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Friday October 30, 2009

Categories: Environment, Orthodoxy

One environment, indivisible

Bartholomew, the Ecumenical Patriarch of the Orthodox Church (sort of like our Archbishop of Canterbury -- he's the figurehead, but he has no local jurisdiction, as the Pope does for Catholics), has long been called the "Green Patriarch" for his commitment to the environment. The other day, he published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal about what our commitment to the earth should entail. Excerpt:

Climate change, pollution and the exploitation of our natural resources are commonly seen as the domain not of priests but rather of politicians, scientists, technocrats or interest groups organized by concerned citizens. What does preserving the planet have to do with saving the soul?

A lot, as it turns out. For if life is sacred, so is the entire web that sustains it. Some of those connections--the effects of overharvesting on the fish populations of the North Atlantic, for example--we understand very well. Others, such as the long-term health impacts of industrialization, we understand less well. But no one doubts that there is a connection and balance among all things animate and inanimate on this third planet from the Sun, and that there is a cost or benefit whenever we tamper with that balance.

Moreover, just as God is indivisible, so too is our global environment. The molecules of water that comprise the great North Atlantic are neither European nor American. The particles of atmosphere above the United Kingdom are neither Labour nor Tory. There can be no double vision, no dualistic worldview. Faith communities and nonbelievers alike must focus on the common issue of the survival of our planet. The natural environment unites us in ways that transcend doctrinal differences.

Not all Orthodox agree. From one priest's criticism:

As an Orthodox theologian, Patriarch Bartholomew knows that the human heart seeks not abstract unity but personal communion, not bureaucracy but communion, not the tyranny of sin but true and lasting freedom. In Orthodox theological terms all of this rests in the Most Holy Trinity itself although not on the level of ousia, that is, through the shared divine nature, but by the hypostasis, that is the union of Divine Persons--Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Whether in the Holy Trinity or in the human family, personal communion is radically different then the union possessed by "molecules of water" or by "particles of atmosphere." The union of the physical creation is impersonal. There is no communion between molecules of water or particles of air.

Thus the comparison of the human to the non-human world in these terms makes all conversation about what is in our best personal or national interest meaningless. When particularity is subsumed into an abstraction, the differences between people ultimately have no meaning.

This seems wrong to me, by which I mean, I think Father is reading the EP's remarks in a mistaken way. Granted, I'm no theologian, but I don't see what's wrong with what the EP said, in terms of Orthodox metaphysics. Orthodox Christianity is panentheistic , meaning that God is seen as literally present, in his divine energies, in all aspects of Creation. It is a profoundly sacramental view of Creation. To my lay understanding, the EP is simply pointing to the environmental implications of Orthodoxy's panentheism. (Which, by the way, is not the same as pantheism; pantheism says that all things are God; panentheism says that God is in all things. Big difference.)

Friday August 14, 2009

Categories: Orthodoxy

Metropolitan Philip plays hardball

It is hard for me to be neutral about this, because I know at least one of the seminarians involved here. But here's the news: the Antiochian Orthodox patriarch, Philip, has pulled incoming Antiochian seminarians from the OCA-run seminaries to protest the failure of the OCA to "discipline" online journalist Mark Stokoe, whose website has covered the Antiochian meltdown with the same exhaustive rigor with which he covered a similar crisis in the OCA (of which Stokoe is a communicant). From Stokoe's report:

Towards the end of the 2008-2009 academic year, senior Antiochian faculty at both St. Tikhon's and St. Vladimir's were reported to have met with school administrators with a message from Metropolitan Philip: unless OCANEWS.org, ceased reporting on the Archdiocese there would be "consequences" for the two OCA schools. This same message was relayed to the Administration of the OCA in April 2009. In each instance it was pointed out to Metropolitan Philip that OCANEWS.org is not affiliated in any way with the Orthodox Church in America, nor is Mark Stokoe a "spokesperson" for the OCA, or either seminary. (The site has actually carried a disclaimer to that effect on its homepage since it began publication in 2006.) Neither the OCA Administration, nor the seminaries, have ever had influence on the site's policies or content, although Stokoe is a member of the OCA, and more recently, a member of its 25-member Metropolitan Council.

The connection between Stokoe and the OCA seminaries is even more tenuous: Stokoe graduated from St. Vladimir's more than 25 years ago but has no official ties to the school. He has only visited St. Tikhon's Seminary once in his life. Angry at Stokoe's reporting of troubles in the Antiochian Archdiocese in the wake of the +Philip's attempted demotion of his diocesan bishops to auxiliary status, +Philip was not to be assuaged by the realities of the situation. The OCA was warned that the schools - and the OCA itself - would face repercussions if Stokoe was not silenced.

This is crazy. The OCA can't "silence" a journalist -- nor, in my view, should it. I don't read Stokoe's site closely, and when I have read it, I haven't by any means agreed with everything on it. But I know that it played a critical role in keeping the heat on the corrupt former leadership of the OCA. It is imperative that our church and all churches have independent reporting. That Met. Philip thinks the way to deal with legitimate reporting and critical commentary on his governance is by demanding that other patriarchs attempt to quash the bearer of bad news shows how out of touch he is with this country and the times. In fact, as a journalist and as an Orthodox Christian, I think it's outrageous. Stokoe, writing in the third person, reports that when Orthodox clergy asked for his cooperation:

...Stokoe, on principle, declined to cease publication, likening +Philip's threatened action against the helpless schools to little more than "blackmail". "As recent OCA history has pointed out," he told his callers, "once you give in to the fear of blackmail, the blackmailer controls you. Such threats are unbecoming a Christian Bishop."

Completely agree. I'm very, very sorry that the OCA seminaries are having to suffer, and my heart is broken that these seminarians, including my friend, are having to suffer so grievously. But this tells us a very great deal about Met. Philip, none of it good. It is deeply wrong that he would punish these seminarians and their families, his own church, and the OCA for something that is not their fault, and for which they have no control over. It's tyrannical and unjust, and a sign of weakness, not strength. Sad and disgraceful. Lord, have mercy.

Wednesday August 5, 2009

Categories: Orthodoxy

The fruits of hospitality

stjameshouse.jpg

On this week-long visit to Eagle River, Alaska, and the church community of St. John's Cathedral, Matthew and I have been staying in the St. James House on the church property (see right). The house is a special ministry of the cathedral, and indeed was the first building here. This community began a generation ago, when some members of Campus Crusade for Christ bought the land in what was then a rural suburb of Anchorage, and moved out here together. What would become the St. James House was the only building here. It was a Roman Catholic convent; the nuns were winding up their time here -- there was no water on the site, making it unsuitable for the contemplative order -- and sold it to the Evangelical newcomers. Interestingly, the Trappist monk Thomas Merton, whose memoir "The Seven Storey Mountain" played such a pivotal role in my becoming a Christian, visited this house when it was a convent, on what would be his final journey (he died in Asia). He stayed in an old trailer next to the convent, and gave a retreat here for the nuns. I believe he gave it in the room where Matthew and I are staying; it's called the "Thomas Merton Room" here, and there are a couple of images of him framed and on the wall. What a privilege to have this room. Ron Dart tells of Merton's time in Eagle River here. Merton wrote in his journal:

September 18/Eagle River

Alaska -- the Convent of the Precious Blood -- surrounded by woods, with a highway (too) near. The woods of Alaska -- marvelous -- deep in wet grass, fern, rotten fallen trees, big leaved thorn scrub, yellowing birch, stunted fir, aspens. Thick. Humid. Lush. Smelling of life & of rot. Rich Undergrowth, full of mosses, berries -- & probably (in other seasons) flowers. The air is now here cool and sharp as late November in the "outside" (ie. "the States") ("lower 48").

cathedralinAK.jpg

Anyway, the story of how the Evangelicals made a community for themselves in the woods here, came into the Antiochian Orthodox church, and built their beautiful cedarwood cathedral (see left), is a familiar one, at least in Orthodox circles, and I won't retell it here. Today, many of the families from the cathedral live on Monastery Road, which runs in front of the cathedral, and live with a close sense of community. Much of the community's life seems to revolve around St. James House. I was in the kitchen the other night talking to someone about this place, and my friend said that this house, and everything here, grew out of a sense of hospitality that. Fr. Harold Dunaway and his wife established in this place.

"They didn't set out to build all this," my friend said. "They simply started out with a sense of hospitality and welcome to whoever wanted to join, or just spend some time here."

The St. James House has a resident family each year, living in the apartment and overseeing matters. It also has a yearlong residency program for single men and women who want to live in Christian community while working around the church, and at whatever job they can find outside to support themselves. This is a great place to meet Christian wayfarers and pilgrims, and simply to sit around, drink coffee, and get to know them. Last night, several of us were up very late talking about the faith. We heard an astonishing tale of conversion from a 29-year-old Orthodox pilgrim, who had spent many years deeply involved in Eastern religions and New Age, searching for solace and comfort that had been denied him in his difficult and painful childhood. He went to India in search of enlightenment, and immersed himself in Hindu and Buddhist practices. This fantastic book by a Greek Orthodox seeker who went off to India seeking enlightenment, and who nearly lost his soul, could have been told by the young man we heard from last night. In fact, he said he'd read the book, and his experiences were very much like those recounted in the book, even the scary, dark stuff.

Anyway, this fellow last night trekked to the Himalayas, found a hermit's cave with a little door on it left by the last person to live there, shut himself up in the cave on his 28th birthday, and began to meditate. And wonder of wonders, Jesus Christ came to him -- powerfully, overwhelmingly. He absolutely wasn't expecting that. When he emerged from the cave, he was born out of the mountain into a new world, and a new reality. He made his way back to the US eventually, and a short time later into Orthodoxy. He said that a mysterious vision he'd had in the cave only made sense months later, when he was invited to an Orthodox church for vespers, and upon entering recognized it as the place he'd seen in his cave vision. "All I could do was cry and cry," he told us. "I was home."

And now he's living in a monastery on an Alaska island, trying to discern the path of the rest of his life. Which is one reason why he's here this week in Eagle River. I told him that he absolutely had to write the story of his journey, that it was one of the most extraordinary things I'd ever heard (I've only given you the bare bones here). I get the sense that St. James House welcomes lots of wanderers and pilgrims like that young man. The sense of hospitality here is overwhelming. It will be hard to leave, but I hope I have the grace to take some of this spirit home with me.

(By the way, if you're a single Christian serious about your faith but uncertain of your path, and would like to be considered for a yearlong placement in this wonderful house, more information here.)

Thursday July 30, 2009

Categories: Orthodoxy

The monk who died with a smile on his face

joseph of vatopedi.jpg

Isn't this a marvelous face? It belongs to Elder Joseph of Vatopedi, a monk of Mount Athos who died a few weeks ago; this image of Elder Joseph in his casket was taken at his funeral on the holy mountain. Surely this was a man who died at peace with his God and himself. Pray for a good death.

UPDATE: A further thought. The other day I was speaking with an Orthodox friend who had been to Athos on pilgrimage. He said it's an extraordinary environment, as you might imagine, but not the tranquil place you might expect. Rather, he experienced it as a place of great spiritual struggle -- which, of course, it is. But I think most of us imagine that a monastery is a place in which men (or women) retreat to work out their salvation in an atmosphere of leisurely contemplation. This was not how my friend saw it; he said that yes, there was a certain peace present there, but it was palpably hard-won. These men are not, as some might think, spiritual leisure-seekers, but spiritual athletes.

Even so, the smile on Elder Joseph's face is available to us all. But not without heroic work to overcome ourselves, and open ourselves up to the transformative energies of God. A monastery is one place that can happen. Your house or apartment is another -- and that's an unsettling thought, isn't it?

UPDATE.2: We just this morning in Cambridge heard a presentation about economics and rational self-interest. My colleague who gave the talk brought up Jeremy Bentham, the utilitarian philosopher, and pointed out as an aside something interesting about him: how in his will, he requested that his body be permanently on display after death. And so it is, in University College, London: behold, the Benthamite Auto-Icon. Alas, Bentham's actual head came off during preservation, so a wax reproduction now sits atop his decked-out corpse in the Auto-Icon. If you want to see what Bentham's actual mummified noggin looks like, click on through past the jump. It's, um, not so kissable.

Wednesday July 22, 2009

The Sarum Rite

Speaking of Salisbury, have you ever heard of the Sarum Rite, a medieval liturgy developed for local use by the Diocese of Salisbury ("Sarum" to the Romans)? It was suppressed after the English Reformation, though celebrated privately by recusant Roman Catholics until they accepted the Tridentine Rite in the 19th century. It is the Western Rite used by certain Orthodox monks in the West (read the Sarum Use -- as it is more properly called -- as celebrated by the Orthodox here).

Is it possible to participate in a Sarum Use liturgy in Salisbury today? I wonder. Do any readers of this blog worship in the Sarum Use?

Tuesday July 21, 2009

Categories: Orthodoxy

Cpl. Klinger and the Antiochian meltdown

I have not been closely following the meltdown over corruption and possible crimes high in the ranks of the American branch of the Antiochian Orthodox Church, which is reaching some sort of climax this week, it seems. But I was...

Sunday July 19, 2009

Categories: Orthodoxy

Hot mess among Antiochian Orthodox

Did you hear about the leading lay member of the Antiochian Orthodox Church of North America who threatened violence against a bishop, in writing? All kinds of hot mess afoot among our brothers and sisters in the Antiochian Orthodox church....

Friday July 17, 2009

Categories: Consumerism, Orthodoxy

Astyk on the addict's excuse

I've been working this summer to wake up early to pray for an hour, but it's been hit or miss. Last night, for example, we had a bad thunderstorm blow through. Power went out. All of us woke up. Struggled...

Tuesday June 30, 2009

Categories: Catholicism, Orthodoxy

Communion on the tongue, vs. hand

Non-Catholics may not realize that Catholics may receive the Host (= communion wafer) either on the tongue (the traditional way) or in hand (the far more common way today). When I was a Catholic, I received on the tongue normally...

Wednesday June 24, 2009

Metropolitan Jonah: Goodbye TEC, hello ACNA

This week, a group of Anglican traditionalists who have broken away from the Episcopal Church have declared the Anglican Church in North America. Met. Jonah of the OCA (my church) is in the Dallas area today to address the ACNA...

Friday June 19, 2009

Categories: Healing, Orthodoxy

A theology of illness

I haven't been blogging much about my daily reading. Here's something I learned from a thin but profound book called "The Theology of Illness" by Jean-Claude Larchet, an Eastern Orthodox layman and philosophy teacher in a French school. Larchet makes...

Wednesday June 10, 2009

Categories: Healing, Orthodoxy

Orthodoxy and Chinese medicine

(For those who've asked, and who have been kind enough to offer prayers and good wishes, I'm feeling much better today, and I think the shingles danger has passed. The expected rash hasn't materialized, and the painful areas on my...

Tuesday June 9, 2009

Categories: Orthodoxy

Baptist meets Byzantium

A Baptist preacher in San Antonio takes his wife and kids to visit an Orthodox liturgy. It was sensually overwhelming, confusing and exhausting for the man and his family. Sounds unpleasant, right?: I LOVED IT. Loved it loved it loved...

Sunday May 24, 2009

Categories: Orthodoxy

A burning ring of fire

St. Seraphim Orthodox Cathedral, Dallas, Texas. May 24, 2009. Iconography by Vladimir Grigorenko....

Friday May 15, 2009

Pearls before swine

The Orthodox priest Father Stephen Freeman recently wrote about how so many of Christianity's fiercest critics have no real understanding of the faith they purport to criticize (on this, Father Stephen and Terry Eagleton agree!). A reader responded by citing...

Saturday May 9, 2009

Categories: Orthodoxy

Orthodoxy in Baton Rouge

Divine Liturgy tomorrow morning in Baton Rouge at St. Matthew the Apostle church. I'll be there; come on over and check out the service, and say hi....

Wednesday April 29, 2009

I want to join your religion. Now what?

We do an online feature at the Dallas Morning News called Texas Faith, which polls a panel of religious folks weekly on a question having to do with religion and public life. This week's poll asks the panelists what they'd...

Monday April 27, 2009

Categories: Orthodoxy

Metropolitan Jonah in Moscow

UPDATE: Be sure to go past the jump, and see some incredible video, including images of the original Christ the Saviour Cathedral being demolished by Stalin. It was rebuilt after the fall of Soviet communism, and today ... well, look...

Saturday April 25, 2009

Categories: Orthodoxy

Father Arseny: Truth or fiction?

I spoke to a good Russian friend at church today -- it was work day on the grounds -- and he told me I should know that the Father Arseny book that I've been so taken by is pious fiction....

Tuesday April 21, 2009

Categories: Food, Orthodoxy

I can't believe I ate the whole thing

You'd think I would have learned by now, having gone through one Great Lent already following the proper rules of fasting -- that is, eating no dairy and no meat. But nooooooo.... Mr Cheeso T. Carnivore had to shove steak...

Monday April 20, 2009

Categories: Orthodoxy

Metropolitan Jonah to EP: "I'm sorry."

Metropolitan Jonah has apologized to the Ecumenical Patriarch for his April 5 sermon in Dallas. Excerpt from his Good Friday statement: "It is now clear that I made statements that were uncharitable. I do apologize to His All-Holiness as well...

Sunday April 19, 2009

Categories: Orthodoxy

More Father Arseny miracles (or not)

One of the best stories so far from the memoir of Father Arseny, the Russian Orthodox priest who spent many years in a Soviet labor camp, is the account of the time he died of the flu, surrounded by inmates...

Sunday April 19, 2009

Categories: Food, Orthodoxy

Hey Grandpa, what's for Pascha dinner?

(If you get the "Hee-Haw" reference, you probably grew up in the South like me.) So, we staggered in from the Paschal liturgy afterparty at about 5 a.m., and fell into bed. Woke up elevenish and had my first cup...

Sunday April 19, 2009

Categories: Orthodoxy

The Paschal sermon of St. John Chrysostom

In all the Orthodox churches of the world on this most holy night of Pascha, the following sermon will be preached, as it is every Pascha. It was written by St. John Chrysostom (347-407, the Archbishop of Constantinople. Christ is...

Saturday April 18, 2009

Categories: Orthodoxy

Father Arseny and the winter night's miracle

I have been awake early this morning, reading the book "Father Arseny: Priest, Prisoner, Spiritual Father" a biography of a Russian priest who served a prison sentence in a Soviet labor camp. It's a stunning book. It was written by...

Thursday April 16, 2009

Categories: Food, Orthodoxy

What's in your Pascha basket?

Many Orthodox Christians prepare a special basket for Pascha, of special food to be blessed on Pascha night and eaten throughout Bright Week, the week after Pascha. Julie and I were talking last night about what we're going to put...

Monday April 13, 2009

Categories: Orthodoxy

The miracle that saved Sister Aemiliane

Here's a 1999 interview with an American woman who is an Orthodox nun in Greece. She was an atheist [UPDATE: Sorry, that's how the story was told to me, but clearly, to judge from this interview, that was wrong. Thanks...

Saturday April 11, 2009

Categories: Orthodoxy

Orthodox chant

A blessed Easter to our western Christian friends! You might enjoy this short report from the PBS program Religion and Ethics Weekly, featuring pal Emily Lowe (a reader of this blog!) explaining and demonstrating Orthodox chant. The segment was taped...

Thursday April 9, 2009

Categories: Orthodoxy

St. Vlad's goes green

Wow, St. Vladimir's Seminary in New York is getting into solar energy self-sustainability. Excerpt: "Utilizing sustainable forms of energy is a part of our effort to be good stewards of the Lord's creation," noted Fr. Chad, "but it is also...

Wednesday April 8, 2009

Categories: Orthodoxy

Metropolitan Jonah on Orthodox unity

Below the jump, the full text of Metropolitan Jonah's sermon on Sunday, in which he called for American Orthodox unity, and for the Ecumenical Patriarch to quit trying to strongarm American Orthodoxy. Discuss....

Monday April 6, 2009

Categories: Orthodoxy

Metropolitan Jonah: Ecumenical Patriarch back off!

For Orthodox Christian readers, I have a big international news story to report from Dallas. You might have read the red-hot shots a representative of the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew took at the OCA Metropolitan Jonah recently, as part of the...

Sunday April 5, 2009

Categories: Orthodoxy

The future of American Orthodoxy, y'all

A rich, thoughtful post about Orthodoxy's future in America, especially the South. Excerpt: The concept of "taking root" is what leads me to the current topic. The status and future of Orthodoxy in America is a favorite subject of conversation...

Saturday March 28, 2009

Categories: Orthodoxy

Today at Christ the Lightgiver

Boy, what a great time that was at Christ the Lightgiver Bookstore in Cedar Park, north of Austin. What can you say about a Christian bookstore that features lots of Orthodox books, plus lots of C.S. Lewis, as well as...

Sunday March 22, 2009

Categories: Orthodoxy

Archbishop Dmitri resigns

I had a massive spring allergy attack this morning, and stayed home from liturgy, listening to Ancient Faith Radio podcasts instead. Church just ended, and Julie phoned me from the cathedral, in tears, saying that our beloved Archbishop Dmitri announced...

Monday March 16, 2009

Categories: Orthodoxy

Elder Paisios

I was reading tonight a book about the Elder Paisios, and had the strong sense that the post I put up on Sunday ("This modern life"), about the bizarre and ugly situation in Massachusetts, which made me laugh so hard,...

Saturday March 14, 2009

St. Benedict of Nursia

In the Orthodox Church, today is the feast of St. Benedict of Nursia, the founder of monasticism in the West and my patron saint. (All saints in the West prior to the Great Schism are also venerated by the East...

Wednesday March 11, 2009

Categories: Orthodoxy

So much for North American Orthodox unity

Stunning and sad news from the Antiochians. They are to remain for the time being an immigrant church, governed from the Old World. The scandal of Orthodox division in North America is not going to be ended anytime soon. UPDATE:...

Tuesday March 10, 2009

A coming Evangelical collapse?

Writing in today's Christian Science Monitor, Michael Spencer, an Evangelical, foresees an imminent collapse of Evangelical Christianity in the US. Excerpt: We are on the verge - within 10 years - of a major collapse of evangelical Christianity. This breakdown...

Thursday March 5, 2009

Templeton, science, religion

Good news for me, bad news for Blighty: Your Working Boy is going to Cambridge for three weeks this summer as a Templeton Cambridge Fellow in Science and Religion. Thank goodness Amy Sullivan is also going, so I have a...

Sunday March 1, 2009

Categories: Lent, Orthodoxy

Forgiveness Vespers 2009

We just returned from Forgiveness Vespers, the formal start of Great Lent for the Orthodox. It's an amazing service. Here's what I wrote about it last year. Excerpt from that post: Thus began one of the most remarkable rituals I've...

Thursday February 12, 2009

Categories: Orthodoxy

Wisdom of the hermits

Reader JohnT sends along this amazing clip of interviews with Romanian hermit-monks. It's hard to watch this and remain unmoved. It's hard to watch this and be satisfied with the way you live. It is for me, anyway:...

Thursday January 22, 2009

Categories: Orthodoxy

Miracle on the River Jordan?

This is interesting. A video of the River Jordan reversing its flow after being blessed by Orthodox clergy on Theophany. Note the appearance of the white bird in the video: Commentary here. Anybody ever heard of this?...

Friday January 16, 2009

From Hinduism to Orthodoxy: Lost in translation

Here's a lengthy but fascinating conversion story from a woman who was born Hindu, converted to the Baha'i faith, then became an Orthodox Christian. The part that I found fascinating was this one: They claimed this resurrection, which made no...

Thursday January 8, 2009

Categories: Catholicism, Orthodoxy

The Eastern Rite

Amy Welborn went to mass at a Melkite Catholic Church, which celebrates the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, as Orthodox Christian churches do. Here's her report. Excerpt: Please go. If you're a Latin Rite Catholic and have never experienced...

Friday January 2, 2009

Categories: Orthodoxy

St. Seraphim of Sarov

On this day in 1833, the great ascetic St. Seraphim of Sarov passed from this life into the next. He was one of the most amazing monks in the Christian tradition, graced with wonderworking gifts after years of intense prayer,...

Wednesday December 10, 2008

Categories: Orthodoxy

Shame on the other Orthodox Rod (Rod)

Wouldn't you know it, Blago is Orthodox. Dude's making us Orthodox Rods look bad....

Friday December 5, 2008

Categories: Culture, Media, Orthodoxy

Stillness and media ecology

I'm thinking these days about stillness, order and calm in one's mind and soul. It's something I desperately need, but given my job and my interests, find hard to locate and achieve. But I've been reading a book called "The...

Saturday November 22, 2008

Categories: Orthodoxy

Metropolitan Jonah and leadership

My Sunday DMN column, online today, is about Metropolitan Jonah of the Orthodox Church in America, and what we can all learn about the responsibilities of leadership (and followership) from his game-changing speech at the All-American Council. Excerpt: Three months...

Sunday November 16, 2008

Categories: Orthodoxy

Metropolitan Jonah's sermon today

I took my Flip camera to the primatial liturgy at St. Seraphim's Cathedral today, and taped Metropolitan Jonah's first Sunday homily at the OCA primate -- and his first address to his people here in north Texas. The sound quality...

Saturday November 15, 2008

Categories: Homosexuality, Media, Orthodoxy

Metropolitan Jonah's election video

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has a lovely four-minute video diary of the OCA's All-American Council, including the "habemus papam" moment when Archbishop Dmitri came out to announce that Bishop Jonah had been elected Metropolitan. It's not narrated, just well-edited video that...

Thursday November 13, 2008

Categories: Orthodoxy

Met. Jonah's final address

Amazing. Just amazing. And prophetic. This is a national religious leader who is right for the time. Listen to it here by clicking on the "Vision for the Future" audio link. Excerpts (forgive any transcribing errors, please): He talks about...

Wednesday November 12, 2008

Categories: Orthodoxy

Axios! Bishop Jonah's address

Ancient Faith Radio has a recording of the address then-Bishop Jonah gave to the All-American Council, prior to his being elected Metropolitan. It's without question one of the most extraordinary speeches I've ever heard a religious leader give. Even if...

Wednesday November 12, 2008

Categories: Orthodoxy

Bishop Jonah elected OCA Metropolitan

Boy, if this isn't the very definition of bittersweet news, I don't know what is. Bishop Jonah, the newly ordained bishop of Fort Worth for the Orthodox Church in America, was just elected Metropolitan of the OCA at the All-American...

Wednesday October 8, 2008

Categories: Abortion, Orthodoxy

Saving the souvlaki from the "Religious Right"

A Greek Orthodox layman named Harry Katopodis seems to be under the impression that Orthodox converts from Evangelicalism are a Trojan horse for theocracy -- specifically, a fringe movement within Protestantism called "dominion theology". Excerpt: It seems that the Orthodox...

Sunday September 28, 2008

Categories: Orthodoxy

Fr. Peck's Orthodox essay is gone

The other day, I posted a fantastic essay about the future of Orthodoxy in America by Fr. John Peck, a Greek Orthodox priest in Arizona. Guess what happened to it? It's gone from the American Orthodox Institute website, "removed at...

Friday September 26, 2008

Categories: Orthodoxy

Speaking of restoring authority...

This very interesting reflection by an Orthodox priest (OCA) demanding true accountability by the OCA's bishops for the financial scandal that's rocked the church is an extraordinary example of ordinary people standing up for an institution against the elites whose...

Monday September 22, 2008

Categories: Culture, Orthodoxy

Among Alaska's Old Believers

A friend sends along this NBC report about a remote village in Alaska where a community of Russian Orthodox Old Believers -- a schismatic sect dating to the 17th century -- took refuge a generation ago. It's now rather a...

Sunday September 21, 2008

Categories: Orthodoxy

The Orthodoxy of tomorrow

This is massively strong reform stuff from a Greek Orthodox priest in Arizona, saying that the old ethnic model of Orthodoxy is on its deathbed, and laying out what the Orthodoxy of tomorrow will look like. Catholics will want to...

Tuesday September 16, 2008

What do converts want?

I blogged earlier this summer about an excellent lecture Terry Mattingly had given to a conference of Orthodox clergy and laity, on the topic "What Do The Converts Want?" It was aimed at an Orthodox audience, but much of it...

Saturday September 13, 2008

Categories: Orthodoxy

Beer monk! Incoming!

I talk from time to time about how much I love my parish, St. Seraphim's Cathedral, here in Dallas. I think I'm going to love it a whole lot more. This week, Archimandrite Jonah arrived to become our new auxiliary...

Thursday September 4, 2008

Categories: Orthodoxy

A damning report

With all the political news this week, I didn't want to let pass the publication of a stunning report by the Special Investigating Committee of the Orthodox Church in America. The SIC was charged with investigating the financial scandal that...

Friday August 1, 2008

What do converts want?

I've listened twice now to a great lecture by Terry Mattingly, delivered a couple of years ago to an audience of Orthodox priests and laymen. It's title: "So What Do the Converts Want?" It's about and meant for Orthodox believers,...

Wednesday July 23, 2008

Categories: Orthodoxy, War

Serbian Orthodoxy, Karadzic and nuance

TMatt has an excellent post at Get Religion parsing out the role of Serbian Orthodox officials in the Balkan wars -- and the critical importance of not painting with too broad a brush when assessing the complicity of religious leaders...

Monday July 21, 2008

Le weekend

Sorry to have been incommunicado over the weekend. We left on Friday after work for a quick trip down to St. Francisville. We were supposed to pull out at five for the long drive, but of course things in our...

Friday July 18, 2008

Put down that book and pray

The Orthodox priest Fr. Stephen Freeman's blog really is a wonder. If you want to get an idea of the blog's spirit, consider this recent excerpt: Thus, most of my writing is aimed towards the goal of our salvation in...

Friday July 18, 2008

Humility, mercy and St. Silouan

A passage from the biography of St. Silouan the Athonite, a 20th century monk, by Archimandrite Sophrony: The Staretz [Holy Elder] used to say, "The Holy Spirit is love, and He gives the soul strength to love her enemies. And...

Friday July 18, 2008

Categories: Orthodoxy

Byzantium on the Bayou

Like Father Matthew Jackson of Christ the Saviour Orthodox Church in McComb, Miss., put it, for the first time since the Creation of the world, the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom will be offered in St. Francisville, La., tomorrow...

Tuesday July 1, 2008

Categories: Orthodoxy

Blog in haste, repent at leisure

Before I went on vacation, I posted a couple of items here about people who, in my view, "needed killin'." The phrase was meant semi-comically -- there's a joke that Texas is the only place in the country where "he...

Monday April 28, 2008

Categories: Orthodoxy

Pascha with Forrest Gump's family

Actress Rita Wilson, who is married to Tom Hanks, on what Pascha means to her Greek Orthodox clan....

Saturday April 26, 2008

Categories: Orthodoxy

Something beautiful for God

OK, one more thing: The Dallas Morning News has just posted a video report about Vladimir Grigorenko's work as an iconographer in St. Seraphim Cathedral parish here in Dallas. Vladimir is a friend and indeed my godfather; he and his...

Saturday April 26, 2008

Categories: Orthodoxy

Holy Saturday and Christian optimism

Tonight is Pascha, the Resurrection of the Lord. I will not be blogging much, if at all, in the next 24 hours, as we celebrate the Feast of Feasts in my parish. I'll leave you for now with this passage...

Friday April 25, 2008

Categories: Orthodoxy

More on Russian Orthodoxy & religious freedom

TMatt has some good comments up about that big NYT piece on the new nationalism rising in the Russian Orthodox church, and how the hierarchy is colluding with the state to suppress religious freedom. Without necessarily defending the hierarchs, Terry...

Wednesday April 23, 2008

Religious freedom in Russia

The good news is that Russian Orthodoxy is rising in the formerly atheist dystopia of Russia. The bad news? The Russian government is persecuting Protestants and Catholics in an effort to protect Orthodoxy. This is wrong. Look, I understand why...

Monday April 7, 2008

Categories: Culture, Orthodoxy

Ostrov (The Island)

Two more weeks left to go in Orthodox Lent, and I'm hitting the wall. Sick of fasting, and my prayer life has cratered. Last night, though, I got a major boost by watching the Russian film Ostrov, which means "The...

Thursday March 20, 2008

Categories: Orthodoxy

Daily bread and dreaming of meat

Over at Reluctant Vegan, I write about how I've more or less stumbled onto eating a sharply reduced daily diet -- not a requirement of the fast -- and how it's taught me that I really don't need as much...

Wednesday March 19, 2008

Categories: Orthodoxy

Hatred and the chief of sinners

About eight or nine months after 9/11, my wife told me that my anxiety and anger over what happened was eating me alive. She asked me to see a counselor about it. I agreed to, and had a few sessions...

Monday March 17, 2008

Categories: Food, Orthodoxy

Slow Food and Slow Prayer

Over at my Reluctant Vegan blog today, I talk about the value of taking the hard way, likening the Slow Food movement to something you might call "Slow Prayer." And you won't believe what damnfool I did Sunday afternoon in...

Saturday March 15, 2008

Categories: Orthodoxy

Lenten fast: One week down

Over at Reluctant Vegan, my thoughts after ending the first week of the Lenten fast, particularly how this week has revealed to me how outsized and unreasonable my appetite for food is during normal time, and how I can get...

Friday March 14, 2008

Categories: Orthodoxy

St. Benedict's Feast Day

On the Orthodox calendar, today is the feast day of St. Benedict of Nursia, a founder of monasticism in the West, the spiritual father of Europe, and the namesake of the pope. And my patron saint. From the akathist hymn...

Monday March 10, 2008

Categories: Food, Orthodoxy

On the convenience of forgetting

From my Lenten column in yesterday's Dallas Morning News: Eastern Lent, with its command to abstain from animal products, forces us to confront how much we depend on the sacrifices of living creatures to sustain our own lives. For Orthodox...

Sunday March 9, 2008

Categories: Orthodoxy

Forgiveness Vespers

Tonight, the eve of Great Lent, we and all other Orthodox churches around the world observed Forgiveness Vespers. Here's the liturgy for tonight's service. Notice this at the end: THE DISMISSAL PRIEST: May Christ our true God, through the intercessions...

Sunday March 2, 2008

Categories: Churchgoing, Orthodoxy

Meatfare Sunday in Orthodoxie

Ain't you glad you weren't at coffee hour at Christ the Saviour Orthodox Church in McComb, Miss. today? Here's the e-mail I got from yesterday from my pal David Varnado, of Camp Topisaw soap fame: Ce soir, je fais la...

Saturday March 1, 2008

Categories: Orthodoxy

The doleful carnivore at Great Lent

Tomorrow is Meatfare Sunday for Orthodox Christians, meaning the last day we are allowed to eat meat until Pascha (April 27). The fast of Great Lent draws down on us like a freight train. Almost two months without roast beef,...

Thursday February 28, 2008

Categories: Orthodoxy

Rigorous fasting -- or starvation?

American exchange student lives with Coptic Orthodox family in Egypt, comes home half-starved: Jonathan McCullum was in excellent health at 155 pounds when he left last summer to spend the school year as an exchange student in Egypt. But when...

Wednesday February 20, 2008

Categories: Food, Orthodoxy

Organic farming, organic religion

In "The Omnivore's Dilemma," I came across a passage in which author Michael Pollan discusses the organic theory of agriculture. To simplify radically, the insight the early organic farmers -- especially Sir Albert Howard, the English agronomist who developed the...

Thursday January 31, 2008

Categories: Orthodoxy

"The treason of the bishops"

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...

Friday January 25, 2008

Categories: Orthodoxy

Orthodox podcasting in our time

I do a short weekly podcast with Father Chris Metropulos of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese, posted on the Orthodox Christian Network (a great source for all kinds of Orthodox Christian commentary). Here's the latest, in which we talk about abortion...

Friday January 25, 2008

Categories: Islam, Orthodoxy

Whistling past the Orthodox graveyard

Gotta say I agree with Charlotte Allen's dismissal of the new book about Orthodoxy by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, which she reviews in today's Wall Street Journal. I read much of the book in galleys a couple of months ago, but...

Saturday January 19, 2008

Categories: Orthodoxy

The Presentation in the Temple

O joyful mystery! This stunning image, from the excellent Touchstone blog, which you should see every day, and probably five times a day, depicts the Orthodox priest Patrick Reardon presenting a baby at the altar. In the background is an...

Wednesday December 19, 2007

Categories: Orthodoxy

Integrity

The other night, I spoke to my friend (and godfather) Vladimir Grigorenko, the iconographer at St. Seraphim Orthodox Cathedral here in Dallas. He told me in passing that an editor at Time magazine had contacted him some weeks back and...

Monday December 3, 2007

Categories: Orthodoxy

Orthodixie comes home

Would you look at this! The website for St. John the Apostle Orthodox Christian Mission in St. Francisville, La. -- the town that expelled Your Working Boy for offenses against theology and geometry. Will wonders never cease? They're having a...

Friday October 12, 2007

Categories: Orthodoxy

Orthodoxy and Europe's future

Writing in the Christian Science Monitor, a Russian Orthodox believer says that Orthodoxy has a lot to offer Europe. Excerpt: In the current expansion eastward, however, it is inevitable that the values and mores of European institutions and alliances will...

Wednesday October 10, 2007

Categories: Orthodoxy

See and hear the monks

Here's a story about the Greek Orthodox monastery where I spent last weekend. Make sure to watch and listen to the audiovisual component of the report. Really wonderful stuff. What a treasure that monastery is....

Monday October 1, 2007

Categories: Orthodoxy

Frederica on Orthodoxy and men

Elsewhere amid the gorgeous mosaic of a melting pot we call Beliefnet.com, Frederica Mathewes-Green writes about why Orthodox Christianity appeals to the menfolk (a longer version of this article is here). Actually, she polled about 100 Orthodox men to ask...

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About Crunchy Con

Rod Dreher is an editorial columnist for the Dallas Morning News, and author of "Crunchy Cons" (Crown Forum), a nonfiction book about conservatives, most of them religious, whose faith and political convictions sometimes put them at odds with mainstream conservatives. The views expressed in this blog are his own.

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