[ Archive for the 'The Church' Category ]

The Power of Print

Posted by JohnS (November 18, 2007 at 6:44 am)

Over a year ago I was in a Borders Bookstore perusing books in the theology section. I encountered a Dutch Reformed minister and his seminarian son. We had a wonderful conversation about contemporary culture, the Church Fathers and the domestic church. The minister had just published a new book on home discipleship Christianity, which I might add is a very interesting read. He gave me several copies of his self-published book. In fact, he had several cases of the book in the trunk of his car. My only regret is that I had nothing in print to offer him in return.

This experience has turned over in my mind multiple times in the past year. The power of personal Christian witness and encounter is intense. When personal encounter is married to the printed word it is perhaps doubly effective.

The Antiochian Orthodox Church (AOC) has a wonderful ministry called Conciliar Press. It’s roots run back to the Evangelicals like Father Peter Gillchrist who heeded the call to return to their “roots in historic Christianity once … again.” Conciliar Press began with the publication of their newspaper, which is now a magazine by the same title … AGAIN.

Sayidna Philip gave the the newly Chrismated Evangelical Orthodox the task of bringing the story of ancient Christianity to the modern world. Sounds like the New Evangelization to me. Thus, Conciliar Press was born.

As the Conciliar Press website notes they “now produce two quarterly magazines, dozens of books by the best writers in American Orthodoxy, icons, cards, and more. Conciliar Press is the primary distributor of the New Testament Orthodox Study Bible, and will begin distributing in early 2008 the Old Testament Orthodox Study Bible, published by Thomas Nelson.”

I might also add that Conciliar Press recently combined its evangelical efforts with the equally excellent Ancient Faith Radio internet-base station.

About a dozen years ago I started purchasing high-quality icons from Conciliar Press. I now have many of their fine books in my personal library. Moreover, I recenlty subscribed to AGAIN magazine.

The AOC is effectively using both print and web – New Evangelization media – to bring Christ to the modern world. There is something here to learn for Byzantine Catholics. Some thoughts on that next.

Posted in General, Society & Culture, Looking East, The Church | 3 Comments »

What happend to Whiting …

Posted by JohnS (November 17, 2007 at 3:08 pm)

Recently the Byzantine Catholic Eparchy of Parma hosted “All Things New.” It was promoted as an effort to renew the church. It made me recall another effort to renew the Byzantine Catholic Church that was held in Whiting, Ind., in August of 2005. Laity, clergy and monastics gathered to seek ways to renew the Church and inspire some vital evangelical fervor to the mix. The brainstorming of the day yielded some wonderful ideas to recover our patrimony and bring it to the world.

In business we often benchmark ourselves against other companies. This enables a company to check its course against that of another “similar” ship. Interesting ideas often emerge that can propel a company forward and bring a new sense of excitement and purpose to the journey.

I find the Antiochian Orthodox Church (AOC) fascinating on multiple fronts. Almost a dozen years ago, I picked up Becoming Orthodox by Father Peter Gilchrist. (I must confess that Father Peter is now my scripture professor). The book relates the tale of how thousands of evangelicals turned to Holy Orthodoxy. The AOC has been especially welcoming to the evangelicals; in fact more than 80% of their clergy are now converts.

As John G’s witty post above notes, the AOC has established 54 full parishes, 37 new missions, and 13 mission projects since 1988. Glory to God for all good things! Now why is the AOC growing, evangelizing and executing their mission to bring Orthodoxy to America? Clearly His Grace, Sayidna PHILIP (Saliba) has been an excellent shepherd of his flock. His charisma reminds me of St. John Paul II of blessed memory. John Paul II often spoke of the New Evangelization. I believe that Sayidna PHILIP has been engaged in the New Evangelization since his consecration as Metroplitan of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America in 1966. For more than fourty years the Holy Spirit has been steering his episcopate. And the results … well, let’s just say they are mosting inspiring. More on that in my next post.

Posted in General, Looking East, The Church | 6 Comments »

Catholic v. Orthodox

Posted by Eric (September 18, 2006 at 1:19 pm)

In response to a post a couple months ago on my personal blog, Square Zero, entitled, “The Orthodox and Contraception” a Byzantine Catholic named Karen commented that the Orthodox ambiguity on the contraception issue was the one thing holder her back from converting to Orthodoxy. We had a brief exchange in the comments section of that post, but then I expanded on the issue she had raised in a longer entry entitled, “Catholic v. Orthodox”.

I thought the issues I addressed there, and the subsequent discussion in the comments to the post, might be of interest to readers of BEMA. But rather than cross-post the original article here, and split up the discussion between two different blogs, I thought it would be better to link to the article at Square Zero and invite BEMA readers to visit.

I am especially keen for more knowledgable folks to address some of the important issues Karen has raised, like:

• The Filioque
• The Immaculate Conception
• The monarchial papacy

You can read the full post here.

Posted in Union, The Church | No Comments »

So… would St. Peter and St. Paul be ordianed today?

Posted by JohnG (June 21, 2006 at 12:45 pm)

Think about it. Would these two men be deemed worthy of seminary? Would they make it through the psychological testing, the classes on pastoral care?

Paul assisted in the murder of St. Stephen, insulted his congregations in writing, preached to the point where those he was preaching to took him to court, was taken outside the walls to be stoned (several times), and he was imprisoned.

Peter denied Christ three times, cut a guy’s ear off with a sword, he was locked up in jail, was on the Rome’s Most Wanted List.

As we approach the Feast of Peter and Paul, let us think about the Holy men who were called to the Priesthood in the past, and ask ourselves if the Church, today, would ordain them?

(more…)

Posted in The Fathers, The Church | 11 Comments »