Father Peter Smith’s little fundraiser for child cancer patients touches my heart for three reasons.
First, even though I haven’t seen them in 31 years, Father Peter, Terri, Kevin, and Kerin were among my family’s most beloved friends at St. Vladimir’s Seminary.
Second, his “Fadapita” handle comes from the fact that that’s how my son Aaron pronounced his name when he was five and six years old. Aaron and Father Peter adored each other. Read More
To the Bishops of the Orthodox Church:
I don’t really expect to be “heard” when I write this. I’m not sure it will even be read. Yet, I still feel there’s some value in putting it out there.
I’ve known I was gay for longer than I’ve known what sex is, longer than I understood what this “difference” that I’d always felt was. By 11, I knew what it meant, though.
It meant God hated me and I would always be alone and never matter to anyone.
I carried that into puberty, in shame and fear and desperate longing. Around 13 I spent hours one night begging God to kill me. I have rarely cried so hard or so deeply. As I fell into exhausted sleep I prayed, “Kill me or change me. I can’t stand this.” Read More
Readers who are more familiar with the Russian system of ecclesiastical titles (such as practiced in the OCA, ROCOR, and the OCU) should note that, according to the Greek system, an Archbishop ranks higher than a Metropolitan—and ipso facto, a Greek Archdiocese may consist of several Metropolises.
This explains why the Primates of the autocephalous Orthodox Church in America and the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine are called Metropolitans, while the Primate of the autocephalous Church of Greece is called an Archbishop.
Likewise, the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America has an Archbishop as its head and consists of several Metropolises headed each by its own Metropolitan.
Perhaps the most momentous event of recent days in North American Orthodoxy was the enthronement of Archbishop Elpidophoros of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese on June 22-23.
By all accounts, the Archbishop has a winsome personality. Yet the concerns that Orthodoxy in Dialogue raised in our Editorial: Orthodox Popery Comes to America? or Time for a Greek Orthodox Revolt in America? of May 12 remain, namely: Read More
To my brothers in Christ, the Deacons, Priests, and Bishops of the Orthodox Church to whom this letter may be presented: I pray for you all and I ask you to pray for me who, without God’s infinite mercy, am lost.
I am Father Sean Andrew Lotz, a priest since 1993 in the Celtic Catholic Church. I am not Orthodox, but I have always loved and learned from the Orthodox Church and held her in the greatest respect. Although I am not Orthodox, what I have to say concerns you directly for reasons I will explain below. I ask you in the Name of the Lord whom we serve to give my letter a respectful reading.
Let me first tell you a little something about me. I am the pastor of a tiny congregation, and so I work at a job to support myself. I am surrounded most days by non-Christians, former Christians, and Christians who have chosen to stop attending church. I am blessed by God frequently to have intimate conversations with people who do not have a pastor and who consider me something of their priest. Furthermore; I am gay; and although this fact does not reveal itself in my “lifestyle” in any way whatsoever (if you followed me around 24 hours a day and spied on me from behind the mailbox, you would have no idea one way or the other), everyone who spends any time talking to me knows, since I am vocally “out” about being gay and about being a priest. Read More
