Russian Orthodox Church marks Feast of All Saints

MOSCOW, June 14 (RIA Novosti, Ivan Korzun) - Russia is celebrating the Feast of All Saints on June 14, with liturgies in Orthodox churches throughout the country commemorating all known and unknown saints. The feast, also called All Saints' Sunday, is marked on the first Sunday after Pentecost. It became prominent in the ninth century during the reign of Byzantine Emperor Leo VI the Wise (886-911).

His wife Theophano was known for her piety, giving alms to the poor and monasteries, caring for widows and orphans, and consoling the sorrowful.

After her death Leo built a church, and forbidden from dedicating it to his wife, dedicated it to All Saints, so that his wife would be honored as a righteous woman. He also issued a decree on the date of the feast. After All Saints' Sunday, the Peter and Paul Fast begins in the Orthodox Church, which this year lasts two weeks.

Western Christians mark All Saints' Day, also called All Hallows Day, on November 1.

“Could you please list some examples (not all) of what the converts are doing wrong, and what the corrections are?”

First, I have no reason you’ve done anything wrong.

In answer to your question, what I and other “cradle” Orthodox have observed among some converts is a sort of holier than thou, we’re better at pretending to be 19th century Russian peasants than you cradles mindset. One actually told me that the proof of their holiness as a group was the number of them who had been ordained as deacons!

A few years ago the infamous Frankie Schaeffer, a convert from protestantism to Orthodoxy, published a newspaper called, I think, The Christian Advocate which continually trumpeted that Orthodoxy in America and soon in the world, would be brought to its purest state by American converts. He had a massive following among converts, especially in the AOC. Among his fellow travelers were the Ben Loman crowd! The paper is now gone, thank God.

There is an attitude that evangelical converts with their atonement theology and scriptural text generators know and understand the Faith better than the yiayas and papous who have lived Orthodoxy for decades, who, as my convert wife says, “walk Orthodox”. You know, my great grandmother couldn’t spell canon. I doubt she could read, at least much. Her best friend throughout her entire long life was Panagia, and I don’t mean some sort of “spiritual” or “theoretical” friendship. I mean a very real sit in the same room or under an olive tree together friendship. I’ve watched catechumens and recent converts in an AOC parish snicker at those people or dismiss their simple theology while the silly convert priest, who can speak neither Arabic, nor Greek nor Slavonic, did nothing! Luckily, a very dear older friend of mine, a Syrian American, cradle and parish council president let the arrogant jerks have it in spades.

We see accusations of the heresy of ethnophyletism from converts because they think that a protestantized, Americanized Orthopraxis is superior to 2000 years of Orthodox Christianity. Its disgusting.

Shall I go on?

“I made a mistake.”

Don’t worry about it.

“- My “beef” is only with this church and NO OTHER....”

If you end up Orthodox, at some point you’ll come to two realizations. First, that Orthodoxy fulfills all the promises the Latin Church “made” to you; second, you will goive thanks for the Latin Church because it lead you to Orthodoxy. The exact same process works in reverse with Orthodox who become Latins...which is quite a thing!

“If you are interested you can read post # 61 of http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-religion/2264321/posts";

Same advice I’d probably have given you.

“Lastly, I was happy to see this thread on something exclusive to the Orthodox Church, which I don’t see that often here in FR or maybe I never noticed? Hmmmm...”

It is very, very rare to see an Orthodox Caucus thread here. On occasion we will do an Orthodox/Catholic Caucus but even those are uncommon. Orthodoxy stands up pretty well against the assaults of the heterodox, as it has for the past 2000 years. There are a number of very well grounded Orthodox Christians here. If you have questions, Freepmail them and in the meantime, read the comments the Orthodox post. Finally, go to a Divine Liturgy. Here’s what the envoys of Prince Vladimir of Kiev reported back to him upon their return from an investigation of religions expedition in 987:

“”When we journeyed among the Bulgars, we beheld how they worship in their temple, called a mosque, while they stand ungirt. The Bulgarian bows, sits down, looks hither and thither like one possessed, and there is no happiness among them, but instead only sorrow and a dreadful stench. Their religion is not good. Then we went among the Germans, and saw them performing many ceremonies in their temples; but we beheld no glory there. Then we went on to Greece, and the Greeks led us to the edifices where they worship their God, and we knew not whether we were in heaven or on earth. For on earth there is no such splendour or such beauty, and we are at a loss how to describe it. We know only that God dwells there among men, and their service is fairer than the ceremonies of other nations. For we cannot forget that beauty. Every man, after tasting something sweet, is afterward unwilling to accept that which is bitter, and therefore we cannot dwell longer here.”

“Shall I go on?”

Naah, Kolo. No need. I can see why such attitudes would color your outlook and why you said the things you did. I actually feel you to an extent. One reason I left Protestantism was the “Holier than EVERYONE” attitude. Self-righteousness is a very, VERY ugly thing, and I hate it with every fiber of my existence.

I lost my temper at you earlier on this forum, and I need to publicly apologize to you. Please forgive me.

“I need to publicly apologize to you.”

No you don’t.

“Please forgive me.”

Of course.

Next Sunday and for the next few months, look around the temple and watch the the older cradles as they pray and notice the little things they do and say depending on the liturgical season. Their Orthodoxy, Y, is definitional of who they are. It is as much part of them as the cells in their bodies. Quite literally everything about them is shaped by their Orthodox Christianity. You will learn The Faith from the Fathers and the liturgies and devotions of The Church, and, God willing, from a good and holy spiritual father. But you will learn to LIVE the Faith, the Faith upon which the Universe was founded, from the unsophisticated Orthodox Christians around you.

Let me say that my home parish, while led by convert clergy, is not what you described in your earlier post. There is no pretense, no airs.

And if Orthodox Sunday was any indication, all the jurisdictions get along here. WELL. It was held at the GOA parish this year (I didn’t care for the organ, by way of full disclosure), and my Antiochian Convert Priest gave the Homily.

There is an old Polish couple in our parish, the gentleman introduced himself to me yesterday. In a rather thick accent, he told me that he was cradle (I really had no doubt) and that the background of the diocese he’d grown up in had a traceable ancestry to Cyrill. Chills...

And there are obviously several cradle Arab families, after all it is the Antiochian Archdiocese. And they are wonderful, beautiful people.

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