The irony will not be lost on Orthodoxy in Dialogue’s readers that a certain kind of socially and politically ultraconservative American convert to Orthodox Christianity glorifies the very things in Russia’s repressive church-state “symphonia” that Russia’s own most conscientious Orthodox priests and laity deplore in growing numbers.

The involvement of Russian Orthodox priests in political dissent is not without historical precedent. See the case of Father Georgy (ghe-or-ghee) Gapon on the Revolution of 1905’s Bloody Sunday.

Russian-style “Byzantine symphonia”

As Vladimir Putin prepared to return to the Kremlin for a third term of office in 2012, Patriarch Kirill, the powerful head of the Russian Orthodox Church, described the ex-KGB officer’s rule as a “miracle of God.”

The patriarch’s comments, made during a pre-election televised meeting with Putin, were a stark illustration, critics said at the time, of the erosion of the separation of church and state, as stipulated by Russia’s much-abused post-Soviet constitution. Over the following years, Putin, who professes a deep Orthodox belief, would shift to ultra-conservatism, positioning himself as a defender of traditional Christian values.

Flash forward to 2019, and while the institution of the Russian Orthodox Church remains broadly loyal to the country’s secular authorities, the Kremlin’s relations with some grassroots believers — once viewed as a bedrock of support for Putin — are increasingly tense. Read More

Our Saviour, the Dayspring from the East,
has visited us from on high,
and we, who were in darkness and shadow,
have found the Truth,
for the Lord is born of the Virgin!

✠

Today Christ is born of the Virgin in Bethlehem!
Today He Who knows no beginning begins!
Today the Word is made flesh!
The powers of heaven greatly rejoice!
The earth makes merry with men!
The Wise Men offer gifts, the shepherds announce the wonder,
and without ceasing we cry aloud:
Glory to God in the highest,
peace on earth, good will to men!

Read More

As a priest, His Eminence, Metropolitan Petros of Accra, has been a friend to Orthodoxy in Dialogue for almost two years. We were thrilled to learn of his ordination to the episcopate on December 6, 2019, the Feast of St. Nicholas, by Patriarch Theodoros II of Alexandria and All Africa. We are deeply honoured to collaborate with His Eminence in sharing his Ordination Speech with our readers. In it, he calls for a Church “that is not afraid to debate, not only with other churches, confessions, and religions, but with the contemporary world and the sciences,” a Church “that is the voice and the harbour of the underprivileged, the persecuted, the forgotten, the marginalized, those that have need of compassion and humanity.”

Ἄξιος! Ἄξιος! Ἄξιος! 

Εἰς πολλὰ ἔτη, Δέσποτα!

Patriarch Theodoros II of Alexandria and All Africa (L), Metropolitan Petros of Accra (R)

✠

Your Beatitude, our Father and Master, Revered Hierarchs, co-presbyters and fellow-deacons, my respected and beloved parents, dear relatives and friends from my birthplace South Africa, but also from Greece and specifically from Ithaca, my island of origin.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor; He hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. (Lk 4:18-19) Read More

Orthodoxy in Dialogue shares the following report with joy, cautious hope for the Orthodox Church’s evolving pastoral praxis, and thanksgiving to God and the hierarchy of the Serbian Orthodox Church.

A note of encouragement to our LGBTQI brothers and sisters: A lot of the articles that we republish from other sources on sexuality and gender (including the present one) are sent to us by the pastor of a very prominent parish in the US. (Thank you, beloved Father and friend. You know who you are.) Although it’s sometimes hard to see in the Orthodox Church, we do have bishops, priests, deacons, and brothers and sisters who love us, listen to us, and care about us.

Newly illumined servant of God, Vuk Adzic

The Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro has given a quiet and seemingly grudging nod to change this week with the baptism of a 19-year-old transgender man.

It appears to be a landmark first for the dominant religious institution in the tiny, conservative Balkan nation of some 600,000 people.

“For me, religion is love,” the man, who was christened under his adopted name of Vuk Adzic at the Cathedral of the Resurrection of Christ in Podgorica on November 3, told RFE/RL’s Balkan Service.

Adzic said his “secret” covenant with the church followed years of faith that was tested most recently by a brutal late-night beating at the hands of intruders at his family’s mountain cottage, hinting at the violent disdain that some Montenegrins show for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community.

“After the attack on me outside the threshold of the family home, I definitely feel that church is my only safe harbor, where I know I can always come and be accepted as a man,” said Adzic, who grew up in the capital but spent summers with his late father and other family members in Matesevo, about 40 kilometers from Podgorica. Read More