Here's a curious statement on Mission by HG Bishop Youssef of SUS Diocese:
Q: Could in the future we see an Orthodox Church in America, non-ethnic means non-Coptic?
A: Let me say it this way, let’s look at church history. When St Mark went to E…
"...if style is neither a useful criterion for distinguishing what should be considered an authentically Orthodox icon, what is? From the perspective of the Church, this question must be answered not aesthetically, but theologically. St John of Dama…
It will be very interesting to see how the next few generations address the repercussions. To quote Dr Stephen Davis again:
"While it is unclear how this debate will resolve itself in future generations, its impact on the theology and common life o…
Some of the Mistakes of Prof. George Habib Bebawy
What is referred to him is many whether in his work as a teacher, what he wrote in his books, what he published as a newspaper reporter or on the internet. And we will not count them all for him b…
The Heresy of Deifying the Human!!
by HH Pope Shenouda III
How many are the heresies that some started spreading…
And maybe the most dangerous of which is the heresy of deifying the human…
And pretending that the human can be in God’s nature an…
Hi everyone here's a few historical documents related to this topic. I was trying to find more information on why the topic was so heavily rejected and only found this alkeraza article:
The Meeting of the Holy Synod on Wednesday 21st February 2007-…
Hi minasoliman did you mean these articles?
http://anorthodoxpriest.blogspot.com/2014/10/can-oriental-orthodox-receive-eastern.html
http://anorthodoxpriest.blogspot.com/2014/04/a-conversation-about-unity-with-eastern.html
http://anorthodoxpriest.…
EOs have a tradition of liking to "break things down" to a science....They don't necessarily contradict our theology, but we seem to just explain that there is a mystery without trying to go deeply into distinctions.
Hi minasoliman I like how you me…
One of the commentors in that previous blog post writes:
"The problem with the Bible as “A Holy Book” is that such an idea is fundamentally anti-incarnational. It ignores the fact that Jesus took on our full human nature so that we might share inti…
mission is about getting people into heaven. Simple.
Thinking of heaven as a place and thinking of mission as a (moralist) duty to get as many people in there seems to be more of a Protestant reductionist mode of thinking. That way of thinking also…
Here it appears that works of mercy are also linked to Theosis. It makes me wonder if Orthodox Mission is deeply rooted in living our baptism, in the implications of Deification. I also wonder what happens when an Orthodox "mission" or a Church deni…
More on Diakonia:
http://www.iocc.org/orthodoxdiakonia
& http://www.iocc.org/orthodoxdiakonia/index.php?id=p5
INTRODUCTION TO ORTHODOX DIAKONIA
The Church inherited the main body of its teachings on assisting the poor from the Old Testament…
"Christian love is always both human and Divine (beware of anyone who mixes or divides these two). To be active it needs to be rooted in the beloved community; it must flow out of the concrete, lived reality of local Eucharistic community.
From the…
Here's also something that came out of the Council of Nicea which we don't hear quoted enough:
Canon LXX (70) of The Captions of the Arabic Canons Attributed to the Council of Nicea.
"Of the hospital to be established in every city, and of the cho…
The Coptic Orthodox Divine Office
By Fr Robert Taft, S.J. in "The Liturgy of the Hours in East and West:The Origins of the Divine Office and Its Meaning for Today" 2nd Revised Edition (Minnesota: The Liturgical Press, 1993) 252-256
i . The Monast…
"We express Orthodox mission incarnationally. When the people you're reaching out to, particularly when they are poor, you really have to get out of your head. You have to start with the body as St James says in his epistle, "if someone comes to you…
"Their enduring love and commitment to Christ has made it possible for future generations to come to know God. And as we are embraced by Christ and become one with Him, our lives are transformed into living icons of our Lord and of His sacrificial l…
Here's another podcast on Orthodox Mission:
"The mission is such a unique place. It's amazing how the poor are our teachers and open our eyes to the realities of what our Faith means.
Not long after I was ordained to the diaconate I was asked by …
I've heard that St Matthew Ayariga was Eastern Orthodox. We might have a modern saint who is venerated by both families.
St Matthew Ayariga and the 20 Neo-Martyrs of Lybia pray for us.
St Matthew Ayariga and the 20 Neo-Martyrs of Lybia
http://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2015/02/an-icon-of-coptic-new-martyrs-of-libya.html
http://lacopts.org/story/the-new-martyrs-of-libya-added-to-the-coptic-synaxarium/
His Holiness Pope Tawadros…