Jonathan Jackson: Orthodoxy at the Emmy Awards

Wow - An Emmy Award speech in which the winner starts by giving glory to the Father, Son and Holy Spirit and ends by thanking the monks on Mount Athos, who are ceaselessly praying for the life of the world.

For more information on Jonathan Jackson, see this blog post and this podcast by Father Andrew Stephen Damick.

O Gladsome Light: The Earliest Christian Hymn

People like to talk about old hymns, but in truth, the oldest known Christian hymn, outside of the Bible, is a beautiful little song called "O Gladsome Light."

We sing this as part of vespers and also during the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts during Lent. Both the words and the melody are hauntingly beautiful, and it's a beautiful song of praise focusing on God.

I realize the song was originally written in Greek, but I love the English translation we use. Just the word "gladsome" sends chills down my spine.  And I love the archaic phrase "for meet it is at all times." And I love the idea of the "light of evening."  I believe it's talking about the wonderful time of twilight, when the light takes on a mystical, otherworldly essence.

Most of all, I love the way the song draws our focus toward God and not ourselves.

Here are the words we use in our church:

O Gladsome Light of the holy glory of the Immortal Father, heavenly, holy, blessed Jesus Christ. Now we have come to the setting of the sun and behold the light of evening. We praise God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. For meet it is at all times to worship Thee with voices of praise, O Son of God and Giver of Life, therefore all the world doth glorify Thee.

There are many melodies used, but this one comes closest to the one we sing in our church:

Orthodox Response to "Why I Hate Religion But Love Jesus" Video

Here's an Orthodox response to the viral video "Why I Hate Religion But Love Jesus." This was created by the Orthodox Christian Network.

 

Our Journey into Orthodoxy

Our journey into Orthodoxy took exactly a year, from our first visit to an Orthodox church until our chrismation.  This video chronicles our journey, starting with the day we became catechumens. You'll see scenes from baptisms, a visit from St. Nicholas, church fellowship and holy week.


 The music is by the Smalltown Heroes, an Indiana folk group made up of Orthodox Christians. You can find out more about the group at their website. You can purchase a copy of their CD "Lo, the Hard Times" from their website, or if you prefer an mp3 download, click on the Amazon link below:

Our Chrismation

On April 23 my husband and I were chrismated.  This ancient ceremony is often done immediately following baptism, but because we had already been baptized, we only needed to be chrismated.  In this ancient ceremony, we were anointed with oil (or holy chrism). All the newly chrismated church members, along with their sponsors, held hands and sang, "As many as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ" (from Romans 6:3).

Our Orthodox Church Choir Singing Doxology

Recently the choir of our church (St. John of Kronstadt Eastern Orthodox Church) sang in an ecumenical concert. Here they are singing "Doxology"

Becoming Orthodox by Peter E. Gillquist

One of the first books I read when I was exploring Orthodoxy was Becoming Orthodox: A Journey to the Ancient Christian Faith by Peter E. Gillquist. This book chronicles the spiritual journey of several pastors who had been involved in the evangelical group Campus Crusade for Christ. They wanted to develop a church that was as close as possible to the New Testament church. Each one researched a different area--worship, church history, doctrine--and then they combined their research and tried to recreate the early church. What they discovered was that the early church was exactly like the Orthodox church of today. In 1986, hundreds of parishioners were chrismated and became Orthodox during one large service. The book is incredibly readable.

The story is told in this series of videos, called "A Journey to the Ancient Church":