Some old articles from DEATH TO THE WORLD by PUNX TO MONKS

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Giorgos
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Post by Giorgos »

+
Dear Father Deacon Nicholas,
Only now I had see this Post.
It's wonderful, in truth. Very painful, too, but I think is helpful for many of Us.
Giorgos

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joasia
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Fr. Nicholas,

These articles are truely inspirational. They touched my heart, sooo deeply. Especially, the one about Fr. Seraphim. The tears wouldn't stop. I wish I could have met him. He is exactly the type of spiritual confessor I would have loved to have. His thoughts were so profound.

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Грешник
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Punks to Monks By Danny Duncan Collum Utne Reader, April 4, 2000
Eastern Orthodoxy's curious allure for young rebels

When John Marler arrived at the St. Herman monastery in Platina, California, he was only 19, but he was already in a state of advanced world-weariness. A disenchanted ex-guitarist for hard-core bands Sleep and Paxton Quiggly, he was hoping that the monk's life would grant him a modicum of relief from the nihilism and despair of the alternative rock scene. Four years later, Father John, as he's sometimes called, has become an inspiration to a surprisingly growing number of young people eager to embrace the mystical theology of -- are you ready? -- Eastern Orthodoxy.

As Frederica Mathewes-Green reports in re: generation quarterly (Winter 1997), Marler and two other punks-turned-monks at St Hermans -- Mother Neonilla and Father Damascene -- are reaching out to disaffected teens in ways hitherto unexplored by Orthodox Christianity: a zine, alternative music, a Web site, and a chain of coffeehouses. The zine, Death to the World, has reached more than 50,000 readers, mostly punks who "feel out of place in this world,"says Father Damascene. "We try to open up to them the beauty of God's creation," he adds, "and invite them to put to death 'the passions,' which is what we mean by 'the world.'

What's most remarkable about these monks is that they're tapping the heart of contemporary youth culture even though they have little or no contact with its commercial manifestations. Two of the St. Herman Brotherhood's three California monasteries have no electricity, phones, or running water. And Father John lives in a monastery on an island off Alaska and communicates only by mail.

On another level, however, the leap from punk to monk should not be that startling. Punk rock has always been a semi-monastic movement, with its distinctive reject-the-world garb and ritualistic mortifications of the flesh. The one thing punk has always insisted upon, from the very beginning, is passion. It didn't matter much whether it was the passionate nihilism of the Sex Pistols or the passionate idealism of the Clash as long as it was fervent and deeply felt. It's no accident that the hard-core wing of the punk movement gave birth early on to the "straight-edge" ethos, in which followers swear to abstain from drugs, drink, and meat.

There's something about going all the way, without compromise or equivocation, that appeals to young people in a time when commitments of all kinds, from employment to marriage, seem temporary and conditional. Of course, going all the way can mean all the way out -- to drugs, or crime, or a one-way trip to the Hale-Bopp mothership. Or, as in the case of the punk monks, it can mean going all the way into the life of the spirit...

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Death to the World
Punks turned Monks

by Frederica Mathewes-Green
Originally published in re:generation Quarterly

High in a Russian Orthodox monastery in the California mountains, Father Damascene and Father John had a problem. They wanted to place an ad in Maximum Rock and Roll, "the most hardcore" of all the punk magazines, but were having trouble getting it past the editor.

If this sounds like the beginning of an interesting story, just wait.

The story actually began a few years earlier. Four years ago, John Marler arrived at the St. Herman of Alaska monastery in Platina, California, weary of life. Though only nineteen, he had already been guitarist in two successful punk-rock bands, Sleep and Paxton Quiggly. Once he found faith in Christ and a home in Orthodoxy, the new monk wanted to bring the same hope to the punk subculture he had just escaped, a community of kids crippled by nihilism and despair.

The St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood (which sponsors the Platina abbey and several other monasteries) had already begun attracting some kids from the nearby town of Chico, and Mother Neonilla--previously a "serious punker" herself--encouraged Fr. John to reach out to them. The first idea called for fellow-monk Fr. Damascene Christensen, who had recently completed the book Not of this World: The Life and Teaching of Fr. Seraphim Rose, to write an article about Fr. Seraphim for publication in Maximum Rock and Roll. "But as I read over the magazine, I realized there was no way they'd publish something like this," Fr. Damascene recalls.

Next, they decided to try to place an ad, but the editor's response--"What the @#*% is a Brotherhood?"--tipped them off that this wasn't going to fly either. The monks were told, "We only run ads for music and 'zines." (For the uninitiated, a 'zine is a rough, homemade-looking magazine, scissored and pasted and photocopied, and offered cheap or free on the streets.)

"We need a 'zine," the monks told each other, and thus appeared one of the oddest of the punk-style publications, Death to the World. The cover of the first issue shows a white-bearded monk holding a skull, and the inaugural essay begins, "The last true rebellion is death to the world. To be crucified to the world and the world to us." The back cover shows the figure on the Shroud of Turin, with this caption: they hated me without a cause.

"These kids are sick of themselves," says Fr. Damascene, "and they feel out of place in this world. We try to open up to them the beauty of God's creation, and invite them to put to death 'the passions,' which is what we mean by 'the world.' God takes despair and turns it around to something positive. Selfish passions can then be redirected into love for God, as Mary Magdalene did. We talk about the idea of suffering because that is what the kids feel most strongly. We show that there can be meaning in suffering."

The first issue, published in December 1994, was advertised in Maximum Rock and Roll and brought letters from "all over the world--Japan, Lithuania, Ireland." Copies of that issue were mailed to an ever-growing list, distributed at punk shows, and photocopied and passed along by others. Fr. Damascene estimates that more than 50,000 copies are now in circulation.

"Kids were writing to us and we realized they needed more personal contact," says Fr. Damascene, so the Brotherhood began turning bookstores and restaurants into coffeehouses, or "mystical hangouts." There are now fourteen of these across the country and in Europe and Australia, with flagship examples in Boston and Santa Rosa, California.

A typical flyer, handed out to street kids, reads: "Desert Wisdom Kaffe House, Kansas City's most mystical hangout. Drink Ethiopian coffee & espresso. Hear ancient otherworldly chants. Smell rare middle-eastern incense. Discover the ancient African & Eastern superheroes." Of course the chants are Orthodox-style Christian hymns, the incense is borrowed from liturgical use, and the "superheroes" are saints of the Bible and church history. A poster used at some coffeehouses shows a young monk holding open a wooden box of bones and a skull. The caption reads, "Death to the tyranny of fashion!"

Pretty sophisticated marketing strategy; we can well imagine this reaching kids who will tune out anything less as manipulative and sugar-coated. But like any good evangelism, it gets its power from love for the lost. Father Paisius, also at the monastery, explains, "This subculture is raucous and deeply disturbed because of their own pain. It's demonic; they're living in hell, overdosing on drugs, or maybe going into a rage and killing someone. They see life as worthless. We want to show them an ideal that is worth their life. These are marginalized youth who are wounded, and Death to the World is meant to touch with a healing hand that wound."

A successful 'zine and chain of coffeehouses is an especially impressive accomplishment considering how simply the monks live. The California mountaintop monastery of St. Herman of Alaska has no electricity, phone, or running water, and "the monks live in the midst of rattlesnakes, scorpions, and peacocks, translating and publishing wisdom from the holy fathers and mothers of ages past." Another twelve miles up the mountain is a sister monastery for women, St. Xenia Skete, also without phones, water, or electricity. The nuns live in log cells they construct themselves; they "till the garden, chop wood, and also work on publishing." It was not possible to speak with Fr. John for this article, as he lives in a similar monastery on an island off the Alaska coast where getting to a phone requires prior notice by mail.

The Brotherhood's St. Paisius Abbey, however, has a few modern conveniences, and the monks and nuns there are glad to fill orders and answer questions.

Back copies of Death to the World (which has just published its eleventh issue) can be ordered for $1.00 each from Death to the World, 7777 Martinelli Road, Forestville, CA 95436; phone 707.887.9740. The community also offers a tape of original songs by Fr. John, and a book, Youth of the Apocalypse, written by Fr. John and Fr. Andrew Wermuth (these two describe themselves as "punks turned monks").

A friend in Charlottesville, Virginia, Deacon Michael Furry, has set up a web page for Death to the World, and past issues can be reviewed there: http://www.stinnocent.com/seraphim

So, what has your youth group been doing lately?

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pjhatala
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Post by pjhatala »

Juvenaly,
I think the link you were looking for is:

http://www.stinnocent.com/seraphim/dtw/dtw.html

John Marler is an amazing guy. A few years ago we exchanged a good number of e-mails. He even sent me an old copy of Unseen Warfare as a gift. He's currently married and still living in California. Punk Rock's rejection of "the world" can sometimes be a logical step towards Christ, in my opinion.

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尼古拉前执事
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Bumping this up by request!

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:bump:

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