Metropolitan Petros of Accra

There can be no doubt that Hagia Sophia evokes strong sentiments. For Orthodox Christians, the Greeks in particular, the “Great Church of the Divine Wisdom of God” was the seat of the Ecumenical Patriarch, the greatest cathedral in the Christian world for almost a thousand years, the spiritual heart of the Byzantine Empire. When Constantinople fell in 1453, Mehmet the Conqueror made it a mosque. For Turks (and I stress Turks, not Muslims) who have now turned it back into a mosque, it has become once again the symbol of the conquest of Constantinople and victory over Byzantium, but also the victory of Islam over Christianity.

Hagia Sophia embodies the complexity of Turkish and European history, and of Christian and Islamic traditions. Recognizing this, and driven by his efforts to secularize Turkey, in 1935 Mustafa Kemal Atatürk turned it into a museum and it subsequently became a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It thus became a “place of encounter,” inspiring people of all nations and faiths, an expression of Turkey’s desire to leave behind the conflicts of the past. Read More

This brief reflection was submitted to Public Orthodoxy in May 2017, shortly after the appearance of Conjugal Friendship and three months before the launch of Orthodoxy in Dialogue, in response to The Power of Sexual Purity by Drs. David and Mary Ford. It has lain forgotten in an email file until now.

In his conversation with Nicholas Motovilov, St. Seraphim of Sarov offers a succinct elucidation of life in Christ:

The true aim of our Christian life consists in the acquisition of the Holy Spirit of God. As for fasts, and vigils, and prayer, and almsgiving, and every good deed done for Christ’s sake, they are only means of acquiring the Holy Spirit of God.

And again:

In the parable of the wise and foolish virgins, when the foolish ones lacked oil, it was said: “Go and buy in the market.” But when they had bought, the door of the bridal chamber was already shut and they could not get in. Some say that the lack of oil in the lamps of the foolish virgins means a lack of good deeds in their lifetime. Such an interpretation is not quite correct. Why should they be lacking in good deeds if they are called virgins, even though foolish ones? Virginity is the supreme virtue, an angelic state, and it could take the place of all other good works. Read More

Grand Prince Vladimir/Volodymyr of Kyiv (AD 958-1015) sent his emissaries to tour the world in search of the True Faith. Upon their return they reported to him as follows: 

Then we went to Greece [Constantinople], and the Greeks (including the Emperor himself) led us to the edifices where they worship their God, and we knew not whether we were in heaven or on earth. For on earth there is no such splendour or such beauty, and we are at a loss how to describe it. We only know that God dwells there among men, and their service is fairer than the ceremonies of other nations. For we cannot forget that beauty.

The Primary Chronicle

St. Nestor the Chronicler (AD 1056-1114)

Monastery of the Caves in Kyiv

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Earlier today Orthodox Christianity published a “report” entitled City of Toronto Bans Holy Communion, intending to outrage its readers into imagining that public health policy during the current pandemic singles out the Church for “persecution.” It includes a brief video clip in which a priest of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Canada announces to his congregation this past Sunday that they may not come forward for Communion. In an obviously emotional moment, he makes the unfortunate statement that “the persecution of the Church continues.”

This sheds new light on why Archbishop Sotirios felt compelled to ask the priests of the Archdiocese to exercise more restraint in their public comments about Holy Communion and the pandemic, as we reported here. His Eminence’s request now seems entirely reasonable.

The irresponsibility of Orthodox Christianity’s “reporting” consists in its failure to make a simple phone call to the Archdiocese for clarification: Read More