Mr. Beecham’s article attests to a troubling pattern in contemporary American Orthodoxy, where Father Josiah Trenham and Father John Parker send out dog whistles for violence against LGBTQI people without ecclesiastical censure, Father Aaron Warwick has his elevation to archpriest cancelled for proposing a more compassionate pastoral ministry to LGBTQI people, a simple subdeacon is deposed after a lifetime of selfless service to the Church for a blog post expressing his support of LGBTQI people, Archbishop Mark (Maymon) can’t be bothered about LGBTQI people, and the Assembly of Bishops continues to ignore Orthodoxy in Dialogue’s repeated appeals for a better pastoral response to sexual and gender diversity in human nature and ecclesial life.

Subdeacon Luke and Janna Beecham. May 2005. St. John the Forerunner Church (OCA), Indianapolis IN. 

(Photo from St. John’s Camp removed by request of several parents.)

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This article has been a long time coming, and while it’s unfortunate that I even have to write it, I find it necessary to share my heart and my experience in hopes that it will speak to others. 

Where to begin? I am 42 years old and have served the Church my entire life. Born a PK (pastor’s kid) in the Evangelical Orthodox Church, I started serving in the altar around age 10 and started leading music around 13. I moved to Indianapolis for school in 1996, and immediately began helping with the youth group at my local parish. By 21 I was the Director of St. John’s Camp Programs and running the youth group at St. John’s parish in Indianapolis, as well as singing and serving as administrative assistant to the parish.  Read More

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Again we offer unto Thee this reasonable and bloodless worship,

and we ask Thee, and pray Thee, and supplicate Thee:

Send down Thy Holy Spirit upon us and upon these gifts here offered,

and make this bread to be the precious Body of Thy Christ.

Amen.

And that which is in this Cup to be the precious Blood of Thy Christ.

Amen.

Changing them by Thy Holy Spirit.

Amen. Amen. Amen.

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Between​​ June 23-25, 2020, the Holy and Sacred Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate was convened for its regular meeting of the current month at the Orthodox Center of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Chambésy, Geneva. On the first day, the chairmen of the synodal committees were engaged in their cooperative work. Many of the Hierarchs of the Throne in Europe were present as well.

During this meeting, the Official Letters of Their Beatitiudes the Orthodox Primates that had been received thus far in response to the letter of the Ecumenical Patriarch to them of May 17th of this year, on the issue of the mode of distribution of Holy Communion that emerged after the appearance of the coronavirus pandemic, were read and discussed. It was satisfactorily determined that their opinion coincided with that of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. This consists of the following: Read More

Moldovan Priests Lead March to Ward off COVID-19

Moldova Has One of the Highest Per Capita Rates of COVID-19 in Europe

Shunning masks and gloves, dozens of followers of the Moldovan Metropolitan Church are marching the length of the country.

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