It is my chrismation anniversary today. I was chrismated on the Vigil of Ss Peter and Paul. To be honest, I have been searching for something profound to say about the significance of me being chrismated on the Vigil of Ss Peter and Paul, such as, oh, I came into communion with the church that (in Afanasieff’s words) ‘presides in charity over the other churches.’ I may even have had a thought or two about that when I was chrismated,... Read more
This is my first post in over two months. With it, I’m happy to say that I’m back. There are several ways in which I am back. First, I’m back to blogging. The last quarter of teaching has honestly been brutal, with some of the most unexpectedly difficult courses I have ever taught in my life, mostly because they were so personal and theoretical at the same time. I got through them, and I hope that I am not only... Read more
Yesterday night, I went home to discover in my mailbox that Dariusz Karłowicz’s new book Socrates and Other Saints: Early Christian Understandings of Reason and Philosophy had arrived. The book had been translated from Polish by my friend Artur Rosman, and the back cover features an endorsement from John Milbank, the theologian whose work convinced me that I was able to do theology as a geographer in the secular academy. I devoured the book in one sitting. Perhaps it is because... Read more
Christ is risen! Dear Mr Hall, Thank you for writing your apology to ‘the Eastern Orthodox community’ as a follow up to Mr Maples’s criticism and subsequent liturgical stalking of Hank Hanegraaf. Having seen that it was an apology, I clicked on it and read it with interest. Seeing the ads on your site, I realized that perhaps I had given you one too many clicks. I understand such practices because my own blog has ads, but perhaps your readership... Read more
Christ is risen! Христос воскрес! 基督復活了! I am so excited. I woke up to news this morning that the eparchy of the Ukrainian Greco-Catholic Church in which I am located – St Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy – has a new bishop. Both my spiritual father and my Vancouver bishop sent me the same press release about Pope Francis’s approval. Bishop Venedykt (Valery) Aleksiychuk, M.S.U. is coming to us from Lviv, where he was auxiliary bishop up till now. Before that, he was Hegumen... Read more
Christ is risen! Dear Mr Maples, I have read your piece describing your attempt to ‘confront’ Hank Hanegraaf at a Pascha service at his new Greek Orthodox Church in light of you thinking that he has left the Christian faith. I have read some responses to you about this, especially the ones by James Deagle, Rod Dreher, Orthodoxidation, and Craig Tugilia. The above writers take your propositions about the Orthodox Church quite seriously; unfortunately, I do not share their... Read more
I’ve made no secret that I attended the Easter Vigil at a Latin parish in Chicago instead of going to a Byzantine temple for Pascha. There were many reasons for this, and I also realize that I could have gone to Pascha afterward anyway, but I was far too tired from the conferences from my secular professional life – indeed, I slept for twelve hours afterward. That said, I feel that I have been carried on the prayers on the... Read more
Christ is risen! Христос Воскрес! I have much more to say tomorrow about the Latin service that I attended because my friend was getting chrismated and I was going in support. Far from abandoning my Kyivan church, the service afforded some of us some brilliant conversation afterward over a meaty dinner. The Holy Spirit is at work, for: Christ is risen from the dead, trampling death by death, and to those in the tombs giving life! Christ is risen from the dead,... Read more
Holy Saturday is interrupted. During the Holy Saturday Liturgy, the Byzantine churches read passages from the Hebrew Scriptures, culminating in the words of the Holy Apostle Paul: Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in... Read more
Great and Holy Saturday is upon us. The Great Fast has been over for a week. Even Great and Holy Week is almost over. The Lord is in the tomb. It is the time that the world is suspended by the death of God, the hiatus, the pause. I have been reliving my catechumenate over the weeks of the Great Fast; this is, after all, what the Great Fast is for. There would be nothing special about what I have... Read more
Eastern Catholic Person
Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In