July 4: What are we Celebrating?
We find ourselves at the gate of another Fourth of July weekend, a time when family and friends gather to celebrate the birth of this nation with barbecues by day and fireworks by night. When it comes to celebrating July 4, we certainly know what we’re doing. Our mailboxes are filled with circulars advertising various cuts of meat, meal pairings, and flag-themed napkins. This weekend, the brave will flock to local beaches despite overcrowding in – …
Let the Deacons Respond!
The Divine Liturgy is the most important activity in our Orthodox Christian lives. It is the time when the people of God, the ekklesia, stand before Him in reverence, worship Him and entreat His mercy, and receive Communion with Him for the forgiveness of sins and eternal life. Because of its importance, any changes to the Divine Liturgy must be studied with caution. I feel we are at the cusp of such a change relating – …
The Right to Really Die
On October 5, the Governor of California, Jerry Brown, signed a new law that confers what is known as the “right to die” upon people living in this state. The media has done an exceptionally good job in distorting the meaning of this law for Christians. The Associated Press, for example, is careful to note that Gov. Brown is a “lifelong Catholic and former Jesuit seminarian” who signed the law after discussing the issue with – …
The Power of the Priestly Cassock
One of the most disturbing ideas I’ve heard in the recent push to “modernize” the Coptic Orthodox Church and make it more “attractive” to people in today’s society is the idea of priests putting aside their priestly cassocks in favor of pants, shirts, and collars, like other western clergy. The general arguments in favor of abandoning the priestly cassock essentially argue that it is too traditional to the point of alienating people in modern society. – …
The Holy Virgin Mary and Women’s Rights
In or around the first year of the Lord, a meeting took place that would forever change the course of history. There was in those days an older woman living in the hill country of Judea. At this particular time, she was hiding, because something wondrous had happened to her. Despite the old age of this woman and her husband, a Jewish priest, and despite the fact that she, as a woman, was unable to – …