CBS News | 1984 | A tribute to Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann
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Orthodox Christianity
The Treason of the Bishops
Crunchy Con Blog | Rod Dreher | Jan. 31, 2008
Some readers are aware that the Orthodox Church in America, my church, is undergoing a huge scandal now centered on the hierarchy — especially Metropolitan Herman and his coterie at church headquarters. It involves money, mostly, but also — it has been alleged — sexual impropriety of some of the players. The scandal has been going on for quite some time, and the bishops, being bishops, cannot or will not take decisive action to clean out the Augean stables. What is it with bishops, anyway? Anyway, should you care to, you can read all about the scandal at the exhaustive OCANews.org site, which has become an invaluable source of news and commentary on the mess. [Read more…]
Life in the Womb & Abortion
OrthodoxyToday | Fr. Richard Demetrius Andrews | Jan. 20, 2008
Since in the teaching of the Church, abortion is wrong and equivalent to the taking of innocent life, that is, a form of murder, it is a “thing that does damage.” The name take by those who encourage and facilitate abortions, to promote their cause is “Pro-Choice.” Because few would agree that abortion is a “thing that is good in itself,” they do not usually call themselves “Pro-Abortion.” By projecting “choice” rather than “abortion” they distract us from the fact that they are encouraging and making easier a behavior that is wrong. [Read more…]
The Bible Calls it a Sin
Moral clarity from Metropolitan Kyrill, foreign minister of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Spiegel Online | Metropolitan Kyrill | Jan. 10, 2008
Metropolitan Kyrill, foreign minister of the Russian Orthodox Church, discusses Christian values in the post-communist era, his relationship with the pope in Rome, Vladimir Putin the churchgoer — and wrangles with SPIEGEL about homosexuality.
+Kyrill: “The Bible calls it a sin. But we do not condemn these people. The church is opposed to these people being persecuted or offended. But why should sin be propagated? The gay parade is a blatant display of sodomy. In that case, we might as well promote other sins, as has long been the case on television. This degenerates public morality.” [Read more…]
What a Christian Bishop Should Be Like
OCANews.org | Fr. Thomas Hopko | Dec. 11, 2007
A St. Nicholas Day Reflection
The Orthodox Church’s main hymn (troparion/apolytikion) for the feast of St. Nicholas of Myra is the general hymn for all of the Church’s holy bishops. As such, for example, it is sung the day after the feast of St. Nicholas for the celebration of St. Ambrose of Milan. This hymn tells us what a Christian bishop (and, by extension, also a presbyter) ought to be for his people. And so it also tells us how all Christians should be. [Read more…]
Communism is a Powerful Anti-Christian Heresy
by Dennis E. Engleman –
Throughout the Church age, the mystery of iniquity worked subtly and insidiously to foster unbelief. Satanically inspired humanism, which had received such impetus during the Renaissance and Enlightenment, reached its nihilistic nadir in the early twentieth century in the form of atheistic communism. The utopian ideology which is at the root of communism, and in fact of most secular thought, is seldom clearly realized even by its adherents; it has become part of the unexamined ideological inheritance of the post-Enlightenment era.
“One has to realize what communism is,” insisted Father Seraphim Rose. “Not merely a power-mad political regime, but an ideological-religious system whose aim is to overthrow and supplant all other systems, most of all Christianity. [Read more…]
The Orthodox Church – A visual journey
A reminder of the treasure and blessings we have been entrusted with.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gj4pUphDitA
The Task of Orthodox Theology in America Today
OrthodoxNet.com | Fr. Alexander Schmemann | September 26, 1966
WHAT DO WE MEAN when we speak of the Orthodox theological task in America today? It is proper to begin with this question because the title of my paper may seem to suggest a theological orientation of which Orthodoxy is suspicious, but which seems to predominate in the West today. It is the reduction of theology to a given “situation” or “age,” a stress on “relevance” understood almost exclusively as a dependence of theology, its task, method and language on the “modern man” and his specifically modern “needs.”
From the beginning, therefore, we must emphasize that Orthodoxy rejects such a reduction of theology, whose first and eternal tasks is to search for Truth, not for relevance, for words “adequate to God” (theoprepeis logoi), not to man. Theology is truly relevant because it is truly Christian when it remains a scandal for the Jews, foolishness for the Greeks and is at odds with this world and its passing “cultures” and “modernities.”
Orthodox mission in the 21st century
Notes from the Underground | Dn. Stephen Hayes | April 27, 2007
This post is from the concluding chapter of my thesis on “Orthodox mission methods”, submitted in 1998. I have posted it mainly as a follow-up to the previous post and comments, especially the comments by Phil Johnson, on monasticism and utilitarianism.
