Father Thomas Hopko of blessed memory produced arguably the Orthodox Church’s worst and most harmful body of writings on same-sex love. Yet even he recognized the difference between theology and civil rights, and expressed his support for legal protections for LGBTQ individuals, couples, and families. It is in this spirit that Orthodoxy in Dialogue shares the following announcement. We know for a fact that many Orthodox priests in the US and Canada quietly support these kinds of initiatives.

Note that there is a way to participate in this meeting online.

LGBTQ Public Policy Briefing for Faith Leaders

A Deep Dive of the Equality Act & State Legislative Work

February 27, 2019 | 11:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. ET  Read More

Orthodoxy in Dialogue is pleased to publish this Call for Papers at the request of Dr. Brandon Gallaher of the University of Exeter and Dr. Ashley Purpura of Purdue University, co-chairs of the Eastern Orthodox Studies Unit of the American Academy of Religion. 

Note that the deadline to submit a proposal is March 4, 2019, just two weeks from now.

Please share this post widely with all your colleagues who may be interested.

November 23-26, 2019

San Diego, California

The Eastern Orthodox Studies Unit invites proposals for the following sessions at the 2019 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion, November 23-26, in San Diego, CA.

Proposals will be accepted until 5:00 pm Eastern Standard Time, Monday, March 4. All proposals must be submitted through the PAPERS system on the AAR website.

Please visit the AAR website for more information.

See below for topics.

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Orthodoxy in Dialogue’s partial hiatus until late spring or early summer has proven already to be rather less a “hiatus” than originally planned. Yet certain events demand a response.

This article started off with the title “The Moral Bankruptcy of the OCA on Full Display.” I added  “Synod of Bishops” to underscore the fact that the clergy and laity of the Orthodox Church in America have no say in the abject servility, spinelessness, and cowardice of their bishops collectively toward the Kremlin Orthodox Church and its Patriarch.

In fact, as we reported in The Orthodox Church in America (OCA) Ignores Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine, Bows to the Will of Moscow, Rejects the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), on January 28 the OCA Synod directed “the Clergy, Monastics, and Faithful of the Orthodox Church in America” to comply obediently with its servility, spinelessness, and cowardice. I know of at least one OCA clergyman threatened with suspension if he voices his disagreement with this directive publicly. Read More

What has Istanbul to do with Constantinople?

Ever since Arab armies conquered vast swaths of the Middle East and the Eastern Mediterranean, replacing an Eastern Christian imperium with an Islamic one, Orthodox Christians have struggled to maintain their communal identity in Muslim majority societies. As minority populations, Orthodox Christians in majority Muslim societies have often been victims of the kinds of injustices that beset minority communities in every part of the world, ranging from social stigmatization to mass violence.

At the same time, Muslim minorities in Orthodox societies have often been met with the same kinds of difficulties. And due to their geographic proximity to one another, Muslim and Orthodox empires and nation-states have often competed over the same territory and resources. The history of relations between these two faiths has even included genocide and ethnic cleansing.

And yet, as is frequently the case in the history of multi-ethnic empires such as the Ottoman and Russian empires, communal relationships between these two faiths more frequently exhibit patterns of coexistence, shared lifeways, and parallel cultural development at both the elite and provincial social levels. Because of this complex history, a nuanced understanding of Islam and Islamic history may be particularly beneficial for Orthodox Christians, whether in the secular academy or the seminary. Read More