When I was an Anglican priest I once asked my Anglican Bishop if I could invite someone to our parish to speak about creation from the Christian and biblical perspective. To my amazement he refused to grant permission and told me that I “should be more open-minded!” Alas, the government in the United Kingdom is following along the same path, perhaps even with the blessing of the Bishops of the Church of England?
To Members of the Anglican Church who are unhappy at the degradation of their Communion, if you are looking for a faithful Church, we present “the Orthodox Option” for your consideration.
From the very beginning Christianity claimed that Jesus was raised from the dead. Not in the sense of the internal mental and spiritual states of His followers a few days after His crucifixion, but about something that had happened in the real, public world.
When someone’s spiritual practices runs beyond the measure of grace that they have been given, a void is created in their soul. Either it will lead them to sin, or it will make them perverse, proud, hard, and unmerciful. Let’s learn some more about how to encounter God.
The Truth of Orthodoxy is a theological essay by Nikolai Berdyaev (1874–1948) about what makes Orthodoxy different from all other Christian Churches. In beautiful and nuanced language, Berdyaev examines the revelation of the Holy Spirit throughout Orthodox history, the holy mysteries in the interactions between the material and spiritual, and the liturgical means of teaching people about salvation and the life after death. In this excerpt, we learn why the Orthodox Church has changed so little over the centuries.
The knowledge of God, generally spoken of in a very experiential manner, is an absolute foundation in Orthodox theology. Nothing replaces it — no dogmatic formula, no Creed, not even Scripture — though Orthodoxy would see none of these things as separate from the knowledge of God. But the questions I have received are very apt. In a culture that is awash in “experience,” what do the Orthodox mean when we speak of such things and what do we mean by such knowledge of God?
As a convert to Orthodoxy from Anglicanism, as I read the following reflections by Monte Wilson, I realised that I had “been there and done that” for a large part of my life. Reading this article helped me realise how thankful I am that God let me to Orthodox worship. Thanks be to God for everything! - Fr. Geoff Narcissism Goes to Church: Encountering Evangelical Worship Have you attended any modern evangelical worship services lately? Question: Is “Evangelical Worship” an oxymoron? No? Well, let’s walk through one, shall we?
One of my sisters, Penelope Anne — or Penny for short — has just died at the relatively young age of 61. She had been battling a very aggressive cancer for three and a half years. After two lots of chemotherapy, both of which almost killed her, she decided not to have any more. The doctors didn’t expect her to reach her 60th birthday. When she did, the whole extended family joined her to celebrate.
A year ago, His Royal Highness Prince Michael of Kent expressed a wish to obtain a holy Orthodox icon as a gift for the Queen during his informal visit to the town of Nevjansk in Sverdloskiy Region. The Prince particularly liked one of the most highly cherished icons in Russia, Our Lady’s icon “Tenderness.” St. Seraphim of Sarov, a highly revered 19th-century Russian monk, kept it in his cell and treasured its healing power. He called this the “Tenderness icon,” representing Mary’s feelings of tenderness at the Annunciation, the “Joy of All Joys.”
Just discovered this report from http://directionstoorthodoxy.org/ on a recent meeting of Bishops Sabezy (Geneva) on the subject of what is known as the ‘Orthodox Diaspora’ (in Greek, διασπορά – “a scattering [of seeds]“) refers to the movement of any population sharing common ethnic identity (Antiochian, Greek, Romanian, Russian, etc.) who were either forced to leave or voluntarily left their settled territory, and became residents in areas often far remote from the former.) of which Australia is a part.