The blessing of the Book of the Holy Gospels

I saw this recent post of the blessing of the Gospel book and was intrigued to see what the prayer for this was. The Great Book of Needs (Trebnik) from St. Tikhon's Seminary Press provides an enlightening preface to the service in addition to the prayers themselves.

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(OCA-DEPA) - St. Michael the Archangel Orthodox Church blessed a new Gospel Book donated in memory of Onufriy Zabinko on April 14, 2013 following Vespers.

Concerning the Blessing and Sanctification of the Book of the Holy Gospels

There is no specific Order of Prayers appointed for the Blessing and Sanctification of the Book of the Gospels, itself. According to a Note found in K. Nikolsky, Posobiye k'izucheniu Ustava Bogosluzheniya Pravoslavnoi Tserkvi, St. Petersburg, 1900, p. 826, the Book of the Gospels is not blessed because, as the Word of God, it is holy. But if it be covered with a precious Cover (usually metal), upon which are affixed Icons, then the Cover itself is blessed using the Order for the Blessing and Sanctification of Various Icons Laid Out Together.

Order of Sanctification of the Gospel Book

Although not specifically directed, presumably the Gospel Book to be blessed is set upon a specifically-prepared table before the Ambon, as for the Blessing of the other church items.

The Priest begins, as usual:

Blessed is our God...

The Reader continues:

Amen. O Heavenly King... Trisagion... Our Father.

Priest:

For Thine is the Kingdom...

Deacon:

Let us pray to the Lord.

Choir:

Lord, have mercy.

Priest reads the prayer:

O Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of God, Who, from time immemorial, hast been well-pleased also at the appointed time to reveal unto us Thine uncreated Wisdom hidden from the ages, in the divine words of they teaching, which is written for us in the Book of Thy Good News (the Gospel): Do Thou Thyself, O Most-wise King, look down with Thine own merciful gaze upon our offering, and bless our good desire to be taught always by Thy divine words, which are for our building up and salvation, and sanctify this Gospel Book, making it to be a participant of Thy Divine Grace, that these Thy words inscribed in it may be, for the souls of us who with faith and reverence read it and listen to it, an incorrupt food and everliving drink, that receiving Thy commandments we may be able to do them, being strengthened in our infirmity by Thy grace. For Thou only art the Most-wise and All-powerful Master of All, O our God, and unto Thee are due all glory, honor, and worship: to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit, now and ever, and unto the ages of ages.

Choir:

Amen.

And immediately the Priest sprinkles it with Holy Water, saying:

This Gospel Book is sanctified by the grace of the Most-holy Spirit, through the sprinkling of this Holy Water, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. (thrice)

And immediately he pronounces the Dismissal And kissing the Gospel, he sets it on the Holy Table.

- The Great Book of Needs Vol. 2
pp. 286 - 287

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Great and Holy Thursday

(GOARCH) - On Thursday of Holy Week four events are commemorated: the washing of the disciples' feet, the institution of the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist at the Last Supper, the agony in the garden of Gethsemane, and the betrayal of Christ by Judas.

The Institution of the Eucharist

At the Mystical Supper in the Upper Room Jesus gave a radically new meaning to the food and drink of the sacred meal. He identified Himself with the bread and wine: "Take, eat; this is my Body. Drink of it all of you; for this is my Blood of the New Covenant" (Matthew 26:26-28).

We have learned to equate food with life because it sustains our earthly existence. In the Eucharist the distinctively unique human food - bread and wine - becomes our gift of life. Consecrated and sanctified, the bread and wine become the Body and Blood of Christ. This change is not physical but mystical and sacramental. While the qualities of the bread and wine remain, we partake of the true Body and Blood of Christ. In the eucharistic meal God enters into such a communion of life that He feeds humanity with His own being, while still remaining distinct. In the words of St. Maximos the Confessor, Christ, "transmits to us divine life, making Himself eatable." The Author of life shatters the limitations of our createdness. Christ acts so that "we might become sharers of divine nature" (2 Peter 1:4).

The Eucharist is at the center of the Church's life. It is her most profound prayer and principal activity. It is at one and the same time both the source and the summit of her life. In the Eucharist the Church manifests her true nature and is continuously changed from a human community into the Body of Christ, the Temple of the Holy Spirit, and the People of God. The Eucharist is the pre-eminent sacrament. It completes all the others and recapitulates the entire economy of salvation. Our new life in Christ is constantly renewed and increased by the Eucharist. The Eucharist imparts life and the life it gives is the life of God.

In the Eucharist the Church remembers and enacts sacramentally the redemptive event of the Cross and participates in its saving grace. This does not suggest that the Eucharist attempts to reclaim a past event. The Eucharist does not repeat what cannot be repeated. Christ is not slain anew and repeatedly. Rather the eucharistic food is changed concretely and really into the Body and Blood of the Lamb of God, "Who gave Himself up for the life of the world." Christ, the Theanthropos, continually offers Himself to the faithful through the consecrated Gifts, i.e., His very own risen and deified Body, which for our sake died once and now lives (Hebrewa 10:2; Revelation 1:18). Hence, the faithful come to Church week by week not only to worship God and to hear His word. They come, first of all, to experience over and over the mystery of salvation and to be united intimately to the Passion and Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

In the Eucharist we receive and partake of the resurrected Christ. We share in His sacrificed, risen and deified Body, "for the forgiveness of sins and life eternal" (Divine Liturgy). In the Eucharist Christ pours into us - as a permanent and constant gift - the Holy Spirit, "Who bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God - and if children - then heirs with Christ (Romans 8:16-17)...

Complete article here.

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New South Wales Legislative Council recognizes genocide

(AINA) - Today, Wednesday 1st May 2013, in a historically unprecedented move at the request of the Assyrian Universal Alliance, the Australian Hellenic Council and the Armenian National Committee, the Parliament of NSW Legislative Council passed unanimously a motion recognizing the Assyrian, Greek and Armenian genocide. Mr. Hermiz Shahen, the Deputy secretary General of the Assyrian Universal Alliance said; "this constitutes an extraordinary moment in the history of the Assyrian nation. The Assyrian nation is struggling for years to gain the International recognition of the genocide perpetrated against them by the Ottoman government under the leadership of a chauvinistic party, the Young Turk between1914 -- 1923. This recognition will act as a powerful counter to those, especially in present-day Turkey, who still ignore or deny outright the genocides of the Ottoman Christian minorities. Assyrians in Iraq, Syria and Turkey are continuously paying the price as a consequence of the denial of their genocide."

"The bitter genocide committed against us by the Ottoman Turks during WWI has left deep marks in the heart and mind of every Assyrian. The cold-hearted murder of hundreds of thousands of defenceless Assyrian souls in South East Turkey reduced our mass, impacting our viability in the region dramatically", Mr Shahen said.

On behalf of the Assyrian community in Australia and worldwide, Mr Shahen thanked Rev the Hon. Fred Nile MLC, President of the Australian Christian Party for moving the motion on 30 April 2013 and for his courageous stand and strong believe in the rectification of this historical injustice, and his demand that the State of Turkey recognises and apologises for the Genocide. He also thanked all the members who supported this motion.

The motion read as follows:

Whereas the NSW Parliament passed a motion in 1997 recognising and condemning the Genocide of the Armenians, this House recognises that Assyrians and Greeks were subjected to qualitatively similar genocides by the then Ottoman Government between 1914 -- 1923: and

1. joins the Assyrians, Armenians and Greeks communities of New South Wales in honouring the memory of the innocent men, women and children who fell victim to the first modern genocides;
2. condemns the genocides of the Assyrians, Armenians and Greeks, and all other acts of genocide as the ultimate act of intolerance;
3. recognises the importance of remembering and learning from such dark chapters in human history to ensure that such crimes against humanity are not allowed to be repeated;
4. condemns and prevents all attempts to use the passage of time to deny or distort the historical truth of the genocides of the Assyrians, Armenians and Greeks, and other acts of genocide;
5. recalls the testimonies of ANZAC prisoners-of-war and other servicemen who were witness to the genocides of the Assyrians, Armenians and Greeks;
6. recalls the testimonies of ANZAC servicemen who rescued Assyrians, Armenians and Greeks genocide survivors;
7. acknowledges the significant humanitarian relief contribution made by the people of New South Wales to the victims and survivors of the Assyrians, Armenians and Greeks; and
8. calls on the Commonwealth Government to condemn the genocides of the Assyrians, Armenians and Greeks.

Rev The Hon. Fred Nile, in his Adjournment Speech said:

Over the years, many members of the Parliament -- both in this chamber and in the Legislative Council -- have risen to address the issue of recognition of the Assyrian, Armenian and Greeks Genocides. Indeed, it was the Parliament of New South Wales that led the way on this issue, adopting a motion of recognition on the Armenian Genocide in 1997. I rise today to urge we complete the efforts, adopting a motion of recognition on the Assyrian and Greeks Genocides. In remembering these events, we do not seek to apportion blame. This is a matter of history, and history must neither be erased nor forgotten. We must remember and speak the truth.

NSW was recently visited by world-renowned scholar Prof Taner Akcam of Clark University in the United States. In his own words,

We must create a global awareness of genocides and their prevention … Genocide denial and the struggle against it are part of global democracy and human rights. … Recognition is an issue relevant to all of humanity.

ANZACs, men of New South Wales, were eyewitnesses to the Genocides. ANZACs rescued survivors of the massacres and deportations across the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1918. People of our great state donated generously to save the lives of those who had reached sanctuary in Greece, French Syria, British Iraq and British Palestine. The story of the Armenian, Assyrian and Greek Genocides are a part of the Australian story and deserve their rightful place in that narrative.

The Genocides of the indigenous peoples of the Ottoman Empire that took place during World War I and its aftermath are a historical event. The victims of this criminal act were the indigenous peoples of the Ottoman Turkish Empire: Greeks, Armenians and Assyrians. Many members of this Chamber have substantial numbers of Australian Assyrian, Australian Greeks and Australian Armenian people in their communities. Hundreds of thousands of them have made their homes in New South Wales over the past two centuries. All of these groups suffered at the hands of the government of the Ottoman Turkish Empire.

As early as 1910 plans were formulated and published for the elimination of the indigenous Christians of the Ottoman Empire, part of the government's efforts to homogenise its population. Those documents, and millions more like them, are available today, demonstrating the intention of the Ottoman Turkish government of the time. There was a determination on the part of Ottoman Turkish politicians to eliminate nonTurkish identities.

With the outbreak of the war, their plans began to be implemented. When the Anzacs landed on the Gallipoli Peninsula, there were Greek people living there, tilling the soil and fishing the waters. There were also Turkish tax collectors, police and soldiers. The non-Turks are the people who were deported; these are the people who were massacred during World War I and after.

International reaction was immediate to what British Secretary of the Admiralty Winston Churchill labelled an 'administrative holocaust'. Relief committees sprang up all over the world. A Joint Allied Declaration, issued 24 May 1915, stated: In view of these new crimes of Turkey against humanity and civilization, the Allied governments announce publicly … that they will hold personally responsible … all members of the Ottoman government and those of their agents who are implicated in such massacres.

When the Anzacs left the Gallipoli Peninsula, they left behind hundreds of prisoners of war--men such as Sydney-born Private Frederick Ashton (11th Battalion AIF) and Bourke-born Petty Officer Cecil Arthur Bray (HMAS A.E.2, RAN). The Anzac prisoners of war went through a series of prisoner of war camps, typically being marched from one to another on bread and water rations, in bitter cold or blistering heat. While Ashton, Bray and many of their comrades were eventually released, more than 60 other Anzac prisoners perished from a combination of exposure, disease, malnutrition and exhaustion.

A small number of Anzacs became rescuers, saving the lives of those who had survived the massacres and deportations. Most famous of these are the men of the Dunsterforce. Australian officers in this unit, including Captains R.H. Hooper, Andre Judge and Stanley Savige, have left a legacy of written and photographic records of their rescue of some 40,000 Assyrians and Armenians in the mountains of north-west Iran and eastern Iraq in the summer of 1918.

In response to the needs of destitute survivors scattered across the Near East, committees of the Armenian Relief Fund and Save the Children Fund emerged in Sydney and Melbourne between 1915 and 1919. Amongst the leading lights of this movement were Sydney Lord Mayor J. Joynton Smith, Haberfield's Edith Glanville (founder of the Australian Soroptomist and Quota Clubs), Sir Samuel Sidney Cohen, Lady David (wife of the co-founder of David Jones Stores), Professors Meredith Atkinson and Alexander Leeper, both of the University of Melbourne, Victorians Jessie Webb and George Devine Treloar, Queenslander Joice NanKivell Loch, Adelaide's Rev. James E. Cresswell. It was a truly national effort, with New South Wales at its heart. I am indebted to the research of Dr Panayiotis Diamadis and Mr Vicken Babkenian, Directors of the Australian Institute for Holocaust and Genocide Studies. Their pioneering research into the Australia's relationship to the Armenian, Greeks and Assyrian Genocides has returned to the light of day this issue for the people of New South Wales, particularly because our own servicemen witnessed the suffering of the indigenous peoples of Anatolia: Assyrians, Armenians and Greeks. Australian soldiers, sailors and pilots saw columns of Assyrian, Armenian and Greek women and children being forced along the countryside in death marches. They saw their pitiful, bedraggled state. The homes, churches, monasteries and schools of these people became the prison camps of the captured Anzacs and their allies.

The truth of the genocide - the truth of what happened to the Armenian, Assyrian and Greek peoples - is in the records of our own Australian servicemen. We should remember and learn from such dark chapters in human history. What was the essence of the motivation behind these massacres and deportations? It was hatred - hatred in the form of racism. We need to remember the depths to which humanity can sink if we allow racism and extreme nationalism to take grip. These events occurred 95 years ago. I repeat, in remembering these events, we do not seek to apportion blame. This is a matter of history, and history must neither be erased nor forgotten. We must remember and speak the truth.

I close again quoting from prof Akcam: 'Gradually, the connection between democracybuilding and human rights, on the one hand, and remembering and confronting history, on the other, became clearer and more acceptable across a broader swath of Turkish society.

In the same spirit, we can secure recognition of a genocide which is still very real and very heartfelt by the Assyrian community, by the Australian Greek community, and by the Australian Armenian community in Australia today. Lest we forget.

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"Painting Icons" with iconographer Seraphim O’Keefe

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The intriguing Christian ostraka

Ostrakon with a Homily by Athanasius in Coptic from Thebes (ca. 600).

(Wikipedia) - Inscriptions on clay, wood, metal, and other hard materials, like papyri, are valuable especially as the literary sources for Early Christianity. They are found chiefly in Oriental countries (i.e. east of Rome or Southwest Asia), especially Egypt (which though east of Rome is technically North Africa). The greatest number are pieces of clay or scraps of pots inscribed with colors or ink. The oldest Christian ostraca, like the papyri, are Greek and date from the 5th century; next come the Coptic and Arabian ostraca. Some of the texts not yet deciphered include several Nubian ostraca in a language spoken in the old Christian negro-kingdoms in the vicinity of Aloa on the Blue Nile.

In these inscriptions Greek letters are used, with some other signs. As to contents, ostraca are either profane or ecclesiastical. Potsherds were often used for correspondence in place of the less durable papyrus; occasionally the recipient wrote the answer on the back of the potsherd. Ostraca were also used for mercantile purposes, as bills, receipts, etc. C. M. Kaufmann and J. C. Ewald Falls, while excavating the town of Menas in the Libyan desert, discovered ostraca of this class—the oldest Christian potsherds in the Greek language (5th century)—and H. J. Bell and F. G. Kenyon of the British Museum deciphered them.

They refer to the vine-culture of the sanctuaries of Menas and represent, for the most part, short vouchers for money or provisions. The currency is based upon gold solidi issued by Constantine; the date is reckoned by the year of indiction. Of historical interest is the assistance given to invalid workmen, the employment of the lower clergy, the manner of provisioning the workmen, and especially the statements about the harvest periods in the Libyan district. The series of Coptic ostraca which deals with the clergy and the monasteries in the Nile valley is particularly extensive. They refer to all phases of administration and popular life.

The ecclesiastical ostraca, in a narrow sense, contain Biblical citations from the New Testament, prayers, extracts from the synaxaria (lives of the saints), and are partly of a liturgic character. Greek, which was then the language of the Church, is much used, with the Coptic. Among the samples published by W.E. Crum, a fine judge of Coptic dialects, there is a local confession of faith from the 6th century, besides the Preface and Sanctus of the Mass, prayers from the Liturgy of St. Basil and of St. Mark, a part of the didascalia of Schenûte of Athribis, a Greek confession, and an excommunication, also in Greek.

Particularly remarkable are those ostraca which contain liturgical songs. They represent our present song-books for which purpose rolls of papyrus were less suited than the more durable potsherds; in some cases wooden books were used. Among the pieces translated by Crum we find petitions for ordination in which the petitioner promises to learn by heart one of the Gospels, and a reference to an ancient abstinence movement, against which is directed a decree that the consecration-wine should be pure or at least three-fourths pure.

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Sharing your faith while in military service: treason

(breitbart.com) - The Pentagon has released a statement confirming that soldiers could be prosecuted for promoting their faith: "Religious proselytization is not permitted within the Department of Defense...Court martials and non-judicial punishments are decided on a case-by-case basis...”.

The statement, released to Fox News, follows a Breitbart News report on Obama administration Pentagon appointees meeting with anti-Christian extremist Mikey Weinstein to develop court-martial procedures to punish Christians in the military who express or share their faith.

(From our earlier report: Weinstein is the head of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, and says Christians--including chaplains--sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ in the military are guilty of “treason,” and of committing an act of “spiritual rape” as serious a crime as “sexual assault.” He also asserted that Christians sharing their faith in the military are “enemies of the Constitution.”)

Being convicted in a court martial means that a soldier has committed a crime under federal military law. Punishment for a court martial can include imprisonment and being dishonorably discharged from the military.

So President Barack Obama’s civilian appointees who lead the Pentagon are confirming that the military will make it a crime--possibly resulting in imprisonment--for those in uniform to share their faith. This would include chaplains—military officers who are ordained clergymen of their faith (mostly Christian pastors or priests, or Jewish rabbis)--whose duty since the founding of the U.S. military under George Washington is to teach their faith and minister to the spiritual needs of troops who come to them for counsel, instruction, or comfort.

This regulation would severely limit expressions of faith in the military, even on a one-to-one basis between close friends. It could also effectively abolish the position of chaplain in the military, as it would not allow chaplains (or any service members, for that matter), to say anything about their faith that others say led them to think they were being encouraged to make faith part of their life. It’s difficult to imagine how a member of the clergy could give spiritual counseling without saying anything that might be perceived in that fashion.

In response to the Pentagon’s plans, retired Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin, who is now executive vice president of the Family Research Council (FRC), said on Fox & Friends this morning:

“It’s a matter of what do they mean by ‘proselytizing.’...I think they’ve got their defintions a little confused. If you’re talking about coercion that’s one thing, but if you’re talking about the free exercise of our faith as individual soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines, especially for the chaplains, they I think the worst thing we can do is stop the ability for a soldier to be able to exercise his faith.”

FRC has launched a petition here which has already collected over 30,000 signatures, calling on Secretary Hagel is stop working with Weinstein and his anti-Christian organization to develop military policy regarding religious faith.

Breitbart News legal columnist Ken Klukowski is senior fellow for religious liberty with the Family Research Council and on faculty at Liberty University School of Law.

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Source names bishops' kidnappers

(firatnews.com) - West Kurdistan People's Defense Units (YPG) released a written statement on the kidnapping of Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Aleppo, Boulos Yazigi, and the Syriac Orthodox Bishop, Yohanna Ibrahim, in Syria on 22 April.

The statement by YPG General Command said that two bishops were kidnapped by an armed group led by Feteh El-Hesun and affiliated to Free Syrian Army. YPG said they have reached this conclusion as a result of the research of YPG units.

YPD evaluated the kidnapping as an inhuman act against Syrian revolution and called on the FSA and the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces to urgently release the bishops. YPG also called on the Coalition to apologize the Christian world for the incident.

YPG warned that they will go into action to save the bishops in the event that they are not released soon.

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