AMMAN - Lying underneath Saint Georgeous Church in Rihab, Mafraq, is what archaeologists describe as the first Christian church in the world.

“We have uncovered what we believe to be the first church in the world, dating from 33AD to 70AD,” said Archaeologist Abdul Qader Hussan, head of the Rihab Centre for Archaeological Studies.

The discovery was “amazing”, Hussan told The Jordan Times.

“We have evidence to believe this church sheltered the early Christians: the 70 disciples of Jesus Christ,” the scholar said.

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Christ is Risen! Indeed he is risen!

Once again we had a wonderful Pascha in Taiwan. I was busy with my video work, but I wasn't too distracted to participate in the service. Everything went beautifully and it really does feel like a new beginning. We even had a beautiful spring day the next day to welcome the new season.

I hope you enjoy the videos. I've broken it into three parts of the service for easier viewing. As always, if it begins stopping often just pause it for a few minutes and play it to the end.

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Early this month Taiwan celebrated the Qing Ming, or Tomb Sweeping Festival. Qing Ming is the most important holiday for venerating one's own ancestors (often mistakenly called ancestor worship). Families gather at the gravesite, clean and decorate it, and often will eat the cold food which has been offered to the dead. Some will also set off fireworks to chase away any evil lurking around. The colored paper that is placed on the graves is another kind of spirit money. Some think that the grave is like the house of the dead and the placing the colored paper is to retile the roof. All these activities are ways that the living continue to participate with their departed family members.

Note 1:This video is large. As always, if it keeps stopping as you watch, pause it for 5 minutes or so and then watch to the end.

Note 2:For animal lovers, this video has images of animals that have been sacrificed. There is no blood and gore seen, but if seeing a dead boar would bother you don't watch.

Yet another example of why Orthodoxy is growing:

The Anglican Church to face a new clerical reform

According to Priddis, next year not only Christians would be able to become Anglican priests.

“When you a person is hired, especially to a British state religious organization he shouldn’t be discriminated for his confession. The Anglican Church should give an example of fighting against xenophobia in our multicultural tolerant society and give equal opportunities to all people no matter if they believe in God, gods or any other power,” the bishop stressed.

Full Article

I've found more and more articles in the American news media talking about the conversion of Protestants to the Orthodox Church. Here's one from the Associated Press:

Detroit Becomes Foothold for Orthodox Resurgence

DETROIT (AP) January 23, 2008 — Detroit is emerging as a national center for the rebirth of Orthodox Christian churches, which have deep ethnic roots in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.

Social scholars say the churches are growing in the United States through immigration and conversion. Next week, many of Detroit's Orthodox leaders will host the first in a series of conferences planned nationwide for non-Orthodox clergy who want to explore conversion.

The Rev. John Fenton is betting his life on the growing popularity of Orthodox Christianity. He and his wife have packed up their six children from the rectory of a Detroit church where he was a Lutheran pastor until late October. They've moved into a small home in Allen Park, leaving behind Fenton's clergy salary and, soon, his health insurance.

Click Here for the full article.

An article I wrote reason just for 'practice' on Chinese and Orthodox death ritual. It's six pages long, follow the link at the bottom for the full text.

Memory Eternal

By

Seraphim Davidson

In modern Taiwan there are few concerns as important to people as the remembrance of the dead. Remembrance of the dead plays a role in many of Taiwan's traditional practices. In the same way, the importance of remembering the dead is an important part of Orthodox Christian practice. Between these two ancient traditions there are many striking similarities as well as important ontological differences.
In order to talk about remembrance it is important to define just what one is remembering. Chinese tradition has a number of sometimes conflicting explanations as to what happens when we die. The best outcome is that a departed family member dies a "good death," is buried properly, and becomes an ancestor. The afterlife of this person is sometimes explained as existing in three souls, one which resides in the name tablet on the family altar, one which resides in the tomb, and one which passes to another realm. For one who dies a "bad death," such as one who dies unmarried, childless, poor, or by suicide or drowning, few or none of the proper rites for transformation into an ancestor may be performed. The unmarried, especially women and children, may not even have their name tablet placed on the family altar. The departed is in particular danger if they have no male heir to perform the rituals in service of the dead, though for some this is avoided by a post-mortem adoption. In these cases the soul may be left wandering, in Chinese belief it may become a "good brother," a hungry ghost. Even in these cases the soul is not left without hope. At regular times of the year, Chinese offer food and money to the wandering ghosts, both to their departed families and to any nameless ghosts searching for food, in compassion for their unhappy state. Once a year at the Pu-du festival, it is believed some ghosts will find release from their wanderings. Somewhat conflicting with this is the belief held by some Buddhists of possible rebirth in the Western Paradise of the Amitabha Buddha, but in the minds of adherents these beliefs often work together. A belief held by many is that after a time spent in the underworld, they will be reborn in a new life. Many spend this life hoping the next one will be better. For this reason, some people choose to take their own lives as an escape from a difficult situation. There are some variations in explanations of what happens after death, and customs vary from place to place and among ethnic groups, but I think the above gives a fairly accurate generalization of the beliefs of most people in Taiwan.
Whatever variety of theories there are as to how many souls there are and where exactly they reside, let us return to the question of what exactly is being remembered. Beyond a person's qualities which may determine what mortuary rituals are preformed, qualities such as gender, wealth, age, children, and social or family status, each person has a unique identity which is not destroyed in death. Even if some part of the person was to be reborn, it would not change the fact that they had existed as a unique person, a person which, once given life, does not cease to be. At the tomb, at the family altar, or at the table of food and money offerings, what is being remembered is the unique personhood of the departed. The rituals preformed after death are a recognition that some essential part of their loved one continues to exist. Customs such as the cleaning and decoration of tombs and having a meal at the tomb, announcements to one's ancestors of marriages, births, business ventures, and other important events, as well as divination to ask the advice of ancestors, are all ways family members attempt to participate in the continued existence of the person.

Click here for the full article

This is an article I found in the American magazine The New Republic:

The New Republic | Jason Zengerle | August 17, 2007

When Wilbur Ellsworth ministered at First Baptist, a typical Sunday service–held inside the church's immense but unadorned white-walled, burgundy - carpeted sanctuary – went something like this: Wearing a suit and tie, Ellsworth would stand at a pulpit and preach. Aside from occasionally rising in prayer and joining the church choir and orchestra in some traditional Protestant hymns, the congregants would largely refrain from any activity during the one-hour-and-15-minute service – except for once a month, when they would receive communion.

The service Ellsworth now leads at Holy Transfiguration, by contrast, has an entirely different feel. Wearing his priestly vestments and standing inside the church's small sanctuary – which boasts yellow walls covered with hundreds of tiny iconic pictures of saints and Oriental rugs on the floor – Ellsworth conducts much of the service from behind the iconostasis (or icon wall) where he is out of view of the congregation. The congregants stand for most of the two-hour service, constantly prostrating and crossing themselves, and the only music is rhythmic Byzantine chanting. At the end of the service, they file up to the front of the sanctuary – as they do every Sunday – and take communion. It's easy to see how, for someone reared in an evangelical church, the Orthodox Church might seem like something not just from another culture, but another world.

And yet it is precisely that otherworldliness that is part of what is attracting a growing number of evangelicals to the Orthodox Church. Since the late nineteenth century, when fundamentalism emerged as a response to the increasing cosmopolitanism of mainline Protestant denominations, evangelicalism has been an anti-modern movement. But, at the same time, with its belief in the importance of saving lost souls, evangelicalism hasn't been able to completely divorce itself from modern culture–and, in the latter half of the twentieth century, it began to increasingly try to employ or co-opt aspects of the modern world in its efforts to lure “seekers” and others to the faith. As Ellsworth explains, one of the principal attractions of the Orthodox Church for him is its solidity–and lack of interest in integrating modern life. 'There is, in the Orthodox Church, an enormous conservatism,' he marvels. 'There is not going to be a radical change in the worship life of the church next week.'

Click here for the full article...

Note: When I double checked this link this article had moved into the subscription only section.

Christ is Risen!
Pascha has come and gone again. The bright sadness of Lent has ended and Orthodox Christians across the world are living in the newness of Christ's Resurrection. I was able to go to all of the Holy Week services except Holy Tuesday. On Thursday there was a rather long service for the reading of the 12 Gospels but we still had a good crowd, and on Holy Friday when Christ is taken down from the cross and is buried we had a good crowd. This year Father Jonah made a tomb from flowers and placed it on a bier to be carried in procession.
Everyone placed flowers to decorate Christ's tomb. This is my godson Isaiah laying his flowers on.
Later the Lamentations were sung for the death of Christ. This is an MP3 clip from Holy Friday Lamentations Stasis 3 called O, Nobel Joseph, which speaks of how Joseph gave his tomb for Christ to be laid in.

Our Pascha services take longer than some because many of the hymns are read in English and Chinese and chanted in Slavonic. I hope one day soon we will have enough talented Chinese people that we can sing all the hymns in Chinese. At the Pasca service we only had a few Chinese compared with foreigners. Three or four Chinese Orthodox who live in Taipei came, and some people came with their friends. The as the evening went on the church became so crowded many people had to stand in the back. There are always some people I only see at Pasca and Christmas. Some live far away and can only come rarely, others come only for the sake of tradition. But whoever comes the only important thing is that Christ is risen and we live in the joy that by His incarnation, death, and resurrection we who have been baptized into Christ can live with Him and all other in unity.
After the service we feast in celebration of Christ's victory over death. This is a real treat for those of us who have been fasting for any amount of time during lent. In the tradition of the Orthodox Church we fast from all animal products for 40 days. This is always hard for me because I'm not a very good cook so I'm limited in what I can eat, that and I love eating meat. I always lose a bit of weight during Lent. At the feast there was a mix of Greek, Slavic, and Chinese foods with a little of everything else.

And so, I will end with the end of St. John Chrysostom's Pascal Homily

O Death, where is thy sting?
O Hell, where is thy victory?

Christ is risen, and thou art overthrown!
Christ is risen, and the demons are fallen!
Christ is risen, and the angels rejoice!
Christ is risen, and life reigns!
Christ is risen, and not one dead remains in the grave.
For Christ, being risen from the dead,
Is become the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep.

To Him be glory and dominion
Unto ages of ages.

Amen.

Full Text of the Homily