Our elder sister blog, Public Orthodoxy, has sent the following four selections from its archive to its mailing list in honour of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. It gives us pleasure to share them with Orthodoxy in Dialogue’s readers as well, along with a brief selection from our own archive. 

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Racism: An Orthodox Perspective
Aristotle Papanikolaou

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African American Orthodox Christians: Faith, Culture, and Emerging Values
Lydia Kemi Ingram

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The Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church in America

On December 16, 2018 we published Ukrainian Autocephaly: An Awkward Spot for the OCA, which quickly became one of our most popular, most shared, most discussed articles of all time. It sits currently in the top 2% of over 500 articles.

On January 7, 2019 we reached out to the Chancery of the OCA with the following questions:

1. Does the OCA recognize the autocephaly of the OCU [Orthodox Church of Ukraine]?
2. Has the Metropolitan begun, or does he intend to begin, commemorating Metropolitan Epiphanius of Kyiv and All Ukraine, liturgically/publicly in the diptychs, as the Primate of an autocephalous Church?
3. If “no” to 1 and/or 2, is the OCA at least in communion with the OCU as well as the newly renamed ROCU [the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine, until recently known as the Ukrainian Orthodox Church-Moscow Patriarchate]?

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Shortly after our Moscow’s “Schism” No More than a Publicity Stunt? went to press earlier today, one of our readers brought the following brief report to our attention. It serves not only to confirm our impression that Moscow’s “schism worse than 1054” is no more than a publicity stunt, but Patriarch Kirill’s reference to St. Panteleimon’s as “our” monastery chillingly reinforces Moscow’s oft repeated conceit that Russian-speakers anywhere in the world fall somehow under its “protection”—even though Mount Athos in its entirety lies within the immediate, direct jurisdiction of the Ecumenical Patriarch.

Patriarch Kirill of Moscow

During the clergy meeting of the Diocese of Moscow which took place on December 21, 2018 in Christ the Saviour Cathedral’s Hall of Councils in Moscow, a priest asked Patriarch Kirill if it was possible or not for him to commune on Mount Athos.

Let us recall that the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church had decided to forbid the laity to commune in churches dependent on Constantinople.

The Patriarch responded to the priest that St. Panteleimon’s Monastery Read More

Archbishop Gabriel of Montreal (ROCOR)

This year the annual youth retreat of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR) took place on December 23-27, 2018 at the Nativity of the Mother of God Church in Albany NY. This event is hosted by the St. Herman Conference, under the chairmanship of Archbishop Gabriel of Montreal, to coincide every year with the Feast of St. Herman of Alaska on the old calendar.

A teenage attendee reports to Orthodoxy in Dialogue that, during a Q&A with Archbishop Gabriel, the young people raised questions about the Moscow Patriarchate’s decision to break communion with the Ecumenical Patriarchate—a decision explicitly ratified by ROCOR in its statement of October 18, 2018.

According to our young friend, Archbishop Gabriel made the following points in his response:

1. A blessing to receive Holy Communion in an Ecumenical Patriarchate parish can always be requested by—and granted to—members of ROCOR.
2. A blessing will most assuredly be granted to men in ROCOR who wish to visit and take Holy Communion on Mount Athos.
3. A blessing will most assuredly be granted also to members of ROCOR who wish to visit and take Holy Communion at St. Anthony’s Monastery in Arizona as well as at any of the other Ephraimite monasteries in the US and Canada.

This is astonishing on a number of counts: Read More