You may have seen this ad in the Christmas edition of the Orthodox Observer:

That's right: OCN is giving away a FREE iPod, loaded with Orthodox music, as part of Share the Light Sunday 2009, a SCOBA-sponsored event intended to raise awareness and funding for the Orthodox Christian Network.

HOW CAN I REGISTER TO WIN?

1. By signing up for our free weekly eNewsletter.
2. By encouraging your friends, family and fellow parishioners to do likewise!

 Fr. Chris offers viewers a glimpse of the OCN studios, where we produce 12 podcasts and one nationally syndicated radio show. Every donation that we receive to support this ministry before the end of the year WILL BE DOUBLED!

Click here for more info.

There aren't many situations in which it's good to be called a fool —  except in one little-known category of the Christian spiritual tradition: The fool for Christ.

His Excellency's lecture delivered at Seattle Pacific University.

This nicely produced documentary, entitled Living Waters: Saving our Seas and Rivers, looks at the environmental work of His All Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew. It's now available from goarch.org. 

 Watch Now »

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, whose many literary works did more than any single author's in the 20th century to introduce the West to Orthodox faith and culture (among other things), died on Sunday at the age of 89.

If you haven't done so already, be sure to read his noted -- perhaps infamous -- address to the Harvard graduates of 1978, in which he said:

The numbers are astounding. According to a variety of surveys conducted over the last few years, the average American teenager spends more than 72 hours a week using "electronic media."

That's 3 whole days!

While that alone should catch the attention of any clergyman or religious educator, the numbers themselves don't tell the full story of teenage media usage, most especially when it comes to the Internet, cell phones, iPods and video games.

 Not perfect, but wouldn't it be great if every local Orthodox parish could generate thoughtful coverage on local TV stations?