July 24, 2009 in Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Tags: archbishops, autocephalous churches, autocephaly, autonomous churches, bishops, bishops' conferences, Catholicism, chief bishops, church dialogue, church history, church organization, church polity, church primates, conference of catholic bishops, Eastern Christianity, Eastern Church, Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, ecumenical dialogue, ecumenism, episcopacy, episcopate, first among equals, hierarchs, hierarchy, Latin Patriarchs, metropolitan archbishops, metropolitans, national churches, Orthodox bishops, Orthodox Christianity, Orthodox Church, Orthodox church history, Orthodox Church polity, Orthodox Eastern Church, Orthodox patriarchates, Orthodox patriarchs, orthodoxy, papal claims, Patriarch of the West, patriarchal structures, patriarchates, patriarchs, Pentarchy, pope, Pope of the Universal Church, popes, presiding bishops, primacy, primates, primatial sees, protos, provinces, regional church, Roman Catholicism, Rome, titular patriarchs, universal bishop, universal jurisdiction
(Take One is here, where I ran off at the mouth for a while!)
Patriarch is one possible title for the presiding bishop or primate of a region of The Orthodox Church comprising a number of bishoprics, and/or even a number of smaller such regions. Currently the other two possible titles are Metropolitan or Archbishop, although [...]
January 28, 2009 in Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Tags: bishops, Bolshevik Revolution, canon law, Catholic Church, Catholicism, Christianity, church, Church canons, church history, church polity, College of Cardinals, Communism, early Christianity, early church, Eastern Christianity, Eastern Church, Eastern church history, Eastern church polity, Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, Great Patriotic War, history of Christianity, Latin Church, Latin Rite, locum tenens, locum tenentes, martyrdom, martyrs, Moscow Patriarchate, Orthodox bishops, Orthodox Christianity, Orthodox Church, Orthodox church history, Orthodox Church polity, Orthodox patriarchates, Orthodox patriarchs, orthodoxy, papacy, Patriarch of Moscow, Patriarch of Russia, Patriarchate of Moscow, Pope of Rome, religion, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholicism, Russian church, Russian Orthodox Church, Russian Orthodoxy, Russian patriarchate, sede vacante, Soviet Union, spiritual guidance, spirituality, St. Peter of Krutitsy, St. Tikhon of Moscow, theology, USSR, Vatican, World War 2, World War II, World War Two
It’s being noted in news coverage that Moscow Patriarch-elect KYRILL was “Locum Tenens of the Patriarchal Throne” since shortly after the repose of Patriarch ALEXEI. This concept is not unknown in Western Christianity … in fact, locum tenens is the traditional Latin-language term whose Greek or Slavonic counterpart I do not know, but seems commonly [...]
January 27, 2009 in Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Tags: bishops, Byzantine theology, Catholic Church, Catholicism, Christianity, church councils, church elections, church governance, church jurisdiction, church organization, church patriarchs, church polity, church primates, church unity, collaborative ministry, collegiality, conciliarism, conciliarity, Eastern Christianity, Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, Eastern patriarchs, eastern religion, Eastern theology, ecclesiastical jurisdiction, episcopacy, episcopal churches, first among equals, Greek Church, Greek Orthodox, greek orthodox church, Greek Orthodoxy, High Church, High Churches, holy tradition, honorary seniority, icons, ikons, Metropolitan Kyrill, miracles, miraculous icons, modern church councils, Moscow Patriarchate, myrrh, myrrh-streaming icons, national churches, Orthodox bishops, Orthodox Christianity, Orthodox Church, Orthodox church councils, Orthodox Church polity, Orthodox Churches, Orthodox theology, Orthodox Tradition, orthodoxy, papacy, papal claims, Patriarch of Alexandria, Patriarch of the West, patriarchal election, patriarchal structures, Patriarchate of Alexandria, Patriarchate of Moscow, Patriarchate of Russia, patriarchs, Petrine ministry, Pope Benedict XVI, Pope of Alexandria, primacy, primates, religion, religious icons, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholicism, Rome, Russian Orthodox Church, Russian Orthodoxy, Russian patriarchate, sobornost, synodal church government, synodality, theology
if you’ll permit me, I’ll start off by saying that an Orthodox Patriarch is not normally a “little Pope” whose word is law among those whose Patriarch he is.
November 13, 2008 in Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Tags: American literature, Andrew Greeley, Blackie Ryan, Catholic priests, Catholicism, Christianity, Christmas, current events, Eastern Europe, Eastern Orthodoxy, Irish American literature, literature, Orthodox Christianity, orthodoxy, prayers, religion, Roman Catholicism, romance, Russia, Russian Orthodoxy, Russians, sociology, sociology of religion, Soviet Union, spiritual reading
The sociologist and novelist, not the boxer … though he’s always been a fighter too! Over the weekend his coat got caught in a taxi door in the Chicago area and he was dragged a bit, suffering a skull fracture. (I’m sure he’s wondered since then if coats should be made of such strong stuff!) [...]
June 11, 2008 in Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Tags: Christian spirituality, Christianity, Church Fathers, church history, deification, Divinization, Early Christian Writers, Early Church Fathers, Eastern Christianity, Eastern Orthodoxy, Evangelicalism, Fathers of the Church, glorification, heartland, kansas, Middle America, Orthodox Christianity, orthodoxy, Patristics, Protestantism, religion, Roman Catholicism, salvation, spiritual guidance, spirituality, theology, Theosis, wichita
Says an Antiochian Orthodox bookstore owner in Wichita, Kansas,* in this 2002 Publishers Weekly roundup / preview of then-new Orthodox books entering the mainstream book market (in English in the United States).
(*–For the record, home of 5 Orthodox churches, visible at orthodoxyinamerica.org.)
May 13, 2008 in Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Tags: liturgy, worship, orthodoxy, Orthodox Christianity, Eastern Christianity, Catholicism, Old Calendar, New Calendar, Gregorian Calendar, Christianity, religion, Revised Julian Calendar, Eastern Orthodoxy, saints, Byzantium, Middle Ages, tradition, Julian Calendar, Pascha, Easter, Holidays, Rome, Western Christianity, Roman Catholicism, Roman Catholic Church, glorification, Eastern Catholicism, Uniates, Uniats, Uniatism, Catholic Church, Vatican II, feast days, holydays, computus, calendars, seasons, Southern Hemisphere, paschalion, Eastern Catholic Church, Unia, Typikon, Typicon, ordo, weather, medieval, Byzantine, High Church, Latin Church, Latin Christianity, Ordinarius, Divine Liturgy, Eucharist, Hours, Liturgy of the Hours, order of worship, Second Vatican Council, liturgical reform, Tridentine Mass, nonviolent resistance, nonviolence, astronomy, astrology, fasts, canonization, slava, name-day, science, computers, software, computer programs, computer analogies, snow
Christ is Risen! Indeed He is Risen!
Yes, on the Third Monday of Pascha yesterday morning – May 12 (NS)! - some snow stuck to the ground in higher elevations of southwestern Pennsylvania (link may break), the Commonwealth where I and alot of other Orthodox live!
This discussion goes back to my recent post occasioned by the (Western) Good [...]
March 29, 2008 in Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Tags: Ancestral Sin, baptism, Catholic Church, Catholicism, Chrismation, Christ, Christianity, confirmation, councils, Dark Ages, Eastern Christianity, Eastern Orthodoxy, ecumenical councils, Fathers of the Church, Great Commission, Great Mandate, Holy Spirit, initiation, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Jn 3:22, Jn 4:1, Jn 4:2, John 3:22, John 4:1, John 4:2, Middle Ages, mission, oikonomia, Original Sin, Orthodox Christianity, Orthodox mission, orthodoxy, Patristics, pseudomorphosis, religion, Roman Catholic, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholicism, sacraments, Scholastic theology, Scholasticism, Schoolmen, Spirit, Theophany, Western Christianity
The main meaning of the Greek verb baptizo, from which the English word baptism is ultimately derived (as Mr. Portokalos advised us!), is to dip, as in water.
Christianity as such didn’t invent the practice of dipping converts in water. The Old Testament Church sometimes baptized proselytes, and so did some other Near Eastern religions. But dipping [...]
March 15, 2008 in Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Tags: art, basilicas, Blessed Mother, cathedrals, Catholicism, Christianity, deification, Divine Light, Divinization, Eastern Orthodoxy, glorification, iconoclasm, iconography, icons, images, Italy, Mary, miracles, Orthodox Christianity, orthodoxy, painting, religion, Roman Catholicism, Rome, saints, salvation, theology, Theosis, Theotokos, Uncreated Light, Western Orthodoxy
Italy’s former Orthodoxy is attested by the ancient icons and Greek icon-style murals and mosaics to be found in many old Latin churches there to this day. Rome itself has at least one icon said to have been painted by St. Luke the Evangelist (like a few in Orthodox hands, or rather, graced to Orthodox [...]
March 11, 2008 in Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Tags: Catholicism, Christianity, confession, conscience, deification, Divinization, Eastern Christianity, Eastern Orthodoxy, forgiveness, glorification, journalism, media, news, obsessive-compulsive disorder, obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, OCD, OCPD, orthodoxy, perfection, religion, repentance, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholicism, Rome, sacraments, salvation, scrupulosity, scrupulous conscience, sin, social sin, spiritual guidance, structural evil, Theosis, Vatican
OK, OK, now that we’ve all had a laugh over a Vatican bureaucrat-archbishop’s politically-correct-sounding interview, first things first: what he was really about (Latin perspective). For further background, from other sources on the WWW, I gather that what he was doing in the first place was providing advice to priest-confessors / spiritual directors in the [...]
March 11, 2008 in Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Tags: Catholicism, church history, creed, Eastern Orthodoxy, filioque, Holy Spirit, John 15:26, Latin Mass, nicene creed, Orthodox Christianity, Orthodox mission, orthodoxy, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholicism, Trinity, Vatican Council, Vatican II
A knowledgeable, intelligent working-class layperson I know in the Latin Church, even a product of parochial schools, even arguably in the Latin Church’s most conservative jurisdiction, who hasn’t been to Mass much since it was translated into English, was shocked to learn that her Church teaches that God’s Spirit eternally proceeds from the Father and the Son, [...]
March 10, 2008 in Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Tags: church history, church union, Constantinople, East-West Schism, Eastern Catholic Churches, Eastern Catholicism, Eastern Christianity, Eastern Church, Eastern Orthodoxy, ecumenism, Great Schism, Orthodox Christianity, orthodoxy, papacy, pope, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholicism, Rome, schism, tradition, Uniates, Uniatism, Uniats
(Opinion Alert: Just a few ruminations.)
Was it an accident that Rome and Constantinople’s break in communion of 1054 became permanent? Like I’ve said, there were previous ones. Doctrinal divergence? Even this hadn’t prevented patching-up differences previously. And between 1054 and 1453 there were several attempts to do so again. The last one actually resulted in [...]
September 24, 2007 in Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Tags: Catholic Church, Catholicism, catholicity, Christianity, church history, church polity, conciliarism, conciliarity, doctrine, Eastern Catholic Churches, Eastern Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, ecclesiology, local church, Orthodox Christianity, orthodoxy, papacy, Philip Sherrard, pope, prelest, Protestantism, Quakerism, religion, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholicism, Rome, Russia, sobornost, spirituality, theology, Uniates, Uniatism, Uniats, Western Christianity
The blogger from the previous post, Mr. Brooks Lampe in the Washington, DC, area, here tackles some heavy stuff, without it coming across too heavy! He’s reporting and reflecting mostly on a book by Philip Sherrard, whose writing can be extremely dense – well-planned, well-packed, making for downright oppressive reading, like much philosophy can be [...]
October 28, 2005 in Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Tags: Catholicism, Christianity, church history, conciliarism, conciliarity, contraception, deaconesses, divorce, Eastern Orthodoxy, economic justice, Fathers of the Church, first among equals, Liberal Catholicism, liberalism, liturgy, Orthodox Christianity, Orthodox mission, papacy, Patristics, pope, progressive, religion, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholicism, sobornost, social justice, spirituality, theology
(Polished and expanded a little on 18 January 2008.)
How can Orthodoxy possibly dovetail with liberal Roman Catholicism?
Collegiality and conciliarity; no Papal Infallibility. While the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople has some very supportive supporters, he’s really not supposed to be a worldwide ecclesiastical autocrat, merely “first among equals” among the bishops of the Orthodox Church, permanent [...]
July 1, 2005 in Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Tags: apostolic succession, Bible, Catholicism, Christendom, Christianity, church history, churches, conciliarism, conciliarity, Divinization, Eastern Orthodoxy, first among equals, glorification, Great Schism, Holy Spirit, infallibility, John 16:13, Matthew 18:18, Matthew 6:13-19, Orthodox Christianity, Orthodox Church, orthodoxy, papacy, patriarchates, pope, religion, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholicism, Rome, salvation, Scripture, sobornost, spirituality, St. Peter, theology, Theosis, Western Christendom, Western Christianity, Western Church
Yesterday was the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul, the Apostles. The Gospel reading for Divine Liturgy was Peter’s confession at Caesarea Philippi, Matthew 16:13-19 (here, from the NAB).
13
When Jesus went into the region of Caesarea Philippi he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”
14
They replied, “Some say [...]
