The Orthodox Church does not change along with the world. We resist passing fads, and we are not innovators when it comes to matters of faith, dogma, and worship. Our heads and hearts are not easily turned. We stand firm and do not make concessions to the world. But we do accommodate ourselves to the world. Just as God accommodates Himself to us, becoming one of us for our salvation, so do we Orthodox make accommodations along similar lines. Of course, we are in the world, not of the world—but we are here for the salvation of the world. And just as Christ is the same “yesterday, today, and tomorrow”, so are we—for we are Christ’s Body.
It is necessary to make accommodations in a diverse world. We talk respectfully with others who are not of our faith, we strive to find common ground while remaining true to our faith. We do not compromise, but we do sympathize and strive to love all others, regardless of our differences. In other words, we make necessary accommodations. We do not use force to bring about changes that are favorable to us, just as God does not use force to bring about change in the world. We know that God works through the humble and the lowly, not the proud and the mighty.
But what happens when we Christians meet an intractable force such as Islam? For nearly 1400 years, the Orthodox Church has been suffering under Islam in the Middle East and in Africa. Many Orthodox faithful were martyred under the Cresent and Star, and many continue to be martyred. Churches have been burned to the ground; whole congregations have been butchered. It’s a fact that the mainstream media hardly ever mentions, but we know. The Orthodox Church remembers, but the world forgets.
While Eastern Christians living in Muslim lands make accommodations and are still made to suffer and even to die for love of Christ, Islamic governments strive to eliminate us or to appropriate what is rightfully ours. Sacred churches such as Hagia Sophia and Chora with over 1000 years of Christian history are first turned into “museums”, then they are turned into mosques. This is Islamic appropriation. They take what is rightfully ours, our churches and our monasteries, and they do so by force, with impunity, believing this to be “the will of Allah”!
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The most recent example of Islamic appropriation—or the attempt to appropriate by legal means—concerns St. Catherine’s Monastery. The Muslim-dominated Egyptian government is threatening the autonomy of this sacred site. Here is a link to a short and informative article about this.
Located at the foot of Mt. Sinai, St. Catherine’s Monastery was built between 548 and 565. It is one of the most sacred Christian sites in the world, and it is the world’s oldest continuously inhabited Christian monastery. This is the site of the Burning Bush. It is where God spoke to Moses. It encloses the well where Moses met his wife-to-be, Zipporah. The monastery library holds many rare and priceless works, including the Codex Sinaiticus and the Syriac Sinaiticus, as well as many of the earliest icons, most notably the 6th century icon of Christ Pantocrator. Controlled and maintained for many centuries by the Church of Sinai, which falls under the Greek Orthodox Church, the monastery became a World Heritage Site in 2002.
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There is a high-level meeting scheduled today between Egyptian government officials and Greek Orthodox officials from Athens to discuss St Catherine’s legal status. Greece’s foreign minister Giorgos Gerapetriti will lead a delegation traveling to Cairo. The involvement of such a high-ranking figure suggests the Greek government is serious about defending the rights of the Orthodox Church, while seeking to maintain its strategic partnership with Egypt.
Pray that St. Catherine’s Monastery remains legally Orthodox, in our hands for all the world to see, visit, appreciate, and love.
Fr. Paul Martin
Annunciation & St. Paraskevi Greek Orthodox Church
New Buffalo, MI