Uncreated Light vs. Grey Orthodoxy: should we look for spiritual experiences?

Dear members,

On Tuesday, Nov 10th, Fr. Nicholas Young, after serving a short Vespers, will discuss the issue of mystical experiences in the Christian life. There are many examples in the lives of the saints of spiritual experiences, such as St. Seraphim of Sarov, who saw the Uncreated Light. Where might experiences such as these come from, and how do they fit in our Christian life?

As usual, the meeting will be held at Hart House Chapel at 6pm, and afterward we will all go to Gabby’s on Bloor.

Everyone is welcome, see you there!

The Role of the Church Canons in the Early Church and Today

Our next OCF event will be a lecture by David Wagschal, who will present an introduction to canon law. Some topics addressed will be: What is canon law and where it comes from? How are the canons observed in the contemporary church, and what relevance does canon law has for Christians living in modern secular societies?

David Wagschal is a PHD candidate in the Department of Theology and Religion at Durham University. He obtained his M. Div. from St. Vladimir Orthodox Theological Seminary and his B.A. in Medieval History and Greek from the University of Toronto.

Date: Tuesday, Nov 3rd, 2009
Time: 6pm
Location: Hart House Chapel (and Gabby’s afterward)

Volunteering at St. John the Compassionate Mission

OCF will be voluteering at St. John the Compassionate Mission on Saturday, Oct 31st, from 10am – 1pm. During this time, we will be preparing and serving a meal for the poor individuals of the Queen-Broadview area, who are part of the St. John community.

Everyone is welcome and encouraged to take part. To attend, please RSVP at ocfuoft @gmail.com or 416-206-1079.

For more information about St. John’s, see http://www.stjohnsmission.org/

OCF Meeting: Friendship and Faith at the pub

Dear Friends,

We have a slight change of plans for the OCF meeting for Tuesday, October 27th. As our chaplain, Fr. Nicholas Young, is unavailalbe, we will be doing either a readers’ Vespers service on our own, or praying an akathist, a prayer dedicated to a particular saint, together.

We will still meet on Tuesday  at 6pm, at Hart House chapel, and after praying, we will head over to Gabby’s, where we will discuss our scheduled topic of Friendship and Faith, and generally have a time of fellowship.

Everyone is welcome to attend! See you Tuesday!

Catching and Teaching: Humility, Integrity, and the Christian Witness to the University

 The U of T Orthodox Christian Fellowship invites you to a discussion with His Eminence SERAPHIM (Storheim), Archbishop of Ottawa and Canada in the Orthodox Church in America. He will speak about religious faith in the modern, secular university, and the importance of humility and integrity in witnessing the Faith to a skeptical world. His Eminence is a convert to Orthodoxy from Anglicanism; co-chairs the Orthodox and Roman Catholic standing Bishops’ Dialogue in North America; has served at New Valaam Monastery in Finland; is a sometime musician; and is known abroad as “the Canadian Orthodox bishop who smiles.”

“For everyone, the love of God is caught, not taught, although some teaching helps to inform, direct and refine it. This love is the all-encompassing characteristic of our relationship with Christ, just as it is that which develops our distinctive personalities and personal characteristics.”—Abp. Seraphim Storheim

Light refreshments served. Students and youth welcome, others please RSVP.

Tuesday, October 20^th, 2009 
6:30pm

Shook Common Room 
Pontifical Institute of Mediæval Studies 
59 Queen’s Park Crescent East 
Toronto, M5S 2C4

The Role of Women in the Church

Our next OCF meeting will feature guest speaker Antonina Dunn. On Tuesday, Oct 13th, at 6pm (Hart House chapel) we will serve a short Vespers with Fr. Nicholas Young, followed by a discussion with Mrs. Dunn. Some points that will be touched upon, and questions for discussion, will be, “How are women participating in parish life? What possibilities are there for women in church administration? What do you think historically of the question of ordaining female deacons? Is a “Christian feminism” a good idea? What has your own experience as a wife, mother, and Orthodox laywoman been?”

Mrs. Dunn is a graduate of St. Vladimir Seminary, she is active in Orthodox Churches in Toronto, and has given many talks about her personal experiences as a church worker, wife and mother in an Orthodox context, as well as talks on historical and theological topics.

As usual, we will all head to Gabby’s Bar and Grill (at Avenue and Bloor) after the meeting. See you there!

Orthodoxy among Alaska’s First Nations – a literary and linguistic history

Our next OCF meeting will be a lecture and discussion by Michael Ivanovich, reader at Christ the Saviour Orthodox Cathedral in Toronto.

The talk will focus on the linguistic and literary history of the Orthodox Church in Alaska. Emphasis will be placed on sourcing primary texts to document the unsung heroes of Alaskan Orthodoxy – the Native Peoples – and their remarkable achievements in Church literature, iconography and music (covering the period from the 1820’s until the present day).

If time permits, there may be further discussion about methodology for further research into the linguistic inheritance of other Orthodox traditions (Siberian, Japanese, Finno-Ugric, Arabic, Romanian, etc.) based on the Alaskan Orthodox experience.

Notes: The material for this discussion will be taken from the practical experience of the ‘Alaskan Orthodox Texts’ project (www.asna.ca/alaska), the original Alaskan-language texts themselves, with supporting research into the biographies of the missionaries, translators, etc., drawn from the various authors specializing in Alaskan Orthodox history in recent times (Fr. Michael Oleksa, Dr. Lydia Black, Dr. Sergei Kan, Dr. Soterios Mousalimas, Peter Garrett, etc.). Of particular interest will be how to apply the research of the Alaskan Orthodox Texts project to the research of other historically Orthodox cultures/languages. The necessity of discernment in using primary texts will be highlighted. The bulk of the discussion will be on literary translations, lives of missionaries, iconographers, and hymnographers. (St. Innocent, St. Jacob, and their Native Alaskan students: Frs. Innocent Shayashnikov, Fr. Laurence Salamatov, Rdr. Andrei Lodochnikov, Fr. John Orlov, Fr. Gregory Kochergin, Fr. Martin Nicolai et. al).

The talk will take place at the Multifaith Chaplaincy, 569 Spadina Ave, in the 2nd-floor Quiet Room, at 6pm. See this page for a map. Afterwards, we will all go to Gabby’s for drinks and fun.

Everyone is welcome to attend, and we hope to see you there!

The talk will focus on the linguistic and literary history of the Orthodox Church in Alaska. Emphasis will be placed on sourcing primary texts to document the unsung heroes of Alaskan Orthodoxy – the Native Peoples – and their remarkable achievements in Church literature, iconography and music (covering the period from the 1820’s until the present day).

The Spiritual Counselor: Guide on the Path to Christ

Dear OCF members, friends, and fellow interested students,

You are invited to join us on Tuesday, Sept 29th, 2009, for our next meeting. At 6pm in Hart House Chapel, we will serve Vespers, the evening prayer service of the Orthodox church, and following that we will have a discussion about the relationship with a spiritual guide.

Whether you go to Confession once a year, every week, or have never been, you still likely have questions to ask or experiences to share about the role of a spiritual adviser: why talk to a spiritual father/mother about your life in the first place? how do you choose someone for this role? what kind of issues to do you discuss with them? how strictly should you follow their advice? when is it appropriate to consult with them? If you are interested in these questions, and would like to participate in the dialogue, join us on Tuesday evening, in Hart House Chapel, at 6pm!

After the meeting we are all heading down to Gabby’s Bar and Grill, at 194 Bloor St. West, for food, drinks, and fun times!

Personal Experiences about the Faith of Youth

This Tuesday, September 22nd, at 6.00 pm in the Hart House chapel, we will be pleased to welcome Father Deacon Drew Maxwell, of the Prophet Elias Greek Orthodox Church in Mississauga (where he serves as Youth Minister).  He will be talking to us on the topic of “Transitional years: Personal experiences about the faith of youth.”  Ordained to the diaconate just this past March, Drew is a former high school teacher, holds a Master’s degree of Theology from Union Theological Seminary in New York, and is currently a doctoral candidate in Early Church History and Theology here at St. Michael’s College Toronto.

Following the talk there will be time for questions, and we will then adjourn to the Pogue Mahone pub near College and Bay, where you can meet us if you’re unable to make the meeting, beginning around 7.30 pm.

Welcome to 2009-2010!

Dear Students,

The Orthdox Christian Fellowship’s activities for the 2009 Fall term are officially underway! For our whole program, see our upcoming events page.

This year, we will be meeting in Hart House Chapel every two weeks, and in other rooms in Hart House on alternate weeks. Locations will be announced on this page.

Our first event is on Tuesday, Sept 15, at 6pm at the Hart House Chapel. We will have a short prayer service led by our Chaplain, Fr Nicholas Young. Following this, we have a talk called Vespers for Dummies, in which we discuss the purpose for the service, what its components are, and what it all means for us.

All students, whatever ethnicity or faith background, are welcome to join the club and attend the meetings!