Today there were two monks arrested at the Holy Sepulcher in the "Holy" Land. The arrests were made because of a fist fight that broke out over a dispute between some Greek monks and some Armenian monks. The dispute was concerning under whose jurisdiction the Edicule fell. The Greeks were concerned that if one of their monks was not present during the Armenians worship then perhaps it would subvert their claim. An absolutely wonderful reason to behave like animals. May God forgive my unintentional sins, and even worse than the beasts, my voluntary sins. Non-Christians already have a poor opinion of us in the Western hemisphere due to the forcefulness of the Evangelical Protestants as well as the overly-evident hypocrisy which reigns in the Protestant Churches. Now, we, The One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church have lowered ourselves to this same level and have lost who knows how many potential converts over this ridiculous human controversy which has absolutely nothing to do with salvation or Diefication of Man.
The sort of behavior exhibited by our angelic order is quite possibly the most disgusting display of lack of self control possible. It also seems to indicate a lack of maturity. Our Christian charity requires that we are at the very least tolerant of other denominations. If the Armenians were there at an inappropriate time or in an inappropriate way, it is certainly inappropriate to interrupt a prayerful and unobtrusive procession in order to push home a technicality. A more appropriate way to take care of the situation would be to wait until they are finished and then appeal to the higher authorities as to what would be a more acceptable course of action in the future.
We are admonished by the deacon every Sunday to commend ourselves each other and all our lives to Christ our God. The monks are admonished to do this more frequently and to a deeper extent than the laity. If this is what the monastic ranks have been brought to then there is very little hope for the rest of us, and we have only ourselves to blame.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
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3 comments:
This type of behavior in that location has been going on for years. That doesn't condone it, though. I'm wondering if their national temperament gets in the way of a more pacific way to decide such things. Perhaps they are both just stubborn. Who knows?
Good Grief! I just watched the video! What a scandalous display! If I were an inquirer into Orthodoxy, this might just turn me away (and turn my stomach, too).
It is certainly easy for us pious Christians 5,000 miles from the incident to advocate peace and tranquility among the angelic order. Just last month there was some ruckus on the roof of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher where there is a dispute between Egyptian Copts and Ethiopian Copts about "who owns the monastery" on the roof. Seems the Egyptians perceive the Ethiopians, who occupy the physical structure, as squatters. I recall that there is a dispute about who should remove a ladder that apparently was leant against the inside of the building for cleaning purposes some time at the beginning of the last century, so the ladder has remained there for almost 100 years! Now we Americans seem to have a "learning disability" for historical perspective; "we don't like history." I suspect that these monks are viewing the historical significance of this Church from the perspective of centuries as opposed to the American time frame of football season to basketball season, dove season to deer season, tax season to tax season, or quarterly report to next quarterly report. A couple of years ago NPR did a "man on the street" interview asking this question, "Who were the main opponents during the French and Indian War?" Of course, the preponderance of respondents indicated, "Of course, the French against the Indians!" We do not even have an historical perspective for our own history prior to 1776. (BTW, the French and Indian War occurred 1754–1763, less than 15 years before our own Revolution on this continent.) So, frankly, if I were a Greek monk responsible for insuring the integrity of my Church's space at that site--every inch of physical space counts--so, start doing the math. If a rival group starts sweeping an extra inch of my jurisdiction's space for ten years, then starts sweeping yet another inch of "my" space for another ten years, etc., that's ten inches in 100 years. So eventually my jurisdiction will be "swept out the door." So, yes, I would push back. If that meant physically, yes.
The "Devil's Advocate"
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