Category: Other Christians

This icon, the image of the Mother of God “Reigning”, is visiting Russian Orthodox churches in the United States this month as part of a celebration at the restoration of full communion between the Patriarchate of Moscow and the Russian Orthodox diaspora. Tonight it’s at a church in Boston.
It has an interest for Catholics too, related to its history. This icon became known in Russia in 1917, and it was discovered in a village church on the very day Tsar Nicholas II abdicated the throne.

The miracle-working “Reigning” icon of the Mother of God was found the same day on which Tsar-Martyr Nicholas II abdicated the Russian throne— March 2/15, 1917. The Russian Orthodox people accepted this occurrence as a witness that the ultimate authority over and care for Russia had passed to the Heavenly Queen Herself.

The idea that Our Lady, the Queen of Heaven, was also becoming the particular protector of Russia reminds us, of course, of the Fatima message, which Our Lady disclosed to the seers there starting on May 13, 1917. It is therefore rather nice that she started to reveal her role as Queen of Russia on February 13 of that year:

On February 13, 1917, the Most Holy Mother of God appeared in a dream to the peasant girl, Eudocia Adrianova, and spoke to her these words: “There is a large, dark icon in the village of Kolomenskoe. It must be taken from there; the people must pray.” On February 26, in a second dream, the girl saw a white church and a majestic Lady within it. The peasant girl decided to search for the church she had seen in her dream. On March 2 in the village of Kolomenskoe, near Moscow, she recognized the Church of the Lord’s Ascension as that very church. A diligent search by the girl and the church’s rector revealed a large, dark icon of the Mother of God—the very image that had revealed itself to Eudocia in her dream.

The icon’s name corresponds to its iconography. The Theotokos is represented as the Queen of Heaven and Earth. Dressed in a green gown and red garments reminiscent of an imperial mantle, She is seated upon a throne, her right hand bearing a scepter, her left hand resting upon the monarchical orb. Upon Her head is a crown encircled by a golden halo. The Infant Christ sits upon her knees, His right hand raised in blessing, His left hand pointing towards the monarchical orb.

Voice of Russia radio has the moving story this week of a woman raised under the Soviet atheistic system, who trained for the Soviet foreign service. Living far away in affluent Washington, she began to feel the mysterious stirrings of God in her heart, drawing her to re-examine her life and become a Christian believer. To hear the program, select the broadcast from Saturday 0800; the “Christian Message from Moscow” feature starts at 31 minutes into the hour.

A reader sent in a note today with the sad news that our brother in Christ, Rod Dreher, has separated himself from the Catholic Church. To confirm it, he quoted a message he received from Fr. Joseph Fester, associate priest of St. Seraphim Cathedral, which is in Dallas. Fr. Fester wrote that “Rod is a recent convert to Orthodoxy, here at St. Seraphim’s.”
As I wrote in May, “Unless breaking communion with Rome has a positive value for someone, it’s hard to see a way to justify the departure.”
Rod’s justifications for it seem tinged with a certain air of compromise: ten years ago, he wrote, he urged an Evangelical friend to opt for the Catholic Church, and the friend replied that his kids were likelier to remain Christians if he were to become Orthodox. At the time, Rod “humphed at this, and told him that if the arguments for Catholicism are true, that’s all he needs to know, that the rest would sort itself out.”
Now Rod is “doing it for the children” too. In May, he wrote: “It’s hard to separate the intellectual from the emotional in all this, especially because I really am a Papa Bear about protecting my kids, physically and spiritually. And yet, and yet … is Catholicism true? Is Orthodoxy true? Is Orthodoxy true enough?”
This doesn’t read like the words of a man who thinks that the truth of the Catholic religion is inferior to that of the Orthodox religion: it reads like a man talking himself into a compromise: settle for an alternative that is not quite as true as the Catholic faith, and hope that it’s “true enough” to accomplish one’s salvation.
Perhaps he thought that being in a smaller, purer, more supportive community will be better for his kids than being in the Catholic Church. And it may turn out to be as he wishes. But ultimately the salvation of others depends on the providence of God, and sacrificing the truth, even in a small way, to accomplish some intended good, reveals a lack of steadfast faith in that providence.
Having said all that, I do pray for Rod: that if he has committed any grave fault or fallen into error, may God have mercy on him and come to aid him.

Maybe the man is getting loopy in his old age, in which case somebody ought to gently shuffle him out of the broadcast studio permanently. You may recall that Rev. Pat Robertson blamed the ACLU and feminists (among others) for the September 11 terrorist attacks. I yield to nobody in my disagreement with both of those groups, but since Mohammad Atta and his merry men were not First Amendment fetishists, nor did they believe in “equal work for equal pay,” that remark was more than unfair.
Pat has also expressed support for nuking the State Department. Today, Pat thinks that the little town of Dover, Pennsylvania might get smited for throwing out politicians they don’t like:

Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson warned residents of a rural Pennsylvania town Thursday that disaster may strike there because they “voted God out of your city” by ousting school board members who favored teaching intelligent design….
“God is tolerant and loving, but we can’t keep sticking our finger in his eye forever,” Robertson said. “If they have future problems in Dover, I recommend they call on Charles Darwin. Maybe he can help them.”

Having worked for a company owned by an eccentric religious megalomaniac, I feel like I have some insight into Robertson’s mentality. He has been around for so long, commands such a vast not-for-profit empire, and has absorbed so much criticism (deserved and undeserved), that he knows he can say pretty much whatever he wants without any consequence. Otherwise, why would he presume to know God’s motivations for permitting a particular evil?
Reverend Robertson, for the sake of the religion you profess, I beg you: please shut up.
Update: Blogs4God expresses similar thoughts at greater length, with a bonus critique of a cretinous editorial by USA Today that “intelligent design is the scientifically untestable theory that life forms and the universe are so complex that a higher being must have been involved in making them. Put another way, it’s creationism with clever new packaging.”
Creationism is the belief that the earth is only a few thousand years old and that all life sprang de novo from the hand of God. Intelligent design accepts that the earth is millions of years old, but attempts to show that it is mathematically improbable that mere chance can explain the emergence of new species, or the formation of complex biological processes at the molecular level. In that sense, it is falsifiable: orthodox Darwinians simply have to show that all of the staggeringly complex biochemical reactions within higher organisms could be the result of chance.

Coptic Christians, who make up about 5-10% of Egypt’s people, are not hiding in a corner and hoping the violent Islamists who threaten society there will, Inshallah, go away. Instead, last year their pope protested attempts to force Christians to convert to Islam; now, a church in Alexandria has the fortitude to denounce the criminals via a dramatic performance. What do the Islamists’ supporters do to protest this unjust criticism? One stabbed a nun this week and a crowd came straight from Friday prayers to riot at the church. That’ll prove those infidels wrong!
Remember our brothers and sisters who suffer for the Christian faith.