In response to the apology of Tiger Woods:
Repeat after me: “God forgives, and I forgive.”
I was glad to read on the OCA website, under the heading “SCOBA hierarchs issue Orthodox Sunday message”, the following:
“The text of the statement, dated February 21, 2010, reads as follows.
“’We, the Hierarchs of the Standing Conference of the Canonical Orthodox Bishops in the Americas, greet you on the Feast of the Sunday of Orthodoxy….
"’In the historic Synaxis [the gathering of the Primates of the worldwide Orthodox Church which closed on October 12, 2008], and in the Message that was declared by it, the Primates of worldwide Orthodox Christianity proclaimed the following with one voice and one heart:
"’As the Primates and the Representatives of the Most Holy Orthodox Churches, fully aware of the gravity of the aforementioned problems, and laboring to confront them directly as "servants of Christ and stewards of God's mysteries" (1 Cor. 4:1), we proclaim from this See of the First-throne among the Churches and we re-affirm: ... our desire for the swift healing of every canonical anomaly that has arisen from historical circumstances and pastoral requirements, such as in the so-called Orthodox Diaspora, with a view to overcoming every possible influence that is foreign to Orthodox ecclesiology.”
I know – at least I hope I know, what you are thinking: Well, it’s ABOUT TIME the Orthodox Church saw the need to operate as the Church, the Body of Christ, not just as one of the more tawdry political lobbies targeting the US government which – due to the gridlock caused by the faction, composed in large measure of so-called would-be “conservative Christians”, principally intent on “conserving” their waning political clout, which, in turn, is waning because this faction has, in the course of the past half-century, commandeered the wealth and the sources of wealth of the richest (at least up until now) and most powerful (at least up until now) country on the globe, leaving an altogether unacceptable percentage of the populace of this great (at least up until now) land homeless, jobless – and, finally hopeless. Just how hopeless we see in the report, just last week, of an American suicide bomber (thought they were all Japs or Islamic terrorists? Better revise your mindset!!!) who dive-bombed an IRS building – after setting his own house on fire.
I sincerely hope that no one to whom I am sending this memo is thinking at this point: So what does all this have to do with the Church???
On the other hand, if those conducting the business of the Church in the US – notably the Orthodox and Catholics, who have the best claim to BE the genuinely and truly one, holy, catholic, and apostolic Church, the Body of Christ of which He Himself is the Head – if those who these days are merely conducting the “business” of the Church, which rightly and in truth is LIVED, as “the WAY”, as the first Christians were known, until at Antioch they were first called “Christians” (Acts 11:25-26) - if those who these days are merely conducting the business of the Church, I don’t know how they get off thinking they are addressing “the swift healing of every canonical anomaly that has arisen from historical circumstances and pastoral requirements … with a view to overcoming every possible influence that is foreign to Orthodox ecclesiology” when all I can see is some slight elimination of bureaucratic overlaps, which at best only slightly improves the Church’s inevitable bureaucratic functions, which however are in no way integral and essential to the Church herself. Indeed, her periods of most intense fervor have been those in which she functioned as a catacomb Church, with no bureaucratic structure at all. Which is not to say that bureaucracy is alien to the Church, but that such structures must serve her essentially ecclesial nature – not drive out her ecclesial nature and replace it with secular, partisan political machinations.
Little wonder that we see today just how utterly impotent the Christian Church in the US proves to be in a national crisis when a sports icon of seeming moral impeccability is revealed to have what to the Greeks was known as a “tragic flaw” – this being the essential stuff of tragedy. I didn’t go looking for a straw in a haystack, but it is a fact that I did not see one article, not even a blog, which saw even the overtones of tragedy in Tiger’s rapid fall from grace. Although plenty was said; it is as if the nation has been since late November in the throes of an orgy of the most lewd and lascivious obscenity which simply boggles the imagination. When I expressed my astonishment, I was told that the – are they called “reality” shows? It’s so foreign to me, my mind can’t get a grip on it – I was told such shows were pretty raunchy, but, although I spend most of my time on my computer, none of it every intruded into my searches ……. until it concerned Tiger Woods. No one sees it all as the tragic fall of a fundamentally noble soul – it’s all just mindlessly manic hilarity of the most disgustingly nauseous sort. I wonder how much this filthy puke scene has to do with the appearance today of the following:
Apple's Sexy iPhone App Ban Explained
By Peter Ha on February 23, 2010
Read more: http://techland.com/2010/02/23/apples-sexy-app-ban-explained/#ixzz0gOIijwfx
What last week was all the rage is suddenly a commercial downer, definitely a no no!
Gentlemen of the cloth: Has America’s conscience at long last been awakened from …… uh, you name it – I can’t.
Better, let God name and define it for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.
Let us first cleanse our own consciences:
Let us beg one another: “Forgive me, a sinner!” And hear the beneficent response: “God forgives, and I forgive.”
“When ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking. Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.
“After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen.
“For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” Mt 6:7-15
