This is the ninth article in our On the Incarnation series for the Nativity season.

The season of Nativity through Theophany is rich with themes for our edifying contemplation. Central amongst these are new birth, as we celebrate the Word of God taking human flesh upon Himself, and baptism, as Christ sanctifies creation by entering the waters of the Jordan. Each season of the Church presents multiple facets for our consideration. This year, as we once again celebrate these Feasts of Light, one facet in particular might warrant our special attention.

The recent schism between the Patriarchates of Moscow and Constantinople is being billed as one of historic significance, perhaps on the level of the Great Schism of 1054. Time will tell. Whether it ends up being such, or merely a momentary hiccup in the overall unity of the Church, this Nativity-Theophany season can remind us of why we should care at all. Read More

Welcome to our first article of 2019!

In our Looking Ahead to January we solicited reflections on the annual Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. We thank Father Jillions for being the first to respond.

Without tampering with any church’s ecclesiological assumptions, there is nothing that should prevent churches from being generous and self-emptying, following the pattern set by the Lord Jesus Christ.

Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited but emptied Himself [ekenosen], taking the form of a slave. (Phil 2:4–7)

Kenotic ecumenism begins with a conscious rereading of the Gospels, and seeing that Jesus regularly consorts with the “wrong” types of people. He puts the Kingdom of God and the pastoral needs of real people ahead of ideology and rules, in line with a vision that placed mercy above sacrifice (Mt 12:7). Read More

DECEMBER 2018

Francis to Bartholomew: Unity Is a Sign of Hope in a World Wounded by War

Looking Ahead to January

Rue Daru Responds: Communiqué of the Archdiocesan Council of the Russian Archdiocese of Western Europe

The Bible and Its Many Uses in Byzantium

Women of the Church: Faith, Service, and Leadership

Sexuality, Gender, and Christian Tradition: A Course Outline

Call for Videos!

On the Incarnation: She Is the Ladder by Which God Descended to Earth

Orthodoxy and Ecumenism: Come Now, Let Us Reason Together

The Russian Church’s Rush to Spiritual Bankruptcy: War Priests & a Cathedral Resembling an Army Tank Read More

Orthodoxy in Dialogue editor Giacomo Sanfilippo has been invited to become a regular contributor of Orthodox Christian commentary at the Kyiv Post, Ukraine’s English-language newspaper and winner of the 2014 Missouri Honor Medal for Distinguished Service in Journalism. Its global audience peaked at more than 65 million pageviews in 2014.

Worse than 1054? A Schism of Moscow’s Own Making

In his 1996, “The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order,” Samuel P. Huntington predicted the rise of Russia’s “political Orthodoxy” as a global geopolitical threat no less worrisome than political Islam. Some 15 or so years later, Patriarch Kirill and Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the transplant of “Byzantine symphonia” — a model of church-state “co-voice” which produced ambivalent results in Orthodox Byzantium — in 21st-century Russia. The current escalation of Russian military aggression against Ukraine on the eve of the Ukrainian Church’s reception of autocephaly from Constantinople leaves us no choice but to take them at their word: Patriarchate and Kremlin speak with one voice in Russia.

This brief essay focuses on the Patriarchate’s half of that unified voice.

In the wake of the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s announcement that it intended to move forward with the grant of autocephaly to the Ukrainian Church, Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeyev), chairman of the Moscow Patriarchate’s Department of External Church Relations, responded swiftly with a “prediction” of violence in Ukraine and a worldwide schism “worse than 1054.” Read More