ABOUT ST. SYMEON
Background

We need to hear again what St. Symeon is saying to the Church, or rather what the Lord is saying to the Church through this prophet of God.

St. Symeon towers over most of the other Church Fathers in authority and excellence of theology. Orthodox Christianity has recognized only three men to this day with the title theologian. St. Symeon the New Theologian stands third in line after St. John the Evangelist and St. Gregory of Nazianzus as a theologian. The title theologos pertains to his unique authority on the doctrine of the Godhead which stems from his supreme proximity to God in union with Him in the light of Christ.

St. Symeon, like St. John Damascene, serves to recapitulate the theology of the Fathers of previous generations. He not only digests and expounds the teachings of the Church of the first thousand years, but restates them dynamically in the Spirit, and he reaffirms the contemplative and spiritual approach to theology that was almost lost since the eighth century under Aristotelian influence.

St. Symeon is virtually a new discovery. Remarkably, he had been omitted from classical editions of the patristic writings, partly resulting from the Aristotelian bias of the Roman Church that viewed his works as suspect because of their mystical emphasis. Then there is the factor of his being unpopular with the Patriarchate of Constantinople that had him removed from the monastery and exiled to a remote island.

It was easy for St. Symeon to fall into oblivion and to remain unknown and ignored even by the Orthodox for all these reasons. The Greek originals of his writings even in our own day are difficult to find. Up until now, perhaps, the only prominent Church Father whose writings had never been translated into English are those of St. Symeon the New Theologian.

St. Symeon the New Theologian was chosen to be our patron saint because he embodies in his life and writings a heroic struggle for the Holy Spirit renewal in the Church. We can identify with his aspiration for the restoration of holiness and perfect obedience in the lives of Church members and in the Church as a whole. We can identify, also, with the price he paid for his uncompromising loyalty to Christ.

We rejoice and praise God that He helped us to discover this courageous champion of Orthodox renewal. We are grateful that the Lord is now using us to help the whole body of Christ rediscover him. We believe that the rediscovery of St. Symeon within the last few decades is apocalyptic. It is the result of God's Divine intervention because He desires to perfect holiness and obedience in the life of the Church, as the hour of Christ draws near.

The profuse use, therefore, of St. Symeon is corrective. But it also meets a real need. His devotional approach to the doctrine of the Holy Spirit is fresh and timely. And the prophetic character of his theology challenges a Church that today is paralyzed with spiritual superficiality and barren formalism. Much more information can be found in the booklet RS29 St. Symeon the New Theologian. A Forerunner of Orthodox Renewal.

A hunger for the fullness of our Orthodox Christian inheritance gave rise to this venture of faith. A growing number of Orthodox men and women were catching the vision of God for the renewal of the Orthodox Church. Those who share the burden for Orthodox renewal through their prayers, financial support and active participation comprise the Brotherhood of St. Symeon the New Theologian. Most of them have a personal rebirth and an experience of the Holy Spirit that has transformed their lives.

The ministry of the Orthodox Renewal Center aims at promoting Orthodox revival by two means: first, by emphasizing the ministry of the Word of God, evangelism and preaching the Gospel; secondly, by reaffirming the importance of the Eucharist and the sacramental life in the spiritual growth of every believer.

Many come with spiritual and emotional burdens and oppressions and are ministered to for personal salvation or healing, or deliverance from demonic oppresssion. Others come from distant areas of the country for counseling and spiritual direction. Everone is helped to translate the Orthodoxy of the dead letter into the Orthodoxy of the quickening Spirit.

At St. Symeon's we believe renewal is possible only when both clergy and laity come into a personal experience of rebirth in Christ through repentance, self-catharsis and the baptism in the Holy Spirit. A face-to-face life-changing meeting with Jesus is part of being baptized in the Holy Spirit. Such a tangible spiritual awareness is consistently emphasized by St. Symeon the New Theologian.

Following the teachings of St. Symeon the New Theologian and other Church Fathers, we hold that the charismatic ministry is just as essential to the life in the Church as the ordained ministry. We encourage the laity to recognize the charisma or ministry gift received from God and to exercise it "for the building up of the Body of Christ, the Church" and "for the perfection of the saints."

In his itinerant ministry of evangelism and in the publication of The Orthodox Evangelist he has been giving expression to the deeper needs of God's people who have been living on the minimum of His redeeming love and power.

A former professor at the Greek Orthodox Seminary in Brookline, Massachusetts, Father Eusebius has been fulfilling a prophetic calling and has been stating forcefully for over 37 years the need for a personal experience of rebirth according to the teachings of St. Symeon the New Theologian. Author of many books and tracts on Orthodox Evangelism and Renewal, Fr. Eusebius declares in holy boldness that the Church can no longer content itself with religious routine. His ultimate purpose has been to help the nominal Orthodox come to the quickening Spirit.

Founder of The Brotherhood of St. Symeon the New Theologian, Incorporated, and director of the Orthodox Renewal Center, Father Eusebius is a validly ordained priest and Archimandrite in the jurisdiction of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. The Orthodox Renewal Center is interjurisdictinal; it is privately owned by the Brotherhood and governed as a non-profit corporation by a Board of Directors, according to its Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws.

The Orthodox Renewal Center has a pan-Orthodox scope and looks to renewal throughout the entire Orthodox Church, indeed throughout world Orthodoxy. A branch of the Orthodox Renewal Center has been operating in Kenya, East Africa for a number of years and faith-partners can be found in Greece, Cyprus and Australia, countries where Father Eusebius has traveled and personally ministered to the Orthodox Christians as well as United States and Canada.