liturgical act together: "What must the Orthodox think when they see how we Latins conduct ourselves liturgically?"   At the same time, the solemn Mass in the older use of the Roman Rite is as grand as anything the Easterners do.I see now that the estimable Andrea Tornielli of...

Prelates Consider It Key for Local Church SUBOTICA, Serbia, AUG. 20, 2007 (Zenit.org).- The foundation stone has been laid for the first Catholic seminary for Serbia. Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, retired archbishop of Washington, D.C., presided over the ceremony, calling it a historic moment. Archbishop Stanislaw Hocevar of Belgrade, the chairman of the bishops' conference of Sts. Cyril and Methodius, which covers Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia, told the group Aid to the Church in Need that it is "of great importance that future priests be trained in their own country." After the war, Serbia was left without a seminary since the...

NICOSIA, Cyprus, AUG. 21, 2007 (Zenit.org).- The Orthodox Church of Cyprus announced that the Turkish government cancelled a visit between two Christian leaders in Ankara. The meeting between Chrysostomos II, Orthodox archbishop of New Justiniana and All Cyprus, and Bartholomew I, ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople, was to take place last Friday. Chrysostomos II declared that with this refusal Ankara "has shown its real face," a press release from the Cyprus Embassy to the Holy See reported. He is ready "to edit a letter addressed to the Holy See and to the World Council of Churches, in order to inform them,"...

TARPON SPRINGS -- As Steve Tsalickis lingered near death, feverish from what doctors said was an incurable brain tumor, the 11-year-old asked his mother to bring him the archangel Michael icon that sat in his family living room. What happened next, believers say, was a miracle.During the night, the boy began mumbling. "I have just seen St. Michael," he told his mother. The angel wanted his family to build a shrine in Tarpon Springs. In return, he would cure the boy's illness. When the boy's health was restored the next day, his family held up their end of the bargain...

Yesterday, on 16 August, a memorial of St. Roch is observed in some place. Any Italian man or a man of Italian descent who is named Rocco has this saint as their patron. The following is the "legend" and collect for St. Roch from the supplement to the traditional Roman Breviary, as reprinted in Dom Guéranger's The Liturgical Year St. Roch Interceding with the Virgin for the Plague Striken By Jacques-Louis David Roch was born at Montpellier [France]. He showed his great love for his neighbour, when cruel pestilence ravaged the length and breadth of Italy; leaving his native country,...

WHAT SOME PROTESTANTS THINK ON THIS [Mary]… I will first turn to the "Fathers of the Reformation" to speak for Orthodoxy in defending the teaching that Mary was "Ever Virgin". First I will let Ulrich Zwingli (leader of the Swiss Reformation, divided from Lutheran Reformers because he denied Christ's real presence in any form in the Eucharist) speak to this: "She (Mary) had to be a virgin and perpetually a virgin..." (Reformed Dogmatics, p. 422, by H. Heppe). And in a prayer he calls her: "the pure and ever virgin..." (Prayers of the Eucharist, p. 184, by Jasper & Cuming)....

Kharlamovsky Bridge near the Russian city Kirov has a wicked reputation amongst the locals: for nearly two years of its exploitation a number of serious accidents, including crashes with losses of life, have taken place here.