Thursday 24 March 2011

Orthodox Mission - Ethiopia

It is always beneficial to consider how the Orthodox Faith has been introduced to various nations, and to commemorate the activities of Orthodox missionaries through the ages. Among the most famous are the brothers Frumentius and Edesius who were used by God to bring the Orthodox Faith to the people of Ethiopia.

According to the early writer Rufinus, who appears to have spoken with Edesius, the young brothers accompanied their uncle Meropius on a trading trip to Ethiopia. On their way through the Red Sea the whole crew was killed by the people of the area with the exception of the two boys, who were taken as slaves to the King of Axum. The boys gained the trust of the King as they grew into manhood, and shortly before his death he gave Frumentius and Edesius their freedom.

The Queen prevailed upon them to stay and assist her in the government of the Kingdom and the education of her young son, the Prince Ezana. They encouraged the practice of Christianity among the merchants who regularly came to the Kingdom and later were able to convert some of the Ethiopian people to the Orthodox Faith.

When Ezana came of age Edesius chose to return to Tyre where he was ordained a priest. His brother Frumentius hoped that the Faith could be more properly rooted in the country and chose to stay. But he travelled to Alexandria with his brother and asked St Athanasius, who was the Patriarch at that time, to send a bishop for the Ethiopian people.

St Athanasius considered that Frumentius was himself the best candidate to be consecrated as bishop for the Ethiopians and so he became bishop in about 328 AD. He returned to Ethiopia and baptized King Ezana who had ascended to the throne. Then he engaged in much missionary activity throughout the Kingdom and built many Churches with the support of the King. The people called him 'Revealer of Light' and 'Father of Peace'.

It is interesting that St Patrick, the Enlightener of Ireland, had also been a captive and a slave, and became the means of bringing the Christian Faith to his captors. In the same manner St Frumentius was first introduced to the Ethiopian people as a slave, and yet was used of God to bring the freedom of life in Christ to those who were his captors.

This should suggest to us that missionaries need not be strangers to those among whom they serve, even if they are of a different cultural and ethnic background. To be a missionary is to have been 'sent' by God, but it does not mean always abandoning the situation into which God has placed us. The members of the Coptic Orthodox Church may not feel that they have a right to share their faith in a country that has welcomed them as immigrants, but if our Orthodox Christian Faith is a treasure hid in a field, or a pearl of great price, then we have a responsibility to share it as a gift.

We see that in common with the Prophet Daniel and the Holy Youths, who experienced captivity themselves in an alien culture, St Frumentius and his brother never abandoned their faith and their inward spiritual culture, but preserved it even among a pagan and unbelieving people. When the time was ripe St Frumentius was enabled to bring in a harvest of souls because he had remained faithful even in a foreign land. He had been a slave, the lowest of all, but he became the confidant of Kings and the head of the Church in Ethiopia which he was blessed to establish.

Friday 18 March 2011

Orthodox Studies - First video presentation

Thanks to the financial support of a few dear Orthodox friends I have been able to set aside some time to begin to develop a whole series of video presentations. These will be about 10 minutes in length and first of all will examine the teaching of the Orthodox Faith about the sacrament of the Eucharist. They have as the intended audience both existing Orthodox faithful, and of course those non-Orthodox who are seeking to gain a better understanding of what we believe.

I am sure that I will change various features of these presentations as I become more used to producing them, but this first one is at least comprehensible. Please consider if you, or those you know, are also able to financially support this ministry so that more presentations can be produced. At present the ongoing support for this work allows only for about 3 days of activity to be committed to it. Your financial support would allow for more time to be set aside from secular employment to produce these instructional videos.

Here is the first video. I'd appreciate comments and ideas to improve it.

Tuesday 15 March 2011

Missionary Resources - New Lecture

Over the last few days I have been completing a 6,000 word article describing how and why I became Orthodox, and some of the differences I had to take account of between the Evangelical Protestantism I had grown up with, and the Orthodox Faith I was growing into. Such accounts of how a person became Orthodox are useful, (not that mine has any particular merit) because they allow others to see that they also could become Orthodox.

Here is a section of it...

I am immensely grateful to my parents and those other faithful Christians who gave me a knowledge of God and a desire to serve Him. I am grateful for many of the opportunities I received to serve God and to exercise a measure of faith and trust in Him. But I gave up all of this evangelical experience, and all of the possibilities which lay before me within the evangelical protestant world and I became Orthodox. I was not a nominal protestant, I was entirely committed to God. I was not ignorant of the faith, but had trained for ministry. I was not without any prospect of service, but had already received an invitation to become a youth pastor in an evangelical church in which I had helped to run a children’s mission.

If the person who has become Orthodox does not adopt a negative and polemical approach towards the community of their origins, and this is rarely useful, then the description of the various teachings and practices which they had to reconsider in the light of their journey towards Orthodoxy can become something which produces thoughtful reflection on the part of the one reading such a testimony. This is because the questions raised are from a person who has shared the same background, and not from someone who might be considered an 'outsider'. There is sometimes a sense that within Orthodoxy people should not share their testimony, or their life story, but it need not and should not be a matter of self-pride, indeed more often than not it is a cause of great thankfulness towards God.

I have recorded this particular talk and it is available for download here - Born Protestant, Became Orthodox. I'd be very interested in any comments folk might have.

Thursday 10 March 2011

Mission as it happens

Over the past few days I have been trying to find some time to work on a couple of documents. One is the first section of the Enquirers book/course. I have managed to write about 4,000 words out of the 5,000 I want to publish. Here is the very beginning of this beginning..

How to begin an introduction? Do we start with the question – what is the Orthodox Church? Or do we ask – what is Orthodoxy? For many people the two are synonymous. Orthodoxy is what the Orthodox Church teaches and lives out. But of course much of the substance of Orthodox teaching and practice is also taught and lived out by many other Christians. Does this mean that Orthodoxy is no different from every other Christian community? Or does it mean that no other Christian community believes and lives out the Christian life? 

Neither of these extreme positions needs to be adopted. But the context in which this Orthodox teaching is lived out does make a difference, both to the spiritual ends in view and the means which are used to reach them. Many religious people fast, for instance, but why do Orthodox Christians fast? Most religious people pray, but how and why do Orthodox Christians pray? The reason why we do things makes sense of what we do. So this brief description of Orthodoxy and the Orthodox Church will not pretend that no other Christians believe and practice many of the things which Orthodox Christians believe and practice, but it will try to describe why and how the Orthodox practice might have a different meaning or value.

I have also been working on the text of a video presentation called Born Protestant, Become Orthodox. It begins with some aspects of my own life and experience, but is also going to look at the significant differences between Orthodoxy and Protestantism. I am working hard to make sure that it remains a truthful and honest account of my life and the reasons why I came to reject Protestant theology and spirituality, so that it is useful both within the context of the Orthodox Church, and to those within Protestantism, as I was, who are seeking a deeper and more fruitful experience of God.

Thursday 3 March 2011

The Harvest is the Lord's

It is very easy to become discouraged, not only in the Christan life, but especially in the ministry of mission. In my own experience the resources have seemed too few, and the harvest too great. Walking around my home town I have sometimes felt the burden of all these souls who do not know Christ and are separated from the Orthodox Church. It can be an unbearable burden if we seek to carry it all alone, I mean apart from God. Indeed there is a sense that such a missionary burden can be a matter of pride. There are times in my life as an Orthodox Christian when I have hoped to organise the vast crowds of non-Orthodox into the Church and have assumed that merely organising some activity would be all that was ever required. More than that, it has been all to easy to fall into the trap of believing that if only resources were available then every missionary goal would be achieved.

I have had to learn several necessary lessons. I have learned that the ministry of mission is not accomplished in the first place by organisation, but by prayer and fasting. Indeed this season of Lent is an appropriate occasion to reflect on the period of fasting which our Lord engaged in before his own public ministry, and to consider that the period of the Apostles Fast also reminds us that their own spirit-filled ministry required prayer and fasting. St Paul and St Barnabas were set apart for their missionary ministry after prayer and fasting, and they themselves set apart presbyters in the Churches with prayer and fasting. Organising activities can be exciting, but the spiritual substance of any activity depends on prayer and fasting. With such spiritual activity anything is possible, but without it nothing lasting can be achieved.

I have also had to learn that the burden of the unreached is not mine, it belongs to the Lord, who loves these thousands and millions much more than I could ever do. Indeed he knows each one by name, knows all their circumstances, and is always seeking their salvation.

Matthew 9:37-38 teaches us, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few; Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest. 

These verses show us that the harvest is the Lord's and not ours. It is He who will decide where and when it is to be brought in. These are His fields and not our own. We should feel a burden for the whole harvest, but it should not overwhelm us because it belongs to the Lord and not to any one of us. We are responsible for those things which God has given us to do. This is a liberating teaching. It allows us to be both prayerfully responsible and also to allow God to work out His will according to His own purposes. What is required of us is obedience. The harvest is the Lord's.

But of course this does not mean that we cannot fail to be obedient. It does not mean that we cannot fail to support those labourers whom God is sending into the fields. It is possible for us to be disobedient. There is both a need for obedient labourers, but also for obedience in praying for and supporting those who are labouring. The harvest is the Lord's but He allows us the grace to share with Him in bringing it in. Whether we are called to bring in much or little all that is asked of us is obedience.

Tuesday 1 March 2011

Mission as it happens

I mentioned a little earlier that we were organising a Family and Friends Liturgy this past Sunday, not least because the beginning of Great Lent seemed an appropriate opportunity to pause and consider the meaning of our Christian life. We sent out quite a few emails to people we are more or less in contact with, and I wrote some note cards to a few people, personally inviting them.

On Sunday the Church looked beautiful. Members of the congregation had been in early to make sure everything was clean, and to arrange fresh flowers and light the candles. As usual it is never known who would respond, but we had prayed and left our organisation and efforts in God's hands, since the harvest belongs to the Lord.

By the time the Liturgy proper was underway we had 8 visitors, many of whom had never worshipped with us before. I made a point of greeting each one at the Kiss of Peace, and afterwards made sure that each received some of the anti-doran and a blessing. I had deliberately made use of the prospect of seeing some new faces to preach a sermon on fasting which considered its Biblical origins and its being part of the tradition of the Church from the very beginning.

Afterwards some of our congregation had prepared a buffet for us to share with our guests, and they all stayed for conversation and a light lunch with us. This is a useful means of inviting people to a fairly non-threatening situation, they are, after all, being categorised as Friends and Family. We will certainly be organising a similar event later in the year.