April 11 - For the Life of the World: Toward a Social Ethos of the Orthodox Church

Sunday, April 11th, 2:00-3:30 MTS

You are invited to join a series of reflections and conversations with Andrew Bingham & David Goa. Kindly pass along to those who may be interested.

VIII. Science, Technology, and the Natural World

“Thine own of thine own we offer to you.”

The twentieth century was “the age of physics.” It bequeathed many gifts to human life. It also bequeathed nuclear weapons. The twenty-first century is likely to be called, “the age of biology.” Science, and certainly the new breakthroughs in genetic, brain, and ecological sciences, offer the most striking gifts as well as the deepest capacity for making “our common home” no longer a human habitation. What we make of what science offers, the judgements we make and the uses we put to this knowledge, will be determined by our conscious or unconscious response to the question: “What does it mean to be human?” This question stands at the centre of religious traditions and thus, the twenty-first century will also be the age of theology calling forth the finest thinking from all quarters and out of the depth of religious traditions.

The ethos of the Orthodox Church is anchored in the words of scripture: “God saw everything that was made and, indeed, it was very good.” “The word for ‘good’ (kalon) in the canonical Greek text connotes more than just the value of a thing, and more even than its mere moral acceptability; it indicates that the world was also created as, and was called to be, ‘beautiful.’” In the face of the ecological and other crisis we face the Orthodox ethos calls the faithful to a stance of gratitude, a renewed attentiveness to the wonder of all life, to the hope and joy that frees one to be creative and fruitful in service to the good of creation. It calls for a renewed asceticism, a renewed spirit of gratitude and thanksgiving, a renewed regard for the creator of all, “who is everywhere present and fillest all things.”

Join Zoom Meeting - Passcode: 960466

https://zoom.us/j/91990323849?pwd=YkxYSkw3MlBHRVVFQUd2LzljSjZtdz09

An electronic copy of the book is available at: https://www.goarch.org/social-ethos

You may also connect through davidgoa.ca

Up Coming Schedule

Sunday, April 18, 2:00-3:30 MTS - Conclusion, “What do we take from For the Life of the World ?” Does it speak to all Orthodox Christians and beyond the boundaries of Orthodox churches?

You are invited to join a series of reflections and conversations with Andrew Bingham and David Goa on For the Life of the World, Toward a Social Ethos of the Orthodox Church.

“For the Life of the World, Toward a Social Ethos of the Orthodox Church” is the title of a recent publication edited by David Bentley Hart and John Chryssavgis under the auspices and with the blessing of His All Holiness, Bartholomew, Archbishop of Constantinople – New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch.

This document, long awaited, is a welcome opportunity to discuss Orthodox “social doctrine in terms appropriate to modern reality.” It provides general parameters, avoids nebulous abstractions and sweeping generalizations, simplistic, pietistic, or legalistic pronouncements. Anchored in the Gospel it calls us to consider and think about major issues facing the life of our fragile and struggling world with the mind of Christ, free of fear, ideological preoccupations and to do so both for our own healing and for “for the life of the world.”