We Need More Priests: A Call to Action for the Future of Michigan

“For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45)

As Orthodox Christians we understand that we were not put on earth, nor was our Lord Incarnate, to maintain some sort of comfortable status quo. The Lord changed the world through His ministry. A book we are reading for our Teen Youth Group puts it this way: “The gospel of Jesus Christ is, in essence, an assault on the kingdom of the demons.” (Arise, O God, p. 34) Nothing about maintaining things as they are or small changes. Nothing about being good, or nice, or affirming the feelings of others. The Gospel is about blowing up the existing order (the demonic occupation of the world and control over humanity). As His followers – those that bear his name – we too are called to continue His ministry to the greatest extent possible through the talents He provides us for this very purpose. This is a great calling, and one we must answer with our sincere efforts and hoping in God’s blessing of these efforts.

Now, any one of us alone is very unlikely to change the world. But if we can break this thing down into digestible pieces perhaps we can get a better feeling of how we, as Orthodox people, can indeed change the world in our generation and prepare the ground for the next generation to change it even more, and so on and so forth.

As Orthodox Christians we see ourselves as both individuals and members of the group called “Orthodox Christians”. We work out our own salvation, as St. Paul writes, “with fear and trembling”. But we understand that the general rule is that we indeed perish alone, but are saved in community. That is, the usual method of life for Orthodox Christians is in a community: whether that be a parish or a monastery. But to live truly alone, as a hermit, is a rare feat that only a few saints have perfected.

As Orthodox persons we have as our first job to work on ourselves. Not to spend time judging others, but to judge ourselves, while at the same time we actively serve others and struggle against our sins. We serve others because when we serve other humans, made in God’s image and with a potential to attain to His likeness, we serve the Lord Himself:

“Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.” (Matthew 25:40)

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. First – we work on ourselves. Our job is to be transformed into the sons and daughter of God. Not only to “be good”, but MUCH more than that: to be transformed. We are first and foremost in charge of the space that we can call “ourselves”, and spiritually we will answer for our efforts in this regard. Transformation can only take place according to our cooperative efforts with God. We’ve got to work hard and follow the Lord’s teachings as taught to us in the Church, His Body, which He founded for our salvation.

OK – that part is clear I think. Most of us understand our first job is to work on ourselves. Next – we get to the serving part. Our neighbors – however one defines that. You are welcome to define “neighbor” however you like of course. You have free will. But the Lord gives us a definition, so although we certainly have the “right” to reject this definition, why would we? The parable of the Good Samaritan, read just a few weeks ago in the church, guides us. These are the very words of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself:

“And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou? And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself. And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live. But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour? And Jesus answering said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance there came down a certain priest that way: and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him, and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was: and when he saw him, he had compassion on him, And went to him, and bound up his wounds, pouring in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee. Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves? And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.” (Luke 10:25-37)

This is good! Not only do we get the definition of “neighbor” from this parable, but we get our marching orders too: “Go, and do thou likewise.” So we can probably say that we have some pretty clear responsibility to at least serve our neighbor, and hopefully through serving our neighbor with the light of Christ burning in our hearts (since we are also working actively on our transfiguration into the sons and daughters of God) our neighbor will want some of that light. Or in other words, will be attracted to the love of God that we are exhibiting by serving our neighbor.

We are making progress here! We have established that we need to work towards sanctification in ourselves, and also work on sanctification of our neighbors. That is starting to cover a lot of people all of a sudden. And when we understand that our priests will answer for all the people in our parish (probably that really means the geographical area of our parish rather than those who just come to church), then we understand that we need to work on the sanctification of our “area”, at least Washtenaw and Livingston counties, maybe even more. So now we are talking about spiritual work on ourselves, for our neighbor, and in support of our St. Vladimir parish.

Then we also need to take into account that I am the Dean of Michigan parishes. So following the same logic I probably need to answer for the souls of all the people in Michigan. And as part of our parish family you no doubt would like to help me with this task for the sake of love, so we are now talking about a pretty big responsibility and a pretty big space. And we have probably defined pretty well the maximum area of our work and where we will focus our efforts towards the destruction of the “kingdom of the demons”. 

Now when we say that I am the Dean of Michigan that might be a pretty easy place to point a finger and say “yes – you Fr. Gregory are responsible!” But remember, when we point a finger at someone we have three pointing back at ourselves. We are all, to a great or lesser extent, responsible to sanctify the place that God gave us. Let us concentrate on our Michigan for the sake of taking on something challenging, but not unfathomable.

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Detroit has 224 parishes. That diocese makes up about half the Catholic population of Michigan. These are rough numbers of course. So if we double that number of parishes we get 450. Because the rest of the state is mostly quite rural we should probably tack on about 50 more parishes to cover the spaces of rural Michigan where a parish would have to survive with fewer parishioners than one would be expected to have in the Detroit Archdiocese. I’m going to use the Catholic Church as a surrogate for having adequate coverage for the Catholic people in Michigan. Everyone who knows Roman Catholic folks knows this really isn’t true. They need more parishes. But let’s just go with 500 as a nice round number.

So if we are going to sanctify our Great Lakes State we are going to need something like 500 parishes. Roughly. Since the growth of Orthodoxy will necessitate some pretty big parishes in the urban areas that will serve Liturgy every day and need 3 priests as a minimum to do that (that is the standard pretty much – to do all the services every day you need 3 priests in your parish at the very least), and we’ll need some priests to cover sickness and vacation for other priests, then let’s say we’ll conservatively need 600 priests. Just for Michigan.

In our Diocese of Chicago & Mid-America right now we have 50 parishes and 75 clergymen approximately. There are 16 states in the diocese. Two of them do not even have one parish: Nebraska and South Dakota. Several only have one parish. We have three of the largest metropolitan areas in America in our diocese: Chicago, Dallas, and Houston. Chicago has three parishes. Dallas has one. Houston has two.

Clearly we all have a great amount of work to do to sanctify our diocese. Certainly we need thousands of priests to lead the Divine Services. And yes, we aren’t the only Orthodox folks in America, but it isn’t like the OCA and the Antiochians have hundreds and thousands of parishes in each state to make up for our dearth of physical presence. They are doing their best too, unquestionably, but we can’t sit back and count on someone else to do the duty that we are called to do. We know that they will do their best, but that is not code for “if they start doing more then we will too”. Nope – the only person that can change this situation is the one you see when you look in the mirror.

Let’s start by controlling what we can control. By influencing that which we can influence. In the broadest terms that is our Michigan. I think it is unlikely that our Lord will ask us about what we did, at least in any specific way beyond prayer, to foster the growth of Orthodox Christianity in Texas, for instance. But here in Michigan, I fully expect to have to answer. And I think it won’t just be me either. So what have we done to sanctify our state?

What we have done is begin to lay the foundations of the future. That is important! Every journey begins with the first step and our fathers and forefathers made huge efforts to found parishes and nourish them so that these parishes would be there to in turn nourish us. But what matters even more than what we have done is what we WILL do. And this is the point of this note. We need more priests. Lots more. Everyone needs to contribute to that. How? That is crazy talk! If half the people that read this are women they can’t serve as priests! And some of the men are already in their second marriages – they are not eligible! Fr. Gregory is talking nonsense – again!

Now that we’ve yelled at the screen let’s take a step back. We can ALL make a difference here. We can seriously encourage and seriously pray for our young men to consider the ordained ministry as a vocation. I mean seriously. Not like “oh yes – I considered that for 30 seconds and now we are moving on.” Real and loving encouragement and prayer. And we can have more children with the hope that at least one of our children will serve the Church in the clerical or monastic life – and it seems that is something reasonable for which each Orthodox family should be striving. To give at least one child back to the Lord, who has, frankly speaking, loaned us all the children we have for the sake of our salvation. And this is a challenge not just for this generation of Orthodox Christians either – each generation should strive more and more to serve and strengthen the Church (both in ordained and non-ordained ministries – this post is principally about the ordained ministry, but everyone is called to serve by the Lord – not just the men in cassocks). And those who are eligible, who could take up the life of an ordained clergymen, must really challenge themselves. Not just laugh this off as an impossible fantasy, but make a serious reflection and ask the Lord for real discernment. The Lord calls us to something great – to change the world – not just to be the most Christianized pagans in our society.

I remember when the idea of the priesthood was first proposed to me. I laughed. Right in Fr. Paul Karas’ face. Not out of spite, but because it was a nonsensical concept to my little selfish mind. I came to him asking for a recommendation for the University of Michigan School of Education. He was a teacher after all, and he served his entire ordained ministry while working full time as a teacher to support the Church. “If you would like to be a teacher why not be a priest – priests are teachers too.” My answer: “Ha!”. Or something equally erudite. I don't remember exactly the words, but I remember very much the sentiment. And if someone like me, who started with that mindset, can manage to get from “Ha!” to seminary to ordination, then the mature and wise men of our parish and deanery can surely find a path too. At least some of them. Perhaps most of them. Because it is important to understand: YOU ARE NEEDED! We have a great work to undertake! To sanctify the two peninsulas of our state. 

It will not just be the ordained clergy who do this of course. Much more important in many ways will be the prayers, the service, the Christian Love, and the examples of those who do not or can not heed the call to serve the Church in the clerical or monastic order (and when we say monastic order we are very much including women here too – women’s monasticism is crucial to an authentic Orthodox Christian witness, and historically there were always more women monastics in the Church than male monastics). But someone has to serve Liturgy. We aren’t going to accomplish this gargantuan task without a robust liturgical life. And for that we need priests.

I heard a very interesting sermon on the feast of the Nativity of the Mother of God that inspired this post. About how the people of the Old Testament exhibited the greatest love not for themselves, but for their future generations, and even for us Gentiles, by striving to have children so that the Messiah could come into the world. No one then was so self-obsessed that they thought THEIR child would be the Messiah. But they understood that the Messiah would only come into the world through the Hebrew people, and so they needed to prepare the next generation to receive Him. They knew it was virtually impossible that they would live to see Him themselves, but they knew He would come – they trusted God’s promise. 

We don’t look to the Old Testament for a lot of personal examples. The life then was difficult and very different. The people were rough. Their lives were not for us to emulate because we live in a new epoch of the Incarnation of that very Messiah they so longed for and strove for. But here I think we have to see their love for their progeny and do our best to emulate it in a New Testament way. For the sake of the Love of God and the love of our fellow men we have to work for the sanctification of more of the people of our state in this generation, in the next generation, and in all subsequent generations until the Lord comes again. This is a radical departure from the status quo of our mostly satisfied and selfish lives. Yes – we have some problems: personal and societal. But we need to refocus on what is most important. Not the newest iPhone, not the latest political distraction, but salvation. Our salvation. Our neighbor’s salvation. Our family’s salvation. Our parish family’s salvation. And the salvation of the people of our state. And for all of these categories: the salvation of those alive now, and the generations to be born until the coming of the Lord. And I suggest that we need to do approach this with a heart set to take action, not just bemoan the present and its challenges.

I am guessing few of us have ever considered this idea previously in just this way. Honestly I hadn’t really either – until I heard that sermon on the Nativity of the Theotokos. But if you think it through it is obvious – we can’t just live for the present if we love God – we have to think about forever. We can’t just think about the gospel as the destruction of the kingdom of the demons for one generation and let them come back for the next.

Let us embrace this radical call: to change the world. Not just to focus on ourselves, but to focus on our neighbors, our parish, our state. Not just to focus on this generation, but all subsequent generations. If we all do this, then within a few generations our Michigan and our country will be substantially made up of Orthodox Christians. We will have given the greatest gift we can to anyone and everyone: the Pearl of Great Price. The True Faith. Eternal life. We can do this – but only by hard work and God’s blessing. Or we can do nothing – and nothing will happen. Of course, if the Lord so wishes He can make everyone in our state show up at our few parishes here tomorrow to be baptized. But it has never worked that way in history, so there is no reason to think it will this time either. Rather, we’ve got to get off the couch and get to work. And if we all do this – not just the ordained ministers – but ALL of us – we can do it indeed. 

The Lord has shown that He will bless efforts for His glory and the salvation of others time and time again in the history of the Church. Think of the spread of Orthodox Christianity across Asia and into North America. Was that "possible"? Of course not - it was a total fantasy by the standards of "reasonable" people who were comfortable with the status quo. But the missionaries kept working, generation after generation, until they reached the Pacific. And then they went to Japan. And Alaska. And California. And the rest of North America. As Orthodox people here in a non-Orthodox land we are missionaries, and we must adapt this very paradigm to do the work that we are called to do. And thank God that we have our Ann Arbor Orthodox Classical Academy and our Pastoral School to help us to prepare ourselves and our future generations for this work! These institutions need our prayers, time, talent, and treasure to continue their labors, but that is another post for another time. The point is that we have resources to get started, and we should utilize of those resources!

This spread of the faith across Asia to North America was "impossible", but it happened. Why? Not due to a desire to conquer, but to love. To share Christ's Love. This is not even to mention the incredible spread of Christianity immediately after Pentecost. And since this is the way it has always worked, we should have firm hope this it will work that way again. Will we see the end product? No – we have to be honest that we will not. But like those people of the Old Testament that loved their progeny enough to work as hard as they could to see to it that the Messiah came into the world, or the missionaries in Russia bringing the True Faith to the people of Asia and North America, or the Apostles who began to preach after Pentecost, we too must love our neighbors and their progeny enough to be willing to put in the work now, trusting that the Lord will crown those efforts in the future, and that He will not forget our efforts on the Last Day.

The bottom line and the end of this post: we need to trust God's promise for the New Testament people just as the Hebrews trusted His promise that the Messiah would indeed come. This is His promise and His radical charge for us, directly from the Gospel:

“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.” (Matthew 28:19-20)

I am suggesting here that we just have to do MUCH LESS than this, and only take care of the Michigan part of “all nations”. May the Lord motivate us and bless our efforts!

Asking Your Prayers,

Fr. Gregory

Is the Covid Vaccine the Mark of the Beast?

I hope that every Orthodox Christian who reads this is immediately shocked and dismayed at this question, principally because of its completely ridiculous underpinnings. Of course the answer to this is no, and I hope that this is immediately obvious to everyone. If not – I have not done my job very well at all as the Rector of our parish, and I ask that you reach out to me as soon as you can so that we can work this through.

Next: why would I even ask this question, given it is so divergent from the Orthodox understanding of Eschatology (literally, “the last things”) - the study and understanding of the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ? This second coming is discussed by several of the authors of the New Testament and is a thread that runs throughout the New Testament. It is covered in great detail in the Apocalypse of St. John the Theologian, albeit with much allegory and symbolism, which is why Orthodox Christians should always read this book of the Bible with a solid Orthodox explanation handy to refer to. Archbishop Averky’s might be the best available in English, although we read Fr. Lawrence Farley’s for a Great Lenten book club a few years ago and that was quite good too. Bottom line: you cannot be fooled into accepting the Mark of the Beast. You must voluntarily accept this, with a full understanding of the repercussions of your actions. And it is the opinion of the Venerable Gabriel of Georgia (someone quite familiar with the realities of Orthodox spiritual life) that you can repent of your choice in this regard and be forgiven (not that it is good to voluntarily commit any sin with the plan to repent as a rule, since the Lord does not promise us tomorrow). 

But I still haven’t answered the question: why even ask this silly question? Archbishop Peter has stated on several occasions that the vaccine is not an ecclesiastical one, but rather a medical one. That means that Vladyka is quite certain that the vaccine is not the Mark of the Beast, and as our Abba, our Spiritual Father, his word carries very heavy weight in our spiritual lives. But please read here what Metropolitan Hilarion, our First Hierarch, says on the same topic:

“Vaccination is not a new thing, it has existed for a long time, so people should not fear it. For instance, I was vaccinated as were many others. But some are very alarmed by this. In this case the Church makes no recommendations: we do not advise people to be vaccinated, nor to reject vaccination. This is the free choice of every person.”

This is from an article posted on the Synodal Web Site last month. In Russia the guidance from the Church has been much stronger. Just as our Metropolitan was vaccinated, so too was the Patriarch. Metropolitan Hilarion of Volokolask, head of the External Relations Department of the Moscow Patriarchate, was less subtle in his statements than our hierarchs earlier this year.

Finally the answer: we ask this question here because there are those that are out there spreading such erroneous teachings and scaring those who are new to the faith, or who are not theologically strong in their knowledge of their faith. Those spreading these lies need to be confronted. This is a small effort in this regard, since I do not know who they are. But I know they are there, because people are coming to us in great fear that they have given their souls to the Devil by receiving the vaccine.

If, having read all this your answer is “all the bishops and priests are fooled – the vaccine is the Mark of the Beast”, then I do not think I can help you. God can – He can help you to regain your sanity, perhaps through long work with a Psychiatrist. But assuming that you are not spiritually deluded, and you understand that our hierarchs desire first and foremost the salvation of their flock, then please know that, according to one of our priests who experienced this in his former, Protestant life, that these ideas are all old style Protestant millenarianism and fanaticism. He supposes, and I think this is a very valid theory, that this has all affected the Church through the gradual assimilation of these Protestant beliefs and teachings from those who came to the Church from Protestantism, but did not throw off the old man, as St. Paul alludes to. This has all been "cleaned up" and Orthodoxified by those seeking to impose Protestant ideas onto the pure faith conveyed to us from our Savior, found only in the Holy Church. Do not be fooled. The vaccine is not the Mark of the Best.

Whether you choose to be vaccinated or not is up to you – Metropolitan Hilarion and Archbishop Peter have made that abundantly clear. This is a medical question and not a spiritual one, according to our hierarchs. If you keep that in mind, such nonsense as “the vaccine is the Mark of the Beast” will not be anything to you but a call to pray for those who spread such errors in their delusion. And let us pray brothers and sisters! For those who have been fooled by such un-Orthodox teachings, and especially those who are ruining their souls by spreading such heretical teachings. And let us strive for peace, because in this pandemic many have lost their way in this regard. “Acquire the spirit of peace and 1000 around you will be saved”. These are the words of St. Seraphim of Sarov. I think we can say he understood the realities of spiritual life a bit better than our Orthodox millenarianists. And if you agree with St. Seraphim, which I hope you do, let us strive diligently for that peace so that we may help thousands of others to the calm haven of our Orthodox Church.

Asking Your Prayers,

Fr. Gregory 

Racism in the Church & Care for the Garden

The Church exists in the world by design. The Lord founded His Church to provide a haven for those who live in the world but who seek the Kingdom of God. But, because the Church exists in the world, ideas foreign to her from time to time seep in. It is our job as Orthodox Christians to maintain the purity of the faith and, as St. Paul says, to test the spirits. Put another way, we all need to have our personal “spiritual filter”, built and strengthened by our ongoing struggle to be transformed into the children of God. But as a Church we need to have such a filter too, and the faithful have the responsibility to sound the alarm when something sneaks through the filter. One such thing that seems to more and more prevalent in our society is racism, or white nationalism, or whatever moniker you use to describe the heretical idea that God prefers one group of people over another based on race, nation, language, etc. God created the world out of love and to share His love with man. Period. Full stop. There is no adjective applied to “man” in this spiritual reality. There is no person that God does not love, although certainly some of us, such as myself, no doubt grieve God with our sins more than others, but God loves us all.

Below I have included a few quotations which I think help us to understand this better. This list is not exhaustive, but it seems to me that ad naseum quotations do not make a very good blog post either, so we will keep it to these few.

For there is no respect of persons with God. For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law; (For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves: Which shew the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another;) (Romans 2:11-15)

We censure, condemn, and declare contrary to the teachings of the Gospel and the sacred canons of the holy Fathers the doctrine of phyletism, or the difference of races and national diversity in the bosom of the Church of Christ. – Article I of the Decree of the 1872 Council of Constantinople.

“Both you [Greeks] and the Bulgarians can equally be accused of phyletism, that is, of introducing ethnic interests into Church questions, and in the use of religion as a political weapon; but the difference lies in the fact that Bulgarian phyletism is defensive, while yours is offensive. Their phyletism seeks only to mark out the boundaries of their tribe; yours seeks to cross the boundaries of Hellenism...[Leontiev, Konstantin “The Fruits of the National Movements”, op. cit., p. 559]

The greatest proof, however, that ecumenism and phyletism are possessed of the “spirit of antichrist” lies in their fruits. They work against the salvation of the world because they make the Church into the world, “thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men” (Mat. 5:13). On the one hand, whether through tribalism or relativism, they deny the divine-humanity of the One Church, Her otherworldliness, Her power of the Cross (asceticism) which, if She “be lifted up” by it, draws all men toward Christ (Jn. 12:32). (https://orthodoxethos.com/post/on-the-essential-identity-of-ecumenism-and-phyletism)

We are not suggesting a witch hunt here by any means. But if the vile idea of racism rears its ugly head in the Church it must be plucked out as the weed it is. It has no place in the garden. But if we don’t pull out a weed for a while it becomes large, and strong, and when we finally attack it, the root often stays even if the visible part is cut out. It is much better to pull out a weed when it just pokes its head above the soil so we can get it all. If we ignore it it will not go away. It will grow. And steal nourishment from others. And even kill off others in the garden from time to time if left to its own devices. 

So let us care for our garden! Yes personally – we must pluck out the weeds of the passions as soon as they appear so that they cannot grow roots. But also as a community – let us not ignore the weeds, such as racism, that from time to time find their way into the garden. If you are struggling with this weed please talk to me. We will work together with God’s help to kill that weed – root and all. If you see this weed growing in our community garden please talk to me. We will work together with God’s help to kill that weed – root and all. But most importantly, let us pray that such weeds cannot find a place in the garden. If the garden is filled with the beautiful flowers of love, faith, hope, Christian service, and other virtues then there will be no room for weeds. The health of the garden will naturally choke off such weeds if they appear. Let us kill off our weeds with love! Let us kill off our weeds with a life according to the Gospel! This is the best way – rather than waiting for weeds to grow and trying to manage them once they have sprouted. If we live a Christian life there will be no room for weeds. May the Lord strengthen us to do just that – to live such exemplary Christian lives (and to repent sincerely when we fall short) that no weed can find a place in the Lord’s garden! A parish is a worshiping eucharistic community by definition. Let us live that life first and foremost: putting God first in our lives. If we can make even a small effort in that regard Christ will indeed be among us, but no weeds will find their place among us.

Asking Your Prayers,

Fr. Gregory

The Pandemic of Grumbling

“If you are constantly angry and complaining, it is indicative of a proud soul. Humble yourself, reproach yourself, and the Lord is powerful to give you comfort and a helping hand.” St. Anatoly of Optina (“Living without Hypocrisy”, p. 35)

First, I have to plug this really wonderful book: “Living without Hypocrisy”. If you are thinking about summer reading now, and we hope you are, then please consider picking up a copy of this book. I would argue that this might be one of the most important books you could own if you are seeking guidance towards the Heavenly Kingdom, and I sincerely hope that we are all seeking that!

But this piece is not about books. It is about grumbling. It is interesting that the pandemic has given us many ancillary pandemics besides the medical pandemic. There is the pandemic of self-will that we have talked about on various occasions here and also in church. But there is also the pandemic of complaining. That one seems to have gotten worse as we have gotten closer to the end of the pandemic here in America. I’m not sure why. But the reason is inconsequential. It is the symptom we have to treat. And if we treat the symptom with some diligence and effort we will also cure the disease. And as St. Anatoly points out above: the underlying disease is pride.

Pride is something we all struggle with. This is nothing new.

“Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.” (Proverbs 16:18)

This is only one of 46 instances of the word “pride” being used in the Old Testament according to the King James version. I include this particular quote because I think it is a good one to memorize. This one is good to memorize too:

“God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.” (I Peter 5:5)

I think most people will read up to this point and think something along the lines of “I don’t grumble – this is about others and not about me.” If we are going to embrace that delusion then at least let us add to that “...and I hope it helps them!”. But it is probably better not go down the path of delusion. Rather, let’s look at ourselves straight in the mirror and see there the grumbler that we are talking about. Me first – I’m a bad grumbler. I am WAY to soft on myself, WAY to obsessed with my own personal comfort, WAY too focused on me and my wants and “needs” (most of the things I consider needs are really just selfish wants if I am honest about this). Maybe I am projecting my own fallenness on the rest of the parish family. I was pretty certain that was the case. Until I began to hear about this one complaining about that thing in the parish, the other one complaining it is too cold in the barn, the other one complaining it is too hot, the other one complaining about the early liturgy, the other one complaining that the late liturgy has all the sinners attending, etc. Ad naseum. 

We’ve got to understand dear friends, according to the Scripture:

“...we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.” (Acts 14:22)

That doesn’t mean that the parish is striving to give everyone as much tribulation as we can. But there will be difficulties in our lives. As Christians we have to embrace that reality and decide now: will I grumble as a pagan when there is some tribulation, whatever that may be, or will I accept this humbly as a Christian and let it be for my salvation and God’s glory? Every time things are not just as we want them and we DON’T grumble: we gain treasure in Heaven. And the opposite is true too. When we grumble we feed our pride, which keeps us from God’s Kingdom.

“You do not just suddenly leap into heaven, but you enter it with humility. The worst of all sins is when we are overwhelmed by our pride and our own opinion about everything.” St. Macarius of Optina (“Living without Hypocrisy”, p. 34)

I appeal to you now dear parish family: let us struggle against grumbling! For this is nothing more than a manifestation of pride. And pride will deprive us of the Heavenly Kingdom. Rather, let us trust God that those things we cannot control, like the temperature in the barn, are according to God’s will for our salvation. If we can give these things to God, if we can trust God that He understands what is best for our salvation, then we win. Humility wins. Humility give us the Kingdom (along with repentance, but the humble man is also repentant of his falls). The parish will do the best to make our worship as comfortable as possible during these few weeks until we get to July 1 and all services will then be in the church proper. We are almost at the end! We have almost won the race! Let us not throw away our impending victory as we approach the finish line by our grumbling! We need to learn not to grumble now – the Lord has given us a GREAT OPPORTUNITY in this regard. Is worship in the barn super comfortable? No – it is not. Did our ancestors manage to worship without air conditioning? Yes they did. And many of them attained the Heavenly Kingdom, in large part by not grumbling and accepting that those things they could not control were according to God’s will, and thus best for their salvation.

If we don’t deposit our grumbling ways in the pandemic they will accompany us as we exit. We’ll complain about this or than incessantly – until we complain ourselves right out of the Kingdom. We have a special penchant for grumbling about the weather in Michigan for some reason. It doesn’t matter if it is warm or cold, wet or dry. No matter the weather: we grumble. Perhaps this is where we begin to turn away from grumbling and towards the Heavenly Kingdom? Let us actively curate our thoughts around this weather grumbling and fight it with all our might! If we do that, and we ask the Lord’s help, then His words about tribulation (although being a little uncomfortable about the weather is not really tribulation – but we have to start with “milk” before we can be read to endure the “meat” of tribulation as the martyrs did) will ring true in our ears and drive our actions:

“In the world you have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

AND

“In your patience possess ye your souls.” (Luke 21:19)

May the Lord help us not to grumble – about anything – that we may attain His Kingdom!

Asking Your Prayers,

Fr. Gregory 

Splitting our Parish – Why Speculative Gossip is not Helpful for Salvation

 

Christ is Risen!

Several times in the last few weeks I have heard people say to me something along these lines:

“We must cease the evil early Divine Liturgy because it is splitting our parish!”

Well, no one said “evil”. But that was the clear implication. And it makes the statement both more interesting and more accurate based on what usually came next, a sort of speculative gossip or critique of the early Liturgy by those who do not attend it, but have decided that they want those that do attend it to come back to the late Liturgy. To be clear: no one has said they want the early Liturgy canceled for any other reason than because the complainer wants what the complainer wants. Care for those who attend the early Liturgy has been lacking in each and every one of these interactions. And no one who is complaining – not one person – has talked to those who are attending the early Liturgy to see what they want – why they are attending the early Liturgy. It seems that what they need and what they want are not important – important is only what the complainer wants. 

This is not how we “do” Orthodoxy. God is first. Neighbor is second. We are third. In the waxing poetic about the terrible and horrible parish-splitting early Divine Liturgy we have gotten the last two of these priorities mixed up. We are focusing not on our neighbor and our neighbor’s needs, but on our own selfish needs. The early Divine Liturgy exists to serve those who would not otherwise be able to attend the late Liturgy. Those who attend early have various concerns ranging from Covid, to the petroleum smell in the barn causing migraines, to the peace and quiet at the early Liturgy, and so on. People who attend the early Liturgy are people too, and they have their own concerns.

If we had just one priest we would have one Liturgy. One priest can serve one Liturgy on one altar on one day. That formula is set canonically – this is not a local decision or even a diocesan decision – this is a Church decision. But we are blessed to have two priests. At least we are blessed to have Fr. Joseph. My presence as a blessing is still a bit in dispute…. And that means we can have two Liturgies on Sunday. And that means that we can serve those who would not come to the late Liturgy – no matter their reason. What is interesting is that those that attend the early Liturgy do not say “I feel like I am not part of the parish.” On the contrary, to a person they are thankful that we provide this option for them and they feel MORE a part of the parish. Those who are complaining have decided many thoughts for those who attend the early Liturgy, including that they are not part of the parish.

Let us get our priorities straight. God is first. Neighbor is second. We are third. And let’s think before we speak. If those who feel called to make sweeping generalizations about things they know nothing about continue their speeches in this regard maybe those who attend the early Liturgy really will start to think we don’t love them. But because they are not obsessed with trying to manage other people’s lives, or trying to manage things they are not responsible for, they thankfully don’t seem to feel that way. Perhaps soon the early Liturgy will become the place that those go who do not want to hear such empty words spoken by those that should be mature Orthodox Christians. Only the Lord knows. But as your Rector I answer for the souls of ALL in our parish – not just those that want to attend the early Liturgy or the late Liturgy. And this is exactly why I am writing this post. Let us assume that those who attend the early Liturgy do not have ulterior motives to do evil to our parish family – until they prove otherwise. That is how we live as Orthodox Christians: assume that others are good until they prove they are not. And let us assume that our Rector has at least some sort of plan in his head and has made the parish schedule with the hope to provide the most people possible the greatest access to the Divine Services of the Holy Church – until he proves otherwise. And if he does that, let us pray that the Lord will help him. That is how we live as Orthodox Christians: we pray for those that we see are trying their best, but making decisions we disagree with.

The Parish Council decided at its meeting on May 24 to continue the early Liturgy through the summer to try to better understand the needs of all our parish family members.

LET ME BE CLEAR: your feedback is always welcome! But please reflect on the three main priorities listed above before providing that – this will make your feedback valuable and actionable, rather than just a complaint that you are not getting what makes you happy. The Lord did not become incarnate to make us happy – He became incarnate to provide us a path to the Heavenly Kingdom. Let us emulate Him in valuing salvation above our personal proclivities! This will assure that we care for our neighbor’s salvation even more than ours. In that light, we hope that the silliness about splitting the parish with the early Liturgy can be put to rest and replaced by our collective rejoicing that our brothers and sisters that cannot attend the late Liturgy have the opportunity to participate in the early Liturgy!

Asking Your Prayers,

Fr. Gregory 

Annual Meeting 2020 Preparation

Our parish annual meeting is set for Sunday, May 3/16, 2021. We moved this a bit later in the year than we usually do it so that we could perhaps hold the meeting outside to cut down on the potential to spread the virus. The weather looks good for Sunday, so that is almost certainly what we will do.

In order to make the meeting go most smoothly we ask you to review the annual meeting reports BEFORE the meeting so that the 5 minutes allotted to each of the reports can be spent asking questions and giving answers, rather than presenting a report. Below are the reports that are already prepared. Please check back here often for additional reports that you can review before the meeting.

ANNUAL MEETING ANNOUNCEMENT AND AGENDA

RECTOR'S REPORT

STAROSTA'S REPORT

TREASURER'S REPORT - UPDATED 5/13/21

SISTERHOOD REPORT - NEW 5/13/21

BROTHERHOOD REPORT

YOUTH GROUP REPORT

CHURCH SCHOOL REPORT

MEMBERSHIP REPORT - THIS WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR REVIEW AT THE MEETING

INTERNATIONAL ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN CHARITIES REPORT

MATTHEW 25 INFORMATION - NEW 5/13/21

If you would like to ask a question before the meeting you can do so by emailing info@stvladimiraami.org or by visiting this GOOGLE DOC.

Please print off copies of the reports if you would like to have copies to refer to at the annual meeting. Copies of the reports will not be available at the meeting.

Please do not hesitate to let me know if you have any questions - I am always happy to hear from you!

Fr. Gregory

Spiritual Reading During Great Lent

During Great Lent it is the practice of Orthodox Christians to less often engage with secular entertainment. In our days we can count the news media as entertainment, at least broadly, and although we do probably need to have an idea of what is happening in our state, country, and world, it seems like 15-30 minutes per day of consuming the news media is more than enough for us - even outside the fast. Certainly during the fast we wouldn’t want to regularly exceed that moderate limit as a rule. But if we turn off the television and YouTube, what do we do with ourselves?! Of course it is understood that we should be making a concerted effort to be more often at the Divine Services during Great Lent, but even if we attend every Great Lenten service we still have a lot of time left over!

That last little fact, that we spend SO MUCH time engaging in media and entertainment, is probably a good spiritual data point for us. That really is not in line with the life of Christians who came before us, and as Orthodox Christians it is important that we follow the time-tested path to the Heavenly Kingdom that our fathers have trod. So maybe this Great Lent is the beginning of something good for us all? That is, to spend less time locked into media. If we are going to do this, though, we have to find something to do with ourselves! Below are a few suggestions that we might all consider for the great fast – and beyond.

First – silence is a very good teacher. It is good for us to hear the birds outside our window at the time of year. Second – God’s creation is a good teacher. It is good for us to go for a walk, pray, and observe the beauty that the Lord has given us in which to work out our salvation. Third – hungry people are still hungry. Matthew 25 is an action-oriented challenge. Of course – we need to pray for the hungry, the thirsty, the homeless. But we also need to take action. With all the extra time on our hands now that we have untangled ourselves from the nets of the media, let us consider doing the Lord’s work more often. Fourth – read more. Much more. Read the scripture. Read spiritual books. Read other things too, of course, but read things in support of Christian values. It makes no sense to turn off the trash on our screens only to open a trashy book. Especially during Great Lent: get started on a spiritual book. And then try to make it your habit to be working on one or two spiritual books all the time. Every day we should read the Gospel reading appointed for that day. We can find that on the calendar that the parish sends to our home annually, on our home page, in Sunday Reading (page 2 – every issue), and other places too. During Great Lent the Gospel is not appointed to be read during the Divine Services except on the weekends. It is good for us to the Old Testament readings of the day. This helps us to follow the cadence of the Church – and little things like this can help strengthen our faith.

I’m reading “The Sunflower” by St. John of Tobolsk now. Actually, he translated and Orthodoxized (this is a new word that I am copyrighting here and now) the book. Just like St. Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain did with “Unseen Warfare”. These books were authored outside the Church, but these Orthodox saints saw redeeming qualities in them and edited them to be theologically correct. “The Sunflower” has a subtitle: “Confirming the Will of Man to the Will of God”. It seems to me that this is a big part of our Great Lenten struggle. Probably because this is a big part of our human struggle: to conform our will to God’s will. But that is a hard struggle. Because we are proud. And if we are honest, we are very happy to do God’s will – as long as that conforms to our will. But our task is not to conform God’s will to ours – it is to conform our will to God’s. 

St. John of Tobolsk

We have little peace in our lives. And most of that lack of peace comes from the fact that we live upside down lives. If you went around walking on your hands all day with your feet in the air you would have little peace in your worldly life. We aren’t designed to have all the blood in our heads all the time. And we’d look a bit odd too. But we live spiritual lives upside down all day long every day: because we try to get God’s will to conform to our will. And that is why we have little spiritual peace. A book like “The Sunflower” helps to challenge us to stop living upside down. It helps point out where we could do better. It gives practical tips about how we can start, and how we can excel.

We have this book in our library – you can borrow it. You can buy this book in our kiosk. We buy it from Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, NY. You can buy it there too if that is more convenient. In Russian the book is called “Илиотропион”. You can find that:

Here – Full Text

Here – Audio

It is free on Kindle and $3 on Apple Books. If you are reading this in Russia the cost is 250 rubles. It was recently republished by Sretensky Monastery Press.

Spiritual reading is key to our Great Lenten struggle. A book like “The Sunflower” can help a lot – and it seems geared especially to Great Lent. I recommend it highly. But if it doesn’t “hit the spot” do not fear. There are many other things that you can read to edify yourself spiritually. Please ask me or Fr. Joseph about this. We would both be happy to discuss spiritual reading with you and provide recommendations.

Asking Your Prayers,

Fr. Gregory 

Fr. Joseph Towne is Among Us

We were very happy to have Fr. Moses and his family with us during their time here. And very happy that Archbishop Peter gave them an opportunity to move to Austin, Texas. For those who do not know, the parish there has purchased a new building since Fr. Moses arrived and they will soon be turning this building into a traditional Orthodox Temple. Thank God – it seems that this move was in accordance with God’s will!

And we are very happy to have Fr. Joseph Towne join us now that Fr. Moses and family have moved to Austin. Many of you know Fr. Joseph – after he was ordained a few years ago he spent significant time with us here in Ann Arbor. He then went on to serve in several parishes in our diocese. We needed help in our busy and growing parish after Fr. Moses left, and Fr. Joseph had the flexibility to move to us sinners again and take up a permanent position here. This is a great blessing to our parish! Fr. Joseph likes to serve the Divine Services, and we here are thankful to have frequent Divine Services since they are so helpful in our spiritual formation and the deepening of our parish spiritual life. This makes Fr. Joseph a very good fit for our parish! And Fr. Joseph’s arrival essentially gives us two full-time priests in our parish, which is also a great blessing!

Most of the time priests are either married or monks. But not always. And Fr. Joseph is neither married nor a monk. And this is allowed. If anyone has questions about this I urge you to ask them of me – but there is no need to interrogate Fr. Joseph in this regard. :) He is comfortable with his situation and Archbishop Peter has blessed him to serve in our parish and in our diocese. And thank God for that!

Please join me in welcoming Fr. Joseph to our parish family! It is my hope that he will serve us for many, many years. And I know that he will add great value to our parish family. I am personally very thankful that he has been able to come to us and I very much look forward to working with him for as many years as the Lord gives us in His Vineyard, the Holy Church. 

Fr. Joseph is named after the Righteous Joseph the Betrothed, and celebrates his name’s day on the Sunday following the Nativity of the Lord. Please add Fr. Joseph to your prayer list, as I hope you have added me. For we both need your prayers, as do our Deacons and our other clergymen, and we all appreciate your prayerful support!

Asking Your Prayers,

Fr. Gregory