“Let us take refuge in the Lord, and ascend a little to the place where thoughts dry up, and stirrings vanish. Where memories fade away and the passions die, where human nature becomes serene, and is transformed as it stands in the other world.”
-St Isaac the Syrian.
St John the Baptist Cathedral, the wonderful Washington, D.C. parish I attend. The cathedral is under the omphorion of His Eminence Metropolitan +Hilarion, First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad.
Like many of you, I am an undergraduate student preparing for essays, examinations, and that senior thesis which I could have sworn was off just looming beyond the horizon, but has very much suddenly arrived. I am also a sinner with the humble hope of renewal and transformation through faith in the Theanthropos, the God-Man Jesus Christ. I am an Orthodox Christian, and in this, I strive to remember the words of the Jesus Prayer- “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner”.
In this I am nothing, but may, through Christ, transcend everything and become what St. Peter describes as a “partaker of the divine nature”. I hold fast to the words of St. Irenaeus, that, having received the life-changing blessing of the promise of eternal life through Christ, I may cooperate in synergy with the Holy Spirit to allow the grace of God to guide me in all that I do and transform my soul in unity with the divine energies. This is the unique challenge which the Orthodox Church offers her faithful, the challenge to surrender our will, the societal constructs of autonomy and extreme individualism, to allow the Holy Spirit to work in us and transform us in union with the divine energies. This is nothing less than the process of theosis, of divinization by which we may realize the fullness of our life in Christ.
On Sunday, December 4, 2011, the Feast of the Entrance of the Theotokos into the Temple (Julian calendar) I was received by chrismation into the Orthodox Church by His Beatitude Metropolitan Jonah, then primate of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA) at St. Nicholas Cathedral in Washington, D.C. I received the name Silouan after the beloved elder or staretz who spent the last decades of his life in ceaseless prayer on the Holy Mountain. In all humility, I consider having received this beautiful, challenging, and historic faith to be the most important and transforming event in my life. Entering into the fullness of the Orthodox Church, in my prayer life, in the Liturgy, in all that I am, is a blessing beyond compare.
My goal in creating and updating this blog is to share with you various articles, podcasts, essays and lectures on the Orthodox Church throughout history and in the world today. I also will be sharing different musings, stories and moments from my life with you that relate to the Orthodox faith, especially with regard to the Liturgy, Great Lent and other fasts, matters of theological doctrine and theosis, and Church history. Please feel free to comment and share your thoughts as you read my entries, whether you are Orthodox, of another faith, or of no faith at all.
St. Nicholas Cathedral in Washington, D.C, the OCA primatial cathedral, was my parish and spiritual home from November 2010 to August 2012. I love the Cathedral, and I very much admire Fr. Valery, Deacon Blagoje, and so many others there, but as a matter of conscience find it difficult to continue there considering how everything has been handled with regard to Church politics. I do not know Metropolitan Tikhon, but he seems kind, and I sincerely pray for his primatial ministry, wishing him well as Primate of the OCA. I encourage anyone who is able to visit St Nicholas to do so; the parishioners are delightful and warm-hearted people who love God, the choir chants beautifully, and the Cathedral is a historic Washington landmark with magnificent Russian iconography!
St Nicholas Cathedral, located at 3500 Massachusetts Avenue NW in Washington D.C, is a preserved architectural landmark, a beautiful temple to the Lord, and my first Orthodox spiritual home.
My spiritual father serves most often at DC’s beautiful and historic St John the Baptist Cathedral, the Russian Orthodox (ROCOR) church founded by St John of Shanghai and San Francisco, “the Wonderworker” of blessed memory. This is where I now most often attend Liturgy and Vigil along with many friends, young and old. Metropolitan Jonah has started a wonderful teaching ministry and Bible study program there, and often serves at Liturgy at the invitation of the very kind Rector, Fr. Victor Potapov, with the blessing of His Eminence Metropolitan Hilarion, First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad. You are most welcome to visit both St John’s and St Nicholas!
St John the Baptist Cathedral, founded in 1949 by the venerable St John the Wonderworker, Archbishop of Shanghai and San Francisco, is a beautiful and historic Russian Orthodox temple with a lively and welcoming parish.
I am in my fourth year of undergraduate studies at American University’s School of Public Affairs and College of Arts and Sciences pursuing a BA in History with a minor in Law and Society. During the Spring 2012 term I studied on exchange at the University of Edinburgh.
Gazing up at the St Nicholas Cathedral dome with the image of Christos Pantokrator, Christ as Almighty Ruler of the Universe.
Choir gallery at St Nicholas Cathedral, Washington D.C. where I sang in the choir under the superb direction of choralist Veronica Gorodetskaia.
While I am a full-time student, my most recent paid position was during the Fall 2012 semester as a conference planning assistant to Anita McBride, former Chief of Staff to First Lady Laura Bush and Executive-in-Residence at American University’s Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies. In Summer 2011 I worked as an undergraduate research assistant with an American University professor of British history, and as a research intern at Georgetown University’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace and World Affairs.
Striving for non-partiality and objectivity, I have hosted American TV (ATV)’s political news show “Capitol Politics” with co-hosts Paul Bencivenga and Anna Kark since Fall 2011. The previous year I hosted the political news show “The Body Politic” in which I gave international and U.S. political news broadcasts. I have enjoyed interviewing former ambassadors, members of Congress, high-profile DC attorneys, and many DC political personalities.
Any errors, misquotations or other mistakes that appear on this site are my own, and, of course, I appreciate any readers alerting me to any such inconsistencies.
All my entries can be found by clicking above on “Posts”. Wherever you are, may the Lord always bless you and give you peace.
Ryan Hunter
Washington, D.C., January 2013.
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner!
Dear Ryan,
Thank you for visiting my little blog, I wish you success with your blog and hopefully will see you around the internet!
handmaid leah
It was my pleasure! Thank you so much for visiting mine too Leah! It’s nothing special, just some things I like to share (musings, articles, pod casts, et cetera.) My hope is just to have some friendly discourse with fellow Orthodox, and for anyone who is not Orthodox that might see this blog to learn more about the faith and endeavor to see the Liturgy for themselves. In the meantime, I think God meets people where they are, and that a measure of grace, a part of the fullness of the Orthodox Tradition, exists among other Christian groups.
hi Ryan,
I just stumbled upon your blog by chance and I’m so glad i did! my hubby and I have been catechumens at a Greek Orthodox Church for a year now and we hope to be joining soon! Congratulations on your Chrismation in December of 2011 and Many Years to you as you continue on This journey of Faith that so many have travelled. I look forward to reading your posts!
Hi Julia,
Thank you for your kind words, and for your interest in my blog! What a joy that you and your husband will soon be received into the Orthodox Faith! The Greek Orthodox Church was where I first encountered the Divine Liturgy in all its Byzantine splendor and majesty, so I love going back to DC’s St Sophia Cathedral where I first experienced it! Our OCF chaplain at American University serves as a priest there. Many Years to you as you continue on your journey into the life of the Church! I’ve found that I continue to fall more in love with the Faith each day!
Hello,
Your blog is great! May God strengthen you to your journey to Orthodoxy!
Many greetings from Greece
Hello,
Thank you so much, you are very kind! I was received into the Church in December, but you are absolutely right- the journey to Orthodoxy is a life-long one in our process of theosis!
Warm wishes from Scotland!
May God grant you grace to live as one who follows the light of the true faith! Христос воскрес – Воистину воскрес!
Mendeleyev
Thank you for your beautiful comment Mendeleyev! Indeed I hope He grants me this grace.
Воистину воскрес! May the risen Lord bless you and your loved ones in this joyful season!
Blessings to you!
Thank you! Your journalistic coverage of the protests in Russia is truly wonderful. I have been sharing your reports with Russian friends living in America and many of my U.S. and British friends. Thank you for raising awareness of what is going on so people in the West can have more of an idea of the developments.
Thanks Silouan for these comments and also your thoughtful comments about His Beatitude’s requested departure from the Metropolitan See.
Thank you Nicholas! I hope you are well. His Beatitude, the Holy Synod of bishops, and the whole OCA need our prayers for healing in this time!
July 19, 2012
Ryan, I recently discovered your blog. Your photos of St. Nicholas Cathedral are beautiful. (I’ve been there, too.) I wish I could contact you off-line. From your blog I see that you are a recent convert. I, too, am a convert to Orthodoxy, thanks be to God that over 30 years ago I was received into the faith.
Our OCA is going through a difficult time of change. These are sad events. I can sense your pain and confusion in your blog, especially as Metropolitan Jonah chrismated you and has instructed you. You mention Fr. Valery. I urge you to talk to him, seek guidance. Ryan, I also urge you not to spend time on the other blog you’ve posted on recently. Its content is very dark, and it will only be a cause of confusion for you. You are having trouble understanding recent events in our church, the resignation of Met. Jonah as ruling hierarch of the OCA. Put your trust in God. Ask Him to help you find peace and seek His will. Talk to Fr. Valery.
As I was reading the old calendar gospel for today, some passages stood out:
Matthew 15: 13 He answered, “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be rooted up. 14 Let them alone; they are blind guides. And if the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.
Do not follow blind “guides” into a pit. Pray to Our Merciful Lord for discernment and comfort. Pray for our Holy Synod, which includes His Eminence, Metropolitan Jonah, and all the faithful of the OCA.
With prayers from a sister in Christ.
Dear sister in Christ, thank you for your very kind words. I have followed your advice and prayed to our Lord for discernment and peace of mind and heart. You write, “You are having trouble understanding recent events in our church”, but how would you have me understand them? How do you understand them for yourself?
I continue to pray for all members of the OCA Holy Synod, especially Metropolitan Tikhon and Archbishop Benjamin, and I pray every day for all my friends who remain in OCA parishes for any of the reasons they have chosen to remain there. I especially pray for the community at St. Nicholas Cathedral. There are so many good priests and faithful laity in the OCA who, I know, want no part in what must seem to so many like yet another scandal.
These are indeed sad events, but I trust in God’s providence to create good and healing out of a painful situation. I see that this providence is already manifesting, as Metropolitan Jonah has been warmly embraced by those who value his ministry in the Russian Church Abroad (ROCOR). If you ever have the opportunity, please visit St John the Baptist Cathedral, also here in Washington, where the parishioners have received Vladyka with great kindness. I know that no parish is perfect, since we are all human, but there is no political strife, no whispers of conspiracy in this parish, and this is a joy, to be in an environment free from such scandal.
It is too painful for me to continue regularly attending St. Nicholas Cathedral. It saddens me that this wonderful parish, where I learned much about the Faith from so many people, has unfortunately been caught up in the web of internal OCA politics. If I were to continue worshiping there, a place from which, after July, Metropolitan Jonah was banned from even entering, let alone serving, what would that say about me? That I believe the OCA bishops over my own spiritual father? That I believe the charges against him to be truthful, that I approve of the circumstances leading up to his resignation?
I do not judge those clergy who serve there, since they have wives and families to support, but as a matter of conscience, it does not seem morally right for me to continue attending there. If I had continued at St. Nicholas, it would have plagued my conscience, for I cannot bring myself to believe the accusations against Metropolitan Jonah. How can I continue worshiping in a church where the presiding clergy either believe the accusations or are willing to go along with those who do? Why would I put myself through that discomfort; how does it benefit my soul?
To an extent, ignorance is bliss, especially when it comes to internal Church politics, but in cases such as these, willful ignorance seems to me to be more of a covering of one’s eyes and ears. Simply accepting new changes in administration when, in fact, the process by which those changes came about is deeply flawed, strikes me just as you said, of the blind leading the blind into a pit.
I do hope you can understand how I am in an odd position. How can I believe what has been said about my spiritual father, especially from a Synod of bishops which has been at the heart of so much controversy since from before his tenure as Metropolitan? How can I trust the Synod’s claim that they removed +Jonah to avoid another scandal for the OCA, when in November they permitted another bishop, Matthias, to remain in charge of his diocese despite that he admitted to behaving inappropriately toward a young woman, sending her text messages of a sexual nature? This does not sound like a Synod concerned with preventing scandals. To ignore all this is to be as one of the blind, led by the blind.
I understand that you might be in a different situation, especially if you have been active in the OCA for many years since you were first received into the Church. I pray that you find peace as well.
In Christ,
-Ryan
We were part of a different journey in Memphis, TN and were under Metropolitan Philip. I have heard some of what has been going on, tragic really, stay strong and know that the faith will stay the same regardless of the occassional spurts of “humanity” that come into play.
Thank you for your kind words of counsel. What happened is tragic, but I have witnessed a truly incredible amount of healing in so many people.
I have a quiet yet steady faith that the Lord will answer so many of these prayers in His time, in His Providence. It is a joy to know the the Faith will remain intact no matter the doings of men. I appreciate your description of the “humanity” or human fallibility that sometimes impairs some in the Church.
I have read with admiration about your Metropolitan’s decision to allow the reception of so many ‘Evangelical Orthodox’, many from either mainline Protestant or more low church evangelical backgrounds, into the Antiochian Archdiocese. This seems to have been a truly incredible work of the Lord! I think of how many Orthodox missionary efforts and outreach programs the AOCA is organizing, and it is a marvelous thing.
We got lucky and has someone accepting, truly accepting and this only strengthened the Church by bringing in tens of thousands of Orthodox from down in the Southern States. It was truly a movement of our time.
I think so too!
Congrats on your lovely blog…is it possible to contact you privately by e-mail please?
Thank you very much!
What is your e-mail address? Then I will message you my e-mail address. I do not wish to share my e-mail address publicly here.
Hi Ryan! I’ve been meaning to visit St. Nicholas Cathedral at some point – I’ll keep an eye out for you when I do
One thing I wonder about the cathedral is that I have read that it is a national war memorial? Is that correct – and do you know what about the cathedral makes it a war memorial – is there a special place dedicated to remembering veterans of war?
The cathedral is a national war monument, indeed. The plaque on the beautiful bell tower commemorates all those Russian and American soldiers who lost their lives fighting for the White/Tsarist forces during the Russian Civil War following the Bolshevik Revolution. I learned much of this from my wonderful godmother who for years served as parish historian at the Cathedral.
The entire Cathedral, built with some assistance from the Moscow Patriarchate (the bell tower was a gift in 1988 to mark the 1000th anniversary of Kievan Rus’ baptism) serves as the war monument. Many older members in the parish served in World War II, the Korean War, etc, and military attachés to the Georgian, Ukrainian and Russian embassies often attend the Liturgies.
Your comment here has brought St Nicholas to my attention! I deeply love the people of the parish (I was chrismated there, sang in the choir, and came to know many of the parishioners), and I am sure I will be back soon, since I always feel drawn to it. Since August I have no longer attended divine services at the Cathedral as frequently as I had when Metropolitan Jonah was Primate of the OCA and often served there.
I love the Cathedral, and I very much admire Fr. Valery, Deacon Blagoje and Matushka Kathy, and many other wonderful people. I feel conflicting loyalties in that Metropolitan Jonah is my spiritual father who received me into the Church.
These accusations which the OCA Synod leveled against him in their July 16 statement are criminal in nature, yet the Synod has not permitted a third party legal investigation by into their veracity. Instead, several essays have come to light which point-by-point demolish the credibility of the Synod’s statement.
I do not know Metropolitan Tikhon, but he seems kind and I wish him well as Primate of the OCA.
Regardless of the politics, I very much encourage you to visit St Nicholas; the people are truly delightful and the Cathedral is a historic Washington landmark with magnificent iconography!
Metropolitan Jonah serves most often at DC’s St John the Baptist Cathedral, the Russian Orthodox (ROCOR) church founded in 1949 by St John Maximovitch of Shanghai and San Francisco. This is where I most often attend Liturgy and Vigil now. You are most welcome at St John’s and St Nicholas!
Congratulations of your entry into the Church. Did Met. Jonah not encourage baptism of converts when he was with the OCA?
Thank you John. You mean re-baptism? No, generally, as far as I know, he would receive those coming in from another Trinitarian Christian faith by chrismation and laying on of hands (preceded by confession, abjuration of any “Western heresies”, and the recitation of the unchanged Symbol of Faith). As far as I am aware, in the OCA, re-baptism of those entering the Church from another Trinitarian Church is not normative. I was baptized as an infant in the Roman Catholic Church.
You are right! Re-bapitism is a NO NO!
I thought so too – I believe that was one of the practices for which the Donatists were condemned as heretical. (Any correction on this, if I am mistaken, is welcome).
The issue for the Donatists was whether or not someone who was baptized into the Church who had fallen away and renounced the faith (initially this controversy arose during the Diocletian persecutions when many Christians apostasized in order to stay alive) needed to be re-baptized upon their return to the Church to erase the stain of their having fallen into heresy.
As someone who was baptized as a Roman Catholic, in the full name of the Trinity, I was not raised in the Orthodox Church then to fall into heresy and return to the Church, but I came into the fullness of the Orthodox faith in my adult life, by the grace of God.
The funny part is that the religion closest to our faith is the Catholics, and yet they are sometimes the furthest from us as well.
I’m not quite so sure about that! I think most Protestant denominations today are quite a bit further from us than the Roman Catholics
That is true, but there is a new atmosphere of acceptance and seeking in some protestant faiths that I find encouraging actually. Some even practice fasting now.
Oh, that certainly is encouraging to hear among some Protestant communities! One thing I have noted in my discussions with LDS/Mormon friends is that they, too, practice a form of fasting on the first Sundays of each month, called Fast Sunday (this is obviously not as rigorous or as regular as ours, but essentially is done for a similar purpose).
I have found that, in my relatively short time as an Orthodox Christian, the faith journeys of so many I have encountered are each unique in their own way. No matter where a person is in life, regardless of his or her religious or faith background, many people are drawn to Orthodoxy who one would think would never wind up joining themselves to the Body of Christ! Glory to God for such miracles!
Yep