Halloween: Trick Or Retreat?

Trick or Retreat
By Fr. John Parker
(Republished from 2005)

Few of us could say with clarity, certainty, and from memory, which saints we Orthodox commemorate on October 31. For the record, and for our spiritual nourishment, we commemorate the “Apostles of the Seventy: Stachys, Amplias, Urban, Narcissus, Apelles, and Aristobulus”, among others. We read about their appointment in Luke 10:1ff, “After this the Lord appointed seventy others, and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to come.” Apparently, according to St. Paul’s epistle, these men were in Rome:Greet Ampliatus, my beloved in the Lord. Greet Urbanus, our fellow worker in Christ, and my beloved Stachys. Greet Apelles, who is approved in Christ. Greet those who belong to the family of Aristobulus. Greet my kinsman Herodion. Greet those in the Lord who belong to the family of Narcissus…Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the churches of Christ greet you (Romans 16:8 11,16).

I personally would like to be much more well-versed in the Saints of the Church, and especially more well read in the Scriptures. To be sure, I need to deepen my prayer life by leagues. Are these not chief tasks of the Orthodox Faith: to know God, to become holy? In nearly every litany that we pray in the Orthodox Church, we “commend ourselves, each other, and all our life unto Christ our God.” Every nook and cranny, every high and low, every joy and sorrow, every intrigue and resolution we are to bring to God to hallow: to make holy. Every thought, every action, every reaction, every word we are to offer back to God. Every dollar we spend, every breath we expend, every minute we save, every night and every day are to be freely offered in eucharist—thanksgiving to God for His generosity, kindness, and endless mercy. We study and learn the Scriptures and the lives of the saints in order to recognize that God has given the grace to do these things throughout all generations, and will give them to us in proportion to the depth of our desire.

Having set the stage, at least basically, it is important for us to recognize that this [holiness, thanksgiving, living “in Christ”] is the lens through which we are to see the world. This is the filter through which we are to address the situations and dilemmas of our daily lives. What about the ‘dilemma’ of Halloween? Several of you have asked me about this ‘festival’ in the past weeks, so is it pagan? Is it Christian? Is it holy? Is it evil? Is it neutral, benign, or harmless?
Conducting a search for “history of Halloween” on google.com, I encountered, as you can imagine, numberless web sites attesting to the history—or better, histories, of Halloween. Some from churches, some from witches (yes, witches. They do exist.), some from county libraries. The Dauphin (PA?) County library site, I believe, is the most helpful for us, in part, because the opening paragraph defines the nature of our dilemma well:

America is a melting pot of cultures from all over the world. Because we are a nation of people from many different cultures, our holidays tend to blend bits and pieces from different cultures into one American celebration. Halloween is one of the best examples of a holiday with a rich tradition of "blending." ((http://www.dcls.org/x/archives/halloween.html)).

The DCLS basically defines Halloween as a melting-pot holiday. If you were to browse the web as I did, you would find this to be true: the roots of the ‘festival’ are found in pre-Christian Celtic (pagan) life. Later, as with many feasts including the Nativity, pagan festivals were ‘baptized’ by the Church and became Christian feasts. Most sites note that the word ‘Halloween’ is a contraction of ‘All Hallow’s Even’ or in contemporary English, the night before All Saint’s Day. The Western Church, for many centuries now has celebrated this feast on this day as a means of Christianizing pagan rituals for the dead, etc. (Parenthetically, the Orthodox celebrate All Saints on the first Sunday after Pentecost, the descent of the Holy Spirit. This is theologically appropriate as it is the Holy Spirit who sanctifies us—makes us saints!)

If there is a problem with Halloween, it begins with the very issue that the DCLS celebrates: melting pot. The theological term for this is syncretism. Syncretism simply means blending. Syncretism, besides idolatry (although related), was one of the chief sins and evils of Israel in the Old Testament. Solomon life is a prime example this danger. Having been faithful to the One True God, he then went off and intermarried with all sorts of foreign women whose influences led him to blend faiths and ultimately depart from God. You can read the full story in 1 Kings 11:1ff.

Melting pots are nice for stews, desserts, fashions, dances, learning languages, and the like, but they are not only horrible for, but detrimental to, Christianity. As the DCLS site notes, “halloween is one of the best examples of a holiday with a rich tradition of blending.” But is this blending good? Can we be in it, be a part of it? I would suggest that there are precious few, if any, ways we could completely sanctify a night of trick-or-treating. Remember: we aren’t called to offer “part of our lives to Christ our God”, but rather “ourselves, each other, and all our life unto [Him].”

Consider the following, all normal today. You can find these in Anycity, USA:


Is it okay for a Christian parent to allow a child to dress up as a witch, a warlock, a vampire, an evil monster?

Is it healthy for parents to expose their children to walking through neighborhoods where some folks have actually dug up their yards to make graves and hide in them with chainsaws, axes, and cleavers?

Halloween may have its ‘tame’ side with Power Rangers, tinkerbells, and Disney Characters—these you’ll find on the front page of the costume store advertisment; but what about the costume called “Angel of Darkness”, tailored for teenage girls, which boasts a scant mini-skirt, all black, with a mesh-like, low-cut, v-neck top, complete with cherry red lipstick and a 4 inch crucifix? You might not let your teenage daughter wear such a thing, but would you expose your children to this on a dark night?

What about a haunted maize maze?

Your neighbors may think you are strange. They may even think you are ‘some kind of fundamentalist’. They may suggest, “it’s harmless fun…you did it when you were a kid!” It may be harmless, it may not. The risks not only of frightening young children but doing unseen spiritual damage are frankly too high to take the chance. And yes, I did trick or treat when I was a kid. My parents still have picture of me dressed up as a hot-wheels racecar driver next to my “Casper the friendly ghost” brother, and here I am—normal (so I say!). But here is how I would respond to such arguments:

1. My faith is not what it was then, and while church-goers, no theological discussion was ever had in my family, regarding Halloween when I was a boy. We must consider our faith first when making all of our decisions. Consider St. Paul’s words, “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave up childish ways” (1 Cor. 13:11).
2. The “when you were a kid” argument is a bad one. What if you smoked pot when you were younger? Would you, now that you know differently and better, say, “well, I did it when I was a kid and I am fine”? I licked a paintbrush soaked in gasoline when I was a kid. I am fine today, but would hardly recommend the practice to anyone, particularly a child.
3. The can be no argument against this statement: Halloween is not what it used to be. Halloween is the second most financially lucrative holiday in the USA. Costumes have become a whole industry, much of which is dedicated to making evil look more evil and scary, scarier.
4. Assume (for only a moment) that the night is “harmless”: I can sing practically every song that came out in the early 80s. Is this wrong or bad? Well, only if you also asked me (now a few years ago) where to find Noah and the Flood in the Bible. Or to tell you who King Josiah, or Tamar, or Rahab were. Or where St. Innocent came from and what work he did, or why we use incense in church. Or how to sit still and pray. Was my time memorizing the radio spent on evil? No, hardly. But it was surely poorly spent by comparison! Have we done all that we can to facilitate the spiritual lives of our family members?

If you feel like you can’t fight the tide of the society—and in the future, we will do this as a parish, with better planning and resources—take your son or daughter to a candy store and let them fill a bag for themselves. Then go home and play some games together. Take the public night away—filled with scary things and unnecessary influences—and replace it with something family oriented—or even more ideally, something directly related to our Faith.
As far as Halloween has ever been “Christian”, it was originally a baptism of pagan celebrations—at least All Saints Day was. Once again it is pagan—perhaps civilly pagan (although it is undeniable that witches, druids, etc. do celebrate this feast)—it is time for us to reevaluate our participation in it, perhaps by scrapping it, perhaps by rebaptizing it in some new way.
Some suggestions:

1. Perhaps as early as next year, we as a parish, can sponsor some sort of faith based, get-children-off-the-streets, Christian evening of fun. Many such parties exist now. Choose one of them.
2. Are your really interested in witches, ghosts, monsters, etc.? Read the BIBLE! It is all in there. Once you read it, then you can discuss it, ask about it, and really see why we put our trust in GOD! Consider the following:


Prohibitions regarding astrology (tarot, palm reading, etc) and witches: Deuteronomy 18:9ff.
Saul and the Witch of Endor: 1 Samuel chapter 28

Isaiah’s glimpse into heaven: Isaiah 6

The whole book of Acts, particularly:

• Simon the Magician: Acts 8
  
• The Magicians Bar-Jesus and Elymas: beginning of Acts 13
  
• A slave girl possessed by a spirit of divination Acts 16:16ff.
  
• Miracles, exorcisms by use of Paul’s handkerchief and apron: Acts 19:11ff.
  
• Angels, demons, Dragons, beasts, fire, swords, battles etc.: The whole book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible. Pick any chapter!

If you are looking for some sort of excitement, and think that Hollywood or society has us beat, think again. Read the Bible. With obvious exceptions (related to technology) whatever you can name, you can find in the Scriptures. (Try me…let’s look!) Learn them instead! Whatever is not explicitly found on the pages of the Old and New Testaments, can be found implicitly, or can be read in the lives of the saints.

Ben and Jerry's

To the Head of Public Relations at Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream
September 2, 2009

Mr Greenwood:

I am extremely disappointed that Ben and Jerry's took the unfortunate and flauntingly public step not only to support Vermont's regrettable decision with regard to same-gender unions, but that the company went full-monty in renaming its Chubby Hubby ice cream and placing two men atop a wedding cake on the package.

I am also disappointed that my email and concern will very likely be lumped in with the equally-lamentable "God hates fags" crowd--who shared the stage in Vermont today--whose members will also have to give an answer for their inhumane decisions and behavior. It is a shame that few will even *consider* an email like mine without immediately writing it--and me--off as homophobic. Believe me, I have no fear of or loathing for those who experience same-gender attraction. To the contrary, I wish every man and woman on the planet earth health, wholeness, and salvation.

Marriage is not a civil right, it is a privilege, a calling, a responsibility. To be sure it is a privilege taken lightly by at least half of our society, a responsibility shirked by more than 50% of us who are married. It is a calling to which, for obvious biological reasons (among others), no same-gendered couples may be called, and indeed an arena into which many men and women ought not to step, despite their biological capacities or credentials.

In truth, it is difficult enough that our society's self-willed freefall into a moral collapse (Rome!) is expedited by married men and women who divorce one another with more vengeance than mortal enemies and more quickly than the ever-revolving door of teenage fashion. Decisions like Vermont's put nails in our culture's coffin by further mocking marriage and by giving an example to children that will only lead them into further confusion, despair, and wrecklessness. It is insidious behavior to promote this sadness on ice-cream containers--for crying out loud: the ice-cream man *was* the last stranger any child could trust.

But now, even the greatest hometown ice-cream makers have endorsed it officially. I hope you'll change your minds, for the sake of human-kind, if not at least for the sake of the children.

Very sadly yours,

Fr John Parker

On the Via Media

The Christian life:
Via spatiosa?
Via arta?
Via media?

Fr John Parker
frjohn@ocacharleston.org

What you are about to read may shock you. It will probably sound arrogant and simplistic. It is blunt. It might be ignored. Maybe it should be! It might cause a fury of discussion. It might be the worthless rant of a former Episcopalian.

It is not, however, meant to be anything other than my reflections on the via media, now seven years removed from it, and now that a “new” Anglican province seems to be emerging in North America—one which is welcoming both His Beatitude, the Most-blessed Jonah, the Metropolitan of the Orthodox Church in America and Rick Warren—to the same meeting this summer, to offer words of encouragement and blessing for this effort.

Some will say—and maybe already even have—“Look at how the Anglican Church brings all of these traditions together”. Beware!

So, if I shock, anger, or concern you, I am sorry, and I ask your forgiveness. Sometimes, however, it seems like a hard word must be said, and I am attempting to say one for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The term via media has always bewildered me. And now it bothers me. Some call it the “meeting ground” between the Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant traditions. The place—the church—where a nominal Roman Catholic can marry a moderately committed Presbyterian and both “feel comfortable”—a place which gives each of them the outward appearance of home without the fuss of dogmas or the ballast of doctrines. (This is a striking blow, I know. I am not saying that the Anglican Churches are free of doctrine and dogma. I am, however, saying that doctrine and dogma are moving targets in the Anglican World—and those doctrines and dogmas may or may not be consistent with the Christian Tradition—and they may vary not only at the parochial level—but even at the individual level.)[1]

The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church indicates that George Herbert was among—if not the first person to use the term via media—the middle way. In chapter XIII of The Country Parson, Herbert says the following:

And all this he doth, not as out of necessity, or as putting a holiness in the things, but as desiring to keep the middle way between superstition, and slovenliness, and as following the Apostle’s two great and admirable Rules in things of this nature: The first whereof is Let all things be done decently and in order: The second, Let all things be done to edification. [2]

Herbert uses the term in the context of describing “the Parson’s Church”—how it should be maintained and honored for worship. The parson keeps the floors well swept, keeps the church in good order, and uses linens, etc. of fine material, “not out of necessity but as desiring to keep the middle way between superstition and slovenliness”.[3]

Some consider that Richard Hooker’s via media was essentially the middle road between Queen Elizabeth’s Church of England and the Puritans’. Other writings define the Anglican “middle way” as the faithful road between Rome and Geneva, between the superstitions and excesses of (especially medieval) Roman Catholicism and the hyper-reforms of Presbyterianism. Still others would argue that the adherence to the middle way in all matters is one of the major identifying characteristics of classical Anglicanism. Today, via media has come to mean “average of the two extremes” even, and perhaps especially, with regard to liturgy, theology, ecclesiology, and Biblical interpretation.

However helpful and comforting this concept was to me as an Episcopalian at the time—this way between the excesses of medieval Papism and the baby-and-bathwaterless tub of Protestantism—it still left something to be desired—something at the time intangible, unreachable, indescribable. In retrospect, I can see the reason: in my lifetime (I was a teenager in the 1980s) the “mean” between the two so-called extremes was ever shifting. The self-professing little-‘o’ orthodox Episcopalians couldn’t become any more little ‘o’ orthodox, without becoming big-‘O’ Orthodox (and some have), but the self-named “progressives”—what others call ‘liberals’—seemed to find more and more opportunity and hope for all sorts of departures from the Christian Tradition—women’s ordination, blessings of same-sex unions, blatant ordination and approval of active homosexual bishops, so-called ‘open communion’ (communing, as the bulletin in one Williamsburg, Virginia, Episcopal Church put it, “all those who love God and are drawn to Jesus” (October 2001). With this ever moving ‘left’ wing, the Via Media also moved left. So far left, that it really isn’t in the middle of anything anymore (if it ever was)—save perpetual controversy and lament.

It turns out that the via media makes perfect sense if the Roman Church and the Protestant Churches are the only ‘choices’ in the world. If one’s only options are to choose from Papism (which is not from the beginning) with its strange additions to the faith once for all delivered (read “filioque”, Papal Infallibility and universal jurisdiction, immaculate conception, to name the major ones) or the plethora of self-justifying pieces of Reformation shrapnel, parts of Anglicanism look enticing. There is certainly a beauty in Anglican simplicity, in Anglo-catholic ritual, in English Church Architecture, in Anglican choral work, and in Thomas Cranmer’s poetic translations into English of the Latin Rite. And these not to mention the King James translation of the Bible, still considered to be one of the greatest treasures of the English language. (Too bad text-messaging and twitter will soon erase literature and beautiful language from our culture!)

But is Via Media the Via Christiana?

Not while it remains disconnected from the root; not while it remains out of communion with the ancient Church, a ‘branch’ of which it claims to be—and often, if not nearly always—without consulting the other two branches (as classical Anglican would refer to the Orthodox and Roman Churches). And certainly not while the via media develops its meaning and grows further and further from Herbert’s description of the Country Parson’s tidy, and simplistically beautiful nave.

It was first in reading Vladimir Lossky (though it may have been Alexei Khomiakov), an Orthodox Christian, that my inward discomfort (and disillusionment) with the via media took clearer form. Rather than the either/or choices I had been ‘offered’ ecclesiologically speaking, he described the Roman Catholic and Protestant Churches as flip sides of a single coin. A coin—I would add—which like all old coins, has value due to intrigue, interest, and some age, but one, nevertheless which is no longer in circulation—and one which is no longer legal tender, like the German Mark or the Spanish Peseta. On the whole, the Roman Church has not been in communion with the Orthodox Churches since 1054. The Protestant denominations (including the Anglican churches as they exist today) are twice removed from Orthodoxy, since they are break-aways from Rome beginning in the 16th Century.

The Orthodox—historically, liturgically, theologically, ascetically, and biblically speaking—have continued to travel the Christian Way as simply the Via, and not the media of anything. For the Orthodox, the life of the Church—the very Body of Christ—is as her Lord, “the same yesterday, today, and forever”. The Via Christiana is the Via Arta—the Straight Way. The Porta Christiana is the Porta Angusta—the Narrow Gate.

intrate per angustam portam quia lata porta et spatiosa via quae ducit ad
perditionem et multi sunt qui intrant per eam quam angusta porta et arta via
quae ducit ad vitam et pauci sunt qui inveniunt eam

Εἰσέλθατε διὰ τῆς στενῆς πύλης· ὅτι πλατεῖα ἡ πύλη καὶ εὐρύχωρος ἡ ὁδὸς ἡ ἀπάγουσα εἰς τὴν ἀπώλειαν καὶ πολλοί εἰσιν οἱ εἰσερχόμενοι διʼ αὐτῆς· τί στενὴ ἡ πύλη καὶ τεθλιμμένη ἡ ὁδὸς ἡ ἀπάγουσα εἰς τὴν ζωὴν καὶ ὀλίγοι εἰσὶν οἱ εὑρίσκοντες
αὐτήν.

Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.  For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few.

The Content of the Christian faith is not subject to adjustment, compromise, or averaging. The Way is indeed hard that leads to life and the gate is indeed narrow, according to our Lord Jesus Christ who showed us the way! The via spatiosa—the wide or spacious way is the way of death. This via media is enticing. It glitters. It looks like a road. It may even be beautifully landscaped.

But it is a trap. It is mirage. It is a disguise.

And according to our Lord, it is the way of destruction.

Orthodox Christianity knows no doctrinal or dogmatic compromise. She knows that one cannot give an inch to a slippery-slope question. The devasting results of the tiniest compromise are evident in the shattered fragments of Western Christianity.

But is there room for a via media of any sort? Orthodoxy says, “yes, of course!” But not where Western Christians typically look—since asceticism is almost thoroughly erased from the Occidental Christian memory.

This via media has a popular Greek phrase attached to it—“Pan metron ariston”—Moderation in all things. This, however, does not refer to a middle ground between Jesus truly God and Jesus Truly man, or between, say, traditional or ‘contemporary’ worship, between sacerdotal vestments and golf shirts. The Lordship of Jesus is not up for a vote, the worship of the church is received, and the vestments of the church are outward descriptions of the words of our liturgies.

No, this via media is a middle ground between teetotalism and drunkenness. The *right* amount of prayer and work. Chaste sexual relationships between a husband and his wife. The proper use of leisure. The necessary quantities of food and drink. Not too much. Not too little.

Most simply, it is the Christian version of the Goldilocks and the three bears. A bed not too hard, not too soft, but just right.

One described this Orthodox via media in apophatic terms—which makes total sense to us, since we cannot so easily describe who God is apart from saying what he is not. Apophatically, the Orthodox via media is this: the absence or lack of imbalance. Not simply “balance”—but the *lack* of imbalance.

It is here that life is found—this is the narrow way. The way of self-denial. The way of the destruction of self-will. The way of the murder of the passions of the flesh. If there is a Christian via media, it is the narrow way. A way certainly open to all—everyone is invited. But the stakes are high: death to self, death to sin. The need for a radical transformation of life by and through God’s grace.

But the result both now and in the age to come is priceless: true life in Jesus Christ.

And as Moses once said,

See, I have set before you this day life and good, death and evil.  If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you this day, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his ordinances, then you shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you are entering to take possession of it.  But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them,  I declare to you this day, that you shall perish; you shall not live long in the land which you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess.  I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse; therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live,  loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice, and cleaving to him; for that means life to you and length of days…” (Deuteronomy 30:15ff).

[1] With flawless predictability, the new Province’s proposed canons apparently accept both the 39 Articles and the Seven Ecumenical Councils. How one can both accept icons as *necessary* so as not to repudiate the incarnation (cf the 7th Ecumenical Council and the writings of St John of Damascus), and to repudiate their veneration (see article XXII, and that blatantly Iconoclastic Homily 2 listed in Article XXXV) is truly unimaginable. Or if this is not the proper understanding of the founding principles of ACNA, then according to whose interpretation of the Scriptures will they accept the “Christological Clarifications” of this council?

Likewise there are now already arguments and defenses from both the Anglo-Catholic and Evangelical streams commenting on the (relative) necessity of the Historic Episcopate in the new province. Again, how one can on the one hand proclaim belief in the “One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church”, and at the same time believe that “Apostolic” does not essentially include and require Apostolic Succession is bewildering. Moreso is the possibility that *both* parties could have *their way*. It reminds one of that thoroughly Anglican-Lutheran-Presbyterian-Catholic sentence for the distribution of communion—one that everyone can say, “See, we are _______ (Reformed, Catholic, Lutheran, etc.)”. “The body of our Lord Jesus Christ which was given for thee, preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life. Take and eat this in remembrance that Christ died for thee, and feed on him in thy heart in faith, with thanksgiving.”

And this not to mention what to do with the perpetual debate on women’s ordination to the priesthood. There is no restoration to the Ancient Church while this is still considered an option.

[2] John N. Wall (editor). George Herbert: The Country Parson, The Temple. (New York: Paulist Press, 1981). pp. 74-75.


[3] Ibid p. 74.

I Doubt It!

Did you ever doubt? You are not alone!

“And when they saw [the newly-risen Jesus], they worshiped him; but some doubted.”

Not long after Jesus’ resurrection, he began to make appearances to his followers. He appeared to his *closest friends*—“but some doubted”. These are folks who walked with our Lord for three years in a row—personally. They *knew* him. But when they saw him raised from the dead, “some doubted.” Doubt is not new, and it is not foreign even to those closest to Christ.

Today (in the Western church—next Sunday in the Orthodox Churches) some astonishing number of Christians reading this article (40%? 60%?) will have attended church to celebrate Jesus’ Resurrection, not to return today. “Low Sunday” as this day is commonly called, refers to the dramatic drop in attendance from the Paschal services. But its liturgical name is much more encouraging and helpful. The first Sunday after Pascha is Thomas Sunday, the day on which we remember the Apostle best known as Doubting Thomas.

According to John’s Gospel, eleven of the disciples were gathered together in a locked room when Jesus first appeared to them following his Resurrection. Thomas, the only one who was not there, would not believe the eye-witness report of the eleven—that Jesus was truly raised from the dead, “Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and place my finger in the mark of the nails, and place my hand in his side” (John 20:25). Jesus’ response to this unbelief was a combination of patience and love. He didn’t upbraid him for his faithlessness or his absence the previous week (though he does call those blessed who have *not* seen and yet believe); rather Jesus offered Thomas the most convincing proof: “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side; do not be faithless, but believing.” Thomas’ response is perhaps the strongest confession of Jesus Christ in the Gospels: “My Lord and my God!”

Since we are made for perfect communion with God, since we are all (men and women alike) born to be Sons of God and therefore inheritors of God’s Kingdom, of course God is pleased with those who have faith in Him. This is part and parcel to our existence. These faithful shall be saved, according to the Scriptures, insofar as their faith is rooted in Love and demonstrated by concrete actions of compassion and mercy even, and perhaps especially, to their worst enemies.

But what about the faithless? What about those who doubt? Well, God can work with them too—he did with Thomas! But there are at least two kinds of doubters: Engagers and agnostics. From a Christian perspective, it is the agnostics who actually suffer spiritually the most (even if they are unaware of it)—since they appear most sincerely unable, unwilling, or uninterested to pursue God. It seems that they really couldn’t care less. At least externally, they are not moved by the mercy and love of God. Jesus addressed a whole church suffering from this spiritual malady in the Apocalypse: ‘I know your works: you are neither cold nor hot. Would that you were cold or hot!  So, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth.  For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing” (Rev. 3:15).

Engagers are different. Engagers are those who are troubled by their own doubts or unbelief, whatever their root, and are motivated to resolve the tension. This group, I’d submit, even includes staunch atheists. God can work with these! Admittedly or not, able or not, they want to see God, but for whatever reason right now, they cannot. Even the most ardent atheist is looking for God—its just that so far, he’s only had convincing proof that the gods already presented to him aren’t the True God. And I’d be willing to go so far as to say in many cases, I’d sympathize with their doubts! These haven’t—so to speak—found the real nail printed hands yet, or felt the holy hole in the pierced side. Doubt or faithlessness in the case of the ‘engager’ is actually an active path towards belief. And we might even say that having gone through the difficult darkness of doubt by engaging it, the doubter’s faith is made much stronger.

Doubt is not something to be encouraged or content with, from a Christian perspective—but it is clear even from the very day of Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, that “some doubted.” Rather, when doubts come, we should all the more devote ourselves to the pursuit of the Truth, who stands and the door and knocks, and says,” if any one hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.”

Doubters, don’t despair, engage! As the father of the sick child asked Christ, “I believe; help my unbelief!” and as Jesus said to Thomas, “Do not be faithless, but believing!”

Fr John Parker is priest-in-charge of Holy Ascension Orthodox Church in I’On. To read more visit http://www.holyascension.blogspot.com/. Fr John can be reached at frjohn@ocacharleston.org or at 843.881.5010.

Lent time to repent, repair

By Fr John Parker
Originally published in the Post and Courier, Charleston, SC on Sunday, February 15, 2009
found here:

http://www.charleston.net/news/2009/feb/15/lent_time_repent_repair71725/?print

Zacchaeus was like an IRS agent, only worse. He came to your door. If that wasn't bad enough, he was a native, but had accepted a job as a tax-man by the occupying forces, which meant he worked for the enemy.

One day, his life changed radically. He had heard all sorts of rumors and stories about a notorious fellow who would be coming through town, and for some reason, his soul was stirred. As the time drew near for this mysterious fellow to pass through the village, our IRS agent was frustrated by the large crowds who had also come to get a glimpse of this famed sojourner. To make matters worse, our agent was a short man.

No matter, he thought, and climbed his way up a large tree to see.

Jesus Christ saw short Zacchaeus in that sycamore tree and ordered him to come down immediately, for he wanted to have a meal with him. Zacchaeus followed the command without hesitation. He was stirred to the core of his being that day — this one who made his living by exacting taxes (plus whatever he could score for himself) from his fellow citizens. His response to being in the presence of Jesus? "Half of my possessions I give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it four-fold." Half he gave away. And there was no question about whether he had defrauded anyone: This was his vocation! But he didn't just say "I'm sorry" to those whom he had swindled. Nor did he simply return what he took. He restored it "four-fold."

It is with this reading from the Gospels that the Orthodox Christian Churches see the first signs of the coming of Great Lent — the 40 days of prayer, fasting and alms-giving that precede Holy Pascha (Easter as it is commonly known in the Western Church).

Great Lent is almost always viewed as some sort of endurance test. How long can I go without — fill in the blank. Or else it is seen as some way to pay God back for my sins and misdeeds by going 40 days without chocolate or ice cream or beer. Sadly, these common misconceptions gravely miss the point of the Great Fast, which at its core is precisely an encounter with Jesus Christ like the one Zacchaeus had. It is the annual season during which we can come to our senses, realizing that something is off-kilter in our lives. To find out what it is, one must climb a tree to see, an act that leads to an invitation, and to company with a severe but unquestionably good presence. Off-kilteredness is exposed, and one is moved to repent and to repair.

There is another aspect to Great Lent, subtle and easily missed: that we must fast in order to know what a feast is. For Orthodox Christians, 40 days without meat, dairy, wine and olive oil sets a stage for the Pascha, with its rich foods such as roasted lamb, exotic cheeses and sweets from around the world. Without fasting, Pascha would be just another day. To show it to be what it is — the Feast of Feasts — it is preceded by the Fast of Fasts. It is how we know one from another, and it is good for our soul. It is the road to salvation.

Our nation has come to such a time, it seems. We've gone so long without fasting, without self-denial, without care for our neighbor (near or far); we are used to gluttony, and so the times in which we now find ourselves are a jolt. Will we wield our self-will and say, "No one can force me to fast"? Or will we, like Zacchaeus, realize that our lives are off-kilter? Will we see this season as one of gloom to endure, as punishment? Or will we see it as a National Great Lent, a time to come face-to-face with God in order to be healed?

The troubled times of our present economic crisis, however complicated, are not so unlike that which brought Zacchaeus to the foot of the sycamore tree (which stands to this day) in Jericho. May our inner strength be summoned to cast off concern for what others might think about the spectacle of grown men and women climbing a tree to see ourselves clearly.

Great Lent offers us the 40-day invitation to take a fearless moral, spiritual, emotional inventory of our lives as well as the opportunity to give half of our possessions to the poor, and to restore four-fold to anyone we may have defrauded — all this in order to experience the joy of the Resurrection. And it is just around the corner.

Fr. John Parker is priest-in-charge of Holy Ascension Orthodox Church in I'On. He can be reached at 881-5010 or frjohn@ocacharleston.org.

A Fragrant Legacy

A Fragrant Legacy
By Fr John Parker
Originally published in the Post and Courier on Sunday, October 26, 2008

It was on Miodrag’s account that he and Drazen visited our church on this sad day. Miodrag’s brother, Aleksandar, a long-time resident of Mt. Pleasant, had died—alone—and Miodrag had just arrived from his home in Europe to tend to the affairs of his departed brother.

I had not known Aleksandar in this life. Still, it is our custom to care for the dead and their survivors, the weeping and the grieving, who are looking for the consolation of Christ. We put a plan together and agreed to meet at the morgue on that Monday, in order to wash Aleksandar’s body.

The traditional Christian preparation of a corpse for burial is quite a moving, beautiful, and holy experience, even in the sterile environment of a morgue. After the first few Psalms, one really doesn’t take much notice of the room. In this case, our parish deacon and his wife, with the ever gracious assistance and direction from the head of mortuary services, humbly, delicately, carefully washed Aleksandar’s body, all the while I chanted Psalms, prayers and hymns for the departed, in addition to reading relevant passages on death and resurrection from the Epistles and Gospels. We finished our sacred philoxenia (biblical Greek for “hospitality”—and literally “love of strangers”) by anointing Aleksandar’s body with fragrant Myrrh, one of the three beautiful gifts given to Jesus at his Nativity—precisely with reference to his impending death for our sake. Our last act in preparation for his memorial service was to clothe him in white. It is what he would have worn at his first, and more eternally significant death: his baptism. The Panikhida (memorial service) was simple and beautiful—a small gathered choir and a few dozen of Aleksandar’s coworkers and friends, in addition to his brother and sister-in-law.

The same day that we sang our funeral service for Aleksandar, I learned of the falling-asleep (as it is referred to in the Scriptures) of our beloved brother priest, the Very Rev. Nicholas Trivelas, who pastored the Orthodox Church in Charleston for nearly half a century. The preparation of the body of a priest is similar to that of a layman, though a bit more specific. We were kindly welcomed, in this instance, by the folks at Stuhr’s, a few of whom knew Fr Nicholas when he was a young priest and they were children. Fr John Johns, the current pastor of Holy Trinity had invited Fr Anastasy Yatrellis (himself a son of the parish) and me to meet him for these holy preparations. We shared the prayers, washings, and anointings—we washed his face, hands, and feet, and anointed each with Myrrh. What joyful sadness—to wash the face of a perpetual smile, to anoint the hands and feet of one who served so many. Finishing our prayers and the anointing, we vested Fr Nicholas’ body in his brightest Paschal Vestments—a priest is buried as a priest. Fr. Nicholas’ funeral was a more sizeable service. His whole family was there, in addition to his parish family—including surely the children’s children of folks he himself had baptized.

The preparations for the burial of these to men caused me also to reflect on my time in the Holy Land. Not far outside of Jerusalem, we visited the Judean desert, and specifically the Great Lavra, a living and ancient Orthodox Christian monastery founded in 485AD. Within the nave of the katholikon (the main monastery church) is a glass case about 6 feet long and three feet deep and high, which contains a human body vested similarly to Fr Nicholas. The body is that of St Sabbas, the founder of the monastery. His incorrupt relics (non-embalmed, non-decomposing body) are laid in state for pilgrims to come and venerate. (Incorrupt relics, which often exude the scent of myrrh or roses—even 1500 years after death—are a sign of sanctity in the Orthodox tradition. It is one way we recognize a saint.) The preparations made for St Sabbas’ funeral 1500 years ago would have been the same as those we made for Aleksandar and Fr Nicholas. It is the way our tradition teaches us to treat the corpse of any departed soul.

The body of a deceased layman, the body of a departed priest, and the incorrupt corpse of an ancient monastic saint. You and I each share two vocations with Aleksandar, Fr Nicholas, and St. Sabbas. The first is that not a single one of us escapes death. Psalm 49:7ff is a reminder: “Truly no man can ransom himself, or give to God the price of his life, for the ransom of his life is costly, and can never suffice, that he should continue to live on for ever, and never see the Pit.” We will all die.

The second shared vocation is also highlighted in this Psalm: “Yea, he shall see that even the wise die, the fool and the stupid alike must perish and leave their wealth to others” (verse 10)—the call to “leave our wealth to others”—the eternal memory of a holy, self-denying life, which in turn gives life to those with whom we come into contact. And we have a limited number of breaths in this world to be perfected in such holiness. God help us not to squander those precious few!

As the Western Church prepares to celebrate the feast of All Saints (Nov 1) and All Souls (Nov 2), let us remind ourselves that life is but a breath, and ask the Lord that after our own death, we leave a truly holy legacy—alive, as fragrant as roses—15 days, 15 months, even 1500 years from now.

Fr John Parker is priest-in-charge of Holy Ascension Orthodox Church in I’On. He can be reached at frjohn@ocacharleston.org. To read more visit www.holyascension.blogspot.com.

Interview with Frederica on Ancient Faith Radio

Hear it here:
http://ancientfaith.com/podcasts/podup/frederica/a_voice_in_the_public_square

Read it here:

A Voice in the Public Square
Thursday, October 9, 2008Frederica in Orthodoxy, Christian Apologetics, Podcast
[Ancient Faith Radio; October 9, 2008]

Frederica Mathewes-Green: I’m in the nave of the Church of Holy Ascension in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina on Route 17, just north of Charleston. I’m talking with the pastor, Fr. John Parker. Tell me a little about your journey to Orthodoxy, Father, as we get started.

Fr. John Parker: Sure. Well, it all began during my Episcopal seminary experience in Ambridge, PA, when the library there had a sale on duplicate books. So they were 50 cents for paperbacks and a dollar for hardback books. I found a whole stack of Orthodox Books there, which, I’d never read anything like that before. So, there was “Becoming Orthodox” by Fr. Peter Gillquist, there were several books by Fr. Schmemann… so, we began to read those books at home actually. My wife (she’ll probably not be happy that I said this) took “Becoming Orthodox” off of my bedside. I had read thirty pages in three days, and she’s a very voracious reader, and so she took it and put it on her bedside, and read it in one day. As a result of that, she came to me and said, “You know, this book… we have to talk about this book.” It raises questions that we couldn’t even think to ask. That was very intriguing to me. So that was the very beginning of it: some used books from Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry.

FMG: And is that about eight or ten years ago now?
Fr. JP: That would have been… you know, I was just measuring it the other day. It would have been 1998 or 1999. So, yeah, it’s been almost ten years ago right now. Amazingly, (I remember this too because I still have the email) once I began to ask some of the questions that Fr. Peter raised in his book, “Becoming Orthodox”, the first thing that I tried to do was to contact your husband, who was my Episcopal priest when I was a child, and to ask him some of these questions- what has the Orthodox Church always believed about this? That was an email, I think it was in January 2000, that I was able to reach him.

FMG: I have a similar memory, I was going through some old file boxes and I found a manila envelope. My husband’s handwriting on the tab said, “Orthodoxy”. To think that there was a time in our lives when everything about Orthodoxy fit in one manila folder! It’s like it just exploded and took over the whole house and our lives.
Fr. JP: I have the same folder!

FMG: (laughs) And as you mentioned, we go back quite a ways. When my husband was the rector of St. Margaret’s Episcopal Church in Woodbridge, Virginia, 1981 to 1989, your dad was on the parish council, and you were a teenager in the youth group, and we knew you quite well then. And as we always say, you always came over and mowed the lawn for us when we were out of town. So, God has some very strange and surprising plans- because here you are in our home town, right outside of Charleston with this beautiful church. I’ve already talked to Andrew about the architecture and all of that. But you’ve drawn some attention to yourself here in Charleston, by being outspoken, as I’m sure you were in the Episcopal Church as well. Tell me how you began to get the attention of the local newspaper and local inquirers.
Fr. JP: Well, it happened in two ways, actually. The first is that the local newspaper has an incredible Faith & Values section. Incredible, I think, because it has one; well, let me just say that it’s incredible that they have a Faith & Values section that’s three pages every Sunday. And they often report on the happenings of local churches. I noticed in reading that section many times that they often reported on mega-church activity in the area, and almost never reported on anything traditional. So, I took a moment to email the contact at that time at the newspaper, and I said, ‘You know, all of these articles I read are about contemporary Christianity in the Faith & Values section, I wonder if you’d be interested in something about the traditional Christians in our area.’ And he said, ‘Well, that’d be interesting’. And as it turned out at that time, I think it was at that time, the main writer for the Faith & Values section of the newspaper had received some sort of a paid study abroad to Indonesia. It was maybe around the time of the tsunami. He went there to study the intersection of journalism and religion in the aftermath of the tsunami. So, the newspaper agreed to allow me to write columns as a guest writer while he was away for several months. So there was a time actually when I was able to write two or three and sometimes four columns a month for that newspaper, unedited except for spelling and punctuation, basically. So I could write strictly about the Orthodox Faith and the Orthodox tradition without any supervision, so to speak.

FMG: That is amazing. So you wrote about iconography, or the Virgin Mary, or…
Fr. JP: Well, I don’t know if I got myself in trouble or not in the very first article I wrote, but I wrote about the importance of tradition in Christianity, and in that particular article, I described that all Christianity is traditional, but the question is, whose tradition?

FMG: I remember reading it!
Fr. JP: That was not received well in certain circles, because it seemed like a slam on everyone, but I made the point in that particular article, writing about churches, that if you come into a church like we’ve been graced to build here, a traditional church which is oriented toward the East- that’s redundant- but it’s properly oriented, and it’s in the form of a cross and it has three spaces, you know- the narthex, the nave, and the altar, and so forth. That describes one tradition. And a gigantic church in an auditorium with stadium seating and a stage represents another tradition. It is a certain Christianity, but that comes from a different architectural tradition. So, it’s traditional, it’s just not the ancient Christian tradition.

FMG: I want to say, I’ve been experimenting, I always want to find terms that go down a little smoother. When you use the word ‘tradition’ you always have to do a lot of explaining, because people think about the scripture of, ‘Do not be led by false tradition’ - false tradition? ‘dead tradition’. I’m experimenting with using the phrase, ‘community memory’ instead. Orthodoxy is held together by community memory. We do these things because everyone everywhere throughout the history of this Body of Christ has, we always have. So, it’s community memory. I find people don’t balk as much as they do at the word ‘tradition’. So that was your first column, and then you were off to the races for several months.
Fr. JP: That’s right, and the more controversial one was when I was invited to give the benediction at the local medical university, the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. Actually, the local Greek priest was invited to give the benediction that year, and his schedule was full. I was very grateful that he came to ask me; he wanted to keep it within the Orthodox churches. So, that was wonderful. So I diligently sat down at my desk and I pulled out our four-volume Great Book of Needs, and I went specifically to the service of the anointing of the sick, to look at the different prayers that we have that talk about Jesus as the physician of our souls and bodies, figuring that this is a group of students who are going to be nurses and doctors, that I would find something helpful there. Then, I penned what I thought was a prayer absolutely in line with our tradition, which was both rooted in those prayers from the Great Book of Needs, but also rooted in the local circumstances of the medical school. The day after that, I got a letter in the mail thanking me from the medical university that I would do this benediction, and it said, ‘please see the guidelines for the benediction inside’. So, I did. And it was crazy. It describes that you weren’t allowed to use the word ‘Father’, or ‘Jesus’… actually, it listed ‘Jesus’, ‘Allah’, and I don’t remember what else, but all these quote-unquote specific names for God; you had to keep it generic. I’m not even sure you could say ‘God Almighty’. You just had to be very generic. So, I immediately contacted their office and suggested that I couldn’t do such a thing because I’m an Orthodox priest. We pray in the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and that’s what I had to do. So, here’s my prayer. And I sent it to them by email.

FMG: So they had their own tradition that they were trying to make you fit.
Fr. JP: Well, ironically, a new tradition, if we can say so, because this is the point I’d tried to make before I wind up just saying, you know, I either need to pray the way we pray, or else maybe I shouldn’t do that at all. And so they asked me, would it be terrible if I were uninvited? And I said, no, you do what you need to do. So they invited someone else. But the point is that the medical university has a chapel which is on the corner of Rutledge and Bee Streets in downtown Charleston. It’s a neo-Gothic chapel, called St. Luke’s Chapel. Who’s St. Luke? He’s a physician, who wrote a gospel. And it’s got a gigantic stained glass window of St. Luke. And it’s got a cross on the top. So, the medical university especially in Charleston has a very venerable Christian tradition. But that has changed a lot lately. So, anyhow, that became an opportunity for the local area to learn a little about the Orthodox Christian Church. And the newspaper allowed me to write a column about why I couldn’t give the benediction. And it gave the chaplain of the medical university a couple of columns next to my column so that we were side-by-side in our writings, and that caused many letters to the editor to be written. Ultimately, I was able to sit down with the chaplain, which was very good, and to talk to him about his position and so forth. It was very helpful in that sort of dialogue sense, but very frustrating because a Christian should be able to pray as a Christian, and a Christian chaplain of a school should be able to defend that a Christian invited to pray as a Christian should be able to pray as a Christian! If that makes sense. Kind of crazy.

FMG: So it was a moment of controversy for your church here, for Holy Ascension Orthodox Church, but it was a beneficial controversy, because it drew attention, it got everybody talking, and I’m sure there were a lot of discussions of the pro’s and con’s and what should be done. I imagine you found that a lot of the local population was very sympathetic to what you were trying to do.
Fr. JP: It’s true. Actually, that was my first foray into the broader religious constituency of Charleston. I did get a lot emails- every time I wrote in the newspaper I’d say, “And you can reach Fr. John by email at… ” and I’d give my email, and I’d give the phone number, precisely because I would enjoy having the conversation with anyone. I received an equal number of ‘Atta boy!’s as, ‘You are just a Neanderthal Christian…’ I mean, I received that from atheists, I received it from other Christians… So it was a very interesting response, even from the Christian community there were those who were way in favor of, ‘Yeah, you stand up there and the Gospel says, if you deny me I will deny you, and so forth, and if you stand up for me, I’ll stand up for you!’, and then from other Christians, who’d say, ‘You just have no business saying those sorts of things.’ It’s crazy. It was quite an experience.

FMG: You told me you met recently with an orthodox rabbi who specifically wanted to meet with you because of that controversy.
Fr. JP: Right. He was given the opportunity to give the benediction this year, and ironically, um, I’ve never said anything like this, I’ll say it out loud, he prayed in the name of ‘Our Father’ in the benediction, which was permitted for him. So maybe in some little way, I paved the way for some stripping of the generic language about God, even if we need to talk about Who the fulfillment of Our Father is. But, that was quite a remarkable experience. It was nice to hear from him as an orthodox Jewish rabbi that he has a firm conviction about in Whose name he prays, and that he would not waver from that either.

FMG: That’s very good. So in a short time, you’ve managed to become pretty well known, I guess, in Charleston, with the regular newspaper columns, over the course of a couple of years now. Do you find that people are being drawn, being brought to this parish out of curiosity or whatever because of this effort to speak in the public square?
Fr. JP: I think that’s true. Yes. We have a number of people, I don’t know, maybe two or three or four families, who have specifically come here as a result of those newspaper articles. There is one family I am thinking of at the moment, who read something that I read in the newspaper- it was in late October that year because it was about Halloween- and actually, I wrote about the link between Halloween and death. Just to kind of capture everyone’s imagination. They happened to be reading that, they had dabbled in witchcraft, and they thought, ‘This is amazing. I’ve never heard anybody write anything like this about Christianity and death and Halloween. We need to go check that place out!’ And in short order, they were catechumens, and a year later, they were received into the Church. Really remarkable. You know, people aren’t coming in droves, but I’m guessing now, that just about everyone who reads the Post and Courier in Charleston could name the Orthodox church as a result of this. It’s been a real gift to us to have that kind of opportunity. Many of my brethren in other states, particularly in the north or northeast, can’t believe even that there is such a thing as a Faith & Values section, much less that Orthodox Christianity is playing such a prominent role in writing in that particular paper.

FMG: I know that’s one of the things, as newspapers have lost so many subscribers, and they keep shrinking, they keep losing pages, that the religion section is one of the first things to go. So, to still have three pages devoted to it here is an amazing thing. I know that there’s Fr. Aidan Wilcox in Cedar Park, Texas, right outside of Austin, that he writes regular columns for the local paper there, and I guess I would want to encourage pastors to do that. If you’re listening and an Orthodox pastor, you might think you’re not a writer, but if you can write a sermon, you know, just write down what you said in the sermon. Find a local hook, something in the news, and… a lot of times papers are looking to fill content, especially online, on web pages it’s 24 hours a day, and you have to keep replacing it. There are many ways you could actually reach a larger community than just your parish by reaching out like that.
Fr. JP: May I say another word about that? I would just like to encourage the same, and one of the tacks that I found most helpful was that the Orthodox Church represents something so totally ancient, something so totally different from everything else that’s in the religious news, at least in our area, but I think it’s true in the broader context of our country. We represent the minority, in a sense, and newspapers like minorities. So it’s helpful to use that, to use it for good, to describe that ‘Here’s what we’ve been doing for thousands of years, and here’s how come you don’t know about it already.’ Or by comparison to some grandiose thing, I read in the newspaper- this is how it happens sometimes. There was an article in the newspaper about eight weeks ago about some local mega-churches that have been partnering with other mega-churches to make mega-mega-churches. Their call to unity is to do things together, so they’re going to put a lot of money in a big pot together, and they’re going to go plant a church in Africa. Or something like that. It’s a very noble idea, and thank God they have such resources. But nevertheless, one of the lines in that article said, ‘We are partnering together with churches to plant other churches in other parts of the world where it’s never been done before.’ That was one of the things they said! And I thought, that’s outrageous! So I called the newspaper, my contact there, and I suggested, this has been going on for a long, long time, and can I have the time to explain a) what true Christian Unity is, and b) how it has been going on throughout the last 2000 years, and perhaps why they might not know so- part of which is our fault, and part of which is their own myopia. But anyway, just to read something in the newspaper, and to contact the newspaper and say ‘I have a different perspective on that, which is also very venerable and ancient’, and I also have the opportunity to talk about it. I find that they’re always interested in that.

FMG: Yes, I think you will find that editors are often very receptive to that. Otherwise, they have to go out and find written material day after day after day. If you can tap into some open discussion going on they’re often very willing to hear that.
Fr. JP: One last word: I’ve found it very helpful to do that sort of writing about something that’s already been written about, because they’ve already chosen the topic, and this would be a way to respond to it. It does happen on occasion that newspapers are interested in having two opposing sides put in a room and having you duke it out. So, that also can be beneficial if everyone knows that that’s going on. It’s important to be aware of that, so that when we come to the table to write about that, to write about whatever the topic might be, we know that sometimes it might just be for the spectacle. So we have to be careful to know that’s the case. We may still choose to be in the arena, but…

FMG: I noticed that desire for spectacle when there used to be much more interest in hearing about the abortion issue, and I was doing a lot of writing, radio, newspaper, and TV shows. Especially on TV shows, I would notice how the producer would dart in during the commercials and try to make us angrier, saying, ‘Challenge him on that, don’t let him get away with that…’ It is spectacle; they know that what catches the viewers, or the readers, is people getting angry. We want to do things the way that is appropriate for us as Christians and not get hooked into that culture of spectacle and anger and violence, in fact, verbal violence.
Fr. JP: Yeah, it’s amazing how that does work sometimes. I would say, just to make a shameless plug for the Post and Courier in Charleston, South Carolina, that over the last two and a half years, they have been incredibly gracious to me, and have allowed me on behalf of our parish, to write about things that otherwise people just… they won’t buy a book at the store to read about this, they won’t type it in to the internet to read about it, but they flip over to page F-1 or whatever the Faith & Values is that particular Sunday, and they look on there for what piques their interest, to the point where people will see me on occasion in my cassock, and they’ll say, ‘Are you the one who writes in the newspaper?’ And then I find that they’ve clipped those articles out and they’ve studied them in their adult Sunday School class in their big Baptist churches, and that’s amazing! So thank God for that and anything to help the Orthodox Faith become well known.

FMG: Well, it’s my home town. I’m glad to hear that they’re gracious and agreeable as you say at the Post and Courier. Congratulations. You say things in those columns sometimes, I think, ‘You can’t say those things in public!’ Because you’re so forthright about the Orthodox moral and theological position, and I find that it turns out, you *can* say that! And it clears the air when you just spell it out. And anytime you want to come mow our lawn, you can do that too!
Fr. JP: Thank you, I’ll be happy to do that again sometime!

Article originally appeared on Frederica.com (http://www.frederica.com/).
See website for complete article licensing information.

Pilgrimage may be a life changing event

Special to the Post and Courier
By Fr John Parker

I am going on a journey across time and geography. As you read this column, I am making my way from Charleston to Newark, N.J., to Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

In July, I received the most amazing gift: a two-week pilgrimage to the Holy Land, led by the most well-known Orthodox Christian bishop in the English-speaking world — His Eminence, Metropolitan Kallistos Ware. We are not going on a tour; a pilgrimage is substantially different. Yes, we will travel with cameras and MP3 recorders and notebooks, but these we bring along in order to share the pilgrimage upon our return with those who cannot physically go. We go to the Holy Land to experience the life of Christ in the very places he was born and lived and walked and died — to pray in the holy places, to reflect on the holy moments, to venerate the sacred relics.

Last week, while surfing with a friend, I learned that he had taken a trip to the Holy Land. He described with such palpable joy standing on a certain mountain and being able to point from there in the panorama, to these holy sites — places most of us have seen only in pictures and located only on maps in the appendix of the Holy Scriptures. His greatest impression was that "Jesus was clearly human to me now." Having walked on the roads where Christ walked and been in a boat where Jesus walked on water, Jesus was "more real" to him.

I had lunch with another friend who took a similar trip more than 40 years ago. He had a reaction which I hadn't really anticipated: it was hard to focus at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre — the Holy Tomb of our Lord — since there were so many tourists: folks who were only interested in getting a snapshot of the tomb of Jesus (as if it were simply an artifact in an old museum) before moving on. Yet this is the site of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ — the most significant moment in the history of the world! I don't look forward to that particular juxtaposition.

Still, I hope it will be more like when I visited the Byzantium exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York about five years ago. While every other gallery was filled with tourists gabbing about art, the section containing 500 years of Christian icons, mosaics, and vestments was nearly silent.

One knew this was a holy space, even in the middle of one of the most well-known treasure houses of art in the world.

Our pilgrimage is an intimate family visit. A living connection to relatives on the other side of the world. On Tuesday, we'll be honored to visit with and receive the blessing of the Patriarch of Jerusalem, the successor to James (the first Bishop of Jerusalem, who presided at the first council of the Church, as described in Acts 15). We are in communion with the Patriarch to this day, and will have the opportunity, most likely, to serve and receive Communion at the tomb of our Lord.

As a parenthetical note, for us Orthodox Christians through nearly two millennia, the various sacred sites are not "supposed." We know the Church of the Holy Sepulchre to be the tomb of Christ. We know Mount Tabor to be the Mount of Transfiguration. We know these things because our relatives were there — just like Charlestonians know that Edgar Allan Poe was stationed at Fort Moultrie and as the English are certain that William Shakespeare wrote all those great plays — some of our relatives knew him, too. This pilgrimage is a visit to living relatives whose relatives' relatives' relatives built these places in Jesus' honor — and their Christian kin before them walked with the Lord himself.

In the wider religio-political sphere, I seriously wonder what we will encounter. There is always the threat of missiles. The region is not the most stable place. And what of the presence of the evangelical Christian Zionists who have such a heavy influence in Israel? (These folks believe that the Jews should "get their land back" in order that Jesus can then return to judge the Earth. Their ideas about this link between the land and the final judgment are based on personal interpretations of Scripture which find their roots only in the last century or so in North American Christianity, and nowhere else in Christian history.) What place will they play in the landscape there? Do they improve or detract from the reputation of Christianity in Israel?

Add to all of that the fact that this is my first visit to a non-Western culture. One semester of Hebrew and several years of seminary cannot truly prepare one for even two weeks in a society entirely different from ours, with a language read and written opposite ours, and with a vocabulary base almost fully unrelated to the romance languages and Greek that I have studied.
Mercy — this is quite a pilgrimage, a stretch in virtually every facet of my life.

A few weeks from now, I will follow up with a column describing the reality of that which I can only imagine right now. I'll also be pleased to share with all who are interested our pilgrimage in photographs and MP3s on Wednesday nights beginning in October. Your prayers, please! And send me your names and the names of friends and relatives for whom I should pray at these holy sites!

Fr. John Parker is priest-in-charge of Holy Ascension Orthodox Church in I'On. Reach him at frjohn@ocacharleston.org. He will contribute to a blog while on pilgrimage: www.orthodoxiona.co.uk/new page 8.htm.

Priest Becomes a Pilgrim

Special to the Post and Courier
October 5, 2008

Riot shields. A ray of light beaming from the dome of the Church of the Resurrection down into the nave. A Berlin-ish Wall running over the hillside, dividing families. The Great Walls of the Old City. Women bearing machine guns in the streets. The angelic voices of the nuns at the Russian monastery at En Kerem. A late night talk with an Orthodox Rabbi who has a well-known radio program broadcast world-wide. A Palestinian Roman Catholic guide on our trip. An hour with the Patriarch of Jerusalem, successor to the brother of our Lord. Walking—if we can call it that—in a crowd of 10,000 (literally) Muslims leaving the Dome of the Rock on a Friday during Ramadan. Receiving communion at the hand of the Archbishop of Jerusalem at the tomb of Jesus Christ in the middle of the night. These are a just a few of the sites and experiences of my two-week pilgrimage to the Holy Land from September 8-20. Our local host, a newly ordained Anglican deacon, began to describe all this to us before we would experience it: “If all the world is a stage, Jerusalem is an Opera.” Opera indeed.

The religious and political history and situation in Israel is as varied as its terrain. Rocky here, desert there, lush and tropical in another spot. Never the same for 40 miles in a row. Jerusalem seems to be a police state. Everywhere we went, the presence of small bands of armed officers were walking about. In order to enter the temple mount, one must go through airport-type security. And yet, despite the military and police presence (or perhaps because of it), I felt entirely comfortable walking the streets of Old Jerusalem at 11pm, 1230am, and 445am.

The only time I ever felt threatened at all was at the Wailing Wall, the remnants of the Western Wall of the Temple, to which many people come to pray, most numerously Orthodox Jews. As we entered the area, Metropolitan Kallistos, Fr Marcus Burch, and I were confronted by a very angry (and I suspect disturbed) Orthodox Jew who came practically belly to belly with our Bishop. He had a very hateful (I use such a term very sparingly, yet intentionally) look in his eyes as he continually pointed the way out, and blocked Metropolitan Kallistos’ every effort to move forward. Finally, Israeli police moved in and escorted the man back towards the wall, in order to leave us in peace. Still, the fellow kept an eye on us from a distance—and I likewise kept an eye on him. He had obviously identified us as Christians by our dress (cassocks and hats), though we were forbidden to wear our pectoral crosses there. Forbidden were all “ritual objects”. Apart from being spat upon by a few Jewish teenagers and receiving the Arabic equivalent of the middle finger by a few Muslim boys, we were generally well received in public. I guess pubescence is a universal suffering.

Jerusalem is a confluence of ancient and modern tides. Where in our country, we think in terms of a few hundred years, and in Europe, one thinks in terms of more centuries, Jerusalem is the land of millennia. King David lived and ruled there nearly 3000 years ago. It was incredibly humbling to walk the Way of the Cross on the Via Dolorosa—the path the Jesus himself took to his crucifixion 2000 years ago. It was mind-boggling to visit Jericho, the oldest inhabited city in the world—a 10,000 year history (and to see the very Sycamore tree that Zacchaeus climbed up into. There is only one ancient Sycamore tree in Jericho, and it is more than 2000 years old.) If anything, our pilgrimage helped to establish a sense that we are part of a great and long (very long) history.

My concerns about the mixing of tourism and pilgrimage proved to be true—and not just for others, but for me. It was a difficult line to walk—the line of wanting to be there in the moment to pray, to venerate, to pause, to reflect, but also to record, to photograph for those who could not come along and may never go. The most significant moments of prayer and true pilgrimage occurred at unusual times and unanticipated places. To serve the services at the Church of the Resurrection (Holy Sepulchre, tomb of Christ), we had to go in the middle of the night. There is simply too much chaos during the day, so the monks begin the liturgy after midnight, when the doors to the church are closed to the public, and open only to those who come to pray. How incredibly peaceful it was to receive communion in the Tomb of Jesus Christ at about 4am, nearly the hour of his resurrection “before dawn”.

Another angelic experience was the Vigil (Evening service) for the Beheading of the John the Baptist, celebrated at the Russian Orthodox monastery in En Kerem, providentially, the home of Zechariah and Elizabeth—the parents of the Forerunner himself. We arrived after the prayers had already begun, and on entering the magnificent church, surely we heard the voices of the hosts of heaven. The monastic women’s choir sang from the loft over the west doors and filled the domed church with the most ethereal resonance. We clergy were also then invited to serve with the monks for as long as we could stay, which turned out to be one of the most moving experiences of my priesthood.

We got a taste of parish life in Nazareth, when, on Sunday, we served with the local bishop and clergy in a packed church. The service was sung eagerly and fervently in Arabic—with a little Greek and English thrown in by us visitors—and was apparently aired on internet TV. The local Orthodox Christians invited us to their version of coffee hour, and treated us like kings. Middle-eastern hospitality ranks near the top of the list. How beautiful that the biblical term is “philoxenia”—the love of strangers.

I really can do no justice to the pilgrimage in a brief column—but I wanted to give at least a taste of my experience here. I thank the Post and Courier for the opportunity to write these two before-and-after columns. To those who did email me names of friends and family, I did pray for you at the Holy Sepulchre and at the Church of the Transfiguration on Mt. Tabor. May the Lord bless you! For a fuller walk through our pilgrimage experience, I invite you to Holy Ascension on Wednesday nights in October. We’ll pray Vespers at 6pm, and from 6:45-8pm, I recount the pilgrimage in pictures and tales. Come and see!

Fr John Parker is priest-in-charge of Holy Ascension Orthodox Church in I’On. He can be reached at 843-881-5010 or frjohn@ocacharleston.org.

On Christian Unity

BY FR. JOHN PARKER
Special to The Post and Courier

It started out as a recipe for key lime double chocolate chip cookies. But after mixing the ingredients, I thought the pre-baked conglomeration looked too wet. There was absolutely no way I could roll one-inch balls of dough out of this soup. So I decided to add almost double the flour. Then (amateur that I am) I thought I ought to add some more of the other ingredients to try to even out the proportions. Good intentions, bad idea. After the timer sounded, I pulled my confections out of the oven, and voila! Cakies. They are round and somewhat flat like a cookie, but overly moist and airy—not crispy or buttery. Cakies look and smell a lot like cookies, but they aren’t.

Now, some might say, “Hey, those are great! Cookie meets cake. And since everyone has differing tastes in desserts, all the merrier.” To a certain extent, this is true. But what if folks called those cakies “cookies,” and for the next two or three hundred years, this crazed recipe took off and my cakies were baked all over the planet and called “cookies.” Then, after a half of a millennium, someone shows up with a recipe calling for half the flour and proportionately less sugar and eggs claiming that these are actually cookies. Citizens angrily suggest that the baker is trying to force his (presumably) ancient recipe for his “cookies” on them. Cakie enthusiasts insist, however disconnected from the past, that they know what a real cookie is. After all—everyone knows that they are supposed to be light and fluffy and moist.

In the heat of the debate about the ancient recipe and the newer one, there is a group of folks who think it is not worth battling over which is the true cookie. “Wouldn’t it be nice,” they thought, “if we just got together to bake.” And so they did. Some baked cakies (calling them cookies) and some baked the ancient treat, and they were content to “just bake together.” They thought that this would unify them. But did it?

Our Lord Jesus Christ prayed in the Garden prior to his passion, “that they may all be one,” and with a purpose—that the world might know that God the Father sent Jesus Christ into the world to save us. When self-professing contemporary Christians read these verses and look around, many assume that the denominations of Christianity are God-willed and God-sanctioned—like varieties of cookies and cakies or the 31 flavors of Baskin Robbins. Some attempt to justify these differences, saying that hands and feet and ears all make one and the same body. Others claim that God “wired” us all differently for different “expressions” of church. Still others figure that there is little use in worrying about the differences, and that self-professing Christians ought just “to do things together” to show unity (have communion, pray, build houses, go on retreats).

But the Christian life is so much more profound, and frankly, so much simpler. It is certainly good when Christians get together to serve others to bear witness to God’s love, and we should make the effort more often. But this action of doing things together is not the unifying factor of the Christian faith. We are not made one by a common cause. Rather, we are made one by Jesus Christ, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever. We are not called—to make reference to the story above—just to bake together, we are called to make true cookies and to pass the same recipe on to the next generation.

Unity in the Christian understanding is not simply an outward unity that covers up a multitude of polar disagreements on the fundamentals of faith—such as baptism (who, how, when?) and the Eucharist (body and blood of Christ or not?)- or whether or not fornication, unchastity, adultery, and porneia are sins (they are!). Rather, the unity of Christians and the inherent Oneness of the Church (which to this day is not fractured) is established by knowing the unchanging Jesus Christ and living the Christian life as it has been traditioned (handed down) to us, from the beginning, starting with our Lord.

St Irenaeus of Lyons (disciple of Polycarp who was a disciple of John the Evangelist, who was among the closest to Jesus) described this reality beautifully in the second century:

The Church, having received this preaching and this faith, although scattered throughout the whole world, yet, as if occupying but one house, carefully preserves it. She also believes these points [of doctrine] just as if she had but one soul, and one and the same heart, and she proclaims them, and teaches them, and hands them down, with perfect harmony, as if she possessed only one mouth…For the Churches which have been planted in Germany do not believe or hand down anything different, nor do those in Spain, nor those in Gaul, nor those in the East... But as the sun, that creature of God, is one and the same throughout the whole world, so also the preaching of the truth shineth everywhere, and enlightens all men that are willing to come to a knowledge of the truth. Nor will any one of the rulers in the Churches, however highly gifted he may be in point of eloquence, teach doctrines different from these (for no one is greater than the Master); nor, on the other hand, will he who is deficient in power of expression inflict injury on the tradition. For the faith being ever one and the same, neither does one who is able at great length to discourse regarding it, make any addition to it, nor does one, who can say but little diminish it (Against the Heresies, Book I, Chapter X).

So, we ought not to overlook our differences. Rather, we ought to seek, each of us, to root out everything in our selves and souls and our practice that has not been believed in every place at all times by all Christians, and from this starting point, to know the true Christ as he really is. From there we can begin to serve the world in true unity.

Fr John Parker is priest-in-charge of Holy Ascension Orthodox Church in I’On. He can be reached at frjohn@ocacharleston.org or visit www.holyascension.blogspot.com.