A group of Russians organized on this night a Halloween Ball. When the All Night Vigil celebrated to St. John of Kronstadt began, many people were absent, to the great sorrow of Vladyka. After the service, St. John went to the place where the ball was being held. He entered the hall and the music stopped as Vladyka, in absolute silence, glared at the people, and with his staff in hand, he slowly walked around the entire hall. He didn't speak, but the sight of Vladyka brought general consternation to the party. Vladyka left but the next day in church he called all to the devout Christian life.

In some ways, talking to an Orthodox group about Halloween is like what we used to call "preaching to the choir." In other words, non-participation in Halloween should be a "no-brainer." Yet, I believe that the issue of Halloween is an example of a more fundamental struggle between Orthodoxy and the secular spirit of our age. What I hope to accomplish in this speech is for us to begin to understand the cause and the nature of this struggle and begin to gain some idea of how to deal with it.

Halloween

First, on the slim chance that some of you are unfamiliar with its origin, I will present some basic facts about Halloween. Fr. Victor Potapov relates this history: "The feast of Halloween began among the Celtic peoples of Britain, Ireland, and northern France. These pagan peoples believed that physical life was born from death. Therefore, they celebrated the beginning of the "new year" in the fall (on the eve of October 31 and into the day of November 1), when they believed, the season of cold, darkness, decay and death began. The Celts believed that a certain deity, whom they called Samhain, [pronounced - sow-in ] was the Lord of Death. To him they gave honor at their New Year's festival

Many beliefs and practices were associated with this feast, which have endured to this current time. On the eve of the New Year's festival, the Druids, who were the priests of the Celtic cult, instructed their people to extinguish all hearth fires and lights. On the evening of the festival they ignited a huge bonfire built from oak branches, which they believed to be sacred. Upon this fire, they offered burnt sacrifices of crops, animals, and even human beings to appease and cajole Samhain, the lord of Death. They also believed that Samhain, being pleased by their faithful offerings, allowed the souls of the dead to return to homes for a festal visit on this day. This belief led to the ritual practice of wandering about in the dark dressed in costumes indicating ghosts, witches, hobgoblins, fairies and demons. The living entered into fellowship and communion with their dead by this ritual act of imitation, through costume and the wandering about in the darkness, even as the souls of the dead were believed to wander.

The dialogue of "trick or treat" is integral to Halloween beliefs and practices. The souls of the dead had--by Celtic tradition--entered into the world of darkness, decay, and death. They bore the affliction of great hunger on their festal visit. This belief brought about the practice of begging as another Celtic ritual imitation of the dead. The implication was that any souls of the dead and their imitators who are not appeased with "treats", i.e. offerings, will provoke the wrath of Samhain, whose angels and servants (the souls and human imitators) could retaliate through a system of "tricks" or curses. One radio commentator takes great fun in calling Halloween, "Begoween."

The sacred fire was the fire of the New Year was taken home to rekindle lights and hearth fires. This developed into the practice of the Jack O Lantern (in the U.S.A.; a pumpkin, in older days other vegetables were used), which was carved in imitation of the dead and used to convey the new light and fire to the home, where the lantern was left burning throughout the night.

Divination was also part of this ancient Celtic festival. After the fire had died out the Druids examined the remains of the main sacrifices, hoping to foretell the coming year's events. The Halloween festival was the proper night for sorcery, fortune telling, divination, games of chance, and Satan worship and witchcraft in the later Middle Ages.

The Church responds

In the strictly Orthodox early Celtic Church, the holy Fathers tried to counteract this pagan new year festival that honored the Lord of Death, by establishing the Feast of All Saints on the same day. (It differs in the East, where the Feast of All Saints is celebrated on the Sunday following Pentecost). The custom of the Celtic Church was for the faithful Christians to attend a vigil service and a morning celebration of the Holy Eucharist. This custom created the term Halloween. The Old English of "All Hallow E'en", i.e., the eve commemorating all those who were hallowed (sanctified) became Halloween.

The remaining pagan and therefore anti-Christian people, whose paganism had become deeply intertwined with the Occult, Satanism and Magic, reacted to the Church's attempt to supplant their festival by increased fervor on this evening. The early medieval Halloween became the supreme feast of the Occult, a night and day witchcraft, demonism, sorcery and Satanism of all kinds. Many practices involved desecration and mockery of Christian practices and beliefs. Costumes of skeletons developed as a mockery of the Church's reverence for Holy Relics; Holy things were stolen, such as crosses and the Reserved Sacrament, and used perversely in sacrilegious ways. The practice of begging became a system of persecution to harass Christians who were, by their beliefs, unable to participate with offerings to those who served the Lord of Death. The Western Church 's attempt failed, to supplant this pagan festival with the Feast of All Saints."

Russian Counterpart

The ancient Slavic counterpart to Halloween in ancient Russia was Navy Dien' (Old Slavonic for the dead "nav" ), which was also called Radunitsa and celebrated in the spring. To supplant it, the Eastern Church attached this feast to Easter, for celebration on Tuesday of Saint Thomas ' Week (second week after Easter). The Church also changed the name of the feast into Radonitsa, from Russian "radost" - joy, of Easter and of the resurrection from the dead of the whole manhood of Jesus Christ. Gradually Radunitsa yielded to Easter's greater importance and became less popular. And many dark practices from old Russian pagan feasts (Semik, Kupalo, Rusalia and some aspects of the Maslennitsa) still survived till the beginning of our century. Now they are gone, but the atheist authorities used to try to reanimate them. Another "harmless" feast--May 1, proclaimed "the international worker's day" is a simple renaming the old satanic feast of Walpurgis Night (night of April 30 into the day of May 1), the yearly demonic Sabbath during which all participants united in "a fellowship of Satan"."

The Modern Context

When we try to protest to our neighbors, our schools, and even many of our own Orthodox brethren about the origin of Halloween, we usually get indifference and humor. Most who observe Halloween laugh at any suggestion that they are participating in evil, or honoring Samhain, or entertaining dead spirits.

As an example, let me quote from an article "Hallowing Halloween-Why Christians should embrace the "devilish" holiday with gusto-and laughter." by Anderson M. Rearick III. After ridiculing various statements of fellow church members about the evils of Halloween, he writes,

"I have always considered Halloween a day to celebrate the imagination, to become for a short time something wonderful and strange, smelling of grease paint, to taste sweets that are permissible only once a year. How wonderful to be with other children dressed up as what they might grow up to be, what they wished they could be, or even what they secretly feared. All of us, dreams and nightmares, were brought together on equal footing, going from door to door to be given treats and admired for our creativity. How delightful to go to parties with doughnuts, apples, brown cider, and pumpkin cakes-and to hear spine-tingling ghost stories and feel our hearts skip a beat when the teller grabbed for us."

Dr. Rearick concludes with the idea that we shouldn't abandon Halloween to the dark side of satanists and Wiccans. We should "reclaim the season" just as we did with Christmas. Therefore Halloween can be seen as a time to laugh at Satan and make fun of him and to rejoice in Christ's victory over death and demons. The only real reason that we are reluctant to join the party is because Christianity fears the use and development of imagination.

My Methodist mother would point out that I had, in days prior to Orthodoxy, participated in Halloween. Where was the harm? I had watched all the Frankenstein, Werewolf, and Dracula movies, trick-or-treated, and had dress up as everything from a bum to the Mummy. Had this turned me into a satanist or devotee of Samhain? My mother would agree with Dr. Rearick. Why deprive children of a chance to use their imagination and engage in harmless fun?

While an Orthodox Christian may disagree with Dr. Rearick's (and my Mother's) analysis, we must face the fact that we now have a change in context, a new way of seeing the world. This is no longer a druid world governed by Samhain, devils, the walking dead, and evil spirits, and Satan. It is a brave new world of human hopes, dreams, ambitions, and fears. It is a place of imagination and celebration. It is a world where God, and in particular the God of Orthodoxy, has been pushed to the side and made irrelevant. A new order has arisen with a new way of seeing things and this worldview informs every aspect of modern western life. In short, we call this worldview "secularism."

Novus Ordo Seclorum

Webster defines secularism as "indifference to or rejection of religion and religious considerations." While we may object to the hedonism and materialism of our day, these are not new to this world. There have always been those who loved pleasure more than God and who placed their material well-being above their spiritual life. What is most important here is the word "indifference," and it draws its life from a basic an all-pervasive idea: all truth, especially religious truth, is relative. Fr. Seraphim Rose spoke of this new philosophy. He used the word "Nihilism", and called it the basic philosophy of the 20th century.

Maybe you've read this quote. It illustrates the indifferent spirit of our age.

If I were the devil

By Paul Harvey

I would gain control of the most powerful nation in the world;

I would delude their minds into thinking that they had come from man's effort, instead of God's blessings;

I would promote an attitude of loving things and using people, instead of the other way around;

I would dupe entire states into relying on gambling for their state revenue;

I would convince people that character is not an issue when it comes to leadership;

I would make it legal to take the life of unborn babies;

I would make it socially acceptable to take one's own life, and invent machines to make it convenient;

I would cheapen human life as much as possible so that the life of animals are valued more than human beings;

I would take God out of the schools, where even the mention of His name was grounds for a lawsuit;

I would come up with drugs that sedate the mind and target the young, and I would get sports heroes to advertise them;

I would get control of the media, so that every night I could pollute the mind of every family member with my agenda;

I would attack the family, the backbone of any nation.

I would make divorce acceptable and easy, even fashionable. If the family crumbles, so does the nation;

I would compel people to express their most depraved fantasies on canvas and movie screens, and I would call it art;

I would convince the world that people are born homosexuals, and that their lifestyles should be accepted and marveled;

I would convince the people that right and wrong are determined by a few who call themselves authorities and refer to their agenda as politically correct;

I would persuade people that the church is irrelevant and out of date, and the Bible is for the naive;

I would dull the minds of Christians, and make them believe that prayer is not important, and that faithfulness and obedience are optional;

I guess I would leave things pretty much the way they are.

We should remember that in the past paganism was a religious phenomenon. There was a common ground and a common theological language between pagan society and the Church. The Roman soldier torturing you might be a pagan, but he was a god-fearing man who attended the temple with his family, had two chariots in the garage, attended sporting events at the coliseum, and even had an altar in his house. Of course, he called Christianity atheism, and he would kill you for believing it.

Today's modern pagans are also "god-fearing people." They might attend church with family, have two cars in the garage, attend or watch sporting events, etc, Concerning the religion of others, they are tolerant because "after all, there is no real difference between us." Though a member of a denomination, the modern secular pagan is prideful of the fact that he really believes that denominations are in fact of no real consequence. To the mind of the modern secular pagan, the more absolute the claim to truth, the more irrelevant it seems to the cares and concerns of modern life. Is it any wonder then that to these modern folk, Halloween is no big deal?

Such is the world in which we now live and those who claim the Orthodox Faith undertake a unique challenge. Never before have Christians lived in a society that is secular by design and intention. Because we do not address our worldliness we can, on a Saturday night hold a Halloween party instead of going to Vigil. It isn't until St. John walks in our midst and looks at us with those piecing eyes that we suddenly feel the presence of that other world, the Kingdom of God, and we begin to sense our utter conformity to the world.

The Lord said, "I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that shouldest keep them from evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world." (John 17:15-16) How is it possible to accomplish this?

Repent

First, we need to repent. Well, we hear this all the time in Church, but I propose that we must go deeper than just feeling sorry about the situation. The Greek word for repentance is "metanoia" which means a "change of mind." St. Paul tells us that we should not be conformed to this world, but transformed by "the renewing of our minds." This means that we strive to gain the mind of Christ, an Orthodox mind. Fr. Seraphim believed that modern man could not come to Christ fully until he was first aware of how much the world had changed. Instead of just criticizing the world, we must recognize the Nihilism (or secular spirit) in ourselves. "The Nihilism of our age exists in all," he wrote, " and those who do not, with the aid of God, choose to combat it in the name of the fullness of Being of the living God, are swallowed up in it already.

In his book, For the Life of the World, Fr. Schmemann describes this change of mind and what it could mean for us:

"Secularism, I submit, is above all a negation of worship. I stress: -not of God's existence, not of some kind of transcendence and therefore some kind of religion. If secularism in theological terms is some kind of heresy, it is primarily a heresy about man. It is a negation of man as a worshiping being, as homo adorans: the one for whom worship is the essential act that both 'posits' his humanity and fulfills it."

Like Fr. Seraphim, Fr. Schmemann is saying that we must gain an Orthodox mindset. And what is this mindset? It is a rejection of the indifference of plagues modern life. It means strive to live each moment as if we truly believe that the Holy Spirit "is everywhere present and fillest all things." The entire world becomes vehicle of God's appearing and there is no sphere of life without His presence. "It is meet and right to sing to Thee, to bless Thee, to praise Thee, to give thanks to Thee, and to worship Thee in every place of thy dominion."

How did the Psalmist say it?

O Lord, thou hast searched me, and known me.
Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought from afar.
Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.
For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, thou knowest it altogether.
Thou has beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me.
Whither shall I go from thy spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy presence?
If I ascend into heaven, thou art there.
If I make my bed in hell, behold thou art there.
If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.
(Psalm 139)

Orthodox worship is not just a private matter. It is a rejection of the duality of the modern secular world - a duality that says, God is here, but He is not there. The goal of my striving is to become a sacramental man, who sees the entire universe as a place of God's appearing. That means that family and work and leisure are not separate places apart from God.

True repentance is never an easy thing to accomplish, and gaining an Orthodox mindset in this world will not be easy either. As a priest, I see my people struggling with the confusion of trying to live an Orthodox life in a today's world.

I was going to school in England when I first met the Orthodox community at Durham University. These students came from all over the Orthodox world. I met my first archimandrite there and my first archpriest. One thing I remember is that they all seemed curious about how it was possible to live as a Christian such a secular and pluralistic country as the USA. I was a Methodist then, but I had to admit that I didn't have a ready answer. I would guess however that if trends continue as they are, and as the secularism and materialism of the West continue to conquer the East, they too might have to struggle to find an answer. God help them.

The Tools of Repentance

Holy Orthodoxy and the Church have given us the tools to transform our minds. All are contained within Holy Tradition: attending Church, fasting, prayer, the reading of Scripture, the reading of the lives of the Saints, and the teachings of the Fathers, all these things can work to make us holy people. It isn't enough to just possess the tools, we must actually use the tools if we are to build anything of lasting value.

Often people ask me why the Orthodox Church repeats things so much. "Paci-paci".

This is what I tell them: How do I know the following so well?

My bologna has a first name, its O-S-C-A-R.
My bologna has a second name, its M-E-Y-E-R.
Oh, I love to eat it everyday,
And if you ask me why, I'll say
'Cause Oscar Meyer has a way
With b-o-l-o-g-n-a!

How do I know it so well after so many years? Because I heard it sung by some child over and over and over again on the TV and the radio. Fifth Ave. believes wholeheartedly in "again and again."

Perhaps if I read the morning prayers often enough, I would know the prayers as well as the Oscar Meyer song. Maybe, having learned them by heart, I might begin to dwell upon words and ponder them. Maybe, I would allow the words to sink in and become a part of me. Maybe, just maybe, by the Grace of God found in these prayers, I might actually begin to think the way an Orthodox Christian should think.

As a priest, and as your Orthodox brother, this is what disturbs me when people are habitually absent from Vigil. This is what disturbs me when folks confess laxity in prayer, reading, and fasting. I wonder how any of us will be able to resist the power of worldly conformity when we simply will not lift the shield of faith or put on the helmet of salvation to protect ourselves.

Enjoying the Fruits of Repentance

So, we must have the desire to see worldliness in ourselves, and we must use the tools that Orthodoxy gives us. Is there anything left?

Yes.

Years ago, I made the observation that people would attend faithfully attend Church services despite the fact that they had to wash their clothes in the river, gather their food from the fields, make their own clothes, harness the horse, cook from scratch, etc. Goodness, where did they find the time to go to Church so much? Now, in this wonderful modern world, we are "blessed" with time-saving and labor-saving devices: dishwashers, clothes washers, canned and prepared foods, ready made clothes, fast cars, etc. Yet, even with this timesaving technology, it seems that we have less time for spiritual life than our predecessors.

What has happened?

I heard it said once that today the Devil majors in three things: noise, crowds, and hurry.

Certainly, silence has virtually disappeared from our lives. "Crowds" doesn't simply mean a lot of people, but it means entertainment, spectacles, and diversion. We have certainly have an abundance of it in this country. I could speak at length upon each of these, but I want to deal mainly with the issue of hurry.

To enjoy the fruits of repentance, we must deal with the issues of priority and time. This is what "hurry" is all about. The pace of life has quickened, and this why, even with our technology, we have less time than before. Listen, I know we are tired, I know that our lives are full, and I know that we grow weary of hearing priests complain about why we aren't more faithful.

All I want to say is that if we do not set our priorities to make the Kingdom of God first before all things, the world will set our priorities for us. If we do not commit the time necessary to enjoy the fruits of holiness, the world will take away what little time we have. If we do not seek a place of silence, the world will inundate us with noise. If we do not strive to be transformed, conformity will surely overtake us.

The choice is ours. Yet, if we do not choose, the choice will be made for us.

Conclusion

Perhaps, you feel that I have gone a bit far from the topic of Halloween. Possibly, but to piously say to our beloved pagans that we don't celebrate because we are "not of this world" (i.e. Orthodox) is laughable if we are as worldly as they are. By worldly, I don't mean that we participate in the gross sins of the flesh. But if we are also hurried, concerned with success, fretting over money, fretting over possessions, constantly seeking entertainment, constantly filling our lives with noise, putting God in a Sunday morning box, finding little place for Him in the weekday cycle of work and family - then they will see the truth - we are just as pagan as they are. Our protests about Halloween will fail to convince anyone.

You see, it's a matter or witness by word and style of living. We must witness to the truth that Jesus Christ is the Son of the only true God; that all things were made by him, and for him. Christ holds all things together and by him all things consist. He is Word of God, the source of all truth, beauty, and love. Any culture, tradition or nation, even a secular one cannot limit him.

This must be our Orthodoxy, and to believe it and to witness it is to truly become a "fool for Christ." Never has it been more foolish than it is today to be an Orthodox witness in the secular world of today. It is for this witness then that we don't participate in Halloween.

By non-participation in Halloween, we refuse to acquiesce to the greatest and most subtle trick of the Devil. In Dr. Rearick's world, the Devil does not exist, or if he does, he is simply nothing more than something to laugh at. Modern media has made horror fun. Video games desensitized the mind by making images of evil commonplace and part of our playtime. This is similar to what Fr. Seraphim Rose wrote about in his book, Orthodoxy and the Religion of the Future. Fr. Rose believed that if you took the entire psychic phenomenon - from something as benign as the TV series Star Trek to the "Gnostic Christianity" of psychic gurus such as Sylvia Browne - the mind of humanity is being subtly prepared to receive the guidance of "beings of higher intelligence." These beings could be spiritual guides that channel through us, or they could be riding on UFOs. In reality, Fr. Seraphim believed, this mental conditioning is preparation for the Antichrist.

Whether or not you agree, with Fr., Seraphim's analysis, Halloween, as it is practiced rejoices in the irrelevance of spiritual evil. Today, spiritual evil is but a concept, and a dated one at that. Like all religious truth it is relative, and is thought to lie solely in the inner psychological landscape of the individual. Therefore, it is a matter of therapy and is of little importance to the cares and striving of the modern, pagan and secular world.

So, I don't participate, but with that alone, I shouldn't congratulate myself. What is more important is that I attain to stillness and salvation. If I do, "ten thousand around me will be saved." I doubt that loudly protesting Halloween will accomplish as much.

I end with these words from Abba Pambo

In those times the love for God in most souls will grow cold and a great sadness will fall onto the world. One nation shall face-off against another. Peoples will move away from their own places. Rulers will be confused. The clergy will be thrown into anarchy, and the monks will be inclined more to negligence. The church leaders will consider useless anything concerned with salvation, as much for their own souls as for the souls of their flocks, and they will despise any such concern. All will show eagerness and energy for every matter regarding their dining table and their appetites. They'll be lazy in their prayers and casual in their criticisms. As for the lives and teachings of the Holy Fathers, they'll not have any interest to imitate them, nor even to hear them. But rather they will complain and say, "if we had lived in those times, then we'd have behaved like that." And the Bishops shall give way to the powerful of the world, giving answers on different matters only after taking gifts from everywhere and consulting the rational logic of the academics. The poor man's rights will not be defended; they'll afflict widows and harass orphans. Debauchery will permeate these people. Most won't believe in God; they'll hate each other and devour one another like beasts. The one will steal from the other; they'll be drunk and will walk about as blind.

His disciple again asked, "Abba, what can we do in such a state?"

And Elder Pambo answered, "My child, in these times whoever will save his
soul and prompt others to be saved will be called great in the Kingdom of
Heaven."

All Saints of America Russian Orthodox Church

The Joyous Feast of Pumpkin

It is that time of the year when the secular society in which we live is preparing for the festival of Halloween. Many do not know its spiritual roots and history, and why it contradicts the teachings of the Church. The feast of Halloween began in pre-Christian times among the Celtic peoples of Great Britain, Ireland and northern France. These pagan peoples believed that life was born from death. Therefore they celebrated the beginning of the "new year" in the fall (on the eye of October 31 and into the day of November 1) when, as they believed, the season of cold, darkness, decay and death began. A certain deity whom they called Samhain was believed by the Celts to be the Prince of Death and it was he whom they honored at their New Year's festival*.

From an Orthodox Christian point of view, we can see many diabolical beliefs and practices associated with this feast which have endured to this time. On the eve of the New Year's festival, the Druids, who were the priests of the Celtic cult, instructed their people to extinguish all hearth fires and lights. On the evening of the festival, a huge bonfire built from oak branches (oak was regarded by the Celts as sacred) was ignited. Upon this fire sacrifices were burned as an offering in order to appease and cajole Samhain, the Prince of Death. It was also believed that Samhain, being pleased by the offerings, allowed the souls of the dead to return to their homes for a festal visit on this day. It is from this belief that the practice of wandering about in the dark dressed up in costumes imitating ghosts, witches, hobgoblins, fairies, etc. grew up. For the living entered into fellowship and communion with the dead by what was, and still is, a ritual act of imitation, through costume and the activity of wandering around in the dark of night, even as the souls of the dead were believed to wander.

The dialogue of trick or treat is also an integral part of this system of beliefs and practices. It was believed that the souls of the dead who had entered into the world of darkness, decay and death, and therefore into total communion with and submission to Samhain, bore the affliction of great hunger on their festal visit. Out of this grew the practice of begging, which was a further ritual enactment and imitation of what the Celts believed to be the activities of the souls of the dead on their festal visit. Associated with this is the still further implication that if the souls of the dead and their imitators were not appeased with "treats", i.e., offerings, then the wrath and anger of Samhain would be unleashed through a system of "tricks", i.e. curses. Such is the true meaning of this pagan feast. It is then evident that for an Orthodox Christian participation at any level is impossible and idolatrous, resulting in a genuine betrayal of God and Church. If we participate in the ritual activity of imitating the dead and wandering in the dark asking for treats or offering them to children, we then have willfully sought fellowship with the dead, whose Lord is not Samhain, but rather Satan. It is to Satan then that these treats are offered, not to children.

There are other practices associated with Halloween from which we must stay away, such as sorcery, fortune telling, divination, games of chance, witchcraft and the carving of an ugly face upon a pumpkin and then placing a lit candle within the infamous Jack O' Lantern. The pumpkin (in older days other vegetables were used) was carved by the Celts in imitation of the dead and used to convey the new light (from the sacred oak fire) to the home where the lantern was left burning through the night. This "holy lantern" is no other than an imitation of the truly holy votive light (lampada) offered before an icon of Christ and the saints. Even the use and display of the Jack O'Lantern involves participation in this "death" festival honoring Satan.

The Holy Fathers of the first millennium (a time when the Church was one and strictly Orthodox) counteracted this Celtic pagan feast by introducing the Feast of All Saints. It is from this that the term Halloween developed. The word Halloween has its roots in the Old English of All Hallow E'en, i.e., the Eve commemorating all those who were hallowed (sanctified), i.e. Halloween Unfortunately, either due to lack of knowledge or understanding, the Celtic pagan feast being celebrated on the same day as the Christian feast of All Saints (in western Christiandom) came to be known as Halloween.

The people who remained pagan and therefore anti-Christian reacted to the Church's attempt to supplant their festival by celebrating this evening with increased fervor. Many of these practices involved desecration and mockery of the Church's reverence for Holy Relics. Holy things, such as crosses and the Reserved Sacrament, were stolen and used in perverse and sacrilegious ways. The practice of begging became a system of persecution designed to harass Christians who were, by their beliefs, unable to participate by making offerings to those who served the Lord of Death.

One can see in contemporary Western society that the Western Church's attempt to supplant this pagan festival with a Christian feast failed. How then did something that is so obviously contradictory to the Holy Orthodox faith gain such acceptance among Christian people?

The answer is spiritual apathy and listlessness which are the spiritual roots of atheism and turning away from God. Today's society urges one that Halloween and other such festivities, notwithstanding their apparent pagan and idolatrous origin, are nonetheless harmless and of no consequence. Upon closer consideration these pagan festivals are the source for destroying any kind of spiritual foundation and lead to disbelief and outright atheism.

Halloween undermines the very basis of the Church which was founded on the blood of martyrs who had refused, by giving up their lives, to partake in any form of idolatry

Holy Mother Church must take a firm stand in counteracting any such (pagan) events. Christ taught us that God is the judge in all our actions and beliefs and that we are either FOR GOD or AGAINST GOD. There is no neutral or middle of the road approach.

Today we witness a revival of satanist cults; we hear of satanic services conducted on Halloween night. Children are kidnapped by satanists for their ritualistic sacrifices. Orthodox clergy are ritualistically killed as has happened more than once in California. Everywhere Satan reaches out to ensnare as many innocent people as possible. The newsstands are filled with material on spiritualism, supernatural phenomena, seances, prophesies and all sorts of demonically inspired works. These works all serve Satan, for they are not the fruit of the Holy Spirit, but the fruit of the spirit of this world.

Remarks Given at the XII All-Diaspora Youth Conference
Paris, 5th July 2011

Your Eminence, Your Grace, Reverend Fathers, Beloved Brothers and Sisters:

In the Name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit: Amen.

It is a joy for me to be giving what amounts to the first ‘formal’ lecture of this blessed conference, in which our whole aim is to explore mission and missionary work, especially in practical terms which you as the youth of our Church—spread out as she is to every corner of the world—might take up and live out when you return home.

Given the timing of this talk here at the beginning of your reflections, I thought it best to take advantage of its position and to ask a few fundamental questions. I do this not only because it is good, as a general practice, to ask what we do and why we do it, before we engage in any activity that we hope will bear fruit; but also because the theme of missionary work, broadly speaking, is one that is very often marred by a drive for action that ‘skips over’ this very need to ask fundamental questions.

Driven by the desire to do something, anything, missionary work is too often based purely on a vision of action. And yet, as Orthodox Christians all our actions are to be grounded in truth—the Truth that is Christ Himself; and without a knowledge of this truth, our actions are shallow, and the fruit they bear is scant and small.

So if we are to seek ‘practical’ guidance on Orthodox mission, and if we are to seek it in a genuinely Orthodox manner, we must start by recognising that it is not authentic to the ‘practicality’ of Orthodoxy simply to ‘go out and do something’. An Orthodox approach begins with a heart turning to God, seeking understanding.

And so we must ask ourselves the most basic question of all, as it relates to our conference here: just what, precisely, is ‘mission’ in the mind of the Orthodox Church?

What is ‘mission’ in the mind of the Orthodox Church?

Before we attempt to focus ourselves too precisely on how to exercise it, how to accomplish it, we must took at the very concept itself. What is our ‘mission’ as Orthodox Christians? And what does it mean to be a ‘missionary’ in our contemporary world?

Often, when we hear these terms we instinctively, automatically, begin to think in the framework provided for us by outside influences. There are many religions that engage in what they call ‘missionary work’, and they are often quite visible in this; and so our understanding of what it means to be missionary, and what mission itself might mean, is regularly influenced by what we see and hear in these others. And in their examples, ‘mission’ often means ‘telling other people what we believe’, and ‘trying to get them to believe as we do’. In effect, the idea of ‘mission’ is combined with another, that of proselytism, which is the technical term for the work of drawing other people into one’s own religion or belief system.

But is this what we mean, as Orthodox Christians? Can it be that our ‘mission’ is, as such examples would suggest, to create more Orthodox Christians—to cause more people to convert?

As tempting as such a vision might be, the true testimony of the Church is that the answer must be ‘no’. Creating converts is not our mission, and it cannot be our aim as missionaries in the modern world. But what, then, is?

For this, we must not look toward our contemporary society, with its norms and expectations—even in religious terms. Our mission must not be defined by what the world expects; it must be defined by what the world needs, and what God offers to it in that need.

Our source for understanding mission, then, is not in popular ‘action plans’ or Christian marketing strategies, however pious they might be. Our source is in our past, in our heritage—which is vibrant and alive in our present. Our source is in our Fathers, who convey to us the truth of ourselves, of the world, of God and of His Church. It is by looking to what we receive from our Fathers in the faith, that we will learn what is our true mission as Christians, and in what our true missionary work might consist.

And so we must ask ourselves, what do these divine sources tell us?

The Mission of the Orthodox Christian: The Salvation of the Soul

The ‘mission’ and aim of the Christian life is the salvation of our souls and bodies, and the attainment of the Kingdom of God. This is first and foremost, and above all else.

It is for this that the Father sent His only-begotten Son, our Lord and God and Saviour Jesus Christ, into the world; it is for this that He offered Himself and sent the life-creating Spirit—that we who are fallen and broken, suffering and crippled by sin and death, might rise up by His power and attain to the life He has fashioned for us, abiding eternally with Him in His heavenly Kingdom.

We must not forget this! Yet one of the things I feel it important to remind you of today is that the work of Christian mission does often forget this, and we and you as Orthodox Christians must stalwartly resist this tendency to forget what is truly the purpose of our every Christian activity, especially our missionary work.

Our aim is not to help the people around us find a more fulfilling life; it is not to help them discover better worship; it is not to help them locate and become part of a more satisfying community. Our mission is to help them find the Kingdom of God, to overcome their sin by His power, to be transformed into the life of His blessedness.

This is our mission as Orthodox Christians; and for this reason, it is neither a popular or easy one in the world today. I want you to recognise this. To be a missionary requires struggle, and a confident boldness.

To fulfil this mission, we must proclaim boldly and without hesitation:

Our mission is to attain the Kingdom of God, and to draw all those around us—even the whole world—into that same Kingdom. To be ‘missionary’, then, is to live our lives in such a manner that these two things are possible, and more than simply possible: that they actually take place.

How Are We To Do This?

I should like to spend the remainder of my short time with you this morning exploring, in practical terms, what this properly Orthodox understanding of mission might mean for each of you as the youth of the Church. And your status as the Church’s youth makes this important, for ahead of you is a whole life shaped by the Church. We are often told that ‘the future of the Church is our youth’; but this is of course quite wrong. It is the other way around. As others have said before, the future of our youth is the Church—as it is indeed the future of the whole world.

Here are the main ‘practical points’ I would like to consider together today:

(1) Developing a burning love through repentance and the mystical life.

(2) Living a distinctly different manner of life.

(3) Responding to the true needs of the world.

(1) Developing a burning love through repentance and the mystical life

At the foundation of our missionary work in the world is the missionary work that must take place in our own heart. A fundamental teaching of the Fathers is that we cannot share with others that which we do not possess ourselves; and thus it is a non-starter to believe we can share with the world the way into the Kingdom, if we are not working with all our energy to receive it in our own hearts.

The foundation of practical missionary work, then, begins in the heart—in your heart, in mine. It begins with repentance. Our hearts must see their brokenness, and turn from our sin towards redemption in Christ. Without this, we seek to share with the world what we do not have, and we seek to point the world toward a Kingdom that we are not ourselves moving toward or living within.

This can never work. If we attempt it, we are like the foolish man attempting to build his house upon the sand (cf. Matthew 7.24-27; Luke 6.46-49). As our Lord Himself told us, this house will surely fall.

But, you might ask, how is this understanding of mission beginning in the heart, a ‘practical’ step towards the missionary calling that you all share? And I answer: it is practical in as much as it defines for us a clear starting point for a life of true missionary zeal and impact.

Missionary work begins in the Holy Mysteries, in confession and the communion in the holy Body and Blood of Christ. It does not begin in a plan for travel, or an outline for catechesis, or a useful translation of the sacred writings or a manual for encounters. Nor does it begin with an idea for a good Christian bookstore or coffee-shop discussion groups. It begins with an epitrachilion laid across our head, our heart laid open by the grace of the Holy Spirit, and the sins which bind us to death and darkness defeated by the power of God. It begins when, through this sacred Mystery, we are freed of the burden of sin, and are made ready to draw near to Christ Himself in the Divine Liturgy, receiving in soul and body Him who shows us His Father’s Kingdom.

In this way the truth proclaimed by St Isaac is made clear, that ‘the Kingdom of God is within you’; and then, only then, are we able to share with the world the truth of that Kingdom. Only then can we not only say, but show the world what it means to attain this Kingdom and live a life wholly shaped by it.

This means that if you as the youth of the Church, and all of us as her members in Christ’s Body, wish indeed to attain our mission and be genuine missionaries in the world, we must begin by whole-heartedly embracing repentance—repentance not as an obligation, not as a requirement, but as a joyful and joy-creating foundation for a truly spiritual life.

We must foster in our hearts a burning love for the Life in Christ that the Church gives us. If you wish to be fruitful missionaries, begin by rushing with full zeal, eagerness and seriousness to confession, often and with full devotion. Open your heart there wholly and completely to God, holding back nothing from Him, so that no corner of your life remains divided from Him, rebellious towards Him. Run eagerly, as if it were as important as your own breath, to that Mystery by which His power might conquer your sin and draw you out of darkness towards the true Sun of Righteousness.

If this is how we make a practical beginning to our missionary calling, then we will have with us something far greater than a plan for spreading the word or offering just the right counsel. We will have hearts that burn with God’s grace. We will have within us that which was promised by our Saviour and delivered upon the Holy Pentecost which we have so recently celebrated: the Holy Spirit Himself, alive in our hearts, filling our lives and words and actions in the same way He filled the lives, words and actions of the great missionary saints of all generations past. This is the Spirit who draws all of creation to the Son, who in turn presents it to His Father. This is the Spirit who enables the journey into the Kingdom of God; and if we begin with repentance, confession, communion, then we bear in ourselves this Spirit, who in us can find a willing partner for the work of drawing all the world to the Kingdom.

We must remember one of the greatest missionary saints of the past century, St Seraphim of Sarov, and his famous saying: ‘Acquire the Spirit of peace within you, and a thousand around you shall be saved.’ We cannot assist others in finding their saving way into the Kingdom, unless our hearts so burn with the Spirit of Truth.

(2) Living a distinctly different manner of life

This second key ‘ingredient’ of a genuinely missionary life is intrinsically tied together with the first, for unless we are given life by the Spirit and freed from the bonds of sin by the Mysteries of the Church, our life will always be defined by the world. We will live the life others live, even if in this way or that we might give it our own ‘flavour’, our own twists. If we dwell first and foremost in the world, if we are shaped above all by the world, then all we can ever show the world is itself, no matter how often we might speak of God or other things.

If, however, we are given the grace through repentance to live as those ‘in the world but not of it’, then we are able, by our lives, to show the world something different. Something strikingly, unexpectedly different—but only if we are committed to living the truly ‘other’ life of the Gospel.

As an example of this, I would like to call upon an episode from the era of the Apostolic Fathers, who were the immediate successors to the Holy Apostles and who lived and wrote in what were still the first generations of the Church. At this time, the Church was, in human terms, still young and new, and few people in society yet knew of her. Those who had heard of her, rarely knew what she really was, what she actually believed; and there were no convenient ‘Introductions to Orthodoxy’ to be read—even the Creed had yet to be written. The only way to learn of the Church was to see her, to behold her, to gaze upon the Christians themselves and thus behold the Body of Christ.

And what did people see, when they looked at the life of the Church in those early days? We have an anonymous text from the time, which offers us a characterisation of what one person saw when he beheld the Christian manner of life and how he chose to characterise it to another, and it is perhaps one of the most beautiful texts ever written:

“Christians are not distinguished from the rest of mankind either in locality or in speech or in customs. For they dwell not somewhere in cities of their own, neither do they use some different language, nor practise an extraordinary kind of life. Nor again do they possess any invention discovered by any intelligence or study of ingenious men, nor are they masters of any human dogma as some are. But while they dwell in cities of Greeks and barbarians as the lot of each is cast, and follow the native customs in dress and food and the other arrangements of life, yet the constitution of their own citizenship, which they set forth, is marvellously distinct and confessedly contradicts expectation.

“They dwell in their own countries, but only as sojourners; they bear their share in all things as citizens, and they endure all hardships as strangers. Every foreign country is a fatherland to them, and every fatherland is foreign. They marry like all other men and they beget children; but they do not cast away their offspring. They have their meals in common, but not their wives. They find themselves in the flesh, and yet they live not after the flesh. Their existence is on earth, but their citizenship is in heaven. They obey the established laws, yet they surpass the laws in their own lives. They love all men, even as they are persecuted by all. They are ignored, and yet they are condemned.

“They are put to death, and yet they are endued with life. They are poor and beg their bread, yet they make many rich. They are in want of all things, and yet they abound in everything. They are dishonoured, and yet they are glorified in their dishonour. They are spoken of as evil, and yet they are vindicated. They are reviled, and they bless; they are insulted, and they show respect. Doing good, they are punished as evil-doers; then, being punished, they rejoice as if they were thereby quickened unto life. War is waged against them as aliens by the Jews, and persecution is carried out against them by the Greeks, and yet those that hate them cannot identify a reason for their hostility. In a word, what the soul is in a body, this the Christians are in the world.”1

Think of how these early Christians must have lived their lives, that one could look upon them and say such things as these! And then we must ask ourselves: am I living my life in such a manner? Will the world look at me and say such things? Or will it look at me and see someone trying to ‘fit in’, to be ‘acceptable’ to the norms and expectations of the world around me?

If we are to be genuine missionaries, we must not aim to ‘fit in’ to the world. We must live a distinctly different manner of life, so that the world might ‘look upon our good works, and glorify our Father who is in heaven’ (cf. Matthew 5.16).

(3) Responding to the true needs of the world

This brings me to my third main point: the need for us to respond to the true needs of the world. It is only when we have a heart transfigured by God’s power, when we live a truly Christian life and bear its witness in the world, that we can then see what the world truly needs—and not simply what it thinks it needs, or what it wants. It is precisely in seeing the difference between the true life we live as Christians, and the life of the world, that we can point at this dimension or that like wise doctors and say ‘Aha! It is that which must be cured, if my patient is to be well!’ We see this through our lives, and the way our lives interact with those of the world.

And now, now we have the right tools required to act. It is only now that we can say to ourselves, with the wisdom that comes from the experience of Christian life and the needs of the world, that this or that activity will authentically meet the need of those around us.

This need may be for instruction in living the virtues. It may be in drawing in fellow young people to Church activities—but not simply as a ‘social activity’, but in direct response to the needs of these specific people.

It may be in organising activities to give to the poor or reach out to suffering communities; but not simply as a generic ‘good activity’, but as a concrete response to a need we see around us, and a means of helping such people see and behold the life of the Kingdom.

Only in such a way will we construct missionary activities that actually aim to fulfil our Orthodox mission: to draw the world around us into the Kingdom of God.

Sometimes our missionary work will be friendly, casual, even playful; at others it will be formal, even stark. Not all patients are treated in the same way, and the same medication does not work for every disease. And if we are true missionaries, then whatever our state in life, we are participants in the spiritual transformation the Church offers. We are helpers in the spiritual hospital, by which souls are saved.

The Way Forward

As we then move forward with our conference, with our discussions, workshops, seminars and discussions, let us strive to remember in every context the fundamental realities that must guide us as Orthodox Christians seeking to be missionaries in the modern world.

(1) We must begin always in our own heart, seeking a burning love through repentance and the mystical life.

(2) We must always seek to live truly Orthodox lives, bearing witness to the world of a distinctly different manner of life.

(3) Then, in this wonderful life, we must turn to our fellow man, to the whole of God’s world, and seek to respond to its needs, that it may join us in this God-given life of grace and transformation.

The world does not need more generic missionaries. It does not need simply ‘Christian-flavoured’ social work. It does not need it, and it will reject it.

But the world desperately needs to be shown the way into the Kingdom of Heaven. And each of us, each of you, may receive the power from God to help the suffering world, to join Christ in offering Himself ‘for the life of the world’, and thus become true missionaries and lights to your fellow man.

May the Lord bless you in this work!

Amen.

'One one occasion, the saint said, "It may be that a man seems to be silent; but if in his heart he judges others, then he is always speaking. But there are also those who all the day long speak with their tongues, but within themselves they keep true silence, for they judge no one."'

'There was a certain monk whose fasting was so severe that he permitted himself to partake of food only on the seventh day; yet this monk harboured an anger against his brother. Abba Poemen said to him, "You would learn to fast for six days, yet you cannot abstain from your anger for even a single day!"'

'Abba Poemen said, "Malice never wipes out malice. If someone does evil unto you, do them good. Your good will conquer their evil."'

'A certain monk asked Abba Poemen, "Should a man veil over with silence the sin of a transgressing brother, if perchance one should see him?" The elder answered: "If we reproach the sins of our brothers, then God will reproach our sins; and if you see a brother sinning, believe not your own eyes and know that your own sin is like a wood-beam, but the sin of your bother is like a mere splinter -- and then you will not come into stress and temptation."'

'A certain monk turned to the saint, saying, "I have grievously sinned and I want to spend three years at repentance. Is such a length of time sufficient?" Abba Poemen answered, "That is a long time." The monk continued to ask how long a period of repentance the saint reckoned was necessary for him -- a year? Forty days? The elder at last answered, "I think that if a man repents from the depths of his heart, and posits a firm intent to return no more to the sin, then God would accept even a three-day repentance."'

'To the question, "Is it better to speak or to be silent?" the elder said, "Whoever speaks on account of God, does well; and whoever is silent on account of God, does well."'

Christ is risen! Христос воскресе!

As we continue to celebrate the joyous and bright feast of Holy Pascha, during which we remember our Lord’s resurrection and the forty days He spent amongst His disciples, appearing to them in gardens, along the road, in upper rooms and in many other places to assure them of the Kingdom of God and the power that had been given to the Son by His Father, I write to encourage us to apply our hearts to the precious inheritance He has given us.

In these days of Holy Pascha, let embrace the inheritance of our faith, and the life to which God calls us. Let us especially look toward the ‘small things’ that form the fabric of our lives as Orthodox Christians, and which shape in us a true, pious, grace-filled love for God and all His creation.

Let us stand solemnly in our prayers, grateful that we are able to stand in the presence of our King!

Let us cross ourselves reverently, at every petition of the litanies and at all other times, grateful that the Precious Cross is always with us, and the Sign that defeats all spiritual enemies is never far from us!

Let us venerate our holy icons with real piety, not rushed or without thinking, grateful that the saints of every age are not lost, but with us, present among us!

Let us show our love and respect for one another, greeting one another with the Paschal proclamation, taking blessings, speaking with respect—grateful that God has preserved for us a community in which the richness of life may be experienced and known!

Let us say our prayers before and after meals, not out of a sense of duty or routine, but with purity of heart, truly grateful that God has provided for our bodily as well as spiritual lives!

Let us listen to the Scriptures attentively, and attend to our instruction with devotion, grateful that God speaks to each of us with His word of truth!

Let us approach the relics of our patron, St. John, and all our sacred things, not flippantly or out of routine, but with real awe and tenderness and love—grateful that here, in the midst of our sinful and fallen world, God has given us signs and the reality of His love and grace!

Let us take this joyous period of the Lord’s bright resurrection, by which every corner of creation was illumined and sanctified, and offer every ‘corner’ of our lives back to Him with true piety and love. Let us focus particularly on the small things, the routine things, which we too often dismiss. For if we do this, then our whole being will belong to Christ and our whole life will be His. Then we will know what it means to say with St. John Chrysostom, ‘Christ is risen, and joy is come into all the world.’

Christ is risen! Truly, He is risen! 

With love and prayers in our Risen Lord,
Hieromonk Irenei
Principal