We have seen several reports predicting, and now tragically confirming, an inevitable rise in domestic violence when victims—almost always children, teens, and women—are forced into confinement 24/7 with their abusers.

What I have not seen acknowledged in the public forum is the predicament of LGBTQ children and teens stuck at home with parents who—while perhaps not “abusive” in any conventional sense of the word, and while providing all the necessities of bodily life—fail to cultivate a home environment where their queer child can thrive emotionally, psychologically, and spiritually. For too many of these young people, “home” looks and feels nothing like “sweet home.” 

This failure can take a number of forms.

Perhaps the parents have created an atmosphere where the child simply feels that they cannot come out. Read More

During the COVID-19 pandemic, homeless people are more at risk than ever of having nothing to eat.

Send your gift to editors@orthodoxyindialogue.com via PayPal and put “Alms” in your message.

100% of funds collected is distributed regularly to the homeless on the streets of downtown Toronto.

Since the beginning of Great Lent we have collected and disbursed about $1300 for this purpose.

✠ In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia…. (1 Pt 1:1)

So the Apostle Peter begins his first Epistle, reminding us of a truth central to our faith—that we are the scattered of God’s elect, with no earthly place to name as our central sanctuary. The Christian faith can be described as post-exilic, meaning it originated in the period following the destruction of the earthly tabernacle that Israel once understood as the sole place where they could make their offerings to God. In the period of the Babylonian exile, the people of God faced a pressing question: “How can we worship God when there is no Temple?” It was in this context that Israel came to realize the full meaning of their own sacred story—that God had established His covenant with Abraham, and gave His law to Moses, prior to Israel crossing into the promised land, and prior to the existence of the Temple. This understanding brought hope and purpose. If God had been with His people before they had the land and the Temple, they could be assured He could be present with them now that they were, once again, without land or Temple. They could reflect—as we now also can—on the fact that they had been made participants in God’s covenant even before they were blessed with accoutrements of worship in the Temple.

Israel’s focus in exile turned to how they could continue to observe the sacred law without the material house which had been the prescribed location for so many of its observances. This was the origin of the synagogue, in which God’s exiled people could congregate to hear the word of God, and prayerfully internalize the meaning of both the Law and the Temple worship—which, although they could not now be enacted concretely, continued to transmit life to all who sought their spiritual meaning in daily life. The religion of the Hebrews was on its way to becoming a religion of the heart. Read More