Godparents – Why are they necessary? In most countries of the world, to immigrate to another country and become a permanent resident, you will require a sponsor. A sponsor has to be someone who is already a citizen or a permanent resident in that country to which you wish to emigrate and who is willing to vouch for you, look after you, help you get ‘on your feet’, find a job, find a place to live, learn the rule of the country and adopt the local way of life. Can you imagine if the new migrant did not have a [...]

Why do we say in the Creed: “I Expect the Resurrection of the Dead”? Death is painful. It hurts and it hurts deeply. Is there a greater personal sadness than the death of a mother, a father, a son, a daughter, a brother, a sister, a friend, or a spouse? At such moments, the words of Saint John of Damascus ring true: “What earthly sweetness ever remains unmixed with grief? All things are more feeble than a shadow, all are more deceptive than dreams. Yet in one moment death supplants them all”? It is hard to look at death, and [...]

What is the Kingdom of Heaven that Christ spoke of? The first answer that comes to kind is that Jesus is referring to Heaven, where hopefully we will go after we die.  Indeed, nothing is more important than this, the purpose of our life is to get to Heaven.  We all get stressed over many things, but if we could only see things clearly, then we would realise that by far the most important matter for all of us is to be close to God and to get to Heaven, and many of the things that we stress about are [...]

Why does the Orthodox Church have married priests? Married clergy is one point of difference between the Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church. The Orthodox Church allows priests to marry, as long as they do so before their ordination. However, only celibate or unmarried priests can become bishops. In the early Church, we see that some of the Lord’s disciples were married. Τhe Scriptures talk about Jesus healing Peter’s mother-in-law. At the time of the apostles, when the titles ‘presbyter’ and ‘bishop’ were used interchangeably, St Paul advised that a bishop “must be blameless, the husband of one wife, [...]