Halloween these days provides a time for the predictable annual debate about whether or not Christians should participate in Halloween, and many participants in the debate express themselves very strongly. As we approach that time, I...
Those familiar with old-time Pentecostalist liturgy will identify the title of this piece as a part of that liturgy. Not, of course, that tongue-speaking Pentecostalists of the old school would admit to having liturgy. Liturgy, for...
I have just finished reading Diarmaid MacCulloch’s Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years. It is a thoroughly enjoyable read, comprehensive, and engagingly written. It is also a great doorstopper of a book, so large a hardbound...
In the baptismal prayer in which the priest blesses the baptismal water, there is a line that baptism will bestow upon the candidate the loosing of bonds, the remission of sins, the illumination of the soul and “the gift of adoption to...
In about 1968, Prime Minister Trudeau (not our current disaster, a previous one) famously declared that “the government has no business in the bedrooms of the nation”. Even then it was a touch asinine when you really thought about it,...
On September 8, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II reposed in the Lord at the age of 96. She had reigned as the Queen of Great Britain and other countries (such as Canada) and head of the British Commonwealth for 70 years, which is somewhat...
On September 8, the Church sings that the Nativity of the Theotokos has “proclaimed joy to the whole universe”. It is easy enough to sing, but somewhat harder now for us to understand. Why, we may ask, did the birth of a baby girl in...
In the late Metropolitan’s Kallistos Ware’s classic The Orthodox Church, he describes the Church as “a continued Pentecost”. This is true, but it is important not to misunderstand his meaning.It is possible to understand the description...
It seems to be commonly held among scholars that the so-called monarchical episcopate (i.e. the system of having one bishop governing a city church with presbyters working with him) was not apostolic and did not come to Rome until the...
I have just finished reading (devouring actually) a biography of Ted Byfield entitled Prairie Lion, who left the earthly battlefield for the Kingdom of God on December 23, 2021. The book is eminently readable and documented what I...
On my sainted parents’ graves, I swear the following conversation actually took place.Perplexed Man: “Male gametes—that’s what makes me male.”Transgender Apologist: “No—your sperm don’t make you male.”PM: “Then what does?”TA: “It’s a...
The recent decision of Archbishop Elpidophoros to baptize the adopted child of an openly gay couple in Greece is only the latest addition to a series of actions which have raised Orthodox eyebrows, coming as it does hard on the heels of...
This last May St. Ninian’s Anglican Church in Scarborough, Ontario was deconsecrated by the Anglican bishop of Toronto and returned to secular use. Usually the deconsecration of Anglican churches is of no interest to me, unless they are...
Orthodox people love symbols—we even find symbols in places where they don’t really exist, such as when we say that the Gospel Entrance in the Divine Liturgy is a symbol of Christ going out to preach. (Liturgical footnote: an entrance...
In reflecting on the recent legal overturn of Roe vs. Wade in the United States, I am acutely aware of my status as a foreigner here in Canada living north of all the action. The decisions of the United States Supreme Court have no...
