Stealing a page from #citrt (Church IT Round Table) playbook, I setup a 24/7 chat room we can use to discuss Orthodox Christianity and any other related topics.

http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=orthodox

#orthodox on freenode

IRC Primer

I use xchat on Windows and Linux as an IRC client…

Login and we will go from there.

Let us consider those who serve under our generals and the order, obedience, and submissiveness with witch they perform the things commanded them.  All are not prefects or commanders of a thousand, or of a hundred, or of fifty, or the like, but each one in his own rank performs the things commanded by the king and the generals.  The great cannot exist without the small, not the small without the great.  There is a kind of mixture in all things from which rises mutual advantage.  Take our body for example.  The head is nothing without the feet, and the feet are nothing without the head.  The very smallest members of our bodies are necessary and useful to the whole body, but all work harmoniously together and are under one common rule for the preservation of the whole body.  Let our whole body, then, be preserved in Christ Jesus, and let everyone be subject to his neighbor, according to the special gift bestowed upon him.  Let the strong not despise the weak, and let the weak show respect to the strong.  Let the rich man provide for the wants of the poor; and let the poor man bless God, because God has given him one to supply his need.  Let the wise man display his wisdom, not by words, but through good deeds.  Let us consider, then, brethren, of what matter we are made.

-Clement of Rome

Taken from Day by Day with the Early Church Fathers, page 155.

Last week a post over at Sneakers and Books caught my attention, Nader was highlighting a BBC “Extreme Pilgrim” program featuring Fr. Lazarus Saint Anthony.  Back in the summer of 2000, I got to spend several weeks with Fr. Lazarus on a mission trip to Kenya and Tanzania.  At that time he was serving as a monk priest in Musoma, Tanzania.  At first he came off to our mission group as a strict ascetic , but as time passed, we all warmed up to him and looked forward to hearing his stories and wisdom at our nighttime gatherings.

Thanks to Mixahl at OrthodoxFathers.org for finding the video.

Wishing all my readers, the CITRT community, family and friends a Merry Christmas.  Our church is “old calendar” so we don’t celebrate the Nativity of Christ until January 7th (13 more days of festivities).  I leave you with a few beautiful nuggets.

• St. John Chrysostom’s Christmas Homily
• ORTHODIXIE – Word & Virgin, Mary & Child
• An Arabic Christmas Carol (Byzantine Hymn of the Nativity)

This past Sunday, my cousin, Daniel Habib (now Fr. Daniel), was ordained to the priesthood at the hands of His Eminence Metropolitan Hedra and His Grace Bishop Serapion.  He will serve as a priest for the Diocese of Los Angeles at Saint John Coptic Orthodox Church in Covina.  Congratulations to him and his wife Marsha,  I pray that God grants them an amazing, fruitful ministry.

Just started on a three week tour of Coptic churches throughout the Northeast, Canada and possibly California.  Our hope is to be able to learn how the various churches are using their gifts to do ministry and to share with them what we have learned from our churches and along the tour.  I’ll be traveling with my wife, a group from London and a few others from the various places in the US.  We are blogging at copticlearnshare.wordpress.com.  We are already off to a great start, please keep us in your prayers.

This summer my wife and I will be joining a group touring the Northeast, Canada and California visiting churches to learn about the gifts and talents God has given each of the churches and how they are used for His glory. We hope to take what we have learned and share them with the church as a whole. Please keep this tour in your prayers. More details on the tour blog:

Coptic Learn & Share

Modernity Meets Monasticism in Egypt’s Desert, by Will Rasmussen

David Bebawy has put together Ctech, a Coptic Roundtable of sorts up at the Archdiocese in NJ on Tuesday, May 27 @ 6:30 PM.

Today, in the Coptic Orthodox Church, we commemorate St. Athanasius, the 20th Patriarch of the See of St. Mark. A few of his notable contributions to the Christian faith are:

• Main author of the Nicene Creed
• Wrote On the Incarnation, a treatise affirming and explaining that Jesus Christ is both God and Man.
• First person to list the same 27 books of the New Testament, that list was later ratified by a series of synods and now is the universally recognized New Testament in use today.

Further Reading:

• Background information and writings
• St Athanasius the Great the Archbishop of Alexandria (OCA)
• Athanasius & Cyril, Patriarchs of Alexandria (GOARCH)
• Saint Athanasius the Great, Archbishop of Alexandria (Prologue of Ohrid)
• The Departure of St. Athanasius the Apostolic the 20th. Pope of Alexandria (Coptic)
• St. Athanasius the Great Icon and Story
• The Significance of St. Athanasius for the Coptic Orthodox Church (Anba Gregorius)
• Athanasius of Alexandria (OrthodoxWiki)
• Athanasius of Alexandria (Wikipedia)
• Contending for Our All (John Piper)