On Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, my 12-year old granddaughter and I, accompanied by the mother-son team who joined us last year, will set forth on the streets of downtown Toronto to deliver cash into the hands of the homeless and the hungry whom we meet there. This will be our fourth year doing this, our second year sponsored by Orthodoxy in Dialogue.

Two-thirds of the way through the Nativity Fast, 48 very kind people have brought us to almost half of our goal of $5000. With your help, in whatever amount the Spirit moves you, we can reach our target.

Last year we collected enough to give $40 each to 50 people. We have set a higher goal this year in the hope of giving a larger amount to a larger number of people. The money you provide is not only all that stands between them and a hot meal or two (or three), but between them and a chance to come in from the cold.

Here’s a story from last year: 

Two men and one woman in their early to mid 20s sat shivering in the frigid air on the sidewalk at Yonge and Dundas, wrapped in thin blankets and leaning against the outside of the Eaton Centre. Well-dressed people scurried this way and that, perhaps on their way to do last minute shopping, or to meet friends at an elegant, candlelit restaurant, or even to attend an early Christmas Eve service at church. Everywhere, coloured lights and sparkling tinsel beckoned the moneyed to come in, spend, enjoy, feel welcome. Read More

This is the fourth article in our On the Incarnation series for the Nativity Fast.

Repent, change your mind, turn yourself around, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.

Follow Me.

Be poor in spirit.

Be meek.

Hunger and thirst for righteousness, not material possessions.

Be merciful.

Be pure in heart.

Be a peacemaker.

Be the salt of the earth, the light of the world.

Love your enemies, pray for those who persecute you.

If you love those who love you, so what? Be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Beware of practicing your piety before others.

Give alms. Pray. Fast. Read More

Two days ago we republished a report on Tanzania’s Cardinal Pengo by New Ways Ministry’s Robert Shine under the headline of African Cardinal: Better to Die of Hunger Than to Accept Foreign Aid Attached to Gay Rights. In it Mr. Shine cites a November 30 article at the AMECEA News Blog, a presumably reliable source of information on the Association of Member Episcopal Conferences in Eastern Africa. 

The AMECEA News Blog report includes the following:

[Cardinal Pengo] thanked the Tanzanian Government for its position on the matter [of homosexuality] while stressing that all Tanzanians should say no to homosexual [sic] which apparently is encroaching very fast in African countries.

[…]

It should be noted that recently, the Minister for Internal Affairs, Kangi Lugola, stated that homosexual acts should be shunned by every human being created in the image of God because the act is against human nature and consequently the Government of Tanzania will not accept it.

Cardinal Pengo becomes the second bishop in Tanzania to condemn homosexuals in public. 

What, precisely, is the Tanzanian government’s “position on the matter” for which Cardinal Pengo expresses his gratitude?

Not a week later, we have our answer to this question, as reported by Religion News Service in its December 5 LGBT People Flee Tanzania amid Police Crackdown by Doreen Ajiambo:  Read More

This article takes its place in our Faith & the Arts series.

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I had been hesitant to write anything for Orthodoxy in Dialogue. I’m aware that its editorial staff and target audience are people with, or studying for, doctorates, while my highest level of educational achievement is a 2-year degree in data processing from my local community college. However, one trick I have learned from people more academically qualified than I am is that you can get away with a much lower level of academic rigor by putting the word “towards” in the title of your essay. So that’s what I’ve done.

I have long been fascinated by comics. They taught me to read at an early age, something I share with many other people, and I once tried (unsuccessfully) to start a line of comics aimed at adult literacy and English language learners.

But as an Orthodox Christian, my fascination runs deeper, as I sense much unfulfilled potential in the medium itself. Our Orthodox liturgical life affirms two art forms above all others: iconography and poetry, the latter as expressed in our hymns. It strikes me that comics are better placed than almost any other artistic medium to combine the two. Read More