On April 16, “Bishop” Mar Mari Emmanuel survived a stabbing in his church by a 15-year-old in a “terrorist attack,” according to New South Wales Police. Mar Mari is a charismatic Christian apologist and social media influencer who is anti-vaccine and anti-lockdown and who has attacked Islam, LGBTQ people, and governments and churches that protect LGBTQ rights. Many news outlets have called Mar Mari Orthodox, which is far from accurate. Many don’t know that Mar Mari does not belong to any church body or hierarchy. The late Catholicos-Patriarch Mar Addai II defrocked him from the Ancient Assyri ..read more

As ever-blooming fruits, you offer the teachings of your God-given book, O wise John, most blessed, while sweetening the hearts of all them that heed it with vigilance; for it is a ladder from the earth unto Heaven that confers glory on the souls that ascend it and honor you faithfully.  (Kontakion—Tone 1) Have you ever found yourself wrestling with down-sizing, and trying to throw away a box of family snapshots; but, you have to look through them first—images of your elders when they were younger and more robust—and suddenly you see them in a different light. The Gospel is sharing with ..read more

On March 27, 2024, an extraordinary session of the World Russian People’s Council (WRPC) was held in Moscow. Patriarch Kirill personally presided over the congress. The main event of the Congress was the approval of the Edict (in Russian: Nakaz) of the XXV World Russian People’s Council, “The Present and Future of the Russian World.” The text of the Nakaz is full of scandalous statements that have already caused a considerable resonance. The so-called special military operation is declared a “holy war,” and Russia is proclaimed the “Restrainer” (κατεχων) protecting the world from “the West th ..read more

Image Credit: iStock.com/Aleksandr Zaikin On March 27, the World Russian People’s Council (WRPC), headed by Patriarch Kirill (Gundiaev), met at the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow to ratify its programmatic document, “The Present and Future of the Russian World.” The document opens with a section on the Russian war in Ukraine, followed by a section on the Russian world (Russkii mir), and then gives directives for various state policies from demographics to economics. A manifesto of sorts, the document mixes apocalyptic rhetoric with mythology, moral exhortation, and policymaking. Usin ..read more

Image Credit: iStock.com/Natalia Kazarina I will begin by stating the obvious: since the Industrial Revolution, Christian communities have become increasingly mobile. Only slightly less obvious is the fact that the era of globalization has accelerated this shift. In urban and suburban areas especially, people enter and leave communities more frequently than ever, following the demands of employment or personal and familial needs that take them across the country or across the world. Even as Christian communal life becomes more unstable in a global age, the ideal of the “parish” continues to ho ..read more

Image Credit: iStock.com/runna10 Over the past several decades in the Greek region, a discernible decline has been observed in both the enthusiasm and substantive content associated with religious studies within the modern school system, a trend persisting today. The curricula, established over half a century ago, have been notably centered on Orthodox-based teachings, ethical considerations, and biblical narratives, featuring references to alternative religious perspectives or broader theological topics to a smaller extent. This situation prompts a critical examination of the existing educati ..read more

One morning not long ago I sat down at a table in a Midwestern university’s special collections library, eager to spend several days working through a cart packed with anniversary books and commemorative pamphlets published by Orthodox parishes and dioceses across North America. These kinds of booklets are invaluable in my work as a historian, and I’ve read hundreds of them. Packed with metrical statistics, personal reminiscences, photographs, and tidbits of information one cannot find most anywhere else, they offer wide-ranging, and often unexpected insights into the lived experiences of Ort ..read more

The Orthodox Church of Georgia (OCG) is one of the oldest churches in the world, with an interesting and important history. In 1921, the Russian Red Army occupied Georgia, and soon after, Georgia was forced to become a member of the Soviet Union. The seventy years spent in the Soviet Union also had a significant impact on the OCG. Even more than thirty years since the collapse of the Soviet Union, discussions about the post-Soviet heritage and Russian influences on the OCG remain relevant. Those who discuss Russian influence in the OCG sometimes cite concrete examples to support their positio ..read more

When You, O God, shall come to earth with glory, / all things shall tremble / and the river of fire shall flow before Your judgment seat; / the books shall be opened and the hidden things disclosed! / Then deliver me from the unquenchable fire, / and make me worthy to stand at Your right hand, Most Righteous Judge!—Kontakion, Tone 1 As we approach the awesome Divine Liturgy of the Sunday of the Last Judgement, with its proclamation of the Gospel from Matthew about the Sheep and the Goats, it is sometimes difficult to fathom that we are actually commemorating the unimaginable Sunday of Go ..read more

From the Editors: We offer this piece in commemoration of the 150th birthday of Russian philosopher Nikolai Berdyaev (O.S. March 6, N.S. March 18). In her remarkable essay on the religious-philosophical scene in the Russian Silver Age, Bernice Glatzer Rosenthal describes Berdyaev’s humanism as inhumane.[1] The emblems of this “inhumanity” are represented, among other things, by his approval of Russia’s entry to the Great War, his praise of the Catholic Middle Ages, and his rejection of the idea of “the eternal bourgeois peace.”[2] But is it possible that Berdyaev’s radical emphasis ..read more