Image Credit: iStock.com/vadimrysev I happened to be in Sweden when the country joined NATO two months ago. On March 6, an American nuclear-capable B-52 strategic bomber overflew the capital region in a show of solidarity with the newest alliance member. On the ground below, in the Stockholm suburbs, I was beginning my field work with Orthodox Christians to answer a question. What do Orthodox Christians think about nuclear weapons? Here I sat with Orthodox from the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and various parts of Europe in a country that has provided refuge from war to so many. The coincidence ..read more

Image Credit: iStock.com/BalkansCat Both Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox commentators continue to note the interest expressed by Pope Francis and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew in finding a common date for the celebration of Easter/Pascha by 2025. The 1700th anniversary of the first Ecumenical Council of Nicaea in 325 appears at first an auspicious opportunity to settle the vexed problem of the calendar and the celebration of the Resurrection. These efforts build upon the work of an ecumenical gathering of scholars that took place in Aleppo, Syria, in 1997. Most Eastern or Oriental Ortho ..read more

Image: Holy Synod building of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church. Credit: Pakko, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons In the Bulgarian Orthodox Church (BOC), elections are taking place: in the coming months the metropolitan of one of the largest seaside dioceses, Sliven, and then the Bulgarian patriarch, will be elected. Of course, the election of a diocesan bishop cannot be called a unique event in the life of the BOC, but this time the election has led to a serious crisis that has raised an important ecclesiastical question about the participation of the clergy and laity in the life of the Church ..read more

Image Credit: iStock.com/Moussa81 The Orthodox Church has generally taken a pro-life stand with regard to life in the womb, but the Church has not officially commented on embryos that remain in the test-tube or in freezers as “leftovers” following the In Vitro Fertilization (IVF) procedure. For the Church, the personhood and the ensoulment of the embryo have been issues of theological debate over the years, with room for continued dialogue and discussion. When giving a blessing for IVF, many Orthodox bishops have asked couples to implant only one embryo into a woman’s womb at a time in an effo ..read more

Image Credit: iStock.com/Marina_Skoropadskaya In recent days several articles have appeared on this site raising profound, difficult, and unsettling questions. Sr. Vassa bravely asked whether “heresy” is a charge that can be applied to the “Edict” of the XXV “All-World Council of the Russian People,” approved under the chairmanship of Patriarch Kirill of Moscow on March 27, 2024, concluding, rightly, that it does indeed express, in the words of St. Basil about heresy, “a clear difference in the very faith of God” (see also this analysis by Serhii Shumylo). Moreover, Sr. Vassa pointed to the pr ..read more

Image Credit: iStock.com/lovleah In previous years, weeks, and days, I have seen—and, in one instance, supported—a variegated condemnation of the Moscow Patriarch—his preaching and practice alike—as heretical. The “Russian World” ideology has been denounced as unorthodox and heretical. The “Edict” of the World Russian People’s Council has been characterized as distorted doctrine. And the commemoration of Patriarch Kirill has been called in question. All of the above have been justly promoted and justifiably promulgated, among others, by dear friends across the globe. While I am not in the leas ..read more

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