Incommunion

Dear In Communion reader,

May 2007

Dear In Communion reader,

In the Orthodox Church, one would be hard-pressed to find a baptized person over the age of five who doesn't know at least fragments of the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom by heart. It's not necessary to belong to the choir. From infancy onward, week after week we hear the service that bears his name. We reverence his memory and would regard a church without his icon as incomplete. Yet few of us are familiar with Chrysostom's writings or the writings of other Church Fathers, as we call the body of theologians who not only defended Orthodox doctrine in the face of heresies, but endowed the Church with clear teaching about the social obligations of baptized people. For example here are a few challenging sentences from John Chrysostom that are quoted in this issue of In Communion:

Let us therefore, both poor and rich, cease from taking the property of others. For my present discourse is not only to the rich, but to the poor also. For they too rob those who are poorer than themselves. And artisans who are better off, and more powerful, outsell the poorer and more distressed, tradesmen outsell tradesmen, and so all who are engaged in the market-place. So that I wish from every side to take away injustice.

Not only are such writings largely unknown, but it's a rare day when such themes are taken up in sermons.

Part of the work of the Orthodox Peace Fellowship is to search for ways to make the words and examples of the saints better known, so that when we see their icons, we are reminded of how they lived and what they had to say to their contemporaries - and to us. May we become such people in our own time.

Would you take a moment to help keep OPF going? We need your support. Subscription payments and annual dues fall far short of our needs. We have two part-time staff members, myself and Sheri San Chico. We are paid very little for our many hours of work, but OPF's income doesn't justify more adequate payment. We also have a part-time web master, Michael Markwick. In addition there are all the usual expenses: office and publication costs, postage, telephone, travel, etc. (Once again, postal rate have gone up.)

If you have in fact made a recent gift or are one of those who makes regular donations or donate volunteer time, thank you! You are a God-send. If you aren't, please consider becoming part of our community of committed donors. If you can't manage a monthly or quarterly donation but can make an occasional special donation, please do so. Every gift helps.

We depend on our supporters to make at least one donation annually, but without those who give more than once a year, and give more than the minimum, we could not continue.

Jim Forest, editor

PS Donations can now be made via the OPF web site...

* * *