church bell from below

No Other Foundation

Reflections from Fr. Lawrence Farley

Fr. Lawrence Farley

About Fr. Lawrence Farley

Fr. Lawrence serves as pastor of St. Herman's Orthodox Church in Langley, BC. He is also author of the Orthodox Bible Companion Series along with a number of other publications.

Moving the Boundary Marker

An ancient law in the Old Testament is assuming new significance in today’s increasingly secular culture.  It is this: “You shall not move your neighbour’s boundary marker which the ancestors have set” (Deuteronomy 19:14).  The law was...
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“Our So-Called Galactic Brothers”

I had thought of entitling this piece “About UFOs”, but then quickly reconsidered, not wanting to blow all my credibility before anyone had begun reading it.  This piece is an unabashed and unapologetic rip-off of a chapter in Rod...
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What’s So Important about the Nicene Creed?

Much to my surprise, some time ago the Nicene Creed was trending online among the Southern Baptists, America’s largest Baptist organization.  They were, apparently, debating whether or not that Creed should be added to their official...
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Where Are Your Saints?

Once when I was a new convert to Anglicanism (a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away) I asked my dear Anglican pastor why our Anglican Church no longer canonized any saints.  I knew that the Roman Catholic Church continued to canonize...
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Old Testament Prophecies of Christ

I have just finished reading a very 2002 interesting book The Case for Christ, written in Evangelical style by Lee Strobel.  One of the chapters was about how Jesus fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies of the Messiah, for which Mr....
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Hands Up!

I suppose I am hardly the first person to notice that the ancient posture for prayer is largely identical to the universal posture of surrender.  That is, the ancient posture for prayer consisted of raising both arms and hands to heaven...
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More Bishops, Please

Recently I was re-reading a good but somewhat dated book about the episcopate, entitled The Apostolic Ministry, a collection of essays edited by Bishop Kenneth Kirk and published 1946.  In one piece, written by Beatrice Hamilton Thompson...
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Icons: Objects for Veneration or Mere Decoration?

Recently I have come across an anti-Orthodox polemic which rejects our veneration of icons on the grounds that venerating an image painted on a board of Christ, His Mother, or His saints is contrary to the practice of the apostles and of...
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Was Jesus a Zealot?

Thousands of years ago when I was a teenager and a brand-new Christian, I happened to read an article by S.G.F. Brandon about Jesus being a Zealot, in which he questioned much if not most of the Gospel portrait of Jesus and suggested...
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Long Haired Men

Recently a minor fracas in the narthex of our church was caused by (I kid you not) my long hair (see inset for a rear view of said hair).  Since my hair steadfastly refuses to grow on the top of my head, you would think I could be cut a...
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Alarm Bells in the Vatican

Here’s my (whimsical) guess:  somewhere in the Vatican there is a little alarm bell, installed shortly after Jorge Bergoglio became Pope, that sounds every time the Pope puts his theological foot in his mouth.  The sounding of the bell...
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Becoming a Christian: Cerebral or Sacramental?

It has been suggested to me that in many (most?) Evangelical circles one becomes a Christian “by accepting the finished work of Christ”—i.e. by believing and accepting as true that on the cross Jesus paid the full price due our sin and...
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