AXIOS - Eastern and Orthodox Gay and Lesbian Christians

Serving Eastern and Orthodox Christians in the San Francisco Bay Area and California providing referrals to supportive clergy as well as encouragement and assistance for the formation of other groups in California

For an Orthodox Church worthy of 21st century christian faith and modern scientific truth together.

• AXIOS is an organization of Eastern & Near Eastern Orthodox, and Byzantine & Eastern-rite Catholic Gay & Lesbian lay Christians.
• The word AXIOS is taken from the Greek liturgical word which describes a truly worthy and deserving person.
• A Gay or Lesbian person who belongs to, or has been educated and reared in, or converted to the Eastern Christian tradition. It often, but not always, means people of Greek, Slavic, Albanian, Semitic or Armenian heritage. Though AXIOS is a lay organization, bishops, priests and other clergy have also become members.
• Here are Frequently Asked Questions About Axios.

Here is the website for Axios USA as well as New York historical information. Nicholas Zymaris, our Axios president, has also researched and translated documents on Adelphopoiia, the Orthodox Rite of Brotherhood between same-sex couples, both male or both female.

A sample of Nick's documents below concern two themes:

1. the “Clobber Passages” of Holy Scriptures are those used, through self-serving translations, to justify heterosexual philetism. (Philetism is the sin of treating one, usually ethnic, group as more worthy.)
2. the Orthodox Rite of Brotherhood between two same-sex partners.
   • This Orthodox service was brought into public awareness by the late professor John Boswell. He won the US historian of the year award. He was the graduate PhD advisor at Yale University in history and spoke many languages ancient and modern. His research was well documented. Professor Boswell died young but reminded us of several remarkable facts to deal with.
     • Before the 20th century, there were only 2 centuries that saw marriage as a romantic bond.
     • Until the 10th century, heterosexual marriages were simply blessed at the back of Orthodox Churches because they were primarily about property.
     • The Adelphopoiesis was celebrated, since the 4th century, close to the Altar with the dance of Isaiah, the Crowning and the mutual receiving of Holy Communion because they were about love.

• On Being Orthodox & Gay (May 1997)
• Adelphopoiesis from a Canonical Perspective
• Discussion of Scripture
  • Scripture and Tradition on Homosexuality
  • Questions from a lapsed Lutheran
  • St. John Chrysostom on love, passion and appetites
  • For an honest search of scripture

• First page of Dec. 1987 Axios New York Newsletter

Find Axios-DC in the nation's capitol. WHEN: Third Friday of every month, 7:30pm WHERE: St. Thomas Episcopal Church; The church is located at 1772 Church Street NW, one block east of Dupont Circle in Washington, DC and 2 blocks from the Dupont Circle Metro Station.

This group is now forming around a university.

Philip Abrahamson has written a very useful academic paper. ”Homosexuality, Roman Law and the Church: from Tolerence to Crime.”

• “Many ancient arguments against homosexuality show a fundamental misunderstanding of homosexual persons and the “cause” of these tendencies.”
• While it is popular to blame early Christianity for forcing anti-homosexual laws on the state. This paper shows that the opposite is true. The laws against homosexuality in Rome did not develop through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The Church and people generally resisted these laws. Instead, the laws reflected “a changing Roman ethic within the aristocracy.”
• “The Constitutional concept of separation of Church and State was largely to protect the Church from abuses of the State.” Possibly our State should be out of the marriage business all together as in France where civil partnerships are the only state concern and Marriage is left up to Churches to regulate among their membership.

This group is in formation.

The story of the Founding and Experience of Axios in Los Angeles California leads us to an understanding of the distinction between Orthodox Doctrine and Orthodox Orthopraxy. The discomfort we face as non-straight Orthodox Christian believers is seldom about Doctrine as has often has been the case in the western churches. Our cognitive dissonance is similar to that of a child who “knows that daddy loves me but he is hitting me.” The mainline hetero-praxy says that gays, but not straights, must accept their lifelong cross of total sexual abstinence. For those few gays who agree with that, there will be much support in the Churches. For the rest of us, however, the only solution to our cognitive dissonance is to get informed about the facts and nurture each other in solidarity. Right now, those closeted in the Churches are not talking to those who are out or those not in Church at all. We must work together to develop some solidarity with each other. The clergy are NOT going to do it. They have retirements to protect and some are even vulnerable themselves.

In fact it is not spiritually safe to hide alone from those you give a holy kiss. Being honest and transparent has always been at the root meaning of the word Orthodox and also of the coming out process itself. Gays who are out hold the greatest paranetic truth that can be given back to the Church. In the process, the Orthodox Church can recover its love for honesty and transparency which marks the Truth. However no one should be pushed to come out before they are ready. The history of Axios demonstrates that only in solidarity can we help each other find the true Holy Orthodox communities that practice hospitality among the philetistic “orthodox” communities. Let us all pray and work for the day when we will be safely able to worship and be served in all Orthodox Churches with honesty, transparency and the non-judgmental love of God that is truly Orthodox. Keep coming back, and contribute if you can, to the Journal of Pan-Orthodox Opinion as a resource for sanity regarding Holy Scripture translations, writings of the Church Fathers and orthopraxis as well as heteropraxis within the Orthodox Churches today.

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Axios Saturday Vespers

by Father George (Battelle) Axios representative, San Francisco

Fair use of these papers does not include their commercial use. When quoting, quote in context with reference to http://axios.org.

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