It's Not Rocket Science, Folks!

In this past Sunday's adult Sunday School class, the subject of Orthodox Church Planting was raised by our teacher. In the class, he commented on how difficult it is to plant Orthodox Churches. He mentioned that there is a new family of our parish where the husband is being assigned by his employer to Basalt, Colorado, and that there are precious few Orthodox parishes in that region of the state.

There is one small OCA mission in a mountain town less than an hour away, and one Greek Orthodox mission in Grand Junction somewhere.

Besides that, there are scores of churches of other types and kinds in Grand Junction, Glenwood Springs, Aspen, you name it, they're there.

Our teacher went on to mention how an Orthodox Western Rite mission near Oklahoma City became "too successful." The local Greek Orthodox parish became threatened when families were drawn to the Western Rite parish, in effect making the new parish "the enemy." The opposition from this parish eventually led to the demise of the Western Rite mission.

Please!

It's not Rocket Science, Folks!

Granted, it may be a bit more difficult to plant an Orthodox Mission than your standard protestant parish, but we make it way too hard on ourselves.

First of all, the rivalry between Western Rite and Byzantine Rite Orthodox needs to be laid to rest. We have way too much work to do in bringing America to Eastern Orthodoxy! As I've said before, we need to focus on being so vitally Orthodox that it doesn't matter which rite we practice. Our best defense needs to be deep spirituality and griping and back-biting back and forth on how "Orthodox" we are based on what rite we belong too is NOT SPIRITUAL BUT CARNAL.

Also, IT DEMONSTRATES HOW FAR WE STILL HAVE TO GO WHEN ANY ONE OF OUR ORTHODOX PARISHES IS THREATENED BY THE SUCCESS OF ANY OTHER PARISH OR MISSION.

It demonstrates a lack of vision and a smallness of mind when we jealously guard the turf of our parish or our worship tradition within Orthodoxy. There are enough potential converts to go around FOR BOTH RITES, believe me! America needs to be re-evangelized and we have just the church to do this IF we don't shoot ourselves in both feet!

The fact that we have multiple rites makes us truly CATHOLIC, as opposed to merely sectarian, localized, tribal schismatics.

Our focus needs to be outward! We need to quit our Orthodox navel-gazing and reach our world with all that is good and life-giving about our Holy Orthodox faith.

For starters, each one of our parishes, whether Western Rite or Eastern Rite needs to have thriving Sunday School programs, small group Bible Studies and Orthodox Book Studies, and times outside of the Divine Liturgy where the life of the community can be deepened. Every positive thing our protestant brothers and sisters practice that isn't contrary to Holy Orthodox faith needs to be available in our parishes! Orthodoxy is not less than Protestantism, it is more!

And this also goes for every positive thing our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters practice.

AS THE BEE GATHERS NECTAR FROM THE FLOWERS TO MAKE HONEY, SO WE ORTHODOX CHRISTIANS GATHER EVERY GOOD THING FROM OUR FATHER'S CREATION TO WIN SOULS.

I don't know which Orthodox Saint said this, but I remember Father Evan Armatas of Saint Spyridon (formerly of Saint Catherine's Greek Orthodox Church) using this quote on many occasions when I was a catechumen and when I was under his spiritual direction.

If we have vital parishes that are full of the life of the Holy Trinity, growth will happen. We won't have to compete for the scraps!

One challenge we have is to grow our home parishes to the point where they are packed to the rafters, thus FORCING us to plant new Orthodox missions.

There needs to be less cursing of the darkness and more lighting of the candili! A prime example of this is the constant criticism I hear of the Roman Catholic Vatican II Council. We've spent far too much time as Eastern Orthodox Catholic Christians criticizing Vatican II and far too little time promoting a distinctive MISSIONAL alternative!

As I've mentioned in previous posts, there are two new Western Rite Orthodox parishes that recently entered Holy Orthodoxy from the Charismatic Episcopal Church.

These two parishes are finding ways of reaching our western culture with things that go beyond which rite is practiced.

Emmanuel Orthodox Catholic Church and Saint Stephens Orthodox Catholic Church in Massachusetts have found an alternative to the Vatican II model that the rest of us would do good to study. Please remember: THESE NEW PARISHES ARE MEMBERS IN GOOD STANDING OF THE ANTIOCHIAN ARCHDIOCESE.

WITHOUT VIOLATING THE DIVINE LITURGY, they have nevertheless found a way to allow praise and worship music into the life of their parish communities. Doing this is a prime example of reaching the American culture THAT ACTUALLY EXISTS in the United States instead of just talking about it.

In addition to finding an acceptable way to use praise music, each parish has incorporated all the best practices from their previous affiliation into their newly formed Orthodox parishes. This is a bold move that closes the gap between our communion and communions that currently outdo us in the evangelistic department.

We have the correct theology. But sometimes heterodox parishes "do the church" better than we do, and it doesn't have to be this way.

Sometimes we become unbalanced as Eastern and Western Rite Orthodox Christians, focusing on our prayer books and our liturgies to the neglect of living our Christian lives, which the practicing of the liturgy is supposed to facilitate.

Promoting the finest liturgy and music for use in our Masses has its wonderful place, and I'm all in favor of it, but we need to keep a firm hold on the one thing without letting go of all the other things.

Let me repeat something I've said before: If we don't compete for souls and "market share," other traditions will fill in the vacuum we create with inferior forms of Christian spirituality to the detriment and loss of us all.

Many potential Orthodox conversions will never happen if heterodox Christians "settle" for "less than 100% christianities" that nevertheless are more zealous than we are.

If there are obstacles to the growth of our parishes, let's address these head-on, all the while not compromising our standards. Let's not moan and groan about "how difficult it is." It's all too easy for us to give ourselves excuses.

We can be more innovative without being spiritual innovators in the negative sense, and here I'm thinking about innovators of the liberal Episcopalian variety.

Saint Paul said that he became all things to all men that he might win them all to Christ.

Are we allowed to do less than this canonized saint and apostle?

DARE we do less than he did?

Holy Paul,pray for us sinners, that we might be saved!

Forgive me,

Columba Silouan

Change in Plans (again)

Well, it looks like I have a job with Echostar / Dish Network. I went through two interviews and was sent for a drug screen.

Thanks be to God.

I've started to read Walking with God by John Eldredge. I see parallel things going on in my life as compared to his in the following way:

At the end of Labor Day weekend in 2008, Eldredge was thrown from his horse and both his wrists were broken. This effectively put him out of commission for a good long while. This demonstrated to him that God is in control of our lives and not us.

This second layoff has impacted my life as an unwelcome interruption as well.

But God seems to be changing my heart and my perspective on a number of things.

I've been pedal to the medal gung ho about getting a mission started in Parker. This layoff kicked that to the side, just like the layoff in 2007.

In addition, I learned this past Sunday that my home parish has an interest in planting a mission in Colorado Springs, but that Parker is "too close."

There seems to be a 60 mile radius limit or something like that.

Now, I can understand setting up a distance limit, but I disagree strongly with one that large.

Nevertheless, any potential mission in Parker might take a great deal longer than I previously thought. For one thing, a friend of mine from Saint Mark's pointed out that he and his wife don't wish to be involved because doing so would uproot their children from their friends at church.

And this is an excellent point. My kids won't be leaving our nest for 12 years in the case of my oldest, to 15 years in the case of my youngest. Taking them away from Saint Marks would disrupt things for them.

So even if I succeed in generating interest for a new mission, I really shouldn't think about leaving my home parish until my kids go off to college.

It seems that God is more interested in my spiritual development and work at Saint Marks.

I was blessed this past Sunday to be "drafted" to perform Reader duties for the Mass. I was also honored to be given the task of Crucifier as well.

Perhaps its more important to God right now that I focus on His call on my life as a Reader, future Sub-Deacon, Deacon and Priest? I know there is no guarantee that I will ever progress past the point I'm currently at, but if this ordained ministry idea is His idea, then it will move forward. I'll need to be prepared properly.

I know my past two years in the Eastern Orthodox Church has changed me for the better. Just ask my most important and honest critic: my wife.

Like John Eldredge, God was speaking to me this Sunday and through the events of the past week. I was suffering from a crisis of confidence and was prepared to withdraw for a while due to the layoff at BMC West. I was specifically going to avoid Reader duties until I was employed again and doing well.

Instead, Brother David send me an e-mail on Saturday to my other e-mail address that I was on for Reading duties. I didn't get that e-mail until after Sunday was over. Instead, David repeated his request during Sunday School at church, and I said "yes" and went and suited up.

God was indeed fatherly through all of this, and having me carry the cross during the Mass was also a good reminder to die to myself and my specific plans in favor of His better plans.

I'm not totally giving up on the idea of Saint Ambrose Orthodox Church, but I'm seeing that it may be postponed, literally for years.

And I'm okay with this.

Now, Orthodox Parker isn't so much about a new mission, it's about me being Orthodox in Parker: Orthodox in my family life, at my new job, and at my home parish, Saint Marks.

I will attempt to get the Bible Study going again, but the focus will be to simply build up the flock at Saint Marks and not to launch out on my own with the new mission idea.

So, I'll continue my blog, but change the focus.

For now, Rest In Peace, Saint Ambrose Orthodox Church. It's time to build Saint Marks with a South Group that can study God's word and fellowship, making Saint Marks better and more healthy.

Pax Christi,

Columba Silouan.

Ouch! Another Layoff. Prayers, please . . .

Due to the economic downturn / plunge, I was placed on Temporary Curtailment Leave from my new company, BMC West on November the 24th.

My benefits stop at the end of February, provided I call in every other Tuesday.

The chances for a recall to work are slim and none.

Fortunately, I have two interviews tomorrow (12/16/2008).

Please pray that the Lord provides me with a new job soon.

Sincerely yours,

Columba Silouan.

Intro to the new Orthodox BCP

Good evening everyone. The following is taken from the official introduction to the new BCP that members of the Antiochian Archdiocese are putting together. The release date of this new BCP has been pushed back to February of 2009.

The Book of Common Prayer and Liturgical Worship

The Book of Common Prayer was first published in England and ordered to be used on Whitsunday, 1549. The idea was to put the Holy Mass and Morning and Evening Prayer, the Litany, the Psalms of David, the Lessons for the Year, with the Orders for Baptism, Marriage, and so forth, in one book.

This present Edition is from Lancelot Andrewes Press and is published for our English Orthodox Press division. God helping, it will prove to be a useful compilation of sacred Scripture and set prayers. This book sets forth the worship of God offered in English based on the examples of the Authorized Version of the Bible (1611), the Psalter, and centuries of English usage.

Our small contribution is to make a Prayer Book that is more comprehensive and organized in a rather more linear order. In this Book of Common Prayer the Daily Prayers are found in the beginning with the Psalter, then the Litany, then the Mass with the Proper of the Season and of the Saints, followed by the Pastoral Offices and Sacraments, followed by other helps, such as the Calendar, at the back of the book.

In Liturgical terminology this Prayer Book is organized as 1) a parochial Breviary; 2) a Missal; 3) a Ritual; and 4) a Calendar and Lectionary with Tables, Tutorials and Sentences of Scripture.

For those who are familiar with the Prayer Book there will be few surprises in these pages. The conventions of language and grammar throughout are traditional English usages. The Morning and Evening Prayer are conventional. The Psalms are the familiar texts of the Psalter of Miles Coverdale that has served as a standard for the Book of Common Prayer for nearly five centuries.

The Litany has restored to it the opening petitions as first published in 1544 and has added the petitions for the Faithful Departed proposed in 1928. The Occassional Prayers adopt the bidding, versicle, and response format of the 1929 Scottish Prayer Book. The Church Year follows the course of Sundays from Advent Sunday through Christmas, Septuagesima, Lent, Passiontide, Easter, Pentecost, Trinity Sunday, and Trinitytide to the Sunday Next before Advent.

There are parallels to the traditions of the Latin Missale and the Byzantine Euchologion. However, this Prayer Book reflects an English Orthodox usage in many particulars, such as the numbering of the Sundays after Trinity Sunday, the use of the Litany, and the distribution of Gospels and other Lessons through the Year.

This Book of Common Prayer differs from earlier versions by the addition of the weekday Old Testament Canticles to Morning Prayer. These are borrowed from Monastic Lauds. The Anthanasian Creed is included as in the English Prayer Book. Orders for Prime (3rd Hour), and Sext (Midday) and Compline (after Evensong before bedtime) are provided. The Psalms are placed in the first part of the book for convenience as they are read daily with Morning Prayer and Evensong.

The Proper of the Season includes all of Holy Week and the full texts of the Ember Days. The Proper of the Saints has been enlarged to include St. George, St. Benedict, and St. Anne, as well as a number of the Feasts of the Blessed Virgin. Some of these are ancient borrowings from the Eastern Church and others are latter additions, such as the Motherhood of the Blessed Virgin, which was introduced upon the 1500th anniversary (1931) of the Council of Ephesus.

The Simple Outline of the Mass includes the following elements:

The Preparation, followed by the Introit Psalm, The Summary of the Law, The "Lord Have Mercy Upon Us," The "Glory be to God on High," (The Gloria is sung on most Sundays and Feast Days but is not said on the Sundays of Advent or on the Proper Ferias or Sundays of Lent or at Requiem Masses or Nuptial Masses. Please follow the lead of the Priest for this usage), The Collect, which is a prayer proper to the Mass of the day and read in the Mass and in the orders of Morning and Evening Prayer, A lesson from Scripture, which may be an Epistle from the New Testament or a Prophecy or other reading from the Old Testament.

Next follow Psalm verses or other texts that compose the Gradual and Alleluia verses before the Gospel Reading. In Lent this is replaced by the Tract.

Next follows a reading from one of the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke or John properly said by the Deacon or Priest at Mass. The Creed is recited by all on Sundays and Feast Days as appointed.

There may be a Sermon on any occasion and certainly on Sundays. The Offertory verses are said and the Altar is prepared with the elements of bread and wine. Incense is offered at a Solemn Mass.

Intercessions, a general confession, the Preface, and the recitation of the angelic hymn "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts" (Sanctus) follow the preparation of the Altar and Holy Gifts.

The Eucharistic Canon is recited by the Priest; and this is concluded with the "Our Father" (Lord's Prayer), the hymn "O Lamb of God" (Agnus Dei) and communions of the clergy, acolytes, and faithful. The Communion verses are recited as provided in the Propers.

The Mass concludes with a Proper Collect, a Thanksgiving prayer, Dismissal and Blessing.

A more complete outline of the Mass will be set forth and a Brief Guide to the Mass will also be included in this book. In parish churches on Sundays and Feast Days there will be additional Hymns and service music for the choir and congregation. It is common for a pipe organ or other instrumental music to be included in the liturgical worship. In some places only monophonic chant (Gregorian Tones) will be heard and in other churches there will be polyphonic chant and four-part singing from the vast literature of sacred music.

Other resources for worship include the Antiphons for the Canticles at Morning Prayer and Evensong from the Monastic Diurnal and set to plainchant melodies in the Monastic Diurnal Noted. Patristic sermons and Saint's lives may be found in the Monastic Breviary Matins. The whole of the Psalms and many settings of the Canticles with the Marian Anthems and the rest of Morning Prayer and Evensong set to simple Gregorian Chant tones is available in the St. Dunstans Plainsong Psalter.

For the Sundays, Feast Days, and Proper Ferias of the Church Year, the Mass Propers may be found set to simple Gregorian tones in the various editions of St. Austin's Plainsong Missal. These simple tones can be sung by a Cantor and congregation even where the resources of a rehearsed text are not available.

For the many para-liturgical devotions that may be used during the Year and at particular seasons, such as the Rosary of the Blessed Virgin and the Stations of the Cross, there are many resources. A Scriptural Rosary is available as a tract. A complete volume of Devotions suitable as a supplement to the Book of Common Prayer is now in print in a portable volume, and is called the St. Ambrose Prayer Book.

All the above titles are in print and available from Lancelot Andrewes Press. These titles are easy to order from www.andrewespress.com. Lancelot Andrewes Press is a non-profit religious publishing house whose purpose is to serve those who pray and offer Divine Worship in English. The Book of Common Prayer is published as a title from our distinct division, The English Orthodox Press.

Our hope is to provide a useful prayer book for congregations of English speaking worshippers. This particular edition reflects the usages of the Western Rite Vicariate of the Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese. For example, the Credo is recited without "Filoque," or the double procession of the Holy Ghost.

The Mass Canon restores a direct Invocation of the Holy Spirit, and the Blessed Virgin and Saints are mentioned in the Prayer for Christ's Church. There is a provision for two additional weeks after Epiphany in the Lectionary due to the Byzantine calculation of the Vernal Equinox (old Julian Calendar) and thus in some years a very late date for Easter Day.

Where the reformed Julian Calendar (Gregorian) is consulted for the Easter date (as in the Orthodox Church of Finland) there is no need for the extended Epiphany season.

Our thanks to an anonymous Patron for the commission to produce this Book of Common Prayer. Our thanks to the many readers by whose good work and good sense this book has been prepared for publication.

"ASSIST us mercifully, O Lord, in these our supplications and prayers, and dispose the way of thy servants towards the attainment of everlasting salvation; that, among all the changes and chances of this mortal life, they may ever be defended by Thy most gracious and ready help; through Jesus Christ our Lord. AMEN."

This preface with some light edits is by Father John Conelly, Rector of Saint Marks Antiochian Orthodox Church.

I believe this new BCP will be a great blessing to Orthodox and Anglican Christians alike.

Sincerely,

Columba Siluoan.

Bible Study to Resume, and other topics

As a newly minted Orthodox Reader, I am able to lead a Reader's Service.

This will come in handy if I'm ever able to hold such a service in Parker or Castle Rock.

The Men's Bible Study will resume in January, 2009. At present, my wife and I are taking a Financial Peace University class in our neighborhood with a bunch of Protestant Christians down the street.

These good people meet in what they call a "house church."

They believe they are returning to the primitive new testament church, however . . .

They have no Bishops, Priests, Deacons, and no sacraments.

It would be nice someday to gently educate them on how the early church REALLY was.

There is a new leather bound edition of the Orthodox Study Bible. This Bible is terrific! It looks like a Bible Thumper's Bible. This would be wonderfully subversive if a Bible Study was held in a public place, like a Christian Coffee Shop, for instance.

There is such a coffee shop in Parker. It used to be called "The Steaming Bean."

When the financial class concludes, I will be free to lead the Bible Study.

Brother Andrew Deiderich will soon be re-deployed to the Middle East, so he won't be able to lead the study.

This means I will try and step into that role.

I recently purchased a small button that says "I Love Orthodox Missions."

Finally this: A new Book of Common Prayer is about to be published by The Western Rite.

This new BCP will be a fully authorized Orthodox edition and will be completely ok to use in any Western Rite parish or mission.

Armed with the new leather-bound Orthodox Study Bible, a new BCP coupled with all the excellent Bible Study aids the Church is putting out nowadays, things are really looking promising.

I can't wait to get started!

Now, if we can only get a new Hymnbook for the Western Rite, we really will be set.

Pax Christi,

Columba Silouan

Reader Silouan Takes Some Steps

It is Monday, November the 17th. This is the first posting to Orthodox Parker since February.

The Adult Sunday School class I mentioned in February went well. I taught the class for a month and people enjoyed it and were very receptive.

Life at Saint Marks continues apace, as always.

My friend, Brother David Felker, a Benedictine Oblate, saw my waffling about the path to possible ordination and said one day: "We're going to make you a Reader this month!"

So, when Bishop Basil visited our humble parish, I was tonsured as a Reader and Acolyte. It was a very peaceful, joyful and fulfilling experience.

And it wasn't without some humor.

From my past experience as an Anglican / Episcopalian and also my experience at Saint Catherine's Greek Orthodox Church, I mistakenly believed that I was supposed to sit with the rest of the congregation and be called forward to be tonsured.

I believed that there was no way they would let me back into the altar area without being tonsured first. But, this is the Western Rite, not the Byzantine Rite. And this isn't the Episcopal Church.

I should have known better.

I was sitting near the back of the parish when a subdeacon came to fish me out of the assembly of the faithful and back to the sacristy.

Where I proceeded to fumble into a cossack and surplice.

Fr. Connelly wryly said: "I thought you said you were an experienced acolyte."

To which I responded "Well, my experience was as an Anglican, and these days Anglicans are loosey goosey."

Nevertheless, it was very moving to be tonsured. I sat next to Mr. Wooley, a former Deacon at Saint Mary's Anglican Catholic Church.

When I used to visit Saint Mary's during those days I was still longing to be Catholic, I would always see Deacon Wooley's smiling face.

Now, I was sitting next to him. A great honor.

Mr. Wooley was tonsured alongside me.

My First Reading was on Sunday, November the 9th. It went well, but with the following bump in the road:

The morning I was supposed to read, I was at church before Sunday School and I went to inspect the pulpit where the Epistle Reading takes place. I had dutifully practiced my reading the week before.

My friend Andrew showed me the large Book of Common Prayer used for Readings. I left with the impression that the book would be open to the proper reading and all I had to do was to step forward and do the deed during the Divine Liturgy.

It was Trinity 20 and the reading was from Ephesians, the fifth chapter beginning with the 15th verse.

But when the time during Divine Liturgy came, I strode forward and started to read . . .

The book was open to a reading in Maccabees!

But I recovered well, grabbed a smaller book of Common Prayer, quickly found the reading and finished the task.

Back in the Sacristy, some of the deacons joked "The hazing has only begun!"

I am enjoying my life at present. My new job is going well, and I have a Christian boss.

I work five minutes up the street from my home.

My relationship with my wife and my kids is also going well.

My in-laws, who are terrific people, have moved from Monte Vista to a location five miles away.

This means more dates with my wife!

It's hockey season again. My Avalanche aren't playing so well at present, but as I've said before, bad hockey is better than good football.

The Broncos are playing well, and so are the Nuggets. So I'm having fun with that.

My Rockies traded away Matt Holiday to the Oakland A's.

In a fallen world, there is always at least one fly in the ointment.

Nevertheless, all things considered, I am truly blessed.

Columba Silouan

Stupendous Opportunity!!

Be careful what you ask for . . .

I've been granted an opportunity to teach the Adult Sunday School Class at Saint Marks Antiochian Orthodox Christian Church starting on February the 17th!

I plan to teach a class covering the Ransomed Hearts ministry of John Eldredge, looking at it from an Eastern Orthodox perspective.

This has long been a dream of mine, and I've believed for a long time that doing so can be powerful and fruitful.

I hope to use this class as a type of "pilot project" or prototype class to explore how to interact with leading evangelical leaders / authors while maintaining Orthodox distinctives /doctrinal purity.

Lord willing, I plan to cover concepts drawn from the following books: The Sacred Romance, The Journey of Desire, Wild at Heart, The Way of the Wild Heart, Waking the Dead, Epic and Captivating.

Some of the methods I plan to use are handouts of quotes and passages, study / discussion questions, and an invitation to ask lengthy questions via e-mail.

I have five weeks to start off with.

Please keep me in your prayers, gentle readers!

Columba Silouan Cate