Monasticism is a venerable part of our Orthodox Tradition and for centuries people have both visited monasteries and prayerfully considered taking on a monastic vocation. It would be a great joy if one day our parish would produce men and women who took on the “angelic life” as their calling and I encourage people to take occasional visits to monastic communities for retreat and spiritual refreshment.

Please note, though, some piece of advice that might be helpful in your traveling to, and relationship with, a monastic community.

The first thing I would like you to understand is that holiness and deep observance of our Orthodox Faith are not limited to monastic communities. While monastic life is different from the “regular” world it’s not “better” than your life at home and work, rather it’s another path. Consecration in single life in the world, the life of marriage and family, and the monastic life are all equally valid options, and each has its own challenges and opportunities for theosis. Our Lord was raised in a devout home with holy parents and the routine of life, work, and worship while also taking time to visit the wilderness to pray and reflect thereby showing us that both are acceptable ways of life.

The second thing you need to know is there are differences in the life and work of a monastery and your local parish. It is the monastics “job” to give themselves to routines of prayer, worship, work, and study in a way that will elude most of us with children, jobs, and the multiple commitments of daily life. People who aren’t monastics may feel guilty about what they perceive to be a lack of their own spiritual life as compared to a monastic or attempt to pursue the monastic rigor in a way of life not designed to accommodate it and thereby fall into despair. This is not necessary.

While routines of prayer and spiritual practice are certainly part of an Orthodox life, please know your raising of children in the Faith, your attempts to be Christian at school, work, and in the larger culture are your personal ascetic effort and count as much as the extended prayer and worship cycles of a monastery. After all, every monastic in the world came from a family and so did every Saint on the icons on our parish walls. What is common to both monastic and laity is the desire to purse this Christian life to the best of their ability with God giving them the strength. In the end that, by grace, will be enough whether you live in a monastery or just down the street.

Please also know that while it can be wise to seek the practical advice of people dedicated to a life of prayer you, as a member of a local parish, are not obligated to take on the obedience required of a monastic nor should they ask you to do so. In questions of theology or practice it is the rule (canon) that the teaching office of the Church resides in the Bishops, and that questions related to the expression of our Faith or sacramental issues are theirs for discussion and decision as even monasteries, like parishes, should be under the direction of their local Bishop or Synod.

Finally, do consider that the closest monastery may not necessarily be the best option as there are other factors to be included in your decision to visit and take part in a monastic world. New monasteries may need to “season” a bit to develop a life and flow before they take on visitors. Some monasteries may have a rigor that is suited to those living in them but not applicable to the world outside their walls. As you test the spirits (1 John 4:1) in your own life be open to enjoying the blessings that can come from visiting a monastery but also be wise to see the practical fruits produced by their communal life over the years.

My own recommendation for people to visit St. Tikhon’s in Pennsylvania, for example, is rooted in their being over a century old, home to five actual Saints, and possessing of a well-established pan-Orthodox reputation for both zeal and wisdom. There are other places like this, and we can speak of them if you wish to consider taking the time to find not just “any” monastery but the one that may be most well rounded and beneficial to your growth in Christ.

Someday we will also, as Antiochian Orthodox, have a well-developed and thriving monastic life in this country. We have a small monastic community in Tennessee in its infancy, and, by God’s grace, we look forward to an expansion of monasticism here in the United States. It would be my joy to have one of our family at St. Ignatius take on the monastic life and, if you wish, please feel free to speak to me about options for visiting and supporting monasteries even as you, living in the world, make your own heart a monastery wherever you are.

Even though its been a practice since the dawn of humanity, public executions are really a kind of “death porn” designed to simultaneously shock, pacify, and make a spectacle of someone’s killing for the benefit of power and revenge. We Orthodox Christians have been on the receiving end of such things since the time of the Apostles and I have no interest in joining the “virtual” mob by watching. Whatever your thoughts about the death penalty may be, and I have great apprehensions about it, I hope you consider at least not watching the potential live stream from the virtual coliseum and please pray for this man asking the intercessions of St. Dismas.

I admire the continuity, at least on an official basis, of the Anabaptists when it comes to war and peace.

They are overwhelmingly pacifists, some won’t even wear buttons on their clothing so they won’t be mistaken for soldiers. This is historic for them, an expression of their Christian beliefs. Following how they see Jesus’ words they refuse to bear arms against their fellow humans and that includes “popular” wars like WW2. If they have to they’ll go to jail and often suffer the slings and arrows of public opinion for their stand.

This they do no matter who is President, no matter which political party has power, and whether public opinion is for or against them. They ask for no cameras to record them. They do this with no anger or manufactured rancor. Although it has political implications the motivations are from a living faith and not a partisan posturing. This they believe and thus they act, or refuse to act, and accept the consequences. No pinch of incense to Mars and if suffer they must they will.

Too many of their fellow American Christians, in contrast, seem to have an overarching political understanding to which they add or subtract various aspects of faith as proof texts for a pose or a partisan end. They’re for the wars “their” people start, or at least silent about them, but against those of another. They cry for “justice” against a leader with whom they disagree while conveniently ignoring the same things done when their party was in power. They take to the streets claiming to stand for Jesus but only, it seems, when Jesus appears to agree with them. It makes for great TV but like making a shirt from pieces and not the whole cloth the nakedness is quickly exposed. Worse yet they imagine their hurt feelings as a kind of martyrdom.

Across the spectrum we Americans have often sold ourselves out, not to God but to a party or ideology and then attempt to make God our passenger and not our pilot on the journey. We want the show, the crowd, the catharsis, but not the day to day quiet but determined conviction required of people of faith. We want to rule and if Jesus is agreeable, well, He can come along with us on our path to power but few want to serve, to be anonymous, to be humble and be willing to take on the life of actual and not emotional martyrs. Carrying a sign is easy. Washing the Samaritans wounds is hard.

It would be good to return to consistency, to doing everything we do including speaking truth to power not rooted in a “Jesus added” philosophy but rather “Jesus first.” His works our works. His methodology our plan. His suffering ours. His servanthood our power. And if there is glory then it will be His as well. Then, no matter what the waves of history bring, we’ll be something more than just another movement across time.

We’ll be sons and daughters of the Most High and in the end that’s really the only thing for a Christian that matters.

Dear Mr. President,

I was looking at the news this morning after church services and an idea came to me which is the inspiration for this letter.

A second person has been shot and killed in Minneapolis and it appears that two sides have entrenched themselves even deeper. Protesters and Law Enforcement are stressed and it feels like there’s no end in sight. This seems to becoming more than just about protest or enforcing the laws. It seems things have become personal, political, and somehow like the situation has become a prop for larger agendas on both sides.

You’ve traveled the world to make diplomatic forays and solve conflicts. Consider, perhaps, sitting down not with leaders of hostile nations but with the Governor of Minnesota and finding a way to make the peace not in some distant land but here at home. You both have interests, of course. You were opponents in the recent election. Hard words have been said yet if you can find ways to communicate with leaders of nuclear powers surely there’s a chance to speak with a state official?

Beyond the activists and the officers there are people struggling to make sense of the current events, people of good will wondering “Why?” and looking at the situation and thinking “This isn’t right.” They belong to neither camp but are deeply concerned. Who speaks for them? Who listens to their quiet discomfort about these things even as they look for leaders not to join the combatants but to find a way out. Consider being that kind of leader.

As always, we Orthodox Christians pray for our country, its civil authorities, and all of our Armed Forces. This will continue even as we search for some ray of hope, of softening egos, and consideration for all the rest of us who’ll have to live with the consequences of these days long after the TV cameras leave.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Fr John Chagnon

Dear Mr. President,

As usual you continue to be in my prayers as we Orthodox Christians pray for every civil authority and our Armed Forces. May God grant you wisdom to lead us all to that which is right, good, and decent.

Please consider the times we live in and help us all find common ground. Emotions are frayed, people are weary of soul, and a kind of sadness has begun to creep across our country. Shouters and antagonists are having their wishes fulfilled but the many of us who want to find peace, concord, compromise, and unity are hardly ever heard above the din. Those who wish to live in honor of the law but also in mercy and basic concord with those around us are being shouted down and it seems as if there is no one to speak for us.

I understand and respect that you took an oath but please don’t forget the Law higher even than the Constitution and the Judge greater than the Supreme Court and as you consider what to do and how to act remember all of our accountability to that jurisdiction as well. I encourage you to take the time in your busy schedule not just for planning the next steps or coming pieces of legislation but also for reflection in the presence of God and the reality of things eternal and not just the temporal.

I say these things out of great respect for your office but also with the hope you will find in our Lord Jesus Christ that which wealth, success, or earthly honors can never match, namely grace, peace, and salvation. Your legacy may matter for a short time, but your soul endures forever and please also consider that in how you serve us all as President.

Thank you for your time and consideration. I presume these letters never actually find your personal desk, but my prayer is that somehow the message will still find a way. My encouragement for you to be just and good in an eternal sense of that word also comes with an assurance that you will be in my prayers and that in the swirl of history you will find both grace and the Giver.

In Christ,

Fr John Chagnon

In the immediate years after I graduated from college, BS Mass Communications (Honors) a sea change happened in American Media. Broadcast licensees were released, by the FCC, from the Fairness Doctrine a policy that those who held such licenses were to provide a generally fair and balanced presentation of content especially in regard to politics. Newspapers were basically exempt from this, and you can still find local papers named the “_______ Republican” with an advertised point of view. Newspapers have, can. and do often endorse candidates and take editorial positions but before 1985 these things were rare in broadcast. The theory behind this was that the airwaves belonged to the public with stations purchasing a license, subject to review, while newspapers were private entities with no larger responsibilities. Very partisan magazines such as Mother Jones and National Review were sold, and newspapers were free to editorialize with their only responsibility to the potential purchasers.

After the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine broadcast media began to take on an increasingly partisan tone and where the requirement to be as neutral as possible had once been the rule they began to fragment into serving specific audiences not unlike magazines and newspapers. The proliferation of networks via cable and satellite furthered this fragmentation. Three major networks have become dozens and perhaps hundreds if you include internet and other forms of media. No longer required to be balanced or appeal to a broader audience each began to support themselves by catering their content to a specific audience as a way of surviving because news operations are not charities and require income to continue. So, for example, to keep its target audience watching Fox will have stories its audience wants and skewed to the “right.” CNN does the same but to the left and so forth. By agreeing with the biases of their audience, they try to keep eyes on the screen and clicks on their web pages both of which they use to raise revenue and make profit.

What has happened is that Americans have become residents in news “ghettos” where they choose to only listen to, watch, or click on information that feeds their own biases regardless of the spectrum and, in effect, create an “echo chamber” where complete stories, nuances, or information not part of the preferred narrative are simply not available. Confirming the target audience’s biases, rather than presenting information for them to make their own decisions, is now the business model, has been for decades, and the impetus behind it isn’t good journalistic practice but rather financial return for the major corporations that own most of the national media in the US.

Added to this challenge is the 24-hour news cycle. I’m old enough to remember when TV stations simply went off the air at midnight and resumed broadcasting just before breakfast. Now information is instant, global, and to compete its often presented without the safeguards of time and editorial oversight. In the rush to be the first to the most the normal caution to get the facts straight often gets sidelined over the commercial interest in being first to present and keep those revenue generating eyes on the screen. Released from the obligation to at least try to present balanced information and encumbered by the rush to fill airtime with content stories get presented in fragments with an emphasis not so much on quality information but rather the most eye catching or emotion provoking content over and above context and a larger view. We Americans are naive in accepting that just because something is on a screen it is therefore truth in the best sense of that word and we too often forget that the purpose of the presentation is revenue from the target audience with accuracy and breadth often being impediments to, rather than the purpose of, news

So always ask “Am I getting the whole story or at least most of it?” when digesting media. Then, when you choose to react, and reaction should be a deliberate choice and not just an impulse, you’ve taken the time necessary to know whether you’re doing so on reasonably solid information or a carefully developed script whose goal is the financial wellbeing of the broadcast entity rather than the common good. Wherever you find yourself on the political spectrum give at least the same kind of attention to your news sources as you would to the ingredients for the things you eat, have the intellectual courage to ask even your preferred news sources “Is this the whole story?” and make your decisions accordingly.

Please know that the people on your TV news programs are not necessarily chosen for their journalistic acumen but rather on whether they’re physically pleasing to an audience. They actually have customer surveys and ratings for this and it’s why you seldom see average looking people on TV newscasts. The old joke is that some people just have a “face made for radio” and that’s truer than you might imagine.

Please also know that, exerting the same caution, you may also get information from non-US news sources that can provide larger balance and context. Just be aware that some of these “sources” can be official organs of governments.