Aucun ami :(

• An Aside about Publications, Radio Stations, and so forth.

  I recall it being said that it is a mistake to try to make church services for people who don't go to church services. (I think it was Terry Mattingly.) In the same fashion, I think it bears noting that we shouldn't put ourselves into contortions making radio stations - internet or otherwise - for those who don't listen to radio. So when we argue about styles and and liturgical appropriateness, we're sort of asking for a radio station for people who go to church services (but never liked music radio.) If you can't stand Casey Kasem, Garrison Keillor, Bill O'reilly, Rush Limbaugh or the host of these folks - it is unlikely you'll be interested in any radio show with 'production values'. The values espoused therein are somewhat effected - as medium is a kind of message - but not entirely determined thereby. Regardless, if you aren't a radio listener, you can't expect to find radio shows espousing your values in toto - since one of them is devaluing radio shows. Then again, there's plenty of radio shows espousing at least one of your values - they aren't playing. Either way you'll not be a good judge since no matter how well they prevent the medium from becoming depraved, your attitude towards the medium itself renders the judgment poor. I don't rate news shows, or news blogs. Why? I don't like them or read them. Even if I have something to say - such as their continual bias, bad prose, whatever - I don't read them, I never have, and I really won't be satisfied until they stop posting news. As a final parting shot, in the introduction to the NETS (New English Translation of the Septuagint) the edition notes that it is intended for the academic reader, one who has a level of familiarity with biblical studies. Unsurprisingly, most 'church nerds' (myself included, with certain caveats) prefer this version over the OSB (Orthodox Study Bible.) Oh, I don't doubt it's a better version for certain technical reasons, but perhaps only if you're a scholar. Thankfully, they made a translation for non-scholars. Did they make a translation for poets? Oh, sure. That's called the King James Version. Now, just to get Sirach in that style...

  0 commentaires 123 jours

• The Crux of the Whole Matter

  I have been told by my priest that Anglicanism is not so much an entity in and of itself, as we might say of the Roman Catholic church. It is instead, in the context of England, a series of phases in England's religious life. Thus one generation is raised 'evangelical' and used to low church; and so seeks a deeper experience; their children are used to high church and perhaps don't connect; they desire a low church experience (or cease coming at all.) The best way to sum up the concern that Orthodox have (who are aware of the potential problem), converts, reverts, cradles and re-treads, is that Orthodoxy in the United States does not become 'a phase in the religious life of America.' It is this expression alone, I think, that sums up all of the issues. We would not say that Vladimir's conversion was a reflection of a 'phase in the religious life of Russia' - nor again would we look on the conversion of Nina, Gregory (of Armenia,) Paul, Peter, Patrick, Thomas, Matthias, Columba, and so on, as reflections of a 'phase in the religious life' of their given region or ethnicity! By this I mean one thing; does the motion towards Christendom appear to be a radical departure - whether sudden or gradual - from that people's way of life, from their character? Does it appear to be an action which disdains the world and its concerns, which are reflected in that culture's patterns of life - in general? It comes down to this, that if we were not Orthodox, and we became Orthodox, if it does not represent a genuine departure, then it most likely represents, like the Oxford movement, simply another phase in our 'religious life' - one that in a generation will disappear. Can most groups that call themselves Christians substantiate a claim that they are otherwise? What do you suppose is required that we take to heart - in the ancient sense of having it rest in the very center of our being - Christ's commands and the following Apostolic interpretation by John the Divine? I mean this: As they were walking along the road, a man said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go." Jesus replied, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head." He said to another man, "Follow me." But the man replied, "Lord, first let me go and bury my father." Jesus said to him, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God." Still another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but first let me go back and say good-by to my family." Jesus replied, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God." John the Divine, writing in his epistle about this says: Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passes away, and the lust thereof: but he that does the will of God abides for ever. We are given three warnings, and I think, three signs: The first is that a Christian cannot feel at home in the world; this is a strong disdain, about which G.K. Chesterton says: I walked the ways and heard what all men said, Forests of tongues, like autumn leaves unshed, Being not unlovable but strange and light; Old riddles and new creeds, not in despite But softly, as men smile about the dead. (The Convert) Warning the man who tells him that he will follow, Jesus simply tells him that if he follows, he will not feel at home in the world any longer. It is like being dead.rnrnThe second man wants to care for his family first, not that his father had died - (though we can use this image if we wish) - but I am informed that the Aramic idiom means 'let me care for my father first that I might keep the commandment, honor your father and mother.' Implying, naturally, that he should do so until his father passes away.

  0 commentaires 128 jours

• Of Monks and Roses

  Looking at Arrowrock Photography brought to mind this poem, found at Visiting and taking Photographs: St Gregory Nazianzen Of all the ancients, You I think I could live with (some of the time) comfortable in you like an old coat sagged and fraying at the back, (its pockets drooping with important nothings like string, and manuscripts of poems) perfect for watching you off your guard, rambling round your country garden, planting roses, not turnips, contrary to the manual for a sensible monk; master of the maybe; anxious they might take you up all wrong; shaking your fist at an Emperor, (once he had turned the corner out of sight); every foray into speech a costed regret. Your heart was like a spider's silk swinging wildly at the slightest breeze, too tender for this tumbling world of mountebanks, and quacks and gobs, but tuned to hear the distant voices of the singing stars and marvel at the mercy of it all.

  0 commentaires 148 jours