We publish the present article after no little hesitation because of its focus on a specific sex act. Orthodoxy in Dialogue’s editorial policy has been to underscore the sexual intimacy of same-sex relationships without reference to specific acts. The author’s careful avoidance of being unnecessarily graphic factors heavily in our decision. We consider it incumbent on us to give voice to a wide range of opinions found among our brother and sister Orthodox Christians.

In 2018 in Orthodoxy in Dialogue I wrote about the importance of creativity for gay Orthodox Christians in overcoming limitations placed upon them by Church and nation. Drawing on the personalist philosophy of the Russian thinker, Nikolai Berdyaev, I argued that homosexuality represented an opportunity for Orthodox Christians to “activate” the ability of Christ to overcome the slavery of necessity: to become a prescriptive kind of man or woman. Being a gay Christian was a chance to exercise freedom of spirit and a kind of transfiguration of human sexuality. Being gay was a chance to become “a person.” Read More

Archbishop Desmond Tutu

October 7, 1931 ~ December 26, 2021

✠

I never had the privilege of meeting Archbishop Desmond Tutu face to face, yet he was very much a part of my life while I was growing up in a South Africa characterized by apartheid and even after the fall of that deplorable system.

I remember how, as a child, I would watch scenes of rioting on the news programme, the clashes between demonstrators and the security forces, frightening scenes particularly for a child. And there in the thick of the clash one could discern a man in a cassock trying to come between the two sides, urging calm and sobriety. It was not that he disagreed with the demonstrators and their expression of absolute frustration and anger. It was not that he collaborated with the oppressors, as some of his own people had chosen to do. It was that he had chosen the path of nonviolence. Read More

SEPTEMBER, OCTOBER, NOVEMBER, DECEMBER 2021

A Joint Message for the Protection of Creation

Sola Scriptura and the Foundations of Christian Belief

Patriarch Bartholomew: President Biden a “Man of Faith, Man of Vision”

Review: Midnight Mass

Help Us Feed the Homeless this Christmas

Transgender Day of Remembrance Read More

(L to R) The Holy and Righteous Joseph the Betrothed, David the Prophet, James the Brother of God

✠

Galatians 1:11-19; Matthew 2:13-23

Christ is born!

Today is a day with many titles. It is the Second Day of Nativity, the Sunday after Nativity, the Sunday of the Holy Righteous Ones: Joseph the Betrothed, David the King, and James the Brother of the Lord. It is also the day of the Synaxis of the Theotokos.

With these themes and our Scripture readings, there are many possible things we can reflect upon. It seems appropriate today, especially since we are only one day past the specific day for Nativity, that we reflect on the Incarnation, God taking on our flesh, and what that can mean for us. Read More