ORTHODOX OBSERVER
PAGE 14
JUNE 2001
RELIGIOUS EDUCATION Religious Education Dept. Creates Baptism CD-ROM Orthodox Monk Slain in Drive-By Shooting near Jerusalem BROOKLINE, Mass. The Archdiocese Department of Religious Education has produced a multimedia instructional CD-ROM now available for purchase, Put On Christ: Baptism & Chrismatiom. This educational tool teaches Orthodox and non-Orthodox alike the rich traditions of baptism and chrismation in the ancient apostolic faith, and how they are observed in a typical parish today. It focuses on the theology, scripture, hymnology and patristic implications of holy baptism and allows users/students to examine the sacrament according to their particular interests. The baptism CD-ROM includes 22 animated presentations, 12 video clips of the baptism and chrismation service, 14 hymns, integrated text search, 65 quiz questions, and more that 150 articles and other information. This just-completed CD-ROM is the second of a series of interactive instructional resources developed to educate students, converts, and parents on the Orthodox Church s rich liturgical traditions. According to the Rev. Dr. Frank Marangos, department director and codeveloper of the instructional resource, when used together with a computer projection device, the CD-ROM provides religious educators a valuable classroom tool that has been proven to keep student interest by developing personal inquiry and critical thinking skills! Fr. Marangos underscores that families and individuals can also use it at home to learn about the Church. The previously released CD-ROM, on Great Lent, has received acclaim from educators and Church leaders alike. Titled The Royal Road: A Journey Through Great Lent, it includes 32 Gospel, Epistle and other readings, patristic quotes/theological inquiry, 36 Lenten hymns in Greek and English, eight hymns from premiere Byzantine artists,12 video clips of Lenten ser-
vices, dozens of articles, 75 Lenten recipes, and 85 quiz questions. It allows the user to learn about the Sunday services and hymns of Great Lent and Holy Week. Fr. Marangos is the systems author, and Bradley Borch, president of ACTIVA Digital Media Design, provides the technical authoring for these programs. According to Fr. Marangos, the DRE has received two major grants to develop a series of multimedia instructional products to help students, teachers and parishes learn more about the faith. Apart from a $165,000 Leadership 100 grant that funded the current CD-ROM project, the Archons-Order of St. Andrew, is providing the financial support to develop a similar product to help Orthodox Christians better understand the Ecumenical Patriarchate. This CD-ROM will include video clips of Patriarch Bartholomew and other patriarchal representatives, a retrospective of past ecumenical patriarchs, which will provide a hyperlink to their respective biographies, activities and theological achievements. In addition to a virtual reality tour of the patriarchal chapel, the CD will include an interactive quiz and list of past and present Archons with brief biographies. The Religious Education Department plans to develop several future instructional multimedia products. Apart from the patriarchal project, the DRE is currently working on a CD-ROM to be titled Dancing Together. This interactive, instructional product will help couples better prepare themselves for the sacrament of marriage by examining its scriptural, theological and pastoral implications from various interfaith perspectives. Put On Christ: Baptism & Chrismatiom is available from the Religious Education Department at (800) 566-1088.
RELATING TO THE FAITH u page 13
quence of the descent of the Holy Spirit. The greatest result was a new creation of the world through grace. When our Triune God created our ancestor from the dust of the earth, he was lifeless until He breathed into him the breath of life, and made him a living soul. On the Cross, Christ established His Church, and through resurrection became Himself the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep (I Cor. 15:20). On Pentecost Day, God sent His Spirit into the Church, breathed into it a mighty wind, and the Church stood up and became the living Body of Christ. And since the Church is the living Body of Christ, every member of the Church is a temple of the Holy Spirit. Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? (I Cor. 3:16. See, also, I Cor. 6:19). If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water (John 7:37-38), said Jesus. The Scripture He was referring to was from Isaiah 12:3, where we read: Therefore with joy you will draw water
from the wells of salvation. In Isaiah s time the Hebrews were carrying up water to the Temple during the Festival of Tabernacles to thank God for the gift of water, and as a reminder of the water that sprang from the rock when they journeyed through the wilderness. But Christ points to a different kind of water. He doesn t refer to the water that quenches our physical thirst, He is speaking about the water that will quench the soul s thirst. Didn t the Preacher say: He [God] put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end? (Eccl. 3:11). It was because God put eternity into our minds that Christ used this dramatic historical ceremony to turn the thoughts of men to the thirst for God and for their eternity with Him. The living water is the grace of the Holy Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified (John 7:39). As members of the perpetual Pentecost that is the Church, let us refresh our personal Pentecost! Come, let us drink from the Fountain of Immortality, making vivid our personal Pentecost!
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JERUSALEM Terrorists killed a 34year-old monk June 12 on the JerusalemMa aleh Adumim highway in a drive-by shooting. The security establishment had earlier warned of possible Palestinian attacks on major roads. Fr. George Pzipokatsatakis, a Greek Orthodox monk, was shot from a passing car some 100 meters from the Border Police roadblock just east of the capital s French Hill neighborhood, in an area under Israeli control. Security officials believe the man was targeted because the terrorists, seeing his car s yellow Israeli license plates, presumed he was a Jew. They are believed to have fled in the direction of Abu Dis or Al Azzariya in Area B, which is under Israeli security control. Soldiers and Border Police personnel immediately searched the surrounding area for the perpetrators following the attack. A MDA ambulance received word of the attack shortly before 10:30 p.m., and declared Pzipokatsatakis dead at the scene. He is believed to have been a resident of a monastery near Wadi Kelt. The attack also put the spotlight on the Greek Orthodox community, caught in the middle of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. The members of the Brotherhood of the Holy Sepulchre, shocked by the incident, are determined to continue their spiritual mission in the Holy Land guarding the Holy Places in spite of sacrifices and difficulties, the Synod said in an announcement following an urgent session in which it condemned this and similar attacks. However, members of the Synod were not willing to comment on speculation that a bearded Orthodox priest in a car at night might easily be mistaken for an Orthodox Jew. Like many of the Greek Orthodox monks in this country, Georgios, 34, had been born near Thessaloniki. He came to Jerusalem in 1990. Four years later he became the acting superior of the Monastery of St. George in Wadi Kelt, a picturesque site that appears to cling to the side of the cliff above a stream running down a deep ravine. The monastery also serves as a silent witness to the fact that violence is not new for the Greek Orthodox monks. As in many of the desert monasteries, this ,too ,holds the bones of numerous monks killed dur-
ing the seventh century. In the 19th century there would have been dozens, if not hundreds, of monks at such a monastery, leading an active life, tilling the terraced gardens under the monastery walls, praying, and receiving thousands of devout pilgrims. Even a decade or so ago there were at least three or four monks living there. In the current conflict, though, the monastery, not far from Jericho under PA control, found itself caught between Palestinians and Israelis, and Germanos was not only the acting superior, but also the sole monk, who received groups of visiting Orthodox Christian pilgrims. The Greek Orthodox are the largest Christian community in Israel. Dr. Nissim Dana, acting director of the Religious Affairs Ministry department for Christian communities, estimates their numbers at 45,000 to 50,000. However, they are without a spiritual head. In December 2000, Diodoros I, the Greek Orthodox patriarch of Jerusalem, passed away. In a procedure established during the Ottoman rule, the Synod sent the names of candidates for his replacements to the Jordanian and Israeli prime ministers. The Jordanians approved the list, but so far the Israelis have not even replied, neither under former prime minister Ehud Barak nor under Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. The Patriarchate has made no comment. Regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, of which Georgios was apparently another victim, it speaks only in the most general terms. The incident raises concerns and worries about the ongoing unstable situation in the Holy Land and the recycling of bloodshed which results in the loss of many innocent victims, yesterday s statement said. It continued with an appeal to both parties to put forward their efforts to achieve peace. The Synod also called upon authorities to conduct a thorough investigation and bring the perpetrators to justice. It prayed that Georgios is the last victim in the conflict. The funeral took place June 14 in Wadi Kelt. Compiled from published reports
Fr. Kyriakakis Named IOCC Director of Quality Assurance BALTIMORE - As part of its recently adopted strategic plan, the Board of Directors of International Orthodox Christian Charities (IOCC) has laid plans for continued growth in the provision of the agency s humanitarian aid and development programs while emphasizing its continued commitment to excellence in its service to communities in need. The IOCC Strategic Plan for 2002-2004 establishes an evaluation program aimed at measuring program outcomes with input from the beneficiaries of IOCC programs around the world. Rev. James Kyriakakis, who served as IOCC s director of development since 1998, has been appointed as director of quality assurance and will spearhead the effort by the agency to conduct outcomebased evaluations of its programs around the world. A key aspect of the program will be to identify and measure the im-
pact of programs through a collaborative process that will include the beneficiaries of the services the agency provides. Rev. Kyriakakis will also manage the IOCC Honors Internship Program. During Fr. Kyriakakis tenure as the director of development IOCC s annual fund-raising effort, which helps to support emergency relief and sustainable self-help initiatives conducted by the organization worldwide, more than doubled. Over the same period IOCC s program services grew from $11.9 million to $23.9 million. IOCC currently has operations in 13 countries in Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the United States. Since its establishment in 1992, communities in need in more than 20 countries have been served through IOCC programs conducted on behalf of Orthodox Christians worldwide.