‘Not an Anthologist: John Bekkos as a Reader of the Fathers’

From my favorite Orthodox blog, Prof. Peter Gilbert’s De Unione Ecclesiarum –
I finally have some good news to report. Today I received an e-mail from the Managing Editor of the journal Communio, informing me that the Summer 2009 issue is now, at last, in print, and that they have decided to feature my article on [...]

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‘Not franchises of General Motors’

Good friend of the blog Michaël sends along this excerpt from a recent interview with Francis Cardinal George of Chicago. I think it’s of particular interest to our Orthodox readers, as it sheds light on how a conservative Roman Catholic bishop understands the delicate balance between primacy and conciliarity in his own communion.
You spend a [...]

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More on the “Confession”

This approach [of the "Confession of Faith Against Ecumenism"] is at variance with the policy of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and, increasingly, the body of local Orthodox Churches which are involved in the painstaking dialogue and progress towards restoring communion between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church undertaken by the International Theological Catholic-Orthodox Dialogue, and [...]

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Fr Alvin Kimel on the “Twelve Differences”

Orrologion has posted the original text of the “Twelve Differences between the Orthodox and Catholic Churches” by Teófilo de Jesús along with excellent responses to each of the twelve points from Fr Alvin Kimel, of Pontifications* fame, who in his extended period of discernment after leaving the Episcopal Church studied the claims of both Roman [...]

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“Pop Byzantium” and “Teh West”

A friend forwarded me a couple of gems from a recently published text which purports to be “an Orthodox catechism for our times” and “a book with the big answers to the big questions every person asks themselves about faith, science and doubt” –
Western Christianity, in all its expressions (whether Catholic, Protestant or so-called Western [...]

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“A Confession of Faith Against Ecumenism”

Via Fr Anthony Chadwick, I present “ΟΜΟΛΟΓΙΑ ΠΙΣΤΕΩΣ Κατά του Οικουμενισμού” (“A Confession of Faith Against Ecumenism” (original Greek text and unofficial English translation), signed by a number of metropolitans, bishops, clergy and monks of the Orthodox Church of Greece.
I tend to agree with Fr Chadwick’s commentary on the text (link, see July 18) [...]

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Papal Primacy: A Concise Definition

Fr Anthony Chadwick, a priest of the Traditional Anglican Communion (currently seeking full communion with Rome), at his always interesting blog “Reflections from Normandy”, points out the following quote from the Pope’s most recent motu proprio (Ecclesiae unitatem, 2 July 2009) –

The duty to safeguard the unity of the Church, with the [...]

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Fr Gregory Jensen, “The Lessons of Uniatism”

While it is not a popular position for an Orthodox Christian, much less a priest, when I reflect on the history of uniatism—of those communities who left the Orthodox Church and joined themselves to Catholic Church—I am struck less by the machinations of Rome and more the failing of Orthodox Christians. Much of what we [...]

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In omnem terram exivit sonus eorum …

With respect, this is, in fact, an anti-gospel argument. The gospel is intended for the world, for every people, for every culture. The gospel is not just for Jews but also for Greeks, not just for Greeks but also for Latins, not just for Latins but also for Asians and South Americans and whomever. Hence the [...]

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For us blog warriors

To a disciple who had quarreled with those around him, [Elder Nicodemus] said: “It is not good or Christian to lose time in discussions that lead to argument and disunity. He who is victorious in discussions is he who in the beginning seems to be conquered but to the end remains peacefully and lovingly disposed [...]

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