Old Holy Virgin Cathedral, San Fransisco, CA Encountering the Holiness and Peace of the Ancient Faith The very first time I entered an Orthodox church, I felt drawn to Her. There was a tangible, inner tug, and an overwhelming sense of peace, holiness, and awe, emanating from the very walls
The Necessity of a Pastor’s Freedom to PreachThe adoption of the Johnson Amendment in 1954 was the moment the Internal Revenue Service was given the power to dictate what could and could not be preached from American pulpits. With the threat of fines, or even losing tax exempt status for
The Saints: Models for our Lives Our Orthodox Christian life is not designed to be invented as we go, for by the very nature of the Church we are instructed to use as our model of living, the lives of the saints that have gone on before us. Their lives
Anything that is Quickly Obtained is also Easily Lost Americans are not a particularly patient people, as demonstrated by the fact that the fast food industry began with us. We don’t tolerate slow service, thus much of the food we consume is prepared before we order it. We drive our
A visit from our Ethiopian friends () If we find fault in others, our self-indulgent attitude keeps us from having a successful interaction with God. Prayer is born of love, while fault-finding, idle talk and self-indulgence are the death of prayer. Love and prayer are interconnected because both involve God,
The Veneration of the Holy Virgin in the Ancient Church All the early reformers, including Luther and Calvin, believed Mary to be Ever Virgin. The practice at the time was to refer to all cousins as siblings, and none of the early Christians believed Mary had born any children other
Addressing the youth of the Ethiopian cathedral in Seattle Moving on to the Horizon Recently I spoke with an old friend of forty years, an Episcopal priest who is dying of a rare form of cancer. The day I called him was the second anniversary, to the day, that his
Faith Without Works is Dead The very moment faith enters the soul is that moment when we turn toward God in repentance and recognize we can not live without Him. As we grow in our faith we come to realize we must remain in a continual state of repentance, for
An Invitation to be God’s Children We have been praying most of our lives, but do we ever think about what that means? Have we ever thought how incredible it is that our Creator God has invited us to speak with Him at any time? That the Lord of the
Worship is the Main Work of the Church Orthodox Christianity is primarily known for its worship, for the core of our Orthodox Christian life is to be found in the services conducted in our temples. I read somewhere that during the height of the Soviet period of repression, a Roman