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Dean Kalimniou

Pappou Niko’s eternal exile

“It was all for nothing, all my struggles, all my privations and I’m alone. I try to figure out the reason for this and each time, I am more and more at a loss.” – Nikos Syrmos DEAN KALIMNIOU My youthful recollection of pappou Niko is of an exceedingly tall old man, possessed of severe eyebrows perpetually pressed into a …

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Tamata (Offerings)

The recent theft of hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of jewellery and other votive items from the monastery of Panayia Kamariani shocked members of the Greek community DEAN KALIMNIOU – 25 Aug 2014 NEOS KOSMOS The recent theft of hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of jewellery and other votive items dedicated to the Panayia from the monastery of Panayia …

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GARDENING BYZANTIUM

15 Jul 2014 – Neos Kosmos Newspaper “Τα διαφόροις των παλαιών περί τε γεωργίας και επιμέλειας φυτών και σπορίμων και ετέρων πολλών χρήσιμων ειρημένα συλλέξας εις εν, τουτί το βιβλίον συντέθεικα.” – Γεωπονικά On the extraordinarily rare occasions when my grandparents would be ready to admit that a particular piece of agricultural lore was beyond them, they would seek answers in …

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Dormition of the Theotokos

Unlike the Resurrection of Christ, the mysterious character of Mary’s death, burial and ascension were not the subject of apostolic teachings extant but were preserved in the oral tradition of the Church. 19 Aug 2014 – Neos Kosmos DEAN KALIMNIOU “If her Fruit, Whom none may comprehend, on Whose account she was called a heaven, submitted of His own will …

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CONVERT OR DIE!

He was warned not to go out onto the street, even for the weekly shop, but his brother laughed and enjoined him to stop fretting like an old woman. Confidently, they walked out of their house and proceeded down the block, when suddenly they were set upon by masked men. They kicked them into a kneeling position and held their …

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Cyprus Saturation

The photographs accompanying this diatribe were taken last year by Turkish photographer Bastermur Bilal. They depict a couple of semi-nude stick figures attempting to assume languid attitudes of sensuous nonchalance. As such, they could be dismissed as yet another accretion to the derivative drivel that poses as art, if it were not for the context in which these were taken. …

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ORTHODOXY AND SUICIDE

A few decades ago, a distant relative here in Melbourne committed suicide. At the time, he was afflicted by a debilitating mental illness that altered his perception of reality. His death was confronting and infinitely traumatising for all of those who knew him and loved him. At his funeral, the priest did his utmost to console his heartbroken family. He …

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Holy Week

16 Apr 2014 DEAN KALIMNIOU “For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures; and that He was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve; after that, He …

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Demonstration

When nations are not made accountable for their crimes, their action ceases to be a crime 23 Jul 2013 In a piece describing his stay in Cyprus, Noble Prize winning poet Odysseus Elytis spoke of the timeless essence of being Greek as being situated in a unique feel for the relationship between things, whereupon there was more of the spirit …

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