“Go and find out what this means: ‘I desire mercy not sacrifice’’ (Matthew 9:13). There is not an exhortation in the whole of scripture that needs more desperately to be pondered by Christians today than this sentence that Jesus says to the Pharisees after they criticize him for associating with sinners. Mercy and sacrifice produce completely different conceptions of holiness. …
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In this gospel, Jesus teaches us that the only way we can overcome the evil in this world, is through prayer and fasting. The incident in today’s Gospel took place immediately after the Transfiguration. At the Transfiguration three of our Lord’s disciples, Peter, James and John saw our Lord Jesus Christ as He truly is, shining with the glory of …
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The Monastery – PART A We are pleased to present the location, the first buildings and future plans for the completion of the first Orthodox Christian Monastery in New Zealand. One can ask, what is the reason for the existence of a monastery? We Orthodox Christians can very easily answer that such a monastery is necessary for one is the …
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To all intents and purposes, the Greek-Australian view of the Greek Orthodox Church is a parochial and ethnophyletic one. However, the venerable Byzantine tradition that defines Modern Hellenism and the permeation of that culture through much of eastern Europe and the Middle East, notwithstanding, the adherence or interest of others in Orthodoxy looms strange. Enter the Very Rev. Raphael Morgan …
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(Commemorated on 3rd May and the 24th December) Saint Ahmed (or Ahmet) Kalphas came from a Muslim family in Constantinople, and was raised as a devout Muslim. He worked as a secretary (deftedar) in the office of the Chief Secretary of the Ottoman Empire, that is in Ottoman terms, within the Sultan’s Chancellery as Scribe of the Second Rank. Thus …
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ModeOfLife Become love as God exhorts us, for this is the true starting point for changing your life and the world. For it is love that will bring respect, justice and equity into the world, not our personal opinion of what justice or equity is.