For better or for worse, Orthodoxy in Dialogue has found itself on the front lines of the battle over what constitutes helpful and harmful use of social media among competing visions of Orthodox Christianity in the 21st century. Father Schmidt’s reflection from a Roman Catholic perspective offers food for thought for the Orthodox Church and other ecclesial communities in the internet era.

As both a PhD student at l’Institut Catholique de Paris and a sessional instructor primarily of online theology courses through St. Joseph’s College of the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, I’m always somewhat saddened when especially my Catholic students, albeit through no fault of their own, almost invariably lack awareness of any position by their faith tradition on social communications and media. In fact, the Roman Catholic Church has official written teaching on social communications: one of the first documents promulgated by the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) was its Decree on the Media of Social Communications, Inter Mirifica (“Among the Wonders”) of December 4, 1963. However, I appreciate that, for my students, for whom my courses are often their first exposure to the documents and teachings of Vatican II, Inter Mirifica and Vatican II’s other fifteen documents may seem dated.

By the time Inter Mirifica was promulgated, media—radio, television, film, and so forth—could be and were being used for the good of faith traditions and societies more broadly. Inter Mirifica acknowledged this generously in its opening two paragraphs: Read More

The following directive from Archbishop Sotirios (Athanassoulas)—forbidding Greek Orthodox priests, deacons, professors, “or any other Orthodox Christian” in Canada to express their opinions on the Church’s response to the pandemic—appeared on the website of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Canada on June 5, 2020. Visit the website for the Greek version.

In publishing this directive Orthodoxy in Dialogue invites hierarchs, clergy, monastics, and laity of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Canada and all other Orthodox jurisdictions to discuss the ecclesiological ramifications of referring to Istanbul as “the Holy and Sacred Centre of Orthodoxy” and banning open dialogue on matters of importance to the whole body of the Church. 

Archbishop Sotirios

Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Canada

(Photo: The Orthodox World)

Reverend Fathers of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Canada

Beloved in the Lord:

During this difficult period of COVID-19 I think of you and of our communities, and pray unceasingly. Some clergy and lay people express their uneasiness, because the Archbishop has not given instructions for the re-opening of the churches and the distribution of Holy Communion. Read More

Archbishop Elpidophoros of America

Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America

In an interview by Apostolos Zoupaniotis, published earlier today at Greek News, Archbishop Elpidophoros of America, primate of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, made the following comment:

I am not for the so-called “Benedict Option,” a retreat from the world to some form of Christian “Hasidism” that seeks separation based on external forms. We may not be of this world, but we have surely been placed in this world to be agents of change, and indeed transfiguration. And that is just one reason we teach the social ethos of our Church.

We made essentially the same point in our Benedict’s Option of September 1, 2017, Orthodoxy in Dialogue’s second week of publication. Read More

Father Seraphim of Mull Monastery

Ukrainian and Lemko on my mother’s side and Sicilian on my father’s, I was born almost 65 years ago into a half-Orthodox, half-Catholic family. My grandfather was a priest, whom I had the privilege of seeing serve the Divine Liturgy a few times in his retirement. He and my grandmother counted St. Nikolai Velimirović as a personal friend. I started getting to know other Orthodox people outside of my mother’s family when I was 12, at St. George’s Serbian Orthodox Church in San Diego where my grandparents and aunts attended.

At the age of 20 I began reading and internalizing Orthodox theology and spirituality. Three months before turning 21 I was received formally into the Orthodox Church through Holy Chrismation. 

From the age of 31 to 34 I completed the course work for the MDiv at St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary. From the age of almost 33 to 40 I served as a priest, mainly in Romanian Orthodox communities in the Canadian prairies. From the age of 58 to the present I have been immersed in further studies in Orthodox theology, first to obtain my MA and presently working toward my doctorate.

I’ve run into some personal roadblocks along the way to my PhD, but with God’s help have started to make substantive progress again. May He grant me to finish by the time I’m 66! Read More