Entries Tagged as ‘Orthodox Christian’

22 March 2008

Easter for some

This year Easter and Wester are about as far apart as they possibly can be.
While Western Christians will be celebrating Easter tomorrow, Orthodox Christians will be having the Second Sunday of Lent:
Sunday 23rd March 2008
* Tone 2 - SECOND SUNDAY OF GREAT LENT
* St Gregory Palamas
* Commemoration of the Holy Fathers whose relics lie in [...]

20 March 2008

Mikhail Gorbachev as a Christian

Several newspapers have reported that Mikhail Gorbachev, the last president of the USSR, is a Christian.What is surprising, however, is not so much the reports themselves as the source: the reports have come from Italy.It will be interesting to see if there are any follow-ups in the media, saying something about how Gorbachev practises [...]

4 March 2008

Desert Calling

ICXC|NIKA writes

Desert Calling is an Orthodox web forum started by Isaak (Dust and Ashes) not long ago devoted to building a community of Orthodox Christians based in askesis, the struggle against and death to the world in order that we might obtain the Holy Spirit of Peace. Its membership has boomed in a way we [...]

2 March 2008

Baptism of Blackie Sibiya

For some years now Blackie Sibiya of Mamelodi has been too old and frail to come to church. After a couple of debilitating strokes he has been housebound. A few weeks ago Fr Frumentius of Atteridgeville (25 km away on the other side of Pretoria) came with me to visit him, and suggested that we [...]

24 February 2008

Kosovo Molieben in Johannesburg

A special prayer service (Molieben) for Orthodox Christians in Kosovo was held at St Thomas;’s Serbian Orthodox Church in Johannesburg, and those present signed a petition requesting the South African government not to recognise the unilateral declaration of independence made in Kosovo last weekend.
The service was led by Fr Pentelejmon Jovanovic, Rector of the St [...]

24 February 2008

Kosovo and Metohija — why should we care?

On Sunday 17 February 2008 the ruling political party in Kosovo made a unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia. The Republic of Serbia did not agree to Kosovo becoming independent.
Why should South Africans, and South African Orthodox Christians in particular, care about this? Kosovo is far away in Europe, and many of us would find [...]

19 February 2008

A monastic vision

In his blog Koinonia Fr Gregory Jensen makes An Immodest Proposal for a restoration of monasticism, as key to the renewal of the spiritual life of the Christian community. This in turn would be the key to the reevangelisation of Western Europe, as Eastern Europe needed to be reevangelised in the 1990s.
Many Protestants are [...]

9 February 2008

The Bible and the Orthodox Church

One of the obstacles to communication that often comes up in discussions between Orthodox Christians and Protestants, or even Western non-Christians, is the way in which Orthodox Christians relate to the Bible.
Western non-Christians, including atheists, agnostics, neopagans and others, tend to see the Bible through Protestant eyes, even if they reject it and that way [...]

1 February 2008

St Bridget of Kildare

The 1st February is the feast of St Bridget of Kildare, generally regarded as the founder of women’s coenobitic monasticism in Ireland, and known for her love and care for the poor.

For more detail on her life, see the OCA web page for saints commemorated on 1st February.
Troparion - Tone 1
O holy Brigid, you [...]

30 January 2008

God, moral judgement and the death penalty

In an article on Religion and the death penalty Walter Berns argues that religion and the death penalty are inextricably linked, and suggests that you can’t have one without the other.
Dr Albert Mohler of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in the USA, summarises the article as follows:
In a fascinating new look at capital punishment, [...]