On This Date in Presbyterian History: The Auburn Heresy Address by Dr. Gordon H. Clark

On February 28, 1935 Dr. Gordon H. Clark addressed an assembly of Presbyterian laymen on the reasons why the Auburn Affirmation of the Presbyterian Church in the United States was an attack on the basic doctrines of the Bible and the Westminster Standards. You can click here to read the post on This Day in Presbyterian History. Dr. Clark said:


�The reason the Auburn Affirmation is

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Spring Cleaning

"Clean up - Clean up,
everybody everywhere,
Clean up - clean up,
everybody do their share."

The lyrics to this catchy Barney song might have more use to our Orthodox faith than we've considered before because if there's one concept kids understand, it's cleaning! Whether they are imitating our motion with a vacuum or grumbling about household chores, kids can distinguish dirt from sparkle! Let us use this opportunity then on "Clean Monday" to introduce our families to the idea that Lent is a period of cleansing, and everyone benefits from participating. Because Clean Monday is a strict fast day, it should be kept holy thru holy activities. I'd say, tidy up the house only in conjunction with a lesson about cleaning both the outside of the cup, as well as the inside.

* A clean bedroom is inviting to the angels
(tidy up your icons)

* A clean body can be achieved through a clean belly
(observe the fast)

* A clean mind is able to think of God rather than other worries
(spend quiet time with God)

* A clean mouth is filled with sweet words
(sing together)

* A clean hand is one that has helped others
(pitch in on a group project)

* A clean conscience is achieved only through tears of repentance and forgiveness (learn to make a prostration)

and ultimately

* ONLY A clean soul can become a suitable place for our Lord to dwell (read Communion prayers before and after receiving)

As we embark on the most important "spring cleaning" of our lives over the next 40-days, let us remember that with each small effort we make, God is wiping away the layers of crud to make us radiant with His glory.

"Wash yourselves, and ye shall be clean; put away the wicked ways from your souls before mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well; diligently seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, consider the fatherless, and plead for the widow. Come then, and let us reason together, saith the Lord: and though your sins be as scarlet, I will make them white as snow; and though they red like crimson, I will make them white as wool. If then ye be willing, and obedient unto Me, ye shall eat the good of the land; but if ye desire not, nor will obey me, the sword shall devour you, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it." (Is 1:1-20, First Monday of Great Lent, the Sixth Hour)

SONG ACTIVITY "Create in me a clean heart, O Lord, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away, from Your presence O Lord, and take not Thy Holy Spirit from me, restore unto me, the joy of Your salvation, O Lord, and renew a right Spirit within me."

CRAFT ACTIVITY There is a tradition in Greece to fly kites from the tops of hills on Clean Monday. Kites have traditionally been a handmade hexagon. Narrow strips of wood are used and tied together in the middle by string. A large piece of paper is then stuck to the hexagonal shape and individually decorated. Fringes and tails of colored shiny paper are then added and an extremely long ball of string attached. Complete this activity by discussing how we are like the kite - taking a journey closer to God.

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Richard Gaffin, Jr., the New Perspective on Paul, and Union with Christ

Dr. Richard Gaffin, Jr.



From this perceptive, the antithesis between law and gospel is not an end in itself. It is not a theological ultimate.
Rather, that antithesis enters not by virtue of creation but as a
consequence of sin, and the gospel functions for its overcoming. The
gospel is to the end of removing an absolute law-gospel antithesis in
the life of the believer [emphasis Cunha

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Musical Interlude with Hammock: "I Could Hear the Water at the Edge of All Things"

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Why the Presbyterian Church in America Is No Longer Confessional

"The Federal Vision and the PCA�s response to it looms large in Phelps�
conclusion that the denomination as a whole has departed from the
Reformed Faith."The Reformed Free Publishing website has posted an article explaining why the Presbyterian Church in America is no longer Reformed or committed to its confessional documents. Click here to read the article: The PCA Has Failed to be

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Is It Wrong for Christians to Argue? Quote of the Day: Dr. Gordon H. Clark

�But when they did not find them, they dragged Jason and some brethren to the rulers of the city, crying out, �These who have turned the world upside down have come here too.� (Acts 17:6, NKJV)



In his commentary on the book of Philippians, Dr. Clark said the following in reference to Philippians 1:16, 17, 18:





Verse 16 continues the sentence in verse 15. [Philippians 1:15, 16].

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Spiritual Guidance? Dr. Gordon H. Clark Comments on Knowing Scripture

Pentecostalism and the Charismatic movement has infiltrated virtually every Evangelical denomination today, including, unfortunately, the Reformed denominations. The Pentecostals and Charismatics are especially fond of showing off their spiritual discernment and ability to foretell the future and following the leading of the Holy Spirit. But as Dr. Gordon H. Clark's comment below will

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Logic and Assurance

"If sanctification
is a necessary element in salvation, it is hard to see why some
Christians feel no need to understand it better. No doubt the real
reason is that they are not presently sanctified enough." Dr. Gordon H.
Clark


Logic and Assurance


In
recent years I began on my own to read Reformed theology and Reformed
systematic theology. During my reading I came across the

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Sewanee New Testament Professor Slams Bishop N. T. Wright

The University of the South (Sewanee) recently awarded an honorary degree to N. T. Wright, the retired Anglican bishop of Durham, prolific author, and current Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at St. Mary's College with the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.

Dr. Paul Holloway, Professor of New Testament at Sewanee's School of Theology, will have none of it.  In a blistering letter to the editor of The Sewanee Purple, here's what Professor Holloway wrote:

I am writing to express dismay at Sewanee�s recent awarding of an honorary degree in Theology to Tom Wright, former bishop of Durham and now professor of New Testament at St. Andrews University in Scotland. I am the current professor of New Testament at the School of Theology at Sewanee, and Wright�s receiving an honorary degree during my tenure is a professional embarrassment. Some of the readers of this letter will know Wright as an outspoken opponent of LGBT rights and a vociferous critic of the Episcopal Church for its progressive stance. I find Wright�s position on these matters offensive and harmful. It is an affront to the School of Theology in general and to its LGBT community and its allies in particular. 

But that is not my complaint here. My complaint is that Sewanee has recognized Wright as a scholar in my discipline, when in fact he is little more than a book-a-year apologist. Wright comes to the evidence not with honest questions but with ideologically generated answers that he seeks to defend. I know of no critical scholar in the field who trusts his work. He contradicts what I stand for professionally as well as the kind of hard-won intellectual integrity I hope to instill in my students. I feel like the professor of biology who has had to sit by and watch a Biblical creationist receive an honorary degree in science. 

To be fair, Wright was voted his degree under a previous administration before I became professor of New Testament. And he was voted that degree when he was simply another conservative Church of England prelate of the sort we used to court. (A few of these are still in the pipeline!) But a number of things have changed. Not only are there a new administration and a new NT professor, but Wright has since retired as bishop and found a job at an under-funded Scottish university anxious to attract young full-fee-paying American Evangelical men questing for old-world cultural capital. My only consolation is that the embarrassment of Wright�s honorary degree was overshadowed by the even greater debacle of the stridently propagandistic Eric Metaxas, who was tapped to speak at this semester�s convocation. Sewanee seriously needs to rethink is honorary degrees. I am afraid that after last week they will bring a little less honor. 

Sincerely, 

Paul Holloway

Professor of New Testament 

The School of Theology 

The University of the South

Setting aside the caustically contemptuous and intolerant tone of the letter, as well as its open hostility to Christian orthodoxy, here's the gist of what Professor Holloway says: "N. T. Wright disagrees with my views on particular matters and he represents theological positions that contradict my own.  That offends and embarrasses me.  Therefore, Wright is not a real scholar and he doesn't deserve an honorary degree." 

It doesn't take a Ph.D. in logic to see how silly this "argument" is.

Nor does it take a genius to see that if Professor Holloway's letter makes the rounds among moderate-to-conservative lay and clergy graduates of The School of Theology, they just might decide to send their money to other institutions.  I'm aware of persons who have made just that decision before this letter was even written.  This letter will simply underscore that they made the right decision.  And there are others for whom Professor Holloway's letter may be the straw that breaks the camel's back when it comes to financially supporting The School of Theology.  I doubt that's the outcome the Sewanee administration had in mind when they issued the invitation for Bishop Wright to speak and receive an honorary degree!

---

Since I posted on this story yesterday, Fr. Peter Carrell of Anglican Down Under has offered a most worthy response to Professor Holloway's letter in a posting entitled "N. T. Wright dismissed as 'little more than book-a-year apologist.'"  Here's a money quote:

It is very surprising that Holloway misses the point of Wright's role in NT scholarship which is to generate fresh discussion of familiar texts. Wright's singular achievement is to make us think again - critically! - about what we read in the NT. Looking at Holloway's professional career I don't think that is going to be said about him! His output is of a different kind, and that is fine. But fifty year's from now students will still be examining Wright's writings for their doctoral theses and Holloway's works - like most NT scholars that ever lived - will be in a dusty corner of the library.

Read it all.

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Great Lent Curriculum

For those interested, I'm re-posting a lesson plan chart and soon to follow workbook pages for Great Lent. The lessons are designed for each Sunday leading up to Holy Week, for a brief 1/2 hour immediately after the Divine Liturgy. Since other adults will be present to help in our situation, we're teaching the same lesson to kids ranging from 2 to 10 years of age.
    
Each session will include either a craft, coloring page, memory words, activity or hymn to chant. Every child will create necklace name tags on the first day, and decorate folders with fasteners inside that will become their workbooks. They only take home their craft each Sunday, as I will hold on to their folders until the end and add pages for Holy Week with Pascha.
     
So far, I'm really looking forward to creating the "Family Icon Tree's" and Mummy Wraps with toilet paper for the raising of Saint Lazarus! If you have other ideas I can include, please pass them along! I'll be converting this whole chart to Greek as well if anyone needs that.

Stay tuned for a follow-up PDF and SCRIBD link to download the workbook pages.

UPDATE: I've recently added a sentence scramble activity for the older ones in the group. Basically, seal envelopes with words from at least two memory phrases and ask the kids to work in groups to put the phrase together. This will work well on the Sunday of St John Climacus.

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Confession & Kite Day

Clean Monday is the very first Monday which begins Great Lent. If your parish has never held a day to invite all the children, big and small, to experience the Sacrament of Confession....keep reading! This year, we're planning ahead and beginning our preparations. The tradition in Greece is to fly kites, which may to some appear secular, but when looked at more closely, can have a beautiful relation to the soul! You see, on the Sunday evening before we begin Great Lent, there is always held the Vespers of Forgiveness where each parishioner asks the priest and one another for forgiveness. It marks the beginning of a great journey in which we embark to clean our souls of the darkness built up from our sins. Consider gathering your youth (ages 2-18) and even their parents to a day set aside for Confession and Kite Flying!

We've chosen the Saturday beforehand. The younger children can experience Confession as a group with the priest, who can speak with them openly about the topic of sin and all can kneel under the "epitrahelion" for the final absolution to conclude, whereas the older kids can prepare their confession ahead of time and meet with the priest one on one. As each group finishes, we plan to meet outside to hand out free kites and experience the "joy" of a soul released to soar, free and lightened from the burden of sin!

Here is my simplified Top 10 Preparation List http://orthodoxeducation.blogspot.de/2008/06/weight-of-our-sins.html 

Additional Resources :
http://orthodoxinfo.com/praxis/pr_confession.aspx

Pamphlet with Questions for Preparation:
http://orthodoxinfo.com/praxis/guide-to-confession.aspx

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BINGO for Great Lent

Introducing a fun way to get your youth involved in service projects. On this BINGO card are listed 20 ideas for Great Lent that will enhance your spiritual journey to Pascha. Mix up the squares and distribute, or have each child draw from a bag to play. There are various ways to adjust this game, but the main idea is to establish 5 goals with your children to accomplish over the period of 40 plus days.

Here is the file posted on Scribd. If you would like the Word document to mix up the squares for different BINGO cards, just email me at eleniemarie@gmail.com.

Ask the students to complete their BINGO boards through activities outside of church, in daily life, and return their completed sheet to you for a "spiritual prize" I like to give Orthodox CD's, books, magnets, etc

Have fun, and please share other ideas for the squares by posting a comment.

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Lenten Boardgame

Search the toy store aisles, and there's no Orthodox games to be found! So, let's develop our own ~ Just think of the possibilities! We could develop game pieces in the form of Saints, and move along the board to get them from earth to heaven, encountering persecutions and wild animals along the way! Maybe a set back or two. It's the game of Life, only Orthodox!

For the Lenten season, here's a simple boardgame to follow along with, but there's room for you to make up the rules. Roll dice, develop cards, land on a dark blue square and do something charitable - land on a light square and memorize a Scripture verse.

For other Lenten resources check out the following links:

www.lent.goarch.org

Journey through Holy Week for Kids

Phyllis Onest Resources

Lenten Resources at Monachos.net

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Orthodox Coloring Books for Lent

The time has come for Great Lent 2012 - here are some extra resources to challenge your young ones! We have compiled a printable PDF workbook available for free at this Scribd link. It contains coloring icons, games and craft activities to accompany the Sundays during Lent as well as Lazarus Saturday and Holy Week. Please do not reproduce or sell this for profit in any way - it is simply available for parish and home use only.


To purchase other fantastic resources available in many languages visit http://orthodoxchildrensbooks.com. Potamitis Publishing has extremely reasonable prices which include even the cost of shipping! They have informed me that the workbooks
have nice explanations on each page in both Greek and English for example.

I wish you all a fruitful journey this year, with many blessings and illumination for a glorious Pascha celebration!

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4th Sunday of Great Lent Curriculum

This is an example of how I will compile our lessons from the Sundays of Great Lent. I regret not doing it sooner, but so many ideas came forth from actually teaching.

Click here to download the PDF for free: 4th Sunday of Great Lent Curriculum

May it be of some assistance to you next year! 

Please see the corresponding Great Lent Curriculum Chart and Great Lent Workbook containing the coloring icons.

Your comments and suggestions are always welcome,

E-mail me if you prefer.

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Lent Word Search Activity

Click on the image to view and print this month's activity
Search horizontal, vertical, and diagonal to find all the words related to Great Lent and Holy Pascha. ~ Enjoy ~

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Triodion Online

** We have available to us the holy words from the Lenten Triodion online in English.** What sweetness to pierce our souls! Visit this link to copy and paste the canons for use in your personal daily prayers.
Triodion Online

Keep this link as well for many liturgical texts
Anastasis.org

Made possible by the
** Community of the Holy Myrrhbearers **
R.D. 2, Box 188,
Otego, New York, 13825
(607) 432-3179
MRaphaela@aol.com

Mother Raphaela has given her blessing to distribute the texts for personal and church use but not for any kind of commercial use.

Parts of the Triodion are available in book form:
The Lenten Triodion by Mother Mary and Archimandrite Kallistos Ware Faber and Faber, London 1978

Sold many places One Link to Purchase It

The Lord consecrated and sanctified these
Forty Days of the Fast by fasting Himself for forty days.
Having entered into them, brethren, let us cry aloud: Blessing and exalting Christ forever!

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Presentation of Christ Activities - Ipapanti

As you and your families prepare
to celebrate the Presentation of Christ on February 2
I share with you the following activities.

Page 16 of 39 in this Orthodox coloring book
has the icon  to print & color

https://www.scribd.com/doc/14024263/Orthodox-Christian-Icon-Coloring-Book

Click, Print and Enjoy!

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Lady Sarakosti Poem & Coloring for Great Lent

Quiet Lady Sarakosti, is a custom from long ago,
Our grandmothers used to make her, out of flour and H2O.

She wears a simple nun’s dress, with a cross upon her head, her hands in prayer without a mouth, to keep the fast with mostly bread.

Her feet teach us how to count, the weeks of Lent are seven, we cut one off each Saturday, until Pascha and the new heaven.

**If you make a better translation of the original Greek poem, please share it! This is also my version of a more Monastic Lady Sarakosti drawing with a prayer rope in hand and head veil**

Lady Sarakosti Recipe

2-2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup salt
2-2 1/2 tsp. cinnamon                            
water (as much as needed)        
* Not to be eaten! *

Combine flour, salt and cinnamon in a medium sized bowl and gradually add enough water to form a stiff, but flexible dough. Roll dough out to 1/2" thickness. With a sharp knife cut out the figure as shown above. Cut out two long narrow strips for arms and join at shoulders (wet surface to which arms will be applied). Make slits in dough for fingers.  Mark closed eyelids and noise with pointed object. Wipe entire figure down with a lightly dampened cloth to make shiny. Bake in moderate oven until golden.

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