On the Loss of Kallistos 1989. I wandered into the tiny library of my wife’s native Orthodox Church. I found an old thin 4” by 9” copy of The Orthodox Church, by an Englishman, Timothy Ware. It was printed in tiny, cramped paper that went brittle and musty over the years. Tempus fugit. Fast forward. Metropolitan Kallistos just reposed in the Lord on 23 August 2022. I pray, along with many others, “Memory Eternal! Vicnaja Pamjat.” And while I pray this, other thoughts arise. The passing of this wonderful, generous teacher and hierarch will become an inflection point. His departure from ..read more

There are some very interesting things about both of the readings appointed for tomorrow (1 Corinthians 4.9-16 and Matthew 17.14-22). The most important is the “higher reality” of the Kingdom of God. The fallen world is a place that celebrates violent power and domination, aristocratic and royal privilege, and crowd-amazing spectacle. It is a place where the “big stick” speaks, where power is measured by weapons and ammunition – the ability to destroy and murder. A place where a person is followed if he says the most alarming and vulgar things, and he’s given authority if he can attract the gr ..read more

God created the beach so grandfathers could walk with their granddaughters in the surf. Sure, there are many other reasons for the ocean and the sand, the wind ushering the waves to wash up on the strand. Yesterday, I had to relearn a lesson that I keep forgetting. At Coquina Beach (one of my favorite spots in the whole world), I feebly attempted to read a hard theological text on my Kindle, assuming that I could get some work done. “Feeble” was the word. It was hard to follow the arguments. Any word over two syllables was left unprocessed. It seemed that attention and IQ were cut in half ..read more

I had an interesting discussion yesterday. "Interesting" here is a euphemism.   I had proposed that in looking at contemporary moral problems, that we should deepen and broaden our gaze -- well beyond the "hot-button" issues that have been exploited by partisan politics for about five decades.   One issue has to do with the American form of government. We are a constitutional republican democracy. The constitution makes it clear that the government has power from the consent of the people governed -- hence, "We the People," etc.   I proposed that such a political is a supe ..read more

False masculinity and violence We in the Christian community, especially clergy (and in my case, Orthodox Christian clergy), need to have a long and deep conversation about masculinity, what it should be and what it is not. There are Christian writers who suggest that males growing up in America are somehow neglected, somehow repressed in their masculinity. Somehow they suffer because their "boyhood" is not celebrated enough, because they haven't been encouraged to go out and play in the dirt, play cowboys and indians with popguns and later, discouraged from wielding and shooting their weapo ..read more

Righteousness in the Old Testament “Generally, the righteous man in Israel was the man who preserved the peace and wholeness of the community, because it was he who fulfilled the demands of communal living. Like Job, he was a blessing to his contemporaries, and thus צדק is sometimes correlated with “mercy” (Hosea 2.19). He cared for the poor, the fatherless, the widow (Job 29.12-15; 31.16-19; cf Deuteronomy 24.13; Proverbs 29.7), even defending their cause in the law court (Job 29.16; 31.21; cf Proverbs 31.9). He gave liberally (Psalm 37.21, 25-26; Proverbs 21.26), providing also for the wayfa ..read more

This is a rare icon. It is a fresco in the Monastery of the Ascension of Christ in Kosovo. It is being used as a defense of weapons, carrying guns, and aggression in general. Often, when points like these are made, several passages from the Old Testament about Israel's wars are deployed, also for the same purpose of justifying "righteous violence," and in the defense of the "right to bear arms" within the American gun debate. Such use of the above icon is really abuse. The sword in the hand of Christ is a reference to Matthew 10.34: "Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth; I ha ..read more

It's really too bad that the phrase "thoughts and prayers" has become a cliche, and has produced the general notion that prayer is a default "last resort," that it is weak or even meaningless. It is true that prayer is not an instrumental thing, where some sort of higher power can be manipulated into accomplishing something the pray-er demands. That sort of instrumentality is more like magic than prayer. Just as it is helpful to understand "person" not first from human experience, but from the Trinity (where Personhood is first established), so also is Prayer understood first within the Div ..read more

Dear fellow clergy: I am writing this letter on the eve of the Orthodox celebration of Holy Pentecost. We celebrate and remember and experience the Personal Descent of the Holy Spirit, Who has come to make our hearts "streams of living water," to make us shine with the "light of life," as Jesus has come into the world of darkness as the Light. We are accustomed to diagnosing the darkness. We are well-practiced in proclaiming the usual denunciations of transgressions like abortion, sexual sin, violence (at least, the violence of "others" who don't look or sound like us), and challenges to ou ..read more

The Promise of His Presence At the end of the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus said this to the eleven disciples: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even unto the close of the age” (Matthew 28.18-20). The Gospel of Luke ends in a seemingly different way: “And behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you; but stay in the city, until you are clothed with power fro ..read more