“Save and sanctify all who know You as God”   I will try to say a few words to analyse this sublime line taken from the hymn for this great day of Pentecost. In Cyprus, the suffering island, where Greek Orthodox identity is more purely, fully and faithfully upheld, they call this day ‘the day of the flood’. Which means …

Throughout the entire treatise of the unity of Christ one cannot evade the strong, determined, and authoritive voice of St Cyril. The entire work is a mysterious dialogue because it is between an anonymous friend called ‘B’ and Cyril himself, referred to as ‘A’. The conversation between the pair covers many issues, some more prominent than others however the major …

Meditate upon the Scriptures, for within them you shall find eternal life. Our Lord, Jesus Christ my dear brethren, is the sweetest Master and Creator of all the Angels, and all the Noetic and sensible/perceptible beings which came forth from the depths of His mercy, immense goodness and boundless love, on which He has bestowed upon all of humanity, and …

The manner in which Christ healed the blind man was very strange, and caused much questioning among those who witnessed the event. I do not intend to concentrate on the miracle as such, but rather on one detail which is of symbolic significance for anyone who has learnt to look beyond the merely apparent. For the one who has learnt to think, to contemplate, to penetrate the signifiers and …

How tragic is the story of the life of the paralytic. A man had been paralysed for years. He lay at a short distance from healing, but he himself had no strength to merge into the waters of cleansing. And no one – no one in the course of all the thirty eighth years and more – had compassion on …

The purpose of this article is to provide a summary of St Athanasius’ treatise On the Incarnation highlighting important themes with respect to his Soteriology and Christology. The Incarnation is for St Athanasius the historical event par excellence, in which the Word manifests His salvific work.[1] In demonstrating the purpose of the Incarnation, he provides or rather requires on the …

Prologue With the invasion and colonisation of the Turks within the lands of Asia Minor, a very dark epoch descended upon the indigenous inhabitants of the region, in 1453, whose tyranny still continues until today. It is hoped that with the present democratisation of Turkey which has begun to enfranchise the common Turk with the right to express himself will also …

I would have liked to be born Greek… A letter from the first Taiwanese Orthodox missionary Pelagia Yu to the Greek people I am Chinese, born in Taiwan and my Christian name is Pelagia. I was a Protestant Christian, and it took me five years to become Orthodox. I love to read the Holy Bible and have all of its …

By the Mercy of God Archbishop of Constantinople-New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch To the Plenitude of the Church Grace, Peace and Mercy From the Savior Christ Risen in Glory Beloved children in the Lord, Once again, in a spirit of joy and peace, we address you with the delightful and hopeful greeting: “Christ is Risen!” The occurrences and events of our …

Introduction Writing in the late 1930s, the great Swiss theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar observed a process of destruction of Western culture and Christianity that has only increased in the intervening sixty-five years. In such a context, von Balthasar suggested, the inclination on the part of many is to attempt to recover a lost Eden, a garden of delights unspoiled …