Keynote Speech

by Dr. Frances Nejmeh Colie

Melkite Convention

North Hollywood, CA 7/11/99

Good afternoon Most Reverend Bishops, reverend clergy and brothers and sisters in Christ God, the majority of you who are pillars of your parishes attending this Convention, so filled with grace. I am honored today to share some thoughts with you for our last Melkite Convention of the Millennium.

I seek in all humility the spirit that vivifies our Melkite tradition. I surrender to its inspiration and I try to live by it. I thank God for the grace of being born into this tradition - the Melkite Church I love.

I wish to thank God for the uniqueness and the beautiful person that each of you is in that heart of God-Trinity. I complement all of you members of the Melkite Church and I rejoice that in spite of our secularism that is making of our America a Godless country, a place where there is crime, violence, aggression against the weak of the world, and the murder of millions of unborn babies that in the animal world of ours you are here to celebrate in humility the gift that God has given us that stems out of the early Christian communities centered in Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria and Thessalonica that Tertullian in Rome wrote "see how they love one another".

Our Christian patrimony came out of these early communities of the Church Fathers. In its human incarnation, Christianity is an oriental religion, first expressed in oriental languages of Greek and Semitic. Its theology and spirituality were mainly elaborated in the East.

With pride, let us enumerate some of these contributions: the Gospel, the Acts of the Apostles, the Epistles of Paul, Peter, John, James, Judge; the Apocalypse; the writings of the Apostolic Fathers Ignatius, Polycarp, Irenaeus, Justin; the Creeds; the works of such Fathers of the Universal Church as, to name only the giants, Origen, Athanasius, Basil, the two Gregories, Chrysostom, the two Cyrils, and John Damascene. All the original liturgical rites - even those of ancient Rome, were - largely - gifts of the East. They were then, as they still are, the patrimony and heritage of both East and West. Monastic spirituality was first conceived and set down in words in the East. The scriptures were written by these communities and also the first great Ecumenical Councils kept us intact through what seemed good to them, the members of the hierarchy and to the Holy Spirit, intact and truth and sacraments, the liturgy, and the teaching in magisterium of the church - the One Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.

More specifically, I praise God for our ancestors who brought our Melkite Church from the middle east to America and have kept the faith and are here today zealously to commit themselves to not only pass it on to our posterity, but to evolve it into new forms as we are open to the Holy Spirit. We remember with gratitude our fathers and grandfathers and the priests who accompanied them from the old country traveling by wagon and rail across this immense continent to build the foundations of our church in this country. I praise God for our good priests and Bishops in America from the end of the 19thC through this 20thC who have guided us in our traditions and who preached fervently the Gospel, who celebrated for us the mysteries or the sacraments especially by faithfully celebrating the Divine Liturgy in our rite.

This they did amidst so much persecution by Roman Curial Offices of the Roman Rite Catholic hierarchy - and - many of their narrow minded clergy - who - couldn't really believe that we were genuine first class citizens of the same church. "Why - they said - they don't even say the mass in Latin" and many believed - "Let them have their churches - they are a relic that will soon disappear - so, let's just ignore them." Thank God! We have refused to become a doormat - to be stepped upon and scorned as second class citizens while we were striving to be authentic to our tradition as Vatican II insists we should be.

We cannot be grateful enough to those Roman Catholic Bishops of this country who took steps necessary to preserve our heritage while we had no hierarchy of our own on these shores. We think most of all of the Late Cardinal Richard Cushing, undoubtedly the greatest benefactor of our Church in the U.S. Thanks to his Apostolic openness and love, he worked for the establishment of our exarchate in 1966 with the naming of our first Bishop in America, Kyr Justin Najmy - and generously endowed it with financial support once it had been erected.

And now having praised God for having brought us to this place in history - we gather at the end of the 2nd millennium of Christianity. The moment begs reflection - reflection on where we are and what our destiny will be in the future millennium. On this occasion,we must think seriously about the future of our Church and the challenges that confront us. At this threshold we can not afford to be complacent.

The theme of this convention: "Together in Christ Shaping the Mosaic of our Church" is a fitting one. A mosaic is the work of the Holy Trinity: unique, made up of many little parts, a thing of beauty and something to be admired. Like a mosaic our Melkite Church is the work of the Trinity: - the Church was first conceived in the heart of God - the Father, given its form and divinized by the Son, animated by the Holy Spirit, the grout that keeps it together. This is indeed the mystery of the church - man being divinized by God through participation in the Church. We become what we contemplate - As we gaze at the beauty of the mosaic - we become transformed into divine beauty.

All of us are the Church and together we are the mosaics that will shape the future Church.

• What is our imperative in light of current trends in American society and the way they relate to our ancient past and tradition?

• Will the mosaic of the future reveal a tradition that will make a difference to our children?

Our world is very different from that which shaped our mentality, and our whole life as Melkites. Moreover, our world is deeply marked by a spiritual crises which acquires with each passing year truly universal dimensions. Church attendance is declining - and - Young people are walking away from churches! The ultimate meaning of this crisis is that the world in which the Melkite Church lives today in America is not her world, not even a "neutral" one, but a world challenging her, trying to reduce her to values, philosophies of life and world views profoundly different from, if not totally opposed to her vision, and experience of God, man and life. It is not by any means a benign one! Challenging us is the fact that society's ways, all too frequently, have more impact on our children's lives than does the church. It is time for us to make a statement about ourselves - what we have to offer American religiosity! - what we have to offer the Universal church! - What we have to offer youth! - what our tradition has to offer us spiritually! and what we have to offer people seeking spiritually alive communities.

For all practical purposes, being a "Melkite in America" , means being a Christian in a foreign land. It means that our society and culture have values and options which are not in harmony with our heritage.

• On the one hand our faith teaches us the benefits of community living and cooperation; on the other, our society stresses materialism.

• On the one hand, our religion tends toward authoritarianism, and on the other society tends toward democracy;

• Our cultural past stresses respect for the old and traditional, our adopted country emphasizes the immediate, the new and the temporary.

• Our society is institutionalized and regulating to the point of excess - our cultural background is personal, spontaneous, expressive and relational.

What then can emerge from all of this? On an optimistic note, we could hope that the interaction of our religious tradition with the realities of American society and culture can be creative and productive. We have something to offer - something unique, contemporary and dynamic. To do this, however, we must believe in ourselves - - in our heritage - and act as if it has something to say and offer to all Americans - and not isolate ourselves in our churches, so that, only we retain exclusivity on the beauty of our treasured heritage.

While it is good for the church to be reminded that "this world", is at odds with the Gospel of Christ and the tension created by it are the "normal" mode of the church's relationship with the world, what is worrisome is the absence of such tension from today's Melkite consciousness, our seeming inability to face up to the meaning of the crisis and to seek ways of dealing with it.

This means we can't just sit and wonder - Oh, my - what's going to happen to our churches? Our kids don't seem to be too interested in church? Why don't we have more vocations? Why don't we see a dedicated laity on fire with love of God and neighbor? Why don't we have real living communities of people loving and sharing with each other?

Our numbers are not increasing and our vocations are few. If we are to have a Melkite destiny in the 3rd millennium, it means that we must snap out of our complacency and boldly confront our challenges.

• First among them, We must grow out of our liturgical ghettos and start thinking of ourselves as first class citizens of the cosmos - shake off our second class citizenship - end the isolation of ourselves from mainstream religion in America. How can we not know how much we have to give of our ancient heritage to the Church universal, and to all churches in America! A tradition that has its origin in the beginnings of Christianity should be at the forefront of Catholic renewal in this country. While the Western Church is searching for ways to renew their people, we have always had them - In fact, we have remained contemporary throughout the centuries, steadfast and true to our tradition unchanged, despite the ups and downs of Christian history. Furthermore, we have a mission to witness to a living continuity with Early Christianity untouched by the reformation and counter-reformation.

• Secondly, we must know our tradition and witness to it in our lives. We have a mission to catechize and be catechized. If we don't know our tradition, we won't know when we've lost it, either by assimilation, absorption or Latinization. We can't appreciate what we have, if we don't know what we have. We can't be proud of what we are, if we don't know what is distinctive about us as Melkites. We must know that we have something unique and different to give to the Western Church, otherwise we have no reason to be! We must be convinced of the treasures of our tradition and witness to them. To remain complacent about this is not only irresponsible, but worse, it will continue to add to the ecclesiastical schizophrenia among our Melkite people. Are we Western or Eastern catholic? - Are we Roman Catholic or Melkite Catholic? No! We are not Roman Catholics who do some things a little bit differently from the Latin Church. We have our own identity! We have a distinct, separate theology, tradition, spirituality, liturgy, canon law - that is not opposed to Roman Catholicism - but complimentary to it. To quote the words of Pontiff John II - "The Church breathes with two lungs - East and West".

Third, not only must we know our tradition, we must be nourished by it. We must bring new spiritual vitality into our parishes and that means renewal and building of spiritually alive communities of people.

• Fourth, we must seek to enliven our youth to commit themselves to the Melkite Church as a way of life. This demands that we catechize them using modern and exciting expressions that reveal the truths of our faith in a manner that corresponds to contemporary life and young people's search for meaning.

• Finally, we must reach out - evangelize - bring the Good News to others in America who are desperately seeking some form of spirituality in their barren lives. The need is apparent when we read and hear about novelly emerging fads, pseudo scientific techniques and cults that seek to exploit vulnerable Americans looking for some means to offset the barreness of secular society brought on by materialism, individualism, affluence and technology. The demand is obvious when we notice that in the past year, the N.Y.Times Best Seller Book List included at least three titles under spiritual living in the top 10. For the most part Americans are dry. They are searching for ways to make sense of this brute world. They have found that accumulation of riches, acquisition of goods and The American dream - does not satisfy the longing of the inner-spirit. There must be more - and they search - we have the answers! It's time for us to reach out and attract converts to our tradition by our witness and nourish them by our spiritually alive communities. In an age with run away secularism and atheism, we have preserved the rich concepts of the inner spiritual meditative and contemplative life which have an enormous potential for contemporary living in the 21st century.

Essentially, the new millennium calls us to Catechize and Evangelize, teach, hand down our tradition, spread the 'Good News' to others and to take our place in American religious life as First class citizens. The early church was built up as a community of worship of learning, and of service: all in continuity of the apostolic ministry. We also have a Christian responsibility to learn, grow and teach as well as worship and praise God. In the Acts of the Apostles, the Christian community is described as a worshipping people and also a people who adhere faithfully to the teachings of the apostles. It is a community devoted to the passing on of the Apostolic Tradition. While the handing on of the Tradition may be done in the Liturgy and in the mysteries, what is needed to reverse assimilation is catechesis. We need to be catechized in order to understand the presence of God hidden among us in the liturgy.

We are the mosaic of the future - it's up to us - Ours is a "pearl" at great price. If we are to survive in the 3rd millennium - we must get over our apathy. Yes, we have accomplished much with the help of the Holy Spirit in the past century, let us see how best to continue what work has begun. We must move forward in the new age of Christianity. We must first know our tradition and what is different about us - and - then take our rightful place among American society's pluralistic variety of churches and religious groups. Reach out to others - evangelize those who may be attracted to a religion that offers so much from the ancient past breaking into the present by the power of the Holy Spirit: divine beauty, mystery, pageantry, living theology, dynamic growth for all eternity, transformation, new men and women (not just makeovers - but a new mankind, transformed from the inside out), creativity, freedom, glory and joy. We must be hospitable to all attracted to our religion - a tradition that shows forth the beauty of the universal church and provides a much needed spirituality and way of life for them in God-Trinity.

We must appreciate our tradition not because its ancient origins are semitic - but - because it is "ever-new" . Loyalty for us in the Eastern church means, not only acceptance of formulae or customs from past generations, but rather - the ever new, personal and direct experience of the Holy Spirit in the present here and now. All the formulas about religious life will not change lives, only the experience of God. Not only must we appreciate the treasure we have, but we must accept this treasure as a way of life and believe that for us there is no other religion because to be a Melkite Catholic gives us this opportunity to become new men and women, to live in the dignity of God and not in the misery of men and to grow in love for all eternity. This gives meaning to our lives: a reason to live and a reason to die.. We are a risen people, a victorious people, and we celebrate the Resurrection every Sunday at the Divine Liturgy. We celebrate victory over death and we are never defeated in life.

Will the next century perfect and build on the foundation of the past? - or - will our end be the "holy remnant" whose divine beauty will be absorbed in the bosom of God for all eternity? Our survival depends largely on us! - we have to lay the foundation for the next millennium. We have to commit ourselves to the growth of our church in the millennium. Our growth will be proportionate to our witness - once we know who we are - we will be proud of what we are! and our Church will grow.

Are we satisfied with saying - "oh well - what's the difference - we are all catholics - Latin Church or Eastern Church - same God - same thing - we can fulfill our obligations either way" There is a difference! Religion is not something we think about an hour a week on Sunday. It's a way of life - our whole life! The way we see ourselves as people! The way we relate to one another! The way we express hospitality and open our homes and hearts to one another! The way we make decisions! The way we raise our children! The way we make sacrifices for our family! and the way we raise our children! The way we believe that everything made by God is good! The way we worship and praise God! and the way we believe that God is with us at all times- now and forever! There is a difference!

But - just who are we? We are a people living out the paradox of Christian history- Orthodox\Catholics! We are Catholic communities, that find ourselves, by exceptional fact, either by choice or circumstance over which we had no control, detached from Eastern Orthodoxy and attached to the See of Rome and the Western Church.

Under this sign of "contradiction" we try to live out the vital tensions and conflicts between two traditions - Roman and Byzantine, primacy and collegiality, early Catholic tradition and later medieval tradition. We are in an unfortunate situation.

Our function now is to live with this situation, not as a victimized minority group, but - as a vigorous witness to orthodoxy within the Roman Church. That doesn't mean that we have to apologize to anyone because we are a small minority in this country and it doesn't mean might makes right because the truths which we bear from our heritage are the truths that are worth knowing. We must be Orthodox in all aspects of our Christian existence. We must be proud of it and live it!

What then do the Melkites represent? Ideally, we could be a model of what the future universal church can and should be. If the Church became truly Catholic again, would this not mean that we would all talk, listen and learn from one another? We could be considered synthesizers, i.e., taking the best from the west, refining it and giving it to the east. Ironically, this is precisely what we are doing now for the Western Church. Almost all the recent reforms of the western church are Eastern in practice and inspiration? .

One of the principal dangers threatening the survival of our communities and their mission to the Churches is the ghetto mentality.

What happens when a Byzantine Church is no longer in an Eastern cultural orbit - but - belongs to the Western world? What happens when that world is non-Arabic speaking, but hostile to community and family as well? Do we close in and insulate ourselves against American social and cultural life and remain in our own little ghetto?

True, our fathers found themselves immersed in a far different world than that which they knew. Because of religious, cultural and language barriers they ghettoized for survival. Immigrants from Western Europe did not have the same difficulties adapting themselves to the American lifestyles that our forefathers did, after all, they were western and Roman Catholic. The temptation was great for our fathers to throw off their entire heritage and become what they were not! However, heritage means something to us - We say, "He who denies his heritage has none", Thank God they didn't and preserved for us on these shores our tradition!

Unfortunately, the Church became for many immigrants their "reservation". a place where they could be comfortable in the company of their peers and thus fulfill their religious obligations in a relatively comfortable environment. Consequently, the principle of adhesion in many of our parishes has been a mixture of social, familial and ethnic ties among people who really had not yet come to be at home in the wider society.

All that is over! We can now purchase hummus and taboule in supermarkets. We can socialize in the wider society comfortably. We can take part in non-ethnic civic groups and fraternal organizations without feeling out of place. We no longer look to the church to be our social center. Those who have seen the primary function of the Church as a place to be with "our own kind" while simply tolerating its spiritual identity or even Christian life itself, will identify with the Church less and less as time goes on. Their descendants, our children, have no need for these "non-church" churches.

More often than not, our young people are embarrassed by belonging to an "immigrant church" which seems out of touch and removed from the American way of life. Conservatism and antiquity, unfortunately, hold no special charm for our youth. Unfortunately, secular society looks for the new, the modern, things get old very quickly - they have no value in a consumer world - where new products are always good for business. This again is the influence of secular society. If we remain in our ghettos we can not hope to have any impact on the larger society and it will continue to change our own world view. Eventually, we will think what's happening out there is right way and the only way.

If ethnicity was a factor that bound us together as a community at a time when it was difficult for the immigrant to operate comfortably in the larger society, how can we expect ethnicity to be the grout to hold our parishes together today when our parishioners are not only comfortable in their communities, but in many cases are their leading citizens.

We are in a new era and it is time for us to take our proper place in American society - discard our status as a church for immigrants. We have forged a solid ecclesial identity. Many laudable efforts have been made to eliminate latinizations. Beatitude Maximos V. Hakim and his synod have shown to the Church and to the world more intelligent enthusiasm in reviving Byzantinism than has been seen for centuries, whether in East or West. Under the Patriarch's direction, there have been reforms in liturgical books, in studies in publications and in Byzantine spiritual life. Our holy Patriarch's courage i n shaking the torpor of the Latin West and in opposition of Western thinkers has helped restore the Byzantine Church to its rightful place. We have come to see ourselves as an Eastern Church in our own right and not merely as an Eastern rite, - as a subsidiary constituent of the Roman - Church.

We must rise above all considerations of national or ethnic particularism. Our rite must recapture its original catholicity, that is, its original universality. This spirit must recapture that same spirit of mission which led our church to push beyond the confines of the Byzantine empire to convert Slavs, and other Europeans. Our rite is not the rite of the Lebanese, Syrians, Ukrainians, etc. it is the Byzantine rite, truly catholic, apostolic and yet owing nothing to Rome for its Catholicity and Apostolicity.

Warning us of the danger of a ghetto mentality, Our own late beloved Archbishop Joseph Tawill in his message, "Courage to be Ourselves" he writes:

"In a ghetto, life is closed in upon itself, with its own ethnic and social clichés. And the parish lives upon the ethnic character of the community; when that character disappears, the community dies and the parish dies with it." He goes on to say that, "one day all out ethnic traits - language, folklore, customs, - will have disappeared. Time itself is seeing to this. And so, we cannot think of our communities as ethnic parishes, primarily for the service of the immigrant or the ethnically oriented, unless we wish to assure the death of our community. Our Churches are not only for our own people, but are also for any of our fellow Americans who are attracted to our traditions, which show forth the beauty of the universal Church and the variety of its riches."

We must understand and accept that our tradition is not just for us of middle eastern background. We have much to offer all American Churches and all American Christians who are seeking alternatives to their Christian life in Christ and the Church. Because we are different, we have a responsibility to offer an authentic witness to orthodoxy within the Western Church. We can provide an alternative - not - by, becoming like Catholic Churches or imitating them, so that no differences remain. It is only in our distinctiveness that we can make any kind of contribution to the American Church. A latinized eastern church can only bear false witness because it implies that latinism and Catholicism are one and the same thing.

Furthermore, a ghetto mentality does not relate to contemporary culture because it closes doors to creative paths of modern expression and does not address the separation between theology and life..

Finally, we must never forget that a closed door view of our Eastern Catholic mission can and will suffocate us in a national ghetto that may pay lip service to ecumenism, but will in fact neglect the role demanded of us to build up the body of Christ.

Another danger threatening our survival as a Melkite Church in America is the process of assimilation. The major source of spiritual assimilation for the Melkite Church has been the phenomenon known as "Latinization", which means copying the theology, spiritual practices, and liturgical customs of the Latin Church by Melkites.

To latinize implies the superiority of the Roman rite and the inferiority of the Eastern rite churches. This position is denounced by Vatican II and the other reason to latinize is that we desire to be assimilated. This latter view is an offense against the unity of the Church and a betrayal of our ecumenical mission and in a real sense a betrayal of the Catholic Church. It is absolutely not necessary to adopt the customs of the Latin rite in order to be Catholic.

For many years, due to an unhappy preoccupation with things Western, many Eastern Catholics viewed their tradition as simply one of liturgical difference, rather than as the unique, authentic and totally integrated interpretation of the Gospel message that it is. At the Second Vatical Council, the bishops realized that the Eastern tradition includes the spirituality and theology of the Fathers as well, not simply the liturgical rites.

The East is non-latin, it received the faith from the Apostles and not from Latin Missionaries. Owing to the cultural, ethnic surroundings, the Eastern Church focused its attention on the local Church and local autonomy, the local bishop, and collegial character of the hierarchy. This clearly gives us a certain flexibility to the church which allows it to absorb and contribute to local culture in a unique way never achieved in the West.

My dear brothers and sisters, religious instruction is not just for kids! it's time - it's time - it's time for us to learn about ourselves and grow in our faith and in our understanding of our heritage. How can we safeguard a heritage if we don't know what it is that we are preserving?

We have so much to give of our unique and ancient theological and spiritual view of God, - of what constitutes a human being in God's view, and of the world around us, that is not evil, but belongs to God.

The issue is how can one go about being Catholic without being absorbed or latinized?

First, we must reverse the process of latinization. Our own churches should stop living in a variety of status quos regarding practices without even trying to relate them or evaluate them within a consistent ecclesiological tradition. Each parish functions fairly autonomously on the issue of latinization with some parishes clearly resistant to make the necessary changes, i.e., to stop the Latin practice of First Holy Communion at the age of seven, as Rome insists we should, and include the Eucharist, in the mystery of initiation at Christening, which is proper to our tradition.. To deprive our infants of the Eucharist is to deny them the nourishment necessary to grow in holiness which is God's plan for mankind in and through full participation in the Church. We cannot be casual about this - Continued latinization will result in continued second class citizenship and eventual loss of our identity!

Second, in order to reverse the process of assimilation, we must vigorously catechize\teach on all levels, particularly adults. Is it not a tragedy to hear Melkites refuse religious instruction because they attended a Catholic school for eight years and they learned everything they need to know? We must incorporate a total eastern Catholic formation and development program. How can we dialogue, discuss and talk about our tradition with others if we don't know it.

Third, we must know the differences between East and West. Lip service about the beauty of our tradition - is not enough! We cannot hide our treasures under a bushel basket. We must go out into the light and take our rightful place among the churches in America. We are a much needed alternative for those who are searching for a spiritual life and to be made whole and holy.

In the past we have been apologetic to the Western Church because we were obviously a small minority among Christians in America and timid about the truths of our tradition - "we didn't want to offend anyone". We did not have our own Bishop on these shores and we were vulnerable. Many immigrants, wanted desperately to acculturate and in fact, promoted latinization because they wanted to be Americanized. They thought "to be American - you had to be western and Roman Catholic" Frequently, when pastors sought to make changes to reverse latinizations they backed off - rather than cause division and stir up emotion in their congregations. But worse, because the majority of these people had not been catechized. they feared the loss of parishioners

At this point in our history, having been under the influence of latinization for many, too many years, perhaps the best way to teach our tradition is in fact to point out the differences between East and West: our distinct religious point of view and our devotional attitudes. When people discover how contemporary, liberating and dynamic our theology is; when they discover the riches of our spirituality, prayer and Christian growth, all made manifest in a harmonious symphony in iconography, hymnography and Liturgy, being a Melkite clearly becomes a matter of choice over being a Melkite by accident of birth.

Religious point of view: The Eastern Church emphasizes the mystery of the Church rather than its earthly form. The entire sanctuary is concealed by the Iconostasis. The icon screen is a tangible witness to the mystery we live in the liturgy. It is a symbolic gateway into the Kingdom of Heaven.

The Church is not the result of human organization, law and order and uniformity. The Eastern mind sees the church, not as a visible society headed by Christ, but as a Theophany, the eternal breaking into time and unfolding of the divine life through the deifying transformation of humanity in worship. Life in the Church is spoken in terms of glory, light, vision, union, transfiguration and deification. The more juridical vocabulary of power, order, right, justice is less known.

The use of terms alone connotes a warm, positive, joyful and dynamic attitude about religion rather than an austere, frightening, dark and helpless one. The romanesque architecture with its round arches gives us a safe feeling of being enveloped, rather than the narrow, upward pinnacles typical of Gothic architecture, that leaves us feeling helpless. In the Melkite Church, we pray in the dignity of God - not in the misery of men. It is the mystery of Divinity touching humanity.

With regard to our devotional attitudes they are in harmony with the view of the Church. The western mind sees the moral aspects of the sacraments and spiritual life and the strength received to aid them in their pilgrimage toward their final beatitude, which is not certain. For the westerner grace is a principle of meritorious action restoring in man the capacity for good works. For us man is an imperfect similitude of God which grace perfects. Life in Christ is a progressive transformation unto the likeness of God. (process theology) We speak more of divinization and transfiguration to the likeness of God and less of merit and satisfaction and beatitude.

Christian Formation, catechists, religious education - all these programs refer to the process of passing on the Tradition of the apostles through formal instruction. In the mandate of Christ to his disciples, "Go therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. . ." (Mt.28:19-20) the basic ministry of the church is twofold: to worship and to preach.

It seems in light of ecumenical events, we as Melkite parents, catechists and clergy should be more conscious that we have an indispensable vocation to teach and to present ourselves to the whole church. Moreso, we must re-root ourselves in the doctrines and writings of the Eastern Fathers and stand by what they represent: a living witness and deep source of spirituality. In an age with run away secularism and atheism, we have preserved the rich concepts of the inner spiritual meditative and contemplative life which have an enormous, potential for contemporary living in the 21st century and on into the millennium. We hear people say, "well, that's all well and good but why don't we have scripture - the protestants have scripture". But we do have the scripture! How could we have a church that didn't come out of scripture - but - we have the Early Patristic Fathers and the Ecumenical Councils too!

Great strides have been made to catechize Eastern Catholics in their tradition, following the Decree on Eastern Churches #6 endorsed at the second Vatican Counsel, It reads:

"All Eastern rite members should know and be convinced that they can and should always preserve their lawful liturgical rites and their established ways of life, and that these should not be altered except by way of an appropriate and organic development. Easterners themselves should honor these things with the greatest fidelity. Besides, they should acquire an even greater knowledge and a more exact use of them. If they have improperly fallen away from them because of circumstances of time or personage, let them take pains to return to their ancestral ways."

During this same period, Eastern Catholics had begun to discover their spiritual heritage on their own. Contact with better educated Western Christians had for centuries caused Eastern Christians to imitate their ways. As this rediscovery progressed, Eastern Catholics saw that they had often been deeply Latinized, both in the externals of their church practices and in their thinking.

As a result, the Byzantine Catholic Churches in America developed the Total Eastern Christian Formation and Development Program as a means of expressing the faith of Byzantine Catholics in a contemporary form and providing catechetical materials which reflect this faith. These materials reflect the understanding that the total life of the Church as a faith community - the bishops, priests, people, the liturgical services, the parish activities, etc. - works to form the faith life of the individual into a living, conscious and active adult faith.

Our own Eastern Christian tradition provides an ideal medium for expressing this unified understanding of christian life. Unlike the more fragmented traditions of the West, the Byzantine way preserves a harmonious, integrated understanding and celebration of our relationships to God. As Eastern Christians who, by and large, were raised with a fragmented view of our tradition, we have a great need to relearn it. We need to discover our heritage in its fullness in order to witness more authentically to the vitality and dynamism of Eastern spirituality.

We can do no better than recall the teaching of Vatican II which declared: "History, tradition, and numerous ecclesiastical institutions manifest luminously how much the universal Church is indebted to the Eastern Churches. Therefore . . . all eastern rite members should know that they can and should always preserve their lawful liturgical rites and their established way of life . . . and should honor all these things with the greatest fidelity."

We must exist - because we should exist - The Christian world needs us - We are a synthesis of the best that both the East and West have to offer. We are an example of what a Universal Church should be! Without Eastern Catholicism, Roman Catholicism is half a Church. But we also have a perception of what the human condition is and how we can attain the fullness of life implied in the Gospels.

Have we nothing to say to the "pure of heart" from our experiences as an Orthodox Church in the orbit of Catholicism and as a Catholic church in the world of orthodoxy? Have we not been able to draw upon the accumulated wisdom of both traditions? Is not our tradition a unique way of pointing the way to those who search for truth? Can not our tradition hold out hope that things need not be the way things are? Are we not an example of what a Christian world view and social order should consist of? Do we not have an insight as to how people can live and cooperate with one another for the greater glory of God? Do we not know our theology or understanding of human needs is unique and relevant? Haven't we learned something about communal life, respect for the individual, toleration, and openness in which the disheartened of the world can find some solace? We must develop and maintain a religious tradition we know capable of enriching American life. When we speak of preservation of our tradition, we must avoid acting as if they were museum pieces. Our tradition is not to be isolated from mainstream religious America - but part of it. We must live these traditions. Religion is to be lived - not just talked about.

Especially at this point in the history of ecumenism, where dialogue is essential to the process at all levels, we must find the courage to witness to the right to be different that is to say, the right to: a different theology, a different tradition, a different Church government, a different style of thought, a different liturgical and prayer life and a different concept of morality.

Finally, in the new millennium we must keep pace with what is happening in American society and culture. The alienation of theology from the real church and her real life begins with its divorce from the experience of the church. For the Patristic Fathers of the Church Christianity was above all an experience; or more precisely, the Church as experience. The task of theology is to relate the vision of the fathers of the church to the real, concrete life, shaped and conditioned as it is now, by a totally different vision. If it deals with the past, it does so only in order to transform the past, to reveal Tradition as being always alive, always operating, "contemporary" in the deeper sense of this word. We must seek to resolve the conflict we run into between the dogma we find in books and the practices we learn from the scientifically proven wisdom of the world.

Also challenging our survival in the millennium is the danger of secularism and its effect, in particular, on our youth. It is an approach to life that eliminates God and His plan for humanity from anything we think or do and in its most consistent form dispenses with God and the Church completely.Without the participation of the young, we can be assured that all our work is in vain and that our communities will disappear.

While there has always been individuals who have done this in their personal lives, today absolute secularism is the dominant force influencing American culture in general. In another form, secularism has touched all of us. We may still attend services, but outside religiously explicit experiences, our vision of life is drawn from the same world view of the larger society.

It permeates our schools, entertainments and our daily routines. A few generations ago, the church would have had this degree of influence on its people. Today, American culture is influenced by rock stars, sports figures and film stars and yes sometimes felons.

Have we asked ourselves why our young people are turning away from the church? Do we have any answers for them whey they ask questions? - What is our reaction when they refuse to go to church? - do we address the problem with exhortations, bribes and threats about the penalty of sin and hell?

Telling them to belong to their ethnic Syrian church where they will meet and socialize with people of "their own kind", I'm afraid will not have a lasting effect on them and will gradually mean less and less as they go off to college and out to work with people of different religions, ethnic backgrounds, and races.

We must enliven our youth to the teachings of their tradition. Although these truths are ancient, they are ever modern, exciting, relational, dynamic and boundless, and will offer a good defense against the spiritual crisis brought on by secularism. Greed and technology have produced a dry, mechanical generation of technocrats - who don't realize they are functioning with less than half their potential by not using their spiritual nature as well as their physical one. Our kids argue - "Why do I have to go to church?" "I pray all the time - I don't have to go to church to pray" "Besides, I don't get anything out of it" Culture has indoctrinated our kids to believe that there must be a tangible payoff to any effort made - 'What are we going to get out of it?'

The linchpin of secularism is the great heresy of our age individuated pietism. Basically, it's a "me-and-God-only" brand of piety. Don't see any point to church or anyone else It is piety divorced from the Church and the Trinitarian mode of existence - and therefore, not relational - we must move out of ourselves, transcend ourselves in relationship with others to grow in our family of God: the church. Without the encounter with God, our lives will never change. Encounter means relationship. The more you encounter the one your love - the more you become like the one you love! Individuated piety is not only false piety, but it is arrogant and self-centered. It neither serves, communes, transcends or grows.

Piety outside the church, loses its connection with the truth - it ceases to be related to our full bodily participation in the life of God - to the resurrection of the body, the change of matter into "word", and the transfiguration of time and space into the immediacy of communion. This type of individuated piety demands direct recompensed results from hard work. Just like work it finds its "just deserts" in the accumulation of tangible things, e.g. wealth, etc.. This is the payoff for hardwork. - I got something for my effort! I deserve it! Do some of our kids think they earn heaven the same way? We deserve it because we worked hard - we did it all by ourselves!

It is truly tragic that so many young people today limit themselves - their potential, to what they can accomplish by the use of their physical nature only without ever relying on their spiritual nature as well, The infinite potential that comes from God within them lies unused, dormant. These young people grope their way in life without God. What a pity, the graveyard is full of unused potential. With God, there is no scarcity - God is boundless, limitless and beyond our comprehension. There is no need for our children to suffer frustration over what they consider limited resources and opportunities. With God in their lives, there is always more.

Psychologists say that we only use 4.5% of all psychic power - just think 95% more to develop and use - oh, what power lies with us, within our children and the indwelling Trinity. Can we afford not to participate and not to teach our children to participate in catechists and spiritual growth. We must wake up to desire this living water to be cleansed of all selfishness and to come forth in new life and move outward to serve others.

How do we confront the challenge of changing the individuated pietistic mind set of our youth and bring them back into the church? To refute the challenge of secularism and individuated piety, we must explain what the church is and why we go to church. Next, our presentation, using insights from the early Fathers, should be directed toward a "real" and not a "notional" assent to the truths about life and death.

On the other hand, if you would like your children to believe that they save themselves by themselves - then there is no great argument in favor of going to Church. Except - think about it? - What are they saving themselves for? The truth is we are already saved by Christ's death and resurrection - Our edict in life is not to SAVE ourselves - our goal in life is to GROW IN THE LIKENESS OF GOD! You can't do this without the Church! The core teaching of the Fathers of the Church beginning with Athanasius and Irenaeus is that "God became man that man might become God". The early fathers believed that the goal of life is not salvation but deification or divinization. This process is called "theosis".

In our tradition, we do not have to live in doubt as to the ultimate reality of what is going to happen to us when we die? - "will I we go to heaven or hell?" - the choice is ours - we may choose to grow in the likeness of God for all eternity - or choose to close God out, and remain purely physical, locked in a prison of our own mind for all eternity - where the only face we see for all eternity is our own. This is the way hell is described by a contemporary Russian theologian.

In the Eastern Church, man by the exercise of his free will may choose to cooperate and grow in the 'likeness' of God, become all that God intends him/her to be and to continue to grow for all eternity. As a matter of fact, because this is God's plan for us, He makes it real easy - He shares the burden with us - so that we don't have to do it all alone - The reciprocity between God and man to achieve man's divinization is called "synergy". The Early Fathers believed that God works within man as he consciously centers on God in his heart.

To offset the pagan pessimism brought on by secularism we are challenged in the millennium to contemporize the teaching of the truths of our faith in a manner that not only provides relevant answers to the key questions of life, but also convinces our youth that living in the Church is a way of living a more fruitful rewarding life rather than the notion that living in the Church means the deprivation of any joy in the physical world.

Unless we confront the challenge of teaching theology that relates to living in the real world - we are in danger of our young people continuing to walk away from churches because they find it too difficult to live in the everyday world which is opposed to the dogma found in our Churches. The truths of our faith must relate to and address the needs of our youth and what they are experiencing daily in the world around them. To instruct otherwise is to speak in a foreign language.

Most theologians before Vatican II in teaching about the essence of eternal happiness in heaven, described it in static terms of "seeing God's essence in the beatific vision." Such immobility was deemed the ultimate of God's perfection. Does that mean you live in a static state and wait until you die to find out what your final destiny is? In the meantime, the modern world is exploding into fresh and exciting richness that for youth to consider assent to the truth in any static and immobile terms would make them yawn today. Young people rarely think about dying. Furthermore, the notion of heaven as a static place where angels may possibly sitting around all day playing harps or in some other state of absolute predictability is hardly appealing for young people constantly in the pursuit of excitement. We have to convince them that religion is relevant for living now and for all eternity. In a way, the Church truths are the spiritual laws for success in this life and beyond - natural and supernatural life - because for Eastern Catholics there is no difference - the supernatural is natural for us! We don't have to suffer now and wait for physical death to go to heaven to experience joy. The teachings of the Church are for living a more fulfilled life - going to church is not something that you do in case there is a heaven when you die! Church is not an insurance policy.

The church is the plan of God - not individual piety - put simply, salvation is ours in and through the Church. Some time ago, in the age of dinosaurs when I was a student, I heard an Eastern Rite Priest define the Church in a way that I will never forget. "The Church is nothing less than Christ in us." "The Life of God in us, giving us the power to live, to be transformed, to grow." There are many other important dimensions of Church, but if I had to quickly put the essence of church into 3 or 4 words, I stand by that definition."Christ in us, the Spirit in us, the Father in us, the trinity in us, and we live in the Trinity".

The Church begins with the Pentecost. This event, described in contemporary images makes "star trek" appear like an unimaginative saga in space odessy. This is the New Age of the Holy Spirit which turns the world upside down. In truth, the Church which began with Pentecost, is still a continual, expanding event: when the spirit of God makes man His temple: "fire cast1 to the earth". Fire has the potential to destroy, purify or give light. It was the power to continue the work of Jesus we were waiting for. It was the power to become like god. "What Christ was - we can become", This is the core teachings of the Fathers. The power to become co-creators with God; for Christ told us these shocking words: "You will do even greater works than Me."

This is the setting in which we should see "Church". The Church begins with a cosmic bonfire, with the power of Pentecost; for there is really nothing that goes on rightly in the Church which is not dependent on the Holy Spirit of God. The Church is the life - of - the - spirit within humanity. That is, it is a segment of humanity which confesses the risen Christ and has become conscious of a new way of human existence sin Christ. The way we see Church should be a part of a vision of faith that shapes our lives.

We can no longer think of God as a totalitarian father beyond the clouds; from now on, God would be above, under, beyond and behind us. He was telling us that God will live and make His home among us, in man.

The Church is that Community of the Holy Spirit, where new relationships are built, a new way of sharing, celebrating, thinking, relating, etc. Only Eastern Christian theology offers this earthly vision of a new kind of man in Christ, a new kind of society in Christ, which we call the Church. Western Christians with their emphasis on incarnation stress involvement which are good as far as they go. Eastern Christianity fulfills that incarnation with resurrection and transfiguration - the power of transforming man and his universe. In a sense, this age is post-Jesus; He had to go His Father, before the Second Paraclete could come and begin the work of transforming man, a New Man, a New Earth, a New Life. The work of Jesus was a preparation for this work of God's Spirit. Jesus was the first of the risen men, first of a New Human race.

The Church is continuing creation. The coming of the Holy Spirit means the revelation of creativity, the age of creativity, the very energy of God moving through us becoming the power to create. To create what? First, our personal transformation, then a new heaven, a new earth. Christ is the light of the world and because of Christ dwelling within me, I am a light to this world. But even a lamp set on a hill must eventually go out and be re-fueled; you must have an on-going relationship with the church as a community of light, and the support of men and women who are willing to share deeply of themself with you. Only in the human and divine common life of the church, are we nurtured and sustained and confirmed in our faith. There is no such specie as a Single Christian, "just me-God-and the book."

We are entering a new world, an exciting world. time, space, motion: they can all be related to our understanding of our church. Today we see that by splitting the atom - that nothing is static- motionless. Nothing remains the same. Everything is dynamic and interrelated - we can't live without interrelationships. Centuries before Einstein discovered the theory of relativity in 1905, St. Maximos the confessor saw that God in His uncreated energy - the Holy Trinity, burst out of that tremendous community of love to share themselves with us to make us 'participators of God's very own nature' (2 peter, ch.1, v.4). Oh, the humility of God - He can't be far away - but "in Him, we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17, v.28). This God loves us. He is within us. But where are we? Love is an energy that must move outward - it must have an object! That is the essence of relationship - moving outside of our selves to love, sacrifice and share oneself with the beloved. We simple can't contain love - it must move outward - we must love someone. When we are self-centered, it is impossible for us to love. We must transcend ourselves (move out of ourselves) in relationship and love. God is Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Three divine persons in one God is not meant to be an exercise in confusion - but to give us not only the model of loving relationships but the experience of God in relationship and love. God moves out of Himself to love us.

Is there anything more exciting than eternity breaking into time - can any accomplishment of mortal man match the creativity of God? Is there anything more dynamic than the activity of God to transfigure the world and restore it to the state it was in before the fall of Adam? This is taking place and we must move out of ourselves to become part of it.