By R. Dorothy Poli

The event was accompanied by a private viewing of the exhibit: Icon Painting in Venetian Crete: Origins of El Greco. Following the exhibit viewing, Rev. Dr. Frank Marangos, the Cathedral Dean and spiritual leader of FOS, introduced the winter series that began on January 19 and continues every Tuesday evening through March 23.

In this series, Father Frank compares and contrasts Greek mythology and Christianity, examining such issues as “morality and salvation and the impact of Greek mythology and philosophy on the world and religion”. He explains that as the intelligentsia of the ancient world, the Greeks attempted to answer the questions of human existence, the origins of the universe, gods and man from a mythological perspective.

The Greeks of Byzantium advanced this study through the Byzantine synthesis of Christian dogma and Greek philosophy. However, whereas the Greeks of the ancient world made gods in the human image, the Greeks of the Christian world understood that humans are made in God’s image.

FOS, Forum on Orthodox Spirituality, one of the newer ministries of the Archdiocesan Cathedral, is approaching its second year anniversary. It has grown from the initial meeting of 10 people to now 100-150 that attend weekly and draws from a group of many hundreds. FOS is geared towards New York area professionals who are educated, intelligent and driven but like most people today still restless and searching. Therefore, the impetus for the creation of FOS was to fill a need for spirituality as a way to balance and find fulfillment in their lives. Rev. Frank Maragos does this by drawing out the enormous richness in Orthodox spirituality and its mystical theology and in this series highlights the Christian use of ancient Greek wisdom, morality, teachings and mythology to serve as a guide for addressing personal issues encountered in Manhattan society today.

FOS sponsors social, philanthropic and outreach events in addition to the Tuesday night presentations which focus on an array of spiritual themes. Going forward, FOS plans to purchase supplies out of the homeless fund donations to make kits for the earthquake victims of Haiti. The group had created a fund in conjunction with a “‘homeless run” it sponsored in Manhattan last year with the Midnight Run organization.

FOS is also sponsoring its first Lenten Retreat on March 12-14, 2010 at the St. Methodios Faith & Heritage Center in New Hampshire. The topic is Avatars of Spirituality: Rediscovering the Parable of the Prodigal Son. This Lenten Retreat will examine prodigals in the context of Holy Scripture and contemporary culture.

Forum on Orthodox Spirituality is a great example of clergy-laity collaboration and represents one of the things the Church can be for people – spiritual edification and nourishment and a source of community.

R. Dorothy Poli is the Director of FOS and co-founder with Rev. Dr. Frank Marangos. For more information on the organization, please visit http://www.thecathedralnyc.org/. Summaries of the presentations can be found at http://www.thecathedral.goarch.org/FOSSummary/. Interested individuals can be added to the FOS mailing list by sending an e-mail to fos.cathedral@gmail.com.