A few Little Thigs

It has been a busy day here at the complex. Plumbers, deliveries, maintenence workers, pool men. Wow! I'm ready for a break.

It turns out that I don't start School until the 20th. Very HAPPY about this because it means:
-We can attend the Vigil for the Elevation of the Cross at 5:30 PM on Saturday the 13th of September. (Wanna go with us?)
-We can go to Glendi, the parish festival of St. Seraphim Church in Santa Rosa, on either the 18th or 19th of September. (We'll go on whichever day is easier for you.) If we go on the Saturday the 18th we'll stay late for the Vigil. If we go on Sunday the 19th we'll g early for Liturgy. (They have a very good choir and I'd like to be in a service with them.)

The little boy's Godfather sent him a present! It is a prayerbook for Chidren, a book about the children Martyrs, and a photo of the Lords Tomb in Jerusalem! What wonderful things!

Bernard Bell wrote back to me a very nice letter. I'll try to get his permission to post it here. Essentially, he recently got to live the dream of many American Orthodox. That is he got to visit Patmos and worship with the monks there. But there is so much more to it than that. As soon as he gives me permission I will post it.

Have you heard from Bryan? I thought you said he was really excited about being a blog contributor.

I never said I was better than you. If I've done anything that makes you think that I think that, I am sorry. I really am. I do not believe I am better than you. It think that a comparison of the histories of our lives would show that I am not better than you.

Now as for the Orthodox church being the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church: Yes that is true. It is the Church Jesus founded, all other grouops that call themselves Christian are spliters off of Her, or even splinters off of splinters off of splinters. That does not mean they God does not love the people in those groups. He does. It does not mean that the people in those groups do not love Jesus. Many of them do. Perhaps, most. But that does not make them the Church.

I remember back before I was Orthodox, long before I even knew anything about Holy Orthodoxy, I saw the elders at Peninsula Bible Church ordain a new elder. During part of the service they had the new elders go up the the front of the church, and all the existing elders laid their hands on the new elders. And I remember thinking then, "I wonder who laid hands on them?" I didn't know it at the time, as it was still several years before I would read St. Iraneus, but that is the same question he asked (although, the Saint was asking it sarcastically) about the gnostic Christians of his day.

I guess something to think about is this: Before there were various denominations, how did the Church think of itself? Did it think of itself as a merely a collection of believers? I think history shows otherwise. In the past I have shown you the evidence. You have never given me a good argument that 1) explains away the evidence I have given you and 2) supports your premise.

You know, Jeff, I did not become Orthodox and then start looking for evidence to support my position. I looked very carefully at everything everyone said and then made a decsion. Can you remember back to the first time you had me over to your current house? At that time I was still solidly Protestant. I gave you a little pamphlet about the Orthodox teaching about Mary. I asked your opinion of the claims. I remember it very well because that very week in my small group I had talked about how Mary had other children after Jesus was born. (Wow! I can't beleive I ever thought that!) What I am trying to say is that I came to my current position of affirming that the Orthodox Church is THE Church over a long process of investigation and reading. In fact, I became convinced of the error of Protestantism quite some time before I became convinced of the truth of Orthodoxy.

Here is something to consider: Long ago, back before the Great Schism, at the Second Council of Nicea, certain bishops who had been lead astray by the Iconoclast hereitics repented of there error and returned to the church (much as Peter repented at Antioch). One of these repenting Bishops, Basil of Ancyra said:

"Inasmuch as ecclesiastical legislation has canonically been handed down from past time, even from the beginning from the holy Apostles, and from their successors, who were our holy fathersand teachers, and also from the six holy and ecumenical synods, and from the local synods which were gathered in the interests of orthodoxy, that those returning from any heresy whatever to the orthodox faith and to the tradition of the Catholic Church, might deny their own heresy, and confess the orthodox faith,
Wherefore I, Basil, bishop of the city of Ancyra, proposing to be united to the Catholic Church, and to Hadrian the most holy Pope of Old Rome, and to Tarasius the most blessed Patriarch, and to the most holy apostolic sees, to wit, Alexandria, Antioch, and the Holy City, as well as to all orthodox high-priests and priests, make this written confession of my faith, and I offer it to you as to those who have received power by apostolic authority. And in this also I beg pardon from your divinely gathered holiness for my tardiness in this matter. For it was not right that I should have fallen behind in the confession of orthodoxy, but it arose from my entire lack of knowledge, and slothful and negligent mind in the matter. Wherefore the rather Iask your blessedness to grant me indulgence in God's sight.
I believe, therefore, and make my confession in one God, the Father Almighty, and in one Lord Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, and in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of Life. The Trinity, one in essence and one in majesty, must be worshipped and glorified in one godhead, power, and authority. I confess all things pertaining to the incarnation of one of the Holy Trinity, our Lord and God, Jesus Christ, as the Saints and the six Ecumenical Synods have handed down. And I reject and anathematize every heretical babbling, as they also have rejected them. I ask for the intercessions (presbeiaj) of our spotless Lady the Holy Mother of God, and those of the holy and heavenly powers, and those of all the Saints.1
And receiving their holy and honourable reliques with all honour (timhj), I salute and venerate these with honour (timhtikwj proskunew), hoping to have a share in their heliness. Likewise also the venerable images (eikonaj) of the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, in the humanity he assumed for our salvation; and of our spotless Lady, the holy Mother of God; and of the angels like unto God; and of the holy Apostles, Prophets, Martyrs, and of all the Saints-the sacred images of all these, I salute and venerate -rejecting and anathematizing with my whole soul and mind the synod which was gathered together out of stubbornness and madness, and which styled itself the Seventh Synod, but which by those who think accurately was called lawfully and canonically a pseudo-synod, as being contrary to all truth and piety, arm audaciously and temerariously against the divinely handed down ecclesiastical legislation, yea, even impiously baring yelped at and scoffed at the holy and venerable images, and having ordered these to be taken away out of the holy churches of God; over which assembly presided Theodosius with time pseudonym of Ephesius, Sisinnius of Perga, with the surname Pastillas, Basilius of Pisidia, falsely called "tricaccabus;" with whom the wretched Constantine, the then Patriarch, was led (emataiwqh) astray.
These things thus I confess and to these I assent, and therefore in simplicity of heart and in uprightness of mind, in the presence of God, I have made the subjoined anathematisms.
Anathema to the calumniators of the Christians, that is to the image breakers.
Anathema to those who apply the words of Holy Scripture which were spoken against idols, to the venerable images.
Anathema to those who do not salute the holy and venerable images.
Anathema to those who say that Christians have recourse to the images as to gods.
Anathema to those who call the sacred images idols.
Anathema to those who knowingly communicate with those who revile and dishonour the venerable images.
Anathema to those who say that another than Christ our Lord hath delivered us from idols.
Anathema to those who spurn the teachings of the holy Fathers and the tradition of the Catholic Church, taking as a pretext and making their own the arguments of Arius, Nestorius, Eutyches, and Dioscorus, that unless we were evidently taught by the Old and New Testaments, we should not follow the teachings of the holy Fathers and of the holy Ecumenical Synods, and the tradition of the Catholic Church.
Anathema to those who dare to say that the Catholic Church hath at any time sanctioned idols.
Anathema to those who say that the making of images is a diabolical invention and not a tradition of our holy Fathers.
This is my confession [of faith] and to these propositions I give my assent. And I pronounce this with my whole heart, and soul, and mind.
And if at any time by the fraud of the devil (which may God forbid!) I voluntarily or involuntarily shall be opposed to what I have now professed, may I be anathema from the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, and from the Catholic Church and every hierarchical order a stranger.
I will keep myself from every acceptance of a bribe and from filthy lucre in accordance with the divine canons of the holy Apostles and of the approved Fathers."

Later, the whole Council Said:

"We, therefore, following the royal pathway and the divinely inspired authority of our Holy Fathers and the traditions of the Catholic Church (for, as we all know, the Holy Spirit indwells her), define with all certitude and accuracy that just as the figure of the precious and life-giving Cross, so also the venerable and holy images, as well in painting and mosaic as of other fit materials, should be set forth in the holy churches of God, and on the sacred vessels and on the vestments and on hangings and in pictures both in houses and by the wayside, to wit, the figure of our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ, of our spotless Lady, the Mother of God, of the honourable Angels, of all Saints and of all pious people. For by so much more frequently as they are seen in artistic representation, by so much more readily are men lifted up to the memory of their prototypes, and to a longing after them; and to these should be given due salutation and honourable reverence (aspasmon kai timhtikhn proskunh-sin), not indeed that true worship of faith (latreian) which pertains alone to the divine nature; but to these, as to the figure of the precious and life-giving Cross and to the Book of the Gospels and to the other holy objects, incense and lights may be offered according to ancient pious custom. For the honour which is paid to the image passes on to that which the image represents, and he who reveres the image reveres in it the subject represented. For thus the teaching of our holy Fathers, that is the tradition of the Catholic Church, which from one end of the earth to the other hath received the Gospel, is strengthened. Thus we follow Paul, who spake in Christ, and the whole divine Apostolic company and the holy Fathers, holding fast the traditions which we have received. So we sing prophetically the triumphal hymns of the Church, "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Sion; Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem. Rejoice and be glad with all thy heart. The Lord hath taken away from thee the oppression of thy adversaries; thou art redeemed from the hand of thine enemies. The Lord is a King in the midst of thee; thou shalt not see evil any more, and peace be unto thee forever."

"Those, therefore who dare to think or teach otherwise, or as wicked heretics to spurn the traditions of the Church and to invent some novelty, or else to reject some of those things which the Church hath received (e.g., the Book of the Gospels, or the image of the cross, or the pictorial icons, or the holy reliques of a martyr), or evilly and sharply to devise anything subversive of the lawful traditions of the Catholic Church or to turn to common uses the sacred vessels or the venerable monasteries, if they be Bishops or Clerics, we command that they be deposed; if religious or laics, that they be cut off from communion."

[After all had signed, the acclamations began]

"The holy Synod cried out: So we all believe, we all are so minded, we all give our consent and have signed. This is the faith of the Apostles, this is the faith of the orthodox, this is the faith which hath made firm the whole world. Believing in one God, to be celebrated in Trinity, we salute the honourable images! Those who do not so hold, let them be anathema. Those who do not thus think, let them be driven far away from the Church. For we follow the most ancient legislation of the Catholic Church. We keep the laws of the Fathers.
We anathematize those who add anything to or take anything away from the Catholic Church. We anathematize the introduced novelty of the revilers of Christians.
We salute the venerable images. We place under anathema those who do not do this.
Anathema to them who presume to apply to the venerable images the things said in Holy Scripture about idols.
Anathema to those who do not salute the holy and venerable images. Anathema to those who call the sacred images idols.
Anathema to those who say that Christians resort to the sacred images as to gods.
Anathema to those who say that any other delivered us from idols except Christ our God. Anathema to those who dare to say that at any time the Catholic Church received idols."

Just like at the proto-council in Acts, this is the whole church meeting in council, reaching a decision and being confident that it is inspired by the Holy Spirit. If they are right (and until the 16th Century all people called Christians agreed that they were right), you are anathema. How do you know they are wrong?