XPost: alt.religion.christian.east-orthodox, alt.christnet.theology   
   From: hayesstw@telkomsa.net   
      
   Sergei Chapnin, an Orthodox journalist in Moscow, sent me three   
   questions related to the Pan-Orthodox Council being held next month. I   
   think he is collecting responses from quite a number of people, and I   
   think he hopes to collate and publish them on the web. Here are my   
   responses:   
      
       1) What trends (both positive and negative), in your opinion,   
   determine the life of the Orthodox Church on your local level (parish,   
   diocese) and worldwide?   
      
       The power of the media in shaping people’s worldview means that   
   they often fail to use Orthodox criteria in evaluating things that are   
   happening in the world around them. Locally, Orthodox are a small   
   minority, so this is even more significant. The Orthodox Church is   
   seen as just one of 10000 different Christian sects, and it is very   
   difficult to develop an Orthodox fronima.   
      
       2) What is the practical need for cooperation between the local   
   Churches? How important for you personally is this problem and why?   
      
       For us in Southern Africa one of the things we lack is   
   monasticism. It would be very good if local Orthodox Churches with a   
   strong monastic life could help us by sending some monks to help   
   establish it here. I would like to see a monastery with monks from one   
   each of several different countries — one Greek, one Russian, one   
   Romanian, one American, so that they would be forced to communicate in   
   English and help to develop an indigenous South African monasticism   
   with local people.   
      
       3) What hopes do you have for the forthcoming Pan-Orthodox   
   Council? (Will it become a significant event for the whole Church, or   
   an event primarily for the church administration, etc,?)   
      
       One hope I have is that it will recognise other minsistries than   
   ordained clergy (bishops, priests and deacons). These are important,   
   but we also need evangelists, catechists, lay pastors and teachers. In   
   the past the church had ways of recognising these, and while there   
   should be scope for local variations, the council could lay down   
   general guidelines.   
      
   After thinking about these questions and a few other things, including   
   an article on the 150th anniversary of Dostoevsky's "Crime and   
   Punishment" I wrote a blog post here,   
      
   https://t.co/SKBCXMDDwA   
      
   mainly for the benefit of people who attend a kind of literary coffee   
   klatch where we chat rather discursively about Christianity and   
   literature. Perhaps we'll chat about these themes, perhaps not.   
      
   But I thought I'd post this here too, in case anyone else has   
   interesting thoughts about these or related themes.   
      
      
      
   Steve Hayes   
   http://people.tribe.net/hayesstw   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)