The Latest News in the Diocese

Secretary of Holy Synod addresses recent Washington Post article

SYOSSET, NY [OCA] -- On behalf of the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Orthodox Church in America, His Grace, Bishop Tikhon of Philadelphia and Eastern Pennsylvania, sent a letter dated March 22, 2011 to Julia Duin of the Washington Post in response to an article focusing on His Beatitude, Metropolitan Jonah, that appeared in print two days earlier.

Resolution on OCA Current Events

Whereas, the Diocesan Council of the Diocese of the West affirms the conciliar nature and polity of the Orthodox Church as expressed in the Holy Canons and the Statute of the Orthodox Church in America; and

Canonical Bishops in the West Celebrate Sunday of Orthodoxy

His Grace, Bishop Benjamin, hosted the annual gathering of the Canonical Bishops in the West for a Sunday of Orthodoxy Liturgy at Holy Virgin Mary Cathedral in Los Angeles. Pictures are available at:
http://www.antiochianladiocese.org/news_110314_3.html

Teddy Bear Roundup

Parishioners from St. Peter the Aleut Orthodox Church in Lake Havasu City, AZ organized a “Teddy Bear Round-up” during the month of February to help benefit the local disaster relief efforts of the American Red Cross. The parish collected dozens of new, soft, cuddly stuffed animals to help the Red Cross replenish its supply of “luvies” that are given to help calm frightened children in disasters.

OCA Deacon appointed at Loyola Marymount

Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, CA, announces the appointment of Rev. Dr. Nicholas Denysenko as the new Director of the Huffington Ecumenical Institute. Dr. Denysenko has taught at The Catholic University of America, George Washington University, and at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology. He is an ordained deacon of the Orthodox Church in America. He joined LMU in Fall 2010. His areas of current research include the Blessing of Waters in the Byzantine Rite; Orthodox Ecclesiology in Ordination Rites; Contemporary Pastoral Liturgy; Heortology; The Christmas and Lenten Liturgical cycles; Mariology in Liturgy; the Ukrainian famine of 1932-33 and Faith. He has published many articles in such prestigious journals as Logos: A Journal of Eastern Christian Studies, Studia Liturgica, Theological Studies, and St. Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly.

Paul Tiyambe Zeleza, Dean, Bellarmine College of Liberal Arts, stated that "I believe this appointment will strengthen the program, as well as offer greater opportunities for collaboration. Both objectives are essential to our interfaith dialogue initiatives."

Japan Appeal – Hawaii Mission Update

Aloha Friends,

It has been an eventful week. We did have a big tsunami evacuation last week, and the tsunami did come. Kona was hardest hit in Hawaii.

Thankfully, no one was hurt, but there was some tens of millions of dollars property damage along the coast. No one in our parish was directly affected.

I did receive inquiries from some friends of the Mission—many wanted to know how we were, and some asked if there was any need for donations in the wake of the tsunami.

I was touched by their care for us, but I knew that the money was most needed in Japan. We do feel a certain closeness here, with about 30% of the popular of our island being ethnically Japanese. Also it is significant that the only known previous parish on the Big Island, which existed in Hilo in the 1930's, was mostly Japanese.[*] Furthermore, back in 2008, our Mission adopted and was adopted by a parish in Yokohama as a "sister parish," and our children exchanged Pascha cards. (Did you know there are two bishops, about 20 priests, and over 60 churches and missions in Japan, and that the Church of Japan was founded in 1861?)

So an idea was born—perhaps we could send some funds directly to the Orthodox churches in Japan.

LENTEN MESSAGE OF BISHOP BENJAMIN

GREAT LENT 2011

To the faithful clergy and faithful of the Diocese of the West

For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
(Matthew 6:21, read on Cheesefare Sunday)

Dearly beloved,

On the threshold of our entrance into the Great Fast, our Lord asks us to look deep within ourselves, to the very depths of our hearts, and find what is truly there. We hear these words every year, we wonder every year how this moment came back so quickly, we even dread just a little the journey before us.

But the essence of the Fast, the “what” the Church calls us to accomplish, is to find that small, secret place in our hearts that only God and I can see, and sweep it out. Great Lent is not — nor can ever be — only about “how” we accomplish this. Self-denial takes many different forms for each and every single person. Some can fast quite rigorously physically while some can’t. But Lent is not about “doing better things,” although that is certainly one of our hopes.

No, brothers and sisters, Great Lent is about emptying ourselves so that God Himself finally has room to reside in us! Great Lent is the time we put aside the things that occupy so much of our time and effort to seek the “one thing needful” — our Lord Himself and communion with Him.

The world is so turbulent. The Church herself has been turbulent. Our lives are often turbulent. In the storm and noise of life, God Himself cannot be heard over the din.  Great Lent is when we put aside the turbulence and, in the peace and quiet that can only come from Him, we are enfolded in His embrace.

Join me in the Lenten effort. May all of us in fasting, repentance and return see the Kingdom made for us in the glorious celebration of the Resurrection. Please forgive me as I do all of you as we enter into the holy days of the Fast.

Yours in Christ,

†Benjamin, Bishop of San Francisco

MEMORY ETERNAL – Priest David Shank (UPDATED)

Word has come that Father David Shank, serving at the Church of the Annunciation in Milwaukie, OR, fell asleep in the Lord on March 3, 2011, after a long battle with cancer.

Funeral Service for a Priest
Friday, March 11, 7:00 pm

Divine Liturgy and Burial
Saturday, March 12, 9:00 am

Please remember the servant of God, the Priest David, and his grieving family, in your prayers. May his memory be eternal!

PASTORAL LETTER ON RECENT EVENTS

March 3, 2011

Holy Martyrs Eutropius, Cleonicus and Basiliscus of Amasea

Beloved Clergy, Monastics and Faithful of the Diocese of the West

As many of you are painfully aware, there are numerous speculations and opinions floating about the internet following a recent meeting of the Holy Synod of our Orthodox Church in America.  I believe there is no accident that this great temptation is happening just before the period of the Great Fast.

I have been quite reticent about making matters more complicated, more confusing, and more perilous by making some sort of public statement that will be parsed and scrutinized by others.  We have come to a precarious time in our history, a time when it is possible for anyone with an opinion or thought to broadcast it to the world.  And, it seems there are those who feel every matter is their business.  The result is soul destroying.  The demon of gossip runs about freely among us, hardly detected and unexposed to the light of day...