By Fr. John Whiteford Note: Father John Whiteford is a former Nazarene Associate Pastor who converted to the Orthodox Faith soon after completing his B.A. in Religion at Southern Nazarene University in Bethany, Oklahoma. He first encountered Orthodoxy as a result of his involvement in the local Pro-Life (Rescue) movement, which also included Father Anthony Nelson and several of his …

+ BARTHOLOMEW By God’s Mercy Archbishop of Constantinople-New Rome And Ecumenical Patriarch To the Plenitude of the Church Grace and Peace from the Creator and Conserver of All Creation Our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ   Beloved brothers and children in the Lord, We have come to September 1st, the beginning of the ecclesiastical year, which the Ecumenical Patriarchate …

+ BARTHOLOMEW By the Mercy of God Archbishop of Constantinople-New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch To the Plentitude of the Church: Grace and Peace from God Prot. No. 441 “Blessed is our God, who so deemed” and orders all things for all people, who has led us to “this day of the Resurrection” when “all has been filled with light, heaven …

Author: Fr George Dimopoulos Source: Orthodox Sermons for all the Sundays of the Year – Volume I Publisher: Christian Orthodox Editions   “Let a man so account of us, as of the Ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God” (1 Corinthians 4:1). In the Church there is to be an order of things. St Paul writes, in …

Date – August 2, 2013 Shrouded in white cloth, their names and home towns carefully printed on the fabric in black pen, the bodies lay side-by-side on the floor at a field hospital in Cairo’s Nasr City. Their deaths — five of the 72 supporters of the deposed Muslim Brotherhood-led government killed this week at the hands of Egyptian security …

By Rod Dreher • May 9, 2013, 11:32 AM Two weeks after the Bush-Laghi meeting, on March 19, 2003, Operation Iraqi Freedom commenced. Shortly after combat operations concluded on May 1, the real conflict began. Amid the chaos and sectarian violence that followed, Iraq’s Christians suffered severe persecution. Neither the military nor the State Department took action to protect them. …

JIHAD AGAINST EGYPT’S CHRISTIANS: THE U.S. MUST SPEAK OUT John Stonestreet, BreakPoint Wednesday, August 21, 2013 In his recent book Fleeing Herod, the Australian writer James Cowan retraces the steps of the Holy Family’s flight into Egypt following Joseph’s dream warning him about Herod’s intentions toward the infant Jesus. Cowan admits in the prologue that current events in Egypt made …

And why supporting Syria’s rebels may extinguish Christianity in its oldest environs. By Andrew Doran • May 9, 2013 http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/how-the-iraq-war-became-a-war-on-christians/ The recent dedication of George W. Bush’s presidential library in Texas briefly rekindled debate about the defining event of his presidency, the Iraq War. The visceral hatred of many for the war and the man having substantially diminished, a more …

POPE FRANCIS RENEWS CALL FOR PEACE IN SYRIA In this Sunday’s Angelus prayer, the Pope spoke out against “the increase in violence in a war between brothers” vatican insider staff Rome After the recitation of the Angelus, Pope Francis renewed his call for peace in Syria. “It is not confrontation that offers hope to resolve problems, but rather the ability …

Author: Metropolitan Kallistos Ware Published by Conciliar Press, 1988 (Source: http://thechristianactivist.com) Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk, writing in eighteenth-century Russia, has this to say about our Orthodox attitude towards the Holy Scriptures: “If an earthly king, our emperor, wrote you a letter,would you not read it with joy? Certainly, with great rejoicing and careful attention. You have been sent a letter, …