Byzantine, Texas

( CP ) - Prosecutors in the United Kingdom have dropped hate crime charges against a Christian street preacher arrested after preaching on the streets about the biblical definition of marriage and sexuality.  John Dunn, a 55-year-old cancer survivor from Swindon, was arrested in November 2020 for alleged "homophobia" after preaching on Swindon High Street, according to the U.K.-based Christian Legal Centre, which is representing the street preacher. A hearing had been scheduled for last week at Swindon Magistrates Court, but the case was thrown out after the two woman complainants reportedly "refused to engage with the case" after making the initial allegations, according to CLC.  Dunn, who has served in the British Army's Special Forces, often refers to Genesis 1 while preaching to state that human beings are made in God's image, male and female, and that marriage between one man and one woman is God's purpose and pattern for the good of society. He pre...

If you are asking, "Which UOC is this?" It's not the UOC built by Constantinople. It's the UOC that we used to call the UOC-MP before it broke away from Russia recently. ( UOC ) - On 23 November 2022, after a Divine Liturgy in the church of St. Nicholas at the residence of the Primate of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, a regular meeting of the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church presided over by His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufriy of Kyiv and All Ukraine took place. The Information and Education Department of the UOC publishes the results of the meeting of the Holy Synod of the UOC. Due to the fact that on 5 June 2022 His Holiness Patriarch Porfirije of Serbia granted a Tomos on the autocephaly of the Macedonian Orthodox Church, the Holy Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church decided to enter the name of the Primate of the Macedonian Orthodox Church into the diptych. The name of His Beatitude Archbishop Stefan of Ohrid and Macedonia will henceforth be commemora...

( orthochristian.com ) - The Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Alexandria made several serious decisions today regarding the Moscow Patriarchate. Convened under the chairmanship of Patriarch Theodoros of Alexandria at St. George Monastery in Cairo, the Synod extensively discussed the issue of the Russian Orthodox Church’s African Exarchate, which was created late last December, and which has been spreading throughout the territory of the Patriarchate of Alexandria since then. After its discussion, the Synod resolved to defrock Metropolitan Leonid of Klin, the Russian Church’s Exarch for Africa, “for a series of canonical offenses (invasion of the jurisdiction of the ancient Church, consecration of antimensions, distribution of holy Chrism, bribery of local clergy, even those deposed from the rank, factionalism, ethnophyletism, etc.) and condemned the new ecclesiastical-political ‘theories’ about the spread of the Russian World around the world on the basis of nationality,” reports Romf...

There are two ways this working group can go. The first is a fluff piece that "reaffirms the martyric and indispensable centrality of married people in the Orthodox Church" followed by several pages of proof texting and maybe a patristic quote in bold text somewhere in there. The second is to actual tackle all the difficult issues facing parents and children in the modern world. One is easy and will be farmed out to learned clergy for pull quotes and flowery words. The other is hard and overdue. We still don't have a uniform handle on mixed marriages (and some hierarchs are widening this gap ), we are all over the place on bio-ethical issues related to artificial means for procreation, our children are under siege from social media and social contagion, and frankly our birth rates are pitiable. Bishops love to talk about children; it's an easy thing to write about and parents love to hear that someone is worried about teaching them the faith. Sadly, many parents take ...

For those that don't know, the Orthodox Inter-Seminary Movement was revitalized by Bp. Michael of New York some number of years ago. Students from seminaries across the country get together at different institutions (in rotation) to hear talks, worship together, and get to know one another. It's invaluable. Many of the friends I made years ago at OISM are still people I talk to today. For many who attend it is the first time they have experienced Orthodoxy outside of their jurisdictional boundaries. Coming from the melting pot that is Texas Orthodoxy, seeing the look on a visitor's face that said "What in the world are they doing" in response to something done in a chapel, classroom, or even a trapeza was peak entertainment. Our seminaries are quite similar in many ways but also very different in many ways as well. Ask someone in the OCA who went to St. Vlad's to describe St. Tikhon's and you will hear it. Ask a Holy Cross student to explain Jordanville an...

( Coptic LA ) - On Tuesday November 15, 2022 His Eminence Metropolitan Serapion accompanied with their graces Bishop Thomas and Bishop Angelos visited His Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew I Archbishop of Constantinople and the Ecumenical Patriarch in Istanbul. The meeting was concerning the restarting of the official Orthodox Theological Dialogue between the two families of Orthodox Churches. H.E. Metropolitan Emmanuel of Chalcedon and Co-Chairman of the Dialogue attended the meeting. The official Orthodox Theological Dialogue started in 1985 and achieved two Agreed Statements on Christology in 1989 and 1990. We pray for the success of this Orthodox Theological Dialogue.

( OCA ) - At its recent Regular Fall 2022 Session, the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Orthodox Church in America, meeting under the presidency of His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon, received with great joy the news of Igumen Nikodhim’s nomination as diocesan bishop by Albanian Archdiocesan Assembly from earlier this fall. In response to this news the Holy Synod made a number of decisions regarding him and the archdiocese.  The Holy Synod decided to elevate Father Nikodhim to the dignity of archimandrite and named him administrator of the Albanian Archdiocese. On Sunday, November 13, during the celebration of the Divine Liturgy, His Beatitude Metropolitan Tikhon elevated him to this dignity according to the proper liturgical rites. With regard to his nomination as bishop, the Holy Synod received this nomination and decided to move forward eagerly with the process that will see him, by the grace of God, canonically elected by the Holy Synod next year and ordained to the episcopacy in Se...

( ZENIT News ) November 15, 2022 - In an interview with a Turkish media , the Patriarch of Constantinople stated that conversations are underway between representatives of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches to come to an agreement on the common celebration of the most important date for Christians, namely, Easter.  The conversations are being held in the framework of the coming celebration of the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, which took place in 325 AD, whose dispositions continue to be binding for both Christians denominations. Patriarch Bartholomew disclosed that specialists in the scientific realm will be consulted to identify the most accurate date for the Easter celebration, given that it’s not about religious considerations but about something that has to do with astronomy, a scientific area of human knowledge. “Our objective is that in this context of the anniversary, we can find a solution in regard to Easter. The Pope has the  best intentions and I thi...

( Brunswick News ) - A Christian Orthodox priest stands in front of the coffin with body of the leader of Cyprus' Orthodox Church, Archbishop Chrysostomos II in the St. Barnabas Cathedral, during a brief service following his death on the grounds of the Church's headquarters in the capital Nicosia, Cyprus, Monday, Nov. 7, 2022. Archbishop Chrysostomos II, the outspoken leader of Cyprus' Greek Orthodox Christian Church whose forays into the country's complex politics and finances fired up supporters and detractors alike, has died. He was 81.

Interesting to see his passing through a secular lens. It goes without saying that an Orthodox believer is not going to see, as they do here, that the archbishop was "homophobic, racist and sexist."  ( Cyprus Mail ) - Archbishop Chrysostomos II, who passed away on Monday morning, after a long battle with cancer, might not have been very interested in questions of the faith and spiritual matters, but in his 16 years as the leader of the Orthodox Church of Cyprus, he proved a very capable administrator and manager. While these are not qualities usually associated with an archbishop, they were what the church needed in 2006, when he was enthroned. In the preceding years, the incumbent was ill, incapable of performing his duties, and although Chrysostomos as Bishop of Paphos had the role of caretaker, his powers were restricted. Only after his election, which he secured despite taking far fewer votes than the other two candidates, was he able to steady the ship and successfully i...

We are all familiar with this reading from the Psalms (145 / 146): Praise ye the Lord. Praise the Lord, O my soul. While I live will I praise the Lord: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being. Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help. In the early days of the online Orthodoxy world, those craving teaching flocked to blogs, podcasts, and streaming content like OCN and Ancient Faith Radio. And, as you might expect, they took this excitement to church and immediately started talking about it at coffee hour with their friends and clergy. I am going to leave the merits of what was said to the side. Much has been written - even by me on this blog - on how "reliable" theology packaged in this way is. Some of it is life-changing and some of it is just garbage. As we lack a Yelp for theologically-minded resources, you can expect to have an uneven experience. My concern here is about attaching your faith in Orthodoxy to the men who w...

 

It may be that the threat of eternal punishment is more indicative of God’s love for us than is his promise of the heavenly kingdom. Because, unless there were the threat of eternal punishment, not many of us would gain their salvation. You see, we’re slothful, and the promise of heavenly blessings isn’t enough for us. The fear of punishment prompts us more towards virtue. - Saint John Chrysostom

( Basilica.ro ) - At the end of the Solemn Year of Prayer and the Commemorative Year of the Hesychast Saints, you have another opportunity to pray more, calm and recharge your soul with the words of the Holy Scripture and the Holy Fathers of the Church: the Nativity Fast that begins in two weeks. The Nativity Fast “is a fasting season of prayer and almsgiving,” the Patriarch of Romania said. Two Hesychast Saints inaugurate the Nativity Fast Two hesychast saints open your way to the Fast of the Nativity of the Lord. The last fast-free day is on November 14, the feast day of Saint Gregory Palamas, the hierarch who essentially contributed to the official reception of hesychasm in the 14th century as a spiritual renewal movement through unceasing prayer. On the first day of the Nativity Fast, we honour Saint Paisius Velichkovsky of Neamț, the venerable elder who revived Romanian monasticism in the 18th century and introduced the Jesus prayer into coenobitic life. Waiting for the Messiah Th...

As always, the Notes on Arab Orthodoxy blog is well-placed to give us context and documentation on an important topic. Below is a bio of Met. Antonios of Zahleh, but he has also posted a LOT of his work here , too. Give it a read. ( Arab Orthodoxy ) - On the second day of the Holy Synod of Antioch's session held at the patriarchal residence at Balamand, the members of the Synod elected the abbot of the Monastery of Our Lady of Bkaftine, Archimandrite Younan (el-Souri) as metropolitan of the Diocese of Zahleh, Baalbek and Their Dependencies. Who is Metropolitan Younan (el-Souri)? Antoine el-Souri was born in Mina, Tripoli on June 20, 1970. He studied at the National Orthodox School Mar Elias in Mina. In 1994, he graduated from the Faculty of Engineering of the Lebanese University, receiving a degree in electrical and electronic engineering. He studied theology by correspondence with the Institut Saint-Serge in Paris through the Diocese of Mount Lebanon. He graduated from this instit...