Você está na página 1de 16
 
 Winter 2000
 
The Official Publication of the Diocese of the West of theOrthodox Church in America
Diocese of the West650 Micheltorena StreetLos Angeles, CA 90026Phone: 1-800-323-6921Publisher
His Grace Bishop TIKHONBishop of San Francisco andthe Diocese of the West
 Address all stories and editorial comments to:
Editor-in-Chief 
Priest Eric George Tosi429 Yellowstone AvenueBillings, MT 59101Phone: (406)254-1194Fax: (406)254-2094Email: marsaba@aol.com
 Address all circulation:
Office of the Chancellor
5400 Annie Oakley DriveLas Vegas, NV 89120Phone: (702)898-4800Fax: (702)898-0303
The Orthodox Vision is published three timesa year by the Diocese of the West. It is free toall parish members and outreach within the Diocese. Subscriptions outside the Dioceseis available for $10 per year in the United States and $15 per year in Canada.The articles contained herein do not neces-sarily reflect the views or policies of the Dio-cese or the editors. The advertisements con-tained herein are not necessarily endorsed by the Diocese or Editorial Staff.
 In This Issue
Volume 5, Number 3
The new Diocese of the West webpage is now online.
WWW.OCADOW.ORG
For the latest information on the Diocese of the West  Information on all parishes, institutions and departments Archived issues of
The Orthodox Vision
Complete letters of instruction from His Grace And much, much more
From His Grace TIKHON...............................................1Diocese Receives New Parishes.......................................2New Deacon Ordained For Ashland...............................3Diocese Holds Annual Assembly......................................4Chico Looks To Purchase Property.................................5Phoenix Hosts Retreat and FOCA Convention...............6UC-Davis OCF Looks For Student Home.......................6Hesparia Holds Sisterhood Retreat.................................7Educating Our Children in Church.................................8Is Cremation Allowed in the Church?.............................9News From Around the Diocese....................................11From the Fathers: On Attention and DistractionSt. Ignatiy Branchaninov...............................................12
 
1
 From His Grace Bishop TIKHON 
The Orthodox Vision
If we compares Orthodoxy in America with Orthodoxy in countries thatprovided the people that constituted our first American parishes, we mayfind many differences, some superficial, some deep, but one thing is appar-ent: here there is a more apparent
chaos
 in the area of Church order, due tosome historical, some cultural factors. There is a liturgical chaos and anadministrative chaos, both of which sap much of the energy of dedicatedChurch workers; energy that would be better directed to stewardship of allthose Gospel imperatives that may be summed up as the
life in Christ 
.There is also a monastic chaos, perhaps not so apparent as the administra-tive and liturgical chaos, but just as detrimental to the Gospel imperatives.Perhaps the monastic chaos is more painful, more acutely felt, than the otherchaos because monasticism is meant to be the exemplary, the very quintes-sence of,
life in Christ.
One may approach monasticism from the point of view of Church historyand from the point of view of personal history. In Church history, there arethe heroic individuals and communities that fled a public Church life per-ceived by them as becoming inimical to the total commitment to
life inChrist 
 that marked the early Church, especially before the Church’s ap-proval by the world, in the person of the Roman Emperor, St. Constantine.Many thought the embrace of the empire was a death embrace, since thestate required that the Church membership would become socially accept-able, if not obligatory, while Church membership until then had been diffi-cult to obtain, requiring an initial investigation, or “vetting”, and a long anddifficult Catechumenate, which insured the sacrifice of a comfortable life forthe sake of
life in Christ.
 Life in the Church, it seemed to many, was chang-ing from a difficult struggle to a rather pleasant and conventional activity foreveryone. In the early Church, the members had been those who thoughtthey needed the Word of God, the Eucharist, as
 food,
to
survive and to live
:in the new conditions one was threatened with excommunication if one didnot “partake of the Mysteries” for three Sundays in a row. A “sea change”is what a modern person might call it. So the historical view is that monasti-cism was a flight from the world that included “parish life.”One may also approach monasticism from the point of view of the person.I believe the origin of monasticism here is found in the response of aChristian to the event of which we read in the Gospel of Matthew, ch.19, vr21: “Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast,and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come andfollow me.” The young man to whom this was addressed in the Gospelturned away. The person who responds positively to Christ’s exhortation isthe monastic.From this we may see that any “monastic ideal” is the ideal of the Christian,and differs from it not at all. Those who lament “monastic” influences in theChurch, especially in liturgical life, avoid this identification entirely. Theymay not consciously be rejecting total commitment to
life in Christ 
, butthey are certainly rejecting a liturgical life that does not
accommodate
 theirlife in the world.Orthodoxy in Churches in the Russian tradition inherited partly the painfulstruggles around monasticism that agitated the Russian Church at the turnof the century. Many feared that a new “learned” or “elite” monasticismwas as far removed from
life in Christ 
 as people “attending Church” out of a sense of obligation to social propriety. Monasticism was in danger of 
 Monasticism
becoming a specialized “life-style”, a choice taken in orderto work on a Church “career”free of the family obligationsof parish clergy and one lead-ing to ultimate advancement tothe episcopacy. One observa-tion must always be made here,entry into monasticism as ameans to Church advance-ment is a
 perversion
 of monas-ticism. Thus, monasticism itself was in danger of becoming a threat to the“monastic ideal.”Monasticism is sometimes wrongly (and often) touted as a kind of ancillaryinstitution within the Church (or even alongside it) that is supposed to be“beneficial” to the Church! Thus some will use precious resources to builda building, call the
building
 a monastery, and then try to encourage youngmen or women to “help” the Church by becoming monks or nuns! Monas-ticism is not a building: it is
life in Christ 
. Those that go around “recruiting”monastics sometimes seem to be preaching not
life in Christ 
 but various“visions”: the Valaam “vision”, the Athonite “vision,” the Optina “vision,”the coenobitic “vision.” The monastic preacher, like the parish preacher,ought to preach
life in Christ.
 It is Jesus Christ Who is the Goal of the Jesusprayer, not even theosis, not even deification, not even illumination exceptas these are synonyms for Christ.The regulations for life in an Orthodox monastic community are well-estab-lished. The order established in the large Lavras of the Russian Church inPochaev, Kiev, Moscow (Sergiev Posad) , St. Petersburg, not to mentionthe large monasteries of Orthodox Romania and Serbia, of the
monasteries
of Mount Athos and Greece, the order reflected in the Church Typikon, theorder refined by such as St. Seraphim of Sarov and St. Joseph of Volotsk and others all provide a solid foundation for men and women to live theGospel imperative according to the Holy Tradition. In America, St. Tikhon’sMonastery of the OCA and Holy Trinity Monastery of ROCOR, provideoutstanding examples of the best traditions, therefore Holy Tradition, of monasticism, in our country. In our Diocese, too, we are struggling toremain in the Tradition. There is no need to “re-invent the wheel” in or forAmerica. There is no need to artificially cultivate, like hot-house flowers, a“renovated” or “charismatic” monasticism that is going to “renew thewhole Church.” Such perversions of the monastic ideal of
life in Christ 
 aredoomed to failure.May God grant that all of us may focus our strength, all our resources onthe struggle for real
life in Christ.
 Those of you who feel that the monasticideal is the way for you to engage this struggle I encourage to enter amonastery. I do not encourage you to do this “for the good of the Church.”What an idea! I encourage you for the sake of your salvation. May ourmonasteries always be those communities where men and women mayrespond to our Lord’s teaching in the Gospel of Matthew, above!
Our diocesan monasteries are these: St. John of Shanghai and San Fran- cisco Monastery, Holy Protection Monastery, and Saint Barbara Mon- astery.

Recompense a sua curiosidade

Tudo o que você quer ler.
A qualquer hora. Em qualquer lugar. Em qualquer dispositivo.
Sem compromisso. Cancele quando quiser.
576648e32a3d8b82ca71961b7a986505