The Orthodox Christian Network Blog

It was on Miodrag's account that he and Drazen visited our church on this sad day.  Miodrag's brother, Aleksandar, a long-time resident of Mt. Pleasant, had died-alone-and Miodrag had just arrived from his home in Europe to tend to the affairs of his departed brother.

I had not known Aleksandar in this life.  Still, it is our custom to care for the dead and their survivors, the weeping and the

Riot shields.  A ray of light beaming from the dome of the Church of the Resurrection down into the nave.  A Berlin-ish Wall running over the hillside, dividing families.  The Great Walls of the Old City.  Women bearing machine guns in the streets.  The angelic voices of the nuns at the Russian monastery at En Kerem.  A late night talk with an Orthodox Rabbi who has a well-known radio program

On Sunday, Sept 7, I am going on a journey across time and geography.  As you read this column, I ask your prayers as I make my way from Charleston to Newark to Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.  In July I received the most amazing gift: a two week pilgrimage to the Holy Land, led by the most well-known Orthodox Christian Bishop in the English-speaking world-His Eminence, Metropolitan Kallistos Ware.  We

"God is the Lord and has revealed Himself to us, blessed is He that comes in the Name of the Lord!"  This beautiful hymn, sung at the Orthodox matins service (and a conglomeration of different Psalms) is a significant, if not the most important, starting point for our conversations about God.  When we enter a theological discussion, we do not begin with a generic belief that there is "a"

  At every Divine Liturgy, the Priest (or the Deacon when there is one) elevates the chalice, and the celebrant exclaims, "Thine own of thine own, we offer unto thee, in behalf of all, and for all!"  These are remarkably powerful words which sum up the whole liturgy--indeed our whole life as it was designed to be.  In this moment we are offering to God not only the bread (including the hands that