by Fr. Zechariah Lynch In true Christianity — Orthodoxy — right faith and living go hand in hand. For instance, a person cannot confess that "Jesus Christ is not God" and be an Orthodox Christian. In confessing something contrary to the revelation of God in His Church, such a one is setting himself at odds with that revelation. Of course, one may repent, that is, change his faulty confession and receive the true confession of Christ in His Church. Yet a person who willingly persists in a false teaching, willingly sets himself outside of Christ and His Body. A person who rejects the manifest teachings of true Christianity is not a Christian at all. Such a one subscribes to heresy and is a … [Read more...]
Why God’s Pronouns are Masculine, Not Feminine
by Fr. Hans Jacobse Let me condense what rejecting the masculine pronoun for God really means. To reference God with the masculine pronoun (He, Him) affirms that His (God's) manner of creating differs from how new life is brought into being within His creation. Within the creation new life is brought into the world through a birth. But God did not create the world through any birthing process. God spoke the world into existence. Speaking the world into existence creates ontological separation between the Creator and His creation. God and creation are not the same. In a manner of speaking this distinction is the primordial binary. Put another way, if we call God "She", we imply that … [Read more...]
Christ’s Greatest Miracle
by Abbot Tryphon Of all the miracles of Christ, the greatest is the Eucharist. The Gospels are filled with accounts of miracles performed by Christ, but the greatest of them all was when He offered the simple elements of bread and wine, made by man, and transformed them into His very Body and Blood. This miracle continues to this very day, after some two thousand years, to bring Christ into our very midst and allow us to receive Him for the healing of both our bodies and our souls. That He would use as agents for this transformation, priests, to call down the Holy Spirit to continue this miracle, is one of the great mysteries of our Christian Faith. Just before the priest offers Holy … [Read more...]
The Powers of the Soul and their Curative Exercises
In the soul we find three powers: the intellect, the will, and the heart, or, as the Holy Fathers say, the intellectual, desiring and incensive powers. Each of them is assigned particular curative exercises by the holy ascetics. These related exercises are both receptive and conducive to grace. They need not be contrived according to some theory, but rather chosen from tested ascetic labors particularly suited to a given power: For the intellect 1) Reading and hearing the Word of God, the writings of the Holy Fathers and the lives of the God-pleasers. 2) Studying and impressing upon yourself all the God-given truths in brief statements (the catechesis). 3) Asking questions of those … [Read more...]
The Bible, the Church, and Homosexuality
by Fr. John Whiteford When it comes to the interpretation of the Scriptures we speak of "exegesis" (which refers to bringing the correct meaning of the text out through proper interpretation) and "eisegesis" (which is reading an incorrect meaning into the text of Scripture that is not in fact there), but in the case of the recent article "Orthodox Pastoral Response in the Past to Same-Sex Behavior", written by an anonymous author we have to coin a new term to describe its peculiar approach to Scripture: "obscurantegesis" (which is the intentional obscuring of the meaning of a text or texts of Scripture). It is clear that the anonymous author is not interested in what the Church has actually … [Read more...]
St. Herman’s Youth Camp Conference in Phoenix, December 26-30, 2022
St. Herman’s West 2022 will be held this year at Christ the Savior Orthodox Church in Youngtown (near Phoenix), AZ. Arrival is December 26 with departure on December 30. The conference will include a work project — building a walkway for processions at the church, panel discussions, lectures by Fr. George Kaplanov, liturgical workshops, a hierarchal liturgy, and social interaction in beautiful areas of Phoenix and Old Town Scottsdale. Come out for a break from winter weather and an injection of new life into your Orthodox life! Registration for parishioners of the ROCOR Western American Diocese opens October 1. Register Here. The cost for youth is $275 for first family member, $250 for … [Read more...]
Home Bible School
by Fr. Patrick Henry Reardon Before he ever met the Apostle Paul, the life of young Timothy was already full of blessings. Indeed, Paul himself, among the last lines he wrote on this earth, reminded Timothy of those blessings: “But you must continue in the things which you have learned and been assured of, knowing from whom you have learned them, and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Tim. 3:14–15). Both Paul and Timothy knew who were the latter’s first teachers of Holy Scripture. Paul wrote earlier in this same epistle, “I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in … [Read more...]
Transfiguration and the Cross
By George Mantzarides Professor at the School of Theology, University of Thessaloniki Are you aware that counting 40 days from Transfiguration, on the 40th day we celebrate the Exaltation of the Holy Cross? It’s not a mistake. The Transfiguration of Our Savior has a central place in the Orthodox Church and in Orthodox theology. It is the event that reveals the glory of the Church and of the faithful. It is a witness to the new reality introduced by the coming of Christ in history. During His Transfiguration, Christ revealed the Uncreated Glory of His Divinity within His human nature. At the same time, He took up those surrounding Him into His Uncreated Divine Glory. Moses and Elias … [Read more...]
His Grace Bishop Nicholas is elected First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia
On Tuesday, 13 September, 2022, the election of the new Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia by its Council of Bishops took place. In accordance with the Act of Canonical Communion, signed on 17 May, 2007, the Council will send the Act of the election, drafted by the counting committee to His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia with a request to bless the electee to assume the duties of the First Hierarch entrusted to him by his brethren archpastors, and for confirmation of the election by the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church. The rite of enthronement of His Eminence Metropolitan Nicholas of Eastern America and New York, newly-elected First … [Read more...]
Orthodox Professor Fired from Evangelical Christian College for Traditional View of Marriage
Former university provost and chief academic officer Michael Emerson has publicly testified that faculty and administrators conspired to get rid of Nassif for standing in the way of the school’s transition away from the Christian view of marriage. The administration characterized his views of marriage as “too extreme.” A tenured Orthodox professor was fired recently from Chicago’s North Park University for taking a stand on traditional marriage. The school is sponsored by the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC), which itself professes that, “A publicly declared, legally binding marriage between one woman and one man is the one appropriate place for sexual intercourse.” However, it … [Read more...]
- « Previous Page
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- …
- 22
- Next Page »
