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If the church fails to go out and proclaim the Gospel to those who are lost or forgotten, it risks falling ill to the evil that is committed by its own members, Pope Francis said. Speaking to pilgrims gathered in St. Peter's Square during his Angelus address Sept. 20, the pope said that just as God "calls everyone and calls always," the church must also "offer everyone the word of salvation that Jesus came to bring." "The church needs to be like God: always going out; and when the church does not go out, it becomes sick with the many...

A massive metal cross overlooking a northern Kosovo town was erected last week, thanks to Church authorities and the local Orthodox faithful. The cross, 65 feet high and 39 feet wide, stands 2,970 feet above sea level overlooking Leposavić, a town with an ethnic Serb majority in the North Kosovo region, which functions largely autonomously from the rest of Kosovo, with its Albanian majority. Work on arranging the space for the cross began a little over a year ago, reports telegraf.rs. “Thanks to Bishop Teodosije, the people of this area managed to raise the cross on Kamilja Mountain. With...

Moscow, October 5, Interfax - The Russian Orthodox Church official believes that the body of Vladimir Lenin should not remain on Red Square, but only careful actions should be taken in connection with his burial. "I have no doubt that sooner or later the body of this person will be buried. It is another question when it will happen, under what circumstances it will happen," head of the Synodal Department for External Church Relations Metropolitan Hilarion said on air the Church and the World program on the Rossiya 24 TV channel. He called Lenin a "traitor of the Motherland" who...

Some years ago I was in hospital for a time and not in the least bit happy about it. One sleepless night I was walking the halls of the unit, unable to sleep, and tempted with self-pity. I thought to myself (in rebuke), “Father Arseny endured the Soviet Gulag with more hope and patience than you’re bringing to this.” Father Arseny is the figure in the book by the same name that relates the story of an amazing Russian priest who was a true saint of his generation. My inner conversation continued, “God gave Fr. Arseny the grace to endure...

The new Sts. Cyril and Methodius Church in northeastern Moscow. Photo: v-resin.ruDespite the restrictions imposed due to the coronavirus, the construction of new Orthodox churches in Moscow is ahead of schedule this year. “If in just one district we start building three churches, then we will exceed the overall plan of our program for building churches in 2020,” His Grace Bishop Paramon, head of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Financial and Economic Department, said during an inspection of building projects in Moscow’s Eastern district, reports Interfax-Religion. Nine churches have already been built and put into use this year, and another nine are...

Scenes from the All Night Vigil for the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross

Saints Cosmas and Damian (Arabic: قُزما ودميان‎, romanized: Qozma wa Demyaan; Greek: Κοσμάς και Δαμιανός; Latin: Cosmas et Damianus; died c. ad 287) were two Arab physicians in the town Cyrhus, and were [3][4] reputedly twin brothers, and early Christian martyrs. They practised their profession in the seaport of Aegeae, then in the Roman province of Syria Early Christian physicians and martyrs whose feast is celebrated on 27 September. They were twins, born in Arabia, and practised the art of healing in the seaport Ægea, now Ayash (Ajass), on the Gulf of Iskanderun in Cilicia, Asia Minor, and attained a great...

The Moscow Patriarchate supports the initiative of public activists to install a monument to pregnant women in Moscow, and is calling on them to extend the project to other cities and regions, given the difficult demographic situation in Russia. The head of the Save Life charity project for women in crisis pregnancies, Ekaterina Markova, earlier appealed to Moscow authorities to erect a statue of a pregnant woman in an effort to form a more positive image of pregnancy and childbirth. The authors of the initiative note that the birth rate in Russia is falling, due in part to the degradation...

A priest in Crete was sentenced to 9 months in prison with a 3-year suspension last Friday for inciting disobedience against the National Public Health Organization’s directive on the mandatory use of face masks, which includes the use of masks in all closed spaces and schools. The incident with the 47-year-old priest occurred last Monday, September 14, during the blessing ceremony of a local kindergarten. Video shows the priest emphatically telling parents that “they will destroy their children” if they send them to school in masks, and criticized them for not holding a rally in protest of masks, reports Keep...

 This article first appeared in the Christian Research Journal, volume29, number1 (2006). For further information or to subscribe to the Christian Research Journal go to: http://www.equip.org SYNOPSISVarious cults claim that the Council of Nicaea (AD 325) inaugurated belief in Christ’s deity. The Da Vinci Code, a fictional work on the New York Times “Best Sellers” list, has recently popularized this view. The New Testament, however, explicitly uses the Greek term theos (“God”) in reference to Jesus Christ. Further, there was a consistent application of theos to Jesus Christ throughout the second century. Authors such as Ignatius, Justin Martyr, Melito, Athenagoras,...

I recently re-watched one of the most eye-opening programs on the 20th century, The Century of the Self (BBC 2002). It looks at the development of advertising, particularly the theories and work of Edward Bernays. You’ve seen his work, but you didn’t know it. He was one of the pioneers of modern advertising as well as modern government propaganda. Particularly in the 1920’s, he played a key role in moving America from a need-based economy to desire-based consumerism. One result was a flourishing and growing wealth across the land (except for the collapse in the Great Depression). America moved past...

Clergy of the Ukrainian Diocese of Zaporozhye cleansed the city square with Holy Water on Sunday after an LGBT “Equality March” was held. The march, which included the symbolic “marriage” of three lesbian couples, seemed to have been met with indifference by local residents. “The desecrated place in Zaporozhye has been affused with Holy Water,” Archpriest Gennady Elin, the head of the Zaporozhye Diocese chancery writes on his Facebook page. “Today’s ‘Sermon on the Mount’ of the sin of fornication and sodomy was ambivalently received by the residents of the Zaporozhye region… But, as they say, you have to condemn...

On Sunday, September 13, a moleben was held after the Divine Liturgy at the Church of the Holy Martyr Clement of Rome in Moscow on the occasion of the launch of significant new Church-wide project devoted to the many ruined churches and monasteries throughout Russia. Following the decision of the Supreme Russian Church Council on April 17, 2019, and with the approval of the Russian Ministry of Culture, the Church has launched a program to digitally scan monuments of Church architecture in a state of disrepair and the creation of an all-Russian registry of such monuments, reports Patriarchia.ru. The moleben...

I have been asked to paint the iconographic murals in the new chapel at St. Gregory Palamas Monastery in Perrysville, Ohio. This chapel, dedicated to St. Gregory Palamas, is yet another good example of contemporary Orthodox architecture. It unites the traditional appearance of Byzantine interiors with the familiar exterior detailing of rural vernacular architecture. It was designed by Andrew Gould and built in 2019, in the heart of Amish country. Simple but elegant from the outside, this relatively small building is quite spacious inside, with carefully designed proportions and an attention to detail which characterizes Andrew’s approach to every building...

In debates over predestination, synergism, Pelagianism, and the like Romans 9 often comes up in the conversation for the sake of proof-texting one position or the other. To address any one of the preceding topics would require us to exegete other passages and so, in this short exegesis, we will only cover the specific chapter in question in two parts.For those interested, I have already written my own opinion about passages about Eph 1 and the alleged “difference” between the soteriologies of Augustine and Chrysostom. If you have “bigger” questions than that of simply “what does Romans 9 mean,” you may want to...

Jvari Monastery is one of the great jewels of the Georgian Orthodox Church. Built in the 6th century near the ancient capital of Mtskheta, its Church of the Holy Cross is a rare case of an early medieval Georgian church that has survived nearly unchanged till today. The monastery is listed as UNESCO World Heritage site together with other historic structures in Mtskheta. The ancient monastery is currently undergoing major repairs, thanks in part to the U.S. Embassy in Tbilisi. The embassy announced yesterday that the Jvari Monastery preservation project was selected by the Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP)....

Stump the Priest: The Johannine Comma 1 John 5: 7-9 in the Codex MontfortianusQuestion: "According to the Orthodox Church, Is 1 John 5:7 original or a later insertion? I've been studying the subject, but I would greatly appreciate your input."In most contemporary translations of the Bible, you encounter portions of Scripture that are put in brackets or reduced to a footnote, and it is claimed that "the earliest and most reliable manuscripts" do not include the texts in questions. However, when you look further into these cases, you will generally find that the vast majority of Greek  manuscripts include the...

Some years ago, while flying back to Seattle from Washington, D.C., I sat next to a young marine, who, as we were landing, asked if I would permit him to accompany me to my shuttle, as he “had a personal matter that was weighing heavily” on his heart. While being in our nation’s capital I had already come into contact with many soldiers, all of whom I personally thanked for their service to our country, and all of whom were young enough to be my grandchildren. The young marine reached out to me, not unlike I had with my grandfather,...

Saint Cyprian of Carthage is little remembered today, and that is a shame. For those familiar with the traditional Canon of the Roman Mass, Cyprian’s name is there, preserved for posterity in between Cornelius and Lawrence, two other martyrs of the mid-3rd century. But if the words and deeds of many of the saints from that era are obscure to us today, the life of Cyprian can not be classified as such. He wrote voluminously and many of his works have come down to us from antiquity—enough to fill the 600 page tome known as The Complete Works of Saint...

Muslim extremists have carried out a door-to-door anti-Christian murder campaign this summer, killing over 500 Christians since June, Christianpersecution.com reported. The Ethiopian Tewahedo Orthodox Church has called on the government of Ethiopia to act decisively to stop the ongoing slaughter of Christians and the destruction of churches, the September 9 report states. Since late June, the attacks by Oromo Islamist radicals have entailed the murder of upwards of 500 Christians, including pregnant women, children, and entire families in the Oromia regional state, which includes the nation’s capital of Addis Ababa. The assailants are members of a Muslim Oromo male youth...