HOLINESS — What Is It? Is It Important?

Many Christians today hardly give holiness a second thought. For them, holiness is something for the clergy, the monastics, and especially for the Saints, but not something that needs to be a serious concern for the average Christian. “I am no saint,” Christians are sometimes heard to say.

Is holiness central to the Christian life, or is it an optional extra meant primarily for a few? Is there a universal call to holiness for all Christians? The Sacred Scriptures are clear on the matter: “For I am the LORD your God. You shall therefore consecrate yourselves, and you shall be holy; for I am holy” (Lev. 11:44); “Speak to the congregation of the children of Israel, and say to them: ‘You shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy” (Lev. 19:2); “but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, ‘Be holy, for I am holy’” (I Pet. 1:16); and “Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14).

Many Christians view holiness in moral terms — sexual purity, support for traditional marriage and marital fidelity, and opposition to abortion. Still others identify holiness with spending a lot of time in prayer, studying theology, or engaging in ascetic labors; but holiness is not moralism or even asceticism. 

Good morals are fruits of holiness, but not its root; and asceticism is an important means to an end, but not the end in itself. The Apostle Paul writes, “Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and although I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing” (I Cor. 13:1-3).

Holiness is not something we do or refrain from doing. Holiness is relational. Holiness is union with the Triune God Who is love, and sharing in the holiness of the God-man Jesus Christ. St. John the Divine writes, “And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and He who abides in love abides in God, and God in him” (I John 4:16). 

Our Lord Jesus Christ summarized the torah, the teaching or the Law of God, in one word: Love. “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets” (Matt. 22:37-40). 

The Apostle John writes, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another... If someone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar: for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also” (I John 4:7-11; 20-21).

Christian love is self-sacrificing and is manifested in showing compassion and mercy to others, and always wanting what is best for them. “Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails” (I Cor. 13:4-8).

Compassion is when you see a person or another creature in need and you help. Mercy is when you give someone another chance, not a second chance but another chance. Our Lord tells us that we should forgive someone 70 x 7 times, so giving someone merely a second chance falls far short of Christian love. 

Summarizing the ascetical  teaching of St. Isaac the Syrian (d. c. 700), Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev) says, “Those who strive for holiness should, first and foremost, imitate God’s love: that all-encompassing co-suffering love that makes no distinction between the righteous and sinners, between friends of the truth and its enemies.”

St. Isaac the Syrian says, “What is a merciful heart?... It is the warming of the heart of man toward all creation, toward people, the birds, the animals,... and all creation. When he remembers them or beholds them his eyes shed tears of a great and intense pity that encompass the heart. And from great suffering his heart diminishes, and cannot endure, hear or see any creature suffer harm or even small grief. Because of this, he brings forth prayers every hour with tears for the speechless creatures, the enemies of truth, and those who do him harm, so that they might be protected and be purified; he also offers prayers with great pity for that which creeps on the earth; this pity is aroused in his heart until he has likened himself in this respect to God” (Ascetical Homilies, Homily 48).

St. Paul writes, “Owe no man anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not bear false witness,’ ‘You shall not covet,’ and if there is any other commandment, are all summed up in this saying, namely, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love does no harm to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfillment of the law” (Rom. 13:8-10).

What of asceticism? Detachment, self-discipline and self-sacrifice are vital parts of the Christian life. Speaking of the fallen world and its allurements, the Apostle John writes, “Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world — the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life — is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever” (I John 3:15-17). And St. Paul writes, “But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified” (I Cor. 9:27); “For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you mortify the deeds of the body, you will live (Rom. 8:13); and “Mortify therefore your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry” (Col. 3:5).

Holiness is relational. Holiness is a loving union with God who is love. “God is love, and He who abides in love abides in God, and God in him” (I John 4:16). It is love for God, Who first loved us, that unites the Christian in an intimate personal relationship with the Holy Trinity, allows the Holy Spirit to change him from the inside, and motivates and empowers him to be light and salt in the world and to suffer and even lay down his life for Christ. The Christian is to be in the world, but not of the world, and is to live a life of love toward God, mankind and all creation.

St. Isaac the Syrian says, “Love is hot by nature, and when it flares up in a person without measure, it makes the soul foolish. Because of this the heart that has felt this love cannot contain and endure it... It is with this spiritual inebriation that the apostles and martyrs were drunk, and they traveled the entire world, laboring and enduring insults, while others shed blood like water from limbs that were cut off. In the midst of terrible suffering, they did not lose heart but endured valiantly, and being wise, were declared fools. Still others wandered ‘in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth’ (Heb. 11:38-39), and were the most composed and calm during times of trouble. May God grant us to attain this folly!” (Ascetical Homilies, Homily 73)

“And now abide faith, hope, love, these three, but the greatest of these is love” (I Cor. 13:13).

CHRIST IS BORN! GLORIFY HIM!

Merry Christmas!

We had a wonderful celebration of the Nativity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ at Holy Cross Orthodox Church. The church was festively adorned for Christmas with a beautiful Christmas tree, wreathes, pine swags, and many poinsettias. The Christmas candle was added to our Advent Wreath and our Nativity Scene was set up near the sanctuary.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day saw bone-chilling temperatures, and high winds with wind chills approaching -40 degrees. Schools and most community activities were cancelled due to the extreme cold and area churches cancelled their mid-week activities, — but not Holy Cross Orthodox Church.

We gathered together at 6:30 PM to celebrate the Liturgy of the Holy Eucharist for the Nativity of Christ, and then had a traditional English Christmas party after Mass. Attendance was good despite the frigid weather, and we had a blessed and merry Christmas. There were brethren at the Liturgy that we hadn’t seen for a while, and I received e-mails from others. The smell of incense mingled with that of pine, and we sang some beloved Christmas hymns during Mass: O Come All Ye Faithful; Hark the Herald Angels Sing; and Angels We have Heard on High. At Communion time our Cantor sang, O Holy Night. There was Gregorian chant for the Propers and the liturgical music was that of Merbecke.

After the Eucharistic Liturgy we gathered in the parish hall for a Christmas party and the serving tables could hardly hold all of the food! We had two kinds of soup, hot apple cider, coffee, two cheese trays and port wine cheese balls with four kinds of crackers, minced meat pies, and a vast array of wonderful and delicious deserts. To warm us in the cold night we enjoyed glasses of Port - a traditional desert wine. It was indeed a merry Christmas. Matushka Cheri and I didn’t get home until 11:00 PM!

Among the many blessings that I received at Christmas were e-mails from two Anglican priests telling me of their desire to bring their congregations into the Western Rite of the Orthodox Church. When Anglicans enter the Orthodox Church they are not joining a “new” Church, but simply returning to the Church of their Fathers, to the Church of the Apostles, to the ancient Church of the British Isles that was separated from the Orthodox Church by the Norman Conquest in 1066.

We have celebrated the birth of the Saviour of the world, and the joyous celebration will continue for the Twelve Days of Christmas. And we have much to celebrate. We all fall short in so many ways as we struggle to love God with all our heart, soul and mind, and our neighbor as ourselves, but the good news is that “God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom. 5:8 NKJV).

Blessed Seraphim Rose (d. 1982) said, “Understand two thoughts, and fear them. One says, ‘You are a saint,’ the other, ‘You won’t be saved.’ Both of these thoughts are from the enemy, and there is no truth in them. But think this way: I am a great sinner, but the Lord is merciful. He loves people very much, and will forgive my sins.”

Jesus came to seek and save that which was lost — you and me! The Holy Spirit then gathers the harvest into Christ’s Church. Please don’t settle for substitutes. There is a difference between the Church founded by Christ which has His promise that the gates of hell will never prevail against it, and the thousands of divided and competing denominations that are ever wrangling, changing, splitting and reconfiguring. The Church of our Fathers invites all men and women everywhere to come home.  The welcome mat is out, the door is open and the lights are on. There is a place for you and your family, and you will be welcomed with open arms. You can come home again. Merry Christmas!  Christ is born! Glorify Him!

JOIN US FOR THE FEAST OF THE NATIVITY OF CHRIST, WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 7th, AT 6:30 PM

COME AND CELEBRATE OUR NEWBORN KING.  O HOLY NIGHT!

Dear friends in Christ,

I would like to invite all of the readers of this blog to join us on Wednesday evening, January 7th, at 6:30 PM to celebrate the Feast of the Nativity of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Wednesday, January 7th, is Orthodox Christmas. We will be celebrating a Solemn Mass of the Nativity of Christ at 6:30 PM with incense, our Vested Choir, Gregorian chant and joyous Christmas music. Come and experience our incomparable Liturgy. 

The church and parish hall are beautifully decorated for Christmas and the smell of pine fills the air. We have a beautiful Christmas tree in the church, with many poinsettias, wreathes and pine hangings. On Wednesday evening we will be lighting the fifth candle on the Advent Wreath - the Christmas candle, and our Nativity Scene will be set up as well. There will also be flowers on the altar again and the Gloria in Excelsis will return to the Liturgy.  

After the Liturgy there will be a traditional Christmas party in our parish hall. The parish hall is also festively decorated with poinsettias, and a small Christmas tree, and is warm and inviting. Members of our church family are asked to bring refreshments for the party, but visitors do not have to bring a thing — they are our guests! Just come and celebrate the birth of our newborn King! Come and glorify Him!

Why are we celebrating Christmas on January 7th? For a thousand years all Christians were on the same calender, the Julian Calendar. Even after the Great Schism of 1054, all Christians East and West continued to use the same ancient Calender. Then, more than a half millennium later, Pope Gregory XIII of Rome introduced a New Calendar in the year 1582, the Gregorian Calender. Initially, the Protestant countries continued using the Old, or Julian Calender, but one by one for reasons of trade and economics these countries adopted the New Calender. The last Western power to adopt the New Calender was the British Empire in 1752. Until the mid-18th century our British fore-bearers in the Faith and our Colonial American ancestors remained on the Old Calender with the Orthodox Churches. When the British government finally adopted the New Calender there were protests and even riots in the Empire, including the American Colonies. When Holy Cross parish entered the Orthodox Church in June of 2013, we returned to the ancient Christian Calender. The Old Calender is thirteen days behind the New Calendar, so Christmas Day, December 25th, on the ancient Calender falls on January 7th on the Gregorian or New Calender.

In a day when Christians universally decry the materialism and commercialism of Christmas, Orthodox Christians are able to focus on Jesus Who is the only real Reason for the Season. When Santa and the reindeer have come and gone, we still have two weeks left in Advent to spiritually prepare for a Christ-centered Christmas. 

Even if you have already celebrated Christmas and have taken down your decorations come and celebrate with us. Christmas is the best time of the year You cannot have enough of Christmas!

Let’s keep Christ in CHRISTmas and the Mass in ChristMAS. Come and join us for the Liturgy of the Holy Eucharist for the Feast of the Nativity of Christ on Wednesday evening, January 7th, at 6:30 PM, and plan to remain for our traditional Christmas party after the Liturgy. You will be both welcome and blessed. Our address is:

HOLY CROSS ORTHODOX CHURCH, 7545 Main Street, Ralston, Nebraska 68127. For more information or for directions call the church at (402) 573-6558.

We are a faithful and friendly church, and we have a place for you. See you there!

CHRIST IS BORN. GLORIFY HIM!

2014: A YEAR IN THE LIFE OF HOLY CROSS PARISH

HOLY CROSS ORTHODOX CHURCH

A Western Rite parish of

the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia

7545 Main Street

Ralston, NE 68127

www.holycrossomaha.net

(402) 573-6558

December 10/23, 2014

Dear friends in Christ,

I hope that you are having a spiritually profitable Advent season and that you will have a holy and merry Christmas.

By the grace of God, the year 2014 has been a very good year at Holy Cross Orthodox Church, and we have been blessed in so many ways. Holy Cross is a faithful, friendly and active parish with a mission to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ to those who do not know Him and the fullness of the Apostolic Faith to those who do, to build up the Body of Christ, and to care for the most vulnerable in society — the poor, the sick, the pre-born, and the aged. 

So far this year we have contributed 5,237 pounds of much needed food to the Open Door Mission, an increase of 240 pounds over 2013, and every ounce was donated from within the parish. I am hoping that we will be able to make yet another delivery of donated food to the Open Door Mission before the end of the civil year. 

Every Friday and one Saturday of every month parishioners pick up donated gourmet bread donations from a local sandwich shop and make deliveries to the Francis and Siena House Shelters. Each delivery totals around 150 pounds of gourmet bread.

We are also actively involved in ministry to long-term residents at Douglas County Hospital. Services are conducted in the hospital chapel every month for all who care to attend, and a number of catechumens there are being prepared for reception into the Church. 

This Advent we organized a parish Mitten Tree in our church hall and parishioners donated new mittens, gloves, scarves, underwear and socks for men, women and children in need. A large amount was donated and delivered to the Open Door Mission.

After the Liturgy on Sunday, December 21st we put up our Christmas tree in the church and decorated our church and parish hall for the upcoming Christmas season. The church looks beautiful and smells wonderful. We will be putting up our Nativity Scene on Christmas Eve.

At Holy Cross parish we celebrate the Liturgy of the Holy Eucharist three days each week, and our Sunday Eucharistic Liturgies include Gregorian chant for all the Propers. Confessions are scheduled to be heard two days of each week and by appointment.

Our parish Sisterhood, the Sisters of Holy Cross, is very active and involved in the ministry of Holy Cross Orthodox Church. Most recently our Sisterhood purchased a large flat screen television and DVD player for the parish so we will no longer have to project movies and teaching DVDs on a wall.

In May we had an episcopal visit to Holy Cross parish. Bishop George of Mayfield, who is also abbot of Holy Cross Monastery in West Virginia, visited our church at the request of Metropolitan Hilarion. During his visit he tonsured a Reader for us.

In June we welcomed two priests who have become good friends of our parish to Omaha for an extended stay. They instructed Fr. Michael and I in the Eastern Rite so we could become bi-liturgical priests. While they were here Fr. Michael and I each celebrated the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom four times. We have a lot to learn, but we are learning!

In July I was blessed to have an opportunity to concelebrate the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom with his Beatitude Metropolitan Jonah and a number of Orthodox clergy. Metropolitan Jonah is himself a former Anglican and a great friend of traditional Anglicans.

I am assisted at Holy Cross parish by a retired priest Fr. Michael Smith, an ordained Reader, a Music Director, a traditional Vested Choir, a parish Sisterhood, the Guild of St. Joseph - a parish organization made up of woodworkers and craftsmen who beautify and maintain our temple, and by some very capable Sunday School teachers. Our adult Christian Education class is taught at the college level.

Fr. Michael, a late vocation, celebrated ten years in Christian ministry this year, and our newly ordained Reader has decades of experience as a Lay Reader in the Episcopal and Anglican Churches. Our Music Director is an accomplished singer and choir director who uses her gifts and talents to the glory of God.

In 2014, Matushka Cheri and I celebrated thirty-two years of marriage and thirty years in Christian ministry together. During those thirty years we have lived in four states and visited many more. On September 28th, we celebrated my thirtieth anniversary in Christian ministry with a Solemn Mass, followed by a catered luncheon in our parish hall. It was a wonderful day that we will never forget, and Matushka and I are looking forward to our next thirty years together in parish ministry.

As formerly traditional Anglicans we had always believed that Anglicans were Western Orthodox Christians separated from the Orthodox Church by the accidents of history. We always looked forward in hope to reunion with the Orthodox Church, but the Anglican branch theory led us to believe that we were already in the West what the Orthodox Church was in the East. By the grace of God we came to see the error of this theory, and that Anglicanism at its best could only lead us to the door of the Church, but no further. To be Orthodox Christians we had to be members of the Orthodox Church.

In the summer of 2012, we began working with the Vicar-bishop and Pastoral-vicar for the Western Rite of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia. A year later, after much preparation, we were received into the Russian Orthodox Church in June of 2013. 

As a canonical Western Rite parish we are thoroughly Orthodox in Faith while preserving all that is best in our Celtic and English patrimony. For more information on the life and ministry of Holy Cross Orthodox Church I invite you to visit our parish website: www.holycrossomaha.net.  You will find our website packed with helpful information. To get a feel for our Sunday worship I invite you to visit the Photo Gallery on our Website and to view the slideshow under “Worship at Holy Cross Orthodox Church.” There you will see photos of our Eucharistic Liturgy, Vespers, the visit of Bishop George and the tonsure of our Reader.

The Christian life is the good life at Holy Cross Orthodox Church. We enjoy fellowship and refreshments in our parish hall every Sunday after the Liturgy, and a potluck luncheon on the last Sunday of every month. In 2014, we enjoyed a parish outing to see the Omaha Storm Chasers baseball team play on Faith and Family Night at Werner Park; we had our annual Summer Church Picnic at Halleck Park in Papillion; our annual Fall Hayrack Ride, Bonfire and Potluck at Santa’s Woods; and just this month we had a parish outing to the Omaha Symphony Orchestra’s Christmas Spectacular at the Holland Performing Arts Center.

Yes, by the grace of God 2014 has been a very good year at Holy Cross Orthodox Church, and we are looking forward to another year of service to God, his people and the community at large in 2015. If you have not worshipped with us recently or have never visited Holy Cross parish before I hope that you will soon. The “Thinking About Visiting?” page of our website will give you more information about us and what to expect when you visit. Please feel free to call or e-mail me any time. I am always here for you. You will find that we are a faithful and friendly church, and that everyone is always welcome.

May God grant you every grace and blessing,

Father Victor Novak+

Rector

RUSSIAN LANGUAGE CLASS

Have you ever thought about taking a short-term missionary trip through an Orthodox Christian missionary society, visiting Russia or Eastern Europe, or have you always wanted to learn another language? In September Matushka Cheri and I began taking a non-credit Russian for Beginners class at Metropolitan Community College in Omaha. We have enjoyed the class very much and learned a lot, not just about the Russian language, but about Russian culture as well. By learning some Russian we can communicate with people who speak various Slavic languages. 

After learning that we were taking a Russian language class several people in the parish expressed interest in taking the class as well. So I talked with our teacher about it and we have made it possible for anyone who is interested.

I have been able to arrange for a Russian for Beginners class to be taught at Holy Cross Orthodox Church beginning in January 2015. The teacher will be Dr. Munavvar Dadajanova, a native Russian speaker and a practicing Orthodox Christian. Dr. Munavvar Dadajanova earned her doctorate in languages during Soviet times and moved to the United States in 2001. She teaches Russian at Creighton University and at Metropolitan Community College. This will be the same class that she teaches at these schools with the same text book. 

Class will meet on Thursday evenings from 6:30 to 8:30 PM in our parish hall, beginning Thursday, January 15th, and ending on Thursday, February 19th. This will be a non-credit class, but a Certificate will be awarded by the teacher to those who complete the course.

In addition to Russian language, the class will introduce students to Russian culture, history, religion, literature, music and food. The cost of the class is $90.00, plus $30.00 for the text book. This is not a parish fund-raiser. The class is open to people outside the parish as well, so please be sure to tell your family and friends about it. Everyone is welcome.

Holy Cross Orthodox Church is a Western Rite parish of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR). For more information about us you can visit our parish website: www.holycrossomaha.net . 

We are conveniently located in the Ralston Suburb of Omaha, Nebraska. Our address is: 7545 Main Street in Ralston. We are just south of the 72nd Street exit off Interstate I-80, and three blocks west of 72nd Street on Main Street in Ralston. We are located on the East side of Hillcrest Landing. Just look for our signs. You can't miss us.

Let me know if you would like to take this interesting, helpful and fun class. You can contact me by e-mail at venovak@hughes.net or call me on the church phone: (402) 573-6558. If you plan to attend this class you must make reservations with me, so please contact me as soon as possible. I'll be looking forward to seeing you on January 15th!  

HOLY CROSS WEBSITE UPDATE

Dear friends in Christ,

Our parish website has just been updated with new material and photographs. I hope that you will visit our website and share it with others. It is packed with information about the Orthodox Church and Faith, the Western Rite within the Orthodox Church, and about Holy Cross parish. Here is the link:

http://www.holycrossomaha.net

My letter on the Home page will give you a helpful overview of our parish and its ministries. I suggest that you then go to the Photo Gallery and view “Worship at Holy Cross Orthodox Church.” On the slideshow you will see what a Sunday Eucharistic Liturgy is like at Holy Cross parish. You will also see photographs of the visit of Bishop George of Mayfield to our church and the tonsure of our Reader.

A visit to the About Us page will tell you more about who we are and where we come from. The Sidebar has some very important articles that you will want to read. First, I recommend that you read “Do You Have A Personal Relationship With Jesus Christ?” You will then want to read “Introducing the New Testament Church” and a “Letter To An Inquirer.” For those who want to dig deeper into the Faith and practice of the Church, I suggest viewing the “Recommended Reading List” which is also found on the Sidebar. These books will be very helpful in your spiritual journey.

The Thinking About Visiting page is also something that you will not want to miss. On it you will find thorough and helpful answers to sixteen commonly asked questions such as “What are the people at Holy Cross like?”, “How are you different from traditional Anglicans?”, “How are you different from traditional Roman Catholics?”,  “What is your pastor like?”, and  “How does the Orthodox Church view non-Orthodox Christians?”

The News page will keep you up on the latest church news, and Fr. Novak’s Blog will not only keep you up to date on parish happenings but will also give you my take on much, much more. I hope you will keep coming back to read Fr. Novak’s Blog.

As you have time I encourage you to look through each page of our information packed website and read all of the articles. It is well worth the time and effort. What you learn will help you share your Faith with others and to defend the Faith when necessary. Our mission at Holy Cross is to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ to those who do not know Him, and the fullness of the Apostolic Faith to those who do. This website will help equip you to do the work of an evangelist.

Short on time? Then at least read my letter on the Home page and view the slideshow under “Worship at Holy Cross Orthodox Church” on the Photo Gallery, — but be sure to return and visit the website again when you have more time.

A big Thank You to Hannah Frederick our Web Mistress for her good work in building, maintaining and updating our parish website. Being Web Mistress is no simple task. It is a demanding and time consuming ministry, but a very vital one.

Please be sure to introduce your family and friends to the Holy Cross website. An easy way to do this is to send it out to your Facebook friends.

If you have never visited Holy Cross parish before or haven’t worshipped with us recently, I hope you will accept my personal invitation to worship with us soon. If you are not in the Omaha area but have an interest in the Orthodox Church in general or the Western Rite in particular, please contact me by e-mail or by phone. I would be happy to  help you and to answer your questions.

Holy Cross Orthodox Church is a faithful, friendly and active parish, and we have a place for you!

May God grant you every grace and blessing,

Fr. Victor+

V. Rev. Victor E. Novak

Rector

HOLY CROSS ORTHODOX CHURCH

7545 Main Street

Ralston, Nebraska 68127

www.holycrossomaha.net

Rectory: (402) 687-9458

Church:  (402) 573-6558

FIFTY-THREE PARISHES OF THE PHILIPPINE INDEPENDENT CHURCH ENTER THE ORTHODOX CHURCH

I have some wonderful news to share. In early 2014, a whole diocese of the Philippine Independent Church converted to Orthodoxy together with its two bishops, all of its priests, and 28 parishes.

Their example has now been imitated by 8 more PIC bishops and 25 more parishes. In total, 53 parishes in the Philippines have come into Orthodoxy so far this year!

You can read about it on Orthodox Church Cognate website for November 18, 2014: 

http://theorthodoxchurch.info/blog/news/2014/11/whole-diocese-of-the-philippine-independent-church-converts-to-orthodoxy/

The Philippine Independent Church is an independent national Catholic Church in the Philippines. The PIC was established in 1902, by clergy and laity who had left the Roman Catholic Church. Initially isolated, the Philippine Independent Church struggled theologically to find its bearings after its separation from Rome. Eventually, the Episcopal Church USA and European Old Catholics intervened to help the PIC develop as a national Catholic Church. By 1960, the Philippine Independent Church was in full communion with the Episcopal Church USA, the Anglican Communion and the Utrecht Union of Old Catholic Churches.

When the Episcopal Church USA abandoned its historic Liturgy and approved the ordination of women at its 1976 General Convention in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the Philippine Independent Church repaid their debt and immediately came to the assistance of traditional Anglicans in North America.  When the first four continuing Anglican bishops, James Orin Mote, Robert Sherwood Morse, Peter Francis Watterson and C. Dale Doren, were consecrated on January 28, 1978, one of the consecrators was The Right Reverend Francisco J. Pagtakhan, Bishop Secretary for Missions and Ecumenical Affairs of the Philippine Independent Church.

Sadly, the new-born continuing Anglican Church, called the Anglican Church in North America in 1977 and 1978, struggled to find stability and unity, and began to divide after its very first provincial synod in 1978. Eventually, the Philippine Independent Church tried to intervene to bring the factions together again. Unsuccessful, the Philippine Independent Church later established the “Anglican Rite Jurisdiction in the America’s” (ARJA) in an effort to provide Catholic Anglicans in North America with a stable ecclesiastical life as part of the PIC. That too failed, and the PIC gave up its attempt to establish an Anglican Rite jurisdiction here.

Unfortunately, the same heretical ideas that had forever changed and splintered the Anglican Communion and later the Utrecht Union of Old Catholic Churches also began to make inroads into the Philippine Independent Church, leaving the PIC a house divided against itself and eventually becoming the dominant position in the Church. Fortunately, rather than forming yet another small and isolated “continuing” Church, Orthodox-minded clergy and congregations of the Philippine Independent Church have entered into full sacramental communion and visible unity with the 300 million-member Orthodox Catholic Church under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate. So far they total ten bishops and fifty-three parishes with their clergy. To God be the glory! 

Twenty years ago Anglicans made up the second largest group of converts to the Orthodox Church. Today they may be the largest. In the past most Anglicans entered the Orthodox Church as individuals and families, although a few Orthodox congregations were actually established by groups of former Anglicans. 

Today all of that has changed. Whole parishes with their clergy are coming into the Orthodox Church. Some are entering through the Eastern Rite, while others are entering through the Western Rite. There are now canonical Western Rite Orthodox churches and monasteries in North America, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, and on the continent of Europe.

The Anglican continuum is now divided into some 46 small and competing jurisdictions in North America alone, with the largest having of less that 5,000 members in the United States. While larger, the new Anglican Church in North America, established in 2009, is a house divided against itself. It is so comprehensive that Zwinglians, Calvinists and Catholics are all found in the ACNA, and there are dioceses that “ordain” women and dioceses that do not “ordain” women. Catholics are a distinct minority in what ACNA primate Archbishop Foley Beach rightly describes as “an Evangelical church in the Protestant tradition.” A house divided against itself cannot stand.

There are still some Catholic Anglicans talking about “Ecumenical dialogue” with the Orthodox Church and “diplomatic missions” to this or that Orthodox See, but what they fail to see is that the door to unity is already open. Both the Russian and the Antiochian Orthodox Churches have Western Rite parishes and monasteries right now. All Catholic Anglicans need do is to walk through the door where they will be warmly welcomed with joy. 

There is nothing more that needs to be discussed. Whole congregations with their clergy are being received into the Orthodox Church. The only requirement is that that the fullness of the Orthodox Christian Faith be embraced without addition or diminution (Jude 3). Our Western patrimony is being preserved and we are rebuilding the Western Church. St. John the Wonderworker of Shanghai and San Francisco said, “Never, never, never let anyone tell you that, in order to be Orthodox, you must be Eastern. The West was Orthodox for a thousand years...”

Holy Cross Orthodox Church was received into the Orthodox Church in June of 2013, from the Anglican Church in North America (ACNA); and we are a Western Rite parish of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia in the English parochial tradition. As Anglicans, we had always understood the goal of the English Reformation to be the restoration of the Faith of the Undivided Church. The Orthodox Church is the unchanged and unchanging Undivided Church from which the Roman See tragically fell way in AD 1054. For us, the English Reformation which began in 1534, was advanced by the Caroline Divines of the 17th century and the Oxford Movement of the 19th and 20th centuries, has finally been completed. Our wanderings in the wilderness are over. We are home. We are happy, and we are not looking back. Would you like to come home? I can help. E-mail me at venovak@hughes.net or call me at (402) 573-6558.