The Orthodox Council--Some Hopes and Fears

As it is fast approaching, I feel compelled to make a few remarks about the upcoming Orthodox Council. Much ink has been spilled on the subject, and i'm sure that much more ink will be spilled before the event is over. I don't claim that this post will get at the depth of what is happening, or how I or anyone else feels about it. Since I'm sort of writing on the fly, I also can't claim that I consulted the Church Founders thoroughly on ecumenism, tradition or anything else. But I hope that this post will be able to consolidate some of my thoughts and feelings as an incoming Orthodox Christian layman on this important happening in the Christian world.

It's clear that what's happening is significant. Today in Crete, many patriarchs and bishops will gather together whose Sees have not been in dialogue for years. It's hard to say whether this Council will be truly "ecumenical" (and even harder in a global society to determine what "ecumenical" even means), but it is an undeniably historic event.

Given the magnitude of things, I'm at a bit of a loss for what more to say about it. I will try to speak honestly. I am glad that this is finally happening. Even with an incomplete meeting (Antioch and Russia are absent), this kind of dialogue within the Orthodox Church is something that needs to happen more often. I've often remarked to my friends that if we could just get the churches talking every couple years or so, Orthodoxy would have a greater chance of finding its emergent identity in the modern world (OK, that last part I came up with on the spot, but I've said similar things before).

I am also concerned that nothing will get done. That this council will be a formality, applauded for its historicity but lacking in any real substance. I know that change moves slowly in the Orthodox Church, but I also feel there are many problems in the church that, through prayer and God-given ingenuity, might be solved if bishops and patriarchs could talk to each other.

The items on the agenda are not insignificant: jurisdiction, Orthodoxy in the diaspora, marriage and the family, war and peace. At times it seems to me that much of the discussion has already been decided beforehand. That's not to say that meaningful change might not take place. It is Pentecost, after all, and the Holy Spirit is full of surprises. Let us hope and pray that, as on that day when power and wisdom descended on the Apostles, that God would breathe new life into the Orthodox churches and enlighten us all by the Spirit

The Beggar Who Gives Alms-Introduction

“Gold and silver have I none, but such I have give thee:

Borrowed words from the One who gave the gift to me.

The Pearl that I could never buy, this life, this dream, this song,

And I am just a beggar who gives alms.”

-downhere, “The Beggar Who Gives Alms”

Greetings and welcome to all you visitors who’ve stumbled upon my quiet corner of the internet. This blog is a project I’m undertaking with the support of a friend. And what exactly is this blog? In this introductory post, I will try to give an answer to that question, knowing that it’s a question still in process and may remain so for awhile.

I’m a college student (for now anyway) and part-time writer. I was raised in an evangelical Christian household, but I’m now in the process of converting to Eastern Orthodox Christianity. This blog is intended to be a place for my reflections on faith and life, such as they are. Religion blogs are a large market, and I will say up front that I’m not claiming to have any particular monopoly on wisdom. I’m not even sure if I have wisdom at all. But I seek to be wiser, and more importantly I seek to share love, because I believe in a God who is Love.

The title quote comes from a song that has stuck with me since I heard it for the first time a few years ago. In its own way, I feel it sums up succinctly the mission I want to accomplish in producing this blog. I know I have no riches of my own to offer, spiritual or otherwise. I have a comfortable living situation, and for that I am grateful. But part of being able to live rightly from a place of comfort is continually confronting the world’s discomfort. Someone once said that art should comfort the disturbed and disturbed the comfortable. Faith, in my view, is no different. We have all been the disturbed, to varying degrees. We have all been the comfortable, again to varying degrees. It seems to me that the important thing is to be honest about where we are before God and our fellow humanity, and to help each other along as best we can. Part of my process, then, is to acknowledge that whatever resources I have, I have by God’s grace alone. That I have not been filled to hoard wealth, status, wisdom or love for myself and grow stagnant, but to overflow and let God’s blessings flow to others. I admit that this is often difficult for me. I admit that I’m not very good at it. Which is why I think it’s of critical importance. All I have to offer are the few words I have received from the one who is the Word, messages of blessing, joy and hope.

In this way, I call myself a beggar. I recognize the possible presumption in that term. I do not intend to romanticize poverty, nor to claim that I have experience hardship at all equal to those who have suffered lack. But I call myself a beggar to remind myself that all that I have is a gift to be given to others. I call myself a beggar to prevent myself from resting comfortably in the face of human suffering, to remind myself that my good is inseparable from the good of all people. “Blessed are the poor,” said Jesus in his Sermon on the Mount. Poor in material wealth. Poor in spirit. The early Christians in Jerusalem called themselves “Evyonim”, which in Hebrew means “the poor”. It was a constant call to empty themselves both materially and spiritually for the good of the Kingdom of God, where one day none would lack for anything, and all would be filled with the blessings from God’s hand. I hope, in my little way, to be a modern day Evyon. I speak many words, but I hope that my actions speak louder. In all of this, I recognize my limitations, my flaws and lacks. In all of this, I seek to give generously of myself, to be someone who holds nothing back for the good of God’s people. In short, to be a beggar who gives alms.