The Word, November/December 2023

THE

WORD

NOVEMBER - DECEMBER 2023

VOLUME 67 NO. 5

Volume 67 No.5 November - December 2023

THE

WORD

C O N T E N T S

C O V E R : T H E O T O K O S P A N T A N A S S A

Hand written icon by

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Iconographer Kh. Randa Azar, h t t p s : / / t r a d i t i o n a l­o r t h o d o x i c o n s . o r g­

EDITORIAL

by Bishop JOHN

5 THE CHURCH AS INSTITUTION

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14

AND THE CHURCH AS SPIRIT

by His Eminence Metropolitan SABA (Isper)

RECLAIMING COMMUNITY: YOUTH MINISTRY IN POST-PANDEMIC AMERICA

by Gregory J. Abdalah, D.Min. “GOD IS WITH US”: A HOMILY WRITTEN THE WEEK BEFORE CHRISTMAS

by Fr. Peter Kavanaugh

16 ARCHDIOCESAN OFFICE 1 9 HOW DID I ARRIVE HERE? 21

O R W H O B R O U G H T M E H E R E ?

by Sheryl VanderWagen

TO LIVE IN BEAUTIFUL FEAR

by Fr.Peter Kavanaugh

2 3 T H E N A T I V I T Y I C O N AND SITU MARY

by Nick Papas

2 7 O R A T O R I C A L F E S T I V A L

by Dimitri Shadid

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COMMUNITIES IN ACTION

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PARISH LIFE CONFERENCE VESPERS 2023

by Fr.Patrick Cardine

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ORATORICAL FESTIVAL

by Katrina Mina

MARY AND MARTHA

by Keidi Lewis

Letters to the editor are welcome and should include the author’s full name and parish. Submissions for “Communities in Action” must be approved by the local pastor.

Both may be edited for purposes of clarity and space. All ­submissions e-mailed and provided as a Microsoft Word text or editable PDF. Please do not embed artwork into the word documents. All art work must be high resolution: at least 300dpi.

ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION: U.S.A. and Canada, $40.00 Foreign Countries, $50.00 Single Copies, $3.00 Checks should be made payable to THE ANTIOCHIAN ARCHDIOCESE. The WORD (USPS626-260) is published in September, November, January, March and May, by the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America at 358 Mountain Road, PO Box 5238; periodicals postage paid at Englewood, New Jersey 07631-5238 and at additional mailing offices.

Postmaster send address changes to The WORD, 358 Mountain Road, PO Box 5238, Englewood, NJ 076315238 ISSN 0043-7964 www.antiochian.org.

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22 January November 2016- December 2023

EDITORIAL

LISTENING FOR THE WISDOM OF GOD Bishop JOHN

nniversaries often are a time to pause and reflect on who we are and what we are doing. In October I celebrated 45 years of ordination to the clerical priesthood. In reflection, I recognize how honored and blessed I have been to serve as a presbyter and bishop in this Archdiocese. People have accepted me as a ­ guest in their holy space, where they deal with their fears, responsibilities, successes, regrets, joys, and pains. People have allowed me to share in their relationship with God and witness personally God’s work in their lives.

They have allowed me to witness healing and relief when God’s people recognize that He is with us and cares about everything.

In 1 Corinthians 2:6 we discover that God calls upon the spiritually mature to recognize how God speaks to us and through us. This

is called by the modern Church Fathers real knowledge. It is the Spirit of God Himself who allows us to have faith and real wisdom.

Not wisdom of this age, but the truth of God who dwells in us. Knowing God allows us to hear God’s Spirit and to recognize it as Him. Fr. Zachariah of Essex shares from the wisdom of St. Sophrony that “the spiritual father must become a ‘laborer together with God’ [1 Corinthians 3:9] in the sacred and never-ending task of creating … ‘for eternity in the uncreated Light’. A spiritual father has himself trodden the path of obedience for long years.” F ­ ather Zachariah continues to explain that the spiritual father must have practiced this life of service through humility and obedience to be able to share it with others.

The priest who is sent by the Church’s ­bishop must himself be humble and l­istening The Word

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EDITORIAL

The Most Reverend Metropolitan SABA The Right Reverend Bishop THOMAS The Right Reverend Bishop ALEXANDER The Right Reverend Bishop JOHN The Right Reverend Bishop ANTHONY The Right Reverend Bishop NICHOLAS Founded in Arabic as Al Kalimat in 1905

by Saint Raphael (Hawaweeny) Founded in English as The WORD in 1957

by Metropolitan ANTONY (Bashir) Editor in Chief Bishop JOHN

Assistant Editor Christopher Humphrey Design Director Donna Griffin Albert

Editorial Office: The WORD 2 Lydia’s Path Westborough, MA 01581-1841 e-mail: WORDMAG@AOL.COM Subscription Office: 358 Mountain Road PO Box 5238 Englewood, NJ 07631-5238 registrar@antiochian.org

for God’s guidance and wisdom to impart knowledge of Him to the flock in his care. The flock, too, must receive this wisdom and make it their own, through their own unity with Him. They can then share it with their families, neighbors, and all those whom God has given them to care for.

Knowing God, we are sharing God and recognizing His work in us and with us.

Being Christian does not exempt us from the pain and suffering of the fallen world. Neither does being a Christian deprive us of the spiritual and material blessings that He has poured out upon His world. We need to see how both can help us to mature in our understanding of God’s love for the world. He is patient, so that we may have time to grow, and even to learn patience through pain. This love, as difficult as it may sometimes be, is what we need to mature. It helps us to recognize that, ultimately, we can do nothing by ourselves. E ­ very good and perfect gift comes from above. God pours out His gifts especially when we suffer. We may understand this. Our inability to understand, however, does not prevent God from loving and caring for us. This may be hard to hear, but I know it to be true, nonetheless.

In this issue of The WORD you will read Metropolitan SABA’s message to the Board of Trustees. His vision is straight out of the Gospel and therefore cannot be repudiated by any Christian. This vision will come to fruition in God’s own time and way. It requires that we grasp our Christian responsibility and stewardship, and that we ­humble ourselves to put God first. When we c­ ooperate with God, however, as taught by Metropolitan SABA and the modern saints like Saints Paisios and Sophrony, and Elder Joseph, it will profit us with heavenly crowns of victory.

As Saint Sophrony says, the only thing that remains for us is to have ­patience. The way towards knowledge of God goes above all via faith, the love of Christ, and repentance. May God give you all the spirit of repentance. Weep over your faults; weep, that your heart may not dry up.

Look for the Minutes from the 56th Archdiocese Convention in the January/February issue of The WORD magazine.

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THE CHURCH AS INSTITUTION AND THE CHURCH AS SPIRIT His Eminence Metropolitan SABA (Isper)

HIS EMINENCE DELIVERED THIS ADDRESS A T T H E M E E T I N G O F T H E ­A R C H D I O C E S E B O A R D O F T R U S T E E S O N O C T O B E R 6 , 2 0 2 3 , I N C H I C A G O , ­I L L I N O I S .

The Church has two imperative dimensions: institutional and mystical. Through them, she lives by the Holy Spirit and bears witness to Him in the world. The mystical dimension corrects her ­structure, drives her mission, and purifies her institutions. In return, the institutional dimension communicates her spirit and mission to the world, and through it, God extends His gifts to His creation.

When we speak of the Church as an institution, we mean the Church as patriarchates, dioceses, parishes: priests, the faithful, houses of worship, departments, and institutions, all meant to witness to Christ and serve Him. The institutional dimension also includes ecclesiastical ­administration, such as councils, conferences, publishing departments, Sunday Schools, fellowships, monasteries, and centers of evangelism. We also mean philanthropic ministries, such as orphanages, senior homes, homes for people with special needs, charities, and whatever relates to them. We include, too, ecclesiastical ­endowments and their finances, policies, investments, and operations; pastoral activities such as pilgrimages, agape meals, lectures, and similar events; and organizations that are priestly, monastic, or for the laity.

The gifts of Christ reach this world through the Church as an institution. People see the embodiment of Christ’s grace, as they touch love, humility, compassion, and mercy. Evangelical virtues must be embodied in the Church. They are practically embodied in the institutions of the Church, which are supposed to be the hands of Christ on earth.

At the same time, the mystical, inner, or spiritual dimension is the heart of Christ in the Church. It is the spirit with which the Church works to satisfy her Lord first. It is the placement of the Gospel and its requirements at the center of every action,

body, activity, witness, and institution. Without this dimension, the Church becomes an institution of this world, thinking as this world thinks – secularly – planning, executing, managing, and acting not according to the heart and Gospel of Christ, but ­according to the mind of the world and the evil one.

The saints of the Church sustained the mystical dimension and preserved it in the Church. They accomplished this through their constant communication with God and by their constant quest for inspiration by the Holy Spirit. The spiritual and mystical dimension is preserved in the life that seeks Christ first and foremost, in the one who is well aware that He is the Alpha and the Omega, and therefore that He is the Helper, the Supporter, the Sustainer, and the Savior. He is the Giver of Life, as we sing in our liturgy.

The mystical dimension protects the institutional church from deviating into the trap of worldly institutionalism. It reminds her of her essential vocation, her Gospel and her only Master, lest she be unjust, cruel, passionate, volatile, subordinate, and materialistic.

If the Kingdom of God is within us, and if the call of the Gospel is to seek the Kingdom of God first and foremost, how greatly must we focus on the mystical dimension, to be a Church whose Lord looks at her and smiles and blesses! What can the hands offer, if the heart is empty of God’s mercy?

The Word

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RECLAIMING COMMUNITY: Y O U T H M I N I S T R Y I N P O S T- P A N D E M I C A M E R I C A

Gregory J. Abdalah, D.Min.

INTRODUCTION PERHAPS ONE OF THE GREATEST TRAGEDIES OF THE ­COVID-19 PANDEMIC WAS OUR EXPERIENCE OF ISOLATION; AN EXPERIENCE FELT MORE ACUTELY FOR SOME THAN FOR OTHERS. THE RESULTS OF THIS, ACCORDING TO THE AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION, WAS AN INCREASE IN ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION FROM 2019 TO 2021.1 ­AVERAGE REPORTS OF ANXIETY SYMPTOMS INCREASED TO A RANGE OF 28 TO 37 PERCENT BETWEEN APRIL 2020 AND AUGUST 2021. IN 2019 THEY HAD BEEN BETWEEN 7 TO 9 PERCENT. FOR REPORTED DEPRESSION SYMPTOMS, THE INCREASE WAS FROM 6 TO 8 PERCENT IN 2019, TO A RANGE OF 20 TO 31 FROM APRIL 2020 TO AUGUST 2021. THESE NUMBERS REMIND US THAT, AS WE SEE FROM THE VERY BEGINNING OF THE CREATION STORY, WE ARE BUILT FOR COMMUNITY. IN GENESIS 1 GOD SAYS: “LET US MAKE MAN IN OUR IMAGE, AFTER OUR LIKENESS” (GENESIS 1:26). ­ORTHODOX CHRISTIANS UNDERSTAND THIS TO BE A TRINITARIAN STATEMENT: WE READ THAT GOD IS “US” BECAUSE GOD IS TRINITY. HERE WE HAVE A FUNDAMENTAL UNDERSTANDING OF GOD AS C ­ OMMUNITY. METROPOLITAN KALLISTOS WARE EXPLAINS THAT COMMUNITY IN THIS WAY: “THERE IS IN GOD SOMETHING ANALOGOUS TO ‘SOCIETY.’ HE IS NOT A SINGLE PERSON, LOVING ­HIMSELF ALONE, NOT A SELF-CONTAINED MONAD OR ‘THE ONE.’ HE IS TRIUNITY: THREE EQUAL PERSONS, EACH ONE DWELLING IN THE OTHER TWO BY VIRTUE OF AN UNCEASING MOVEMENT OF MUTUAL LOVE.”2

hus, for us to live out our creation in the image of a God who lives and acts as a community, and is community, we need community. This may be why Genesis goes on, in the very next verse, to say: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Genesis 1:27). Immediately the focus shifts to the image of God being communal, both male and female; not for the reasons modern proponents of gender studies will tell you, but because we are created to live in and to be in community. As we see at the end of Genesis 2, “Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh” (2:24). As two halves of a whole, we seek out community, first and foremost, within marriage.

As Metropolitan Kallistos points out, the 6 November - December 2023

c­ ommunity of the Trinity is “a never-ending procession of mutual love.” Community, most notably the community formed within marriage, strives to be formed in and express this same love. Through our communities we experience God. So St. Maximos the Confessor writes in his Ecclesiastical Mystagogy: “Therefore, the holy Church is the image of God, as it has been said, because she works the same oneness around the faithful as God does.”3 As we will see, through the rise of narcissism in our society, this experience of community often eludes us.

Those of us undertaking Youth Ministry learn all too well that this community is often lacking in the lives of today’s youth. Even before the pandemic, human interaction was often limited to digital expressions, whether through various social media outlets or “old-school” text messagi­ ng. We were

a­ lready seeing the rise of a generation of narcissists, solely looking out for themselves, with little to no understanding of the Gospel of Christ. With the physical isolation brought on by the ­pandemic and the effects of online education, narcissism has grown exponentially. Further complicating things has been the increased prominence of a v­ ariety of social issues, as part of a “modern” theology of wokeness, that would supplant the theology of the Church.

The community of the Church for our young people has been diminished, to say the least, but it is not lost. This article will look at the spread of narcissism in the United States and the movement away from community. It will then offer thoughts on how we can bring our youth back into the communal reality of the Trinity, modeled in the liturgical life of the Church.

HOW DID WE GET HERE? THE D ­ EVELOPMENT OF A COMMUNITY OF NARCISSISTS

Perhaps the biggest block to living in community is narcissism, a term commonly used in ­modern parlance. Narcissism is extreme self-centeredness, with limited empathy, and a disregard for the needs and feelings of others. This most often leads to isolation, the narcissist having pushed others away through his words and actions. Rarely is this isolation deliberate, though it becomes a relied-on ­defense mechanism employed to preserve the narcissist’s ideas and worldview. Without anyone keeping him in check, isolation deepens the roots of his narcissistic ideas.

In her groundbreaking work Generation Me, sociologist Jean Twenge exposes a generation that has grown up and thrived in this fertile environment.

In a section titled “The Church and Community of the Individual,” she explores the impact narcissism has had on the religious life of this generation. ­After revealing the rate of decline of various religious groups, she observes the following: Many of the churches that have grown in membership in the past few decades are the fundamentalist Christian denominations that do require more strict adherence. However, these churches promote a very personalized form of religion . . . . These denominations teach that one’s personal faith guarantees acceptance into heaven, not the good works you perform and the way you treat others (which tradition-

ally defined a proper spiritual outlook and its rewards) . . . . Of course, most adherents strive to live good lives, but personal beliefs are considered more important.4

What Twenge has discovered is a desire and a­ ttraction towards a religion that is focused on selfdetermined belief, feeding into a narcissist’s selfaffirmed ideas. Ultimately, with personal faith and beliefs determining admittance into the Kingdom of Heaven, they replace God as the decision-maker, rather than the scriptural understanding of God as judge.

This is confirmed in an in-depth study of the religious lives of teens. In the book Soul Searching, ­sociologist Christian Smith found what he considered to be “the de facto dominant religion among contemporary US teenagers.”5 He called this “Moralistic Therapeutic Deism,”6 or MTD. Smith lists the framework of this so-called dominant religion to be the following: 1) A God exists who created and orders the world and watches over human life on earth.

2) God wants people to be good, nice, and fair to each other, as taught in the Bible and by most world religions.

3) The central goal of life is to be happy and to feel good about oneself.

4 God does not need to be particularly involved in one’s life except when he is needed to resolve a problem.

5) Good people go to heaven when they die.7

Within this framework, we see a further progression away from referral to the tradition and towards belief in themselves as the ultimate judge.

What happens when God is replaced as reference, or Lord? We cease to seek out God in our lives and we ignore His gift of community.

Twenge followed-up Generation Me with a book entitled The Narcissism Epidemic. She and co-author Keith Campbell state: “Somewhere along the line, American culture’s core ideas and values were modified to include the idea of self-admiration.”8 They go on to argue that self-admiration comes from inflated self-esteem, ultimately leading to narcissism.

With narcissism so prevalent, it’s no wonder that in 2010 there was discussion about the removal of Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD) from the The Word

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RECLAIMING COMMUNITY

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, “the handbook used by health care professionals … as the authoritative guide to the diagnosis of mental disorders.”9 The unfortunate reality is that narcissism, as we are discussing it, seems to be everywhere because everything we consume is feeding it. In his work The New Media Epidemic, Jean-Claude Larchet makes

Who am I? Where do I belong? These are the same questions our youth are asking.

Social media outlets utilize psychological manipulation to get more clicks and sell more ads, so that young people are under a constant barrage. Advertising is designed to draw them into an identity in which some product will miraculously make life absolutely, positively amazing. There is no escape from

a case that the primary goal of ever-present media is its commercialization.10 “The television aims, through our affections, to draw us to participate and to identify with its message.”11 In his description of social networks, specifically Facebook, he points out that their success depends on “everyone’s natural need to be in contact with other.” This “is often felt acutely in modern society, which for various reasons, has weakened social links and deconstructed the family. Thus, more and more people find themselves alone.”12 Thus we have a question of identity.

the assumption that life is simply about happiness.

This push may be overt. For example, the slogan of a casino in Phoenix is “You Do You”: it assumes a style of life that has no regard for another, for his or her needs, but encourages self-indulgence. Our youth thus have two options: identify with the message of the advertisements, or identify with the Church.

This becomes increasingly important in the way that our youth approach social issues and community. Modern “woke” theology equates social issues to community issues. Proponents claim that

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e­ verything is to be accepted, and anything short of that means we are somehow bad at community, or that our community is bad. This theology relies on its own assumptions of the Church’s theology and Scripture, making accusations rather than seeking dialogue. To be fair, the Church does not help herself and the response is often equally bad. Rather than seeking dialogue, many modern theologians

rely on their own political leanings to bolster their theological claims, manipulating Scripture for the purposes of their arguments. This becomes overwhelmingly evident amid election seasons which push abortion, race, and gender into the forefront of their conversations. This increases the divide, pushing us deeper into camps based on what we think, rather than how our Church guides us. We become self-referential and lose sight of “the Way, the Truth, and the Life” offered in Scripture. As muddy as the waters are for us, this trend further clouds them for

the youth entrusted to our care. Rather than discussing these issues with them, we often shy away from the tough conversations. This seemingly happens out of fear of offending them or pushing them away, leading to a reliance on assumed knowledge to guide them rather than being active in our guiding them towards Christ. As we will see, the result is that, feeling pushed away from the Church, they are seeking answers elsewhere.

We can no longer rely on assumed knowledge to guide our youth towards the Church’s teachings on these issues. ­Rather, it is incumbent on us to teach them the Church’s teachings – they’re called “teachings” after all – in a manner that is accessible for our youth while not playing into their world-formed social constructs. There is a delicate balance to be found, to be sure, but at its core this is an issue of identity.

The biggest questions our youth are asking themselves is “Who am I?” “Where do I fit?” and “What difference can I make?”13 We are uniquely placed to help them find answers these questions, as guided by Scripture. This is summarized by research untaken by the Fuller Youth Institute, published in their work 3 Big Questions That Change E­very Teenager. In it, they remind us that youth have access to limitless information through the Internet and yet, when they come to their churches for answers to tough questions, their churches tend to “shy away from some of their deepest questions on faith and meaning.”14 As discussed, we are not immune to this, and it often becomes our modus operandi. The results of our shying away from tough questions are our youth are shying away from our communities in search of other communities that they consider to be more “welcoming” and “accepting.” They identify more with communities that are fed by and feed their tendencies towards MTD, perpetuating the cycle of self-refence and narcissism. Fuller Youth Institute assert that “young people need new plotlines, new mantras, to say to themselves over and over about who they are, where they fit, and what difference they can make.”15 Luckily, the Church is perfectly poised to answer this challenge and to forge this path for our youth.

In his discussion of sacraments in For the Life The Word

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of the World, Fr. Alexander Schmemann discusses the issue of identity for the Church in the following way: “The Church calls sacraments those decisive acts of its life in which this transforming grace is confirmed as being given, in which the Church through a liturgical act identifies itself with and becomes the very form of that Gift.”16 Within the liturgical life of the Church, the Body of Christ, community par excellence offers us gifts while being itself a gift. We are given this community to come together and learn what it means to live as men and women created in the image and likeness of God, who is community. As we come together and receive these gifts, we see how we might overcome narcissism. Fr. Alexander observes: “The thanksgiving [anaphora] offered by the church each time ­answers and destroys precisely this not only contemporary but age-old lie about the world and man . . . . In thanksgiving we recognize and confess above all the divine source and the divine calling of our life.”17 The thanksgiving we offer when we gather as Church as our “divine calling” reveals and clarifies a way of life that, when followed, will help us reclaim the community that seems to be lost in post-pandemic America.

HOW DO WE BREAK THE CYCLE? BECOMING “THE OFFERER AND THE OFFERING”

We hear this “divine calling” to which Schmemann refers most acutely in the closing chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. As Christ gathers His disciples together, he sends them out into the world with very clear instructions: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Matthew 28: 19–20).

It would seem that becoming a disciple of Christ is a two-stage process: Be baptized, and observe all that has been commanded. This process begins with our chrismation.

In baptism, we “put on Christ,” as we hear in St. Paul’s Letter to the Galatians (3:27). What does it mean to “put on Christ?” In his Letter to the Romans, St. Paul reminds us that we are baptized into Christ’s death so that we might “walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:3–4). This is key for us. Putting on Christ does not mean we put on our crosses and

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walk around declaring ourselves to be Christians based on our personal beliefs. Walking in newness of life means that we are not walking in the way of our beliefs, but that we are walking in the way of Christ’s teachings. In Of Water and the Spirit, his work on baptism, Fr. Schmemann puts it into perspective: “In Baptism, we receive [Christ’s] life as our life and thus His faith, His love and His desire as the very ‘content’ of our life…18 And what is Christ’s life that we receive? It is a priesthood of self-offering in which we are called to share. Christ brings together the three Old Testament figures of Prophet, Priest, and King. He is the archetypal Prophet, in that He proclaims God’s Word; the Priest, in that He offers gifts to God; and the King, in that He is the steward of God’s gifts, ultimately being the gift that is offered. We hear this repeated throughout the Divine Liturgy.

So in the priestly prayer of the Cherubic Hymn we address Christ as “he that offers and is offered.”19 Even more deliberately, we hear in the anaphoral prayers of St. John Chrysostom: “In the night in which he was betrayed or, rather, gave himself up for the life of the world . . . .”20 In putting on Christ, we, too, are called to be both offerer and offering, sharing in Christ’s priesthood of self-offering. His self-­offering is most abundantly evident in His voluntary and life-giving death on the cross. The cross, which is the core of our liturgical life, reveals for us where the path to our own self-offering might go. In his article “Where is God in the Liturgy,” Fr. Alexander Rentel reminds us that “within the ­liturgy, the sign, the symbol, the gesture, the word, the veil of the cross gives way to the revelation of God’s love.”21 As we are created in the image and likeness of a God who is a community based in selfoffering love, this is the core of any attempts to reclaim community.

It is through our offering of ourselves that we find this love and, as St. Basil the Great posits, work to build up the likeness of God within us. “By our creation we have the first [image], and by our free choice we build the second [likeness].”22 He continues this line of thought: “How do we become according to the likeness? Through the Gospels. What is Christianity? If you are shown to be a Christian, hasten to become like God, put on Christ. But how will you put Him on if you have not been sealed . . . if you reject the likeness of God?”23 Through our actions, our observance of the

c­ ommandments of God, we live out Christ’s priesthood of self-offering. This process, begun in our baptism, is sealed through our chrismation in which we begin the process of learning God’s commandments. In chrismation, we receive the “Seal of the Gift of the Holy Spirit.”24 This is “the gift of the Holy ­Spirit that ‘opens’ to us access to the church, to Christ’s table in His Kingdom. We are baptized so that we might receive the Holy Spirit; we receive the Holy Spirit so that we may become ­living members of the Body of Christ, growing within the church into the fullness of Christ’s stature.”25 Becoming members of the Body of Christ means to become members of a community that is centered around self-sacrificial love. It is through this community that we learn to live out our sharing of Christ’s priesthood of self-offering. This is the key to reclaiming the community we have lost and it is found within the liturgical life of the Church. Providing our youth with that firm foundation, fostering a sense of self-offering within them, will begin the process of reclaiming community and combat the pull of narcissism.

HOW DO WE MOVE FORWARD? RECLAIMING COMMUNITY

The movement towards narcissism within our society has led to isolation – exacerbated by the forced isolation of the Covid-19 pandemic. Our youth are most acutely affected by this. Those of us who undertake Youth Ministry are called to help them overcome the challenges through their baptismal call to live Christ’s priesthood of self-offering, as taught throughout the Divine Liturgy. We are called to bring them back into the communal understanding that we find within the Divine Liturgy.

After all, “worship gives expression to our faith.”26 The liturgical life of the Church is a beautiful gift we are given, with the Divine Liturgy being the crown jewel of that gift. Surprisingly, perhaps, we may keep our youth from fully embracing and experiencing that gift by referring to them as “the future of the Church.” This implicitly diminishers their current membership: if our youth are the f­uture, what does that make them in the present? This wellmeaning understanding may have contributed to declining numbers, complaints that church is boring, and to accusations that the church is irrelevant.

In a panicked response, our attempts to “keep our kids in church” invert the relationship of

­ orship/faith and ministry. From this inverted perw spective, we approach our Youth Ministry efforts as the essence of the faith experience, rather than the ­liturgical life of the Church. Current youth ministry typically follows the following pattern: first, have fun activities like sporting events, movie nights, or ethnic dance troupes; next, bring the kids to these events; finally, add a church service to the event. We might plan a laser tag event from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., realize that there is Vespers that same night at 5 p.m., and then advertise the event to be from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. to ensure that they come for Vespers. The result is that we are seen as deceptive by our youth, while also feeding into their preconceived ideas that services are inherently boring and that they need to be tricked into attendance. Ultimately, this approach places the liturgical life as an extra-curricular activity to the youth programming. This is not done intentionally, but passively. Though a well-meaning attempt at education, when Sunday School happens during liturgical services, though our youth are actively being taught the content of the faith, they are passively being taught that church services are less important than what we are teaching them.

This highlights for us an important element of youth ministry: the importance of experiences in education. Human beings learn through experiences. Experiences have power, either reinforcing or contradicting what we are being taught otherwise.

A child might heed the warnings of his p ­ arents not to touch a hot stove, but it may be that only ­after touching it does he know not to do it again. By the same token, telling our youth that they are a part of the community of worship without integrating them fully into that community will have the same effect as tricking them into coming to Vespers. Instead, we need to find way to integrate them a­ uthentically within the very fabric of the community, finding opportunities for them to own their faith.

For example, a parish was in need of a choir director. That parish had a high school sophomore who was particularly gifted musically. Rather than ask an adult who was less qualified, the sophomore was given the opportunity. He was given training and encouragement and the results were incredible.

The choir not only continued under his guidance and leadership, but membership increased when his peers, now feeling empowered that one of their own was given this responsibility, began to join the choir themselves.

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RECLAIMING COMMUNITY

1. Tori DeAngelis, “Depression and Anxiety Escalate during COVID,” Monitor on Psychology (American Psychological Association, 1 Nov. 2021), https:// www.apa.org/monitor/2021/11/numbersdepression-anxiety.

2. Kallistos Ware, The Orthodox Way (St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1995), p. 27.

3.

St. Maximos the Confessor, edited and translated by Jonathan J. Armstrong, On the Ecclesiastical Mystagogy (St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2019), p. 54.

4. Jean M. Twenge, Generation Me (NY: Free Press, 2006), p. 35.

5. Ibid., p 162.

6. Ibid., p. 162.

7. Ibid., pp. 162–163.

8.

Jean M. Twenge and W. Keith Campbell, The Narcissism Epidemic: Living in the Age of Entitlement. (Free Press, 2009), p. 57.

9. “Frequently Asked Questions” in Psychiatry.org - Frequently Asked Questions, https://psychiatry.org/ psychiatrists/practice/ dsm/frequently-askedquestions.

10. Larchet, Jean-Claude, and Archibald Andrew Torrance, The New Media Epidemic: The Undermining of Society, Family, and Our Own Soul (Holy Trinity Publications, The Printshop of St. Job of Pochaev, Holy Trinity Monastery, 2019), p. 4.

11. Ibid., p. 6.

12. Ibid., p. 9.

13. Kara Eckmann Powell and Brad M. Griffin, 3 Big Questions That Change Every Teenager: Making the Most of Your Conversations and Connections (Baker Books, 2021).

14. Ibid., p. 33.

This underlines for us a second important element within youth ministry: the role of relationships. Our youth need to be empowered to fulfill their membership within the life of the Church today. This happens through relationships with ­ their clergy, their parents, other family members, and parishioners who take an interest in them. We learn better when we have a connection with the person we are learning from. Ask most high school students who their favorite teacher is, and then ask them what is their favorite subject. Probably nine times out of ten, there is a link between the two.

Relationships are vital to our experience of the liturgical life. Looking again at the example of the choir above, the youth of the parish rallied around their peer to help support his efforts because they had a relationship with him. It would stand to reason, then, that building relationships are vital to ensuring that we are able to reclaim the lost community we have been discussing. Community is relationships, after all. Finding ways to break down the walls built up by isolation becomes essential.

Putting this into action requires asking ourselves some key questions, a kind of litmus test, to ensure that we are on the right path. What are these ­questions?

1. Does this support my ministry goals?

To ask this question means, above all else, that we must have ministry goals . . . and those goals are not numbers-based, but outcomes-based. We do not often look at ministry in this way. Typically, we plan a year’s worth of events and then try to make it all happen. The following year, we just change the dates on the calendar and do it all over. By adjusting our focus to outcomes-based goals, we provide new opportunities for the growth of those entrusted to our care. It also allows for, or requires, introspection on our part. Maintaining the status quo will get the status quo. Rather than simply changing the dates on the previous year’s calendar, we want to take the opportunity to look at the previous year and analyze what happened, shedding things that did not work, finding where our kids are, meeting them there, and setting goals that will guide them towards growth.

We cannot expect growth if we are not willing to put in the effort that growth takes. Once our goals are set, all our programming, lesson planning, and event planning needs to point towards those goals.

2. What is being actively taught?

Setting goals and regular evaluation of ourselves

12 November - December 2023

and our programs allows us to ensure that we see where our kids are, meet them there, and guide them where we want them to be. We cannot allow ourselves to default into thinking that meeting them where they are and walking with them means talking down to them or failing to challenge them. We also need to stop avoiding answering their tough questions. Helping and fostering growth means engaging in those tough conversations. It also does not mean we launch a straw-man attack against “the world.” Rather, it means following the words of the great Apostle Paul: “Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.”27 Our teaching needs to be focused on transformation through the renewal of the mind. As St. Paul continues, this stems from seeking out “the will of God” so that we might know “what is good and acceptable and perfect.”28 This does not mean we accept everything we are being told to accept, conforming to what “woke” theology might attempt to bully us into accepting, or creating a pseudo-­ Orthodoxy rooted in a political system’s false construct. Through the transformation St. Paul speaks of, we are called to “prove what is the will of God,” which means our teaching must be firmly rooted in Holy Scripture as it is presented to us. This calls for further introspection to ensure we are not manipulating Scripture to prove our point. This brings us back to our discussion of Sunday School above.

3. What is being taught passively?

We often fail to realize the unintended consequences of some of our decisions. Through reflection, we can identify pitfalls in the decisions we have made, and, one hopes, make better decisions.

We can act consciously regarding when and how we do things, with an eye towards incorporating the life of the Church into our various activities. These decisions can be simple in nature. For example, beginning a youth event, Sunday School lesson, or weekly Bible study with a basket in the center of the room for cell phones can serve as a reminder that phonefree time is important, even necessary. People might moan and groan at first, but setting this as the expectation for events and classes eventually just becomes a part of how we do what we do. This takes some time to get used to and requires effort on our part to “stay strong,” but has huge benefits.

This is connected to what was said above about putting in the effort for growth. Our young people know we care about something based on the

a­ttention we give, and this includes our relationships with them. When they see that we have put effort into a lesson topic, they know we see it as important.

4. What behavior am I modeling?

Imagine if I were to teach a lesson about the importance of church attendance and then take football season off so I can focus on my fantasy team.

As much as we want to say the preacher is not as important as the message, we all know the adage that “actions speak louder than words.” Ensuring that we are living the life that we are teaching can also provide an opportunity for growth in our lives as well. We ourselves are also striving to be disciples of Christ, after all.

Just as the Apostles had first to be taught before teaching, through our own Baptism and Chrismation we are called to be disciples and to live a life modeled after Christ’s priesthood of self-offering.

We are not putting on an act in our youth-minister costumes when we engage with our youth. Integrity and authenticity are required for youth ministry.

They will know who we are and they will see that in our actions. Our ministry goals are standards that exist not just to guide our work, but we are to hold ourselves to them as well. If we say we are walking the path with them but are not walking the path with them, it is all simply a Magic Kingdom and we are nothing more than Disney cast members.

CONCLUSION

In 2001, I was very lucky to visit Lebanon with my father. While there, we visited Douma, the village where his grandmother came from. We stayed with the same family who my dad had stayed with in 1975, nearly 30 years prior, when he took her “home.” We were greeted with a lifestyle that I wish I had appreciated more as a 19-year-old undergraduate student. Everything was simplified. Hospitality and love were the driving forces behind everything.

People seemed relaxed and at ease, comfortable in their own skin. I felt like we had gone back in time, walking through narrow streets that I couldn’t imagine having cars travel, being regaled with ­stories of the family that lived in one or another house. What I later found out was that this society that I had ­idealized was, in fact, just that: an ideal. Our family that hosted us was simply there for the weekend, coming back from Beirut where they lived and worked during the week. They didn’t live this

b­ eautiful and simple village life, connected deeply to extended family. Their reality was much like ours, isolated from others, absorbed by the city’s hustle and bustle.

Our American experience is no different. In fact, like many things in America, we “perfected” this reality. I grew up outside of Pittsburgh, in a small industrial town of about 14,000 people. We knew our neighbors, knew people around the town, and people knew us. In sixth grade, we were even allowed to leave the school at lunch time and go to the local pizza shop. Everyone knew each other, so there was little fear of a group of kids ranging in age from 10 to 12 walking a half-mile to get some pizza. Shortly thereafter, my family moved to a suburb of Pittsburgh. It was a commuter town, to be sure. We did not know our neighbors, let alone people in town, and there definitely was no local pizza place where we could walk.

I look back on these two examples often, recognizing that there is no perfect image of community, save the Church. Remembering that, ultimately, our youth are searching for community, we have a duty to welcome them fully into that community. When we demote our youth to being the “church of tomorrow,” we push them away, isolating them from the community of the Church, causing them to seek belonging and validation elsewhere. Communities which provide feelings of belonging and validation by feeding into a person’s inherent narcissism become increasingly attractive. They are easy and have the promotion of self as their primary goal. Participation in these communities, particularly electronic ones, further isolates our youth. Additionally, when we distill their Church experience to fun activities and ethnic dances, we do not share with them the fullness of a life centered around God’s love. We keep the Church from them and then expect them to wake up “tomorrow” and be the Church. How can this happen if we have not taught them to be the Church now? We are called to give them more. We are called to bring them into the life of the Church, through Her liturgical life, teaching them to participate in Christ’s priesthood of self-offering. This can only be accomplished through the experiences and relationships the Church is perfectly equipped to provide.

15. Ibid., p. 71.

16. Alexander Schmemann, For the Life of the World: Sacraments and Orthodoxy (Yonkers, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2018), p. 81.

17. Alexander Schmemann, The Eucharist–Sacrament of the Kingdom (St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1988), p. 185.

18. Schmemann, Of Water and the Spirit: A Liturgical Study of Baptism (St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1974), p. 68.

19. Service Book of the Holy Eastern Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic Church According to the Use of the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America (Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of New York and All North America, 2006), p.

105.

20. Service Book Antiochian Archdiocese, p. 113.

21. St. Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly, vol. 59, no. 2, 2 Nov. 2015, p.

218.

22.

St. Basil the Great, Ed. Nonna Verna Harrison, On the Human Condition (St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1996), p. 43.

23. Ibid., p. 45.

24. Service Book, Antiochian Archdiocese, p.

159.

25. Schmemann, Of Water and Spirit, p. 116.

26. John Breck, “Bible and Liturgy” (Orthodox Church in America, 1 Jan. 2003), https://www.oca.org/ reflections/fr.-johnbreck/bible-andliturgy.

27. Romans 12:2.

28. Ibid.

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“GOD IS WITH US”:

A HOMILY WRITTEN THE WEEK BEFORE CHRISTMAS Fr. Peter Kavanaugh

“God is in the manger, wealth in poverty, light in darkness, succor in abandonment.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote these words to his wife from his prison cell, one dark Advent night. In hunger and abandonment, the young theologian discovered a fresh wonder at Christmas. Christ was born into poverty. Christ was born into h ­ unger. Christ was born in darkness, cold, and ugliness. Forever after, this means that God is with us in our poverty. God is with us in our ugliness. God is with us, at e­ very moment, in all His splendor and beauty. No matter how dark the world becomes, God is with us.

14 November - December 2023

“Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.” The Baptist’s words echo through each week of Advent, the way they echoed through the hills of Israel. Prepare the way. Prepare them for what? “Every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low; and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough ways shall be made smooth; And all flesh shall see the salvation of God” (Luke 3:5).

These words mean everything now, as we brace ourselves in 2023. What will the new year bring?

Two years ago, Covid-19 was declared an international pandemic and a new phrase came into vogue: “the new normal.” It was appropriate. The pandemic unsettled an already unsettled culture. The new norm has been a world rife with apprehension and anxiety. What is next? China, Russia, pandemics, vaccines, riots, cultural war, inflation. We are stretched out like a string ready to snap.

It is precisely into a mess like this that Jesus Christ is born. “Every valley shall be filled.” God knows what we are going through. He knows our fears. He listens to us when we worry at night. ­“Every mountain and hill shall be brought low.” An attentive mother notices every furrow on her child’s brow. She detects it when her son is pensive, or her daughter insecure. God knows us more intimately.

God sees our struggle, and each and every obstacle on the road. “The crooked shall be made straight.”

God watches the crooked. He hears the plans of the wicked. There are no shocking events to God. In all the twists and disappointments of life, God is working patiently to straighten and renew.

Where is God? Where is God in our pain?

Where is God in the mess of this world? Christmas arrives to remind us: He is right here. He is in the stable. He is in the manger. Now imagine stepping into the stable. Outside everything is cold and bitter. You walk into the stable and everything is warm.

The walls shut out the wind. A light flickers. The animals are quiet. St. Joseph and the Blessed Virgin are mesmerized, transformed, overwhelmed with wonder and happiness, and a baby coos.

“All flesh shall see the salvation of God” (Luke 3:5). When Christmas arrives, a light is born into our lives, and declares: God is with us. We need to

prepare our hearts so that we, too, can rest in that stable, with St. Joseph and the Blessed Virgin. We can step away from the cold outside. Something cosmic has happened. Something far more exciting than the headlines in the news: Christ is born.

Fasting always opens the soul. By eating less food, the food you do eat becomes more valuable. When you go a day abstaining and then sit down at night for a little meal, that meal becomes magical. Every little bite delicious. The Church takes food seriously. A great deal of our spirituality r­evolves around food, learning to abstain from it on fasting days, and learning to cherish it on feast days. It gives you a new appreciation for food. Every meal is meant to be a celebration of life. Every bite and drink ought to overwhelm us with thanksgiving. I­ndeed, every delight every day should be a c­ elebration, and this is the reason for the season.

We have these few days left to prepare, one more week of fasting and penitence, so that when the holy night arrives, our heart will be fixed. The Twelve Days of Christmas and all Blessed ­Epiphany come as a time for mirth and joy. We may join Christ in the manger. We may sit down around a piano and sing carols, and relax in our armchair and drink eggnog. Invite your friends over and make merry.

We will shout: Christ is born! God is in the world.

This means we can celebrate the world. Taste God in e­verything sweet and savory. Listen to him in ­everything melodious. Feel him in everything soft.

“What a glorious thing fresh, cold water is!” A philosopher once wrote. “How splendid water is, or a rose, a tree, an apple . . . . In the midst of our workaday cares, we raise our heads and unexpectedly gaze into a face turned towards us, and in that instant we see, everything which is, is good, worthy of love, and loved by God” ( Joseph Pieper).

Christianity introduced joy to the world, precisely because Christians know why we can c­ elebrate.

There will always be poverty; there will always be politicians, but the cacophony comes to very little in the end, for Christ is born. God is with us.

“All flesh shall see the salvation of God” (Luke 3:5). One more week of Advent – prepare your heart for the feast.

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Archdiocesan Office

ARCHDIOCESAN OFFICE ORDAINED IRVING, Deacon James, to the holy priesthood

by Bishop JOHN on September 30, 2023, at St. Michael Church, Cotuit, Massachusetts. He is assigned as pastor, effective October 1, 2023.

McCOY, Deacon Christopher, to the holy priesthood by Metropolitan SABA on Sunday, September 24, 2023, at St. Ignatius Church, Florida, New York. He remains attached to the parish.

PAISE, John, to the holy diaconate by Bishop THOMAS on September 25, 2023, at the Church of the Holy Spirit, Huntington, West Virginia.

SABBOUH, John (Marwan), to the holy diaconate

by Bishop JOHN on August 27, 2023, at St. George Church, Lowell Massachusetts. He is assigned to the parish.

ELEVATED

BUCAR, Priest Bogdan, to the rank and dignity of Archpriest by Metropolitan SABA on September 28th, 2023, at St. Vladimir’s Theological Seminary.

DALY, Priest Raphael, to the rank and dignity of Archpriest by Bishop THOMAS at the Parish Life Conference hosted by Ss. Constantine and Helen Church, Dallas, Texas.

TAWEEL, Priest George, to the rank and dignity of Archpriest by Metropolitan SABA on July 1, 2023, at St. Luke Church, Garden Grove, ­California.

ASSIGNED

CORONEL, Priest Gabriel, as Assistant Pastor to St. George Church, Cicero, Illinois, effective July 11, 2023.

REPOSED

Very Rev. David RANDOLPH, 79, perished in a car accident on Saturday, August 26, 2023, in Candler, Florida. Fr. David pastored St. Andrew Church of Eustis, Florida until 1998, when he became the pastor of Christ the Savior Church in Anderson, South Carolina for 20 years until his retirement

16 November - December 2023

from the pastorate. In 2017, Fr. David became chairman of the Department of Prison Ministry.

Fr. David graduated from the Antiochian House of Studies in 2012 with a certificate in marriage and family counseling. He ministered in four prisons in Florida and one in South Carolina. He taught and counseled inmates who suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). He also ministered to sex-offenders dealing with sexual addiction, and taught life-management skills and prepared inmates for their release back into society.

“He had a real heart for ‘the least of these’ and was able to connect with them,” recalled Very Rev. Anthony Perkins, Fr. David’s successor at Christ the Savior Church. “For days, he would give up everything he had and go live among the homeless so that he could understand and serve them better. He was a larger-than-life character – everyone has at least one ‘Fr. David’ story.”

Fr. David is survived by his wife, Khouria Betty, as well as four sons and four daughters-in-law, and five grandchildren. A daughter predeceased Fr. ­David.

Very Rev. Paul EYLER, 87, reposed in the Lord ­Jesus Christ on Aug. 16, 2023. He was the founding pastor of St. Michael Church (now Cathedral) in Las Vegas, Nevada and longtime spiritual advisor to the Antiochian Women of the Western Region (now the Diocese of Los Angeles and the West).

Fr. Paul, son of Jesse and Myrtle Eyler, was born on February 18, 1936, in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. He graduated from the University of Buffalo in 1957 and received a Master’s degree in education from Canisius College in 1959. He received his theological training at the Preceptorial Council, a

Khouria Helen (Hannen) WHITE, 88, of Shrewsbury, Massachusetts, formerly of Geneva, New York, fell asleep in the Lord on Thursday, Aug. 10, 2023, after a period of declining health.

Helen was born on July 22, 1935, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, the daughter of Charles Scott and Mary B. (Lynds) Hannen. She was raised in Parry Sound, Ontario, before marrying the Very Rev. Gabriel White in 1956. Fr. Gabriel was assigned to St. Michael Church in Geneva, where they spent most of their life, raising their children until Fr. White passed away in July 2009. The following year, Helen moved to Shrewsbury to be close to her daughter and grandchildren.

Khouria Helen was a licensed registered nurse in upstate New York, primarily working for Geneva General Hospital before retiring.

Khouria Helen is survived by her two children, Selma M. Abdelahad (Very Rev. Michael Abdelahad of Shrewsbury) and her son, Gabriel Scott White (Lora of Newark, New York); a brother, Rt. Rev. John E. Hannan of Victoria, British Columbia; six grandchildren she adored: Charles, Nicholas, Christopher, Gabriel, Michael and Mariam; four great-grandchildren; nieces, nephews, extended family and friends. In addition to her parents and husband, a brother, Leslie Scott Hannan, and a sister, Mary Elizabeth Hannan, predeceased her.

At St. Michael Church, Khouria Helen was active in the Women’s Guild and the Antiochian Women. While her family was there for over 34 years, Helen took a leading role in all church activities. After her move to Massachusetts, she was a member of St. George Cathedral in Worcester and, briefly, she worshipped at St. George Church in Norwood, Massachusetts. In all these parishes, Kh. Helen stood out as a “quiet presence.”

Deacon Sidney (Innocent) Lee ELLIOTT reposed in the Lord on September 6, 2023. He was born in Water Valley, Mississippi in 1947. He graduated from Water Valley High School and went on to earn his degree in Aerospace Engineering at Mississippi State University in 1969.

It was during college that he met members of Campus Crusade for Christ from around Mississippi, who ended up introducing him to his wife, Mary, in Memphis, Tennessee. They became the treasured group of friends in Mississippi and Memphis who helped form the “Evangelical Orthodox Church.”

In 1987, they were all chrismated into the Antiochian Orthodox Church. He was ordained to the diaconate that same year, along with many friends and brothers in Christ from Memphis and Jackson, Mississippi. He was a founding member of St. John Church, Memphis, the same church from which he is buried.

He went on to earn a second engineering degree from Memphis State University in 1987 in ­civil engineering, while raising his family and working as a contractor who painted houses and did other home improvements. Throughout his adult life he held several engineering jobs, spent many years as

Archdiocesan Office

small seminary connected to the University of Buffalo. He was ordained priest in 1961 by Metropolitan EPIPHANIOS of Akkar, Lebanon.

He moved to Las Vegas with his wife Ilean and children, where he founded St. Michael Church in 1964. While there, he also taught multiple languages for 30 years at J.D. Smith Junior High School in Clark County School District (CCSD).

Fr. Paul was often greeted by his former students throughout Las Vegas.

Upon retiring from St. Michael Church and CCSD, Fr. Paul became a member of St. John the Baptist Greek Orthodox Church for over 20 years. He was proud to serve with Metropolitan ILIA of thrice-blessed memory, Fr. John Hondros, and Fr. Constantine Raptis during his time at the church.

Fr. Paul enjoyed cruising around the world with Ilean. For many years, they spent time in Mount Charleston, Nevada, and Big Bear, California, where everyone was always welcome to visit. He enjoyed gardening and boating during the day, and watching the television show Jeopardy! with many of his grandchildren.

Fr. Paul is preceded in death by his wife Presvytera Ilean to whom he was married for over 60 years, his son Michael (Ruby) and son-in-law Robert (Buzz). He is survived by his children Jean ( John), Dennis (Cheryl), Pamela, Jesse (Dianna) and John (Elizabeth), his 12 grandchildren, 15 great-grandchildren, and one great-great-grandchild.

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ARCHDIOCESAN OFFICE

a home improvement contractor, and, finally, spent his last 20 working years as the building official for Southaven, Mississippi, overseeing the building inspectors for one of the fastest growing areas in the country.

He and Kh. Mary had three daughters, S ­ ally, ­Esther, and Rebecca, and raised them all in Memphis, with a brief, one-year stay on a farm in ­Franklin, Tennessee. He was a devoted father and husband who loved to play the guitar, build ­balsa wood airplane models, play golf, and play solitaire on the computer. He was a generous man who helped anyone he could, despite his own struggles, and he practiced the “reduce and reuse” principal long before it was the fashion, delighting in finding new uses for old materials.

Dn. Sidney and his wife tragically lost their middle daughter, Esther, in 2010, and he missed her until his last days on earth. He did, however, joyfully receive and welcome three grandchildren: Elliott, Magdalena, and Evangelia.

Above all of this, he loved the Lord his Savior, and devoted his life to being the best Christian he could. He loved to talk about the Bible and Church history and could often be found in his last years (as throughout his life) talking about the Lord with his wife Mary, as they had done since they first met.

He went to be with his Lord after a long struggle with Stage 4 cancer and the complications arising from it. Dn. Sidney reposed at home, surrounded by his wife, his daughter Rebecca and son-in-law Matt, several life-long friends, and brother clergy members.

Dn. Sidney leaves behind him his wife, Kh. Mary, his daughters Sally Boyle ( Jason) and Rebecca Henthorn (Matt), and his grandchildren, ­Elliott Longa, and Magdalena and Evangelia Boyle. He is preceded in death by his father ( Joe Elliott, Sr.), mother (Grace Elliott), brother ( Joe Elliott, Jr.), and daughter (Esther Longa).

2024 JACK G. SHAHEEN MASS C ­ OMMUNICATIONS SCHOLARSHIPS Scholarship Award $4,000.00

PURPOSE

To recognize and award Arab-American university students who excel in Media Studies.

ELIGIBILITY

American-Arab U.S. citizens that are currently enrolled in the September 2024-2025 academic year at universities and colleges. Students must be Juniors, Seniors and Graduate School students majoring in Journalism, Television, Radio, and/or Film.

APPLICANTS

Mail and include the following items to ADC’s Research Institute, c/o Mr. Nabil Mohamad: 1. Two letters of recommendation signed by your Mass Communications professors.

2. Print copies and/or email links of your relevant work.

3. Share how Dr. Jack Shaheen’s work has influenced you. Include this in your one page statement explaining your goals, and stating you are a U.S. citizen of Arab heritage.

4.

Official academic transcripts (minimum 3.0 GPA is ­required).

5. Permanent home address, mobile number and email ­address.

APPLICATION DEADLINE: Friday, April 12, 2024

Incomplete or late applications will not be accepted.

SUBMIT ALL MATERIALS TO ADC Research Institute

Attn: Mr. Nabil Mohamad - ADC Vice President 1705 Desales Street, N.W., Suite 500 Washington, D.C. 20036

Should you have further questions, call (202) 2442990, or email nmohamad@adc.org.

The Jack G. Shaheen Scholarship Awards will be presented at the 2024 ADC National Convention.

The Dr. Jack G. Shaheen Mass Communications Scholarships were established in 1997. Thus far 98 previous scholarships have been awarded to ­recipients!

HOW DID I ARRIVE HERE? OR WHO BROUGHT ME HERE? Sheryl VanderWagen, President, NAB Antiochian Women

Little did I know that, twenty-seven years ­ after becoming Orthodox, I would become President of the North American Board of the Antiochian Women in the organization’s fiftieth year. How did I get here, or, for that matter how did any of our Board members arrive in their leadership positions? I believe it is all about the practice of mentorship. Mentorship takes on many forms. It might be a mother or a grandmother guiding a daughter or a granddaughter by example. Formal mentorship is mostly found in corporate settings, but I believe that it is also a practice that will carry the Antiochian Women into another fifty years. At its root, mentorship is the practice of guiding and supporting someone who has less experience than you do. I will use my experiences from the last twenty-seven years as an example. I pray that as you read this, you will think of examples from your own life, and consider ways you might pass on to others the wisdom you have gained from your experience.

We came to St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church (Grand Rapids, MichiganI) in ­September 1996. I remember it well, because our youngest daughter was a month old. We were chrismated the next year on Holy Saturday. We didn’t know anyone at the church, save Fr. John Estephan of

blessed memory, who encouraged us to come to a service. The first person to welcome us was our friend, Mae, who invited us to the coffee hour, where we also met Margaret and Margaret. These three Antiochian women played an important part in our introduction to the Church, and in our coming back Sunday after Sunday. Through them, I got involved in the Ladies Golden Links (the local Antiochian Women chapter), where I eventually took on the offices of Vice-President and President. I also learned the fine art of prosphora baking from one of the Margarets.

All three of these women have since departed this life, but they are my first mothers in the Church.

In 2005, I was encouraged to become involved in the Midwest Antiochian Women of the Diocese of Toledo and the Midwest. At that time, I had attended one Parish Life Conference and one Midwest Antiochian Women meeting, but I knew that I wanted to be a part of that sisterhood. Over the next ten years I served as Secretary and President.

I had many wonderful Midwest sister/mentors as I learned about the diocesan and archdiocesan organizations, among them Elinor Bourjaily, Libby Kohl, and Ramona Darmour. All have departed this life, yet they left me with a strong sense of the tradition, history, and value of the Antiochian Women.

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HOW DID I ARRIVE HERE?

They were fountains of encouragement when I had doubts about whether I could ever fill their shoes.

They were sources of inspiration for me as I strove to be like them in their love and dedication to the Antiochian Women in North America. Most of all, they supported and guided me through uncharted waters by continuing as officers or coordinators ­under my leadership. They were in every sense servant-leaders and my mothers in Christ.

Finally, with continued encouragement, I began my service on the North American Board of the Antiochian Women in 2015, first as Secretary, then as Vice-President, until today, as I begin my term as President of this wonderful organization and sisterhood in 2023, its fiftieth year. I continue to look to my new mentors and my fellow servant-leaders as I embark on this new journey. Most of them continue to serve their diocesan and NAB organizations as officers and coordinators. I am thankful to God, too, for the new group of dedicated diocesan and NAB officers. They are my new mentors; I will learn from them, and pray that together we will move this organization into its next fifty years.

We are off to a good start with the 2024 NAB Project announced at the recent Archdiocese Convention. This year’s Project will honor our widowed clergy wives for their years of dedication and the service they gave alongside their priest-husbands in p ­ arishes throughout our Archdiocese. Out of our love, respect and thankfulness, we will establish an endowment fund to support them in their need, as they so often supported us in our times of need.

We will once again have a Humanitarian Act of Mercy in which parishes across the Archdiocese will be able to participate. This past year, many parishes in North America supported our Orthodox Pregnancy Resource Centers, in particular, Zoe House and The Treehouse. The Act of Mercy brings many parishes together with a common goal to show mercy to those less fortunate, thereby shining the Light of Christ in a dark world.

20 November - December 2023

Over the last several years, many women have enjoyed our NAB Book Club. This has been an opportunity for both fellowship and spiritual growth in many parishes. I pray that this year’s book selection will be a blessing.

At the Archdiocese Convention, we premiered a new Antiochian Women documentary, featuring interviews with a few of our Antiochian Women on the topic of what it means to be an Antiochian Women and to be a part of this living, breathing organization. I encourage every woman in every parish to adopt a “daughter/sister,” and bring her into your local Antiochian Women activities. I ask every diocesan and NAB officer and coordinator to do the same. I would certainly not be writing this today had not my dear, departed mothers in Christ done this for me. I thank God for each of you and I pray for the work you do in your parishes, your dioceses, this Archdiocese, and the world.

TO LIVE IN BEAUTIFUL FEAR Fr. Peter Kavanaugh

“Fear seized them all, and they glorified God” (Luke 7:16).

I doubt that there is a biblical concept harder for modern man to grasp than the “fear of God.” It is often glossed-over as simply meaning awe, but that is not satisfying. What does awe mean in the first place, or to be seized by awe? Does the word fear imply something not found in awe? I believe so.

A funeral procession was leaving the city when it encountered Christ. It is a dark moment. Christ has healed a lot of wounded people, but this miracle would be unique. It is so piercingly bleak and heartrending: a young boy lies dead in an open coffin.

He was in the flower of his youth, young, sprightly, promising, and hopeful. Now he is pale and lifeless. His mother is weeping, a widow, alone, and ­abandoned.

This procession parallels closely our modern, nihilistic culture – a society of death. You can always evaluate the amount of despair in a culture by its degree of hedonism. The catch phrase, “sex, drugs, and rock’n’roll,” is not a sign of jubilation. It is an indication of depression, a culture so hurt and empty that its youth are desperate to escape reality. It is an antiquated phrase now — so “1960s.” We have moved farther down the rabbit hole.

I heard recently that there is hardly any punk scene anymore. This is a tragedy. The punks, with their mohawks and “screamo,” represented the psyche of our culture, which recognized that something was wrong. With their drums and guitars, they were crying out for life, for meaning, in a world that had become plastic. Today, however, there are no more punks, or very few. The punk scene is phasing out. What happened? Younger generations are too successfully distracted now to make good punks; they are too buried in their iPhones and social media. We have our drugs. We do not need to feel anymore.

This is the scene into which Jesus Christ walks – despair. Then what happens? “He came forward and touched the bier, and the bearers stood still. And he said, ‘Young man, I say to you, rise!’ ‘The dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him to his mother. Fear seized all of them” (Luke 7:14–16).

“Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you . . . and put breath in you, you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord” (Ezekiel 37:5–6).

Christ touched death and breathed into death life. The boy rose from the dead. The mother woke from her stupor, her grief became joy, and her despair became wonder. “Fear seized them all, and they glorified God” (Luke 7:16).

What is this fear? We have seen what despair looks like? That funeral procession embodied it, but all that changed. They were seized with fear and overwhelmed with worship. This is the new life Christ brought to the world. Ἔλαβεν δὲ φόβος πάντας καὶ ἐδόξαζον τὸν Θεὸν They were seized with φόβος. The Ancient Greeks believed φόβος (fear) to be a deity, and the son of Ares, god of war. They associated φόβος with aversion, the desire to run away when faced with death. The same word took on a new meaning with time, similar, but totally different – awe, reverence, and wonder. We like to say these words, but we may understand them less than the word fear.

Our world today is obsessed with comfort.

We do not like mystery so much. We want everything spelled out, with a warning label, and easily ­accessible. We want to feel in control. But φόβος, fear of God, has nothing of this. Awe is closer to

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fear than we might like, because it implies recognizing a presence, infinitely bigger than us, infinitely more powerful and overwhelming, good, beautiful, but also terrifying, as an enormous wave about to crash down.

Imagine standing in a dark room. You are told that somewhere in that room there is a tiger. You would be afraid. Now imagine standing in that same room, and being told that there is a ghost. If you believed it, you would also be afraid, but in a different kind of way. A tiger is one thing; a ghost is another.

The tiger implies sharp claws; the ghost implies another world, a world beneath a veil, eternity, soul, mystery. Now imagine being told that you are in a room with a mighty Spirit. C. S. Lewis suggests: “You would feel wonder and a certain shrinking – a sense of inadequacy to cope with such a ­visitant and of a prostration before it.” This is what fear of God means.

The German theologian, Rudolf Otto, used the 22 November - December 2023

word numinous to describe fear of God. The word comes from the Latin numen, meaning a “deity” or “spirit,” and implies being caught up in a mystery both terrifying and fascinating. He writes, “The feeling of it may at times come sweeping like a gentle tide pervading the mind with a tranquil mood of deepest worship. It may pass over into a more set and lasting attitude . . . . It may become the hushed, trembling, and speechless humility of the creature in the presence of – whom or what? In the presence of that which is a Mystery inexpressible and above all.”

In that wonderful book, The Wind and the Willow, Rat and Mole are drifting along the stream when they encounter the forest spirit. “‘Rat,’ [Mole] found breath to whisper, shaking, ‘Are you afraid?’

‘Afraid?’ murmured the Rat, his eyes shining with unutterable love. ‘Afraid? Of Him? O, never, never!

And yet – and yet – O, Mole, I am afraid.’”

Fear means being shaken up by the numinous, being overwhelmed by the colossal gravity of something Other. Part of you wants to flee; another part to cling and adore. Fear of God implies dread with hope, humility and boldness, wonder and love. “Fear seized them all, and they glorified God” (Luke 7:16). Jesus Christ walked into a scene of darkness outside the gates of Nain. Our Gospel begins in dread, and ends in awe. This is the Christian life, to be awake, no longer like the funeral procession, but overwhelmed with adoration. “Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling” (Psalm 2:11).

“So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had peace and was being built up . . . walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 9:31). Christianity ­remains paper thin until touched with the numinous — joy with trembling.

But we are modernists, are we not? We look at the universe through secular lenses, all atoms, or chemistry, or politics. The wonder we lived in as children was beaten out of us in grade school, and then starved by our television shows. Was it not? Or is there a hope that we can wake up, a chance that we can live seized in a beautiful fear of God? Everything depends on this. Look up!

The Nativity Icon and Situ Mary ary Abraham from Blairsville, Pennsylvania. came to America, where a difficult life awaited her.

Born in Syria about 1900, she married very young, had one daughter and raised her while caring for an invalid husband. She carried these ­daily trials with a Christian faith in her heart, in such a way that they bore a fruit of amazing, powerful and uncontainable love for people.

As a widow, seventy and eighty years old, she lived by herself in her humble Blairsville home. It was in these years that she found a particularly suitable outlet for her uncontainable love. This came through a unique relationship with the college stu-

Nick Papas

dents of Indiana University of Pennsylvania (I.U.P.).

The University was close to Mary’s home parish of St. John the Baptist Church, Orthodox Church in America, Black Lick, Pennsylvania. The pastor of St. John’s served as an advisor to the Orthodox Christian Fellowship (O.C.F.) and as a connection between Mary and the students. Through the O.C.F. she touched the lives of many kids with her grandmotherly love. This is why everyone who knew her referred to her affectionately as Situ (Arabic for “grandmother”). Her house was always open, an oasis for everyone, but especially for the students. She loved them and showed that love with all the simple gifts God gave her. She was a gifted cook, gardener, wine-maker and baker. Her heavy-laden table was

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THE NATIVITY ICON

filled with homemade foods, often made with the produce from her own backyard garden. Her main courses, however, were spiritual food with the best dishes being a ready, patient ear, and kind, wise, simple, and encouraging words. The power and impact of her meals and hospitality linger to this day in the minds of those who experienced them.

There are so many stories revolving around “Situ.” Many may be written down in the years to come, but there are two anecdotes that provide a moving glimpse into the depth of her faith. Situ Mary lay on her deathbed with a respirator in place, unable to speak. Pointing and pantomiming, she tried to relate something. A number of people saw her during her frantic attempts to communicate.

Days later, with her throat raw from the respirator and her voice squeaky and weak, she was finally able to tell her priest, V. Rev. Samuel Smolcic, what she had seen. The Virgin Mary had come to her! In this appearance the Virgin placed Her veil on Situ, given her solace, and told her that she would live for two more years.

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On another occasion, still in the same hospital bed, she shared the secret deep in her unschooled, simple, yet beautiful mind. In a raspy voice and in words far from fancy, she squeaked out transcendent theology. At first blush, because of her thick accent, they might almost have been humorous.

Holding onto one of the many get-well cards she had received, she spoke with complete and childlike sincerity. The card’s cover had an icon of the Virgin Mary holding the Christ child. As she alternately clutched the card close to her heart or held it in front of her to gaze lovingly at the picture, she seemed in her own world, unaware of others being in the room. It was then that she uttered in an almost lullaby way, words that could be described as a prayer, a revelation and a proclamation: “You[‘re] da baby, you[‘re] da baby.” Just as Mary, the Mother of God, revealed to Situ, two years later on September 28, 1986, Mary Abraham fell asleep in the Lord.

Along with the many people who knew her, I ask her to pray for us. We all are confident of her place in heaven.

The point of this story? It is to help us see that knowing about God and knowing God are not the same. When we look at the Nativity icon (or any icon), the theology is pointless unless it is ­personal and experienced. Situ Mary Abraham said with clarity and awe “You da baby” because this is what she experienced. She didn’t say this with awe and clarity because she had read it in the St. Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly. With a few words Situ Mary expressed more about the Incarnation of God than book after book could.

Putting this “Situ” preamble “to the side” for a moment here is a roster of specific details in the Nativity icon that, God willing, will help make it personal. The Nativity icon has ancient prototypes and origins in ampullae from the Fifth and Sixth Century, which in turn a basis in ancient hymnography and Holy Scripture, as well as the Apocryphal Gospels of Pseudo-Matthew and Pseudo-James. (These last specifically address the midwives and Joseph’s temptation.)

Compositionally, the icon is quite target-like, with concentric circles around the “bullseye,” which is the infant Christ. The composition expands to incude Mary (the Theotokos), then the Cave, then Saint Joseph, then the shepherds, angels and midwives, and finally the Magi. Let’s look more closely at the details.

Mary has an all-important role as connector (the “Ladder”) between Heaven and Earth, as is sung in the hymn, “Heaven and Earth are united today . . . .”

She is also “the new Eve.” The dark cave points to the fallen Earth to which Christ comes. The swaddling clothes foreshadow the burial clothes of the tomb and fulfill the angelic announcement of Luke 2:12.

The cave, manger, and swaddling clothes show us Christ’s humility. The ox and ass show us Christ’s humility again, but more significantly, they are the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy; “The ox knows its owner and the ass its master’s crib, but Israel does not know me and the people have not regarded me.”

Angels, as always, are messengers (to shepherds and Magi) and givers of praise.

Christ God came to save all men! We see this in several oppositions. So the shepherds stand for the Jews, while the Magi stand for the heathen, or the Gentiles; the shepherds stand for the simple, while the Magi represent the learned; the shepherds find Christ directly, and the Magi find Christ by means of a journey. We also see this universal

c­alling to salvation in the Magi themselves, who represent all ages and races. Their gift of gold points to Christ’s kingship; that of frankincense to His divinity; their myrrh is prophetic of His Passion and His ­immortality.

Artist use not just centrality in the composition, but size and scale, to express degrees of importance.

There’s more, but on to the “punchline”: there is a quiet, sublime detail in ancient Orthodox renditions of the Nativity icon. One easily overlook it, as the bullseye composition draws the viewer’s eye away. What is it? Mary’s gaze! This gaze is out of character for the mother of a newborn! As this mother is presented to us as the perfect Mother, this is something very curious. My brothers-in-law are both chiropractors. They can tell you that when a new mother comes into their office, invariably these moms will have sore necks from gazing down at their new babies. They can’t take their eyes off their new little ones. Yet this is not what we see in the Nativity icon!

Knowing that Mary is the perfect mother and that a mother will naturally look at her newborn, we can assume that this detail is intentional. Why? What is she looking at? She’s gazing at Joseph.

Why Joseph? For an answer let’s start with some Scripture.

Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privately. But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.

When they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt: But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, Saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel: for they are dead which sought the young child’s life. And he arose, and took the young

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THE NATIVITY ICON

child and his mother, and came into the land of Israel (Matthew 1 and 2).

Do these scriptural depictions clash with the visual depictions of Joseph in these ancient icons?

Angels visit him three times and he is called a “just man”! In the Nativity icon, however, Joseph’s head is down. His hand is on the side of his face or chin.

His body language gives a message that is quite different than that of the angels, shepherds, and magi.

He appears dejected, left out, worried, confused, and maybe most of all, doubtful. And all the thoughts that Joseph seems to be struggling with are not helped by the instigation of the old strange man who is taunting and goading him. You can a­ lmost hear the stranger saying, “Virgin birth? You’ve got to be kidding?”

If Joseph is such a “just” man, then why does the icon seem to emphasize what would mostly likely be an episode of weakness, a moment in which he was simply human and dealing with understandable doubt. It does not seem fair, accurate, or in any way appropriate to blow out of proportion Joseph’s doubt and struggle. In fact, however, an incredible number of hymns for the Orthodox liturgical ­celebration of Christmas mention this moment of Joseph’s doubt!

This is not a mistake. Worries, confusion, labors, and life’s distractions and doubts are legitimate expressions of our fallen humanness. Of these, isn’t it doubt that keeps us from intimacy with God? We doubt that God loves us. Which brings us to the “punchline”: Who is Joseph in the Nativity icon?

Joseph is us, you and me! Who is the real, or needy, or important child in this icon? Who is the infant that needs a mother’s care!? Joseph! Which means that we are the child in need in the Nativity icon!

Our needs are noticed and met by a loving Mother – Mary! Who, again, is Mary? She is, for us, the Church!

This is the “secret” message of the Nativity icon: God does love us! He has not forgotten us in any way. Even when we are troubled and struggle and are worried and scared and doubtful.

All of this is echoed in the hymns of the Feast (found in the Festal Menaion), starting with J­ oseph’s doubt, which is our doubt.

Joseph spoke thus to the Virgin; ‘What is this doing, O Mary, that I see in thee? I fail to understand and am amazed, and my mind is

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struck with dismay. Go from my sight, therefore with all speed. What is this doing, O Mary, that I see in thee? Instead of honor, thou hast brought me shame; instead of gladness, sorrow; instead of praise, reproof. No further shall I bare the reproach of men. I received thee from the priests of the Temple, as one blameless before the Lord. And what is this that I see now?

We see this, too, in Mary’s words to Joseph.

O Virgin, when Joseph went up to Bethlehem wounded by sorrow, thou didst cry to him: ‘Why art thou downcast and troubled, seeing me great with child? Why art thou wholly ignorant of the fearful mystery that comes to pass in me? Henceforth, cast every fear aside and understand this strange marvel: for in my womb God now descends upon earth for mercy’s sake, and He has taken flesh. Thou shalt see Him according to His good pleasure, when He is born; and filled with joy thou shalt worship Him as thy Creator. Him the angels praise without ceasing in song and glorify with the Father and the Holy Spirit.’

“Thou shalt see Him according to His good pleasure, when He is born; and filled with joy thou shalt worship Him as thy Creator.” This describes Situ Mary Abraham! It is fitting that the Syrian word for Mama and baby are the same. In the Syrian language (Situ’s first language) the verbal echo for the words for mother and child reflects the fact that it’s hard to distinguish between a mother and child at times. The bond can be that close.

Situ said to Jesus, “You da baby” at a moment in her life when she was, perhaps, most close to him, so close that the line between here and Him was blurred. In the same way, it is as though, through the Virgin Mary in the Nativity icon, Jesus is saying to you and me and to Situ, “You da baby,” “You are the child!”

For you are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus (Galatians 3:26).

Nick Papas Houston, Texas

ORATORICAL FESTIVAL JUDGES’ CHOICE DIMITRI SHADID, DIOCESE OF WICHITA AND MID-AMERICA

HIS HAND IS MUCH BIGGER

A young boy went to the local store with his mother.

The shop owner, a kindly man, passed him a large jar of jellybeans and invited him to help himself to a handful. Uncharacteristically, the boy held back. So the shop owner pulled out a handful for him. When outside, the boy’s mother asked why he had suddenly been so shy and wouldn’t take a handful of jellybeans when offered. The boy replied, “Because his hand is much bigger than mine.”

God’s hands shaped the earth and brought order to chaos. We can never forget that God will always provide for us, and that His plan for us is greater than anything we could ever imagine. He has given us free will so that we can have the choice either to let His hand guide us, or to let the ways of the world determine our path. It is for this reason that in so many of our services, we ask for strength “to commend ourselves and each other and our whole life unto Christ our God.” This is what Adam and Eve failed to do.

God had given them the whole of the Garden of Eden and only asked one thing in return – that they be obedient. Instead of listening to the C ­ reator and Benefactor Who desires their complete well­

being, they chose to listen to the deceiver who only seeks their downfall. This reminds me of myself with my parents. They continuously provide for me and only ask that I obey them.

Yet I still disobey from time to time.

Both God and the devil seek our obedience, one for life and eternal joy, the latter for death and permanent destruction. Like a blazing fire turning into struggling embers, the image of God was present in humanity, but the likeness had been greatly diminished.

We lost the likeness by constantly walking away from God and into sin. As we hear in an ode of the Funeral Service, When in the beginning, Thou did ­create man after Thine own image and likeness, Thou did set him in Paradise to reign over Thy creatures. But when beguiled by the malice of the devil, he tasted of the food, he became a transgressor of Thy commandment. For which cause, O Lord, Thou did condemn him to return again unto the earth whence he was taken, and to entreat repose (St. John of Damascus, 7th ­Idiomela of the Funeral Service).

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Adam was supposed to be the perfect man, but through sin and disobedience he brought death into the world. Christ, being the New Adam, remained sinless, and through perfect obedience, even to the point of death, brought life to fallen Adam.

God could have easily decided to destroy His creation and start anew, but chose instead to show ­mercy upon us. While humanity is dependent on God, God has no need of us. For the Trinity has perfect unity within itself. In this year’s verse, the words Us and Our represent the Trinity, showing that God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit all ­exist in union.

As a teenager, or even an adult, this is extremely hard to comprehend. For God is not to be figured out, but obeyed. Unlike Adam, the Son obeyed the Father fully. We recall Christ praying in the Garden of Gethsemane, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will” (Matthew 26:39).

God the Father did not abandon His creation.

He gave us the Law and the Prophets, but humanity constantly rejected them all. Instead of giving up, He sent His only begotten Son down to earth to save us. As we hear prayed in the Liturgy of Saint Basil the Great, For You did not forever reject Your creature whom You made, O Good One, nor did You forget the work of Your hands, but because of Your tender compassion, You visited him in various ways: You sent forth prophets; You performed mighty works by Your Saints who in every generation have pleased You; You spoke to us by the mouth of Your servants the prophets, announcing to us the salvation which was to come; You gave us the law to help us; You appointed angels as guardians; and when the fullness of time had come, You spoke to us through Your Son Himself, through Whom You created the ages (Anaphora).

Through his mercy and compassion, God has shown us the way back to the Father. Only Christ has been resurrected to glory at the right hand of the Father. Through the Son, however, we are invited to walk the path leading to eternal life. Through baptism and chrismation, we answer the call to be on the side of Christ. It is this initiation that sets us on the road to salvation.

But this is only the beginning. We must not waiver in obedience to Christ, as we continue our journey

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to walk in His footsteps. Everyone starts somewhere.

For some, like myself, this journey may begin as an infant.

Having grown up in the Church, I have seen and heard of a priest’s many responsibilities, whether sources of joy or of sorrow. When I asked one priest what was his favorite thing to do in church, he boldly replied, “churching a baby.” As he walks down the aisle towards the altar, with the infant raised in his hands, he imagines what those young eyes must be gazing at – the saints and angels the baby can purely see, as the child looks upward with wondering eyes.

We were created to be holy and innocent without corruption. This is the image that has been stamped on us: to relate to each other just as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit relate to each other in perfect unity.

As humans, we do fall into sin; pride, hatred, and selfishness take control, and we lose this harmony.

Yet it is our obligation to turn around, to repent, for God’s mercy is endless and His love for us can never be broken.

Some people may realize this later in life, as did St. Paul, St. Mary of Egypt, St. Moses the Black, and many others. God is constantly calling us, whether infants or adults, to walk in the path of righteousness. While this may not be an easy walk, He is with us all the way. As he told His disciples after the resurrection, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). My football coach says, “You can have a bad moment, minute or even an hour, but don’t let it turn into a bad day.” We all sin, but we can choose not to drag ourselves further into sin and despair.

Metropolitan ANTHONY Bloom of blessed memory writes, Everyone is in the image of God and every one of us is like a damaged icon. But if we were given an icon damaged by time, damaged by circumstances, or desecrated by human hatred, we would treat it with reverence, tenderness, with broken heartedness. We would not pay attention primarily to the fact that it is damaged, but to the tragedy of its being damaged. We would concentrate on what is left of its beauty and not on what is lost of its beauty. And this is what we must learn to do with regard to each person as an individual.

We are blessed in this Archdiocese to have so many wonderful programs, such as Teen SOYO and

the camping ministry, that give us the opportunity to live in a Christian community. These programs make it easy to expand and improve our relationship with God. We learn the way we should treat God is the same way we should treat others, with love and respect. If the lesson doesn’t continue to be lived out when the retreat or camping session is over, however, what have we done?

Bishop THOMAS told us at the Antiochian Village that when we come back home from camp, we are not to go back to the same way we were living. If we don’t change, then camp was a waste. We must therefore learn from the lifestyle we lived there and continue to live in fellowship and unity in our daily lives and interactions at home. If we continue to go to camp year after year and have to start anew each time, then it defeats the purpose of building and strengthening a solid relationship with God. For example, if you see one friend only a few times a year, that friendship relies on the amount of effort you exert to stay close to each other. If you decide not to make an effort to stay connected, then you both must spend that first portion of your time together catching up and rebuilding that relationship and its trust. On the other hand, if you put in time and effort to strengthen your relationship yearround, then little by little it flourishes and grows.

The same is true with our relationship with God. By consistently praying and actively participating in the life of the church and being kind to each other, these habits and actions become a lifestyle. By denying sin and dedicating our lives to God, we may begin humbly to imitate the great Apostle Paul, who wrote, “I have been crucified with Christ, it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20).

My brothers and sisters in Christ, while the devil challenges us with temptations every day, to make us forget that we are in God’s image and likeness, we are called to be “mini-Christs” in all that we do, and to shine the light to others. As a baby being churched, we gaze up to our heavenly Father and the saints who have already paved the way for us.

We must ­desire, day by day, minute by minute, to keep His image alive in us through obedience to His way. Like the child and the bowl of jellybeans, if we choose to stay on His path, God’s hands, which are larger than our brokenness, will be outstretched to grant us more than we could have ever imagined of life in His heavenly Kingdom.

COMMUNITIES IN ACTION THE KURSK-ROOT ICON COMES TO SIOUX CITY On 24 September, St. Thomas A ­ntiochian Orthodox Church, in conjunction with Holy Annunciation Mission (ROCOR Western-Rite), ­ was ­privileged to host the Kursk-Root Icon of Our Lady of the Sign. Over two hundred people came from the Sioux City and Omaha areas to venerate and pray before the wonder-working icon.

Fr. Saša Petrović, Rector of St. Nicholas ­Serbian Orthodox Church in Omaha, led the gathered faithful in the Akathist Hymn assisted by Fr. Peter, rector of St. Thomas, as well as Fr. Kevin Kirwin and Fr. Seraphim Kane of Holy Annunciation. Music was provided by a choir of ladies from St. Nicholas, Omaha, led by Protinica Marija Petrović.

The icon was first found on 8 September 1295 near the ruins of the city of Kursk. Over the centuries, it has been associated with many miracles; the first occurred when a spring immediately appeared at the site where the icon was discovered. During the Bolshevik Revolution, the icon was smuggled out of Russia by Tsarist forces and was housed in various sites in Europe until making its way to its new permanent home in New York City in 1951 at the Cathedral of the Mother of God of the Sign.

From Sioux City, the icon traveled the next day to Sioux Falls to continue its tour of the ­ROCOR Diocese of Chicago and Mid-America. All who ­ came to see it were blessed by its presence among us.

Fr. Peter Cox

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ORATORICAL FESTIVAL JUDGES’ CHOICE KATRINA MINA, DIOCESE OF OTTAWA

IN US IS ENGRAVED THE IMAGE “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.”

Now, I could always go into minute detail about the depth of this passage, the revelation of the Trinity in this small phrase, the great honour bestowed upon mankind to be made in the image of the Almighty, the wonder of such words traversing time from Moses to this very moment, and so forth. Because, as we can all agree, I am obviously the most qualified in this room to speak of such subjects.

I will speak, however, of what I do know. I live in a big city, and as in every big city, there are many, and I mean many, homeless people. So many, in fact, that I have even become familiar with a few. I can readily recognize the lady who sits in front of the drugstore, even when she is strolling about away from her usual spot. I know the two beggars who sit on opposite sides of the street, one with a cane, the other surrounded with books. I know the nice young man who sits on a blanket in front of an abandoned store with two great, big, and handsome black dogs, who prefers to greet every passerby than to beg for a morsel. I also know the man covered in sores, who rocks back and forth, crying, “I’m cold” in the winter, and “I’m hungry” in the summer.

I’ve come to know the smell of homelessness, decay, and of the forgotten. It makes the words spoken at memorials, “May their memory be eternal,” all the

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more powerful. The world has forgotten these people.

The world has decided that these people were no l­onger quite human, the fringes in a golden society. Yet it was with them that Christ came and spent time. It is people like them to whom the greatest honours have been given in the history of the saints. They, just like us, are blessed with this thing that not many of us grasp, least of all me: the image of God. I still do not understand this marvel: to be made in the image of God. It was something I brushed off as an old Sunday School story for the longest time. It was as an afterthought, a buzzing in the background, as irrelevant as the pitter-patter of the rain outside my window. I blame this generation of which I am a part. We have been desensitized to the wonders of the world around us, finding what is in our hands – our phones – much worthier of our attention. The more I think about the image of God, however, the more it amazes me. To this day, I don’t quite grasp the magnificence of the honour bestowed upon man. So, I will use the words of one who is far wiser than me, St. Gregory of Nysa: O marvellous! A sun is made, and no counsel precedes; a heaven likewise; and to these no single thing in creation is equal. So great a wonder is formed by a word alone, and the saying indicates neither when, nor how, nor any such detail.

So too in all particular cases, the æther, the stars,

the intermediate air, the sea, the earth, the animals, the plants – all are brought into being with a word, while only to the making of man does the Maker of all draw near with circumspection.

Imagine! The beggar was made by God to be a king! We were made to rule this world! And look!

We do! Who else but man has done what he wants with our natural resources, sucked dry the earth of its oil, razed clean the forests of its trees, or better yet, set the whole on fire? We have made a garbage dump of that which God has given us to be stewards. Then there are our fellow men, who hold the same honour and same image as us, yet some live in abundant, yes, even excessive riches, and others don’t have anything to quench their thirst.

So how can we, who boast of having the image of God within us, fall so short of all that is good and true? As St. John of Damascus wrote: “The expression ‘according to the image’ indicates that which is reasonable and endowed with free will, while the expression ‘according to the likeness’ denotes assimilation through virtue, in as far as this is possible.” The tragedy of Adam and Eve is no secret: we are fallen from a pedestal that was once our original form.

Only through Christ and His resurrection are we given the opportunity to reclaim the likeness once lost, for Adam was redeemed in the New Adam, and with him, all of mankind. Now, only v­ irtues and a life of holiness promise to regain for us those heavenly, good things lost in the Garden of Eden.

So, in being given the very image of God in us, we were given a great responsibility: to attain His likeness. What is His likeness? Are we to change our physical selves to resemble the ideal human shape as advertised by the media? Is His likeness attained by surpassing human limits, as we once tried to do at Babel? Is it something else? Who else can we turn to, but the prototype of man, with whose very image we were endowed, Christ Himself? For this is what we have strived for, ever since the fall, to live and to die

by His example; that is our salvation.

Yet “it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle . . .” (Mark 10:25). I am the prime example. I ignore the woman begging in front of the drug store, but Christ said: “Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me” (Mathew 25: 40). I turn my face away from the man who says that he’s hungry, and the words, “For I was hungry and you gave

Me no food” echo (Mathew 25: 42). I am repulsed by the nice young man that greets me with his two dogs, and Christ accuses me, “I was a stranger and you did not take Me in” (Mathew 25:43).

Every day I fail to attain that blessed commandment of Christ: “Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Mathew 5:48).

I despair; God knows I despair. For we have forgotten the call to perfection. The world has told us to give up. The world has defined humans as imperfect, and that is true: we are far from perfect. Then I look at the saints. I see in icons an image of God and His likeness, looking at me through the eyes of St. Mary of Egypt, of St. Paul, of St. Photini, of King ­David, and many, many others. Though once great sinners, though none greater than myself, many have attained such spiritual heights that we can understand that anything is possible through Christ. For in us is engraved the image of the perfect God. I would like to conclude with a more personal story. A very dear friend of mine is Muslim. She told me how she wasn’t particularly practicing a few years back. She believed in God and the Muslim prophets, but never truly felt the need to act upon that faith.

One night, the summer before she left her home to study abroad at my university, she had a dream. In it, she dreamt that Christ had returned. Although, in the Muslim profession, they wrongly believe that Jesus is only man and not God, the dream bore fruit all the same. For, since that day, she began to pray. Of course, she prayed in the Muslim fashion, she was born and raised in a Muslim country, after all, knowing only the idea of what Christmas was because of television, let alone E ­ aster. However, if a girl who I thought could not be further from the Church could envision Christ’s return, I started to grasp this notion that we all hold the image of God within us. For Christ still reaches out to her, and she still reaches out to Him in her prayers, whether she knows it or not. For, when she prays, she probably prays to the image she saw in her dream, as we would to an icon.

God still reaches for every man and calls him back to his original glory. Perhaps if I reach out a little more, ­maybe the fallen likeness of God will become, as once b­ efore, akin to that of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, to whom is due all honour and glory, unto the ages of ages. Amen.

The Word

31

PARISH LIFE CONFERENCE VESPERS 2023 Fr. Patrick Cardine, St. Patrick Church, Bealton Virginia

Some people say religion is dead, irrelevant, and no one is interested. The statistics of young people leaving the Christian faith are devastating, which seems to reinforce the narrative that people are not interested in God or in Christianity. We know, however, that it is not true that people are not interested in God. Despite the way things appear, people want to know why they exist, and what it means to live to the fullest. They are, in fact, desperate to know this. ­Everything they do – good or bad – every hope, e­ very disappointment, every pursuit and acquisition, every accomplishment and failure, is an attempt to find out why they exist and what it means to be fully human.

There is in every one of us something which drives us, a hunger to attain something that should be ours, but which we do not fully possess. We feel deep down, even if we cannot express it, that we will not be content, or satisfied, or safe, until we possess it.

While being pulled forward by the desire to live to the fullest, we are also traumatized by the fear of never possessing it. All the sin, misbehavior, and disfunction in our lives comes from the vulnerability we feel at the possibility of never being fully alive. All sin and brokenness are perpetuated by the trauma of insecurity. This insecurity comes from the permeation of death in our lives and the world.

As Christians, we know that the Resurrection of Christ is our confidence and joy. In the face of every insecurity and trial, our answer is always the same:

32 November - December 2023

“Christ is risen!” Yet it is not enough to simply say, “Christ is risen!” If we are going truly to overcome the fears, trials, and sins which beset us, we must know who we are, what we truly desire, what we are to become, and how to attain it.

Which brings us to our theme for this conference: “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness . . . .”

When God made man, he didn’t make him like a rock which just sits there. He hurled him into being.

Man comes into existence with momentum. Man comes into being like a river rushing toward the ocean, or a tree reaching for the sky. He has somewhere to go, something to acquire, which he does not yet fully possess.

We might even say that there is a rational instinct in man which propels him on a quest to attain the fullness of his being. It is in everyone, it is a part of us by nature, it is the image and likeness of God calling us to be who God has created us to be.

Speaking of instinct, think of salmon and the remarkable instinct which drives them back to their place of origin. They use the earth’s magnetic field like a compass to return to the very stream where they were spawned and, as they get closer, they even recognize the smell of the place they came from. This drive is so strong that they end up giving up their lives to reach it.

You came forth from God and everything in you compels you to return to Him through­many

o­ bstacles, trials, and dangers. The sweet fragrance of home and holiness draws you on, and for us, just like the salmon, success ends in death.

At any rate, what we want is to exist to the fullest and to become fully human. You may say, “But wasn’t I created human?” Certainly, but to be fully and perfectly human is to be more than merely human. Man comes forth from God as incomplete – not sinful, but not perfect – and he returns to God by way of obedience, trust, and love. In that return, he finds the very thing he longs for, the very thing he was created for, in the attainment of the Good when he is perfectly united to God himself.

When we acquire the deepest desire of our heart, then we are free from the suffering of choice between the good and the bad, we are free to be only and ever good. That is when we become like a stone: stable, solid, immovable, immutable, and free of traumatic insecurities; fully, perfectly human.

I said all of that because I wanted to say one thing in particular about our theme. “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness . . . .” While much can be said about this passage, there is one very concrete and tangible thing on which we must focus, one most important thing that defines for us what it means for us to be made in God’s image and likeness. When God formed man from the dust of the earth, he made him according to a pre-existing pattern, an archetype, a perfect model. When we know and understand and study the model, then we will know what God has made us to become and we can devote ourselves wholly to that end, not to an abstract theory or disembodied ideal.

The Church teaches us that to fully realize the image and likeness of God is to be deified. But can we put flesh on that, can we express that in a more tangible, embodied way? St. Paul writes to the Romans and tells them that when God formed Adam, Adam was made according to the image of Jesus Christ (Romans 5:14). Jesus Christ, the son of Mary, who was yet to come in human history, was the pattern for Adam. Jesus is the one true ­human being and Adam only becomes fully human in Christ.

Moses wrote that man was made in the image and likeness of God. The full and explicit revelation of what this means, however, is given to us by St. Paul, who says that Adam was made according to the pattern of Jesus Christ. He also writes to the

Corinthians that, “just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, let us also bear the image of the man of heaven” (1 Corinthians 15:49). That is to say, to be created in the image and acquire the likeness of God, to be fully human, fully alive, to be deified, is in fact to be Christofied – to be made like Christ.

St. Paul said in another place that he was determined to know nothing save Jesus Christ and him crucified (1 Corinthians 2:2). Everything is about Jesus Christ; the worlds were made by him and for him; all things find their ultimate meaning in him; all things are held together and exist by him.

The divine revelation in the Holy Scriptures, as well as in every part of creation, are all about Jesus Christ. We call the Bible “the Word of God” only because it reveals Christ. Our study, our desire, our quest in everything we do is to be Christofied.

Our Christofication is accomplished in us by the Holy Spirit, to whom St. Paul refers as the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the Spirit of Jesus, and the Spirit of his Son. St. Paul refers to the Holy Spirit by these names because it is the Holy Spirit who reveals and glorifies Christ by sanctifying us in the image of Christ,

by Christofying us.

St. Paul explicates the meaning of Moses’ teaching by the revelation that Jesus Christ is the express image of the Father and that we are made in

“Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness . . . .” the image of Christ. How we live and how we pray embodies this revelation. For example, the Psalter is the Church’s primary prayer book because these are the prayers Jesus prayed, while also being about him. When we pray the Psalter, we are praying with Christ and we are praying Christ.

Being Christofied means that we will commit ourselves with St. Paul to know nothing save Jesus Christ and him crucified. The Cross lies at the center of the cosmos. It is the watershed of history and the fount of divine love that makes all things new. To fulfill the image and likeness of God – to be Christofied – is to embrace the Cross of Christ as our center and way of life.

Glory to Jesus Christ, our elder brother who is risen from the dead!

The Word

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MARY AND MARTHA Keidi Lewis

Now it happened as chastised for serving, or they went that He enfor the hospitality she extered a certain village; tends to Jesus in her home. and a certain woman She is reprimanded for benamed Martha weling distracted, worried, and comed Him into her troubled, which according house. And she had a to St. Cyril in his comsister called Mary, who mentary on the story, make also sat at Jesus’ feet and her labors in vain. The Orheard His word. But thodox Study Bible comMartha was distracted mentary says that, “Martha with much serving, and was distracted and troushe approached Him bled about many things in and said, “Lord, do You providing hospitality for not care that my sisJesus. But the one thing ter has left me to serve needed was for her to lisalone? Therefore tell her The Virgin with Martha and Mary c. 1912-13, attributed to Vasily Pavlovich ten to Christ, to hear His to help me.” And Jesus Gurianov (1867-1920) words – a priority that ceranswered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you tainly does not exclude serving Him.” That last senare worried and troubled about many things. tence zinged me. The one thing needed is to listen But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen to Christ, to hear His words. Then, from a place of that good part, which will not be taken away love for God and our neighbor, we may summarily from her.” – Luke 10:38–42 be called upon to serve.

When I have expressed dismay at being so conThe story of Mary and Martha in the Gospel of Luke has fascinated me from a very young age. cretely a Martha, I’ve been reminded that MarAs the oldest of many children, with one of the tha is a saint as well as Mary. The important fact best “Marthas” on record for a mother, I felt born of Martha’s sainthood was probably highlighted and bred to be a “Martha,” that is, someone in the years ago by parishes with parishioners who were background doing the work that needs to be done. “too worshipful” (and consequently hungry). There Whenever I hear this story I cringe, as I identify so is a place in the church for Marthas. There’s a place, completely with Martha – not because I wouldn’t too, for those like me: Martha-leaning volunteers, like to sit at Jesus’ feet and do the one thing need- who sometimes find themself scrubbing pots after ful (or even just take a load off ), but because I am church events muttering under their breath, “What always so acutely aware that there are things to be do Marys actually do?” I can recognize that there’s a done when hospitality is called for. Martha’s frus- place in the church for Marys, as well.

The task is not to figure out if one is a Mary or a tration and resentment toward Mary are something I’ve, er, felt before. Gatherings need organization, Martha and stay complacently within our own exfood doesn’t prepare or serve itself, and most un- pectation of how we approach God and our church fortunate of all, there is no magical clean-up fairy. parish. Our task is, first, to pay attention to what we How did Jesus expect to eat, if everyone was to be are doing in the presence of God, and to remember that distraction and worry interfere with our labors singularly listening to him, basking at his feet?

In this story, it’s clear that Martha isn’t being – even make them in vain. Our task, secondly, is to stay focused on Jesus and our own contact with 34 November - December 2023

Him, rather than worry about someone else’s relationship and interaction. A focus on Jesus should keep us from putting ourselves and others on the scales of comparison. Thirdly, our task is to serve joyfully, out of love for God. If resentment is building or we are keeping score about who does what, then we need to take a critical look at our serving.

If resentment has affected our servant hearts, confession and repentance are the tools we are given to restore us to joyful giving – giving that comes from the love of God pouring out of our hearts.

We should all be both Mary and Martha: we should both sit at Jesus’ feet, and serve Him. People inclined to be Marthas can practice more Marylike interactions with God, and simply be more, attend liturgies and services, read the Bible, and sit in silence to experience listening to Christ. People who have Mary-tendencies can get familiar with the church kitchen and wash some dishes once in a while, or participate in a workday. Churches need maintenance, church grounds need care, ministries need ministers, and church members need help from time to time. There is plenty of serving to do as

a part of the body of Christ. We all should do both.

If you are tempted in weak moments to sigh that some people do neither, may I direct your attention back to the second task I identify above.

I come by my Martha-like qualities honestly.

My mom’s favorite saying was: “Find a need and fill it.” She trained her kids to see needs and participate in taking care of them. We all knew without a doubt that “many hands make light work.” I am passing this legacy of Martha on to my children, starting them young. Caring for our church and community is one way I show my kids the importance of God’s Kingdom. I also need to pass on the legacy of Mary.

Participating in the liturgical life of the church, connecting to Christ without distraction or worry, and placing myself at the feet of Jesus are ways to worship that emulate Mary. May we raise children to embrace both saints and their example for living as Orthodox Christians. It is the story, after all, of Mary and Martha, not Mary or Martha. We are all called serve, we are all called to worship, we are all seeking to listen to Christ – the one thing needed.

Keidi Lewis

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THE WORD 358 Mountain Road PO Box 5238 Englewood, NJ 07631-5238

The Children's Relief Fund

I greet you on behalf of all the children of the Children’s ­ elief Fund (CRF), past and present. We pray that you receive R this letter in their gratitude and appreciation for the love and concern that you have shown them in our Lord’s name. We pray for your continued health and prosperity in this New Year.

This letter brings you our “2023 New Year ­Appeal.” The purpose of this program within the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America is to provide funds for the children in need in Lebanon and Palestine, and the children of Syrian refugees in Lebanon.

The CRF, under the “Department of Charitable Outreach,” has been a godsend to hundreds of needy children and their families. We are so proud and privileged to help and support them financially – but more importantly, to show them our love and concern.

We will continue to assist these children, just as we have since the Funds ’inception in 1983. We have provided close to 4 ­million dollars in aid, but we can’t do it alone. Your past participation has brough much joy to so many young suffering children. 100% of your donation goes directly to the sponsored child and no ­money is used for administrative services.

You can help change the life of a child by being a sponsor for as little as $400 a year, just $7.69 per week, $1.10 per day. Donations of any amount are always welcome. Once you sponsor a child, we will send you their name, age, address, and a brief biography. Your child will correspond directly with you, sending you letters and pictures about their life. You will be able to develop a special bond and personal relationship with them.

Your assistance will improve the lives of these children and give them a chance for a better future.

For those of you who are already sponsoring a child, we offer you our most profound thanks. Please continue your love and support.

New sponsors are encouraged to join this humanitarian effort and lift the burden off these children.

In anticipation of your kind response, we thank you for your generosity, and pray you enjoy the New Year with health, happiness, and prosperity. May God bless you and yours and give you the strength you require in the coming days.

In Christ’s Service, Amy Stiffler, Executive Director Antiochian Village & CRF Administration 724-238-3677 ext. 402 Childrensrelieffund@gmail.com You may donate through PayPal on our website: https://antiochian.networkforgood.com/projects/127989the-children-s-relief-fund Please make checks payable to: Children’s Relief Fund Mail to: Antiochian Village Conference Center Attention: Children’s Relief Fund 140 Church Camp Trail Bolivar, PA 15923