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Photo: Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I embrace.
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Damascus, 20090505 - Archbishop Chrysostomos II of Nova Justiniana and All Cyprus, accompanied by an episcopal delegation, has been visiting Damascus in this Year of Saint Paul, in the footsteps of the Apostle Paul, as guest of the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Antioch. He also visited the Greek Catholic Patriarch on Sunday, 3 May.At 5pm., Archbishop Chrysostomos and his companion bishops were received by Patriarch Gregorios III, together with his Patriarchal Vicar, Bishop Joseph (Absi), the Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Mario Zenari and all Catholic bishops in Damascus, first in the Cathedral of the Dormition of the Mother of God. There, Archbishop Chrysostomos and his delegation were showered with flowers by a wedding party, and escorted by a Scout group and the choir singing Resurrection hymns. Patriarch Gregorios then invited his guest to enter the sanctuary to venerate the Gospel Book, which Archbishop Chrysostomos was pleased to do. The choir then sang “Many Years” for the Archbishop.
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OL XII East Group – The group of participants at the Orientale Lumen XII East Conference held in Washington, DC in June 2008.
Fairfax VA - 2090501 - The thirteenth annual Orientale Lumen Conference will be held in Washington, DC USA this year on June 15-18, 2009. This ecumenical conference focuses on the Christian East and is open to the public, for both lay persons and clergy. The speakers and attendees come from four main religious groups: Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Eastern Catholic and Oriental Orthodox. Orientale Lumen XIII will be held at the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center in northeast Washington, DC and will focus on the theme of “Monastic Spirituality for Everyday Life”.
These conferences provide an opportunity for “grass roots” ecumenical dialogue among the participants, and encourage discussion of the similarities and differences among the Eastern and Western Christian Churches. The conferences include a variety of prayer services from a wide range of Church traditions. In this way, the conference provides a learning experience and intellectual discussion, as well as a unique spiritual experience.
Monastic spirituality may be practiced alone, or in groups. The focus is on returning to God, and making use of certain specific practices: prayer, fasting, silence, vigils, reading, good works. Monastic spirituality is seeking a meaning to the mystery of life. The speakers will assist us with their understanding, knowledge and advice on this topic, and how better to integrate it in our daily lives.
The distinguished plenary speakers are from around the world:
Metropolitan Jonah, Primate of the Orthodox Church in America, New York, NY
Bishop Hlib Lonchyna, Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Kyiv, Ukraine
Mother Lois Farag, Coptic Orthodox Church, Assistant Professor of Church History, Luther Seminary, St. Paul, MN
Sister Barbara Jean Mihalchick, OSBM, Byzantine Catholic Church of America, Retreat House Director, Uniontown, PA
Prof. Richard Schneider, Orthodox Church in America, Professor and Director of the Orthodox Eastern Christian Studies Program at Trinity College, University of Toronto, Canada
Mr. Elias Damianakis, Greek Orthodox Church, Iconographer and Lecturer, Tampa Bay, FL
Metropolitan Kallistos of Diokleia, Greek Orthodox Church, Oxford, England, (by pre-recorded video)
Archimandrite Robert Taft, SJ, Pontifical Oriental Institute, Rome, Italy, (by pre-recorded video)
Father John Crossin, OSFS, Executive Director of the Washington Theological Consortium and President of the North American Academy of Ecumenists will be the moderator.
Each speaker will give a plenary session followed by a panel discussion and questions from the audience. All of the papers presented will be published and provided to the attendees in a Proceedings book after the conference. A variety of liturgical services will be conducted during the conference to provide an opportunity for attendees to pray together for Church unity. Opening and closing remarks will also be made by various Church leaders in attendance.
The Orientale Lumen Conferences have been meeting annually since 1997 in Washington, DC and other locations around the world including San Diego, Detroit, Birmingham, UK and Istanbul (Constantinople), Turkey. Photos and quotations from past speakers can be found on the conference website, and videos of past plenary sessions and liturgical services can be viewed at www.oltvweb.com.
Registration details are available on the website: www.olconference.com.
Photos:
OL XII West Group – The group of participants at the Orientale Lumen XII West Conference held in San Diego, CA in June 2008.
OL XII North Group – The group of participants at the Orientale Lumen XII North Conference held in Detroit, MI in July, 2008.
Contact:
Jack Figel
Orientale Lumen Conferences
PO Box 192
Fairfax, VA 22038-0192
(703) 691-8862
For further information:
Society of Saint John Chrysostom: www.ssjc.org
Eastern Christian Publications: www.ecpubs.com
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Damascus - 20090426 - The International Conference on the second millennium of Saint Paul’s birth was held from 23-25 April at al-Zaitouna Church in Damascus under the title of "Reading Paul from the East." The three-day Conference was hosted by the Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarchate in cooperation with Syriaca, University of Padua, Italy, the Franciscan Center of Christian Oriental Studies in Cairo and Memorial St. Paul in Damascus.
Paul and the Dialogue of Cultures in the Middle East
Lecture of His Beatitude Patriarch Gregorios III
Patriarch of Antioch and of All the East,
of Alexandria and of Jerusalem
for the Melkite Greek Catholic Church,
delivered at the Damascus Conference -
Reading Paul from the East (23-25 April 2009)
Introduction
We thank the Franciscan Fathers for organizing this conference and further congratulate them for choosing a successful conference theme entitled "Reading Paul from the East."
We are very pleased to host this conference at our Patriarchal Seat located in St. Paul's Street in the Eastern Gate (Bab Sharqi) Quarter along Straight Street (Via Recta); just a stone’s throw from St. Ananias' house on one side and Bab Kisan on the other, whence the disciples helped the newly converted Paul to escape from Damascus. We are all in the Pauline quarter!
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April 19, 2009
Holy Pascha
The Feast of Feasts
Faith is the substance of things hoped for,
Τhe evidence of things not seen.
(Hebrews 11:1)
To the Most Reverend Hierarchs, the Reverend Priests and Deacons, the Monks and Nuns, the Presidents and Members of the Parish Councils of the Greek Orthodox Communities, the Distinguished Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the Day, Afternoon, and Church Schools, the Philoptochos Sisterhoods, the Youth, the Hellenic Organizations, and the entire Greek Orthodox Family in America
Beloved Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Christ is Risen! Χριστός Ἀνέστη!
On this great and glorious Feast of our Holy Orthodox Church, I greet you in the abundant joy of our Risen Lord and in the peace of His unchanging promise of salvation and true life. As we gather at night anticipating the dawning of the new day, our churches, our homes, and most certainly our souls are filled with the radiance of the Resurrection and the illuminating Truth of our faith in Christ.
The Biblical record is replete with several accounts of the appearances of Christ to His disciples after His triumphant Resurrection from the dead. The Gospel of John (20:19-29) presents us with two such appearances of the Risen Christ to His apostles in the upper room, where they frequently gathered. In the first of these appearances, the Risen Christ showed His apostles His hands and His side, the scars of the physical agony which He endured on the Cross unto death. His presence before them was a visible sign of His Resurrection from the dead. At this first appearance of the Risen Christ in the upper room, however, the Apostle Thomas was not present. Hearing of this encounter from the other apostles, Thomas had clearly stated that he would not believe that Christ had risen from the dead unless he saw Christ and touched His wounds. Eight days later, Christ made a second appearance to His apostles in the upper room. This time, Thomas was present, and he was able to see the prints of the nails and spear in the flesh of the body of the Risen Christ. Thomas recognized the Risen Christ with the following, unique exclamation of his belief: My Lord and my God! (John 20:28). To this, Christ replied to Thomas, Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe (John 20:29).
Thomas needed to see in order to believe, and Thomas’ struggle with his doubt and his faith is a very human one indeed. Today, we profess our belief in the Risen Christ nearly 2,000 years after the appearances of the Risen Christ to His apostles. We do this within a society that is removed historically by the passage of time since these Divine appearances. For this reason, we can rejoice in our belief in the Risen Christ because we know the beatitude pronounced by Christ which tells us that we are blessed because we are among those who have not seen and yet believe (v.29).
On this day of Pascha, we gather to celebrate this continued and real presence of Christ in our midst, Whose Resurrection from the dead is at the very core of our Christian faith. Christ’s authentic presence is experienced by each and every one of us in many ways, such as when we gather together in His name for prayer, or when we hear His Holy Gospel. However, His presence is made manifest in the most superb way when we partake of His very real body and blood in the most blessed sacrament of Holy Communion, through the physical elements of bread and wine. This is why we give thanks to the Lord when we partake of the Holy Communion by acknowledging that we have “received the divine, holy, pure, immortal, life-giving and awesome Mysteries of Christ,” to quote the words of the Divine Liturgy. Thus, paradoxically, while we did not “see” the Risen Christ in the same way in which His apostles did, we nonetheless do “see” Him and experience Him in a total and complete way, just as His apostles. It is here where we are presented with the element of Divine Mystery that is a distinguishing characteristic of our Orthodox Christian faith. It is in this most blessed experience of our receiving the Holy Communion that we are given the ability to see and experience that which Thomas needed to see 2,000 years ago in order for him to believe. It is in this Divine Mystery of Holy Communion that we experience the Risen Christ, that we receive the Son of God physically into our bodies and spiritually within our lives, and that we are continuously renewed by His healing power.
My beloved Christians,
On this Holy Feast of Pascha, as we fill our churches and our hearts with the light and joy of the Resurrection, let us joyfully profess our belief in the Risen Lord, Who is in our midst. Through faith and our partaking of His body and blood in the Divine Mystery of Holy Communion, let us receive His love and affirm the assurance of His blessings upon us. Let us proclaim to a world in need that we are people of the Resurrection, that we are people of hope and salvation, and that we are people of faith. And let us invite all to come into the loving embrace of the living Lord Who is Risen and to see Him, experience Him, and find everlasting joy and peace in Him, Who has vanquished the power of death so that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16). Once again we joyfully proclaim: Christ is Risen! Χριστός Ἀνέστη! Truly He is Risen! Ἀληθῶς Ἀνέστη!
With paternal blessings in the Risen Christ,
† DEMETRIOS
Archbishop of America
GREEK ORTHODOX ARCHDIOCESE OF AMERICA
8-10 East 79th St. New York, NY 10075-0106
Tel: (212) 570-3530 Fax: (212) 774-0237
Web: http://www.goarch.org - Email:
Contact: PRESS OFFICE
Stavros Papagermanos
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The meeting and ensuing discussion were marked by a spirit of warm cordiality and mutual respect. The substance of the discussions included President Obama’s mention of the issue of the Theological School of Halki in his speech before the Turkish Parliament, and his further discussion of the same with the President of the Turkish Republic , Abdullah Gul. The President said that he would follow up on the issue with a view to a favorable solution for the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew made reference to the following points:
1. He made a convincing and passionate argument for the speedy re-opening of the Theological School of Halki, a basic need for the education and preparation of Clergy of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
2. He emphasized the importance of religious liberty and the guarantee of same for all minorities of Turkey .
3. He stated his well-known and long time support for the efforts of Turkey to join the European Union.
4. He noted the significance of efforts made on behalf of the environment, adding information on his own upcoming Ecological Symposium in the U.S.A. ( Mississippi River ) in October of 2009.
5. He thanked President Obama for this meeting and for his active interest in the pressing issues of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
His All Holiness mentioned that he had sent to the President, through the local U.S. General Counsel, an icon of the Prophet Baruch (patron of the President) with a handwritten inscription. He also congratulated the President for the championship victory of the University of North Carolina ’s Basketball Team, which the President had chosen to win.
GREEK ORTHODOX ARCHDIOCESE OF AMERICA
8-10 East 79th St. New York, NY 10075-0106
Tel: (212) 570-3530 Fax: (212) 774-0237
Web: http://www.goarch.org - Email:
Contact: PRESS OFFICE
Stavros Papagermanos
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Paul, Apostle of the Resurrection
“..Ye be risen with Christ” (Colossians 3:1)
From Gregorios, servant of Jesus Christ,
by the grace of God, Patriarch of Antioch and of All the East,
of Alexandria and of Jerusalem,
to their excellencies, the bishops, members of the venerable Holy Synod,
and to our sons and daughters in Jesus Christ,
clergy and people, called holy, and to all those who are called
by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their and our God,
“grace be unto you and peace from our God and Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.”
(I Corinthians 1:3)
“..Ye be risen with Christ.” That is the great announcement of Christianity, for it is the confirmation of Jesus’ resurrection and our own resurrection with him. The most beautiful chant, the finest acclamation, that rings out from our most enthusiastic voices as we are caught up in the loud cry, is indeed the hymn of the glorious resurrection, “Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death and to those in the tombs he has given life.”
That is why we decided to dedicate our Letter of the holy, glorious Resurrection for this year to meditating on the teaching of Saint Paul on the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ and our own resurrection with him.