At the risk of never being assigned to chauffeur bishops again — or worse! — I must admit to having done it once. Ladies and Gentlemen, recently, I had the blessing of driving three hierarchs from their hotel to another hotel for dinner. I sat with two bishops at dinner, drove another to the airport the following day, spent time dining and serving with 3 more during hierarchical liturgy, and had a nice repast with the metropolitan following a baptism.... Read more

As part of our pastoral discussions we talked about the need for parishioners to confess as a rule to their own parish priests, and only with a specific blessing to confess to other priests. This is especially important given the propensity for some clerics outside the Russian Church to employ the canons as a cold rule of law rather than as a pastoral guideline applied with love. This has led in some instances to parishioners being given lengthy penances of... Read more

Church Plans To Burn Bibles, Christian BooksPastor Says Burning Meant To Light A Fire Under True Believers My friend, Constantine, sent me this story. Click the link, below, to view the TV news clip. CANTON, N.C. — A North Carolina pastor says his church plans to burn Bibles and books by Christian authors on Halloween to light a fire under true believers. Pastor Marc Grizzard told Asheville TV station WLOS that the King James version of the Bible is the... Read more

On October 18th, following the Antiochian Synod of Bishops meeting (10/16) and the meeting of the Board of Trustees for the Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese (10/17), Hierarchical Liturgy was served at St George Church; in addition to visiting priests and deacons, three hierarchs celebrated: Metropolitan PHILIP, Bishop ANTOUN, and Bishop ALEXANDER. Listen to the Hierarchical Liturgy here. Here’s some pics, thanks to Hatem Khalaf, taken during the service … Metropolitan PHILIP, Bishop ANTOUN, and Bishop ALEXANDER bless the faithful with... Read more

The Vatican has announced that Pope Benedict is setting up special provision for Anglicans, including married clergy, who want to convert to Rome together, preserving aspects of Anglican liturgy. They will be given their own pastoral supervision, according to this press release from the Vatican: “In this Apostolic Constitution the Holy Father has introduced a canonical structure that provides for such corporate reunion by establishing Personal Ordinariates which will allow former Anglicans to enter full communion with the Catholic Church... Read more

I remember when my oldest was about four years old. It was after church one day, and the kids were running around the yard, climbing trees, and creating mayhem. I was talking with some parishioners when I happened to look off in the distance to see a boy, about the same age as my daughter, holding her down and, gasp, kissing her! I walked out and called his name, yelling, “Hey! Get off of her!” Almost at the same time... Read more

This week, St George – Houston hosts Metropolitan Philip, the Antiochian Synod of Bishops, and the Archdiocese Board of Trustees. Thus, it stands to reason, I am reminded of the first time I gave birth. 🙂 Actually, among other things, I am reminded of our first episcopal visit in a store front mission in North Carolina … just after I gave birth. * Picture (L-R): Deacon Thomas Moore, me, Bishop Basil, Fr Peter Smith, Subdeacon Michael Bock. (Thomas Moore &... Read more

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So I’m standing in the food line on opening night at the Houston Greek Festival … We’d arrived early, before the first meals were served, and the line, though long, was yet to move. I’m standing in line with my wife and kids behind me and, after we’d exhausted our family musings: How was school? GOOD … Good … good … We did what most people do when so occupied … nothing to do but stare around at the people,... Read more

A certain sophist of this age came to visit an Elder. Seeing that he had nothing but a Bible, he gave the Elder his own commentary on the Bible. A year later, he again visited the Elder and asked: “Father, did my book help you better understand the Bible?” “On the contrary,” answered the Elder, “I had to turn to the Bible in order to understand your book.” A certain young monk asked an elder, “Father, now do I have... Read more