ho ly as c e n s i o n p ne w s l e t t e r , oc t o b e r...

Holy Ascension PArisH newsletter, october 2011

THE HOLY ASCENSION ORTHODOX CHURCHis the Washington, DC, parish of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad (ROCA), under the omophor (or the conciliar leadership) of Metro-politan Agafangel (Pashkovsky), Bishop of Odessa & Taurida. The Holy Ascension Parish was organized on Ascension Day, 17 May 2007.

BISHOPS & LOCAL CLERGY✠ Metropolitan Agafangel, First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, Metropolitan of Eastern America and New York, and Bishop of Odessa & Taurida ✠ Vicar Bishop Joseph (Hrebinka) of Washington ✠ Father John Hinton, priest ✠ Father Andrew Frick, dea-con ✠ Seraphim Englehardt, subdeacon ✠ John Herbst, subdeacon ✠

ADDRESS3921 University Drive, Fairfax VA 22030 ✠ 703.533.9445.

Russian ORthOdOx ChuRCh abROad, OCtObeR 2011

2

PaRt 1. OuR PaRish. The Holy Ascension parish welcomes all Orthodox people to its sacraments and all people with an interest in Christianity and the abiding Tradition of the Holy Orthodox Church. The immediate Holy Ascension parish member background is Russian émigré and American, with many other English-speaking members. Members, visitors, and people in touch online come from all ethnicities. The Church is One.

http://www.holyascension.info/ http://ruschurchabroad.com/

http://sinod.ruschurchabroad.org/engindex.htm

PaRt 2. Feast OF the the PROteCtiOn OF the theOtOkOs, OCtObeR 14. The Protection of the Mother of God is one of the most belovedfeast days of the Orthodox calendar, which Orthodox Slavicpeoples commemorate on October 1, and Orthodox Greeks onOctober 28. It is also known as the feast of the Virgin Mary’sVeil. In most Slavic languages the word “veil” has a dualmeaning of “cloak” and “protection.” The Russian word Pokrov,like the Greek Skepi, can mean a cloak or shroud, but they alsomean protection or intercession. For this reason, the name of thefeast is variously translated as the Veil of Our Lady, theProtecting Veil of the Theotokos, the Protection of the Theotokos,or the Intercession of the Theotokos. The feast day celebrates the appearance of the Mother of Godat Blachernae (Vlaherna) in the 10th century. At the end the life ofof Saint Andrew Yurodivy of Constantinople, the saint, his discipleSt. Epiphanius, and another group of people, saw the Mother ofGod, St John the Baptist, and several other saints and angelsduring a vigil in the Palace Church of Blachernae, near theConstantinople gates. The Blachernae Palace church held severalrelics of the Theotokos: her robe, veil, and part of her belt,that had been transferred from Palestine during the fifth centuryThe Theotokos approached the center of the church, knelt downand remained in prayer for a long time. Her face was drowned intears. Then she took off her veil off and spread it over the peopleas a sign of protection. During this time, the people in the city

hOly asCensiOn ORthOdOx ChaRCh, FaiRFax, ViRginia

3

were threatened by a barbarian invasion. After the appearance ofthe Mother of God, the danger was averted and the city wasspared. The first celebration of the Theotokos’s veil in the RussianChurch dates from the 12th century. And the feast is celebratedtoday throughout the whole Orthodox Church. The feast daycommemorating the miracle is celebrated with an All-Night Vigil,with many of the same elements that occur on other Great Feastsof the Theotokos. However, there is no afterfeast. The Russian Primary Chronicle notes that the intercession of the Theotokos was also needed for the protection of the people ofConstantinople when a large fleet of the pagan Rus, led by Askole and Dir, was threatening Constantinople. The invad-ing fleet was defeated and the event was remembered by the victorious Byzantine Christians. Strangely, however, the feast came to be considered a very important feast by the Rus-de-rived Slavic Orthodox Churches, but by the Greeks, less so.

Cathedral of the Intercession on a Moat (Pokrovsky Sobor)

(St Basil’s Cathedral), Moscow, Consecrated in 1561.


4

A 12th-century Russian chronicle describes the new intercession as a special feast day honoring the event. Within a few centuries churches were named in honor of the Protection of the Mother of God. Among these churches, three are world fa-mous: the Cathedral of Intercession Upon a Moat, or the Cathe-dral of the Pokrov Upon a Moat, which is popularly known as the St. Basil’s Cathedral, built by Tsar Ivan IV in the mid-1500s, and shown on the previous page. And in Bogolyubovo, Prince Andrew Bogoliusky had already built the Church of Interces-sion upon the Nerl River in 1165, Tserkov Pokrova na Nerli. In Novgorod, the Monastery of the Intercession of Our Lady (Zver-in Monastery) was built a little later, during the 12th century. In recent years, the Feast of the Protection hasbecome associated with thanksgiving for the deliverance of theGreek nation from the Italian invasion of 1940. In recognition of this deliverance, in 1960 the Holy Synod of the Church of Greece elected to transfer the Feast of the Intercession from October 1 to October 28. The Ecumenical Patriarchate also provides for this usage, now generally observed throughout the Greek-speaking world. The observance includes the chanting of a Doxology incor-porating hymns recognizing the Protection of the Theotokos over the Greek nation, as well as the kontakion “O Champion Leader.” So, two different events that took place 400 years apart are com-bined in the standard Protection of the Theotokos icon, shown on page 5, just across from these words. Both events took place in the Church of Blachernae in Constanti-nople. The most familiar icon of the Feast of the Protection of the Mother of God shows the Theotokos standing above the faithful with her arms outstretched in prayer and draped with a veil. On both sides of her are angels. On the lower right hand of the Russian icon are the Sts Andrew and his disciple Epiphanius, who saw this vision of the Mother of God, along with the 12 apostles, bishops, holy women, monks and martyrs, above whom the Theotokos is spreading her veil in protection. St. Epiphanius is wearing a tunic under his cloak, and he gestures in astonishment at the miraculous appearance, while St. Andrew, Fool-for-Christ, is dressed only in a cloak. Below the Theotokos, in the center of the icon, stands a young man with a halo, clothed in a deacon’s sticharion. In his left hand, he is holding an open scroll with the text of the Kontakion for the Nativity in honor of the Mother of God. This is St. Romanus the Melodist, the hymnographer, whose feast is celebrated on the


5

same October 1. He is with his choir, attended by the Emperor Leo the Wise, together with the Empress and the Patriarch of Constan-tinople.

icon of the Pokrov—Of The Protection of OurLady and Ever-Virgin Mary.

(19th-century Russian).


6

PaRt 3. a lesseR Feast. aPOstle JOhn the theOlOgian, authOR OF the FOuRth gOsPel, the belOVed disCiPle OF the lORd, OCtObeR 9.

✠


7

PaRt 4. hieROmaRtyR diOnysiOs the aeROPagite, OCtObeR 16. Saint Dionysios was an Athenian convert of Saint Paul, saved by the saint’s sermon on the Areopagus, the court case area of Athens. He is mentioned in the Book of Acts: ch. 17, v. 34. In the middle ages, St Dionysios came to be associated with Saint Denys, a third-century martyr bishop of Paris, and the eventual Patron Saint of France. He is also associated with a large library of patristic writings that deal with the Holy Trinity and Orthodox salvation by theosis, or by sanctifica-tion by becoming more Orthodox and godlike. The Dionysian writ-ings have been studied widely east and west, and the Aristotelian Christian philosopher Thomas Aquinas cited Saint Dionysios more than 1700 times. The major Dionysian works as listed in tradition have been the Divine Names, the Mystical Theology, the Celestial Hierarchy, and Ecclesiastical Hierarchy.

PaRt 5. hOly FatheRs OF the seVenth eCumeniCal COun-Cil, OCtObeR 23.

The Seventh Ecumenical Council took place in Nicaea in AD 787. Also known as the Second Council of Nicaea, it dealt with the Or-thodox veneration of the icons. Iconoclasm within Christianity had existed partly because of re-enforcement from contemporary Juda-ism and Islam, as well as from some forms of Christian puritanism. The writings of Saint John of Damascus (AD 759-826) addressed the charges of the iconoclasts:

“Concerning the charge of idolatry: Icons are not idols but symbols, therefore when an Orthodox venerates an icon, he is not guilty of idolatry. He is not worshipping the symbol, but merely venerating it. Such veneration is not directed toward wood, or paint or stone, but towards the person depicted. Therefore relative honor is shown to material objects, but worship is due to God alone.”

“We do not make obeisance to the nature of wood, but we revere and do obeisance to Him who was crucified on the Cross... When the two beams of the Cross are joined together I adore the figure because of Christ who was crucified on the Cross, but if the beams are sepa-rated, I throw them away and burn them.”


8

PaRt 6. PROPhet hOsea, OCtObeR 30.

Russian icon of saint Hosea, fRom tHe iconos-

tasis of tHe tRansfiguRation cHuRcH, KizHi monsteRy, 18tH-centuRy.

The Prophet Hosea lived in 8th-century Northern Israel as one of the minor Christian prophets. His difficult relationship with his wife Gomer is presented in Scripture as an illustration of the relationship between God the just and loving Father, and the erring people of

Israel.


9

PaRt 7. maRtyR andRew OF CRete, OCtObeR 30.

Saint Andrew of Crete is an Orthodox Christian martyr. A fervent iconophile, he was killed at the orders of Emperor Constantine V in 766 or 767, during the second period of Byzantine iconoclasm. His feast day is October 20. The Monastery of St Andrew in Krisei, cur-rently the Koca Mustafa Pasha Mosque in Istanbul, was dedicated to him.

PaRt 8. saint JOhn OF kROnstadt, nOVembeR 1.

Father John of Kronstadt (1829-1908) was an archpriest serving in a cathedral near Saint Petersburg, who developed new expressions of Russian piety, such as his theology of family life to compare in dignity with that of monastic life. The best biography of Saint John in English is that of Professor Nadiezda Kizenko, A Prodigal Saint, Father John of Kronstadt and the Russian People (University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2000).

PaRt 9. lituRgies duRing the CiVil CalendaR mOnth OF OCtObeR 2011 All Sunday Liturgies begin at 10:00 am. A luncheon buffet follows all Sunday liturgies. Volunteers may come forward to offer help with cooking at home and preparation at the church. Currently a regular schedule also designates a family that is respon-sible for cleaning the church after the services. The duty is for one month at a time. If you wish to volunteer, please see the warden/starosta, Mr Gontscharow.

✠Saturday, October 1, Vigil at 5 Pm.Sunday, October 2, 1, Sixteenth Sunday After Pentecost. Hours & Divine Liturgy at 9:40 am. Apodosis of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. Martyrs Trophimus, Sabatius, and Dorymedon.


10

Tuesday, October 4, Vespers & Matins at 6:30 Pm.

Saturday, October 8, Vigil at 5 Pm.Sunday, October 9. Seventeenth Sunday After Pentecost. Hours & Divine Liturgy at 9:40 am. Apostle John the Theologian.

Thursday, October 13, Vigil at 6:30 Pm.Friday, October 14, PROteCtiOn OF the theOtOkOs. Hours & Divine Liturgy at 6:40 am. A Fasting Day: Fish, wine, & oil allowed.

Saturday, October 15, Vigil at 5 Pm.Sunday, October 16, Eighteenth Sunday After Pentecost. Hours & Divine Liturgy at 9:40 am. Hieromartyr Dionysios the Areopagite.

Wednesday, October 19, Vespers & Matins at 6:30 Pm.

Saturday, October 22, Vigil at 5 Pm.Sunday October 23, Nineteenth Sunday After Pentecost. Hours & Divine Liturgy, at 9:40 am. Holy Fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Council.

Tuesday, October 25, Vespers & Matins at 6:30 Pm.

Saturday, October 29, Vigil at 5 Pm.Sunday, October 30, twentieth Sunday After Pentecost. Hours & Divine Liturgy at 9:40 am. Prophet Hosea.

Monday, October 31. Vigil at 6:30 Pm.Tuesday, November 1, saint JOhn OF kROnstadt. Hours & Divine Liturgy at 6:40 am.

Saturday, November 5, Vigil at 5 Pm.Sunday, November 6, Twenty-First Sunday After Pentecost. Hours & Divine Liturgy at 9:40 am. Martyrs Arethas & Companions.


11

PaRt 10. sChOOl gRaduatiOn. Mr Daniel Renko was graduated with honors by the Walkesrville High School in Maryland in June 2010. Since then he has produced several of his own films, and he wishes now to make a professional career in film and television. He is currently working to save money to buy a car and to begin his film studies in 2012 at Full Sail Univer-sity in Orlando, Florida.

PaRt 11. iCOn OF st JOhn OF kROnstadt.


12

Please report any suitable and interesting additions and all needful corrections to the newsletter preparer,

Patrick Brown, [email protected]

ho ly as c e n s i o n p ne w s l e t t e r , oc t o b e r...

Documents