Archbishop Joseph Absi, Patriarchal Vicar for Damascus, has been elected as the new Melkite Patriarch. Axios!
His Beatitude succeeds Patriarch Gregory.
The new Patriarch celebrated his 71st birthday yesterday. He is 44 years a priest and 15 years a bishop and a member of the Melkite Paulist Order.
His Beatitude is an American citizen, since 1990. His mother and older brother live in California.
Eis pollá eti Déspota!
Last week the Catholic Church lost the former head and father of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in the person of Lubomyr Cardinal Husar, the emeritus patriarch of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church.
After years of diminishing health, the Patriarch-cardinal-monk was called home to the Father at the age of 84. Many have said Husar was the voice of the voiceless, and friend to many, and moral conscience in the reawakening of Ukraine. Of the many things written of His Beatitude recently I think George Weigel’s piece in the National Review is a very good one to sit with, and reflect upon, to offer a prayer in gratitude for Lubomyr Husar.
I recommend “The Remarkable Life of Lubomyr Husar.”
Eternal Memory, Your Beatitude. Pray for us.
Today, the first time in history that the Patriarchs of Rome, Constantinople, & Alexandria (Greek & Coptic) have been in the same place, same time.
St Peter, St Mark and St Paul, pray for us.
May the Theotokos guide us to her Son.
The Orthodox Church of Alexandria (Egypt and all of Africa) ordained a few women to the diaconate. His Beatitude Theodoros II, Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa, did the ordination on February 17, 2017 in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
In a slight contrast, The Church of Greece officially “brought back” the female diaconate in 2004, though one Metropolitan had ordained a nun in 1986.
In this picture you see the women being tonsured a reader, which happens outside the altar (iconostasis) leading to being ordained deaconesses. A news brief is here.
Theologically in the Orthodox Church, ordination is not an ontological change. The Roman Church holds to a theology that says at priestly ordination the soul is changed ontologically. There is a hot debate in Roman Church about what happens to the man when ordained to the Order of Deacon (is there a change at the level of the soul?). That change happens when one receives the Mysteries of Initiation (scraments): baptism, chrismation Eucharist —one becomes a “new creation” in Jesus Christ. It may be more accurate to say that Pope Theodoros II consecrated but not ordained the women. In any event, this gesture is very significant and forward thinking and right.
Continuing in the ancient tradition Ordination, rather, is the setting apart for a specific task, for example as a reader, sub-deacon, deacon, priest, or bishop. Hence, the diakonia is lived according to rank: servant, elder, overseer. These women are being set aside for a specific task within the Alexandrian Church of Alexandria, a task which appropriately belongs to the order of deacons –the women were blessed into a minor order (cheirothesia). Yet, the exact nature of their diaconal ministry is unclear except to say they will be working for the mission of the Church. Also, absent from view is the liturgical text and rubrics used by the Alexandrian Pope. Some of the markers of this ordination are the towels and washing of the bishop’s hands, which are clearly pictured.
There is a Pan-Orthodox document (Consultation on Rhodes, 1988) stating that the church had, indeed, ordained females to the diaconate and recognized that, in some places, it had never fallen out of practice.
The Orthodox Church names women who fulfiled the ministry in the Order of Deacon and are saints: St Tatiana (January 12), St Olympias (July 25), and St Foebe (September 3).
The Byzantine Catholic Church liturgically recalls Blessed Martyrs of Pratulin: men and boys killed on this date in 1874 defending the Byzantine Catholic Church in Russia. The martyrdom took place when the Tsar destroyed the last Greek Catholic eparchy in the empire, Chelm, in 1873 – 1875.
More can be read here on the Servants of God Wincenty Lewoniuk and 12 Companions.
A brand new website for St Michael the Archangel Ukrainian Church, New Haven, Connecticut.
St Michael’s is a (Byzantine) Greek Catholic Church under the Eparchy of Stamford.
Happy New Year!
September 1st is the Byzantine New Year 7525. Western Christians begin their new liturgical year on the First Sunday of Advent. The Greek Church, today.
Historically, “the First Ecumenical Council established that the Church’s year would begin on September 1st, continuing the practice of the Roman Empire at that time. For centuries, the beginning of the civil year coincided with the Church year, but later changed, first in western Europe, then in Russia in the time of Peter the Great.”
IN the Divine Liturgy we sing the following trope:
O Lord, Maker of the Universe, who alone has power over the seasons and times, bless this year with your bounty. Preserve our country in safety. Keep your people in peace. Through the prayers of the Mother of God, save us. (from the Troparion)
A photo taken today (23 May 2016) at a meeting of the Joint Committee of Orthodox-Catholic Bishops (meeting at St. Methodios Faith and Heritage Center) in Contoocook, NH.
A man who followed Christ to the priesthood and to the personal companionship in the spiritual life died recently. Jesuit Father Raymond Thomas Gawronski, 65, died after living with cancer on 14 April 2016. His most recent ministry was to serve as professor of dogmatics at St. Patrick’s Seminary and University in Menlo Park, California.
I knew Father Gawronski as gifted in very many ways due to the natural gifts of his humanity and because of the integration of his intellect and life of prayer. All his friends and associates would say this. Most keenly he was nurtured by the Eastern Christianity and served as a Byzantine (Melkite) priest for the Eparchy of Newton.
In an interview with CNA, seminary rector Father Stevens said what he appreciated about Father Gawronski was the insistence he placed on integration of faith and reason: “we have to do a better job bringing together the intellectual and spiritual life.” He was speaking of the seminarians he was mentoring. Further, “That comes a lot from his work on von Balthasar. This recognition that the life of the mind and the life of the spirit cannot be seen as two separate things to be cultivated: and that was certainly apparent when he put together the spiritually program, but that’s how he approached everything. In his homilies, his spiritual direction, in his class, he just went back and forth between his life of prayer and his scholarship without skipping a beat, and I admire that so much.” Indeed, this is THE ONLY model of Christian living that’s tenable.
If you are inclined to read good theology then I would recommend Father Gawronski’s book, Word and Silence: Hans Urs von Balthasar and the Spiritual Encounter Between East and West. There is also: A Closer Walk with Christ: A Personal Ignatian Retreat.
May Father Gawronski’s memory be eternal!
Today our Orthodox Christian brothers and sisters are observing their Paschal Triduum according to the Julian calendar. The beauty of our Church is the ability to allow different and venerable traditions to co-exist.
We can do nothing apart from the Paschal Mystery of Christ. Hence, it is key to keep in mind that the Cross and Resurrection is central to our Hope in communion with God. In this Mystery we come to know the transformative nature of Love. Regrettably, too many Catholics and dare I say, Orthodox, have forgotten the centrality of the Mystery.
Let us pray for our Orthodox brethren during these days.
“Today he who hung the earth upon the waters is hung upon a Tree,
He who is King of the Angels is arrayed in a crown of thorns.
He who wraps the heaven in clouds is wrapped in mocking purple.
He who freed Adam in the Jordan receives a blow on the face.
The Bridegroom of the Church is transfixed with nails.
The Son of the Virgin is pierced by a lance,.
We worship your Sufferings, O Christ,
We worship your Sufferings, O Christ,
We worship your Sufferings, O Christ,
Show us also your glorious Resurrection.”
~Antiphon XV, Holy Friday Matins