in the face of all the disucssion and challenge that have rippled through the Antiochian Archdiocese following the decision of the Holy Synod to change its Diocesan Bishops to Auxiliaries is that the deepest wounds always seem to be inflicted in the holiest places.

It’s one thing to be called a name or subject to harsh words by an atheist or an enemy of the Faith, its on another level completely to have the same being done by a fellow Christian. The whole framework of our relationship with each other in a hierarchical Church rests on the trust that we are all working for the greater good and the vulnerability to place ourselves in submission to each other. When that breaks down in angry words and deeds the damage is profound and the wounds go deep.

We’ll have a lot of work to do when all of this blows over.

bass in the house today, a 3/4 size upright bass made in the Czech Republic and roughly ten years old. It’s used, in generally good shape, and sounds decent for a reasonably inexpensive bass (remember these things can cost thousands). A little polish and its looking good and ready to play tomorrow at work for a hymn sing program and then this coming Sunday night at the acoustic jam session.

I’m always torn, of course, about buying an instrument. I’ve spent some real money on good instruments but at the same time the music has always been a source of both consolation and pleasure for me. As I get older I play more blues, old country, folk music, and gospel and hope to perhaps find a small local fiddle band to play with when I finally get off the road and settle down. I guess most of my rock has just rolled away with time. If I could build my own house it would have a large screen porch so I could invite some friends over on a summer night and we’d play for the neighborhood.

In an odd way as I get older I’m gravitating to acoustic instruments. I like the look of them, there’s nothing quite like the look of fine polished wood, but I also like the idea that I could play them without plugging them in. I’m not against electric instruments (I own them) I’m just for the idea, the dream really, of being able to drop everything and play a barn dance without having to look for a plug in or spending an hour or so on a sound check to get the right mix.

Anyways, there’ll be pictures to follow and tomorrow I’ll join my wife at work to play old American Protestant hymns for our hymn sing at work the old fashioned way, upright and unplugged.

about one aspect of the current challenges facing the Antiochian Archdiocese related to the decision to essentially eliminate Diocesan Bishops and I’ve been pondering it for some time.

There has been much analysis of canons and history and possible motives for all of this but very little, practically nothing, about what might be playing behind the scenes. By this I’m thinking about St. Paul’s statement that we “wrestle not against flesh and blood” but rather against “principalities and spiritual powers”.

I’m not particularly crazy about what passes for “charismatic” these days. I remember being the only person in a room not jabbering or singing away in tongues and wondering what was wrong with either me or everyone else, but there is a sensibility there that, properly applied, could shed light on all of this. First there is the sense that there are two teams on the field, including adversaries who would desire to harass and destroy everything of God. The second is that Christians have the ability and authority to engage in the larger spiritual struggle.

In reading the many posts on the topic of the Holy Synod’s decision I have found some wise ones full of valuable information but also a lot of expressions of hurt, anger, name calling, and division. There is certainly disagreement and concern about what has transpired but this has also brought up old hurts, fears, and unsettled things as well. These things are real and I think they’re going to have to be faced but the anger with which they are expressed seems to indicate that there is more here then meets the eye.

Now I’m not saying that the people who have expressed their struggle, their hurt, and their challenges are agents of Satan or that the Holy Synod, in making this decision is diabolical in its intent. But events like this, real events and the struggles they call to mind, can be used by our adversaries to keep us off focus, to turn us against each other not just on principle but also on emotion, and to lay the groundwork for years of broken relationships all of which would do great harm to our Archdiocese and in some senses the larger Church just at the time when there needs to be a consistent and coherent Orthodox witness in our decaying society.

I remember an episode in the old Star Trek series in which the Enterprise (the ship they traveled on) is inhabited by an alien entity that feeds off from the emotions and destruction of war. This entity brings two cultures together with a history of war and then watches and gains strength as they do battle, even preventing the beings involved from dying just so the hatred and fear it needed to survive would continue. The being only goes away when both sides see that they are doomed to an endless war to feed it and at least temporarily set aside their hatred.

I know this is kind of an odd example but I think one of the things that if, in this time of challenge and struggle, we give in to unholy anger we risk not only not solving our issues but also feeding an adversary who draws nourishment, if you will, when the Church is angry, impotent, and divided. The differences the decision of the Holy Synod has exposed are real, but its the anger that has the potential to do the most damage. If this becomes about turning on each other then only Satan will win.

That would be a terrible thing because right now, perhaps more than ever, the world needs everything that Orthodoxy has and is. But if all we can think about is how to score points against other Christians things can only get worse.

are meeting this Friday in regard to the recent directive from the Holy Synod of Antioch changing their status from Diocesan to Auxiliary Bishops. If you are of a mind please lift these men and this situation up in your holy prayers. There could be much at stake.

I’m learning again this Pascha.

A little meat can still make you sick. My diet is largely vegetarian even outside of Lent and so I tried to take it easy in the wee small hours but it wasn’t good enough. I’m now in bed at the hotel waiting for everything to settle. Sigh.

How good it is to have a full church. They were standing in the aisles last night and the church was warm with the energy and life of that holy night. How I would love for that to be every day!

To appreciate the effort that everyone takes to make Holy Week a reality. Of course the Priest works but there were many others who took the time from their day to lend a hand. Thank you.

That even when the services seem to be a matter of getting up there and getting through there are still parts that speak to your spirit. They’re the same words for sure, but there is always a new place in your life where they can fit.

A sense of gratiude for my own home and bed. I live in hotels every weekend and the hospitality is great but I’d trade it right now, and every time, for my own bed with a cat sticking his nose into my face.

faith rediscovered in the secular wilderness.

Truly He is risen!

to all of you on the occasion of Pascha.

Christ is Risen!

are probably the hardest service for people to attend during Holy Week. It’s a long service, two hours and change, there’s not much movement, and plenty of standing. It’s the one service some long time Orthodox avoid.

But it’s important. First it continues the Orthodox way of immersing those who attend in Scripture. Some people think that because they have a Bible study and a text of two in the service that they’re a “Bible Church” but we Orthodox are soaked in Scripture every single liturgy. The Passion Gospels are the epitome of this, the whole service is Scripture held together by the framework of an Orthros service.

Second, the Passion Gospels tell the story of Holy Week, the “why” behind all of what we are doing. Why is Great and Holy Friday “great”? What is the story behind the Resurrection? The Church wants us to know and so we read not just a snip or two but the whole story, from multiple viewpoints so when we ask like they do at Passover “Why is this night different than all the others?” we have, on our own passover, our Pascha, an answer.

like the DHS report identifying abortion opponents as potential “right wing extremists” not to create a sense of paranoia but rather to help people be wise about the times. God is still God, our Faith will endure, and ten thousand years after the United States, or any other country for that matter, is a curiousity of ancient history the Church will remain.

But there is another truth in play. Truly the Church has been sleeping and events like this should, as one poster to this blog has said, “Wake us up…” to see that we have to be alive, vital, willing to reach beyond ourselves, and willing to come to terms with and act on the idea that Christianity is powerful and subversive to the dominant paradigm. The time for discussion is over, it is time to do and be.

I don’t know, does that mean I’m a potential “right wing extremist” too?