Psalm 81 (82) 1 God stood in the assembly of gods; He judges in the midst of gods, saying, 2 “How long will you judge unjustly, And favour the persons of sinners?” 3 Judge an orphan and a poor man; Justify a humble and poor man; 4 Rescue a poor and needy man; Deliver them from a sinner's hand. 5 They do not know nor understand; They carry on in darkness; All the foundations of the earth shall be shaken. 6 I said, “You are gods, And you are all sons of the Most High. 7 But you die [...]

Poems of the Revolution  Spirituality and the Freedom in Dionysios Solomos' Poems "The Hymn to Liberty" and "The Free Besieged" Dionysios Solomos, who is widely acknowledged as the national poet of Greece, was born on April 8, 1798 on the island of Zakynthos. From a young age he immersed himself in the life of the Church and yearned for the Independence of his country. The religiosity in Solomos' work is so prevalent and incessant that it can hardly go unnoticed. His poems include many religious ideas, images, expressions, events and persons, both biblical and historical. Two outstanding poems that constitute [...]

Abraham, Joseph, Moses and Jesus all spent time in Egypt before returning to Israel. What is the significance of Egypt?   Egypt was already a great civilisation by the time it is first mentioned in the Bible. Abraham had gone to Egypt when there was a famine where he lived in Canaan. A few generations later, Joseph was sold into slavery and taken to Egypt. During the great famine, his whole family (and therefore the whole Israelite nation) moved to Egypt. Four hundred years later, it was Moses who delivered the Hebrews out the slavery and oppression of Egypt into [...]

St Anthousa (Commemorated on the 13th of November)   On November 13, the Orthodox Church commemorates one of its most preeminent theologians and saints, John Chrysostom. There is no appropriate superlative to describe St John’s extraordinary contribution to the Christian faith. On that same day, we also commemorate St Anthousa, the mother of John Chrysostom. St Anthousa was born in the city of Antioch in approximately 347 AD. She was an intelligent woman who married Secundus, an officer in the army. Together the couple bore a son, whom they named John. At the age of twenty, Anthousa became a widow [...]

ATHEISM IN REVERSE In the previous issue of this periodical, we dealt with the development of Atheism, and the different ideological streams that were used to support its spread in the European landscape. In the beginning, the system of “Scholasticism” was set up ostensibly to help people find answers to the problems they had with their Faith, e.g. divine revelations, God’s grace, and other Christian teachings. The system appeared to support the existence of God, but without connection to the Church. The result was that history was distorted by “Relativism” (aligning teachings and dogmas to the concepts of the current [...]