Once a member of a rock band, Archimandrite Themi now serves people in need in Sierra Leone as an Orthodox Christian Priest-Monk. The mission’s efforts include the building of  a village for a 100 people with disabilities who previously were hounded by the authorities for begging, and also the provision of arms and legs to the amputee children.

Share the Faith: The Atheist Rocker who is an Orthodox Priest and a Missionary in Africa now: http://www.sharethefaith.net/2010/07/17/the-atheist-rocker-who-is-an-orthodox-priest-and-a-missionary-in-africa-now/  see also http://www.ipernity.com/blog/evangrek63/258903 

To the Ends of the Earth: Fr. Themi: Atheist Rocker to Orthodox Missionary (includes a 9 minute video interview with Rev. Themi): http://orthodoxmissions.wordpress.com/2010/03/13/fr-themi-atheist-rocker-to-orthodox-missionary/

To the Ends of the Earth- a post by Fr. Themi which includes a section entitled The Holy Orthodox Diocese of Sierra Leone and the Disabled: http://orthodoxmissions.wordpress.com/2011/06/07/new-blog-by-fr-themi-sierra-leone/

To the Ends of the Earth: a 19 minute video in which Fr. Themi talks about Faith, Works, and Being Born Again: http://orthodoxmissions.wordpress.com/2011/10/04/fr-themi-on-faith-and-works/

Rev. Themi’s blog (including Mission Projects- a must see):  http://pk4a.com/blog/  

See also http://orthodoxwiki.org/Themistocles_(Adamopoulo)

Picture from http://church-taxiarchon-kernitsas.blogspot.com/2011/09/blog-post_1890.html

St. Xenia of Petersburg

  The following webpage describes, in a personal way, the celebration of the feast of St. Xenia of Petersburg, the Convent’s patron saint. First, there is the Divine Liturgy. First things first. Then there is a dinner, where many loving thoughts and feelings are shared: Day of St Xenia of Petersburg, Our Patron Saint http://www.obitel-minsk.by/obitel-minsk_oid496150.html

A life of St. Xenia of Petersburg with two troparions and a kontakion on the webpage of Holy Protection Russian Orthodox Church, 2049 Argyle Ave. Los Angeles, California 90068: http://www.fatheralexander.org/booklets/english/saints/xenia_petersburg.htm 

Another life of St. Xenia,  with two excellent holy icons of her, from St. Xenia Cathedral in Kanata, Ontario, Canada:   http://www.stxenia.ca/en/stxenia.html

Icon from Orthodoxy in NWA: http://orthodoxynwa.blogspot.com/2011/01/st-xenia-of-petersburg-fool-for-christ.html

Most Holy Mary with Christ

(or Wawasinno Ki’chi Wa Mali’í Waabanowigaan)

from an email directed to me through the group home ministry I work with:

The Hesychastic Society of the Most Holy Mary, aka, Wawasinno Ki’chi Wa Mali’i Waabanowigaan, is a Metochion of the Monastic Society of St. Silouan the Athonite (OCA; Canada): a monastic brotherhood designed specifically for Aboriginal (Native N. American) and (higher functioning) Autistic Orthodox, and those wishing to live with them in Christian harmony. Our rule is simple: radical hesychasm and little folly. We are located, at present, in downtown Toronto, and, as of September 4, 2011, our first hermitage was sanctified, and was granted canonical letters.

March 22, 2009 (Page 18)        http://www.archdiocese.ca/news/com/203.pdf & http://www.archdiocese.ca/e_dir/ON.htm#Aboriginal

On the meaning of  Hesychasm: http://orthodoxwiki.org/Hesychasm 

See also: http://oca.org/orthodoxy/the-orthodox-faith/bible-history/the-bible/the-jesus-prayer  

Icon from http://abbaaw.blogspot.com/2009_03_15_archive.html 

On behalf of Focus North America: Fellowship of Orthodox Christians United to Serve, Charles Ajalat reports the story of Archbishop Iakovos of Blessed Memory and his involvement in the civil rights marches in Alabama in 1965 which were led by Martin Luther King, Jr. as he learned it from Al Raboteau in a lecture at Fordham University in 2006. It is a story of courage, of a hierarch moving forward, alone, unfortunately, against unjust voter registration policies. 

A Unitarian minister who also participated had been killed the night before. A partial quote of Archbishop Iakovos, as to his reasons for joining the March: 

Our [Orthodox] Church has never hesitated to fight, when it felt it must, for the rights of mankind; and many of our Churchmen have been in the forefront of these battles time and again….Let [Reeb’s] martyrdom be an inspiration and a reminder to us that there are times when we must risk everything, including life itself, for those basic American ideals of freedom, justice and equality.

Picture from http://02varvara.wordpress.com/2011/01/17/17-january-2011-a-picture-is-worth-a-thousand-words-heres-where-the-church-stood-on-commie-zombies-its-position-hasnt-changed-one-little-bit/ 

May 2011 brought a very happy event- the prom.

And then in October 2011, a second job!

And let our people also learn to maintain good works, to meet urgent needs, that they may not be unfruitful. (Titus 3:14)

The Prom, with pictures: http://abideandnendeavor.blogspot.com/2011/05/now-this-is-happy.html 

the jobs: http://abideandnendeavor.blogspot.com/2010/10/she-is-learning-to-juggle.html 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=DqrrxPwBcU4

St. Parasceva

 St. Parasceva is an intercessor for people with visual impairments (blindness). During the era when the Roman Empire was persecuting the Church, while she was young she gave away all her possessions and traveled around, evangelizing.

She was arrested and tortured, and thrown into a vat of boiling pitch, which did not, miraculously, affect her at all. The Emperor Pius, who was present, asked her by what magic she cooled the pitch. She threw him some of the hot pitch, which burned him and blinded his eyes. The Emperor screamed and pleaded for St. Parasceva to heal him. And she did. He immediately ended the persecution of Christians.

But after he died, the new Emperor, Marcus Aurelius, renewed the persecution. St Parasceva, who continued to preach, was arrested and thrown into a pit with a snake. She made the sign of the cross and immediately it died. Eventually Saint Parasceva was beheaded for Christ.

Sources: http://www.antiochian.org/martyr_paraskeva 

http://www.orthodoxcentral.com/saints/saintparaskeva.htm

http://saints.sqpn.com/saintp33.htm

Source of Icon: http://frmilovan.wordpress.com/2009/10/26/i-want-to-bless/ 

Mr. Michael Anagnos

  Michael Anagnos was a Greek Orthodox Christian who immigrated to the U.S. in the late 1860s. Before this, in the process of supporting the revolutionary cause in Crete, he met Dr. Samuel Howe, founder of the Perkins Institute for the Blind. In America, he fell in love with and married Dr. Howe’s daughter Julia. Anagnos became increasingly involved in the Perkins Institute, and when Dr. Howe died, he became its head. He gave himself energetically to this work. Among his many accomplishments there, such as raising large sums for publishing books in Braille and putting them in all the libraries in Massachusetts, as well as beginning kindergartens and vocational schools for persons with visual disabilities, he is known for connecting Anne Sullivan and Helen Keller! 

Here is a quote by a student after Anagnos went home to the Lord:

His strength comforted our weakness, his firmness overcame our wavering ideas, his power smoothed away our obstacles, his noble unselfishness put to shame our petty differences of opinion, and his untiring devotion led us all to do our little as well as we could… Better than all, he taught us to the best of our ability to be men and women in our own homes.

from, according to the website listed above, Annie S. Beard’s Foreign Born Citizens (1922).

Other sources:

Zervanos, Nikitas J., Greek Immigration to America (PAHH, 2005) available at http://www.pahh.com/zervanos/p12.html  

I discovered this story at Dr. Zervanos’  site. 

A letter from 13 year old Helen Keller to Mr. Michael Anagnos:   http://www.afb.org/mylife/book.asp?ch=P2Let15  

A Google e-book on Michael Anagnos, by Franklin Benjamin Sanborn, written in 1906: http://books.google.com/books/about/Michael_Anagnos_1837_1906.html?id=54ADAAAAYAAJ  

Helen Keller and Ann Sullivan on You Tube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gv1uLfF35Uw&feature=player_embedded   

picture from http://perkins.pvt.k12.ma.us/museum/subsection.php?id=128  

 A gentleman by the name of Mark Panos Alexandrides commented on my 2007 Post on the Hospitallers in September 2011. He shared with me the web page below which details the social health work of the Order in South America, in regard to the WHO program. Apparently these Orthodox Christian Brazilian Hospitallers are seeking to promote the implementation of the World Health Organization’s international classification of functioning, disability, and health in Brazil. Their aims include the transformation of the country of Brazil’s response to persons with disabilities.  Here are the sources for this.  May God grant them success in their worthy endeavor!

For translation: http://translate.google.com/ 

The following websites are in Portuguese; use the translator above as needed.

The Main Site  http://www.hoducif.webs.com/ 

See also: http://paroquiastoandreap.webnode.com.br/products/ordem-dos-hospitaleiros-ortodoxos/ 

http://www.hodu-cifbrasil.blogspot.com/  

http://www.slideshare.net/Hoducif/iii-encontro-cif  

Image from http://vozesdaafrica-estudos.blogspot.com/