The Holy Church, Holy Communion, and an Orthodox Ethos
When believers enter an Orthodox Church, they are passing from this world of sickness, strife, and death into a realm of spiritual…
Reflections in Christ
A Letter of a Parish Priest to His Flock
I have waited a long time before writing anything specifically about our current situation because I am a simple parish priest…
Will You Remember Me?
Lately I was listening to Jann Arden’s poignant song Will You Remember Me? and it occurred to me that in one hundred years…
What COVID-19 Means for Singing in Church
The Orthodox Church is a singing church. We express our faith through song. For weeks or months now, many of us have been unable to attend…
To Preserve and Pass On: A Remembrance of Metropolitan Leonty
I arrived in America and reported to my new First Hierarch. He had been elected Metropolitan just a year before my arrival…
Streaming the Reality of Shadows: The Pros and Cons of Livestreaming our Services
There once was a man who had a mouse in his house. He had a mousetrap, but no cheese to use as bait. As the man sat in his kitchen…
Saint Alexis Toth and the Return to Orthodoxy of the Uniates in North America
On this historic occasion, as we observe the 400th Anniversary of the Union of Brest-Litovsk, one might very well ask…
Facing our (Worst) Fears
I cannot find the exact citation at the moment, but I recall that St. John Chrysostom once said/wrote that, as human beings…
“This is the Way”
It has been repeatedly stated that we are in an unprecedented situation. While parallels have been drawn to the Spanish Flu Pandemic, there…
Is Social Distancing a Form of Secular Asceticism?
The phrase “social distancing,” and the practice of doing it have now entered into our everyday discourse and actions, probably never…