We Gave Him A Stone

The Press Release Reads:

”On Wednesday Feb 20, 2008 Fr Gregory Momongan 32 years of age was hit by a car. He died today, Thursday, Feb 21. Fr Gregory was the only Orthodox priest serving on the huge Indonesian Island of Sulawesi also called Celebes. He served the town of Manado. He leaves behind a wife and one year old daughter. Fr Gregory had been riding a motorcycle which is a common means of transportation there when he was hit by the car.” This morning at the end of Liturgy, our priest emeritus at St. Ignatius in Franklin, Tennessee told us of the tragic news. What the above press release does not say is that Fr. Gregory was using his motorcycle as a taxi to earn “a few pennies” to support his family. I have never come so close to shouting out in a church, especially since becoming Orthodox. I had to restrain myself from shouting out, “Why? Why was this dedicated priest, our priest, having to try to earn a few pennies to support his family? Why wasn’t the church giving him what he needed? Why weren’t our Bishops who sent him there providing for his needs? Where is the heart for missions? Our priests are our missions.”

So I will shout now. Shame on us, Bishop and Layman alike for allowing such to happen!

This young priest and many like him on foreign soil and on our own soil risk their lives everyday to serve our Lord at the bidding of their Bishops. Some dodge Muslim terrorists in foreign lands. Some work among the meth addicts and prostitutes with their wives and young children by their side while we fill our coffers and simply “pray” for their welfare.

Selfishness! Greed! Apostate! Shame! All are to blame, every man woman, child, who does not give to missions either through the Church or directly. Missions is not a program, it is real people with real names. Father Gregory’s wife has a name, Maria, and so does his infant daughter, Paskhalita, who will never know her father on this earth.

”Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread,will he give him a stone?” Father Gregory and other dedicated Orthodox priests do not even ask for bread and yet we still give them a stone. If we allow our priests to continue to suffer need it would be better for a millstone to be hung around our own necks.

The four orders of the priesthood are Bishop, Priest, Deacon, Laymen. If the Bishops, Priests and Deacons fail to support our mission priests, then it is left to all laymen to give directly to our mission priests. A good first step might be to give to Gregory’s wife and child and to the support of his church in Indonesia.

You may give directly to this specific need by going to the Friends of Indonesia website. Or may also send a check to:

Friends of Indonesia

P.O. Box 9484

Baltimore, MD 21228

Place "Father Gregory" on the Memo line.

100 % of all emergency donations will go directly to pay outstanding hospital bills, funeral expense, and long term provisions for Father Gregory's wife and infant daughter.

Addendum added 5/16/09:

59. If any bishop, or presbyter, or deacon does not supply the needs of any of the clergy who is in want, let him be excommunicated. If he persists, let him be deposed as one who has killed his brother.This Canon applies to the distribution of gifts brought to the Church for the purpose of supporting the clergy (Canon 4 of the Holy Apostles).

Life Takes A Holiday

FROM THE UK TELEGRAPH
Last Updated: 2:03am GMT 22/02/2008

An artist killed herself after aborting her twins when she was eight weeks pregnant, leaving a note saying: "I should never have had an abortion. I see now I would have been a good mum."

Emma Beck was found hanging at her home in Helston, Cornwall, on Feb 1 2007. She was declared dead early the following day - her 31st birthday.

Her suicide note read: "I told everyone I didn't want to do it, even at the hospital. I was frightened, now it is too late. I died when my babies died. I want to be with my babies: they need me, no-one else does."

The inquest at Truro City Hall heard that Miss Beck had split up with her boyfriend, referred to as "Ben" after he "reacted badly" to the pregnancy.

She saw her GP before the termination, but missed an appointment at a hospital in Penzance. She then cancelled, but later turned up to an appointment at a clinic at Royal Cornwall Hospital in Treliske. The counsellor was on holiday so a doctor referred Miss Beck to a pregnancy counselling telephone service eight days before carrying out the abortion when she was eight weeks pregnant, the inquest heard.

The coroner, Dr Emma Carlyon, ordered that the identities of the doctor who performed the abortion and her lead consultant be kept secret.

The inquest heard that Sylvia Beck, the victim's mother, wrote to the hospital after her daughter's death, saying: "I want to know why she was not given the opportunity to see a counsellor.

"She was only going ahead with the abortion because her boyfriend did not want the twins.

"I believe this is what led Emma to take her own life - she could not live with what she had done."

The doctor said: "I discussed Emma's situation with her, and wrote on the form, 'Unsupported, lives alone, ex-partner aware'.

"It is normal practice to give a woman the number for telephone counselling when a counsellor is not available.

"I am satisfied that everything was done to make sure that Emma consented to the operation.

She added: "We have since appointed more counsellors so there is more holiday cover."

Katie Gibbs, Miss Beck's GP, told the hearing: "She was extremely distressed by the abortion procedure, and I didn't think she ever came to terms with it.

"She had a long history of anxiety and depression. Despite my best efforts, she was not willing to see a counsellor after the termination."

Her boss at the clinic, said: "The time that can be given to a woman by a counsellor is limited in a busy hospital.

"I am satisfied everything was done to make sure Emma was consenting to surgery. I don't feel there was any gap in the counselling service.

"There were lots of individuals who would be alert to any doubts. The comments made by Emma's mother are not about a doctor I recognise."

Mrs Beck told the court: "Emma was considered a talented artist, and sold a number of paintings.

"She was pleased when she became pregnant, but Ben reacted badly to the news."

Recording a verdict of suicide, Dr Carlyon said: "It is clear that a termination can have a profound effect on a woman's life.

"But I am reassured by the evidence of the doctors here."

A Motion Picture For Life

If you have not had the opportunity to thread the needle of the blogging world you may not know that I am a film producer. I am the Executive Producer of Kingdom Film, Inc. That may sound impressive, but in actuality KFI is one of thousands of such independent film companies across the world. The uniqueness of KFI however is the creed that guides our artistic endeavors and the fact that, although I am an Orthodox Christian, KFI is NOT a "Christian Film Company." What is a Christian Film anyway? Does that mean that if it dies at the box office it goes to heaven? I am a Christian who makes films. I do not make Christian films. I have seen Christian films and most are not a pretty sight.

In the grand scheme of things, KFI seems to be filling the void that exists because of the lack of vision the Church has had in communicating the mind and will of God through the art form of film making. In fact, the Orthodox Church has barely discovered the technology called television. So, alas, we artistic types, realizing that we too are called to, "Go into all the world to preach the gospel to every creature..." , find ourselves in the wild world of the film industry surrounded by peculiar creatures indeed. Many of our Christian brethren do not like the fact that we are sitting at the table of the publicans and the sinners, but Christ does because He did. We eat their food, drink their beverages and smoke their leaves (at least the legal ones). We have become all things to all people so that we might win a few, while holding to the tenant, "being in the world but not of it...". We love people into the Kingdom by accepting them as the King does. No guilt, no condemnation, no judgment. The Love of God is shed abroad...to all people.

To display the Love of God to the world in which we live, KFI chooses projects that speak to the spiritual and physical needs of all mankind. One such project is the true story of several thousand aborted fetuses found in a rented trash container. This pro-life look at the abortion industry is seen through the eyes of an investigative reporter. Without divulging the title or the book on which the film is based, let me invite you to support KFI and its producers in this valuable effort. Such a film is missions 101. The film project is non-religious, void of demagoguery, and designed to be a cutting edge message to all fabrics of society. With the new open environment to "faith based films", this KFI feature film project is positioned to be controversial and poignant in a way that will rally ticket buyers on both sides of the abortion issue.

KFI welcomes qualified investors to participate financially in bringing this film to the screen. http://www.kingdomfilmsinc.com/ will provide you info on my company and a couple of our endeavors. You can contact KFI at that site. There has never been a better time than right now for such a project.

[Update: Kingdom Films Inc. has been dissolved. Current projects by Nathan Lee Lewis can be seen at http://www.nathanleeelwis.com/]

I look forward to hearing from you.

Letter From A BLOG Reader Down Under

Greetings to my Brother in Christ,

I am so pleased to discover that I have not been alone in finding the Church of Christ as contained in Orthodoxy from a Baptist background.

Allow me to tell you a bit about myself. I do not come from a Christian family. In fact, I was originally a pagan who worshiped false gods before accepting Christ as the Way, Truth and Life. I was originally a follower of these Eastern religions: Buddhism (Theravada school); Hinduism and Taoism. God was patient with me despite my wanderings and opposition to him by allowing me to go to Christian schools as well as a Christian Sunday school. (Oddly enough, this was introduced to me through my non-Christian family who wanted me to get some religion. God was merciful in allowing a Christian friend of the family to introduce me and my sister to Christian Sunday School). In the beginning, due to some very bad examples shown to me in "Christian" schools (in this case, Seventh Day Adventist in the beginning), I was opposed to Christianity. As time passed, I was sent to a different school, where I encountered at least some semblance of orthodox Christianity, and was beginning to be challenged to consider the Bible and Jesus Christ as true or not. My faith in Christianity was not finalised until 2 events occured in my life. The first was a coma caused by my chronic asthma condition. This shook me up since I was actually at the door of death and made me consider that there is more to this physical world than we see it. This made me consider and practice the above mentioned religions. It made me read all the different scriptures of the different religions. It left me with one certainty: these religions have some elements of truth but have tainted error into it. What was now certain was that there had to be one God who is true, the question is who is He?

This led to the second point in my life: a visit to a Christian friend's house. When I entered that afternoon, I was treated to lunch and also some interesting Christian literature. In fact, it was a box filled with comic tracts by Jack Chick. Being someone who had searched through every religion (including the monotheistic religions that are not Christian.ie Islam and Judaism as well as Zoroastrianism), it intrigued me to devour the contents thereof. After going through every tract in the box, God brought this truth home: Jesus Christ is God and He is the Only One who can save you from hell and a sin filled life. I thus fully believed and accepted Jesus Christ as my salvation that day and expressed my willingness to follow Him further by going back to the church I was first introduced to with renewed vigour to study and follow the Scriptures. (The church was a Evangelical Anglican church).

However, it does not end here. After this, I experienced many waverings in the faith by getting involved with both Roman Catholicism and neo-evangalicalism as well as Charismaticism. After being confronted by the actual pitfalls they would lead a Christian into, I investigated further and thoroughly rejected both and decided to leave my environment to start a new Christian life based on unchanging truth without compromise. This led me to encounter a Fundamental Baptist Church. I thought I was home. They had come to the same conclusions that I had come to but with much more Biblical knowledge. I thus became a fully involved Fundamental Baptist and got baptised in a Fundamental Baptist Church. We opposed the same things: Roman Catholicism; Masonry; Islam; ecumenism; left-wingers and homosexual rights groups; Charismaticism; Calvinism; all the cults (Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, Christadelphians, Seventh Day Adventists, etc.); modern-day 'bibles'; neo-evangelicalism;Communism and humanism;evolution and loved what was good and right. However, there was another pitfall. Whilst the Biblical knowledge and teaching was for the most part accurate, and our conclusions were there, yet hypocrisies and quasi- denials of sin occuring within our camp was evident.

In the midst of that time, I had unexpectedly come into contact with the Orthodox faith through a Jewish friend in university! Prior to that, as a strong-headed Fundamental Baptist, I was not intent on even considering the prospect of converting to Orthodoxy. However, before that meeting, I had just been listening to a set of lectures by a Croatian atheist on the Orthodox Faith, since I was doing a course on the history of Russia. Irony of ironies indeed if one was not enough! As a strong headed Baptist, I was skeptical of Orthodoxy as "another form of Roman Catholicism". However, after listening to this atheist professor present lectures on Orthodoxy as well as talk with my Orthodox friend of a Jewish friend, I came away thinking: "It seems Orthodoxy and Fundamental Baptist teaching are more agreeable than disagreeable on many issues."

After establishing a friendship with this Orthodox friend, I decided to go to an Orthodox Bookshop. As I entered the store, I was warmly greeted and sat down to explain my situation to the workers. They recommended me to go to the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia rather than the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese, even though they were Greeks themselves. The reason being the purity of the faith generally retained by ROCOR as opposed to the involvement with ecumenism and World Council of Churches on the part of GOA. I even arranged to speak with the Archbishop of Australia, His Grace, Hilarion.

After much discussion and investigation into Orthodoxy, I came to the conclusion (in conjunction with the Church Fathers) that the Church of Christ Visible is One Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church retained in Orthodoxy. What also helped in my search at the time was the life and works of Father Seraphim Rose, whom I felt I had a lot more in common with. I have got involved with ROCOR, whilst not being a blind zealot. (I dislike strongly the anti-Jewishness and Israel-bashing stance taken by a number of both laymen and clergymen in ROCOR. I also believe that whilst there are many genuine converts, there are a number of converts who are still humanistic through and through with not one wit whole). Orthodoxy is the way of unchanging conviction in Christ being lived out in an ever-changing world.

It is a blessing that I have come across your blog. You share many of the heart felt issues I share and I do hope to hear from you.

As the Church of Christ, it is better we wash out our dirty laundry than to let the stench stink to the nostrils of heaven. We can deal with our dirty laundry much better than the Protestants and Roman Catholics can.

In the heart of every hardcore Fundamentalist is someone who is truly Orthodox. They just do not know it yet.

God bless and hope to hear from you soon.

Timotheos Kwoh