Category Archives: Travel Ramblings

Support the Great Commission – in Pakistan (more)

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The mission in Pakistan is growing and with growth comes the need for more resources. I have spoken to Fr Adrian and Fr Anthony in relation to the mission and God has given us glorious fields ripe for the harvest. The team is focusing on mission by showing the love of Christ to all, through serving the poor, feeding the hungry and giving vital skills to those who have little. Please following the link below and donate what you can to this vital work – Dcn Andrew

Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain awhere Jesus had bappointed them. And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some ddoubted. And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them hin the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, iI am with you alway, even unto kthe end of the world. Amen.

(Matthew 28:16–20 KJV)

St. Michael the Archangel Orthodox Mission Breaks Ground for a St. Sergius Orthodox Church Sargodha, Pakistan Fr. Adrian Parish priest of Sydney Australia and Orthodox Mission Director of Pakistan blessed a land in Sargodha. Mission have plans to build its first physical church on the land. God willing construction of the church will begin when we have funds we request to all of you for your generous support and prayers.

You can donate to the mission via the information on their website

breakingground.

Support the Great Commission – in Pakistan

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Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, into a mountain awhere Jesus had bappointed them. And when they saw him, they worshipped him: but some ddoubted. And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them hin the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, iI am with you alway, even unto kthe end of the world. Amen.

(Matthew 28:16–20 KJV)

St. Michael the Archangel Orthodox Mission Breaks Ground for a St. Sergius Orthodox Church Sargodha, Pakistan Fr. Adrian Parish priest of Sydney Australia and Orthodox Mission Director of Pakistan blessed a land in Sargodha. Mission have plans to build its first physical church on the land. God willing construction of the church will begin when we have funds we request to all of you for your generous support and prayers.

You can donate to the mission via the information on their website

breakingground.

St Nicholas of Japan

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Have just returned from just over a week in Tokyo, a combination of business and pleasure on a number of fronts. I had intended to find the Cathedral in Tokyo built by St Nicholas of Japan but I was not ready for the blessing of being able to easily visit the grave of this great missionary Saint. (well, we’ll get to easily in a minute).

I have to admit that I did not know a great deal about this Saint prior to coming to Japan. Well, I knew the basics; a Russian priest who came to Japan and did much missionary work and eventually became the Archbishop.

One morning free I thought to grab the laptop and see if the relics or grave of this Saint are located in Japan. The only reference I found was a photo of a grave at the bottom right hand corner of OrthodoxWiki.org. Fortunately the caption of the photo referenced Yanaka Cemetery which lead to more googling and a plan of action. My friend was happy to come with me to check it out.

Yanaka Cemetery is located just nearby Nippori Station, and Japanese public transport being as fantastic as it is getting there was a no brainer. Even though it was in Japanese a diagram near the station exit made finding the cemetery quite simple.

That’s where the “easy” part of the trip ended. We wandered around the cemetery for an hour or so without much joy. There were moments of near jubilation as we saw a rare Christian symbol on a grave amongst the local Japanese graves but still we searched for no avail.

The cemetery is in many ways an icon of Japan, as my friend calls it “the land of contrasts”. There are moments of intense serenity and beauty but you can turn the corner and very quickly be on top of train tracks or be assaulted by a vending machine. Even the local cats seemed lost and wanted directions from the cab drivers sleeping between shifts.

After some more hopeless wandering my friend asked one of the groundskeepers where “St Nicholas” or “Archbishop Nicholas” is buried. My Japanese is limited to ordering food and saying hello and thank-you, but I felt we were making progress when our new found friend started walking and pointing and saying “Nikolai, Nikolai”. Should have guessed the English translation was not the preferred use.

The kind man steered us through a maze of graves and finally we came across a neatly fenced area with a handful of graves at the edge of the property. We stayed there for a while prayerfully and I locked the GPS location in my phone for a later visit.

Later on that evening I did my homework a little more deeply about the life of Saint Nicholas of Japan. While my original summation was correct it was very shallow. For over a year now I had been either hearing or proclaiming myself the prayer at Matins which commemorates him amongst others:

. . . the Hierarchs Innocent of Moscow, Nicholas of Japan, John of Shanghai and San Francisco, Nectarius of Pentapolis, Jonah of Manchuria . . .

Now it was time to learn more.

Nicholas came to Japan as a Hieromonk after a request from the Russian Consul in Japan. He encountered extreme difficulty early on with acceptance by the Japanese as someone coming in from the outside. Following in the footsteps of the great missionary Saints Cyril and Methodius, he took to learning the language, culture and translating the scripture into the local language. A meeting with the future Saint Innocent of Alaska encouraged him in the local focus of his efforts.

A few days later I returned to the cemetery to spend a longer period in quiet prayer at the grave of St Nicholas. In a time where evangelism is extremely important, both at home and away, the life of this humble hierarch serves as a great example for us all. I encourage you to read the life of this Saint, who for his efforts bringing Orthodoxy to Japan, is commemorated as “Equal to the Apostles”.

Troparion (Tone 4)
O holy Saint Nicholas, the Enlightener of Japan,
You share the dignity and the throne of the Apostles:
You are a wise and faithful servant of Christ,
A temple chosen by the Divine Spirit,
A vessel overflowing with the love of Christ.
O hierarch equal to the Apostles,
Pray to the life-creating Trinity
For all your flock and for the whole world.

For those who happen to be in Tokyo and have the opportunity to visit this site, I have provided the map co-ordinates in an embedded google map below, hopefully it will shorten your journey to Saint Nicholas.


View Larger Map

joy of pilgrimage

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Often when we talk about pilgrimage the conversation turns to large scale events; heading off to the Holy Land for that once in a lifetime experience or a journey to the mother land of ones jurisdiction (Russia, Greece, Serbia etc). All these are excellent adventures but we have many more opportunities to travel to those thin places closer to us.

Once a year, for example, out parish takes a group of children to our monasteries here in NSW. These are incredible opportunity to extract oneself from the world and worship with a group of monastics that focus their life to the heavens every day.

There are many of these places all round the world, so there is no end of choice. I was encouraged by the video below of the re-initiation of an old tradition in the US of the pilgrimage to a monastery on US Memorial Day. It only takes a long weekend to escape from the world and dedicate some quality time to your soul.

Where could you go?

another mid-week sojourn

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Let us glorify the Master Craftsman for all that has been done wisely and skillfully, and from the beauty of the visible things let us form an idea of him who is more than beautiful. And from the greatness of these perceptible and circumscribed bodies let us conceive of him who is infinite and immense and who surpasses all understanding in the plenitude of his power. For even if we are ignorant of things made, yet at least that which in general comes under our observation is so wonderful that even the most acute mind is shown to be at a loss as regards the least of the things in the world, either in the ability to explain it worthily or to render due praise to the Creator, to whom be all glory, honor and power forever. (BASIL THE GREAT – HEXAEMERON).

Glory to Thee, O God, Glory to Thee.

mid-week sojourn

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Let us glorify the Master Craftsman for all that has been done wisely and skillfully, and from the beauty of the visible things let us form an idea of him who is more than beautiful. And from the greatness of these perceptible and circumscribed bodies let us conceive of him who is infinite and immense and who surpasses all understanding in the plenitude of his power. For even if we are ignorant of things made, yet at least that which in general comes under our observation is so wonderful that even the most acute mind is shown to be at a loss as regards the least of the things in the world, either in the ability to explain it worthily or to render due praise to the Creator, to whom be all glory, honor and power forever. (BASIL THE GREAT – HEXAEMERON).

Made it to the middle of another interesting week, reaching for meaning in the reflections on the beauty of Creation. As I head down the other side of the hill of this week, holding on to the simple joy of walking down the hill talking to a monk after sharing Liturgy in a place where this chaos seems much more remote.

Glory to Thee, O God, Glory to Thee.

stillness (reprise)

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He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end. (Eccles. 3:11 KJV)

Recently I was given the opportunity (excuse) to head down South again to the Women’s Monastery. By excuse, one of the Nun’s was sewing me a Riassa, and it needed a final measurement. Furthermore, my wife and I were in need of a bit of an escape and a hunt for stillness.

We left early Saturday morning and drove with fewer stops than our normal yearly pilgrimage to the monastery with the children from Church (amazing how the reduction in convoy helps to remove strings from the journey) and arrived just after lunch. While still a little sloppy underfoot from recent heavy rain, the weather had played nice for us although a little cold.

The Nun’s held a readers vigil service the night we stayed and Father Marcarius from the nearby (about an hour, that is near in country Australia) men’s monastery to serve liturgy in the morning. While the small chapel does play some havoc with liturgical logistics it is always a joy to serve there (out of the twice I have served since being ordained). Fr Mac is not used to serving with a Deacon, which for once made me feel a little less anxious than normal.

After the Liturgy we ate together and had calming discussions. Afterwards my wife and I drove with the Abbess up to the site of where their new cells are being built to see the progress of building works. I think I wore her patience a little thin while up on the top of the hill with continuous commentary of “can you hear that! – NOTHING”.

It is the perfect space for absorbing the stillness of God’s creation and it was a pity to have to hop in the car and head back. On the way home we remarked about how we really just “went to church this weekend – just that we drove a little further and stayed overnight”. While not possible very often we hope to do this a few times a year, in addition to our trip with the Church Kids.

These monastic communities are treasure beyond the beauty of their tranquil locations, groups of Christians devoting their lives to prayer and worship in the great monastic traditions. We should all desire to find our place of solitude to visit occasionally and support the  prayer and life that these soldiers for Christ fulfil.

some hours of scriptural overview

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I have been a long time listener and fan of Ancient Faith Radio, both from listening to the streams at home and packing the phone full of podcasts for travel. Often I don’t check out their website regularly enough, relying on the internet radio to play the streams and the pc to download the podcasts already subscribed. One area that I then particularly miss are the specials; AFR will periodically post recordings of lectures and conferences from talented speakers. Rarely do we have (or have publicised / recorded) these items down under and they make great travel fodder.

One more recent pickup of mine was this set of scriptural overviews done by Fr Thomas Hopko who I find very easy to listen to and quite entertaining (as well as informative). This particular special hosted by the Orthodox Institute 2011 was entitled “Scripture Through the Lens of the Holy Land”.

Around five hours of lectures on the Gospel’s and Epistles plus a keynote and a homily. Recommended.

a more orthodox logos

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I have been a user of the bible study software logos for some time now. First, back when I was protestant I used it as a tool for putting together bible studies and for some study that I did. More recently (a year or two back when I started looking to take an Orthodox Theology course) I purchased a version to help prepare for exams and write essays.

Given that the market for the software would mostly be evangelical protestant there was little Orthodox material save for a pack of Early Church Fathers. More recently I purchased the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture – and I am glad I did as it doesn’t seem to be sold by them anymore.

This, along with more translations of the scriptures than one would of thought possible still makes it quite a powerful package, once I worked out how to narrow the searches down to a collection of texts that were Orthodox in nature.

Today I got a delightful surprise in my inbox to find another set of Orthodox literature in pre-publication, 10 volumes of the Popular Patristics Series published by St Vladimir’s Seminary Press. I do own many of these in paperback but it will be a welcome addition to the searchable material. I also am waiting since late last year for the Works of St. Cyril of Alexandria to be completed.

Logos is a very powerful tool, and citing passages from it in essays can be quite easy once you get the hang of it. If you cut & paste in the write way into MS-Word, the footnotes instantly pop into the footer of the document.

We seem finally to be getting more Orthodox material in electronic formats from many publishers. i am soon going to put together a list of what I have found so far for my Kindle in case others are interested.

on the road again . . . but restfully

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And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Ephesians 6:4 (KJV)

Just over a week ago I returned from our yearly pilgrimage to two monasteries located about 6 hours south of where I live. This has always been an enjoyable mid-Lenten retreat aimed at taking a group of children from the parish to spend time with the monastic communities and also in the outdoors.

This year, unlike my two previous visits, we had a good group of both boys and girls so we took the boys to the men’s monastery and the girls stayed at the nearby (1+ hour away) Sisterhood.

My priest and I stayed with the boys, but took a trip across on the Sunday to serve liturgy at the sisterhood in their chapel. This was my first time serving as the only deacon at a liturgy and it was surprisingly daunting. With God’s help I managed not to completely stuff things up. The chapel at the sisterhood is beautiful and quaint but very small, and rubrically challenging. I could almost stand in the centre and cense the entire church and the entrances were almost ballerina twirls (maybe not the most accurate metaphor) due to the confined space and lack of actual doors.

This time also I managed a tour of the men’s monastery which I had not seen a great deal of prior to this trip. One of the Hieromonks had asked me to take some tools to the Sisterhood and asked if I wanted to take a look around. We then spent 1-2 hours driving around; stopping, looking and chatting about the various buildings, sketes etc.

I also found near to our guesthouse another chapel, rivalling the one at the sisterhood due to a more compact “backyard-friendly” design.

There is no limit to my appreciation of the monastic life, there is no way (even ignoring having a wife – which one should never do ;) - Hi darling if you are reading this!!”) I could survive this kind of life. But the serenity that is possible, even on a visit to these holy places, is quite revitalising, particularly mid way through Great Lent.

This year, the regions around the monasteries have experiences exceptional rainfall and the sisterhood, while their property was not damaged, suffered an annihilation of their pump house – used to supply water tanks from the river.

On a positive front, thanks to generous donations of money and labour the Sisterhood is well on the way to completing their new accommodation. God-willing they will start on their new refectory building this year and will then be able to move from the existing temporary quarters.

This retreat is a valuable spiritual journey for the children we take. Despite the long drives and logistics the adults also benefit much also.

Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy on me