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THE GREATEST DRAMA EVER STAGED Official Christianity, of late years, has been having what is known as "a bad press." We are constantly assured that the churches are empty because preachers insist too much upon doctrine—"dull dogma," as people call it. The fact is the precise opposite. It is the neglect of dogma that makes for dullness. The Christian faith is the most exciting drama that ever staggered the imagination of man—and the dogma is the drama. That drama is summarised quite clearly in the creeds of the Church, and if we think it dull it is because we either...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C31Iyezgro0

Slovakia says it will only accept Christians when it takes in Syrian refugees under a EU relocation scheme. The country is due to receive 200 people from camps in Turkey, Italy and Greece under the EU plan to resettle 40,000 new arrivals. Interior ministry spokesman Ivan Netik said Muslims would not be accepted because they would not feel at home. The UN's refugee agency (UNHCR) called on countries to take an "inclusive approach" to relocation. But Mr Netik denied the move was discriminatory and said it was intended to ensure community cohesion. 'Not going to like it' The number of...

Catholic archbishops from Iraq and Syria are speaking out in defence of displaced Christians who are having a difficult time in applying for US visas to enable them to escape persecution in their own country and settle in a new land, such as the US, where they can freely practice their faith. Chaldean Archbishop Bashar Warda of Erbil, Iraq, and Melkite Archbishop Jean-Clément Jeanbart of Aleppo, Syria, spoke recently at the Knights of Columbus 2015 Convention press conference in Philadelphia, describing the plight of Christians in the Middle East, according to the Catholic News Agency. They said they found out...

A question was asked in a recent comic strip as one character spoke to another, “Okay, Marcus, you don’t drink or smoke or cuss, but is it the absence of bad behavior that makes someone good, or is it the presence of good behavior?” I was surprised at the depth of the comment, particularly since both characters on that day’s strip are teenagers. Now a certain ruler asked Him, saying, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God....

For many, the idea that we are somehow responsible for the sins of others, or can repent on their behalf is counter-intuitive and deeply troubling. It is distinctly non individualistic. However, it is a cornerstone of Orthodox devotion. Dostoevsky presented a very popular version of this teaching in the words of the fictitious character, the Elder Zosima, in his The Brothers Karamozov. The elder was modeled, many say, on the elders of Optina Pustyn. His teaching and story, contained in the novel, have the authentic sound of Holy Orthodoxy, and could be found nowhere else. I offer an excerpt here...

I wrote the following letter to a friend of mine. With his permission (and some editing to protect identities), I would like to share it with you. ------------------------------------------------ Dear Father and Matushka: How wonderful to refer to you in that way! I saw the photos of your ordination, but rather than send an email, I decided to write you a letter. Something about the tactile, physical nature of paper does you more honour, I believe, than something written electronically. We know each other, though perhaps not as well as we should. Perhaps in the years to come, we can have...

The Russian Orthodox Church says it is severing ties with the main protestant churches of France and Scotland over the issue of same-sex unions. The Moscow Patriarchate said on June 3 that "formal contacts" with the two institutions were pointless after France's United Protestant Church last month voted to allow pastors to bless same-sex marriages and the Church of Scotland approved ordaining clergy in same-sex civil unions. "We regretfully acknowledge, that today we have a new divide in the Christian world, not only regarding theological subjects, but regarding moral issues as well," the patriarchate said in a statement. The Moscow...

Evolutionary theorists have a very difficult time suggesting a mechanism for life. How do plain chemicals – minerals and dissolved substances – combine in a manner that constitutes a living thing? In fact, why would they? I have no interest in discussing the pro’s and con’s of evolutionary theory. It is not interesting to me if you think Darwin was wrong or the devil incarnate. I want to think about some other things. Those other things can be seen first in the questions already asked. How do minerals and substances combine in a manner that constitutes a living thing? Among...

[Originally published under the title "Notes on the Way," in Time and Tide, Vol. XXIX (August 14, 1948), it was subsequently reprinted with the above title in the posthumous God in the Dock book, published by Wiilliam B. Erdmanns, Grand Rapids, MI). "I should like Balls infinitely better," said Caroline Bingley, "if they were carried on in a different manner ... It would surely be much more rational if conversation instead of dancing made the order of the day." "Much more rational, I dare say," replied her brother, "but it would not be near so much like a Ball." We...

The American Dream is embodied in strength. Gen. George Patton famously said, “America loves to win and cannot abide a loser.” The spirituality of winning is probably the fastest growing and most attractive version of “Christianity” to be found on the American scene. Mega Churches, seating 10’s of thousands have sprung up as temples of success. Nobody wants to be sick. The dependence it fosters, the way it changes and shapes a life are a form of powerlessness that holds no attraction. Poverty (however it is measured) is a massive struggle against forces that steal human dignity. Most homes in...

“Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” – 1 Corinthians 2:9 “Such is the message of the Cross to each one of us. However far I have to travel through that valley of the shadow of death, I am never alone.” +Metropolitan Kallistos Ware Much of my young adult life has been a deep struggle with depression. One wouldn’t be too far amiss to say it is virtually a plague in today’s world; in fact, most people I know suffer from...

On 19 may, Hellenism commemorates the extermination of 353,000 Pontian Greeks killed during a genocide. During the years 1914-1923, in the 1st World War, the Greek minority of the Ottoman Empire, the Republic of Turkey's predecessor, were removed from Western Anatolia. An estimated 350 thousands Greeks were killed between 1913-1922, ending thousands of years of Hellenic civilization in Asia Minor. Pontian and Anatolian Greeks were victims of broader Turkish genocide project at all Christian minorities in the Ottoman Empire. More than 3.5 million Greeks, Assyrians and Armenians were killed under the regimes of the Young Turks and of Mustafa Kemal....

Bishop Thomas made me cry. I was in the chapel at Antiochian Village. It was during the St. Emmelia Homeschool Conference. The chapel was packed full of families. Families with children. Children who were happy to be there, and children who were not. Children who were quiet and well behaved, and children who were not. I was standing in the back. In front of me, the nave was like the ocean on a rocky beach: constant motion, constant noise. Sometimes it murmured. Sometimes it growled. Sometimes it crashed and roared. But the noise never stopped. The motion never stopped. Parents...

Whoever wants to become a Christian must first become a poet. – St. Pophyrios of Kavsokalyvia St. Porphyrios made this statement in the context of love and suffering: "That’s what it is! You must suffer. You must love and suffer–suffer for the one you love. Love makes effort for the loved one. She runs all through the night; she stays awake; she stains her feet with blood in order to meet her beloved. She makes sacrifices and disregards all impediments, threats, and difficulties for the sake of the loved one. Love towards Christ is something even higher, infinitely higher." This...

NEW YORK (RNS) Archbishop Jean-Clement Jeanbart of Aleppo is returning to the front line of the real war on Christians, which he calls home — that is, Aleppo in war-torn Syria, where his ancient church faces the threat of extinction. I wrote here about Jeanbart, who was in the U.S. last week in an effort to raise awareness about the plight of Christians in Syria — they include his Eastern-rite Melkite Catholics as well or Eastern Orthodox and other churches — and to raise money for their survival. The archbishop is a remarkable figure, facing the personal danger while trying...

From a Facebook conversation: "Though I wish I believed otherwise, in the depths of my being, I do not believe any part of us survives death. I am, at the center of my consciousness, a materialist, and a reluctant atheist still. I fight this disposition daily, and it is becoming an enormous burden that I wish I could throw off. There are days where my doubt and despair far eclipse my hope that someday, God will really let me know it’s “not all in my head”, or that He will somehow bless me with a profound Athonite experience to solidify...

Listening to the account of Christ’s crucifixion and death during Holy Week, I am invariably struck by one detail in the story: the loyalty to the very end of a handful of people, mostly women, about whom the gos­pels tell us almost nothing else. What we do know is that Christ’s disciples, all of them, ran away and left him behind. Peter denied him three times. Judas betrayed him. Crowds followed Christ while he was preaching, and each person was expecting to get something from him: they expected help, miracles and healings; they expected liberation from hated Roman occupation; they...

Science, modern science that is, has engulfed nearly our entire gaze. It has become the transparent self-effacing tableau on which we experience the world, the glasses we wear to judge the truth, the standard we hold against our experience. Self-obvious to most, the material, quantitative vision of the Universe that has developed since the so-called Enlightenment has become both the largest bludgeon wielded against religion whilst simultaneously being raised as the final stand of “truth”, the last fragile barricade erected by some religious proponents against an unstoppable onslaught. The scientific world machine is so pervasive, so iron cast that it...

Since we’re thinking about heaven and hell… Once a week I teach a class at a local alcohol and drug treatment program. It is on the “spirituality of recovery.” Recently I shared Marmaladov’s speech from Crime and Punishment (at the end of this article). There were tears in the room. For many, the version of the gospel they have heard only condemns. Most of the men I meet want to get well, to get sober. Not all of them believe that God is actually on their side. Marmaladov’s speech is wonderfully “over the top.” Do we dare believe that God...