What canons are there in the Church? What do they govern? Do canons restrict people’s freedom or do they help people to exercise their freedom? Why do those hair-splitting formalities even exist in the Church? Is it impossible to get saved without them? FOMA Magazine asked Archpriest Demetrius Pashkov, who is a professor in the Department of World and Russian […]
Why Did Jesus Have To Die?
September 3, 2018 By
by C. S. Lewis We are told that Christ was killed for us, that His death has washed out our sins, and that by dying He disabled death itself. That is the formula. That is Christianity. That is what has to be believed. Any theories we build up as to how Christ’s death did all […]
The Education of Children
August 20, 2018 By
A Sermon by St. Sebastian Dabovi? SAN FRANCISCO, 1899 We desire to tell you of some thing, which is of the utmost importance. We find it necessary, unfortunately, to repeat in a measure what has been told you several times. We speak plainly, without a flourish of words, because we feel our responsibility before God […]
On the Error of Nature Worshipers
July 12, 2018 By
by St. Nikolai Velimirovich Thus then we Christians understand the earth, the sun and the stars as the symbols of spiritual reality and in no way as the reality itself. Pagans of all ages, however, have mistaken those luminous bodies of the firmament for (spiritual) reality. As soon as they took them for (spiritual) reality […]
On the Essence and Energies of God
July 5, 2018 By
by St. Basil the Great “It is by His energies that we say we know our God; we do not assert that we can come near to the essence itself, for His energeia descend to us, but His essence remains unapproachable.” (St. Basil’s Epistle 234 (ad Amphilochium), P.G., XXXII, 869 AB. Cf. ) […]
Caveat Emptor: Ware’s ‘The Orthodox Church’
June 5, 2018 By
This is a short post on changes in the book “The Orthodox Church” by Kallistos Timothy Ware regarding the Orthodox teaching about contraception. Natural family planning is acceptable, because it simply involves abstinence from sex during times when fertility is likely. Such is the teaching of the Church of Greece as expressed in her encyclical […]
Does the Orthodox Church have a Pope?
June 5, 2018 By
by St. Nikolai Velimorivich Well, oh yes! It has its own Pope, greater than all popes and patriarch in the world. It has had and will have from the beginning to the end of the ages. This is the same pope invoked by all Christ’s Apostles, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of wisdom and reason, […]
The Ancient Western Way of Making the Sign of the Cross
April 17, 2018 By
The sign of the cross is a beautiful gesture which reminds the faithful of both the cross of salvation while invoking the Holy Trinity. The early Church Fathers attested to the use of the sign of the cross. Tertullian (d. 250) described the exceptional frequency of the sign of the cross being made: “In all […]
