Eastern Church – Page 16

Orthodox Christians in the USA grow 16% in a decade

Whitney Jones for ENI, wrote that “America’s Eastern
Orthodox Parishes have grown 16% in the past decade, in part because of a
settled immigrant community according to new research.” Her article follows:

Alexei
Krindatch, research consultant for the Standing Conference of the Canonical
Orthodox Bishops in the Americas, said the 16 percent growth in the number of Orthodox parishes is “a fairly high
ratio for religious groups in the United States,” Religion News Service
reports.

The number of Orthodox parishes has reached 2,370, and the Orthodox
community in America consists of more than 1 million adherents across 20
different church bodies, according to the 2010 U.S. Orthodox Census.

The top
five largest Orthodox churches in the United States are Greek Orthodox
(476,900), Orthodox Church in America (84,900), Antiochian Orthodox (74,600),
Serbian Orthodox (68,800) and Russian Orthodox (27,700).

Two of these church
bodies – the Bulgarian Orthodox Eastern Diocese and the Romanian Orthodox
Archdiocese – experienced a growth rate of more than 100 percent. Both churches
began with a small number of parishes in 2000 and are supported by a community
of established eastern European immigrants.

Continue reading Orthodox Christians in the USA grow 16% in a decade

Christiani Iraquiae, orate pro nobis

Victim of attack on Baghdad Church speak out

The victims of the Church bombing in Baghdad on October 31st speak out. Rome Reports interviews those who healing from the attack.

Many are resolved not to be thrown to the curb because of their faith in Christ. The home is Baghdad; their culture is situated in Baghdad. Why can’t they live in peace?

Watch the interview.

Pope met Iraqi Catholics receiving medical treatment

The Catholic News Service reported tonight that…

Pope
Benedict XVI met privately Dec. 1 with two dozen Iraqis who were injured when
their cathedral in Baghdad was attacked Oct. 31. In early November, the Italian
foreign ministry arranged for 26 injured Iraqis — including three children —
and 21 accompanying family members to fly to Rome. The injured were treated at
the Gemelli Hospital and their family members were housed in apartments
belonging to the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, which operates the
hospital. Nicola Cerbino, hospital spokesman, said Dec. 1 that only two of the
injured were still hospitalized, but they were well enough to travel with their
family members to the Vatican for the brief audience with the pope. The entire
Iraqi group — close to 50 people — will remain guests of the university until
mid-December, Cerbino said. After that, the Italian foreign minister will help
them return home or settle elsewhere, he said. Fifty-eight people died in the
attack on the Syrian Catholic church in Baghdad Oct. 31 after military
officials tried to end a terrorist siege of the church.

Christian martyrs of Iraq?

There is a movement afoot to investigate the sanctity of those Christians killed in Iraq just for being Christian, perhaps leading to having these Christians being canonized saints. Interesting question…

“The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Church,” Tertullian said. Are these women and men true seeds of Christianity in the 21st century?

Visit Christian Martyrs of Iraq

Communion & Liberation invites prayer for Iraqi Christians on Sunday

Communion and Liberation follows the call of the
Italian bishops to pray Sunday, November 21 for the Christians of Iraq, “who
are suffering the tremendous trial of blood witness to the faith” (Final
communiqué of the Assembly of the Italian Episcopal Conference, November 11, 2010).

The
Movement invites all its members to participate in Mass according to the
intentions of Benedict XVI, who the day after the grave attack in the Syrian
Catholic cathedral of Baghdad that left dozens dead and wounded, said, “I pray
for the victims of this absurd violence, all the more savage because it struck
defenseless people gathered in God’s house, which is a house of love and
reconciliation. I also express my affectionate closeness to the Christian
community, struck once again, and encourage the pastors and faithful to be
strong and steady in hope. In the face of the heinous episodes of violence that
continue tearing the populations of the Middle East to pieces, I renew my
grieved call for peace: it is the gift of God, but also the result of the
efforts of people of good will, of national and international institutions. May
everyone join their strengths to put an end to all violence! (Comments after
the Angelus, November 1, 2010).

Addressing all members of Communion and
Liberation, Fr. Julián Carrón said that “participation in Sunday Mass according
to the intentions of the Pope and the bishops is a gesture of real communion
and charity because we feel that the Christians of Iraq are our friends, even
if we do not know them directly.”

As Fr. Giussani said, “If the sacrifice is
accepting the circumstances of life, as they happen, because they make us
correspondent, participants in the death of Christ, then sacrifice becomes the
keystone of all life […] but also the keystone for understanding the history of
man. The entire history of man depends on that man dead on the cross, and I can
influence the history of man – I can influence the people who live in Japan
now, the people in danger at sea now; I can intervene to help the pain of the
women who lose their children now, in this moment – if I accept the sacrifice
that this moment imposes.” (L. Giussani, Is It Possible to Live This Way? Book
3: Charity, McGill-Queen’s University Press, pp. 74-75.)

For this reason, added
Carrón, “if a gesture of prayer can influence the change of people in Japan, it
can also change something in Iraq. May the sacrifice we make for the Christians
of Iraq and Sunday’s prayer be a gesture with which we invoke, implore from God
protection for them.”

The Communion & Liberation Press Office

Milan, Italy

November 18, 2010

Saint Vladimir’s relics visit the USA

The privilege of having the relics of one’s patron coming to your home is a singular experience. Friends who are seminarians at Saint Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary welcomed their patron’s relics in solemn ceremony this past weekend.

An 11th century saint, Saint Vladimir is known in the Orthodox Church as the Holy and Great Prince Vladimir, Equal-to-the-Apostles who first experienced a dramatic conversion to Christ. He is credited with bringing Christianity to various places in Russia.

Saint Vladimir’s feast is commemorated in both the Orthodox and Latin Churches on July 15.

The press release of the veneration is here with yet another here.

Thanks to Deacon Dustin Lyon for the photos.

Writing letters of solidarity with the Christians in Iraq

As a way of
showing solidarity with our Christian brothers and sisters in Iraq who faced
such horrible circumstances because of their faith Jesus Christ, I am extendiing
an invitation to all of us: writing letter(s) of fraternal solidarity with our
brothers and sisters through the Chaldean Catholic Patriarch, His Beatitude, Patriarch Emmanuel III Delly. He’s the head of the Conference of Catholic Bishops in Iraq.

An initiative of solidarity is proposed by members of Communion and Liberation

Our many friends
in the lay Catholic movement, Communion and Liberation have also moved by the
plight of Iraqi Christians has organized a gesture of solidarity with the Iraqi
Christians in the form of a letter campaign. One of our friends spoke with the Apostolic
Nuncio (the Pope’s ambassador) at the UN, Archbishop Francis Assisi Chullikatt who
said he’d be very happy for our initiative and offered his diplomatic pouch
(direct mail) to reach the Nunciature in Iraq.

So, if you are inclined to write an email in solidarity, you
may send it to tonuncio@gmail.com
and the email will be printed and hand-delivered to Archbishop
Chullikatt on Tuesday, November 16.

Messages ought to be addressed to His Beatitude, Patriarch Emmanuel
III Delly, Patriarch of Babylon of the Chaldeans.

Iraqi Christians pray Mass in assaulted Church for victims and the attackers

The pain and suffering endured but not consumed by some people is an extraordinary testimony to Grace. The AP news stories about the Mass prayed in the church assaulted by the slayings of Syrian Christians on October 31 brings tears to my eyes especially when I read that the walls retained the blood and flesh of the victims. No doubt poignant relics of the witnesses of humanity and Christ. I bet you no one entered Our Lady of Salvation Church expecting to lay down their life in such a dramatic manner.

Our Lady of Salvation Church has become the School of the Cross and Resurrection in which new life is being formed and born. The Christian response is exactly what Jesus taught his followers: pray for your enemies and those persecute you for love of Me. The priest who celebrated the Divine Liturgy the other day told his congregants that “We will perform a strange kind of prayer because Christ tells us: ‘Love your enemies.'” Father Mukhlis also said that “We will pray for those who assaulted our church and shed the blood of our martyrs.”

Father Mukhlis recalled for his people that one of the murdered priests, Father Thair, said to his attackers: “Kill me, not the families and children.”

Have the Syrian Catholics become 21st century icons of love? How have we changed since hearing of these brutal deaths? What does Christ want us to learn from these events?

Saint Josaphat of Polotsk, a martyr for unity

Striving to preserve the unity of the Spirit.

Lord, fill Your Church with the Spirit that gave Saint Josaphat
the courage to lay down his life for his people. By his prayers may Your Spirit
make us strong and willing to offer our lives for our brothers and sisters.

God, you are the martyrs’ crown!

Hear the hymn we raise in gladness,

Praising good Saint Josaphat,

Who in midst of earthly sadness

Followed Truth, and Way, and Life,

Braving trouble, scorn, and strife.

Josaphat, a preacher bold,

Was a bishop strong and fearless.

In his love for all his flock

And his ardor, he was peerless:

“That in Christ we one may be”

Was his earnest, heart-felt plea.

Strong defender of his Church,

Lover of the Eastern teaching,

Faithful priest and leader true

Urged his people through his preaching,

And, by God’s mysterious grace,

Took in heav’n a martyr’s place.

God the Father, God the Son,

God the Spirit, hear our praises

With our hymns on this glad day;

Which your Church in glory raises.

With Saint Josaphat, in song,

Echoing the ages long!

J. Michael Thompson

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78 77; GROSSER GOTT, or JESU MEINE ZUVERSICHT