NEW ZEALAND VISIT OF OUR NEW METROPOLITAN
The itinerary of Metropolitan Paul's visit has now been drawn up as follows:
Friday, June 9: Arrive Auckland airport, met by Fr Michael Coumbias. Contact: (09) 838 9377. Saturday June 10: evening function with Mr I. Bosauder & family & friends. (09) 534 1536. Sunday: at S. Ignatius Church Waterview. In Auckland until Tuesday night.
Wednesday 14th: flight to Wellington; met 9.30 am by Dr I. Nield, contact (04) 934 8921. 3.15 pm Flight to ChCh, met by Fr Jack. 6.30 pm Vespers in Ashley Church followed by shared supper in the Rectory.
Thursday June 15: 9.45 pm Mass in Ashley Church. Contact: Fr. Jack, (03) 313 5673. Visits in North Canterbury and Christchurch, finishing at Fr Deacon Michael's house and chapel at Diamond Harbour for Vespers 5 pm; contact Fr Dn Michael, (03) 329 4674.
Friday June 16: driving with Fr Dn M. & Mrs Elder to Dunedin, at S.Michael's for Sunday services and until Monday morning; contact Fr. Ilyan, (03) 455 7078.
Monday June 19: Flight 11.20 am from Dunedin via Wellington and Auckland (3 hrs stop) to U.S.A.
His Eminence has expressed a wish to make as many visits to parishioners as possible. We shall make every effort to help people to be at the meetings that are arranged, and will provide lifts where needed. But we should like to hear also from anyone who cannot leave home and who would like a visit. You will find an insert giving more details of the arrangements in your area. Please use the contact numbers.
Our Archdiocese now has its own web site: http://www.antiochian.org.au This includes information on parishes in Australia and New Zealand. See also the North American website: http:/www.antiochian.org/ and the Antiochian British Deanery: http:/www/antiochian-orthodox.co.uk/ Fr Jack's own pages: http://homepages.paradise.net.nz/frjack will soon, we hope, carry more information on the mission at Ashley and New Zealand Orthodoxy generally. Watch that space...
He was born Badih' Saliba in Bsarma Koura, Lebanon on the tenth of July July 1939 and completed his primary studies at the village school, then at the Eslah Orthodox School in Amioun Khoura.
1952: Metropolitan Abourjaily enrolled him at the Seminary College in Balamand.
1957-1958: Badih', who changed his name to Boulos (Paul), was sent to the seminary in the Island of Patmos in Greece to learn the Greek language and the Byzantine music.
1958: Metropolitan Abourjaily ordained him deacon and he returned to the university of Athens to further his theological studies. Deacon Paul returned to Tripoli and served under Metropolitan Elias Corban who appointed him teacher in the Orthodox schools and member of the Spiritual Court and secretary to the Diocesan Board.
In 1965 the superior of the Balamand Monastery, His Beatitude Hazim, the present Patriarch, appointed him teacher in the Balamand; in 1966, Metropolitan Archbishop Corban elevated him to the rank of Archimandrite.
On the 10th of September 1968, Archimandrite Paul Saliba left Lebanon for the USA, where Metropolitan Archbishop Philip Saliba assigned him to S. Ilyan Church in Brazzavile, Pennsylvania; there he enrolled in Petersburg University from where in 1970 he graduated Bachelor (world civilizations) and thereafter he undertook a course in education and graduated in 1972.
During this period Metropolitan Archbishop Philip moved him to the Church in New Kensington, which was experiencing some difficulties. He served the Church for 9 years, bringing back to its realm the faithful, and he strengthened its infrastructure: Sunday School, choir and youth. In the first year of his pastoral service in New Kensington Father Paul registered in Petersburg University to do his doctorate (in world civilizations) and he completed three out of four stages of its programme. He served as Dean of the clergy and counsellor to the Ladies' Associations.
In 1979 Metropolitan Archbishop Philip asked him to move to Washington D.C. In his new parish he worked hard to unify the congregation and stop the desertion from the Church; he paid all the debts and revived the Church Associations. Father Paul noticed an alarming increase in the number of alcohol and drug addicts, so he joined a special school to learn and be trained to treat this social disease. After a year and a half he received a qualifying certificate to treat addicts. He used his knowledge in this field to take care of his parishioners and others in his area.
In 1989 Archimandrite Saliba started broadcasting a weekly programme on the radio, which lasted till 1995; in 1990 he initiated a weekly TV programme which is still going till now. His parish in Washington is undertaking a big project consisting of new building and classes for Sunday School, offices with a lift; a project which will cost more than 3 million dollars.
Father Paul is fluent in the Arabic, English, and Greek languages, and some French.
The Holy Antiochian Synod elected him as the new Metropolitan-Archbishop for Australia and New Zealand between the 5th and 8th of October 1999. He was consecrated at the Church of Our Lady in Damascus on the 10th of October.
May God grant him many years.
Jn 11, 16 . Then said Thomas, which is called Didymus, unto his fellow disciples, Let us also go, that we may die with him.
Yes, Thomas, you will all go up to Jerusalem with Me; but no, you will not die with Me there. You will all die later; you, Thomas, as a Martyr in India, Peter in Rome as a Martyr, John in peaceful old age at Ephesus; but not yet. Not until My death has given death a quite different meaning. From the beginning of the world until My death, human beings have died, and as their bodies went down into the grave, Satan claimed their souls to go down into hell as his rightful prey; by choosing sin in the beginning the human race delivered itself into the power of the devil.
But in My death that power will be broken, because Satan has no rights over Me, and by bringing Me down into death he will find Who I am: that I was not his lawful prey and that he has encompassed the death of God, the Great Injustice, indeed an infinite one. So My death will earn the Great Refund from him, and when I rise again from hell and death I shall bring with Me those who have been his captives since the beginning.So you are not now to die with Me, or before Me; for then you would merely be involuntarily paying the debt of sin, as all others have done before you until now. But after I am risen, you will be able to lay your lives down, as I do, freely, gladly, innocently; owing Satan nothing.
Lazarus is the sign of this: our friend Lazarus has died now as the debt of sin, but I shall raise him as a prophecy of My resurrection. He will, nevertheless, die again; but then as one, who like you is a partaker of My Resurrection.
The above may seem a little obscure; it came to me during the night after Mother Julia and I had shared the Mass for the Friday before Passion Sunday, (I was to be away on Saturday and Sunday) with the long account of the raising of Lazarus for the Gospel (Greek lectionary, Saturday before Palm Sunday). This has always made a great impression on me, and I composed the words that our Lord might have said to Thomas, in dreams. I recited it to her when we awoke, and it seemed to me "sent" and needing to be passed on; but I took over a week to get it written down. If it seems perplexing, do tell me and I will know that it came from the heart pills rather than from inspiration (like Coleridge's Kublai Khan).
The following came to me as we read the Passion on Palm Sunday:
Matthew 27, 25: Then answered all the people and said, His blood be on us, and on our children.
This has always been understood as putting the guilt of the death of our Lord upon the Jewish people; and at times Christians have thought they should punish the Jews for this. But our Lord did not ask for them to be punished; he asked: Father, forgive them. Nevertheless, the plain meaning of the words is that the crowd asked for his death, over the protest of Pilate: I am innocent of the blood of this just person. Pilate and the crowd used a well-understood form of words. The same words were used by Daniel in the History of Susanna: I am innocent of the blood of this woman, and he did succeed in overturning the verdict based on the false accusation of the elders, whereas Pilate allowed himself to be overruled.
The literal meaning, however, is not the only one. S. John tells us of Caiaphas, that in saying: (11;50) it is expedient that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not, he was prophesying in spite of himself; he intended only that the death of Jesus would avoid destruction of the Jews by the Romans, but he said more than he knew: that Jesus would die for his own nation, and for all nations. So we may see the crowd here prophesying in spite of themselves, saying more than they knew. It was the Passover, on which they had been commanded to take the spotless lamb, and kill it, and put its blood on their door-frames, so that they and their children would be saved from the death of the first-born which would afflict all Egypt. Christian Easter is still calculated from the Passover; Easter Day is still the Sunday after the 14th Nisan, the full-moon of the first (spring) month of the Jewish year, because Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us, and in most languages Easter is still called by the Greek name (Pascha) of the Passover. So in spite of themselves, here we have those who are calling for his death, also calling for his death to redeem them, for his blood to cover their sins. In Holy Week, we pray for the Jews, and all who are at present outside the grace of the New Testament ("Jews, Turks, hereticks and infidels"). No better words could be used to pray than those that they used, unwittingly prophesying: His blood be on us, and upon our children.
As the Lord's return approaches (whenever it will be, it gets a day closer every day) we need specially to pray for that return to faith of the Jews which S. Paul prophesies before the end. This is summed up beautifully by blessed Augustine of Hippo (Homily 31 on John): Many, pricked in heart, said (to S. Peter), what shall we do? For they saw themselves bound by a huge crime of impiety, when they killed him whom they ought to have venerated and adored: and this they thought inexpiable. For it was a great wickedness, the consideration of which might make them despair: howbeit they behoved not to despair, for whom the Lord, as he hung upon the cross, had deigned to pray. For he said, Father forgive them, for they know not what they do. He saw some that were his among many aliens; for those he even then asked pardon, from whom he was then still receiving wrong. For he regarded not that he was dying by their hands, but only that he was dying for them.
Bach's "Fifth Gospel": The Enduring Power of
Artistic Excellence - by Charles Colson
Christianity has never had a very strong presence in Japan. In fact, with industrialisation, Japan has become one of the most secular nations on earth. But right now, thousands of Japanese are hearing the Gospel of Jesus Christ in a new, or should I say old, way -- and they're embracing it.
The evangelist responsible for leading this spiritual awakening might surprise you. He's none other than Johann Sebastian Bach.That's right. The German composer who died 250 years ago is bringing Christianity to Japan through the beauty of his music. Now there are reports of thousands of Japanese, inspired by his cantatas, converting to Christianity. It's a testament to the power of art steeped in a biblical worldview.
Christianity has never been widely embraced by Japanese culture. When European traders and missionaries came to the island nation in the 17th century, they met with mixed success: Commerce thrived, but the Gospel languished. But Japan eagerly embraced the music of Western culture.
Shinichi Suzuki even developed a method to learn to play classical instruments that became famous worldwide. But now, through a resurgence in Bach's popularity, that music is providing a foothold for evangelism that trade and traditional approaches never have.
Bach's popularity is so great that the classes at the Felix Mendolssohn Academy in Bach's hometown of Leipzig, Germany, are filled with Japanese students. These students are learning about more than the music of the great composer -- they learn about the spirit that moved him to write: that is, Bach's love of God.
Writing on this resurgence of Bach's music for Civilisation, the magazine of the Library of Congress, Uwe Siemon-Netto reports that his Japanese interpreter asked to start the day with one of Bach's cantatas. She selected one whose lyrics declare that God's name is Love. "This has taught me what these two words mean to Christians ... and I like it very much," she said.
As Siemon-Netto points out, Bach's music was once celebrated as the "fifth gospel" -- praise that has never been more aptly said of Bach's work than it is in Japan today.
What began as an interest in the brilliance of the music has led to an understanding of the richness of God's grace. Masaaki Suzuki, founder of a school for Bach's music in Japan, says that, "Bach is teaching us the Christian concept of hope." And Yoshikazu Tokuzen, of Japan's National Christian Council, calls Bach nothing less than "a vehicle of the Holy Spirit." And the revival his music is causing indeed confirms that.
At the end of every one of his works, Bach inscribed the initials "SDG" -- shorthand for Soli Deo Gloria, "to God alone be the glory." Little could he have imagined what purposes God would have for his work, even hundreds of years after his death.
And Bach could hardly have imagined that his music would contribute to the evangelization of Japan.
Bach's legacy is a sterling illustration of C.S. Lewis' maxim that the world does not need more Christian writers -- it needs more good writers, and composers, who are Christians. And when we produce art that is really good, art that reflects a biblical worldview, its richness will endure through the ages-- Soli Deo Gloria.
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