SPOTLIGHT has appeared three times this year as a result of an increase in news. It will broaden in scope as well if I receive news items from our other communities. I have to report now, however, on a second trip to Sydney, this time to meet with our new Metropolitan Paul and the other clergy of the Archdiocese, and to join in his inauguration services on Saturday evening and Sunday morning, December 4 and 5. What to say? Well first, a memory of very great kindness to me both by His Eminence and by those who looked after me and the people generally. Apart from the clergy meeting much of the time was spent (6-10 pm each evening) sitting on the seats around the edge of the crypt greeting people who came to pay their respects to the new Metropolitan. It was an opportunity to get to know the people and the other clergy better; and the main impression I brought away was of the growing expression of happiness each day on everyone's faces. I should also mention the very positive impression I had of the work among the young people. The Youth Group has an attendance of some 800 at the English Liturgy at S. Nicholas' on Sunday evenings, and I was most impressed by the calibre of the young people as they read Little Compline in the Church the first evening, held a bible study on another evening, and came up and talked to me during the social times.

  The Metropolitan is intending to visit the parishes as soon as possible, and this will include a visit to New Zealand when it can be arranged.

   This homily, being preached with different lessons three times on the Christmas Feast, and then again on the Sunday, the feast of S. Stephen, is a sort of evolving entity, changing each time according to the lessons and the theme.

  The first Gospel attracts this comment by S. Gregory the Great: What is the significance of the census that was held at the time of our Lord's birth? Surely, he tells us, that, as Caesar was enrolling the citizens of his empire in the books of state (like the Conqueror's Doomsday Book) so the new King is opening his Book of Life mentioned in the Revelation; he is enrolling us as citizens of His Kingdom, and as he said to his 70 Apostles as they returned in triumph, we are to rejoice not so much in a successful ministry, but that your names are written in Heaven. For everything that arouses our desire on earth, everything beautiful and good, is, as old Socrates and Plato told us, only a glimpse, a reflection, of the true and perfect beauty and goodness that are in Heaven. Even the "Great Heathen" Goethe understood this: as the soul of Faust is towed away into the realms of the blessed by the soul of the penitent Margareta, the work closes with the words of the Chorus Seraphicus:

     Alles Vergängliche                                  everything temporary
     Ist nur ein Gleichnis                                 is only a likeness
     Das Unzulängliche                                   the unattainable
     Hier wird's Ereignis                                 here becomes actual
     Das Unbeschreibliche                             the indescribable
     Hier wird es getan                                  here it is done

  What on earth is fleeting, incomplete, flawed, finds its perfection, its realization in the heavenly kingdom. But not only in the heavenly kingdom, for at Christmas the kingdom appears on earth in him who is the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person. We look at a baby and try to see traces of his father and his mother in him; but in Jesus the eyes of flesh can only see the image of his Mother, and only the eyes of faith can see the image of the Father, in Him who is "without Father on the side of thy Mother, and without Mother on the side of thy Father".

  You may know that the priest, when he says or sings the Lord's Prayer in the Mass, is directed to keep his eyes on the Lord's Body lying on the Corporal (because after all, he shouldn't need to look at the book, if he doesn't know the Lord's Prayer by the time he is ordained, something is wrong) and this has been in my thoughts often lately: when I look upon Him, the holy Lamb, I look upon Him in whom the Father's Name is hallowed, the Father's kingdom has come, the Fatgher's will is done, on earth, as in heaven. In Him, and in the Church where this Eucharist is offered, and in us in whom He dwells through Holy Communion, transforming us into Himself, we have the promise that the unattainable is realized, the indescribable is done.

  On the Feast of Stephen: we do not really think, not for more than one careless instant, that the martyrdom of Stephen happened the next day after our Lord's birth; more like 35 years and one day. Yet the fact that they follow each other so closely in the Church year has a meaning for us; as the Angels sang to greet the arrival of the Lord on earth, so the Lord's servant arrives in heaven, and surely the Angels sing for him too. Christ is our Jacob's Ladder, joining earth and heaven, and so Stephen stands on earth in the midst of the stones and looks straight into heaven, seeing Jesus at the right hand of the Father; and he attains to that charity that forgives even enemies, a charity that seems unattainable except by God: Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. The Son of God has come down to our level, and lifted us up to his, and Stephen is the first of us all.

14 11 99 Jonathan Paul James Nield, of Lower Hutt, in S. James' Anglican Church, Lower Hutt.

Luke 10:21. I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.

  We know nothing at all about the Christian faith, if we think we understand it. That is why those persons who wish to set an exam for candidates for baptism are just wrong. We could never get saved, if we had first to understand God's dealings. He has hidden them from the wise and prudent, and revealed them to babes. He is going, in a moment, to take His grace, and like the woman putting yeast into a measure of flour (Gospel for Epiphany 6, Matt. 13:31 ff) it will be put into Jonathan - His grace - like a seed being put into the earth, which is so small, we can't see the seed, and the plant is so small, but eventually he will grow into a full man, and it will grow up with him, transforming him into the son of God, as S. John says in the beginning of his Gospel, He gave them power to become the sons of God. Something that we shall never understand, however much we think about it, and therefore it doesn't matter at all that Jonathan cannot write an acceptable essay on the subject of the grace of baptism. God is taking that grace and planting it within him, and it will grow, and before he is old enough to be tempted it will be strong enough within him to resist temptation. And anyone who wanted it any other way would really only want to strengthen the hand of the Devil. And who would want to do that? So we take him, and put him into this water, and we are going to make sure that it is cooler, aren't we? Because there has been a lot of anxiety as to whether it's going to be warm enough; but I am beginning to be anxious as to whether it's in fact not going to be too warm, and although babies are allowed to yell because of the baptism, they are not, I think, supposed to yell because it is too hot. So let's just check that.

  The twentieth century, which started off with so many promises and expectations for humanity is leaving us soon. However, all our unfulfilled hopes and dreams have given way to a bitter feeling of disappointment.
 
Unfortunately, the epilogue of this century was written in such a tragic manner that no one could ever have imagined. The recent war in Yugoslavia showed the real character of the powerful of this world.

  They supposedly cared for peace and human rights, but at the same time they have spread despair to the hearts of millions of people. The Dove of Peace, having been wounded by the bombs and frightened by the terrible war crimes, stares at the new Millennium with insecurity and disappointment.

  There is an explanation to this tragic epilogue however. In today's reading of the Apostle, St. Paul gave us a list of the fruit of the Spirit: "love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control" (Gal.5:22-23) This is the fruit of the spirit. On the other hand, there are the fruits of material goods which are the "works of the flesh", that is hostility, malice, war, envy, murder, immorality, despair, loneliness. Therefore, the main cause for the drama of contemporary man lies in the fact that he himself has abandoned all spiritual values, he has forgotten his eternal perspective, his divine origin and has built his life on the rotten foundation of materialism. He believed that material goods, machines, computers and rockets could satisfy and quench the thirst of his soul. Thus, he himself has almost been reduced to a machine among the various other machines and mechanisms he has developed and which many a times he is incapable of controlling.

  No one can deny the fact that today's culture is not capable of offering solutions to the great existential problems of man. We would even admit that this culture is looking problematic and troublesome. And the question arises: Is there any hope? Is there a way out of this stalemate of modern civilization? Is there a way to embellish our society so that we can pass on a better world to our children?

  The only hope for a better Millennium is Jesus Christ. Especially for times like ours, the word of the Cross and the Resurrection bears a hopeful message for all of us. And this message fills our hearts with hope because it points out to us that we are not prey to the blind fortune of materialism. The struggle between the forces of light and darkness is not perpetual. It has a beginning but also an end. And the more this struggle between the kingdom of God and the hostile forces seems tragic and perpetual, the more we must be assured that a time will come when truth, justice and virtue will prevail. Christ, "the Lamb who was slain" (Rev.5:12), will win and through Him the triumph of God's kingdom will come to the world. " In Him nations are hoping" (Is.11:10, see Mt.12:21 and Rom.15:12). Nations and peoples will entrust their hopes to Christ if they are to survive. Despair is something belonging to those who don't believe in God. The faithful places his hopes in God Almighty and believes in better days to come. That is why those of us who believe in Christ gaze at the new Millennium with optimism, "because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe" (1 Tim.4:10). Thus, "ourselves and each other and our whole life" we entrust to Almighty God and in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

  The Christian hope never disappoints anyone because it is founded on the infinite love of God, Who died on the Cross for our salvation. If our globalized world is to continue to exist, it needs the hope of Christ in order to survive. And we Christians have the duty to keep lit the torch of hope on earth. Especially, we Orthodox Christians are commissioned with the great legacy to maintain our Faith pure and pass it on to the new generation. We Orthodox Christians have the unique privilege of having the same Faith from the very beginning to today; the same unbroken Apostolic Tradition for 2000 years; the same Orthodox Faith which we took over from Jesus Christ and His Holy Apostles, especially from St. Paul.

  Passing on our Orthodox heritage to our children is the best equipment we can provide them with for a successful march towards the new Millennium. A millennium which perhaps will hold great tribulations for humanity. A millennium which will bring huge changes in the environment, in the world economy, in social issues, in biotechnology, in the population explosion, in the confusion of ideas and the continuing technological revolution. Having as a foundation our Orthodox tradition of truth, justice and love we are not in any danger of losing our identity and our humane character. Concentrating on our Orthodox Faith and life is a powerful element to confront the future, regardless of what it may hold for us.

  I wish you a Merry Christmas and May God guide you in every good deed in the new Millennium.

Archimandrite (Fr.) Ambrose Zographos Seoul, Korea

  In the last SPOTLIGHT I referred to the role of Apostolic Succession in discussions of Christian Unity. Living as we do among so many groups of Christians who have lost or abandoned it, the idea of Apostolic Succession may appear a little unreal or optional. But I keep coming back to these points:
1. It is unmistakeable in the New Testament that the Lord singled out some of his disciples (learners/followers) and made them Apostles (men sent out with authority). He chose first 12, then 70. He said they were to act in His name, in a way that marked them off from other believers.

2. This appointment by our Lord was obviously a permanent provision for His Church; and in the following generations we find it being carried out by the Bishops and Presbyters, assisted by the Deacons. Some variation between "Bishop" and "Presbyter" while the Apostles were still alive does not obscure the fact that for the next 1500 years no alternative view was entertained to that of the Church: the Bishops hold the Apostolate and can transmit it, the Presbyters hold it as agents of the one Bishop in each place. So the only way to be sure of continuing the Apostolate as the Lord intended it, is to continue to transmit it as it has come down to us.

3. This succession of ordination cannot on its own guarantee the grace of the Holy Spirit in the Church and in the Sacraments; the whole tradition of the Faith is needed, of course. But if it happens that unity of faith can be restored, (as seems to have happened recently between the Eastern Orthodox and the Oriental Orthodox) then if both Churches have kept the Apostolic Succession they are then able to recognize each other's Bishops and Priests as they stand.