HELLO DEVOTED PARISHIONERS AND ORTHODOX CHRISTIANS OF ST. JOHN'S. I HAVE BEEN IN MY HOME IN ASTORIA FOR 4 1/2 WEEKS NOW, SINCE I AM OVER 70 YEARS OLD. HARD TO BELIEVE, BUT SINCE WE ARE TOLD TO SELF-ISOLATE I HAVE BEEN AWAY FROM OUR BELOVED ST. JOHN'S AND MY DUTIES THERE.  I HAVE BEEN PRAYING FOR ALL OF YOU CONTINUALLY AND HOPE AND PRAY GOD WILL ANSWER OUR PRAYERS SOON. 

EVERY THURSDAY EVENING NOW AT 7:30 P.M. I HOST AN ONLINE BIBLE STUDY. IT IS OPEN TO ALL WHO WISH TO ATTEND.  PLEASE EMAIL ME AT THE CHURCH EMAIL ADDRESS OR TO MY PERSONAL EMAIL ADDRESS FOR THE WEEKLY LINK.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATIENCE AND BLESSINGS!

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SINCE WE WERE NOT ALLOWED TO MEET AND HAVE SERVICES ALTOGETHER WE ARE ASKING FOR YOUR EASTER DONATIONS BE SENT TO THE CHURCH IN ORDER TO HELP US MEET OUR ONGONG OBLIGATIONS.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR GENEROSITY!

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JEAN-CLAUDE LANCHET & COVID19

The following is written by Jean-Claude Larchet, an Orthodox Theologian who authored the book entitled “The Theology of Illness,” published in 1991. It was and still is an essential read for all Orthodox Christians who are looking for answers of why God allows pain and suffering in this world we live in. His new article below sheds light upon the new threat facing our existence today, both physically and spiritually the COVID-19 Virus. If you are interested in reading the entire interview it is posted on Orthodoxie.com website under the title “The spiritual origin, nature, and meaning of the current pandemic. An interview with Jean-Claude Larchet by Orthodoxie.com.” The text in italics is one of the questions offered by the interviewer to Larchet.

Interviewer: “You’re pointing out the guilt of the first parents in this process. Do the sins of their descendants, our own sins, play a role in this process? The prayers found in the Great Euchologion (the official prayer book of the Church) for times of epidemic, but also the speeches of some bishops, priests, or monks, blame here the sins of all, seeing in what is happening a kind of punishment on their account, and call for repentance.”

Larchet: “According to the Orthodox conception (which differs on this point from the Catholic conception of original sin), the fault of Adam and Eve themselves is personal and is not transmitted to their descendants; only its effects are transmitted. However, their descendants, from the beginning to the present day, have, as St. Paul says in chapter 5 of the Epistle to the Romans, sinned in a manner similar to that of Adam; they have imitated him and have confirmed his sin and its effects by their own sins. There is, therefore, a collective responsibility for the evils that affect the fallen world, which justifies that one can blame sin and call for repentance. However, this applies on a general level so as to explain the origin and sustenance of sickness and other evils, and not on a personal level to explain whether it happens to a particular person or group of people. While some illnesses can be traced to personal faults or passions (e.g., illnesses related to excessive eating or drinking, or sexually transmitted diseases), others occur regardless of the spiritual quality of the people they affect. Sick children are not guilty of any fault; saints do not escape illness and often have more illnesses than others who are morally disordered. Epidemics sometimes strike down entire monasteries; for example, an epidemic of plague struck the monasteries of the Thebaid after Pascha in 346, killing a third of the Desert Fathers who lived there, including St. Pachomios, the father of cenobitic monasticism; the successor he had appointed; and nearly a hundred monks in each of the great monasteries of the region. During the great plague epidemics of the past, Christian observers were forced to observe that the disease struck people randomly in terms of their moral or spiritual quality. The question of the relationship of disease to a person’s sin or the sin of his parents was put to Christ, who replied to his disciples about the man born blind: “Neither he nor his parents have sinned.” The illness therefore has an original, principal, and collective relationship to sin, but only in a minority of cases does it have a present and personal relationship. I think, therefore, that the question of sin and repentance in prayers or sermons can be addressed but must be addressed in a discreet manner. People who suffer from illness do not need accusations of guilt added to their suffering, but need support, consolation, compassionate care, and also help to take spiritual responsibility for their illness and suffering so that they can spiritually turn it to their advantage. If repentance has a meaning, it is as a turning point, a change of state of mind (which is the meaning of the Greek word metanoia). Illness gives rise to a series of questions that no one can escape: why? Why me? Why now? For how long? What am I going to become? Every illness constitutes a questioning that is all the more lively and profound because it is not abstract or gratuitous, but rather part of an ontological experience. This questioning is very often a kind of crucifixion. For sickness always calls into question more or less the foundations, framework, and forms of our existence, the acquired equilibrium, the free disposition of our physical and mental faults, our reference values, our relationships with others, and our very life, because death always appears more clearly than usual (this is the case in particular for this epidemic, which has unpredictably and rapidly felled people, especially the elderly, but also younger people without there being serious underlying pathologies in every case). Illness is an opportunity for each person to experience his ontological fragility, his dependence, and to turn to God as the one who can help overcome it: if not physically (for there do occur, in response to prayer, miraculous healings), then at least spiritually, and give it a meaning by which one builds oneself up, and without which one only allows oneself to be destroyed.” End

Finally, I think Larchet offers a true biblical view and theologically based understanding of our fallen nature as a result of what Adam and Eve’s legacy has left behind to humanity throughout all successive generations. Moreover, it means that we should be more dependent upon God since He is the only one who has granted us eternal life. Amen!

Service Schedule      

SORRY DUE TO THE VIRUS ALL PUBLIC SERVICES ARE CANCELLED PLEASE WATCH THEM ON THE COMPUTER FROM CHURCHES AROUND THE CITY!