Best Orthodox Gifts displayed new products at the OCA Diocese of the South Clergy Assembly  the week of July 19th. Over 160 people attended. New products included embroidered head scarves, The Original Men in Black Clergy T-shirts and coffee mugs, embroidered icon apparel, new baptism towel sets, musical "God Grant You Many Years" birthday cards, and some of our regular items.

On Friday, we catered the DOS Brunch at St. Mary of Egypt Church in Norcross, GA after Divine Liturgy with Metropolitan Jonah where we presented him with an embroidered icon of the Theotokos and Baby Jesus.

The energy at the conference was amazing along with the leadership of the Metropolitan and the great speakers.

 All these new items will be on www.bestorthodox gifts.com next week.

"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=La3l_lxm300&layer_token=2b7c9bfd6dfb0971"

We did this a few years ago, but now that she's started a new initiative, we'd thought you'd all find it interesting again.  Some truths are never dated

 http://peterandhelenevans.com/america-the-great-experiment/interviews/interview-with-rebecca-hagel

This was a few years ago but appropriate for Memorial Day

http://peterandhelenevans.com/america-the-great-experiment/articles/a-return-to-greatness/

Pray for our Country!

Please see this footage about room 219 where our Congressmen and women go to pray to make the right decisions for our country "http://www.findroom219.com/".  They ask our help to pray for them.  We do every Sunday in the Divine Litugury already, but more prayer - more directed prayer - is always helpful.  We are beginning an Orthodox prayer group which will not be limited to St. Nicholas, so please pass this along to anyone you think might be interested.

Please note this is a non-partisan effort, and we are, in fact, part of a larger group that believes in the importance of prayer.  Members of 219 are Catholics, Protestants and Jews.  It's about time the Orthodox were represented!  We think of this as sort of an evangelization effort to elected representatives on Capitol Hill and across our country.  Many people are reaching out for guidance in their lives and Orthodoxy has so very much to offer... if only they hear the good news. 

To begin, please just send your name by email to Peter and Helen Evans and we'll begin a list.  Our first prayer session will be on Tuesday, June 29th at St. Nicholas http://www.stnicholasdc.org/ at 6 pm.  This will be within the Sts. Peter and Paul prayer vigil which will be held from 4 pm to 9 pm.  It will consist of silent prayer and greeting each other.  What will the future plans be: To Pray that the Holy Spirit guide us. 

All are invited, Orthodox or not.  Come and go as you please.

Human exceptionalism advocate and author Wesley J. Smith speaks with host Kevin Allen of the Illumined Heart radio program on Ancient Faith Radio about the animal rights-animal liberation movement and its insistence on the "moral equivalence" between animals and humans! How does this compare with Orthodox teachings about the "brotherhood" of humans, animals and inanimate nature (St Gregory Palamas)?

Listen here:

Stories of Answered Prayers: we will be starting an inspiration page, a blog or maybe a book on Inspirational Stories of Answered Prayers. Share your story with others to inspire them to prayer. Send them to we2rone@cox.net.; with answered prayers in the title.

Also, we all know that some prayers are not answered "in time", or "in the manner we'd like", or some are answered by "no". Please include these stories to show how these answered prayers helped you grow spiritually.

The explosion of web content has led the major search engines to change the way they present search results. Revisions of how search results appear now include news, images, video, blogs, and other content besides the standard web site. One can take advantage of the blended search and to gain prominence in their ranking.

Joe Carter's article "Sympathectomy of the Soul" deals with what's happening in Holland regarding euthanasia.

Part of the cloud of perplexity which surrounds the subject of euthanasia is that the notion of ‘evaluating' human life seems to take on an air of reasonableness. Even Nietzsche got this right. When told by someone that life wasn't worth living, he replied, "Compared to what?" . . . More and more, we are choosing to die ‘institutionally,' thereby submitting to the cost/benefit calculations of those, often government-run, institutions. When the government takes a larger role in our lives, it will inevitably take a larger role in our deaths. Here's an example from Holland,"... over 20,000 life-ending actions had been taken in 1990 without the patient's express consent." That was 20 years ago.

We address this issue, and others in one of our talks. Watch hear

Part of the cloud of perplexity which surrounds the subject of euthanasia is that the notion of ‘evaluating' human life seems to take on an air of reasonableness. Even Nietzsche got this right. When told by someone that life wasn't worth living, he replied, "Compared to what?" Especially in this age of ‘individual empowerment' it is sharply humbling to realize (if we ever do) that our life is NOT one of our many relatively value-able possessions. We resist this humiliating truth, sometimes to the death! And yet... and yet... blessed are those not forced into a cost/benefit calculation in the terminal care of a loved one. We don't like to have our faces rubbed in the Mystery.

The Dutch example shows us the social/legal de-stigmatization of an option that most of us would consider in extremis. In some ways life - and death - was simpler in the days when care-givers could simply say of the dying, "They're in God's hands now." However, our own hands have been so strengthened by medical technology that death is much more often a deliberate decision by us to ‘let go' of whatever intervention we have been applying to the dying person. And more and more, we are choosing to die ‘institutionally,' thereby submitting to the cost/benefit calculations of those, often government-run, institutions. When the government takes a larger role in our lives, it will inevitably take a larger role in our deaths. Here's an example from Holland,"... over 20,000 life-ending actions had been taken in 1990 without the patient's express consent." That was 20 years ago.

We address this issue, and others in one of our talks. Watch hear

Excerpts from Joe Carter's article "Sympathectomy of the Soul" published March 10th on First Things. Read the full article here.

"In 1990, the Dutch government set up a Commission, chaired by Attorney General Jan Remmelink, to investigate and quantify what was happening in the shadows of the law. Using the narrow definition of euthanasia as "active termination of life upon the patient's request," the Remmelink report concluded that 2,300 instances of euthanasia were carried out during 1990. And while the Royal Dutch Medical Association (KNMG) had established in its Guidelines for Euthanasia that terminating a life without a patient's request is "juridically a matter of murder or killing and not of euthanasia," the Remmelink Commission found, through interviews with randomly selected physicians and mailed questionnaires, that over 20,000 life-ending actions had been taken in 1990 without the patient's express consent. These "matters of murder" do not include, as the report notes, the unknown numbers of disabled newborns, children with life-threatening conditions, or psychiatric patients who may have been killed involuntarily but were not included in the survey."

***
"According to the Dutch Ministry of Justice, of the 135,675 deaths recorded in 1995, 3,600 (2.4%) were the result of a doctor-assisted termination of life while another 238 (0.3%) were cases of assisted suicide. The most disturbing statistic, however, is that 913 (0.7%) were terminations of life without the express request of the patient. For every three lives ended at the request of the patient, one person was killed without consent. While it is assumed that these cases consisted of terminally ill patients with no chance of survival, no one in the Netherlands knows for certain. Because the numbers are based on self-reporting by physicians, no accurate data exists to determine exactly how many Dutch citizens have been killed against their will."

It's impossible to put up everything here, we encourage you to visit Orthodox Biz often for all the great stories, but if you want to enjoy every article on our site, please sign up for e mail updates delivered directly into your mailbox whenever something new is posted.  Visit now www.peterandhelenevans.com and sign up.  It's totally free and you won't miss a thing.

April 2, Good Friday, Prayer Vigil 10pm to 7am at Saint Nicholas Cathedral http://www.stnicholasdc.org/. Come for silent prayer or to read the Psalms.   All are welcome. Come and go as you please.

To enrich your prayer life, follow this link http://www.oca.org/OCchapter.asp?SID=2&ID=194 and we also recommend a book called "Beginning to Pray by Anthony Bloom." Contact Peter and Helen Evans at <we2rone@cox.net> if you want to schedule a time to read Psalms.  The Mass Avenue door only will be open during these times.   When you come, consider buying several candles.

It a new twist on global warming, read carefully.

 http://www.cornwallalliance.org/articles/read/an-evangelical-declaration-on-global-warming/

"It's About Government, Not Health Care," by Mark Steyn on National Review Online.

You may click here to view this article: http://article.nationalreview.com/427119/its-about-government-not-health-care/mark-steyn

March 6, Prayer Vigil 8:30 to Midnight at Saint Nicholas Cathedral http://www.stnicholasdc.org/. Come for silent prayer or to read the Psalms.   All are welcome.  Another vigil will be held all night on Good Friday, 8pm to 7 am. 

To enrich your prayer life, follow this link http://www.oca.org/OCchapter.asp?SID=2&ID=194 and we also recommend a book called "The Way of the Pilgrim." Contact Peter and Helen Evans at <we2rone@cox.net> if you want to schedule a time to read Psalms.  The Mass Avenue door only will be open during these times. 

http://www.pjtv.com/?cmd=video&video-id=3116

Seeing our picture you would never believe we love this festival??? Of course, you would.  It's a beautiful time of year here.  Let us know if you are going to be in town.    Yes, over 3,000 trees, and more information below

http://dc.about.com/cs/familyactivities/a/CherryBlossom.htm

Sixty-four percent of retailers have made investments in social networking, according to a study from "Forrester Research". Social network presences will perform better as a marketing vehicle than paid search, according to "Internet Reailers" recent survey.

Many experts say if merchants want to connect with customers, and is not on a social network they are missing out. Online customers are spending more time on social network sites than any other type site.

"Too few Christians understand how to defend what we believe. It's great to believe, but we need to defend it, because it is under attack in the culture."

Go here to see our interview with Robert George, professor from Princeton, on why he signed the Manhattan Declaration http://peterandhelenevans.com/. 

Plus interview with Jim Jatras, Congressman Frank Wolfe and Tony Perkins. 

Fr. Tom Palke of St. Raphael's of Brooklyn Mission in Virginia.  Why I signed the Manhattan

http://peterandhelenevans.com/2010/01/fr-tom-on-man-dec/

Here is an interview with Faith McDonnell who works with Congress and other groups to help the persecuted Church in all areas of the world, including the former Soviet Union, Iraq, etc.  She gives her contact information so that she can help with resources and contacts to those who want it.  http://peterandhelenevans.com/manhattan-declaration/   Go to the middle column under Met. Jonah for her interview. 

This article was written in 2003, but it just shows that truth never goes out of style. 

"Having No Money Doesn't Mean You're Poor"              714 words

There's a proverb about sailing on the notoriously shallow Chesapeake Bay, "If you haven't run aground at least once, either you're not sailing or you're lying."  And so in every life, if you have never found yourself wondering where you're going to get the money to meet your financial obligations, either you're not responsible for yourself or you're lying.  However, even if you only had a nickel in your pocket, we wouldn't necessarily say you were poor. 

There's a difference between simply being 'broke' and being 'poor.'  Almost every one of us has been broke at some point in our lives. Sometimes it was an intentional choice, like subsisting on a part time job while going to school.  Sometimes it's just bad luck or the consequence of bad choices.   Life sometimes has its downs and we adjust; that's broke.  But, when we give up trying to better ourselves, that's poor.  And lack of money isn't the defining factor of poverty.

The difference between broke and poor is not a new concept.  We've known for ages that if someone doesn't work toward something themselves they don't value it.  The "greatest generation," who lived through the Depression and went on to win the second World War tried to give their kids everything they had to work hard for themselves.  But they couldn't 'give' them the values and stamina that made their success possible.  That was the difference between the war against Hitler and the "War on Poverty."  Just look at the housing projects to see what happens to something given to someone who has the poverty mindset.  We've seen the same cycle with many lottery winners or rock stars; suddenly they're rich but, within a short time they're bankrupt.  Remember that old adage, you can take the boy out of the country but you can't take the country out of the boy.  The same holds true for the poverty mindset. We can't just throw money at poor people or the poor countries of the world, or even a poor cousin and expect them to suddenly have the motivation to make something of themselves.

Dr. Ruby Payne has written a great book for educators, "A Framework for Understanding Poverty."  In it she lists eight resources a person must draw on to abolish poverty or the 'poor' attitude.  Money is only one of them; the others are emotional, mental, spiritual, physical, support systems, relationship/role models. The eighth, and most interesting, factor is Knowledge of Hidden Rules.  She explains that in each class there are unspoken rules of conduct and behavior.  To escape the poverty mindset, new rules must be adopted.

So what are the implications for our national welfare system and the global welfare system?  That just giving money away doesn't eliminate poverty; that we're actually creating more poverty by down-playing or distorting the other seven resources a person needs to become self-sufficient.  President Bush's Millennium fund is one response to the hard problem of poverty in other nations, but it doesn't get alot of press and  the poor countries, which might benefit from it, are trying to change its un-hidden rules.  Why?  Because they must live up to certain standards in order to receive funds. In other words, they must 'work' for the money and that doesn't hold with the so-called Liberals of the world.

Of course we can't 'give' anyone emotional stability or mental clarity.  All we can do is expect it, and reward it.  Failure will provide its own corrective stimulus... if we don't intervene with a mis-guided 'compassion' that attempts to 'protects' people from learning the error of their ways.  As a society, we must demand that people accept the consequences of their own actions.  We can expect that people must learn the difference between right and wrong.  We can't take all the evil influences and bad people out of the world, but we can expect that people learn to recognize them for what they are and reject them, for their own benefit.

We all have a role to play to by our expectations, as expressed in law.  The so-called compassion that makes pets out of welfare recipients has to be re-examined.  If we are to survive as a society, we must expect the best from people.  Money alone won't solve the poverty problem.

Peter and Helen Evans, "http://peterandhelenevans.com/"

We had a private tour of the Leland House in DC by Dr. Land.  He explains how the separation of church and state made it into the constitution of our country. 

http://peterandhelenevans.com/2010/01/church-state-in-america-since-when/

Be sure ot sign up for updates while there.

http://peterandhelenevans.com/manhattan-declaration/

"I was impressed by the spirit of this inter-confessional document.... Not being abusive, not being aggressive, but being firm."

Here is a chilling account of what it is like to live in a country where there is no freedom of religion:

http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/blog/2009/11/24/fr-symeon-danger-of-christian-persecution-in-america/

See more information about freedom of religion, including how the separation of Church and State became part of the United States of America. on www.peterandhelenevans.com

Why I signed the Manhattan Declaration by Metropolitan Jonah of the OCA, plus see our new website which has other signers.  This site will be growing over the months, go back frequently to see new signers and new items. 

http://peterandhelenevans.com/wp/manhattan-declaration/

Christian Patriots ? You see, it isn't that Americans have lost their Christian roots, it's that Christians have lost their American roots. They don't know that the American story, and the larger story of Western Civilization, is their story. No wonder they don't vote. They don't understand America was and is the great...http://townhall.com/columnists/FrankPastore/2007/01/28/why_so_few_christian_patriots

submitted by Peter and Helen Evans, join us on our website also at

www.peterandhelenevans.com

How links from other sites can improve a web site’s ranking in search listings is one of the least understood aspects of search engine optimization.