church bell from below

No Other Foundation

Reflections from Fr. Lawrence Farley

Fr. Lawrence Farley

About Fr. Lawrence Farley

Fr. Lawrence serves as Rector Emeritus 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.

Samson: God’s Hell-raiser

One of the most exciting stories in all the Bible is the story of Samson—made culturally famous by the penultimate episode of the story, that of “Samson and Delilah”.  His story forms a significant part of Israel’s history, occupying an...
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Biblical Women: The Prophetess

There is one woman in the Bible who is consistently ignored.  That is perhaps not unexpected, since her name is not given.  Her presence can be first detected by the exegetically keen-sighted in Isaiah 7.  On the eve of an expected...
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Understanding the Bible: Recognizing Christ

In earlier blog posts we spoke of the challenges to be faced in understanding the Bible in all its rich complexity.  We spoke of the necessity of recognizing that the Bible contains many literary genres and that it is a very old book. ...
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Understanding the Bible: Recognizing Antiquity

In an earlier blog post we spoke of the necessity of recognizing literary genre as one of the essential keys to understanding the Bible.  A second key to understanding the Bible is recognizing its antiquity—that is, acknowledging that...
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Understanding the Bible: Recognizing Genre

Odd as it sounds, the first step to understanding the Bible is to realize that there is no such thing as The Bible.  Or, to state it somewhat less paradoxically, we must realize that the Bible is not a single book written by a single...
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How to Read the Bible

If one wants to grow and mature in Christ, as well as adhering faithfully to one’s daily rule of prayer, it is necessary also to faithfully read the Bible. This is not the word of the Evangelical Dr. Billy Graham, but of the Orthodox St....
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A New Akathist for St. Herman

Once upon a time I had the privilege of being at a lecture given by the very wonderful Father Michael Oleksa, well-known author of the book Orthodox Alaska.  Fr. Michael was giving a lecture to a group of us Canadian Orthodox clergy, and...
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Concerning the “S” Word

Recently I read an article on 1 Peter 3:1-7, which passage contained advice to Christian women married to non-Christians. In this passage the apostolic author counselled the women to “be submissive to your own husbands so that even if...
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Biblical Women: Judith

The Book of Judith is a war story. It may be difficult for us to appreciate it fully, since most of us have never experienced the danger and horrors attending the invasion of one’s country—especially the dangers and horrors for women...
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The Church and Politics

This last Monday Canada had (or rather “endured”) another federal election. It was called in the midst of a pandemic and at a time when the country was badly divided. Given this, feelings have been running high all over, and the Church...
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Toll-houses

It is, I suppose, a sign of how strange and ubiquitous the internet is that I often receive questions from new inquirers into Orthodoxy about toll-houses. Note: not the divinity of Jesus, or the Eucharist, or baptism, or the love and...
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Tabor and Hermon Shout Your Name

When the psalmist wanted to declare the power of Yahweh in Psalm 89 to emphasize the security of David’s throne, he literally searched high and low for images. The high heavens praised the wonders He had done for Israel, and God’s divine...
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Biblical Women: Jezebel

Jezebel was not a nice lady. She had many faults—she was an idolater, a tyrant, a schemer, a murderer. Oddly enough, however, perhaps the one fault she did not have was the one with which her name was to become synonymous—that of being a...
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A Brief Personal Appeal

As some may know, I have been the pastor of St. Herman of Alaska Orthodox Church since it began under the OCA in 1987. It is only because of the congregation’s support that I have been able to also work at my ministry of writing and...
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