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From: sparta <[Е-ПОШТА
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To: [Е-ПОШТА
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Sent: Saturday, March 22, 2008 8:22:41 PM
Subject: The "Petrified Church" in Kosovo by Archimandrite Nektarios Serfes
Please share with others on behalf of the Decani Monastery Relief Fund
Beloved Friends in Christ our Lord, May our Gracious God always bless you! In
the end who is blessed but our dear brothers and sisters in Christ in the
region of Kosovo/Metohija on behalf of the Decani Monastery Relief Fund.
Thank and may our loving God always bless your good heart and soul!
Let us indeed continue to pray for Kosovo/Metohija and as well as strengthen
our fast for them all!
Peace to your soul!
Humbly in Christ our Lord,
+Archimandrite Nektarios Serfes
Who prays for you!
IC/XC
NI/KA
The
Petrified Church in Kosovo
By
Archimandrite Nektarios Serfes
You may well ask: what in the world am I talking about here?
Petrified Church, indeed!
Recently, I was reading about a little-known lecture delivered during
Great Lent 1916 in England in the middle of the Great War by an Orthodox
prelate who was examining the written commentary of a German professor who had
described the Orthodox Church of the East as a petrified church.
As the Archbishop pointed out nearly 100 years ago, our church knew
then (as we know today) what this German scientist was sarcastically referring
to. The Venerable Archbishops insightful words strike a dramatic chord with us
today and we can easily detect the parallels between his time of crisis,
violence and tragedy and the conflicts that we face in 2008. His commentary
simply resonates!
Comparing the unchangeable image of Christ, fixed in the East once
for all, with the confusing thousand opinions of Christ in Protestant Germany,
he was quite justified in calling our Church by a striking name, so
differentiating her from his own. I am glad he invented the name petrified.
(!)
Later he says that, if petrified means intact, or whole, or
undestroyed or living in the same dress, but still living, then the famous
professor may be right. Yet this petrified church has always come victorious
out of any test to which she has been put.
The term petrified church could well apply to 2008 and the crises
that challenge our world and our Holy Orthodox faith. To my way of thinking,
petrified church could have at least two relevant meanings today:
The first meaning refers to the long and glorious history and legacy of
Orthodox Christianity which is the same today as it was in 1916. Our Holy
Church has not changed with the tides and trends that have afflicted other
religions; we are the same church with the same faith and the same culture
today that we were more than 2000 years ago! We have truly stayed the course,
and this amplifies what St. Nicolai Velimirovic said in 1916.
The second meaning and somewhat different from the first could
well refer to the apprehension and concern of all Eastern Orthodox Christians
around the world with respect to the conditions in Serbia and Kosovo. We are
correct in feeling petrified or afraid about the growing humanitarian crisis
that currently confronts our brothers and sisters in both Serbia and Kosovo.
Sanity requires that we be petrified; our Holy Orthodox Faith
requires that we continue to do something about it!
These are times for all of us, as pious and Orthodox Christians being
the period of Great Lent to pray for our struggling and suffering brothers and
sisters in Christ our Lord in the region of Kosovo/Metohija.
Recently many kind loving souls and good hearts offered their
donations towards the Decani Monastery Relief Fund and more then fifteen
thousand dollars were raised to help ameliorate the difficult situation faced
by our brothers and sisters in Kosovo.
The matter is going to get worse day by day and we will have an
unbelievable humanitarian crisis very soon.
Kindly send your tax deductible donations to the following address:
Decani Monastery Relief Fund
C/O Very Rev. Archimandrite Nektarios Serfes
2618 West Bannock Street
Boise, ID 83702
Thank you and may our Lord God always bless you!
21 March 2008
Boise, Idaho
USA
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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