IS IT EVIL TO ADVERTISE ABORTION?

Pro-life Nation of Kenya orders international abortion business Marie Stopes to ‘cease’ all abortion services

St Barnabas Orthodox Mission, Kenya 

Kenyan medical authorities have banned Marie Stopes, the worldwide abortion provider, from offering any kind of abortion services.
In September 2018, Marie Stopes was instructed to desist from promoting its services via Kenyan radio networks. The advertisements being run were “drumming up” business for abortion with a direct appeal to teenage girls.
The advertisements were not only offensive, but they sought to undermine existing Kenyan law. The nation only permits abortion in the case of a threat to the life of the mother. Advertising for abortion is not permitted under Kenyan law and is also prohibited under local medical practitioner rules.

Most Kenyan cultures treasure children

So the breaching of the broadcast rules by Marie Stopes in September 2018 initiated an inquiry from Kenyan medical authorities. This resulted in a letter being sent on 14 November 2018 from the Kenyan Medical Practitioners Board to Marie Stopes stating that: “Marie Stopes Kenya is hereby directed to immediately cease and desist offering any form of abortion services in all its facilities within the republic.” Marie Stopes was also instructed to file a weekly report on all services rendered in its facilities for 60 days thereafter.
The medical board said it had felt compelled to act having received a number of complaints from, among others, Ann Kioko, campaign manager at the pro-life group CitizenGo Africa, and Ezekiel Mutua, Chief Executive Officer of the Kenya Film Classification Board.
Prior to its radio advertising, in August 2018, Marie Stopes had run a Facebook campaign.
Marie Stopes is one of the biggest global abortion providers with more than 12,000 employees in 37 countries. It has operated in Kenya since 1985 running 22 facilities and 15 so-called “mobile outreach” facilities.

The head of the government agency in charge of approving radio and film advertising, Ezekiel Mutua, welcomed the ban on Marie Stopes activity. He said the abortion supporting materials used in their advertising were “making it look cool to have an abortion”.
Significantly, Mutua accused the Obama Administration of causing moral decay in Kenya by promoting abortion.
Mutua said that under Obama, “Democrats pushed the pro-abortion view and the pro-LGBT stance on us – an agenda that is alien to our own culture.”
In contrast, the Trump administration has dealt several blows to Marie Stopes’ international abortion business. American foreign policy on the issue of abortion has changed the abortion industry worldwide. In January 2018, US President Donald Trump banned all American funding for any organizations that support or offer abortions. Under President Trump the former pressure on countries such as Kenya to accept abortion ideology and agencies has not only ceased but has been reversed. 

Source

 

Of your Charity

 

Would you like to help take care of orphans and give them a happy life?. St Barnabas orphanage and school provides care for vulnerable kids. To make a donation click here: Donate
God bless you.
In Christ service, Fr Methodius JM Kariuki

Please, see also

Remembering the 14,000 Holy Infants (Holy Innocents) slain by Herod in Bethlehem and… the many innocents killed by the herods of our days
The Holy Innocents who slain by Herod at Bethlehem, the first martyrs for Christ!... (And what about the African Children?)  

When the Orthodox Church celebrates pregnancy...   
Orthodox Christians and Abortion

What does an abortion cost? A humanlife!  
The horror of abortion

What the Saints of the Orthodox Church say about abortion

About abortion

A Romanian mom's miracle pregnancy
Shooting pregnant women as targets
Capitalism 

Pacifism, Orthodoxy and the “just war”

Khanya e isoe ho Molimo holimo
Photo from here 

Most people who know anything about the Orthodox Church know that it is not a “peace church”, like the Quakers or the Mennonites. But Western Christians who know something about theology are often puzzled when they discover that the Orthodox Church also rejects the theological notion of the “just war”.
Orthodox Christians don’t get involved in great ethical discussions about whether a particular war is “just”, and therefore whether it is “legitimate” for Christians to fight in it. In Orthodox theology there can be no such thing as a “just” war.
Hat-tip to Fr Obregon (the Orthocuban) for pointing to this site where the matter is explained clearly and succinctly: OCA – Q & A – War and non-violence

total pacifism is not only possible, it is the sign of greatest perfection, the perfection of the Kingdom of God. According to the Orthodox understanding, however, pacifism can never be a social or political philosophy for this world; although once again, a non-violent means to an end is always to be preferred in every case to a violent means.
When violence must be used as a lesser evil to prevent greater evils, it can never be blessed as such, it must always be repented of, and it must never be identified with perfect Christian morality.

In Orthodox theology there is no such thing as “justifiable homicide”. The soldier who kills in battle needs to repent of that and confess it. Perhaps the difference is that in Western theology legalism tends to be prominent. The concept of “justification” is very important, so that it has long been central to Western soteriology, leading to debates about “justification by faith” and “justification by works” and “justification by grace”. Whatever the parties to such debates disagree about, the one thing they are all agreed about is the importance and centrality of justification. Hence the concern with such concepts as “just” war and “justifiable” homicide.

SS Boris & Gleb, Passionbearers. Honoured for refusing to fight.

The same applies, mutatis mutandis to Western arguments about abortion. The thing that it is wrong with abortion, for many Western Christians, is that it is the taking of “innocent” life — so legalism intrudes yet again. If it were “guilty” life, then the killing might be “justified”. In one of the classic examples of a moral dilemma, the obstetrician who is faced with the choice of saving the life of the mother or the child, and there is no possibility of saving both. If the obstetrician has to kill the child so that the mother may live (or vice versa), in Orthodoxy there is no question of either killing being “justified”. Whatever happens, the need to repent remains. “Justification” means that there is no need for repentance. For the Orthodox, killing someone, even accidentally, always requires repentance. And so it is with the soldier who kills in battle.
And so the Orthodox Church has among its saints both pacifists and soldiers; those who fought and those who refused to fight, and those in between like St Boris and St Gleb, the Passionbearers, who were selective conscientious objectors.
But pacifism is a “more excellent way”.

Please, see our tags

Africa’s Wars
Child soldiers 
Violence

Remembering the 14,000 Holy Infants (Holy Innocents) slain by Herod in Bethlehem and… the many innocents killed by the herods of our days

 

Photo from here

 

OrthodoxWord

 

“Everything in this life passes away—only God remains, only He is worth struggling towards. We have a choice: to follow the way of this world, of the society that surrounds us, and thereby find ourselves outside of God; or to choose the way of life, to choose God Who calls us and for Whom our heart is searching.” — Fr. Seraphim Rose

Christ is Born, Glorify Him!

  In the festive atmosphere that embraced heaven and earth, just few days from the Nativity feast of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the Church coats herself in much sorrow for the innocent babies slain by king Herod’s cruelty. Back than Jesus was saved from the wrath of Herod. Still today, He suffers the torment of death with each of the babies slain by modern tools of medicine, by the will of a society that had lost its balance and sense of life and raised to the rank of the law, the grivial sin of murdering babies.

  Truly the commandment of the Gospel “Thy shall not kill!” no longer holds true in a world that calls the good evil and the evil good.  

Life starts at conception

Most people do not know what happens during an abortion. Perhaps many women who committed abortion did not know that actually they killed a child. Why? Because they  are told that by the third month in the womb they bear only “a ball of cells” and not a true man.

  British Professor Stuart Campbell, a researcher at “Create Health Clinic” in London, managed to obtain, through a new type of ultrasound scan, three-dimensional images that allow viewing of fetal movements in real time. The study demonstrates for the first time that life begins with fertilization and not at birth. At the moment of conception, 46 chromosomes with 30,000 genes combine and determine all our physical characteristics: gender, facial and bodily features, eye color, hair and skin. Then, in just a few weeks, from one cell a tiny man is formed, having all the organs already present and able to work.

  What happens following the 3 months – in which some argue that the fetus is merely “a ball of cells”? 

The heart starts beating 18 days post conception, fetal blood passes through the umbilical cord, the placenta where the metabolic exchanges take place between the mother and the child: the child passes to the mother the remnants of carbon dioxide and the mother provides oxygen and nutrients. In about 3 weeks the hands start to  form and at 8 weeks, the fingers. The fetus can move the fingers and open his/her mouth.

At 40 days, the brain function is measured by EEG waves. This wonderful control center – the brain – sends messages to both mother and child.

At 2 months, the baby fingerprints are already imprinted in the skin.

At about 7 weeks, the first spontaneous movements are noticed, although the mother usually doesn’t feel the baby moving until about 16 weeks.

At 18 weeks, the fetus is active and energetic and makes numerous muscle flexes and can give sufficiently strong punches and kicks :)

At 26 weeks, the fetus can do a wide range of child specific gestures – to scratch, to smile, to hiccup and suck his/her fingers …

 

“Let children come to me …”

(the choice is made by God not by the pregnant women)

by Fr. Alexander Stanciu

Before enjoying the light of this life, God had ordained that the child will dwell and develop for 9 months in the safest shelter of the world: his mother’s womb. Today, however, man has transformed this possible safest shelter in the most dangerous place for that, although the child can do nothing to defend himself, his life can be taken even by the dearest person, his MOTHER .

 The conceived fetus becomes a human being at the time of fecundation, when God created immortal soul of man. The sin of abortion is a form of murdering baby Christ, Who in a certain way, is born with every baby. From the moment of conception, the child bears the image of God, and through Baptism will carry the image of Christ within. If this image is destroyed, in the women womb Christ is been crucified once more. Saint Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain goes so far as saying that a mother who commits abortion, does not kill one human being, but in  so much she is killing as many survivors as would have resulted if  her child had lived.

 

Can abortion ever be recommended?

Lets follow these three examples:

1. The father is an alcoholic, the mother has tuberculosis. They have four children. The first one is blind. The second one died. The third child is deaf, and the fourth has tuberculosis. She becomes pregnant again. Given this extreme situation, would you take into account the recommendation of abortion?

2. A little black girl, aged 13, was raped by a white man, the little girl became pregnant. If you were her parents, would you recommend abortion?

3. A teenager girl is pregnant. She is not married. Her fiancé is not the father of the child. He is very upset and plans to leave her. In this case, would you consider abortion appropriate?

If you said “yes” to the 1st question: You have killed Beethoven.
If you said “yes” to the 2nd question: You have killed a great black singer of religious music, Ethel Wathers.
If you said “yes” to the 3rd question: You just decided to kill Jesus Christ.

“The Gestating Virgin Mother” - an icon by hagiographer Sophia Papazoglou, in the church of Saint Eleftherios on Acharnon Street in Athens, Greece  (from here)

 
You can see videos here (after the article)
 
See also

The Holy Innocents who slain by Herod at Bethlehem, the first martyrs for Christ!... (And what about the African Children?)  

When the Orthodox Church celebrates pregnancy...  
Orthodox Christians and Abortion
What does an abortion cost? A humanlife!  
The horror of abortion

What the Saints of the Orthodox Church say about abortion

About abortion

A Romanian mom's miracle pregnancy
Shooting pregnant women as targets

Pan-Hellenic Society of Friends of Large Families (from here the icon - here)

ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΑ για το θέμα:
 
Τα άγια Νήπια και οι σύγχρονοι Ηρώδες  
Παρακλητικός Κανόνας στα Άγια Νήπια της Βηθλεέμ (29 Δεκεμβρίου)
Έκτρωση (ενότητα)

Mother of God, the Milk-Giver - a sacred depiction of motherhood in Orthodox Church

Milk-Giver Icon | Not Scandalized by the Incarnation

Icon from here

A Reader's Guide to Orthodox Icons

 

On July 3, the Icon of the Virgin “Galaktotrophousa” (Γαλακτοτροφουσα, meaning “the Milk-Giver”) is celebrated. The Icon shows the Mother of God breast-feeding Christ. Not many modern icons use this composition, which may hide just how ancient and widespread this icon really is.
The specific Icon celebrated on July 3 (and January 12) dates from the 6th century A.D. and resided in St. Sabbas’ lavra (a type of monastic community). Before his death, St Sabbas prophetically stated that in time a pilgrim sharing the saint’s name, of royal lineage from Serbia, would visit, and to him the Icon of the Mother of God, the “Milk-Giver”, should be given as a blessing from the Monastery. God’s time is not like our time, and so it was not until 700 years later that the prophecy was fulfilled. The pilgrim was the Serbian prince Rastko Nemanjić, who had taken the monastic name “Sava” (i.e. Sabbas) when a youth. Coming to venerate the relics of St Sabbas, the elder’s episcopal staff fell at the young Sava’s feet. The monks inquired into the pilgrim’s identity, and hearing his name (and remembering the centuries-old prophecy) gave the Milk-Giver Icon along with another icon of the Theotokos, and St Sabbas’ staff. All three items ended up in the Hilandar Monastery on Mt Athos, which was founded by the Serbian Sava. The Milk-Giver Icon is still there to this day, in the Iconostasis of Hilandar’s church.

 

The Virgin Galaktotrophousa in the Royal Doors of the Hilandar Monastery

Like the dogmas of the Church, icons often arise as a response to heresy. In this light, it is not difficult to see why and how an icon of Mary breast-feeding the Christ-child would appear in the 6th century, and be associated with St Sabbas in particular. Sabbas was a strenuous opponent of the Monophysites, a group who believed Christ’s divine nature absorbed His human nature. The icon is a rebuttal of this position, as it shows Jesus Christ, truly God, suckling at His mother’s breast.

Theotokos the Milk-Giver, Hilandar Monastery, Mt Athos

Monophysitism is just one flower of an all-pervasive weed that can has its root in one overriding feeling: scandal at the Incarnation. In other words, shock and revulsion at the idea that the All-Powerful Creator would take on corruptible human flesh, spend 9 months in the womb of a woman, pass through her vagina, and then spend the next few years a physically weak and helpless baby, totally dependent upon her. People have come up with a multitude of ways to deny this dogma of the Church. Another example is the Julian Heresy, which flourished in Egypt during the time of St Sabbas. Supported by the patriarch of the time, the belief was that Christ’s body was incorruptible (before His crucifixion). Again, the influence of being scandalized at the Son of God taking on human flesh is seen in this belief. A number of right-believing monks separated from the heretics and set up their own monasteries, which they named after the Theotokos, i.e. God’s human mother. One of these monasteries, the Syrian Monastery, still survives and it shouldn’t be surprising to see an ancient fresco of Christ suckling His mother there. Again, reacting against the misguided scandal of the Incarnation, the Milk-Giver Icon proclaims the Orthodox belief.
From the 6th century onwards the image of the Mother of God “Nourisher of Life” is always found without ever being common. Whenever it is found, both Mother and Child are stylized, with Mary’s exposed breast depicted proportionally smaller than is natural. This is because the icon is not painted to dwell upon the sensuality of Mary breastfeeding Jesus Christ, merely to proclaim it happened.
Copies of the Hilandar Milk-Giver Icon aside, today icons of this type are not very common, especially in Western Orthodox iconography. Is it because “scandal at the Incarnation” is no longer a problem among Christians? Don’t believe it. Even while openly proclaiming Christ’s two natures, the tendency to downplay or practically deny the humanity of Jesus is still something that lurks in the shadows. The Mother of God “Milk-Giver” Icon is still a powerful rebuttal to these beliefs, and a reminder that God’s love for us is not abstract but physical.

See also
 
Collection of Milk-Giver Icons (МЛЕКОПИТАТЕЛЬНИЦА) with links to Russian sites and descriptions
Salutations to the Most Holy Theotokos (Mother of God)
Male and Female Created He Them
Mother of God (Virgin Mary), Orthodox Church and African peoples (& Why the Orthodox Honor Mary)  
Bikira Maria, Mama wa Mungu 
Maria in die Ortodoksie 
Icon of Mother of God with Three Hands (in Hilandar Monastery) & here
 

Eight principal areas of convergence between African spirituality and Ancient Christianity  

The Icon of the Theotokos

Orthodox icons of Theotokos from all the World

The Theotokos as the Throne of God

The Mother of God as "Eye" and "Earth"

When the Orthodox Church celebrates pregnancy...  

Icons of the Mother of God

 

Theotokos (tag in the other our blog)

Orthodox Christians and Abortion

"A nation in which single women, or poor married women, are afraid to have children because they will be left alone if they do is one in which abortion will often be seen as a lesser evil. To see it that way is wrong, from a Christian point of view. But it is also wrong to condemn abortion, without trying to help those for whom bearing a child will involve real burdens..."

By Fr. John Garvey, USA
Taken from the OCA Resource Handbook for Lay Ministries
USA OF MY HEART ╰⊰¸¸.•¨* ST JOHN MAXIMOVITCH OF SAN FRANCISCO & ST SEBASTIAN OF JACKSON, CALIFORNIA, USA

Note of our blog: This article is written not only for America but for the whole world.

The Eastern Orthodox Church is opposed to the practice of abortion, a practice which is increasingly common in our society. How are we to respond–individually and as a Church–to a practice many of our fellow Americans regard as nothing more than a matter of choice? What are the Orthodox roots of opposition to abortion? How should Orthodox respond to the pressing moral issue of abortion?

EARLY CHRISTIAN OPPOSITION TO ABORTION

The World in which Christianity first appeared was familiar with abortion. Jews opposed it, which perplexed the ancient Romans; they found Jewish opposition to abortion irrational. (One example the Romans offered was the complication that new offspring caused if you had already drawn up a will. . . couldn’t the Jews understand how inconvenient a new child was in a case like this?)

In ancient Roman law, children were considered the property of the father. After seeing his newborn children, a father could choose not to accept them, in which case they were “exposed”–literally left outside, to die or to be taken in by a compassionate stranger. If a stranger chose to, he or she could rescue and take in a child abandoned this way (the stoic philosopher Epictetus did this); but the choice of life or death lay with the father of the house. Female infants were the most frequent victims of this practice.

In contrast to this, children were usually important in the New Testament: they are brought forward to Jesus, for his blessing; and John the Forerunner “leaps” in Elizabeth’s womb at Mary’s greeting.

In Paul’s letter to the Galatians there is an interesting phrase that may be a New Testament condemnation of abortifacient medicine. (Scholars are not sure about this.) Galatians 5:20 speaks of the works of the flesh, which are opposed to the fruits of the spirit. Among the works of the flesh, one is frequently translated “sorcery”–a translator’s interpretation of the Greek work pharmakeia, literally “medicine.” This may refer to the occult use of drugs, but it may also refer to abortifacients.

There are other, more clear ancient Christian witnesses against abortion. The Didache is one of the earliest Christian works, contemporary with some of the New Testament writings; it was probably composed around the year 100 A.D. It condemns what it also calls pharmakeia and goes on to say, “You shall not slay the child by abortion. You shall not kill what is generated.”

The Epistle of Barnabas contains similar language, and Clement of Alexandria associates the destruction of the fetus with the destruction of love for humanity. Tertullian condemned abortion, and in the second century, a Christian answered anti-Christian allegations that Christians engaged in human sacrifice: “How can we kill a man when we are those who say that all who use abortifacients are homicides, and will account to God for their abortions as for the killing of men? For the fetus in the womb is not an animal.”

Some modern defenders of abortion argue, wrongly, that Christian opposition to abortion is relatively new. They point out that ancient and medieval Christian writers made distinctions between the “formed” and “unformed” fetus, the time before and after “quickening” when some believed the soul entered the unborn child. Their assumption is that this distinction made early abortion–before “quickening”–acceptable.

Although these distinctions can be found in the writings of Sts. Jerome and Augustine, and in the writings of such later Roman Catholic theologians as Thomas Aquinas, they were never understood as offering permission for early abortions. St. Basil explicitly rejected the distinction between the formed and unformed fetus as beside the essential point. St. John Chrysostom attacked married men who encouraged prostitutes and mistresses to abort. “You do not let a harlot remain only a harlot, but make her a murderess as well.”

Finally, it is important to realize the profound significance of the fact that we celebrate the feasts of the conception of the Theotokos and the conception of John the Forerunner–in addition to the Annunciation, which is the feast of Jesus’ conception.

WHAT ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN OPPOSITION TO ABORTION MEANS
 

The icon from here
 
As Christians, we believe that our lives are not accidents. We have been called into being from nothingness by God, and are meant for eternal life. God’s calling us into being is the sign of a love we can only being to imagine, a love revealed most perfectly in Christ.

There is no doubt, scientifically, that a unique human life starts at conception. Because we believe that each of us is willed to be, by God, we cannot accept the belief that the humanity which starts at conception is accidental, or has no value because it is not yet capable of the decisions and emotions and independent actions we usually associate with being a person. This life will become what we are–unless we end it. Even when an abortion is performed to save the life of a mother (and such abortions are extremely rare), something profoundly tragic has occurred.

Every life is valued infinitely by God. This includes the life of the unborn child, as well as the criminal, the enemy, the political oppressor, and the most annoying person we know. Although we fail in the task every day, we are called on, by our baptism into the death and resurrection of Christ, to reflect God’s love for everyone who lives.

We cannot allow this obligation to be marginalized. It is not always easy–in fact it will often involve us in the most profound inner struggle–to love as we are called to love. As Dostoevsky wrote, “Love in practice is a harsh and dreadful thing.” Our model of love is not a sentimental pastel-colored greeting card, but Christ crucified. There are situations in which birth-giving is at least profoundly inconvenient, and others in which it may be absolutely terrifying. We should see something infinitely more terrifying, however, in a heart that is willing to kill life at its start, at its most vulnerable moment of being.

WHAT SHOULD WE DO?

Complicated questions arise immediately, however. Granted that all of the above is true, what is the most effective way to bear witness to our belief that we exist because of God’s love? This belief is at the root of the Orthodox opposition to abortion and to every other detail of the holiness of every human life.

Many of those who oppose abortion have worked against a legal climate that has made the choice of abortion a relatively simple thing. The United States has the most permissive abortion laws in the industrialized Western world; there are more restrictions even in the most secular nations of Western Europe. Working to change the legal climate makes good sense and is one valuable form of pro-life witness.

It is not enough, however. Harvard Law professor Mary Ann Glendon has pointed out that the United States not only has the most permissive abortion laws in the industrialized West; its social policy does less for women and children than any other industrialized nation. She sees a connection. A nation in which single women, or poor married women, are afraid to have children because they will be left alone if they do is one in which abortion will often be seen as a lesser evil. To see it that way is wrong, from a Christian point of view. But it is also wrong to condemn abortion, without trying to help those for whom bearing a child will involve real burdens.

Changes in law are part of this. Bearing a child should not mean the end of educational or work opportunities, and these possibilities weigh most heavily upon poor women in our society. In addition to working for changes in the law which might erode the permissive approach to obtaining abortions, it is important to work for positive justice, for a climate in which those women who bear children will not be penalized for having made that choice.

Many people volunteered to work for organizations which help unmarried pregnant women, or poor women who cannot afford appropriate pre-natal care. People have opened their homes to women who have chosen to bear a child rather than choose abortion, and there are many people eager to adopt such children.

MOVING BEYOND THE LAW

In many of these cases–both working against current permissive abortion law, and working for a social climate in which abortion will not seem desirable–the emphasis is on law. We have to move beyond law, however, to the most difficult areas of persuasion and example, which rest finally on our spiritual lives, on the ways in which we have taken prayer into our hearts and allowed it to transform us.

Example and persuasion are especially important because, if abortifacient drugs become widely available, the issue may be removed from the legal arena. It will remain a pressing moral issue, one to which we may not be indifferent. In the long run law must be based upon a general consensus within a society. When the issue is reduced to a “right to choose” all the most important issues are pushed aside. What should we choose? What is human life for? Is it something over which we have rights–or towards which we have an infinite obligation? Is life made valuable primarily by my attitude towards it? Does a life’s value depend upon whether I find it convenient or burdensome? Or is human life the gift of a God who loves it and wills it to be?

All the verbal arguments in the world will not persuade people as much as the example of someone who manifests a genuine and compassionate respect for life. The ways in which we choose to do that will vary from person to person–but as Christians it is our calling not only to oppose the use of abortion, but to manifest a profound love of, and gratitude, for God’s gift of life.

* * *

Fr. John fell asleep in the Lord on Tuesday, January 20, 2015. A graduate of St. Vladimir’s Seminary, Yonkers, NY, he served in parishes on the east coast until he and his wife, Matushka Regina, relocated to Puyallup, WA in retirement. In addition to his pastoral duties, he was widely known for his published writings, and was a regular columnist for Commonweal. He also had contributed articles to the Atlantic Monthly and The New York Times Book Review and was the author of several books, including The Prematurely Saved (Templegate Press). May his memory be eternal!

Please, see also

What does an abortion cost? A human life! 
The horror of abortion
Male and Female Created He Them

What the Saints of the Orthodox Church say about abortion

When the Orthodox Church celebrates pregnancy...

About abortion

A Romanian mom's miracle pregnancy
Shooting pregnant women as targets

Some child-advocacy ministries of Orthodox Church in Kenya, Uganda & Sierra Leone...

Pan-Hellenic Society of Friends of Large Families
The action of the Orthodox Church in the shantytown of Kibera, Nairobi, Kenya

African Women (tag)

When the Orthodox Church celebrates pregnancy...

“The Gestating Virgin Mother” - an icon by hagiographer Sophia Papazoglou, in the church of Saint Eleftherios on Acharnon Street in Athens, Greece  (from here)

As we all know, on the 25^th of March our Church celebrates the Feast of the Annunciation of the Theotokos - that is, of Her conversation with the Archangel Gabriel - who (without offering Her a lily, as the myth would have it), announced that She was the chosen vessel who was to bear the Godman Christ.

According to the ancient Tradition of our Church, as soon as the Theotokos responded with Her assent (according to the famous phrase in Luke 1:38, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord; may it be to me according to Your word”), the Saviour of the world was conceived in Her holy womb as an embryo.  The Theotokos offered from Her own flesh to God, so that the second Person of the Holy Trinity would be born as a man, for the salvation of mankind.     

This is why at the beginning of the Salutation hymns to the Theotokos it says that the Archangel “along with the incorporeal voice, he did see You becoming incarnate, o Lord” – that is, Gabriel actually witnessed God taking on a material body, and was not just hearing the incorporeal God’s voice…

Between the 25^th of March and the 25^th of December – the Day of Christ’s Nativity – is a period of 9 months, which represents the gestation period of the Holy Mother.  The Feast of the Annunciation was placed on the 25^th of March, after the Day of the Nativity had been designated in the month of December.

Our Church accordingly designated the 9^th of December as the day of Saint Anna’s conception - that is, the day on which the Theotokos was conceived as an embryo in the womb of Her mother, Saint Anna.  Between the 9^th of December and the 8^th of September (the day of birth of the Theotokos) is likewise 9 months: the duration of Saint Anna’s pregnancy.

Finally, on the 23^rd of September our Church celebrates the conception of the Precious Forerunner – that is, the conception of Saint John the Baptist as an embryo in his mother Saint Elizabeth’s womb.  From the 23^rd of September until the 24^th of June (the day of birth of the Baptist) is likewise 9 months: the duration of Saint Elizabeth’s pregnancy.

We should note that the Church celebrates the birthdays of only these three persons: of Christ, of the Theotokos and of Saint John the Baptist. All the other Saints are celebrated only on the day of their terrestrial death - that is, on the day of their definite entry into the foretaste of the heavenly kingdom (because the heavenly kingdom will be manifested with the Second Coming of the Lord). (They are also celebrated on other days, which are related to their deaths - for example the translation of their holy relics.)

These three periods of nine months are indicative of the immense worth and significance that the Orthodox Church ascribes - even from Her ancient times - to full-term pregnancy and to embryos, and by extension to maternity.

We might also add that, according to Luke’s Gospel, when the Theotokos was carrying Christ in Her womb and Saint Elizabeth was carrying the Baptist in her womb and the two women (who were related) met - as soon as the Theotokos greeted Elizabeth from a distance, the Baptist embryo leapt inside his mother’s womb and Saint Elizabeth was immediately inspired by the Holy Spirit into recognizing that Mary, the Virgin Mother, was carrying the Messiah inside Her womb (Luke 1:39-56).  This excerpt is of huge significance and is recited as the Gospel reading during the Minor Canon for the Supplication to the Theotokos. (Representative icon of the event, below)

Maasai Women, Kenya (From here) 

An embryo is not just a mass of cells; it is a normal, developing person according to our Holy Church and it has an immortal soul.

This is why abortion is murder and a horrendous sin.

I would ask you, dear brethren, to browse through our section on abortion, and specifically the posts and the related links:  

Mother of God (Virgin Mary), Orthodox Church and African peoples 

Bikira Maria, Mama wa Mungu

What does an abortion cost? A human life!

The horror of abortion

What the Saints of the Orthodox Church say about abortion

About abortion

A Romanian mom's miracle pregnancy
Shooting pregnant women as targets

Some child-advocacy ministries of Orthodox Church in Kenya, Uganda & Sierra Leone...

Pan-Hellenic Society of Friends of Large Families (from here the icon - here)
The action of the Orthodox Church in the shantytown of Kibera, Nairobi, Kenya

African Women (tag)

I thank you in advance for your concern. May all you expectant mothers have a smooth delivery of your babies; as for the men, the families – and society itself – may they all take on their related responsibility. 

But even if they do not, our Church is always available to help out; while a visit to our parish Confessor is also a good first move (if you don’t know what to do, then go to church on Sunday and ask the sacristan to call the Priest so that you can talk to him).

May our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all, my brethren, and with the entire world.

PS:  Below is an icon of the 14.000 Infants (the Holy Innocents) who were slaughtered by Herod; albeit indirectly, it too is related to our subject.  I thank you. 

Father Antonios Mutyaba, Uganda (click here)

Translation from Greek by A. N.