Oil & Water: Orthodoxy in Progress

Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. "Deck the halls!" Make a list, check it twice; trim the tree; and don't forget to enjoy those sweet treats in your Advent calendar! 'Tis the season... Before autumnal festivities have even concluded,  it seems the world begins to dive pocketbook-first into the goings-on of a premature and often chaotic iteration of some of the trimmings of Christmastime. The following will provide a glimpse into the season of Advent  according to the Christian liturgical year. The Church calendar is the great composition of centuries of tradition which sings the praises of the Lord amidst seasons of varied particularity, unfolding the great drama of the Gospel before and within the assembled members of the Body of Christ; the rhythmic oscillations of its episodes of fasting and feasting accompany the steps whereby we dance the incarnational choreography of the Christian life, together with pedagogical meaning and transf

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, Thou who sojourned among us in the company of Thy Disciples, have mercy on me in my loneliness and solitude; And, as the One with Whom the multitudes of Thy faithful persevere in Fellowship, by Whose unfailing might we are ever accompanied by so great a cloud of Witnesses as to never dwell in true isolation, send unto my despairing soul the ever-present Comforter, that I may be made perpetually mindful of the Communion of all Thy Saints; That together our lives may be made an acceptable and ceaseless oblation unto the God and Father of all, the Source of all Love, Who, with Thee and the Holy Ghost, art One of the Fellowship of the Most Holy Trinity, one God, now and forever. Amen.

"A heavenly light more brilliant than all others sheds its radiance everywhere, and he who was begotten before the morning star and all the stars of heaven, Christ, mighty and immortal, shines upon all creatures more brightly than the sun."           St. Hippolytus, a third century Roman who wrote in Greek and maintained a theology and philosophy of the Logos consistent with Eastern teaching, maintained a wide variety of interests and addressed more practical issues than theologians such as Origen, with whom an apparently overstated comparison has been made according to Fr. Georges Florovsky. St. Hippolytus was the last Christian writer in Rome to have written in Greek, and St. Photius indicates that he was a disciple of St. Irenaeus. One of Hippolytus’ most unique contributions to theology was his dogmatic work on the discussion of the Antichrist . He also wrote a history of the world, which attempted to produce a calendrical cycle in the Church independent from its Jewish

✙  In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.           Almighty God our heavenly Father, guide the nations of the world into the way of justice and truth, and establish among them that peace which is the fruit of righteousness, that they may become the kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen . Siblings: God commands us through Jesus Christ to love one another. In baptism, we promise to seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving our neighbors as ourselves and to strive for justice and peace, and respect the dignity of every human being. Let us now honor those vows and pray for the Holy Land and all the peoples of Palestine and Israel in this season of conflict and violence, for wise and just leaders, and for the needs of all people of every faith in the Middle East and throughout the world. We pray for continued blessings on all peacemakers, on leaders who value peace, and on everyone who promotes nonviolent solutions to conflict. We pray for a speed

Clement of Alexandria was born around the year 150 AD in Athens to parents who had converted  to Christianity from paganism. Fr. Georges  Florovsky records that Clement endeavored on a sort of pilgrimage to further understand his Christian religion, traveling through Syria, Palestine, and Italy. Commonly noted as one of the leading figures in the Alexandrian catechetical school, Clement was a student of the first teacher of this Didascalia , St. Pantaenus of Alexandria. Due to the polemical nature of the efforts of the Didascalia, Clement was formed into a strong anti-Gnostic and succeeded his instructor, St. Pantaenus. Clement went on to teach students such as St. Origen, and after a flight from the persecution in Alexandria, reposed in Cappadocia between the years 211 and 216. According to Florovsky, the Christian writers of the early centuries saw Clement of Alexandria as a saint. Although our knowledge of Clement is limited, it is evident that he mastered a well-rounded education a

St. Irenaeus was born in the first part of the second century in Asia Minor, had grown up listening to the homilies of St. Polycarp, and emigrated to Lyon in Gaul. Having been “in contact with the Apostolic age,” in the words of Fr. Georges Florovsky, St. Irenaeus is known as the most predominant Christian theologian of the second century; Rt. Rev. Anders Nygren referred to him as the “chief of the anti-Gnostic Fathers,” he was a zealous defender of the truth of Christian orthodoxy against the various heresies of his day, most notably Gnosticism. St. Irenaeus was a priest in the Church of Lyons by the year 177 A.D., under the episcopacy of St. Pothinus, whose throne St. Irenaeus had inherited by 178 after a persecution in that region of Gaul. St. Irenaeus worked in close proximity to the Roman See and communicated with Pope Victor I regarding the controversy of the dates of the Paschal celebration. Florovsky puts forward the idea that “Irenaeus lived up to his name” in this calendar co

"Make me to know your ways, O  Lord ; teach me your paths.  Lead me in your truth, and teach me,  for you are the God of my salvation..." — Psalm 25:4-5          Next to the expectation of reaching desired destinations, perhaps the greatest hope of any honest spiritual endeavor is the progress authentically accomplished by the undertaking of the journey itself. Additionally, such sojourns of faith, often replete with unexpected twists and turns, have a knack for facilitating the evolution of one's expectations along the way.           Those who engage in discussions with me on the subject of such adventures of faith soon become aware of the fact that  I was formerly Eastern Orthodox and am now a practicing Episcopalian. As these experiences of faith have formed such a large part of my identity, I make no demur about the perspectives I hold as a former Antiochian Orthodox seminarian and Subdeacon, and a proud Anglo-Catholic. These ecclesiastical oases of spiritual nourishm