If God is not needed and there is no prayer, if you are nothing more than a tourist when you enter a temple, then hell eagerly assumes its rights and makes its presence known, not with the smell of sulfur, but with a sense of depression and meaninglessness.
Our society has largely forgot what a wedding is. That is why it cannot understand why the gift of sex should not be given before the wedding day. Instead it asks, “Why wait?”
The belief in the solvability of all things is a foundation of the modern world. We are nurtured with an expectation of progress and solutions. When this turns out not to be the case, despair is a natural result.
Does our present delight in cultural diversity mean that we must now abandon our historical mandate to “go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15)?
Christmas was more than a celebration; it was God’s trumpet, announcing to Herod the beginning of the end. It was a banner of war, unfurled to declare that a divine revolution had begun.
In Orthodox understanding, the bloodless sacrifice of the Eucharist is the primary act of worship. It is not something we do while we worship: it is what worship truly is.
I can think of no better homage to the man who “created” the modern celebration of the holiday than to read his delightful A Christmas Carol.
My focus here is on not the sceptics who doubt the miraculous nature of the Holy Fire. My focus rather is on the significance of the miracle itself.
It was an image of God’s people, shining with a reflected glory, a divine light that came from God and illumining those in the world who could not bear the direct intensity of His glory.
We listen for the essential melody of the patristic chorus, and charitably pass over the odd discordant note which all of the Fathers occasionally sound.
The year is 1868; the place, Damascus. A self-taught mystic calling himself Abd el Matar left his wife, family, and home to found a group of disciples in Damascus, the Shazlis, basing it on a Sufi brotherhood established in the middle ages. About forty or so people gathered about him […]
The discussion of the category of clean versus unclean, sometimes discussed today, cannot be separated from the larger discussion of the abiding relevance of the Jewish Law.
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Vladislav SOTIROVIC 
Nikolay STARIKOV 
Gulam ASGAR MITHA 
Vladimir KOZIN 
Eric MARGOLIS 
M. K. BHADRAKUMAR 
Fr. Lawrence FARLEY 
Thierry MEYSSAN 
Fr. Stephen FREEMAN 
Michael AVERKO 
Peter CHAMBERLIN 
Fr. Andrey TKACHEV 
Nauman SADIQ 
Adam GARRIE 
Sophie MANGAL 
Iqbal ALIMOHAMED 
Oliver RICHARDSON 
Matthew COOPER 
Nafeez AHMED
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