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January, 2008

Nicholas Afanasiev, Gifts, and Ordination

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— mariagwyn @ 1:49 pm
Fri
25 Jan 2008

Nicholas Afanasiev is very concerned to clearly pair ministry with gifts, and ensure that the church remains charismatic rather than subject to law. But how do we recognize gifts, and is there really a place in our church to exercise all of our gifts?

Zizioulas: Personhood as Gift

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— mariagwyn @ 7:42 pm
Thu
17 Jan 2008

“In the process of healing the abused victim is also moving toward personhood as a gifted event. In the same way that depersonalization, “nonpersonhood”, happens in and through a set of relations, albeit violent, destructive and oppressive, personalization, the coming to personhood, being a person happens in relations of love and freedom. It is only in such relations, which presuppose the kenotic, and hence, ekstatic movement toward the other, that the abused victim is rendered a unique, free and unrepeatable being, a person."

A series on Zizioulas and Ethics, the first of which is here.

Zizioulas : Ethical Apophaticism

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— mariagwyn @ 2:47 pm
Thu
17 Jan 2008

In 1991, Zizioulas introduces the phrase, “ethical apophaticism… with which to indicate that, exactly as the Greek fathers spoke of the divine persons, we cannot give a positive qualitative content to a hypostasis or persons, for this would result in the loss of his or her absolute uniqueness and turn a person into a classifiable entity.”

Theophany, Subsidiarity and the EPA

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— mariagwyn @ 10:39 pm
Sun
06 Jan 2008

Today, in celebration of Theophany, my friend John let his facebook friends know that he "blessed the Pacific Ocean. It's ambitious, but hey, we have a big God." Traditionally, the celebration of Christ's baptism in the Jordan and conclusion of the Christmas season (twelve days...after the 25th of December, not 30 days after Thanksgiving) is accompanied by the blessing of water which is taken home in small vials by parishoners to keep on hand for the year. The prayers of blessing are an eloquent reminder that the incarnation of Christ is meant to be a blessing to the universe not simply the human beings who populate God's creation. The are also, or at least should be, a reminder of our obligation to participate in creation as a blessing, not a curse.