Kosmas, an ageing migrant, remembers his war time experience   Instead of a Prologue From the earth to the fire All your journeys Your dreams green Your sorrow yearning So that in your hands may blossom the debris And that you may accept the curse as a blessing. (Archbishop Stylianos) In modern times, success stories have often dominated the Greek migrant narrative. The above poem by our Archbishop Stylianos adds a new dimension by using the Orthodox synthesis of opposites; Christ’s cross (a symbol of denigration) becomes the symbol of life and hope. The narratives we will reveal in this [...]

Parenting Toward the Kingdom: Orthodox Christian Principles of Child-Rearing by Philip Mamalakis Published by Ancient Faith Publishing, 2016   Parenting Toward the Kingdom is a rare offering that connects the daily struggles of family life and parenting to the truths of the Orthodox Christian Church, and offers real strategies to navigate these challenges. Mamalakis notes that parenting requires an end game, namely, what sort of adults we wish our children to become: Caring? Kind? Moral? Competent? Hard-working? These long-term goals need to guide our daily interventions. Some of the themes addressed include: 1) the need to convey the positive joy [...]

Gospel Reading May 7th (John 5:1-15) Sunday of the Paralytic   On the third Sunday after Easter, we read in the Gospel of John about Christ’s visit to the pool of Bethesda in Jerusalem, where there lay “a great multitude of sick people, blind, lame, paralysed, waiting for the moving of the water”. The fact that only one person at a time was healed by the occasional appearance of the angel was not a limitation of God’s power, but rather a pedagogic means through which the people could be led, through patience, to place all their hope in God. The [...]

What does the Orthodox Church teach about the General Resurrection of the dead? When our Church refers to the “General Resurrection of the Dead” it is referring to the resurrection of all dead bodies, of everyone who has ever lived. In his Exposition of the Orthodox Faith, St John of Damascus points out that “Resurrection means the second raising up of that which has fallen, for how are the souls to be resurrected if they are immortal?... Death is defined as the separation of the soul from the body... Resurrection is the reunion of the soul and the body... Therefore, [...]

St Paphnutius Commemorated on 19th April   St Paphnutius, a revered ascetic and defender of Orthodoxy, stood with dignity and truth alongside the Holy Fathers at the First Ecumenical Council in 325AD. There is limited information about Paphnutius’ life. We know he was a disciple of St Anthony the Great and lived in Egypt as a monastic in the fourth century. He later became a bishop. During the fierce persecutions of Christians under Emperor Maximillian, Paphnutius was condemned to work in the mines. While there, he was brutally tortured and lost his right eye. He was later freed, and returned [...]