10) Your parish church school curriculum consists of: The Rudder. 9) You’ve not shaved in years, but are spending your child’s inheritance on hair conditioner. 8) Your church services are longer than the Super Bowl, but shorter than “Roots.” 7) You save toenail clippings in hopes of … well … you know … glorification. 6) Your daughter can play with Barbies as long as they’re wrapped in DuckTape, clothed in black, and referred to as “Barbara the Ballyhoo” (in Slavonic).... Read more

There’s a new Orthodox Bookstore Website … right here. In addition to Dawn’s & my comments on the recent Billy Graham Crusade, HERE’s Jan Bear’s. Touchstone: If the heretics deny scripture outright and the liberals reinterpret it to the specifications of modernism, the Evangelical method of nullifying the Word of God is to ignore what they don’t like and substitute something they prefer, slathering down the whole process with pious claptrap and painfully tendentious “scholarship.” The egalitarians of this generation... Read more

Billy Graham says Bill Clinton would make an excellent evangelist. (Not to mention the Rev’s endorsement of Hil for Prez.) Lord. Have. Mercy. Read it H E R E. Graham called the Clintons “wonderful friends” and “a great couple,” quipping that the former president should become an evangelist and allow “his wife to run the country.” More H E R E. After reading the comments on Dawn’s site, I posted my own: We are all sinners as is Rev Graham.... Read more

A convent where a Romanian nun was crucified during an apparent exorcism ritual was not sanctified by the church and has been closed, an Orthodox Church official said today. Bishop Corneliu Barladeanu, who is in charge of the Vaslui province, said the monk who headed the convent, Daniel Petru Corogeanu, was suspended from the priesthood and can no longer hold religious services. He was also excluded from monastic life. “The convent is closed and won’t reopen,” he said. ================= The... Read more

We took the long way ’round to the Southeast Diocese Parish Life Conference, through Chattanooga, to Atlanta from Asheville, allowing us the opportunity to show our children a peaceful reminder of a terrible time. The Battle of Resaca, a major skirmish, is mentioned in Gone with the Wind. The first time I visited this Confederate cemetery, I was struck by the Battle Flag flying solo. Immediately I was reminded that this would have been the Flag that these men, buried... Read more

The following post is from Protopriest Alexander Lebedeff of the Russian Church Abroad. Interesting. Any thoughts? Comments welcome. I don’t know if anyone has paid attention to the interview that the GeneralSecretary of the World Council of Churches, Dr. Samuel Kobia, gave at theconclusion of his official visit to Moscow. In the course of the interview, he said that one of the main topics ofdiscussion during his meetings with the Moscow Patriarchate was the work ofthe special Commission on the... Read more

Today is the birthday of Anna Akhmatova. More H E R E. Read more

My ordination as a Deacon was fixed for September 23rd, 1939 but there was more than one area of uncertainty as the Bishop of Oxford had suffered a breakdown in health. On the first Sunday in September I was to conduct Matins at a small village in the heart of the South Downs. When I got there I found a note pinned on the door saying that in view of the Prime Minister’s speech the service would begin late. I... Read more

Several posts regarding “women’s ordination” have generated comments about statements made by both Fr Thomas Hopko and Bishop Kallistos Ware. I don’t believe either of these men support the innovation. The way I understand their explanations is that we — Eastern Orthodox — have yet to speak on the matter. Sure, Tradition should speak for itself. But obviously, that’s not good enough for some. The more rigid may react: “Then let them take a hike!” Sounds good, but not good... Read more

“I read this week that the Orthodox Church has opened ordination to women to serve as deacons.” Here’s the Scoop, sorta. Patriarch hails pope’s pledge ANKARA (AP) – The spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians yesterday welcomed Pope Benedict XVI’s pledge to end a schism between the Catholic and Orthodox churches, calling it a mutual “obligation to God,” but warned that the path to unity would be “slow and painful.” Whole Story. “Reconciliation is a process of repentance,” Vartholomaios... Read more