Triumph of Orthodoxy

Tomorrow is the Sunday of the Triumph of Orthodoxy, celebrated annually in the liturgical calendar of the Eastern Orthodox Church on the first Sunday of Great Lent. The Feast is kept in memory of the final defeat of Iconoclasm and the restoration of the icons to the churches by the decision of the Seventh Ecumenical Council.

The debate involved important issues: the character of Christ’s human nature, the Christian attitude towards matter, and the true meaning of Christian redemption. Therefore, the service commemorates the restoration of icons for use in churches and in the private devotional life of Christians. Icons are held by the Orthodox to be a necessary consequence of Christian faith in the Incarnation of the Word, Jesus Christ. Icons are considered by Orthodox Christians to have a sacramental character, making present to the believer the person or event depicted on them.

Orthodox theology makes a clear doctrinal distinction between the veneration (proskynesis) paid to icons and the worship (latria) which is due to God alone.

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NCC Stands With Assyrian Christians

NCC Stands With Assyrian Christians, Condemns ISIS Attack

WASHINGTON: The National Council of Churches condemns the ISIS attack against Assyrian Christian villages in northeastern Syria. This time, in addition to killing many and forcing others to flee, the terrorist group kidnapped some 150 people, women, children and the elderly. Some reports indicate as many as 400 were kidnapped. Among the captives are reported to be Christian priests. The fate of the captives is currently unknown.

Assyrian Christians trace their ethnic roots in the region back 6,000 years, and their religious roots to the early centuries of the Christian era. The language of their communal worship is Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus. Despite experiencing difficulties within the wider society throughout the centuries, the Assyrian community has maintained a vital presence in the region for all this time; like other Christians in the region, they have emigrated in large numbers in recent years due to the ongoing violence there. With the rise of ISIS, their very existence, as demonstrated by this latest attack, is now threatened.

“The present atrocity of the ISIS ideologues against the Assyrian Christians in the Khabur region is akin to a modern-day religious genocide,” stated His Grace Bishop Mar Awa Royel, Secretary of the Holy Synod and ecumenical officer of the Assyrian Church of the East. “The international community cannot simply remain silent about this atrocity. Concrete steps need to be taken to ensure the safe return of those detained and the security of the many hundreds of families who are now displaced, driven from their homes.”

Jim Winkler, General Secretary of the NCC, echoed this call to the international community. In addition, he stated that “This kind of barbarity, again displayed by ISIS, is unconscionable, and inconsistent with any genuinely faithful expression of religious identity.” His comment is set within the context of the NCC view that, while ISIS is built upon extremist interpretations of their faith, it has absolutely no credible claim to mainstream Islam.

Dr. Antonios Kireopoulos, Associate General Secretary of the NCC, expressed the sorrow of the organization’s members in light of this recent attack against the Assyrian Christians. “The Assyrian Church of the East, an ancient and venerable community of Christians, is a friend of the NCC. We grieve with our colleagues here in the US, whose families and friends are impacted by this act of terror.”

This latest ISIS attack comes after the execution of Egyptian Coptic Christians in Libya, a Muslim soldier from Jordan, and others. It also follows killings perpetrated by followers of ISIS’ ideology in France and Belgium. Among the victims in Europe were Jews. When taken together with the group’s persecution of Christians of other traditions, Shi’ite Muslims, and Sunni Muslims who do not ascribe to their interpretations, it is clear that violence rooted in this form of extremist Islamic ideology is targeted against all who disagree with it. It would also seem that this latest attack is another step by ISIS taken toward fulfilling their threat, made when executing the Coptic Christians, against Christianity and the west in general.

Since its founding in 1950, the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA has been the leading force for shared ecumenical witness among Christians in the United States. The NCC’s 37 member communions — from a wide spectrum of Protestant, Anglican, Orthodox, Evangelical, historic African American and Living Peace churches — include 45 million persons in more than 100,000 local congregations in communities across the nation.

NCC News contact: Steven D. Martin: 202.412.4323 or steven.martin@nationalcouncilofchurches.us

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Lenten Prayer of St. Ephraim the Syrian

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Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos

When Christians are in need of quick and sure help, they have recourse to the Holy Virgin Mary, Mother of God (Theotokos), who has saved people in Orthodox countries so many times that an entire history book could be compiled to describe them all.

Many times the Most Holy Theotokos has saved Orthodox Christians from attacks by people from the Moslem East; not because she could ever be against anyone – for Moslems are also people created by God – but because Orthodox Christians have a special love for her, as for their own Mother, for she does not neglect those who faithfully turn to her for help in times of adversity.

In these current terrible times, we must not forget to pray to the Theotokos with tears for the people of Syria and the Middle East, just as Orthodox Christians before us prayed in times of danger. One example of this is the Vladimir icon of the Mother of God, before whom medieval Russians prayed in the face of sure annihilation.

In 1395, Tamerlane with his Tartar horde approached Moscow. The Grand Duke of Moscow, Vasiliy Dmitrievich, requested that the Vladimir icon be carried from the city of Vladimir to Moscow. As the icon was processed from Vladimir to Moscow, the faithful knelt, begging, “O Mother of God, save the Russian Land!” The city of Moscow waited solemnly for the Vladimir icon; and, when it arrived, everyone came out to meet it, praying fervently for salvation.

During the very hour that the people were meeting the Vladimir icon, Tamerlane lay sleeping in his tent. He saw a vision of saintly hierarchs with golden staffs descending from a high mountain, and a radiant Lady in the air above them, surrounded by angels and dazzling rays of light. Tamerlane woke up in fear. His soothsayers warned him that the Woman whom he had seen in the vision was the Protectress of the Orthodox, the Mother of the Christian God, and that her power is invincible. Tamerlane was so shaken by the vision that he swiftly departed, swooping down upon the steppe-cities of the Golden Horde, who had caused the Russian land so much suffering. Tamerlane crippled them, effectively curing Russia of their threat.

As we once again fear the growing threat of fundamentalist Islamic jihad, let us Orthodox Catholic Christians fervently pray to the Mother of God for protection against all evil. She is indeed our Protectress in times of need.

* Excerpted from “pravoslavie.ru”

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Forgiveness Sunday

In the Orthodox Church, the last Sunday before Great Lent is called Forgiveness Sunday. On the morning of this Sunday at the Divine Liturgy, we hear the words of Christ:

“For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins” (Matthew 6:14-15).

The triumph of sin, the main sign of its rule over the world, is division, opposition, separation, hatred. Therefore, the first break through this fortress of sin is forgiveness—the return to unity, solidarity, love. To forgive is to put between me and my “enemy” the radiant forgiveness of God. To forgive is to reject the hopeless “dead-ends” of human relations and to refer them to Christ. Forgiveness is truly a “breakthrough” of the Kingdom into this sinful and fallen world.

Father Alexander Schmemann, the former Dean of St. Vladimir Orthodox Seminary, succinctly communicated the prominence of forgiveness in the life of an Orthodox Christian, especially during the lenten season:

“Now, forgiveness stands at the very center of Christian faith and of Christian life because Christianity itself is, above all, the religion of forgiveness. God forgives us, and His forgiveness is in Christ, His Son, Whom He sends to us, so that by sharing in His humanity we may share in His love and be truly reconciled with God. Indeed, Christianity has no other content but love. And it is primarily the renewal of that love, a return to it, a growth in it, that we seek in Great Lent, in fasting and prayer, in the entire spirit and the entire effort of that season. Thus, truly forgiveness is both the beginning of, and the proper condition for the Lenten season.”

On this last Sunday before entering Great Lent, the Eastern Church accentuates our need for forgiveness, reminding us that there can be no true fast, no genuine repentance, no reconciliation with God, unless we are at the same time reconciled with one another. This theme is especially poignant in the rite of mutual forgiveness and reconciliation at the end of the Vespers on Sunday evening, wherein we ask forgiveness from each other. As we approach one other with words of reconciliation, the choir intones the Paschal hymns, filling the church with the anticipation of our Lord’s joyous resurrection.

To anyone I have wronged, knowingly or unknowingly, I ask forgiveness. To anyone I have taken for granted and failed to express appreciation, I ask forgiveness. To anyone I have neglected or failed in times of need, I ask forgiveness. To all who have helped me, I humbly thank you. May God forgive me, a sinner!

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NCC Condemns ISIS Executions of 21 Coptic Christians in Libya

WASHINGTON: The National Council of Churches received with great distress the news of the execution of 21 Coptic Christians by ISIS in Libya. We deplore all forms of extremist violence carried out in the name of religion, and are outraged by yet another demonstration of perverse violence perpetrated by ISIS militants in this brutal act against innocent victims.

The Coptic Orthodox Church is one of the National Council of Churches’ 37 member communions and therefore this act of evil strikes close to home. When first reports emerged on Sunday, February 15, Dr. Antonios Kireopoulos, NCC Associate General Secretary, contacted Bishop Serapion of the Diocese of Los Angeles of the Coptic Orthodox Church and a member of the NCC executive committee to express his sadness and to learn more of the unfolding situation. Based on information received from the church’s headquarters in Egypt with which he remains in close contact, Bishop Serapion confirmed the tragedy had, in fact, occurred.

These killings came shortly after a gunman in Copenhagen, Denmark, apparently inspired by earlier ISIS attacks in Paris, killed one person at a free speech forum and another person at a Jewish synagogue.

The Coptic Orthodox Church is an indigenous community in Egypt, and has been so since the earliest days of Christianity. Even with tensions over the centuries, Coptic Christians have lived peaceably with their Muslim neighbors. In recent years, serious tensions have arisen between the Muslim and Christian communities. The NCC is encouraged that the Egyptian Government’s response to the attack in Libya reflects identification of the Coptic Christian community as a genuine part of the fabric of the Egyptian culture and nation.

The NCC also notes with appreciation that the Egyptian Government repudiates the claim that ISIS is legitimately carrying out these terrorist acts in the name of Islam and of the Prophet Muhammad. This is particularly important in light of the threat against Europe, and against Christianity, made by the terrorists as they carried out these executions.

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National Council of Churches Statement on Recent ISIS Executions

The National Council of Churches joins the world in grief and outrage at ISIS’s executions of Japanese hostages Haruna Yukawa and Kenji Goto, and Jordanian hostage Moath al-Kasasbeh. The utter bankruptcy of this extremist ideology, which looks to horrific violence to prop up its credibility, cannot be allowed to stand any longer. We join with people of faith and goodwill all across the world in condemning these horrific, inhumane acts, and call upon the nations to join together to eliminate this threat.

We recognize that ISIS and its violent, inhuman ideology, is a profound problem for all people. Muslims are particularly threatened (as most targets of ISIS and Al-Qaeda have been Muslims), as are people of other faith groups, as we have seen these past months. Terrorism is indiscriminate toward its victims, and none are safe from its violence.

The NCC commends the Christian, Muslim, Jewish and other voices that have spoken out against the brutality of ISIS and other examples of extremist violence. Dr. Antonios Kireopoulos, Associate General Secretary, stated, “Our experience through decades of interfaith dialogue and working for peace has taught us that we must stand up together against evil that purports to act in the name of faith.”

We also look to ourselves as faith leaders to join together in living in such a way as to build bridges of peace and to work for the well-being of those we are connected with. We hope that by doing so others will be inspired to seek the best for their neighbors also. And we, the National Council of Churches, are more committed than ever to working with our interfaith partners in dialogue and peacemaking.

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