Sophia - Melkite Eparchy of Newton

Making Sense out of BioethicsThe Holy Grail of Reprogramming Continued from page 31and there are certain types of researchlike germ warfare studies or nuclearbomb development that the governmentstrictly regulates already. Otherkinds of research are criminal, such asperforming medical experiments onpatients who don’t give their consent.The idea that we have to allow scienceto do whatever it wants is little morethan “pie-in-the-sky” wishful thinking.The third reason embryo destructiveresearch will still likely be promotedhas to do with abortion. Several astutecommentators have noted recently howthe whole field of embryonic stem cellresearch seems to serve as a kind of“hedge” for abortion. In the same waythat a garden gets a hedge placedaround it in order to protect it, embryonicstem cells are becoming a placeholder for abortion. If embryo killingbecomes incorporated into the way wecure illnesses and maintain our healthas a society, then abortion on demandwill be more likely to curry flavor inour culture as well. If those trying toprotect embryos carry the day, proabortionistsfear that the same ethicalarguments will prevail against abortion.Several factors will therefore influencehow this major new stem cell discoveryplays out in the future. Onething is clear, however: those renegaderesearchers, lawmakers and Hollywoodpersonalities who have long dismissedethical concerns and advocated humanembryo destruction now find themselvesat an important juncture becauseof this breakthrough. We can only hopethat in the wake of this discovery, thesiren call of harvesting human embryoswill cease ringing in their ears andallow for a new era of ethical science inour society. †Fr. Tadeusz Pacholczyk, Ph.D. earned hisdoctorate in neuroscience from Yale and didpost-doctoral work at Harvard. He is a priest ofthe diocese of Fall River, MA, and serves as theDirector of Education at The National CatholicBioethics Center in Philadelphia. For more infosee www.ncbcenter.orgNew CD Presents theMusic of the DivineLiturgy in Englishfor Congregations andIndividuals to LearnHave you or your congregation or your choir wanted tolearn how to sing the Divine Liturgy in English, but foundit difficult because people can’t read music? Have you foundit hard to fit the English words to the familiar chant melodies?Anew CD has just been released to help people learnthe songs of the Liturgy and the special hymns for feastdays in English.It is Time for the Lord to Act Music of the Melkite Greek-Catholic Divine Liturgy was chanted by Father Justin Roseand recorded by Joel Davel in St. Elias the Prophet MelkiteChurch in San Jose, CA, on January 2, 2008.The 70 tracks on this CD are sung according to the standardmusic of the Eparchy of Newton found in The MelkiteHymnal of Archimandrite Cyril Haddad (1975) and otherapproved sources. The tracks are arranged so that all themusic for a Sunday or feast is together for easy learningand rehearsal.The selections include the simple and formal Lord havemercy responses, as well as those for Great Lent; the variousrefrains for the Antiphons; Only Begotten Son; theEisodika (Little Entrance hymns) for Sundays and feasts; theusual and Lenten Kontakia; the Trisagion for ordinarySundays, great feasts, and feasts of the Holy Cross; theGospel Alleluia; two versions of the Cherubikon; two versionsof the Hirmos of the Liturgy of St John Chrysostom,the Hirmos of the Liturgy of St Basil, and Hirmoi for thegreat feasts; the Koinonikon for Sunday and for feasts; andthe hymns and responses for the beginning of the Anaphoraand before and after Communion.The Troparia, litany responses, Memory Eternal, andKontakion of the Dead for the Memorial Service arealso included.As on Father Justin’s previous CD featuring the music ofthe Eight Tones, this CD makes the essential music of ourChurch available at a reasonable cost in the latest technology,sung by a native speaker of English who has longfamiliarity and extensive experience with the music. Theseare not concert performances, but practical examples ofmusic in its place in worship.Copies of this new CD, It is Time for the Lord to Act, andfrom the first CD, Lord to You I Call, featuring music forEvening Prayer, Feast day Troparia and Kontakia, are availablefor $15 each, including shipping, from Fr. Justin Rose,St. Philip Mission, 923 West Congress Street, SanBernardino, CA 92410. For more information, email Fr.Justin at abounajustin@earthlink.net.32 SOPHIA • Winter 2008