To the Reverend Clergy, Monastics and Faithful of the Diocese of the West: But food does not commend us to God; for neither if we eat are we the better, nor if we do not eat are we the worse. But beware lest somehow this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to those who […]

The first week of Great Lent is a time of special prayer and strict abstinence. During the first four days—from Monday to Thursday—the Great Canon of Repentance of St. Andrew of Crete is read in nearly every Orthodox Church.   Lenten service in Sretensky Monastery. Photo by M. Rodionov, Pravoslavie.ru Many Orthodox Christians live in […]

Robert A. SchumacherJanuary 10, 1942 – February 3, 2021 Robert A Schumacher (Subdeacon Athanasios) passed into life on 3 February 2021 after a valiant fight against kidney cancer. He was born January 10, 1942 in Bronx, New York to Raymond Schumacher and Mildred Barr. Raised in Lakewood, New Jersey, Bob attended schools there and upon […]

On Thursday, December 31, 2020, the Holy Synod of Bishops of the Orthodox Church in America has issued an encyclical entitled, “We Rejoice Even in Tribulation”: An Encyclical of Hope. The Holy Synod offers this work out of love and gratitude to its faithful at the end of this year. The Synod also intends for […]

November 27, 2020 by Jim Connolly A good man, when he finds a good thing, wants to share it. (Monk Arseniye) I was raised in a home that did not talk much about God and therefore I had very little exposure to the Christian faith. In 1974, when I was 18 years old and a […]

Sermon on the Gospel reading about the Gadarene demoniac, November 15, 2020 Metropolitan Tikhon (Shevkunov) of Pskov and Porkhov      In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit The event we remember today is shocking—the casting out of demons from the two Gadarene demoniacs. No one could handle them, and they […]

Sermon on the Gospel reading about the Gadarene demoniac, November 15, 2020 Metropolitan Tikhon (Shevkunov) of Pskov and Porkhov      In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit The event we remember today is shocking—the casting out of demons from the two Gadarene demoniacs. No one could handle them, and they […]

The Polish Council of Bishops’ Exhortation to Their Priests and Monastics During the Pandemic On Tuesday, November 3, the Polish Council of Bishops met in Warsaw under the chairmanship of His Beatitude Metropolitan Sawa of Warsaw and All Poland. Among other matters, the hierarchs discussed the life of the Church in this extended time of […]

Bishop Irenei (Steenberg) Photo: gefter.ru     In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. My dear brothers and sisters: we are living now in a moment that demands faith — and not faith in ourselves, or in our civil structures, in governments or in the wisdom of men. We are living in […]

Priest Andrei Chizhenko A sin is confessed, but it continues to bother your conscience. What should you do? Must it be confessed a second time? Fr. Andrei Chizhenko examines the issue. Andrei Nikolaevich Mironov. Conscience The holy fathers compare sin with a weed in a garden, and the garden, accordingly, with the heart. They spoke […]