At the Fall Meeting of the Local Archdiocesan Synod, which convened under the presidency of His Eminence Metropolitan PHILIP Friday (10/19) in Naples, Florida, the following priests were elected for the sacred episcopacy in the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America: 1 – ARCHIMANDRITE THOMAS JOSEPH of St Nicholas/Pinellas Park, FL, is Bishop Elect of the Diocese of Pittsburgh and the East. 2 – ARCHIMANDRITE RAFEEK MUFARRIJ of St Mary/Hunt Valley, MD, is Bishop Elect of the Diocese of... Read more

So you’re voting for Bush because he’s Pro-life? Great! But don’t just be an election year Pro-lifer: Do something in between elections. Help out as a sidewalk counselor outside an abortion mill. Contribute money to Pro-life organizations. Volunteer at a pregnancy helping agency. Adopt! Something. Maybe even disconnect your Cable. I guess what I’m saying is, if your opposition to abortion is strong, as it should be, then yelling about it in the fall and doing something else for months... Read more

Local beauty, the time of year, Western North Carolina. Thx: Huw Do Muslims & Christians worship the same God? W’s catechism. Thx: World Cool new Orthodox info site: Directions to Orthodoxy. Planned Parenthood & your tax dollars promote sex to six year olds. Thx: Dawn Luther’s Loo a Relic? Thx: Karl At our last Clergy Symposium, Metropolitan PHILIP stated that the Church does not need to restore the order of Deaconnesses to fulfill Her ministry. Others disagree. Dear Mr President,... Read more

Last Friday I traveled to my home town and alma mater, North Stanly High School, for Homecoming. I’d not been back since I was graduated 25 years ago. What drew me was the visit of my old football coach, Jim Cullivan. He’s almost 84, still chews tobacco, and looks only a few years older than when he last coached us in 1977. I’d already been writing up some of my favorite “Cullivan stories” — which my oldest daughter loves to... Read more

Not that he was tall, muscular, or imposing, mind you; but Coach Cullivan was a giant. He was a rough and country ol’ hillbilly. He was also a psychological master. He got in your head. It began with the gimlet eye. Coach Cullivan had piercing eyes that, whether he was aware of it or not, saw into your secret chest … where you hid yourself. If he liked what he saw, he brought it out and made you keep it.... Read more

“It took me a lot of struggle to realize that I really was attracted to men, yet now it is really hard for me to deal with men as human beings, let alone sexually.” There was more along those lines — Ry was intrigued but “repulsed” by heterosexual relations, afraid of the “sexist soul-losing domain of oppression….I cannot understand or relate to men because I am so immersed in gay culture and unfamiliar with what it is to have a... Read more

In the hour of prayer, when our mind wanders to thoughts of bad things, or if these thoughts come without our wanting them, we shouldn’t wage an offensive war against the enemy, because, even if all the lawyers in the world joined together, they wouldn’t make any headway with a little demon. Only through ignoring them can one chase these thoughts away. The same is true for blasphemous thoughts. Elder Paisios the Athonite (Thanks to Fr Josiah Trenham for the... Read more

The following article is a follow up to this one. By Eric J. Greenberg, October 22, 2004 It has been Jerusalem’s dirty little secret for decades: Orthodox yeshiva students and other Jewish residents vandalizing churches and spitting on Christian clergyman as they walk along the narrow, ancient stone streets of the Old City. Now, however, following a highly publicized fracas last week between a yeshiva student and the archbishop of Jerusalem’s Armenian Church, the issue is generating unprecedented media attention... Read more

Okay … I might be able to support this. Read more

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, Thursday, October 21, 2004 VATICAN CITY — The pope won’t be going to Istanbul, but in a gesture to the Orthodox Church he is returning the relics of two saints that were seized by Crusaders 800 years ago, Vatican officials said Thursday. Ecumenical Patriarch Barthlomew I of Constantinople, the spiritual leader of Orthodox Christians, had asked for the return of the relics when he met with Pope John Paul II at the Vatican in June. At that... Read more