2 posts tagged “protestant”

While in Salt Lake City last week (for the second time recently), as I walked down a street with my boss and a couplecoworkers, my boss remarked about a Catholic friend who was frustrated after moving to SLC by the lack of a Catholic church there.  As we happened to be walking near Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church at the time, I told him that I had attended a vespers service there during my previous visit, and made a comment that it's not all Mormons in SLC, there is a strong Greek Orthodox presence.

He then mentioned another acquaintance who does financial seminars for churches, and how this person is now doing seminars on how to get men to come to church (like holding automotive repair classes), as most churches have a real problem attracting men.

At this point, we were interrupted by other business, and I didn't get to respond.  If I'd been able (and maybe I'll still get the chance) I wanted to mention that attendance at the services is worthwhile and efficacious because of the sacraments, it's not just about the songs and sermons he once was used to.

But any such explanation from me would have fallen woefully short of the way I read about it today, from St. Maximus the Confessor*.  He says we should always be in the services...

"...because of the holy angels who remain there, and who take note each time people enter and present themselves to God, and they make supplications for them; likewise because of the Grace of the Holy Spirit which is always invisibly present, but in a special way at the time of the holy synaxis. This Grace transforms and changes each person who is found there, and in fact remolds him in proportion to what is more divine in him and leads him to what is revealed through the mysteries that are celebrated, even if he does not himself feel this because he is still among those who are children in Christ, unable to see either into the depths of the reality or the Grace operating in it, which is revealed through each of the divine symbols of salvation being accomplished..."

*Maximus Confessor, Selected Writings - as quoted in The Orthodox Liturgy, Wybrew

Among the most important events of the past hundred years has taken place in Moscow, Russia, with the reunification of the 1,000 year-old Russian Orthodox Church with the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia(ROCOR). 

The reunification ends more than 80 years of painful separation that commenced with the communist takeover of Russia in 1917.  Faithful Orthodox who fled the communist oppression formed ROCOR, while those who remained in country endured persecution while variously feigning obedience and carefully defying the regime, trying to keep the atheistic government from extinguishing Christianity as the lifeblood of the nation.  After Christianity  had been advanced from the great Patriarchates of Rome, Constantinople, Antioch, Jerusalem and Alexandria to the Slavic people by Sts. Cyril and Methodius, and the faith was embraced by Prince Vladimir over a millenium ago, the foundation was set for the center of Christianity to move to Moscow (the "third Rome") as muslims overran the other centers of the Faith. Orthodox Christianity was upheld from Russia as the Islamist assault continued - until western socialist ideals found root in Russia and the Church was split between those who fought and died locally and those who fought from abroad.  The great reunification took place on the Feast of Ascension in Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow, was broadcast nationally, drew enormous crowds of weeping and cheering Christians in Russia, and was praised by Orthodox jurisdictions throughout the world and by the Roman Catholic Church.  The historic event did not receive attention in America.

In other world news, after Roman Catholics in Italy learned of a proposal to

afford the same marriage benefits to gay couples as are available to heterosexual marriages (the same benefits being instituted across several states in America), an outpouring of protest took place by over one million people in Rome.  The overwhelming Christian presence shocked authorities and the media, since similar legislative efforts in America had never produced anything like this response, leading analysts throughout the world to rethink the level of moral devotion in Italy and surrounding regions.  This enormous event did not receive attention in America.

In our final news story, with the passing of televangelist Jerry Falwell, the predominantly protestant United States claimed again to be the bastion of Christianity on earth.