You want REAL change? Revolutionary change?

On the ultimate level- the level that matters in the context of eternity- that would be a change in the human heart. That is known as repentance, and among the Orthodox that is understood to be a lifelong process rather than a one-time, one-shot experience. That is revolutionary.
But here I am referring only [...]

New chapter in Alaska’s Russian Orthodox Church (UPDATE)

Since I brought this up in an earlier post, it makes sense for the sake of continuity and closure to report on the final outcome to this most recent local crisis re: Bishop Nikolai. Article here.
I’m reminded of an old saying that goes something like “Burned once, twice shy”; considering that the clergy and [...]

Happy Birthday, Israel! (UPDATED)

God grant you many years!
So many commemorations today,so much to reflect on, so much misunderstanding, some perhaps innocent but- most usually- willful. Not to mention outright malignant evil.
A long, but very comprehensive and worthwhile post is here at Sigmund, Carl and Alfred. Worth the read, I think.
Additional good links, not so lengthy but equally essential [...]

Conservative tide continues to rise… except here?

Huge electoral news from Britain this weekend- their Labour Party (left-of-center) got pummeled/ bloodied/ trounced, not even able to make second place.  Yikes!  From the BBC:
“Gordon Brown’s Labour Party suffered its worst electoral performance for at least 40 years in the English and Welsh local elections. Labour had a net [...]

The Folly of Faith-Based Science

I had heard that adult stem cells (ASC) were already being used in medical treatments, and were proving to be far more promising than embryonic stem cells (ESC)in many hundreds (or was it thousands?) of studies. It didn’t surprise me that this would be under- or unreported in the general media. [...]

Sad brightness/ bright sadness

We helped bury a baby last night.
On Bright Monday, the very day following the year’s most joyful feast, an expectant mother in our community went for a routine prenatal sonogram, only to learn that her baby, 20 weeks along in the pregnancy, had died.
Incomprehensible. Unfathomable.
We gathered at the cathedral at 9 o’clock , then [...]

Not exactly the dialog he had in mind, ya think?

Prefacing first with a cautionary old joke…
Two devout old Irish Catholic immigrant women had been feuding their entire lives. One Sunday morning Mary O’Shaunessey is just leaving St. Patrick’s after the Mass, still on the very steps, when she’s confronted by her nemesis Mary O’Haggerty, who promptly begins haranguing and reviling her.
Mary #1 draws herself [...]