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Sundays:  Pastor's Class 9:00 AM (Ephesians)
               Divine Liturgy 10:30 AM

Wednesdays: Pastor's Class 10:00 AM (Psalm 119 deep dive)
                    Divine Liturgy 7:00 PM

Holy Week:

    • Maundy Thursday Divine Liturgy 7:00 PM

 

    • Good Friday Tenebrae 8:00 PM

 

    • Holy Saturday Easter Vigil 8:00 PM

 

    • Easter Sunrise 8:00 AM

 

  • Easter Divine Liturgy 10:30 AM

 

 

                

 

What Is "The Faith"?

When St. Paul writes: "Examine yourselves to see whether or not you are IN THE FAITH" in 2 Cor.3:5 Or When St. Jude writes of "THE FAITH once delivered unto the saints" what is the content of that Faith?

Are these apostles speaking notionally? Is it simply a kergyma of uncertain content that they have in mind? Or are they possibly referencing an unknown first century creed or list of dogmatic statements?

What do they mean? And if they are not speaking notionally, or simply of an agreed upon kerygma, then what is the content, form and shape of "the Faith" once delivered unto the saints?

I have some theories on the subject, but let us extend the question to our day. What is the "faith once delivered to the saints" today? I would suggest that it consists of 2 items: the church's creeds, and the church's liturgy. That is the Beliefs and Practice of the one holy catholic and apostolic church: the two are conjoined twins that have no independent existence apart from each other.

What creeds? Certainly the Athanasian, Nicene and Apostle's Creeds. There are others. What liturgy? The one that has persisted through the centuries of which there are actually two major ones: the Eastern and Western. The Eastern rite is best represented by the Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom; the Western or Latin rite is best rerpresented by the Roman (not RC) mass (there are others). In Lutheran lingo: Page 15 or DS-3, aka: The Common Service.

In these creeds and in these two great liturgies the entire Christian faith is practiced and proclaimed to all creation, visible and invisible.

What was St. Paul saying when he says to the church in Corinth: "Examine yourselves to see whether or not you are in the faith?" Was he asking them to go deep inside of themselves and each ask himself whether he "really" believed or not? Unlikely. Was he asking them to see if their manner of life comported with Biblical teaching? Possibly, for it is always a pertinent question.

But I think he was asking a more basic rhetorical question. Namely this: were their creeds and worship that they practiced the true ones. The ones which were handed down to them by St. Paul on his visits to Corinth, those practiced by all Christians, or had they strayed? In this connection see:

1 Corinthians 11:16 If anyone is inclined to be contentious, we have no such practice, nor do the churches of God.

1 Corinthians 14:33 ¶ For God is not a God of confusion but of peace. As in all the churches of the saints,

1 Thessalonians 2:14 For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea.

We learn from these, and other NT passages, that there was a fixed practice of NT worship. One that was as likely to go astray then as now. And so it isn't only the job of the pastor to lead God's people in worship, but do guard and defend "the faith" against all incursions from within or without. The pastor must be, among other things, a sentry, the "thin blue line" that stands between godly order, and ecclesiastical mania.

--
dean.kavouras@gmail.com
216-570-5569

 

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