St. John the Russian

Joyous feast! St. John the Confessor was born in the 1600s in what today is Ukraine and raised as a devout Orthodox Christian. Drafted into military service, the Saint fought the Ottoman Turks and was captured by them in 1711 and enslaved in the village of Procopia in Asia Minor. Although St. John's master beat him and sought to convert him to Islam the Saint refused, saying that, "Neither by threats, nor with promises of riches and delights you will turn me away from my holy faith. I was born a Christian, and a Christian I shall die."

Despite his mistreatment St. John served his master zealously and was mocked by his fellow slaves for his commitment to his duties. The Saint's master, seeing his faithfulness, offered to let him live as a free man and resettle him wherever he wished, but St. John preferred to remain in his service so that he could continue his nightly prayers in the stables.

When St. John fell asleep on this day in 1730 his body was given over to the clergy of Procopia, who buried it surrounded by the village's Orthodox Christian inhabitants. Three years later the Saint's relics, having been revealed to be incorrupt in a vision, were exhumed and enshrined in Procopia's Church of St. George, later being translated in part to Panteleimonou on Mount Athos in 1881 and in 1924 to the Greek island of Eubeia together with the residents of Procopia as part of the population exchange between Greece and Turkey.

Through St. John's prayers many are helped and in the past not only Greeks, but also many Orthodox Armenians and Turkish Muslims came to St. John's relics in Procopia to be healed. More on St. John's life can be found here. May his blessing and prayers be with us all!

HOCNA in Canada Considers Union with Genuine Orthodox Church

Following the loss of its Metropolis of Portland to the Genuine Orthodox Church of Greece the Old Calendrist 'Holy Orthodox Church of North America,' a grecophile schism from the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, is now apparently facing the possible loss of the parishes comprising its Metropolis of Toronto to the Genuine Orthodox Church of Greece. There is no official confirmation from either the HOCNA or the Genuine Orthodox Church about such a transfer or whether the HOCNA's Metropolitan Makarios of Toronto is leading the move to the Genuine Orthodox Church in his diocese. More here.

Metropolitan Kallistos (Ware) to Visit Metro Detroit

Metropolitan Kallistos (Ware) of Diocleia will be visiting metro Detroit this month at the invitation of Metropolitan Nicholas (Pissare) of Detroit of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America to speak at St. John the Baptist's Church in Sterling Heights, St. Nicholas' Church in Ann Arbor, Holy Cross Church in Farmington Hills, and Sts. Constantine and Helena's Church in Westland. A schedule of events can be found here.

Takeover of Astoria Monastery Complete

The takeover of what was once a preeminent monastery of the Greek Orthodox Old Calendrist movement in the United States, St. Irene Chrysovolantou's in Astoria, New York, appears complete. In the wake of the sexual scandals involving the Monastery's former abbot, Metropolitan Paisios (Loulourgas) of Tyana, the Ecumenical Patriarchate has appointed mainline Greek Orthodox hierarchs and clergy from outside the Monastery as its abbot and legal trustees.

St. Irene's together with a number of other Old Calendrist communities in the USA were received into the Church of Constantinople in 1998. At the time there was unease in some of the Monastery's dependencies regarding Metropolitan Paisios' submission to the Ecumenical Patriarchate, but the Monastery was guaranteed its self-governance under its metropolitan-abbot and the right to remain faithful to the Julian calendar. What the future holds in the aftermath of the recent scandals remains to be seen.

More here.

Greek-Americans Considered "Churchy" in Greece

Apparently Greek-Americans are far more involved in church life than Greeks in Greece are, which I'm sure will surprise a great number of people on this side of the Atlantic. More here.

Old Style Christmas in Metro Detroit

An article on old style Nativity celebrations in one of metro Detroit's Greek Orthodox churches can be found here.

American Orthodoxy?

There are some amazingly appalling websites out there purporting to represent the Orthodox Church. This article about the priestly spiritual children of Elder Ephraim (Philotheotis) of St. Anthony's Monastery in Arizona, however, takes the cake. I've heard it all before, but no one ever dared put the ridiculous things they were saying in writing. Or so I thought. God protect us...

St. Nectarius of Pentapolis

Joyous feast! St. Nectarius is one of the great saints of the late 1800s and early 1900s. God called him to services in both the ancient Church of Alexandria and the younger Church of Greece and has worked many miracles and wonders through him both in his lifetime and since his repose in 1920. An account of his life can be found here.

If you love St. Nectarius and are ever in upstate New York, then I strongly recommend visiting the Greek Orthodox monastery dedicated to him in Roscoe. If you don't speak Greek or are a woman and plan on staying overnight it might be a rough visit, but the services are beautiful and the frescoes of the Saint's life in the trapeza are well worth the asceticism of visiting ;-).

May St. Nectarius blessings and prayers be with us all!

New First Hierarch of the 'Genuine Orthodox Church of Greece'

Also under the heading of old news, the Genuine Orthodox Church of Greece has a new first hierarch, Archbishop Callinicus of Athens. His enthronement was celebrated on 17 October in Athens' Church of St. Athanasius.

The Genuine Orthodox Church is a rigorist Old Calendrist schism and one of the larger Old Calendrist movements in Greece, deriving its hierarchy from the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad (ROCOR) and the Romanian Orthodox Episcopate in Western Europe. Although the first Greek Orthodox Old Calendrist bishop in North America, Bishop Peter (Astyfides) of Astoria of the ROCOR, eventually joined this synod prior to his death, its presence in North America is rather limited numerically.

Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) on a "Great and Holy" Council and Other Issues

In a recent interview on Rhodes Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolamsk expressed the belief that a "great and holy" council would take place within two or three years. He also noted the presence of a large group of Russian Orthodox Christians in Turkey and the need of the Ecumenical Patriarchate to expand its pastoral focus past Turkey's Greek minority to also include Orthodox immigrants from the former USSR. The full interview can be found here.

Graves Vandalized in Turkey

Apparently on 28 October seventy-eight Orthodox Christian graves were vandalized on the island of Imbros. Imbros and its neighboring island, Tenedos, was 99% Orthodox Christian and Greek-speaking. After the islands' inclusion into Turkey at the end of World War I, however, the Turkish government forced and pressured the islands' Greek population into immigrating until only two or three hundred remain today as a minority in their homeland. Among others, the current Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople and the recently reposed Archbishop Iakovos of New York were natives of Imbros. More here.

OXI Day Encyclical

Archbishop Demetrius of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America has issued an encyclical for tomorrow's commemoration of OXI Day in Greece.

In Memoriam: Bishop Chrysostom of Sydney

I just found out that Bishop Chrysostom (Alemangos) of Sydney of the Greek Orthodox Church in Resistance reposed during a visit to Greece on 5 October. Bishop Chrysostom became a monk on Mount Athos at age fourteen and was eventually elevated to the rank of archimandrite by the Ecumenical Patriarchate for his service in the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia. In the 1970s Bishop Chrysostom joined the resistance against ecumenism within the Greek Orthodox Church, eventually in 1993 being elected Bishop of Sydney by the Holy Synod in Resistance. May God make his memory to be eternal!

Constantinopolitan Orthodox Metropolitan Sentenced to Five Years in Jail

Turkish authorities on the Princes' Islands just sentenced a metropolitan of the Ecumenical Patriarchate to five years in jail for rebuilding a church they tore down in 2007 after they illegally appropriated the land around it from the Church of Constantinople. A fuller account can be found here. Some things never change...