SOYO Leadership Manual

Online Youth Worker Resources from the Manual Developed for the SOYO Leadership Conference 2007

SOYO and the Department of Youth are committed to “Living the Orthodox Faith in Christ through Worship, Witness, Service and Fellowship.” To fulfill this ministry, and in an effort to raise up a generation of leaders and disciples NAC SOYO has established an annual intensive four-day Leadership Training each summer. This manual is the result of the labors of numerous teens and advisors to better enable and equip all teens to serve Christ and His Holy Church. It is our hope that those who make use of the materials will feel empowered to fulfill their ministry as disciples of Christ and leaders in their local parish communities.

We welcome any suggestions as to how we might improve the materials and requests for content not already present that will help to serve our youth and those who work with them. You may provide such feedback to Fr. Joseph Purpura, Chairman of the Department of Youth Ministry, at frjoseph@orthodoxyouth.org, or Fr. Anthony Yazge, NAC SOYO Spiritual Advisor, at franthony@antiochianvillage.org.

Paige: “Naturally, Theodora, it’s the only sensible and responsible thing to do. If they had had a child with serious handicaps, that would have really hurt their life-style and their important careers. You can’t just go ahead and do the important things you are aiming at if you have a child with problems.”

Theodora: “Does that give you a right to kill the child in the womb?”

Paige: “Oh, come on. It’s not a child until it’s born.”

Theodora: “So tell me what the big difference is between being a child for nine months in the womb and being born? From conception to birth, the baby grows. Anywhere you draw the line is arbitrary. Would your sister have killed her child, had it developed a serious disease the week after its birth, leading to handicaps?”

Paige: “I don’t know about all that. I just know that it’s the responsible thing to use abortion so that you can go on with your life, your career, and your plans. Without abortion, think how many of the career plans of women would really have been derailed.”

Theodora: “Why would that be the case?”

Paige: “You know, Theodora. What would happen if you got pregnant during college? You would never finish college.”

Theodora: “I am committed to not having sex until I marry, so I really think that’s not a likely problem for me. What you are telling me is that if people are not going to be chaste until they marry, then the women who have sex with men who are not willing to marry them or whom they are not willing to marry may be tempted to kill the child in their womb. What you are telling me is that one sin leads to another, that things go from bad to worse. What you are telling is that one irresponsibility leads to another.”

Paige: “Oh, Theodora, grow up! We’re in the 21^st century. Your view is positively medieval. Are you afraid that the fetus has a soul? Who knows when a soul comes into a fetus?”

Theodora: “Rest assured, Paige, my view is older than the Middle Ages. I know God exists. I am an Orthodox Christian. I also know that we as Christians know that abortion separates us from God, and, as St. Basil the Great said, we are not interested in hair-splitting about how old the fetus is or when it has a soul or doesn’t have a soul – any of that stuff.”

Paige: “How do you know that it all makes sense?”

Theodora: “We know, because our way of life produces saints. We have experience as to what ways of life make people not just good but holy.”

Paige: “What do you mean, holy?”

Theodora: “Paige, I mean living so one can come in union with God. That’s what life is all about.”

Paige: “Huh?!”

Theodora: “I know that’s hard to think about when you first start. It seems that the most important thing, at least according to our culture, is to be rich, famous, and powerful. We are young now and think we will live forever. But that’s a lie.”

Paige: “What do you mean?”

Theodora: “What Christianity is about is teaching us to be concerned with being responsible in a way that counts for eternity.”

The following questions are to be discussed in small groups of 3-5 people. Each small group will then share their discussion and group responses with the larger group. The group leader should facilitate further discussion and help teens come to a deeper understanding of the Orthodox Church’s Teaching on the Sanctity of Life.

Discussion Questions

1. Has our contemporary culture turned morality on its head, so that it becomes responsible to consider killing one’s child in the womb?

2. Has this temptation become widespread because our secular society accepted sexually irresponsible ways of living, so that abortion has become a part of an established sinful way of life?

3. Is the Christian understanding of responsibility radically different from that of the secular culture?

4. What will you need to do in order to live as a responsible Christian?

5. Have you thought of the ways in which you might have accepted secular values without having noticed it?

6. Can one understand what responsibility means apart from recognizing God and our responsibilities to Him?

7. If we are beings created to love and worship God forever, can we even begin to make adequate sense of our lives without recognizing God and our obligations to Him?

* This booklet developed out of a presentation, “Moral and Ethical Issues Confronting Orthodox Teens,” made at Antiochian Village, Pennsylvania, November 20, 1999.

Writings from the Fathers on the Sacred Gift of Life

They marry, as do all others; they beget children, but they do not destroy their offspring (literally: “cast away fetuses”). – Letter to Diognetus (2^nd century)

You shall not slay the child by abortions. – The Didache (1^st century)

You shall not destroy your conceptions before they are brought forth, nor kill them after they are born. – Letter of Barnabas (c. 70)

As for woman who destroy embryos professionally, and those who give or take poisons with the object of aborting babies and dropping them prematurely, we prescribed the rule that they be treated as public penitents up to five or even three years at most. –
St. John the Faster (fl. 580, Canon XXI)

Why do you sow where the field is eager to destroy the fruit? Where there are medicines of sterility? Where there is murder before birth? You do not even let a harlot remain only a harlot, but you make her a murderess as well. Indeed, it is something worse than murder, and I do not know what to call it; for she does not kill what is formed, but prevents its formation. What then? Do you condemn the gifts of God, and fight with His laws? What is a curse, do you seek as though it were a blessing? Do you make the anteroom of slaughter? Do you teach the women who are given to you for procreation of offspring to perpetuate killing? -
St John Chrysostom (345-407)

A woman who aborts deliberately is liable to trial as a murderess. This is not a precise assertion of some figurative and inexpressible conception that passes current among us. For here there is involved the question of providing justice for the infant to be born, but also for the woman who has plotted against her own self. For in most cases the women die in the course of such operations. But besides this, there is to be noted the fact that the destruction of the embryo constitutes another murder, at least in the opinion of those who dare to do their things. It behooves us, however, not to extend their confessions to the extreme limit of death, but to admit them at the end of the moderate period of ten years, without specifying a definite time, but adjusting the cure to the manner of penitence. – St Basil the Great (Canon 2) (c. 330-79)

The life in the womb may not be destroyed. – Tertullian (c. 223)

We acknowledge, therefore, that life begins with conception, because we contend that the soul begins at conception. Life begins when the soul begins. – Tertullian (c. 223)

As for women who furnish drugs for the purpose of procuring abortions, and those who take fetus-killing poisons, they are made subject to the penalty for murderers. – Sixth Ecumenical Council, Canon 91 (681)

Regarding women who become prostitutes and kill their babies, and who make it their business to concoct abortives, the former rule barred them for life from communion, and they are left without recourse. But, having found a more philanthropic alternative, we have fixed the penalty at ten years, in accordance with the fixed degrees. – Council of
Ancyra , Canon 21 (314)

The woman who purposely destroys her unborn child is guilty of murder. The hair-splitting difference between formed and unformed makes no difference to us. In this case, it is not only the being about to be born who is victimized, but the woman in her attack upon herself; because the woman who makes such attempts in most cases dies. The destruction of the embryo is an additional crime, a second murder, at all events is we regard it as done with intent. The punishment, however, of these women should not be for life, but for the term of ten years. – St Basil the Great (+ 379)

Women who were reputed to be believers began to take drugs to render themselves sterile, and to expel what was conceived, since they did not want to have a child. See then into what great impiety that lawless one (Callistus, the Emperor) has fallen, by teaching both adultery and murder at the same time. – St Hippolytus of
Rome (c. 170-236)

Fascinating Story of Life Before Birth

Conception:

The moment of conception is the beginning of a new human being. All of the genetic information necessary to build our body and our brain is present at this moment. Nothing will be added to this unique individual from the moment of conception except food and nourishment.

First Month:

In the next four weeks, this tiny, yet distinct embryo which has implanted itself on the uterine wall, will be developing its own eyes, spinal cord, nervous system, liver and stomach. The heart began beating at 18 days and has set the rhythm of life for this preborn baby.

Six Weeks:

The baby, a plump little being over a half inch long, with short arms and legs, floats in her amniotic sac, well moored by the umbilical cord. Though she weighs only 1/30 of an ounce, she has all the internal organs of an adult in various stages of development.

Two Months:

At eight weeks, she is just over an inch long and everything is present that is found in a full-term baby. The completed skeleton begins to change from cartilage to real bone for this “young one” (the Latin translation is “fetus”) and brain waves can now be detected.

Three Months:

The little person floating buoyantly in the amniotic fluid is now more than 2-1/2 inches long. She can make a tiny fist, get hiccups, wake and sleep.

Four Months:

The fourth month is marked by rapid growth with the baby weighing one-half pound or more. Now external events – especially touch and noises – will reach the baby and provoke reaction.

Five Months:

At 20 weeks, she curls as her mother moves, and stretches when the mother rests. She can make and impressively hard fist, and her punches and kicks are plainly felt by her mother. Some unborn children are calm in the womb, others are more active.

Seven Months:

From the seventh month until term she increases in length from 13 to 20 inches and nearly triples in weight. She experiences the four senses of vision, hearing, taste and touch. This little person now has only to await the miracle of birth.

Abortion: An Orthodox Statement

ABORTION

An Orthodox Statement

By V. Rev. Timothy Baclig

Abortion means the intentional removal of an embryo or fetus from the womb of a pregnant woman as a result of chemical agents or surgical procedure. The Orthodox Church has always opposed the practice of abortion and condemnations have been recorded in the writings of Church Fathers from apostolic times. In the second Century, Tertullian (2c.) stated that “prevention of birth is precipitation of murder; it does not matter whether one takes away a life when formed, or drive it away while forming. He also is a man who is about to be one. Even every fruit already exists in its seed” (Apology 9). St. Basil the Great (4c.) who also wrote on the subject, addresses abortion as premeditated murder. He writes in canons 2 and 8: “She who purposely destroys the fetus shall suffer the punishment of murder.” He goes on to elaborate that there is no distinction between a fetus that is formed or unformed. The earliest Synodal decision on abortion was the 63^rd canon of the Synod of Elvira in . The Synod restricts the Holy Eucharist from women guilty of abortion until on their deathbed. The 21^st canon of the regional Synod of Ankara (314 AD) decreed that offenders be given a penance of abstinence from Holy Communion for a long period of time and be permitted to attend the Divine Liturgy in contrition and only from the exterior of the church. Abortion is clearly condemned as murder, and consenting pregnant mothers and abortionists as murderers in Canon 91 of the Quinisext Ecumenical Council. In practice, it must be noted that the Orthodox Church has been compassionate to mothers whose lives were jeopardized without an abortion. St. Gregory of Nyssa (4c.) formulated a theory based on the principle that an organism is given life and grows from the moment of its existence. The mind of the Church on the subject of abortion, it must be noted, is rooted in an understanding which is implicit in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible, and celebrated within the full context of the liturgical life of the Church. The Feasts which bring focus to the subject include: the Conception of St. John the Baptist (Sept. 24), of the Holy Virgin Mother of God (Dec. 8), and of our Lord Himself (Mar. 25). Among the references of scripture the Psalmist records: “For You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb” (Psalm 139:13).

In conclusion, it can be said that: human beings are first conceived, receive life at inception, develop and grow as persons created in the image and likeness of God.

For further reading see: Breck, John; The Sacred Gift of Life; Orthodox Christianity and Bioethics; St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, Crestwood; 1998.

Abortion and the Early Church

Abortion and the Early Church

by Michael J. Gorman

Contemporary Christians neglect the teachings of the Church Fathers on key moral and theological issues to their own peril. The earliest specific written references to abortion in Christian literature are those in the Didache and the Epistle of Barnabas. The Didache combines a code of Christian morality with a manual of church life and order, while the Epistle of Barnabas is a more theological tract on Christian life and thought. While both of these probably date from the early second century, they most likely drew on Christian sources which had their origins in the late first century.

Both these writings also contain a section based on a Jewish oral and written tradition known as the “Two Ways.” This tradition contrasts the two ways of Life or Light and Death or Darkness. Athanasius notes that it was used extensively in the early church, either as a separate document or as part of the Didache, especially for the training of catechumens and new converts.

The Didache maintains that there is a great difference between these two ways. In an exposition of the second great commandment (”Love your neighbor as yourself”) as part of the Way of Life, the author makes a list of “thou shalt not” statements obviously modeled on, and in part quoting, the Decalogue of the Septuagint. The list of prohibitions includes murder, adultery, sodomy, fornication, theft, the use of magic and aphrodisiacs, infanticide and abortion. Literally, it declares: “Thou shalt not murder a child by abortion.” Similarly, the Epistle of Barnabas, in its practical section on the Way of Light, repeats the same words in a list of “thou shalt (not)” statements including, just before the abortion prohibition, “Thou shalt love thy neighbor more than thy own life.” The fetus is seen, not as a part of its mother, but as a neighbor. Abortion is rejected as contrary to other-centered neighbor love.

On the other hand, the Way of Death, according to the Didache, is full of cursing, murders, adulteries, idolatries, robberies and hypocrisies. It is also filled with people who are “murderers of children,” an echo of the prohibition against abortion (though it may also refer to infanticide), and “corrupters of God’s creatures,” rendered as abortuantes in a third century Latin version, reflecting knowledge of the use of the Greek term phthoreus for abortionists. The Epistle of Barnabas uses the same two phrases in its description of the way of “death eternal with punishment.” In both writings the immediate context includes both personal vices and more socially oriented evils such as turning away the needy and oppressing the afflicted.

Both texts regard abortion as murder and provide an ethical context within which abortion should be viewed. “Thou shalt not abort” becomes a sub-commandment of the commandment not to murder. It has a status almost on a par with the Decalogue itself. Use of the commandment form provides a succinct continuation of the Jewish condemnation of deliberate abortion. There is no formed/unformed distinction, no elaboration. Abortion is presented also as an offense against humanity, a defiance of the second great commandment — “Love thy neighbor” — which the Epistle of Barnabas has expanded to say “more than thyself.” Furthermore, abortion is depicted not only as a sin like sexual immorality, but as an evil no less severe and social in scope than oppression of the poor and needy and no less dishonorable than the use of poisons.

The Didache and the Epistle of Barnabas were extremely important in two other respects. First, the widespread use of their “Two Ways” teachings among early Christians assured the disseminating of their position on abortion. Second, later writings appropriated the murder definition, the commandment form, the elevation of the status of the fetus and the context of personal and social evils found in these two early works.

Contemporary with or just after these earliest documents was the Apocalypse of Peter, the most important of the noncanonical apocalypses. It was held in great esteem by the early church and was given canonical status by Clement of Alexandria and by the oldest list of the New Testament canon, the Muratorian Fragment, although it was rejected from the canon in the fourth century. Probably under the influence of oriental and Orphic-Pythagorean eschatology, the author of this apocalypse paints a graphic portrait of hell’s population, which includes this scene:

And near that place I saw another gorge in which the discharge and excrement of the tortured ran down and became like a lake. And there sat women, and the discharge came up to their throats… And these were those who produced children outside marriage and who procured abortions.

Such texts are important for their powerful presentation of the destiny of aborters and the aborted. It is evident that this picture is drawn, even with apocalyptic imagination, from deep ethical and emotional convictions. The theological basis for the entire text must be seen as an understanding of abortion as the culpable murder of a human being. Unborn children are viewed as living beings destined for immortality, and both men and women responsible for aborting them are guilty and worthy of eternal punishment. Methodius of Olympus and Clement of Alexandria were later inspired by this apocalyptic perspective.

Clement of Alexandria (ca 150 — ca 215), in his Prophetic Eclogues, quotes an anonymous writer of the mid-second century, perhaps a Christian Platonist, who argues that the fetus has a soul and is a living person. His argument is based on the idea that angels place the soul in the womb at the time of conception and the new embryo has a soul immediately. The main significance of this text, however, is not in its philosophical and theological speculation but in its connection of questions about the life of the fetus to the New Testament. Clement records that this writer’s proofs that the embryo is alive are the references in Luke 1 to John the Baptist and Jesus in their mothers’ wombs. He makes particular use of Luke 1:41: “And when Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb.” Though the writer focuses on the Baptist and does not even mention abortion, he laid the groundwork for subsequent theological links between abortion and the Incarnation.

In his own writings Clement brought both theology and ethics face to face with contemporary pagan society. In The Tutor (Paedagogus), written about 190-200, Clement addresses Christians concerning the goal of virtue to which the Logos, their tutor, could bring them. In book two, he pictures Alexandrian life in detail in order to warn Christians not to participate in all its luxury and vice and to provide them with a substitute moral code, calling them to extend the Christian spirit throughout the city. In the context of Christian marriage, the goal of which in Clement’s opinion is procreation, he writes:

Our whole life can go on in observation of the laws of nature, if we gain dominion over our desires from the beginning and if we do not kill, by various means of a perverse art, the human offspring, born according to the designs of divine providence; for these women who, in order to hide their immorality, use abortive drugs which expel the matter completely dead, abort at the same time their human feelings.

Clement continues the main themes of the Christian community:

Abortion is killing human life that is under God’s care, design and providence.

That he considered the unborn to be a human being is clear from the clause “if we do not kill” and is also implicit elsewhere in his thoughts on childbirth and the immortality of the soul. Clement was greatly influenced by the Stoics, but his concern for the child itself goes beyond the Stoic concern for doing what is right and in accord with nature. Clement’s own personal and sensitive contribution to the Christian position can be seen in his last clause, where he speaks of the aborting of human feeling.

The Apologists

In the ancient world, the new Christian faith had two unavoidable tasks: self-definition and self-defense. Though these two needs were intimately intertwined, the writers we have just examined were concerned principally with self-definition. There was also a need for self-defense, for giving an explanation of and justification for Christian beliefs and practices. As the Christian faith encountered the world around it, there were natural tensions and conflicts due both to real differences and to mutual misunderstandings. The group of Fathers known as the Apologists arose to answer the pagan criticisms of their religion.

Athenagoras (mid to late second century), the ablest of the Greek apologists for Christianity, addressed the emperor Marcus Aurelius and his son Lucius Aurelius Commodus in 177. Athenagoras was concerned to answer three frequent charges made against Christianity — atheism, incest and cannibalism — and thus to uphold Christian belief and moral standards. To the charge of cannibalism, stemming from a misunderstanding of the Eucharist, Athenagoras responded that cannibalism implied murder and that Christians would not even watch a murder, for example, a gladiator fight, much less perform one. His defense continues:

What reason would we have to commit murder when we say that women who induce abortions are murderers, and will have to give account of it to God? For the same person would not regard the fetus in the womb as a living thing and therefore an object of God’s care [and then kill it]… But we are altogether consistent in our conduct. We obey reason and do not override it.

[Athenagoras, Legatio 35]

If Athenagoras’ position were not the accepted Christian attitude, his argument would lose all its force. The three important elements in the Christian position appear already in explicit form in this late second century document: abortion is considered murder; the guilty must give account to God; the fetus is a living being, the object of God’s care. Athenagoras’s contribution is to set the issue of abortion in an argument for Christian practice based on the Christian view of the sanctity of life. He writes that Christians have renounced murder in all its forms — mentioning the common Roman practices of gladiator contests, animal fights, exposure and abortion — in order to avoid becoming polluted and defiled. It is this absolute abhorrence of bloodshed in any form which drives them away from even looking at practices such as gladiator fights and criminal executions. This view stood in stark contrast to the prevailing Roman lifestyle.

The most eloquent apologist in the West was Tertullian (ca 160-ca 240), who ranks second only to Augustine for his Latin contributions to the church. His most important work is the Apology, written in 197 and directed to governors of Roman provinces and to the emperor Septimus Severus. Like Athenagoras in the East, Tertullian sought to defend Christianity against charges of immorality, atheism and treason. In refuting accusations of secret crimes (chapters 7-9), he dismisses as a rumor the charge that “we are accused of observing a holy rite in which we kill a little child and then eat it.” Later, to strengthen his case, he adds:

That I may refute more thoroughly these charges, I will show that in part openly, in part secretly, practices prevail among you which have led you perhaps to credit similar things about us.

After citing mythological and historical cases of child sacrifice and exposure in the Greco-Roman world, Tertullian writes:

In our case, murder being once for all forbidden, we may not destroy even the fetus in the womb, while as yet the human being derives blood from other parts of the body for its sustenance. To hinder a birth is merely a speedier man-killing; nor does it matter whether you take away a life that is born, or destroy one that is coming to the birth. That is a man which is going to be one; you have the fruit already in the seed.

His comparison of the seed and the fruit conveys with imagination the universal Christian concern for life. It also has a parallel, probably independent but coming from the same ethical roots, in Philo’s comparison of the embryo to a statue ready to be removed from the artist’s studio.

Tertullian reveals that the basis of the early Christian position on abortion was the commandment not to murder. Like earlier Christian writers, he considers the fetus a human being, though still dependent on the mother. Speaking for the Christian community, he consequently condemns abortion as “speedier” homicide. For Tertullian, dependence on the mother did not mean, as it did for pagan thought and for Jewish and Roman law, that the fetus is merely a part of the mother. In another work he appeals to the mother — not to the father, the philosophers or Roman law — to make the pronouncement about a fetus’s status:

In this matter the best teacher, judge, and witness is the sex that is concerned with birth. I call on you, mothers, whether you are now pregnant or have already borne children; let women who are barren and men keep silence! We are looking for the truth about the nature of woman; we are examining the reality of your pains. Tell us: Do you feel any stirring of life within you in the fetus? Does your groin tremble, your sides shake, your whole stomach throb as the burden you carry changes its position? Are not these moments a source of joy and assurance that the child within you is alive and playful? Should his restlessness subside, would you not be immediately concerned for him?

[De anima 25. 3.]

Writing in about 210-13, in this essay Tertullian attempts to refute all the misunderstandings of the soul which he perceived in pagans and Christians alike. Among these were ideas of the pre-existence of the soul, God’s creation of the individual soul at conception, and the infusion of the soul after birth. Tertullian had a notion of the soul as material and argues throughout chapters 23 to 37 that the act of procreation produces both soul and body and that life, therefore, begins at conception. He adduces arguments from medicine, logic and Scripture — including references to Luke 1:41 and 46 and to Jeremiah 1:5:

They [John and Jesus] were both alive while still in the womb. Elizabeth rejoiced as the infant leaped in her womb; Mary glorifies the Lord because Christ within inspired her. Each mother recognizes her child and each is known by her child who is alive, being not merely souls but also spirits.

He continues:

Thus, you read the word of God, spoken to Jeremias: “Before I formed thee in the womb, I knew thee.” If God forms us in the womb, He also breathes on us as He did in the beginning: “And God formed man and breathed into him the breath of life.” Nor could God have known man in the womb unless he were a whole man. “And before thou camest forth from the womb, I sanctified thee.” Was it, then, a dead body at that stage? Surely it was not, for “God is the God of the living and not the dead.”

Tertullian is the first Christian to make the explicit connection between these biblical passages and the issue of abortion. Though his main purpose is to prove his particular view of the soul, one of the motives for so doing is to criticize the practice of abortion and to show that even therapeutic abortion is the taking of a human life. For Tertullian, the witness of the Incarnation and of Scripture is to the humanity of the fetus.

Minucius Felix was the only third-century apologist which the West produced. His Octavius (ca 200-225), written in Rome in a period of persecution, is in the form of a Ciceronian dialogue in which a lawyer mediates between a proponent of Christianity and a proponent of paganism, the latter eventually being converted. After demonstrating the falsehood and immorality of paganism, the Christian addresses himself to the charge that Christian initiations take place by slaughtering a baby. His answer parallels Tertullian’s Apology. He protests that no one could kill a “tender and so tiny” baby, and that whoever thinks someone could do such a deed must be capable of it himself. Minucius Felix proceeds to accuse the pagans of infanticide and abortion:

And there are women who swallow drugs to stifle in their own womb the beginnings of a man to be — committing infanticide before they give birth to the infant.

The Latin word translated “infanticide” is parricidium, the Roman legal word for intentional killing, especially of a relative. Abortion, of course, was not considered parricide in Roman law; Minucius opposes his culture’s legal view of abortion. His subsequent assertion that Christians do not procure abortions is necessarily apologetic, but it must have been an accurate generalization of Christian practice to have been of any value to his defense of Christianity.

Abortion in the Church

Although all Christian writers opposed abortion, pagan influence on the church was unavoidable, and abortion was not unknown among “so-called Christians” (the term is Origen’s). The situation was recognized as a serious problem by Origen, Hippolytus and Cyprian.

While the apologists praised Christians’ refusal to imitate pagan practice, Hippolytus (ca 170-ca 236) was aware of subtle Roman influence on the church and of the church’s failure to criticize that influence. Pope Callistus himself approved of a Roman law allowing concubine marriages, even though such marriages often resulted in unwanted pregnancies. Sometime after 222 Hippolytus wrote about the effect of Callistus’s laxity:

Women, reputed believers, began to resort to drugs for producing sterility, and to gird themselves round, so to expel what was being conceived on account of their not wishing to have a child either by a slave or by any paltry fellow, for the sake of their family and excessive wealth. Behold, into how great impiety that lawless one has proceeded, by inculcating adultery and murder at the same time!

[Refutation of All Heresies (Philosophumena) 9.7]

In the face of growing immorality, especially among wealthier believing women, Hippolytus continued to hold forth the orthodox belief that abortion is murder.

Similarly, for Cyprian (ca 200/210-258), orthodox belief and practice were closely related. This popular writer was not at all surprised to learn that Novatian was not only schismatic but also immoral, abusing widows, orphans, his, father and even his wife:

The womb of his wife was smitten by a blow of his heel; and in the miscarriage that soon followed, the offspring was brought forth, the fruit of a father’s murder. And now he dares to condemn the hands of those who sacrifice, when he himself is more guilty in his feet, by which the son, who was about to be born, was slain?

[Cyprian, Letter 52.2, numbered 48 in some editions]

The theme of guilt and judgment reappears in apocalyptic texts of the third century. Methodius of Olympus alludes to unnamed “inspired writings,” probably the second-century Apocalypse of Peter, which promise life to infant victims of abortion and infanticide, and judgment before Christ to the aborters:

Wherefore have we received it handed down in Scriptures inspired by God that children who are born before their time, even if they be the offspring of adultery, are delivered to care-taking angels . . . How could they have confidently summoned their parents before the judgment seat of Christ to bring a charge against them, saying, “Thou, O Lord, didst not grudgingly deny us the light that is common [to all], but these have exposed us to death, despising thy commandment.”

While the text may refer only to infanticide, a widespread practice among the Romans, the phrase “born before their time” was an idiom for abortion. A theology embodying a high view of life is present in this passage: life is under God’s will and providence from its inception and that are we responsible for the care of life “before the judgment seat of Christ.”

The author is Dean of the Ecumenical Institute of Theology and Professor of New Testament and Early Christianity at St. Mary’s Seminary and University in Baltimore, Maryland. In addition to many articles on abortion, he is the author of two forthcoming books, The Elements of Exegesis (Hendrickson) and a work on St. Paul’s spirituality (Eerdmans). This is a shortened version of a chapter in Abortion and the EarlyChurch. Citations have been removed in most cases. Originally published by InterVarsity Press and Paulist Press in 1982, Gorman’s book has been reissued by Wipf & Stock, 150 W. Broadway, Eugene, Oregon97401. The book is available at a reduced price directly from the author for $8.50 including shipping within the US ($10 outside the US with a check drawn on a US bank). Send a check made out to Michael Gorman at the Ecumenical Institute of Theology, 5400 Roland Avenue, Baltimore, MD21210.

The text is copyright by the author and may not be reprinted without his permission.

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Diocesan SOYO President Duties

“I can do all things through Him who gives me strength.” (Phil 4:13)

Above all, make sure God is the center of everything you do as President – your job is to work for the glory of God. You are a leader of your Diocesan SOYO. Lead by example, because whether you realize it or not, the other teens look up to you, respect you, and watch every move you make; which is why they elected you. It is essential that you act in an Orthodox Christian manner at all times, and serve as a leader and friend to all teens.

The duties of the President are many and varied. This position involves a lot of responsibility, hard work, dedication and determination, and hence, it will take both time and energy. You must know your own strengths and weaknesses and you must learn from both success and failure. Your goals must be unselfish those which will benefit the people you serve. Your challenge is caring – caring enough to win victories for others by helping them succeed. The President leads, or directs the group in carrying out its objectives, and represents the group as a whole.

General Duties

Be in good standing and communion with the Orthodox Christian Church
- Be actively involved in the church, its services, and its functions and activities
Submit a written report following the delegates and parish Life Conference to:
- NAC President
- Chairman of the Department of Youth Ministry
- NAC Teen SOYO Spiritual Advisor
Pray for chapters in Diocesan SOYO and all the SOYO members, priests, and members of the Archdiocese
Provide positive leadership and stimulate spiritual growth
Be F.A.T.: Flexible, Available, and Teachable for Christ and His ministry
Pay attention at all meetings and add positive and constructive input
- Never put other people and their ideas down, even if you do not agree with them
Listen to everybody (SOYO members, priests, lay advisors, etc.) A lot of people have great ideas, so always listen to them!
- Encourage respectful expression of individual ideas
Stay in close contact with
- Diocesan Bishop, NAC President, chairman of Dept. of Youth Ministry, and NAC Spiritual Advisor, and other executive board members
- The other Diocesan Officers, Spiritual Advisor, and Youth Director
- Chapter SOYO Presidents in your Diocese
- Diocesan Priests (include in diocesan e-mail distribution lists)
Assist other officers with anything they may need
Make yourself easily available for questions to the local Teen SOYO chapters
Put contact information on everything! (e-mails, letters, etc.)
Attend all meetings, church services, and activities at Diocesan and NAC events
- Attend NAC Leadership Training
- Help to keep the pace of the meetings up tempo
Adhere to all deadlines
Provide opportunities for the group and individual involvement
Be organized
Enforce all rules and regulations

Specific Duties

Make each meeting’s agenda and make plenty of copies
Send out agenda prior to meeting for officer approval
- Distribute agenda to chapter Presidents, committee chairs and executive committee at least 30 days in advance of meeting
Run each General Meeting
Run an Executive Board meeting the night before the General Meeting with the Executive Board and committee chairpersons (optional)
Get candy for the meetings (optional)
Contact chapter Presidents and committee chairpersons on a regular basis
- Get credentials from Secretary
- Inform of activities
- Reminder emails
- Prepare mailings for important events
- Make sure they have reports for the Delegates Meeting and the PLC
Communicate with officers, Spiritual Advisor, and Youth Director regularly
- Make sure they are doing their job
- Remind them of current tasks and activities
- Put together calendar/”to-do” list of events on a regular basis so officers can stay on track
Keep in close contact (at least monthly) with Diocesan Bishop, NAC President, chairman of Dept. of Youth Ministry, and NAC Spiritual Advisor
Pick the committee chairpersons for the year in consultation with executive board and advisors
Make sure each executive board member is doing his/her job
Represent your diocese at the NAC meetings
- If you are unable to attend the NAC meeting, make sure the diocese is still represented (Spiritual Advisor, Youth Director, Vice-President, Treasurer, and Secretary – in that order)
Write up a diocesan report of the diocese’s activities for each NAC meeting
Make sure a list of credentials is made up preferably by the Fall Delegates Meeting
Relay NAC information to your Diocese via e-mail, mailing, and/or phone calls
Send out e-mails, mailings, and/or phone calls to the diocese giving updates and reminders about events
Keep in contact with the Fellowship of St. John the Divine, the Antiochian Women, and the Order of St. Ignatius
- Briefly explain what Teen SOYO is doing at their meetings
Make sure the diocesan business runs smoothly
Run the nominations at the Spring Delegates Meeting
- Make sure nomination forms are sent out beforehand
- Include list of officer duties with nomination form
Get forms out to the diocese at the Spring Delegates Meeting (committee chair forms, officer nomination forms, special funds nomination forms, most active chapter forms, etc…)
Make sure the Secretary stays up-to-date with the constitution
Put together monthly newsletters
Update website as needed
Participate in Parish Life Conference planning
- Get registration and hotel info out to teens
- Keep in touch with host parish priest and SOYO chapter
- Get information on Teen SOYO events in order to prepare
- Prepare information for meeting
Write thank-you notes on behalf of diocesan SOYO
Pray for chapters in Diocesan SOYO and all the SOYO members, priests, and members of the Archdiocese
Call executive meetings when necessary

Provide positive leadership and stimulate spiritual growth
Encourage respectful expression of individual ideas
Provide opportunities for the group and individual involvement
Have an outline of activities/goals/etc. planned for the year

Diocesan SOYO Vice President Duties

“I can do all things through Him who gives me strength.” (Phil 4:13)

Above all, make sure God is the center of everything you do as Vice President – your job is to work for the glory of God. You are a leader of your Diocesan SOYO. Lead by example, because whether you realize it or not, the other teens look up to you, respect you, and watch every move you make; which is why they elected you. It is essential that you act in an Orthodox Christian manner at all times, and serve as a leader and friend to all teens.

General Duties

Be in good standing and communion with the Orthodox Christian Church
- Be actively involved in the church, its services, and its functions and activities
Submit a written report following the delegates and parish Life Conference to:
- NAC President
- Chairman of the Department of Youth Ministry
- NAC Teen SOYO Spiritual Advisor
Pray for chapters in Diocesan SOYO and all the SOYO members, priests, and members of the Archdiocese
Provide positive leadership and stimulate spiritual growth
Be F.A.T.: Flexible, Available, and Teachable for Christ and His ministry
Pay attention at all meetings and add positive and constructive input
- Never put other people and their ideas down, even if you do not agree with them
Listen to everybody (SOYO members, priests, lay advisors, etc.) A lot of people have great ideas, so always listen to them!
- Encourage respectful expression of individual ideas
Stay in close contact with
- Diocesan Bishop, NAC President, chairman of Dept. of Youth Ministry, and NAC Spiritual Advisor, and other executive board members
- The other Diocesan Officers, Spiritual Advisor, and Youth director
- Chapter SOYO Presidents in your Diocese
- Diocesan Priests (include in diocesan e-mail distribution lists)
Assist other officers with anything they may need
Make yourself easily available for questions to the local Teen SOYO chapters
Put contact information on everything! (e-mails, letters, etc.)
Attend all meetings, church services, and activities at Diocesan and NAC events
- Attend NAC Leadership Training
- Help to keep the pace of the meetings up tempo
Adhere to all deadlines
Provide opportunities for the group and individual involvement
Be organized
Enforce all rules and regulations

Specific Duties

Help and assists the President, Youth director, and Spiritual Advisor, with whatever they need help in
Head up nominating committee
Oversee all diocesan committees and provide support and guidance to each committee chairperson
- Keep in close contact with the committee chairs – make sure they are successfully doing their jobs
Help with email newsletters, phone calls, and updating website
Stay in close contact with fellow officers, Spiritual Advisor, and youth director
Preside over meetings in the absence of the President
Act in absence of the President and will perform such duties as delegated by the President, such as executing decisions made by SOYO, maintaining and promoting the goals of SOYO
Reside as an ex officio member of all committees, corresponding between committee meetings and general meetings
Be at the President’s disposal to do whatever they may need (make phone calls, send letters, send e-mails, etc . . . ).

Diocesan SOYO Treasurer Duties

“I can do all things through Him who gives me strength.”

(Phil 4:13)

Above all, make sure God is the center of everything you do as Treasurer – your job is to work for the glory of God. You are a leader of your Diocesan SOYO. Lead by example, because whether you realize it or not, the other teens look up to you, respect you, and watch every move you make; which is why they elected you. It is essential that you act in an Orthodox Christian manner at all times, and serve as a leader and friend to all teens.

General Duties

Be in good standing and communion with the Orthodox Christian Church
- Be actively involved in the church, its services, and its functions and activities
Submit a written report following the delegates and parish Life Conference to:
- NAC President
- Chairman of the Department of Youth Ministry
- NAC Teen SOYO Spiritual Advisor
Pray for chapters in Diocesan SOYO and all the SOYO members, priests, and members of the Archdiocese
Provide positive leadership and stimulate spiritual growth
Be F.A.T.: Flexible, Available, and Teachable for Christ and His ministry
Pay attention at all meetings and add positive and constructive input
- Never put other people and their ideas down, even if you do not agree with them
Listen to everybody (SOYO members, priests, lay advisors, etc.) A lot of people have great ideas, so always listen to them!
- Encourage respectful expression of individual ideas
Stay in close contact with
- Diocesan Bishop, NAC President, chairman of Dept. of Youth Ministry, and NAC Spiritual Advisor, and other executive board members
- The other Diocesan Officers, Spiritual Advisor, and Youth Director
- Chapter SOYO Presidents in your Diocese
- Diocesan Priests (include in diocesan e-mail distribution lists)
Assist other officers with anything they may need
Make yourself easily available for questions to the local Teen SOYO chapters
Put contact information on everything! (e-mails, letters, etc.)
Attend all meetings, church services, and activities at Diocesan and NAC events
- Attend NAC Leadership Training
- Help to keep the pace of the meetings up tempo
Adhere to all deadlines
Provide opportunities for the group and individual involvement
Be organized
Enforce all rules and regulations

Specific Duties

Maintain financial books throughout term
Make certain that all checks have two signatures (at least one should be either the Spiritual Advisor or the Youth Director)
Keep up with all incomes and expenses
Set deadline for dues
Collect dues from parishes
Make sure chapters are informed of dues system
- Send out emails
- Call chapter Presidents and/or parish priests
- Mail notices to unpaid chapters
Take charge of fundraising and gather ideas for new fundraising tactics
Prepare financial reports for Diocese General Assemblies and NAC reports
- Email to officers for approval prior to meetings
Present financial reports at general assemblies
Help with email newsletters, phone calls, and updating website

Attend each meeting and make plenty of copies of the report (if you cannot attend the meeting, make sure the Advisors and President are informed and you have your report with sufficient copies at the meeting)
Keep a running balance of the money for the diocese
At meetings collect money for the Special Funds Collection
Send out sufficient emails throughout the year informing the diocese of the finances of the region and asking for dues
Make sure each parish is up to date in paying there dues and assessments money
Pay your diocese’s NAC dues by the Midwinter Meeting ($75 per chapter in the diocese), Youth Workers Fund, and anything else required
Pay all bills for the rooms and transportation of delegates to NAC events (depending on your respective diocesan constitution)

Send invoices and bills to churches that have not paid their dues for the year after the fall Delegates Meeting
Have financial reports for the Delegates Meetings and NAC meetings
Keep the executive board up to date on financial status
Save all receipts

Table of Contents:

1. Overview

2. Taking the reigns from the previous Treasurer

3. Receivables

4. Payables

5. Bank statements

6. Bank ledger

7. Meetings

8. Retiring from the Treasury

9. How in the world God fits into any of this!

Overview

This is the most general description of a Treasurer’s duty and obligations as well as some reminders.

● You are Mr. /Mrs. Moneybags. You are in charge of the cash flow. This means writing checks, creating fund raisers, depositing money, and keeping track of it all.

● As with any official position, check with all your other officers before making a decision requiring the spending of money.

● Don't be lazy! Be prompt!

● Things you'll need to purchase(if you need them): envelopes, stamps, an accordion folder, and anything else that you might need which is necessary for your treasury duties

Taking the reigns from the previous Treasurer

This is the first thing you deal with as Treasurer, and these are the things which need to be done.

● Talk with the previous Treasurer about what in the world is going on and get all the Treasurer stuff.

● Sign the signature papers

The Signature papers are basically papers you and the Spiritual Advisor sign that tell the bank who is able to sign DIOCESE checks and where they are supposed to send Bank Statements

Our checks need 2 (two) signatures before they are used.

● Contact all local Presidents informing them to send their dues to your address for deposit, ASAP.

Receivables

Depositing stuff:

· The previous Treasurer should have all the churches who paid dues and how much they paid from the previous year. As well as any other main income. This will help you see what is to come. All forms of money are either a check or some cash.

· when you are depositing a check here is what needs to be done:

Ø Copy the check

Ø Fill out Bank deposit slip

Ø Put check and deposit slip into bank's envelope then close envelope

Ø Check the box for a return receipt and then send

Ø Attach the return receipt to the copied check and stick in folder

Ø Record transaction in Ledger

· when you are depositing cash and change here is what needs to be done:

Ø Take money to the bank and ask for a Cashiers check

Ø Treat it like a check and follow the rules for depositing a check

Payables

This is when you have to write a check in order to pay someone off. Common sense would say that, “if you are writing a check for more than there is in the bank, don’t write the check.”

● Payables go out only one way, in the form of a check.

● Usually you have to pay for airfare, room and board, fund raisers, and reimburse you and your officers for anything they spent DIOCESE related.

● This is what needs to be done when doing a payable

Ø Fill out the check for the exact amount, to the proper person, and with a proper memo

Ø Get both required signatures

Ø Copy check and put copy in the folder.

Ø Give check to person or place, or send to person or place needing to be paid

Ø Update Bank Ledger (note which check number it was)

Bank Statements

This is a self-check as well as making sure the bank hasn't messed up.

● At the end of each month you will receive a Bank statement that tells you all which was deposited and spent for that month, as well as show you copies of checks you wrote as payables

● Cross examine this statement with your bank ledger to make sure everything is spic and span.

Bank Ledger

Throughout this whole thing I am always mentioning a bank ledger. So you are probably guessing that it is pretty important. Well.... it is. It is what you use for meetings, Bank statement, organization, and basically everything.

Here is an example of the 2006/2007 digital bank ledger done with Microsoft Excel.

This picture is pretty much self-explanatory. But here is a play-by-play just in case (from left to right)

● Date of entry on left

● Deposit is written as: “Deposit”

● Payable is written as: Check number

● What the deposit is made up of, or to whom you are paying

● what the transaction was for or what the transaction went too

● negative numbers (payable) in red

● Income in black

● Total at the far right

Meetings

This explains what you need to do for a meeting

● Make a prettier bank ledger with just Incomes, Expenditures, Dues, and final Balance

● Talk about what has been going on in terms of money throughout the year so far

● Make fun of everyone who has fallen asleep in the meeting

Retiring from the Treasury

The Golden Rule applies here, do unto other as you would have done unto you. Get the signature papers from the bank, balance the books, and wish the new Treasurer luck.

How in the world God fits into any of this!

As always, God should be an integral part of your life. Keep this in mind as you complete your duties as a Treasurer. Be a good Christian and fulfill that which is asked of you by God. Have honor, and don't try to cheat anyone out of anything. Try to be more like a Christian and less like a tax collector. Remember that you are doing good works and as it states in 1 Timothy 6:18-19 , “Let them do good, that they be rich in good works, ready to give, willing to share, storing up for themselves a good foundation for the time to come, that they may lay hold on eternal life.”

Diocesan SOYO Secretary Duties

“I can do all things through Him who gives me strength.” (Phil 4:13)

Above all, make sure God is the center of everything you do as Secretary – your job is to work for the glory of God. You are a leader of your Diocesan SOYO. Lead by example, because whether you realize it or not, the other teens look up to you, respect you, and watch every move you make; which is why they elected you. It is essential that you act in an Orthodox Christian manner at all times, and serve as a leader and friend to all teens

General Duties

Be in good standing and communion with the Orthodox Christian Church
- Be actively involved in the Church, its services, and its functions and activities
Submit a written report following the delegates and parish Life Conference to:
- NAC President
- Chairman of the Department of Youth Ministry
- NAC Teen SOYO Spiritual Advisor
Pray for chapters in Diocesan SOYO and all the SOYO members, priests, and members of the Archdiocese
Provide positive leadership and stimulate spiritual growth
Be F.A.T.: Flexible, Available, and Teachable for Christ and His ministry
Pay attention at all meetings and add positive and constructive input
- Never put other people and their ideas down, even if you do not agree with them
Listen to everybody (SOYO members, priests, lay advisors, etc.) A lot of people have great ideas, so always listen to them!
- Encourage respectful expression of individual ideas
Stay in close contact with
- Diocesan Bishop, NAC President, chairman of Dept. of Youth Ministry, and NAC Spiritual Advisor, and other executive board members
- The other Diocesan Officers, Spiritual Advisor, and Youth Director
- Chapter SOYO Presidents in your Diocese
- Diocesan Priests (include in diocesan e-mail distribution lists)
Assist other officers with anything they may need
Make yourself easily available for questions to the local Teen SOYO chapters
Put contact information on everything! (e-mails, letters, etc.)
Attend all meetings, church services, and activities at Diocesan and NAC events
- Attend NAC Leadership Training
- Help to keep the pace of the meetings up tempo
Adhere to all deadlines
Provide opportunities for the group and individual involvement
Be organized
Enforce all rules and regulations

Specific Duties

Take minutes at all meetings
Take attendance at the meetings
Keep records of all the papers passed out at the meetings
E-mail minutes to officers, Spiritual Advisor, and Youth Director no later than two weeks after the meetings
Get the minutes to everyone at least 2 weeks before the next diocesan meeting to remind them of what went on and in case there are any problems with what people remember
Send out minutes no later than one month after the meeting.
Resend out minutes thirty (30) days prior to general assemblies so teens can review the minutes again as they must be accepted at the meeting
Maintain records of minutes between meetings
If necessary, read minutes at meetings in order to approve
Gather credentials from chapters
- Set deadline
- Create email distribution lists
- Put together list of chapter Presidents’ information for Diocese and NAC SOYO
- Contact chapters occasionally to find out about any changes in credentials
- Give Credentials Report at the meetings
Help with email newsletters, phone calls, ad updating website
Take minutes during conference calls
Compile newsletter
Make sure the constitution is up to date
Make sure Constitution is being followed
Work with the President to create the agenda for the upcoming meeting
Assist the President, vice President, and Treasurer with any task they may need
Send out thank you cards for the diocese
Keep tabs on what the other officers are doing and if they need help with organizing a project keep track of the people who decided to help them
If there are multiple events happening in certain months make lists of who signed up for what and call them reminding them at least 2 weeks before the event occurs.
Keep all SOYO records

Maintain organized records and must always be on top of things

SOYO Leadership Manual

Online Youth Worker Resources from the Manual Developed for the SOYO Leadership Conference 2007

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Officer Duties

Diocesan SOYO President Duties

Diocesan SOYO Vice President Duties

Diocesan SOYO Treasurer Duties

Diocesan SOYO Secretary Duties