Does anybody know about Jonathan Jackson? He converted to Orthodox from Seventh Day Advent, whatever that is.
He mentions the Holy Trinity at 41 secs and the monks of Mt. Athos at 1:26. I just listened to his interview on Ancient Faith Radio with Kevin Allen. The interview is not posted yet. Give it a few minutes or until tomorrow.
http://ancientfaith.com/ancientfaithtoday
Any thoughts?
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. (Ps. 50)
Seventh Day Adventists are, as far as I know, a Protestant denomination who hold the Lord's Day to be Saturday, not Sunday. Very Bible focused and conservative.
Acting has long been held to be incompatible with being a Christian. I cannot remember references to this stance right now, having senile moment.
StephenS wrote:Acting has long been held to be incompatible with being a Christian. I cannot remember references to this stance right now.
That is true. The ancient canons of the Church forbid actors to apply their trade or to teach others how to do it. If actors converted they were to cease acting or be forbidden communion. They were to find more honest means of employment. However, like most of us today who watch Lord of the Rings, Notting Hill, Pride and Prejudice and other dramatizations, so also Tsar Martyr Nicholas and his royal family frequented the theatre. We are not really obeying those canons, but it is not so serious that it stopped the Royal New Martyrs from making a good confession and being declared saints.
It is a conundrum for those Orthodox actors who do movies like Ostrov or the life of Alexander Nevsky. Or the short films that are posted by pankrestos, on Youtube. It pulls at the heart strings of our Orthodox faith.... Do the Canons forbid Orthodox people to watch actors?
Then there are the Nativity performances of songs and skits that children and adults do to celebrate the Feast. That's still a form of acting. And there are the folk dances with incorporation of acting.
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. (Ps. 50)
Are you speaking of a NEW movie about the Life of St Alexander Nevsky, joasia ?
Or that old one from the Soviet era ? I was trying to find a copy at the library, but never got a hold of it.
I doubt it would be too good.
However, is there a new film out ??
After all, St Alexander Nevsky was selected as the most revered Russian of all time, right - if that poll a few
years ago was accurate ?
As far as Ostrov, the actor Pyotr Mamonov was so superb in the role of Fr Anatoly that one could easily see
the need for training for religious acting - but not secular !
My personal idea is that theater is a waste of time. It was when Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich married again
after the repose of his wife Maria Miloslavskaya, that he started attending the theater and patronizing it apparently in general.
I always felt that Natalia Naryshkin was a BAD influence on hm. This was the era when a lot of Europeans were brought
to Russia, too, to train the Army.
There was TOO much opening up to the West and secular things, from my personal viewpoint.
From then on it was downhill with Pyotr I...
By the late 19th century and early 20th, one could understand why Tsar Nicholas and family would attend dramas.
But I wish that trend had not started so far back, sabotaging the real Holy Russian ideal.
Nothing is ever perfect, needless to say. But still I prefer if this theate-attendance had started only
with maybe the Last Tsar. Not before him.
joasia wrote:It is a conundrum for those Orthodox actors who do movies like Ostrov or the life of Alexander Nevsky. Or the short films that are posted by pankrestos, on Youtube. It pulls at the heart strings of our Orthodox faith.... Do the Canons forbid Orthodox people to watch actors?
Then there are the Nativity performances of songs and skits that children and adults do to celebrate the Feast. That's still a form of acting. And there are the folk dances with incorporation of acting.
That is a good question. I would have to research that one. But I think it is safe to say where a profession is itself specifically outlawed in the Holy Canons, it is also lawless to encourage it or participate in it as a willing observer.
However, one argument I have heard, that tries to harmonise theatre watching in the modern Christian Productions context with the ancient canons of the Roman Empire, states that the theatre of those times was exclusively the domaine of pagans and all the stories were offensive in some manner. Christian storytelling by means of theatre was unheard of. Christ told stories and parables to communicate truth powerfully to the hearers. Actors in such Orthodox productions as you mentioned are also storytelling messages of grace and truth. Such movies and plays it can be argued do not offend Christian laws and so the Canons do not apply to them. However, this argument is theorising something and I think it does not answer every objection. This is because others have countered this argument by saying that acting by nature is a prostituting and abuse of the natural human faculties of emotions and so on, and ultimately employes deception, mimicry, and false tears, and a skilled actor, whether presenting the life of a martyr or drunkard is perfecting the art of deceit upon the willing audience who willfully wishes to be deceived so as to enter fully into the feelings of the story. In a sense this is a preparation for AntiChrist who will woo the world with deception, and the people will be content with the image alone rather than the reality, and accept Him, even though they know at a certain level what they are seeing cannot be entirely real or true.
It seems to me that the safer of the two arguments is to avoid theatre altogether. However, this does not seem to be an ironclad argument to make all movie or theatre watching evil or detrimental. Both sides have some good points to make. And as I pointed out the Royal New Martyrs did go to the theatre and enjoyed putting on plays for their entertainment while they were in house arrest in their final year. I read that in a biography about the Holy Royal New Martyrs by an Englishman who was the children's tutor and stayed with them as long as he was permitted to (up until the last few months or weeks). He later converted to Orthodoxy and became a priest. However, in the end (1960 something?) he ended up not in Rocor but in a world orthodox jurisdiction, if I remember correctly. Anyway, that is the best take on it I can make without more research.
Symeon
That is WISE about the willingness to be deceived that the vast majority of the population seems to exhibit,
making them prime targets for any level of deceiver from worldwide figure down to the person next door.
Good remarks.
I remember that tutor, though I didn't read his memoirs. Good that he was able to record some of those details
that never would have made it to history otherwise, apparently. I would not have guessed that the Royal Martyrs
put on plays in their days at Ekaterinburg.
He went back to England and maybe joined the fake Surozh diocese ? I can hardly say enough bad about that jurisdiction.
[ I am fighting an uppity library machine ; i will be back tomorrow.]
