Byzantine, Texas

( GOA-AU ) - His Eminence Archbishop Makarios of Australia took part in a particularly interesting discussion, with the participation of distinguished speakers in which the subject of the Autocephalous regime of the Ukrainian Church and Russian war against Ukraine was discussed. The discussion was held as part of the Round Table Evening entitled “Ukraine – Autocephaly and the war that changed the world”, which was organised on Tuesday, 24 January 2023, in Athens, by the Organisation for the Promotion of Greek and Orthodox Culture “AENAOS”. During the Evening event, where the religious, theological, political and geopolitical implications of the above issue were discussed, whilst videotaped addresses of His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and His Beatitude Pope and Patriarch Theodoros II of Alexandria and All Africa were also played. His Eminence Archbishop Makarios, who was one of the keynote speakers at the First Round Table, emphasised in his address that “what is happe...

( EP ) - On Saturday, January 28, 2023, the First Synaxis of Hierarchs of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in the USA convened in Los Angeles, California, under the presidency of His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of America. The hierarchs, twelve in all, represent the Orthodox ecclesiastical eparchies under the jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, namely the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, as well as the American Carpatho-Russian Orthodox and Albanian Orthodox dioceses.   “As leaders of our communities at every level, we have the responsibility and privilege to voice the concerns of the Ecumenical Throne, and to provide advocacy for Her interests,” Archbishop Elpidophoros said in his opening remarks. He called the Synaxis an additional opportunity for the hierarchs to engage with one another and share their ideas:  “Most, if not all, of you have participated in the wonderful Synaxēs of the Ecumenical Throne at the Phanar. When His All-Holiness assembles us, i...

( OCA ) - His Grace Bishop Tikhon (Fitzgerald), retired bishop of the Diocese of the West, fell asleep in the Lord on Sunday, January 22, 2023. Additional information will be posted as it is received. May Bishop Tikhon’s memory be eternal!

Also, a bit sad to see " deaconate " in the CVs. ( Antiochian.org ) - Hundreds of clergy and laity from across the Antiochian Archdiocese gathered for the Special Convention on Jan. 13, 2023 in Dallas, Texas to nominate three candidates for the office of Metropolitan of New York and All North America. His Eminence Metropolitan Antonios, Patriarchal Vicar, presided, conveying the love and blessings of His Beatitude Patriarch John X of Antioch and All the East, praying that the Holy Spirit would guide the delegates in their discernment. "You meet to send the names of three nominees as candidates to the care and wisdom of the Holy Synod," His Beatitude said in his statement read aloud at the convention. "The Synod is entrusted to ask the Great Shepherd of our souls to guide our Antiochian Church in choosing an Archbishop to shepherd the Archdiocese during the coming phase, which, as we all discern, shall be full of challenges in a turbulent world. For this, I ask...

( GOARCH ) - His Eminence Archbishop Elpidophoros of America is currently participating in the regularly scheduled session of the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s Holy and Sacred Synod for the month of January (10-12). Upon the conclusion of this synodal session — under the chairmanship of His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew — the very first meeting of the Mixed Commission on the Charter of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America (“Mixed Commission”) will take place at the Ecumenical Patriarchate on January 13th.  As an Eparchy of the Ecumenical Throne of Constantinople, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America has been granted five Charters over the course of its century-long history in the United States (most recently in 2003). This process has always been conducted with the utmost care, concern, meticulousness, and prudence, to address the contemporary pastoral needs of the Church with each passing era. Except, of course, most recently when it was unilaterally suspende...

( UOC ) - On 5 January 2023, Archbishop Theodosios of Sebastia, an hierarch of the Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem, stated during a meeting with the delegation of the Polish Orthodox Church that Christians of the entire world ought to condemn the persecutions which the Ukrainian Orthodox Church was being subjected to. orthodoxostypos.gr informs about it, the Information and Education Department of the UOC reports. ‘Where is the whole Orthodox world now to condemn the persecutions which the UOC is being subjected to? We still have not heard definite attitudes in spite of the calls and messages sent by her hierarchs’, pointed out Archbishop Theodosios. The hierarch underlined that the Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem did not recognise the ‘Orthodox Church of Ukraine’. ‘We do not recognise the uncanonical and illegitimate organisation created in Ukraine under political pressure, which we all know about, and we recognise only the canonical UOC headed by Metropolitan Onufriy of Kyiv’, ...

( EP ) - His All-Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew opened with his extensive address on 1 December, 2022, the two-day International Conference entitled: “Πιστεύομεν. The Status Quaestionis and the Neglected Topics of Nicaea and its Creed”. The Congress held in view of the completion of 1700 years since the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea, in the year 2025, was placed under the auspices of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and organized in collaboration with the Italian Foundation “Fondazione per le Scienze Religiose”. Hierarchs and distinguished researchers from various Christian Churches and Confessions participated and presented papers. ADDRESS By His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew At the International Conference on “WE BELIEVE: The Status Quaestionis and the Neglected Topics of Nicaea and its Creed” (Constantinople, December 2022)   Most honorable brother Hierarchs,    Your Excellencies, Distinguished scholars, Beloved conference participants, W...

( OCA-DMW ) - Archpriest Paul Jannakos interviews His Eminence Archbishop Daniel of Chicago and the Midwest about his past, present, and future as the first of a series of interviews of the diocesan chancellor with people of the diocese.

St. Vladimir's Theological Quarterly (SVTQ)—in continuous publication for nearly seventy years—has a fresh new look and format and is now under new editorial leadership: Dr Ionuț-Alexandru Tudorie, Academic Dean and Professor of Church History at St Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary, Editor-in-Chief; the Rev. Dr Bogdan Bucur, Associate Professor of Patristics, and Dr Vitaly Permiakov, Assistant Professor of Liturgical Theology, Editors; and the Rev. Ignatius Green, Editor & Production Manager of SVS Press.  You can read two articles from a recent edition. Both links will send you to PDFs of the content. “ It shall not be so among you: Orthodox Witness and Contemporary Politics " by Metropolitan Tikhon This is a sort of panegyric for peace itself and for properly orienting yourself as Christians above all other things. It is summed up a bit in the middle of the article where it says, "We value and pray for a peaceful coexistence with the civil authorities,...

Every year for Christmas I order a number of calendars. A word-of-the-day calendar, a rare/archaic word-of-the-day calendar, a Far Side calendar, and a liturgical calendar. Every priest gets a calendar from his jurisdiction with all the "fiddly bits" that most people don't need to know, but every family also needs a good - and beautiful - church calendar to put somewhere everyone can see it in their homes. Last year we got the Beauty First Films calendar and I must say it's quite good - and beautiful. So do consider them if you haven't purchased a calendar for your home yet. They do offer them in both Old and New Calendar versions. Easy to order from Etsy . Full disclosure: I didn't get a free calendar or anything thing from the Beauty First Films people. I just really like their work. They also do Orthodox projects like documentaries. You can see those here .

My last child was born with the assistance of two midwives. This got me interested in the prayers related to childbirth, those for newborn babies, and for mothers on returning to church. I consulted a few of my books of needs and related texts as well as sought out a few papers on the topic. Aleksandr Andreev of the The Orthodox Pastoral School wrote a great paper entitled " A New Source for Childbirth Prayers in the Byzantine Rite " which I enjoyed tremendously.  A few things I found quite interesting (but do read the whole paper). First, can you imagine a mother on bedrest sending her midwife to church to get the baby prayed over? I visualize a newborn in a carseat being driven (in a suitably safe vehicle like a Subaru) with much wailing - in that special way newborns wail - all the way to the church. Certainly someone is recording this on an iPhone. And the priest quickly does the prayers before the baby is sped back to the mother with all due fleetness. That's apparen...

From a much larger article entitled "THE ENCHANTING CHRISTMAS CAROLS OF UKRAINE AND TRANSCARPATHIA–KOLYADKI: One of these Ukrainian Christmas Carols became a legend in America" available here . Do go read it, because it's enlightening and the music is great. In the dark night (Sleep Jesus), V temnuyu nichku, В темную нічку (Спи, Ісусе,) It is impossible to listen to this soulful carol and truly understand the words without crying. This carol describes the Birth of Jesus, with the Mother of God singing him a lullaby about his fate. She sings to him that he will grow up and go into the world, and with time, people across the entire world will believe in him. She tells him he will save the world from death, but not before He, her newly born Son, would himself die on Golgotha. No one could ever truly understand the fate of the Mother of God, the highest being ever created. She gave birth without corruption to God in the flesh, containing, (by His own consent), in her womb bot...

Let me hear from you. I am pondering doing an Orthodox news podcast with some combination of straight news and commentary. It would probably start as audio-only and then be done on YouTube (or Vimeo or Rumble) if visuals prove to be of any value. Do you see any merit? Thoughts appreciated.

( Orthodox Times ) - The Holy Synod and the Supreme Ecclesiastical Council met in Moscow on December 29 to decide on the decisions of the Patriarchate of Alexandria. The Holy Synod of the Church of Russia emphasized in its announcement that, assessing the decision of the Synod of the Patriarchate of Alexandria to remove Metropolitan Clin, it considers that it has no canonical power and is invalid. To which Alexandria would reply that he has no right to be there in the first place. He reiterates that due to the recognition by Patriarch Theodore of the Autocephalous Church of Ukraine, the Russian Orthodox Church ceased the commemoration of Patriarch Theodore in the diptychs and stopped the ecclesiastical communion with those hierarchs of the Church of Alexandria “who supported or will support in the future the legalization of the Ukrainian schism”. So, "But he hit me first!" has moved out of the playroom as a defense and into synodal parlance. Grand. Finally, he points out that...