Cathedrals

Thanks to St. Athanasius Church in Santa Barbara, my long-dormant interest in Cathedral construction has been re-kindled. They're building one. The price tag: at least 7 million; a small price to pay for this portal to the Kingdom of Heaven.

I'm fascinated by the philosophical, theological, and practical considerations involved in building a Cathedral.

Fr. Thomas Hopko wrote a series of very helpful "intro to Orthodoxy" books. He talks about theology of church architecture: "Orthodox Church architecture reveals that God is with men, dwelling in them and living in them through Christ and the Spirit. It does so by using the dome or the vaulted ceiling to crown the Christian church building [...] Unlike the pointed arches which point to God far up in the heavens, the dome or the spacious, all-embracing ceiling gives the impression that in the Kingdom of God, and in the Church, Christ 'unites all things in himself, things in heaven and things on earth' (Eph. 1:10)."

The dome is certainly the distinguishing feature of an Orthodox Cathedral. Interesting that the form of the church building is an expression of "Immanuel," God with us.

Related: I appreciate this song by Jump Little Children, Cathedrals. Thanks, Taylor Gray - friend, graphic designer, and visual artist - for the introduction.

New RHII, First Pages

Anna Lieberman, Daniel Rufener, Chelsea Sleeth, Tyler Leivo, Christopher Martinez, Jesse Garcia, and Ian Redford in RHII, photo curtesy Cory Schoolland

I've changed the title, and gutted the first two pages.

I quickly realized I will have to make changes for practical reasons as much as I do for “theological” reasons. Since the original script was developed "on the fly," there was little time or reason to load the pages with meticulous stage direction. The original text reflects a great deal of bodily memory: unwritten stage action. For example, Abraham wandered around the stage, "symbolically" wandering the desert. Where the script seems pathetically sparse usually meant action filled the gaps. Jesus gathered the audience from outdoors and led audience members indoors, but you never could have known this from the original script. In the second version, I hope to be clear.

Given the constraints of this blog, I'll send you to my absurdly new "google site" page, where you can download the pdfs of the first pages and give me some feedback. Thanks for looking!

ORIGINAL PAGE 1

NEW PAGE 1-2

It's Hard to Pray...

...surrounded by the noise of those who don't care about prayer, or education, or anything beyond their latest wrench set. The stagehand union can be lucrative, engaging, even exhilarating when you're working in a real, San Francisco theater, building a show televised to millions across the world. But there are also days when you feel life eeking out of you with every petty command from someone who gets paid too much to make rich people richer.

Today was a rough day on the spirit, but a good day for humility. Especially good for Lent.

How Icons are Made

"The icon requires a dry, well-aged, knot-free, non-resinous wood, for example, lime, alder, birch, or cypress, or pine with little resinous content. Two horizontal wedges of a hard wood are often inserted in the back of the panel to counteract warping. Frequently a recessed area is made in the panel, the margins serving both as a frame and protection for the image.

The surface of the wood panel is lightly scored so that it can better hold the material that will be attached to it, as the icon is painted not directly on the wood but on an intermediate surface. Often a piece of loosely woven linen or cheesecloth is glued on, or the board is just "sized" with a mixture of gelatine and hot water with a small amount of chalk or alabaster whiting added. This provides a base for what will follow - careful application of five to seven thin layers of gesso without air bubbles or any other irregularity or contamination. Each layer must dry slowly for at least twelve hours before the next layer is applied. The process of simply preparing the surface takes at least a week."

-from Praying with Icons by Jim Forrest

Writing icons is gaining popularity in the US, as more and more people are discovering Orthodoxy. One such iconographer from Ohio, I referenced in an earlier post. A good friend, Nicolai Tsai is a very gifted iconographer, and has been commissioned to write icons for numerous churches in Alaska.

Glory to God for those that are helping us to pray by their artwork.

God of Beauty

"The understanding of God is the understanding of beauty," said Father Nathaniel, the elderly monk who welcomed us. "Beauty is at the heart of our monastic life. The life of prayer is a constant well of beauty. We have the beauty of music in the Holy Liturgy. The great beauty of monastic life is communal life in Christ. Living together in love, living without enmity, as peaceful with each other as one dead body is peaceful with another dead body. We are dead to enmity." I was reminded of Dostoevsky's words in The Idiot, "Beauty will save the world."

- from Praying with Icons by Jim Forest

Redemption History II

Tyler Leivo as Christ in Redemption History II. Photo curtesy Cory Schoolland.

Thanks to the encouragement of some Christian friends at St. Athanasius Orthodox Church, I'm re-visiting a piece of my past: Redemption History II. I am re-writing the script, and hoping, in the next year or two going to gather a small company to begin re-production.

What a trippy experience it's been, even for a couple of days, scanning images, reading the scriptural text, listening to music. I was in such a different place in life then - things were so much more chaotic, unsure, dark - but this play seems to stand in my memory as a Time-outside-of-Time.

In light of the Spirit-centric theology which has recently been filling my mind, I'm beginning to see my script of four or five years ago as pretty... I don't know... "judgmental." There was such a heavy focus on suffering and pain and separation from God and guilt that it's a wonder people could connect with it. I mean, no fault of the actors - they were fantastic - but with the culmination being the grotesque crucifixion of Christ and getting the audience to chant with the actors "Crucify him," it didn't seem to warrant the smiling "Go and tell all the world" delivered by the disciples at the end.

It's like I went to hear Tschaikovsky's 1812 Overture and could only get excited about the cannons firing.

Ah, well. I'll post re-writes and old photos; I'll be asking for feedback.

My wife is AWESOME

I walked into our San Francisco Edwardian house tonight after a long day of work with the Union, and the sweet aroma of Indian spices, sauteing onions, and sweet bread greeted me softly as I walked in the door.

My wife had slaved away for nearly THREE HOURS preparing an incredible Indian curry (masala?) and naan. It was super delicious. I am too lucky.

I'm not sure why it took till now to get a good wifey post on this blog... my partner-in-all-things is sure to be featured frequently as she is awesome, and as she is super creative.

Yay Kellie!

Houses of God

There are a few Orthodox monasteries in California. These are havens of spiritual healing, filled with people of God seeking deep, prayerful relationship with Christ. There are many more of these centers in California and throughout the world, and I would love to know of them. Please comment and share!

St. John's Monastery: Located in the far north of California, this is an especially hospitable place, shepherded by Fr. Meletios Webber. There are many photos available on Facebook if your interested in a quick glance. And my good friend Tim Lindwall is there right now.

St. Herman's Monastery: Also in far northern California, this property borders a State-preserved wilderness, and the brothers are renowned for their austere lifestyle. They are dedicated to the printing and production of Orthodox material, and many wonderful books are available through their press ministry.

Holy Cross Monastery (photo featured for this post): Holy Cross is in the Bay Area and run by three priest monks who work outside jobs to support the ministry. Because of the beauty of the property, they often host conferences, events, weddings, and retreats.

Holy Assumption Monastery: In Calistoga, this women's monastery has a beautiful history that stretches back to the 1940's. The Church fell into disrepair, and the nuns left, thinking they would never return. A priest who was a skilled carpenter moved in to repair the buildings while the nuns lived in the Santa Barbara area... in a trailer park. For years, the nuns had a monastery of vehicles until the SB county cracked down on their "illegal" congregation of trailers in a single area. They sold the trailers. Half of the nuns moved back to Calistoga. Half moved to Santa Paula.

Adoption as Sons and Daughters

Adoption into "the family" is one of the core features of an Orthodox worldview. From my first moments of learning about the Orthodox Church, the phrase "the people of God" kept re-surfacing.

Ruth's fervent words in the Church's history express the essence of the modern day Orthodox person's life: "Don't ask me to leave you, or to go back from following after you: for where you go, I will go; and where you stay, I will stay: your people will be my people, and your God my God." (Ruth 1:16) Ruth was greatly and abundantly blessed by her fervent decision to remain with her mother-in-law: she was re-married to a man named Boaz and gave birth to Obed, the ancestor of Jesus.

When a person becomes Orthodox they are guided by a priest who becomes the person's spiritual father: a wise man available for questions, guidance, prayerful support. A member of the Church must also be adopted by godparents: two older, wiser members of the Church who have a special significance to the person becoming Orthodox, and who take responsibility for the child in the faith. In a marriage, there must be family witnesses to the creation of a family. So too, in Orthodoxy, there must be family witnesses to the adoption of this new child in the faith. Joining the Orthodox Church is in every way the same as joining a family. As Christ is the head of the Church, so Christ is the head of this family.

Dear Lord Jesus, lead us again and again to the promised land, where God's people live together and worship together, free from the encumbrance of sin and alive in the Spirit.

St. John the Almsgiver, an icon of Stewardship

"He had a grand signeur's liberality and self-assurance; he was also, if we may believe his biographer, a man of perfect humility.

"In all, St. John is said to have collected during his eight years in office 10,000 lbs of gold from donations in addition to the 8,000 he had found in the treasury of the Church. [...] At the same time the patriarch is said to have had 7,500 beggars in his care. He built hospices for them - elongated vaulted buildings provided with wooden benches, mats and blankets. He also build hostelries for visiting monks, and when Jerusalem fell to the Persians in 614, he sent vast sums of money to rebuild its churches and ransom prisoners."

- Cyril Mango's Byzantium

A 7th century working-class laborer would have made about 1/7 of a pound of gold per year. One pound of gold = 7 years for a normal person. In eight years, St. John stewarded about 10,000 times what a full-time worker made in the same time period.

St. John administrated a huge bureaucracy, but his generosity and success flowed from a prayerful other-worldliness:

"St John, a strict ascetic and man of prayer, was always mindful of his soul, and of death. He ordered a coffin for himself, but told the craftsmen not to finish it. Instead, he would have them come each feastday and ask if it was time to finish the work."

- OCA website

His dependency on God was literally hand-to-mouth, but he never wanted for anything:

"On another occasion, after he gave his habit to a poor man who passed by, a person he did not know appeared immediately afterwards and gave him a sack containing a hundred gold pieces. After that, when he gave an alms, he always said, 'I am going to see whether Jesus Christ will fulfill His promise of giving me a hundredfold.' The accomplished promise occurred so many times that he ceased to say these words, which were, in any case, for the benefit of those surrounding him.”

- Catholic website for Lives of Saints

The other-worldly focus of this saint-man's life make me consider what it means to steward my wealth. My wife and I have been given many, many resources: masters-level educations, small-but-reasonable incomes, a rented apartment in the Richmond district of SF, wonderful families with great examples of parents. The scales are SO in our favor, especially compared with the 90% of the world that live more simply than we do. So what shall we do? How shall we, like St. John, live on fire with the Holy Spirit, asking to be vessels of His love?

I'm open to suggestions, and I'm certainly not the only one thinking about these things. Roy Goble, founder of Pathlight International, is a man concerned with the poor of the world, especially those in Belize; he recently wrote on this subject in his blog. He called his post "Wealth, Work, and the World." Great thoughts, and a good read.

I'm also inspired by the list of activities in Dan Miller's book about finding your vocation, 48 Days to the Work You Love. He's talking about finding your calling in life, not feeding the poor per se, but to me his suggestions take abstract ideas to the realm of concrete action plans:

"Set aside time for vigorous physical exercise. Walk 3 miles 4 or 5 times a week - the feeling will help release tension and stimulate creativity. Seek out a godly mentor. Much of the success of Alcoholics Anonymous has been from attendees' having another person to call in the lowest times. Read inspirational material at least 2 hours daily. Volunteer for a worthy cause - helping someone else in need is a great way to ease the inward pain [of aimlessness]."

Through the prayers of St. John, may my search for effective, God-dependant ministry turn to action for the Kingdom.

Francis Chan should be Orthodox

Can anyone tell me why (at this particular moment) I feel way more inspired reading modern Protestant material about relationship with God than I do when I read modern Orthodox literature about relationship with God?

I mean, I just read Francis Chan's Forgotten God: Reversing Our Tragic Neglect of the Holy Spirit, and came up with a ton of practical ideas for developing my relationship with God.

The ideas are simple. The content is heart-convicting. And the cover is so well designed.

Where is this stuff in the current, AMERICAN Orthodox Church?

Searching for Vocation

I'm reading a book by Dan Miller called 48 Days to the Work You Love, because I'm actively searching for my vocation.

Here was a list of his job-seeker questions that I thought are appropriate for any Christian:

What was I born to do?

What would be my greatest contribution to others?

What do I really love to do (and when I'm doing it, time just flies by)?

What are the reoccurring themes I find myself drawn to?

How do I want to be remembered?

When Raphael House's Christian community disintegrated, it freed me from the constraints of "Facilities Management." I knew I wasn't a maintenance guy at heart, but was willing to 'put up with' my job in order to live in Christian community and provide for my wife. Now I'm stagehand-ing for income, and vision casting for vocation. Pray for me.

Stories People Tell

Today, I was shocked when the head carpenter of the theater gig I was working (who I didn't know) walked up to me and said:

"Hey, you're that guy that got knocked out by a pimp last year, huh?"

"Ummmmm.....ya?"

He says, "That's crazy man." He shakes my hand. "You know, I really appreciate what you did, standing up for that woman like that, but I hope you learned your lesson. Geez. I can't believe you're not dead."

"Ya me neither," I reply. Pause, pause. "How did you find out about that?"

"Ah, you know. People tell stories. Word gets around."

The fact that this story 'got around' was shocking to me. I mean, what do people care that I put myself out there for someone I didn't know? I thought: that is the power of the actions of the Church's saints (not in any way that I'm one). They did things that brought on persecution, and they did it for justice, for Christ, and people paid attention. That made me think:

What action in my life since that moment of pimp-confrontation has been so extremely put-yourself-out-there-for-others that people would talk about it? Would know me by it? Hmmm. A sober line of questioning, but one that inspires me to action.

More Orthodox Writers!

I discovered, very randomly, a treasure trove of Orthodox writers. They are authoring blogs and offering - some of them DAILY - far more valuable content than this blog's infancy could possibly offer. So I will list them here in the hopes that you will run to wiser lay-people:

The Handmaid: One could get lost for hours in this blog, traipsing through sayings of the Holy Fathers, or imagining snowy winters in prayerful Russian churches.

Abba Moses: This "Orthodox Christian living with my family in a small village in rural Ohio" has managed to crystallize a list of amazing Orthodox resources in a very tight space. Great thoughts here from a real, family man. His son in college writes about Orthodoxy and higher education, here.

Full of Grace and Truth: This blog format is probably closest to mine, though the content far surpasses my very beginning attempts. It seems, though, that this author's work will be the long-form of my short-hand. Great for reading occasional, longer sermons.

Peace to all! More will follow!