Having recently moved to a new (and much cheaper) flat out in the back and beyond of Beijing, I now have more breathing room for an icon corner (above).
Top (left to right): A copy of the Miracle Working Icon of the Our Lady of Chernobyl; Christ the Shepherd; Synaxis of the Archangels
Middle: Ss. Peter and Paul; St. Mitrophan (Chin) and the 222 Holy Chinese Martyrs of the Boxer Rebellion (given to me at St. Luke’s Cathedral in Hong Kong); St. John Maximovich the Wonderworker (my patron saint); St. Cedd (pronounced “Sed”…. or Seth…. or Kedd… no one’s really sure! a 7th century English saint - the icon was given to me by my godfather); Ss. John the Apostle and Prochros (like this). Above St. John Maximovich is the Port Arthur Icon of the Mother of God. Laying flat on the shelf - casting the shadows - are (left to right): Ss. Elizabeth, Grand Duchess and Hly Royal Martyr, and Holy Nun-martyr Barbera; Crucifix; Icon of the Crucifixion (from Jerusalem). The Icons of the Cucifixion and Ss. Elizabeth and Barbera are shown here.
Bottom: My prayer books (given by my priest in England); Icon of the Mother of God and Lord Jesus Christ (usually standing - on the reverse is the Jesus Prayer in English and Chinese); New Testament and Psalms.
The One Holy Universal and Apostolic Church still illegal in China
Many thanks to Julia for the picture of a recently new bulding, one that I have been invited to before. As you can see, it is a very large and impressive “Christian Church” located in the heart of Beijing’s university district.
It is heart-warming to see religious tolerance in China reaching such an extent that such a large structure, prominently displaying such a huge Cross and the word “Christian”, can now be given the permission to be built.
I haven’t been to the church pictured, though I have a morbid curiosity to go there soon (perhaps even this Sunday as there is no Divine Liturgy on that day), so I cannot say what this church provides. I do, however, know what it doesn’t provide: the aforementioned Divine Liturgy.
I know at least one person who regularly attends this church, and so I know at least one person who goes there has a deep love of God, and faithfulness towards Him. I have no reason to believe that every other person who also goes there is the same. But then, I wouldn’t judge a person based on their church anyway. Churches are not places were only holy people go, nor those who are saved, nor only those who wish to worship God - so who can know about the people there?
No, we cannot judge a church upon who goes, but on what the church provides to those who attend, whoever they may be. Christ is the physician who heals our wounds, and church is the hospital to which sinners and saints alike (because the saints still sin and sinners can still be sanctified) go to be healed.
There’s more to it than that - worship, prayer, community - but without our Liturgy to God and God’s sacrifice to us, they are nothing. The reason I am, or anyone is, given time on this green earth, is so that we can move closer to God and He can move closer to us. That reunification is also our healing, and that requires our service to Him, the Liturgy, and God’s sacrifice for us, the shedding of Christ’s blood. Without the sacrifice of Christ, Our Saviour, at the centre of a church building, a church gathering, at the centre of our lives, then how can we be healed by it? The cross is empty, as it is in the Christian Church building above.
So although heart-warming, my heart still breaks for the Chinese Christians who need medicine, yet instead have been given a big white placebo.
Thursday is the feast day of the Exaltation of the Cross, and there will be a Divine Liturgy in the Russian Embassy at 8am. God willing, I’ll be there, and so can post something more positive (lighting a candle instead of cursing darkness).
When Blessed Polycarp paid a visit to Rome in Anicetus’ time, though they had minor differences [on the day on which Easter should be celebrated], they at once made peace, having no desire to quarrel on this point.
Anicetus could not persuade Polycarp not [to break the Lentern fast on the same day as the Jewish Passover], since he had always done so with John the disciple of our Lord and the other Apostles with whom he had been familiar. Nor did Polycarp persuade Anicetus to keep [the Jewish Passover]: Anicetus said he must stick to [celebrating Easter on the Sunday, the day of the resurrection], the practice of the presbyters before him. Though the position was such, they remained in communion with each other, and in church Anicetus made way for Polycarp to celebrate the Eucharist [on the 14 Nisan] – out of respect, obviously.
They parted company in peace, and the whole Church was at peace, both those who kept the day and those who did not.
-Letter from Irenaeus to Pope Victor (2nd Century AD)
I would just like to post the above in response to my previous post on some Chinese Christians celebrating Jewish festivals. I doubt they have direct Apostolic sucession back to the Apostle John, but nevertheless eireine if they wish to do this. The Christians in China, in terms of practicing their faith, have far worse problems.
"Truly I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink."
Today is Mid-Pentecost and a reminder that it is fully 25 days since I last attended the Divine Liturgy to take Holy Communion. This is not through choice of course, but circumstance. Being a foreigner, I am graciously allowed by the Russians to con-celebrate the Mystical Supper on their embassy’s ground at regular but all too infrequent occasions (Christmas, Easter, Ascension, Pentecost etc.)
However I am still blessed and must thank God. For the native Chinese, access to the Divine Liturgy is barred by their own Government. In the diocese of Rome’s case, a cardboard cut-out of bishops, priests, altars and pews is created by the Communists to lure the people through its false edifice. When the frontage falls away, like the cheap set of a 1950’s western, the lie is revealed: a Chinese church with all the moral paucity of the socialism it is pressured into preaching. There is no Real Presence here; though of course I have hope that God shows mercy and grace to the faithful who gather there to give heart-felt praise to His name.
In the case of the Orthodox communion, the situation is clearer cut: the Chinese cannot take communion in Orthodox churches (not that there are any fully-functioning church buildings in China anyway). All activity or endeavor to allow the Chinese to partake in the Eucharist brings great risk, not least of all for the Chinese themselves.
So I am indeed blessed, and though I hunger for the next time I can approach the altar, at least I am able to freely and without fear of retribution from any other man. Until then I will continue to pray and do "the small things" that the saints have taught us. Most especially I will pray for those who are denied their right to sincerely approach the chalice and partake in Christ’s sacrifice to all mankind.
"In the middle of the feast, 0 Saviour, fill my thirsting soul with the
waters of godliness, as Thou didst cry unto all: If anyone is thirsty, let
him come to me and drink! 0 Christ God, Fountain of life, glory to Thee!"
"As we celebrate the memory of Thy Prophets, O Lord, through them we beseech Thee to save our souls."
Tbilisi, Georgia. May 1953
The central square was teaming with demonstrators, coming to hear the words of their leaders. In front of them stood the speakers rostrum, on the steps of the Executive Committee building, where the government officials would deliever their propaganda to the people.
Flanking the speaker’s platform were the full figure portraits of the Party leaders, hanging two storeys high upon the front of the building. At the peak of the demonstration, while a government member delivered his speech to the packed square, the portrait of Stalin suddenly burst into flames. Lenin’s portrait burned too, immediately engulfed in flames from head to toe. Horror came over the square, they all froze and from fear and everything became still.
While the pictures of the leaders were in flames, Fr. Gabriel - a young hieromonk - appeared in the second-floor window and gave a sermon:
"The Lord said, ‘Thou shalt not make unto thee idols, or any graven images… Thou shalt not bow down before them nor serve them for I am the Lord your God, Thou shalt have no other Gods! People, come to your senses! The Georgians have always been Christians! So why are you bowing down before Idols? Jesus Christ died and rose again… But your cast idols will never be resurrected. Even during their life they were dead…"
It is impossible to imagine… How could they let him utter another phrase!? But Fr. Gabriel did say more. The doors of the Executive Committee building had been locked and barricaded; he had entered the attic earlier, with enough kerosene to burn those idols, and sat there until the demonstration had began. They brought him down, it is true, quick enough: they brought in some fire engines and raised ladders…
And just like the prophet Jeremiah, stoned by his own people in 583 B.C., when Fr. Gabriel came down the crowd fell upon him. Like the Holy Prophet, the censure of Fr. Gabriel could not be tolerated by the people as they kicked him, hit him with rifle butts, and flailed him with hoses.
"O blessed Jeremias, being chosen of God from thy mother’s womb, in thy compassion, thou sorely didst mourn for the falling away of Israel. And in Egypt, O Prophet, thou wast murdered by stoning for thy most just rebukes by them that understood not to cry with thee: Alleluia."
But Fr. Gabriel did not die that day; the firemen dragged him away. Already looking like a corpse, with fractured skull and seventeen broken bones, the authorities looked to heal this man so they could put on a show trial. However, Fr. Gabriel would not respond to the treatment, almost dead but never dieing, and as weeks dragged into months the zeal of the authorities dimmed.
Whether it was because of embarrasment or because of the Khrushchev amnesties, Fr. Gabriel was eventually released and declared a lunatic, he and his mother being given a meagre State pension to live on. The people of Tbilisi would not speak to the mad hieromonk, too scared of the man who had burned Stalin. At first he wondered among the villages and was hired to guard vineyards or attend to the fire in Churches. Then his mother became paralyzed from all the trauma and he could no longer go anywhere. For several years he could be found sitting at the portico of some Church with an outstretched hand. Only the people who did not know him would give him anything—his acquaintances turned away from him or derided him.
+ Dedicated to Monk Gabriel, and all other living martyrs, on this day the 1st of May, feast day of Jeremiah the Prophet. +
