The Christian Community in North America

Priest Child Education Fund

Our priest families are supported through the freely given donations of their congregational members that cover the basics of housing, food, utilities, transportation, health care, etc. One key expense that is not typically included in the priest support is the cost of educating their children. North American congregations have helped to raise money for the Priest Child Education Fund which is distributed to priest’s families to help with educational costs. No matter how large, or how small the gesture, it helps! Click here to read more about this fund and to donate.

November 23, 2020/0 Comments/by CCNA

Blog, Homilies

Be Mindful of the Breaks….

Be Mindful of the Breaks…

In the Apocalypse, which describes a world in downfall, there are sometimes sudden moments of calm. A power that is stronger than all destruction brings the storm of annihilation to a standstill. As a spectator, you have just a moment to catch your breath before the irrevocable demise of the outer world rushes on. The course of events is literally stopped by a command from on high: “Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have set our seal on the foreheads of those who serve our God.” (Rev.7:3)

In an apocalyptic world such as ours, time is compressed—events on the world stage take place at incredible speeds. And not only on the grand stage—our own lives too are usually breathtaking.

And yet, when you develop a sense organ for the quality of the time, you discover that in the midst of all the rushing and stress life also creates brief breathing spaces. The trick is to observe these moments consciously, to briefly step out of the maelstrom of time, and to catch your breath before life rushes on again. At such moments you are, as the painter Picasso once expressed it, “secure in insecurity.”

What or who is it that bestows such moments on us? Someone who was able to look behind the screen of time, behind the veil of the perishing earth, once expressed it with the words:

“Be mindful of the breaks, the brief moments destiny often unexpectedly bestows on you. In the same way, the Coming One will also one day come.” (Friedrich Doldinger)

–Rev. Bastiaan Baan, November 22, 2020

November 23, 2020/0 Comments/by CCNA

Blog, Homilies

Wealth and Poverty (Rev. 3: 14-22)

Poverty and Wealth (Rev.3:14-22)

A well-known theologian of the 20^th century once said: “God feeds us with hunger and quenches us with thirst.” That is an eloquent and partly true saying, but this truth is usually overshadowed by another reality: we suppress our spiritual hunger with all that chains us to the earth. And we disguise our thirst for the spirit through all that benumbs the mind. That mixture of materialism and intoxication, of yearning for the earth and flight from the earth, is usually called prosperity. And the more prosperous we are in this outer sense, the poorer in spirit we are likely to become. From the point of view of the angels we are, as stated in the Book of Revelation, “…how pitiful, pathetic, and poverty-stricken … how blind and how naked.” We have become poor as church-mice. What do we have that we can give to the spiritual world?

And yet, this is being asked of us in the contradictory words: “Therefore I counsel you to obtain gold from me which is refined by fire, so that you may become rich again…” How can anyone obtain gold who is poor?

Indeed, the only thing we can give to Christ is our poverty. The only things with which we can feed Him and quench Him are our hunger and thirst. But whoever becomes a beggar for the spirit, who ardently longs for His presence, on those can He bestow His wealth.

For He is Himself as a beggar: a human being who knocks on our door, who asks and implores us to open—to share His meal with us.

–Rev. Bastiaan Baan, November 8, 2020.

November 9, 2020/1 Comment/by CCNA

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