Churches of the East: Lex Anteinternet: Thursday, May 3, 1923. The attempt to depose Archbishop Tikhon.

Churches of the East: Lex Anteinternet: Thursday, May 3, 1923. The attem...:

Wednesday, May 3, 2023

Lex Anteinternet: Thursday, May 3, 1923. The attempt to depose Archbishop Tikhon.

Lex Anteinternet: Thursday, May 3, 1923. The attempt to depose Arc...:   

Thursday, May 3, 1923. The attempt to depose Archbishop Tikhon.

 

Archbishop Tikhon, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, was expelled by the church and declared a traitor by the Communist dominated All Russian Church Council and declared "henceforth a simple citizen—Vasily Bellavin."

The body further declared:

Inasmuch as the Soviet Government is the only one in the whole world fighting capitalism, which is one of the seven deadly sins, therefore its struggle is a sacred struggle. The Council condemns the counterrevolutionary acts of Tikhon and his adherents, lifts the ban of excommunication he laid on the Soviet Government, and brands him as a traitor to the Church and to Russia. It hereby formally abolishes the office of Patriarch forever and establishes an annual Church Council as the supreme directive body in Church affairs.

The Russian Orthodox Church naturally did not recognize the move, and he continued to offer Devine Liturgy for the rest of his life, which at this point was not to be much longer. The Russian Orthodox Church has declared him to be a saint.  The move by the All Russian Church Council lead to the establishment of a competing church, which died out in the 1940s.  Of note, the establishment of competing government aligned churches is a common practice by authoritarian regimes.  Communist China at one time established a rival church to the Catholic Church, aligned with the government, and Nazi Germany attempted to create an aligned Lutheran Church, although the German efforts failed.

The move would lead to a period of irregular leadership in the Russian Orthodox Church, which was unable to procedural choose a successor in the regular method for a period of time, after Tikhon's death.

Then Bishop Tikhon at the consecration of Anglican Bishop Reginald Heber Weller at St. Paul's Cathedral in the Episcopal Diocese of Fond du Lac.  Also present are Anthony Kozlowski of the Polish National Catholic Church in what sort of amounts to an interesting collection of clerics either claiming Apostolic succession, in the case of the Anglican's, or actually having it in the case of the Russian Orthodox and Polish National Catholic Church, and yet not being in communion with Rome.

Tikhon had been a clergyman for a very long time, but had only been head of the Russian Orthodox Church since 1917.  Earlier in his career he had been the Bishop of the Aleutian Islands and Alaska, which became the Diocese of the Aleutian Islands and North America, and was a naturalized American citizen.  He was a participant, which is to say receptive, to the conversion of Byzantine Catholics into the Orthodox Church due to the ill feelings caused by Catholic Bishop John Ireland's view toward Eastern Rite Catholics comporting with the Latin Rite and Pope Pius X's restriction on Eastern Rite priests marrying, the latter which was later changed and the former which is recognized as a signficant mistake by Bishop Ireland.

Lex Anteinternet: The New Academic Diciplines (of a century+ ago).

Lex Anteinternet: The New Academic Diciplines (of a century+ ago).:

The New Academic Diciplines (of a century+ ago).

I was listening to an excellent episode of Catholic Stuff You Should Know (I'm a bit behind).  Well, it's this episode here:

THE LITURGICAL IDEAL OF THE CHURCH

The guest, early on, makes a comment about the beginning of the 20th Century, end of the 19th, and mentions "archeology was new".  I thought I'd misheard that, but he mentioned it again, and added sociology.

He explained it, but it really hit me.

Archeology, and sociology, in fact, were new.  Many academic disciplines were.

Indeed, that's something we haven't looked at here before.  People talk all the time about the decline of the classic liberal education (at a time that very few people attended university), but when did modern disciplines really appear?

Indeed, that's part of what make a century ago, +, more like now, than prior to now.  Educational disciplines, based on the scientific method in part, really began to expand.

So, we can take, for example, and find the University of Wyoming recognizable at the time of its founding in 1886.

But would Princeton, as it is now, be recognizable in 1786?

And interesting also how this effected everything, in this case, the Church's look at its liturgy.

But also, everything, really, about everything, for good and ill.

Wyoming Catholic Cowboys - raw and real: Ash Wednesday

Wyoming Catholic Cowboys - raw and real: Ash Wednesday: I may have never covered a bronc in rodeo, but I never missed a mark-out and I never turned-out. Turn-out is when you've signed up for a...

A Lenten Plea for the Working Man.

I used to go to daily Mass, save for Saturdays.

I no longer do, as the Mass I went to, daily, was cancelled.

In every Parish which is served by an attendant pastor, there is daily Mass.  Locally, there are three parishes, and they all have a daily mass.  Their schedules are:

Downtown:

6:30 a.m.

East:

9:00

West:

9:00.

And that's why I don't go to daily Mass.

9:00 a.m is a time guaranteed to wipe out any working person from attendance.  If you have a job, you are not making it.

6:30 a.m. is pretty early in the morning.

Now, it could be argued that, well, anyone could make that. 

Not hardly.  Again, if you work, that means that you pretty much have to be prepared to go to your office by about 6:00 a.m.  It's 5:35 a.m. as I start writing this, and I'm still trying to wake up from not getting enough sleep the night before, drinking my coffee.

Today, I have to shave, shower, put on my lawyer costume and head out the door prepared to take on the plethora of other people's problems I deal with every day.  I'm not going to be able to do that, and make a 6:30 a.m. Mass.

I could make a noon Mass, and that's the daily Mass I used to attend.

I certainly wasn't alone, there were always others there. By and large, they were people who walked up from their offices or drove there.  Working people who came on their lunch hour, skipping lunch,.

Indeed, I often notice, as I sometimes drive by when its getting out, that early morning attendees downtown have a sort of social schedule built into attendance at that Mass.  Not all of them, by any means, but some.

And that's 100% okay.

What I mean is that I see them walking from Mass to a nearby café. They probably do that all the time.  I don't have time, however, to engage in that sort of activity in the morning, and I probably wouldn't go to a café in the morning much if I did.  I point that out, however, as the people who hiked up at noon were giving their lunches up, in some cases, just to be there.  They were dedicated.

I fear, sometimes, that it's easy to forget the working folks.  They don't say much, they just go to their jobs and back, and come on in on Sunday.  They aren't retired, so they don't have time to get to a 9:00, and frankly a lot of them couldn't easily make a 6:30.

Noon worked great.

Lex Anteinternet: Pancake Day.

Lex Anteinternet: Pancake Day.:  

Pancake Day.

 Amongst other things, the Tuesday before Latin Rite Lent is called Pancake Day.

They can be sweet, and they use up fats, so they helped prepare for Lenten fasting in this fashion.

Lex Anteinternet: The 2023 Wyoming Legislative Session. Wyoming Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

Lex Anteinternet: The 2023 Wyoming Legislative Session. End of the f...: HB262 would have you believe that religious rights need to be restored in Wyoming, when in fact its a prophylactic bill aimed at the fear they will be restricted.  It states:

HOUSE BILL NO. HB0262

Wyoming Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

Sponsored by: Representative(s) Washut, Burkhart, Crago, Harshman and Olsen and Senator(s) Biteman, Hutchings, Kolb and Salazar

A BILL

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AN ACT relating to religious freedom; creating the Religious Freedom Restoration Act; providing definitions; limiting specified governmental actions that burden religious freedom as specified; authorizing claims and defenses against governmental action that burden religious freedom as specified; providing exceptions; and providing for an effective date.

Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Wyoming:

Section 1.  W.S. 9‑25‑101 through 9‑25‑105 are created to read:

CHAPTER 25

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

ARTICLE 1

RELIGIOUS FREEDOM RESTORATION ACT

9‑25‑101.  Religious Freedom Restoration Act; short title.

This act shall be known and may be cited as the "Wyoming Religious Freedom Restoration Act."

9‑25‑102.  Definitions.

(a)  As used in this act:

(i)  "Burden" means any action that intentionally either directly or indirectly constrains, inhibits, curtails or denies the exercise of religion by government action, including any person acting under the color of state law where the action is intended for that purpose, including, but not limited to:

(A)  Withholding of benefits;

(B)  Assessing criminal, civil or administrative penalties;

(C)  Exclusion from governmental programs; or

(D)  Denial of access to governmental facilities.

(ii)  "Exercise of religion" means the practice or observance of religion, including an act or refusal to act, that is substantially motivated by a sincerely held religious belief, whether or not compelled by or central to a system of religious belief;

(iii)  "Government" means any department, agency, division, board, bureau, commission, council, authority, employee, official or other entity of this state or a political subdivision of this state, or a person acting under color of state law;

(iv)  "Person" means any natural person, association, partnership, corporation, religious institution or other legal entity;

(v)  "This act" means W.S. 9‑25‑201 through 9‑25‑205.

9‑25‑103.  Limitation on government action; exception.

(a)  Except as provided in subsection (b) of this section, government action, including action by any person acting under color of state law, shall not:

(i)  Burden a person's right to the exercise of religion even if the burden results from a rule of general applicability;

(ii)  Burden a person's right to the exercise of religion more restrictively than comparable secular conduct because of any economic need or benefit;

(iii)  Burden a person's right to the exercise of religion more restrictively than any secular conduct of reasonably comparable risk.

(b)  Government may substantially burden a person's right to the exercise of religion only if it demonstrates that application of the burden to that person's exercise of religion in that particular instance is:

(i)  Essential to further a compelling government interest; and

(ii)  The least restrictive means of furthering that compelling governmental interest.

9‑25‑104.  Claims.

A person whose exercise of religion has been burdened in violation of this act may have a claim in a court of competent jurisdiction and may obtain appropriate relief.

9‑25‑105.  Provisions to be liberally construed.

Nothing in this act shall be construed to authorize acts of licentiousness or practices inconsistent with the peace or safety of the state or its laws which protect the health and safety of the public.

Section 2.  This act is effective July 1, 2023.