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Matins Hymn of the Resurrection The Orthodox Icon of the Feast of Pascha depicts Christ descending into Hades and liberating Adam from the bonds of death, while many luminaries of the Old Testament look on. Who then witnessed Christ's own Resurrection? We know that none of the four gospels describes the actual Resurrection Itself. So how can we sing and pray that we have seen the Resurrection of Christ? Has poetic license been liberally used in this Paschal hymn? St Symeon the New Theologian provides answers: "How then, does the Holy Spirit exhort us to say, “Having beheld the Resurrection [...]

Job the Long-Suffering   Job was a blameless man who “feared God and shunned evil” (Job 1:1). So righteous was he, that there was “none like him on the earth” (Job 1:8).  But Satan argued that Job was faithful only because God had blessed him with much wealth and health and ten children. Thus God allowed Job to be tested and in a single day he looses all of his children, his servants and his livestock. Yet instead of cursing God (which is what Satan wanted), he fell down upon the ground and worshiped God saying, “Naked I came from [...]

Lynette’s Hope – the witness of Lynette Katherine Hoppe’s life and death. Compiled and edited by Fr Luke A. Veronis Published by Conciliar Press Ministries, 2008 This book is a profoundly personal insight into the life and death of a devout Orthodox missionary of our time.  Lynette Hoppe was born in Indianna, USA, in 1960 into a protestant missionary family. She completed Bible College and a degree in graphic design. Lynette married Nathan, a protestant missionary. Their conversion to Orthodoxy was miraculous. Interested readers will find more details in a related book “Becoming Orthodox” by Peter Gillquist (reviewed in April-May [...]

Part 4: Encounter with the Youth In November 2012, with the blessings of His Eminence Archbishop Stylianos and His Eminence Metropolitan Konstantinos of Singapore, eight men from the Greek Orthodox Christian Society travelled to Medan, Indonesia, at the request of Fr Chrysostomos Manalu, an Orthodox priest of Indonesian background. This is the fourth of a series of articles outlining aspects of this missionary visit. As young members of this mission group we had a number of blessed encounters with the youth at St Paul's Theological College, who welcomed us warmly and with great enthusiasm. During the first seminars that we [...]

Let God arise, let His enemies be scattered… Psalm 67 (68) The first use of the opening lines of this Psalm was by the Israelites when the Ark of the Covenant was carried during their wanderings in the desert. The enemies to be scattered were those who fought against Israel on their way to the Chosen Land: the Amalekites, Moabites, Amorites and so forth. The wandering of Israel through the desert was a kind of procession, and so it makes sense that this Psalm was eventually used in Jewish liturgical processions, and later on by Christians for the same purpose. [...]