The executive editor of a major academic publisher has invited Orthodoxy in Dialogue’s editor Giacomo Sanfilippo to submit a book proposal on his vision for an Orthodox theological,  spiritual, and pastoral approach to same-sex love. As “sample chapters,” in the interests of time, he included with his proposal the introduction and conclusion from his MA thesis, A Bed Undefiled: Foundations for an Orthodox Theology and Spirituality of Same-Sex Love. We have already published the introduction here. The conclusion follows below.

If you download the full thesis, it should be read in conjunction with Sanfilippo’s A Bed Undefiled: A Partial Retraction, Father Pavel Florensky and the Sacrament of Love, and From the Fathers: The Kingdom of Heaven Is Like…Two Men in Bed Together? 

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The limitations of a master’s thesis have allowed me to do no more than lay a foundation for a more fully developed theology and spirituality of same-sex love. Much remains unsaid, much unexplored in the foregoing chapters. For one thing, my sources represent an admittedly androcentric focus; yet my pastoral concern extends to girls and women of same-sex orientation no less than to boys and men. I hope to correct this imbalance in a much more thorough, more detailed future study. I undertook this task not under the illusion of offering anything exhaustive or conclusive, but in the more modest hope of fostering a conversation which the institutional church has proven singularly unwilling to have. Read More

Orthodoxy in Dialogue first published this tribute on January 29, 2018, the first anniversary of Matushka Juliana’s falling asleep in the Lord. May her memory be eternal.

Father Alexander and Matushka Juliana Schmemann Ordination day, 1946

Monday, January 29, is the first anniversary [NB: 2020 marks the third anniversary] of the passing of my mother, Juliana Schmemann, in the 94^th year of her extraordinary life. To many in the Orthodox Church in America she is known best as the wife of Father Alexander Schmemann, the “L.” (for “Liana”) he so lovingly and so often refers to in his Journals. Many have also read her own remarkable story in two modest books she wrote, My Journey with Father Alexander and The Joy to Serve. On this anniversary, I would like to tell a little more about her life.

My parents were indeed a remarkable couple, drawn to each other from their first meeting, playing opposing roles in a household production of a musical staged in the Paris suburb of Clamart in the winter of 1940-41. He was 19 and she 17. Soon after they met again at the St. Sergius Institute, where my father was a seminarian. He told her he was studying for the priesthood—then slyly added, “but I do not intend to be a monk.”

It may seem self-evident that two such young Russians in Paris would find each other. Yet in that émigré world they came from very different circles. My father came from a family of high-ranking civil servants in St. Petersburg, and through his entire youth attended the Russian Orthodox Cathedral of St. Alexander Nevsky, the heart of the Russian emigration in Paris, where he served as altar boy, reader, and subdeacon, and was ordained priest. Read More

As we reflect on another year filled with growth, challenges, and victories, we are grateful to our donors. Because of you, RAICES remains at the forefront of immigration, whether it’s reuniting families, providing direct legal representation to unaccompanied children, or welcoming refugees. Your gift made a huge difference for families and individuals seeking justice.

Last year, with your support, we fought against for-profit prisons for their role in family separation. As a part of our fight, we filed a lawsuit against GEO Group, the for-profit prison operator managing detention centers, for violating the court order preventing family separations.

We led a secret and coordinated effort to release immigrants in detention and reunite families for the holidays with #FallFreedomDay. RAICES Bond Squad worked with a group of other community bond funds to free a backlog of hundreds of people from detention. We posted $2.1 million in immigration bonds to secure freedom for these individuals and we did it all without alerting ICE beforehand to avoid a backlash on our efforts. Read More

Orthodoxy in Dialogue publishes Archbishop Lazar’s brief reflection as the first contribution to our new Faith and Politics series. Orthodox Christians, Christians of other ecclesial affiliations, religious believers other than Christian, agnostics, and atheists are welcome to submit thoughtful, nonpartisan essays on the proper place of religion in the public life of modern, secular, pluralistic, 21st-century democracies. How do faith communities and individual citizens of faith bring the light of their beliefs to shine in the public sphere without resorting to theocratic, theonomic, coercive, or otherwise self-serving methods? What values and principles should guide voters of faith living in representative democracies? These are the kinds of questions on which we would like to share your insights with our readers around the planet.

Archbishop Lazar (Puhalo)

Religious entities which lobby for legislation to favour themselves or to disenfranchise others should in no way be exempt from all legislation pertaining to lobby groups, and to forfeit their tax exempt status. There is no reason why religious bodies should be exempt from laws which govern everyone else.

Generally, when religious groups lobby about “religious freedoms” anywhere in North America, they are striving to deprive others of their liberties, and want legal authority to do so.

If we were to restore school prayers, then it cannot be only Fundamentalist Christian prayers, but must include also Muslim and Jewish as well as Orthodox Christian prayers. This certainly means providing for the purification rituals of Jews and Muslims that are required of them before their prayers. It certainly must include the Orthodox version of the Lord’s Prayer and mention of the Most-Holy Theotokos.

If Christian prayers are going to be public and broadcast on the school’s intercom system, then surely in those schools where there is a Muslim minority, Muslim prayers must also the broadcast in the same manner and given equal time, otherwise we are curtailing religious freedom rather than advancing it. Read More